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Kamala had always wanted to be an Avenger.
For as long as she can remember she's admired them. How could she not? They were superheroes, real superheroes. She'd spent countless hours watching interview after interview, biking around Jersey with Bruno like they might manage to catch a glimpse. Bruno. She hadn't thought about him in a long time. Between aliens and her Nani sending her bangel, she hadn't had a second to breathe let alone think about everything. It was so weird. One day she'd been at school, the next zombies were falling out of the sky in San Francisco. She'd come home and her family was gone. She never, she never knew what happened to them. She'd tried to find Bruno, but it had been useless. She'd run into Kate instead, and not long after, Riri.
Kate had taken them to her Mother's, which kinda looked like a doomsday bunker. It's almost hard to remember now, what it was like before that day. Sometimes it feels like this is all it's ever been. Even if they do stop Wanda, there's not really much left to save. Kate, Riri, Melina, Yelena, Alexi. All of them are gone. Defeating Wanda isn't going to bring them back. Nothing will. They have to try, it's what the Avengers would do. At least then they can say they died. It can't all be for nothing. They couldn't let Wanda win. Not when they'd lost so many people to get this far in the first place.
"You okay?" a familiar voice asks, and she looks up as Shang-Chi sits down next to her.
"i guess it's just, it feels like it was all for nothing" Kamala sighs, staring out at the sky surrounding Kamar-Taj. She missed when magic was the weirdest thing she'd ever seen.
"It wasn't for nothing. You had a chance to save the world and you took it. Sometimes all we need is a little hope" Shang-Chi shrugs, looking oddly calm for the end of the world.
"I guess you're right, it just feels…" she trails off and Shang-Chi huffs out a laugh.
"Heavy, i know. But everything worthwhile is" he says, eyes on the rings around his arm "I ran away at sixteen. I left everything i knew and tried to become more than the soldier my father had made me. I left people behind to do it, and now, i'll never see them again. I hadn't spoken to my father in ten years when he died to save my life. I never got to ask him anything. To ask him if he'd change any of the things that he'd done. But for some reason they're gone, and i'm still, here. So i figure the least i can do is try and make their sacrifice worth it" the words ring out across the empty courtyard and despite herself, Kamala's mind drifts back to Kate and Riri. To Bruno. To everyone she'd never get back.
For whatever reason, she's the one still sitting here. She's sure she's not the best person for this, but she's here. She's here and she's going to fight for everyone that isn't. They had believed in her, they had hope. She'd come too far to let go of it now. She wasn't sure they'd walk away from this fight, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that they'd tried. So, she'd try, for Kate and Riri. For Alexei and Yelena. For Bruno. One last stand, for all of them. It wasn't what she'd imagined her Senior year would be like, but then again Zombies were real and things had stopped making sense a long time ago.
"We will honour them" Kamala whispers, and she can see Shang-Chi smile, nodding his head.
"We will" he echoes, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Unable to help it she launches into his chest for a hug, the last hug she'll probably ever get.
"It's weird, to think we're doing this without an Avenger" She says, and Shang-Chi just pulls away with a grin, knocking their shoulders together lightly.
"I think you're the Avenger now" He says, getting to his feet and heading back towards the temple. An Avenger.
The Last Avenger.
She'd make it worth it, for all of them.