Upside Down
The bright light of the sun hazed through the leaves of the tall beech trees. Yelena remembers it warm. They were out in the yard, the three of them. Natasha was showing Masha and her some gymnastics tricks.
“It’s all about your core balance.” She said, with the voice of a little professional, excited about sharing what she knew that they didn’t.
Yelena stretched over to match her pose.
“You look like upside down crabs!” Masha giggled.
Yelena took offense. “You’re just saying that cause you can’t do it!”
“Can so!”
Masha lent backward awkwardly, pushing her stomach out and arching her back until she was staring at Yelena in the same pose. Masha giggled “You’re upside down!”
“We’re both upside down!” Yelena countered, but then she was laughing too. Eventually the two girls let themselves fall to the ground.
“I win.” Natasha says, and then gracefully gets back up.
“That’s just cause you’re bigger!”
“And stronger.” She added teasingly. The two younger girls looked at each other deviously, the plan obvious. Natasha had already started running.
“We’re gonna catch you!” Masha shouted, and soon the three were running around in their backyard, dirt kicking up beneath their feet in the patches where the grass was unable to grow back. The well worn backyard had been home, shelter, freedom.
***
Yelena watches her target through the scope of her rifle. She’s up high, the cool air blowing her fly aways from her face. Her hand reaches for the comm in her ear “I’ve got eyes on her.”
“You know what to do”. Is the simple response.
And she does, but the mission is odd to her. Widows were assassins, information gatherers, spies, they did not take prisoners. But this woman who stood idly in the alleyway, leaning against a tan-colored van through the scope of Yelena’s rifle, was different. Her orders were to capture, maim if necessary, but not kill. She didn’t question them. Orders were orders, and the Red Room wasn’t a democracy, nothing in life was, truly, but it did strike her as odd. She wastes no time packing away her rifle. Here goes nothing.
Yelena was meant to pretend to know this woman as part of her mission. Be her estranged sister, an easy enough cover. Of all the undercover missions she had gone on, this was perhaps the only one where she could actually draw on personal experience. Yelena had sisters, once, what felt like a millenia ago. She could imagine this woman as Natasha, or Masha. Pretend she was pleading for their return. Maybe that’s why Dreykov had chosen her for this mission, one which he had oddly supervised each step for.
She takes the most natural way down, even if it isn’t the quickest. Ana was still on the other rooftop, ensuring the target stayed where she was. She walks easily, confidently out the door and around the corner, pulls out a phone that doesn’t actually work, and staring at it as if it held the key to all her problems “accidentally” bumps into the woman.
“Oh my god I’m so sorry.” She says. She would have tried for an American accent, it seemed to her rather odd to give away her nationality, but her handler had told her not to change her voice, so she hadn’t.
“Don’t worry about it-” the woman says and then she stills, frozen, like she had just been shot.
“You um. You look familiar.” She says.
She doesn’t expect this to be this easy. “I- Daisy?” she says incredulously. Using the name the Red Room had given her. Half of her confusion doesn’t even have to be faked.
“Yelena.” She breathes, and, is the woman crying? She reaches for a hug, and Yelena jolts slightly from the unexpected contact. But she hadn’t gotten a hug in a while, and if Daisy’s going to make it this easy, she won’t complicate things further. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
She ignores the part of her that doesn’t expect the woman to know her name. The Red Room must have pre-established this part of her cover somehow. She refuses to consider the way that isn’t possible. Doesn’t want to imagine that this woman could be who her heart suspects she is.
Instead, she arms her wrist taser, and soon the target is on the ground, unconscious. She reaches for her comms “Target acquired.” She lifts the taller woman up, not without some difficulty.
“I’m coming to you” Ana says through her ear, and soon enough there’s a truck pulling into the same alley.
“The van is hers, check for anything useful.” Yelena tells Ana as she steps out of the front seat of the truck.
Yelena loads the target onto the truck, double checking her pulse. “Where are the restraints?” She calls.
“There’s rope in the front seat!” Ana responds from the woman’s van.
“Couldn’t have kept it in the back?” She murmurs her complaint. She slides out of the back of the truck to reach for the rope, returning to slide it around the women’s wrists and ankles. She takes note of the woman’s arms, well-muscled. She had been trained. She makes sure to leave as little slack as possible.
“I didn’t want to clutter the back anymore.” Ana says nonchalantly, and hands Yelena the woman’s laptop. “Nothing else useful in there, a bunch of junk really.”
“Okay, then let’s go.” Yelena says. She watches as Ana slides the box truck’s door closed, and hears the latch lock it in place. She eyes the woman on the ground. “I wonder what makes you so special.”
She reaches over the freezer containers in the back, opens the latch to one and pulls out a needle, she injects it into the woman’s bloodstream.
“That should keep you tired for a while. It’s a long flight.” The engine roars to life, and the box truck lurches forward.
***
“Ow!” Yelena had shouted, her knee had scraped the ground. Natasha had run over immediately. “Yelena!”
Masha looked at the two from a distance, scared and unsure.
“Go get mom.” Natasha said to her, and she ran off into the house.
Yelena couldn’t help herself, she was crying.
“It’s okay.” Natasha had told her, but it wasn’t enough to stop the tears.
Masha came out soon after with Mom in tow. “What happened?”
“She fell on her knee” was Natasha’s worried reply, Yelena ripped herself from Natasha’s arms, running into the safety of her mother’s.
She kissed it better. Told her “Your pain only makes you stronger.”.
***
When Daisy wakes she can barely lift her eyelids. The room feels muddy, stuffed, as if the vibrations of everything around her had been muffled. She groans, tries to move, recognizes that her hands and feet are tied together. She’s laying down on the bed of a moving truck, and tries with great effort to sit herself up. She points her hand at the restraints on her legs, tries to will them to shake, but she can’t focus, can barely hear the vibrations of the rope, and her heart drops when nothing happens.
