The long dim hallway loomed eerily silent before them. Despite the humid heat of the morning outside, the atmosphere in the corridor had dropped to a strange coldness. There was danger near.
Steve and Natasha advanced forward in a concise cover formation. He had stepped slightly in front of her so that his shield protectively covered her side, and she had moved her gun to her left hand so that she had a clear line of fire from behind him. The two of them were a perfect team.
The soldier stepped into the medium sized rear observation room before the spy, making certain that the way was clear for her. His enhanced vision carefully scoured the circular space for any signs of an adversary. He turned and nodded to Natasha, and the two of them split up to slowly walk along opposite walls.
All of the window walls and the glass ceiling were covered by shutters, and very little of the light of the day filtered in for illumination. There were two small study closets on both sides of the main room which were even darker than the outer area. This was the best place in the entire outpost for an interior assault.
The quiet stillness around them hung thick with tension and heavy with silence.
Suddenly, Steve glanced over at Natasha, and his keen eyes immediately discerned a dark shadow moving along the wall just inches behind her. The spy caught the nearly imperceptible narrowing of his eyes as they shared a glance, and she burst into action. Again, the partners moved in perfect unison. The Captain slung his shield in a powerful swing as The Black Widow dove forward into a smooth roll. The vibranium disc pounded into the wall near where she had been as she slid up out of her roll and drew down on the spot behind her to quickly fire three bullets into the metal.
The shadow was gone. Steve's shield rebounded off the wall and Natasha's bullets hit nothing.
Yet, in the blink of an eye, the shadow reappeared… rising up out of the floor behind Natasha.
The soldier was in motion in a split second. He leapt into the air, fluidly catching his mighty shield, and bounced off the wall above her. He spun his body around and swung his shield in a horizontal swing over her head to slice the shadow in half.
Again, in a flash, the dark entity dematerialized before the metal cut touch it.
In a smooth motion, Steve reached his left arm down and scooped Natasha up effortlessly as if she weighed the same as a dry leaf, draping her body along his hip much the same way as he had when he had carried her out of the path of the bomb explosion on the Lemurian Star. The Black Widow reacted to her Captain swiftly. She leaned upward and curled her left leg around his left thigh and acrobatically extended her right leg to wrap around the right side of his waist. She balanced herself by reaching her right arm across his muscular torso and holding on to his right shoulderblade while she extended her left arm over his left shoulder with her gun aimed. She used his left shoulder as a brace for precision accuracy aim while she stared forward with a stern focused expression.
The Captain kept his left arm wrapped around The Black Widow's waist holding her against him while holding his shield with his right hand as he slowly turned them around in a circle, searching for any signs of their adversary in the room. Natasha couldn't see the entity as well as Steve in the low light, but she knew that her keen eyes would spot any movement near them.
All was still, dark and silent.
"It's stalking us," Steve said in an intense whisper.
"Enjoying the hunt," whispered Natasha intensely.
Suddenly, there was a rush of air from above pushing down on them with a heavy weight. Steve and Natasha both looked up to see a black cloud crashing down toward them. The soldier raised his shield as he pulled the spy under him, and Natasha wrapped both her arms around his neck to protect him as best she could. There was an eerie high pitched scream which reverberated out of the atmosphere around them as the black cloud seemed to pass through their bodies and dematerialize into the floor beneath them. After a few intense seconds, the darkness was gone.
Steve waited, holding Natasha protectively close. Slowly, he lowered his shield and stood tall, and the two of them silently surveyed the room around them. The temperature rose quickly as the unusual coldness seemed to dissipate.
The dark entity was gone.
Steve started to take a few steps toward the door as Natasha unwrapped her legs from around his waist. Her little feet didn't touch the floor, instead lowering to dangle three inches above it.
Natasha looked up at Steve. He was still gazing around them, seemingly oblivious to his arm around her hips and the fact that he was still carrying her. The spy lowered her gun to her side and gently placed one hand on his shoulder to balance herself, thinking the contact would rouse his attention.
The soldier kept walking.
"Steve?"
"Hmmm?"
"Can you…"
"Oh!" said Steve, immediately lowering her to the floor and letting her go.
The spy smiled as she looked up at him. The man was unnervingly cute. The Black Widow wouldn't have allowed any other man in the world to touch her like this, but from him it was endearing to a fault.
