Someone had to return the stones to their proper time, and cut off all the branches.
Clint immediately offered to be the one to do it, but he was shot down. Everyone agreed that it would be too emotional for him to go back to Vorimir. To go back to the place Natasha had died.
So, Sam volunteered.
Scott and Tony gave him a basic rundown of how things worked, where each Stone needed to go, and how to get back.
"Will you do me a favor?" Clint pulled Sam aside before he stepped onto the time platform. "Will you bring her home?"
Sam nodded, "of course, man." He had already planned on doing so.
Sam saved Vorimir for last. It was the place he was dreading the most to see. He mildly enjoyed the other stops, but this place was a place of nightmares.
"Welcome," a low voice greeted when Sam made it to the top of the mountain. "Sam, son of Paul."
Sam pulled his gun out and pointed it at the dark, creepy, hooded figure that was floating a few feet from him. "Who the hell are you? And why, also the hell, do you know my name?"
"Consider me the one to whom you give the stone to," the figure lowered to the ground and approached Sam. "And it is my curse to know all who journey here."
Chills ran down Sam's spine as he got a clear view of the face beneath the hood. "You're Red Skull."
"That is what I was known as, once, yes."
"This is just...weird. Let's just get this over with." Sam walked over to a rock and set the case holding the stones down.
Red Skull walked over and lifted his hand, causing the stone to fly out of the case and disappear into the sky. "It has been returned."
"Just like that, huh?" Sam closed the case and looked around the mountain he was on.
"You are free to leave. Consider yourself lucky."
"There's one more thing I came for."
Red Skull nodded, "what you seek lies before you." He gestured to the edge of the cliff. "Also, what you fear."
Sam walked slowly towards it and looked down.
He could see her body, and it nearly sent him into tears. He activated the suit, and glided down, dread
"Oh man," he fell to his knees next to her, tears pricking his eyes at how broken her body was. Blood stained the ground next to her head.
He hadn't been able to accept her death when they told him after the war. He had seen her, what felt like, five minutes before he was suddenly learning that she was gone. It had been five long years for her, and she was gone.
He hadn't been given the chance to say goodbye to the woman who had welcomed him, so graciously, into her life and onto the team. The woman who he had stayed up late cracking jokes with, to keep their spirits high after long days.
His teammate.
His friend.
His sister.
Seeing her now, though, made it all real.
She was in front of him.
And she was dead.
He wiped his nose with the back of his hand, and lifted her hand so that he could activate her time suit. Once it was covering her body, he activated his own suite and lifted her off the ground, cradling her gently in his arms.
"Let's go home." He pushed both the buttons on their suits, and jumped back through time.
. . .
The day of the funeral was bright and clear. A warm breeze shifted through the trees surrounding the small cemetery that everyone had gathered at.
It was a quiet and private funeral.
Tony figured that as much as Steve and Natasha loved the world, that they wouldn't want it present at their funeral.
The two caskets were placed at the front of that gathered crowd, both with flowers covering nearly every inch of the surface.
Tony had somehow landed himself in charge of both planning and conducting the ceremony.
As sad as it was, and it was horribly sad, he wanted the funeral to be a celebration of the life the two heroes had lived.
"I had the pleasure of not just knowing Steve incredibly well, but also Natasha." Sam was standing at the podium that had been set up. "Both of them were kind enough to give me their trust. Even when they didn't know me that well. They welcomed me into their lives, and changed my life forever. They became my family," he nodded and looked down. "I still can't believe they're dead. I missed five years of time with them, and that's time I will never be able to make up for." He cleared his throat and looked at the two caskets. "I'm going to miss them. I'm going to miss them every day for the rest of my life. But let me tell you something. They might be dead, but they sure as hell ain't gone. The spark of goodness that they carried will continue to exist throughout time. We owe them both a debt that we will never truly be able to repay. I hope the world understands that. The world turned its back on these two, and they still found it in themselves to save it."
Tony had somehow found the courage in himself to approach and ask Bucky to say something as well.
It had taken some convincing from Sam, but he eventually agreed to stand up and say a few words.
"Hi," he greeted, not looking at anyone in particular. "I'm, uh, I'm - I'm Bucky. And I'm sorry, I'm not that used to being in front of people and talking. But I'm here for Steve," he swallowed thickly and nodded. "Yeah, I'm here for him. I met Steve when we were just kids. The guy was being kicked around by a kid twice his size, but he wasn't giving up. He just kept popping back up and raising his fists again. I don't know why, but I stepped in and finished off the kid. After that, there wasn't really any going back. He became my best friend, and we did everything together. I saw him stand up to bully after bully after bully. I watched him get beaten to the pulp, and still manage to get back up. He never stood down from a fight. He never thought about himself. He was always looking out for, and thinking of others. He was an idiot, and a punk, but he was brave." He took a shaky breath, "I loved him. I never told him that. I never told anyone that. And I don't know what type of love it was. I don't care what type of love it was. I loved him," he rubbed his cheeks, and turned towards Steve's casket. "I loved you. God, Steve, I loved you more than I could ever express." He shook his head and looked back at the audience. "Steve told me once that the worst day of his life was the day that I fell from the train. I know now, how he was feeling. I've had plenty of bad days, but nothing tops the day his heart stopped beating, and mine kept going."
Tony hadn't expected himself to cry at Bucky's words, but he was. Nearly everyone was.
There was only one person who could truly speak for Natasha. One person who knew her better than anyone else.
"Natasha used to say that she had red in her ledger. She used to focus solely on the lives that she ended, and not the lives that she had saved. I personally think that she cleared out her ledger during the battle of New York. If not then, then in DC. And if you want to keep going, then Sokovia. She was selfless. She was a pain in the ass, but she was selfless. She did her best, and that was always more than enough." Clint walked over, to Natasha's casket, and placed an arrow on its surface. "She was my best friend, and she deserved to live. She deserved better than this. If anybody thinks differently, you're on something, and you don't know what a hero looks like." He looked back at the crowd, challenging them to disagree.
No one did.
Clint nodded, his expression softening again. "The one good thing that has come out of this, is that these two are finally at rest. They've found peace. After living a world that rarely played fair with them, they have earned their rest. They've earned their peace."
Now it was Tony's turn.
"Just be real," Pepper whispered.
He nodded and walked up to the podium. "When I came to Steve with the Time GPS, I told him my priorities. I wanted to bring everyone back, but I also wanted to keep what I found. I impressed on him, how important that was to me. He knew I had a family. He knew I had a little girl waiting on me to come home. So, he did what he did so that I wouldn't have to. Because I was planning on making the sacrifice. I realized that there was only one true way to end things, but I wasn't the only one who came to that conclusion. Steve and I had our differences. I think everyone here knows that." A small wave of laughter went through the crowd. "But Steve was a good man. He was my friend, and I'm going to miss him." Tony sniffed and puffed out a breath, his eyes beginning to ache. "Now Natasha, or as I first met her, Natalie Rushman," he chuckled weakly. "She kept things going. She spent the five years living in that damn compound and doing what she could to keep the world turning. Nearly everyone else walked away and gave up, but not her. She did what it took to bring back everyone that had been lost. She sacrificed her life so that billions of people could come back to life, and she deserves to be treated as the world saving hero that she was. She had several different aliases, but I'm going to make sure that the world never forgets the name Natasha Romanoff."
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Okay. This took a hot minute to write. I sat down several times to try and get it out, but it simply wouldn't come. Until tonight. I sat down and told myself that I wasn't getting back up until I got the idea out of my head. I hope you guys enjoy what I did, and thank you for reading.
And feedback would be more than appreciated. :)