Chapter Eight
When Winter woke up the next morning, she wasn't in her room on the helocarrier. She wasn't scared though, she barely even noticed it wasn't right. The room she was in was bright, the morning sun filtering through the window, it was oddly familiar, though she couldn't place why. She slowly sat up, stretching before getting out of the bed. She was wearing pajama shorts and a tank top. She didn't own them, but that thought didn't strike her as odd. She wandered over to the door, it opened into an empty hallway. It wasn't exactly inviting, but it wasn't threatening. Plain. It was plain. The floor was cold, and Winter wished someone had given her socks to go with the pajamas. That was the only explanation, someone had brought her here in her sleep, given her pj's and tried to make her comfortable. She forced down any panic or anxiety, remaining calm. The end of the hallway revealed a room with a couch, a coffee table, and a window. Other than that, the room was completely empty. Winter decided to sit on the couch and wait, better for her captor to come to her. A few moments later, she heard a door open, then close lightly. Footfalls came closer, and she looked up to see Loki walk into the room, stopping and leaning against the wall. He was wearing light grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt, and his hair wasn't slicked back, it was a mess. New look? He smirked slightly, and Winter sighed, "I figured it was you who took me." He raised an eyebrow, "Took you? I didn't take you anywhere. You're the one who called me here." What? "I didn't call you anywhere! I haven't spoken to you since..." Since that day you kidnapped me and my friends. Since that day you stabbed Phil. Since that day you shot Dianna. Winter fought back tears, not now, not here. "You really don't know where we are, do you?" Winter looked up at him, he seemed genuinely curious. She shook her head, "I don't recognize this place, and I didn't call you, so stop playing games. Tell me where you took me!" He laughed, "We're inside your mind." Okay was not expecting that. "What do you mean?" He sighed, "We're both asleep, and you have the ability to connect with other people's minds. Your mind called out to mine, summoning me into your dreams." It was Winter's turn to laugh, "That is absolutely ridiculous!" Loki shrugged, what a mundane thing for him to do. Winter went on, "Okay, let's pretend for a second that that's even possible. Why would I call you? And why aren't you trying to kill me?" He moved away from the wall, walking towards the other side of the couch, raising an eyebrow in question, "May I?" "Yeah, whatever." He sat down, "I'm not trying to kill you, because killing you here would just wake you up. I might as well take advantage of the opportunity you have given me." Winter waited for him to continue, he didn't, "Which is..." He smirked, "It wouldn't exactly be an opportunity if I told you. As for your other question, I don't know why you called me. Maybe you changed your mind and you do want to work with me." Winter shook her head, "Never." Loki shrugged again, "Suit yourself." It was quiet for a moment, before Winter asked another question, "And what happens if I kill you in this... Dream." He chuckled, "I wake up." "Convenient," she muttered. "Very." He agreed. Winter sighed, "I don't like this, I would rather be fighting." She didn't look at him as he responded, "And why is that?" He was egging her on, he knew why she was angry, "You know why. You take away everything that has meaning to me, and then you come into my mind just to chat!" She was getting angry and needed to calm down. She stood up and began pacing the room. Was it always this small? "Again, I didn't come here, you brought me here." She whirled around to glare at him, "I did not bring you here. If I had my way I would never see you again! You killed Dianna, and you killed Phil, two people who actually loved me in this world. Just because you feel like no one loves you, doesn't mean you get to steal love from other people!" She was crying now, she couldn't help it. He looked sympathetic, and made a move to stand up, but her shout kept him frozen in place, "STAY THERE. Do NOT get up." Taking deep breaths, she began to pace the floor again. Yet another question formed in her head, "Why are you being so nice?" He shrugged again, "I have no reason to be hostile. It's not like any acts of violence would benefit me here." She wrinkled her nose, "Okay, but how are you so calm? Last time we were face to face I knocked you out." His eyes left hers, and pain flashed over his features, very slight but Winter caught it. He recovered quickly, "We were fighting, what you did was fair." Winter didn't like how calm he was, he didn't have the right to be so smug while she was pacing the floor losing her mind. "You've had a pretty crappy life, I always thought mine sucked." He scoffed, "The word 'crappy' is a bit of an understatement." Winter rolled her eyes, "Don't flatter yourself. Your childhood wasn't even that bad, it's