Sorry it's so short, but the next chapter is going to be relatively long, so enjoy!

Oh, and I've got another picture up if you wanna go see it, so you can get to it from my profile. ^^

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution, any of its characters, or Death Adder.

Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris because I made them up.

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Wow. I'm sorry about what happened to Mneme, and what happened to Pietro confuses me too. It's almost as if he didn't remember Mneme at all. Perhaps he really was acting the whole time, but I'm suspecting something more." Roland wrote after Iris explained in detail what she had seen before crawling away and concealing herself in an ice dome.

Iris didn't write for a while, but eventually scrawled down, "Have you ever thought of getting out of here?"

"No."

Iris furrowed her brow at him, knowing it was a lie.

"Okay, I have. But I never planned anything because I'm not sure how vulnerable I'd be to the outside elements."

She stroked her chin, wondering. Taking his hand, which was scaled and cold, she changed the air around it into plant life. It wrapped around his arm, but he tore it off and shook his head.

"That's not what I meant. I guess it would be more appropriate for me to say I'm more concerned about how the outside world will react to me." His fists were clenched angrily, as if he regretted ever being born.

Iris put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, holding up the board for him to read. "Professor Xavier can help you. He has image inducers that make you appear to be Human."

"That's not the point. I guess I'm just upset that my father would submit me to be a science experiment. I'm sure you wouldn't understand."

"Yes, I do. My father tried to kill me as a child. I still want revenge. I don't remember my real mother, but Mneme and Pietro were going to be my adoptive parents. I guess they still are since their names are on the papers. You know, Mneme was a science experiment also, only on different terms."

"She was? What do you mean?"

"I'm not too sure. I never got told the story, but I've heard her mention it a few times. All I know is that she got out of control and killed them."

Suddenly the door opened, and their dinner was tossed in without a glance. Iris used the same eating tactics as before, then yawned after throwing her trash away.

"Good night!" Roland wrote, but Iris was already fast asleep on the cold floor. He sat next to her with his legs crossed, looking at her with an unreadable expression. Slowly, hesitantly, he outstretched a hand to move back her hair, which was slightly askew from fighting earlier. He had wanted to do that since the moment he saw it, but was too nervous to do it while they passed the dry erase board back in forth. He pursed his lips behind his mask, which made him able to breath out of the water, and moved to the other side of the room, knowing he had already gone too far. Even so, he couldn't help but to keep his eyes glued on her…

Pietro laughed to himself as he walked over to the table, where he had called a meeting. "Did you hear about our new mission from Magneto?"

"You know we haven't, so just tell us already," Lance said impatiently, not up for Pietro's antics at the moment.

The silver haired boy sat down at the head of the table, his hands clasped in a businesslike manner, but the grin on his face giving the opposite affect. "Xavier and the other lamebrains have been looking for Iris, who's dead in Antarctica, so chances are that they're going to be doing another search since they didn't find anything. All we're supposed to do is get some information on any of their goals, and when Xavier leaves, it'll be a perfect opportunity to run in and scrap up anything we can get." Pietro sounded very pleased with himself for coming up with this plan, but no one else seemed very impressed. He looked up as something in the corner flashed, something white and silvery turquoise, but there was nothing there when he looked clearly at the spot.

"And what if they don't leave, yo?" Todd asked, pointing out something very crucial.

"The X-Men are always going off to different places," he assured, putting his attention back on the group, "so if they don't go to Antarctica, it won't be long before they've got to go somewhere else." A sigh could be heard throughout the room, a very emotional sigh. Lance raised an eyebrow at Fred.

"Dude, you sound like a girl."

It took a moment for that to register in Fred's brain, but when it did, he stood up and leaned across the table, taking Lance's collar. "That wasn't me and I don't sound like no girl!" he spat, throwing Lance back in his seat.

"Well if it wasn't any of us, who was it?" Todd asked curiously.

