Pieces of the Puzzle

It does not make sense to him. The science and logic is not in the notes. Dr. Banner sits at one of the tables in the medical center of Avengers Tower, flipping back and forth through several pages of medical data.

"This doesn't make sense." The data on paper is correct. He knows it is. "The data is not flawed. I double-triple checked myself to make sure." He pauses for a moment. "Double-triple checked? Is that even proper English?" He shakes the thought from him. "This data is correct yet it's not like anything I've seen. Therefore, I can't compare it to anything and actually fix what's happening, that is if anything needs fixing." He takes off his glasses in frustration, setting them on the table in front of him along with the data of Angela's medical evaluations. He starts running through all of his facts and starts formulating possible hypotheses once again.

"Her body is physically well, except for her lack of getting enough sleep, and that is the problem I can't solve." Bruce picks up the data from the table and scans it over yet again. The data has not changed. It still pointed out that sudden electrical signals spike and drop in the center of Angela's brain. Bruce knows this part of the brain is to control bodily functions such as sensory integration, motor integration and, more physically noticeable, sleep.

The irregular electrical signals in Angela's brain aren't normal, but since she has the ability to wield energy from the universe and bend it to her will, Angela's random electrical signals in her mind could be normal to her.

He flings the data back onto the table in front of him. I already mapped Trent's brain patterns and he has sudden electrical signals in his brain as well, even more so when I had him use the Force while recording his brain's functionality. The scientist massage his temples while continuing to figure out how to help Angela get back how she was before. Before the events that happened nearly a month ago.

"Maybe I need more than just numbers this time." Banner gently picks up his glasses and starts cleaning them with his white lab coat. He needed something to keep his hands busy.

"Jarvis, do you know where Angela is at?"

"Yes Dr. Banner. She is currently sleeping on her floor."

Banner stops cleaning his glasses. "Really? That's a change." He quickly glances at his watch to check the time. "Wow. It's only a little after 5:30. She hasn't went to sleep before midnight since that book, that was controlling her physical and mental actions, was incinerated back at Stark's mansion. Now, she suddenly goes from a night owl to sleeping beauty in one day." Bruce asks Jarvis, "Do you know if anything influenced her to go to bed this early, Jarvis, or if it was on her own accord?"

"Yes, I do. Steve Rogers went to talk to her and convinced her into getting some rest. I must say that he succeeded in getting her to take it easy while I had trouble even suggesting to her that she should try to sleep more."

The scientist makes a mental note of this before replying back to Jarvis. "Well at least she is sleeping. Jarvis, do me a favor and alert me when she wakes up. I'm not going to disturb her when she is getting some of the rest she needs."

"A wise plan, Dr. Banner. I shall alert you when she wakes up."

With Jarvis ready to alert him, Bruce decides to head up to the main level and hang out with the rest of the Avengers. He wants to keep practicing on be social and not closing himself off to everyone around him.


Angela finds herself standing in the ruins of New York yet again. Bodies still litter the streets while tiny crimson streams of blood streak over the rumble. The Jedi remembers dreaming this before and remembers seeing a shiny tint of red in some rubble nearby. She quickly scans the area and spots a faint glimmer coming from the rubble a few yards in front of her. She treads through the crumbled concrete and steel, keeping her sight on the reflection hiding in the debris.

"I recognize that red tint from somewhere." Reaching the pile of rubble, she begins shifting huge chucks of concrete off to the side. She stops suddenly as she sees what the red shine was. "No." She kicks into her determinated mode and uses the Force to lift the larger chunks of rubble away from the precious item. While focusing on throwing the useless concrete and steel scrap away, a faint whisper is heard by Angela.

"The universe is unbalanced."

She throws one of the huge pieces of rubble to the side before pausing to look around her. "Who said tha-" She cuts herself off when she sees no one living nearby. Angela shakes her head as she refocuses on clearing the rubble away.

"The Force is unbalanced."

