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Yelena watches Bob get swallowed up by the darkness, and that was before the Void. She watches as the darkness inside him festers and takes away the shy boy she met in the vault. He is replaced by Sentry. Trying to cover up all his insecurities with this false persona.
Val orders him to fight them, and to Yelena’s distress, Bob listens.
The Thunderbolts charge at him, and Yelena tries to stop them. Putting her body between Bob and the other. No one stops. She yells at them to stop fighting him. No one listens.
Soon it becomes abundantly clear the Thunderbolts can’t stop Sentry. They flee the tower, and Yelena breaks down on the street over the boy she just met and just lost.
Sentry paces the room wondering why. Why he, a god, should take orders from an ordinary person. Why does he need to listen to Val anyway? He’s the one with the power, not her.
To Sentry, the flick of the kill switch feels like a snake bite. Two fangs digging into his flesh, filling his blood with venom. He falls to the floor, lifeless, as the snake slithers away.
The Void starts to spread, from inside that deep, unfillable pit inside him, outwards. Blackness spills from inside him, onto the ground and down the streets. People become pressed shadows against the pavement. The Void doesn’t care.
Yelena knows the only way to stop this is to go into the Void, to get Bob, and bring him back. She steps up to the edge of the Void. She can hear Alexei screaming from behind her, but she doesn’t look back. Instead she closes her eyes and takes a breath.
“I’m coming, wait for me, Bob.”
If this is death, she is ready. Yelena takes a step forward.
Yelena feels like she’s falling forever until she hits snowy ground. As she stands she recognizes this place from one of her worst memories. She watches herself lurer her friend into the woods, she watches as her father appears and shoots the young girl. Yelena flinches as the gun goes off, and then Anya is walking into the woods again.
“Bob?” Nothing. The memory starts again.
Yelena tries to stop it. She tries like she wishes her younger self had, but it’s no use. Every time, Anya falls into the snow covered ground, blood pooling under her head, from the bullet hole in her forehead.
Yelena does what she does best, she runs. She runs away from her past. Yelena hits a wall. She runs her hands across it. She doesn’t know what she’ll do if she is trapped in this memory forever. Yelena backs and runs at the wall, taking the blunt of the force on her shoulder. The wall gives way.
Again Yelena is falling. She feels like she’s been doing a lot of that lately. She lands on a mahogany table. She recognizes this room in an instant. Her hands throb.
“Bob? We Don’t have time for this. Stop.” No one is there to hear Yelena call out, it’s just her alone with her past.
She watches herself reassemble a gun, faster than all the others. Yelena remembers coming home after failing, her palms red and bleeding, and practicing again and again. Swearing to herself to never endure that whip again.
Yelena walks over and covers that child’s ears. Her own still echo with the sound of the whip cracking against flesh.
As Yelena stands there, she spies herself in the mirror, but it’s not a reflection. Yelena runs into the next room. She looks down at herself. This memory was only from a few years ago. It was a day where she missed Natasha so much, not even bottles of vodka could drown out the feeling. She nearly died of alcohol poisoning that day. She remembers waking up and wishing she had.
Yelena lifts her own chin and fights with her past. When the memory rests just like all the others, she hears it.
“Yelena?”
She spins around, and there he is, on the other side of the mirror.
“Hi,” She says, looking at him through the glass.
“Hey.” He says it so casually, like he doesn’t know what he’s going or what he did.
“I just want to talk, okay?” Yelena holds up her hands, and speaks gently, like she’s talking to a scared animal.
“About what?” Bob tilts his head just a bit, looking and sounding confused.
“About the things we talked about in the vault,” Yelena steps through the mirror into Bob’s room.
He’s sitting on the floor, in a warm blue sweater and corduroy pants. It occurs to her that this is the first time she’s seen Bob in regular clothing. Before this it was scrubs and that god awful suit.
Bob looks so normal right now, playing with his Rubix Cube. It makes Yelena’s heart hurt, how someone could see this boy and hurt him. She sits on the floor next to him.
Bob looks at Yelena with soft brown eyes, his shaggy hair hanging in his face. Yelena reaches out, covering his hand in her own.
“Come home with me,” Yelena asks, “Whatever happened, I’m to blame.”
“No!” Bob jumps to stop Yelena, it’s not her fault, it’s his, “You came, but how’d you get here?”
“I walked a long way,” A sad smile crosses across Yelena’s face, “I can walk us out of here.”
“No, you can’t,” Bob protests, sounding panicked, eyes darting around.
“Yes I can!” She tries to reassure him.
“No. You don’t understand.”
The room shifts and transforms. In a blink of an eye they are no longer in Bob’s attic, but the lab in Malaysia. The Void is hovering at the other side of the room, his pinpoint, white eyes burning holes into Yelena.
“Young lady. I don't think we’ve met before. You're not from around here. Don't know who the hell you are but I can tell you don’t belong. Go back to where you came from. You're on the wrong side of the fence,” It sounds like Bob, but much, much deeper of a voice. Not the soft pleasant sound of Bob’s voice, but rough and gravily. It makes Yelena’s skin crawl.
