Unbalanced

The Force. An energy field that surrounds, penetrates, and binds the whole universe together. It's common for the Living Force to have slight shifts, as both the Light and the Dark pulsate in sudden burst of strength. However, a certain living entity had her connection to the Force altered greatly. Her previous control over her gifts from the Living Force are no longer under her control. The dark magic, that had been with her since birth, had locked some of her connection to the Force from her. It is only a matter of time before her power is too much for her to keep under her control.

The city that never sleeps is in utter chaos. Buildings are ablaze, while other structures are cracked and crumbling to dust. Everywhere Angela looks, she sees destruction. Destruction of a living city. Destruction of concreted success that once stretched proudly towards the sky. Destruction of many lives that made the city sleepless. Now, the city would know nothing but sleep. Angela observes in silence all the unknown bodies strewn in every direction around her. Just in quick observation, several bodies close to her had died from a severe loss of blood from wounds that had been wrought wrongly upon them. Other lives had been by taken buildings that had crumbled onto them, their bodies crushed and mangled from the skeletons of skyscrapers.

A glimmer catches Angela's attention, and she focuses on the solid tint of red that peeks just slightly out from some rubble.

As if someone had flipped a switch, Angela realizes that she is staring up at her ceiling. She blinks slowly a few times while taking in a deep breath.

Again.

The Jedi pushes herself upright on her bed and slowly swings her feet onto the white carpeted floor. She combs her silky blonde hair with her fingers, out of frustration and uncertainty.

The same nightmare every night. Always the same.

Knowing that sleep is not going to return to her for a while, Angela gets up from her bed and quickly glances at the wristwatch on the nightstand. She swipes it up and straps it onto her left wrist.

Might as well.

It is no ordinary wristwatch. This piece of technology had been reinvented by none other than Tony Stark and every Avenger is given one. This watch is able access any door of the Avengers Tower, while also serving as a quick way of communication between all of the Avengers. A couple of days ago, she had received hers after accepting the title as an Avenger.

Once the wristwatch is in place, she leaves her bedroom and shuts the door behind her. Glancing at her watch, she reads the digital time.

It's two eighteen in the morning. That's...fourteen minutes earlier than last night.

After reading her watch, she puts her left hand back at her side and makes her way down the hall towards the closed elevator doors. Angela pays no mind in how she takes each step, since each person living in Avengers Tower gets their own personal floor.

The same nightmare over and over again.

Angela reaches the doors to the elevator and pushes the button. The elevator moves to her floor and opens its doors, as the light from inside it pierces the darkness around her. She stares at the floor, trying to keep from looking too much at the light as it hurts her eyes. She quickly gets into the elevator, quickly looks up at the controls, and presses the button for the second highest level of the tower, level ninety-two. As the elevator prepares to climb upwards, Angela goes back to her thoughts.

The nightmare is always the same. New York is in ruins. Countless lives are gone, and I'm the only one standing. This has been happening every time I fall asleep, ever since I was freed from that...black magic that was within that book.

Angela brings up her right hand and gazes upon the markings she had received from that magic-imbued tome. She had tried to get the fused symbol, the left half side of the Jedi Order symbol and the right half side of the Imperial symbol, off the back of her hand using several strategies and tactics. None of them had not so much as faded the black etches in her skin. Angela did not feel any pain from the marks, since the book had been drained of its power and handed over to Steve, who then gathered the rest of the Avengers together to decide the proper means of disposing of it. In the end, they all agreed to obliterate it in one of the incinerators that was in the basement of Stark's mansion. The books no longer exists, but the memory of its influence had not left her.

"Damn book, " she throws her marked hand back down at her side in disgust.

"Pardon me, Angela; but did I hear you utter a vulgar word?" Jarvis speaks to Angela in the elevator and at low volume.

"Yeah. Yeah I did, Jarvis. Sorry about that."

"No need to apologize, Angela. It's just that this is the first time I've heard you swear verbally."

Angela glances at the number above the elevator doors. She has over twenty floors left until she reaches her destination. "I don't do it often. It's not nice," she slightly smirks out of being noticed by Jarvis. "I didn't expect you to be keeping watch over me."

"Technically, I did not start monitoring you until you entered the elevator, Angela. I have a system of protocols, one of them is that I do not have monitoring access to personal living quarters. However, elevators, the main floors, and all research and hanger floors are under my surveillance."

"Makes sense. I'm glad Tony has a concept of privacy."

"Indeed," Jarvis then switches the subject in order to get Angela to change her current action, which had become routine after her ordeal of being controlled by dark sorcery. "Speaking of privacy and surveillance, I have noticed that, since everyone returned from Stark's mansion to here, you have been going up the aircraft hanger on level ninety-two and working on your Starfighter during the middle of the night and not leaving level ninety-two until the sun rises above the city skyline."

The elevator arrives at level ninety-two and the doors smoothly slide open. Angela calmly steps out and starts making her way to her Starfighter, which is on the opposite side of the room and off to the side of the main path. Her path becomes bright from the lights in the ceiling turning on from their motion sensors being activated.

"Yeah. I have been. What's your point?"

"Would you like me to be answer bluntly or to, as they say, 'sugar coat' it?"

"Honestly Jarvis, I don't care how you say it," Angela walks over to the right side of the room to grab a box full of tools that she would need.

"In that case, I will be blunt in my answer."

After grabbing the box of tools, Angela walks over to her Starfighter and sets down the box near the opening of the cockpit. Not wasting a moment, she gets to work in repairing the outside covering just below the cockpit.

