(By the way, this is canon to Tandy's backstory on how she got her powers. Also, more than a little messed up. So uh… yeah. I will say tho, no SA.)
— –Tandy Bowen– —
It was suffocating.
It was as if the air in the room was suddenly significantly thinner, and she hadn't been given the chance to acclimatize to it. It had been years since she last felt like this, but the feeling was all too familiar. That slow panic creeping in from the edges, threatening to swallow her whole.
Alex's living room, her sanctuary, felt smaller by the hour. The walls weren't closing in, not really, but they may as well have been.
Because he was gone. And worse, no one seemed to care.
She had done everything she could think of. Called the police, begged them to take it seriously. Given them every detail she could. But all she got was a tired voice telling her they'd "look into it." As if Alex was just another teenager skipping town. Like he didn't matter.
She had also tried calling Stark Tower, to get a hold of Tony, or anyone who could help. But she couldn't get past the random receptionist who thought she was just another crazy lady who had been dumped by Stark trying to get back at him.
And maybe that was the worst part.
That sick little voice in the back of her head whispering "maybe he left because of you".
She tried not to believe it. She told herself over and over that he wouldn't do that. He wouldn't. He promised. He swore he'd stay. He swore he would never leave her.
So the only other explanation, the one that let her breathe, was that something happened.
God, it was horrible to think it, but a part of her hoped he'd been taken. That something outside of his control had ripped him away. Because at least then, he didn't choose to leave her.
The sudden ringing of her phone sent a jolt through her chest, snapping her out of her spiral.
She lunged for it, full of hope that he had finally been able to answer her. But, the second she saw the name, that hope died just as fast.
Mom.
Not him. Not even close.
Still, her hand was already shaking as she answered. Something about hearing someone's voice felt important. Like if she just talked to another human being for five minutes, she wouldn't come apart completely.
"Mom." She said, and her voice cracked right in the middle. She didn't even try to hide it.
For a second, she thought, maybe, her mom would hear it. Maybe she'd finally act like she used to. Like a mom. But instead, Tandy was greeted by a burst of music and laughter echoing through the speaker. Party noise. Slurred words.
"Tandy, sweetie." Her mom said with a giggle, dragging out the vowels. "Do me a favor, could you go into my room? You remember my email password, right? I wrote it down somewhere in there. My phone's being so annoying—"
Tandy closed her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat. She could hear her own breath in the silence between her mom's words.
"Yeah." She said quietly. She felt annoyed. Or was it angry? Either way, the grip on her phone was tightening. But after taking a breath, she tried to reach out one more time. "Mom… can we talk?"
She started pacing without even realizing it. Her legs needed to move, to do something with all the noise building in her chest.
There was a pause on the other end. Just for a second.
"Of course, baby." Her mom said, barely above the sound of someone laughing in the background. "But first, could you get me that password? I really need it. Just text it when you find it, okay?"
And with that, her mom hung up.
Tandy stood there, phone still pressed to her ear long after the call ended. The silence was louder than before.
"Ahhhh!" Tandy screamed as she tossed her phone across the room.
She was angry, she was frustrated, she was anxious, she was worried. She was… she was done with this shit.
Without thinking, she stormed out of Alex's house. Her feet carried her before her mind caught up. She didn't know where she was going, just that she had to go. Away from her home. Away from her parents. Away from the unbearable thought that Alex had left her.
She needed to breathe. She needed space. She needed someone, anyone, who gave a damn.
And the only person left who maybe still did was Miss Garnier. Her dance teacher. Her mentor. The one adult who hadn't completely given up on her.
It was the middle of the day. Miss Garnier was probably teaching class, maybe correcting some student's posture or yelling out counts. But she'd listen. She always had. Or at least, Tandy hoped she would. Because if she didn't… she wasn't sure what she'd do next.
The dance school in Harlem wasn't close, but it didn't matter. She didn't care about distance. She just needed to move.
