Memories
Vengeance
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The first thing she did when she got home was dive into the shower and start scrubbing her skin until she bled. She wasn't going to pollute her home with his stench. She heard someone knock on the door, then Jamie's voice.
"Maman? You're hogging the bathroom and Dad said I had to get clean because I've spilt acid all down my shirt."
Tora stiffened at the mention of 'Dad' then relaxed when she realised Jamie meant Kurt. She wondered why he had never put it together. That his father wasn't the man who claimed to be his parent, that his mother hadn't been married to Kurt at the start of the Apocalypse regime.
"Course, darling. One moment…"
She grabbed one of the towels to wrap around her and smiled when she smelt the sulphur. Kurt obviously hadn't taken her 'no teleportation' rule seriously. But then Amanda could effectively teleport using the shadows, jumping from one to another without walking between them. So it was quite unfair to tell Kurt he couldn't. She unlocked the door and sighed when she saw Jamie's chest already healing from the acid burns.
"You're hopeless, dear."
"I know Maman. But Amanda did run into it. If she wasn't always so careless-"
"If you did your experiments in the garage, as you've been told countless times to do…"
He grinned sheepishly, a habit he picked up from Kurt and Tora smiled as she realised what she had told Logan was true. Jamie was Kurt's son.
"Try not to melt the bath this time."
"Yes Maman…"
xXx
The blast sent her reeling but she whipped round to face Iron Man. Unfortunately, that left her back exposed and Thor dropped his hammer then charged at Iron Man.
"Don't! You must not hurt her else my brother will know!"
"WHAT!?"
Thor blinked.
"You did not know?"
"What are you saying about the communication tattoo?"
"Communication tattoo? That is an Asgardian ward tattoo, used… used… used by one god to protect his mortal lovers from harm…"
She stopped.
"Do you mind?"
"Er…what?"
"LOKI!"
The god appeared.
"Yes? Do you want me to blast them…? Okay, what did I do this time?"
"Ward. Tattoo."
"Ah… I was going to tell you…"
"I AM NOT MADE OF BONE CHINA! I AM NOT THE ONE WHO CRIES AT THE LION KING! I AM NOT THE ONE WHO TURNED UP AT THE OTHER'S DOOR COATED IN BLOOD, WITH THREE BROKEN RIBS AND A PUNCTURED LUNG!"
Cap sidled over to Iron Man.
"What should we do?"
"Well, let's not interfere because I'm recording this and it is so going on YouTube."
Loki was blushing.
"I worry…"
"You worry? You worry!? I never know if you're calling me because you're bored, you want to talk or you need me to come and rescue you from a frost giant!"
"I only did that once…"
"Once too many."
"You rely on me to teleport you out…"
"I have never driven someone insane for flirting with you."
"About that…"
"Nor have I locked down your entire operations because you gave me the cold shoulder for the previous infringement."
"You're mortal! I always think you're going to die!"
"I'm a lot tougher than I look, Loki! I survived vivisection as a teenager! I am quite capable of doing what I do."
"Ahh! Of all the billions of mortals and thousands of gods in the world, why do I have to fall in love with the most infuriating one of all!?"
"AND WHY DO I HAVE TO- Wait, did you just say love?"
Everyone went totally silent. Loki's face was going bright red.
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did."
"I was upset and confused."
"Quoting you, 'People are more inclined to tell the truth under stress'."
"Now…"
Her arms were crossed and she was tapping her foot.
"Truth. Or. Bust."
"Er… Can we do this elsewhere? My galootish brother is laughing at me."
She glanced over.
"Fine. Oh, and Iron Man?"
"Yeah?"
"You do know that I won't appear on the recording and I doubt Loki will either."
They vanished in a bubble of green light and Tony started swearing.
xXx
The boy shook his head.
"I get to kill the Avengers. They killed my dad."
The red-haired girl laughed bitterly.
"Your dad was a two-bit criminal who fell of a fifth-storey rooftop running away from the crime. If anyone gets to kill the Avengers, it's me."
"Why you?"
She glanced at him then snarled.
"Because the Avengers destroyed my whole family. They were supposed to be my mother's friends but they killed her right in front of my eyes when I was eight years old because they thought she was too dangerous to live. She wasn't even expecting it. She was showing me how to paralyze someone and they shot her right through the heart, beheaded her and then burnt her body to ashes. My dad went on the run with me, my brother Curt, my sister Laura and Curt's girlfriend Jubilee. We tried to reach my brother, Jamie, who was with the FF. We were too late. My annoying, genius brother was a threat and the Avengers sieged the Baxter Building for him. The FF refused to hand him over, even when their own family was threatened. And my brother crept out to keep them safe. The Avengers destroyed him. They took my brother, the smartest ten-year-old who ever lived, who got quantum theory and could beat Reed Richards at chess aged five and they messed around with his brain before handing him back to the FF. Jamie will spend the rest of his life getting excited about sorting blocks by colour. He's got the mind of an infant now."
She gulped slightly.
"My dad was captured after we'd been on the run for a month. He's still locked up in the Avengers Tower. Aunt Wanda is kept under house arrest by her own brother. The X-Men were forcibly disbanded. Curt and Laura kept us running for three years. They were good at keeping us safe. Then we were hiding in an abandoned church and they attacked us. Laura was killed before she even had time to shout a warning. Curt was getting me out when Jubilee –his girlfriend who happened to be a vampire- was trapped by the crucifix. Curt had a choice. He could escape with me or go back for Jubes. He was going to help me but then Captain America –the guy who used to play peek-a-boo with me when I was just a kid- held a vial of holy water over her head. Curt went back for her and they started ringing the church bells. It ripped the symbiote from him. Drove him insane. He's in a maximum security mental asylum. Jubilee is Hank Pym's vampire specimen for experimentation."
She looked down, eyes watering slightly.
"I went to one of the X-Men. Beast took me in but they found out. I only just got out when Iron Man destroyed the house. Storm offered to take me in but the Black Panther found out and she ended up trapped in the Wakandan palace. She can't leave. I stopped going for help after that. The Young Avengers found me and I thought they were going to turn me in but they voted and agreed they owed Maman enough to keep me safe. Teddy offered to take me to the Skrull Empire where I'd be safe but I refused. Billy decided to break out Xixy and thought if we told the K'Meer that their Prince was being held prisoner by the people who killed their god then we'd have help. They decided to break out Xixy and send me with him to M'Keer to raise a force to help rescue everyone else. It was a trap. Patriot had been feeding info to the Avengers and when we tried to rescue Xixy, they diluted his plasma form so much he died. The Young Avengers were taken prisoner but Billy managed to teleport me away and I was on my own. I was thirteen. I've been training for the last three years and now I'm ready. I'm going to kill every last Avenger. Maman deserves that much. I am going to avenge my mom and my dad and my brothers and my sister and Uncle Hank and Aunt 'Ro and the Young Avengers and Uncle Xix. I am going to destroy the Avengers."
"How do you plan to do that?"
She laughed.
"Why do you think the Avengers kept going after me? When they killed Maman, I got her power."
She got up, her amber eyes sparking dangerously.
"And Dragon wants vengeance as well. We will rip through the Avengers like a tidal wave. They won't know what hit them."
And then Eva Etana Logan laughed.
"They were so stupid! The prophecy said that Dragon would destroy them. It didn't mean Maman. It meant me. They brought about their own doom."
And deep inside Eva's soul, the few shreds of Tora that remained wept for the lost innocence of her daughter.
"Oh, the poor dears."
"Death, you are sounding alarmingly human right now."
"You two are rubbing off on me."