Once again I've been aiming to high. I really thought I would be so enthusiastic about this thing, that I would write, even if I had a lot work for school to do. Seems like it didn't happen this way. I am deeply sorry. I am surely going to finish this project, but surely not before Civil War.

This is the third part! Start with „Whose side are you on?" and „Mission gone south" before coming back.

Warning in this one for sadness and probably uneasiness.

I still don't own Marvel^^

-Day 1 after the fight-

Natasha was leaning against the wall. It was dark in the underground base, just one light at the end of the hallway illuminated the blackness. Natasha twisted an old Nokia phone in her hand. Her smartphone was at home. She had to make sure to have nothing with her, Tony could detect with his tech. She stared at the classical key-operated phone and typed a number. By now she knew it by heart. Hesitantly she stared at the small screen. It was a short number. She wasn't used to calling people on the landline. One reason was that hardly anyone still had such a thing. She took a deep breath and clicked the button for calling.

Two or three times a beep was sounded followed by a woman's soft voice: „Barton." Natasha swallowed her tears and responded in a low voice: „Laura… it's Natasha." Laura seemed relieved: „Nat… thank God, you're alright. We… saw it on the news." Natasha stared at the opposite wall: „What did they show on the news."

Laura twisted the telephone cable in her hand: „Well… they just talked about an incident, they called it an attack and Clint cursed so hard about it, that I had to tell him the kids might hear him. They said, that without any hesitation or thinking about the people Captain America attacked Iron Man's team. Both teams have to cope with enormous damage, that's all they said."

Natasha nodded slightly: „Laura… I… need to talk to Clint." Laura wanted to ask, what had happened, but she didn't dare: „Wait a moment…" She put the phone down and turned: „Clint… honey. It's Natasha." Clint hesitated, but then he started walking and kissed Laura's cheek. Then he took the phone and cleared his throat: „Yes?"

Natasha chewed on her bottom lip: „Clint… you okay?" Clint nodded slightly: „Yes… But you don't sound so okay." Natasha shifted from one foot to another: „Clint… there is something I need to tell you."

Clint furrowed his brow. He knew this was serious: „Just say it…" Natasha swallowed and closed her eyes. Her voice was a little shaky: „Kate is dead… they killed her accidently. Some new tec by Stark lost control…" Clint nearly dropped the phone, when those words echoed in his ears. He felt like he was running out of breath and he swallowed heavily. Natasha kept her voice low and managed to banish the shakiness from it: „Clint… I'm so sorry." Clint took a deep breath and clutched the phone in his hands: „I… I am flying tonight. New York isn't that far." Slowly shaking her head Nat responded: „No… don't. Stay out of this." Clint gritted his teeth: „No… they went too far with this. I can't stay here now that I know."

The Black Widow sighed then spoke up again: „Fine… I'll send you a text message with our coordinates. Make sure that you're coming alone, don't bring your phone and such..." Clint nodded: „Fine…" Then he hung up.

Natasha lowered the phone. She quickly typed in the coordinates of the entrance to the underground base and sent them to Laura's phone, just in case. She hesitated for a moment. Then she pushed away from the wall and started walking toward a room. Without making any noise she opened a door in the back of the underground system. She slipped inside the room and closed it afterwards. With heavy steps she made her way to the bed standing by the wall. Steve was still sleeping. Natasha carefully ran her fingers through his still dirty, blonde hair and sat herself down in one of the chairs at the bedside. She didn't say a word. She preferred watching him in silence. His ripped uniform had been taken off of him and many bandages covered the burns and wounds on his torso. A blanket covered the lower part of his body, which was bandaged as well. Some kind of sticking plaster was attached to his left cheek and a cast was supporting his right hand.

Natasha looked away and swallowed her anger. She would prefer to leave this place and break every single bone in Tony Stark's body. How could he? She had always thought of Tony as a cocky, narcissistic idiot who tried to help others his own way, but now she didn't know what to think anymore. Steve had been kind of a friend to Tony for years and if not that, then maybe a partner of some sort. She never thought Tony was capable of doing such a thing. She wanted to punch every last bit of life out of him, but she knew she wouldn't stand a chance right now.

