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chapter five
WHATEVER IT TAKES
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THE WORLD IS DARK. It's different from the gentle shade of a tree or what one sees a few seconds after turning the lights off in a small room. This darkness is whole, unyielding in its utter blackness. Nothing is visible because nothing exists.

Seconds pass, or minutes, or years. Lena isn't sure how long she stays floating in this world of darkness before it begins to warm again. The space behind her eyelids turns orange from the sunlight shining above her. She becomes distantly aware of the feeling of grass beneath her fingertips, which is strange because she doesn't remember lying down. The last thing she recalls is Bruce's face before—

She blinks her eyes open to reveal treetops above her. The leaves rustle gently in the slight breeze, the epitome of serenity, just as she remembers it being. Sunlight peeks through the canopy above her. It's warm on her face, which she realizes with a start doesn't hurt anymore. There's no burning scratch down her cheek and no ache deep in her bones. Her hand travels upward to graze her fingers over her neck, which had been gripped in the hand of Thanos himself. It doesn't hurt anymore, though she swears she remembers it swelling.

Lena sits up and examines the peaceful forest in Wakanda. It's quiet— silent, even, which is strange.

"Never mind," she says, voice not as strangled-sounding as it had been before. "I guess nothing's wrong. Guys?"

The sound of grass crunching underfoot causes her to turn toward the noise. To her surprise, a very much stable and tangible Bucky Barnes is walking toward her, eyebrows drawn in. He looks just as perplexed as she does as he holds out his metal hand to help her up. Lena takes it, allowing him to pull her up with ease and feel the biting cold of the metal as his fingers clasp around hers.

The sensation brings her into reality. She turns around, searching the small clearing for any sign of Thor, Steve, or Bruce, but it's like they've vanished.

"Hello?" Bucky calls out to the seemingly empty forest. "Guys?"

Only the breeze that rifles their hair answers. Lena's eyes scan the tree trunks for any sign of movement, but the utter stillness of the woods has her heart pounding in her ears within seconds.

"Barnes?"

T'Challa's voice calls out from behind them. Lena's knees go weak at the sound of it, a large chunk of worry washing away. If he's here, something must have gone right—  she's sure of it.

Lena realizes she's clenching onto Bucky's metal arm with an iron grip and sheepishly releases him even though she knows he can't feel the pressure. She simultaneously turns around to find the King of Wakanda walking toward them, Black Panther suit still on but without the mask, revealing the unease pinching his handsome features. Although his confusion should make her feel worse, it only makes her relieved to see that she and Bucky aren't the only ones who seem completely lost.

"Have you seen Steve?" the soldier beside her questions. T'Challa shakes his head, making Bucky's shoulders deflate a fraction.

"I don't get it," Lena mumbles. "Did I pass out? Mr. Barnes, I saw you turn to dust and then..."

She trails off, scrunching her eyebrows. Maybe it was a hallucination— a mere product of her stress. Maybe, when Thanos has thrown her, she'd hit her head a lot harder than she'd thought. But it still doesn't explain where her scratches have gone and why she isn't as sore as she was before.

Lena turns to see Sam walking slowly toward them from out of a denser portion of woods. He's followed by the bewildered tree-man, who's actually kind of adorable now that she sees him up close. He's up to Lena's chest in height, with wide, black eyes that peer at each of them in alarm.

"I am Groot?" he asks in a raspy voice. Lena tilts her head in uncertainty at his question.

"That's all he says, I think," Sam explains half-exasperatedly, leading her to believe that he'd tried to have a conversation with this 'Groot' and hadn't succeeded. "What's going on?"

Wanda emerges from the forest next. Her shoulders are hunched, red-rimmed eyes cast downward toward her feet. Her accent seems stronger when she inhales a shaking breath and reports, "Vis' body is gone."

"What the hell..." Bucky trails off, fingers clenching into a fist at his side.

"We should get to the palace," T'Challa suggests. "Maybe we can find some answers there."

It's a slow walk across the dome— they're still positioned near Shuri's lab, which is at least a mile or two away from the castle itself. It gives Lena time to examine the capital city up close. As soon as they break through the trees, the skyscrapers become visible and nearly penetrate the few clouds that pepper the azure sky. She takes another step forward, but realizes that nobody else had moved and quickly stops in her tracks.

One of the King's Guard members patrolling Shuri's lab has taken notice of them. It wouldn't be an unusual sight had he not frozen upon seeing them, eyes going wide as golf balls. He blinks hard as if expecting them to vanish before his eyes.

"My king?" he questions hesitantly.

"Obasi," T'Challa greets in response, taking a step toward the man. "What happened after the invasion?"

The guard momentarily struggles for words. It's strange to see him like this; she remembers the King's Guard being composed and distant when she'd arrived in the quinjet. Nothing about this man seems to be that way.

"Your Majesty... that was five years ago."

Lena feels like her chest has been stomped on, restricting her lungs until they can't take in any more air. She takes a step back into Sam at the impact of his words. The man puts a hand on her arm to steady her, but one quick glance at his face tells her that he feels the same way on the inside.

Five years. Five years? Looking up at the Avengers around her, they don't appear to be any older than they had been during the battle. How could it have been five years ago?

Maybe Obasi is joking. Maybe it's only been a day or two. But as it truly settles in, Lena realizes that the King's Guard would never lie to their king about something as heavy as this, and if they had been lying in the forest for so long, surely someone would have discovered them.

T'Challa swallows thickly. Any emotions he has about this are stuffed down, his tight shoulders the only indication of how difficult it is to do so. "Who..."

