Saving Grace

Ninety One

Grace hates the feeling of time travel, and she isn't even prepared for it the second time. She fights down bile the whole time, her eyes shut tight. When she lands in the present, though, she finds her dad immediately in the spot as before, his suit transforming into normal clothes just like everyone else's.

"See?" she says to Scott, relieved. "Two seconds."

"Well, that was fast," Bruce jokes. It'd been about a minute for him. "Did you get them all?" It's clear they have, based on their expressions, or, for some, various things they hold in their hands.

Rhodey is holding one, protected by a round casing. He's smiling. "Are you telling me this actually worked?"

Grace looks across from her to say something to Nat, but the words die in her throat as her her heart drops into her stomach, seeing that empty space. She looks to Clint, sees the expression on his face. Carefully, she asks, "Clint... where's Nat?"

He steps down with a thud. He looks pained. He doesn't have to speak to tell everyone what happened — at least, the gist of it. The worst part. Grace gasps as if hit, a sob choking her.

Clint looks at her. "She said..." He has to stop. He can't speak. But he has to. "She said that... that she loves you all. Before she..." He starts crying, then, unable to say anything intelligible for some minutes.

Bruce sinks as if he can't stand anymore, then sits in the shocked, empty quietness for a few moments before he punches the ground. Steve looks at him, tears running down his face. Grace can hardly see them for her own tears burning in her eyes.

Tony looks at her, fighting back his grief, even as it threatens to take him to the ground. "Grace..."

She cries harder, struggling to breathe. Tony goes to her, hugs her. Sai wordlessly retracts Savior back into a bracelet, the Time Stone still inside it, safely in the metal compartment, and Grace hugs her father tightly, crying into his shirt. Pain burns in her, and hurt. "She-She said she was right here and she would-wouldn't go anywhere — she said it would be al-alright," Grace sobs.

Tony can only stroke her hair, hold her tightly, and whisper, "I know," as he cries, wanting the shut the whole world out, if only for a few hours. But he has to be strong now, for Grace.

Thor shakes his head. "Wh- What are you all doing? Why are you acting as if she's dead? We have the Stones, right? As long as we have the Stones, we can bring her back." But no one seems at all hopeful. "Right?" he says.

"We can't get her back," Clint says quietly. "It can't be undone. It can't."

Thor takes this in, and then begins to laugh, displaying a denial Grace is all too familiar with. "Look, I'm sorry," he says. "No offense, but you're a very earthly being, okay? We're talking about space magic. And 'can't' seems very definitive, don't you think?"

Anger creeps into Clint's voice. "Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here. But she still isn't here, is she?"

"No, that's my point-"

"It can't be undone," Clint insists strongly, regretting it as he says it, wishing it weren't true. "Or at least that's what the red 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!" His voice falls again, after a moment. "It was a soul for the Stone. She..." He sighs. "It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed herself for that stupid Stone. She bet her life on it."

Grace looks at him, her voice quiet, though heard in the silence of the room. "Why?"

Clint knows. He remembers what Nat had said. How she wanted to leave Grace something, to do this for her. She did it for her. And Clint can't tell her that. She'll be eat up with guilt. He knows; he already is. She did it for him, too. He doesn't speak.