Memories
Rien de Rien
Disclaimer: What do you think?
If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
Magneto lifted the records.
"Shall I? Any one in particular?"
"Don't care."
He slid one out of its sheaf, placed it on the gramophone provided for his visits and set the needle in place. Édith Piaf's voice rang out.
Non…rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien…qu'on m'a fait
Ni le mal…tout ça m'est bien égale…
Tora raised an eyebrow.
"Very…controversial, Max."
He set out the chessboard and handed her the kings.
"The usual?"
She held her hands behind her back then brought them round. He pointed at her left. She opened it, to prove it empty. She grinned.
"Blind guess then?"
Hands back behind her then out again. Magneto bit his lip them pointed at her right. She opened it to reveal the white king.
"You play white."
"I'll just turn the music up, shall I?"
Non... rien de rien
Non... je ne regrette rien
C'est payé, balayé, oublié
Je me fous du passé...
He moved the first pawn. Tora responded and then he spoke, so quietly the microphones, deafened by the music, couldn't pick it up.
"Have you considered Scott's offer?"
Tora frowned, moved a knight.
"What, that he 'liberates' me and I go on the run with him, gathering new mutants?"
Avec mes souvenirs
J'ai allumé le feu
Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux
Max nodded, barely perceptible.
"I would like for you to come with us. It would make being stuck with Summers and Frost bearable."
"Max, you flatter me. But no."
Balayées les amours
Avec leurs trémolos
Balayés pour toujours
Je repars à zéro
He sighed.
"I didn't think you would. But why? Why stay here, where the humans will sentence you?"
"For the same reason you once stood trial. To show I can atone."
"They will show you no mercy."
He moved a bishop, taking one of her pawns.
Non... rien de rien
Non... je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien, qu'on m'a fait
Ni le mal, tout ça m'est bien égale
"Max, I have to do this."
"Please, don't."
"If I run, I look like a coward."
"You are no coward. You are one of the bravest people I know."
Black rook took bishop.
"I have to do this."
Non, rien de rien
Non... je ne regrette rien
Car ma vie... car mes joies...
Aujourd'hui... ça commence avec toi...
"Tora…"
The music sputtered out. He stood to change the record.
"Holst? The Planet Suite? Or Vivaldi's Seasons?"
"Planets, s'il vous plait."
"If I've told you once, I've told you twenty times. You call me Max. I am tu, not vous."
"Thank you."
The music began again. This time, they played in silence.
Two hours late, when the white rook finally managed to checkmate the black king, Magneto stood up.
"Well, it has been nice, Tora."
"Yes. It has. Look after yourself, Max."
Unspoken goodbyes. He was going with Scott. Underground, recruiting. She was stuck here. Possibly forever. She reached out a hand.
"I'll see you soon."
A lie.
He shook it.
"I look forward to it."
A truth.
Then he raised two fingers to his lips, kissed them and pressed them to her forehead.
"Look after yourself."
She gently folded her hands around his.
"I will if you do, Max. Good luck."
"How sweet."
"Jean?"
"Yes?"
"Shut up."
"Ms Circen, can you explain why you were prepared to lie in this trial, to the detriment of your own case?"
Tora looked up, her eyes dark.
"The Avengers are needed. What I could have said would destroy them. The world needs them more than it needs me."
"Will you comment on any of the things you talked about?"
"No."
"Why not."
"They are not my secrets to tell."
"Ms Circen, you do understand that refusing to talk severely impairs your chance for a fair trial?"
"It is already impaired."
"Excuse me, Ms Circen?"
"I am mutant. By that stance, I am inferior in the eyes of almost everyone here. I was condemned by my blood before any word was spoken."
"Ms Circen, why do you think this?"
Tora glared at Jen then spoke in a biting, sarcastic tone that those who knew her quivered at. She was about to go that little too far.
"Oh, let's think. Tortured and turned into a weapon as a child, because I was a mutant. Oh, aged twenty-one, forced to leave my home and go undercover because, and I quote 'HYDRA doesn't vet the muties as thoroughly'. Oh yes, there was that case when my home was attacked and people tried to force me to register like I was an animal. And then there were all the death threats and the FOH and Purifier and Reaver attacks which made me feel that maybe people don't like me too much. Oh, and then our children were massacred and we ended up cut down to less than 200 individuals and some of the former mutant children were killed in a cowardly attack on our school and then we were herded into a reservation and then someone blew up our home. We leave and go elsewhere. We are forced to leave even there because people attack us once more. We live on an island, separated from you and then, surprise surprise, we get attacked by Nimrods and people die. Then Sentinels again. And not just any Sentinel. The Sentinel was sent to attack our children when our fighters were gone. Then when I leave that death-trap of an island, I get attacked by school inspectors turned into a Wendigo and a pterodactyl, my home is attacked some thirty times and then when we have a bat's chance in hell of not being teetering on the edge of extinction anymore, we get told we can't do anything to save ourselves. Yes, I think I've got a reason to be a bit paranoid, don't you?"