"You should not be up at this hour, Angela, for several reasons. One reason is that your sleeping routine is not good for your health. From my calculations, you are only getting an average of four hours of sleep each night."

"Yeah?" Angela maintains most of her focus on her Starfighter as she starts straightening the outside of the metal by using a clamp and a hammer together. This naturally creates a random series of loud bangs, sharp creaks, and agitating moans from the metal to echo throughout the whole floor.

"Given the amount of stress you have went through merely a few weeks ago, you should be getting at least seven hours of sleep every night."

The tinge of anger, that has been a part of Angela her whole life, sparks inside her upon hearing Jarvis say that she had been through stress.

What does Jarvis know about stress?! I'm pretty sure that he has never experienced it.

"I have also noticed that you are not acting like yourself. This is more than likely due to the fact that your sleep schedule is not as it should be."

Her tinge of anger grows into a tiny flickering flame.

Of course I haven't been acting like myself! I had no control over myself because of that damn book!

"You should take it easy for just a while longer, just until you are back to your normal self."

Her flame of anger turns into a verbal wildfire.

"I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF, JARVIS! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I FELT! SO WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME BE!" Some of Angela's hair changes from blonde to deep black and her soft blue eyes change to a bloody red. It's only for a few seconds, as Angela realizes that she had let her inner anger gain control. She refocuses and calms her inner rage. Her black strands of hair return to the shade of blonde that the rest of her hair was, and her red eyes shift back to blue. She had refocused back into the Light Side of the Force.

"I...I'm sorry, Jarvis. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." Even though Jarvis is only an AI, Angela feels remorse for yelling at him the way she did.

"No need to apologize, Angela. You have been through a lot and are under a lot of stress," Jarvis speaks calmly, as if it is a normal conversation. "I shall leave you alone to do what you wish. If you need me, all you have to do address me."

"Thanks. Thanks for understanding, Jarvis."

Silence prevails in the room, less the creaking of metal that is being bent back to its rightful place. Angela puts her full focus on repair the outside metal of her Starfighter. She had to get her thoughts off of being controlled by someone else's will. She had to keep her mind busy. Her solution is to work on her Starfighter, and hopefully, make some progress in repairing it to its full functionality. She hopes that she can somehow, one day, make it make to her own galaxy, back to Yavin 4, back to the Jedi Academy, back to Chewy, Han, Leia, Kyle, and Luke.

Every day that goes by, the odds of returning back to my galaxy seem to dwindle more and more.

After straightening a small section of her Starfighter, Angela reaches in the red toolbox for a wrench. She soon finds out that the wrench that she requires isn't in there. She scopes out the room, hoping she can spot it from her position.

Junk. Junk. Some scrap metal. Then, her eyes lock onto the wrench lying on a table a few yards from her. There you are. Using her abilities, Angela uses the power of the Force to call the wrench from the table top and into her left hand. The wrench does not even flinch.

"What-" Angela focuses more on the wrench while still trying to pull it towards her. It doesn't so much as nudge in any direction.

"Come on." She strains to bend the Force to her will, but it does not follow her mental commands. She quits trying and recollects herself.

"This has never happened before. Maybe-" she glances at the back of her right hand. The jet black marks in her skin were still there and still in the pattern of the two symbols mashed together. "Maybe that book being destroyed has altered my connection somehow."

Her mind goes back to the wrench lying on that table top. "Guess I'll have to actually get up from the floor, walk over and get it," she smirks at her own sarcasm. "That might just kill me." As she pushes herself off of the floor, the energy around her hears her desire to have the wrench lying on the table, across the room from her. The Force acts out of free will and moves around the wrench, lifting up above the table and quickly sending it flying towards her.

Angela is unaware of what is coming towards her. Just as she begins turning to walk and get the wrench, it makes impact with the left side of skull before clanking several times on the hard concrete floor. Angela lets out a quick shout of agony before hissing at the sharp pain that went diagonally from the top of her left eye to the middle of her left cheek. She staggers across the room to the table that has shiny metal sheets on it and looks down at her reflection in the silver-toned metal, while removing her hand from the side of her face.

Her hand along with her reflection shows no blood. Even though Angela thought she would bleed form such a hard blow to the side of her face, she is fortunate to not receive a cut into her skin. She isn't unscathed though. There is a bruise that shows itself by coloring a near black, faint line from the top of her left eye to the side of her face. "At least it didn't hit my eye." Remembering what hit her face, she goes back over to her Starfighter and sees the wrench lying just underneath the left wing. She bends over and sweeps it up into her right hand.

"I try to use the Force to bring you to me and you don't budge," she addresses the tool as if it would listen to her and reply back. "I barely think about you and the Force slings you over without hesitating." She flips over her hand to see that symbol still branding her skin. "Something tells me that you have something to do with this." She doesn't want to dwell on it anymore.

"Let's get back to repairing the Starfighter." With wrench in hand, Angela starts loosening up some bolts so that she can bend a section of metal back into place. However, she makes sure not to use the Force or even sense through it. She hopes that she can keep her mind clear, so that the Force does not react like it had with the wrench that she now held in her hand.

Yeah! I know the first chapter is mostly my oc. but next chapter is mostly Steve Rogers :D Then after that is Bruce Banner, because I hated how I kinda put him on the backburner in the last story.

Hope you all enjoyed and hope to have more out soon!

~The JediAvenger~