Bobby fidgeted nervously; he had always been uncomfortable with silences and this one was perhaps worse than most. Kitty sat directly across from him in a comfortable, puffy chair, but she looked anything but content. When she thought he wasn't looking, her eyes flicked from their stony position on the floor to glance at him. Whenever he gave indication of noticing this, she stiffened and looked away.

Bobby had enough of the silence. "Kitty…"

Kitty stiffened again and her eyes rose from the floor to study his face. She bit her bottom lip as it quivered slightly; Bobby noticed the slight tremble in her fingers. "I haven't even told her…" Kitty's eyes watered. "What kind of friend am I? Bobby, I-" Her voice cracked and a single tear fell from her watery eyes. She turned her gaze back to the ground. "She could be dying. What if the last thing I ever remember of her is-is kissing you?"

Bobby's heart was heavily laden with guilt as well; he stood up from his seat and walked around to Kitty. Her head was still down as he lightly rubbed her back, trying to be reassuring. "She's strong, Kitty. She'll get back and when she does…" He hesitated. "Then we can explain to her. It was just a mistake; we were caught up in the moment. It won't happen again."

Kitty was oblivious to his words of comfort, she knew she was guilty and wouldn't force the blame on the fire of the moment. That night, while she and Bobby were skating, they had kissed-not only that, they had passionately made out and had only stopped when they heard footsteps and came back to their senses. It was more than just a mistake. Even after Bobby had let go of her, she wanted his warmth back. Kitty was ashamed of herself; she had kissed her best friend's boyfriend and wanted it.

"It's all my fault. If she-"

"Kitty, don't talk like that. I was the one who kissed you, it was a simple mistake. When Rogue-"

Kitty stood up, suddenly feeling a surge of unexplainable anger and turned to face him. Bobby's hand dropped from her back and in the back of her mind, she felt a sort of loss. "How can you say that, Bobby? I know Rogue was suspecting something from us, that's probably how she got kidnapped in the first place. She was probably thinking about it while on patrol and not paying enough attention. Do you even feel guilty for what we did?"

Bobby's eyebrows creased, not necessary in anger, but in frowning acknowledgement of the comment. "Of course I feel guilty! I feel like shit, Kitty! I know Rogue's probably out in a lot of trouble somewhere, but I have to believe she's coming back! I have to!" His knees gave out from under him as he was hit with the reality of the situation. "She's all I got-I got to believe it."

Kitty's anger disappeared completely. She kneeled down in front of Bobby and brushed a few tears away. "She'll-She'll be back." Kitty almost choked on the words. "She…she…" Kitty was unconsciously drawing nearer to Bobby; their faces were only inches away. Bobby picked up his head from the drooped position and they were suddenly only centimeters apart. "She'll…be…fine."

The distance was met and their lips locked together in a sensual kiss. Both were lost in the moment; Kitty was reassured by the soft wetness of his lips caressing her own and Bobby felt the need to reassure her, he had to be close to her. Unconsciously, Kitty's hands rose to the back of his head to run through unruly blond hair that she favored so much. In turn, Bobby's own hands traveled around her body to support her in a warm hug. His body's warm flush of heat made Kitty melt further into his arms. The two were almost indistinguishable from where one stopped and the other began, so molded into each other they were.

A door opened somewhere behind them, but they were oblivious to all else besides each other. The person who opened the door glanced their way before clearing her throat loudly.

Reality snapped back into place and Kitty jumped away from Bobby at the same time that he stepped back. Bobby's back was met with the wall to Storm's office and Kitty stumbled backwards to land on the ground in a heap. Wide, glistening blue eyes stared across the ground at guilt-filled brown orbs.

Ororo usually didn't particularly put herself in-between teenage hormones, but she was surprised at what she just witnessed. She knew Kitty was Rogue's best friend and Bobby was Rogue's boyfriend, further yet that were kissing while Rogue was kidnapped and perhaps in danger of her very life. She thought the two had more…character than to do something so private while a loved one's life was on the line. "Kitty, come in my office, please. Bobby, would you round up Piotr and Kurt?"

Kitty shuffled nervously to her feet, her hands were trembling again. Bobby shot her an apologetic, guilty look before turning away to find his comrades. Kitty shifted her weight from foot to foot as she uneasily followed Ororo through the Oakwood doors to her office. Kitty's gaze was glued to the floor; she didn't see the other person in the office. "Miss Monroe, I'm sorry, I didn't-it wasn't what it looked like-"

"Kitty, calm yourself. I'm not going to reprimand you." Kitty glanced up in surprise; at first, she only noticed Ororo. But then the shadow of a person moved in the far corner of the room and Kitty squeaked, it was Betsy. Like a shadow, Betsy crept up behind Ororo and readied to-to-"Storm!" Was the only warning Kitty managed to squeak out before Betsy halted.

