Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 109 of God of Lies and Mischief and the Woman of Many Faces. I want to thank those who have left reviews. It really does mean a lot to me that you guys are enjoying this. I hope that you guys will continue to enjoy this story as it continues on. We're actually getting closer to the end of this part of the story and I have to admit that this has been a bit of a bumpy road. At some point I'm going to have to say goodbye to my beautiful character Everleigh, and it'll be a hard goodbye that's for sure when it is time to do so. I hope that you guys enjoy this next chapter. Without further ado Chapter 109. ENJOY!
Chapter 109
Everleigh's helmet came from her face as she looked at everyone else who had gone after the stones. Her heart rammed in her chest when she noticed that one of them hadn't returned.
"Did we get them all?" Bruce questioned everyone.
"You telling me this'll actually work?" Rhodey questioned looking over at the green man.
There was a moment as the others began to realize that Natasha wasn't there with Clint.
"Clint, where's Nat?"
Clint remained silent telling them everything that they needed to know. The mission was completed but Natasha was lost.
Bruce fell to his knees and pounded the floor in grief.
Everleigh's hands gripped tightly at her sides as tears came to her eyes. Natasha along with Clint had made her feel welcomed and now there was only Clint left which hurt.
ENDGAME
Tony, Steve, Thor, Bruce, Clint, and Everleigh stood together near the lake mourning their fallen teammate and most of all friend.
Tony cleared his throat letting out a breath running his hand through his hair. "Do we know if she had family?"
Steve's eyes slid over to Tony. "Yeah. Us."
Thor blinked a few times in confusion. "What?"
"I just asked him a question–" Tony said as he looked over at Thor.
"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, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right? So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together."
"We can't get her back." Clint said firmly.
"Wha– what?"
"It can't be undone. It can't."
Thor let out a dry laugh. "I'm sorry. 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?"
"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. Or that's at least 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 TALK TO HIM!" Clint looked down in grief instead of anger now. "It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it."
Everleigh winced as Bruce grabbed a bench and hurled it across the lake. Tears slid down her cheeks sadly.
Bruce turned to the others with a resigned look upon his face. "She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to."
Steve looked over at Bruce. "We will."
Everleigh took a shaky breath gripping her hands at her sides. She turned to the group as tears slid down her cheeks. "We will do more than make it worth it. No matter what it takes."
ENDGAME
Everyone was gathered around the finished gauntlet.
Everleigh wrapped her arms around herself as she looked at it disdainfully.
"All right. The glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?" Rocket questioned the easiest question of who should truly snap their fingers and bring everyone back into this world.
"I'll do it." Thor said firmly.
"Excuse me?" Scott questioned rather concerned of what Thor was doing.
"It's okay."
"No, no, no, whoa. Stop. Stop. Wait a sec. Hey, hey–" Everyone began to say trying to stop Thor from doing what he was thinking of doing.
"Wait, wait, Thor, just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet." Steve pointed out knowing that Thor was acting on pure emotion of avenging his brother among other things.
"I'm sorry. What, we're just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?" Thor questioned gripping his hand at his side in anger.
"We should at least discuss it." Scott said, crossing his arms.
"No, no, sitting here staring at that thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty."
Everleigh let out a scoff. "Thor." She said looking at him with narrowed blue eyes knowing that he was having a rather hard time with the whole thing.
"It's not about that–" Tony said before Thor cut him off.
"It's not that– Stop it! Just let me!" Thor began to tear up. "Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something right."
"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?"
"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodey questioned his eyes sliding towards Thor.
"Lightning."
Tony let out a breath. "Yeah."
"Lightning won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me." Bruce said softly, causing Thor to release Tony from his hold. "You saw what those stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive."
Steve looked over at Bruce. "How do we know you will?"
"We don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma." Bruce explained as he took a good look at the gauntlet. "It's like...I was made for this."
Tony looked at Bruce as he gathered up the gauntlet. "Good to go, yeah?"
"Let's do it."
"You remember– everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years."
"Got it."
Everyone got ready, suiting up quickly knowing that this probably could end either really well for them or it could end badly.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., do me a favor and activate the Barn Door Protocol. Will you?"
"Yes, boss."
Everleigh brought up a barrier around herself and Clint, whom she had been standing next to.
"Everybody comes home." Bruce said as he put the gauntlet on, which expanded to fit his hand. A power surge overwhelmed him causing him to grunt in pain.
"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor shouted trying to move forward to help Bruce get it off.
"No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?" Steve called out in hopes that Bruce would be alright.
"Talk to me, Banner." Tony said his voice laced over with worry. He needed to know that one of the smartest men that he knew was alright.
"I'm okay. I'm okay." Bruce said affirming that he was alright even though the surge was hurting him. It needed to be done. He wasn't about to fail in bringing everyone back home that had disappeared in the snap.
Thor gave a double thumbs up hoping that this would work out for them in the end.
Bruce screamed as he fought through the intense pain that was going through his body. He shakily brought his hand up snapping his fingers. He fainted after snapping and the gauntlet slid off his arm.
Clint moved quickly, kicking it away.
"Bruce!" Steve said, moving quickly, kneeling down next to the green man.
"Don't move him." Tony called out.
Bruce held onto Steve's arm with his good arm. "Did it work?"
"Worth a shot. It's over. It's okay." Thor said softly hoping that it would work.
Scott walked out towards the other room where windows were and saw birds chirping outside.
Clint turned his head hearing his phone ringing.
Everleigh let out a breath of relief. Bruce had done it and brought everyone back. Now they could move forward in trying to deal with Thanos if they had to.
"Guys– I think it worked!" Scott shouted from where he was.
Everleigh looked up, her eyes widening as she saw a missile heading right towards the base. She didn't even get a chance to put up a barrier to protect herself as more missiles headed right in their direction and there was nothing that they could do about it.
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This is the end of Chapter 109. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. It took me a bit to figure out how I wanted it to go, but I think that I did a fairly good job with trying to write it out. I hope that I did alright with it. Sometimes it takes a bit to make sure that it goes well when it comes to writing. Please leave a review and let me know what you think of this latest chapter. I will try to post an update next week on Monday like I have planned. Until next time.