"Do you think it's coming back?" she asked.
"I'll check the perimeter," The Captain stated, slipping into his command voice. "I might be able to find some trace of this thing that might help us defend against it. The shadow may have been ethereal but any possible early warning will help. Maybe you can look around inside and see if you find anything in here."
"Got it," the spy followed.
Hours later, the outpost stood calm. The heat of the day beamed down, but a constant gentle breeze kept a slight coolness overlaying the island. The sound of the waters of the ocean echoed across the shore.
Steve was sweating profusely as he searched. He was looking around for anything strange or unusual as he walked up to a set of electricity poles behind the main building. As he looked down, he noticed that the ground near the third pillar was slightly loose and more disturbed than the other two. It wasn't secured as well as the others. The brilliant tactician's mind began to study the pillar. The soldier wrapped his strong hands around the thin pylon and pulled. The entire pole rose up.
Steve stopped quickly. Intuition told him that this was a major clue concerning the mystery surrounding them. He quickly hurried into the left side building where he'd taken note of a structural supply storage room. He retrieved a shovel and hurriedly dug a large hole around the pylon. He slipped down into the hole and studied the electrical connections at its base… or lack thereof.
The soldier paused for a moment and stared hard at the structure. His head had been pounding with a dull ache since their encounter inside the outpost, and he could tell that he wasn't thinking with his usual sharpness. With his advanced immune system, the super soldier very rarely if ever felt ill. Raising a hand to his eyes, his rubbed them firmly as he steadied himself.
The tactician knew he had just found the source of the installation's sabotage. This wasn't an accident. Someone had deliberately shut down all communication with the island. The question was why.
Inside the installation, the temperature had risen considerably. While the structure held the cold of the evening at night, it also trapped the humidity of the day as well.
Natasha had just finished gathering food for the two of them and was making her way up from the shore. Her body felt much better as she headed back inside the main building, the adrenaline of the morning seeming to have caused a resurgence of her system. Yet, while her physicality had improved, her mental state had waned. Her mind felt clouded and she would feel a little dazed sometimes with a pounding migraine, often having to pause to try to clear her head. It was very unusual.
Her skin was covered in a light sheen of perspiration, and she thought about taking Steve's shirt from around her waist to give her legs some added air. She reached down, and instead of pulling it off, she found herself running her fingers along its surface. The garment carried his manly scent, and she liked wearing it. After a moment, the spy admonished herself for these dangerous thoughts and decided that she might take a short shower before rechecking the buildings and preparing their next meal.
Just as she stepped inside, she was surprised to hear the sudden humming of electricity coming into existence. As in all things, the greatest soldier in history had accomplished his task. The installation once again had a power supply. The Captain was already walking in just as she was laying hands on the main keyboard.
"Nat, see if you can access the primary system and run a full scan on the island."
"I'm on it," The Black Widow responded instantly, already typing commands into the main keyboard in front of her. "We're in, Steve," Natasha said after only a few seconds, waiting for him to walk over and stand close behind her. "The system appears to be an antiquated model overlaid by some high tech programs. Everything was set up to study the island for some reason, focusing on the lakes and waters as possible transportation portals. Most of the data has been erased."
"As if someone didn't want their discoveries to be found?"
"That's exactly what it looks like. Also, there's something strange going on with the communications array. Everything is functioning properly, but it simply will not get a signal."
"Can you pull up a schematic of it?"
"Done," the spy said ahead of herself as she typed commands into the main computer.
Moments later, the entire western wall of the auditorium activated and smoothly morphed into a large graphics display screen. A complicated diagram of the entire upper level of the main building then covered its surface, quickly running through page after page. The super soldier stared at the schematics for only a few seconds before he started toward the door, giving orders in his command voice.
"I'm going to take the array apart piece by piece and rebuild it. Nat, you check the entire computer layout. Run every diagnostic there is on the system and then scan every part of this island."
"Steve, look," Natasha said slightly breathlessly as her hands stopped typing on the keyboard in front of her. "The position locator… "
Standing beside her, Steve stared up at the large viewscreen. The array had triangulated a map of the entire region… and there was nothing. Beyond the boundaries of the island, there was only water.
"The… The world is gone," she whispered. "There's nothing there."
