A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, it's been a busy week with Christmas and family but it's all done now and I've just managed to squeeze this chapter before the new year. Anyway, I hope you guys had a good Christmas/Holiday period, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter :) I used to really ramble on in these captions, but I don't really do that anymore. I guess I don't have much to say when I'm not banging on about a trailer or a movie or revision or something.
pvrkcrr: Oh my God, thank you I'm glad you like this story so much! I just finished my GCSEs last year, so I understand what your position is, then again I don't know if iGCSE is harder or easier. I don't know if I have much advice other than the basics of "revise," but always leave time for yourself, I probably left a bit too much time for myself but it worked out in the end, I guess. Anyway, I'll stop giving you unwanted advice, thank you for reading this and I'm glad you like it so much!
lizlil: I'm glad you didn't see it coming, that means I hopefully created a good plot twist? MJ and Adara will eventually figure out that they need toto talk to each other, but both of them can be pretty stubborn and useless sometimes (looking at you, Adara). I hope this chapter is good enough :)
MarvelFan005: Peter comes back into the action this chapter, Adara just needs to get over her general stubbornness first.
Hermione Romanoff: I actually picture the Faceless Man as Colin Farrell lol, James Mcavoy is Scottish but then again you can picture these characters as however you want, that's kinda why I purposefully leave some descriptions vague. I'm glad you liked the confrontation between the two, I've been looking forward to writing it so it's a relief that you like it.
Mogor: Oh, don't worry! I just took down a couple of "update" chapters, not any actual chapters so really it's nothing to worry about!
Sojie204: Hopefully White Whispers and Whiter Shadows will be updated soon. I'm currently struggling with one scene, which is why it's taking so long. Sorry!
Thanks to: Books-and-Cleverness-394, PrettyRecklessLaura, ksims0705, pvrkcrr, bbymojo, Daniel cook, lizlil, Bobby2002, MarvelFan005, Hermione Romanoff, anana67, Mogor, Sojie204, Shinkiko and DiamondHuskey05 for either leaving a review or following/favouriting on the last chapter!
"Slow down
Keep those feet on the ground
I hope you'll be home soon
Somehow
We'll figure out how to cope"
Harry had let MJ and Ned stay the night without much question as to why, too worried about what Adara was up to. MJ wasn't all that concerned, only feeling worse when he got a certain, brief text from Adara saying that she was fine and would explain everything tomorrow. It was brief, but MJ reckoned it would be the perfect time to tell Adara of her discoveries. And Harry too, but that would be trickier.
She feared that whatever she might find in the basement might crush the boy.
"You don't think Norman's really up to something," said Ned. "Do you?"
"We know he's up to something, Ned," sighed MJ, "and we know it's really bad. He'll be upset but hopefully, whatever's in that basement, it won't be as bad as we think."
"Yeah," sighed Ned.
It was just past midnight. The two of them glanced at Harry, who had fallen asleep on the couch almost instantly when Adara had texted him that she was okay. He probably wouldn't stir for another nine hours at least, he was a heavy sleeper and, collectively as a group, they had all been doing too much worrying and work to have slept decently in the past few days. But there was no rest for the wicked, at least not tonight, though MJ as she went through her plan in her head again. Use the scientist's ID card to get down to the basement and see what you can find. Simple, really. But dangerous. Yet, MJ felt a rush of excitement. Figuring out secrets was her thing, and she did want to be a journalist, of course, she was exactly in her comfort zone.
"I'm coming too," said Ned.
MJ looked wary, "are you sure? We could get caught, and what if Harry wakes up?"
They looked at the boy, snoring softly on the sofa.
"I don't think he will," said Ned, before looking back at her. "Besides, someone needs to look out for you. I don't want you to do this on your own, that's what Adara does and she never sleeps ever."
MJ realised he was just being a good friend and, honestly, she wouldn't mind his company. So her gaze softened and she nodded, "okay then. Let's go."
They closed the door behind them, the movie they had been watching earlier still playing in a quiet, murmuring volume and casting a white, but dim light in the room. They did nothing to disturb Harry, and made their way to the elevator, MJ using the scientist's ID to access it. Like before, more of the floors were lit up on the elevator buttons.
"You said you went to that one before," Ned indicated to the floor just below the penthouse.
"Yep," said MJ, "and now, the basement." She clicked on the button.
