Memories

Nothing But Truth

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

They sat in silence and then they returned to the courtroom. Jen sorted some papers then stood up.

"Ms Circen, what happened on the Blue Area of the Moon?"

"I… I called the Phoenix. I called it to me then channelled it through me, into Hope."

"And then what?"

"I… I don't remember."

"According to Ms Summers, Mr Antony Stark shot you both."

"I don't remember."

"Why not?"

"I was busy doing other things."

"Like?"

"Trying to keep Phoenix and Dragon apart."

"Why?"

"They're like matter and antimatter. They touch, they annihilate."

"Why were you channelling them then?"

"I acted as a barrier between them. It helped Hope."

"What is the last thing you remember?"

"Pain. My concentration broke, fire and water touched. Then blackness. I wake in a clearing, I don't know how much later. It feels like someone ripped me apart then pasted me back together."

"Ms Circen, would you care to comment on the film we are about to play?"

The quality was crisp and clear but it shook, like the one holding the camera was staggering backwards.

There was a vibrant explosion, waves and fire blossomed and then cleared away.

"Fools. You have forced together what cannot touch… Water and Fire, Past and Future, Order and Chaos, Knowledge and Thought, Preservation and Progression. You have destroyed us both."

The beings were terrible. Beautiful in a horrific way.

"We were in control. The bonding was going perfectly. And now you have destroyed us. You have forced us to become two very different things. Soon our minds shall be torn to shreds by the fighting. FOOLS!"

They moved in unison, back to back, so Hope's face stared almost directly at the camera.

"Manipulation and lies. How foolish of you. We are more than you will ever be. Even GODS fear us. We are the World Healers. And the World Ravagers. One of us once held both, but as Phoenix-Dragon. It is impossible to contain half of each after they have been meshed together. We are One and the One is ALL!"

"SHOOT THEM AGAIN!"

The repulsor cannon fired again but Hope simply raised a hand and the beam ricocheted off.

"We were ready. We were ready to fight together, as we only did when the Little Phoenix was avatar, the Little Phoenix who is now part of the whole. Only you hurt us. Hurt us when we were at our weakest. But we can still save this… Do not try to stop us. Do not dare. We are going to heal this world. In the only way we can. Goodbye, little people. Do not try to stop us."

They raised their hands and rose slowly into the air, rotating around each other. And then they shot upwards. A voice, barely picked up on the mike, rang through.

"Well we all %&$#* up, didn't we?"

Tora's head was tilted to one side.

"Ms Circen, do you remember this?"

"No."

"That was a very quick answer."

"I've already said, I don't remember what happens after I was shot!"

"You said you didn't know what happened."

"You've already told me that two or three times. It's not hard to equate being shot to a loss in concentration."

"Ms Circen, will you care to comment on this sound clip?"

"The Phoenix Hope had was merely a fraction –a shard if you like. We dissipated it across the world, burning through the 'No more mutants' spell. She knows what the burning is like. So when the Phoenix returns, she'll be ready."

"Tora, we need to talk to you about this…"

"No. You need to listen! You think any of this would have happened if Tony hadn't attacked us! Steve, the Phoenix isn't malevolent! Maybe the stupid firebird's a little blunt at times but it doesn't mean harm! I find it exasperating and irritating and a nuisance but there's no malevolence there! It's like a child, that just happens to be immensely powerful! It stops everything from stagnating, from dying! You've met Celestials! How do mad you think they'd be if they found out that their precious experiment was wiped out!"

"Tora, that is not the point!"

"It is, Steve! It always has been! It's always been mutants against the world! Us against you! You let Wanda and Pietro on the Avengers but you wondered, didn't you?! When the hate mail started flooding in, when death threats started turning up in the post! You considered quietly dropping them from the team! Oh, don't lie! I knew! You'd have to think it, because there were barely any other options! Steve, we've been left to our own devices! The Avengers defend humankind! The X-Men defend human and mutant alike! What does that say, Steve? What does that say! Look at you, Steve! When I was out of it, I know you were searching for the Dragon Protocol. Yeah, I know all about that! Eight syringes around the world, a cocktail of chemicals capable of putting me down permanently. You weren't looking to arrest me. You were going to kill me. I trusted you, Steve! I trusted you and Tony with that secret and you betrayed that trust! You think they just magically found out something that could kill me!? No, I gave that to Fury for situations a whole lot worse than this!"

