ＩＭＰＥＲＩＡＬ ◼TONY STARK◼

ｏｎｅ ｈｕｎｄｒｅｄ ｆｉｆｔｅｅｎ

"You're going to need to put that one over here," Audelia explained to rocket, rolling the board under her further to the left as she pointed to the position for the bolt according to the specs in her hands. "This entire pole is going to need more support than the others, it's loadbearing."

"See, I like working with you, you're not pushy," Rocket shot back as he crawled along the pipes, fastening the bolt into the position they needed it in. "Your husband? Insufferable. I don't know how you do it."

"Hey, he's not that bad all the time,"

As if on que, Tony had to make his presence known.

"Ratchet, how's it going?"

"It's Rocket," the raccoon shot back as he waved his wrench toward him. "Take it easy, you're only a genius on earth, pal."

Deli couldn't help but laugh as Tony rolled his eyes, walking off. Her eyes trailed to Thor, trying not to show confusion and slight disgust on her face at what had become of him over the last five years as he finished off his drink, shooting her a grin.

"Lady Motter! Except now, I guess it's Lady Stark," Thor shot her a quick wink with a grin. "Good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Thor,"

The main lobby of the compound was empty once more, leaving Rocket and Audelia to work on the construction of the actual time travel platform. Most of the team was with Nebula in the labs, finalizing the time travel suits. Deli originally wanted to be in there, as Natasha had just brought Clint back to the team, but she figured that Rocket would need more help over here.

"Once again, insufferable,"

"Oh you should meet our daughter," Deli laughed out as she passed Rocket the next piece he needed. Morgan is, sadly, turning out more and more like him every single day. Drives me a little nuts. Thankfully Aurora takes after Nathan so it's all good."

"Yeah, you two made out pretty lucky after the snap," Rocket muttered. For the past few years he had harbored a slight grudge against the women, seeing just how well off she was after half of the entire universe was snapped away. "Got to get married, settle down, have another kid. Did you even lose anyone?"

Audelia paused for a moment, a frown taking over her features that Rocket immediately noticed.

"I lost a lot of people," she confided in him, passing him another set of bolts. "I lost my day, Steve's one last piece of the 40s. I lost the team, people who have become my family over the years. Stark Industries lost a lot of staff, people that I've known my whole life. Just because we did well after doesn't mean we didn't lose anyone, Rocket. We all lost people."

The raccoon was silent for a moment before moving onto the next piece.

"You're telling me,"

"What about you?" Deli was trying here, really trying, to form some sort of bridge between them and make some kind of friendship. "I know you lost the rest of the...guardians, but I don't know much about them."

"Well there was Drax. Big buff dude, but that was about his only personality trait. Gamora, a woman that could kill you with her bare hands if she wanted to. Mantis, who was just...yeah she was weird. I lost Groot, my best friend..." Rocket trailed off for a minute, stuck on Groot as he worked. "Then there was Quill. Dude got on my nerves but he was one hell of a dude. Takes guts to hold an Infinity Stone in your hand."

"He held one?" Audelia asked incredulously as she fastened another bolt into place.

"Oh yeah, almost killed the idiot until we stepped in," Rocket laughed. "Hard to explain, but he was kind of part planet at the time so he was able to hold it without instantly dying. But we all, like, grabbed onto his hands and the power of the stone distributed itself, didn't immediately kill him and we were actually able to use it."

"So you all holding hands was almost like the gauntlet," Deli compared the two out loud. "It distributes the power?"

"Yeah, but even with that gauntlet, you still have to be one powerful man to not die. That's six Infinity Stones, not just one,"

◾◾◾

It had taken two entire days of non stop work for both Rocket and Audelia to finish the platform, with Audelia running on 48 hours worth of coffee, but the pair had finally done it. Now, it was Clint's turn to give it the very first, and only (thanks to Scott), test run.

Audelia tried to hold in her yawn as she leaned into Tony's side, trying to keep herself awake after all that she had just been through. Tony held her close, tapping his foot nervously as everyone stood around the platform, nervous as to what might happen in the next few moments.

"Alright Clint," Bruce called out as Deli tried not to look at him, focusing on Clint instead. His new...form was taking some getting used to. "We're going in three, two, one..."

There was a flash as everyone held their breaths, Clint disappearing into thin air. Audelia brought her nails to her lips, chewing on them nervously as Bruce gave it a few moments, time working different in the present and where Clint was sent back to his home.

"Bringing him back in five, four, three, two, one..."

With another flash, Clint reappeared on the platform, dropping down to his knees immediately as Natasha rushed to his side, checking him over and bringing him back up to his feet. The team rushed up onto the platform right behind her.

"Look at me, you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Clint looked down at his hand, tossing what was in it to Tony as he caught it. "It worked."

Tony let out a small victory cheer as Audelia let out a laugh of disbelief, seeing Clint's son's baseball mitt sitting in Tony's hands. She looked up at him, the pair sharing a smile that spoke millions of words they couldn't form themselves.

It worked.

◾◾◾

HERE WE GO