A New Beginning

Chapter 13- KNEEL

The process of finding Loki was a slow one. Fury had been correct in his hunch that Dr. Banner could help track the Tesseract, but it was taking too long for Noelle's taste.

She was impatient because of her anxiety over what Loki was doing with the Tesseract. Plus the Mind Stone...

She looked down at her hands, thinking back on what Loki had done to her and the blue psionic energy that came out of them whenever she used the Force. If the Stone could do that to her, what else could it do?

The Stone had been drawn to her– Noelle suspected because she was already strong in the Force, and now she literally had been given the power of the Mind.

Noelle closed her eyes and exhaled. I never asked for more powers, or any of this.

Sometimes she wished things were different. She wished she was just an ordinary person in complete bliss of the universe. She could just live her life and be happy. She certainly would have had a job and been out of the house by now.

I might have even been married...Tears pricked her eyes.

Noelle blinked them back and shoved all thoughts of anything other than the present problem out of her mind. She usually found that wishing for something different never got her anywhere. After all, this had been her choice, this life.

She wasn't getting married and she couldn't see herself falling in love ever again. It wasn't so much that she was still in love with Legolas or that she refused to try and move on from him, she just...

She couldn't toy with the idea that there was someone else there like her. Someone who understood her. Who else would understand what she had been through?

Plus Noelle didn't have time for her own self-interests. She always seemed to be too busy fighting someone else's war to think about herself for once.

She sighed and stood up. She knew she wasn't getting rid of her newfound abilities no matter how much she wanted to, and that they were a part of her like the Force was, so she might as well make the best of it and learn.

She wished she was able to experiment and practice with her Force-powers and see what she could really do, but it would have to wait until she was somewhere far away. Somewhere she wouldn't hurt anybody.

Well, Loki would make an excellent test subject, she thought with a smirk. When they found him that was.

She closed her eyes and felt the Force surrounding her. It was like a light in the darkness to her, and comfort to her in the chaos in her life that was ensuing right now.

"Ms. Smith, we found him," came a voice interrupting her meditation.

Noelle opened her eyes to see one of Fury's agents at the doorway of her room.

"Director Fury wants to meet with you for a briefing."

Noelle figured she had better suit up.

~~~~~~~

Loki was in Stuttgart, Germany– at a Gala.

Noelle wasn't sure what to make of that. In fact, no one else seemed to either, not even Fury.

The meeting was brief, and the orders were simple: the Ghost, Captain America, and the Black Widow (Natasha's Code Name) were to extract Loki from the party, and have him in custody onboard this Helicarrier for questioning in under two hours.

The whole thing didn't feel right though. Loki was spotted wearing a fancy tuxedo with a green scarf, hanging out with a bunch of rich folks mingling and eating delicacies.