Memories
Renaissance
Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men or any of their characters. Tora and Weapon X-ii are my own though.
They were sitting on a log by the lake, close to one another, but with enough space between them to dart apart if anyone came within sight of them. They were always careful when people could see them. Him out of fear of what the others would say, her out of a need to have something precious to herself. He looked at her, with her golden eyes gazing into the distance.
"We could do more couple stuff if you want us to?"
"Like what?"
"Go see plays, films. Go out to dinner together or something."
She smiled that infuriating smile that made it look like she knew more than she was letting on.
"I think I'd like that."
They both smiled slightly shyly at one another when a whiff of brimstone sent them to opposite ends of the log.
"Hey Elf."
"Logan…you have to come now! It's…it's…it's-"
"What? Skrulls invading, Magneto blowing stuff up? What?"
"It's Jean. She's back!"
Logan was up faster than you could see.
"What do you mean 'she's back'?"
"I mean, the FF have just called and she's on her way over NOW!"
"WHAT!"
Logan didn't give him time to answer, he just ran back up to the mansion as fast as he could. Kurt sighed.
"Fraulien Tora, would you like me to escort you up to the house?"
She grinned and reached out a hand. There was a 'BAMF' of imploding air and both disappeared.
"How did she react to that?"
"She didn't understand then. Not how he once felt. And how he still felt in a way. Would you mind me watching this from your point of view?"
"Go ahead."
Jean looked around the mansion. The others were all coming out, laughing, crying and generally acting as though all their Christmases had come early. Ororo had pulled her into a hug and she'd seen Scott standing slightly apart with a huge smile on his face.
"So Scott, Charles, Ororo, Piotr and Kitty are here. Where are Kurt and Wolverine?"
Half her question was answered when Logan burst into the hall looking slightly out of breath. Then a brimstone stench made her nose wrinkle and she saw Kurt. Whose arm was being held by a short redhead with her back to her. She was wearing jeans and a loose checked shirt and her orangey-red hair fell straight down to the small of her back. A black streak ran down the right side of her head. She turned and the first thing Jean fixed on were the scars. Four of them, running down her face to her jaw. Then she saw her eyes and almost- almost- recoiled. The golden irises were slightly outlarged for her eyes and her pupils were slits, like a cat's. But as she watched they enlarged, becoming more rounded but still not fully circular.
"Kurt, remind me never to bamf with you again."
"Of course Tora. Next time you may walk."
"Logan beat us here, if you hadn't noticed."
Kurt didn't answer because he'd just seen Jean.
"Fraulien!"
And Jean was suddenly being hugged by the damp mutant who now smelt of wet dog.
"Excusez-moi, mais who is this?"
Everyone turned to look at the new mutant in slight shock.
"Désolé, but nobody talks about her. You all go shifty when I ask."
"I'm Jean Grey, one of the original X-Men. I've…er…been away for a while. Who are you?"
"Tora. Properly I suppose I'm Marie Circen but I'm not very good at remembering that."
Jean carefully reached out to see if she could find her mind and found…nothing? Until she found the tiny pinprick in the astral plain where the centre of the newcomer's mind should be. Who was this person who wasn't even slippery like the few people with natural telepathic shields. She just wasn't there at all. Then something she'd said registered.
"You're Marie Circen? Where have you been the last 18 years?"
The golden-eyed woman's gaze met hers and she felt like a predator was staring her straight in the face.
"I go by the name of Tora. And as for where I've been? You don't want to know."
This person of so many secrets turned and walked out of the mansion, back into the pouring rain.
"When I first met her I wondered why on Earth Charles had allowed her into the mansion."
"That was before you found out, wasn't it?"
"You can imagine how terrible I felt when she finally told me about her past."
Ororo, Kitty and Jean were going out to catch up on things Jean had missed when the Phoenix Force had been masquerading as her.
"Is Tora coming Ororo?"
