Toxic | Steve Rogers

Chapter Thirty-One: Keep your enemies close and your friends closer

Adora's POV
I woke up to the sound of the auto-pilot alerting me. My eyes fluttered open with a start, and I got up numbly to turn off the noise that had interrupted my sleep. Steve stirred, his eyes opening drowsily, and focusing on me. A smile stretches across his face, and he closed his eyes again. I smiled to myself, my heart warming.

My eyes searched around for the problem with the controls, but the plane was steady and heading in the right direction. Confused, I slipped into the pilot's seat, turning auto-pilot off, and steering the plane myself. The noise stopped, and I relaxed, my shoulders slumping downwards.

I flew the plane for a couple of minutes, enjoying the quiet sound of Steve dozing behind me. I realized suddenly. that I couldn't sense his thoughts in my mind. And I wasn't even trying to block them. I frown to myself, entering his mind as discreetly as I could. A swirl of thoughts swamped my mind, and I blinked a couple of times to get myself to focus.

Steve's thoughts shot through my mind so quick, that I could barely understand what they were. Although his thoughts were fast, he was relaxed, granted that he was indeed sleeping. But the fact that his thoughts were coming in so fast, was what bothered me. It was like his brain was fast-forwarding through all the thought processes he was going to go through while sleeping.

Images of people from his past showed up, making my chest clench. Peggy. Bucky. The two people were constantly with him, whether he realized they were or not.

My hand jerked the controls, startling me from my trance. I removed myself from his mind, trying to put my focus back on the open air in front of me. My mind drifted to another part of me that was dying to be thought about.

Natasha.

I wasn't surprised to find only vague words in her note, mostly because that was just how she was. But how did she know we had a traitor? And why not just tell me? I knew that Natasha would only leave so quickly, and leave such a meaningless note, for one reason.

The stakes were too high.

And when the stakes where too high, she made quick, senseless decisions, to protect those who deserved protecting. Deserved. My sister only took drastic measures during even more drastic times. The last time she had done something like this, was when Fury faked his death.

My heart stopped abruptly.

The last time she had done something like this was, Fury's death. I could feel my mind going numb in realization.

When she had first contacted me after years of no sign of her, I knew there was trouble. And she had left me a note just like this time, but the note had meant nothing. Only in hindsight did I realize what clues she left for me. In places I hadn't seen before. My mind zoomed back over to Steve's thought process, and this time I put on the auto-pilot, needing concentration.

I pushed my way to the core of Steve's thoughts, forcing sleep to keep Steve drugged. A certain memory was flashing through the center of his mind. One of Natasha and him, driving in a car to an unknown place. Her feet were up on the dashboard, and she was giving Steve one of her signature smirks. I knew that she was helping Steve when S.H.I.E.L.D fell. My eyes traveled to the outside of the car, and I watched the signs pass by, frustrated with what I was seeing. Just when I thought the memory was worthless, a sign flashed by.

The sign read N. Rushman.

Nancy Rushman. The air left my body as pure fear spread through me. There was no way. How she had even gotten that in Steve's memory was beyond me, but the fact that she was telling me about that left me in the dust.

I leaped into action, getting out of the pilot's seat, and shaking Steve.

"Steve! Steve!" I exclaimed, shaking him roughly. His eyes opened, wide and bright.

"What?" he said grumpily. I brushed off his tone. "We can't go back. We have to find Natasha" I tell him in a rush, and he looks up at me with a confused look.

"Why not? And why do we need to find her?" I shook my head. "I'll explain later. I need you tell me how to find her" Steve shook his head. "She said she wanted to be off the grid for the mission. We have no way of finding her" Steve said, his eyes watching me suspiciously.

I curse under my breath. So this was how she was doing it.

"Steve" I murmured, my voice dangerously calm. Steve looked up at me, his eyes worried.

"What? What's wrong, Adora?" he asked. I shook my head, holding me arm out.

"Natasha's not on a mission to find Banner. She's on a mission to find the Tesseract"

(Just when you thought this book couldn't get any better.......you're welcome...)

Unknown POV
My eyes are fixed on the glowing, blue prism in front of me. My transfixion with the object has been going on for days. I've sat in this dark, empty room for decades, waiting to see the thing I've created come to life. My brother brought it to me, with a dark and evil glint in his eyes when he presented it to me. His dark, raven black hair had shined from the glow of the powerful object.

"It is yours, my sister" he had told me, his voice smooth and clean. I had taken it, and locked myself away. Now here I was, illuminated by it's light.

I'm wanted and on the run.

They were close to finding me out, but I knew it would be hard for the powerful one to convince the old one. I had been watching them for some time now, and their moves were exceptionally constant. I closed my eyes, using the Tesseract's power to bring blue wisps of energy around my fingertips.

I brought a memory to my fingers, feeling it on the soft pads of fingers, electricity sparking up my spine. The red-haired one was with the old one, her feet up, and a smirk settling on her face. I stopped the memory, at a sign. It said something in the human's english, With the flick of my fingers, I switched the letters.

It had said N. Rushman.

The message would be understood. Sudden'y the girl entered the old one's mind, wiping my presence away.

Bitterness fills me at this new aspect of my powers. I had been so close, and the memory had disappeared before my touch, blue tendrils swirling around my fingertips.

It was not a loss though. I still had the chance of manipulating her, and finding the red-haired one. She was tricky to find, that one. I had been searching for her for quite some time. Every time I thought I was one step ahead of her, I was three steps behind.

Yes, she was a tricky one. Always slipping out of my fingers like water. But I had a feeling her sister would be easier to catch. She had a weakness.

More than one.

I could sense the connection between the old one and the powerful one. All I had to do was sever it. Her connection to the red-haired one was less strong, no matter their relations. It seemed that she only connected with those she loved.

I sat up from my precious, glowing prism. It would help me.

And the only thing standing in my way was her power.