GLISTENING DIAMONDS.
052. ❛ a soul for a soul. ❜

IN A COLLECTIVE CIRCLE, almost everyone reappeared on the platform. Steve, Tony, Scott, and Bruce had successfully gotten the Space, Mind, and Time Stones, Rhodey and Nebula had gotten the Power Stone, and Thor and Rocket had gotten the Reality Stone.

Simultaneously, their suits disappeared and everyone looked around. "Did we get them all?" Bruce asked timidly.

"You telling me this actually worked?" Rhodey smiled, holding up the Power Stone orb with a proud smile.

A heavy thump made them all turn to Clint, who fell to his knees with a deadpanned and hollow expression. Everyone's smiles and light-hearted feelings disappeared.

Diana's whole body shook with sobs as she pulled her legs close to her chest. Tears were pooling out of her eyes and she was mumbling guilty words under her breath.

Steve rushed towards Diana's side and kneeled beside her, pulling the shaking girl to his chest. Hushing her softly and stroking her head.

"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce asked, taking a step forward.

Clint didn't reply as he continued to stare at the floor in silence. He opened his palm and threw the Soul Stone on the floor.

At once, it dawned on everyone that she had been sacrificed for the Stone. Clint looked up at Bruce as a tear escaped. Bruce lowered to his knees, hitting his fist against the floor loudly.

Diana broke down more and clung onto Steve's arm, "It should've been me. It should've been me. It should've been me." She kept mumbling under her breath shakily.

Steve picked up Diana's frail body and walked away from all the prying eyes of the group. He opened her bedroom door and set her down on her bed.

He moved to go turn on her ceiling fan when she gripped his arm tightly, "Please." She whispered brokenly, "Please don't leave me."

Steve nodded and sat next to her, letting the girl cuddle him tightly. Scared that if she might let go, he'd be gone too. Tears dropped from Steve's eyes as he stared at a picture on Diana's wall.

Natasha was smiling widely with a cupcake in front of her with a single candle lit. Steve let his eyes cast down, trying not to lose his composure in front of Diana.

LATER THAT DAY, THE TEAM had retreated outside to the dock. Everyone was quiet, heartbroken over the loss of their friend.

Steve approached the group and sat down on a bench. Tony looked up at the tired man, "How's Diana?"

"She fell asleep about an hour ago. She refused to let me go and seemed pretty shaken." Steve said shakily and Tony sighed with a nod.

"You guys weren't there. You didn't see what happened between her and Natasha." Clint commented and looked out at the lake, watching the water ripple softly.

It was silent for a while before Tony spoke again. "Do we know if she had family?" Tony asked softly, referring to Natasha.

"Yeah," said Steve solemnly, "Us." He closed his eyes and remembered their interaction from just a few days ago back at the Compound.

"I used to have nothing. Then I got this, this family."

"What?" Thor asked in confusion, making everyone turn to face him.

"I just asked him a question..." Tony explained, raising a brow at the man.

"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? So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together." Thor rambled, his hands in the air out of exasperation.

"We can't bring her back," Clint spoke with hurt in his voice.

"What?" Thor asked.

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

Thor started to laugh in disbelief. "I'm sorry, no offense. But you're a very Earthly being, okay? We're talking about space magic here and 'can't' seems very definitive, don't you think?"

"Look, I know that I'm way outside my pay grade here, but she still isn't here, is she?" Clint told him.

"No, that's my point-"

"It can't be undone. Or that's at least what the red, floating guy had to say." Clint began to raise his voice. "Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay?! Go grab your hammer, and you go, and you talk to him!" he shouted angrily.

He breathed heavily and Thor averted his eyes in shame. "It should've been me..." Clint said quietly. "She sacrificed her life for that god damn Stone. She bet her life on it."

In a burst of anger, Bruce grabbed a bench and hurled it across the lake. His anger spent, he turned to the others with a resigned look on his face, "She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to." Banner said sadly.

"We will." Steve nodded, vowing to himself.

THE TEAM HAD TAKEN A much-needed break. Each pair or person had departed into a section of the compound, away to collect their feelings and thoughts respectfully.

Night had come over and everyone was exhausted, mentally and physically but tomorrow everything will return to normal. Or, at least, that's what they all thought.

In the lab, Tony, Rocket, and Bruce stood. Tony guided a small grapple machine holographically, trying to line the Soul Stone up with the others perfectly.

With slow movements, Tony synced all the robotic arms to carefully hone in and place each Stone in the Iron-Gauntlet he had created.

Everyone paused, staring at the gauntlet when the Stones fitted perfectly.

"Boom!" Rocket shouted, making Tony and Bruce flinch away. The two turned, glaring at the raccoon who only laughed at their paranoia.

His laughing ceased and he held up his hands in mock surrender, "Alright, alright. Let's get out of here, I need my beauty sleep."

Tony chuckled deeply, "Beauty? What beauty, Rachet?" Bruce sighed and rolled his eyes, walking out of the lab followed by the two who just continued bickering.