Memories
Rise of Darkness, Fall of Light
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Tora sighed.
"Okay, okay, I'll do it."
There may at times be a requirement to kill.
"Look, let me get this straight. You want me to hop through realities, stopping other versions of myself who have gone out of control. Trust me, I've been wanting to do that for years! There's only so much we can do to restrain the madness from our own realities."
Even if you have to kill other versions of yourself?
"Dragon, it's who I appear to kill best. Myself or those who wear my face."
There was a moment's pause then Tora felt a trickle of amusement.
You really are impertinent, aren't you?
"I backchat. So what? It's the only fun thing to do right now."
Once you have done this, your side of the bargain will be complete. I shall reveal the truth you have wished to find for so long.
And she felt a rush of power, like she only felt when she was falling.
"Evil Tora's? Seriously?"
"Someone had to deal with them after all. And who better than the one who knew the insides of their heads just as well?"
The woman moved swiftly, her hand reaching out and snapping the neck of the last line of defence between her and the four working desperately to finish the machine.
As Benjamin Grimm fell down she walked forward. The red-haired woman moved as if to fight but the blond man rested his hand on her shoulder and gave a barely perceptible shake of his head. She fell back, moving to clutch the precious bundle of blankets to her chest as he moved forward.
The woman smiled cruelly, the tattoos over her face twisting and the serpents shaped like the infinity sign, biting their own tails, danced.
"Little Franklin Richards. All grown up. Prepare to die."
She moved like lightning, batting him down and perched delicately astride him, her hands glowing with power as they moved down to blast his face.
Then she was launched back with a swirl of solid air. She looked up to see the red-haired woman, the child still strapped to her chest and her arms outstretched.
"And the little Baby Spalding, all grown up. Not a Messiah today, are we, Hope? Can't even keep that child safe?"
Hope's face was stained with tears.
"Don't you dare hurt her!"
"Even the Firebird has abandoned you. You will all die today! This world shall be cleansed! All of it! Cleansed and returned to perfection!"
And then a low, quiet voice.
"Turn and face me, sister. I only have pity for what they did to you, but today this ends."
The woman whipped around and stared at her double, standing quiet and still at the entrance to the room.
"You?! You have caused more beautiful destruction than all of us!"
"And now I seek to atone. Do not make me kill you. You were made into this, and I do not want to have to kill you, sister."
"I am not your sister! I am Ouroborus! I am Infinity! I have no End and no Beginning!"
"You have a beginning! You were created by men, who twisted you and tortured you until you broke! And today, you have an end… I'm sorry…"
Water span around her, swirling waves that darted forward and created a glistening cage around the mutilated woman. Then it rolled backwards and pushed her into the heart of the device. The blond woman and the dark-haired man leapt forward and simultaneously pulled levers and there was a flash of brilliant white light and the caged woman was gone.
Tora turned to leave when she felt a hand catch her arm. She half-turned to see the black-haired man, his eyes the exact shade of blue that his father had.
"…Maman...?"
"I… I am sorry. I am not your mother. I am just a shade. An echo. A broken dream. This is penance and then I shall fade away."
And his fingers slid through her arm as she became as insubstantial as vapour before dissipating.
Phoenix reached out and touched the face in the water, the man's eyes filled with sorrow.
"Good came of it, though, didn't it? The Silent One saved them."
"It took many years and her curse was hard to bear. But she did. In the end, she saved all that world."
The Queen-Above-The-Earth stalked silently through the halls. Advisors scattered before her in terror, given that there had already been two fatalities and three shipped to intensive care units so far that week for "asking stupid questions".
No one knew what had caused the sudden dark mood. Normally, she was quiet and pensive, listening carefully and giving measured responses to all advice. But now the rage swirled around her, so thick you could almost feel it.
The doors to her private chambers slammed shut behind her and she twisted and screamed, unsheathing claws and cutting expertly across her leg, deep enough to scar but not deep enough to cause muscle damage or visible limping. Weakness could not be shown.
The long and intricate robes were thrown across the floor, the small cleaner bots diving over to pick them up. They clearly considered the stained and torn items beyond saving as they headed directly over to the waste chute.
Tora swirled around and faced the mirror. In the last week, more scars had begun to pepper across her body as the stubbornness continued. He did not listen, did not understand. They had to complete the cycle.
The first had not understood her need to protect the world. This one did not understand that need was born out of love for him. How could he not? She had devoted everything to him. This whole paradise was because of him.
She looked to the hidden door and tried to decide whether or not to go and see him again. She knew she shouldn't and it would end in another fight. But at the same time, like an addict who didn't want to give up their chosen narcotic, she found herself slipping towards the door.
He was painting again. She wondered why this one felt the urge to explore sides of his personality his predecessor mostly ignored. It distressed her sometimes. Like now, when he resolutely ignored her. She moved forward and tried to touch him. He darted back, his eyes never leaving the painting. She turned and froze.
It was him; yet coiled around him, crushing him was a serpent. A serpent with scales of a thousand shades of blue and whose neck was crowned with silver feathers.
