Battle Scars (A Bucky Barnes Fanfic)

Fifty-Seven

We all appear on the Quantum platform in Avengers HQ. Everyone looks around to see all the stones have been recovered.

"Holy shit," I say as the quantum suits disappear.

"Did we get 'em all?" Bruce asks.

"Are you telling me this actually worked?" Rhodes asks with a smile.

I turn as Clint steps down with a thud. The others turn to look at him as well.

There's a pause as everyone starts to realize someone is missing.

"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce questions Clint.

Clint's face is full of sadness, tears in his eyes. The silence from Clint tells us all we need to know. The mission was completed but at a dire cost. Sadness overtakes everyone. Bruce falls to his knees and pounds the floor in grief. Tears fall down my cheeks as I look at the ground.

......................................................

Later we gather outside HQ. At the lakeside, Tony, Steve, Thor, Clint, Bruce and I are all mourning our fallen teammate and friend.

"Do we know if she had family?" Dad asks.

"Yeah," I say, tears in my eyes.

"Us." Steve finishes, tears falling down his cheeks.

"What?" Thor asks confused walking over.

"I just asked him a question–" Dad says.

"Yeah, you're acting like she's dead." Thor says, "Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right?"

"Uncle-" I start but am cut off.

"So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together." Thor finishes practically growling.

"We can't get her back," Clint says, not looking at him, just looking out at the view.

"What's he–what?"

"It can't be undone." Clint tells him, finally looking at him, "It can't."

Thor dryly laughs.

"Look, I'm sorry, no offense, but you're a very earthly being, okay?" Thor says, still not grasping the truth, or wanting to "And we're talking about space magic. And, "can't" seems very definitive, don't you think?"

"Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here." Clint says to Thor, "But she still isn't here, is she?"

"No, that's my point–"

"It can't–be undone. Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say." Clint grows angry as he speaks, beginning to shout, "Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay? GO GRAB YOUR HAMMER, AND YOU GO FLY AND TALK TO HIM!"

Clint's anger is quickly replaced with grief. I lean my head on Steve's shoulder as he hugs me, both of us have tears falling down our cheeks. Our friend is gone, like so many others.

"It was supposed to be me." Clint says, voice full of grief, more tears in his eyes "She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it."

In a burst of anger, Bruce grunts grabbing a bench and hurls it clear across the lake. His anger spent, he turns to the rest of us with a resigned look on his face.

"She's not coming back." Bruce says, "We have to make it worth it. We have to."

Steve stands and says: "We will,"

I stand too "You're both right," I say " we owe it not just to those we'd already lost but to her, to make her sacrifice mean something." I look at the men around me "This is what she would want, for us to finish this, so let's do it."

They nod at me, and I return it.