Her phone was still back at Alex's place, thrown across the room in a burst of anger, and she wasn't about to go back for it. So instead, she sprinted to the nearest bus stop, swiping a MetroCard that barely had enough fare left, and sat in the back, arms folded tight across her chest, eyes on the floor.
But her mind refused to slow down.
Thoughts crashed into each other, blurring like the scenery outside the window. Her hands trembled in her lap. Her throat was tight. She wanted to scream, cry, curse someone out, but now wasn't the time. Not on a packed city bus. Not with strangers who'd either gawk or pretend she didn't exist.
So she swallowed it. Like she always did.
Somewhere along the ride, she missed her stop.
Didn't even realize it until the bus jerked to a halt and the driver yelled that it was the last stop. Great. Perfect. Just what she needed. With a muttered curse, she stepped off and started walking. Nowhere in particular. Just following the sidewalk like it might eventually lead her to peace.
But it didn't.
The streets were too crowded. Too loud. People brushed past her without looking. Conversations bled together into a rising hum she couldn't block out. The buzz of traffic, laughter, shouting, it was all too much. She was barely keeping it together, and no one even noticed.
It felt like the whole city was pressing in on her.
Her breath hitched. Her eyes stung. And before she knew it, she ducked into a nearby alley, trying to escape the noise, the crowd, everything.
She leaned against the brick wall, her chest heaving.
'Get a grip. Just get a grip.'
But her lungs weren't cooperating. She couldn't get enough air. Her hands were shaking. Her vision was starting to blur.
And then a voice cut through it.
"Excuse me, miss. Are you alright?"
She looked up. Two police officers were standing just a few feet away, one slightly older with gray at his temples, the other younger, with a too-clean uniform and a polite smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
Tandy straightened up, still catching her breath.
"Ah… officers." Her voice cracked, but she forced herself to speak. "No. Not really."
They stepped closer with their hands raised, showing her they meant no harm.
"What happened?" The older one asked, voice soft but curious.
She blinked hard. Swallowed. Her throat felt raw.
"My friend… he's… he's missing. I think something happened to him and no one's doing anything about it and I just—" Her voice faltered as the weight of it all rushed back. "I don't know what to do."
The younger officer gave her a small nod.
"Another one." He muttered to his partner. Too low for her to catch at first.
"We should probably bring her down to the station." The older cop turned slightly. "Let her file a report, get a statement or something."
"Yeah." The younger one said with a quick nod. "That's probably best."
"Wait, what do you mean, another one?" Tandy asked, her voice growing more alert, a knot twisting in her stomach.
"There's been a string of disappearances lately." The older cop glanced back at her. "Just like your friend."
"C'mon. We'll get you somewhere quiet." The younger one stepped beside her, gesturing gently. "You can tell us everything. Might help us piece things together."
And right now, they were the only ones who looked her in the eye and offered something close to help.
So, against the part of her that screamed to run, she followed.
The back of the squad car smelled like worn leather and dried sweat. The cage between the front and back seats felt more like a wall than a barrier, and the moment that door clicked shut behind her, something inside her clenched.
She should've noticed it sooner, the way the driver didn't radio anything in, the fact that they hadn't asked for her name. But her thoughts were still knotted around Alex, around everything spiraling out of control. She couldn't think straight.
And by the time she realized something was wrong, it was too late.
They weren't headed toward any station.
The streets they turned down weren't familiar, and the city noise faded with each block. Her breathing quickened. She reached for the door handle on instinct as they slowed at a red light, but it didn't budge.
Locked.
Panic bloomed in her chest. Her fingers curled into fists. She thought about screaming, banging on the windows, something. But then the driver caught her eyes in the rearview mirror.
"Best not get any funny ideas, little lady." He said, his voice smooth and amused. His smile was all teeth. "Wouldn't want to scuff you up too bad. Doc doesn't like damaged goods."
Her heart dropped.
She turned toward the second officer just as he twisted in his seat, a pistol now lazily pointed in her direction like it was nothing more than a toy.
