As they approach the farm, the Widow family takes the lead, and the rest of the Avengers stay quite a ways back. It was Natasha's idea; she didn't want to overwhelm her mother; don't want to startle her. Yelena says it wouldn't end well. If this is the woman who raised two Widows – the woman who raised Natasha – then Loki is apt to believe her.

Loki, of course, doesn't have to abide by these rules. Nobody can see him. He can walk right between the two Widows, and nobody even knows he's there.

Unfortunately, none of them talk the entire walk from the Quinjet to Melina's farm, so following them doesn't do him much good. He'd probably be more entertained if he stayed back with the others, really.

Still, he gets to see Melina before everybody else does behind him. He gets to see her grab her gun. He gets to see her put that gun right back down by her side when she sees who it is that's approaching. And, perhaps his favorite part, he gets to see the look she gives them through the fence that separates them: a look of love and of loss, of wariness and of joy.

Alexei smiles. "Honey, we're home."

Melina just looks at him for a few moments... and then her gaze shifts to the Avengers, all waiting a decent distance away for the all-clear to come closer. Natasha had warned them it might not come; that they might just need to wait in the Quinjet until she and Yelena and Alexei returned. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

"They're just here to talk," Natasha tells her mother. "They're good people. You don't have to worry about them."

"The fact that they're good people is why I'm worried about them," Melina replies, her gaze unwavering from the potential foes in the distance.

"They're going to behave," Natasha tells her. "I'll keep an eye on them – no funny business. We just want to talk to you."

Melina looks at her, then the Avengers, and then back to her. There's a pause, and then she nods once. She turns and gestures with her gun for her family to follow her, and Natasha looks over her shoulder and gestures for the Avengers to follow suit.

It's quiet as they all file into the house, and they gather together in the living room. They all take their places around the room, some opting to sit on the floor, others taking the chairs or standing by the walls. Natasha's cautious as she walks around, eyes scanning every inch of the place. Loki doesn't have to wonder why for long.

"Any booby traps around here?" she asks her mother. "Anything we need to know about?"

"I didn't raise my girls to fall into traps," Melina answers simply, a slight smile on her lips.

"You didn't raise us at all," Natasha says, but she says it casually, conversationally. There's no bite to it.

Yelena looks up at her, then to her mom, and then lowers her gaze to her hands, clasped together in her lap. She doesn't look happy to be here – less so than anybody else, even, which is a big feat for a group of people who would rather be anywhere but here (Alexei excluded, it seems; he looks pretty content). He'll have to keep an eye on her, Loki decides. He's sensing a very familiar case of 'adoptive younger child with parental trauma.' He doesn't expect to be able to do anything about it, but he'll keep an eye on her nonetheless. Somebody has to.

Melina's eyes scan the room, looking for a place to sit, and Alexei jumps up, putting an arm around her waist and leading her over to the seat he claimed for himself. He sits down, then pulls her onto his lap. They both laugh, and Loki catches Natasha rolling her eyes. He finds it kind of sweet, though. If their fake family led to a real love like that, maybe there's still hope for Yelena to find the love she yearns for, too.

The atmosphere shifts once everyone's settled in, and then it's time to get to business.

"It's been a long time," Melina says, looking between her two daughters. "Why did you come now? And why did you bring so many... friends... with you?" She spares a distasteful glance at the others.

"We're looking for the Red Room," Natasha says. She still stands, arms crossed over her chest. She looks like she's ready to move – to run, to duck, to lash out; whatever the situation may call for. She's certainly not comfortable here.

Melina's quiet for a moment.

Then she looks at Alexei, an almost accusative hint to her voice as she says, "You know, it's like when you told them they could stay up all night to catch Santa Claus."

"What? That was fun!" Alexei protests. "'He come down the chimney, girls. Look out – where is he?'" He looks at his daughters, an eager smile on his face as he recounts the memory. "You wait for him, and then when the cookies are gone, then you see he's there."

Yelena rolls her eyes, and Natasha shakes her head to herself. Melina looks back at him, a disapproving look on her face.

"What?" he says defensively. "I want them to follow their dreams!"

Melina shakes her head. "No good."

Alexei ignores that. "Reach for the stars, girls!"

"Finding Dreykov is not a fantasy," Natasha snaps. "It's unfinished business."

"You can't defeat a man who commands the very will of others," Melina says.

Loki has to question that one. They defeated him, after all.

"You never saw the culmination of what we started in America," she continues. She stands up, and everyone watches with hesitant intrigue as she leaves the room, returning moments later with a tablet in her hands. She taps it a few times. "Come in."

Loki looks around.

He's confused.

What's happening right now?

Snort.

Loki jumps, stumbling backward despite not even being there. He doesn't know how that pig got there, but he was not expecting that.

"Did that pig just...?" Clint points halfheartedly between the pig and the door, a look of utter bewilderment on his face.

