ch11: the cat's out of the bag
"Okay, now I want you to close your eyes. Listen only to the sound of my voice," the professor explained. He watched as Jean closed her eyes like he instructed.
"Think back to the first day Mystique attacked you on the X-jet," The professor instructed. "Go to the moment you touched her arm. What do you see?"
Jean remembered back to the moment when all Mystique's memories came rushing into her head. "It's all random memories," Jean explained, trying to make sense of it all.
"The memories are like a movie. You can slow them down, pause, or fast forward if you wish. Now, what do you see?"
Jean did as the Professor had explained and tried to slow down what seemed to be random images. What she'd thought were memories, were in fact Mystique's ideas. "They're not memories," Jean explained out loud. "She was thinking about her plan to use the device, once she'd gotten it back."
"Good. That's good. What was she planning?" The professor pressed. Hank and Kurt sat on a couch on the other side of the room, with Logan leaning on the large armrest. They all sat silently, curious as to what Mystique was up to. Logan had mentioned to the professor on numerous occasions that he could've sworn he could smell the remnants of Mystique's odour, but he didn't take full notice of it until Scott mentioned that maybe someone was toying with Jean. And now, Logan was curious as to why Mystique had a knack for wanting to attack Jean.
Jean closed her eyes harder, in an attempt to help pull the memory out. In her head, Jean felt Mystique's remorse for knocking Rogue unconscious, then how her mind flicked back, almost instantaneously, onto the thought of obtaining the device.
"Jean," The professor said, trying to get Jean to reply.
Suddenly, Jeans eyes shot open, with a look of horror and shock on her face. "Oh my god!" was all that she could say to explain what she had figured out.
"Vat is it!" Kurt cried, almost slipping off the couch because he was leaning so far forward.
The professor held his hand up at Kurt, as if telling him to be quiet. He then turned his attentions back to Jean, once Kurt had positioned himself back on the couch. "What did you see?" he asked, repeating Kurt's question.
Jean was almost too afraid to say it, but she had to none the less. "Mystique's planning to use the device to switch herself and the professor!" Jean replied, horrified at what she was saying. "From there, she planned to make us believe it was him so we could help her at her attempt world domination. And if we didn't fall for the trick, she was going to kill us all.
"It's almost too horrifying to think what Mystique would do with all that power!" Hank exclaimed. The professor nodded.
"Well you are one of the most powerful mutants around, Chuck," Logan replied.
Kurt jumped off the couch and leaned back on the huge arm rest. "So vat are ve going to do?"
"For now, we try harder to figure out how to switch Jean and Rogue back," the professor explained. He then turned his attentions to Hank and Logan. "And then we destroy it."
Mystique stomped her way around the brotherhood mansion. Only Toad and Blob were left, as Lance and Pietro were off with Magneto. It only made her angrier that she had to put up with the two bumbling idiots, instead of a kick-ass team like the arcolytes or the X-men. Then it occurred to her that she works better alone. 'Still, it'd be good to have someone back me up for a change,' she thought to herself. She stomped up to her room, ignoring the strange looks from Toad and Blob. The two boys knew better than to talk her when she was in one of her moods. When she got in her room, she locked the door and leaned her back on it, hunching her shoulders in fatigue.
"What's wrong Mystique," a familiar deep voice said. "You look tired." Mystique looked up and saw Magneto laying across her bed, with his helmet sitting idly next to him. It was an unusual site to see Magneto, a man who has screwed her over many times, often leaving her to fend for herself in a battle, was casually laying across her bed, as if he were the Queen of Sheba.
"What do you want, Eric?" She hissed. She stayed where she was, not wanting to go near Magneto because she was suspicious that he might try pull something shifty.
"I heard something very interesting from Avalanche that peaked my attention," he replied, casually sliding off the bed and standing up.
"Oh, and what was that?" she asked snidely, knowing full well what he was talking about.
"I need you to get me that device," he replied in his deep toned voice.
Mystique let out a chuckle. "And why would I want to help you?" she hissed. "You'll just leave me on the side of the road to rot if I help you!"
"You don't want to make me mad, Mystique," Magneto threatened.
"I'm not frightened of you, Eric," She smiled evilly. "You say you don't need me, but I know you've never disposed of me after all those years because you need me to do the dirty work that your lackeys just aren't capable of," She explained in a know-it-all voice.
