The Truth About Budapest *On Hiatus*

~5~

The Avengers took the girls to another, bigger, room, where Kira, Elena, Niki, Mila, and Vera were sitting on chairs with their hands and feet tied. Yelena sat in another chair, not tied up, Tony was sitting on the bar while Banner sat on one of the barstools, Clint stood behind the bar making drinks, and Natasha and Steve stood by Yelena and the girls.

"Now, tell us" Natasha ordered, crossing her arms.

Kira looked at Yelena with a pleading look, silently asking her not to use her real name. Earlier, while she was in her cell, she had used morse code to explain to Yelena what she had told the Avengers, including the fake name she used.

"I met them three years ago..." Yelena started. "I met Katarina first..."

~Three Years Ago~

Sixteen-Year-Old Kira, Fifteen-Year-Old Elena, and Thirteen-Year-Old Nikita were on a mission in Budapest, a place where Kira hoped she'd never have to go. She would much rather have been back at base than here...

Twenty-Four-Year-Old Yelena was in Budapest with three other girls from the Black Widow program, all were under mind control, and all were sent to eliminate the Sparrows, as well as retrieve the item that the Sparrows were after: The Red Dust that would break the mind control.

The Sparrows had managed to steal the dust, but after Kira had fought guards and was escaping with it, she ran into Yelena.

Before Kira even had a chance to react, Yelena kicked her in the head, causing Kira to fall.

This was the Sparrows first mission where they had to fight a Widow, Kira wasn't used to it. She tried to fight Yelena, but Yelena was too strong, she kept getting the upper hand and nearly killed her.

Elena and Niki had gotten the distress signal from Kira's bracelet and rounded the corner just as Yelena was about to stab Kira in the chest.

Spotting the dust on the floor a few feet away, Elena grabbed it and, unaware as to what it did, threw some at Yelena, hoping it would do something to help.

Yelena's eyes and face glowed a bright red before going back to their normal color. She dropped her knife and slowly got off of Kira.

"I-I'm sorry... Dreykov... He-he mind-controlled me or something..."

Kira got up and grabbed her sword. "Who are you?" She asked, pointing the sword at Yelena's throat.

"Yelena... I'm a Black Widow..." She put her hands up defensively. "I don't want to hurt you kid, and I know you don't want to hurt me... I can help you... Give me some of the dust so I can free my team from the control that you freed me of..."

Kira raised an eyebrow. "There's more of you?" Despite her calm demeanor, on the inside, Kira was terrified, not just of the Widows, but of being on this mission in general... She had never had to do a mission this dangerous before. Another thing that terrified her was the possibility that one of Yelena's teammates was Natasha...

Yelena nodded. "Three more, and they're coming to kill you. Let me free them..."

Putting her sword away, Kira nodded at Elena, who hesitantly gave Yelena a few vials of the dust. Kira didn't trust her, but her main priority was to protect Elena and Niki, so if giving Yelena the vials would prevent the other Widows from coming after them, then she was happy to do it.

"We need the rest, or else this mission will be a failure and we will be punished."

Yelena nodded, standing up "Thank you"

They went their separate ways, but a few weeks later, they ran into each other again, and this time had a more in-depth conversation.

Kira still was apprehensive about Yelena, but over time she started to trust her, especially after Yelena saved Vera during a mission gone wrong.

~Present Time~

"There," Yelena said as she finished her story "That's how I know them" During the story, Yelena referred to Kira as Katarina, instead of her real name, confusing the other girls, but after a look from Kira, they knew better than to question. "We've become close over the years, so close that I was the only person Elena could trust with saving Katarina"

Tony set his drink down and crossed his arms. "That doesn't explain why I get the feeling that she-" He pointed to Kira. "-is lying to us. She has some sort of history with Natasha..."

"I've been looking for some connection between the two and I seem to have found that Miss Romanoff and the girl have a similar DNA structure..." Jarvis said.

Confusion spread around the room, the Avengers turning to Natasha who looked just as lost.

"What the hell does that mean?" Tony asked his AI

Kira gave Yelena a panicked look, hoping that she could do something to stop this. But Yelena couldn't do anything, she couldn't stop the AI from speaking, she couldn't stop the Avengers from questioning, she was helpless...

"It means that Miss Romanoff and the girl must, in some way, be related," Jarvis responded.

And there it was, Kira's worst fears coming true...

Natasha racked her brain, thinking of all possible relations she could have to this girl, not even thinking of the obvious.

The two Russians made eye contact, confusion behind a pair of green eyes and fear behind a pair of blue eyes.

Blue eyes that Natasha knew all too well... The blue eyes that Natasha looked into for ten days in Budapest... The blue eyes that she looked at in fear as the man they belonged to tried to kill her... The blue eyes that showed her mercy... The blue eyes that were the reason she wanted to clear the red from her ledger... The very same blue eyes that belonged to her best friend...

Suddenly, the realization hit Natasha. She covered her mouth as she looked over at Clint with wide eyes. Clint seemed to get to that realization as well, looking between Natasha and Kira, finally seeing all the similarities between the two.

Turning back to Kira, a few tears escaped from Natasha's eyes. "No... It can't be..."