"Tora…?"
Magnus called for her halfway down the hall, after echoes of metal falling to the hard floor pounded on the walls of the laboratory. He could see semi-flashing lights reflecting dull-orange and ashen highlights from a tail wandering into shade.
Tora had absolutely no need for light, for she still kept the form of a humanoid tiger, nose sniffing loudly and orbs reflecting what little light there was within the room brightly.
She saw light beaming from knife-like objects, a respirator, medical needles and stitching thread, syringes-broken and some holding a clear liquid-scattered everywhere. Charts where rolled out, hanging from the ceiling. On the left side of this glum space had anatomy of a human hanging from it's top… nerves, blood veins, bones, skin, the sections of the eye, the images of the inner-heart… upon the right held tiger charts, all the same as the left, just being a feline.
The center of this hole was a long, metal table, something she'd often seen the infirmary of Xavier's School, ones that she would often see her fellow kind resting on after a battle… or being operated on.
Tora had yet to make the final connection, but as she turned, shoving Magneto out of her frantic way, she sprinted between the hallway-inspecting each room intimately, taking precise mental notes and photos.
Back to the darkness she'd run, comparing why a operating room and frozen body parts so close together, none of these body sections were thought to be needed for the scientists, for their arrogant minds figured Tora's spirit would be as dull as a sky before falling snow.
"I… was not born?" lime orbs traced each small increment of her body, touching the location where her upper-body would off into an arm, looking for stitch-scars, a different color in skin, anything that would speak of her theory, and increasing worry. She had come to find none, but everything around her was defiantly not for display… and her heart and mind lay restless. She wouldn't rest until she had found the reasoning behind massive storage of humanoid and animal organs.
She was taken back and forth copious times in search for a reason, Magus could only watch from the sideline and wait for his turn to step-in and try in completing his task. Scavenging through papers, charts, lab-logs, anything that could place the small missing piece of her puzzle in the gap and clinch her thirst for knowledge. All the books, papers, logs and every other slice of information she tossed around had been printed or written on a thin, yellow paper, and this was why a thick folder of bright red stuck out underneath scattered papers, her hand taking the paper-back folder from the pile and scrabbling to open it… red had been taught to her to be an important color with science.
Pictures of tigers fell, images of beautiful woman models, notes clipped to them… all were unimportant in her quest, Tora simply wanted facts on her and how she came into this world.
Day Four; Hour 13:16
Nerve construction complete .Will hold in suspension until heart, veins and arteries are complete.
The pit of her stomach grew heavy with her heart sinking into it… was it her nerves they wrote of…?
Day Thirteen; Hour 7:04
Muscle construction complete, nerve and vein combination construction complete. Will hold in suspension until skin layers are complete
Day Twenty-Three; Hour 17:56
Body construction complete. Will begin physical training and testing upon 'Tora Kagayaki Akarui'.
So… according to these small slices of logged information Tora had anxiously flipped over and over again… all of her body, her heart, her eyes, brain, lungs, legs… everything, was all bits and pieces of other humans and tigers spliced together with the final ingredient of the X-gene, the DNA make-up able to let her morph between a person and a feline.
"I… not even a true mutant…?" the sentence was hardly understood, not only for English was never her best, but spoken between quivering lips and a trembling body holding these papers, it became difficult to speak. She couldn't believe it, though some of her creators were assholes, obnoxious stuck-up, and self-centered weird-o's only bent on using her for one purpose and nothing else… they had always told her she would never be lied to… they told her she would hear no fibs, due to the fact she was fresh to the world and could become confused easily… when the time came to ship her to Korea.
But it wasn't just that… how many families had she secretly destroyed by wearing their skin, using their heats, breathing through their lungs… she was no mutant, she was a damn freak… she had no part of her that was 'official' hers… everything was from another, all stitched together… God, their souls must be disturbed with ferocity…
"What… w-what's so wrong?" Now, Magneto actually did start to care, for his plan was back-firing badly. He simply wanted her to despise the mutant-less folk, but he came unknowing she'd discovery a huge lie and breakdown before him.
