* DISCLAIMER * This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction involving characters created and owned by Marvel Comics Group. * WRITTEN BY * Samy Merchi * ARCHIVED AT * http://mash.yok.utu.fi/~samerc/fanfic/index.html * DEDICATED TO * Sequoia Swennes Alara Rogers Two strong, intelligent women who prove that there are Danis in the real world. * STARRING * Danielle "MIRAGE" Moonstar in ******************************** * NEW MUTANTS #42 1/2 * * "Home Is Where The Heart Is" * ******************************** * CONTINUITY * Recently, the Beyonder has killed and resurrected the New Mutants, who were deeply traumatized by the experience. Danielle Moonstar was the only one to get over the trauma, and left the New Mutants when Magneto handed them over to Emma Frost, who as a telepath claimed to be able to treat their trauma better. [NEW MUTANTS #37-40] Danielle traveled home to Colorado, where she spent time with her family. She also ran into an old friend of hers, Pat Roberts, who now hated her. He had a car accident, and slipped into a coma, but not before Dani found out he loved her -- had always loved her. In the end, the cosmic entity Death persuaded Dani to let it take Pat, because even if Dani didn't, Pat would never wake up from his coma. [NEW MUTANTS #41] The New Mutants were eventually healed by Frost and Magneto together, and Samuel Guthrie took a brief leave of absence to visit his family in Cumberland, Kentucky. [NEW MUTANTS #42] Finally, just after this story, the New Mutants are all reunited, as Roberto Da Costa returns from an extended leave of absence he took for a trip to South America. [NEW MUTANTS #43] But this story deals not with the New Mutants at all, but their erstwhile co-leader Danielle Moonstar, and how she ended up from being at home with her parents in #41, to welcoming Roberto back in #43. Hope you'll like it. *** "I need to leave." Peg Lonestar looked from the television over to her daughter, huddled up in a recliner, her knees drawn up to her chin, her arms wrapped around her legs. The older Cheyenne woman took a deep breath, and then smiled, standing up from the couch and stepping over to Dani's recliner, putting a hand onto her daughter's shoulder. "When are you going?" "Tomorrow." Danielle Moonstar slowly let her arms unwrap from around her legs, as she extended her tall legs, her knees descending from her chin and her feet coming onto the soft fluffy rug covering the floor of the living room. She took a deep breath, and managed a nervous smile to her mother despite inwardly having to restrain herself from biting her lip. "I don't want to go yet." Peg sat down on the armrest of Dani's recliner, and put an arm around her daughter's shoulders, hugging her close. "I don't want you to go either", she whispered, "but we both know it's something you've got to do." She held a long pause, before asking, "Will you be back?" "I don't know. I think so. Maybe. I don't know." A tense chuckle streamed from Dani's lips at her own indecisiveness, so uncharacteristic of her. Or was it? "I'll call and let you know, mom", Dani continued, closing her eyes briefly, forcing herself to put on the facade of Mirage, the War Chief of the New Mutants. The tough, always-on-the-ball leader. Her body remained tense, but somehow, for some reason, she felt more relaxed. "Okay", Peg nodded at her daughter's words, and then stood back up. "How are you going? Should I get you a plane ticket, or will you be riding Brightwind back east?" She smiled inwardly. When Dani had come home, she had ridden 1800 miles across the country on her pegasus, and nearly caught pneumonia. That was her daughter, all right. Stubborn and hard-headed. When she got something into her head, there was no stopping her. "I'll go with him", Dani answered, letting her eyes open. "I'm not leaving him behind, and I'm not going to make him do anything I wouldn't do. If he flies, so do I." "Of course, he's a horse, and doesn't seem to catch a cold as easily as you do", Peg remarked, but it was just a rhetoric little statement, a smile twinkling in her eyes to show this. She knew her daughter too well to try and talk her out of something. "I'll pack up some food into a pair of saddlebags, then -- and I'll get you something warm to wear for the trip." "Mooom!" Dani groaned and put a hand to her head. "Stop with the fussing, already, okay? I can pack everything I need myself, you don't need to do it." "Fussing is a mother's job, Danielle. And besides, if I let you handle the packing, you'll end up taking a couple of tins of beef and nothing to open them with..." Peg smiled, and ran her fingers thru Dani's long, straight raven-black hair. "And try to wear a hat for the trip, the hair was a rat's nest after your last cross-country flight..." "Moom!" Dani sighed and sank deeper into her chair, crossing her arms over her chest and starting to pout at all the attention and fussing. She could take care of herself. "I swear, next time I'm sneaking out at night and not telling you..." "Now