Disclaimer: The only characters I own in this story are Alec, Katana,
Kydra, & Bender. All other characters are owned by Marvel Comics, all
rights reserved.
Note: This takes place after X2.
The days that followed Kydra's death blurred together for her twin sister, Katana. For the most part, Tana spent her time in the garage of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters working on her art. She'd turned out several sculptures, all of which had been purchased by eager buyers of modern art. She only refused to part with one of her pieces. That was the one that Alec had saved her from destroying the night Ky died. It now sat in a place of honor in the front hall of the school, a tribute to the life of a girl who'd barely come to remember her powers before she'd been cut down.
Tana was working hard on her newest sculpture when Cyclops came into the garage. "Hey Tana. How is everything?" Tana refused to answer him. She only spoke to two people now and Cyclops was not one of them. Wolverine and occasionally Alec were the only people she spoke to. Xavier had tried once, but he quickly left her alone when he read the pain that weighed on her mind. Cyclops shook his head and wandered over to his bike. He missed Tana's attitude towards him. He'd found he would actually prefer to have her tie him up with rings of fire than to endure the stony silence that she now bestowed upon him. He roared out of the garage, leaving Tana alone with her thoughts again.
Wolverine slipped into the garage and watched Tana as she worked. He knew that she no longer used her powers for anything other than her art. She wouldn't even light a candle using her powers now. He slipped his arms around her, giving her a hug. "Hi there Tana."
"Hi Logan."
"Not in the mood to talk today, huh?"
"Not really."
"All right then. Mind if I watch you work?"
"No, go ahead."
Wolverine sat on what little open space there was on Tana's work table. He watched as she created a beautiful metal sculpture. He noted that the music that would have been blasting normally was not playing. It hadn't played since that day. Music had been Ky's world, and now, neither Tana nor Wolverine wanted to hear it.
"It's been so foggy at night these past few days." Tana broke the silence.
"I know. It's kind of strange. I've never seen anything like it."
"It's funny but that fog makes me feel as if Ky were close to me."
"Really? That's interesting."
"You loved her didn't you Logan?"
Wolverine sputtered. "What?"
"Come on, out with it. You loved her."
"I didn't know her well enough to love her."
"All right then. But if she hadn't died, would you have gotten to know her better? Would you maybe have loved her?"
"Tana, I don't understand. What's come over you?"
"I think Ky was in love with you. That's why she stopped me from hurting you."
"Tana, please. Don't think about what might have been. It will only keep us from moving on."
"You're right. Ky would want us to move on. I'm going to the kitchen to find something to eat. You hungry?"
"Yeah. I'm right behind you."
**** The Kitchen
"Ok, let's see here, we've got macaroni and cheese, salad stuff, and yogurt. Looks like they need to do the grocery shopping." Tana laughed as Logan made faces at their choices for something to eat.
"I guess the mac and cheese will have to do. I'm not eating salad or yogurt." Wolverine sneered.
"I wouldn't have taken you for the yogurt or salad type, but then again, I don't know you all that well. Mac and cheese it is." Tana pulled milk and cheese out of the refrigerator and got the macaroni down from the shelf.
"Aren't you supposed to use a little blue box for that?"
"Sure, if you're a man and can't be bothered to learn the basics of cooking." Without thinking about it, Tana lit the fire under the pan of water without turning on the burner. The water boiled rapidly and Wolverine knew that it was because the fire she lit under that pot was hotter than the burner fire would have been. Tana continued cooking their midnight snack as he found the plates and forks.
Tana crossed over to the sink to drain the macaroni. As she looked the window above the sink, she noticed that it was once again foggy. "It's foggy out again." Wolverine came to the sink and looked out.
"Man that's just weird. I've never seen it be this foggy this long. Maybe we should ask Xavier if he knows anything about it."
"Maybe we ought to ask Storm. She's the weather queen around here."
"Don't let her hear you say that." Wolverine laughed.
"True. But still it's weird. But like I said, I feel like Ky is close to me whenever that fog is out there."
Tana! It's me, Ky! I stuck in this steam form! Tana! Damn. I can't seem to connect to her. Maybe it's the glass between us. I've never tried to connect to her with something between us.
Wolverine and Tana went back to their first priority in the kitchen, food, forgetting about that strange fog that kept hanging around. Cyclops came in moments later. "How cozy. Kydra's dead and you're making moves on her sister. What a guy Wolverine, what a guy."
Wolverine snarled at him. "Shut up dick, before I have to hurt you."
"I'd say you did that on purpose. You wanted Katana so you decided to get rid of Kydra. Nice job on having her sister kill her."
Wolverine bared his claws and went after Cyclops. Outside, unnoticed by anyone in the kitchen, the fog dropped to the ground and began to pull itself together, morphing into human form. In the kitchen, Tana threw rings of fire around both Wolverine and Cyclops to keep them from killing each other. "That's enough! I don't know what the hell has gotten into you two, but you need to knock it off. It's bad enough that I killed Ky, but I don't need you coming in here and saying that it was all a big plot by Logan to get rid of her so that he could have me. That's not the way it is and you damn well know it you egotistical bastard."
Cyclops glared at Tana. "Let me go bitch."
"Only if you promise to leave me and Logan the fuck alone."
"Fine."
Tana released Cyclops from his fiery bonds and watched as he grabbed a soda and stormed out of the kitchen. Wolverine simply stepped through his, making Tana gasp.
"You idiot! You've burned yourself!" Tana shook her head.
"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine in a second." Tana watched in amazement as the burns simply disappeared. "I'm a rapid healer. That's what makes me a mutant. Not these claws. Someone put these claws in me. But that's a story for another time."
**** Outside
Kydra had walked around the entire house at least three times. She couldn't find a way back into the school. Every time she found a door, she discovered it was locked. Normally she'd have morphed back into water and flowed under the door, but she was too tired from morphing from steam to water and water to human to morph back into water. She finally walked away from the house and wandered around the grounds. Unwittingly, she tripped an alarm causing everyone to come running outside.
"This way, over here, I found the intruder!" Cyclops yelled as he grabbed Kydra. Wolverine, Xavier, Alec, and Katana made their way to where Cyclops held Kydra captive.
"Nice try Mystique." Wolverine growled. "But we all know that Kydra died the last time we met. So cut the crap and tell us what you want."
Mystique? I'm not Mystique. I'm Kydra. She sent the message off to her sister, but Katana didn't seem to receive it. It was then that she realized what Tana had done. Tana had closed the door to their connection when she thought Kydra was dead. Great, just great. Now how am I supposed to get my point across. I guess I'll have to talk.
"I'm not Mystique. I'm Kydra."
Wolverine gave a short, harsh laugh. "Kydra doesn't talk. The only thing she ever said out loud was a single word. She screamed out no when Katana started to attack me."
"But it really is me, Kydra. I am not dead."
"Whatever. What do you want Mystique?"
"I am not Mystique. I can prove it!"
"Oh really, and just how do you expect to prove that?"
"Well for one thing, you think Cyclops is a dick."
"Everyone knows I think Cyclops is a dick."
"Well, I'd morph back into water except right now, I don't have enough energy. Besides, the one-eyed freak is holding on to me too tightly for me to do it."
"Whatever. If you were Kydra, you'd morph back into water, energy or not, if I did this." With that Wolverine bared his claws. Kydra simply stood there, muttering under her breath about people who couldn't get it through their thick skulls that if someone doesn't have the energy to do something, they are not going to do it no matter what.
"Damn you have a thick skull Logan. I said, I don't have the energy right now."
"And I said that if you really were Kydra, you'd bloody well morph when my claws came out, no matter what."
"Look, I'm sorry to interrupt your argument, but this hurts too much for me to take. My sister is dead and here this bitch comes in here and pretends to be her." With that Katana started to run back towards the house.
Frustrated, Kydra blew her hair out of her face. "Fire and Water, Tana. Always together."
Katana stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. "Nice try Mystique. Bender probably pulled that out of my memory when he was messing with my head." Once again, Katana started for the house. Alec went after her.
"Pull up her shirt." Wolverine growled at Cyclops.
"What?" Cyclops stared at Wolverine. "You want me to strip her?"
"No I want you to pull her shirt up. I want to see something."
"Why?"
"When we fought Magneto at the Statue of Liberty, I stabbed Mystique in the stomach. One thing I've learned is that no matter what form she takes on, she has the scars from my claws on her stomach. Now lift up her shirt!"
"Excuse me! Did it occur to anyone to ask me to lift my shirt up myself?" Kydra asked, with an indignant look on her face.
