"Mystique and Mystery" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen
email: ryleyunderscorebreenathotmaildotcom
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. They are the rightful property of their individual creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write for my own personal enjoyment and whatever enjoyment the readers experience reading my work.
Note: Based on the chapter/drabble/short involving Mystique in Lucinda's "X-Xander and…" collection this must happen during an unspecified period after Raven becomes Charles Xavier's secret agent but before events in the mainstream Mystique title begin. As for when it'd happen in the BtVS universe it was specified in the drabble/short that this occurred after the end of Season 7 with Xander not in Africa.
Mystique and Mystery
Location: Scotland, Safe House of Charles Xavier
Time: Two Hours Before Commencement of the Mission
P.O.V: Xander Harris
"Okay so here's the sitch." He said as he laid out the 'acquired' blueprints for the military base where one Mr. David Renard currently was, "According to intel from my side of things, Mr. Renard is your average middle aged member of the social elite whose been a player on the world scene for a while by day. About ten years ago, though, he began to dabble in the demonic black market, looking for this and that to make his life better. Over the course of the last decade, though, he's gone from simple charms to decidedly darker stuff that always exacts a dark price from the people using it. In the last year alone he's began to acquire some 'sensitive' artifacts and talismans that could have some nasty side effects depending on the combo used." He said as he tossed some photos on top of the blueprints.
"What sort of nasty effects?" Asked Ms. Blue as she bent over to look at the photos and showed off her cleavage for him.
Nice try. He thought completely dismissing what he saw before replying, "Oh, the things you're used to. Death, destruction, pain and suffering of tons of people whether they're mutant or human. Mojo like this doesn't discriminate between the two."
Mystique raised an eyebrow at his ignoring of eye candy before asking, "Any idea what 'combo' he's planning on using?"
"Unfortunately, no. There are at least thirty different combinations for the artifacts but we know that whatever combo he uses isn't going to be long range." He replied as he pushed the photos aside so that the entire blueprint was visible, "The sort of things that would've allowed him to go citywide or even nationwide aren't cheap and most of them are in the hands of people that don't care much about money. He could promise them every cent he has and they wouldn't let what they have out of their possession."
"Any clue what he's doing on a military base?" Raven asked as she picked up the photos and inspected them more thoroughly.
"Apparently he's pals with the C.O of the base and has been for a while." He replied before pulling out a file containing info on the base's commanding officer, "In exchange for aide in smuggling things into and out of Scotland, the commander gets a cut of any profits as well as a few magic baubles like lust charms and mystic poisons. Makes things easier when he tries to get laid or off someone who crosses him."
"So we're dealing with one old man playing with matches and a crooked colonel who can't do anything without getting his target hopped up on something." Raven said with disgust at how low some humans could go, "Wonderful."
"Basically, yeah, except if they manage to pull off their little ritual in three hours, they'll probably have the power to ruin everyone's day." He said, going back to a known way to get the blue skinned mutant to play along, "Both human and mutant."
"I assume you have a plan for getting in there and ruining things for them." Mystique said in a way that made it clear she expected nothing useful from him.
"Of course. The base personnel that's human will be reduced to a minimum tonight to keep the number of potential witnesses down." He explained as he recalled the intel they'd received from various sources, "Odds are the majority of the things we'll have to get by are vamps and dimwit demons, hired muscle that won't realize they're being paid less than nothing until after Mr. Renard and his army buddy get their reward from the ceremony. Fortunately for you this means that you'll be able to go lethal on them but not the ordinary humans."
"How am I supposed to tell them from the demons?" Raven asked, no doubt hoping to gain an indiscriminate license to kill.
"With these." He replied as he removed two sets of goggles from a bag beneath the table, "Your buddy Forge whipped them up. Basically they're like thermal goggles except they're calibrated so that anything that doesn't have the normal temperature of a human will be highlighted. Kill the ones with the green outline around them but no one else."
A frown showed itself on her face showing her displeasure at being prevented from thinning the mainstream human species by a few members. He'd figured this would happen, based on the briefing that he'd gotten from Giles prior to being sent on this mission. Apparently the redhead on the other side of the table was some kind of big shot mutant terrorist who was big into delivering payback for every mutant who got treated poorly. This payback usually happened in the form of explosions, gunfire and, more often then not, the deaths of quite a few people. Now while he was far from condoning such actions, he couldn't really say that he was qualified to judge her or anything. After all, despite fighting the good fight for well over eight years, he was still just an ordinary human with a few extra memories. He didn't know what it was like to be a mutant in this world, to be feared as well as hated just because you have a genetic quirk, so for all he knew she might be somewhat justified in her views. Then again it could be that she's just been exposed to one side of the equation, one minor portion of humanity, and let that shape her view of the whole. If that was the case then he made a personal promise to himself that he wouldn't do anything to add to her dislike of normal humans.
"Fortunately for us, though, with most of the humans off base, five out of six beings we meet will be demonic or vampiric in nature." He said before looking up at her with a smile that had an edge to it, "Plenty of punching bags to vent pent up rage on."
"I thought you Watchers didn't like enjoying your work like that." Raven stated with a look that made her undecided about him.
"Oh, we'll focus on the mission and get the job done, but I figure a little fun along the way couldn't hurt so long as it doesn't make things go pear shaped." He explained before he reached into the bag for the next doo-hickey-thinga-ma-bob, "Now, these things are more than pretty jewelry and antiques. They're special talismans my people cooked up to keep us hidden from most arcane booby-traps. Renard's not a mage according to what we've dug up, so he'll only have store bought wards and security spells which these things will let us slip right on by."
He watched her pick over the baubles and hoped she didn't have any experience in the arcane, otherwise she'd spot the tracer symbols carved into some of the talismans. He'd asked Willow to do it so he'd know if the blue skinned shapeshifter decided to jump ship on him and leave him to fend for himself. According to Forge, Raven was working black ops for Xavier with the promise of protection from every law enforcement agency on the planet. That meant that she was on this mission because she had to go, because she was forced to go, rather than because she actually gave a rat's ass about what went down tonight. That left the possibility that she might bail on him if the odds of getting one's ass shot off went too far past the fifty-fifty mark. Personally, he'd prefer a teammate that would follow the whole 'never leave a man behind' moral but they'd been caught flatfooted on this and so he'd have to take what he could get. Mystique had been in the area, Giles knew Xavier and the head honchos had agreed that this was something that needed to be done.
"Now, if you'll put on that wrist band and turn the ouroboros so that the head is on the other side of the jewel, you'll see it does something else that's pretty cool." He said pointing to a bronze wrist band with a crimson jewel in the center surrounded by a snake eating its own tail.
Watching her put it warily on, he waited to see if Willow's newest invention performed as stated. Sure, he probably should have told Raven that the thing was fresh from magical R&D, but then again he really didn't want to see how good she was with that gun on her hip. With a twist, the blue skinned woman vanished, leaving only empty air in its place or at least to the naked eye that is what appeared to have happened. In reality, though, her vanishing meant that the first ever portable cloaking field created by a human was an official success. There were no visible distortion waves in the air, nor was there a blur effect present in the objects behind where Mystique had been. It even came with a vocal distortion field that would make it extremely difficult for anyone to pinpoint the bearer on sound alone. If all went according to plan, it'd also render the wearer invisible to everything below level three mystic sight spells. Fortunately those spellcasters capable of something above level three weren't in the country at the moment, nor could any store-bought spell or talisman manage such a feat.
