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From ashes, the heroes rise.
Natasha watches as Alexei joins her, and even tired and brushed, he manages to stand tall and proud in his Red Guardian suit. He reaches out to her.
"I'm with you, my darling girl. Always."
She takes his hand. She smiles at him. Her father is with her. She won't die alone.
"You didn't think we'd let you do this on your own, did you, sestra?"
Her sister is here too, and her mama, and her best friends.
They all come out of the fog of battle. Yelena, Melina, Clint and Kate. And there's Fury too, and Thor, Steve, Tony – even Bruce, de-Hulked but ready for anything. She watches as Scott and Hope give her a thumbs up. And then there's Wanda, Dr. Strange, Peter, Valkyrie, Carol, Okoye, Shuri… they're all here. They answered her call.
She smiles at all of them. Perhaps they do stand a chance, even if the odds are against them. There's only one person she's missing now. She looks around expecting to see Maria coming out of the rubble in her new state-of-the-art Stark armor, but Hill's nowhere to be found and Natasha's heart skips a beat even before Fury says her name in that tone.
"Natasha…"
"What's happening? Where is she?"
"Someone had to do it. She pulled the shorter straw."
Natasha shakes her head. It can't be.
"No, no, no… the nukes? It won't work."
"But we had to try," Fury reasons.
"How could you let her do that? How could you allow it?"
"You know Maria, Natasha… there was no stopping her."
The deafening sound of a jet above their heads halts Natasha's every move. Then, there's static in her comms.
"Hey, Nat. Nat, I hope you can hear me, I – I don't have a lot of time."
Maria's voice breaks and the connection is weak, but Natasha can hear her. Before she can even react, Maria keeps going, and the knot in the redhead's stomach only gets bigger and tighter.
"Please, don't hate me for this. You did it once, remember? You sacrificed yourself for everyone else? Well, it seems like it's my time now, baby," Natasha can hear Maria laughing weakly. She's barely containing the tears, now. Yelena approaches her, grabs her by the waist, and that's the only thing that prevents her from collapsing to the ground. She keeps listening, she keeps holding on to Maria's voice, touching her ear, her other hand to her chest, trying to calm her racing heart. "And I'm only doing this because you've got your people with you now, Nat. Your family will take good care of you, I just know because your sister and your parents love you as fiercely as I do. You're in good hands. I'm sorry we didn't have more time. You made me the happiest, Natasha. I'll always love you."
The connection seems to die then, but instead of giving up, instead of surrendering to the fact she's about to lose the love of her life, Natasha gets up and wastes no time as she searches for the Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel and the Sorcerer Supreme.
"Wanda, Carol, with me! Stephen! Can you get us on that jet?"
Dr. Strange scoffs for a second, but then he understands she's completely serious.
"You want me to open a moving portal?"
"Can you do it or not?"
"Yes, but –"
"Then, DO IT!"
"Natasha…"
It's Yelena, tugging at her hand, anxiety in her voice.
"No, you stay, Lena. I promise I'll come back."
"But –"
"I have to do this, Lenochka. I can't let her sacrifice herself."
"You did that."
Natasha takes her sister's face in her hands and looks her in the eye to make her understand.
"Yes, and it was the wrong thing to do. Let me do this. Let me save Maria."
Stephen opens a portal and suddenly groans in discomfort.
"Maintaining this thing open on a moving supersonic plane is not that easy, ladies. Please, hurry!"
Carol and Wanda are right behind Natasha as she approaches the portal.
She doesn't look at them as she holsters her batons on her back and takes a deep breath before going through it.
"You don't have to come with me, I'll understand."
Carol just chuckles behind her with Wanda following closely.
"Shut up, Nat, and let's save the Commander."
As the three women cross to the other side, followed closely by Strange, the sorcerer closes the portal behind him, and the streets are suddenly silent.
It's like Natasha has taken the air with her, and Yelena stands there, barely containing her tears. Melina and Alexei engulf her in a fierce hug.
"She'll be back," Melina comforts the family as she sniffs, "she's the best. She'll be back."
