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The Circle And The Flame	By : KMac Category: X-men Comics > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3163 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men comics, or any of the characters from it. I make no money from from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Raven – Histories From Hell

Raven helped the Raiders sort out
the Hounds once they returned to the Asteroid.
Following the recommendation of Kurt and Kitty, the genders were
segregated again, until the ones who’d resort to rape were weeded out of the populations. Both the former Hounds had an antipathy for
a male Hound named Stalker, or ‘Brad’*, she noticed. At least the Raiders didn’t have any illusions that all the
Hounds were going to fit in here. Some
of them were little more than dangerous animals now, animals she didn’t want
around her children.
Marie was placed in a separate
secure holding cell, and when Raven found out where, she went to Jimaine, and
asked her, “Can you help me with my daughter?”
Jimaine’s expression was
worried. “I… I don’t know. I’m so worried about James. I don’t know if I can concentrate right
now. Can it wait?”
Raven gritted her teeth, then
calmed herself with an effort. “Marie
is my daughter in the same way that Kurt is yours. What would you have done if you had the opportunity to help him
when he needed it?” Raven said.
The Gypsy woman looked at her
appraisingly. “Maybe we have more in
common than I realized; each caring for a child of the blood, and a child of
the heart. Very well, Raven. At least it will keep me from fretting about
my foolish boy.” Jimaine gathered some
of her occult gear, and went with Raven.
“Thank you, Jimaine,” Raven said,
as they walked. “I’m upset about this
other personality she has. Are you sure
that it is a fully separate personality?
Could it be some kind of mental break, a result of her captivity?”
“I’m thinking it is a true second
personality,” Jimaine said. “I have
other suspicions, but those will have to wait for Jimmy’s return.”
Raven could see Becky loitering
outside the security quarters where Marie was being held. The girl came up and clung to her. “Oh, mom!
Are you here to help? I’m so
glad to see you… and you, Miss Szardos.”
She held her hand out, and Jimaine clasped it warmly.
“Surely we’re not so formal?”
Jimaine said, looking at Raven.
A stab of jealous uncertainty went
through Raven’s gut, though she kept it from showing on her face. She hated to share Rebecca’s affections with
anyone. She feared if she lost primacy
in her daughter’s heart, that she’d never get it back. Still, she needed the woman’s help. Putting on a facile smile, she said, “Would
you mind if she called you ‘Aunt’?” At
least Jimaine wasn’t as much as a threat as the Boy Scout…
“Certainly, if that’s okay with
you, Becky?” Jimaine said with a friendly wink. Becky gave the woman a quick hug, and Raven felt Becky’s absence from
her side like a shock of cold, before the girl turned back to her and gave
Raven a kiss on the cheek.
Becky gestured at the video monitor
set in the wall, showing the room. The
gaunt, hollow eyed Hound was pacing monotonously back and forth across the
room. Her hair was lank, and the new
shock of white showed vividly among the auburn strands. Raven shivered. The desolation on the girl’s
face was similar to the look she’d seen in the mirror not long ago, wearing her
slave leash in the quarters of the false Rogers.
“Raven?” Jimaine said.
She sighed. “I don’t think she cares if she lives or
dies. I’ve been there. And if I’m judging her right, she’s leaning
on death being the better option. I’ve
been there, too…” Raven shook her
head. “Can you tell which of them is in
charge?”
Jimaine produced a fist-sized
crystal ball. With a frown of
concentration, an image appeared; it was a woman, tense and furious, with
bobbed blond hair and chilly blue gray eyes.
She stalked in unison with the movements of the girl in the monitor, and
they could compare the two. ‘Carol
Danvers’ was tall and athletic, with the air of a caged lioness. The girl whose body she inhabited was
painfully thin and slight, and seemed huddled in on herself.
Raven turned to the witch, “Can you
make her sleep again? We need to talk
to Marie, not… this ‘agent’.”
“Yes,” Jimaine said, “but she has a
very strong will. She might develop a
resistance to the magic, or she might break the enchantment if she’s provoked
enough.
“We have to take that risk,” Raven
said. “If we are to save her, or save
them, even.”
Jimaine nodded and focused on the
woman pacing in the crystal. Almost
immediately, she slowed, and soon she yawning and stumbling. Giving in to fatigue, she slumped on the bed
and laid her head down, finally at rest.
Raven triggered the door and the three women came in. Raven sat in a bedside chair near Marie,
while Becky perched on the end of the bunk.
Jimaine leaned against the wall near the door.
