Snakebite | Avengers: Endgame [8]

Chapter 25

"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, that 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,"

 "He's pretty good at that," Rocket observed. "I know, right?" Scott said, hyper. "It gets less impressive when you've heard them a million times," I shrugged, leaning on the time capsule. "Alright, you heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green!" Tony called. "Trackers engaged," he reported.

 "You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Rocket asked. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, alright. Okay. I'll do my best," Clint responded. "As promises go, that was pretty lame," Rocket shrugged. "Wait, why doesn't she have a suit?" Addi asked, pointing to me. "I'm gonna stay here, make sure everything runs smoothly on this side. Plus, I don't wanna risk another episode," I said, leaning on the console.

 "Episode?" Scott asked. "I'll get these episodes sometimes. I know what causes them, but I have to be careful," I explained. "You haven't had one of those in years, since we were tracking Nat after Ultron kidnapped her," Clint said, furrowing his brows. "That's not true. I had one at the airport during the fight, on the Raft while you and Tony were fighting, when I was on Titan with the Guardians, and when we got back," I admitted.

"You've been keeping secrets from me?" He asked, almost sounding angry. "I'm not the only one," My eyes narrowed. "You need to tell me about these things!" He objected. "We are not going to have this discussion right now. Our focus should be on the stones, and getting everyone back," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Ellie's right. The stones are our priority. We can worry about this later," Steve said.

"See you in a minute," Nat said, smirking. The portal opened, and they were sucked away. Exactly a minute of tense and anxious waiting later, they were back, but the ranks seemed slightly thin. Their suits fell away, being sucked back to where they were stored. "Did we get them all?" Bruce asked.

"You telling me this actually worked?" Rhodey asked, his tone laced with joy. There was a loud thud as Clint fell to his knees, everyone turning to him. I crept up to the platform, realizing who was missing. "Clint, where's Nat?" The look on his face was answer enough. "Wait. Where's Alice?" Ginny asked, looking around.

-

"Do we know if she had family?" Tony asked. "Yeah. Us," Cap said numbly. "No, you're acting like she's dead. Why are you 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? So stop this shit, we're the Avengers. Get it together," Thor argued. "We can't get her back. It can't be undone. It can't," Clint said. "These are pretty bold words coming from someone who got a beer addiction because he chopped someone's head off," I snarled, my insult aimed at Thor, but he just laughed it off.

"I'm sorry, but you're a very earthly being, okay? And we're talking about space magic. I mean, 'can't' seems very definitive, don't you think?" Thor countered. "Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my pay grade here. But she still isn't here, is she?" Clint snapped. "Yeah, that's my point," Thor mumbled. "It can't be undone. Or, that's at least what the red, floating guy had to say! Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay?! Go grab your hammer, and you go fly and you talk to him! It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone, she bet her life on it," I growled, picking up a bench and flinging it into the distance out of anger.

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

a/n To balance out this sad chapter, I have an announcement! The book that will be following this one will be...Echo, which will follow Tessa Panzer through my own, original plot!