𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

𝐱

𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐃. They finally knew, and as Adelaide finally began to wake up, unaware of what the team and twins had just seen, she smiled at Tony. But he couldn't bare to look at her, not able to process what he'd just witnessed. The genocide of an entire planet.

Natasha, Clint, they'd all seen from their respective places on the ship. Adelaide read Tony's mind from where she lay on the floor, and realised suddenly what had just happened when she wasn't conscious. Fear filled her body, fear that the worst thing that ever could've happened, had happened. They now all saw her for what she really was, a monster. She stopped breathing for a moment, before she heard a voice speak softly in her head, everything else around her suddenly became muffled.

'It's alright, I'm here.' Wanda spoke softly to her telekinetically, hearing the anxiety in Adelaide's mind.

'They hate me.' Adelaide commented in her own head. She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked behind her to see Wanda smiling at her reassuringly. The battle commenced behind them, fires shot everywhere around them, but all they were focused on was each other, the sound of their breaths in each other's heads. The silence of their content echoing in their mind's as they both felt everything the other did.

Wanda extended her hand to Adelaide, a calm expression on her face and an unspoken understanding between the girls. Adelaide placed her hand on Wanda's, the metal from her rings making Adelaide shiver slightly. They both stood opposite from each other, not a word spoken. Before suddenly a man with a gun who worked for Klaue raced towards them, they turned around and together used their powers to trip him over and fling him over their heads. More guards ran up to them and the pair both stayed in each other's head's, connected as Wanda's crimson energy flung the guns in the air and Adelaide created large shadows which slowly choked the men until they were dead and purple on the floor.

Wanda placed her hands on her knee as she knelt down and Adelaide ran onto her hands and jumped off, Wanda then supporting her in the air with scarlet mist. Adelaide landed in the middle of a group of soldiers, killing them all instantly as she landed on the ground.

Adelaide turned to Wanda, her blue eyes staring at the girl opposite her, who was still ever present in her mind, just as she was in Wanda's. Addie saw a man run from behind Wanda, a large hunting knife in his raised hand. Before he was even able to reach within a metre of Wanda, Adelaide snapped her finger next to her side, snapping the man's neck and making him fall onto the floor.

Wanda gasped at the noise and looked behind her and saw the soldier lying on the metal floor. She turned around to look at Adelaide, but was met with just an open door, not a trace left behind of Addie in Wanda's head.

Her feet were quiet on the floor as Adelaide ran into the outside of the boat, shadow seeping off of her like smoke. She sprinted until she reached a green forest and the quinjet her friends had arrived in. Adelaide crouched next to the jet, eyes melting shadow out of them. She couldn't stop it, it just flowed out of her control, covering her arms in a black tar like substance.

Clint saw her there as he approached with a shaken Natasha. Wanda had been messing around with the agent's mind. Adelaide noticed him walking towards her, hands bloody, and she shuffled away from him in haste. Fear tainted her blue eyes.

'Don't!' She shouted at him. 'Please, don't come any closer....' He looked at her, a small smile on his face.

'It's alright, you're okay.' He assured. She shook her head and put her shaking hands out in front of her. Black smoke tumbled out and off of them, poisoning the forest floor around her. Adelaide looked up at Clint, tears in her eyes.

'I can't stop it...' She whimpered.

'I'll look after you, just please, Addie, come inside the Quinjet.' Clint pleaded with her, out stretching his hand. Addie looked at his hand, then back up at his face, where she was met with a friendly smile and warm eyes. She reached for his hand, the smoke rolling down her arm and disappearing from her hand, then from her arm, until the last drop fell onto the grass. He took her hand in his and helped her up, still holding Natasha close to his side. They walked into the jet and he sat both girls down next to each other.

'She's been hit. Bad.' He told Adelaide as she held onto Natasha's hand, who was looking at the floor not acknowledging anyone. She was lost and trapped inside her own mind, reliving memories of a time she had longed to forget. Adelaide nodded at Clint's remark, closing her eyes in solemn.

'Can you help her?' She looked up at Clint as he asked. Adelaide gazed at her friend, who was completely bewildered by her own thoughts. Adelaide wanted to help, she wanted to stop Natasha hurting, like the spy had always done for her. But her fear kept her chained to her doubt like a prisoner.

'I'd poison her if I tried to enter her mind.' She excused, staring into Nat's eyes, but Clint wasn't convinced. He sat down next to her.

'I've seen you in her mind before, I've even felt you in my own. Please, that kid really did a number on her.' Clint attempted to persuade Adelaide, who then sighed and closed her eyes, connecting with Natasha.

The first thing she saw was a ballet room. With girl's dancing gracefully on a wooden floor, their shoes making small taps on the floor.

'Natasha?' She called out, but to no reply. Her vision then stopped being her own, as her eyes were suddenly Natasha's. Adelaide saw things not from her own perspective but from her friend's, and things immediately made more sense to Adelaide, as she experienced Natasha's memories as if they were her own, feeling the pain of the red room.

Clint laughed hollowly at Tony.

'She looked to you for guidance, and you turned away from her!' He shouted to the Iron Man, who was leaning on the table in the middle of the Quinjet. Clint steered the jet as he argued with Stark. Adelaide was still in Natasha's mind, and was unaware of her surroundings and the rest of the team on the jet.

'Oh, I'm sorry, did you not see what I saw?' Tony asked Clint, not looking for an answer. 'She murdered them, Barton. No matter if she was forced to or not, she couldn't control herself and she killed a entire planet! Billions of beings, just like that.' He wiped his brow and then looked over at Adelaide, who's eyes were still closed as she wandered Nat's mind. He shook his head and looked at the floor.

Barton scoffed, not believing what he was hearing. He lifted his hands from the controls, triggering auto-pilot, and spun his chair to face Tony.

'So now what then? You lock her back up in the tower?' He asked shaking his head.

'No.' Tony responded.

'I don't think she should be an Avenger.'