A/N: HELLO BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

man, it has been a stressfulll week with finals and like a million other things, but i am just relieved that summer is almost here which means so is my four months vacation 😅

i'm supposed to get my second dose of my vaccine this friday so then i will FINALLY be fully vaccinated and feel a little bit relaxed but not that much cause like all these variants are also stressing me out. but i have enough to worry about as it is so i'm not gonna try to worry about that until i have to

anyway, you probably aren't gonna like me for this chapter and please forgive the cliffhanger in advance :)

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"I have the powers to control light."

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Adelaide didn't call Peter the rest of that day and neither did he.

May texted her and told her that after he had come home, he fell asleep in his room right after but he had refused to eat anything all day.

Peter didn't come to school the next day and Adelaide figured it was for the better. After that weird moment that they had had back in the nurse's office yesterday, she wasn't quite sure what to say to him yet. He was clearly going through something. Why didn't he trust her to tell her? And then Adelaide had felt like a hypocrite because she was doing the same, which led her to feeling guilty for the way she had impulsively reacted yesterday.

Regardless of how she felt, he still hadn't called or even texted and Adelaide wasn't sure how to start a conversation with him either. May continued to update her on his condition, letting her know that he didn't have a fever and she was taking his temperature every other hour, but he still refused to eat anything. Adelaide was growing with worry about what had put him in that condition.

But here in Long Island, there was no room for worry.

If she wanted to get that sample of Luxium from SHIELD tonight, she would have to be completely focused.

Lukov was already waiting for her in the lab. She just had to get the Luxium unnoticed and leave before anyone realized it was missing.

The first hurdle was the security at the gate. They only allowed authorized personnel to drive through. On an inconspicuous Tuesday night, there were only a couple other people needing to get inside the facility.

Adelaide didn't have a car and if she borrowed one of Tony's, he would have noticed instantly. So she called in another favor from Bobby again (who was more than happy to lend a hand, or, in this case, a car) and she used her powers to make the body of the car completely black instead of its usual yellow taxi color.

The second hurdle was the ID she needed. So she borrowed Tony's. She doubted that he would notice that it was missing. When she drove up to the gate, the guard's face lit up.

"Good evening, sir," he greeted, thinking that he was speaking with Tony Stark. Adelaide nodded at him from behind her blind widow glasses she had from when she needed to fool her landlord into the thinking that she was a blind widow. She handed him Tony's ID and he scanned it into the system. Adelaide held her breath.

"You're all set, sir," he said, handing her back the ID. She smiled at him, and drove into the facility once the guard lifted the bar. She parked her car off to the side, behind a larger van as to obscure it from view because the illusion she had on it would fade away once she left.

Gripping the ID firmly in her hand, she walked towards the door, trying to mimic Tony's walk. No one could see her nervous. Tony was never nervous. Even under pressure, he cracked jokes. The easiest way to get caught was to look like you didn't belong. If she just pretended like she knew what she was doing, she would be out of here in no time.

At the front door, there door was locked until she scanned her ID. That part was easy, however. Immediately inside, there was a lobby with a short man sitting behind a desk. He was chatting on the phone and glanced up when he spotted her walk in.

He covered the mic on his phone with his hand.

"It's the mother-in-law, what are you gonna do, right?" he said. Tony Stark gave him a one-sided smile.

"Just wait here a moment, Patrice will help you out," he said. As if on cue, a short, curly-haired woman walked out.

"What can I help you with today, Mr. Stark?" she smiled, holding the door open for him. Adelaide walked past her. Once the door was closed and they were walking, Adelaide had no excuse but to talk.

"Just needed some old paperwork. Around the late 1900s archives?" she said in the deepest voice she could muster. As she got acquainted, she realized this warehouse was much, much bigger than it looked from the outside. There were so many things, it made her head spin. No one else was really here except for the employees and they were just moving things from one place to another, it seemed.

"Er, what happened to your voice, sir?" Patrice asked. Adelaide winced.

"Just a little cough," she mumbled. Patrice frowned, but thought better than to question Tony Stark.

"For the 1900s archives, we'll have to go to the lower floor. The elevator is this way," she said politely and her sharp heels clicked against the gray floor as they walked towards the elevator. Adelaide followed her inside and stood patiently as Patrice pressed buttons. Everything was going perfectly. Which always left plenty of room for disaster to strike.

The rode the elevator in silence and when the doors opened, the new floor looked almost exactly the same, but on a slightly smaller scale in terms of things populating it. Patrice had a fast pace for which Adelaide was grateful. The faster she could get out of here, the better.

She stopped at an aisle between two shelves that were filled with boxes that held various files and folders and documents inside. Adelaide looked around. They had passed the 1969 archives not so far back. But how was she going to shake off Patrice without calling attention to herself? There were probably a million cameras around here.