"Oh right, like if we ask you to strip, you'll just go ahead and strip." Cyclops scoffed.
"Let go of me and we'll find out."
"Sure you'll strip as you're running away to join your buddies."
"I'll do it."
Katana walked up to the woman who claimed to be her sister knowing full well if she saw the three scars that Wolverine claimed that Mystique had Mystique would meet a fiery death. Gingerly she lifted the lavender t- shirt and saw for herself the perfectly smooth skin of her sister.
"Logan!" She called.
Wolverine pushed past the others so he could see from himself. "She's clean. Ky is that you? Is that really you?"
Ky looked exasperated but only nodded. "When Katana exploded into fire it turned me into steam. I didn't know how to change back into human form."
"So how did you finally manage it?" Alec asked.
"Oh? When Jack Ass was in the kitchen with Logan and Tana and Logan bared his claws I promptly fell into puddle form."
Logan laughed and then looked at Cyclops who was still holding Ky too close.
"You can let her go now, Dick."
"How can we be so sure she's really Ky? I mean she could have found a way to cover up the scars."
"It's Ky now let her go you ass hole." Katana put into use the few techniques Wolverine had showed her over the days that had followed Ky's absence. She slammed her fist into Cyclops head when that didn't make him stop she turned and sent her fist into the back of his spine at the base. Cyclops released Ky and fell to the ground in pain but when Ky reached for her sister Katana backed away and then ran back into the school.
"I'll go after her." Alec sighed and jogged after Tana. "Tana, wait!"
Tana kept running until she'd managed to reach the garage. Grabbing a piece of metal, she started doing the one thing she knew would calm her down. She started to work on her art. Alec came in, and when she didn't turn to look at him, he came around in front of her.
"You should be happy, you're sister's alive." He tried to grab the metal bar away from her but when he saw that the tip of it was bright orange he decided against that idea.
"I am."
"But let me guess, you and Logan have gotten extremely close. Now that Ky's back he'll want to be with her."
Sparks began to ignite all around him showing him how upset she was. "If you think that I was going after the guy my sister had feelings for you have another thing coming. It's not that way with Logan and I. We're friends that's all."
"You would barely speak to me you never spoke to anyone else but Logan. What was I suppose to think?"
"That maybe I wanted to be around someone that understood how much my sister meant to me and felt maybe a little of that themselves."
"And you didn't think I would understand? That I've never lost someone close to me? My family was taken away from me because of my abilities. I was sent to jail when a liquor store was robbed and I happened to be in there just because I was a mutant. So get off your high horse little girl other people understand too."
"My high horse? In the last few months I have found the sister I lost for fifteen years to killing her to her being raised from the grave! I am sorry if I am not dancing a jig and sing Joy to the World! I have a lot to deal with your majesty so Fuck off plant boy."
A cascade of sparks showered around him, funnels blazed and went out as she clenched her fists. Heat made his skin slippery with sweat but he refused to back down.
"I almost killed my twin Chia Pet watch out you could be next." She snarled as fire ringed in a spiral around them.
"I'll take my chances."
Suddenly the fire died down and she turned away from him. "Please, just go away."
The anger, the fire play he could fight against but the broken words so closed to sobs broke him. "Would you like me to get Logan?"
"That would be great. I'd love one last fling before my sister completely enters the picture."
"Katana..."
"You know what I hate about people so much? They are so quick to judge everyone. Now please leave."
"Katana..."
"I said, please leave."
"Fine. But let me tell you one thing first."
"What?"
"You say that people are so quick to judge everyone else, but isn't that what you're doing when you blame yourself for Ky's death?"
"Well now, apparently Ky's not dead, is she? So I guess I can take that particular skeleton out of the proverbial closet now can't I? Leave me alone Alec, I don't want to talk to you, or anyone else right now."
"Fine. I'll leave you alone to stew in your misery. You seem to want that anyways."
"No misery loves company I just want to be left alone."
"Whatever. I'll see you later, if you ever decide to leave the garage again." Alec stormed out of the garage and headed for his room. After dealing with the Queen of Hot and Cold, he wanted to be left alone. There was a punching bag with his name on it in his closet. He was going to make use of it.
Tana turned to work on her art again, while mulling over what Alec had said. She wasn't judging herself by feeling responsible for Ky's death. But then again, Ky wasn't dead, so there was no point in blaming herself anymore anyways. She felt a hand on her arm and looked up to see Kydra standing there.
"Tana?"
"Go away."
"Tana please. Talk to me."
"I said go away."
"Fine. I'll talk to you when you come to bed tonight."
"I won't be coming to bed tonight. At least not in our room. I'll find somewhere else to sleep, if I sleep at all."
"No. I won't push you out of your room. I can find somewhere else to sleep."
"Perhaps you could bunk with Cyclops. I'm sure he'd love to have you."
"I can't believe you just said that! You fucking bitch!"
"Yeah well, if the shoe fits honey, why don't you wear it?"
"You're calling me the whore? Who was the one cozying up to Logan while I was supposed to be dead?"
"Hmmm, well, maybe Logan likes real women. You know, women who don't turn into puddles every time they see their own shadow."
Wolverine walked in and immediately had his ears assaulted by the twins' argument.
"Real women huh? Well I guess you wouldn't count, considering that real women aren't frigid."
"You fucking whore. You'd be in Logan's bed one minute and Scott's the next if you had the chance and you know it."
"Girls! Girls! What the hell is going on in here?" Wolverine tried to get between the girls and was rewarded with a blast of fire from one side and a blast of water from the other. The girls then continued their verbal assault on one another.
"Oh, so Cyclops is Scott now huh? Funny, I recall you calling him Jack Ass before I died. How many guys have you been with here? Scott? Logan? Alec? Anyone else I shoud be aware of?"
"Well sweetie pie, there's have to be at least a hundred more here for me to be with to come close to what you've got under your belt."
Wolverine backed out of the garage. When Cyclops started to go in to get his bike, he thought about stopping him, but then decided to let him get blasted.
Cyclops wandered into the garage, looked at the twins, and decided he'd just hurry up and get his bike.
"Oh Scott, there you are." He wasn't used to Tana calling him Scott. Jack Ass was more her style.
"What's up Tana?"
"Well, I figured since my sister's back, and I don't want to be around her tonight, I'd bunk down with you. That ok?"
Cyclops grinned. "Not a problem to me."
"Great. Then why don't we head for bed sweetheart?" Tana led Cyclops out of the garage and down the hall, out of sight of the garage door. Then she promptly punched him in the stomach. 'In your wildest dreams Jack Ass." She stormed down the hall looking for an empty bedroom to sleep in. She'd be damned if she'd sleep in the same room as that traitorous bitch. Who the fuck did Kydra think she was, letting Tana think she was dead?
Kydra stood in the garage, her mouth gaping open at what she'd just seen. She should have known that Katana didn't love her. She'd known that the day that Tana had refused to suppress her powers so she could get adopted too.
**** Angel Creek Orphanage 15 years ago
"Come on Tana! Do it for me?" Kydra pleaded with her twin.
"No. If they can't accept us for what we are, they don't need to adopt us." Katana shook her head.
"But if you suppress your powers like I did, they'll adopt you too. Don't worry. We can always keep our skills sharp when no one else is around. Please Tana?"
"Absolutely not. I'm happy that you're getting adopted Ky, but I will not pretend to be something I'm not just for the sake of having a family."
"Even if it means that we'll be together?"
"No Ky. I don't think you should do this either, but if you want to, that's your choice. But I will not suppress my powers."
**** Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters Today
Wolverine came into the garage to find Kydra sitting on the floor, tears streaming down her face. "Ky? Are you ok?"
"I wish Tana and I had never found each other. She hates me. She always has."
"She doesn't hate you Ky. She's your twin."
"She does hate me. I got adopted. She didn't. She always said I was prettier than she was. She hates me."
Wolverine didn't know what to say. He didn't believe that Tana hated Ky, but trying to tell Ky that wasn't working very well. Finally he got an idea. "Come on. I want to show you something." He led her through the house to the main entryway of the school. There stood the statue that Tana had made when she first came to the school with Ky. Alec had stopped her from destroying it the night that she'd thought she killed Ky. "Do you see that statue?"
"Yeah? What about it? It looks like something typical that Tana would make."
"Well, let me tell you a little story. Tana told us this story when Xavier put this statue here. This statue represents two halves of one person coming together. The red haired half is Katana. She holds a crimson globe to represent her power to control fire. The brown haired half is Kydra. She holds a cobalt globe to represent her power to control water. Fire and Water. When she found you, she'd found the other half of herself. See that tear? That tear represents the sadness at having lost you when you were twelve, the joy of finding you again, and the sadness of losing you again. Now that tear could also represent the joy of finding you again, but all you two seem to be able to do is snipe at each other."
