Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Everyone ready?” Wanda looked at Steve who was sitting in the back of the quinjet with them. He had just briefed everyone on what the mission was going to be like and what he wanted everyone to do.

It was her, Steve, Sam, Rhodey and Natasha going. It was going to be a simple mission with the five of them.
So simple…

Wanda’s head drifted as she heard the team mumble between each other.

The last few months Steve had started to include her more in missions, which was exciting, but in the same few months she had also had to deal with her, and Natasha's relationship fall more and more apart.

Okay, to be fair, after Natasha broke up with her in January, it had already been pretty much as destroyed as it possibly could have been. But Natasha had even said that doing it when they did was an attempt to make sure their friendship at least didn’t get too affected by it. Of course, in reality, that couldn’t be more far from what had ended up happening.

Wanda really wished it hadn't ended as messy as it had, but the way they had broken up after standing in her room yelling at each other for half an hour… it honestly couldn’t have gone worse than that.

Both of them pretended nothing had happened. Or at least tried to around the rest of the team. The team didn't know they had been a thing to begin with, which really was one of the biggest conflicts in their relationship. But because of this, they had to pretend everything was fine when they were with them. They had to talk and work together, and Natasha still had to train Wanda a few times a week.

The training sessions were the worst part. Normally Wanda and Natasha could hide in the crowd and let the rest of the team do the talking, not having to actually interreact with each other. But when Natasha was training her, they were forced to talk to each other. It was very minimal talking and it was only when Natasha gave her instructions or corrections, but it was still words exchanged. Words with cold tones and ugly or annoyed looks served with.

Wanda had actually thought that the training sessions would be the easiest way to try and iron out the conflict and act, and try to talk to Natasha again, however, Natasha had shown no interest in trying. Natasha seemed to not want to repair what they once had, and preferred the distance. And to add salt to the wound, after a few weeks Natasha had started to give away even more days to Steve so Wanda could work with him more to “get her field ready” also known as obviously wanting to spend even less time with her.

The only good thing about this training mess was that Wanda could join them in the field now. She hadn't been on a single real mission since the one over a year ago in Spain. Right now she was only allowed to go to the “easy” missions, but it was still better than nothing. It was a nice feeling she was part of the team for once.

Wanda collected her head just as she watched Sam starting to circle around in the sky looking for a nice landing spot.

It was going to be a very simple mission today, one of the tames one Wanda had ever been part of… which was really saying something…
They were going to what has been rumoured to be an old Hydra base… or something… to investigate the area and see if they could find anything interesting or useful. They knew it was abandoned now and held basically no danger to it at all which was why Wanda had questioned why so many were going in the first place. However, she had stopped questioning it when she had seen how big of an area they were going to cover. It would have taken days to cover alone if you were doing a thorough investigation. But with both Sam and Rhodey being able to be airborne, and Steve and Natasha's previous experiences doing things like this, it was going to be very easy and very fast.

Still, it was a really boring mission, and honestly, she didn’t have much interest in it at all. She knew it was important to get more comfortable in the field, but poking around in a dusty building was not the way she wanted to do it.

Wanda looked uninterested out of the window as they finally touched ground again. She hadn't even bothered to ask exactly where they were going because she didn’t really care. She knew it was somewhere in maybe east Europe. Or was it north?... or… south…

She groaned softly to herself as the ramp lowered and the team went up on their feet. Natasha was in the front with Steve as always. She was after all the leader with him.

It was hard knowing the leader of the group had now decided not to like her anymore. Natasha had, and still really did, mean a lot to Wanda, and she couldn’t really deny that. Even if Natasha had broken her heart, she was still so special to her, and Wanda really did want to forgive her. Maybe the shot of ever being in a relationship with her again was gone, but she still wanted her in her life.

“Sam and Rhodey keep updates on coms if anything happens, keep to the east and west. Nat, you hang back, Wanda and I will look over the north side.” Steve looked at her after he finished his small speech to everyone. Lucky as Wanda was, she wasn't even allowed to walk alone, or really do anything alone, so she was of course going with Steve.

After everyone nodded at each other, Steve and Wanda took a small jog towards and around the back of the huge building before picking an entrance.

The area they had to go over was giant, but thankfully it wasn't too hard to cover and secure, it was more a matter of just doing it.

Wanda flicked her hand, flying a few dusty old books away from the table, skimming over the titles as she made her way down the room. To her left, she could see Steve holding a notebook and looking at the cover before dropping it on the floor as he moved on.
It was such boring work. At least it would have been somewhat fun if they expected anything out of it, but they didn’t, they expected literally nothing.

“Last time I went through an old archive I almost got blown up, but this seems way nicer.”
Wanda lifted her head looking at Steve who looked through a bookshelf now.

“Well, at least we can finish in a day or two,” Wanda said with a small smile back, looking at Steve who nodded.

“And at least we have somebody to talk to, hu.” Steve walked up to her nodding at the door with a small smile before he led her out of the current room into the next one.

The next few hours were not the most exciting ones Wanda had lived through. They were just going from room to room looking over everything. They hadn't found anything particularly interesting, and the work seemed slow. At the same time, Steve had a point, the two of them being together was probably a lot more fun than going around alone like the three others. Sometimes some of them talked over the coms, but in general, it was quiet between them, unlike Steve and Wanda who talked constantly.

She liked Steve a lot. He was kind and caring and always seemed to take the time to talk to her when she needed it. It was nice knowing her team cared about her, even though sometimes the group felt a lot more like colleagues than friends. Of course, they were actually colleagues before anything else, but with work that took so much time, and not so much room to do other things, Wanda did really feel the need to have a friend in there somewhere as well.

“Think it’s getting dark,” Wanda mumbled as she pushed away a chair to look under the table.

“Let’s finish up this room then and call it a day. Think we will be done early tomorrow if we keep the same speed.” Steve said with a small smile before lifting his hand to his ear. “Finish up what you're doing and meet us in the quinjet, well do the rest tomorrow.” Steve nodded at her before Wanda quickly started to fly things across the room feeling very eager to finish up looking at old books and dusty shelves.

“Steve, have you heard from Natasha recently.” Wanda lifted her head when she heard Sam’s voice through the earpiece. “I haven't heard from her in hours.” Wanda could hear some wind over his voice indicating he was already circling around the area.

“No,” Steve answered shortly, giving Wanda a small look before nodding at the door. Wanda could see him picking up his shield he had left by the entrance, throwing it over his back quickly before marching out of the room.

Wanda could tell how Steve was using long strides to walk faster. He didn’t run yet, probably trying to not make it a big deal before they had more information. Just because Natasha wasn't on coms didn’t mean something necessarily had happened either.

“I just got to the quinjet; she isn't here either.” Rhode’s voice entered the conversation. He paused for a bit before he added. “Steve, did you see if she had a gun in her holster?”

Wanda threw Steve a confused look as he increased the speed out of the area they were in. Why did she have a feeling they were all thinking the same thing?

“Why?” Steve answered back short, looking around him as they sped.

“Her windows bites are in the jet,” Rhodey answered back, sending a shiver down Wanda's spine.

Was Natasha not armed? Had she left them back on purpose? Because if so, why? Surely that was a huge risk, even if it was a simple mission. Yes, she was capable of protecting herself but that was still not something Wanda thought was safe.

She stopped when she realised what she was doing.
Why was she freaking out over Natasha now? Yeah, sure they were friends but that didn’t mean she needed to freak out. She was an Avengers for crying out loud.

Deciding to try and calm down her overthinking she just followed Steve to a sharp right, knowing they were heading to the area Natasha had been in. She was sure Natasha was fine. After all, Natasha was very capable of taking care of herself. And surely if something had happened, she could have contacted the teams on coms. She wasn't that stupid to take on something she couldn’t handle alone when she had backup, right … Right?

“Steve!” Wanda lifted her head when she heard Sam's sharp voice. She could see a shadow a few hundred feet away stupe down towards the ground just out of sight from them.

“Rhodey, we need the kit.” Wanda’s back went cold as she heard Sam add to his sentence before she could hear him mumble low, probably something to Natasha that the coms weren’t able to pick up.

Not bothering to care about how Steve only had his feet to move him, Wanda propelled herself up and forwards with a hard boost of her powers, flying towards where she knew Sam was.

She only had a small second to take in the view from above, seeing Natasha leaning against Sam, looking completely beaten up, before Wanda was forced to soften her, landing sprinting forwards them.

“Hey, don't push yourself too hard.” Sam’s voice was soft as he helped to support the woman. It looked like she had been beaten up multiple times with marks from a heavy battle covering her entire body.

She had a long slash along her entire arm and what looked to be a shot or stab in her side. Her face was not much better with a bruise over her lip and a small cut on her forehead which had a trial of blood from it down Natasha's entire face.

The woman groaned low, taking a step before she fell forwards. Her eyes rolled up into her head as Sam caught her, and it was no hiding how the woman was clearly in pain.

“What the hell is going on?” Rhodey was the next to land, dropping the red first-aid kit down on the ground beside him before helping Sam turn Natasha in his arms. Her eyes were shining weakly back at them, looking up at them as if she was begging them to make the pain die down. And while Wanda wanted to do nothing more than exactly that, she didn’t know how, not to talk about how it wouldn't be her place to do so in the first place.

Even if she wanted to help, to move closer and not just look at them from a distance, she felt like she couldn’t. Sure, as a friend she should be allowed to be worried, and as her colleague and teammate she should be allowed to help when she was in pain and danger… the only problem was that she didn’t feel like she was any of those two too Natasha anymore. And if she weren’t, she also didn’t have a place to care for her in the first place.

Wanda backed away even more when Steve finally caught up, turning almost completely away for them when the boys leaned over the redhead.

She could only see part of Natasha's lower body past Sam and Rhodey now, watching them from the corner of her eye.

“Nat, stay still” Wanda could hear them mutter between each other as they continued to hang over the woman, probably all trying to patch her together.

“Steve, I’m fine.”

Wanda only turned her head back towards them when she heard Natasha's weak voice. It was low, but at the same time, it didn’t hold any pain in it. Her eyes had calmed down now, not showing the same pain they had a few minutes ago. Instead, they were turning empty, losing more emotions as she carefully pushed Steve out of the way.

“Natasha.” Steve's voice was warning as he let the woman use him as support to drag herself up into a sitting position.

“Well she is Nat, what did you expect?” Rhodey said with a small eye-roll as he backed off as well, letting the woman get the space she wanted.

They hadn't been able to do much, only wrap her arm in a clean bandage and dry off some of the blood from her face. Other than that she looked as beaten up as ever.

“Nat, tell us what happened!” Steve continued to look at her annoyed. They all knew Natasha wasn't the most open person and getting anything out of her could be very challenging. But at the same time, they also knew that Natasha being injured like this was abnormal already, not to talk about this was a mission where nobody should have gotten a scratch at all.

“Steve, it’s nothing,” Natasha answered back flat, looking between all of them.

Wanda lowered her eyes when Natasha's met hers.
Natasha had looked at her and yet it felt wrong looking at her back.

“Natasha did you get attacked or not!” Steve made Wanda lift her head again. He was saying what everyone probably had been thinking. This couldn’t have happened from nothing, somebody must have caused all of this, somebody had to be the one to blame.

“Steve it was nothing okay, I made a mistake, and I ended up hurting myself, now let it go!” Natasha's voice was louder now, and what had been an emotionless voice was now filled with anger as she growled back at the man.

“Fine, but we are going back to the compound, and you are going to get some real medical care.” Steve looked back at the woman with a defeated look in his eyes. It was clear Natasha wasn't going to give any more information now, maybe not ever, and they just had to deal with it.

Natasha didn’t look back at them as she slowly started to walk towards where the aircraft was. Her limp was obvious and for every step, Wanda could see the pain flare up in her eyes, and yet, none of them moved to help her. Steve was the only one even remotely close to the redhead, and even he kept his distance as they walked.

“So… she totally was jumped…” Wanda turned her head to Rhodey as he spoke up. He was looking at Sam with that kind of ironic, but also tired, look in his eyes as he picked up the first aid kit, brushing some dust and dirt off his suit as he moved.

“Yup, unless she decided to jump off the top of the building just for fun,” Sam answered between his teeth, looking after Natasha and Steve.

“I'll go with the first option,” Rhodey said before lowering the mask on his suit and taking off with Sam right behind him.

Chapter Text

All of them had made a silent agreement to go back home that night. While they hadn't technically finished the mission, it really wasn't any point in doing it now. They hadn't found anything the entire day and they had searched most of the area already. Heading back now, especially after finding Natasha injured, was the best call.

Finding Natasha in such a bad state was still a mystery. The woman looked like a walking punchbag, and yet she refused to say anything. She didn’t say anything to them when flying back or when they helped her temporality cover and clean her wounds. She didn’t say anything to Maria when she helped her off the jet, not even when Maria had to physically hold her up when her body gave up under her. And she definitely didn’t want to say anything to Tony even when he tried to force it out of her.

Having nothing to go after was weird. And while Wanda had her theories, she didn’t want to go on and put out all her thoughts into the world. It was all theories that probably none of them would believe. And even if she was right, Natasha would have to confirm it. But since Natasha clearly was not ready to talk about it, why bring it up and make it worse?

Wanda wanted to talk to her, she really did, but she didn’t want to make the woman uncomfortable. So instead of saying anything, regardless of how much she wanted to, Wanda ended up just waiting to see if Natasha would bring it up herself eventually.

It seemed like the whole team started to get the same idea after not getting out anything from the woman for the next two days straight. Unlike Wanda, the others had tried from the beginning but got nothing in return. They had tried all kinds of strategies. It could be from anything like asking directly or trying to hint into the topic, but Natasha didn’t seem very impressed by the attempts.

Sam and Rhodey had ended up going back to the same mission area after two days of walking around in the compound doing nothing. They had probably hoped Natasha would give in after a while, but when she didn’t, they had said they were at least going to finish the job, even if it was no real point. They all knew they didn’t have to finish it; however, Wanda was guessing it was them wanting to escape the rising tension, which was only rising with every look exchanged, and word said.

“So… we are all agreeing this is awful and I don't want to be here anymore? Great.”
The table barely lifted their heads when Tony announced he was leaving the dinner table early for what felt like the millionth day in a row. It was awful for everyone, he just happened to actually decide to announce it.

Natasha was still sitting on the edge of the table saying nothing while everyone else was hoping she would. It was starting to get old. Really old.

Natasha had thankfully gotten away from the event not too badly injured. It had seemed worse when they found her compared to when the medical team finally got to look over her. She had gotten a blow to the head, but other than that it had only been cuts and bruises that needed time for healing.
But even if it wasn't that bad, Maria had still, in agreement with Steve, sent the woman on house arrest in the compound, not letting her even go outside of the main grounds.

Wanda was sure it was another attempt to get the woman to talk. Either by trying to get her to tell them what happened while trying to convince them a house arrest wasn't needed since she wasn't hurt, or just by pure boredom.
Either way, it didn’t really work. Natasha had only looked at Maria and Steve before nodding. On the outside, she didn’t seem like she was too bothered by the idea of having to stay back, even though Wanda had a feeling she was fuming inside.

She felt with the woman, she really did. Natasha was obviously hurting in one way or another, but Wanda didn’t feel like she could just pull her to the side to talk to her like she could before. It wasn't like that anymore. She wasn't supposed to care for the woman anymore. She wasn't her girlfriend…. She was barely a friend.

Wanda tapped the back of her fork on the table as she looked at the rest of the group who looked like they felt just as out of place as she did.

Maria was sitting and looking very obviously directly at Natasha. Not with a mean look in her eyes, if anything it was more caring than anything else. Wanda knew they were friends and had spent a lot of time working in Shield together with Steve. They had all been high-level agents that worked very well together, so of course, they knew and cared for each other.

Steve had also spent a lot of time lately just looking at Natasha. Wanda knew they were as close as they came. Even if Steve sometimes seemed incredibly blind to the world compared to Natasha, they were incredibly close. Lately, it seemed like you couldn’t see one of them without the other.

“Let’s clean off the table and call it a night.” Steve was the one who broke the ice, as he pushed himself from the table looking like he too couldn’t take the tension today.

Wanda nodded quickly back at him, feeling a very strong need to run away from this dining table who was only sounded by people who didn’t want to talk.

Wanda flicked her hand, and nobody stopped her when everything flew off the table at full speed towards the kitchen. She had started to do that now, using her powers around everyone to move things quickly, and none of them was complaining about not having to move dishes into the dishwasher.

The whole table broke apart, everyone standing up before some of them exchanged a few words, thanking Maria for ordering the dinner for today.

The truth was that none of them had to sit by the dining table, nor did they have to eat together. Nobody forced them and everyone knew they didn’t have to. But the main reason they didn’t all eat together before was that they all had different working schedules that included working out and meetings. When they could eat together, they always would, but it didn’t happen every night because of busy days. Some nights some of them would meet up in the kitchen together while the other half was off doing something else. But now that everyone's focus was on the recent mission, no one home had anything to do other than follow up on that mission.
If somebody got hurt in a mission everyone was to help and work out why that had happened, and what had happened. That meant that meetings were pushed to the side, workouts got cut short, and everyone's focus was on that one particular thing. Sooner or later they would drop it if Natasha didn’t say anything, but as of now, them spending time together after a “failed” mission and working out what the hell had happened together was the reasonable thing to do, even if every single one of them hated it.

As Wanda continue flying the dishes around, rinsing them off before filling the dishwasher, she watched the team move away from the table splitting up to whatever activities they were planning on doing for the rest of the night. They had ended up having a particularly late dinner today for whatever reason and Wanda was guessing some of them were planning on going to bed soon.

Wanda let her eyes wander across the room before they stopped and lingered over Steve as he started to move. For whatever reason Wanda felt her stomach clench as Steve walked up to Natasha, jokingly offering to help Natasha walk.

Even if Steve was obviously trying to get Natasha to talk like everyone else, the two of them had been joking around a lot lately. Steve was really the only person Natasha had been properly talking with since they got back. Or she had said a few words to Maria, but Wanda could tell by watching the dialogue that it had been more of a serious work-like talk than the friendly kind Steve and Natasha were doing now.

Steve hadn't really left the woman's side, but Natasha didn’t seem to be bothered as long as she didn’t get pushed to talk about that specific event. She would even crack a few jokes with Steve.

Why that bothered Wanda, she didn’t know. It was good that Natasha was talking to somebody. If Steve got her into a better mood, maybe she would eventually talk about the mission…

She sighed as she closed the dishwasher.
She really shouldn’t care that Natasha was now sitting on the other side of the room across a table with Steve, letting out a soft laugh as he poked her over the table.
She shouldn’t care that Steve was looking at her as the most prized possession he had ever owned. But she did care… and it made her angry, it really did.

“It looks like you want to kill somebody.”
Wanda jumped at the sound, flying the closest item in her reach, in this case, an oven mitten, towards the voice she had just heard at full speed.

“Right, I don't think this will kill me.” Maria looked at the flying oven mitten that was only an inch away from her face for another second before she ducked under it, walking towards Wanda completely unfaced.

“What, are you expecting me to just dump everything that’s bothering me in your lap?” Wanda looked at her before she flew back the oven mitten, dropping it carelessly on the counter somewhere behind her.

“Do you want to?” Maria said with a soft voice, leaning on the kitchen island and looking at her with a calm look.

“I don't know. I'm just thinking about what happened on the mission like everyone else. I feel like I don't know what the appropriate reaction is.” Wanda sighed. She could tell Maria was agreeing with overthinking the situation part. However, Wanda did not expect the smile she got back when she continued to the last part as if that was really amusing to the older woman.

“You're allowed to care about her even if your relationship didn’t work out, Wanda. I understand it was a messy breakup, but I know you care about her.” The woman didn’t seem like she thought it was the big deal as Wanda did, still just looking at her kindly. Of course, Maria had already decided to connect this with Wanda's failed relationship...
Why was she not surprised?

As much as Wanda hated how Maria already brought that up, she did notice Maria's soft, kind expression. It wasn't often Wanda saw Maria smile and look this caring.

“Well, you knowing about the relationship… and I guess the breakup…, was the reason it happened so…” Wanda mumbled low, hearing her own voice drifting. She did not feel like having this conversation right now.

“I know, but that doesn’t mean you can't care about her still. And I don't think you should need to walk in circles around her either. And sure you expressing your worries to her won't hurt the situation. I mean wasn't the lack of communication the main reason you fought?” Maria looked at her one last time before she straitened up. “Anyways, if you find out anything, please tell me. I would prefer coming to the bottom of this mystery before anyone else gets hurt.”

Wanda only huffed back at that comment before mumbling a low “yeah believe me I would love to know too.” before Maria left her alone again.

This was probably the tenth time she had told Maria she didn’t know anything. And while it wasn't a lie, she had a feeling she was not that far away from being able to piece together everything that had happened that day. She hadn't seen anything more than anyone else, and she had very obviously not been talking to Natasha either, but here she was being so confident she at least knew how Natasha had ended up being so hurt as she had.

She could be wrong about all this… but what if she wasn't? What if her theories were right? That would mean Natasha was in danger. And that would also mean that she would continue to be unless somebody did something.

Chapter Text

Wanda walked across the cold wood floor. It was only 2 in the morning, and even with half of the team being night owls, it seemed like she was alone in being awake right now.

She hadn't been able to sleep for the last few days. It was over 5 days since the failed mission, but it seemed like it was the only thing her head could focus on. Like it was the only thing that actually mattered.

The rest of the team didn’t seem to be as caught up in the mission as she was. They had started to resume a more normal routine since Natasha still seemed rather uninterested in talking about it with them. She didn’t seem as on edge when it got mentioned anymore, but she still didn’t say anything when it did. They knew as little as they had before, which wasn't great... also known as literally nothing.

Wanda hadn't really talked to Natasha at all, even though she really wanted to. Not that Wanda knew what they would even talk about, but just being around the redhead was something she really misses. She just wanted to repair their relationship. Even if she would never win Natasha back in the right way.

Wanda felt so safe around Natasha, or at least she had before. They didn't need to force a topic or conversation to make it pleasant. It was just this safety net Wanda really wanted back.

Wanda’s thoughts got stopped when she entered the kitchen, not expecting to see a shadow walk by the big windows. She could already see it was Natasha, even without any kind of light. Not only did she recognise the silhouette, the way the person walked, and the way the person moved, but she could feel it.

It had been a while since Wanda had been able to feel Natasha's presence like this before. She had done it a few other times but had never been able to understand why she did it and if it was something at the moment that made it happen, but now it was like her body was sensing the woman before her eyes could see it. Like she just knew.

Natasha was walking back and forth slowly, clearly thinking about something. It was a slow walk, the kind of walk that was just there so you could do something while you in reality were somewhere completely different mentally. Just by her, on the small table close to the window was a mug and a piece of paper. Wanda couldn’t tell if anything was written on it, but it wouldn’t surprise her if it was.

