Memories
The Devil You Know
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If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
There were a complex variety of red markings on the floor, all glowing scarlet red. The Witch was gesturing wildly, curious symbols flashing in the air before vanishing. And now the dust on the warehouse floor, untouched for years, began to swirl up in a maelstrom of light.
The figure appeared in the circle, solidifying from the swirling patterns of light and dust. And a woman appeared, staggering forward and out of the circle, slamming into the floor.
Amber eyes looked up and widened.
"You really put that much effort into bringing me back? Have I ever told you how much I love you?"
She pushed herself up and staggered forward. Logan moved to catch her but she pushed past him before pulling the Scarlet Witch into an embrace. Wanda looked confused and slightly freaked out and then Tora looked up.
And swore. Violently.
"Ah. Minor mistake here. I don't think I'm your Tora."
She managed to extract herself from Wanda and flushed.
"Definitely not your Tora. This is awkward…"
Then she scratched her head.
"Er… Thanks for picking me up and all. I don't suppose you'd be able to take me over to Reed? I need to get back."
Logan and Wanda looked at each other awkwardly.
"Err… We can take you I suppose?"
"Thanks. I'll probably be in quite a bit of trouble. I kind of died on our anniversary. My own stupid fault."
She saw their looks.
"I went in on a team mission to a deserted space station where there were possibly highly hostile aliens. I happened to be the more experienced and less feminine of the two women on the team, not to mention being about a 4.5 on the Kinsey Scale. Of course I was going to get killed. Narrative storytelling insists upon it."
"Huh?"
She rolled her eyes.
"You obviously are far too busy to trawl the Internet. I was 'working' but I have a habit of getting distracted."
She caught their look.
"I write and illustrate a webcomic. Let's me work from home. Kind of helpful when you're one of two full-time superheroes in California with any major training. And the other owns a coffee shop, which is pretty tricky to shut down on short notice."
She saw their looks.
"Okay, I didn't quite get the bit about homophobia when I first got out. I thought it was normal, or at least pretty standard to be attracted to the same sex. And when I make a stupid mistake and admit I'm attracted to a teammember, she gives me hell. It was when I overheard her making comments about keeping me away from Kitty that I left. Wanda helped me out, gave me a place to stay, it progressed from there. We moved to 'Frisco to get away from the gossip."
She saw their looks.
"I'm not saying who it was, okay? We worked it out eventually. Please don't freak out on me."
Wanda was flushing bright red.
"We're… We're…"
"Sorry, I'm kind of used to this. It's just part of my mutation. I live in all realities and just in one all at the same time. I tend to forget people get worried when I talk about relationships I'm not really in. Just because another me is in love with someone else, doesn't mean I'd ever consider leaving for them. Anyway, I can count on one hand the number of men I've found myself mildly attracted to. Admittedly, I've only really been attracted to a few handfuls of women as well."
Logan cleared his throat.
"So… You're…"
"Oh, like you can talk. We still call the time the X-Men split "Logan and Scott's Domestic". Least it only lasted six months before Scott went to Westchester at the same time as Logan headed off to the Bay and they crossed somewhere on the way. Must have spotted each other, because you vanished for two weeks and came back best buds again. Well, I say best buds. More casually undressing each other with their eyes during team briefings. But hey, that's normal."
"Normal…?"
Wanda had bitten her hand to prevent herself giggling. Logan looked dumbstruck.
"Please, don't tell Slim this…"
"Why not? You're such a cute couple. I mean, you were arguing like an old married couple from the very beginning and admittedly, I think the first few times were hate sex, but you ended up incredibly soppy together. I mean, it kind of caught everyone off-centre when I blurted out that they stank of each other first thing in the morning but we worked with it in the end."
Wanda couldn't help it and properly started laughing. The other Tora grinned wickedly.
"I mean, not many people knew, at least until the awkward accidental coming out that involved a rooftop, an unnoticed CCTV camera and two horny X-Men unable to wait 'til they got home. Then a viral YouTube video. You were begging me to take it down. It's now wiped off the Internet, but I had at least eight copies as blackmail material. At least I did. My systems are probably all wiped now. Damn."
She shrugged.
"Still the Baxter Building, right? And is this Logan's 'not-so-secret' warehouse in the Docks?"