"So what do you think?" He asked to open air since he doubted that she'd still be where she'd been when she'd activated the talisman.
"I think that this bauble has some interesting uses." Raven replied as two soft masses pressed into his back.
"You'd think so, wouldn't you." He said trying to keep his mind off what was pressed into his back, "However, before you decide to pay a visit to any men's locker rooms, I think I should warn you that any excitement of that nature will destabilize the invisibility field. A little safety measure so that no pervs could use it."
He, of course, didn't need to tell the shapeshifter that but a former Watcher volunteered to beta test version one of the talisman. Sadly, after fifteen minutes of silence and no sign of the man being anywhere in the room, they'd gone looking for him figuring he wanted to field test it by starting a game of hide and seek. They'd searched high and low for the guy, using all the means that vamps, demons and mages might use during a Slayer mission. However, in the end, it wasn't one of the active searchers that found the guy but rather by Kennedy in the girl's locker room. The perv had been scoping out the Slayers as they changed after a workout but, fortunately, the idiot's jerking off gave him away to the Slayer's sensitive senses. Needless to say the man was immediately fired but, even if they had been of a mind to be lenient with him, he'd be useless for field work seeing as how his right leg had been broken so well he needed a cane to walk. After that they made certain to include features that would make it impossible for someone to use it for perverted schemes.
Looking over his shoulder, he watched and waited for the invisibility field to begin to collapse but was oddly surprised to find not a single thing had changed at ALL. Then again it was possible that the woman was the one person who could use the talisman in such a way. After all, every file he'd read described her as being a heartless woman who liked to mess with people's heads in whatever way was most productive. Therefore she could theoretically seduce, screw and then leave a guy without feeling anything close to what would be needed to trigger the talisman safeguards. Fortunately for the entire world there was another safeguard built into the wristband that should be kicking in any moment now.
"What?" Raven rhetorically asked as she faded into visibility before his eyes.
"That's another safeguard we built into it. Much like everything else portable in this world, it has a limited charge life to it. Fully charged, it lasts for a little under two hours before automatically shutting down and beginning the recharge process." He explained before taking two freshly charged ones from the bag at his feet out, "The recharge process takes about a month at its usual speed. Give it to the head Wicca at the Watcher's Council and it can be ready for use again in under an hour."
"Not a lot of trust in the Watcher's Council then?" Raven asked as she took off the wristband with a mild look of disappointment.
"Oh, we trust one another well enough, but when you do what we do, there's always the chance that something could change one of our people." He replied as he prepared to explain the next magical widget that he'd brought with him, "When you fight against the darkness, there's always the risk that you'll get poisoned by it. We do our best to make sure that doesn't happen but there's always that one percent chance we have to watch out for."
"Smart." Mystique said without much sincerity in her voice.
Yep. This is going to be a fun mission. He thought as his imagination provided him with all the ways it could go wrong because of this woman.
&
Location: Outside of the Military Base
Time: T-Minus Two Minutes Before Mission Commencement
P.O.V: Mystique aka Raven Darkholme
Wonder how Harris got to be so much like Fury. She thought she gazed down at the military compound from the edge of a nearby forest.
It was a question she'd started to ask herself as she watched the young man gear up for the mission to infiltrate the military base. Most people wouldn't catch half of what she did but, thanks to her efforts to pick up every nuance of a person in order to properly mimic them, she caught everything. While tainted, much of his movements matched what she'd picked up on Nick Fury in the past, as well a few other odds and ends. It was a curious oddity but then that was pretty much what she'd come to expect from the young man in front of her based on what she'd seen thus far. When she'd first met him, she'd thought him some hopeless errand boy that her real contact had sent to pass on info or take her to where he/she was. Then, after it'd been revealed that he was her contact, she'd been surprised to learn that he'd been fighting demons for eight years straight and was only a flatscan. When they'd entered the hotel room and began going over the blueprints and gear, though, she found that, unlike the Watchers she'd bumped into in the past, this one wasn't some holier than thou Brit or prejudiced bigot. He stayed professional the entire way through and even her attempts to play on his hormones didn't get the result she'd expected. So, either he was a stuck up prejudiced bigot with potent self-control or he really didn't mind that she was a mutant or a terrorist that everyone else looked at like she was a monster. Okay, so he was probably a little more worried about her status as a terrorist than the mutant part but that was just basic survival instinct. All in all, she thought this meant she could at least respect his professionalism, if nothing else.
Looking to her right, she watched as he used the goggles to take stock of the guards that were patrolling both the perimeter of the base as well as every open space inside of the fence. She'd already done a quick once over and was somewhat happy to see that most of the guards were indeed either demons or vampires, if Forge's goggles were working as intended. However, there was something that she noticed and, judging by the growing frown on Harris' face, he'd noticed it as well and was trying to prove his instincts wrong by being more thorough. Unfortunately, if a growl of annoyance that was only a few shades below Logan's was any indication, he'd just had his instinctual appraisal of the situation proven right.
"Too few guards, right?" She asked just to make sure it wasn't something else he was upset about.
"Yep. That and from what I can tell, the vamps are newbies, barely ten years old, and the demons while human in appearance are essentially dumb muscle." Xander replied with a wary shake of his head, "Sure, it's great that none of the goons are smart enough to get any smart ideas going, but it's lousy if you want to protect a place. Either those vamps are all former military or Renard really didn't think that his moving and shaking would attract any attention."
"Figure they're letting us in?" she asked since it was her opinion that either Renard was stupid or expecting company and wanted them closer before springing the trap.
"Most likely. Either that or they want us to think we've got the wrong place and start looking someplace else." Watcher Harris replied as he pushed a few buttons on the goggles, "Still, I trust the mojo masters back at Watcher HQ. If they say this is the place, then this is the place."
"So we're still going in?" She asked, not entirely enthusiastic about going into a trap even if she knew it was a trap.
Contrary to that huge sandbox movie, knowing that you were walking into a trap was not as helpful as was implied.
"Yep. Except this time we add a little chaos to the mix so this trap doesn't work out like Renard probably wants it to." He replied before he took out a walkie talkie and began to press and release the transmission button in a specific pattern for two minutes before stopping.
"What are you doing?" She asked, not able to think of any way doing something like that would be useful to them.
"Well, I'd planned something out for our escape if we were ever spotted but now it's what's going to get us inside without any trouble." He replied with a smile as he began to work his way towards the base.
Deciding that she might as well follow him since Xavier'd be pissed if she let the human get himself killed while she stood by and did nothing, she also began to advance on the base. It was just as they reached the point where they could be spotted by the guards that she heard the sound of an airplane approaching their position. Worried that it might be some surprise of Renard's, she turned to Harris to tell him about it but not only was he aware of the incoming aircraft, he had a smile on his face. Was this the escape plan he'd just called in with his walkie talkie? She soon got her affirmative answer when an old plane cleared the trees, descended on the base and then began to spray out some sort of mist from its rear that settled quickly on the target area. It only took a single sniff from her nose to make her recoil in disgust as well as close up her nose because, whatever that mist was, it was worse than any sewer on the planet. Harris wasn't liking it either but seemed to be pleased with the results it was having on the base guards since those that weren't rolling about on the ground in pain were covering their faces.
"Demons and vamps have enhanced senses that'd pick up our breathing as well as any smell we gave off." Xander explained as he began to use the mini-wire cutters to cut them an entrance in the fence, "With that stuff floating about, they won't be able to smell anything and, considering how sensitive some of their noses are, I'm pretty sure they're having a hard time even thinking right about now."
