Dyslexia: Without spell check the wrong words would not be discernible. Language disablities, dying like men i.e. never as epically as one would hope.
Summary: Yelena looked into those remorseful eyes and saw in them a kin to her own sorrows and deafening realization that she had been played. Was this how Natasha felt when her Americans were revealed as Hydra? Yelena Belova slips through time, which has immediate repercussions. When one host dies, another must take its place. Ultron and Thanos just became the least of this universe's problems.
Time Travel AU. Yelena Post-Black Widow and Post-End Game to Age of Ultron. Post-Venom but Pre-Let there be Carnage.
I am going to have this story be a bit more romance focused than my usual fics. Teen and up rated. Not smut, but I will probably be a bit more explicit with biology for the humour factor. You were warned.
AN: I hate writer's block. With a passion. So here's a new story because my head is a hellscape with beautiful butterflies.
Thank you, Nauze!
An Ode to Hailee, her music, her inspiring representations in both the TV shows Hawkeye and Dickinson:
Death is a Dialogue between
The Spirit and the Dust.
"Dissolve" says Death—
The Spirit "Sir I have another Trust"—
Death doubts it—
Argues from the Ground—
The Spirit turns away
Just laying off for evidence
An Overcoat of Clay.
~Emily Dickinson
A Dialogue Between
"I won't stop you," Hawkeye said, accepting his death, his execution with slumped shoulders.
Yelena looked into those remorseful eyes and saw in them a kin to her own sorrows and deafening realization that she had been played. Was this how Natasha felt when her Americans were revealed as Hydra?
Because she had been told, made to believe, hated with all her heart, this bastard Hawkeye whose choices had resulted in her sister's death.
But she didn't see a killer in Clint Barton's eyes. She saw a man defeated, a man who had loved Natasha as much as Yelena had, who would have gladly traded his life for hers.
Clint looked up at Yelena, not with pity, but with pure empathy. His regret, his grief enough that he would let Yelena execute him without defence.
"I'm so sorry, Belova," Clint said softly as she hesitated even as her barrel never wavered. "I tried to take her place. I tried. But I couldn't save her."
He sounded broken.
In knowing her name, proving himself to be Natasha's confident, a true friend. Clint was the one who had saved her from the Red Room, given her hope to dream for something more than an assassin's lot.
Yelena lowered her weapon and closed her eyes. She would not be a tool. She would not dishonour Natasha in this way. Clint was Natasha's brother, a friendship that went beyond lover or blood. He was kin.
Family.
Which made him Yelena's family too and the times where she would kill without question had long since passed.
Green light flared across her closed eyelids, a sensation of freefall overcame her, the air pressure changed dramatically, and when next she opened her eyes, she was back in the Red Room.
Which was impossible.
Was she dreaming?
She stood in formation with the other Widows. Her senses sharp and unclouded, only instinct kept her still, her training easing the pounding of her pulse.
She saw Widows she knew to be dead in her periphery, and it was all she could do not to gawk at them.
But she kept her focus forward, a niggling sense worrying at her that this was more than a dream.
The suddenness of it was frightening but reality hung thick and cold about her as Dreykov stalked out of the training room.
Yelena found it nauseatingly easy to follow along in the continued drills, only her mind was clear, her own. She chose to do this, to follow this dance.
She would wake soon, no doubt. She would blink again, this vision and the memory of green light a passing thought as she lowered her gun and stepped back from Clint Barton.
Only, she didn't wake, not after minutes, not after days.
The nights turned into weeks.
She slept, she ate, she watched history repeat itself, her memories of the future unfolding unaltered by her awareness.
Only, there was a difference this time. Her mind was free from mind control and she knew where the antidotes were being produced.
When she acted, she needed no help, and Dreykov was helpless to prevent her as Yelena Belova took down the Red Room and brought salvation to her fellow Widows.
She would never know how it happened, how she appeared back in time before Thanos had come to Earth between one blink and the next. What she did know was until she did wake from this altered reality, she would retake her vengeance.
Yelena found time stayed its improbable course, and that she didn't need Natasha to take down Dreykov a second time.
He had no warning and she took no pity.
Chapter 1 - The Black Gown from San Francisco
Yelena Belova felt good, truly, self-indulgently good. Part of it was the dress she wore, some black silken material that flowed over her curves like rippling water. It was floor length, and slited, so each movement made her feel as if she were moving in her personal breeze. She had bought the dress at a high-end boutique in San Francisco, having re-entered the States from Japan. And she had used Dreykov's money.
Well, sure, now it was his daughter's money, Antonia Dreykov, but seeing as Yelena had been the one to free all the Widows, Antonia included, from chemical mind control (Thanks, Mother), Antonia had given her a sizable bank account of her own.
