Hello, everybody! So new story. Basically I've watch the Age of Ultron probably a dozen times already and that heartbreaking image of Steve's broken shield has been stuck in my head, and this idea kinda popped up. It's a little Romanogers-y, because I'm still not over those two. Really the main reason for the Romanogers-y-ness of it all is because, together romantically or not, I still feel like Natasha would have the most emotional reaction to Steve's shield being broken. They went through too much together during Winter Soldier for her not to be affected by it I think.

Anyway, boring author's note over.

I do not own Avengers.

Enjoy!

-:-

Natasha didn't know how long she'd been unconscious. She once again became aware of the world through a haze of smoke and fire, a ringing filling her ears. Her hands somehow managed to find purchase on the debris covered, half-destroyed road she lay on. She started to push herself up, her body nothing but dead-weight. Her muscles screamed in protest and she gasped as her wounds flared up, firing arcs of pain up and down every nerve.

Once she was standing, her knees shaking, Natasha looked around her, hoping to see one of her teammates. It was hard to believe the sun was out when so much smoke clogged the sky, spreading a gray curtain over everything. Fires raged everywhere, a new one having been started when the building she, Steve, and Thor had been by exploded. The building had been reduced to half its original state, chunks of wall now littering the street.

She tried to recall the events leading up to the explosion, the images fuzzy in her head, like a half-developed polaroid. They had been fighting off some of Ultron's minions when the bastard himself showed up to join the fight. She didn't see Ultron no, and she didn't know what had happened to him, but she doubted a little fireball got rid of him. He probably went off in search of Tony and the others once he thought they had been defeated. Dread filled her lungs, making it hard to breathe. She reached up to activate her com, only to find it gone. Most likely knocked out when the explosion hit and her body had gone flying like it was nothing more than a ragdoll.

"Steve!" she called out, not caring who heard her. "Thor!"

Only the distant scream of innocents met her cries. She didn't know where Steve and Thor were, nor any of the other Avengers. She walked towards the building, her eyes scanning all around her. She hoped to catch a glimpse of Thor's cape or Steve's shield. She only hoped that her eyes didn't land on their lifeless bodies instead.

"Thor! Steve!" she hollered as she neared the building.

A muffled groan sounded behind her and she turned. Natasha was about to step towards the noise when her leg was grabbed from behind, knocking her hard to the ground. She cried out, more in defiance and surprise than from pain. She twisted around in her attacker's grasp as they dragged her backwards, catching a glimpse of a silver head. So one of Ultron's puppets had survived. It was damaged, the metal of its body twisted and half-melted, but it was alive. Natasha scrambled for something to grab in the dust that covered the ground but could find nothing, nothing she could use as a weapon.

As the robot pulled her to him, she flipped over onto her back, kicking out with her free leg. She connected with its head, her boot clanging against the metal skull. She swore the thing growled. Its hand tightened around her leg. Its fingertips had been damaged and were now pointed, sharp enough to tear the fabric. It squeezed, something akin to glee on its face as the skin broke and blood welled up around the wound, coating the silver fingers in red. She cried out in pain, struggling in the thing's grasp.

"Resisting is futile," the robot hissed, its voice much more mechanical sounding than Ultron's voice, like it was speaking with gears and wires. "Ultron said that none were to survive."

Natasha gritted her teeth. "Go to hell."

She pushed herself upright, using her momentum to swing her free leg around the thing's neck, breaking free as she swung around. These robots were intelligent though, and just as soon as she broke away, it was reaching up to grab her shoulder, throwing her off. She rolled as she landed, coming up to face it. The robot towered over her, its red eyes gleaming. She backed up a few steps, using her peripheral as much as possible to try and find anything she could use against this thing. It swung out at her and she dodged, ducking under its reach, getting low enough to swing a leg out and knock it off its feet. She used the few seconds she had to run away from the building.

Natasha had never been one to run away from a fight. At least, that was until Ultron had decided to turn on them, raising minions that were just as hard to defeat as he was. For her to win she needed firepower. She could use her Widow's Bite, but that required her to get close as well as the element of surprise. Fear threatened to climb its way up her throat, to consume her, but she swallowed it down. She had to kill this thing before it found Thor. Before it found Steve.

As she ran she managed to find a .45. Natasha picked up the pistol, trying not to look at the dead policeman beside it. She didn't dare look behind her as she skirted around a large pile of rubble, crouching down behind a tipped over SUV. She listened. She could hear it coming, and she held her breath, waiting for exactly the right moment. Just as the thing's head appeared, she aimed and fired without a second thought, taking out one of its eyes. It reeled back, roaring. She took its moment of surprise and shot out its other eye.

Though it was now blind, it swung out, connecting with her face, knocking her to the ground. Natasha could taste blood in her mouth, the metallic scent overwhelming. She barely had time to recover before it was stumbling towards her blindly, enraged. She rolled out of the way and got to her feet behind it. Before it could fully turn around, she leaped up onto its shoulders, pinning its arms down as much as she could with her legs as she brought her bracelets down against the hardware at the nape of its neck. It hissed, scrambling at her as it shorted out, knocking her off it once again. Natasha fell on her back, watching as the machine crumpled lifelessly beside her.

