"Alright, who did this?" Steve crossed his arms over his chest as an image popped up on the holographic screen behind him.
They were currently researching the Infinity Stones, trying to figure out good places in time to drop in to get them, but evidently someone in the room was a bit bored of it. You know, since someone had projected the video of Cap singing in his 1940's Captain America costume onto the screen.
Steve was extremely annoyed at this, but, being the grandpa he was, couldn't figure out how to make it go away.
He tapped the screen roughly, but it did nothing. "Tony, a little help?"
Tony only watched with a smirk, seeing him
mess around and make it even worse, rewinding it and accidentally clicking on a remix that was set to the tune of 'Uptown Funk'.
The room howled with laughter, and Steve looked like he was really wishing that they had never discovered him in the ice at this moment.
Finally, after an embarrassingly long amount of time, Tony took pity on the man and swiped the video away, leaving the images of the six infinity stones on the screen once again.
In a split second, something that most would miss, if they weren't paying careful attention to the scene around them, Pietro winked at Dahlia, and the phone, displaying the very video that was just on the screen, glowed in his hand underneath the countertop.
"Alright, alright, now that we've had a laugh, let's get back to the important stuff," Steve crossed his arms and motioned to a red stone on the screen. "Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?"
Thor was sat in the corner of the room, sunglasses covering his eyes and not moving a muscle.
"Is he asleep?" Natasha looked towards him with confusion.
Rhodey shrugged. "No, I'm pretty sure he's dead."
"Can I be the one to wake him up?" Dahlia grinned, bouncing up and down in her seat. "Pretty please?"
"As much as I'd like to see that, I don't think that's a good idea." Natasha chuckled.
Thor suddenly gasped and sat up in his chair. Grumbling all the while, he got up and walked to the front of the room, pulling off his sunglasses and beginning to speak.
"Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someone's gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story, though. Many years ago, my grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves." He wiggled his fingers dramatically.
"Woooooh, scary beings. So, Jane," A picture of Jane Foster popped up on the screen, which Thor noticed and pointed to. "Oh, there she is. That's Jane. She's... an old flame of mine."
Everyone in the room started to look uncomfortable as he said this, with only Scott looking extremely intrigued.
"She stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and then The Aether stuck itself inside her. And she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from, and we had to try and fix her."
Scott began smiling and nodding his head animatedly.
Dahlia put on a very serious face, raising her hand and speaking in a reporter voice. "So, Mr. Thor, what you're saying is that this stone, is in fact not a stone, but a gross slime that is comparable to Pietro's face?"
"Yes, that."
Thor's voice started to get heavier as he proceeded, almost on the verge of tears. "We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead. And, oh you know, Jane and so aren't even dating anymore. These things happen you know. Nothing lasts forever."
Tony began to push Thor back into his seat with one hand, which he resisted as he spoke more. "I'm not done yet. The only thing permanent in life is impermanence."
"Awesome," Tony shoved Thor back into his seat finally. "Eggs? Breakfast?"
"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you." Thor said, clearly not getting the anti-alcohol vibe Tony was giving off at the moment.
"Wimp. I'd like a bottle of vodka. A whole bottle." Dahlia puffed up her chest in pride as she 'bested' Thor.
Ten minutes later, she was situated at the dining table with a pint of Belladonna Brownie in her hand, courtesy of Ben and Jerry's.
"This works too." She said through a mouthful of ice cream.
"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." Rocket said as he took a bite of a croissant.
Scott looked confused, an expression he tended to harbor more than not. "Is that a person?"
"Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." Dahlia swore she could hear hurt in his voice at the topic.
"A planet? Like in outer space?"
Rocket put his hands on his knees, surely readying to taunt the man. "Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? Do you wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space."
Fast forward a tad, and Dahlia was eating popcorn. Well, people were also discovering more locations, but that's not as important as the food in front of her at this moment.
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula said solemnly, glaring at Dahlia when one mouthful of popcorn crunched too loudly.
"Sorry!" Dahlia whisper-yelled, swatting Pietro's hand away as he attempted to steal some.
"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked with a raised brow, scribbling things down in a notepad before her.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where... Thanos murdered my sister."
The room went still, a heavy feeling surrounding it.
Scott broke the silence. "Not it."
"Well, doesn't that sound nice." Pietro said awkwardly.
Fast forward a bit more, and Dahlia was eating a BLT minus the T. (She wasn't a fan of tomato.)
