Raven had gone the extra mile to change her appearance. On with the makeup; gone were the dark clothes- she traded them for brighter, happy sundresses; her flat black hair became rich auburn. It was a new life- why not a new look?
Once Mystique, once Raven, now Michelle.
Raven shook her head- she had lived under hundreds of different identities, man and woman, but she didn't wish to become accustomed to any one in particular. Still- nothing could change her circumstances, so she strived to make the best of things. She had confessed all she knew to the American government, yet Eric had been one step ahead of her, as usual.
Oh, the Brotherhood had met at the location all right- but several days before the date she had overheard him designate. The Brotherhood had moved on, leaving Jamie behind as a distraction for the President's troops. She hadn't counted on that, but luckily she had moved on to her new life as Michelle by the time the special force operatives realized they'd been had.
Jamie had not been recaptured, of course. The man they'd encountered in the woods had been yet another of his duplicates- the real Jamie had been laughing himself silly about it in a bar, miles from the site. Raven didn't know that, though, she had no idea where he was.
She admitted to missing him; he had been a friend, and more or less the "class clown" of their small group during their time at the base. He had made her laugh even when she had been at her most miserable- flirted and complimented when she felt at her most hideous. She hoped that he was all right- she hadn't heard anything about him bring at Alcatraz…
She had watched along with the rest of the world, the unleashed fury of mutant powers. As she had watched, her heart began to thunder and her stomach lurched. It had been nearly a week since then, and she was no closer to finding her place than she had been when first injected with the cure dart.
Perhaps that had been the reason she'd come here, back to Xavier's school for mutants. The stories these walls could tell, she thought. It had been the place that Eric had found her and seduced her with all his promises of mutant domination…
Raven shook her head. Pointless to think about it now. He could be dead- she had no idea what had happened to him. Reports on the news had claimed that they had not found his body. She shivered. That could mean several things- either Eric had escaped, or he had died; she had seen the extent of Phoenix's power. There might not have been a body left to recover at all.
Well, she would know soon enough.
Raven took no time to knock on the door, she walked over the front threshold and glanced around- little had changed,yet everything outside the school had been turned upside down. "Hi, can I help you?"
She turned to find a young blonde man coming closer from down a corridor. He was tall, and very handsome though he seemed timid. Shirtless, as well- lean, tan muscle was corded over his body. Raven bit her lip. She hadn't felt attraction to other men lately- then again, it had been a long time since she had felt anything at all. He came to her and she felt herself returning his smile. He made her feel warm, and much more welcome than she had any right to feel.
The sight of his wings, soft and pristine, made her swoon with envy and a deep longing to reach out and run her hand over his feathers.
"Oh, hi…um, I'm sorry…I-"
"Warren, get back!"
Raven's head snapped to the new voice and she cursed inwardly. 'Aw, shit…'
Logan was barreling down the stairs, straight at her, his claws glinting in the afternoon sun streaming through the windows. She dodged him to the side, ducking around a marble pillar. "Wolverine, stop! Stop, please, you don't understand!"
"Logan, calm down, why are you- who is she?" Warren demanded.
Raven stopped just long enough for Logan to pause and turn to the blonde. "Logan, please stop!"
He turned back to her. "What are you doing here, Mystique?"
Raven flinched inwardly at the use of her name. "I…I came here to talk about what happened-"
"Why? Or better yet, why weren't you there? I was dying to get a second chance at spilling your guts." Logan growled at her.
In spite of the very real danger that Raven knew she was in, she couldn't help but laugh. "I see your brain hasn't evolved, even if your body has. I'm not here to fight you- for once, I'm telling the truth. I just need to talk to the X-men that were on Alcatraz,"
Logan sheathed his claws and moved forward, stalking her as an animal. She could see his nostrils flare, and the sudden understanding in his eyes. "You're a human,"
"That's why I wasn't on Alcatraz with the others. Now can we talk?" She hissed at him.
Warren had stood by, mute as these two former enemies caught up- once he understood that she was in fact a cured mutant, his heart lurched with guilt. Logan looked back to him. "Warren, do me a favor. Get everyone into Storm's office."
