The Five Years (Romanogers)

Chapter 19: Gamora

(3rd person POV)
"Gamora?" Natasha questioned.
"Yes."
"Where are we exactly?"
"Ah.. you don't remember. You are in the soul realm. This is where you go when you are sacrificed for the soul stone."

It all clicked for Natasha. She remembered the mission and what happened between her and Clint. A small tear came out of her eye and she quickly brushed it away with her thumb.
"So" she softly said, "how long have you been here?"
"Almost Five and a half years..." Gamora said looking down.
"Has it felt that long?"
"No.. it hasn't... much shorter, thankfully. After... Thanos... snapped his fingers everyone was sent here. Sadly, the sacrificed and snapped are not able to reach one another. I could see my family but I was invisible to them..." She looked down.
"Why?"
"I have no idea... probably just the universe being cruel." Gamora said rolling her eyes.
"Anyone else here?"
"No, not that I know of."

They both got quite.
"Is there a way out?" Natasha asked.
"No." Gamora said sadly.
"Well... what do you do here then?"
"Well there is one thing you can do."

They walked down a pathway to an object in the distance.
"This thing here lets you see what's going on in the universe. I spent some time looking after my sister Nebula and my old friend Rocket." She smiled.
"Wait... Rocket the angry raccoon thing?"
She laughed, "Yeah that one."
"Oh, so that's how you know who I am."
She nodded and gestured at the device. Natasha slowly walked over and looked inside. There was a selection of each planet in the entire universe. She found Earth and began to look around. She found the avengers and began to cry. Barely being able to see through her wet eyes she saw Tony, Clint, Steve, Bruce, and Thor outside by the lake. She looked closely and saw their upset faces. She was confused as why they were so upset.
"Can you hear what they say?" She asked Gamora.
"Yes. You can."
She listened in on their conversation.
"It was supposed to be me... Sacrificed her goddamn life for that stone, bid her life on it!" Clint yelled angrily.

Oh, she thought, I'm the reason.

"I can't look anymore..."
"It's okay. It's hard at first here. I'm not even used to it yet."
"How do you get out!!" Natasha yelled out in anger.
"You can't! Don't you think I've tried!" Gamora yelled desperately.
"Can you die? Is there a way to die?"
"No... you don't age here. You are stuck here forever." She blinked back tears.
"No.." Natasha fell down to the ground.
"Wanna blow off some steam?"
Natasha looked up at her confused. Gamora helped her up and got into a fighting stance.

"Punch me." Gamora said.
"What?"
"I said punch me." Natasha punched her still confused. Gamora scoffed.
"You've got more than that!"
Natasha punched her again. Gamora kicked her back. They twisted each other's arms around. Gamora pushed Natasha down and put her in a headlock. Natasha flipper up and tackled Gamora and pinned her arms behind her back. Gamora regained control and got up.
"Good job, but I clearly won." Natasha said putting her hand out for Gamora to shake.
Gamora flipped her down.
"What were you saying?" Gamora said smirking.
Natasha got up holding her back.
"Yeah, yeah."

———————
"Hey Gamora," Natasha asked lying down in the temple.
"Yes?" Gamora said throwing an orange up and down in the air and catching it.
"What did you do when you were "alive"."
Gamora stopped throwing the orange. She stopped moving.
"I'm sorry, that's was insensitive.." Natasha apologized.
"No, it's just." She paused, "it's been such a long time. I'll tell you." She sat up.

"Well when I was a child Thanos came to my home planet and slaughtered half of the people, including my mother. He pulled me aside because I guess he saw something in me. He gave me this," She pulls out a doubled sided knife that is red in the middle and twirled in around before putting back away,
"He said he wanted balance. After that he took me and started training me with Nebula. I always won duels against her. Every time I won, she got ripped apart and was replace by robotic parts." She took a deep breath. Natasha's eyes opened in horror. It reminded her of her old 'friend'.

Flash
"Sloppy. AGAIN."
"Wrong."
"Stupid girl!"
She hit the 9 year old girl with a wooden staff in the ancient of the head causing her to fall down.
"You are better than this Alena!"
She got back up but fell back down due to exhaustion.
The teacher pulled her away and cut off a finger.
"Again."
She went back out but failed again. The teacher slit her stomach.
"No dinner!"
END

"Anyways this guy Ronan wanted the power stone and was working for Thanos. He was going to destroy a planet or something honestly I hated that guy so I never listened too much. But this guy, Peter Quill got to it first. So of course we got into a fight and Rocket and Groot, a tree, got involved and we were all sent to prison. We met this guy named Drax who wanted to kill me but Peter saved me." She smiled, "Anyways we escaped the prison but I really thought we were going to die. I love them but man, they're idiots."
Natasha laughed as that sounded like very mission with Clint.
"I see that you smile when you mention that Peter guy..." Natasha teased.
"Oh.. well..." she paused to think, "Yeah okay I do like him but I didn't have time to focus on that when Thanos was on his quest."
Natasha nodded.

"So," Gamora turned to Natasha, "what was your life like before Thanos."
Natasha took a deep breath before speaking,
"Oh, when I was little I was taken by this group called the KGB, a Russian assassin gang. They tortured me and made me kill people and dance ballet. But then my friend Clint, you probably saw him. He was here and umm... yeah. A-anyways, he was my target but he took me in and got me into SHIELD which lead to the Avengers, the protectors of Earth.... I mean now we help other planets but anyways. My friends are great. Like yours, quite stupid at times but they are like family." Natasha ended fighting back tears.

"What about Steve." Gamora asked.
Natasha was startled.
"S-Steve? Like Steve Rogers? Captain America?" She stammered out.
"Yes."
"Oh, yeah. He was my boyfriend... I loved him."
She got quite, thinking about Steve. What their life could've been.
"I'm.. sorry." Gamora wistfully said.
"Yeah I mean, I guess it was the same with you and Peter."
Gamora nodded and looked down.
Gamora sighed, "I just want to get out of here...."