Retribution ★ Avengers

What A Beautiful Coincidence

The air surrounding Marlena was warm. The brunette sat quietly on the small bed Alena had so generously provided for her. She was still weak from the suppressors stripping her of her energy, but she was nowhere near as weak as Alena believed her to be, and Marlena had plans to make sure her she knew that. She needed to get back to her family—her children. She'd lost them once and she refused to lose them again, especially at the hands of her sadistic reflection. She thought after dealing with Thanos she'd have at least a few years of quiet with her family, but as usual, fate had other plans for her.

Marlena stared wearily at the wall, focusing on the thoughts zooming through her aching head. There was a lot on her mind, including her family and what they were now going through due to her absence. It'd just recently occurred to her that she had no idea how long she'd even been gone. She was sure it couldn't have been too long, but she had no memory of falling unconscious after being taken by Kellan. Her lonely cell didn't exactly provide her with much help either. There were no windows to allow sunlight and absolutely no means of determining the time. It made her wonder where she truly was, as the familiarity she experienced upon first waking up only seemed to make her more and more uncomfortable as the seconds passed by.

A loud beep removed Marlena from her thoughts, and she turned her head to see her cell door opening. Alena walked in with a grin on her face and a much different aura about her. She almost seemed thrilled, which was the complete opposite of what Marlena had seen from her since she'd been trapped.

"Good morning, Marlena," Alena greeted half-heartedly. "How do I look?"

Marlena raised a brow as she looked over Alena's appearance. She wore a pair of black skinny jeans with a long sleeve grey shirt and black ankle booties. Her hair was longer, and the color was more of a chestnut brown than it had been. Alena looked more like Marlena than she did the previous day, which was something she didn't think was possible. The only thing that bothered Marlena, aside from Alena's presence, was the fact she recognized the clothes she wore. The grey shirt was her own, or one she'd borrowed from Natasha, and she frowned. The jeans were Marlena's as well, and she knew this because of the hole she'd torn in the knee months ago. Marlena wasn't exactly sure what Alena's plan was, but she already hated it.

"Why are you wearing my clothes?" Marlena asked her quietly.

"Because I have a family to go home to tomorrow, and I thought it'd be much easier to do that if I looked less like me and more like you," Alena answered, walking over to the small table against the wall to grab Marlena's glasses. "There's just one more thing I need to complete the look..."

Alena placed the glasses onto her face but quickly took them off, as the prescribed lenses were not at all meant for her eyes. "Whoa..." Alena put the glasses back down and looked back to Marlena. "You should probably look into getting some contact lenses..."

Marlena wanted to be annoyed with the remark, but all she could focus on were Alena's previous words. They'd left her with the most unsettling feeling. "What do you mean you have a family to go home to?" Marlena asked a little forcefully.

"Exactly what I said," Alena answered. "I told you yesterday I couldn't just sit back and act like you didn't get everything I wanted out of life. Everyone around you adores you—your family, your friends, sometimes humanity when you and Wanda aren't murdering civilians..."

The warning glare on Marlena's face went ignored by Alena, who only continued on with her rant.

"I've wanted that for years, Marlena..." Alena walked slowly over to Marlena, the sound of her boots echoing loudly against the walls of the small compartment. She leaned down to meet Marlena at eye level, finishing off her sentence with, "And what better way to finally get that than through you?"