The elevator moved down the building and, as it passed down the uppermost, ten floors, the windows of it (as it was mostly made from glass) showed the tower opening up to the central hub of the building. A giant room, that was the main area of Oscorp. Down, towards the bottom was the foyer, with a desk where visitors (usually schools) could get their passes, which usually only allowed entry to the first five or so floors, which were labs where new, exciting technologies were being tested. It could all be seen from the foyer, as balconies went around the entire building, looking down on the entrance and allowed for a rather open-plan building. The ones further up were mainly offices, boring things the tourists didn't need to see but a nice place to work.
The elevator passed the labs as it went further down, which were dark at this time. These labs were hardly important, the more significant works and significant were conducted either upstairs, where only the most highest-ranking scientists were allowed, or, apparently, down in the basement. MJ hadn't even thought about what might be down here until she had seen the button light up when using the scientist's ID pass, but she had never been down before. She could pretty much guarantee that Harry hadn't either. He often said that he had no idea what his dad was working on at any given time.
She really hoped none of this hurt the boy.
"You found blueprints for Beck's technology," said Ned, "right?"
"Right," nodded MJ. "Let's hope we don't find anything worse."
The elevator went underneath the main foyer and, for a good few seconds, they were passing through layers of concrete. And then the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened smoothly. The outer doors to the floor opened with a bit more of a struggle, like they needed oiling, but they opened all the same. She and Ned exchanged a rather apprehensive look and stepped out.
Immediately, they saw a long, grey corridor, with two doors leading to other rooms, and a massive set of double doors at the end of it. MJ was reminded a little of a parking lot, the place was hardly as modern or fancy as the rest of the building.
"Okay," said Ned. "Now what?"
"We poke around," said MJ, "and hope we don't get caught."
"Stick together?"
She nodded, "yeah, we'll stick together."
She took charge, moving towards one of the smaller doors at the side and peeking through the window. It was a laboratory , but the lights were off indicating no one was home. She frowned and looked at the lock, unlike the last one it wasn't one she could pick. However, she could use something else. She swiped the scientist's ID and it clicked open, the lights turning on with a humming noise.
"Not much here," remarked Ned as he walked around the tables. "I thought there would be more equipment."
MJ looked around and shrugged. Science wasn't her subject, but Ned was, which was probably why he noticed something she missed. He approached two test tubes that were filled with some kind of chemical and frowned.
"That's strange," he muttered, picking up one. "If I combine this…"
He gestured for MJ to step back and grabbed a pipette, squeezing a single drop of one liquid into another. There was a small bang, making them both jump and look over their shoulders. After a moment of bated breath, they realised no one was coming. Looking back, MJ realised the test tube was smoking.
"If you combine these two," said Ned, "it makes an explosive. The two are super volatile together, even just a drop makes a bang so keeping a whole tube of the chemicals right next to each other is concerning."
"You could say that," breathed MJ. "Wait, wasn't there an explosion in the building that was on fire? Peter said the Green Goblin threw a bomb at him that blew off the top few floors."
"This would be the kind of thing you would use to create a miniature explosive like that," Ned nodded. "It's inexpensive chemicals, and its effective. It could also do a lot more damage."
"This doesn't confirm he's working with the Green Goblin though," said MJ, "we need more proof."
She took a photo of the chemicals on her phone and, after another minute of poking around where they found nothing else, the left the lab. The door locked automatically behind them, and the lights instantly switched off.
They peered through the window of the second side room, but as they learn against it, they were surprised to find out it was already open and lights were already on. They stumbled in, suddenly stopping, fearing there may be people in there if it was open. It wasn't, it was empty.
It was smaller than the lab, but better taken care of. It reminded MJ of a meeting room, a long table surrounded by chairs and a presentation board and laptop at its head. MJ's interest was instantly enraptured by the board, and she walked towards it.
"Blueprints," she said, "and photos. Of a building?"
"It looks like a normal office building," remarked Ned. "Maybe Norman is planning to renovate it or something?"
Neither of them believed that.
The board was organised like a crime investigation, pictures of the said building and those who probably worked inside pinned to it. MJ's eyebrows furrowed as she followed the connections, while Ned looked elsewhere. There was a picture of a few people she didn't recognise, but was surprised to see the photo of Maria Hill and Fury. What were they doing on here?
It was only when she saw the photo in the centre did she realise.
