Natasha didn't know how to feel about anything.
She thought she had made the right move when she left to go to Wakanda. Tony would be fine on his own, I mean ever since he brought Jarvis back to life there was someone to take care of him. so she left, not being able to handle it anymore, she was done with tony for the time being. she would go back to see him once everything calmed down, and he would be there as out of shape as usual. with making her new widow bites, and fixing fancy stuff for Peter. Then one day in the beginning of September he was kidnapped. Brutally in fact, they had all seen the glitch in the security tapes. One moment there the next just, gone. Tony Stark was nowhere to be found and she desperately regretted leaving. Then Thor came and said he had heard about the Man of Irons taking and offered assistance finding him. Despite everything that had gone on between Steve and Tony, and with the Accords. She wanted Tony back, regardless of what all the other ex avengers thought of him. They were still friends, and she was terrified of what would happen to him. So when Thor had revealed that Loki would be the best option to help she had immediately agreed. The other ex- avengers it was a but more tricky than them. Having seen how involved and how much he believed in the Accords, Tony wasn't going to be backing out of them anytime soon. Steve though not agreeing to it could handle that, but then comes the topic of Barnes. Tony hadn't fully forgiven Barnes or Steve for what had happened in Serbia, and certainly not what led them to the fight. he probably wouldn't ever fully forgive Barnes for killing his mother regardless of his state of mind, or Steve for keeping it from tony or the fact that he nearly killed him. Natasha could understand the sentiment, within a week of the fight the two of them understood it too. But Steve and tony weren't ready to be together, or so Steve thought. Tony was gone now, and Natasha had never felt more alone despite the fact that she was surrounded by people she had thought to be her friends. She couldn't forgive Steve for what he did to tony, and Barnes was in cyro but she couldn't really forgive him either. Clint, though they used to be best friends she couldn't believe how easily she had abandoned Laura and the kids.
So when he tried to reject the plan to let Loki help find Tony she couldn't care less and dismissed it. They weren't half the friends they used to be, if they were friends at all.
When the gods brother had come after saying he had found tony, but not alone he had said. A young college student was down there with him, cold and in bad shape. Isabella Swan who was reported missing on August 29, turned 21 while trapped in the cave. Normal girl, but SHEILD had been monitoring her since she was seventeen because of a certain boyfriend. When it collapsed Phil Coulson still checked up on her to makes sure she was okay. Her kidnapping was even rougher than Tony's, and no one could figure out why. she was completely innocent, not even a hint of a criminal record on her. Loki spoke about her with such fondness, such gentleness, that it made her wonder what had gone down. they were in a cave, and god knows how tony was taking that. Loki could warily tell them the relative location of where it was, and that it was very badly insulated. he told of the cold days and the near freezing nights that the couple had been experiencing. With nothing but thin clothes, one medium thick large sized blanket, and each others body heat. They were losing weight, by the way Loki described it they had more than enough food but the food wasn't having all the calories needed. nothing down there was in a good amount of calories, and the amount needed to get the calories was too much for them to eat. they were both losing weight and fast. Loki gave them clues from observation to see where they were being kept. they were in a cave, it was always chilly and freezing at night, no windows or any opening whatsoever, and the cave was made up of light colored stones that were pretty hard. that was all they had to go on, and it wasn't much at all. it was something at least, and they had begun looking for things that matched the categories. The next fact that tony had told Loki that not only was it cold, but it had been since he had first been there consciously. not as cold, but always so. and it had gotten near freezing on a frequent basis during the winter.
Now it was warming up apparently, but not by much. so they both were recovering, but not really the most healthy recovery. They had been in wherever they were for six months with no contact with the outside world at all other than Loki, and even though he's okay and by the way it sounded neither of the two seemed to mind. He was still Loki and probably didn't have much to remind them of where they were used to. Natasha couldn't help but feel like Tony probably wouldn't see this as a bad thing. That the fact that this crazy norse God that had tried to kill him a few years back didn't resemble anything like the world he was from. Didn't that just hurt her even worse than she thought it would. Then comes the girl, poor thing had no warning whatsoever. She was a sweet creature and that made things go a bit strange.
