The escapee - Marvel

Chapter 81 - "Puppy Patrol"

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Seven stared at her reflection in the mirror of their apartment, the box of hair dye discarded on the counter.

Before the next stage of the mission she had opted to change her hair back to her natural colour. She would be wearing a facial mask during her time around other people, but this made her feel more like herself. These days she wasn't sure who she was exactly. Her memory had increasingly more gaps and people she wanted to remember were slipping away like fragments of her imagination.

She remembered growing up in the Red Room, her first kill, the names of the other girls in her group. She could recall the day she had obtained her powers and she felt the magic now, beneath her fingertips. She had been given a day freed of the mind control, to give her brain a break and so she could heal up her wound and she relished in her magic. She felt slightly broken without it, like she was missing a part of herself.

She thought it stupid for the Red Room to want her to not have them, as it gave them an advantage having an enhanced fighting for their side, but she didn't think it was purposeful anymore. The serum made them uniform, carbon copies that shared the same hive mind and behaviors. Her powers were repressed because they were different.

Seven remembered some things from the past few years, she remembers the day she got out and ended up in New York, on the streets. From there it got a bit hazy. A boy, grin as bright as the sun. A woman, red hair akin to her own. School? There were strong emotions connected to each of the people that flashed in her mind, but she couldn't connect a name or a relation to any of them. Seven got a headache trying to remember any of them.

The house had been mellow since Yelena's supposed death. Or kidnapping. They still hadn't reached a conclusion on what had occurred and since Seven wasn't there she was none the wiser.

Anya had asked for her to be at the table for half six, so that's where she made her way to, binning the box dye as she passed the bin.

Seven slid into her seat, Anya at the head, and Sofia and Vik opposite her. She tried desperately not to think about the space beside her.

"Right." Anya began, "I think we've forgotten what the mission is here slightly." She said, "We've been relaxed, too relaxed."

The mood was glum, Seven just stared at the older woman.

"The next job is more serious, and requires focus. Mainly from you." She turned to look at Seven. "Yelena is gone, and we need to complete the mission without her."

"They're not sending a replacement?" Sofia asked and Anya shook her head.

"We don't need five of us for the next job. Seven, the new group of SHIELD recruits starts today, the rookies. You're taking the identity of 19 year old recruit Sophia James."

"What happened to the real Sophia James?" Viktoria questioned, brow quirked.

"They killed her, most likely." Anya didn't have to specify who 'they' were, they all knew.

"Right," Seven veered the conversation back, not willing to linger on the death. "What is my objective?"

"Intel, find out as much as you can about how SHIELD and the avengers operate, when we have enough information we can take them down from the inside."

Seven nodded.

"You'll be training for several hours a day, and you cannot stand out among the group. Understood?" She nodded again, already fleshing out the parts of her cover that would be needed.

"Sophia and Vik are joining the medbay team, they lost a few in the field last month and they've got the most med knowledge."

"You're posing as surgeons?" Seven asked the pair, disbelieving.