The spinning in Elizabeth's head stopped when she felt herself arrive back on the stable ground inside of the compound. She breathed heavily as the helmet of her time travel suit disappeared along with the rest of the material into her usual suit. 

She glanced around at everyone around her, taking note of how Steve and Tony both wore different clothing than when they had last seen her. But she shrugged her questions off when she saw the briefcase in Tony's hands. 

"Did we get them all?" Rhodey asked just as Elizabeth felt her heart clench painfully. She blinked rapidly and brought her hand up to her chest, even thought she knew the pain wasn't from her. 

"Oh, god," She murmured with her eyes shut as she turned to face Wanda, who stood by herself. 

Wanda had one of her gloved fists clench tightly, as if something was in the palm of her hand, as she stared at the ground angrily.  All of their heads turned to look at Wanda sadly, or more specifically the empty spot next to her. 

"Wanda," Natasha spoke softly with a light shake to her voice. "Where's Pietro?" She asked with dread laced in her voice, most of them had already guessed what happened. A mission gone wrong. 

She didn't answer Natasha. Wanda simply continued to stare at the ground silently. Then as if something had flipped inside of her, Elizabeth felt Wanda's sadness and grief turn into anger. So when the redhead lifted her head slowly, her eyes may have had tears in them but her demeanor said something else entirely. 

Her eyes looked straight ahead at Tony and when she spoke, it felt like the ground shook. Tony avoided her gaze  "You knew," she whispered quietly with a clenched jaw. "You knew what was going to happen, and you still let him send us there." Wanda continued. The him being directed at Steve, who looked between the two in confusion. 

"You let us go there, to die." Wanda spat out as it finally clicked in Elizabeth's head. Tony and Nebula must've known how Thanos got the stone. They were the ones to see him first. Elizabeth felt the guilt from Tony but when she turned to look at Nebula she felt something off about her. Like something was different. 

But Elizabeth brushed it off when the sound of Wanda's footsteps echoed throughout the silent room. "Here's your stone," Wanda sneered as she grabbed Tony's hand and shoved the bright orange stone into his palm. "I hope it was worth it," Wanda's voice broke before stalking past Tony and out of the room. 

Elizabeth wanted to run after her, to console her. But instead she felt herself let out a tired sigh as she clutched the stone in her hand tighter. Before she knew it, she felt her body slowly fall to the ground until she sat back on her legs. 

All around her she felt everyone's sadness and grief. Along with a little bit of confusion, as they all wondered what exactly happened on Vormir. She closed her eyes tightly as she brought her knees up in front of her, resting her arms on them. 

Opening her palm, Elizabeth looked at the green stone in her hand before letting it fall to the floor beside her. Everyone in the room stood silently, their heads turning to look at her when they heard the sound of the stone dropping. 

She was so tired, she realised. Whether it was from her or just the amount of people around her, she didn't know and she didn't care. She was so tired of losing people close to her, people that she cared about. Elizabeth was sick of it. 

Tony was the first to leave the room. His footsteps echoing across the floor as they all watched him leave. Then slowly, one by one, the rest of them left. Not one of them saying another one to one another. What was supposed to be a victory turned into a mourning. 

Elizabeth lifted her head from her knees when she realised someone else stayed behind with her. Natasha looked down at her with her bottom lip quivering lightly, letting Elizabeth know that she was on the verge of crying. 

The redhead didn't say anything as she bent down to pick up the discarded stone beside Elizabeth. Natasha stood back up and kicked Elizabeth's foot with hers, asking her if she was okay. Elizabeth nodded her head and forced a smile onto her face, but made no effort to get up and walk out with Natasha. 

Looking around the empty room, Elizabeth felt her breathing quicken as she threw her head back and looked up at the metal and wires above her. The stuff made a somewhat nice pattern, she thought before looking back ahead. As she raised her hand to rub her face, she realised she was shaking. 

Elizabeth held her left hand palm down in front of her, watching carefully at the tremor in her hand. Only visible if you looked close enough. She blinked back the tears in her eyes as she lifted her right hand to wrap around her left. Squeezing them tight enough that she could feel the blood stop flowing to the tip of her fingers. 

Grinding her teeth down, she made sure her hands had stopped shaking before resting her face in them. The nails of her fingers dug uncomfortably into the sides of her face but she didn't mind anymore. 

Another day, another friend lost, she thought to herself as she sat on the floor of the cold and empty room. 

***

The next few days none of them saw Wanda. Whether she was even in the compound, nobody knew. And they all knew better than to go looking for her, when Wanda didn't want to be found it was for the best they left her to it. 

