seven | avengers

chapter twenty three

all three avengers rushed to the room that seven was situated in. they braced themselves for what they were going to see, all hoping that what friday showed them was just a prank that seven pulled. stephen pushed the door open, tony and natasha right behind him.

"stay away from me!" seven yelled as she was crouched at the end of the room, choking on her words. she looked at her shaking hands that were stained with blood, tears dripping onto them. natasha was the first to walk forward towards her, analysing her surroundings carefully. what was meant to be a neat and clean ward turned into one that seemed to be badly rummaged through.

the tools were all on the floor, the ventilators and monitors for seven's stats had fallen, barely working anymore. tubes that were previously inserted into her were dangling from the bed. and the bed. the previously pure white bed had been stained with blood. a pool of ghastly red at the side of the bed and drops followed like a trail to where seven was, cowering into a corner like a ball, shaking.

"please... please..." seven begged, plead evident in her eyes as natasha stepped closer to her. she looked around seven's body and found the culprit. there was a large gash on her right arm, from her elbow and diagonally to the start of her palm. natasha stepped over the fallen equipment carefully, inching her way closer and closer, while stephen and tony stayed outside. if anything, they knew natasha could help the kid.

"seven," natasha started. seven flinched at the sound of her name, pushing herself back even though there was no where else to go. "nat," natasha continued, deciding on what to call her. seven shut her eyes and hid her head between her knees, trying to control her ragged breathing.

natasha decided that it was now or never.

she stepped right in front of the kid and took in a deep breath, careful not to touch her. "natalie, i need you to take deep breaths for me," she whispered, anticipating a flinch from her sister, which she got, but continued anyway, "i'm here, and no one else, okay? just you and me. i need you to take deep breaths for me, can you do that?"

"it's coming closer... i- the voice... it just keeps-" seven sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm down like what natasha said, but the voice.

"who would adopt her if we put her there?"
"true. but we have no other choice."
"let's go then, another minute with her and i'll be worried for my sanity."

seven opened her eyes to see a pair of green eyes right in front of hers and she jumped. she pushed herself away from the person in front of her, whispering under her breath, tears falling from her face like the blood on her hands.

"take me away, take me away, take me away."

she starts to remember everything. everything that she thought she had forgotten.

"tony! i need some help here!"

she tripped onto the fallen ventilator and fell onto the ground, groaning in pain.

"..."

nothing. silence. she found the key to shutting the voice out from her head. 

natasha looked at the kid in front of her eyes: laying on the ground in pain, blood dripping from her arm. tony rushed in at the sound of her yell and gulped, "what in the world-" he immediately made his way to seven, looking up at natasha when he saw the cut too. he tried to pick the kid up,  but jumped as the kid flinched and started to cry out in pain.

"we're gonna have to sedate her and then do something about the cut. stephen!" tony says. "wha- here?" natasha asked. "well yeah. do you see anywhere else we could do this? this kid won't let anyone touch her," tony returned as stephen came running in but stopped right in front of the door, almost falling flat on his face.

"wha-" "stephen, little help here?" tony pointed at the situation and stephen ran back out again to grab his equipment. natasha sighed as she sat across tony on the floor, a shaking seven between them, "why do bad things always happen to romanoff's?"

"hold her down for me okay?" stephen came in with a stethescope, dr helen cho and a team behind him. they injected an anesthetic into seven's bloodstream, which made her yell in pain. "is it working?" stephen asked dr cho. "no, heart pressure is increasing. we need more," she replied as a nurse passed her another needle.

it took a total of four jabs till seven was unconscious.

they placed her on a stretcher and moved her to the operating room, leaving natasha and tony behind. "what the hell," tony let out with a sigh, but something popped up in his head, "nat i gotta show you something." with that, he took natasha's arm and rushed her out to his lab right beside peter's.

natasha walked into his lab. she only saw it from outside and had never been inside it. for the record, only pepper and tony had been in that hell hole. but now here she is.

in the hell hole.

as they stepped in, AC/DC boomed and natasha swore that it could have ruptured her eardrums. "friday!" tony yelled.

"sorry sir," friday's voice surrounded the room
and the music changed to one of led zeppelin's. "god this is worse, turn it off!" tony groaned as he walked into his work table, natasha laughing behind. "yes sir," friday said and pure silence overtook the noise. natasha took a look around. she didn't really like how messy his lab was, but appreciated the silence.

"so stephen gave me some of the kid's dna and stuff awhile ago for us to figure out what's going on in her. turns out she's really complex, and she's kinda like you," tony smoothed out the paperwork and laid the x-rays onto the display floating in the air. natasha walked towards tony with a gulp.

"wow."