My World's On Fire, How About Yours?

Maria feels like she’s back in New York recovering from the dust. That’s the only time she was as confused as she is now. She doesn’t even know where to start.

Natalie, her Natalie, is Natasha Romanoff. Natasha Romanoff, codename Black Widow. Formerly Agent Romanoff. Formerly Natalia Romanova. And currently--formerly?-- they’re not on great terms. Or at least that was the case before the Decimation.

Maria has just wasted months of her life, or more accurate, Romanoff stole months of her life. She can’t believe this. Fuck, why was she so trusting? She spilled her entire self to Romanoff and in return she never even told Maria her real name. Maria wouldn’t have put it past Romanoff to have known it was her since the very beginning. It would be in character of Romanoff to take advantage of people like that. Leave if to Romanoff to always play dirty to have the upper hand without you even knowing.

Which is exactly why Maria has wanted nothing more than to be far away as possible from Romanoff for the past years. She’s hardly interacted with her since the Accords, save for the one disaster of a time. This is the first time she’s seen her in person since then.

And then Fury? What in the hell is Fury doing here? Has he been here the whole time? Where was he being kept? He sure looks better than they do. It doesn’t look like a single hair is out of place.

“Hill, get your head back down from those clouds and get yourself together. I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

“Time before what, sir?”

“I know you’re not that dense or you never would’ve been my Second. We don’t have much time before the skrulls realize where you went. And it was already about damn time that you two got out of those hamster cages. I expected more from my top two agents. It took me making a surprise visit to the control rooms and making them drop a plate for you two to notice something. Honestly, even a level one agent could’ve put it together faster. Especially you, Romanoff, you didn’t think to check the ceiling in your three years of being here?”

“Three years?” Maria’s eyes fly to look at Romanoff. It’s the first time she’s spoken since they found each other.

“They said you’ve been in here for three years by the time we got here and it’s been a year since then. It’s almost 2025 now.” Maria feels like she’s been slapped. 2025. The last time she’s spent more than half an hour on earth was 2018. Seven years. She’s been gone for almost seven years.

“I need you both to stay with me now. You have all the time in the world to talk about time and shit later once you’re off this damn ship.”

“Sounds like you don’t plan on coming with us.” Romanoff remarks, beating Maria to be the first one to snap out of the spiral.

“Talos, the leader of the skrulls, wants me here. Why he does I’m not so sure. I think he knows that my eye can see straight into everyone’s damn business. He’s planning something and so far no one either knows what he’s up to or no one is inclined to tell. I can only see what he’s allowing me to see. So far he’s not been too demanding, and me staying here would keep the peace better. I’d also like to know firsthand what he’s up to.”

“What do you want us to do, sir?” Romanoff rolls her eyes at Maria’s consistent use of formality. Not like it would hurt Romanoff to use some sense of formality when she speaks. Communicating with her is like talking to a tempered teenager.

“I have the code for accessing that ship in front of us. It should have everything you need for returning to earth, after that, I’m sure you can think of something. You know who to contact.”

“Does the ship fly itself because the Red Room offered a weak course selection in learning how to drive a space craft.” Romanoff quips. Leave it to Romanoff to be making a joke in a time like this.

“I believe it’s nothing that Hill isn’t too unfamiliar with.”

“You can drive space ships now?” Romanoff quirks an eyebrow at Maria with her grating sarcastic tone.

“Add it to the list of things I can do better.” Two can play at this game. And it might have been years since they started this competition but Maria will be damned if Romanoff’s pompous ass questions her skills one more time.

Romanoff looks like she’s about to say something in response before Fury cuts her off, “Both of you motherfuckers need to shut the hell up and focus. You both need to work together on this damn mission. Put away your petty disputes and look at the bigger picture here. There’s no time for the both of you to act like dipshit children.”

And with that, Fury walks to the front door of the ship and starts drawing lines and shapes on the keypad. After a few swipes of his hand, the door to the ship opens with a swoosh.

“Now this is a standard escape pod, so it will have enough juice to take you to Earth but there are no guns on it. Your plan of attack is to dodge the hell out of everything, Hill.”

