yelena
JULY 23RD, 2028
Yelena’s heart almost stops when she sees her sister on one of the cameras.
Natasha looks almost painfully casual, wearing a SHIELD jacket and work pants. Her t-shirt is tucked into her pants and her hair is pulled into a ponytail and she looks happy as she talks to someone. The woman she’s talking to is tall, blonde, and wearing an outfit just like Natasha’s.
Yelena looks away, satisfied that she found Natasha but now rerouting her plan. She has to end up in Natasha’s path so that she can get caught. It’s the least embarrassing way to get to her sister and get information out of her about the mole, and it can stop the drive from getting to Valentina.
James is on the floor, incognito as a SHIELD agent with a black wig and a couple of facial prosthetics to make him almost unrecognizable from a distance. Antonia is monitoring the computers from outside of the building, and Yelena’s tasked herself with getting the drive.
Yelena fidgets with the drive while she waits for James’ go signal, anxiety bubbling in her stomach. It’s been a year since she last saw Natasha. What is Natasha going to say to her? Will she really be mad like Yelena’s been picturing this whole time?
“Why does SHIELD have operations in London, anyway?” Antonia asks at one point, “seems sketchy on the international scale.”
“They’re more affiliated with the UN these days,” James responds curtly, “Works for us, the time shift from here to the US is brutal.”
“You’re a super soldier,” Antonia remarks, “You would be fine.”
“You’re a super soldier, too,” James says with a dry sounding scoff, and Yelena watches him lean on a wall for a long minute before he mutters “Идти.” (Go.)
Yelena pulls the cover off of the vent and drops down into the room, plugging the drive into the computer as soon as she gets past its passcode. Yelena wouldn’t bother if it weren’t for needing proof of what Valentina’s doing, not that she thinks her sister won’t believe her, but more for her own reassurance.
While it downloads, Yelena uses her baton to shimmy the vent cover back into place and rolls her shoulders back. It helps her stand a little taller and self-regulate.
“Yelena, you have thirty seconds, tops,” James reports and Yelena hums, checking her phone again. Natasha and the blonde have split up now, with Natasha down the east hall and the blonde closer to Yelena with another woman at her side now.
Yelena pulls the drive as soon as it finishes, stomach turning over as she considers what she’s about to do. She puts the drive into her breast pocket of her vest and takes her empty drive out of her pocket, holding it tightly.
“Yelena, we have to get out of here,” James says, to which Yelena rolls her eyes, turning off her coms.
She opens the door and sees James on the other side, rolling his eyes when he sees her.
“You really turned off your radio?”
“Let’s just get out of here,” Yelena responds, and Bucky nods.
This plan was mapped out nearly perfectly so that she could help him escape but still run into Natasha, not that Bucky knows any of that. All they have to do is round this corner, go up the west staircase, and Natasha should be there while Bucky can escape through to the roof. Knowing Natasha, she’s already aware that Yelena’s here. She knows her sister well enough to trust that fact.
As they round the corner, Yelena slips the drive from her pocket and into James’ hand. He’s quick to slide it into one of the pockets of his pants and Yelena pushes open the door to the west staircase.
What she didn’t account for is the blonde agent that Natasha was standing with earlier to be standing in the stairwell, an unreadable look on her face as she looks Yelena up and down and then James.
“Спасибо, James,” she says and Yelena feels like ice water was just poured down her back. Of course, James was the mole. How could she be so dense? (Thanks, James.)
Her eyes meet Yelena’s. They’re an icy blue and Yelena wishes she had some kind of something that wouldn’t make this feel so isolating. She barely notices that James’ taken a step back and is no longer at her side, instead standing in front of the door so that Yelena can’t escape.
Yelena can’t help but find it disjointing that she put together this plan to be captured, but now that the rug has been swept out from underneath her, there’s nothing more she wants to do than run.
“James, turn off your comms,” Yelena finally musters, keeping her voice as steady as she can.
“Easy, убийца, he doesn’t work for you anymore,” the blonde says.
All Yelena can think about is keeping her face straight and not giving away the fear bubbling in her stomach, or the anger at being called убийца. Killer. She’s not a killer, not anymore. She hasn’t been in a long time.
“Who are you?” Yelena can’t help but ask.
“Bobbi Morse,” the blonde responds, “And you must be Yelena. Your sister has been hellbent on finding you.”
“What are you going to do?” Yelena levels her a stare, “There is a hit on him. If Valentina finds out that he’s the mole…”
“Valentina is the least of your worries right now,” Bobbi replies, crossing her arms, “you have been committing international crimes. Plus, Natasha is pissed.”
“I can deal with Natasha,” Yelena retorts quickly, almost so quickly that it could sound like a lie.
“Good to hear that.”