Tony, Bruce and Rocket were busy at work in the lab. They were building a gauntlet of their own, one strong enough to wield all six the infinity stone for them to use. Who's going to be the one to use it was still up for debate, but they decided not to dwell on it for now. 

"That sounds rough," Emilie's voice came in through the phone. Elizabeth stared out the window of her bedroom as she spoke to Emilie over the phone.

She shrugged at the woman's response to Elizabeth's recap of what had been going on in the compound. "We're working on it," she offered her response to Emilie. 

Elizabeth rubbed her hands over the thin material of her combat suit, only having it on with the intention to train later in the day. There was a faint reply over the other end that was interrupted by a voice behind Elizabeth. 

"Lizzie. It's ready," Steve told her, his voice startling her slightly. She turned around and saw him standing at her door in his usual Captain America suit, his helmet and shield in one hand. Elizabeth nodded at him and held a finger up to tell him to give her a minute.

She turned back to face the widow as she adjusted the phone in her hand. "I got to go," she told Emilie slowly. "It's time."

"Good luck," Emilie replied after a second of silence. "And, be safe." Elizabeth nodded then remembered that Emilie couldn't see her. They said their goodbyes and Elizabeth tossed the phone onto her bed. 

Elizabeth turned back to the open door and saw Steve there, still waiting for her. "Come on," Steve told her. 

The two of them walked down the halls in anticipation, unsure of what was going to happen. "Wanda?" Elizabeth asked the whereabouts of their friend, still not hearing any word from her. 

"No idea," Steve answered grimly as they passed by the empty rooms. 

"We still have to tell her about Vision's body," Elizabeth reminded him, not wanting to keep it a secret from Wanda. She knew all too well how secrets never helped anyone. "It's only fair."

Steve sighed and shook his head. "Now is not the time," he argued calmly. 

"Wanda's lost the two most important people to her, and she couldn't even bury them," Elizabeth reasoned with him. Knowing that if she had the chance, Elizabeth would want to bury everyone she had lost. "Now, she can."

"Once this is all over and done with we'll tell her," Steve said but Elizabeth wasn't convinced, and he saw it on her face. "I swear," he added but she simply sighed and walked past him into the lab. 

The whole team minus Nebula and Wanda were scattered around the lab. Elizabeth was about to ask about Nebula but her voice died in her throat when she saw the metal gauntlet in the center of the room. The ceiling lights reflected off the red metal and colourful stones. 

"Is that it?" Elizabeth asked Rocket who stood on the table beside the gauntlet as she made her way to stand beside Rhodey. 

"Yeah," he answered her as he looked up at the rest of them in the room. "The question is, who's gonna snap their freakin' fingers?" 

Thor raised his hand as he walked toward the table. "I'll do it," he said and almost immediately everyone protested. 

Elizabeth and Rhodey moved to hold him back before he could knock into the table, the rest of the team protesting loudly. "Just hold on," Steve instructed as he came to stand between Thor and the table. "We haven't decided who's going to put that thing on."

Thor looked somewhat shocked and offended at Steve's words. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said sarcastically. "Are we all just sitting around, waiting for the right opportunity?"

"We should at least discuss it," Natasha said as she and Scott came up to join the little circle they had made. 

"Look, sitting here and staring at the thing is not going to bring anybody back." Thor pointed at the gauntlet with a finger. "I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me." He pointed at his chest as he spoke. 

Tony looked at Elizabeth, as if saying 'Can you believe this guy?' But Elizabeth simply  shook her head and let him handle this. "Normally you're right, but-" Tony had tried to say but Thor cut him off. 

"It's my duty and-"

"It's not about that," Tony quickly silenced Thor's argument and he came up to Thor's side. But Thor continued to fight Tony back, muttering and arguing about how he should be the one to do it. Tony groaned and looked back at Elizabeth. "Lizzie, little help," Tony asked. 

Elizabeth nodded at him and slowly calmed Thor down to the point where Tony could say a sentence without Thor interjecting. "Just let me do it," Thor pleaded softly as he put both hands on Tony's shoulders. "Just let me do something good, something right." Elizabeth looked away from the two of them, feeling Thor's self blame and Tony's pity. 

"Listen, it's not just the fact that the glove is channeling enough energy to light up an entire continent," Tony tried to explain to Thor while the rest of them listened silently. "I'm telling you, you're in no condition."

Thor shook his head and they all watched as Thor gripped the front of Tony's shirt. Not out of anger, but desperation. "What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" Thor asked. 

"Cheese Whiz?" Rhodey replied almost instantly, making Thor glare at the man harshly.

"Lightning," Thor corrected as Tony tried not to let a smile crack through at his bestfriends joke. 

