Pre-chapter note: Things will look grim. I intend a happy ending for this story, and around 30 chapters' worth of content, if that's any indication of where the story is going. Bear with me, these next few chapters (especially chapter 19) are going to be rough as hell. Then, Tony is going to work hard to fix it against all odds. Thanks for reading!
Chapter Eighteen
Leigh wakes up surrounded by Tony. His face buried in her braid, her head pillowed on his arm, one leg insinuated between hers, his other hand warm on her hip. She usually can't sleep like this all night, but something about the knowledge of what's at stake must have cast a spell on them and made their intertwined positions possible, just this once. When she lifts her head, Tony nuzzles even closer, sliding the hand from her hip across her chest possessively.
"It's morning, you know," she whispers.
"Doesn't have to stay morning, I have a time machine," he mumbles against her hair.
"Even you aren't that selfish," she teases.
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Bruce makes everyone breakfast. He wears the apron again, and as soon as Natasha sees it, she makes eye contact with Leigh, grabs a chair from the cafeteria, and walks into the kitchen to sit there with him.
"How long has that been going on?" Scott asks, pointing over his shoulder with a thumb towards the kitchen.
"At least seven years, give or take," Clint says gruffly.
Thor doesn't make an appearance at breakfast. He's already seated in a corner of the meeting room when they show up there for Steve and Tony's presentation on the stones. Leigh had made Tony start out wearing the black shirt today, so he'll avoid the spilling issues today that he had the day before, though they've planned to spend most of the day discussing the stones, now that the time machine is working. She'd put on the same clothes from the day before, not that she didn't bring others, but they're comfortable and happen to give the impression that she was so mad that she woke up, got dressed, and drove for nearly two hours to yell at them for leaving her behind.
It's a power move, basically.
Steve's been on edge all morning. He's got a list of the stones on a piece of paper, above and beyond the display Tony's set up for everyone to visualize. When he calls out for Thor to start, it's a sign that he's been so focused on his task that he's missed what's been going on around him. For his part, Thor rallies decently, but Tony and Bruce both have to cut him off several times.
As a brain break after that, Tony talks about the Tessaract. He mentions the fact that SHIELD has more or less had control over it for as long as Steve was frozen in the ice.
"Depending on who goes on which mission, we may want to take it out of the compound in New Jersey," Tony says, leaning on the table and looking at Scott. "I mean, the chances of running into our other selves is really high, in my tower in New York. In that compound, all we have to do is outsmart SHIELD agents." He winks at Clint and Natasha. Everyone ends up agreeing that it's smarter to try to take it (and therefore easier to give it back) during the chaos of the Chitauri attack.
They order Chinese for lunch and talk about the Power stone, meaning Leigh gets to watch Rocket's chaotic mix of disrespect, sarcasm, and unpredictability. It's the first time Leigh's heard of most of these people and places, and after she listens to him for a while, she starts to understand that Rocket is angry. He's lost people he loves, and the places might not be gone, but they're different, now.
They spend an hour talking about where each of them remembers being, in relation to the scepter, during the attack on New York. Slowly, a strategy emerges, including the fact that they know about HYDRA's SHIELD infiltration.
"Can you imagine the kind of trust they'd put in you, Steve, if you went up to Sitwell and said 'Hail HYDRA' in his ear? Man would give you the moon," Nat teases him.
"As long as he hands me the scepter, it'll be worth it."
"Now, we don't want to change anything, here," Tony objects. "If Sitwell goes up to their Cap and acts like he's in on it, that could change plenty."
"That would split off into an alternate universe, at that point, Tony," Bruce says with quiet confidence.
"Kind of wish we were living in that one right now," Clint says under his breath.
By the time Nebula starts talking about what little they know about the Soul stone, they've given up on the desk chairs. Tony's leaning against the wall behind where Nebula is talking, and Leigh's on the floor against the windows, practically out of sight. Everyone else is on the couch, or nearby. She hadn't thought it was possible for Nebula's voice to sound more strained, but when she mentions the death of her sister, there's no mistaking the pain in it. Unfortunately, they don't know much.