“Marie?” Raven said. “Marie?”
Becky nudged her foster sister’s foot with her own.
The pale girl sat bolt upright, eyes
wide, startling all in the room. She
cringed away from her family’s closeness.
“Don’t touch me!” she said. “Gawd,
don’t touch me… You can’t touch me.”
Raven tilted her head. “Why can’t you be touched, Marie?”
The girl lowered her head, hair
masking the incriminating tattoos. “It’s…
my power. I… drain people. Their minds… memories… their powers. I’m a monster, ‘cuz of it. A mur… murderer, mama.” Her hoarse words trailed off into choked
sobs.
Raven leaned back in the chair. “My… daughter-in-law was a Hound. Her power is to walk through solid
objects. That’s all, she phases. It’s Shield that turned her into an assassin,
not her power. If you are a murderer,
as you say, it’s Shield that made you one, not your power.”
Marie frowned, and rubbed her face
with her gloved hands. “Shadowcat? What… your daughter-in-law?” She shook her head in confusion. “I’m supposed to kill her.” She muttered to herself.
“Not anymore,” Becky said. “You’re not a Hound anymore, just like she
isn’t either.”
Marie snorted in derision, touching
her face again, tracing the marks there.
“I’ll always be a Hound, Becky.
Once they mark ya, they always own ya.
You can’t know what it’s like…”
She shook her head, concern starting to break through her misery. “Look… ya gotta be careful. I got her powers, all of them, and I
dunno when she’s coming back.”
“There’s nowhere for her to go,
Marie,” Jimaine said. “We’re aboard
Asteroid M. And by ‘she’ I assume you
mean Agent Danvers? Don’t worry, she’s
asleep.”
A wince passed over Marie’s
face. “Yeah, Danvers… She was a Captain
in the Air Forces, ‘til she got demoted for possessing a double x chromosome…
that’s how she thinks of it.” She gave
Jimaine a sharp look. “I don’t know you
lady, what are you doin’ here?”
Raven tried to put her hand over
Marie’s gloved hand, and failed to entirely mask her look of sadness when the
girl instinctively flinched away. “Her
name is Jimaine Szardos, a Gypsy Sorceress.
She raised my eldest child in Germany from infancy. You might know him as Nightcrawler. He and Shadowcat officially got married here
not long ago. That’s why I call her my
daughter-in-law.”
“He’s yours? Yeah, I can see it.” She laughed a little, bitterly. “I remember now. You’re one of the main reasons that they go ta sterilize us. They found out from me about Becky, and they
linked ya to him from your blood work.
You showed them that Mutants can breed true, and that scares the piss
outta ‘em.”
It was Raven’s turn to wince. “Well, I could.” She touched her stomach briefly.
“I guess I was unsuitable to be a Hound, but I did catch the Leader’s
eye, as his… courtesan.”
“Oh, mama…” Her dull green eyes showed a sparkle of
empathy, and then her face twisted with worry again. “I mean it about her… She’ll consider this enemy territory, and
try to bust out… and hurt people.”
Jimaine shook her head. “You’re already in one of the most secure
areas of the Raider’s headquarters. You
don’t need to worry about your other personality escaping.”
“Yeah?” Marie said. “Well, I guess it’s better than the last cell
I was in.”
“What did you mean that you had her
powers, all of the time?” Raven asked.
“It’s usually temporary, the
draining, I mean. Maybe I should start
at the beginning?” Marie said.
“Probably a good idea, kiddo,”
Raven said. A tremulous smile crossed
Marie’s face, the first such expression Raven had seen on her other daughter.
“’Kay. I was caught in a High School sweep. I kept expectin’ ya to get me out, even though I knew you were
outta town…” Marie sighed. “Anyway, they didn’t know what my power was,
and neither did I, so they sent me to the South East Processing Center. Those centers are where they take most mutants,
and figure out what they’re good for.
Just in case, they ‘fixed’ me, so I’d be ready for any assignment. Guess I was pretty enough to be considered
for… what did you call it? A courtesan? And if nothing else, they figured I could do
that.”
Raven pinched the bridge of her
nose, able to imagine just what kind of pervert would want to own a girl of
Marie’s age.
“They tried to startle me, scare
me, and hurt me and stuff to get me to reveal my powers, but nothing worked
until the…” she gestured at her stomach, “the bandages came off and I was
declared fit for ‘general duty’.” Marie
grimaced and stared at the floor. “I
guess that meant servicin’ them, too, ‘cause the director of my block come into
my cell that night to cure me of my little ‘virginity problem’.” Her voice wavered. “He ripped my clothes off, and started… raping me. He was only halfway… done… when I felt my
skin getting’ all hot, where it touched his.