But Pietro was immobilized, lost deep in thought: He had heard that soundsomewhere before, and as far as he remembered it wasn't from anyone welcome by the Brotherhood.

Early in the morning, Xavier was torn on what to do next: Logan was set on going to HYDRA as soon as possible, but judging on the information that Jean had given him, it would be smart to stay put since they were still a potential target. He rubbed his temples, trying to clear his mind, but things at the institute were so cluttered lately. He sat in front of the open window, wondering if fresh air would help, but if anything his mind was even more distracted: All he could hear was the noise of some bird. When Xavier opened his eyes and reached to close the window, he saw that the noise was coming from a dove that was perched on the windowsill. A small rolled piece of paper was clutched in its beak, and when opened, it read, "Going to help Iris. It may take a few days. The Brotherhood are planning an attack, so don't leave the institute. Love, Mneme." Xavier raised an eyebrow questioningly, wondering which of the younger Mutants would play such a prank on him. But when he looked up at the dove, it flew down to Mneme's tombstone and fluttered its wings assuredly. Of course, that had to be coincidence—but then again, Jamie was on the verge of soiling himself the day before, claiming to have seen a ghost with long wavy hair and cloudy eyes…. Perhaps it wasn't a trick.

Rogue looked around to make sure the coast was clear, then bolted for the school gates, where Gambit was waiting just beyond there, but that was to be expected for a long while, so that wasn't of much concern. Kurt seemed very down as he took out his books, as did everyone else who was with the X-Men. As Kitty opened her locker door, the reflection of someone in her magnetic mirror caught her eye. She stopped in her tracks and moved the locker door to turn the mirror where it had been when she had seen it—and it was still there! Kitty spun around in awe and fear, but she saw nothing. Confused and a little downhearted, she looked back in the mirror, but Mneme's reflection was no longer there.

Iris didn't like being alone in the cell. Roland had been taken away to the Fighting Chamber after breakfast and a small hug for good luck, and she still felt like her arms were wrapped around him. It looked like the walls were closing in on her, but every time she blinked they would start back over from where they originally were and begin coming closer. She lost track of time, though she knew that her estimation of hours was probably off—in fact, it had probably been only a few minutes. In boredom, she picked up the dry erase board and started drawing a picture, just a random doodle that she did almost subconsciously. Before she knew it, her eyes were filling up with tears and washing away the memory she had drawn. At first she just stood staring at the picture, but she soon pulled her knees up, resting her elbows on them and burying her eyes into her forearms. Her chest rose and fell choppily from her silent sobs. Was her life going to go on like this forever? There was no love in that awful place, no morning light, no day or night; it didn't even seem like the world was turning around. Where was the music, the laughter? A chill ran down her spine, straightening her up. She looked down at her hands—they were much different…much older, sagging more and gaining more wrinkles the more memories that passed through her mind, but she knew it was just a dream. Tears dripped down, signing her face, wishing she could just go back.

Waking up, she shook her head vigorously, trying to convince herself that she wouldn't be there her whole life. Looking up when someone tapped her on the shoulder, she expected to see Roland, so she dried her face quickly, but it wasn't him. Her eyes widened at who she saw. "Hello!" a silvery Mneme greeted with a smile. Her body was transparent and shimmering, making Iris realize that she hadn't gotten up, just transitioned into another dream. It was a few moments before Mneme's smile faded. "Aren't you going to say hello? Or do you not remember me?"

Iris tried to speak since it was just a dream, but felt a great pain in her throat and started coughing. But you can't feel pain in a dream, so what was going on? She reached for the board, writing, "I'm a mute now."

Mneme raised her eyebrows. "You don't say! That's something I wasn't expecting…" she said with her head tilted. "But I didn't expect you to be almost my age, either!" Mneme added with a grin, scratching the back of her neck. "I'm here to get you out, but it's going to be difficult with so many HYDRA guards around…but I think we can handle it." She sat beside Iris, reading what she wrote.

"You're here to get me out? How?"