"You say murdered, is it possible they had to fight something, and he simply… didn't prevent her death? Used her as a shield? Wasn't she a formidable fighter?" Rhodey asks.
"Very good fighter," Rocket asserts.
"I believe he did it deliberately," Nebula says darkly. "I think it pained him."
"So if this is a 'dominion of death,' does that mean some kind of test of strength? An army that's protecting this thing? What?" Clint asks.
"He did not appear battle-weary on his return. That is all I know." Nebula bows her head and says no more.
Everyone needs a break after that.
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Continuing her trend of leaning against windows, Leigh sits propped up against the glass wall of their conference room and snacks on candy as Tony, Nat, and Bruce talk about the Time stone. Almost everyone else has yet to wander back in, but it's nearly dinner time, and they've been at this since just after breakfast, so that's understandable.
When Nat points out that if you count the Time stone, there are three stones in New York on that day in 2012, Bruce sits up and stares at her.
"Shut the front door!" he says. It's awkward and adorable, and Leigh's not the only one to think so.
"Oh will you just come here?" Nat says affectionately, rolling off of the table where she'd been lounging to kiss him. Bruce's hands, which had been gesturing to his sides, freeze for a few seconds, before they move to hold her.
Tony puts his fist up straight in the air, then points at the door, in a blatant use of silent team signals. Leigh crawls toward the door and Tony rolls off the table in the other direction from where Natasha and Bruce are kissing, and they both leave the room.
"Think she'll be happy enough not to murder us for being silly?" Tony asks.
"There's always that chance," Leigh says.
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Steve calls them to regroup in the first conference room right before dinner, which is a brilliant move that Leigh appreciates. He points out that the ten of them can form three teams, with the four that head to New York grabbing the three stones there in 2012, two heading to Asgard in 2013, and four heading to 2014 and splitting up, with the help of Scott's miniaturizing and maximizing technology on Rocket's ship. He then gives out the assignments- Himself, Tony, Scott, and Bruce to 2012, Rocket and Thor to 2013, and Clint, Nat, Nebula, and Rhodey to 2014.
"Tony?" Leigh says, when Steve pauses to take a breath.
"Our daughter is safe in the tower, I promise," Tony says, acting like Leigh's suddenly worried that they left Ember alone in the time machine room. Some of the people in the room laugh, the ones who know they're parents.
"I was actually about to suggest you share the notes you made last year, when you were researching where the stones would be, when we did end up having access to a time machine," she says.
"You knew this would happen?" Scott asks, incredulous.
"I hoped this would happen. And, that wouldn't matter, honey, because we don't have enough capsules of Pym Particles to do more than a there and back."
"Wait," Scott says, holding up a finger. "This might be a Hail Mary, but: if we can steal Infinity Stones, can't we steal Pym Particles?"
"We can't put them back when we're done. And there's no way to know what we're hampering, what those particular ones are meant to be used for, what terrible things might happen if they're not there," Bruce objects.
"More terrible than the loss of half of the life in the universe, though?" Clint points out.
"I'm not- I'm not saying it's Plan A. I'm not even saying it's plan B," Scott says, putting up his hands placatingly. "I'm saying, we fight with everything we have, and this is something we could have. Let me write down the date and place where I know some of them are, okay? Put it in your pocket. If everything goes well, we can burn those in the campfire with the S'mores we'll eat with the people we bring back."
"Bruce, you did say that if we go back and change something, it doesn't change our now, it changes the now for a different us, right? So if we had to go steal those particles, and they were the ones Scott needed for something, at that point, he's not our Scott," Rhodey says.
Leigh can just barely understand what he's saying, and she can tell that not everyone in the room is at the same level of comprehension. But Bruce nods. "Okay. Write them down. We'll keep them in mind, but please," he sighs, "Please, only as a last resort. A 'come back empty handed' resort." He looks down at himself, holds his hand next to Tony's where he's leaning on the table. "I'm living proof that our best ideas don't always turn out the way we wanted them to."
"Seems like an argument in favor of making the best of what we've got, to me," Natasha says gently. Bruce looks down, and Leigh's delighted to see that his green cheeks have a tint of pink to them.
"All right, break it up, I'm hungry. Scott, come with me to the supply closet, we'll write out some notecards," Tony says, clapping his hands.