She crossed her arms.
"I rest my case on that point."
There was a long, awkward silence. Then Jen turned.
"Permission to adjourn?"
"Typical."
"Are you trying to get yourself in deeper trouble than you already are!?"
Tora shrugged. Madrox swore.
"I'm trying my best! Walters is handing you this on a silver platter! All you have to do is be nice and cheerful and compliant and they'll have to acquit you! But no, you have to be difficult! As always!"
"Madrox, has it occurred to you that I want to lose?"
"WHY!?"
"Because if I lose, I can't hurt anyone else! I'm terrified, Madrox! I'm scared senseless of what I could do, what I did! I don't remember any of it and what if I fall again!? What then? You've already proved yourselves hopeless against me! If the Negative Zone is the only place strong enough to hold me, then so be it!"
"They shut down 42!"
"They're talking about reopening it."
"WHAT!?"
"Everyone knows the Raft isn't secure. And any hero sent there is dead within a few hours. Better stick me in 42."
"You mean, they're talking about reopening the prison in the Negative Zone, just for you?"
She nodded.
"Won't be the first time something like that's happened elsewhere."
"Tora, this isn't helping."
She shrugged.
"I promised I wouldn't reveal Avengers secrets. And I keep promises."
"At the detriment of justice?!"
"If it is to me, then yes."
He swore again.
"That is so…her!"
"Yes, Phoenix, I think she was always 'her'."
"I hate you, you stuck-up, know-it-all, stubborn…"
"Phoenix, this is her realm. I think she is entitled to be sarcastic if she wishes."
"Death, take my side on this!"
Wanda shifted in her seat. This was going to be…awkward, to say the least…
"You are Wanda Maximoff, also known as the Scarlet Witch?"
"Yes."
"Address given here as 890 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York?"
"That is my official residence, yes."
"But you don't live there?"
"I've been avoiding it."
"Why?"
"My relationship with the Avengers is…complicated."
"In what way?"
"I don't know where to start."
"Start from the beginning then."
"I hope you have get an aspirin allowance. This is going to be complicated. I was born in Wungadore. Delivered by a cow-woman named Boga…"
Three hours later; her voice was hoarse, the judge had a glazed look in his eyes and Tora looked as if she was only just withholding giggles.
"So… You are saying that… You used a demonic pact with your probability altering powers to create children, who were later absorbed and the Avengers wiped your memory of ever having children to spare you grief and then –after your robot-"
"Android."
"Your android husband lost his ability to feel emtions and your marriage fell apart, you remembered, went insane with grief, made a pact with Dr Doom, caused the deaths of a number of Avengers, depowered almost the entirety of the mutant population, vanished and then Dragon saved you, brought you back and the Avengers and X-Men were about to fight each other over you but Dr Doom attacked and Dragon saved everyone? Then she was admitted to a mental retreat, came back, was kidnapped, brainwashed, broke the brainwashing and then was shot by Mr Stark, resulting in, and I quote, 'a great big mess, with her mind being eaten from the inside out'? You healed her and Ms Summers, restarted the mutant race and now she doesn't remember anything?"
Wanda nodded.
"That's the gist of it."
"And you also accuse the Avengers and the X-Men of considering killing you after you broke up the Avengers? And that Dragon was the only one to speak up for you?"
She nodded.
"Why do you think this was?"
"Because she lost a child once as well. She knew what it felt like."
"Would you care to expand?"
"I'm not too sure of the details. But it was kind of like… She was attacked, causing her to go into premature labour. Her twins were taken to be placed in an incubator and somehow –we're not sure we'll ever know how- Weapon Plus faked the death of her son and took him to be trained as a weapon. It almost destroyed her. I was just beginning to remember myself. I tried to reach out to her, but I couldn't. None of us could. It almost destroyed her. But she was stronger than I was and pulled through. I didn't."
She looked over at Tora.
"I owe her my life, a thousand times over. She stood up for me, defended me, placed herself against those she called her family for one who hasn't exactly been the best of friends to her."
"What do you mean?"
"I was never there for her when she needed me. She always stood beside me but I let her suffer. She is the one I trust above all else. She is my sister, not through blood but by choice and by shared pain."
Tora looked at her, a smile teasing the corner of her lips. Wanda looked defiant.
"Tora did nothing she wasn't forced into."
"Remind me to thank the Griffin when I next see it."
"Phoenix, why would you want to thank it for that?"
"I don't know. I just feel that is what I should do."
A.N. Well, hopefully you can understand all the slow updates. I've just been working quite a lot and it appears to have payed off, as I'm Dux (like the valedictorian, only we don't give a speech) and Memories has sort of been sidelined by all the work I've been putting in it. I would promise more regular updates but I've got to finish courses and then I have my first exam in a months time. Wait a bit, and I'll hopefully get back up to speed on updates.