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IT HAD ONLY BEEN a week since half of the universe's population was blipped away. A week since Rosalie crumbled before Irina's eyes. The image was burned into her mind, she couldn't close her eyes without seeing the terrified and confused eyes of her love slowly disintegrate. After she called Yelena about Rosalie and Fanny, that was the last she had heard from her. Yelena never reached out and always sent her calls to voicemail.

Irina was worried, worried that Yelena was drowning in her pain and sorrow without anyone to pull her out. If she wanted to, she could track her down, like in her old Red Room days, but that would be wrong. Yelena didn't want to be found or contacted and Irina respected that.

Her days without Rosalie were lonely and boring. Most days, she stayed in her PJs, not bother to get dressed as she trudged around the now quite flat. She found herself unable to cook meals, the thought of doing so without Rosalie being too much to bear. She stuck to ordering in, spending her nights on the bed, watching all the movies Rosalie loved — Home Alone 2, Pulp Fiction, Jurassic Park — but after the first few nights of doing that, she had to stop.

Irina found herself laughing, looking over to her left, expecting Rosalie to be there. Or, she remembered the small and random facts she used to whisper every time, not caring if she had already told Irina ten times before.

On week two, Irina packed away all of Rosalie's things into boxes and shoved them in her old office. It became too hard to look at her things, to be reminded every single time she looked at her clothes or her collection of old Nintendo games. She kept out a few things, like sweaters that still smelt like her or a few of her pendants, just to wear when she wanted to feel closer to her.

On week three, there was a knock at the door. Irina opened it, expecting nothing. "Irina?" She recognized the deep voice of Marcus Bates anywhere.

"Marcus!" She cried out, throwing her arms around him without thinking. Startled by the affection, it took Marcus a moment to hug her back. "I'm so happy to see you!" Her voice was muffled against his shoulder.

Marcus chuckled softly, pulling her back so he could get a good look at her. She was dishevelled — her skin was sickly pale and she looked like she hadn't slept in days. "May I...come in?" He questioned, taking a step forward.

"O-Of course!" Irina stumbled aside and allowed Marcus in. She shut the door behind him and watched as he looked around her unnervingly clean flat. "H-How are you?" She questioned, following loosely behind him.

"...okay," Marcus nodded slowly, eyes seemingly searching for one spec of dust, anything to show that the house is lived in. "Is Rosalie out?" Marcus questioned quite shakily. He looked over at Irina, who froze.

Hearing her name was enough to bring tears to her eyes. "Um..." She gulped, her voice dry. There had been so much chaos in the past few weeks, she completely forgot to tell the others that she was gone, or to even check if the others were even still alive. "She's uh...over there." She pointed to a shelf, place just under the bay window. A wooden urn surrounded by Rosalie's things and a locket with her picture inside sat on top. Irina watched as Marcus's face dropped.

He stumped forward, looking down at the urn in shock. "No..." He mumbled. "Rosalie can't...she couldn't have..."

"She did," Irina choked back a sob and fell into a fit of coughing. Tears in her eyes, she walked slowly next to Marcus. "I watched. I was holding her and...then she was ash."

"And Yelena?" Marcus turned suddenly.

Irina shook her head softly, looking down at her feet. "She's okay..." She looked back up, seeing tears in Marcus's eyes. "How are Melina and Alexei? Do you uh...know?"

Marcus let out a shaky breath. "Their...their gone, Irina. So is Herald."

Irina's legs gave out on her. Marcus managed to catch her just before she hit the floor. She gripped his shoulders tightly as she shuddered and cried uncontrollably. They were all gone. It was just three of them left.

  Yelena threw her phone across the room as Val tried calling her once more. "Suka!" She swore angrily. "I do one successful job for her and now she won't stop calling me!"

A soft chuckle came from the closet. "Maybe you should...I don't know, pick up?"

"No!" Yelena groaned, rolling so her face smushed into her pillow. She could hear muffled footsteps and then a kind hand on her back. "Natasha..." She huffed, trying to shove her sister off.

"Yelena..." Natasha mocked her childish tone, pushing her over so that she could sit. Huffing, Yelena sat up, glaring at the blonde. "You made a commitment with this...Val? If you have a job you need to say committed to it."

Yelena frowned slightly. She hated lying to her sister about who Val really was and that this job she had was actually an assassin for hire, but Natasha would never understand. "I know, I know," She rolled her eyes. "You don't have to baby me."

"Aw, but I want to," Natasha smirked, pushing herself off the bed with a clap. "O-Kay! I'm hungry. You want sushi?"

Yelena tried her best to seem convincing. "Yes please!" She kept her strained smile until Natasha shut the door, leaving her alone. She sighed, standing from the bed and crossing the room to grab her phone. Another 4 calls from Val. Yelena scoffed and shook her head. She dialled her number and waited. Of course, Val bring Val, she didn't pick up.

It wasn't until Yelena had called as many times as she had that she did. "Yelena, sweetheart! So nice of you to finally call back. Are you that busy?"

"What do you want, Val? I did one job. That doesn't mean you can call me all the time," Yelena plopped back onto the bed, frustrated.

"Aw, don't be so harsh, Yelena! I just..." There was a strange break in her voice. "I don't know who else to call. You're the only person I know that can execute this."

Yelena paused. "What is it and how much?"

"There she is!" Val cheered smugly. "Simple. You'll be in and out before anyone knows you were there. This man...he very involved in the Russian mob. I need you to gather intel and then eliminate him. Got that?"

Yes, I did," Yelena huffed. "But how much does it cost, Val? I'm not doing this for free."

"Of course not!" Val chuckled. "Fifteen thousand."

Yelena gritted her teeth. "Send me the details. I'll get it done."

"Perfect! I knew I could count on you, babes," Yelena could hear Val's smirk. "Okay. Everything you need to know is in the email. Read it while you can — it'll be gone in ten minutes." Click. She was gone.

Yelena tossed her phone to the side and pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew how disappointed Rosalie would be if she knew that she was an assassin for hire instead of working for the CIA like she used to. But Rosalie was gone and Yelena needed the money. There was nothing else for her to do.

So, Yelena completed the job. She killed the man, gave Val the information she needed and got paid. But these two jobs turned into twenty and the four weeks since the Blip turned into years. Yelena left the Avengers Compound, left Natasha, left Irina. Her only source of human interaction was Val and the people she assassinated. Yelena was alone.

AUTHORS NOTE
yummy sadness. sorry that this chapter is so short but gosh, it was comforting to write for this again. but it's also sad because we're almost at the end. I think it should be about two chapters until that! thank you all for the amazing support!