That'll definitely make things easier. She thought with an approving grin as she slipped through the hole he'd made in the fence, Not as much fun but definitely easier.
Once through, they ran for the main base complex using their goggles to dodge and weave their way through the guards staggering about until they reached an entrance that was on the opposite side of the base from the one the mission plan had told them to use. Another point in the boy's favor because, not only was this not in the mission plan, but it was also not one of the more recommended ways of entering the base due to the fact that it'd have them walking right by the main guard station inside. Still, the unexpectedness of their entering there would buy them a few seconds and it'd give her a light warm up taking care of any guards that might be there. With a little application of one of Forge's electronic lockpicks, the door popped open and they both slipped inside as swiftly as possible. True to form, the second they were in the door bullets were sent their way by the guards but, thankfully, one of the baubles Xander'd brought to the show forced the metal projectiles just enough off course to miss. That was more than enough of an edge for her to take care of the guards but, sadly, all she'd been armed with was the usual tranq gun. Once again, Saint Charlie's doctrine against killing, no matter what the situation, prevented her from dealing death to her opponents. Watching the ashes fall to the ground, she couldn't understand why Xavier was even against killing vampires and demons since both species were beyond all hope of rehabilitation.
Fortunately Xander displayed no such reverence for the lives of the vampiric and demonic guards as he slew targets as fast as they became available.
He surprised her more than she would ever admit verbally because, even with him being down one eye, he was managing to hit the bullseye nine times out of ten. The one time he missed was where she stepped in and finished off the unlucky demon or vampire with a lethal dosage of tranquilizer. After all, even the most non-lethal weapon imaginable could kill if the person using it got creative enough with how they used it. Inside of ten minutes they were down the halls, watching each others backs (or backsides, in some cases) as they headed to where their intel said the spellcasting would be done. Once there, they'd 'liberate' the things Renard planned on using for his ritual and then kill the man himself. Not that killing was ever a part of the original mission plan handed to her by Xavier but both she and Xander believed that the man needed to die. Harris' reasoning was that if this man could get ahold of these artifacts, he could get ahold of others and there was no guarantee that he'd be stopped next time. Therefore, in order to keep the rich man from shopping on the mystical black magic market ever again, they were going to introduce him to a terminal lead diet. She had to smile at that way of thinking. In a way, it wasn't all that different from her viewpoint when it came to ordinary humans. She wanted them dead because she knew that it was only a matter of time before they declared genetic war on mutants and attempted to slaughter her entire race. Therefore, she favored a pre-emptive strike since any war that broke out would result in massive mutant casualties, even if they did eventually win.
It almost made her wish that Xander was actually a mutant.
After fifteen minutes of working their way through the maze of hallways, staircases and elevators, they arrived at the room where the ritual was taking place. With a gesture to the baubles that were supposed to protect them from any protective wards or security spells, he indicated that they should be activated. With a twist, a press and an incantation it was done. Then it was her turn to bypass the conventional security measures on the door but it was almost a disappointment how easy it was to do that. After Harris took a moment to make sure there were no mystical problems that would pop up if anyone but Renard opened the door, they entered. What she saw in that room immediately made her write the rich fop off as an amateurish dabbler with no true knowledge of what he was using. She was far from being an expert when it came to magic and the paranormal but even she knew enough to be able to tell that half the stuff that was in the room was either useless junk or half-baked forgeries that wouldn't do half as good as the real deals would. Still, the few things that were the real deal were the artifacts that they'd been sent to procure and while she stood guard, Xander went about putting them into their assigned bags before stuffing them into his backpack. Apparently even physical contact between two or more artifacts could produce an unsavory reaction and so they had to be kept separate.
"Alright, we're done. Time to make with the great escape." Xander said before standing up and heading for the doorway with his collapsible crossbow in his hands.
He took the lead this time but it was as she too entered the hallway that her paranoia spiked, warning her that something was about to go pear shaped. While they had encountered quite a bit of resistance getting to the room in question, the room itself was pitifully under protected. She'd expected Renard's strongest defenses to be centered on the room but this was a level of security only the high end jewelry shops employed. However, any further attempt to figure out why her inner Ms. Murphy was yelling at her was cut off as mystic circles of some kind snapped into place. In front of them, behind them, on the walls, on floor and on the ceiling they appeared. They appeared and they brought a ton of pain with them. Before she could move at all, electricity arced between the circles, bombarding anything caught between them with quite a few volts of energy. She could see the talismans that had been supposed to protect them cracking under the pressure of the assault until finally they shattered explosively, drawing blood from her and Harris.
Then the real pain began.
Apparently, as she would later learn, the protective talismans had been doing their job but were only able to take about half the electricity resulting in the run off hitting the two of them. Apparently she'd underestimated both Xander's crew and Renard.
Xander's crew she'd slap around for the pain she was feeling right now.
Renard, however, would die.
After suffering for ten days straight.
It was these thoughts that she carried with her into the depths of unconsciousness as darkness overwhelmed her vision.
&
Location: Room of Ritual, Three Levels Below the Surface of the Base
Time: One Hour After the Failure of the Mission
P.O.V: Xander Harris
"Ah! Glad to see you're awake, Mr. Harris," Came an unfamiliar voice as the darkness dispersed and the colors of the real world were made known to him once more.
Looking around, he could see that he'd woken up in a room much more befitting the performing of a grand magical ritual than what he and Mystique had run into before the unscheduled nap time. Runes and symbols were in all the right places but, oddly enough, they'd been mixed with modern technology in a way he doubted was natural. Generally speaking, it was never a good idea to mix magic with science since the two disciplines were not only opposed to one another on a fundamental level but also tended to have unpredictable side effects during the few times they were even partially successful. So, basically, it was both potentially dangerous to the user as well as a possible waste of resources to try and mix science with sorcery. However, as he spotted a man not far from him that matched the picture of Renard, it looked like it was going to take at least one more idiot before the world learned how stupid it was to mix mojo with science. It was right about then that he noticed something that made him jot Renard's name down on his own personal shit list.
Someone had stripped him naked.
Stripped him naked and strapped him to a metal table on some kind of platform.
BIG MISTAKE.
A testing of the straps informed him he wasn't going to be able to muscle his way out of confinement at the moment so he'd have to employ the old 'wait for the right opportunity' strategy if he wanted to turn the tables on the rich fop who was either smarter than he let on or had a subordinate who made up for his low I.Q. Looking around, he spotted Raven similarly strapped down but with a few techno devices placed at her joints, flashing lights and everything. Obviously they were intended to keep the woman from shapshifting her way out of confinement and since Mystique was still there, they obviously performed as designed. Judging from the look of fury on her face, it looked like he might have to play a few rounds of rock, paper, scissors with her for the right to pummel Renard.
Good thing he was pretty good at that game.
Returning his gaze to David Renard, he decided that it was time to make with the Scooby approved method of handling situations like these.
"Eh what's up, doc?" He asked using his best Bugs Bunny voice while looking at the guy like he was a nobody, "'cause I gotta tell ya, I don't do guy-guy-girl threesomes and I'm definitely not into the whole S&M thing."
"Ah, the famous Scooby wit I've heard about. Quite juvenile but I suppose it might be amusing for someone of your low class breeding." Renard said, looking completely unaffected by the jab to his sexual preferences, "To answer your question, we're about to have a little fun now that the guest of honor has arrived. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Darkholme, or perhaps you'd prefer your terrorist moniker 'Mystique'. I must say the name suits you quite nicely."
