Memories
Broken
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She turned to Graydon Creed.
"Tell them then. Tell them about your parents, your half-brother, your foster-sister. Go on, tell them. Oh, too scared? Well I'm not."
She straightened up in her chair, the image of defiance.
"Graydon Creed is the son of Sabretooth and Mystique, two of the world's most twisted mutant terrorists. His half-brother and foster-sister are both serving members of the X-Men. And you want this man to lead the anti-mutant revolution?"
"Shut up!"
"I mean, he's just sore that his mother abandoned him because he wasn't a mutant but she did just the same to Nightcrawler because he looked different. And I don't see my friend trying to commit genocide. I mean, I can understand your inferiority complex but Nightcrawler isn't jealous because Mystique cared more for his foster-sister than she did him."
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
"Make me."
The gun was pressed to her chest.
"I will shoot you."
"Yawn. A real soldier would have done that already without any threats or macho posturing. Is your masculinity really that frail?"
And she jerked backwards as the gun fired, head lolling to one side as the streak of blood ran down her orange uniform.
xXx
She stood, gazing out of the window over a world at peace with itself. No war, no famine, no poverty. All the hate and rage swept away. And its ruler in turmoil, lost in her own memories.
"My Lady. King Namor is here."
"Show him in."
She didn't turn, simply waved a hand and felt the advisors leave. She knew what they thought, knew they hoped that soon the rulers of land and sea would make a union. But Tora couldn't betray Him. Not again.
"Dragon."
"Namor."
She turned, eyes dark.
"Why have you come? The treaty has been signed. I will not encroach on the seas, not even to fish. We will trade our grain and meat for the fish your people catch. Share culture and keep the peace. Why have you come so soon?"
"Traditionally, by Atlantian law, a treaty like that should be sealed with something more…personal."
She snarled, eyes flashing silver.
"If you ask me Namor, you will pay!"
"As a ruler Dragon, it is your duty to produce an heir."
"I do not plan on dying any time soon Sub-Mariner. I assure you I am in perfect health."
"Tora, as ruler of the world, you cannot spend your life in mourning for a man you killed. I too have lost friends. But look. Your dream is realised. Unity and peace for all."
She sighed.
"It is empty."
"Tora."
She swept his hand away.
"Do not touch me!"
His hand slid back.
"Logan is dead Tora. You killed him yourself, because he tried to prevent this. He would not want you to spend your life in grief over his stubbornness."
She snarled.
"Leave me Namor."
"No. You are Queen of the Land and I am King of the Seas…"
"I am no queen Namor."
"You rule alone. As do I."
"No."
"Dragon…"
"Leave me Namor. Return when I have come to terms with what I am."
"You are a benevolent dictator. You ruled for the sake of others."
"I said, go."
"They talk of what you did. They say that Dragon was found crouching over the body of her husband, trying to place his heart back into his chest…"
She wheeled around, hair a nimbus around her.
"I said LEAVE!"
Namor sighed.
"I will return next week. I want an answer."
Tora waited until he had left then walked to a hidden doorway. Her private chambers were beyond. Angry, she pulled back the most secret door, leading to the room no one knew of. The child looked up from his toys, his pale blue eyes twinkling when he saw her.
"Hello Tora."
"Hello…Logan."
Her greatest secret. A clone of the first man she killed, her husband reborn. Not long for her to wait. Soon he would be grown. Soon… Very soon…
And in her insanity, Tora plotted.
xXx
She stood alone. She was always alone. At the pinnacle of humanity, none were more powerful. This was her world. She stared down at the city spread out beneath her and then she pulled the mask down over her face and leapt off the building, allowing herself to fall before flying. She laughed, as the little people down below shouted in joy at seeing her. Joy or fear. She was feared by them as much as they loved her. She was their protector but so removed from them, a mask, a costume, never a real woman.
She was the only one who had escapedReed's depowering ray. Logan had died from that. Reed had never stopped to consider what would happen to mutants like Logan, who needed their power to remain alive. The world-wide depowerment hadn't affected Dragon, couldn't affect her and now she was alone. The only hero. The only villain. Xixy, Hepzibah, Norrin and the others had been sent away. But they couldn't get rid of her. Reed had tried. Reed had died.
It had been an accident. They had been fighting, she had been screaming at him because Logan had been killed by that ray and didn't he realise what he had done! And then she had punched him, like she had punched him before. Reed always flexed and stretched, dissipating the force of the blow. But Reed couldn't stretch anymore and she'd forgotten that in her anger. The sickening crack would stay with her forever, as would Sue's screams, Johnny's accusations, Ben's attempt to strike out at her, her own heavy breathing as she watched Reed slip down the wall, his chest shattered by an adamantium-reinforced fist.
She had run. Ran and ran, never stopping, never pausing. And then, in one of her hiding places; oh, how she felt for Bruce now she had lived his life, forever on the run; she had been meditating, trying to sort out her own feelings of guilt and Dragon had started speaking to her.
It had hurt to begin with. It had hurt as her genetic code rewrote itself, reforming, turning her into something more, something Dragon. Red hair became silver; gold eyes changed to gleaming moons; claws removed as the adamantium's molecular structure change, atoms fused together, broke apart, becoming something new. Star-steel. Forged in the immense heat at the start of the universe by Dragon. She was taller, paler, stronger. Unrecognisable. Tora was gone and only Dragon was left. And she had arrived as the old gods, who were gods no more, tried to attack those who had taken their power from them, using the advanced science and battle methods they had perfected over the years. Dragon had appeared, fought them back, ordered them to obey her. And they had. Even the gods feared the legends of the Dragon. People who thought they knew her asked if she was the X-Man. She denied it. Denied it all. Because she wasn't Tora anymore. Tora had died in a trance on a mountainside, as her body and mind changed beyond recognition. She was Dragon. She was beyond humanity.
She was Dragon. She was the protector of this world. And she would never let anyone hurt her people.
"Broken. She only looks into worlds that are broken…"