Steve suggests that each team eat dinner as a group so they can plan out what to do at their separate destinations. Even though this leaves her out, Leigh has to laugh at the way Rhodey looks over at Nebula with initial trepidation before nodding and gesturing that they should go grab something to eat.
Leigh sits with Tony and Steve and their team for a while, but when she's done eating, she decides to go for a walk. She squeezes Tony's hand and slips outside, pulling on a long-sleeved cardigan to keep away the chill of the October wind. She's done a circuit of the building twice and is thinking of coming back inside when she sees Rocket and Nebula walking her way.
When they're close enough to hear her, she calls out, "If you want to complain about recruiting your spaceship for the mission, I want you to know, I have zero pull with any of the organizers!" It's a lie with no meat behind it, of course. She has pull with Tony, but it wouldn't probably help any. This mission is more important than one person's unhappiness, no matter how profound.
"Nah, that ain't it," Rocket says, shaking his head. "Why don't you turn back around and we'll walk back behind the building. We've got some concerns, and I don't really want them overheard."
"...okay," Leigh says, looking between the two of them. She can't read Nebula at all, and she's only just met Rocket, but he does look unhappy. "What's this about?" she asks, once they're out of sight of the doors to the facility.
"Nebula and I were talking about what happened to her sister, on Vormir."
"I do not think they understood," Nebula says. "They think the danger was just to Gamora."
Leigh sees the path she almost took the last time she walked here. It wends into the forest a bit, which might give them even more privacy, and the trees might be a bit of a windbreak. She angles that way.
"It sounded to me like they thought they'd have to fight someone for the stone," Rocket explains. "But Nebula doesn't think so."
"I have dwelled on this," Nebula rasps. "I believe that if Thanos had murdered me on Vormir, he would not have left with the Soul stone."
"Wait." Leigh stops, turns, and looks at the two of them. "You think he got the stone because he murdered Gamora?"
"Yes," Nebula says, her voice nearly throbbing with anger.
"She thinks that's the whole reason Thanos adopted children. He's wanted these stones for a long time, and look what he did to her!" Rocket says, throwing a hand toward Nebula. "It's almost as if he's taking some kind of revenge out on her. Maybe it's revenge for not being lovable enough. Not the right kind of sacrifice."
"Stars, Rocket, she's standing right there!" Leigh objects.
"What? She agrees with me."
"Thanos used me. Thanos used Gamora. He got the Soul stone," Nebula says, her hands tightened into fists.
"So anyway," Rocket says, leaning up against a tree. "Here's my problem: Steve's sending Barton and Romanoff. Sure, they've been friends for over a dozen years, but… wasn't he out katana-murdering a bunch of criminals for the last five years? Did he call her? Did he write? Are we sending the right people to Vormir to get this thing?"
"Natasha's been a shell of a person when it comes to missing Clint," Leigh says. "But, hang on. Are you saying that if we send Clint and Nat, only one of them comes home?"
"That's what I'm saying." Rocket's expression is bleak, even on a Raccoon.
"Oh my God, that would rip them apart, emotionally, both of them! How do you even pick, how do you show up and decide which of the two of you is going to-"
"They would fight each other." Nebula says. "If Gamora were on this team, we would volunteer to go. It would be an honor."
"Even if one of you would die?" Leigh asks, genuinely horrified.
"To save half the universe?" Nebula stands straight, her expression as condemning as Leigh's ever seen it, not that she's known her for long. "Of course."
"Yeah, well, she ain't here, on account of she's already been sacrificed for the Soul stone already. And from where I'm standing, I'm worried that the team we're sending doesn't have what it takes."
Leigh feels compelled to defend Nat. "I promise you, Nat loves Clint. You didn't see how much she wanted to find him, to bring him back home."
"Would you stake the lives of half the universe on that?" Rocket asks her point blank. "After five years of evading her? Of no contact? Would you still love Tony the same way if he did that to you?"
The thought is painful. "I-"
Rocket points. "That. That right there is doubt. And we can't have doubt right now. We need a doubt-free mission. And that's why I'm talking to you."