What? She liked to measure time with food, and right now it was BLT O'Clock.
"That Time Stone guy..." Natasha was laying on the floor with Tony and Bruce, whereas Pietro and Dahlia were laying on the table because she 'Didn't want to risk the health of her sandwich'.
"Doctor Strange." Bruce said.
"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?"
"A weird one, I guess. Who knows how nicknames are made." Dahlia shrugged and grabbed her sandwich back from Pietro, who had taken a huge bite out of it.
"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from a hat." Tony answered Nat's question.
"Nice place in the village, though." Bruce pondered absentmindedly.
"Yeah. Sullivan Street."
"Hmm, Bleeker."
Nat spoke up suddenly. "Wait, he lived in New York?"
"No. He lived in Toronto," Tony said sarcastically. "Were you even paying attention?"
Pietro had to hold Dahlia back from attacking the man for disrespecting her mother figure.
"Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York."
Bruce sat up in surprise. "Shut the front door."
"Fuck, he means fuck."
"Thanks for the clarification, Dahls."
After five hours of mindless rambling that somehow produced results, they had a rough outline of an idea to save the world.
"All right. We have a plan. Six Stones, three teams. One shot." Steve said seriously, walking around the team, who were wearing matching quantum suits that all displayed the Avengers logo.
"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."
Steve finished his speech with a flourish, looking proud and determined.
Rocket leaned over to Pietro, whispering lowly. "He's pretty good at that."
"Depends on the situation. Once, he yelled at me for an hour because I didn't use the right 'there'." Pietro snickered.
"All right, you heard the man. Stroke those keys, jolly green." Tony saluted to Bruce.
"Tractors engaged."
"You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Rocket motioned to the shrunken ship in Clint's hand.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll do my best." Clint said dismissively.
"As promises go, that was pretty lame." Rocket muttered to himself.
"I love you, stupid." Pietro looked over towards the woman across from him.
The two were going to different points in time, Pietro with Thor and Rocket to Asgard, and Dahlia with Natasha and Clint to Vormir.
"I love you too, dumbass." Dahlia winked.
Natasha smiled over at her daughter and her best friend, excited for the journey to come. "See you in a minute."
And in a flash, they were gone, hurtling through different tunnels through time and space.
Pietro nearly vomited on arrival, the time travel felt like it was twisting his organs inside out.
When he came to, Thor and Rocket were beside him, looking just as winded as he felt.
"Psst, Maximoff! Let's get moving." Rocket hissed at him, and they snuck past a golden cell, which held a man with greasy black hair, tossing a cup in the air.
They stopped at a pillar, about a few meters away from Jane's room.
"That's Jane." Thor whispered as a woman passed them.
"All right. Here's the deal, Tubby and Zippy. Thor's gonna charm her, and Maximoff and me'll hold her still and poke her with this thing," Rocket held up a device that looked far from friendly. "And extract the Reality Stone and get gone, lickety-split."
"Alright, alright, let's get going," Pietro said, his accent particularly thick with anxiousness. "I want to get back to Dahlia as soon as possible."
Thor started to back away from them, and the other two sighed. "I'll be right back, okay? There's a wine cellar, that's just down there. My father used to have this huge barrel of Aakonian ale. I'll see if the scullery has a couple of to-go cups..."
"Aren't you drunk enough already?" Rocket was extremely agitated, as raccoons tended to be. (Don't tell him that Pietro was thinking that, for his safety.)
On their right, a door opened and a group of women walked out, chatting loudly. Just in time, the three men hid out of sight.
"Who's the fancy broad?" Rocket asked, referring to the woman in front.
"It's my mother," Thor gulped. "She dies today."
Pietro wasn't the best at comforting people in distress, so he went for an awkward pat on the shoulder.
"Oh. That's today?" Rocket said awkwardly.
"I can't do this. I can't do this. I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't have come. This was a bad idea." Thor started to ramble.
"Come here."
"No, no, no. I think I'm having... I'm having a panic attack. I shouldn't be here- This is- This is a bad-"
Rocket cut him off. "Come here. Right here."
As soon as he came in range, Rocket slapped him across the face.
"You think you're the only one who lost people? What do you think we're doing here? I lost the only family I ever had. Quill, Groot, Drax, the chick with the antenna, all gone. Now, I get you miss your Mom. But she's gone. Really gone. And there are plenty of people who are only kinda gone. But you can help them. So is it too much to ask that you brush the crumbs outta your beard, make schmoopy talk to Pretty Pants, and when she's not looking, suck out the Infinity Stone and help me get my family back?"