Angela drops the chuck of rubble she was holding with the Force back onto the pile and quickly spins around, hoping to catch the owner of the voice. Nobody living is to be seen. A bit ticked off by the interruption, she lifts the huge concrete chuck from the pile and slings it a great distance away.

"You are unbalanced."

Before Angela can turn around for a third time, she is hit by several fast appearing images, causing her head to throb in immense waves. She falls to her knees while covering her eyes with her hands in an attempt to null the pain that accompanies the imagery. It does nothing to heed them as the voice returns alongside the images that go through her mind. The voice's words reflect the images Angela sees.

"Your galaxy and this one are about to be inflicted with the threat of extinction." Flashing images of mutilated bodies litter all worlds with life.

"You need to seek out the Halva Sword. It will bring balance to you, so that you can bring balance to the universe." Angela sees quick glimpses of the sword. From what she saw, the sword appeared to be resting in a pedestal inside of a purposefully carved out cave.

"Find the Halva Sword." Angela sees the cave in the backside of a mountain, which is hidden in a forest layered in snow.

"Be warned. The wielder of extinction will be brought into reality from one who wants peace in their time." The Jedi sees blurred images of some sort of a being shaped like a human but is not built of flesh and bone. He brings death upon all those who both run from him or try to stop him.

"No. Stop...it. Stop it!" Angela manages to speak through the throbbing pain. She doesn't want to see anything else. She doesn't want to hear anything else. She just wants this nightmare to end.

"Even though you will warn them about the danger, they will still create the evil that will destroy all life, both in this galaxy and yours." Angela sees mangled bodies of men and women in all forms of race and age, and children that were once filled with energetic life. Even little infants are seen by Angela, their eyes clouded and cold. Some of the lifeless babies are still held near their mothers' airless chests. All of them had been brutally killed while they were filled with unexplainable terror.

"No! This can't happen! It can't!" She screams out of both denial of the voice's words and the throbbing pain in her head that seems to be intensifying with every image Angela sees.

"The creation that will seek peace through annihilation will not be stopped from being made. But it can be destroyed before major damage is done." The previous images that showed countless people dead change. The dead vanish away and life survives death.

" Go take up the Halva Sword, bring balance to yourself, and beings both of this world and other worlds shall fight alongside you to destroy the one that seeks peace by destroying life." In unrelenting waves, Angela witness images of her pulling the Halva Sword from the pedestal. She then sees glimpses of several people and even creatures that she had never seen before. The images that flash afterwards appear and disappear too fast for Angela to pick up any details of what they could be, then they suddenly stop along with the immense pain in her head.

Her hands slightly shakes as Angela takes a couple of slow, steady breaths. She looks around her to see she is still in a destroyed New York City. Then, looking in front of her, she remembers what she was doing. A sinking feeling forms in the pit of her stomach as she rushes over to the pile of rubble and flings off the rest of the rubble to get to the shiny red tint that is buried out of her reach.

"Please don't let it be that. Please don't let it be that." She repeats this as if saying it enough times will make it not be what she reluctantly knows it to be.

After using some of her Force strength to through the last big chuck of concrete out of the way, Angela sharply gasps at that is lying in the debris. Steve's shield lies in the rubble. A fine layer of dust jots the colored metal, while several chips and scratches in the paint crisscross over each other at random. Angela can't look at it anymore. She shuts her eyes to the sight before her.


Sensing a change in environment, she opens her eyes to see that the nightmare has passed and that she is lying on her bed, a white blanket resting gently on her body. The Jedi lies completely still and remains completely silent, except for her soft breathing. The voice and the nightmare had left her, but their impact on Angela is still haunting her thoughts. She can't pry her mind from thinking about the nightmare within the nightmare and the voice that spoke to her. She had to do something to take her mind off it.

Sliding her feet onto the floor, Angela pushes herself up and off of the bed and changes into her usual denim attire. She grabs her watch from the nightstand, reading 6:17am. Well, at least I fulfilled Steve's favor for him. I can't believe I slept for that long. She quickly rephrases that. Slept as in "experienced a nightmare within a nightmare". Quickly strapping the device on her wrist, the Jedi leaves her floor and uses the elevator to get back to level ninety-two. Might as well work on my Starfighter some more. The sooner it's fixed, the better.

