|Towards the Endgame|

•Chapter 52• In A World of Pure Imagination

"Again!" A stern female voice shouted at her, snapping her out of her thoughts. But what was she thinking about? Y/n looked around the room she was standing in. A cold and dimmed light shone through the large windows. About ten women were standing in the middle of the room, forming two lines and dancing in sync, in front of a group of little girls. Ballerinas. Y/n glanced down to see herself dressed in an identical outfit, matching the other women. The tile flooring felt extremely cold underneath her feet. Those ballerina shoes were not as thin as she thought they were. "Get in line, Natalia!" The woman screamed at her again. Y/n was standing in line with the others and danced along. There was a man in a suit, a husky man, he was observing them as they danced. Y/n had no control over her body. She moved in sync with the others to please the man. And did that woman call her Natalia? Nat? When she looked up at the woman, she was in another room. Two girls stood by the man from before as he stood in his seat. He walks over to Y/n and grasps her jaw. Another man sat in the corner and played the piano. He must have been there before when the girls were dancing around. The man muttered something to her in a language she didn't understand. Was that Russian? "Girls become widows. As they should." He said to her in English. She tried to pull her head from his grip but her body refused. She stood perfectly still, not moving an inch, and looked at him.

The beeping on the monitor increased and Bruce's palms started to sweat a little. "What's happening?" Peter questioned. The boy holds his girlfriend's hand tightly. "Why is her heart beating like that?" Natasha questioned. Bruce adjusted his glasses while looking at the monitor. "She's having a nightmare." Natasha furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her best friend on the hospital bed. "I-I don't get why she's having a nightmare. She's not supposed to be dreaming." Peter squeezed his girlfriend's hand before kissing her knuckles. "It could be a sign that she's slowly waking up. Although... I'm not sure she's supposed to." He mumbled the last words. Nat placed one of her hands on Peter's shoulder. "She'll be fine, kid." She assures him. But the spider boy's gaze remained focused on Y/n. "So, she's just dreaming. Can't we wake her up?" Peter suggested. "Her body will wake up when it's time. If we force her to wake up, she could be in terrible pain, and we could possibly endanger her nervous system," Bruce explained to them. Peter kissed his girlfriend's knuckles again. "I just don't want her to be scared." Nat patted his shoulder gently and rubbed his back. "No one wants that, kid. Maybe it's just a dream." Natasha pointed out to Bruce. Doctor Banner looked up at her, it was clear that he still had feelings for her after all this time. That glimpse in his eyes betrayed him. "Normal dreams don't cause your heart rate to go up like that. Nightmares usually do. All we can do is wait."

Within the blink of an eye, Y/n was somewhere else. "They call him the Winter Soldier." She could hear Nat's voice echo through the halls, or maybe her mind. "Nat? Natasha?" Y/n calls out to her best friend. "Nat, is that you?" The Winter Soldier? Bucky? Tony always despised him and for a good reason. But Y/n never held a grudge against Bucky, Bucky didn't kill her grandparents, that was the Winter Soldier. She couldn't blame him for the torture he went through, even though Tony did. Y/n remembered inviting Bucky to the funeral 'You don't want me there' he said, but he showed up anyway. The words Winter Soldier started echoing through the halls she stood in, or was it a room now? The lights above her head started flickering and in the distance, very briefly, she could see him. He was like a phantom, gone within a blink of an eye. "Bucky?" She could sense her heart rate going up again and the heated blood running through her veins. Out of nowhere, the Winter Soldier's cold metal hand grabbed her by her throat and lifted her up in the air. She struggled and kicked with her legs as her hands tried to release his hand from around her. When the Winter Soldier released her she crashed on the floor and gasped for air. "Again!" The stern female voice shouted at them again. The Winter Soldier charged at her again as the young Stark rolled back to her feet and tried to run from him. "Again!" The woman gritted again. Y/n glanced around but saw only darkness. No lights, no woman, and no Winter Soldier. "What the hell is happening? How is this possible?" Y/n panted as she looked around. "Again!"