In the cab it was really awkwardly quiet for a while. They had a divider up between the back and front.
Finally, Kurt said, "Vhy did you do it, Mother?"
Mystique could never lie to Kurt, even if she wanted to.
"A while ago, Sinister gave me a tip about Rogue," she said dully. "I tried to get her back. I failed, but he said he'd ask for payment one day. I thought he'd faded into obscurity, but he's only been waiting for the right moment."
"Did he chip you?" Morph asked a surprisingly non-judgmental questions.
"No, he doesn't have to," Mystique said. "I know what he does to those who do not pay him." She grimaced. "He only wanted Xavier. I hate Xavier also. We had a common goal."
"But vhy do you hate Xavier?" Kurt said. "He is a kind man."
"He stole her from me!" Mystique said bitterly. "Suppressed her memory! How could I not hate him?"
"That really doesn't sound like Xavier," Morph said.
"Oh, I'm sure he put some spin on it," Mystique said, more bitterly still. "But call it what it is. Ask your precious Miss Likstar--even she doesn't like it."
"That is concerning," Kurt said.
Mystique thought to herself that of course her opinion wasn't valid.... Well, why would it be?
"But all this is no reason to kill him," Kurt said. "I'm sure he meant no harm. And the others are innocent. I'm not sure any of them even know Rogue's past. I don't even know it."
"You want to know?" Mystique said. "I'll tell you..."
And she did.
"You made her a criminal!" was what Morph got out of it.
"Ah, you took her in," Kurt said. "I alvays vondered how you came to adopt her. That's nice, but vhy did you make her a criminal?"
"It's what I did. Call it the family business," Mystique said. "What else could I have done with her? A power like that, she'd always be an outcast from anyone else."
"This is vhy you do not like the X-men," Kurt said. "They competed vith that.... She's happy vith them."
Kurt was just a little too smart.
"That does make sense," Morph said.
"I see vhy you are angry now," Kurt said. "I vould have seen before...if ve ever spoke."
He wasn't even bitter so much as just forlorn.
Mystique bit her lip. "I suppose you're angry now: I wanted Rogue, I didn't want you."
Morph gave her a quite justified look of horror at her cruel statement.
"I think I see vhy," Kurt said, though he sounded pained. "Vhen you found Rogue, it vas a better time for you to raise a child.... It is not easy to hear, but I see vhy it happened this vay. And it's better, I think, than believing you just replaced us on purpose."
Kurt would just never not find something to be glad about!
"What is wrong with you?" Mystique said. "I just told you all this, and you don't even care. You're just like that woman! Nothing ever upsets either of you! It's like you're not human."
"We're not human," Morph said.
"Shut up." She was still annoyed with him.
"Mother, stop this." Kurt actually sounded a bit stern. "Of course ve are upset. Miss Likstar has emotions too--I've seen it. In fact, she is often upset. But she takes her pain to Gott, just as I do, and He hears us and comforts us, so that ve an find solace in His love, and even if people do not help us, Gott helps us. Ve have hope. That is all. Ve're not invulnerable. If you keep thinking that, you put us on a pedestal. That is not how it is meant to be. Also, I'm sure Miss Shine is kind to you partly for my sake and doesn't show if you offend her. She is like that."
"She's pretty nice," Morph said. "A little crazy, but who am I to judge that? She did talk me into staying and you too. I just wish I felt as comforted as you did by the idea of God. God sure doesn't seem to do a lot to help you. How do you know he's not just in your head?"
"I feel I've never seen Gott move so much as in the last month," Kurt said. "Ve must look at this very different.... Those who are open to seeing Gott vill see Him. I think ve quoted this before to you: 'Everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks--'"
"'The door will be opened,'" Morph finished. "I remember. Still don't know what it means.... You know, we'll never get there in time."
[The drive from LA to Laguna Beach is about 50 minutes at the fastest. Would probably be much longer in afternoon traffic.]