Wanda knew that even if Natasha's head was facing the ground, and she was deep in concentration, in the next 50 seconds Natasha would turn aware of the fact that Wanda was standing at the door watching her, so maybe it was better to make herself obviously present instead of getting caught staring.

Wanda took a few steps into the room before she flicked her hand up turning on the lights with her powers, hoping it would seem careless and unaware of Natasha's presence.

It was like she could feel Natasha's eyes on her neck when she opened up the fridge looking into it with thoughtful eyes. She knew Natasha could read her very easily, and most likely would be able to tell Wanda had been staring if she didn’t play her cards right and fast. The less time Natasha got to analyse her the less chance it was that she could catch the act.

“Fine whatever,” Wanda mumbled, closing the fridge door aggressively before turning away from the fridge before she stopped and pretended she just noticed Natasha looking at her.

“Why are you trying to kill the fridge?” Natasha asked, looking at her. Wanda was surprised Natasha was the one opening the conversation, but deciding she needed to actually keep this conversation going to make it seem normal she just shook her head.

“Because it had nothing in it that I wanted to eat, obviously.” She answered with a grunt before walking over to the sink. She really hoped she had learned something from Natasha's undercover and acting lessons because if not she was in trouble.

“I don't think slamming the door helps that case. Why are you up so late?” Natasha continued. Wanda could hear her voice getting closer as she moved toward her.

They both knew Natasha was well aware of the answer to that. Natasha had experienced first-hand how much Wanda struggled to sleep, even on a good day. And with things like this happening, the team was full of tension and Natasha hurt, it was only expected that Wanda wouldn’t get any sleep in her system.

“Just the usual, I guess. I mean the more interesting question would be to ask you the same.”

Just like Natasha knowing why Wanda was up, Wanda had a very solid guess on why Natasha was up. Earlier this week Natasha had seemed more distant and out of it than anything else, but right now, walking in the kitchen, Natasha was anything but those things. She seemed awake and in deep concentration. She didn’t look tired or injured, she looked battle ready, ready to use all her resources to get what she wanted.

“Guess I can say the same.” Natasha shrugged back before she turned to the door. “I'll leave you to the midnight snack. See you tomorrow.”

Wanda watched as the woman left the room, listening to Natasha's footsteps until she couldn’t hear them anymore. After standing there listening for a few extra seconds Wanda moved over to the table, looking down at the few things Natasha had left behind. Maybe it was wrong to snoop around Natasha's things, but surely it could be anything, something, useful there.

It was more than one piece of paper like she had originally thought. It was in fact five. One big normal a4 page with three small different ripped pieces of paper thrown on it. All of the small pieces had words scribbled on them while the big a4 sheet had both notes and a small sketch. But even with all of this information and all of the small notes, Wanda's eyes fell on one big, ripped piece of paper. It was a small rough sketch of a single knife.

Wanda picked up the drawing, looking at it carefully trying to make out every detail. She didn’t know much about knives, nor did she understand why Natasha had been so caught up with this particular one to draw it down on paper. Like surely it's only a knife, right? Still, even without any previous experience, just looking at the drawing Wanda concluded this was way too detailed to look past, this knife was important. She just didn’t understand why.

Wanda wanted to say it was a throwing knife without really having any experience with them. It looked pretty small. It was one single thin piece of metal making up both the handle and the blade, but why was that important?

Wanda put down the knife drawing, trying to move her focus to the other notes spread across the table. One of them simply said, “2Cr13 stainless” whatever that meant. While the two others were probably connected to the big a4 page since they were laying on top of it.

To Wanda's disappointment, the big sheet was mostly a rough sketch inside a building with a few written words in Russian. Not only was Wanda really bad at Russian to begin with but combined with Natasha's cursive handwriting it was borderline impossible to make out a single letter.

“Lovely, very helpful Nat.”

It couldn’t have been very important, to begin with. If it was, Natasha wouldn’t have left it behind. Not to mention it was in a language none of them knew.

Wanda was very tempted to take the notes with her. Maybe she could translate it. If so, maybe she could at least get some more information after potentially just staring at it for a little longer. However, the odds of Natasha noticing her notes being gone were very high and she didn’t feel like pissing off the woman even more.

After a small inner debate, Wanda took a few quick photos on her phone instead, before moving out of the kitchen, grabbing a small chocolate bar on the way out and walking back to her bedroom, feeling a small tingle inside as she walked out of the door.

Wanda didn’t get much time to look at the pictures that night before she ended up falling asleep. After multiple nights of no sleep, she finally got a few hours before she was woken up to a team meeting. She hadn't expected to get called into anything today, nor did she expect half the team to be there with her.

It was not a single part of her that wanted to go to a meeting with this team now. While the tension had started to die down it was still not fun sitting in a room with the whole team. Not to mention how Steve was still glued to Natasha's side wherever they went. It was like he was overprotective or some shit. As if they were spending every single second together.

Deciding she didn’t actually have a choice, Wanda made her way to the meeting, finding out very quickly she was the last one to join by the way Maria started the meeting the second she sat down on a chair.

“We have a mission… and we need all of you.” Wanda looked around in the room seeing Rhodey give Maria the same question looks as herself. Together with Rhodey and her, they were only joined by Steve and Natasha. It wasn't a big team but Natasha was the last person Wanda expected to be there considering she was on house arrest.

“It is a very particular mission which needs a very specific skill set.” Maria continued looking at Wanda when she lifted an eyebrow.

There it was. The specific skill set.
If it had been any other mission, she was sure they could have covered it between the rest of the team. Heck, if it was something very spy related Maria could probably have taken Natasha's place. But it was clearly some things only Natasha could pull off.

“You know Strucker’s crew? We are going after them. Or more precisely, we are going to look at their technology.” Steve said looking at them all with a stern look. Wanda didn’t like the look he was giving them all. She didn’t mind a more serious mission, but this seemed annoyingly cold and harsh.

Wanda looked at Natasha and Rhodey. While Rhodey still seemed like he wasn't too happy about all this, Natasha's eyes were hanging over Maria as if something she had said had triggered something inside her. As if it was something in it that made the woman really present for some reason.

“We are after something we rather them not have. They might not have it; it might not be there at all, but we going to look and go after it anyways.” Maria added, handing a folder over to Natasha who skimmed through it quickly while they continued to talk.

“And what exactly are we looking for?” Rhodey asked, looking at the woman when Natasha slid over the files. She didn’t seem like she had cared too much about the contents, but then again, it felt like Natasha had picked up something Wanda hadn't.

“You don't need to know; you will know if you find it,” Maria answered simply before she turned away looking at her pc.

Wanda could hear the man mumble a low “right” before he handed her the folder, letting her look through the few papers in there. It wasn't much in there, just some text Wanda didn’t even bother to read as well as a small illustration of a map. It all seemed so vague. Why didn’t they just tell them what they were after? Steve obviously knew, and Natasha knew something as well. She might not know exactly all the details, but she for sure knew more than Wanda did.

She sighed heavily as she tried to focus on the map in front of her. “Belarus?” Wanda asked slowly, looking at the picture closely feeling it looked a little too familiar to not point out.

“Correct,” Steve said, nodding back at her. “None of us know this place very well. We are going to stick together on the ground with Rhodey keeping a lookout from a distance in the sky. We are not staying long so we need to be efficient. We don't know if it’s been a recently active base, but that’s why we are sticking together.”

Wanda just nodded back at the man. That was probably why they wanted her there. Because with her powers she might be able to pick up things a normal human wouldn’t. Or if they met anyone, she could use her powers on them.

“So, we are looking, and we stick together, find the target,” Natasha said, looking straight at Maria who turned around to look at her challenging back.

“Yes. And you know why you are here,” Maria said back with a sharp voice, earning a small nod back from Natasha before she gave the woman a scary-looking smile.

Chapter Text

Wanda took one last look in the mirror before she followed the rest of them towards the quinjet. She had dressed herself in what was the closes to her “Avengers suit”, not that she had one. It was literally a long red leather coat, but it worked, sort of...

She didn’t know what she thought of this mission. It was so little to go after, not to mention how half of them didn’t know what they were doing. Natasha seemed to know something she and Rhodey didn’t know, but even her they had told very little. Natasha wasn't even supposed to be in the field, to begin with. She was supposed to be on bed rest. Sure, Natasha had mostly recovered from everything, but still, it was a reason she was put on the bench.

Wanda decided to not overthink it too much, instead hoping she could catch a few hours of sleep in the air. She still had the images of the drawing Natasha had sketched in the back of her mind. It was something about them that told her the drawings were important for some reason, but a knife, a building sketch, what could be important about that?

It didn’t feel like much time had passed before they had landed, and Wanda was walking after Steve and Natasha. Rhodey wasn't going to be with them and for the first time in a while Wanda really wished she had just stayed home. Even if the two other Avengers didn’t talk together Steve was constantly looking at the other woman. It didn’t seem like he was capable of moving his eyes from her face and it was making Wanda go insane. Even when he was giving them instructions on what to do, he was really only looking at Natasha.

Wanda groaned before boosting herself up and forward a few hundred feet. She knew she wasn't supposed to break away from the group, but they could see her at all times, and she just needed a small break from them. Just a few minutes.

The main building didn’t seem too big, but it was old… looked like what could be like an old prison, which it probably was. It was a few other buildings spread around, but nothing too big which was something. It was nothing compared to the last mission.

For the small air hangtime, Wanda had felt her eyes move around before they fell on something moving. At first, she didn’t even realize she had turned her head before a small movement jumped to the shadows of the building in front of her again. It could have been nothing, but it didn’t seem like nothing.

Instead of waiting for the others, Wanda shot herself forwards again, flying towards where she had seen the movement, only giving herself a second to catch herself with her powers, sending red ripples of light out around her so she didn't fly straight into a stone building.

Wanda threw her head around trying to see if she could see whatever she had seen. If it was a person surely, they couldn’t have gone far.

Wanda was just about to send a signal of her power through and along the wall when she heard Steve's voice right behind her. “Wanda!”

She let out a small sigh seeing Steve jog up to her with Natasha right behind. Steve looked very unhappy with her while Natasha seemed more on edge to care about what she was doing.

“What were you thinking? Stay together!” Steve scolded, looking at Natasha for help.

“Somebody was here.” Natasha only said back, lifting her head before turning to the left around a corner without any explanation. Wanda didn't mind getting Natasha's backup, but she had no idea how Natasha just knew whatever had been here, had gone that way. It was literally no sign of anyone anywhere.

“Natasha what are you doing?!” Steve tried to grab Natasha's arm but before he was even close, she retracted her arm. Natasha hadn't even looked back and still knew exactly when to dodge the man; it was incredible.

“Listen, so you want to get whoever it was or not?” Natasha growled back increasing her walk ignoring the man.
At least Natasha wasn't as obsessed with Steve as he was with her.

“We aren’t here to fight, Nat” Steve tried, following the woman with Wanda just behind. Wanda could tell he was hesitant to follow, but he didn’t really have a choice if he wanted them to stay together.

“If you want to be ambushed, instead be my guest.” Natasha huffed, turning around another corner before stopping. “They are inside I think,” Natasha added slowly, standing still for a second, before putting a hand on the stone wall as if that was going to do anything.

“And how did they get inside?" Steve countered. Wanda didn’t know why he was so annoyed but for some reason he was, and it was not helping Natasha's mood.

“Maybe with the door right around the corner?” Natasha answered with the most obvious tone before straightening up again leading them to a door that was, like she said, just around the corner.

“I can use my powers to try to locate the pers-”

“Hang on to that Wanda.” Steve cut her off before she could even finish her sentence. Clearly, he had no interest in her using her powers, but he could have let her finish talking before cutting her off like that.

Instead of commenting on it, Wanda just followed the others in silence. She didn’t like how Steve was acting right now but she didn’t really have a place to speak either. And maybe her being annoyed with the man, in general, was making it harder to judge.

The door Natasha led them to was closed, but the entire thing seemed broken and damaged, and it didn’t take more than a small push before it opened. The inside looked… really exactly what you would think an old long corridor of a prison would look like. It wasn't really dark inside, but it was still giving Wanda the creeps as she walked in after Natasha.

“Rhodey we're going inside, we thought we saw movement, if we don't find them, we will resume the search for the item,” Steve said into the coms getting an answer back that the man was going to keep a lookout for any possible humans in the area.

“Are you sure they are here?” Steve asked slowly. While he didn’t seem nervous about a potential encounter, he didn’t seem too keen about a big fight right now. All he wanted was to find whatever they were looking for.

Wanda still didn’t get the point of this mission, not to mention how she knew nothing about it. Why was she even here if she wasn't allowed to do the one thing she could do, using her powers…

Wanda almost walked straight into Natasha when the woman suddenly stopped right in front of her. For a moment the woman was standing completely still before she suddenly dashed forwards.

For a small moment, Wanda was stunned, too surprised to even move, before she collected herself and flung herself after Natasha who somehow already had thrown herself across the floor. The woman had broken through a window on the other side of the hallway now sprinting over the courtyard with Steve a few feet behind. Wanda had no idea what Natasha had spotted, but realising she was soon going to lose the two of them if she didn’t hurry, she flew herself forward, landing just beside Steve before they both ran straight into the door that had been slammed close behind after Natasha.

Wanda could feel her forehead thump as she picked herself off from the ground, looking at Steve who too seemed a little shocked by the impact. She had not planned on running straight into a huge door today yet here she was trying to get her spinning head under control.

By the time Wanda and Steve had made it through the second door Natasha was already gone. They could hear some footsteps in front of them, but Wanda had a feeling Steve too knew that the woman was long gone now.

“Rhodey, we lost Natasha, she ran after somebody,” Steve mumbled, immediately getting an answer back.

“You can't be serious.” The man on the other end said with a sigh before Wanda could tell he was flying off somewhere.

Wanda couldn’t help but wonder if Natasha had done that on purpose. Why Natasha could throw a door at their faces she didn’t know, but then again, she had been acting weird lately, so maybe it wouldn’t have been that out of character? Still, she didn’t like it.

She was considering asking Steve if she could use her powers now, but the man looked so uncomfortable already Wanda wasn't sure if she wanted to even ask before doing so if she was going to act. Steve had been pretty lost out here for some reason but having two leaders who both were a living mess was not ideal.

Deciding she didn’t want to ask Steve for permission Wanda just closed her eyes. One thing was trying to locate any other person, but she knew she could sense Natasha normally so maybe she could do it now too. She hadn't tried to do it by will before, but surely it couldn’t be that bad right?

For a second Wanda could see an arm fly in front of her before she heard a loud groan of pain. It almost felt like it was herself, but it wasn't her voice. She could tell it wasn't.

“Come on.” Wanda already ran past Steve yanking his arm to follow her. She didn’t know how but for some reason she could just feel what direction Natasha was, even if it felt further away than should have been possible in like half a minute.

She sprinted up the first staircase she could find, before turning down into a hallway as if she knew that was the room Natasha had been in just now. As if she knew the woman was close. “I think she is right through the door -” Wanda stopped at the door when they entered the room. It was things thrown everywhere. It was barely anything in the room. to begin with, and yet it seemed like the entire thing had been turned on its head unlike everywhere else in the building which had seemed untouched.

“The person got it.” Wanda didn’t know what Steve was talking about before she saw Steve look into an empty dusty suitcase. She didn't know what was supposed to be in there, but it was clear it was what they had been looking for as well.

It kinda looked high-tech, but at the same time not. It wasn't like something Tony or Bruce would make, but it did remind Natasha of a suitcase maria had shown her once back from Shield.

“Rhodey, we are empty-handed, the person knew what we were looking for!” Steve was already running with Wanda just behind, out of the room again, looking around in the hallway as he spoke, only turning to her when she pointed a direction the other way, having a strong feeling it was the way to go.

“How did you lose her this time?” Rhodey somehow landed just outside the door as Wanda lead them out into the courtyard again, not bothering to stop as the big metal suit joined them.

“A person, didn’t even see them. Wanda!” Steve barked out behind her, but Wanda didn’t really care as she ran over a new courtyard running on autopilot. She didn’t know how she knew where Natasha was she just did... and making small talk with Steve was the last thing she wanted to do.

Wanda had just stormed into what seemed to be a library when her entire body flew forward as her brain shut down. Steve ran straight into her shoulder but didn’t slow down when his eyes fell on what had made Wanda stop.

Natasha was trapped standing under a huge bookshelf, holding it with her arms and shoulders, just barely keeping the entire thing to fall straight on top of her head. It was clear it had been starting to fall when Natasha had been just by it, ending right under the middle of a piece of furniture big enough to cover the entirety of the wall. Her head was lowered to not hit it on the huge piece of furniture, and Wanda could hear her heavy breath as Steve reached over lifting some of the weight on her.

For a moment it looked like Natasha was about to pass out when Steve lifted the bookshelf off her before Rhodey and Wanda pushed the thing back to its original place up along the short wall.

Seeing Natasha stand there forcing something so heavy up and away from her was how Wanda imagined Atas would have been carrying the world on his shoulders. The bookshelf was not small at all, clearly a heavy old piece of wood furniture. How Natasha had been able to hold it up, even without books, was beyond Wanda.

“Nat.” Steve was by Natasha when Rhodey and Wanda finished securing the bookshelf. They were standing in a sea of books that all had been falling off its shelves as the furniture fell, all of them thrown everywhere around Natasha who was standing in the middle of all of this mess.

“Fine.” Natasha groaned heavily. Fine was the last way Wanda would have described the woman. Clearly, she was struggling to stand on her own, not to mention how it looked like somebody had thrown her off a cliff or something. She had marks of something across her entire cat suite. Both rips and straight-up dirt. Not to mention how she had a nasty cut on her thigh that Steve seemed to look past.

“What were you thinking? You can't just run alone when we told you to stay with us.” Steve continued. He was clearly trying to not sound too angry, however, it didn’t work that well when Wanda heard the sharp tone that he used at the end of his sentence.

“I thought I would get them okay. I wasn't expecting to get an entire bookshelf in my face.” Natasha pushed herself away from Steve trying to test her legs under her.

Wanda met her eyes for a second, and for a moment Wanda could almost see straight into her head before she forced herself to close her eyes. She wanted to see, she wanted to know, but not without Natasha's permission. She promised she wouldn’t go there.

“It was gone, Natasha. Did they lead you to it? It seemed like the entire room had been turned on its head. What happened?” Steve continued to push but Natasha just walked out the door. She was clearly shaken, but she seemed to rather risk falling straight into Wanda's arms than talk with the man right now.

“I don't know where it is, nor did I walk into a room where it could have been. Most of my time I was focusing on not turning into a human pancake. And just for the record, I didn’t even get to touch the other person, I barely saw them.” Natasha answered harshly, throwing a deadly look past Wanda, and she knew it hit its target off Steve's eyes when the man sighed low behind her.

“Weren’t you running after them all this time? How did you not seem them?” Wanda had almost forgotten Rhodey was even there, but when he spoke up Wanda got the reminder.

“They were always a turn in front of me. I hunted them down by sound not sight. Didn’t see more than a black silhouette before I got books in my face. Any more questions?”

Natasha stopped and turned around looking at them. She looked mad. Very mad. No matter what had happened this woman was clear about one thing, and that was that this conversation was done.

Wanda watched Natasha look at them one more time before turning away and walking towards where the jet was parked, and it was only then, for a small second just by Natasha's ankle, that Wanda could see a reflection of some metal taking shape of what seemed like a very familiar metal knife blade.

Chapter Text

Wanda was not sure what to think anymore. Or she was, but not really. Natasha seemed so calm about everything, but at the same time, it was no hiding that she was… well… hiding something…

She seemed to be very aware of what she was doing, and it really didn’t seem like the idea of leaving out all the details when anyone asked anything bothered her. But then at the same time, Steve didn't seem to realise that the woman was actually talking around the fact that she was beaten up and had marks across her entire body. Maybe he was just happy she was here and alive, which was fair, but was he not a little concerned about what had happened?

Wanda didn’t like how all of them seem to not even want to try and find out what had happened today. Like how did they not even ask? Were they not as concerned as her? Or was it another case of not bothering to tell her and maybe they knew something after all?

She wasn’t sure how to process everything that had happened. Wanda knew she had seen something, she didn’t know if it was a person, but Natasha seemed to know what it was. In fact, she seemed very sure about everything when she had tried to hunt it down. She had literally just sprinted after it without hesitation, so it had to be something behind that act.

Wanda sighed before slipping down on her bed. After getting back to the compound again and getting asked about a million random questions from Maria, like super random questions as well, Wanda could at least get some distance away from the rest of the team. She needed time to process everything because she still felt like she was missing a piece of the puzzle.

Her head continued to replay the small glance she had gotten of the knife Natasha had been hiding. It had looked like the one Natasha had sketched out, but even when Wanda had looked back at the picture she had taken of the drawing, she wasn’t sure.

She wanted to stay it was just a weird coincidence and really the knife she had spotted was one of Natasha's knives… except Wanda had seen Natasha's preferred knife before and they had never looked like this one

It made her feel uneasy, the entire thing. She didn’t get it. What was it that made Natasha so desperate to keep away from them that she was willing to run away to get hurt when she could get all the backup she ever wanted? Sure, Natasha could be stupid on that front acting a little prematurely, but this wasn’t just recklessness… this was something else.

It was already pretty late. They had spent some time flying and then talking with the rest of the team when they did get back, meaning Wanda could technically go to bed already, however she didn’t think she was going to be able to sleep any time soon. Not only was her head distracted but she was hungry.

Wanda being hungry in the middle of the night was not a new phenomenon, but she needed to do something about it which was more effort than she wanted to use.

After debating if she wanted food or not, Wanda ended up taking a very long shower, hoping she would get too tired to make food and just go to bed straight after. Of course, that didn’t happen, because why would it.

At least that shower was the one good thing that had happened to her lately. When she joined the Avengers she had gotten a smaller room that didn't actually have an on suite unlike the rest of the team. It had just been like a temporary solution before they gave her a bigger and more finished room. And while this shower and really the entire bathroom wasn't anything like the one Natasha had, Wanda was still very thankful for the change. Especially now that she couldn't use Natasha's bathroom anymore.

She was lost in her thoughts when she left her room. Her sigh was probably loud enough to be heard down the hallway when Wanda made her way out to hunt down some snacks. Why did she always end up walking around in the middle of the night? Every time anyone saw her out this late, they all always looked at her weird, and somebody was constantly commenting on her talking around late the next day. Sure, they didn't mean it in a rude way, but it always made her feel a little warm.

She didn’t know why, but for some reason, she felt like she wasn’t alone when she entered the kitchen area. It was just a feeling, and maybe she could try to use her powers to locate it however it was, but something made her hesitate. It was almost like she had an inner block inside of her that made her stop the act.

Wanda looked around in the dimmed kitchen. It was nobody here it seemed. No heads around the table or counters obviously. It was really not anything anywhere. One of the things Wanda found most off about this place was the fact that the kitchen always seemed to be so empty to be a kitchen for so many people. Like it was just so clean and almost unused looking, so what had caught her attention then if it was nobody here?

