"Is she still here? Ace."

I appear.

"Where is sh-" Tony uncrosses his arms. "Glad you could join us."

I pinch my tongue between my canines. "What's up?"

He throws his hands out at his sides. "You tell me."

I keep his gaze. "What did your friends want?"

"They had a strong interest in meeting you, primarily." He crosses his arms again and stands with his feet apart. "Wanted to know what I was teaching you."

"What did you tell them?"

His expression alters subtly. "How much trouble are you in?"

I shrug. "Usual amount."

He gets the face he makes when he's thinking in a circle. "Please tell me I haven't been working with the enemy here."

Unconsciously, I furrow my brow. "Your enemy, or SHIELD's enemy?"

"Doesn't matter."

I pause. "What did you tell them?"

"I didn't tell them anything, I was waiting to talk to you," he says defensively. "Now maybe you can explain to me why Coulson thinks you walked into SHIELD and accessed their database."

"Not in here." There's an omnipresent recording device in the room.

Tony grits his teeth. "JARVIS isn't going to squeal."

"I'd rather it not be in indelible binary nonetheless."

"You don't trust me?"

"Would you trust you?"

"Hey," Tony's voice is hard, "I'm offering to tailor my story in your favor, the least you could do is trust me that far."

I keep his gaze. "It's a long story."

He raises his eyebrows and gestures to the living room. "Shall we sit?"

...

Tony downs the last of his third brandy. "God, I knew you were old."

I press my lips to the edge of my glass, letting the strong aroma twist and swell in my nostrils.

"Did you get it?" Tony asks.

"Get what?"

He runs his thumb over the rim of the glass. "What you went in for."

"I got distracted." I set mine down. "There was...other stuff that I couldn't ignore." I told him as little as possible about Alkali.

"And you said the system shut you out?" he asks.

"The second time. The code I used was entered in another part of the building."

"So you didn't need to decrypt anything?"

"There was some extra work, but I just had the right clearance."

There's a glow in his eyes, and he puts out his hand. "Congratulations, you've officially graduated Stark Academy."

I revel in the unexpected feeling that comes from shaking his hand. "Thank you, Professor Pinhead."

"It was a pleasure, Ace Hardware."

I stick out my tongue, and he makes a stupid face. I've been studying under a lethally intelligent nine-year-old. "You realize I broke the law."

"Are you kidding? You're turning out exactly like me how can I not be proud?"

"Ugh, don't say that."

"The cloning process has begun."

"Stop that."

From the entryway we hear. "Stop it, whatever it is."

Tony puts a finger to his lips. "We don't tell Pepper about this."

"Like I was going to."

"Ace," announces Pepper warmly, "I didn't expect to see you again so soon. Dum-E's been hoarding hair-bands apparently."

"U," Tony corrects. "U's been hoarding them."

Pepper blinks with an expression that says "like there's a difference," and gives me a proper greeting. It's a quarter to three, but SHIELD's visit threw off their schedule by another hour, so I stick around to chat and watch the two of them interact. I've discovered I love it when Tony makes Pepper laugh and when he looks at her like she's the best reason to live.

After saying my goodbyes and telling U to hold onto my hair-bands, I jump back to my midway point. Yellow dust rises as I land making me sneeze.

"Bless you."

I vanish.

"Sorry, already saw you," says an infuriatingly smug voice.

I flash him a look as I reappear. "What are you doing here?"

"I tried arranging it so we could meet here before you got to Stark's, but it didn't work out."

"You had him send that text."

Agent Coulson smiles. "I trust you to understand how hard it is to get him to do something he doesn't want to."

"I'm leaving now."

"Back to Xavier's? Good idea," he makes as if he's heading to his car, "more comfortable there."

I hesitate, just like he'd hoped I would. "What do you want?"

"Could you do it again?"

I blink. "Excuse me?"

"We'll pay with the information you're searching for, though some restrictions may apply."

"I- I'm sorry, I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Who pays me for what?"

He furrows his brow gently. "Four days ago you broke into SHIELD headquarters in D.C. and ran an illegal search in our database."

I choke back a gasp. "What? No, I- I'm sorry, I barely know what SHIELD is. You're the guys that talk to Tony sometimes, but other than that- Broke in?"

"Miss, we know it was you," Coulson replies flatly. "And I think you and I can help each other."

I think you shouldn't call me miss. "Look, I've never even been to D.C.-"

"Could this be easily resolved by my calling your headmaster and finding out where you were all week?"

Stop bringing that up. I swallow. "H-how do you know about Xavier's?"

He raises his eyebrows and looks around. "There's not another person or even a traffic camera for eighty miles in any direction." He looks me square in the eye. "Stop playing dumb, and start telling the truth."

Sighing in frustration, I lean back on a nearby fence post.

"What do you do for work, Miss...?"