"Ja," Kurt said. "I can take us closer, though. Ve may be able to help still, but how close I can get, I'm not sure. Taking two people is hard."
"Might as well not take me," Mystique said. "If Sinister is there, I'm more likely to help him than you."
"This is true, Mother, but ve are also not to let you go, and I'm not convinced this Sinister man vill not leave you alone even if ve do," Kurt said. "So you vill have to come."
They got out of the cab.... The driver never questioned Kurt or Mystique's appearance. They just paid him and walked away.
Kurt poofed them as close as he could get. Using the open sky, he was able to go farther.
It still took a good 10 minutes to even get close at this rate, and then he was very tired and had to stop.
Morph tried hitchhiking in the end. Someone did pull over and look at them weirdly.
"We just need a lift to the beach," Morph said.
"I think there's some commotion going on there. I saw sand fly," the man said. "Why are you going there?"
"There's a big fight," Morph said, "and we need to help, or your whole city here could be destroyed."
The man blinked. "You're serious."
"You could always risk it," Mystique said snippily. "It's only the city."
"Hop in," the man said. "But I'm not getting near any danger. You're on your own once we get to the parking lot."
It was only about 5 minutes from where Kurt had managed to land them, fortunately, and he did indeed drop them at the parking lot.
They had to run over the sand, and Kurt poofed ahead, leaving the other two to try to catch up.
"You're really going to help Sinister?" Morph said. "He's horrible."
"You of all people ought to know why I don't want to be on the receiving end of that man's wrath," Mystique said. "He'll stick me in a cage and dissect me as soon as anything else. I don't owe the X-men any great loyalty to put up with that."
"And if some of us die because of your poor decision, you don't care?" Morph said.
Mystique was silent.
"I'm trying not to be judgmental," Morph said, "but I had to be brainwashed to do something that selfish. I just don't get it."
"The X-men are your home?" Mystique said, slowing as they began to see signs of Juggernaut's rampage. "Then you have no where else to go. That is a reason to risk helping them. What reason do I have? It's not noble, but I've never aspired to be noble. It's a waste of time to try to be a hero: The world won't thank us for it, and other mutants never really trust each other anyway. Looking out for yourself is the only thing you can do."
"So why did you take Rogue in at all?" Morph couldn't help but wonder.
Mystique slowed more. "She was like me," she said. Surprisingly, Shine had been right in a way.
Then she didn't answer anymore. There wasn't much chance--they had finally found the fight.
Kurt had tried to teleport closer to it--but just when he got close, something indeed seemed to interfere.
Had he used portals like Shine's, he might have been slammed into something solid or shocked into a coma by the sudden stop, but since it was he himself who did it, the effect could have been even worse. Perhaps he had some sort of Divine mercy, because all it did was hit him real hard and send him flying back. He almost hit Mystique.
"Kurt?!" she said, with more concern than one would expect.
Kurt saw stars...not the good kind.
"Vhat vas that?" he said in a very faint voice. "That vas strange..." He kind of passed out.
"Uh oh." Morph took his arm. "I think that whatever was stopping them might have just stopped him.... Something about this place feels weird anyway."
Mystique felt her skin prickle; Sinister must be close.
Morph must have sensed it too. Perhaps no one who'd been used by Sinister could fail to notice his presence. He went pale.
Mystique decided that Morph freaking out wouldn't do her any good.
"Stay here," she said. "Watch Kurt. I'm going to see what's going on."
"And you'll do what?" Morph said.
"Nothing," Mystique said. "I'm not getting involved, but Rogue was not supposed to be here. I'm going to make sure she's being spared, as agreed."
She slipped around the mounds of now displaced sand, turning herself into a random-looking old lady.
Morph felt like a beastly coward for staying behind, but if he froze up in front of Sinister, he might end up a hostage.... He probably should just stay with Kurt.... Maybe he could get a vantage point. There was a radio shack not too far off. He started dragging Kurt that way.... The guy was heavier than he looked.