It was Quentin Beck, smack in the middle. And MJ remembered what Adara had told them, Beck was locked up in the SHIELD building. It wasn't known as the SHIELD building to the public, they were keeping under the radar, after all. But how on Earth did Norman know? And, more importantly, what did he want to do with this information?
This board and the blueprints of Beck's technology she had seen earlier was an uneasy combination, but still didn't give her a clear answer as to what Norman intended.
She heard Ned fiddling with something behind her.
She turned to see he had gotten his keys out and frowned, "what are you doing?"
He held them up to her, "I always keep a USB stick attached to my keychain," he shrugged, "comes in handy. Now I just need to get into his laptop."
MJ frowned, "well, I don't know if we have enough time to do that. How long will it—"
"Done," said Ned, already sticking in the USB stick and tapping away at the keyboard.
"Damn," she muttered, "thank God you're a nerd. We can look at that later."
He was already stuffing the USB stick and his keys into his pocket, logging off the laptop and returning it to the state it had been in before. Like no one had ever been here.
There was only one last room to check out now. The two of them approached the double doors at the end of the corridor slowly. These doors did not have a lock on it, they swung open easily, neither push or pull, without a key or ID necessary, which was reason enough to actually be more cautious. Before entering, they peered through the windows on the door to get a look in.
"I can hear people," whispered Ned.
"Me too," nodded MJ, squinting. They couldn't see anyone.
The door led to an overview area, a balcony that went around the whole room, which was square with grey, metal walls, and looked down on whatever was below. MJ, feeling a surging confidence, pushed the door open carefully and gesturing for Ned to follow. He did so with hesitation. She kept down, crouched low and found a stack of metal crates to duck behind.
The two of them looked down, past the railings to see what looked like a science lab from a movie where the villain was a crazed genius, mad with power. There were all kinds of strange technologies that she didn't recognise down there, and neither did Ned, from the look on his face. Large tubes filled with green liquid, crane-like machines that moved awkwardly, drilling screws into their places on a strange device. MJ quickly realised something, stomach jolting.
She had seen that machine before. It was the control panel she had seen in the blueprints upstairs, the ones supposed to control the figurative drones, also seen in the blueprints. But this certainly didn't look figurative. This looked very, very real. The sight of it sent a shiver down her spine. This went beyond some silly science experiment, especially if the Green Goblin was somehow involved.
"It needs refinement," said one of the scientists to someone that MJ couldn't see. "This technology…" he trailed off before regaining himself, "it's difficult to make realistic."
Yes, realised MJ, these scientists would be awful at this.
One word to describe Beck, aside from evil and psychopathic, was melodramatic. The man knew how to put on a show as Mysterio, he had formed a story of his past that was ridiculous, but had fooled both Peter and Adara, the sharpest people she knew. Fury and Hill had believed him without much question and, even after his arrest, he had still managed to frame Spiderman in the villain in a last-ditch effort to fulfill his role as a melodramatic asshole.
They should give him an Oscar, she thought.
These scientists and, most of all, Norman lacked any of that flair. There was no charm or skill to them aside from their intelligent minds. In all honesty, they were nerds too invested in a project. They needed one more person to make this work, and who was the best option? The expert after all.
The pictures of the SHIELD building were beginning to make sense as MJ pieced the dots together, but she was too intrigued by this conversation to do anything about it. She was waiting for the confirmation.
"That will be sorted tonight," said a familiar voice and familiar figure, stepping out of the shadows. "Run the final test, and then we'll move to action."
"Yes, sir," said the scientists.
It was easy to tell who Norman was, even from this distance, as he was the only one not in a white lab coat. It was a strange, armour-like outfit, which was a dark colour that MJ couldn't quite make out in this light. But she could've sworn it was… Green?
He made a sharp gesture to another scientist who handed him something, a syringe. He jabbed it into his neck and for a moment, his body violently tensed, before he relaxed, dropping the empty syringe to the floor. It was just one perplexing thing after another.
"Ready the final test of the engine," said the scientist, "turn the damage up to medium level six. Use… Ten drones."
The other scientists nodded, Norman took a step back, clearly just an observer. MJ and Ned backed up further behind the crates a little as the 'engine' rumbled and several drones, ten to be exact, rose up from where they were being stored and began flying around the room in formation. It reminded MJ of London.