I run my tongue over my teeth. "Amy. I'm an after school tutor."

"And what do you tutor?"

"English, which I'll be late for real soon."

"Then I won't keep you." He hands me a card. "I'd like to meet again, say, this coming Tuesday? We have a few things to discuss."

I glance at the card in his hand. "I don't think I'm interested."

"Then we meet at your workplace."

I hope he understands that certain death lies behind this scowl. "It's that important?"

"It should be important to you for a number of reasons," he replies in kind. "First and foremost that you not be arrested."

"Perhaps you can explain what exactly I'd be arrested for."

His expression doesn't change. "We meet here, at five past."

"How'd you get here so soon?" I ask.

"Soon? You were at Stark's for two hours." When I deepen my scowl he adds, "We left a recording device in the living room, but it was deactivated soon after you began speaking."

Tony must've noticed it. "So is there a very fast jet hiding somewhere?" I eye the black sedan. "A big one?"

"I'll see you on Tuesday," is all Coulson says as he heads for the car.

...

My landings are awfully timed. The Professor reads me before I've had a chance to notice him. "Are you alright?"

I straighten up, blink a few times, and calm down. "No, I'm alright. Just a shaky landing."

Thankfully, the students at the end of the hall are too immersed in conversation to hear. Xavier discerns the subject of my gaze, and gestures down the hall to his office. Once the door is shut behind us, I collapse into the big armchair I used to visit so often. That loose thread is still there on the right arm.

"Now."

Everything starts spilling out. Tony, Coulson, SHIELD, and Alkali mix together until I don't know where I started or how to end. The armchair seems smaller than it once did as I try to hide in it, hands in my hair, elbows on knees. Finally, I shrivel, emotionally exhausted for the second time today.

I don't realize he's so close until Xavier touches my shoulder. "Talk to Agent Coulson. I would advise against doing any extracurricular work for SHIELD, but you know your limits in this field better than I do."

As usual, his guesses are quite on mark for a psychic who stays out of my head. "How do you know that? How do you just know things about me?"

"Well, you successfully infiltrated an intelligence agency." He leans back in his seat. "And even Scott has stated you possess exceptional tactical ability."

"Yeah," I reply offhandedly. "I don't want to talk to this guy, but I don't want these people anywhere near this place. They'll turn it inside out and put us all on some list."

Xavier nods thoughtfully. "Don't burden yourself with us, we can handle our own affairs. You need answers."

Holding my face in my hands, tired of thinking too hard, I look at him. "You're not mad?"

He closes his eyes and smiles softly. "My only hope is that you'll continue to take precautions. You're your own person now. I cannot make your decisions for you."

I sit up straighter to look him level. "I will be careful. Just...I know I won't like what I find. Breaking in was impulsive, I was trying to get it over with. Now I have to hear it from this man, and that's one more person who will know."

"Ace, whatever you find, it will be alright. You know who you are, and that's all that matters." Xavier pauses before continuing. "If this agent truly makes you uncomfortable, don't worry how it may affect us if you return home. Just come home."

I raise my eyebrows. "Right. I'll be careful in any case."

I glance in the direction of the chess board, mildly interested to see how that turned out. The players are at a stalemate, and have been for a while based on the thin layer of dust caressing the pieces. Somehow I knew before I even looked that that's what I'd see.

...

On Tuesday I'm at the midway point ten minutes early, but Coulson's car is already here coated with dust. Benny Goodman plays at a low volume within the vehicle, and through the tinted windshield I can see the agent waiting patiently. I stand at the front bumper when I reappear.

The music stops and he steps out. "Interesting choice of location. How'd you find it?"

I don't intend on lessening my glare. "Math."

"Math?" he asks dubiously. "You're a kid, kids hate math."

It's meant to sound ignorant. There isn't a thing about Coulson that isn't calculated beforehand. "I don't plan on staying long, so whatever this is-"

"How did you acquire my Level 10 clearance, Amy?"

"How did you find out about the school?" I fire back.

"Through Stark."

Big mouth. "What else did he tell you?"

He shakes his head. "Answer my question now."

"You don't want that."

His jaw clenches briefly. "How did you acquire clearan-"

"I'm clever. What has Stark said about me?"

"He was remarkably tight-lipped. He told us you were a student, but declined to explain further. I think it goes without saying, but 'clever' is not a satisfactory response."

"But it's a response." The sun is beating down my neck. "I understood your question, I didn't deny it. If that's not what you wanted-"

"Did you do it for someone?" he asks next. "More importantly, were you paid to do it?"

"No. I did it of my own accord."

He doesn't wholly believe me. "And the abilities? What are those?"

"I don't understand."

"Where do they come from?"

"Me."

"You used no technological or medical help to get you in?"

I shake my head uncertainly. "No, just me."

