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Dark cloth brushed against the rumble that litters the ground, the hooded figure taking careful steps as he makes his way towards the group.
All around there are several strangely dressed people, different amounts of injured and grimey. Tears are in their eyes as they all look at the man Danny is here for.
“Tony, look at me,” a blond woman manages out, tears in her voice and eyes. Her hand cradles his face, as she manages a warbly smile. “We’re gonna be okay,” she assures, the man managing a slight smile as their eyes meet. “You can rest now.”
Evidently that was all the man needed. Permission to stop hanging on. So he doesn’t.
Danny pays no mind to the mourning souls that surround the man, crying and getting on their knees in respect of him.
Instead, he focuses on the newly deceased soul that is standing above his own body, watching it all.
He stands next to him, letting the man take a moment to process what just happened.
“I … died,” the man says.
“You did,” Danny replies, even though he’s certain the other man did not need his response.
“And you’re … who? The grim reaper?” the man asks, turning to look at Danny skeptically.
Danny doesn’t fault him for that, after all he is dressed in a robed cloak and has a scythe in hand.
Still, he laughs kindly in response.
“No, no I do not hold that title personally,” Danny answers, amusement coloring his voice.
“Then, why …” the man trails off, the question hanging in the air.
“Your soul will cross to your after life with or without my interference,” Danny replies. “I am here because I know what it is like to die as a hero, and have no one there on the other side for you.”
The man doesn’t say anything, watching as the woman who spoke to him earlier begins to sob openly. Her ability to not be overcome by her grief is gone as she clings to the man’s corpse. The sounds that she makes is all too similar to Danny’s wail, and although she is not a ghost the effect is no less impactful.
Everyone around her goes to her, holding her as she sobs, weeping, saying she wished he didn’t have to go. The heroes around the woman cry with her.
Being surrounded by grief and death so often, Danny is not as moved by the scene as he would have been. This is normal. It’s part of the living’s grieving process. They’ll mourn, they’ll be in a state for as long as they need.
Most will come out of it, keep going, determined to keep their legacy going. Some will never move on, will never recover. In the end it will not change anything. The person never comes back … well, they usually don't come back. Danny doubts that this man will be the exception.
Yet, this man is not used to being around such a scene, and he begins to cry as well, falling to his knees as he reaches a hand out to the woman. Danny can tell he wants to soothe her, stop her tears. Take the pain away.
He can’t. He can’t take the pain away. And he won’t see her until her time is up too.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he cries as his hand goes through her shoulder, tears falling down his translucent face. “I had to do it. To protect what we had. I hope you know that. I hope Morgan knows that.”
Danny stands there, waiting for the man to mourn and grieve the life he had. To mourn the life he wouldn’t get to live.
The man sits there for a while, crying with his partner. He only stops when the heroes help the woman to her feet, leading her away. They’ve already closed the corpse's eyes, but they wait for the woman to be a ways away before a couple of them pick him up.
“We’ll make sure everyone knows the hero you were, Tony,” the man in red and blue says, a broken shield on his back. “And I’m sorry. I was wrong. You were the type to make the sacrifice play.”
The soul smiles softly at the man, tears in his eyes.
“We were both wrong about each other, Rogers. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”
Then they’re gone. They take the soul’s body with them, departing the scene.
Grief hangs heavy in the air, heavy on Danny’s tongue. He allows himself to feel a little sad for all this man has lost. It is always a tragedy when a life goes, even if it’s inevitable. If life and death will always be inevitable.
Yet, he still extends a hand out to the man in front of him.
“It’s time to go.”
The man turns towards Danny, sadness in every part of himself.
“What if I don’t go? What if I stay here?” the man questions, turning back to look out where his loved ones left.
“Then you’d become a ghost,” Danny answers honestly, hand still outstretched. “You’d watch your loved ones grow, love, lose, eventually die.”
“Well that doesn’t sound so bad,” the man states, body tensing slightly as he meets Danny’s eyes. Like he knows there’s a but coming.
“If you become a ghost, you cannot follow them into the final resting place,” Danny informs him. “You’ll lose bits and pieces of yourself as you are stuck in the in-between. You’ll form an obsession. It will drive every decision you make. You may even end up becoming someone you no longer recognize.”
The man lets out a deep breath, chest heaving slightly.
“Are you a ghost?”
Danny nods. “I am.”
“So, what happened to you? What’s your obsession?” the man questions, eyes racking over Danny’s form.
Danny resists the urge to lash out at the lack of tact. Asking a ghost such things is taboo, but the newer souls don’t know. They don’t understand. So he’ll forgive him, this time.
“I died due to an electric failure. I came back … incomplete,” Danny answers honestly. “My obsession is to help others. Protect them, aid them on their journey, whatever those who are in need of me require me to do to aid them.”
“And are you someone you no longer recognize?” the man asks, eyes darting over Danny’s shadowed face.
“I am no longer the person I was. I am no one I thought I would be. But I am content. This is my after-life. I do not regret who I have become,” Danny replies.
“That’s not really an answer to my question,” the man points out.
“It’s the only answer I have for you,” Danny says.
Then, he pushes his hand out further, silently asking the other man to take it.
“Will it hurt?” the man asks, hand hovering over Danny’s outstretched one.
“I do not know. I have never been.”
The man chuckles wetly at that, but grabs Danny’s hand.
“Thank you,” the man whispers kindly to Danny.
Everything goes white for a moment. Then the man is gone, and Danny is alone yet again.