Attendance Time!!
Natasha POV
"So tell me why we have been walking forever? My feet hurt."
"Stop your whining. Mason said there'd be a boat," I shake my head as we walk through the woods, my head on a swivel, expecting to see someone trying to jump us.
When we come to a clearing, I see a man standing in front of a dinghy boat. Our boat.
Extending my arm in front of Yelena, I stop her in her tracks and nod ahead silently. She stares at the man and scoffs, "Great."
Quickly, we both pull out our guns and head towards him until he moves, making me sprint and run at him, Yelena going for his legs while I jump up, grabbing him by his shoulders and swinging down.
I grunt when he fights back and grabs me, making my wounds scream as I feel my back pressing to the dirt.
Our eyes meet and I stare in shock at the blue eyes glaring down at me.
Longer, shaggier dirty blonde hair, a thick, growing beard.
He mirrors my shocked expression as he pants, "Romanoff?"
"Steve?"
Yelena shoves his foot off her chest and stands up, "Who the hell is this Steve?"
He looks over his shoulder at her, then back down at me, helping me up and smiling in relief while I chuckle, "What are you doing here?"
"Came from Wakanda to break a few friends out of jail. You?"
"Guess we had the same idea."
"Hello? I'm still here you know," Yelena whines and waves her arms in annoyance.
Steve looks at her and tilts his head with curiosity towards me, making me sigh, "Right. Steve, this is Yelena...my sister. Yelena this is Steve Rogers."
My sister's eyes widen in surprise before she snorts while Steve stretches his hand out, "Pleasure."
"You're Captain America?"
He flushes and nods gently, "Not exactly how I introduce myself but yes."
I breathe out as she bombards him with questions, "So have you ever heard of the Red Guardian?"
My feet carry me to the dinghy and I check the engine for gas, feeling a wave of relief wash over me when I see the extra gas can as Steve hums in thought, "I don't believe so. Friend of yours?"
"Hardly," Yelena grumbles and Steve turns to me, "I'm surprised you're here without your other half. How's Parker been holding up?"
I stiffen at that and clear my throat while keeping busy pushing the small boat to the water.
"That's actually why I'm here."
"She in some kind of trouble?"
"Ha! Q-tip is in all the troubles," Yelena shakes her head while Steve comes to help me, but places his hand over mine.
"Natasha. What's going on?"
I meet his gaze and instantly feel like I can trust him. That's always been something I've liked about Steve. Unlike everyone else on the team, Clint and Jayce excluded, Steve has always been someone I could count on. I always knew he actually wanted to listen when I talked.
Him and Clint made me feel like family quickly. Tony too but he's more like the annoying brother that I want to beat up half the time.
Steve's cool gaze is enough to tear my walls down. Being on the run, fighting and finally taking down Dreykov and the Red Room, I haven't seen anyone else from the Avengers besides Jayce since Germany.
Seeing Steve is definitely a sense of comfort, a warming feeling of nostalgia of the good times at the compound.
I breathe in, "Long story short? I found Yelena and my so called adoptive parents. We took down the Red Room together. Jayce helped but they got her. They altered her mind, they were working with HYDRA, and now all she wants to do is kill me and anyone who gets in her path. We tried different combinations of serums and cures but none have worked so I figured the only cure to mental manipulation that strong would be..."
"Maximoff," He finishes and nods, placing a hand on my shoulder with a supportive squeeze.
"I'm sorry. We'll get Parker back to normal. You have my word."
"We?" I whisper and he chuckles, "Don't got anything better to do. Nice to see a familiar face. But first we gotta get the rest of the kids," He points out to the water and I smile, "Sounds like a plan."
Together, we all get in once it's fully in the water and Steve starts up the engine while driving us through the waters, cutting through white caps and trying to keep on track navigating through the nighttime waters of the ocean.
"So you're Natasha's sister?" Steve speaks up after about an hour of silence.
Yelena hums in agreement while she pulls an energy bar out of one of her vest pockets, making me glare at her.
"Fine," She sighs and breaks off two pieces for Steve and I, then she turns to him, "Little sister Yelena, that would be me. When we were little we were on mission in Ohio to play as family unit. I was too small at the time to know it was fake but for 3 years yes. Then the Red Room came for us."
