Remnants of Time

Also, check out my Spotify Playlist I put together for this fic.
(Keep in mind the chapters, though. The tracks are kind of like a soundtrack.)

Natasha came. She came with a look on her face that didn’t say anything, but when she was done taking care of Sam, who just groaned and whined a lot, she walked over to Steve. The blond wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but her face didn’t spoil any information regarding her thoughts or her emotions. Another weight weighed heavy on Steve’s shoulders - having left a teammate back, even if his reasons were justified. It shouldn’t have happened. After his fight with Tony, Steve had sworn to himself to never leave a teammate behind again. And yet, one assumption had arisen, suggesting Natasha might be working for Hydra or someone bad and Steve had fallen for the trick. He was ashamed.

And this unintelligibility radiating off Natasha just made it worse - Steve felt she punished him by pulling away every feature he normally used to read her. Her body language - silent. Her eyes - silent. Her hands - silent. She didn’t say anything and Steve had never been so irritated by the Russian before. For moments, he considered confronting her, but then he remembered how she had reacted the last time he’d done that. He frustratedly sucked in a breath of air. The redhead didn’t react to it. Steve didn’t have any words anyway. So he agreed to her silence.
When Natasha didn’t get the cuffs off his hands, Steve nodded, grateful for a topic that could start a conversation.
“They won’t go off. I’ve tried. Just go and get Zola and Lomawu. They-”
Natasha shook her head.
“I’m not leaving you back, Steve. We can only get this done together. And that is the whole truth.”
With those words, she left the blond. Speechless, Steve sat on the cold ground of that basement. Natasha had promised she wouldn’t leave him. Like he had promised to not leave her. And done it anyway. Steve shuddered. She must’ve felt shaken, to be betrayed by him like that. But even if she hated him, Steve hated himself more for what he’d done. If she really would come back, how could he ever apologize for breaking their trust - and quite possibly their friendship?

Only a few minutes later, the Russian returned, with a glass full of a swishing liquid in her hands.
“Why wasting our energy”, she finally smiled at him, “when there is a huge museum with tons of chemical substances right above us?”
With exemplary care and petite fingers, Natasha poured some liquid - probably acid - onto the chains and set a chemical reaction in motion that freed Steve’s hands from those unnerving cuffs holding him captive. When the blond’s bare skin came into vision, it looked scarred and bloody.
“Don’t worry”, Steve waved it off, “I’ll be fine. We should really get going, though. What do we do with him?”
“I’ve got that covered”, Natasha promised. “Rogers. There’s one thing. Whatever I do, I need you to trust me to do the right thing.”
Steve’s heart did a little jump. Natasha offered him a second chance. Just like that. Without hesitating. Without listening to any of his apologies or whatever. She knows what it’s like to make the hard call. Steve cleared his throat. Natasha was on his side and he wouldn’t mess it all up this time.
“You were the only thing that Zola and Lomawu couldn’t anticipate in their plan. You’re our ace. I got your back.”
With that, the two of them ran.

Natasha texted Clint mid-way. Steve and she had lost the way, whatever the way really was. Basically, the Russian was running and Steve just trying to follow and spot any possible ambushes or even enemy forces, but so far everything looked clear. He couldn’t afford to care about pedestrians right now. At least he was still in normal clothes. Those didn’t draw as much attention as Natasha’s dark suit.
Clint wrote: The Remnant is here. Hurry up or you’ll - Wanda! - just hurry! The hospital is close. Run north now.
His face hurt like hell, from that hit he’d taken from Bucky’s metal hand, but he didn’t tell Natasha that. Or about his neck, or his ear. She worried about enough things right now. He mustered her face that lit up when that hospital Clint was texting about came into sight, still way ahead of them. He wondered if she thought about Bucky. The image of the two Soviet spies snuggled up next to each other in that bed in Cologne reappeared in his mind. Maybe they were a couple and no one knew.
More thoughts found their way through the supersoldier’s mind and he let them. Hopefully, his friends could have a life after this, he tried to imagine it. Bucky and Natasha. She let the brunet so close so fast. Steve smiled.
Then, he noticed the eight level of the empty, abandoned hospital the looked like it was from the 50s. A window clinked loudly and then crashed. Someone’s head looked out of the hole, then an arrow flew past it.
Steve’s forehead was in wrinkles.
“What is it, Steve? What plan are you cooking up right now?”
“How does Clint text while he’s fighting? I just can’t… picture it.”
Natasha just stared at the blonde, as if he was the most bizarre person on the planet. Maybe he was. He shrugged.
“He uses the speech-to-text function, Steve.”
“Ha! So that’s how you text me while driving.”
Natasha grimaced.
“You’re too precious for this world, golden boy. Make sure to stay alive in the battle ahead!”
In shock, Steve noticed the helicopter on the roof of the hospital. The rotators began to move right then and two persons were entering it. A woman and a man, from what Steve could tell. Zola and Lomawu.
“Nat! Can you hit them?”
She checked her handguns and shook her head. Their ranges were too short.
“Didn’t bring my rifle. Sorry, Rogers.”
Steve kicked a stone in disappointment. They were too late. But the fight seemed to continue on the inside. A scream reached Steve’s ears and he sped up.

