Memories

Deadly Truth

Disclaimer: What do you think?

If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.

She stepped into the house and frowned. There was a terrible smell, like rotting flesh.

"Logan? Scott?"

She walked along the silent corridors and shuddered. A Sentinel walked past the window and it was all she could do not to attack it. Suddenly a blue hand stuck of a door and Beast pulled her in.

"Hank?"

"Sean's dead."

"What…? Banshee? How?"

"We don't know. You shouldn't have gone Tora. Everything's gone to Hell."

"Hank, I need to know…"

"Charles… Tora, Charles sent four teenagers into Krakoa and they weren't trained. Then, to stop us feeling guilty, he wiped our memories of it."

"Hank…"

"That's not the worst bit. One of them… One of them is Scott's brother. Aged in a way similar to Curt."

"Oh… How…?"

"One of the others was in a constant state of evolution. He…bonded with Gabriel. And…he came back and killed lots of people. And… Tora, Charles is back. And walking. But not… He's lost his telepathy."

She frowned.

"I… Ah…"

"What?"

"When I first learnt to drop my shields… Emma said most telepaths would hate to go into my mind because I have a natural defence mechanism."

"What?"

"The deeper they go into my mind, the deeper I go into theirs. Charles never wanted to enter my mind, even when I offered him a chance."

"You mean…"

"He knew I'd find out. And he was afraid. And for a good reason."

"Tora, you can't… It's Charles…"

"You know what I first thought when I met him? It's too good to be true. You can never trust professors, especially ones who deal with mutants!"

"Tora, you have to calm down."

"No Hank! This isn't about me! This is about Charles lying to us for seven years! Seven years Hank!"

"Tora, you need to calm down."

"This is the exact misuse of powers that he taught us about! He's a hypocrite Hank! A liar and a cheat!"

"Tora…"

"Look, I'm… I'm going to take Jamie and Curt and Eva and I'm going to Canada to stay in Etana's old place."

"Tora you can't! We need you here!"

"I am not staying in a house where a manipulative telepath is in control!"

"He's not a telepath Tora!"

"Yes! But he was!"

"Tora, we all know he could never get into your mind!"

"THEN WHY WERE MY BARRIERS BEING PROBED ALL THE TIME? WHY DID IT STOP AFTER THE DECIMATION?"

"TORA, WE NEED YOU HERE!"

"YOU MANAGED PERFECTLY WELL WITHOUT ME GENIUS! SOME GENIUS YOU ARE! YOU CAN'T EVEN FIX A STUPID PIECE OF CHAOS MAGIC!"

She stormed out, leaving Hank standing in the classroom looking at his hands in despair and trying not to wonder what had made Tora so…angry and spiteful. Normally she considered every word before she said it, weighed up the options and came out with something soft and caring, which gave the impression of slowness around the language, but made almost all her comments soft spoken and the right thing to say. And that she could explode like that and come out with words that bit and tore worse than anything Emma could ever say had never crossed Hank's mind. But then to be able to calm and soothe, you also needed to know the words that angered and stung.

He touched his face and was surprised to feel tears. Then he snarled and marched out after her.

"Some Dragon you are if you can't heal this!"

She whipped around from the end of the corridor and stalked towards him, eyes flashing silver with anger.

"This. Is. Out. Of. My. Hands. I tried and I was taken before the TRIBUNAL! They dragged me away and placed me in the court in front of all the cosmic entities and told me I was not to interfere and if I did then all of humanity would be destroyed! And the worst bit was that I'm more powerful than all of the cosmic entities! But the Tribunal gave me the ultimatum! The mutant race or the human race! How could I choose Hank? How could I choose? So next time you accuse me of not doing something, remember that I answer to the Tribunal and the One-Above-All, and them alone! Next time, don't accuse me of sitting back and letting people die!"

She stormed off and Hank caught a whiff of sea-spray and ice. Which wasn't surprising considering how mad she was. Just like a mad Jean had smelt of smoke and fire, Tora always smelt of the sea and ice-sheets when angry. But it had never reached the point where water vapour was curling around her hands. Oh, Jean's eyes had sometimes burst with fire, but the fire had never left her eyes unless she needed it to. Tora had a different approach. Danger Room workouts showed her going in apparently perfectly calm, screaming a lot when inside then turning the whole place into a waterspout/tsunami/extremely fast moving glacier. She would then leave looking perfectly composed and relaxed. Scott had been planning to confront her about it. Hank had pointed out it was better than her taking it out on the students. Scott had agreed but still suggested anger-management. Hank had asked if Dr Reese was out of the asylum yet. Scott had shut up.

"She really did hate therapists."

"Like you wouldn't believe."

Logan hadn't expected to come in and find Tora packing. Nor had he expected his stuff to be pack, or the kids' stuff. So he felt fully justified in asking 'Why?' Only with a few more swear words inserted. Tora just looked at him and he knew.

"Chuck?"

"Of course."

"You… We can't go."

"I will not stay on the hospitality of another manipulative professor. I swore to myself that if Charles Xavier ever proved to be anything like my former hosts, by which I mean manipulative, dangerous, hypocritical or unethical, then I would leave without a second thought. And he has proved to be all of them."

"Tora, you can't just…leave. What about the kids?"

"I'm taking them with me."

"Where?"

"Canada. Then Scotland."

"You're going to take Jamie and Eva away from the only home they've ever known and Curt from the one place he feels safe? Away from Xixy?"

"You're coming with us and you will act as the father you should be."

"No."

The word was just that. A word. No growl or snarl or any of the normal noises Logan made when angry. Just a word that could have come from Etana when she was being incredibly stubborn. People learnt to fear the 'No' of the Black Angel. Because when Etana Bat Aleka said no, she normally meant it. And nothing could shake her from that. And when Logan said that word it could have come from her lips. Tora blinked.

"You're not going."

It was a statement, not a question.

"No. I'm not. Chuck's done a bad thing, maybe more than one bad thing. But he never turned his back on us when we needed him. He took us both in when there was nowhere else for us to go-"

"There's always somewhere to go!"

"This bothers you, doesn't it?"

"Yes. It does."

"Why?"

"Why? Logan, you have to ask why?"

"No. But I want to hear you say it."

"Fine! Charles sent four teenagers to their deaths! Teenagers who were the same age as some of our students, teenagers who were woefully unprepared! You've seen child warriors! You've seen me and Laura and Curt! You've seen Scott, who is Cyclops more than Scott Summers now, Jean, who has died so many times for Charles' 'dream', Bobby whose a living icicle because he follows this dream, Warren who's lost his most precious appendices and Hank, who's a walking furball! I would not wish becoming a teenage warrior on anyone! And Charles does it again and again! He turns children into warriors Logan! And we let him!"

Then she burst into angry, gulping tears and Logan just pulled her in for a hug.

"Feel better?"

"Yeah."

"You just needed to get that off your chest."

"Yeah."

"Do you want me to unpack?"

"Okay…"

"Poor woman. Anger became a primary motivator in her life."

"She had a lot to be angry about."

"Of course."

A.N. Why mention Deadly Genesis when I skipped over things like the Onslaught Saga? I felt that Tora would be most challenged with the deaths of teenagers as she knew what it was like to be trained with a single purpose in mind.