Disclaimer: I do not own the MCU or x-men.
Warning(s): AU. Possible OOcness. Genderswapped characters. Fem!Tony. Mutant!Tony. Phoenix Force!Tony. Will contain elements from both MCU + X-men movies. Violence. mentions of gore, blood, etc.
Enjoy!
II.
It was quick, no doubt about that. That's why the coffin stayed closed, Toni realized.
A deep horror that was very nearly awe had stolen over her when she first laid eyes on the body. It was the kind of feeling usually reserved for only her worst of nightmares. The ones she would barely even remember upon awakening. 'Her head's gone,' she remembers thinking.
She tried not to remember, not wanting to deal with reality at the moment. Her best friend was dead. The memory of the body like some kind of crappily made doll.
It had been quick though. They were playing catch when Marie got that weird competitive glint in her eye and dove for the ball in the road. Then she was lying in it - the pavement splattered with red. She was also way down on the other end of the road. It hit her and killed her and then it dragged her all the way down there and damn was it quick.
"Her parents said ... that it was my fault," Toni says long after silence has fallen between her and Charles. The admission was a quiet one, and Charles could hear the underlying guilt in every word. The look of pity on his face was unmistakable, even though he hid it well when she looked back up. "They said ... if I wasn't showing off so much, i - if I had just ... let her win, at least once ... "
"I killed her - "
"No, Antoinette." Charles' tone is adamant, imploring her to see the side of reason even while steeped in grief. "What happened to your friend was not your fault. It was an accident, a horrible, god - awful accident that - "
"But it could've been me." Toni cut in, her eyes devoid of the curious shine she had upon first entering the room. She looked sullen now.
Silence permeated the room once again. Toni found the quiet much more comforting than any noise, even the senseless buzzing of her bots. The quiet was calming now.
"And it was after she was taken to the hospital that you ... first heard the whispers, as you put it?" Charles began delicately. He had stopped probing her mind ever since her little 'episode' a while back. "Can you recall the first instance when it spoke to you? This other being?"
Toni glanced down at where her thumbs were idly playing with one another. "It was later that night, I thought ... I could feel Marie, could feel her slipping away and I - I tried to stop it … !" Her breath hitched, voice choked with emotion. "I didn't want to lose my only friend!" Her eyes became wet with tears and Charles could feel the temperature rising in the room.
"Antoinette."
"I tried to save her ... that's all I was trying to do, I swear!" Toni was slipping further and further into hysteria. "But when I reached out to her, all these voices kept pounding in my head, all of them screaming at me and I just - I couldn't control it!"
"Antoinette!" Charles voice grew in volume when he saw the walls getting singed by an invisible force.
"So I screamed. Stop, I said. Stop ... " Tony's hands went to her head and Charles saw a familiar pulse of ethereal red - orange light around her. "Stop!" Her eyes which had fallen shut at the recollection of memory flew open once more, the same fiery orange as before.
"STOP!"
"Antoinette!"
The orange glow flared, growing in size for a moment until it resembled a pair of long shimmering wings fanning out like a bird about to take flight. Charles' voice snapped Toni out of her momentary trance - like state with a gasp, watching her fall back down onto the couch with an audible thump. Her eyes were glazed and disoriented.
"What did I … ?"
Charles released a breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding. "I think that's enough for today, Antoinette. You did well," he added a moment later seeing the brewing fear in her eyes. "Remember, control doesn't always come easy to anyone." He waited for Toni to nod, albeit hesitantly, before escorting her back outside.
Another session of theirs over and done with. And another instance in which Toni grappled with the constant fear running through her veins, like a panther waiting to strike. Would she lose control again? Will she hurt someone else she loved, Or would the professor be able to keep her in check?
She tried to ignore it. She wanted to ask someone – anyone – what would become of her now, but knew that even if she did find someone who would humor her, they wouldn't be able to ease the fear coiling within. Not ever.