The inflection of his voice is odd. The way he's looking at her, expectantly, makes Leigh feel like she's missed something.
And then she realizes what it is.
"Out of everyone in the team, if you had to pick a pair that you knew could do this, who would you pick?" Rocket asks gently, when he sees her face change.
Ember patting the 'Tony' on Leigh's wrist twice. Ember throwing her hands around Leigh's neck. 'I love you, Mama!'
Tony's voice, shot through with pleasure, 'God, you still own me, even now.'
Asking Tony to lose a woman he loves again, because of Thanos.
Leigh shakes her head. Tony would never agree to anything like this, even if they didn't have a daughter together. He'd shut it down, no matter what. Tony Stark would turn the planet inside out, to stop her from doing this.
She says, "There's no way I could ask Tony to-"
"You can't ask him," Nebula interrupts harshly.
"He'd never go for it. He'd probably scuttle the whole thing, or spend however much time trying to find a suicidal married couple to sub in. The longer we take to do this, the more likely we fail." Rocket's voice is urgent and desperate.
Leigh knows they're right. Still, she can't even fathom the cost this one act of sacrifice would exact. "You're asking me to-"
"Look," Rocket says. "I know, I know, I keep interrupting you. But you need to know this. My buddy Quill, I told you about him earlier today. He loved Gamora. Loved her kind of the same way it seems like Tony loves you- focused. Maybe even a little obsessive. Now picture us on Thanos's planet, big group of us, we've almost got the incomplete gauntlet offa the guy, we're winning, and then Quill finds out that Gamora's dead, that Thanos killed her." Rocket covers his eyes with his hands and shakes his head. "He attacked Thanos, and we ended up losing, Leigh. We lost. Partly because a guy couldn't handle losing the woman he loved. And all across the universe, billions of guys lost the women they loved. A lot of people did."
Leigh slumps back up against a tree. Rocket's argument makes a horrible, stomach-churning kind of sense, and she can feel herself coalescing around the idea he's proposing, like she's made up of a pile of iron shavings and Rocket's the magnet ploughing through them. She slides down the tree until she's sitting on the cold ground underneath it. Her hands cover her face, then her ears, then she huddles over her knees, linking her fingers together against the back of her neck. It stings in one spot in particular, and that's enough to make her start to cry.
"It doesn't have to be her," Nebula suggests to Rocket. "Stark could do it."
"I'd rather it be me," Leigh realizes out loud. Her voice is weak and thready. She feels dizzy. "You'll still need him, after."
As soon as she says this, Leigh lifts her head and sees Nebula. She looks almost happy, or if not happy, triumphant. So does Rocket. Their joy slices through Leigh's resistance, cutting more of it away. It presages the potential joy of countless strangers, all across the universe.
"If you don't want me to tell him, how are we going to get me to Vormir?" she whispers.
Every time she blinks, she sees her daughter's face. Every time she breathes, she thinks about how much she loves her husband. But every time she looks at Rocket and Nebula, Leigh thinks about the people they've lost, the people she's lost, and the fact that if she does this terrible thing they're asking, they can have them back. She thinks about how proud Ember is of the things Tony's done, the videos she's watched of him being Iron Man.
Leigh wants to make Ember proud of her Mama, too.
"Thor gave me some of that beer of his, and after about two sips, I was literally about to throw up," Rocket says, making a retching sound "I think if I drank a whole bottle, I would. I could make myself sick, and you could volunteer in my place. Asgard isn't all that dangerous, for the most part. Tony could be persuaded that Thor could keep you safe, even in his current… diminished capacity."
"And then what, we get Bruce to swap the destinations?" Leigh asks. She presses a hand to her stomach. Rocket's not the only one feeling sick.
"We should go back. There's not that much time," Nebula says.
"I need to- Stars, this is hard. I need to record something for my daughter," Leigh says, pulling out and fumbling her phone onto the underbrush. Nebula reaches over, finds it, holds it out. "Thank you."
"Tell her that her mother is a hero," Nebula says. Without another word, she turns and starts back toward the compound.
"Leigh, I- For what it's worth, I'm really sorry. This sucks. There's nothing that can make it better."
