Memories
Juxtaposition
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She pulled her hood down and Steve nodded.
"News?"
"Apocalypse is planning to send Creed to attack Ohio. He thinks they're hiding the Resistance."
"Etana?"
Tora closed her eyes.
"She's getting there. Half coy, half completely brazen. Apocalypse has made it an offence to try and proposition her. It won't be long. Soon she'll get him alone and then… He'll be dead."
Steve didn't look very happy at this but he nodded.
"And Logan?"
"I… I'll be more than able to distract him. He's getting wary of me though."
"I don't think anyone has sacrificed more for this cause than you. Have you seen Jamie since we last met?"
Tora shook her head.
"He won't let me close to him. This is why we have to strike out. I won't let my son be tainted by Apocalypse."
He nodded and she lowered her head.
"I feel filthy. He touches me and I just want to shudder."
"Tora…"
"I have to sleep beside the man who led the massacre of Rio! You think it's easy? I have to pretend that I love him and what he does, whilst he repeatedly sleeps his way through Apocalypse's harem without even the decency to hide what he's doing!"
"I'm sorry. What you do is the most important part of the Resistance."
"Oh, so in the history books, they will mention the woman who repeatedly let the man she once thought she loved abuse her, just to continue to bring information? No, Etana will be the one remembered. Etana will be feted as the woman who killed Apocalypse. You will be famous as the leader of the Resistance. I'll just be the turncoat traitor to my own kind."
He touched her shoulder.
"I appreciate it. Even if the rest of the world doesn't."
She nodded slowly.
"I need to go back."
"Then go."
She walked out the door and along the tunnel, before stopping.
"Kurt?"
He dropped down from the ceiling.
"Meine Liebe…"
She let him hug her, resting her head on his shoulder. He pulled back, eyes confused.
"This… This is wrong. But…it feels right."
"There is nothing wrong here. It is the others of our kind who are wrong."
"You are still married. This is almost adultery…"
"The man I married died the day Logan chose to follow Apocalypse. I do not consider the man who exists today to be our old friend. My Logan is dead."
Kurt raised her head, was so tempted to touch her face but she stepped away.
"I need to go. I can only be away for a short time without arousing suspicion. As it is, Logan thinks I've gone from just drinking to drug abuse. I need to be more careful with the stuff I pour over my clothes."
"Tora…"
"Yes?"
"When this is all over… What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to get a divorce. I don't care if he's sentenced to death or not, I will not be married to him a second more than I have to. I won't even give him the satisfaction of having a widow. I'll get a divorce, I'll take Jamie and I will go somewhere where no one knows us. Start over afresh. Try and rebuild a life from the few tatters that are left."
"Tora…?"
"Yes?"
"Would… Would you mind if I came with you?"
She stared at him for a long second before nodding sharply. Then she hurried out of the hidden door, going back to the man she hated above all other things.
xXx
"Ms Circen, you totally surprised everyone in your film The Jeanne Problem. You have had little exposure to the American film market but in France, I hear you're quite famous."
She nodded.
"And what was it like to work with Kurt Wagner? People said you were, and I quote, getting on like a house on fire."
She shrugged.
"I met Kurt for the first time at the audition. He complimented me on the French language version of Now Where? and we ended up as friends."
"You are notoriously secretive about your private life-"
"I don't see why I should take my job home with me. I am uninterested in having my every affair broadcasted to the masses. Famous for being famous is of no interest to me. My work is all that should matter to most people."
"And the director? James Howlett? He and Wagner have been compared to Burton and Depp at times. Was he a good director?"
"One of the best."
"Who else on the cast and crew did you get on with?"
"I already knew Jean-Philippe but I definitely got on very well with the producer. Etana has been working in films for years and was very helpful."
"Ah. Mr Wagner!"
Marie gave a little eye-roll to Kurt who grinned at her. She ignored the interviewer and supressed the urge to strangle the annoying woman.
xXx
Her body slid through the narrow gap. She stood up at the other side and shouted back through.
