The Eternal Avenger

Chapter Forty-Eight: See You In a Minute

(Claray's POV):

I sat blankly staring around the room of a meeting creatively titled "Time Heist Brainstorming Session." No doubt a title brought to us by Steve, our fearless leader. I was, apparently, been one of the few in the room that hadn't encountered an infinity stone directly – only with the products that they'd left behind. We had discussed the Aether, with Thor leading the meeting briefly. I'm pretty sure that he is now, currently, drunk. I glanced over at Natasha while he was talking, and could tell that she was trying her hardest not to laugh. "The only thing permanent in life," Thor was wrapping up as Tony attempted to lead him away, "is impermanence...and her," he said, pointing towards me. I raised my eyebrows as Natasha covered a laugh up with a cough.

Rocket was up. He was talking about something named Quill, and there was a Morag involved...honestly it was all I could do to keep my eyes from glazing over. I understood this was important, but the combination of sarcasm, condescension and usually good-natured humor was wearing on me. I had to admit, however, despite myself that the irony of a racoon treating Scott like a puppy was almost too much for me to bear with a straight face.

Nebula's news was my least favorite of the bunch. She described it as a dominion of death, which sounded even more ominous than I originally thought. At the same time that Scott was calling "not it" on the journey to Vormir – wherever what was – I caught Natasha's eye across the table. She looked at me from the couch, curled up (as expected) like a cat, a slight smile on her face.

"Could be fun," she mouthed, overexaggerating the eye roll. I smirked at her before turning my attention back towards Nebula. The more time I spent with the little pscyho, the more I liked and respected her. She had a tough go of it, and a lot of it really wasn't her fault. In many ways she was a lot like the rest of us. Broken, and in search of redemption. Maybe, in a lot of ways, that's what it really meant to be an Avenger.

By the next morning, the conference room looked like a disaster had gone through it, and most of us were sprawled out on the floor, on the table, or over a few chairs, papers scattered anywhere. We had moved on to the timestone. Natasha and I sat up at the same time, looking at each other excitedly. "Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York." The room went silent momentarily before Bruce captured the rest of our thoughts perfectly.

"Shut the front door."

(Natasha's POV):

After a much-needed shower – all of those guys stink beyond belief after a day all trapped in the same room – the team reassembled in the newly-straightened conference room, all eyes on Steve. We finally had a plan. To get all six stones, we would need three teams. Everything would have to go exactly in order to plan in order for us to have a hope of pulling this off, but we've been in stickier situations. As we took our places around Tony's contraption, the nervous tension present in our little family circle was immense. I glanced at Claray, giving her the once-over in her new suit and I couldn't stop myself from smiling. By this point, I had tuned Steve out completely, and the only thing that I could focus on were here steel blue eyes, which were locked onto mine as we smiled at each other from across the circle. "See ya in a minute," I said, glancing around the room at this group of misfits – this family. I felt my helmet click closed, watching everyone around me feeling more excitement than terror.

Our first stop was a place called Morag, I think. We were dropping off Rhodes and Nebula so they could smack a guy named Quill upside the head and get the Power Stone from him while he was out. Claray, Clint and I walked around outside the now-enlarged Benatar, waiting for Rhodes to finish lowering the shuttle. I stared down at my feet as a little rat-kangaroo thing hopped up, squealing and hissing at us, kicking it away. Claray laughed, nudging another one of the creatures away far more gently. She rolled her eyes at me, grinning from ear to ear.

"Always have to mess with the wildlife," she teased. I grinned back at her.

"Hey, can we hurry it up?" Clint asked, turning his attention to Rhodey. I had to agree.

"Guys, chop-chop. Come on. We're on the clock," I added. Rhodes looked at me with an exasperated expression.

"All that is really helpful," he called back. Good to know that sarcasm was still alive and well – even in space. As I said goodbye to Rhodey and gave him a hug, I remembered exactly what it was that we were doing and what was at stake. "Get that stone and come back. No messing around," he warned as he shook Clints hand. Claray patted Rhodes on the shoulder grinning at him.

"Let's get this done, Colonial," she smiled.

"You guys watch each other's six," he called as we climbed back into the Benatar. All three of us paused for a moment, waving. I settled into the pilot seat, Clint acting as co-pilot. Claray settled in the chair directly behind me, leaning forward and tracing her fingers through my hair, lightly tugging at the braid.

"If I'm going to be hurtling through space, I'm at least glad I get to do it with you," she whispered. I looked over my shoulder at the hybrid, strapping in and getting ready for takeoff.

"Don't you go getting soft on me now, Ridel," I teased, smirking at her. She cocked her head to one side, winking at me.

"I'm going to make you pay for that comment when we get back, Widow." Oh no, I was in trouble. She only called me Widow when she was imagining something horrifically devious. As the Benatar lifted off the ground and the auto-pilot kicked into gear, I glanced once more behind me at Claray, and then over to Clint. For the end of the world, I was pretty lucky to have this crew for the journey.