Xoxo - y/n Carter

28. Jake

Natasha pov

A loud thumb makes me throw myself up the stairs and into the foyer to find Bucky on the floor. As i'm about to run over to him i stop in my tracks to who i see standing above him. As i blink everything starts to go clear, the once peaceful vision i had over you is going back to Arya. The image of her blowing sand in my face flashes past and i realize it was all a lie, a story she told.

"You weren't meant to see that Natasha"  she say with the same emotional voice i had heard over the comms a few days ago. "But i'm so sick and tired of pretending. So now, if you'll excuse me i need to get going" she takes her step out over his dead body, the thing in her hand falls to the floor. My hand flies up to my mouth as i see what it is, a heart.

"What the hell is happening here" Tony's voice is heard from behind me in the stairs. It's only the three of us in the house right now. Everything is moving at such a slow pace but still so fast that i don't have much time to react.

"I just finished my mission, and now i'm leaving" she says and as Tony comes down next to me i can see in the corner of my eye that the same sparkly sand runs out of his own eyes.

"Wait a second" he says as she opens the door.

"I don't have time..." but she stops herself as a man stands in the doorway to block her way. "What are you..." she starts but the man injects something into her neck. Tony is still in shock as mine starts to wear off, my hand reaching for the gun hidden in an umbrella holder behind me. I get it and as she falls to the ground he catches her and i point it to his face.

"You don't want to do that Natasha" the man says and his voice is so familiar and as he actually meets my gaze i see why. His y/e/c eyes

"Your Jake?" is all i can say as i lower the gun but still holding onto it hard.

"In the flesh" he says and manages to make a bow with Arya in his arms.

"Can someone please explain to me what the fuck just happened?" Tony says and i had almost forgotten he was standing behind me.

"I'm Jake Carter, her twin" he says and as he stays their last name i realize that's why Arya looks like Y/n. Because she was her.

"You mean she is Y/N?"

"No, Y/n died a long time ago, this woman is called Arya" he takes some steps inside the door and it closes behind him without him touching it. "Is the machine ready?"

"What machine?" Tony asks and i can't tell if he's playing bumb or actually has forgotten what stands down in the lab.

"The time machine?" Jake nods and it seems like Tony is starting to catch up, on whatever this is. "Why do we need it?"

"To go back in time and save Y/n on that mission, before she becomes Arya" and she wasn't lying when she had said that Jake was the good version of her.

"Strange said we shouldn't mess with the timeline" i say even though i really want us to do it, i have to think about the consequences.

"This is the messed up timeline, why do you think he hasn't stopped you from building it? Why he isn't here to stop you from using it"

"She wasn't supposed to die on that mission?" Tony asks and i accidently glance towards Bucky, instantly regretting it.

"That was not her destiny, her destiny was to become a great hero who had it all" as he says it, something makes sense. I always knew it wasn't supposed to happen, and not just because that's what you think when someone dies, but because it actually was wrong.

"And how do we know you're not a part of Aryas plan?"

"Because i'm the holder of our memories, you can't simply erase a person. I feel everything Y/n has ever felt, knows everything she knows, remembers everything she's done" with the last he meets my gaze, it's the same look you had given me the morning before the mission. When you said i could never be a rebound, and i believed you.

"Then i think it's time that we set time on the right track" i say, releasing the hard grip on the gun. As i believe him, so does Tony, nice to know he has trust in me at least. The words i say next makes Tony give of a smile. "As long as it doesn't mess up the house, i promised Pepper that i would keep it in one piece"

"This way" Tony says before leading us down towards the machine. Jake still has her in his arms, unconscious. As we're walking down the stairs i can't help but think about Bucky.

"If we do this? What will change except for Y/n living" i must ask, i don't think you would ever forgive me if i had let him die. No matter how much you said you didn't love him, you did, in a different way.

"Everything that has happened in the last fourteen months will be gone, something else will have happened. You don't live with Barton, Wanda and Maria never go to Europe, the BAU don't come here, Tony never shuts down from Pepper" relief files me as he says that, so does it seem to do for Tony.

We're now standing in front of that machine as Tony takes away the cover, and it's bigger than i thought. Arya moves in Jake's arms as we step into the gazebo.

"Nat? Are you home?" Wanda calls from upstairs and Arya is starting to wake up. I don't know why she's coming with but I guess to not mess up this timeline even more than it already is. We hear the door down here open and in panic Tony pulls the lever with the hope of it working. A blinding light surrounds us and I hold onto one of the beams.