Memories
Iron to Rust, Rust to Iron
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She stood, quiet and still, just looking at Logan, fast asleep with Eva resting on his lap. Eva's red and black striped hair, so like her own, was tufty and bright on his dark shirt. Tora smiled and shifted, carrying Jamie back to his bed then going to collect Eva. Logan woke the moment Eva left his lap and his hand tightened around her wrist before he saw who she was and let her go. He'd taken to Eva stronger than he had to Jamie, not liking to be parted from her for longer than necessary. Maybe it was the fact he had to look after her when Tora had been spending all her time in an alternate reality.
She carried Eva to the cot and carefully placed her down. Sad goldish-blue eyes looked up at her.
"Do you miss him?"
A gurgle. Charles had been scanning her. She had traces of an empathic link in her mind, shattered. Somehow, the twins had been linked and Curt's…death…had broken the link. Therefore, Eva was having to deal with an important part of her life disappearing. She pressed a kiss to her daughter's forehead then turned the light out.
Logan was stirring in the chair. Bleary blue eyes looked up.
"Whurh?"
"I think you need to sleep."
"You've been getting less sleep than me."
"I've been living off coffee."
"Do you have a cup for me?"
"Bed. Then coffee in the morning."
He nodded sleepily. She helped him up and dragged him the short distance to the bed.
"Sleep."
He made an odd noise. Halfway between a yawn and a snarl, it sounded as if her didn't like her bossing him around. Their relationship, on the most basic level, was that of two animals. Unfortunately, he appeared based of wolf pack dynamics while she gravitated towards tiger. Even if she were lion, it would have been easier. But no, she had to have the basic instincts of a tiger. Loners, hunters and territorial, females would still allow males, especially the father of their cubs, into their territory or even share their kills. But in courtship, the female dominated, very different from the patriarchal wolves. This meant that two alpha beings were together and subtle dominance struggles were common. Their more human sides held their animals at bay, preventing times when either refused to submit from becoming violent. She often saw it in his eyes, the beast snarling to have this pitiful weak female, his mate, put in her correct place. He'd never acted on those feelings, although she may have snarled at him a few times. They were matched in a way very few could be. Her husband. Her mate. The human and the animal both claimed him. Mine.
Phoenix sighed.
"I mean, the possessiveness that those to had. I'd say it was unhealthy."
"Says the woman who told her husband to go out with an ex-villain as she lay dying."
"You still enjoy teasing me about that!"
"Well, it was funny."
Pressing her hands to the metal, Tora dug deep into the well of power inside her. The metal cracked under the glowing silver hands but didn't buckle. Snarling, she pressed even more power into it until rust started to blossom across the smooth silvery-grey iron. She allowed her anger and pain, especially over Curt's death, to burst out of her and gave it form in the snarling dragon around her. And then the metal crumbled to dust as it suddenly aged eight centuries in the space of three seconds. Tora leant back, satisfied. Hank came out and smiled.
"Tora, that was amazing. I've only ever seen that level of cosmic power when the Silver Surfer went mad on a Defenders mission. And Dark Phoenix levels, but lets not talk about that."
She smiled weakly.
"I never want to do that again. It's like I've just run a marathon then gone into a half-hour sparring session. I'm supposed to heal Hank, not destroy."
"But…"
"Look, Jean could have burned that to nothing no bother. But I had to find a technical solution and apply just the right amount of pressure. In the past, we've both changed reality. Or Phoenix and Dragon have. Phoenix tends to change the big thing and worry about the cracks in reality later. Or dump them onto Dragon to fix. And I…Dragon, change the little things, find the pressure points and change the little details so the big picture changes. I can't do something like make sure that piece of iron was never forged. What I can do is make sure it was forged eight hundred years previously and badly kept so it rusted to nothing. And it hurt. Hank, I can't explain. But I'm not meant to destroy. I can do this no bother."
The dust reformed and iron, glossy and smooth was back in shape, a phoenix proud and strong. Hank smiled slightly.
"I never expected anything other from you."
She smiled wryly.
"She's not dead you know."
"You brought her body back Tora. And stopped the Shi'ar from killing us all. I think if anyone should know she's dead, it would be you."
"No. When I was 'dead' I was totally conscious and aware of everything I was doing. I just didn't have a body. Jean is…healing. And I'm…sort of helping."
"How?"
"Er…relaying weekly reports? Using more power so Phoenix gets stronger. Hank, you would love to see the Stores. All the life-force that is new and unused gets used, channelled back into a separate part of the Stores where Dragon uses it and then it channels back into the new, unused life. It's perpetual!"
"Perpetual?"
"I mean, 100% efficiency. Any waste is instantly cycled back into the Stores."
Hank's eyes lit up.
"100% efficiency? Tora, that's amazing."
She glanced down at her watch and gulped.
"Hank, I have to go. I have to return a favour."
"What sort of favour Tora?"
"An old friend gave me some very good advice on the night before I married Logan. At the moment, she's… yes, I really need to go and give her some emotional support. Marriage at her age is a little daunting I suppose…"
"Tora…?"
"Look, alternate reality."
"Tora, is Etana getting married?"
"Yes."
And leaving Hank open-mouthed, Tora hurried off to go and talk to her friend who at the moment was eating far too much sugar and panicking.
Phoenix laughed.
"Etana really went to pieces?"
"Oh yes. It was rather funny."