Work Text:
The tablet was cold in her hands as she tapped in code after code, if she wasn’t so used to this work, her fingers would have probably been numb. She drops the tablet onto the grass at her feet, all of the cameras in the building were down. It took more maneuvering than she would have liked to keep Stark’s A.I. from interfering, but Melina’s tech had proved useful.
The building had two above-ground floors, and three basements, but was spread out quite wide. She reviewed the mental notes she made of the building’s plans, she needed to make her way to the top floor from the elevator in the garage located in the first sub-level. It was only nine at night, so she assumed there would still be workers present in the building. According to the information she had managed to retrieve of the “Avengers Compound,” there would be multiple maintenance workers and a handful of SHIELD agents in her path, but she was prepared.
Approaching the building, she casually took down a security guard, dragging him flush with the side of the building. Fucking Avengers, you’re a group of superheroes and you need a security guard? She thought Though I am breaking in, so maybe it was warranted. They need a better one, then.
She waited for the garage door to open, watching what she assumed was a SHIELD member pull out as she slipped in behind them. There were dozens of cars filling the space, with over double the amount of open parking spaces. It was big enough to be a public parking garage instead of a private one.
She heard a loud bang from across the giant, concrete room. There were two workers, one up on a ladder, prying off the plastic sheet covering to a garage light, presumably to change the bulb that was out. The other was standing on the ground, watching the other man work. The one working had dropped a flat head screwdriver onto the concrete and groaned as he realized that such a height had broken apart the plastic handle. The grounded man sighed and made his way to a toolbox that was out of sight, most likely to retrieve a new screwdriver.
As both men’s backs were turned, she rushed through the many cars, slipping her foot under the last step of the ladder and kicking upwards as hard as she could. The man’s scream was silent, his head cracking open on cement before he could call for help. Just like the screwdriver. The man at the toolbox whipped around at the sudden crash to find only his coworker motionless and bleeding out. He approaches, falling to his knees, phone in hand as he started to dial for help. His vision was blurred, he couldn't see the numbers he was dialing, or his phone, or even his hand. Only when the taste of copper reached his mouth did he realize that his eyes were not filled with tears.
She plunged the broken remains of the tool into the back of his head, part of her hand going with it through the cracked skull, and out the other end, into the eye opposite of entry. She exhaled, and swiftly pulled it out, pushing him over and leaving him to die over his companion. She confiscated his badge, making quick work of the elevator and selecting the top floor. She heard the elevator ding, but it was too soon.
“And what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here, Phil?” Bethany asked.
“Oh, just busy work, if I’m being honest.” Agent Coulson replied, giving her a sweet, but sad smile.
“Well, would you care to join me for a drink then? I’m just heading out now.” She pressed the down button on the neighboring elevator.
“I’d love to Beth, but busy work is still work. I’ll be here a bit late tonight, tomorrow?”
Bethany nodded and turned to the now open elevator. She stepped inside, pressing the button for the floor just below, smiling to herself. She was almost giddy; she really did like him. The doors shut, and she heard a sudden shift above her. She turned to investigate but was too late. A knee, and then a foot came down on her face, slamming her into the elevator wall and painting it with blood.
The woman winced slightly at the pain in her knee but continued on. She grabbed the body by the ankle, and then the waist, stuffing her into the elevator shaft she was just hiding in. If they were going to have two flows of traffic, why don’t they have two elevators? They seem to have no lack of funding. She gritted her teeth as the doors finally opened to the residential floor.
The hallway was dark, except for the faint glow of a television in the room down the hall. She could hear the quiet commotion of people, and a movie coming from the room as she quietly slipped closer, back pressing against the wall.
“Holy shit! Did that guy just get eaten off a toilet?” Bucky exclaimed, while Sam just laughed at him from his spot on their shared couch. Since things finally settled down with the Avengers, the team had taken to showing Bucky all of the classic movies he missed, especially since Wanda hadn’t gotten to see many of them either.
“Yeah, just wait, it gets better,” Peter responded crouching on the edge of his chair; he was the one who chose the movie, as can be told from his excitement. Clint and Wanda were also sharing a couch, while Bruce needed one entirely to himself, given his current size due to his Hulk fusion.
The room had a sudden shift in tension as a click of a gun sounded behind them. Sam reached for the remote, turning off the tv, as Clint rushed for his bow.