Kitty didn't wait for her mind to register what was happening. She jumped from her position into a swinging kick, going right threw Ororo to jab Betsy in the stomach with the powerful force behind her kick. At least, that's how she wanted it to happen; instead, Betsy grabbed her foot in mid-jump and unbalanced her. Kitty tumbled fitfully to the ground and quickly brought her arms up to cover the attack that would surely follow-it never did.

"Get up." The British accent of the purple haired Japanese woman was unusual indeed, but Kitty was used to it. Betsy had been her friend, a long time ago. Slowly, Kitty lowered her arms to glare hatefully at the woman before her. She didn't know what was going on or why Betsy wasn't attacking her, as she had no problem with it before, but Betsy had betrayed her-betrayed them all.

"Come back to finish what you started, bitch?"

Betsy gave her a disdainful glare. "I never would have killed you."

Kitty sneered. "But you would have and did kill others. Guess that was okay, 'cause they were just 'humans', huh?"

Betsy's jaw tightened. "I did not join the brotherhood to kill humanity; I don't share that vain viewpoint. Some things have to be sacrificed for others to happen."

"You're not the girl I knew."

"No," Betsy agreed, "I'm not. Personally, I don't think you'd shrug it off, either, if you had to watch your family die while you alone survived because you were mistaken for another from having your consciousness switched into a different body. You never saw your own body grow lifeless or that of your closet loved ones leave this cold world. You don't know what it's like."

"The Betsy I knew never would have killed anybody, no matter what. She's not cold and hollow inside. The Betsy I knew wouldn't have betrayed her friends…her family…for revenge."

"The girl you knew is dead. Reality has already struck me and it will hit you too, sometime. That's just the way life is, nobody's going to stoop to help you when you fall. The sooner you learn that, the sooner you'll accept the world around you for what it is."

Kitty turned her face away to hide the moistness that had gathered in her eyes. "You've become a monster, Betsy." A couple tears rolled down her cheeks to be drowned in the carpeted floor. "You're a monster."

Where, at one time, Betsy would have knelt down and reassured Kitty, told her friend what a friend was meant to be there for, Betsy did not kneel. She would not feed Kitty with lies of pleasantries that didn't exist. The world was harsh; if it made you hollow, then that was only for the better. Feeling nothing was better than feeling sorrow. She had learned that the hard way.

"That's enough, Betsy." Ororo stepped in and held out her hand to Kitty, carefully pulling the stricken girl off the floor. She hated to imagine how Betsy might appear to Kitty, her long ago friend. Betsy had grown cold and hard hearted.

"I'm leaving now."

Ororo turned around swiftly with dark eyes. "Leave? I don't think so, Betsy. You're coming with us."

Betsy's jaw tightened again, this time in annoyance. "I told you, I don't work for Erik. But if I don't return to him, he'll know I've betrayed him and he might even stage an attack to strike out to get Rogue away from Mystique, then you'd have no informant."

Ororo's eyes darkened even more. "Yes, I suppose that's how you planned it. That'd be the perfect setup for you, giving us false information about Rogue to run into one of Magneto's traps. There's no reason that Magneto would even take Rogue."

"To use as leverage against Mystique, of course." Betsy explained shortly, as if that should have been obvious. "Erik is afraid of Mystique above all others. He'd use any advantage he could get."

Kitty glanced at Ororo, confused. "What leverage could Rogue be?"

"I'll explain that to you in a minute." Ororo turned to Betsy and bit down hard on her tongue to bite back another suspicious comment. Instead, she relented. "Alright, Betsy. I don't trust you, keep that in mind. If this lead turns out to be false, we'll be coming back for you. Go to Erik, tell him what you need to, then meet us at the site." Betsy didn't give them any further acknowledgement before turning and sliding out the window she had jumped in through.

Kitty stared at Ororo in bafflement. "What was that all about? What was she talking about, using Rogue as leverage? Why did Mystique even take Rogue?"

Ororo sighed deeply and turned sorrowful brown eyes on Kitty. "Kitty sit down, I'll explain everything when the others get here. Everyone has a right to know this too, as they should for this particular mission."