"We're sisters. Sniping is one of the things we do best. She wants to leave Logan. I don't want her to leave. It's like when we were in the orphanage. I decided to suppress my powers so that I could be adopted. When I asked Tana too she refused. She said that we shouldn't have to in order to get adopted. Even at the age of twelve it was so easy for her to let me go. What does that mean?"
"Maybe it means that she did what was best for both of you. Maybe you needed to have a family in order to survive and possibly she needed someone to love her because of what she was, all of her not just the part that would look good in public."
"Somehow I am not so sure that she got what she needed. What am I suppose to do?"
"Let her work things out. You know Tana can be extremely stubborn when she has people telling her what to do. Let her make her own decision."
"Well tonight that decision involves me finding a different room. Think Storm or Rogue have an extra bed in their rooms?"
"One of them probably does. You could always sleep in my room." Ky looked at him, head tipped to one side. "I mean, if you wanted to that is."
"Oh? You have an empty aquarium I can borrow?" Ky grinned at him, remembering the words he'd said the night they'd met.
"Something like that." Wolverine laughed.
"Well, if Rogue or Storm don't have a place for me, I'll take you up on that offer."
"Ok. Sounds good to me. In case I don't see you again, I'll say goodnight to you now." Wolverine gave Ky a hug. "It's good to have you back with us."
Rogue and Storm, who had been hiding around the corner, not wanting to interrupt Wolverine and Ky looked at each other.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Rogue asked her friend.
"If you're thinking we should make those extra beds in our rooms disappear, I'd say we are." Storm laughed.
"Good. Let's go." Rogue grinned. The two women went to their rooms and quickly made the extra beds disappear. As Ky came to ask each one if they had a place she could sleep, each told her they were sorry, but they didn't have an extra bed.
"Sorry Ky. Did you check with Rogue?" Storm asked.
"Yeah, she's only got one bed in her room too. I also checked the other rooms, we don't have any rooms with two beds and one person in them. Well, I'll find somewhere to sleep. Night Storm."
"Night Ky. See you in the morning." As Ky walked away, Rogue and Storm smiled at each other.
"That ought to throw those two together." Rogue laughed.
**** The Garage
Tana fumed over her work. No way in hell was she going to sleep in that bedroom that she was supposed to share with Kydra. She didn't want to be around her sister right now, especially after everything the two of them had said to each other. She groaned as she remembered calling Ky a whore. It wasn't Ky's fault that guys liked her better. Besides, Ky only had eyes for Logan. So why the hell was she acting like a jealous little bitch towards Ky? Then again, Ky started it. Ky wouldn't go away when she told her to. So it was all Ky's fault. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't hear Alec come into the garage.
Alec watched as Tana worked on her piece. It looked like a terrace, the kind of thing you'd find on one of those old mansions in the deep south. Smiling, he quickly caused some wisteria vines to grow on the terrace, when Tana turned around to get something off the work table.
Tana turned back to her work and stopped. She stared at her artwork for a second. "What the hell? Wisteria? How did that get...nevermind. Hello Alec. What do you want now?"
"Hi Tana. Nothing."
"Sure. I'll bet you want to psychoanalyze me again, right? Well save your breath. I'm not listening."
"I'm not here to psychoanalyze you. But I am here in case you want to talk about what's bothering you."
"Well, I don't so if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. By the way, the wisteria is beautiful, but don't ever mess with my artwork again."
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend the artist." Alec slipped up behind Tana silently and put his arms around her. He got an elbow to the side of his head for his troubles.
"Did I give you permission to touch me?"
"No."
"Then don't touch me again unless I tell you to."
"No problem." Alec rubbed the side of his head. "You pack a wallop with that elbow of yours."
"You can thank Logan for that. He's been teaching me to fight."
"Ah Logan. I still think there's more between you and Logan than you let on."
"All right, Dr. Freud. Tell me, what makes you think that there is more between me and Logan than I let on."
"For one thing, you and he seemed to be very cozy together when Ky was gone. For another, you didn't seem to like him at all until Ky was gone. Last, you got really pissed off when Ky showed up again, as if she'd spoiled all your plans for a future with Logan."
"First off, when Ky died, she was trying to protect Logan. I figured there must be something special about him if she was willing to die for him. Second, once I started talking to him, I found he's not that bad in the first place. Finally, the only plans for a future I'd had were for me to move to the wide open spaces of Montana and forget that I ever heard of the fucking X-Men."
"Oh so you never planned on being with Logan?"
"No. And if you want the truth, I'm still planning on moving to Montana and forgetting that I ever heard of the X-Men."
"Oh. So that's the deal. Sure, whatever you say."
Tana spun around on him with her eyes sparkling. "You know what? I'm going to tell you something about me. I have honor and I have respect for my sister. I know she likes Logan. Therefore, I would never, and I mean never, go after Logan, even if Ky were dead and never coming back. Why? Because my sister liked him and to me, that makes him completely off limits."
"Then why are you being such a bitch to everyone, including your sister? What did Ky do to you other than come back? Would you rather she have stayed dead?"
"That's it. I'm gone, out of here."
"Whatever you want Tana. Run like you always do. That is what you always do isn't it? Whenever something doesn't suit you? You run like a scared rabbit and hope that whatever it is that's not going right for you doesn't pop up in your life again."
Tana threw down the piece of metal she was holding and stormed towards her room. She didn't want to face Ky, but if Ky wasn't there, she'd grab her stuff and be on her way. After all, why should she stay here? It seemed to her that nobody could say anything to her without implying that she was trying to get it on with Logan. What she heard on the way back to her room stopped her dead in her tracks.
**** Wolverine's Room
"Logan? Are you awake?" Ky whispered softly into the darkness. If he wasn't awake she would simply find somewhere, anywhere that she could curl up and go to sleep.
"Yeah, I'm awake. Come on in Ky."
"I couldn't get a room with anyone else, so here I am. Offer still open?"
"Sure. There's another bed over there."
"Funny, the night that Tana was kidnapped, I didn't see the other bed in here."
"Oh, I found this one in the hallway, outside Rogue's door earlier. I figured she didn't have a use for it, so I brought it in here." He laughed. "I think she and Storm plotted to have you sleeping in here with me."
"Why does that not surprise me?"
"So I'm assuming that things between you and Tana haven't improved since I saw the two of you in the garage?"
"No, I haven't even seen Tana since she left the garage with Scott."
"She left the garage with Scott?!"
"Yeah. I don't know what she was trying to prove. I know she'd told him they were going to sleep together."
Wolverine, who had just taken a drink of the soda he'd brought to his room with him, sputtered, then howled with laughter. "And he followed her out the door like a puppy on a leash?"
Ky laughed. "Yes."
"Oh man. He's got to be the dumbest son of a bitch I've ever seen to believe that Tana would actually sleep with him."
"What makes you think she won't?"
"Because she's got eyes for Alec only."
"You think so? It's hard to tell with Tana."
"No kidding. But I've seen the way she looks at him. She likes him."
"I know she likes him. She's told me she thinks he's cute. But she also told me that he thinks he's a shrink because he keeps trying to tell her what she thinks and why she feels the way she does." Ky giggled. "He annoys her something fierce when he does that." Ky's expression turned sober. "Tana's going to leave. Probably tonight. I wish she'd stay here. After all, I barely found her and now I'm going to lose her again."
"Oh I think she'd keep in touch."
"No, she won't. She hates me. That much I know. She has yet to reopen the connection between us so I can send her messages. I just don't understand why she doesn't love me anymore."
Wolverine sighed. "Come here Ky." Ky crawled onto the bed with him. "She loves you very much. She just doesn't know how to express that love anymore. You were gone for fifteen years, then she thought you'd died. She's so used to you being gone that she doesn't know what to do or say. But her leaving is because she doesn't think you need her here. She figures that you have friends here, that you have people who care about you. So she feels it's time for her to move on. Tana doesn't realize that she needs people who care about her as much as you need people who care about you. And she doesn't realize that those people are the same people who care about you here at the school. Lay down. I promise, I won't try anything." Ky laid down as he'd asked her to, but the instant the light went off, she sat straight up. "What's the matter?"
"I don't like the dark." All of a sudden, a small fireball appeared above the bed. "Tana?"
"Oh yeah, looks like she hates you all right."
"Shut up."