“No,” The Russian voice said, flipping on the lights so they could see the handgun in one of her hands and a small, black, rectangular box in the other. “Try something, I blow us up.”
“You wouldn’t do that with you still in the building,” Peter nervously laughed.
“You have no idea what I would, or wouldn’t do. I have nothing to lose anymore.”
None of them were holding weapons anymore, thanks to the threat, but they all still looked on the offensive, except for Bucky, who just looked as if he was turning gears in his own head.
“How many of you are in the building?” Sam asked.
“Just me.”
“There’s no way it’s just you, this place has cameras everywhere,” Bruce said.
“Doesn’t matter, I’m not here to kill you all.” She took a few steps closer to them, pointing her gun directly at Clint. “I’m here for you. Just you.” She had already been to his farm that night, but he wasn't there. She heard his wife say something to his children about being here and rerouted. The all-powerful Avengers having a movie night. The killers having a movie night. She could almost laugh.
“Yeah, no. You aren’t getting him.” Bruce firmly announced.
She turned her head to the side, letting out a harsh breath from her mouth in an attempt to control her emotions, but her tears betrayed her. “How do you not blame him too?”
“For what?” Sam asked her, confused.
“You know for what!” She yelled, he flinched, taking a step back, further away from her. “You took her from me. She was all I had left.” She was full out crying by now, but the hand holding her gun never wavered.
“Listen, my time as Ronin was the lowest of my life-”
“No.” She barked, tightening the grip on her gun. “1я буду стрелять! Don’t interrupt me.”
Clint backs up, being one of the three people in the room that spoke Russian.
“You called yourselves her family, but you didn’t even think to find her real family for her funeral. I had to find out from fucking Rick, a goddamn freelancer.” She sobbed. “Mom had to sneak into the house of who made her tombstone to add to it because you were all too selfish.”
It dawned on them all who she was talking about, and they all gaped at her, wide eyes.
“Yelena…” Bucky breathed.
“No. Don’t ‘Yelena’ me, 2солдат. I thought of you like a brother, but you can’t stop being a child for one moment and be mad at the man who caused the death of the woman you use to love.”
“Listen to me, we know a guy. He said there was a way to get her back, by pulling her from the timeline. But there were complications, and every time period we suggested pulling her from wasn’t good enough. You can help us, but I need you to put away the gun, and give me that remote.” He said, walking up to her through the confusion of all the others.
“It isn’t a remote,” She laughed, but it had no humor. She put away the gun, and opened the little box, pulling out a stick of gum, and popping it into her mouth. “Just gum.”
“Can she really help get Nat back?” Peter asked in a small voice. He didn’t know her well, but he knew how much she meant to the rest of the team, and had always idolized her as a superhero. Plus, she’s the reason that he, and many others, are even alive.
“Maybe. I think she might be the one Strange is looking for.” He pulled her into a hug, and she gave no resistance. They use to be quite close, he trained many generations of widows, after all. “I don’t know much about their relationship, but she used to tell the other widows in the red room that Natalia would come back for her after she had defected.”
They all looked at her with sad eyes after she separated from Barnes, especially Bruce and Clint, being the only people there other than Bucky who knew any details of the horrors she endured. The tension left the room, now knowing the situation, and that she can help them get their friend back, they didn’t care much about the prior events, considering none of them were shot.
Yelena dropped to the floor into a sit against the door frame, resting her arms on either leg. She wiped the tears from her face, letting out a sharp breath as she tried to calm down. She closed her eyes, trying to focus as Sam moved through the room, trying to get ahold of someone on the phone, but she didn’t know who. The moment was short-lived, though. She heard a click behind her, as the cold barrel of a gun pressed against the side of her head that was towards the door. She didn’t open her eyes or flinch. She just sat there, she knew around her the avengers were having a commotion, but she couldn’t hear it over the ringing in her ears.
“Coulson, don’t do it, it’s okay,” Clint started, cautiously approaching.
“It’s okay? There are two brutally murdered workers in the garage, a knocked-out guard outside, and they found Beth with her head smashed in inside the elevator shaft. Not to mention breaking and entering.” He responded coldly.
“She can help us get Nat back.”
Coulson sighs for a long while, rubbing his face. “You all leave me with so much paperwork.” And returns the way he came.
