Superhero Life

• Let Me Go

"Come here, darling." Nat starts to braid my hair into a wreath around my head and for a moment I watch her through the mirror. The way her hands gently move and the way her lips curve into a soft smile.
It physically hurts me to see her like this. What will she do if today's mission doesn't go as planned?

"I think I should tell you about the vision I had..." She forces me to face her by cupping my face in her hands. Despite the warmth in her eyes her hands are freezing cold.
"Don't even finish that, I don't want to know."

My visions have never lied.
I doubt that they will be wrong now, but instead of worrying, I swallow all the doubt and fear and force a smile. For Nat, I would die, for her and the ones I love I would sacrifice myself.

• • •

"Today we will travel in time.
We will do it, together."
Together, just like Bucky had promised me years ago. I'm doing it for him too, so that he might have a future.

I nervously look around, at the faces of the people standing here with me.

"Five years ago we lost everything, all of humanity lost people, now the time has come to bring them back," Steve continues.
"This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win because we are the Avengers. Whatever it takes."

Nat and Clint are at my side.
The three of us will travel back in time to Vormir. To the place that Nebula warned us about, the one from my vision, to retrieve the soul stone before Thanos can.

I lock eyes with Nat.
"Whatever it takes." She grins.
"Yes, whatever it takes," I repeat.

Bruce begins to count down from five.
My slightly shaking finger hovers over the button that will activate the travel back in time.

One last time I look at Steve and Tony, at the ambition in their eyes before I press the button.

We instantly shrink and get sucked into the Quantum Realm as we all split at different intervals, going to a different place at a different time in history.

When we arrive I fall to my knees and dry heave until my lungs rattle with the air I forced into them.
"We can't waste time." Clint reminds us when Nat starts to rub my back.

A queasy feeling spreads in the pit of my stomach when I lift my eyes to examine our surroundings.
It's exactly like in my visions.

Nebula told us the way to get to the top. She didn't know what would await us there, if the stone was even there. All she knew was from rumors she heard about this place and what Thanos allowed her to know.

Clint decided not to describe further how to climb up the mountain.
He was the one moving first, Natasha behind him. It gave me enough time to watch closely where the two hooked their hooks and placed their feet. And despite being careful my foot slipped just before I reached the top.

"Hold on tight," Clint calls from above. They both look down at me as I clench my teeth and claw myself the rest of the way up.

"It doesn't look like the stone is here."
My relief is limited when someone appears before us,
"Welcome..."
The two next to me draw their weapons, ready to attack the cloaked figure.

"Natasha, daughter of Ivan.
Clint, son of Edith.
Lillith, daughter of Lydia."
It's been a while since anyone said my mother's name out loud. Above all, the name had never been spoken by such a creature as the one before us.
Only his red skull is visible, the rest of his body, if he even has one, is hidden by a black cloak.
"Who are you?" My power sparks in my palms ready to strike out.