Bruce's voice startled all of them when he spoke. "Lighting wont help you, pal." He looked over at Thor apologetically. "It's gotta be me."

Thor looked down at the ground as he released his grip on Tony. His disappointment and self-loathing made Elizabeth grimace. She made her way to stand beside him as she patted his back lightly, trying to make him feel better. 

"You saw what those stones did to Thanos. They almost killed him," Bruce continued as he walked to stand in front of the gauntlet on the table. "None of you would survive."

"But then how do we know you will?" Scott asked Bruce with a frown. 

"We don't," Bruce answered with a shrug. "But the radiation's mostly gamma. It's like I was made for this."

No one in the room objected and Bruce carefully picked up the gauntlet with both hands. He walked to the center of the room slowly as the rest of them gave him a wide berth, forming a circle around him. All of them, making sure that they were prepared for anything. 

"Good to go?" Natasha asked from beside Steve as Bruce nodded at her. 

Tony came to stand beside Elizabeth as he shook his hands out beside him. "Okay, remember that everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago, you're just bringing them back to today," Tony reminded Bruce. "Don't change anything in the last five years."

"Got it," Bruce said as he stared at the gauntlet in his hands. 

Scott and Rhodey's helmets activated and protected their faces as Thor pushed Rocket onto a table behind him. Tony tapped the arc reactor in his chest before his Iron Man suit slowly spread out to cover his whole body. 

He looked at Elizabeth from the corner of his eye and shook his left arm, making some sort of  energy shield appear. He positioned it in a way that it mostly covered her instead of him, Elizabeth having low to zero defence from the infinity stones. 

There was the sound of muffled talking from inside Tony's suit before all of the windows and doors were secured with a thick layer of metal and concrete. Ensuring that no one got inside, and nothing went out. 

All of them watched nervously as Bruce slowly placed the glove onto his right arm. The metal expanding and moving to fit onto his unusually sized hand. Almost immediately, Bruce fell to his knees as the power of the infinity stones spread up his arms in streaks of light. 

The smell of burning fresh traveled through the air as Bruce's arm slowly began to burn from the gauntlet. "Take it off!" Thor quickly exclaimed when he saw his friend in pain. "Someone take it off!"

However, Steve held his arm out to stop Thor. "No, wait," he said cautiously. "Bruce? Are you okay?" He asked the man in question. 

"Talk to us Bruce," Natasha raised her voice when they got no response from him other than his cries of pain. 

"I'm okay," he informed them all as he slowly rose to his feet, the light from the gauntlet slowly dimming out. "I'm okay," Bruce repeated as Thor held two thumbs up for his friend.

A loud rumble echoed distinctly from somewhere else in the compound but they all dismissed the noise as Bruce lifted his hand with a groan before snapping his fingers. 

There was no blast, no spark of light, or anything out of the ordinary once the action was done. It was over with literally a snap of his fingers. Bruce's eyes rolled to the back of his head before he leaned back and fell to the ground, the now burnt gauntlet came off his hand and skidded across the floor. 

All of them rushed to his side in an instant, Steve instructing all of them not to touch him as Tony spread a cooling agent from his suit onto Bruce's damaged arm. Elizabeth knelt by his head and took away most of him pain, making her wince slightly when she felt the throbbing in her right arm. 

Her ears picked up a quiet buzzing noise amongst all the chaos and chatter. Slowly she rose to her feet and followed the noise. She looked around the room for the source of the noise as the bars covering the windows and doors were lifted up, letting the sun shine in. 

Scott walked past her towards the now open windows, as if in a daze. She ignored what he was looking at as he found the source of the noise, a phone ringing underneath a pile of equipment. Carefully, Elizabeth took the phone that she recognised as Natasha's into her hand. 

When her eyes read the caller ID, she nearly dropped the phone. "What is it?" Thor asked her, noticing her wide eyes and shocked expression. 

"Um," she cleared her throat before looking at the expectant gaze of her friends with a shaky smile on her face. "Natasha, it's for you." Elizabeth held the phone out to the woman. 

"Who is it?" She asked as she walked away from Steve's side to take to ringing phone from her hand. 

"It's Laura," Elizabeth answered in disbelief. Natasha's eyes widened and immediately snatched the phone from Elizabeth's hand. She looked at the name on the screen once more to make sure it was real before picking up the phone.  

There were tears in Natasha's eyes as Elizabeth watched her talk on the phone with Laura. Elizabeth turned her back on Natasha as she looked out the window, tilting her head when she noticed there was so much more green than there was before. Her brain was slow, as she let the results of what they'd done fully sink in. 

"Guys," Scott called their attention as he smiled out the window. "I think it worked," he breathed out just as the sky darkened above them and the bombs came down.