It's Forbidden

What Was Your Name Again?

Yelena and Aspen sat in silence for a few moments. Aspen staying in her corner and Yelena sitting in her chair. She was still eating her macaroni. Neither of them really knew what else to say. Yelena held up the macaroni again for Aspen, gesturing to her to see if she wants any of it, Aspen shakes her head and stays in her corner. She was still freezing. It was still cold in there.

Aspen continued to think about Bucky. She was surprised he wasn't there already. She had been there for hours. She called him an hour ago. Then again, she had no idea how far away from the compound Yelena had her because she was passed out the entire drive wherever Yelena had brought her, however long it had been.

She knew it was around 10pm when she went out to look for Nat and Wanda, there were no clocks or anything but there were hints of morning light coming through the one window in the abandoned building that they were in. So out had to be around 3 or 4, the sun normally rose around that time.

She had been gone for at least five hours, and Bucky wasn't there. But she of course was giving him the benefit of the doubt, especially since she didn't know how far away the compound was from her and Yelena's current location.

Yelena finishes her macaroni and then just stares at Aspen waiting for her to say something. Aspen says nothing, she just stares back at Yelena. Another moment and Yelena gives up and figures out how to make some type of small talk with Aspen until Bucky and the rest of the team get there.

"You said something about a Hydra?" Yelena asks Aspen. She realizes quickly that she probably shouldn't have picked that for the subject to talk about considering what Aspen had already told Yelena about Hydra had been incredibly depressing.

"What is a Hydra?" Yelena asks. Ignoring her internal battle to just drop the conversation because there was literally nothing else to really talk about and she couldn't stand the awkward silence. She waits for Aspen's response. Aspen sits there for a moment, she didn't want to dredge up Hydra but it may be nice to talk to someone about this.

"Hydra is an organization." Aspen tells Yelena. "They're terrible people." She tells her. Yelena was curious, but she didn't want to overstep and make Aspen talk about something that she didn't want to or wasn't ready to talk about. "What do they do?" Yelena asks Aspen.

"They captured Bucky and I and brainwashed and tortured us." Aspen tells Yelena bluntly. She wasn't in the mood for sugar coating and she didn't think Yelena really cared so it really wouldn't matter anyway. And she had talked about it to Bucky enough that it wasn't really too hard to talk about at this point. At times it was, others it wasn't, but this time, it wasn't too hard.

"I had a similar experience." Yelena tells Aspen. Aspen looks at Yelena and sees the pain in her eyes. She sees she really did go something terrible too. And she feels for her. Especially if it were anything like what Bucky and Aspen had to go through with Hydra, she wouldn't wish that on anyone. Even if Yelena kidnapped her.

Yelena thought about the Red Room. She thought about the training. The tests. The experiments. The procedures. The fighting. Everything her and Natasha had to do, everything they had to go through during all of that. The life choices that had been taken from them in the process.

"Nobody should go through what we did." Aspen tells Yelena, sympathizing with her. She wanted to tell Yelena more of her story so she would feel comfortable talking about hers. She wanted to help her to talk about it because she knew what it was like to keep it bottled up, to be scared and to not think anyone understood what she was going through.

And Aspen had it better off, because every step of the way, she had Bucky, and it appeared Yelena had nobody. Not even Natasha, not right now anyway, because Natasha had been with the Avengers, and not with her sister. Not helping her get through whatever they had gone through.

"They froze us for seventy years and made us assassins." Aspen tells Yelena. And Aspen was right, her opening up to Yelena, helped Yelena open up to Aspen too. It was a mutual therapy session. "Natasha and I were in the red room." Yelena tells her. "We were made spies, assassins." Yelena says.

"They trained us, and they took away our ability to have children." Yelena says. Aspen's jaw drops. She never thought it would have been something as bad as that. But it was. She hadn't even had to go through something like that. They did a lot to her, but not taking away her ability to have children.

"I'm sorry." Aspen tells Yelena. She wondered if Nat had to go through this too. She wondered if Nat was sterilized too. She must have been if Yelena was, and she said they and our, which meant nat couldn't have children either.

"What we went through is terrible, it is, but they never took my ability to have children." Aspen tells Yelena. She didn't know what to say to say that could help her, but she wanted to try. "I don't think I would want them anyway, but Natasha...I think she did." Yelena tells Aspen.

"She is happy now?" Yelena asks Aspen. "She does good?" She asks. "She is. She's my friend. She helps people. She helps me a lot." Aspen tells Yelena. "I'm sorry I kidnapped you." Yelena tells Aspen.

"As long as Bucky is okay, I will forgive you. But he's going to be upset. And I don't like when he's upset, but I know where your heart was at. I think you're a good person who made a poor decision for someone they love, Yelena." Aspen tells her.

Yelena smiles at Aspen. "Thank you." She tells her, then she shakes her head and looks at Aspen confused. "What was your name again?" She asks Aspen.