"I'm not sure yet," she admitted sheepishly. "I was hoping that you would know a bit more about this place than I do. Do you know of any shoots or secret tunnels?"

"There's the garbage shoot, but it's too small for anyone to fit through."

Mneme frowned at this. "Nothing else?" Iris shook her head.

But then something came to mind, and she scribbled down, "There's the floor in the Fighting Chamber. It splits in half to drop all the sand and carcasses that are in the room. Could we use that?"

"How does it work?"

Iris started drawing a sloppy diagram with stick figures of the room, showing where the floor splits and how the buttons on the control panel activate different functions. Mneme nodded as Iris wrote down captions for everything. Then she looked at her questioningly.

"That's perfect! You could fake your death, and escape uninjured since the elements don't hurt you. I'll scout out below to make sure it's safe enough for you to fall down that far before we make any mistakes…. I wish I still had my powers, then I could just teleport you out, but this will be a good way. If you can get down there, then you can use fire to light the way. Any ideas for what to do after that?" Mneme asked her.

Iris thought a moment, erasing the diagram. "I could make the walls or rock turn into air or water." she suggested.

"You can do that?" Mneme asked, bewildered. Iris nodded. "You're growing up so fast!" she cried out, wrapping her arms around Iris like any mother would do. Iris shivered, Mneme's ghostly touch icy cold. "Oh—sorry…" Mneme moved away, and noticed a sad look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Iris gave a silent sigh. "My friend Roland is here also. Will he be able to come with us?"

Mneme put her hand on her chin and thought for a moment. "Well, if he's with you in the Fighting Chamber at the time, but if he's not, I can always come back and get him," she explained with a shrug. Iris's expression brightened with hope, but both of their attention was turned to the door, which just opened. Mneme quickly turned herself invisible—Iris guessed it came with being a ghost—and they watched as her roommate was released by the two guards. The door quickly shut behind him, and Iris smiled up at him.

"You won!" she wrote.

He took the board, but it was moments before he wrote anything, his eyes staring at where Mneme was sitting. "Who is that?"

Mneme stiffened, turning herself visible. "You can see me?!" Iris looked just as surprised as she.

He erased the board and wrote, "Yes. You look very cold."

The ghost furrowed her brow. "That's mean."

His shoulders slumped. "That's not what I meant. I see things by heat, and your body temperature is much colder than room temperature."

"Oh!" Mneme said, feeling a little foolish. "Of course you can see me if you have heat vision. You probably didn't even realize that I'm not mortal."

"I did. You're a ghost. I could sense the paranormal waves emitting from you."

"Let me guess, that's Roland?" Mneme asked, her expression a little defeated. Iris nodded with a smile. "I'm Mneme, Iris's adoptive mother." She stood up and outstretched a hand. Roland went to shake it, but it slipped through. Roland looked at her apathetically as she giggled to herself: That girl was definitely off her rocker. "Okay," she said, straightening up, "I'm going to go scout things out and figure out a plan for you two to escape." She floated over to the door. Roland tried to grab her arm to stop her, but it simply went like through her as if she was a shape of mist, and then she phased through.

"What is it?" Iris asked.

Roland's temple was throbbing and his fists were clenched angrily, but eventually he took the board and wrote, "If she's planning on getting us out, I'd like to know how she's going to do it."

"She's going to use the FC. After she gets me out, she'll help you too."

Once he read it, his expression softened. "If she's using the FC, day after tomorrow will be perfect! Tomorrow is the last FC challenge, and once the ones from that fight are weeded out, only six Mutants will be eligible to fight. We'll be two of them, and I'm guessing X-23 will be another. After tomorrow, we'll be out of here in no time!"

Iris was speechless, but her happiness was bubbling so much inside that she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, her feet lifted off the ground. Roland, a little too surprised to react immediately, got to his senses and used his tail to pry her off. After that, both of them were a little embarrassed, Iris's cheeks very red, and they didn't look at each other for a while.