"Okay." He said quietly.
"Are you crying?" Pietro asked.
"No... Yes!"
"Get it together! You can do this. You can do this. All right?" Rocket sighed.
Thor swallowed hard. "Yes, I can."
"Good."
"And remember, when in doubt, follow the rules of time from Back to the Future." Pietro pushed him towards the group of women.
He began muttering to himself repeatedly. "I can do this. I can do this. I can do this."
Evidently, he didn't mean it, since he ran away as soon as he was out of sight.
Rocket and Pietro were painfully unaware of this for a moment, since they didn't look towards where he was stood.
"Alright, Heartbreaker. She's alone. This is our shot. Thor? Thor? Aagh!"
Rocket threw his arms in the air, completely and utterly exhausted with dealing with the god of thunder.
"Change of plans, alright?" Pietro tried to make him feel better by taking charge, though it wasn't his strong suit. "I'll go search for him, you go get the... angry sludge stone thing, okay?"
The raccoon sighed and nodded, "Yeah, yeah, okay."
Now, when Pietro offered to go find Thor, he wasn't aware that it would entail basically attending a therapy session, courtesy of the queen of Asgard.
It seemed like it was finally slowing its pace when they started to reach the end of Thor's entire life story.
"His head was over there... His body over there... What was the point? I was too late. I was just standing there. Some idiot with an axe." Thor's tone was slow and heavy, trudging through the sentences.
Pietro had decided to observe and snack on some of Dahlia's emergency popcorn.
"To be fair, it's a cool axe." He interrupted, receiving a death glare from Thor and one of amusement from his mother.
"You're no idiot. You're here, aren't you? Seeking counsel from the wisest person in Asgard." Frigga pointed out, adding a comforting smile to the mix.
"I guess, yeah."
"Idiot? No. A failure? Absolutely." She took her son's face in her hands.
Thor winced. "That's a little bit harsh."
"You do know what that makes you? Just like everyone else."
He laughed, but there was no humor within it. "I'm not supposed to be like everyone else, am I?"
Frigga smiled gently. "Everyone fails at who they are supposed to be, Thor. The measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are."
Pietro crunched on the kernels loudly. "It's true, I'm supposed to be dead."
Thor looked at him weirdly.
"What? I am!"
The man turned back to his mother, tearing up slightly. "I really missed you, Mom."
The end of the hallway echoed with the noise of several Asgardian soldier's feet on the ground, chasing a very familiar raccoon.
"Thor! Pietro! I got it!"
As Rocket raced down the hall, Thor turned back to Frigga. "Mom, I have to tell you something."
She placed her hand on his cheek. "No, son. You don't. You're here to repair your future, not mine."
"But this is about your future." Thor insisted.
Frigga only smiled. "It's none of my business."
Rocket ran up to the three people, panting heavily. "Hey. You must be Mom. I got the thing. Come on, we got to move."
Tears were welling in Thor's eyes. "I wish we had more time."
"No, this was a gift. And you're going to be the man you're meant to be." She had no doubts evident in her voice whatsoever.
"I love you, Mom."
"I love you. And eat a salad."
Pietro let out a snort as she said that last part.
"Come on. We gotta go." Rocket pulled the two men towards him.
Thor's voice started to get choked up. "Goodbye."
Rocket began the countdown. "Three... two..."
"No, wait!"
Thor thrust his hand out into the air.
"Wh- What am I looking at?" Rocket shook his head.
"Is he waiting for food to fly into it? Cause I've tried that before, and it never works." Pietro nodded sadly, as if to say 'true story'.
Frigga smiled. "Oh, sometimes it takes a second."
After a moment, a hammer came flying into his hand, making a thud on impact.
"I'm still worthy." Thor's jaw dropped, a slow but giddy smile assuming its place on his face.
Rocket rubbed his temples. "Oh, boy."
"Is it weird that I'm sensing a sort of bromance between this dude and that hammer?" Pietro raised a brow.
"Not at all. He used to tuck it under his covers at night." Frigga whispered.
"Goodbye, Mom." Thor rolled his eyes with a smile.
"Goodbye." She smiled and sent them off, turning on her heel and exiting the hallway.
"Three... Two... One."
•
"On a scale from one to ten, my first ride in outer space was about a fucking nightmare, in case you were wondering."
