Awakening

"Cp doesn't own anything; believe her so we can get on with the story." Mortem glares at people reading.

"What's got you all worked up?" Cp asks looking up from her laptop.

Mortem snorts, "You already know, but I'll indulge the readers. I want to tear apart whoever messed with Penny!"

"I do too!" Tony yells as he appears.

Cp groans.

Mortem's POV

Anger flowed through my veins and I swore at whoever had taken my Bonded Soul would pay. She had already been through too much, even for an Immortal, and didn't deserve this.

After ordering Hel to keep Stark safe and to find out who was responsible I vanished with Penny's empty shell. Things weren't supposed to be this complicated.

But when hadn't they?

Even Aequivalere's birth as an Immortal didn't happen as it was supposed to. When she was first born, in her First Life as Harry Potter, she was supposed to collect all of the Hallows which would give her the power of Balance. When she died she was supposed to appear in Cor (the Immortal's home dimension) and Father would give her, her Immortal form.

But that never happened, she didn't Die at her time, Fati had blocked my power from helping, from anyone helping, by twisting her fate so much that no one could interfere. When she finally did die, after witnessing the destruction of her home world, I was finally able to collect her Soul. But by then, it was too late. Her Immortal powers given by the Hallows had twisted with Fati's power, practically binding her Soul. She couldn't come to Cor, as she was now a twisted blend of Human and Immortal.

Vitam and I had worked with her Soul for years, trying to fix the problem. But there was nothing we could do, and eventually, her Duties became too much and we were forced to send her back to the human world, to the dimension that was calling.

I could do nothing as I watched my newest sibling live another human life, unaware of the role she played. Fati had blocked Aequivalere's memories, and I saw her life slowly start to fall apart as her Duties forced to her fix the problems in that world, even if she wasn't completely Immortal.

There were a few times when she almost died, and I was able to touch her Soul, to try and loosen the bindings that Fati had placed. But it was a while before her Soul completely passed into my Realm, allowing me to unlock as much of her power that I could, along with her memories.

Sadly, this had some negative side effects, as Aequivalere now hated me. I was to blame for her new Immortal status since I was the one to place the Hallows in her world. It took lifetimes for our relationship to mend.

Each time, I tried to undo what Fati had done to her Soul, but each time I failed. As time moved on, her Soul soon became barely anything more than a web of Fati's manipulations. I tried to take the matter to Father, or even Mother, but I was turned away every time.

I didn't understand how my Siblings could just turn their backs on our newest family member. I remembered when we finally Bonded, for many the union wasn't accepted because it wasn't held in Father's palace. But that wasn't possible, as Aequivalere still wasn't able to travel to Cor, as her form was at best, a mixture between Mortal and Immortal.

I wasn't able to tell my Bonded anything about Fati's manipulations, as Infinitas told me that Father had forbidden it. But I had always tried to help the young Immortal whenever I could, I watched out for her in the Human Realm, and eventually I was able to teach her about Immortals, and guide her as she figured out her powers.

It was slow work, as it would take a while each lifetime for all of her power to return. At times, it tormented me how many times she was forced to struggle in a half existence, having to life over and over again wherever her Duties called her.

It wasn't how it was supposed to happen, and I knew that it wasn't right.

But there had never really been much that I could do.

Then something had changed, I wasn't sure what, but something had. When Vitam had placed her Soul in Penny's mortal mother, her Soul was slightly different than before, a few of the webbings had started to crack. We grew hopeful, hopeful that eventually, Aequivalere would be able to break free of Fati herself.

Fati was a control freak with an ego the size of Existence itself. Before Aequivalere she had been the Youngest, and I believe her to be jealous of Aequivalere. Her actions still confused us, as Fati had been such a sweat Immortal before Aequivalere came along. Infinitas would never tell me or Vitam what happened to the young girl, but something had changed her.

Now she believed that she ruled over Aequivalere, along with many of us. She Interfered more times than I could recall, yet Father never stepped in.

Very few Immortals called themselves the friends of my Bonded, even fewer knew the child. But none of them had ever taken an active stand against Aequivalere.

Sure, those few who were aligned with Fati would do everything in their power to cause each lifetime she lived to be filled with struggle and pain.

This lifetime most definitely was the happiest I had seen my Bonded in a while, even if she had to face much strife. In a way, I was very glad that she had Tony in this life; family was something that had been denied to her in most of her lifetimes. To be honest, I could recall two; maybe three lifetimes were she actually had a family that cared for her.

It had caused me more grief than I would admit.

But even through it all, Aequivalere was my Bonded, she was my other half. She brought out my softer, more playful side that few others, besides Vitam of course, had seen. I would do anything for her, and right now, that included challenging Fati.

