I'll Be Back For You [NatXReader]

Chapter 3: Admissions

Quick note: anything in italics is spoken in Russian. I personally dont speak Russian, and I would rather not butcher a language using Google Translate.  
Thanks!
-Lok

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Y/N POV: 

Dinner was a tense occasion, I had spoken to T'Challa and Shuri about the woman that had broken my heart and both could tell that something wasn't quite right between me and Natasha. Conversation was kept as light as possible, with very little input from Natasha and myself. 

It was nearly the end of dinner that T'Challa looked directly at me and spoke. 

"How long do you think you will need to hear back from Reed and deal with the shard?" 

"I can call him after dinner and discuss it with him quickly. If I remember the dates correctly, he and his wife should be attending a conference in London. Shouldn't take long to get him to agree to destroy the shard." I took a breath before continuing. "As for destroying it, that will be a bit trickier. I don't know how much latent power is stored in the shard itself." 

T'Challa nodded and turned back to the Avengers. "I can have rooms set up for you for the night if you would prefer?" 

The group agreed quickly, Tony and Bruce eager to continue to discuss various experiments with me. 

Dinner concluded and T'Challa pulled me aside. 

"Are you ok, Y/N?" He asked as we left the dining room. 

"Seeing a ghost rattles you a bit, to be honest, T." I commented, raking my fingers through my hair. "Remember the girl I was so heartbroken about? The whole reason I came here to Wakanda?" He nodded silently. "Natasha." 

"I can understand the reaction to her now. You two spoke, are you ok now? Was everything explained?" 

I shook my head. "She said she looked for me, but I left a rather easy trail for her to follow. Either she didn't look or she never found the trail. One option suggests she doesn't care about me as I thought she did. The other suggests that someone covered up the trail, but why?" 

"Maybe you should speak to her about that. If she truly wanted to find you, perhaps she couldn't find the trail. Natasha is not one to give up easily." 

I flinched at the use of her new name. She would always be Natalia to me. 

"I have to call Reed to deal with the shard." I nodded to him before heading back to the lift. It took moments to get back to my lab. 

Taking a breath to center myself, I dialed the familiar number and waited for the man to answer. 

"Dr. Reed Richards speaking." He answered after the third ring. 

"Hello Reed!" I put my best fake happy voice on. 

"Y/N! Long time no hear, what's going on?" He asked. 

"I had a question for you, good sir!" I quickly explained the situation, and he seemed genuinely concerned. 

"It can be destroyed but you will need to account for the power backlash that will occur. There's no telling how big the backlash will be. Be careful, Y/N. I would hate to hear that this shard took you from the world. The World needs minds like yours." 

"I will be careful, thanks Reed. Tell Sue and Johnny I said hello. Give Ben a hug for me." He agreed and we ended the call. 

I turned to find the Avengers standing behind me, having appeared during the phone call. 

"We are good to destroy the shard, but the backlash will need to be monitored closely. It would be wise to take this outside the tower. Tony, I will need your assistance on this, unless you have a telekinetic with you?" I asked, looking at the man. 

"Wanda isn't currently with us, it would take too long to get her here. We can do the best we can with the team we have." Tony shrugged, looking at Bruce and Steven. 

"Well then, lets get to it." I agreed, gently picking up the shard and placing it inside a secure suitcase. "Those without protection should stay here at the tower, we can go to the South Fields, near the border wall, if that works for you, T?" 

T'Challa merely nodded and motioned for me to lead the way. "I will have medical on standby just in case." 

"Wise idea." Bruce spoke up finally. 

"Should you be going out there, Y/N. You have no powers to protect you." Nat said softly from the doorway. 

"I will be fine. Do you not trust your teammates to protect me?" I snapped out, not meaning to be that harsh. 

"I just worry about you, Y/N." Nat answered in Russian, knowing I would understand her. 

"Now you worry about me, Natalia?" I arched my eyebrow, and answered her in her native tongue. 

"Does anyone else think that something happened between the two of them?" Tony asked, snapping the two of us out of our argument. 

"Let's just get this done with, so that you can get back to New York." I sighed. The sun was close to setting, giving us little time to get this done. 

Tony, Steve and Bruce followed me to the Southern Fields, with T'Challa and Nat on coms. Her voice in my ear whispering in Russian was beginning to grate on my last nerve. 

"If you cannot keep your damn comments to yourself, Natasha, get off the coms." I snapped, prepared to take the earpiece out of my ear. She seemed to get the idea and she stopped talking. I placed the shard on the ground, away from everything and took a few steps back. "Steve, you keep your shield up, and be prepared to run if things go sideways. Bruce, we do not need the Green Man today, so just keep as calm as possible I guess?" Bruce looked at me and shrugged, moving to stand near Steve. "Tony, on my go you are gonna shoot your repulser at the shard. Focus as much energy into it as you can. We have to overpower it to get it to shatter completely." 

"What will you be doing while this happens?" He asked, realizing that I had no protective clothes or super-soldier serum to protect me. 

"I'll be making sure that it's actually shattering." I answered, not bothering to look at any of them. I knew I would be close to the backlash of the shattering, and likely to get injured somehow. That's why T'Challa had medical on standby. At this point, what did I have to live for anyways?

"Are you actually insane?" Nat's voice popped up on coms once again. "You are way too close and with no protection..." 

I pulled my earpiece out of my ear and looked at Tony. "On the count of three." He hesitated for mere moments before nodding to me. I could tell he was doing calculations in his mind, likely how bad I would be hurt if this went as bad as everyone thought it would. "One... Two... Three... GO!" 

He let loose a blast from his hand, directed at the shard and I watched as the world slowed down. 

The shard's glow went from dull to overwhelming in mere seconds, before it began to shatter. "STEVE, BRUCE MOVE!" I screamed, realizing that the blast would likely be bigger than I anticipated. I shoved my earpiece in my ear and whispered one last phrase in Russian before the shard exploded outwards, catching me in the chest. 

"Natalia... I still love you." 

The world went black. 

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How's it hanging from a cliff y'all? Don't worry. It wont be long before the next chapter is up. I promise.

UPDATE - 8/10/21 - Minor Grammar and spelling issues. :)