Memories
Wild One
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She wanted to be out there, wanted to be helping, but Scott had ordered her to stay with the students and her children. She snarled as Magneto tore through her home, tried to lunge when he destroyed the Phoenix memorial statue. And then everyone, all the students and the X-Men and her screamed as they felt their powers being blocked. And Magneto laughed. And Dragon screamed.
MURDERER! CHILD-KILLER! DESTROYER OF WORLDS! BETRAYER OF THE ANGEL!
Tora echoed that call as she leapt up and charged at him, ignoring Scott's shouts, ignoring everything but the man who had betrayed her old friend, the angel, the man who had ruined Etana's wedding by turning up to denounce her. She slammed into him, ignoring the bite of the adamantium in her veins, desperate instead to hurt this man who had hurt her kind with his hatred.
"STUPID GIRL!"
She was thrown across the courtyard and landed heavily, felt the blood run down her arm but she leapt forward again and shattered his helmet with her claws, ignoring the blood trickling from her knuckles, ignoring Logan begging her to stop. This man had caused Etana to run, caused the day that should have been perfect into a nightmare. He deserved what she was going to do to him. The swirling purple cape was torn to shreds, the armour torn as Magneto tried to grasp hold of the adamantium in her bones, like he'd done that Christmas day he made her kill her husband. And she snarled and kicked out, foot crashing into his nose. His head rocked back and he fell, unconscious after the equivalent of a heavy metal bar whacked him right between the eyes. The others gasped as their mutations returned to them and she crouched low, snarling, preparing to kill this man. And Logan pulled her back.
"Tora, what are you doing?"
"He destroyed New York."
"What?"
"He tore our world to pieces, destroyed the relationship between humans and mutants. He is responsible for the Sentinels taking over!"
Logan rested his hand on her arm.
"Tora, the Sentinels haven't taken over. You're slipping again."
She shook her head to dispel the other realities.
"What?"
"You're flipping through alternate realities again."
She blinked and then shuddered as she fell backwards.
"I…I was going to kill him…"
"It's okay. You saved us all. All our powers were down Tora. And you beat Magneto without any mutation, dragging a skeleton of metal which was poisoning you. Tora, that was amazing."
She had her head in her hands.
"I would have killed him for a crime he did not commit. What am I?"
"Tora, you just defeated Magneto without your powers. Is it just me, or shouldn't that be something you should be proud of?"
"For the wrong reasons…"
Scott moved towards them but Logan waved him away, mouthing 'Stay back'. Tora was whispering into her hands, muttering words in French that he didn't understand.
"Tora?"
"…Pardonne-nous nos offences, comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés…"
"Tora?"
"…Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation, mais délivre-nous du mal…"
"Tora?"
"…car c'est à toi qu'appartiennent le règne, la puissance et la gloire, aux siècles des siècles."
She blinked and whispered a final word so quietly he couldn't hear it. Then she leant over and rested her head on his chest.
"If I'd done it, would you have kept your promise?"
He felt his heart skip a beat. He'd hoped, prayed, that she had forgotten that promise when she was covered in blood and holding an injured child in her arms. He'd hoped she would have forgotten, hoped she would have forgotten the promise that he could never quite get rid of. The words rang around his head as if it had only happened a few minutes ago.
He glanced over at Tora, holding Jamie close, tears streaming down her face. Her eyes met his.
"If I ever, ever do that again Logan, no matter the circumstances, swear to me, swear to me, that you will kill me before I become her."
"Tora…"
"Swear to me Logan."
He could see she meant this.
"I will swear if you agree to one thing."
"What?"
"That you will back me up when I say that I killed her."
"Logan…"
"Tora, I will only swear what you want me to, if you agree to this."
He saw the conflict in her eyes. The love of the truth and the fear of what she could become. He felt terrible doing this, but it was for her own good.
"I swear."
He nodded.
"Then I promise that if you ever murder anyone, no matter on what reason, I will…kill you."
