The End Of Us

The end of us

Summary: What if it was Natasha and Yelena at vormir?

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A/N: Sorry!

Tags: Major character death, Soft Natasha, soft Yelena, both of them need a hug, mentioned Kate Bishop, Grief

W/C: 1, 845

Link to fic on Ao3

“Why don’t you ever call me for normal things? Like to help you move or come over for thanksgiving.” Yelena questions Natasha, half ranting to the red-haired woman and half to herself. Rambling when anxious was a habit Yelena soon picked up once again after being liberated, something she hadn’t exhibited since the age of six.

“We aren’t normal. Plus its October.”

Yelena huffs and Natasha turns her focus back to the controls. The pair have only been reunited for a short time especially compared to the time they were apart.

Yelena had imagined the day she saw her older sister again she would whisk her away and they would live away from everyone else, just the two of them against the world again like Ohio.

Things didn’t go exactly as planned. ‘Life got in the way’ as Natasha liked to put it, but with Yelena still freeing other Widows from subjugation and Natasha having to go deal with ‘Avenger stuff’, life really did get in the way.

But, no matter the circumstances, they were together again and that was all that truly mattered.

“Brace yourself, we’re gonna get some turbulence.”

“But we’re in space???” Yelena replies, the words coming out of her mouth of all people still leaving an odd feeling in her stomach.

“Yep.” Natasha’s attention is once again tuned in to manuvering the ship past obstacles. She definitely wasn’t fully qualified for this, but things were getting desperate and even more personal.

Melina was never really Natasha and Yelena’s mother. But neither could wipe away the warmth of her smile throughout the small patch of joy in their childhoods and felt an obligation- instict even- to do anything to get her back as well as the rest of those taken in the blip.

Plus with Melina now gone Alexei was drunk a lot more frequently if that was even possible, although the assassins wouldn’t mind quite as much if he drank himself to an early grave.

Then there was Kate Bishop, the naive archer Yelena had befriended not long ago. She wasn't so great at the superhero thing yet- or home security despite her job- but she was her favourite person to spend time with, other than Natasha of course.

“So, how’s everything going with you, huh?” Natasha asks. Despite them both agreeing their occupations were both very time consuming she still felt guilty for not spening enough time with her little sister. The only good thing the blip had done was brought them closer.

“There’s always Widows that need freeing, but we’re getting closer." She responds vaguely.

"You sure that's it? No secret double life I should know about?" She jokes, but both of them know what she's actually hinting at.

"Nope." She shifts in her seat and she knows Natasha notices, but doesn't say anything.

Ever since Clint made that stupid joke about her and Kate practically sharing an apartment her sister had been gently encouraging her to admit her feelings. The only problem was she didn't have any. No matter how hard she tried.

A silence fills the air and Yelena decides to replace it with her own voice before they're given too much time to think. "Are you ever not chewing gum by the way?”

“What?”

“Its like you have a never ending supply, when we reunited, on the way to Melina’s farm, even in space.” She lists.

“It keeps me focused.”

“What flavour is it?”

“Its mint.”

“Boring.”

“Do you want some gum, Yelena?”

“Yes.”

____☆____

Soon enough the two of them find themselves just off the cliff of Vormir.

“Not much to see, is there?” Yelena peers around the mostly desolate dark purple landscape of the alien planet skeptically.

“Well we aren’t exactly there yet.” Natasha points West and they begin their trek.

“What even is a soul stone?” The blonde questions. Obviously after the battle of New York the existance of other worldy beings was undeniable, but there was still much to be learnt.

“Something we need, and we’re going to get it.”

“Thanks for that, really helped.”

Natsha is used to Yelena’s new found and constant use or sarcasm now and responds accordingly “You’re welcome. Lets just try to hurry this up a little, we’re running out of time.”

Yelena doesn’t have any snarky comment or funny remark to what Natasha says and simply nods, picking up her pace until she’s walking side by side with her sister.

It doesn’t matter if they’re deep underground or deep in space, they’re here to complete a mission and luckily for Yelena she has the person she currently trusts the most by her side.

Natsha holds her hand up prompting Yelena to stop in her tracks.

“What is it?” she whispers, taking out her handgun almost at the exact same moment as Natasha.

“I don’t know.” She whispers back in a hushed tone.

The pair slowly approach the source of the noise with their weapons drawn and are surprised to say the least when they see who is awaiting them.

