Storm sat in the headmaster's office, looking over a message that she had gotten in the mail only that morning.

On Muir Island, there was a man who had no brain function whatsoever. Moira McTaggert, an old friend of Professor Xavier's, had sent in a video of him for a class in ethics. That was back before the whole Phoenix issue, back when the professor was alive.

The man had no chance of recovery, no chance of a life of any kind, yet they had a clip of him looking up, waking up, and speaking. Storm had no clue what the man had said, but apparently he had mentioned "his X-Men."

There was reason to believe that his mind was that of their original headmaster's, and she hoped with all her heart that they were right.

After all, without Professor Grey or Professor Summers, the adults were strained to fill every position they had.

-

Marie had been walking along the side of the road for two and a half hours, trying to hitch a ride out of the city. No one had stopped yet, but she hadn't stopped trying. A blue car pulled up behind her, startling her before it came to a stop. The window rolled down, revealing a familiar face that she dared not admit she knew.

"Rogue?" asked the woman. Black hair framed her pale face, and her blue eyes matched her car.

"Do Ah know you?" Marie asked, feigning confusion. "An' it's jus' Marie now, no 'un calls meh Rogue."

"Raven Darkholme," she said, frowning and turning her eyes to the road dully. There weren't as many people in that area of town, especially right now at eleven o'clock. "Formerly Mystique."

"You were forced t' take th' cure?"

"Yeah. You took it willingly, I assume," the woman said slowly. Marie's expression darkened even more, but she nodded anyways. "Need a ride?"

"Where ya' headed?" asked Marie, shrugging. Ms. Darkholme shrugged, too.

"Maybe south. I have a friend in Mississippi who knows where to find someone I need to see," Raven said, her eyes wandering away from Marie. The southern girl took the opportunity to bite her lip in regret.

"Family?" Marie asked knowingly. Raven nodded and unlocked the door. Marie had just put in her things when she came back to Raven's window. "Ah don' mean t' be rude, but why are ya' helpin' meh?"

"I miss having company," Raven admitted sheepishly. Marie smiled and agreed as she passed around to the other side of the car and got in. "So, south it is?"

"South it is."

-

When Raven decided to check them into a motel, Marie just moved her things into the room and sat outside, balancing carefully on the small gate that lined the small porch. Still apparently awake, she shut out the world and entered her mind. Everything was dark and foggy, with no source of light besides the many wraith-like inhabitants. Two of them were waiting for her.

The two masculine figures stood facing each other, but stopped when they saw her. At first they were hard to discern through the fog, but Marie quickly recognized who they were.

'Marie.' It was Magneto. 'I have a deal for you.'

'Don't listen to him,' Logan warned savagely. 'He tried to kill you.'

'Perhaps he has something worthwhile to say,' Marie responded in her mind, her thoughts cutting over the chaos.

'I can help with some of the other personalities,' Magneto offered. 'I can get rid of them all, myself included.'

Nearly all thoughts stopped at that. Every person she had ever absorbed seemed to be in shock, with the exception of Magneto himself; he was just waiting for it to sink in.

'Why would you do that, bub?' Logan demanded. He wanted this for her, she could tell, but he was still protective of her and this smelled like a trap.

'Look around you, Logan,' Magneto said, his tone changing as though he were about to make one of his long-winded speeches. 'We aren't even real. We are parts of other people, forced to co-exist in Ro- I mean Marie's- mind. Besides, it's getting to be rather uninteresting in here.

'Also, Marie, my speeches are neither that long nor that dull. It would seem that you simply lack the basic comprehension required to enjoy one of my speeches.'

'An' what would Ah do in exchange?' Marie asked, ignoring his last few sentences for the most part. Of course she was interested, it just felt like a trick. 'It ain' like you t' jus' help me like this an' not ask anythin' in return.'

'Well, a certain Wolverine has made my stay uncomfortable,' Magneto admitted, but always with that arrogant air of superiority. 'but my payment is one you will adore. Get rid of everyone else, but keep Logan for at least three months. I know how much it will aggravate him, so consider it my just revenge.'

'So basically,' Marie realized, 'It's up to Logan.'

'I dunno 'bout this, Marie.' It was the first time she had ever seen any version of Logan as being indecisive. 'I don't trust him. Still, if it'll give you some peace, and keep ya' outta here, then sure. I still think you shouldn' talk to any'un in yer head as often as ya do."

