36. Separation.
Being separated is something that happens to every family at some point or another. There is also expansion, which comes sometime afterward. It's all about people choosing to go about their own lives, trying to make something for themselves that isn't attached to the identity of what their parents established.
Alex Summers knows the separation bit a little too much. He and his younger brother, Scott, were orphaned and set to different foster homes. He hasn't seen Scotty in years, but he misses him more than anything. Sean moves to sit beside the older mutant boy one Saturday afternoon following training during one of Alex's worse days.
"Hey, Havok, what's wrong?" He wants to know. He shakes Alex's shoulder. "You seem out of it."
"Did you know I have a brother?" Alex murmurs, turning to glace at Sean with a hard facial expression. He blinks, and his chest feels heavy. "Someone who's real flesh 'n' blood. We were separated a while back, and I don't know how to find him."
Sean stares at the blond for a moment, and then his face softens and he rubs Alex's back. "It's okay. With Cerebro working better, I think Mom can find him," and he smiles, mainly at the terminology for Professor X, but also for reassurance. "He says that the machine can find humans or mutants, and I bet if he searches, he can find your brother's name somewhere. Come on," he says, nudging the other boy, "Let's go ask him if we can try."
Alex huffs a laugh. "Yeah, okay. Thanks," he offers, and takes Sean's hand as he rises to his feet.
But as they walk inside, they can't go to Xavier straight away, because once they enter the mansion, they find that Raven – insisting that she is truly Mystique, now – is saying that she is going to move out, and that she's ready to try her hand at something more than being cooped up in the mansion.
"I can be anybody I want," she argues, and Charles looks hurt and Erik looks indifferent. "So why shouldn't I try it?"
"Go ahead; see what you can do out there. Just don't come crawling back if you fail," Erik grunts.
"What? No! You belong here, Ra- Mystique. We care about you here," Charles responds adamantly.
"I know that," she replies, softer this time. She moves to take his hand in hers, and she smiles as she transforms into her blonde-haired self. "But there are things I want to see and do, and people I know I'm supposed to meet and relate to, and I'm not going to get that if I stay here."
With a nod, Charles removes his hand and takes a step forward to embrace her. "All right, Mystique. Do as you please; I won't stop you."
"But you could, if you wanted to," she retorts, but it's in a teasing tone as they step out of the brief hug. She grins. "I always know where to find you, anyway, so it's not as thought you won't see me again."
"I know. I know," Charles answers, and in no time, Alex and Sean are hugging her goodbye, Hank is helping her with a few suitcases, and after a hug from him as well, Raven moves to Erik. He looks conflicted, but gives her a tight squeeze, and she tells him that she loves him just as much as he must love her.
And then she is driving off in her car, money in her purse, to try her hand at the world outside, since it isn't very hard for her to blend into it when she needs to.