Melina led them inside, shouldering her sniper gun. "Welcome to my humble abode." She says. "Make yourself at home, let's have a drink."

The two younger girls looked up at Natasha, and she rolled her eyes. "Just this once because trust me you'll need it." The two girls grinned, and they fist-bumped each other.

Yelena followed the two teenagers into the living room/dining room and took a seat in the middle of the two. Natasha and Melina followed a minute later, and sat down at the table too, across from Yelena, Galina and Svetlana and Melina sat next to Natasha.

Alexei had changed into a red suit with white accents, and a white star in the middle of his chest, and it came with a matching helmet too.

He grinned smugly. "Still fits." Melina whistled as Yelena, Natasha, Galina and Svetlana groaned with embarrassment.

He took off his helmet as he sat down at the head of the table.

"Family." Alexei says proudly. "Back together again."

"Um, technically we aren't technically related to the two of you." Svetlana says gesturing towards her and Galina.

"What's your name sweetie?" Melina asks Svetlana as she takes a sip of the alcohol.

"Nadia Sokolov." Svetlana says as Melina nods her head at the girl.

"That's a beautiful name honey." Melina says to Svetlana, making her smile at the dark haired woman.

"My name is Galina, but people call me Lina." The other redhead introduces herself to Melina as the dark haired woman smiles at the young girl.

"Well seeing as our family construct was just a calculated ruse that only lasted three years, I don't think we can use this term anymore, can we..." Melina says getting back to the conversation.

Natasha leans forward, "Great, here's what's going to happen--"

Alexei interrupted rambling about this 'family reunion' and how pretty Melina was and how he just got out of prison and has a lot of energy. He wagged his eyebrows at Melina on the last one.

Natasha and Yelena both choked on their drinks, grimacing.

"Don't do that." Natasha tells Alexei and Melina. "Please don't do that..."

Natasha leaned forward again. "Ok--he's what going to happen--"

"Natasha and Nadia don't slouch." Melina scolds Natasha and Nadia.

Natasha and Svetlana both looked down at their postures in confusion. "We weren't slouching-"

"You're gonna get a back hunch--" Melina says.

Alexei nudges Nat's shoulder. "Hmm, listen to your mother." Natasha started to protest, but he continued. "Up! Up!"

"Enough me and Svetlana can't take it! All of you!" Galina cries, throwing her hands up, not realizing the mistake that she just made.

"Who's Svetlana?" Alexei asks and then Galina slapped her and over her mouth just realizing her mistake.

"It's a long..." Natasha says before Galina interrupted her mother wanting to tell everyone the truth about Emmy.

"Wait, Svetlana, little Lana. My Lana?" Yelena asks as she looks at Nadia shocked.

"Hey." Svetlana says quietly as she doesn't know what to do, Natasha looks at Galina not angry or mad, she understands the mistake that she made.

'Sorry.' Galina mouths to her mother as the older redhead nods her head.

----

"Eat a little something, Yelena, and Lina." Melina tells the two. "For God's sake--"

Natasha rose her voice above everyone else. "You're gonna tell us the location of the Red Room!"

The table got a little quieter as Yelena, Svetlana and Galina all side-eyed each other while quietly sipping on their drinks to avoid the conversation.

Melina started scooping food onto everyone's plates as she sighed. She told Alexei. "You know, this is just like when you told them that they could stay up late to catch Santa Claus--"

"What?" Alexei says. "That was fun, you know? 'He come down the chimney, girls, look out, where is he', You wait for him, and then when the cookies are gone, then you see he's there." Everyone all gave him looks and he continued. "No, no! What? I want them to follow their dreams, reach for the stars, girls!"

Natasha says. "Finding Dreykov is not a fantasy, it's unfinished business."

"You cannot defeat a man who controls the very will of others." Melina tells Nat. "You never saw that culmination of what we started in America." She says nodding to Alexei. "Nor did you."

She got up and came back with a tablet. She sat back down and tapped a few things on the screen. "Come in!" She ordered.

The front door creaked open, and a pig walked in which raised eyebrows for Svetlana and Galina.

"Did that pig just open that door?" Galina asks.

"Yes." Melina says proudly. "It did." She gave the pig a baby carrot praising him. "Yes, good boy Alexei, good boy."

"You named a pig after me?" Alexei asks.

"You don't see the resemblance?" Melina says continuing to show off her work, tapping a few more things, on her tablet and commanding the pig, then she said this. "Stop breathing."

The pig froze on cue, not breathing. Svetlana, Natasha and Alexei started as Yelena and Galina avoided looking at it.

