New Chances

We set up a plan first. A plan that might turn out to be very dangerous, then Steve and I ushered everyone else out. "Well... that's gonna be fun, huh?" I said as I turned to Steve, who was leaning over the table, his hands resting on the wooden surface. He seemed to be staring into nothing. "You alright?" I asked as I walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He sighed, "Yeah, I'm fine." I wasn't at all convinced. "You're a terrible liar," I said, as I had said so many years ago. He looked up at me and I swear the corners of his mouth were turned up ever so slightly. "Well, where have I heard that before?" "Tell me what's bothering you." "What do you think, Nat?" "You're worried about Maria. Right?" He nodded. "Yeah, me too. But... she's tough, Steve." "I know that, but this Power Broker is... well ruthless, it seems." "Yeah, it seems." I sighed, "Well, we can't do anything for her now." "Except get a good nights rest and track her down tomorrow," Steve said. I nodded in agreement, "Except for that, yes." So that's what we did.

The next morning I got up early, earlier even than the day before, and met Yelena in the hallway of the hotel again. Fanny was with her too. "I see Rogers isn't with you today?" "I decided to let him sleep in, for as far as we can." "hey, I have always wondered, how does Captain America sleep? Like, what does he wear?" I was fairly certain that, one, she had not always wondered this and two, she was only asking me to both mess with me and make me feel a little more at ease. I rolled my eyes, "Really, Yelena?" "Yeah, I'm just... curious about such things, ya know?" "Well, if you really need to know, he sleeps in his underwear." "So... boxershorts and an undershirt? Just boxershorts? Oh, briefs maybe?" I shook my head, Yelena could be so silly sometimes, but I needed the distraction she was providing me with, so I took it. "Just boxershorts." "Nice." "I have to admit, that is indeed pretty nice." "Fascinating." "What?" "That you find it... pretty nice..." Oh God not this again, "Yelena..." "What?" "This again?" "What again?" "You know what I mean." "Hey, it's not my fault that it's obvious to everyone, except apparently you and Rogers, that you have a thing for him." "I don't have a thing for him." "Yes you do, even Fanny sees it." "No she doesn't. And even if she did, her name is Fanny, so what does she know?" "Dog stuff." "Dog stuff, really?" "Yeah, dog stuff." I shook my head, "You know what? Let's just go, before we stand here arguing till the rest wakes up." "Sounds good to me."

We ran though Paris again, just like we had the morning before. As we did I finally admitted to myself that I was glad that I was getting into some sort of routine with Yelena. Things almost felt normal. "What you thinking of, Romanoff," she asked me as she caught me staring at her. "I'm thinking that I'm glad to... well, to have found you guys again. And that I'm happy to be doing something with my little sister." She smiled at me and just gave me a, "You know I'm taller than you, right?" "Ah, yes, but I'm still older than you." She rolled her eyes, "Whatever." She was silent for a while, then, "I'm happy to be doing something with you as well. Something normal I mean. Almost feels like we're normal people. And... I'm glad to have you back." I stopped, grabbed her hand and pulled her into a hug. "Really?" She said. "Yeah. Really." "Shucks," she chuckled. "Oh, you know you like it. You used to like it when you were little." I let go of her, but now she pulled me back in. "Hey, Nat..." "Hmm?" "You're not gonna die on me again, right?" "I'm not planning to." "Good, cause... well... hearing that you died... it really broke us, ya know?" "I know." "And I don't want to have to go through all that again. Not till we're both old and lived a good life, got it?" "I got it." "So no more cliff jumping." "Not even recreationally?" "You mean at sea?" "Yeah, jumping into the water, adrenaline rush, all that." "I... suppose that's fine... on one condition." "And that is?" "You're not doing that without me." "Deal."

