Yellow

“So," Yelena says nearly an hour into their flight. "How are things?"

Natasha glances over at her, "what are you doing?"

"I am making small talk," Yelena answers. "Is that not what people do on long trips?"

"It is," Natasha says. "But why are you doing it?"

Yelena shrugs, "because I miss my sister and want to know about her life."

"You've seen my life," Natasha reminds her.

For the past week, Yelena had been living with Natasha and Megan, both of whom had very different reactions to the arrival of the younger Widow.

Megan was overjoyed at having Yelena around. The two of them had become fast friends, with Yelena telling stories from their childhood and the mission in Ohio. How Natasha had nearly gotten them all busted her first day of school when a boy had tried to take Yelena's lunch money and Natasha had him on the ground, arm twisted behind his back before any of the adults knew what was happening.

And while Natasha was glad that her little sister was safe and that she got along with Megan, Natasha was also worried.

Yelena, much like Natasha, was a wanted criminal in nearly every country. But unlike Natasha, Yelena didn't seem to care. She walked around without a disguise, was loud and boastful when drunk, and had no problem starting or ending a fight which normally ended with the cops being called to whatever bar she was at.

It was by sheer luck that Natasha had kept her from being booked, and in doing so, had kept her off the S.H.I.E.L.D. radar.

Hopefully.

For all she knew, Maria or Fury would be waiting in her apartment when she got home.

If she got home.

"Megan is nice," Yelena continues. "I was not expecting you to settle with someone like her."

"Why?" Natasha asks, bristling slightly. "Because she's a woman?"

Yelena laughs, "no. That was very obvious even when we were kids. I mean.. she is nice. Soft. Innocent. We have seen the darkness in this world and she hasn't. She is like a puppy, happy and full of light and you are a.. stormcloud."

"She's not as innocent or as soft as you think," Natasha answers. "She's seen darkness, lived through things that nobody should have to. But she hasn't let it define her, not like it has with us."

"The scar on her eyebrow?" Yelena asks curiously.

"Her ex," Natasha says. "And that's all I'm going to say on it. It's not my story to tell."

Yelena nods, her mind filling in the blanks.

¥

"Why do you do that thing?" Yelena asks suddenly, looking up from the bench she was currently laying on, a half eaten box of pop tarts on the floor next to her. They were halfway to Russia and Yelena had gotten restless an hour in, giving Natasha the controls and then had proceeded to start ransacking the supply boxes.

"What thing?" Natasha asks, not looking back.

Well, until a loud thud shakes the jet and she looks over her shoulder to find Yelena on the floor, doing Natasha's Black Widow pose.

"This thing," Yelena says, tossing her hair around and laughing. "The arm and the hair, when you are fighting."

"It's just how I land," Natasha grumbles, turning back to the controls. She didn't technically need to watch them, the autopilot was on, but it made her feel more in control. It centered her, helped her to prepare for what was coming.

"It's a fighting pose," Yelena laughs as she comes and sits in the co-pilot chair. "You're such a poser, Natasha."

"I am not!"

"Eh," Yelena continues. "There are great poses but it does make it look like you think everyone is looking at you all the time."

"Yeah well," Natasha snaps, annoyance leaking into her voice. It wasn't even really Yelena that she was annoyed with, it was the whole situation. Being cooped up this tin can, finding out that the Red Room was still active and being away from Megan was all making her irritable. "All that time I spent posing, I was trying to do something good. I was trying to make up for all the pain and suffering that we caused. I was trying to be more then just a trained killer."

Yelena's smile fades and she says, "then you are fooling yourself. Because pain and suffering are an everyday thing and we still are trained killers." Yelena sighs, her tone becoming serious. "We can never make up for what we did, there's too much blood on our hands for that. But that doesn't mean we can't do anything good with the gifts we have been given. And this, taking down the Red Room and freeing our sisters, that is something good. Making a life for yourself, like you have with Megan, that is something good. Being an Avenger and protecting people, that is something good. We are not evil, Natasha, we have just done evil things. There is a difference, whether you believe it or not."

Standing up, Yelena goes back to her bench, leaving Natasha to mull over her words.

¥

Two hours later and Natasha was also getting antsy.

"Did you have anyone?" Natasha asks as she stretches. She'd given the controls back to Yelena, who for now, seemed to have settled down. "After we were separated?"

