Impacted

The following morning did little to lift the X-Men's spirits. "I'm afraid I have bad news," Xavier sighed.

"More bad news?" Kurt asked idly stirring his cereal with his spoon.

"I'm afraid so. As of now…The mutant ban is back in place at Bayville High," Xavier sighed.

"I'm amazed they allowed us to keep our diplomas," Scott grumbled. "Of course sending them through the mail all dented and nearly ripped wasn't exactly the way I wanted to get mine."

"It's because of what happened at the ceremony isn't it?" Rogue asked softly.

"Rogue what happened wasn't your fault," Jean reached out to her. "Mesmero and Mystique…" Rogue didn't stay to hear the rest. She ran off out of the room. "Rogue!"

"Let her go," Logan told her. "She needs time to cool down."

"Well one good thing came out of all this," Bobby grunted. "At least that witch Mystique is solid stone now. Serves her right."

"Bobby!" Kitty hissed looking over at Kurt.

"Sorry man," Bobby said to Kurt. "But you gotta admit if anybody deserves to be turned into a rock, it's her!"

"I'm not hungry any more," Kurt said stiffly and teleported to his room.

"Nice work Popsicle," Logan grunted. "Although I gotta agree with you on this one."

"Well we are trying to restore her," Hank said.

"Don't try too hard," Logan said. "After the stuff she's pulled on us she doesn't deserve a second chance."

"That's not for you to decide Logan," Peter remarked.

"Why are you defending the witch?" Remy snapped. "It may hurt Rogue and Kurt now but truth is we're all better off without her!"

"Gambit's right," Scott said. "One less enemy to fight as far as I'm concerned."

"True I do not care for Mystique but I do care for Rogue and Kurt," Peter remarked.

"Yeah so maybe we should try to go easy on them for a while okay?" Kitty asked. "Where's Magneto anyway?"

"He's gone off trying to hunt down Apocalypse," Xavier sighed.

"I've recognized the look in his eyes," Remy remarked. "Right after Apocalypse escaped he was like a madman. It was months before he settled down."

"Something tells me that now Apocalypse has the Eye of Ages, he will not wait that long," Xavier frowned.

************************************************************************

A week passed and nothing. "Are you sure there was nothing we could have done for her?" Jean asked Xavier and Hank.

"Jean we've tried everything known to science and then some," Hank shook his head. "There's just no way to tell if she's even alive, much less restore her."

"But did you really have to give her away like that?" Jean asked.

"Jean you know how much having Mystique here upsets Rogue," Xavier said softly. "She's had enough to deal with already. It's telling Kurt that troubles me."

"Tell me what?" Kurt walked into the room. "Where's Mystique?"

"She's not here Kurt," Hank hesitated.

"I can see that," Kurt looked at him. "Where is she?"

"With the Misfits," Xavier told him.

"WHAT?" Kurt shouted.

"There was nothing more we could do," Xavier told him. "We ran every test imaginable."

"You gave my mother to the Misfits!" Kurt gasped. "HOW COULD YOU?"

"Kurt…" Jean was about to say something when Kurt teleported away. "Well he took that well."

"Not that I blame the boy," Hank sighed. "Although why he cares about Mystique is beyond me. Especially after how she treated him and Rogue."

"Well all we can do is try and help the two of them recover as best we can," Xavier sighed. "Before Apocalypse makes his move."

"Whatever that is," Hank sighed.

***********************************************************************

"All right what have I told you guys about using Mystique to scare Lance?" Althea stormed in on Pietro, Todd and Fred. Todd was currently dancing with Mystique. "Todd will you stop playing with her?"

"Hey what goes around comes around," Todd remarked as he twirled her around.

"Yeah she played around with us enough times," Fred huffed.

"You know you clods should try and contact Agatha Harkness," Wanda remarked as she walked in.

"Your old tutor?" Althea asked.

"She might be able to restore her," Wanda told them.

"And why would we want to do that?" Todd asked.

"Because she's my mother!" Kurt stormed in with Trinity.

"He called us and asked us to bring him over," Daria said.

"Stop fooling around with my mother!" Kurt shouted as Todd twirled Mystique around.

"No Kurt your mom is back in Germany," Todd told him. "This lady may be your genetic donor but she's never treated you like her own kid!"

"She's still family no matter what!" Kurt grabbed her from Todd. Looking at Wanda he asked. "Can you arrange a meeting with Agatha for me?"

"Yeah I got her address a while back," Wanda nodded. "I think I can have the triplets teleport her later tonight actually."

"Good I'll take her home," Kurt nodded.

"You'd better be careful that Rogue doesn't find out," Todd remarked. "She might smash Mystique into itty bitty pieces. Not that that's a bad thing."

Kurt glared at him and left with the Triplets and Mystique. "Well it was fun while it lasted," Fred shrugged. "Anybody wanna watch TV?"

"Yeah why not?" Pietro shrugged.

Several hours later the Misfits were all watching television. "For the last time Mary Ann is superior to Ginger in every way!" Lance snapped as he and Fred returned from the kitchen.

"Oh god not this argument again!" Pietro groaned. "Hey something's on the TV! Turn it up!"

They watched. "Oh man!" Todd remarked. "Roadblock! Roadblock!" He hopped over to find the adults in the kitchen. "Hey guys, you know how Xavier was saying we had to wait and see what Apocalypse was planning? Well I don't think we have to wait any longer! Come see!"

They ran to the television. "We are reporting live from Mexico," A reporter from the news spotlighted a huge purple energy dome. "A strange energy dome had appeared above this Mayan pyramid. Scientists are baffled but it has been confirmed that the source of this dome is mutant related. Right now the mutant team known as the X-Men are trying to get readings on this strange phenomenon."

They watched as the equipment exploded. "Apparently with no results," The reporter said.

"Oh goody," Pietro groaned. "Way to go X-Geeks!"

"It's not their fault," Lance told him. "If Apocalypse made that thing there's no way anybody could get a reading using normal methods."

"Something is happening now," The reporter spoke. "An unidentified object is hurtling towards the dome at a massive speed."

Something struck the top of the dome. A person emerged from the object before it hit. "Oh this is not good…" Todd gulped as he saw Magneto appear on the television.

"Hawk was right," Lance said. "There's gonna be a showdown."