AN: Sorry I had to repost this chapter because the site screwed up on me and it wouldn't show up.

BACK TO SCHOOL

CHAPTER 19: JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU KNOW SOMEONE

Everyone there was pretty much in shock with of course the exception of those that hadn't been around when Mystique was using the Risty persona but the girl in front of them was a dead ringer for the girl. Although she herself was perplexed at all the looks she was getting and wondering just what was going on.

She was confused as well as she was picking up on the emotions and thoughts that were going around the room. She looked to Xavier, "What's going on?"

Xavier was surprised by theses events, he hadn't seen her in years and apparently Mystique must have somehow met her at one point because Elizabeth looked exactly just like Risty only maybe a year older then the last time Mystique has used that persona. He could feel the young girl's mind and he knew that this wasn't Mystique since her mind was shielded from telepaths.

Finally Rogue snapped out of her shock, "What the hell is going on there?" She yelled out and all the pain was coming back now all the betrayal she had felt when Risty had turned out to have been Mystique all along was slamming back now. "You can't beh serious about this?" She looked at Xavier.

"Rogue I know this is difficult but this isn't 'Risty'," Xavier calmly started to explain. "I don't know how Mystique got her image to use but this is Elizabeth I've already did a surface scan and as you know Mystique blocks my telepathy."

"Can somebody clue me in?" The purpled haired teen asked everyone there, "Who is Mystique and Risty?"

"Actually they're the same person," Ray said to her, "Mystique is a shape shifter and she had this persona of Risty and…well it was you basically."

"Wha-me? What do you mean me?" She was totally confused now as to what was going on nothing made sense only that someone who could look like other people looked like her or something like that.

"Enough of this!" Rogue then took off out of the room she couldn't stand to be in the same room as that girl. It just brought back too many memories for her, too much hurt in the biggest betrayal of her life. Kitty, Vince and Kurt had wanted to go after her.

"Let her go," Logan said to them seeing what they were thinking of doing. "Let her have some time to herself to work some of this out." He didn't like to see the girl like this, she had gone through enough crap as it was on life something that he could relate to and just when things seemed to be going well for her something had to come up.

"I think he's right I also think that we need to fill Elizabeth in on everything," Xavier said turning to the young woman.

"That would be nice can we go somewhere more private?" She asked him rubbing her temples. All the thoughts and feelings that they were putting out were really starting to strain her mind as the throbbing was starting to hurt.

"We can go to my office," Xavier nodded his head, "Can someone take her things to one of the spare rooms please? Hank I think she may need something for a headache too. The rest of you please go about your business. I think this may take some time."

Rogue had gone for a long flight mainly up into the clouds when she was alone she just screamed out all her anger. By the end of it her voice was a bit hoarse but she felt a bit better, she went back to the mansion and got a drink then changed into her sweat pants and tank-top to go into the workout room.

She just spent the rest of her aggravation out on the punching bag as she just kept on hitting it. Why did this have to happen? She asked herself, why did the life have to go and screw with her mind again? Mystique wasn't even here anymore and still she was making her life miserable. A part of her mind knew that this girl wasn't really Risty/Mystique but it was just too hard.

Risty had been closer to her, Rogue had let down all her defences and for a time Risty had been her best friend, someone that could understand her and be her friend. She had thought that she had found someone outside of the whole Mutant and X-Men thing, just someone to make her feel like a normal teen again.

Tears were falling down as her jaw was clenched shut her anger and pain all coming up to the surface. Then that day when Risty had turned out to have been Mystique she had never felt so hurt in her life. Every time she had opened her self up she had been hurt so badly.

Her feelings for Scott had been crushed that day when Jean's power went out of control and she knew that he would never love her. Then just when Gambit seemed to have been a sympathetic person for her to lean on in her darkest moment he had just been using her. But Risty hurt the most out of all of them.

She didn't feel the tears running down her cheeks or noticed how hard she was letting her punches go, all she was feeling was the anger and hatred. When it was shown that everything she had with Risty had been a lie that she had been used all this time that hurt the most because it was the most personal. Scott never tried to hurt her intently, and Remy had just been after to save his family plus she hadn't been with him long.

But Risty had been close, and it had been in tensional. "ARRRGH!" Rogue yelled out and threw a punch that ripped the punching bag off the chain. She stood there panting heavily as the bag was laying on the ground five feet away.

"If you're goin' to take your aggression out do it in the Danger Room, it's less expensive that way," She turned around to see Logan there leaning against the wall.

"What do ya want?" She said sharply turning away from him.

Logan walked over to her, "Just making sure ya got that temper of yours under control." He paused a moment as he let her calm down. "It's not her you know, not her scent and Chuck said that her mind was open too."

"I know that!"

"Do ya Stripes?" He asked her, he hated seeing her like this. He had to wonder if Sarah would ever go through crap like this? He hoped not but then again both her and Rogue were strong girls.