She can’t breathe. Everything feels like too much, every time she moves, she can feel the fabric of her clothes pull somewhere she doesn’t want it to. Her head is pounding behind the eyes that she’s too scared to open. Every breath is conscious but never feels like enough air.
“Hey, kid. Everything’s okay, we’re going to get her back.” Sam said after the commotion, and hanging up the phone. She didn’t believe him, she felt like it was just false hope, but she opened her eyes nevertheless, pressing her palms against the cold floor to give her something to hold on to, just not physically.
An orange whisp appeared in the middle of the living room, swirling into an oval shape, and opening into a portal. Out stepped a man in what Yelena thought was a funny costume, dragging a sleeping man in a dirty hoodie behind him. She was momentarily surprised at the sudden magic, but after thinking about it, it wasn't the craziest thing she’s seen. The red room mind control was much worse, especially Melina’s display on her pig. After speaking to the other avengers for a moment, the man turned to her and approached her, leaving the sleeping man where his portal had just disappeared from. She pulled out her gun once more, pointing it at the strange man.
“There’s no need for that,” he said, waving the gun out of thin air with just a wave of his hand. “My name is Dr. Stephen Strange, I’m here because Sam has informed me that you may be of assistance in getting Ms. Romanoff back, is that right?”
Ha, he really is strange. She thought from her seat on the floor. “I suppose, though I don’t really know what the qualifications are. James said I was. I hope I am.” She said, and he nodded.
Taking a moment to think, he seemed to come to a conclusion. “Let’s set it up.”
Commotion and excitement spread through the room as she’s ushered to follow them down the hall and into the elevator, down to the first floor. By now, Strange was once more dragging Scott behind him. Together, they entered a large room with windows covering two-thirds of the walls, with a large platform in the middle, surrounded by electronics.
“Bringing someone back from the past has a detrimental impact on the brain, especially an adult mind, as it’s less adaptable.” Dr. Strange stopped dragging Scott, only to kick him in the foot to wake him up. “The only way this will work is if we bring back Ms. Romanoff from when she was younger. The issue is that if we pull her from the timeline, it will branch out, and her timeline, and thus memories, will be very different from ours. So, we will need to pull the stunt Scott did with his van, and bring her back to her current age that way.”
“What stopped us before is that we need to pull her from a very prominent memory, one she’s sure to hold on to, one she’ll focus on, because if her mind wanders, she could drift and gain memories from the branching timeline, and be an entirely different person.” Scott filled her in. “No one had any prominent memories from her childhood.”
“Until me.”
“Until you,” Scott repeated. “I’m assuming, that’s what Bucky said. And I suppose you did just now.”
“Fuck it, let’s do this.” She already knew exactly when she needed to go.
They decided they would send a team to give padding for any mishaps, this included the Avengers, plus Yelena, and Maria hill. Though Yelena had told them she would not take Peter or Wanda. Said they were too young to see this, which earned sad and concerned looks from everyone in the room. Agent Coulson was the one that decided Maria must go with them, under the pretense that he did not trust Yelena, and that he did not trust the Avengers without supervision on this one. As Maria approaches, she doesn’t speak, just firmly shakes Yelena’s hand with a nod, and leads the team into the side room to suit up.
“She was my best friend,” Clint tells Yelena in the equipment room, only loud enough so she could hear as he popped in the compact hearing aids he used for combat. “I loved her. She was the aunt to my kids. I tried to stop her from jumping, I was holding on to her, but she let go. I’m so sorry.”
“I know,” She whispers, her eyes threatening to tear up once more and her eyes trained to the floor. “You know, she jumped off a giant crashing ship thousands of feet in the air with only one parachute to save me from falling? She ended up letting go and falling by herself. She was alright though, but you know that.”
He chuckled softly. “That sounds like her.”
“Yeah.” She had finished suiting up by now, slipping her old vest on that she found in a cubby belonging to Natasha, and started to walk back to where they had just left. She smiled, “So get off your ass and let’s bring that asshole home.”
Maria pulls her aside as she steps out of the room, speaking to her this time. “I like you, I really do, and I’ve heard what you can do. But I need this to go smoothly.”
“Yeah, yeah, ‘no funny business.’ You are just like Natasha.” Yelena snorts. “So… You wouldn’t happen to have any vodka down here, would you?” Maria stared blankly at her for about a minute, but Yelena never once broke eye contact. But Maria broke into a grin, and she grinned back.