I started getting’ all his memories in my head.”
Marie tangled the fingers of both
hands in her auburn and white hair, pulling at it, and kept going. “He just… stopped. Passed out on top of me.
And I knew what it felt like to rape myself, and a million other
girls, not all of them Mutants, like I was the one doin’ it. It was getting’ hard to breath, so I pushed
him off, easier than I shoulda been able to.
I took his key card outta his pocket, and was able to reach though the
bars and open my cell door.” She
twisted a lock of her hair around in a way that Raven knew, yet didn’t
know. Marie used to do it all the time,
but never so harshly.
“He knew all the ins an’ outs of the place, and I’d
gotten dressed and was pretty far before I started forgettin’ the codes. About then the director woke up and started
yelling. So, they caught me, and
drugged me so I’d tell ‘em what happened.
They put me in solitary lockup, and they tested me. Anytime I touched someone skin ta skin I’d
get their memories for a while, and if they were mutants I’d get their powers,
too. Sometimes I’d even look a little
like ‘em, like when I was made to drain this worker named Ox…” She shuddered, hard. “It didn’t take ‘em long to figure out how
to rape me again… put me in a crotchless body suit, when they wore a condom…”
“Why?” Becky said, hot tears in her
eyes, “Why do they keep using rape as a weapon? Kitty, You, and Mom…”
Marie cringed from Becky’s anger,
and shook her head mutely. “Because
they’re men,” Raven said, coldly. “It’s
what they do.” They were harsh words,
but it was better that the girl learned this truth now.
Jimaine gave Raven an annoyed
expression. “Some men,
Becky. Through time immemorial it has
been the tool of the oppressor against women, and other men, as well. Rape is a function of power, not of desire,
or even gender. If the one in the
position of power is female, she’s almost as likely to do it as a man. Kurt was molested, too, and it was by female
agents.”
“You said ‘almost’ as likely, and
men are raped as well,” Becky said, looking between the older women.
Jimaine shrugged. “Men are stronger, and more aggressive, so
that dynamic is likelier where the motive is sheer violence and brutality. Also, women can be impregnated, where the motive
is ongoing humiliation, and to dilute the woman’s race. A child of rape is a constant reminder of
the attack. When it comes to mutants,
impregnation isn’t a factor, so the answer is sheer naked power.”
As she spoke, Raven was overwhelmed
by a memory she’d long ago chosen to forget, of what she’d done to a man who’d
dared to abuse her. She’d found a way
to turn the tables on him, and the fear she’d seen in his eyes was so
compellingly sweet… She shook free of
the images, to see her innocent daughter looking at her, curious to see if
Raven would argue the point. “It is
power,” she agreed, her voice strained.
Becky’s expression turned to concern, but she gave the girl a look that both
her daughters knew better than to question.
“You’ve got yer ghosts, too, doncha mama?” Marie
said.
She turned to her foster daughter
and nodded shortly. “Go on, Marie.”
The girl folded up her knees and
wrapped her arms around them. “They did
a lot of tests, an’ decided I was too weak to be a Hound. Any mutant with strength could hold me off
if he knew what I could do, and those with distance powers could also take me
out. They wanted me to be strong enough
to get to my targets,” Marie paused, and continued on in almost a whisper. “…and that’s where she came in.”
“Agent Danvers,” Raven said.
“Yeah, her. I’ve learned some things about her, from
what they’ve said around me, but sometimes, it’s not me in here, it’s her.
“Listen to me carefully, Marie,”
Jimaine said. “From the standpoint of
magic, you are the rightful owner of your body. She has no right to it, so the advantage is yours.”
Marie grimaced. “She’s older ‘n I am, an’ stronger.” Her voice was full of apprehension and fear.
“Only if you allow her to be,”
Jimaine said.
“I guess,” Marie didn’t look convinced. She stared at the cell wall, and sighed. “She’s from Boston, from a line of military
men, and she wanted to prove to her daddy she was as tough as any boy. It’s hard to be a woman in the Shield Armed
Forces, ‘specially if you wanna be an officer.
