Memories

Blue Dragon, Red Witch

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

Curt sent out a huge web and caught Hawkeye before she crashed into the Doombots. She saluted him before running off and then Curt blinked as Wolverine went flying backwards through the air.

Cool. Someone managed to hit Dad.

(I thought only Maman and Uncle Piotr were strong enough to do that?)

Uncle Erik can do it.

(Yeah, but he's trying to out-bad-guy Dr Doom)

Hey, I like Uncle Erik!

(Since when did we start to think of Magneto of all people as "Uncle Erik"?)

When Maman told me he was adopted by Etana. I mean come on! How many people get totally-awesome-super-cool-uncles like Magneto?

(Hey, isn't that Iron Lad?)

Oh boy! Fanboy attack!

Curt shot towards him and started speaking at about three times the normal speed to Iron Lad who was holding Stature.

"Hi, I'm Curt Logan but they call me Poison and I'm a Young Avenger as of yesterday and I think you just shot my dad about a mile, unless it was Maman but she doesn't often hit Dad and did you just stop Uncle Erik?! You are so awesome!"

Stature grinned.

"Nate, this is Curt. He's Wolverine's son but he's on our side."

"Along with his mother apparently."

"Aren't you Kang the Conqueror?"

"Please can you not mention that? I'm a bit touchy on that."

"Don't worry. Maman says that alternate futures can be changed by any and all choices, and not always by your own choice. She says I've got to be careful though else I'll end up a psychopathic killer like Poison's dad, Carnage and I've got to be extra wary because I've apparently got a little bit of Dragon inside me and if I go bad I could end up destroying everything."

"Does he always talk this much?"

"Where's Billy?"

"He's with Dragon and the Scarlet Witch just outside the city."

"No they're not."

"How do you—?"

"Because I just circled the city and they're not there. Not even a trace of blue and grey."

"WHERE IS HE? WHERE'S DOOM!"

They turned in horror to each other.

"They're in danger…"

"Ow?"

"Oh yes."

"Please, Victor, stop it! You're killing them! They just saved my life! He's just a child!"

Tora writhed in agony on the floor, her eyes unfocussed as her back arched up. Magic! Why did magic have to exist? It was the one thing she had never been trained to defend against. She could withstand almost any physical torture but magic always hurt her. She could see Wiccan writhing as well and that spurred her on. She would and could take any torture Doom threw at her but hurting a child?

She levered herself up, eyes flashing silver as she struggled to withstand the agony as she felt her bones heat up.

"Let…him…go…Do…what….you…wa…nt…to…me…But…let…Wiccan…go…He's just…a child…"

Doom appeared to listen to Wanda's pleas and instead concentrated all his power on Tora, so she dropped in agony again, wishing for once that she had Dragon, ready and able to leap in and attack Doom. But she was just Tora, just Tigress again. Funny. She'd not thought of herself as Tigress for years. Then she heard one of the most wonderful sounds in the world. Erik!

"DOOM!"

The spell broke and she pulled herself up, limping in the same direction as Wiccan and the Witch. Wiccan gulped at the swelling bruises and cuts on her face.

"I guess he went easy on me, huh?"

"He went easy on me, Wiccan. Doom could probably kill me with a word. I'm not indestructible, no matter what people say. I bleed, just for a short time."

The Young Avengers came into view and Poison ran forward.

"MAMAN! What did stupid-doo-doo-Doom do to you? I'm going to eat his brain! I'm going to eat his brain!"

Tora raised her head to hear the introductions and then smiled at Iron Lad.

"Nathanial Richards, I presume?"

"Ms Logan. Wow… Er… Yeah, I mean, you'd think I'd be used to meeting my ancestors by now but you're like… Well, legend. The woman who healed the world, saved the human race and brokered the K'Meer-Shi'ar Peace Pact. You're… Well, I think there are more than a few temples to you around the world…"

"Please don't hold me to things like that. I know better than most the delicacy of free will. What you are talking about could be a different me. I could quite easily go insane sometime in the future and decide that the best way to heal the universe is to return in to return it to 'pristine conditions'. As in, absolutely nothing. No stars, no planets, no life. I-"

"Wanda!"

