Elisabeth Haynes made the long walk down the Vault's seemingly endless corridors with a purposeful stride. She passed my the security guard, Bernardo, and gave him a shy smile like she always did. He waved in return before continuing on with his patrol. She headed up a long flight of stairs that resulted in her office, which she quickly opened up, then took a seat at her desk. Her pale skin then transformed in a wave into a tight sheath of natural blue that would make any creature jealous. Her curly, brown hair turned straight and red and her hazel eyes turned a peculiar shade of yellow. Gone was Elisabeth Haynes, Columbia alumni, down home girl from the south. There was only Raven Darkholme.
Or rather, Mystique.
She smiled darkly at the ease of slipping into the most feared institution among mutant kind before logging onto Elisabeth Haynes computer. A plethora of files met her eyes, each individually intriguing. She continued on her quest however, and avoided any possible distractions. She found the file where the mutant terrorists were listed and scrolled down to find Erik Lenshrr a.k.a Magneto. She tapped into his file and found the location of his cell and then clicked out of the box. She was about to exit the file altogether when another familiar name was listed.
Victor Creed a.k.a. Sabretooth.
She couldn't deny the attraction of his file and quickly opened it up. His file was full to bursting. She scrolled through the information and was surprised to find audio files. She opened up the main file that led to them and discovered they were interviews conducted during the time of his tenure at the Vault. One interview in particular was just before his exection date. She knew she should be up and moving, but she opened up the last audio file and turned the sound to a quiet level. The file was scratchy for a moment before an unfamiliar voice came through loud and clear.
"Please, have a seat Mr. Creed."
"Aw, gee, thanks so much." His tone was sarcastic whereas the other voice was sharp and cutting.
"Just cooperate and things will go smoothly." A pause, some shuffling. "Are you ready to proceed?"
"Sure, why not?"
"First question, do you regret anything in your life?"
"Nope."
"Could you please expound on the topic?" A long pause, some more shuffling.
"There are not many things I regret in my life. Being a raving psychotic at times is not one of them. I've done my share of fucked up things for many fucked up reasons, but I'm not about to turn around and start regretting those things just 'cause I'm strapped to the fucking executioner's table. A man's gotta have some sense of self worth you know."
Mystique fast forwarded through the file before letting it play again.
"Do you regret killing Charles Xavier?"
"Fuck no."
"Why is that Mr. Creed?"
"I did what I had to do to make sure my family was safe. The old man was in the way. Sure, it's a crying shame I had to kill one of the major advocates for the "mutant cause," but hell if I'm gonna let that psycho-babble color my perceptions on life."
"Do you regret letting Dezra "Blaze" Creed escape, leaving you to be captured, even though she betrayed you?"
"Why the fuck are you stuck on regret dammit?!" A slamming noise and some shuffling as more people entered.
"Do I need to bring in some guards?" Shuffling and the shrieking of a chair as it slid back on a metal floor.
"No, whatever. Tell your sissy-ass guards to go jack off for all I care." A pause as people left the room. "Like I already said, I don't regret much. I let Dezra leave for the sake of the cubs; same reason she betrayed me to you assholes."
"Could you please explain your line of reasoning?"
"As long as I was around, the cubs would be in danger. I'm a registered and highly sought after mutant. As long as I'm alive and not in prison, sentinals will search after me. Dezra has diplomatic immunity 'cause she's not from around here. Killing her's an interglobal offense, so she's safe to be around. But those fucking sentinals, they don't give a shit about collateral. I became a liability to have around."
Mystique fast forwarded almost to the end of the audio file.
"Do you have anything to say before we commence the execution Mr. Creed?"
"Yeah. Go fuck yourself and your highly vaunted ideals. I'm human just like you and if you were in my position, you woulda done the same damn thing. So fuck you, fuck everyone!" His voice dropped to a murmur as people began to shuffle around and ready him for the execution.
"Bitches don't know anything about survival of the fittest."
The audio filed clicked off and Mystique was left to her thoughts. She remembered the day Victor Creed was executed. Blaze had collapsed at her side, her life terminated along with her husband's. Mystique frowned, she had lingered too long. She rose from the desk and returned everything to normal and erased any memory that she might have been there. Then just as soon as Mystique had arrived, she was gone.
And all that was left was Elisabeth Haynes.