Iron Soul [2]

Chapter 17

"You want to what?" Steve refrained from shouting at Ada. 

"Steal whatever this Agamotto thing is so maybe I can be my normal age," she explained. 

"No. Absolutely not. No," he shook his head in disbelief. 

"And why not?" 

"Maybe because stealing is illegal. And you don't know what all it can do. This could kill you for all you know. We don't even know if it can actually help." 

"You don't understand, Steve! I have to do this. I want to be able to live the life I was supposed to be living. Like it or not, it hurts when you come back and the person you love is too old for you to date, or it would be pedophilia." 

"No, I don't know that...I know what it's like for everyone in my life to be dead, and the woman I loved lived a full life and is probably dead . I know what it's like to be forced into a life I didn't want in the first place. This isn't supposed to be my life, but it is and I'm dealing with it." 

Ada paused. She had honestly forgotten about the fact that her and Steve had been through very similar experiences, just his time under as an ice cube was seventy years rather than five. It was a sore spot for both of them. No one dared to bring it up unless one of them did. If you asked Steve, Ada got off easier, but acted as if she had gone through hell and back. 

"Steve, you don't know how much it's killing me," she whispered. 

"No, but I know how much you're acting like your father right now," he retaliated.

Ada's eyes widened as her mouth dropped. While her relationship with her father was considerably better than it had been in 2008, she hated it whenever anyone compared the two. That wound was still trying to heal itself, and the Tony that existed five years ago was everything she aspired to not be. They had their differences, and even though their relationship was much healthier now, she absolutely loathed it when they compared the two. 

"Fine. If you won't help me, I'll do it myself." She grabbed her jacket off the coast rack and headed for the door of the apartment. 

"Ada, wait-" she slammed the door before he could finish. 

She stood and leaned against the door. Her shoulders rose and fell as she tried to calm herself. She had enough training, enough skill, she helped her dad out all the time, and she had just helped her dad defeat the Mandarin. On top of that, she had these weird powers as well.

She started to head down the stairs when a familiar voice stopped her. 

"Rough day?" a deep voice asked. 

She looked up to see Jackson standing there. 

"What are you doing here?" she stood in disbelief. "How'd you know?" 

"I was in New York. Went to the Avengers Tower to talk to you. Tony said you were here, gave me the address and everything." 

He bounced slightly on the balls of his feet as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. 

"I had a few days off. That's turned into a few hours now." 

"I would love to be able to talk to you, but I'm kinda in the middle of something right now. But trust me," she finished making her way down the stairs and stood next to him. "When I'm done, everything will go back to the way it should be."

"What are you talking about?" he asked. 

"I'm going to fix myself. I want the life I was supposed to have, and I found my way to get it," she leaned up and kissed his cheek. "I'll come see you as soon as I'm done."

She began to walk outside when he called out. 

"You better!" 

He hung his head and chuckled as he thought of the mess that was Adalene Stark

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Hacking in the SHIELD was never easy, it was even harder when she had been ignorant enough to leave her laptop at the apartment.  So she would have access to a computer, she went into the apple store and began hacking through SHIELD's firewalls.She had the hood on her jacket pulled over her head and had a pair of glasses on so nobody would recognize her. She was completely engrossed in her work when a voice spooked her. 

"I'm pretty sure Cap would be disappointed in this too. I don't think he's the biggest fan of hacking either."

Her eyes darted to her side where she found a red head standing there. She recognized this woman as the Black Widow, or Natasha Romanoff.

"I hacked into the Pentagon when I was eleven, I think whatever I find now is the least of your concerns."

"Well you were pretty smart with turning off he tracer system SHIELD has encoded whenever anyone tries to hack the system, but Steve told me where he thought you would be."

The red head looked over the younger girl's shoulder as she looked at what the girl was looking at.

"The eye of what?"

"Agamotto, I don't know what it can do, but apparently it can manipulate time. If it can manipulate time, then it can cause me to age forward."

"Or backwards."

"Yes, but I don't want to do that. I want it to make me older."

"You know most people would pay to have the opposite done," she reminded the younger girl. "Where is it?"

"Working on that now."

"Are you stealing it or what?"

"No, just borrowing it and then putting it back once I'm done."

"Sounds kinda like stealing," the red head quirked a brow.

"It's not stealing if I give it back." 

Ada was getting fed up with all of Natasha's questions, but what else did she expect from one of the world's best spies. 

"Do you even know how to use it?"

"No, but I plan to learn how."

"Do you know anything about the eye of...whatever?"

"I know where it is," the brunette smirked as she finished typing on the computer. 

"And that is?" 

"Kamar-Taj. Kathmandu, Nepal."