Magneto's mentality began to focus on the others in her head, slowly tearing them apart, molecule by molecule. Marie doubled over, both physically and in her mind. Her body lost its balance, and she fell to the ground, landing hard. Still, she wasn't awake. Her eyes had opened, but they were dull and unseeing.

'It hurts,' cried Marie, holding her arms as though trying to hold herself together. Her inner Logan's arms wrapped around her, but she still felt Magneto tearing everyone else apart as though she were the target. When he had gotten rid of everyone else but herself and Logan, Magneto fell silent. He was still there, though. Focusing all of her pain on him, she began to tear him apart like he had torn apart so many others. A strange thrill spread through her. She had killed him.

The thrill dissipated quickly, leaving her feeling worn out and weak. Slowly she returned to the real world, only to find Raven Darkholme standing over her, eyes full of concern. The sight brought back such painful memories that Marie dared not speak.

"Are you okay?" she demanded, helping Marie sit up.

"Yeah," Marie sighed, carefully pulling herself up to her feet.

"What happened? I heard a noise, and when I came out here, I couldn't wake you up."

"I'll explain everything once we get inside," Marie said dismissively. "Did you call for help?"

"Phone's dead."

"Good."

-

The actual explanation took nearly no time at all, but there were the complications of having someone's ex-boss in your head. Marie knew everything Magneto had known, and she promised not to use any of it as blackmail against Ms. Darkholme. In return, Raven would help her out whenever she needed it, up to the point that they parted ways.

Somehow, the two of them seemed to be getting along as well as Marie and Logan had when they'd first met. Mystique as a person was eerily similar to Marie, and the two of them just plain clicked. They were like long-lost friends, and Marie already understood Raven in many, many ways. Part of her still resented the woman, but Marie couldn't do anything about that. She needed a ride, somewhere to go, and the loneliness had been eating away at her since her cure. She needed a companion, and the broken Raven Darkholme was the closest thing that she had right now.

Finally, Marie's mind began to go numb with true exhaustion. She staggered into the living room and collapsed onto the couch, already half asleep.

-

Marie was awake the moment the first ray of sunlight hit her eyes. She was a naturally light sleeper, and all of the early-bird personalities that she had absorbed from everyone she'd touched, except Logan of course, blended into her own seamlessly. As a matter of fact, sometimes she didn't know which personality traits were hers that she'd just grown into or were some that she'd taken from other people. Either way, she was awake, and Raven would be asleep.

Raven Darkholme, the former terrorist, murderer, etc., was curled up on the bed, clutching a photograph to her chest as though it were her most prized possession. It was a single photograph of a small girl with an innocent smile and curly chestnut-brown hair. She sat on the lap of a woman who was clearly blind, playing with a moth she had caught.

Marie remembered the incident that had taken place afterwards, too. The flash from the camera had startled the moth away from the girl, who tried to catch it again. She lost her balance and fell off her other foster mother's lap. She had cried and fussed for a few minutes, but the moth landed on her arm and she settled down again. It was then that she noticed the strange mark on its wings, something like a pair of eyes.

Two days later, she had caught the moth again. When it had died, she mounted it in a small, wooden box, with that picture on the inside of the lid. She, the little girl, was Anna. When she ran away, she started going by her middle name, distinguishing her innocent childhood self from her new self. From Marie.

Marie sighed and let the picture flutter down to where her mother was sleeping. She had denied it for so long, but she knew it was true. Her mother was Mystique, who had abandoned her decades ago.

When she was six, she had spied her momma changing into the form she had come to associate with Mystique, the blue-skinned, red-haired mutant. Her primary guardian and biological parent, both in regret and for their mutual safety, left to distance herself from her child. She, on the other hand, hadn't been too upset for such a little girl. She had even left her a letter, in case her momma ever returned.

I still love you, momma... Her own words haunted her now, and she wasn't sure if it was true.

-

Two hours later, Raven woke up. Her picture, the only one she had kept of her old girlfriend, Irene, and her daughter, was lying across the bridge of her nose. She gently picked it up and sat upright. A quick scan told her that Marie was gone. She had even taken along her things, so it was clear she wasn't coming back.

As she went to put up her picture, something caught her eye. It was a simple wooden box, but on the inside was a copy of her picture, with a dead moth impaled on a needle inside. Thin glass covered the thing, and on top of that was a piece of paper no bigger than the slip found inside a fortune cookie. Gently she put dwn her picture and picked up the paper, reading the small, flowing letters.

I do still love you, momma, and I'm sorry for leaving you the way you left me.

Raven fell to her knees, still holding the scrap in front of her.