Steve's gaze falls as he nods, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. And it wasn't fake," I assure Yelena and sigh, "When I got out and Barton walked me through joining SHIELD, I thought I killed Dreykov and his daughter. Wasn't the full story, though. Apparently he escaped in time and the Red Room was still going on right under my nose. I thought Yelena was living her life but she was still being trained and sent out as one of their best assassins. It was certainly a difficult realization."
He chuckles in agreement and whistles, "Well, I am glad you two found your way back to each other. Family is important." Steve's voice falls a bit at the end and he glances down at the water, a clear weight settling on his shoulders.
My body nearly slumps as I feel worry building.
"Have you talked to Tony?"
Steve shakes his head and I swallow, "What happened when he met you and Bucky?"
That's when he explains it all. That Bucky killed Tony's parents and Steve knew. But Bucky wasn't himself at the time. He was the Winter Soldier. And I'm not even surprised, not in the slightest.
HYDRA took out a bunch of SHIELD members and founders, especially the ones that were threats. Even the Red Room had me take out a few back in the day. That's what got me into so much trouble until Clint decided to make a different call on his mission to kill me.
"We both went about this wrong. You were in the right, trying to keep us all together. You were always the one who cared the most, even if you didn't always show it. We were a family. And I broke that family up...and now I want to be able to get it back, whatever I can of it under the Accords of course."
My chest stings with ache and I feel Yelena's eyes on us, she's feeling sympathetic. Jayce and I never really said much about what happened with the Avengers, but it has been clear that it's affected both of us greatly.
We both had little to nothing, until we joined the Avengers.
They were my family. Are my family. Same goes for Jayce.
And I'll be damned if I leave another family member behind in my life.
"Well now half of this family is on the run. We'll have each other's backs. We'll figure it out eventually. Tony will come around, he always does. He's just hurt. He misses Pepper. It will all work out."
He chuckles and raises an eyebrow at me, "Wow. Natasha Romanoff being positive?"
I laugh and shrug, smiling over at Yelena who grins back at me softly, understanding my hopeful mindset.
"I don't know. My whole life I didn't think I had any family. Turns out I got two...one of them, ours, is a bit of a mess right now but if I can patch things up with one family, I'm optimistic that I can help do the same with the other."
With a simple but meaningful nod, he focuses back on the water and it takes a few hours until Yelena points out a large structure in the water. The Raft.
"Cut the engine," I mutter while I adjust my positioning, Yelena staring out to try and find a spot for us to get to undetected.
I pull out the device jammer Melina gave to me for the trip and activate it once we're in range so the cameras jam and we can get where we need to be.
"There," Yelena whispers, pointing to a curve in the circular structure, a jutting out bar of metal curving under the surface big enough to block the boat from being seen.
Steve guides us towards there and pulls out the paddles to get us to the spot quietly. I pull out my grapple hook, Yelena taking hers out while Steve ties us to the metal beam.
We all climb up the wall, Steve using magnetic grapple gloves to climb up the metal walls.
Once I reach a platform before all of them, I wave them up and we spot guards in front of the door. 4.
Assault rifles.
Armor, helmets, knives.
"4 hostiles. Yelena–" "I call the two on the right," She beams and he just nods, "Good. Romanoff, you and I will take the two west."
"You got it, Cap," I smirk and pull out my smoke disks, sliding two of them across the floor.
They stop right in front of the guards and I activate it, watching as they get disarmed by the clouds of smoke around them, swatting away. Yelena takes that as her green light and sprints over, wiring up one by his feet and swiping at the two she called with her legs, knocking them down and removing the radios from their chests.
Steve and I run over as they notice they're under attack and I pull out my wire, wrapping it around a guy's neck and pulling up, then flipping him down.
He groans when he hits, reaching for his radio but I press my foot to his chest and smile, "Hi sailor."
Recognizing me, his eyes go wide and I pull out my silenced pistol, shooting him in the chest where I know his armor isn't protecting, watching as his life drains
Once I stand, I see the rest of the guards are taken care of, two of them hanging from the ceiling with one of Yelena's wires. She grins sheepishly and shrugs, "What?"
Steve chuckles and I look towards him, nudging him a bit while we walk to the door, "Just like DC all over again, huh?"
He nods with a happy grin, remembering those times when our friendship really solidified, despite almost dying several times.
I reach into a guard's pocket and pull out an ID.
I swipe it and the doors open.
"Alright. You find Maximoff, I'll get the rest. Meet at the chopper deck on the top floor."
