Disclaimer: "X-men" and all the characters here belong to Marvel, 20 Century
Fox and I intend no infringement, this is a piece of amateur fan fiction, and I
make no money of it.
Only the original idea contained within this work is the property of the
author. Please do not copy this story to any website or archive without
permission of the author.
Timeline: Set after the movie
Universe: Movie
Pairing: Scott/Raven (Mystique), slight Scott/Jean, slight Logan/Rogue
Summary: Scott meets Raven (Mystique) again and they discuss the past, present
and the possibility of a future…together…
Archiving: Want, ASK, take, have.
Feedback: Yes, please.
Rating: PG - 13
Thanks to Christina for the Beta.
Part 1:
Scott walked down Main Street, looking at the closed stores. It was late and
the stars sparkled in the bright night sky. His thoughts kept returning to Jean
and all what had happened. He had long known that he and Jean had been falling
apart but Jean's fascination with Logan had been the last straw. They had
broken up some weeks ago. He must admit that it was for the best even though he
felt very alone these days.
" So blue you look, Summers. The burden of saving the world becoming too heavy
for you?" a female voice asked from behind him. The voice was unfamiliar,
having a slight Italian accent to the words but the way they were said
left no doubt in Scott's mind…
" Mystique!" he turned towards her and saw a beautiful, Italian woman in her
early twenties. Scott scanned the area to see if he could spot Magneto or any
of the other members of the Brotherhood but his red glance made it hard to see
in the dark. Mystique smiled at him.
" I'm alone and not working so you can say Raven."
Scott looked around again but when he was sure she spoke the truth he turned
back to her and they began walking side by side down the street. They walked
for a long time in silence until Scott finally broke it;
" Did…Are you alright? Logan said he had killed you but then Ororo spotted you
on TV…" real concern was in his voice but his always present shades covered the
look in his eyes.
" He tried to kill me. He didn't succeed," there was something in her voice….
disappointment, maybe.
" I never meant for you to get hurt. No one should have been hurt but Logan has
his own mind and he did claim that you tried to kill him," Scott explained.
Raven laughed.
" Had I wanted to kill him, he'll be dead now," she said confidently. They
walked again in silence until they reached the park. They walked to the lake
and it was a beautiful sight with the moon and stars reflected in the water.
" Why did you leave?" Scott asked her suddenly. He had always wondered why. He
had met Raven on the streets and they had become friends. Then Charles had
found them and they had been his students. But when Jean Grey had joined them
Raven had left.
" You mean why I left when little miss " I'm a Doctor with a PHD and I need NO
one. I can do everything and I'm in short perfect" came? For many reasons,"
Raven answered angrily. Scott's eyes softened and he took her hand in his. She
let it stay there.
" When we lived on the streets I hated what we had to do to survive. I hated
what you had to do. You could never be yourself and all those strangers…. Just
the thought of them touching you…Charles gave us a chance for a better life. He
gave us a dream to follow," Scott said softly. Raven tore her hand from his
grip, her eyes blazing.
" No. That is where you are wrong. He didn't give us shit. He needed soldiers
for his own God damn private army and we were perfect for that. He didn't give
us a dream, he commended us to follow him blindly and that was all."
" And Magneto don't demand the same?" Scott shot back. Charles meant a lot to
him. He was the first adult who had been kind to him. He had become a father
figure in his mind.
" Sure he does but at least he admits to it. Charles never did that," Raven
went a little away from him. Scott followed after her.
" Raven, I just don't like seeing you like this again. When I saw you at the
statue…I thought I should die. I had feared for you for so long. You were my
first and only friend for so long and then Logan came back and said he had
killed you. I wanted to kill him," Scott admitted and Raven looked at him, the
brown eyes which weren't hers looked intensely at him.
" Then why didn't you?"
" Because Cyclops isn't like that. Cyclops is Charles` pride. Scott Summers
would have killed him for you but Cyclops never will," Scott said softly and
Raven lay a hand on his cheek.
