New Chances

The next morning we got up early, suited up and set the date to which we wanted to travel. Steve thought it would be a good idea to travel to 2024 instead of back to 2023, because we had spent a year in the 50’s, “so we’re the age we would be if we lived in 2024”. “So, you ready?” Steve asked her. “Well, as ready as one can be to go… back to the future.” Steve glanced at me, I just smiled back at him as he mouthed the word, “Nerd.” I winked at him and he rolled his eyes, “So you’re ready to go back to a time where you’re supposed to be dead. Are you sure about this?” “Yeah, it’s gonna be fun.” Steve smiled at that, “Some parts of you really haven’t changed at all, huh?” “Yup, still as charming as ever, can we just go now?” “Ever heard of patience?” “Ever heard of I don’t give a damn, I wanna go home, Rogers.” “Fine, fine, let’s go.” We activated the Pym particles, and off we went through space and time.

Time travel is a strange sensation. First you feel lighter than air, then it feels like you’re being pulled apart and at the end, when you are when you want to be, it feels like you’re being slammed back together. All in all it’s quite awful and I would not recommend it. Just stay where and when you belong.

“Well… this is… not where I thought we would end up,” Steve said as we looked around to take I the scenery. “Where did you expect we’d end up? The Avenger’s compound?” As far as I knew, that’s where the time travel machine was. Steve shook his head, “No, we moved it to the uh… Stark residence backyard… and this clearly isn’t it.” “Well… then where are we?” “If only I knew.” I looked around us again, the scenery seemed a little familiar to me. It was almost as if I had been here before, “Hmm…” “Is that a helicopter?” Steve suddenly spoke up. “Yeah, it looks like it,” I replied. “Let’s see if it works,” Steve sad as he walked towards it. “It looks like it crashed, Steve…” “Well… maybe there’s food in it, or equipment.” He has a point there.

“Well… there’s quite some weapons in here,” Steve said after three minutes of searching. “There’s even a rocket launcher.” “Hmm, whoever crashed this thing’s got style,” I mumbled. “Really? It could have been our enemies.” “I wouldn’t be so sure of that…” I said. The scene of this crash was starting to look very familiar to me. “Hmm?” “Nothing, please just look for food.” “Well, I found some food… but it looks quite old.” “It’s better than nothing.” “That… is true. And I am kinda hungry.” To his own regret, Steve tried some of the food. “Well, how is it?” “It’s… very very dry.” I chuckled, “That was to be expected, but at least it’s food. However, I’m afraid there’s no water in here.” “Yeah, I didn’t see any of that either.” “Maybe we should look for some,” Steve nodded, then he suddenly said, “Wait.” “What?” “Didn’t you see that this place is covered with snow, we could melt it.” “That… would turn it into water… but how do you want to do that?” “With this,” Steve held up some matches, “and some of this incredibly dry food.” “Then what do we eat.” “Nat, I’m a soldier, I’m a pretty good survivalist, and I’m quite certain that you ae as well.”

I am indeed quite the survivalist, and as Steve was looking for clean snow, I was looking for food. Of course this was a lot harder to find during winter, since all plants were basically dead, not in bloom or snowed over, so I had to focus on the wildlife. Luckily for me and Steve, I know how to walk as silently as a Hobbit, and so I managed to sneak up on a group of deer. I carefully aimed and shot a doe. “That should be enough for a while,” I said to myself. “Hey, Rogers, you around?!” I yelled. This might have been a bad idea, had I not been certain that there was nobody around here but the two of us. “Coming,” Steve’s voice sounded distantly. I walked up to the deer and bound her to a big branch with some rope we had found in the helicopter. “How did you manage to shoot that?” Steve asked me as he came walking to me through the trees. “You know, sneaking, aiming, pulling the trigger. Are you going to help me carry this bag to the helicopter or no?” “Sure.”

Turned out we had strayed a little further from the helicopter than we had thought. But on the way back I managed to shoot two rabbits, so at least we had some more food. When we got back to the chopper I immediately started to skin the animals I had shot. The deer meat I stored in a bag with snow so it would stay fresh so we could use it later. The rabbits were all for tonight.