“Sir, I don’t care how good you think we are, but it’s been seven years, I don’t know anything that’s happening on Earth, much less the universe. I need more information to work with. What comes after arriving on Earth?”

Maria’s request to talking about it more falls dead on her tongue after the sound of a door opening comes from the front of the room. The steady pace of many footsteps follow shortly after. Information is going to have to wait, they have company.

“Just get in the damn pod before we’re both blown to bits, Hill!” Romanoff hisses out as she pushes past Maria to get into the pod.

“You and I both know you’re capable of working without much, Hill, give yourself some more credit.”

“Yes, sir.” Maria nods and ducks into the pod. She sits down in the seat, awaiting more instructions from Fury. She can tell from his face that he has more to tell them, and it’s something that he isn’t looking forward to share. And if Fury doesn’t want to tell them it, but has to, it must be important.

“How do we even start this thing?” Romanoff grumbles out loud and starts to fiddle with the controls. Which she really shouldn’t do, she could press something that ends with them both crashing. Leave it to Romanoff to be impatient enough that she’d rather die than wait a few seconds.

Maria slaps her hands away from the control and gestures to the two blue buttons near the gear shift, “You just have to hold down these two buttons. Now don’t touch anything and let me handle this.”

“What are you waiting for, Hill? We have to go now. You may fully be content on being roasted alive again by their guns, but I’d like to get back to Earth looking better than a cooked chicken.”

“Just hold on for one fucking second, Fury’s not done talking to us!”

“He’s already starting to walk away, it’s time to fucking go! Besides I really don’t care what Fury’s doing right now because he’s not the one who’ll get fried if they find us.”

And with that Romanoff pushes the two buttons.

“Stop, we can’t go yet!” Maria shouts and yanks Romanoff’s hand off the controls, but it’s too late. The pod starts to spring to life and begins flashing.

If Maria didn’t have enough to worry about with trying to make sure everything was okay with lift off, Fury begins to speak to them again. It looks like he’s finally getting around to telling them what information he’s been holding back. Of course he decides to finally tell them something once the door is beginning to close

“The battle with Thanos is over and Stark-” The door shuts completely, cutting off all sound they could hear from Fury’s mouth.

“See what you did, Romanoff! One second! You couldn’t have waited one second!”

“Fury told us what we already knew, Thanos is dead, so what? It wasn’t that shocking of news!”

“He wasn’t done speaking, there was more after that!”

“He was probably going to tell us to go to Stark for more answers, which I was already planning on doing. Just because you’re a robot that has to be spoon fed instructions in order to function, doesn’t mean I am.”

“Says the person who was stuck in a cell for five years! All you had to do was check the damn ceiling! There was literally an escape hatch in the cell.”

“We’re really starting on this again? If I recall correctly, you were there too.”

“Yeah, only for one year and with a severe concussion for the first couple of months! Not to mention my right side was burned so bad that I had no feeling but pain in it from the time I got there until just a few months ago! I still don’t have the same range of motion with my right arm. It was practically useless the entire time I was in there!”

“I’ve fought dozens of people with way worse injuries!”

“Are we seriously getting in a fucking trauma off right now!”

“I-”

Maria interrupts whatever bullshit was about to spew out of her large mouth, “Just shut up and get ready to be launched, I think we’re taking off now.”

“Well it’s a good thing I started it when I did because it looks like we have company.” As if on cue, the pod gets rattled and nearly tips over.

“Can you by any chance stop looking so happy that we’re being attacked right now?” Maria rolls her eyes and gets ready to throw the clutch into max speed once the wheels finally unlock and the door to the outside opens all the way.

Romanoff just turns towards her and gives a wink. Guess that’s a no then. Shocking.

The light runs blue for takeoff and Maria slams the lever forward, sending them hurdling across the short exit ramp and out the door into space.

“Fuck!” Romanoff shouts as the force slams her back into her seat. Maria grins; that’ll shut her up for a little bit.

Besides the inevitable rocky start of the takeoff, things are going pretty smoothly. Maria’s definitely flown in worse conditions. She’s really forgotten how pretty space is. All the stars and darkness mixed with light. It’s really quite gorgeous, but maybe that’s just because it’s the first thing she’s seen outside of a prison. She’s sure even Chicago would look pretty to her if it were the first thing she saw.

