The room grew still as the monitors hummed and flickered, casting pale light across the steel walls. Aurora felt every gaze pressing down on her—sharp, suspicious, measuring.
And then Silvanna spoke.
Her voice was calm, almost casual. "You should know something. If Aurora and I wanted to, we could take this entire room apart. All of you. At once."
The words landed like a grenade.
U.S. Agent's jaw tightened, his hand instinctively brushing the edge of his shield. Ghost phased half out of sight, her body flickering with tension. Red Guardian stopped laughing. Even Yelena, so hard to rattle, narrowed her eyes.
Aurora's stomach dropped. "Silvanna—" she hissed, but Silvanna didn't back down.
"Don't misunderstand me," Silvanna continued, folding her arms. "I don't say that as a threat. I say it as a fact. Aurora can mimic any of your powers, your skills, your movements, just by focusing on you. And me—" her eyes glimmered red, veins on her hand shifting unnaturally— "I can control blood. Yours. Mine. Anyone's. Don't think I wouldn't hold back if I had to."
A heavy silence filled the air.
Red Guardian muttered something in Russian under his breath. U.S. Agent finally stepped forward, squaring up with Silvanna, his voice sharp. "That supposed to intimidate us?"
"No," Silvanna said, locking eyes with him. "It's supposed to make you understand. We're not liabilities. We're not strays. If you're serious about fighting threats bigger than you can handle, then we're your best chance of surviving it."
Aurora shifted uncomfortably, glancing at Miles. He gave her a small shrug, as if to say: well, the truth's out now.
Bucky finally broke the silence. "She's not lying." His voice was low, edged with something between resignation and respect. "I've seen people who bluff power. They don't look like that."
Ghost folded her arms. "So you're saying we just… trust them?"
"No," Bucky replied evenly. "But we don't dismiss them either."
For the first time since they arrived, the Thunderbolts' posture shifted—not relaxed, but recalibrated. The room no longer viewed Aurora and Silvanna as strays or intruders. They were dangerous. Unstable. But worth keeping close.
Yelena smirked faintly, breaking the tension with a dry remark. "Great. Just what we needed—two more problems."
Aurora exhaled slowly, her heart hammering. She wasn't sure if Silvanna had just saved them—or made everything a thousand times more dangerous.