The Third Black Widow

Please Don't Leave Me

It's been two years since we took down the Red Room and Yelena and I have freed a decent number of Black Widows and each time is different than the last. It's heart breaking watching them wake up. It hurts to hear Yelena explain to them what happened and that they're free now. I cry after we leave each one and Yelena comforts me.

It's turning into a routine. We locate the Black Widow. We fight them because their instincts kicked in. We break the vial filled with the red dust. They get freed. They say something that a normal person would say. Yelena explains what happened. I walk out of the room to prevent myself from crying in front of the Black Widow. We leave the Widow a little while later and Yelena comforts me as I cry into her. We figure out the next place we're going and we get ready to go there. This is what we do, day in and day out.

Of course, some Widows are harder to locate than others. That means we might have extra time in between because we have to locate the next Widow. We lay low in our time off.

I talk to Nat nightly. Out of my two sisters, I prefer Yelena, but I do love Nat more than she could ever know. Yelena has always been there for me consistently even when we were kids. As a kid, Nat spent a lot of time biking around our neighborhood. In that time, Yelena and I would play together and make up games. It was paradise. We were best friends. When Yelena went to school, I would spend 90% of my day counting down the seconds until we leave to go pick her up.

Yelena, Sonya, another former Black Widow, and I are at a house to free another Black Widow. We enter from the roof and all three of us have our guns out with the safety off.

We find who we're looking for in a hallway with a teacup and saucer in her hand. "Hi there, Ana," says Yelena. Sonya is standing opposite Yelena and I with her gun out. Yelena and I aren't currently holding any weapons.

Ana throws the teacup and saucer at a wall and it shatters. She starts fighting Sonya. Yelena and I stand there waiting for the right moment to engage. Ana turns around and comes towards me and Yelena puts her gun to Ana's head.

When it comes to me, Yelena is almost more protective than Nat. Actually, I take that back. She's more protective these days.

"Do it," says Ana. Yelena doesn't take the shot and she and Ana start fighting. Ana runs down the hallway while fighting Yelena. She throws Yelena to the floor and I fight her only to be thrown into a wall. Yelena gets right back up. I however, lay there for a few seconds. Sonya is fighting Ana. Yelena runs and grabs Ana in a choke hold from behind. She walks backwards a little and Ana frees herself from Yelena and hits her head into Yelena's. Ouch. It hurt me to watch that.

I get up as Yelena does a cartwheel into the next room. She throws Ana to the ground and Sonya hurries over. Ana is struggling. I'm helping Yelena hold her down. "Stop. I'm trying to help you!" says Yelena. "Then why'd you break into my house?" asks Ana. "What? Sonya. Hold her hands," says Yelena. "Hurry! Hit her with the antidote," says Sonya. I hold the vial over Ana's face and I press the button on the vial. This releases the red dust on Ana. She starts coughing.

"The next bit is gonna be really scary, but we're here to help you," says Yelena. We release Ana and she sits up quickly. "Look what you did to my rug. Twenty thousand dollars down the drain. Thanks," says Ana. I move behind Yelena. "Excuse me?" asks Yelena. "I don't think she was brainwashed," says Sonya. "What? You thought I was some rich pervert's prisoner?" asks Ana. "Well yeah. Kind of," says Yelena. "Yeah. I mean, we were," I say. "Wait, this is your house? How can you afford all of this?" asks Sonya. "By doing the thing we're all best at. Killing for money," says Ana.

We're all now sitting in arm chairs by the fireplace. Yelena and Sonya have caught Ana up. I've been mostly silent. "So, how many widows have you helped?" asks Ana. "Many. Many. Yeah, it's hard work. It's hard finding them. It's...It's hard watching them wake. But, it's so worth it. And when we've cleared up all of this mess, we will make good lives for ourselves," says Yelena.