Magneto smiled at her and let out a little grunt. He knew she was right. "What can I say," he shrugged, letting out a little smile. His face then changed into something more serious. "I'm not joking, you know. I need that device," he explained, getting back to business.
"And what's in it for me?" She asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.
"What do you want?" asked the white haired man.
"To be able to use it for my own doings before I hand it over to you," She replied, sitting herself down on her desk, crossing her arms.
"So, are you going to tell me what you need it for?" Magneto asked.
"You'll know when I've used it," She smiled evilly. Oh! And I get to keep it for as long as I need to do what I need to do."
"No. You have a week. After that, I need it," he demanded.
"Why the urgency, Eric?" She asked suspiciously. "What or who are you planning to use it on?"
Magneto picked up his helmet and slowly walked towards the window. He used his powers of magnetism to unlock the latch and slide the window up. "You'll know when I've used it," He replied before effortlessly floating out the window.
She watched Magneto leave before calling Toad to her room. "I have a little job for you," she explained.
Jean walked around the mall with Rogue. Due to sheer boredom, the two girls, despite their differences, decided to go window shopping (after a bit of protest from Rogue). The prom was in a month, and even though they'd both agreed to miss out on it, given their 'condition', they still window shopped for dresses that they could have worn.
"Ah never thought ah'd say it, but ah miss school," Rogue commented, as she looked at a black dress in the shop window next to her.
Jean saw the dress Rogue was looking at while she took a sip of her smoothie. "I was really looking forward to prom. Duncan had been talking about it since the start of the year," Jean explained. She let out a little giggle in order to hide her disappointment. "I didn't want to go with Duncan. I would have rather have gone with Scott," Jean said, trying to hide her sadness. It killed her to think that she, little miss popular, had to miss out on her senior prom.
"Yeah. Remy wanted tah go more than ah wanted tah. He never got tah go to any proms, so he told me he wanted to go since Kitty mentioned she was going tah help organise it," Rogue explained.
"Yo!"
The girls turned around to see who had called out. Surprisingly, it was Toad. He tried to walk up to them, even though he usually hopped around. Given that he was in a crowded mall, he tried to at least look semi human by walking on two feet. "Yo! Wait up!" he called as if they were his best friends.
Rogue huffed when she saw who it was. "Trying tah pass for human?" she said in her usual annoyed tone.
"Don't get your panties in a twist," He rebutted. "I just wanted to talk to ya's," Toad explained. Rogue and Jean stood motionless, waiting for Toad to start saying what he wanted to say. He stood facing the girls, wondering why they were staring at him. "What?"
"What did yah wanna tell us?"
"Nothing. Is it that hard for you to accept that I wanna hang out with ya's?" Toad asked.
Jean and Rogue looked at each other, then back at Toad. They both looked at him suspiciously. "You wanna hang out with us?" Jean asked. She pointed her finger at herself, then at Rogue, then back at herself to emphasise a point.
"Yeah, well.." Toad looked at his feet because he was partly embarrassed. "Lance and Pietro are living with Magneto, and I don't wanna hang out with Blob too much so.."
"You wanna hang out with us?" Rogue asked, still not believing it.
"So? You used to be part of our team once, yo!" He huffed.
"Well, ah got the hell outah there as soon as ah figured out who was the enemy!" She replied defensively. She crossed her arms and glared at the greasy guy in front of her. "What do yah really want?" She asked. She was getting fed up and suspicious of Toad. She quickly used her telepathic powers and tried to quickly read his mind. She then smiled, satisfied with knowing why he was really there. "Mystique send you to do her dirty work?"
"How did you..?" When he realised that the cat's out of the bag, he stopped with the masquerade. "Okay, ya got me!" He waved his hands about and then put them back in his pockets. "Mystique wants me to give ya'll a message."
Rogue and Jean returned from the shops, a little unnerved by what Toad had said. "When do we tell the Professor?" Rogue asked.
"We don't. Well, not right now anyway," Jean explained. "Maybe tonight."
"Ah dunno," Rogue sounded uneasy. "Why wait so long?! It's something he's gonna wanna know ASAP!"
"No! Tonight." Jean said more sternly.
