Eagle (A Loki love story)

Chapter 165

She'd sacrificed herself for the stone, he said. It had been the only way, according to the gatekeeper. Stonekeeper. Whatever. We had the stone, but the price of her life was almost too high. This was why Dreyma had needed to go to the cabin. Perhaps the return of her mother would soften the blow, but I doubted it. What surprised me the most was how upset I was about her demise. Whether she'd believed it or not, she had a way with people and words, since I'd gotten to know her. She was the one who had kept the team alive. Without her, I had serious doubts that Steve would have helped out as much as he had. Our holidays would certainly have had lower attendance from the start. She'd been with the team since the start and meant so much to all of us. Now that she was gone, and with no body to bury, I almost didn't believe it. I couldn't. Not until her sacrifice was made worth it.

But right now, we weren't working on getting the stones put into a new gauntlet. Those from the original team were taking some time for her, outside on the dock. We all needed a break. If my visit to the past was any indication, it had been a taxing day for all of us.

"Do we know if she had family?" Tony was the first to speak after several minutes of silence.

"Yeah, us." Thor was the only one not beholden to grief at the moment, and surveyed all of us with his hands on his hips.

"What?" Tony finally lost it with his judgemental stares, "Huh?"

"What are you–"

"I just asked you a question."

"Yeah, no. You're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right?" No one contradicted him, and I knew where he was going, but it didn't seem to be that simple, "As long as we have the stones, we can bring her back. Isn't that right? So stop this shit." He was growling now, "We're the Avengers. Get it together."

"We can't get her back." Those were the first words Clint had uttered since he explained what happened.

"What? Wh-wha–"

"It can't...be undone. It can't." Thor made things so much worse by laughing.

"Look, I'm sorry. No, no offense, but you're a very Earth-ly being and-and we're talking about space magic, and that seems very different, don't you think–?"

"Yeah look, I know that I'm way outside my-my paygrade here, but she still isn't here, is she?"

"No, that's my point."

"It can't be undone." He repeated once more, "Or that's at least what the red floaty guy had to say! Maybe you wanna go talk to him?" His voice was rising steadily, "You grab your hammer, and you go fly and you talk to him!" Thor had no response for the outburst, and neither did the rest of us.
"It was supposed to be me." Clint went on, "She sacrificed her life for the goddamned stone. She bet her life on it–" Bruce made almost everyone jump when he suddenly picked up an unoccupied bench and hurled it into the lake.

"She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to." He sounded like he was inches from losing it completely, and the rest of us weren't any better.

"We will." Steve said, with no waver in his tone. The grief had hardened into grim determination. Not just for Natasha, but for Bucky. And in me, for Mira. Both of us turned to face Tony, who in turn looked over his shoulder at the lake. His attempt at humor didn't go very far with me, but it seemed to help Bruce and Steve.

"Oh, you're looking at me? Yeah, yeah. I'll find Rocket and we'll get to work." He swaggered off the dock.

"Right behind you." Bruce followed in a much less enthusiastic gait.