He knew, deep down, that if that day ever came, he wouldn't be able to. She would stand there with her head bowed, like she had stood that day on the Moon, with her eyes downcast and a prayer on her lips. And he'd be expected to stab her, kill her. And he knew, he knew he would just stand there and refuse to do it. He felt her heartbeat as she clung to him. Knowing that for her, with her past linked so closely to him, that he had been the one constant. There as a child, as a idol, something to aspire to be. As a teenager, someone to hate as a reason for her predicament. As an adult, a friend, teacher, rival and lover. She had called him her glacier. The thing that shaped her, the thing that turned her into Tora. That was the reason she clung to him when she was unsure, afraid, needing reassurance. So rarely did she need it, when she did, she fell into the darkness so deeply, she needed every ounce of help he could give her. He knew what she had been 'designed' for. She had been trained to act as an ambassador or an important dignitary. And then she would have stolen the files or life required. She had finally told him about some of the things she had been taught to do. Get the target alone, no matter what cost to you. Even if you have to sleep with him, get him off guard and then… She hadn't been able to continue and Logan had felt relieved then horrified with himself for being thankful that all they wanted him to do was kill. What they had trained Tora to do had been worse. She was… the woman who could have been anyone, the ambassador, the soldier, the spy, the woman on the corner, selling herself. All lies. Even, at times, he thought that Tora herself was a lie. A lie so good she believed it herself. But he pushed that thought aside. He had to. For if Tora was a lie, then what was the life she was living? He saw her true self so infrequently, when he did, it was so…terrifying that he didn't want to see it. He had known Tora was real, the truth for years. And then Dragon had come and Tora had turned into something…different. Something that saw history as a tapestry, something that was incoherent when examined too closely yet with a picture when you stepped back and only it could see the picture and what was to come. And sometimes…sometimes he thought she would allow the world to end if it fitted in with the greater picture. Had Tora, the real Tora died in that cell below the mansion, when she had given her mind and soul to a being that answered only to itself? Or had it been when she had been killed by a woman now locked up in a SHIELD prison? Or when she had given her individuality to Dragon? Maybe it had been when she had tumbled into her own darkness? Or maybe, just maybe, Tora had never lived. But when she looked at him with her eyes full of fear and a need to be recognized, he pushed the thoughts aside. What was he thinking? And why? She was his. And she needed him.
Growling, the telepath slipped out of his mind, angry that the love had burned away the doubts he had tried to plant into Weapon X's mind. And then he felt something bright, something shining and silver, with traces of a darkness inside it. A questioning thought touched his mind.
What are you? Why are you in the wild one's mind?
The sheer power behind the thoughts sent the telepath reeling.
What are you?
I am Dragon. Who are you little human? All the little humans crumble to dust in a few short decades. These ones are eternal. Why are you in his mind? WHY ARE YOU IN HIS MIND?
The telepath recoiled as the words burned through his mind. This thing was dangerous. It could destroy the plan.
TELL ME! I AM DRAGON! I AM LIFE RENEWED AND KNOWLEDGE INCARNATE! I DEMAND YOU TELL ME!
And the telepath screamed as the being dove into his memories and stole his knowledge.
YOU SEEK TO HURT THE DRAGON-BORN! YOU HURT MY HATCHLING! YOU HURT HIM! I HURT YOU! DIE LITTLE HUMAN! YOUR TIME ON THIS PLAIN WAS TOO LONG! FOR YOU HAVE HURT THE AVATAR AND HER HATCHLING! DIE!
And he tried to warn his masters, tried to tell them they were fighting something a thousand times more dangerous than they had at first thought they were fighting but the icy claws closed around his mind and snuffed him out. The last thing he heard was the powerful being soothing another, more human mind.
It was nothing little one. Merely a slight disturbance. Do not fear little one. Soon everything will be good.
Phoenix shuddered.
"I hate it when cosmic entities keep stuff like that secret."
"I know."
Death shrugged.
"Sometimes it is better to allow them to see time as linear."