The two of them sprinted up the staircases, perfectly warmed up when lunging into the fight. One thing Steve noticed immediately was how narrow the old hospital’s hallways were. He spotted dents and arrow shafts stuck in walls and scattered over the floor. A strong draft greeted them, proving what a wreck this building really was.
Right now, Scott and what looked like an invasion of ants were attacked by the Remnant. Clint, however, tried to protect himself from the Winter Soldier. Wanda was the down, on the floor. She’d been hit. Steve ran towards the other end of the hallway, where the young girl tried to get back up. She struggled. Suddenly, a wall shattered, blocking his way. A person appeared in-between the debris. A growling person. With a knife. And a mask. And a blood covered face. The Remnant. Steve looked at her, quickly taking a defensive stance. Now he yearned for his suit.

The brunette woman was about to pounce on him when someone lunged at her from behind. Scott. More than brave, he pulled her hair. She hissed loudly and a shiver ran down Steve’s spine. She turned to Scott, kicking his legs away. He landed on his back and she jumped onto him. He was fast. He almost managed to tap his suit to make him shrink. But boy, she was much faster. In one move, she had both Scott’s arms pinned to the linoleum floor. Then, she did something Steve didn’t expect at all. A strange, low whistle rose over the fighting noise. It took a second to be returned.
Natasha yelled something in the background. Steve didn’t pay attention. His eyes shot back and forth between Scott and Wanda. If he made a run for her- someone shoved him from behind. Barton fell right into him, stumbling. His cheek was bleeding. His bow was broken. The Winter Soldier charged at the two men and Steve grabbed stones from the broken wall. The Asset dodged and smashed every single one.
“Bucky! Just-”, Steve screamed, but his friend didn’t listen at all. When Steve touched him, a knife slashed over his arm and a gun appeared. Steve kicked the handgun out of the Winter Soldier’s grasp. When he looked back up, Bucky was already on his way to re-engage with Barton.
Screams came from the room next to Steve. The Remnant, Rebecca, had broken Scott’s forearm. A bone was unglamorously sticking out of it. His shrinking device was completely crushed. A knife gleamed in the Remnant’s hand. Blood ran over her fingers. Three deep cuts opened up Lang’s thigh. His flesh was torn to shredded.
At that sight, Steve’s blood turned boiling hot. He scrambled to his feet, ran into the room and opened the door to smash the Remnant off Scott. She jumped back to her feet instantly.
But Steve just pushed the next best thing, a hospital bed, and slammed it forwards. Then, he pulled the Remnant into his strong grasp. Something pinched his leg. Darts. The poisoned ones. He didn’t care. He just ran, anger had taken control.
Steve crashed his victim against the next wall. Her suit collided with the stone roughly. Her mask fell, but Steve had to watch with shock how her arm turned metal from once second to another. How did she do that!? In battle’s defiance, he kicked her arm, making it slam against the worn out wall. The stones broke with a nasty crunch and she fell through it. Only then Steve realized it was the outside wall.
Only then Steve realized it was the outside wall. Shit. He’d just thrown Bucky’s sister off the eighth story. When he put his head outside the hole, there was no body on the pavement. No blood. Nothing. Steve couldn’t see anyone. Where had she gone in that one second? 