By bein’ tougher and meaner than any of ‘em, she got some commissioned rank
in the Air Service.” She looked over at
them, her eyes sad. “She still couldn’t
get any respect, though. When Shield
got their hands on some Alien gizmos, they sent her in as a guinea pig. They tried out this gadget called a ‘Psycho-Magnetron’
that changed her DNA to be similar to the Kree Aliens. She didn’t look any different, but she could
fly on her own power, and she was really strong.” She rubbed her face, subtly tracing the tattoo marks. “They used her sorta like a super Hound for
awhile, because she wasn’t a mutant, and she was loyal.”
Raven noticed that while Marie was
speaking in the third person, her body’s subliminal tells showed she was
reacting as is she was describing things that happened to her personally.
“I guess she got too cocky, or her
superiors started thinking about it… here’s this woman, an untrustworthy
beast in the first place, with super powers, and she could turn on them an
betray ‘em. They couldn’t officially
treat her like a mutant, and she was too tough to break an’ too stubborn to
quit. They started using any little
excuse to bust her, and drummed her outta the Air Service, and then left her
with no choice but to become an Agent on the Carrier. She helped ‘em train Hounds, and all the while they were looking
for something to do about the danger she represented, somethin’ permanent.”
She got up and started pacing. “Then someone got this bright idea. Here they had a set a’ powers controlled by
a stubborn mind, and they had someone with a weak will, me, who could steal
powers. If only they could add A ta B…” She stopped by the bed and put a hand on the
rolled steel arch that served as a headboard.
With no apparent effort she squeezed the metal and crumpled the quarter
inch pipe like it was a cardboard tube.
She let go and jumped up a little, and floated in the air for an
impossible moment. “I can stay in the
air all day. As you can see, they found
a way to do it.” She settled back down
on the ground.
“But how do you still have the
powers, Marie?” Raven said. “Didn’t you
say that the powers you borrowed faded eventually?”
“Yeah, I did.” She sat slumped on the bed, her feet set
ungainly apart. “They hauled me up ta the
Carrier an’ gave me my war paint.” She gestured
a little towards the Hound tattoos on her face. “After they got me settled in, and working on what it meant to be
a Hound, they had me take her power, and train with it. She didn’t like it, but orders were orders.”
Marie sighed and hung her
head. “The General wasn’t happy ‘bout
the length a’ time I kept the powers, so when it was time for my first mission…
they strapped her to a chair, and two agents held my hands on her, as I got her
memories and powers… they held me there longer than I’d ever touched anyone
since my powers activated. They kept holding’
me on her while she struggled and screamed, and finally… she passed out. It felt like a piece of her got stuck inside
me, the same piece that I have today.”
She lifted her head, flinging the
auburn and white hairs out of her eyes with a toss of her head. “I kept the power throughout the mission,
and after. A couple a’ days later,
everybody figured out that I had the powers for good. I could feel her, raging in my head, pissed off at being a part of
a filthy mutie like me. I didn’t see
her again; I didn’t need to, I had the powers.
And then, they offered me a way to get my mission card an’ be a real
Hound… An’…”
The pained look on her face turned suddenly into one
of fury. “No! Shut up, girl!” She
turned harshly on them, “Freaks!
Monsters! Murderers! If you think you can get rid of me, you’ve
got another thing coming! This bitch
owes this life to me, and I mean to keep it!”
Jimaine tried to make her sleep
again, but she shook her head fiercely and lunged for Becky, apparently the
weakest of the group. The pale blue
girl somersaulted out of the way, and with Jimaine’s magic, they held the
furious Hound’s other persona off until the three of them got out of the room.
“We need reinforcements,” Raven
said, "but who?”
“Dad,” Becky said. “If she’s Shield through and through, she’ll
respond to the Captain.”
Raven frowned. She hated to rely on the Boy Scout, but if he
could help…
“Mama! Came Kurt’s voice, as he galloped down the hallway towards
them. “Jimmy’s back, and she’s
with him!”
“The hangar deck?” Jimaine
asked. At his nod, she looked at
Raven. “We’ll get back to this,
Raven. Jimmy may be able to help as well,
with his powers as a medium, if what I believe is true.”
Kurt bamfed away, and Raven fought
her frustration, as she followed her daughter and the Sorceress. She supposed the prodigal son would have to
be dealt with first.

Jon waited for them at the Hangar
bay, and put an arm around his lady.
Kurt and Kitty were also there to greet the ungrateful wretch. She hoped the boy got what was coming to him…
Oh, my, she thought.
Jimmy stepped out after Logan, with
a bag over his shoulder, and his arm around a figure muffled in a large
cloak. His own form also was draped in
a rather flamboyant cape, but he had eyes only for her, as she drew her hood
back and looked around the vaulted room.
