Chapter five
There was nothing but darkness. Winter could hear everything going on around her, but she couldn't open her eyes. Someone had blindfolded her, along with securing her arms, legs, and chest to a chair. It was pointless, since she could just teleport away whenever she wanted. But her thoughts were elsewhere, and she was bound in place by the weight of her anguish. Phil was dead, Thor was dead. Phil had known about her, about hydra. This was all too much for her to process, so she was glad for the time she was granted. She had no idea how long she sat strapped to that chair. Hours? Minutes? She couldn't tell. It felt like eternity, but it still wasn't enough to prepare her for when the doors burst open, footsteps filling the room. She tensed as the blindfold was ripped from her head, which still hurt immensely from the blow to the base of her skull. She opened her eyes slowly, trying to adjust to the sudden light. Looking up, she saw Loki standing in the center of the room. Guards surrounded her, and she felt her anger bubble up, flowing freely through her body as she glared at Loki. He spoke first, "You completely ignored my warnings." Pause. "Yesterday's outcome was completely your fault." Winter didn't reply, just continued to glare. After a moment, realizing she wasn't going to answer, he continued, "I don't know what you did, but if it ever happens again, there will be consequences much worse than what you endured yesterday." Winter closed her eyes, fed up of looking at him, feeling around the room with her mind. She didn't know what she was looking for, but she could soon feel the presence of every man in the room. Picking one at random, she felt overwhelmed as her head was flooded with unfamiliar emotions and memories. Her eyes flashed open with a start, and she looked to her left, where a guard (His name was Jeremy) was on the floor, holding his head. She looked back at Loki, who was staring at the guard with disapproval on his face. Looking to the others, he commanded, "Leave. Now." And they obeyed, shuffling out of the room one by one, a few falling behind while helping Jeremy up off the ground. The door shut behind the last guard and then they were alone. Loki took two slow steps closer, leaning over and bringing his face right up to Winter's, searching her eyes. She did the same, looking into his blue-green eyes for an answer, a connection. She felt him invade her head, ruffling through her brain once again. This time instead of trying to push him out, she grabbed onto the connection, pulling herself out of her own mind, and pushing herself into his. She was immediately overwhelmed as foreign memories flashed through her mind's eye. She felt his pain, his sorrow, his confusion. She heard him gasp at feeling so exposed, but she held on to the connection as he tried to pull away. She saw everything, his plans, his motives, his whole life. Everything was flashing by so fast, yet she managed to catch hold of it all, reliving every moment of his life as if it had been hers. Am I ever going to get used to this? Finally, she let him go with great effort, waiting for the connection to completely die. She opened her eyes, face wet from tears she didn't remember shedding. Loki was on his knees, shaking. Winter wanted to apologize, but he had done the same to her, he deserved it. It must hurt him more though, his memories are a lot darker, a lot more painful. She felt pity for him, what he'd been through was awful. He looked up at her, face damp with sweat or tears, she couldn't tell which. She could tell that he was mad, but his anger was weakened with sadness, and he spoke barely above a whisper, "Did you find what you were looking for?" Winter didn't know what to say, "I... I didn't mean to..." Loki scoffed, "Of course you did, you just didn't know what you would find, you had no idea about the pain I've experienced." He paused for a moment, "I will admit I'm surprised, I knew you were strong, I just couldn't see the extent of your power. No one has been able to enter my mind like that. Ever." Winter forced her pity for the man aside, pulling up as much anger as she could, "It doesn't feel very nice does it." "It's not anywhere near as bad with humans, you barely know pain, your memories are a bright in comparison to the unending darkness of mine." Now it was Winter's turn to scoff, "Oh come on, you're not the only one with a crappy childhood. I'm not the one who grew up in a palace." Loki was quiet a moment, before slowly rising to stand up. "Have you ever been tortured, Winter?" She raised her chin in defiance, "You know I have." Loki shook his head, "I mean really tortured, not that pathetic training they did with you." "You're asking if I've ever been tortured like you've been tortured." He looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "Yes." She answered defiantly, and he opened his mouth to object, but she continued, "You know I have. When I went through your mind I felt everything, it lasted only a second, and yet it felt like I lived through your whole life. I know exactly what you went through, I felt it as you did." He glared at her, "That's not the same as feeling it for yourself." He looked so broken, like he was holding himself together with hate and rage, barely hanging on. "You're right, but I do know what you've been through, I've felt it for myself, even if not to the extent that you felt it." She paused for a moment, and he didn't say anything, just stared at the floor, calculating. "You don't have to do this you know," she said softly. He looked up at her, face set, "You know that I do. You know what will happen if I don't." "You're blinded by your fear, there's a way out of this, a way for you to be free." Winter tried desperately to get him to understand. "You know nothing, you're