When we got back to the hotel, Steve was waiting for us outside with some fresh chocolate croissants. "Good morning, ladies," he said with a smile on his face. "What got you so happy?" Yelena asked him. "Oh, you know, nice weather, good food, and Buck-." "Bucky's got you so happy?" I joked before he could finish his sentence. Steve rolled his eyes. I'll repeat it, because it sounds so surreal. Steven Grant Rogers, formerly known as Captain America, actually rolled his eyes. "I was going to drop some good news and you just had to interrupt me with a bad joke, huh?" "That's how I roll, Rogers." "I am aware. Anyway, Bucky stayed up all night and racked Maria's location. She's still where she was last night... but here's the thing. It's an old Hydra facility." "So?" I asked. "So... Bucky know the facility... on the inside. He knows where the cells are. He knows the backdoors as well. This will make breaking in and saving Maria much easier." "Huh... that is good news indeed," I admitted. "Yeah, can you now please give us those croissants," Yelena interrupted, "I'm starving." Steve handed her the bag with the croissants and Yelena handed two to me. "Bon appétit," she said faking a French accent and then took a huge bite from one of her own croissants. "So, seems like maybe our job is going to be easier than we thought huh? Or at least this part of it," I said. "Donf fay fath. You mift jinfx if," Yelena said with her mouth full of croissant. "What?" Steve and I said. She chewed for a bit, then he swallowed and said. Don't say that. You might jinx it. You gotta knock on wood now." I knocked on the tree Steve had been leaning against as he waited for us. "Good enough?" "Yeah, that might do."

Yelena and I showered, then we all met up again in Steve's and my room. "Bucky brought me some good news this morning," Steve opened the meeting, which immediately got everyone's attention. Yelena and I shared a look, we both seemed to be surprised that he hadn't told the others yet. Steve turned to Bucky, "Please tell them what you told me." Bucky stepped forward and I suddenly noticed how tired he looked. "Last night, I stayed up to track Maria's exact location... and because I was afraid they might move her," he said. "Well, it's quite obvious you stayed up all night, yeah, but for the right reasons it seems," I whispered. He looked at me as if he had heard me, then he simply nodded and continued. "She wasn't moved, however, I did manage to figure out where exactly they too her. It's an old Hydra facility and lucky me, I know my way around that place. So Steve and I decided I will be leading our mission today. We will continue our mission as planned, but with a few... extra instructions." Bucky suddenly pulled what seemed to be a map, or was it a building plan, out of his pocket. It looked hastily drawn, but it was clear enough. He used it to explain the changes to our plan. Mostly by pointing out hallways and corridors we should avoid because of a high amount of cameras and or chances that we would run into offices and lunchbreak rooms. "Hydra had lunchbreak rooms?" Yelena asked Bucky in surprise. Bucky shrugged, "Yeah, they were monsters, but they did allow us to eat, ya know." "Wow." "Are you really that surprised?" "It just seems so... normal... for a gang of Nazi's." Bucky chuckled, "Yeah, it kinda does huh? Anyway, these places are better to avoid. That means we can take these routes through the building." He pointed out three different routes. "Sam and Leah will take the first one. I will lead Melina and Alexei down the second route. Steve, you take the girls down the third one." "The girls?" Yelena questioned. "Seems like we got a nickname," I said. "You prefer damsels? Dames maybe?" Bucky quipped. "Actually I would prefer "Warrior princesses" but I don't think you're gonna give us that," Yelena joked. Bucky smiled slightly, "Yeah, no, that's not gonna happen." "I was afraid of that. Anyway, the plan." "Yeah, the rest of the plan will remain the same." "Cool, let's go then, shall we?"

We reached the Hydra base without much trouble, meaning we ran one or two red lights, but that's all. Also, that's what you get for letting Yelena drive, apparently. We got out of the van, that we might or might not have stolen, after parking it in an alley. There we climbed up on one of the buildings near the Hydra base. "Here we split up," Bucky told us. "We'll meet again at the cells, all the way down in the basement of the Hydra base." We did as Bucky told us and split up into the teams he told us about that morning. "So, Cap, you're the leader now, where were we supposed to go again?" Yelena asked him after the other two teams had left. "Please call me Steve, I'm no longer Captain America." "Okay, Steve... where were we supposed to go again." "Have you really forgotten?" "No, I just wanted to make sure that you still know." "Right. Well we sneak in at the top of the building then make our way down through air vents and elevator shafts." "Sounds like fun." "Sounds like we should make sure we won't drop to our deaths," I said. "So, yeah, fun indeed. Let's go."

