I've Got Red In My Ledger

Chapter Sixteen

Up until this point, the plans - both of the ones I am following - are going the way we want them to.
Apart from the fact that we don't know where Yelena is - which wasn't part of the plan.
Alexei, Melina and I are on level zero. Nat told them to shut us down here, and Melina will get us out. At this point, Alexei is still unaware that it's Melina and not Nat, and he keeps trying to tell her how sorry he is.
I am sitting facing the wall, ensuring that my powers are still here.
Melina will let us out soon, and then my different plan will commence. The plan that only Melina and I are aware of. I'm sure that Nat knew something was up, but she didn't have the time to question me about it.

Ever since Agatha trapped me in the basement of her house with runes ensuring that I couldn't use my powers... I always get paranoid that I'm going to think that I can use them... when really, I might not be able to.
"Natasha," Alexei says again, and I stand up. I have to be ready for this. "I can't save us. I'm sorry. I really need you to know that. I'm sorry."
I hear Melina sigh as I pace backwards and forwards.
"I pledged my life to a cause, you know, I thought that I was being brave. Possibly the bravest. But I wasn't being brave. I was a coward." Alexei doesn't know that it's actually Melina - and I wish that Nat was here to hear his words. "In Cuba... when they came and took you away from me..." He sobs, "No cause is worth that."
Nat should hear these words.
"No cause is worth that. You should only sacrifice yourself to a cause, for something-"
He's cut off by the doors opening.
Melina's done it. I step outside, taking a deep breath. Melina explained to me exactly where I'm going and what I am supposed to do.
"How did you do that?" Alexei asks.
"I designed these cells myself." Melina smiles.
"What?" Alexei is confused, and Melina frees herself from the Veil and smiles.
"What?!" He's mad. "You're telling me that I bared my soul to you and it was you the entire time?"
"Yes. But shush. Wanda, are you ready? I'm on comms with Yelena. You have to go now."
I nod. "Okay."
"Yelena, it's me, it's mama." Melina speaks into the earpiece and I can't help but smile.
Okay. I have to hope that by the time the sun rises in the morning, the Red Room is gone.

I have to get to Yelena first - that was part of the plan. Yelena will help me, I know she will. She wants the Red Room gone just as much as Nat, but she will understand what I am going to do. She will be able to separate me from it, to realise that it has to be done regardless of the consequences.
I walk through the empty halls. There's something eerie about it being this quiet. I don't like it. Something is off.
I know where I'm going. I wonder if Nat is okay. I wish that I had an earpiece for her, wish I could hear her. I manage to find her though. Scanning all of the minds in the place, I see her. She's sitting down with Dreykov, still as Melina. Dreykov hasn't figured it out yet, and I hope that he doesn't.
I find the door with the number Melina told me, and throw it open.
Yelena is fighting the surgeons, a black line across the top of her forehead.
With a single swish of my hand, they're on the ground.
"What are you doing here?" Yelena asks, grunting as she pulls a syringe out of her shoulder.
I grab a cloth from a sink in the room and pull her over to me.
"Yelena, you have to listen to me, okay? Nat doesn't know what I'm going to do. We have to keep it that way as long as possible. Will you help me?" I softly wipe away the black line, and Yelena stands there silently.
"What are you going to do?" She eventually asks.
"Those vials aren't the only thing that can wipe the Widows from their mind control," I tell her. She pulls away from me.
"What?"
"I... I can do it too. I can free and control minds, Yelena. I've done it before. We need to save the vials for the other Widows across the world. Melina says she can make more... but right now, I need to be the one to free them."
"And you didn't tell Natasha any of this?"
"If she thinks about it hard enough, she'll figure it out," I tell her bluntly. It's true. If Nat remembers just what I did to get the people of Sokovia out... if she remembers how I told her about the scientist that I freed from Ultron's control, she'll know. If she thinks about how I kept an entire town under my control and freed them in an instant... she will know what I'm going to do. "We can't afford to use the vials right now. I'm here and I can stop it, so that's what we have to do."
Yelena nods. "Okay. But I'm not dealing with Nat when she realises that you've gone behind her back."
I just smile and nod. "It will be okay."
Yelena nods, sighing. "Well then, I guess we'd better start moving. We have to get to the Vials so that when this place goes down they don't go too."
"You get the vials," I tell her. "I'll sort the Widows."
"Are you sure?" She asks as we leave the room. "You're going to be fighting many of them at the same time and-"
"Yelena. Don't worry about me. Just get the vials and meet back up with Melina and Alexei." Yelena nods, but glances over at me. "I will see you soon." I smile.
"Wanda-"
"Yelena, I thought that you might be less... dramatic than Nat." I nudge her as we near the end of the hallway where we will go our separate ways.
Yelena scoffs. "I am not being dramatic. But you know as well as I do, that Natasha is going to be upset."
I nod, giving her a sad smile. "I know. I'll see you soon, Yelena."
"She's lucky to have you, you know," Yelena tells me.
I sigh, smiling. "I'm lucky to have her, too. And now I have you."
Yelena takes a couple of steps backwards. She glances over at me with her eyebrows knitted together. "We're... friends." She tells me as if she's realising it for herself for the first time. "I've never had a friend before." The way she says this, the sadness etched into her voice makes me frown.
"Well, Yelena. It's an honour to be your first one." I tell her. "Just think of all the things we can do when this is over. I might have to take you shopping and we can find you as many pockets as we possibly can."
She smiles, her face soft. She's a person that hasn't had much to smile about in her life, but when she smiles, it's like the whole world stops.
"I do like pockets." She tells me as we both turn to go out separate ways. "Wanda," she calls out as we walk away from one another, "Stay alive. Please. For Nat's sake."
"I will," I tell her, nodding. "You'd better stay alive too."
She grins. "Of course I will. When we get out, I am getting a dog."
I smile at her, and she smiles back before we both separate.