This is harder than we know
It was one of those things that she wished she'd seen coming, it was one of those things he wished he'd seen coming but they were foolish enough to hope that their peace would last a little longer. They should've seen it coming.
The trouble was, none of them had.
For the past few weeks they'd been snowed under, actually snowed under was an understatement but there just weren't sufficient words to describe how exhausting it had been, and he sure as hell didn't know how to explain just how much the whole mess scared him. It was new, Bucky Barnes wasn't afraid of much but these last few weeks scared him to death. It was one of those kinds of situations where you'd replay that whole song 'The end of the world as we know it' in a completely non-ironic way things were that bad.
It wasn't as though they'd had much time to be happy since the night that he'd proposed to her but then there was that whole saying about how you never expected the last time to be the last time. It had been the last time...
The last time for a hell of a long time.
Wakanda was one of the best-defended nations in the world, scratch that it actually was the best-defended nation in the world because not only did it have The Avengers, it had the Wakandan Warriors and the X-Men to take care of it. It was one of the safest places in the world but yet they stood there face to face with an alien armada not exactly on the winning team.
In fact, they were a divided team, one that many would've rightly argued was probably destined to fail. He wasn't trained to fail. He wasn't trained to falter at all but yet he did. They both did.
He turned to Steve and he nodded only once, he knew that there was nothing to say right now that'd ease what they were about to go through, there was nothing he could say to any of them that'd make any of this any easier, all they could do was fight and hope and he wasn't particularly good at the latter. Battle was what he was used to, he was used to fighting and so was Steve but they weren't used to losing.
Steve's eyes moved to his best friend and he had an unreadable expression, Bucky at that moment felt troubled but he said nothing at all as they proceeded with what would be their death march forward. He was trying like hell to push through all of this and keep his head about him while he did. Focus Barnes, Focus. Don't let this get the better of you.
Life and death situations were nothing unfamiliar to Natasha either but keeping her head in the game right now proved to be more of a challenge than she wanted it to be, she looked around at her friends, at the people she'd come to care for and she felt her heart racing so fast it was making her feel sick. It was a distraction from what she needed to do and she knew it, she couldn't afford distractions, distractions cost lives.
She did a perfect pirouette as she swooped low and took out one of the alien warriors once she dropped it to the ground, her hand reached for the weapon in its hand and she threw it hitting another straight through the head that had Wanda in a rather dangerous situation; she was trying to hold evil off at all sides. She needed to get down there. She needed to get out of here. She looked at the kid then.
"You got this?" she asked, Wanda, nodded uncertainly. "Alright, shout real loud if you need help," Natasha added dryly.
She turned and ran from the room at the same time as she heard a loud crash below her and she cursed under her breath before she took a dive straight out of the window landing far better than she thought she would, she found her feet quickly enough and she allowed her eyes to travel back upward before she took a moment to breathe and try to clear her mind.
Find James. Find Steve.
She moved with speed and stealth deployed on those kinds of missions where she knew she'd be outnumbered in the field but she had to find a way to come out on top regardless, she knew this time the chances of that happening right now were unlikely but she did it anyway and took out as many as she could as she moved. Her eyes moved to Ororo as she heard a crash above their heads and lightning lit up the skies. she smirked ever so slightly.
She nodded only once to the woman whose eyes glowed a brilliant white but shone with fury anyway. She ran once again slamming straight into someone who turned to look at her before he rolled his eyes at her.
"Watch your step there kid," Logan spoke as he assessed her. She looked more or less unharmed. Pissed but unharmed. "You good?"
Natasha nodded her head. "Pissed the hell off but good. We need to move. We're losing this and fast."
She didn't need to say that, she knew Logan already knew that because he looked irritated and like he was about ready to massacre every damn thing he saw which she counted at this point to be a good thing. Logan in a rage wasn't something she'd usually count as a good thing but she'd make an exception for their present situation.
"Who stayed with Wanda?" he questioned as a troubled look touched his features.
"Erik," Natasha replied. "Daddy finally stepping up I guess." She had evident disdain in her voice as she spoke but Wanda needed backup and Shuri - while being smart - was no warrior. Lensherr might be a son of a bitch but he wasn't about to let Wanda die. Logan looked about as happy about that as she was. None of them trusted him even slightly but they needed all the help they could get.
"Where's-" She didn't get the chance to finish her question as they were blown away from each other as the ground between them quite literally exploded. "What the hell was that?!" She shouted over ringing ears.
Logan shook his head as they looked around them for the potential culprit for almost blowing them to hell. She supposed it was probably one of the alien armadas that seemed pretty intent on killing them out here today which made her wonder what the hell they were going to do because they were losing ground as every second ticked by.
"Go find Cap," Logan spoke to her. "We need to find out how many we've lost..."
That was a damn good idea. Natasha moved around the crater to help Logan to his feet who looked more pissed than he did before but she shook her head at him as he clenched his fists.
"Use it on them," she ordered as she turned and ran back into the fray. They needed to keep moving and they needed to keep fighting otherwise they were dead and she didn't intend to make that easy. She wasn't going down without a fight. Back to back within minutes with her fiance, her glance backward was met with a smile.
