Chapter Text
Bad News
"I don't like it, Nat..."
Steve's face was a stern mask, impenetrable if it weren't for his eyes. His brow was furrowed, lips pressed into a firm line, but it was those eyes, those impossibly blue eyes, that told the truth. They were scared. They dropped from Natasha's face, down to her midsection, and back up again. Natasha instinctively placed her hand where Steve's gaze had fallen.
"I know..." she said, quietly at first, but then a little more firmly. "I know . I don't like it either, but," she gestured to the television. "What choice do we have?"
Both of their gazes moved to the image being shown on the large screen. A strange, circular and clearly-alien spacecraft was ascending back into the sky, leaving havoc where it had landed in the streets below. A message ticked by at the bottom of the screen, in all capital leaders:
IRON MAN, TONY STARK BELIEVED TO BE ON BOARD.
Nat pulled her gaze back to Steve's troubled face. "Vision's missing. Tony's... I don't even know what. Steve... we have to find out what's going on." She said, as if he needed reminding.
Vision had gone off the grid about twelve hours ago. His last known location, according to Natasha, had been Edinburgh. It hadn't been all that alarming at first, but now that it was coupled with news of an attack in New York and Tony Stark's mysterious trip to outer space, things were considerably more concerning.
Steve Rogers released a sigh that sounded every bit the age people had a hard time believing he was. He remembered the vow he had taken, to always do the right thing, even when it was the hard thing to do. To save lives, no matter what. Natasha had been by his side for three years now, helping him see to that code. Despite their differences, despite that "red in her ledger" she had been there. She could've been anywhere else, but, instead, she'd stayed. Whatever they faced, they faced together. Still, that didn’t mean he didn’t have concerns. Something about all this felt… big. That worried him. There was a lot more at stake here than just popping back up on the wrong people’s radars.
Steve turned toward Nat and took a few steps toward her. His arms circled around her and pulled her to him. She rested her cheek against his chest; he rested his chin atop her head.
"We'll be careful." He said, and he wasn't sure who he was trying to convince, Natasha or himself.
Nat said nothing, but there was understanding in her eyes when she looked up at him. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and for a second, just a second, Natasha closed her eyes and allowed herself to feel the comfort of that gesture. It wasn’t often she let her walls down. In her experience, Natasha had found that bad things happened when she did that. It was habit to stay guarded. She was the Black Widow, one of the deadliest women, no, people , on the planet. She didn't need protecting. Steve knew that, but he made her feel safe, anyway, and Natasha allowed herself to feel that.
But safety, like any feeling, was fleeting. The quicker one moved away from it, the less disappointed they were when it moved away from them. It wasn’t a feeling to get too comfortable with, especially not in situations like these. So, Natalia opened her eyes, patted Steve's chest, and took a step back. "Come on," she said. "We've got work to do."
......
"So, what, Iron Man's just... peacing out on Earth?!" Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, exclaimed from the pilot seat of the Quinjet. "I mean, he better have a damn good reason for jumpin' on board that flying donut and leavin' us here to handle this mess."
"I'm sure he has his reasons," Steve said, a somewhat unlikely defender in Stark's corner. “He wouldn’t have just left.”
Cap's gaze moved over to Nat. He wondered what he would find there. Would it be the indignancy that Sam shared? Would it be the worry that Steve, himself, was feeling? Surprisingly, there were...neither of those things. There wasn't much of anything, really. Her gaze, her whole expression, was rather vacant. She got like that sometimes, he knew, when she crawled so deeply into that mantle of Black Widow there was scarcely room for anything else. He thought it was just years of training that did that, and, partly, it was... but now he knew better. Now , he knew that it was also a defense mechanism, because despite her strength, Natasha Romanoff had been hurt many, many times in her life. She had seen many, awful things. She got angry, and she got scared like the rest of them. This... was just her way of protecting herself, and she needed it. Tony had been just as close a friend to her as he had everyone else. If something had happened to him, Natasha would surely be affected by it.
When the jet circled around Edinburgh, everyone inside it was expecting a search. Vision had dropped off the grid, but hopefully it hadn't been long enough ago that he was too far gone by now. Nat didn't seem to think he'd be too hard to find. As one of the most advanced AI's in existence with a nearly indestructible body, Vision tended to leave certain... trails. Nothing destructive; mostly things like data interference. Vision wasn’t exactly the destructive type. So, one could imagine Nat's surprise when she spotted a fire from a west-facing window, and several police cars speeding toward the scene.
"There!" She pointed out. As she did so, she saw a blur of red crash through the acropolis at the top of Calton Hill.
