Grace hates the feeling of time travel, and she isn't even prepared for it the second time. She fights down bile the whole time, her eyes shut tight. When she lands in the present, though, she finds her dad immediately in the spot as before, his suit transforming into normal clothes just like everyone else's.

"See?" she says to Scott, relieved. "Two seconds."

"Well, that was fast," Bruce jokes. It'd been about a minute for him. "Did you get them all?" It's clear they have, based on their expressions, or, for some, various things they hold in their hands.

Rhodey is holding one, protected by a round casing. He's smiling. "Are you telling me this actually worked?"

Grace looks across from her to say something to Nat, but the words die in her throat as her her heart drops into her stomach, seeing that empty space. She looks to Clint, sees the expression on his face. Carefully, she asks, "Clint... where's Nat?"

He steps down with a thud. He looks pained. He doesn't have to speak to tell everyone what happened — at least, the gist of it. The worst part. Grace gasps as if hit, a sob choking her.

Clint looks at her. "She said..." He has to stop. He can't speak. But he has to. "She said that... that she loves you all. Before she..." He starts crying, then, unable to say anything intelligible for some minutes.

Bruce sinks as if he can't stand anymore, then sits in the shocked, empty quietness for a few moments before he punches the ground. Steve looks at him, tears running down his face. Grace can hardly see them for her own tears burning in her eyes.

Tony looks at her, fighting back his grief, even as it threatens to take him to the ground. "Grace..."

She cries harder, struggling to breathe. Tony goes to her, hugs her. Sai wordlessly retracts Savior back into a bracelet, the Time Stone still inside it, safely in the metal compartment, and Grace hugs her father tightly, crying into his shirt. Pain burns in her, and hurt. "She-She said she was right here and she would-wouldn't go anywhere — she said it would be al-alright," Grace sobs.

Tony can only stroke her hair, hold her tightly, and whisper, "I know," as he cries, wanting the shut the whole world out, if only for a few hours. But he has to be strong now, for Grace.

Thor shakes his head. "Wh- What are you all doing? Why are you acting as if she's dead? We have the Stones, right? As long as we have the Stones, we can bring her back." But no one seems at all hopeful. "Right?" he says.

"We can't get her back," Clint says quietly. "It can't be undone. It can't."

Thor takes this in, and then begins to laugh, displaying a denial Grace is all too familiar with. "Look, I'm sorry," he says. "No offense, but you're a very earthly being, okay? We're talking about space magic. And 'can't' seems very definitive, don't you think?"

Anger creeps into Clint's voice. "Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here. But she still isn't here, is she?"

"No, that's my point-"

"It can't be undone," Clint insists strongly, regretting it as he says it, wishing it weren't true. "Or at least that's what the red floating guy had to say. Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay?! Go grab your hammer, and you go fly and you talk to him!" His voice falls again, after a moment. "It was a soul for the Stone. She..." He sighs. "It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed herself for that stupid Stone. She bet her life on it."

Grace looks at him, her voice quiet, though heard in the silence of the room. "Why?"

Clint knows. He remembers what Nat had said. How she wanted to leave Grace something, to do this for her. She did it for her. And Clint can't tell her that. She'll be eat up with guilt. He knows; he already is. She did it for him, too. He doesn't speak.

"We have to make it worth it," Bruce says, his voice strained, angry, determined. "We have to."

Steve looks at him again, his voice shaky. "We will."

Solemnly, they begin to walk off the machine, one at a time, Grace still hugging Tony, still hurting, wondering how she'll ever stop hurting, with Nat gone. The very thought kills her inside.

She and Tony are the second to last to walk down the steps, only Clint behind them. He gently lays a hand on her shoulder when they reach the ground, and she turns to him. She can tell there's something he wants to say, but he can't.

She turns back and nods at her father, and Tony kisses her forehead before walking away, following Thor out of the room.

Clint swallows, then speaks. "She wanted you to know... that she loved you. Especially you." Grace chokes out a sob at this, her hand over her mouth as if that'll stop all the grief and the tears. Clint continues with a shaky breath. "She asked me to tell you twice, so..."