Yelena let's out a long breath, "no. I went straight into experimentation. Chemical subjugation. Most of that time is blank, there is only the doctors and the red mist." She pauses and adds, "and Oksana. She was my trainer and she freed me. She defected, Dreykov sent me after her and she smashed a vial of the red dust, freeing me."

"What happened to her?"

"I killed her," Yelena says bluntly. "She saved me and I killed her. She used her dying breath to beg me to save our sisters."

"I'm sorry," Natasha says. "Losing someone you care about, it's never easy."

Yelena keeps her eyes straight out the window, trying not to show just how much the memory hurts. "I didn't know her, not really. We weren't in the same program but she trained me. She was there when I made my first kill, when I woke up from graduation. I don't have many lucid memories, but the ones I do have.. she was there. Oksana was there and you weren't."

The sudden bitterness in Yelena's voice made Natasha go and sit back down next to her. "I'm sorry I wasn't there, Lena. I tried looking for you, during training and then later on missions. I almost got burned a few times asking around about you. And when I couldn't find you, when I couldn't find anyone who had seen you or knew about you.. I thought.. I hoped that you had gotten out somehow. That you were free. And when I defected, I spent every moment I could looking for you."

"And I found you first," Yelena reminds her.

"I wasn't hiding," Natasha says. "I knew, one day, that you would come home. And you did."

"Home," Yelena muses softly. "Where is home for me, Natasha? With you and Megan?"

"Your home is with me," Natasha tells her firmly. "Where we are doesn't matter. As long as we are together, that's home."

She doesn't say that they might not be able to be together and neither does Yelena. They both know that given who Yelena is, what she is, that her being able to live safe and free with Natasha, it would take a miracle or a presidential pardon.

But they would cross that bridge when they got to it.

¥

"Move your ass, super soldier!"

They hover over the Russian prison, watching as Alexei races towards a brick wall. The entire prison, inmates and guards alike, all swarm towards him. As he nears the wall, he jumps, propelling himself halfway up and grabbing onto a piece of rebar before shooting himself up the rest of the way.

As he grabs the railing of the upper prison level, a guard rushes him, hitting him with an electric cattle prod.

"He's never going to make it," Yelena muses as Alexei falls and lands heavily right back where he started.

"Get me closer," Natasha orders, moving from her seat.

Cold air rushes into the jet and Yelena maneuvers them closer as Natasha hooks herself to a cable and jumps. She swings under the jet, releasing the cable at just the right time and landing in her fighting pose on an upper platform.

"Such a poser," Yelena mutters as Natasha starts to fight the prison guards who were now moving towards her.

As she watches, bullets start hitting the jet, the warning alarm blaring at her.

Trying to get out of the line of fire, Yelena dips down towards the platform, hoping that the minimal cover would be enough to stop the bullets from hitting the jet. Unfortunately, she dips a little too close and nearly takes out the platform and Natasha.

"Oops," Yelena mutters. "Sorry."

"What are you doing?" Natasha yells when Yelena had steadied the jet. "Are you kidding me? Back up!"

Yelena grins and gives Natasha a thumbs up, "we're both doing a really good job!"

Pulling back up to a relatively safe height, safe as in the tiny bullets couldn't reach her, she was suddenly bombarded with large caliber rounds that shot through both sides of the jet and left large holes in the metal.

Hitting the autopilot, Yelena unbuckles and says, "alright, enough of this."

Walking calmly to the back, she picks up the rocket launcher she'd spotted while snooping, picks it up and goes to knee in front of the open side door. Bullets hit the jet all around her, but she ignores them, takes aim at the tower that was currently shooting at her and fires.

Unlike the tower, she hits them on the first try, the explosion bringing a genuine smile to her face. "Hah," she laughs as the fireball brushes the sky. She's back in her seat a moment later, her headset back on when movement out the side window catches her attention. Looking towards the mountains, she whispers, "whoa." The hard packed mountain snow was now racing towards the prison. "This would be such a cool way to die."

Below her, Natasha stares at the oncoming avalanche and Alexei yells, "that's not a good sound for us!"

"Move your ass!" Natasha orders.

Alexei starts to run again, using the guards as springboards to jump up to platforms, trying to reach Natasha before the avalanche buried them all.

"Get us out of here!" Natasha calls to Yelena who snaps out of her trance and swoops the jet down, the cable flying by Natasha who jumps off the platform and grabs it in midair.

Yelena circles the prison, bullets and explosions following them as she searches for Alexei.

