A/N: ooh this chapter is a game changer

some foreshadowing for iw/endgame that you might not understand right now, but it's still important, nevertheless and it will make sense soon!

i'm finally on my summer break now and i'm so relieved the semester is finally over. i started rewatching all the marvel movies and somehow, i got through iron man and iron man 2 without bursting into tears, which is a complete surprise. i'm not sure if i'm gonna make it through endgame bc when i watched it in the theater the first time, i promised myself i would never watch it again but here we go anyway

also we are getting soo close the end of this book and i just can't wait to show y'all the new cover that i spent like a bajillion hours working on.

i'm probably going to change the cover after adelaide gets— oops, i've said too much.

————————————————————

"Now watch the city burn, Director Fury."

————————————————————

That very same day, Adelaide had plans to stop by Lukov's lab.

After she had demonstrated her powers for him, he had been over the moon. She had been the solution to all his problems and she was more than happy to help. It wasn't every day she got to experiment with a whole new element.

Lukov was there before her as usual. She wondered if he spent his entire day here in the lab.

"Good evening, Adelaide," he greeted her, "Are you ready?"

She nodded, "Just tell me what you need me to do."

He looked like he hadn't slept in over a day. Nevertheless, he was working hard over his concoction. It looked like a miniature version of a particle accelerator. The pipe looped around the entire lab into an oval that was being held up by beams and on one side was a prism with a small pipe running underneath it that was connected to a closed, cylindrical vial that she assumed would collect the Luxium after it had been processed.

Lukov was working with his wrench, sealing in the last screw and when he was done, he stepped back to admire his work. Adelaide studied it, wondering how her father would perceive it.

"Now, Adelaide, I need you to stand over here," Lukov said, pointing to the other side of the accelerator on the opposite end of the lab where there was a narrow pipe extending out from it. He was standing behind a wheel next to a pressure gauge that ready zero at the moment.

He tossed her a pair of safety goggles. She put them on and made her way over to the other side of the lab.

"If the light gets too bright, close your eyes, okay?" he shouted across the room, "Now, I need you to focus your powers and concentrate a beam of light through this extension. Keep your eye on the gauge and try to contain the beam perfectly aligned with the safety mark on there. Go over and everything will explode. Stay below and we'll run out of Luxium before we can get it to work. This is really our only shot. No pressure."

Adelaide nodded. No pressure. If this failed, they would never had a shot at making it work again. No big deal. As she studied the machine, she realized something.

"You made this all by yourself? In just a few days?" she asked him. This was at least a couple months work. What if he had rushed through it and it wouldn't work? Or worse, what if it malfunctioned? "Are you sure it works?"

Lukov grinned, "Only one way to find out."

Had Adelaide been standing closer, she would have seen the grin on his face was manic. She would have seen that he wasn't doing this for the greater good or to help the people. She would have noticed that he was just doing this for power.

But if she had noticed these things, the next few days might have ended very differently.

He flipped some switches and the machine began making a loud whirring noise that started out quietly and grew louder. He pressed some more buttons on his dashboard and she heard the machine clicking into its place. Slowly, he grabbed the wheel in front of him and spun in just a bit at first. The machine lit up and the whirring noise got even louder. He opened it up a bit more and the machine began working even faster.

She glanced at the gauge. The machine was almost working at full capacity. She readied herself, holding up her hands.

Then, he spun the wheel all the way. The machine was working at full speed.

It was now or never.

"Now, Adelaide!" he shouted over the noise.

She focused on channeling all the light around her into her hands.

Her hands began tingling like they always did except this time, the sensation was stronger. The feeling traveled from her hands into her arms. She felt the tug reaching her gut. She was using an insane amount of her power at once just to match the needle in the gauge to the safety mark.

A bright beam of pure white light shot out from her hands and straight into the extension of the accelerator. The minute the light came in contact with the machine, it began groaning under the pressure. She glanced at the gauge. She was still not at the safety mark.