~x~
Howard Stark felt like he was drowning, only from the inside out. Every time he looked at his daughter he was reminded of little limbs flailing about, swaddled by a fluffy pink blanket - only now things were different. Now people were saying his little girl wasn't even human. And though it was only a small part of himself, he was beginning to agree.
"I want her arrested and taken away in handcuffs!"
Howard was left speechless by the sheer amount of venom coating each of Vanessa's words - Vanessa Landburn and her husband being family friends for over ten years - "She killed my little girl!" Each sob that followed the statement was like a sharp stab through Howard's heart. Toni would never hurt Marie like that, for god's sake she was her only friend!
"Mrs. Landburn, please," the officer who'd arrived on the scene to take away the driver of the truck began. Howard briefly recalled him saying his name was Nick or something. "We realize this is a hard thing to come to terms with, and that you are grieving right now but ... we cannot arrest someone, much less a child who clearly committed no wrongdoing."
Only his words fell on deaf ears. Vanessa turned, glaring at Howard's daughter with absolute hatred in her eyes. "I saw her!" She screamed, hysterical. "She ... she pushed her!"
Maria, bless her soul, had enough sense to leave the room and take young Antoinette with her. Howard didn't want his wife or daughter hearing what was once one of their closest friends accuse Antoinette of such heinous things. She was just a child. His child. And while he wouldn't quite call himself a family man, he wasn't about to let Vanessa throw wild accusations at the Stark family name.
He offered to pay for the funeral, coffin and even for all the relatives to fly in so they could attend. Still Vanessa cut all ties with them the moment it was over, her husband somehow able to convince her to allow Toni to attend - she was her only friend, Ness he'd said. Howard was grateful for that much. Even if Toni herself refused to meet anyone's gaze during the whole affair, and locked herself up in her bedroom as soon as it was over and cried.
Howard didn't bother trying to see if she was okay, leaving that part to Maria. She was always better at dealing with people and their emotions anyway. Instead he went and buried himself in his work. Things took a turn for the worse the following day.
"You're hurting him."
Howard froze in the middle of working, and glanced up towards the door where Toni stood, still in her favorite footie pajamas and holding her favorite ratty doll Maria bought for her forever ago. "Toni, sweetie what are you still doing up?" Howard asked, brushing aside her question with his own.
"I could hear him crying, he says you're hurting him." Toni repeated, albeit more firmly now.
Howard looked around, confused. "Sweetie what are you talking about? It's only me down here."
Her eyes fell to the cold lump of metal he'd left sitting on the table, interrupted in the midst of screwing in a few new parts.
His confusion slowly gave way to a sense of horror, watching Toni walk over, barely tall enough to peer over the workbench as she reached tiny hands to stroke along the cold metal as if petting a dog. As she whispered sweet, soothing words. Howard watched her, saw the way her eyes glowed in wonder and fulfillment as she carefully placed her ratty doll onto the table. The unmistakable flicker of fiery orange rendered him speechless.
"Toni ... " His throat felt dry, and without meaning to he found himself looking around for Maria. She would know what to do, right?
"What are you doing?" He asked, daring to step closer.
Toni furrowed her brows, refusing to take her eyes off the little piece of metal. "You were hurting it with the screws. It should be fine now though, see?"
Except Howard didn't see anything other than Toni - his daughter - talking to a machine. Treating it like some living, feeling being.
The next morning he called Charles Xavier.
~x~
"Techno - Empathy. It is a rare skill among developing empaths but not one that is completely unheard of."
The silence following Charles Xavier's words was ... harrowing, to say the least.
"Empaths? What are you – w - what are you talking about?" Howard began, flustered and irritated. "I thought you said she was getting better. I thought you said you were helping her."
"Howard please, keep your voice down." Maria chastised from her seat on the couch, placing a calming hand on her husbands forearm when he shot up from the couch, and watched him move to pace back and forth. She turned towards the professor, eyes shining with concern. "Please, we just want to know what is happening to our daughter? We thought the worst was over when we brought her to you."
