Who: Natasha and Yelena What: Trapped in the Upside Down When: Sept 17 Where: Upside Down Rating: low
Yelena realized she was confined by several points of her body as she slowly came to waking. Maybe that should have been her biggest worry, but the bigger one was she apparently slept through being kidnapped and bound - that didn’t happen to a Widow.
Her eyes flew open and the words let her mouth automatically. “What. The. Fuck.” The place was like no other she had seen before. Also, she was attached to a wall by what looked like roots? And she was upside down? Great.
And then she saw Natasha. There was no way both of them were taken without them knowing. She looked at her sister hard in order to make sure she was still breathing. “Natasha.” Her name came out a little more forceful. Like a ‘please don’t be dead’ wrapped up in a name.
–
Natasha’s brow furrowed and she struggled inwardly, fighting to regain consciousness as her sister’s voice filtered through. Finally, her eyes slowly dragged open and she ignored the stabbing pain of a migraine, pushing it back before blinking a few times and turning her head.
“Yelena,” she said quietly, the word reassuring and questioning all at once. “Where are we?”
–
“I would have said Hell, but I don’t see anything on fire.” She was half serious, but half sarcastic. Mostly Yelena was relieved that she hadn’t been staring at a dead sister. “I’ve never seen anywhere like this.” Which wasn’t helpful. With Madison, there were so many worlds that there was no way of even guessing.
“You don’t remember how we got here, right?” She’d be embarrassed if they had a fight and she forgot from being knocked out. While she spoke, she was trying to work her way free. Hopefully before all the blood rushed to her head and exploded or something.
–
“The color scheme fits,” she replied absently as she looked around with a frown. “No, I don’t…which may mean that the Dome is doing something.” Shaking her head, Natasha shifted a bit to free one of her hands from the vines and twist upwards so that she could pull a blade from her boot and start cutting herself free.
“Have you seen anyone else?”
–
“No people, but I’ve seen some movement far away. I’d bet it’s not friendly, whatever it is.” Yelena was even hesitant on calling it a person. In a place like this, it was easy to imagine just about anything was around here.
Yelena did what might look like an acrobatic move to get to her own foot. “There’s a joke here about how thick these things are.” She quipped as she worked on getting herself free. Where once it seemed as the vines were reactive to her, now it seemed ‘dormant’ or ‘dead’ somehow. Not that she was complaining because it was already a bitch to get free as it was.
One of the only benefits of being trained in the Red Room meant that you could make a landing look pretty freaking cool when you were originally restrained upside down. Landing on your face or something would not have been as cool.
With two feet on the ground now and her blood rushing back to other parts of her body, she looked around a little better. “This looks like downtown Madison.” Only a little different, obviously.
–
“I’m inclined to agree,” she replied. As she freed her hands, Natasha twisted up again to cut the vines around her legs and feet, glad that the vines themselves didn’t seem to be moving or tightening. Landing just after her sister, Natasha kept the blade out as she swiped an arm over her face to get some of the odd goo off it.
“...I think this might be the Upside Down, based on some of the things Dustin’s said.” She frowned and moved closer to Yelena as she looked around. “We need to figure out how to get back to our Madison. Do you remember anything?”
–
“Does that mean that him and his friends are here too? Or are they sitting somewhere back in Madison with a bunch of charts acting like experts?” Yelena didn’t really like the idea of kids being in charge of anything that had to do with what this place looked and felt like, but as far as she knew there weren’t any adults from Dustin’s world here.
“I don’t. But I wonder if we can follow the vines somewhere… like a river or something.” It’s what she’d do if she was in a forest and had no idea where she was - she’d find water and follow it. Maybe it was the same for weird vine things. “If this is that place… then it’s more dangerous than vines.” From what she remembered hearing.
–
“They better be back in town,” Natasha said as she shook a few more loose vines off of herself, then brushed one off of Yelena’s back. She didn’t want to imagine Dustin or Max being there, but if they were she’d find them and get them home again.
“Back to its source - I think he said something about portals. Makes sense that there might be one back where these began.” Natasha hated the thought of a portal somehow pulling people in without their knowledge, but at least neither of them were the panicking sorts.
“Lead the way.”
–
“If they aren’t home, we’ll come back and bring better weapons.” Part of Yelena admittedly wanted the fight. This was what she had been trained to do and while she liked her more ‘normal’ life in Madison, but there’d always be a part of herself that thrived on the adrenaline.
She started to follow the vines, though kept from touching them at all as she walked. After a little bit, Yelena spoke to her sister while keeping her eyes in front of her. “So… you’ve been going out lately.”
–
“Agreed,” she said simply, her attention on the vines and their surroundings as they made their way back. In the distance, she could see the occasional movement and hear growls and other sounds, but none of it came too close to them - not yet, at least.
When Yelena broke the silence after a while, her eyes flickered towards the blonde, but away just as quickly while her steps never hesitated. “I guess I have,” Nat conceded after a beat. Though she’d had a lot of late nights, she had usually made it back in time to at least be home when Dustin woke up for school in the mornings to see him off and occasionally drive him - but she didn’t doubt that her sister had noticed for a second.
–
She moved through the area for a moment in silence as she took in her sister’s words which weren’t really surprising at all. Eventually she said, “If you’re doing thefts, I’m going to be very upset you didn’t want to share the fun.” Did Yelena think that was what Natasha was doing? No. Yelena had a few ideas what it might be, but she wasn’t going to push it with her sister. If her sister didn’t want to tell her, then she wouldn’t. What was Yelena going to do? Torture her? Natasha was trained in surviving interrogation techniques, after all.
–
“You’d be upset if I’m doing thefts, but not homicide?” She asked dryly, her lips quirking in a small smile. Natasha knew that it wasn’t fair to not tell her sister what was going on, but in general she loathed to mention it to anyone really. After her last few failed attempts at some kind of relationship had resulted in the Dome sending the person away every time, she was a little wary. Plus, her feelings here were different and even tenuous - a mix of a life she’d never actually lived and something more.
“There’s…someone. I’m just not sure if it’s anything yet, or if ever will be something - and it’s a little complicated given his history.”
–
It would always be complicated for them, wouldn’t it? It seemed to be the case when Yelena thought about it. Whether it was the Red Room or simply their fate in the world, her and her sister couldn’t seem to have a truly uncomplicated situation. It was why it took Yelenna so long to accept what was happening with Dieter. Part of her didn’t think it could truly be possible.
“...Well, when you decide it’s something, I demand to meet him so I can judge him like a good sister.” Whoever it was. Yelena would think about who it might be, but there were so many options it was going to be hard to figure out.
–
“I will,” she promised, though Natasha wasn’t sure just how she would explain her relationship with Loki to Yelena - or anyone else. They’d been seen together at Steve and Darcy’s wedding, but even then there hadn’t been quite as much interaction considering how many others had been around.
There was movement from the corner of her eye, up above, and Natasha reached down to again pull her knife out. “Looks like we’re not going to get out without a fight,” she murmured. “Get ready.”