WHEN LANA had found out that they were breaking Alexei out of prison, she was sceptical but excited at the same time. The three sisters hadn't seen him since a mission years ago when they were still children.

Before getting in the air, they packaged a Red Guardian toy with a tiny earpiece inside for them to be in contact.

Now, the three were all in their matching mission suits waiting for the action to come. Natasha was flying the helicopter while Lana was checking to see if Alexei had come online. When it did she put on the headset, "Today is your lucky day, Alexei," Yelena showed her blueprints for the prison, "Move to the door on the south wall."

The little green light started to move, "Go left. And don't make a scene." She heard crashing on the other side and sighed to herself, "Always making a fucking scene. I specifically told you not to make a scene."

"What now?" Alexei asked as he exited into the cold Russian air.

"We're getting you outta here," Lana replied. The helicopter flew overhead and Lana saw the inmates run out screaming, "Go to the upper level. Move your ass, old man, we don't have all day."

"He's never going to make it," Yelena said.

"Alive at least," Lana muttered.

"Get me closer," Natasha ordered. They stared at her, "You got a better idea?"

Yelena moved into the helicopter and Natasha got up. She opened the sliding door and connected her belt to a rope and jumped out.

She flipped and landed on the bridge in the middle of all the soldiers.

Yelena shook her head, "Such a poser."

Shots started to fire and it hit the helicopter. An alarm started to blare and Yelena tried to steady the aircraft. She manoeuvred it and the tail almost hit Natasha.

"Seriously!" Natasha yelled from below.

"Sorry!" Yelena yelled back.

"What are you doing? Are you kidding me?" Natasha yelled at them. The helicopter was so close that they could hear every word clearly, "Back up!"

Yelena gave her a thumbs up, "We're all doing a really good job." She pulled the helicopter up and they immediately started to get shot at. "A little help would be nice!" she yelled as she turned the helicopter away from the bullets.

"I'm trying to get Alexei here!" Lana yelled back.

"Enough of this." Yelena put the helicopter on autopilot and came into the back.

"What are you doing?" Lana shouted. The blonde didn't reply. Lana watched as her sister picked up a bazooka and aimed at the tower from which they were being shot at. She fired and the explosive crashed into the building.

"Ha!" Yelena chuckled, proud of herself. She came back over to fly the helicopter and Lana shook her head.

A distant rumbling made them look out of the window, "Shit," Lana muttered.

"Whoa," Yelena chuckled, "This would be a cool way to die."

"Tell me that's a good sign for us!" Alexei yelled.

"Can you do something about that, Lana?" Natasha questioned.

"Only for a bit, so you might want to hurry," Lana responded. She took off the headset and looked out of the helicopter.

She stared at the rushing snow coming toward the prison and lifted her hand. She felt her veins thrum with the use of her powers. She felt her mind reach out toward it and grip it in an invisible force.

The snow charged toward them and deflected around the helicopter.

"Go!" Natasha yelled. Yelena pulled the helicopter up as Natasha and Alexei climbed into it.

"I need some help up here!" Yelena shouted.

Natasha came back to her seat and Alexei shouted at the prison, "Farewell, douchbags!" and closed the door, "Oh that was exciting." He breathed heavily, "Oh, I'm so proud of you girls."

They ignored him and he started to shout, "Oh you can't hear me, huh?" He put on a headset and looked at them. Yelena backhanded him in the face and he swore in Russian, "Why the aggression, huh? Is it your time of the month?"

"I don't get my period dipshit. I don't have a uterus," Yelena said.

"Or ovaries," Natasha added.

Yelena looked at Alexei's horrified face, "Yeah. That's what happens when the Red Room gives you an involuntary hysterectomy." Lana frowned. She always wanted children and the constant memory of not being able to hurt her deeply. She could always adopt she had never been in such a serious relationship to do so.

"They kind of just go in and they rip out all of your reproductive organs," Yelena made visual motions, "They just get right in there and they chop them all away. Everything out, so that you can't have babies."

"Okay, okay. Okay! Okay!" Alexei shouted, "You don't have to get so clinical and nasty," he said sitting beside Lana.

"Oh well I was about to talk about fallopian tubes but okay," Yelena shrugged. Lana chuckled at the horrified look on Alexei's face. However, Yelena's casual conversation about the removal of their future made her upset.

"No. It means so much to me that you can back for me," Alexei said.

Lana scoffed, "We didn't come for you asshole, we came for your knowledge." Her blunt reply was met with a chuckle from her sisters and a glare from Alexei. She smiled sweetly at him as Natasha spoke up.

"You're gonna tell us how to get to the Red Room," Natasha said.

"Huh. Whoa, look at you, huh? All business," Alexei replied.

"Trust me, this isn't pleasure," Natasha shot back.

"Little Natasha, all indoctrinated into the Western agenda."

"I chose to go west to become an Avenger. 'Cause they treated me like family," Natasha replied.

Alexei mocked, "Really? Family? Well where are they now. Where is that family now?"

Lana looked him dead in the eye, "Fuck off. Tell us where the Red Room is."

"I have no idea," Alexei replied. All three women scoffed, "Okay?"

Natasha took off her headset and came into the back. She knocked Alexei's headset off of his head and sat opposite the two, "Come on. You and Dreykov were like..." Lana remembered. He and Dreykov were the best of buddies as if nothing else in the world mattered. All the while Dreykov tortured and killed young girls for his own benefit, to get a rise of power.

"Dreykov?" Alexei exclaimed.

