Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Twenty-Two

The three of us land on the platform at the same time as everyone else, our suits dematerializing as we glance around in bewilderment.

"Did we get them all?" Banner questions.

"You telling me this'll actually work?" Rhodes asks.

The giddiness of our success quickly dissolves as we realize someone is missing.

"Barton, where's Nat?" I ask, noticing that he came back alone.

Barton falls to his knees, barely containing his grief, and his silence is all we need to understand what happened. Our mission was a success, but it cost us our friend.

Tony, Steve, Thor, Barton, Banner, and I stand on the dock, mourning Natasha's death. In a moment of grief, I let out a frustrated scream, my powers exploding around my hand. I wrap my arms around myself, turning to look out over the lake as tears stream down my face.

"Do we know if she had family?" Tony asks.

"Yeah," Steve answers. "Us."

"What?" Thor demands, irritated.

"I just asked him a question," Tony defends.

"Yeah, you're acting like she's dead," Thor argues. "Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the Stones, right? As long as we have the Stones, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right? So, stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together."

"We can't get her back," Barton tells us, not bothering to look at anyone. "It can't be undone. It can't."

Thor laughs dryly. "I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very earthly being. Okay? We're talking about space magic. And 'can't' seems very definitive, don't you think?"

"Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here," Barton spits. "But she still isn't here, is she?"

"No, that's my point," Thor argues.

"It can't be undone," Barton repeats. "Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say." He begins to raise his voice to shout at Thor. "Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay? Go grab your hammer, and you go fly and talk to him!" Barton's anger turns to grief. "It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed her life for that goddamn Stone. She bet her life on it."

Banner shouts, grabbing the nearby bench and hurling it into the lake before turning to us with a resigned look on his face. "She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to."

"We will," Steve assures him.

I've never been as close with Barton as I was with Natasha, but I wipe my tearstained cheeks as I kneel down next to him, placing my hand on his arm in comfort. "We'll make sure her sacrifice wasn't in vain."

Barton looks up at me, eyes filled with tears, and simply nods.