Jean glanced round. She wasn't certain she wanted the newcomer to the mansion going out with her. There were so many unknowns about her. She also seemed to be distant and imperious, with her scars and aged eyes. It was like she'd been looking at Jean and saying "I know more than you do. I've done more than you'll ever do. I've seen more than you could ever dream of seeing."
"Hey Tora! We're going out! Do you want to come?"
Curse that child.
"I am afraid I cannot come Kitty. I planned to train tonight and I also offered to help Logan strip down his bike. And your companion doesn't like me very much."
Jean stared at this intruder into life with the X-Men.
"How do you know that?"
"Your body language suggests disdain for me and your fight or flight hormone levels flair up when you see me. It suggests you wish to fight me because I am an interloper into your group."
And without bothering to listen to a reply, the infuriating woman walked off towards the Danger Room. Jean glowered after her.
"Why on Earth is she with the X-Men?"
Kitty immediately leapt to the defence of the woman she'd known longer.
"Tora's great. She just doesn't relate to people well. And with what happened to her, it's amazing she's not a homicidal manic."
"What did happen to her then 'Ro?"
"I'm sorry Jean, but that's Tora's story and I wouldn't tell it without her permission."
"I didn't realize how you felt about her when you returned."
"I'm ashamed of it now. But she was someone I didn't know, an exotic woman with all those scars and those eyes and I kept thinking, what if Scott fell in love with her?"
"She never saw herself as beautiful. She saw things in animal terms. She wasn't a mate to be desired because she had been injured badly. But because she had survived those things, she was a mate to be desired. It was a matter of weighing up the permanent injuries with how she'd survived them."
"I used to fear her animal instincts. Until I realized people didn't talk about them. Just like they didn't talk about Phoenix. She didn't fear it. Probably because the animal saw there was nothing to fear."
Jean could hear the noises from the Danger Room. Who was running it this late at night? She walked downstairs and looked into the control room. Warning lights were flashing. All the safety parameters had been switched off. She looked in and saw the new woman in an orange and black costume fighting robot versions of the original Brotherhood. She was perched on Blob's head, counting things off on her fingers. Intrigued, Jean turned on the microphones.
"I can't cook pork, Kitty doesn't eat it. It's probably best to go with steak because I know Logan likes that and Scott eats it…"
She leapt into the air just as Magneto sent a blast at her that missed and fried the Blob robot's circuits. She was moving quickly now, kicking the Mastermind robot in the groin as she started listing vegetables. She was moving with a grace and power that Jean had never seen before. Actually, she had seen it once. On a nature program when they showed a tiger hunting. It was the same smooth flowing muscular motion, the same ruthlessness when she slammed her hands into the Quicksilver robot and removed a part that was apparently vital. Then the Scarlet Witch sent in hex bolt right into her chest and the woman fell. Only to struggle back up and spun a kick that smashed into the robots face. Now she was going toe-to-toe with Magneto and listing the kitchen equipment she'd need. Suddenly she was twisted up into the air. But how when her uniform didn't have any metal in it? Smooth metal claws slid out of the woman's clenched fists and she slashed at the Magneto robot. That was how. She was just a Wolverine wannabe. But a good one. She was capable of destroying almost the whole Brotherhood. She twisted and her claws somehow managed to smash into Magneto's helmet, shattering his circuitry and causing her to drop to the floor.
She landed neatly then without even looking up spat out the words,
"Enjoy the show?"
Jean turned on the speakers so she could hear her answer.
"Aren't you just a wannabe Logan?"
The face surrounded in burnished black metal turned towards her.
"My handlers wanted me to be that. Not me."
"Your handlers? What are you, a zoo exhibit?"
"I was less than that Miss Grey. You with your perfect life can't understand."
"I wouldn't call my life perfect. I've been missing for two years and I've just found out the man I loved got married and divorced while I was away."
"Whereas I live with poison in my bones and military knowledge in my head. I'm sorry, your disappearance really puts my suffering into perspective."
