I'm only a nightmare

[soulsword]

Who; Illyana + Anyone!
What; Nightmares and magik
Where; Red Building and near the edge of the forest
When; Early October at night
Warnings; None so far!

Nightmares. It seemed like it had been an eternity since she had experienced nightmares like this. Memories bubbled to the surface of her childhood in Limbo. Every waking moment there had been a nightmare and night never held any reprieve. The older she got though the more accustomed she had become to living a nightmare. Perhaps it was something to do with the loss of bits of her soul. Or perhaps it was simple conditioning. You grow used to horrors when they are all you see. Eventually, nightmares had faded from her life completely.

Until now. Now they returned with brutal vengeance. Reminding her of things she wanted nothing more than to forget. At first she just woke with tears and fear. Both were things she wanted nothing to do with. Others feared her, not the other way around. Not anymore. Yet as the nightmares grew more frequent and more memorable the fear grew within her. Then the bear imagery began to appear.

With that she screamed. Those in the red building may find themselves hearing the young woman's scream occasionally. She's always quick to leave her room and the building itself, teleporting out in an attempt to avoid sleep itself. Her teleportation leads her to the edge of the southern forest.

"It cannot be you again," she said loudly to the forest itself. "But if it is, I will find you." Her tone seems weary but firm. Defiant and filled with bitterness. "You do not scare me." But the nightmares did. That would not be something she would admit readily.

Any who stumble upon the scene will be met with a scene straight out of an occult book. Candles line the way making a path to a fiery circle with a pentagram in it's center. Above is Illyana can be found floating with her eyes closed. Any who have encountered her before will notice the change in her appearance: a prehensile demonic tail can be seen flicking in irritation and large curved red horns now protrude from her forehead. She's muttering something in a strange language that cannot be linked back to most familiar languages, even the most ancient ones.

It is not something she would wish many to see, but something about the imagery in the nightmares has made her more reckless than she might usually be.

Comments

[soulsword]

"Complete annihilation of all sentient life? Or perhaps complete rule over all sentient life..." she shrugged nonchalantly. That always seemed to be the goal of the things she had experience fighting against. Either they wanted to wipe all life out or they wanted to rule over it all. In some cases it had been a mix of both. The only acceptation to that seemed to be the humans that only wanted to get rid of her people.

"Though there are many groups of humans who have grand plans of ridding the world of my people." She tilted her head inquisitively as she looked him over. Maybe that was what he was talking about? A villain only targeting certain people for some reason?

[somewhereintime]

He wasn't going to argue here, but instead listened and nodded. "Wipe out half of existence, and probably to rule over the rest of it." That sounded like him at least to Steve's mind. This was what he was trying to fight and had somehow wound up here after getting his lights punched out. But that part he didn't reveal because it wasn't important to the story.

"Well this guy would wipe out everything no matter what or who it was." And it was the truth. Rogers only knew the guy was Bad News and what his plan was at least as far as taking out life. "It wasn't only us, but it went for all planets, everywhere he went."

[soulsword]

"Who was he?" she said with a slight hint of curiosity. "Or is what a better question?" Seemed like what might be more accurate, though she could not quite say. This man was certainly fond of being vague. Could she really complain about that? The last few years of her life had been spent being as vague as she could possibly be.

[somewhereintime]

"His name is Thanos." There was a flat tone when Steve said it, not wanting to somehow accidentally invoke the man into being by saying his name. And Rogers hoped beyond hope that it would never come to pass. But at the part about what he just shook his head. "We don't really know, but the only answer we have is that he's a plague, wiping out half of life while traveling planet to planet."

[soulsword]

The name caused her to look over at him finally with a peaked interest. "Thanos?" She titled her head. "Large purple man with gaudy gold armor?" If it was a version of the Thanos she knew of then who was this person? He had seemed vaguely familiar. "Who are you?"

[somewhereintime]

The fact that she described the tyrant so well made Steve's blood run cold and he stayed absolutely still. Blue eyes widened as he realized this lady might know who he was.

"You know Thanos?" And if so, had he somehow spared her life or escaped his deadly wrath? Or was it just rumours or...

His thoughts trailed off as he shook his head. "My name is Steve. Steve Rogers."

[soulsword]

"Indeed. Everyone knows of the Mad Titan. Though he is your enemy more than my people's," she said with a curious tilt of her head. At least she understood why he looked so familiar.

"Captain America of the Avengers." Now the mystery was what universe was he from? "I had not expected to meet an Avenger here." Nor was she particularly excited about that. Mutants and Avengers always seemed to have something of a rocky relationship.

[somewhereintime]

He wasn't sure if he was more horrified that this woman knew of Thanos or that it rankled him in thinking the plague still might show up here.

"Ma'am?" He wasn't sure how Thanos could be more one people's enemy than everyone's but he let that slide because the next part stunned him further.

"Wait..you know who I am?" He stepped forward cautiously, not sure how this woman knew him. She didn't look familiar at all to him and he found that he almost felt bad about it.

[soulsword]

"Not you exactly, a version of you," she corrected. It was always interesting to encounter alternates that did not actually know about alternates.

"I am familiar with all the Avengers. A few of my teammates have even belonged to your team before." Which she did not really see as a particularly good thing.

[somewhereintime]

"A version of me?" That had thrown Steve for a real loop. First she knew of Thanos and now he has a doppleganger? He wasn't sure whether or not to believe her or not, but it was just beyond his scope of thought. Something like this was more Tony's or Bruce's scope of things, definitely not his.

And then she knew the Avengers? "So you've..met us?" Again he scanned his brain and she didn't look familiar at all. But he could ask Nat since she was here with him and maybe somehow he missed it.

[soulsword]

"Are you not familiar with the multiverse?" If not, this would be difficult to explain. Perhaps she took it for granted that most of her world was aware of such things existing.