They suddenly began shooting, and her and Ned insticvley flinched, but they weren't aimed at anything in particular, just a stack of crates.
"Turn on the illusion," said Norman, "and up the damage to eight."
"Yes, sir."
The drones circled around again, this time shimmering to create a monster that looked similar to the elementals, yet slightly more generic in style. They fired at the crates and, this time, they were blasted to smithereens. But, she realised this as she tilted her head to the side, it wasn't quite convincing.
They needed the expert. This was certain in MJ's mind, why else would they have the plans for the SHIELD building pinned up on the board? Why else would they be replicating his work?
Norman's next words confirmed it.
"We need Beck," he said.
"But, sir," began one of the scientists, "it's too danger—"
Norman cut him off with a wave of his hand, "I'll deal with it." A door opened, signalling someone else had entered the room. They were just out of sight of the two teenagers, but Norman had seen them. "Leave," he ordered the scientists, "go home. We'll have an early start tomorrow."
The scientists nodded and left the room.
"MJ—" began Ned in a whisper but she shushed him, leaning in, curious.
"Are you sure about all of this?" Asked Norman to the stranger. "This is a risky move, it could draw more attention than we want."
"It won't," replied the stranger. "The SHIELD building's location is top-secret, which means the general public won't know that Beck is being kept there. They can't tell the public, or they'll fight back against SHIELD's continued existence. After the whole business with Hydra, they want nothing to do with the organisation."
The Stranger's voice ran like water. Cool, calm, controlled. His path was clear, inevitable, just like his plan seemed to be. And MJ instantly got the sense that it was his plan as he leant casually against the control panel, the engine, like it wasn't a dangerous weapon.
In this light, she realised that despite the distance, his eyes were a honey brown colour.
"Is this worth it?" Asked Norman.
"You get what you want, I promise you that and I don't break promises," the stranger smirked a little. "You get your revenge, Beck gets his recognition, and I get… I get what I want."
MJ wasn't comfortable with the vagueness there, or the way his eyes glittered as he spoke. He didn't look like anyone significant, he even seemed to be wearing a lab coat to blend in with the other scientists. But a sinister air hung around him as he got up from what he was leaning against and walked over to the table.
He picked up a helmet. The Green Goblin helmet! Ned's quiet gasp signalled he realised the same thing. Neither had seen it in real life, but it matched Peter's description to the T.
Was this man the Green Goblin?
The stranger handed the mask to Norman and MJ's heart sunk.
No. He wasn't. Norman was.
He put on the helmet, his face masked, and snapped his fingers. The hoverboard appeared.
"We need to go," muttered Ned.
MJ agreed, they had seen enough.
As quietly as they could, they snuck back out from behind the crates and left the room. MJ's eyes stayed on the stranger the whole time, allowing Ned to lead the way out. It wasn't until they had squeezed through a small gap in the double doors that did she drop her gaze. More than Norman or any of the scientists, she was worried about him spotting them, and God knows how that would end.
There was something so strange about him. He was so calm, yet in control all the same.
Part of her wondered if he could be… No, she couldn't even consider that option, there was too much on her mind. But she would make sure to bring it up to Adara as soon as possible, she needed as much information as she could possibly get for her investigation.
Speaking of Adara.
The two of them cluttered into the elevator, and it wasn't until it rose above the basement and entered the foyer, ascending upwards, did they relax.
But not much as Ned entered instant panic mode.
"Norman's the Green Goblin!"
"Keep your voice down," she hissed, gripping him by the shoulders, "yes, he is. And we need to think carefully about this."
About Harry.
"Think carefully? There's no time, MJ," he said, "we have to stop him. He's going to break out Beck!"
Of course, he was right! She had been so distracted by the discovery of his true identity and by the Stranger, she had forgotten all their plotting.
She quickly fumbled for her phone. She and Ned were useless in this situation, but there were a couple people she could call for help.
Adara stood up.
Looking around and drinking in the familiar surroundings, it took her only a moment to realise where she was. The Orange World, the Soul Stone. She saw the stone itself standing not far off, still maintaining the form of Luka but with eerie, burning amber eyes, watching her.
Frowning, she walked over to it.
"I understand now," she said, "what you meant. When you said someone else is here. I know who it is."
"Good," it said, "it's important."
