Chapter Text
The world watched with morbid fascination as the hero who had defended them for the last few years flew through the portal carrying a bomb, not many knew that the maneuver was not sanctioned and that they were only seconds away from extinction.
But when Natasha Romanoff heard the captain's order to close the gate, it was one of the few times in her life that she felt real anguish. Because the captain was asking her to close the only access door for Tony to return, and although she could see from a preferential position how the radioactive explosion approached, her mind was focused on a single memory.
If this was your last birthday, how would you like to spend it?
I would do whatever I wanted, with whomever I wanted.
It was just a few seconds that she thought while Steve Rogers screamed in her ear, but the memory of that day made her doubt and, in those seconds, she changed the course of history.
We can give you what you want if you help us
It was the whisper he heard coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, when he focused his eyes on Loki's scepter, she realized that it was shining brighter, but with her mind fixed on how to get Tony back she didn't think about whether or not it was a good idea to hear what the other avengers clearly didn't hear.
Help me, free my brother and we'll help you rescue him
If Natasha had given herself a few more seconds, if her mind wasn't remembering that night after many years, when she was finally was honest with someone else and herself, perhaps she would realize that it was a bad idea to listen to the voice that told her what and how to press on the machine to free the central part that had the cube.
A sling of power shook the entire tower and Natasha thought she heard the joint sigh of two beings she could not see. Two beings who were strangely connected with her thoughts and who with the next power sling blew Servig's device to pieces.
The man who until those minutes had been hiding gasped in horror when the light finally let him open his eyes, because around him there were nothing but metallic remains of what was his last creation and there was not a clue of the Black Widow.
Above the tower, the portal that all the heroes had their eyes on had disappeared in the great flash, and with it, the hopes of being able to rescue Tony Stark after his valiant sacrifice. Thor didn't hesitate to use his hammer to jump and get to where Servig was while Clint yelled over the communicators to know what was going on.
Hulk seemed lost, not understanding what was happening and following in the footsteps of the god he climbed the tower between jumps while looking for the friend he had made less than a day ago and fully trusting in his ability.
Steve Rogers, on the other hand, felt frozen, because although he was convinced that Ironman had managed to give the earth a victory but he had lost two members of his new team. Something that was confirmed when Thor explained that they had lost Loki's scepter and the Tesserac at the time Black Widow had closed the portal. In the same explosion that had apparently eliminated S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best spy.