Memories

Mistakes

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

Logan stood in silence, listening to Agent Brand's rant.

"And the ship represents some 3 billion dollars of research! And Dragon's gone and piloted it into an officially neutral territory! We can't go after her without causing fifty types of diplomatic scandal! She knows the way we operate, she knows all the codes and the safe places and she's heading right for the Moon!"

"The Moon! Why in Hell would she be going to the Moon!"

Logan had already seen Hank stiffen.

"You don't think…"

"Oh my stars and garters… They've gone back, haven't they?"

Steve was looking from one to the other.

"This is some X-Man thing, isn't it?"

Hank coughed.

"The Blue Area of the Moon is where the trial of the Phoenix took place. And where Tora became Dragon. Also, it's politically neutral. Tora's gone there to bring the Phoenix to Hope. She's hoping the old place will allow her to…channel all the old memories, ease the flow of power. She's smarter than we give her credit for."

Logan spoke softly.

"She'll have gone there for the memories. She says they strengthen her. Old memories, old emotions. They're like meat and drink to Dragon, and I think she's planning something big."

Hank looked at him.

"Okay, what's she planning?"

"I honestly don't know. She's been all secretive recently. She gets edgy when you mention Phoenix and…er…"

Steve smiled ruefully and rubbed his jaw.

"Yep, her right hook's still as potent as ever. Almost took my head off."

Logan shrugged.

"She's sorry for that. And she's going to be stubborn and refuse to speak to anyone for as long as she can."

"How's Scott taking things?"

"When I last checked, he was screaming horrific insults about Tora."

"Overreacting, as usual."

"Well, she has just kidnapped his granddaughter."

"I rather think Hope has voluntarily absconded with her. Tora isn't the type to kidnap people. She's always been dead against it."

They stood in awkward silence then Tony coughed, the sound oddly amplified through his armour's speakers.

"I take it we're going to stop her? I mean, she's doing what none of us want, not even the X-Men?"

Logan gave Tony a sharp glare, as if to remind the man that there were more than Utopian X-Men. Steve was talking quickly to Brand, planning a ship big enough to take most of the Avengers, including Tony's brand new armour. Logan wasn't too sure about that one. A Phoenix-Buster? Impossible. There was no way you could stop the Phoenix if it was determined. But maybe… If you managed to dissuade it…

And Logan fell into wondering what Tora was going to say when she saw him. If he was lucky, she'd only insult him in French for a few hours, then say that she was wrong… Who was he kidding? Tora never admitted she was wrong. She was stubborn and pig-headed about this. They both were. Aside from that two month silent treatment from shortly after they'd first met, she'd once managed to refuse to talk to him for three weeks, for swearing in front of Jamie. She really was stubborn… Hopefully though… Hopefully this time she'd come quietly… Hopefully….

"He really was hoping a lot, wasn't he?"

"He was hoping for quite a while, wasn't he?"

"Well, it wasn't entirely her fault, was it?"

"I think it was a bit of everyone's."

"Why do you have to do that!?"

"Do what?"

"Be all reasonable and logical and smart!"

"Just because you don't have a filter between your brain and your mouth, doesn't mean everyone else is missing one."

"Oh, you are so annoying!"

"You too, Phoenix. You too."

"Is this some human thing?"

"Yes, Death. Of course. Just some human thing."

"Like popcorn?"

"Is that a hint?"

Tora stood staring at the kneeling girl.

"Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to call the Phoenix. Then I'm going to channel it through me, into you."

"Will that hurt you?"

"A bit. But it won't hurt you as much. And I don't want you hurt."

"Thank you."

"Pardon?"

"You know. For always being there for me… In case… In case…"

"Nothing will go wrong. Just as long as no one interferes, we'll be fine."

Hope gulped then Tora raised her arms up.

"Stand still."

And she threw her head back, reaching out with Dragon. The swirling water encompassed Hope, blurring her sight and then she saw a burning orange fire shoot through the waves and into Tora, who was screaming as she lowered one hand towards Hope's head and there was something in her mind, like when she'd fought Bastion but instead of being calm and cool and ordered this was bright and burning and chaotic. But soothing, cooling, calming Tora was helping ease the pain. And then, in the corner of her eye, Hope saw the Avengers come running and Iron Man raise up his glove and shoot…

"Oh… %&$£!"

"Eloquent, Jean. Very eloquent."

"Just because you have a four million word vocabulary…"

A.N. Sorry it's not a long chapter today, but if I went onto the next segment, there's no real stopping point for a good 1000 words. Also, I love leaving you with evil cliffhangers.