DYER | STEVE ROGERS

𝐕𝐈.𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈

〚 NATASHA 〛

"Did we get them all?" Bruce questioned once everyone arrived back at the compound.

"You telling me this'll actually work?" Rhodey questioned with a warm smile as he held up the stone.

Darla looked around, her eyes landing on her brother, who had a huge cut in the side of his head. She rushed over to him and looked for Natasha and Clint.

"Oh God." Darla muttered as she pulled Briar into a tight hug, realising that Natasha sacrificed herself.

Clint fell to the floor as Briar held Darla as tightly as possible. Steve looked across to the Dyer siblings before looking at Clint.

"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce questioned as he looked at the man.

Clint remained silent as Darla pulled away from Briar and linked their hands. The silence told everyone what they needed to know, Natasha was dead.

Bruce fell to his knees as Briar pulled away from Darla angrily pointing towards Clint as tears streaming down her face.

"I told you it should have been me." Briar shouted, causing Darla to step back slightly. "We needed her more than we would ever need me."

"B-"

"No." Briar snapped towards Darla as she attempted to comfort him. "I lost her." He looked at his sister, his eyes filling with tears. "I love her."

"I know. And she loves you." Darla whispered softly as everyone's eyes was on the siblings.

"She knocked me out, told me that I need to come back to my family. But what about her? She needs to come back to her family too." Briar ran his hand over his face. "Fuck. I need her."

"Briar-"

"I think I want to be alone for a while." Briar said to his sister as he walked away from the group.

Darla took a step back, watching as he's brother walked away. Steve quickly pulled the girl into his chest. The voices must have told her that she was going to die, or that at least one of them was going too.

She lost her best friend today, but it could have easily been her brother or Clint that she lost too.

Darla gripped on to Steve's shirt tightly as she broke down into a sob. Natasha was there for her through everything. She helped Fury recruit her in the first place, she stayed in contact no matter what, she helped her in hiding, she didn't stop searching for ways to bring everyone back. And now, she was never going to know that they were going to succeed.

~

"Did you know?" Bruce questioned Darla angrily. "Did you know that she was going to die."

Steve shot a glare towards Bruce, Darla didn't need this right now. She didn't need to be grilled.

"I knew that one of them would. But not Nat specifically." Darla said quietly, her voice cracking with every word. "I didn't know that it was going to be her. I didn't even know that one of them was going to have to be sacrificed until it was too late."

Bruce didn't seem happy with her response and Tony hated that he was being hard on her, so he tried to change to conversation away from her.

"Do we know if she had family?" Tony questioned as Darla sat down beside Steve, her legs curled up into her chest as her head rested on her knees.

"Yeah." Steve paused as he looked down at the ground. "Us."

"What?" Thor questioned confused and angered.

"Huh?" Tony furrowed his brows and turned to face Thor in confusion.

"What are you doing?" Thor asked angrily, face to face with Tony.

"I just asked him a question–" Tony was once again cut off by Thor.

"Yeah, you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones," Thor turned to face Steve and Darla. "Little one, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right?" With every question Thor got angrier and anger over. "So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together."

"Darla." Tony placed his hand down on the girls shoulder, causing her to look up at him. "What do you know?"

Darla's eyes filled with tears, she hated knowing that there was no bringing back Natasha. Clint noticed the way she struggled to get her words out, so he spoke up,

"We can't get her back."

"Wha– what?" Thor stuttered over his words.

"It can't be undone. It can't." Clint didn't even bother to look at anyone, he just kept his eyes on the horizon, wishing that it was him instead of Natasha.

"I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very earthly being. Okay? We're talking about space magic. And 'can't' seems very definitive don't you think?" Thor laughed at Clint's comment.

"Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here. But she still isn't here, is she?" Clint said.

Darla's eyes filled with tears and Tony handed her his sunglasses. Darla looked up to him thankfully before putting them on. She hated when people saw her cry and Tony knew that.

"Thanks dad." She muttered. She didn't even mean too, it was something that her father would have done. The singular word brought a smile to Tony's face.

"No, that's my point–"

"It can't– be undone. Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say." Clint said as he choked up. "Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay? GO GRAB YOUR HAMMER, AND YOU GO FLY AND TALK TO HIM!" Clint shouted angrily.

There was a silence that over took the group. Despite hating to admit it, they knew that there was no way to bring Natasha back.

"It was supposed to be me. She knocked Briar out and she sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it." Clint looked across to Darla.

Natasha had made him promise to keep Briar safe, to make sure he got him home safely and that no harm came to him. It was her dying wish.

Angrily, Bruce grabbed the bench and threw it into the lake before turning to look at the others.

"She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to." Bruce whispered as Steve stood up.

"We will." Steve nodded, looking across to Darla. She lost her family and now she's lost her best friend. He would do anything to bring her family back and bring her a bit of happiness again.