Adelaide gritted her teeth. She needed more light.

She closed her eyes and pulled the light from outside the building. The beam coming from her hands became even brighter. Her head began to feel a little lighter. The tug at her gut became a painful pull. She wasn't sure how long she would be able to hold this for. She had never concentrated this much of her power at once before.

The needle was almost where it needed to be.

The light was shining all the way across the room, through the prism and into the cylindrical vial which was so bright, it looked ready to explode. The entire machine was shaking. The vial became too bright to even look at.

The lights flickered around them as if a ghost had entered the room.

"That's it! It's working!" she heard Lukov laugh somewhere in the distance.

Black spots flickered in her vision. The machine creaked and groaned under the pressure. Adelaide felt herself reaching exhaustion but she couldn't give up. With a painful groan, she pushed all her energy into her hands one last time.

The beam of light pulsed from her hands and into the accelerator like a huge energy shockwave.

All the lightbulbs in the lab exploded at once.

She was thrown back into the air.

The machine exploded.

And then Adelaide collapsed onto the floor, blacking out.

—————

"Take that, Fury," Lukov sneered as he watched his project peak at success.

He had finally sublimated the Luxium.

"All that time wasted, trying to be perfect enough to be the director of SHIELD," he scoffed, "Now I get to watch as the Devil's Breath brings you down from your stupid little throne. I did what you could never do."

Holding his breath, Lukov reached out and twisted the cylindrical vial from the sizzling accelerator. He instantly felt the power of Luxium radiating its warmth into his palm. He grinned, feeling his victory closer than he had ever before.

SHIELD would go down into ruins and HYDRA would take its place. And he would be the phoenix rising from the ashes that brought back HYDRA. He would be the most powerful man alive.

Triumph surged through him like venom until he was laughing with power and greed.

Adelaide regained a little bit of her consciousness, enough to crack open her eyes slightly. The entire lab had been cast into darkness after she had exploded all the lights. But there was a dark, gloomy, glow coming from the other side of the room.

Lukov was standing on the other side of the accelerator, holding cylinder of dark purple air in his hands. The indigo air inside was so dense, it almost looked like liquid as it swirled around the cylindrical vial. And it was glowing brightly.

"L...Lukov," she tried to say weakly.

Her head was spinning a mile a minute. She saw white flashes of hot light behind her eyes that got brighter and more painful until she felt a shock go through her and her vision faded to black once again.

Lukov didn't even notice.

All he could see was himself holding his victory in the palm of his hands. The purple smoke seemed to glow brighter.

"Now watch the city burn, Director Fury," Lukov grinned.

—————

When she opened her eyes again, she was still lying where she had fallen.

She winced, feeling a piercing headache making a debut behind her eyes. The room seemed to pulse around her like a heartbeat. Her ears were ringing, but the sound was fading away slowly.

Adelaide carefully sat up from the floor of the lab, looking around. She pushed down on her knee and stood up. The floor almost gave away beneath her feet and Adelaide stumbled back into the table behind her.

The corners of her vision felt like they were stretching her eyes, clouding them with darkness. She winced and her hand flew up to her head. It felt like she had grown a heartbeat behind her eyes.

She had never used that much of her power at once before. It was insane. She had felt like she was a bolt of lightning. Her skin felt like it was sizzling. She had literally pushed herself to her seams and then some. If she hadn't collapsed when she had, Adelaide wasn't sure she would even be able to open her eyes right now. She had no idea she was even capable of that much power.

"Lukov?" she said. The lab was completely void of light.

She couldn't see a thing in the dark. She tried to pull some light from outside, but her head screamed and she nearly fell over again.

"Okay, okay, fine," she breathed, using the table to push herself back to her feet. She tried to steady her breaths by breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. She couldn't see a thing and Lukov was who knows where.

The accelerator had exploded and was now just a heap of metal scraps that were sizzling with heat and residual power.