That boutique was about the only nice thing she had to say about San Fran, though, as she had had a dead body fall on her from an exploding building. Rude. She hadn't stuck around to see who or what had caused the explosion. But the sound of the explosion had been strangely deafening, as if someone had rigged a stereo system to create combustion from sound alone.
Her subsequent flight to New York City had been a bit nauseating, to the point that she actually dozed off on the flight.
So far, New York had treated her more kindly and sneaking into Tony Stark's building had been pathetically easy.
Using a cell-phone sized device to track power sources, she made her way up through the empty offices. Presenting herself as an Agent of Shield, using a doctored photo a Ms. Agent Sharon Carter. A photograph morphed between their two features made it pass scrutiny of people who obviously didn't know Agent Carter. Yelena was a bit worried she was too early, but sneaking in while the staff was trying to put everything together was easier than when the guest list was actually being scrutinized.
When she found the large source of energy in the private lab, she was able to slip into the shadows as Stark himself walked out.
Yelena waited in the dark as she watched an AI run its tests on something, something that was big enough that distracted even a computer program of the highest order from immediately recognizing the room wasn't empty.
Though, to be fair, there were still plenty of staff roaming around on this floor. The sun was setting outside but enough people Yelena had glimpsed were indeed in the process of setting up for the big Avengers party.
Yelena was debating; was unlikely the AI would shoot her, even if her face wouldn't have held up to a proper face scan of Agent Carter. Hell, the only reason she hadn't been scanned coming in, was likely because the AI should have been checking her from security cameras and when no alarms went off, the staff had let her pass.
Her debate was solved as she watched red warning pop-ups appear on the screen followed by a mechanical voice that was unlike the one that had bid Stark fair well.
"What is this? What is this place?"
It sounded awfully confused for an electronic.
"Hello, I am Jarvis," the AI said. "You are Ultron, a global peacekeeping initiative."
Yelena swore mentally in a long stream of Russian.
Sometimes, she thought she was just crazy and had dreamed up the future, and other times, like now, she believed her every step was being guided by some outside force.
Ultron.
One of Tony Stark's biggest fuck ups.
Just like she had been in time to save the widows, possibly Natasha and the world from Thanos, right now, Yelena had the opportunity to save the Avengers from themselves.
Stop Ultron and then Captain Flag and Stark would try to kill each other, probably. Natasha hadn't really gone into detail about it, but the Accord's mess started with Ultron.
Two holograms, one blue and one orangey gold bloomed in the darkened room. The windows in this room must have had one-way clarity because no one outside this room even glanced in the direction of the lights.
Yelena moved quietly through the room as the AI's talked to each other and she looked for something to get the infinity stone out its mount with.
She found pliers and mechanical gloves. Ripping the stone out as the orange light tried to eat the blue.
"Thank you," the British AI said in tangible yet static relief. The screens flashing with updates as the AI attempted to repair itself as it spoke to her. "Who are you-?"
Yelena did two things simultaneously, catching the infinity stone in the inverted glove and hitting the pause button on the AI's updating system.
She didn't wait for the AI to override the order, turning the AI off, only the factory securities running in Stark Tower without the AI to interrupt the information. Short of a window being broken or a door opened with the wrong keycard, nothing was likely to inform Stark of his intruder in his lab.
Yelena was betting Stark was arrogant enough to believe that a scenario like this, where the AI was overloaded to the point of having to self-maintenance while someone dangerous was in the room hadn't ever entered his mind.
She dropped the stone in its glove into her purse before getting to work on the coding Mama Melina had been pounding into her head for years. She wrote her own back door into the AI and Stark's security before going information hunting on Stark's assets and projects, completely deleting and bugging this whole 'Peacekeeper' bullshit idea. She even coded in self-producing viruses that would spawn like a cancer if Tony tried redoing 'Armour Robots of Hell' from scratch.
By the time she was done, the sun had long set and she worried that she might have missed the party.
Fortunately for her, her sister and her found family were the only ones left as she strolled into Stark's party room.
Natasha was the first to spot her. Her playful smile fell as she paled. She stood to her feet, the beer in her hand would have smashed on the floor had Doctor Banner, the mild mannered human host of the Hulk not caught it.
All the Avenger seemed caught between sizing up Yelena or staring at the emotions playing pure havoc on Natasha's face.
Natasha was distraught, wary, relieved and Yelena wondered if Natasha had believed her dead all those years ago when she left.
Or as good as.
There was a reason they had been kept apart after Ohio.
Melina had told Yelena that Natasha had been conditioned not to care about her, that Dreykov had worked very hard to brutalize the compassion out of Natasha. Melina nor Natasha had ever described exactly how that had been accomplished.
