I do not own the X-men or the universe in which they live. I only claim creation of Cassandra aka Tigeress. All rights are property of Stan Lee and Marvel. Some people may call this a "Mary Sue", I however think that it does not meet everything to be a Mary Sue. Cassandra is not perfect, she has issues, she isn't the most beautiful, thin nor does she have full control over her powers or life. I hope that some people will read my story and simply enjoy it for what it is. Thanks and please review:)
She followed Jean, her boots hit the stairs in heavy thumps, when Jean stopped abruptly. Nearly running into the back of the older woman, but luckily she'd had her guard down and sensed a telepathic shock. Wolverine, she thought in dismay.
"Hello, Logan," Jean said, her voice as light as silk. Cassandra rolled her eyes as she slipped past Jean, her focus on the elevator hidden covertly behind rich, wooden paneling. She caught a glimpse of Scott hanging back at the doorway.
"Hey, Summers," his face never left Jean as Cassie brushed past him.
"Yeah, hi Cassie," he said in such a robotic monotone voice that Cassie nearly snorted indignantly. She looked back as Logan embraced Jean, a gesture filled with a warmth and longing that made Cassie shudder involuntarily. She paused, closing her slitted eyes and sent Scott a mental kick in the ass of courage. As she walked into the open elevator she heard Scott tell Logan to fill the motor-cycle with gas himself and smiled.
She rode the elevator to the underground training facility of the X-men. She placed her hand on a glass panel that scanned it and she waited for the metal door to open. As the red laser passed over her hand and made a clicking sound she braced herself for the voice that would follow.
"Welcome, Cassandra," the flat, electronically enhanced voice of her late mother, Moria, filled her ears. As the doors slide soundlessly open she let go of the breath she had been holding.
Cassie made her way through the labyrinth of halls into the large room containing the Blackbird, just underneath the basketball court. Ororo, who was running diagnostics on all the electrical and computer systems, waved to her from the cockpit. Cassandra, even though she had been begrudgedly elected for baby-sitting duty while everyone went off on missions, had still opted to help out with preparations. Walking over to a large cylindrical container she grabbed the gas hose and drug it over to the tanks to fill them.
She felt a slight prickling sensation, as though needles had entered her eyes, as a lump filled her throat. She leaned her forehead against the cool metal of the plane just as her legs began to give out underneath her. Her entire face took on a vacant expression as she slid to the floor like a rag doll. Within seconds her vision was filled with flashes of yellow light.
Flash
An old cathedral loomed heavy above her. Ororo and Jean flanked her as they walked towards the dark building.
Flash
Inside the Blackbird they fall, a steep nose-dive that they can not pull out of. There is a hole in the roof of the plane and she watches helplessly as one of her students, Marie; Rogue is wrenched out by the reversal in pressure caused by the gapping rupture.
Flash
A man, his features hidden by the darkness that envelopes him, seemingly hovers above her sleeping form. His cloven hand stroking her pale cheek.
Flash
Another man, but only barely so, sits in a wheel chair with many tubes and wires protruding from his limp form. His eyes, a mismatch of blue and green, are the only signs of life.
Flash
She sees Jean, outside the Blackbird, a torrent of water about to wash over her. The plane lifts above the flooding torrent, by a will of its own and Jean is crushed beneath the waves.
Flash
She trembled; not from the cold of the cement floor, but from the exertion of her powers. Her breathe came in shallow, quick gasps. Her eyes held a resplendent fog to them, her vision not yet functional.
"Cassandra?" she heard a female's voice and a soft hand encircle her shoulders.
"Ororo?" she panted. Her face turned up towards the sounds of the older woman.
"As well as the Professor," Storm stated, her accent thick with worry.
"Cassandra, what happened? I felt your fear from my office," the voice of her father came urgently to her through the darkness. She took the hand that Ororo offered as they made their way to a metal work bench. Ororo helped her clamber up on to the high table. She stayed silent to his question; how could he possibly believe her, trying would only be a set back to her now. Yet she was even worried herself; these visions were coming in greater frequency and strength. But they were never hit her with such a vivid force. Usually there was one or two and she almost always had some kind of warning. That way she was able to set up a simple telepathic shield to block her father and Jean.
"We should have Jean look at your eyes," Ororo stated. At the mention of the red-head Cassie stiffed. It was well known at the institute that Cassie held resentment towards the other telepath/telekinetic. She felt that her training had been pushed off to the side for Jeans' ever expanding powers.
"Don't worry about it, they'll be back to normal in no time," she stammered out quickly.
"Cassie, has this happened before?" Ororo asked her thin hands on Cassie's shoulders. She internally slapped herself on the forehead, She had revealed too much.