"So this was all a set-up?" Raven asked, sounding less than pleased at being tricked, "There's no world ending ritual going on tonight?"
"Oh, there is going to be quite the feat of magic performed here tonight, my dear, but not of the variety either your or Mr. Harris' employers were expecting." Renard said as he fell into the usual blowhard villain role, "It was quite a bit of trouble leaving those clues for your compatriots to find and even harder to make sure they deciphered them in time to make sure only you could 'save the day'. Nevertheless, things went swimmingly and I even gained a bonus in the form of young Mr. Harris here. I'd originally intended for this to be a solo mission for you, Mystique, but as it so happens there's a role in my plans available for the one eyed man here so everything worked out in the end."
"And those plans would be?" He asked in his most bored tone of voice as though he'd heard all the villain speeches before.
"Well, suffice it to say that while I might be amongst the most wealthy people on the planet, I have discovered an inherent flaw in my position. I am going to die some day." Renard replied, not sounding perturbed in the least, "Whether it be by old age or some unfortunate accident, I will die. This is unacceptable to me. I refuse to be torn from all I have built only for my riches to be divided amongst my lowbred associates. Therefore, I have spent the past three years attempting to locate a means to rectify the situation."
"What? You plan on taking it all with you when you go?"
"No, I'm not. After all, what possible worth could they have in the afterlife?" Renard asked rhetorically with a dismissive gesture of his hand, "No, I plan to gain the prize that all great men desire: immortality. I first examined modern medicine and science for the key to this wonderful state but, sadly, they're still having problems with generic diseases, so that was of no help. Next I turned to sorcery and while there were indeed a great many means by which one could become immortal, all were either too hard to acquire or came with unpleasant strings attached. It was as I sat in front of my television contemplating the next direction I should go in when Fate itself showed me the way. Mutants."
"Mutants?!" He asked, clearly not seeing the connection between mutants and immortality.
"Did I stutter? Yes, I said mutants! Those genetic misfits possessing powers and abilities that make them veritable gods among men. It struck me that one of them might very well possess the means by which I could gain true immortality." Renard replied with a little annoyance beginning to slip through the cracks of his good mood, "Thus I searched everywhere, read every file I could find, in an effort to find just the right mutant. At first I thought that Wolverine, Sabertooth or the fabled Apocalypse might be the answer to my problems but, in the end, they proved to be too costly to acquire. Then I learned of you my dear Ms. Darkholme. A shapeshifter that, by all accounts, has been around for easily a century and yet doesn't look a day older than your average anorexic model strutting down the fashion runway. Also, given your rather colorful resume, your advanced age does not impede you in the least. You, my dear, are the key to my plans."
"I don't see how my mutant power is going to help you stay young, Renard." Mystique said, sounding less than pleased that she'd been the subject of such thorough research.
"Oh, not by itself it won't, however through my various purchases from the black magic market and state of the art technology, it will work wonders for me." Renard said with a smile that instantly meant the punchline was incoming, "You see, my dear, I intend to use what you see around you to 'copy' your mutant ability onto myself. Oh, it won't be an exact match as far as forcing me to accept your female default form. It would be more along the lines of if you belonged to a species of shapeshifters rather than being a mutant then I will be transformed into the male equivalent of that species. Everything that your unique genetic quirk allows you to do, my dear, I soon will be able to do. Including the complete suppression of the aging process in its entirety."
Well this is definitely one of the more inventive ways to live forever. He thought even though he still figured that the science-magic combo would blow up in Renard's face.
"I've already perfected the process with your former compatriot Toad, Ms. Darkholme, and it worked out quite well for the mouse." Renard said as a cloth was removed from a square case to reveal a cage with a mouse bouncing around it like a frog, "However I have yet to test it on another human being so it is fortunate that Mr. Harris happened to accompany you on your mission. This way the commander of this base won't have to worry about losing one of his men to the process. Now, if you're quite done with the questions, let's get things started. K'loth, if you please?"
To these words a stereotypically robed figure with a hood obscuring his face stepped forward and began to chant as he turned each mechanical device on. The frightening part was that everywhere the man/woman/thing stepped, all the symbols within two feet of him began to glow as if activated. Definitely a little different from the way spells and rituals were usually done but at least it'd give him and Mystique some time to think of a last ditch effort to escape.
"So, Mysique? Any ideas on how we get out of this?" he asked quietly while doing his best not to attract attention to the conversation.
"None. Whatever this fuckin' erector set is, it's blocking my powers!" Raven replied sounding like she was starting to rev up for a panic attack.
That seemed to be at odds with what he knew about her but, when one factored in that she'd been able to change her form at will for over a century, then suddenly being stuck in one form couldn't be easy for her. However, unless the universe got turned on its head and arrogant fops actually did things that worked out exactly as planned, both he and Ms. Blue were going to have bigger concerns real soon. Looking back to the array of symbols on the floor, he could see that almost three quarters of them were now lit up like Christmas lights. Pulling against the restraints that were holding him down, he did his best to try and break free so that he could disrupt this ritual before it could begin. Sadly, whoever had prepared things had obviously done so with mutants and beings that were more than human in mind. Even with his muscles working at peak output, he wasn't even putting a strain on his restraints but he didn't give up. Even though, in the back of his mind, he knew that the struggle was futile, he was determined to go down defiant to the last breath and beyond. However, as he watched glass rise up all around him before clicking into place in the circle above him and the same happen to Mystique, he knew the end had come.
That left him with only one thing to say before the pain came.
"You're a dead man Renard!"
&
Location: Room of Ritual, Three Levels Below the Surface of the Base
Time: Ten Minutes After the Ritual Started
P.O.V: Mystique
Someone's gonna die PAINFULLY for this!! Was the first coherent thought she had as the pain her body was feeling withdrew to tolerable levels.
Whatever process Renard had cooked up had not been easy on her and, from the looks of how Xander was sagging in his restraints, the young man wasn't doing all that well either. He was still conscious and still showed an awareness of his surroundings but that was about all she could tell without talking to him. Watching as the slightly singed glass tubing retracting into its housing on the floor, she watched as Renard began to step forward from his place of safety, to inspect the results no doubt, and she the time to act was now. After all, it was a safe bet that one way or another the fop wasn't going to let her live once he got what he wanted from her and would get rid of Xander like so much laboratory refuse. However, as she tried to do a minimal change of her form, she was shown that despite the amount of energy that had arced about the tube, the inhibitors keeping her powers in check were still fully functional. Turning to Harris, she hoped that there was something improved in his state of things that might help them turn the tables on Renard. First she looked at the straps to see if there were any signs of increased wear and tear. A little fraying but there was no telling whether or not that would be enough to allow the weakened human to break free.