“How are you enjoying this?” Romanoff gags, not used to space travel. All the more reason for Maria to enjoy it.

“First time in space?” Maria grins.

“Like I said, the Red Room didn’t exactly offer this elective.” Romanoff grumbles, her hands gripping onto seat so hard that her knuckles are white.

“You’ve been on the Helicarrier.” Maria points out.

“That thing wasn’t whipping through space with enough g-force to make me vomit.” Romanoff groans, her eyes almost turning back into her head.

“Face away from me then.” Maria takes a hand off the steering controls to swivel Romanoff’s head away from her.

“You’d think the Red Room’s serum would prevent me from feeling nauseous. That would’ve been a lot more useful than some of its other features.”

“Poor baby.” Maria coos and shakes her head in mock sympathy.

“Are you sure this thing doesn’t have any weapons?” Romanoff asks, changing the topic.

“I’m pretty sure that Fury’s right and this is just an escape pod, so it should only be able to drive and that’s about it. What were you planning on destroying?”

“Just those three space ships coming after us with their own blasters.” Romanoff huffs, gesturing out the window.

“Fuck.” Maria curses and looks back to see that Romanoff wasn’t lying, there are three ship coming out of the main skrull ship to come get them.

“How the fuck are we going to get out of this with no weapons?” Romanoff groans. “My body got shot through space just for these ships to blow us up.”

“I would think that you would know more than anyone that someone doesn’t need the bigger weapon to win.” Maria quips.

“Is there a compliment in there somewhere, Hill? I’m flattered.” Romanoff smiles, but then immediately clutches her stomach and gags. She better not throw up in this pod. That smell will be trapped in here until they get to Earth.

“I’m just saying you should stop underestimating me.” Maria grumbles. “Just hold on and don’t vomit on the upholstery!”

“No promises.” Romanoff chokes out. She begins to curl her body into a small ball with her hands clutching the seat straps as much as she can.

The first ship fires its blaster and Maria jerks the pod to the left. The second one fires to the left and Maria forces it back to the right. However, the third one fires to the right and hits a little bit of the side, sending their pod spinning a little. Thankfully Romanoff seems too focused on trying not to vomit that she doesn’t make any remarks about Maria’s driving.

Maria flies up and then down and then to the side, just trying to fly in enough random patterns that won’t get them blasted. But with three against one, the odds aren’t in her favor, and their pod is hit again. If Maria keeps trying to avoid all three of their blasters, there’s no way they’re making it to their destination. She needs to get rid of these ships.

Maria jerks the pod up and sets the speed as fast as it can go while zig zagging straight at the three ships.

“What are you doing?” Romanoff shouts at her. “You’re going to get us killed, you lunatic! We don’t have guns! They have three!”

“I know what I’m doing!” Maria counters. Last thing she needs is Romanoff throwing off her focus. Honestly just for that, Maria twirls the ship in a complete 360.

“Oh gods.” Romanoff gags and covers her mouth with her hands. Maria smirks. That should keep her focus.

The three ships begin their firing again. Maria drives the ship down before it can get hit, so that now it’s on the same plane as the first ship in front of her. She aims right for the ship, but pulls the pod to the side, right before the two can crash. Someone in the second ship isn’t thinking too well because they tried to blast her in front of the ship. Instead, they end up hitting the first ship head on, sending it spiraling out of control. It spins over and over until it overheats and explodes, the blast sending their little pod right at the two ships remaining.

The third ship fires at them and Maria only has enough control to get out of some of the blast, but their pod gets shaken even more. By now the lights are flashing nonstop on the controls and an alarm somewhere in the pod is screaming at them. More of these hits will ground their pod for sure.

Maria grits her teeth and tries weaving in and out of the two ships, hoping one will eventually hit the other.

One fires and hits both her and the other ship, sending their pod flying back. Once Maria gains control of their flight again, she sees that the other ship took most of the damage. It’s starting to catch fire like the other one that was hit. She sends their pod straight at it.

“Are you crazy?” Romanoff shouts from her seat. “That ship is about to blow! Get us out of here! Don’t fly at the exploding ship!”