"Several times," she said with a shrug. "The X-Men and the Avengers have a long...history together." History seemed like the nicest way to put it. "Have you ever heard of us?"

[somewhereintime]

Steve's head shook but he felt like it might be about to explode. "The what?" He had absolutely no idea what was being spoken about and it wasn't often anymore since he'd woken up, but he felt like that kid from Brooklyn again.

There was such a confused look in his eyes that he couldn't even think of how to begin to figure out who X-Men were. "No..sorry." He wasn't sure if he should apologize here, but hey it was genuine.

[soulsword]

"Ah," she said with a shrug and a flick of her tail. "You will be eventually I'm sure." Every version of their world seemed to eventually find out about the multiverse for better or worse. Usually worse, much worse. "I could explain, but there isn't much point." Unless he was really interested in the multiverse it just seemed like a waste of time to explain more.

"Are there mutants in your world?" She paused before adding: "The Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver?"

[somewhereintime]

"Ya.." Steve's tone was more like 'ya right'. Well at least he could ask Nat tonight or tomorrow, wasn't really a hurry on it, since it wasn't likely they were leaving this place tonight. And he didn't feel like springing this on her if she was busy.

"Mutants.." and it came out more like a question but there was still something flat toned about it enough that it could've been a statement too. But blue eyes blinked. "Wait, you know Wanda?" He didn't want to get into her twin's fate at the moment.

[soulsword]

"Homo superior, the next step in human evolution. The X-Men are made up of mutants." She almost thought to explain it as them being like the mutant version of the Avengers but she did not really want to consider them that.

She gave a curt nod. "Unfortunately. Wanda is a mutant as well. One without loyalties to her people." She shrugged. "I guess she liked you all more. Maybe she wanted to be human."

[somewhereintime]

Blue eyes blinked in more confusion. "So mutants are..gifted people?" That was what Steve considered her. Would he be considered as such, enhanced as he was? But he didn't have the abilities Wanda had.

"Her people?" Now he was confused. Wanda had been loyal to them..until it changed. She and her brother had been loyal to the people who raised them and they told stories about their parents. "Liked us more..what does that mean?"

[soulsword]

"To put it simply, yes." Though that left out the genetic aspect, but she was fairly certain that might go over his head. Besides, she was not the best at explaining the more scientific aspects of their species.

"Both she and her brother are mutants, that should make us her people," she said with a slightly curt tone. "Strangely she has always chosen the Avengers. Not that she would be welcomed with us anymore." She waved a hand dismissively. "If you have never heard of mutants your world must be quite different than mine. I'm sure this must be very confusing to you."

[somewhereintime]

Well alright that much information Steve could handle. Wanda and her twin were the only ones of their kind that he'd seen..if one could call them that. But everyone in the Avengers had things they were good at. Just none of them had powers like the twins.

"Confusing would be a good start." He had no problem being honest with her here because he didn't know about mutants, other than what he'd called them which was gifted. It made him proud Wanda had chosen the Avengers, but if others were like her? "If she's more like you..shouldn't she be free to walk on both sides? Why should she have to choose a side?"

[soulsword]

"Where I'm from we are all very familiar with time travel and alternate dimensions. Sometimes I forget not all are." She was not entirely certain if that was a good or bad thing. It certainly seemed like it meant their lives were a bit less complicated and that should be good, right?

She shrugged. "The X-Men and the Avengers do not always have the best relationship. We handle very different matters with little help from your kind."

[somewhereintime]

Steve reached a hand up to scratch the back of his head. Well he personally knew something about time travel..well..sort of. It wasn't done on purpose though, it was luck or whatever explanation Fury had rattled off after he'd just woken up from being stuck in the ice. But the truth was that he hadn't even been sure how Steve survived.

But what he was hearing here made blue eyes narrow slightly. "Well if Thanos shows up, there's only going to be two sides. His and ours."

[soulsword]

"I have faced much worse foes than Thanos," she said with a shrug. "He does not scare me." Though, the truth there was that very little actually scared her. "If he were to cause problems, I would assist in taking care of him." For some reason she thought that was what he wanted her to say.

[somewhereintime]

"Worse?" This had Steve pondering. So far his world had faced quite a few things and there didn't seem to be an end to the threats. World War 2, the aliens in New York, Ultron, it just didn't end. Maybe Thanos wasn't their last threat either. And that bugged him hard.

But his blue eyes looked up at Illyana with a nod. "That's good to know."

[soulsword]

"Humans," she said with the slight hint of a smile. "Purifiers and the Right were consistent problems," And in her opinion a consistent problem that had no ultimate solution was far more to deal with. At least a big solitary enemy could be dispatched of with little question.

"Belasco and the Elder Ones were a threat to all lifeforms our planet. There were countless timelines where they had consumed the universe. I hope your universe does not encounter them."

[somewhereintime]

Here Steve was trying to take notes. Purifiers and Right. Ok that he could remember, but then Illyana mentioned something or someone else. "This Belasco and Elder Ones sound serious." How the hell were the Avengers supposed to fight more threats that they didn't know about? Would Fury have intel on these threats? Would he even remember these names if he went back home..?

"Then the timelines have to be interfered with or prevented from happening." Not that he knew much about that at this point in time.

[soulsword]

"They were," a strange little smirk tugged at her lips at the memory of both. "They were ancient embodiments of true evil. My very soul was ripped from me by Belasco to ensure their release upon your Earth. But I found a messenger to teach them that even they could fear." It was a personal vendetta for her, one that was more than a decade in the making.

"Timeline interference can be a dangerous thing for those with no knowledge. Sometimes you end up creating a problem worse than what you began with. Do you have a Dr. Strange in your universe? He could tell you of those things."