Her eyes moved over the room slowly trying to take in every detail before they fell to the floor. It was just a small spot, but it was definitely there, a small spot of blood.

Blood was nothing new in the compound, but where was it even from? It didn’t seem right seeing this in the kitchen… A kitchen that was empty... Who was it from? Who had been here?

Wanda felt her stomach twist a little before she flew over a small kitchen towel cleaning it up before heading out of the kitchen again. For some reason, she wasn’t hungry anymore. If she hadn’t felt uneasy before she definitely was now.

Finally safe and sound back in her room Wanda closed the door shut and walked to the middle of the floor just standing there. She felt overwhelmed. That small drop of blood shouldn’t have thrown her off that badly, but it had, it really had.

“Wanda?”

Wanda spun when heard a voice behind her and her door fly open.
Her reaction was to hurl the first item her eyes saw straight towards the voice in full speed with her powers, barely missing the moment when Natasha caught the shoe a quarter of a second before it hit her face, looking as unfazed as ever.

Her expression was so calm, however, the sight in front of Wanda was still one that would forever be engraved in Wanda's memory. The woman had blood marks down her entire face and her grey sweatpants leg seemed to be dunked in blood as well. It looked like she had just been in the fight of her life, or really a fight for her leg and face, and yet she was standing there in her pyjamas looking at her as if nothing was wrong.

“Hi to you too.” The woman said calmly, putting down the shoe by the door, still not acknowledging the fact that Wanda had actually just tried to kill her with it. “Reactions strong, the rest… maybe not as strong.” The woman continued, leaning back on the wall after pushing the door close, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“So, you just decided to sneak up on me?” Wanda asked slowly, trying to calm her very wild beating heart in her chest. She hadn’t even had a proper conversation with the woman in a solid while, and now this woman was tyring to small talk with her with blood down her face?

“Well, I was kind of assuming you were here since I just heard you turn round in the kitchen,” Natasha said back. She didn’t smile at her, or really anything. Just looking at her. She was again very calm, but it didn’t seem like she felt like expressing much more than that.

“Where is your first aid kit?”

“Bathroom… let me get it,” Wanda mumbled back. She didn’t know what to say, or really what to actually do. She had a feeling she knew what Natasha wanted, other than her bandages apparently, but she didn’t know if she wanted to go there. Not yet at least.

Wanda walked to her bathroom, not only getting the first aid kit she had, but also a small wet cloth for Natasha. She didn’t know what kind of injuries she was dealing with right now, but she didn’t know if she wanted to know either.

Natasha looked at her as she made her way back from the bathroom. Natasha was now sitting on her bed, moving away the pant leg, revealing a long nasty cut Wanda hadn’t seen before.

“Thanks,” Natasha muttered as Wanda dropped the kit beside her and handed her the cloth. Thankfully Natasha started it all by cleaning her face, revealing a completely unhurt face.
Maybe she had touched her face with bloody fingers or something and that had made it look like she had been cut along her entire cheekbone? Whatever it is, it looked more brutal than what it thankfully seemed to be.

“What do you know?”

Wanda looked at her surprised when Natasha spoke up again. There it, was the question she had been waiting for… no reason to be surprised really, because of course Natasha was going to ask it, and of course, she wasn’t going to shut up before she got her answer.

Natasha didn’t even bother to look at her while she waited for the answer, only starting to clean around the cut on her leg. The one Wanda didn’t know she even had.
It seemed deep and uncared for. It had some trails of an early bandage trying to stop the blood, but now it was completely revealed, looking as raw as you could get it.

“About what?” Wanda answered back, attempting to keep her voice as calm as possible while also trying to ignore the way her stomach twisted as she glanced down at the wound.
She knew she was doing a bad job hiding her emotions, not to mention how Natasha could read her like any other open book anyway. She probably could read her even easier than some actual books, and Natasha could read anything once and remember basically the entire thing perfectly.

Natasha didn’t answer her at all, just lifting her head to look at her unimpressed making Wanda sigh back in defeat. “Nothing, I know nothing. Honest.” Wanda tried, still not getting a satisfied look from the woman.

“I just have my theories. They might be wrong anyways.” Wanda knew the woman wasn’t going to let it go, but she was hoping she would maybe drop it if she gave her some information, even if it wasn’t the full story.

“Tell me,” Natasha said back, looking at her closely as Wanda tried to do anything but look at the woman in her eyes.

“I think you got attacked, both times, and you know who it is,” Wanda said slowly, watching Natasha as she said every single word. The woman didn’t change her expression at all, instead just looking at her with the same emotionless look.

“But I'm not sure of course, just a feeling, I guess. I mean why else would you want to hide them when you clearly couldn’t take on them alone?” Wanda added, looking at Natasha who this time did move. She shifted her weight to her other foot, almost as if her whole body let out a small sigh. She had cleaned up the gash now, covering it with a white bandage. A bandage that Wanda was wondering was going to stay white.

“I could take them on alone, but you're right, I didn’t want to…” Natasha said back finally. She seemed a little hesitant to tell her this information, but at the same time, Wanda could tell Natasha seemed happy she could finally talk about it.

“The knife, was it theirs?” Wanda asked, assuming Natasha knew that she knew as well. She had tried to not give away everything, but she was getting curious. Especially now that Natasha seemed to open up a little.

“Yeah, was the supporting evidence for who I thought it was, but I'm still not entirely sure, I never saw their face. Not when they were in the field... Maybe it would be different if they weren’t on a mission… But I have this feeling...” Natasha mumbled as if she talked more to herself than Wanda.

“But now that you know, I need you to do me a favour. Promise me you will.” Natasha lifted her head, looking her dead in the eye. Her voice was clearly indicating that Wanda didn’t have much of a choice, but she didn’t know if she wanted to agree to something she didn’t know what was. Even if it was Natasha Wanda was helping.

“I don’t know, I mean why me and not Steve?” Wanda asked carefully, watching as the woman shook her head back at her.

“Because he doesn’t know anything. It’s a small favour, a simple one. Please?” Natasha asked again, looking at her this time a little more begging.

Wanda felt pressured to say yes now. Whatever Natasha was going to ask, if she didn’t comply, she would do it herself, or alone. Saying yes would be the safer option. Or for Natasha at least... for her, it was a whole other story.

Wanda wanted to help, she really did. Especially after seeing what had happened the two last times, Natasha had been out on the field alone, but it was something telling me it wasn't as easy as Natasha made it sound. As if saying yes was going to be a whole lot harder than a simple favour...

“I guess…” Wanda said slowly, watching as Natasha's face lit up. It wasn’t really in happiness, but it was almost like hope, as if Wanda's promise was giving the woman hope that something was about to change.

Chapter Text

“We are looking for the owner of this.” Natasha put the knife on Wanda's small desk as Wanda walked around in her bedroom, throwing a few things into a bag.

“That much I figured,” Wanda mumbled, walking over to the woman to take a look at the knife.
It was a thin, manly black, knife. It was exactly like the drawing Natasha had sketched before. A single piece of metal. A blade sharper than most knives Wanda had seen. It was cold to the touch and was lighter than she expected. It was almost like holding nothing, but at the same time not really. It almost felt right holding around it. Perfectly balanced in every way.

“Throwing knife?” Wanda asked, putting it down carefully before she let her finger glide around the edge of the blade, the only part that wasn’t black. It was something about it that was so captivating. It was nothing like anything she had seen before, and maybe that was why, but she didn't like how she was drawn to this deadly weapon.

“You can say that. A combat-throwing knife. Custom made,” Natasha said before picking it up and putting it on the inside of her leather jacket. It was something about the way she said it was a little unsettling. Like Natasha didn't like the origin story of it for whatever reason.

Natasha brushed off her jacket after hiding the knife, again as if she thought it was something wrong with it and it was holding this bad thing.
She had left Wanda's room after getting Wanda to agree to help her, leaving her to pack what Natasha called an “overnight bag” as she went to change. Now the older woman was wearing some black pants, a black top and a leather jacket. She looked in a way very civil, but at the same time also not, which seemed to be the team about lots of things right now.

“And let me guess, you know who it is?” Wanda said, trying to hide her mildly annoyed tone. Natasha had still not really said what they were doing, where they were going, or who they were looking for. She hadn't even said what she needed to pack.

“Like I said, not sure, but I want to find them if I'm right. And I have the perfect person to help us in mind.” Natasha moved over to the door, clearly hinting that she wasn’t planning on waiting much longer now.

“And where is this person?” Wanda grabbed her back, throwing one last look at her room before following Natasha through the compound.

“New York City.”

New York City… why not… why the hell not. It wasn’t like that was a city where Wanda had mostly memories with Natasha before they started to scream at each other or anything.
It sucked because Wanda really loved New York and has so many fond memories with Natasha there. Natasha had taken her multiple times, and all of them had basically been like a dream to her. And now… now they were going back with a strained relationship, a relationship that wasn’t even strong enough to call them friends anymore.

The drive to New York was painful, even when it was fast, and Wanda slept part of it. Because it was night traffic was basically non-existent, and even if they got there around sunrise, it was still before most of the city was awake. But before they got there Wanda was trapped in Natasha's car saying nothing to the woman, feeling like she barely could look at her. She had said yes to help this woman, and yet, it felt like she was out of place. Like she couldn't even be near this woman's presence.

Natasha parked her car in the Stark building parking, before bringing Wanda out to the street. Wanda was kinda expecting Natasha to bring her into the Stark building or even back to her apartment, but instead, she walked somewhere completely different.

“Where are we going?” Wanda asked carefully, looking up at a very tall building she had never been in before.

“We’re going to get help,” Natasha answered pushing the door open.

Wanda didn’t really get how Natasha needed to find help on a street in New York when she was literally an Avenger with Avenger friends. She also didn’t get how this woman was walking straight into this building at 6 in the morning, yet here they were doing exactly that as if that was the most normal thing ever.

Natasha brought her into an elevator and at this point, Wanda was starting to doubt the woman, not that she could ever say that out loud, because she was pretty sure doubting Natasha Romanoff was like breaking some kind of law somewhere.

“Morning, we are here to see Eleanor, oh and Kate.” Wanda walked behind Natasha as she stepped into a big fancy lobby. The woman had started to talk before she was even at the desk, and the man behind it didn’t even seem to be aware they were in the room.

It was a fancy modern look in the lobby. A very "clean look" or something along those lines... she was sure Wanda had heard Pepper describe a similar room like that. Maybe it was pepper who had shown her something like this because while Wanda was positive she hadn't been here before, it was something very familiar still.

“Mrs Bishop is not having any meetings this morning, you can book a meeting tomorrow evening if you- ”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Natasha said, putting her hand on the desk, making sure to make a sound out of it to get his attention.

The man lifted his head, and for a second he just looked confused before his eyes seemed to realise who he was actually talking to. “Oh, yes, um sorry, Ms Romanoff, please, I am sure you know the way,” the man stuttered, nodding quickly at them.

Natasha didn’t bother to answer the man before marching down the hall, taking a sharp left before they ended up in front of a big office. It was no hiding that this woman knew where she was going and nothing could have stopped her in her tracks.

They stopped just by the door to the room. The wall to the hallway was made entirely out of glass walls so you could see straight through it, which Wanda thought was a little odd.
On the other side of the wall, Wanda could see two humans, both very familiar. It was Eleanor Bishop, the woman Wanda had met at the Christmas party last year, and her daughter Kate Bishop.

Natasha didn’t need to knock before the woman signalised them to enter, smiling as they stepped into the room.

“Natasha, what a surprise, I cannot remember us having a meeting today, not you or Stark industries,” the woman said with a smile, looking between them as she talked. She was dressed in a very fancy blazer and some kinda weird pants. Wanda didn't know much about high fashion, but she was assuming this was it, and if it wasn't, it sure looked expensive enough to be counted as something.

“Oh, did Kate not tell you? I sent her a mail a few weeks ago inviting her over, I don’t want to say internship, but it kind of is.” Natasha's voice was soft as she spoke, talking as if this was the most normal thing ever.

Natasha looked at Kate, and while Wanda could see some surprise in the young woman's face the woman hid the initial surprise well as she nodded back before her face sank looking at her mother.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you, yes Natasha invited me over to help, I mean to be a part of, I mean train…” The woman looked at Natasha clearly needing some help before she said something wrong.

Wanda hadn't had time to look at the girl much the last time they met. She remembered the woman being very excited about them when they got to the party, but other than that Wanda didn't remember much.

She was very pretty. Her face was framed by some beautiful dark thick hair, and while could tell she wasn’t as a fan of the early morning as her mother with some tangles in her hair, it was still very pretty.

The look she had in her eyes, a kinda shining awake look, was a clear sign this girl was younger than all of them. Not to mention she seemed a little chaotic and lost. But even if she was, Natasha didn't seem to mind this detail at all when she started to talk.

“I mean really all of the above. It is a very safe program of course where we will help and monitor very closely. We do understand that this is maybe not the best timing with school and work, but I can promise that after the time with us Kate will build some very strong connections and earn her a very strong recommendation letter from more than one person.” Natasha said, walking over to the big office desk, and sitting down at one of the chairs really before any of the others could stop her. It was clear Natasha knew what she was saying and what buttons to push because the woman's eyes seemed to widen by this information as she followed Natasha to the table.

“I don’t know if I am so comfortable with my baby girl going and going superhero things.” Eleanor looked between all of them and for some reason, it seemed like she looked at Wanda for a longer amount of time than the rest. She sat down on the chair on the opposing side from Natasha, looking like she was very heavily debating what to say.

“Mom, I'm turning 19 this year, I'm not a child. Besides, Natasha told me she was going to take care of me, right.” Kate looked at Natasha who just smiled at Eleanor ignoring the look the teen was giving her.

“I believe Kate has already gotten the time off from her college, but we will of course give further explanations if needed.” Natasha continued the conversation as if she hadn’t heard any of the Bishop's, ignoring them completely. “Of course, this will be like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity being under the roof of not only the Avengers but of course Stark industries, and the resources that come with those two.”

Wanda could tell it was something in the words Natasha was saying that was really intriguing to the woman. How Kate reacted, Natasha clearly didn’t even bother to care about, all her attention was on the mother, closely following how the woman was hanging onto every single word she said, even when she tried to hide it.

“I guess that is true, but are you sure you are ready to do something like that?” Eleanor looked at the girl to her side, clearly unsure if she wanted to let go of her or not. Wanda could tell she was close to just saying yes, but this also seemed like a very overprotective mother so she wasn't surprised she was doubting the choice.

“I know she is,” Natasha said confidently before she moved her hand over the table. Wanda couldn’t tell what Natasha was actually grabbing before her hand was off the table again.
Before Wanda got the time to actually process what Natasha had done Natasha leaned forwards coughing into her armpit the same time Wanda could hear a faint sound of what sounded like a snap and the sound of something shattering filled the room a second later.

“Oh my god!” Eleanor was up from her chair in a second, almost running over the floor to look at her broken vase that was standing just by the door. “Guess a lot of things are happening at once, I need to get this swept up… I don’t…”

Natasha was also on her feet now, putting a calming hand on the woman's shoulder before smiling at her softly. “Do not worry, we can leave now. Kate, are you ready?” The woman turned to Wanda and Kate who were both by the desk still, winking quickly at them before she left the room with the two following after.

Kate was almost bouncing beside them Natasha led them out of the building, not even looking back when they got into the elevator. “So, what is happening? I didn’t get any email about anything? Are we going back to the compound? Am I going to train with you? Am I going to meet Hawkeye?!” Wanda couldn’t help her small laugh as she looked at Kate who looked like she was about to burst.

“I didn’t send an email, and no, and kind of, and maybe,” Natasha said, almost pushing Kate out of the elevator door and out into New York’s busy streets.

“But if we aren’t going to the compound, what are we-”

“Just take us to your place” Natasha cut off, getting a quick nod from the woman before they took to the sharp right.

Wanda thought it was interesting how it really seemed like Natasha had everything planned out. It wasn’t surprising by any means, but it was interesting to watch her follow Kate, not once showing any signs of surprise or insecurity about anything. If anything, the longer it went on the more Natasha seemed confident about everything. Even more so when Kate brought them into her small studio apartment thing, before starting to run around and pack after Natasha's order.

It was hard to tell how much Natasha had been planning, but she seemed to have planned at least this far. Wanda didn’t know why, nor what was in said plan, but she was here now and simply just had to follow. She had promised she would help, so it wasn’t really like she could back out now.

“I am bringing my bow right, please say I'm bringing my bow.” Kate looked down at them from the loft, lifting her bow and quivering.

“Yes.” Natasha just answered nodding as Kate disappeared again after letting out a small excited squeal.

“What about my suit!” Kate yelled from somewhere as they heard footsteps above them.

“If you can move in it, then yes.” Natasha's voice was calm; however, Wanda could tell she was a little amused by the way the young woman was running around.
While it was a little fun to watch, Wanda could definitely relate to the small chaotic panic the teenager was dealing with right now. Natasha had still told them very little, and that really meant anything could happen.

“Right, okay, ready.” Kate came running down the stairs with a bag in one hand and her bow in the other. She had changed out of the over-the-top formal wear she had been wearing earlier, instead now going in some jeans, a purple shirt, and a loose oversized flannel jacket.

“Cute,” Natasha said with a small smile, nodding at the shirt Kate was wearing. Wanda couldn’t see anything interesting with it, but the girl seemed to get warm in her cheeks, so it was definitely something behind those words. “Let’s go. We’re taking my car.” Natasha nodded at the door again and Wanda followed her out having a feeling they were not going back to New York any time soon.

Chapter Text

“So… what are we doing again?” Kate leaned forwards in the back seat, looking excited at the two others in the front seat.
Wanda and Natasha had taken Natasha's corvette down to New York City, but apparently, Natasha had another car in New York. This a more normal and low-key car than her very expensive sports car. Why Natasha had two cars, or more importantly, one standing in new work at all times, Wanda didn’t know. But was it one thing Wanda had learned about Natasha was it to not question things too much because that might backfire… hard.

“We are going to Washington,” Natasha answered back, not really looking at the girl as she talked.

“Isn’t that a four-hour drive?” Kate piped back, sending Wanda a confused look. Wanda didn’t have an answer. Not only had she never been there, but also, she had no idea what this mission even was.

“Yes, is that a problem?” Natasha just asked dry, leaning back in her seat still ignoring Kate's eyes in the mirror.

“Well… no… but I will need to pee at one point.”

Natasha didn’t answer that comment, only sighing as she continued to drive, looking straight ahead while Wanda and Kate both just looked at her in silence.

The drive to Washington DC ended up not being as bad as Wanda thought it would be, and it was nothing compared to the first drive with Natasha alone. She had thought it was going to be four hours where none of them talked like the first drive but Kate was allowed to play music on Natasha's stereo and after that, the talk went naturally between them. Natasha didn’t really talk much but she didn’t stop them when Wanda and Kate continued at least. Wanda could tell Kate was quite a bit younger than them by both the way she was talking and acting, but she seemed ready to do anything she got asked to so Wanda could see why Natasha would want her if she had the skill as well.

Wanda liked Kate. She was fun and so full of energy. Wanda had to spend too much time around the avengers lately and they were all kinda the same. Okay saying all of the avengers were the same was a lie, but they were all... grown adults... all focusing on the superhero things, focusing on the missions and what it took to finish that. They were of course all nice people and Wanda liked them too, but it was something about kate that was different. She was lively and fun and let her young curious mind drive her motives and not only because she felt like she had to.

Maybe the reason Wanda liked Kate was because she was so much younger. When she had been 18 Wanda had been part of Hydra so she had missed that part of her life completely. The only teenager she had been around at that time had been her brother so she never was a normal teenager.

And even after not having a normal childhood Wanda still felt like the child in the group most of the time

Wanda still had no idea what the plan was, she just knew Natasha wanted to find this person and apparently Kate was going to be the person who would locate them. She didn’t know how Kate was supposed to do that, but Natasha had seemed so confident it had to be a reason why.

“So… did you break mom’s expensive wase?” Kate looked at Natasha's eyes through the mirror and Wanda could see Natasha smile back at the woman.

“I don’t know, did I?” Natasha answered with a small smirk, making Wanda shake her head as Kate laughed.

“Hey, I've always thought it was hideous, so I don’t care about that.” Kate looked at the older woman in a mischievous way, and for the first time in this entire car ride, Natasha cracked a smile. “I am just glad to be able to do this. Whatever this is. I've always wanted to do something you know. I don’t know when I got the idea, but it's just something about maybe changing the world.”

Kate leaned back in the middle seat, closing her eyes with a small sigh. While Wanda was wondering how Kate could choose to sit there in a middle seat, Natasha seemed to be thinking about something completely different, continuing to throw glances at Kate.

Kate had barely closed her eyes, and Wanda finally completely let herself relax, Natasha pulled to the side announcing they were here. Wanda didn’t really know where “here” was, in this case, but she couldn’t really question it either. To Wanda, it looked like another city, and nothing seemed remotely interesting about this neighbourhood. But then again, maybe it was because Wanda still had mixed feelings about being here to begin with.

They followed Natasha into a building, taking the elevator up a few floors before finding themselves in something that looked like a hotel corridor. The lobby hadn’t seemed to be a hotel, but now Wanda was doubting herself a little.

“Safehouse.” Natasha just said before they could ask, letting them into a pretty decent size apartment. It seemed to have two small bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen-living room. It wasn't big, but it was nice. Not as fancy as the apartment Natasha had in manhattan, but it was still a very nice, clean, open-planned apartment.

“We are not staying here for long, but it's somewhere.” Natasha pointed Kate to one of the bedrooms, letting the girl throw off her stuff before she turned to the other inviting Wanda in.

Wanda hadn’t shared a bedroom with Natasha in ages but seeing that it was no other option Wanda put her stuff carefully down on one of the sides. The bedroom was tiny, and she wasn’t convinced that was a full-sized double bed. She really, really, hoped they weren’t staying here for long. Natasha didn’t comment on the idea of sharing a room with her, but Wanda was sure it had already been an inner debate in the redhead's min.

Wanda took a quick look in the mirror as Natasha left the room again meeting Kate in the living room. Wanda decided to take some time moving her hair away from her face, wasting time to try and collect her head.

“So, what's the plan?” Kate was looking at her excited when Wanda finally made her way into the living room with them. Kate looked way more ready to start than Wanda felt. She would of course help Natasha, but it was just the idea of having to be stuck with the woman all the time that was now starting to sink in, making her a little nervous.
She wanted to help; she really did. But she also didn’t have a choice. Which made it all so much more conflicting. She could still feel her stomach turn every time Natasha would look at her, but after this last winter, she wasn’t sure if it was because she still had feelings for the woman or because she was scared of her. Maybe saying she was scared of her was a little dramatic, but in a way, Wanda kinda was. Natasha had hurt her, she really had, and it had never seemed like it had affected Natasha in any way compared to how it had wrecked her. And if it never affected Natasha what would stop her from ever doing it again.

“We are looking for a specific person, and I need you to get into your mother’s system and look for her.” Natasha looked at Kate with a serious look on her face.