"Take us down, Sam." Steve said.
"You got it."
Sam directed the jet to a makeshift landing zone on top of a nearby building. The ramp at the back opened and provided an exit. Nat and Steve wasted little time in running out. After the jet was safely disengaged, Falcon came zooming behind them, the thrusters at his back lifting his winged figure high into the air.
"I've got eyes on Vision," his voice rang through the ear pieces of the others. "Looks like Wanda Maximoff is with him, too, and... oh, shit. "
"What is it?" Natasha asked as she ran to the edge of the building.
Her question was answered when she skidded to a halt and saw the monstrosities on the hill before her. Two huge, bipedal but definitely alien forms towered over a fallen Vision and Scarlet Witch. They were gray-skinned, both of their tall figures clad in metallic armor. The first, female by the looks of it, had glowing red eyes and a pair of horns curving out from her temples and wrapping up along the sides of her skull. She carried a three-pronged spear with glowing blue tips that crackled with unbridled energy. The second, a male, was a bit more obscure due to the hood pulled up around his face. He carried a staff with a curved, golden blade at either end.
The female lifted her spear above her head and aimed it toward Wanda.
"Sam!" Steve yelled.
"On it!"
Falcon opened fire with two, automatic rifles. Sparks flew as the bullets ricocheted off the alien's armor. Both creatures turned, enraged, to face their offender. Steve wrapped an arm around Nat's waist and leapt off the building they were on. The earth rose up to meet him, and his legs bent as they absorbed the full impact of the fall. He released his grip as soon as it was safe, and Nat hit the ground running as she pulled two, electrically charged batons from the holsters on her back. The situation was assessed, the threats were identified, and the Black Widow had no qualms with taking them out.
While they were distracted by Falcon, Black Widow and Captain America threw themselves into the fray. Natasha jumped into the air and delivered a devastating blow with her batons to the face of the male. The one-two combo came in quick succession, knocking his head to the side first, and then bringing him down to one knee. Meanwhile, Cap lifted a flying knee of his own into the chest of the female. His enhanced strength sent her flying several yards away from Wanda and Vision. Vision, Steve now saw, was hurt. It appeared the male creature had ran him through with one end of his weapon. Steve could see yellow circuitry crackling and glitching through Vision's red exterior.
"The jet's up there," he said to Wanda, pointing to the building they'd just leaped from. "Get him to safety."
The male alien was rising to his feet once more, looking like he was ready to go round two with Natasha. He wouldn’t be caught off-guard this time, and the weapon he was holding looked like it might slice right through Nat’s batons. Acting quickly, Steve grabbed the three-pronged weapon that the female had dropped and tossed it to the Black Widow. A weapon that could be held in one hand by the creature had to be gripped in both of Natasha's. In one, fluid motion, she slid her batons into their holsters and freed up her hands to catch the alien weaponry. She ran toward the hooded alien, slid on her knees to duck beneath the swipe of his weapon, and sliced across the side of his knee to bring him down once more. As soon as she was behind him, she spun in a quick one-eighty and delivered another slice, this one diagonally across his back. The thing let out a terrible, pained growl and went down to his hands and knees.
The enraged female came to the aid of her accomplice. She charged toward Nat, whose back was turned toward her. She was fast, but Steve was faster. He placed himself between Nat and the beast at the last second, catching the weapon as Nat tossed it to him without a moment’s hesitation and holding it up to block the attack of the horned alien. The prongs of the weapon grated noisily against the tough armor the alien wore on her forearms. Her strength had every muscle in his body firing on all cylinders, but he held her at bay.
"Left!" Natasha yelled. “Move!”
Without hesitation, Steve dove to the left. As he did so, Natasha rolled right. The spear of the male alien came swinging as he whipped himself and the weapon around in the hopes of retaliating against the Black Widow. His blade met his counterpart, instead, slicing across her midsection and spilling thick, blue blood onto the ground. By this time, Sam had landed. Now, the three of them had the two creatures surrounded. Sam had his guns trained on them, Natasha was holding her batons once more, and Steve still grasped the strange three-pronged lance that the horned female had been holding.
"Stand down." He commanded them.
"We don't want to kill you," Natasha said. Her voice was cool and predatory as she fired up the electric charge on her weapons. "But we will."
The aliens seethed up at them, showing their disgust through sharp, gritted teeth. They heaved, breathless and wounded, as they gripped one another. They exchanged glances. There was a tense moment, the kind of moment that Steve knew could go either way. Then, the female uttered something in a deep, guttural voice, in a language that no one understood. A beam of light shot down from somewhere in the sky, forcing Natasha, Steve, and Sam to jump back. The two figures were carted up into the air. The female held out her hand, and an unseen force pulled her weapon right out of Cap's hands and back into hers. They were taken up into a previously unseen spacecraft. Then, just like that, they were gone. Steve watched the stars for a moment before turning his attention to the others.