It was then though that a transformation began that caused the feelings of shock within her to surpass almost anything she'd experienced thus far in her long life. Almost as though she were watching a computer simulation, she watched as the young man's skin slowly turned dark blue and his hair went from brown to crimson red. Even his eyes that were partially hidden by his eyelids changed from normal human eyes to neon yellow eyes that had a slight glow to them. These were features she knew all too well from the few incidents over the decades in which she had encountered a mirror that showed her true face to her. For a moment the rest of the world went away and she was paralyzed with awe at the irrefutable fact that Renard's ritual had succeeded. Strapped to the table beside her was now a shapeshifter, a mutant, just like her and he, in all likelihood, possessed the full range of her powers. She wondered for a moment if that was all that had been copied over onto the young man and she reverently prayed that nothing else had been infused into him. Her mind held many secrets, many horrors and many other things that no one, save perhaps Irene, knew about her. If it turned out to be the case that Xander knew them now as well, she would have to kill him when the opportunity arose in order to ensure that her secrets stayed precisely that. It would cause her problems with Xavier and could lead the bald fool to throw her to the wolves, but she'd manage like she always had before. It would be far worse for her to allow someone with her secrets in his head to walk around where she couldn't keep him on a leash.
She refused to acknowledge the small part of her soul that was whispering to her that Harris could be trusted to keep her secrets.
When the world once more entered consciousness, she realized that Renard was mere steps away and would soon be within range to confirm the success of his plan. Once that was done, it could mean mere seconds before her contact from the Watcher's Council would be executed, depriving her of her sole ally in this situation. Therefore it was time to roll the dice and hope that the kid's new powers had settled themselves enough to be put to immediate use.
"Xander! Will your arm to strike Renard!" she ordered him fiercely so he would not be inclined to question her command, "Not as a fist but as a spear, a tentacle or something! Do it NOW!"
As though some good luck had finally come their way she watched as Xander, with no hesitation, concentrated to obey her order. The results were more than she could have hoped for but at the same time gave rise to chaos that she had not wanted. Instead of a short thrust with a bladed arm or a powerful swat that would've sent the fop to the side, Xander's right hand changed into a mace of sorts before shooting out and striking the man center mast. The strength the kid had somehow managed to put into the blow she could clearly hear the ribs crack almost to the fracturing point as Renard was propelled backwards into the hood-wearing magic user. It was when the two landed on the ground and she heard something that sounded like it was made of glass shatter that things really began to get crazy. Electric arcs of energy began to dance from symbol to symbol on the floor at an ever increasing chaotic rate that went from a minor show of energy to something quite worrying. Then, like a wave created by tidal forces, arcs of energy flowed towards both her and Xander, washing over their bodies, inducing a new bout of pain. However, unlike one might think, this wave seemed to act with a mind of its own as it seemed to turn into a loop of sorts between her and the Harris boy. For a moment she thought they might both be killed by the energy but just as soon as the thought came the energy dissipated into nothingness.
A tingling sensation she felt throughout her body though told her that the barrage had at least done some good for her.
With a smile of glee, she slipped her arms free of their restraints, confirming that the devices that had been preventing her from changing her body had been knocked offline. With her freedom restored, it was simplicity itself to escape her bonds but she knew that things would quickly turn ugly if she didn't leave. The energy arcing from symbol to symbol was leaning more and more towards the dangerous side of things rather than the pretty kind. Heading towards the door, she found herself being held back by something. It was almost as if she were leaving something important behind but that didn't make any sense at all. Looking over her shoulder, she could see that the last barrage of energy had managed to burn through one of the straps that had been holding Xander in place. What she could also see though was that the pain that she had endured prior to the inhibitors being knocked offline had been enough to rob the young man of consciousness. In all likelihood, he would perish along with Renard and the mage once the chaotic energy reached maximum. In fact, if her luck continued the way it had so far, the resulting climax of energy could very well destroy the entire military base. With all the evidence removed, she could come up with any story she wanted and Lord Xavier would have no choice but to believe it. All the problems this mission had caused her would be taken care of in one fell swoop.
So why did she feel as though she would be in a funk for the rest of the year if she didn't go back for Harris?
She growled in frustration before going back the way she came and tearing the restraints keeping Xander tied to the table off. Once freed, she slung him over her shoulder and then began to make for the door with all the speed she could possibly manage, given the weight of her current burden. Fortunately, with her recent power upgrade, she could increase her strength quite a bit more than one might think so, with a little shifting here as well as some enlarging there. Eventually it got to the point where Harris became light as a feather and she was making her way through the complex like an experienced sprinter. An explosion caused the floor to shake enough that she almost lost her footing but, fortunately, causing half a foot to grow out of her left leg kept her on her feet. Turning around, she watched with a bad feeling growing inside of her that the damage Xander had done was a bit more extensive then just destroying a room. In fact, she had an eerie feeling that now might be the time to put as much distance between them and the base as possible. As soon as the door to the elevator opened, she opened up the roof maintenance hatch and, after shoving Xander through it, pulled herself up. It was now time to pull off a move straight from Hollywood and so, with one arm around Xander, another with a firm grip on the cable attached to the roof of the elevator car and the last transformed into a basic blade, she cut through the cable. With the counterweight on one side of the cable removed, the other was free to plunge into the depths of the shaft but it also allowed her and Xander to make it to ground level fast.
I have to time the release just right! She thought as her eyes spied the doors to the ground floor of the base.
Fortunately for both her and Xander, her time as an intelligence operative had honed her sense of time to a razor sharp edge so when they were almost at the door right below the one that was their target she let go of the cable and rode the momentum the rest of the way. Landing with much agility she quickly split her free arm in two and used them to pry open the elevator door just wide enough for her and her baggage to slip through. Looking around, it looked like either all the vamps and demons had been sent home or were focusing their efforts on the outside since every direction she looked in was lacking in guards. In any case she didn't have much time to waste if her prediction about the grand finale turned out to be accurate. Looking around and trying to remember the layout of the base, an idea entered her mind and she had to smile at how the odds of her and Harris had just gone up. Taking the left hallway, she carried her burden down it and right past a sign that would soon be reduced to so much ash.
Transport Garage.
&
Location: Xavier Safe House Outside of Cleveland, Ohio
Time: One Month After the Mission
P.O.V: Xander's P.O.V
"AGAIN!" Mystique ordered with all the authority of a drill instructor, "Your form was lacking detail on your leg. If you'd tried to sneak into an enemy compound like that, they'd have found you out in a second."
With a sigh, he did what had become the pattern for the last three weeks: return to his default form and then assume the appearance designated by Raven. Still, he supposed that he should be grateful that she had agreed, however reluctantly, to train him in the use of the abilities he'd gained from Renard's ritual. Even though, according to Mystique, he'd used them at least once after the ceremony, he couldn't remember that moment clearly. So it was a bit of a shock when he'd woken up in a hotel the next day to find his skin dark blue, his eyes glowy yellow and his hair blood red. As a side note, since changing one's appearance was for the most part mental, during his freak out episode he rapidly shifted through every person whose image popped into his head.
Ms. Blue had found it quite amusing.
From there they'd informed their respective groups of the outcome of the mission and, while both had been surprised at his new condition, they'd received word of how the operation had gone via the media. Apparently, according to Raven, when he'd knocked David Renard on his ass, one of the talismans the Council had been so worried about had been crushed. As a result, the remaining mystical energy used in the ritual had been mixed with the energy of the talisman and evolved into an ever growing feedback loop. Eventually it had gotten so bad that the entire base had gone up in the mother of all fireworks displays, leaving a big hole in the ground for the newshounds to find later. Once again an attempt by him to do some good wound up causing a large amount of property damage. It hadn't been all that common back in Sunnydale, just the high school, but after that, when he'd been traveling through Africa looking for newbie Slayers, property damage quickly became his calling card. It wasn't like he went into every situation looking to make things go boom but rather the sad fact that most of the regions he entered weren't exactly peaceful. Crooks and mercs of all sizes as well as numbers made their living in that country as well as a few people looking to return the place to the ways of Apartheid. As a result, munitions and weapons were hidden in some of the oddest places for use by all three kinds of people with him somehow setting them off without even realizing it. After the Council had gotten their first repair bill from owners whose buildings had been demolished, Giles had lectured him for an hour straight about being more careful. Thus, ever since, he'd done his best to keep the number of BOOM incidents to a minimum, if not eliminate them entirely. His efforts had been met with some success but he had a feeling that after the base explosion he was going to have to start all over again to win Giles' confidence back.