“You want me to break into my mom’s security system?” Kate asked confused, looking at the redhead who nodded back.

“Well, she is the leading company here in the city, and last time I checked that means you can access the cameras and information at all times.” Natasha continued as if it was the most obvious thing to say. For a second Kate looked thrown off by the comments, but a second later the younger girl gave her a small nod back.

“I guess so, but it's not like I can like spy on everything at all times. We mainly keep information and companies safe by, I don't know, putting gates around them if we can. Big scary people and barking dogs. We can help with building security either through companies we work with or similar, but we don't necessarily have access to all of the security cams. Sometimes the clients don’t even use our systems.” Kate looked at Natasha who only smiled at this information clearly not expecting anything else.

“That is more than enough. I can hack into that part; you just need to give me the information on where to look.” Natasha smiled at her again before she nodded at the door making them move again.

They ended up on top of a roof a few blocks away. Natasha had a laptop in her lap while Kate was holding a tablet. Wanda had decided to keep her distance from the two others, walking along the edge of the building and looking down on the busy streets.

Apparently, Natasha decided that a roof was the best place to be. It was something about tracing that would be harder… or something… as well as fresh air. She also said something that if the person was moving travelling with high ground would be their best bet… Whatever that meant.

Wanda didn't mind the roof. While the two others looked down on whatever they were doing, she could take in the view looking around at the city she was now in the heart of.
Unlike New York City, Washington DC didn’t have the same tall buildings. It looked more normal in that sense. But of course, it was still a big and busy place. Nobody seemed to have time to look up at the person standing at the roof edge at any point.

Wanda's eyes landed on a building on the horizon. She recognised it, and it was only now she understood why Natasha even had a safehouse here.

“Is that the triskelion?” Wanda could see both of them lifting their heads surprised by her voice cutting into their concentration. Wanda pointed at the big building watching as Natasha followed her finger before nodding.

“You are looking at what's left of it at least. After shield fell it has kinda been sitting there doing nothing. Shield doesn’t exist which means everything that was and is in there is… well it's complicated. That is why I think the person we are looking for might be here now. I might be wrong but, in our mission, where we lost them, they were looking for... I mean…” Natasha stopped herself, clearly not wanting to say something she couldn’t say. “It wouldn't surprise me if they were here now.”

“So… are they dangerous?” Kate broke into the conversation, looking at them both as she spoke, moving away from what she had been working on.

Wanda watched as Natasha took a second to think about it before nodding. “They can be.” She concluded before she stood up walking over to the edge of the roof on the other side from Wanda and Kate.

“Do you know anything about this person we're looking for?” Kate asked as Wanda walked over to her. Wanda didn’t know what she could answer to that question. Kate probably had the right to know, but at the same time if Natasha hadn’t told anything maybe it was a reason for it.

“Just that Natasha has a guess on who it is. She has ended up fighting them two times now, but both times the person got away… I think Natasha let them.” Wanda whispered the last part making sure Natasha was looking another way when she did.

“Why?” Kate asked low back, looking down at her tablet, scanning over a document when they talked.

“I don't know, my guess is it's somebody she knows. Both times they had an encounter Natasha came back beaten up and I think she let the person do it so she didn’t have to hurt them back.” Wanda continued, still keeping her voice relatively low.
All she was saying was still a working theory, but it was still something off about it to her.
This woman, this superhero, Wanda struggled to be believed Natasha, of all people, would put herself in a situation that would result like this twice without any reason.

“Oh.” Kate just whispered back. She kept her eyes low, looking out empty in front of her, clearly confused by what she had just learned. Wanda wondered what was going through her head now, now that she had been told a little about what they were up against.

“Does that mean we can't hurt the person either?” Kate asked slowly after a moment to think. The girl threw a glance over at the bow she had thrown down on her jacket.

Wanda hadn’t thought about that, but now that Kate mentioned it that was a very valid question. If Natasha didn’t want to hurt whoever it was, surely, she wouldn’t let them touch them either. Maybe Natasha's plan never was to let them interact with each other. Or maybe she was gambling on being able to calm the situation down without a fight. Whatever the plan was Wanda had a feeling that Natasha would continue to give them as little information as possible for as long as possible.

Wanda moved her head to look at Natasha who was standing just by one of the corners of the roofs only a few inches away from the edge looking into nothing. It didn’t seem like she was focusing on anything in front of her, instead, she was just standing there, standing there as she let the knife she had carried up slide between her fingers.

She was completely unguarded, she had nothing to protect herself with other than a single knife and her natural reaction. And for a moment Wanda wondered how little it would take for somebody to jump the woman or line up a single shot now to kill her off for good.

Chapter Text

Wanda woke up with an uneased feeling in her gut. Like lingering worry and thoughts constantly swirling even though she had no idea why and what she had been thinking about.

This wasn’t the first time she had felt this feeling, but it had been the first time in a while she could confidently say it was connected to Natasha.
Before it was obvious. Before when she had fallen so hopelessly for the woman to the point where her heart would ache when she wasn’t with her.

Wanda's powers telling her what Natasha felt in the moment had led to a lot of problems in the past. And while Wanda in a way liked knowing when Natasha was hurting, she knew Natasha hated it, making her hate it as well.

This time Wanda wasn’t sure what to feel. Natasha being overwhelmed about what was going on didn’t surprise her. She would have been too if it was her. In fact, Wanda was pretty sure that at this point she would have gone mental if it was her. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t her having to deal with all of this. She wasn’t the one that has a connection with this mysterious person they need to find. She wasn’t the one that would constantly throw herself in dangerous situations because of this person.

Wanda thought about the lengths Natasha had gone to protect this person. What she had done to make sure that this person they knew nothing about wouldn’t get hunted down by the Avengers. She thought about how Natasha was more than willing to lie to what was supposed to be the closest people in her life, just to make sure they never got touched.

Wanda found Natasha sitting in the living room, sitting on the kitchen windowsill, resting against the frame with her eyes closed, one leg close to her chest, one dangling off the edge. Wanda had seen her sit like this before. She usually did when she was deep in thought, especially after nights that fell heavy on her.

“What are you doing here?” Natasha's raspy voice filled the living room before she even looked at Wanda. She wasn’t surprised the woman was aware of her presence, but Wanda always wondered how she did it. Natasha could seem like her head was on another planet and you still could never sneak up on her.

“I guess this is the fun side of having magical powers that can read other people's minds,” Wanda didn’t know why she decided to be honest this time, maybe it was because she was too tired to lie, or maybe it was because she knew that when she did Natasha would give her half annoyed look before her eyes would melt into a more understanding look. The kind of considerate and forgiving look only Natasha could give her.

“I’m fine. Just thinking. Thinking about all of this. I know you are as well.” Natasha just said back not commenting on the fact that Wanda actually had mentioned being inside her head. Not that Wanda needed a comment, she could tell Natasha's head had fixed on it for a second, yet here she was not even mentioning it.

Not mentioning it even when Wanda knew she hated it.

“You said you had a feeling you know who it is, but you seem a little bit more sure than “just a feeling” at least by the way you're acting.” Wanda joined Natasha over at the windowsill, sitting down carefully looking at Natasha who just looked at her back. “You seem too protective if it's nobody.”

Wanda watched as Natasha clenched her jaw before shaking her head. “If I'm right… part of me hopes I'm wrong. But I need to know. If Kate locates anything suspicious tomorrow we’re going after it.”

Wanda nodded back slowly looking at Natasha who looked down at her hands. She seemed sad in a way. Wanda was surprised she had said anything at all, but now Natasha seemed so… so easy to read. You could tell she was hurt; you could tell she was scared, and you could tell she was scared about what they were doing.

“That’s why I'm here, to help you. You don't have to go into this alone Nat. I don't know who this person is, but I know that we can take it whoever it is.”

Natasha just nodded back before leaning her head back letting it rest against the window frame.
“I hope you don't have to; I hope none of you do.”

Wanda continued to think about what Natasha had said to her long after their late-night talk had finished. Natasha had seemed so exposed at that moment. Showing all sides of herself. She was presenting herself in a completely different way than what she had done lately. Wanda had seen Natasha like this before, but that was back when their relationship was more stable. Back when they actually seemed to have a good relationship.

Natasha seemed worried. She was still in charge and knew what she wanted, but she seemed concerned too. She seemed like she was constantly expecting the worse. Like she was looking over her shoulder all the time and was ready to see everything fall apart.
It was weird.

Wanda watched Natasha phase back and forth on today's choice of roof. She was looking down onto the street all the time. She had started looking at her phone doing whatever a superspy did when she was on the hunt for a person, but now she seemed restless.

It was only 4 in the morning, but the woman had seemed to give up trying to sleep and woke Kate up at 3:30 saying they needed to move, getting met by a not-so-happy Kate when she did so.

“Natasha… I think I saw something… or kind of.” Wanda lifted her head at the same time Natasha did, moving over to stand behind Kate while Natasha walked over herself.

Kate had been quiet for most of the morning and had complained loudly when they got to the roof saying she didn’t like having to be up before the sun was even here. Still, the girl had of course picked up her work from earlier, and when she started to work she seemed to at least calm down a little and wake up some more.

“It’s not a big deal, but it's been a character that has been walking around the same block for a while, I think they are moving, making their way over and up to the roof.” Kate’s voice was calm, maybe not to make a small situation big, or maybe to downplay so Natasha didn’t freak out. Either way, she showed them some numbers and words Wanda didn’t quite understand. She didn’t even completely understand what Kate did and what she could do, but if she found something she wasn’t going to complain.

Wanda moved her eyes over to Natasha who had now lifted the tablet, looking at it closely before nodding. “Shit… that’s just by us… we need to move.” Natasha handed Kate her tablet before looking at them, waiting for them to start moving and collecting their things.

Natasha, unlike Kate, clearly thought it was more than “not a big deal”, but Wanda decided not to question it too much as she grabbed her jacket from the floor, brushing off it carefully.

“Are we going downstairs or?” Kate asked slowly, slipping her tablet into her big jacket pocket before throwing her bow and quiver over her shoulder.

“I was thinking a faster way. We only need to get over to that building.” Natasha turned to Wanda and suddenly Wanda realised what Natasha had meant when she said travelling with high ground. Wanda had never lifted Natasha with her powers and never somebody she had just met. She had moved Steve before, but lifting somebody else than him had never even crossed her mind.

“I don't know, I um…” Wanda looked at Natasha uncomfortable, but when the woman didn’t change her expression Wanda clenched her jaw and just nodded sharply

“You just need to fly us over. When we’re there we might meet this person but if you do I want both of you to stay down. Do not get close, do not engage unless they attacks, and even then, only work on getting away. Again, do, not, engage - have I made myself crystal clear.” Natasha looked between both of them, and for a moment Wanda could see the stress and pain in her eyes. It was well hidden, but it was there. It was there flickering.

Wanda and Kate looked at each other before nodding back. Wanda didn’t know what to even say to that comment, nor did she understand why Natasha was so scared. She could get that she didn’t want to hurt the other woman, but she made it sound like they would want to interfere. But why would they… unless it was really bad...?

Wanda moved over to the edge closest to the building they needed to get to. The building she needed to fly them to wasn’t very far. Just over the street below. She knew she had flown Steve longer back home, yet she was still nervous as she made Natasha fly over first followed by Kate. While they both made it over, a moment while getting Kate over she felt some fear in her system, and it was not a nice feeling doubting herself while flying an 18-year-old hundred of feet above the ground.

By the time Wanda finally got herself over she could feel her heart pound in her chest. Natasha was standing still in the middle of the rooftop while Kate was standing by a corner a few ten’s feet away from where Wanda had landed herself. The roof was much bigger than Wanda thought it was, but it seemed like it could be multiple buildings under this roof. Wouldn’t surprise her, and it would make sense that was where somebody would hide out.

Wanda brushed off her jacket at the same time they heard a sound, and before Wanda registered exactly how and where a silhouette of a person appeared in front of them.

It was hard for Wanda to make out the person in the morning dusk. The person was covered in all black, it looked like a catsuit or something similar, with a mask over the face and what seemed like night light goggles. Whoever it was they weren’t big. About Natasha's height maybe.

The first second they all just stared at each other. None of them moved. The fourth person did not seem to be expecting them, but they didn’t run away either.

Natasha's body language was low as she looked at the other person. Wanda could tell she wanted to get closer, but something made her not do it. The two just looked at each other before suddenly the person launched themselves at Natasha.

It happened so quick, from Natasha standing still to throwing herself away from the attacking person, having no other choice than to drag the other person down with her as the attacker punched her to the ground.

After that, it turned messy really fast. The person seemed to try everything in her power to rip Natasha apart while Natasha constantly tried to disarm the person from their knife and gun. Natasha barely touched the other person, taking every single hit she wasn’t able to deflect straight to her gut, multiple times making it look like Natasha was about to go to the ground.

Wanda felt herself shake as her hand started to glow red. Besides her, she could see Kate with her bow, an arrow aimed at the two. Wanda wanted to do something, anything, but knowing she couldn’t Wanda just gasped as Natasha redirected a shot fatal shot aimed at her, instead aiming it straight up, a move Wanda had only seen the woman do once before and it blew her mind both times.

Natasha gasped as she let go of the person's arm after she had redirected the fire. She pushed herself away from the person before kicking the hand that held the gun making it fly across the roof.

The person whipped her head around as Natasha disarmed them and it was now Wanda realised, they were about to flee. The person went straight towards Kate and Wanda watched as Kate's eyes widened before she let go of her arrow, shooting a powerful warning shot just in front of the person who threw themselves to the side.

Natasha was only a few feet behind running after the person just before it felt like time stopped.

Wanda watched as the person who now had recovered from dodging Kate's shot, jumped over the roof edge followed by Natasha who threw herself headfirst after.

She wanted to scream as she watched Natasha fly over the edge. She was over an arm’s length away from the person in front, reaching after her as they fell out of sight.

Panic flooded her as Wanda sprinted after, watching as Kate did the same thing, both almost rushing over the edge themselves.

Wanda got to the edge just in time to watch Natasha and the person she now had got a grab of, fall straight to a rooftop below them. A free fall of at least 30 feet straight to a hard flat rooftop, making the two fall away from each other as they took the impact.

Wanda felt a lump in her throat as Natasha hit the roof with her shoulder with the other person on top of her groaning loudly as she ripped the person’s mask off as she rolled away from them revealing a blond head.

It was a woman. A woman that couldn’t be much older than Wanda herself.

The woman groaned at the same time Natasha tried to get herself up from the floor. Both of them seemed to have taken the fall hard and Wanda watched as Natasha pushed herself up on her left arm while lowering her right in front of her.

“Yelena I'm not here to fight you.”

Ice went down Wanda's spine as she heard Natasha's voice shake. It had been confirmed. She knew the woman's name. Natasha knew who it was.

“Yelena, please.” Natasha was on her feet now, dropping the mask she had ripped off the woman, lowering her head and stance as she made her way closer to the woman.

“NATASHA!”

It was Kate who yelled out Natasha's name before an arrow flew straight down just in front of the blond woman at the same time she tried to throw a knife at Natasha

Wanda hadn’t even been able to move when she was looking down at them but now Kate was grabbing her arm forcing her out of her trance when she watched the woman charge at Natasha again.

“Come on we need to get down there!” Kate was shaking her to get her to move and Wanda could only nod before she watched Kate get ready to leap down after.

Wanda lowered Kate to a more tolerable height before dropping her before she jumped after herself entering the battlefield by slamming down on the roof making both of the women look up at her.
It was only for a second she had the attention of both of them before went on each other throats again. The blond threw herself around Natasha's neck, and for a second Wanda thought she had killed her before Natasha kicked her off her, gasping for air when she did so.

“Yelena, listen to me!” Natasha tried to get herself up from the ground again when Kate threw herself into the fight. The woman Natasha called Yelena was about to grab her again when Kate interfered, kicking the other woman before flipping her over.

Wanda had never seen Kate fight before, but it was impressive. She held her ground well. She was quick and dodged most of the woman's punches, even bringing her bow into the fight as an extended arm. For a while it seemed like she tied with the woman, giving Wanda enough time to run over to Natasha and help her up on her feet. The woman seemed to be more hurt than Wanda had thought initially, barely able to keep holding her own weight.

Wanda had just gotten herself under Natasha's arm straightening her up when the blond woman launched herself around Kate's waist swinging around her and bringing her straight to the floor.

It wasn’t before Kate was on the ground groaning loudly that Wanda realised the woman was looking straight at her. The blond seemed to realise the only way to finish Natasha was to finish the two others first.

Wanda's first reaction was to throw out her arm, immediately throwing the other woman away from her as she charged her.

“YELENA!” Natasha threw herself in front of Wanda before Wanda could do anything again. “Get down, I don't want to hurt you, stop this now!”

Natasha threw Wanda a look and for a split second Wanda could feel a strong feeling of fear flood her, just when Natasha for the first time in this fight made the first move.

Natasha got met in the middle by the woman and as they impacted Natasha threw the woman on the floor. The blond seemed caught off guard as she gasped when Natasha held around her throat.

“Stay down!”

Before Natasha could say anything else the woman kicked her in the leg, releasing the grip around the woman’s throat. It was enough for the woman to push Natasha away again before she flew up on her legs again.

Wanda heard Natasha's cry before she realised Natasha was on the floor. Right in front of her, only a few feet, Natasha fell to her knees a black knife in her back.

“Nat.” Wanda's voice was shaking as Natasha’s eyes rolled back in her head, and Wanda couldn’t help her scream of anger before she launched herself at the blond.

She didn’t know what she did and how she was even standing, all she knew was that this woman needed to be destroyed. She could barely see between the anger in her eyes. The fury drove her towards the woman with red hands, ready to rip the woman apart.

It only took a touch before Wanda's vision got filled with laughter and kids’ voices.

“We’re both upside down."

"And I bet you’re gonna fall down first."

"No, you will!”

Chapter Text

Wanda threw her head back when the visions flashed in front of her eyes.

Her hand was extended, red dancing over it while red flashed in front of the blond's eyes. She seemed stunned, just standing there looking into nothing for a moment before moving her head looking disorientated and confused.

“Natasha?”

Wanda watched as the woman moved her head around before her eyes fell on Natasha who was now getting help from Kate to sit up.

“Natasha? What, what did I do?” The blond jogged towards the woman, turning her head towards Wanda, but when Wanda chose to stand still, she turned her head back again. The woman's voice was filled with worry as she got closer. Wanda didn’t need to go into her head to tell the worry was real. Wanda didn’t trust her, not fully at least. But it was something in the way the woman was moving and talking that told Wanda that right now, the woman wouldn’t turn on them.

Kate looked at the other woman suspiciously as she closed the distance, but Wanda could tell she too realised getting between them now wouldn’t be the right move. Instead, she let the woman get close, just standing protectively beside Natasha, eying out the woman in front.

“Natasha, I…” The woman looked at the redhead who continued to stay silent, looking at her as she hung over Kate's shoulder, holding over her side. Natasha didn’t seem to react too much but she didn’t break eye contact with the woman.

The blond looked between them all for a second before her she closed the distance with Natasha completely as she ripped something off her. Wanda hadn’t seen Natasha's knife holster before the woman ripped a knife out of it and immediately Wanda wanted to throw herself at her.

Before Wanda got the time to do that her eyes widened as the woman crouched down and stabbed the knife right into her own leg. She watched as pain flashed over her eyes before she closed them, ripping the knife out of herself followed by a small little chip.

“Ah, shit.” The woman closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head, before she straitened up again, looking Natasha directly in her eyes before she said, “We need to move.” The tone the woman used wasn’t as worried anymore, it was more stern, clearly hinting that she needed Natasha to take her seriously now.

Wanda watched as Natasha nodded back before signalising Kate to help her move.
It took them 15 minutes to get into Natasha's apartment and judging by the way all four fell through the door it truly looked like they had been in a warzone.

“Somebody, get this knife out of me.” Natasha groaned as she fell over her kitchen counter breathing heavily as she looked at them all waiting for some of them to move. Wanda was absolutely not comfortable with the idea of trying to remove a knife from Natasha's back.

“I got this; I take it out on three, okay.” The blond walked up to Natasha and both Kate and Wanda looked in silence as the woman yanked the knife out of Natasha's shoulder, making the woman rock forwards letting out a yelp.

“Sorry.” The blond looked at Natasha who just looked at her back, before she slowly made her way over to a cabinet in the kitchen, grabbing a first aid kit.

“Yeah, well maybe don't throw knives at my friends next time.” Natasha threw the woman a look before she unzipped her suit and waved Wanda over. “Help me put pressure on it.”

Natasha wiggled herself out of the top part of the suit as she continued to look at the blond, making Wanda have no choice but to grab some stuff from the box before she held around Natasha's shoulder.

“What did she do?” The blond pointed at Wanda, and Wanda could feel Natasha shift under her hands before she shook her head.

“My question first is what do you think you are doing? You could have killed somebody.” Natasha looked between all of them now, giving them a look that told Wanda she was waiting for a specific answer and not just a throwaway one. The woman didn’t seem to care about the fact that she was now sitting in a mostly removed catsuit and a bra with bruising and cuts that were visible over her entire body.

“Not something I could control.” The blond mumbled back, and for the first time, Wanda really took notice of her accent. It was heavy or at least heavy enough for her to be surprised she hadn’t picked up on it before. The blond was looking up and down Natasha's body, maybe trying to make out the damage she had done to the other woman.

She too looked pretty banged up, but not as much as Natasha and right now the woman seemed more confused and out of place than injured.

“Yelena, I’m not here trying to be your friend, but you need to tell me what is going on.” Natasha pushed Wanda's arm away and made her way over to the blond who was now leaning on a wall just by Kate.

“The times we met, I was on a mission to dig up some lost technology, you came in my way and all I wanted to do was to kill you.” The blond looked at Natasha for a moment before lowering her head and looking away from the redhead.

Wanda watched as Natasha continued to look at the woman, letting what the woman had said sink in before asking slowly. “Did you have a choice?”

Wanda felt some kind of fear fill her when she watched Natasha ask. It was something in her eyes that told her Natasha was asking for multiple reasons even though Wanda already knew the answer to that specific question.

“What you experienced was psychological conditioning. I’m talking about chemically altering brain functions. They’re two completely different things. You’re fully conscious, but you don’t know which part is you. I don't know what she did, but she did something.” The blond pointed at Wanda before looking back at Natasha who bit her lip while she was thinking. The way she was talking about Natasha made Wanda believe she truly knew this woman well. Or well enough to know that Natasha had been before in a situation she wasn’t in control over herself.

“I don't know what I did. But I could feel it was something. I also don't know if it’s permanent. I mean I just… messed with mind control...” Wanda mumbled the last part not knowing how to describe what she had just done. She didn’t know if she really could defend her actions either.

Natasha was still standing there thinking. She seemed completely lost in her own head and the conversation not looking at Kate lowered her bow, putting it by the door, or looking at Wanda as she tidied up the kitchen island. “So exactly what is going on right now?” The young woman asked motioning to the entire room as she spoke.