"What sort of worse can there be!"

"You know what I was trained to do, to be! Imagine that! Imagine that, in my body, with my knowledge, with my power, without my morals or beliefs! Imagine something that has only ever known hurt and wishes to lash out at the world, with the ability to destroy everything! That's what the Dragon Protocol is there for! Imagine something so twisted, it was capable of killing Jean Grey in cold blood! Imagine something so terrifying, that it can turn a hardened murderer into a quivering wreck! Imagine something with so much power it can distort space-time to suit its own needs! That's what I'm constantly fighting, Steve! You think I can live with this! It tears me apart and I spend all my time keeping my dark side down and out! "We are absolute. Fear us for we could wipe you from history. You wouldn't die, you would simply never BE. It would be so easy. One word and you would never exist. And we can ignore all those fiddly little paradoxes." I said that once! I said that, I made Poacher scream in fear because she knew it was true! I was so powerful I could wave a hand and change history! I could have stopped all suffering! I could have stopped you falling! Did you ever wish that, Steve!? Did you ever wonder what happened if you weren't frozen? I'll tell you! Etana saves you, she joins the Invaders with Max, you get married, she dies in childbirth and you grow old and bitter, hating your son for what he took from you! Because Etana didn't have to die! She gave her life for your son! See, Steve! You see why I never talk about this! I live with all this pain, right at my fingertips and I have to be strong to keep from going insane! Do you know how many times I've died! Do you know how many times I feel life slip away from under my fingers! I've been drowned, burned, suffocated, broken so many times I swear I know what every kind of death feels like! I live like this for all of you! Do you know how this all turns out! If you arrest me, countless die because Scott, Emma, Namor, Colossus and Magik end up with the Phoenix Force instead of Hope! All because Tony shot them! Wakanda burns! You scream and beg and I just turn away! Second, you don't get there in 'time'! I complete the bonding, Hope returns to Earth, restarts the mutant race and the Phoenix Force leaves! No fuss, no deaths, no bother! The only variable the fiascos have in common is you, Steve! You and the Avengers! You caused this! You broke us and destroyed us! You condemned us the moment you decided to play around with Wanda's memories!"

"Tora… What… What could we have done to stop M-Day?"

"32% of realities with powers avoided the Decimation. Call it by its proper name, not the euphemism you created to make yourself feel better. In 15% of realities, Wanda was killed either before having kids, or between being mind-wiped and remembering. In 10%, she never married Vision or had kids. In 3% she killed herself in a brief moment of sanity, when she realised what she'd done to the Avengers. In 2%, she responded to Charles' treatment. In 1% you killed her. In 0.5%, you let me heal her, before taking her to a quiet retreat on the edge of the Shi'ar Imperium. In 0.45%, I heal her then you kill us both as threats."

"What about the remaining 0.05%?"

"In that world… In those worlds, Wanda didn't say 'No More Mutants'. She said other things, like 'No more fighting', 'no more hate', 'no more bigotry'. And the world was so beautiful."

"Tora…"

"You have no idea…"

"Tora…"

"WE AREN'T AFRAID THERE!"

"I could live there without being afraid that my kids could be killed the next day because of what we are! Steve, I live every day afraid that the FOH or the Purifiers or the MRD will kill my children! Not because of what Logan and I do but because of what they are! You think I can live with that! It kills me, Steve, because the world hates my children before they're even walking because they're mutants! That's why I fight. To try and keep my kids safe. It stopped being about the dream years ago. Now all I fight for is a world where my children aren't going to be killed because of their blood. It's as simple as that, Steve."

"Tora…"

"Look… Steve… Just…go… I'll be ready for whatever charges you press against me. You know as well as I do, even if we do go to court, I won't spill out all those secrets. I won't talk about what Tony did to me, what you did to Wanda. I won't say a word in my own defence and they'll sentence me with prejudice for my mutant blood. I won't mention the Dragon Protocol, I won't talk about the times I've saved you. I will only talk about Phoenix and Dragon and explain what they are. And what I became."

The clip stopped. And silence reigned.

Silence reigned too in the dark room at the end of the universe. Then Phoenix burst out laughing.

"Steve sabotaged his own case!"