A.N.: this one is short, but the next one... ohhh the next one will be big indeed.
C.W.: character death and non-graphic explanation of cause of death.
The events in this chapter are synced with events in the movie Avengers Endgame
"Hi mama."
"Hello dear, I'm just checking up on you. You've been so busy over there. Are you eating? Are you coming home soon?"
Kagome hung her head and covered the receiver on her phone, taking several deep, gasping breaths to clear the tears lodged in her throat.
"Yes mama I'm eating. And I can't come back just yet, we still have a little more work to do with this latest project. We're almost done, and I'll head straight there, I promise."
"Alright dear, I'll let you go then, it's late here. I'll see you soon."
The line clicked and went dead, and Kagome flopped backward on her mattress and threw her arm over her face. Her tears ran then, down the sides of her face, catching in her ears and hair, wetting her sheet.
They'd lost Nat.
Their one casualty on their mission.
She'd tossed herself off a cliff so they could have the Soul Stone and return the lives Thanos had stolen.
It had been a devastating blow. Clint had been inconsolable, Inuyasha had disappeared altogether, though she could feel his aura hovering around on the roof, and the rest of them had taken the next day off to mourn and remember.
Kagome had barely stopped crying since the news had been delivered.
It was too much. Leaving a living, breathing Loki behind to step back into a world where he was dead had felt a lot like living through him dying all over again, the very air around her seeming more dull for the fact that he wasn't breathing it.
And then whatever was left in the atmosphere went completely stale with the end of Natasha's life.
Sango.
Sif.
And now Natasha.
Beautiful, glorious warrior women with a fierce exterior housing a warm, loving heart, ready to give up their lives at a moment's notice for those they loved.
'I can't believe I got to count each of them friends, and now they're ALL gone.'
Thor had suggested using the newly acquired stones to bring her back, but according to Clint it was a permanent exchange. A soul for a soul.
A selfless sacrifice required to gain access to one of the ancient stones of power.
A selfless sacrifice.
'... a selfless sacrifice. I... I'M selfless sacrifice. Maybe... maybe I could reverse this. Maybe I could just decide to revoke her sacrifice. I could save Gamora too... I need to think on this. I need to meditate.'
She checked the time, noted three hours until they reconvened to finally use the stones, set an alarm, and cleared her mind.
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A keen awareness of the potential for doom prompted Kagome to slip her bow and quiver over her shoulders. There was simply no possible way to know how the stones might react. Gearing up to use them to undo what Thanos had done felt a lot like getting ready to wish on the Shikon no Tama. Would they get exactly what they asked for, or was there a dark, immutable will within the stones that would twist their desires and deliver something warped and tainted?
As far as she was concerned, when you started messing with powerful, ancient artifacts you could never be too careful. And while she wasn't sure just what her weapons would be able to do if things went south, it made her feel less vulnerable to have their comfortable weight resting between her shoulders.
And she apparently wasn't the only one letting their nerves get the best of them.
Steve had his shield, Inuyasha had tessaiga slung through a belt loop, and Clint had his own specialized bow and arrow ready and waiting. Stormbreaker rested against a seat next to the one Thor was waiting silently in, casually tossing and catching his newly reacquired Mjolnir, and Bruce was a weapon unto himself.
Armed to the teeth and dangerous, it made Kagome feel a little less like they were going in blind to know they were all ready to throw down at a moment's notice.
She sidled up to Inuyasha, and when he met her eyes she smiled sadly, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
His mouth twitched up on a ghost of a grin that didn't meet his haunted eyes, but he brightened at least a little. Nothing was said, but the message was clear: she would have his back in this as in everything else.
No matter how tense things between them had been before, her oldest friend was hurting and she wouldn't abandon him.
She turned her attention onto the stones where they glittered in the gauntlet Tony had crafted for them.
Seemingly innocuous with their shimmering rainbow of colors, there was an unmistakable aura of ambiguity surrounding each one. Nearly perfectly balanced between light and dark, it would be impossible to predict which way using them would tilt the scale. It was possible they were a wholly impartial tool that operated exactly as the user intended, with no inherent malice or shady will of their own.
Kagome felt herself sinking into her inner awareness as she reached out with a thin tendril of reiki toward the stones, and her eyes widened marginally in astonishment as one glowed slightly brighter than the others in answer to her wordless call. Bright, orange, a sparkling citrine of possibility that called out to something in her it recognized and Kagome stepped closer, heedless of any potential danger as she answered its call. It's silent chime of recognition went unheard by all but she herself, and that's when Kagome realized what she was looking at.
'A Stone of Souls... just like me. I think I can use this. I think I can use it to boost my abilities and find Loki's soul... but I wonder...'
She moved a little closer, got a feel for the energies winding excitedly together past the stones deceptively calm surface, and pushed down further inside. She probed around deeper, finding a little pocket that pulsed with something unmistakable, something that felt like life.
'Oh... I think I found it, where the souls of the sacrificed are kept... let me just...'
She was startled harshly out of her searching by a hand coming down firmly in her shoulder, and her head whipped around, meeting Tony Stark's worried gaze.
"You okay there kid? You looked possessed for a minute."
Kagome blinked, clearing the clouds of concentration that had filled her head and then smirked, shrugging Tony's hand off.
"Kid? Tony, I'm older than you are."
He rolled his eyes and moved over To the Hulk, who stood on the other side of the gauntlet display.
"Don't remind me. Big Guy here's doing the honors, so go ahead and step back with the others."
She blushed a little to notice that everyone else had, indeed, made a little bit of space between the group and the gauntlet, so she fell back and wedged herself between Thor and Inuyasha.
Bruce placed the gauntlet on his hand and the backlash of power as a consequence of using them laid the gentle giant flat in his back, arm smoking, and they all rushed forward to make sure he was alright.
Tony sprayed his arm with something to put out the smolder and soothe the pain while Kagome concentrated her reiki through his veins to heal what she could of the damage, but it was extensive.
'So THIS is the price of using the stones together. I see.'
As she tended to her wounded friend she did her best to ignore the rest of the hubbub of ringing phones, people running to and fro, and the fever pitched chatter of trying to determine the effectiveness of Bruce's use of the the stones.
Bruce groaned in pain, she and Tony's combined efforts to soothe him taking more time than was appreciated up against the immense damage the stones had wrought, but they were making a little progress. He may not be able to use this arm again, at least not any time soon, but he wouldn't have to be in pain for too much longer.
"Hey guys?" She heard Scott say in the distant background, nearly missed with most of her focus turned to healing, but his next words did catch enough of her attention to give her pause.
"I think it worked..."
She met Tony's eyes, and for a moment elation sparked as they comprehended what that meant.
They'd done it. They'd defied time and fate and destiny and brought back the trillions of souls across the universe that had been lost.
Tony opened his mouth to speak, and then everything went dark.