Loki left a little later than usual, as he has a feeling Thor is catching on.
For once, this was an interesting predicament, as he wanted to tell his brother about Adria, but the woman still refused to talk to them. He hopes today he could change her mind.
Loki walked into the usual meeting spot under the parking garage and saw Viola sitting on the stone pillar, alone. "Ah, Loki, you're here, Adria will be here momentarily, she wants to show you something, she was very adamant about it last night to me."
"Really? She wants to show me something now?"
"Well, you showed her the Tesseract, I guess she wants to show you something now? I don't wholly agree, but I trust her judgment, and you have been kind, thus far, so I guess I trust you too."
"I don't know whether to tell you that you putting trust in me is a mistake or the fact that you said I'm kind shocks me."
"It shocks me also." Viola mused, and Loki chuckled. It was quiet for a moment and there was no Adria.
"Loki, I saw some soldiers this morning, we are going to leave today, but if something happens to me, make sure Adria doesn't leave New York, and promise me you will protect her, because you're the only one here that I even placed a small trust in, she can't do this fight alone, please." Viola sighed, with an obvious burden on her mind, and Loki stood the frozen, shocked by her words.
Though, before Loki could answer, the clatter of boots on concrete broke the silence and broke the stupor Loki was in. Adria walked with a large, green canvas bag, and then she looked at the two suspiciously, "what's going on?"
"Oh, Viola was telling me about how you were going to leave today." Loki replied softly, and Adria gave Loki a sad smile. "Yeah, saw some guards, it's probably for the best if I ran, sadly, but I actually liked hanging out with you." Adria replied with a smile, lightly punching Loki in the arm.
Loki chuckled and smiled back, "me too, but she also told me you wanted to..." Loki trailed, looking behind Adria causing his smile to fall and the words to die on his tongue.
"Thor, I can explain..." Loki started as Adria spun on her heel, but Loki walked in front of Adria as Thor walked up with an angry look on his face. "What, that you and Adria are old friends? Loki, you betrayed Stark's trust in you, it took a lot of him to trust you to find this woman."
"Oh, and don't talk about 'this woman' like she's not here!" Adria scoffed, coming from behind Loki to stand next to him. "Well, Thor, surprising as it is, I have been helping her, her mind was programmed to think the Avengers were out to destroy the world, I helped reverse those thoughts." Loki replied in defense, and Thor became quiet in thought before turning his focus on Adria.
"It's true, he has been helping me, I had planned today to go to the Avengers, but there are people after me and they are here, I need to leave." Adria stated, and Thor calmed down immediately, his face in thought. "Well, the least you can do is tell them is why you killed that man on the night of the party."
"Oh, Dr. Bates? Fine, I can do that, but I leave tonight, I don't want to endanger anybody." Adria stated, and Thor started to walk away.
Thor made it to the entrance before turning, "I meant now, we are going to the facility right now." Thor stated, sounding more like a command, and the two complied by following quickly behind, Viola following right behind Adria.
The three of them walked down an alleyway, Adria looking defeated and Loki feeling bad. Which slightly surprised Loki, as he felt bad for Adria, though he was also surprised to find out that she had planned on speaking to the Avengers.
It ended quickly, as they stepped out, two gunshots rang out, hitting the side of the wall near Adria's face, who jumped back. "It's the Sentries, wait, no, it's not them, it's the- oh sh-" Adria started, though was interrupted as another shot rang out and whizzed by Adria's ear.
Thor picked up his hands to cause a spark, but Adria stopped him, "do you plan to kill fifteen-year-olds? No, I don't think so."
"Are they really fifteen?" Thor questioned with doubt, and Adria gave him a look, then turned to Loki, "wow, you really didn't tell him anything."
"How was I without giving you away? How was I going to tell him the whole army are children?" Loki exasperated, shaking his head. Another shot rang out, making the three back up farther into the alley. Thor put his hands down, "then what is your plan, Adria?"
Though Adria wasn't listening, instead she was muttering about 'Viola', 'stone', and 'leaves'. "Adria, what are you talking about?" Loki questioned, though Viola ran through his legs, jumping in front of Adria with a mouthful of green leaves. Adria's eyes lit up, "Viola! Good, you're here." Adria exclaimed, taking off a necklace from Viola and carefully taking the leaves from her mouth. "This is not a smart idea, using the stone in front of them."
"Do we have another choice, Viola?" Adria whispered, undoing the loop in the necklace to make the necklace longer and put it on herself. "What is that stone?" Loki questioned, and Adria smiled, despite the danger, "the object I wanted to show you." Adria replied simply, taking a few more leaves from the pocket of the canvas bag before crushing them in one hand; she hid her hands behind her back before turning around.
Rushed footsteps came from behind them before revealing armed soldiers in bullet-proof vests and helmets with steel armor in places. Though one stepped forward, an automatic rifle in hand, he took off his helmet.
He was redheaded, blue-eyed, but slightly tanned from constantly being outdoors, and Adria grimaced, "oh, you, hello again Roger."
"Ah, a grand time when I was told to come to New York to either bring you back alive or dead, preferably alive."
"Aw, that's cute, they want me alive?" Adria replied to Roger's smug look, which quickly turned cold and hard. "They never said I couldn't bring you back damaged." Roger spoke coldly, raising his hands for an order, but then the stone reacted.
The stone glowed, the color of a golden sun before turning back to normal, making the soldiers take a step back, ready to run if needed. When Adria opened her hands, Loki expected crushed leaves to fall out, but instead, it was a green, glass swarm. The swarm was small butterflies, and it flew above Adria together into one large swarm. Adria backed up as the swarm rushed forward at the frightened soldiers, cutting at Roger's face and the soldiers' hands with razor wings.
