Natasha tried to take a step forward, but that only resulted in her falling to her knees and clutching at her heart. She didn't know when she began to cry, but that was the only sound that followed the silence of stunned understanding. Her deep, heartbroken wails echoed throughout the room as Tony stumbled off the platform. Steve didn't know who to comfort first, but seeing Clint kneel down and wrap an arm around Natasha, followed after Tony. The man was fast, Steve gave him that, but the path of destruction that he left behind was easy enough to show where he ended up. He  stepped around a broken picture frame that had been knocked off the wall and winced at the sound of more things being smashed behind the door he stopped in front of.

Nyla's room.

He slowly pushed it open to see Tony standing over the desk in the corner of the room, clutching something in his hand with a shattered lamp on the ground. Before he could ask what it was, Tony stuffed it in his pocket.

"Tell me this isn't real," He looked at Steve, pleading with his eyes for his friend to give him an answer.

"Tony..."

He shook his head.

"Don't."

"I don't know what you want me to tell you, Tony," Steve said softly.

"Tell me she's alive. Tell me my sister isn't gone. Give me somethin', Cap."

Steve's heart ached for him and his silence was more words than Tony needed. The distant sound of which both men could hear the sobs of their beloved friend was what snapped him out of his shock. Tony didn't know how to accept something he refused to believe. For a moment, he believed that none of it was true. That Nyla would come rushing through the door with a big smile on her face. That everything was the way they all intended it to be with everyone together as the family they'd fought for.

But, she was gone. She was gone. He found himself muttering the words under his breath as if it was a mantra.

Gone.
Gone.
Gone.

He hadn't said a word to her before they left to their different time zones.

He hadn't gotten the chance to tell her that he loved her.

He thought she was going to come back.

She was supposed to come back.

Steve moved to put an arm over his shoulders and Tony shifted, fisting his hand in the back of Steve's shirt and pulling him in, holding on tight. They hugged instead. It was all the words of comfort either of them could possibly say, but it was enough. Together, they cried, sharing each other's pain through the close embrace of friends.

—————

"I can't."

Clint sighed, rubbing a cloth over the the head of one of his arrows to clean off the rust colored blood staining its steel tip. Natasha was sitting next to him in Fury's office with a crazed look on her face. He didn't blame her. Who was ever ready to become a mother at the drop of a hat? Except it really wasn't a drop of a hat. More like a bomb. And this was a big one.

"Nat, you're perfectly capable—"
"I didn't say I wasn't."

She gave him a teasing smirk that faded as fast as it had come.

"I don't know if I should," she admitted softly, "this was a mission I failed and decided to make right. I didn't think...it never occurred to me that I might have to take care of her."

Clint studied her for a moment before putting aside his arrows and taking her hand, leading her to the corner of the room where the baby's crib was.

They both stared at the slumbering child. Her curls spilled over the pillow like strands of dark chocolate, her cheeks a cotton candy pink and her little, plump lips the color of strawberries.

"The kid needs somebody, Nat. She needs you," Clint said quietly, squeezing her hand to emphasize his point. She didn't respond. All she could do was stare as the toddler's chest fell and rose with steady sleep. Could she do it? Could she become a mother?

To a child that had lost everything?
No. Not everything.

But, maybe she could be the one to give her the life that had been taken from her. To give the child love, to nurture her, to care for her and be around as much as possible for her. How when she knew not a thing about kids? As if reading her mind, Clint turned to her with a half smile on his face, already knowing that his best friend couldn't turn down the child even if she wanted to.

"I'll help you."

She returned his grin with an appreciative hug, never taking her eyes off of Sefina.

Sefina.

"Nyla-Rose," Natasha whispered softly to herself. The toddler's mouth opened in a little "O" before her eyes fluttered to reveal glittering brown eyes that stared at Nat in half asleep curiosity.

"I'll take care of you now, little one."

—————

She had nothing. Natasha Romanoff truly had nothing to live for anymore. The actual and very spirited assassin part of her argued against the point. She had the others. The team. Her family. But, what that part of her could not disagree with was the larger part that had been shaped over the years, that had been softened by motherhood yet strengthened by the value of emotion. It was the fact that the person she cherished most, the person she would give her life for if any situation called for such was gone. What killed her, what absolutely shredded her heart to pieces was that she had the chance. The window to save everyone along with her daughter. And she'd failed once again. She lay in her room that night after gathering with the others at the river. That was the first time she'd ever seen Tony cry and he did so shamelessly as Thor and Clint argued over the dynamics of the Soul Stone.

"It can't be undone," Clint had growled and although Thor was adamant of the possibility that something, anything could be done, Natasha had only slumped in defeat, Steve holding her hand while Bruce gazed dejectedly at the river. Now, she was staring at the ceiling, thinking of nothing. This was what she was made for. To suppress such overbearing emotions in order to prevent jeopardizing her mental state. A sharp knock at her door did nothing to rouse her and after a long silence, it swung open. Clint hurried over to her side and dropped down to kneel beside her bed as she rolled her head to look at him.

"Hey, Nat," he said softly.

She only smiled, a trembling action that made it hard for him to breathe. He couldn't stand seeing his best friend look like this.

"Tony them fixed it up. The stones."

She nodded, ignoring the leak of tears that started at the corner of her eyes.

"That's good," she whispered.

"I need you to come with me. I want you to be there. We all do."

Her eyes glazed over before she snapped to her senses and slowly sat up. Clint could see the weariness in her body, the exhaustion that an overwhelming amount of pain could do to someone. He removed himself from the room, giving her time to get properly dressed, and let out a sigh.

