A Paradox Reality

Chapter 13: Tests and Ties

Previously with Renegade:

A few minutes later, Bernadette came back with his new partner. They came in with a mixture of disgust and anger in their expression, their fists clenched into tight knots.

They were familiar.

She was familiar.

Would Adeline ever stop haunting him?

***

"YOU CAN'T DO this!" Adeline insisted. "He's too inexperienced. He's too undisciplined. He's too-"

"Addie, take a breath. He will be your partner, and that's decided," Helia said.

"But-"

"No buts. I don't need you two to get along, I just need you two to work together. That isn't too much to ask, is it Addie?"

Instead of answering, Addie harrumphed. She spun on her heels and slammed the door as she excited the room. Renegade stared at her tracks, unmoving.

"What are you waiting for, boy?" Jace asked. "Get moving!"

Renegade stumbled off, attempting to follow Addie.

"Adeline!" he called. "Look, I'm sorry! I don't know what just happened."

"Go away!" Adeline sniffed, her back facing him.

"Please." She didn't answer. "Oh, come on. Adeline..." Then he muttered, "What's your problem?"

Apparently Adeline had keen ears. "What's my problem?" she snarled. "What's my problem?"

Renegade put his arm around her to somehow comfort her; to make her feel better. She slapped his arm away, and it wasn't a playful punch. It was a hard, stinging slap that made him wince in pain.

Adeline turned to face him. Renegade looked for the tears in her eyes - the lost expression they would hold. He found none. Her cheeks were redder than tomatoes, and her hair was frisky and flying. And her eyes -they sparkled with a fiery anger that had no pit. "You think," she gritted her teeth, "that you can fix everything, don't you? That you can make everything right with the touch of your hand?" She snorted cruelly.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but you can't. You're no magician. You're no doctor. You aren't capable of a single miracle, and I doubt you could fathom something close to what pain the world has out there.

"On top of that, you want to fix a problem that you caused. You know who long it took me to get ranked this high? To be thought so well of by my peers? Let me tell you," she leaned up next his ear, whispering. "Years. Six years of extremely terrifying work. I watched some of my friends die. I watched some of my friends get tortured. And I pushed through the pain. I deserve this job."

She backed away from his ear, her voice rising higher. "And then you come over, and you think 'I can do this. I'm ready to take on such a big responsibility. Adeline has been training years for this, yet I can do this!' And you go right up there and steal my job."

"I didn't-"

"Oh yes, you did. Now imagine every body else! 'Look at Renegade! He's taken Adeline Richards' place!' or, 'The new kid is a pilot with Adeline!' And suddenly, getting up to my rank doesn't seem so hard anymore."

"I wasn't - "

"Listen up, buddy," Adeline said, ignoring him. "I had high hopes for you. I rescued you from a prestige Alliance compound, where Mother Earth nearly killed you. Herself. And it got me thinking, what if he's special? What if he's what the rebellion needs?" She laughed cruelly. "I thought that you might be what we needed — what I needed. As I started to get to know you on the tour, I was amazed. You woke up from a coma, perfectly fine, you didn't look half-bad; you actually out-ran me (for a little while, at least), and you succeeded in getting Bolt off the ground. I never saw how selfish and cruel you could be. I never expected you to persuade Jace and Helia to get you the prestigious job, and I never thought you'd be the one to steal my glory."