The man in question had finally made it to a top platform and was watching the avalanche get closer, and the jet circling everywhere except where he was. "I am here!" He calls, waving his arms in the hope that Yelena would see him. Hope blooms in his chest when the jet turns towards him, but then shrivels when it passes him by. "What?" He groans. Looking back at the avalanche, he sighs, thinking that this was his end.

But Yelena had seen him and was turning around, angling Natasha so that she could catch him.

Natasha reached him just as the avalanche did, the platform and the jet both getting encased in ice and snow. Yelena pulls up on the controls, the jet jerking and straining as it struggles to lift free. For a brief moment, Yelena wasn't sure if they would get free, but then the darkness of the snow was replaced with bright sunlight, and they were racing away from the now buried prison.

¥

"Oh, that was exciting!" Alexei gasps after being hauled into the jet. He stumbles around the back as Natasha joins Yelena at the controls, pulling on her headset. "Oh, I'm so proud of you girls," he continues, looking at them both. When they don't answer, he mutters, "you can't hear me. Ok." Spotting a headset on the wall, he stumbles to it and pulls it on. "Wow," he says, leaning against Yelena's seat. "You girls- AH!" He yells when Yelena elbows him in the face. "Why the aggression, huh? Is it your time of the month?"

"I don't get my period, dipshit," Yelena reminds him. "I don't have a uterus."

"Or ovaries," Natasha adds.

"Yeah, that's what happens when the Red Room gives you an involuntary hysterectomy," Yelena continues. "They kind of just go in and rip out all of your reproductive organs," she finally looks at him and makes a grabbing and ripping motion. "They just get right in there and chop them all up and take them all away."

"Ok, ok!" Alexei tries to interrupt.

"So you can't have babies," Yelena says, talking over him.

"Ok!" Alexei yells, falling back onto the bench. "You don't have to get all clinical and nasty."

Yelena shrugs, "oh, well I was getting ready to talk about fallopian tubes but ok."

There's a beat of silence and then Alexei says, "it means so much that you came back for me."

"No," Natasha tells him. "We didn't come back for you. You're going to tell us how to get the Red Room."

"Oh, look at you," Alexei says jokingly. "All business."

"Trust me," Natasha snaps. "This isn't pleasure."

"Little Natasha, all indoctrinated into the western agenda," Alexei says.

"I chose to go west and become an Avenger," Natasha tells him, her patience for the man thinning. "Because they treated me like family."

"Family? Really?" Alexei muses. "And where is that family now, hm?"

Natasha takes a deep breath, "tell me where the Red Room is."

"I have no idea."

"Ok!" Natasha says, ripping off her headset and all but throwing herself out of her seat. She has Alexei pinned against the wall in an instant, "you were Dreykovs right hand man, if anyone knows where the Red Room is, it's you!"

"Dreykov?" Alexei spits. "That man sold me out! I gave up three years of my life playing happy family and for what? So he could throw me into a Russian gulag and throw away the key! Bah! If I knew where it was I would tell you, but I don't!"

The hate in his eyes was enough to convince Natasha that he was telling the truth. She lets him go and sits across from him, trying to come up with a plan. Alexei had been their only lead and now..

Now, she didn't know what to do.

"But I know someone who does," he adds.

"Who?" Natasha asks.

"They are outside St Petersburg," Alexei answers. "They will know."

"We don't have enough fuel for St Petersburg," Yelena says, her eyes on the nearly empty fuel gage.

"Bah," Alexi says. "She'll make it."

¥

After falling from the sky, Alexei leads them down a dirt road for nearly ten miles that abruptly dead ends at a tall barbed wire fence in the middle of the woods.

On the other side of the fence stands a woman with rifle.

"Honey," Alexei says gently. "We're home."

The woman, Melina, watches them with an unreadable expression. A million emotions were flowing through her, but none registered on her face. Shouldering her rifle, she unlatches a door in the fence and walks away, heading towards her house.

"Come on girls," Alexei tells them as he follows Melina.

They walk in silence, each trapped with their own thoughts.

When they get to the house, Melina finally breaks the silence. "Welcome to my humble abode, make yourself at home," she tells them, leading them through the small back hallway and into the living room. "Let's have a drink," she sighs, moving towards the kitchen.

Opening the pantry, Natasha watches her push on the shelves, a hidden door opening and revealing a small arsenal where Melina puts her rifle.

"No funny business," Natasha warns her.

"I am putting away my weapon," Melina says pointedly.

In the living room, Yelena stands next to a chair, her hand gently touching the scarf that's draped over it. The whole room was bathed in sunlight, making it feel warm not just in temperature but in a way that Yelena hadn't felt since Ohio.