how'd we get to give you a hug if you did that, little spirit?" came William Lonestar's voice from the foyer. He was taking off his jacket, shaking off some of the snow from the blizzard outside. "Oh come on, dad!" Dani called out to her father. "You know I didn't mean it -- I wouldn't do that." She shot a mock-venomous glare at her mother. "Though you're tempting me at times, mom." Peg Lonestar smiled and winked at her daughter. "You're welcome." She then glanced at her husband emerging from the foyer. "I'll go fix some food for Danielle, William. Can you add some wood to the fireplace?" "Sure thing", William nodded, and headed over to the fireplace, taking a couple of small logs of wood from the pile beside him. He waited for his wife to leave, silently adding wood to the fireplace and stoking the fire a bit with a poker. After Peg had left the living room, he stood up, turning away from the fire, and looked towards his daughter. "So, you're going back, Danielle?" "Uh-huh", the young Cheyenne woman answered, and then hesitated a moment, before adding, "At the break of dawn. It's a long way and I want to travel as much of it as possible in sunlight." William Lonestar nodded and dug the wallet out of his back pocket. "Well, I'm sure your mother is going to pack you a lot of food for the trip, but knowing you, you'll just take a break at a McBurgers instead of bothering to rummage through the saddlebags." He dug out a twenty-dollar bill, and then put it down onto the table beside Dani's recliner. "Brightwind doesn't like saddlebags", Dani just commented at first, her attention more on her horse than the money addressed to her. After a few moments, though, her head turned to regard the twenty-dollar bill. "Thanks, dad", she said, and took the money, stuffing it into the pocket of her leather pants. "Are you sure you want to do this?" William asked, the tall man looking down at his seated daughter. "There's always work here for you, and if you want a taste of something other than ranching, I'm sure I can talk to my friends, maybe get you a job at the Arcadia mall or something, if you'd prefer that...?" "I don't know what I want, dad", Danielle admitted, and with a sigh, drew her knees back up against her chin, curling up into a fetal position in the recliner as her eyes, vegetable-like, just stared at the television for a few moments. "I do know that I've got friends back east, and I left without even saying proper good-byes to them. I owe them at least the courtesy of going back to see them and explaining..." "Mmm", William Lonestar nodded, and sat down on the armrest of a couch. "Are you sure your friends still live there? Is Xavier's still running? Have you given them a call to let them know you're coming?" Dani shook her head, not unsurely like she hadn't thought of that, but very surely, indicating that she had thought about it, but had decided against it. "I don't want to do that. I'll find out how things are soon enough." "It could save you a trip." "Dad, I don't want to do that, okay?" Dani half-snapped. "Let's just drop the topic." She didn't want to admit to the fact that she was afraid of the fact that things might have gone on without her, maybe she wasn't needed -- or WANTED anymore? Despite her leader status, she almost always had felt like an outsider. Not like Roberto, who seemed to be at home in any possible kind of social situation. She sighed, and closed her eyes. "Dani", the Cheyenne man said, placing a hand onto Dani's shoulder, a bit hesitantly. "I know this might not be the best time to say this...but I want you to know that I'll be proud of you, whatever you decide." "'Should I Stay Or Should I Go', huh?" Dani said, and opened her eyes, staring into the flickering flames in the fireplace. "I don't really need the schooling anymore, dad. I can control my powers okay these days. If I stayed there... It'd just be to be with my friends. I don't know if that's enough to decide the direction of my life..." "To fight." "Huh?" Dani asked, looking up into the eyes of her calm father. "It's in our blood, Danielle -- we're Cheyenne. We always were a small people, compared to the White Man", William explained levelly. "But we never gave up fighting. And neither will you. You can't leave your people to fight without you, even if they're mutants and not Cheyenne. You, like me, have too much stubborn pride to hide when there's a fight to be fought." "Heh", Dani chuckled slightly, though there was a sad expression on her face. "I remember when you and old man Roberts duked it out on their back yard over what beer was best..." "Ah, youth", William smiled. "And it was his fault. I don't understand how anyone can drink that sissy English lager..." "Dad?" "Yeah, Danielle?" "You said you'd be proud of me whatever I decided?" Dani asked, and huddled up into a little bit tighter fetal position in her recliner. "What if I decide to come back here?" "And not fight?" William asked seriously. He maintained the expression for a few moments, and then