Chapter Forty-One
Soroya
I cried for a solid hour after Tony arrived, feeling overwhelmed that soon I'll be reunited with Alex and Bucky. But the fear that this won't work still haunts the back of my mind. I know I couldn't handle losing them all over again. But I didn't want to think about the possibility we could fail, I wanted to focus on the possibility that we could win.
Nebula and Rocket came back to the compound, where Rocket picked up Bruce and the two of them flew to Switzerland to find Thor. When Nebula came in she greeted everyone respectively, nodding her head to Tony. Rhodey came in after her, and as soon as he saw Tony he gave him a large hug. I know having Tony here makes Rhodey feel over the moon. He is one of the only other Avengers that has constantly been helping on earth the past few years. He and I have become good friends because of it. He smiles at me and holds me in a tight embrace, doing the same for Steve and Nat.
"How's Mexico been?" I ask him.
He shrugs. "It's been nothing I can't handle," he says, eyeing Natasha. "Are you going to get him?"
Nat nods solemnly. "Yeah, I'm leaving in a few minutes."
I turn to her, placing my hand on her shoulder. "To go and get Barton? You want me to come with you?"
She squeezes my arm thoughtfully, but shakes her head. "No, this is something I have to do alone. I'll call if I need backup."
I nod, bringing her in for a hug. "Be careful." I whisper to her.
I feel her nod, winking at me as she pulls back. "Always."
Bruce and Rocket quickly returned with Thor, but he looks much different than he did the last time I saw him. Steve and I had been sitting on the couch when Bruce and Rocket walked in, followed by Thor; long hair and unkempt beard, wearing baggy unwashed clothes and possessing a beer belly. In his gloved hands is a can of beer, covering his eyes is a pair of sunglasses.
He opens his arms wide, smiling. "Steven! It's wonderful to see you," He says, wrapping himself around Steve in an awkward embrace that Steve returns with some hesitation. He turns to me then, giving me the same awkward embrace. "And Roberts! Still turning into savage beasts I hear?"
I can tell even through the chipper attitude he is showcasing, that he took our defeat from Thanos hard. My heart goes out to him. I force a normal smile and nod my head. "Thor, it's great to see you. You look handsome as ever."
He pats my shoulder, taking another sip of beer before saying; "I missed that warm affection of yours. I could have used that, especially when Noob Master would come online and kill me."
He walks towards Tony, who gets the same embrace that we did. Steve and I share a look of confusion, not having any clue what he's referring to.
The next couple of days we spent trying to build the time machine; Tony and Bruce are doing most of the actual scientific and engineering work along with Rocket and Nebula. Steve, Scott, Rhodey, and I are being used for carrying heavy objects to and from places. We occasionally take lunch and dinner orders as well. At one point we needed to lift the entire bottom half of the machine up so Rocket could repair a wire. Steve and I are the ones with enhanced strength, so we had to do it.
It was the heaviest thing I've ever carried. Even Steve was struggling under it's weight. Tony shook his head at us. "Come on, you two. Put your backs into it."
We both shot him a glare, with me grunting out; "Why don't you come here and lift this thing?"
He shakes his head. "I'll leave the hard labor to you, Lady Hawk."
We were so exhausted afterwards that we sat in ice baths for a few hours.
Nat returned with Barton about three days after Thor. He looks very different from what I've seen of him on tv. He looks colder, hardened by the last five years. He always gave off such a warm and stoic vibe, its rather shocking to see him like this now. Nat looks devestated whenever she looks at him. I know she feels guilty for not having been there for her best friend the past few years. I wish I could make her feel better, as well as him, but I know there's nothing I can do.
Barton and Nat came into the common area as I was on a beverage run for everyone. "We haven't met yet. I'm Soroya Roberts." I say with a smile, holding out my hand to him.
Barton seems taken aback by my friendliness. It makes his expression turn softer as he says: "I'm Clint."
I bring my hand back to my side and look over to Nat. "Tony, Nebula, and Rocket are still working on the machine. Everyone else is prepping Scott for the test run we're doing."
