The First Love.
He expected to be gone, expected to die, but didn't expect the betrayal at the end. Hulk always saved him, always. It was something he knew as well as breathing. But not this time. This time Hulk just watched him splatter.
Banner was a genius, not a warrior, and the pain of the impact alone was shock to the system of someone who had been absent for all of the fighting.
He'd been gone for two years. His first moments back were spent in a city that celebrated the part of him he had been taught was wrong. He spent his last moments sacrificing himself for love, for the very people who had hurt him over and over again by their inability to accept him. He would have been gone the moment Hulk came through, but he deliberately did nothing as Banner fell to his death. Out of spite. The one solid thing he'd ever been able to count on, the one unshakeable bond he had, was just simply gone.
Remember - the last thing he said?
Banner was a genius, not a warrior, and the pain of the impact alone was shock to the system of someone who had been absent for all of the fighting.
He'd been gone for two years. His first moments back were spent in a city that celebrated the part of him he had been taught was wrong. He spent his last moments sacrificing himself for love, for the very people who had hurt him over and over again by their inability to accept him. He would have been gone the moment Hulk came through, but he deliberately did nothing as Banner fell to his death. Out of spite. The one solid thing he'd ever been able to count on, the one unshakeable bond he had, was just simply gone.
Remember - the last thing he said?
The Last Deaths.
We were running still, time standing still against the speed of our movement, paws caressing the ground. He was a ribbon of darkness by my side, sometimes ahead, sometimes behind, but always just within reach. And then time started again and Logan turned and stepped off the edge of the abyss.
...
All my life has led up to this moment. I am prepared to do my part to save the Multiverse. I know the prophecies better than anyone, and I go willingly to my death. But before I can reach for the goblet, Lily snatches it up and drains it in one big gulp. She looks me dead in the eyes and whispers "I love you". And then she is consumed, burning away in a flash, disappearing into nothing.
...
"Why must you always leave me?" My heart screams its pain still, "No". No with everything I have. A scream so loud it shatters reality. I will never forget these moments, etched as they are into my memory. I will never forget any of their deaths.
A will forged in the fires of a burning Multiverse, a heart big enough to reach any other across the length and breadth of time and still, still. I cannot change this. They die, they always die. This was the last one, the one there is no coming back from.
Because I am Death herself, and no being can bear my love.
I have met them, over and over, but as I fall in love with them in every new world, my powers grow, and they have less and less time before it starts. I will never again be able to hold them, to have them call me dear, to see their faces beaming their love at me...
That is the curse I have borne, since the beginning of my life, when an old woman knocked on my door and offered me a rose.
"For love and for beauty, my dear. May you have everything you deserve."
I don't understand what I've done to deserve this. Eternity, as the Rose. Only I am my own thorns, and I poison all those that get close to me. Eternity, alone, because I am so powerful that noone can stand in my presence and live.
This is the most powerful memory I have to give you. I cannot die, you see, though it feels as if my hearts have been ripped from my chest. Their deaths are my death, though I survive alone.
No matter. I will continue to protect the Multiverse.
From me. Always from me.
...
All my life has led up to this moment. I am prepared to do my part to save the Multiverse. I know the prophecies better than anyone, and I go willingly to my death. But before I can reach for the goblet, Lily snatches it up and drains it in one big gulp. She looks me dead in the eyes and whispers "I love you". And then she is consumed, burning away in a flash, disappearing into nothing.
...
"Why must you always leave me?" My heart screams its pain still, "No". No with everything I have. A scream so loud it shatters reality. I will never forget these moments, etched as they are into my memory. I will never forget any of their deaths.
A will forged in the fires of a burning Multiverse, a heart big enough to reach any other across the length and breadth of time and still, still. I cannot change this. They die, they always die. This was the last one, the one there is no coming back from.
Because I am Death herself, and no being can bear my love.
I have met them, over and over, but as I fall in love with them in every new world, my powers grow, and they have less and less time before it starts. I will never again be able to hold them, to have them call me dear, to see their faces beaming their love at me...
That is the curse I have borne, since the beginning of my life, when an old woman knocked on my door and offered me a rose.
"For love and for beauty, my dear. May you have everything you deserve."
I don't understand what I've done to deserve this. Eternity, as the Rose. Only I am my own thorns, and I poison all those that get close to me. Eternity, alone, because I am so powerful that noone can stand in my presence and live.
This is the most powerful memory I have to give you. I cannot die, you see, though it feels as if my hearts have been ripped from my chest. Their deaths are my death, though I survive alone.
No matter. I will continue to protect the Multiverse.
From me. Always from me.
The First Life.
It started with knock on the door. It was this old woman wearing what looked like a Victorian ball gown, with a basket and a very strange dog. She thrust a rose into my face, and before I could stop myself I'd taken it from her. It still had thorns, and they pricked into my hand, drawing a little blood.
"For love and for beauty, my dear. May you have everything you deserve."
And then with a little cackle, she and her black dog disappeared into thin air.
I often wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't opened the door, hadn't taken the rose. Would I have made the same choices? Would I have known any different? I wonder often, if that moment was the cause, or simply the first of the strange things that started to happen to me.
Whatever the relevance, I had no idea what it meant then. I just plopped it in a glass of water on my desk and went on with schoolwork.
"For love and for beauty, my dear. May you have everything you deserve."
And then with a little cackle, she and her black dog disappeared into thin air.
I often wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't opened the door, hadn't taken the rose. Would I have made the same choices? Would I have known any different? I wonder often, if that moment was the cause, or simply the first of the strange things that started to happen to me.
Whatever the relevance, I had no idea what it meant then. I just plopped it in a glass of water on my desk and went on with schoolwork.
