ʟᴏꜱᴛ ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ || 𝟙

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 10

"Nat?" Bruce whispered, his voice a delicate shard of glass as Peter gently tugged the girl along, her feet dragging reluctantly into the main tactic room.

The rest of them turned their heads to look at the newcomer.

Clint drew an arrow from his quiver, his hand shaking like a life when they both came into view, his heart sinking at the sight of Nat's eyes, copied exactly into the younger girl's face. It was as if he was back on that desolate cliff, the gaunt shadow of Red Skull hovering between the both of them as they contemplated a decision that only one of them would be coming back from. 

"I found her in my room, trying to escape." Peter explained, nudging her into the middle of the room as Bucky, Sam and Rhodey immediately fanned out, covering all possible exits.

"God, she even walks like her," Pepper whispered mostly to herself as Demetria glanced impassively around the room,  feigning boredom.

"Nice to know you were doing some research about me." she pursed her lips, looking at the file that dominated the main screen.

"We know you're her daughter." Bruce said quietly, in an attempt to make her talk.

Her face suddenly became smooth and unreadable, as still as water in a lake. "You know мама?" 

"That's what you call her?" Clint asked gently, taking the "good-cop" approach seeing as Peter was leaning against the keyboard glaring, wanting no part of this interrogation.

"It's Russian...for mother," Demetria shrugged, looking up at the Black Widow file, Natasha's picture having been blown up to fill one of the smaller screens.

"Wait," Clint lowered the arrow allowing it to hang limply at his side. "So, she knew that you are her daughter?"

"Knew?" she asked sharply, giving the file a closer read.

𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝙽𝚊𝚖𝚎: 𝙽𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚊 

𝙻𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎:  𝚁𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚏𝚏

𝙰𝚐𝚎:  𝟹𝟿 (𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟺-𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟹)

 𝙰𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚜: 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔  𝚆𝚒𝚍𝚘𝚠

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way," Pepper, who was often the go-to when it came to comforting others, was dumbfounded as to how to help the girl. "Natasha, she died last year at Vormir, to get the Soul Stone. She sacrificed herself for all of us," she said, voice cracking at the end of the sentence.

"Soul Stone? What namby-pamby voodoo bullshit is that supposed to be?" she growled, unable to face the truth, launching herself at Pepper only to be held back by Bucky, his metal arm encircling her waist, digging into her sides as he dragged her back into the circle.

"Um hello, Soul Stone? Thanos? The Blip? Everyone going poof?" Rhodey made a small exploding gesture with his hands.

"She was blipped the first round, remember?" Peter reminded them, breaking what must have been his longest-held silence since the moment he was inducted into the Avengers. "Look," he sighed sagging against the wall, clearly exhausted. "When we... talked, you told me that Steve Rogers was coming to get you right? Well," he breathed out a sigh, showing her one of the tablets from the charging station.

𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 n𝚊𝚖𝚎: 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎

 𝙻𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎: 𝚁𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚜