Memories
Surgery
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"What. Is. Wrong."
"Logan, that's the problem. Her breathing and heartrate are now normal, but…no responses. She's there but…not."
"So…?"
"Emma's here. She's going to perform psychic surgery. We're going to place Tora in this container and Emma in the other. And Emma wants you, Curt and Nightcrawler to be there as well, going in with her."
"Why?"
"Because Tora trusts you the most. Betsy will be on guard, prepared to lobotomise Emma or Tora if the threat is severe."
"What!"
"Listen, we don't know who or what is in Tora's mind preventing her from…being here. I'm as lost as you are."
"What would this 'surgery' entail?"
"Going deeper into Tora's mind that anything before."
They turned. Emma was standing there, dressed in her usual white.
"It will hurt her and me. She could force me out, she could trap me in there, she could tear my mind to shreds. And if Dragon is loose, I will almost certainly die. Tora can normally control it. But if Tora is busy, then Dragon will be loose and er… it doesn't like me very much."
"Should Bets go in instead?"
"I'm nowhere near as strong as Emma. Tora's natural defences are a thousand times better than my abilities. You go into her mind, and she does exactly the same back. Emma has enough defences to stop Tora from breaking her. I don't."
"Can we get on with this? If Logan, Kurt and Curt could sit in the back chairs. We've already positioned Tora. All I have to do is sit in and we'll be there."
The three men exchanged glances then nodded and positioned themselves into the chairs. Then Emma sat in the one so their heads formed a wheel, pulled down the helmet and they were in a crystal gallery, huge and imposing.
"This is Tora's mind?"
"Impressive I know. This is the main gallery. There should be pictures on the wall but there aren't."
"What does that mean Emma?"
"It means that Tora isn't thinking about anything right now. This is the…forefront of her mind. What she's thinking about right now, what's most important to her at this point. And Curt, do not go anywhere near the black door. If you do, you will die in the space between realities."
Curt's hand snatched away from the huge stone handle."
I wasn't doing anything."
"Right. We are in the mind. Here, lucidity is a weapon. Here, if you believe it, it is. I want us split up. Me and Logan, Curt and Kurt."
"Why that?"
"We need at least one family member with us all the time and Look. At. Curt."
"What?"
They blinked. Then froze. Soft silver light was trickling from Curt's body.
What the…?
"Dragonborn. That's what Tora meant. During one of our therapy sessions she kept muttering about the Dragonborn. It obviously wasn't Eva, so why was Curt different? Answer, Dragon knew what was going to happen and gave him protection. So Curt will be…while not exactly safe here, then welcomed as a part of Tora. I'm a highly trained telepath. So me and Logan, Curt and Kurt."
"Yes, why am I here?"
"Because parts of Tora's mind are locked off to me and apparently require faith to open. A highly effective, if unnecessary defence mechanism."
"Faith?"
"Logan, you should know by now that Tora adores playing games like that. Take something like faith in a higher deity that none of the telepaths she is willing to allow in mind have, then lock stuff behind it. There are voices behind those doors. I need you to find out what is behind them."
"You need me for my faith in God?"
"Pretty much."
Kurt opened his mouth but Emma shook her head and they suddenly became aware she was dressed in military style fatigues.
"Er… Emma, when did you change?"
"We're in the mind remember."
And suddenly they were all dressed in comfortable, practical clothing. Emma smiled then nodded.
"Curt and Kurt, that way. The Faith doors are that way. Logan, we're going deeper."
"Deeper?"
"Downstairs. Let's see what the subconscious holds."
Curt and Kurt wandered down one corridor, glancing from side to side.
"What did Emma mean with the Faith doors Uncle Kurt?"
"She means your mother is a very smart woman."
"Huh?"
"Of course, Emma hasn't quite thought out what would happen if Tora has decided that the doors can only be opened with her particular brand of faith, which is rather different from mine."
"Hey, look!"
Curt dived off the corridor into a side gallery. Nightcrawler rolled his eyes. The crystal seemed to have formed a museum, with high arching skylights that allowed silvery light to enter. Just as Kurt was about to enter, Poison shot straight back out, his face contorted in horror.
"Urgh! Yuk! Gross! How can they do that?"
Glancing up, Kurt almost burst out laughing at the sign, written in Tora's handwriting, stating 'Private and Highly Confidential- Logan'.
"Did your parents scare you?"
"I didn't know you could do that with…yuk. Just…yuk!"
"Emma said it was this way."
And Curt scampered further down the corridor, deliberately not looking at the signs that said on them things like 'Unofficial Uses For the Danger Room', 'Unfortunate Interruptions' and so on.
Meanwhile, Emma and Logan were gently going down a winding, tightly spiralling staircase that plunged into the depths of blackness. Logan frowned and brushed his hand down the central column.