The red-skinned figure in a black cloak barely acknowledges the fact they’re aiming the guns directly at his forehead before he speaks.

“Welcome, Natsha, daughter of Ivan. Yelena, daughter of Alexei.”

Natsha lowers her gun and Yelena reluctantly does the same.

“That’s what aliens look like?” Yelena murmurs to Natsha, she still sometimes forgets the fact her older sister doesn’t know everything.

Natsha ignores Yelena’s question, mainly because she had no answer. “Who are you?”

“Consider me a guide. To you, and to all who seek the soul stone.”

“Oh, good. Tell us where it is, then we'll be on our way.”

“Ah, lieschen. If only it were that easy”

The ‘guide’ leads them to the edge of the cliff. When Yelena looks over the edge she feels a turn in her stomach which she hopes Natasa does as well, something isn’t right.

“What you seek lies in front of you. As does that which you fear.”

Natsha squints at the base of the cliff. “The stone’s down there?”

“For one of you. For the other, in order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul for a soul.”

Yelena’s eyes are immediately snap back on Natasha. “A soul for a soul? What does he mean, Tasha?” She can’t help but use her nickname even in the prescence of a stranger.

The look on her sister’s face tells her everything she needs to know.

Natsha had never thought she was going to see her little sister again after they were dragged out of that shipping container.

Yelena was too soft and sensitive, even for a six-year-old. The Red Room surely would have disposed of her but here she was, a grown woman. Calloused and blunt.

Sometimes it hurt Natasha to see how much she had changed, but she knew she had to in order to survive.

Now only one of them was going to leave this cursed planet, and Natsha would be damned if it wasn’t Yelena.

“…one of us has to go.” She says, her voice already saturated with grief.

Natsha has to force her eyes to the rocky ground when she sees the tears already forming in her baby sister’s eyes.

“Surely there has to be another way, he could just be messing with us for all we know!” Yelena’s rising fury became evident in her voice.

“A soul for a soul. We… we swore we would do whatever it takes.”

“No! Stop with this hero bullshit! We are not doing this.”

Natasha takes her sister’s cheeks in both of her hands, making her face her directly. She doesn’t care if she sees her already beginning to cry, she has to look at her one last time.

“I’m so sorry, little sister.”

“No, no don’t start saying that please, we’ll find a way, Tasha, we always do.” Yelena tries to sound confident but it comes out more pleading.

Natasha doesn’t answer her and just pulls her into a hug, trying to ignore the fingers digging into her as if she would disintegrate the moment she let go.

Natsha wishes she had never brought Yelena into all of this.

With a speed Natsha didn’t even think was possible until she witnessed it, Yelena pulls herself away and runs full tilt straight for the edge.

Dammit, Yelena.

“Yelena stop!”

The blonde doesn’t react to Natsha’s calls, only stopping when the two collide.

This wasn’t the first time Yelena had proved she was willing to die for the greater good, the fall of the Red Room being a prime example. It was like any form of self preservation during missions was completely wiped out from her mind, but Natsha wasn’t exactly much better.

Natsha pins her sister’s arms down, sitting on her stomach. Yelena kicks out wildly but her emotions are controlling her and she can’t seem to wrench free.

“Let me go!”

“You know I can’t do that, Lena.”

“You know I can’t do this, I can’t do this without you, Tasha.”

“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

Natsha knows the moment she stands up Yelena will attempt to incapacitate her. Short of kocking her out herself she doesn’t know what can stop her sister from trying to beat her to the edge.

“I can’t loose you again, please.” Natasha has only heard Yelena like this once in her life, the airstrip in Cuba. And It breaks her.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. We didn’t deserve this.”

“Don’t do it, Tasha.”

Natsha desperately wants to listen to her sister’s pleas but what can she do? If she had been presented this as a hypothetical situation: ‘sacrifice yourself for the lives of billions, but leave behind your loved ones’. She would have said yes in a heartbeat.

But now looking into the watery eyes of Yelena she can’t imagine how that could ever had been her answer.

“You need to let me go, Lena.” Natasha whispers, knowing her instructions must be near impossible.

Yelena breaks down into sobs, unable to speak she simply lets Natsha hold her, rocking her back and forth until she’s reduced to small hiccups.

After Yelena can cry no longer, Natsha begins to speak again.

“Its okay, little sister.”

Natasha aims her Widow’s bite at Yelena and before she has time to react, she’s out cold.