"Your mother has been ruling in your place," Obasi informs him. "We have been sure of your eventual return, and now we have been blessed with it." He pauses, nodding at T'Challa. "You should visit her. Losing both of her children has taken its toll."

Both? Lena flickers her gaze back to the king to see him stiffen until his back is straight as a rod, as if someone is holding him together by a string and had pulled it taut. However, he still doesn't break down. He merely gives a nod of thanks to the warrior before turning back toward the group behind him. His eyes are a whirlwind of emotions that are too densely compacted for her to individually determine, but what he's hiding the most is his pain.

As if something had clicked, he orders, "Stay here," and takes off running back toward Shuri's lab.

Of course— that was the last place she'd been seen. If they had materialized where they'd been at the moment of the snap, then surely she would do the same.

"Five years," Sam whispers under his breath. Lena is close enough to pick up on it, though, and swallows painfully through the lump in her throat. She doesn't want to dwell on what that means. Not yet.

She jumps, instinctively throwing a force field around their clustered group when orange sparks appear in her peripheral vision. Something about the formation of them tickles her memory. The sparks start as a mere swirl in the air, then grow into a larger circle until a man appears behind it. His skin is pale, long face accented with a beard that lines his oval-shaped jawline. A mysterious red cape floats behind him.

Sparks. Red cape. Is this the wizard with the necklace from the park?

"We don't have much time," the wizard says before any of them can speak. Not bothering to elaborate, he simply follows up with, "Ten minutes. Get ready."

He's gone. Lena blinks, waiting a beat before absorbing the force field back into herself.

"What... the hell?" Bucky questions, which pretty much sums up her thoughts.

"Um, he's a wizard or something," Lena haphazardly explains with the little information Tony had given her about the man. "One of the aliens that landed on Earth was trying to kill him for a necklace, so I think he had one of the Infinity Stones."

Bucky nods, looking not at all less confused. "Great."

The girl lurches forward in realization. The wizard had gone up in that spaceship with Peter, closely followed by Tony. Could they have been there with him? She squeezes her eyes shut in an attempt to recall what had been behind the wizard. However, the man had been careful to reveal only his face. And his warning about not having time...

Footsteps make them all turn around toward the sound. Lena recognizes Okoye immediately— the general has not changed in the supposed five years since she's last seen the woman. Her head is still shaved, lined with sharp tattoos that nearly disappear in the glare of the sun. Her eyebrows are drawn in at the sight of them. The closer she walks, the more hesitant her steps turn, as if she's worried they're a figment of her imagination.

She stops several feet away, scanning her brown-eyed gaze over them in search of her king. When she opens her mouth to ask about him, the door to Shuri's lab opens, revealing the royal siblings. Okoye makes a barely-restrained noise of surprise in the back of her throat.

"Okoye," T'Challa greets once he's near, releasing his grip on Shuri to clasp his general on the shoulder. "I told you it was no place to die."

Okoye makes a sound that could be a laugh, scoff, or sob. She rolls her eyes even though something tells Lena that it could be more for show than anything. It's evident in her small smile that she's relieved about the reappearance of her friends.

"A man with a cape opened a portal and said we have less than ten minutes," Sam informs the king. "For what, we're not sure."

More sparks appear. They all watch as the wizard reappears, again only making the circle big enough to show them his face. Lena almost doesn't catch his words because of how hard she's squinting at what's behind him.

"Sorry, I guess I should have explained. The Avengers compound just blew up. Thanos has returned for the Infinity Stones."

"But — he already has —" Wanda stammers, stumbling over her words in her perplexity.

The wizard closes his blue eyes. "I can't tell you much. Just that he's fully capable of using them again, and he will if you aren't ready."

T'Challa turns sharply to Okoye as the circle closes once more. "Rally the Dora Milaje, Border Tribe, and King's Guard— if we are back, then they must be, as well. We must give them everything we've got. Visiting my mother will have to wait."

"I am Groot," Groot spits from where he stands at Lena's hip.

She pats him on the head even though she has no idea what he just said. "We'll get him this time, buddy."

"I can grab my blasters from my lab," Shuri adds as Okoye begins firing orders from her comm. T'Challa gives his sister a small nod that has her taking off like a rocket back toward the towering building behind them.

Lena swallows, hands clammy at the thought of facing Thanos again. But he doesn't have the stones this time— the wizard had said he's returning to acquire them again. Does this mean the remaining Avengers had taken them back?

An ache blossoms in her head with how muddled she is, but she forces her mind off of the pain and rallies her courage. She can fight a stone-less Thanos. He's only, what, eight feet tall and has limbs the size of tree trunks? It'll be a piece of cake.

A few moments later, Shuri returns with mechanical contraptions on both arms. They span from her hands to just below her elbows, charged with some sort of material that makes them glow. Lena is reminded of her gauntlets. Though Shuri's are wider and likely heavier, they likely both serve the same purpose: to shoot power from them.

"All defenses gathering," Okoye announces, rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck as she joins T'Challa and Shuri. "Are you sure you are ready to do this?"

"Of course," T'Challa says with a faint smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

"Wake up from one fight just to go right back into another," Bucky sighs as he loads his rifle.

The king turns to their small group and scans them thoughtfully. "Barnes, Wanda, and Groot, head to the Southern Border with the Jabari Tribe. Lena and Sam, come with us back to Northwest Section Seventeen— the Dora Milaje and King's Guard will meet us there."

Wanda nods and forms red-tinted outlines around Bucky and Groot. The super soldier barely has time to let out a surprised yelp as he shoots into the air with her help, rocketing the three of them toward the Southernmost part of the dome.