"Yeah," Lana said.

"General Dreykov, my friend, huh? Gives me glory... Soviet Union's first and only super-soldier. I could have been more famous than Captain America. Then he buries me in Ohia on that stupid mission," Yelena turned slowly to look at him while Lana looked at him in offence, "Three years! So tedious, boring me to tears. No offense, huh?"

Lana scoffed and stood sitting next to her older sister. She didn't have a good childhood, so that mission for three years was the closest thing she could have gotten. To her, it was like they were family, and despite all the crap that had happened between the group, she still loved each as if Natasha wasn't her only family.

"Then puts me in prison for the rest of my life. Why, huh? Why would he put me in... You know why? Cause maybe I want to talk about the withering of the state. Or maybe I don't like his hair or something and I say something casual about that. Maybe, you know, I want the Party to feel actually like a party instead of this sourpuss organization. But instead no. He puts me in prison for the rest of my life. He just runs off and hide, huh? I'm not even the one who, uh, you know..." he pointed at Natasha, "I'm not the one who killed his daughter."

"Can we throw him out the window now?" Yelena asked.

"I think we should wait till we get to a higher altitude," Natasha replied.

"Why not ask Melina where it is?" Alexei shouted in Russian.

"Wait Mom?" Lana asked.

"Wait, Mom Melina?" Yelena also asked.

"We thought she was dead," Natasha said.

Alexei scoffed, "You cannot kill a fox that swift."

"Ew," Natashas said, her face scrunching in disgust at the underlying implication.

"What? She was the scientist, the strategist. I was the muscle," Alexei said.

"What muscle?" Lana asked.

Alexei glared at her and continued, "She worked directly for Dreykov far more than I ever did."

"Wait are you telling me that Melina is working for the Red Room present day?" Natasha questioned. Lana couldn't believe it. She remembered that Melina was always unhappy whenever they had to do things for the mission. She seemed to rather have a normal life than be an assassin, but like Lana and Natasha, she didn't have a choice. It was in their DNA rooted deep like roots. And it wasn't something you could so easily forget.

"She works remotely outside St. Petersburg," Alexei replied.

Yelena scoffed, "Uh... I don't think we have enough fuel for St. Petersburg."

"No we're good. We'll make it," Alexei insisted.

"Okay," Yelena replied.

⧖

Lana steadied herself as the helicopter crashed to the ground. Alexei was wrong when he said they'd make it to St Petersburg, as only an hour later, they dropped out of the sky. She rubbed her ears as they were brought from the volume of Alexei's yells. While the girls had been calm and simply waited for them to crash, the man went into full panic mode with screaming. He complained that he was free and just as it happened he was going to die.

Natasha opened the door and they exited. Lana looked around the Lavender field as Natasha crouched down. Alexei spoke, "You should have brought the Avengers' superjet." Lana rolled her eyes at his annoyance.

"I'm sorry. We're kind of on the run right now, so stealing a multimillion dollar jet might have drawn a bit too much attention. We'll get it for you next time we break you out of prison," Lana replied.

Natasha stood and the three women walked away from him. Yelena said, "I swear if I hear one more word from him, I will kick him in the face."

"Natasha," Alexei said, "Lana. Natasha. Come here, both of you I want to ask you something," Lana rolled her eyes as she slowed down for the man to catch up, "Come it's important."

"What?" Natasha asked.

Alexei stuffed his hands into his pocket as they walked side by side, "Did he talk to you about me?"

"What?"

"Did he talk to you about me? You know, trading war stories?"

"Who? What the hell are you talking about?" Lana questioned in confusion. He was asking the most random question and it was utterly ridiculous to her.

"Captain America," Alexei stressed, "My great adversary in this theatre of geopolitical conflict. Not so much a nemesis. More like a contemporary, you know? Coequal. I always thought there was a great deal of mutual respect..."

"Coequal? Don't bullshit me," Lana laughed.

Natasha stopped, "Wait. You haven't seen any of us in 20 years and you're gonna ask us about you?"

Alexei rolled his eyes, "What is with this tension? Did I do something wrong?"

Yelena rubbed her forehead, a small smile resting on her face, "Is that a serious question?" The smile might of made her look happy but Lana saw the pain in her eyes.

"I only ever loved you girls. I did my best to make sure you would succeed to achieve your fullest potential, and everything worked out," Alexei said.

"Everything worked out?" Natasha questioned as Lana chuckled bitterly.

"Yes. For you both, yes. We accomplished our mission in Ohio," Alexei smiled, he walked toward Yelena and the two redheads followed, "Yelena you went on to become the greatest child assassin the world has ever known. No one can match your efficiency, your ruthlessness."

"Natasha. Not just a spy, not just toppling regimes, destroying empires from within, but an Avenger. And my darling Lana, look at you. From that timid girl, to a woman who can kill someone with her freaking mind, your powers had developed like none other. You are the most powerful being in the world. You all have killed," he took Yelena's arm into one hand, and Natasha's and Lana's in the other, shaking them, "So many people. Your ledgers must be dripping, just gushing red. I couldn't be more proud of you," he pulled the three into a hug.

Lana ripped away from him, "You think that's a good thing? I get nightmares, Alexei. Do you know how that feels? Oh sorry I forgot, you don't have a heart to know what guilt feels like," she started to walk once more.

They followed behind her and eventually caught up.

"So are we there yet?" Yelena asked.

"Alexei chuckled, "You'll know when we're there," he started to snort and Lana stared at him in disgust. She sighed as they continued to walk.