“I have to say, I am mildly impressed with your skills, Steve said as we sat around the fire, eating our rabbits. “Well, not the first time I’m stranded during a really cold winter… Granted, this time I’m not alone, so it better be more fun.” “What?” “Part of the Black Widow program was… survival… we had to survive the Russian tundra for two weeks.” “That’s… insane.” “Yep. But it happened.” “And, that’s how you learned to skin rabbits and shoot deer and all that?” “Yep.” We ate in silence for a while as Steve processed this new information. “We should probably hide this,” I said as I pointed at the bag with deer meat. “You know, there’s always predators around.” “Where would you hide it?” “Well, there’s a shovel in the chopper.” “You wanna bury it?” “That would be safest, yes.” Steve nodded, swallowed the rest of his rabbit, got the shovel and started digging. Eventually he had a hole deep enough to bury the bag in. To mark the place where he had buried the meat he put a stick upright into the ground. “There, that should do.” I nodded, “It should. Hey, it’s late… maybe we should sleep in here tonight.” Steve nodded, “I was thinking the exact same thing.”

*

Later that night, it couldn’t have been much later than midnight, a sound woke me. It was as if something, or someone, was shuffling and scraping against the chopper. I tried to wiggle out of Steve’s arms, which he had wrapped around me to keep me warm, always the gentleman, to go see what it was, when suddenly a loud grunting noise startled Steve awake. “Wassthat?” “I don’t know.” The shuffling and scraping returned. “But… I don’t think we’re alone.” Steve nodded and let go of me, I silently sneaked up to one of the windows, so I could see outside. I saw a few big black… shapes, walking around the helicopter. “Hey, Rogers, you got a flashlight back there?” Steve handed me a flashlight, which I shone outside. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” “Yeah, come here.” Steve carefully made his way over to the window so he could see what I was looking at. “Pigs.” “Yep.” “That’s pigs.” I nodded, “That’s… odd…” “Why?” “Because they’re pigs, no wild boars… just… normal pigs, the kind you’d see at a farm.” “Maybe they escaped.” “That’s possible,” I said, “And… I have a feeling I know where they came from, actually. But seeing them here is… worrisome to me.” “Why?” “I’ll explain tomorrow,” I told him. “Let’s sleep now.”

*

The following morning Steve woke me up when the sun was just starting to rise. “Let’s dig up that deer,” he said. I nodded and grabbed the other shovel that we had found when we went to bed last night. As we were digging up our breakfast, I told Steve the story of why I thought this place seemed familiar.

“Remember, back in 2016, when the Avengers… divorced?” I said with a chuckle. Steve nodded, “I remember.” “Well, after that I went… on the run for a while. Before I helped you breaking out the gang. And… well let’s just say that I didn’t sit still. That actually was the plan at first but… Well, I got caught up in something that led to me reuniting with my… other family.” Steve looked up at me, his many questions clearly visible in his eyes. But he didn’t ask them. He knew me better than that. I sighed, “It was… some pictures that I found, really… See, a friend of mine, mason, he provides safehouses, and one of his last costumers had… well, left some of her trash and sent some mail… well, that included a counteragent to some brainwashing drug created by the KGB. So, I met up with that agent… we almost chocked the life out of each other, broke the Red Guardian out of jail and… went here. This is the helicopter that we used to get here.” Steve seemed confused, but he nodded, “And where exactly is here?” “Just outside of St. Petersburg.” “And why did you go here? Or didn’t you mean to go here. It does seem like the helicopter crashed.” “No, we meant to go here… we just… made an unexpected controlled crashlanding.” “So, why here?” “To pick up the fourth member of our team. The woman who had created brainwashing drug.” “I see…” “She… kept pigs, tested her inventions on them.” “And that’s why you’re concerned about the pigs running loose.” I nodded, “I’m afraid something might have happened to her. She… wouldn’t just let them run loose.” Steve nodded, “She lived near here?” “Yes.” “Well, let’s see then.” “Breakfast first.” “Yes, please.”