"Can you tell Bruce I need to talk to him? I need a little time to work out a way to not show everything I'm planning on my face, you know?" Leigh says, laughing mirthlessly.
"Sure," he says. "I'll send him out, all right?"
Leigh's composing herself for her message to Ember, like there's any way to prepare for that. She's got to do it now, though, because Tony had said he wants to do this thing before nightfall, and she can see the way the light quality has already drastically changed. The sun's going down, maybe in more ways than one.
She props her phone up on a log, using the special, memory-intensive setting that will turn her video into a hologram. Leigh lets out a breath, wipes the residual tears off of her face, and tells the phone by voice command to start recording.
"Hey there, Love Bug," she says.
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Leigh's almost through singing Ember's favorite lullaby when she hears footsteps approaching. As she'd planned to do, Leigh blows a kiss to the camera, smiling with all of her love shining on her face, and then she reaches out and turns off the recording.
Without the cord of necessity holding her up anymore, Leigh collapses like a marionette with no strings, falling first to her hands and knees, then over on her side. There are no tears this time, but that's because she's holding onto them in a steel grip, knowing she has to maintain that hold until the deception she's planning is completely perpetuated, and she's on the team, headed to Vormir.
"Leigh!" Bruce yells, rushing over. He picks her up, holding her against his knee, cradled by one huge arm, as he searches her visually for any signs of injury.
"It's all emotional, I'm fine- I mean, I'm not fine, but it's not fixable," she says. In a strange way, it's the gentleness in his movements that help her hold herself together. Bruce hasn't struggled with how much effort, how much physical strength to expend when interacting with other people for a while now. He's reached that goal, and she's glad for him.
"Oh," he says, his body relaxing. "Tony's going to be safe, Leigh. No one's going to die." His cheerful optimism feels awful to puncture, like when Leigh has to let Ember down easily from some adorable scheme that she has planned.
In a bleak voice, Leigh says, "Yes they are."
She scoots off of Bruce's lap into the path and explains the concerns that Rocket and Nebula had brought to her. Then she explains the start of their suggested solution: a different team sent to Vormir.
"I think she does love Clint enough for it to work," Bruce says thoughtfully, "-but I understand why someone might not want to hinge the whole mission on the possibility that she doesn't."
"It's definitely not to impugne her character at all," Leigh tells him.
Bruce's expression turns more serious. "What if I took Clint's place?"
It's as unusual a love declaration as Leigh's ever heard of, and she shakes her head vehemently. "Think of what you're asking, Bruce- can you die? Do you want to find out that you can't, that you have to ask Nat to do it, instead?" His face falls and his eyes close. Bruce raises a hand as if warding off the situation Leigh's describing. "What you two have is too new for it to make sense to either test it like this or rip the two of you apart. And what about Clint? Natasha finally brought him back from the abyss, and he saw his daughter in the test you guys did. He knows it works. I can't ask him to forego that."
"You could make a compelling argument against any one of the ten of us dying, Leigh. That's not the way to go about this," Bruce says. "It seems like your mind is made up, but there are plenty of arguments against sending you. Not the least of which is I am not sure Tony could handle that choice."
"Yeah, I know," Leigh says, wincing. "The scarcity of the Pym Particles 'help' in some ways. Once we're there, it's one or the other, pretty much. And I won't let it be him."
Bruce's laughter is surprising and bitter. "Like he will let it be you? This hero gig isn't what it's cracked up to be, is it? Most of us didn't ask for the responsibility, and here you are, throwing yourself into the most extreme deep end. In all meanings of that term, I might add. This is- this is crazy, Leigh. What we should do is walk in there and tell everyone what Nebula meant is that someone has to die, and someone who loves them has to watch. Then we should all figure it out together. I shouldn't entertain this conversation at all." He stands up.
"I'm not sure when there's a time for cockeyed optimism, but this is definitely not it. Are you going to help me?"
"Yeah, I'll help you," Bruce sighs, sounding defeated. He reaches down to help her up. "But have a care: Tony won't accept this. At all. You're probably going to watch him experience the darkest moments of his life, and that's if everything goes well. You might have to watch him die, instead. There are no other options."