“The explosion’s what I’m counting on.” Maria states and shoots their pod directly at the destroyed ship at max speed. The other ship sees her going to the flaming ship and starts to fly there too. With the destroyed ship in-between their pod and the last ship, the other ship’s blasters are blocked from reaching them. Maria takes that opportunity to ram directly into the damaged ship, sending it flying at the last ship. Maria keeps pushing it until she feels the jolt of the pod and ship hitting the last one.

The fire that began in the damaged ship has now completely spread around it, sending pieces flying everywhere. It’s about to blow. Maria shoots the pod as fast as it will go away from the fires. They don’t get too far before the ship explodes, causing the last ship to explode as well. The combined blast sends their pod spinning out of control through space.

The alarms seem to be screaming even more now and Maria tries to get control of the ship, but to no avail. They’re shooting aimlessly through space.

“Hill, I swear you better stop this damn thing from turning!” Romanoff demands. Like she’s the one to be making demands right now. She can barely keep her stomach from sending up all its contents.

“The steering isn’t working.” Maria simply states, “I think something was knocked loose. I’m going to have to open up the control panel.”

“Well no one here is stopping you!” Maria rolls her eyes and tries to find a hatch where the controls open up. Fixing space ships is oddly enough like fixing cars. All she needs to do is pop the hood open and look around. Unfortunately, it’s not like she has any tools. Anything requiring more work than just putting some wires back in place can’t be done.

Maria find the switch and pops open the control panel.

“Well?” Romanoff not so helpful supplies. She really is just an overgrown impatient toddler.

Maria takes a deep breath to refrain from snapping at her, and instead focuses on finding what’s wrong. Everything looks to be fine. Then Maria spots a section where the gears have stopped working. One of the gears popped out, stopping the whole thing. Maria jams the loose gear back in and hopes that it’ll start back up again. If that’s not it then they’re screwed.

At first there’s no change, but then the machine slowly begins to work again.

“Thank gods.” Maria breathes out and slams the hood of the controls closed. Maria holds in the two buttons, restarting the pod, and finally the alarms stop blaring. With Maria back in control, the pod stops spinning and the ride smooths out. Which unfortunately means Romanoff is able to talk again.

“Since when did you know how to drive space crafts?”

“Since when do you care?” Maria fires back.

“Fine, forget I asked then.” Romanoff sighs and looks straight out the window. This is the first time Maria can finally hear the sweet sound of silence.

Maria presses the button under the steering and a map of the galaxy pops up. It looks like they’re in the Decalcomanie Galaxy, which means it’s maybe a 40-hour flight until they reach earth. Possibly less if they go fast enough. Maria decides not to tell Romanoff how long their flight will be, the last thing she needs is to hear complaining about how long it is.

Maria flicks off the map for now and turns on the auto pilot. It’s a smooth course from here. Maria takes off the straps on her chair and leans it back. With some quiet she can now go back to staring out in space.

The two of them stay just like that for a few hours, just staring out in front of them.

That is until Romanoff quietly asks, “Is there a bathroom on this thing?”

“There should be a small room behind us with a waste dispenser. That might be the best you’re going to get.”

Romanoff nods and undoes the straps on her chair. She gets up and walks to the back. Maria hears the whooshing sound of a door opening and closing. Maria focuses her attention back on the passing stars in front of her, allowing her mind to quiet and roam a little.

Maria doesn’t know how long she’s been zoned out before she hears a bang coming from behind her. She sits up and twists around to see what the hell Romanoff is doing now.

“Romanoff?” Maria calls out when she hears another crash. No response is issued back.

“Goddamn it.” Maria hisses and reluctantly stands up and makes her way over to the back room.

“Romanoff!” Maria tries again. She places her face close to the door to try and hear what Romanoff says back.

“Fuck!” She hears Romanoff curse through the wall and another banging sound follows shortly after. What is she doing in there? Maria can hear the makings of quiet mumbling and presses her ear to the door.

“Five years! Five years! It’s been five years. Five years and no one came. Five years. How long without Fury? Another five? The rest of my life? Fuck!” Romanoff only pauses to create another banging noise.

Suddenly those words don’t seem to be from Romanoff’s big mouth, but from Natalie’s panicked knocks that come before sleep. Those knocks didn’t come as often after the first two months, the last time she heard them was maybe a month ago.