The team stands, lined up in front of the platform. Dr. Strange is standing with the electronics, working some controls, while Scott is maneuvering around a van that was definitely not there when they had left. Strange calls Yelena over, and she sets the now almost empty bottle of vodka on one of the tables as she passed.
“There’s a data entry point here,” he says, pointing to a small laptop that was hooked to something much larger with an HDMI cord. “I need you to pinpoint the time and location for the jump.”
Luckily, with the data Natasha stole from Dreykov’s office, she had plenty of time to review the logs. Her hands shook uncharacteristically as she hit the keys, but she didn’t know if she was scared to see her past again or excited to get Natasha back.
They all gathered on the platform, ready to go.
“Now, for everyone but Clint, try not to vomit,” Scott warned, knowing Clint already knew.
They counted down, and Yelena felt a rush through her body like the world was spinning around her but not quite like vertigo. Her head felt too big, like it was floating above her body, until her feet hit the ground once more, and everything realigned. She wasn’t nauseous, but she did feel like death.
She froze, she put in the location, she shouldn’t be surprised but she still felt it. They were on the landing strip in Cuba, she could see Dreykov’s car even though they were across the way behind a collection of bushes. She couldn’t move. It came on very suddenly, and even though she didn’t feel like she needed to before, she promptly threw up. But it wasn’t because of the time travel, it was because of him. Somehow, the people around her could sense that this was the case because as soon as they saw the ghost of tears in her eyes as she glared at him, they were all on alert.
“Where are we?” Sam asked, looking around.
“Cuba, 1995,” Yelena answered, wiping her mouth and burying her head in her hands as she took a deep breath. She whipped her head up as she heard the sound of a plane landing, the others followed her gaze.
They watched as a man got out, carrying an injured woman, followed by two children. Bruce looked at her, as if for confirmation.
“No. Wait. It will be easier if we wait.” She choked out. The others looked at her with much concern, they didn’t know what was about to happen, but they knew it must be bad for the woman who didn't flinch at being held at gunpoint to be this scared.
“Get up, Mommy. Pain only makes you stronger, remember?” They watch the little girl say to who was presumably her mother on the cot. The team looked very confused, but Yelena offered no explanation. She couldn’t take her eyes off of what was happening, let alone think about anything else.
They then heard the older girl with blue hair say something in Russian, the two that didn’t speak Russian looking for an explanation from the others. Yelena was unresponsive, and Maria looked at her, in her line of work she’d seen many people like this, but she hoped that the questioning Avengers would snap her out of it. When it didn’t, she took over the translation. “Forgive me, Mom. I’m scared.” Maria repeated, voice wavering.
“Never let them take your heart.” The girl’s mother responded.
The guards pushed the girls away. By this point, the team had figured that the blonde one was Yelena, and the one with blue ends was Natasha. They watch as the guards load the older woman onto the truck, listening to the younger Yelena’s cries for her mom, and then her dad as she tried to chase the truck that had just taken her mom. Current Yelena choked back tears and the rest of them looked to her with sympathy.
One of the soldiers grabbed the young Yelena’s arm, holding her back.
“What the fuck,” Maria whispered.
Yelena couldn’t watch anymore, she held her head in her hands as the others watch Natasha yell for the other little girl, kicking the soldier’s arm and grabbing his gun to point it at them all.
“Get away from her! Don’t touch her!” Natasha yelled, holding the little girl behind her, waving the gun at them. “1я буду стрелять!”
“That’s what you yelled before, what does it mean?” Sam asked Yelena.
“She’s threatening to shoot them,” She managed to answer, causing Maria to laugh slightly, imagining Yelena threatening to shoot the other Avengers.
“Don’t touch her! I will kill you all!” Many of the team members smirked with pride at her words. “1я буду стрелять! 3не трогай ее!”
“Honey,” The man from the plane said. His words made the Avengers pride slip and replaced it with a wave of anxiety. “You’re gonna need to hand me that gun.”
“I don’t wanna go back there.” They all watched in sadness as the girl sobbed. “I wanna stay in Ohio. You can’t take her.” Her voice broke, hiding the other girl behind her, as current Yelena made a noise of discontent, trying to hide her pain. “You can’t. She’s only six.”
“You were even younger. It’s okay. Come here.”
“Wait, what?” Bruce gaped, “How much younger?”
