THE DEATH SEASON ▹ final avengers ✓

31 | the reverse snap

chapter xxxi of the death season :
" EVERYBODY COMES HOME . "

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" Isn't that the 'why' we fight?
So we can end the fight,
so we get to go home? "
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january 27th, 2023
avengers compound, upstate new york

NOT ALL OF THEM MAKE IT HOME .

The woman who is, or was, Nebula stands among the other Avengers, black eyes cautious. The rest group looks around in disbelief, stunned that they actually managed to pull this off.

"Did we get 'em all?"

"Are you telling me this actually worked?"

Lisa's eyes are wide, teeth stretching wide to grin, "Shut up!"

The two Starks laugh and quickly hug each other, arms flailing as they cling tight to one another. Laurie whoops and bounds over to Scott, high-fiving the man before she jumps up onto him. They're all so busy celebrating that they don't see that someone is missing, that someone never made it home.

Their happiness is shattered when a loud resounding thud breaks into their celebration.

When they all turn, they find that Clint has fallen down to his knees, face grey and stoic. Svet somehow remains standing beside him, her shoulders curled in and her bottom lip quivering.

Grief is a strange thing. It comes and it goes, and then it tears you apart inside.

Lisa stops, sucks in a sharp breath, "Clint... Svet, where's... where's Nat?"

The redheaded girl slowly looks up at the team and her mouth quivers open, but nothing but a soft strangled cry comes out. Svet's trembling hands slowly come up to either side of her head and her whole body shakes with the sobs rippling through her body like vicious waves in a storm. It's as if every emotion she ever repressed comes back to her now as her mouth is stretched open in silent cries.

Her knees go weak and she falls slowly, sinking to the hard ground as a heart-wrenching sob shatters out of her throat.

"My mama..." Svetlana sobs, "Oh my, God, my mama..." 

A sob ripples through the girl's chest and she collapses to the ground, drawing her shaking hands to her aching chest.

Steve stumbles back in horror, his own expression immediately understanding what's happened. He lets the feelings drown him for just a moment, the grief at having lost a sister, a teammate, a best friend. Tears prickle his eyes and he can feel his blood pulsing in her ears while a lump wells up in his throat.

But then the uncle swallows back his own pain for the sake of the girl on the ground, bending down and gently pulling her up so that he can hold her to his chest. Steve can barely hold her as her entire body shakes with sobs.

Lisa sharply claps a hand over her mouth, biting back a small cry of her own. Tony slowly wraps an arm around her shoulders, eyes sliding closed as he holds her close.

THEY MOURN FOR HER .

"She's not coming back." Clint says, voice shaky, grief-ridden, unable to swallow his guilt, "We have to make it worth it. We have to."