The Irony of it All

17

“Ah. I see.” Natasha said. “So, this whole kidnapping me thing wasn’t your idea. Someone tipped you off that I’d probably come here. And what? They pay you to get rid of me and you get the added bonus of ‘Black Widow’.  Makes sense, you never were actually smart enough to come up with your own plans.” A sharp pain bloomed on her jaw as her head whipped to the side with the force of Yelena’s punch, causing Natasha’s ears to ring. 

“You can talk all you want, but I’ll be leaving this room with your title. You have nothing left. You…” 

Natasha looked at her quizzically, searching for the reason why the blonde had cut herself off. She tried to follow her line of sight and her breath hitched as she realized what the blonde was staring at. 

Yelena reached forward, her fingers wrapping around the chain on Natasha’s neck and yanking hard. The chain snapped with the force. Yelena’s eyes widened as she pulled the dog tags out from Natasha’s shirt. “Is this a wedding band?” She asked. Natasha was quiet, but it wasn’t as if she actually needed an answer. She laughed in disbelief, reading the name on the tag. “The soldier? Really, Natal’ya?” Her eyes hardened although her voice remained light and teasing. “And you didn’t invite me to the wedding? How rude of you. I’m sure Ivan would have loved to walk you down the aisle.” Natasha stiffened. 

“You know, I actually kind of feel bad now. I didn’t know you two were so close. It’s a shame I had to ruin it.” Natasha was curious, but she kept a blank face. “You know your precious S.H.I.E.L.D. that you used to work for? When Captain Rogers came out of the ice, they took blood samples. A lot of blood samples. He didn’t know of course. That director of yours liked his secrets didn’t he. The samples were quite easy for me to steal.” Natasha’s gaze hardened, and Yelena’s glee grew. “Can you believe it? We were in the same building at the same time, so many times! I was literally right under your nose.” She smiled, and Natasha watched in composed anger as the woman put the dog tags over her own head. “The best part is, I’ve been using your title ever since you left.”

Gone was Natasha’s control. She was openly seething, and Yelena knew exactly what she was doing. “You may think you have gone straight, but the Black Widow hasn’t. He thinks you betrayed him. You see now, Natal’ya? There are two Black Widows. You have failed the title. A Black Widow is always in control, she doesn’t fall in love, she is ruthless, graceful, deadly. And I am one move away from being the one and only Black Widow.”

The next thirty seconds were a blur. Somehow, Natasha managed to surprise Yelena by breaking the chair. After that, they were a blur of flying limbs. For a moment, Natasha forgot what had happened prior and she was back in the Red Room, fighting for dominance under the watchful eye of Madame B. But the moment ended quickly as she felt herself flying through the air. She managed to twist herself around in order to protect her belly and she felt her ribs crunch with the force of her body being slammed into the concrete floor. 

Time seemed to move so slow, and yet it was too fast to keep up with. Natasha lost all sense of time. She had no idea if seconds had passed, or if whole minutes had. “Come on, Lena. Aren’t we gonna talk like grown ups?”

“Is that what we are?” More punches, kicks, and flips. 

“I don’t want to hurt you, sis. Come on.” She dodged a kick. “We can talk this out.”

“You should have killed me when you had the chance!”

“Are you seriously mad at me for sparing your life?”

“Is that what you think it was? Sparing?! For what, sister? You left me with a bullet in my shoulder, and the wrath of the Red Room!”

“The only reason you got punished was because you went after my mark. You tried to take him out before I could. You were always jealous that Ivan favored me.”

Yelena roared and attacked with new vigor. 

“I will be the Black Widow! The one and only! You have disgraced the title! You don’t deserve it!

She tasted the warm, metallic taste of blood after a particularly brutal punch slammed into her jaw. It dazed her for a precious moment, and Yelena spun her into the wall before attacking again, landing punches and kicks that Natasha couldn’t deflect properly without removing her arm from around her midsection. Before she knew it, Yelena had her pinned, cutting off her air supply. 

“You left Russia for the Americans. You left me so you could be a stupid Avenger. Well look where that got you!” Yelena wasn’t hiding any of her emotions. She couldn’t. She was openly seething with anger, jealousy, and betrayal. “They think you killed that Assassin. They don’t want you anymore! You are nothing! You don’t get to leave and pretend to be normal! You don’t get to have a family! You are made to take life away!” She took a deep breath. “ The Red-Room made sure of that with the Graduation ceremony. We are both monsters, Natal’ya. The Red-Room always wins.”

With that, Natasha got her legs up and curled them to her chest, kicking them out and pushing Yelena off of her with all her strength. Yelena quickly got back to her feet, but Natasha was there, and pushed her back, again and again. She finally knocked her down and pinned her. 

“Ty nikogda ne budesh' Chernoy Vdovoy, Yelena. Vy mozhete ispol'zovat' nazvaniye vse, chto khotite, no vy budete prosto malen'koy devochkoy, igrayushchey v eto. (You will never be the Black Widow, Yelena. You can use the title all you want, but you’ll just be a little girl playing make believe.)

“ Ty vsegda byl slishkom emotsional'nym. Vot pochemu Ivan odobril menya. YA mog sokhranyat' spokoystviye, no ty nikogda ne mog. Chto ty skazal? Chernaya Vdova vsegda dolzhna byt' pod kontrolem?.... Okh, i ugaday, sestra. YA pobedil Krasnuyu komnatu. (You’ve always been too emotional. That’s why Ivan favored me. I could keep my cool, but you never could. What was it you said? A Black Widow must always be in control? Oh, and guess what, sister…. I beat the Red-Room.)” She said, yanking Steve’s dog tags off the blonde’s neck. Yelena’s eyes widened in realization before Natasha firmly knocked her out.