A tear escaped her eye, when she looked at Steve again. He was struggling for air in his sleep. She tried to push him into a sitting position, but he was too heavy so instead she just kissed his forehead and whispered: „It's alright Steve… I'm by your side and I won't ever leave." Slowly he calmed down again. Natasha warily lay down besides Steve and put her arms around him: „I will protect you while you're sleeping…"

For a while they just stayed that way, but Natasha's eyes grew heavy. She was still wasted because of the battle and now she was realising how tired she was. She tried to fight it, but slowly she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

The hideout of the Secret Avengers was still. Everyone seemed to be resting, but it only seemed to be that way. Bruce Banner was pacing around in his room. Like a caged animal he was supervising the door. After a few seconds he fixed his gaze back on the backpack on the bed. Quickly he was stuffing things inside. His brown hair was messy and his glasses sat low on his nose. His skin shimmered in a bright shade of green, which was a clear indicator for his hurry. With shaky hands the doctor grabbed the bag and left his room. He was trying to be noisless, so he wouldn't attract attention. 'Just a few steps, Bruce. That shouldn't be a problem.'

He was trying to talk himself into that, but it didn't work out that well. Bruce was starting to sweat while walking towards the only way out of the hideout. He drew a jittery breath when he reached a latter, that led toward a hatch. He put one hand on a spoke just above his eyelevel when a voice interrupted his actions: „Whither goest thou?"

Bruce jumped and turned around. He saw Sam standing about ten steps away from him, arms crossed. He cleared his throat and stuttered: „I… I meant to…" Sam sighed: „Why are you running away? Now that this team needs each and every one down here the most…" Bruce eyed the ground: „I can't stay here… I… this is wrong. This is irresponsible. This group is bound to fail and it aims nowhere."

Sam didn't let any kind of emotion show: „That's what you're thinking? It's freedom and justice we are fighting for."

Bruce made an attempt to put his glasses in the right place again and looked at Sam again: „This has nothing to do with freedom… it's just a pointless fight between those who should help each other, instead of..."

Sam gritted his theeth: „No… it's too late for that, especially after what has happened."

Running one hand through his hair, Bruce answered: „Tell me whatever you want… I can't stay here, not anymore. I have to talk to Tony. This is not like him…"

Sam's voice grew louder: „You are going to rat us out, is that it?"

Bruce turned away and faced the latter again: „No… I won't tell them about this place, if you let me go."

Sam took a step in his direction: „Why the hell should I believe in that?"

Bruce didn't turn again: „Because I don't want to get you killed. I want to help."

A few moments passed. Bruce was feeling uneasy until Sam finally spoke up: „Okay… but you don't tell them about this. If you do then everyone who loses their lives is at your expense and if I survive I'll make sure everyone knows about that."

Bruce hesitated for a moment then quickly climbed up the latter and disappeared through the hatch. Sam remained standing there for a while wondering if it was right to let Bruce go, but he went back to his room after a few minutes. It wasn't worth following him, because he couldn't be stopped anyway.

Bruce looked back one last time when he was out of the hideout, then started moving away quickly. He stepped out from behind a few trees and bushes and found himself on a big parking lot that was completely empty. He ran a few meters, but he slowed down afterwards. He made his way to the streets of New York, which took him about 15 minutes. He waved at one of the taxis coming by and payed a ride to Stark Tower. Most of the tower was dark, but on the upper floors there were quite some windows which greeted the people walking by with a bright light. Bruce got off the taxi and took a few doubtful steps towards the building. He took a deep breath before he pressed the button in order to ring. Was this betrayal? Or was it just a rational step he had to take?

