"See you in a minute," Natasha said to Steve, smiling excitedly at the prospect of time travel -- and space travel.
After dropping Nebula and Rhodey off on Morag in 2014, Clint and Natasha headed to Vormir in the same year.
"We're a long way from Budapest, huh?"
Natasha only laughed. After five years of a dark and dreary world, punctuated only by small and short visits to the Stark household, it was simply exhilarating to see the colours of the universe flash by as they travelled through the jump point. When they finally came up on Vormir, both stared at the planet in awe.
"Wow," Clint murmured, "under different circumstances, this would be totally awesome."
~~||~~
Climbing the mountain was . . . not so totally awesome.
"I bet the raccoon didn't have to climb a mountain," Natasha grumbled.
"Technically, he's not a raccoon, you know."
"Whatever. He eats garbage."
"Welcome."
Natasha and Clint both drew their weapons as a cloaked figure approached.
"Natasha," it said, looking at her," daughter of Ivan."
"Clint," it continued, turning to him, "son of Edith."
"Who are you?" Natasha asked.
"Consider me a guide. To you and to all who seek the Stone."
"Oh, good," Natasha said, "you tell us where it is, and we'll be on our way."
"If only it were that simple."
Natasha and Clint followed their 'guide' to the edge of the cliff.
"What you seek lies before you, as does what you fear."
"The stone is down there," Natasha said, looking over the edge at the deathly drop.
"For one of you. For the other . . . In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul for a soul."
"Shit."
~~||~~
Natasha sat on a log while Clint glared daggers at the Stonekeeper, as if it were his fault. Natasha pulled her necklace from under her suit, rubbing the locket as she thought about the man who had given it to her.
Whatever it takes.
The Wakandan disc knocked Natasha's fingers, and she glanced down at it. Her thoughts strayed from Bucky to Anya, the beautiful little girl who had called her 'Mamma' without any hesitation the moment she discovered why Natasha was there.
Whatever it takes.
She could help bring them back, but she wouldn't be there to welcome them. She would never see them again, just as they would never see her. Was that fair to either of them? She had lost a husband and a daughter. She was considering costing Bucky his wife and Anya her mother. But she had to.
Whatever it takes.
The alternative was to let Clint go, but she knew she would never be able to do that, not when she could make the sacrifice. Clint had three children who needed their father. Laura needed her husband.
Anya needs her mother and James needs his wife, a voice in the back of her head told her.
Anya and James will be fine, she told herself. James would have Steve and Sam -- and Wakanda. Anya would have Peter and Shuri and the nation of Wakanda. James and Anya would have each other. They would have the Avengers.
Clint's family was not so involved with everyone. They needed him.
Natasha told herself the same words over and over again, until she wasn't even sure what the truth was anymore. She just knew that she couldn't let someone else die when she could stop it. She had to protect what was left of her family at all costs, hoping and praying that it would bring the rest of her family back.
They'd forgive her, right?
James would live his life without the Winter Soldier's past hanging over him. Anya would grow up beautifully.
It was a pity she wouldn't see it. A pity, indeed, but she was prepared to make the sacrifice.
Clint didn't see it coming. He was stuck in his own inner arguments. He looked to the log only to find it empty. He realised too late what was happening. Natasha stood at the the edge, overlooking her destination. She turned back to Clint as he rushed to grab her.
He lunged for her and managed to snatched her wrist. Her momentum jerked him forward until he was holding on to the cliff with one hand and Natasha with the other. He could not let go, not until Natasha was back on the top of the cliff. He began to pull her up.
"When you see them, tell them I love them."
"Shut up."
"And that I'm sorry."
She closed her eyes and saw her daughter, laughing and skipping about the fields in Wakanda.
"Nat, please. Please, don't. Please."
She saw her husband, wrapping his arm around her daughter and playfully tackling her. Her daughter stood up and threw her head back as she laughed. Her husband smiled warmly, first at their daughter, then at her. I love you. That was her family. She loved them, with all her heart. She would do whatever it took to even have a chance at bringing them back, no matter the cost.
She smiled. "It's okay," she whispered.
Whatever it takes.
"No, no it's not. It's not, it -- NO!"
She kicked off the wall, forcing her arm from Clint's grasp. He stared in horror as she hit the ground, the impact echoing all around.
"BRING HER BACK! BRING HER BACK RIGHT NOW!"
"I cannot."
"Nat. . ." A surge of energy ripped through the planet, shooting up and spreading across the sky. It was the brightest thing Clint had ever witnessed. Natasha's soul was the purest white, more beautiful than life itself.
