Author's Note: Phew. Two years it took me to write this. Thank you SO much for sticking with me! I appreciate every one of you! This series has come so far and been such a big part of my life since 2014 when The Winter Soldier took my breath away. I have so much fun writing it and can't wait to get into the next one after Infinity Wars comes out. Please check out my new Loki story if that interests you. I will be working on that in the mean time. This is it! It's bitter-sweet finally writing the epilogue. Thank you again for reading, and I hope to see you next year for A Game of Infinity!

Epilogue – December 15, 2016

Location Unknown

The sky was awash in multicolored light. Nothing fantastical; only beautiful in its destructive power. Aspen stepped forward over the broken concrete that had once been a city street. Shattered glass crunched underfoot, and broken metal lay twisted and bent all around her. She could hear people crying in the gutted buildings, screams of fear and sobs of despair. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. They were supposed to be Earth's mightiest heroes and yet all around her lay proof of their failure. She felt empty, devoid of power, devoid of hope, devoid of the future she was supposed to have. She'd wanted to leave behind a better world for her child, but this was not better. This was nothing but a void, a black hole waiting to consume humanity.

Up ahead a titan figure rose before her, hazy in the smoke from the still raging fires. Ash fell from the sky like dirty snowflakes, streaking her already dirty face with grey. Instead of looking like war paint, it made it look as though she cried ash for tears. Something gold flashed and the colors seared her eyes: red for reality, orange for the soul, yellow for the mind, green for time, blue for space, and purple for power. Together they were unstoppable.

How had they let it come to this?

Aspen stood alone on the broken pavement, powerless. She was an Avenger. Power or not, she would fight. She had a job to do, a mission to keep the world safe, to protect it from threats. She might fail, but she wouldn't run. As the figure turned to face her, Aspen readied herself, wishing this day had never come.

…

Aspen woke with a start, breathing hard. She could still smell the ash in the air, feel the heat of burning buildings and hear the screams of the people around her. She sat up in bed, brushing a hand over her swollen stomach. Steve woke up with the movement, putting a hand on her back.

"Are you okay?" he asked, the alarm in his voice startling her. "Are you-"

"Not yet. It's not that." She wasn't due for another month. "It was just a bad dream." But she had seen something like it before when her mind had been opened to the future. Destruction. Death. She shook the thought away. It had felt so real, but already the details were beginning to fade.

"Just promise me we can keep her safe," she said, turning to Steve, her voice breaking as she remembered how hopeless she'd felt in the dream.

"Always," he said, pulling her close and kissing her temple. He cradled her in his arms when she lay down again, her head tucked under his chin. She could hear his breathing deepen after a few minutes, but sleep eluded her. Somehow she couldn't shake the feeling that the dream hadn't just been a dream. Something was coming. Something big and when it came, the world would shake and tremble at its feet.

Steve and Aspen will return in A Game of Infinity