“Is there a way, a way to do it permanently?” Natasha completely ignored Kate this time, looking at the blond who nodded slowly back. She had her eyes glued on Kate now, because, unlike the redhead, she seemed interested in her.

“After we met the first time, I was waiting for somebody, I don't know, Captain America or something, to come and take bring the red room.”

Did she say the red room? Wanda watched the woman move her head away from Kate, looking at Natasha who seemed frozen to the floor.

Was this girl a widow?

“What? Taking down the Red Room? What are you talking about? It’s been gone for years. Dreykov’s dead. I killed him.” Wanda could see the shock in Natasha's eyes. She seemed scared in a way. Confused. Unsure what to believe.

The blond just looked at her back, she seemed almost as surprised that Natasha was questioning it, as Natasha was confused she got asked.

“You don’t actually believe that, do you? You really do believe that.”

The two just looked at each other, looking at each other, eyeing each other’s reaction before Natasha again broke the silence.

“Dreykov’s dead. It took almost destroying the entire city just to get to him.”

“If you’re so sure, then tell me what happened. Tell me exactly.”

This time Wanda could see Natasha hesitate. Not because she seemed surprised by the question, but more because she seemed to not know how to answer the question.

Wanda knew the woman didn’t like talking about her past, not to mention a potential murder. Wanda had never heard the woman talk about anything like that before.

“We rigged bombs,” Natasha answered shortly immediately getting a question fired back.

“Who’s “we”?”

“Clint Barton.” Natasha paused a second before adding. “Killing Dreykov was the final step in my defection to S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Natasha passed the other woman now, walking back to Wanda before falling down on a chair by her. Wanda could only look at her. She didn’t know what to say or even do. It was so much information to take in even though she wasn’t actually part of the conversation.

The blond just nodded and shrugged back, not seeming like she was that convinced by Natasha's answer. “Simple as that?”

Natasha let out a small huff before shaking her head annoyed. “Yeah, sure, “simple.” That’s what I’d call imploding a five-story building and then shooting it out with the Hungarian Special Forces. Took 10 days in hiding before we could even get out of Budapest.”

“And you checked the body? Confirmed the kill?

“There was no body left to check.”

The two just stared at each other, looking as if both of them wanted to strangle the other. It was something about the way they talked to each other, something about the way they were feeling each other out that made Wanda wonder. They seemed to know perfectly well how to push each other’s buttons.

“Yeah okay, but now I am going to ask again, what is going on and who is Dreykov? And who are even you?” Kate broke the stare, looking at both of them.

“Ha, didn’t even tell them about who they were fighting, didn’t even tell them about your little sister.”

Wanda inhaled sharply. Did she just… did she say… sister?

“You weren’t really my sister,” Natasha mumbled back low making the blond huff.

“And the Avengers aren’t really your family.” The blond fired back scowling at the other woman.

“Sister? You two are… what?” Kate shook her head, saying exactly what Wanda's head was saying as well. She looked between them clearly trying to make sense of it all. Wanda had a feeling it might not be by blood, but then again if they were sisters, it made sense that Natasha really wanted to make sure the woman didn’t get hurt in the fight.

“That tracker in my leg. They are going to try and come after me. Maybe not right away but we can't stay here if too long if your plan was to hold me hostage or whatever.”

Natasha nodded shortly back before looking at Wanda.

“I'm going to call Clint. Kate, you did what I needed you to, so you need to go back to New York. Your mother would kill me if anything happened. I'm going to get Clint to come down here as fast as possible, okay.” Natasha had already grabbed her phone, and while Wanda could tell Kate wanted to protest, she changed her mind when Clint got brought into the conversation.

Natasha left the room while the three others were left in the living room space. None of them seemed to know what to do with themselves, just looking at each other.

“So… magic?” The blond finally turned to Wanda asking her while she analyzed her, moving her eyes up and down her frame while she talked. Just the fact that they were talking about magic should have made the blond hesitate, but she didn't seem scared of it. Which, to times, not even Wanda could say she wasn't.

“Sure, if you want to call it that,” Wanda answered back, not entirely sure what to even say to the woman, most people couldn’t fly around and read minds, so she wasn’t sure how to even explain it.

The woman just smiled back at her before turning to Kate who looked back at the woman almost in a suspicious way.

“You are a pretty good fighter. The body throw, that was good.” The blond nodded at her making Kate just frown back at her before mumbling a thanks.

“I mean I'm not surprised. My sister wouldn’t have picked two idiots who wouldn’t be able to hold their ground, at least not if she had the Avengers to pick from. God from space and Captain national treasure.”

Before Wanda could reply Natasha came back to the room looking at them. She was wearing a tired look in her eyes, and something told Wanda she didn’t feel like having to deal with three people talking in her mouth so she decided not to say anything.

“Clint is going to be here early tomorrow. We are leaving early tomorrow as well.” Natasha looked between the waiting for them all to nod before she continued. “Kate. Clint is going to take you back home okay. He is going to talk to Eleanor and make sure you are not in any trouble or anything. He is going stay in New York for a few days to make sure you are safe, and nobody followed you.” Natasha looked at Kate who nodded slowly back. She still didn’t seem happy about the decision but didn’t seem like she wanted to fight it too much. Maybe because she realised arguing with a former assassin wasn't the best idea.

“So, what are you going to do then?” Kate asked carefully, first getting a really stern look from Natasha before she sighed.

“We are going to find and bring down the red room.”

Chapter Text

Wanda was sitting on the edge of the bed, back towards the door, just finishing up her braid for the night, when Natasha walked into the room. Wanda turned around to find her closing the door behind her after she entered looking into the room with an empty look in her eyed. It looked like she just got out of the shower with a few strands of wet hair outside of a towel wrapped around her head.

Wanda could tell she was tired from the long day, which did not surprise her at all, but it was the look in her eyes. The tired look told her that the redhead needed nothing but to wind down. She walked slowly around the room with her head low before unwrapping her hair, throwing it over a chair.

“Hi, how are you?” Wanda shifted on the bed when Natasha joined her on the other side, looking at the other woman as she moved.

“I don't know,” Natasha answered low. Wanda was surprised Natasha had ended up answering honestly, but she was not complaining. They very rarely talked anymore so it was a nice feeling that they could have a normal conversation without any sort of tension.

Wanda nodded back crawling over the bed, sitting down behind Natasha letting her hand glide through Natasha's hair before she flew a towel over slowly starting to dry Natasha's hair. She didn’t know why she did, but she had a feeling Natasha might have needed the extra attention today.

The woman looked completely beaten up. She had bruises all over her body, not to mention her shoulder which was now completely blue. Wanda was guessing it was the one that had broken the fall. The same one that had taken the knife.

“You know, you didn’t have to take that knife for me,” Wanda mumbled softly as she messaged Natasha's head with the towel carefully.

“Well, that is what happens when you stand in front of a throwing knife and don't move,” Natasha said back with an empty voice.

Wanda didn’t answer to that. She knew she had frozen up, but even if she had she didn’t think Natasha should have jumped in front of it. Natasha shouldn’t have taken a knife for her just because she was dumb enough not to move. She could be responsible for her own actions.

“Wanda, you could have been killed.” Natasha turned around suddenly, looking at her with a serious look. “I need you alive.” The woman looked at her and Wanda watched as Natasha's eyes melted. “I need you to stay alive.”

Wanda didn’t move as she watched Natasha shift. Her eyes were lowered, and Wanda couldn’t help but notice how Natasha bit her lip softly.

“Do you know what we should expect, I mean when leaving tomorrow?” Wanda asked carefully, getting a small headshake from Natasha's back. She didn't want to continue talking about what Natasha had done for her. Something told her it was more behind Natasha's words, but she wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing yet.

“No… I didn’t even know the red room still existed…” Natasha trailed, shaking her head as she talked. She looked so sad. Like she blamed herself for not doing anything before, even if the woman had any way she could have.
It was heartbreaking to see her like this. Blaming herself when she had no say in the situation.
“It didn’t even occur to me that it did, even after I thought I saw Yelena… I should have saved her.”

Wanda ended up not being able to sleep after her conversation with Natasha. Her head was just thinking. Thinking about everything. About what had happened and the fight and about Natasha and Yelena. How Natasha seemed to be willing to do anything for the other girl. How she seemed to not hesitate in ever taking that choice.

Even after Wanda had heard Natasha yell Yelena's name on the roof, Wanda had struggled to picture the girl with a name or really any kind of personality before Natasha had talked about her with her this evening. Before she had only been their target, but now, now that Natasha had said she wanted to save her… Now, this wasn’t a target anymore, now she Yelena… Yelena, Natasha's sister.

Wanda moved restlessly around in bed long after Natasha had ended up falling asleep. The other woman had seemed so tired and only a few minutes after Wanda had fully dried her hair and she had changed into some sleepwear the woman was out.

Wanda couldn’t remember the last time, if ever, Natasha fell asleep before her, but now she was sleeping with a worried expression across her face.

After almost 40 minutes of just listening to Natasha's steady breath, Wanda gave up. She pushed herself out of bed sneaking out as quietly as possible. She didn’t want to hang around in the living room knowing Yelena would be there, but she needed to pee. Plus, she thought she had heard some movements in the other room meaning the other girls might not be sleeping yet and she wouldn’t be waking them up.

“Are you just saying my name to make me aware that you know it now?” Wanda lifted her head when she heard Kate's voice and another laughter. The door to the other room was wide open but the two didn’t seem to have noticed Wanda when she stopped and looked at them.

“Well, do you remember mine?”

Wanda watched as Kate lowered her head mumbling something along the lines of "yes".
Yelena was sitting in the bed leaning against the headboard, looking like she was having the best time teasing Kate.

“Ha! See, you don't even remember.”

“It’s Yelena, see, I remember! I just have a lot on my mind okay…”

Wanda listened to them laugh. Yelena was supposed to be sleeping on the couch tonight, but it seemed like they had made other plans. She could hear them talk and joke around. It seemed like the serious mood was long gone, even after everything that had happened, and they had met only earlier today. Not to mention that Yelena had tried to kill them.

Wanda didn’t know if what she had done to Yelena was permanent. She could tell she had unlocked something in her... or she had suppressed something. She still didn’t know exactly what had been wrong, she had just been able to tell that Yelena’s consciousness had been fighting to take control, but why she could even change that was beyond her. Part of her felt like she hadn't actually fixed the problem.
Part of her felt that unless they changed something Yelena would forever be dependent on her to make it continue to stay this way.

It had been such a weird sensation diving into a head that the human host wasn't in control over. She was glad that it seemed like Yelena was back in control now. And if it ever faded... Wanda just hoped she would be there to help the woman back in control.

Wanda ended up listening to the two of them for another five minutes. She didn’t know why, but she did. She listened to them talking to everything and anything, laughing together. She didn’t know what she thought about Yelena earlier, but as she listened to them, she could feel she got a bigger soft spot. If Kate could trust her, even after what had happened, then maybe she could too.

Wanda wasn’t sure how to deal with herself anymore. She wished she felt comfortable enough to talk it out with Natasha but of course, she couldn’t. Not only because Natasha was currently sleeping, but she also didn’t feel like they were that close anymore. Not the "talk about their feelings in a deep conversation", kind of close at least.

Wanda fell down on the bed headfirst not noticing how Natasha was awake again looking at her when she put her head deep down into the pillow.

“Hey,” Wanda lifted her head when Natasha nudged her side softly, making her look up.

“Sorry, I didn’t wake you up did I?” Wanda looked at Natasha with a frown who just shook her head back. “Your sister is currently flirting with the newest recruit,” Wanda mumbled when Natasha continued to look at her with a thoughtful look.

Natasha looked at her surprised before tilting her head.

“Not actually… but not far off either…” Wanda continued with a low laugh, still getting a confused look from Natasha.

“Yelena is talking with Kate? Now?” Natasha asked slowly, making Wanda nod back with a small smile.

“Yeah, they are sitting on the bed, didn’t really care about me when I walked out there. Seems like they are getting along. Or at least not want to kill each other anymore.” Wanda watched as Natasha let out a small half-hearted laugh.

“Guess it’s a shame we're dropping Kate off tomorrow… Just don't want to drag her into the field like this. Not when she is so young.” Natasha mumbled the last part. Wanda didn't know what this mission was going to be, but she agreed with the choice of not bringing an 18-year-old into a dangerous mission.

Natasha seemed so on edge. She seemed like she was constantly waiting for the world to fall apart around her, and to be fair, maybe that wasn’t that far off the truth, but it was still hard watching Natasha being so worried as she was now.

“We got this, together.” Wanda smiled carefully at Natasha who nodded back before giving her a small smile. Wanda could still see the stress in her eyes, but she seemed a little calmer now, like she too appreciated having somebody to talk to.

Between Wanda and Natasha, they ended up getting very little sleep. By the time Natasha had to go out and meet Clint the next morning and Wanda had to keep an eye on Yelena, both of them had a pair of dark bags under their eyes clearly showing off the lack of sleep.

The two younger women seemed to be in a lot better mood than Wanda and Natasha were. They had probably talked for a while because Kate seemed even more resistant to leave now than she was before.
Natasha was not impressed by the way Kate tried to talk her into letting her go with them. Even when Kate was packing her bag, she talked about how she wanted to go and what she could bring to the team. Of course, Natasha didn’t budge but she did send Yelena a stern look when it seemed like she was about to say something that would signalise she was going to take Kate's side.

“But Natasha, I could help you with…” Wanda listened to Kate as Natasha pushed her out of the door, rolling her eyes softly as she closed the door behind her leaving Wanda and Yelena alone.

Yelena was looking after them as well before she turned to Wanda smiling at her when Wanda met her eyes. The blond seemed very calm to be locked in a room with a person she didn’t know, walking calmly over the floor before walking to the kitchen island to sit down on a barstool.

“So… could you like look into my thoughts now?” Yelena looked at her while she leaned back against the kitchen island behind her.

“Well, yeah,” Wanda said back with a small nod, watching as Yelena smiled back with a thoughtful look in her eyes.

“I am guessing that is freaking out my sister, no?” Yelena continued making Wanda huff out back.

“Can't say no to that.” She shook her head with a small helpless smile, making Yelena laugh softly before closing her eyes thinking. Yelena was so different now compared to how she had been on the roof. Of course, back then she hadn’t been in control over herself, but still. When she talked now, she seemed so young and life-like. Like she was constantly exploring the world still, waiting to learn and see everything.

It was not only a contrast from how she had been on the roof, but it was also a strong contrast from Natasha. Natasha was so down to earth most of the time. She always had her eyes on the target or end goal and very rarely looked away from it when she first put her mind to something. She was only just past 30 a year, yet it seemed like she had lived for more than a lifetime.

Wanda had always wondered how Natasha was when she was young. How she was when she was a child and if she really ever got the time to be one. She knew that she had grown up in the red room, but Wanda didn’t know how she ever got there, nor when Natasha did. Maybe she was very young or maybe it had happened after she had started to develop memories of a normal childhood.

“Natasha is like that. She doesn’t like things she can't control. Guess that is part of the reason why she is such a good killer. Why she was a master assassin.” Yelena shrugged as if that was the most normal thing to ever say. She didn’t seem to carry the same weight around Natasha's and even her own past. She had openly spoken about the red room even when Natasha seemed uncomfortable. She didn't even know them, and yet talking about murder didn't seem to bother her.

Wanda didn’t reply to her, instead only nodding slowly back looking at the other woman. Maybe she could ask about Natasha later. If they truly were sisters, or kind of, maybe she could answer the questions she had about Natasha.

Wanda's thought train got halted when Natasha opened the door, walking into the room before she stopped right at the inside of the door. “Yelena, talk.”

It was hard to know what to go after. They knew they needed to get a move on soon. Yelena had had a tracker in her leg, and when she removed it, it alerted the red room. At the same time, Yelena had only been on a small mission, it hadn’t been anything of importance other than outside of the conversation she had had with her mission leader and she had been alone about it. The other widows, or at least a rather big team of widows, were going to be sent into Budapest around the same time scouting and potentially bringing in what Yelena thought was the antidote for the mind control.

“I'm not saying it is that, but I know it was important. They were going to look for this older widow, she was Melina's generation. They believe she is hiding there. And when they find her, I was supposed to join them. So that is why I know about it.” Yelena sighed, leaning back and looking at the redhead. “But the thing is, they never said it was that. It is just that Dreykov is scared a thing like it exists.”

Wanda watched as Natasha nodded back. She didn’t seem to like what Yelena was saying. It was all based on uncertainties, and it was a dangerous game they were now going to try and enter.

“We need to try. For all of them.” Natasha looked between them making Wanda nod slowly back at the same time Yelena lifted an eyebrow.

“And how do you plan on getting to Budapest. I mean ideally, we should have been there like, oh I don't know, yesterday.” Yelena continued to look at Natasha challenging only to get a small smile back.

“Now that is why I have contacts.”

Wanda entered the quinjet slowly, looking around confused. How the hell did Natasha get a quinjet here? Also, how was it, like, invisible.

Wanda could see Yelena walk around it confused before she too followed into it. She looked impressed until she saw her sister sitting in the pilot seat and then she seemed like she remembered she couldn’t give Natasha all the credit.

“So, an invisible jet, on the roof of the building we were in, how convenient.” Yelena dropped down on the seat beside Natasha forcing Wanda to take the back.

“Talked to Clint. Shield may have been taken down, but not all of shield. This, was part of the part that didn’t. We were always planning on giving it to the Avengers, but we never got around to it. And seems like it came in handy now.” Natasha said before looking out of the window before she let the aircraft fly forwards.

“Don't make yourself too comfortable there though this is not here to stay.” Natasha looked over at Yelena who was still lent back in her seat seeming like she was living her best life.

“It is programmed to fly back to an old shield safehouse the second we touch down. After that, I cannot take control of the aircraft again.” Natasha poked her sister to keep her attention, shaking her head when Yelena rolled her eyes.

“Sounds boring,” Yelena mumbled back, throwing a look at Wanda as if Wanda was going to take her side.

“It is called being safe. Now focus up we need to make a plan.”

Chapter Text

Wanda was already nervous. They knew so little about what they were going into which made it even harder for her to truly grasp what they were trying to do. She didn’t actually know what they were doing at all.
Were they going to fight widows? What did that really mean if yes? And not to mention that three against x amount of people, was not a good plan, like not a good plan at all.

Just as Natasha had described, almost the second they all stepped off the ramp the quinjet behind them took off. Wanda had no idea how it did so, nor how it was invisible, but there it went off without them, stranding them in the middle of a park in Budapest.

“A park, in daylight?” Wanda mumbled, trying to see if anyone had spotted three people walking out into the world from nothing.

“People barely lift their heads from their phones, we’ll be fine. Come on.” Natasha nodded them towards some buildings forcing them to move again.

While Natasha was right in the comment of nobody seeming like they noticed, too busy in their own world, Wanda couldn't help being a little nervous about it.

Wanda walked after Natasha who seemed to know exactly where she was going. She led them through tiny narrow streets moving fast around every corner. It seemed like she knew the city well, or Natasha had just memorised a map, both very possible in their own right.

Behind her, Wanda could feel Yelena move, sometimes she was hanging a little behind, and at other times she was basically breathing down her neck. Wanda had no idea what she was doing, but whatever it was, Wanda could tell she too was on edge. She understood why though, Yelena had broken away from the red room and now she was putting herself in the field around them again. That had to be horrifying.

As they walked up to what felt like the 500th roof of the week, Wanda looked over the city. This was completely different from the two others Wanda had been in recently. She liked this one almost better, but maybe it was because Budapest reminded her more of home than what New York or Washington Dc would ever do.

The view made Wanda feel her heart slow down, calming her down as she took it all in.

Wanda took the time to sit down on the roof taking in the sun while scanning the roof one way while Natasha and Yelena walked on the other side. The budlings were so close they could move across the rooftops in all directions without a problem. She had a good overview over the entire rooftop and getting some sun didn’t hurt either. It was the first time in a while she could feel her head slow down. A very-needed break from the blinding number of thoughts and stress she had felt the last few days.

Wanda could tell the two others behind her weren’t as relaxed as she was, and maybe she should have been more on edge, but it was hard to be when she didn’t really know what to even look for. Widows, okay sure, but did they even know they were here? They probably didn’t. Not to mention that this team didn’t really know what they were looking for either, so for Wanda, it felt like they were looking for something non-existent.

Wanda closed her eyes, listening to the soft wind blowing around her, feeling it on her skin as it moved her hair across her face. Her mindset was not in the right place, she could tell, and that was not a good thing. She needed to be present if she was going to fight anyone, but right now she was anything but that.

“What are we looking for? What would they be carrying if they are at all?” Wanda could hear Natasha's voice behind her somewhere as she phased along the roof.

“I don't know, I didn’t get all the information, and in a way, it feels like things are getting a little blurry. I don’t think it would be anything big, not like a huge object. I mean unless the cure is a big machine, something tells me it’s something you can carry with ease,” Yelena mumbled back. She didn’t seem sure about it, but they just needed to take her word for it. Yelena was the only person that had any information at all, even if that was very limited as well.

Wanda listened to them talking as they continued to walk back and forth on the roof. Wanda tried to see if she could use her power to sense anyone, but she was in a big city, of course, there were people everywhere and she didn’t know who she was even trying to find.

“LOOK!” Wanda's eyes shot up when she heard a hiss straight into her ear, opening her eyes at the same time she watched Yelena shoot forwards sprinting along the roof. Wanda fell forwards as Natasha yanked her shoulder forwards getting her to pick herself up from the roof following them. Her head needed a few seconds to catch up with what her eyes were seeing, and for a moment she didn’t even understand what she needed to do.

Wanda let out a small breath before boosting herself forwards to catch up with the two widows who were already way ahead of her. It happened almost by instinct, flying after them for a moment. Just enough air time to not fall behind.

Wanda would never have seen the widow they were hunting on her own. It was only a single person running along the roof, and they were not close to them.
The woman was dressed in black in a tight catsuit Wanda had seen both Yelena and Natasha wear before as well. She didn’t seem to want to fight them, instead just running away from them, and something told Wanda that was exactly why Natasha and Yelena were hunting her down now.

If she was fleeing, maybe she was carrying something she didn’t want them to get their hands on.

Wanda groaned as she landed beside Natasha, making sure to soften her landing as much as possible before throwing herself into the chase with the redhead who took a sharp right. Natasha steered them to the side before jumping over to another roof with Yelena a roof ahead of them, and it took every part of Wanda to not completely miss the jump and fall straight down between the two budlings.

It was hard to tell if they were catching up or not but, it kinda seemed like it. Maybe?
Both Yelena and Natasha seemed to at least know what they were doing navigating over the roofs with ease.

Wanda learned quickly that running along a roof with two spies and one person to chase was not easy. She felt like she was two seconds from tripping most of the time, not to mention how fast the two were running in general. They both were so in sync, doing everything more or less identically. Taking every turn, every jump, every slide with the exact same technique.

