Science and Magick (LokixOC)

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Try harder!" Thor commanded.

Zoë yelled out a grunt, using her powers to try and bend the concrete slab she was levitating. She was almost there when it crumbled to sand once again. A frustrated scream erupted from her throat and she forced the sand across the room in a blizzard of wind, incidentally stripping the paint from the wall where it hit and almost scratching the glass of the window.

"Well, not what we were going for but still impressive, mouse" Thor joked.

Zoë glared at him and then her hands as silence fell between them in the training room. "It wasn't this bad before, it's like I'm getting worse. I had more control before that final fucking test and more control when I had-" she cut herself off, clenching her fists, she wasn't really supposed to be talking about him at the moment.

"When you had Loki" he finished for her, his tone warm and sympathetic. She didn't deserve it.

She just nodded and waved her hand turning the sand back into concrete. They had discovered it was a lot easier for her to change the matter rather than bend it and move it to her will. She could lift things and just about throw them if she was angry but beyond that, she couldn't grasp the manipulation of it. Be it solid, liquid or gas, Zoë could change the elements and composition but nothing beyond that.

"Miss Zoë, your presence is required in the living quarters" JARVIS announced.

She groaned and mumbled a sting of German curse words as she turned around and left the room. She had been training relentlessly with both Thor and Steve for the past two weeks and while her combat skills were showing vast improvement, her powers seemed to be getting more and more out of hand.

When she reached the right floor she walked out of the elevator and into the kitchen "You do realise I'm in the middle of training, right?" She asked rhetorically, filling a glass with water and draining it as she glared at the man watching her.

Steve nodded "I'm well aware" he confirmed.

She raised her eyebrow at him, if he knew that then why did he call her up here? "Is this important?" She asked.

"Did you forget what day it is today?" He replied with a question of his own.

Zoë frowned before remembering "It's my first appointment" she sighed, rubbing her temples.

Steve nodded "I called you up here to get ready and then I'll take you" he told her.

She honestly didn't want to go, but she had promised them she would so she nodded reluctantly and left towards her bedroom. Once Zoë had compiled a list of locations where Barnes could be found, it was a group decision that there would be three of them on the mission; Natasha, Steve and Zoë. However before they could go both Steve and Tony had to sign off on Zoë's training. Until she had her powers under control she wasn't able to go on any missions and so she had been training and practicing non stop ever since. The only reason she rested was because Steve also said if she didn't take care of herself then she'd be taken off of the mission entirely.

Zoë just couldn't stand being in her bedroom, or at least being alone in her bedroom. More often than not she'd sleep out in the living room or sneak into Steve's room to sleep with him. The deafening silence of her room without Loki in it was just too much to bare. She still couldn't feel him, the more time went by the harder it was for her to even reach that wall. He was completely and utterly gone.

She moved on autopilot, washing and changing, while her mind was occupied with trying to understand why she couldn't feel him. It felt like he was blocking her but why? What would his purpose be?

"Miss Knelbeg?" The woman asked.

Zoë's attention snapped back to the present and she found herself sat on a small brown leather couch in a comfortably warm study. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" She asked the psychiatrist.