"Deep in my heart, there's a tiny hope that it's a test, that Thanos failed it in a way, but still got the stone. That he was too thorough, and that Tony and I can both get out of this," Leigh confesses.
"Deep in my heart, I want to ask you what you think you'll be unleashing on the rest of us, when Tony comes back without you. But the alternative is a fifty-fifty shot of losing Nat, and I'm not a fan of that one either. If that's not irony, I don't know what is," Bruce tells her. "Okay, if I'm swapping teams around, who goes where?"
"Swap Clint with Tony, in New York. He was there that day, and you can catch him up to your plan. I assume you had uses for Tony's suit, for that plan?"
"Just an actual business suit, everything else is just speed. I could send Nat with Thor, and put you on the group to Morag. Rocket knows not to give his mini ship to Clint, then, right?"
"Yeah."
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Rocket's already vomiting into a bucket in the time machine warehouse when she and Bruce get inside. Everyone's huddled around him looking concerned.
"-so pissed about this, it hasn't happened for six years. It can last for days, " Rocket's saying, between heaves.
"Speed is imperative. If Thanos became aware of our attempts, he would seek to stop us. We should not delay," Nebula says.
"Send me in his place," Leigh says, walking up.
"No." Tony's adamant. He moves to stand beside her, reaching down to hold her hand. "We can try again in the morning."
"Rocket was supposed to go with Thor to Asgard, right? That's not too dangerous, is it?" Nat says. Leigh has mixed feelings about the fact that she's the first one to express support- what Leigh's planning is in service of saving Natasha's life, of course, but Leigh had more than once expressed a wish to be useful to the Avengers in some way. That Nat's helping with what is essentially a one way ticket to Vormir is bittersweet.
"Do you remember that email I didn't mean to send you, Tony? Before I spoke a word to you?" Leigh asks him in a quiet voice. "Do you remember the end of it?"
"Leigh," Tony says, his tone threatening a burst of anger.
"I said even if it was to fix holes in your socks, let me help, if you figure out a way to reverse it."
"Okay, passing out now," Rocket says, and does just that.
"She'll need a time-space GPS fitted. Rocket's is too small," Steve says, heading for the equipment locker room.
"Steve!" Tony shouts after him, but Rogers is gone. "You're- I can't-" Tony's struggling with his words, but then he snaps his fingers. "All you have are skirts. That won't work with the nanotech suit."
"Grasping at straws, here," Scott whispers.
"Wrong. Remember Nat's wedding present?" Leigh says, surprised that she can find a reason to smile right now. She unties the bow of her yellow skirt and undoes the snap, unwinding it to reveal the tactical pants. Setting the skirt down on a chair nearby, Leigh hangs her cardigan over the back and pulls off the lace mesh sweater so she's just wearing the black tank top and pants.
"Okay, that was kind of hot," Clint observes.
"Bruce, is this feasible in the next half hour, please say no?"
"I'm already swapping them out, Tony," Bruce says.
"I don't like this," Tony says, which means he's bending toward her, and Leigh knows how hard it is, knows that he'll be so very upset and hurt -more than that- devastated beyond all reckoning, when he understands what she's done.
"I love you so much, I'm sorry," she says, catching Bruce's eye by accident as she moves to throw her arms around Tony. Bruce offers her a twisted sort of frowning smile and turns away.
"I'm only saying yes because we need to get moving, and Asgard should be one of the easier ones, even with a drastically different-looking Thor. Hell, it might work out better. You two might be able to steal some sort of a handmaid's outfit and you can grab the stone from Jane Foster's room that way," Tony says reluctantly.
Leigh so desperately wishes that could be her real mission. She nods, smiling up at him.
It takes about twenty minutes, almost all the way to sunset, to get her fitted with what she'll need to join the team. In the interim, Nebula and Rhodey get Rocket to his room, and everyone else watches her with Tony, probably wondering if he'll pull the plug on the plan at the last minute.
He doesn't.
They walk toward the platform, all dressed in their nanosuits, GPS's firmly affixed, to listen to Steve give a speech.
"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends… We lost family… We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round-trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. That doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives."
"We're gonna win," Tony says, confident.