From the kitchen, she can hear Natasha and Melina talking.

"Any booby traps we should know about?" Natasha asks.

"I didn't raise my girls to fall into traps," Melina answers.

"You didn't raise us at all," Natasha reminds her.

"Maybe so," Melina agrees. "But if you got soft, it wasn't on my watch."

The sounds of dishes clattering reaches Yelena, who was now sitting at the dinner table and feeling..

Well, she wasn't sure how she was feeling.

Her reunion with Natasha had been emotional, but it was a good kind. She never blamed Natasha for Ohio, for them being separated. She didn't even really blame Natasha for never finding her, even it still kind of hurt.

Alexei was another story. She had loved him back when she thought they were a normal family. But then he had given her to the Red Room so easily. Like it was nothing. Like she was nothing to him. And now he was acting like nothing was wrong. Like he didn't know that what he had done was wrong.

And Melina..

She had thought Melina was dead. She had grieved her mama in the darkness of the shipping container, before her and Natasha were separated and before her body and mind was no longer her own.

But now that they were all together again.. her emotions were almost too much to handle.

Yelena jumps slightly when a plate lands in front of her, followed by a cup and a bottle of vodka. Melina and Natasha set the table, putting food in the middle and then take their own seats. Melina sitting next to Yelena and Natasha across from her.

Nobody moves, nobody talks, until the sound of grunting comes from the bathroom.

"Let's have a drink," Melina suggests, reaching for the vodka and pouring everyone a drink.

Behind them, the bathroom door opens and they all turn to look at Alexei who was now in a skin tight red leather suit. Melina whistles and claps as Alexei beams, "it still fits."

"Oh my god," Yelena mutters, turning back to the table.

"I never washed it once," Melina tells him. "Come and drink!"

The leather creaks as he walks over for he table and sits down, "family, back together again." He smiles fondly at them, his eyes lingering on Melina.

She looks down at the food, "seeing as our family construct was just a calculated ruse that only lasted three years, I don't think that we can this term anymore, can we?"

She looks around the table and Natasha says coldly, "oh great. So, here's what going to happen-."

"Reunion then, huh?" Alexei interrupts, reaching for more vodka. "I want to say something right off the bat." He looks at Melina, "you haven't aged a day. You are just as beautiful and supple as the day they stitched our marriage."

Melina grins, "you got fat." Natasha and Yelena exchange a horrified look and down their drinks as Melina whispers, "but still good."

"I just got out of prison," Alexei says, leaning towards her. "I uh.. got a lot of energy."

"Please don't do that," Natasha interrupts, trying to ignore the horrible flirting and get the conversation back on track. "Here's what's going to happen-."

"Natasha, don't slouch," Melina chides.

"I'm not slouching!" Natasha argues.

"Yes, you are," Melina argues back. "You're going to get a back hunch."

"Listen to your mother," Alexei says with his mouth full.

"Oh my god, enough!" Natasha snaps. "All of you!"

Yelena scoffs, "I didn't say anything. That's not fair."

"Here's what's going to happen!" Natasha says for the third and hopefully last time. But like always, nobody was listening to her.

"I don't want food," Yelena complains as Melina fills her plate.

"Eat a little something," Melina says, adding another spoonful to Yelena's plate as the woman takes another shot of vodka.

"Hey!" Natasha yells. "You're going to tell us the location of the Red Room."

"No," Melina says simply.

"No?" Natasha scoffs. "Why not?"

"Because you want to kill him," Melina answers. "And you cannot kill a man who controls the very will of others. You never saw the culmination of what we started in America." She gets up and grabs her iPad off a table, coming back and hitting a few buttons. "Come in!"

The back door opens and a large pig struts into the room.

"Did that pig just open the door?" Natasha asks.

"Yes," Melina answers. "It did. Good boy," she tells the pig. "See, he sits just like dog. Now watch. Stop breathing." She hits another button and the pigs breathing stops. It's body trembles, like it was trying to take a breath but couldn't. Melina nods proudly, "we infiltrated the North Institute in Ohio. It was a cover for a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists. Actually," she corrects excitedly. "It was Hydra at that time. In conjunction with the Winter Soldier project, they had dissected and deconstructed the human brain to crest the first and only cellular blueprint of the basal ganglia."

Yelena inhales sharply, looking away from Melina. She'd had a sick feeling ever since the pig stopped breathing, and the more Melina talked, the more nauseous she became. Natasha glanced over at her sister, also suspecting where this conversation was going.