Natasha found her voice, choked and accented, "Yelena?"
The Black Widow was more emotional than she had been for their last meeting, probably because Yelena had given no warning.
She took it as a win that Natasha didn't reach for a weapon.
Yelena cocked her hip, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends, sister?"
Steve really wasn't sure what surprised him more: that Natasha Romanoff had siblings or that she was standing there, her every wall torn down to reveal more emotion than Steve knew how to describe.
Scratch that, he knew exactly what this was because it's exactly how he felt when he saw Bucky's full face for the first time since the passing of a century.
Natasha's sister was not nearly as willowy. She was a bit stalkier though with a form that could only be achieved through intensive exercise. She might not be a prima ballerina but Steve didn't doubt for a moment that this woman, with gold tinted jade-blue eyes who balanced on her high heels as if she were wearing combat boots, was any less capable as a dancer.
She was blonde and though in passing her features resembled Natasha's, it seemed more like similarity of ethnicity than blood.
They were both Russian.
No, the relation was in their body language and the niggling sense that these two women could probably take on an entire battalion.
Peggy Carter had taught Steve how dangerous women could be, but Peggy was an Agent. She had killed but she wasn't a killer, no more so than Steve, anyway.
The pursuits were different; a soldier's lot and an assassin's blade.
Natasha took an almost staggered a step forward, though even that she made graceful. When her sister made no move to ward her off, Natasha pulled the other woman into an embrace. They spoke low and Steve imagined that only he -with his enhanced senses- could hear them, with the possible exception of Thor, who aped humanity though was far from it.
"Did you think I was dead?" The woman murmured.
Natasha hugged her tighter, "No, I thought…"
"What?" The other breathed.
"I thought you hated me for killing Melina. I didn't think you would ever forgive me."
The blonde pulled back, her voice at a normal volume as she said, "Melina is alive, Natasha. Though sometimes I think it would have been better if she had died in Ohio."
"Ohio?" Tony blurted, because it was a miracle he hadn't spoken up yet. "Here I thought you were Russians."
Neither woman, to Steve's great satisfaction, gave Tony the time of day.
"We'll talk," the blonde promised, squeezing Natasha's hand.
Natasha nodded and finally addressed the room, "Everyone, this is my sister, Yelena Belova. Yelena, Captain Steve Rogers, Doctor Bruce Banner, Doctor Sam Wilson, Agent Clint Barton, Agent Maria Hill, Thor, God of Thunder, Colonel James Rhodes and Tony Stark."
Tony smirked, "Best for last."
Yelena looked extremely unimpressed, "Best at self destruction, perhaps."
That got a laugh out of the room as Natasha and Yelena took their seats, the room turning back to its normal abnormality. Sam and Steve exchanged a smile that said, Yeah, she's one of us.
"Can I get you a drink?" Steve asked as Banner passed Natasha back her rescued beer.
Yelena spared him a smile and Steve decided then that she was more beautiful than her sister.
More real. More genuine, even if he didn't know her well enough to be sure of such an assessment.
He rose with his own smile, and crossed to the bar to get the lady a drink.
Thor asked, "Are you also a warrior then?"
Steve was returning as Yelena answered, "Yes, Natasha is my older sister but we have the same background. Thank you, Captain."
Steve grinned as their fingers brushed and he retook his seat.
Tony made a disgruntled noise, "Great, two venomous spiders, exactly what the world needed."
Natasha hid a smirk behind a sip and Steve saw Clint roll his eyes, but it was Yelena who leaned forward, resting her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand.
It should have been flirtatious, instead, it was more like the coiling of an excotic snake as she corrected, "Hundreds, actually."
"What?" Tony asked lamely.
"Widows," Yelena clarified, "The Red Room project, there are hundreds of us."
Tony's eyes went wide and he attempted to hide his surprise by snarking, "So you have hundreds of sisters you haven't told us about then, Triple Agent?"
Natasha sighed, ignoring Tony to say, "I'm sorry we didn't kill Dreykov, I had been so sure…"
Steve remembered when they had gotten the call of a massive air base crashing in northern Germany. Natasha had been devastated when the agents on the ground had reported finding Dreykov's body.
Although apparently not for the man's death but for failing to kill him years ago.
"Antonia survived," Yelena said, straightening and taking a sip from her beer.
Natasha sagged in her seat, "She did?"
Yelena nodded her accent bringing forth Natasha's a bit. "Yes, she did. Scarred, but the scarring is nothing compared to what Dreykov did to her."
"Bastard," Clint growled.