"Too late!"

"No, it's not. That's the thing about time travel. It's never too late."

Tora's eyes were wide.

"Beautiful. I've never time-travelled like this before. I've only been through Cable's Askani tech which is much less advanced. Basically it punches a hole in spacetime. This is much more refined and I don't feel the need to throw up."

"Are you alright? You look pretty beaten up."

"Seriously, this isn't actually that bad for me. Some of the stuff that's happened to me… Look, if I'm in agony I just think about being vivisected when I was thirteen. And then nothing seems to hurt that much."

"Isn't vivisection when they cut you open without anesthetic…?"

"Yes. Don't worry. The men who did it are tucked away nice and securely in a high-security mental institution."

Wanda stared at her.

"We were friends?"

"No. We were sisters. Sisters by suffering. Sisters by power. Sisters through blood and sweat and tears."

Tora sighed.

"If we're going back to that day, we need to wait for me to heal. The internal injuries are sorted but I think my femur is still trying to cool down."

"What did he do to you?"

"I think he was being rather soft on me. He only super-heated my bones but you can't get adamantium over a certain temperature except when it's first created. As soon as it drops below that temperature, it solidifies and can't be melted again. I had it implanted when it was liquid. Seriously, nothing can beat that for pain and Doom knows it. When he once really meant to kill me, he forced me to relive that experience then amplified it. And that's me healed!"

"So what did he block if you can heal? If he blocked Billy's powers…"

"He blocked me from Dragon. It…It feels like a part of me is dead. Torn out… I can't even touch the connection, although I know it's there. It's so quiet. I'm normally in constant conversation with it but…it's so quiet and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. So until I find a sorcerer able to remove the blocks there won't be any cosmic waterworks or deeply profound statements. I'm just Tigress now."

They faded into existence and Tora stared up.

"It's…smaller than I remember… I suppose it was so mythical it increased in size…"

She was halter by Cassie shouting "Dad!" and was too slow to catch the girl's arm as she ran. She turned to stare at Scott Lang who glanced up.

"Hey. Tora! Has my daughter somehow roped you into whatever she's planning? Is that a new costume? Trust me, go back to the old one. You look like you're going to kill someone in that."

She stared at him then turned her head away in sadness. She knew when they were. She knew that this would be one of Scott Lang's last moments. And then she turned to see where Wanda was and froze. Her lips moved silently as she stood, unable to move as Wanda stared into the dead man's eyes and mouthed his name and Tora could see the fear there, not the fear of dead men walking but the fear of what was to come next, what she was about to do. And then Curt was pulling her away, trying to get her away from the explosion that was to come, but she reached out for her friend, to the woman in the white dress, pulling herself free to try and get her away and then everything went white and she staggered upwards and her mouth opened in horror at the looks on the Young Avengers faces and then she gulped.

"Everyone alright? Wiccan? Poison? Speed?"

Tommy glanced up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Did you just ask if I was alright?"

"Yes. Stature? Hawkeye? Patriot? Vision? Everyone fine? No missing limbs? Internal organs? No one about ten years out, agewise? Good! Iron Lad, there was no way you had powered up in time. So if you didn't bring us home and my powers are still on the fritz and Curt hasn't enough power to even slightly change time, let alone pull us forward about four years, then who did?"

"I did."

Tora turned and her face was the only one that registered a smile as the woman hovered down.

"You were right Billy. I am the Scarlet Witch. And I remember everything."

And then Tora threw her arms around the woman's neck and started crying softly.

"She really did care about the Scarlet Witch, didn't she?"

"Yes, the two were bonded in a way that most didn't understand. Only those with the power to change reality yet who were totally human at heart could understand. In the end it drove them both insane."