"Let's go!" Adria shouted, grabbing Thor's and Loki's hands as she ran past them, tugging at their shocked forms. The brothers watched the scene till they were pulled out of the alleyway, the both of them gaining their senses once more. Viola ran up to Adria as Thor quickly talked to Loki, "I can distract them," Viola stated, holding a plain, small stone in her mouth and dropping it into Adria's hand. "Loki taught you how to do illusions, how to make things look different, do it, make this stone look like the one around your neck." Adria was indecisive but then nodded her head, focusing her power into the plain stone too look like the rainbow one on the necklace.
Viola took it then and bolted at the soldiers, running under their legs. Thor grabbed Adria's arm and pulled her away, and Adria watched as the soldiers run from the butterflies and chase after Viola. Adria flicked her wrist and the butterflies turned into a green, teardrop rain as they shattered to the ground.
Thor pulled her to a black van with black tinted windows, though on the doors was the Avenger symbol. Adria jumped in, making sure her bag was secure on her shoulder before sitting down next to Loki and Thor climbing in after, slamming the door shut before the van sped off.
When Thor turned, he saw Loki staring at Adria with indecision, for she looked forward with a ghosted expression as she held her side, almost as if she was in pain.
Adria turned to Loki with an expression mixed with sadness and guilt before she whispered, "they killed Viola..." Loki gently placed a hand on Adria's wrist, a sincerity and a look of confusion came into one on his face. "How do you know?"
"I felt it," Adria whispered, "I felt it in my heart...and here." And she gripped her side again, pain flashing through her eyes again, and not from grief. "Damn, it feels like someone shot me." Adria groaned, leaning back and shaking her head.
"I'm sorry for your loss, but, Adria, I need to know, what kind of stone is that?" Thor questioned cautiously, watching as Adria's head whipped to Thor. "Oh, yea..." Adria whispered, and then sighed as her grip on her side loosened.
"I don't know how to explain it...it can create things, change things from its original form," Adria hesitated on her next words, biting her lip. "My brother like to call it an Infinity Stone because it's power, that's how I created Viola, she was first a drawing, an idea...an idea that came to life." Adria explained, but took a breath and kept talking.
"It's also the reason why I can feel Viola's pain because I created her and made a connection, that's the reason I could hear her, and allow certain people to hear her also." Adria sighed, looking down at her shoes. She closed her eyes and rubbed her face.
"I don't know how it came to be, or who or what created it, all I know is that it changes things, and creates things from nothing, I can't remember much." Adria huffed, leaning back in the seat and placing her canvas bag between her legs. She dug out a large sketch pad, the first page was of Viola, but Adria skipped over it.
Adria moved onto the page with the butterflies of different colors, revealing how the butterflies have sharp wings, as the wings were razor sharp thin and had small spikes along the edge.
Though Adria showed many sketches, and both brothers looked at each drawing carefully. Some were clothes, Loki couldn't help but smirk when he saw the sketch of the coat Adria currently wore. "So, the stone could be an Infinity Stone? But that is impossible, there are six."
"Really, you just said that? I thought you worked with the Avengers from time-to-time, and you say another Infinity Stone is impossible?" "This is different, Infinity Stones were created at the beginning of time, and we've only found six."
"Keyword, found, are you sure you found all of them?" Adria questioned, causing Thor to become silent in thought, for Adria was right. Then Loki spoke up, "then, if that is an Infinity Stone, how did it stay hidden for so long till now, and how did you, of all the people in the world, find it?"
The three became quieter, the silence between the three was almost heavy. "May I have an explanation of what is happening? I am very confused." Vision stated from the driver's seat, earning gazes from the trio in the back.
"We'll explain it all at the tower, though, pretty much Loki lied about meeting with Adria." Thor stated, earning a look from Loki. "That is not surprising, though, turning our attention to Adria," Vision started, earning a curious glance from Adria. "Who exactly are you?"
Adria smiled, and Loki knew exactly what she was going to say, and so he couldn't help but smirk. "I'm Adria Griffin, once a member of a secret army nicknamed 'The Reality', but, as you can see, I left, because I realized they were forcing children into the army, and I can't remember much past that." Adria stated, earning a calculating look from Vision. "How can you not remember?"
"I believe that they put something in my mind to block my memories...wait...you have a Mind Stone in you?"
"You never saw my face, how do you know that?" Vision questioned, earning surprised looks from both Loki and Thor. "I feel it," Adria stated, "it's on your forehead, it powers you also, I-I don't know how to describe it, it feels like something sharp and numbing at the same time."
"Do you feel that way with the...?" Thor questioned, pointing at the rainbow stone. "I called it the Creation Stone, and I used to, I guess I just got used to it eventually, but I feel the Mind Stone from Vision."
"How do you know who I am?"
"I learned about you, the Educators, the army's teachers, they know a lot of things about the Avengers, if not everything."
"That is...concerning." Vision replied carefully, then stopped speaking as he focused driving and thinking about Adria's words. Once again a heavy silence settled.
Adria opened her pad to a new page before taking out a charcoal pencil and starting to draw. Thor looked out the window, and it was obvious he was deep in thought. Loki looked at the ceiling of the van and closed his eyes, listening to the hum of the car and the occasional scratch of a pencil on paper, whispering the promise in his head.
'I will protect Adria, I promise I will, you stupid cat.'