The curious lens of a camera surveyed the doctor before a voice responded to the sound of the doorbell: „What the hell are you doing here?" It took Bruce a moment to notice that it was Rhodey's voice coming from the intercom. Bruce looked at the camera: „I am here to talk to Tony… please… let me in! My actions ain't hostile, I promise. I just want to talk." Rhodey fell quiet, but after a few moments he responded: „Wait a minute…" He hung up and walked away from the intercom. Bruce leaned against the wall and looked at the door again. Hopefully Tony would let him in. The minutes passed and Bruce was bobbing up and down nervously when, finally, the door was making the sound, that was indicating him to come in. He opened it quickly and rode the elevator to the top floor. When he stepped out he was greeted by a bunch of pale and tired looking people. Tony stood near the elevator and pointed his left hand, which was covered in the metal Iron Man glove, at Bruce.

Bruce stopped immediately and swallowed heavily: „Tony… I am not here to harm you." Tony narrowed his eyes: „They are sending you! What do you want?"

Bruce shook his head: „Tony… I am here voluntarily. Believe me, I left them, they are crazy about that idea of stopping the SRA…" Tony held the glove leveled at Bruce a little longer then lowered his hand and the metal parts flew from his hand and back to the rest of the suit: „You are… joining us?" Bruce eyed the others and looked back at Tony afterwards: „Kind of…"

Tony dropped into a chair and took a deep breath. He had red rings underneath his eyes and his skin was paler than usual. He looked eaten up by guilt. Tony gestured Bruce to sit down and hesitated: „Is…? Did…?" He didn't manage to ask and sobbed lightly.

Bruce decided to say nothing until Tony handled to pull himself together. Tony burried his face in his hands. He stayed that way for minutes, after that he looked at Bruce again. His voice was low, but surprisingly calm: „Did I kill him?"

The doctor shook his head right away: „No… he is just wounded really badly." Tony released a breath he seemed to be holding all along: „Oh, God… thank God!"

The others seemed to be relieved too. Bruce could see the tension fall from their faces. Tony smiled slightly before speaking up again: „But… why are you here?" Bruce stamped his foot slightly: „I overthought this whole thing again… I was taken by surprise by this whole situation and I don't see why the others are fighting that hard against the Act… It can improve a lot of things, when it is negotiated the right way. That is why I left."

Tony nodded and rose from the chair. He tapped on Bruce's shoulder and smiled: „Good to have you back, buddy. Friday missed you… and…" Bruce grinned: „And you missed me too… I know."

The last thing he saw was a flash of red raising him from the ground and he heard Wanda's voice, screaming- worried and fear shaken. Then everything went dark. He found himself walking and searching for some lightsource, but he was surrounded by nothingness. It was not totally silent. He heard several voices talking in a fast pace, but they were far away. His surroundings began to change into some kind of hall. He smelt cigarettes, but there were no sounds. Then a woman's voice appeared. Firstly it was low and he didn't catch what she was saying, but it became clearer and louder: „The war is over, Steve… We can go home." Steve turned and he heard his own voice ask: „Peggy?"

This wasn't real. This was just a dream. In front of him was Peggy, just like she looked in the 40s. Her chocolate brown hair was tied back, but not completely. Her dark eyes were shimmering in the dim light. Her glaring red lips matched the flowers on her azure blue dress and her silver earrings sparkled like stars. It was the vision Wanda gave him in South Africa back in 2015. Steve just stood there and looked at her. The sounds came back slowly. Music was playing and laughter could be heard everywhere. The clicking of glasses and hushed voices filled the air. Peggy spoke up again: „Are you ready for our dance?" Slowly Steve nodded his head 'yes' and pulled Peggy closer to him. Softly he cradled her hand in his own and they started dancing to the tact of the music. Peggy smiled and chuckled a little. She let go of Steve and pirouetted.

The music started dying away and everything was slowing down. The walls looked as if they were melting. The chain of lights underneath the ceiling ran down like wax. Steve realised that all the people were gone and everything around him had turned white. A petite hand took Steve by the hand, but Peggy was gone. It was Natasha who was standing in front of him now. She was wearing the outfit from the party where Ultron was created years ago, but her hair was a little longer and slightly curly. Nat smiles at him: „Steve… is there a problem?" Steve just stares at her. Whatever kind of dream this was- he was not sure where it was taking him. Before he could respond Natasha was pulled away from him and no matter how hard he was trying to hold onto her hand, he couldn't clutch her. He tried to reach out for her, but she was too far away. He started panicking and called out: „Nat! No! Please come back!" Now Bruce was holding onto Nat's hand. Natasha laughed and stopped him with a wave of her hand: „Why should I? I have Bruce… he knows how I feel. You don't know anything, you are everybody's darling. You don't know me… and I will never tell you anything real about me."