"We infiltrated the North Institute in Ohio." Melina explained. "It was a front for SHIELD scientists, actually HYDRA scientists at the time. In conjunction with the Winter Soldier project, they dissected and deconstructed the human brain to create the first and only blueprint of the basal ganglia. Was the hub for cognition, voluntary movement, and procedural learning. We didn't steal weaponry, or technology, we stole the key to unlocking free will."

"What are you doing?!" Natasha asks Melina.

"Oh, I am explaining how the science is now so exact the subject can be instructed to stop breathing and has no choice but to obey." Melina says.

"That's enough!" Natasha cries out loud, making Svetlana sink in her seat, wishing that she had a jacket that has a hoodie so she can hide in the hoodie.

Melina tapped some things on her tablet. "Yes, alright...don't worry. Alexei could've survived eleven more seconds without oxygen."

The pig jumped up like nothing happened and then waddled back outside.

"The world functions on a higher level when it is being controlled." Melina recited like a script she had memorized. "Dreykov has chemically subjected agents planted around the globe."

Yelena swallowed hard and quietly asked. "Do you know who they test it on?"

Melina shook her head and shrugged. "No. That's not my department."

She and Alexei started bickering about Melina being Dreykov's architect and Alexei being his buddy, and then Alexei started rambling about politics again.

Natasha snapped, slamming her fist on the table. "Shut up!" She snapped at Alexei. "You are an idiot." She then turned to Melina. "And you're a coward. You are a coward." She adds. "And our family was never real, so there's nothing to hold onto. We're moving on."

Yelena quickly wiped her face staring at the wood grain in the table. Svetlana sank as far as she possibly could without falling, and Galina glared heavily at her mother.

Alexei scoffed. "Never family, huh? In my heart, I am a simple man. And I think that for a couple deep undercover Russian agents, I think we did pretty great as parents, huh?"

Melina nods her head agreeing with the man. "Yes, we had our orders and we played our orders to perfection."

"Who cares?" Natasha snapped. "It wasn't real."

"What?" Yelena asks.

"It wasn't real!" Natasha repeated. "Who cares--"

Yelena finally snaps at the oldest redhead. "Don't say that! Please don't say that. It was real. It was real to me!" She gestures to Melina. "You are my mother, you were my real mother. The closest thing I ever had to one. The best part of my life was fake...and none of you told me..." She also adds to Melina. "And those agents that you chemically subjected around the globe? That was me."

Melina blinked and looked up at Yelena with tears in her own eyes, and a look on her face like she just woke up from a dream.

Yelena continues turning to Nat. "And you. You got out. And Dreykov made sure no one could escape. Are you going to say anything?" When Natasha didn't say anything Yelena nodded her head. "No. That's what I thought."

Melina reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but Yelena waved it off. "No, don't touch me." She got up with a huff, and grabbed the alcohol and stormed off.

Natasha called after her, but Yelena had already disappeared around the corner to somewhere else in the house.

"I had no idea." Melina mutters.

"How can you say that to her?" Galina scolds her mother as Svetlana had gotten up and left without anyone noticing and caring about where she went.

"It's the truth." Natasha says to her daughter as Galina shakes her head at her mother.

"Ever since Budapest, I've tried to keep my mouth shut, but you've just been an ass that woke up on the wrong side of the fucking bed. Yelena thought that her life was the best life ever but when you two got sent to the Red Room she still believed that her life was still perfect." Galina says as Natasha went to say something but her daughter cut her off. "Don't. I'm leaving this shithole."

Galina left without saying a single word as she stole car keys without giving anyone second glances on her way out.

In the room

Unknowingly Yelena walked into the same room where Svetlana had gone too, and she jumped a little at seeing the girl in there with her head in her knees as a quiet sob left her mouth.

"Hey, kid." Yelena says to the girl who stopped crying but didn't look up at her mother.

"Hi." Svetlana says as she looks up a little and Yelena could see that her daughter's eyes were so red and puffy. It broke her heart seeing her daughter like this, even if she just found out that in the same night that she finally saw her daughter; that her childhood was just fake; amongst other things that she doesn't wanna talk about.

"It's okay." Yelena says to the girl who tried to smile but it looked more painful than anything. It looked like she was going to cry again, so Yelena took the girl into her arms.

"Tonight was something." Svetlana says as her voice was slightly strained due to her crying for at least a good two minutes before Yelena came into the room.

"Tell me about it." Yelena grumbles as Svetlana goes to put her head onto Yelena's shoulder but then quickly retracted it when she realized what she was going to do. "No, no. It's fine."

Svetlana gently put her head onto her mother's shoulder as Yelena managed to squeeze her arm and it appeared behind Svetlana's back and on her shoulder comforting her.