Of course it was, she thought with annoyance.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She said, tone sharp and accusatory. "Why didn't you say that there was someone else like me? That he was the Faceless man?" Unaffected, it simply shrugged. "I didn't know," it said, "I have never met this man, only felt his presence. I am dead, after all. Besides, shouldn't you have put two and two together?" She was surprised by its condescending tone, "what?"
She slumped to the floor, sitting down and letting out a huff, but the fight had gone out of her. Even in dreams, she was tired. Admittedly, part of her had hoped it was Tony, or even Natasha. But they were apart of another Soul Stone, one that no longer belonged in this timeline. The one she was looking at was simply the remnants of what remained of the Soul Stone Thanos had used to wipe out half the life in the universe.
And it was dead. So it was fat load of good really.
"So he has the same abilities as me," she said, "I didn't know… I didn't think that was possible. If there were others like more or," she corrected herself, there was only someone else here, afterall. "Another like me, then why did Hydra take me?"
"I don't know.""You're useless.""Perhaps. I am dead."
Her frown only deepened, "he said it was just the two of us. And you only said there was another here, only one." It nodded. "But what does that mean? Where could he even gain those abilities? The Chameleon Particle wasn't even conceived until the mid-nineties. With my mom's experimentation. I don't—"
She paused, mid-contemplation, realisation coming over her.
"The Chameleon Particle experiment," she said, "that must be it!"
The Soul Stone shrugged and—
RING. RING. RING.
Adara woke up.
Instantly, she let out a load groan as the exhaustion she didn't fully feel in the Soul world hit her suddenly and forcefully.
She had showered and spent about an hour healing her wounds. The cut on her calf was no just a fading scar, the bruises on her shoulder were fading to yellow, though the ones down her spine remained pretty fresh, mostly unhealed as of yet. She had run out of endurance to keep healing, and had pretty much passed out in bed. True to her word, she hadn't bothered to even begin to heal the scar that ran across the left side of her face. While it stung like hell, the bleeding had stopped.
"Remember me, Adara Thomas," he had said to her.
Her finger traced the cut, long and deep. She would not forget.
But she was completely drained. She had fallen asleep at about ten, which was very reasonable for her, intent on sleeping for twelve house as tomorrow was the weekend, and it was bare minimum she needed to function after the brutality of the day before. Of course, she had texted her friends to let her know she was okay, but to meet up tomorrow afternoon. Afternoon gave her sufficient time to sleep in and sufficient time to get inevitably lectured by Steve tomorrow morning.
RING. RING. RING.
So who the hell was calling her at one in the morning? When she needed at least eight hours more sleep before consciousness could even occur to her?
She groaned again, grabbing her phone off the side and squinting through blurred, tired eyes at the name. MJ? What did she want?
She picked it up, not even bothering to disguise her grumpiness, "what?"
"Adara," she said in a tone that sounded serious and panicked. "This is an emergency. I don't have time to explain but it's the Green Goblin. He's going to try and break Beck out from the SHIELD Headquarters."
"Wha…?"
"I've already called Peter," she continued, "I know you want to keep him safe but this is a big deal. You need to try and stop him now!"
A guilty part of Adara realised she wanted to say no, put the phone down instantly, curl up into the covers and go back to sleep.
But what kind of hero would that make her?
She felt annoyed at MJ, but it wasn't her fault. She was right to call her, in fact, an attack on SHIELD was nothing minor, especially considering the organisation was in such a state. Freeing Beck? That would only make things worse. But Adara was in no state to even be awake, let alone fight.
"Yeah," she said without much conviction. "I'll be there."
"Thank God," said MJ, "I—"
But Adara had already hung up, stumbling out of bed, half-way through shifting into Bluebell. Standing bought no joy, only a sharp pain up her spine, but she had a job to do.
Peter was surprised when he arrived at the location before Adara. He was further away, upstate at the Starks-Potts' household. Had MJ forgotten to call her? He had gotten the call about twenty minutes ago, quick and rushed. Something about Norman, something about the Green Goblin. But all Peter had really understood of it was Beck and break out.
He landed on the building opposite the SHIELD headquarters, more inconspicuous than their last locations. It wasn't public knowledge that this was the building location, most people were uncomfortable with SHIELD still existing after the Hydra incident. As far as everyone knew, this was any old office building. Yet, a crowd had gathered outside of it tonight.
Not because it was SHIELD, but because there was a giant hole in the side of the building.
