Memories
Flickbook
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If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
She was so tired. Yet she couldn't sleep. It felt like someone had stuffed her head with fog. Memories, once so easy to come by, were now dancing on the edge of her grasp. She coughed and felt someone place water to her lips. She drank greedily but it couldn't wash the metallic feel in her mouth away. Her hands twitched and she felt Logan catch them.
"I'm sorry darlin'."
She coughed again and heard him choke on his tears.
"Why? You shouldn't die like this. You can't!"
She tried to speak but it felt like her tongue was coated in metal. All that came out was a low groan. She heard footsteps.
"Logan, I'm sorry. We can't do anything for her. To remove the adamantium would be to kill her. Her skeleton can't cope."
"But it's killing her anyway."
"Both ways of dying will be slow and painful. I'm sorry Logan. This is why we were so worried when the Decimation happened. We never thought that Tora would be depowered. She was so busy searching for you, that it never occurred to us that she might be a casualty. The first thing we knew was when she collapsed. She's going to die."
"She can't… She can't…"
"I'm sorry Logan. But she can."
"I wanna kill that %$&*!# witch!"
"I know Logan. I know."
"Why? Tora wouldn't hurt anyone. Why did the Witch have to take her?"
"I don't know Logan. I don't know."
Tora opened her mouth again and Logan leant in.
"What? What is it?"
"Hurts…"
"I know darling. I know."
"Please…stop hurts…"
"Tora…"
"Logan, I think she wants you to be humane. You don't have to if you don't want to. We can anaesthetise her so deeply she won't wake up for three days. At which point, it will be all over. Not euthanasia, but just…relief."
"Nah Hank. I…I need to be the one to do this."
"I'm sorry Logan."
"Aren't we all? Look…can you just go? I…I wanna be alone."
"Of course."
The steps retreated and she felt rather than saw Logan lean towards her.
"You certain?"
"Yes…"
"I… You know I love you?"
"That's…why…asking…"
"I… I'll do it."
"Thank…you…Carca…jou…"
And she felt cold metal be placed on her throat. A sudden flash of pain and then…nothing. Blissful, perfect nothing.
xXx
She relaxed in the chair, the fear draining out of her. All the warnings had meant nothing. They had slowly dropped away to nothing and so far, no terrible catastrophe had happened. Of course, she knew exactly what the catastrophe would have been. If it hadn't been for the fact that Charles had managed to piece Wanda's mind together again. She tilted her head to one side, heard the shouts of pupils and laughed. It had been hilarious in class today. She'd been explaining to Wither the use of the irregular verb 'faire' and he'd pecked her on the cheek. She'd leapt back and touched the point where the skin was healing before rolling her eyes and smiling at the poor boy. He'd looked so embarrassed but she knew what it was. It was the same reason Rogue had grasped her wrist in fear a few years back, leaving Tora with a few less brain cells. A desire to be normal, to be able to touch. And Tora was used to a desire to be normal. As the class looked on, she reached out and placed her left hand on his face and told him politely 'Please don't kiss me again' before walking around to her desk and hiding her withered hand from them. Even now, it was still weaker than her right hand but she felt it was worth it for the look on the boy's face. She looked down at her stunted hand and smiled.
xXx
She flicked open the phone then closed it again. Then opened it. The question was how would the X-Men react? Had Scott annoyed her enough today for her to announce exactly who her mysterious boyfriend was? She considered. Then put the phone down and decided that, for today at least, she wouldn't tell them. Suddenly she heard Scott hammering on the door.
"Danger Room! Now!"
Changing her mind, she picked up the phone and flicked it open. Pressed 2 and held, until the speed-dial took over. Heard the rings. Then it being picked up.
"Heeellloooo!"
"Hey Wade. Want to come over tonight instead of going out to dinner?"
xXx
She smiled at Ororo who carefully arranged the dress.
"You look beautiful Tora."
"Yeah, as beautiful as a furry anthropomorphic tiger can look."
"Well ha, ha. Sarcasm is your great weakness Tora."
"Tell me about it. You look amazing by the way."
"Thank you. I must say, I may wear this blue more often."
"I wanted it to match Hank's fur. Just as long as kids don't end up with a mix of our fur colours. It's a horrible browny-puke colour."
"Come on Tora. Hank's waiting."