"Y...Yes," she said simply. She went silent; her face was a placid lake and her face turned away from them so they wouldn't see her blossoming tears.
"What happened?" She heard the cool voice of Jean Grey, she must have just come in, she thought. Cassie paused as she waited for the clicking of Jean's heels to come to a stop.
"I...I see visions, sort of premonitions," she stuttered, suddenly, as though she couldn't contain herself any longer. Hell or high water she had to speak about this someday.
"I've been having them since...since right before Mum died," she stopped speaking and waited for them to rebuke her; to deny that she could possibly see the future; the same way Apollo had. She rubbed her eyes, her dark make-up stayed oddly intact, as the world began to come into focus.
"I do not want you to be alone tonight, I will ask Logan to watch the children," his voice was curt and brought back ideas of his military days. The professor started to say more but Cassie interrupted him.
"I don't need Logan to help me, I am perfectly capable to take care of them myself. I am no danger to them," she argued. Her father held up a hand to silence her.
"I wanted you to go with Jean and Storm to Boston in the first place. With Logan her to handle the children, I can put you to better use," He raised an eyebrow at her. She tried not to smile; this was like being treated like a real X-man. She nearly had forgotten the more horrific aspects of some of her visions. And no one had said anything negative about the visions, or suggested that she be put under watch like a child. She was going to be allowed to go on a mission.
"We should go finish prepping, 'Ro," Jean stated, giving Cassie an almost sisterly hug before the two jogged off, disappearing into the Blackbird.
"Cassandra," he began, wheeling his chair closer to her, "I'm not sure what to say here. I'm not angry with you. I simply do not understand why you would want to hide such a difficult and new power from us...from me". The last part stung a bit, their father/daughter relationship was less than pillar. Cassie felt this was due, if but in part, to her strong mistrust of the male species as a whole. She had also blamed Xavier, again in part, for the death of her mother. She thought that there must have been a way he could have saved her, that he could have known about Apollo's threat. Then there was her extreme jealousy of Jean, the apt pupil. Tears again welled up in her storm gray eyes as she tried to explain with a small croak in her throat.
"I have told one other person," she whispered, the tears falling freer now.
"Apollo," he said this more as a statement than anything else as he leaned forward, placing one hand on her knee.
"Yes, he...he didn't believe me. He thought they were hallucinations and that I needed to see a doctor. Said if I ever told anyone else they'd lock me up and throw away the keys," her slight brogue showed its skin as her tears flowed down her cheeks, hitting the dark blue denim of her flared jeans.
"Cassandra, you know that Apollo had problems even I could not have guessed. He was very disturbed. I only wished I could have stopped him before he hurt you, hurt us, the way he did," Xavier's two highest regrets circled around a handsome blonde mutant named Apollo. This young mutant had come to him with powers so out of control that he nearly killed himself on many occasions. He carried a power much like that of John, AKA Pyro. Only his exceeded beyond anything they could have imagined, he also carried the ability to create, as well as manipulate fire. But from years of abuse at the hands of his father, Apollo chose to punish the man who had worked so hard to train him to harness his raging powers. Apollo had made Cassandra love him and then forced the younger girl to watch while he raped and murdered her mother.
"I know...it's just that I can't trust anyone, I won't," she said this so forcefully that Charles almost flinched away from her.
"Have I ever doubted you gifts?" he paused, waiting for her to shake her head. "I know that I have been less than a good father for you. I can not change the past but I can work on the future. You are my daughter and even if it is hard for you to believe; I do care a great deal for you. We will work on this together, and I think that we will both be stronger for it," he stopped, let her process what he had said. She sniffed and slide off the table.
"Logan is waiting for you," she swiftly changed the subject away from herself. She could smell Logan's cigar burning in the hall outside.
"When you return we will discuss this matter further and more fully," he started to leave the room, "Oh, I have your test scores here," he held out a thick folder for her and a smile broadened over his face. "Look at it after you take off," he smiled, something reserved for a very few people.
As Cassie turned and walked up the metal stairs into the Blackbird she felt tingling warmth envelop her, then slowly release. This was the mental equivalent to a hug; she had never felt one before. Tentatively she returned the sentiment, if a bit lighter. When she had taken a seat behind Ororo they started to lift off the ground and fly away from the mansion. As it disappeared from their radar Cassie opened the file that had her name printed on it.
Within the folder she found pictures of herself in various stages of life. One photo in particular stood out to her. It portrayed a ginger haired woman, tired from labor, holding a newborn baby wrapped in pink. Next to her was a young Charles Xavier, wearing a military uniform, with full function of his legs. He seemed to only have eyes for the small wailing infant, for her. She continued through the files, mainly a detailed listing of her powers, training, schooling and test scores. At the end of the last paper she noticed an area highlighted in yellow.
