Memories
Past and Future
Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men or any of their characters. Tora and Weapon X-ii are my own though.
Tora walked down the dark, slightly grubby corridor.
"Don't tell Stark about this. He's always going on about the future being a time of gleaming white metal and advanced robots."
Cable chuckled.
"This world isn't like that. We're almost there. I should warn you, what you are about to see is…horrific."
Tora nodded and they rounded the corner. One of Cable's soldiers nodded then did a double take.
"What the…"
She waved cheerily at him as the door opened. They stepped through into a room with a long glass window and a door. Through the window they could see the woman sitting on the bed, long, scraggily, white hair falling down her back. She was dressed in a deep aqua blue with soft silver gloves and boots. Her hands covered her face and she was rocking back and forth, crooning softly. Cable flicked a switch and the words came through, in a voice scarred by the years.
"-the wind o'er the ocean.
Breakers rolling to the coastline;
Bringing ships to harbour;
Gulls against the morning sunlight;
Flying off to freedom!"
Tora frowned slightly then gasped as the woman raised her head and let her hands fall away. Over one of the empty, bloodied eye-sockets, four parallel scars ran down her face.
"That's me?"
"Yes. That's you."
Tora reached out a hand to the glass and touched it. The other, ancient, hag-like her frowned.
"I know you're there Scott. And who's with you? Eloise?"
"What do I say Cable?"
"You chose."
"Oui. C'est moi."
The lined face split into a wide grin.
"It's good to see you again. But I've been having the nightmares again. Where you're all dead."
"Tell me about the nightmares."
"I'm at home. Happy, happy. Then the Black Angel comes. She…she…k-kills everyone…then she kills my babies. Kills them…then she makes me…makes me…st-stab Logan in…the heart… And I beg her 'Let me…d-die' and…and she laughs. Tears out…tears out…my cl-claws. Hands me to…to…the soldiers… They hurt me…do what only…only Logan should do. Then they…they leave me in…in the dark…for…for years… Men come… Hurt me… Then I'm chained…not allowed to walk…light hurts eyes. Then eyes…eyes torn out… hurts so bad…won't grow back… Then I go to boy…boy hurts me…even more…and then He comes…like an angel…Cable… And…and…WHO ARE YOU! WHO ARE YOU! CABLE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"
"Hush Tora, hush."
Cable spoke softly, carefully.
"I'm here. She's a friend, she won't hurt you."
"Everybody hurts me."
"I didn't."
"You hurt me! You leave me. Every time you say you stay, you go."
"I have work to do Tora."
"DON'T YOU DARE TRY THAT LINE!"
She slammed herself against the window and for a second, the empty eye-sockets were filled with a silver light. A pitiful noise was made as the claws tried to extend and nothing was there. The hollow metal, torn out of it's housing. Then used to gouge out the eyes. Tora could only watch as this person who looked and smelt so like her try to lash out at the window.
"The others all left me, left me alone! I call to them but they ignore me. Say I'm insane. Only one listens. Only one…"
"Only one what?"
"The others. All the others. I can hear them. They hear me. But they ignore me. Only one listens."
"Who are the others?"
Suddenly the empty eyes burned into her.
"I know that scent! You! You are the one that listens. Only you! But you are not you yet."
Tora frowned.
"What do you mean, I am not me yet?"
"You are too young. And the Song has not yet joined you."
"The Song?"
"The Song, The Song. It has kept me alive all these years. I curse it. Curse it with all of my heart."
"What is the Song?"
"The Song is…the Song is…Eloise, shouldn't you be with Luke?"
Tora pulled her head away and looked at Cable.
"Is she… Am I always like this?"
"She isn't you. That's the important thing to remember. And yes, she is always like this."
Tora sighed. She looked almost ill.
"I think I want to go home Cable. And I don't want anyone to know about this."
"I understand. It might look bad that in my world, you're an insane relic from the past."
"Why is my uniform different?"
"We don't know. We found her in Stryfe's quarters and she recognized my scent. We brought her back, looked after her. Managed to treat the worst of her physical injuries. But the spark, that little thing that makes you you. That was missing. And she made that uniform herself. I wasn't there when she did it, no one was. It just turned up one day, like it was meant to be."
Tora turned her head away in a hope Cable wouldn't see the tears. Tears for a woman who could not weep.
Phoenix gasped.
"Oh… I never knew. If I had, well, me and Scott would have been there when we were raising Nathan."
"It wouldn't have worked."
"But Tora was our friend. We should have saved her!"
"And exposed yourself to her reaction? You know how she would have behaved."
"Yes. We never would have been able to survive one of her…moments."
"So sweet of you to call them that."
"Well she sure kept better control than I did."
Logan grinned when Tora entered the adult rec room.
"We thought Cable had taken you off to the future."
She laughed, hating the fakeness there.
"Yeah. Cable took me to the future to meet my future self."
Everyone laughed but very few people noticed the slight redness around her eyes.
"I was at Etana's grave."
The laughter stopped as people guiltily thought back to the last time they had been to the grave. For many, it had been over a month. Whilst Etana had sacrificed herself, and been close to Logan and Tora, she had always been slightly distant to the rest. Very few people knew what she got up to when she went away on 'business', or what Nick Fury required her to do on a regular basis. Apparently it involved a lot of screaming. Perhaps only four people truly knew her. Magneto had treated the letter bearer with distrust but the fact it was Tora, who was rather open-minded about the whole 'let's enslave the rest of baseline humanity' thing, or at least didn't try and beat him up every time she met him, and who at the time was six months pregnant, definitely suggested it wasn't a trap. He wouldn't read the letter while she was there though. Actually, he'd been rather courteous and invited her to stay for a de-caff coffee but she'd declined, knowing it would lead to the whole 'Join the Brotherhood my fellow mutant, and you shall be avenged'. And she could do without that. Oddly, Fury had turned up at the funeral and he never went to official meetings. And Jean swore that she had seen his one good eye filled with tears. Of course, Nick denied it vehemently. All he said was 'Shadow was one damn good agent', which from him was about the greatest praise you could give.
Phoenix sighed.
"It was times like that I wished I could read her mind."
"Yes. You only broke through her barriers…twice?"
"Yes. And at both times, I was in full Phoenix mode and she wasn't exactly sane."