Yelena wakes up again half submerged in dark waters and it takes her only a few seconds to recount everything that happened in the last hour.

“Natsha? Natsha!”

She stands, scanning the scenery desperately until she notices the presence of a small, solid object in her hand.

A stone.

Yelena opens her gloved plam and when she sees the gold glow which is so bright she has to shield her eyes for a moment, she knows.

All she has left of her is a single stone. A stone that holds her smile and love, a stone that she died and left her for.

Her sister Natasha Romanoff is dead, and there was nothing she could have done to stop her.

____☆____

“I hate to be right, please, tell me I'm wrong,

Please, tell me I'm wrong,

'Cause it's on again, off again,

Love you like oxygen,

I don't know what to say or do"

-Habits, Genevieve Stokes

I now have the entire Endgame script on my phone :]

Take me home. (4)

Summary: Katya chases Yelena

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Tags: stalking (?), loss of emotion

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

(Complete)

Katya robotically packs her gear.

She wasn’t given much time to prepare for her mission, but she wasn’t tired. She’d had three months of rest after all.

“I trust you to complete this mission in good time, my star. Now go along.”

Doctor Smirnova sends Katya off at the gate. The final few checks on her brain had very positive results and she was confident her agent would succeed with ease.

____☆____

She drives down the motorway mindlessly, weaving between the odd vehicles with no idea where to start.

Her mind keeps going over a thousand possible locations Yelena could be, after all the doctor had give her literally nothing to work from except an order she physically had to follow.

Yelena didn’t have any family - as far as she knew - or anywhere to hide. The entire situation is finally beginning to take it’s toll on her body, the dark of the night enveloping her in it’s inviting notion of sleep.

The drop off point isn’t far away from her old apartment.

Nia and Rue, her old roommates didn’t know anything of her actual past, and she had no explaination for disppearing out of their lives as swiftly and silently as she entered after Yelena brought her back, but needed a place to rest.

Katya decides to risk delaying her mision by a few hours rather than colliding with another vehicle, failing, and takes the next few turns, which brings her back to the old apartment.

She leaves her bike in a tiny garage she probably shouldn’t have left it in, so as little people know of her visit as possible, and begins walking up the stairs.

She’d only been missing for a few months without explaination, it wasn’t like they were her parents or anything. Although Nia would probably give her a huge hug then smack her across the face for dissapearing off the face of the Earth.

She knocks on the door and stands there awkwardly, checking herself for any dust or things that may have clung to her on her way here when she hears what definitely must be Rue and Nia arguing over who’s going to get the door. After a few moments of bickering Katya hears Nia’s raised voice.

“Coming! Gimme a minute!”

A few seconds later the door opens and Katya feels even less prepared than she thought she would.

Nia looks exactly the same as the day she had left, obviously not much time had passed, but still. Her deep, brown eyes still held the same warmth that could give you a huge hug from miles away.

“Rio? Where have you been?! I thought you got kidnapped!” Nia doesn’t give the other girl any time to make excuses before pulling her into a bear hug.

“You’re back? I thought you got pregnant and dipped or something.” Rue quips with a grin from the doorway.

Any other time being smoothered by Nia and bullied by Rue would have made her feel safe and welcome, but none of it feels like it used to anymore.

A small part of Katya had hoped that seeing old friends again would have lit some spark or snapped her out of her indifference, but it isn’t doing anything.

Rue closes the door behind them and they all sit in their spots in the living room, Katya on the middle seat on the couch, Rue on her beanbag and Nia sitting on the arm of the couch no matter how often the girls had claimed how uncomfortable it must be.

“So where were you?!” Nia asks, wide eyed.

“I just… had some family stuff in Russia.”

“Is everyone okay?” Rue pipes up.

“Yep, it’s no big deal. I would’ve told you guys before I left but it all just happened so quickly, you know?”

Katya knows that if she slips up one sentence that Rue will pick up on it. The girl is so diligent Katya wouldn’t be surprised if she was a Widow herself.

“You’re all good, Rio.”

“Yeah. We’re just glad to have you back.”

After a while of catching up and exchanging jokes Katya notices an hour has already passed. She’d only intended on getting an hour or two of sleep and going back on her way but it was nearing twelve.

Nia yawns as if on que. “I’m kinda tired now, I’m gonna get some sleep. We didn’t rent your room out luckily for you so, all your stuff is still there.”