Status: X-man, 2nd Class, psychology teaching degree pending
She gasped, for nearly two years she had pushed her body and powers to their limits. All in the hopes that she might pass the rigorous test put forth by her father to become an X-man. Although her age restricted her from being at the same level as Ororo, Jean and Scott. Logan was still taking his tests; he kept failing the section on directional processing and conducting skills. Jean unbelted and walked back to her, kneeling.
"Go back and get your uniform on. It's in compartment 876,'' Cassie was so excited she could have hugged Jean, she was thankful she wasn't that out of her mind. She jumped up and, trying not to act too childish by running, walked back to were the uniforms, extra clothes and food were kept. Cassie pressed the button to compartment 876. It slid open like an automatic dresser drawer and was filled with black leather. She pulled out the pants, jacket, boots and a long overcoat.
"He had them made a week before you took your exams, he knew you would pass," Jean spoke into her mind. "Hurry we'll be in Boston in a half hour."
Unlike most airplanes the Blackbird was spacious and comfortable. The bathroom was no exception. Stripping down into underwear and a thin black tank top, Cassie slipped into the second skin of her uniform. Each member of the team, even Logan; who wasn't technically a even member, had specially designed uniforms to suit their needs and preferences. Ororo's had a cape that Cassie was sure she had chosen simply to look cool with her power over the wind and Logan's had special features for his claws.
Cassie's uniform zipped up just to past the tops of her breasts, with a purple piping running through it. Her belt, with its' purple "X" buckle, hung lower on her hips than the other women's did. She held out her arms to get the full effect of the sleeves. They extended over her wrists and came to a point towards her middle finger were it looped like a ring over it. She realized that they covered her flame scarred and delicate skin on the backs of her hands. She was otherwise completely glove-less. The piping had been made to look like a corset that went around her torso and also ran down the sides of her legs. The boots were the same style she normally wore with a rounded military look to them. The large flare of the leather pants complemented her curvy figure. A jacket; heavily embroidered with tribal symbols that she recognized as identical to her tattoos, went past the knee and completed the outfit. Cassie took her long ginger and black stripped hair and braided it at the nap of her neck.
As Cassie took her seat Ororo off-handedly said that they were minutes from a good place to land and that they would have to walk a bit of a distance from were the Professor had said the mutant they were tracking was located.
She followed Jean, her boots hit the stairs in heavy thumps, when Jean stopped abruptly. Nearly running into the back of the older woman, but luckily she'd had her guard down and sensed a telepathic shock. Wolverine, she thought in dismay.
"Hello, Logan," Jean said, her voice as light as silk. Cassandra rolled her eyes as she slipped past Jean, her focus on the elevator hidden covertly behind rich, wooden paneling. She caught a glimpse of Scott hanging back at the doorway.
"Hey, Summers," his face never left Jean as Cassie brushed past him.
"Yeah, hi Cassie," he said in such a robotic monotone voice that Cassie nearly snorted indignantly. She looked back as Logan embraced Jean, a gesture filled with a warmth and longing that made Cassie shudder involuntarily. She paused, closing her slitted eyes and sent Scott a mental kick in the ass of courage. As she walked into the open elevator she heard Scott tell Logan to fill the motor-cycle with gas himself and smiled.
She rode the elevator to the underground training facility of the X-men. She placed her hand on a glass panel that scanned it and she waited for the metal door to open. As the red laser passed over her hand and made a clicking sound she braced herself for the voice that would follow.
"Welcome, Cassandra," the flat, electronically enhanced voice of her late mother, Moria, filled her ears. As the doors slide soundlessly open she let go of the breath she had been holding.
Cassie made her way through the labyrinth of halls into the large room containing the Blackbird, just underneath the basketball court. Ororo, who was running diagnostics on all the electrical and computer systems, waved to her from the cockpit. Cassandra, even though she had been begrudgedly elected for baby-sitting duty while everyone went off on missions, had still opted to help out with preparations. Walking over to a large cylindrical container she grabbed the gas hose and drug it over to the tanks to fill them.
She felt a slight prickling sensation, as though needles had entered her eyes, as a lump filled her throat. She leaned her forehead against the cool metal of the plane just as her legs began to give out underneath her. Her entire face took on a vacant expression as she slid to the floor like a rag doll. Within seconds her vision was filled with flashes of yellow light.
Flash
An old cathedral loomed heavy above her. Ororo and Jean flanked her as they walked towards the dark building.