smiled. "I'll be proud of you in that case, too. It'll show you have more brains than your old man." And Dani smiled. *** It was the break of the dawn. Danielle Moonstar was sitting astride her pegasus, Brightwind, on the front yard of the Lonestar ranch. She had moved the things her mother had assembled from saddlebags into a backpack she had on her back. "And remember, Danielle -- keep those sunglasses on, and don't stare straight into the sun", Peg Lonestar warned, leaning against her husband. "Mom!" Dani chastised with a smile, and then looked over to her father. "I'll give you guys a call as soon as I get there, let you know I didn't rear-end a Boeing or anything..." "All right", William Lonestar smiled, and adjusted slightly the cowboy hat on his head. "Take care, little spirit. Soar high and fast. We love you." "I love you too, dad", Dani smiled. "And you too, mom. I'll see you both soon, and call sooner." Then, she ran her hand in a gentle caress down Brightwind's neck. "Let's go", she said. A few strong wing-beats whipped up a little snowstorm underneath Brightwind, and then, the snow-white horse took off into the air, slowly at first, and then starting to pick up speed as he soared higher and faster. Danielle Moonstar turned her head to glance backwards as the ground, the ranch, her home, fell away from underneath her. She raised a hand, waving it in a silent good-bye, and her parents waved back. Then, she looked ahead, and felt the cold breeze beat her face, making her acutely aware of the little trail of moisture trickling down her cheek. She closed her eyes, and hugged her thick cowskin jacket tighter around herself. She swallowed, and felt herself tense up -- the familiar sign of becoming Mirage, the War Chief, and leaving behind Danielle Moonstar, the girl. It was only a few minutes, before she quietly whispered to her beloved mount, "Lower, Brightwind. I want to see a friend." The beating in her heart increased, grew faster stronger louder like it was going to leap out of her chest. On cue, the Asgardian pegasus swooped towards the ground. Air whistled around the pair, the male and female, who were as one. She hardly felt the cold, preoccupied with the chill within rather than without, her eyes trying to force themselves closed, but she didn't let them. "Hi, Pat", Dani Moonstar whispered, as the gravesite came into sight. Brightwind didn't slow down, maybe sensing his mistress' need, the anguish, the fact that she couldn't stay or she'd fall apart. She swallowed, and then let another two words stream into the cold morning air. "Bye, Pat." With those words, Brightwind soared back upwards, leaving the grave quickly behind, out of sight. And atop him, Danielle Moonstar slowly felt the pain go away. It felt like it was such a short time ago that she had failed to save Pat Roberts from death. No, worse than that. She had let Death claim him. She could have stood in the way. She did stand in the way. Like a true warrior, willing to sacrifice her own life for her friend's. And in the end, she had given up. She would never know whether Pat loved him enough to understand -- to forgive. She could only pray to the spirits that he did. And that's what hurt the most. If he did love her enough to forgive...then the pain would not be less -- but more. But she had made a decision. A decision she could never go back on. It was her job, as Mirage, War Chief of the New Mutants. Pat's life had given life to the little girl, Danielle Moonstar. Had Pat's death given life to the woman, Mirage? She had not fought Death. She had not fought. Did that mean she was smart? Did it mean she was not a fighter? Did it mean she would be coming back home from the east a few days from now? She glanced back over her shoulder. The gravesite was no longer in sight. And she felt the chill of another tear stream down her cheek. She brushed it away with a quick stroke of her gloved hand, and hardened her face. She was Mirage. She was Danielle. She was Moonstar. She was Mutant. She was Cheyenne. She was Valkyrie. She had lost. She had loved. She thrust her fist in the air, and let out a furious war cry as Brightwind's powerful wingbeats propelled the pair thru the air whistling in their ears. Her voice, fueled by anger and grief and defiance, cried out with hope. And she flew towards the sun. Towards the light. Towards her friends, her heart. Towards home. Towards her future. She had embarked on her peoples' way of life. The way of the warrior. *** THE BEGINNING *** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -- Samy Merchi 1999 / samerc@utu.fi / http://mash.yok.utu.fi/~samerc | | "Better to learn to love | "When there is worldwide peace and all | | with those you can't have, | join hands, singing happy-happy songs | | than to learn to have | together -- what is there left to | | with those you can't love." | separate the world from a particularly | | -- me | annoying episode of Barney?" -- me | --------------------------------------------------------------------------