"Was the hub for cognition," Melina continued, oblivious to the turmoil raging in Yelena. "Voluntary motor movement, procedural learning." Next to her, the pig grunts, its head dropping. She looks at Alexei, "we didn't steal weaponry or technology. We stole the key to unlocking free will."

There's a thump as the pig collapses and Natasha asks, "what are you doing?"

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

Natasha glances at Yelena who was clearly struggling to keep her emotions under control. "Ok, well that's enough. You've made your point."

"Don't worry," Melina says dismissively. "He could have survived eleven more seconds without oxygen." She hits a button and the pig snorts, taking a large breath and standing up. "Good boy. Now go home. Go home where it is safe."

Yelena lets out a slow breath as the pig walks away, tears pricking her eyes as she realizes that it was her mama who had spearheaded the program that had enslaved her.

"The world functions on a higher level when it is controlled," Melina finishes solemnly. "Dreykov has chemically subjugated agents places strategically around the globe, capable of toppling dynasties with the press of a button."

"Do you know who they test it on?" Yelena asks, finally turning to look at Melina.

"Hmm no," Melina answers. "That's not my department."

"Come on," Alexei says. "Don't lie to them."

"I'm not lying," Melina tells him.

"You're Dreykovs architect, huh?" He muses.

"And what were you?" She counters. "If I was his architect then you were his partner! You were his business partner!"

"I was his patsy!" Alexei says, thumping his hand on the table.

"Shut up!" Natasha yells. "You are an idiot. And you are a coward. And our family was never real so there's nothing to hold onto. We're moving on. Yelena and I, we are going to kill Dreykov and then move on with our lives. And so should the both of you."

"Never family?" Alexei grumbles. "I think for a couple of deep undercover Russian agents, we did pretty well as parents."

"Yes," Melina agrees. "We had our orders and we played our roles to perfection."

"That wasn't real!" Natasha retorts.

"What?" Yelena asks, surprised that Natasha would say that after all the talk of them being sisters.

"That wasn't real. Who cares?" Natasha continues.

"Don't say that," Yelena begs. "It was real to me. You are my mother," her voice breaks. "And you are my sister. You are the only family I have ever known and it was all fake and none of you told me!" She blows out a breath, "and those agents you chemically subjugated around the globe? That was me."

Melina at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed. "Yelena," she says softly, reaching out to touch her.

"Don't touch me," Yelena warns. She stands suddenly, grabs the bottle of vodka and storms out of the room.

"I had no idea," Melina says.

"It's ok," Alexei mutters. "I go talk to her."

He gets up and follows Yelena into the other room, and when the door closes, Natasha gets up too. She'd had enough of the sitting around and getting nowhere.

"Where are you going?" Melina asks, following Natasha into the kitchen.

"To end this myself."

"Don't, it won't end well," Melina warns.

"I wish that I could believe that you cared," Natasha snaps. "But you're hardly the first mother to abandon me."

"No," Melina says adamantly. "You weren't abandoned. You were selected as part of a program that assessed the genetic potential in infants."

Natasha stops, turns and walks back to Melina, "I was taken?"

"I believe a bargain was struck," Melina explains. "Your family paid off. But your mother, she never stopped looking for you. She even got close once, found the nursery where you were being kept and almost made it out before she was killed. She died with you in her arms."

Natasha swallows, "I've thought about her every day of my life. Whether or not I admitted it to myself or not, I did." She takes a shaky breath, "I've had a melody stuck in my head for as long as I can remember. I always thought that maybe, somehow, it came from her."

Melina shuffled forward a step, "I've always found it best not to look into the past."

Natasha averts her gaze, her eyes landing on the bookshelf next to them. A familiar photo album sticking out from the rest of the books. She picks it up, opening it to see pictures of herself and Yelena.

"Then why did you save this?" She asks, flipping through the pages. "I remember when we did these. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and summer vacation all in one day. I knew all the presents under the tree were just empty boxes, but I didn't care, I wanted to open every single one."

"Let's stop this," Melina sighs, taking the book away from Natasha. She sets it gently back on the bookshelf, her fingers lingering a moment too long.

"Why are you doing this?" Natasha asks. "Why won't you help us?"

"Why does a mouse born in a cage run on that little wheel?" Melina counters. "Do you know that I was cycled through the Red Room four times before you were even born? Those walls are all I know. I was never given a choice."

