As Natasha makes her way to Tokyo in the Quinjet, a hooded figure goes on a rampage inside a nightclub. Many bodies lie dead on the ground while the hooded figure continues his attack. He hurls a throwing star at a man firing at him.
"It's him! He's after Akihiko!" A man shouts in Japanese as two men fire their guns at the hooded figure. One of them gets taken out by a throwing star. The second man draws a sword and chases the hooded figure up some stairs, but the figure hits him with a throwing star before knocking a third thug through a window. As the fight ensues, shouts, screams, and gunfire can be heard inside a building. A man in a black raincoat jumps through a glass window and lands in a dark alley just as the hooded figure does.
The man in the black coat is named Akihiko. He turns to face the hooded figure, whose name is Ronin. "Why are you doing this?" Akihiko asks in Japanese. He unsheathes his sword. "We never did anything to you!"
"You survived...half the planet didn't. They got Thanos." Ronin replies in Japanese. He draws out his katana. "You get me."
Akihiko attacks and Ronin deflects several blows, then strikes the man in the black coat in the stomach. "You're done hurting people," Ronin says in Japanese.
"WE hurt people?" Akihiko glances at the dead men in the bar and gestures to them. He scoffs. "You're crazy!" Akihiko strikes, but Ronin blocks his blade with his own and punches him. As the thug raises his sword, Ronin whips his own weapon straight out, pointing the tip of the sword at Akihiko's neck. Akihiko hits it away and attacks. Ronin blocks him and strikes his face before ducking the thug's weapon and slicing across his torso.
Akihiko shouts something in Japanese before charging Ronin once more. Ronin blocks his blade, then steps aside and slashes the man's throat. Akihiko drops to his knees and reaches his hand out. "Wait! Help me! I'll give you anything! What do you want?" Akihiko asks.
"What I want, you can't give me," Ronin says in English. He raises his sword before whispering something to himself. "I'm sorry, Kaitlyn." He thrusts the katana downward into Akihiko's chest, killing him.
He pulls out the blade and wipes the blood off on his gauntlet. As Ronin stands in the rain with his head lowered, he removes his hood and mask.
"You shouldn't be here." Clint Barton says as Natasha stands behind him, holding an umbrella.
"Neither should you." She says. Clint turns to her. The sides of his head were shaved to create a mow hawk in the back.
"I've got a job to do," Clint says, staring downward.
"Is that what you're calling this? Killing all these people isn't gonna bring your family back." Natasha says. She walks up to him. "We found something. A chance, maybe."
Clint looks at Natasha, tears falling from his eyes. "Don't."
"Don't what?" Natasha asks.
"Don't give me hope," Clint says.
" I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Natasha says.
"Tell me what?" Clint asks.
Natasha steps aside, and Clint freezes when he sees me standing in the rain. After Bruce, Rocket, and I successfully recruited Thor, Natasha was just leaving to go to Tokyo and asked me to come with her to see Clint. I agreed to go, and we were in the Quinjet making our way to Tokyo. Natasha had given me a brief rundown on what Clint had been doing the last five years after the Snap. I was a little heartbroken to hear that he had been going on a killing spree as a way to deal with what had happened. He took his family's death and my death really hard.
"Kaitlyn?" Clint says.
"Hi, Clint," I say, tears springing in my own eyes. I tried to ignore the dead bodies in the ally and kept my eyes on Clint. He slowly walks over to me and places a hand on my cheek.
"Is it really you?" He asks.
I nod my head. "Yeah. It's me. I'm here."
He breaks down as he hugs me tightly. Natasha's eyes begin to water as she watches the long-awaited reunion between Clint and me. "I can't believe it. You're back!" He and I both chuckle a little. "You still look the same. How is this possible?"
"My powers. It's the half-Celestial part of me that doesn't allow me to age." I reply.
"So, what? You're like Thor now?" Clint asks me.
"I guess so. But according to my father, I don't think the Celestials are gods." I say. I noticed the arrowhead necklace that used to belong to me around his neck. "You kept my necklace?" I ask.
Clint looks down at the necklace. "Oh. Yeah. I kept it in remembrance of you. When I had it with me, it was like somehow you were still with me even though you were gone."
I give Clint a sad look. "I'm sorry that this happened."
"It wasn't your fault. This was Thanos' doing." Clint says. He takes off the necklace and puts it around my neck. "There. That's better." He says. "Oh. One more thing." He reaches into his pocket and takes out the snake ring Loki gave me. I smiled at Clint and took the piece of jewelry from him, putting it on my right ring finger.
