better than your dreams//tony stark

♡thirty three♡

"As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

John Green

The next thing I know I'm back on the platform at the avenger's compound. We all stand around looking at one another.

"Did we get them all?" Bruce asks.

Rhodey smiles in disbelief. "You telling me this'll actually work?"

Looking around again I realize someone is missing.

"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce asks.

The silence from Clint tells me all I need to know. The mission was a success but at a dire cost. I try to hold back my tears. Bruce falls to his knees and pounds the floor in grief.

Tony, Steve, Thor, Clint, Bruce, and I mourn our fallen teammate and friend outside by the lake.

"Do we know if she had family?" Tony asks.

"Yeah. Us," I tell him.

Thor looks confused. "What?"

"I just asked him a question," Tony states.

"Yeah, you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones, we can bring her back, isn't that right?" Thor gets angry. "So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together."

Clint shakes his head. "We can't get her back."

Thor looks at him in shock. "Wha... what?"

"It can't be undone. It can't," Clint explains.

Thor laughs dryly. "I'm sorry. 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?"

Clint looks at Thor. "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," Thor starts.

Clint cuts him off, "It can't... be undone. Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say." Clint starts to shout, "Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay? GO GRAB YOUR HAMMER, AND YOU GO FLY AND TALK TO HIM!" Clint's anger is quickly replaced with grief. "It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it."

In a burst of anger, Bruce grabs a bench and hurls it clear across the lake. His anger spent, he turns to us with a resigned look on his face. "She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to."

Steve stands up with his hands clenched into fists. "We will."

Bruce, Tony, and I quickly get to work on crafting an Infinity Gauntlet of our own. We need something that will give the wearer the ability to wield the stones. I watch as Tony carefully places the stones in the gauntlet we made. With nervous precision, Tony manipulates the machine and carefully places all six stones into the gauntlet.

"Boom!" Rocket shouts.

Tony, Bruce, and I jump a bit, and quickly groan at Rocket's joke.

Once it is done we all stand around it, knowing this is the moment we've hoped for for five years.

"All right. The glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?" Rocket says.

Thor steps forward. "I'll do it."

Scott looks at him confused. "Excuse me?"

"It's okay," Thor says as he walks toward the Gauntlet.

"No, no, no, whoa. Stop. Stop. Wait a sec. Hey, hey," everyone calls after him.