Inside, someone gagged. Steve ran back. The Winter Soldier closed his hands around Wanda’s throat. But he stood so far away. Between Steve and him was half the hallway and a rapidly increasing pool of blood around Scott. If Steve just had his shield! Next, Steve’s hands grabbed whatever was around him and made a metal table whiz through the air, thumping right against Bucky’s chest. The brainwashed soldier opened his hands enough to have Wanda slip away. Clint tried his best but didn’t succeed at kicking the Winter Soldier. They fought a quick and intense hand-to-hand combat, which resulted in nasty oomphs and cries.
When Steve looked up from Scott the next time, Barton wriggled on the floor, in between Bucky’s legs. His jaw already looked blue and the rest of his face was smudged with blood. 
Steve’s attention was dragged away by a stinging in his leg. Another dart. And a third. Even a fourth before the blond realized where they came from. From above. From the hole in the ceiling. He could not jump away when a heavy-looking device crashed down. Steve kneeled over Scott’s unconscious body, caving in when the massive device plummeted onto his back. He couldn’t help but scream at the piercing pain. That definitely leave a huge mark on his back. The Remnant jumped through the hole in the ceiling, landing softly on her feet. Steve’s desperation grew.
He wanted to run and help Clint. But if he left Lang, Rebecca would kill the unconscious Ant-man. He couldn’t do that. From the corner of his eye, Steve noticed Natasha coming in. Relief flooded his system. Natasha moved through the hallway, dodging debris like a dancer. A blade gleamed in her hand. The Remnant attacked Steve, using the distraction as advantage, and he huffed at the quick succession of punches being thrown at him. She knew his weak spots, he thought, she knew his every move. So he tried something else. Instead of punching her, he turned around, spotting exactly what he needed. A supply cabinet. Whatever was in there might save their lives. So he opened it, shuffled through the boxes. No medication but masks. Attached to cartridges spelling N2O. Laughing gas. Perfect.
When the Remnant rushed at him, Steve quickly grabbed her arm, pulling her down. With his leg digging into her back and holding her in place, he had one chance to pull this mask over her face. And it worked.
Steve held her arms together, he squished Rebecca as the laughing gas filled her lungs. She squirmed under his grasp, but relaxed after a few seconds. Steve didn’t let go. He knew he couldn’t underestimate her. She was dangerous.
Suddenly, a knife was plunged into his side. How…? He stumbled in pain and the Remnant stood up. She grabbed this stick Steve had seen before, on her back. It whirled around in her hands. Steve was breathing heavily. Every hope he’d built up until now faded like it had been an illusion all along. The blond looked up. He wondered if his senses failed him or if his pain was just layering over them. He hadn’t even heard Natasha approaching. The Remnant fought with her now, the brunette’s stick creating a crescendo of cracks and slaps whenever she hit Natasha. The laughing gas didn’t seem to affect her at all. Steve got to his feet.
His Ma’s words rushed through his mind. He could still see her in the white hospital bed. Most of the time, he pushed this memory away, but now it pressed into his mind with an unusual urgency. Her voice had been muffled through the breathing device on her face and her hands were covered in some kind of gloves. Steve still knew the rubbery feeling on his cheek when she’d caressed his face, when she had wiped his tears away. You will get through this. You’re stronger than this world, Steven. You’re an overcomer. And then she fell into an endless pit of silence. And Steve had become what his Ma had always seen in him. Grief crossed his heart once more. But it birthed a decision, one he had made a hundred times before. I’ll overcome this. Giving up isn’t in my options.

So Steve stemmed himself up, pulling the Remnant off a wide-eyed Natasha. Blood was smeared over the brunette’s face, probably from her nose. Her lips were cracked, too. Nat had collected a batch of scratch marks on her décolleté and throat. The Widow nodded at him and ran off.
“Hold her there!”, she yelled at Steve but didn’t say anything else.
But Steve couldn’t. The woman lunged at him and used a medical table to attack him out of the air. Right before she reached him, however, a red mist swirled around her figure. She hovered in the air. Steve triumphed on the inside. Thank you, Wanda!
What happened in the next moments was too fast for Steve to understand right away. An arrow shot at the Remnant. She caught it before it could tear through her chest. Her arm turned silver. It deflected another arrow. Steve’s head whipped around in shock. Clint stood in the doorway, his broken bow fixed with medical tape. A third arrow was already in position. It made a chucking sound when it landed in Rebecca’s abdomen. Steve cursed.
“Clint, stop! You’re killing her!”
“Got my orders, Cap. T’Challa wants her dead.”
“He- what!? Does he know she’s Bucky’s sister?” Clint lowered his bow, but the red mist still held the brainwashed assassin captive.
“Are you kidding me!? How many more of your kind are there? Shit, I need a list”, Barton turned around to make eye contact with Wanda, “can you fix her mind?”
Wanda hesitated, her fingers still spinning her scarlet veil.
“I don’t kn- no. Not here at least, I - Oh, oh my god.” Her eyes had become huge and she covered her mouth in pure shock. Steve followed her gaze. 