"Thank you," I say.
"You're welcome," Clint says. I hug him, and he kisses the side of my head.
•
•
•
Everyone was back at the Avengers Compound. Thor cracks open a beer as he strolls into the hangar dressed in a hoodie and wearing a pair of dark shades. "You're drifting left. One side there, Lebowski." Tony says as he walks past Thor, carrying a few cables over his shoulder. "Ratchet, how's it going?"
"It's Rocket." The raccoon responds underneath a glass platform. "Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal." Will walks into the room, holding a tablet in his hand just as Thor burps. His eyes widen when he sees the God of Thunder.
"Thor?" He says. Thor turns around to face Will.
"Will!" Thor exclaimed happily. "Long time no see!" He walks over to Will and hugs him. "Look at you, all grown up!"
"You look, uh, different," Will says.
"I may have gained a pound or two," Thor says. "I guess you heard that Kaitlyn is back. I just saw her, you know."
"I know. I'm really happy that she's here." Will smiles.
"I know she was gone for a long time, but if you don't mind my asking, how are things between you?" Thor asks
"Things are good. It's just taking her a while to adjust to everything after what happened." Will says.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that," Thor says. He placed a hand on his shoulder and points a finger at him. "But in case you've forgotten, I just want you to remember. I'm still watching you." He continues to point at Will as he walks away. Will just stands there with an uncomfortable look on his face.
"It's nice to see you too, Thor." He says.
In a lab, Bruce, Rhodey, and Scott are talking while Nebula works on Scott's time machine suit. It looked similar to the Ant-Man suit and it was white and red. "Time travel suit, not bad."
"Hey, hey, hey! Easy! Easy!" Scott exclaimed as Bruce was touching the suit.
"I'm being very careful," Bruce says.
"No, you're being very Hulky," Scott says.
"I'm being careful."
"These are Pym Particles, all right?" Scott says, holding up a red glass bottle. "And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have. We're not making any more."
"Scott, calm down," Rhodey says.
"Sorry. We've got enough for one round-trip each. That's it." Scott says. "No do-overs. Plus two test runs." He puts the glass bottle into the suit and shrinks, then goes back to his normal size. "One test run." Rhodey sighs and shakes his head.
"All right. I'm not ready for this." Scott says.
"I'm game," Clint says. Scott sees Clint and me by the doorway. "I'll do it."
Moments later, Clint was in the time machine suit Scott was in. "Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about that." Bruce explains.
"Wait a second. Let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know...go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos? You know, and..." He makes a hand gesture suggesting that we strangle baby Thanos with a rope. I make a disgusted face.
"Rhodey, that's horrible. I can't believe you're even thinking that." I say.
"It's Thanos," Rhodey says.
"That still doesn't make it right," I say.
"Guys, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future." Bruce says.
"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them...Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved." Scott says.
"Bingo," Clint says.
"That's not how it works." Nebula says.
"Well, that's what I heard," Clint says.
"Wait, but who? Who told you that?" Bruce asks.
Rhodey counts with his fingers. "Star Trek, Terminator, Timecop, Time After Time."
"Quantum Leap," Scott says.
"Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time."
"Hot Tub Time Machine. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."
"Back to the Future," I say.
Rhodey nods his head. "Basically, any movie that deals with time travel."
"Die Hard. No, that's not one." Scott says.
"This is known," Rhodey says.
"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true," Bruce says. "Think about it. If you travel to the past that past becomes your future and your former present becomes the past which can't now be changed by your new future."
"Exactly." Nebula says.
"So Back to the Future is a bunch of BS?" Scott asks.
In the hangar, Clint stands at the center of a circular platform. "All right, Clint. We're going in three, two, one." A helmet similar to Ant-Man's but white and more visible face pops on Clint's head, and he goes quantum. A few moments later, Clint returns. He is sitting on the platform and breathing heavily. I run over to Clint and place my hand on his cheek once his helmet disappears.
"Hey, hey, look at me. Are you okay?" I ask, helping him up.
"Yeah. Yeah." Clint pants. "It worked." He looks down at the baseball glove in his hand and tosses it to Tony. "It worked."
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A/N: The seven original Avengers are back together along with Rhodey, Rocket, Nebula, and Scott! Clint and Kaitlyn are finally reunited and now all they have to do is figure out how to get all the heroes that were snapped away back so they can stop Thanos once and for all!
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