* * *
Rogue had only beaten everyone there by a few minutes, Storm right behind her.
At first they tried to just head Juggernaut off.
But Sinister's other goons appeared: Vertigo, Hairbag, Ruckus, and Slab.
Storm tried to hold them off, but they were also outnumbered, and Scott wasn't much help. He was already tired.
"We need Jean," Rogue said. "But we gotta get that helmet off him first, so she can stop him!"
"Rogue! He's too strong for us," Storm said.
"He's the biggest problem. We can handle these other suckers," Rogue said. "We gotta stop him first, or we're dead! Not to mention this whole city."
"Perhaps we could direct him into the water," Storm said. "I doubt even he can survive that. We might subdue him."
"Good idea," Rogue said.
They attempted to do this, but Storm got distracted by the others again.
She was using more and more of her power to try to stop them, and the beach had clouded over and looked angry. A monsoon might start at this rate...and California houses were not built to withstand that kind of a storm.
Storm considered ice.
But Juggernaut didn't give her enough time to try.
Rogue tried to yank his helmet off, and he grabbed her and flung her into the sand.
Wally found them and brought Logan, Jean, Gambit, and then Shine.
Shine was trying to yell something at Rogue, but over Ruckus (the sonic jerk), she really couldn't hear her that well.
Gambit tried to flag her down, and Rogue flew that direction but was stopped yet again by the guy who could turn into goop. [Slab, I think].
Vertigo was trying to stop Logan.
Wally dashed around behind her, picked her up, to her shock, and ran out into the ocean and dropped her in it.
[This is actually a little reference to Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, where he handles a similar villain the same way.]
He went for the fat guy...and couldn't lift him.
Giving up on that, he tried to grab Ruckus, but the sound knocked him over, kind of dazed.
Shine had her ears covered, but she was creeping closer to Juggernaut.
"No, don't." Rogue broke free and flew to her. "One swipe and you're dead."
"I know, but I gotta try something," Shine said.
"I can't let you do that," Rogue said. "This is goin' too far. You ain't gettin' this nasty boy to stop by arguing, unless you can portal him away."
"Still not working," Shine said. "But trust me, I can fight him."
"Nuh uh." Rogue picked her up.
"Hey!" Juggernaut said. "Where are you going? And where's Xavier? Is he still hiding?" He grabbed Rogue by one foot and yanked her towards him.
Rogue kicked wildly, and Shine yelped as she fell onto the sand.
She sat up.
"Who are you? Another mutant?" Juggernaut said.
"Cain." Shine got to her feet, sand falling off her in rivets. "Put her down. I have something to say to you."
"How'd you know my name?" Juggernaut asked.
"I know a lot more than your name," Shine said. "I know why you are angry. I know why you are here. I know why you have that unnatural power of yours."
"So you know a lot," Juggernaut said. "So what?"
"Do you know what happened to Cain?" Shine said. "Your namesake?"
"Eh...oh, you mean that story about him killing his brother," Juggernaut said. "Kind of poetic, ain't it?"
"Poetic?" Rogue said loudly. "Are you out of your mind? Let me go!"
She pulled off her gloves.
"Cain was cursed," Shine said, "because of his jealousy and hatred in killing his brother. That is how that story ends. Are you going the way of that Cain?"
"Eh, that's just mumbo jumbo," Juggernaut said. "Is that all you're going to say?"
"I could stop your power," Shine said. "I could stop it right now."
Rogue gave her a weird look. "Shine, don't get any closer."
She slipped out of his grasp and jumped at his helmet.
Gambit tossed a card in his fact to distract him, and Rogue managed to yank part of it off.
"Hey!" Juggernaut yelped.
Shine hadn't noticed Rogue taking off her gloves, but now she screamed. "Rogue! Don't touch him! Don't do it!"
"I have to!" Rogue grabbed his head.
"Rogue!" Shine screamed...and it sounded like she was more in pain than horrified.
Rogue actually had a different feeling than she thought.
