No Tears | NR

Chapter 71

Avengers Compound, USA

Everything was a blur. Yara didn't know where she was or what she was doing most of the time. Her instincts carried her as she danced through the surrounding chaos, killing any enemy in her way. She had managed to get her hands on a pair of swords, that some enemy had lost.

Nothing was left alive in her wrath as she slowly but surely closed in on Thanos. She didn't pay attention to anything else. She didn't notice that some of the Avengers were trying to get the gauntlet with the stones to Scott's van or that she was entirely covered in red and blue blood, which was purple where the two colors had mixed. It didn't matter to her.

When she reached Thanos, somebody else was already fighting him. Wanda had been quicker and was crushing him. Red magic swirled around her fingers and around Thanos.

Yara was about to go for his head with her swords, when something large hit the floor next to her, and she got thrown a few meters away. She looked up and found hundreds of rockets flying toward the battlefield and killing enemies and allies alike on impact.

The interruption in her flow had her lose her focus for just the briefest moments. But that was enough. Her adrenaline began to fade, and she was fighting with her head to remain conscious.

She didn't see that the ship got destroyed and that the rain of rockets stopped. She also didn't notice that the dam broke, or that Thanos was trying to get the gauntlet. It was only when she saw him hold the glove in his hand that some newfound determination had her adrenaline spike again. All of this had not been for nothing. She couldn't let it be for nothing. Natasha's death had to be worth it.

Yara got up and ran at Thanos. A glowing person was faster and reached him first. Yara needed a moment to recognize the person as Carol. She wasn't used to the glowing.

Carol punched Thanos repeatedly, but then, he caught her and threw her away. The alien grabbed the gauntlet and put it on slowly, letting the metal adjust to the size of his ginormous hand.

He was about to snap his fingers, when both, Carol and Yara, reached him at the same time. Carol grabbed his fingers and kept them apart. Yara, who had forgotten to retrieve her swords, kicked him in the back of his knees. It didn't seem to have much of an effect on the alien. Despite the vibranium leg, his knee didn't budge. He didn't move or even bothered to deal with her. Instead, he hit Carol in the head with his own big, purple one. Carol didn't move. It was like she hadn't even felt the headbutt. Meanwhile, Yara went to find herself a weapon that could help her distract the alien.

Carol flew up a little and pushed Thanos down into a kneeling position. She was ready to punch him with her bright fist when he grabbed a stone out of the gauntlet with his free hand and punched her first. Yara grunted in frustration and picked up a deformed metal plate that had once been part of someone's armor. Then, she ran towards Thanos and hit him in the head while he was putting the last stone back on the gauntlet. He groaned in pain as the glove's energy surged through him. Yara knew that pain all too well. She didn't waste another second and hit him again, this time in the face.

Thanos grunted and went to snap his fingers, but Yara grabbed onto them and held on for dear life. She was joined by Tony, who helped her and pulled Thanos' fingers apart as well.

Thanos kicked Yara first and then punched Tony. Both of them hit the ground several meters away from Thanos. Yara watched with horror, as Thanos adjusted the gauntlet on his hand. There was nothing else she could do. She wouldn't be able to reach him in time.

"I am inevitable." With those words, Thanos snapped his fingers. While Yara personally embraced what fate apparently held in store for her, she never would have wished any of this upon the others. She had failed again. Only this time, there were no second chances; no undoing their mistakes.

Yara waited for people to begin turning into dust, but nothing happened. With no energy whatsoever left, she barely managed to crawl over to a rock and lean against it. From there, she watched as the stones were moving along Tony's suit and ended up on his hand. Tony had lifted his hand up and lighting danced along the metal of his suit all the way up to his shoulder and across his chest. Then it calmed down.

With each word he said, Tony took a few breaths. "I... am... Iron Man." Then he snapped his fingers. Suddenly, flecks of dust began to fill the air. Enemies were dissolving all around them.

Yara smiled. They had done it. They had truly done it. She wished Natasha could see this. Yara let her head fall back against the rock behind her. A laugh escaped her. Despite all her pain and all the chaos and destruction around her, she felt a strange sense of peace. That was when she knew. She smiled even more. Nobody was paying attention to her, which she was happy about. She didn't want to talk to anyone. There was nothing left for her to say. The last remains of her adrenaline faded and with that, she finally felt the full extent of her injuries. She definitely had a few cracked ribs, some very deep cuts, and a concussion. On top of that, the arm which she had used with the gauntlet was raw and completely exposed, with no skin on it. And those were only the things she noticed right away.

Just as her vision began to darken and fade, she heard her name being called. She was able to make out the silhouette of someone kneeling in front of her, but the voices grew quiet quickly. Through all of this and all the pain, the smile never left her lips. Her eyes fell shut, and her body went limp.

Surprisingly enough, only a few people had lost their lives that day. Among them were Tony Stark and Alexandra Yaroslavna. The core group of Avengers that had survived the first snap waited for days, but Yara simply wouldn't wake up anymore. Steve had invited Finn, who arrived a day after the call. After a while, it started to become clear that Yara wouldn't wake up anymore. Despite his obligations towards his newly returned family, he stayed at Yara's side for hours on end, looking for just the smallest of signs that she was alive. Steve had to drag him away sometimes to take care of himself.

When her corpse began to smell, that's when it was clear that she wouldn't wake up anymore. They buried her next to Natasha's empty grave a few days after Tony's funeral.

"Hey, I found something," Sam told Steve, who was reading a book. The Captain quickly put the book away, but Sam still managed to catch a glimpse of it.

"Why are you reading a book about dancing?" he wanted to know with a smirk.

"You wanted to show me something," Steve tried to change the topic.

"Right." Sam pulled out a notebook and handed it to Steve. It was completely black and looked vaguely familiar. Steve had given it to Yara a few years ago. "Literally everything is destroyed in that place, but somehow out of everything, this book survived."

Steve opened the book and found that a few pages were filled with text in Yara's handwriting. He was about to close the book again, deciding that he shouldn't read this, when a page somewhere in the middle of the book caught his attention. It seemed to have been written in a haste. Yara must have just opened the book and begun writing. The text was barely legible and all over the place. It looked like the top part had been added in after the rest had been written.

"Wait. This was after we got the stones," Steve realized.