The Soldier

hell was painted green that night

Wake up, Tessa.

She did not want to, pulling her sheets over her shoulder while trying to ignore the voice in her head.

She only realised it was not in her head, when someone grabbed the sheets again, shaking her shoulder. It was Loki, she knew the way his hands felt on her shoulders by now.

„Why? Five more minutes... please.", Tessa murmured in her pillow, trying to shake his hand off that was cold enough to make her shiver.

Loki stopped, his hand resting on her shoulder.

„Are you not supposed to scream and what not? Like the other times, you thought I just appeared out of nowhere?", Loki asked, almost seeming irritated by the fact she was not surprised by that anymore.

Tessa could not keep herself from smiling about that ridiculous thought. She snuggled herself into her sheets once again, before murmuring: „Well, your tricks are getting old. The only thing I'm supposed to do now is sleep, Loki. I should be fit for tomorrow and I am, as you put it so nicely, a 'weak mortal who needs too much rest to function properly'. So... I need to sleep."

Loki nodded, a short glimpse of sympathy for Tessa running through his mind – at least she seemed to accept that he was just right with what he said about her. She was not weak, but she did indeed need to much sleep to function properly. He remembered that conversation pretty well, how she said she would rather be one of his kind than what she was. It made him happy back then, and it still did. But he had no time to lose himself in memories now. He had a plan.

Loki looked down at her almost sleeping figure and pulled the sheets away completely.

„Get up, Tessa. That is an order." His voice sounded too cold for her to make a joke about how pathetic that whole situation really was.

So she just sighed, shivering because of the sudden coldness. Tessa was delighted to wear long trainers and a hoodie, for some reason she felt cold since Loki started to basically live inside her mind.

Grumpily she stood up, facing Loki and asking, still sleepy: „So, why did you wake me up?"

A yawn found its way out of her mouth before she turned on the light. The vague silhouette of Loki towering over her became a clearly visible figure, and she wondered why he was carrying a weapon in his hand.

Did he change his mind? Did he want to go to these Avengers together with her? She glanced at her blade, she left it on the small desk at the other end of her bedroom earlier. Were they starting now, in the middle of the night, instead of tomorrow morning like he initially planned to?

Tessa tried to read his facial expression, but it was cold and calculating and something about his eyes made her feel even colder, and as so many times before, it did not give away anything.

Or at least Tessa could not get any information out of it. That was dangerous, she decided, trying to take a step back, the comforting feeling of her pocket knife inside her hoodie calming her down a little. She pulled it out, secretly hoping she was dreaming.

It felt too real for that though. Was it one of Loki's schemes to test if she would notice the difference between one of his illusions and the real world? Alternative reality riddle?

She was frantically trying to come up with an explanation when Loki closed the distance between them, her knife found its way to his heart, levitating there and Tessa noticed that her hand was shaking, not only because of the coldness.

Something was wrong here. Terribly, utterly wrong.

„You know very well that this knife is not going to harm me, what are you planning to do, soldier?", Loki asked, looking at her curiously while lowering his own weapon.

„I don't know. What am I supposed to do? You're sending very mixed signals, Loki.", Tessa explained warily, trying to step back a little more.

She flinched, once Loki soothingly laid his hand on her upper arm, creating goosebumps all over it, his hand so inhumanly cold, holding her into place.

„I tell you what you are supposed to do. Hold still, do not move, hold your breath and... maybe close your eyes too, Tess.", Loki explained, all melodic voice and calming coldness flowing over to Tessa.

Part of her wanted to follow that order without questioning it, but she was not going to follow blindly. Not anymore. She gripped her pocket knife a little tighter, contemplating to run and not look back.

„You know you can not run me out, Tess. You swore to be loyal -"

„Yes, I did. But loyal doesn't mean I'm going to let you kill me without trying to get away.", Tessa said, trying to find a way out of that situation.

He wasn't going to kill her, right? They were allies, friends even, or at least Tessa thought they were. He-

„You will not like this, Tessa. But it is necessary."

„Loki, what -"

The silver blade inside her stomach interrupted her.

Loki left it there, keeping her steady, as she started to spit out blood, holding on to him without really wanting to.

„Why?", she managed before everything around her turned dark.

Black. And green. Hell was painted green.

The metallic sounding 'cling' of her pocket knife was the last thing she heard. Loki put it back into her hoodie. Maybe she would feel a little safer like that... he did not like that part of the plan, not at all. But he knew it was necessary.

Loki picked her up, teleporting them in front of Tony's house.

He knew these ridiculous Avengers were there and would probably take care of Tessa, so his plan would work out just fine. Loki lay her down, hammered once against the door before turning the blade slightly.

Tessa woke up, screaming in pain, and there was a short feeling of pity nesting itself in Loki's heart. But by the time Tony opened the door and immediately shouted for Helen, Loki was long gone.