THERE WASN'T ENOUGH. Yelena was right with there not being enough fuel and Clover knew it too, but Alexei had chosen to carelessly wave off the warning. This is what has now resulted in the old helicopter crash landing onto a random field that's filled with purple flowers hidden amongst the long grass. Occasionally, tall green trees can be seen too since not all of them have been chopped down.
Natasha slides open the metal door of the helicopter with a hint of aggression hidden behind her actions. Each one of them pile out of the aircraft where they are then hit with a wave of fresh air — a humid one too, only replacing the icy chills of the prisons air. Clover grabs ahold of Yelena's backpack on the way out so that no one can leave it behind since they're choosing to abandon the helicopter here. The bag gets thrown over to Yelena wheres it's then swung over the top of her shoulder.
"Natasha, you should have brought the Avengers' superjet." Alexei comments.
The redhead simply lets out a groan of annoyance at the sound of this, not wanting to listen to anything else he has to say while on this journey to bring the Red Room down. Natasha begins to walk forwards in a hurry as she now intends to trail next to the twins. Clover completely understands why neither of the two are willing to stand around and talk to Alexei because he only makes insensitive comments or just talks about himself.
"I swear, if I hear one more word from him, I will kick him in the face." Yelena threatens.
"You and me both." Clover mumbles.
"Natasha!" Alexei calls. "Natasha, wait. I want to ask you something."
Natasha sighs. "What is it?"
"Did he talk to you about me?" Alexei asks, earning a confused look. "Did he talk about me? You know, trading war stories?"
Natasha frowns. "Did who talk about you? You're gonna have to give me a name, or else I won't be able to understand."
"Captain America!" Alexei replies as if it's the most obvious thing. "My great adversary in this theatre of geopolitical conflict. He's not my nemesis, but a... a coequal, you could say."
"You haven't seen the three of us in twenty years and you're gonna ask me about you?" Natasha questions in both disbelief and shock.
"Unbelievable." Clover mutters under her breath.
"What is with this tension? Did I do something wrong?" Alexei carelessly says.
Yelena frowns. "Is that a serious question?"
"I only ever loved you girls." Alexei tells them.
"That completely contrasts what you said on the helicopter!" Clover exclaims. "You said that the three years you spent with us was just a 'stupid mission', and that it was tedious and boring. You can't now stand there and say you loved us."
"I did my best to make sure you would succeed to achieve your fullest potential, and everything worked out in the end." Alexei argues.
"Everything worked out?" Natasha repeats, scoffing.
"For you, yes." Alexei replies. "We accomplished our mission in Ohio. And I think that's thanks to Lucky Clover over here."
Clover shakes her head. "Stop it."
"You and Yelena went on to become the greatest child assassins the world has ever known. The deadly and lethal twins. No one can match your guys' efficiency and ruthlessness." Alexei tells them.
Clover casts a glance over at Yelena, noticing how they are both currently sharing the same look on their faces. Neither of them want to be standing in a random field while listening to the man, who they used to call their father, tell them about how good of an assassin they've grown up to become. That's not something any daughters from the Red Room want to hear when being reunited with a loved one.
"And Natasha." Alexei continues as he turns towards her. "You're not just a spy, not just toppling regimes, destroying empires from within, but an Avenger."
Not one of the three sisters dare to say anything in response. It's almost as though they're all currently speechless at the amount of crap coming out of his mouth right now. They can't believe that Alexei is really saying this to all three of them, just choosing to throw the way they lived their lives back into their faces as if it's an achievement to be proud of. Being a Widow to Dreykov wasn't something they wanted, nor did they even deserve it — no one does.
"You girls have killed so many people. Your ledgers must be dripping, just gushing red." Alexei says as he pulls them into a hug. "I couldn't be more proud of you."
At the sound of this, along with what he's already said so far, Natasha roughly pushes her arms against Alexei's body so that she can forcefully remove her own body from his loose hold. A glare is then shot towards Alexei, one of which causes him to simply frown in response. However, the man continues to hug Clover and Yelena as he now gently places soft kisses onto their braided blonde hair.
Clover had almost missed the fatherly touch that she had used to experience when she was younger. After all this time, she's just wanted to return back to the way things were left and pick up their old life once again — things were much easier and more exciting. But now, in present time, Clover is faced with many pained memories of Alexei as a replacement. His current stories are just a further reminder that he never cared and it was only about the mission. So, with that, Clover also pushes him away before then hurrying along the path to catch up to Natasha.
"You can let go of me now." Yelena states as she too pushes out of his grip. "You smell really bad."
After what feels like hours of constantly walking on the dried dirt path, the sun can now be seen staring to set from in the distance. It casts a pastel orange look that's painted over the top of the usual blue sky, as well as some tints of yellow and pink blending in with the warm tones. Clover's always loved sunsets because it meant the end of another day, which had always meant she would feel hopeful that everything would pass over and she would receive the happiness she desires so desperately. But the Red Room took that feeling away from her when she was under the mindcontrol of Dreykov.
"Are we there yet?" Yelena asks.
"You'll know when we're there." Alexei informs.
The man starts to imitate the noises that a pig will usually make whenever it's sloppily eating food. But this only causes the three to glance over at him with a frown written across each of their faces. None one of them know what a pig could possibly mean when talking about Melina, especially since they hadn't known she was even still alive and working for the Red Room.
