Thanks to:

Steph14Wales – I was a bit worried about the twist, nice to know it worked!

Charmed1s – I hurried! Fastest update ever!

X00001 – loadsa Forge goodness in this chap!

DemonRogue13 – thanks! I'm not planning on a Scott/Rogue thing, but I do have something in mind for One-Eye…

Zeroeye – yeah, I'm a bad girl! I didn't see Lance going back to the Brotherhood after what happened, but never say never.

Rogue14 – thanks! This soon enough?

King-Cold – I don't need an excuse to turn into a slop, lol! It would be totally awkward for Forge and I think the Evo writers missed an excellent chance to introduce Graydon and give Rogue and Kurt an evil big bro.

Wen1 – Agatha up in this chapter!

LadyEvils – Mystiques plans for Forge are revealed in this chapter…

Risty – I love Forge too, he's cool - but no one's as cool as Mystique! Glad the summing-up worked.

XX-Goth-Gal – I'm assuming that her hair's still red. Hope so anyway! White-haired Jean is too weird. And Mystique and Sabretooth didn't go grey (laughs hysterically at the image)! Answers to the Tabby question are in this chapter!

Furygrrl – I thought they were a great comic book couple in spite of (or maybe because of) their lack of trust in each other. I agree with UniversalAnimeGirl too and I'm gonna have a lot of fun with THAT little development!

Disclaimer: GOAL! GOAL!! What? Oh yeah, I don't own blah blah blah. . .ROONEY! ROONEY! Two one, twooo one! OK, promise never to update during the footie again.

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"Guess who's back."

Blob choked on his sandwich as he looked up to see Mystique at the front door. Pietro squeaked. Toad jumped down from his perch on the back of the settee and hopped in front of her.

"Hey, i-i-is it really you?"

In response, Mystique picked him up and threw him into a wall. He landed in a heap and groaned. "Yeah, it's you."

Mystique glared at Pietro and Fred as they hurried into the hall. "You pathetic lazy clods have destroyed my house!"

Fred rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Uh, we've been kinda thinking about cleanin up."

"Do that. And while you're at it, grow some backbone! What happened to the team of tough mutants I assembled?"

"What are you talking about?" protested Pietro. "We're as tough as ever!"

"Are you? When was the last time you beat the X-Men? Oh, I know – never! They've outshined you at every level…"

"Let me guess. You must be Mystic."

The three boys cringed as they saw Tabitha walking down the stairs, pausing at the halfway point. Crossing the boss was never a good idea.

"Try Mystique. And this is my home and my rules. Rule number one – move out of my room. You can have Rogues old room."

"Yeah?" Tabby created a largish bomb in her hands. "What makes you think I'd want to stay at Moron Manor with you running the show again?"

Before Tabby could act, Pietro sped up the stairs and grabbed the bomb out of her hands. "Not a good idea, Boom-Boom." He tossed the explosive to Fred, who looked around frantically for somewhere to dispose of it, before handing it to Todd, picking him up and throwing him into the other room. Pietro raced back down the stairs and stood beside Fred again, the two boys giving innocent smiles and pretending they couldn't hear the blast or the scream.

Mystique ignored the whole scene, not taking her eyes from the girl. "You'll stay. I know the recent spate of drained video games and payphones in Bayville are down to you and with your record, this time you'll be going to Juvenile Hall. It'd be a shame if some one were to hand over the evidence."

Tabby glared at her. "You're lying."

"I'm not. It's easy for a security guard or police officer to obtain certain videotapes. And you're too reckless to take precautions to hide your identity. Get the picture, Bam-Bam?"

"Fine. Whatever." Tabitha slowly descended the rest of the stairs and stood with Pietro and Fred, a sullen look on her face.

"She learns fast, unlike the rest of you." Mystique smirked at the girl.

Pietro shrugged. "Yeah, well, just where've you been all this time?"
"All you need to know is that I'm back. And those arrogant little X-Men are going to get knocked down a peg."

Todd rejoined the group, his hair sticking straight up, as Mystique stood aside to allow another person to enter the house. "Meet your new secret weapons."

The first person to walk through the door was Forge, who stopped beside Mystique and grinned at the Brotherhood. None of them recognised him. The second person was more familiar – to one of them at least.

"Wanda?"

"PIETRO!"

Mystique smirked as the Brotherhood house descended into chaos. Forge watched the scene nervously. "Shouldn't we stop her?"

"We should…but let's just wait a minute."

Allowing herself a few more moments to enjoy the panic, Mystique eventually motioned to their third newcomer to enter. The elderly woman walked over the threshold, used her mind to pull Wanda backwards and calmed her by chanting in a language that none of the others in the house could fathom.

As Wanda was led away by Agatha, Pietro jumped out from his hiding place behind the couch. "Are you outta your mind bringing Wanda here? Can't you see how dangerous she is? She's like a witch with those powers!"

"And that's precisely what makes her so valuable to our little cause. Anyway, you needn't worry. As you can see I've brought an old friend, Agatha Harkness, to teach her to focus her anger into unbeatable power! And this is Forge. He's able to create devices that can do practically anything."

Obligingly, Forge demonstrated to the Brotherhood how he could transform his arm into various tools. Most of them seemed impressed, but Pietro was too frantic to pay any attention to the other boy.

"Just what makes you think she's gonna co-operate with us? You might have noticed, I'm not one of her favourite people."

