Across the endless reaches of time and space the five spirits flew towards their destination, how long or far they flew cannot be measured, as distance and time meant nothing to them. Presently they began to drift away from each other and as they did their shapes started to change, they seemed to collapse in on themselves and brilliant glows surrounded them, shades of red and green, blue and white, purples and colours that could not be described until only five shapeless coloured energy forms were left and with one mighty flash they disappeared.
The red energy flew silently through dimensions and universes as if locked onto something; eventually it slowed enough to travel through a universe rather than past it. The energy kept slowing until it came to a complete stop just outside a rather small spiral galaxy, there the flowing energy calmed almost to the point of complete stop then it intensified and shot of into one of the spirals arms, it kept going until it had entered a cluster of stars that when viewed from afar looked like a milky-white bar. The point it entered was a solar system with nine planets held by a small star, the energy drifted until it had reached the third planet from the star, here it came to a complete stop once again and the glow intensified. This planet was unique from the others in that it held life. Blues and greens that signified oceans and forests could be identified, as the energy's intense glow continued to grow it fired a transparent beam that hit a large landmass in the middle west of the planet quickly the beam travelled to a part of the landmass that was a darker and denser green than the rest, the second the beam touched that place it turned from red to violet blue, the energy shuddered for a second and began to lower itself into the planets atmosphere.
Raven Darkholme woke with a start staring wildly around the room, sweat poured off her forehead as she took stock of where she was, breathing a sigh of relief she began to calm herself, 'I'm still in my room she told herself, still in this dreary castle and still with Eric.' turning slowly she gazed at the man sharing a bed with her that could of easily held four people and a smile lit her features. Getting slowly out of her bed she slipped on her nightgown and stood in front of the mirror examining her body, a young beautiful woman stared back at her with long, soft raven black hair, brown eyes and fair complexion. Raven sighed briefly this wasn't her real body, memories flooded back as she looked at her reflection she could see the day eight years ago when she first took this name and form. She had went to an elite party under the guise of a foreign lady of wealth in the hope off finding some rich old baron on his last legs so she could marry him and take his money when he died, so it had been quite unusual choice she made when a pale skinned young man walked over and shyly inquired if she would like to dance, she said yes. That decision changed her life. She spent the rest of the night in his arms talking and dancing and when it was time to leave she went arm in arm back to his castle in the black forest of Germany, she never left. Within six months they had married and the years that followed were the happiest of Ravens life.
'But he doesn't know everything does he' a voice in back of her head whispered 'you forgot to tell him about what you did before he met you, you haven't shown who he really married have you?' A sob escaped Ravens body as almost unconsciously she began to change. Her skin turned dark blue, her black hair became shoulder length and turned a deep shade of red, her features became more defined, and by the time the change was finished only the pain held in her now blue grey eyes remained the same. Other memories stirred in her mind as she looked with glassy eyes at her original body, memories of taking the forms of senators and powerful men to further her goals while the real people lay in shallow graves in ditches and swamps, blowing up the buildings of people she was told to kill and most of all she remembered the day she had been given the name Mystique. A sudden grunt behind from the bed brought her back to her senses quickly transforming back into Raven she turned and walked slowly back to her husband.
'Did I wake you Eric my love?' she asked softly
'Of course not liebchen' said Eric 'but I was having the oddest dream'
'What was it?'
'I'm not sure' he replied 'but I could of sworn I saw a woman with red hair standing where you were.'
'So thinking of another woman are we? Well I'll just have remedy that won't I,' and with a small seductive smile on her face she got back into bed and forgot about everything else but the moment.
High above the castle's rooftops the energy form floated downwards its red colour now turning blue; it came to a stop just above the castle and intensified its glow again and fired its strange light searching for something. As the glow travelled through each room the energy grew more agitated, it had tracked its goal to this place and yet what it searched for did not seem to be there, a sudden movement caught its attention and it focused is glow on that room. As it searched the room it could make out two life forms entangled with each other, there seemed to be something strange happening as each tome they moved a strange light appeared in one of the life forms. Though the energy had no thought or emotion it somehow knew that the light in the life form was what it had searched for and as the light increased the energy readied itself, it had been ingrained into it that it could only strike once and only at the right moment or it and its target would cease to exist. It waited watching silently as the light increased pulsating, growing faster until,
NOW! The command burst through what consciousness the energy had, a command that could not be resisted, down below the light between the two life forms had reached its peak no longer pulsing, it now blazed like a new Sun. There was no hesitation, the energy shot like a bullet straight at the light while it still burned in the life form, it flew straight into the room through the first life form and down into the core of the light in the second life form faster than the eye could see. Raven shuddered as she curled up next to her husband feeling at that moment happiness so complete it was almost ecstasy, she sighed once and went to sleep; meanwhile deep inside her a single fertilised egg lay, it glowed red, then deep blue and began to grow.