Last time she hadn't felt much for a few seconds and then it had been terrible, but she thought she could handle it enough to distract him this time.
Instead, almost as soon as she latched on, she felt this sickening amount of hatred and evil flowing up her arms into her mind.
She tried to let go, but Juggernaut grabbed her arm, his own glove no longer on.
"You trying to drain my power again, you little parasite? Well, you can have it!"
"Let her go!" Shine said. "I can feel that magic from here! It's evil!"
"Don't know what you're talking about," Juggernaut said. "The evil is in my own mind."
"Stop!" Rogue suddenly started screaming. "Let me go! I don't wanna.... Evil thoughts! Xavier! I hate him!"
"Rogue!" Gambit tried to get close, and Juggernaut kicked sand, and he went flying.
Shine grabbed her head. "Stop it!" she said. "Stop it!"
She yelled something at him that no one understood over Rogue's screaming, but suddenly, Juggernaut hesitated.
Shine had her sword drawn. She struck at him like a viper.
She didn't seem to hurt his flesh, but when she hit his arm, he seemed to lose the strength in it for just a brief second. Rogue was dropped, still screaming.
Shine looked pale, and she sank to her knees.
"What....just happened?" Juggernaut seemed confused.
"Stop!" Jean started to attack his mind. "You are not going to hurt them.... You don't remember why you're here..."
Suddenly, something zapped her and she fell over.
Sinister had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and was watching this.
He didn't pick Jean up, surprisingly.
"Interesting." He was watching Shine and Rogue.
Shine rubbed her head. "Never have I felt such a sickening sense of power," she said. "I should have severed that link before coming here.... Rogue? Can you hear me?"
"Evil thoughts..." Rogue was still out of it.
Shine started to reach out, perhaps so Rogue could absorb her gift again, but
Juggernaut suddenly plucked her up.
"What are you anyway?" he said. "Your little toy hurts more than it should. You got some kind of special powers?"
"One you could never dream of," Shine said, despite being upside down. "And if you don't put me down, you delusional son of a viper, I'll do worse than that to you. So help me, I'll cut the magic right out of you and send it back to where it belongs!"
"Fine words," Juggernaut said, "but you're upside down."
"Bring her here," Sinister said. "She seems interesting. But I think it would behoove us to escape before the others regroup."
The others had just about whipped his minions.
Logan was coming back that way, and Storm swooped down to help Rogue, who swung at her blindly.
"Rogue." Storm reflexively tried to grab her wrist...big mistake.
Rogue drained her without intending to do so, and Storm suddenly fell over.
She'd have been fine in a minute--she had a lot of energy--but Sinister didn't give her the chance.
"Take them both," he said. "I won't be leaving empty-handed."
"Not Rogue!" Mystique suddenly was there. "You said not her."
"Yes, I said that when you were supposed to have lured them away," Sinister said. "All deals are off--and consider yourself lucky."
"Why, you slimy--" Mystique called him a few choice words.
Sinister frowned at her. "You know, on second thought, why let you have a chance to help them?"
"What?" Mystique realized her situation a little too late.
Sinister zapped her with something, and she fell over.
Then some kind of warping gate thing appeared, and Sinister plucked her up.
"No!" Shine said. "Don't take us in that!"
But of course she was not heeded. They all vanished into it just as Logan got to them.
The X-men all stared in horror.
Wally got up, finally getting his vision back from being sonic shocked. "Uh...what's going on?" he said. "Did...did he just kidnap them, or was that my ears malfunctioning?"
"He just took all four of 'em," Logan growled.
"Oh...oh crap..." Wally said.
* * *
Sinister always did seem to find the most gruesome spot imaginable for his lairs. They all came out into some kind of underground dungeon--could have been under a castle or it could have been a factory. Either way it was filthy.
And had his eerie plants growing all over it.
Shine was sick as soon as they landed. The other portal seemed to have affected her badly. She was still affected from Juggernaut also.