We made our way over to the roof of the old Hydra base. "Huh, nice view," Yelena remarked. "Not what we're here for Yelena," I told her. "I am aware, I was also being sarcastic." "Hmm." "So, let's see if that door is locked, shall we?" Yelena said as she walked over to the door. She tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. "Well, now we have two options, one, we kick it in, or two, we pick the lock. Your choice, Captain." "Not a Captain anymore. And picking the lock would be a better idea, since it would attract less attention. I take it both of you know how to pick a lock." "Yep," Yelena said as she took a pin out of her hair, "Gimme a minute." In reality it only took her thirty seconds to open the door. "Lead the way... Cap." It was clear that by now she was just calling him that to mess with him. Steve sighed, "Alright... Widow 2.0." "Touché." Steve winked at her and entered the Hydra base. "I'm so gonna enjoy having his guy as my brother in law," Yelena said softly before following him. "Yelena, no," I told her. "Yelena, yes." "What ar you girls talking about?" "Nothing," we both said at the same time. "Good, we have a mission to focus on." "Yessir!" we both replied at the same time. Steve sighed and continued to lead us down to the basement of the of old Hydra base, ignoring our irrelevant and not quite frequent bickering.

Of course it didn't take us too long to run into a small group of K.O.P.E. agents, who wanted to try to kick our asses but got their own asses handed to them instead. "That was fun," Yelena said as she stepped over one of the agents who was laying unconsciously on the floor. "Yeah, terrific. We should definitely do it again," I said sarcastically. "Now where are those damn air vents?" Steve looked up at the walls and the ceiling, "They should be here." "Well, they aren't." I told him. "Great, so they renovated the building," Yelena said. "Now what?" We both looked at Steve, who seemed to be lost in thought. "I say we continue to make our way down to the cells, the others will be expecting us there and we can't let them down. I don't see what else we can do." "Good thing I got some trick up my sleeve," I said. "And with tricks you mean knives?" Yelena asked me. "For example." "That," Steve said, "is mildly terrifying. But probably also quite useful." "You know me, scary but useful," I told him. He nodded, "Now let's go."

We made our further down, avoiding as many cameras as we could, when suddenly an alarm went off. The lights turned red and agents poured into the hall that we're in. "Well, now we're fucked," Yelena said. "What makes you think that? The agents pouring into the hall?" "No, the cold weather. YES of COURSE it's all the agents pouring into the hall!" "We can handle them." "I know, but it's still no fun." "Yeah, but we're not fucked though." "Hmm, fine, we're mildly inconvenienced." I nodded, "Indeed we are." The K.O.P.E. agents seemed quite distracted now, which was obviously the perfect time to attack them.

After we defeated them Steve told us to make our way downstairs as fast as we could, so naturally Yelena and I jumped over the railing of the stairs to get down quicker. I heard Steve sigh as he followed us. I also heard him mumble "Not what I meant, but hey, if you wanna break your ankles, go ahead." Lucky for us, it wasn't really that high. As we landed on our feet without breaking an ankle, Yelena glanced at me and mouthed the word "poser". I rolled my eyes, ignoring the urge to flip her off and kicked open the door towards the basement. "Oh great, more stairs," Yelena mumbled as we stared down the spiral staircase. "Just get down," Steve told us. So down we went.

I am not sure how long it took us to descend the staircase, but it felt like hours. Eventually we reached a dark hallway, lit up by only a few flickering lights. "Well this looks cosy," I said. "Yeah, I'd looooove to live here." Yelena replied with just as much sarcasm. "All it misses is chains, some whips... maybe some blood splatters." "You forget the spiked clubs." "Oh, yes, that would really give it this medieval chic dungeon vibe this place deserves." "Ladies," Steve said. "We're forgetting something." "Yeah, yeah, mission, we know," Yelena said. "Actually I was gonna say you forgot the assortment of flaying knives." "Oh..." "But the mission is quite important too, now that you talk about it, yeah." "Right."

"What were you guys doing up there?" Bucky's voice suddenly spoke up from behind us in the dark. We all turned at the same time, startled by the sudden sound of his voice. Bucky chuckled, "Just me, guys." "Good," Steve said. "Uh, we uh... ran into some trouble." "Yeah, turns out they renovated and modernised the building," Yelena said. "No more visible air vents we could climb into." "So of course we had to take the faster more obvious way. We encountered some K.O.P.E. agents and kicked their asses and then we ran got down here as fat as we could. But, yeah, they know we're here now," I said, finishing the story. "Damn," Bucky said. "Well, nothing we can do about it now, let's get Maria and get out... if we can." "Sounds like a plan, boss," Yelena said. "But where are the birdie and his paramour?" I chuckled, "Yelena!" "What?" She said innocently. "She's not his paramour." "Oh, right, he doesn't have a wife or a girlfriend or anything. What is she then, his lover?" "I don't know what she is to him. I just know that I find her quite annoying." "Well, don't let her hear that," Steve told me.