Sam turns to Lena hopefully. The teenager scoffs and shakes her head. "Sorry, no. I can't carry you all. We have to walk there."

By the time they reach the field, the Wakandan army is already gathering. It looks pretty much the same as it had before, only now without the presence of alien pods outside of the force field. The grass has returned to its lush, green state, absent of ditches and scorch marks from Thor's arrival. Even the sun is shining as if it cannot sense the battle about to be fought. Lena chooses to take this as a good sign.

The royal siblings and Okoye take their place at the very front of the neatly-dispersed army. Sam and Lena hang back, the former with his jaw clenched and the latter bouncing on the balls of her feet.

She meant what she said to Groot. They'll get him this time.

Sam presses his finger to the comm in his ear, taking a deep breath before speaking into it. "Cap, do you read me?" A beat of anxious silence. "Cap, it's Sam, can you hear me?" Anseries of sparks form in front of where T'Challa, Okoye, and Shuri stand in a perfect line. Lena's heartbeat booms in her ears as a smirk lifts Sam's lips. "On your left."

He steps away and extends the wings on his back until their red color catches the light of the sun on their ends. Lena tears her gaze away to watch T'Challa, Okoye, and Shuri disappear through the portal. She can see nothing through it but absolute devastation. It's so much darker near the compound than it is in Wakanda, making her heart sink as she recalls the beautiful landscape and atmosphere that she'd fangirled over upon her arrival with Bruce.

But she can see Steve, too. His figure is faint but clearly visible — she'd know those broad shoulders and tiny waist anywhere. He turns toward the trio as they slowly walk closer to him, taking their time in their arrival. It seems the wizard had chosen the perfect time for them to show up— there doesn't seem to be an ongoing attack right now, as if the battle had paused for them.

Sam takes to the skies and flies through the orange-rimmed portal. Lena inhales deeply, her hands trembling with nerves as she raises her chin and curls her fingers into fists at her sides. Thanos had taken five years away from her. Years that she should have spent graduating high school, getting into college, and spending time with her family. He deserves to be squashed underfoot.

She squares her shoulders before taking confident steps through the circle and emerging on the other side. The air is thick with dust and debris from the recent collapse of the compound. It's so dark and gloomy that the sky is thick with plumes of smoke and menacing clouds, obscuring any glimpse of sunlight. The ground is uneven from the amount of rubble covering it, the previously immaculate lawn invisible under the chunks of concrete that she has to step over in order to reach her companions.

Lena stops beside Shuri, who gives her a small grin of encouragement that the taller girl returns.

Then, her brown eyes move to Steve's blue ones. His face is covered in soot, dirt, and blood until she can hardly see his normal skin tone beneath it. His body is taut from pain or exhaustion or both. She notices with a roll of her stomach that the shield in his right hand is cracked in half down the middle, which she hadn't even known was possible.

She lifts her lips in a half-smile that he copies, somewhat bewildered at their abrupt appearance.

T'Challa fires up his war chant that the armies gathered behind him repeat in a furious roar as they march through the widening circle. When Lena looks to her right, she catches sight of endless amounts of people pouring from more portals than she could ever imagine seeing at once. Some of them she recognizes— the Asgardians marked by their distinct Norse-era armor, the other wizard from the park standing in a cluster of people like him, but others are complete strangers. A majestic woman riding in on a blindingly white pegasus. A man who flies in on jet-powered shoes and wears a red-eyed mask.

Just as she thinks there can't be any more people joining them, a deafening blast causes her to jump and turn toward a half-wrecked building of the compound. A man so tall that she wonders if his head will touch the clouds emerges with his arms flailing. He regains his balance and extends his hand toward the ground, opening his palm to reveal the Hulk, the raccoon with a new gun, and James Rhodes, who hop down to the rubble.

It fills her with complete disbelief, churning her gut with nerves and excitement for battle. All of these people have been affected by Thanos in some way— whether through losing loved ones or being snapped away themselves. There is vengeance in the eyes of everyone she looks at. Their weapons are drawn, faces alight with bloodlust.

Steve retreats further from the army gathered across the destruction to join his reinforcements. She finally notices the unmistakable red and gold of the Iron Man suit beside him and nearly cries out. If only she could squeeze through the crowd and get to him—

But she knows that's impossible. Now is not the time for a reunion, not when Steve has finally turned back toward where Thanos waits for them. Lena smirks in smug satisfaction upon seeing that the purple Titan's forehead appears to have wrinkled in concern. There may even be a little fear in his eyes, which sets her veins on fire with the adrenaline she needs to fuel her through this fight.

Lena juts her arms out at her sides and focuses power into her gauntlets until they begin to emit a faint blue glow. She will not let him cast her aside like some old doll again.

"Avengers!" Steve cries, sticking out his arm as if waiting for something to return to it. Lena's heart lurches when Thor's hammer sails toward him, landing firmly in his hand like it belongs there. The captain's voice turns deep as he orders, "Assemble."

Thor releases a war cry that T'Challa echoes, covering his face with the Black Panther mask as he begins to charge. Lena launches herself into the air until the armies below her are pint-sized. She covers her face with a small shield of energy to keep the smog from entering her lungs, able to move even faster now that she doesn't have to squint.

She's dimly aware of Sam circling around to strike Thanos' alien army from its weakest points in the back. The jets of two Iron Man suits roar in her ears. Switching her focus to herself, she decides to hit the foot soldiers from the middle. Those on the ground can take care of the front lines.

Lena halts and releases the pent-up energy stored at her wrists, melting through a group of foreign soldiers before they see her coming. She's careful to form a full force field around herself this time. Her battle in Wakanda had taught her that the hard way, having been knocked out of the sky not once, but twice.