Once the hour and a half lecture had been concluded, the issue of what to do about his condition had been brought up. That had led to Willow 'porting in to run a few diagnostic spells on him, even though she could have waited until he'd reached a Council safe house or gotten back to Cleveland. After ten minutes of basic spells plus a few that were a little too flashy for his liking, it was the diagnosis of his bestest bud that his condition was permanent. It was not a condition being held in place by magic or by some higher power but rather genetic manipulation on a magical level of great precision. While it might be possible to undo what had been done to him down the road, she was, at the moment, not experienced enough to attempt something so difficult. Thus, with the option of returning him to normal no longer an option, all that was left was for him to learn how to use these abilities. He'd felt a bit weird about it but Mystique had pointed out, in her own unique style, that unless he wanted to go around with blue skin and red hair, he needed to learn how to hold a normal person's appearance. Thus it had been decided by both Giles and Xavier that since his new abilities were copied from Mystique, that she'd make the best instructor. Naturally Raven had tried to weasel her way out of the job since she was a black ops person at heart and instructing anyone was both stifling as well as boring for her. Sadly Xavier had played his trump card, the digital smokescreen that kept Mystique off the grid of every law enforcement agency on the planet, and the shapeshifter angrily gave in.
For the past three weeks she'd been giving him a crash course in shapeshifting 101 and making sure that he got every lesson committed to memory before moving onto the next one. When he complained, she used her own powers to toss him around until he was forced to use the lessons she had taught him to escape or stop her. If it wasn't for the fact that his new shapeshifting abilities allowed him to recover from injuries faster than a normal person, he'd be in the infirmary right now. At present she was forcing him to be able to shapeshift into the appearance of several people from either TV or from the neighborhood. She would then grade him based on appearance, movements, mannerisms and vocal accuracy. If he somehow managed to pull off a convincing enough imitation of the person in question, she'd move onto people that had more detail in their appearances. If he failed, though, then she'd either physically thrash him or verbally tear him a new one. Fortunately for him, years of doing it with Cordy and then honing it with Spike before perfecting it with Faith allowed him to give as good as he got when it came to verbal sparring.
On the physical side of things… not so good.
Bringing his mind back to the present, he prepared to shapeshift into the person Raven had designated in the way she had first instructed him. First he pictured the person in his mind using the photo or video clip that he'd been shown and then he began to filter out the elements that made this source material look fake or artificial. Then he had to picture them as though they were right in front of him and then force his body to take on the form in question. It wasn't as easy as it sounded since for amateurs like him attaining a level of focus necessary to keep the image in his head and follow all the steps wasn't easy. He was a young punk kid who'd had his attention span reduced to almost nothing thanks to TV, videogames and the local movie theatre. Nevertheless, he had a growing motivation to do his best at his and that motivation was to get rid of Mystique as soon as possible so that he could get back to doing what he wanted to do. With that in mind, he went through the process as first instructed, bringing up the image of the person in his head, and then willed his body to do as it was commanded. Opening his eyes when he felt the shifting stop (and BOY hadn't it felt creepy the first time he'd done it), he looked to Raven to see if he'd passed this test or failed again earning himself a thrashing.
Her expression was stoic at first. No emotion or anything that he could use to judge what her judgment was. Then her lips pressed together and he definitely took that as a bad sign since it meant that she was about to explode verbally in a way he probably wasn't going to enjoy. Things only got worse when he began to notice a slight trembling in her shoulders that was probably a sign of an inner desire to throttle him being barely restrained. However, it was when she bent over and began to clutch her stomach that he began to wonder if something a bit more serious was going on. While he didn't doubt Forge's abilities when it came to whipping up technological marvels light-years ahead of everyone else, it was still possible that someone had gotten past his digital smokescreen. Looking about with his old soldier memories as his guide, he tried to see if there was anything amiss in the immediate area that might indicate intruders on the grounds. However, no matter where he looked, everything looked just as it had this morning and the day before but that didn't necessarily mean that everything was fine. If Forge and Mystique were to be believed, then modern tech was capable of doing some pretty impressive things these days. That meant they could be surrounded by commandoes and he wouldn't be able to tell without getting some of Willow's talismans or one of Forge's gizmos.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahah!"
It was when laughter, Mystique's laughter, reached his ears though that he was enlightened as to the true reason for her strange reaction to his latest transformation.
She was laughing at him.
"Mind sharing the joke?" He asked with a little snap to his words since he thought he'd done a pretty good job.
In response, she reached out with one of her arms like Mr. Fantastic and grabbed a full length mirror that they used so he could inspect his own efforts. When she turned it to face him, his face dropped in both disappointment and disbelief at his current form since it had been awhile since he'd blundered this badly. For one thing the lips were too big, the chest area definitely was not normal and the rear end was such that he'd provided himself with some padding when he next sat down.
Needless to say he did not look one bit like one Jean Grey-Summers.
She was not that top heavy, did not have that big a butt and her lips didn't look like she'd gone to a complete idiot for a lip job.
About the only thing he'd gotten right was her uniform but even that couldn't hide the borderline double E breasts nor the inflato-butt.
Oh well! Back to the drawing board. He thought as he went back to his default form.
&
Location: Tropicana Santiago, Cuba
Time: One Year Later, Mid-Evening
P.O.V: Mystique aka Raven Darkholme
I wonder what Xander's doing right now. Mystique thought as she sipped her drink and watched the locals dance the night away.
It was a question that she'd been asking herself again and again for the past month since she'd concluded the Watcher's training in his shapeshifting powers, powers that had been copied from her onto him thanks to the late David Renard's ritual. She wouldn't say that he was as skilled as her because there were some things that only experience could teach a person. After all, most of the tricks in her playbook had been thought of on the spur of the moment or after examining how a particular operation had gone wrong. In any case, once he'd proven to the satisfaction of both Xavier and Ripper that Harris could keep his previous appearance steady when distracted, the lessons ended. She went back to being Charlie's dirty little secret and Harris went back to being a bloodhound for newbie Slayers. While he hadn't told her the details during their time together, she'd managed to get a few tidbits of info out of him using some 'stimulating' tactics. Apparently this Watchers Council was different from the one she'd encountered twenty years ago and was led by Ripper, his Slayer and the friends the two of them had gained in Sunnydale. This incarnation of the Council was more tolerant of non-human lifeforms and treated their Slayers more like the young ladies they were rather than expendable soldiers. That was another thing that had changed: once a generation had become whoever could would. No longer was their only one Slayer at a time but rather any girl who had the potential to become a Slayer now instantly received their powers once they hit puberty. In a way, it was sort of like Xavier's crew but, if Xander was any indication, they weren't as squeamish about killing things. True, Harris said that there weren't that many species of non-human that could be considered harmless or neutral, but as far as she was concerned, there were precious few humans that she didn't want to kill on general principle.
