No Tears | NR

Chapter 70

Vormir

The wire was gone and she wasn't hanging in the air anymore. Instead, Yara was lying in shallow water. She sat up onto her knees and looked around in confusion, trying to understand what had happened. Then she noticed something in her hand. She lifted it up and opened it to find an yellow glowing gem in there. Yara finally connected the dots.

A heartbreaking scream tore through the silence that had surrounded her. Something cool and wet began to run down her cheeks, but she didn't care. She would only realize later on that those had been tears.

Yara kept screaming for a long time. Her throat was dry and hurting, but she didn't care. Then, she just cried. Sobs rippled through her body. She felt paralyzed. She couldn't think. She couldn't move. There was only the pain.

Yara had lost all track of time, but she didn't care. Clint had found her a while ago. By then, she had stopped crying and moving all together. His suit was torn a little where Yara's dagger had pierced it. He looked almost as bad as Yara. Natasha had been his best friend. They had known each other for a long time. Her death was almost as hard, if not just as hard for him, as it was for Yara. Still, he seemed to be dealing with it better than Yara did. Clint had patiently been waiting for her to move. Although he was in pain as well, they still had a mission to complete.

When he realized that Yara would pass out before she would move, he carefully asked her if she had the stone. He wasn't even sure if Yara had heard him until she opened her hand and revealed a glowing, yellow gem. Clint stared at it for a moment. Yara closed her fist around the gem again and slowly began to stand up. Her limbs were stiff, and she needed to straighten out her back.

"This better be worth it," she told nobody in particular.

Not much later, they appeared back in the compound in the same spots where they had disappeared earlier.

Clint's knees gave away, and he dropped to the floor. Yara didn't have the energy or nerve to deal with anyone, and trudged out of the room without missing a beat. She didn't stop or turn around when she heard her name being called, and just kept walking. A familiar numbness had clouded her thoughts and emotions. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. She reached her room and locked the door behind her, not to be seen again for the next few hours. All she wanted was space.

Her phone rang, but Yara couldn't care less. Finn's voice spoke up as he left her a voicemail.

"Hey, Yara. How did the mission go? I haven't heard from you in a few hours. Just call me, please, when you have some time."

Yara ignored him.

A knock sounded on the door. Yara had moved to her bed a while ago and was just lying there. She didn't say anything. Hours had passed since she had locked herself in.

"Yara," Steve's voice sounded through the door. It was laced with pain. He hesitated, not knowing what to say.  It was no secret that Yara and Natasha were incredibly close, even if there hadn't been any official labels. Steve decided to avoid mentioning Natasha and just got straight to the point. "We have all the stones. We're going to meet in five if you wanna join us."

He didn't get a response. After a while, he left with a heavy sigh.

The whole team, everybody that was left, was gathered in one room. They were standing around a metal glove. All the six Infinity Stones were embedded in it. They were discussing who was going to do the snap when Yara got there. She stayed in the back, unnoticed by all of them.

Thor was offering - no, insisting - he should do it, but he was in no shape for it. Yara felt a little sorry for him. He just needed this chance to help and do something. But he couldn't. Thor was begging the others to let him do the snap, but they agreed with Yara. Then Bruce stepped up. He seemed to be the most obvious choice, but Yara had made a decision.