Let's just say that Dahlia was less than fond of space travel, to avoid using the string of curse words that had exited her mouth.
"Well, it's not about to get any better." Clint muttered as he looked at the large rock formation in front of them.
Vormir, in Dahlia's professional opinion, was, to put it simply, a shithole. Sure, it had a beauty of it's own, but the planet gave her a creepy chill, so, therefore, shithole.
"I bet the raccoon didn't have to climb a mountain." Nat grumbled as they began to climb.
"Technically, he's not a raccoon, you know."
"Whatever. He eats garbage."
"If only Pietro was here, then I'd make him do it and I'd get a piggy-back ride." Dahlia sighed, hopping over a particularly large stone.
At the summit of the mountain, a dark stone path could be seen, barely visible in the faint light from the moon overhead.
A cloaked figure, floating in the air, spoke to them. "Welcome."
The three drew their weapons, Dahlia's dagger's blade glinting in the moonlight.
"Dahlia, daughter of Harold. Natasha, daughter of Ivan. Clint, son of Edith."
The figure's face was now visible, but she sort of wished it wasn't. A blood red skull protruded from the hood, scaring the living daylights out of the girl.
However, she wasn't one to let her fear show. "Hey, Red Bitch! How the fuck do you know my dad's name?"
"I am cursed to know everyone and everything." He spoke calmly, as if he wasn't a weird skull thing with no legs.
"Who are you?" Nat spoke up.
His face held no emotion as far as she could see. "Consider me a guide. To you, and to all who seek the Soul Stone."
"Oh, good. You tell us where it is. Then we'll be on our way."
"Ah, liebchen- If only it were that easy," The skull-thing shook his head, floating away towards the cliff and beckoning them to follow. "What you seek lies in front of you... as does what you fear."
"Ronald McDonald is down there?!" Dahlia yelled, backing away from the cliff.
"No, fraulien." The Red Skull sighed.
"The stone is down there." Natasha said after a minute.
"For one of you. For the other..." He trailed off. "In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul, for a soul."
A horrified look took over Clint and Natasha's faces, but Dahlia felt numb.
Something was going to go wrong.
Something was going to go very wrong.
She could feel it.
"Jesus... Maybe he's making this shit up." Clint said, looking to the two women who were sat on a log, staring into space.
"No. I don't think so."
Dahlia turned towards her surrogate mother, a look of confusion spreading across her face.
Clint crossed his arms. "Why? Cause he knows your Dad's name?"
"I didn't," Nat looked down at the ground before continuing. "Thanos left here with the stone without his daughter. It's not a coincidence."
"What would happen if we threw that Red Skull guy down it?" Dahlia tried to joke, but her voice was strained with sorrow.
The three of them stood and looked at each other, knowing that what was to come was worse than anything they could've expected.
"Whatever it takes." Natasha whispered.
Dahlia swallowed hard. "Whatever it takes."
"Whatever it takes." Clint's voice was heavy.
"If we don't get that stone, billions of people stay dead."
"If we don't, all those people will never come back." Dahlia's voice was hushed.
"Then I guess we both know who it's gotta be." Clint said quietly.
"I guess we do." Nat's tone was full of resolve.
They were all silent for a moment, no one moving a muscle.
Clint choked out a phrase. "I'm starting to think that we have three different ideas of who we mean."
"For the last five years, I've been trying to do one thing. Get to right here. That's all it's been about. Bringing everybody back." Nat tried to reason with them, but they weren't having any of it.
"Now, don't you get all decent on me now." Clint smiled, but it was far sadder than he had intended it to be.
"Don't you even think about it, I- I can't." Dahlia's eyes began to fill with tears.
"What, do you think I want to do it? Of course I don't, I'm trying to save your lives, you idiots."
"It's not a life without you in it." Her breaths started to become heavier, the anxiety eating at her.
"Natasha, you know what I've done," Clint started slowly. "You know what I've become."
"I don't judge people on their worst mistakes." Nat said softly.
"Maybe you should."
"You didn't."
"I think you're both forgetting something important," Dahlia shuddered as she spoke. "Both of you could go home safe."
"Oh, don't you start, Dahlia." Clint's breath caught in his throat. He couldn't be responsible for the death of a kid, not when it could've been him.
"Oh, 'Lia, no. You can't. Do you know what Maximoff would do to me, if I let you do that?" Nat said.
Dahlia's heart raced at the thought of him.
Pietro.
"He'd survive." She responded slowly.
"I don't think he would." Clint said.