After breakfast we reburied the rest of the deer, then I led Steve to the house of Melina. The walk was a little longer than I remembered, but we did almost get lost a few times. Still I was quite proud of myself that I seemed to remember the way so well. We could see the fence after a walk of about forty minutes and immediately I could see that something was wrong. There was a giant hole in the fence. “That looks bad,” Steve said. “Yeah, no shit Rogers?” “Let’s see if it’s that bad everywhere else?” We ran to the fence, carefully went through the hole and searched the premises. “Well… everything seems fine,” Steve said softly. Then we came to the house. The doors and windows had been smashed in and a part of the roof had caved in. “You were saying?” I said to Steve. “I’m taking t back… this looks bad…” “Very bad,” I said as I went in. That was a mistake.

For a short time, everything seemed fine, but as we got to the kitchen where were attacked from behind. We quickly turned to defend ourselves, then everything got messy quickly. We were fighting against about thirty men, it was almost as if they were expecting a super soldier, but Steve being there seemed to surprise them. I remember thinking they might have just expected another super soldier. Steve picked up one of the men and threw him into another one, which caused a small chain reaction of men falling over. I roundhouse kicked one in the face and punched another one in the lower region. Then I kicked one in the stomach and grabbed my gun, which was quickly kicked out of my hand. “Damn,” I whispered. Steve ripped one of the cabinet doors of it’s hinges and used it as a makeshift shield. I went for the knives but was blocked by a man twice my size. “Hey,” I said seductively, which seemed to take him completely off guard. This gave me the time to use his leg as a lever to pull myself up and grace his face with the presence of my knee. I heard a satisfying crunch as I broke his nose. Then another one of our new friends wrapped his arms around me, but he quickly let go as Steve hit him in the back with a cabinet door.

We eventually managed to take down about twenty five of our new friends before we managed to escape. Obviously not without scrapes or bruises. I had been hit in the head with the butt of a gun and I was pretty sure that it was bleeding, but I didn’t have time to check as we ran to one of the cars our attackers had used to get here. Hot wiring the car took longer than we could afford, but luckily there was a gun I n the back and the car seemed relatively bulletproof, for now. “Steve, if you take any longer the bullets will break through the windows and we’ll be too dead to escape!” “Well I can’t do magic, Natasha!” Just then the engine started. “DRIVE!” I yelled at him as he floored it and rode off, hitting one of our attackers in the process. And of course, just as I thought we were safe, one the back window broke and a bullet hit me, through the chair, in my shoulder. “Fuck,” I whispered. “Natasha?” “Just drive, I’ll be fine…”

Steve got us to St Petersburg, where he procured clothes and medical supplies for us. After that I had him remove the bullet, which seemed to freak him out a bit, and stitch me up. “You good?” He asked me, as if he hoped the answer would be anything else than no.” “Not really,” I said, “I mean… I just got shot, so that’s obviously a no.” “Makes sense.” “We need to ditch this car… get something else.” Steve nodded. “And we’re gonna need phones.” “Hmmm?” “I… need to get in touch with an old friend. One who is in the business of providing safehouses, supplies and vehicles for people like us.” Steve nodded, “Sounds good.”

*

Twenty minutes later we had phones and another stolen car. Steve had also gotten himself a map and he had decided to take us to Pargolovo, there we would ditch the car and look for a place to stay. As Steve was driving, I called my friend. “Mason,” he said as he picked up. “Hey…” I didn’t know what else to say. “Who is this?” “if I tell you, you won’t believe me. I heard you can provide safehouses, any chance you’re in Russia right now?” “Uh… I’m in Murino.” “Good…” “Uh…” “my friend and I need a safehouse, and we need a vehicle, preferably something that flies. Can you arrange that?” “I… can.” “Good, meet us outside of Pargolovo in two hours.” “That’s not a lot of time.” “well we don’t have a lot of time. Look if you’re in this business you gotta improvise sometimes.” He sighed, “Tell me where.” I gave him instructions, to which he listened carefully. For two hours later he was at the plain I had told him about, with keys to a safehouse, supplies and a small yet.