Bright lights replaced Bruce and Natasha. Steve tried to protect his eyes from the camera flashlights with his hands, but it was no use. Everything went white for a few seconds, before a meadow appeared in front of him. All of the Avengers stood in front of him- the core team and the new team. They all looked sad and some even terrified.

Wanda was weeping silently and she's mumbling something in her mother tongue. She was wearing a medium-long, black dress, but the whole skirt was torn in ribbons.

Sam was wearing his Falcon-suit, but parts of his wings were missing and he had a bad cut on his torso. His face was contorted with pain.

Scott's suit was damaged. His regulator and parts of the helmet were ripped off and he eyed the ground.

Bruce was curled up and he was shaking violently. His hair was messy and the only thing he was wearing, were pants.

And then there was Natasha she was on her knees and had a nasty wound over her forehead. Her suit was dirty and she was trying to comfort Kate, who was lying in the grass. Kate's stomach was bloody and she was crying.

Tony was standing right behind them. Rhodey, Vision and the others who were part of his team were with him, unharmed. Tony had virtuously smile on his lips, while he was speaking: „See… I told you! He will get you killed. It's all his fault! You will lose, you will die – for nothing! Come with me and I will get you help! I will make it okay, but he is to blaim." He pointed his finger at Steve: „He didn't protect you… He promises things, he has no control over. Look at you, Rogers! Your people are down, your fight is over! You are nothing! You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers! Everything special about you came out of a bottle! Look at me! Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

Steve eyed the ground. The words still hurt as much as the first time Tony had thrown them at him. It was before the battle of New York. It was when they first met. It was bound to fail between the two of them, but nobody would ever have thought of such a desaster… Tony's voice brought him back and everything was gone when he looked up. The last thing Tony said, or more like yelled at him, was: „You failed everyone you ever knew!"

The darkness stayed. It embraced him. The weeping of a woman filled the space, that wasn't really there. The voice started singing a lullaby, while she was trying to stop the crying. It felt familiar. The woman finally managed to swallow the tears, but her voice still came out shaky: „Be brave, honey… I need you to wake up soon, okay? I can't afford to pay the doctor again… I'm so sorry." Steve blinked a few times, but the darkness wouldn't go away: „Mom?"

The woman continued singing, when a deeper voice cut her off. The man was angry and muttered: „Sarah! What are you doing? Don't waste your time with that boy… he's going to die anyway. We can't feed that brat any longer." Sarah tried to raise her voice, but she was apprehensive: „You are drunk again, Joseph… don't say such things in front of the boy."

Steve took a deep breath and whispered: „Dad…"

The man yelled at the woman: „You don't tell me what to do! I'll teach you, I swear! Someday I will kill that child with my own two hands!"

Sarah whimpered: „Don't… I wouldn't survive it…" It was silent for a few moments. Then he heard his mom scream, while his dad was hitting her. He was just a child, he didn't know what to do. Steve started running. He wanted to find his parents. He wanted to help his mom so desperate. For years she had suffered, just because he didn't help her. He ran faster and faster, but the sounds of his parents faded. He was gasping when the Howling Commandos appeared in front of him. Bucky was smiling at him: „Why are you running, pal?" Steve ran his fingers through his hair: „Buck… I let you fall. They made you into a monster and I didn't stop them. I should have looked for you, I should have done something about it."