Rogue didn't feel much better. Her head was pounding and she was shaking.
Storm was starting to recover, but before she really had the chance, Juggernaut caught her up and Sinister pointed. "Put her in that small one and she'll not be able to do anything. The X-men all have such easy weaknesses to exploit."
"What? No!" Storm screamed. "Not in there! Please!"
Juggernaut shoved her into a very cramped-looking cell that had plants growing all over it so it was pretty much dark as night inside.
Storm kept yelling and then went to whimpering.
Mystique began to stir.
Sinister grabbed her and shoved her into a different cage. "You can wait there while I decide what do with you. And you too--" tossing Shine and Rogue in there after her. "I'm disappointed I still don't have Xavier, but no doubt he will show up to rescue you, if I play this right, so you're still of use. Don't test my patience. I only need one of you to get them here."
Shine rubbed her stomach and moaned.
"Get it together," Mystique muttered. "Why are you falling apart?"
"Bad magic..." Shine mumbled, "warping...not a good combination.... I feel like I've been put in a dryer and a washer at the same time."
"Don't throw up in the cell," Mystique said.
Shine didn't but she looked ghastly.
Rogue began to come out of it.
"What...what happened?" she said.
"You did something stupid," Mystique said.
"Momma? Why are you here?" Rogue asked.
"I'm an idiot," Mystique said.
"Miss Shine...why did that hurt so much?" Rogue said.
Shine sighed and sat up, still looking awful. "Our link...you're going to be more sensitive to magic because of it. And I'm going to be affected by it if it affects you. I can break it off now."
"Yeah, maybe you'd better," Rogue said.
Shine muttered something.
Rogue felt an almost tangible snap.
She didn't feel really any better for it, and Shine didn't seem that much better.
"A link?" Mystique was confused.
"Rogue absorbed some of my gift once," Shine said. "I guess a little protection was still attached to her, but the problem with that is, if one if us tries to absorb evil magic...it's even worse than before. You could have killed yourself, Rogue."
"I felt like it," Rogue said. "That was awful.... I felt like I became Juggernaut for a minute, and I'd have destroyed Xavier if he was close enough."
Mystique thought it was a pity he hadn't been closer, then. But she was smart enough to not say that while she was within punching distance.
Shine lay on her back, despite the dirty floor, and started up at the ceiling.
"I won't be able to get out of here anytime soon," she said slowly, "not on my own strength. Wally will find me eventually, but Sinister may be counting on that. Do you sense any probing, Rogue?"
"Not yet. They'd have to use Cerebro," Rogue said. "Could take hours."
"Sinister will have thought of that," Mystique said. "They won't find us so easily."
"This is your fault!" Rogue suddenly was mad. "You betrayed us! Again!"
"Well, so what?" Mystique said. "What did you expect me to do?"
"Nothing else, Mystique," Rogue snapped. "I'm just disappointed, that's all."
Mystique was silent.
"It won't help anything to yell at her, Rogue," Shine murmured, half asleep. "If anything, Sinister will find it amusing."
"Maybe if you weren't so loopy, you'd remember who's fault it is this happened," Rogue said.
"And knowing that, we can change nothing about what happened," Shine murmured.
Rogue was too shaken up to argue much for a while, and Shine seemed to pass into a troubled kind of sleep.
For a while, nothing happened, except that rats would skitter around. Mystique saw a cockroach too, but she didn't react much. She'd seen worse than that.
Rogue started to murmur and twitch, and suddenly she jerked violently. "Get away from me!"
Mystique almost jumped out of her blue skin.
"What? Nothing's here!" she hissed.
"I...but..." Rogue looked around blankly. "She was here.... Oh...no..." She put her head in her hands. "It's happenin' again..."
Shine blinked. "What's going on?"
"I've...I've been seeing her again," Rogue confessed shamefacedly.
"Marvel?" Mystique guessed.
"Yeah..."
"How long has this been happening?" Mystique pried.
