Marie's Memories
Prologue
W…Where am I? I wonder as I slip back into consciousness. Man…why does my head hurt so much? No…no…not again! I scream as my memories crash back into my mind. I see my arms and legs pumping as I run through a forest sort of like the one on Canada…back at my childhood home. I could smell the harsh scent of machinery mixed with the blood running down my face from the scratches I was receiving from the branches of the trees as I ran past. I could hear the shouts of "Dr." Londo, some of them directed to me, trying to get me to come back to his lab, and most of the angry shouts to the machines, yelling at them to find me and bring me back alive, and if they couldn't capture me, to kill me. Hearing that, I sped up, increasing the distance between myself and the insane male. I tasted the sweat, mixed with the blood running down my face. I felt the blow from one of the bots that had snuck up on me, pop out my claws, and slash them, pressing my ears against my head as I heard the harsh screech metal met metal. Another bot came at me and punched me on the back of my head, stunning me. I felt the tazer zap my spine, and I crumpled, shrieking in pain. I felt the tranquilizer and the pain from the electricity ebbed. The last thing I remember is the horrible, gut-wrenching pain in my chest, and I remember what Londo had told me before I fled.
"I'm sorry, Marine. There was nothing you could do. He died instantly." Brin. Why? Why did he leave me and…where the hell am I? I wonder again as my memories leave. I notice that my breathing was fast and rapid, so I slowly let it fade to the rhythm that humans have when they are sleeping. I open my eyes to a slit so the harsh, fluorescent light streams into them and take in my surroundings. I see the white-washed walls and cabinets, and I see the tray next to the cot I was lying on. The tray was littered with medical instruments, some of them blood-stained. But what catches my vision is the soft, black fur I see that's where humanoid people have skin. I don't remember morphing… Then I hear someone shift their weight slightly, causing the fabric of their loose shirt (?) to slide against their body. My emerald orbs open fully as my head snaps up to look at the man standing next to the bed I'm lying down on. Yep. It was his shirt. Dang, my hearing shouldn't be this acute, even in wolf form… There was a brief flash of pain in the back of my neck, and I unconsciously bare my fangs and growl deep in my throat as I got a better look at the guy who's just standing there, smiling down at me.
"Londo." My voice is gruff and hoarse, like it sounds when you haven't spoken in a while.
"Shouldn't you be addressing my as Dr?" he asked, mockingly.
"You don't deserve the title," I growled, fighting back a flash of déjà vu.
"Oh? And yet I have healed you, made you complete," he said smugly.
"What do you mean?"
"I have healed you, yes?"
"Yes," I answered, though in my mind I was thinking, my physical wounds anyway, my heart has been broken one time too many, now it's broken beyond repair.
"And I have made you whole, by bringing out a form you have forgotten."
I didn't forget it…I just didn't fully embrace it.
"Your true, mutant form," he continued, oblivious to my Inner. "Which you have hidden for so long… Marie-Ann Elizabeth Rose Woods."
This is what you think my true form looks like? I ask, incredulously in my head, while out loud I really say, "How do you know my real name?" in a dangerously low voice.
"It's all in your head," he replied, smirking.
"You've seen my memories?" I asked cautiously, while inside I was panicking. How far did he get? How much does he-
"As far as when you started working in the bar, before that your memories are…fuzzy, I suppose the word is, like you don't want to remember. A few after you met Brin, but I just think you've found a way to block me, since your mind just goes blank."
I flinched at his name. No wonder he thinks this is my true form, he hasn't seen…no! Don't think about it! And he's wrong about that…as much as I hate the memories, it's much better to remember than to be oblivious to what happened. At least my secret's safe. My Inner was babbling, but I ignored it.
I try to get up, and found I couldn't. There were bands around my wrists, ankles, and one around my waist. For some reason, this comforted me; I now knew that he was at least wary of my…abilities…
"How long have I been here?" I ask.
"A week," he replied, grinning down at me evilly. I feel something start to rise in my gut, but I ignore it.
"I want to get out," I say, feeling like a caged animal, but in his mind I probably am.
He chuckled, a low, mean sound then said, "Of course you do, your new, reborn self wants to kill me, and then run away. That is the instinct of the wolf, to fight, or flee, is it not?"
"It is." Even though he didn't realize, or maybe he did, I was answering both his question and his statement. Then something in my gut made a sharp yank, like it was answering too. I feel another, though this time it was harder, and I feel a rage I thought I had obliterated rise up out of my chest and scream at me to tear his damn throat out. I erupted into what I had thought of when he said he had brought out my true mutant form. Unfortunately for him, he was right. I grew to around 8 feet tall standing on my hind legs, and 6 feet 5 inches when on four paws. My nails grew longer and pointed, turning into nature's natural claws. My fur grew longer, turning coarse and ragged. While my eyes had spread a bit closer to the sides of my face and turned a golden yellow color of a rabid wolf's, my ears grew bigger with pointed tips and traveled up to the top of my enlarged and elongated head and muzzle. Speaking of my muzzle, my teeth grew longer, sharper, and my breath probably smelled foul to a human, but to me it smelled like, well, my breath. My already enhanced senses sharpened to a thousand fold of what they were before. Meaning, I could see the separate woven cotton fibers that made his shirt; I could smell the sweat and fear that rolled off him in waves as well as the hospital-like smell of the instruments lying on a tray on the small table next to the cot; I could feel the rough fibers of the mattress on my fur and the slick, metal feel of the bands that held me down; I could taste the highly powerful doses of anesthetic still lingering on my tongue from the large doses I needed to be kept unconscious for a whole week; and I could hear every single, separate beat of the blood pounding in through his heart and veins. The bestial part of me broke the bands holding my wrists, ankles, and clawed the ones holding my waist and neck in place in half, leapt off the cot and tried to slash his jugular vein with my claws. Mar dodged with a semi-second to spare, and as I spun around, I watched the hot, thick, red, lifeblood flow down his arm. As the smell hit me I thought, why not kill him? He's just gunna make my life hell if he ever catches up to me…he sure ain't gunna be missed by anybody. The thought of Mar not having anybody left as his kin, led to thoughts of Him, and that led to thoughts of what He'd say if He where here. It was the thought of me showing what I was really like to Him, after He'd trusted me so completely, even after He found out I was a shape-changer, that caused the red haze that had developed over my mind and sight to fade. As I realized what he was trying to do, I shoved the beast back into the 'cage' in the darkest part of my mind, raced out of Londo's lab, and into the forest He had shown me all the times I had come here when He was alive.
MN- I left a lot of loose ends in there...
Marie- Yeah, you did that on purpose, didn't you?
MN- Well, yeah...it's a Prologue...you're supposed to leave loose ends.
Marie- I knew that! And...Nightfang-sama...aren't you forgetting something?
MN- Ano...I can't think of anything...
Marie- *Sigh...* I'll do it...Marie Nightfang does not own Legion of Superheroes, DC, rightfully does...otherwise Mar would be dead, right...?
MN- Eto...actually...
Marie- *Pops out claws*
MN- *Gulp* Well, before Marie kills me, and ruins my story, this is Marie Nightfang, signing off!