She focuses her power into a line and streams white-hot energy at the ground, incinerating a line of foot soldiers until nothing but molten flesh and pools of metal armor mix with the dirt. The stench of burnt skin rises in the air and makes her scrunch her nose in disgust.

A mechanical roar causes her to look up, wishing she had done so sooner. What she sees chills her to the bone. An alien larger than a humpback whale is charging for her, swimming through the air as if it's water. Its jaw opens wide enough to swallow her, revealing several rows of sharpened teeth that show her exactly what would happen to her if she got caught in that gaping maw.

She darts upward so the tip of its nose rams into her force field, not harming her physically but the force of it causing her to tumble away in mid-air as if it had poked an impenetrable bubble. Lena's limbs flail wildly as she struggles to discern ground from sky— they're both so colorless that it's nearly impossible to tell.

Lena cries out as the beast's underbelly slams into her, sending her hurtling faster toward the ground. Her stomach rises into her throat and then comes crashing back down the instant she strikes the chunks of concrete. Luckily, her force field had held until she'd landed. Unluckily, it breaks along with her concentration as she rolls off the edge of a broken wall. An agonized groan escapes her lips from the glaring ache in her ribs.

"Oh my God," a familiar voice gasps, sending her heart racing again until it trips to keep up with itself. "Lee, are you okay?"

Hands grasp onto her arms to help her up. Vertigo causes her vision to swirl, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut until her feet are safely underneath her and she's still again. Her abdomen already hurts enough that she has to lean heavily on the person holding her. When she's sure she won't collapse, she cracks her eyes open to reveal the concerned face of Peter Parker staring at her.

The sight of him, whole and utterly alive, knocks the air from her chest. She gapes at him in response to his question of her wellbeing. He lifts his lips in a grin of confusion at her silence, for once not blushing at their close proximity. His brunet hair is tousled and windswept. There's not a scratch on his pale face. In fact, he almost seems to be glowing.

Lena blinks and forms a bubble around them so that no incoming attacks can bother them. She needs to let her brain process this reunion, as well as have this moment — this one moment — to themselves.

Her voice finally comes to her. Lena can choke out nothing but a strangled cry of, "Peter," before she slams herself into him in a full-force hug that would have knocked any normal man off of his feet. But Peter merely catches her and embraces her just as tightly. The hug conveys all that she needs to know: he's been just as worried about her as she's been about him. She can tell in the way his slightly trembling fingers clench around the back of her silver suit, and from how he's holding her so firmly that it's like he's trying to press the pain of her landing away.

Lena's forehead wrinkles when she notices an unfamiliar material under her fingers. Instead of the rough fabric of the Spider-Man suit she's grown accustomed to, this one is smooth, cold, and almost feels metal to the touch. She pulls away, the tears in her eyes blurring her vision as she blinks at him. His outfit has changed completely. Gold outlines the trademark spider in the center of his chest, which is much larger than it had been before. It takes her a moment to realize that the material had felt like metal because it is metal.

"New suit?" she questions in confusion, wondering when he'd had the time to get that.

"Long story," he replies as he slides his mask back onto his face. "I think you should consider adding a helmet to your costume."

Lena rolls her eyes as she drops her grip on him entirely and glances through the shield she'd placed around them. The blue-tinted barrier still allows her to see the devastation around her, giving her a clear view of the ongoing battle. Not much has changed since she'd fallen out of the sky. Every time one of the Avengers destroys an alien, ten more charge forward and take its place. It seems like this is one fight that may never end.

"I told Mr. Stark I would find you," Peter informs her, slipping his grip from her arms to her hand, taking it gently. "He's looking for you."

She allows him to tug her along, shooting webs onto half-crumbled walls and structures as she uses a boost of energy behind her to keep up with his pace. Everything is a blur. She can barely discern friend from foe, colors mixing in with each other until everything looks the exact same. She hasn't even seen him yet. Thanos.

"Mr. Stark!" Peter cries, causing her head to snap up so she's looking forward again.

Tony has improved his nanotechnology yet again— which is no surprise, considering it has technically been five years since he'd grounded her in Bryant Park. He's in the middle of incinerating a few aliens with repulsors that not only come out of his palms, but also from two satellites that hover beside him and blast the aliens to smithereens.

The Iron Man mask turns toward them, and although Lena can't see his facial expression from underneath it, she wonders if she's imagining that his shoulders have relaxed a fraction. The satellite repulsors amplify their rays to clear the surrounding area of Thanos' army before he fully turns to face them.

Lena lands on the ground beside Peter. The teenager steps back to allow them to have their moment, scanning the region for possible threats. She decides that now is the best time to try and explain herself.

The words come out before her brain can process them. "Mr. Stark, I am so sorry. I know you told me to stay on the ground and I totally didn't listen because I went to Wakanda and met the Black Panther and fought Thanos for like two seconds and then got snapped away by Thanos, I guess—"

She stops herself when he raises his index finger in an indication of silence. Tony's helmet disappears, revealing the already-scratched and bloodied face of a man whose battle has been going on long before they arrived. Her gut churns with anxiety at the frown on his face.

He sighs, moving his gaze from the ground to her. "You are grounded for life from everything. No vigilante stuff, no school, no coffee shops, no Graham, no Peter—"

"Hey!"

"And especially no Bruce, also known as the worst babysitter alive."

Lena is momentarily stunned up until she sees the corners of his eyes start to crinkle, and then her shoulders slump with relief at the realization that he's completely joking. A gust of air comes rushing out of her mouth— she didn't even realize she'd been holding her breath until now. Her burning chest thanks her at the cooling sensation of oxygen.