Rogue took a step back. Jean had taken full control of the situation. Rogue disagreed with what Jean thought and she wasn't afraid to voice it. "Well, ah think we should tell him now. But if we wait until tonight, it's your ass," Rogue still holding her smoothie cup, pointed to Jean with the cup. The straw was pointed right at Jean's nose. Rogue stared at Jean, as if waiting for Jean's reaction, but there wasn't any. She then grunted and walked off down the hall.
Rogue headed for Hank's lab. He'd asked her to swing past his lab in the afternoon to pick up the results of Remy's paternity test. Rogue prayed to God that the boy wasn't Remy's, but at the same time she was scared. What if the boy really was his? Would Remy stay there with Belladonna, 'the bitch,' or bring the boy and Bella to the mansion? Rogue didn't realise that she was biting her nails until she bumped into Logan who was turning the corner and smacked into her. The impact made Rogue's hand push into her face and she accidentally scratched her lip with her nail.
"Sorry, Stripes," Logan apologized. He saw that Rogue's lip now sported a long red line, with tiny red dots forming. The scratch wasn't enough to bleed, but it was enough to make a noticeable line that'll last at least a few days. "You okay?" He asked after he checked out the scratch.
Rogue could feel her lip burning, so she kept her cold fingers on it, hoping that it'll help. "Yah'll be fine," She mumbled behind her fingers.
"Where ya headed in such a hurry?" Logan asked. He was terribly bored. He'd already spent three non-stop hours in the danger room and there was nothing left to do around the mansion. Usually, he would've gone riding his motorbike for a couple of days. The smell of fresh pine trees and wind breezing over his face is relaxing to him. But the professor gave him strict orders to stay at the mansion now that they suspected that Mystique had been roaming round the mansion undetected.
"Tah Mr McCoy's lab. He's got the results tah Remy's DNA test," She explained.
"Mind if I come?" He asked. "I'm a little curious myself," Logan ran his hand though his hair. It messed up, but then fell back into place.
"Alright," She smiled. She gave Logan a playful push as she walked past him to get to Hank's lab. After a couple of twist and turns, the two of them reached Hank's lab. He was reciting poetry to himself as he looked down into a microscope.
Logan cleared his throat to get Hank's attention. "Are we disturbing you, Hank?" Logan asked.
Hank looked up from the microscope and smiled. "Not at all," he replied. Still sitting on his stool, he pushed off from the bench and the chair wheeled across the lab to the opposite bench. Hank picked up a brown manilla folder and handed it to Rogue. "I have the results for you, Rogue." He said as she took the folder. Logan stood behind Rogue and read the result from over her shoulder.
Rogue's eyes widened as she read the results. "Ah hafta contact Remy!"
"How?" Logan asked. "You said he didn't give you a phone number to call him back on."
"Hey, ahm a psychic now. Ah'll find him my own way," Rogue smiled before leaving the room.
Rogue ran to her room, making sure she grabbed the cordless phone from the rec room on the way. She wanted to make sure that no one was using the phone if Remy tried to ring like last time. It had been a while since she first contacted Remy. She sat on her bed and picked up the photo of herself and Remy off her bedside table and closed her eyes.
"Remy," She whispered. Just like last time, she imagined herself flying over Bayville and towards New Orleans. Her mind dragged her through a market place and then down underground. She was looking into the Thieves Guild, under the marketplace. Remy was sitting with who she assumed to be Jean Luc. The man looked like he was in his fifties, and was completely bald. He looked well built for someone his age, but at the same time, he looked tired. Remy was sitting opposite the man at a small wooden table. They were both drinking rum as they spoke.
"Remy!" Rogue called out. She watched as Remy suddenly stopped talking and looked around the room.
"Rogue?" Remy called out.
'Why cant he see me this time!?' she thought to herself. She tried harder and focussed her attentions on Remy. She knew he could see her now by the look on his face.
"Rogue!" He smiled. "So good t'see you!" He stood up from the table and walked closer towards her. Jean Luc looked as if he'd seen a ghost. By looking away from Remy, Rogue started to lose her connection and she could feel that her astral projection would soon fail.
"Remy, ah gottah be quick. The boy isn't yours!" Rogue said quickly before losing her connection with Remy.
author's notes: sorry this chapter took so bloody long! Its nearing the end of yr here and I got exams in 10 days.. so next chapter mite not b 4 a while! So ya's like this chapter eh? it getts better!! dun dun DAAAAAHHHNN!!!