“She went down!” Yelena yelled before she too disappeared over an edge after the woman they had been hunting. Wanda barely had time to see Yelena's blond hair and the other person's brown hair hang in the air as they dropped before her head got ripped out of the situation.

Wanda felt her own body fly forwards when she unexpectedly tripped, cursing at herself as she caught herself with her hands. It took another two seconds to even get up again before she was forced to boost herself off and down the roof with her powers, something she didn’t feel like her head was up to right now.

Natasha landed just the same time Wanda got her head over the edge looking down. Natasha seemed to have landed more comfortably than both Yelena and the widow they were hunting, because she had already passed Yelena and closed the distance with the widow in front of her, seeming like she was only a few seconds until she would actually catch up even after the woman had such a good head start.

Wanda and Yelena both looked at each other as they picked up the run. Wanda could tell her body was starting to have problems with the running. While running on solid ground was better than a roof, running around in traffic and people were still not great.

“Can't you like, stop her?” Yelena let out a heavy breath as they ran after, jumping away from a car as they turned a corner. The redhead had followed the widow into a narrow alleyway with just a few feet between the two walls hugging around them. Wanda could easily sense the idea of a trap, but now that Yelena had mentioned it her head tried to focus on her power instead.
The thought of using her powers hadn’t even occurred to Wanda but it only took a flick of her hand before she pushed the widow into a wall, giving Natasha a chance of getting her hand on the woman.

“Natasha!” Yelena screamed at the same time Natasha stepped backwards. The woman Natasha had tried to stop had her fist out in front of her, and Wanda could tell she must have stunned Natasha with her the widow’s bite she was wearing around her wrist. Wanda had always thought that was something Natasha had made herself, but it made so much sense that was from the red room.

Yelena was by the widow and Wanda watched in the corner of her eye as she closed the distance with the woman while Wanda herself made her way over to Natasha who had a hand over her shoulder eyes filled with a mix of pain and anger.

Wanda gave her a supporting hand as Natasha nodded back before her eyes widened.

“Wanda, try to - WATCH OUT!” Wanda felt a weight on top of her before her back hit the floor and the sound of something passed right over them.

She didn’t know if they had been shot at or something had been thrown, but Wanda could tell Natasha had again pushed her out of a dangerous situation, leaning over her before she threw herself off.

“Yelena! Left!” Natasha was off Wanda again, already by Yelena’s side deflecting a hit from the window giving Yelena a chance to turn her head towards the two new widows that had shown up in front of them.

Wanda was not planning on fighting three widows, and apparently, she didn’t need to only fight them either because before she could even do so two others showed up on the opposite end of the alleyway trapping them between the two groups.

“Not a cool way to die,” Yelena mumbled before sending Wanda a look Wanda could only return with a horrified one.

Wanda had never been in a close combat fight like this, and for most of the time her head couldn’t even focus on what was going on but at least now she understood why Natasha had pushed her to learn close combat fighting because was it one thing her head could not focus on was it the idea of using her powers. The widows were relentless, and Wanda was inexperienced. That resulted in a lot of hits and Natasha ended up by her side to make sure she didn’t get killed after three seconds.

Wanda gasped as Natasha pushed her for what felt like the millionth time today, her headbutting the wall at the same time Natasha took down a widow. She had no idea what Natasha and Yelena were even doing but both seemed to take turns knocking over widows only to get up again after a few seconds. She didn’t get it. She didn’t get what they were doing or why, but both of them seemed determent to do exactly that before moving on to the next one.

Yelena's fight style was more brutal than Natasha, but like her, she too seemed to like swinging around the opponent to drag them down, something Wanda never got the hang of. And even if both Natasha and Yelena were very good at this technique it seemed like this wasn’t part of the learning program in the red room because the widows did not seem to have a solid way of stopping the two while they did, so all end up on the ground.

“Don’t have it?” Natasha hissed before throwing Yelena a look who just kicked a widow flying across the ground.

“Nope… run,” Yelena gave Wanda a small look before grimacing at Natasha before they flew around, taking one widow each and throwing them straight to the floor before hurrying out of the alley with Wanda right behind them.

“What now, they don't have anything, and it doesn’t seem like they are planning on doing anything than being mad at us?!” Yelena sent them different looks as she talked, or more specifically, sending Natasha's looks. Wanda was just focusing on herself, trying not to trip again as she ran after the two women who seemed like they had no problem sprinting down the roads.

Wanda stooped around a corner after the two, hearing a gun fire behind her somewhere, letting out a small yelp, hoping whatever bullet that was wasn’t as close as she imagined it was.

“Looks like they found their guns as well. Do you have a plan, or should I just bring out my own gun, run, duck and cover?” Yelena fished out a gun from her holster, pointing it over her shoulder as Natasha threw a look behind her at Wanda before taking a sharp turn to the left again.

“I was not the one screaming run!” Natasha barked back as she grabbed Wanda's shoulder making her yelp as she got forced close to Natasha as they ran.

“So, no plan then, lovely,” Yelena answered drily as she shot her first two shots.

“You don't need to shoot at them!” Natasha yelled at her before signalising to Wanda that she wanted her to jump over a small rock fence just ahead of them.

“You're awful at making plans.” Yelena before she re-aimed her gun before yelled, “Down,” Wanda felt her body getting forced to a full stop when Yelena grabbed her arm shoving her head down hiding her from a few shots flying just past them.

Just ahead a motorcycle drove straight at them with a widow riding it and a gun pointed forwards.

“Seriously,” Natasha mumbled as she helped Wanda up the same time Yelena grabbed her as well, pulling her up before Natasha too brought out a gun. “Run.” Natasha's voice was heavy as they took towards the fence they were aiming for.

Wanda could feel Natasha push her in front of them, forcing Wanda over the small wall before she had a chance to see what happened behind her. She felt like a child being pushed around. She had done nothing productive, and now she was just jumping over this small wall because she got told so.

It wasn’t an awfully tall drop, but she hadn’t expected it to be about 6 feet down to the street below on the other side. She also hadn’t expected to land right into traffic.

Groaning loudly, Wanda felt her legs take the impact with a shaky stance a few seconds before Yelena landed after her, a little more graceful than she had done. She too looked surprised by her landing, but recovered quickly, moving closer to the wall and out of the way of the cars.

Wanda turned to Yelena who looked up at the wall. Natasha had been just behind her, but Wanda couldn’t see her anymore.

Yelena seemed to want to say something the same time they heard two shots and the sound of an engine before they came flying over the edge. Wanda didn’t know if Natasha had decided to tackle the vehicle or something, but Natasha dragged the woman off the bike in the air as they fell, only just dodging the bike when they landed. The two women slid across the road, before Natasha threw herself out of the way of a car, landing heavily on the other side of the road.

Wanda could see the pain in the redhead’s eyes as the widow followed suit, tackling the woman. Natasha's eyes were locked on the woman on top, but Wanda had a paralyzing feeling in her system when the widow leaned over her.

Wanda's head swirled as she watched Yelena try to close the distance between the two widows. Wanda could tell even if it was only a road between them by the time she got there, it would be too late.

Wanda's actions were made purely on instinct, and before she knew exactly what she had done Wanda watched the widow that had been on top of Natasha get tossed away, flying into the nearby lake.

Yelena threw her look before she fell down on her knees beside Natasha, forcing Wanda to follow after her. Natasha was laying on the ground holding over her side. Wanda could see blood on her hand, and while she had hoped it belonged to the other widows, something told her it wasn’t.

“Okay, we need to get out of this city.” Before Wanda could stop her, Yelena stepped into the road forcing a car to hit the emergency brakes. “Thank you!” Yelena said sweetly as she held the gun out in front of the man that stepped out of the car, opening the back door to let Natasha fall into the car, groaning loudly as she sent the blond a look.

“Just get in,” the blond hissed, taking the seat by the wheel before slamming on the gas just when Wanda got herself into the car.

Chapter Text

The tension in the car was high. Natasha was leaning on the seat in front of her while Yelena drove them out of the city. It seemed like Natasha was getting paler with every second that passed, and Wanda could tell she needed medical care soon.

“What now?” Wanda forced her head away from Natasha looking at Yelena through the mirror as she talked. She could see Yelena look at her back before turning her head to the right and looking at Natasha.

“We just need to put distance between us.” She paused letting out a sigh. “They didn’t have anything on them. Or at least not the widows that hunted us. Something tells me they never found what they needed in the first place.” Yelena looked at her closely in the mirror. It was clear she was thinking about something she wasn’t sure if she wanted to share.

“I think they think we have it,” Yelena mumbled, before lowering her eyes again. Wanda let that sink in. That made so much sense. If they didn’t find what they thought, they would in Budapest they would go to the next option. They knew Yelena had broken whatever mind control she had been under, and she had gotten help. They knew that their team could break it, so unlike hunting down something they didn’t know existed, turning their forces towards something they did know existed made would be the next logical thing to do.

Wanda sat in silence as they continued to drive. She still didn’t know what to think about this all. Right now, they were stuck without any resources and a whole team of widows probably wanting nothing more than to hunt them down. Even if Natasha and Yelena were extremely capable it was no hiding that three, against God, knows how many people, would be a challenge. Not to mention that Natasha was a lot more defensive compared to the widows. Wanda had seen how Natasha had tried to do whatever she could to not do any permeant damage when she fought while their opponent fought to kill.

“I'm getting hungry,” Yelena announced suddenly, taking a turn to the left. The voice and the turn shook Wanda out of her thoughts. She didn’t know how long she had been zoned out but outside of the window were fields and long empty roads. They were well out of the city, now seeming like they entered a very small little town.

Wanda and Natasha made their way out of the car when Yelena stopped. Natasha was completely white now, falling down on a nearby picnic table with a groan.

“I’ll get something, stay with her.” Yelena nodded at Natasha before she turned towards the gas station store, leaving them behind.

“You okay?” Wanda asked softly, slipping down beside Natasha. It was a really dumb question because the woman looked like a blood-covered ghost. Now that Wanda could see the woman in direct sunlight without worrying about getting shot every two seconds, she could take the time to actually look at her and properly see the damage.
Natasha had cuts and bruises along her entire body. Even if her jacket and pants seem to have saved a lot of her skin, it was part of her that seemed to have taken a bigger beating than others with the fabric ripped off exposing cuts and scrapes.

“Thank you for… saving me… a few ten times.” Wanda continued to talk low as she looked down at her own hands. She too had a few scrapes but not close to as severe as Natasha's. “I'm sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.” She whispered, watching as Natasha turned her head slowly towards her, looking at her with two tired eyes.

“I don't care. I rather want to keep you out of the fire, keep you alive.” Natasha's voice was heavy, as she talked back.

“But you could have died! She would have killed you!” Wanda's voice cracked when she said it. It just fell out of her before she could stop herself. But when she had watched them fight, she had felt it when the widow put her hands around Natasha's neck. She had felt how the woman's head was wired to kill, and how Natasha hadn’t been able to fight back. She had felt Natasha's life fade out of her.

“You would have gotten killed,” Wanda whispered again.
Natasha's eyes didn’t change expression, even when Wanda looked at her pained.

“Natasha, I don't know why, but I could feel it. Like I could tell and see your life getting taken. I felt it before she did it. You-would-have-died.” Wanda put her hand on Natasha's shoulder, looking at her trying to make it sink in that her recklessness almost cost her life.

“I don't know what you felt or saw, but maybe stop doing it before you actually feel what's truly going through my head right now.” Natasha moved her shoulder forcing Wanda to let go before the redhead turned her head away from her.

Wanda looked at the woman before turning away as well. She hated how stubborn Natasha was, and she hated how she never seemed to understand, the overprotective feeling Natasha had for others, somebody else had for her. Why could she not see that she had people that cared for her as well?

Wanda kept her head looking everywhere but at Natasha for the next 15 minutes. She looked around at the people walking around them. Families running and playing. None of them seemed to have any worries in their life. She wished she could say the same.

“I got some water, food, and something to stop us from bleeding to death.” Yelena dropped a bag on the table in front of them as well as dangling a bandage roll in front of Natasha's face. Natasha didn’t look at her or the items and Wanda couldn’t help herself as she huffed, moving away from the seat she had beside the redhead and leaving space for Yelena instead.

Wanda slumped down on the other side of the table, watching as Yelena gave the two of them a confused look before slowly sitting down beside Natasha.

“Okay?” Yelena looked confused between them before slowly opening the bag. Wanda knew it was unfair to drag Yelena into her and Natasha's stupid fight, but she couldn’t help but be angry at the redhead when she kept acting like this.

While the blonde fished out different things from the bag, handing Wanda a bottle of water and a sandwich while she was at it, Wanda took the time to look a little closer at Yelena as well. Yelena's suit also had a few scrapes along it, and it seemed like somebody had tried to cut her arm because the fabric on her shoulder had a slice with some blood running down.

“What is this?” Wanda let out a small huff as she finally took the time to look through the rest of the things Yelena had bought. Other than some more water, the bag also had two knives as well as something green-looking. “Is this a vest?” Wanda let out a small laugh, feeling some kind of relief fill her when Yelena let out a twisted laugh back.

“Okay, I didn’t expect the store to have a full weapon section, okay, but knives are always nice, besides that vest was cool.” Wanda smiled at the other woman who seemed very happy when Wanda took the time to look at the green piece of clothing.

“This. This is the first time I've been able to do something like this, you know, me, actually doing it because I want to. This is the first piece of clothing I’ve ever bought for myself.” Yelena nodded at it before turning her head back to the wound Natasha had now let her look at.

“Yeah, I get it, must have been awful doing things you didn’t want to do. Being controlled by somebody else.” Wanda said with a small sigh, folding the vest carefully.
Wanda watched as the blonde slowly rinsed out the wound Natasha had covered before handing Natasha some other medical things and moving her attention over to her own body.

“They aren’t going to stop until they get their hands on us,” Yelena spoke with a soft voice as she took the time to rinse the cut on her shoulder. She hadn’t changed out of the suit they had found her in originally in Washington, and it seemed more than ready to be switched out soon with dirt covering most of it.

“At this point getting captured might be the easiest way to even find the red room. Assuming they want us alive more than dead. So, they can look at us before they slice our head open or something to see how I'm not mind-controlled by Dreykov anymore. Maybe not you though, think they would love to kill you right away. They made that very clear.” Yelena looked at Natasha who stared out empty in front of her.

“We don't have anyone on your side, do we?” Natasha lifted her head slowly. Some of the colour in her face had returned, but she still didn’t look good.

“Well, you have the Avengers, and I have… mom… I guess.” Natasha turned to Yelena surprised, looking at her with wide eyes.

“Mom, as in mom, Melina? I thought she died?”
Wanda looked between them. She was so confused. Who the hell was Melina…

“So did I but overheard something a while back. I might have been mind-controlled back then, so it wasn’t like I could do anything with that information but heard it from the man himself. Guess she has some window invincibility in her after all. Not that simple to kill one, now is it...?” Yelena nodded at Natasha who nodded slowly back. Wanda could tell she was thinking about something, but it didn’t seem like she liked whatever thought that was going through her mind right now.

“Please don't tell me you rather want to try and hunt down her instead of taking a call to world genius Tony Stark. I don't even know where she is other than Saint Petersburg-”

“Saint Petersburg.”

Yelena looked at Natasha surprised when she spoke up at the same time she did. Natasha's eyes were wide as if something had just unlocked in her memory.

“How did you…?” Yelena's eyes locked on Natasha as the woman lifted her head looking straight ahead.

“I think I know where she is,” Natasha whispered low before shaking her head and looking between them. “Guess we have a long drive ahead of us.”

Yelena and Wanda packed the things they had spread across the table before Natasha took the time to cover the wound on her stomach.

“Let me get this straight, you want us to steal a car and drive for like 24 hours to a city… in Russia… to a place we don't even know actually exists, to find Melina. Melina, a woman we don't even know if she is going to help us… Instead of calling the heroes of the world…” Yelena tossed a water bottle into the bag before pushing herself up from the table following Natasha who had now started to walk towards a car.

“He went on break, the key is…” Natasha started but got cut off by annoyed Yelena.

“Yeah, no I saw,” Yelena mumbled turning to a cabinet grabbing a pair of car keys shaking her head at Natasha when she tried to take them from her. “No, you don't drive. Can you drive?” the blonde looked at Wanda who nodded slowly back.

“Good, we take turns, get in the back.” Yelena looked at the redhead who rolled her eyes but chose not to take up the fight.

“It’s actually closer to 23 hours,” Natasha said with a small smirk as Yelena turned the keys, making the woman huff back before they slowly pulled out of the city.

Wanda took the time in the car to try to relax, letting Yelena do the driving focusing her own attention on the fact that she very much was running on very little sleep. She had 20 hours locked in a car with Natasha, who she just argued with, and Yelena, who she barely knew, and it was probably only going to get worse from here.

Most of the time she felt like she was here for no real reason. Yelena and Natasha clearly worked well together alone, and while Wanda still didn’t fully understand the relationship between them, it was no hiding at one point they must have been close. She too couldn’t help but wonder why Natasha hadn’t gone to the Avengers instead of going alone. This didn’t seem like a mission you should have gone on alone, but here they were, without any kind of backup even though they could have some of the world's best.
Natasha clearly had to have a reason behind it… Wanda just didn’t get what…

“If you want to sleep you can.” Yelena's voice was soft as she spoke, turning her head quickly to look at her before moving her attention back to the road ahead.

“If I could if would,” Wanda mumbled back, looking back at the backseat to see Natasha asleep, leaning on the window to her left.

“You guys were a thing, right?” Yelena asked casually, not even looking at her when she talked.

“What?” Wanda's voice was full of confusion, looking at the girl who just shrugged back as if she had said nothing out of the ordinary.

“I might only have known you for a day, but I know my sister. Not to mention the tension thick enough to slice in half. Something happened between you two.” Yelena continued this time giving her a glance as she spoke. She talked about it as if it was not a little bit weird to ask about.

Wanda just huffed back, not knowing what to even say. Did she actually want to go there, talking to this woman she didn’t know about her failed love life? She still didn’t even understand half of it herself. Plus, if Yelena learned that she had hurt Natasha even a little, would that mean Yelena would hate her too? Because she rather not have another Russian spy in her neck. One was more than enough.

“You can say that. Didn’t last very long. If you can't tell, we aren’t quite on talking terms anymore.” Wanda mumbled finally, making Yelena laugh back before shaking her head.

“Maybe not but Natasha seems more than ready to die for you and that has to count for something? I mean it’s not every day you see The Black Widow repeatedly take bullets for a girl.” Yelena's mouth had formed a small smirk looking very amused by the conversation happening right now.

“Aren't you also a widow,” Wanda mumbled low, looking at the girl who shook her head back with a smile.

“Sure, but Natasha was always looking at something else. She was better than everyone else. Rumours said she could kill within seconds. She just needed her hands on you, and you would be dead before you could blink. She was flawless. Nobody could compare to her. Why do you think she got sold to KGB? She was worth more than any other assassin on the planet. Her betrayal changed everything.
She was supposed to be the best of the best. Heartless. A killer machine. She was what every widow was supposed to be. She isn’t supposed to care about anyone, and definitely not a love interest.” Yelena looked at her seriously. The way she talked about Natasha gave Wanda a feeling of unease. She couldn’t picture Natasha like that.

“She changed. Like you, she chose good.” Wanda piped out weakly. Yelena let out a twisted laugh before shaking her head.

“Yeah, I mean sure, I'm choosing to work with you now because I didn’t have a choice before. I wasn’t always mind-controlled like this, I started out like her. We thought we were doing the right thing. All of us. We knew nothing better. But then they started to experiment with it, and when you start to watch yourself do things you don't want to do, you get some time to reevaluate your values. Made me truly hate them. But you see, Natasha was always different. She always had that choice in her, she was always in control.”

Yelena turned to her before asking, “Has she actually told you anything about the red room?” Wanda shook her head back, watching as Yelena let out a small sigh as if that was the answer she had been expecting.

“She was the only widow in her year that survived. Actually, she was the only one for a few years because they pushed them so hard to try and reach her potential. She was perfect. They started trying mind-altering a few years below her even when she still was in the system. But they never did it on her, she didn’t need it, because they didn’t think she would ever switch.”

Yelena clenched her yaw before adding slowly. “Perfect as you could ever be, nobody could crack her, she was made of marble.”

Wanda looked at Yelena as she talked. The way she was describing the woman's seemed to sit deep down in her memory as if it hurt Yelena to even think about. It made sense that it did, but it seemed to be something more behind her words than she showed.

“I'm not saying I don't understand how she could want to stop, but you don't just keep your morals and heart in the red room like she did. She was supposed to be the perfect cold-hearted murderer they trained her to be. And here she is, ready to sacrifice her life over and over for this one girl that she “apparently isn’t on talking terms with?” No, it has to be something between you two that made her so soft.” Yelena turned to her again, watching her as Wanda inhaled sharply.

While she like to believe everything Yelena just said, she knew it wasn’t true. Natasha had always had it in her, but even if she didn’t, she was not the one unlocking that potential in her.

Wanda let her eyes hang over the woman long after Yelena moved her eyes back to the road.

“That wasn’t me… we… I wasn’t the one doing that. She had other people to that. If anything, I've only hurt her in the time I've known Natasha.”

Wanda tapped on the window as she talked. Maybe at some point, they made each other better, maybe at one point in the relationship they helped each other more than hurt the other. But Wanda knew that Natasha's kind and overprotective nature wasn’t something she could take credit for. If anything, she had a feeling she already knew who that truly was.

Yelena sat in silence for a while looking at the road before she suddenly said. “Then tell me, what did happen between you two, because something did… And you can't only have hurt her, because if that was the case, I don't think you would be alive right now.”

Chapter Text

“So… as she as good in bed as the rumours have it?”

Yelena had connived her to talk, but Wanda quickly found out it didn’t need much convincing in the first place.

After Wanda had ended up telling Yelena about how she and Natasha had dated for a short period of time followed by how it had happened, the conversation between them started to flow.

Yelena was a great listener and it seemed like she liked to hear about Natasha. She seemed curious about her, curious about the life the woman had been living after the red room. Wanda could tell she cared about Natasha by the way her eyes lit up every time Wanda told her anything light-hearted about her. It was adorable.

“What is that even supposed to mean?” Wanda laughed back at the woman who grimaced back at her.

“Hey, I'm just asking, isn’t she known to have more or less the entire world drooling over her?” Yelena said, making Wanda smile back. “Can't believe I'm talking to somebody who fucked my sister. Gross.”

Wanda laughed turning to look at the redhead in the back seat. She was surprised Natasha was still sleeping considering how light of a sleeper she usually was. They had been driving for almost three hours now and Natasha had slept almost the entire time. Not that Wanda didn’t think she needed it. The woman was leading an impossible mission, they needed her as strong as they could get her.