“Well have I ever,” he said as he saw Steve coming out of the car. “Whole world’s been wondering where you went. Rumour was you were on the moon.” Steve smiled, “It would probably be a lot more peaceful up there.” “And a lot more boring,” I added as I got out of the car. Mason’s eyes went as wide as saucers when he caught sight of me. “You should really close your mouth,” I told him, “unless you fancy catching flies.” “You… but you… YOU’RE DEAD!!” “Keep it down, please! And do I look dead to you?” “Well… no… But… on the news, they said you were.” “Well, I was. It’s a long story. Long story short, Cap over traded a shiny orange rock for me.” “What?” “Just… I’ll fill you in later, we have no time for this now.” “You think you’re being followed?” “Well… the people we encountered seemed like the kind who’re after people like us.” “You saw any logos?” I thought back, they had all been wearing bulletproof vests, there might have been a logo on it, but I hadn’t seen it, the inside of the house had been to dark. However, I had seen a logo on the car. “Uh… our planet with two swords crossed in front of it.” Mason nodded, “Yeah, a few of my other costumers have encountered them as well. They call themselves Knights of planet Earth. Or K.O.P.E. for short.” “Fun, so, what’s their deal?” “Well, they’re kinda like the Flag Smashers, liked the whole no boundaries thing the world had going on during the five years after the blip.” “Ah, the whole unity, we care about each other so much, thing?” “Yeah, the Flag Smashers used to say “One World, one People.” “Aha… but… why were they hiding out in the house of an ex KGB agent?” Mason shook his head, “Beats me, all I know is that their leader is called “the Power Broker” and that they go after John Walker quite a lot. And after my other super soldier client. Had to rehouse him and his family three times already this month.” “Alexei?” “Oh, yeah, of course you know him.” “So they’re alive?” “Yeah.” Thank God.

“Wait, hold up, are you telling me there’s two more super soldiers out there?” Steve suddenly brought in. “Mason nodded, “John Waler is… new to it, they call him U.S. Agent… before that he took over your mantle for a while, cap, but now the shield’s in the hands of Sam Wilson.” Steve smiled slightly at that, “Good, that’s what I intended.” Mason seemed to like that, “That means a lot to the community, sir.” Steve nodded, “I know. Now… who is that other super soldier you were talking about?” “His name is Alexei Shostakov, he was created by the KGB, who called him the Red Guardian.” “This happened when I was in the ice?” “Yes, he was one of the few successful attempts at a super soldier. Sometime last year they were popping up all over the place though, but they were all blown to bits except Walker. Those were the Flag Smashers. Seems like their leader’s got a new army.” “Their leader?” I asked. Mason nodded, “For a while this… Power broker was their leader, he gave them the serum… but Morgenthau… well I think she had a disagreement with the Power Broker. The Power Broker is probably the one who broke them up.” Steve sighed, “And here I was thinking we would come back to a slightly more peaceful world.” “You shouldn’t have hoped for that, Rogers,” I told him, “Cause that way you’re just jinxing it. So, those people work for the Power Broker and they’re mainly targeting supers soldiers.” “Yep.” “Well, then it’s clear what the Power Broker wants, right? He wants them so he can create more serum.” Steve and Mason nodded.

“Anyway,” Mason said as he handed me a set of keys, “I got a safehouse for you… but uh, be careful, you won’t be the only ones there.” “Enemies or friends?” I asked. “Bit of both.” “I see. So, where is it?” “It’s located in the Netherlands, so you’re gonna have to refill a few times. It’s located in Noord-Brabant, in the region Land van Heusden en Altena. It’s just outside of a small place called Werkendam, really close to one of those… nature park thingies, the… Bies… something. Small chance they’ll actually find you there.” “The Netherlands, really?” “What? Too wet?” “No, I just… didn’t expect you to have safehouses there.” “They’re everywhere, Romanoff, but I’m glad I could surprise you.” “Doesn’t happen every day you surprise one of the most prepared women on this Earth.” Indeed it doesn’t. Anyway, the supplies are in the jet, which includes fuel.” “Good. Thank you, Mason, for helping me… us.” “Hey, I’m just glad to see you alive.” “Hmm, is that reward enough or do I still have to pay you?” I asked jokingly. “I can give you a small discount.” “You know I wasn’t being serious, right?” He smiled, “I know… but still. You look like you need it.” Then I did something I don’t do a lot, I gave him a hug. And I somehow managed to pop a stitch while doing so, “Oh hell!” “What’s wrong?” Mason asked. “Nat, you okay?” Steve said in alarm. “Yeah, just… popped a stitch.” “A stitch?” Mason asked. “Yeah… I kinda go shot when we escaped, but don’t worry, Steve over here knows hot to treat wounds…” “You got what?” “It’s nothing, I’m fine now.” “Yeah… right,” Mason clearly didn’t believe me. “Don’t worry about me, okay. I already told you, I don’t pay you for that.” Mason sighed, “I know, I know… just… be careful, okay, try to pop no more stitches.” “Sounds like a marvellous idea.”

