Warning: I do summarize the plot of Black Widow in this chapter!

Natasha tilted her head towards the door.

They began the walk toward the center of the compound when a voice found the trio.

"Natasha, what's wrong is Katie alright? Tony said her suit-" Bucky began but stopped when he saw the extra person.

"Who's this?" He asked.

Yelena tilted her head as she examined the man,

"Do I know you? I feel like I know you" Yelena said.

The man looked even more confused,

"I've never seen you before" he said.

Natasha sighed,

"This is my sister, Yelena" she said.

Stopping, Bucky took in the two women who couldn't look more different. Was there something he'd missed?

"I didn't know you had a sister" he said finally.

Rina as amused as always,

"Don't feel bad, I didn't either" Rina chuckled.

Natasha shook her head,

"Anyways, we have even more pressing matters to attend to. Yelena has information on Alexi" she said as she continued walking typing on her phone as she went, leaving the rest to catch up.

Bucky was the first to attempt to follow the redhead while Rina and Yelena hung back.

Yelena was shaking her head,

"I feel like I know him. Why do I feel like I know him?" Yelena muttered to herself.

The woman shook her head as if to clear her foggy head. She turned to the girl,

"I see you copied my look" Yelena joked, pointing at Rina's blonde locks of hair, "I kind of miss the pink" she teased

"Reminds me of the old days" Yelena said, nostalgia laced in her tone.

And while Yelena smiled on old times, Ekaterina shivered at the memories.

Nostalgia has an awful habit of tainting memory, making it more beautiful than it really had been.

"I'm not talking about this now" Rina snapped, her words harsher than she'd intended.

Yelena seemed taken aback and slightly hurt but Rina didn't care, she began to walk faster, catching up with her parents who were turning the corner.

By the time the group arrived in the kitchen, all of the missing had gathered presumingly from the text Nat had sent.

"What am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang? I'm going to start charging rent if you keep bringing in every single stray from outside" Tony grumbled.

Ignoring Tony, Steve leaned forward resting his arms on the table from where he was sitting,

"Nat what's going on?" Steve asked, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Before Natasha could respond, she was interrupted by laughing.

Yelena laughing walks further into the room,

"My god, this is crazy" the woman chuckled

"And you are?" Steve asked

Turning towards the voice Yelena looked at the man,

"Wow. You are even more perfect in person. I can't even look at you" she said turning away from the man.

Confused, Steve turned to look at Sam who merely laughed and clapped a hand against Steve's shoulder,

"That's rough, man" Sam laughed.

Having enough, Natasha stepped forward,

"This is Yelena, I knew her before the Red Room" the woman said, letting the information sink in as she'd never spoken about her past to them before.

"We were stationed in Ohio with an older Widow, we played the part of a family- a single mother and her two daughters. But when the mission was accomplished, we were given to the Red Room where we were separated. I didn't even know she was alive until four years ago" Natasha said genuinely, sparing them from some details.

Taking a deep breath and pulling herself from the memories of sunny days, mashed potatoes, a swing set in the backyard and lightning bugs. She'd left that all behind years ago.

"Part of my defection to SHIELD was taking the Red Room down, Barton and I thought we had accomplished this by taking down the Red Room operation, a man named Dreykov. But he survived somehow and the Red Room flourished. He stole girls from all over the world and turned them into killing machines" she continued, her voice wavering as she spoke.

Everyone was silent as Natasha spoke, they could all hear the pain in her voice as she told the story of her past. A past she had guarded so heavily for years and now all of those walls were beginning to crumble down.

"With the help of a science division he created a way to chemical induce control- they went from brain washing to mind control. All those girls were controlled by a tablet, with the swipe of his fingertips, Dreykov could start and end wars. And all the while the girls had no idea what they were doing" Natasha said.

The redhead nodded at her sister, wanting her continue the story of their past.

"I was being controlled by the Red Room, a few other Widows and myself were tasked to take down a Widow who had defected. I went after her and came into contact with Red Dust, this dust is a synthetic gas" the woman said.

Her words were met with confused looks,

Yelena sighed,

"this dust is a synthetic gas- a counteragent to chemical subjugation. The gas immunizes the brain's neuropathways from external manipulation." Yelena said

Everyone except Natasha and Ekaterina shared even more confused looks.

