The Soldier and his Widow

14

"Nat," Okoye said softly as she approached, "uMamakazikazi, Nakia prepared something for you to eat."

Neither woman got up from the seat they shared, leaning against each other.

"You must eat something. Please."

Slowly, Natasha dragged her eyes from the wall across to Okoye. "I'm going to find him," she hissed, "and if I don't get them back, I'm going to make sure he dies."

Okoye nodded. "You will need strength, Black Widow."

Nakia burst into the room. She stared at each woman in turn for a second before speaking. "Mr Roger's just called. They got Tony Stark back."

"I'll take my breakfast to go," Natasha said, standing up. Nakia's words seemed to have flipped a switch in the redhead, as she suddenly had a purpose. She no longer wore the glassy stare, nor favoured the hunched shoulders that had plagued both her and Ramonda for the last twenty-three days.

"I'll go with you," Okoye said.

Nakia opened her mouth, and Natasha and Okoye both cut her off. "Stay with Queen Mother."

Nakia nodded after a second, understanding that Ramonda needed someone by her.

"We leave within the hour," Okoye said.

Natasha was ready within half an hour.

~~||~~

Natasha entered the compound to find Steve holding the arc reactor in his hand. "What happened?" she demanded, "where is he?"

"Resting," Rhodey said quickly, before Natasha tried to murder someone. "Bruce gave him a sedative. Space . . . it's not for him. He's gone off the rails, ranting about a suit of armour around the world."

"And maybe if you had listened to him and helped him instead of letting him spiral into creating Ultron, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Nat," Steve said, taking a step towards her, "I know you're upset --"

"I'm not upset! I'm angry! Everything went to shit because the Avengers weren't together. Tony went off to space to rescue Doctor Strange! You came to Wakanda. Maybe, if you had been there with him, if we had all been there with him, we could've wrapped the purple bastard up in a day." She looked around and the faces stating back at her. "Who are you?"

"Carol Danvers. I'm the one Fury was calling with the pager. Steve said you told them to make sure it kept running. . ."

"Right. Why?"

"Nat, she brought Tony and Nebula back."

"Who's Nebula?"

Carol jerked her thumb towards the alien. Natasha wondered if there was any part of Nebula that wasn't machine. "Hi," she said, not knowing what else would suffice.

Nebula nodded.

"Where's the kid? Where's Parker?"

"Gone," Nebula said, "like the rest of the Guardians, like half the universe. Thanos did exactly what he said he was going to do. He wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."

Natasha took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, so . . . what now? We just sit around and wait for Tony's sedative to wear off?"

"We kill the purple bastard," Carol said.

"How?" Bruce asked, "we don't even know where he is."

"I do." All eyes turned to Nebula. "Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask 'where would we go once his plan was complete?' His answer was always the same: To the Garden."