Artemis: The Final Battle ➳ Steve Rogers [2]

[ T W E N T Y - O N E ]

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N A T A S H A

T H I R T Y  Y E A R S  A G O

"Nat! Nat!" Camille comes running up to me with a jar in her hand, "Look, I caught one!"

A butterfly flitters around the enclosed space, most probably looking for a way out.

"Did you poke holes in the lid?" I questioned.

Camille's face falls at my question, "No." She pouts, "What will happen to it now?"

"It'll die." I reply, "You have to let it go, Cam."

"But I might not be able to catch it again!" My sister protests, "Please, Nat! Can I just keep it?"

"You can't, Camille. You don't want to kill it, do you?" I try to reason.

Tears well up in Camille's eyes as she stares down at the jar, clearly trying hard to hold back her tears.

"O-okay." She sniffles, "Can you help me?"

I nod, reaching over to take the jar from her tiny hands.

Unscrewing the lid from the jar, I set the butterfly free as Camille watches from the side, wiping away tears from the eyes.

"We'll catch another one some other day, alright?" I say in an attempt to comfort her.

She looks up at me with puffy eyes, "Promise?"

"Promise." I smile, holding out my pinkie finger.

She brightens up considerably, linking her pinkie with mine.

"What else do you want to do today?" I asked.

Camille strokes her chin thoughtfully, crinkling her nose as she did.

That was when I notice a figure approaching us in a distance.

It was a woman, wearing a large flown sun hat that hid her face. My stomach falls as I finally catch a glimpse of the lady's face, every last

It was the same woman who had approached me a couple of weeks ago, offering me a spot in some sort of program that didn't sound like anything good.

I instinctively pull Camille behind me, every last remnant of the fun that we were having now chased away by the feeling of dread.

"Nat, what's wrong?" Camille questions, only for me to shush her.

"Hello, Natalia." The lady greets with a smile that felt more cunning than friendly, "It's nice to see you again."

I stay silent, unable to get the words out. I could hear my heart beating out of my chest as her gaze shifts to Camille and I push her further behind me as if that would somehow make her magically disappear.

"Your sister, I assume." The lady says when she doesn't get a reply.

I gulped as I nodded and she raises a brow in amusement, which only seemed to make my even more nervous.

"Have you thought about what I've spoken to about, Natalia?" She asks.

"I-I haven't made up my mind yet." I fumbled with my words.

The lady hums thoughtfully at that, her eyes fixed on me and my sister.

"Perhaps I could propose something that could make it easier for you to come to a decision, then?" The lady raises a brow, the corners of her lips quirking up slightly into a smirk.

She leans in, so close that I could feel her breathe as she whispers in my ear, "Either you join us or your sister does."

My heart drops and I could feel my blood run. Right then, I knew that a decision was already made for me.

*

"What happened?" I demanded, pacing back and fourth around the room, trying to shake that unpleasant memory out of my head.

Clint stays silent as he sits on the row of seats outside the operating room with his head buried in his hands.

Nate snuggles up to his father as he normally does, still too young to comprehend what was going on and Laura sits beside him, with Lila and Cooper next to her, all of them looking shaken, especially Cooper.

Clint moves out to a quiet corner, out of earshot of his family before he finally speaks, "Hydra happened. She saved my kids, Nat."

"Your kids shouldn't have needed saving in the first place. You should've known better than to bring her home, Clint." I scolded.

"What was I supposed to do? Just leave her and let her live like a fugitive everyone paints her to be?"  He yells over me, "She's family, Nat. Have you forgotten what that means?"

The words hit hard, but sadness soon turns to anger and I clap back, "Do you think I wanted things to turn out like this, Clint. She made the decision to leave us. No one forced her too."

"She did it to protect us." He argues, visibly shaking with anger.

"And killing those agents? How do you explain that?"

Clint lets out a scoff in disbelief as he shook his head at me, "She must've had a reason. Do you really have so little trust for your own sister?"

"After all the lies she has told, yes, I do." I spat, "I want to trust her, Clint. I really do. But she's willing to go as far as to make up some story about an alternate reality, it makes you wonder what else she'll lie about. It's time she took some responsibility for her actions."

"Are you listening to yourself, Nat?" Clint shoots daggers at me with his eyes.

"If she's not guilty of all those things, then why did she have to run from us?" I tried to reason.

"Because none of you believed her!" Clint practically shouts, his voice echoing through the empty hallway, "You, of all people didn't believe her!"

"Dad?" Our argument is cut short as we find Cooper standing at the end of the hallway, eyes red with tears, "Is she going to die?"

"Of course not, Coop." Clint says, his voice much gentler than during our conversation before, "Your Auntie Camille is a fighter, she's not going to go down that easily."

"Everything's going to be fine, alright bud?" Clint reassures, "Why don't you go sit with mum, I'll join you in a minute."

Cooper nods in reply, before heading back to join Laura.

"It wouldn't kill you to have a little bit of faith in her." With that, he turns to leave, his eyes filled with disappointment.

I let out a heavy sigh, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall as I sunk to the ground.

Memories of when Camille and I were younger pop up in my mind again. It all still feels like it was just yesterday when we were just little girls.

I stare at the blacked out window of the operating theatre, feeling a little uneasy knowing that the one person I had spent my entire life dedicated to keeping safe, was now in there fighting for her life.

It all leads to the same damn question; how did we end up like this?