Natasha sighed. "I think you're both being irrational. Just let me do it. Please."
He chuckled. "You're a pain in my ass, you know that?"
There they stood, hands intertwined, three people full of grief that hadn't even come to pass yet.
"Okay. You win," With a swift kick, Clint knocked Nat to the ground. "Tell my family I love them."
She tackled him to the ground in response. "Tell them yourself."
She clapped a device onto his back, electrocuting him and running towards the cliff.
However, in the midst of their argument, Dahlia had prepared to launch herself off the cliff, having just hurtled over the side.
"Oh, fuck- Dahlia!"
Natasha jumped after her, grabbing her by the arm and launching a grappling hook into the stone above them. There they hung, with only Dahlia's grip in between Natasha Romanoff and death.
In the back of Dahlia's mind, a song echoed, like fate's cruel, twisted soundtrack to the pain. A song that Natasha used to sing her to sleep to, a song that she hadn't heard since she was eight years old, when Nat's ivory voice had crooned the words all those years ago.
Wise men say...
"We're both getting out of here, okay?" Dahlia spoke quickly, tears forming in her eyes.
Only fools rush in...
"It's not fair, you can't- I- I'm sorry." The hot liquid spilled down her cheeks, landing on the stone, yards below.
But I can't help falling in love with you...
"It's okay, darling," Natasha held a finger to her mouth, silencing her worries. "We'll see each other again."
Shall I stay?
"Do you promise?" Dahlia's voice was like a child's, but she didn't much care at the moment.
Would it be a sin...
"I promise," Nat wiped the tears from her cheek with her free hand. "No one can take me from you."
If I can't help falling in love with you?
Dahlia's breath was shakey, and she hung onto every last word.
"I'll always find my way back to you, my dear."
Like a river flows, surely to the sea...
"But how can you know? No one knows what could happen." Her voice began to crack, anxiety creeping into her tone.
Darling, so it goes...
Natasha smiled at the girl before her. "As long as you're living, I'm there with you."
Some things are meant to be...
"I'll see you in the stars."
Take my hand...
Dahlia took a deep breath. "I love you, Mom."
Take my whole life too...
"I love you too, more than you know, Dahlia." Sadness and fear were evident in her eyes, but love was there too. Pure, unlimited love for the girl and the woman she had raised.
For I can't help...
"But you have to let me go."
Her wrist slipped through her grasp, and as much as she wanted to look away, she couldn't.
Falling...
In seemingly slow motion, Natasha fell through the air, her hair billowing around her, making her look angelic.
Dahlia held her hand out, wishing that Nat's hand was in hers once again. The tears flowed freely, her eyes reddening as she watched the only real mother she had ever known crash down on the stone below.
"Nat." She could only muster the one word, and no louder than a whisper, but it spoke volumes.
That one word was all the pain she was feeling, the way her heart was tearing itself apart, how her eyes felt as if they could cry no more tears, and yet they did.
All she remembered was Clint's yell from the top of the mountain, and then nothing.
When she woke up, she was freezing. In a puddle in the middle of nowhere, with Clint, who looked just as distraught and confused as she felt, by her side.
She opened her hand, which was clenched around something, revealing the goddamn reason Nat wasn't breathing.
Clint cleared his throat, taking responsibility.
"I- Uh- We should go back to the base." His voice was hoarse.
Dahlia could only nod, letting the suit take her away from the scene that caused the rip in her heart.
In a flash, the two landed on the white floor of the Quantum Platform, drained of all energy and willpower.
"Did we get them all?" Bruce sounded giddy and thankful, the exact opposite of how Dahlia felt.
Rhodey was in disbelief, understandably. "You telling me this'll actually work?"
"I mean, we got ours! And all it took was a heavy therapy session with Thor's mom!" Pietro grinned and looked towards his girlfriend, but his smile dropped as he noticed what was wrong.
Dahlia's mascara was smudged on her face, her eyes red and puffy as she stared into space.
The group went silent as they noticed who was missing.
"Clint, Dahlia, where's Nat?" Bruce asked what everyone was thinking.
Their silence told them everything they needed to know.
Bruce fell to his knees, pounding on the floor.
"Dahls?" Pietro asked carefully, watching the woman he loved suffer in emotional pain he couldn't heal.
"I-"
And she fell to the floor, blackness taking over her vision, a bolt of blue catching her just before she hit the ground.
i just- ah- i can't- ouch-
ella<3