Both of them stood motionless in repose for a long moment, gazing at the blank screen in front of them.
"I need to repair the array to boost the scanners and increase the range," said Steve. "They're not going out very far. We need to be sure."
"I'll extend them to their current max range and set for continuous running. They'll let us know if anything shows up."
The two of them looked back at the viewscreen, watching the continuous scan. Then, they stared at one another for a long moment before turning back to the scan. There didn't seem to be anything else out there in the world, yet still, they had each other.
Later that evening, the chill of the night air began to come inland early. The sun was setting on the horizon, drawing gloriously beautiful colors out of the clouds. A brisk wind followed, dropping the temperature quickly.
Completing the first part of the external repairs, the soldier paused in his work at the sunset. Steve walked inside the installation to find Natasha cooking busily in the kitchen. Smiling at the sight of her, he made his way over to stand near the spy.
"The perimeter is as secure as it can be," the soldier told her.
"The full scans are running but they haven't turned up anything yet," she responded.
"Smells delicious," said Steve with an appreciative smile.
"Taste," Natasha ordered, picking up a gently sizzling piece of fish.
The spy placed the small slice into Steve's mouth, and her fingers lingered as he softly sucked on her forefinger along with the food. Staring up into his eyes, she slid her thumb across his lips, smoothing away a slight stream of hot juice which lined them. Then, she pulled her thumb back and licked off the tasty sauce.
Surprised by this unexpected sensuality, the two of them gazed into one another's eyes for a long moment. Then, Natasha turned away quickly, feeling that she was simply too close to him. Steve looked down, allowing her the space she needed to retreat, still pleased that she was allowing him to see a little more of the woman underneath the surface.
"Tastes delicious too," he said with a smile.
"I found something for you," the spy said, glancing up at him with a pleased grin before walking over to the center table and bringing him a book. "It was in one of the main drawers," she told him as she handed it to him. "I found it along with a lot of other personal belongings that seem to have been left behind."
"Someone left a King James 1611 Bible here!" the soldier said with a beaming smile. "I'm so glad you found this. Thank you, Natasha. They must have known I was coming," he grinned.
"The timing is uncanny," said Natasha. "I don't know how long we were in the ice, but the last day I remember before waking up here on the island… "
"… was three days before Christmas," finished Steve. "We should celebrate the holiday. Let's eat."
As they sat down together and started their meal, Steve opened the Book and studied. Natasha watched the quiet peace, joy and serenity which fell over his features. She found herself staring at him openly, her heart and mind intrigued by his blissful posture. After a few moments, he was deep in thought, but to her eyes he seemed somehow… even more beautiful than usual.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked, admonishing the heavy sound of her voice in the gentle silence, yet glad she had indulged her curiosity. "You look so peaceful."
"Actually, I'm thinking about you," he answered, looking over to stare into her eyes. "I'm asking Him for guidance. Above all else here, I want to keep you safe. I'm praying for you."
"Me?" she asked in surprise. "You don't need to do that," she added as a tender sadness fell over her features. "I… I don't deserve it. For a long time, I've been seeking… redemption… for all the things I've done. There's so much red in my ledger… that I just don't think I can ever really wipe it out."
"You can never truly balance the scales. Have you been seeking redemption… or forgiveness?" he asked her quietly, slowly reaching out to tenderly hold her hand. "You've already been forgiven. You just have to accept it. That's what this season is really all about."
"That may be… difficult," Natasha said with a sad smile.
"Relax," he echoed her words to him from their former mission. "It's not that complicated."
Natasha allowed herself to smile, letting his charm lift her spirits a little. Only this man had the ability to warm her heart, her body and her soul. Raising her hand to the side of his face to feel his warm skin, she leaned over and tenderly placed her customary kiss on his cheek. Natasha lingered against him for a long moment, staying close to him, before she stood and prepared to turn in for the night.
"Merry Christmas, Steve," she said with a gentle smile.
"Merry Christmas, Natasha," he softly called after her.
The two of them parted with an unspoken reluctance. Like at the cemetery so long ago, she still had to remind herself not to look back at him. The attraction between them was simply too strong, and it was growing more so with every moment they spent together on this island.
Unbeknownst to either of them, their distance apart would leave them in deadly danger tonight.