just a child, naive." "And you're a stubborn brat, you have a family that loves you so much, stop this now before it's too late." He didn't reply, mauling over the offer, "It's already too late. They aren't my family. Even if I did want to go back, I don't belong." This made Winter angry, "AT LEAST YOU HAVE A FAMILY TO GO BACK TO, PHIL WAS THE CLOSEST THING I HAD TO FAMILY AND YOU KILLED HIM." She hadn't realized she was yelling until the end of her accusation, and she closed her eyes, willing herself to calm down. "We're both alone. Let's do this together Winter. I won't control you anymore, we can fight anyone who stands in our way. We can rule the Earth together," Winter interrupted him, screaming, "RULE WHAT? I'VE SEEN YOUR PLANS FOR EARTH, THERE WON'T BE ANYTHING LEFT TO RULE! YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE ME ON YOUR SIDE, AND YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION AND WALK AWAY FROM ALL THIS. YOU BLEW IT. I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL YOU ARE ROTTING IN A CELL, STUCK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE HAUNTED BY THE CHOICES YOU'VE MADE." He looked surprised, but he quickly reigned it in, an almost bored determination locking his features, "Very well." The words had barely left his mouth when the door behind him opened, and two guards entered the room, dragging someone between them. Winter's eyes widened, meeting Dianna's scared gaze. She was shaking, face red from crying. "Winter!" She yelled, desperate for help from her friend. This earned a punch in the face from the guard on her right, and the other one shoved her onto her knees. Winter yelled at Loki, "Stop! Leave her out of this!" Loki just looked at her, "I'll let her go, but only if you join me." How can he be so calm?! "I can't do that." Winter tried to keep her voice level. The guard who had punched Dianna drew his gun from his holster, aiming it at her head and releasing the safety. Dianna squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered, tears running down her face. Winter closed her eyes also, reaching out to her friend. As softly as she could she slipped into Dianna's mind, holding in any reaction so Loki would't catch on to what she was doing. Dianna I am so sorry for dragging you into this. There was silencefor a moment, and Winter feared she hadn't made a connection. It's okay, it wasn't your fault. Winter felt a tear escape, I don't know how to save you, I wouldn't be fast enough. She could feel Dianna's fear, her resignation, and then her determination. Do what you need to do. Winter pulled back, opening her eyes to glare at Loki. He was losing patience, "You're out of time. Are you going to help me or watch your friend die?" Winter used all the energy she had, teleporting out of her chair and behind Dianna, wrapping her arms around her friend as the gun went off.
She was eight years old, three years into her training. Since she had first discovered her telekinesis, Hydra had been pushing her to see if any new powers would show. After two years of general combat training without any progress, they decided to push her limits with the one power she did have. She had a pretty good grasp on her telekinesis, completing almost everything they threw at her. The one thing she could not do was stop a bullet. They had started with normal targets, firing from across the room, giving Winter plenty of time to stop it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't do it. The agent assigned to training her, Marcus, was nice enough when she succeeded, but if she couldn't do something… he would get upset. If she was lucky Marcus would take his anger out on her. He would push her harder in combat training, or put her in the dark room for a few nights. But when he was really mad, he would make her hurt other people. Winter never knew who they were. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents? Traitors? Homeless men and women off the street? It didn't matter. They were people and she did horrible things to them. Well not her personally, but she didn't have the strength to stop Marcus when he tortured them. On this particular day, he was extremely frustrated. He didn't understand why it was so hard for Winter to stop a bullet. "It's too fast! Marcus I'm sorry, give me another chance!" She pleaded as he walked out of the room, returning with four other agents and an older man. Two agents secured the man to a chair, and the other two grabbed Winter, holding her in place. She was strong, but not strong enough to fight them off. The older man didn't even seem to know what was happening. The life was gone from his eyes, his expression that of defeat. Winter began to cry, and Marcus walked ten steps away, aiming his gun at the man. "Winter, concentrate. I know you can do this… hopefully this is incentive enough." And with that he fired. Winter tried to stop it, but she couldn't, and the man slumped in his chair. Marcus lowered the gun, sighing loudly, "Bring in another." It took three more tries, but Winter got it. The bullet, hovering a few inches away from the man's head. He began to cry, thinking that meant his life was spared. Winter could barely see, sweat mixed with tears obstructing her vision. She closed her eyes, and when Marcus fired a second time, she felt out with her mind. She ignored the sound of the gun firing, of the man letting out a cry, and she stopped the bullet again. Opening her eyes, she saw that she had stopped the bullet a few inches from the gun this time, plenty of room between it and the man in the chair. She breathed out a sigh of relief, she had done it. This was short lived, as Marcus began stalking towards the man, holding the gun to his temple, "Let's see if you're fast enough to stop this." He fired, and Winter didn't catch it.