"Sir, Angela is awake. The question is 'are you?'."

With one deep breath of air, Bruce is more than able to get himself out of bed and change into some regular clothes. "I am very much awake, Jarvis. Thank you for alerting me."

"Not a problem."

After picking up his glasses off his nightstand and hanging them on his front shirt pocket, Banner gets into the elevator and goes to the level he suspects Angela to be on, which is level ninety-two. He takes a brief glance at his watch. "I have to hand it to Steve. He actually managed to convince Angela to get some rest. She slept for over sixteen hours. Yet, the data tells me that she is going to need more than rest to get back to her regular self. I hope that, in some way, I can open her up to talk about what's bothering her so much, because something tells me it isn't about being controlled by another person through a book of 'dark magic'. The power it had over should be complete gone." Bruce glances up to see he is about to reach level ninety-two. "If you can't figure it out someone's health by just data, one should ask what that person has or is experiencing. I just hope Angela won't shut me completely out."

The elevator stops and opens its doors, allowing Banner to walk onto level ninety-two and make his way over to Angela, who is working on her Starfighter and does not notice Banner walking towards her.

"You're up early."

Angela throws her head up and sees Banner coming her way. "So are you."

"Touché." Bruce had to chuckle at her quick, witty replies. "Working on your Starfighter, I see. Making any progress?"

"Well I hope all of the work I'm putting into it isn't making it worse," she gives Banner a smirk, letting him know that his questions are welcomed by her. "If that's the case, then I will never get this hunk of metal working."

"So, is that a yes or..."

"Yes, Bruce. It's a yes." Angela's mood slightly improves with each minute that Banner is with her. even though Angela could sense the anger buried deep within him, his outward demeanor is calm and even slightly shy. She always respects him for being able to control his inner rage while maintaining a near opposite character on the outside.

"That's great." He moves around the Starfighter and stands off to the side of Angela, so that he does not block her path in any way. "But I do have a question about this."

"Shoot." Angela gives Banner her full attention since she respects him.

"If you want your Starfighter repaired faster, which I'm sure you do, why don't you ask Tony to help you out? You know he is a genius when it comes to tech."

Her gently smirk grows into a grin, which then becomes an endless chuckle until Bruce speaks up again.

"I'm missing the funning part somewhere. Was there a subtle joke I missed or something?" He asks and patiently waits for Angela to regain control over her laughter fit.

Angela holds up a finger, telling him to wait a moment. After taking in a couple of slow, deep breaths, her laughter calms completely down and she starts to explain to Banner what was so funny about his question.

"Okay. So you know that Tony asks everyday if he can hold my lightsabers, right?"

"...Yes."

"Imagine my Starfighter in place of my lightsabers. Tell me how you think he would act."

Bruce takes moment to collect his thoughts. "Well, I would say he would want to sit in the cockpit, wear your pilot helmet, press all of the button and flip all of the switches."

"That I could deal with. However, Tony would do just more than 'press all of the buttons and flip all of the switches'. He would start taking apart every single moving piece and try to reverse engineer everything to see how it works, even though he would ask me how every piece functions. Whenever something from my galaxy is involved, Tony acts like a tiny child that has just discovered the sweet taste of sugary candy."

Bruce throws his heads up in defeat. "You win. He would act like that. I can actually picture him messing with your Starfighter and you yelling at him."

"That's why I've been working on this alone." She partially tells the truth. Angela leaves out the bit of her hiding from everyone because of her inability to control using the Force as well as she used to be able to. "That, and I banned him from stepping foot on this level."

Bruce gives Angela a questionable look. "...Wait. Wait, you...banned Tony from a floor in his own building?"

"Yep." Swiping the nearby tool she needs, Angela sits down in the cockpit and begins inspecting some of the controls.

"May I ask how you managed to ban Tony from this floor and why he has honored his 'banishment' so far?"

