The Avengers: A Change of Fate

Chapter 20

On Saturday, Stella met her friends at the mall. They walked around together and talked about their Christmas. Jake wasn't too bad. Was Stella serious about the whole dating thing? She wan't sure she had feelings for him, but she had to admit he was handsome and had an amazing personality. How could she not like a guy who refused to give up on her?

As they had lunch, Jake invited them to his New Years party. They all pretty much agreed, and Stella knew Tony would bite at some alone time with Pepper. She didn't really want to be around when the champagne was out anyway. Tony with alcohol kind of scared her. So the week before New Years came and went with the usual Avengers training, and Stella found herself tracking her way to Jake Sandusky's house after the meeting at the mansion.

Stella had stayed after the conference meeting for some long missed time with her team mates. T'challa had left only the day after Christmas to go home and celebrate Kwanzaa with the rest of his family. Hawkeye and Stella fought it out on video games and Thor finally convinced her to take the hammer challenge. They all gathered around the table as she prepped herself for some heavy lifting.

She looked at Mjolnir before gripping its handle. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried to reach out to it. She had been through a lot. She had seen battles, and suffered, but what did it take to gain the worthiness of Mjolnir? Stella only hoped she wouldn't embarrass herself. She wondered if the dragon would be worthy. If she was then wouldn't Stella be too?

Stella scrunched up her face and tried to lift the hammer. She heard a scraping noise as she managed to drag it off the table. It nearly sent her to the ground, it was so heavy. All the Avengers stared at her in shock as she struggled to hold Mjolnir. She groaned and hefted it back on the table.

"To heavy for me to actually use, but..." She looked around the table. They all had their jaws dropped.

"None of the other Avengers have been successful in lifting Mjolnir, my friend. Not even Captain America. 'Tis a great feat you have accomplished. One very few can achieve," Thor said.

"How did you...?" Hawkeye was the first to gain his speech.

"Tis truly surprising. Your words must be true of your experiences. You must have seen a lot to gain the trust of Mjolnir," Thor stated.

"I think you need to tell us more about them," Tony stated.

Stella's eyes hardened, "I'm not comfortable with that."

"But, Stella- you lifted the hammer," Falcon said.

"We're your team, Stella. We're here for you till the end. Even through the dark stuff," Captain America encouraged.

Stella didn't like that they were pushing her. She clenched her jaw, "They tortured me there."

"Who did?" Tony asked.

"The lab. In Missouri," Stella gritted her teeth.

She gripped the table as images flashed in her mind, "I can't talk about that," Stella snapped.

She looked at her team, "I'll talk about anything else, but don't ask me to talk about that."

"I'm sorry we pushed you," Falcon apologized.

Stella took a deep breath, "It's fine, Falcon. You guys are right. You have the right to know, but I can't-"

"It's okay, Stella. Why don't we move on to something else?" Captain America suggested.

Despite the rough ending, Stella was feeling pretty awesome when she left the mansion. She had lifted Mjolnir. Even if it had felt like it was going to rip off her arms. When Stella reached the building, she was nervous. She rode the elevator up and hoped Victoria and Amilia were already there.