Natasha/Scarlett one shot 2

She's back pt 2 N.R

Even though this is part 2, this is kinda like a prequel.

Essentially, this shows what happened immediately after Thanos was defeated.

After you received news of your wife's death, you were no longer the version others know of. There were other casualties, but they were able to deal with their loss better than you could. The only one left in your family was Pepper, who seemed to be doing the greatest after losing her husband and having to care for Morgan. You were staying with her as she didn't think you were capable of living alone after such an ordeal.

Initially, you were still in denial that your wife had left you, you begged Pepper and the group to allow you to head to Vormir to get her back but they wouldn't allow it. You know that Pepper had enough on her hand having to deal with Stark Industries and Morgan and you tried to get along with life. However, the darkness pulled you in deeper and deeper without you knowing. You were obsessed with creating Natasha to fill the void. Bit by bit, you started living in the lab and worked on your project. You used whatever recordings you have of Nat to generate the voice and build the essence of Nat.

You refused to leave Tony's lab until you were done and Pepper noticed you hadn't been taking care of yourself when she picked Morgan up and came back from work. The same clothes were worn over and over again and the food prepared for the day was never touched. Essentially, you were worse than Tony, at least he headed to the kitchen for his coffee.

Eventually, you created an augmented reality of Nat that manages to respond to you. Each time you wore your VR headset, you would be able to see her in the world you created. You could never feel her but she was there with you. She would spend time with you as you did your usual things with her. She was able to bring out the smile from you, you spent time as if she wasn't gone in the first place.

The machine you created allowed you to hear her voice even though you weren't able to see her. She could speak to you and reply as you asked questions. One day Pepper came back from work and heard you talking to someone. When she got closer, she realised you were speaking to a machine. "Who are you speaking to?"

"Natasha!" You replied like it was the most obvious thing ever. How could she not realised you were speaking to your wife?

Initially, Pepper left it alone thinking it was going to help you grieve and you were finally going to realised that it's not the real Nat. However, you became more obsessed with it as the day passed. You brought it everywhere with you, even when you were out. You would cradle it like it was your baby. When you're home, you would always wear your VR headset to see her and Pepper could no longer bear to see you continue down this path.

One day when you came back from your outing with Natasha, Pepper was staring at you as shed your shoes and continued walking in. You were used to her staring and it doesn't faze you anymore.

"You need to stop what you are doing. You are being delusional. Nat is dead! You can't bring a dead person back."

"Shhh. Natasha can hear you. You can't say things like that." You brought Natasha further away from her. "You're just jealous that Tony is gone. If you want, I can build you one too. You don't have to hurt her like this."

"Are you listening to yourself Y/N? You're referring to the machine as a human!" Pepper shouted.

"Why should you care?" The both of you started arguing, things started escalating, and before you knew it, a hand blaster emerged from Pepper's wrist and blasted your machine. Both of you stared at each other in silence. "Y/N I-" Pepper tried to apologise but you weren't having it. How dare she use your brother's creation to destroy something so close to you.

Seeing the broken machine is like seeing Nat dying all over again for you. You turned away and took whatever you needed before getting out of there. You were a Stark, you have enough money to buy a place somewhere and start all over again. You would build something better, more realistic. Somewhere no one would be stopping you.

Written on 7 May 2023
Posted on 30 Aug 2023