She lay there beside the empty husk for a moment, trying to catch her breath. The taste of blood in her mouth seemed permanent. She sat up, inspecting her leg. She had three long score marks along her shin and calf. They weren't incredibly deep, but deep enough to soak the fabric around the wounds. She took a deep breath before pushing herself up out of the dirt. She couldn't help wincing as she walked. Moments before the adrenaline had made her forget the pain, but now it was very real, dizzying her.

Natasha came back around the pile of rubble, a hand against a large chunk of wall to support herself as she walked. Instead of touching stone, though, she felt the smoothness of something else entirely under fingertips. She looked up, noticing the red cape for the first time.

"Thor," she whispered. "Oh my god, Thor!"

She shook the god's arm, trying not to focus on the blood streaked across his face and the front of his armor. He had a large gash across his forehead, his cape ripped and blackened beneath him. He was covered in dirt and soot, stark against his pale skin.

"Thor!" she said louder.

She thanked whatever Asgardian god that was watching over him when he stirred, rolling over with a cough. Natasha helped him to his feet, though she didn't know how. She was barely managing to stand herself.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

The Asgardian looked down at her. "I'm fine," he replied, looking troubled when he saw the state she was in. "But you're not."

She waved him off. "I've had worse than this."

She wasn't actually sure about that. She'd been through a lot of shit the past few days and she couldn't recall the last time she'd been this worn out, this injured, this hopeless.

"Do you know what happened to Steve?" she asked.

"I'm not certain," the god said, a troubling look settling over his features. "Captain Rogers was…the last I saw he was fighting Ultron himself."

Natasha's heart plummeted. She choked on the air that she was so desperately trying to breathe into her lungs. It took everything in her to remain upright.

Natasha barely noticed when Thor laid a hand on her shoulder. "Lady Romanoff?"

She blinked a few times, shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, thoughts of Steve's broken, mutilated body among the rubble.

"Go," she said hollowly. "Find the others."

Thor shifted on his feet, looking absolutely and utterly drained. Natasha supposed even gods got tired. "It would not be wise to stay here on your own."

She smiled wryly. "I can take care of myself. Trust me. I need to find Steve. Go get the others and then you can come back for me."

It took Thor a good minute before he nodded in agreement. He held out a hand, and seconds later, Mjolnir landed in his palm.

"Be careful," Thor said earnestly.

Natasha nodded, watching as Thor lifted his hammer, spinning it around like a helicopter blade until it lifted him off the ground and away from that particular site of carnage. As she took steps to move around the rubble she kept seeing an image of Steve, battling Ultron, fighting a losing battle. They hadn't figured out how to stop Ultron and she couldn't help but think that Steve was a fool for going up against him. But it was also a very Steve thing to do, and she couldn't blame him. She only hoped his bravery hadn't gotten him killed, because she didn't know how she would possibly be able to stand then.

Natasha took another step forward and heard the clang of metal against her boot. When she looked down to see what it was all strength left her body and she crumpled, falling to her knees. A hand flung up to cover her mouth, in an attempt to keep down the strangled cry she felt struggling to break free. She didn't quite manage to do so and a muffled, choking gasp slipped through her fingers. Every ounce of pain and fear she'd felt the past few days welled up inside her, threatening to explode and destroy her in the blast.

She reached out with a shaking hand to touch the splintered red, white, and blue disc. Steve's shield. Natasha couldn't help but think that was so much worse than finding his body. And seeing his shield, shattered though it was supposed to be indestructible, much like him, she knew it was possible that she might still find his body. She picked up the fragment gingerly, like if she gripped too tight it might crumble into dust.

"Steve," she breathed, running her thumbs along the surface.

Natasha felt her heart clench painfully in her chest. After the Battle of New York, after all that she and Steve had been through with SHIELD and Hydra rising out of the ashes, it was so hard to believe that anything could beat him. She didn't know for sure that he had been defeated, but the chances were pretty slim it seemed. She hadn't found him during her initial search, and anything that could destroy the vibranium disc she held could surely break bones and reduce a man to nothing. The thought crippled her.

But she had to keep going. If he was alive, she was going to find him. She owed him, and she owed it to herself to not give up on him. He had never given up on her. It was time to return the favor. She forced herself to take a few deep breaths, albeit shaky ones. Natasha picked herself up, ignoring the pain in her leg and the raging headache she had pounding against her skull.

She clenched the broken shield in her hands, the jagged edges digging into her right palm. She let all those emotions, all her defiance and all her anger and hate for Ultron, all her pain and all her hopelessness, she let them bubble to the surface and she screamed. She screamed for him, crying his name until her lungs burned. She screamed his name with the taste of blood in her mouth.

-:-

So I hope you guys liked it :) This will be a two-shot, so there will be one more chapter, which I am working on now and will have up shortly, meaning within a day or two.

Please leave a review with your thoughts, or just to simply rant about that amazing, terrible trailer that only serves to remind how far away May is!

Thanks for reading!

-DaughterOfPoseidon333