Before she knows it, he's wrapping his arms around her in a hug. Lena blinks in surprise before returning the embrace. She recalls the day he'd told her about her birth parents, when she'd flung herself into his arms and sobbed and he'd awkwardly patted her back. This is nothing like that first hug. Aside from the fact that he'd initiated this one, she can feel his arms securing her to him, which makes her wonder just how much these past five years without them had affected him.

A startled shout from Peter has them jolting back into reality. "Uh, guys, not to ruin the moment or anything, but—"

Lena releases Tony and follows Peter's gaze to see one of the flying whale-like aliens heading straight toward them with its jaw open wide. Tony snaps his mask back onto his face, but Lena steps in front of him and raises her arms so her palms are out toward the beast. Blue energy coils from them and surrounds the thing in a glowing outline. She holds it in place with jets of power on all sides, causing it to give an enraged roar at its immobility. But then that turns into a scream of pain. Even though Lena's arms are shaking with the force it takes to hold such a monster in place, she's melting through its exterior shell.

Tony speeds up the situation by surrounding it with repulsor rays, which beam down on the alien so brightly that it feels like their own personal light show. The man himself stands beside Lena, aiming the rays emitting from his palms directly into the beast's eyes.

It wriggles, her concentration waning as sweat breaks out on her hairline. Her arms ache from locking them in place like this. The barrier at Wakanda had been a struggle, but this is a completely different story. Encasing such a large thing in her power is much more difficult, especially when said thing is angry and keeps trying to swallow them whole.

Lena grits her teeth and applies more force to her energy. It melts faster, turning the exoskeleton a bright orange from the molten metal. Just as it seems like the thing will never die, a different power overtakes her own and the alien blinks out of existence. She turns, stunned, to see the Necklace Wizard and his floating cape nodding at her.

Never mind how he did that— it's one less thing she has to worry about.

Lena faces Peter, about to suggest where to move next, when his widened eyes cause her mouth to snap shut. "What?"

He blinks at her. "Have your eyes always glowed like that?"

Before she can ponder what that means, a musical car horn blares out from somewhere in the surrounding area. It's this time when she realizes her comm isn't on. Reaching up to her ear, she waves her hand over the device and brings it to life. The motion sensor comes in handy; there isn't always time to press a button.

"Scott, how long do you need to get that thing working?" Tony questions, his voice coming from both beside her and the earpiece in her ear. Her brow wrinkles. Who's Scott?

"Maybe ten minutes?" an uncertain male voice replies.

"Get it started!" Steve orders. "We'll bring the stones to you."

That's right— the stones. Thanos had come back for them, but Lena doesn't understand how, or why a van is important, or anything at all, really.

"I'll explain later," Tony says upon noticing the perplexity on both hers and Peter's faces. "For now, we have to make sure Thanos doesn't get his hands on that gauntlet again." Lena nods as he begins to rise in the air. "And don't do anything stupid!"

The eyes of Peter's mask squint as he scans their surroundings. All Lena can see with her normal, human vision is absolute chaos. Nothing looks different than it had when she'd arrived. If anything, it looks worse. The large surviving chunks of the compound have mostly been reduced to smithereens, sending more plumes of smoke rising into the densely-clouded sky. The ground is caked with blood and pieces of scrap metal and alien flesh. Her eyes sting at the acrid air and stench of battle, but no tears fall.

"There!" Lena shouts, pointing to where T'Challa is carrying a familiar glove, though this time, it seems half-destroyed. It's so large in comparison to him that he has to secure an entire arm around it just to carry it. He leaps over piles of rubble, suit becoming lined with more and more purple with every hit he takes. The kinetic energy rebounds at the aliens around him, knocking them all back.

She rises into the air along with Peter. Then they're moving, her flying as fast as she can and him swinging beside her. It's like they've never been separated— the perfect team, moving together like clockwork. The only thing that could make this better was if Graham were here as well.

A gray-skinned alien raises his hand toward the king. Rocks grab him, holding him in their clutches up to his waist. T'Challa holds the gauntlet over his head and out of their reach, thrashing in an attempt to break free.

"Lena!" he cries as she soars above him. She sticks out her arms, surrounding the gauntlet with energy as she zips it into her hands. Then, with a sly smirk, she sticks out a hand and fires a burst of power at the alien. He flies backward into a pile of rocks; the ones holding T'Challa fall apart as his concentration breaks.

Lena forms a protective bubble around herself and hugs the metal glove securely to her chest. Her heart hammers against it, eyes wild as she searches for the van. If only it had been painted neon green or something— it would be much easier to see when everything is the same color.

"I got the ground," Peter informs her, voice coming through the comm. "You have to explain to me why the King of Wakanda knows you by name."

She rolls her eyes. "I also met Thor."

"What?" His voice is a squeak as he lands on the dirt and activates spider legs from the back of his suit. They impale the aliens that swarm him, eyes of his mask turning red as he activates Instant Kill. She wonders if Karen is pleased that he'd finally used it.

Lena skids to a stop as a fiery blast detonates directly in front of her. The resulting explosion on the ground is nearly deafening, causing her ears to ring. She hovers in mid-air and glances upward at the foreign ship that covers half of the sky. For some reason, the blasters have been activated. Every second, a new blast jets downward, causing Lena to panic and zig-zag out of their way. She doesn't know if her force-field would hold if she were to get hit.

"Peter!" she cries as he flies past her with Thor's hammer attached to a web in his hand. He catches the gauntlet she'd thrown, aided by the usage of her energy. Was it a good idea to do that? She's not sure.