During our flight to the Netherlands we only had to stop for fuel twice, which was less than I expected from such a little jet. However, it was a welcome surprise, and it only took us about a day to get to the safehouse Mason had provided us the keys of. It seemed to be an old farmhouse. Quite roomy, and no nearby neighbours. “Well, this looks nice,” I said to Steve after we had gotten out of the little jet. Steve nodded, “It looks old, I like that.” “Well, in the Netherlands there’s a saying… Soort zoekt soort.” “What does that mean?” I smiled at him, “Let’s just say that I’m calling you old and leave it at that, huh?” “Of course.” “Hey, old habits die hard.” Steve smiled and shook his head, “Let’s just see what’s inside, shall we?” I nodded and went for the door.

Inside the house seemed like any other house, we first entered into a hallway, which must have been very confusing to poor old American, front doors lead directly to the living toom, Steve. There we found a shoe rack and a coat hanger. A door at the end of the hallway led into the living room, in which stood a big light brown corner sofa, and a comfortable looking chair of the same color. There was a small coffee table and a cabinet on which stood a flatscreen TV. “I’ll be honest, this is better than most safehouses Mason has provided for me,” I told Steve. “Hmm, seems we’re lucky then, huh?” “Yep.” Next to the sofa there was a bigger cabinet, in which I found cups, glasses… and cookies and candy. “Strange…,” I whispered softly. The other half of the room provided us with a dining area, one table, six chairs, and a door that led to a fairly large, but quite standard kitchen. There were a few cups standing in the kitchen sink. “It’s almost as if someone has been here, recently,” I said quietly. Steve nodded, “Maybe the last residents forgot to clean up after themselves.” “Yeah… maybe.” “Anyway, it’s late now and I saw some stairs in the hallway, I’m pretty sure those lead up to some bedrooms.” “And hopefully a bathroom,” I mumbled.

There were three bedrooms upstairs, accompanied by two bathrooms. There was another stairs that led up to an attic, which had been turned into a small gym. “Ah, nice, we can train here if we like,” I said. “No training for you for a while,” Steve told me. “You just got shot, remember?” “That’s almost a day ago by now…” “Yeah… about that. I should really take a look at that popped stitch.” “Hmm… yeah, you probably should.

Steve ended up replacing all the stitches, because he had accidentally done them quite sloppily in his haste. I did not enjoy that process… at all, but after I could relax in the big bath one of the bathrooms provided. That kind of made up for it. After that bath I felt relaxed enough to try to sleep after all the shit we went through today. Steve had claimed the only one person bedroom, so I moved into the one with two separate beds. The bed was quite comfy and the blankets were quite warm. For once it didn’t take me all that long to fall asleep.

*

I looked at the clock, 3 a.m. “Hmm… perfect time to go back to sleep,” I whispered to myself. Then I heard what had probably woken me up. Voices, one male, two female.” I quietly got out of the bed, as I heard footsteps on the stairs. A light went on on the upstairs corridor. “It’s almost like there’s more people here,” the male voice said. “I swear, those weren’t my shoes on that shoe rack.” “You’re probably just going crazy,” one of the female voices said. “No, I’m not.” One of the first things I noticed was that both of those voices had Russian accents. “Just go to bed,” the last voice said. She too had a Russian accent. Then suddenly the light went out and I heard the sound of a door slamming shut. “So Rogers heard them too, huh?” I said softly before I opened my door, shut it quietly and attacked one of the women from behind. For a few minutes it was an absolute chaos of punching and kicking. Steve was going after the guy while both of the women were coming at me. I managed to shove one of the women down the stairs, but she managed to pull me with her. Needless to say, my shoulder wasn’t very happy about that. But I managed to land on one feet and one knee. I used my left arm to steady myself, my right arm, especially my shoulder, was hurting too much. So badly even that I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. Fucking bullet wounds, I thought as I looked up to find my opponents standing in front of me. They were illuminated ever so slightly now, but not well enough to see their faces. I got up, and one of them lunged at me while the other yelled, “WAIT!”