Mneme floated down the hall, keeping herself invisible to the Humans and prisoners in the cells—even though most of those Mutants had some sort of ability where they could see her. A lot of them were very creepy looking, and whenever they saw or sensed her, they would jump at the door and try to attack her, but it was impossible for them to escape the cells. Even so, those Mutants didn't seem to notice, and continued their attempts to break free. Mneme suspected that they had some sort of mental defect from having been experimented on—were Roland and Iris the only halfway right Mutants around this place? The thought made her shudder, and she was just thankful that Iris's experimentation was a success. If Iris had turned out like any of the more unfortunate ones, Mneme wouldn't be able to take it.

Casting the thought aside, she continued to make her way around, scouting out the area and reading the names of signs, none that seemed important. Occasionally she would pass through a mortal on accident—or out of boredom—sending them a very bad chill that stopped the person in their tracks. Her shoulders slumped—the place was absolutely boring, just the same thing over and over, nothing pleasant about it. Even the auras around people were disturbed or tainted. Turning and phasing through a wall to head back to Iris and Roland, she paused when she saw something familiar out of the corner of her eye: The large room was dimly lit, but light was emitting from the glass test tubes that were thickly inset into the concrete, the ones that resembled her parents' almost perfectly… Turning her head, she saw two men snacking and chatting, a lot of electronics sitting around on the many control panels and computer desks.

"Neeka really pulled it off this time. I was surprised that the kid even survived."

"Yeah, but she knew that with all those failures in the past, one more screw-up Mutant and she'd be done for."

"But enhancing a Mutant's powers? Why hasn't anyone thought of that before? We could've taken over the world by now if Strucker had come up with that when he first started out."

Mneme furrowed her brow, concluding that Strucker must've been the founder of HYDRA. She just hoped that the technology the men were talking about wasn't similar to her parents'; she remembered…well, how she didn't have anything to remember because she didn't have a life, hadn't seen the sun, hadn't any intelligence…

"It doesn't matter then, what matters is now. If we can enhance all the Mutants' powers in this place, the world would be ours—and quick." He held up what looked like a bundle of money. "Everyone is dying to know how she did it, and they're willing to pay anything—some even up front!"

The other man sighed. "You know we can't do that. You know how HYDRA is split into seven separate studies, and this is all confidential to Neeka's workers. Besides, we haven't studied this enough. Didn't you see the place when we retrieved the information? There were things scattered everywhere in that underground lab, and two people were found dead." Mneme's eyes widened, hoping that her ears deceived her. "According to their notes, the experiment was doing great, and that they were going to increase the dosage of amplification. It's obvious that whatever they were experimented on escaped and killed them, because the pages were empty after that."

His friend looked too satisfied to be playing by the rules. "But don't you see? I've already handed it out to everyone." Mneme's jaw dropped, but there was no chance of her destroying the information without knowing where it was, so she hurried back to Roland and Iris.

When she returned, the two were passing the dry erase board back in forth, and Mneme saw that they were playing a game of hangman. "They've got my parents' notes!" she said, on the verge of hysterics. The other two waited for her to elaborate. "If they use it, they could create someone like me—only evil, like how I started off!" Iris's eyes widened, but Roland didn't seem affected.

"What's so bad about that?" he wrote. "You're dead; you couldn't have been too tough."

Mneme furrowed her brow. "I've got almost every power ever thought of, and it was my mistake to fight fairly against someone who had a well thought out plan," she said, her voice grating with hatred. "Now they know what flaws to avoid that my parents made, they're bound to create the most indestructible Mutant ever to live—perhaps something that will realize its power, turn on HYDRA, and destroy the world. For all we know, it could destroy the universe, then destroy the infinite parallel universes!" The other two looked at each other with confusion, not quite comprehending. "Okay, that last part was a bit confusing, but it's possible, and if it happens…all life ever created will be lost, destroying the concept of time, and if that happens, it will collapse on itself, starting everything all over again and—" She stopped when she realized the look on their faces. Mneme thought of a way that would show how great a danger the situation could result in, but she couldn't think of anything that explained how catastrophic it could all end without explaining a lot of other things…so she started from the beginning. "Alright," she sat down, "before it all started, before any star or planet or blackness, there was time…"