"First time was when the Frost gal messed with our heads. That was almost a month ago," Rogue said. "I thought that was just her. Then I was havin' headaches when I thought about it, but I only started seeing her in the last week or so. In glass."
"That's what you were upset about," Shine murmured. "I thought so."
"Thought you might be able to tell," Rogue said. "You were going on about her."
"It made sense..." Shine said.
"I thought you sealed her away," Mystique said.
"I did," Rogue said. "Maybe I'm just losin' my mind."
"No,"Shine said, still sleepily. "She's breaking out. She was never going to be held forever by that. You can't trap a human soul inside your head forever, believe me.... I've seen it before.... How did I ever have this experience twice? You'd think such a bizarre thing would only happen once in your lifetime..."
"Likstar, snap out of it." Mystique snapped her fingers. "You know something about this? Then spill. We don't exactly have a lot of time."
Shine seemed to try to focus. "I think Frost started it. The link between using a fear of something and the thing itself is very strong when it's in the mind...just as you used an image to help trigger it before. But Rogue has been thinking about it a lot, getting more upset. That all feeds it--thoughts go that direction, build up. Ms. Marvel's consciousness will eventually be able to resurface."
"What?!" Rogue almost screamed.
They shushed her.
"How do you know all this?" Mystique said.
"I study thought patterns a lot," Shine said. "How they form, how you can rewire them, how trauma works...it's kind of my field when I go on missions. I've learned a lot just by observing people too, who have magical or mental powers and use them on others. I have good resistance to things like that, but I've been just susceptible enough to have some of those feelings myself. And others I know have had it much worse.... I knew a boy with two souls once."
"Two souls?" Rogue said.
"Each fighting for control of his body," Shine said. "Ancient curse.... He got free in the end, though...took a lot of work..."
Rogue bit her lip. "All that stuff you were bringing up then, why didn't you mention that?"
"I didn't like to scare you. I figured she'd only bust out sooner if I did," Shine said.
"But...you asked me if I'd help her, if I could," Rogue said. "You knew.... Why didn't you warn me?! That's not fair!"
"You knew already, Rogue. You didn't ask," Shine said. Apparently even half asleep she was still savage as heck. "Am I to blame for that? You ought to have spoken up ages ago when you noticed the problem."
"But why didn't you?" Rogue said.
"If I had, Xavier would have re-suppressed her. That solves nothing," Shine said. "A few years from now, if even that, she'd have broken out again...and to keep doing that, over and over again, could have a lot of untold damage on you, I think. Messing with the mind is never a wise thing to do."
"You know, I finally like you," Mystique said, "at least, at the moment."
"Give it an hour," Shine said dryly.
Mystique almost laugh but choked it back. She was not going to start softening now!
"Shine, can't you help?" Rogue said in a small voice. "You gotta, like before."
"Normally, Rogue, yes," Shine said. "I could. But right now, I don't know if I could. I'm wrung out. Can you hang on till we get out of here? Wally can help me then. It would be much better. If I was to give out while trying to help you, she might just bust out entirely."
"What would you do?" Mystique said.
"I prefer to explain that later," Shine muttered. "This is hard enough.... I'm sorry, I'm just so tired..."
"She'll be no good," Mystique said to Rogue coolly. "That attack wasted her. Which screws us. She might have been our only chance at escape."
"Don't talk about her like a tool," Rogue said. "Shine is my friend."
"You certainly treat her like a friend." Mystique was unusually crisp with Rogue. "Why did you grab that freak when she said not to?! Didn't she ever warn you before? He's much too strong!"
"What right have you to ask me that? It's your fault I got this durn woman stuck in my head to begin with!" Rogue said. "And I didn't know that would hurt her!"
She felt so guilty.
Mystique probably did too, but she was better at hiding it.
"You don't think before you do these things! I tried to teach you how to plan around your power, not just recklessly use it."
"Like Ms. Marvel!"
"I didn't know that it would go that far!" Mystique snapped.
