Chapter 0135: Yelena’s Problem

In the MCU.

The Flying Fortress, now aptly renamed, The Avengers' Mobile Fortress, albeit unofficially for now.

A week ago.

"What the hell just happened?" Natasha asked with a frown after Alex woke up from his self-induced sleep.

Alex looked at Natasha with an almost teasing smile, "Come here." He called her while still sitting in Dreykov's chair.

She shrugged and walked over to him before taking a seat in his lap, "Tell me." She said while looking into his eyes.

Alex replied with a question, "Tell me, Nat," Alex brought his hand to her head and gently ran his fingers through her fiery hair, "What is my greatest weakness?"

"How am I supposed to know that?" She replied with a frown. Alex couldn't be sure if she was lying or not without going inside her mind, but he didn't need to do that to know this specific tidbit.

"You know it. You don't need to play dumb." He said.

She contemplated for a few moments, "Whatever you did, it made you immune from loud sounds, didn't it?" She asked while looking into his eyes.

"That's the smartest spy I know…" Alex liked how she could deduce the situation from just his attitude, "And yes. I've finally achieved immunity from my only two weaknesses in the universe— Heat and Sound." With his words, Alex was paying full attention to Natasha's emotions. He wanted to know if there would be the slightest hint of panic or apprehension in her. To his relief, there was none.

"Congratulations." Nat told him, "So are you God now?" She asked jokingly.

"I'm still very far from that point… I'm just an indestructible slime for now." He told her, "Maybe I'll become a god someday. Who knows?" He shrugged and Nat shook her head with a smile.

At that point, a door opened and Yelena shouted, "Who are you!" She instantly pulled out a gun from the holster in her new combat suit. While Natasha was briefing the widows, Yelena had been restocking her weapons.

Nat's initial instinct was to stand back up, but she felt Alex's arm slightly tighten around her waist, so she just turned to look at Yelena, "This is Apex, Yelena." She told Yelena.

Yelena seemed to not have heard Nat and said, "Let her go, or I'll shoot!"

Alex had an amused expression on his face as he looked at Yelena, "She's pretty cute." He told Natasha.

Before Natasha could reply, Yelena threatened again, "Last warning, I'm serious."

"Calm down, Yelena," Natasha told her sister.

"But—" Yelena's words were lost as she realized that her 'glove' had expanded and absorbed the gun into it. She had just lost her firearm. Before she could pull out another weapon, Nat finally stood up from Alex's lap.

"If your drama's over, can we talk like adults?" Natasha walked up to Yelena who sighed in defeat.

"Fine." She pouted cutely, "I just wanted to save you from the big baddie…' She mumbled.

"Yelena, meet Apex." Natasha gestured to Alex who was still seated with an amused expression and examining Yelena.

"Apex, Yelena." She gestured to Yelena while looking at Alex.

"Hi," Alex said with a smile.

"You're looking at me weird," Yelena said with narrow eyes.

"I'm scrutinizing you." Alex corrected her, "Your body is filled with injuries. How you got so hurt is beyond me." Alex shook his head.

Yelena got defensive, "Hello… I'm an assassin. I break a few bones every month. Of course, I'm injured." Yelena said with frustration leaking from her voice. At that point, Nat looked at Yelena with narrow eyes.

"Not those injuries." Alex said, "Scars… Internal scars inside your veins, arteries even your organs. They aren't from stab wounds…" Alex continued, "Were you ever injected with an experimental version of the super soldier serum?" This was what he'd come up with after putting the collar on Yelena. He'd examined her body and noticed this problem a while ago. It was just that he'd only had the time to talk about this now.

"What are you talking about?" Yelena played dumb, but her panic was evident. She was super creeped out by how accurately Alex was able to gauge her situation.

"Tell me, sis." Nat intervened this time, she grabbed Yelena's face and forced the girl to look into her eyes, "What is he talking about?"

"Caw wu wet me go, fiwst?" Yelena wasn't able to speak clearly with Natasha's tight grip that squished her cheeks. When Nat loosened her grip, Yelena spoke, "Yes, I was."

"Elaborate," Natasha said.

"Fine." Yelena rolled her eyes, "Dreykov had a contact in Shield. They had developed a serum to match the one used on Captain America all those years ago. You know, the same story. A group of widows was sent to receive that serum. Out of the ten that were sent there, two survived." She blurted it all out.

Nat was silent for a few moments, "Do you know the name Alexander Pierce?" Natasha asked.

"Yes. He was Dreykov's contact within Shield." Yelena nodded, "And yes, I now know that he was actually Hydra. I examined most of Shield's information that you released to the public. By the way, badass move." She told Natasha with admiration leaking from her tone.

"I see…" Natasha was deep in thought.