Oh, I knew this mess was another of her schemes; I had long ago memorized her aura signature. Her power was all over the Helicarrier, and even Aequivalere. While usually we couldn't interfere too much in the Mortal worlds without Aequivalere's permission, Fati had given me the perfect opportunity.

Or, whoever had stolen Penny's Soul. Souls were mine and my twin's jurisdiction. No other Immortals were supposed to mess with them, not that Fati followed that rule. But now that her Soul was missing, an Immoral Soul, I could step in and help put right some of the messes that Fati has made.

So in a way, I was slightly grateful that her Soul was taken, as it gave me more leeway in the Mortal world. However, I still wanted to throttle whomever had taken it in the first place. I just hoped that it wasn't one of Fati's goons messing with it.

If you didn't know what you were doing, you could do some serious damage.

I glanced down at the mortal body in my arms and sighed, first I had to get Penny's body to safe place. Then I could go tear Cor apart looking for her Soul.

I collected myself as I stepped out of the shadows in a grand building that my Bonded had once helped to create. I was in the lower levels of the mansion, below the school that had once been the pride and joy of my Bonded.

It wasn't too long ago that Aequivalere's life had been here, but that was a few lifetimes ago. It had been surprising when I realized that this was her fourth life in this dimension, but this world always got into trouble. It was one reason why Hel and Aequivalere had become such good friends; they had had to work together on many occasions.

It was actually Hel who had taught Aequivalere how to play the violin, and after a contest between the two, she had even given my Bonded her magical violin that Hel's father had made for her. Loki hadn't been very happy about that, and she was still grounded from betting for another century or so. I had laughed for hours when I found out while Hel pouted. Sure, Hel was a lot older than any human, but she was still pretty young in Asgardian standards, not to mention Immortal standards.

Dispelling my thoughts I quickly located the Soul of the man I wanted to see, and vanished into another shadow. Appearing in the shadows of a professionally office my lips twitched with fondness as I spotted the man behind the desk.

This man's Soul had always been a good one, and although at times his actions had dire consequences, he always tried to do what was right. Aequivalere had run into his Soul a few times in during her various lifetimes, and while I tried not to get attached to the Souls I deal with, this one was one that I was very fond of.

Not that I would ever admit that to anyone.

Waving away the wandering thoughts I returned my attention to the room. Sadly the man I wished to speak too wasn't alone, as he was speaking with two others whose Souls I recognized. The man's Soul had been a good friend of Aequivalere in one of her earlier lives, while the female's Soul was very young. She was probably one of the last Souls Mother created, she couldn't be the last Soul, as that was Aequivalere.

Deciding that I didn't have time to wait around for the Mortals to finish speaking, I stepped out of the shadows and projected my thoughts on a level that the human would be able to hear.

"Xavier,"

All three humans jerked around and stared at me wide eyes, the two who I didn't care about narrowed their eyes at me. Metal claws slid forth from the man's fists and the white haired woman's eyes started to glow.

I rolled my eyes; the foolish Mortal's wouldn't be able to hurt me. It was irritating though, how humans with the X-gene could see Immortals.

I focused my attention on the man I had come to see, an old friend of Aequivalere, Charles Xavier.

His eyes widened as he caught sight of me, and then worry entered his eyes as he caught site of Penny's still, bloody form in my arms.

"Mortem? Is that you?" the professor asked as the two others looked at each other in confusion.

"Indeed." I nodded my expression grave. "And I am afraid that I need your help."

"Wait, you two know each other?" The woman known as Storm asked as her eyes faded back to her natural color.

"Yes, we had a mutual friend a long time ago." Xavier explained as he rolled out from behind his desk. Xavier's eyes flickered from my face to Penny's form again before realization flooded his face.

"Is that Benjamin?" Xavier's voice echoed into my mind and I nodded again.

"She did go by that name, once, not too long ago." I stated, suddenly glad that Penny had clued Xavier in on a few things. The man wasn't aware of Immortals, or the details regarding anything really. He 'knew' that 'Ben' had a strange type of mutation that caused him to be reincarnated every time he died, and that his memories of his previous lives returned after a near fatal injury. He also was under the impression that I was just a strange but powerful Mutant with aging issues.

It kept things similar that way.

"You know this punk?" The man called Logan asked and I rolled my eyes at him. That should have already been established even if they couldn't hear me.

"I am afraid that I don't have time for introductions or pleasantries." I stated as I turned my full attention back on Xavier. "I came with a request for you, Professor. Something is amiss, that I need to fix. However, I need to keep Penny in a safe place until she is able to completely heal."

Once glance at the corpse in my arms and Xavier's eyes hardened.

"Come with me, she will be safe in our med-bay until she is fully healed." Xavier stated motioning for Logan to stand down as he rolled towards the hallway.