"Everyone good?" He asked. His gaze lingered on Nat.
"Yeah," Sam said. "We're good."
Natasha nodded her agreement. This seemed as easy as breathing to her. She was a cunning tactician and a lethal combatant, and whether it was fighting die-hard Hydra agents or beings from another planet, Natasha was a force to be reckoned with. Even with all the strange, foreign things occurring around her as well as within her, she was the Black Widow. Once upon a time, Steve had been afraid that nothing would ever change that. Now, he was grateful that nothing ever could.
They were all a bit breathless, but it seemed like they'd made it out relatively unscathed. She’d been working with Steve and Sam long enough now that they were able to operate smoothly and with minimal damage. Natasha just wished the same could be said for Vision and Wanda. Neither one of them looked to be in the best shape. It seemed that the two of them had made it up to safety, but there was really no way of being sure until they got there, themselves.
"We should get back to the jet." Nat suggested.
It was for the best. They needed to check on Vision and Wanda, there were plenty of questions that needed answering, and... well, no one really wanted to be around to try and explain to local law enforcement what just happened, here. So, with that in mind, the three of them headed back to the bird. Sam flew up to the rooftop rather effortlessly. Steve, with Natasha, followed by way of a couple well-placed leaps. This was as easy as breathing to him, too. They’d formed an unspoken synergy that made them come together like two parts of a whole. There was hardly any thought to it anymore. It just… happened. When they landed, he didn't release her right away. He held on to her, for just a few seconds longer, so he could look at her, really look at her, and make sure she was okay. She had to understand why.
Her smile, slightly touched, slightly amused, said she did. “Easy, Rogers.” She told him with humor in her voice. “I’m not a carton of eggs. I can get shaken around a little bit without breaking.”
Steve pushed out a sigh of relief, nodded, and swallowed the lump in his throat. “Sorry,” he said with a little chuckle. “Still getting used to some things, I guess.”
“You and me both,” Natasha said. “But if you could figure out satellite radio, you can handle this.”
“Hilarious,” Steve said as he released his grip on Nat's waist. He watched her walk up the ramp into the jet with no shortage of awe. He'd never felt quite so afraid prior to going into missions before. There hadn't really been anything but the mission for him to see for quite some time. Even when he and Natasha had first… allowed themselves to dive a little deeper into their feelings for one another, there hadn’t been much hesitation going into missions. He was Captain America. She was the Black Widow. He didn’t think there was anyone or anything they couldn’t handle, so long as they did it together. Things were quite different, now. There was another person in the equation. One who couldn’t yet fight to protect themselves. One who, if Steve had his way, would never have to. Nat was handling it all like the true soldier though, unsurprisingly. Steve supposed the least he could do was follow her lead. He took a second to himself, smiling a little and shaking his head, before following her into the jet.
Sam had them in the air in no time.
Nat was crouched down in front of Wanda and Vision, who had both taken seats. Vision was sort of slumped in his seat, his legs splayed out in front of him, one hand gripping his side. Wanda had suffered some scuffs to the side of the face and a busted lip, but it seemed like she'd held her own pretty damn well. Still, her concern over Vision was palpable. Nat recognized and understood that concern immediately. She didn't ask questions; she didn't need to. Not those kinds of questions, anyway.
"What happened?"
"I... I-I don't know." Wanda stammered.
"What were those things?" Steve asked.
"They called themselves the 'Children of Thanos'." Vision said weakly. "They were after..." His words trailed. His hand left his wounded abdomen to touch the yellow stone in his forehead, instead. “This.” He looked up at Wanda. "We must destroy it."
"No." She said firmly. It sounded like they'd had this conversation already. "No. That's not an option."
"Hey," Natasha's calm voice tried to diffuse the situation a bit. "No one's destroying anything, okay? Not yet, at least."
"Where to, Cap?" Sam's voice sounded from the pilot's seat.
There were a lot of questions surrounding what was happening. Multiple alien invasions at different points around the globe, targeted attacks against one of their own… it was a lot to take in. More importantly, Vision needed help. Steve looked at the others for a few moments, brow furrowed and arms folded across the broad expanse of his chest. It inflated as he took a deep breath in. Then, exhaling through his nose, he turned his head to look over his shoulder, up toward Sam in the front of the jet.
"I think it's about time we head home." He said.