"The way I see it, you have two choices. You can either stay here with me, which is fine by me, or you can go in your room and talk with your sister, which is also fine by me. However, if you leave, take the fireball with you." As if to give Ky a nudge in the right direction, the fireball disappeared.
"Logan?"
"What?"
"If I decided to stay in here, would you still respect me in the morning?" From the hallway they heard Tana burst out laughing.
"Baby sister, get your ass in our room." Tana said, trying to stop laughing, though she wasn't succeeding very well. Ky got up to leave.
"To answer your question, yes I would." He raised his voice. "However if Tana had slept with Cyclops I don't think I could have respected her." A flaming hand that was flipping him off appeared in the room. "Love you too Tana." Ky left and went back to her room with her sister.
**** Ky and Tana's Room
"I don't hate you. Why would you think that?" Tana looked at Ky.
"I don't know." Ky mumbled.
"Ky, let me ask you this. What have I ever done to make you think I hate you?"
"Well big sister, let's see here. You wouldn't suppress your powers even to make me happy. You cozy up to Logan when you think I'm dead, then deny that there was anything there other than friendship. You pretty much call me a whore and imply that I would sleep with any guy that comes along. Then you want to leave me here and go somewhere else. But you've never done anything to make me think you hate me." Ky was shouting by the end of her list. Wolverine was seriously considering going in there when he heard Tana's voice.
"I'm sorry. I had my reasons for doing the things I did and the things I planned to do. I wouldn't suppress my powers because I believe that if I can't be accepted as what I am, a mutant, then I'm not really loved. I called you a whore because I was upset at the time. You'd just apparently come back from the grave and I was a bit on edge. I didn't mean what I said to you. I want to leave you here and go somewhere else because while I think you fit in great here, I feel like I'm being suffocated. I prefer to be on my own Ky. As for me cozying up to Logan, sure he gave me a hug a couple times and I talked to him a lot when I thought you were dead, but let me tell you something that I told that nosy Chia Pet. I have honor and I have respect for you. I would never intrude upon something that was yours. That means that since you like Logan, even if you were truly dead, I would not go after him, because he was yours."
"Oh it's so comforting to know that you would leave Logan alone. The problem is, you didn't leave him alone."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"What did you do in the garage when no one was around? Hmmm? I couldn't see in there, there aren't any windows."
"Are you implying that I tried something with Logan when we were in a place where no one could see us?"
"Well, didn't you?"
"Look, if you won't believe it from me, why don't you bring your precious fucking Logan in here? You'd believe him."
Wolverine stared at the doorway. No way in hell was he going in there. Last time he was in a room with both of them, he'd gotten wet on one side and burned on the other. Alec came down the hallway. "Hey Alec. Come help me referee between Ky and Tana. They're at it again."
"Sure thing."
Alec and Wolverine entered Ky and Tana's room. Alec, remembering that Tana could burn through his vines, grabbed Ky's wrists with the vines. Wolverine hooked his arms under Tana's shoulders and held her. "Now, what was it you wanted from me?" Wolverine asked the twins.
"Logan, did we have any sort of relationship going beyond simple friendship?"
"Now Tana, don't tell me you don't remember that night about three days after Ky was supposedly killed."
"Excuse me?" Ky asked. "What about the night about three days after I was supposedly killed?"
"Well now, Tana fixed dinner, since I can't cook worth jack, and then one thing led to another. I woke up the next morning with Tana in bed next to me."
Ky screamed and managed to send a small tidal wave rushing at Alec. It was just what she needed to make him drop his concentration and consequently the vines. She was loose and at Tana's throat in an instant.
"You bitch! I can't wait for you to leave! And as for you mister." She turned her attention to Wolverine. "You are the sorriest son of a bitch I've ever seen."
"Can I say one more thing?" Wolverine asked.
"What?" Ky snapped.
"The best part about that night was the fact that in the morning I woke up next to a beautiful girl, who had absolutely no attraction to me, and I had absolutely no attraction to her. All we'd done was talk."
Ky looked at him. "Hello? Do I have idiot written on my forehead?"
"Not yet, but I'm sure I can accommodate you." Tana hissed.
Alec looked at Wolverine. "I say we let them go and let them have it out."
"You serious?"
"I'm very serious. This is getting ridiculous. Let them have at each other. Later on, we'll sort out the body parts so we can put them in the correct coffins, since I'm sure they'll kill each other."
Both twins looked at Alec. "Excuse me?" They said in unison.
"Do you honestly think I would kill Tana?"
"Do you honestly think I would kill Ky?"
"Well Tana, you did kill Ky once." Wolverine smirked.
"Fuck you Logan."
"Well it's true Tana. You did kill Ky once." Alec laughed.
"I'm just sorry it wasn't your sorry ass Chia Pet."
"Logan, do me a big favor." Alec looked at Wolverine.
"What?"
"Don't let go of her."
Wolverine gave a smirk and promptly let Tana go. Tana chased Alec out of the room and down the hall. "Run Chia Pet, run." Wolverine and Ky heard Tana calling out to Alec. All of a sudden they heard a giant whoosh and heard Alec yelp.
Xavier, hearing all of this through his telepathy, smiled. It was nice to have kids running in the halls again, even if they were a bit too old for that kind of thing.
Alec turned around. "Ok that's it. You're in big trouble now missy."
"Oh really Chia Pet? Bring it. I can take you and your pathetic plants any day."
Alec grinned and wrapped poison ivy vines around her. She looked at him as if he were an idiot and promptly burned them off. Then she started itching.
"What the hell was that stuff?"
"Poison ivy."
"Remind me, when I stop itching, to kill you."
Alec ran back down the hall and into Ky and Tana's room. He slammed the door shut and looked at them. "Whatever you do, do not open this door."
Tana slammed into the door at top speed, then promptly started to bang her fists against the door. Wolverine shrugged and opened the door. Alec took one look at Tana and ducked under her arm and ran down the hall. He was running to save his life, if that was at all possible, which at the moment, judging from the look he last saw on Tana's face, it wasn't.
"What the hell happened to you?" Ky asked her sister.
"Poison ivy. It would seem that Chia Pet has some tricks up his sleeve. I'm going to be cutting those sleeves off very soon."
Ky snickered. She'd have to go and find some calamine lotion for her sister in a little while, but for now, she'd let her suffer. Wolverine shook his head and went in search of calamine, since Ky obviously wasn't going to do it. He only hoped that his showing apparent concern for Tana didn't start another chapter of world war five thousand. When he brought back the lotion, the girls started up again. Finally Tana looked at her sister.
"That's it! I'm sick and tired of fighting with you. We settle this the traditional way."
Ky looked at her sister. "The traditional way? You mean the way we did when we were kids and we had fought all day?"
"Yes."
"You really want to do that here?"
"Yes."
"All right. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots it is."
Alec came into the room just in time to hear the part about Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots and gave Wolverine a look that clearly stated he didn't get it. Wolverine shrugged and shook his head.
A ring appeared in the middle of the floor. The ropes were made of water, the ring posts made of fire. In one corner stood a little figure made of flames, in the opposite corner stood a little figure made of ice.
"How the hell does Ky expect to win with a robot made of ice? I'm going for Tana." Alec looked at Wolverine.
"Oh hell no. I'm with Ky. I think that little ice robot will put out that little flame dude." Wolverine stared intently as the girls started fighting with their respective robots.
In the end Tana's robot melted Ky's robot. Ky quietly withdrew the ropes from the ring.
"Well, you win. As always." Ky laughed. "Anyone who bets on me when we play that is stupid."
Alec looked at Tana. "You look so cute covered in calamine lotion."
Tana was just about to make a comment when Alec leaned over and kissed her. She stood there stunned, not saying a word. "So I finally found something that leaves the mighty Kufury's Fire speechless." With that, he left the room. Wolverine bid Tana goodnight and headed for his room, snickering. Nice to know there was something that could shut that woman up.
"I'll be right back Tana. I'm going to tell Logan goodnight." Ky looked at her sister, who was now sitting on her bed, her hand on her mouth.
"He kissed me." Tana said.
"Yes Tana, he kissed you." Ky went out of her room and tapped on Wolverine's door.
"Come on in."
"I just wanted to say goodnight."
"Oh, ok." Ky turned around to leave. "Ky?" Ky turned back around. "Goodnight." Wolverine kissed Ky. He grinned as she stumbled out the door and back into her room.
"He kissed me." Ky said.
"He kissed me." Tana said.
"You know what Tana?"
"What Ky?"
"The X-Men has some damn cute men."
"Yes they do Ky, yes they most certainly do. Goodnight Ky."