Motherfucker.
Like the dramatic woman she is, Natasha takes that moment to descend the stairs and reveal herself. It’s jarring to see her in person after so long. Up close, she can see the exhaustion on her sister’s face, the way that she’s still wearing both of her necklaces but keeps the gems hidden underneath her shirt, she can feel the frustration coming off of her in waves.
“Natasha.”
“Yelena.”
They stare at each other for a long time. Yelena doesn’t know what to think and she’s pretty sure that her sister doesn’t either.
“Have you been getting checkups?” Natasha finally asks, and Yelena can’t tell if the question is coming from concern or some kind of fucked up way to throw Yelena off of her game.
“How is that relevant?” Yelena questions defensively, “Are you going to arrest me or not, sestra? Because this is stupid.”
“Oh, is this hard for you?” Natasha’s voice drips with faux sympathy, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t think about the fact that getting arrested after doing a bunch of illegal shit would be hard on you.”
“You ran from, what was it, 143 governments? Who the fuck are you to talk about getting arrested?” Yelena retorts quickly. She can’t stand the way Natasha’s dug under her skin already.
Natasha nods at Bobbi, not even meeting Yelena’s eyes anymore, “Let’s get her to the Quinjet.”
Yelena fights the urge to punch James when he walks up behind her and reads off her rights, handcuffing her. There’s a part of her that wants to break out, punch James, punch Natasha, punch the fucking look off of that stupid blonde’s face, and never come back to anyone from this life. She’s had too much.
But she doesn’t. She clenches her jaw, she doesn’t meet Natasha’s eyes when she asks where she got the new prosthetic from, and she follows Natasha out of the stairwell and to wherever the hell they’re going to hold her.
“Buck, go back to the team,” Natasha says at one point, and James nods.
Yelena’s handed off to a guard that she doesn’t know the name of, and follows her sister through the building and to a landing deck.
There’s a Quinjet waiting there with a couple more SHIELD operatives standing next to it, all dressed in full tactical gear as if Yelena’s going to cause a problem. She wonders if they know of her connection to Natasha.
The back of the Quinjet drops open and Yelena bristles, remembering vividly what kind of life she used to have when she frequented these. She had a family then - and not that she doesn’t have one now, but that family’s definitely changed since.
She doesn’t get much time to process any of it, though, because the guard that’s guiding her pushes her forward on to the ramp of the aircraft.
Natasha walks ahead with the blonde from before next to her. As they walk up the ramp, Yelena’s eyes adjust to the dark lighting of the aircraft and she sees a couple more people inside. She doesn’t recognize any of them except for one, who’s standing over a table with a brunet.
It’s Anya. Yelena’s stomach drops when she sees her. She hasn’t seen Anya in almost a year.
She looks different. She’s carrying herself differently. She’s wearing a gray SHIELD t-shirt with a black long-sleeved shirt underneath and a pair of black work pants. Her hair is long and braided down the back of her head and her eyes are bright in the dimly lit aircraft. She doesn’t meet Yelena’s eyes for more than a second but Yelena sees the way her jaw clenches.
The guard shoves her into a seat and Natasha says something that Yelena doesn’t pay attention to as she’s strapped into the seat. She didn’t expect Anya to be here. Why would Anya be here? And working for SHIELD, nonetheless?
Natasha directs something around before coming back to Yelena, standing over her, “You have to ditch the leg.”
Yelena stares at her sister for a long minute, “What are you talking about?”
“The leg isn’t your old one, and I have a pretty good idea that you got it from Valentina, which makes it evidence, Yelena,” Natasha retorts, “You’re going to have to ditch it so we can take it into collections.”
“I have to walk,” Yelena retorts, “This has to be against some kind of protocol.”
“Можете ли вы сотрудничать?” Natasha asks, obviously irritated. (Can you please cooperate?)
“Ты не можешь лишить меня способности передвигаться?” Yelena fires back, “Если у вас нет протеза, который я могу использовать, я не отдам вам свою ногу.” (Can you not take my ability to move around? Unless you have a prosthetic that I can use, I'm not giving you my leg.)
“Yelena…”
“Что ты будешь делать, если я не подчинюсь?” Yelena taunts, “You already arrested me.” (What will you do if I don’t comply?)
“Not cooperating is another crime,” Natasha levels her a glare, “You have until the end of this fucking flight to decide where you stand, Yelena.”
Natasha leaves her on her own and Yelena’s gaze falls on her lap. She can’t look at Anya, she can’t look at her sister, she sure as hell can’t look at that stupid blonde woman that Natasha’s so cool with.
God, this fucking sucks.
