Agent Varya Romanova

My name is Varya Romanova I'm Russian and I was raised by the KGB specifically a secret operation that didn't collapse known as the red room. I am 15 years old and have been here for as long as I can remember.

For my entire life I have been trained. I had never seen the free world so I never knew what they were doing was wrong. I never fought back and I worked as hard as I could. They ran experiments on me but they didn't on anyone else. I wondered why I was so special but I thought it was because I had been there the longest. When other kids were brought in they were scared and confused. The often tried to escape. It was my job to stop them and convince them that that is a bad idea. I went on my one and only mission that was an assassination when I was eight years old.

"Varya we think you are ready for a mission. Your target is Harold Cook. Read the file for the details. You have two hours." My handler said and through a file on to the ground. I was so excited for my first mission. I picked up the file and read. My name would be Penelope Richards. I would be American. I guess the reason my handler spoke in English was to check my understanding. But I had always been good with languages. We had a sort of school here. This was our days.

Morning – 5:00am – 9:00am training.

9:00am – 9:15am breakfast

9:30am – 10:45am world languages.

10:50am – 12:10pm Science/maths.

12:15pm – 2:30pm History / Social ed. (How to act in public) really just how to manipulate someone

2:45pm – 4:10pm Computer science

4:15pm – 9:30pm training

9:40pm – 9:55pm dinner.

Everyone knew that we had a school system so that when we went undercover we didn't seem completely underdeveloped. It meant we could blend in. we spent only 6 years at the school structure before solely training and going on missions. The school began when we were nine and ended when we were 15. So on this mission I had not started school yet but because I had been there longer than the others I already knew 5 languages including Russian, English, French, Spanish and Chinese. On my mission I would be going in as Harold Cook's son's friend. It went well until the part where I was meant to kill him and a SHIELD agent turned up.

"Put your hands up." The agent says as she comes around the corner. I could take the gun off her but I decide not to as while I am incredibly strong I am not the best fighter I know.

"Who are you?" I ask her when I turn to face her.

"Agent Hill of SHIELD. Who are you?" she asks me.

"Penelope Richards." I say. She looks at me and rolls her eyes but doesn't press.

"Penelope why are you trying to kill Darren Cook?" she asks me.

"Because I was told to." I say simply.

"By whom?" she asks.

"Not telling." I say in a childlike manner. I have never been so childish before.

"Penelope you are here because of his dad yes." She says.

"I am here not for Darren yes." I say. Ok not so amazing at languages that didn't quite make sense but I'm Russian.

"You are here because of how bad he is right." She asks I nod. "But if you kill him you are just as bad. Two wrongs don't make a right Penelope. At SHIELD we draw a line. You haven't crossed it yet and I won't let you. Walk away now and I will let you go." She says. She is trying to appeal to my humanity but unfortunately the room doesn't teach us to be humane.

"But he is bad." I say playing the eight year old card.

"Penelope Killing is wrong. No matter the reason. You don't want to do anything wrong. He is part of a bad organisation. But you can't make that better by becoming them." She says. She was right. I never do anything wrong. It's why I don't get beaten as frequently as the other recruits.

"They might kill me." I say in a low voice. I don't want her to take me away from them but she might just leave me alone and I can do my mission and then regret it later.

"Why should you live if he can't." she says. She is being blunt but she realises that it got through to me. I nod and run off to go home. When I return I get beaten badly but they don't kill me. And I heal very quickly so I am really okay. And they didn't send me on assassination mission after that. Just Intel missions.

Right now I am in my room. Alone. Then my door opens.

"Well Varya you have a roommate." A guard says.

"Great." I say and roll my eyes. I picked that up from an American recruit named Thea.

The guard throws a girl older than me in my room. Well more of a cell but I don't care. She falls to the ground and yells in pain.

"Oh shut up." I say. "Let me look. What hurts." I ask knowing that the guard won't send the doctor.

"My Ankle." The girl responds. I check it and sigh with annoyance.

"It's not even broken. You just sprained it." I say. "Now what's your name?" I ask her so she will calm down as I wrap her ankle with some ripped cloth I keep around for injuries.

"Helena Wells." She says.

"I'm Varya Romanova." I say.