"But you're not a mouse," Natasha tells her. "You were just born in a cage, but that's not your fault."

Melina takes a step towards Natasha, "tell me, how did you keep your heart?"

"Pain only makes us stronger," Natasha says with wry smile. "Didn't you tell us that? What you taught me kept me alive."

"I'm sorry," Melina says shakily. "I already alerted the Red Room, they'll be here any minute."

Natasha nods sadly, "then you have a choice to make. Help us or turn us in."

¥

"What a mess," Yelena mutters, making her way through the wreckage of the Red Room.

It had been shockingly easy to destroy the great floating city with Melina on their side. Together, the four of them had systematically destroyed the engines, freed the Widows and killed Dreykov.

Of course, that last part was entirely Yelena.

Not that she had planned to blow up his jet and get thrown from the upper platform of the Red Room to then free fall to her death. Thankfully Natasha had seen her fall, had jumped to save her and strapped her to a parachute. They'd been separated when a masked soldier had followed her, and now she was searching for her sister among the wreckage.

She'd been searching for nearly twenty minutes, the flaming wreckage making it hard to see with all the smoke.

But then, nearly thirty minutes after she landed, she spots a familiar figure laying in the dirt, the masked soldier a few feet away. "Natasha!" She yells, running to her sister. Falling beside her, she grabs Natasha's shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Wake up," she orders. "Natasha, wake up! You cannot leave me again!"

"Never," Natasha groans, her eyes fluttering open. "I'm sorry, little sister."

"You don't have to say that," Yelena whispers.

"It was real to me too," Natasha says.

Yelena pulls her into a hug, both of them holding on tightly.

Behind them comes the faint sound of grunting and scuffling feet.

Separating, they look to find Alexei supporting Melina. The sisters climb to their feet as their parents approach. "Everyone good?" Natasha asks when the pair reaches them.

"I am clearly injured," Melina quips.

Natasha's gaze turns to Alexei, "you got something to say?"

Alexei hesitates before answering, "I would just mess it up."

He raises his hand to Natasha, face searching hers. It was a hesitant gesture, a peace offering of sorts. And Natasha surprised everyone by excepting it. Her hand grips Alexis's loosely, a soft smile on her lips.

Their moment was cut short by the sound of approaching sirens.

Natasha sighs and looks towards the rapidly approaching convoy. "Here comes the cavalry," she muses.

She wasn't surprised that Ross had taken his sweet time showing up. He hadn't been too pleased when she had called him a few weeks ago, telling him what she and Yelena had planned to do. It had taken some convincing, but in the end, he had agreed to let her do what was needed.

Provided he get the credit, of course.

"What's the plan?" Melina asks.

"We stick together!" Alexei says firmly. "Fight, as a family!"

"Guys, it's fine," Natasha tells them. "Ross isn't the enemy." She pauses before adding, "this time." She looks around at the flaming wreckage and the scattered Widows, "you guys should probably go, though. Get them somewhere safe. Free the others."

"Not without you!" Yelena argues.

"I can't," Natasha tells her. "I have to go home." She'd been away from Megan for far too long as it was.

"Then I'm coming with you," Yelena tells her stubbornly.

"Oh, little sister," Natasha whispers. "You can't. I'm a civilian now and you're wanted in fifty-two countries."

"Sixty-eight," Yelena says proudly.

"Exactly," Natasha tells her as the sirens get louder. "You're a fugitive. You'd have to join SWORD to even have a hope of not being arrested."

"So I'll join," Yelena says easily.

"What?" All three of them ask.

"I'll join your hero group," Yelena says again. "I've lost my sister once, I don't want to lose you again."

Natasha looks around them, "what about our other sisters? They need you too."

"We will take care of them," Melina answers before Yelena can. "I can synthesize more of the mind agent and together we can free the others."

"Together?" Alexei repeats, hope in his voice.

Melina nods, "yes, together, you big softie."

The sound of a jet landing turns their attention. They brace, not knowing if it was friend or foe, and then relaxing when a dozen Widows step out.

"You came back for us," Yelena says in wonder.

The Widow closest to her nods, "we wouldn't leave you behind."

Melina and Alexei start moving towards the jet while two Widows go to the masked soldier. They help the soldier up and Yelena was startled to see that it was Antonia, Dreykov's daughter.

"Last chance," Natasha tells Yelena as they watch everyone climb onto the jet.

"It's you and me," Yelena says.

"You and me," Natasha agrees.

And as the jet holding their family takes off, they turn and face the approaching convoy together.