"Lukov?" she called again, stumbling her way across the lab to get to the other side where he had been standing last. She knocked some things over on her way and she hoped they weren't important. The room just wouldn't stop spinning and she couldn't hold her balance long enough to take a single step in front of her.

When she got to the other side of the lab, she realized that Lukov was long gone .

And he had taken the vial with him.

—————

When Adelaide stumbled out of the lab, she first saw the college students and professors huddling outside of the buildings as if something had happened inside.

Except it wasn't just one building — it was all of them. The entire campus had been evacuated from the buildings.

Everyone was murmuring amongst themselves, speculating and wondering. Holding her side, she stumbled towards a couple students who were standing close to the lab. Her head was still in an enormous amount of pain, but she had a bad feeling. What had happened in the lab...she wasn't sure if that was what she had expected.

"Ex-Excuse me," she said.

Her throat felt like it had been scrubbed with sandpaper. It took literally all of her focus to not pass out right there. She winced, feeling sweat trickling down the side of her face. The two students looked at her, wondering what had happened to her. She realized she probably either looked drunk or hungover as hell in their eyes.

"What...What happened?" she breathed. Her vision swayed.

"Um," started the one with the glasses, "Apparently all of the lightbulbs exploded across campus at the same time."

It took a second for the words to reach her brain. She blinked.

All the lightbulbs exploded? She hadn't done that, had she? She swallowed, looking around. People looked shaken up, but not shocked.

"Is anyone hurt?" she asked, holding her breath.

"I don't think so," the other student said, "I just hope they get the power back on soon. I've got a five page history paper due tonight and all I've written is the title."

"P...Power?" she asked.

"Yeah," glasses said, "There's a city-wide blackout."

Adelaide's lips parted in shock. A city-wide blackout? Lightbulbs exploding? All coincidentally at the same time as she had surged herself with power? This wasn't good. Not at all.

Her side flashed in pain like a lightning strike and she let out a gasp, bending over. She was literally seeing stars in her eyes.

"Woah, woah, you okay?" the other guy asked, touching her shoulder to help her up. When his hand touched her shoulder, he felt a bit of a spark travel through him that was too strong to be static electricity and he jumped back. "Woah."

"I'm — fine," she forced through gritted teeth. The world swayed around her again. She pushed herself to stand up straight again. She couldn't believe the amount of pain she was in. "Just...Just call me a — cab."

"Are you sure?" glasses asked, "You look a little pale."

"Yes," she forced out. She was soaked in sweat and damn close to passing out again. All she wanted was to get out of here and collapse into a bed. She wasn't sure how much longer she could hold off on passing out.

Soon, glasses had gotten her a cab and had been nice enough to walk her to the edge of campus to the cab. He had been careful to not touch her after seeing what had happened when his friend had touched her shoulder.

After she got into the cab, Adelaide fell back against the seat. She was barely able to sit up straight.

"Where to?" the cabbie asked. Adelaide hoped he wouldn't ask any questions, even if she looked like she had been heavily drugged.

She almost replied with Stark Tower but she knew that the minute she walked through the front doors, Pepper and Tony would see what had happened to her and she would have to tell them that she had been sneaking out all this time. She just didn't have the energy to deal with that right now.

She threw her head back against the seat, wincing as she tried to breathe through her mouth. The air burned going down her throat.

She thought about going to Peter's, but she knew that if he saw her in this condition, he would ask a million questions and she wasn't even capable of this one question the cabbie was asking right now. Besides, he was already worried about her and she didn't want to prove him right.

And so she realized that there was really only one place left to go.

—————

When she knocked on the front door, Adelaide was just a few seconds away from collapsing.

She leaned all her weight against the wall to hold herself up. She focused on breathing, but that hurt. So she tried focusing on a spot on the floor, but her eyes were in so much pain that she had to close them. Everything hurt. Everything was on fire.

Finally, the door opened.

When Vivian saw her in that condition, her hand flew up to cover her mouth as she gasped.