"Easy now." He said, like they were old friends sharing a joke. He reached back and held out a small, white pill in his gloved hand. "Be a good girl and take this. It'll make everything go real quiet."
Tandy stared at the pill. At the barrel of the gun. Her chest rose and fell, sharp and uneven, as her thoughts tried to race, tried to plan.
But all she could feel was the pulse in her throat. Something told her, if she took that pill, she wouldn't wake up the same. Or at all. Still, her voice found a way through the haze.
"Did you guys take a boy… seventeen years old, brown hair, brown eyes. Slightly tan skin, skinny." She asked, her voice barely holding steady.
"Hmm…" The man with the pill tilted his head, glancing at his partner. "Sounds familiar. Doesn't it?"
"Very familiar…" The driver said, a grin appearing at the edges of his mouth. "What was his name again?"
"I'm terrible with names." The other replied, shrugging.
"Was it Alexander?" She asked full of dread.
"That's right." The driver chuckled. "Alexander. Yeah… must've been us."
Tandy didn't feel her heart break. She felt it fall. Just drop, like a plate slipping from numb fingers. She looked at the pill still waiting in the man's palm, and without knowing why, her hand moved. She took it.
"Is he… is he okay?" She asked, barely above a whisper.
"Only one way to find out, no?" The driver said, tapping the wheel.
She didn't answer. She just swallowed.
At first, nothing. Just a taste like aspirin and copper. But then the edges of her vision began to blur, the light dimming at the corners.
The world started to blink.
One second she was in the backseat, the next she was weightless, being carried out and laid across something hard and cold. Maybe a boat? She could feel the water underneath. There were others. Still, slumped over like broken dolls.
Then the next blink, fluorescent lights overhead, white walls, a hallway. Hands under her arms, dragging her along.
Another blink, steel bars. Concrete floor. Her cheek pressed against it.
Then black.
— –Ororo Munroe– —
How long had she been in Limbo?
Years, perhaps decades. Long enough that the idea of home had faded into a ghost of a memory. Now it was just her and Kitty. And even Kitty… wasn't quite the same anymore. Time had chipped away at her warmth, left her sharp and distant. But Ororo didn't blame her. Not after everything they'd lost. Not after everyone who'd died.
All because of him.
Belasco.
A sorcerer, someone who had practically perfected his alchemy and dark magic, who claimed to have made a deal with the so-called Elder Gods. Whether that was true or not didn't matter. The result was the same, a monster with immortality, power, and a kingdom in this living hell.
His goal was always the same. Escape. To open a door from Limbo to the world beyond. But to do it, he needed five Bloodstones, jewels made not just from magic, but from soul. Living, resisting soul.
Not just anyone could be used for the ritual. The candidates had to be rare, people with either the innate or magical potential to move between Limbo and their own world. A thread to the outside.
Time and time again, he reached beyond the veil, summoning candidates from other worlds with magic so twisted Ororo still didn't fully understand it. Most of them didn't last. The realm itself chewed them up, their souls unraveling before the ritual could even begin. Belasco needed vessels, not corpses. But Limbo had its own appetite.
Most of them didn't survive long enough to matter. Ororo had been one of the first who did.
Back then, he had tried to mold her. Teach her the secrets of Limbo. Magic. Corruption. Pain. She still remembered the heat of his voice behind her ear, the way his words wrapped around her spine like chains.
But she hadn't broken. Not the way he wanted. She had waited. Learned. And when the time came, she ran.
She'd taken the Bloodstones he'd made from her soul, each one carved out in agony, and with a spell of her own, shattered them. The pain was worse than dying, but it was worth it. Without them, Belasco couldn't complete the ritual. Not with her.
And ever since, she had kept watch. Using the very magic he taught her, she learned to listen to Limbo's heartbeat, to feel the pulse of its corruption. Anyone who tried to tap into its power had to leave a mark, had to tether their soul to the realm, to soak in its filth. That tether was her warning bell. Her burden.
And now it was ringing again.
Illyana Rasputin. A child. Her soul was already tainted. That meant the ritual had begun.