Her eyes squint against the blinding color of the blasts from the overhead ship. There's no distinct pattern to them, so it's pure instinct that controls her movements. Her stomach churns at her rapid changes of direction.

Lena looks up just in time to see something white strike her to the ground. She falls so suddenly and with such intense pain that it feels like she can't breathe, that her chest is constricting and she can't pull any air into her lungs. Instead of hitting the ground, however, someone snatches her out of the air. A pair of burly arms secure themselves around her waist and catch the brunt of their fall. She lands on top of them, still unable to breathe and feeling like her skin is on fire.

"Hey, hey, hey!" a familiar voice soothes her, setting her gently on the soft dirt. "You're okay."

She struggles to comprehend what she's looking at. First, she'd thought it was the Hulk, but its features are way too Bruce-like. Then again, the figure before her is eight feet tall and green, so it can't be just Bruce. It looks like... both of them?

Her chest burns, limbs locked as she tries to get air back into her lungs. Everything aches. It's so laughingly similar to their previous battle— her pain, the fact that Bruce had caught her like that yet again.

Her stomach does a violent lurch. Eyes widening, she barely has time to push herself onto her side and dry-heave onto the ground; there's nothing to empty. Her gut doesn't seem to realize that. Still reeling from dizziness, it clenches again and again until she's grasping onto her abdomen in pain.

She's gripped with the sudden realization that she's only seventeen. She doesn't have any magical healing powers, no super-strength to make this hurt any less. This battle is so much bigger than herself. She's surrounded by people who are much older and more experienced than her, and she's just a kid.

Footsteps approach them along with the sound of pebbles crunching underfoot. It's Steve's voice who asks, "Is she okay?"

"Shock and a hit from one of Thanos' firearms," Bruce explains in reply.

There's a gentle hand on her arm. Lena blinks her anxious tears away, looking up to see Steve's face pinched with concern.

He presses a hand to his earpiece. "Tony, Lena's having an attack."

"No," she says more vehemently than she'd meant to, causing both men's eyes to snap widen at her tone. She grits her teeth as she pushes herself to a sitting position. "I'm good."

"Lena, if you need to go, Pepper can take you to a safe house a mile down the road—"  Tony's voice offers, but she repeats herself again.

"No." A shuddering intake of breath. "I can do this. If I don't, who will I be?"

Bruce shrugs. "Human?"

He has a point, but still. She can't back down now. Not when everyone else is still fighting despite the fact that they're injured, not when they're close to returning the stones to Scott's van— whoever the hell Scott even is.

Seeming to see the resolve glimmering in her eyes, Steve offers her a hand. Lena is taken back to the forest in Wakanda before she'd gotten dusted by the snap. He'd done the same thing— offered her assistance when she could hardly move.

She accepts and allows him to heave her to her feet. Wobbling slightly, she places a hand on his shoulder to steady herself and glances at the sudden quietness of their surroundings.

"What..." Bruce whispers as the rockets turn to aim themselves toward the sky. They detonate even faster, sending streaks of white at something Lena can't see. But as it grows closer, she realizes it looks like a fireball.

"I'll be damned," Steve mutters with a smirk.

The ball of fire crashes into the ship, causing an explosion immediately upon impact. Another one sets the right wing ablaze. The rockets die, debris falling to the earth as the ship implodes.

As the ball of fire rises into the sky again, Lena gasps upon noticing that there's a woman inside of it. Maybe it's not a ball of fire, after all, but her powers.

The flaming ship crashes into the bay beside their battleground. A tidal wave rises in its wake, but the Necklace Wizard keeps it contained with his magic.

"Danvers, we need an assist, here," Steve informs the newcomer.

As if snapping out of a trance, Lena releases her grip on the super soldier and charges her gauntlets. "I have to go find Peter. I gave him the gauntlet."

"Lena—" Bruce begins to warn her in dismay, but she fires off before he can finish. Her gut roils at the fact that she's moving again. Shoving her nausea down, she scans the ground until she discovers the signature ruby-red color of his suit. But something is wrong.

Lena's heart spasms in her chest as she lands on her shaking feet and sprints to Peter's crumpled-up figure on the ground. Her throat is tight, restricting her breathing once more as her eyes dart over him. He's curled into a ball on the ground, the Infinity Gauntlet lying beside him.

"Peter!" she exclaims, voice pitched higher in worry as she crouches down and puts a hand on his side to roll him onto his back. When she sees that his eyes are open and his chest is moving up and down in time with his breathing, her shoulders deflate in relief.

He's gotten a new scratch near his eye. It makes him wince as he replies, "I'm good, I'm good."

Lena grabs hold of the gauntlet before any of the surrounding enemies can take it. Just as she hugs it to her chest, something lands in front of her hard enough to rattle the ground, sending her toppling onto her backside in surprise. She lands on the dirt beside Peter and stares wide-eyed at the fireball woman standing before them.

She seems to glow despite her powers not being activated, pale skin turned amber from the last rays of sunlight struggling to break through the clouds. It tints the edges of her blonde hair white— it's cut short and swiped over one side of her head, some of it falling over her forehead. Her red and blue suit is accented with a gold star on her chest. Lena has never seen her before, but with how big the team has gotten (seriously, who is Scott?), she isn't really surprised at that fact.

"Hi... I'm... Peter Parker," Peter greets weakly.

The woman — Danvers, Steve had called her — gives him a closed-lipped smile. "Hey, Peter Parker." Her eyes glitter with amusement as they slide to Lena. "Got something for me?"