Rogue was still breathing hard trying to think of a come back but nothing came to mind, she just felt drained. Rogue fell down to the floor on her butt just resting as she wiped the salty tears form her eyes. "She was mah friend Logan…Mah best friend…"

He sighed kneeling down to the girl and put an arm around her shoulders, "Yeah it's tough and this ain't going to be easy for you. But just don't blame the girl for your mother's mistakes. She seems to have her own issues at the moment."

"Ah'll try…" She said although she was planning on avoiding the new girl as long as she could. She just wasn't ready to face her, not yet anyway.

Back in Xavier's office he had been filling Elizabeth in on everything. He explained things like who Mystique was and the whole story behind Risty. The young purple haired telepath listened in on everything and she now had a full understanding of the freaked out expressions everyone had.

"Okay let me get all this straight," She said to him after his story was over, "This woman Mystique a blue skinned shape shifter who is not only your enemy but mother to that Rogue girl and the blue boy Kurt. But somehow managed to use my image to get close to Rogue but had been using her the entire time?"

"Essentially yes," He nodded his head as she slumped into her chair, "Elizabeth do you have any idea how she could have gotten your image?"

"First off Uncle Charley please call me Betsy, Elizabeth makes me sound so old, dull and…Proper," She told him and then shrugged, "And I have no bloody idea how the witch got my looks. But the only way I would have known by what you told me is if she was in her true form. And I would have remembered a tall blue redheaded woman."

"Very well then Betsy but I also hope that you'll refrain from calling me that among the other students," Xavier said with a light hearted tone. He didn't mind in private but that was really something he didn't want to other students to get wind off.

"Awww, but I liked calling you that," She gave him a teasing pout but then smiled seeing him get a bit uncomfortable. "Well okay…But are the others going to have a problem with this?"

"Well…it will take time for them to get used to the idea but trust me once they get to know you I believe things will get along a bit smoothly." He got out from behind his desk and moved over next to her. "Now why don't I show you to your room then?"

"Now that sounds like a good idea, I'm still a bit messed up from the different time zone and could use a bit of time to rest up and get used to the time change." She stood up it had been a long flight and she needed time to think on things. This would definitely be a bit odd for her but she just hoped that there weren't too many problems with this.

Although what worried her the most were all those strong emotions from that goth girl, there was a lot of negative emotions directed at her, she could understand it but she might as well give the girl some space.

-Later-

Clarice was in her room trying to do her homework at her desk but she just couldn't concentrate. She was still thinking about Ryan and how things had totally spun downhill. She sighed and flipped the book close and slumped onto her desk feeling depressed. Sometimes she got the feeling she was cursed or something. She had just been a shy normal girl then the next day she her life had changed and would never be the same again.

She did like her new life she loved Ororo, she was so open and free spirited and encouraged her and made her feel loved and special. She loved all her friends as well, Amanda was her closest friend and the other girls were just great. She had never really had her own circle of friends like this but then again there were downsides to everything.

All the danger and all the hate towards her because of what she was. She had to hide her true self from the world and at times wondered how others like Kurt and Mr. McCoy managed to live with that?

There was a small knock on her door and turned around in her chair as Amanda walked in. Since they still shared the room so she didn't know why the knocking unless it was just to be polite. "Hey Clarice there's someone here to see you."

"Who? If this is Ray asking again to explain that homework…"

"No I mean there's someone from outside the mansion to see you," Amanda said hinting that this person wasn't a mutant from the school. Clarice's eyes widened as she couldn't know who it was, "He said his name is Ryan."

Clarice made a small 'eek' sound as she scrambled to find her watch. She couldn't let him see her like this, "Give me a few minutes then let him up okay?" She asked looking for the damn watch. She finally found it and quickly put it on and turned on the hologram a few seconds before Ryan gently walked into the room.

"Uh…Hey," Ryan said and mentally kicked himself for how lame that sounded.

"Yeah…hey," Blink tried to not be nervous she couldn't tell why he was here of all places. "N-not that I don't mind…But why are you here?"

Ryan scratched the back of his neck, "Well…To be honest I've been thinking about things. I honestly don't know what to think on mutants I mean I agree when they came out I was freaked out. But, well after seeing you guys in school I saw how, well normal you guys are."

'If he only knew just how wrong he is about me being 'normal',' She mentally sighed as he went on.

He moved a bit closer to her, "But I got to know you and well, I started to like you. I mean you're not like other girls, you just have this innocence about you. I guess I got a thing for the shy types as well." She chuckled a bit nervously and she smiled at him a little.

"Truth is I found you interesting and I still want to get to know you."

Blink frowned a bit, "You may not like what you find…"

"I'll believe that when I see it," He said adamantly crossing his arms.

She sighed figuring that he may soon change his tune, "Fine, but maybe you'll want to start with how I really look. This is all just a fake image that you see this is how I used to look before…Before I changed."

