Let the Sky Fall

Chapter 16: Snow

(Avengers!Sidney  POV)

I feel like time should slow as we fall, give me one last glance at my best friend, before I heroically plunge into the unknown to save a world on the brink of destruction. Instead, I lose Steve's face in the chaos and tumble through the air, falling through the concoction of light, color, and debris. Then everything is nothingness, grey nothingness. I cannot see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or feel. I am nothing.

Then everything is white, and I am tumbling again. The hand on my ankle is gone, replaced with distant throbbing. But I know he is still there when my fall slows midair for no apparent reason, and I drop into something cold, soft, and white.

It's snow.

I am up to my shoulders in snow, a substance rarely ever seen in Mesa, Arizona. I try to climb out,  the cold seeping in through my clothes. I only manage to get my arms free; there is nothing to pull on to get out, and efforts to step higher only result in me sinking further.

It isn't long before I hear that dreaded voice calling my name, and now I dig faster to bury myself in the snow. The act is futile as I feel his long fingers reach around my biceps, and pull me with his strength up out of the snow.

I expect harsh words, for him to yell at me, and play the villain. I expect to see wrath and anger in his green eyes, to see evil, and contempt, and mayhem. But he speaks to me in the same lost, broken voice as he did on the quinjet. His eyes show worry and uncertainty. I cannot connect this man to the one whose name is discussed in whispered voices at SHIELD; whose existence inspires fear in the hearts of the everyday people of the world he attempted to conquer.

But that doesn't make me any less mad at him. I try to run, to escape his grasp, but he has already let go of me, and I tumble into the snow. Pain shoots through my ankle, and I fear it might be broken.

"Are you okay? Sidney? Please answer me. Are you okay?" The specific words coming out of his mouth finally register, and I snap.

"No, I am not okay! You just freaking kidnapped me, and my ankle's broken, and you just attacked my friends!" I shout at him. My voice drops in volume, but not in venom. "You're working with him! And you want me to be okay?" I scoot away from him, brushing away the hot tears that run down my cheeks without restraint.

"Your friends would've been fine if you had just come with me! Now we're stuck here on some frozen rock! And I'm not working with him, not anymore. Not after he put you... Please, Sidney. I would never hurt you. Just trust me."

"I can't. It's never gonna happen." The words are meant to sound defiant, but they fall flat in the icy air. I change course. "Not unless you give me some answers."

"I will, I'll explain everything, but first..."

"No, now! Why did you rescue me? Why are we here? Why me, of all people? What's in it for you? Why are you in my dreams? What is going on?" I grow more infuriated and more demanding with each question. Loki opens his mouth to argue, the distress and frustration etched on his face. Then his expression morphs into one of alarm, and his eyes shift from looking at me to looking behind me.

"Sidney, come here, please, I'm begging you." I ignore him and glance behind me, seeing nothing.

"That never going to work on me, it's too obvi..." I snap at him as I turn back, only to find him in a defensive crouch in front of me, facing the dark, blurry figures that creep towards us in the newly falling snow. I look back again, seeing more attackers appear out of the mist. I turn my back to Loki, facing them as they become clearer. They're all men, girded with animals skins and reeking of something foul. They look like cave men carrying thick wooden clubs, but some of them also have long thin reeds tied to their sides. Before I can figure out what they are, one of them raises one to his mouth and exhales. A small feathered dart pierces my neck, and the last thing I hear before all goes black is Loki's outcry of selfless pain.