Evermore

Chapter 7

After a few seconds passed, a round of lightning struck inside the building, lighting more of the candles in the hall. When it stopped, a muscular, blond, long-haired man wearing armor and a cape with a hammer approached.

"Where is the fight," he asked eagerly.

Bruce put his hand up as if to say, calm down.

"Easy, Thor. I think things are starting to ease up, but Clint's injured. Can you take him to the med bay? I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Of course."

Natasha watched as the lighting man round the corner into the hallway where Yelena and the others were. Several seconds later, he was carrying another blond man in his arms who had the knife in his leg.

When they were out of sight, she turned her attention back to her target, who looked at her as if he expected she was going to say something.

"What did you do to my sister," she asked in a demanding tone.

His eyes were apologetic, and his voice calm as he said, "I- I don't remember anything from last night to three hours ago. But my friends assured me that she wasn't hurt."

"If you were drunk or on drugs, I swear."

"No! It's not like that, I promise. It's... hard to explain. Look, I didn't know your sister was here until I heard you and the dog running up the stairs. My friends must have put her there for her safety."

"Safety from what?!"

He hesitated before replying, "Me. I turn into a monster every full moon and when I get angry enough. Last night was a full moon. I turned back into my human form three hours ago."

Natasha started putting everything together. Why Yelena was afraid after talking about a monster, the banter between the two men, the lightning guy, but more importantly, the green eyes; if it weren't for the man's eyes, Natasha would have thought the whole thing was insane. There was also something about the tone of his voice that told her he wasn't lying.

"Look, you and your sister are free to leave," he continued. "I'm sorry. I would have let her go if I knew she was in there, but when I turn back, I'm very disoriented to the point where I don't know where I am."

Natasha heard a crash in the distance, but before she could look over the man's shoulder, she heard him say, "get down!" He gently took her arms, making her swat, then covered her body with his as she felt a gust of wind and heat pass them.

"What was that," she asked when he helped her back up.

"Tony's suit. It likes to make an entrance," he turned his attention to the hallway, and they went back up the steps. "Tony!"

The man came to the entrance with a dark red suit on. The face protector was red and gold.

"Yeah," he asked, slightly out of breath.

"What are you guys doing in there?"

"Trying to keep the blond ninja from killing us. She's tough!"

"Can you try to call a truce and help them get back?"

"Gladly. Alright blondie, you're going back home," he yelled while walking into the dark side of the hallway.

Natasha turned back to the man she nearly punched and was still a bit mad at. If there was one thing she could do, it was holding a grudge. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said. "Tony will help you get out. Once you enter our border, you can't find your way back out. Tony is the only one who can see where it is because of his suit."

Yelena and Fanny rounded the corner, and the girl looked at the man next to her.

He put his hands up in surrender. "I promise I won't hurt you or your sister. The other guy is gone. I'm so sorry about all of this."

"I have to admit, it would have been a cool way to die," Yelena said, trying to make light of the situation. She walked toward Natasha and asked, "Can we go home now?"

"Yeah, we can go home. Yelena, how did you even end up in the woods?"

"We got back really late. John Walker threw a tennis ball in that area, and Fanny ran after it. My phone was dead, and we got turned around then I ended up here. I managed to get a few minutes of sleep after I saw him turn into a human."

The man in the suit walked toward the group handing Natasha her backpack. He pushed a button to make his mask disappear.

"Alight, I can only carry one person at a time. One of you will have to leave after the other, then the dog. So, rock, paper, scissors for it, or whatever you need to do."

"It looks like there's a blizzard coming in," The man with the shield said while looking out of a dark curtain in the stairway.

"How do you know it's a blizzard," the other man asked as if he were annoyed.

"Because the snow is starting to get heavier."

"Aw, great. I have just enough time to take one before it gets too heavy to see, but the other will have to stay here," Tony said after looking out the curtain. Then he turned to the girls, "Don't worry, the suit has a heater. You won't freeze."

"The storms here form fast and can last days or weeks," the blonde man explained while placing his shield against the wall. "It will be a while before one of you can get home, but you'll need to decide and leave now."

Natasha turned to face Yelena, who looked as shocked as the redhead felt. "Yelena, listen. Go. I will be home soon, all right. If anything happens, go to Laura, Hill, or Fury."

Yelena nodded, and Natasha wrapped her sister in a hug.

When the hug broke, Yelena unzipped her backpack and gave Natasha the box with their parent's belongings.

"I couldn't do it," the younger girl said.

"We'll figure things out when I get back, okay?"

Yelena nodded, then knelt to pet Fanny before handing Natasha the leash.

Natasha watched as she walked toward the shell head, and the two went downstairs. Yelena paused, turned her head to look at Natasha, and whistled.

Natasha whistled back in response.