The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 96

I look back up at the mountain and freeze, maybe there is a way for me to get back. Green flames course their way around my body, my heart pounding not only from the nervousness coursing its way through me but from me using my time abilities. I push and blue mixes with the green.

The date and location repeat itself in my mind in an endless symphony. More and more flames build, the smell of something burning fills the air but I keep pushing.

LIght encloses me and soon I'm traveling in a tunnel of green and blue. The blue creates shapes and green darkens and lightens as if it was drifting between day and night.

Soft grass greets me as I fall to the ground, I gasp for breath and my lungs scream for more air. My heart pounds in my chest and I cough up blood.

"I did it," I whisper between gasps, "I time traveled."

I laugh and lean back on my hands, giving me a moment to breathe before getting up. I was at the Avengers compound and in the field where we used to do our training. I can't stop chuckling, smiling, or thinking of what I just did.

I slowly rise and fix my uniform, but it is next to impossible to fix. The flames burned it leaving singes and holes in the fabric. I gaze around at the compound and smile but it quickly disappears when I look down at the dock. Everyone was there, their sorrow radiating off of them but they all were still alive. We succeeded in completing the mission.

"Look, I know I'm way out of my paygrade here," Clint says stepping up to Thor and growling the words, "But she still isn't here is she?"

"Now that's my point..." Thor pushes. Loki sits with his feet dangling in the water his head hung low. I slowly begin to make my way from the field over to them, my leg cramping up causing me to go to a limp.

"It can't be undone," Clint begins to shout, I push myself to go faster. "At least that's what the great floating guy had to say! Maybe you wanna go talk to him? Okay? Go grab your hammer and you go fly and you talk to him!" Clint freezes and mumbles something softly.

They still haven't noticed me and they all go silent, staring off into the distance at the lake. I stumble over my feet and freeze a few feet from the dock, scared that they are all going to be mad at me.

Natasha was the first to notice me and more tears stream down her face before she takes off towards me. Sobs and laughs and millions of questions ignite from her lips as she embraces me. I look at everyone else and they all stand there with their mouths agape. Tony was the second one who broke away from the crowd and embraced me into a hug before kissing my blood-soaked forehead.

"Thank God," he mumbles taking me into his arms and not letting me go. I just laugh as tears stream down my cheeks. Soon everyone came in for a hug, except for Loki. His head was still hung low as his feet create ripples in the water.

"Grace, why the hell did you do that?" Natasha yells, "Do you have any idea what you did? You could have died!"

I shift on my feet because I think I actually did die but they don't really need to know that.

"I knew the risks, Nat," I calmly say as tears begin to well in my eyes, "but I couldn't let either of you die when there was a chance that we all could live. I didn't know it would work but I knew there was a possibility."

"Don't you dare ever do that to me again, okay?" Tony says stepping up to us.

"I can't lose someone else, Grace," Steve wipes the tears from his eyes. "I just can't."

I nod my head nodding at all of them but Loki still hasn't come up to approach me. I somehow manage to break from the group and approach him, twisting the ring on my finger.