"I told him if he were to come up here and step one foot on this floor while I'm in it or come up here and mess with my Starfighter when I'm not present I would never allow him to my lightsabers."

"Never?"

Angela's gives Bruce a devilish grin from the cockpit. "Never."

Bruce nods his head in agreement. "Yeah, that would do it."

After trying to hold one of the covers for the control panels while looking at the wiring inside, Angela found it to be impossible. She could do it if she used the Force to hold the panel away from the cockpit but knew that her power could fluctuate erratically, causing another mess like the one she and Steve picked yesterday or worse. She could hurt Bruce with it and inadvertently summon the Hulk. For this reason, Angela decides to not use the Force but something more reliable.

"Even though I banished Tony from coming up here, that doesn't mean I don't have others to help me out. If you would help me out, even if it's just for a little bit, I would appreciate it, Bruce. I know you aren't an expert at advanced tech like Stark is, but that doesn't mean you still know a great deal about tech. What do you say?"

Bruce picks his glasses up, that have been hanging off of his shirt pocket and slides them on. "Sure. I'm more than willing to help. What do you need me to do?"


For the next couple of hours, Angela and Bruce work together on the Starfighter. While repairing each section back to its original functionality as they can, Angela vivid explains how each moving piece operates, how each strand of wiring and integrated circuitry sends vital signals and information to the other parts of the ship, why each metallic covering is needed where it is needed.

Banner pays attention to Angela's words to him and learns just how sophisticated her Starfighter actually is. Even though intrigued by the sheer technical functions of her ship, Bruce keeps part of his focus on Angela's actions. Soon he starts formulating a hypothesis, as is normal for a scientist like himself to do and he discovers Angela not doing the one thing she normally did on a regular basis.

Angela is not using the Force.

From observation of her actions and her slightly altered character, Bruce's hypothesis starts to become more and more truth with each passing hour. He notices that she does not use it in any means to help her in any way, at least physically. Very quickly, pieces of the puzzle he had been trying to solve for weeks starts fitting together.

It makes so much sense now! Irregular sleeping patterns. Seclusion from everyone here in the building. A change in attitude, becoming avoidant and even slightly shy. Angela hasn't been using the Force. That's probably why she hasn't read my thoughts yet. If she would have, she would be acting quite differently.

In figuring out one question, Bruce suddenly comes up with several more. The question is why isn't she using her powers? Is it because she can't because we destroyed that magic-imbued book? Or, is it because she chooses not to? And if so, what has she seen or felt that makes her not want to use her powers?

"Hey Bruce."

"Hm?" Banner gets shaken out of his own thoughts, by Angela nudging him on the shoulder.

"Can you hand me those set of pliers on the table beside you?" She keeps her eyes locked into her section of the Starfighter she is working on.

"Yeah." In one motion, Bruce picks up the tool and places it in Angela's open palm.

"Thank you." Just as she goes in to use the pliers, Jarvis speaks over the intercom.

"Attention. Mr. Stark wants everyone to gather on the main floor within five minutes."

Both the scientist and the Jedi look at each confused.

"What do you think that's about?"

Bruce shakes his head. "I have no idea, but it sounds rather important. We better go there."

Angela hesitates to take a step. What if it's a mission? If it is, I can't use my abilities or else they could fluctuate out of control. Plus, the nightmare and that voice saying to find a sword that could help me. There's so many unknowns at play here! But, I don't need everyone worrying about me. At least, not until I know if this gathering on the main floor is a mission. If it is, I'll tell them once it's completely accomplished. If not, then I'll tell them everything. The nightmares and the voice talking to me.

Thoughts aside, Angela catches up with Banner and they walk side by side as they make their way to the main level of Avengers Tower.


Another chapter done! Next chapter will be fun. More characters come into play and I start creating prelude ideas for Age of Ultron plots to come in! The chapter after the next one will have the main points of beginning scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron, plus Trent and Angela of course! This will be fun to write!

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you will leave a review so that I have some sense if anyone likes what I enjoy writing!

~TheJediAvenger~