Elise didn't know what to do. But then, to be fair to the young red-haired maid, she had never been expected to make big decisions before. All her life, she'd been told what was in store for her, told what to eat and given what to wear and shown how to do her chores and learn this skill or that. As a child, it had been her parents in charge of her upbringing. When she'd grown older, the village had pitched in to train her in the skills she would need for the rest of her life.
Finally, she'd been hired as a maid at the governor's palace. That too was not a role in which she's had to make many, if any, important choices. The most important decision she'd ever made while a maid for the Planetary Governor was whether to use this cleaning solution instead of that one on a big spill, or in what direction she would start her daily cleaning routine.
Following her previous master's death at Seven's hands and her… recruitment by the boy's Mistress, Elise had continued to be the good little follower. At least being made to clean up the place was well within her wheelhouse. Once again, she didn't need to make any big decisions, didn't need to make any hard choices.
There, in her new life, her greatest choice had been to try and befriend Seven himself… and admittedly, it would seem that that had paid off, with dividends. Not that Elise had done it out of anything more than a compassionate heart, or so she liked to think. But maybe that was wrong. Maybe some part of her, deep down inside, was mercenary enough to actually befriend Seven solely in the hopes of using him as a shield down the line.
… No. No, she wouldn't start second guessing herself now. She'd seen a young boy in need of a friend, and she'd done her best to be that friend to him. Everything might have gone to shit shortly after, but Elise refused to feel bad, to allow a single ounce of regret to taint what she and Seven shared. They were friends… after all, if they weren't, why had he saved her?
The attack on the compound had come so swiftly, almost like it was materializing out of nowhere. Within twenty minutes of Seven leaving on his latest mission, they were under siege. Elise had been cleaning at the time, only for alarms to begin going off. It was then that Seven's Mistress, and her Mistress as well she supposed, had contacted Elise.
The only command that the cold, severe woman had given, the only word she had spoken, was thus:
"Hide."
Elise had obeyed, as had been drilled into her all her life. To be fair, it was a good order. It was a kind order. She'd certainly done things for previous masters that were a lot worse than saving her own skin. As the compound's automatic defenses had tried and failed to hold back the intruders, as they'd been overrun and destroyed in short order, the invaders not stopping for even a moment in their onslaught upon the base, Elise… Elise had hidden in her closet, the one with all the cleaning supplies in it.
She'd hidden and hoped to any gods that might be out there that she wouldn't be found. There wasn't a doubt in the young woman's mind what would happen if she was… a-and she didn't want that. After spending the last couple of weeks with Seven, Elise… Elise thought she might have fallen in love. The boy was s-so caring.
He was always there for her when she needed him to be, especially in… that way. Elise had lost track of the times she'd ended up on her knees or on her back for him, his big fat cock plowing her silly and then some, leaving her moaning and mewling l-like the wanton little slut she knew she was. Seven cared for her in a way she longed for, and Elise had been deathly afraid of another man taking her away from him.
She didn't doubt that they would too. She knew what she was, deep down inside. After the Planetary Governor brought it to the surface, Elise knew the score. She was a whore, plain and simple. If a fat, balding man like the governor could treat her like trash and leaving her moaning and begging for more from him, then any man who got his hands on her could probably do the same.
And so, she'd stayed hidden, even as the sounds of fighting had filled the compound, even as every loud crash and terrifying explosion had caused her to jolt in fear, as if she half-expected the ceiling to fall down on her from above and kill her then and there.
That didn't happen though, and the noise eventually died down. Of course, Elise knew better. She knew that it wasn't because the invaders had been repelled. In her heart of hearts, as the alarms turned off, Elise knew that it was because the compound had been taken, the Mistress' office breached and the woman herself now no doubt being subjected to the humiliations reserved for their gender when experiencing an ignoble defeat.
Knowing this, Elise had continued hiding, trembling in fear amidst the cleaning supplies. Not that it had ultimately helped her in the end. The thuggish men had finally found her, using a device that apparently allowed them to scan for life signs. They'd attacked her, and Elise could do nothing but cry out as they tore at her silvery maid uniform until she was exposed and ready… ready to be broken in again by their nasty, angry-looking cocks.
It was as she was staring down the barrel of one of the thuggish invader's meat cannons that Seven had shown up out of nowhere. Elise hadn't dared to hope that he would appear to save her, and so his arrival and the subsequent demise of all three of her would-be defilers had been as much a surprise to her as it was to them.
