The Widows

Welcome To Wakanda

The sisters arrived in Wakanda shortly after Natasha's dreaded phone call, being greeted by Natasha herself and a few of the Avengers.

"Thank you for coming." King T'Challa greeted Katerina and Yelena. "We understand what we're asking you to do for us." He said politely.

"Do we bow?" Yelena whispered to Katerina.

"Yeah he's a King." Katerina whispered back, knowing full-well they're not very conventional. Yelena fell for it anyway, and bowed in front of almost everybody.

"We don't do that here." King T'Challa informed Yelena, turning around to show them inside. Yelena looked to Katerina embarrassed, cheeks as red as a tomato, and Katerina couldn't help but laugh.

When they wondered inside, Katerina was blown away by the advanced technology within Shuri's lab. She had no idea Wakanda was so ahead of it's time. She'd heard many stories about it as a country, but never got the chance to see what it was really like as it was so closed off from the rest of the world.

"How are you guys holding up?" Natasha asked them both, concerned.

"Oh you know, not too bad. Large purple space guy wants to kill half of humanity, I'd say I'm doing as best as I can be at a time like this." Yelena joked.

"Kat, you're being scarily silent." Nat looked at her.

"This is my fault." Katerina said, almost tearful.

The whole room went immediately silent. She felt everyones eyes fall on her controversial statement, and has no choice but to tell one of her tormented truths.

"A long time ago. Thanos and I met. He wanted something from me in exchange for something Dreykov needed. A power source powerful enough to charge a helicraft to maximum energy until one day it had to shut down." Katerina began. Natasha and Yelena looked at her, now understanding how Dreykov literally stayed up in the sky all those years.

"What did he want from you?" Steve Rogers AKA Captain America interrupted.

"A map." Katerina looked down, taking a deep breath.

"A bunch of people are possibly about to die, I'm going to need you to do better than just a map. A map to where?" Steve asked, slightly irritated.

"A map to one of the six infinity stones." Katerina glared at Steve, annoyed by his impatience. The room almost gasped in time with one another. Katerina had a sudden wave of heavy guilt, but Natasha placed her hand on her shoulder to imply she would never blame her.

"Which one?" Wanda asked, walking the room.

When Wanda and Yelena saw each other for the first time in months since their break-up, even strangers who didn't know their history felt the awkwardness radiating off of them both. Katerina and Natasha looked at each other awkwardly, the rest of the Avengers and the royals also standing in awkward silence.

The two women stared at each other for too long, which invited whispers around the room. Wanda couldn't help but feel some kind of regretful feeling in the pit of her stomach, whereas Yelena couldn't decide whether or not she was sad or angry to see Wanda once again.

"I hope I'm not interrupting." Vision said, slightly passive aggressive as he walked into the room, wounded. Wanda shot her glance back to Vision, feeling guilty that she was staring at Yelena.

Yelena and Katerina noticed Vision's stab wound on his lower abdomen, which immediately drew Katerina's attention to one of the infinity stones visible in his head. The Mind Stone, she thought to herself.

"I hope I haven't missed too much." Vision continued. The tension between him and Wanda was clear, they clearly weren't getting along as well as they used to. Everybody knew it was because of her relationship with Yelena, that made her question her feelings for Vision entirely.

"Nope. Right on time." Wanda smiled at him awkwardly.

"You must be Yelena." Vision asked, holding his hand out to shake. Yelena shook it awkwardly, looking to others for help.

"That's me." Yelena replied with another awkward smile through gritted teeth.

"I don't think this could get any worse." Katerina whispered to Natasha, who giggled quietly.

"Ahem. Anyway, you were saying?" Steve interrupted. For once, everyone was grateful.

"Which infinity stone did you have the map to?" Natasha asked her sister, curious to know herself.

"...The Reality Stone." Katerina said, looking back to the floor, ashamed. "In the red room, Dreykov had ties to just about anyone. He had me meet with a bunch of collectors and manipulaters incase anything went South. After the Asgardians gave the Reality Stone to the Collector, Dreykov tasked me with locating it. Once I found it, I had to, I didn't want to-" Katerina panicked, overwhelmed by her own guilt.

"You didn't have a choice." Steve reassured his new acquaintance. Steve himself had a friend who was victim to brutal mind control, he couldn't help but pity Katerina Orlova, as much as she didn't want it.

"It was only a matter of time before Thanos began his insane plan. I was key to helping him achieve his goal." Katerina said, ashamed.

"That's not true." Vision said. "Whether or not you have Thanos what he was looking for did not matter. He would've found it either way. When he found it is not important. Whether it's the present or the future, at least we're around now to stop him." Vision spoke. Everyone was stunned by his comforting speech.

"Careful, Vision. Your speeches are almost as good as Steve's." Natasha mocked, winking at Steve.

"You know what Romanoff." Steve raised his eyebrows, Natasha smirked at him.

Katerina and Yelena laughed alongside the others, feeling a strange sensation of comfort in their new setting. Apart from the fear of possible death via a power far greater than any of them, they couldn't help but enjoy the company of the Avengers. They spent so long resenting the heroes that they realised they were all just human.

Well, most of them.

Before Katerina, Steve and the others were about the devise a strategic plan for whatever surprises that were about to be at the foot of their doorstep, they were interrupted by a few other Avengers strutting through the doors, into the lab.

Katerina's expression dropped, her mouth almost draping open. She was repulsed and angered by the figure that just entered the room. Before she could speak, they spoke first.

"Oh you've got to be shitting me. You!"