Nat nods, touching Clint's shoulder lightly. "How about you go see the others. I'll be there in a minute."
He nods, walking out of the room and disappearing around the corner. Once Clint is out of sight, Nat takes a deep breath, wrapping her arms around my waist. I hold onto her tightly, gently patting her back.
"It was awful. I should have been there for him. I should have done more—"
"You were running the Avengers and helping to rebuild what Thanos destroyed. Nat, don't you dare blame yourself. You've already done so much. You need to stop blaming yourself for not being able to help everyone."
She pulls back from me, rolling her eyes. "Like you don't do the same."
I shrug. "I never said I don't. At least one of us should take my advice."
She smirks at me, letting out a deep breath. "Alright, lets get back to business." She declares with determination, and with that we both follow after Clint.
When we get to the room, Scott isn't in the suit like I last saw him, but Clint is. The whole room seems to be having a debate on how time travel works.
"So Back to the Future was bullshit?" I hear Scott ask.
I lean against the doorway, with Nat right behind me. "What do you mean?" I inquire.
Scott looks like he's questioning everything; his eyes are wide and his mouth gapping in shock. "I mean—Mr. Hulk here says that the laws of time travel that are universally known, doesn't apply to real time travel."
I think about my knowledge of time travel at the moment, wondering aloud: "So going into the past and changing an event doesn't change the events of the present?"
Scott shakes his head and throws his hands up in the air in exasperation. "Apparently not."
Bruce looks to me, explaining this like it's common knowledge. "When you go back in time, the past becomes your future, and your former present, becomes the past. So your past can't be changed by your new future."
I stand there and think about that for a moment, so much so that my head starts to hurt. "So if I went into the past and accidentally broke my parents up and came back to the present I would still be alive? What kind of sense does that make?"
Scott points to me and claps his hands together. "Thank you, Soroya, for making my point."
Bruce ignores us, looking to Clint. "You ready for this?" He nods, walking out of the room without a second glance at any of us. He does stop at Nat, and with a small smile, he extends his hand out to her. She takes it, and together they walk hand in hand to the garage.
Tony has just finished up building the time machine.Three sets of stairs lead up to a giant glass platform. Six half rings stick out of the edges, emitting a reddish glow that reflects off of the glass panels layered up towards the ceiling. A few feet away is the machine itself, where Bruce and Tony currently sit at. The rest of us are at a safe distance away. One things for sure; the DeLorean is much cooler.
"All right, Clint," Bruce says, flipping some switches. "We're going in three...two...one."
Bruce flips a switch and the glass panels above Clint glow with the same orange and blue mixture that the van emitted. Clint disappears. Bruce sent him back to about five years ago, so if know if this works it means we can get everyone back. It will no longer be a dream.
Bruce counts back from five, and I watch as the glass panels glow blue and orange once more. Clint reappears, kneeling on all fours screaming: "Lila!"
I have no clue who that is, but Nat seems to, because she looks even more devastated than before. She rushes onto the platform, gently touching his face and looking at him frantically. "Hey. Hey, look at me."
The rest of us rush to his side as well, with one question hanging in the air as we give him a moment to breath, to regain his footing. He nods to Nat, holding onto her for support as he stands.
"You okay?" She asks.
He nods his head, starting at her for a long moment, a mixture of a choke and a laugh coming out of him. He has something in his hands, a baseball glove by the looks of it. He drops it into Natasha's open palm. "It worked," He says, looking to the rest of us in pure shock. "It worked."
He tosses the glove to Tony, who smiles in proud satisfaction. All of us stand there for a moment in pure silence, letting it sink in that we have a chance to win. We have a chance to get everyone back, everyone that was stolen from us.
At this moment I feel absolutely overwhelmed with happiness. I ignore the fears and doubts that still haunt my mind. I turn to Steve, and with tears brimming my eyes, I wrap my arms around his neck. He embraces me tightly, picking me up off the ground and laughing into my shoulder. I knew he must be scared too, because how could he not be? But right now there's only one thing, one person on his mind. I know just how elated both of us are at the prospect of seeing Bucky again.