Remember (X-Men; Storm; PG-13/T; #79: Going in for the Kill)
Working Title: Remember
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: X-Men
Character/Pairing: Storm, Callisto, Wolverine
Rating: PG-13/T
Challenge: #79: Going In for the Kill
Word Count: 500
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Marvel Comics and Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.
She feels a heart throbbing as she holds a life in her hands. Everything is as deathly silent as a valley she once entered as a child, a valley where a poison had spread through the river and killed every living thing there. Only this time, she is the cause of the deathly quiet. She is the poison as she squeezes the other woman's throat until she feels her breathing stop in the power of her dark hands.
Callisto's eyes look up into hers. She is beaten, defeated thoroughly, and she knows it. If she was a woman of honor as she claims to be, she would walk away, but Ororo isn't giving her that chance. She is the judge, jury, and executioner, as she has heard the Americans say before.
Callisto's pleas fall on death ears. Ororo hears but doesn't care. She could offer her anything, make any promise she will not keep, but Ororo is wise to her ways and will not let her escape again. She keeps squeezing until Callisto can no longer breath, until she feels her heart pop and break . . . .
Ororo wakes, panting. Lightning paints the night sky outside with her depression as thunder cries for her. She didn't kill Callisto, she reminds herself. She almost did, and she has killed before. But she didn't kill Callisto. The few lives she has taken she has taken because there was no other alternative.
Yet, even as she raises from her bed and floats outside, another part of her mind is arguing that she once believed there is always another choice. She's killed to save her friends. She's killed to save the lives of innocents. She's killed to save herself. But every time, there was another choice.
She starts to fly to the sky, but instinct changes her path. She settles down onto the roof of the school she calls home and isn't surprised to find Logan already sitting there. He pops a beer and offers it to her. She gazes intently at the little man. His unsheathed claws around the offered beer shine in the moonlight.
She considers this man one of her dearest friends and one of the most honorable men she's ever known. Yet, he kills on an almost daily basis. He has done so many wrong things. Does it really matter if his reasons were right?
"'Ro?" Yes, she thinks. Yes, it does. She doesn't fear him. She doesn't hate or loathe him. She still trusts him with her life, with her very soul.
She waves away the beer but leans back and lets raindrops fall into her open mouth. The lives they have chosen are hard, but she still belongs to her Goddess. She will never kill simply for the sake of killing; nor will he. She will kill if she must to save lives, but that is what she must remember above all else: not the lives, or the parts of herself, she has lost but the lives they are saving.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: X-Men
Character/Pairing: Storm, Callisto, Wolverine
Rating: PG-13/T
Challenge: #79: Going In for the Kill
Word Count: 500
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Marvel Comics and Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.
She feels a heart throbbing as she holds a life in her hands. Everything is as deathly silent as a valley she once entered as a child, a valley where a poison had spread through the river and killed every living thing there. Only this time, she is the cause of the deathly quiet. She is the poison as she squeezes the other woman's throat until she feels her breathing stop in the power of her dark hands.
Callisto's eyes look up into hers. She is beaten, defeated thoroughly, and she knows it. If she was a woman of honor as she claims to be, she would walk away, but Ororo isn't giving her that chance. She is the judge, jury, and executioner, as she has heard the Americans say before.
Callisto's pleas fall on death ears. Ororo hears but doesn't care. She could offer her anything, make any promise she will not keep, but Ororo is wise to her ways and will not let her escape again. She keeps squeezing until Callisto can no longer breath, until she feels her heart pop and break . . . .
Ororo wakes, panting. Lightning paints the night sky outside with her depression as thunder cries for her. She didn't kill Callisto, she reminds herself. She almost did, and she has killed before. But she didn't kill Callisto. The few lives she has taken she has taken because there was no other alternative.
Yet, even as she raises from her bed and floats outside, another part of her mind is arguing that she once believed there is always another choice. She's killed to save her friends. She's killed to save the lives of innocents. She's killed to save herself. But every time, there was another choice.
She starts to fly to the sky, but instinct changes her path. She settles down onto the roof of the school she calls home and isn't surprised to find Logan already sitting there. He pops a beer and offers it to her. She gazes intently at the little man. His unsheathed claws around the offered beer shine in the moonlight.
She considers this man one of her dearest friends and one of the most honorable men she's ever known. Yet, he kills on an almost daily basis. He has done so many wrong things. Does it really matter if his reasons were right?
"'Ro?" Yes, she thinks. Yes, it does. She doesn't fear him. She doesn't hate or loathe him. She still trusts him with her life, with her very soul.
She waves away the beer but leans back and lets raindrops fall into her open mouth. The lives they have chosen are hard, but she still belongs to her Goddess. She will never kill simply for the sake of killing; nor will he. She will kill if she must to save lives, but that is what she must remember above all else: not the lives, or the parts of herself, she has lost but the lives they are saving.
The End