"Goodnight Tana." Ky was so distracted by the kiss that she didn't even realize that she didn't have a nightlight when she went to sleep.
The End
Note: This takes place after X2.
The days that followed Kydra's death blurred together for her twin sister, Katana. For the most part, Tana spent her time in the garage of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters working on her art. She'd turned out several sculptures, all of which had been purchased by eager buyers of modern art. She only refused to part with one of her pieces. That was the one that Alec had saved her from destroying the night Ky died. It now sat in a place of honor in the front hall of the school, a tribute to the life of a girl who'd barely come to remember her powers before she'd been cut down.
Tana was working hard on her newest sculpture when Cyclops came into the garage. "Hey Tana. How is everything?" Tana refused to answer him. She only spoke to two people now and Cyclops was not one of them. Wolverine and occasionally Alec were the only people she spoke to. Xavier had tried once, but he quickly left her alone when he read the pain that weighed on her mind. Cyclops shook his head and wandered over to his bike. He missed Tana's attitude towards him. He'd found he would actually prefer to have her tie him up with rings of fire than to endure the stony silence that she now bestowed upon him. He roared out of the garage, leaving Tana alone with her thoughts again.
Wolverine slipped into the garage and watched Tana as she worked. He knew that she no longer used her powers for anything other than her art. She wouldn't even light a candle using her powers now. He slipped his arms around her, giving her a hug. "Hi there Tana."
"Hi Logan."
"Not in the mood to talk today, huh?"
"Not really."
"All right then. Mind if I watch you work?"
"No, go ahead."
Wolverine sat on what little open space there was on Tana's work table. He watched as she created a beautiful metal sculpture. He noted that the music that would have been blasting normally was not playing. It hadn't played since that day. Music had been Ky's world, and now, neither Tana nor Wolverine wanted to hear it.
"It's been so foggy at night these past few days." Tana broke the silence.
"I know. It's kind of strange. I've never seen anything like it."
"It's funny but that fog makes me feel as if Ky were close to me."
"Really? That's interesting."
"You loved her didn't you Logan?"
Wolverine sputtered. "What?"
"Come on, out with it. You loved her."
"I didn't know her well enough to love her."
"All right then. But if she hadn't died, would you have gotten to know her better? Would you maybe have loved her?"
"Tana, I don't understand. What's come over you?"
"I think Ky was in love with you. That's why she stopped me from hurting you."
"Tana, please. Don't think about what might have been. It will only keep us from moving on."
"You're right. Ky would want us to move on. I'm going to the kitchen to find something to eat. You hungry?"
"Yeah. I'm right behind you."
**** The Kitchen
"Ok, let's see here, we've got macaroni and cheese, salad stuff, and yogurt. Looks like they need to do the grocery shopping." Tana laughed as Logan made faces at their choices for something to eat.
"I guess the mac and cheese will have to do. I'm not eating salad or yogurt." Wolverine sneered.
"I wouldn't have taken you for the yogurt or salad type, but then again, I don't know you all that well. Mac and cheese it is." Tana pulled milk and cheese out of the refrigerator and got the macaroni down from the shelf.
"Aren't you supposed to use a little blue box for that?"
"Sure, if you're a man and can't be bothered to learn the basics of cooking." Without thinking about it, Tana lit the fire under the pan of water without turning on the burner. The water boiled rapidly and Wolverine knew that it was because the fire she lit under that pot was hotter than the burner fire would have been. Tana continued cooking their midnight snack as he found the plates and forks.
Tana crossed over to the sink to drain the macaroni. As she looked the window above the sink, she noticed that it was once again foggy. "It's foggy out again." Wolverine came to the sink and looked out.
"Man that's just weird. I've never seen it be this foggy this long. Maybe we should ask Xavier if he knows anything about it."
"Maybe we ought to ask Storm. She's the weather queen around here."
"Don't let her hear you say that." Wolverine laughed.
"True. But still it's weird. But like I said, I feel like Ky is close to me whenever that fog is out there."
Tana! It's me, Ky! I stuck in this steam form! Tana! Damn. I can't seem to connect to her. Maybe it's the glass between us. I've never tried to connect to her with something between us.
Wolverine and Tana went back to their first priority in the kitchen, food, forgetting about that strange fog that kept hanging around. Cyclops came in moments later. "How cozy. Kydra's dead and you're making moves on her sister. What a guy Wolverine, what a guy."
Wolverine snarled at him. "Shut up dick, before I have to hurt you."
"I'd say you did that on purpose. You wanted Katana so you decided to get rid of Kydra. Nice job on having her sister kill her."
Wolverine bared his claws and went after Cyclops. Outside, unnoticed by anyone in the kitchen, the fog dropped to the ground and began to pull itself together, morphing into human form. In the kitchen, Tana threw rings of fire around both Wolverine and Cyclops to keep them from killing each other. "That's enough! I don't know what the hell has gotten into you two, but you need to knock it off. It's bad enough that I killed Ky, but I don't need you coming in here and saying that it was all a big plot by Logan to get rid of her so that he could have me. That's not the way it is and you damn well know it you egotistical bastard."
Cyclops glared at Tana. "Let me go bitch."
"Only if you promise to leave me and Logan the fuck alone."
"Fine."
Tana released Cyclops from his fiery bonds and watched as he grabbed a soda and stormed out of the kitchen. Wolverine simply stepped through his, making Tana gasp.
"You idiot! You've burned yourself!" Tana shook her head.
"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine in a second." Tana watched in amazement as the burns simply disappeared. "I'm a rapid healer. That's what makes me a mutant. Not these claws. Someone put these claws in me. But that's a story for another time."
**** Outside
Kydra had walked around the entire house at least three times. She couldn't find a way back into the school. Every time she found a door, she discovered it was locked. Normally she'd have morphed back into water and flowed under the door, but she was too tired from morphing from steam to water and water to human to morph back into water. She finally walked away from the house and wandered around the grounds. Unwittingly, she tripped an alarm causing everyone to come running outside.
"This way, over here, I found the intruder!" Cyclops yelled as he grabbed Kydra. Wolverine, Xavier, Alec, and Katana made their way to where Cyclops held Kydra captive.
"Nice try Mystique." Wolverine growled. "But we all know that Kydra died the last time we met. So cut the crap and tell us what you want."
Mystique? I'm not Mystique. I'm Kydra. She sent the message off to her sister, but Katana didn't seem to receive it. It was then that she realized what Tana had done. Tana had closed the door to their connection when she thought Kydra was dead. Great, just great. Now how am I supposed to get my point across. I guess I'll have to talk.
"I'm not Mystique. I'm Kydra."
Wolverine gave a short, harsh laugh. "Kydra doesn't talk. The only thing she ever said out loud was a single word. She screamed out no when Katana started to attack me."
"But it really is me, Kydra. I am not dead."
"Whatever. What do you want Mystique?"
"I am not Mystique. I can prove it!"
"Oh really, and just how do you expect to prove that?"
"Well for one thing, you think Cyclops is a dick."
"Everyone knows I think Cyclops is a dick."
"Well, I'd morph back into water except right now, I don't have enough energy. Besides, the one-eyed freak is holding on to me too tightly for me to do it."
"Whatever. If you were Kydra, you'd morph back into water, energy or not, if I did this." With that Wolverine bared his claws. Kydra simply stood there, muttering under her breath about people who couldn't get it through their thick skulls that if someone doesn't have the energy to do something, they are not going to do it no matter what.
"Damn you have a thick skull Logan. I said, I don't have the energy right now."
"And I said that if you really were Kydra, you'd bloody well morph when my claws came out, no matter what."
"Look, I'm sorry to interrupt your argument, but this hurts too much for me to take. My sister is dead and here this bitch comes in here and pretends to be her." With that Katana started to run back towards the house.
Frustrated, Kydra blew her hair out of her face. "Fire and Water, Tana. Always together."
Katana stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. "Nice try Mystique. Bender probably pulled that out of my memory when he was messing with my head." Once again, Katana started for the house. Alec went after her.
"Pull up her shirt." Wolverine growled at Cyclops.
"What?" Cyclops stared at Wolverine. "You want me to strip her?"
"No I want you to pull her shirt up. I want to see something."
"Why?"
"When we fought Magneto at the Statue of Liberty, I stabbed Mystique in the stomach. One thing I've learned is that no matter what form she takes on, she has the scars from my claws on her stomach. Now lift up her shirt!"
"Excuse me! Did it occur to anyone to ask me to lift my shirt up myself?" Kydra asked, with an indignant look on her face.
"Oh right, like if we ask you to strip, you'll just go ahead and strip." Cyclops scoffed.