"You got it, Captain America," Yelena smirks and we head off, looking for Wanda.
Once we get down the stairs, we have to take out a few guards until we spot a security room.
"Bingo," I whisper and we head inside, locking the door and Yelena takes out the agents within seconds. The two at the monitors go to hit their alarm but I take out the knife Jayce made me and jam it through a guy's hand on the desk, hearing him screech out in pain while his friend stares in fear.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I sneer and jump up, wrapping my legs around the other guy's head and kicking down so his head bashes into the desk, then twisting until his neck snaps.
His body collapses off the chair and I smile at the guy whose hand is still sitting with a knife through it.
"Where is Wanda Maximoff?" I hiss and he whimpers, "P-please don't kill me."
"I won't if you just tell me where she is."
"I'll lose my job–" "Well it's either your job or your life," My lips curl up deviously as he shivers and swallows, nodding as he moves his other hand to the keyboard and starts typing, clicking until a live feed pops up.
Of Wanda in a cell with a power restricting collar beeping red around her neck, body in a blue straight-jacket, eyes dull with black bags beneath them.
She looks lifeless.
"Where is that?" I say as my heart hammers in my chest, mentally kicking myself for not getting to her sooner, especially knowing her history locked up in HYDRA.
"9th floor. 4th wing."
"Great. Can we kill him now? You talk too much," Yelena sighs as she walks over and I look at the 4 guards she's already taken down and roll my eyes, "You already had your fun."
"But you're taking too long."
"And he's my toy, find another one to play with."
The guy whimpers as he tries to pull away but I just twist the knife more and lean down, "Seriously? Fine."
"Wait, you said if I told you then you wouldn't kill me!" He cries and I pout, "Sorry. I've really been trying to work on my lying problem. Not quite there yet."
I take my knife out and slice it across his neck, watching as his body goes limp and he slumps in the chair.
"That was evil," Yelena giggles and I shrug, "These fuckers locked up my friends. Let's go get Wanda."
I lead the way and we sneak past a bunch of guards, using our silenced guns to take out others on the way, running through halls and floors until we reach the one Wanda's on.
My eyes look at the signs until I see the wing she's in. I nod for Yelena to follow and we get to a door guarded by two men.
I signal for Yelena to stay while I take care of them. Walking over, I smirk, "Hi boys."
They glare at me unimpressed until they see the logo on my belt, eyes widening in recognition, "The Black Widow!" One screams and they lift their guns but I grab the weapons and twist until their wrists crack, guns pointing up at their own chins.
I pull the triggers and their dead instantly, leaving the coast clear.
"Nice one," Yelena skips over and we kick the door open, our guns raise as we fire like crazy at everyone in the room.
"It is the Black Widow!" One cries and my chest bubbles with near pride as I feel joy being back.
The Red Room was different. This feels like old times.
Like when Jayce and I went on missions together.
I've missed it.
Yelena and I use our bites and taser disks against them until they all fall to the ground.
My legs bring me to the glass window where I can see inside a the cell Wanda's in. her eyes raise slightly up to us until a flash of joy and relief washes over her.
I grin and wink, "Find a way to get that collar off her," I instruct Yelena as I open the door and jog over to Wanda, "Long time no see."
"Natasha," She rasps out while I cut through the straight jacket. My eyes look around until a voice comes from behind me, "Nice a body as you have Wanda Maximoff, I presume these are yours. Found it in a cabinet."
She tosses over Wanda's suit from Germany, then holds up a key, "Also found this."
While Wanda weakly pulls the clothes on, Yelena hands me the key and I breathe out in relief, "Thank God."
"You came," Wanda whispers happily and I nod, "Of course I did. Steve's here too. We're meeting him on the chopper deck. He's getting the others."
"Good. And Jayce? Where's she?"
I lick my lips as I unlock the collar, watching as color returns to her face as it falls to the ground. She looks down at her hands, fingers releasing the red magic whilst her eyes glow red with power.
"Actually...we need your help. Well, Jayce needs your help."
Wanda's eyes snap up to mine instantly at that, eyebrows crinkling with worry, "What happened?"
"I'll explain later. We need to go find Steve."
She nods as we head out and without me and Yelena needing to lift a finger, Wanda takes out every single guard around, eyes flaring a dangerous red, hands emitting a powerful glow.
