Starting Over

Ch. 40

Natasha taps her finger against thigh anxiously on the ride to the facility where Wanda's bracelets had been tracked. Yelena sits to her left, humming some song that seems too cheery for the occasion. She feels his gaze and looks up to find Steve's eyes from across the jet, he comes to her side in an instant sitting in the empty spot to the right. His eyes search hers, a silent conversation all on their own. His hands find hers in her lap, his thumb rubbing soothing circles on the back.
"Promise me you'll be careful in there." He says. Her hand finds it's way to his cheek, the stubble from a few weeks of no shaving rough on her palm.
"I promise." She replies. He turns his head to place a kiss to the inside of her wrist, before she pulls him down to meet her lips. "I wish you were going in with me, but boss's orders..."
"Me too, but Yelena will be watching your 6." Steve adds.
"As long as she doesn't end in that fighting pose when we land..." Yelena says rolling her eyes
"I don't have a fighting pose."
"You know the one with the hair and the arm..." Yelena says getting up to demonstrate "it's a fighting pose, you're a total poser." Yelena laughs
"I'm not a poser." Natasha scoffs
"Babe, hate to break it to you but you kind of are." Steve smirks.
"Says man who throws giant metal frisbee as weapon." Yelena says quirking an eyebrow causing Natasha to let out a chuckle.
"That's just mean." Steve frowns
"Hate to break it to you, Babe, but you do throw a giant metal frisbee around." Natasha says laughing at his pout.
"Landing in 5." Clint's voice interrupts from the front of the jet.
"Let's go get our girl." Steve says giving Natasha's hand one last reassuring squeeze.

Yelena and Natasha drop in from the roof guns blazing. They've never so much as fought together in such a fast paced setting but the years of identical training has payed off. Natasha goes left and Yelena knows to go right, counting as they break down a door, taking down whatever guards stand in their way. Sirens blast around them, they've been spotted. They know they're there. There's an eerie-ness surrounding the halls, clinically sterile and dirty at the same time. Death lingers in the air. Yelena points to a door with a key pad entrance.
"Natasha..." Yelena nods towards it. Natasha removes the device from her belt to unlock it. It opens with a click and both spy's enter slowly.

Meanwhile, Wanda panics as a few guards flood into the cell.
"Come." They bark, harshly grabbing her arms pulling her away from Bucky. She instinctively reaches for him, managing to interlock one of her hands with his metal one.
"No... No!" She yells as they pry their hands apart, cool metal slicing against her fingers.
"Wanda!" Bucky yells as another pair of guards come into the cell, pulling him in the opposite direction down the hall.
She's shoved into a training room with the most ruthless people she's ever met
"Wanda, my dear, it is time to use your training." Madame says as they shove her into a chair. Wanda avoids eye contact with her. Dreykov reaches a hand out lifting her chin to meet their eyes.
"No." Wanda says, she feels the red surround her vision.
"No?" Dreykov laughs "like you have a choice, child. You will do as you have been created to do."
"the avengers are here." Dimitri interrupts entering the room
"Perfect." He smiles

Natasha and Yelena make their way down the hall, when the lights suddenly flicker, flashing red. The hallway feels entirely too much like their childhood. Yelena tenses next to her, instinctively reaching for the older spies hand.
"Sestra..." Yelena says in a voice that makes her sound too childish for her age. She stops walking
" 'Lena, you with me?" Natasha asks
"He's here." Yelena replies, her hand shakes in Natasha's.
"Who 'Lena? Who's here?" She asks
"Dreykov." Yelena says in a mere whisper.
"Dreykov is dead. I killed him." Natasha says eyebrows furrowed
"He's alive, I can feel it." Yelena shakes her head.
"Can you keep going? Or do you need to go back to the jet?" Natasha asks in a way that she would ask her own daughter.
"I can keep going." Yelena says releasing a shaky breath.
"Stay close." Natasha reminds her, she won't lose her sister again.