Raven could see stunned expressions on those about her as they could see
that his artwork in no way exaggerated her beauty. “Are you okay?” Jimmy said.
She smiled at him and nodded. “I should be able to live here. Fresh air, natural stone, and solar lighting
are all good. As long as I’m not
exposed to machinery too much I’ll be fine.”
She pulled off her long gloves and walked forward to meet those who
waited for them. She stopped at
Jimaine. “He showed me his mother’s
face, Mother Szardos, I’m pleased to finally meet you. Please don’t be angry with Jimmy, he was
just trying to help me.” To Jon she smiled, “How
much he looks like you. You’re his
father?”
Jon nodded. “I’m Jon Magnusson. Welcome to Asteroid M, Dion.” He held out his hand and shook hers, tilting
his head as he analyzed her powers with his own.
Her violet eyes widened, and she
spun about in delight. “And you must
be Kurt! You can be no other; who else
would look like this?” She raised her
hand and stroked his indigo cheek, frowning when she felt the scar ridges
there. Kurt, in turn, took her hand in
his and bowed over it before gracing her knuckles with a small kiss. Kitty scowled, and Dion turned to her. “You needn’t be jealous,” she said
softly. “Jimmy is all I want or
need. I just feel that your man is like
a brother to me.”
Kitty grimaced.
“I guess I am jealous. You’re as
beautiful as Jimmy always said you were.”
“So are you, little tiger,” Dion
said, but the look on Kitty’s face showed she disagreed. Dion handed her gloves to Jimmy, and reached
for Kitty’s face, ignoring the flinch as she traced the tattoo marks with her
fingers that trailed a soft golden glow.
Kitty hissed, and raised her chin stubbornly, but refused to pull away,
even as her eyes watered from the stinging that followed the other girl’s
touch.
Raven saw Kurt stare, his mouth
agape, as dark fluid beaded up through Kitty’s skin, then trickled down into
his wife’s collar, all washed with the yellow light that shone from Dion’s
hands. Line after black line was
brought to the surface, and gently wiped away, leaving behind only reddened, but
unmarked, skin. Finally Dion
lowered her hands and drew in a weary breath, as the golden light faded. She turned to Jimmy, and pulled out a small
silver mirror from the bag he carried and showed Kitty her reflection. Kitty reached out with trembling hands and
took the mirror, looking at every bit of her features without the tattoos. Already the redness was mostly faded;
showing Kitty’s true face.
“I’m a healer,” Dion said. “I can fix the marks, and reverse the sterilizations, too, though
those will take longer. I reversed my
own a long time ago, and on the flight here I removed the remaining scars. I’m not a fighter, and I don’t do well
around technology, but if you let me, I can help your efforts.”
Kitty thrust the mirror back at
Dion, and threw her arms around Kurt’s neck.
“God, Kurt, do you see it? Is it
true?”
“I see it, Katzchen,” he said, “but
I have to tell you a secret…” She
looked up at him questioningly. In a
pretend whisper, he said, “You have always been beautiful to me, my wife.” Her tears spilled down her cheeks, as he
swept her off her feet and kissed her soundly.
Jimmy caught Dion by her elbow, “You
can have children, love?” he said eagerly.
“Of course,” she laughed. “But just because I could, didn’t mean I would,
with any of them. And it probably will
be a while until I’m ready, anyway.”
“You’re a miracle,” Jimmy
breathed. “I feared my mother would
never have any grandchildren because of Shield, and now, she will, someday.” He kissed her as she blushed prettily.
Logan turned to Jon, who still
looked stunned. “Hard to stay mad at
yer kid when he pulls off something like this, huh?”
Jon gave a shaky laugh, “In one of
your words, Logan? Abso-fraggin-lutely.”

The next day, the three women,
Jimmy, and the Captain in his original uniform gathered in front of Marie’s cell. The men had just been briefed on all that
they’d learned yesterday. The monitors
showed her pacing, which proved she was Carol most of the time, because Marie
seemed far more listless and apathetic.
Jimmy looked surprised. “She’s one of the Dead. Partially anyway, but she’s not cooperating,
or at rest. She’ll need to come to
terms with her state before I can work with her.” Raven frowned at the ‘dead’ comment. Marie was… haunted?
“Well, that’s my cue,” Rogers
said. “Let me talk to her first.”
Raven shrugged. “If you want to, Rogers.”
Becky gave her an exasperated look
at the faintly mocking tone. “Mom, now
is not the time.”