Tony Stark was genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and even though many may argue it Hero. Not to mention his former title as the Merchant of Death from when Stark Industries was in the weapons industry. He had targets on him like a game of laser tag, left and right, never failing to try to take a shot at him. Someone could come up with a million reasons why he should be put into a cave to rest for a bit, slowly dying as such. But Isabella Swan only had one straight arrowed target that had stopped pointing at her years ago. Coulson seemed to be invested in a moral code and in such made sure that she was safe. The girl was a kind good hearted person, her hands squeaky clean of doing anything aside from her little more than human boyfriend as a teenager.
There was just no connection, how could there be. So who in the world would take two completely opposite people, with literally nothing to relate one to the other, and put them together. Ransom would work to get Tony, but no phone calls or letters or anything like that had come up. The wanting for a genius could apply to both of them, sort of. Tony was a well renowned genius who could build just about anything. Isabella knew her biology and a bit of human anatomy. Two completely different geniuses, not to mention Isabella was still in college. There was nothing, no one to come out and claim to have taken either of them. So why, and more importantly who. Nothing of them ending up in the cave in some unknown location made sense. The former KGB was good at her job, the best that anyone could find really. But this seemed to be more of some fictional mystery than real life.
It was making so much nonsense, that even someone with her level of practice and expertise could figure it out. No one could. Until she got anything useful the only thing she was doing was working around the clock to find anything she could. T'Challa was surprisingly a big help in it, especially when an innocent civilian was involved in it. He didn't want anyone that didn't need to get hurt be harmed. Scratch that he didn't want anyone to get hurt or die at all. So all of his own Dora Milage were on the case as well. They were all around good people but they were also warriors.
Tony unknown to everyone had a special secret relationship with Wakanda. His father Howard spent a lot of wasted time trying to get vibranium from the reclusive country. Naturally T'Chaka refused all requests to get any. But in order to keep the man from getting an aneurysm he did of course have meetings. So even if just once or twice, the guards of the palace knew Anthony Stark and T'Challa playing together because neither of them had a taste for politics, and they were children and could care less about their parents business. Then after his fathers death he was for a short time a consultant before deeming that they didn't want any bad business because honestly, Tony still could care less about his fathers business.
But the guards still remembered, and the country still remembered, so they were doing a goo job at working as hard as they could to get the man back. Now that Isabella Swan was in the equation they truly were showing all the weapons that the warriors could carry. All the hidden technology in the country was showing itself, they were pulling every resource they had in order to get what they wanted. How had they all been so blind as to just how much value Tony was worth, and not just in money. Not to mention if not for T'Challas politeness and hospitality the other ex-avengers would have been handed to Ross by now. Probably not Wanda since the King was pretty nice with her and didn't want her to get scars that she didn't deserve. Even though she could and had made them see their worst memories she was sweet.
With the looks that just about everyone gave them though, the exact opposite opinion could be put on Steve and Bucky. With all the footage going around it was surprising that no fights had really gone down yet.
It didn't matter though they still couldn't find either of them. They could be as angry as they wanted to be at the soldiers that should have stayed dead, but it wouldn't bring back what they were missing. Natasha didn't have much. She had Tony, the Dora Milage who was becoming good friends with her, Shuri, T'Challa, and to some extent Loki.
Down in that cave she wondered what it was like for them, they only really had two people in the world anymore. Starving, and freezing, Loki had learned how to take small inanimate objects after they were becoming more and more concerned with both their health's, especially Isabella as it had been revealed that she had an arc reactor in her, forced in just like Tony's. She was young and didn't deserve this. Neither of them did.
Natasha would do everything that she could to get them back safely, to see Tony again.
Even if that means being a Black Widow.