Memories
Destroyer of Darkness
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Tora stood in silence, hidden deep in shadows. Watching as Etana screamed and raged and threw her priceless possessions across the room. Then she stepped out.
I'm sorry.
A small Buddha statue flew through what would be Tora's stomach, shattering on the wall behind her.
I know it's difficult…
"You've just told me that Dis- Ste- Captain America comes back in two years' time –that he's not dead! And I'm not allowed to see him? Because you have some sort of stupid timeline to keep on course?! How…"
She descended into a list of how Tora's near-ancestry involved four pigs, two dogs, a baboon and a cockatoo. Tora tuned that out. Over three-thousand years, Etana had lost her awe of the woman who had mentored her as a child and now treated her as an equal. In Etana's eyes, equal could be transferred with "should know better than to do stupid, selfish things." Hence her right now being ranted at. This was the third rant in twenty years, so not very good by either of their standards. They tended to avoid unnecessary fights.
Etana whipped around again; her hair flying, her eyes wild.
"You were the one who led him to Haven! You pushed us together and watched us fall, like the emotionless monster you are! You loved watching us dance, you love pulling the strings! You tell me he dies, and now you say he lives, but I can't face him!?"
"Seven years is too-"
"Don't say it's too short! I didn't think we had seven months, let alone seven years! I'd be happy for seven years! I've done everything you've ever wanted from me! And damned myself in the process, of course! I've done so much; I should end up in the darkest corner of the deepest Hell and consider myself lucky for not being thrown much deeper! Let me have this one thing! Let me live, don't keep me like this!"
And Tora's eyes flashed angrily.
You want to see the future. Then see!
Her hand snapped onto Etana's face, showing the angel what could be.
The dark-furred woman appeared out of nowhere, huge wings curved down her back. She raised her hands.
"Captain."
His mouth dropped open in wordless surprise and the Avengers made a split-second assumption and decision that altered the course of the world.
"AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!"
The repulsor beam clipped the side of her skull, sending her tumbling down and at that Cap was up, shield in hand as he lunged at Iron Man, smashing right through the helmet. Thor threw Mjolnir and as the two women out of time watched, the Avengers were ripped apart before they had truly formed.
Damning the world.
Another world, another possibility.
"Discus-Boy."
The quietest of whispers, but freezing Steve in his morning jog.
"Shadow?"
"Here."
He turned and saw a hooded figure in the alley. It looked up, and two glowing silver eyes fixed on him.
"It's really you, isn't it?"
"Yep. Really me."
A hand slid out of the long sleeves, as graceful as it had been before, only when he took it, he felt a few more callouses.
"Where are you taking me?"
"One of my places. Coffee?"
Steve paused.
"I think I found out that was a euphemism for something…"
"No, real coffee. Milk, one sugar, wasn't it?"
"Yeah."
They vanished together. Unbeknownst to either of them, this set off a series of alerts that Tony Stark had set on Steve.
The panicked attack, led by the fear that Captain America had been kidnapped, led to the destruction of four blocks and a Government Act banning any and all of the "so-called 'superheroes'".
When Steve was released from hospital, he discovered that Etana had been taken to a special facility and that he'd never see her again.
There were thousands of worlds like this. The Avengers didn't always overreact but often, they fell into an even more deadly trap –relying on Etana. And then the Sentinels would arrive, or the Skrulls would attack, or Doom would come up with another crackpot scheme for ruling the world and Etana would be distracted at that vital nanosecond and she'd fall in battle, with the Avengers as a whole soon following.
Etana was on her knees now, begging for Tora to stop, but there was something inside the latter crying for more. And then Tora staggered back, as if struck. She managed to lean against the wall and Etana could hear the muttered words.
No… Not now… Thought you were gone… You can't… Won't let you…
Etana wanted more than ever to attack, to strike out at the woman she both hated and loved with equal measures. And as she watched, something dark was spat out onto the floor and Tora was gesturing to Muzai, lying on the chair next to Etana and as the feelings of revulsion and hatred and anger began to wash over her, the blade went right through the patch of nothingness, severing it and it let out a high-pitched scream that shattered glass and then it was gone.
Etana looked up to see Tora slumped against the wall, staring at the patch where the nothingness had been.
"What… What was that?"
Ev… Everything that… That is evil within me… You… You destroyed it… You have freed me.
As Etana watched, the water and ice faded to flesh and blood and amber eyes looked up at her. It had been rare in recent years for Tora to take corporal form when in Etana's presence and the shock of seeing her like this caused Etana's desire to thump her to subside rapidly. There was something in her eyes, something lost and afraid and relieved.
"You… You destroyed it…"
And then she was laughing uncontrollably, hysterically. Etana pulled herself up and could only watch in horror as the maniacal laughter continued. There was something terrible about the laughter that put Etana at great unease. And then Tora looked up, her eyes sparking with a sense of humour rediscovered.
"Now I know why it hated you so much! You destroy it! You're the one who kills Dark Dragon!"
Phoenix paused. Considered. And then she burst into fits of giggles that sent her tumbling off the conjured cushion. This didn't impress the masked woman.
"That's not amusing, Phoenix. That is the behaviour of a disturbed woman."