"Maybe in English next time?" Steve commented

Yelena rolled her eyes,

"It's an antidote to mind control." She said slowly as if she were speaking to a child.

"This is all fascinating but what does this have to do with our Red Guardian problem?" Tony asked impatiently.

"I'm getting there, tin man" Yelena remarked.

"After I was free, I found Natasha. We reconnected with our mother, Melina, the older Widow from Ohio. And together we took down Dreykov and what we thought was the final Red Room" Yelena said.

"But the only problem, we could not find Dreykov's right hand, can you guess who that is?" She asked

"Alexi" Steve responded

"Ten points for America's golden boy" She said sarcastically.

"When Ross called off the Sokovia Accords and my sister could go home, Melina and I devoted our time to finding all of the Widows still being controlled and set them free with the Red Dust" Yelena said.

The woman took a moment,

"It was in our search for the remaining Widows that we discovered the Little Widow program run by Alexi. Even though Dreykov was gone, Alexi was carrying on his legacy" Yelena said but something felt off like she wasn't telling the whole truth.

"Is there more?" Sam asked delicately.

"No" Yelena said firmly.

Throughout the entire story, Ekaterina remained silent. Taking in all of the new information. There had been more Red Rooms? More Widows? Stolen girls? It was too much.

"By the time Melina and I had created a plan, these two had already shut it down" Yelena finished, gesturing towards Natasha and Bucky, "thanks for the warning by the way, it's not like I had a plan that took months to come up with anyways. You just had to go in and muck it up" the woman said.

Natasha rolled her eyes at her sister.

"That really doesn't tell us much, Yelena. You said you had information on Alexi" Natasha said.

Yelena sighed dramatically,

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there. Let me have my big hero speech" the blonde said.

Natasha raised her arms in mock surrender before gesturing for the woman to continue.

"Anyways, before I was so rudely interrupted" Yelena said, sending her sister a scathing look which Natasha returned by sticking her tongue out.

Tony sighed,

"You know what my dad did a lot of stupid things but making me an only child was the best thing he's ever done" Tony said.

In unison, Natasha and Yelena turned to glare at the man.

"As I was saying. From what I could find out is when Dreykov died, Alexi inherited the throne of evil. Instead of just little girls, he took little boys too and trained them to fight side by side" Yelena said

"But he took something from Dreykov. Ekaterina" Yelena said turning to face the girl.

The girl tilted her head at the woman.

"Could you ever land a blow on The Red Guardian?" The woman asked.

Rina thought for a moment,

"No. I never wanted to?" She said but it sounded more like a question, "when I was around him, it was like I couldn't... but that doesn't make any sense" Ekaterina rambled.

With those words, Natasha understood,

"The pheromone" she said.

Yelena nodded.

"I'm sorry what pheromone?" Tony asked

"It's something Dreykov developed. It's a pheromone or a scent that makes Widows incapable of harming him. Alexi seemed to take that from Dreykov too" Natasha said.

"Can't you just hold your breath?" Sam asked

Natasha shook her head,

"Doesn't work that way. The only way to stop it is to sever the nerve" the woman said.

Sam winced,

"You don't mean" he trailed off

"Break the nose- sever the nerve" Ekaterina filled in.

Everyone turned to look at the girl.

"When they took me back, they put me and Maxim through trial after trial to see if we were ready. The final trial was for us to fight each other" her voice wavered and she took a moment to gather herself.

"I won" she said, her eyes cast downwards, "but not before Maxim broke my nose" she chuckled lightly.

"The next day, Alexi decided it was time for me to become the Little Ballerina. But I didn't want to, I resisted. I even landed a few blows, but I wasn't strong enough then" Rina said sadly.

"But I am now. And I will finish this. Yelena, what about Maxim do you know anything about him?" Ekaterina asked.

Yelena took a minute,

"From what I was able to observe- I think he's being controlled. We saw something very similar to this a few years ago" Yelena said glancing at Natasha.

"Remember Dreykov's daughter? She didn't die like we previously thought. Dreykov went through extreme measures to keep her alive. He brainwashed her like the rest and put a chip in her head and turned her into the perfect killing machine" Natasha said.

Rina gasped. Is that what Alexi had done to Maxim?

