Vormir 2014

The two assassins soon arrive at the planet Vormir after taking the Benatar from Morag.

As they look around at the planet, Clint cannot help but feel overwhelmed, vormir was tragically beautiful, he couldn't believe he was standing on ground that was a different planet from earth.

"This would be awesome if not for the circumstances." Natasha gives him a sad hopeful smile. She knows he misses Laura, just like she missed Steve. Looking up at the mountain in front of them, it's almost blatantly obvious that's where they needed to go. The two giant pillars reaching up to the clouded sky above them. Kind of cliche really.

Natasha and clint start their journey of climbing up the hill, as surprising as it seems it doesn't take too long for them to reach the top. But it was exhausting, despite its shorter journey to the top, the steepness made up for it.

As they reach the top the two assassins take a second to look at the view. Nebula had told them Vormir was the 'very centre of Celestial Existence' and anyone could tell by looking at it that what she said was true. As Natasha looked up at the black sky she couldn't help but gasp at the beauty of it. A forever eclipsing sun shining purple. The planets and stars in the sky. Every new detail she saw she made a note to remember, she couldn't wait to tell James about this place.

Hearing a whisper of a movement behind them the archer and spy quickly draw out their weapons and spin on their feet, Natasha pulling out her gun and Clint handling his bow and arrow. Both aiming at the same figure in front of them.

"Welcome, Natasha, daughter of Ivan, Clint, son of Edith." The husky accented voice called out to them. Natasha and Clint stared at the figure with the deep male voice in apprehension and confusion. He was floating off the ground and covered in a damaged cloth and a red face. He almost looked like a dementor from harry potter. And he knew their names, but also their parents. Not even Natasha had known her parent's names until she went searching for them after Shield fell, and even after she found out she never told anyone but Steve. So who was this guy?

"Who are you?" The redhead called out.

"Consider me a guide. To you, and to all who seek the soul stone." She raised an eyebrow at his words.

"Oh, good. Tell us where it is, then we'll be on our way." She replied. Her weapon still drawn.

"Ah, lieschen. If only it were that easy."

Turning away from them, the cloaked figure floats away and towards the edge of the cliff top. The two Avengers follow him and look out over the edge at the hill as if they expected the stone to be there, but they were met with only the rough ground at the bottom of the cliff.

"What you seek lies in front of you. As does that which you fear."

"The stone's down there." Natasha concluded, it had to be. Why else would he bring them to the edge of the cliff? His deep voice still behind them spoke out again.

"For one of you. For the other, in order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul for a soul."

Stepping away from the edge, the two Avengers take a minute to digest what the red-faced man had just told them. They don't actually know how long they had been pacing and sitting for, it felt like hours but probably only lasted a few minutes. Natasha sat on a rock close by the edge, contemplating his words. You must lose that which you love? She wasn't an idiot. She knew what it meant. To lose what you love?

They came here with a mission, the two of them. To get the stone. There was no way they couldn't come back without it, but coming back with the stone meant that one of the wouldn't.

She couldn't let her oldest friend die. They were so close to getting their friends and family back, he couldn't die before he got to see them again. But she couldn't help but think of James either. She knew he would be okay without her. He had everyone else to protect him and raise him, and if her team was successful, then James would have Steve. He would have his father back.

Sighing and standing to her feet, Natasha walked over to the pacing clint and grabbed his hands, making him face her. At first, she avoided his eyes, as if she was shy about what she was going to say.

"If we don't get that stone, billions of people stay dead." Nodding his head in agreement Clint held onto her hands. She was right, if they didn't do this billions of people, half of life is dead. Gone forever. One person or half of the universe. It's a no brainer, he thought. For years he dreamed of getting them back. His family. And today he has the chance to do that and Clint was prepared to do whatever it took to get them back, even if that meant not being here when they did.

"Then I guess we both know who it's got to be."

Smiling softly at her friend, she agreed. "I guess we do."

They pause for a minute, the silence almost awkward as they stand to hold each other's hands. Clint started to laugh at the situation.

"I'm starting to think we mean different people here, Natasha." Guilty.

"Clint I can't let you do it. We're this close to getting Laura back, the kids. You've been through hell. I can't take you away from them. And all these years I've been trying so hard to bring everyone back. Let me do this."

"Oh, don't you get all decent on me now." Clint rolled his eyes at her words. They were both completely stubborn inside and out.

"What, you think I want to do it? I'm trying to save 'your' life, you idiot."

"Yeah, well, I don't want you to, how's that? What about James? huh? Your son? Natasha, you know what I've done. You know what I've become. I won't let you do this. I won't… won't make my nephew an orphan."

"So it's okay for you to leave your children but it's not okay for me? Clint, they need you."

"They'll have Laura. They lived for years with me disappearing and going on missions, every time they were prepared for the worst just in case I didn't come back. They'll be okay. "

"And so will James. He has his uncles and his aunts, he has you. He'll have Laura, the kids, he'll have his father back. He would have everyone there for him." Her breath caught in her throat as she mentioned her son.

"You know what I've become without them, Natasha." She grimaced. She knew what he had done in their absence but that didn't mean he deserved to die.

"Well, I don't judge people on their worst mistakes."

"Maybe you should." Clint scoffed. He knew what he had been doing these past few years and he did it willingly. Not concerned about anyone or anything. Only wanting revenge.

"You didn't." Clint squeezed his eyes at her words. He knew she was thinking of her past. But she didn't do the things she did back them by herself. It was the red room and the KGB that made her do it and she had more than made up for it. She wiped the red out of her ledger years ago. She couldn't still think she had any left, did she?