“I know her! Her name is Yelena!” Bob calls out, trying to get Void to stop targeting Yelena.
“You stay out of this,” He snaps at Bob, he waves his hand sending Bob stumbling backwards. Then he turns back to Yelena, “You hear me, girl? You better run!”
“No! Yelena you should go! He’s not going to let me leave, but you can go,” Bob comes rushing back in front of Yelena, grabbing onto her shoulders. Yelena looks past him at Void. She pushes Bob behind her.
“I’m not going back alone, I came to take him home.”
The Void starts laughing, a deep awful sound that seems to rattle the whole room.
“Who the hell do you think you are? Who the hell do you think you're talking to? He couldn't go anywhere, even if he wanted to. You’re not from around here, girl. If you were, then you would know that everything and everyone in The Void, I own. And now he—”
“It isn't true,” Yelena says, turning to look at Bob, who avoids her eyes.
“Belongs to me.”
“It isn’t true. What he said. Bob?”
“I do,” He says reluctantly. Yelena feels what's left of her heart break just a little more.
“As for you…You get to see what becomes of those who don’t stay in their rooms!”
Void raises his arms and the concrete and metal of the room warps and starts to reach for Yelena. The room grows longer, separating Bob and Yelena. With another wave of his hand, Void lifts Bob into the air and pulls him across the room.
“Yelena!” Bob cries out in distress as he is pulled closer to Void, leaving Yelena on the other side of the destroyed room. Yelena watches in horror as blackness starts to spread over Bob’s body. No, she can’t lose him again.
Yelena breaks into a run, throwing herself over the lab table and desks that are throwing themselves at her. Rebar and chunks of concrete free themselves from the walls and aim at Yelena. She doges, ducks, and weaves what she can. Bob lets out a yelp, distracting Yelena just enough for a piece of concrete to hit her face. The desk Yelena landed on is yanked out from under her. She lands face down on the ground, as more debris comes hurtling towards her. Yelena can hear Bob scream as she falls to the floor, begging for her to get back up.
Her breaths are coming fast, blood is trickling down from a cut on her cheek and another one on her forehead. A feeling of helplessness washes over Yelena. Maybe she can’t do this. She can’t save Bob. She couldn’t save Natasha. She can’t even save herself.
“Is this how the world is?” Yelena pants, dropping her forehead to the cold tile floor, “If it's true what you say, I'll be on my way,” Void smiles at the defeat, but then Yelena forces herself up, “But who are you to say what the truth is anyway?”
Yelena reaches behind her and pulls out her batons, and charges at Void. She uses the desks to vault herself forward. Smashing bottles into fractured glass with her batons, and blocking the rebar flying at her. She is closer now, she can see how scared Bob looks, but it’s not fear for himself, it’s fear for her.
“Young lady, got to hand it to you, guess you don't scare easy, do you? Are you brave or stupid, girl? Doesn't matter which one. Young lady, I was young once too. I, too, was left behind, turned on one too many times. I’m giving you one more chance, one more chance before I send you to the great beyond, where nobody can hear you. Leave and go back to your rooms, before I send you somewhere worse.”
He wants Yelena to be scared of him, but she refuses to be afraid. She will not give up, she will not fail. She will not let Bob down.
Yelena is knocked down again. When she lifts her head, she knows she won’t be able to get to Bob in time. So, Yelena shifts her focus from Void to Bob.
“We are not alone,” Yelena says, looking Bob right in the eye. Begging him to fight his void.
Bob looks back, and the blackness seems to retreat just a bit. He turns to Void, determination painting into every feature. Bob pulls his arms back and with everything he has, uses his power to push Void back.
Bob drops to the floor, only to be caught by Yelena. She holds him tightly, checking over him to make sure the darkness is gone.
Void floats back up, and stares at them. Yelena and Bob stand up to face him.
“We just want to go home,” Yelena says, holding onto Bob’s hand, fingers intertwining with his.
“Alright, I’ll let you go home,” Void says, an evil, pearly smile crossing his face, “On one condition… You have to walk in front,” He says, pointing at Yelena, “And he has to walk behind,” His finger drifts over to Bob, “And if you so much as glance back to make sure he’s still behind, then both of you are mine. Do we have a deal?”
Void stretches out his arms, offering his hand to Yelena. She glances over at Bob next to her. She knows this is the only way to get him out of here. She is just scared she is not strong enough.
Yelena offers her hand, “Deal.”
The second Void shakes Yelena’s hand, everything goes black, and then she opens her eyes.
She’s back in the bathroom, but instead of facing herself, she’s facing the door. The way out, but back into the Red Room.
“Bob?” Yelena only hears herself, “Bob, are you there?” If Bob is there, he doesn’t say anything.
Yelena cautiously steps forward, placing her hand on the door knob. She twits, it swings open. From the bathroom she can see the instructor click the stopwatch to start. Yelena’s foot hovers right over the threshold of the bathroom.