"Shit," he swore at the sight.
"Merde," he heard someone behind him.
Adara had landed on the building, or perhaps a more precise description would be that she fell onto it. Peter watched, confused for a moment, as the usually graceful Adara clumsily pushed herself upwards. He then regained his senses and helped her up, like a proper gentleman.
For a few seconds, he stared at her, eyes widening in shock. She looked as she normally did in her Bluebell form, perhaps a little more tired, but alarm shot through him as he saw the long scar on her face that ran from her left cheek, up to where it cut just above her left eyebrow, just missing slicing through her actual eye.
"Wha—"
She raised two fingers, silently cutting him off, her face stormy and miserable. Without saying anything, she walked past him and looked down, eyeing the SHIELD building.
Finally, after a few seconds, she spoke. "We were too late."
"Yeah…" Said Peter, struggling to string a sentence together, his mind on the scar. He shook his head. "Do you want me to take a look?"
"No," she said, "I know some of the agents down there. I'll talk to them, they'll tell me what's going on."
Peter might've read her curt dismissivness as her still being annoyed at him from the night before, but it didn't seem that way. He didn't think he had ever seen her so tired. Arguing wouldn't do either of them much good, so he just nodded. She stepped forward and swayed on her feet, he steadied her before she could fall.
"Merci," she muttered, sounding small. His heart thudded with worry.
Before he could change his mind about letting her go, she used her grappling hook to swing downwards, struggling to land upright on the ground. No one paid her much attention, even in her Bluebell form, too focused on the hole in the middle of the SHIELD building, which was still puffing smoke. Police officers (mixed with SHIELD security staff) were holding back the crowd, but let her pass without much question. Quickly, she found Agent Ambrose and Agent Underwood standing next to an ambulance, talking amongst themselves.
"Bluebell," greeted Underwood.
As usual, Ambrose treated her with more suspicion, "how did you know to come here?"
"Honestly, I don't know," she said and it was true. How on Earth MJ got this information was a mystery to her. "I got a call, they mentioned the Green Goblin."
Underwood grimaced, "yes, a few agents caught sight of him, matching the description relayed by you from Spiderman."
"Beck?"
"We don't know."
"Do you?" Ambrose eyed her, "how did you know about the explosion? The TV cameras aren't here yet."
"I told you," she shrugged, " a phone call."
"With who?"
"Does it matter?" Adara didn't particularly want to tell the agents anything about MJ, not when she wanted to know more herself. "I got the call, I don't know how they got their information. All I know is that what they told me has proven itself to be true, and Beck is likely gone."
"Sir," a lower-ranked agent approached the three of them. "We've doe a perimeter check, with the fire brigade. Only two agents have been found under the rubble, but we think that's it as everyone is accounted for. They're injured but alive, being transported to hospital as we speak."
"Prisoners?" Asked Ambrose, his spine straightening.
"All accounted for too," the agent's face then turned nervous, "except one.
Ambrose sighed, "Beck?"
He nodded.
"Thank you, Alex," said Underwood. "Go home to your family. Don't tell them what happened here."
Adara blinked as the agent walked away, "don't tell them? You want to keep this quiet?"
"Of course, we do," said Ambrose, "people can't know this is the official SHIELD building, especially not after what happened with the Triskelion. They'll riot."
"But what about Beck? He's a dangerous criminal. How will people know he's on the loose?"
Ambrose glared at her, "they won't know, it would probably just be a relief to the public anyway considering how much they love him. I'm not glossing over this, Bluebell. We can't say anything, even if we wanted to. If I get orders telling me otherwise, I'll scream SHIELD from the rooftops. But, for now, I'll stick to my orders and the other agents will too because I am in charge. Fury and Hill are nowhere to be found, they just told me to keep my mouth shut, this is down to us."
Adara was too tired to argue, "so we tell the public what? That this was just another Green Goblin attack? They deserve to know about that, at the very least."
"We'll tell them that."
Adara nodded, "if you get anymore information, tell me."
Ambrose gave her another sharp look, "can I trust you to do the same with us?"
No, she thought, mind on MJ's mysterious knowledge and the encounter with the Faceless Man.
"Yes," she said.
Just before she was about to swing away, Agent Underwood said, "what happened to your face?"
"Doesn't matter," shrugged Adara.
