Memories
The Dark Within
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The X-Men watched in horror as the claws were drawn out of Tora's chest and her mouth moved silently. The look of shock was prominent there.
"See how my enemies die!"
Logan snikted out his claws and almost stabbed the scream when Jean caught his hand. She was frowning.
"Pain. Shock. Calm. Power?"
"What?"
"Tora is feeling…powerful…"
As they watched, she pulled herself upright. Water was spilling out of the cuts, healing them. Healing? Then they watched as her fingers changed, becoming water. It spread through her whole body until there was not a piece of flesh in sight, just rolling waves. Red hair was now sea-spray. Clever hands a still pool. And when she spoke, it was the sound of a huge wave rushing towards them.
"Thank you. Now we are fully in control. And we love it. We are pure power. We're immortal. We are Dragon. We are Tora. We are one. Forever and ever. Eternity and Infinity. We are never separated. We are a human and we are a goddess. Never forget. When you go against a god, you can only hope to lose. Understand what we have become. We are everything you are not and we relish it. You will always want this power and you'll never have it. As long as there is history there will be Dragon and as long as there is Dragon there is Tora. And don't even try to end the universe to kill us. We'll survive it. We don't even need a body now. We are older than the universe and we will outlive it."
Scott looked at Jean.
"We?"
"Full bonding. No individuality. Just being. You stupid, stupid woman!"
"I thought Tora said it wasn't a god…"
"It's not. I think the power's gone to her head."
Poacher lashed out, claws sliding through water. And the beautiful, terrible thing leant over and whispered something in the flesh-woman's ear. They saw the widening of the eyes, the fear there. And then the scrabbling to try and get out whilst the thing that had once been Tora backed off.
"We are coming home."
Scott stared at the others.
"Get Forge's power-dampener online NOW!"
"Slim, what'cha think yer doing!"
"Saving us all. Now shut up Logan and let me get my job done."
Wolverine glowered but did as he was told for once.
Death winced.
"Power dampener on a fully bonded cosmic entity? Were they insane?"
"You don't get many fully bonded cosmic entities. Phoenix, Dragon and who else?"
The waves span around and reformed into the Tora-Dragon. She had changed, giving herself the Dragon's wings and clawed feet. She started to walk towards them.
"NOW!"
The dampener fired up, surrounding her in pink energy. She tilted her head and frowned.
"We won't hurt you."
"Tora, whatever you've done, change it back."
"Why should we?"
"Dragon, get out of Tora's mind."
"We are the same. There is no Tora, no Dragon. Just us."
"Tora…"
"Let us tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a being who was so lonely. And it found a perfect partner. They met and when they were ready they bonded. They became us."
"Tora… You aren't like this?"
"Who knows what there was before the universe began? We do. It wasn't all that interesting. People are so fun. We mean, before we had no idea there could be something called boredom yet almost every race creates it. Life amazes us. That's why Dragon wanted to live. And Tora wanted to know. She has a thirst for knowledge and Dragon offered her all of history. How could she deny it? And so Dragon protects Tora and Tora shows Dragon how life works. How to live, how to love, how to feel pain. At times Dragon thinks she got the better deal. Sure we're immortal but we are human. We have a family and somebody who loves us more than anything. Why should we split? We are strong."
"Tora, that's not you speaking…"
"It is Cyclops. Phoenix, tell him."
"You shouldn't be like this Tora."
"Tell him!"
"No."
The water charged towards the barriers. And went right through. Then her hand went to Jean's head.
"Tell them sister."
"NO!"
"TELL THEM!"
And the Phoenix was pulled from Jean's mind. It screamed and Jean screamed with it.
Dragon wishes only to live! It will not harm her.
The water-woman released the bird who fell back into Jean. She was still screaming with pain after the force had been ripped from her mind. Tora turned, her face full of hope. And the red beam of light hit her straight through the chest. She staggered back, shock registering on a face that flashed back to it's normal scarred flesh before turning to water. Then a low sigh was uttered and the waves fell apart, crashing to the ground. Logan rounded on Scott.
"She didn't know what she was DOING!"
"She hurt Jean."
"SHE'S CONFUSED!"
"SCOTT!"
They turned and froze. The water was pooling back together, only it was stained the colour and viscosity of an oil-slick. Then, from the heart outwards, the water started to shimmer and the Dragon symbol appeared on her chest. Except…
The once bright-soft silver was now tarnished. And as the flesh area expanded, they saw what had happened. The aqua blue was now a deep burgundy, the colour of dried blood. Then her face appeared. And it became apparent what had happened.
There were no scars. Her eyes were totally silver, burning with a light so intense it was impossible to look into. A slight smile was playing over her lips. And then the Dragon burst into life around her. Only this time it was different. Instead of the beautiful and wise-looking Chinese dragon, it was huge and reptilian. Like the illustrations of the dragon that burnt and tore through all. And she screamed in a voice like glaciers, cold and immense.
"I am water and knowledge incarnate. I am the flow of time and what has been. Fear me, for now and forever, I am DRAGON!"
And the waves swirled, pushing the others back.
Death sighed.
"At least she was never as destructive as Phoenix."
"OI!"
"Oh, Jean you came back."
"Ah. Is this the point I get dismembered?"
"Yes."
"Ow."
A.N. Yes, another cliff-hanger. Yes, I enjoy making my characters life misery. And now is the time I feel I should point out that in Chapter 28 Phoenix meant dead dead, not 'dead' aka pretending to be dead for six months. I'll let you work that one out on your own. : ) Wha-ha-ha!
In other news, I'm putting up a poll on my profile about Memories and my other story Cells.