On the other side of the room stood Natasha.
She held a knife to Bucky’s throat.

Steve’s heart pounded heavy, pushed fear through his veins and cold sweat onto his skin. Could he believe what he saw? He didn’t want to, but when the first drops of blood rolled over his best friend’s skin, he wasn’t sure he had a choice. Bucky’s hair was in Natasha’s fist, she pulled his head up to expose his throat. To cut through it. Blood dripped over the silver blade. Steve recognized it as one of Bucky’s. But Steve was frozen in his spot. What was he supposed to do? What was Natasha doing? Would words be strong enough to pull Natasha out of whatever had stolen her sanity? Would she really kill him? She used to call him Yasha, with the sweet undertone of a deep-rooted love. Steve hesitated. Was it another lie? A trick?
Clint shot a worried look at Steve. Wanda still held the Remnant back, but she was distracted too. Scott just continued to bleed out onto the floor, ants gathering around his unconscious self.
I need you to trust me to do what is right. This was as far from right as it could get. Steve wanted to cry. His body wanted to punch something. His heart felt like Natasha had pierced it with a stick. To roast it over a scorching fire.
Clint grabbed Steve’s arm. Do something, his eyes seemed to urge the super soldier. Thousands of words rung through Steve’s mind, but he didn’t know which ones to choose. He felt like every word was wrong. The Remnant growled from behind him.
“What are you doing, Natasha!?” Steve’s voice cracked.
“I’m putting an end to the fight. We need to destroy Hydra. And we know their weak spot. If they realize he’s dead…”
But what if their weak spot is also mine?
Steve mustered Bucky. His arms were lifeless, they were fixated behind his back somehow. His blue eyes were clear but pointed at the floor. Something with a handle was stuck in his side. Probably a knife. Suddenly, Steve noticed how Natasha’s necklace was missing, the one with the arrow. The one she never took off. Something wasn’t right.
“This isn’t the right cho-”
“Sometimes, you gotta make a right choice, not the right one. You said that. This is my right choice, Rogers.” Natasha sent him a challenging, but cold look. Steve sucked in a deep breath. Yes. He’d said that. He regretted it now. But choices never applied to Bucky. With him, there was no choice. Steve still refused to believe Natasha was serious.
“You can’t-” She dragged the knife further along his throat. Bucky winced. More blood. To prove her point? To kill him?
“Nat, I beg you-”
“You taught me about sacrifice, Steve. It hurts. But it needs to be done. I’m the Black Widow”, she said mechanically and repeated something like a mantra, “Remember. Execute. Forget.”
It was another of these moments Steve realized he wasn’t trying to save two people from brainwashing and conditioning, but three.
Then, Natasha cut into the flesh. Bucky gasped. 

In a fraction of a second, a knife shot into the spy’s shoulder. The Remnant sprang into action, ripping herself out of the control of a distracted Wanda. Natasha hit Bucky’s head full-force with her handgun and he collapsed to the ground. A dart dug into Natasha’s arm but stuck in her suit. Wanda ran over to Bucky and placed her hands on his cheeks. Red mist appeared around him.
“Steve!”, Wanda yelled. “Grab her by the neck!”
Natasha fought with the Remnant, trying to keep up with the brunette’s speed. The Remnant seemed furious, she kicked the Russian into her face and stabbed her a couple of times. Her metal arm crushed Natasha’s gun. The Russian seemed a little dizzy, too. Her right arm seemed limp.
“Steve, now!”, Wanda yelled again. Steve moved and tried to grab the Remnant’s throat.
“By the neck! Hold her up!”
“Her neck will break!”
“Just do it!”
So he did. He grabbed Rebecca’s neck, channeled all his leftover power into a firm grip and lifted her off the ground. To his surprise, she went completely still from one moment to the next. Everything dropped from her hands. The blades clanked against the floor, the sound echoing through the room in this sudden silence. The Remnant just hung there, almost like someone had pulled the plug. Her eyes went around the room, scanning it. But she remained completely still. Steve was stunned. If he had known it was this easy to stop her…
“How did you know, Wanda?” She smiled.
“He did”, she pointed at Bucky, who was still out of it. Bucky’s memories had saved them.

