Our Destiny - Forever & Always

This Can't Happen

Nat stood in the centre of the jet, she struggled to process what had just happened. Her heart was aching at the thought of Y/N being back there, they had come all this way to save her best friend and instead they had left her behind. They had left her with no way to get out. 

"N-nat... where is Y/N?..." Wanda's eyes flickered open. 

Taking a deep breath and wiping the tear that ran down her cheek, Nat prepared herself for having to tell Wanda what had happened during the time she had lost consciousness. There was no easy way to say it, no easy way to tell Wanda that the love of her life was trapped and they had had left without her. 

Wanda felt faint, she knew that the amount of blood she had lost and was still losing wasn't good. Surely it had been worth it though, they had found Y/N, that had been the whole point of all of this. As Nat turned around Wanda could see the emotional pain on her friends face, Wanda had known Nat for a long time, she didn't need to read her mind to know that something bad had happened. 

"Where is Y/N?" Wanda asked her voice a little stronger and firmer as she tried to sit up on the makeshift stretcher that Nat had made. 

Before Nat was able to form the words the glare of an huge explosion filled the cabin, the jet was unbalanced by the force of it. Ava struggled with the controls of the jet, narrowly moving it out of the way as a massive piece from the explosion came veering toward them. 

"No... tell me... tell me Y/N wasn't... she wasn't back there..." Wanda cried, ignoring every ounce of pain in her body as she tried to stand up. 

"Wanda, please... I'm so sorry..." Nat stuttered as she fought back her own tears. 

Ava sat silently at the controls, she hadn't expected to feel the way she did about this, she had spent so much time hating people and shutting her emotions down. But this, feeling and hearing the clear agony and heart wrenching pain in Wanda's voice, it made her realise that there was no joke, no sarcastic remark that could make this go away. 

"This... this can't h-happen... no" Wanda cried harder "We were suppose to have forever together... w-we deserved to have it..." 

Nat moved to kneel down beside her friend, taking hold of Wanda's hand in her own. After all these years, after all the times that she had been there to save Y/N, to bring her back, to protect her from the worst, she had finally failed to do what she had promised to always be there to do. 

Guilt and sorrow pulled Nat apart inside, maybe she had been too confident, too arrogant to think that this plan would have worked. 

"I'm sorry" Nat said again as she looked at Wanda. 

"She's your best friend and you left her to die. There is no apology that can fix this" Wanda shook her head, pulling her hand out of Nats. 

Hearing the harshness in Wanda's voice, Ava flinched slightly knowing that it had to of been like a slap to the face for Nat. For a moment Ava considered telling Wanda that it had been her that had pressed the button, that it was her actions that had caused this, but what good would it do? It wasn't going to bring Y/N back and Ava had seen what Wanda was capable of doing when she was angry. 

Ava kept her eyes fixed forward, watching as another explosion tore through another section of the facility. It was like watching a series of dominos fall as each explosion ripped it apart piece by piece. With a sigh, Ava finally looked away as the last part of the facility blew up, fracturing into hundreds of parts. 

"Wanda let me please sort out those bullet wounds" Nat said trying to ignore the words that Wanda had said to her. 

"You'd be wasting your time" Wanda replied, knowing that her time would be limited now. 

"I've lost one of my best friends today, I do not intend to lose another" Nat told her, shaking her head. 

"Even if you stop the bleeding and somehow get me back to the compound, it would be pointless. The day I saved Y/N from my magic, I had to bind our souls together. The only way she could survive my magic was to be tied to it. The cost of that though is that our lives were bound to one another. If one of us dies, then the other will as well" Wanda told her, "So like I said you would be wasting your time." 

Nat looked at Wanda speechless. She hadn't known about this, she wasn't even sure if Y/N had known this, surely if she had then there was no way that Y/N would have sacrificed herself for them to get away. Not if it meant that Wanda wouldn't actually survive anyway. 

"She didn't know..." Nat said quietly. 

"No, I hadn't told her. I thought we would grow old together, that it wouldn't ever matter that I had done it" Wanda let the tears fall down her face as she spoke. 

Standing up, Nat took a few steps back, turning away from Wanda. Just when she hadn't thought she couldn't feel any more heartbreak, now she had to figure out how to cope with losing two of her closest friends. It was too much. 

The crackling sound of the comms system being connected to filled the cabin on the jet, the static finally settled and a voice came through the speakers. 

"Nat, tell me all of you got the hell out of there before it exploded?" Steve said, his voice flooded with concern as he spoke. 

Ava saw the look on Nat's face and knew that she wasn't able to say it out loud. 

"Hey there Cap, um, things they didn't go so well. We managed to get away, but um not everyone made it" Ava replied pressing the button to respond. 

"What? Who? Where is my sister?" This time it was Yelena's voice that came across the comms. 

"Nat is here with me and so is Wanda... Um it's Y/N..." Ava said as she glanced between Nat and Wanda.

There was a few moments of silence. 

"Y/N was still in there?" Steve asked. 

"Yeah, she brought us the time we needed to be able to get out" Ava said, confirming the unsaid question that Steve was really asking. 

**

The team on the quinjet immediately stopped talking as the realisation of Ava's words sunk in. Yelena dropped to the floor, her hand over her mouth as she bit back the cry of anger and frustration. Daisy rushed over to Yelena, immediately wrapping her arms around her, holding her tight. 

Bucky and Sam looked at one another sadly as Clint slammed his fist against the wall. Tony stood silently looking out through the glass, space, it had been a place that held so many traumatic memories for him and now this. 

Steve braced his hands on the control panel, his head dropping as he temporarily disconnected the communications line, unable to find the words to say back to Ava, knowing that Nat and Wanda would be listening. 

Vision moved to rest his hand on Steve's shoulder. 

"You did what you could Captain Rogers, we can't win them all" Vision said, trying to offer his friend some assurance that they had done their best for Y/N. 

"FRIDAY get me a comms link to Danvers" Tony finally spoke, "We aren't going back without Y/N's body. Every last part of that area and the debris is checked" 

'Yes sir, comms link has been established with Carol Danvers for you'

Tony activated his nanotech suit, letting the helmet close over his face before allowing the tears in eyes to fall. 

"Danvers I'm coming out to join you, we need to find Y/N" Tony said as he walked to the back of the jet, entering the contained access chamber. 

"Tony I'm sorry I was about to get into the facility when it started to explode. I don't know how anyone could survive that" Carol replied sadly. 

"Y/N has survived a lot of things that most wouldn't" Tony said as the external access door opened, revealing the vastness of space. 

"We'll need to be quick if there is a chance" Carol said as she appeared at the side of the quinjet. 

"Let's not waste anymore time then" Tony nodded as the thrusters in his suit propelled him forward.