" My friend, what have he done to you? You don't even know who you are
anymore," Raven said softly. Scott smiled bittersweetly at her.
" Do you? Do you know who you are? You wear so many different skins that I
wonder; do you know which one is you?"
" It is not the same thing," she mumbled.
" It is, Raven. It is. We are both soldiers but our losses have been very
different," Scott said softly and took her hand in his. " When Logan said that
he had seen you in your true blue form…. naked…I worried for you. What have he
done to you?"
" No more than any other man have."
" Oh, no," Scott whispered in horror. " Leave him. Come with me. I can't bear
the thought of you going back to that," pain was in his voice.
" I'll survive. I always do," Raven said but a flicker of pain ran over her
eyes. " Besides where should we go? Back to your Professor? I think not."
" I don't know but just walk away from him. Don't you see he is using you?"
Scott asked, this time more harshly.
" And what of Charles? Like he don't use you. You are his legs, the embodiment
of his dream. He have made you all the things he can't be himself," Raven said
just as harshly.
" No," Scott denied but a part of him wondering if she was right. They walked
on in silence, each deep in thought. They reached a bench and they sat down.
" Are you alright? Really? Why were you out here at this time?" Scott asked
after a long silence.
" I…I just needed some fresh air," Raven said and turned away from him. The
years they had spent on the streets together gave him a grim suspicion and he
gently turned her face towards him. With skilled fingers he caressed her right
cheek. It felt fine and soft. He felt the other one. She flickered when his
fingers ran over it and he felt that her cheek was very warm. He knew what it
meant, it had happened often enough in the past.
" Who did this?" Scott demanded to know, his voice cold and hard. She
shook her head.
" It doesn't matter."
" It does to me," Scott said softly and she finally looked him in the eyes.
" Creed. He has a violent temper."
" Which he unleashes on you. That bastard!" Scott swore. Raven just shrugged
her shoulders.
" It'll heal."
" I know. Turn back to your true form so I can see how bad it is," Scott asked
softly. Brown eyes looked at his red shaded eyes for a while. When they had
lived on the streets he had lived as a blind, which meant that even though he
was a fast learner, people often took advantage of him because of his handicap.
He had found a safe harbour with her and she with him. Even though he had been
blind he had been able to do a lot of things for her and with her. It had been
because of him she had been able to live with herself despite the life she had
been forced to live. He had been the one who had introduced her to books. He
had said he had read a lot before his mutation had forced him to close his eyes
for what he had thought to be forever. She had never learned to read so Scott
had told her tales when she awoke in the afternoon. Tales of brave knights and
beautiful ladies who didn't have the curse of blue skin. Stories of
indescribable riches and happy endings. All they had been sure they would never
have, living in Raven's small apartment. They would rarely discuss their work
but Scott helped her with the rent. He didn't like what she had to do for them
to be able to have a roof over their heads so he did what he could. He begged
for money, did odd jobs and things that both he and she wanted to forget. When
she came home in the early morning hours he'll always be there. He never said a
word of disapproval for he knew there was no other way. If a customer had been
rough with her, he'll with gentle fingers bandage her wounds and tell her tales
which took her mind off what she had done during the night. He had been one of
the few who had never been afraid or repulsed by her blue skin and yellow eyes.
So because of that, she slowly turned into her true blue form and for him she
appeared with a white dress on as she knew Scott hated how Magneto had made her
walk around naked, leaving her very vulnerable. Scott turned her left cheek
towards him. It was badly swollen. She must have taken quite a beating.
" I have a first aid kit on the motorcycle," Scott said softly and took her
hand. He led her to it and she sat across on the bike. He opened the kit and
tried to be as gentle as possible while he put some healing ointment on her
abused cheek. She sat still and let him work. She got a nice feeling from
seeing him. It reminded her of when they had been friends.
" Did he hit you other places?" Scott asked with a mixture of sadness and
anger.