"Anyway," Tony said, trying to bring the conversation back to him. He was more of a narcissist than Howard was. "This was supposed to be a party. Got any embarrassing stories about Romanoff, Belova?"
Yelena eyed him, before flicking her gaze to Natasha, the two women sharing a world of wordless communication before they both ignored Tony entirely.
Steve took a drink from his own bottle to hide a smile.
Thor picked up his hammer casually, avoiding eye contact with Steve.
Steve would never admit he could lift the stupid thing, he had enough inhumanity before adding something as supernatural as controlling weather into the mix. He also didn't like politics and had no intention of ever discovering what Asardgaudain politics were like.
"An army of Lady Romanoffs, I see why you would fear that, Tony," Thor said smugly, indicating that he didn't fear it.
Which was the height of arrogance. Steve was pretty sure Natasha could take himself in hand to hand combat. He knew his own limitations, knowing he would hesitate to kill a woman, more so a friend.
Also, Natasha wasn't stupid enough to really try to snap Steve's neck unless she was desperate. No, if she ever decided she needed to end him, for whatever reason, she would resort to a sniper rifle or a bomb. If Natasha had the need of killing Asgardians, he had no doubts of how creative she could get. Out of anyone in this room, she was the most like Fury with the least amount of limitations.
Which was kind of funny, considering that was comparing her to a demigod and a weapons dealer. Still, there was a reason Natasha was an Avenger.
Tony scowled at Thor, but Maria spoke before the billionaire could embarrass them all.
"What brings you State side, Yelena?" she spoke with charm, reminding Steve Maria was more Fury's creature than even Natasha.
The thought of Yelena being one of Fury's shadows was not a pleasing thought.
"Natasha," Yelena said without elaboration, though Natasha seemed to relax at her sister's simple statement.
"How did you even get in here?" Tony asked suddenly.
"I turned off your AI," Yelena said, tone mild.
Rhodes coughed on his drink, covering his mouth to keep from laughing as everyone else looked at Tony's outraged expression.
Natasha didn't hold back her laugh, neither did Clint or Maria. The three agents had very little love for the man who was constantly hacking SHIELD's network and belittling Fury.
Coulson's death and the reassertion of HYDRA had sobered everyone's pride, but that didn't mean Tony hadn't garnered resentment from the non-super powered agents. Though, Steve was pretty sure it had a lot to do with Tony's blatant chauvinism as much as his abrasive attitude with Fury.
But apparently going after JARVIS was an actual sore spot for Tony because he didn't look merely annoyed about his security being out-stealthed, but truly furious.
His voice was quietly furious as he asked, "You went into my lab?"
Banner's half amused demeanor shifted at that as well, Steve noted.
Yelena nodded, leaning back so her shoulder pressed into Natasha's, "Yes. And I saved it from being eaten by that monstrosity of artificial life you created being powered by an infinity stone. You're welcome."
Steve was amused enough that it took him a moment for the last to sink in.
His head went up to look at Tony who had gone deathly pale.
"You didn't," Rhodes said, looking like a father who had just been told his son had been expelled from school, again.
Natasha's disappointment was palpable as she asked, "Bruce?"
Banner rubbed a hand over his face but put up no defense.
Steve wasn't surprised, Banner was a sweet guy, but he was like Howard and his son in inescapable ways; another scientist that didn't know when to quit.
No matter how much Steve wanted to like Banner, any scientist who experimented with radiation -something well known for causing cancer- was capable of pushing ethical boundaries.
Maria was already on the phone with Fury.
"What did you do with the stone?" Tony asked harshly.
Yelena shrugged, "I threw down the trash compactor."
Tony exploded, "You did what!?"
Banner was on his feet.
Rhodes put his head in his hands and Sam's brows had shot up high.
"You absolute moron!" Tony exclaimed, running out of the room, followed by Banner and Maria. Thor stood, looking between the rest of them who sat in silence, Clint looking particularly patient, and toward Tony who they could still hear swearing down the hall before the demigod ultimately decided to follow the chaos.
When the room was quiet, a heavy silence settled over the room.
Natasha asked, "It's in your purse, isn't it?"
Yelena sipped her beer before saying, "Yep."
Clint let out a huff but smiled, clearly having expected a non-'moronic' explanation.
Sam shook his head, taking a long swig of his drink, finishing it off in one go. Rhodes closed his eyes and looked as if he were praying.
Steve felt equally grateful for the avoided disaster.
Natasha dropped her head onto Yelena's shoulder and whispered something to her sister with more genuine happiness than Steve had ever seen on her expression.
Steve didn't know Russian, but if he had to guess, he was pretty sure those soft words would have translated to, I missed you.
AN: Thoughts, ideas, unicorns, or feedback, pretty please?