Tag I'm It (A Snowflake on Ice Vignette)
Author's note: Takes place after All new X-men 29. Always felt there was more to the story as Illyana came back with horns after finding baby Xavier.
Part 4: Reflections
Illyana was sitting on the same icy rock again, at the same spot that Laura had been making her mounds of granite chips a while back. Illyana was dressed in her skimpy field costume (as always). The sky was grey with clouds and a bitterly cold wind was blowing, but it was not yet snowing.
A large amount of the granite chips were now floating in the air. They moved about and from a certain angle, that angle being Illyana's viewpoint, they formed an abstract representation of a head and a face. The face was that of Colossus from the future, her brother, the one who had been happy to see her. The one who had loved the her that is, not an edited version of her or an image from the past.
He was now dead. Had died because she had taken him into the past where Xavier's son had fried his mind.
Laura approached from downwind. The air was filled with the scent of sadness, of loss, of grief. There was also subdued rage and vindictiveness; a sense of malicious cruelty.
Laura announced her presence. Always a good idea not to try to sneak up on Illyana, a startled Illyana sometimes did unexpected things. Laura remembered a story that Dani had told her once when Dani had burst into Illyana's room back when they were kids. No, best not to startle Illyana, especially if she was in one of her moods.
"Hey"
Illyana echoed back the greetings "Hey". She sounded... sad.
Laura walked up and sat down next to Illyana. Damn the stone was cold even through the insulation of her costume. Illyana didn't ever have goose bumps.
Laura asked a simple question. "What did you do to him"?
Illyana looked sideways at Laura and frowned in slight annoyance and said just one word. "Perceptive".
After a while Illyana continued.
"You and Logan are always way harder to fool than the telepaths. Telepaths are... easy if they can't read your mind and you just put up surface thoughts that they expect to see".
Laura explained. "You came back all... DarkChilde like. The horns are a bit of a give away. And you smelled... vindictively satisfied. You barely paid any attention to him afterwards. Like... like he was no longer of any concern. As if he was nothing now".
Illyana clenched a fist and the shimmering image of rock fragments shifted from the face of the future Peter into the face of Xavier's son.
"Sisyphus, I pulled a Sisyphus on him".
Laura give Illyana a look of non comprehension, like who or what the hell is Sisyphus? Illyana then provided more detail.
"Sisyphus was an ancient Greek king. He... annoyed the gods as it were. When he died he went to hell and was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill, only to have it slip and roll back down. His task would only be finished when the rock stay put at the top of the hill. So he was stuck rolling that damn rock for eternity. Always a bad idea to piss off the gods... or hell lords. I did the same to baby Xavier".
Illyana waved her right hand and the floating rocks shifted from baby Xavier's face into a moebius strip. A moebius strip is a continuous one-sided surface that can be formed from a rectangular strip of paper by rotating one end 180° and attaching it to the other end. This results in a continuous unending line and surface. No beginning, no end.
"I adjusted his timeline and altered his mind. Some really nasty magic, Stephan will be... annoyed with me. Now... Now he gets to plot and fail and suffer for all eternity. I'm... upset at what was lost, at what he took from me. Death was too simple. I want him to suffer".
Laura was impressed.
"You are cruel". This was said her usual dry and neutral tones, but her aura showed approval and respect.
Illyana had but a simple answer "Da".