"She didn't make it before," Yelena protests.
"But we found a way to bring her back. We'll do it again, if that's what it takes," Alexei nods his head, firmly believing every word he’s saying.
"The fight isn't over," Nick Fury's voice rises above the sobs and the electrifying tension of the battleground, "we have to get ready. If Maria and Natasha's plan fails against Galactus, we'll be the last line of –"
Before Fury can even start to get to the point of his speech, a new portal opens in front of them. Out of it come Carol Danvers, Wanda Maximoff and Stephen Strange. Bruised, tired, and covered in dirt. And looking somehow different. And then, a few seconds later, Natasha Romanoff and Maria Hill, who's leaning on the redhead for support and limping slightly.
"What the –" Fury blinks.
"Natasha!" Yelena runs to her sister, "what happened?"
"We did it", Natasha smiles in between ragged breaths, "we won."
"What are you saying? It's been like three seconds," Tony interjects with an incredulous frown.
"It's been three seconds for you, Stark. It's been three years for us," Maria sighs as Natasha places her gently over a rock.
"THREE YEARS?!"
Natasha can't identify who screamed the loudest.
"Ok, calm down, all of you. We'll explain later, let us catch our breaths first, please?" She looks apologetically to her family, especially to Yelena, but it's ok because they're all fine. It's alright. They won.
"The only thing you need to know right now…" Carol Danvers begins, as anticipating no one would be satisfied with that little information, "is that we've been spinning through the Multiverse for the last three years in order to catch Galactus and find a way to stop him. And we did. And he won't be bothering us again."
Everybody stares dumbfounded at Captain Marvel. She's satisfied enough.
"That said, I'm starving. Who wants pizza? I need pizza. Let's go, Maximoff. My treat."
Stephen pats Natasha's shoulder.
"You owe me, Romanoff."
"I know."
"You owe me biiiig time."
"Yes, Stephen, I do."
"So much."
As Dr. Strange opens a new portal, Natasha smiles fondly at him.
"Ok, ok… send Wong our love."
"Yeah. Will do. But remember…"
"I owe you."
"That you do, my friend, that you do."
Stephen winks at her, and with that, he's gone.
Natasha turns to Maria once again, extending her hand and giving her a look of pure adoration.
"C'mon, love, time to go home."
"Music to my ears," Maria replies as she takes the redhead's hand.
"Wait a goddamn minute," it's Fury. Maria sighs.
"Yes, yes, wait a minute. What happened out there? Are you alright? Natasha, explain!" Alexei joins Nick in his stern dad's face, and Maria and Natasha can't help but roll their eyes.
"Ok, long story short –" Maria pinches the bridge of her nose before releasing a deep breath and speaking very, very fast, "time travel, multiverses, the power of love…" she gestures between her and Natasha… "restoring balance to the universe and badass women kicking ass. That's it. That's all you need to know. Now let us rest. We'll see you in the morning."
With that, Nat and Maria begin to walk away, hand in hand.
Alexei and Fury share a look. The Russian shrugs.
"I guess that will have to do…" Fury sighs.
Melina and Yelena follow Nat and Maria closely. The young blonde releases her mother's hand to skip nervously in front of Maria and Natasha.
"Ok, ok… but what do you mean by the power of love restoring balance to the universe?? I need to know. Did you guys have like a Fifth Element moment? Beauty and the Beast? Oh, oh… She-Ra??? Did you save us all with a true love's kiss????"
Nat pauses. She shares a look with Maria. Blue eyes meet green, and they nod at each other. Yelena can tell there's the most legendary story behind that nod.
Natasha takes a deep breath.
"Lena?"
"Yeah?"
"If you let us take a nap, I'll tell you everything."
"YES!"
It really was a tale for the ages, the stuff of legend, a story the Gods would envy for the rest of existence.
And though Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff did save the universe through time and space with the power of their love, that was a story they told for the rest of their lives only on Christmas morning, in front of a fireplace, surrendered by their friends and family, engulfed in tears and laughter and the joy of their unlikely but cosmically sanctioned happy ending.