"Let go of me and we'll find out."
"Sure you'll strip as you're running away to join your buddies."
"I'll do it."
Katana walked up to the woman who claimed to be her sister knowing full well if she saw the three scars that Wolverine claimed that Mystique had Mystique would meet a fiery death. Gingerly she lifted the lavender t- shirt and saw for herself the perfectly smooth skin of her sister.
"Logan!" She called.
Wolverine pushed past the others so he could see from himself. "She's clean. Ky is that you? Is that really you?"
Ky looked exasperated but only nodded. "When Katana exploded into fire it turned me into steam. I didn't know how to change back into human form."
"So how did you finally manage it?" Alec asked.
"Oh? When Jack Ass was in the kitchen with Logan and Tana and Logan bared his claws I promptly fell into puddle form."
Logan laughed and then looked at Cyclops who was still holding Ky too close.
"You can let her go now, Dick."
"How can we be so sure she's really Ky? I mean she could have found a way to cover up the scars."
"It's Ky now let her go you ass hole." Katana put into use the few techniques Wolverine had showed her over the days that had followed Ky's absence. She slammed her fist into Cyclops head when that didn't make him stop she turned and sent her fist into the back of his spine at the base. Cyclops released Ky and fell to the ground in pain but when Ky reached for her sister Katana backed away and then ran back into the school.
"I'll go after her." Alec sighed and jogged after Tana. "Tana, wait!"
Tana kept running until she'd managed to reach the garage. Grabbing a piece of metal, she started doing the one thing she knew would calm her down. She started to work on her art. Alec came in, and when she didn't turn to look at him, he came around in front of her.
"You should be happy, you're sister's alive." He tried to grab the metal bar away from her but when he saw that the tip of it was bright orange he decided against that idea.
"I am."
"But let me guess, you and Logan have gotten extremely close. Now that Ky's back he'll want to be with her."
Sparks began to ignite all around him showing him how upset she was. "If you think that I was going after the guy my sister had feelings for you have another thing coming. It's not that way with Logan and I. We're friends that's all."
"You would barely speak to me you never spoke to anyone else but Logan. What was I suppose to think?"
"That maybe I wanted to be around someone that understood how much my sister meant to me and felt maybe a little of that themselves."
"And you didn't think I would understand? That I've never lost someone close to me? My family was taken away from me because of my abilities. I was sent to jail when a liquor store was robbed and I happened to be in there just because I was a mutant. So get off your high horse little girl other people understand too."
"My high horse? In the last few months I have found the sister I lost for fifteen years to killing her to her being raised from the grave! I am sorry if I am not dancing a jig and sing Joy to the World! I have a lot to deal with your majesty so Fuck off plant boy."
A cascade of sparks showered around him, funnels blazed and went out as she clenched her fists. Heat made his skin slippery with sweat but he refused to back down.
"I almost killed my twin Chia Pet watch out you could be next." She snarled as fire ringed in a spiral around them.
"I'll take my chances."
Suddenly the fire died down and she turned away from him. "Please, just go away."
The anger, the fire play he could fight against but the broken words so closed to sobs broke him. "Would you like me to get Logan?"
"That would be great. I'd love one last fling before my sister completely enters the picture."
"Katana..."
"You know what I hate about people so much? They are so quick to judge everyone. Now please leave."
"Katana..."
"I said, please leave."
"Fine. But let me tell you one thing first."
"What?"
"You say that people are so quick to judge everyone else, but isn't that what you're doing when you blame yourself for Ky's death?"
"Well now, apparently Ky's not dead, is she? So I guess I can take that particular skeleton out of the proverbial closet now can't I? Leave me alone Alec, I don't want to talk to you, or anyone else right now."
"Fine. I'll leave you alone to stew in your misery. You seem to want that anyways."
"No misery loves company I just want to be left alone."
"Whatever. I'll see you later, if you ever decide to leave the garage again." Alec stormed out of the garage and headed for his room. After dealing with the Queen of Hot and Cold, he wanted to be left alone. There was a punching bag with his name on it in his closet. He was going to make use of it.
Tana turned to work on her art again, while mulling over what Alec had said. She wasn't judging herself by feeling responsible for Ky's death. But then again, Ky wasn't dead, so there was no point in blaming herself anymore anyways. She felt a hand on her arm and looked up to see Kydra standing there.
"Tana?"
"Go away."
"Tana please. Talk to me."
"I said go away."
"Fine. I'll talk to you when you come to bed tonight."
"I won't be coming to bed tonight. At least not in our room. I'll find somewhere else to sleep, if I sleep at all."
"No. I won't push you out of your room. I can find somewhere else to sleep."
"Perhaps you could bunk with Cyclops. I'm sure he'd love to have you."
"I can't believe you just said that! You fucking bitch!"
"Yeah well, if the shoe fits honey, why don't you wear it?"
"You're calling me the whore? Who was the one cozying up to Logan while I was supposed to be dead?"
"Hmmm, well, maybe Logan likes real women. You know, women who don't turn into puddles every time they see their own shadow."
Wolverine walked in and immediately had his ears assaulted by the twins' argument.
"Real women huh? Well I guess you wouldn't count, considering that real women aren't frigid."
"You fucking whore. You'd be in Logan's bed one minute and Scott's the next if you had the chance and you know it."
"Girls! Girls! What the hell is going on in here?" Wolverine tried to get between the girls and was rewarded with a blast of fire from one side and a blast of water from the other. The girls then continued their verbal assault on one another.
"Oh, so Cyclops is Scott now huh? Funny, I recall you calling him Jack Ass before I died. How many guys have you been with here? Scott? Logan? Alec? Anyone else I shoud be aware of?"
"Well sweetie pie, there's have to be at least a hundred more here for me to be with to come close to what you've got under your belt."
Wolverine backed out of the garage. When Cyclops started to go in to get his bike, he thought about stopping him, but then decided to let him get blasted.
Cyclops wandered into the garage, looked at the twins, and decided he'd just hurry up and get his bike.
"Oh Scott, there you are." He wasn't used to Tana calling him Scott. Jack Ass was more her style.
"What's up Tana?"
"Well, I figured since my sister's back, and I don't want to be around her tonight, I'd bunk down with you. That ok?"
Cyclops grinned. "Not a problem to me."
"Great. Then why don't we head for bed sweetheart?" Tana led Cyclops out of the garage and down the hall, out of sight of the garage door. Then she promptly punched him in the stomach. 'In your wildest dreams Jack Ass." She stormed down the hall looking for an empty bedroom to sleep in. She'd be damned if she'd sleep in the same room as that traitorous bitch. Who the fuck did Kydra think she was, letting Tana think she was dead?
Kydra stood in the garage, her mouth gaping open at what she'd just seen. She should have known that Katana didn't love her. She'd known that the day that Tana had refused to suppress her powers so she could get adopted too.
**** Angel Creek Orphanage 15 years ago
"Come on Tana! Do it for me?" Kydra pleaded with her twin.
"No. If they can't accept us for what we are, they don't need to adopt us." Katana shook her head.
"But if you suppress your powers like I did, they'll adopt you too. Don't worry. We can always keep our skills sharp when no one else is around. Please Tana?"
"Absolutely not. I'm happy that you're getting adopted Ky, but I will not pretend to be something I'm not just for the sake of having a family."
"Even if it means that we'll be together?"
"No Ky. I don't think you should do this either, but if you want to, that's your choice. But I will not suppress my powers."
**** Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters Today
Wolverine came into the garage to find Kydra sitting on the floor, tears streaming down her face. "Ky? Are you ok?"
"I wish Tana and I had never found each other. She hates me. She always has."
"She doesn't hate you Ky. She's your twin."
"She does hate me. I got adopted. She didn't. She always said I was prettier than she was. She hates me."
Wolverine didn't know what to say. He didn't believe that Tana hated Ky, but trying to tell Ky that wasn't working very well. Finally he got an idea. "Come on. I want to show you something." He led her through the house to the main entryway of the school. There stood the statue that Tana had made when she first came to the school with Ky. Alec had stopped her from destroying it the night that she'd thought she killed Ky. "Do you see that statue?"
"Yeah? What about it? It looks like something typical that Tana would make."
"Well, let me tell you a little story. Tana told us this story when Xavier put this statue here. This statue represents two halves of one person coming together. The red haired half is Katana. She holds a crimson globe to represent her power to control fire. The brown haired half is Kydra. She holds a cobalt globe to represent her power to control water. Fire and Water. When she found you, she'd found the other half of herself. See that tear? That tear represents the sadness at having lost you when you were twelve, the joy of finding you again, and the sadness of losing you again. Now that tear could also represent the joy of finding you again, but all you two seem to be able to do is snipe at each other."
