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AFTER CONFIRMING THAT they weren't being followed anymore, Natasha, (Y/N) and Yelena escaped the vents and left the city on foot, not wanting to catch more attention into themselves.

They walked for hours until they found a gas station with a convenience store, deciding it was the best chance to get more supplies, they walked towards it in silence.

"The Red Room's still active. Where is it?" Natasha spoke up as they entered the store.

"I have no idea." Yelena answered while she looked for bandages. "He moves location constantly. And every widow is sedated on entry and exit for maximum security."

"I'm just finding it hard to believe that he could stay off our radar." (Y/N) said.

"Well, it's not smart to attack Avengers if you want to stay hidden. I mean, the clue is in the name." Yelena replied.

"Dreykov kills you, one of the big ones comes to avenge you."

"Wait, what are the big ones?" Natasha asked.

"Well, I doubt the god of space has to take an ibuprofen after a fight," Yelena continued. "Where did you think I was all this time?"

(Y/N) looked down in shame, not wanting to meet her eyes. "I thought you escaped and we're living a quiet life."

"And you just never made contact again?" Yelena asked.

"Honestly, we thought you didn't wanna see us," Natasha responded.

Yelena let out a sarcastic laugh. "Bullshit."

"You just didn't want your baby sister to tag along whilst you saved the world with the cool kids."

"Well, you're not really my sister, neither of you," Natasha said.

"And the Avengers aren't really your family." Yelena replied.

Silence filled the store, and (Y/N) tried hard to not overthink what Natasha and Yelena had just said. It was true that neither of them were related, but she thought that after growing up together as sisters and fighting together as such, she might've changed that perspective.

"Why do you always do that thing?" Yelena said out of nowhere.

"Do what?" Natasha asked.

"The thing you do when your fighting." Yelena continued. "The. . .like, the. . ."

She bent one knee while the other was stretched out, raising her right arm in the air as she placed her other hand in the ground.

"This thing that you do when you whip your hair when you're fighting with the arm and the hair," Yelena said as she moved her hair dramatically for the effect.

(Y/N) chuckled at this, remembering how many times she had caught Natasha doing that during a fight.

"You're forgetting the way she just stares into the distance like there's a camera right in front of her," (Y/N) added on.

"Right! How could I forget that," Yelena exclaimed. "You do, like, a fighting pose."

Natasha stared emotionless at both of them, not catching the joke.

Yelena continued chuckling. "It's a fighting pose. You're a total poser."

"I'm not a poser," Natasha said.

(Y/N) and Yelena shared a laugh.

"Oh, come on," Yelena exclaimed, standing up from the ground. "I mean, they're great poses, but it does look like you think everyone's looking at you, like, all the time."

"All that time that I spent posing, I was trying to actually do something good to make up for all the pain and suffering that we caused. Trying to be more than just a trained killer." Natasha said.

"Well, then you were fooling yourselves, because pain and suffering is every day and we are all still a trained killer." Yelena said. "Except I'm not the one that's on the cover of a magazine."

"I'm not the killer that little girls call their heroes."

Without another word, Yelena exited the store, leaving Natasha and (Y/N) alone in their own thoughts.

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NIGHT HAD ARRIVED pretty fast, so Natasha decided it would be good to stop at a local restaurant for dinner. While Natasha stayed inside to buy the drinks, Yelena and (Y/N) grabbed a table to sit in, noticing kids playing with ball a few feet away.

Yelena removed the cloth around her shoulder as (Y/N) looked through the backpack for the alcohol to clean the injury.

Once she found it, she took the cap out and dropped a few drops of it in the deep cut, making Yelena hiss out of pain.

(Y/N) waited a few seconds for her to calm down before dropping some more, causing Yelena to let out a louder shriek of pain, followed by a smack in the arm by (Y/N).

"It hurts," Yelena complained.

"Don't move and it'll hurt less," (Y/N) replied.

At the exact moment, Natasha placed three bottles in the center of their table before sitting down across from (Y/N) and Yelena.

(Y/N) tried to clean the injury once again, but this time Yelena swatted her hand away childishly. (Y/N) rolled her eyes before leaning back into her seat, grabbing one of the bottles in front her.

"That gas, the counteragent, it was synthesized in secret by an older widow from Melina's generation." Yelena began. "I was on a mission to retrieve it and she exposed me and I killed the widow that freed me."

"Did you have a choice?" Natasha asked.

"What you experienced was psychological conditioning. I'm talking about chemically altering brain functions," Yelena continued.

"They're two completely different things. You're fully conscious, but you don't know which part is you. I'm still not sure."

(Y/N) stayed quiet as her eyes fell into the bag with the capsules with the red gas before she turned her head to face Yelena.

"Is that all there is left?" (Y/N) questioned.

"Mmm-hmm." Yelena nodded. "It's the only thing that can stop Dreykov and his network of widows."

"He takes more every day. Children who don't have anyone to protect them. Just like us when we were small. Maybe one in 20 survives the training, becomes a widow. The rest, he kills."

"To him, we are just things. Weapons with no face that he can just throw away. Because there is always more. And no ones even looking for him, thanks to you two and Alexei."

"Alexei?" (Y/N) and Natasha asked at the same time.

"'Dad'," Yelena said.

(Y/N) sighed in frustration by remembering that man. She looked around herself and saw how children ran into their parents' arms while laughing, noticing how the parents held them in their arms with happiness adorning their faces, not scowls or annoyance. (Y/N) would give anything to experience that.

"Did you even look for your parents? Your real ones?" Yelena questioned.

"Well, my mom abandoned me in the street like garbage." Natasha answered.

"And mine died right after giving birth," (Y/N) replied. "What about you?"

"They destroyed my birth certificate, so I reinvented it." Yelena said. "My parents still live in Ohio. My older sisters moved out west."

"Is that right?" Natasha smiled.

"You're a science teacher. You're working part-time though, especially after you had your son. Your husband, he renovates houses." Yelena said as she looked at Natasha.

"And you," she faced (Y/N). "Decided to follow her life dream of becoming a novel author. You married the biologist that you met during college. You are still waiting for the right time to have children."

(Y/N) smiled softly. "I can live with that."

"That's not my story." Natasha said softly.

"What is your story?" Yelena asked.

"I never let myself be alone long enough to think about it." Natasha confessed.

"Did you ever wish for kids? Any of you?" Yelena asked, grabbing a vest from her backpack and putting it on. "I want a dog."

"Where you gonna go?" Natasha questioned.

"I don't know." Yelena admitted. "I don't really have anywhere to go back to, so I guess anywhere."

Natasha placed her elbows on the table, leaning to be closer to Yelena and (Y/N).

"Don't." Yelena said.

"Don't what?" Natasha asked.

"You're going to give me some big hero speech, I can feel it."

"Please, she couldn't give a motivational speech to save her life," (Y/N) scoffed.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Speeches aren't really my thing."

"Huh." Yelena frowned.

"It was more like an invitation." Natasha admitted.

"To go to the Red Room and kill Dreykov?" Yelena asked.

"Yeah." Natasha nodded.

"Even though the Red Room is impossible to find and Dreykov is too slippery to kill?"

"Yeah."

"That sounds like a shitload of work."

"It could be fun, though." (Y/N) added on.

Natasha nodded in agreement.

"Yup." Yelena agreed.

The three of them stayed quiet before Natasha spoke up. "I saw where he put the keys."

"Top drawer," Yelena said.

"Green cabinet." (Y/N) finished.

All of them chuckled as they shared a toast, drinking out of their bottle with smiles on their faces, knowing it was going to be a wild ride.