Memories
World of Torture
Disclaimer: What do you think?
If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
"You have a visitor."
She looked up from the beach.
"Can we go somewhere else? I hate it here."
Danger nodded and they were in one of the rooms of Etana's house in Japan, decorated traditionally. Tora nodded and then knelt down at the table.
"I am ready."
She sat waiting and then she heard someone open the door. She looked up.
"Log- Oh, sorry Thomas. Or is it Speed?"
The boy looked nervous.
"Just Tommy."
"So, why have you come to see the insane X-Man?"
"I…I wanted to say thanks. You know, for helping Billy. Because I know he's a dweeb and totally obsessive and vaguely soppy but he's my brother. And… And for making sure I was OK. No one does that. Fine, Poison has started and…it kinda feels…nice…"
"What do you mean, they don't check you're okay? That's wrong."
"What?"
"A team like yours, it shouldn't just be a team."
"Huh?"
"It should be a family. And families look out for each other. First thing you do after an explosion or something is check that the others are okay."
"Well…"
"Yes?"
"Most of the time, they do check… Just not…not me."
"I think I need to have a word with your team."
"You don't have to. Curt gave them the family lecture."
She smiled slightly.
"So, why do they do that?"
He shrugged.
"At the beginning, I was just the juvie offender they kept around because I looked like Billy."
She sighed.
"Curt has that problem."
"Yeah, I still don't get how he can be your son because he looks about ten years younger than you… Unless it's like me and Billy."
"No. Nowhere near as magical. Curt… Curt was kidnapped before I even saw him… I…I thought he was dead… Ended up depressed. Emma managed to snap me out of it but…it didn't really work. Every time they looked away, the mask dropped and I couldn't find a reason for holding on, other than Jamie and Eva. And…then we found out that Curt had been kidnapped and forcibly aged using alien technology and trained to be a killer… Just like I was…"
Tommy blinked.
"You know… when the Young Avengers got me out, they'd been experimenting on me."
Tora sighed.
"They do that. I was only two when they got me."
"Two? What kind of sick *%$£ would do that!?"
She looked sad.
"Lots of people. But there was one in particular. I just called him 'The Professor'. For years, all my nightmares included him somehow. When I was three years old, he messed with my head. Permanently. He cut my skull open and inserted micro-computers, giving me the knowledge of how to kill a man in eighteen different ways with my pinkie. I could handle a gun or a sword at a high-level. I could suddenly understand the guards outside. And that's when my 'training' started."
Speed leant forward.
"What was it like?"
"Agony. I was punished for every infringement. I cried; my food rations were halved. I failed an exercise; I wasn't allowed to eat for two days. Cheek… I'd rather not go into what they did to me when I talked back… And…I wasn't alone. There was another girl there. Eva. I was supposed to call her Eden but I never did. She was just…Eva…"
"Your kid's named Eva…?"
"Yes. It seemed the only way I could…"
"Where is she now? The first Eva?"
Tora sighed.
"We tried to escape. I was caught. She was killed."
She turned her head away and Tommy sat back.
"They tortured you, didn't they? Dragon?"
She looked back at him. Then pulled her sleeve up. Took his hand and ran it over the scars.
"Who…?"
"I did those. When all I wanted was to get out. Deep enough to kill. But they always found me and 'fixed' me. They did other things to me when I refused to kill a man. I still have those scars. When they put the adamantium in… They had to inject a needle into every single bone in my body. All two hundred plus of them. You don't realise how many bones there are… Not until you have a five-inch needle sticking into every. Last. One."
Tommy blinked.
"Why don't people stop this?"
She sighed.
"We're mutants. The scum of the earth. Monsters. Sub-human. That's how they see us. As long as we don't mess up their pretty, petty little lives, nothing is wrong."
Tommy looked down.
"Why are they keeping you like this?"
Tora stood up.
"Have you heard of Phoenix? What she…did? What she could do? The woman with the power to burn out a star. Bring back the dead. Destroy everything in this universe."
Tommy shrugged.
"Only some stuff…"
"I am like her. Too like her. I am a threat. A terrible threat who has to be taken down."
Tommy stared at her.
"Just like the Witch?"
"Just like the Witch. Of course, they're hoping to avoid that. Better to have me on a leash than lose what I can do. They're trying to 'cure' me. Cure me! Of grief! They think that just because they've forgotten, I should too!"
"Forgotten what?"
She looked up.
"The greatest man I've ever known."
Speed looked uncomfortable.
"I…I think I need to go."
"Yes. Thank you."
He disappeared and she sighed.
"Very convincing Danger, but I wasn't fooled."
Danger appeared.
"That wasn't me. Mr Shepard took it upon himself to visit you."
Tora swore.
"You mean I just… Oh… Please Danger, can you just take me off the IVs?"
"No. My primary task is to keep you alive. My secondary task is to help you recover. No matter how long it will take."
Tora whipped around.
"They have authorised me to be stuck here indefinitely! They have no right!"
"They have every right."
"No, they don't!"
Her hand caught on one of the vases, sending it crashing to the floor. It reappeared, whole. A reminder that this was a virtual world.
"I have spent my whole life being manipulated and poked and prodded! My whole life, I've been an experiment, an example! Maybe I don't want that anymore! Look at me! What do you see?! Someone happy with their life?! No, you see someone who has lost almost everything!"
Danger sighed.
"Repeat memory replays."
"No! Danger, don't do this to me! DANGER!"
The room faded away.
"Why were they doing that!?"
"Phoenix, they had a reason. They had a good reason."
"They were torturing her, without even realising it!"
"They had a duty to keep people safe! And if it was from her, so be it!"
"I can't believe you're condoning this!"
"I've changed."