Ororo's hands clenched at her sides.
It was a familiar name. Too familiar. Because this wasn't the first Illyana Belasco had taken. She'd watched others, versions of the same girl from other timelines, other lives, burn away, unable to endure. They died before he could use them. After what happened with Ororo, Belasco had grown cautious. He stopped teaching them magic. And because of that, they broke too quickly, no strength to resist when the bloodstones began to form.
But this time? He was done being cautious.
This Illyana had been practicing for months. Corrupting her soul. Preparing her for the ritual in earnest. And that meant Belasco was ready to try again.
And that meant they had to move. Now. Before the corruption dug in too deep. Before the girl lost the part of herself that still wanted to fight.
So together with Kitty, they'd launched the only kind of mission that made sense in a place like this, a desperate one.
There was no winning a fight against Belasco. Not with just the two of them. He was too old, too powerful, too steeped in the very magic she'd been forced to learn. He was resistant to her weather, and more than capable of countering her spells. But that didn't mean she couldn't slow him down. Distract him. Force him to focus on her long enough for Kitty to slip through the cracks.
This Illyana wasn't like the others, her soul was still standing strong. Ororo could feel that. And if there was even a chance to save her, they had to take it.
At first, it had felt like their plan was working. Belasco had taken the bait. He'd been toying with her, amused by the thought of his former student challenging him again. Every strike she threw was blocked, but that wasn't the point. The point was time. Every second he kept his eyes on her was another second Kitty could use to get in, find the girl, and get out.
But then… something shifted.
She felt it in the pit of her stomach first. The realm shuddered, and her own magic flinched against it.
Another soul. One more thread tied to Limbo.
No. That wasn't possible. There were two now. There weren't supposed to be two.
The ritual wasn't designed for it. Even if it were twin souls from different worlds, different timelines, it didn't matter. The stones were made from one. One person. One soul fractured again and again.
So why were there two?
Her heart twisted with dread. Had Belasco found another way?
Then she saw Kitty.
Her friend emerged from the warped doorway in a rush of light and shadow, carrying not Illyana, but a boy in his teens. Barely conscious. And behind them, she saw Illyana following along. Not long behind the trio, she also saw a gigantic purple demon crashing through walls and chasing as fast as he could.
The boy was bleeding from a wound in his arm. And his soul, it was already tainted with Limbo.
He was dying. Not from the injury, but from the realm itself. His body hadn't adapted. His soul was being consumed too quickly.
Every soul needed time to adapt to any change, and he had forced himself by casting spells far above his range. It was too fast. The corruption was too deep. And if he stayed much longer, he'd be gone. Twisted into something even Belasco might not be able to use.
Ororo wasn't someone who cursed often. She believed in holding onto grace, even in the worst places.
But as she caught the flare of Belasco's eyes turning toward them, she felt the word build on her tongue. She wanted to curse the old monster into dust. Because now, their chance was slipping away again.
"Oh." Belasco chuckled, gaze locked on the fleeing group below. "So that's why. And here I thought you'd finally gone mad."
Then, with a casual flick of his wrist, one that made her stomach twist, he conjured them. Crimson chains, dozens of them, hissing through the air like serpents. They shot down from the sky, straight toward Kitty, Illyana, and the boy.
"Kitty!" Ororo shouted, thrusting her hands forward as power flared around her fingertips. The spell shot out in a wave of lightning and wind, intercepting chain after chain mid-flight. Some shattered. Others veered off course. But not all of them. Never all.
And by now, she was certain Belasco had figured out how to counter Kitty's phasing. He always adapted. He always learned.
With a sharp breath, she saw it unfold. Kitty, still sprinting, glanced back and made the call. In one motion, she dropped the unconscious boy from her shoulder, seized the smaller girl beside her, Illyana, and hurled her forward, out of the chains' range.
The kid flew like a ragdoll through the air, but she was clear. Safe.