Dumbfounded, Lena climbs to her feet and passes her the gigantic glove without question. She deserves to have it— after all, she'd destroyed Thanos' entire ship within seconds and came out of it unscathed.

Peter glances at the oncoming army. They'd rallied as the rockets had fired, condensing into a deadly wave as they had before. Their hungry gazes are locked onto one thing: the gauntlet.

"I don't know how you're gonna get it through all of that," he says.

Lena sends him a bewildered gaze. Had he not seen what she'd done a few moments ago?

Wanda lands beside Danvers before she can respond. "Don't worry."

Okoye jumps down next to Lena, spear in hand. "She's got help."

The teenage girl turns around to see all of the female warriors packing together. Some she recognizes, but others are complete strangers. Though she looks around, she realizes with a sinking sensation that she can't find Natasha.

Peter had also stood up at some point. He looks around in awe, brown eyes drifting to Lena in silent question.

She rolls her eyes and plants a kiss on his smudged cheek before she can think about it. "I'll be right back. Time to go be cool."

Face burning as she quickly turns away, Lena finds an open spot beside Shuri and juts her arms out. Energy charges into her gauntlets, surrounding them with a blue aura. The princess gives her a supportive nod. Lena returns it with a smile, hoping her cheeks aren't still red.

Two of the whale aliens are tossed aside by Wanda's telekinesis powers. The Asgardian woman's pegasus swoops overhead, the woman riding it releasing a battle cry as she drags her sword down one of the large aliens' bodies and sends green blood spraying everywhere. Lena would take to the skies, but she's pretty sure Tony had been right when he'd told her to stay on the ground. The air has done nothing but bring her harm so far.

So, forming a bubble around herself, she charges directly into the oncoming horde on foot. Once she's surrounded by aliens on all sides, she drops the shield and locks her arms, sending jets of energy streaming from them. She turns in a slow circle until all of the aliens are melted. When others run to replace them, she incinerates them as well.

Shuri sprints past her and waves her along. Running after the princess, Lena notices a blue Iron Man suit flying ahead of them. Could that be Pepper Potts?

She finds out once she and Shuri stop beside the blue-suited figure. It's definitely Pepper— Tony's off somewhere else, and their suits are different colors. Another woman dressed in a silver suit with delicate wings stands on Pepper's opposite side. Together, the four of them face Thanos.

Lena shoves down the terror rising in her throat. Her glare turns to steel, mouth curling into a determined sneer as the quartet releases their powers on the Titan. To her delight, he flies backward at the impact, rolling several feet once he strikes the ground. Her joy deflates just as quickly. Using that momentum, Thanos gets on one knee and faces the brown van just as Danvers soars past in a stream of light.

With a cry of, "No!" he throws his double-bladed weapon at the van like a javelin. It catches in the back with a clang. When Danvers strikes it, the vehicle explodes, throwing her like a rag doll so the gauntlet falls from her grasp.

Lena can't see where it fell, but she does take notice of Tony's movements from behind a pile of rubble in the distance. Pepper places a hand on her shoulder as if she can read her mind.

"They've got that covered," she says as Thor swings in, now sporting much longer hair and a braided beard. "They still need our help with these guys."

Lena reluctantly tears her gaze away from the fight with Thanos and becomes aware of the seemingly endless army around them. It appears that Wanda and the Pegasus Woman have taken care of the larger whale-like ones, but there are still hundreds of foot soldiers. One she recognizes as the blue-blooded woman who'd tried to kill Wanda. She recalls the exact moment she'd been shredded to smithereens, cringing at the thought.

She turns to the winged lady just in time to see her disappear. Lena blinks, wondering if her powers include teleporting, only to take notice of a tiny person flying away like a bug.

Alright, then.

Shuri shoots the soldiers with the heavy blasters strapped to her arms. Lena jogs closer to her before asking, "What's in those?"

"Vibranium," the princess responds in her thick Wakandan accent. Her brown eyes follow one of Lena's surges of power as it melts through another line of aliens, intrigued at the blue blast. "You?"

"Energy."

Lena is just about to look back toward where Peter had been when the world changes.

For a beat, everything goes still. Time itself seems to stop. Lena is worried that Thanos had used the Time Stone to reverse the entire fight, but it's just Thanos' army who appears to have collectively halted. She lowers her arms, confused, and Shuri does the same.

Lena takes a step back in shock as the foot soldier nearest to them turns to dust. Slowly, more follow, their ashes mixing in with the smog in the air or simply drifting lifelessly on the dirt. She looks down at her own hands. Mercifully, they stay intact, though her heart continues to hammer in her chest in fear that she'll disappear once more.

"Lena!"

Shuri turns before she does. The princess raises her eyebrows the instant before a body barrels into Lena, making her struggle to keep her balance as arms wrap around her waist. Peter's fingers wind into her hair as he clutches onto her for dear life. For a moment, she panics, wondering why he's so forceful, but then she realizes that he's just really glad they're both still alive.

She returns his embrace just as vehemently, burying her face into his shoulder and trying to choke back her tears of relief as she continues to watch the enemy turn to dust.

He pulls away after a moment. They're face-to-face, Lena staring into his brown eyes as they search her own. She frowns at a cut that's slowly leaking blood onto his cheekbone. Her hand raises to wipe the trickle away, and when she does, he leans into her touch. Her cheeks begin to warm at the intimacy of the action and the realization of how close they are. She clears her throat and backs away, severing the moment.

Lena glances toward the clearing just in time to watch Thanos' hunched figure crumble to ashes. Eyes blazing, she gives an obscene gesture to the dust rising in the air after him.