“Finally”, Natasha breathed. “Thank God that stupid plan worked. Barton, help me find a supply cabinet.”
The two of them rushed through the rooms and hallways. Steve was relieved when they could somehow stop the heavy blood flow that originated in Scott’s leg. The boiling rage at Natasha’s stunt with his best friend was still there, but he swallowed it. Now was not the time. Natasha approached him with bad news.
“Scott lost a lot of blood. But I know we have reserves in the Quinjet you left Wakanda with.”
That was terrible. Steve took a deep breath.
“I parked it in France, Nat.”
“I know. It should be here in a minute. I already alerted medical assistance. There will be a doctor on board.”
Steve was very grateful when Wanda relieved his arm by taking the Remnant for him. Now, he built himself up before Natasha, the woman he once thought he could trust. He grabbed her elbow when she made a step back. She winced. Steve noted that her arm was broken, so he gently let go. But she would have to talk. Too many secrets stood between them.
“What game are you playing here? What do you really want?”
“Vacation. I guess that’ll have to wait, though. To save all your asses, ‘til then?”
A police siren broke the deafening silence. Steve still didn’t know which words to use with the spy before him. The low rumbling of a Quinjet sent relief though every person in the room.
“We should go”, Natasha said.
“Where to? We can’t go back to Wakanda. We need to hide.”
Natasha smiled kindly and pulled something out of her pocket. A key?
“The director of SHIELD gave me this. We have full access to a hidden base in the Swiss Alps.”
As expected, Steve wasn’t satisfied with that.
“SHIELD, huh. And what flathead was bold enough to dig them out of that pile of rubble?”
“Steve, I can’t tell-”
“You can and you will. You owe us a lot, Natasha, and this is the least you can do.” After almost cutting Bucky’s throat.
Natasha nodded, her forehead wrinkled as if she was thinking hard which words to choose.
“The director won’t appreciate it. His identity is more than highly confidential intel. His business with us is personal too, that’s why he insisted on contacting you himself.”
“Who is it? Nat”, Steve’s voice sounded like a warning.
“Coulson.”
“Bullshit. He died on that helicarrier…”
Natasha smiled, a smile that Steve had seen a couple of times before, in dark hallways and on airy rooftops. The smile that announced another trick by the Black Widow, one where she lured people into her net, making them see and believe something that was an illusion. It marked them as her victims.
“Everyone dies at one point, Steve. Some just know how to turn it into a game.” The Captain stared at her, signaling the redhead to go on.
“Sometimes, dying ensures survival. I’m a spy. Never wondered how I’m standing in front of you, alive, unharmed? In the Red Room, we practiced dying every day.”
“You practiced lying.”
“Death is just like me. One truth out of many. Whoever believes it is a fool.”
With that, she turned around, announcing their way out of this place. 

It happened on the stairs. In just a couple of moments, fate, or more likely fatigue, decided to turn everything around. Wanda stumbled over some debris on the stairs and fell. At the same time, she let go of Rebecca, who had stayed completely focused the entire time, waiting for a split second of weakness like this one. The Remnant jumped, probably the one with the most power in her legs out of everyone, and disappeared in the ceiling.
Steve groaned. He could’ve screamed at everyone and everything. She was gone. They’d lost her. Sam had been right. Their whole mission was a disaster.
The police sirens sounded really close now.
“Come on, guys, get going!”, Natasha encouraged, leading them all to the Quinjet on the roof. She knew they couldn’t waste any time here. The world was in the mood to welcome Steve Rogers and his friends back yet.

The police cars made their way through Munich’s terrible traffic and reached one of the city’s old abandoned buildings. The old hospital was the place civilians had reported.
Gun shots. Arrows. Red mist.
A whole police squad entered the building, overly cautious and handguns raised. They were ready to shoot, to put their years of training into use.
All they found, however, was a halfway collapsed eighth story and puddles of blood on the floor of an old, abandoned and decayed hospital.