Then, with a burst of agility that made Ororo's chest tighten, Kitty vaulted sideways, her body folding and twisting mid-air as she cleared the worst of the chains. It bought Ororo just enough time to finish the warding circle, and she slammed her hands to the air to cast it.
A burst of light exploded outward, forming a dome just wide enough to shield Kitty and Illyana from the incoming storm.
But not the boy. The chains coiled around him, slick and fast, pulling his limp body backward like he weighed nothing.
"Alex!" Illyana's scream cracked through the night. She tried to run for him, but Kitty grabbed her by the collar and yanked her back, hauling the young girl over her shoulder as she broke into another sprint.
It was brutal. It was the right call.
Ororo clenched her jaw as she forced her eyes away from the boy's limp form. He was already fading. There wasn't time. And truthfully… she wasn't sure she could've saved him. Not here. Not now. The chains had him. Limbo had him.
Kitty must've known too. Or at least… Ororo hoped she had.
Because Illyana was too far along. Her soul had soaked in too much of this cursed place to leave her behind again. If they lost her now, if Belasco got his claws in her again, it'd be over. He'd win.
Belasco would escape, releasing the Elder Gods from this cursed realm, and bringing down whatever world he chose to invade first.
Exhaling slowly, Ororo activated a spell she'd prepared in advance. In a rush of wind and light, she vanished from Belasco's range and reappeared beside Kitty and Illyana. Without a word, she dropped to one knee and began casting the next incantation.
But something was off. Belasco didn't move.
He didn't lunge or snarl or unleash some monstrous spell. He just stood there, watching them. His golden eyes locked onto theirs, a smile tugging at his lips.
It felt wrong.
He should have been doing everything he could to stop them. Every curse, every demon, every bit of raw chaos Limbo could spit out. But instead… nothing. Just that look. That grin. That silence.
And then, as Ororo finished the spell, the magic flared around them.
In the last moment before they vanished, Belasco raised a hand, not in anger, not in panic.
He waved.
— — —
Arriving at their sanctuary, Kitty finally released her grip on Illyana, who had been squirming and struggling in her arms the entire way through the portal.
To Ororo's surprise, Illyana didn't collapse. She lunged.
"You left him!" She shouted, throwing her fists at Kitty's stomach. "You promised you would help him, but you left him! You could have helped him!"
Kitty didn't move. She didn't even flinch. The punches weren't strong, not really. They didn't need to be. They carried weight all the same.
"I—" Kitty started, then stopped.
She looked away.
Illyana's arms dropped to her sides as she fell to her knees, the adrenaline bleeding out of her. A quiet sob escaped her lips, and then another, until the tears came freely. Her shoulders shook, and for a moment, she seemed even younger than she was.
Kitty stepped back.
She looked uncomfortable, like the room had gotten too loud, like the air itself was pressing in on her. After a long breath, she turned to Ororo
"You should…" Her voice caught, and after a beat, she added. "I'm sorry."
Then she walked away. Not in anger. Not in shame. Just… away. Kitty wasn't good at this sort of thing anymore. Not after everything.
So Ororo stepped in. She knelt beside Illyana and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. When the girl didn't pull away, Ororo pulled her into a quiet, steadying hug.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
She wanted to tell her they did what they could. That the boy had been too far gone. But none of that would help now. None of it would fix the ache in Illyana's voice.
So she held her tighter as the girl wept.
"It's all my fault…" Illyana choked out. "If I had cast the spells… if I'd given him the food… if I hadn't messed up so much…"
"Shhh." Ororo murmured, gently stroking her hair. "It's not your fault. It's his. All of it. Belasco did this."
And for now, that was enough. Or at least… it had to be.
Beta Reader: @Basilisk
~A/N~
Whatever you might think of Ororo and Kitty, they made the right choice in the situation they were in with the information they had. Rip Alex tho, bro never gets a break, but, since I know people don't like the Limbo arc, I will spoil that his X-gene awakens at the start of the next chap.
As for Tandy, yeah, she has a lot coming to her. Maybe Alex's bad luck has an AOE effect.