Somehow things settled down after that.
The X-men came to terms a little with having to turn someone in...though some of them still resented it deep down, but they chose not to fight over it. Xavier had made his decision and they had to live with that.
Mystique hung around another day, giving herself a chance to recover from the hits she'd taken.
She seemed a little different--the others weren't sure why--but she looked at them differently, more in the eye.
Shine said it was simple: She'd finally done something that they couldn't hate or argue was wrong, and it gave her a better footing for feeling like they weren't going to harm her.
And perhaps, Shine thought, even a grain of self respect, whether she knew it or not.
Certainly Mystique thought nothing consciously of what she did, other than it had been stupid to trust Sabretooth would not pull something like that at all.
But she didn't feel that embarrassed after the first initial encounter. What was done was done.
Kitty thanked her for it, later. Mystique declined needing thanks and said it had been to screw over Sabretooth.
This was not really true, but Kitty didn't know any better and dropped it.
Another day gave Morph time to think about how he felt about the whole thing, and he discovered he no longer was angry at Mystique. Maybe the whole incident had made his opinion clear to him.
She had a lot of problems and no denying it, but there were moments of glimpsing a soul in there, and he wasn't one to disparage anyone who had a soul, even if it was buried.
And it convinced him that her actions to him had been desperation. After all, if she was really that cruel, she'd not have cared about someone she didn't even know, like Kitty.
And Morph didn't for a second buy her excuse that it had been about potential power and revenge. He doubted anyone else bought that other than perhaps Cyclops.
Even Logan didn't.
In fact, he told Morph what he'd overheard, as he found it quite amusing to hear Sabretooth told off by a woman, even if it was Mystique. Actually, the fact that she was his ex made it more amusing to Logan. He was that type of person.
His favorite part was her calling him a SOB.
Morph found the story pretty entertaining...and hard to believe.
"She really said that? Isn't that picking a fight with him?"
"Kinda," Logan said. "First thing she ever did that I'd understand."
"But it's not like her to make herself a target," Morph said. "Especially to a guy like that. He'd kill you as soon as look at you."
"Maybe she thought it was safe since he's been locked up," Logan said. "I was gonna chew him out myself, but I figured, after gettin' told off by a girl, anythin' I said would be underwhelmin', so I just left it to sink in."
"Girl or guy, that was pretty harsh," Morph said. "But deserved... Funny that she mentioned Creed though... Didn't think she cared."
"Who knew?" Logan said. "She's not a good mother, but I guess compared to Sabretooth she's still slightly less insane. Not much to brag about, but if she wants to milk it, I won't stop 'er. Serves 'im right."
"She might be a bad mom, but maybe they were better off without her," Morph said. "I mean...because Kurt really couldn't have hid in society at all, and Creed would be able to live as a human... I mean, there's a little reason to think it was smarter to give them up."