He nods firmly. "So, are you a mutant?"

I don't know how to answer. I don't know how his organization reacts to mutants. I wonder if he even knows what Xavier's is. "Yes."

I can't tell if he's relieved or troubled. "Why did you do it?"

"Could we maybe pause to clarify just what exactly 'it' is?"

"Infiltrating the Triskelion in D.C. and tampering with classified data."

"And how do you know I did that?"

"The activity matched incidences when Stark's hacked us before," Coulson raises his eyebrows nonchalantly, "but he had an alibi. As a close student of his, you were next on the list. Since your comings and goings from his residence were impossible to determine, and he had in past mentioned something to the effect of you being off-center, we narrowed it down further.

"Finally, my clearance was used in the initial breach, which suggested a person I'd interacted with recently. I saw you less than a week before the break-in when I had a consultation with Stark." A thought occurs to him and he looks at me quizzically. "You...teleported then too, didn't you? One moment you weren't there and the next you were right behind me."

I look away to move hair out of my face. "Your people knew me well enough to suspect me?"

"More or less. We've tried to keep an eye out for you since last May."

When I ran into the redheaded assistant, Agent Romanoff or Romanova, or whatever her name is really. I adjust my footing. "And this place, how'd you find it?"

"Satellite imaging picked you up the last few times you stopped here."

Because I never felt the need to turn invisible here. "That's a lot of jumped-to conclusions, and very little evidence."

"I know. But SHIELD can afford to take that risk, it's what we do."

"Why do you do it?"

"To protect you."

"You don't protect me. You don't even know me."

"And that's been bothering us for a while now," he says with a squint. Then he clasps his hands in front of him and straightens his shoulders. "Amy, how old are you?"

Opinions vary. "Nineteen."

Coulson nods thoughtfully. "You undermined our security measures in a rather unusual way. We were hoping you could replicate that."

"You want to hire me to break in somewhere else?"

"Yep." There's a friendly smile in his eyes.

"And you said I'd get information in return?"

"Precisely."

"I don't want your information," I say. "Otherwise I would've taken it."

"That's why I'm offering you a deal." He leans on the hood of the car and rests his hands on one knee. "And keep in mind this part of the deal is off-book, between you and me. My superiors have agreed that trading you information in exchange for the completion of this mission would be payment enough. But, you do us this favor, tell me what was in those files and why you wanted them removed, and I'll see what I can do about redacting them permanently."

The wind picks up, sending dirt and sediment dancing over the hood of the car. "You're allowed to do that?"

He shrugs. "It all depends on the reason."

I don't believe for a second this isn't a setup. "And these files you want me to extract," I say, "there's a good reason for that?"

"Do you accept the offer?"

"Not until I know all the variables."

"Like you did with SHIELD? You knew all our variables before you tried to erase our data?"

"The information I erased wasn't yours to have."

"That's not your call."

"I can decide that for myself, sir," I counter.

He looks at me curiously. "These files, they were personal to you weren't they?"

I exhale through my nose. "I'm not interested in your offer, you can't arrest me, and you can bother Xavier's as much as you like, but it won't stop me."

"What is it you're looking for?" The lines in his forehead crease as he leans forward ever-so-slightly, his voice tinged with earnesty.

I'm so used to seeing through people that I sometimes imagine traits in them like sincerity and concern. "I'm done here."

"It will be harder next time," he says as I step away from the car. "Security is stronger, and the more weaknesses you expose the stronger it will get. Whatever it is you want removed from the record will still be there. Besides, you've attracted us to it now."

I want to turn away, escape into the endless landscape, and never return home. But instead my lips move and my voice jumps out. "I don't know who I am."

He observes me carefully, waiting for me to continue.

"You say SHIELD's been watching me, but you had to ask Tony who I am." I'm surprised by the storm welling up in my throat. "Nobody knows, and I want that, but it's hard to find out where you came from when you don't know who you are-"

I shut up. Coulson stares at me, and I stare at his reflection in the windshield. After a time, he clears his throat. "Those records, they threatened your anonymity?"

There's a cloud overhead, I can see it in the glass, and I try to decide if it looks like anything.

"Amy?"

"It's Ace," I correct. "Not Amy."

He nods understandingly. "I'll see what I can do for you, Ace. Here," he hands me a card much like the last, "meet me at this address on Friday. Can you do that?"

I take the card, but shake my head. "I'd need a picture- I'll figure it out. What time?"

"Will you be tutoring on that day? Then meet me an hour from now. Okay?"

I nod and he nods back, smiling softly. "Don't worry, we'll sort this out."

I'm not so sure about that.

"And for the record, Stark didn't tell us about the school," says Coulson, opening the car door. "Last year he donated a substantial amount of money to it. That's how we know."

I get out of the way as he climbs back into his car, and stay in his sights until he drives off.