Pietro yawned as he walked down the street leisurely, feeling extremely lazy. Deciding to go take a nap, he started speeding home—until the sole of one of his shoes burst. He stopped dead in tracks, looking at the ripped rubber pieces scattered over the sidewalk. Lifting up his foot, he saw that it was worn all the way through. Rolling his eyes at the mishap, Pietro arrived at the house within a few seconds, his foot scraped from excessive running on the sidewalk. Walking up to his room, he opened up his dresser and started rummaging for his wallet. Once it was found, he walked down to the front door, seeing the guys laughing at the television, and for some reason it struck him oddly, like something was missing…

Shrugging it off, Pietro zoomed over to the mall, stopping in front of the automatic doors. A few girls passed, looking at his feet disgustedly. Looking down, he saw that his foot had left bloody prints—apparently without the sole of one of his shoes, running at about seventy miles an hour on concrete was going to rip open the exposed skin. Who would've guessed?

Rolling his eyes at the girls' reaction, he entered the mall and looked for the closest shoe store. Coming up to the directory, he scanned the first floor's map for a shoe store, but he didn't see any. Walking around to the other side for the second floor's map, he saw one shoe store—farthest store away from him. No problem. He was there in an instant, but he would've gotten there faster if those people on the escalator hadn't just been standing there—the people on the escalator who he pushed off the side. He chuckled at the thought when he walked into the store, tracking blood across the white tile. "I need a pair of super high quality running shoes. You got any?" he asked the cashier. He looked at him apathetically.

"It depends," he stated. "How much running do you do? And are you talking about actual running or just jogging?"

"I do a lot of running…" Pietro answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "And I run faster than anyone you would know."

The worker didn't take him literally, but told him, "These are our best running shoes," he said as he took a box out from underneath the black counter. "They have the highest durability and best plasticity, and were also rated the most comfortable shoe of the year."

Pietro raised his eyebrow. "I dunno what that means, but it sounds good. Where are they on the rack?" he asked, looking around to see if he could spot them. "Never mind, I see them." He walked over the farthest stand, weaving throughout the racks of shoes until he got to them. Boxes of organized sizes were stacked underneath the display, so he took out a random box to try it on. "Too small…too big…" He sorted through a few of them, then came to the perfect size, and indeed they were extremely comfortable—and flashy too. Taking them up to the counter, the cashier looked at him oddly.

"Is there blood in the other shoes too?" he asked with a nauseous look. "Never mind, I don't want to know…" He scanned the barcode and looked at the screen. "Seventy-seven eighty-four."

Pietro handed him some money and took the shoes.

"Uh, this is a five dollar bill—hey! Come back with those!"

Snickering, Pietro walked down to the food court. "That was too easy!" he said to himself, sitting down in one of the chairs and putting on his new shoes, leaving the old ones in the box on the table. "Now for a snack…"

"Pietro?" a familiar voice sounded. He turned around to see Rogue sitting across the way from Gambit. Surprisingly enough, she actually sounded happy to see him.

"Uh…hey. What's happening?"

"Nothing much," Remy answered in his Cajun accent, then turned to take a sip from his drink. "We were just—" He paused, looking to see where Rogue had gone in the last second. He turned to see her strangling Pietro on the floor.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" she was screaming, her gloved hands squeezed tightly around his neck. "YOU TRAITOR! YOU MADE EVERYONE BELIEVE YOU AND THEN YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON US?!"

"You don't understand!" he tried to yell back, but Rogue's grip made his voice sound more like a frog. Remy chuckled at how comical it looked, almost like something you'd see on a cartoon. Rogue started banging his head on the floor, and she meant absolute business. "Get off me!" he yelled out, kicking her off, then zooming out of sight. Remy helped Rogue off the ground, silently chuckling, and pushed her hair out of her face. Everyone in the food court was staring, probably wondering how the silver haired boy had gotten away so fast.

