The Algorithm To Infinity

[10] after the dust settles

Once they reached the building, he barreled through the glass door and pushed her through as he shielded her. She stumbled through the broken doorframe, grabbing onto the back of his suit and yanking him into the building with her.

"Now what?" He asked, his chest heaving as she steadied him with her hands on his broad shoulders.

She hesitated. They were trapped, the Black Widows cornering their prey. They couldn't outrun them, but she'd fought her way out of situations like this before and with Steve at her side, there was no one they couldn't fight together, nothing they couldn't do together. "Top-level." She told him, reloading her gun as they ran to the staircase. "There's going to be more Black Widows in here, but we fight our way up and then figure out a way back down. So stay behind me because they'll come from the front." She said, holding her gun out in front of her as they began to climb the winding staircase. Her eyes narrowed as she watched for the rush of a shadow and listened closely for the scuffle of boots, but it was quiet. 

Too quiet.

"Wait. This is a tra-..."

Suddenly, they were surrounded by three Black Widows running up the staircase behind them as three more came from the front. Natasha shot the three in front of her as Steve fought the ones behind them. His shield struck two of them in the head and then lodged in the cement wall, leaving him defenseless against the last woman's armaments. She turned around and lifted her gun, aiming at the Black Widow over his shoulder. With her heart pounding and hands shaking, she pulled the trigger and the gunshot pierced the air.

It struck Steve in the neck.

"No!" She screamed as he collapsed.

She shot the remaining Black Widow and fell to her knees beside him, cradling his head to her chest as she held pressure to the bullet wound. "I'm so sorry." She sobbed, her heart twisting in abysmal pain as he gasped for his breath, his life bleeding into the palm of her hand. "Please, stay with me. I-I can't live without you." She cried, pushing his blonde hair from his forehead as her tears fell onto his face. Her hands were shaking, her lips trembling as she held him close and pleaded for him to stay with her because she was nothing without him. "I love you. I love you!"

"I trusted you." He whispered, gazing up at her.

He took his final breath, his chest heaving for the last time as his azure eyes glazed over.

She killed the man she loved.

She screamed and cried as she rocked him back and forth, her cheek pressed against his as her heart shattered. She didn't care if the Black Widows found her, if they tortured and murdered her. She deserved it. He had died with his blood on her hands, and her soul was blown away along with his final breath.

In her agony, she squeezed her eyes shut and let the dark void consume her in its entirety.

"Natasha!" Clint shouted.

She was shaken hard and jostled from the vivid delusion, making her gasp, and she jerked away from Clint as she looked for Steve's body. As she frantically searched, she perceived that her hands weren't stained with his blood, and she wasn't in a stairwell with the love of her life lying dead in her lap. At that moment, however, she couldn't think clearly, overwrought with grief and affliction as everything inside her told her that she needed to find him, to have his six even when he couldn't have hers. "Steve... Steve!" She screamed, pushing herself off the floor, but Clint grasped her shoulders and held her to him.