"So we just expose Maxim to the Red Dust, is that what you're saying?" Rina asked

"That's very simplified- but yes. It should bring him back" Yelena said gently, she had known the boy too.

"Where is the Dust?" Rina asked

Yelena sighed and reached into the pocket of her vest and pulled out a single vial of red substance,

"This is the last vial, Ekaterina. There are still more Widows out there" Yelena said.

"We'll give it to FitzSimmons! They'll figure out how to create more. We can save them all, we owe to them all to try!" Rina said.

"What's a FitzSimmons?" Yelena asked confused.

"Scientists. Two of the most brilliant minds alive, if anyone can replicate it it's them" Rina clarified.

"Alright, give it here, blondie. I can get it to the lab" Tony said, his hand extended.

Hesitantly, Yelena handed it over.

Tony left to deliver the last bit of hope they had.

"We can save him" Rina said softly.

"Katie" Bucky said stepping forward, "I hope you know that it might not be as easy as you think. That Dust might not even work if they used a medicines version on Maxim" the man said.

"But it might" Rina argued.

"Yes, but I just don't want you do get your hopes up" he said gently.

"Hope is all I have" the girl said quietly.

"Katie" the man began but was cut off.

Yelena scoffed,

"Katie?" She asked repeating the nickname, "she has good, strong Russian name like 'Ekaterina' and you call her 'Katie'? She is not dog" Yelena scoffed.

The woman began to wander around the kitchen, opening drawers and cabinets. In the tallest shelf she seemed to find what she was looking for.

A nearly full bottle of Russian liquor.

She looked down at the bottle then back at Bucky as she remembered a story Natasha has told her once.

Yelena couldn't help but laugh,

"Oh my god! I know who you are now" she laughed, "Natasha wouldn't stop talking about you!" Yelena continued.

The woman set the bottle down as she laughed.

"Oh my, you all should have heard her! 'Do you think he remembers me?'" Yelena said doing an impression of her sister 'I wish he would remember', 'his eyes are so blue'- wait she was right about that one your eyes are really blue" Yelena rambled.

Sam tried to keep a neutral face but failed, snorting out a laugh.

Steve was also loosing the battle and let out a short laugh before clearing his throat.

Ekaterina was just smiling while Natasha flared daggers at her sister,

"I didn't say that, Yelena" she said, trying to dismiss the subject.

Grabbing the bottle from the table, Yelena walked back to the table,

"Yes you did" Yelena argued as she sat.

Standing up abruptly, Natasha left the room.

Bucky looked even more confused before he followed after Natasha.

"I think you embarrassed her" Rina whispered to Yelena.

The woman scoffed,

"Good she should be embarrassed, payback for me having to listen to all her love stricken crying" Yelena said dramatically, then took a drink straight from the bottle.

~~~

"Rina I have an emergency!" Darlene's voice came from the cell phone.

Ekaterina immediately hopped off her bed,

"What is it? A fire? Are you being attacked? Aim for the throat. Where are you? I'm on my way" Rina rambled as she was tugging on her shoes.

"No, no Rina it's not that kind of emergency. It's just that the Homecoming dance is next week and I don't have a dress yet" Darlene said, rummaging in her closet as she was on the video call with her friend.

Rina stopped dead in her tracks and looked directly into the camera,

"Darlene" the girl said slowly, "I am going to hurt you, I thought something was wrong!" Rina exclaimed

Darlene was unfazed by Rina's concern,

"Something is wrong" the girl said dramatically.

Darlene exited the closet and jumped on her bed, causing her the shake the phone, giving Rina a headache.

"You and I have every different definitions of 'wrong' my friend" Rina said rubbing the side of her face.

"What are you going to wear? Have you even asked your parents yet?" Darlene asked.

A few weeks ago Peter and Darlene had shown her the ticket to the dance they had bought for her as a surprise. Rina tried to convince them to get their money back but the two refused, claiming Rina could use a normal night.

"Ask me what?" Natasha asked opening the door, a plate of cut fruit on a plate in her hand.

On the phone screen, Darlene's eyes widened,

"Oh hi Ms. R!" The girl said quickly,

Darlene looked around dramatically,
"Oh sorry, my dad's calling. I gotta go, bye!" The girl said before hanging up the call.

"What are you two up to?" Natasha asked, setting the plate down on Rina's night stand and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

Silently, Rina pulled a small ticket from underneath her pillow and handed it to Natasha.

With a raised eyebrow, Natasha took the slip of paper. "Midtown Homecoming Dance" it read. It was next week? Why hadn't the girl mentioned it before?

"Do you want to go?" Natasha asked, handing the ticket back to Rina.

The girl shifted,

"Yes but I know that everybody doesn't like for me to leave the compound. Which I understand-" Rina began.

"You can go" Natasha interrupted the girl.

Rina blinked slowly,

"What?" She asked surprised.

Natasha chuckled,

"You can go" she repeated herself, "I'll deal with everyone else, you deserve to do something fun. Something normal" Natasha said squeezing the girls hand.

Rina squealed excitedly, launching forward to hug the woman.

Natasha chuckled as she hugged the girl back, putting her chin on the girl's dual colored hair.

A few months back Rina had decided the let the blonde grow out, leaving a few inches of red at the root of her hair.

Hopping to her feet,

"What would I wear?" She asked

Natasha smiled softly,

"I think I can help with that"

