Logan won't answer my calls. Etana's gone AWOL. Tora's funeral has been postponed while we sort out the situation with the Shi'ar. They were ready for the Phoenix. Ready for Dragon. But Etana had them running. The K'Meer have declared war on the Shi'ar. Tora was their god. You don't just kill the principal god of one of the most powerful galactic empires ever without retribution. They wanted her body… They wanted Tora's body… Hank and Scott –who seem to have taken the roles of leaders of the X-Men- refused point blank and their K'Meer ally, Xixswalstar –who also happens to be their Crown Prince- agreed. Tora remains on Earth. Her home. Because her final act… That wasn't Dragon. That couldn't be Dragon. That was Tora. That was Tora through and through. She used the last of her life force –her potential life force as well as the lives Etana took that shouldn't have been taken, channelling it through an Angel of Death and the avatar of the cosmic entity of change and progress to bring back the dead X-Men as well as reignite all the X-Genes of depowered mutants and break Wanda's spell –using the Witch herself. Giving Hope in the last moments of her life.

Cyclops stands beside me as we look down at the body. It's a wreck. The wounds have been stitched up some thirty times and they just reopen every time. According to Hope, Tora didn't just die. She dissipated Dragon across the entire world, using up all the life force used since the beginning of the universe to reignite the mutant race. It'll be centuries before the Dragon is anywhere near full power again. Tora not only sacrificed herself. She sacrificed any chance she had of ever coming back. Scott finally speaks.

"She said she couldn't fix it. I was wrong, Captain. I was wrong. Hope isn't the Mutant Messiah. Tora was. And I… Steve, I've been treating her as a strategic asset for the past six months… Steve, that's Jean's best friend lying down there and I was as powerless to save her as I was Jean. Logan will probably never forgive me. And…Steve, I think Tora knew. I think she took to the field, knowing there was no way she could survive but determined to fight anyway. She knew that it was going to be her or Hope, yet she still chose Hope's life over her own. She's a damn sight braver than anyone I've ever met."

I gulp. This is going to be difficult.

"Er… Wanda… The Scarlet Witch… She wants to be able to pay her respects."

Cyclops glares at me.

"If it wasn't for her, Tora wouldn't be dead."

"And you think that sits easy on Wanda right now?! For pity's sake, Scott! Tora and Wanda were friends! They trusted each other implicitly and they would die for each other! Do you know what Wanda wishes? To have her friend die in her arms?! She wishes she were dead, so that Tora wasn't! We caught her trying to cast a hex to swap their places. She wants to try and make up…"

"She can't. Unless the Witch can give three children back their mother, Logan back his wife, Vérité back her sister, the X-Men back a friend and the world back a hero; she can do nothing."

I can't answer that. Scott has always been hard to read, holding his emotions close to his chest. That he's displaying his grief like this… Tora meant a lot to him. A lot to the X-Men… A lot to us. Go to Utopia and the X flag that flies is at half-mast. Everyone is wearing at least one item of black, even if it's just a small ribbon. The school… when I went, was eerily silent. Distrustful glances was all I got. There's good reason for that. We should have been there! The Avengers should have been there! A good woman was killed because of our failure. The Logan kids will never really remember their mother. I remembered going to pick up Stevie from the Baxter Building and Eva just walked over and pulled on my trousers and asked 'Uncle Steve, Maman isn't really dead, is she?'

My heart broke.


A.N. Sorry. I'll been in Switzerland without Internet access for a while. Gorgeous country. Also, just got back from 26 hour journey home, don't expect this author's note to make much sense.