Revelations

The runways were littered with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, scrambling up and down the Helicarrier as they ran checks on various equipment in preparation for takeoff. Adelina stood inside the command center, quietly observing the chaos from the window, when she noticed a Quinjet landing near the hangar. She watched as Natasha Romanoff strutted in its direction, her red hair a glare amongst the sun’s rays. The woman stopped short of the ramp as two men stepped towards her - Phil Coulson and Steve Rogers.

Adelina rolled her eyes in annoyance as she turned around, not looking forward to being in the same room with the legendary Captain America. Their first and only interaction had been almost a year ago, when Adelina had been tasked with covertly assessing his emotional state. Given that Steve Rogers was the epitome of high-strung upon waking from an ice coma after nearly seventy years, it was quite obvious that spending any amount of time, no matter how short, with someone bearing a personality such as Adelina’s, would create problems. It didn’t help that the man had a moral compass of a Saint, a striking contrast to Adelina’s own philosophy. It seemed that this entire ordeal would be a massive test of her patience.

A flurry of activity inside the bridge of the command center caught her attention as she sauntered towards the doors. There was a cacophony of noises as buttons were pressed and switches were flipped, and then suddenly, the Helicarrier was rising, slowly but surely, over the ocean. Nick Fury brushed by her, sending her a curt nod of approval as he acknowledged her choice to stay. She remained passive, positioning herself in front of the railing that overlooked the rows of computers and fellow agents as she awaited orders.


“We’re at level, sir,” Maria Hill declared, turning towards the senior agent.

“Good. Let’s vanish,” Fury ordered with a nod of his head. His gaze raked across the room as he seemed to be plotting the next course of action. The Helicarrier had quickly reached the clouds, merging into the sky as the exterior of the ship transformed into panels of reflecting mirrors, effectively camouflaging it midair.

The sound of the doors opening caught Adelina’s attention. She turned to see Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner cautiously step into the room, giving it a once over before Fury addressed them.

“Gentlemen,” he greeted as Rogers pulled some cash from his pocket, slipping it into Fury’s hand. Adelina furrowed her brows, wondering what that was about, as Fury turned towards Banner. “Doctor, thank you for coming.”

“Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh… How long am I staying?” Banner asked, his eyes shifting almost nervously throughout the room. His discomfort was evident enough without Adelina’s ability to pry, but she released the tethers of power anyways, roaming gently over the man as she searched for an inkling of the monster that resided within him.

“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you’re in the clear,” Fury assured him.

“Where are you with that?” Bruce inquired, a second before his eyes darted towards Adelina, as if a part of him could feel her energy upon him. She reigned it in as she strolled in the trio’s direction.

“Nowhere close,” she muttered as Fury turned to Coulson to discuss facial recognition procedures.

“And who are you?” Banner asked, eyeing her wearily. She caught Rogers’ eye as he crossed his arms, almost like an attempt to shield himself from her.

“Agent Tanase. Pleasure to meet you, Dr. Banner.” And she meant it. Adelina had been hoping for a chance to meet the famed scientist since she was a teenager, nurturing a growing desire for the field of science. Not to mention, the fact that he endured an excessively large exposure of gamma radiation and lived to tell the tale with the hulk of a consequence intrigued her more than anything. The doctor stared at her a second longer before reaching for the hand that she had extended, responding with a quick but firm shake as she smiled up at him in such an unusual manner that Rogers narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion. Dropping Banner’s hand, she nodded swiftly at the other man. “Rogers.”

“Agent Tanase.” That was the end of those pleasantries as she followed his gaze to find Fury and Coulson, now a few feet from them.

“We’re sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet,” Coulson explained. “Cellphones, laptops… If it’s connected to a satellite, it’s eyes and ears for us.”

“That’s still not going to find them in time,” Adelina interjected, ignoring Fury’s look of annoyance as she crossed her arms.

“You have to narrow the field,” Banner supplied, walking a few feet towards the men. “How many spectrometers do you have access to?”

“How many are there?” Fury inquired.

“Call every lab you know - tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I’ll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition.” The look of confusion on Fury’s face caused Adelina to smile in amusement before he quickly recovered his stoic facade as Banner continued. “At lease we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?”

“Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?” Fury requested, his eyes moving directly behind Adelina. She rolled her eyes as she turned to face the Black Widow, herself. Natasha Romanoff sent her a sly smile and a quick wink of her eye before leading Banner down the hall. The remainder of the group dispersed as Rogers followed Fury across the bridge and into another sector of the ship, and Coulson returned to speak with some of the other agents.

With nothing else to occupy her time, Adelina found herself claiming one of the rooms aboard the ship as her own, quickly stripping herself of her dust-covered clothes and walking into the bathroom. As she caught her reflection in the mirror, she let loose a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, and watched as her hair fell gently against her shoulders, the dark strands a stark contrast against her fair complexion, but nothing compared to the raised skin directly above her heart, a perfect circle the shade of a plum.

Regardless of the birthmark, Adelina knew she was beautiful, at least by societal standards, but that had never mattered to her. It was yet another one of her talents, a tool for her to use to her advantage. She had, however, always wondered about which of her parents were responsible for the purple swirls of light that hid beneath the whites of her eyes, the shades of violet that consumed her irises when her mood took a sudden change; she yearned to know which of them had gifted her with the sharp turn of her nose, her Cupid’s bow lips. Often, she wondered which of her parents were responsible for the overwhelming power that surged within her - and if they carried it to the same extent, or if they would be fearful of her much like her adoptive parents had been. Sometimes, she hoped that they no longer lived, that she would never be destined to find them, just to avoid that single possibility - to avoid the pain of yet another loss. But most of the time, she hoped that they were alive and well, and searching for her just as she was for them.

Later that evening, after a soothing shower and rejuvenating few hours of sleep, Adelina lounged across one of the chairs in the command center, her feet resting along the table in front of her as she quietly observed her surroundings, listening in amusement as Phil Coulson shamelessly badgered Steve Rogers for his autograph.

“We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match.” The declaration pulled her from her chair as the agent continued. “Wait… cross-match, seventy-nine percent.” She was beside the agent’s monitor in seconds as Coulson appeared behind her.

“Location?”

“Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He’s not exactly hiding.”

“Captain, you’re up.” Adelina had barely noticed Fury’s arrival as she had been focused entirely on the image of Loki before her, his face easily recognizable as he sauntered past a camera, as if he was purposely leading them to find him. She turned away from the monitor, intending to follow Rogers, before Fury blocked her path. “Agent Romanoff will be accompanying Captain Rogers. You’ll remain here for now.”

“Why?” Adelina demanded, quickly moving to follow as he climbed the steps, heading towards the top level of the command center. Not only was she confused, but she was growing angrier every second he denied her an answer. It was only after he had carefully assessed the coordinates displayed on the monitor in front of him that he acknowledged her.

“You had your shot at him earlier - give them a chance to do what you failed to.” Adelina scoffed in disbelief, her nails digging crescents into the palms of her hands as he refused to meet her gaze.

“We both know that I’m the most equipped to handle something like this. You practically forced me into being here for this exact reason, even after he escaped. So if you’re going to give me some bullshit excuse, at least make it somewhat believable.” She paused as he remained turned away from her, preparing her next words carefully. “Don’t forget that I know you, Fury. I know how you get off on making others feel inferior, how you think that you know more - know better - than everyone else. You want to place blame on me for my arrogance, my carelessness, but you remain ignorant to your own faults - and that is what will cause this mission to fail in the end.” Part of her knew it was futile to attempt to change Fury’s mind with such condescension, but that wasn’t entirely the point. Her anger enveloped her like a second skin, and if her words didn’t show that, the deep pools of color that expanded from her pupils, so dark they appeared almost as black as the night sky, did. She wanted nothing more than to tear the man to shreds, if not with her hands, then with her words.

Rather than wait for a response, however, Adelina turned and fled the room. She needed something to do, something to occupy herself with as she wrestled against the unbridled rage that had washed over her. She quickly found herself in the training room, facing one of the sandbags strung from the rafters of the ceiling above her. She didn’t feel a thing as her bare knuckles landed punch after punch against the leather - didn’t care enough to acknowledge the blood that began trickling down her wrists, the faint smell of iron wafting through the air.