"It's alright! Bit tight at the end but you should be able to get through!"
She turned and froze. The Sentinel was standing over her and there was only one thing she could do as the hand was opened and the light started glowing.
"DON'T COME THROUGH! IT'S A TRAP! IT'S A TRAP!"
And then she burnt. And metal bones fell to the ground.
xXx
She stepped forward towards the bank robbers. Her eyes flashed and she saw the fear in their eyes. They knew what Dragon did to those who she caught.
Die.
And they screamed as the waves eroded away flesh and bone. You'd have thought they'd have learnt that crime didn't pay. That the Dragon, the last of the heroes, would not take any quarter. Break the law and you died. That was the agreement. Her silver hair span as she turned, stalking towards the entrance. She still enjoyed the slight thrill of being six and a half feet tall. You had to have been short to appreciate the intimidation that height could give.
Her eyes flashed as she nodded to the cops, then she took off, flying up and shooting towards her building. The Citadel was beautiful, a pillar of unmeltable ice that she had come to think of as home. Stepping onto the smooth, icy panels, she snapped her fingers, causing the TV to turn on. There was a woman talking, one of those 'where the heroes are now' programs.
"…Kurt Wagner, former X-Man and now foster-father of his best friend's children. Mr Wagner, why are you looking after three young children who are no relation to you?"
Kurt looked tired, exhausted and worn, no longer the fuzzy blue elf.
"Logan was my best friend. He died of adamantium poisoning after…after… you know… Tora…his wife, the Dragon, she…she took it badly, confronted Reed."
"You mean she murdered him?"
He shook his head violently.
"It was an accident. I'm sure of it. Tora would never kill anyone."
"When she was fleeing authorities, you gained custody of her children. Why did you feel this was the right thing to do?"
"I owe both Tora and Logan a great deal. They were two very dear friends."
"You have often stated that you believe Tora Logan to be dead. Why?"
"Because of the Dragon. Tora was the Dragon and now she isn't. That sort of bond only gets broken by death. Also… When she was on the run, I used to get money wired to my account. The money stops. The Dragon turns up, I get an email –one of those that gets sent if the account isn't accessed within a given timeframe,- that gave me details of her will and bank accounts. Enough to care for her children. For life. Tora was willed a substantial fortune by the Shadow." Kurt's lip trembled slightly. "If she sent every last cent she had to her children's guardian and hasn't tried to make contact with them yet… Then I have to believe she is at peace."
Tora watched as the camera panned over her children. They all looked happy and healthy, so she snapped her fingers to turn the sheet of ice off. She knew what she had to.
Her children were safe. That was all that mattered.
xXx
She shivered in the cold. Steve had wanted to come here. Since the Skull's death, he'd been revisiting all their old battlegrounds, almost saying goodbye to his foe. Of course, he'd been amazed at the sight of the building and in typical Tora fashion, she'd gone on ahead, knocked out the guards and was now staring at the hammer. It was calling her, begging to be picked up. She reached out warily. The Mjolnir Incident was still fresh in her mind. And then sparks shot towards her hand and too late she felt the tainted spirit inside the weapon but she snarled and sent her Dragon powers back. And they struggled, back and forth, the electricity and the water and she heard the other Avengers arrive but no one could come near the crackling ball of energy as Tora fought the thing, the malevolent, evil thing inside the hammer from taking control. And then she let the water burst out of her and she collapsed but the hammer was smoking, crumbling to dust and she smiled because she had just gone and destroyed an evil Norse spirit and possible saved a number of lives. How wonderful.
And no one ever knew how close they came to destruction, what would have happened if someone else had found the Hammer of Skadi first. No one but Tora, and she wasn't going to tell anyone.
"Well, that was some serious reality juxtaposition there."
"Phoenix…?"
"Yes?"
"Don't act knowledgeable on something you know zilch about."