"What do you think is going to be the end result here? You're not powerful enough to keep me locked up in here, not with Jean, the Professor and me fighting against you. It is only a matter of time before you crack."
"You speak bravely. But I don't have to keep you in here forever, just long enough to destroy you. Why you fight me so hard I don't know. Who do you have on the other side Ororo? A man that doesn't love you, a "sister" that hardly pays you even a glance, and a mentor so busy with his school that as quickly as he calls you daughter he turns his back on you."
She raised up on her toes so she could speak right into Ororo's ear, "We both know all you do is exist, and a poor attempt at that. Why is it you fight?"
Ororo tried to fight against the words as hard as she could. It wasn't the words themselves nor the person speaking them, it was the fact that these were thoughts she already had and that been with her for quite some time but that she had never allowed herself to verbalize.
If there was one thing she was though it was a fighter! She had survived on the streets for years, had taken care of herself since she was a child and if the woman thought she could get the better of her with some useless words, she obviously didn't know Ororo Munroe!
Blue eyes snapped open determinedly. "Now listen here! I told you once and I will tell you again. I AM A GODDESS! I may not be able to use my powers now but I am so powerful I can make the Earth tremble in fear and have men on their knees before they know what's happened because I am that damn great! So if you think some petty words are going to get the best of me you have another thing coming lady!
"I have been taking care of myself since I was 6 years old, living on the streets and seeing things that would give even your black heart nightmares and I survived. I survived Ramses, I survived the streets, and I will survive you. The question is... Will you survive me?"
Using all of the power she had she drew her body upright and saw the face in front of her begin to show panic.
With a grunt she was able to raise her legs until her body formed the shape of an upside down T and then used her muscles and years of training to lash her legs out and apart from each other. The iron shackles broke their locks, no match against her before falling with a clang to the ground.
Her right leg came up and connected with Binna's jaw, she silently cheered as she heard the definitive crack of bone. Both of her legs came up this time and wrapped around the other woman's neck, no matter how much Binna pulled and twisted she couldn't break their crushing hold. Ororo was using all of her pain, anguish and hatred to spur her on in the fight and there was no doubt in her mind she would win. She realized that she needed more force so she leaned to the left and then twisted her body into a spiral. The cuffs broke, the right one still dangling from her bloodied wrist as she used it to beat her opponent with.
"Aargh!" the other woman screamed and lunged into Ororo driving her backwards, instinctively she fought to stay on her feet and ended up sprawled over the Binna's body. She sat up so she was straddling the waste beneath her and using all of the strength in her right hand punched the face before her causing Binna to see stars and blood to drip from a gash beneath her left eye.
"You are such a bitch!"
"Oh that hurt." With a back flip Ororo was back on her feet and stretched as she waited for her fallen nemesis to rise. As soon as the lighter woman's two feet touched the floor Ororo was on her, legs kicking. A knee to the stomach, high kick to the now sagging head, as the other woman fell backwards Ororo grabbed her ponytail and wrenched it so hard the ponytail, and the hair it held was ripped from Binna's skull.
That seemed to unleash something in the other woman and Ororo quickly found herself on the end of a pissed off woman, her head was used as a punching bag and all she could do was hold up her arms and try to block as many strikes as possible. The taste of copper flooded her mouth and all of her discipline and last restraints went flying out the proverbial window and the two women ended up tangled together on the floor. Biting, pulling, pinching, kicking and punching anything that came even close to their grasp.
There was blood. Blood and pain. So much that joy and pleasure became a memory and a quickly fading one at that.
The battle waged on. The two women weren't fighting each other they were fighting their own demons. Struggling to gain ground. Struggling to prove once and for all that they were more. More then whores, more then witches, more then weak, more then helpless, more then trophies, more then women to be put on shelves and forgotten, more then play things good for decoration and a quick fuck but little else.
The screams that passed their lips temporarily deafened them both. Both trying to find an outlet of their pain, both trying to find a way to release a lifetime of disappointments and hurt.
Ororo sat on the floor, trying to breathe as her body was wracked with a mixture of sobs and laughs, madness teetering on the edge of her consciousness, and her hands covering her ears trying to block out the cacophony of sounds. When she opened her eyes all that greeted her was blackness. Binna was gone.
She picked herself up, teeth clenching at the pain that every muscle and organ in her body radiated, and slowly walked towards the door. The door she had spent hours, days, and eternity looking at, staring at it as if she could bring it closer, as if her mind alone could open it.
A twist of the handle and bright light scolded her eyes. For the first time she felt herself fall into the light and not into darkness.
She awoke to the face of Professor Xavier, at first se was taken aback by the present dark circles under his eyes until the grin that spread across his face that made him look ten if not twenty years younger.
"Ororo," he laughed into her ear as he gently gave her a hug.
"So Charles, what have I missed?" she asked with a smile. Although her body was screaming in pain the glee she found in her mentor's eyes greatly helped to subdue the pain.
"Professor?" Jubilee asked as she peeked her head around the door. "There's a flood on the first floor. "
Ororo silently counted the seconds until Jubilee realized she was awake and didn't have to count for long. "ORORO!!!!!!" The younger girl screamed and ran across the room in a blur.
The Professor slowed the excited girl before she could crash into Ororo's bed. "Oh Ororo I'm so glad that you're going to be okay. And you are going to be okay right?"
"Jubilee why is there a flood?" Charles asked trying to hide his smile at the extremely happy girl.
"Well Bobby and Remy got in a... small tiff, let's just say that ice, electricity and a garden hose is not a good combination."
"I'll be back dear, you just get some rest." He took Jubilee with him as the hover chair left the room, Ororo smiled as she heard his familiar lecture begin.
She looked around her, breathing in the air her lungs had so missed and summoned the wind to bring her the magazine she saw on Jean's desk.
She opened the fashion magazine, her mind jumping at the chance to get lost in the designs and colors but when she opened it, it wasn't a magazine at all.
They were pictures of her. Pictures of her and her family, pictures when she was with Ramses, pictures of when she first arrived at the mansion, pictures of her and Scott, her and Logan, and on the last page was a picture taken of her and Logan taken just a couple of days ago.
On numerous pictures her face had either been scratched or cut out completely.
She didn't understand.
Why would Jean be looking at this? Where had she found it?
Jean came into the room looking at a folder and whistling, when she looked up and her eyes met Ororo's something clicked for the Weather Goddess. Those eyes.. Eyes she had looked into, eyes of her friend, a woman she considered her sister.
Eyes identical to Binna, particularly the glimpse of hatred she could see through the red haired woman's shields.
~~~ To Be Continued ~~~
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