Natasha Romanoff was one of the strongest people he knew and he couldn't bear seeing her so broken.

She stared at herself in the mirror as she slipped a cuff on her wrist, one of the many weapons that were part of her uniform. Natasha's eyes were partially swollen and she sniffed, wiping away a stray tear that managed to escape down her cheek.
When she finally reached the common room where everyone stood silently waiting for her, expressions ranging from sympathy to sadness, she kept her eyes focused on Tony who looked as bad as she did with the weariness of crying through the night. She felt no greater guilt than keeping the fact that Nyla-Rose was his younger sister from him for almost 19 years, but as she stood by his side, he nodded once. His way of telling her that everything would be okay. That she was forgiven. She could see the sorrow that gripped her heart mirrored in his own eyes before he looked at the others, determination covering his pain.

"You remember...everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. Don't..." he cleared his throat and squeezed his eyes shut, "don't change anything from the last five years."

Don't bring her back.

Bruce nodded.

"Got it."

Tony's face plate slid shut and he conjured a holographic shield in place to cover both Clint and Natasha. She took a deep breath when she felt Tony take her hand. It was strange to hold a part of his suit, but she was glad for the comfort as everyone else suited up for their own protection.

"Everybody comes home," Bruce said, staring at the gauntlet.

Nat shook her head and whispered so only she, Tony and Clint could hear:

"Not everyone."

SNAP!

"Nat! Nat!"

Her ears were ringing and when she opened her eyes, Natasha had no idea what she was looking at. Large pieces of cement blocks all wedged together to form a sanctuary over her and she could feel an overwhelming soreness prickling all over her body.

"Natasha!"

"Clint?"

He hurried over to her side and carefully helped her to her feet. She winced and rolled her neck, taking in her surroundings.

"What happened?"

"Bruce did the dang thing," he held up the gauntlet tucked under his arm, "and then the Compound fell apart. Come on, we have to go. The others could be trapped in here, too."

"This isn't good."

It was the last thing she'd seen before being knocked unconscious by loose debris. Bruce snapping his fingers just the way Thanos had to place them in this mess in the first place. She shook away the thought as she followed Clint down the circular tunnel, water dripping like a storm in her ears as their feet scratched against the gravel. A strange sound made them both pause.

"What the hell?" Natasha squinted, looking down the tunnel where the shadows flickered weirdly. "Nat...," Clint handed her the gauntlet, "run." He nocked his bow with a flare arrow, concentrating on the shadows.

"What is it?" She demanded.

Without answering, he let the arrow fly. The light briefly revealed what Natasha never thought she'd see again. Twisted, horrible monsters with various limbs and rotting flesh of what species she didn't know.

Outriders.

"Go!"

In one quick move, she shot a line from her wrist cuff through the jagged hole in the ceiling and propelled herself upwards, grabbing Clint by the neck of his coat and yanking him after her. He rolled off to one side and knelt near the hole to nock another arrow and wait as the rumbling and growling of the Outriders got closer.

BOOM!

"Those things were hideous," Clint groaned, falling onto his back near Natasha's legs.

"You're telling me. I got them up close and personal. Come on, let's get moving." Natasha climbed to her feet with the gauntlet in her arms when a familiar blue face rounded the corner.

"Nebula," she said, relieved. "Here."

She handed the gauntlet off and helped Clint to his feet.

"Father...I have the stones."

"What?!"

—————

"Clint..."
"I know."

After a moment of confusion between Present Nebula, 2014 Nebula and a green skinned woman by the name of Gamora who happened to be Nebula's sister, Natasha and Clint had managed to make their way out of the wreck that used to be the Compound.

Now, across the field of rubble and disaster with dust thick in the air, they'd made it out just in time to see Steve slowly drag himself to his feet. Tony and Thor were a few yards away, both beaten into unconsciousness by the very villain that had been beheaded by Stormbreaker. Time is not to be played with and the evidence before them displayed perfectly clear why.

Thanos himself stood waiting with an expression bordering on surprise as Steve straightened. Her heart felt as cracked as his shield, but even from where she stood she could see the same old Steve Rogers he'd always been. Even after years on the run, even after being so close to giving up the thought of everyone coming home.

I can do this all day.

Thousands upon thousands of those same monsters that had been in the tunnel gathered as a grim Thanos summoned them from across a large trench in the wreckage, the troops of Hell. The assassins could only watch in horror as they surged forward eagerly, only to be held back by the invisible force that was Thanos's command.

Could it be all for nothing?
And then...

A spark.
A spark of yellow.

A spark of hope.

"Holy..."

It was hard to describe the overwhelming joy that Natasha felt to see Okoye step out of the golden circle that had appeared with King T'Challa and Shuri beside her. Even more so for she and Clint as the undeniable silver and red of Sam Wilson's wings swooped through the air. In just a matter of seconds, they were both rendered speechless by the sight.

A force to truly be reckoned with as warriors of all kind, whether they were of Earth or not, gathered behind Steve. It wasn't until he held out his hand that Clint said anything.

"What is he—"

SWOOSH!

"No...No!"

"Someone owes me my 20 bucks back."

"Fine," Clint grumbled, "but when this is all over, okay? I didn't exactly come prepared to show Big and Tall my driver's license."

"Come on, Barton. The show's about to start."

Despite everything, the familiar thrill of running headlong into a battle with a friend by her side gave Natasha an energy she'd went long without, but embraced nevertheless.

Thanos was the reason they were all there.
And that was all the reason she needed.

"AVENGERS!"

"Let's kick some ass."
"After you."

"Assemble."