“Except Nia may have stolen a hoodie or two because she missed you oh so much.“ Rue teases which promots Nia to bop her on the head on her way out to her room.

“Night, guys.” The pair return their goodnights to the girl and the living room is left in silence until Rue decides to speak.

“What’s up with you?”

“Nothing much, just a little tired.”

“Yeah of course, sure you aren’t like sick or anything?”

“I’m sure Rue. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I know. Just like you know I don’t have the most desirable relationship with my family. So if you wanna talk about it, I’ll probably understand you.”

“I appreciate it.”

“Anytime.”

With that the pair retreat to their rooms for the night, and when Katya looks through her closet for anything useful she finds two of her old hoodies are, in fact, missing.

____☆____

Katya wakes to an alarm she set herself earlier and quickly shuts it back off, running a hand through her hair which is clammy.

It was the first dreamless or nightmareless night she’d had in years and she didn’t know how to feel about it.

Her eyes are trained on her old laptop. She never would have left it had she had the time to take or destroy it, but luckily it still had some software and old files that would be useful.

She stands and opens the thankfully locked device, restoring old pages and searching through storage.

She searches ‘blonde Russian assassins 2016’ and obviously nothing comes up, so decides to dig a little deeper, using an extremely unreliable and probably virus-causing facial recognition site to try and find her, breathing a sigh of relief when she finally catching a snippet of her face fleeing a scene. It’s all she needs.

Katya runs the picture through every engine imaginable for hours, until finally she finds another angle from a security camera.

After meticulously searching the background of the singular picture, she finds a resturaunt about an hour away. She finds another website and searches through encrypted links for the data of every hotel, motel, hostel and airbnb in a 20 mile radius.

By the time she gets another lead the sun has begun ascending and she packs her laptop away, leaving everything as it was and shutting the door behind her.

“You’re up early.” Rue remarks, trying her best not to let any toothpaste spill out of her mouth on the living room carpet as she brushes her teeth.

“I think you’re supposed to do that in the bathroom.”

“Lookn’ for sum.” She slurrs, running to the bathroom and back into the living room to continue the conversation, but by the time she returns Katya is gone.

____☆____

The early morning air is too cool for the weather, the kind that only seems appealing on a hot summer’s day, but Katya pushes on. Hopefully Yelena hasn’t already moved on.

She doesn’t know how long exactly she has been on the run or if she thinks nobody knows where she is, although that would be foolish.

Katya stops a few streets away, knowing the older girl will recognise her bike from miles away, and leaves her leather jacket and helmet at the front of the hotel near some sort of locker.

She approaches a friendly-looking older woman at the front desk. “Hey there, I was just wondering if you’ve maybe seen a young blonde woman? About this tall.” She gestures with her hand and the woman’s smile shrinks a little.

“I’m sorry, my dear. We aren’t allowed to give out that sort of information, it’s policy I’m afraid.”

Katya has to play this carefully. She makes her face crumple up, trying to give the impression of fending off tears. “I’m so sorry, I know, but she’s my big sister and I just want her to come home... can’t you please help me?”

The woman definitely could not have guessed what their sisterhood was bound by, nor where ‘home’ was and looks sympathetic for the young teenage girl.

“I’ll tell you what…” she looks around before typing up on her computer “Olivia, right? A little short, interesting accent?”

“Yes.” It made sense for Yelena to have a cover name, but she was just too memorable unfortunately for her.

“Alright, you didn’t hear this from me but she may be in room 34.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” She whispers, and the older woman smiles and taps her nose.

____☆____

Katya knocks on the door.

It only takes a few seconds for Yelena’s steps to approach, she can feel the caution in them.

“I don’t need room service.”

“I’m not room service.”

The door immediately swings open. “Katya?”

Natasha saying "you can't take her. She's only six" about Yelena and Alexei immediately following it with "you were even younger" always leaves a pit in my stomach and I need Yelena and Natasha to fight him some more.

I just know that it's gonig to be played off as a fun father-daughter relationship between Alexei and Yelena when it is so much more complex than that and Yelena deserves more than that!

Natasha deserves more than that!

Natasha: How do ethical philosophers feel about murder? Peter: Well, it’s frowned upon. Natasha: Okay, but what if the reason you want to murder someone is to make your life easier? Natasha: That’s okay, right?

