In those days she had had friends. People to count on, people who wouldn't judge her because of her mutation, because she didn't have a normal childhood. They were the ones who pushed her through the bouts of depression and the suicide attempts. They kept her safe. As she grew older she fell in love more times than she thought possible, but only one man stole her heart. She had more friends then, but some of them only hurt her, sending her into the bouts of depression, causing her to commit suicide, at least one time successfully. Her hands crushed the vial, trying to destroy it, but the glass was stronger than she was in her weakened state. The needle was laying just next to it, she was giving it serious thought now, end her mutation, maybe end this terrible disease. Her mutation was her identity now though; Queen of Limbo, not a schoolteacher. Cough after cough escaped her cracked lips and she laughed. Less than two hours to dawn. Less than two hours till she died, and Limbo passed to her daughter. Her beautiful daughter, her Kalina.
Her car pulled up in the driveway as an ominous feeling settled in her bones. She shook her head, relegating the feeling to worn out nerves, the souls had been particularly active the past few days and they were driving her insane. She just needed to relax, but as she approached her front door, she knew relaxation was nowhere in sight. Her husband's voice sounded from inside.
"Be nice Carol, please." He said, no doubt with one of his sheepish smiles. Pure hatred boiled in the pit of her stomach as she opened the door silently.
"Am I never not nice?" The woman asked, even the sound of her voice was infuriating.
"Let's not answer that." He said and she walked into view, and she knew something was wrong. She feigned surprise as she saw the other blonde.
"Carol…. Hi." She said, trying to hide her distaste. Her husband jumped off the couch, which Carol was also sitting on and they were too close for her comfort, and kissed her on the cheek.
"I invited her over for dinner." He said softly. "I hope you don't mind. She forced a smile as Carol spoke.
"Hello Illy." She said, her voice filled with loathing. She ignored Carol and kept her eyes on her husband.
"Not at all." She said, trying to be the bigger person.
"Excellent." Her husband said, not noticing the obvious tension. "I shall go get it ready." He hurried off to the kitchen, Carol tried to make a move to go to the kitchen with him, but he waved her off. "You two relax, I'll get everything settled." He turned around and looked at her, mouthing 'be nice.' She made a glass of wine appear in her hand as she muttered to herself in Russian about how they were probably sleeping together, and knowing what kind of a woman Carol was she had probably conned her way into making Loki leave her, that's why she was here tonight, to announce the end of her engagement to Bruce and to inform her of the end of her marriage, because she now thought that Loki was 'the one' for her. She felt her heart start to ache, not knowing what to do. Carol narrowed her eyes and it took all she had not to make a rude remark.
"I don't like this anymore than you do." She said, still looking at her wine.
"I'm sure you don't, besides, if I remember correctly, you're the one who instigated this whole thing anyways." Carol said with a sarcastic smile. She couldn't hold back any longer.
"Did I?" Knowing full well she did. "I wouldn't remember something so petty." Carol glared at her and a smirk crept across her lips.
"You're the one who threatened my life." Like that matters she quipped in her head. "And told me my boyfriend loved you, not me." She took a sip of her wine.
"Well I was only speaking the truth." Loki walked back in, announcing dinner was ready. They both sat down, abandoning their argument for small talk about Carol's impending wedding. Dinner passed without incident and she sighed a huge sigh of relief once Carol left.
She turned to her husband and she almost dropped her wine glass; pain was written across his face, he was hiding something from her. Her heart begged her not to ask, but she did anyways.
"My love, what's wrong?" She asked, her voice trembling. His eyes met hers then looked away.
"I slept with Carol." A knife went through her heart.
"Pushing everything aside for a moment; why?" He sighed.
"I was trying to be a good friend. She's getting married to Bruce and Bruce wants them to have children, but he can't get her pregnant. So she asked me if I could. I have no feelings for her."
"I see." Is all she could say, her mind was having trouble processing all this.
"I would change it if I could go back." She scoffed at his words.
"I just can't believe you would do that. Maybe you were right, maybe you have changed." He closed his eyes tightly.
"I never wanted to hurt you. You are the only thing in my life that I truly care about, which is why I didn't tell you. I knew this would happen." She was outraged, but she kept things simple.
"Well you were right. I'm hurt." She walked out the door and drove around for a while. Her head reeling, when she happened upon Carol. She pulled her car over, thinking of what to say when she appeared in front of her, staring at the unfortunate soul.
"Illy." She started to say, but she was cut off.
"I've been racking my brain, trying to find what to say, but I've decided, words don't suffice." Her sword appeared in her hand, "Time to die." Fear was written across Carol's face.