"Wanna know what made tonight better?" Yelena asks as Svetlana didn't even bother looking up as she hummed an answer. "Finding out that I had a daughter."

"Yeah I guess that was great." Svetlana says with a little smile on her face, with a little chuckle, as Yelena was happy that she reunited with her daughter.

Dining room

"You can go out before your daughter gets herself killed." Melina tells Natasha who took the bottle of whiskey and took a big chug of it.

"She'll be fine. It's not like she's survived being alone." Natasha grumbles as Melina had enough of Natasha's attitude, she got up and yanked the bottle as Natasha was going to take another swig of the bottle, and the older redhead glared at the dark haired woman.

"Now!" Melina orders pointing to the door, with a stern look on her face. Natasha scowled at the woman before eventually getting up and walking out of the house before she made sure to slam the door.

In the bedroom

"What is she doing?" Svetlana asks as she uses the sleeve to wipe her tear stained face.

"I don't wanna know, but she's probably going to get herself killed either way." Svetlana's mother says, answering her question as she sighs and shakes her head.

A few minutes later, Alexei came in.

"I came in here because I didn't want to talk." Yelena says glaring daggers at Alexei.

"The kid is talking." Alexei says gesturing to Svetlana.

"She's the exception. She is fine." Yelena says glaring so hard at Alexei she could've burned a hole in his skull.

Alexei looked between the girls, then sat down on the bed next to Yelena. "Ok. Uh...we just sit."

After a minute of awkward silence, Alexei started telling some story about ice fishing with his father as a kid where his dad told him to toilet on his hands to keep Alexei from getting frostbite.

Svetlana and Yelena both exchanged awkward glances as Alexei kept right on rambling his story.

Finally Yelena threw her arms up in frustration. "How is this relevant?!"

"You know." Alexei says. "Fathers."

Yelena groans, smacking her forehead as Svetlana grabs her mother's hand. "You have done nothing but tell me how bored you were." Yelena adds angrily. "I was the chore. The job you didn't want to do. To me? To me you were everything."

Alexei didn't say anything and Yelena nodded angrily. "See? You didn't care. You do not care. The only thing you care about are you stupid glory days as the Crimson Dynamo, and no one wants to hear about it."

Alexei says quietly. "It's uh-it's the Red Guardian..."

"Get out," Yelena growled at him, and he didn't move so she yelled, "Get out!"

Alexei got up and moved for the door. Svetlana started to get up and leave as well, but her mom pointed to her. "Not you, Lana. You can stay." Yelena then stared Alexei down furiously until he eventually left. Once the door closed, Svetlana scooted over to lean against the bed with her mom.

Outside

Natasha ran as far as she possibly could without having any luck on finding her own daughter, as she tried to take back the words that Galina had said, and she was right. She has been a pain in the ass, and she knows that Galina probably didn't mean the words that she had said.

Natasha walks back inside the house with a sad look on her face of not finding her daughter and it breaks her heart, not knowing if she will ever get the chance to apologize to her or not. That's just if she comes back.

-----

Svetlana and her mother kept talking and laughing quietly, then there was a loud boom outside the house as bright blue as light shone through the window. Both girls jumped up moving out of the square of light from the window shining on the floor so they wouldn't be seen.

A helicopter or plane was rumbling outside as both girls drew their guns. Alexei kicked the door in and marched over to the open window. His helmet was back on, and he was ready for a fight.

The huge searchlight from outside shined directly at him, and a tranquilizer dart with a red feathered tip hit him in the chest.

Alexei laughed. "They think they can--" Before he could finish that sentence there were more tranquilizer darts that hit him in the chest, and he dropped to the ground with a thud.

"They're here..." Yelena says in a horrified whisper. She grabbed Svetlana's arm and started leading her out of the room. "We need to get you out of here, now."

The two slowly stepped out around the corner back into the living/dining room. All of the lights in the house were out, and bright blue searchlights were shining down on the house. The harsh light beaming through the windows and cutting through the dark. Yelena kept one hand holding the gun out in front of her and the other hand out behind her shielding Svetlana.

Melina, dressed in a full black battle suit, stepped out of the kitchen. Yelena pointed the gun at her, holding it with both hands and putting herself between Svetlana and the threat as much as possible.

Melina lifted her hand, charging a bright red taser blast and aiming it for Svetlana. "I'm sorry." The taser blast fired from her wrist, and Yelena yanked Svetlana fully behind her, taking the full force of the blast. She grunted and then dropped to the ground.

Svetlana stumbled backward, tripping on the coffee table and landing flat on her back. She only got a few inches before there was a loud zap, of electricity crackled through her entire body then her vision became dark.

▷

hannah speaks!

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