Grace closes her eyes tightly, trying to block out the world, to pretend it isn't real. Nat's coming back. She'll be here. And she'll hug her, and she'll make some dumb joke, and she'll tell her it'll be okay and talk about baking cookies later, and she'll be smiling again, and her hair will probably be messed up so Grace will fix it, and then they'll save the universe and Grace will formally introduce Peter to her, and they'll be close too, even if Nat grills him at first, teases him maybe, with threats that will never come to pass — and she'll know it too, even as she says them.

Clint takes another labored breath. "She said that you were the closest thing she ever had to a daughter... She didn't tell me to tell you that, but I thought... you'd like to know."

Grace can't speak. She just hugs Clint, as it's all she can do, and it takes him a moment, but he hugs her back, and they cry for a while before they can rejoin the others.

~~~~

Eyes red, Grace watches her father as he begins to build his own gauntlet, using the hand from an Iron Man suit to do it. He makes places for the Stones to go, planning to put them there remotely, as touching one directly could be harmful.

There's a sense of sadness over the group — every one of them. Steve is next to her, and it radiates from him. They were especially close. Not as close as she was to Clint — nobody could ever be that — but still.

Thor is behind her. He's been silent since Clint shouted. Bruce has only spoken to Tony quietly, about the gauntlet. Tony hasn't said too much either, not verbally. Clint hasn't spoken since he talked to Grace. Rhodey, Scott, Nebula, and Rocket haven't spoken at all since they heard.

Everything feels wrong. Changed. Nothing will be same now, not without Nat.

But Bruce was right. She can't die in vain. They have to make her sacrifice worth it.

Grace thinks about the mission as she watches her father and Bruce work, grabbing each Stone remotely, and it brings to mind something she'd forgotten after hearing about what happened to Nat. But she remembers now, and it's important.

"I feel like now is a good time to mention what I talked with the Ancient One — also known as the Sorcerer Supreme — and I found that it is imperative that we return the Stones exactly back to where we found them." Tony, Steve, and Scott already knew this, but Grace explained it all again, going over that portion of the conversation in detail.

In her mind, she remembers the Ancient One telling her to take heart, and Grace resolves to do just that, at least until it's all over. And then she can grieve.

Finally, they place the Stones, all six at once. Rocket, from his spot next to Tony, shouts, "Boom!"

A few people jump, including Tony, Grace, and Bruce, and Rocket seems to think his joke is very funny. Grace has to admit that it clears the air a little.

They take the gauntlet out from behind the protective glass, placing it, suspended, on a sort of table. Rocket is inspecting it while the others look on.

After a moment, Rocket looks up. "Alright, the glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?"

"I'll do it," Thor says immediately, walking forward.

"Excuse me?" Tony asks.

Thor waves him off. "It's okay." He walks right up to the gauntlet to use it, and everyone but Bruce, standing away from the group, steps forward, stopping him, all talking at once.

"Wait, wait, wait. Thor, just wait," Steve insists. "We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet."

Grace doesn't speak up and volunteer to, knowing that everybody in the room would immediately tell her no, be incredulous at the very idea, but also because the thought of it terrifies her to no end. She feels guilty, knowing what Nat was willing to do for this, and she berates and scorns herself for not being willing to do the same. But she still says nothing.

Thor looks at Steve. "Well, I'm sorry — what, we're all just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?"

"We should at least discuss it," Scott says.

Thor argues. "Look, sitting here staring at the thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me-"

"Normally, you're right-" Tony starts.

"-It's my duty," Thor continues, and Tony walks forward, standing in between Thor and the gauntlet.

"It's not about that-" he tries.

"It's not that!" Thor shouts, getting angry, insistent. "Stop it! Just let me!" His voice falls again, tears in it as he clasps his heads, pleading with Tony. "Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something right."

"You've done right before, Thor," Grace says softly. "Plenty of it. If now isn't your time to do it, then it's just not. And that's okay. You won't be the only one not doing it, anyway..."

Thor shakes his head, about the speak again, but Tony starts before he can. "Look, it's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent. I'm telling you, you're in no condition."

"What do you- What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" Thor asks. Rhodey opens his mouth, and Grace already knows what sort of remark it'll be, and so she nudges him, and he says nothing. Thor answers his own question. "Lightning."

