The Seventh Avenger
The Beginning

Chapter One

Hey guys! So this is just my OC waking up and "finding herself". Sorry if it's slow or anything. I would love the constructive criticism, so please review! This is after The Battle of New York but before-ish Captain America 2.

*** I DO NOT OWN THE AVENGERS AND THE OTHER CHARACTERS ARE MY OWN IDEA ***

My eyes shot open and my heart began to beat double time. Before I could truly question what was going on, a blue-eyed, blonde leaned over into my view. His eyebrows were puckered in concern.

"Hey, you're awake. How're you-"

Without even thinking I had reared back and punched him hard in the jaw. He leaned back with one hand grabbing the slowly swelling place where I'd hit him. There was an incessant beating in the background that was getting faster and suddenly a young woman rushed in, glanced at the man, then at me, and snatched up a needle.

"No! Wait, I'm alright-"said the guy.

But the woman had already plunged the needle into my shoulder and I was slowly blacking out…

This time my eyelids dragged themselves up, as if against my will. The blonde who I vaguely remembered punching was sitting at the foot of my bed, reading a book. I tried to sit up but I was strapped down by my arms, legs, and abdomen.

"Please!" I cried. He looked up abruptly. I didn't remember meaning to speak, but there I went again. "Please! Just-"I gulped. "I need to know! Please, who…" my voice faltered. I must be dreaming. How can I not know...? I thought.

"Who… am I?"

"You were supposed to tell me as soon as she woke up, Rogers. As soon as you knew she was conscious." A man with an eye patch covering his left eye stepped into the room. "Instead her heart rate monitor alerted a doctor who found me. Not exactly part of our deal."

"I was going to, Director. She only just woke up." Blonde said.

I repeated my plea. "Please! Just my name! I'll do anything!"

Eye Patch looked at me with none too little annoyance. "Anything? How 'bout telling us just how you killed that guy?"

I looked frantically from Blonde to Eye Patch and back again. "I… I killed someone?!"

"Don't play dumb. That man didn't die of his own accord. Our people saw you with him moments before he was found dead," Eye Patch said.

"Please I don't know what you're talking about! I can't… I don't…" I stuttered.

"Sir, perhaps we should get a doctor in here. She-" Blonde seemed to be my ally in this crazy dream.

"I'll call a doctor and get Agent Romanoff. I believe she assisted in the arrest?" He was ignoring my question.

"Yes sir, she did. I'd like to fill… the patient… in on what we known." Blonde said. Wait, the patient? Could they possibly not know who I was as well?

Eye Patch was leaving, "Sure, sure. I don't care." He walked out of the room and down a hall.

"Well, I'm sure you're pretty lost as to what's going on. I'll fill you as best I can. First, my name is Steve Rogers. I work with SHIELD and I'm helping clean up the mess The Battle of New York," he held out his hand, forgetting I was still strapped to the bed. He quickly loosened the ties and I slipped my hand out.

"What's The Battle of New York?" I asked still completely lost.

"See Thor's brother, Loki, came down onto Earth and stole the Tesseract…" He slowly trailed off after seeing my look of confusion.

"You know what, that's not important right now. So anyway, we got a call from one of our informants saying that you were seen killing someone by merely touching them. So, Agent Romanoff, she's an agent of SHIELD, and I tracked you down. I found you three days ago in an abandoned hospital strapped to a surgical table. You only just regained consciousness. Any questions?" he sat back.

I swallowed hard. "Um, yeah. First, where am I, what is SHIELD, and do you guys know who I am?"

"Uhh, well you're in a SHIELD holding unit hospital. SHIELD is an organization that protects the people of Earth in ways that the police and army can't. As to who you are, well… we were hoping you could tell us. We've run your blood samples through the world database; we were hoping to find a match. But your blood doesn't match any sample."

"Wait, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying… the world records, of everyone ever born… don't have you in them."

Before I could process this new information, Eye Patch walked in with a redheaded woman dressed in only black, and a woman with a white lab coat, just like the lady who had made me go back to sleep before.

Redhead came to the side of my bed and study my face closely. "She's telling the truth, Director. She can't remember anything, and she's not sure if she can trust Captain Rogers when he said you're not technically alive. And, kid? Captain Rogers would not be the one to hold something back from you."

I leaned away, immediately wary of this lady who seemed to read me like a book.