not until very recently that things started going downhill." Anger flashed in his eyes, taking longer to leave than before. There we go. It wasn't smart, but Winter needed him to hurt, to be angry. She needed him to yell at her, to give her an excuse to hate him. The anger left though, and it was obvious he was trying to remain calm. She waited for him to respond, but he didn't, so she kept going. Feigning innocent pity, she pulled at what little information she had, "It is sad though… you only wanted to be Thor's equal, then you find out you never had that chance. It wasn't even something you could fix, you were just born of the wrong race. How is that fair? Then, you come up with an elaborate plan to kill the King of Jotunheim, and then maybe your father will see how fit you are to be King! But of course Thor has to come and ruin it, drop you off the side of the bridge into the abyss, right into the hands of Thanos! And as if you didn't have it bad enough already, he orders some low race of disgusting creatures to torture you, break you. Finally, when he thinks you're ready, he gives you an opportunity, an escape from the pain. Anything would seem promising at that point, you were that desperate. So you jumped at the opportunity. You probably thought it would be easy, you didn't know Thor would show up, you didn't know we would put up this much of a fight. Well now you know, and when we beat you, you'll have the rest of your life in a cell to remember it." She was being mean and she knew it, but she needed a reaction, proof she could get under his skin the way he got under hers. He stood up swiftly, his face tight, holding back both annoyance and anger. He was so tall, he only needed to take two steps to reach her. She fought the urge to step back, holding her ground. They glared at each other, and both of them shaking. "You've seen the army I have at my command, six people will not be able to stop them all." Winter smiled, "You still underestimate us." The room was slowly getting dark around the edges, if Loki was right and this was a dream, she didn't have much time. He shook his head, "No, I just don't have the naïve hope of a child. You're so angry at me, you think that anger will be enough to beat me?" She didn't say anything, just stared up at him. The black was closing in, she could only see him now. He lifted an arm up, brushing her hair out of her face, his voice barely a whisper, "We would have worked so well together, your anger is striking, with the right push…." His voice trailed off as he was consumed by the black, and everything went dark.
Winter woke up disoriented, so nauseous it was almost overpowering. She fell onto the floor and dragged herself into her washroom, leaning over the toilet heaving. Nothing came up, and Winter slumped to the floor, shaking, and waiting for the room to stop spinning. Never doing that again. If she had a choice, that is. She hadn't exactly asked for it to happen this time around. Once she could stand she quickly rinsed her face, and changed into her combat suit, not caring to make herself look presentable. She ran down the hallways towards Megan and Bruce's shared lab. Bursting through the door, she saw Bruce wasn't there. Natalie was sitting on one of the tables, watching Megan, who was typing something on a tablet. Both looked up when Winter came through the door, eyes widening. Winter's brain was sluggish, she didn't know what to say. The girls were watching her, expectant. "Uhhh… Megan! I came here for Megan." Natalie raised her eyebrow, and Megan sat the tablet on the table, "What is it?" Winter couldn't form a proper sentence, "I uh… I have a question." Megan was patient, Natalie was not, "About what?!" Megan shot her a look, before returning her gaze to Winter, "Come sit down, Natalie get her some water." Once Winter was seated, Megan continued, "What happened, you look like you're in shock." Winter tried again, "I uh…." But she was interrupted by Natalie returning with a glass of water. She quickly downed it, she immediately felt a bit better. Not much though. Both girls stared at her expectantly, but patiently. Natalie must have noticed this was serious. After a few moments, Winter figured she could maybe form a sentence, "I wanted to know… uh… is it possible to… you know… connect with someone during your sleep?" Megan looked confused, "What do you mean?" Winter sighed "I have the power to read minds, would it be possible for me to… share a dream with someone? Connect to their mind in my sleep? Or bring them into my mind?" Megan thought about it for a moment, "Well I've never heard of it happening, but with everything else I've witnessed I can't say it isn't possible." But Natalie had caught on, "Who did it happen with?" Winter's eyes widened, and she stuttered, "W-what do you mean?" "There is no way you're this scared over a theory, who did you pull into your dream?" Winter couldn't lie to her friends, no matter how much she wanted to, "Loki." They both gasped, Megan saying, "That can't be possible…" at the