Take me home. (1)

Summary: Yelena Belova had been a Widow ever since she could remember, and Katya was just another mission. Until she wasn’t.

Or.

What if it was Yelena who left someone behind?

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A/N: This was originally supposed to be a oneshot but they're just too silly.

Tags: Swearing, angst, hurt/comfort, kidnapping, cold Yelena

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

(Complete)

Link to fic on Ao3

Yelena skulks in the shadows of gloomy alleyways while waiting for her target to arrive walking her usual route.

For an ex Red Room spy she was far too hasty to fall into a routine. Well she wasn’t going to be an ‘ex’ Red Room spy for much longer.

Yelena had been sent out with orders to capture this ‘Rio Torrez’ and bring her back to where she belonged.

This girl had truly believed she would be able to live an ordinary life after escaping, finding roomates to settle down with and attending the local collage while taking hits on the side to make money.

To be fair she had gotten considerably far away, probably the furthest Yelena had ever seen a Widow get. But now it was time for her to return, willingly or unwillingly.

____☆____

After what feels like hours off schedule the girl starts walking down the street, turning into the alleyway which was a shortcut to her home.

“Awfully late to be walking out by yourself, hm?” Yelena steps out of the shadows and can immediately notice the girl’s shift in demeanour.

“Not interested.” She replies blunty, almost shoving past Yelena as she continues her journey.

“That’s no way to treat one of your superiours, Katya.” The use of her mother tongue has the girl’s attention and she turns back around, trying to mask her nerves.

“I go by Rio now.”

“It doesn’t matter, Rio, Katya, Agent 00687. I’m here to bring you back.”

“I’d rather die than go back there.” Katya’s tone is even and serious.

It’s not a very uncommon response for those Yelena captures, so it doesn’t have the desired effect.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get this over with already."

Yelena produces a syringe with a cloudy liquide inside and rapidly approaches Katya, she retaliates by flicking out a sizeable knife.

Yelena can easily get the upper hand on the younger girl, she’s an experienced fighter but Yelena is older and faster.

She throws Katya against the wall, instantly picking up on when she cradles her right arm.

Yelena decides to take advantage of the girl’s presumed injury and lands a firm kick on it, which would most likely leave a lasting effect on an arm that wasn’t even previously affected.

It ends with Yelena pinning the girl down on the unforgiving and unsanitary street. Katya squirms and attempts to roll Yelena off of her, but it’s all in vain.

“I thought this would be a little more difficult, I must admit.” Yelena remarks, finally managing to get the girl still enough to inject her with the sedative safely.

“You’re just lucky I took a fall last week.”

”Excuses, excuses.” Yelena chides before sliding the needle into Katya’s neck, not getting back off of her until she completely stops moving.

____☆____

Katya stumbles in and out of consicousness for the next few hours, able to grasp four things:

She’s in a van, her hands and feet are bound very tightly, and she has no idea where she currently is or how long she’s been out.

An annoyingly familiar voice calls out to her from behind the caged front seat.

“You awake back there?”

Katya groans in response, trying every tactic to wake herself back up but the sedative is too strong for her to fend off more than a few seconds.

Eventually the back doors of the van open up, although Katya can’t even be sure that it’s the same one from before.

“We’ve arrived, sit up I need to untie you.”

“What? No, you can’t bring me back here!” The young girl’s voice lacks the confidence it did before, stripped down to the desperate plea of a traumatised teenager, never once met by sympathy.

“I’m just following orders. But you know that this is where you belong. Sit up.” Yelena’s voice is no longer playful, detaching herself to avoid the raw emotions of the situation as she had many times before.

Katya slowly pulls herself up to a sitting position, trying to ignore the nausea that came with it, and Yelena easily cuts through the rope she was bound with.

“Alright let’s go. You already aren’t on good terms with the general, best not to keep him waiting any longer.”

Katya’s heart feels as though it stops the moment she utters his name.

The General could decide who lived or died with a simple wave of his arm, he controlled everything, even Katya’s superiors who displayed a flicker of fear everytime he entered to observe training.

Yelena looses her patience and drags the younger girl out of the van herself, bringing her to the extration point.

Katya desperately scans the surroundings for any kind of cover or even weapon and her eyes land on a nearby forest.

She waits until Yelena is distracted taking out her phone and sends a kick directly to her liver, causing her to double over in pain and giving her enough time to make it to the treeline.

Natasha Romanoff Aesthetic