Clint sat up slowly, the gentle ripples of the water mocking the harsh reality he had to face. He opened his hand to see the stone gleaming at him. Blinded by grief, Clint failed to notice Natasha's chain tangled around his fingers as he returned home.
Everyone seemed to be on some kind of euphoria. They'd just succeeded at time and space travel! They spoke excitedly over one another, until Steve looked around and frowned.
"Clint, where's Nat?"
He couldn't look a single one of them in the eye. He gripped the stone tight, wanting nothing more than to crush it or throw it back at Vormir in exchange for Natasha -- even though he knew he could never get her back.
~~||~~
The five of them stood out on the deck, a heavy silence over all of them.
"Do we know if she had family?" Bruce asked softly.
"Yeah," Steve whispered, "us."
"What?" Thor asked, turning away from the water to glare at Bruce and Steve.
"I just asked --"
"Yeah, you're acting as if she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead?" Thor looked around at the remaining Avengers. "We have the stones. . ."
The stones. . . Tony stopped paying attention to the chaos around him. Natasha died for that stone. He was going to do whatever it took to make her sacrifice worth it. Something half tucked into Clint's pocket reflected the sun into Tony's eye. He blinked rapidly, turning his head slightly. When he looked back, he recognised the item. Reached forward, he snatched the necklace from Clint. The man stopped yelling at Thor midway through a sentence to look at Tony, who stared at the locket and disc, heartbroken.
"It was Nat's --" Clint began.
"I know."
"She's not coming back," Bruce told Thor, "she's not. We have to bring everyone else back. She died for it. We have to make it worth it."
"We will," Steve said softly.
Tony closed his fist around the locket and the disc, not noticing how either dug into his hand. Without a word, he stormed off.
~~||~~
"Friday."
"Yes, boss?"
Tony took a shaky breath, trying to calm himself.
"Shall I call Pepper?"
"No. No, I want you to um . . . access Jarvis' archives."
"Which files would you like me to access?"
Tony looked around the empty room, hoping in futility that Natasha might jump from behind something and smile that wicked smirk at him. "Red Hot Mess."
Friday took a moment to access the files. "Would you like me to remove the files from the archive, boss?"
Tony nodded. "Download them."
"To?"
Tony set Anya's disc on the table and watched it light up as Friday connected to it. "That."
"Yes, boss."
"When you're done with that, access your own archives for the files in the archive folder with the same name and download them. Let me know when you've finished."
"Yes, boss."
"One last thing," Tony said. Friday waited for his instruction. "Once you've loaded all the files, see if you can load Project Virgil onto the disc. Not a priority, though. The archived files are. Do those first."
"I'll make a note of it."
While Friday downloaded her files, Tony got to work creating the nano-gauntlet.
~~||~~
"All right, the glove's ready," Rocket said, "question is, who's gonna snap their fricking fingers?"
"I'll do it," Thor said, hobbling over to the gauntlet.
Tony's eyes went from Thor's bleary and puffy eyes to the beer bottle in his hand. "No."
"Us sitting around isn't going to bring half the universe back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So the responsibility is mine."
Tony had to physically push Thor away from the gauntlet.
"It's my duty."
"Buddy, it really isn't."
"Let me do this! Just . . . just let me do something great."
"Look . . . it's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you you're in no condition."
"What do you think is coursing through my veins?" Thor asked Tony.
"Cheeze whiz," Rhodey mumbled.
"Lighting," Thor corrected.
"Lightning won't help you, pal," Bruce said, walking up to the gauntlet, "it's gotta be me."
Thor pushed away from Tony, but he thankfully didn't try to make a grab for the gauntlet.
"You saw what those stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive."
"How do we know you will?" Scott asked.
Bruce shrugged. "I don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma. It's like. . ." Bruce regarded the gauntlet before him, "like I was made for this."
"Good to go?" Tony asked a moment later.
Bruce nodded, holding the gauntlet. "Let's do this."
"You remember . . . everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years."
"Got it."
Around Bruce, everyone suited up. Tony formed a shield in front of Clint. "Friday, do me a favour and activate protocol 8."
The windows and doors shut down, barricading the Avengers and putting the compound on lockdown. No one saw Nebula -- younger by nine years -- slip away.
"Everybody comes home," Bruce said, before putting his hand into the gauntlet.
~~||~~
send in ur thoughts ladies & gents
Keyboard smashes are acceptable responses to this chapter, as well as curses and tears. I cried editing here until the end so--
Have a lovely day, it gets worse.