The shadow Hunter

chapter 55

~2 years later~

~2023~

The compound was dark and empty. Silence had made it it's home. But from one room, a light came and voices. Natasha Romanoff stood behind a desk in a gloomy room. She looked older than she ever had before despite only being in her early 30s. Her eyes were sunken and tired and her face was pale. She sliced a sandwich in half and sighed as she leant on her hands against the desk. "Did you get a reading on those tremors?" She asked. Around the room glowed 5 holograms. Rocket, Nebula, Carol Danvers, James Rhodes and Okoye. What had been left of the Avengers over the past 5 years. "Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?" She prompted with a sense of desperation. "Natasha." Okoye replied. "It's an earthquake under the ocean, we handle it by not handling it." Natasha looked down at the desk and sighed before looking up, at Carol this time. "Carol, are we seeing you here over the next month?" She asked. 

"Probably not. Everything that is happening here is happening all over the universe on thousands of planets." She replied. Natasha nodded and thought for a moment, seemingly trying to think of something else to ask. But there was nothing. "Okay, well if anything goes sideways, if anyone is making trouble where they shouldn't. It comes through me." She stated. One by one, the holograms disappeared and Natasha took a seat in the chair. She took a bite from her sandwich and has she swallowed, she glanced up to see James Rhodes was still stood there. "Where are you?" She asked. "Mexico." He replied. "We found the bodies of a dozen or so gang members in a warehouse the other day." 

Natasha averted eye contact and leant back in her chair. "Oh well it's probably a rival gang." She said. "Except it's not." Rhodes replied. She looked up for a split second, guessing his words before he said them. "It's Barton, I know it and you know it." She cleared her throat awkwardly and looked back up at him. "What he's done here, what he has been doing for the last few years," Again she looked away, not prepared to agree with the statement. "I almost don't want to find him." Rhodes muttered. She nodded slightly and reached for her sandwich. "Will you find out where he is going next." She uttered. Her eyes glazed over slightly. "Please." Rhodes nodded and his hologram too, disappeared. Natasha dropped her sandwich on her plate and squeezed her eyes shut, bringing her hands together and pressing them to her forehead. 

She quickly dropped her hands and sniffed as she heard someone enter. "Are you here to do your laundry?" She asked Steve Rogers as he leant against the wall. "And to see a friend." He stated. Natasha leant back in her chair, "Clearly your friend is fine." She told him. They both knew it wasn't true. How could she be fine when for the past 5 years she had been trying everything, acting desperately, trying to find some way they could bring everyone back. How could she be fine when all her work was so pointless. How could she be fine when she was still sat here, dust collecting. "You know i saw a pod of whales on the way here when i went over the bridge." Steve said. "In the Hudson?" She questioned. "Fewer ships, cleaner water." He explained.

Natasha looked up at the ceiling and wrapped her arms around her body. "You know, if your about to tell me to look on the bright side, I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich." She told him. Steve smiled and walked towards the desk. "Sorry, force of habit." He muttered. He placed his jacket down and sat in a chair opposite her. The pair sat for a while in silence. "You know, i keep telling everybody that they should move on and grow." Steve stated. "Some do." He added before shaking his head. "But not us." 

Natasha's eyes glazed over again. "If I move on who does this?" She stated. "Maybe it doesn't need to be done." Steve replied. She slowly shook her head. "I used to have nothing." She told him. "Then i got this job," She sighed, "This family." She added. She smiled bitter-sweetly. "I was better off because of it." A tear spilled down her cheek. "And even though there gone, I'm still trying to be better." So many people rushed through her mind. Steve looked down at his lap and nodded. "I think we both need to get a life." Natasha laughed in return.

An alarm beeped indicating someone at the door. Natasha pressed a button and the audio and visuals of the front door appeared on the screen. "Hello is anybody home?" A man asked. Natasha and Steve straightened up. "I'm Scott Lang, we met a few years ago at the airport, in Germany." They both furrowed their brows. "I was the guy that got really big, Ant man?" Natasha stared at the screen, her eyes wide, a confused smile playing on her lips. "Is this an old message?" Steve asked. Slowly and with disbelief, she shook her head. "It's the front door." 

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Scott Lang paced the room quickly whilst the other two stared at him. "Are you ok?" Steve asked with brows knitted together. "Ye, I'm just...it's just." Scott stopped and started. Finally he came to a halt and turned towards the others. "Have either of you ever studied quantum physics?" He asked. Steve and Natasha looked at each other. "Ok so a while back, like before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum realm." He started. "Then Thanos happened and i got stuck in there." 

"I'm sorry, that must have been a very long 5 years." Steve consoled. Scott shook his head. "Except it wasn't, it felt like 5 minutes." He stared at them intensely like this was meant to mean something. "Time works differently in the quantum realm." He explained. "What if there was a way we could return to the quantum realm and control it, what if we could navigate it?" Natasha and Steve glanced towards each other. "What if we could enter it at a certain point in time and then exit it at another point in time?"