Contest of Champions

43

As Pietro lets Cassie down, she immediately beelines towards me as Pietro checks the door. Kneeling beside me, she sees the blood staining my tunic and her eyebrows knit together. "How badly are you injured?"

"I'm not sure," I say honestly. "Carnage hit me with one of his blades."

"Not good," Pietro voices from where he stands by the door. "Those blades are nothing to laugh at."

"I need you to take off your tunic," Cassie says, her voice no nonsense. "That's the only way for me to see the extent of the wound."

"I'm a fast healer," I tell her.

Cassie sits back on her heels and plants her hands on her hips. "Take. It. Off."

"You better do it," Pietro advises.

So I sigh and slowly pull my jacket off, wincing with the movement. Pietro zips over to the rough table in the corner as Cassie cocks her head, waiting for me to finish. There's no embarrassment in her expression, no sheepishness. She's all attitude, all business.

My tunic goes the way of my jacket and Cassie helps me back against the wall, where I lean my head against the cool concrete. The red wound across my stomach is quite obvious against my pale skin, blood still leaking from between the slits.

Cassie examines the wound. She gently touches it, careful as she looks to see the extent of the damage and I hold myself as stiff as a board, trying not to flinch and make the pain worse.

"It looks like your tunic took the brunt of the blow," she says, looking up at me. "But it's not going to heal as quickly as you think it will."

"Slow is not good," Pietro comments. "If Carnage finds us, I can't carry both of you and fire won't work forever, Cassie."

Cassie nods. "Well, let's hope Loki has good sponsors," she says. "Hungry?"

I furrow my brow. "No. Why are you two helping me, anyway? You could have just let me die." I cannot wrap my head around their kindness to me. It doesn't make sense.

"Because of Carnage," Pietro answers, turning to look at me. He places his hands on the edge of the table. "Because we cannot beat him by ourselves. We help you, and you help us."

"Loki, how do you beat a symbiote?" Cassie asks.

"I don't know," I answer, confused. Is this a trick question? "The only symbiote ever seen in action is Eddie Brock's Venom, from the twenty-fourth Contest, and he won."

"Exactly," Cassie says. "We do know they don't like fire, or loud noises. But what we don't know is if that is enough to kill them. So we're going to have to experiment a bit and hope we get lucky."

"One person cannot do this," Pietro remarks. "Two, yes. Three, better."

"You just need to have someone watching your back," Cassie says with a slight grin. "Like a partner."

"I had a partner," I murmur, thinking about Peter and the look on his face when Killmonger stabbed him. It still hurts and I feel drained.

Cassie and Pietro exchange a glance. "Dead?"

I nod.

"Then maybe you need a better partner?" Pietro suggests. I shoot a glare at him and he offers, with a mock apologetic smile, "Too soon?"

"He died today," I growl. "So yes, too soon."

"Still," Cassie says. "You can stick with us, help us beat Carnage. Or you are free to leave. Your choice."

Although the answer seems clear, I do take a moment to weigh my options. Despite the fact that I almost want to leave, to get away from people who help me and defend me and then die in the end, because that's all that's been happening lately, I know that probably isn't my best choice. I would have died facing Carnage today if it hadn't been for Cassie and Pietro, and I know that. And since I doubt the third option of a portal sucking me into a friendlier zone is going to happen anytime soon, I only really have one choice if I want to go home and see Gamora, or anybody else for that matter.