ya'aburnee

there is a statue in new york city

1.

There is a statue in New York City, in front of what had once been the Avengers tower. It had once housed Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and the Black Widow. Around it are flowers and well-wishes, teddy-bears and grieving children, tourists snapping photos and a lone young woman. Morgan looks up at the towering monolith of the man with an outstretched hand and thinks, this is not him.

2.

There is a spider flying through the buildings and whooping like a lunatic. Morgan raises her hand to shade her eyes as she watches her father's almost-son come closer towards where she sat on top of the smaller skyscrapers. It seemed almost odd for many of the others that Peter was older now, but Morgan looks at the boy and there's still a youthful glow towards those bright eyes and sliver of a smile.

He comes to a silent stop and greets her with a kiss on her head. Morgan smiles and says to him, 'Hey, fly-guy.'

'Arachnid, kid, arachnid!' He laughs.

'Not with the amount of times you've been hit.' She winked and Peter just glances at her forlornly, before another smile flickers across his face. 'Thanks for coming, Pete. I…um…could you have a look at this?'

She passes over the tablet, opening the program to what she had hoped would make her father proud. Peter looks through the program, whizzing through the pages and diagrams in silence. Morgan fidgets, it's not often that Peter is quiet as he was then. But finally he comes to the last section and looks to where Morgan sits.

'Damn Morgie, this is…whoa, no words.' Peter says, whistling.

'You think it could work?'

'Yeah, yeah I do.'

'Good. Good, I'm pleased to hear that. Would you help?'

'Of course. You didn't even have to ask.'

3.

There is an old man sitting on the veranda of their home. Mama sits next to him, placing a hand on his with a smile. Morgan watches from the crack of the door and thinks, oh, I know this man. She doesn't know how as she is pretty sure that she has never met him. Mama is not crying, but she has that same look when she tells Morgan that she has dust in her eyes, even though she obviously doesn't.

The man sits straight up, even with how old he is. He reminds Morgan of Uncle Rhodey and Auntie Carol too. Later should would realise that, Sam and Bucky are there too, in those eyes and the weight of the world placed upon their shoulders. Clint's sadness is there as well, quiet in his mourning and desperation for something to be undone but knowing nothing could.

'He forgave you Steve, in the end. But, even if he…he was here, he wouldn't have forgotten. But I think he would have been happy for you with the choice you made.'

A few years later, when the old man was buried, her mother placed a hand on her shoulder, gripping slightly as Captain Steve Rogers is finally is laid to rest.

4.

There is man flying high above, but knowing his limits. Her Uncle Rhodey has always been close to her, in the way Happy was as well. There is an invasion of something or another and Morgan is left alone to watch on the television as her mother fights along with the rest of her family. Happy is there with a few cheeseburgers he had made and they were stuffing them in their faces, knowing fundamentally that the stress they're feeling will alleviated. They will come home.

Morgan knows that they will. They must.

5.

There is a group of people, bedecked in greens, yellows, whites, blues and all other colours. They are strong, standing together in the way they had stood all those years ago. Morgan watches from the tree she had climbed, knowing she shouldn't have watched but she had to.

There is a statue there and underneath a plaque. It is understated for what Morgan knows was the greatest two actions in the world. A woman stands with a book in her hands, cradled, a ledger.

It is not red.

She had never known Natasha Romanoff, Natalia Romanova, this Black Widow who at the end was the furthest thing from what they had made her. Morgan wonders if she would have been someone close to her.

6.

There is a woman dressed in a black Oxford gown, with a bonnet lined in red and a proud grin on her face. The day she gains her fourth doctorate at the age of twenty-one, different than her last three that were a nod to her father. This was hers because of her father, a response to the papers and legacy he had left behind. It is Dr Bruce Banner who is there on stage. She tips her hat to him as he reads out the thesis that she had devised.

Dr Morgan Stark with her paper, 'The importance of retroactive defence in the times of space exploration: the Look-Up 3000 (LU-3000) initiative'.

Her paper, built on the back of a man whose words were ignored despite them ringing with truth.

There are many familiar faces there, but the loudest is her Uncle Rhodey. She knows in her heart, that had he been there, no one would have been able to drown his voice.

7.

There are stars above her, too far from the warmth of earth. She flies further and further up – away and away from the world she had her feet on. Morgan heard the ferocious snarls of her mother, the anger yells of her uncles, the damned words of her aunts. But she had ignored them, angry at the world, angry at the people who came to her and said condolences for a man they would have otherwise villainised.

She wonders if this is what her father had thought when he was able to fly for the first time. Morgan is terrified of heights, terrified of the coldness of space and vast emptiness of the world. She floats there, repulsors turned off and she stares at the dead world around her. She screams into the void, yells and yells and yells and yells. She is angry, demanding and devastated.

She thinks for a moment, a swift almost terrible moment that she hates him, hates who he is, hates what he had done. But a moment later finds her tight in a ball, furious at herself and heart-wrenching sobs wreaking her through her flame.

A hand comes on her shoulder and a repulsor flies up. Carol Danvers grins at her, ignoring the wet breaths coming from her.

'Come on chipmunk, down we go. You weren't made for the skies like your pops.' Danvers says.

8.

There is a god in front of her. She stares him down, much in the way her father stared down a titan. She was the daughter of heroes, a niece, a cousin, a friend and a colleague of heroes. She had this in her blood. Behind her stands the new heroes, children from those before and the others she had grabbed along the way. They stand, loyal and solid – always.

For this, she was made. For this, they were made.

9.

There is a company that owns the world. She never had wanted anything to do with Stark Industries, even though her name was on the side of the building. But she is there in front of the board, in front of the press, in front of the world with their cameras flashing and eyes gleaming, waiting for her to fall.

She was the media's angel.

She was the media's devil too.

She always was her father's daughter.

10.

There is a girl, in her room, tinkering with a program. She writes something, two more lines before clicks something and then a voice echoes around the room.

'Hello Maguna, the current weather in Malibu is 17 degrees…' her father's voice echoes.

'Hi pops.' She whispers, even though she knew that this was just a dream hoping to be reality.

The file names reads Proper Over-Protective System, or POPS for short.

When she lets Uncle Rhodey, her mother and Happy in, they all start to cry as they greet the new Stark AI. Her mother takes her in the greatest hug she had ever given Morgan and no one says if the younger girl started to let her tears flow.

11.

There is a statue in New York City of her father, standing proud with his gauntlet outstretched. Above her, in the skies and further than the clouds are three-thousand Iron Man robots with her AI written into their screws.

'Love you three-thousand, pops. Love you three thousand.'

Endgame killed me, made me cry like a little baby and blubber until the end credits. I had love the interaction between Tony and Morgan and had wished that he could have lived. But here was something I wanted to write in response to the movie that ended an era.

ya'aburnee: an arabic saying that is translated to 'you bury me', a declaration of one's hope that they'll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.