"Are you even hearing yourself right now? This is why we believe you're fully competent for this initiative. Whatever you've gone through has been training you for these moments. You don't ever stop fighting, there's always another threat. A threat...
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Thor and I weren't much help in the next few hours. The best we could do was to stay out of Tony, Bruce and Rocket's way as we stood in the back of the lab, watching as they made a gauntlet that was strong enough to hold all six infinity stones, just like the uru metal one did.
It wasn't easy, sitting there, just watching, without being preoccupied with anything. It made me restless and my mind only thought of our loss. The emptiness I felt was horrid. It was a gnawing and aching pain in my chest that I just wanted to be gone.
I missed Natasha, a lot. We all did. But we couldn't give up, not when we can make her sacrifice worth it. She cannot die in vain.
I was glad to have Thor, though. His emotions by the lake were most definitely riled from seeing his mother again, something he nor I had really anticipated. He was strong through, stronger than I would have been if I had gotten the chance to speak to my own father. And I was proud of him for that, keeping himself steady.
Despite all of that, he found it in himself to not cave inwards and comforted me in the bathroom after we returned from the lake. He let me cry on his shoulder, holding me close to him and rubbing my back rhythmically as the tears streaming from my eyes, wetting his sweatshirt. Even though he too felt Natasha's lost, he was there for me and that made me love him even more, if that was possible.
We stood at the back of the lab, watching as Tony and Rocket administrated the final touches on the new gauntlet that looked like it came from Tony's suit. The room was heavy as we knew what the next steps were. The Snap. The journey was easier than the end action after all.
"The end is so close. It's right in front of us." I murmured, leaning back onto the glass wall beside Thor.
"It is," he nodded. "We've fought so hard for this. Been through a lot."
"And it'll be worth it. We'll have rewritten our wrongs. Fixed our mistakes."
"Do you think things will be different?" I asked, glancing at him through the corner of my eye, only to find him already looking at me. I smiled small when I realised, him turning up the corners of his mouth sadly.
"I don't know," he shrugged, sighing. "I mean, I guess they will be. The village will be packed so we'll have a lot to deal with there. Olympus will have returned, the Twelve.
"Along with all the monsters," I added through my teeth, already knowing that I'll have to spend far more time on Olympus.
"Things will be different," he nodded, tilting his head to better look at me.
"But we've fought different before," I said quietly, almost whispering in confidence between the two of us.
"And survived." Thor reached out to grab my hand, threading his fingers through mine. "And so we'll survive again."
