Hold On Soldier ✔️ | marvel

97. Info

After a long time of silence we make it to the others where Clint reappears on the glass platform in front of us. He is breathing heavily and shaking as he's kneeled, we frantically run towards him at the sight.

"Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?" Nat gets to him first and sits wide eyed.

"Yeah, it worked. It worked." He lifts a baseball glove with sweat gleaming on his forehead.

"You went back in time?" I rose my eyebrows and he moved his head upward.

"You look possessed." Clint observed and I adjusted my eyes to reappear. Clint swallows at the sight, "I think that made it worse."

-

Holograms display the stones before us as we sit around a table. Tony, Steve and Bruce are pacing at the front, leading the discussion we're holding. I feel Clints eyes stuck on me and I rise my hair as if I'm hanging upside down. Snapping my face toward him creepily. I see him shiver until I release it and turn my attention back to the front.

"Okay, so the "how" works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones." Steve says.

"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones." Tony objects.

"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Scott adds.

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Professor Hulk informs.

"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in." Tony notices.

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint's tone reminds me a lot of how mine has been these past few years. Hearing it makes me question a little of myself. Seeing him so worn and hurt makes me question even more...

"Correct." Tony answers.

"Which stone do we start with?" I question.

"Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve turns his attention to Thor. He sits with his sunglasses over his eyes. Thor doesn't reply and we all wait.

"Is he asleep?" Nat asks as if she heard my thoughts.

"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey jokes but i tense when Thor gets up suddenly.

"Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves..." Thor rambles.

"Interesting." I murmur.

"Wooooh, scary beings. They look like Isabelle but with pointy ears." He wiggles his fingers to imitate a spooky ghost.

"Move on." I growl and the others try to keep a serious facial.

"So Jane," An image of Jane Foster pops up on the screen, "Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... She she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead," Thor hesitates from time to time but now he seems more pained.

"Thor..." I whisper and catch his eye. "Off topic."

"And oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore. These things happen though you know, nothing last forever," Tony starts to push him back to his chair to stop Thor, "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."