Maria hates Romanoff. Romanoff hates Maria. They hate each other. These curses should be music to Maria’s ears. Then why is her heart breaking? Why are her hands flexing in need of opening the door and wrapping her small body in a hug?

Natalie is on the other end of the wall, not Romanoff. Natalie who has had so much bad in her life and deserves better. Natalie, who Maria is now accepting is a lot like Natasha. Natasha who would stop in her quarters after a bad mission to lay in her arms and just let Maria hold her to wipe away as much pain as she could. But Romanoff hasn’t been Natasha to her in years.

Maria pushes that away. The person behind that door isn’t Natasha, but she’s also not Romanoff. She’s Natalie. Her Natalie. Her Shrek.

And the way she talks to Natalie is through tap code.

So Maria knocks on the door, “Shrek?” She can hear the mumbling starting to stop, and so she taps again, “Shrek?”

“Donkey?” Despite herself, Maria grins a little.

“Did you know that light travels faster than sound?” Maria knocks to her. “That’s why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.”

Shrek doesn’t respond, so Maria keeps going, “It's hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally.”

She finally hears back, “Did you know Ireland has the world’s fasting growing population for its capitol? Every day it’s Dublin.” Maria smiles; she’s coming back.

Deciding to move away from puns, Maria decides to answer her previous question about where she learned about space crafts, kind of like offering an olive branch, “I always liked cars. When I was little I found a toy car on the street one day. I didn’t really have many toys, so I played with that thing every day. Walking home from school, I would always stop to watch this old woman fix cars. She had this really cool garage that always had the best cars in it. I would go there every afternoon and sit there for hours.

“One day when I was 10, she called me over and said she saw me sitting there for the past couple of days. I thought I was going to get in trouble but she just asked if I wanted to learn. And so I learned how to fix and drive cars by this old woman. A badass old woman at that too, she taught me to fight after I lost another fight at school.”

Shrek interrupts to state the obvious, “Cars are a little different than space ships.”

“I was getting to that, be patient. My second week working for Pepper at Stark Industries, Stark asked me if I knew where Banner was. He just walked in my office and requested I call Banner even though I didn’t work for him. That jackass. And then he explained that he was working on some flying machine and needed help with the wiring; wiring that any mechanic would know. I couldn’t believe it; this man can build all these machines and everything, but couldn’t remember how to do some simple wiring!

“And so against my better judgement, I went down there to help him. So I hooked up the wiring and Stark started explaining his machine. And no matter how much I wanted to be against all things Stark, it actually sounded pretty interesting. So I stayed down there while he finished building it. When it was finished, he showed me how to fly it. So I was flying it while he was flying next to it in his Iron Man suit.

“Compared to the advanced stuff that Stark was making, I could fix this pod with my eyes closed. Although Stark is an ass, I actually really liked working with him. It was something we could bond over.”

“He does have a special ability to counter any one reason for hating him with two reasons to love him.” Shrek agrees.

“You know he’s going to give us shit about the ceiling hatch taking us years to figure out.”

“Well then we better come up with a better story.”

“How about we say we took out ten skrulls each, and they were all armed and we weren’t.”

“Better add that there were ten ships after us with blasters and all we had was this thing.”

“Make that twenty ships and we also don’t mention that the pod was almost broken.”

“Deal. Just don’t mention that I couldn’t handle space well at first.”

“I can’t believe you haven’t been out in space before; you’ve really been missing out.”

“I still think my strengths best lie on the ground, especially after this.”

“Come on, it’s so pretty. You can see all the constellations and everything.”

“Aren’t we in a different galaxy? Meaning different constellations?”

“It seems like you’re stuck with the right person, I’ve been studying the different galaxies and planets since Thor and the Chitauri. And we’re in the Decalcomanie Galaxy to be exact.”

“Is that good?”

“We’re about 27 hours away if we keep up the same speed.”

“One day and we’re there?”

“Yep, and in that day I would really appreciate if I could pee at some point.”

“I that your way of telling me to get off the bathroom floor?”

“Ding ding ding.”

“Fine. Goodbye, Donkey.”

“Goodbye, Shrek.”

