Checkmate {Book 3} [COMPLETED]

|09|

A beach, the sound of waves crashing onto the shore, then receding back. The wind was only a gentle cool breeze that relaxed the heat, enough to make hair slightly flow.

A blink.

Tessa opened her eyes slowly, then saw a palm tree right in front of her. She blinked again, and then saw the detail of the leaves, and a bundle of coconuts about to fall in a few days time. She shifted her gaze to the left to see pale sand going on and out for at least a mile, meeting the horizon. She tilted her head in confusion at the soft breeze tickling her neck and making her hair fly to the right, lips parting.

"Please tell me you're here to say we won."

Tessa turned around to see Natasha standing a couple feet in front of the shore with crossed arms and a battle suit on, the wind gently blowing her hair to the left to reveal her sapphire eyes watching her contently, all of her limbs seemed to hold tension as well.

"Wha. . . how. . .?" The girl tried to form a coherent sentence, but only bits could escape her lips as her mind's gears were attempting to turn, as if they were rusty with cobwebs. She turned around fully, her lengthy ebony hair sweeping behind her like crashing waves.

With a sigh, the ginger kicked off from the sand and slowly began making her way over with a low, begging voice, "Please tell me you're here to say that we won."

Tessa's pewter eyes met Nat's when she was in front of her, her stance powerful. In confusion she began to stutter, "What, how, why are you here? Where are we?"

The spy's eyes softened tremendously upon hearing the last sentence. She didn't know where she was.

"A soul for a soul." Was all she mumbled while turning her head to look down at the raging ocean, waves pounding down onto shore and chasing them gradually.

Tessa whimpered silently, tears beginning to burn her vision as she tried to get out another sentence, but no words came to her mind. She gazed at the woman before her, a tear trailing down her left cheek.

We're dead.

"We won." She choked, making her turn back, "We won, Nat. My dad did the snap and destroyed Thanos's army, and himself with it."

"Then where is he?" The woman questioned, and could sense the pain radiating off of Tessa, whose eyes lowered slowly.

"Alive." She murmured, "Alive and safe."

Natasha quickly put the majority of the pieces together, but there was still one image missing from her mind, and the girl could tell, so she explained.

"The snap was too much for him, it killed him. I-I reversed it before it could, but the only way to do it is to transfer energy. A soul for a soul, I guess." She looked up and at the calming shore before her, hair tugging in the wind. "I had a choice. I live without him, or he lives without me." She turned to look at the spy, who was gazing at her sadly. "Pepper needs him, Peter needs him, the Avengers need him. The world needs him."

"And they need you." She said lowly, and the teen shrugged. "I was only temporary for them." She looked back at the ocean again. "They'll be just fine without me."

The ginger pursed her lips wordlessly, thinking about what to say. There was a moment of silence that was filled with the ocean, until the other broke it, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that you passed."

"You were gone." She explained, "We finally came up with a plan to go back and time to get the stones when the Quantum Realm became a reality, Clint and I went to Vormir to get the Soul Stone."