Warren nodded, for once not protesting this errand. "Um, yeah, you got it."
Logan turned back to Raven and grabbed her arm, dragging her up the stairs with him. She didn't make much of a protest, only grunted as he hauled her along. He stomped through several corridors, until he finally came to stop in front of a set of double doors. He shouldered them open, to find Ororo seated behind the large oak desk once occupied by Charles Xavier.
"Logan, what are you doing?" she asked.
"Don't bother worrying, this is Mystique,"
At the name, Storm's dark eyes flooded over with white, and Raven glanced out the window to see the sky darkening. "Save it, Storm, I'm not here to hurt anyone,"
"That's a laugh,"
"I mean it! I didn't come here to attack you or the students- for God's sake, stop it!" Raven demanded as the room whipped with strong winds.
"What are you doing here and why the hell should we trust that you're here to do anything but cause trouble?" Storm asked as she called off her winds.
Raven smoothed her hair, though Logan's clamped hands remained locked on her upper arm, squeezing the bicep. "I'm not here to…I'm not with the Brotherhood, I'm not even a mutant anymore...I was 'cured' months ago, I'm human now…I just have to know…"
Logan released her arm, and she slinked over to sit on the suede sofa in the corner, defeated as a whipped dog. "You were cured? You?"
Raven glared at Ororo. "Try not to sound so damn smug, bitch. Yes, I was cured. Now, can we move on? It doesn't matter, it's all over! I'm happy as a human! I just wanted to ask you about a few things that happened on Alcatraz."
Storm glanced over at Logan, who stood in the doorway, always suspicious. Just then, Bobby Drake and Kitty Pryde met up at the office doors. "Hey, you guys wanted to see us?"
Logan moved to the side to let them in.
Storm spoke up. "Hey guys. Um, this is…" she turned to the woman on the couch. Storm couldn't very well call her Mystique now- that name had been tied to her mutation and she didn't want to upset them by announcing that Magneto's favored assassin was lounging in her office.
"Raven is my birth name, but the feds gave me a new identity- Michelle Sanders, isn't that predictable?" Raven rolled her eyes, and then smiled at the two newest members of the X-men. "I just wanted to ask you what you know, or if you saw anything."
Kitty shrugged, "We saw a lot of crazy things that night- you want to narrow it down?"
Raven gave the girl a half-smile and then turned her eyes to Bobby. "You've grown taller since I morphed you,"
"Morphed? You're…Mystique?" he demanded, ice already forming on his hands.
You're not one of us…She sighed and cleared her throat. "Not anymore. I was cured, and it's a long story. I'm not here to fight. I just wanted to know if any of you could tell me what happened to Eric and Pyro."
Raven noted the intense shudder that went around the room. She hadn't asked after Jamie or Cain simply because she hadn't known them long enough to make any true bond. It was John and Eric who had made up her family.
Bobby straightened and then cleared his throat, "Well, John's actually here,"
Raven felt her face brighten and didn't care that she broke out into a large smile- the first in weeks. "John's here? Where?"
Bobby shook his head, "Like I said, he's here, but he got hurt…I mean, nothing life-threatening, but it's a pretty severe concussion. He's been in the sick bay for the last several days."
Relief swept over Raven at the thought that if nothing else, John was alive. She dared to hope. "And…and what about Eric?"
Logan came forward then. "Magneto wasn't so lucky. He and Phoenix were ready to tear Alcatraz and everyone in it apart, we couldn't let that happen. We…defeated both of them. No one has seen him since."
He gestured to Storm's desk, and Raven looked to where he had pointed. On the bookshelf, between old photographs from Charles's past, rested Eric's helmet. A powerful shudder passed through Raven.
All eyes watched closely asshe took in the site of the defeated man's helmet and everything it meant. Her face paled and her eyes flooded over with tears, but she didn't begin to cry. Raven simply stood up, wiped away the tears that touched her cheeks, cleared her throat and demanded to see John.