Raven nodded, acknowledging her
point, and took a breath. “Please help
her,” she said, to a point just past Steve.
“She’s my daughter, too, and a sister to Becky.”
Rogers cocked his head, and
nodded. “Alright, Raven,” and he strode
into the room.
The Hound with the cold blue eyes
spun on him, and gasped. Then her eyes
narrowed, and she glared at him. “Nice
costume,” she sneered. “Now take that
pretend shield out of here before I crumple it like a wad of paper.”
“Try,” he said, and tossed it to
her.
She snatched it up and immediately
tried to bend the colorful disc, only to fail, panting. “What trickery is this?” She flung it at a wall, and it bounced and
rebounded until he caught it easily in mid-air.
“No trick. It’s the genuine article, and so am I.” He threw a thick folder he was holding down
on the bed, and pushed back his cowl. “I’m
the real Steve Rogers. I was frozen in
the North Atlantic Ocean after the explosion on the ship, and Shield found me
years ago. The first section has the
records that the Raiders retrieved along with me. They detail the time that I spent in a block on ice in a Shield
lab, being experimented on. The second
section shows how the Raiders thawed me out.”
“The Great Leader is an old man,
now, and you’re young,” she said, suspicion in her eyes.
“He’s no ‘Great Leader’!” He reached in at his neck and pulled off the
dog tags that he still wore around his neck, and tossed them next to the
folder. “He’s a damned Nazi.”
She stared at him, almost
mesmerized. Shaking her head, she
picked up the tags and studied them.
Then she picked up the folder, looking at the Shield seals and stamps on
the laboratory paperwork. When she got
to the next section she followed the procedures they used as they thawed him. As she read, she kept glancing at him, as if
trying to catch him at some sort of trick.
The last section was the history of
the Skull. Born Johann Schmidt, he was
a poor bellhop at a hotel where Hitler held a meeting with his chief
officers. He was present in the room
when the Fuhrer railed that they were all disgraces to their uniforms, and that
he could train this lowly bellhop to be a better Nazi than any of them. Schmidt eagerly stepped up to the challenge,
and soon surpassed all of Hitler’s men in sheer dedication, and evil. His infamous Skull mask was designed to
terrorize, and show the fearsome might of National Socialism, while the Fuhrer
was free to portray the benevolent ruler.
After Hitler was killed, and with Rogers turning up missing, Schmidt had
himself surgically altered to look like his greatest enemy, and went to America
as it’s famed war hero, setting in motion the events leading to the present day. Carol shook her head. “No, it can’t be…”
“What were America’s values during
the war,” he asked her, “and what are they now?” He paced slowly across the room.
“Do they still teach the Founding Fathers and their writings in schools? The Declaration of Independence? The Constitution? The Bill of Rights? Does
anyone still read the Federalist Papers?”
He frowned at the stunned look on her face. “Just because I’m a farm boy from the Midwest, doesn’t mean that
I don’t know what this country used to be about. What is a ‘President-for-life’, if not a King? Doesn’t every bit of history, philosophy,
and the documents that are the foundation of this Nation preclude it’s having a
King? Well?”
“It’s just… these are unprecedented
times… He’s protecting our safety,” she stammered. “From the enemy…”
“Which enemy?” he barked at her,
making her jump. “The Jews? The Negroes? Mutants? Little girls,
like the one who’s body you’re in now?
What did Marie ever do to Society, or to you? Was it trying to live a normal live that made her an enemy? Going to High School? Breathing? She’s a person, and people are all different. Some are saints and some are sinners. Some are upstanding individuals and some are
monsters. When you make some fragment
of humanity ‘The Enemy’, you wipe all those distinctions away. You can treat the best of them the same as you
treat the worst of them, because you’ve denied that they’re human. What did Marie ever do to deserve to be
taken to a camp and forcibly sterilized and systematically raped? To be branded like an animal and trained to
kill on command by consistent brutalization?”
His eyes bore into hers, and she
looked back, uncertain. “I… she…” she
stammered. “She killed me!” The accusation came out in a breathless
rush, infused with her anger and loathing.
She collapsed on the bed, sitting slumped with her hands covering her
face.
Rogers stopped short. He drew up a chair near her and sat in it,
resting his big hands on the Shield in front of him. “Tell me about it,” he rumbled softly.
Out in the hallway, Raven looked at
the others. “Damn. The Boy Scout’s good at this.” Jimmy nodded, but Becky frowned at her a
little.