~~~

"What do you mean you told her she could go?" Tony asked

"She's passed every test you've thrown at her. Anyways, it's a school dance not a covert mission. Even if it was a covert mission, she could handle that to" Natasha argued with the man.

"Yes but we don't know she's safe there" Bucky chimed in, "who knows where Alexi is, he could show up and there's just too many things that could go wrong" he said.

"Alexi hasn't shown up on our radar in months, what makes you think he will be chaperoning a school dance?" She asked, annoyance in her tone.

"You never know, Natasha. We can't be too careful" he said.

Yelena was watching the interaction closely,

"You act like her parents, it is cute" she said, intending it to be a joke.

Natasha met Bucky's gaze while the Tony pretended to be busy, Wanda turned to speak to Vision and Sam coughed loudly.

"No!" Yelena half shouted in surprise jumping to her feet,

"You are her parents?" Yelena asked and Natasha nodded.

Yelena sat back down,

"My brain feels like it's going to explode" She said dramatically.

But after a few minutes the shock wore off,

"So that why you fight like married couple" Yelena chuckled.

"We still need to figure out this dance thing since Ms. Rushman over there didn't give us much notice" Tony said sarcastically.

"I'll go" Yelena said

Everyone turned to look at her.

"What? You need someone to look out for her without drawing attention to yourselves. I'll pose as a chaperone. What could go wrong?" Yelena said as if it were the most simple thing.

Sam nodded,

"She does have a good point" the man said.

"We'll put it to a vote" Tony said.

"All in favor of letting blondie here chaperone Rina at the dance raise your hand" Tony said.

Natasha, Wanda, and Sam raised their hands.

"Those not in favor"

Bucky, Tony and Vision raised their hands.

A perfect tie.

