The Black Widow trailer killed me and provided some inspiration for this chapter.
You see the title, we know what's coming …*screams into the void that Natasha fell down*
I meant to have another chapter before this one but cut it out, making this one the thirteenth chapter … I hate that. But let's go on this ride down Vormir together.
Chapter Thirteen: The Red Room / Vormir
Natasha never thought she would come back to where it all started. She once ran away from here and now she's running through it. There was unfinished business. Some girls have to be saved.
"The Black Widow can't exit this facility!"
As if their men will stop her. They may have created her but she upgraded herself.
When a slew of men come her way, she leaps over them, bringing her knees to her chest mid-air. Natasha pounces to the ground and crouches. A man grabs her in a headlock and she grunts. Natasha flips back, locking her knees around his neck. Her thighs squeeze tightly and she catches herself in a handstand when his grip goes limp.
Natasha unclips a grenade from her belt and juggles it in her hands for a few tosses. Once she finishes the countdown in her mind and throws it ahead at the last second. The moment it hits the wall, it explodes.
Natasha walks through the hole she made in the wall. Once the smoke clears, she steps through and enters a bedroom. A dozen little girls lie in their beds, bodies slightly arches because their hands are cuffed to the top of the bedframes. They're not scared. They're unfazed by her appearance.
"Get up, ladies," Natasha orders, spraying a foaming concrete on the hole she jumped through. "You know how to break free from handcuffs."
At her command, they snap their wrists and slide their limps hands through to pop their wrists back into place. Natasha smiles down at them as she walks through the room. Of course, they'll listen to her. They're baby Black Widows and she's the mother spider. She may have reassembled The Avengers and made sure they were fine throughout the years. She may have been their interim leader or matriarch. But now they're back with a plan, she's fine with handing the reins and returning to her original rank. She was happier to be closer to getting the stones back and working with her friends.
They could fix everything.
And she was excited to do something outside her training. Time travel was out of her element, but so were monsters and magic before The Battle of New York.
Natasha and Clint were assigned for Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone. The planet was truly breathtaking. It's dark and ominous yet mountainous with hues of purples and blues in the sky and fog surrounding them.
Clint walks ahead of Natasha and they look out at the open abyss, wondering where the hell the Soul Stone could be. They learned that Thanos killed his daughter, Nebula's sister, while getting it.
They hear something behind them. In sync, Natasha and Clint whip around, respectively holding their gun and sword out. Anyone who knows history would recognize The Red Skull. He's wearing a black cloak and hovering a few inches from the ground with fog at his feet.
Clint was right, they were a long way from Budapest. She didn't know what she was doing back here.
Saving these little girls? Who was she? And what was she going to do with them when they got out? She was once this little girl but she got to grow up. She was trained as a child to be a killer. She searched her whole life for a purpose.
"Natasha, daughter of Ivan," Red Skull states, almost as a greeting.
Natasha's body loosens up. That name sounds so foreign but feels right to the ear. It causes her and Clint to walk closer to Red Skull, keeping their weapons drawn.
"Who are you?" Natasha grits through her teeth. This can't be Red Skull. How could he be here and know that information about her and Clint?
"A guide to all who seek the Soul Stone," Red Skull responds.
"Okay, now tell us where it is and we'll be on our way."
"Oh, if only it were that easy."
Red Skull floats over to the edge of the cliff. Clint and Natasha follow, peering over to where she hears banging and the attempt to break through the barricades she and the little girls set up with all the furniture in the room. Their captors were trying to administer their trigger words and get the little girls against Natasha, but the mother spider set of an EMP so nothing would register.
Natasha heads over to the window. When she opens it, many snowlakes fly in. Nobody shivers. They're Russian. They're used to the cold.
She looks over at the little girls who tied the rope to the wall. They pass it down and, eventually, the girl closest to the window throws it out. They can't see if it landed on the ground, but gravity only works one way. Natasha sighs, seeing the purple aura turning into a deep indigo before black.
"What you see lies in front of you," Red Skull informs them. "Is this what you fear?"
Natasha shivers as a light wind passes her from behind. "The Stone's down there."
"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."
It was a ride they know the answer to. Neither of them wants to admit it, but one of them had to get down to freedom. The little girls were mini assassins in the making. They can survive scaling down a building in a snowstorm in their thin nightgowns.
"Whatever it takes…" Natasha mutters.
Clint looks at the abyss. "Whatever it takes."
Natasha looks up from her seat and rises to stand in front of Clint. "If we don't get that stone, billions of people stay dead."
Clint nods, looking down. "I guess we both know who it's gotta be."
Her heart swells. "I guess we do."
She feels him grab her hand and when she looks down, she sees a little girl trembling. She must be new here: the smallest and purest baby in the hatch. Natasha puts her hand on top of the girl's head and smiles lightly.
"It will be okay…" Natasha mutters. "We will get out of here."
"Are you sure?" The girl mutters.
"I'll be right behind you, dear child." Natasha runs a hand through the messy knotted hair to untangle it. "I'm starting to think we mean different people here," Clint says. He smiles a little from the corner of his mouth because he knows he's right. "Natasha…"
She takes a breath because she has always wanted to come back home. But now, she has to get out.
"For the last five years, I've been trying to do one thing that took me here," Natasha tells him. "That's all it's been about: bringing everybody back. What, you think I wanna do it? I'm trying to save your life, you idiot.
"No," Clint says firmly, "don't you get all scared on me now."
Natasha looks at the little girl, helping her on the rope and guiding her to the window. They're running out of time. The smallest spider has to slide down the web. This is Natasha's chance to do something right because redeeming any past behaviour is the ultimate sacrifice. It's a calculated decision that she made on the way here. She's spent the past five years ruminating in her guilt, seeing how her best friend lost himself for losing his family, her family. She didn't want him to die but she wouldn't let his family return without him and allow history to repeat itself.
