Memories
Promises
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She was standing by the cliff when suddenly she caught a scent on the breeze. She turned and frowned.
"Etana."
"Tora."
"Why are you here? I told you, we don't do that stuff anymore. Neither of us. We have a family now."
"That's not the Tora I know."
"The Tora you knew is long gone."
"Won't you at least invite me in for a coffee? For old time's sake?"
"Come in."
Tora walked along the cliff to the small house. Opening the door, she shouted out a series of names.
"Kurt! Jamie! Stephan! Amanda!"
A handsome teenage boy, his black hair messy and coated with streaks of oil came in first, his face grubby.
"Maman, you won't believe it! I've managed to reverse-engineer the Shi'ar aging tech! I can de-age something!"
"Jamie, that's brilliant! But… clean?"
"Oh… sorry… I'll go… Hi Tana."
He hurried out and Etana raised an eyebrow.
"He still remembers me?"
"He's a multiversal like me. One moment. KURT! STEPHAN! AMANDA!"
There was a bamf and Kurt appeared on the table.
"Hello, meine Liebe. Oh. Etana."
The happiness in his voice disappeared immediately.
"I'm sorry to intrude Kurt. I know you and Tora just want to be left alone-"
"So leave us alone."
"You would stop me meeting your children?"
A girl with red hair and amber eyes hurried in, saw Etana then faltered, her appearance changing until a little boy with purple skin and hair with a rapidly swaying tail was staring up at her.
"Is that the Shadow?"
"Yes, Stephan."
"Is she here to take you away?"
"No, Stephan. She isn't. AMANDA! Where is that girl?!"
From the shadows the girl that Stephan had been impersonating suddenly detached herself.
"Ha! You didn't see me Maman! Oh!"
"Amanda, Stephen, this is Etana."
Etana bowed her head.
"So… A shapeshifter and a…?"
"Amanda is an umbrakinetic. She controls shadows, can turn into shadows. We think Stephan might be a teleporter."
"Interesting…"
"Don't. You. Dare!"
"What?"
"You're wondering how you can use her. I am not allowing my children out to be twisted like we were."
Etana nodded.
"I… I think we should speak alone. You and me."
Kurt instantly was beside Tora.
"You speak to me as well. Anything you can say to Tora, you can say to me. Amanda, Stephan, go and play with your brother."
"But…"
"Go."
"Yes, Dad…"
Etana stared at them both for a long time.
"You haven't told Jamie the truth, have you?"
"Of course not. The whole point of us coming here was to get away from it all. We don't want to live that life again."
"We found him."
Tora stiffened and Kurt's hand on her shoulder tightened.
"Where?"
"They found him in Egypt. One of En Sabah Nur's last strongholds. He has information, but he claims he will only give it up to you, Tora."
She shook her head.
"I won't go anywhere near that man. Not for anything you offered me."
"Tora, we need you."
"Just like you needed her during the revolution! She doesn't deserve this anymore!"
"I agree but Tora has already become the most famous face of the Resistance. Your lie of her death made her a martyr. She is the woman who died after giving up everything to us. She will always be marked as the Woman Who Saved Us All."
"Then me suddenly turning up will destroy everything you've worked for."
"It will be in secret. Logan's capture so far is top secret."
"Etana…"
"Please, Tora… One more service and then I will leave you and Kurt forever."
Tora turned her head away.
"Can I hold you to that promise?"
xXx
She smiled slightly. The fact the man had bypassed all her security and reached her private rooms undetected didn't seem to bother her.
"Loki. God of Mischief. And you want to meet with me. Why?"
"I have an…interest in human affairs."
"You mean you have an interest in the affairs of your brother. You are here to plead for him, aren't you?"
"If there ever was a mortal capable of deicide, it would be you, Miss Circen."
"Do not use that name to refer to me. That girl died many years ago, Loki Laufeyson."
"Do not use that name in my presence!"
"We all have the parts of ourselves we are ashamed of, Trickster. I have come to hate that foolish child who believed in hope and honour. Those things were never given to me. What deal do you have, Liesmith? What promises do you bring me in exchange for your brother's life?"
"A pact. I shall aid you in your quest for vengeance and you shall not harm my brother."
She leant back.
"Swear on what you hold most dear. I would be a fool to trust the God of Lies."
"I swear on As-"
"No. Asgard is not what you hold most dear. Neither is your foster-father's approval. No, Odinson. Swear on your brother's life. Swear on the life of Thor."
He opened his mouth and she raised a hand.
"Swear in magic. Your words alone are not enough."
"I need your blood if you want a magical contract."
She pulled a knife out from under the table and sliced across her hand, the only expression on her face one of boredom. He took the knife and ran it over his hand as well. Then he clasped her hand.
"I swear on my brother Thor's life that I will not betray you. And you swear on…"
"I swear on my quest for vengeance that I shall not betray you, Odinson."
Loki's eyebrow raised slightly.
"You seem very unafraid of me. What name shall I give you? If I may not call you Circen and you are unlikely to want to go by the name of your childhood, what shall I call you by?"
"Tora."
"The Tiger. Most…appropriate. Why are you not afraid of me, Tora?"
"Because as soon as you entered this room, my tech has been monitoring you. If you had appeared to use any magic without my consent, the dampeners would have completely stripped you of your powers. You would have –for all intents and purposes- been mortal."
He looked at her for a long while then laughed.