"I know. Don't want him to think I stood him up on his wedding day."
xXx
She stood shakily in front of the man. The Last Hero and the man who killed them all.
"You are powerful little mutant. Join me and I can make you GREAT!"
"And if I say no?"
"Then prepare to die."
"Fine."
She leapt forward and pinned his arms to his sides, holding him close to her.
"Prepare to die with me!"
And the electrical signal in her brain sent a message down to the small but powerful bomb surgically implanted into chest cavity, the Final Solution of the Weapon X-ii Program. And fire rippled across the room as both the Last Hero and the Great Villain perished in the inferno.
xXx
They stood side by side, the short fiery haired woman and the tall dark angel. Etana grinned at Tora.
"You know, this ranks with my idea to go on a cruise on that 'unsinkable' ship in 1912. Now what was it called? The Magnificent? The Monstrous? The Gargantuan? Oh yes. The Titanic."
"Then let's hit the iceberg."
Etana laughed joyfully and unsheathed Muzai. The sword was an enigma, being as old as Etana, yet showing all the signs of Masamune's work, even being signed. However, Etana was old when Masamune was born and she refused to talk about it. The katana was her favourite, the one she used for preference. Tora grinned and chikted out her claws.
"Let's go rescue our husbands!"
xXx
The man frowned.
"You are obviously looking for someone. Your accent singles you out as a Canadian and your wife's accent… Quebec?"
"Non. A little bit of everywhere."
"Ah. But you are naturally a French speaker?"
"Yes. How do you know we are looking for someone?"
"You are in London for the first time in a number of years and instead of seeing the sights, you go into the back streets, the run down areas. Hardly a tourist's view of London."
"We might be interested in the 'real' London."
"Yet you have no camera, but a piece of paper, probably a photo in your pocket that you regularly check. Your purse is most likely in your bag, and your phone is in your left coat pocket, yet you check your other pocket more regularly, as if there is something in there that is more important. I don't see any silhouette, so a piece of paper it is. You are in a rough end of London, glancing at the faces of people yet looking away almost instantly. That suggests you are looking for someone and haven't yet found them. So a photo it must be as you would want a photo to make requests."
"Who are you?"
"A detective."
"You know, we could torment him by trying to let him find Etana."
"Logan, that's evil."
"A missing person? Oh, I love these cases!"
Tora turned.
"We're looking for an old friend who ran away over two months ago after an accident that left her…different. Her husband can't go after her as their marriage was…secret to the public and he occupies an…important position. Disappearing suddenly could lead to panic. This is one of the few photos we have of her since the…accident."
"I assume from your candidness, she was a mutant with a severe disfigurement and enjoyed being a mutant. She was changed to a normal human after the decimation of the mutant race in July."
"Are you a mutant?"
"No. I just observe."
"I should point out, Etana is…the best. She has safe-houses all across the world and it's taken us this long to track her to London. We're good but she's better."
"Yeah well, she did say when she taught me she wasn't teaching me all her tricks."
The photo was blurred, a woman moving fast. Her hair was black and she had tanned skin. Dark brown eyes that were full of loss stared out of the picture. She was dressed in red, which beforehand had stood out vibrantly against her fur and now sapped the vitality from her face.
"How old is she?"
"Er… at the last count, about three thousand."
To be fair, the man didn't twitch much.
"One of the mutants with an elongated lifespan?"
"Yes."
"So I'd say her safe-house would be in the oldest part of the city. Any mentions of past visits to London?"
"A great deal. Mainly she moaned about her old house being burned down due to 'that infernal baker'."
"And?"
"Er…she mentioned dealing with the Ripper."
"So that's why he never struck again…"
"Honestly Logan, you'd think you'd be prepared to ask your adoptive mother questions about her past."
"She didn't like to talk about it."
"That's because you always had a motive in mind."
The tall man they were with smiled at the photo.
"Leave it to me. I have connections at Scotland Yard."
"Where do we find you?"
The man scribbled down an address on a paper napkin and marched off, long coat flying out behind him. Logan glanced down at the address.
"HEY! He's just given us a web address!"
"Oh, well she's nowhere near as depressed as earlier."
"Was that just me, or did that man look vaguely familiar?"
A.N. For those of you who don't know, the final reality was a crossover with a British TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Look it up! Seriously, it's great!