Telepathy
The following night I meet Nat in the training room, but she is sitting in the dark, her head in her hands
‘Red I have to tell you something’ She says gesturing for me to sit next to her. I frown slightly but she continues
‘I died.’ She states shortly. I look around, confused expecting someone to jump out or shuri to yell Prank at me
‘I died, and I got brought back. I sacrificed my soul for a galaxy, and you brought me back’ Nat slowly registers my reaction
‘You’d better start from the beginning’ I reply, my brain slowly trying to process this information
‘In the Galaxy of Tirshan there was a Titan called Thanos, he wanted these 6 stones, the infinity stones, which you have obviously encountered before’
I nod, and force my Dawn to seep through my fingers and up my arms and allow her to continue
‘If he had 6 stones, he could have wiped out 50% off all life on that galaxy. Half of everyone’s family, half of everyone’s lives, just like that’ She snaps her fingers sadly
‘we found him when he had 5 stones, just the Soul Stone remained, we had to stop him. So, Clint and I were sent to a realm called Vormir, where it was said to be. It was at the top of `this cliff, Red Skull was there, he told us the bargain-a soul for a soul, you had to sacrifice one you loved- he knew my father’s name. I didn’t even know my fathers name’ she explains, staring into space
‘Whatever its takes’ she fiddles with her fingers nervously ‘Clint said to tell his family he loved them. But I couldn’t. They’d just had Nathaniel. I couldn’t take someone’s father away’
‘Clint has kids?’ I ask gently when she pauses
‘Yes, they’re off the SHEILD files and he’d like to keep it that way. Cooper, Lila, and Nate-Nathaniel, he was meant to be Natasha, but fate had other ideas. So, I told him he’d tell them himself. We fought. You have no idea what it is like to fight the person that saved your life. He used my bites on me and jumped’
Silent tears are running down her face as she continues
‘I ran after him and as I fell shot a line to the edge. It was attached to his belt, but he still managed to catch me. We were hanging off the cliff. He just had my wrist. He was the string holding onto my chance, but I knew the fall would be worth it. I told him it would be okay, I told him to let me go. I swung myself off the cliff.’
‘You sacrificed your life for billions of people you didn’t even know’ I whisper
‘I had red on my leger. I wanted to wipe it out.’ Is all she says
‘The war was stopped apparently. Thanos tried to snap with only 5 and it killed him, burnt him like a crisp, tony tried something heroic and nearly died, but we recovered. They couldn’t even find my body; they couldn’t even say goodbye. The last words I ever said to my family were ‘see you in a minute’ it was a very long minute, 9 months’
‘Then me’ I question, looking into her watery emerald eyes.
‘Yes’ she breathes out ‘Then you, all I remember is falling, just like you. When I woke, I was at the bottom of the cliff. Red Skull greeted me like an old friend. Soul for a soul. I pushed him off Vormir. Had to climb all the way up, but it was worth it. He wasn’t someone I loved, the trade didn’t count, but no one should be subject to that again’
‘But how did you leave Vormir’ I ask confused ‘It’s not exactly teeming with public transport’
‘I don’t know, I was faint, I was on deaths door-again. All I know after that is being dropped onto the drive outside this tower, dropped straight onto the gravel. But it didn’t hurt. Then tears, so many tears. They have never told me what happened when they were alone all they said was that they wanted to Avenge me, that they missed me, that they loved me. And I realised I can never have a family of my own, but I have a crazy, magic, powerful, loving gang of people I would die for. And I did die for them.
It took 3 months for us to find you after the crash, we heard about the stones and has our suspicions about you being enhanced, but until I visited you we had no idea of your….capabilities’
I wince slightly
‘But’ she continues ‘Stark thinks there might be a possibility there is a connection between us’
I raise an eyebrow ‘Like telepathy’
‘Kind of, because we both died pretty much and the soul stone brought us back to life there is a part of it in both if us, so if those parts are still connected so are, we’ she explains
‘Can we try it?’ I ask simply ‘If I try to open yours, I think that would be best because I have it in my body for certain’
‘Im not going to take offense that I can’t shoot sparkles out of my fist, but I don’t see why not’
‘Okay, here we go’ I say
‘wait-how do I actually do this?’ I add after a pause-cutting into someone’s mind isn’t really an average nine to five.
‘I don’t know, I don’t think it’s ever been done before-I think you reach out, like you do to split or get into your dawn diary and ask to be let in’
‘Okay’ I take deep breath and close my eyes, reaching through my dawn to connect to something out there. After a few seconds I begin to feel a muffled, even thudding
Boom boom, boom boom
A heart beat
‘I think I’ve got your heat beat Nat, get ready, I’m going to try and come in’
I reach out softly and slip into her mind, as if knocking on the door I gently reach out again, asking for permission.
‘welcome’ I hear an untraceable voice whisper softly. I can vaguely see the training room still but in my mind’s eye I am transported to a high vault ceilinged chamber, with a glowing gold energy core in the centre
‘Okay Nat’ I think hard ‘I’m going to name 3 random things then drop out because I’m getting a headache, and if you know them after we’ll know it’s worked’
‘Okay’ a Natasha-like voice whispers
‘Oranges, Nano-technology and Google’ I recite, trying to recite the most unpredictable things.
Then I let go of all my bonds and drop
I fall to the floor with a thud gasping for air
‘It’s okay, it’s okay you did great, just breath with me’ Nat reassures me, prompting me to take deep breaths
‘Did’ gasp ‘you’ gasp ‘get the’ gasp ‘words?’ I question and she nods slowly
‘I felt voice in my head life you were asking permission, so I let you in, you explained what you were going to do then recited the words and left’
‘and the words were’ I ask with bated breath
‘Oranges, Nanotechnology and Google’ the spy states and I suddenly hug her
‘They were right I guess’ she laughs, giving me a squeeze back
‘Yes, yes, yes. We can work so well now, if either of us ever gets in trouble or caught we can see where we are, what’s going on. I can see int your missions so you don’t have to carry a pager and take risks, I can see you work and train and learn from you’ I gush, overexcited at the endless possibilities of your joint minds
‘no’ Nat says suddenly. I look at her
‘no’ she repeats, quietly
‘I can’t have you see my side of the job; I still do things… I get sent on missions that only end one way. Fury tasks me with these. My skill set is still very… specific but I cannot let the things I see hurt you.
I don’t want you to have to see the light leave someone’s eyes and the hope leave their soul. I can’t let you see the way to kill. You deserve better than the things I have to do. So no, unless I can deny you permission at some points, I will not allow it unless we can close the connection from both ends. Unless I have equal control’
‘Okay’ I agree quietly after a moment thinking ‘давай изменим мир, супер мама’ (lets change the world supermom)