"I underestimated you. You are a skilled liar, manipulator and also not lying right now. You are most certainly one of the few mortals this world has produced capable of deicide."
She smiled slightly.
"Would you care to join me? There's some rather expensive proper French wine my…shall we call him my predecessor gained from some of his…business connections."
"You mean that Wilson Fisk was given them as a bribe or payoff?"
"More…smuggled in by a rival gang and the rival gang ended up in the river."
He laughed.
"I would be honoured."
"And please don't do your brother's habit of throwing glasses on the floor. They're antiques."
He smirked at her.
"Not all Asgardians are boorish."
She smiled warmly at him.
"For a god of lies, you are very charming."
He raised her hand to his lips.
"Fact is never as charming as fiction."
xXx
Logan stood in silence, staring out over the sea. Then he opened his hand to stare down at the chain in his palm. She'd run ahead, gone to face Thanos alone. The X-Men had followed but were unable to pass a certain point. A telekinetic forcefield enclosed the two figures as they fought. Then Tora had looked over at him and Curt, a look of sorrow and acceptance; grabbed Thanos' shoulders and pitched them both into the yawning chasm of fire that lead to the heart of a star. Thanos had risen back out and in his hands, a silver chain, the cross melted out of shape. Pulled from Tora's neck as she fell, into the fire. Thanos had been defeated. And Tora was dead. Not even a grave to mourn at. Logan raised his arm and flung the chain into the sea, arcing off the cliff.
And then he fell to his knees, pressing his hands to his eyes. Why? She'd just looked at him and she'd known. She'd known she wasn't going to survive. She'd known Thanos would. But she'd also known that her death would drive the X-Men to anger, to defeating Thanos. She'd known she couldn't beat him but the X-Men could if properly provoked. Her death was the only thing that would give them the anger to beat him. She had worked it all out in the seconds before they arrived. He looked up once more. Dead and gone. Burnt to ashes in the heart of a star. And then something bright and burning flew towards him, a shooting star. He never believed in wishes, hadn't since his parents were killed in front of him, but this time he closed his eyes.
I wish that she will come back to me. I wish I had my Tora back. I wish she wasn't dead.
That wasn't a shooting star. It was different… Logan ducked as the burning object shot over his head then turned and ran towards the crater, his claws out. He reached the rim then froze. Lying in the centre, throwing out light like a miniature star, lay a woman. Skin a pearly, opalescent, silvery white that gleamed in the night. Long, silver hair like spun starlight. A shift of a burning white material, like ice-cold fire. He walked down the smouldering sides carefully. Knelt down and moved the woman so he could see her face. And his mouth dropped open. Her face was vaguely human but that only highlighted her inhuman features. A delicate face; impossibly high cheekbones; large, slanted, cat-like eyes that were closed; a small mouth; sharply pointed elfin ears. She looked like the elves his governess used to tell him about. And not the nice, happy, little elves. No, the ones who stole children and kidnapped young men, turned women to stone and trapped unwary mortals. She was beautiful, there was no denying that. But she was also terrible. Logan looked away, unable to scrutinise her features anymore. It felt like he was staring straight at the Sun.
He carefully lifted her. Rationally, he knew that to survive a fall like that, she was probably stronger than Hulk. But she was so small, thin, graceful. He felt he had to treat her like a piece of fine bone china. She was cold but warm at the same time, like the empty vacuum of space and the burning heat of a star. He wasn't certain how long he walked or whether he looked at her. It was all a haze. But he remembered walking into the Institute, handing her over to Beast and then everything went clear. And then Hank coming over to him, looking dazed.
"Logan, she's made of energy. Pure, solar energy. Everything but her bones."
"Her bones?"
"Logan, they're made of a substance that's harder than adamantium. Maybe even harder than proto-adamantium. Something like that… You'd need a supernova to be able to forge that."
"So she's what? An Eternal?"
"Jean says no. We… We think she's a sentient heavenly body."
"What?"
"Did Bobby ever tell you about Cloud? No? Cloud was a sentient nebula who came to Earth and took human form for a time. And Ego, the Living Planet. What if she's a sentient star? The possibilities are endless…"
"A sentient star? Comon, Hank…"
"I assure you I am not jesting. I do believe that this woman is a living star."
"Then why aren't we burning up right now?"
"Because she's not a star right now. And… Logan, you have to see this…"
"What?"
Hank lead him into the Medi-Lab and sighed.
"I'm sorry, Logan. I'm sorry."
And he pulled back her shift to reveal the tattoo coiled on her back –a dragon; wings outstretched, head roaring to the sky. Logan staggered backwards as if physically struck. Hank gulped.
"She's wearing Dragon's mark. I don't know what that means. Whether she was given this form by Dragon or if she is Dragon. But she's linked to Tora somehow."
"No."
"Logan, she might be able to help us…"
"NO! Get her out. Get her out right now."
"I…sorry… Help…"
They turned to look. She looked confused, uneasy.
"Took…memories…language…apologise…needed…no memory…falling…falling…so cold… so very cold…"
"Tora! Do you know anyone named Tora?!"
She shook her head, her head tilted slightly to one side.
"No…Alone…Alone, so warm and bright… then falling, falling through the cold darkness… and then…light…heat… I go but little world gets in my way… falling falling through the sky."
"Idiots didn't recognise her!"
"To be fair, Death, she didn't look or smell the same."
"They're still idiots."