same time Natalie said "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" Winter shook her head, "No, I'm fine, just a bit disoriented… we mostly talked." Megan got up to retrieve her tablet, and Natalie nailed Winter with more questions, "You just talked? About what? Was he trying to recruit you again? What did he promise you? You didn't believe him right?" Natalie was never like this, and Winter stayed silent, not knowing what to say. Megan saved her from having to respond, "Can you stand? Come over here I want to run some tests to make sure you're alright." Winter stood up slowly, walking over to the hospital bed Megan had gestured to and taking a seat. Megan stuck little pads over her temples, neck, shoulders and chest. Connecting wires to them, she helped Winter lay down slowly. She was tired, but after the night she had just had, she didn't dare let herself sleep. Minutes went by, machines beeping around her, Megan running around checking each one, ordering Natalie around to help. No more than twenty minutes passed before the door opened and Steve walked in, along with Bruce. They both walked over to Megan, Bruce curiously checking the machines and Steve asking, "What's going on, is she alright?" It was Natalie who answered, "She had an… encounter with Loki." Steve whipped his head to look at Natalie, before his eyes settled on Winter, "What? Where is he?" Winter groaned, "I don't know where he is." Steve looked confused, "Well where did you meet him?" Winter tried to sit up, but Megan shot her a look so she laid back down. She muttered as quickly and quietly as she could, "In my head." "Pardon?" Winter sighed loudly, "In my head, I somehow called him into my dream. We talked, whatever, I woke up feeling really disoriented and came to Megan for help." She was sure nothing could really shock him anymore, and he just nodded his head slowly, "Did he say anything about his plan? About where he's hiding?" Winter shook her head, "No, he seemed really relaxed, confident. It was infuriating. He wouldn't tell me anything." Steve stayed quiet for a moment, "We should tell the others." Winter groaned, the last thing she wanted was the other's to know she was meeting up with Loki in her dreams. Bruce and Megan were discussing something quietly, and Winter couldn't hear what they were saying. It looked like they were arguing, but Bruce said something and Megan waited a moment, before nodding tersely. She walked over to Winter, and began disconnecting the wires, "There's nothing wrong, I think you just had a panic attack." Fake smile. Okay….. Winter smiled back, hopefully more reassuring, "Okay, awesome. I'll probably never sleep well again, but at least I'm not dying." She pulled herself off the bed once Megan had finished disconnecting her from the machines. Steve left the room first, everyone following behind him. They were walking towards the bridge, I guess training is cancelled today.
When they got there, everyone else was already there. Their group moved to join, and everyone looked at Steve waiting for an explanation, "I found her." All eyes shifted to Winter. Tony spoke up, "Well, where was she?" "She was in the lab, she had an incident with Loki last night." That got everyone attention. They all looked at her, eyes curious. She crossed her arms, shifted her weight between feet. All confidence gone, she tried to come up with the right words, "Uhm, I kind of called to Loki in my sleep, and brought him into my dream. At least that's what he said I did. We just talked, he didn't try to hurt me." Everyone looked alarmed, except Thor, he looked angry, "You can't believe him Winter! He does nothing but lie and trick people. It is more than likely he pulled you into his dream, not the other way around." Winter nodded, but she knew it had been her dream. She hadn't realized it then, but it had been her house, the house she had lived in for four short years before she was taken away. This hadn't been Loki, trying to mess with her head. It was completely Winter's fault. She had called out for him, for some reason, and that thought alone made her shiver. Why? The question had no answer. This was dangerous, she could not allow it to happen again. Tuning back in to the others, she caught the end of Steve's sentence, "… so let's be ready, we don't know what he has planned, but it can't be good." It wasn't good, Winter knew what he had planned. She realized then that she had known since she had gotten back, but failed to tell anyone! Crap. This would not look good. She was just about to speak up when an agent ran in, whispering in Tony's ear. "Son of a…" Steve cut him off, "What is it?" Tony glared, "That spoiled brat is in Stark tower." Clint asked, "Why would he be there? That's the worst place to hide." But Winter already knew, "He's opening the portal…." All the attention was on her again, "He's opening the portal for his army! Come on we have to go! Now!" She turned and ran before anyone could ask questions, and the rest of the team ran after her, getting ready to suit up.