"What is this?"
His eyes widened in shock and fear, his head shaking from side to side. He looked so young.
"What is this, Logan?"
The paintbrush clattered to the floor as he backed away, a hand held out nervously in fear. She felt the rage swell up again, the rage that had scoured the Earth once. He dared consider her as smothering him? She would teach him his lesson, teach him of love and lust and power.
Her hands raised and swirling waves burst forth, forming chains that fastened him to the wall. The claws, still stained in her own blood, extended and he squirmed desperately to get free, his own claws –bone, not hard cold metal- extending but unable to provide any form of defence.
She lunged and his shirt was ripped off, a thin series of red lines proof of her loss of control.
"You will be my mate. It is correct. The worlds require that balance."
"No…"
And her face darkened and sharpened and became something too perfect to be human as silver orbs flashed at him.
"You will be mine."
"Not today, sister."
And another wave, this time without the faint oily sheen the other's had gained, swirled between man and queen, solidifying to ice. Logan strained to see beyond the silhouettes. There was the woman who had raised him and had only recently shown the complete insanity behind those eyes. The other shape was indistinct. All he could tell was they wore a stylised helmet. They were slight and probably female, although the curious clothes they wore prevented easy identification. And they had no scent.
The shadows danced and then he heard shrieks –unearthly, inhuman shrieks; like the birds of prey that danced outside his there was a sudden scream –a proper human scream and red splattered the ice wall. His shackles melted away as suddenly as they had appeared and then the wall protecting him slowly vanished in front of his eyes.
The woman he had once believed to be his mother was lying slumped on the floor, her chest torn apart with brutal force and he turned to face the figure standing there. They were dressed in almost dainty silver armour, a stylised dragon helmet covering their face and the claws of their gauntlets were coated wrist-deep in gore. They paused then slowly knelt, one hand resting on their knee.
"May the peace of the One-Above-All live forever within you, King-Above-The-World."
"…Wh- Who- Who are you?"
"Just a restless ghost. A restless ghost who is trying to make things right. Rule well and wise, my King."
And the empty armour fell to the ground. Armour he could tell instinctively would fit him perfectly.
Phoenix shuddered.
"Great Tribunal… She was going to go through with it, wasn't she?"
The masked woman nodded slowly.
"When one falls, it is always the most terrible thing to behold…"
The woman ran her fingers gently across the forehead of the child, whose hair was already pitch black and whose eyes were the same sharp green as her father's.
"I promise I will make this a better world for you, my dear."
"Seriously? What on Earth am I doing here? This one's half decent!"
The woman who had once been the scourge of both Avengers and X-Men swept around and stiffened when she saw the ghostly reflection of herself.
"So you're here to kill me then?"
There was a long pause and then the reflection laughed.
"No, apparently. I'm here to protect you. You and the child."
"What about my daughter?"
"Not to put too fine a point on it, but your little demigod over there is going to end up saving the universe."
"Seriously?"
"Yep. Kristiana Thorasdóttir; Goddess of Mischief, Justice and Magic, Skymother above all Skymothers, Heir of Gaia. Long story short, your little baby is possibly the single most important being this reality will ever produce."
"They got my name wrong?! SERIOUSLY?"
The ghostly version waved a hand and an equally ghostly chair appeared.
"Wait for it… You'll be remembered in history as a tragic and noble figure, a woman on a par with the Shadow."
"What? That do-gooding, holier-than-though, oops-I-seduced-Captain-America psycho?"
"You know, she's actually half-decent. Don't lie. I know you two attempted to get drunk together once."
"We insult each other so people don't know we meet up monthly to try and fail to get drunk."
"That sounds like my friendship with her…"
"So… When's this apparent assassination attempt then?"
The figure paused.
"Apparently, six weeks from now. I think this is meant to be a little break for me…"
Tora laughed.
"By the way –good job with Ourobourus. It's a pity when they go like that…"
"Thank you. So… How's the world domination business going?"
"Okay, I suppose… I mean, I'm not doing the hands on stuff anymore but last I heard, we've pretty much bought out the Byzantine. Give me six months and the Secret Empire will fall too. Then it's just a little step towards acquiring AIM and we can take on HYDRA I estimate no more than nine months later. Once we've got those, it's easy enough to take out and absorb the smaller cartels. Slowly decrease the production of illegal and harmful narcotics, then go legit. Work slowly but surely. Give me a few years and I've have pretty much made the Avengers obsolete. I also bought out the main Sentinal manufacturing company last year and they're now all installed with kill switches. I still protect my people. I may have also sent the X-Men the Sentinel plans with all the flaws highlighted…"
When Loki teleported in a few hours later, he found the two women laughing relentlessly as the one who appeared to be made of some kind of semi-solid steam continued telling an anecdote about "That time Tommy decided that he and Curt should pretend to be a couple."
"So it wasn't all doom and gloom then?"
"Actually, there were some pretty nice breaks through all that. One time she got sent to a reality without any people, just very friendly cats."
"For how long?"
"I think she refused to leave for about three years…"