Just a Blast from the Past

Final Chapter

Natasha was back in New York City less than twenty-four hours after her extraction. A taxi took her straight from the airport to De Witt Clinton Park on Eleventh Avenue. She made her way towards one of the many trees and put her hand into the narrow hole of the oak tree that was the farthest to the left. She patted until she felt the object she was looking for. She picked a little silver key between her fingers and pulled it out.

She then went to Grand central and used the key to open the locker she had rented less than three days before. Inside was Thor's chip, the device that would make her travel through time again, and that she never would have allowed in the hands of Nazis if she had perished or been captured during her mission.

She held the chip in her palm and smiled at the prospect of going back where she belonged.

She made her way to Central Park, down the same isolated trail and sat on the same bench she had traveled on the first time. The feeling of a joyful déjà vu took over her as she yet realized how different this one was. The first time she sat on this bench, she was full of grief, anguish, and uncertainties while now she was sitting again filled with relief, pride and in peace with feelings she had accepted to embrace. Uncertainties were still there as she kept wondering whether she would find Steve in the future she had created and hoped fate would take it from there.

She pressed the chip onto her temple which 'magically' fixed itself to her skin like it had the first time around. According to Thor, Stark and Banner, her consciousness would combine with her other future self to make one unique person, meaning she should, in theory, keep memories from her two selves: Natasha who had traveled to the past and Natasha who wasn't born yet in this current timeline but would be in about forty years' time.

She took a long breath in and thought of the future. She visualized the day on the calendar that the one she had time traveled to 1942. She opened her eyes, the landscape around her was brighter and enhanced, indicating the device was on. She raised her hands up and pushed the whole setting on the left to move forward into the future.

Meanwhile, in South Germany, numerous questions were raised. And none that Steve could answer. After Zola's capture, Steve asked to have all the security footage taken in order to identify the mysterious third party.

"Do you think he's with the enemy?" Bucky asked while Steve was standing on the edge of the train, inspecting the big hole that had been blown on the wall and from which the intruder had escaped after killing the German soldier.

"What I know is whoever he works for he wasn't after either of us," he answered, folding his arms across his chest.

The intruder's work had been impeccable as there was no security footage to exploit and therefore proved he had made sure to destroy all the cameras before stepping in their sights.

"So, he's just a ghost?" Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow. He pouted with a reluctant look. "Call me sentimental but I kinda wanted to put a face on the guy who knocked me out."

"It's like he knew exactly how many cameras and where they would be," Peggy spoke.

"I thought the plans of this train were confidential," Steve said.

"They are," Colonel Philips said, openly showing how irritating he found the whole thing. "This guy clearly had access to information our own services couldn't dream of having." Yes, this whole thing really was irritating. "I don't like it," the colonel eventually stated aloud to the surprise of no one.

Steve turned his head as an object reflecting sunray and slightly shining on the floor caught his attention. He crouched down and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to pick it up. He lifted it up to the level of his face and eyed it closely.