Killing the men, Seven had wasted no time in getting her out of there. Elise had been so certain that he wouldn't dare leave without his Mistress… but he had. They had, in fact, Seven dragging her along to a secret hangar that Elise hadn't even known about. They'd blasted off before the young woman even had time to process that the boy was leaving his Mistress behind. But now that they were out in space, and had been for over twenty-four hours, she'd had time to reconcile what had happened back there and come to a startling conclusion.
Seven had chosen her. Perhaps under duress, perhaps because his Mistress was already dead, and she was the only option left. Elise did not know which it was, or what had forced his hand, but in the end the facts remained the same. He'd chosen to save her and brought her aboard this ship. He'd gotten her out of harm's way, and now… now he had to be the one to decide what they did next.
"Seven… Seven, p-please."
Unfortunately, that was easier said then done. Sitting beside the boy, Elise places a hand on his thigh, even as she tries to get through to him. He sits there, completely and utterly unmoving, where he's sat since he got them off planet a day before. He hasn't moved, he hasn't eaten, he hasn't even drunk. He's like… he's like a statue, and Elise doesn't know what to do to get him to come back to her.
"S-Seven. I need you. We n-need to figure out what we're going to do next!"
-x-X-x-
He hears her. He does. It's just that… he doesn't know what to do. Seven… Seven had never been expected to make the big decisions before. No, scratch that. Seven had not been expected to make any decisions at all, before now. This was… this was new, uncharted territory for him. Even when he did make a 'choice', it was almost always simply following a standing order.
When he 'chose' to go and train, that was a standing order to stay in shape and keep his skills sharp and ready for the next mission. When he 'chose' to eat a meal, that was simply another order to keep himself fed and nourished so that his performance did not fall below acceptable parameters. Seven's day to day life was filled with choices, one could believe… but they were all choices that had been made for him long ago, part of his orders that he followed without question.
After all, he was nothing more than a tool for his Mistress, r-right? He wasn't supposed to make choices, he wasn't supposed to act out of hand. But then… why had he saved Elise? This is one of the things that Seven has been wrestling with for the last twenty-four hours. He made a choice. He chose to save Elise. That was not part of any of his standing orders. Even the order that he'd used to get Elise out of the governor's palace in the first place did not cover what he'd just done.
He had abandoned his Mistress. He had left her to her ignoble fate, leaving her broken body and mind in the hands of the Pirate Lord, Richard Thaddeus. He had NOT made an attempt to save her, he had NOT gone out in a blaze of glory, trying to kill as many as he could in an effort to get her out of there. Seven was not necessarily supposed to be without a survival instinct.
He was expendable, but not so expendable that his Mistress had ever expected him to die for the mission, or anything like that. Not only was their secrecy paramount, meaning he could not allow his body to fall into enemy hands, his Mistress constantly explained that replacing him would take too much time and effort.
But would she have approved of his decision to leave her behind? Seven highly doubted it. She would have expected him to get her out of there, surely. She would have expected him to rescue her and get them both to safety, even at the risk of his own life. Of course, Seven knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would have been more than risk. He would have died trying to save her from the forces in that room.
But then he should have DIED. What good is a tool that betrays its wielder?! What use is a weapon that turns upon its bearer?! He didn't kill his Mistress, he didn't end her life with his own hands… but he might as well have, in choosing Elise over her. He had saved the maid that he'd met two weeks before, the one who had… who had put all these strange thoughts in his head, who had left him feeling a certain kind of odd way.
Over the last twenty-four hours, he'd finally noticed he was referring to himself as Seven now, in the quiet of his own mind. Not the Subject anymore, not even Subject Seven. No, he'd been exposed to Elise for all of two weeks and now he called himself Seven. How? How had this happened? How had he let himself stray so far from his Mistress' teachings?
If the ambush hadn't happened, he would have been in for a world of hurt as she ordered him to go through retraining and discipline after his disobedience during their last encounter together. And Seven knows, he would have deserved every last minute of it.
But the ambush had happened. The attack on their home had been overwhelming and had come at the worst time, while he was away. Of course, that by design. That man, Richard Thaddeus. Was Seven supposed to hate him? It was hard to muster any strong emotions, but whatever he was feeling towards the Quadrant's Pirate Lord, it was certainly negative.