"We're sisters. Sniping is one of the things we do best. She wants to leave Logan. I don't want her to leave. It's like when we were in the orphanage. I decided to suppress my powers so that I could be adopted. When I asked Tana too she refused. She said that we shouldn't have to in order to get adopted. Even at the age of twelve it was so easy for her to let me go. What does that mean?"
"Maybe it means that she did what was best for both of you. Maybe you needed to have a family in order to survive and possibly she needed someone to love her because of what she was, all of her not just the part that would look good in public."
"Somehow I am not so sure that she got what she needed. What am I suppose to do?"
"Let her work things out. You know Tana can be extremely stubborn when she has people telling her what to do. Let her make her own decision."
"Well tonight that decision involves me finding a different room. Think Storm or Rogue have an extra bed in their rooms?"
"One of them probably does. You could always sleep in my room." Ky looked at him, head tipped to one side. "I mean, if you wanted to that is."
"Oh? You have an empty aquarium I can borrow?" Ky grinned at him, remembering the words he'd said the night they'd met.
"Something like that." Wolverine laughed.
"Well, if Rogue or Storm don't have a place for me, I'll take you up on that offer."
"Ok. Sounds good to me. In case I don't see you again, I'll say goodnight to you now." Wolverine gave Ky a hug. "It's good to have you back with us."
Rogue and Storm, who had been hiding around the corner, not wanting to interrupt Wolverine and Ky looked at each other.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Rogue asked her friend.
"If you're thinking we should make those extra beds in our rooms disappear, I'd say we are." Storm laughed.
"Good. Let's go." Rogue grinned. The two women went to their rooms and quickly made the extra beds disappear. As Ky came to ask each one if they had a place she could sleep, each told her they were sorry, but they didn't have an extra bed.
"Sorry Ky. Did you check with Rogue?" Storm asked.
"Yeah, she's only got one bed in her room too. I also checked the other rooms, we don't have any rooms with two beds and one person in them. Well, I'll find somewhere to sleep. Night Storm."
"Night Ky. See you in the morning." As Ky walked away, Rogue and Storm smiled at each other.
"That ought to throw those two together." Rogue laughed.
**** The Garage
Tana fumed over her work. No way in hell was she going to sleep in that bedroom that she was supposed to share with Kydra. She didn't want to be around her sister right now, especially after everything the two of them had said to each other. She groaned as she remembered calling Ky a whore. It wasn't Ky's fault that guys liked her better. Besides, Ky only had eyes for Logan. So why the hell was she acting like a jealous little bitch towards Ky? Then again, Ky started it. Ky wouldn't go away when she told her to. So it was all Ky's fault. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't hear Alec come into the garage.
Alec watched as Tana worked on her piece. It looked like a terrace, the kind of thing you'd find on one of those old mansions in the deep south. Smiling, he quickly caused some wisteria vines to grow on the terrace, when Tana turned around to get something off the work table.
Tana turned back to her work and stopped. She stared at her artwork for a second. "What the hell? Wisteria? How did that get...nevermind. Hello Alec. What do you want now?"
"Hi Tana. Nothing."
"Sure. I'll bet you want to psychoanalyze me again, right? Well save your breath. I'm not listening."
"I'm not here to psychoanalyze you. But I am here in case you want to talk about what's bothering you."
"Well, I don't so if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. By the way, the wisteria is beautiful, but don't ever mess with my artwork again."
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend the artist." Alec slipped up behind Tana silently and put his arms around her. He got an elbow to the side of his head for his troubles.
"Did I give you permission to touch me?"
"No."
"Then don't touch me again unless I tell you to."
"No problem." Alec rubbed the side of his head. "You pack a wallop with that elbow of yours."
"You can thank Logan for that. He's been teaching me to fight."
"Ah Logan. I still think there's more between you and Logan than you let on."
"All right, Dr. Freud. Tell me, what makes you think that there is more between me and Logan than I let on."
"For one thing, you and he seemed to be very cozy together when Ky was gone. For another, you didn't seem to like him at all until Ky was gone. Last, you got really pissed off when Ky showed up again, as if she'd spoiled all your plans for a future with Logan."
"First off, when Ky died, she was trying to protect Logan. I figured there must be something special about him if she was willing to die for him. Second, once I started talking to him, I found he's not that bad in the first place. Finally, the only plans for a future I'd had were for me to move to the wide open spaces of Montana and forget that I ever heard of the fucking X-Men."
"Oh so you never planned on being with Logan?"
"No. And if you want the truth, I'm still planning on moving to Montana and forgetting that I ever heard of the X-Men."
"Oh. So that's the deal. Sure, whatever you say."
Tana spun around on him with her eyes sparkling. "You know what? I'm going to tell you something about me. I have honor and I have respect for my sister. I know she likes Logan. Therefore, I would never, and I mean never, go after Logan, even if Ky were dead and never coming back. Why? Because my sister liked him and to me, that makes him completely off limits."
"Then why are you being such a bitch to everyone, including your sister? What did Ky do to you other than come back? Would you rather she have stayed dead?"
"That's it. I'm gone, out of here."
"Whatever you want Tana. Run like you always do. That is what you always do isn't it? Whenever something doesn't suit you? You run like a scared rabbit and hope that whatever it is that's not going right for you doesn't pop up in your life again."
Tana threw down the piece of metal she was holding and stormed towards her room. She didn't want to face Ky, but if Ky wasn't there, she'd grab her stuff and be on her way. After all, why should she stay here? It seemed to her that nobody could say anything to her without implying that she was trying to get it on with Logan. What she heard on the way back to her room stopped her dead in her tracks.
**** Wolverine's Room
"Logan? Are you awake?" Ky whispered softly into the darkness. If he wasn't awake she would simply find somewhere, anywhere that she could curl up and go to sleep.
"Yeah, I'm awake. Come on in Ky."
"I couldn't get a room with anyone else, so here I am. Offer still open?"
"Sure. There's another bed over there."
"Funny, the night that Tana was kidnapped, I didn't see the other bed in here."
"Oh, I found this one in the hallway, outside Rogue's door earlier. I figured she didn't have a use for it, so I brought it in here." He laughed. "I think she and Storm plotted to have you sleeping in here with me."
"Why does that not surprise me?"
"So I'm assuming that things between you and Tana haven't improved since I saw the two of you in the garage?"
"No, I haven't even seen Tana since she left the garage with Scott."
"She left the garage with Scott?!"
"Yeah. I don't know what she was trying to prove. I know she'd told him they were going to sleep together."
Wolverine, who had just taken a drink of the soda he'd brought to his room with him, sputtered, then howled with laughter. "And he followed her out the door like a puppy on a leash?"
Ky laughed. "Yes."
"Oh man. He's got to be the dumbest son of a bitch I've ever seen to believe that Tana would actually sleep with him."
"What makes you think she won't?"
"Because she's got eyes for Alec only."
"You think so? It's hard to tell with Tana."
"No kidding. But I've seen the way she looks at him. She likes him."
"I know she likes him. She's told me she thinks he's cute. But she also told me that he thinks he's a shrink because he keeps trying to tell her what she thinks and why she feels the way she does." Ky giggled. "He annoys her something fierce when he does that." Ky's expression turned sober. "Tana's going to leave. Probably tonight. I wish she'd stay here. After all, I barely found her and now I'm going to lose her again."
"Oh I think she'd keep in touch."
"No, she won't. She hates me. That much I know. She has yet to reopen the connection between us so I can send her messages. I just don't understand why she doesn't love me anymore."
Wolverine sighed. "Come here Ky." Ky crawled onto the bed with him. "She loves you very much. She just doesn't know how to express that love anymore. You were gone for fifteen years, then she thought you'd died. She's so used to you being gone that she doesn't know what to do or say. But her leaving is because she doesn't think you need her here. She figures that you have friends here, that you have people who care about you. So she feels it's time for her to move on. Tana doesn't realize that she needs people who care about her as much as you need people who care about you. And she doesn't realize that those people are the same people who care about you here at the school. Lay down. I promise, I won't try anything." Ky laid down as he'd asked her to, but the instant the light went off, she sat straight up. "What's the matter?"
"I don't like the dark." All of a sudden, a small fireball appeared above the bed. "Tana?"
"Oh yeah, looks like she hates you all right."
"Shut up."
"The way I see it, you have two choices. You can either stay here with me, which is fine by me, or you can go in your room and talk with your sister, which is also fine by me. However, if you leave, take the fireball with you." As if to give Ky a nudge in the right direction, the fireball disappeared.
