Retnikopf: Widow Of Siberia (old Version)

Chapter 2 - Find Me A Loophole

Yelena and Vienna sat in silence as they listened to Clint. He seemed to be more sentimental about Natasha than they had anticipated. He began to tell them stories about her that had nothing to do with her death, stories of their missions together and how she was happy that she had found a family with the avengers.

"Barton," Vienna cut him off mid sentence, she didn't want to hear anymore. She didn't know if she could take it. "why are you telling us about all this?"

"You asked me about your sister," Clint said gently, he was trying to be mindful of them, "I was just telling you about her."

"We don't need to know all of that," Vienna said sourly, not moving an inch or shifting her gaze as she spoke, "those are your memories."

"Vienna--" Yelena tried, she could see that Clint was upset and she honestly couldn't tell with Vienna.

"We asked about her death," Vienna continued without listening to her sister, "I want know what happened."

"I thought you guys wanted some closure," Clint argued, glaring at Vienna as she across from him, "not to go through every little detail."

"It is," Yelena said, frowning at Vienna who was holding her gaze against Clint, "we are."

"No, that's what you're here for," Vienna snapped at her, breaking eye contact with Clint for a second to look at her, "I'm not interested in your past stories, I lost her a long time ago, all my memories of her are plauged with pain. I want new stories, so tell me what happened."

"Vienna, we both know that's not possible," Yelena told her, her frown softening a little as she looked at her. Vienna's normally emotionless face had changed, it finally showed the pain behind her eyes.

"Do we? Do we know that?" Vienna argued, her glare piercing, "how do you know he didn't miss something?"

There was a small silence as the table watched Vienna who was now standing and leaning on the table with her hand outstretched in front of her.

"Tell her Clint," Kate said softly, speaking for the first time since Yelena had put a gun to her head earlier that night, "sometimes you need to hear it for yourself."

Barton sighed, it wasn't a memory he liked to remember. "To bring everyone back, we had to get infinity stones with time travel. I don't understand that part so I'm not gonna bother trying to explain it."

Vienna gave him a brief nod.

"Nat and I, we went to go and get the soul stone," Clint continued, "it was on a planet call Vormir."

"Natalia went to space?" Vienna exclaimed, sitting down again as she listened to him.

"She always got to do everything," Yelena sighed, sitting back in her chair.

"She's dead," Vienna gave her sister a surprised and confused expression.

"Anyway," Clint said, getting back to telling them about Natasha, "there was a thing there, like an alien, he told us that in order to get the stone, one of us had to die."

"What did he say?" Vienna asked, shuffling forward in her seat.

"What? You think I'm stupid?" Clint asked, getting a little defensive as he folded his arms, "I've thought about this a lot you know."

"I'm just saying, things like this can be tricky," Vienna told him, the innocence in her face shined through, hiding the tired look in her eyes, "you hear it all the time in fairytales."

"They taught you about fairytales but not the law?" Yelena asked her, frowning slightly as she titled her head.

"No, Melina did," Vienna explained, getting distracted again, "she would tell us about them when we couldn't sleep."

Yelena gave a nod of realisation after thinking about it for a moment.

"You two are useless," Kate sighed as she watched the two highly trained assassins get distracted for the second time in a conversation that had lasted about twenty minutes.

"Do you want to know what he said or not?" Clint asked trying to get them back on track.

"Yes," Vienna said, instantly shifting her focus back to him, "please."

"He said, in order to get the soul stone you must give up that which you love," Clint explained, tapping his hands lightly on the table, "it was a soul for a soul."

"So like a bargain," Vienna nodded, thinking about the phrasing.

"You sold our sister for a shiny rock?" Yelena asked, raising an eyebrow at him as she folded her arms across her chest.

"No, her sacrifice was so much more than that," Clint argued, standing up from his chair in annoyance, "and this isn't some fairytale with witches and bargains, this is space magic. It's very serious and very complicated."

"I want you to look me in the eye, and repeat back what you just said," Vienna said in a mocking tone.

"I'm tired," Clint sighed, "I'm going to bed. It's not like I can make you leave so do whatever you want. There are blankets in the airing cupboard if you wanna sleep on the couch."