Back in the room, the Danvers
persona answered the Captain. “After…
after she gained my powers permanently, I don’t know what happened to me…
Danvers. But the next thing we… I know
is, our Trainer is offering to give me my mission card, as a Hound named Rogue,
in return for an execution. Being a
Hound sucks, especially if you used to be on the other side of the game, but
being a trainee Hound sucks worse. I
accepted.”
She grimaced. “They sent me into a room, and this woman in
a Hound’s jumpsuit and hood was shackled to a chair. They told me to use my hands to kill her. I put my hands around her neck and choked
her. When she started struggling to
breathe I snapped her neck to end it. Then…
then they told me to take the hood off… and it was me… my face… Carol Danvers’
face… and she… I… was dead. I was
cheated… over and over!”
“By who, Carol?
Who cheated you? Was it Marie?”
he prompted her. She turned a stubborn
expression to him. He turned to the
door and gestured for the rest of them to come in. Raven and the others entered, and Danvers rose, bristling. “Sit down, Danvers!” he snapped. “Do you believe what you read in the third
section?”
“I don’t know. By your own admission, you’ve been frozen
all this time. How would you know?” she
said.
“It’s the kind of thing he would
have done,” he said, and then shrugged.
“But you’re right, I don’t know this directly, but I believe her.” He nodded at Raven, his eyes asking for her
cooperation, just this once.
“I was his slave for the last two
years,” Raven said. “I tried to rescue
Marie, but I missed her, and then I got caught. They sterilized me like the rest, and although I’m a fighter they
judged me to be too stubborn to be a Hound, and too weak to be a Worker. So I was chained to your Great Leader’s bed,
with just enough lead to reach the kitchenette and the bathroom.”
She displayed her wrist, which
still showed the scars and galls of her shackle. “He’d tell me about his childhood in Germany, and how he was
trained by Hitler himself. To this day,
he exults in his role, because he knows that history will record that Steve
Rogers was a totalitarian dictator, known for advancing the cause of everything
the real Captain would despise, and the enemy of everything Rogers espouses.”
“I don’t just say those things, Raven,” he said
mildly. “I believe them.”
“More fool you,” she spat at him.
Carol scowled at Raven, but Rogers
held up his hand. “I don’t blame her
for her anger. A man using my name and
my face abused her. That would be hard
for anyone to get over.”
“I don’t need your pity, Boy Scout,”
Raven growled.
“Mom!” Becky said, the tone of her
voice clearly disapproving.
Rogers stood and put his hand on
Becky’s shoulder. “And here’s what I
meant about people, Carol. I fought
with the Invaders in World War II. I
battled alongside Atlanteans, and androids, alike. Some of them are…” he stopped and frowned a little, “were
Mutants. But they weren’t my enemy,
then or now. While I was in that lab,
Raven snuck in and took some… samples, from my unconscious form. Becky here is the result; half Mutant, and half
me. Is she my enemy? Certainly not. I may have been upset at what Raven did at the beginning, but I’m
learning that I have a beautiful, wonderful, intelligent, strong, and Mutant
daughter. And I couldn’t be happier
about it.”
Becky beamed at the praise, and Raven felt a shock
of fear, as she realized her own anger was driving her daughter away, and to
him. His easygoing attitude was drawing
Becky in. The girl was never prone to
rages and scheming like Raven was, and it was frustrating to realize that she
was making herself look unsympathetic for being, frankly, hateful and
untrusting. If she wanted to keep her
daughter’s love, she was going to have to moderate that… at least around the
girl.
“Sorry Rogers,” she said, in as
pleasant a voice as she could manage.
Jimaine raised an eyebrow at her, and gave a little half nod, as if to
say ‘About time you figured that out’.
She stared back frostily until the witch looked away with a small
smile. At least Becky looked mollified,
and even Rogers smiled at her.
Wonderful.
“Your daughter, with her?”
Danvers said, looking sickened.
“Yes. And I will fight to the death to keep her from being victimized
by Shield.” There was a dangerous look
in his eyes as he said this, and for a brief moment, Raven felt at complete
accord with him, at least on this one subject.
“But I asked you a question, Carol.
Who cheated you? Who’s to blame
for what happened to you?” He sat back
in the chair, and leaned close to her. “Let
me ask this another way. Who was
dominant when it happened?”
Danvers looked down at her gloved
hands. “I was.”
“But they tricked you. Would you have done it if you’d known that
it was yourself you had to kill?”
