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Ororo held her breath, feeling the air becoming thicker with tension. Even without her powers, she knew something terrible was about to happen. Honestly, a dark part of her would love to see Fury beaten down and taught a long-overdue lesson for his arrogant, condescending attitude against mutants. The man had spent years treating mutants like stray dogs that needed leashes and cages. Tonight, she almost hoped Dante would give him exactly what he deserved.
"Fury, do you know what they say about 'an eye for an eye'?" Dante's voice was dangerously calm as he held Fury by his collar. "Today, it'll be an arm for an arm."
Fury's single eye flew wide open, revealing the first real crack in that unbreakable SHIELD Director's facade. "Why? Ororo is not with you. Do you believe you can just—"
"She is a friend," Dante said, but it felt like a declaration. "You? You're nothing in my eyes."
Dante reached out with his other hand, very slow and deliberate in his approach. As if he was giving Fury one last chance to realize how powerless he truly was.
"Get your hands off me!" Fury growled, trying to remove Dante's hand from his collar. "I'm the goddamn Director of SHIELD! You can't threaten to harm me on my ship."
Dante still quietly reached for Fury's left arm as though he didn't register Fury's warning. Realizing that he wasn't stopping, Fury kicked at Dante's thigh with a dull thud. The force could've knocked a normal man on his ass, but it had no effect on Dante.
"Ororo is nothing to you. You've barely talked to her. You—"
Fury's words cut off in a strangled grunt as Dante's hand finally locked around his forearm like a steel trap. Fury's eyes bulged with shock and terror. He thrashed harder in desperation. "Let go—LET GO!"
But there was only so much a man could do against overwhelming power.
Dante's grip tightened, and he pulled. Fury's arm tore free from his shoulder with a wet, sickening sound. Blood sprayed in an arc across the jet's interior, splattering the pilot's backseat and the floor.
"ARGHHHH!!!"
Fury's scream was a primal howl of pure agony that was no different from a dying animal. He dropped to his knees, clutching the ragged stump where his arm had been. Blood poured between his fingers, soaking his hand and uniform.
The legendary Nick Fury—Director of SHIELD, the man who had made a career out of grinding mutants under his heels—screamed as tears poured down his eyes. Fury was too veteran to cry like this, which meant Dante had messed with Fury's body in some way.
Ororo should've looked away at such a sight, but she kept staring at Fury's crying face, taking shameless pleasure in every second of this. After years of dealing with Fury's threats and smug superiority, watching Fury break felt like justice.
She could even hear a satisfied voice whispering "Finally" in her mind.
Remy shivered hard in his seat. "How fearsome…"
"I've only tried to be nice to you," Fury gasped through his pain. "Why the hell did you do this?!"
"Like I said," Dante replied in a bored voice and dropped the severed arm to the floor with a heavy, wet thud. It landed in its own spreading pool of blood. "An arm for an arm."
A soft golden glow enveloped Fury. The gushing blood slowed, then stopped entirely. The wound sealed into an ugly, cauterized stump. He sat there panting, eyes wild with pain, humiliation, and… fear. The Director of SHIELD was reduced to a one-armed, broken man on his own jet.
Dante turned away as if the man was already beneath his notice. He walked back to Ororo and gently touched her wounded arm. "Hold still for a sec."
Warm golden light poured from his palm into her bullet-torn arm. She felt the wound close in seconds. The pain vanished completely. Despite the ruthless brutality she had just witnessed, she felt a warm feeling in her chest. She had never been in this spot ever since she had awakened her mutant powers. Rather, she had been worshipped like a goddess.
Even when Nick Fury had come to arrest her in Africa, hundreds of men had been ready to lay down their lives for her out of reverence, out of obligation to save their goddess.
Today was different.
Dante had done this for no other reason than simple friendship.
"Thank you."
She had never been shy about expressing gratitude when it was truly earned.
He gave a look of concern. "Your mutant powers…"
Ororo's smile faded into something bitter. She took his hand and rose to her feet. "We'll talk somewhere else."
She didn't want to breathe the same air as Fury.
Before they left, she turned to thank Remy for the small kindness he'd shown earlier, but his seat was empty.
"Hmm? Where did he go?"
One moment of distraction and Remy had slipped away like a thief in the night, without even opening the door.
"Did he say his name?"
"Remy LeBeau," Ororo said. "He might work for SHIELD, but… I don't think he's a bad person."
Dante thought for a few seconds, then touched her arm again. "Ready?"
"Give me one moment."
She brushed his hand aside gently and walked over to Fury. The pilot kept his eyes locked forward, pretending the bloodbath behind him hadn't happened. Fury glared up at her, furious about losing an arm after already losing an eye. She had caused it—the fact made her reveal a pleasant smile.
"Director Fury, can you return Jean's phone?"
Fury reached into his pocket with his remaining hand and threw the device at her. She caught the phone and looked over it again. Remy's card had cracked the screen, but at least Jean could still recover her data.
"Director Fury, don't come after us again," Ororo warned him. "Unless you want to lose your only arm."