It didn't last long though, she ducked low as a fist flew toward her face and she swiped the knife from her boot across the stomach of her attacker. Yanking it free, she took out another with a swift throw to the head landing in the middle of its forehead before she moved to pull it free again.
An agonized scream stopped Steve, Bucky, and Natasha in their tracks as their eyes all moved toward the compound.
"No," Natasha whispered softly to herself. "Wanda..."
They were in deeper trouble now than they were just seconds ago. If that goddamn thing had gotten through Wanda and Erik and killed Vision then it had gotten exactly what it had come here for and the battle was about to get a hundred times worse. They were trying to get through as many as they could but they were fighting a losing battle. The more they killed the more seemed to pop up.
It was like nothing they were doing was making even a little bit of difference. They were killing as many as they could but their numbers seemed to rise more than they depleted which was a problem that none of them could overcome.
Bucky turned to run toward the compound in time to watch Wanda with tears streaming from her face land in front of him, he reached out a hand and he took hers and he studied her before he held her gaze. "We need to fight kid. Use it. It's the only time I'm ever gonna tell you to use your powers while you're angry but use it. We need this tipped in our favor."
Wanda wasn't a weapon to be used but she deserved her revenge and he was no stranger to wanting it. Wanda was one of the strongest people on this battlefield. She could tip this fight one way or another. Barton turned her to face him and for once since he'd met him, he agreed with Barnes.
"We need you, I know this hurts like hell but we need you. We'll fix this we just gotta keep fighting, you hear me? Don't let this thing take us down. We need you," His words were rushed but earnest. He needed to get back to find Natasha and Bobbi. They were out there and he and Bucky were stood here having a conversation they didn't want to be having with a broken-hearted Wanda Maximoff.
They were running out of time and time was precious right now.
Her father could be seen throwing a group back with a simple lift of his hands before he was pinned to the floor and Wanda moved forward sprinting toward him with her hand held out and a bright light broke through the pile of monsters holding her father to the ground.
Bucky and Clint exchanged a look and Bucky nodded appreciatively before the two of them parted ways as Clint took out their would-be murderers with four quick shots.
Bucky paused for just a moment as he watched his friends fighting for their lives and he found himself struggling. Jean and Ororo fought back to back and both were doing their best but their attackers just kept coming.
He could list at least two dozen names here but they were missing quite a few people too. People he wondered could tip this battle in their favor but he couldn't keep dwelling on that and focus on keeping those that they did have here right now alive for as long as they possibly could. He needed to keep fighting and he knew that even if he died here today he'd die fighting and while the thought of it hurt like hell he knew that it'd be a worthwhile way to go down.
None of them would go down without a fight.
He closed his eyes at the blinding red light that took out a group behind him and he let out an exacerbated sigh as he turned and ran to attempt to find Natasha or Steve in all of this chaos. He couldn't hear a single voice, he could hear nothing but noise and shouting and he couldn't distinguish one shout from the other which bothered him. His senses were supposed to be sharper than this but he was at a loss.
Finding her best friend, Natasha studied Clint. He seemed to be more or less in good shape albeit with a few minor wounds and a look that could kill. He was mad as hell and she couldn't blame him. He informed her that he had to go and find Wanda and do what he could for her before she lost it completely. Natasha agreed wholeheartedly and she let him move past without a word.
And then everything just stopped. It went so silent you could hear a pin drop, the noises of battle that had filled the air just moments before faded now into a silence that she knew was not going to be a good thing.
Why did they stop?
With a sickening feeling, she stopped still as she watched the monsters around them stop dead. This couldn't be good news. She spun on her heel in time to watch people around her start to disintegrate into nothing. She took off at a dead run to find Steve, Clint, and Bucky. She needed to find her family, her friends, her fiance...
Skidding to a halt, she watched as Bucky's body started to turn to dust and she dropped to her knees the moment he did and tears streamed down her face as he wasted away into nothing.
Steve's eyes moved to her immediately and she looked like she was about to lose it there and then but to his surprise, she didn't. She remained silent unable to find the strength to form any words let alone any coherent thoughts at that moment even as she felt a hand touch her shoulder and she looked up.
Wordlessly, she moved to her hand to Clint's and placed it over his. He squeezed her shoulder to tell her that he was there. There was nothing else he could do, he couldn't fix any of this and he had no goddamn idea who else had... Died? Had they died?
He had no idea what the hell had just happened but he knew one thing: They'd lost this battle and the cost of it was more than they'd ever wanted to pay.
Steve moved to kneel in front of her and he studied Natasha's face taking in the broken look that replaced her usual confidence. She flicked her eyes to her lap before she moved her hand from over Clint's and she pulled her ring out from the front pocket of her vest.
"We were gonna get married," she whispered through a choked sob. "And he's gone."
They were going to tell everyone, there was supposed to be a celebration and yet she knelt in the ruins of a battlefield in one of the most protected nations in the world with the man she loved gone.
Just gone and now she felt more alone than ever. Her thoughts weren't on the others that didn't survive this, her thoughts were locked on the same thing as her eyes were: The spot where she'd watched her future disappear into dust.
He was gone.