Kitty nervously shifted positions to the nearest poof chair. Like all the other furniture in the mansion, it was very comfortable and immediately sank in just enough when somebody sat upon it. Kitty was too nervous to enjoy such simple pleasures.

They didn't have to wait long, the timing almost seemed planned. Half a minute after Kitty sat down, there was a bamf and the familiar smell of brimstone temporally choked the occupants of the room. With the blue cloud of smoke came three familiar figures: Kurt, Piotr, and Bobby.

"You vanted to see us, Ororo?"

"Yes, all of you sit. There's some things you need to absorb before going off on this particular mission." When everyone was comfortably seated, Bobby looked at Ororo with longing eyes.

"Did you find her?"

"Yes." A loaded glance was shared with Kitty when their eyes met, Bobby quickly turned away. "But all is not as it seems. I-" Ororo hesitated and shifted her weight nervously, it was the first time Kitty had seen the teacher nervous about anything. "There's…Mystique and Logan are Rogue's parents." Complete silence followed for almost a full minute after the declaration. Then, everybody began talking at once.

"What?!"

"Zat's not possival!"

"How do you-"

"Are you sure…"

Ororo held up a hand and everyone fell silent universally except for Kurt. He was staring at the floor and mumbling, nearly inaudible.

"Ororo, zat's impossival. Zat vould make Rogue my sister…"

Ororo froze, not expecting that. "What?" She had heard him, but she needed time to comprehend the words.

"I never had a sister…not zat I knew of."

Kurt…brother to Rogue? He had to be Mystique's child because he would have said something if Logan was his father. Ororo absorbed this new information with a flinch and took a step back. "Mystique is your mother?"

"Yes." Kurt confirmed, "She left me wiv ze gypsies and later came vack. She tried to adopt me into ze acts against humans. Zat vas ven ze accident happened…I ran away when I vas just a boy and lived in ze church. I never vought…"

Kitty cried out hysterically. "Logan doesn't know we know where she is now! He went to follow John! He's going to try to kill Sabertooth!"

Ororo's smooth demeanor crumpled as her eyes fluttered. "Do you know where he went?"

"At some warehouse, the specifics were in the folder Pyro gave him."

"Pyro's alive?" Ororo's legs buckled from underneath her and she fell into the nearest chair, exhausted at all the new information she had learned that day.

Peter was remaining stoic and unaffected, but that was normal. The boy usually didn't show emotions and he wasn't good friends with Logan or Rogue, and he'd never met Mystique, so it didn't really affect him at all. Beside him, Bobby's mouth was hanging wide and a distant glaze was over his icy eyes. He was absolutely speechless.

--

From the dark corner of the room, a shadow shifted. Almost invisible to detect, a shallow smile crossed his dark face. He turned and slid out the crack in the wall that he had entered to return home. Nobody noticed the gentle shift of his shadowy form or the slight scent of mustiness leave the room.

Carefully making his way back to the base, the grim smile on his lips almost matched the slight, momentary gleam of two eyes, hidden in the shadow's form.

--

Betsy strode into the warehouse without any worry or suspicion about anything. She scanned the warehouse and discovered that Erik was in his room, so she made her way to the middle of the warehouse where he'd be. If she had been concentrating more, or suspicious that she'd been caught, she might have noticed the block out of the other's thoughts. But such nonsense did not occur to her; Betsy was a professional. Professionals didn't worry about getting caught; they were too good for that.

The metal door opened to the sound of her footsteps and she didn't even hesitate before striding confidently into Erik's room. Erik's room was a peculiar one, four metal doors made up the entrances and exits; he had created them himself in case he ever needed an escape to avoid being followed. The walls were all gray steel, so that he could bend them to his will as he wished and almost every furnishing in the room was laced with metal inside. He was a very cautious man, now that he'd been snuffed once he wasn't going to have it happen again. He was never seen without his helmet or metal attire.

Betsy stood at the far wall and looked up to see Erik at the opposite end of the room. She didn't bother to move any closer; she only planned on being there for a minute anyway. Erik didn't glance up at her presence, but he favored her with a "Hmm?"

"They don't know anything. They suspect she's been kidnapped, but that's all."

Erik carefully folded down the corner of the book he was looking through. "Are you quite sure that's all they know?" He didn't wait for her to continue. "Because when a little bird flies into a window, it usually carries a message with it." Betsy's knees locked, he couldn't have known. It was impossible. There was no way he could have figured out. She was the only psychic in Erik's group and she would have detected anyone else if they'd seen.