"Wait" Yelena said, "where's the golden boy?"

~~~

"And what happened after that?" Rina asked, eyes wide as she nudged Steve as if that would make him tell the story faster.

The man chuckled,

"After that your dad had to jump in the river after me, I wasn't a strong swimmer back then" Steve said fondly.

Rina had found a picture of Steve and Bucky around age 10 and she had brought the picture to Steve's room. The picture then turned into a story. Rina loved hearing Steve's stories, just the way he spoke and about the past and brought the memories to life was fascinating to Rina.

"Your dad had to swim and pull me back to the bank. I was sick for a month after but Buck never left my side. Not even once. He was the best friend a guy could ask for, you're a lot like him, you know that?" Steve said.

Rina grinned, she loved hearing that.

"Papa said you got into a lot of fights back then" the girl said, "he said you were a punk but I think you had a good reason" Rina said.

Rina gave one of her famous smiles,

"He also said you did a lot of dancing" she said

"Your dad lied to you, kid" Steve chuckled.

Rina shook her head,

"No, he said you used to be a great dancer!" She reassured him.

Steve laughed, he remembered back. Bucky had truly been the better dancer out of the two of them. Steve could remember the night before Bucky's deployment, they were supposed to do dancing with their dates but Steve had ran off to enlist again.

"Can you teach me?" She asked genuinely, "I'm going to the school dance next week I want to be ready"

Steve looked down at his niece, she had such a good heart,

"I don't think they dance like that anymore, kid" he said.

Rina stood up and extended her hand,

"Come on, old man it's just one lesson I think your old bones can handle that" She teased.

Getting up, Steve sighed,

"I lied earlier" he said as he put the needle on the vinyl.

Rina tilted her head curiously. She didn't pick up on his lie, she could usually pick it out.

"You're more like your mother" he chuckled.

Steve held out his right hand for Rina to hold. Very gently and politely Steve guided her right hand to rest on his shoulder while her left hand stayed in his right.

"I think I'm a bit like both" Rina said with a smile

"A terrifying combination" Steve joked.

A slow soft track that was crackling with age played from the machine.

(Play the song at the top now if you'd like 😊)

The slow soft piano filled the room in a haze of nostalgia, the evening light sending shadows over them as they moved slowly.

"You must remember this. A kiss is just a kiss. A sigh is just a sigh. The fundamental things apply as time goes by"

They danced slowly around the room. Maybe it was her training but Rina was leading the dance, finding the rhythm of the song easily. But she was looking at her feet.

"Moonlight and love songs are never out of date. Hearts full of passion, jealousy and hate"

"Kid, look up don't look at your feet" Steve commented

Ekaterina looked up but as soon as she looked up she stepped right on Steve's foot. Unlike Rina, Steve had no natural rhythm.

Feeling awful, Rina stopped dancing,

"I'm so sorry I didn't mean to" she apologized, talking a mile a minute.

Steve only laughed,

"Happens, kid you just got to learn how to roll with it" he said.

"Roll with it" Rina repeated, she liked that.

"Woman needs man and man must have his mate. That no one can deny"

"Well that's kinda sexist" Rina commented.

That comment drew a laugh out of Steve,

"Yeah, I guess it kinda is" he agreed.

The change in culture has been shocking for Steve when he first got out of the ice. Everything that he'd known and grown up with had changed, it was a good change but it was still a lot of him to learn and change his mindset.

"It's still the same old story- a fight for love and glory. A case of do or die. The world will always welcome lovers. As time goes by"

However, somethings hadn't changed. When it came down the wire, most of the time people would choose to good. That's where his faith was he guessed- his faith was in people.

Finally Ekaterina seemed to figure it out,

"Spin me, spin me" She said like a child

The man laughed and took a step back and raised their hands allowing her to spin. As the girl spun she laughed which caused Steve to laugh.

Bucky who was leaning against the door frame put his finger to his lips when he saw Natasha walking towards him. Quietly Natasha leaned against the other side of the doorframe.

They both watched with different expressions.

Bucky watched with an air of nostalgia. He could still remember dancing around the kitchen with his mother while the radio played. He remembered his sisters standing on his feet while he spun around the living room. They were memories he cherished and would never forget.

Natasha watched with a sense of longing. She'd never had that carefree dancing with someone who cared about her. Had no memory of dancing with a father, mother, sister or brother. When she had danced, she danced for perfection, she had never danced for fun. So it was lovely to see her daughter laugh and dance with one of her closest friends.

Yelena came walking down the hallway and stopped when she saw the pair standing in the doorway.

"I want a lesson next" Yelena loudly said sarcastically.

Steve and Rina turned to look at their audience.

Rina laughed while Steve shook his head.

"Unfortunately, Rina was my last student of the day" Steve joked

"I don't know, Rogers you don't wanna show her your moves? You could teach her the looney hop or whatever the hell you old people dance" Natasha teased.

Bucky looked at the redhead, eyebrows furrowed,

"First of all it's called the lindy hop and it's a very popular dance" Bucky defended.

"I'm sure" Natasha said with a smirk.

The room fell into silence as the song ended. The next song began to play. It was a song Bucky recognized, a song from before the war, from before the fall, from before the Winter Soldier. It was a song his parents used to dance to.

Steve looked over at Rina, the girl was so tall now that the man hardly had to look down to meet her eye. He tilted his head slightly towards the door and Rina immediately understood.

"Oh I want to show you the dress mama let me borrow for the dance" Rina said excitedly.

The girl grabbed Steve and Yelena by the hand very nearly dragging them out of the room. The girl looked behind her and smiled at her father.

Bucky shook his head, that girl would be the death of him.

He took the first step and extended his hand to Natasha,

"How about a dance?"