"Illy… You don't have to do this. It was a mistake on both Loki's and I's part, it won't happen again." She took several steps back, fearing for her life, quite rightly so.
"I don't fucking care if it was a mistake, I don't like that it happened." Her sword started to glow with energy as she became more and more angry.
"It wasn't just me okay? He had a part in it too." Blame the other person, trying to distract her, that wasn't going to work. Oh she'd take care of Loki later, maybe let Tyler at him, but right now she just wanted to kill the woman in front of her. Kill the one person she had hated from day one. All she did was complain about how men left her, and get pregnant. Never cared for others, never thought that maybe what she was doing was affecting them. The fire appeared in her hand and she smirked, today she would rid the world of Carol Danvers once and for all.
"He's not getting off easily, I'll take care of him later." Carol recoiled.
"Don't do this Illy… What about my daughter? What about Bruce? What about my baby?" Carol asked as she looked down at her stomach. Didn't she realize that was the stupidest mistake she could've done. Tell the wife of the father of her child not to kill her because of her bastard baby? God this woman was thick, she thought to herself.
"I don't give a flying fuck." She said as rings of fire encircled Carol. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and I've been pretty badly scorned. "Carol tried to take a step forward but the fire kept her in her place, far away from her.
"Illy.. I know how you feel… Don't you remember, I've been there?" For years Carol tried to make Illyana feel sympathetic whenever her newest guy left her once she either successfully got pregnant or tried to get pregnant, but Illyana did not care one bit.
"Don't try to sympathize with me. It won't work, I have no soul, I don't care."
"If you don't have a soul then why are you going to kill me? If you don't have a soul and you don't care about me, then you don't care about Loki." She sent Carol crashing through the nearest wall, temper rising exponentially.
"Because I used to care!" Carol sighed and lifted herself into the air. "I'm going to make sure you never go near Loki again." She sent a blast of fire towards her but Carol put up an energy shield, not the smartest thing because you can't protect against yourself.
"Did I do that to you when Howard cheated on me with you?" She laughed cruelly.
"Well it's not my fault he liked me better."
"Well it's not my fault Loki wanted to help a friend." Well you should have asked another man you slut, she wanted to scream, but that wouldn't do her any good. Carol crashed into the ground after she sent a blast of pure energy at her. Once again the other woman glared. She got fed up and teleported them both to limbo where her power increased by tenfold.
"You're going to die." She said simply as the combined forces of limbo and the Phoenix whirled around her.
"This is ridiculous…" the tears welled up in her eyes as she looked to the blood red sky of the other dimension. "I'm sorry Lierah." Carol choked out in a sob as the fires closed in around her. "I'm sorry baby." She said rubbing her belly softly as Illyana sent a blast of pure energy at her, forcing her to crumple to the ground. A pool of blood appeared underneath her pants and she started sobbing uncontrollably. Illyana glanced at her and teleported out of limbo, leaving Carol to die. She unlocked the door to her car when she felt a knife at her throat and breath on her eat.
"You left Carol to die!" A flash of gold bounced off the rays of the sun and she recognized the hiss in her ear to be the voice of her daughter.
"So what if I did." She asked, returning the hiss. Her daughter pressed the dagger harder into her throat, drawing several beads of her blood.
"She didn't do anything." Her daughter hissed once more, and she knew better than to fight back against the girl she had let train in limbo.
"Kalina please." She tried to reason.
"Heal this!" She said as she cut a huge gash in her mother's neck. She collapsed to her knees, her hands flying up to the wound as she choked on her own blood. "Don't play games!" She yelled. "Heal!" Nothing happened, and the smirk disappeared from Kalina's face. "I demand you to heal!" She took a step back from her mother.
"I-I'm trying." She said, coughing up more blood. Kalina's body went pale as her mother bled from the wound she had inflicted.
"YOU'RE TYING?!" Kalina yelled. She tried again, but still nothing was happening. "WHY IS NOTHING HAPPENING?!" She leaned forward, breathing heavily.
"I don't know." Her voice said softly as her heart rate slowed.
"WHAT DO I DO?! DO I CALL SOMEONE?!" Her skin turned pale as the blood seeped from the wound. "A hospital maybe?" She shook her head.
"Mutant." She said as she coughed more. "They'd dissect me. Stay safe, please."
"No!" She yelled with tears streaming down her cheeks. "I can't leave you here." She wiped them off her face.
"You have to! Make sure she doesn't get you father. She'll corrupt his mind." She held her neck, trying to slow the bleeding. "And Kalina, I love you, so much,: She drained her magic to send Kalina away as she bled out on the street.