Stolen time

"Who are you."

ever since Thanos swiped half the population off the planet, things had unrolled into chaos, the homeless creating riots in the streets, the richer you were the more at target you were, but realistically, no one was safe.
It had been 4 years now, Steve had gone off and helped people cope with their losses, creating support groups where they'd all talk, Bruce grew to be quite an idol for young people, which surprised me as he's big and green, people practically ran from him before.
Thor left for Asgard, though I hear he's been finding it hard, finally Tony, he went out to a small village, keeping Morgan and pepper safe, never wanting to tangle with the multiverse again, and I mean never, he made that pretty clear. However I stayed, I can't remember the last time I left the compound, I didn't want to see the world deteriorate around me.
Plus I didn't want to give up hope, maybe one day they'd all come back..
She'd come back.. Natasha would come back to me.. she was beautiful, long, red, curly hair, often dressed in a skin tight black body suit.

It was nearing lunch time, I had just finished a conference call with the physicists and astrologers, but once again, nothing new. I had decided to have a PBJ sandwich, I sat on the swivel chair and held the sandwich in my hand, my hands began to quiver and my breathing shaky, I placed the sandwich back down and covered my mouth with my hand, muffling the sobs flying out. Tears pooling in my eyes, I began to loose hope, maybe they can never come back, maybe Iv been wasting my time..
"You look terrible.." a voice called out, I swiftly wiped my eyes and looked up, Steve was leaning against the wall, staring at me with sympathetic eyes.
"Thanks.." I sadly smiled back.
He began to slowly walk towards me, sitting himself in the spare chair opposite me.
"You need to move on, make a new life for yourself." He spoke as if it was easy.
"Then who would do this.." I say, pointing to the laptop infront of me that read the earths sequences, the multiple piles of notebooks, each one trying to understand the multiple possibilities of where they could have gone, multiverse? If so where?.
"Maybe no one needs to do it, it's been 4 years Irina.." he said, as though I was a lost puppy, forgotten and alone.
I took a deep sigh, trying to find the words to defend my almost impossible hope.
As I began to speak the compounds alarm went on, I swiftly open my laptop and check the cameras.
"Is that.. ant-man..." I muttered as though god himself was infront of me.
"It can't be, he vanished with the rest of them..." Steve said, not even bothering to look at the screen, I know Iv had some careless hope but this, this was real.
"Steve look.." was all I could mutter, breathless was an understatement.
Steve eventually looked at the cameras, his face dropping with realisation.
"Let him in.." was all he could say, hope lingered in both of our eyes, even if it was a small spark it was hope.

We met him in the lobby, at first he was pacing back and forth, muttering random words, but then he told us.
"5 hours.." he started.
Me and Steve shared a confused look, "I was in there for 5 hours, you see the multiverses timeline ranges, it could be 5 minutes or a hundred years, if we could just go back to before thanos got ahold of the stones then we could potentially bring everyone back." He waffled, to anybody normal, it would be impossible, to a group of 3 people who have all lost people they've loved, it was possible.
After hours of strategic planning we went to get Tony, he refused at first, denied all hope that it could be true, but the next day he showed up with something.
I was stood outside, catching a breath before we started trying to work out the formula, as I went to head back in a loud noise stopped me, it was a car, speeding and driving stupidly round the road. I watched intently as they pulled up, the tinted windows hiding them.
"Missed your playboy?" He asked in a cocky tone, and instantly I knew who it was.
"Thought you wanted no part of what we're doing?" I asked with a small sly smirk.
"Well that was until I found the formula for time travel." Tony said as though it was easy, you had better chances winning the lottery 9 times over.
The next thing to do is get the rest of the avengers, first of all was Thor, we had travelled to Asgard in search for Thor but what we received was a lot more different to what I expected.
"Thor.." I said slightly shocked.
"Irina.. long time no see." He said enthusiastically as he sat back down on the sofa with a beer in his hands.
"Listen.. we need your help, we've got a way to potentially bring everyone back.." I muttered as I got straight to the point.
"No." He said a little more bluntly.
After minutes of back and forth bickering I finally convinced him, "we've got beer back at the compound." I sighed.
"Why didn't you start with that.." he smiled before stretching his arm out, minutes passed by in an awkward silence, "it's been awhile.." he excused, a few seconds later his hammer shot through the wall into his hand.
We had recruited the rest of the group back, it felt weird, some I hadn't seen for years, but there we were, all stars back together again.
We had spent days making the machine, the whole thing costing millions to make but we did it..
we did a few test runs with small objects, gradually getting bigger each one successful, everyone began to feel hope again, there was a big chance this wouldn't work but I wouldn't let it fail again.
"We did it.." Tony said, slight shock in his voice, mainly just a cocky tone.
"We actually did it.. we have a chance to bring everyone back.." I muttered, everyone here had lost someone, and a lot of us felt survivors guilt because of that, things weren't easy, I guess things will never be the same again, with the world going crazy it could only get worse, but peoples loved ones could come back. At least some normality would return to us.
Then there I stood, I was in a skin tight white body suit, a helmet big enough to make me fall, "ready kid?" Tony asked as he observed the machine once more, we had to do a test run, and I volunteered, if there was a slight chance to bring nat back, I'd risk my life.
"Ready as I'll ever be.." I nervously smiled. Bruce sent me a reassuring smile before flicking the switch, blue lights lit up the room, almost blinding me if not for the helmet, and then I went, it felt strange as if my body got warped into a portal, shrinking every limb and bone in my body. I closed my eyes, I was nervous, this could end up not working and then what would we do, what would I do?
I hastily opened my eyes once I heard muffled noises, I thought it failed for a moment until I saw her.. standing right infront of me, her long red hair, beautifully bouncing behind her back, her skin tight black body suit complimenting her body in every way. along with the rest of them.
"Nat..?" I breathlessly said, my voice croaky from the tight knot forming in my throat, I rushed towards her, I couldn't hold back, as I went to hug her, I found myself with a gun against my head.
"Who are you?" She said coldly. All hope had now gone from my eyes..