She pulled herself back up to the rooftop, sighing and falling into a sitting position. Closing her eyes, she leant her head against the concrete ledge, without really meaning too. She was exhausted, pain burning through her aching limbs. She just wanted to sleep. Beside her, she heard shifting and opened her eyes as Peter sat down next to her.
"Beck's gone," she said, "I don't know where. I don't care."
"How much sleep did you get?"
"Four hours, I think."
There was a pause as Peter considered this, she figured that he was confused as she usually got less sleep than that, yet was completely shattered.
"What happened to you?" He asked.
"I was stupid," she said. "There was an address… It came in a letter. Anonymous, I don't know who sent it. Harry told me not to go but…"
"But you did," Peter frowned as he observed the scar that now went down her face. "What happened?"
"There were fifteen men," she said, "I snuck in. And I took them all down."
"All of them?"
Guilt flashed through her mind, and she nodded. "Yeah, I did," she nodded, clutching her arms tighter around herself. "I did. It didn't even matter, in the end it turned out to be the Faceless Man behind it all."
He shot up, looking at her, "you saw him?"
"I spoke to him," she said but didn't continue.
"Did he… Did he do that to your face?"
Her hand unconsciously traced the scar again, "he told me to remember me. That we weren't done. I fought him, but he pretty much beat the shit out of me without breaking a sweat." She shrugged. "It might've been because I was already tired and injured but he was skilled."
Peter studied her, "there's something your not saying."
She looked at him with greens, almost dead eyes. "He's a shifter. Like me."
He blinked, this was not the answer he had been expecting at all. "How is that possible? I thought you were the only one? Hydra and Luka thought you were the only one."
"I know it's all…" She trailed off, leaning into her hands and rubbing her temples. "It's all messed up. He's behind it all, I know. Now, Beck is free and somehow this Green Goblin character is involved. I…" again, she couldn't find it in herself to finish.
"How did MJ know?" Wondered Peter. But his gut instinct told her that this was linked to MJ and Ned's investigation into Norman Osborn, something he had told neither Adara or Harry about.
"I don't care right now," she rested her head on his shoulder, "I don't want to think about Beck or the Green Goblin or the Faceless Man. I just want to sleep."
He rested his head on top of hers, putting an arm around her so she could lean into him more comfortably.
"I need to sleep for like eight more hours," she sighed softly, "but…" for a moment, she considered telling him about the dreams with the Soul Stone, before stopping herself. That was too much to go through for one night, and a curiosity she would rather keep to herself for now. Instead, she said, "I just need to sleep."
Peter looked at her, "do you need a lift home?"
She gave him a lazy but stern look, "you shouldn't go swinging around the city, you might be spotted and then hell breaks loose."
"I'll be very subtle," he eyed her again, "besides, no offence but you're in no state to get back on your own."
She nodded, "yeah, that's fair."
After another pause, he tentatively asked, "can you heal that scar?"
She started. Dead ahead. "I don't want to."
He had a lot of questions about this, his face furrowing to a frown. But he didn't ask anything else, simply standing up and offering her his hand. She took it with a tired smile and the two of them got atop the building ledge. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he put one hand around her waist, using his free hand to swing off the building and away.
A/N: This chapter was going to be longer but the word count was already creeping up and the next chapter contains a lot of talky-talk between the characters. Also I'm tired and can't write anymore lmao. Anyway, last chapter of 2019, so strange considering I published this in 2018 and it seems to have grown so much in that short space of time! It all ends in 2020 though, which is kind of sad but also I'm looking forward to what the future might hold ;) In the meantime: incorrect quotes!
Adara: This girl [slides photo across the table] I need you to shoot her in the leg.
Assassin: This is a photo of you.
Adara: Steve wants me to take Zumba.
2020 isn't even a real year lmao
Adara: Do you have any plans for the new year, Peter?
Peter: How would I know…
Peter: I don't have 2020 VISION
Adara: Christ…
If I'm not partying like Jay Gatsby, then will the 20s really be roaring?
Harry: What are you drinking?
Adara: The blood of my enemies.
Harry: That's literally just cranberry juice.
Adara: I just really fucking hate cranberries.
Okay one more
Steve: What's the first thing you notice when a man approaches you?
Adara: The audacity.
Anyone got any New Year's resolutions? If so, let me know! Mines to complete my second and (hopefully third) draft of my novel!