“I can tell you still really like her, by the way.” Yelena turned to her with a more serious look. Wanda shook her head back before letting out a small sigh. She didn’t want to comment on that because of course she did. She had hoped that she would get over the woman, but the truth was, she never did. She wanted to hate Natasha. She wanted to hate her for all the pain she had caused her. She wanted to tell herself that what they had never meant anything to her. Even the last few days Wanda had been so frustrated with her behaviour. She didn’t get why Natasha was acting how she was. Why couldn’t she just let them in and tell them?

Yelena gave her a quick look when she didn’t answer. Wanda knew Yelena was curious about their relationship, but it didn’t seem like Yelena felt like pushing the conversation further, she only looked at her before saying softly, “Try and get some sleep, we can switch in a few hours.”

Even when dreaming all Wanda could think about was Natasha. Her head continued to replay the same events from today over and over. First, it was Natasha and Yelena fighting with the widows, and then it was when the widow had tried to kill Natasha.

It played in her dream over and over. Wanda watched it happen over and over, watching Natasha's facial expression change from shock to pain again and again.
She watched as the widow cut Natasha's side ripping the knife out of her before she tried to get her hands around her neck. Over and over. Slower and slower. Every single second of the fight, again and again.

Wanda woke up when the car stopped. It was getting darker outside, she must have slept for a while.
Natasha was awake, talking low to Yelena before she opened the door as they stopped.

“Take the wheel, I need some sleep.” Yelena looked at her, making Wanda nod back slowly. “I also need to pee. Be right back.” The blonde disappeared from their sight and Wanda took the time to go and stretch her legs.

Natasha was walking slowly in circles, stretching one of her arms, as she walked Wanda could see the bandage she had covered the cut with. It was filled with dried blood but hopefully, that meant the bleeding at least had stopped. It still didn’t look good. Wanda wanted to ask about it. She wanted to ask and make sure the redhead wasn’t pushing herself too far, but the last time she tried that Natasha had gotten mad, and she didn’t feel like starting that argument again.

Wanda took the driver's side while Natasha gave up the backseats to Yelena, taking Wanda's right in the passenger side. None of them talked. Yelena seemed too tired, and Natasha and Wanda both were too stubborn to start up the small talk.
Natasha had been the one that taught her to drive. That was a while ago now, but at least it came in handy now. They still had a long way to go and putting Natasha behind the wheel seemed like a dumb decision.

Wanda and Natasha drove in silence, the only time they even looked at each other was when Natasha pointed which turns to take. It was a cold atmosphere, and Wanda really wish it wasn’t. When she had talked to Yelena about her and Natasha, she had felt so warm. It had been good memories she had talked about. And even if a lot of the things that had happened had ended up hurting her, Wanda still valued the good times more than she had realised.

After a good hour of not saying anything, Wanda finally broke the silence. She didn’t want to be sitting here ignoring the other woman, it was no reason they couldn’t talk.
“How are you feeling now?” Maybe it wasn’t too smart to open the conversation with the same topic she had failed with last time, but thankfully Natasha didn’t seem to mind it this time.

“Fine, I guess. I mean I have a hole in my stomach and my shoulder did not like another fall but guess it could be worse.” Natasha let out a heavy sigh sinking down in her seat.

“I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I mean we're currently hunting down somebody I'm not even sure is alive. We’re doing that while I keep putting people I care about at risk.” Wanda watched as Natasha shook her head softly talking in a low voice. In a way, the woman seemed defeated. Wanda knew it wasn't because of the mission in itself, but Natasha valued the people around her so highly. Putting the people she cared about in danger was Natasha's biggest fear. She would do anything to protect the people she was around, even if the way she did it was stupid. If it meant being reckless… or putting herself in danger… No matter how bad the outcome was, Natasha would sacrifice herself every single time without any hesitation.
It was her biggest fatal flaw.

“We both are choosing to stay. We want to help. You can't blame everything on yourself. You want to help, and so do we. Nat, I want to be here. I want to help you.” Wanda tried to keep her voice steady as she talked. Everything she said was true, she did want to help, and she didn’t blame what had happened now on Natasha.

Natasha turned to her with a small sad smile. “I just need both of you to come out of this in one piece. Promise me you’ll protect her.” Natasha turned to Yelena who was now lying in the backseats sleeping. Wanda couldn’t really see the face Natasha was making but the tone she used was desperate. “Please?”

Wanda could tell she needed the reassurance. She knew Natasha needed to know that she would protect Yelena. Wand knew Yelena was very capable, but that wasn't what Natasha saw in Yelena. She saw somebody she needed to protect. Somebody she needed Wanda to help protect.

Wanda nodded slowly back, turning her head quickly to look at the redhead watching as Natasha's shoulder lowered when she signalised a yes.

“You two were really close, right? You know each other so well.” Wanda looked at Natasha who turned to her with a half-hearted smile.

“She is my little sister, of course, we do.”

Wanda was glad she had been able to break the silence with the woman. It made the drive a lot more comfortable for all of them. She could actually feel herself relax a little.

Natasha and Wanda kept talking and it was a nice feeling. It was like two friends catching up after a long time apart. They ended up moving away from the deep topics, instead talking about anything that came to mind. They talked about the houses they passed, the people they saw, and the flower fields they drove through. It was anything and everything, and Wanda couldn’t help thinking about how this was how she remembered them together when they were in their best period.

Wanda and Yelena switched driving a few times and it was moments Wanda forgot what they were even driving to find. To be fair she didn’t actually know where they were going, but it seemed like Yelena also didn’t know.

After they had been driving through the night and into the next day Natasha ordered Yelena to stop the car, asking her to park it a few yards into a random dirt road. They were in the middle of nowhere when Natasha said they needed to take the last few miles on foot. Wanda didn’t understand why they would need to walk when it was clear a car could easily drive on this road. Not to mention how Natasha was getting paler again, and Wanda wasn’t it was smart that Natasha was walking a lot now.

“How do you know about this place?” Yelena looked back at the car they abandoned before back at the redhead who just kept walking.

“She told me about it when we were small,” Natasha answered shortly. Wanda could tell it was something that changed in Yelena when she said it, but she didn’t know exactly what. Every time one of them dropped something about the past the other one seemed surprised like it wasn’t something they expected. It was the one thing both of them had avoided when they had talked to Wanda. Not the kind of freak out every time the topic seemed to go that direction, but they both had calmly moved the conversation to another topic when it did.

In a way, it seemed like the two had two very different versions of the past. While Wanda didn’t know exactly what made the difference it was definitely something.

It felt like they had been walking forever. It was nothing here... Just grass, trees and bushed... No cabins or small huts… not anything at all really. Wanda took a small guess that they were walking along a small mountain. Just judging by the terrain, it seemed they had some altitude not far off the treeline.

Most of the walk happened in silence. A few times Natasha lifted her head up to the sky taking a few new turns off the path they walked on only to make them find another one. While they did walk along some kind of dirt road most of the time, it didn’t really seem like anyone had used it in a while. And it definitely didn’t seem like a road that would lead them to a house where anyone would be permanently living.

They were not walking especially fast. It was hard to believe that the woman leading them had been running along a roof and fighting a day prior. Natasha walked slowly, and it was more than once that she lost her footing. She was not getting better, and Wanda was not the only one noticing this. Still, both women only watched the other woman, none of them wanting to bring that into the conversation.

“We’re close.” Natasha suddenly turned walking off the road they had just been on. Her eyes were fixed on the horizon as if she had seen something, even though all Wanda could see was more grass, rocks and bushes.

Wanda could see Yelena send her a small, confused look before both of the walked after Natasha, fighting their way onto a small trail. Wanda had no idea what Natasha was truly going after and how she could possibly find the right way. It all looked the exact same.

“There.” Wanda walked straight into Yelena when the woman suddenly stopped in front of her.

They were standing at a small height looking down at a farm. It wasn’t very big, it had a few budlings and a few metal structures in the middle. Yet even considering the size Wanda could tell this was the right place. She could feel it was a protected base. Not only because it was well hidden in the terrain by three different heights surrounding it, with only a single road to it, but she could also see all the equipment lying around. Different big-looking cars and other vehicles. Some fancy tech-heavy things along the wall. All of the signs were there.

“Guess you were right. Not dead.” Natasha said looking at Yelena with a small look. Yelena still had her eyes glued to the farm in front of her looking both a little confused and in awe.

“Are those pigs?” Yelena asked slowly, making Wanda look where she was pointing. Down at the farm, Wanda could a few moving dots walking around in an enclosure, and while she couldn’t confidently say it was pigs it was definitely some kind of animal.

“Probably,” Natasha answered lightly before nodding towards the house. “Come on, let’s go.”

Wanda continued to keep an eye on the farm as they made their way down. She could feel herself get more and more on edge as they moved closer. She didn’t know what they were walking into, and if this was going to be anything like what had happened earlier throughout this mission it would end up with a heavy fight.

Wanda tried to listen for any movement or any signs of humans around them as they walked down and into the farm. It seemed quiet. Very quiet.

She was the last one to spot the woman in front of them. Her eyes landed on a woman looking at them through a fence, in her hand she had a big sniper rifle, leaning on her shoulder as they moved closer. They all stood there for a few seconds, looking at each other for a few seconds before Yelena broke the silence.

“Hi, Melina.”

Wanda looked carefully around the room when she stepped into the small home. She could see Yelena and Natasha do the same, taking in everything as they entered Melina's small living room. “Natasha, you are hurt.” Melina was already pushing Natasha down on a chair when they got into the living room, not letting the redhead stop her as she started to examine her.

“We are not here to let you fuss over this; I need you to listen to me.” Natasha looked at the woman who slowly lifted her hands from her, looking a little hurt when Natasha used the sharp tone. The woman moved away from Natasha finding herself another chair. It was clear she was only doing it to keep the peace because Wanda could see in her eyes how much wanted to continue to tend to the woman.

It was no hiding that Natasha was in awful shape now. The walk had taken the little Natasha had of energy, and Wanda could tell the woman wanted nothing more than to lie down.

“How much blood has she lost?” Melina looked between them, making Yelena shrug back.

“Enough.” She answered shortly before standing up and looking through the woman's cabinet.

“So, you just decided to walk into my home? Do you understand how dangerous that is?” Melina pointed between the two women before her eyes landed on Wanda looking at her. “What do you even want? You left the red room; you know coming back would result in this.” Melina let her hand move up and down referring to how beaten-up Natasha was.

“That is what happens when you find out that the red room has been altering the brain of widows,” Natasha growled, leaning on the table as she tried to straighten up. “I thought the red room was gone. I thought it was gone until Yelena decided to show up during one of my missions trying to kill me.”

Wanda watched as Natasha groaned softly, leaning forwards in pain. “Okay Natasha, are you done with bleeding across the floor? Yelena put down a vodka bottle and a few shot glasses on the table sending Natasha a stone-cold look.

“I'm fine,” Natasha mumbled leaning back in her seat, and giving Yelena an annoyed look back

“Fine as in walking as a literal corps in Dreykov’s office?” Yelena fell down on the chair Melina had been on previously, slowly starting to reveal the old wound to look at.

They sat in silence for a while. Wanda could see the older woman look at Yelena as she rinsed Natasha's wound, not really looking away at all from the two women on the other side of the table.

“We need to get to the red room, and you're helping us.” Natasha broke the silence when Yelena slowly started to cover up the gash, holding the woman down when Natasha tried to stand up.

Melina looked at the woman before slowly opening her mouth. “It is true that they are altering the mind. But it isn’t like an operation, it is chemically altering the brain, Natasha it isn’t just something we can open and change. When we lived in Ohio, that was what we stole, that was the mission, we stole technology. We stole the key to unlocking free will.” The woman talked slowly, looking between them as she talked.

“If it is chemicals then it has to be a chemical to expose them to reverse it. You must know how to reverse it!” Natasha pushed herself up, this time not letting Yelena hold her down. All three women watched all of the colours on Natasha's face disappear in a fraction of a second.
For a second it looked like the woman was going to fall to the floor, forcing Yelena to grab her again.

Melina looked at the woman, and for a moment it looked like Malina was getting pale just from the sight “Natasha you need to lay down. How did you let it go this far?”

Natasha just glared at her pushing her chair away aggressively waking towards the sofa, clearly hiding how unstable she seemed to be.

“We talk about this later, you need to rest, and you - ” the woman tried to look at Yelena before Natasha cut her off as she got to the sofa, leaning on Wanda who had made sure to stay very close to Natasha as they walked.

“Later, you are clearly working for the red room, and I bet you’ve already contacted them, so we need to know how to take them down. If it’s only chemicals, it has to be a counteragent. It is basic science.” Natasha tried, looking at the woman with an annoyed look.

On the other side of Natasha Wanda could see Yelena looking down at her hands. She had been mostly quiet but it seems like the information Natasha was talking about was finally sinking in for her as well. While Yelena had been the first one to use the term “chemically altering brain function” Wanda hadn’t truly realised exactly what that meant before now.

“I could probably find out how to counter it yes, but Natasha…” Melina tried to talk back but this time got cut off by Yelena.

“You can do that?” Yelena looked at the older woman and then back at Natasha. “You can make sure it's permanently reversed?”

Wanda watched as Melina's eyes softened. It seemed like it was only now it sunk in that Yelena was one of the widows that had been altered, and suddenly the woman seemed very small.

Natasha looked between them. She still seemed mad at Melina and when the woman didn’t answer Natasha's temper seemed to rise.
“Are you honestly that big of a coward? We came all this way for help, you know it affected her, we can end and free all the widows Dreykov is torturing right now, and you have nothing to say? Nothing?” Natasha looked at the woman letting out a sound of disbelief.

The woman looked at Natasha as she scolded her, she didn’t stop her or react to her words, she only looked at her before nodding slowly. “You're right Natasha. I did call on the red room.”

Wanda inhaled sharply before looking at Yelena who still looked as hurt as ever.

“Right, fucking perfect.”

“What now?” Yelena’s voice was low as she looked at Natasha who seemed like she wanted nothing more than to kill the other woman. It was some kind of fury in her eyes Wanda had never seen in her before.

“I guess we do like you said from the start. We let them capture us and hope that if they decide to kill anyone you're right and they go after me.”

Chapter Text

“Natasha,” Melina looked at Natasha unsure while the other woman shifted in her seat.

“No, you don't speak. You are a coward. You are sitting here helping Dreykov, do you hear how insane that is? You would think that when you can just walk away, you would, right?” Natasha let out a twisted laugh, looking at the woman before pointing at Yelena and saying, “Did you know that the only reason Yelena is here now is that she, Wanda, went into her head using magic to give her back control over herself. And now Yelena is still here fighting by my side. While you're sitting here pretending what you're doing isn’t hurting anyone.”

Natasha looked at the older woman as if she was looking at something that wasn’t worth a penny. Wanda could see Melina was uncomfortable, but she couldn’t help but admire the way Melena nodded at the woman, clearly trying to push the harsh words away.

“I never did raise quitters,” Melina said back with a weak smile making Natasha let out another laugh.

“You never raised us at all.” Wanda could the see room shift under the harsh tone, and she could see the two others look back and forth, sending each other weak looks past Natasha.
“That wasn’t real. What happened back then, that wasn’t real!” Natasha's sentence got stopped when Yelena let out a small “What”

Wanda looked at the blonde on Natasha's other side, she was looking at the redhead with big eyes. The blonde hadn’t really said anything before now, but now it seemed like she was almost lost for words.

“Don’t say that. Please don’t say that. It was real.
It was real to me.”

Yelena looked at the woman before standing up looking like she was about to run away.

“Yelena, don't!” Wanda was surprised by her own actions as she grabbed her arm holding the woman in place before she could leave the conversation. She could feel the heartbreak in Yelena, while she didn’t know what kind of relationship Yelena and Natasha once had, why they had been together and why they had been torn apart, she could still tell they both cared. Natasha's tone was harsh and unnecessarily hard when she was trying to explain her point.

Wanda held around Yelena's wrist shaking her head when Yelena tried to yank it back.

“I can tell you're mad, but I don't know if what I did to you will last if you walk away now,” Wanda mumbled low, looking at Yelena who locked her eyes with hers. She didn’t want to say it out loud, one of the reasons being not to worry Natasha, but she also did want to want to bring her powers into the conversation and put unnecessary attention to something she wasn't sure about was correct.
Wanda started to notice it more in the last few hours. This feeling inside her when she was around Yelena. As if part of her powers were constantly burning inside of the other woman. And if that were to fade…

Wanda could feel Yelena move closer to her before taking her seat again. Her eyes were still hurt, but Wanda knew that taking the risk of losing herself to mind control again was not something she was willing to challenge. She had multiple times expressed how much she hated it, as well as wanting to find a permanent solution because she was scared to ever go back.

Yelena looked at her as she sat down. It was clear Yelena had her doubts to stay in the room still, and Wanda didn’t blame her, but she was glad she did. Even if what Wanda did was permanent and walking away would affect it, they still needed the woman to be here so they could make out a plan.

“How long until they are here?” Natasha gave Wanda a small thankful look before looking at Melina who had just watched in silence clearly not really wanting to be part of the situation yet. Natasha didn’t seem to care about this detail, challenging the other woman with a stern look. “Either you tell us and help us, so we don't get killed - you take the chance to make a difference… Or you can just be the coward you are and watch us die… it is up to you.”

Wanda wanted to say something to Natasha that that wasn't the way to talk, but to her surprise Yelena straightened up when Natasha spoke, sending Melina a look that almost seemed to say that she agreed with Natasha, that she too expected to die if they didn’t get the help they needed. Wanda could tell the way Natasha phrased it as well as the backup from Yelena had done something to Melina making her change her mind. It was something in the look she gave the two that told Wanda they had won her over.

Melina looked between all of them, first with a sad look, the look of a kind of defeat before she shook her head giving them a sharp nod.
“Not long, let’s get ready.”

Wanda was now standing in a small weapons closet, looking at different kinds of guns while both Natasha and Yelena climbed into a new catsuit each. Both were wearing an empty look in their eyes as if they were getting ready for what was about to happen.

Unlike Wanda at least they were somewhat prepared. Wanda didn’t know if this plan was going to work, in all honesty, she barely knew what the plan was at all. Letting the red room take them sounded like an awful idea. The team didn’t know where they were, they had no backup if they needed it. And while they were gambling on wanting all of them alive, what if they didn’t? What if they decided to kill them? What if they killed Natasha? It was so many things that could go wrong and the room for error seemed almost non-existent even though the three other women didn’t seem to feel like mentioning this at all.

“Here.”
Wanda turned her head when she heard Melina's voice, looking at the woman as she gave Natasha a box. The voice had pulled her out of her thought train, instead making her head focus on the small interaction in front of her.

Natasha was dressed in a new catsuit, a grey one Wanda really like the design of. Unlike the suits Natasha seemed to use most of the time, made for flexible movements and quick escapes, not giving much protection over stealth, this one seemed to be one that was made for fighting and close combat. It was clearly made for thicker material clearly ready to take impact and protect the skin if anything were to happen, something the other suits tended to show they weren’t capable of. Around her waist Natasha had her normal widow belt, this one in shiny gold plates, being the main piece to hold up her leg holsters for her two Glocks resting on her thighs.

Melina was looking at Natasha as she accepted the box in front of her, looking at the older woman before she opened it with a frown. For a moment Natasha seemed shocked by what she was looking at, just looking at it with wide eyes before she lifted her head.

“A photostatic veil? This is shield tech, how do you have this?”

Wanda walked over to Natasha looking over her shoulder to look into the box. She could tell Natasha was looking at her when she did so, but Wanda didn’t care. Especially since she was looking at something she wasn't entirely sure what even was. It didn’t even look like a… thing? She didn’t know how to describe it, it almost looked transparent. Like a gel, but clearly, it was real, and not just like a hologram of something, which for the record Wanda knew was a thing because of Tony’s tech.

“Actually, it was hydra technology, not shield.” Melina corrected, pointing down at it, earning another frown from Natasha.

“I got it not long ago; a widow stole it from an abandoned base after tracking down an old user of it.” Melina nodded at the box before turning away from them again continue to talk as if it was nothing of importance. “Because I got it, I also made another one. It is pretty simple technology and I do not understand why Hydra made it such a big deal.” The woman spoke softly as she looked through another drawer digging down in it. The woman might not have presented herself in the strongest way when Wanda met her the first time, but watching the woman walk around in a closet decked with weapons in every single corner and talking about a hydra/shield tech piece she recreated as if it was nothing, was kinda interesting. And in a way impressive.

“This was your mission?” Natasha looked down at the box again before she turned to Yelena who was now standing by the door of the closet looking at them before she let her eyes wander down looking at the thing in the box as if she tried to connect Natasha's words with the item in front of her. For a moment it looked like Yelena didn’t know what to say but after a while, she nodded back.

It seemed like Natasha wanted to say something more but stopped herself when Melina finally seemed to find what she was looking for straightening up before turning to the blonde.

“Here,” Melina handed Yelena an earpiece before taking the other herself nodding at the younger woman. Yelena looked at it for a second before lifting her head to look at Wanda to her surprise.

“Take it. I know my way around the red room when we get in. You might need it more than me.” Wanda looked at her confused as Yelena handed the earpiece to her carefully.

Wanda wasn’t sure if she wanted it. They only had one pair, and she still thought Yelena deserved it more than her. Not to mention that she wasn't super comfortable in general with this mission. At least Yelena seemed like she kinda knew what she was doing, and Wanda wanted to give her the best chance to get away without any problems.

“Are you sure?” Wanda asked slowly getting a small nod back from the other woman.

“Yes. At least I know where everything is” Yelena said with a small voice before adding. “And we're going to meet up quickly anyways.” Yelena gave her a half-hearted smile before going back to focusing on her equipment.

Wanda took a deep breath before slowly lifting her hand to her ear looking at Melina who just nodded back at her encouraging.

“Are you sure you are strong enough to face Dreykov?” Melina had now turned her attention to Natasha again eyeing her as she waited for an answer.

Natasha looked at the other woman back. If it was up to Wanda, she would have said no. In a way, Natasha did look better than what she had done before. The new suit made her look strong and fight-ready, and with her guns and two batons, she had found in front of her. But at the same time, Wanda could see in her eyes that Natasha was tired, and she wasn't as strong as she wanted to seem. She had been through quite a few fights lately, both with the widows but also with Yelena. With the widows, of course, she had been targeted but with Yelena not only had Yelena been fighting her, but Natasha had also purposely taken a few more hits and falls to make sure Yelena didn’t and that had taken its toll.

What Wanda liked the least about this situation with Natasha was that she was the main target this time as well. While both Yelena and Melina would eventually be looked at as enemies or potential targets, Natasha would be the person they would want their hands on first. While all three women had things they needed to do when they got to the red room, their end goal was to help Natasha. They had to do it that way, even if it made it more complicated to find their way to her, but if they didn’t Natasha would be dead if they didn’t get to her fast enough and they all knew it. It was either that or she would be brainwashed as well. But considering the red room knew that Natasha could counter it, no matter what way she did it, it was very unlikely they would even go there.

Natasha looked at Melina, in a way it didn’t seem like Natasha believed even cared when she asked. “Guess we’ll find out,” Natasha answered dryly before grabbing two batons and leaving the room.