"What are you looking for specifically, Mr. Stark?" Patrice asked. Adelaide blinked.

"Uh- I-...I...I need documentation from...from uh...the projects conducted in 1983," she blurted, picking a random number. Patrice chewed on the inside of cheek, looking around.

"They would be right..." she reached up for a box just above her height and pulled it down, "here."

Dust flew off the lid and Adelaide coughed. She glanced over her shoulder. She had to slip away just long enough to find and grab the Luxium before Patrice noticed. Suddenly, an idea struck her.

She created an illusion of Tony and made her own body invisible. Patrice began talking her ear off about everything inside the box and Adelaide took that as an opportunity to slip away. She couldn't go too far or the illusion of Tony would disappear. As Patrice continued to talk, Adelaide slipped into the aisle with the shelf of the 1969 archives which was just on the other side, a few feet away.

She began silently looking through the boxes, her eyes dancing over the labels. There were several experiments and projects during this time, but most of them had been machine-related. Not about Luxium.

"TADASHI," she whispered, "where are archives for the Luxium experiment?"

"Searching...found it. To your right, fifth row from the bottom, box number 44616e676572."

"Got it," she said, pulling it off the shelf. She quickly rifled through it, looking for anything that looked like it could be Luxium.

And then, her hand touched something that clinked like glass.

She paused, pulling it out. It was opaque vial that she couldn't see inside of, but it was labeled Luxium. There wasn't a lot, to her surprise. Adelaide had no idea how Lukov was going to use this tiny sample to experiment with. But she didn't have all the time in the world so she quickly slipped the vial into her pocket and put the box back where she had found it.

Looking around, she quickly hurried back to Patrice, hoping she hadn't blown her cover. When she returned and turned herself back into the illusion of Tony, Patrice was unfazed. Adelaide must not have been gone for long because Patrice was still talking about the experiments done in 1983.

"And then there is this one. From August 22, 1983. This is actually a project by HYDRA, but the research files were recovered by SHIELD in 2014."

At the mention of HYDRA, Adelaide's ears perked up. Why did something about that date sound so familiar? She racked her brain, but the adrenaline from her slip-away just moments ago was clouding her thoughts and she couldn't think straight. But she knew there was something about that date...

"You know what, Patrice? I'm actually late for a...uh meeting. I'll swing by again tomorrow," she said. Patrice looked at her strangely for a moment but then shook her head.

"O-Of course, Mr. Stark," she said, putting the file back into the box and putting the box back onto the shelf. "Back to the elevator?"

"Lead the way," she said and Adelaide created an illusion of Tony again that walked with Patrice as Adelaide quickly pulled the box out and swiped the file out, hiding it into the inside of the lining of her jacket before quickly jogging to catch up with Patrice.

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When Adelaide finally arrived at the lab, Lukov was waiting for her by the door.

"I got it," Adelaide said, answering the question he was asking her with his eyes. Lukov's face lit up with a bright smile, one she hadn't seen on him before.

If Adelaide had looked a little more carefully, she would have seen the greed and hunger that had consumed him. But it was just one of those things that you couldn't see unless you were looking for it and Adelaide didn't know any better then.

She reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and handed him the vial of Luxium.

"It's not a lot," she said, "But this was all they had."

Lukov greedily took the vial into his hands, holding it carefully.

"Oh, you never need too much Luxium, Adelaide. A little goes a long way," he smiled as he led her to the back of the lab. Adelaide stuffed her hands in her pockets, following him. When he reached his station, he opened up a box beneath his table and put the vial inside carefully. Then he secured it with a giant hanging metal lock.

"I have absolutely no idea how on earth you managed to get this vial, but, Adelaide, thank you so much," he said, facing her with a huge smile, "You have no idea how much you've helped me. How can I repay you?"

Adelaide lightly tapped her foot against the floor, rethinking what she was about to do.

"Um...about that," she started, "I actually uh...I wanted to tell you how I did it. Got the vial, I mean."

"Oh?" Lukov said, surprised, "Do tell."

Adelaide looked at him. And then she thought about her parents. If Graves trusted him and her parents had poured all of their research into this, then she had to do this. So she looked Lukov dead in the eye and said,

"I...I have the powers to control light."

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A/N: oh, adelaide. dear, adelaide. there's so much you don't know

poor girl, really. the next few weeks for her are gonna be hectic as hell. and the book is going to end after a few more chapters and i'm just SO. EXCITED. for the ending because you guys are going to love/hate it

anyway, the next chapter is super duper upper smooper long and fluffy and lots of cute moments! and you'll find out what was wrong with peter, which is sorta sad. but i can't wait for you guys to read it!

also random side note, can someone recommend me a 2000s romcom that i should watch? i need something cheesy and cute to watch tonight 🥰

question: out of curiosity, what do you think was in that file adie stole?

see you next week with the fluffy chapter!