No Tears | NR

Chapter 69

The Quantum Realm

They shot through tunnels of light. At first, the group stuck together until some of them split off. Barely three seconds later, Yara was back on her feet and normally sized again, as far as she could tell.

But her surroundings were strange. This place was unlike anything she had ever seen. The planet they were on, Morag, was cold and in no way inviting. Still, it fascinated Yara. If she had time, she would have loved to explore it some more. But unfortunately, there were more important things to do at the moment. 

Rhodey and Nebula were preparing the spaceship for Clint, Natasha, and Yara.

Natasha kicked some tiny - thing - that had been trying to bite her in her shin. It squealed and hurried off way faster than Yara expected.

"Hey, can we hurry it up?", Clint asked.

"Guys, chop-chop. We're on the clock," Natasha reminded Rhodey and Nebula. Just like the rest of them, Natasha was not wearing the white suit anymore but one of her own, black ones.

Yara felt a little bad for Rhodey and Nebula. At least they were doing something.

"All that is really helpful," Rhodey responded sarcastically.

Natasha grinned.

Finally, a few minutes later, they were ready. Natasha and Clint exchanged a few last words with Rhodey and made their way onto the ship. When Yara made to walk past the colonel, he had something to say to her as well.

"Take care of them. And of yourself."

Yara nodded and told him to do the same. Then she followed Natasha and Clint. At the top of the ramp, she turned around one last time and gave Nebula and Rhodey a nod, before she closed it.

To no one's surprise, space turned out to be unbelievably pretty. Yara sat in one of the seats behind Natasha and Clint. She was taking in the view as they shot through space.

"We're a long way from Budapest", Clint joked and Natasha chuckled.

Yara knew about their history in Budapest and smiled as well. She was a long way from anything she had done and known before, really.

It took them a while to get to Vormir. The soul stone was supposed to be here. The planet was almost as uninviting as the one they had been on before, but it was prettier at the same time.

"Under different circumstances...," Clint commented on the view, "this would be totally awesome."

All three of them were standing in front of the window, taking in what they were seeing.

A little later, they touched down in the midst of an area that consisted of sand dunes with little lakes scattered between them. In front of the three Avengers, there was a rocky mountain that cut into the otherwise rather flat landscape. That was where they were headed.

Natasha and Clint started walking, and Yara followed with a groan. Couldn't they have landed closer to the mountain, or maybe even at the top?

The three of them reached the mountain fairly quickly. The climb took longer though and was more exhausting, Yara noticed quickly. They were trudging along in silence for the most part. Nobody seemed to want to talk or have anything to talk about. Yara wouldn't have minded some light conversation though to take her mind off of her freezing hands and feet. She generally didn't have a problem with extreme temperatures, but this place was different, and she didn't understand how the other two weren't freezing. Or maybe they were, but they didn't show it.