This blatant sarcasm annoyed Jean even more.
"So what did you suffer?"
The empty eye covers looked up at her and she knew behind them those golden eyes would be fixed on her unblinking.
"While you enjoyed your first mission with the X-Men, I was having my bones pumped full of poisonous metal. While you swanned around as Marvel Girl, I was in the hands of Sabretooth. When you lived a charmed life with your family, I was being tortured because I wouldn't kill a man. While you chose this path, I've been steered down it since I was two years old."
She gave a bitter laugh.
"Miss Grey, may I present Weapon X-ii. The perfect spy, solider, saboteur and assassin. The child who was tortured because she had one extra strand of DNA. But I haven't suffered as much as you have, let's hear your heartwrenching story."
Jean was looking at the woman gazing up at her with a determined set in her mouth. Now she looked harder she could see the wariness in her stance, the fear that made her so dangerous. This was someone who had been torn apart and was picking up the pieces of her life and then she came in as if she owned the place, someone the others all liked and tried to exclude her. Of course she was upset and hurt that Jean tried to ignore her.
"I'm sorry. I…I…"
The other woman walked out, leaving Jean to deal with her feelings of confusion and anger.
"Why is this woman so cold?"
"Fire and ice those two."
"Tell me about it. She just blew off all attempts to be friendly."
"Hasn't it occurred to you she sensed Logan's attraction to you?"
"They were going out at that point?"
"Oh, yes I forgot you didn't know. Oops."
She slammed her hands into the wall, leaving impressions of her fists. Stupid, beautiful woman, with her head of fire and green eyes and soft scent. The woman who Logan appeared to love. Why? But he'd never told her to her face that he loved her. It had always been talking about other stuff, like training or things they remembered. She couldn't control the feelings inside her, the pure anger and confusion. She knew she was being stupid and she was acting on instinct about him but she couldn't help it. The animal had looked around, found the male with the best traits for survival and the alpha personality and latched on. The more rational parts of her mind had simply followed on. It was an ancient instinct, the instinct to have the alpha male, the one who would survive. Only in her it was amplified by her very nature.
A knocking on the door sent her scurrying into the bathroom where she locked the door and turned the shower on full blast. It was Logan. She heard him come in and knew he was scenting the air to find out where she was.
"Tora, I know you're not in the shower. Your coffee's still hot."
Stupid coffee. She knew she'd forgotten something.
"You're avoiding me. Why?"
He heard her knock something over in the bathroom. Ever since Jean had come back she'd been edgy. And Jean didn't seem to like her. Wait! Jean! Of course. She could tell his attraction to her hadn't faded and she was distancing herself from him. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And now she was hiding in the bathroom. Which was the sort of thing a teenaged girl would do.
"Have you been talking to Kitty again?"
"Non!"
He heard more noises, like she'd tripped and knocked the shampoo over. At any rate, something that sounded quite rude in French was murmured.
"La menthè est…"
"Come on Tora. Please come out."
"NON!"
He dropped his voice, pleading now and hoping against hope no one would walk in on him begging Tora to leave the bathroom.
"Come on Tora. You're behaving like a teenager. I thought we could go out later and…"
He didn't get any further. She opened the door and was glaring at him. Her eyes were narrowed and he could tell she wasn't ready to believe him yet.
"Et Jean?"
"Jeannie doesn't even look at me Tora. You know she's eyes only for Slim."
The sharp lines around her eyes softened and he knew in a few more seconds he'd win her over. He just had to be careful.
"And you heard me calling you my girlfriend."
She smiled and he relaxed. He wasn't going to end up mauled by a cheesed off girlfriend.
"Just as long as there isn't any catnip involved, I'll be fine."
He laughed.
"One of these days I'm going to see what happened when Kurt hid the cat toy in your room."
"It's embarrassing."
"Even better."
"Catnip?"
"You were never there when they tried it. Think big pussy cat on steroids with metal claws."
"Oh."
"Yep."