It had been an interesting time and while she would never admit it to anyone, she had actually enjoyed the young man's company. He wasn't a moralistic fool like Xavier but he wasn't a bloodthirsty killing machine like Creed was. He also made her laugh both with his not-so-successful attempts to shapeshift and just the occasional odd comment he dropped. He was odd, but it was a good odd from her point of view, and figuring out what the HELL he was talking about helped distract her from bothersome things. She might very well say that when they parted, she was considered suggesting to Xavier that Xander be named her handler instead of Shortpack. However, that would have been an odd request coming from her and would have made everyone suspicious so she'd just watched him go without saying a word. She still thought about him from time to time and wondered what he was doing but most of the time he was so busy doing one thing or another for Xavier, there wasn't time for anything else.
With remembrance thrumming throughout her body, she decided that instead of sitting there looking all dreamy, she should really try to enjoy her free time. After all, tomorrow she'd be heading back to her safe house in the States and then it would be another of annoying Pope Charlie's missions. Besides, if Xander was here, he'd be doing everything he could to brighten her mood or make her anything other than introspective or broody. So, with one final sip of her drink, she stepped out onto the dance floor to find some fool to wrap around her finger before tossing the idiot over her shoulder when she had finished having fun with him.
Wish you were here, Xander. She thought as she spotted her victim of the night.
&
Location: Syrian Desert, Iraq
Time: Three Years After Mystique's Mission to Cuba, Sunset
P.O.V: Xander Harris aka Mystery
About time Logan left. Xander thought as he watched through a pair of binoculars as the man known as Wolverine finally stepped outside of the effective range of his enhanced senses, Any longer and even the stuff I brought with him wouldn't be able to pull Raven out of the mess she's gotten herself into.
Ask anybody why he was here, in the middle in what many would consider hell on Earth, and they'd probably chalk it up to his undying White Knight complex. In a way, though, he'd admit that that was at least part of the reason why he was willing to work to save someone who many considered a remorseless killer. However they always failed to take into account two things and that is why they'd never truly understand Mystique the way he did.
The first thing they didn't understand was the toll that living for over a century had on your average person. Sure, there were those that could claim that extreme longevity was no excuse for the things Ms. Blue had done in her lifetime but those people were either hypocrites or deluded fools. Most immortals usually did one of two things on this world, the first being to stay away from normal people and the latter being to live amongst average people and moving on when circumstances forced them to. The ones that did the former generally went crazy due to the isolation or got so out of touch with modern society that they were eventually discovered. If they did the latter, the possibility of discovery went up dramatically along with the possibility of forming attachments both material as well as emotional. Both sides had their perils and both could be reason enough to consider immortality to be more of a curse than a blessing. With Mystique, though, she was able to forge a third possibility of living in the world amongst other people but without forming attachments to anything. Personally he thought that such a choice was idiotic and potentially masochistic, but it was the path Raven had chosen for herself.
That didn't mean he couldn't subtly nudge her into choosing a different course of action. After all, with the both of them being virtually immortal due to their powers, he pretty much had all the time in the world to get her to abandon her lonely road. He had made some moves prior to today but she's either shrugged them off like they were nothing or gotten pretty pissed and told him to get lost. Not that that was going to stop him from delivering more nudges because, in his opinion, she was just plain afraid to get close to anyone. She was so determined to walk that middle road between being alone and enduring the pain of seeing people or places she'd grown attached to perish, so he'd made it his personal mission to get her to, if not abandon her chosen path, at least admit that there was one person she could count on. It was this desire that caused so much friction to build up between himself and the other members of the 'save the world' league. They had all pretty much written Mystique off as a lost cause, a monstrous killer without a shred of decency, and didn't take kindly to anyone saying otherwise. Oh, they wouldn't turn on him per se, but rather they'd take every opportunity to convince him that he was wasting his time with her or drop by for a 'chat' if they thought he was helping Raven. However they didn't realize that the only kind of person who could truly reach Mystique is one who didn't think he/she was better than her.
Someone like himself.
Leaving the place from which he'd been watching the entire grudge match between Logan and Ms. Blue, he picked up the suitcase he'd brought with him. Running in the direction of Mystique, he knew he only had a certain amount of time before the woman's own enhanced healing gave out. While it was true that a person with the same set of powers that they did could recover from certain wounds and maladies quicker than normal, stack enough wounds on top of one fatal one and death was a distinct possibility. When he'd heard about Wolverine going on the hunt for Ms. Blue, he knew that one way or another the lady would need someone to patch her up afterwards. Logan was good at what he did and when all was said and done, Raven's powers were centered on her shapeshifting ability. Basically, it meant that if her body racked up enough damage then even her mutant powers would give out under the sheer strain that was being placed on them. That was where conventional healing techniques would have to pick up the slack along with someone who knew how to employ them best. He was not a certified doctor or anything but his Halloween memories combined with training that had become mandatory in the New Council made him a pretty decent military field medic. Hopefully that, combined with Raven's own healing ability, would be enough to pull her through the worst of it.
A minute later he'd reached her and she was definitely entering the first stages of significant blood loss and that meant he had to work fast.
"X-Xander? What are…what are you doing here?" Mystique asked as though her ability to speak was beginning to leave her.
"The same as always, Raven: pulling your cute blue butt out of the sorry mess it's in." he replied with his lopsided grin as he opened up the suitcase, "You know, you really should have thought that fight through a little better. Sure, you had the hardware to mess Logan up but you should've known that his healing factor was better than yours."
"You were watching the entire time!" Mystique growled with her anger giving her something to focus on, "Then why didn't you come down and help me?!"
"Well, for one thing, I might be a decent fighter against demons and maybe some rookie X-Men but no way was I going to last long against Logan." He replied as he began to apply special ointment to the wounds he could see, "Secondly, it'll make your recovery a lot easier if everyone thinks you're dead."
She had nothing to say to that but whether that was because she saw his point or was simply too weak to shoot his reasons down, he didn't know. Nevertheless, he sped up the pace of his efforts but also kept the quality of the work at the prescribed level so that nothing bad would happen. Needless to say it was more than a little worrying seeing the damage Wolverine had done up close since it was much nastier looking than when he'd seen it through the binoculars. He focused on the most serious of the wounds first, the ones that'd make Raven die that much quicker, before doing a quick patch job on the lesser ones. Fortunately his suitcase was filled with a few flasks and test tubes filled with potions or ingredients that Willow had whipped up for situations where Slayer healing wasn't enough. Basically it provided a temporary boost to baseline healing factors, allowing Slayers to get a full week or two of healing done in under an hour. With Mystique, he hoped it'd be enough to pull her far enough away from death's door that she'd only need a little extra recovery time in bed before she was back at one hundred percent. Once the patch job was complete, he turned back to her face to see if she had any preference as to where she wanted to be taken. Sadly the severity of her injuries coupled with the moments of pain his medical ministrations had caused had resulted in a slight case of unconsciousness. Fortunately a pulse and a quick peek with a tricorder talisman told him that she wasn't dead and that she wouldn't be dying anytime soon.
"Guess it's up to me to decide our travel plans then." He said to himself as he mentally cycled through the places he could take her without attracting the wrong kind of attention.
It took him a minute to determine the destination of least trouble but, in the end, he figured that submitting to Andrew's demands for multiple Star Trek impersonations was the best option.
You SO owe me for this, Mystique! He thought before he activated the talisman that would take both him and Raven to the Council compound Andrew ran.