"You're a pain in my ass, you know that?"

Looking at each other again, the two best friends lent their heads against each other, comforting each of them as they realised this could be the last moment they may spend together. Sighing clint pulled back slightly from their embrace.

"Okay. You win." He breathed out. But before she could react to his words he grabbed her by her neck and threw her down on the ground, effectively knocking the wind out of her lungs and making her eyes slam shut at the sudden blow. Holding her down on the ground clint looked at his friend and gave her a sad smile.

"Tell my family I love them."

Finding her strength again, Natasha manoeuvres her arm to grab her widow bite and pushes him off as she shocks him. She stands her foot on his chest to keep him down.

"Tell them yourself."

Using Clint's body as a step she pushes herself of him and makes way for the cliff. As she runs her breath quicken in fright. Every pace she moved flashes of her life overtook her. Her memories from the red room, clint sparing her, becoming an Avenger, meeting wanda and Peter, falling in love with Steve, the snap… James. James had saved her life all those years ago. Her beautiful boy, hair just like his dads. He was perfect in every way. Of course, she didn't want to die, she didn't want to leave her baby, but if she could sacrifice herself to bring half the universe back then she would. James would be okay, he would have the biggest family in the world to take care of him. And Clint would have his family back, the archer had saved her life all those years ago and now she was about to return the favour.

However, as she approached the edge. She was forced back by a hand pulling on the back of her uniform, the force of the action swinging her around until she was rolling on the floor in the opposite direction of the cliff.

As she steadied herself from the spinning, Natasha sees Clint make his way to the cliff. She gets up and runs over to him, enticing him into a fight. As they struggle to gain the upper hand, Natasha gives him a hard blow to the face, he's taken aback from the hit, making him dizzy for a few seconds. But those few seconds were long enough for Natasha to make her move, turning away from Clint, she runs to the edges and jumps.

Her mind races as she falls. The wind winding around her body, whistling at the weight of her falling.

As she falls, she tries to flood her mind with images of her family. The Avengers. Steve. James.

But suddenly the air is different, the whistling even louder.

Hitting her from the side is a large figure. It's Clint. He jumped after her. Reaching for her body as they fall, Clint grabs onto her and latches on a device to her back. A device he had swiped from her just minutes earlier.

Clint throws the cord upwards to attach to debree at the ledge top, the sudden stop almost gives her whiplash, but it doesn't stop her from reaching out for Clint's hand. Natasha grips it as hard as she can, holding his entire weight beneath her. But he's too heavy. She's strong, she always had been, especially since the red room had administrated their version of the serum. But he was still too heavy and bigger than her. There was no way of holding his weight with her own strength whilst a single cord held them both up. A cord that was specifically designed for her size.

Throwing her head up to the ledge she sees has secured her to the cliff.

"Damn you!" There are tears in her eyes as she shouts at him. But Clint just smiles back at her.

"Let me go." His voice is barely a whisper, but she hears it loud as day.

"No. please don't." Natasha pleads with him, his weight is getting too much now, and she can't hold onto him with two hands without letting go of the cord but if she lets go of the cord she'll be flipped and they'll both fall. As she cries, Clint can feel her tears hitting him from above as she looks upon him.

"It's okay, Tasha it's okay. Laura will be okay. She will, they all will. Tell them I love them." She can hear the strain in his voice as he tries to speak gently, he doesn't want to cause her more pain. So he just gives her a smile. Tears now filling up his own eyes. Natasha screams out again, her grip faulting and she clutches on with dear life.

Dangling from her hand, the archer pushes his foot against the stone of the cliff, giving him leverage and enough power to push against it. Natasha is too weak from holding him up to secure her hand around his, the force of his push detaches their grips, effectively making him fall. But even though he was facing Natasha, all Clint could see were images of his family. The day he met Laura, god, he thought he was punching well above his weight. He remembered the day he had proposed. It was really shitty to be honest, just the two of them eating takeout watching rubbish tv in the middle of the night after coming back from one of his first few missions, but he wouldn't have changed it for the world. Seeing her eyes light up at the little ring he had bought her. He remembered his exact feeling when she had told him she was pregnant with Cooper, their first child. That was nearly 20 years ago believe it or not. He still carries around the scan pictures with him, after all this time. His eldest son would have been 20 this year, his daughter, 17 and Nate, 8.

They were everything to him, his entire life. So as he fell, his last moments were thinking of them. Remembering Laura's kisses, his children's voices and hugs.

Just them.

As the redhead watched her oldest friend fall further away from her she screams in disdain.

"Clint!"

The sound of his body hitting the ground is one that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

All she can do as she peers down at her friend's lifeless body is sob and cry. Her breath catching in her throat every time she breathes out.

But then the sky lights up. The two identical structures that sit at the edge of the cliff glow with a blue light and it pushes from the bottom upwards into the sky, creating a ring of blue as it pulses through the dark grey clouds.

Shooting her eyes open, Natasha gasped for air like she had been starved of it. Looking around her she realised she was laid down in a shallow lake of water. Slowly sitting herself up, Natasha made herself horizontal to the ground she sat on. The events of a few minutes ago coming back to her.

Then she realises there's something in her hand.

Opening up her left palm, a warm orange glow lights up her face as she brings it closer to her.

The soul stone.

There was only one reason she would have it.

Natasha knew that the exchange was done. A soul for a soul, clint was gone. Closing her eyes, Natasha clutched the stone to her chest and pulled her legs up closer to her, letting out cries at the realisation that he was gone forever.