The Healing Heart
Chapter 1
by
Nina
Disclaimer: All references to characters belonging to the X-Men Universe are © and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities.All rights reserved.
The others were worried. Good, she thought. Let them worry. She screamed again and sparks flew out of the sky, across her body, across her tear-strained face. Her white hair twisted wild and free, as if part of the earth but not of it. She let the anger come. She wanted revenge. Rain pelted her skin, as she willed it. She could drown in it, and it wouldn't matter. Snow, hail, tornado - dare she call her dark sisters to join this death dance?
She road the winds faster, tasting the salt of her tears with the sharp winds.Her voice roared into the dark clouds and she felt like Banshee splitting the earth. Good, she thought again. Come, Anger goddess. Come.
Ororo scanned the heavens and saw it. A large, ancient oak that weathered countless rains and needle-like hails stood tall and proud against her. Her face twisted. She laughed, and it was an awkward halting sound. If anyone heard it, they would have thought her mad. Always calm, always serene? No. Few saw the madness within. Perhaps the world should know this Storm.
She floated from the clouds softly, as if an angel. Her dark hands caressed the tree delicately, gently, and found the carved heart: Forge + Storm.
"Foolish woman!" She shouted. "Blinded by a fool's heart! Damn you and damn your arrogance, Forge!"
Lightning snaked from the sky in a long stream and struck the tip of the tree's leaves. The beam unnaturally looped around the trunk in a dozen lassos and wove itself through twigs and loose branches before leaping into the carved heart.Ororo counted to five before an explosion cracked the tree into two cleaved pieces, and another shattered the pieces into slivers and kindling. Her ears rung from the noise, but it felt good. Very good.
"Feel any better, darlin'?"
Ororo whirled at the voice. Her hands glowed ominously. "Don't push me, Logan."
The short, hairy man wore a jacket but rain pelted his uncovered head. He held up his hands. "I ain't lookin' for a fight with you tonight, 'Ro. I'd sooner tangle with Magneto."
She knelt down and picked up a shattered piece of wood. It reminded her of a vampire's stake. Her lip curled. So much happened to her in so little time. It wasn't fair. "Perhaps you should find him, then. I'm in the mood to fight."
The short, hairy man folded his arms and said nothing. She squeezed the stick tighter and tighter in her fist until it broke into toothpicks.
"What do you want from me!"
The thunder echoed her pain, and Logan raised an eyebrow.
"You gonna fry me like you fried that tree?"
"No. Maybe. I don't know! Leave me alone."
Logan shrugged and turned away. "Fine with me. Just thought you might wanna talk, 'cause we ain't got but a few really old trees out here. Be a shame for you to waste 'em all."
Ororo thought she only waited a minute but when she finally glanced up, Logan was a mile away and halfway to the mansion. Had he followed her all this way in the rain?
She frowned but took to the air and landed delicately next to him, marching in step with his measured footfalls.
"I hate him," she spat. "I have a right to hate him."
"And that gives you the right to act stupid, too?"
She put her hand on his shoulder and spun him around. "What right have you to condemn me?"
Logan stared at her, and his blank, knowing stare melted her icy heart. He started walking again, but his steps were slow and precise, as if each thought pained him. "No right at all. I've only been there. You really want that anger to eat'cha up? Go ahead, let it eat your heart out. But I don't think you wanna go there again."
Her body froze. She didn't want that dark place, but it hurt to go forward and hurt to go back. How could she go on? The ultimate insult, the ultimate humiliation and she was reliving it over, and over, and over, and -
Logan engulfed her like a cloak but she hadn't realized that her knees had buckled and she'd fallen to the ground, weeping, and she didn't realized how hard her body was shaking with grief and rage.
"How could he?" Logan rocked her tenderly. She pounded on his chest, but he didn't stop her."Bastard! Bastard . . . "
"I know, darlin'," Logan whispered. "Let it out. It's okay, I'm here."
He rocked her like a child in the rain and cradled her head within his soft jacket. She clung to him and sobbed until the clouds broke through the storm.
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