"Yes, it did," Melina says simply. She reaches down and scratches the top of the pig's head. "Good boy, Alexei."

Alexei's face falls. "You named a pig after me?"

"What, you don't see the resemblance?" she asks, a playful lilt to her tone. Alexei doesn't seem amused. She doesn't seem to care. She looks up at her daughters. "Now watch."

She taps her tablet a few times, and says to the pig, "Stop breathing."

And it does.

They all watch on in disbelief as this pig just... does nothing. Loki feels a pang of pity for the poor thing.

Melina begins to explain. The Red Room, Dreykov, they infiltrated the North Institute of Ohio – a front for HYDRA scientists, at the time. In conjunction with the Winter Soldier project, they dissected and deconstructed the human brain, creating the first and only cellular blueprint of the basal ganglia, the aspect of the brain responsible for complex tasks like learning and movement.

"We didn't steal weaponry or technology," Melina says. "We stole the key for unlocking free will."

Loki glances at Bucky, almost on instinct. His face is empty, emotionless; his gaze is set firmly on the ground in front of him. But he's tense, even more so than usual. Loki doesn't blame him. He wouldn't be thrilled if his trauma was being spoken about so openly in front of him, with no regard for his feelings on the matter.

"And you used that power to fuck with a pig, " Pietro deadpans. "And I thought Americans were strange."

"I am showing you," Melina explains, "that the science is so exact, the subject can be instructed to stop breathing and have no choice but to obey."

The pig grunts, and they all look at it, silent as it suffers, until finally, Natasha has to step in.

"Okay, you've made your point," she says. "That's enough."

"Yes, alright," Melina concedes, and she taps the tablet again, letting the pig breathe once more. "Well, don't worry; Alexei could have gone eleven more seconds without oxygen." She shoos the pig off, and he trots away.

Then it grows serious once more. "The world functions on a higher level when it is controlled," she says. "Dreykov has chemically subjugated agents planted around the globe."

Yelena narrows her eyes. "And do you know who they test it on?"

Melina shakes her head. "That's not my department."

Alexei shakes his head. "Ah, come on, come on," he says. "Don't lie to them. Hmm?"

"I'm not lying," Melina says.

"You were Dreykov's architect, huh?"

"And what were you?" Melina shoots back. She pushes herself to her feet, turning around to face him. "If I was his architect, you were his partner."

"No, no, I was patsy!"

Melina rolls her eyes. "Don't give me that."

Alexei's not done. "He sell me ideology–"

"Stop with the politics!"

"All the while, bigger–"

"Shut up!" Natasha snaps, and they do. She glares at Alexei. "You are an idiot." She looks at Melina. "And you are a coward." And to the both of them, "And our family was never real, so there's nothing to hold onto."

It's quiet, then; an uncomfortable stillness in the air as the tension grows thicker and the discomfort grows stronger.

"We're moving on," Natasha says, and it's so clear that her patience has run out – with these people, with this mission, with all of it.

Alexei huffs. "Never family, huh?" he repeats, shaking his head to himself. "In my heart, I am simple man. And I think that, for a couple of deep undercover Russian agents, I think we did pretty great as parents."

Melina nods in agreement. "Yes, we had our orders, and we played our roles to perfection."

"Who cares?" Natasha asks, exasperated. "That wasn't real."

Yelena looks over at her, both in surprise and offense. "What?"

"That wasn't real!" Natasha repeats. "So who cares?"

"Don't say that!" Yelena pleads, and her voice cracks as the emotion builds up in it. "It was real! It was real to me!" She looks over at Melina desperately. "You are my mother! You were my real mother! The closest thing I ever had to one!

"The best part of my life was fake..." She looks between them all in heartbroken disbelief, tears filling her eyes. "And nobody even told me!"

Loki can feel his heart breaking in his chest. He knows this story. He lived this story. He knows better than nearly anyone the pain that comes with learning that your family isn't truly your own; that it was all a ploy or a political game that imploded, and he wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Yelena gives her mother a pointed look. "And those agents you chemically subjugated around the globe? That was me."

A look of realization passes over Melina's face, but it's too late to do anything about it now.

Yelena turns to face her sister next. "And you," she says, "you got out, and Dreykov made sure no one could escape again."

Natasha presses her lips into a firm line.

"Are you going to say anything?" Yelena asks.

Natasha lowers her gaze and remains silent.

Yelena shakes her head to herself. Without another word, she stands up and walks away.

And then it's quiet.

Nobody seems to know what to say, what to do. It's a tense situation – one made all the more uncomfortable by all the other people in the room who really shouldn't have been witness to such a personal family conversation. Maybe this is something that Natasha, Clint, and Yelena should have handled on their own. It certainly would have been less awkward.

