X-Men 1st Redemptions

38: X-cuses

The LA church meeting was just two days after the Texas one, and that didn't leave much time for things to blow over.

Scott sulked even after he returned.

Rogue kept to herself, thinking about what she'd been told.

Logan and Storm tried to make Shine and Wally feel better. Wally was actually okay. Though he'd gotten mad at Scott many times, his anger was the sort that blows over very quickly once he'd said or done something about it.

Shine? She was slow to anger, but, apparently, slow to get over it, at least if the other person didn't meet her halfway. She avoided talking about it in order to not blow up any further.

Mystique had never found her so bearable... Perhaps in her own, warped way, she sympathized with disliking Cyclops--and feeling the X-Men were in your way.

"I could kill him," she offered casually. "It would be easy."

Shine was listlessly tracing shapes on the table. "No thanks" she said dully, like she didn't think it was a serious suggestion.

"You ought to get revenge," Mystique said.

"If this is you trying to cheer me up, it's not working," Shine said. "We don't take revenge."

"Your God won't like it?"

"He allows for justice, but not mindless vengeance," Shine said. "If retaliation would accomplish nothing other than our own satisfaction, it's not allowed. No end to the bloodshed then."

"I wouldn't be so scrupulous for anything," Mystique said. "If someone hurts me, I get back at them. No one else is going to take up your cause for you."

"God will."

"And what's He going to do, strike that idiot with lightning?"

"Storm could do as much. God will do worse than that: He'll prove him wrong." Shine sat up. "It's not Scott's dislike that bothers me, it is what he's willing to say to the others over it. I guess I've never quite gotten over the feeling of being turned against and set up and lied about. But I know the X-men are not so stupid, even if they are not perfect. But what he said to Rogue bothered me also. It's a mess. If I'm not mad for my sake, I'm mad for someone else. I can't trust myself right now."

Mystique frowned. "Rogue shouldn't have taken that from him."

"You took what he said about you," Shine said.

"That was the truth. I don't care who says it." Mystique crossed her arms. "They're all supposed to be friends... I knew she never should have left me. This team is just using her."

Shine folded her hands under her chin. "Perhaps she thinks you used her too."

Mystique was quiet.

"Did you?" Shine asked.

Silence again.

"Or," Shine said, "have you ceased to be able to tell whether you're using someone or not...? I remember that point... It's not a nice feeling, but it happens to us all."

"I'm sure you know all about it." Mystique was sarcastic. "Maybe I did use her--it's what people do--but I still took care of her. She'd have been lost without me. I made her strong, everything I did. Even what happened with that superhero."

"Did you know that Ms. Marvel would become trapped in Rogue's mind?" Shine asked. 

"How could I have known that? It had never happened before," Mystique said.

"But you thought Rogue would kill her, didn't you?" Shine guessed.

Silence again.

"I'm only asking for clarity," Shine said.