"Look Emma. Most of the stuff this place is built of is that semi-translucent crystal. But here, there's metal."
Emma turned and brushed her hand along the warm crystal, staring at the metal pillar enclosed inside it.
"It's the chips."
"What?"
"The digital chips. They're not a part of her brain Logan. They're a part of her mind."
"And the difference is?"
"It's like wearing clothes and the clothes being an extension of your body. That's the difference."
"So… The chips are a part of her?"
"Of course Logan. What else did you expect them to be? I imagine they were originally… yes, look, the crystal shows signs of healing. Originally, they weren't there but Tora somehow integrated them…ah…"
"What?"
"When she rebuilt her body, she did it wrong. She placed the chips back because she was used to them and Dragon thought they were an actual part of her."
"So…"
"Her mind was fused with the chips. Frankly, I don't want to…ah…"
And Emma shot off, leaving Logan to run after her, cursing telepaths who finished sentences halfway through.
Kurt shuddered as they passed through another corridor. Here the crystal was shot through with black and deep burgundy. And then they stepped into a room Kurt sometimes visited in nightmares. Huge, imposing, covered in blood and gore, and a tiny child cowering in the corner.
"Tora?"
The girl looked up shyly.
"I'm Marie. I'm scared."
"I'm Kurt Wagner."
"Oh, you're Kurt Wagner!"
"Er…"
"Tora talks about you loads, says you make life amusing."
"Er…"
"Look, Jeanne's better for this sort of stuff. This way."
And the tiny two-year-old grabbed a hand each and tugged the two men off.
"I think she's in the next room."
The door didn't open. Marie sighed.
"Tora insists on putting these stupid locks everywhere."
Curt reached out but was unable to open the door. Kurt smiled and reached out, fingers touching the slight pattern in the door and pressing a hand flat out. The door instantly opened.
"Easy."
The hall that stretched out before them made them freeze in horror.
Logan and Emma turned and stopped. A teenage girl was sitting on a step, picking at her fingernails.
"Hello?"
She looked up with a vaguely disinterested glance.
"Nothing of interest down here."
"Tora?"
"I'm Xii."
Emma gave a little ah of comprehension and Logan frowned.
"What?"
"Multiple personality. Logan, Tora has multiple personalities."
Xii rolled her eyes.
"No idiot. We're all Tora but we're different parts of her. Like…facets to a diamond. You know about diamonds don't you Ms Frost?"
"You're all Tora? How does that work?"
Xii sighed.
"I haven't time to explain. The whole stupid gallery's about to fall in on us."
"What?"
"Some idiot's been trying to get in. Cracked the breach head. Tora and Jeanne are on damage control right now. I'm on guard duty."
"Guarding what?"
"Her."
Then, quiet, trembling, Tora's voice rang out.
"Help!"
Xii stiffened.
"Don't…"
But she didn't have a chance to finish before Emma sent out ropes to tie her up.
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
Logan charged off and Emma followed, ensuring that Xii was held by the living crystal wall. They skidded into a room with a series of huge chairs set in a semi-circle and Logan barely paused, just charged through it into the next room. And screamed. Emma followed more cautiously, searching for the trap and screamed as her bones ached as something boiling and at the same time freezing entered them. Logan was straining then as she watched through pain-drunk eyes, he started muttering.
"I am Logan. I am safe. I am Logan. I am safe."
Military procedure and also, Logan had experienced this terrible pain twice in his life. Therefore, he was soon able to grab Emma's hand and drag them out of the green-stained walls.
"That was worse than mine. Hell… No wonder she never talks about it."
"Was that the adamantium implantation?"
"Yeah."
Emma shuddered as she felt the last traces of the pain fade away.
"You lived through that?"
"It took about an hour and a half."
And he marched off down the narrowing corridor. And Emma stopped him.
"Beware."
And he saw the fluid, the delicate, ghostly fluid and watched as Emma sent a thought down it which was torn to shreds.
"What?"
And somehow Emma shielded them past that deadly trap and Logan just frowned.
"Why are there all these traps?"
"I don't know… Ah. I think I do…"
Staring up at them was Dark Dragon, and behind her, curled up, chained to a wall, was Tora, head downcast, body limp.
"TORA!"
Kurt's joyful shout filled the hall and Tora, Dragon and a cat all turned.
"Kurt? I'm a little busy right now."
"JEANNE!"
Curt barrelled past the teleporter and hugged the cat.
"I thought you were sleeping in my room?"
"I am. But I'm also here."
"Marie, can you help here?"
The toddler ran over and sighed at the cracks.
"Tora, I don't know where Xii is."
"Don't worry, she's on guard duty."
"Guarding what Tora?"
Tora turned as if she'd forgotten the men where there.
"Myself."
"Let me guess. Logan and Emma messed up?"
"Big time."