A few seconds pass, and a few more, and a few more, and yet, nobody jumps to go after her. And why would they? It seems the only ones who truly know her are the ones who don't see her as family the way she sees them. They're not the ones she wants to see right now. There is nobody she wants to see, he's sure.

But he can't just leave her there, either. She's their teammate now. She's the not-quite-family of his own not-quite-family. And, perhaps most importantly, he knows what she's going through, to some degree. He's been there, too.

So he makes a potentially stupid decision, and he goes after her. Nobody else notices. Nobody else knows he's still here at all. And that's for the best. This isn't about them. This is about two lost souls whose families have fallen apart before their eyes.

He finds her sitting on the floor in a bedroom, the closed door separating herself from everybody else. She leans her back against the foot of the bed behind her, her head resting on her knees in front of her.

Loki allows himself to be seen, seated cross-legged on the floor in front of her. "I'm sorry," he says sympathetically. "Families can be hard sometimes."

Yelena lifts her head, and she hastily wipes the tears from her eyes before shooting him a glare. "What do you want?"

"To talk to you," Loki answers.

"Well, don't."

Loki sighs. He'd known, obviously, that she wouldn't want to talk to him, but he can't just leave her here, either – partially because he'd feel bad, but also because they have a job to finish before they can all go home.

"I can't speak for your parents," Loki says, "but I feel you may be too swift to dismiss your sister. You've given her a mission – and a very important one at that – and her focus lies on completing it. If you talk to her once it's done, you'll likely see a different side of her."

Yelena huffs. "Yeah, right," she mutters.

"She does care for you," Loki tells her.

"How would you know? She never even mentioned me."

"Well, not to me," Loki agrees – or to most of their friends, but that's beside the point. "But she did tell Barton about you, and when I took control of his mind and his spirit – something I do regret; I don't condone hypnosis – he repeated to me what she'd said to him."

Yelena looks up at him, a skeptical brow raised.

"When I fought against the Avengers, I asked Barton to tell me their weaknesses, should I have had to use them," Loki tells her. "He said that you were Romanoff's weakness; that if I wanted to hurt her, all I had to do was find you.

"I don't think she wanted to see you again," Loki admits. "But it's not because she doesn't care for you; it's because she doesn't want to lose you again. Talk to her once you've taken down the Red Room. Tell her that you are not going anywhere. Tell her that you do not want to lose her, either. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the outcome."

For a moment, it almost looks like there's a slight smile on her face, a wistful look, but then she says, her voice monotonous, "You do not know what you're talking about."

"Of course I do," Loki says. "Because I know your sister – and I certainly know about family dysfunction that feels hopeless, and sometimes, it isn't."

"Do not pretend you know what I feel," Yelena snaps.

"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly know for certain," Loki agrees. "But I have an idea. You're not the only one to grow up in a family of lies and ploys for political gain."

Yelena huffs a sarcastic laugh. "That's oddly specific."

Loki gives her a small shrug. "We've led two very different lives, but I do believe we have a lot in common, at least in that regard."

"You still have a sibling," Yelena says, "so that's hard to believe."

"Thor is no more my brother than Natasha is your sister," Loki tells her – although he and Thor do have an extra thousand years of siblingship under their belt that helped cement their relationship in a way the Widows never could, but that doesn't seem like it would help his point. "I'll spare you the details of the downfall of my so-called 'family' and the agonizing downward spiral I fell into because of it, but I did lose Thor. We tried to kill each other, multiple times after the fact – a rivalry so strong, it tore up a large portion of both New York and a small town in New Mexico.

"But I got him back," Loki says. "Even after he swore he wanted nothing more to do with me; even after he left me to rot, first in the dungeons of Asgard, and again in the Avengers' base. It took time and it took patience and it took a great deal more communication than I'd hoped for, but I got him back. And I truly believe that you can do the same – and that you'll both be happier for it."

Yelena just looks at him for a few moments, then props her chin up on her knee. "Well, I am thrilled it worked out for you, but this is different."

"It doesn't have to be," Loki says. "I can talk to your sister if you'd like. I can tell her how you feel, or I can simply ask her to stop speaking ill of your childhood for now. Once your mission is complete and once the Red Room has been burned to the ground, then you can make your amends. I suspect she'll be much more amenable then."

Yelena hesitates, then sniffles and nods once. "Okay," she says finally. "We'll focus on the mission. And when the Red Room's gone..."

"Then you may win your sister back," Loki finishes.

Yelena wipes her eyes with the backs of her hands and pushes herself to her feet. She takes a deep breath. "Let's do this."

It's then that there's a knock on the door, and it opens to reveal Alexei on the other side. Loki grimaces and glances at Yelena, who just raises an eyebrow, a deadpan expression on her face.

Alexei looks between the two of them, confused. To Loki, he asks, "When did you get here?"

Yelena just rolls her eyes and heads towards the door, pushing Alexei out of the way. "Come on," she says monotonously. "We have a job to do."