For a moment, Rogue saw Ms. Marvel instead, and she yelped. "Stop hauntin' me!"
Mystique ducked, since Rogue had been known to strike out at her hallucinations blindly in the past.
But Rogue at least knew better at the moment then to do it.
She put her head on her knees. "What if she takes over before we can fix it? What'll happen to me?"
Mystique didn't know what to tell her.
Over the dead stillness, Shine softly started singing. They weren't sure if she even remembered they were there, or if she was kind of dozing while she was doing it, but it was just a slow, calm sort of song:
"Your love, oh Lord, reaches to the Heavens. Your faithfulness stretches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains. Your justice flows like the ocean's tide.
"I will lift my voice, and worship you, my king. I will find my strength in the shadow of your wings."
Somehow, listening to her, there was sort of calm.
Shine slowly seemed to become more alert as she sang the verses over and over.
Storm, who had not let off whimpering and shaking and moaning by turns, even quieted a little, listening to it.
"You okay, Storm?" Rogue finally asked.
"I.... They'll save us," Storm said. "I will be all right...if they save us."
"Brave girl," Rogue said. "Braver than me." She sighed.
Mystique was silent for minute, then she said, "You were brave enough, Rogue. This has not gone the way I envisioned."
"Is that your version of an apology?" Rogue said.
"As close as you're going to get," Mystique said. "I don't know that I'm sorry so much as angry. No one keeps their word."
"Perhaps if you didn't trust people who were known to be backstabbing schmucks," Shine said faintly.
"You could leave off recovering that sass, Likstar, and focus on getting your powers back," Mystique said.
"Don't be a fool," Shine said. "They are not mine. God gave me gifts. I'm a vessel, and if this vessel is attacked or marred by forces alien to God's gifts, then it will take damage. Our strength is our weakness. I told that to one of my students many times in the past, till he finally got it. You got to also. God will repair me, as He is merciful, and I did not do this on purpose, but even God's grace does not mend things always in a moment. The darkness around here is too thick. It would be exhausting just to be around it at all, let alone in this state. I'm doing my best to make it better. If you want to help, pray for me, pray for yourselves, sing, say something more positive. Otherwise, shut up. This is only going to make it harder."
That was the most curt thing Rogue had ever heard her say.
"She's in bad shape, Momma," she said in a low voice. "I never thought anything would scare her."
"I see no fear in her eyes," Mystique said, "only plain, hard facts. Sinister was true to his word about finding a way to stifle her."
"What? You knew!"
"I didn't think he could do it," Mystique said--just now realizing that had been true; she really hadn't taken that threat seriously. "I thought he'd be as baffled as anyone else. But it seems he's more knowledgeable than we thought."
"Types like him always dabble in everything they can think of to increase their power," Shine said. "Like what he did to Morph, that is not work of mere science alone, though science gets ugly enough if used to control people. Any art does."
"Science ain't art," Rogue said.
"All things are an art," Shine said, "if you do them the right way. Science requires some talent, after all. It's not just numbers, or anyone could do it well...but no matter.... I don't really care at the moment."
"Does losing this gift of hers make her more irritable?" Mystique wondered.
"Of course it does, you ninny," Shine said. "What else is the source of my love and patience? I do not like this side of myself either, but at the moment, I find it hard to help it. Don't talk to me. I'll bite your head off."
"I believe her," Mystique said.
"This is real unsettlin'," Rogue said. "I mean, I used to think it was a little weird how calm they were and all, but this is way, way worse. That calm seems natural on them, and this doesn't."
"Sinister does have that effect," Mystique said.
"Is it all right out there?" Storm said tensely.
"No," Mystique said.
Rogue elbowed her. "Don't say that."
"Are we all lost?" Storm said weakly.
"Just hang in there, Storm," Rogue said.
It was almost a good thing Storm was in such dire straits--it gave Rogue someone else to think about other than herself. For the moment, her spells had passed...but for how long?