"Since when did you have a degree in psychology?" Lab Coat asked.

"One of my undercover missions required it," Redhead said, turning away and clearly signaling an end of the topic.

Eye Patch turned to Lab Coat, "Dr. Clarin, please do a physical observation and assessment of the patient's injuries. I'm going to get Dr. Reslan, our neurologist, to do a brain PET scan. And… Patient, this is Natasha Romanoff, she helped us track you down."

"Yes, Director Fury, I'll send a copy of the report to your secretary."

Director Fury walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Captain Rogers, would you like to wait in the hall?" Dr. Clarin asked Steve.

Steve's cheeks warmed and Romanoff looked with amusement at him as he stuttered, "Oh, umm, yeah… I'll just go… I didn't-"

"I'll join you," Romanoff saved him.

"Yeah, okay." Romanoff nodded at me as she and Steve walked out of the room and shut the door behind them.

"Well, she has injuries on her wrists, rope burns from being tied to the table; they are wide and not in just one place- she was probably tied down more than once and by the amount of burns, she was writhing. That implies torture and the amount of bruises and scars only convince me more of this. There is also a bullet wound in her leg that was already cleaned and bandaged that is probably a week old. That's all I got; she should be up and about in a couple of days. I took a blood sample and we should be able to get an estimate on your age soon. Your turn Dr. Reslan," the doctor nodded to us and stepped out of the room.

Dr. Reslan had me put on a long bed-like table attached to a machine that slowly moved over my head. After I got off of the table, I was helped back into bed and we looked at pictures of my brain.

"See that?" Reslan pointed to a large red blot covering a large portion of my brain. "That sector of the brain is the memories part. The red means there is a serious issue in that part of the brain."

"So what?" Fury asked.

"It explains why she can't remember her name. She has no personal memories."

"But how do I know what you're saying and how can I talk?" I asked, still staring at the red blob that had robbed me of who I was.

"You can't remember personal things. You have the knowledge of a fifteen year old, but you won't know your name, age, et cetera." Dr. Reslan looked at me, then peered at Steve's jaw, which was an ugly green. "But considering the blow you inflicted to Captain Rogers, I would say you have retained your muscle memory and will therefore be able to run, walk, and do all the things you learned to do with your arms and legs."

"Yay. I won't have to learn how to ride a bike again," I said sarcastically. But Dr. Reslan had already turned back to the photos.

"Do you see the orange section right below the red? It's very small but you should be able to make it out," He pointed to an orange area about the size of my thumbnail. "That's where lesser damage is. It's probably some effect of your surgery or being shot. I'm thinking post-traumatic stress syndrome. You may be able to retain the memories through dreams," Dr. Reslan turned to Fury. "That's all I have for you, Director."

"Thank you, doctor. You can go," Fury opened the door and Reslan walked out. Fury turned back to Dr. Clarin, "Would you like to join us?" Clarin nodded and Fury then looked at me, Steve, and Romanoff. "Kid, get some sleep. I want to see if you get any memories back. I'll send a nurse up with food. Agent Romanoff, Captain, don't keep her up long. You both have work to do." With that parting endearment, Fury left, leaving me with Steve, Romanoff, and a lot to think about.

"So," Romanoff watched me as I gulped down my food. "You don't know anything about yourself, you were tortured until you were unconscious, and shot. Not bad for someone your age, Kid."

"You do realize we're probably about the same age, right? And can you not call me kid? It's demeaning," I set down my cup of apple juice.

"Well you're right about one thing," Steve interjected. "We need to find a name for you."

"I don't care as long as it isn't something girly or pretty sounding or old," I wrinkled my nose at the thought of being called Sally or Dorothy.

"You look like someone who would be called something original," I looked up at Natasha warily.

"Thank you. I think," I wasn't quite sure where I stood with Natasha. She was guarded in a way that told me she had years of experience of knowing someone without ever telling them about herself.

"I'm thinking something with another name. Like Allison but called Ally. Except Ally isn't different. What about Allysta? We could call you Al or something," Steve chewed the inside of his cheek in thought.

"Al? I kinda like it. It's not a regular name and it's not really weird… yeah, okay," I warmed up to the thought of it. "I don't think anyone would think really expect it and it's got a kinda cool ring to it: Allysta- Al."

"Alright. That was riveting. I'm gonna go; I have to get briefed for my next mission. You coming, Steve?" Natasha walked over to the door and looked back.