Flash
Inside the Blackbird they fall, a steep nose-dive that they can not pull out of. There is a hole in the roof of the plane and she watches helplessly as one of her students, Marie; Rogue is wrenched out by the reversal in pressure caused by the gapping rupture.
Flash
A man, his features hidden by the darkness that envelopes him, seemingly hovers above her sleeping form. His cloven hand stroking her pale cheek.
Flash
Another man, but only barely so, sits in a wheel chair with many tubes and wires protruding from his limp form. His eyes, a mismatch of blue and green, are the only signs of life.
Flash
She sees Jean, outside the Blackbird, a torrent of water about to wash over her. The plane lifts above the flooding torrent, by a will of its own and Jean is crushed beneath the waves.
Flash
She trembled; not from the cold of the cement floor, but from the exertion of her powers. Her breathe came in shallow, quick gasps. Her eyes held a resplendent fog to them, her vision not yet functional.
"Cassandra?" she heard a female's voice and a soft hand encircle her shoulders.
"Ororo?" she panted. Her face turned up towards the sounds of the older woman.
"As well as the Professor," Storm stated, her accent thick with worry.
"Cassandra, what happened? I felt your fear from my office," the voice of her father came urgently to her through the darkness. She took the hand that Ororo offered as they made their way to a metal work bench. Ororo helped her clamber up on to the high table. She stayed silent to his question; how could he possibly believe her, trying would only be a set back to her now. Yet she was even worried herself; these visions were coming in greater frequency and strength. But they were never hit her with such a vivid force. Usually there was one or two and she almost always had some kind of warning. That way she was able to set up a simple telepathic shield to block her father and Jean.
"We should have Jean look at your eyes," Ororo stated. At the mention of the red-head Cassie stiffed. It was well known at the institute that Cassie held resentment towards the other telepath/telekinetic. She felt that her training had been pushed off to the side for Jeans' ever expanding powers.
"Don't worry about it, they'll be back to normal in no time," she stammered out quickly.
"Cassie, has this happened before?" Ororo asked her thin hands on Cassie's shoulders. She internally slapped herself on the forehead, She had revealed too much.
"Y...Yes," she said simply. She went silent; her face was a placid lake and her face turned away from them so they wouldn't see her blossoming tears.
"What happened?" She heard the cool voice of Jean Grey, she must have just come in, she thought. Cassie paused as she waited for the clicking of Jean's heels to come to a stop.
"I...I see visions, sort of premonitions," she stuttered, suddenly, as though she couldn't contain herself any longer. Hell or high water she had to speak about this someday.
"I've been having them since...since right before Mum died," she stopped speaking and waited for them to rebuke her; to deny that she could possibly see the future; the same way Apollo had. She rubbed her eyes, her dark make-up stayed oddly intact, as the world began to come into focus.
"I do not want you to be alone tonight, I will ask Logan to watch the children," his voice was curt and brought back ideas of his military days. The professor started to say more but Cassie interrupted him.
"I don't need Logan to help me, I am perfectly capable to take care of them myself. I am no danger to them," she argued. Her father held up a hand to silence her.
"I wanted you to go with Jean and Storm to Boston in the first place. With Logan her to handle the children, I can put you to better use," He raised an eyebrow at her. She tried not to smile; this was like being treated like a real X-man. She nearly had forgotten the more horrific aspects of some of her visions. And no one had said anything negative about the visions, or suggested that she be put under watch like a child. She was going to be allowed to go on a mission.
"We should go finish prepping, 'Ro," Jean stated, giving Cassie an almost sisterly hug before the two jogged off, disappearing into the Blackbird.
"Cassandra," he began, wheeling his chair closer to her, "I'm not sure what to say here. I'm not angry with you. I simply do not understand why you would want to hide such a difficult and new power from us...from me". The last part stung a bit, their father/daughter relationship was less than pillar. Cassie felt this was due, if but in part, to her strong mistrust of the male species as a whole. She had also blamed Xavier, again in part, for the death of her mother. She thought that there must have been a way he could have saved her, that he could have known about Apollo's threat. Then there was her extreme jealousy of Jean, the apt pupil. Tears again welled up in her storm gray eyes as she tried to explain with a small croak in her throat.
"I have told one other person," she whispered, the tears falling freer now.
"Apollo," he said this more as a statement than anything else as he leaned forward, placing one hand on her knee.
"Yes, he...he didn't believe me. He thought they were hallucinations and that I needed to see a doctor. Said if I ever told anyone else they'd lock me up and throw away the keys," her slight brogue showed its skin as her tears flowed down her cheeks, hitting the dark blue denim of her flared jeans.