"She's cool," Yelena whispers and I nod, "That she is."
We get up to the top deck where Steve awaits with Sam, Scott, and Clint.
"Clint," I breathe out and run over to him. He opens his arms instantly and grunts once I practically tackle him with a tight hug.
"Good to see you too Natasha. Who's the blonde?" He nods at Yelena who tilts her head, "Is this Clint Barton?"
"Yes. Clint this is Yelena."
His eyes nearly bulge out of his head. Clint's the only other person besides Jayce who really knew about Yelena. I told him everything, he was there from the start so it only felt right.
"Wow. Yelena, hi. Nice to meet you."
"He has weird hair," Yelena frowns and Sam cracks a smile at that, "I like her."
"Yeah, she's great," I roll my eyes and Steve nods, "Glad to see everyone's alive. Let's get the hell out of here."
We all pile into the chopper as more agents run out to the deck, shooting at us.
Wanda looks to them and grunts, lifting her hands and locking them all in place, a red border surrounding them as she throws them off the side of The Raft, the sounds of their screams getting farther until all we can hear after is water splashing.
"Now that is a cool way to die," Yelena awes, making Wanda's cheeks flush a bit as she turns towards her head towards Yelena with a small smile.
"Alright Romanoff, where are we headed?" Steve asks and I smile as I sit beside him in the pilot's seat. I give him coordinates to the other jet Yelena and I took and we all head there while Yelena gets to know everyone.
Her and Sam seem to get along really well which I could've predicted. She mocks Scott a lot, Clint included. And she continuously compliments Wanda and her powers.
"So that red stuff just...comes out of you?"
Wanda hums, "Pretty much."
"Wow. I wish I could do that."
Wanda giggles a bit before looking to me and walking over, "Can you tell me now what is going on with Jayce? Is she hurt?"
Looking to Clint, he nods and takes over my spot beside Steve while I stand up and think of how to explain it to Wanda.
"In the easiest words? Jayce's mind has been manipulated. By what kind of chemical we do not know. We've tried everything but nothing seems to work. She tried to kill me–" "She what?" Wanda gasps, eyes wide with shock and concern as she looks me over but I smile weakly and shake my head dismissively.
"I'm fine. Just a knife to my gut. And Loralai shot me in the shoulder–" "Loralai's back?"
"She was until she got dead. Natasha's doing." Yelena pats my shoulder with a proud smile while Sam stares at her in amazement, "You are scary."
"Thank you," She grins and I shake my head, "Anyways. She did something to Jayce and we can't undo it. So I figured I'd get help from the only expert in mental manipulation that I know."
Wanda looks down nervously, "I don't know. I promised Jayce I wouldn't control her mi–" "You're helping her, Wanda. She needs you. You're her best friend. Please. I can't stand seeing her like that. Her mind is hurting, I've seen her trying to fight it but it just gets stronger. I know she's scared. Please. I need you."
When our eyes meet again, Wanda smiles gently and swallows, nodding before pulling me into a hug, "Of course I'll help. I owe the both of you my life."
"Thank you," I sniffle, finally feeling like everything will be okay again.
After we land where our jet is, Yelena and I step off with Wanda. But Steve joins.
I turn to him and tilt my head, "You lost?"
Steve chuckles and shakes his head, "Figured I could visit a friend."
My eyes carry over to the chopper where Clint, Sam, and Scott smile at us, Sam nodding knowingly.
"You're coming?" I ask Steve and he shrugs, "I got the time to."
Quickly, a joyous buzz warms up my chest and veins, even Wanda seems thrilled. It feels like we are back at the compound almost.
"Then get in," I smirk and we head over to our jet, Yelena and I at the controls.
The flight is easy, the air is light around all of us, Yelena's cracking jokes, telling Steve to prepare for meeting Alexei, which I can only laugh at the image in my head. Alexei is going to be scared shitless when he sees Steve.
But the only thing I can really focus on right now is getting back to the base so Wanda can help Jayce. Jayce will be herself again and we'll be us again. Wanda's here, Steve is here, Yelena, and me.
It feels like some sort of new chapter in my life. Like something is changing finally, I've reunited with my old family from Ohio, I've gotten some of the others back.
And now I get my girlfriend back.
Everything is starting to make sense again.
__
A/N: Heyoooo 2 updates WOW.
What are you thinking?
What do you think will happen?
What do you want to happen?