"Uh, yeah. She's right. I'll catch up with you later. Bye Al," Steve and Natasha walked out and I stared at the ceiling, trying to process the day before I gradually fell asleep.

Dr. Reslan was right. I did have a dream about what I assumed was my past. I woke up in a large cement room with clear sheets hanging everywhere. There were maybe seven people in the room, each wearing a dark red set of clothes except for one man who was wearing a white lab coat. He holding a small scalpel but instead of being metal it was plastic, which was odd. He slowly inserted the knife into a spot in my leg. I didn't feel anything, but winced as blood sprouted from the incision. He then grabbed a pair of tweezers (also plastic) and stuck them in the incision. Now that hurt. I cried out and jerked my leg away, causing more blood to pour out of my leg. The doctor looked at me once, then ran over and grabbed a nurse, telling her to grab something. The tweezers were still in my leg and blood, my blood, was gushing out. I stared at the cut as someone pulled out the tweezers, causing the blood to shoot out even more. I stared horrified as the nurse grabbed cotton and covered my leg with it. I felt like I was made of wood as I looked around at the nurses and doctor scurrying around. The nurse who had been sent away had not returned, but I felt myself slowly losing consciousness. This whole time it had been relatively quiet, but when the doctor saw me close my eyes he began to shout orders. Someone handed him a machine just before I fell asleep again. But a sharp pain that was oddly familiar awakened me. But just as fast I fell back to sleep. The pain continued for what seemed like forever, but I didn't care. Some part of me clung to the pain, another part dismissed it as normal, which scared me. Finally, it was the part of me that embraced the pain that won out. My eyes shot open once again and they stayed that way. I looked around and saw the doctor breathing heavily while a nurse talked angrily to him. I strained to make out what she was saying.

"... shouldn't have pushed that hard. Her heart will never recover fully and-"

"What did you want me to do?! They would have killed me if she died and she was finally complete. I couldn't let her die even if I wanted to…." Then a mask was slipped over my face and I began to fall asleep. But just before I closed my eyes, I saw on the doctor's sleeve a symbol. It was an eagle staring to right enclosed in a circle.

I awoke in a cold sweat and breathing hard. My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to understand my dream. Could it have been real? What does the symbol represent? And what did the doctor mean 'she was finally complete'? Before I could fully calm down, a nurse came in and looked at me coolly. I made a split-second decision not to tell her about my dream.

"Good. You're awake. Director Fury wants you to be walking by Thursday- it's Tuesday- so we're going to get you out of bed and standing on your own today," She dropped down a metal tray carrying cereal, an orange, milk, and a cup of coffee. "Eat up. I'll be back in thirty minutes," She turned and walked to the door.

"Wait! What-" She was already gone. "Great staff you got here, very nice and-" I was cut off the door opening. Steve peeked his head around and looked at me.

"I wasn't sure if you'd be up. Figures Fury has you up by seven. Can I come in?" He stepped into my room, but stayed where he was.

"Yeah, sure. Just enjoying my delicious breakfast," I picked up my spoon and began eating, trying to ignore the soggy Cheerios and waging an inward war: should I tell him about my dream?

"Yeah well, you got a better welcoming party than I did when I woke up."

"What do you mean 'when you woke up'?" I glanced at him as I sipped my coffee.

"Oh yeah I forgot. You don't know. Well, it's kinda a long story…"

"I have half an hour before Ms. Cheery-Nurse comes back."

"I'll give you the story in a nutshell," He then told me about his "enhancement" and Bucky and the war and waking up in this century. "I'll tell you about The Battle of New York some other time," He gave me a half smile.

"Thanks I'd appreciate it. Man, I just want to figure all this out. Why did this happen to me?" I sighed, frustrated at my lack of knowledge on life.

"Hey I get it. I went through what you're going through and you just have to keep moving forward," He shrugged like it was no big deal. Suddenly I got so mad I thought I would explode.

"Oh yeah let's just keep moving forward. Yep that's definitely the answer. Just keep living life the way you have been, except, oh yeah that's right, I don't know how I lived before and we're forgetting the little matter of me killing someone!" I slammed my palm down on the metal tray and sparks exploded at the contact. My eyes widened and I yanked my hand back. Steve stared at where my hand had been and where a burnt black mark now was covering the tray.

"That's new," Steve said, not taking his eyes off of the tray.