I whip around to see Hope trying to lever Tora upright, applying pressure to the blood running from a terrible gash in her chest, right through her heart. I'm up there in an instant, but Etana and Logan still beat me.
"What happened?"
Cable seems in shock.
"She… They threw a deathspear at Hope just before the shockwave hit… She pushed Hope out the way... That wound won't heal."
Tora's eyes are taking on a silvery sheen and blood trickles out her mouth. Logan kneels and clutches her to him but she coughs.
"Hope…? Tana…? Wanda…?"
"We're here."
Tora holds out her hands, shaking as Etana takes one hand and Hope takes the other, while Wanda takes Hope's place, cradling Tora's head in her lap. Tears slip over scarred cheeks, red rivers on pale skin and then all the blood is silver, like mercury and her eyes are filmed over.
"I…I...am…Water… And... And…Life…Renewed… Now...and….forever… I…am…Dragon… And… And... And...I say… I…say… Enough death… Enough destruction… A life…for a…billion…lives… Death…Past…Present…and…Progress… This…is…the…only…way…"
Her pearly eyes fix on Logan.
"Remember me…"
And then she glows silver as Etana's hand becomes wreathed in black fire and Hope Summers manifests a firebird and Wanda's hands glow with bright red energy and Tora's breathing stops and all across Utopia, blackened bodies of the X-Men killed in the attack are healing and they sit up, shouts of joy and then a message in our heads, brilliant and joyful.
Thousands of new mutant manifestations across the globe!
And then sudden horror as Logan lets out a purely animal scream of rage and unspeakable pain and all I can do is stare because Tora can't be dead… She can't.
But she died and brought back all the X-Men who are running towards her, Nightcrawler at their head and they're screaming, crying, begging. And all I can see are the four crowded around the body; Logan screaming in agony; Hope Summers –the Phoenix completely and truly- with tears streaking down her face; Wanda cradling Tora's head with red hair spilling across her lap and shock clear in her eyes; and Etana, face expressionless, blank and totally shattered. And then she bursts into flames and fades out and I know. That Tora had died and that Etana –that the Malach Hamavet has gone for her.
And Logan's screams tear through the blood-red sky.
A.N. Please don't kill me! I'm going to hide under a rock somewhere now…
