All the Colors of Earth (Natasha Romanoff)

5.0

                                          Marzda

The Queens planet is as dead as all the others her people have taken over, it's name long forgotten. The entire planet is brown, and even from space I could see the giant dust storms on the surface. Hitting a button on the control panel, a reading of the planet comes up and after a few seconds of reading I let out a shocked breath, "the storms are Daxomite made."

"What's that mean for us?" Natasha asks, appearing by my side.

"Well for one it means we can't land the ships until the storm generator is destroyed." Hitting some more buttons an area appears on the screen, "there," I point. "That's the target."

She leans down closer to me and her scent washes over me, "can we bomb it?"

I glance at her, "no, the storm is too strong."

Her eyes meet mine, "then how do we get down there?"

"By doing something stupid."

The 'something stupid' was to fly as close to the storm as possible and then do a somewhat controlled jump. Something I'd done before and could do alone, but of course Natasha had something to say about that. "I'm coming with you. You'll need backup and I've BASE jumped many times before and-"

"Ok," I say cutting her off. There was no point in arguing, and at least with me she would be safe. "But you're not jumping alone. You're going to be strapped to me and that's final."

"Let's not talk about straps in public," Stark jokes.

I'm too focused to even bite back. "Natasha and I will jump first, then Banner and Cap. The rest of you will stay here until the storm is gone and then land. On the off chance we don't get the storm turned off, if it's obvious that we failed, destroy the planet."

"I thought you said that we couldn't just bomb it?" Yelena chimes in.

"It's the last resort." I can tell they are confused but they don't ask anymore questions. "Gear up."

Ten minutes later I'm falling out of the ship with Natasha strapped to my back, her arms circling me tightly. Wind, dirt and rubble flies past us, hitting my helmet and bouncing off. A flash of green falls past us and I watch as Hulk, with a cradled Cap in his arms, falls fast towards the ground. "Show off," Natasha mutters. "He could have carried us all."

I smile, "but then we wouldn't get this quality time together."

"We've had worse dates," she agrees.

"Like what?"

"The beach day during a hurricane," she reminds me.

"For the last time, I don't watch the news!"

Suddenly Natasha angles us to the left as a boulder flies right into where we just were, "you apparently don't watch your surroundings either."

"Stop distracting me then," I tell her. And she was distracting me. The closeness of her, her arms around me, her voice in my ear, her emotions through the Bond.

She doesn't respond and we fall faster to the ground. Far below us through the brown air I can just make out Hulk and Cap, already landed. Angling towards them I wait until the last minute before activating my gauntlets and slowing us down, setting us gently on the ground. I unclip Natasha, immediately missing her warmth.

She must feel the same because she comes to stand beside me and takes my hand, intertwining our fingers, the warm metal of her ring pressing into my skin. "Where to boss?"

I point over towards a ridge, "the storm generator is about two miles over that ridge. We need to keep a low profile, the last thing we want is for them to know we are here before we are ready." I look at Hulk, "can we have the doc back please?"

"Puny Banner," he grumbles but he shrinks back to the doc.

"Thanks," Banner says, crossing his arms over his shirtless chest.

"Keep your guard up, they know this planet better then we ever will."

We head towards the ridge, the going slow thanks to the wind and debris, and it takes several hours to even go the short distance.

When we finally make it to the top of the ridge, the wind stops. A small valley stretches out below us and the outline of a large building with a satellite on top peers up at us. "How is there no wind?" Cap asks.

Before I can answer, Banner pipes up, "it's a protected valley. The mountains around create a barrier and-"

"Thanks doc," Natasha interrupts. "So what's the plan?"

My eyes never leave the building as I mumble, "destroy the building, land an army, save the universe and my family and try not to die."

"That's dark," Cap mumbles.

Natasha's hands go to my face and gently turn my head to look at her, "are you ok?"

Giving her a look I shake her off, "I'm fine." Turning to Banner I ask, "can Hulk take it out?" He nods and I continue, "ok so Hulk takes out the building and we pick off the stragglers." Hurt comes through the Bond and I glance at Natasha. Her face is blank, her eyes cold. I hadn't meant to hurt her, I just needed to focus. I swallow the urge to apologize and to pull her close. Instead, I look at the boys, "let's do it then."

A few minutes later, Hulk smashes down onto the building, a plume of rubble and dust mushrooming up around him. The three of us wait, weapons ready, for whoever or whatever comes out, but the only one that does is Hulk. When he's done smashing he comes back to us, changing into Banner again. "Was it supposed to be empty?" He asks.

"No, that's definitely weird." A sinking feeling starts to form in my gut. Tapping my earpiece I tell Rocket, "the storm generator is down, land the army."

            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Without the storms the planet is eerily quiet.

The army lands and we set up camp about ten miles from the first compound. Once the command center was set up I pull up a hologram of the compound. While the others talk strategy I spin it around, looking for the best way in.

Valkyrie bumps my shoulder, jostling me out of my planning. "I know that look. What are you up to?"

Resuming my search I tell her, "I have no idea what you mean."

"Sure you don't. That's why you're over here, off in your own world, not joining in on the strategizing." When I don't answer she sighs, "come on Quake, I know you."

"Do you?"

"Yes. And I know," she says as she leans in closer to me and whispers, "that you would never, never, let her be put in danger." My eyes flash to hers as she continues, "and that means that you never had any intention of letting her go with us. Which begs the question of why you caved so easily when she demanded to come. Unless, you had some idiotic plan to go off on your own on some suicide mission in order to protect her. Am I close?"

Swallowing hard I give her a single nod. "You can't tell her. You can't tell any of them."

"Why shouldn't I? You're planning to kill yourself!" She hisses.

"It wouldn't be the first time," I tell her. "We've all done this exact same thing to save the people we love." She's silent so I continue, "I can end this. I can protect everyone, nobody needs to die."

"Except you. And if you do this, if you go after the Queen alone, you will die."

"I know. I've made my peace with it."

Natasha laughing draws my attention and Valkyrie follows my gaze, "have you? Have you really?"

I watch Natasha smile at something and I soak it in. "I have to protect her, both of them. And this is the only way." I turn back to Valkyrie, "you'd do the exact same thing to protect Keema and you know it. So please, don't tell her."

I watch the internal struggle going on in her eyes until she finally breaths deeply, "fine, I won't tell her. But you need to."

"I'll figure it out," I tell her. And while it wasn't an outright lie, it still tastes like one.