Winter Widow One Shots

Endgame AU Ending

They had won.

She wasn't there.
She wasn't fighting beside them.
She wasn't there when they won.
She wasn't there to see them come back.
She wasn't there to hold.
She wasn't coming back.

It had only been moment for Bucky, but it had been five years for those who had survived the snap. He could remember himself 'dusting' away. The numbing feeling and the confusion watching as his hands disappeared. All he had wanted in that moment was to see Natalia. To say good bye but it was over so fast. And then only moments later he found himself stepping through a portal from Wakanda to the Avengers facility in upstate New York. Only to join another fight. Or was it the same fight? It was all a bit of a blur at the time. All they knew was they had to win this time. They couldn't afford the cost of loosing.

Bucky and thousands of others had been brought back, and went straight into what felt like the same fight. Thanos had thousands of his own army storming the facilities land, the Avengers had been vastly outnumbered until Strange and his wizard friends found ways to bring in help. The sensation of coming back from "the blip," as they called it, had been odd and he wasn't quite over it when he stepped through the portal but there had not been time to dwell on it. They had a war to win. One they had previously lost, but fate was giving them a second chance.

It was hard to keep things straight now. Some people had aged, others had not. Some had moved on while others had not. Some faked blipping to get out of their situation. Others took advantage of the chaos and used it to get rich. It had screwed the world up pretty bad. Things were a mess all around. Homes had been sold to new families. Children sent to foster care, possessions taken. Lives all around has been flipped with the first blip, but now with the return of people things seemed to be even messier.

Steve had try to explained everything to him. The blip. The last five years. What the Avengers did during that time. What Natalia did, she had been so valuable to the team during those years. Being the middle man between those helping the rest of the galaxy and those trying to straighten things out on earth. He would have been proud of her. He would have loved seeing her wipe the red from her ledger. He could only hope she was proud of herself. Proud of him.

Steve also explained the fight to bring everyone back, the time and space travel. And the sacrifices that were made in order to do so...

Clint had taken it upon himself to explain what had happened, his own eyes filled with pain as he did so. Telling him about Vormir and the fight between Natasha and himself. Bucky had wanted to slam him against the wall and demand to know why he hadn't taken her place. He was her best friend and yet he let her die. Let her fall and crash to the ground of a foreign planet. But deep down he knew why. He understood why Natalia had made the decision. Clint had a family. A wife, three kids. They needed him.

But Bucky needed her.

Bucky knew if Clint had been able to save her, he would have. He could tell he lived with the pain of it everyday, just as Bucky now did. She had been Clint's best friend. He had saved her life and helped her get on the right path, to set her life straight. Helped her out of the Red Room. Something Bucky had been unable to do for her. Loosing her couldn't have been easy for Clint or his family to handle either. She was an aunt to his kids, his wife's friend. They loved her in their own ways.

They'd had a funeral for Tony. Celebrated his life, the world mourned him. Everyone spoke of him, posters everywhere. Every where one went there were memories of the man. Pictures of the Ironman suit. Thank you's written across buildings with his image splattered on them. His sacrifice would forever be remembered.

But Natalia had given her life as well and in return had been given nothing but a small head stone in Ohio. Not even a body to place under it. It was stuck on some foreign planet and would be forever. He'd never get to see her face again, or feel her lips press against his. Her laugh would always be a distant memory. Few mourned her. Even fewer knew what had truly happened to her. To the world she was just gone. Lost in the fight.