After five years, she finally had hope for the first time. All she wanted was to bring people back but it cost her her life. She knew how to get the little girls to trust her because she was once in their little nightgowns. She knew how to get them to follow orders because she was once as naïve and helpless as them.
Once the baby spider is out, the room is finally being taken down by the walls. It took them long enough but at least the girls are out. But the rope snaps and flies out the window. Whoever was on the rope, along with the baby spider, will now fall the rest of the way. Natasha screams for them but believes that they'll be fine.
They're small, they're light, they're baby spiders, and they'll land in the snow. But she's no stranger to being a judge of character.
"Well, I don't judge people by their worst mistakes," Natasha tells Clint.
"Maybe you should."
"You didn't."
Clint was sent to kill her, but he didn't. He made a different call. He brought her back and helped her clean the blood from her ledger. They became partners, best friends, and family. He let her into his life and she even became an aunt with his youngest named after her. That was why she couldn't let him go through with his plan.
All Clint does is nod. His face is stone cold.
"You're a pain in my ass, alright?" He says, pressing his forehead against hers.
The warm touch is all she has left until the room is broken into. Natasha gets back into position, pulling out her guns from her holster. She begins firing non-stop, taking the advantage before they settle into the scene. She didn't expect for Clint to kick her by the calf and she lands on her back. She's on the ground, pinned down by the ones who made her into a ballerina. She claws into his arm and throws him to the side, making sure she's on top of him. She's on her feet, pointing her widow's bite at Clint.
"You tell them yourself," she says as she fires at him.
As the electricity surges through his body, she turns and makes a run for it. The closer she gets to the edge, the more power she builds in her legs. But a sudden explosion from one of his arrows sends her slamming against the wall. She huffs. No weapons on her could get her out of this mess. But she has no choice. She has to get to the bottom. When Natasha turns, she sees Clint looking right into her eyes. He throws his bow to the side and starts the run. She scrambles onto her feet as he takes the leap.
But she pounces straight for him. When her arms wrap around his torso, she spins them around, sticking out her wrist to shoot out a grappling hook. Once it secures to the rock, she attaches it to Clint's belt and they stop. They bounce a bit before swinging against the wall and back out.
Natasha lets herself go but Clint catches her by the wrist. She was so close to letting him win.
"Damn you," he grunts, trying to reach her hand with the one holding onto the grappling hook's string but it's too far.
She looks down at how far it is and there's no other option now. The only way out is down. Natasha makes her way over to the window before looking back up at Clint. He's desperate to try and get her to hold on so he could drop himself. But there's no changing their situation. Natasha planned this and she's grateful that it worked. If only Clint could cooperate but she knows he won't.
"Let me go…" Natasha pleads softly. Her voice starts to tremble.
"No," Clint responds, trying hard to hold on to the both of them. "No, please, no."
She forces herself to take a breath and swallow her fear to comfort him. "It's okay."
He shakes his head. "Please."
She wants to hold his hand. She's scared because she doesn't want to die. Nobody wants to die but this is the only way to save the universe. She would and will sacrifice herself for the universe.
It's been five years since she went back home. This is her time.
She always said she wanted a view and this was it. The rocky cliffside with the medley of dark purples and greys swirling in the sky. The bright red sun at the top, blending in with the darkness. Everything around her was white. The room, the outside. The snow blocked out anything and everything that could possibly be out there. It could be mistaken for heaven which is what she wanted to believe.
But it was the right thing. The best thing.
And where else could she get a view like this? She asked that question when they were floating on Sokovia. Natasha remembers being above the clouds, seeing pieces of the blue sky peeking through. Now, she was looking at the sky in a shade of purple she never thought was possible. There's a thin layer of fog that resembles visible breath when it's cold.
She's scared but there are little girls at the bottom, waiting for her to bring them home. She couldn't leave them there to freeze. She was doing this for them, for everyone. So she takes the run, building up as much power as she can in her legs.
And once she makes the leap and crashes through the window, glass shards fly everywhere, hitting her eyes so she squints them shut. When she opens her eyes and becomes one with her beautiful view, that's when she kicks off the wall like a ballerina making its leap, forces herself out of his grip, and starts her descent.
Nothing holds her back. Nobody has her on a string. She's her own agent, hero, Avenger, spy, Mother Spider, Black Widow.
The little orphans she saved surround her body. They couldn't escape into the blizzard with their mother still up there. The blow to the ground shattered parts of her skull, fractured her spine, and demolished her tailbone. A trail of blood drips out of her parted lips, freezing before it hits the snow but blends into her scattered locks of hair.
Their little feet drag through the snow as flurries scatter on the tops of their heads. They kneel beside her, shivering in their thin nightgowns. Some gather snow, pressing it where they think it hurts. Once that's completed, they each take a hold of her broken body and carry her out as fast and careful as they can.
It feels like she's been asleep for years and she wasn't sure if she wanted to wake up. But now, her eyes are open, seeing the big picture. But that doesn't explain what's happening now.
Do they think she wanted to do it? It doesn't matter because she chose to. She did it because she had to complete the mission doing whatever it takes.
Honestly, this was my favourite Endgame chapter to write mostly because of the flashback. I read somewhere that one of the alternate plot points for Natasha was that she would run an orphanage for kids who lost their parents after the snap. I think it was supposed to be an homage to a comic version of Natasha where she saved Red Room orphans which was my inspiration for the flashback. It also gives the image of where her story starts versus where it ends.
But don't fret, this story isn't over yet. There will be a little connecting chapter between Natasha's ending and James's "re-entry" to the story. In terms of chapters, there will be two chapters left (because I cut out another two chapters).