"Mr and Mrs Stark," Charles began patiently, "while it is true young Antoinette is getting better at controlling her newfound abilities, it is sounding very likely that this whole event may have in fact triggered what would have been a dormant mutant gene to, in fact, become active resulting in other newfound powers that - "
"Powers? I'm sorry, did you just say powers?" Howard snapped rather waspishly, throwing the calm, collected professor a disbelieving look. "My daughter is not one of those freaks as seen on tv - "
"Howard!"
" - she is a little girl who just lost her one and only friend, was ostracized by people who she once thought she could trust and now you're going to sit there and say she's becoming a mutant. A freak." He held Charles' gaze for what felt like an eternity, neither moving an inch.
"No, I'm saying she is gifted." Charles explained in the most placating tone he possibly could, trying to soothe the obviously irate father. "Your daughter is as you say, just a little girl. She needs to be around people who are going to accept and nurture her." The aging professor looked from Howard to Maria, then back to Howard. "People who won't take advantage or reject her for her differences."
"And you're one of those people, correct?" Howard scoffed, looking anything but convinced.
Charles didn't waver however, realizing he may require more assistance with this particular case than he originally thought.
"I have an acquaintance, if at all possible I'd like for her to meet with young Antoinette." The professor regarded both of them seriously, maneuvering his chair so he could look them both in the eye. "She is a Telepath, like myself, only she deals with more ... unique cases."
"And ... you think she can help Toni? More than you can?" Maria Stark sounded skeptical.
"It's not so much help, but she can likely determine what it is we are dealing with in terms of Antoinette's fluctuating power levels and overall capabilities. Besides," Charles offered a tentative smile, "perhaps she will be more likely to open up to another female given the severe emotional tribulations she has been through recently."
The two parents shared an apprehensive glance at one another.
"Who is she, this acquaintance of yours?" Howard asks.
"I believe you might have heard of her actually, her name is Emma. Emma Frost."
~x~
Toni remembered overhearing some of her dad's associates comment on the famous and impossibly stunning Emma Frost. She just never imagined such a woman would be sitting in her bedroom. She reminded Toni of her dear Aunt Peggy, both beautiful and a force to be reckoned with, if some of the things they said on the news about her company were to be taken seriously.
"Well now, you must be the one and only Antoinette Stark. My name is Emma Frost, pleased to make your acquaintance." Toni smiled widely, still a little in awe from how pretty Emma looked. She was tall, fair-skinned with long flowing pale-blonde hair and serene blue eyes garbed in white as pure as fallen snow. "Charles tells me you can talk to electronics now, is that right?" Toni blushed before nodding. Figuring such a thing must sound silly to someone like her.
"He also mentioned something...about a bird?" Emma inquired, expression turning a tad more bemused.
They sat there in Toni's room, and not once did Emma complain about the fact she was stuck sitting in one of Toni's little chairs she used for her stuffed animals. Nor did the blonde voice any complaint over Toni wasting her time as Howard sometimes tended to do when they were alone. The blonde listened to Toni, and when Toni began to cry while recounting her friend Marie's death and the hateful accusation thrown at her afterwards, it was Emma who offered a reassuring smile just as the professor had.
"People often fear what they don't understand Antoinette." She explained calmly while waiting for the sniffling to subside, "and what they fear ... they seek to destroy." Toni looked at her, fear showing on her face. "Not always physically mind you, but in this case, more emotionally. They cannot begin to comprehend what you are, and so they fear you ... fear what you can do."
"What I ... can do?"
"Yes. You're special Antoinette." Emma assured, gently flicking her wrist causing the surrounding interior of Toni's bedroom to melt away. "And if you stop fighting that force inside you ... if you learn to embrace it ... "
Toni watched the curtains, carpet and dolls all dissipate before her eyes giving way to a familiar, powerful fiery-orange glow in the shape of a bird taking flight.
"There is no limit to what you can achieve."
Review.
Bit of a longer chapter. Originally meant to have this done a heck pf a lot sooner and posted, but uh well...a lot's been going on. So like I said a longer chapter, until next time~:D