Winter opened her eyes, Dianna's lifeless form in her arms. She had caught the bullet, but not before it had ripped through her friend's brain. She slowly lifted her eyes to look at Loki, all of her pain and anger ripping through her. He didn't react, just stared back with that ignorant indifference that Winter hated. She lifted both arms, more for dramatic effect, and using her telekinesis she slammed both guards against the wall hard enough to crush their skulls. They fell to the floor and Loki raised an eyebrow, "A little dark for you, don't you think?" "When are you going to learn that killing the people I love doesn't work out for you?" Winter asked, pouring as much of her anger into the words as possible. She reached out and forced herself into his mind. You can't win. I'm leaving here with my friends, we are going back to S.H.I.E.L.D. and we are going to bring every force we can against you. If I were you, I would run. She pulled away, gave him a vicious smile, and ran out of the room. She made it two steps before he appeared before her. Projection or teleportation? She thought. A distraction. She felt him reply, before she was struck in the back by his scepter. The projection disappeared as she fell. She used her momentum to turn her fall into a roll, landing on her feet and standing up to face Loki. "Did you really think I would let you leave?" "Wishful thinking I guess." Winter snarled. She teleported behind him, kicking the back of his knee. As he fell he turned around to hit her, but she teleported away. Realizing she was going to play dirty, he stood up, pulled out five projections of himself. They all began to circle her, and Winter struck out at random, trying to find him. Realizing that wasn't working, she reached out with her mind, connecting with Loki. She could see from his perspective, and immediately lashed out to the real him, landing a kick to his stomach. It barely did anything, only made his projections disappear as they engaged in hand to hand combat. Neither was making headway because they were in each other's minds. They knew what would happen as soon as the other person had thought it. Finally, tired of this game, Winter reached into his mind and pulled up his most painful memory. He stopped fighting her, shock covering his features as he relived the moment he realized who he really was, that his whole life was a lie. Using the distraction, Winter used all her strength to punch him square in the face, knocking him out. He fell to the ground, and she was trying to decide what to do when twenty or so guards turned the corner, aiming their guns at her. She could probably stop the bullets from this distance, but decided not to take the chance. She needed backup. Pulling up the directions Dianna had mentally sent her, she teleported away from the hallway. She re-appeared in a dimly lit room. She found Natalie and Megan huddled in a corner. Upon seeing her they struggled to stand up. "Are you guys okay?" Winter asked, searching them both for signs of injury. Natalie replied, "We're fine, just a bit cold." "And hungry…" Megan added. "I'm going to get you guys out of here, alright?" They both nodded, but she could see questions in both of their eyes. "Where's Dianna?" Winter didn't know who had asked, but she did her best to keep herself together. "She's gone… I couldn't save her. Look, we can talk about it later, right now we need to focus on getting out of here. Would any of you by any chance know the exact coordinates of the helocarrier?" She got blank stares from both girls, who were still processing that their friend was dead. "No? Alright, I guess we can settle for the S.H.I.E.L.D. base in New York." With that she wrapped her arms around her friends, holding tight as she brought them all away from this horrible place.