When she steps into the Red Room, something is different. Yelena can feel it also immediately. The hair on the back of her neck stands up and Yelena feels unsettled.
“Where is he? Where is he now?”
Whispers echo off the walls, so quiet, but also so deafeningly loud. A thousand voices at once.
“Who are you?”
“Where do you think you're going?”
“Why are you all alone?”
“Who do you think you are?”
“Who are you to think that you can walk a road that no one ever walked before? ”
It sounds like Natasha, it sounds like her father, it sounds like Kate, Bob, Walker, Ava, Bucky, the Red Room instructors. It sounds like herself.
Yelena takes step after step. This room seems much longer than she remembers. The voices keep whispering around her.
Yelena reaches the next door, she twists the handle, and again this one opens without a push.
“Bob?” Yelena asks into the room, “I’m walking through this door now, okay?” No sound comes from behind her. Yelena walks through the door as the whip cracks against the young girls flesh.
She’s in her first room again. Snow covers the ground, it clings to the branches of the dead trees, and Anya is calling out for her. Yelena watches as her younger self calls back and as Anya’s blood decorates the snow. Then it begins again.
“Bob?” Yelena asks, there is no response, “Bob, are you there?” Nothing. No sound, not even the sound of breathing. The only thing Yelean can hear is her own panting breaths and the memory playing again and again.
Who am I?
Do not look back , she tells herself, Just keep walking forward. She takes a step just as young Yelena apologies to Anya. She takes another step.
“Yelena!” Anya calls into the forest again.
Who am I against him?
Yelena keeps walking. A bang goes off from behind her, it’s only the thought of Bob that keeps her from turning to look at Anya.
Who am I?
Why would he let me win?
No matter how many steps Yelena seems to take, Anya and herself seem to be right there. Just behind her, out of sight, but not out of ear shot.
Why would he let him go?
Who am I to think that he wouldn't deceive me just to make me leave alone?
Is this a trap that's being laid for me?
Yelena keeps walking.
“Where is he?”
“Where is he now?”
The forest seems to go on forever, she can’t seem to hit the wall she found last time. The shadows of the forest seem to be growing closer and closer. The memory fades away, as does the forest.
Yelena is left walking in the dark, in front of her is the smallest shine of light. It’s becoming harder and harder to walk. Each step is like pulling her foot from tar, more exhausting than the last.
Somehow, Yelena keeps walking, and ever so slowly the little light gets closer. She can almost reach it.
A scream tares through the silence. It’s only the fact it’s the first sound she’s heard in a while, and it startles her, that stops Yelena from turning around. The screaming is coming from directly behind her. It’s Bob’s voice. It’s Bob’s screaming.
“B-Bob?” Yelena asks, shakily. He sounds like he’s in so much pain. Once more she gets no response, only the cries of pain.
Yelena steals her nerves and takes another step forward. Bob, from behind her, lets out a cry of pain. She takes another step, another scream. She’s not stupid, she realizes that she’s hurting Bob. But she has to keep going, it’s the only way to get them out of here.
Bob keeps screaming and crying from behind Yelena. Each wail of anguish shreds Yelena’s nerves just a bit more. She has to keep walking, no matter how hard it is to lift her foot, no matter how much it is hurting Bob. She’s so close now. They’re almost there.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry,” Yelena starts to apologize, she doesn’t even realize she’s crying until she feels warm tears fall down her face, “I’m sorry Bob. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I’m sorry…”
The light is right there, it’s blinding her. Yelena sluggishly lifts her hand, stretching her finger tip out to touch the light. Her legs feel like they are made of concrete, her eyelids of stone.
Just a few more steps.
Yelena falls and the darkness swallows her whole.
Yelena is laying on her side, face pressed into asphalt, debris scattered around her.
“Yelena!” Someone calls out for her, desperation filling their voice. Hands grab her, pulling her off the ground to rest against something warm.
Yelena blinks her eyes open, the light shines into her face. She looks up at who is holding her, it’s Bob. Despite how tired she is, Yelena smiles.
“You did it Yelena! You got us out of there!” Bob smiles at her, and she thinks this is how the Earth must feel looking at the Sun.
Yelena looks around, there is no more Void. Everyone is there, the streets are still a mess, but they’re all alive.
She reaches her hand up to cup Bob’s face, “Are you okay?” Her voice sounds rough from crying.
“Am I okay?” Bob repeats astonished, “Yelena are you okay?”
“I hurt you… At the end, you were screaming, but I had to keep going. I’m sorry”
“No, no, Yelena, you didn’t hurt me. I tried to talk to you, let you know I was always behind you, but I couldn’t make a sound, he didn’t let me. The screaming was him trying to get you to turn around. I’m okay, I promise.”
Someone else is screaming, not from pain, but from joy. Yelena sees her father, and the rest of the Thunderbolt running towards her and Bob. Alexei drops to his knees in front of Yelena, grabbing her, and Bob, into a hug. The other Thunderbolts are not far behind. They all fall to the ground and hug each other. For once, Yelena feels safe.
And that is how it ends.