"Don't let who hear what?" Sam asked as he seemingly came out of nowhere, startling three Black Widows and three super soldiers. "You guys okay?" "Yes, we're fine," Alexei said. "They just know we're here, so we're a little on edge." Sam nodded, "We already thought we heard an alarm. Well, let's get Maria and go then." Melina nodded, "Yes, let's get your friend and go, before they get us." We split up in two groups of four to cover more ground while looking for Maria. Steve, Yelena, Bucky and I went to the left. Sam, agent Meyer, Melina and Alexei covered the right. Lucky for Maria, it was the four of us that found her and not the other group.

"She seems to be in here," Yelena said, standing on her tiptoes to look through the hole in the door. "Who are you?" I heard Maria's voice coming from the other side of the door. "Name's Yelena, Yelena Belova." "You're a Black Widow," Maria sad with the certainty of someone who has worked with Nick Fury for years. "Yeah." "Yelena, get out of the way," Bucky told her. Yelena stepped away and Bucky ripped the door out of the doorframe as if it was nothing. Of course this set off another alarm. "Great work, Buck," I told him. "Shut up, Romanoff." "No, I don't think I will." "SAM! WE'RE GETTING COMPANY!" Bucky yelled to the other side of the hall. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THIS TIME?" "OH SHUT UP, BIRDIE, AND JUST PREPARE TO FIGHT!" Maria looked us over in confusion. "You... you're really back?" I walked into the cell gave her my hand and pulled her up. "Long story, but yeah. We'll explain if we survive this. Let's get out of here first." "Okay. Sounds fair." She seemed to be over the shock of seeing me and Steve again quite quickly.

That's when the agents poured in. Even more of them than back on the staircase. "Okay, I think we're truly fucked now," Yelena said. "This would be a shit way to die." "Yelena," I said, "less complaining, more fighting." "On it."

The fighting didn't last long. Even Steve, Bucky and Alexei were taken down quite easily by the K.O.P.E. agents. They dragged us all the way up the stairs and through many hallways, only to drop us down in front of a desk, behind which a woman was standing with her back turned to us. "We got all of them boss. They tried to break out the prisoner." "As I knew they would. They just can't help themselves... well, most of the time." I glanced at Steve, who seemed to be as confused as I was and mouthed, "She sounds familiar." Steve nodded in agreement. Then, the Power Broker, who was apparently a woman, turned around to face us. "You fucking BITCH," Buck yelled. Sharon Carter smiled down at us, "Good to see you again, Buck," she said mockingly. Steve had frozen beside me, shocked by the realization that a woman he once liked hat turned on us like this. "You know this woman," Yelena asked Bucky. "She's an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," I replied. "Sharon Carter, also known as agent 13." "She was known as agent 13 and you're surprised she turned on you?" Yelena asked. "Well, I used to think the whole 13 is a bad number thing was just superstition, but now it seems there might actually have been some truth to it."

Sharon ignored me and looked us over, "Hmm... I don't really need all of you, do I?" She looked at Steve, "In truth, I think I only need you... but how will I dispose of the others? I mean, I can't let them out on the street again." Steve stood up, easily shaking off the two agents that were trying to restrain him and keep him down on his knees. "You leave them alone!" Sharon glared at him, "Like you did with me?" This seemed to stop Steve in his tracks, "What?" "Back in 2016, after the whole Avengers break-up. I helped you get your damned team together! The U.N. knew I helped you! But did you help me after? Did you come back for me after? No, you didn't! You left me!" Steve looked at her, pity in his eyes, "Sharon... I'm so sorry." "It's too late for that. Take the prisoners away. Brainwash them, they might be useful." "Sharon, please listen to me. You don't have to be like this. Stop this now and I promise we'll forgive you. I promise we won't tell the U.N. that you're the Power Broker. You can even join us, if you want to. And you can call us when you need our help and I promise we'll come," Steve pleaded. "Hmm... no... still too late..." Suddenly something seemed to catch her eye, "Hey, what is she doing? Where did she get that phone?" Suddenly I caught sight of Maria, who had seemingly managed to grab a phone off of Sharon's desk. A guard grabbed the phone out of her hand and hit her in the head. Hard. Sharon took the phone, "She texted someone for help..." She seemed to think for a while. "We'll let them come. Wouldn't mind adding more agents to my team." And with that we were all hauled off back to the cells.