My right shoulder slammed into the light switch, which hurt so much that everything went black for a few seconds. A painful groan escaped my mouth, I felt the tears that had been welling up in my eyes escape as I took in a sharp breath. Then, as I straightened my back, breathing quickly and opening my eyes. I stared right into the shocked but familiar faces of Yelena and Melina.

Yelena was the first one to move. She tore her gaze away from my face, looked me over… and then… she whistled. Despite the pain surging through my shoulder, I whistled back. That’s when she carefully walked up to me and cupped my face with both her hands, “Natasha?” “Yeah,” I breathed, “It’s me.” “But how?” “Long story… maybe… better idea to… talk about when I…. don’t have eight popped stitches.” Yelena’s eyes went wide, “Yeah, sounds like a good idea… Mama, get the first aid kit!” Melina nodded and went off to the living room, then I heard her go to the kitchen. Yelena let me lean on her and dragged me to the stairs, “DAD, STOP THE FIGHTING, THEY’RE FRIENDLY!” “WHAT?” Alexei’s voice sounded from above. Yelena flicked a switch and the upstairs light went on. “CAPTAIN AMERICA,” Alexei exclaimed. “Uh oh,” Yelena said softly. “YEAH!” I yelled upstairs for as well as I could. “Don’t fight him! He’s my friend…” For a while it was completely silent upstairs, then two sets of footsteps descended. Alexei came first, disbelief plain on his face. Steve looked worried, he had heard how horrible I had sounded. Yelena, Alexei and Steve dragged me into the kitchen, where Melina was waiting for me with a huge first aid kit, waiting to fix me up. “Took you guys pretty long.” “Dad wanted to take down Captain Rogers over here, you know how he gets about that guy,” Yelena said as she set me down on a chair. Melina nodded, then she turned to me, “You have a lot to explain,” she said as she carefully pulled my bloodstained shirt over my head. “I know,” I replied weakly. “Later, please.” “Hmmm… only because it seems you have lost quite some blood.”

Melina fixed me up and even managed to procure a blood bag of my blood type that she hooked onto me. “You’re sure you’re not overdoing things?” I asked her. “You lost a lot of blood, you need replacement.” “My body will make that, eventually.” Melina sighed, “Always so stubborn.” “Natasha, just listen to your mother for once,” Alexei said sounding very much like a concerned dad. “She’s trying to help you. And she wouldn’t do this if you didn’t need it.” “And you clearly need it cause you look like shit,” Yelena commented. “Gee, thanks, sis,” I said to her, which made her smile slightly. “How did you get that scrape on your forehead?” Yelena asked. “Someone thought I’d be happy to take the butt of a gun to my head.” “Wow, creative use of a gun,” Yelena mused, “but why didn’t that idiot shoot?” “Small confined space, or maybe she was just stupid, I don’t know,” I told her. “You got a lot of bruises,” Melina observed. “Several of which I got from you guys,” I told her. “True… very true… and we’re sorry for that.” “So… you guys know each other?” Steve said when it finally got too confusing for him. We all looked up at him and replied with “Yes.” At the same time, which seemed to freak him out a little. “Well,” I said, “this seems as good a time as any to start explaining everything.”

I turned to Steve first, “About four years after I started training, when I was eight… I was assigned… well, you can call it my first mission.” Steve’s eyes went wide, “That’s how young you were?” “Yes, now shush. This mission was… helping to take care of… another girl that was a potential Black Widow. Help give her a “normal” life till she was old enough to start training. That little girl… at the time she was only three.” I looked at Yelena, “And I was really grateful to that she was young, because that way I wouldn’t have to train for many years.” “I’m the little girl,” Yelena said to make it just a little more clear, “Or at least I was… I’m not so little anymore.” I smiled, “No, you really aren’t. Anyway, obviously we needed parents… that’s where Melina and Alexei came in,” I said as I pointed at them. “We spent three years living together. Then we had to flee…” “From who?” “S.H.I.E.L.D.” I distinctly remembered the eagle logo I had glimpsed on one of the cars. “Melina got shot, I had to fly a plane to Cuba… There they separated us from our parents… Yelena and I were shipped off… trafficked… and separated after that…”