“She was practically born into it,” Yelena said, picking her head up, as the team all gasped, except for Maria, who already knew. Natasha had told them during her defection to shield.
“You’re gonna be all right. Do you know why it’s gonna be all right?” He paused, “Cause my girls are the toughest girls in the world. You’re gonna take care of each other, okay? And everything, everything’s gonna be fine.” The team watched in horror as two men injected something into the girls that caused them to collapse.
“Go, now,” Yelena said through gritted teeth.
The team rolled out. Yelena ran directly to the soldier holding Natasha, sweeping out his legs from under him, and catching the younger girl. She stomped his head into the concrete, keeping him down. She observed the chaos around her, they obviously weren’t expecting them, or their tech that didn’t even exist yet. Yelena threw one of the wristbands onto the younger girl and raised her free hand and dog whistled, alerting the team that they were ready.
In an instant, they were all back on the platform. Yelena rushed to the floor, laying the girl down as Maria handed her something. Smelling salts, maybe? She thought and put it up to the child’s nose. The girl woke with a start, pushing herself away and backing up over the floor until her back was flush to the wall. Shit, she thinks she’s there.
“No, no, Natasha, hey,” Yelena whispered, hurrying over to her, panicking, while the rest of the team just watched. She looked into the younger girl’s eyes, and Natasha stared at her for a moment, eyes wide.
“You… You have her eyes.” She stated, confused.
Yelena stayed within arm’s reach, but only barely, and sat on her knees. She took a deep breath and whistled the note. The note they used when they were little, tears in her eyes. The younger girl reached out to touch her face, still very confused, but she knew it was her. How it was her, she didn’t know, but she knew it was. Natasha whistled the corresponding note back, cause Yelena to giggle through her tears.
“I know, 4Крошка.” The term of endearment caused the younger girl’s eyes to widen and shocked Clint. Though Maria and Barnes just looked smug, like they knew something. “I need you to trust me on this one, okay?”
Young Natasha nodded and followed Yelena over to Scott’s van. He informs them he’s made the process more exact, and less of an accident and he suits Natasha up. She looked nervous, but she complied, continuing to stare at Yelena. Good, this is what they needed. Yelena thought.
Scott pressed the button without warning, and the girl in front of them was now a woman. Natasha quickly pulled the suit away, dropping to the floor to sit crisscross with her back against the van, and her head in her hands. After the pounding in her head receded, she looked around at her friends, her eyes finally landing on Yelena.
Yelena’s heart skipped a beat as the other woman stared at her. She crouched down to be level with her, they were only feet away from each other, but it felt like too far. The other team members stayed back, assuming the worst and expecting a violent reaction. Natasha reached out, putting both hands on either side of Yelena’s face. She paused, staring into the other woman’s eyes, making Yelena feel like all of the air around her had suddenly disappeared. Natasha used her weight to pull Yelena towards her, turning her head to press her lips against hers. It was desperate, like the aftermath of the hero saving the girl. But I’m not the hero, and she saved me. Yelena thought, steadying herself on Natasha’s knee.
Yelena broke the kiss to place her forehead on the side of Natasha’s, her tears slipping out and her voice rough and shaking ever so slightly no matter how hard she tried to hide it, “5я тебя люблю.”
“I know.” Natasha pulled her head back into a kiss, deepening it and pulling her closer.
"Wow!" Peter beamed, "You guys are like Nicole and Waverly!" He seemed very happy with his comparison, but no one else knew what he was talking about.
The team were all smiling, they were happy for her, even if Clint was wildly confused due to his obliviousness, and Bruce’s smile was a little sadder than the rest, they all truly were. But Scott took it to a different level, he was absolutely beaming.
“Bedroom, now,” Yelena announced.
“Lena, I need to see my friends too.” She laughed, swatting Yelena away, standing up.
“No.” Yelena took the other woman’s hand and pulled her towards the elevator. “They suck, I’m cooler.”
Natasha had to take a moment from laughing so hard.
“What? It’s true.”
Natasha looked back at her friends; they were all smirking at her. She waited for a moment, thinking about going back, but Maria waved her off with a smile.
“So, we’re all on for dinner then, right?” She asked.
“Oh, you know, actually, I have plans tonight,” Sam deadpanned. “Girl, of course, we’re on for fuckin dinner.”
She smiled at them one more time and waved, before finally following the impatiently waiting Yelena into the elevator.