THE TEAM REAPPEARED in a bright flash back on the platform of the quantum tunnel. They deactivated their time travel suits, with Tony holding the briefcase containing the Tesseract, Rocket having the Aether, Scott holding the scepter, Bruce having the Time Stone, and Rhodey holding the Power Stone.
"Did we get 'em all?" Banner asked.
"Are you telling me this actually worked?" Rhodey said with a smile.
Nearby, Y/N dropped to his knees. He had the Soul Stone in his palm, and beside him were Natasha and Clint who also had dejected expressions. The team looked at the trio, and the looks they had before changed upon realizing that Pietro wasn't with them.
"Rhodes, where's Pietro?" Bruce asked.
"He...he didn't go with me." He replied and looked at Y/N.
Y/N didn't respond, simply looking down at the floor. Maggie just stared at him, not wanting to process what had just happened. She didn't want to believe it.
"Dad?" She called out, but he still wasn't responding.
Natasha looked at her daughter and shook her head. Her expression said it all. Maggie closed her eyes and ran off the platform as Tony tried to go after her, but he stopped.
Steve looked down in despair along with the rest of the team who felt the same way.
• • •
SOME OF THE TEAM members were at the dock by the lake. They were all still dejected and in shock at the loss of Pietro Maximoff. Y/N stood by the bench at the end of the dock looking out into the water as everybody else sat down or stood idly by.
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"How did this happen?" Tony asked.
There was no response. Tony rose his voice and spoke up.
"We had a plan. He was supposed to go with Rhodes and Nebula..."
"Tony—" Steve interjected.
The billionaire continued. "Unless absolutely necessary, we follow that plan to a tee. But now..."
There was a momentary silence. Natasha stood by the balustrade and looked on in the distance. Maggie sat cross-legged by the shore of the lake alone, buried in her thoughts as she looked out. Natasha excused herself and walked off the deck to go speak with her.
Thor went up to the rest and spoke. "What? What are you doing?"
"What?" Steve replied.
"You are all acting like he's dead." Thor responded. "Why are we acting like he's dead? We have the stones, right?"
Thor raised his voice as he continued. He refused to believe that his friend and fellow Avenger had perished.
"As long as we have the stones, Cap, we can bring him back. Isn't that right? So stop this shit. We're the Avengers. Get it together."