"Oh, my god," she breathed. She knew Adelaide went out on escapades occasionally during the nights, but she had never ever seen her in this condition before.

Immediately, Vivian reached out to hold her up. Adelaide recoiled.

"Don't," she coughed, "You'll hurt yourself."

Vivian ignored her and grabbed her arm anyway. She felt a small shock go through her hand for some reason, but it was over as quickly as it began. She helped her into the apartment and closed the door behind herself. Adelaide was basically a deadweight leaning on her and Vivian struggled to help her to her room.

"What in the world happened to you?" Vivian said as they slowly made their way through the living room, one foot in front of the other.

"Would you believe me if I said a 10k marathon?" Adelaide said. Her voice was dry and raspy, as if she had been screaming all day. She lost her balance again, stumbling against the coffee table and accidentally knocking over some things onto the floor. Vivian quickly helped her back up.

"Well, as long as you're cracking jokes," Vivian grunted, leading her down the hall. When they reached the end, she pushed open the door to her room with her foot. "I know you're gonna be fine."

She helped Adelaide the last few feet to the bed and the teenager immediately collapsed onto the mattress, face down. Vivian let out a huff, setting her hands on her hips as she assessed the damage.

Then she opened up her bedside table, pulled out two pink pills and grabbed the bottle of water from her dresser. She sat down beside Adelaide's feet on the bed.

"Hey, come on, take these," Vivian said. Adelaide groaned painfully into the pillow.

"Everything hurts, Viv," she complained, "It just hurts so much."

Vivian winced. She sounded like she was on the verge of crying from the pain.

"I know, just— I promise if you take these, you'll feel better," Vivian said. A moment later, Adelaide slowly pushed her hand into the mattress and propped herself up enough to turn slightly. Wincing, she turned onto her back and carefully sat up.

She looked like a mess. Her hair was matted to her face with sweat and her skin had turned into a sickly gray color. Her usually bright blue eyes were dimmer and had dark circles around them.

Vivian handed her the painkillers and the water bottle. Adelaide swallowed them gratefully. The painkillers would still take a while to kick in, but the water made her throat feel much better. In fact, she emptied the entire bottle in a matter of seconds.

"Sorry," she said when she handed the empty bottle back to Vivian. She took it, putting it on the bedside table.

"It's okay," she said softly, pulling the covers over her. Adelaide had her eyes squeezed shut as if opening them was too painful. "You wanna tell me what happened? You didn't have anything to do with this blackout, did you?"

Her mind flashed with the memory of Lukov holding some kind of glowing purple air in the vial. The accelerator exploding. The power surging through her veins. The pain that followed.

"No," she lied.

"You're a terrible liar," Vivian said.

"All I said was no," Adelaide defended. Vivian smiled slightly.

"Get some rest, we'll talk in the morning. I'll let Tony and Pepper know you're spending the night," Vivian said. She grabbed the other pillow and throw from her chair and walked over to the couch beside her window.

"Viv?" Adelaide said sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," she said and then she fell into a dreamless sleep.

—————

Lukov was standing in the middle of Grand Central Station.

There was a blackout throughout the city, but the station was busy as ever as trains were cancelled and people were stuck to wait there at the station. He grinned to himself and wrapped his hand around the vial in the deep pockets of his coat. He reached into his other pocket and pulled out a surgical mask which he covered his face with.

The city had no idea what kind of chaos was about to unfold.

"This is for you, Fury," Lukov said, pulling out the vial of the Devil's Breath. The purple smoke swirled with anticipation inside the vial. People who walked past him paid him no attention.

And then he smashed the vial onto the floor.

Immediately the purple fumes combined with the air and tripled in volume, spreading around the station like a wildfire in a dry forest. The people around him scrambled, trying to escape it.

Lukov smirked. If only they knew that there was no escape from it.

As everyone ran away from the fumes, Lukov stuffed his hands in his