So I saw Age of Ultron this weekend and it was freaking EPIC! But I was really struck by the Bruce and Natasha aspect of it, so I took the end scene and ran with it. No real spoilers in this story, just lots and lots of feels. Oh, and death. Somewhat. I'm stealing from Hercules in this.

So characters belong to Marvel, and blah de blah.

Enjoy!

Bruce was running. Lungs working at full capacity, he sprinted through the gates and slammed them shut, praying to a god, any god they would hold it back. He spied a mausoleum further inside the graveyard and made a break for it, sweat dripping from his forehead as he panted. No, dammit, no running out of energy now! he yelled at his brain, the silence still unnerving when he spent years listening to the grumbles and grunts and roars of the Other Guy. His muscles ached and screamed at him in pain.

The sound of metal being torn apart assaulted his ears. Downright terror drove him as he bolted for the building, diving through the doors and slamming them shut, barring them with a wooden beam. He backed up against the wall, wide eyes glued to the steel doors as they shook and wobbled under the Beast's fists.

Images played through his mind. Tony bleeding out on the floor, Clint feeling the walls blindly for his friends, Steve grabbing broken pieces of his shield and staring at them in fear, Thor attempting so desperately to call Mjolnir to him, Natasha disappearing in a swirling mass of golden mist… Natasha…

He trembled in abject fear as the doors bent further and further, the hinges straining as the behemoth pounded at them.

She was almost through.

He should have never made that deal.