&
Location: Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A
Time: Ten Years Later, Late Evening
P.O.V: Mystique aka Raven Darkholme
I have definitely gone insane! Raven thought as she looked down at the assembled Slayers and Watchers partying in the room below, That's the only way to explain why I'm here and not pulling off some scheme to obliterate ordinary humans.
However, even as she thought the words, she knew that her days as a pro-mutant terrorist were pretty much gone. Oh, she'd still get pissed every time she heard some sanctimonious mutant hater on TV and if during the course of her current job she came across some humans beating on a mutant, she'd do something, but otherwise no. She had more important things to be worried about these days and unless something appeared that was a direct threat to those things she'd keep her violent tendencies in check.
After all, a mother must always take proper care of her baby girl, right?
Yes, that was one of the most important things in her life right now and it was currently being held in her arms while it sucked on its soother. While she was no stranger to natural childbirth, she had to say that this child was a vast improvement over Graydon and would be a worthy sister to either Rogue or Kurt. In fact, if her guess was right, those two would be visiting near the end of the week to see their little sister and 'make sure she was not up to her old tricks'. While she couldn't blame them for still being suspicious of the changes she'd undergone, she wouldn't have believed it herself ten years ago, they clearly underestimated the influence of one Alexander LaVelle Harris. Then again, so had she, but in the past ten years she had learned, much to her displeasure sometimes, that his code of honor had a nasty tendency to rub off on a person. Before she even realized what was going on, she'd found herself actually showing mercy to people she would have killed without a second thought before she'd met Xander. In the end, she realized that she had to walk away from the life of a mutant terrorist before her reputation went right down the drain. Fortunately the father of the child in her arms had provided an out for her that no one could question or find fault with.
That was the threat that demons represented to mutantkind because of their malicious nature and dreams of bringing hell to the Earth.
The reason she gave the mutants that came to ask her why she had changed her path was that she didn't want demons to benefit from the suffering of mutants. After all, strife and conflict between flatscans and mutants could only help demons weaken both sides in preparation for their latest apocalypse scheme. By working with the new Watcher's Council, she could help put a stop to those plans and keep certain mutants apprised of the situation in the supernatural world.
Some believed her reason.
Others didn't.
In the end, though, she decided that she didn't really care what they believed because one way or another, she had found a place that felt like a home should. It was a feeling she couldn't recall ever feeling like this in all her long life, save during a few brief moments when she and Irene were together. With her old friend Destiny, she could sometimes block out the world outside of where ever they were shacked up and pretend that all was right with the world. It had been moments like those that had seen her through so many difficult times and when her friend had died at the hands of Legion her one means of keeping the ugliness of the world bearable disappeared. From that day onward, it all began to pile up onto her shoulders making it difficult to find anything positive in the world to take comfort in. Even her feelings for Kurt and Rogue proved to be inadequate to completely dispel the darkness she had found herself being drowned in by the world. If things had continued on its present course, she had little doubt that she would have met her end sooner rather than later.
Then she met him.
From their first mission together, she'd felt as though there was something different about him, something that set him apart from flatscans, but she didn't know what it was. As time passed with him, she began to learn more about the young man by the name of Xander Harris and he became of a topic of thought that she just couldn't extinguish. This became something of a bother with the way that he way he oh-so subtly tried to convince her that her way of thinking was wrong. He had thought he was so clever with the way he managed to slip his little lessons into casual conversations in an effort to subliminally influence her. He didn't understand that she was playing head games with professionals since long before his great grandfather was born. Nevertheless, he kept trying to influence her and, eventually, she'd stopped seeing him altogether, burying herself in her agenda and what she knew of the future from Destiny's diaries. However, despite killing Sinister, despite saving Rogue from the plague that her powers had become for her, things had gotten worse rather than better. In the end, she had gotten chased halfway across the Middle East by Logan and very nearly killed if Xander hadn't shown up to help her.
He'd spent the three weeks following her fight with Logan nursing her back to health while at the same convincing (or, in some cases, bullying) the rest of the people in the building to not let on that she was there. It wasn't easy but once Xander managed to convince the top five most senior members of that branch of the Watcher's Council, things had quieted down a bit. It was during that time that he'd spent time with her, just like during his training, and she had found her old fondness for the time they spent together returning. Naturally she tried to suppress this or discredit it with her usual reasons for disliking humans but, as time passed, she eventually tried to justify her listening to him by saying that he was a mutant now and thus better than other flatscans. However it had been that period of recovery that the seeds of something more had been planted and, as the years passed, she found she had less and less enthusiasm for her usual schemes. Eventually others began to notice and she knew that she had to do something before certain people considered her soft enough to take their revenge against. It had been then that she had approached Xander for a position in the Watcher's Council, saying that she'd had a close encounter with a particularly nasty demon while on a job. While it was true that no such encounter had taken place, it was enough to base her choice to join the fight against them so as to protect mutantkind.
With her reputation, no one other than Xander wanted to partner up with her or spend more time that necessary with her for a mission. They had heard the rumblings of Rupert Giles, Willow Rosenberg and Buffy Summers about her past and used that to form their opinion of her. This had led to many difficult times and many perilous missions where she honestly thought they'd perish together. It had been the closeness that being partners brought about friendship between them and from there it had evolved into something…more. Before she knew it, his presence had such a profound effect on her that her earlier anger felt meaningless to her. It had been then that he had asked for her hand in marriage and, without any of the hesitation, she said yes and they were wed three months later. Then, less than a year ago, she gave birth to the little bundle in her arms and named her Irene Harris-Darkhome in honor of the most important things in her world. She would be turning one by the end of the week and that was why Kurt and Rogue were showing up or rather that was their primary motive, the secondary one being to check up her 'rehabilitation'.
Feeling a pair of strong hands wrap around her from behind, she momentarily prepared to kick the fool's ass before she recognized the presence behind her. Instead of resisting it, she embraced the feeling of her husband's arms around her and the feeling of safety it gave her. Smiling in a way that was genuinely happy, she turned her head and looked upon the familiar face of Xander Harris, her husband.
"So, has she quieted down now?" Xander asked with a smile as he gently stroked the cheek of his baby girl.
"Yes. It turned out she's just inherited your appetite." She replied as she watched her daughter polish off the bottle, "This is her second bottle and if the way she's guzzling it down is any hint, then might have enough room for a third."
"Well as the saying goes 'milk does a body good'." He said with a slight chuckle at the appetite of his firstborn.
"How did patrol go?" she asked wondering about where her husband had been for most of the evening.
"A few newbie vamps and a Fyarl. Nothing to worry about." Xander replied as he turned his gaze to the people below, "According to Giles, we shouldn't have anything to worry about for at least another month or two."
It was as he mentioned how slow it'd be for the next four to eight weeks that an idea popped into her head that made her grin. She wasn't sure if she was actually serious about it just yet but it was interesting enough merely for the entertainment value.
"Then perhaps we could use the time to cook up a younger brother from Irene?" she asked as though it was a perfectly normal idea, "We can name him Jesse."
The look on his face was priceless.
&
Note: I know that for some of you readers who are knowledgeable about Marvel Comics and the character Mystique that the idea that she'd ever be anything other than a sociopathic killer is an impossibility. However I am a firm believer that it's just a matter of receiving the right offer from the right person/s to guide her away from her current path. It's not going to be one of the X-team members due to the bad blood between her and them. It's not going to be a normal human. However with Xander being turned into a male shapeshifter like herself it could very well be possible.
Besides she's in perfect keeping with his usual luck with women.