Memories
Lodestone
Disclaimer: What do you think?
If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
Wanda woke to see a figure crouching in the window. A hex bolt shot towards the intruder but the figure just raised a hand and the red light was absorbed by a gleaming waterfall that flickered into existence. The next hex opened the window and Tora slithered in.
"Is there a reason you're knocking on my window in the middle of the night? People hate me enough as it is. We can't risk you…"
"I can't sleep. The nightmares keep coming back."
"What nightmares?"
"The nightmares of what I did. What I didn't do. What I could do. What happened during M-Day, where I was the one responsible. Wanda, I remember it all, even if I didn't do it."
"Tora, they can't be like mine. What I did…"
"I did it as well."
"What?"
"I walk down the stairs and you're fighting with Magneto –I call him 'Father' there- and you have a hex bolt and then the piece of shrapnel hits you right through the chest and I'm screaming… Screaming at Father, at those there and everything is silver and I suddenly know what I've done and Bobby is asking me what I've done –why I did it –what end it served and I can't cope so I get rid of him and your eyes are so empty and I know how to heal you and then you're alive and I turn to Father and… And I'm so angry –you always said I was too like him there- that I just reached out. All across the world. I found the mutants and I found the X-Gene and I just told Dragon 'This is wrong. This is bad. This is a disease. Cure it.' And Dragon did, no questions asked. Just wiped out almost every single mutant on the face of the Earth. It wasn't like you. I didn't depower mutants. I rewrote their genetic structure, removing the X-Gene from their very make-up. And all I can remember is the look on your face as everything went white. You… You were so sad, and ashamed and lost and alone and then I couldn't remember you. Ever. Not until you are standing right in front of me as the X-Men prepare to kill me. It's all so confused. I can't even tell when something happened anymore or even where it happened. I'm not even that sure which reality I'm in. Not anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"There used to be an anchor. When I couldn't hold on, I had certain memories, thoughts that I could use to keep me in the here and now. But they're all gone. They don't work anymore. I need an anchor but I can't trust anyone to be the anchor."
"But you said it was memories and-"
"Only effective for warding it off. Now it's started, I need something living."
"Logan?"
"I'm not certain I can… I don't want to burden him with what I see. So I go without an anchor and just drift."
"I could do it."
Tora shook her head.
"Not while you're holding the Life Force."
"Pardon."
"It's… You're glowing. No, not to normal eyes! But to Dragon. You're humming with energy. Life energy. Bright and burning. You are what I'd call the 'Stores'."
"Pardon?"
"The Phoenix and the Dragon are new and old life respectively. The Phoenix is the life that hasn't yet been used. The potential if you like. Dragon is the life that has been used. And the Life Force is what is being used right now. The Trinity. Life Incarnate, the three faces. And we're all from Earth, all mutants. I'm still trying to work out what it is about the X-Gene that's so attractive to them. I think it may be to do with our bio-energies."
"Pardon?"
"Basically, mutants use –and in a way, produce more life energy. It's like a great big beacon shouting "PICK ME, PICK ME!" And then there's you and Jean. You're a probability manipulator and a nexus being, basically screaming for something to notice you. I'm amazed nothing picked you up before. Jean… Her telepathy, even without the Phoenix, had the potential to be staggering."
"And you?"
Tora smiled sadly.
"I heal. And I see. I see everything that the others see. Know what they know. What a lure to a being that represents knowledge."
"Yeah. About that? The Phoenix is Thought. Dragon is Knowledge. So what's the Life Force? And why doesn't it have a name?"
Tore laughed.
"It does. But no one knows it. Well, no one on Earth."
"You know it, don't you?"
"Yes. And the Life Force… Thought, Knowledge and… Well, take a guess."
"I don't know."
And Tora leant forward, smiling slightly.
"When you know, tell me. You'll learn the name. And the representation. And the 'element'. As in the old elements. Phoenix is Fire and Life 'Incarnate'. What she really meant is life that will be. Dragon is Water and Life 'Renewed' or the life that has been. So when you know. You'll know."
"I'm guessing Air."
"Wrong. And now I have to go. Thank you."
"For what?"
"For making me forget."
And then Tora was back out of the window, as silently as she had come. Leaving Wanda to absorb what she had just learnt.
"How is the Third by the way?"
"Well, you know… Taking it badly. You know how it is. At the beginning, Dragon is the weakest and Phoenix strongest. By the end, the Dragon is the strongest. And in this intermittent period we seem to be stuck in, the Third is the weakest. There is nothing living. Nothing for her to feed off. It is all looping from Dragon to Phoenix so the cycle may start over. It is feeling rather left out. Sort of."
"You know that it is more than that, Phoenix. It is the Lodestone. Phoenix is What Will Be, the Future, Progress, Chaos, Fire. Dragon is What Was, the Past, Preservation, Order, Water. And the Third is not what was or what will be. It is What Is, the Here and Now, the State of Being, Harmony –Half Order, Half Chaos. Without the Third, the Phoenix and the Dragon could not exist together. They would rip each other apart. The Third acts in the same way as Galactus. He prevent Infinity and Oblivion destroying each other and you and Eternity, Death. The Third is more than it appears. Without it, there would be nothing. It is the Lodestone, that which keeps us in balance. When the Dragon came to Earth, the Lodestone had to follow. You couldn't have Phoenix and Dragon on one planet unsupervised. They'd tear it apart. Not by choice. But because it was their nature. Without the Lodestone, Earth would never have survived the energies both released unwittingly. Wanda Maximoff saved the world by being alive."
A.N. First chapter of More Than Just A Kiss is now up. Etana POV for the first chapter. It's under X-Men/Avengers.