"Whatever it takes," Steve says, looking straight at him. "Good luck."
Leigh bites the inside of her mouth until it bleeds, but she manages not to cry. She can hear Scott saying something, but everyone's stepping toward each other with their GPS-gloved hands, and she does, too.
"See you in a minute," Nat says, grinning flirtatiously at Bruce.
Yes. Yes you will, Leigh thinks to herself. It is exactly the right thing to make her feel better.
"Love you," Tony mouths, across from her before his mask slides up to cover his face.
"Love you too," Leigh mouths back before hers slides up, too.
Suddenly, she's sucked into a crazy landscape, zooming through blue nonsense, hardly able to comprehend what's going on.
When she's her full sized self again, Leigh's standing on the surface of a dark, ghostly planet, covered with mist.
"What-" Tony says. He turns around a few times.
"This has got to be Morag," Rhodey says, hitting a button to reveal his Iron Patriot suit underneath his nanosuit. "What are you two doing here?"
"Fuck, Bruce messed up." Tony hits the button on his suit, and his black outfit complete with ARC reactor becomes visible. "Leigh?"
Leigh hits her button. "That was intense. Honestly, I'm grateful it's a screw-up, because, look at this place! After everything I heard about Asgard, this is a bit of a let-down."
Tony chuckles weakly. "Please tell me the Benatar is not still in Clint Barton's pocket?"
"Rocket gave it to me instead. Something about the way Clint seemed too flippant when he told him to keep it safe?" Rhodey says, reaching in to pull it out.
"Do you have the means to make it larger?" Nebula asks.
"Right here."
"Okay." Tony scrubs a hand over his face. "Okay. We can do this. Whatever there is on Vormir, if we thought Clint and Natasha could handle it, I should be able to with the suit." He taps his ARC reactor twice, and the Iron Man suit forms itself around him. With the repulsors in his hands faced down, Tony lifts up a few feet, then lands again. "After all, I can fly."
With another few taps, the suit is retracting.
"Let's get moving, then. We've gotta move the pod out, get you two in the sky," Rhodey says.
Tony pulls her close and they move out of the way, watching Rhodey enlarge the Benatar, then watching Nebula take the helm to set it up for their journey to Vormir. Leigh clings to Tony, knowing he'll take her reaction as fear about their unexpected situation. He's strong, sturdy, and comforting, and she just hopes he'll be able to rally when he has the Soul stone in hand. He's no Thanos, to have met her and cultivated their relationship with the sole purpose of exploiting it for this moment. She has some arguments prepared, but realistically, they'll only make him feel better in retrospect, when he relives those moments over and over, once he's back home and everything is fixed.
When it's time to leave, she and Tony go up to Nebula and Rhodey. Leigh shakes Nebula's hand, but she can't think of anything to say.
"Thank you," she says in her odd, harsh voice. All Leigh can do is nod.
Then she's walking over to Rhodey, who pulls her in for a huge hug. "It'll be nothing. Let Tony do it all, maybe even just stay in the ship. What a story for Em, yeah?"
Tongue-tied, Leigh nods, kisses Rhodey's suit, over his heart. Then, Tony's taking her hand and they're walking up into the ship. He lets go and jogs over to the piloting area.
"Coordinates for Vormir are laid in," Nebula says loudly. "All you have to do is not fall out."
Leigh's still thinking about Ember, thanks to what Rhodey said. She's turning away, steeling herself for what she's about to do, when she has a thought.
"Rhodey!" she calls out, even as Tony's starting to close the door. "Tell Leshia I love her?" A wayward tear escapes, and Leigh wipes it away with her palm.
"I will," Rhodey says, but there's trepidation in his voice, now. "Stay safe."
Leigh doesn't respond that she will.
NOTE: I have been struggling with my planned ending for this story for a while, because as originally intended, it was going to be sad. However, as I have come up to this, as I write it, as you, the readers, react to it, I've reconsidered, and the ending I've come with instead is so crazy, so TONY, so absolutely perfect for the tone of this, that I ask you to trust me, please don't give up, I've bumped up the chapter numbers to reflect the new plan.
YES, this is gut-wrenching, but stay with me. I won't let you down.