Bucky smirked and shook his head: „What are you talking about? Come on! Let's celebrate! It's your birthday, idiot…" Steve hesitated: „What year is it?" Bucky crossed his arms: „Have you hit your head or something? It's 1943." Steve remembered that day. The Howling Commandos were somewhere in Germany, but Bucky insisted on celebrating his birthday, the 4th of July. The camp would be attacked by Nazi soldiers that night. Steve looked down: „Don't stay here! We have to go" Bucky tapped Steve's forehead: „The hell is wrong with you? Come on! It's going to be fun!" Steve wanted to say something, but Bucky started to transform into the Winter Soldier and their surroundings changed into some empty street.

Bucky was standing beside him and staring at something in front of them. Steve turned and saw Crossbones. He was holding Natasha in a tight grip, a gun pressed to her temple: „Say your goodbyes." Steve stared at him and clenched his fists: „No! Don't…" Crossbones laughed: „What a shame… I wanted to do that since you blew up the fucking HQ." Steve knew, he had to react fast and punch him in the guts, but right in that moment Crossbones pulled the trigger and dropped Natasha. She fell to the ground as if she was a doll. Her red hair matched the puddle of blood, that was forming around her head.

Now Crossbones was leveling the gun at Steve: „Pathetic! You couldn't even protect her!" Steve screamed at the top of his lungs and fell down on his knees. He cradled Natasha and held her limp form close. 'It's just a dream', the voice in his head told him over and over, but it didn't feel like it. It felt like the realest thing on the world and that scared him. It terrified him and it shook him to his very foundations.

Natasha started to disappear and finally it was silent again. Silent and dark.

-Day 2 after the fight-

The thrum of the coffee machine appeared to be much louder than it actually was. Sam had just told the others the news of Banner skulking off last night. Nobody said a word. All of them stood there with cups in their hands. It was about 10 AM and Steve still hadn't woken up yet.

Minutes passed until Natasha cleared her voice. It was just something close to a whisper, but it was audible, since it was deadly silent: „Clint'll be here soon… I have to go… get Kate." Sam eyed her with concern: „Let me do it… stay here with Steve. You should be there for him. He will wake up soon."

Natasha replied to his glance: „You sure? You'll need to make sure, she is in good hands… make sure, she will be buried"

Sam walked over to her and patted on her shoulder: „I promise." Natasha took a deep breath, then she nodded: „Tell Clint where you took her to… so he can visit the grave when all of this is over."

Sam just gave her a quick nod, then he exited the room.

The lab was in shambles. Tony, Reed and Hank were pacing around inside the room. Lose wires and tools were all over the room and on the table in the centre they had placed the false Thor.

Hope was walking into the lab with several cups: „Guys… you've been in here for hours now. It's 1.20 PM. You have to eat something."

Tony's head shot up: „No time! We have to fix this now."

Hope rolled her eyes: „For now… I will come here again and I swear, if you don't want to make a break then, I'll tear this place apart." Tony was mumbling something before he returned to one of the plans, that were spread across the table in the corner. Hope shook her head and left. Hank followed his daughter with his eyes, before returning his attention to the other two: „Stark…"

Tony didn't detach his eyes from the plan: „Yeah?"

Hank sighed and looked at Ragnarok: „She's right… We have to stop. This thing is not save at all. It has to be destroyed"

Tony rumpled the paper with one hand and turned away from the table to face his collegues: „What did you say?"

Hank blinked a few times: „We need to destroy Ragnarok… right now"

Tony shook his head: „No… hell, no! This works… there's just an error in the system. We find it, we fix it! This project cost us so many hours of work- weeks of work!"

Hank nervously grabbed his glasses: „But… it has killed someone. It is out of control. Who knows, what this thing is capable of?"

Tony walked over to Ragnarok and looked at it: „Just think of it as a child, that is ill. We're going to bring it back to health."

Hank gritted his teeth: „Who is 'we'? I just see you, standing there and talking like nothing has happened." Reed eyed the ground. He hadn't yet decided what was best.

„It's a masterpiece. We reproduced a god… Can't you see? This is the future."

„Probably it is the future, but if it is, it belongs there and not in this time!"

Tony's voice was cold: „Yeah, yeah… I'll think about it."

