"Goodbye, my almost lover

Goodbye, my hopeless dream"

"Almost Lover" – Fine Frenzy

Raven Xavier dies in eighty-nine seconds.

Her heart breaks when she sees Eric – Magneto, actually – float out of a broken submarine and pronounce doom on the "Neanderthals". But it shatters when she sees Charles, with a bullet in his back, falling in a crumbled heap of agony.

She feels a coldness growing inside of her when she realizes the impossible choice she is faced with. Magneto or Professor X? Fire or ice? Which will it be? She knows she can never have both.

"No more hiding." Magneto is beckoning towards her, fire in his eyes. He is simultaneously terrifying and magnetic. She feels him drawing her in, and briefly wonders if his powers have develop to the point that he can now control her. Would wanting to leave her wonderful brother for his power-hungry nemesis make her a wicked person? It will.

She understands that the rest of her life will be based on the decision she makes in these seconds. Does she embrace herself – blue skin, fire hair, fish eyes, and all – or can she find it in herself to hide for his sake?

She walks over to him. Charles groans. The skanky CIA agent strokes his hair and whispers into his ear. She feels so much like a sheepish child all over again. Either way, her choice doesn't matter to him. Time and again, Charles has proved his love for her was completely innocent. In her mind, he's played the part of her father, brother, friend, and lover beautifully for years now.

"You should go with him. It's what you want." Isn't it?

He's seen the way she looks at Eric. He's been inside Eric's mind – he is intimately acquainted with what happened that night. Whenever he happens to glance at his sister, he can't help but recall those images of her that will forever be seared into his memory. Eric thinks she's a goddess.

And he knows it's true.

He's always acted cautiously around her. But he's had to. He cares for her with a kind of intensity that he's never felt for anyone. But, if she does love Eric – and even if she doesn't – he knows he has no right to hold her back. He has no claim to her. Raven has always been her own person.

She deserves to make her own choices.

"You promised me you would never read my mind." So that's how it is. He doesn't want her anymore. She'll admit it, his words do sting, but, growing up in his enormous house and using all his fancy things, she can't say she's never expected him to ask her to leave.

He knows he's failed her.

"I know. I promised you a great many things I'm afraid. I'm sorry." He kisses her hand like it's the last time. Once upon a time, a sad boy told a sad little girl that she would never be alone again – that she would never again have to fend for herself. That little boy lied. All fairytales come to an end.

She knows Magneto doesn't love her. But that's okay, maybe. She could learn to love him, maybe.

But perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is what she does not realize. That she could never love Magneto half as much as Professor X loves her.

"Take care of him." She kisses his forehead and stands up.

Raven is dead.

Mystique is born.

Mutant and proud