The warning was more for Jean's sake than her own. She hated threats, but without her powers, words were all she had left.
She walked back to Dante, allowing him to teleport them away. In the next moment, they were standing in the parking lot of Silver Sable International. She wasn't given a chance to admire the instant teleportation as cold wind cut straight through her thin sleeveless dress. Her white sleeveless dress was meant to be worn in summer, not the coldest January of New York City.
Without her weather powers, she felt every icy bite cutting into her, making her shiver.
Dante removed his mask and quickly called Jean to come down. He was conscious enough to not teleport directly in a woman's room without permission. She felt like it might've been a lesson learned from experience rather than his precaution.
He slipped the phone back into his pocket and took off his suit, draping it around her shoulders. "I should've gone to the room."
She clutched the fabric closer, finding it quite warmer than a human should have. "I'll return it later."
"No worries. I hate formal wear anyway."
He laughed softly and tapped his chest. A golden sphere lit up beneath his shirt and released warmth in the chair. The temperature around them slowly adjusted to nearly the same temperature as her weather field—when she had one.
"You know, I really wanted to kill Fury back there."
Ororo smiled at the sudden confession. "Then why didn't you?"
It was a thought every X-Men had at some point due to Fury's arrogance. For once, she would've been fine with someone acting on their murderous intention.
He shook his head. "He is just a puppet right now. Someone worse might take his place."
"Puppet for who? The government?"
"Whoever wants mutants to maintain this status quo." His expression grew solemn. "I've got a solid lead on who this mastermind is. If it's who I think… we're all in for a hell of a ride."
Ororo had never heard anything about Fury being someone's puppet, but this explained Fury exercising an obscene level of control over mutants.
"Who is it?"
"I'll tell you when I'm sure." He gazed into her eyes. "Fury hit you with a special bullet. It caused damage to your X-Gene."
She nodded, recalling the same term Henry had used in one of his scientific presentations. X-Gene was responsible for a mutant's powers. "SHIELD might use it for something catastrophic… but it wouldn't concern me. I'm not a mutant anymore."
She was just an ordinary woman now, as far as the world was concerned. She had no power to change anything.
"Don't count yourself out yet." A light but reassuring smile surfaced on his face. "I can still fix it. Might take some time because of X-Gene's delicate nature, but I can."
She wasn't even surprised he could accomplish that.
"I must think this through… if I want to be a human or a mutant."
Would she rather live an ordinary, peaceful life… or remain a mutant and continue facing a world full of peril? She couldn't answer that on the spot tonight.
Dante simply nodded in response. He respected her intelligence enough that he would leave the decision to her. It was her life, after all. Only she could make the decision.
They waited in silence, watching the elevator's progress together. Half a minute later, the elevator chimed and the doors slid open. Jean flew out in a rush of pink energy, then stopped dead when she saw Ororo.
"You're alright—your arm. Fury did this?"
Dust swirled the dust around them, caused by Jean's spike in emotions. Seeing the bloodstains on Ororo's arms had caused her psionic energy to go rampant. The red was very noticeable against her white dress.
Ororo touched Jean's arm lightly. "Don't fret about it. Dante already healed it."
Jean calmed down enough to affect her surroundings. "But why? You went along with him without any resistance. Why would he do this?"
"I'll explain later. First, take this." Ororo handed over the damaged phone back to Jean, which brought a relieved smile to the redhead's face. Ororo smiled and turned to him. "Can we borrow a car? I'd like to get back to the mansion."
With SHIELD's rules in place, she had grown quite proficient at driving. Her life wouldn't be much affected by her powers.
Dante moved his finger through the air in a slow circle, trailing magical sparks.
Jean locked her phone and touched Ororo's arm. "Wait for it."
The circle expanded on its own, showing a shimmer window to Xavier's mansion.
Ororo crossed her arms, amused by the magic trick. "Now you're going to say I can just step through and reach the mansion."
Dante showed an innocent look. "Jean, show her?"
"Gladly." Jean grabbed the edge of the window and crossed to the other side. Grinning at Ororo's surprised look, Jean held a hand out through the portal. "Come on."
Dante placed a hand on Ororo's shoulder before she could follow. "Xavier is dead. Erik killed him. Just wanted to let you know."
It took her a few seconds to digest this. After that, she nodded her head with a heavy look. She had expected something like this to happen after getting a glimpse at Xavier's true self through his thoughts. She had even hoped for such a terrible manipulator to stop existing.
Her prayers had been answered, yet all she felt was a hollow ache.
"I'm sorry we pulled you into this."
She whispered to him softly. It was all she could say to him. If she had stopped Jean that day, he wouldn't have been wound up in their business.
He patted her shoulder gently. "It's alright."
Ororo turned and hugged him, squeezing her arms around him tighter than she meant. After all the terrible experiences tonight, his warmth was like heaven. It made her eyes wet.
"Asante sana, kwa neema yako."
"Hmm?"
"Nothing."
She gave him a gentle push and took Jean's hand to step through the portal.
A/N: Fury will die later. Also, he is acting differently from canon because of mind control/suggestions implanted in his brain.