"Er…"
"I can probably make my own way."
"That's probably not a good idea. The Avengers will freak out when they see you."
"Why… Oh. No worries, just got given an update on the awful state of affairs in this reality. I mean, seriously? She made you kill her? That's just unnecessarily cruel."
Wanda shot Logan a look that said 'We are going to have a very long talk after this' and Logan shrugged awkwardly. The other Tora was dancing around in the open air, appearing to enjoy the wind and fresh air. She glanced over at them.
"Do you have any idea how boring it is to be stuck as an energy pattern for however long that was? I'm not your Tora. She's not who I am. We're different. I learnt how to blow off steam in other ways. She scribbles everything down in her journals, I go out and pretend to be someone else. Escapism. I've never totally gone off the rails yet."
She was standing there, face up to the sky and Logan felt as if someone had punched him in the gut as a memory overtook him.
She stood there in the rain, arms out and face upturned, hair plastered to her skull as she smiled. Her tongue darted out and caught a falling drop. There was such glee in her eyes as she circled around. He walked out, shrugging his coat up to protect him.
"You're crazy. Going out in January rains like this? Come back in. It's only a few degrees off snow."
But she turned to him and her whole face lit up.
"I never got to go out in the rain. It's better than I ever imagined!"
And how could he argue with that?
"Logan? Logan, are you alright?"
Wanda had a hand on his arm and he realised he'd been staring into nothing. He shook his head to dispel the vision and kept on moving. The other Tora was laughing now, a gentle laugh that was identical to his Tora's. She was beautiful in the way he had never seen, sure in movement and in herself. She was different to his Tora. More confident, more assured of her place in the world. He hurried over to talk to her, leaving the Witch to follow behind.
"So… Were you…?"
"We all felt her fall. Then we felt her locked away. And break free. You saved her. She died with you on her minds. She was so thankful. We all were. The madness can spread, you see. From one reality to the next. It's why the Silver Dragon made the deal with the Timekeeper. You've met the Exiles, right? The Silver Dragon is our version of the Exiles. She travels from reality to reality, taking out those of us who can contaminate the whole. It is a thankless task, but she lost everything in her world. So she works for the Timekeeper, knowing that once her task is done, he will undo the loss of all that meant anything to her."
"So… Did you and I…?"
"You mean was I ever attracted to my reality's version of you? It would be a lie to say I hadn't considered it, when I saw how large a proportion of the whole were happy with you. But… It wouldn't work out. You are closer to me than a brother. I consider you my sibling. You feel the same. Any other form of relationship would feel…wrong for us. But know this –if ever we meet, although we may not be lovers, we are always close. Storge, Philia, Eros, Agape. There is always one form or more between us. Even when we are on opposing sides, we often end up with a form of friendship. As one of my less law-abiding compatriots put it "I'm the only one allowed to kill him, and I don't think I want to give up the fun fights yet." She's a bit of a thrill-seeker. We're just waiting for it to turn out like 9821. Because eventually, one of them is going to give and they'll end up snogging when they're meant to be attempting to kill each other."
Logan raised an eyebrow.
"So… How exactly did you and Wanda…?"
"She was kind to me. Most people were –you even offered to rent me an apartment somewhere until I was on my feet. But Wanda… She offered me her spare room and introduced me to a completely different social scene. She also most resolutely pretended to have no interest in me until I asked her in an entirely blunt fashion whether something was wrong with me. It went from there. And can we leave that there? I don't want to talk about it without her there."
"Can you tell me if…?"
"You want to know about your Tora, don't you? I'm sorry. I can't talk about it. It's a promise we all made –we will not discuss one of us with the denziens of their native reality. Outside pertinent information. I told you about her last thoughts because it is important to you. But I will not reveal her more private thoughts. They are hers alone, and she will reveal them when she sees fit."
Logan laughed bitterly.
"She's dead. She can't tell me anything."
The other Tora stopped and raised an eyebrow almost mockingly.
"You can't kill something like us. We are Dragon. Almost all of us are the Dragon. The Dragon is eternal and ethereal. Older than the multiverse. And we… We are a part of it, no matter how much we disagree with it. There is varying levels of acceptance between worlds. The ones where there is no distinction… there we are unstoppable. Your Tora has one of the most complex relationships with the Song. They rely on each other but she is too stubborn to give over entirely."
