WORLD'S WEIGHT ▹ tfatws

ACT ONE - prologue

"They say home is where your heart is but what if my heart is six feet underground with you"

EVERYONE CAME BACK. EXCEPT THEM.

They didn't have a body to bury. That's what Clint told her. It was left alone on a cold, dark planet like another tool used in a mission. With no one to retrieve nor give it at least a proper burial. Similar to how Red Room agents were sent out to suicide missions with no assurance that they'll be recovered even as a dead body. If one of them dies their body will be left out in a foreign soil to rot and be forgotten.

In the end it seems like she died in the way she hated the most. To realise it is so much worse for Czarina. At least Levi spent his last moments surrounded by the family he had for the last few years, he was at home. In the arms of their mother.

Nonetheless, comparing their deaths to feel better about the other is utterly awful and useless. Or perhaps it's just her trying to cope up with the fact she was supposed to see them in the crowd of heroes when she stepped out of that portal but instead here she stands in a mossy yard of a cemetery. With two dark tombstones of Natasha and Levi Romanoff.

The girl felt her throat closing in as she stared at the lieu of white roses being placed down at the twin graves in front of her. It's been days since she went to the funeral of another person who paid the price of restoring the universe with their life.

Which makes her wonder if her mother had one too.

"It's not fair, Dad." She whimpered.

Once again, pain surfaced on the glassy blue eyes of Bucky. When they were told where the remains of half of their family was buried, Czarina could never forget the look on his face. It was the face of a father trying his best not to break and stand strong so his child would have something to lean on at that devastating moment. But this time that facade is beginning to break, the cracks on it are getting much harder to conceal. To see the tomb of the woman he loved and his son was the breaking point. He both promised them they'll have a second chance after the war is over, together. But now all he has are empty graves for consolation.

"Come here." He instinctively wrapped his arm around her daughter's shoulders that hasn't stop trembling yet.

"This can't be true." Czarina sobbed in pain. The weight that has been her chest for the past few days felt like a hollow void now, there was nothing left of the girl to do to make it feel better.

When Natasha and Levi came to Wakanda after the long rest she had in the cryo and the deprogramming of HYDRA;s control on her mind, it was the happiest day of Czarina's entire life. Despite being in the middle of an unearthly war she was hopeful that this time it will be different for them. There was no room for her to be doubtful or scared knowing she's surrounded by the most important people in her life. The ones who will protect the girl to the ends of the world and so will she for them. It's been five years for others but to Czarina that only felt like a week ago.

She had all of it and in a blink of an eye there was nothing again. Just like how it has always been.

"We'll never get that second chance Mama wants us all to have." Her cries only grew louder and more hysterical as she buried her face on her father's chest.

"No...," Bucky answered softly. "We can still have that. I'm here and we will never be separated again. I promise."

No matter how horrible and bitter her life gets, may it be in a different time and world, Czarina always finds herself with her father. It's the one, constant thing in the girl's life besides fighting. And being with him seems to be the only comfort the world can give her at this moment.

"You hear me Rina? I'll never leave again."

Slowly, her sobbing subsided for a moment. Czarina wiped off the tears that streamed down her check. "I know. I won't leave you too, Dad."

"Listen to me." Bucky gently cradled the sides of her daughter's face. Right now, she's not a HYDRA assassin or some super powered soldier like she was in their usual days. She's just a kid who lost her brother and mother, who never got a chance to say goodbye to them. No matter how strong and a fighter she is she'll need more than just a hug or pat in the shoulder. She needs to hear the words, and it's only right for Bucky to be the one to say it.

"It hurts, and you have to let yourself feel it. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm with you in this one, okay?" He reassured.

Czarina only nodded in response as she turned back at the tombstones in front of them. The idea of their names being engraved on its dark stone surfaces felt so unreal to her. "You think they'll want us to have that second chance, even if it's without them?"

For a moment the sudden question caught the man off guard. But he was quick to give an answer, and he is sure that it's the right one too. "Yes, yes. Of course," he replied with such certainty. "That's why your mom did whatever it takes to bring us back."

Whatever it takes. Even if it's paying the price with her life.

But then her father is right. All those years they didn't give up on trying to find a way to bring them back and when they finally got the chance, her mother didn't hesitate in giving her life for that cause. Even now that she's gone, the restoration of half of the universe is proof that she lived. Natasha Romanoff lived. And as for her brother, he may not be able to join the mission of bringing everyone back. He stayed even after they're gone, he helped the world despite all those loses after the Snap until his last moments.

If they stood strong in those five years, why can't she too?

"We'll live for them too just like they did for us all those years." Czarina breathed shakily and gazed back at her father. Tears were quick to swell up on the man's eyes upon hearing the words. Her daughter is indeed her mother's child through and through.

"Yes. Yes we will." Bucky suppressed a pained smile and gave a slight nod at the girl.

For the first time in a long time she made a choice that solely came from her own mind and decision. Something that she will hold on to for the rest of life. And one thing is for sure, she won't have any regrets after this.

From that day and forward, Czarina Barnes will be living one life for the three of them.