"Truths - Spiral and Sinsiter" by Victor Moore ( bic@shaka.com  )

DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters. Marvel does. I'm just one of the many trying to help put character back into 'em.

CONTINUITY: Scant days after X-Treme X-Men #2 but before UXM #394 and New X-Men #114.

RATING: 'PG for some torturing and murdering of a poor defenseless apple.

Archival Status: Sure, just let the writer know. Please?

-----

 Cold sterile air was the first thing that assaulted her upon finishing the teleportation spell. The pink jagged edges of it faded as she looked around the place. Everything in the room was either metal or organic in nature, or a combination of both; the walls, tables, even the displays where the glowing circuitry flowed into them from a vaulted ceiling. Against the far wall stood large glass tubes banded periodically by bio-metal and covered with crystals of frozen water. Test tubes, bottles, and various items one would find in any scientist's laboratory were laid out meticulously in a proper arrangement. Though a lab, a huge one at that, it felt more like a morgue.

 A bionic hand, its metal shining dully in the controlled light, lifted a container from a nearby table.

 "If you don't mind, I would prefer my tools in their proper placement." Stated a deep voice sounding like jagged rocks dragged across flesh.

 "Of course," she gave him a grin, not a lopsided one like HE used to give her -- curse his bones -- but a mischievous one as she set the item down a couple of inches from where she picked it up. Brushing strands of white hair from her eyes she considered the man before her.

 A sigh uttered forth from his black lips as he brought his red eyes upon her. The indigo metal binding of his armor made him appear even more menacing when clashed against the chalk white skin of his face. When his brows furrowed the small red diamond on his forehead crinkled a bit. "Why are you here?"

 "Why? Conclusion is why." She stated with four of her six arms floundering about. "The game I crafted, with your help, is over. You asked me to tell you when. Well," all six outstretched themselves, "it's when. My sister is no more." The blood red tattoo on the left side of her face, which started from hairline and ended in a point on her cheek, seemed to glow momentarily from the shadow of her silver winged helmet.

 His gloved finger tapped his chin. "I assume then, that Miss Braddock has passed away. Pity that. I had hoped to use her and Ramsey as a genetic template at one point. but I digress. Our agreement is at an end."

 "Naturally."

 "But before you go, may I ask a question?"

 She looked at him and smiled. "No, not one, but two. Now ask."

 "Why did you do it?"

 "Again with the why. To suffer as I had suffered, to long as I had longed is why."

 "Without those annoying little riddles, if you don't mind."

 "You're no fun." She sighed before continuing, "If riddles you do not like to hear, than maybe a story will make it all clear.

 "Once upon a time, there was a princess who wanted to be a warrior. She awoke in a strange land, with no memories of who she'd been. A dark prince came to her and offered his help. Little did she know, that he had promised his master an assassin, the best there could be. With magic, his master's science, and a pinch of telepathy, they conditioned her mind, but alas not her body.

 "About the same time, the prince and his lover got into a quarrel and she fell from a cliff into the dark sea. When she was found, her body was dying and her mind not far behind. He didn't want to lose his love, so he contacted a beautiful fairy -- that's me -- to restore his lover for him and change the princess' body for his master."

 Two of her hands made a circular motion in which a pink sphere of energy appeared. The hands stopped, and she caught the apple that the energy changed into. Leaning against the table, she began to peel it with her sword as she continued. "Sadly, the lover's body was beyond repair and slowly dying. Now the fairy's skills were considerable but even she could not bring back the dead, so in a daring plan she contacted a mad scientist-- that's you by the way -- to clone a body.

 "Not the body of the lover, for what fun is there in that, but that of the princess. The mad scientist agreed but had a price, a genetic sample of the princess -- I assume you've made good use of it?"

 "I have. Now get on with it."

 "Such impatience for a man who practices in a field where patience is all but required," she admonished him slightly with a waving finger. "Well, since the fairy lost her true love -- may his bones rot and turn to dust --she put the mind of the lover into the clone of the princess in a plan to shatter that love. Next she used her magic on the princess to modify her body to look like the lover's. Then she cast a spell, which scrambled their thoughts just enough not to trust the other and doubt if each were whole and who they truly were. As an added bonus, the fairy switched the windows of their souls. The clone got the bionic ones, that the fairy's former bulbous master originally implanted into the princess, while the princess received the clone's. By bringing in the prince's rival to steal the lover away from the prince, the fairy was able to make the loved ones suffer the loss the fairy herself had long ago.

 "Then fate stepped in and the clone fell to a terrible illness. With her death, the spell so beautifully crafted was broken. The princess found her true self, but still did not know the truth about her body."

 "I'm afraid the Legacy virus, while it affected score of mutants and one human, targeted my clones faster than a natural victim." His smile was as pleasant as a shark's.

 Placing the apple core in a test tube, she continued with her tale. "Well the princess called upon the fairy to explain things right -- which I did, in my own way -- but she didn't like what she heard and cast off the fairy's words as madness.

 "Which was truly a shame," she mused. After all, did I not give her what she wanted most? Adventure, the heroic lifestyle, those were her dreams and I helped her achieve them. My sister of the Dawn is now dead and I have no one left to play with."

 "Well that explains the suffering, but what is the longing?"

 She sprang forward and danced to the large glass tubes. "I see you're cloning again."

 "With the Legacy cured, I can continue my work. But you did not answer my question."

 With a tilt of her head, she smiled at him. "Why Essex, I answered two already, should I also answer a third?"

 His eyes narrowed, "I see. Then our conversation is at an end."

 Flesh and metal arms alike began to move as her body twirled and twisted creating the spell that would spirit her away. A bright pink light erupted engulfing her and just as quickly, it and she vanished. Her final words still hung in the air.

 "Treat her well."

 "Troublesome woman." Essex mumbled as he walked towards the tube Spiral had been standing in front of. Pressing a control on the bio panel next to it, the glass melted away and a greenish smoke billowed out snaking across the metal floor.

 "Awake my dear." He held out his hand and a slim one clasped it from inside the chamber.

 Liquid dripped from skin and blonde hair as the naked woman collapsed against him. She shivered upon his cold armor.

 "Welcome to my world. A new age has begun, and I intend to shape it towards my will. For that I need your help Elisabeth, the first of my new Marauders."

 Her smile mimicked his and her blue eyes were just as cold.

----

Notes: Again this is the second of my series called 'Truths', conerning certain aspects of Elisabeth's life that was explained clearly enough in the comics. In this case, an answer to a question put forward towards me about getting Betsy's real body back after the whole Kwannon debacle. I answered that she was already in her real body. I had a theory but never had a chance to write about it, until now. But in order to bring clarity out of confusion I needed to add one more element of chaos to the mix, Mr. Sinister. :)