-
Yelena’s in a holding room for what she assumes is at least an hour before someone comes in. The blonde woman from before has been keeping watch of her from a corner of the room, and Yelena wonders if that’s some intimidation tactic from her sister or a far-fetched good deed knowing that Yelena hates men. Either way, she doesn’t like it.
She’s pretty sure that the blonde woman - yes, she has a name, Bobbi, and Yelena tacks it on her list of dumb nicknames following Bucky - sleeps with her eyes open because it’s almost disturbing how still she’s been standing.
Plus, they took her leg. And she really fucking needs that thing.
Natasha walks into the room, stopping to talk to Bobbi for a second. Yelena can’t make out much - a question from Natasha asking if Bobbi’s eaten yet, something murmured back, another exchange between the two that leaves the both of them with little smiles on their faces. Bobbi then dismisses herself with a muttered good luck that makes Yelena’s blood boil and Natasha’s focus lands back on Yelena.
She has a full file tucked under her arm and a less-than-pleased look on her face. She’s donning a SHIELD-issued jacket now, and keys jingle from the carabiner on her belt loop as she sits down.
“Yelena…” Natasha doesn’t meet her eyes for a long moment, “What is going on?”
Yelena petulantly keeps her mouth shut and Natasha stares for a moment before continuing, “You’re working with Valentina. Dad’s working with Valentina. Buck tells me that you’re supposedly going after vibranium, which is fucking insane. She’s fucking insane. Some scientists went after vibranium a couple of years ago and they were murdered before they could comprehend that that’s what they were seeing.”
“I am not going after vibranium,” Yelena retorts simply, glaring at her sister.
“Okay,” Natasha moves the file to the side and sits up straighter in her chair, “What are you doing, then?”
“How’s Anya?” Yelena deflects. She really does want to know, truly, and she really also doesn’t want to answer her sister’s questions.
“You’re not at liberty to ask,” Natasha retorts, “You abandoned her. You abandoned me, too, which, is only not as bad because Anya is way more important to me than I’ll ever be. So cut the shit, stop being stupid, and answer my questions.”
“James is the mole,” Yelena says slowly, watching her sister’s face closely for a confirmation. There’s the subtlest of nods and Yelena hums affirmatively, “Valentina wants the mole dead. My plan was to be captured to confirm who the mole was because contrary to your belief, sestra, I don’t want anyone dead, except for Valentina.”
“You could go to The Raft for your affiliation with her alone,” Natasha responds, “ever since she was fired from being director and gone underground, she’s more wanted by the government than anyone on this planet. I do not want to arrest you but if you stack the evidence against yourself, then I’m not going to be given much of a choice. Also, have you or have you not seen a doctor since I last saw you?”
“Who cares?” Yelena exclaims, “I’ve already, on both ends, outlived everything I was supposed to. Выпустите меня. Мне нужно вытащить Джеймса оттуда.” (Let me out. I need to get James out of there.)
“And then what?” Natasha retorts, “You’ll come home and everything will be okay?”
“Come home to what?” Yelena asks, frustrated, “To you and your perfect family? To Kate? I don’t fit in your lives anymore, sestra! Just let me go.”
“You didn’t even try to fit, Yelena! You ran!” Natasha exclaims, “You ran from Kate, you ran from Anya, you ran from Clint and Laura, fuck, seriously, you ran from me! You begged me to stay and then left me! You didn’t even leave a fucking note this time, you just disappeared like you had never even existed in the first place. I want to be a part of your life, I want to give you a chance to be the person you never got a chance to be, but you make it really fucking hard when you just leave for no reason!”
Yelena presses her lips together, trying to remember all of her training over the years. Her instincts beg her to cry, plead forgiveness and to go home where everything was just a lot less sucky, but she knows she can’t do that. She doesn’t have that luxury, not at this time.
“I want her dead,” Yelena keeps her voice as level as possible, “And I have a plan to do that. But I need you to cut contact with James or pull him out. I do not want anyone else to die.”
“And then what?” Natasha asks, her voice much quieter now.
“I don’t know and quite frankly, I don’t care,” Yelena retorts.
“Okay, fine,” Natasha takes something out of her pocket and rolls it over in her hand, whispering, “You will go. Only if - and I’m serious, I will arrest you for life if you don’t - you promise to come home when you’re done. Whatever this is that you’re going through, we’ll figure it out together. But if I let you go, you have to come back home.”
Yelena shifts in her seat, “I’ll come back.”
Natasha nods, showing Yelena the device, “Бобби ушла. Это отключит камеры на этом этаже на две минуты. Твоя нога в углу, я подожду, пока ты ее закрепишь, прежде чем выключить камеры.” (Bobbi’s gone. This will kill the cameras on this floor for two minutes. Your leg is in the corner, I will wait for you to secure it before I kill the cameras.)
Yelena nods. She can do that.