Maria gets off the ground. The door slides open and out steps Romanoff. She gives a small smile to Maria and nods her head. Maria nods back and they go back to their seats. Without their shared wall, they don’t speak. Once again they sit in pure silence.

Maria continues to pilot the ship while it seems like Romanoff is finally comfortable enough to fall asleep. Romanoff isn’t a sound sleeper, she twitches and mutters throughout most of it until Maria can hear her wake with a soft gasp.

Maria glances over at Romanoff. She watches as Romanoff’s chest rises and falls, only the faint sound of her breathing can be heard. The stars and dim lights of the controls reflect off her skin, giving it an orange glow to match her hair. She can see the light reflecting off something on her face. It builds up in the corner of her eye and falls quickly down in a short stream. Did Romanoff just cry? Romanoff turns her head to look at Maria who’s just been staring at her this whole time. Fuck.

“Myrmex.” Maria blurts out, trying to come up with a reason for why she’s looking at her.

“What?”

“That constellation is called Myrmex.” Maria points to the group of stars above them. “It’s based on the Greek myth of a woman named Myrmex.”

“Hmm I don’t think I remember that one. I haven’t read about classical mythology for a long time.”

“There’s not much to tell. Myrmex was a mortal woman who lived in Attic. Athena adored her from afar. And then not from afar. They were lovers until Athena made the plow and Myrmex bragged that she made the plow, so then Athena turned her into an ant. It’s called Myrmex because the jumble of stars kind of look like an ant. Maybe Athena felt bad for making her an ant and put her in the stars, to commemorate her only lover.”

“A Greek goddess felt bad for turning her lover into an ant and so she put her in the stars of a different galaxy?” Romanoff quirks her eyebrow at her in disbelief.

“Sure beats the alternative.” Maria huffs under her breath.

“And what’s that?” Curse Romanoff’s damn heightened super hearing.

“That she didn’t regret it at all.” Maria breaths out quietly. “This way it shows that she actually cared. Even though she was a god, she cared for that little insignificant ant.” Maria raises her eyes to look directly at Romanoff. Romanoff holds her gaze.

Maria watches. She watches Romanoff’s long eyelashes flutter closed when she blinks. The way her mouth is pursed ever so slightly in concentration, light reflecting off the inner parts. Maria watches her chest rise and fall. Even trapped in a cell for five years she looks amazing. Absolutely beautiful. More beautiful than a Greek goddess could ever dream of being. It’s… it’s too much.

“Anyway,” Maria coughs, breaking the moment and turning away, “you’re right, it’s stupid. Athena is the goddess of reason and war; she doesn’t feel love. Isn’t that what she’s known for anyway?”

“But then that’s probably why she turned Myrmex into an ant. She’s the goddess of reason, and love is so human that it isn’t reason. She couldn’t have Myrmex because the rest of the humans needed her to keep that reason. That doesn’t mean she couldn’t feel love, that just means she couldn’t keep that love. Turning Myrmex into an ant was an act of kindness. It’s what was best for her. What if everyone found out that their favorite goddess was no longer useful because love destroyed her? Then they would’ve killed Myrmex to get revenge. They’ve taken revenge for stupider reasons.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Athena is the goddess of reason, so why couldn’t she just reason with Myrmex about that? How is it reasonable to turn her into an ant? And if Athena is so strong, then how could loving someone break her? You know everyone says love makes you stronger and all that crap.”

“Love is for children,” Natasha hisses, “it would only cause pain. Do you know how much better off things would be if Zeus just kept it in his fucking pants? Maybe if he thought a little bit more with his brain like Athena, instead of thinking with his dick?”

“Are you implying that it’s all or nothing? Athena would have to love everyone if she were to love? That just loving Myrmex wasn’t enough?”

“No it was more than enough, too much even. It was too much for her. It would consume her. Maybe it seems like turning her into an ant wasn’t reasonable, but that just goes to show that being with Myrmex jeopardized her ability to think clearly.”

