𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

𝐯

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐘 comments over comms, and soldiers beaten up. A pretty average mission, but with more firepower it seemed from the opposing side.

'They couldn't have mounted a defence like this without it.' Adelaide commented, as she spun around a soldier and kicked him in the knees.

'You're right, Loki's Sceptre must be inside, at long last.' Thor concluded over comms. Adelaide ran towards another soldier, drew her dagger from her suit and stabbed the man in the neck and watched as he bled out, staining the snow.

'Happy Birthday, Addie, by the way.' Tony said over comms as he blew up a soldier. Adelaide giggled.

'Thankyou.'

The fight carried on for a while, until a yell over comms broke their violent harmony.

'Clint's hit!' Nat cried, as she rushed over to help her friend. Adelaide could see it all happening from the tree she had now decided to rest in. She had accidentally torn one of the soldiers completely in half with her mind when she had got too overwhelmed, forcing his eyes to depart from his face, and she thought up where no one could see or bother her would be the best place to stay.

Until she saw (or rather didn't see) what hit Clint. At that point she wasn't quite sure whether it was a 'what' or rather a 'who', as a wave of blue sped past her, before returning and standing below her tree.

'Ah, an American. In a.... tree. Fascinating. Do all the Avengers do this?' He snarked, a smirk painted onto his face and white hair laid messily over his face.

'I'm not American, you twat.' She replied quickly, to his surprise. 'Now run off, before I do the same to you as I did to him.' She pointed down at the torn up soldier, which the man hadn't even noticed.

'So that was you?' He asked, before speeding over so he was kneeling down over the body. 'You and I... We'll get along I think' His thick Sokovian accent laced through his delicate words.

A girl ran to his side.

'Pietro, let's go now.' She begged, as she pulled on the boy's arm, not noticing the girl above her. Pietro looked at his sister, then looked back up at Adelaide, causing the girl to notice her.

'Who's this? An Avenger?' She asked, narrowing her eyes at Adelaide and gripping her brother's shirt tighter as she attempted to read Adelaide's mind.

'Of sorts, Wanda.' Pietro responded, gaze still fixed on the girl with white hair.

'Right, let me get this straight, you need to stop trying to poke around in my head, Princess,' She started, nodding her head towards Wanda. 'Because it's simply not. Going. To work. And you need to back the hell up, before I tear your legs off. How fast do you think you will be able to run then?' She asked rhetorically, snarling at the twins. Who both wore a very different expression.

They then were both gone, with a simple swirling streak of blue.

'Oh shit like, in half in half?' Nat asked, attempting to hide a small smile creeping onto her face. The team had successfully recovered the Sceptre and were on their way back to the tower in the Quinjet.

'Yes, in half in half! God it was a nightmare...' Adelaide complained, her head in her hands and her hands running through her long white hair. Nat lay her hand on Adelaide's back, sending a shiver down her spine.

'Nah, come on I bet it was badass' Natasha nodded and smiled while imagining the scene in her head. Adelaide looked up at the rest of the team, at Clint lying on the table. She tried to feel sympathetic, but all she could think about was the twins.

Natasha noticed her daydreaming and stared at her for a while, attempting to figure out what on earth had caught her attention. She figured Adelaide was just tired, so as soon as they got back to the tower, Nat walked Addie to her room.

'You going to the party?' Adelaide questioned, sitting on her bed as Natasha was about to leave. Nat looked behind her at the girl, hand rested on the top of the door frame.

'Yes, but if you need anything, you know where to find me.' She replied coolly. 'And you know you can train whenever you want during the party, if you need a release, just use the back way, we can't have anyone seeing you.'

Adelaide smiled softly, she knew that people weren't allowed to know she was there, it would jeopardise her safety, and the press would be all over her, so it wasn't just her own well-being she was thinking about. She was mostly thinking now was that she felt like hanging out with Pepper. They could watch a movie or bake something, but then she remembered that she was out running the business.

After Natasha left her room, Adelaide wandered over to her draws where she pulled out a sports bra and leggings, the one other thing she was able to do in this prison of a home was train. To be honest, it was better when no one was spying on her, and she knew they would all be at the party, so she felt free to experiment how she liked with her abilities, without the weight of anyone's safety weighing on her shoulders.

She walked slowly past the room everyone was drinking and dancing in, and gazed in amazement at how fun and upbeat it looked and for a moment she wished to join them. But that thought quickly past her as she made her way around the winding corridors of the tower until she finally was in the gym.

Adelaide started off just hitting the punching bag, her punches echoing off the steel walls of the room. However once she had gone through 3 bags, she found herself quite bored, so she started up target practise.

Using her hands, she began creating energy within her fingers, adding different components to it like lightning and fire until her hand became so full she decided to release it at the dummy across the room from her. What resulted was a large crash as her target completely disintegrated onto a pile of ash on the floor.

Ash.

Adelaide immediately was taken back to the other planet. The ash on that planet. How her touch had just-

She hated herself for it, but her eyes stayed fixed on the ash and tears began pouring out her eyes and her knees became weak from holding up her body. Adelaide fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably as she remembered everything as if it was yesterday.

How young she was, but how old she must have looked to those children, those mothers and sons and daughters that she had wiped from existence. The walls around her began to fizz and heat up to the point that when Tony came rushing in to see what the problem was, he had to get Thor to retrieve Addie as he was the only one able to withstand the fiery interior.

Her body shivered in the god's arms as she cried until her eyes felt as if they were going to bleed.

'Stark?' Thor asked, getting nervous with the girl in his arms, as Tony looked at Adelaide with a tear forming in his eye. Stark swiftly placed his rectangular sunglasses on his face to cover any emotion.

'Run her a cold bath, then call Natasha.' Tony instructed, choking back the lump in his throat, before turning around and returning to the party.