"That's not all, is it?" Alex added in.

"Can you not? I'm having a lovely bonding moment with my sister." Yelena snapped at Alex.

Alex looked at her with a dry expression and Yelena ended up caving after Nat also looked at her with a similar expression, "I don't exactly have very long to live. Another half a decade at most." Yelena told them.

"4 years and 5 months, give or take before your body gives in and you're permanently bedridden for a month before total organ failure," Alex told both of them Yelena's exact state.

"Yelena!" Natasha looked at her with widened eyes, "What the hell?"

"What? What can I do about it?" Yelena shrugged Natasha's concern off.

"What you can do is ask me for help!" Natasha grabbed Yelena's face again, squishing her cheeks.

"Fiwe…" Yelena said, "Hewp we…" She shrugged. She didn't think Nat could do much about it.

Nat nodded, "Hm… I will." She turned to look at Alex, "Could you?" She asked him.

"Sure." Alex shrugged, "It's not really that complicated. It'll take a few days, though. The failed serum didn't just damage her body, it rewired her to some extent. Although it didn't affect her combat prowess, a lot of her internal biology has been essentially mutated and fucked." He explained.

"Anything." Natasha agreed.

"Hey!" Yelena protested, "I don't trust some unknown," She looked at Alex, "Whatever you are, to have full discretion to do whatever he wants to me."

"Quiet." Natasha brought out her inner big sister, "You have no say here. It's what's going to be best for you."

"No!" Yelena pulled out her weapons. She would fight it out if she had to.

"Yelena." Nat said calmly, "With Apex, I'm going to live an extremely long life. And I would rather have my baby sister alive for longer than four goddamn years." She sounded a little agitated.

Hearing Nat's words, Yelena lowered her batons, "I don't trust him."

"You trust me, right?" Nat asked, "Right?"

"Right." Yelena agreed.

"Then listen to me," Natasha said while looking deeply into Yelena's eyes.

"I…" Yelena hesitated as she glanced at Alex who waved at her with an innocent and cheery smile.

She suppressed her scoff at his obviously fake look and told Natasha, "How is he going to heal me?"

"Thank you," Natasha said with a grateful look in her eyes, "Alex…" She passed the question to Alex.

Alex gave her an analytical answer, "I'm not really bonded with you, so the healing process is going to be complicated. I assume that when the serum was administered to you, the violent reaction led to your arteries and veins bursting due to your heightened blood pressure. That's what led to the scars that are all over your blood vessels. That stuff is easy to heal, but here comes the complication." Alex stood up, "The serum mutated those damaged parts of your body and the scar tissue and turned those cells into your 'natural state of being.'"

"Think of it as an overcomplicated cancer that's running through your whole body," Natasha interjected.

"Yes, exactly." Alex agreed with Natasha, "It's just very good at hiding from scans due to the nature of the mutation. That's why all you could find out about your problem was how long you have to live." Alex explained, "At this point, even if I try to heal you, your body is going to fight against the healing process. That's why I have to rewire a lot of things to actually heal and bring you back to top shape."

"Is healing this even possible? What you're telling me is that my entire genetic sequence has been modified to an extent. How do you even change that stuff?" Yelena asked.

"Of course." Alex shrugged, "If you were bonded to me like Nat here, I could've healed you to top shape in 10 minutes, probably less. You don't know this, but the race that I belong to is the apex of our universe's biology, hence my name." Alex told her.

Yelena's face showed that she took Alex's words with a grain of salt, "So how long will I need to be healed?" She asked him.

"Around three days. Maybe 2 depending on how quickly you are able to adapt." He told her.

"Adapt to what?" Yelena asked.

[Alex, don't even think about fucking her. She's been through enough and doesn't need you coercing her in exchange for her life.] Nat knew the expression Alex was making. It was the same expression he had when he'd first bonded with her.

[You think too little of me, Nat…] Alex sighed, putting his plans of having some sexy time with Yelena away for now. She was very hot and Alex had wanted to fuck her, [Don't worry. I won't do anything to her without her consent.]

Ignoring Nat's scrutinizing gaze at him, Alex continued, "The process isn't really going to be comfortable." He told Yelena, "For one, you need to be conscious for those two to three days so that I can monitor your real-time situation. It's because if your brain goes into an asleep state, half the functions of your body are halted or slowed, including the mutations, making it a bit more difficult for me to find and fix those mutations."

"Difficult, not impossible?" Natasha asked from the side. She prioritized Yelena's well-being.

"Yeah. I could do it, but then she would have to be asleep for two weeks." Alex told Natasha.

"I don't want to go into a coma for two weeks. Since I have the option to get things done in two days, I'll take that." Yelena seemed to finally give in.

***

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