Winter Sunshine

Tell me

Nathan had said the word so at least twenty times, in as many minutes, and Savannah resolved to kill him, if he ever said that word again.

'So,' Nathan said, and it was only Loki's restraining hand on her wrist that kept her from hurling the dagger in her pocket at his head.

'So,' Nathan repeated, and Loki's fingers closed tighter around her wrist. 'I'd better be going, because I, I-I need to do some stuff.'

Savannah didn't question his half-baked excuse, not even bothering to try and keep him to stay, nodding briefly at him before turning back around and heading towards her stairs.

It's not until she had flung herself on the bed that she felt his gaze on her. It was the kind of look a loving master would give his faithful and loyal dog, if, one day he reached out to stroke her fur, and she'd bitten him.

A betrayed, hurt look.

'What?' she protested, holding up her hands in mock defeat.

'Tell me about him.'

'About who?'

'Your friend. Who was he?'

'Just a friend.'

'Tell me of him.'

'No.'

'Please, 'Vannah?'

'Fine, but only if you stop giving me your puppy-eyes. It's not fair for a god to look so adorable.'

'Adorable?'

'Yes. I think you're cute.'

'Cute?'

'Yep. And very sweet.'

'Are you trying to change the subject?'

'Yes.'

'Tell me about him, please.'

'Nathan was the one who found me, in 2006. He was told to bring me in, for a scientific analysis, but after a few days of persuading me to come with him, he refused to. He is the only other person, apart from you, who truly knows what the men did to me. I told the rest of SHIELD a diluted version. We were really good friends, but nothing more. I sensed that he wanted to become more than friends, but I just don't think I was ready. It was in 2007, around May, that my life started falling apart.

Again.

I ventured out less and less, and I got sicker and sicker. My nightmares got worse, so I stopped sleeping. I couldn't keep any food down, so I stopped eating. By the end of the week, I was in hospital. I was there for three months, and my best friend, my only friend, visited me once. He said three sentences, and left.

''I can't do this anymore. I'm joining the army. Goodbye.''

I was so upset, that I changed into Ravennha. I attacked the hospital staff, and I burned off some of their faces. SHIELD trapped me in a glass cage, the type they use for submarines, and I just walked out. Through the glass.  I walked out of the room the cage was in, and headed towards the hospital ward. The bullets SHIELD fired at me just dissipated when they got close. The hospital staff were lying on the beds, badly scarred, most of them dying. I put my hands on their hands, and then they healed. One sat up and felt their face. It had been remade, and they wanted a mirror. I turned to get one, and then I collapsed. I woke up as Savannah, and SHIELD had already done experiments on me. I couldn't leave for another month, and I refused to change into Ravennha in case I hurt someone.'

'If you saw a mirror, how do you remember?'

'SHIELD showed me footage. It was blurry, but when I first changed, I had black wings, and my skin was glowing grey. Once I attacked the hospital staff, I turned red. After escaping from the cage, I was blue again. When the bullets hit me, I was  green, and when I was healing, I was glowing white. I don't know why my pigment changed, but it interested a lot of people. The government wanted me dead, or deported. SHIELD refused. Most specifically, Fury refused.'