“Of course not!” she shot
back. She snorted angrily. “Okay, I admit it. It was Shield. The Men
in Shield. The misogynist fucks that
couldn’t stand a female officer. Men who
couldn’t stand a woman who was stronger and more powerful than they were. Who saw me as contaminated; when it was
because of them that I became that way.
And as soon as those powers were passed to someone they could control,
who decided I was expendable.”
Jimmy stepped forward. “Agent Danvers,” he said. She glared at him, but he ignored it. “I’m Legacy, and I Speak for the Dead. You do know, that this… persona… is just a
shadow, and not a whole soul, don’t you?
Carol Danvers is dead, and if you like I can call her spirit here so you
can see for yourself.
“My ghost?” she whispered, an
expression of horror coming over her face.
“Her ghost,” he said. “You… are just an impression. An image of her, if you will.” He raised his eyebrows. “Shall I?”
“…Sure,” she said faintly.
Jimmy passed his hands in the air
in complex gestures, and the room became a little hazy, as he established a
zone where the Dead could be manifest to those without the Sight. “Carol Danvers, come forth.”
A figure coalesced. “What do you want, Mutant?” It was the woman Raven had seen in Jimaine’s
Crystal.
Another form appeared without his bidding,
a tall mustached man, with the same outlandish cloak that Jimmy now wore. “My, she’s unpleasant,” he said.
“She’s been taught to hate us,
Stephen,” Jimmy said. He turned to his
mother, “Mama, this is Stephen Strange, lately the Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme,
and my advisor on things magical and spiritual.”
Jimaine gave the spirit a
suspicious look, and Raven smirked at the irony; the witch was also jealous of
the influence another had on her own child.
“Lady Szardos,” the ghost bowed to
her coolly but politely.
Rogers stood up, and the ghost of
Danvers gasped. “You’re him… really
him. I can see it… the Dead acknowledge
you…”
He nodded. “What happened to you after the Hound took
your powers?”
“When I finally woke up, I tried to
complain to the General, but he wouldn’t see me,” the ghost said. “I was put in the brig, and pretty soon I
was strapped to a chair and killed.
They threw my ashes off the garbage bay just like they would with a
Hound…”
“I did it… I killed my self,” the
Danvers persona inside of Marie said.
The ghost looked at her
shrewdly. “A piece of me is still in
there, stolen with the Kree powers.”
“But only a piece,” Jimmy
said. “She thinks she has a right to
this girl’s life, and she doesn’t.” He
turned to Rogue, “If you can’t coexist in there, I will have to uproot the
foreign persona, and return it to the whole.
Is that understood?”
Rogue nodded, her blue eyes
bleak. “And if I ask you to do that any
way?” she said.
“Then I will,” he said. “But for now, I’m not sure it’s necessary.” He looked back at the ghost. “That alright with you, as well?” The ghost nodded, and Jimmy sent her back to
her afterlife with his thanks. He shared
a smile with Stephen as he took down the Dead-zone, and the spirit faded from general
view. “As a gesture of good faith,
cease tormenting the girl, and let her begin to heal; physically, mentally, and
emotionally. Don’t force your way
dominant just because you can.”
“Alright.” Rogue’s eyes closed, and when they opened
again they had changed from frosty blue to a haunted green. Eyes that gradually cleared and brightened as
recent memories filtered in to the native personality. Rogue looked back and forth at the people in
the room, before settling on Becky. “Omigawd,
Becky! Your dad is Captain America?”
she squealed, and the room broke up in laughter.
Becky came over and carefully
hugged her. “Yeah. Dad, this is my sister, Marie.” Rogers politely shook her hand, glove to
glove.
Raven watched as an air of tension
gradually lifted from her foster daughter.
Maybe Marie would be all right after all.

A/N: * Brad = Asshole, at least according to the RHPS. Generally anyone called Brad in my stories
is an asshat.

Information about Carol Danvers / Rogue, as well as the Red
Skull, can be found in the same places I described last time. While I researched this info, it turned out
the instability / schizophrenia that Rogue suffered after absorbing the Danvers
persona was inherent in Carol, not in Rogue (because Carol was mentally unstable
before the absorption).

I had to pick a “real name” for Rogue, because her family
(Raven and Becky) would know it, so I picked the Marie identity from the movies,
although Marvel has never (and probably never will) officially established her
true name. [In the Role-playing game
that inspired these stories, we called her ‘Susan’, because of the Susan B.
Anthony coins she threw as missiles at the SHIELD Heli-Carrier in a mainline Marvel
story.]
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The Circle And The Flame