Memories
New World
Disclaimer: What do you think?
If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
Logan sat opposite the girl, who was hunched up in armchair, still shivering slightly with fear.
"Calm down. Tell us who you are, slowly."
"I'm… I'm… I'm Zillah… I… I'm Zillah Bat Eitana… I… Ima always said I had to stay on the island… I can get everything I want but she's been away so long…"
Logan felt his muscles tense. Eitana. Another pronunciation of Etana, just like Eitan was a variation of Ethan, as Etana had explained when he'd had trouble pronouncing it.
"Who is your mother?"
"She's not really my mother… You see, I am her. She said she was one day going to die so someone had to take her place. So she made me."
Logan suddenly felt a deep set dread.
"Zillah, this will sound very odd. Do you have any parents?"
"No. Ima looked after me."
He glanced over at Rachel.
Anything?
Logan… This will sound strange… She has an identical psychic signature to Etana…
She smells the same too.
Clone?
I'm going with that.
He looked back at the teenager. She pulled her wings around her defensively, just like Etana used to do when she was upset about something.
"Zillah, would you like to come with us? It'll be safer there and you don't have to stay on the island."
"Ima said I shouldn't leave!"
"Well …'Ima' told me that I was to come and find you."
"When!? When did you see my Ima!?"
"I'm… I'm sorry, Zillah…"
"She's dead, isn't she?"
"Yes. I'm sorry."
She shrugged.
"She said it was coming."
"Do you need to get anything?"
"Just Simon and Garfunkel."
"What?"
"Simon and Garfunkel. They're my pets. Wait."
She opened the door and cleared her throat.
"Simon! Garfunkel! SIMON! GARFUNKEL!"
And then two of the dodos strutted in. She grinned and pointed at them.
"Simon. And Garfunkel. Ima named them. We've always had dodos. Before Simon and Garfunkel, we had Handel and Chopin, and before that we had Holst and Mozart."
She pointed at the slightly taller one.
"That's Simon."
And then the smaller one.
"And Garfunkel."
Logan buried his face in his hands.
"This is going to be a long journey back…"
Jean pressed her face in her hands.
"He never got over that, did he?"
"Nup!"
"You're remarkably cheerful for this."
"And…?"
"Never mind…"
"So Etana cloned herself?"
"All the tests suggest so."
Logan and Hank glanced through the window to the Danger Room, where Zillah was practising her use of a bō staff against Gambit –and not to put too fine a point on it, beating him if not soundly, then without resorting to trickery.
"What are you going to do with her?"
Logan shrugged.
"What can I do? Enroll her in the school, try and fix up the mess I've made of her. She's been alone since Etana got the Legacy Virus, Hank. She's messed up and it's my fault."
Hank sighed.
"You weren't to know."
"Why?"
"Pardon?"
"Why did she do it? Why would she clone herself and never tell us?"
"Why was young Evan created?"
Logan glanced over.
"Atonement?"
"You've heard how Zillah speaks about her mother, her 'Ima'. She idolises her yet hasn't quite understood the truth behind Etana. She's tried to create a true hero –someone in the mould of how everyone sees Steve."
Logan looked as Zillah smacked her staff across Gambit's back and flipped over.
"That's a hero?"
Hank looked over.
"You're colouring her with what you know of Etana."
Logan looked over.
"Look. I've known Tana for most of my life –I lived with her for years. She's not the sort who believes in the "Gee whiz" superheroes. She believed in dealing with threats as she had too. If that meant lethal force, so be it. That's who Tan was and lying about it isn't going to work. And that's what Zillah is too. I can see it in her eyes. She's a killer, Hank. A stone-cold killer. She's one of those who can slit a man's throat and never turn a hair. I don't care about Genesis –sure, he's not Apocalypse, we all know that, you just have to talk to him –but Zillah was still raised by Tana and you can't get rid of that. She'll be the next Shadow, Hank. She won't be able to stop herself."
"Was he right?"
"Spoilers."
Zillah sat on her new bed, in her new uniform, in her new home and wished for the old, the comfortable, the familiar. When Ima would come in and sit on her bed whilst Zillah sat on the floor and had her hair plaited whilst Ima sang. Zillah ran her fingers through her silky silver hair and smiled slightly. There was one thing she could still do.
When she walked into her first class –three and a half minutes early- her hair was in a long French plait, just like Ima just to do it. She sat quietly and set out books and pens and stuff. School. Like all those books Ima read. Zillah shivered. She just wanted to go home; to the island, to the robots –now rusting heaps of scrap metal, to the dodos –at least Logan had let her keep Simon and Garfunkel, even if they weren't allowed to sleep on her bed.
The rest of the class filed in and Ms Monroe cleared her throat.
"Everyone, this is Zillah. She's a new student, so please be polite and kind to her."
She heard mutterings and she allowed herself to dart a glance around the class. And then her gaze froze on the boy staring at her with fascination. His skin was pale-grey, almost white and his black hair was neatly combed. His lips were marked black and he was gazing at her with an expression she couldn't read. Zillah swiftly pulled her wings around her, trying not to panic. That was Apocalypse! Ima always told her to run if she saw Apocalypse! But Logan wouldn't…? Would he? Don't hyperventilate, don't panic. Don't panic. Hitchhiker's. Think that. Calm down. Quote ten Cat lines from Red Dwarf. Relax. Run through the Parrot Sketch. Calm down.
Zillah took a deep breath and slowly unfurled her wings. She was going to do this. This was just like Ima had trained her for. Ready for anything, prepared for anything.
She just wished that anything had included high school…
Jean blinked then started laughing.
"Oh boy, was she right!"