And yet, nothing compared to what he was feeling towards himself. There, Seven certainly felt hatred. Hatred and self-loathing aplenty at the realization that he had left his Mistress behind. Now what was he? A tool without a wielder. A weapon without a bearer. He was purposeless, he was worthless. There was no one who valued him, no one who needed him.
He should have died attempting to save his Mistress. He should have-
SMACK!
-x-X-x-
The moment she slaps him across the face, Elise regrets it, bringing her hands to her mouth to cover it as the boy tenses in front of her. She half-expects him to kill her on the spot… but that doesn't happen. However, his dull red eyes do slowly shift over to her, blinking once, twice, three times in slow succession. She has his attention now, at least.
"We need… we need to decide what we're doing next, S-Seven. We have supplies, but I checked and our fuel stores… we can't just float around in space forever. We have to pick a destination, p-preferably not where we just came from. We have to go somewhere and lay low. R-Right?"
He just continues to stare at her, and Elise can't help the noise of frustration that bubbles out of the back of her throat. She just wants him to snap out of it already! This funk he's in, this… this emotionless and near-comatose attitude of his! It's just… it's just…
… It's not a funk. The realization hits Elise like a freight train, and of course, she immediately feels stupid for not seeing it earlier. Still, it's not like she was trained for this sort of thing. It's not like she was built to be able to read highly trained, nearly emotionless child assassins at the drop of a hat. Still, even if it's taken her some time, Elise can only swallow heavily as her epiphany hits her.
Seven isn't in a funk. This is just who he is. Her friend, her only friend in the whole damn galaxy at this point, is practically an automaton. He's a robot, albeit one of flesh and blood. He's a fucking weapon, honed and designed and created rather than birthed and raised like a normal human being. There is nothing for Seven to snap out of. This was not only who he was, it's who he's always been and all he's ever known.
Throat bobbing as Elise swallows carefully, the red head realizes what she has to do. She just… she just doesn't know if she has the strength to do it. Reaching out, the maid cradles Seven's cherub-like face in her hands, leaning in close.
"Seven. Listen to me carefully. You need instructions, r-right? You need a… a directive?"
For the first time in twenty-four hours, Elise sees something that might just be the light of life appear in Seven's dull red eyes. He's not quite emoting, but he's certainly more focused than he was before, and it's on her. That was good… unless it was very bad instead.
"Your M-Mistress… your Mistress is gone. So, if you need a directive… then hear mine. Your d-directive is to protect yourself and me. Your directive is to ensure our safety a-above all else. That's your new mission, alright? Those are your o-orders. Help me. K-Keep me safe. Keep yourself safe. Keep going… n-no matter what."
Silence falls as Elise runs out of words to say, realizing she's rambling on a bit and even sort of repeating herself in an effort to get through to him. This boy in front of her, this… highly trained killing machine… she needs him. She needs him on her side, she needs him functional and in her corner.
He doesn't quite smile, but slowly, Seven begins to nod ever so slightly in her hands. Elise feels tears of relief and joy well up in her eyes, a choked sob of gratitude coming from her throat. Through watery eyes, she smiles at the boy and is just about to say something else when an explosion rocks the entire ship, very nearly throwing her out of her seat.
Only Seven's hands suddenly on her wrists as he keeps his own balance prevents Elise from being thrown clear. He centers her and then is immediately up and in the pilot's chair again, looking at readouts and systems that Elise, being nothing more than a maid, doesn't understand. But she does understand that their ship is taking a barrage, especially when it rocks again a moment later before going… very still.
"S-Seven?! What… what is it?! What's happening?"
Before he can even reply, something appears on the edge of the viewport in front of them, and rapidly fills the entire view of space outside of the ship. Elise can only stare, uncomprehendingly for a moment, before finally realizing what she's looking at. Another ship… a much bigger ship, in fact. One that had apparently snuck up on them while she and Seven were having their heart to heart, while she was getting through to him.
Belatedly, Seven answers her.
"Pirates. They shot out the engines. We're sitting ducks."
As if to punctuate his statement, there's a jarring sensation as the pirate ship clamps down on them and pulls them close, no doubt docking them to an airlock or something. Elise's mouth opens and closes like a goldfish as Seven turns in the pilot's chair with a grave expression on his face.
"Prepare to be boarded."
-x-X-x-
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