~~~

Rina let out a gag,

"That tastes awful" she said grimacing

Wanda chuckled,

"That's because it's lipgloss, you aren't supposed to eat it" the woman said swiping a bit more on the girl.

Rina gave a mock pout,

"Then why does it go on your lips and smell like vanilla if you aren't supposed to eat it?" She asked seriously.

Wanda just shook her head, chuckling.

"They have flavored lipglosses!" Darlene pointed out from where she was sitting on Rina's bed while Natasha carefully applied eyeshadow to the girl.

"But you really aren't supposed to eat those either" Natasha pointed out.

"That is disappointing" Rina said

Wanda put the wand of the gloss back into the tube and set it down.

"Alright, my love, I think you're ready!" She asked excitedly.

Wanda had never had the high school experience so when Natasha asked her she would help get the girls ready, Wanda agreed before Natasha could even finish the sentence.

The woman handed Rina a small mirror to examine the work Wanda had done.

The girl held the mirror up to her face,

She still looked like herself but her features were more enhanced, her eyelashes were longer, her cheekbones more defined. And she had glitter on her eyelids which she loved.

"Woah. How did you do that?" She asked Wanda.

Wanda chuckled,

"Practice. I'll teach you one of these days" she said sweetly.

A knock came from the door before it opened slightly.

"Hey you better get going, you're going to be late" Bucky said walking in.

Rina stood up and spun around. She was wearing one of Natasha's old dresses, a cool toned gray dress that they modified to better suit the occasion. Natasha let the girl choose what she wanted to wear and Rina was immediately drawn towards the gray dress.

"Look at you!" Bucky exclaimed.

He'd missed out on so many milestones in Rina's life but he was glad to have this one.

"Yes, it took forever! First mama wrapped my hair around this hot machine"

"A curling iron" Natasha chimed in.

"And then Auntie Wanda painted my face with things that smelled like vanilla but did not taste good at all" Rina said cringing at the memory.

"Makeup!" Wanda corrected as she put all of the products away.

"Sounds like you girls had quite the day" he smiled, "well you better meet Peter in the lobby, he's been pacing for the last half hour" the man said.

They all laughed and Rina grabbed her purse tucking it safely underneath her arm.

Darlene linked arms with Rina as the walked, talking excitedly. Darlene was telling Rina about all the friends she wanted the girl to meet.

When he heard talking, Peter stopped pacing. He completely froze when he saw them. Darlene removed her arm from Rina's pushing the girl towards Peter with a quiet 'go ahead'.

"Woah, Rina you look... amazing" he said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Thank you. You look nice too" she said

"Well, I got this for you" he said holding a flower corsage, a beautiful light purple flower in its center.

Rina didn't know what it was but she thought it was beautiful.

Peter held out his hand for her to take and when she did, he slipped the corsage onto her wrist.

"It's beautiful thank you" she said earnestly.

Peter met her eyes, a small blush forming on his cheeks.

"Alright, let's take some pictures! My dad will kill me if we don't get any" Darlene called as she walked over.

They spent the next half hour taking picture after picture. Pictures of all three of them, pictures of just two of them, pictures of just one of them. Rina's cheeks hurt she had never smiled for so long before.

Before long, Natasha was ushering them into the car. All three kids got into the back seat while Bucky drove and Natasha sat in the passenger seat.

On the way there, Natasha reminded them that Yelena was there with communication in her ear if anything went wrong.

The drive to the school was a short one. Darlene was the first out of the car after saying her 'thank yous' and 'goodbyes'. Peter got out next but before Rina could exit she was stopped with a 'wait' from Natasha.

"Have fun" was all she said

"I will mama, there's no need to worry" Rina assured her

Natasha laughed,

"I'm your mother, I'll always worry about you" the woman said.

The a smile Rina shut the door.

The girl looked up at the building

'Midtown'

Look at this lovely gif made for me by retrobabe-  I love it!

Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! As always let me know your thoughts, opinions and theories I love to read them! If you make any creations inspired by this book (edits, drawings, etc) I'd love to see them, with your permission I'll even share them here! If you didn't pick up on it the dress Rina wears is the dress Nat wore in Iron Man 2! As always stay safe and I love you all!
Xoxo,
Renee