emmylou | natasha romanoff

thirty-three.

2016
Germany
Manhattan, New York

"The Quinjet's location is the Leipzig-Halle Airport," Vision informs her, and Kennedy nods her head as she types the coordinates into the Quinjet, setting it to autopilot. She looks over at Peter who was in the Spiderman suit that Tony had made for him.

Beside her, Reagan was fiddling with the glasses that Tony had equipped her with. In a way, the two kids were Tony's protégés. It made Kennedy feel icky that she'd brought them into unknown territory.

"Hey," Reagan says softly as she sets the glasses down, "You okay?"

"Yeah," Kennedy responds, "You?"

"Yeah," Reagan answers, "The Red Room. What is it?"

Kennedy takes a deep breath, "Honestly? I don't know. Not really. I just know that it's a bad place. Natasha told me about it when we were kids, she was horrified to go back there. I was horrified for her to go back. They broke her."

"And her sister is still there?" Reagan asks, "Yelena?"

"Yeah," Kennedy answers, as she looks at her sister with a small smile, "Before there was you, there was Yelena. She's the reason I wanted a younger sister in the first place."

Reagan smiles, "What was she like?"

"Yelena used to talk all the time, ramble on about things, and Natasha and I would sit there and listen. Well, I would. Natasha wouldn't. She loved macaroni and cheese and her dream was to have a giant fluffy dog," Kennedy says with a small smile.

"You're going to go find her, aren't you?" Reagan asks, "Despite the threats and the warnings, you're going to go after her."

"That place destroyed Natasha and she honestly still hasn't recovered. Yelena has been there since before you were born. I have to try."

Reagan stares at her, "Kennedy. You can't save everyone."

"I have to," she says, "I couldn't save dad. I couldn't stop Natasha and Yelena from leaving. I couldn't stop mom from getting sick. I couldn't save them. I couldn't do anything. But these are things that I can do, these are people that I can save."

"What happened wasn't your fault!" Reagan insists, "You were a kid."

"Why are you here?" Kennedy asks her sister, "You're a kid. I'm sure you have an eight-a.m. tomorrow. Why are you on your way to Germany."

"Because my family is out there too. Because Wanda's there," Reagan answers, "Because I can do something about it."

"Exactly," Kennedy insists, "The thing is that I could have done something about it. I could have told someone the truth about what was happening with the Red Room. I could have said something, and I could have saved Natasha and Yelena. That night dad wanted to order pizza, but I suggested that he get mom her favorite meal because she'd been craving it. There's been a voice in the back of my head telling me what's happened is my fault."

Kennedy sighs, "I've been sitting here talking about how everyone has been trying to repay some debt to humanity when I'm doing the same thing."

"Yeah?" Reagan asks, "And when do you consider the debt repaid?"

"I don't know," Kennedy responds, "When everyone has been saved?"

"So, when you're dead?" Reagan retorts, "Great."

Kennedy rolls her eyes, "I'm not going to die. Look, after this and getting Yelena back, I'm done. I'll go back to saving people the best way I know how, on the operating table."