"Come on," Peter urges as he gently takes her hand and tugs her along to the last place they'd seen Tony. He takes her over a pile of rubble before dropping down to the ground, where James Rhodes is standing with his back to them. Peter's hesitant voice asks, "Mr. Stark?"

James steps aside. All at once, Lena's world crumbles.

Tony sits with his back against a chunk of concrete, and she's fairly certain it's the only thing keeping him upright. There are severe burns spanning from the right side of his face all the way down to the hand holding the Infinity Stones. His skin is paler than she's ever seen it. Once lively eyes are now glassy and blank, face expressionless.

Peter is the one to move. He releases his grip on Lena's hand and bends down to Tony's level, face screwing up in desperation and agony as he pleads for a response. "Mr. Stark, can you hear me? It's Peter. We won, Mr. Stark. We won. We did it, sir, we did it. I'm sorry, Tony..."

Lena stares senselessly as Tony's faraway eyes flicker to her for a moment before drifting back to Peter's trembling form in front of him. She wants to surge forward and beg him to hold on. She wants to cling to him like she had not even half an hour ago. But something cold and cruel in this world makes her feet stick to the dirt like superglue, forbidding her from even speaking.

Pepper eases down beside Peter and gently coaxes him away. The teenage boy backs up until he's standing level with Lena again. Slowly, his arms wrap around her shoulders until his forehead is pressed to her shoulder, making her body shake with every single one of his unstable breaths that come out more like sobs. She's faintly aware of the fact that she should be comforting him. She should be hugging him back, she should be crying, she should have more than just a misty glaze in her eyes. But it's like she's floating away from herself, out of her body, and into space. The part of her brain that processes her emotions isn't working.

Pepper's blonde hair flutters in the breeze as she kneels in front of Tony and places a gentle hand over his arc reactor. His hand weakly travels up to cover her own, the action so simple and yet so heartbreaking that it makes Lena's chest ache.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y?" Pepper questions in a tight voice.

"Life functions critical," the AI responds, which only makes Peter sob harder.

Lena isn't sure if Tony could hear that, but as if he knows the turmoil going on inside of them, he gives them a tiny smile. It appears to take a toll on him. Pain flickers over the façade he's trying to put on for them, and she knows then that there's no coming back from this.

"Tony," Pepper says in a sugary sweet voice. When his head lolls away from her, it turns firmer. "Hey, Tony, look at me." His gaze returns to hers. "We're gonna be okay. You can rest now."

His head turns to the side again as if he's relieved by her confirmation. And then the last of the light fades from his eyes, and he doesn't move again. 

Lena stares blankly at Tony Stark's lifeless form. Peter is the opposite— he doesn't seem to want to look, instead burying his face in her shoulder and pressing into it hard enough that it's like he's trying to erase this from his memory. Like maybe if he can't see it, it isn't real.

She feels it then: the familiar restlessness of her nerves, the trembling of her hands as they start to shake. She traps it inside so she doesn't hurt Peter. Instead, she gives a restrained mumble of his name and he lets go without hesitation.

The girl turns around and walks numbly into the clearing where Thanos had turned to dust. When she figures she's a safe distance away, her knees buckle and she crashes into the dirt. It hits her full-force— her breath becomes shallow in her lungs, which begin to burn because they don't seem big enough despite her desperate, gulping breaths. Her eyes squeeze shut as tears spring to them. A rattling intake of breath has her choking on a sob when she tries to exhale.

Lena can't take it anymore. The pressure underneath her skin becomes too much, and soon she barely has the sense to check and make sure nobody is around before she releases her restraint on her power and lets a blast of it rattle the entire remains of the compound at the same time she lets out an earth-shattering scream.

She leans forward and digs her nails into the soft layer of dirt. Slams her fist on it for good measure. But no shock of pain can lessen the agony coursing through her heart, tearing it to shreds with each one of her ragged sobs. She cries until her cheeks are soaked, until her nose runs, until her head pounds.

It isn't fair. It's not fair at all. Like Peter said, they won. They won, and now Tony won't even be able to celebrate with them. Now he won't be able to relieve himself of the pain that spending five years without all of his friends has caused.

Now she has to live without him.

_______

man oh man oh man oh man that hurt to write. this chapter is even longer than the last one by several hundred words, and i really wanted this to be the last one, but it would have ended up being way too long if i kept going. i'm planning on having lena reunite with ma and pa in the next chapter as well as some more bonding time with the avengers!

i really can't thank you enough for the overwhelming support i received on the previous chapter. as of right now, it has 2.08k reads already and 573 comments. that's only a couple less comments than the first chapter, which has been up for a year now. that's insane! i know a good chunk of them were you guys yelling at me for dusting lena, but still

you know that scene in endgame where tony looks at the picture of him and peter and decides to create time travel? i pictured him also having a photo of him and lena framed (or lena and peter, or all 3), so i asked some of my followers for their takes on it, and y'all really delivered!!

by carpenterholland

by HannahDottier

by lstbxys

by -iamvicTORIous

by NarnianHobbit

by thomasangsters

i'm in love with all of these and i'm so grateful that you took the time to make them!!

(check out the graphic gallery at the beginning of the book for some new additions!)

another thing: just to confirm, yes, graham did also get dusted in the snap. i was going to have him join them in the final battle, but he woke up at ned's house and wouldn't have had his suit or anything, and it was already hard enough writing lena and peter's parts mid-fight. it wouldn't have worked to keep him alive because he would be 22 and yanno... out of high school. he will make an appearance in the next chapter, though!

thank you again for all of the support (: it made me so happy to see that you guys liked the end of infinity war so much!

— kristyn