Hank glared at Tony before walking to the door: „I don't know about you… but I'm going to have some coffee and probably cookies. I won't make this even worse." He walked out of the lab and joined the others in the common kitchen of Stark Tower. Reed peeked after Hank, then he faced Tony. Tony looked at Reed: „What? You going to help me or not?" Reed hesitated, but nodded and walked over to Ragnarok. He started to scan the harddrive again.

It was around 11 PM when a lone figure made its way to the edge of the parking lot. The figure paused in front of the green area and yanked a piece of paper from its jacket. It was a man, who tried to find the correct way in the night. One glance at his GPS and he set foot on the grass. He tried to be quiet while avoiding the plants and stopped in front of what seemed to be nothing. Carefully he knelt down and inspected the ground. The ghost of a smile darted over his lips when he found a lug. He started pulling and the hatch to the hideout was open. The man slipped inside and closed it again. He climbed down the latter and found himself in a hallway. Cluelessly he took a few steps, when a door flung open.

Natasha ran over to the man and pulled him into her embrace: „Thank God, Clint… you are well." He nodded slightly and pulled her close: „Yes… I found you." Nat took the bag from their new teammate and led him into a room. „You can sleep here…", she whispered while pointing at Scott who was already asleep in the other bed. Clint nodded slightly and put his bow and arrows down on the floor beneath the bed. He looked at Scott again, before leaving the room. Natasha was at his heels and stopped beside him in the hallway. He eyed the ground and asked: „Nat… what… what happened to Kate?" Nat put one hand on his back and told him, where Sam had taken her earlier that day. Clint just nodded and chewed on his bottom lip. He finally found the strength to face Nat: „How is Steve?"

Nat sighed: „I'll show you…" She took Clint's hand and trailed him after her. She entered the room she had seen all day. Steve was still sleeping. Sometimes he mumbled something in his sleep, but Natasha was there to calm him down everytime. She wanted to keep him save, because that was the most important thing for her right now- Steve's safety.

Clint walked over to the bed and looked at Steve, but after a few seconds he turned away. „Fuck…", he cursed under his breath. Natasha smiled vaguely: „Language…" Clint smiled back: „Really?" Nat nodded slightly: „I need him, Clint… He gave me a reason to stay alive again and if he's gone… what should I fight for then?"

The silence came back and Clint pulled Natasha close again: „Don't talk like that. He's going to be fine. He just needs some time to heal. It is Steve we are talking about. He isn't going to leave you like that, he just can't." Natasha was glad, that he was with her: „Thanks…" „No big deal… I will always be there for you. Remember that, Nat."

-Day 4 after the fight-

Exactly at 9.54 AM Steve opened his eyes. One hour after that he could sit upright and talked to Natasha. He apologized about 500 times for getting hurt that badly. It took Natasha 50 minutes to fill him in. It took Steve just one second to use a bad language word: Shit!

Steve buried his face in his hands and he shook his head. He took a deep breath before telling Natasha to assemble the team right now and around the bed. The subject that caused that reaction: Kate's death.

It took the others 10 minutes to find a spot in Steve's room, it would have been 5 if it wasn't for Scott.

They all looked at him. Their faces showed concern and relief at the same time. Steve didn't look at them. He was ashamed that he was sitting in bed, while talking to his team: „The last attempt to conclude peace with Stark didn't work out… at all. It is a tragedy, that Kate… that Kate is dead. That shouldn't have happened, but they were trying to play God with that machine and like we saw a few years ago: Playing God leads to the destruction of the world. I don't want this war to go on… but I fear, if we gave up, we would all be imprisoned. If we weren't, we would be registrated and most likely killed. So I want to give up for the sake of my team… for the sake of you, but I want to continue for the sake of the USA, for the sake of the world."

Sam looked at Steve the whole time: „We are still here… we are not going to leave, because this is something worth fighting for. I believe, that we can do this and I hope we will come out of this one alive, but if not… so be it. We would die for the sake of the world."

Steve raised his eyes and smiled: „We will protect each other… as much as we can. Because as long as we have each other, we can have hope."