Remy and Rogue sat back down and acted as if nothing at all had happened, and went back to their food. "I should go after that jerk." she said, picking at her food with the fork.

"Just let it go. Beating him up won't bring your friend back," he pointed out. "Even though it would probably make you feel better…" he added after thinking about it for a few seconds.

Pietro ducked into a baby store, hiding behind a giant pile of stuffed animals. They'd never look in here, he thought to himself. He looked around, thinking of what his best move would be to get out of the place, then saw Mneme pushing Iris in a stroller. "Oh good, it's you!" he shouted as he walked up to them. "I knew it was you who I saw in the house earlier." She looked at him as if he were crazy. "I know, you probably didn't think anyone saw you, but that's not the point. You see, Rogue just tried to kill me, so you've gotta tell her—and probably all of your other friends—how I didn't kill you or betray you because I was never really with you…and all that stuff…and all along I was just doing my job. You understand, right?" Mneme backed up a few steps, clearly frightened at how bold he was being. Pietro rubbed the back of his neck and looked down, taking a deep breath to ease his guilt. "Of all people I thought you'd be the one to—" He stopped when he looked back up and saw just a normal brown haired woman pushing a normal bald baby in a stroller. "WHAT?!" he shouted, jumping backwards into the stuffed animals. "You're not Mneme! What'd you do with her?" Pietro stopped, thinking to himself what was wrong with that whole picture. "Wait a minute—you were never Mneme," he realized. "Mneme was never standing there with Iris. She was never there because she's dead!" The woman gave him one last creeped out stare, then turned around and quickly walked away. Pietro ran to the entrance doors, then made his way outside to get some fresh air, trying to forget that he had ever imagined Mneme in that store. But it was much harder than he thought, and after what felt like an hour, he was finally making his way through the door to the house. He hit his head with his knuckles, trying to get the scene out of his mind, but he hand pictured her so clearly, so vividly—how could it not have been Mneme standing there? She looked so real…

"Hey! You there?" Lance asked from the couch, but Pietro didn't seem to hear him and just kept shuffling on, hitting his head.

"Get…out…of…my…head…" he said between rapping his knuckles on his head.

"Yo, he ain't lookin' too good." Todd pointed out.

"What's in his head?" Fred asked, and Lance sighed at his stupidity.

"Nothing, he's just having a mental breakdown. He goes through these every few months, remember?" Lance told them.

"Oh yeah…" Todd remembered, laughing to himself. "False alarm." The three slumped back into their seats and continued watching whatever was on the screen.

"…and that's why every single time you travel backwards or forwards in time, you're opening up a new parallel universe." Mneme finally finished, all her mathematical evidence on the dry erase board.

Roland tapped his chin thoughtfully. "So if you wanted to go back in time and change something, things in Universe A wouldn't change because you'd be in Universe B?" he wrote in a spare space.

Mneme nodded with a smile. "It's good that you're catching on. And for every universe, there's an infinite amount of parallel universes out there." Iris was just staring at the board blankly, clearly not understanding. "It's alright if you don't get it; it's very advanced, especially for someone who hasn't learned two plus two—which equals four," she clued her daughter in.

"If they did make a Mutant as powerful as you say it could be, and it destroyed all the universes somehow, how would it survive?" Roland asked.

"Well with every single power, don't you think that one of them would be the ability to survive with the mere essence of time?" Mneme replied, and Roland nodded his head in understanding, noticing how foolish it was for him to not consider that factor. "And of course that Mutant will have the concept of time, even without the turn of planets or the flickering of a star, so time would never be able to rebuild the universes as long as the Mutant would still be alive with time." It was silent for some time, so Mneme continued, "Who's ready to come up with a plan for tomorrow to retrieve the original and copies of the documents?"