Ultron Aftermath

Chapter 36

Time: For a dive into the past
Place: Avengers compound

Clint helped a distraught Natasha go back to her room, where she cried inconsolably within his arms. The gut wrench she felt was unbearable, she had cried so much she made herself throw up twice. Clint was at a loss on what to do to calm her down, he decided that if not him then the next best person would be Steve or Bucky. He knew if he told Steve to come up here,it would make things worse, he didn't know an awful lot about her past, just that she had been in the red room and then joined forces with Shield to take the red room down. He texted Bucky to come up stairs.

Bucky came rushing into the room, carrying a glass of water for the her, however, she was too deep within the throes of her emotional distress to notice him come in and Clint leave. Nat was a mess, tears streaming down her face, her breathing irregular. Bucky was concerned that if she didn't calm down she would pass out from a lack of oxygen.

"Tasha you need to breathe"

Natasha took a few gulps for air but it was no use, she felt like she was drowning.

"вырвись, если это"
(Snap out of it) Bucky spoke harshly in
Russian.

The familiar language seemed to have worked quite well for Bucky in helping Natasha to come back to her senses, her breathing slowing down as she gradually became more grounded.

"Buck it's all my fault" she whispered
blankly.

"No. No it's not Natasha, you couldn't have known. You thought it had been taken down we all did" He comforted.

"I should have known better,
I don't know why I ever thought
He was gone. It was too good to
be true"

"Beating yourself up about that isn't gonna help us get the girls back"

"You don't understand we're not
getting them back Bucky" she snapped.
"Even if we were to find them, it wouldn't
be them"

"What do you mean?"

Nat sighed, "what I mean is that by the time
We get to the girls. He would have turned them against us. He's a manipulator, a liar.
He'll tell them things and they'll believe it.
He'll force them into doing things they don't
want to do. He'll take away they're choices.
By the time we find them they'll be nothing but his mutts, the puppets on his string"

"They're not idiots Natasha they won't fall for his lies" Bucky reassured her.

But Bucky didn't know Dreykov like she did.
He could get in to even the smartest of peoples heads and rewire their brains into thinking he's right.

"Smart or not. He knows how to take
advantage of a little girl's vulnerability"

"You were his puppet once Nat, you broke free. We can help the girls"

"But I didn't Bucky that's the thing.
I've never been free of that place,
every time I fire a gun, I see the faces
of all the innocent people he made me
kill. Every time I close my eyes to sleep,
Im clouded with the memories from that
place. And now he's got my baby's. I played right into his game, he was waiting to get back at me and clearly when he found out
about the girls, taken them was his revenge.
So no Bucky I'm not free, he's got me right
where he wants me"

Bucky didn't say anything, he didn't know what to say. He understood her to a certain extent in the sense that him,himself wasn't truly free from hydra either. He still had the nightmares and the regret from the people he had been forced to kill.

"Do you still have connections
to the red room?" He asked, there had
to be a way to get the girls out quickly.

Nat thought long and hard about it,
There was a few people she could contact but she wasn't sure wether she was ready to see them.

"Sort of" she shrugged.

"Sort of? Tasha what aren't
you telling me?" Bucky frowned.

Natasha understood that she needed to do whatever it took in order to be reunited with both of her girls, no matter what the cost to herself, even if it did mean that she had to revisit the past. Nat decided now was the best time to tell Bucky everything, she told him about the early years of the red room, her mission in Ohio, the red room after that and how Clint got her out.
——-
Time: To remember
Place: Budapest

Yelena, was the last widow from her generation still standing as every other one had been killed by Dreykov, with a few having managed to escape this fate and get out of the red room. Her generation was the first and last generation to be chemically subjugated, Dreykov wanted to put all his widows under the chemical mind control but it had been found to be ineffective against the Widow generation, killing most of them off but a few, including Yelena.
He had his best scientist working on a new one so he could use it on Lyza, Vic and Aj as well as potentially getting some new Widows in and rebuilding the widow program. That and his little project with Wanda and Tommy were his top priority and he had to eliminate any potential problems that could get in the way of his plan.

Yelena had been sent to Budapest on a mission to kill a Widow from her generation, Oksana, who had managed to get out a few months ago. Oksana had once been like Yelena, apart of the small network of widows that survived the chemical mind control but she had found a way out, her mind had been freed, she had an antidote.
Dreykov wanted her dead and he wanted the antidote destroyed.

Yelena was about to deliver the final blow upon the fallen Oksana, lifting her blade and ready to strike, however, before she could, she was hit in the face by a cloud of red dust.

Yelena squinted as fumes of the red dust surrounded her. Her clouded mind clearing as the dust settled and worked as an antidote. Oksana had used the last of her strength to free the girl. Yelena was herself again, no longer imprisoned upon the mind control that had plagued her for years. As
Realizing the dust had given her complete autonomy over her mind,Yelena came back to her senses, she realized what she had done. She immediately went over to the bleeding Oksana, with her first course of action being to reach down and apply pressure to the wound to attempt to stop the flow of the blood, however, it definitely was not going to be enough, as the blood was gushing out with an intensity that was much too strong to keep under control.

"Oksana I'm so sorry"
Yelena whispered.

"It's not your fault. You've got to stop him Yelena" Oksana spoke weakly, "Find your sister and free the others before it's too late"

———-

A/N:Sister reunion pending??
We'll see ;)
Thank you for reading 🫡

Warning guys the next chapter is a little heavy, there's not too much detail about it all but it does mention SA so I wanted to pre warn you guys especially if hits a little close to home for some people.
If you've been through it or are going through it and need some one to talk too don't be afraid to reach out to me I'm more then happy to talk or just listen.
I love you all and I'm so thankful for your support. Stay safe loves❤️❤️❤️