Authors Note: Hey all, this is my first story in quite some time. If some of you remember my previous stories and are wondering why they don't exist anymore, its due to me at one point feeling very dissatisfied with my old work and decided to delete them all. By the time I realized they should still remain and put them back i had forgotten my login information and thus they faded from my document manager. So i do apologize to any who really liked those stories.
Steve walked towards the cliff, where he was told was where it happened. Looking around his surroundings, waiting for something to happen on this planet he knew nothing of.
"Well well. This...this is a surprise."
Steve turned to face that familiar voice. Red Skull.
"Steven Rogers, son of Sarah. After all these years. You've found where you sent me."
"You sent yourself here. But I'm not interested in a reunion. I'm here to return this."
He held out the Soul Stone. Red Skull gazed at it, attempting to reach for it before Steve closed his hand.
"I sense you believe that some sort of trade will be done for it."
"You guessed right. You'll get this back. In exchange, you give me back Natasha."
Red Skull smirked. "This is impossible."
"It is possible. You'll make it possible."
"The sacrifice Miss Romanoff made is permanent. One soul for another."
Steve shook his head. "No. You're lying. See my thinking is that, when you say one soul for another, it means exactly that. A soul. Not a life. A soul can be returned."
"Does this logic comfort you Captain? Believing your friend could be saved? Oh wait...she's more than your friend. Isn't she?"
Steve stood firm. Red Skull continued his taunting.
"You came all this way, a journey impossible to make for the most part. For one person. One precious person. One you love. That love makes you blinded to logic. This trade cannot be made because it is not possible to make."
"Enough. Without this stone, you sit here. For all time, with no purpose, nothing to guard, nowhere to go. Without this stone you have nothing. And you don't get it back without giving me her."
Red Skull went silent. Steve wondered if stumped the guy or if he was plotting out his next taunt.
"This...hasn't been done before. Ever. So if you toss that stone over the side...perhaps...she can return."
Steve looked back towards the cliff, a renewed sense of hope in him as he made his way to the edge.
"But Captain."
Begrudgingly, Steve looked back to Red Skull.
"Should it fail, look not at me as one for fault."
Regardless of how he felt about him, Steve conceded he was correct. This was a 50/50 shot. And in the event of the 50% chance she doesn't come back...
No, don't think that way. Steve thought to himself. She'll come back. She will come back.
Steve dropped the stone, watching it plummet and disappear from immediate view. A few moments passed, with nothing happening, Steve growing anxious.
Finally a faint glint from the bottom could be seen, and suddenly a bright yellow light engulfed his vision. He stepped backwards and felt himself bump into something behind him. The sound of a woman being taken by surprise was heard, and he froze in spot.
"Who's there?" the voice said, and there was no mistaking who it was. Steve turned around and saw her, looking around.
"Nat?" he saw her freeze up.
"Steve? Steve is that you? I..I can't see."
Steve took her hand gently, Natasha flinching slightly.
""It's me Nat, just open your eyes."
Natasha did so, her vision blurry but it became in focus, Steve coming into view. She felt her eyes sting.
"H..how?"
Steve couldn't help but develop a joyful smile. "You think you could die and I'd let that be?"
He looked into her eyes, and could see in them the question she was about to ask.
"We won, Nat. We won."
She wept lightly, happy.
"Did we lose anyone?"
Steve sighed lightly and nodded. "Tony."
Natasha closed her eyes, mourning her fellow Avenger.
"He snapped Thanos away. He died the hero we all knew he was."
"How did you bring me back?"
"I undid the trade. Gave the stone back. It's hard to have to live now without Tony and we can't bring him. I just couldn't bare thinking about you being gone, and how if I couldn't undo it, living without you."
Natasha rested her head against his chest. Part of her needed further confirmation he was standing there, not just some cruel allusion. But she could feel him against her. He was there. He was real.
"Nat. Ready to go home?"
She nodded against his chest.
"Pressing a kiss to her head, he wrapped his arm around her back.
"Then hang on."
He activated his teleport, and he and Natasha were off to their universe, fixing something that never should have happened.