The more back and forth they go, the closer their faces keep getting. Maria now has a full view of the shining water in Romanoff’s—Natasha’s?—Natalie’s?—eyes. Her mind isn’t thinking and she cups her cheek with her hand, using her thumb to wipe away the tears beginning to build. The skin is soft and smooth. It’s warm to the touch, ever a burning furnace on Maria’s ice cold hands. It’s just how it felt ten years ago. Romanoff feels just like Natasha under Maria’s shaky hand.

“Are you saying that the goddess loved the ant?” Maria asks, looking at Natasha’s now closed eyes.

“It doesn’t matter if the goddess loved the ant if the ant didn’t love the god.” Natasha whispers, opening her glossy green eyes at Maria. Maria swears those big, green, vulnerable eyes are more beautiful than anything in the whole universe. She would take on thousands of skrulls and travel all of space-time to look into them. To let them consume her.

“Of course she did,” Maria breathes out, looking directly at her, “and she didn’t love her because she was a goddess. She loved every bit about her. She saw past the myth. She saw her. And she loved everything she saw, the good and the bad.”

Even softer Maria slips up and whispers, “I loved you. But you already knew that. You knew that and you still left. So tell me, did the goddess love the ant?”

Natasha doesn’t answer right away, but Maria doesn’t budge. They stay connected and in each other’s faces, breathing the same air. If they got any closer, their eyelashes would touch the other’s. Maria can feel her warm breath on her face. Natasha stays silent and just lightly places her hand on the one Maria has on her face, engulfing her hand in heat. Natasha opens her mouth; they’re so close that her upper lip grazes Maria’s lower lip. Sparks tingle on her lips and her stomach starts churning. Natasha closes her month, not saying anything.

Then the pod jolts, releasing them from their trance.

Natasha is the one now to break the stalemate and silence, spitting out, “Love is for children, a goddess could never love a fucking ant. You were right, she’s too reasoned for any emotions like that.” And as quickly as she came, Natasha left, leaving only Romanoff in her place. Romanoff pushes Maria’s hand off her face. Maria’s once burning hand suddenly turns back to being ice. It stings like she’s just been pushed out into the snow. She’s so cold.

Romanoff always did know where to hit her where it hurts. Maria thought she was over it. Over those stupid feelings, and then just like that, it’s like she’s living that goddamn nightmare day all over again. She can hear the shouting in her ears, the slamming of the doors. It took all her strength to finally end things, to end her suffering, and here she is opening up healed wounds.

Maria’s now thankful for the shaking pod because now she has something else to put her focus on. They’ve finally reached the worm hole that takes them back to their galaxy. They’re so close to getting off this hell ship.

“Are we running out of gas?” Romanoff asks, sitting herself back into her chair. Her body is facing as far away from Maria as it can get.

“We’ll be in a short worm hole until we reach the Milky Way. According to the map it should let us out in our solar system, so we should only be a few hours away from earth after this. I’d suggest putting on your seat straps.” Maria switches the steering off of automatic and begins to pilot the pod through the worm hole.

They’re only in the worm hole for a few minutes before they’re once again flying through empty space.

Maria checks the map to make sure they’re not lost. Sure enough, they’re back in their solar system.

It’s an easy two-hour flight from the worm hole to Earth with both women opting to stay quiet. Maria circles around the earth, trying to find Stark’s landing signal. With everything that happened in the Decimation she doesn’t know if there even is a landing sight anymore. But it’s not like they can just park this space ship anywhere they want.

Maria is getting worried that something happened to it, until she spots the familiar flash of light. At least that’s one thing that hasn’t changed. Maria aims the pod at the flash and starts to descend into Earth’s gravity. The gravity pulls in their pod and they start to enter Earth.

As they get closer to the ground, Maria can see that things are different. Where’s the Avengers compound? It should be right there. But there’s nothing. The building is gone. It’s all gone.

“Was the tower rebuilt after the Decimation?” Maria asks, half expecting Romanoff to ignore her.

“No.” Romanoff whispers. Maria takes a deep breath, really hoping there will be no more surprises. Is the Avengers tower gone too? If the tower is gone, where is everyone? Where do they go for help?

“We’re about to land,” Maria calls out, “Brace for impact.” The pod sets roughly down on the ground and slows to a stop. Maria undoes her seat straps and turns off the pod.

“Welcome home,” Maria says quietly, then mumbles to herself, “or at least what’s left of it.”