"Have you?"
"No. But for a reason that all agree is correct –I am not emotionally ready for such an event. The Dragon came to me later in life than many others. I was still getting used to sharing headspace with it when I was attacked and suffered body death. The Song panicked and rather than transferring me to the Library, which would have been the most sensible course of action, it found a pocket dimension and transferred me there."
"The Library?"
"She never told you? The Ice Cold Library. The Archives of Reality. Where all knowledge is kept, all history stored. The home of the Dragon. I have never been there. You sort of have to… ascend, in a way. To a higher plane. It involves deep bonding. If you go to the Library, you can never leave Dragon. You are tied together in a way that cannot be understood. Going there… It entwines you in such a way it can never be undone."
"And has Tora… my Tora… Has she…?"
"She has been there, yes. But she continues to fight, not realising she is ripping out a part of herself. Only by fully joining in such a way that Tora becomes Dragon and Dragon becomes Tora can she heal herself."
Logan felt a flash of anger.
"And why did you never tell her this?!"
"You think we didn't try? She's stubborn. Won't listen. Refuses to believe she'd be better off giving up a little bit of humanity all the time rather than losing it all for short, sharp bursts which end up… Well, you saw how it ended up."
Logan fell silent and considered. If he was to believe her, Tora was partly at fault, rather than the Dragon and that hurt. Because he couldn't blame the thing that took over Tora's body and ripped through the universe.
The other Tora had glanced over her shoulder again at the Witch then shook her head sadly before moving on.
"Still at the Baxter Building?"
"Look, I'll take you there. But… Be prepared for some… bad reactions."
"Trust me, you don't know a bad reaction until you've been thrown out of an entire galaxy for accidentally offending the supreme ruler. There's a price on my head there. I can at least say I didn't realise I was flirting with them, and that turning down a position as a consort was a frightful insult. At least they haven't quite worked out intergalactic travel, so I'm safe. For now. By the time full bonding takes place, nothing will be capable of harming me. There will also be no end. The rule is simple. Once bonding with the Dragon takes place, there is only physical changes as and when we consider them relevant. We become more than gods. Can you see why she fears it?"
"Why? She'd never…"
"She would have to live and would either have to watch you eventually age and die or give you immortality and all the problems that entails."
"What does that mean?"
"We cannot break the rules and gift immortality on everyone who matters to us. She has already used up one of her gifts."
"What?"
"You think Kurt Wagner is alive for any reason other than her? Statistics state that he will experience an elongated lifespan in the manner of both his parents, but immortality? Tut, tut. Removing him entirely from Death's sights? It kind of upsets her."
"Wait… Kurt is…?"
"Kurt Wagner can no longer die. It is as simple as that."
"But… Kurt cut himself last week when cooking. The wound didn't heal any faster than it usually does…"
"Who said immortality has to have anything to do with healing? Like I explained, she was mentally distressed when she brought him back. Rather than just going with the flow… She did a lot of things wrong. For instance, Etana's body would have lasted a few months at most before giving out. It was done wrong and the effects of the cure were merely supressed. Because Etana still enjoys the relative freedom of traversing the astral plane in her duties as the Malach Hamavet, as soon as her body returned to life, it called out for her and trapped her. Trust me. There are worlds where Etana never died during the Darkness. She dies a few months later, in exactly the same manner as she originally did."
"But Kurt…"
"There was a stronger imperative to return Kurt. Etana was already able to be contacted therefore a secondary decision. Look, I'm trying to explain the mind of a woman driven insane with guilt and grief. It's practically impossible."
It was at that point when the Avengers turned up and Steve gave Logan his "I'm Disappointed In You" look, whilst Dr Strange had sealed the other Tora in one of those awful energy cages that stung like hell when you touched them. Great. Just when he was about to get some decent answers.
Phoenix frowned.
"How could they possibly mistake her for Tora? Her psychic signature is all wrong."
"Most of the telepaths on Earth were mutants, Jean. And Tora was seen as a mutant icon. No mutant who wasn't a supremacist would stand against her willingly."