"I… I am just one big pile of scrap!" Her voice rang throughout the room, racing down the hallway and leaping off each wall in the sphere-room. It was at this point she collapsed to her knees, the floor having to mercy to cushion her bones, but the pain was overlook for the time being. Her hands shivered, fingers twitched… her eyes, becoming warm and blurred with saltwater, skimmed over them, wondering if each slender finger was sewed on or folded over specifically placed muscles…
Surprised as this sudden turn of horrendous evens, Magnus had no utter clue how to handle the situation before him… sure, he could contain an enraged Tora wanting sweet vengeance on the normal kind that treated her like cold shit, but there she was holding herself with hot tears rolling off her cheeks and splattering on the floor.
His mind was equal to a clean sheet of printer paper: blank. No words, no idea of actions, and now, he was the one confused. Something came to him, finally, after a moment of reflecting in Tora's sadness and he figured if went to her, he'd find her heart upon the bottom of his shoe sole.
The gloved hand had found it's way to her should, and for a moment, she stopped to peer to him with glazed lime eyes. Of course, she might have stopped if his face wasn't so damn stern. Her shoulder was patted twice before she looked away and arched her back from his grip.
A new echo roamed the hallways, but it paled in profound noise to Tora's weeping. As this other sound came closer, it mixed within the first ricochet of sounds from the walls. Tora by now had her fade hidden by black locks, some damp around her squinting eyes, though Magus caught it and jerked his head to the doorway, "What the hell are you doing here? I said for you to stay behind!"
"You were taking too long, and, apparently I came at a good time, what the fuck did you do to her!?" Who else than Sabertooth than to fall beside Tora and take her weak body within his arms.
"I didn't do a thing! It was those fucking people who lied to her!" Just like, pretty much, any male Tora had encountered within her lifetime; arrogant, loud, and too much pride for their own good. She didn't say anything though, she just glanced between them, though their faces fuzzy.
"Right… like I can believe your filthy words."
Magnus didn't need more unnecessary confusion on his part or towards him, and with a smug glare tossed Creed's way, he ended his part in this and gave up on the idea of having Tora's vast power allied to his cause.
His leaving was trailed with growls and bared fangs, the feline pupil slits of Creed's crimson eyes narrow as thin as a hair. This action kept up until he could no longer sense Magus presence… of course, he must have been still under the light somewhere, his eyes not well enough to lead him back up the mountainside in total black.
It didn't take long before all of his attention turned lovingly back to Tora, whose body seemed to tighten up, her eyes strongly held shut and small whimpers escaped her. Her fingers curled to his clothing, and she even pushed against him upon her own will… it brought up many a question for Creed, the main uproar in curiosity being what on Earth disturbed her so much to put aside all original thoughts on him and cling to him?
"Tora… what did you see?" the first attempt was to gather clues by way of verbal communication, which worked little as all she did was grip her fingers tighter on his cloth and press her wet cheek to his collarbone, wanting his warmth to soak into her.
She wasn't so much weeping as the minutes would pass, just stare with hazed eyes into nothing, the lower lid of her eye filling with salted liquid and once full, would roll down her cheek. It didn't really matter who she clung to, Creed just happened to be the one in taking her within his grasp. It would have been no different if Magus had done this, she just needed company to hold her limp body, which had broken with the knowledge of what a 'lie' truly meant.
Another pitiful, as well as bland, attempt was made in trying to grasp Tora's predicament, "What ever happened to kicking my ass?"
Again he was answered with silence, not even movement from Tora was made in this effort. She was simply clutching to him like her life was put on line, such drone-like eyes eerily watching him from a lower level.
If it wasn't apparent by now she was in no mood to use that beautiful voice of her in speaking, Creed would have labeled himself an idiot (as if other's didn't). For the reason's of Tora's condition now compared to her shouting within the United States, the ideal of just letting her bundle her body near his was looking great… after all, Creed had no idea when fate would be so kind as to let beauty such as herself act as if she needed his presence to be at peace.
An arm supported her back, another tucked between the point here her legs which bent and held her lower-body, she was taken from the titled floor, some ice from the thin layer hugging the floor was melting to her clothes, and her vast locks flowing behind as Creed took her away from memories and dishonesty.
Every time he would collect her body and hold it, she never seemed to realize it… he gave her warmth to live and took her out now when she was too feeble to hold up her own body. It was rather tough to take a narrow passage while he held something he cherished so much, and which gave an illusion of needing him.
To be concluded…