On his journey to returning the Infinity Stones back to their rightful place, Steve kept Vormir for last. If he were being honest with himself, he dreaded it —abhorred it — for what it had comprised. For what it had cost the team to win. For whom it had cost him.
But loss and pain soon gave way for determination.
He eventually made his way to the deserted planet, driven by growing will. The tall dusty mountains towering over the dying sea ominously stood in the distance as the eclipsed sun marked the direction to take.
He climbed up diligently as a dark veil slowly began to fall over his face. The place, sullen as it could get, bared the stigma of unspeakable atrocities steered by Greed.
Or Despair.
Despair was guiding his way too, today. His thumb rolled over the amber stone in his palm.
A gloomy shadow came upon him.
“Steven Grant Rogers, son of Joseph.”
The familiar dissolved skull showed through under the hood.
Steve clenched his fist.
“I thought you were dead,” he said grimly.
The spectre hovered down to his level.
“Death is not the end, Captain.”
Steve opened his hand and the stone glowed in the suffocating obscurity. He looked down at it.
“Is it the same for her?” he murmured. “For Natasha.”
“You aren’t just here to return the Stone,” Schmidt said assertively.
Steve swallowed quietly.
“No. I came here to bring her back.”
The specter watched him sternly.
“You aren’t the first to come here to try.”
“Is there a way to bring her back?” Steve asked.
“It is a high price to pay. Many are those who have come here to satisfy their avidity, and fewer are those who came back to alleviate their conscience, but none was ever willing to pay the price.”
His heartbeat hastened upon hearing there was indeed a way to see her face again.
“What is it?” he asked.
The Spectre motioned towards the top of the mountain; he followed closely behind. They eventually reached a flat stone structure looking across the expanse to the veiled sun. He immediately recognized it from Clint’s description.
“The quintessence of the Stone resides in life itself. But life and death aren’t so different. If you wish to retrieve the cherished Soul that has been taken, you are to exchange it with your own.”
The cold wind grazed over his face.
“A Soul for a Soul,” he whispered.
Steve nervously stepped close to the edge and looked over, scared of the dreadful vision that might await him at the bottom. He found an abyss staring back at him. He felt tears rising and every muscle in his body tensed. Natasha had met her fate here.
But it shouldn't be.
He could fix everything.
The truth was he should have been here. It should have been him from the start.
“If you do not wish to proceed, you are just to drop the Stone down to return it where it belongs.”
Steve closed his eyes and exhaled. He had hoped he could see her one last time. Tell her things he had been too afraid to say before, and which now haunted him.
“I need to know she will return. I need to know she will live.”
“The Stone does not deceive.”
The clouds lay low.
It was a price he was willing to pay.
His eyes flickered to the gem in his palm. He slowly closed his fist over it and held it tightly.
“Can you —,” he halted abruptly. It hit him he could not count on the somber phantom beside him to relay what he wished he could have told her himself.
Schmidt watched him with the same unwavering callousness.
Steve nodded to himself and turned his attention back to the pit. The tips of his boots were sticking out as he stood still as a pole.
He glanced up at the sky one last time then closed his lids.
He thought of Natasha and how she must have felt before jumping off. Those thoughts tormented him far more greatly than the prospect of his own death. Losing Peggy was hard, but God the pain he was feeling now — the one that had been drilling a hole inside his chest since they had all come back from the Time Heist — it was excruciating.
Beyond bearable.
But it would end soon.
He leaped and his body plunged in the dark abyss.
I love you.
Coppery lights flicked across the still, quiet sea lying under the sandy dunes.
The obscurity ended. Lids trembled opened and the pupils dilated under the rosy lights brushed over the sky. Water brushed over the warm skin as a deep breath was taken.
“Steve,” she whispered weakly.
Natasha sat herself up and looked all around her; her eye fell on and recognized the otherworldly scenery she had visited with Clint before.
Her breathing grew jerky with anguish. She put her palm on the sand below and pushed herself up.
From inside the stone, she had seen everything. She had screamed for him to stop. But he didn't hear. He couldn't. And she knew him well enough to know he wouldn't have.
Her eyes anxiously swept across her surroundings.
Her chest began to shake as the sobs burst out. Her stomach twisted and she propped her hands on her thighs and leaned over.
“Please,” she wept.
Her heart was throbbing acutely.
She couldn’t bear the pain she was feeling.
We do not trade lives.
And yet he did.
She held in the scream burning her inside the chest.
Moving waters spattered in the distance. She killed her last sob and went silent.
“Nat?”
She jerked her head up at the sound of the familiar voice. She stood up straight and stared numbly.
He was standing across with a similar stunned expression, his wet hair slicked back.
Neither knew how it was possible but it was real. They were both alive. They looked at each other with watery eyes.
They ran up to each other desperately and collided. She buried her head into his chest and he pressed his hand against the back of her head as a tear rolled down his cheek.
They clung on to each other for a long while.
He cupped her face and looked at her closely. She looked alright.
She was alright.
And he was lucky to see it.
He had her back.
He laughed and leaned in, laying restless kisses all over her face as tangible evidence of this miracle. He felt her smile.
She rested her hands over his.
“How can you be here?” she asked, diving her green eyes into his. She knew she was supposed to have lost him.
He shook his head.
“I don’t know. Everything went black then I woke up here.”
Her eyes filled up with tears. “Why did you do it?” she cried in a broken voice. “Why did you jump?”
He held her face tightly and smiled through his tears.
“I didn’t want you to be alone.”