Tony nods, quietly saying, "Yeah."

And Bruce finally speaks up. "Lightning won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me." Thor shakes his head again, stepping back from Tony while Bruce continues, walking over to the gauntlet. "You saw what those Stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive."

"How do we know you will?" Grace asks.

Bruce shrugs. "We don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma... It's like, uh... I was made for this."

Everyone is silent, signaling their agreement. He's their best shot, the only logical play. The least likely to get killed. And then there's Nat — the relationship they had. It was short-lived, but the feelings lingered. It was practically obvious. He wants to do it for her. Make his own sacrifice, put his life at risk so others won't have to.

He picks up the gauntlet, and Tony tells everyone to suit up to protect themselves. Grace and Rhodey are both wearing their suits, helmets up. Steve finds the only suit of his left at the compound, holds his shield in front of him. Thor merely stands in front of Rocket. Clint stands close to Tony, slightly behind him.

"Good to go, yeah?" Tony asks Bruce.

Bruce nods. "Let's do it."

"You remember everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today," Tony says. "Don't change anything from the last five years."

"Got it."

Tony taps his chest, his suit quickly going around him. His helmet closes, and he holds a projected but very effective shield in front of himself and Clint.

"Friday," he says, "do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol, will ya?"

The doors close and strong metal folds overtop the skylight above them, goes down over the windows around them, the room itself being isolated as well. The entire compound is now on lockdown.

"Oh, this is it, isn't it?" Sai says.

"Uh huh," Grace replies, worried and excited. "This is it."

"Everybody comes home," Bruce declares, then putting on the gauntlet, the hand expanding through nano tech as he does so.

Immediately, the gauntlet lights up with the power of the Stones, and Bruce drops to his knees, shouting and groaning in pain. The power visibly goes up his arm, to his shoulder. His other hand is gripping the gauntlet as he tries to snap his fingers.

"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor shouts.

"No, wait," Steve says. "Bruce, are you okay?"

Bruce only shouts in response, and Tony urgently says, "Talk to me, Banner."

"This could get very bad very soon," Sai says as scans of Bruce pop up in Grace's vision.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," he insists, still trying to snap his fingers. Distantly, Grace thinks she hears a crash, but it doesn't register fully, as her eyes are locked on the sight in front of her.

Bruce's shout gets louder, turning to a scream as he lifts his gauntleted hand, the other still gripping the gauntlet, and then, finally, he snaps, and the world goes white once more.

Grace shields her eyes, and when she can see again, she watches as the gauntlet falls off Bruce's hand and he hits the floor, hopefully just unconscious. His side is burnt, all the way up his neck. Steve runs to him immediately. "Bruce!"

Clint kicks the smoking gauntlet away as everyone surrounds Bruce, Tony urging, "Don't move him." His helmet now down, along with Grace's and Rhodey's, Tony sprays a sort of freezing agent on Bruce's arm to soothe the burn. He grimaces, and Grace is relieved to know he's alive.

Breathing heavily, he grabs Steve's wrist and asks, "Did it work? Did it work?"

"We're not sure," Thor says as the lock down lifts. "It's okay."

Others disperse, knowing Bruce is okay, going to see if it worked. Scott walks to the window, and then someone's phone begins to ring, and Clint turns.

It's his. On the table. His phone is ringing. No one's called him in a long, long while.

He walks over and Grace watches, seeing the tears spring in his eyes when he looks at the screen. He picks it up, then says, "Honey." There's a short pause, and then he gets choked up, but in a wonderful, happy way. "Honey."

"Did it-?" Grace starts, walking over to him. Clint turns to her and nods, smiling.

She can't keep the smile off her own face, elated. It worked. It actually worked. They'd done it. She looks to her dad, her voice so quiet that to him it's like she's mouthing it. "Peter."

Tony smiles.

Peter, Wanda, May, Sam, even Bucky, T'Challa, and Shuri. Everyone is back.

At least, those that could be saved.

Grace's smile falls a little, and she feels a pang of guilt for her happiness. How could she be happy when Nat was gone? And Vision, too, dead five years ago, and how could she forget him? How could she smile when they're both gone — gone forever, no Stone able to save them? How could she?

She's taken from her conflicting thoughts by Bruce, who opens his eyes, sees out of the skylight, and shouts, "Guys-!"

He gets no farther, as missiles crash into the compound, shattering glass, turning the world to destruction and chaos.