"She'll co-operate." Mystique smiled. "When I downloaded Xavier's files from Cerebro, I found a complete psychological profile from his sessions with Wanda. She'll do what's needed because I can give her the one thing she wants most – revenge."

That explains why she's here, thought Tabby, taking a glance over at Forge, who was gazing at Mystique. And I can see why he's staying. But me – I'm trapped. I have no choice.

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Cyclops surveyed the darkened mall. "Alright, let's split up. Spyke and I will take the first floor. The rest of you, check out the balconies."

Kitty and Lance headed up the stairs, keeping an eye out for the Brotherhood. The couple had barely spoken to their former teammates since arriving back in Bayville, all their attempts to be friendly usually being returned by insults. It was Kitty who first noticed the shadowy figure in the dress shop. She silently phased through the wall and tackled the person, phasing them both through the window. Only then did she notice that she was fighting a mannequin.

"It's not your colour anyway," said Lance with a grin.

"Fun-eee." Kitty stood up and glared at him. "I don't see – "

Suddenly, Lance was engulfed by a blue light and a second later, he vanished. Kitty stared at the spot where he had been standing and then ran over and waved her hand around to prove that he had really gone.

"LANCE!"

She turned around and became intangible just in time. A beam of blue energy passed harmlessly through her and she saw the shooter step out of the shadows, weapon in hand. She could hardly believe who it was.

"Forge? What are you doing here? What did you do to Lance?"

"He's fine." Forge raised the device slightly. "It's just a teleporter. He's… somewhere."

Another beam passed above Kitty's head as she phased through the floor, re-emerging in front of Forge and passing a hand through the teleporter. It emitted a shower of sparks and a puff of smoke. As Forge gaped at his ruined invention, Kitty knocked him into a wall with a solid kick to the head. Without bothering to check on him, she ran off through the mall looking for Lance.

Lance found himself transported without warning into a light fitting shop. He sank to his knees, nauseous and completely disoriented.

Man, how does Kurt do this all the time? I'd go nuts!

When the bomb landed in front of him, he threw himself backwards just in time. The explosion scorched the floor and illuminated the room, revealing Tabitha in a corner.

"Hi handsome."

"Boom-Boom?"

She threw a bunch of bombs, forcing him to dodge them. Several hit lamps and decorative shades, throwing coloured glass across the room. Tabitha whooped and produced another handful. Quickly, Lance started an earth tremor beneath her feet, causing her to stumble and throw the bombs in the air, most of them hitting a crystal chandelier. The explosion severed the chandelier from the ceiling and it fell, hitting Tabby in the shoulder, knocking her over and pinning her to the ground.

Letting himself out of the door, Lance heard Kitty frantically calling his name. "I'm over here."

Kitty raced into view and threw herself into his arms. "I thought you were like, trapped in Middleverse or something! Forge joined the Brotherhood!"

"Yeah, and I just had to take care of Tabitha. Something weird's going on."

"We'd better go tell the others."

They found Scott and Rogue in the main part of the mall, having just taken care of Toad. Kurt bamfed over to them and Evan rushed out of the exploding electronics shop. They listened to Lance and Kitty's revelations with growing incredulity.

"Forge joined the Brotherhood?" Rogue looked pissed. "What is with him?"

"And I don't zink Tabitha vould really vant to fight us," added Kurt.

Behind them, the escalator burst into life. As they turned to see what was going on, a figure stepped on to it and rode down.

"Uh-oh," murmured Evan. "Bad vibes."

Upon seeing the X-Men, Wanda held out her hands – and lights all over the mall began exploding and a piano crashed through the window of the music shop and flew towards them. Scott fired at it, but to his amazement the beam curved and knocked out a window. The X-Men dived out of the way of the piano, but Scott's optic blast continued to fire, cutting through the floor and knocking Evan backwards into a sporting goods shop.

"Knock it off Cyclops!" yelled Lance in alarm.

"I can't!" Scott tried in vain to turn off his visor. "I can't control it – I can't close my eyes!"

Lance sent an earth tremor at Wanda. She stumbled for a moment, then waved her hand in his direction, causing the quake to turn back, first knocking Rogue into a wall, then loosing the wall beside which Lance was stood. Lance was forced to dive out of the way, being pelted by falling mortar but avoiding being buried.

Evan skateboarded out of the sporting goods shop and hurled a bunch of spikes at Wanda. Before they could touch her they curved back towards Evan, forcing him to abandon the board and run for cover. Kitty tried to sneak up behind the girl by phasing up through the floor, but to her horror she got stuck halfway.

"Help! I can't move!"

"Don't vorry, I've got you." Kurt grabbed Kitty's arm and teleported, intending to reappear beside the other X-Men. Instead the pair materialised outside in mid-air, falling into a tree. Kurt looked around in confusion. "How'd ve get out here?"

Inside, Lance picked himself up just in time to see Scott's optic blast cut through the support beam of the stairway above him. Too far away to push the boy out of the way, Lance caused an earth tremor that threw Scott away from the falling concrete. Finally, Cyclops managed to close his eyes.

Lance glanced around at the destruction of the mall. "Come on, let's get outta here!"

"NO!" yelled Scott. "It's not over!"

"Yes it is," replied Rogue as she helped him to his feet. "Let's go."

The X-men fled the scene, utterly defeated, their last view before they left being the other Brotherhood members gathering around Wanda. They smirked at the retreating teens and Tabitha blew them a kiss as they ran away, the grin on her face disguising the pain in her eyes.