"Logan?"
"What?"
"If I decided to stay in here, would you still respect me in the morning?" From the hallway they heard Tana burst out laughing.
"Baby sister, get your ass in our room." Tana said, trying to stop laughing, though she wasn't succeeding very well. Ky got up to leave.
"To answer your question, yes I would." He raised his voice. "However if Tana had slept with Cyclops I don't think I could have respected her." A flaming hand that was flipping him off appeared in the room. "Love you too Tana." Ky left and went back to her room with her sister.
**** Ky and Tana's Room
"I don't hate you. Why would you think that?" Tana looked at Ky.
"I don't know." Ky mumbled.
"Ky, let me ask you this. What have I ever done to make you think I hate you?"
"Well big sister, let's see here. You wouldn't suppress your powers even to make me happy. You cozy up to Logan when you think I'm dead, then deny that there was anything there other than friendship. You pretty much call me a whore and imply that I would sleep with any guy that comes along. Then you want to leave me here and go somewhere else. But you've never done anything to make me think you hate me." Ky was shouting by the end of her list. Wolverine was seriously considering going in there when he heard Tana's voice.
"I'm sorry. I had my reasons for doing the things I did and the things I planned to do. I wouldn't suppress my powers because I believe that if I can't be accepted as what I am, a mutant, then I'm not really loved. I called you a whore because I was upset at the time. You'd just apparently come back from the grave and I was a bit on edge. I didn't mean what I said to you. I want to leave you here and go somewhere else because while I think you fit in great here, I feel like I'm being suffocated. I prefer to be on my own Ky. As for me cozying up to Logan, sure he gave me a hug a couple times and I talked to him a lot when I thought you were dead, but let me tell you something that I told that nosy Chia Pet. I have honor and I have respect for you. I would never intrude upon something that was yours. That means that since you like Logan, even if you were truly dead, I would not go after him, because he was yours."
"Oh it's so comforting to know that you would leave Logan alone. The problem is, you didn't leave him alone."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"What did you do in the garage when no one was around? Hmmm? I couldn't see in there, there aren't any windows."
"Are you implying that I tried something with Logan when we were in a place where no one could see us?"
"Well, didn't you?"
"Look, if you won't believe it from me, why don't you bring your precious fucking Logan in here? You'd believe him."
Wolverine stared at the doorway. No way in hell was he going in there. Last time he was in a room with both of them, he'd gotten wet on one side and burned on the other. Alec came down the hallway. "Hey Alec. Come help me referee between Ky and Tana. They're at it again."
"Sure thing."
Alec and Wolverine entered Ky and Tana's room. Alec, remembering that Tana could burn through his vines, grabbed Ky's wrists with the vines. Wolverine hooked his arms under Tana's shoulders and held her. "Now, what was it you wanted from me?" Wolverine asked the twins.
"Logan, did we have any sort of relationship going beyond simple friendship?"
"Now Tana, don't tell me you don't remember that night about three days after Ky was supposedly killed."
"Excuse me?" Ky asked. "What about the night about three days after I was supposedly killed?"
"Well now, Tana fixed dinner, since I can't cook worth jack, and then one thing led to another. I woke up the next morning with Tana in bed next to me."
Ky screamed and managed to send a small tidal wave rushing at Alec. It was just what she needed to make him drop his concentration and consequently the vines. She was loose and at Tana's throat in an instant.
"You bitch! I can't wait for you to leave! And as for you mister." She turned her attention to Wolverine. "You are the sorriest son of a bitch I've ever seen."
"Can I say one more thing?" Wolverine asked.
"What?" Ky snapped.
"The best part about that night was the fact that in the morning I woke up next to a beautiful girl, who had absolutely no attraction to me, and I had absolutely no attraction to her. All we'd done was talk."
Ky looked at him. "Hello? Do I have idiot written on my forehead?"
"Not yet, but I'm sure I can accommodate you." Tana hissed.
Alec looked at Wolverine. "I say we let them go and let them have it out."
"You serious?"
"I'm very serious. This is getting ridiculous. Let them have at each other. Later on, we'll sort out the body parts so we can put them in the correct coffins, since I'm sure they'll kill each other."
Both twins looked at Alec. "Excuse me?" They said in unison.
"Do you honestly think I would kill Tana?"
"Do you honestly think I would kill Ky?"
"Well Tana, you did kill Ky once." Wolverine smirked.
"Fuck you Logan."
"Well it's true Tana. You did kill Ky once." Alec laughed.
"I'm just sorry it wasn't your sorry ass Chia Pet."
"Logan, do me a big favor." Alec looked at Wolverine.
"What?"
"Don't let go of her."
Wolverine gave a smirk and promptly let Tana go. Tana chased Alec out of the room and down the hall. "Run Chia Pet, run." Wolverine and Ky heard Tana calling out to Alec. All of a sudden they heard a giant whoosh and heard Alec yelp.
Xavier, hearing all of this through his telepathy, smiled. It was nice to have kids running in the halls again, even if they were a bit too old for that kind of thing.
Alec turned around. "Ok that's it. You're in big trouble now missy."
"Oh really Chia Pet? Bring it. I can take you and your pathetic plants any day."
Alec grinned and wrapped poison ivy vines around her. She looked at him as if he were an idiot and promptly burned them off. Then she started itching.
"What the hell was that stuff?"
"Poison ivy."
"Remind me, when I stop itching, to kill you."
Alec ran back down the hall and into Ky and Tana's room. He slammed the door shut and looked at them. "Whatever you do, do not open this door."
Tana slammed into the door at top speed, then promptly started to bang her fists against the door. Wolverine shrugged and opened the door. Alec took one look at Tana and ducked under her arm and ran down the hall. He was running to save his life, if that was at all possible, which at the moment, judging from the look he last saw on Tana's face, it wasn't.
"What the hell happened to you?" Ky asked her sister.
"Poison ivy. It would seem that Chia Pet has some tricks up his sleeve. I'm going to be cutting those sleeves off very soon."
Ky snickered. She'd have to go and find some calamine lotion for her sister in a little while, but for now, she'd let her suffer. Wolverine shook his head and went in search of calamine, since Ky obviously wasn't going to do it. He only hoped that his showing apparent concern for Tana didn't start another chapter of world war five thousand. When he brought back the lotion, the girls started up again. Finally Tana looked at her sister.
"That's it! I'm sick and tired of fighting with you. We settle this the traditional way."
Ky looked at her sister. "The traditional way? You mean the way we did when we were kids and we had fought all day?"
"Yes."
"You really want to do that here?"
"Yes."
"All right. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots it is."
Alec came into the room just in time to hear the part about Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots and gave Wolverine a look that clearly stated he didn't get it. Wolverine shrugged and shook his head.
A ring appeared in the middle of the floor. The ropes were made of water, the ring posts made of fire. In one corner stood a little figure made of flames, in the opposite corner stood a little figure made of ice.
"How the hell does Ky expect to win with a robot made of ice? I'm going for Tana." Alec looked at Wolverine.
"Oh hell no. I'm with Ky. I think that little ice robot will put out that little flame dude." Wolverine stared intently as the girls started fighting with their respective robots.
In the end Tana's robot melted Ky's robot. Ky quietly withdrew the ropes from the ring.
"Well, you win. As always." Ky laughed. "Anyone who bets on me when we play that is stupid."
Alec looked at Tana. "You look so cute covered in calamine lotion."
Tana was just about to make a comment when Alec leaned over and kissed her. She stood there stunned, not saying a word. "So I finally found something that leaves the mighty Kufury's Fire speechless." With that, he left the room. Wolverine bid Tana goodnight and headed for his room, snickering. Nice to know there was something that could shut that woman up.
"I'll be right back Tana. I'm going to tell Logan goodnight." Ky looked at her sister, who was now sitting on her bed, her hand on her mouth.
"He kissed me." Tana said.
"Yes Tana, he kissed you." Ky went out of her room and tapped on Wolverine's door.
"Come on in."
"I just wanted to say goodnight."
"Oh, ok." Ky turned around to leave. "Ky?" Ky turned back around. "Goodnight." Wolverine kissed Ky. He grinned as she stumbled out the door and back into her room.
"He kissed me." Ky said.
"He kissed me." Tana said.
"You know what Tana?"
"What Ky?"
"The X-Men has some damn cute men."
"Yes they do Ky, yes they most certainly do. Goodnight Ky."
"Goodnight Tana." Ky was so distracted by the kiss that she didn't even realize that she didn't have a nightlight when she went to sleep.
The End