"Cassandra, you know that Apollo had problems even I could not have guessed. He was very disturbed. I only wished I could have stopped him before he hurt you, hurt us, the way he did," Xavier's two highest regrets circled around a handsome blonde mutant named Apollo. This young mutant had come to him with powers so out of control that he nearly killed himself on many occasions. He carried a power much like that of John, AKA Pyro. Only his exceeded beyond anything they could have imagined, he also carried the ability to create, as well as manipulate fire. But from years of abuse at the hands of his father, Apollo chose to punish the man who had worked so hard to train him to harness his raging powers. Apollo had made Cassandra love him and then forced the younger girl to watch while he raped and murdered her mother.
"I know...it's just that I can't trust anyone, I won't," she said this so forcefully that Charles almost flinched away from her.
"Have I ever doubted you gifts?" he paused, waiting for her to shake her head. "I know that I have been less than a good father for you. I can not change the past but I can work on the future. You are my daughter and even if it is hard for you to believe; I do care a great deal for you. We will work on this together, and I think that we will both be stronger for it," he stopped, let her process what he had said. She sniffed and slide off the table.
"Logan is waiting for you," she swiftly changed the subject away from herself. She could smell Logan's cigar burning in the hall outside.
"When you return we will discuss this matter further and more fully," he started to leave the room, "Oh, I have your test scores here," he held out a thick folder for her and a smile broadened over his face. "Look at it after you take off," he smiled, something reserved for a very few people.
As Cassie turned and walked up the metal stairs into the Blackbird she felt tingling warmth envelop her, then slowly release. This was the mental equivalent to a hug; she had never felt one before. Tentatively she returned the sentiment, if a bit lighter. When she had taken a seat behind Ororo they started to lift off the ground and fly away from the mansion. As it disappeared from their radar Cassie opened the file that had her name printed on it.
Within the folder she found pictures of herself in various stages of life. One photo in particular stood out to her. It portrayed a ginger haired woman, tired from labor, holding a newborn baby wrapped in pink. Next to her was a young Charles Xavier, wearing a military uniform, with full function of his legs. He seemed to only have eyes for the small wailing infant, for her. She continued through the files, mainly a detailed listing of her powers, training, schooling and test scores. At the end of the last paper she noticed an area highlighted in yellow.
Status: X-man, 2nd Class, psychology teaching degree pending
She gasped, for nearly two years she had pushed her body and powers to their limits. All in the hopes that she might pass the rigorous test put forth by her father to become an X-man. Although her age restricted her from being at the same level as Ororo, Jean and Scott. Logan was still taking his tests; he kept failing the section on directional processing and conducting skills. Jean unbelted and walked back to her, kneeling.
"Go back and get your uniform on. It's in compartment 876,'' Cassie was so excited she could have hugged Jean, she was thankful she wasn't that out of her mind. She jumped up and, trying not to act too childish by running, walked back to were the uniforms, extra clothes and food were kept. Cassie pressed the button to compartment 876. It slid open like an automatic dresser drawer and was filled with black leather. She pulled out the pants, jacket, boots and a long overcoat.
"He had them made a week before you took your exams, he knew you would pass," Jean spoke into her mind. "Hurry we'll be in Boston in a half hour."
Unlike most airplanes the Blackbird was spacious and comfortable. The bathroom was no exception. Stripping down into underwear and a thin black tank top, Cassie slipped into the second skin of her uniform. Each member of the team, even Logan; who wasn't technically a even member, had specially designed uniforms to suit their needs and preferences. Ororo's had a cape that Cassie was sure she had chosen simply to look cool with her power over the wind and Logan's had special features for his claws.
Cassie's uniform zipped up just to past the tops of her breasts, with a purple piping running through it. Her belt, with its' purple "X" buckle, hung lower on her hips than the other women's did. She held out her arms to get the full effect of the sleeves. They extended over her wrists and came to a point towards her middle finger were it looped like a ring over it. She realized that they covered her flame scarred and delicate skin on the backs of her hands. She was otherwise completely glove-less. The piping had been made to look like a corset that went around her torso and also ran down the sides of her legs. The boots were the same style she normally wore with a rounded military look to them. The large flare of the leather pants complemented her curvy figure. A jacket; heavily embroidered with tribal symbols that she recognized as identical to her tattoos, went past the knee and completed the outfit. Cassie took her long ginger and black stripped hair and braided it at the nap of her neck.
As Cassie took her seat Ororo off-handedly said that they were minutes from a good place to land and that they would have to walk a bit of a distance from were the Professor had said the mutant they were tracking was located.