They threw me, Yelena and Maria into the same cell. Not the cell we had taken Maria out of, since that one still didn't have a door, but another one. "Well, that went to shit quicker than I expected," Yelena said. "MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU SHOULD ASK SOMEONE TO PICK THE DAMN LOCK, BARNES!" "HOW COULD I HAVE KNOWN THAT RIPPING THE DOOR OUT WOULD HAVE SET OFF AN ALARM?!" Bucky yelled back. "YOU EXPECTED IT TO DO NOTHING?" "YELENA CAN YOU PLEASE STOP YELLING?" I asked her. "Right, sorry, ain't gonna help us." "Indeed." "Well, now that we're here anyway," Maria said. "Can you maybe tell me how the fuck you and Steve are alive?" "Ah, yeah... see that's a funny story."

I gave Maria a short explanation of what had happened to Steve and me, which she seemed to accept as plausible. "Well, it's good to see you again, Nat." "Yeah, haven't seen you in what? Six almost seven years?" "That's because this big purple fucker erased me from existence." "Yeah, that sucks. We could have used you in those five years." I sighed, "I at least really could have used your company." "Were you that lonely?" "I ran the Avengers compound all on my own, I barely got any visitors... I got phone calls, yes, including phone calls from a raccoon... but yes, long story short, I was very lonely." "I'm sorry to hear that," Maria said. "Now... can I ask what her story is?" She asked while pointing towards Yelena. "Hey, it's rude to point. Also, I'm Nat's sister." This statement seemed to confuse Maria even more than seeing me alive. "What?" "That's another... quite long story." "Least amount of words possible?" "I'll try."

"So, when I was eight, I was sent on my first KGB mission. Which was helping to create the illusion of family for a newly acquired three year old... possible future Widow. That kid was Yelena. For three years we pretended to be a family, till S.H.I.E.L.D. came after Alexei, who pretended to be our dad, because... well I'm not sure what he did but I think he blew something up. Anyway, we were brought back to Russia, we were split up, didn't see each other till 2016. Then we... reconciled and decided we all still saw each other as a family, so she's my sister." "That's... fascinating." "You're not the only one I didn't tell about this. Not even Fury knew about this." "Well, that's impressive, usually it's impossible to keep things from Fury." "Ah, but I have done more impossible things. Like coming back from the dead." "But you have heard of me, right?" Yelena asked Maria. Maria nodded, "Yes, you were on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar. Got on not long before it was... "taken down"." "What's with the quotation thingies?" I asked her. "You'll see." "Who did you text, Maria?" "The Cavalry."

The Cavalry? For a few seconds I wondered who she meant, then it dawned on me. Yelena however still seemed majorly confused. "How are horses going to help us?" She asked. "The Cavalry has nothing to do with horses," I told her. "She's an old friend of us." "Oh, yeah, that clears things up," Yelena said sarcastically. "It's a nickname she got after a mission in Bahrain... She... never liked it much." "Ah, so you texted a friend. And how's one person going to help us?" "Well, she won't exactly be coming alone, she'll take a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with her," Maria explained. "Excuse me?" I asked "Ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agents you mean." Maria shook her head, "You really think Nick would let S.H.I.E.L.D. go down?" "That fucking bastard, of course he had a back-up plan." "Yeah... I too have some things to explain, but we'll get to that when the team comes to break us out... probably quite literally." "Some things? There's more than just S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Maria looked at me apologetically, "Well, let's just say you're not... the first person I have met that has been resurrected." "What? Who?" "It's better if you just wait and see. He'll probably come with the Cavalry." "Hmm," I said, not very satisfied with her non-explanation. But I waited. We all waited for the Cavalry.