Wanda let out a sigh as she watched the redhead walk. It felt so unnecessary but at the same time, Wanda didn’t actually know what had happened between the three women. She looked quickly at Melina before following after Natasha. As much as she wanted to give the other woman room, she did not really want Natasha to be alone. Plus walking out alone was also something Wanda took as a sign that maybe Natasha wasn't actually in shape to take on Dreykov at all and it was just to hide that fact from the rest.

Natasha was sitting by the kitchen table looking at her hand when Wanda joined her in the room. Wanda wondered what went through the woman's head right now. She could tell it was a lot of things, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to ask. Natasha needed all her concentration so picking a fight was the last thing Wanda needed to do right now.

“This is going to work,” Wanda said with a small after a small second of just looking at the other woman, giving her a small smile and looking at the redhead who lifted her head to look at her. Natasha studied her Wanda walked over to the table, looking at her as she sat down, and looking at her when Wanda continued not to say anything.

“I'm sorry I brought you into this. I knew it would be a dangerous thing to ask but… this… I… I never wanted this. I never wanted to put you in this kind of danger. I need you to be careful, okay?” Natasha broke the short silence as looked at her. Her eyes were so sad. Like she truly did regret everything that had happened.

“Natasha, you didn’t know. Besides, as I've said, I want to help you. Because no matter what happened in the past, I care about you, and I still do. I always will.” Wanda wanted to say something more. She wanted to tell her that she didn’t think she was over her yet. This whole mission had clouded her head. She had been angry with Natasha for a while, she truly had. But watching Natasha repeatedly get hurt and continue to take all kinds of hits and put herself in dangerous situations because she cared about the people around her. And not just acknowledging them, but still valuing her own life less than theirs, even after everything… Wanda couldn’t let that image in her head pass.

No matter how much they would continue to fight. No matter how big of a difference it was between the two of them. And no matter how broken their communication between them was. Nothing could hide how much Natasha still cared, and that was more than Wanda ever expected to see from the woman again.

“I need you to stay close to Yelena okay. I know you want to follow after me, but they are going to want to take her as much as they want me. Find her before you go after me.” Natasha looked at her closely, making Wanda nod slowly back.

“If we get out of this alive, I owe you. But please, no matter what you do, make sure she gets out of this.”

Wanda couldn’t help the feeling of wanting to say no. She had grown a soft spot for Yelena that was true, but the way Natasha talked made it sound like she never expected herself to get out of this alive and Wanda didn’t want to make that choice.

“When they are here, they are going to after you first. They know you have powers, but they don't know not how strong they are. It's just an attempt to disarm you and if you fall it proves whatever they did work. I know you will want to fight back but try not to. They don't know how strong you are so don't show them. We need you to free the widows.” Wanda nodded back at Natasha as she started to go over the mission again.

While Wanda understood everything Natasha was saying, the problem was, she didn’t know how to free the widows. She hadn’t actively tried to do so with Yelena, and she still didn’t understand what she did to Yelena. Whatever it had been it had worked, but at what cost.

“I know you can do it. You're stronger than you think.” Natasha stood up before putting a hand on her chest and looking into her eyes with a small smile. “I'm going to get ready, see you on the other side.”

Chapter Text

Wanda barely remembered what happened when the red room finally caught up with them. In a way it felt like a blur, small unfocused details going past her eyes. She remembered how many people it was, and she remembered how chaotic it had turned. Lights were flashing and sounds were everywhere.
She had heard them before she had seen them. She heard a heavy motor outside before they entered the room. She had felt the entire house shake as they broke into it.

She had tried to put up a fight, but with no power to try and minimize the chance of showing them too much and so many widows around her, Wanda had no real shot. She wanted to put up an honest fight, but she couldn’t even remember if Natasha had been close to her when it happened or anything. It was just a vague mess. Like it was hidden from her memories. Everything except when she felt the needle in her neck before she lost consciousness.
Even when she was out of it, Wanda had heard the sounds around her. She had heard people talking and more engines going. They had moved closer than they had been before. Surely, she had been moved into one of them. She didn’t know where they were or where they were taking her, but her lucky guess was the red room, but of course, she could be unlucky as well. All she knew was that she hoped she wasn’t dead.

When Wanda finally got back her consciousness it felt like the room was spinning. She could tell she was lying but it didn’t feel like it. Her entire body felt like it was floating around, and she had no control over what it was doing. It made her dizzy and nauseous, but she had no way to stop it all she could do was try and force her eyes open.

Wanda almost lost the grip on her consciousness again when she felt a small touch on her hand. At first, it felt like it shocked her mind like the touch gave her brain a shock that almost shook her out of control again. But then the feeling of a finger in the palm of her hand started to feel familiar, almost as if it was grounding, and when the hand held around her wrist Wanda finally felt her head land.

Wanda groaned softly as she opened her eyes, finding Melina looking at her with a worried look. “Thought we had lost you there for a second.” The woman straightened up, helping her sit up. Her eyes were locked on her while Wanda got herself up, feeling her head send angry messages into her system as if her head really just wanted to black out again.

They were in a glass cell. Somewhere. What Wanda assumed had been a closed door, was now wide open. Nobody seemed to be around, which was a good thing because she highly doubted they would be happy to see two prisoners sitting in a cell with the door wide open.

How had Melina been able to get out and find her so fast? Or had she just been out for a long time and in reality, it hadn’t been fast at all?

“They put something very heavy in you. I don't know what it was, but I'm going to take a guess they are trying to contain your powers.” Melina said, still resting a hand on her back as Wanda tried to focus on her voice. It sounded so far away as if Melina was in another room.

“Whatever that was, I don't like it,” Wanda said with a small groan, already feeling very dizzy from just sitting. It was darning her energy for whatever reason, as if her body was trying to get whatever it was out of her system. And maybe that was what happening. Really it didn’t matter because all she could care about was how weak she truly felt and how that was not going to help their mission.

“Take the time you need to get back your strength. We might need those magical powers of yours so better get them back. I'm going to find my way to the engine okay. Remember we have earpiece, yes?” Wanda looked at the other woman before nodding back. She could tell Melina was scared; she could feel it as she squeezed her hand before walking away. She thought about what Melina was risking too. They knew that Dreykov would kill her if they didn’t succeed in their mission, still, Melina was here now. Wanda was thankful she was. She couldn’t imagine having to do this without having anyone with some inside knowledge.

Wanda closed her eyes for a second before taking a deep breath. Melina was gone, Natasha and Yelena were gods know where. She needed to move. If anyone spotted Melina, they would start to look for her, and she couldn’t be sitting in this stupid cell if they came to look for her.

Wanda opened her eyes and focused on the energy inside her. It took all the concentration in her to make up a small ball of red. Like every part of her needed to focus on even summoning the power back into her. It was draining. Like she literally had to pull it out from thin air because it wasn't something inside her like it had been before. Now it felt like it was away, outside of her body and outside of her normal control.

She stared down at her hand when the red started to flicker stronger, growing as her focus took control. A familiar feeling filled her, boiling in her system as she breathed looking down at the red dimming and increasing in light with her breath. It was a nice warm feeling. A feeling that felt like had been missing.

Wanda lost all her concentration when the thought hit her head. For a moment her head went blank before her spine ice cold.
Her powers, they had been gone, they had been cut completely off when she had been knocked out. The feeling she had felt connected to her powers had been gone. The feeling inside her when she had opened Yelena's mind was gone.

Wanda was out of the cell before she could think properly. She could tell the part of her powers that had been in Yelena was gone and that meant Yelena had fallen back into the red room's control. The only reason Yelena hadn’t been lost to the mind control had been because of her, because of her powers but it had been gone.

Wanda fell around a corner, grabbing herself on a wall as she continued to run. She had no idea where she was or where she was going, but she knew she needed to find Yelena. No matter what she needed to find her right now.

“Melina, if you see Yelena do not engage. I think she is back in the red room's control and she won’t be able to control her actions.” Wanda said with a heavy voice, forcing herself to a jog, jogging down a hallway she talked really hoping the earpiece Melina gave her worked.

“That is not good. Try to get to her, I think they took her to the medical wing, but if they found out they might have let her go.” Melina's voice sounded distant at the other end, but just hearing another voice was more than enough to give Wanda some sense of relief.

She had Melina here still. She knew Natasha was here somewhere, probably in complete control over her part of the mission. All she had to do now was find Yelena and get control over her brain again.

Easy.

Wanda stopped when she heard a voice. They were just around the corner; she could feel it. Wanda bit the inside of her mouth as she figured out what her best move was now. Was it to attack them? She didn’t know how many it was there, and she didn’t have the concentration to even try to use her powers at the moment. Or at least it didn't feel like it. Even if she had control of it now it wasn't like before. Maybe whatever they had drugged her down with was still wearing off? But no matter the reason why it wasn't as strong as before she couldn’t rely on it that was for sure.

The taste of blood filled her mouth and Wanda grimaced before taking a deep breath. If it was only two people, she could take them. Of course, she could… right?

Wanda was around the corner before she truly had decided to attack. She had no plan or no idea what she was getting into. Her eyes locked on the two men in front of her before she took the first punch by pure instinct.

She surprised herself with how quickly she got control over the situation. As much as the drug had messed with her head and powers, Wanda felt like her senses were on fire. It was like her body reacted before her head did, doing things she had never been able to master before. Of course, she had tried with Natasha and Steve many times but for whatever reason never been able to fully get it down. She had never felt as powerful as she did right now, knocking two men out before they even got a hit on her. And all of this was without her powers.

She felt some kind of pride fill her thinking about how Natasha too probably would have been impressed if she had seen this. Was this how Natasha felt every time she did any kind of fighting? How her instincts were on the highest dial feeling like her body knew what to do almost as if her brain didn’t need to think in the moment?

Letting go of her short victory, Wanda shook her head before she continued down the hallway. As much as feeling pride in what she did was fun, she still needed to find Yelena, and the longer she spent looking for her the longer Natasha would be without backup.

Wanda's senses spiked again when she suddenly found herself just by another corner. It was such a weird feeling, but Wanda could tell something happened before she could see anything.

Her body flew to the side when Yelena suddenly flew out from around the corner. For a moment all Wanda could see was Yelena's angry eyes before her back hit the wall behind her and her head landed in the situation again. She had just barely dodged the blonde, watching as the girl threw her head back when her attack had ended in a miscalculation.

Yelena was already running at her again, and Wanda barely had time to move her left hand out stopping Yelena's arm in the tracks of shoving a knife straight into her side with the outside of her arm. Yelena was powerful. Considering she wasn’t very big her strength was a raw kind of power and Wanda could already tell she did not have the strength to just use pure force to fight her now.

Pushing herself away from Yelena, Wanda tried to get control over her head again. She just needed to find what had unlocked Yelena's head again…The problem was she had no idea how she had done it the first time, and every time she tried to focus on anything her reactions would jump in sending signals into her head to move out of the way.

“Yelena. Please!” Wanda begged as she suddenly got punched to the floor, having to roll away before kicking Yelena's leg to try and snap her out of it. Yelena didn’t seem to react to her voice, or really anything she did. Almost as if everything Wanda ever did was only slightly stopping her in her tracks.

Come on Wanda, do what you did last time, get control over the situation, come on you got this. Focus.

Wanda watched in horror as the knife came flying at her face, barely dodging it before it pierced into the wall behind her. Wanda looked at the deep hole in the wall, pushing away from Yelena before the blond had time to try and stab her again.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to scream and punch and kick in frustration because it didn’t feel like she could even think. She couldn’t even remember how she had done it the last time. It had just happened when she had…

Her eyes widened when Yelena jumped towards her, and this time Wanda didn’t try to stop her.

Wanda felt herself getting pulled into Yelena's memories. Voices flooded her head before she heard Natasha's laughter. It wasn’t a childhood memory like she had seen last time. No this was when they had been driving. When Wanda had been sleeping in the backseat and Natasha was in the passenger seat with the blond.

Natasha was laughing softly at Yelena and Wanda could feel the warmth in the younger widow as her eyes softened and they snapped out of it.

Wanda fell forwards hitting the floor groaning as she felt a sharp pain in her thigh while her eyes rolled back in her head in exhaustion. It felt like her body had just travelled miles, making her struggle to even lift her head. She could feel a low pounding in her head. Or maybe it was her heart pumping the blood around in her body. It was kinda hard to tell.

“Welcome back.” Wanda let out a heavy breath as she turned her head to see Yelena looking at her, giving her a small smile. The other woman was also on the floor, her chest rising and falling just as fast as Wanda's. She looked completely beat with sweat on her forehead and red cheeks.

“Thanks, let’s not do that again,” Yelena said with a heavy voice, looking at Wanda with a tried look. “Did I manage to hurt you?” Yelena asked slowly as she tried to get up from the floor, leaning on the wall as she offered Wanda a hand. Wanda looked down seeing a long cut on the outside of her thigh. She lifted her head to see Yelena stare at it. Beside Wanda was a bloody knife drowning in a small poodle of blood.

“Nothing we can't shake off and not big enough for me to care, come on, we need to Natasha.” Wanda accepted Yelena's hand, groaning again as she got herself up on her feet, feeling her head spin a little as she did so. She could tell Yelena was still looking at her, but she tried to shake the look off. Wanda could tell it wasn’t as deep as it looked, and unless she was going to bleed to death, she didn’t have time to fuss over it anyways.

Wanda looked at Yelena before taking her first few steps lifting her hand to her ear and mumbling “Yelena... found her… our side again.” She could hear Melina answer something, but her answer got cut off short making Wanda give Yelena a quick look.

“Okay, don't think your mother is having the best time, let’s get your sister before we blow up this place.”

Wanda and Yelena both took a few minutes to walk some life into their body before they started a slow jog. Yelena was trying to lead her to Dreykov’s office, with the goal of taking a small pit-stop by the widow's training quatres. They soon found out that even a widow hadn’t been in the entire building. They had started in a room Yelena didn’t even recognize and more than once Yelena ended up stopping and looking around as if she had never seen the room they were standing in before.

“Tell me why I'm starting to wonder if I've ever even been here before...” Yelena looked at a door to the right and one to the left before picking the one to the left, punching the entire doorknob off the door before kicking it open when it didn’t open right away.

“One thing is moving location… but this…” The blonde shook her head before she suddenly stopped in front of Wanda.

Wanda let out a small gasp as she looked out of the big window. Even if Melina even told her this was a flying base, Wanda hadn’t realised what that meant before she looked out of a cloud-covered window. They were floating in the middle of a cloud. White everywhere. They couldn’t even properly see the ground below. It didn’t feel like they were moving at all, and Wanda wouldn’t have believed it if she didn’t see it.

“Not seen this before?” Wanda mumbled, looking at the blonde who only shook her head back.

“No wonder why I had no idea where we were most of the time,” Yelena mumbled before she continued walking down the room. Wanda felt bad for Yelena, the woman seemed more and more lost with every second that passed. Like she was recognising less and less. It had to be a horrible feeling.

Wanda and Yelena walked in silence before Wanda suddenly felt a movement on the floor. Yelena spun around looking at Wanda as if she too were wondering if she had imagined that or not.

“We have a slight change of plan. I completely demolished one of the engines and we are going into a controlled crash.”

Wanda heard Melina's voice in her ear sending Yelena a look to get her to move again before answering back. “We’ll meet you on the runway, we still need to find the widows and Natasha.” Wanda tried to keep her voice calm not wanting to make the situation worse. While she could tell Yelena had caught up with the idea of something not ideal happening, she didn’t feel like telling the woman that her mother was exposing engines.

Yelena didn’t seem to want to know whether only giving her a small look before she started to jog out of the room. Wanda could only follow her. She didn’t mind not talking about it and honestly, she needed Yelena to be focused right now anyways.

Wanda had an uneasy feeling inside her as they continued. It was hard to place, mainly because she hadn’t really felt this kinda feeling before. But before she had the time to tell Yelena about it, the blondesuddenly threw herself to the right pointing at an open door.

“Shit, the widows are gone.”

Wanda looked at the woman back feeling her body tense up at the words before Yelena took a sharp left by the door speeding up down the hallway. Wanda didn’t really get the time to look more than a second into an empty room. It looked like a training room, but it was clear nobody was inside it.

Wanda felt Yelena drag her after her as they flew down a hallway.
“Straight ahead they are -” Wanda didn’t hear the rest of Yelena's sentence when a blinding pain filled her body.

Red was filling her eyes when she felt another sharp hit in the back, making everything a blur when Yelena kicked the door to the office open the pain blinding her for a second as they got into the room.

Wanda watched as Natasha's body fell to the floor at the same time Yelena shoved a widow off the woman. She couldn’t see much more and honestly her head couldn’t focus on much more either.
It felt like Wanda's insides were getting ripped out of her, a knife dragged down her back, before she let out a scream, red falling over the room before Wanda stooped to the floor herself.

Her ears were ringing when she felt somebody shake her carefully. She didn’t know how long she had been out, or if she actually had been out at all. All she knew was that a woman was standing over her moving some hair away from her face and letting Wanda take in everything around her. At first, Wanda felt fear. It was a widow leaning over her, she was right there in front of her. But then she felt the warm feeling in her build. The widow wasn’t here to hurt her, she could tell.

Wanda lifted her head slowly to see Yelena crouched over Natasha. She was lying on the floor and Wanda could see the small pool of blood around her. Still, Wanda let out a small sigh of relief when she felt a slow heartbeat inside her, feeling Natasha move on the other side of the room. At least she was alive.

“We need to move.” Wanda groaned loudly when she felt a sudden drop under her. She looked around her to suddenly realise it was a layer of smoke in the room and her head connected that the drop wasn't her head playing games with her. The smell of something burning suddenly filled her and Wanda was up on her feet before her head caught up.

“Yelena, Nat.” Wanda pushed herself over to Natasha, ignoring the other widows as she slipped an arm under Natasha, helping Yelena while they pulled Natasha up. Natasha's eyes were closed, but Wanda felt the woman move her legs under her to support herself.

Natasha was filled with blood. She had a cut along her face, and just taking the first step, Wanda felt the woman's leg give up under her.

“We got told to attack her,”

“Kill her in the most painful way.”

Wanda lifted her head when she heard the widows’ voices around her. She could see at least 10 widows standing around them looking at Natasha who hang around her shoulder. They all seemed almost hypnotised by the woman in front of them as if they couldn’t look away from the woman they had tried to kill a minute ago.

“It’s okay, we know you couldn’t control it. You guys focus on getting out of here. The building is going to crash. We will find a more permanent solution but make sure you get out safe okay.” Wanda looked around at them nodding at them encouraging. She really did try to keep calm. The widows didn’t know what was actually happening and sending them into a panic was obviously not the way to do it.

“We’ll find you,” Yelena added, letting her eyes hang over them as well before the group slowly made its way out of the room.

“Dreykov, he must have gotten away. Yelena, go after him, I promise I’ll be right behind, but we need to make sure he doesn’t get away.” Wanda looked at Yelena with a weak look as they were left alone in the room. The idea of sending Yelena after the man alone was a scary one, but they had come here to crash and end the red room operation. Dreykov had been able to keep a low profile up to now, what would stop him from doing it again if he slipped away now?

“But what about you?” Yelena looked at her back, Wanda could tell he was hesitant to leave them but the risk of letting Dreykov now was too big, and Wanda could feel that tugging on the woman as well.

“It’s okay, I have my powers, we’ll be fine, go.”

Wanda could see the woman still hesitating, but when she gave her a small smile Yelena gave her one last look back before nodding, carefully letting herself slip away from under Natasha's arm, grabbing Natasha's batons from the back holder.

Wanda groaned as the weight fell on her alone. While Natasha wasn't that heavy having all of the weight on the woman alone when the woman barely tried to support herself was not easy. Natasha had opened her eyes now, looking at her weakly before trying to take another step, whining as her leg continued to flare up in pain.

“Melina is waiting for us, you can do it, Natasha, we won, we just need to get out of here.” Wanda tried, focusing her energy to get her powers to wrap around Natasha to relieve some of the weight. It was the first real-time she tried to use her powers but thankfully it seemed like they had returned to their normal strength.

The second they got some weight off their shoulders Wanda let out a sigh of relief. Natasha too seemed to appreciate it, sending her a small look before they started moving.
Wanda tried to ignore the building falling around them, and Wanda did her best to not worry too much. They were so close, but they were moving so slowly.

Wanda flew open the door to the runway at the same time they watched Yelena sprint across the floor. Wanda's eyes scanned quickly around confused about what she was even running at.

“Yelena, Dreykov!” Wanda almost jumped when Melina touched her arm. She hadn't even seen her, but she was pointing at the blonde who was running in front of them towards an aircraft where Wanda could see something that looked like an outline of people inside. It was on the complete opposite side of where they were right now, and Wanda could tell unless she flew, she couldn’t be able to get there in time to help her.

“I got her, follow Yelena.” Wanda felt the weight of Natasha get removed from her back, watching as Melina helped herself to support Natasha. Both women seemed to be in need of medical attention, but Melina still gave her a small encouraging smile as she nodded towards another small jet a few feet away.

Natasha was going to be safe. Melina had her. She was going to fly her to safety.
You need to trust her Wanda,

Wanda breathed heavily before shooting forwards, boosting herself as fast as possible. She didn’t want to leave Natasha, but Yelena was closing distance with the jet, and whatever she was planning on doing Wanda could tell not a safe plan.

Pushing her powers as far as she dared, Wanda stooped towards Yelena the same time she watched as Yelena shot out something from her widow’s bite, dragging her on top of the aircraft just in front. The blonde was still so far away and it felt like Wanda was barely moving.

Wanda threw a fast look behind her at the same time the jet Melina had led Natasha to take off. They were off the and away from the building. At least if the building fell, they were going to be safe.

Forcing herself to turn her head back towards Wanda, Wanda screamed as she watched Yelena close distance to one of the engines.

“Yelena, don't!” Wanda yelled as she watched Yelena pull out the batons she had stolen from Natasha before snapping them together into one long staff. She knew what she was going to do and if she did…

“No!” Wanda shot forwards towards the blonde reaching out after her just as the staff made its way into the engine exploding up in front of her, throwing Yelena's body away and off the aircraft and the shockwave sending Wanda into a confused spiral.

For a moment the world froze, Wanda watched as Yelena's limp body flew back, bright light filling her vision as she watched the explosion just a few feet away. Her ears were ringing, filled with a piping sound before Wanda felt another shockwave hit her and her vision got filled with red and orange lights.

Wanda could hear her own scream ringing in her ear as she watched the red fire explosions. She could hear her own scream as the small jet Melina had been flying got shot out of the sky. She could hear her own scream as the two jets exploded into a million burning pieces in front of her.

For a moment the world froze as Wanda felt the world fall apart around her. Tears streaming down her face as she stooped down as fast as possible. Tears streaming down her face as she closed her eyes when her body made contact with Yelena's, holding around her as tightly as possible as they fell towards the ground. Holding around Yelena as if her life depended on it.