Nomad (Steve Rogers)

19

Clint and Nat appeared back on the machine's platform as the others turned to them. "Well we're all here..." Tony began but trailed off on seeing the pair's faces. "Where's Kill Bill?"

Steve moved forward, not seeing Aster anywhere. "Clint? Nat? Where is she?" He asked worriedly.

Clint took the soul stone from his pocket and showed him. "It was a soul for the soul stone...she took the fall. We couldn't stop her..." He said as Nat stared at her feet.

"She told us to tell you that she was sorry..." She said quietly.

Steve felt sick. 

The others took a moment to take in the news before he turned and walked away, feeling as though he was being torn apart. She'd sacrificed herself for a stone? It was just another cruel twist to his life. Just when he thought he could move on, have a chance of happiness – she left him again.

He had to be alone. He needed to get his head around this. 

Taking himself outside, he paced around trying to make sense of everything until finally his fist slammed into the side of the compound wall, part of it cracking under the pressure of his punch.

How could she do this?

His mind ran through various memories like they were some old movie. The moment they'd first met, the turning point in their relationship when they'd realised that there was something between them, that night, spending months together day after day. Aster had been his reason to move on and forget the past. She'd been his damn future and now Steve had been robbed of that as well as her.

Perhaps it had always been his fate to be alone. It was all he'd ever known. 

He thought back to one night in the cabin when they'd simply been lying there contemplating everything from Hydra right down to what they would do once Ross had been dealt with. 

"I suppose I could take early retirement?" She'd suggested, "I mean, technically I've started but still, I have unfinished business."

Steve had stared at the ceiling. "I very much doubt that people would have any faith left in me after all this. My days as Captain America were over as soon as I refused to sign those accords.

"You can't be him forever." 

"I don't wanna be." 

"What do you want?" 

He'd paused, "When I went into the ice I wanted marriage, a family and when I came out my priorities changed - I wanted to focus on my duty to the Avengers, SHIELD. Then when I went on the run that changed once more. Perhaps I may have that future back once again..." and then his head had turned to look across at her.

"Sounds like a good future..." She'd agreed with him quietly. 

Clint appeared sometime later and sat next to him. "All for a stone...whatever it takes..." his face was just as wrecked with grief as Steve's. "I tried, I really did..."

Steve stared out to the quiet compound grounds. "It's not your fault. I just..."

"I know." Clint said. "She spoke about you all the time when we were moving round together. She missed you."

"Do you think she suffered?" The question was one that had been playing on his mind.

Clint shook his head. "She was dead the moment she hit the ground, she paralysed Nat and me using her darts, damn things. There was no way of bringing her back, and that's what hurt the most. To just leave her lying there..." He swallowed, feeling the lump in his throat again before becoming angry as the reality set in. "She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone!"

Steve bowed his head so as his friend couldn't see the tears fall. "If we can snap everyone back, surely we could get her back? There's gotta be a way."

Deep down, they both knew that there wasn't. She wasn't coming back.

"If anyone can figure it out, it's Bruce and Tony." Clint said and noted the hole in the wall. "We can only try, just like we can only try to reverse the snap. If it doesn't work? I dunno what we're gonna do. We had one shot at getting those stones and we got 'em."

"So let's make it worth Aster's sacrifice..." Steve said with a slight glare. "She didn't get us that stone for nothing." 

Their hard work wouldn't be for nothing. They'd make sure that everyone came back to them. 

Whatever it takes.