meet me at our spot | n.r x oc | ✓

12 - family, back together again

[yelena's pov]

I'm not sure what happened. The last thing I remember was being in the cafeteria for lunch before another mission and everyone started panicking. Widows fell to the floor into piles of dust while their acquaintances screamed in terror. I stood up to help, but I fell to the ground. I looked down to see my legs turning to dust, the process slowly crawling up my body. The last thing I thought about was Stefaniya and Natasha-- if it was happening to them, if they knew that I was disappearing.

And then I wake up in the cafeteria surrounded by the same Widows I saw disappear. It was like we had just fallen asleep and then woke up a few hours later, but everyone else who didn't turn to dust was gone. It seemed strange that they would leave us all on the cafeteria floor.

I look around the floor for my phone, finding it under a chair. It's dead, which is impossible as I make sure the battery is always over 80%, especially when I'm about to go on a mission.

"Is everyone okay?"
I call out. Everyone nods, murmuring "yes."

I hear the door open and I see Irina staring at us in shock. She looks different; older, and I can't really explain it but she doesn't look like how I remember her.

"You're... You're back!"
she runs up to me.

"'Back'? We never left. We just... Turned to dust? I don't know."

As Irina and I help some Widows get up, she rambles to me,
"In 2018, there was this guy from space who used the Infinity Stones on his gauntlet to snap 50% of all living creatures away into dust. We were just watching the news about the Avengers bringing everyone back when I heard the commotion in this room. By 'we,' I mean the Widows who stayed. Most of the Widows moved away during the five years you were gone. Alexei and Melina disappeared during the Blip, too, and I took over. Stefaniya had been helping us out with the mind-controlled Widows and we freed everyone who survived. But now that the Earth's population is back to normal, we still have a lot of work to do to free the remaining mind-controlled Widows who dusted away. Speaking of Stefaniya, she and Natasha had been living together in the Avengers facility in Manhattan, but they visit every month to help us while you were all gone."

I grab her shoulders to get her attention.
"Irina, breathe."

She takes a few breaths.

"That was... a lot of information, but let's go back to the part where you said, 'five years'?"

"Yeah. You were all gone for five years. It's 2023 now,"
she holds up her phone's lockscreen, where it definitely says that it's October 17, 2023. I let out a string of curses in Russian under my breath.

"Have you seen Melina and Alexei anywhere?"

"No, I came straight here. But I think some of the other Widows might have found them by now."

"Are any jets available?"

"No. We sent them back to the Avengers a couple of years ago. We didn't think you were coming back."

"Okay, that's fine."
I start to run off, but go back to hug Irina.
"Thank you so much. For everything you've been doing these past five years. I owe you."

"I'm just glad to have you back, Yelena."

"Glad to be back,"
I nod to her before running out the door to the main hallway.