Chapter 328: Maybe I Could Bring Natasha Back?
"You all seemed pretty down when I first showed up. What's going on?" Ethan asked, looking around at the assembled Avengers.
His question snuffed out what little cheer had built up in the group.
Ethan already knew the reason, really — he'd noticed Hawkeye had been checked out the entire time, staring off like a man who'd just lost his wife.
Then again, for Clint, Natasha might have mattered even more than a wife would.
Strange, standing off to the side, was a little puzzled by all this. He couldn't help thinking this so-called Avengers team had a strangely fragile group mentality, shutting down at the drop of a hat — and he was pretty sure someone was missing from the lineup, too.
"In our world, you all seemed pretty close with a woman — what was her name... Natasha, right? Why isn't she here?" Strange asked, curious.
The name landed like a bomb, shattering the room's fragile calm instantly.
Every Avenger present bowed their head, eyes glistening.
Clearly, they were mourning the woman who'd given her own life to save the universe — even though, before this moment, every one of them had already come to terms with the idea of sacrificing themselves for the greater good.
But now that it had actually happened, the grief hit them anyway, whether they wanted it to or not.
In the span of a single minute, they'd lost Natasha.
See you in a minute, they'd told her. They never would again.
"This is all my fault!" Clint kept striking his own head with his fist, as if the self-inflicted pain could somehow make things easier to bear.
"Ah. Guess she's really dead, then. My mistake." Strange shrugged his apology, though not a trace of actual regret showed on his face.
At the same time, Strange found himself quietly on edge. Being a superhero, he decided, was clearly an absurdly dangerous line of work — look at this, one moment of carelessness and someone's dead. Meanwhile, Hell's Kitchen had been through war after war and hadn't lost a single soul.
Was every other universe just that much weaker, or was Hell's Kitchen just that unnaturally safe? Sure enough — the most dangerous place turns out to be the safest one. The second he got back, he was moving out of Kamar-Taj and into Hell's Kitchen full-time.
"Forgive the bluntness, but — how exactly did she die? And is there really no way for you all to bring her back?" Strange pressed on.
Ethan glanced at Strange, curious what he was actually building toward.
Steve frowned at the blunt question, watching Strange with visible distaste. Apparently no matter what universe you pulled him from, Strange was always this arrogant and tactless.
Truthfully, Steve didn't even know the full details himself — between Ethan's sudden appearance and everything else, he hadn't had a chance to ask yet.
But he had no interest in going down this road, either.
He turned instead to Clint Barton — the only one who actually knew the truth, since the two of them had run the mission together.
Every Avenger in the room turned to look at Barton. Clint pressed a hand over his face, as though forcing himself to relive it. When he finally spoke, his voice was thick with pain and shaking.
"She... she died by my hand."
The words hit like a shockwave.
None of them could believe it — Hawkeye, loyal to the Avengers through everything, had killed his own close friend and comrade with his own hands.
Still, no one moved against him. They all understood — whatever had happened, Clint must have had no choice.
They waited for him to explain.
Clint drew a long breath and forced the words out. "The Soul Stone... the way you get it... it demands the life of someone you love. It was supposed to be me. I should've been the one—" His voice broke off entirely. Tears slid down his face.
Silence swallowed the group. None of them had imagined the Soul Stone's price could be that cruel.
Ethan, having already known the plot beforehand, wasn't shocked by any of this — but everyone else was visibly shaken.
Strange, meanwhile, arched an eyebrow. He obviously knew Infinity Stones existed — but watching Ethan casually pick up two of them, he'd assumed acquiring one was easy. He hadn't expected the Soul Stone's price to be that.
He resolved on the spot: from now on, the moment the topic of the Soul Stone came up, he was giving it a wide berth.
He was certain he'd never trade someone he loved for the Stone. But what if some lunatic decided he was their beloved and tried to sacrifice him instead?
Yes — he meant Ethan, specifically. Thank God Ethan hadn't found the Soul Stone. Who knew who he might've thrown into the fire for it.
Strange, for all his mastery of magic, knew better than most that the soul was one of the strangest, most inscrutable things in existence. He considered himself extremely gifted magically — and even he couldn't fully wrap his head around the Soul Stone's mechanics.
Still, the whole thing fascinated him. Maybe there was something worth studying here.
"Mind if I take a look at the Soul Stone? What exactly does 'sacrificing a soul' even mean — sacrificed to what, concrete?" Ethan spoke up, having stayed quiet until now.
"What difference does that make — can't we just use the power of the Infinity Stones to bring Natasha back?" Fat Thor burst out, unable to hold it in any longer.
He didn't care one bit about soul sacrifices or who they were owed to. All he wanted right now was his teammate back.
Fat Thor turned pleadingly toward Tony and Steve, trying to win them over. "We've got the Infinity Stones. We can save her — go back to before she died and pull her out, right? Right?!"
"Come on! We're the Avengers! Show a little confidence, would you?"
"You're all talking about her like she's already dead — why are you treating her like she's already gone?!"
Thor's voice climbed higher and higher, and just as it looked like he might actually start arguing with Tony outright, Clint spoke up — quiet, barely audible.
"She's not coming back."
"What did you just say?"
"It can't be undone."
Thor walked slowly over to stand beside Clint.
"How would you know that? That she's not coming back."
"He's telling the truth, Thor. She's really not coming back."
Ethan watched Thor's outburst play out. He understood it was grief talking — but honestly, it was getting loud.
With a flick of his hand, Ethan used Chaos Magic to silence Thor.
"I was saying — if it really has to be given to the Soul Stone first, then..." Ethan raised his hand again, just slightly, and in the next instant, the orange-glowing stone still lodged in Clint's body suddenly detached itself and floated straight toward Ethan.
"What exactly do you think you're doing?" The move immediately snapped every Avenger to full alert, eyes locked on Ethan with open suspicion.
"Relax. If I actually wanted to take it from you by force, I could've done it the second I got here — easily." Ethan's tone stayed level.
"I just want to run an experiment. There might still be a chance to bring Natasha back."
"You're joking around with a dead woman!" Steve snapped, righteous fury in his voice.
"That's not a funny joke to make," Clint said, glaring at Ethan, brow furrowed.
Of everyone present, only Banner — who'd already seen firsthand what Ethan was capable of — looked hopeful. The rest stared at him with open disbelief.
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