Alexei and Melina looked at us sadly, it was clear that by now they were sorry that we had to go through all that. Steve seemed shocked, he didn’t say a word as he took it all in. he was just watching each of us in turn, seemingly almost frozen. “You should have seen her,” Alexei spoke up. “She was already a little spitfire, back there on Cuba. Kicked a gun straight out an adult agent’s hand, pulled her sister behind her… protecting her like a lioness…” He sounded proud, which made me smile just a little bit at the memory. Steve nodded, immediately believing it. “That sounds like her, yes.” Then he sat down next to me, “Do… any of the other Avengers know about this?” I shook my head, “Not even Clint.” “Not even about the… trafficking part?” I shook my head again. “Wow… Nat… I’m so sorry you had to go through all that… I… never knew how… how much you had gone through… Thank you for being so open with me.” I didn’t know what I had expected, but it certainly wasn’t this. It wasn’t Steve who looked at me with sympathy in his eyes and carefully wrapped his arms around me to pull me into a hug. I also didn’t expect that I would firmly wrap my own arms around him, that I would bury my face in his shoulder for a good five minutes. Then I sighed deeply and let go, “Uh.. thanks,” I said softly. “You’re welcome,” he told me with a warm and caring smile, and for a second I felt something stir in my stomach.

Then Yelena cleared her throat, loudly, “So uh… how about you explain why you’re alive now?” I turned to her, “Yeah… I owe you guys that, huh? Well, you know how in 2018, half of the world… disappeared because of the big ugly purple son of a bitch called Thanos?” Yelena nodded. “Well, five years later… the original six Avengers… well we finally teamed up again, with a few extra friends. Well, we came up with a plan to travel through time… to collect the infinity stones. Which are magical, colourful, powerful rocks. They’re what Thanos used to… erase half of all the living creatures in the universe.” “The universe?” Yelena said in awe. “Yeah, he actually erased half of the whole bloody universe.” “You’re leaving out the part where we killed 2018 Thanos by going into space,” Steve said. “Because that isn’t very important.” “It’s the reason we had to time travel, because he destroyed the existing stones in our time.” “Okay, fine, fine, but after that we travelled through time and… well… Clint, Hawkeye, and I, we went to space again.” “You’ve been to space twice? And you couldn’t invite me?” “Yelena, please don’t interrupt me.” “Sorry. Is this a bad moment to say I met that friend of you.” “Uh… we’ll… come back to that later. Anyway, we went to Vormir, there… we found out the rules of acquiring the Soul stone…”

“Uh… so, the rule was a soul for a soul, but… it had to be the soul of someone you cared a lot about. Clint and I… well, we fought over who would get to jump… but… I couldn’t let him win… you know… I mean… I kept thinking “If this works, his family will have lost him. His children will come back fatherless.” And I couldn’t let that happen, I mean, his youngest, Nathaniel, was just three years old…” Yelena nodded, “Yeah, he told me something like that. He also told me his family… well… they miss you… a lot. I told him about your… grave/memorial… back home…” “I got… a grave? A memorial?” “Yeah… the three of us took care of that…” That touched me more than I liked to admit, which Yelena picked up on easily. She sat down next to me, placed her hand on my shoulder and pressed her forehead to mine, “You deserved it, sister.” “Thank you…” “Hey, don’t go getting too emotional now, okay? You still got a lot to explain.” “True… I just… I didn’t expect to hear this.” I looked up, “Thank you guys…” I swallowed away the emotional lump that had started to form in my throat. “Anyway… I jumped and I died… then… next thing I know, Steve is there. Said eh was bringing back the stones to… when we took them and… that he argued and bargained with the stonekeeper, Red Skull, and managed to convince him that… a soul for a soul should go two ways. And so he got me back. He uh… took me to the fifties, brought me to a hospital… and then he returned the last stone. We stayed there for a year, because I needed to heal from… well, jumping off a cliff… and… now we’re here… this is like… our second day back.” Melina, Alexei and Yelena took it all in, then they carefully pulled me into a family group hug. “We’re so glad you’re back, Natasha,” Melina said softly. “And we couldn’t be more proud of you,” Alexei said. “Yeah.. you did pretty much prove yourself a hero… show off,” Yelena added. “I missed you guys too,” I whispered.