For someone so powerful, she felt almost powerless - useless in the face of war. Fury was angry with her for Loki’s escape - that much, she knew. But it did not warrant his decision to deny her a chance for redemption. As much as she wanted to stay, to honor their agreement and retrieve the answers she was promised, she was tired - tired of being controlled, of allowing herself to be controlled when she knew that she was capable of so much more. She needed something different. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it certainly wasn’t this.

Once the smell of iron and stickiness of dried blood became unbearable to her senses, Adelina returned to her room. She scrubbed at the red stains that covered her hands and forearms, wincing slightly as the water infiltrated the slowly closing wounds. She watched the lines form across her knuckles, her skin stitching itself together as if with magic, before drying her hands and moving towards the bed, where she retrieved her laptop from her bag. She quickly hacked into the servers from the control room, and pulled the live feed from Rogers’ suit as well as the Quinjet’s comm system.

It seemed that the fight had already ended as Rogers stood across from the Asgardian with none other than Tony Stark by his side. Adelina rolled her eyes, a small smile tugging at her lips. Though Adelina didn’t like most people, the playboy philanthropist had a sense of humor she quite enjoyed, as well as a clear distaste for Fury’s tactics that rivaled her own.

Curious as to the details of the fight, Adelina pulled the recordings from Rogers’ feed, rewinding to his entrance among a crowd of German citizens, kneeling in front of the so-called god. She watched as Steve Rogers dodged Loki’s scepter before Stark’s Ironman appeared, ready to assist. Together, the two were able to corner Loki on a set of stairs before he fell to the ground.

“Make your move, Reindeer Games.” Adelina rolled her eyes at the nickname Stark had provided. Fitting, she thought, raising her eyebrows at the horned frame of the Asgardian’s helmet before the material began to fade amongst a shimmer of golden light as he raised his hands in surrender.

Adelina’s brows furrowed, inquisitively. She replayed the fight once more, analyzing the lack of true effort on Loki’s end, much different from how he had handled their initial encounter. It didn’t make sense - the way he so easily allowed himself to be captured, as if he never intended to escape this time. She slammed the laptop shut, tossing it to the side before slipping on her shoes and exiting the room, heading straight for the command center in search of Fury.

He was standing across from one of the larger monitors, watching the live feed that she hadn’t yet seen. She didn’t so much as glance at it before speaking.

“He has a plan. He didn’t surrender because he had to - he surrendered because he needed to.” Fury unlinked his hands from behind his back, turning towards her with his usual somber demeanor.

“I’m aware,” Fury assured, nodding his head slightly as his gaze flitted across the room. “Which is exactly why we’re going to play into it - determine what exactly he seeks to find while he’s here.”

“I can get inside his head,” Adelina proposed, wishing to end this war as quickly as possible.

“I have another method I’d like to attempt first, but if that fails then we’ll discuss it,” Fury declared, lips pressed in a thin line as he waited for another outburst from the young woman. Although the remnants of her anger itched to be acknowledged, she merely laughed, a cold and menacing sound.

“Of course,” she exclaimed, looking at the paneled ceiling above her before meeting his gaze, violet swirls of light swimming in her eyes. “Why use me when there’s clearly someone more qualified?” Her tone shook with feral sarcasm.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but in order for you to get inside his head, you need to touch him,” Fury asserted, nodding as Adelina remained silent in confirmation. “Considering we don’t yet know the extent of his own abilities, I would prefer to start with something that does not involve putting one of my agents in a cage with someone as unpredictable as he is. If this method doesn’t work, then we’ll look at other options.”

Adelina pursed her lips, debating whether or not it was worth it to contend with his decision, when she noticed his gaze slip past her. She turned towards the glass window beside the doors, watching intently as the God of Chaos, himself, adorned in his green and black armor, sauntered through the hallway, shielded by a group of agents as they escorted him to his cell. She stilled as he caught her eye, his own evanescent blue orbs staring back at her with that familiar, untamed intensity that they had while in the tunnel, a hint of a smirk flitting across his face. Her breath caught in her throat as a shiver ran down her spine.

If it wasn’t obvious before, it was now - Loki was exactly where he wanted to be.