“Well you’re up sooner than expected.”
The voice is achingly familiar, but matured. A noticeable russian accent. She wills her head to look in the blonde woman’s direction, and sees the face that had eluded her for years.
“Yelena.” She forces out, trying not to make her struggling evident. Failing, she imagines.
“You know it’s weird that you know my name. I imagine my organization had to work rather hard for you to accept my cover.”
Daisy shakes her head, dread pooling in her stomach. “No.” she breathes. “No, Yelena it’s me.”
“Try to relax, those drugs in your system are no joke. It wouldn’t have been my first call but they warned me you were more dangerous than you seemed.” She says. “I don’t know if whatever you were trying to do with your hand earlier has something to do with it, but I’d advise against trying again.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“Home.” She says pointedly, ignoring the aching feeling she gets in her chest when she says it.
“No, Yelena, I’m-”
“As much as I’d love to chat, you really should be fully sedated.” She says and reaches for another syringe.
“I’m your sister.” Daisy struggles out. She looks at Yelena pleadingly, begs her to remember, to understand.
Yelena sighs, as if annoyed. “Yes, that was the cover.” She says, and Daisy feels a prick in her neck, and the world slips into black.
***
They were having dinner. Natasha scooped a pile of mac and cheese on a plate and placed it on the table in front of her. “Thanks you.” Masha said cheerily.
“It’s ‘thank you’.” Natasha corrected.
“Whatever.”
“Listen to your sister.” Mom said from across the table.
Natasha raised her eyebrows at her knowingly, and Masha stuck her tongue out in response.
It had felt like any other night. Warm food at the table and the distant chatter of the cartoons on the TV that had yet to be turned off. Masha was sitting in between the feuding Natasha and Yelena. They often fought about little things, Masha rarely knew what. But she knew they would come around soon, they were never able to stay mad at each other for long.
“So how was-”
There was a loud bang as the wall burst open, the force of the blast shattering the window and scattering glass and debris everywhere. Drywall covered the couch and TV like a sheet of fresh snow, and Masha and Yelena screamed in unified terror as the silhouette of a man, flanked by two men armed with big guns, stepped through the wall.
“Alexei?” Mom had shouted.
“It’s not supposed to be today!” Dad screamed back, he scooped Masha into his arms, barreling under cover. Natasha and Mom had grabbed Yelena, and hid on the opposite side of the house. “Get the gun.” Mom whispered to Natasha, and Natasha had nodded and snuck off to their parents room.
The silhouette of the monster that had invaded their house spoke up. “Now I hate to do this, cause all this trouble.” His voice was frantic, desperate. “But, you stole someone from me. And I would like her back. Now.”
He motions for the two men to move, and Masha buries into her dad’s arms where it’s safe. “You’re going to have to be brave little one.” Dad told her, prying her from his hands. “Daddy’s going to take care of it, but you have to hide.”
“I can hear you!” The voice said in a sing-song. “I can hear you lying to my little girl.” He takes a deep breath. “Daisy? My little Daisy are you there?” He was furious, but he was trying to force it down, to make his voice sound affable.
Masha was terrified of him, shrinking into the corner. Dad stepped out in front of the stranger, all bravado.
“We didn’t steal anyone from you.”
“I really rather not use the guns in front of my daughter.” The man said hastily. “Just hand her over, and we can all go our separate ways.”
There was a gunshot. Masha turned around to see Natasha pointing a gun at the monster. “Get out!” she screamed. “Leave us alone!”
She had hit the man’s side, and he was holding onto it, but still standing. “Oh poor thing. Did they steal you too?”
There was something, dark, in Natasha’s eyes then. A sort of sickening realization had hit her all at once.
“Melina, honey, take Natasha and Yelena and go.” Alexei says. Masha tried to run after them, but Alexei had stopped her. Masha looked up with pure confusion at her dad who was holding her back. “You stay with dad for a second.”
“You’re not her father!” The monster growled.
“You want to tell her that?” Dad levels with the man in front of him. “She’s terrified of you right now.”
The man’s expression falls. “I will kill you.”
“In front of her?”
“Keep them aimed at him.” The man said to the two guards. Then he takes a knee. “Daisy?”
He was looking at her but he wasn't saying her name. Masha tried not to cry, to be brave, but it was hard, and she was confused.
“We are going to go home okay? I am your father, and you were taken from me but I am here now. I am going to save you, I am going to take you home.” His eyes screamed gentleness, but his body was covered in cuts and bruises and the vein on his neck was far too large. Masha couldn’t help but retreat further into Dad’s arms.
The man huffed slightly, his eyes glazing over with tears. “It’s okay. They brainwashed you. You don’t remember me. But you will.” He lets out a heavy sigh. “Take her.” He commanded, and turned to her dad.
“If you try and stop him they will end you.”
Her dad looks undaunted, while one guard pointed a gun at his head, the other reaches for Masha. She screamed in protest, begging to be left alone, but she was powerless when the man in the tactical gear lifted her in his arms. She bit, clawed, and screamed but to no avail.
“Dad! Dad, please! Help! Help!” She screeched until her throat gave out.
“I am” said the monster.
“I will” said her dad.
Alexei broke the arm of the man who held a gun to his head, and rushed for the monster. Masha knew her dad was strong, stronger than anyone else. But the monster laughed when he hit him. “You and I have something in cooommooonnn!” He sang loudly, and Masha was dragged away from the fight.
She was strapped to a booster seat.
“Masha!” She heard Natasha scream through the glass of the car door, but the man in the tactical gear was already driving her away, and there was nothing she could do.