" No," Raven answered and the added "Not today" hang between them. Scott nodded
and packed the first aid kit away. To break the uncomfortable silence which had
settled over them Raven said;
" So, how is miss " I'm a Doctor with the perfect family and a perfect
childhood" anyway?"
Scott could clearly hear the anger in her voice. It wasn't towards Jean
personally but what she represented. Jean had had the perfect family with a
father and mother who loved her. She had had all what neither he or she had
ever had. It was more envy than real anger and they both knew it.
" I guess she is fine." Raven looked strangely at him. " We broke up some weeks
ago. You were right. She wasn't for me. I guess I was never what she wanted."
" She wasn't what you wanted either. You just wanted to pretend for a little
while that you were normal. As normal as she with a normal family and normal
past," Raven said insightfully.
" I guess that was it," Scott admitted. Maybe that had been what had drawn him
to Jean in the first place. The illusion of perfection she bore so well. But he
wasn't perfect and in the end it hadn't worked.
" So, she is with Wolverine now?" Raven asked and anger was in her voice. That
son of a bitch had tried to kill her!
" She wants to be but Logan loves Rogue and she loves him. But Logan does have
a "thing" for Jean and Bobby has a crush on Rogue," Scott explained and for the
first time he didn't feel any pain about discussing Jean. Maybe it was Raven's
company.
" `Melrose Place` move over. Here comes `Xavier's School`," Raven mumbled and
Scott laughed. Only Raven could bring this side forth in him and they both knew
it. When Scott's eyes fell on Raven's abused blue cheek, he became serious again.
" What ties you to Magneto?"
" What ties you to Charles?" Raven shot back. Scott thought for a while.
" I feel I owe him for helping me get an education and for giving me my sight
back even if it is only in shades of red."
" You have repaid him ten fold," Raven said gently. Scott softly caressed her
right cheek.
" Yes, I guess I have. What about you and Magneto?"
" It was a place to stay. A way to survive."
" I could help you. You helped me when we were on the streets. You took care of
me. Let me now take care of you," Scott whispered gently.
" I…I would like that," Raven admitted as Scott bent his head towards her and
their lips neared. But just before he was to kiss her she changed skin. Her
blue skin became white and her red hair became longer, her yellow eyes; green.
" Raven! What are you doing?" Scott asked as he drew back.
" I…isn't this what you want to see? Who you love? Who you want to kiss?" Raven
asked in Jean's voice.
" No. I want to see Raven, the true Raven who I have always loved, first with a
child's innocence and now with a man's certainty. I now know that I broke up
with Jean because I had seen you again. Because I had finally found you again.
Because I knew that it was you I wanted to have in my arms and not her," Scott
said lovingly.
" But…she is so beautiful," Raven protested.
" Her beauty is only skin-deep. Your beauty is unmatched."
" She is perfect," Raven protested weakly as if she couldn't believe his words;
were afraid to believe them.
" No. She never was and no human being ever will be. You and I, we have faults.
We have been through Hell together and survived. We are two of a kind. You'll
understand my nightmares and I'll understand yours. We have both been used but
together we are stronger than them. We can do this. Together," Scott said
softly and Raven's skin returned to blue, her eyes to yellow and her hair
became shorter.
" You...truly like what you see now?" Raven asked nervously. No man had ever
kissed her in her true form. Scott cubed her face in his hands as his lips
neared hers.
" No. I love what I see before me," he whispered as his red glance was on her
face as their lips finally meet in a passionately kiss. As they drew apart
Raven smiled at him.
" So, I guess you have a plan?"
" For once I'm glad to say no. Let's just drive away together and see where the
road takes us. For once let us be free. Free from everything… free and
together," he said as he seated himself on the bike and she sat behind him in
her true blue form that she could show as long as it was dark.
" That sounds good to me, Scott. In fact, it sounds wonderful," Raven whispered
as she leaned against his back. Scott started the bike and they drove off to
parts unknown.