"Benjamin in Penny now?" Xavier asked as we moved passed the two other mutants. Logan glared at me as I passed, his claws retracting. I just smirked at the man briefly; Mortals were so amusing at times.

"She is," I stated simply, Xavier was the only one from that life that had been aware about our relationship. He had never been judging, just supportive. "Thank you for this, Xavier, I wasn't sure where else to bring her."

"Think nothing of it," Xavier chuckled, giving the two of us a fond look. "You both are welcome here at any time, anything for old friends after all."

I gave Xavier a small smile as we strode through the upper floors and then I was once again below the school.

Logan and Storm were still there, trying to figure out what was going on, and also making sure that I wasn't a treat. Which I was, but I wasn't going to tell them that.

Logan's distrust of me was understandable, I was Death, and Logan had very strong animalistic instincts. It was the same reason why Bruce Banner was edgy around me, animals tended to react negatively to me.

"She can stay in here," Xavier said as we all entered the med-bay. There was a redhead woman already in the room. I could sense that she was telekinetic with a light power of telepathy.

"I do not believe that she needs medical attention," I stated, assuring the redhead known as Jean who had started to panic at the site of the girl.

"She's covered in blood!" Jean protested as she rushed over with amazing speed, and before I could blink the girl took Penny out of my arms.

My eyebrow twitched but otherwise I didn't react. She hadn't meant anything by it, and she just thought that there was a girl in trouble. To her, I was unimportant.

"She means no harm," Xavier told me as I stepped up to his side. "She's just very protective of children."

I hummed and nodded, though I was unsure if Xavier would be able to hear me.

I watched as Jean flickered around Penny, cleaning up the blood, looking for a wound. I let her be for a moment, until she started messing with the glowing Arc in her chest.

"You will leave that alone!" I snapped, my power swelling up around me. Storm and Logan both took a step forward and I forced my power down. "My apologies, but you must not mess with the technology in her chest."

Jean looked uncertain, but after a nod from Xavier she sighed.

"It has been a while," Xavier stated as he watched Jean continue to clean the blood off of Penny.

"It has, even longer for Penny." I said although for me it hadn't been all that long ago. When you're an Immortal your perception of time is different than Mortals, so it really hadn't been very long.

"Does she already remember, or will she when she awakens?" Xavier asks, looking and sounding slightly uneasy calling her a she. After all, the Aequivalere he knew was male.

"When she awakens, she should remember everything." I informed him, hoping that there wouldn't be any complications like the previous time.

Xavier nodded, but our attention was called away from our conversation when Jean gasped loudly, her eyes widened.

"She's not breathing!" She yelled completely panicked and I chuckled, shaking my head. Jean checked her pulse and panicked even more when she realized that technically, she was dead.

"She doesn't have a pulse either!"

Xavier looked up at me in question but relaxed when he saw my amused expression.

"Don't worry," I said, making sure that Jean could hear me as well. "She is just having….healing issues."

Xavier raised his eyebrow as Jean looked at me in disbelief.

"This girl's dead! What do you mean she's having healing issues!?" Jean screeched and I narrowed my eyes in irritation. I needed to make sure that they wouldn't mess with Pen's body while I went and found her Soul!

I didn't really have time for this.

"Understand this," I hissed, causing Jean to shiver and the other two who couldn't hear me exchange looks. "I have brought her here to be safe until she Awakens, not for you to panic and disturb her! If you wish your questions to be answered you may speak with Xavier. However, that doesn't mean he will tell you everything."

At this I gave Xavier a pointed look, to which he nodded in acceptance.

"Other things require my attention," I said, my voice dropping down to a calm but cold baritone. "But I shall know if anything happens to her. I am doing this out of an old friendship with Charles, so do not ruin it. It would not be wise to anger me."

I narrowed my eyes at the now timid looking woman as a warm hand gripped my shoulder. I turned and looked down at Xavier who was giving me a small, understanding smile.

"Do not worry, my friend, she will be safe in our care." His calming words caused me to take a deep breath and to reign back in my power.

Nodding to Xavier, and giving one last warning glare to the others, I called my shadows to me. My gaze hardened as Aequivalere's still form burned into my eyes the moment before I vanished.

Whomever was responsible would have to pay, they would have to deal with me. It was time our Family was reminded why pissing me off was a bad idea.

Hey all, I was trying to post this last night but...yah know...school night computer curfew and all sorta stopped that.

I finished the chapter during school, during Language Arts funny enough, and I hope that you all enjoyed the introduction of the X-men and the whole Mortem chapter. I personally liked writing it.

I also hope that Mortem was able to clear some stuff up, if not...eh, it'll make sense eventually! :)

Thanks for reading,
YOU ALL ROCK!
Cp