Betsy took a step forward and immediately the lamp beside her twisted into an impossible shape to wind around her legs from the feet up. She lost her step and crashed to the ground where the lamp continued its snakelike twisting to include her arms in the bind. Betsy struggled against her bonds, but was unable to even make them budge. With her hands bound, she couldn't even wield her best weapon, her psychic sword. Her telepathic powers were useless against Magneto with his helmet.

The binding tightened to a painful squeeze that cut away her breath, but Betsy wouldn't give the satisfaction of him watching her last moments in pain. Betsy rolled into a position that she could see Erik in and for the first time since her family's death, she shrieked in fear as painful memories arose. Standing beside Erik was someone she was all too familiar with. "Shade." Her usually clear cut British accented voice was forced and strained with pain that the binds couldn't cause.

Before her stood the man who had maimed her family completely uncaringly, while she had been forced to watch behind the eyes of someone else. His jet black hair matched his cold, lifeless gray eyes. Clean shaved chin jutted out, perfectly chiseled in a smile that would have been gorgeous if he weren't so cruel. His thin lips curved into a smile that held absolutely no warmth, only morbid pleasure. "Elizabeth. I'm glad to see you again, after slaying my love; I will have some fun with you."

Betsy had gone entirely hollow. The man, who had ruined her life, made her a shell of her old, happy self, who had forced her to take the life of another unwillingly, was right before her. Betsy shut her eyes and focused in on his mind, but before she could do anything that would get her out of the present situation, he flicked into his shadow form and his mind was lost to her.

"I don't think so, 'Betsy'." Betsy's eyes opened and refocused on his form. He was almost impossible to see in the dark shadows of Erik's room. His whole body had shifted into that of a shadowy form that was only tangible when he wanted to be, could be felt, but not pushed away. He was like a ghost, except very much more dangerous. "Magneto?"

Erik had started reading his book again. He barely gave Shade a glance. "Go ahead; the sooner I have the girl as bait, the better."

Shade slithered forward, moving in the eerie way that only an intangible being could. Betsy realized what he was about to do and a small gasp escaped her lips. "No." Shade smiled, an action that was not clearly recognizable in his current form. He moved closer to Betsy again and licked his lips anxiously.

Betsy grew frantic; she struggled against her bonds to the same useless result she had gained before. She bucked and lashed about, anything to draw away from Shade, but she made little to no progress. Shade knelt down and grabbed her chin in his cold, blackly shadowed hands. Her struggles ceased at once as terror filled eyes beheld the nightmare before her.

Shade forced her jaw open and slithered inside. The bonds around Betsy dispersed and returned to their usual form, as Erik's lamp and the world around Betsy melted. She felt his chilled, slimy essence enter her through her mouth and she choked. Bracing herself on all fours, her lungs heaved for breath that didn't come as he invaded her being. Nerve cells screamed out in untold agony as the very synapses in her body reverted control against her. Still being strangled, one hand left the sleek metal floor and made its way to her neck, attempting to wrestle her throat clear to draw breath. Black spots flashed in her vision as his essence flood throughout her entire body. He was an unwanted wave of dark, slimy evil that flushed over her system. He touched the back of her mind as his will extended to her brain. His voice was an echo that reverberated throughout her head as he took control of her very mind. This is how it felt when your family slaughtered each other…its how you'll feel as you murder the lives of all your loved ones with your own hands.

With that, the transformation was complete. Elizabeth Braddock was a mere voice in the back of her mind in a body that wasn't even her own. Newly black eyes glittered as they turned to Erik, who was patiently sitting in his chair, watching the procession with mild interest. "It's done." The voice was deep and male; no tint of a British accent marked the words.

Erik smiled pleasantly. "Round up everybody. The X-Men are never allowed to become a problem. Make sure that happens." Shade turned to leave, but Erik stopped him before opening the door. "And send out the new girl to fetch Rogue, under no circumstances is Rogue or Mystique allowed to be killed, but assure her that any other necessary actions are fine as long as Rogue is collected."

Shade wrinkled the brow of his newly inhabited body. "Then why did you tell Logan to kill her?"

"Because he won't be able to. It just stirs up complications that work to my advantage. I'd rather have an enraged father and mother pitted against me separately than working together."

Shade shrugged his sleight shoulders, the motion felt very different in the body of the fit Japanese woman. Without another word, he turned and the great metal door creaked open, he swiftly exited to finish his agreement with Magneto. It was a chore he was going to enjoy.