She hit the control button on the watch and the image dissolved, Ryan was of course surprised to see her skin turn lavender with hair that was kind of pink, with elf-like ears, pure white eyes and triangular marks on her face. He took a step back not prepared for this Claire saw this and turned away holding herself.

"Oh man, sorry it's just that you kind of surprised me," Ryan said seeing her reaction although it was something bit to just spring on a guy.

"You think I'm a freak don't you?" She said her voice stringing, "Just like what my parents said…Like the guards said…" She felt her eyes starting to sting with tears but held them back. Then she jumped feeling a pair of warm hands on her shoulders.

"Clarice I don't think you're a freak…Okay so you may look a bit different," She turned a bit to look at him with a slightly raised eyebrow, "Okay not a bit but still…"

He looked at her really looked and it was different but in a strange way she had this…Exotic look to her. Ryan never mentioned this but before he started working out he had been a scrawny kid that got picked on a lot. Then one day he had had enough and started working out, now he was on the football team, but before he had always loved things like Fantasy and Sci-fi because they took him away.

He always had liked those very strange and exotic looking girls, maybe it was the 'geek' in him that he had buried but he wasn't really repulsed by what he saw. She was different and he had always been attracted to what was different. Maybe in his own way he was a 'freak' himself but he didn't care about that. He remembered what it had been like to have been an outcast and 'different' from everyone.

He smiled at her and ran his thumb over her lower mark under her eyes, "Plus…I think the triangles look kind of…cute."

He saw her cheeks turn a slightly darker shade and guessed she was blushing. "You…You really think so?"

"Yeah I do."

"W-well what about your friends on the team? Won't they give you a hard time if you're seen around me and stuff?"

Ryan just shrugged, "Well they'll give me a hard time that's for sure but hey, it won't be for long. I've dealt with worst things before and in time it will blow over. That is if you still want me to get to know you more."

Blink's heart rate was going up, here she was alone in her room with a boy that she knew she was crushing on and he wasn't put off by her looks and wanted to get to know her. She wasn't sure what to do she was kind of confused since this was unknown territory she never had something like this happen to her. "Y-yeah I mean if you want to then I don't mind."

He sat down on her bed, "So…Tell me about you."

She nervously sat next to him, "Well…Only if you tell me about yourself in return…" She said shyly to him.

Outside Amanda was pressed up against the door trying to listen in, from what she could make out, things seem to be fine. She pulled away from the door with a sigh, she was glad for this. Blink had a rough life and it was about time things for her started to turn around a bit more. She grinned as she walked away she could give them their privacy but later tonight she wanted to know all the juicy gossip.

-New York-

Warren needed a break from the mansion from everything going on plus he really wanted to talk with Candy Southern again. He had been thinking about it lately, they had been spending lunch together talking about things again and it was just nice. It was familiar and he hadn't realized how much he missed being around her.

He also knew that he was going to have to tell her the whole truth, every time things got too close to his mutation or relating to it he changed the subject or avoided it. She wasn't thrilled about that he could tell and she deserved the truth. Well that was why he was in New York to meet with her and tell her.

They were meeting up in a nice coffee shop that they had used to hang out when they dated. It was a nice place, wood floors and bar where the smell of fresh coffee and pastries filled the air. He drove up and managed to find a parking spot not too far from the place. While walking there he was thinking about what to say to her and how to go about telling her about this.

By the time he got there she was sitting right there in a blouse and kakis sipping on a coffee, he stood there for a moment. She really was a beautiful woman that was for sure and he wished things hadn't gotten in the way with her. 'Well…Maybe this is my chance to change things.' He silently hoped.

He walked over to her and she noticed someone, so she looked up and smiled seeing him walk over to her. "Hey there, so what's up? You sounded like you really wanted to talk to me over the phone."

He nodded as he sat down, "I do…I owe you a lot of explanations."

She was hoping that he would have gotten around to this she had been getting a bit worried as to what he had been keeping from her. "I had hoped that you would finally come around to this, I was really starting to worry about you Warren. This isn't like you to keep things bottled up like this," She reached out and took one of his hands on the table.

Warren smiled a bit at the contact and took a breath, "This…Isn't easy given how my parents reacted. You see something happened to me, something changed. At first I didn't know what it meant in fact I was pretty scared and freaking out."

It was true how do you cope with angel like wings growing out of your back? He had been nearly going insane with worry about it. He had closed himself off from the world not knowing who to trust or who to go to help with this. After awhile he came to accept it and in a strange way when he had met Scott and Rogue at that Christmas time he had been relieved to know not only what he was but that he wasn't totally alone in the world.

Candy gripped his hand a bit tighter, "Warren whatever it is you can tell me."

He really hoped so, he truly did. "I found out that I was…A mutant." He looked up to see the surprise in her face but he noticed how she was still holding his hands. "At first I didn't know what I was or what was happening to my body but eventually I found out what I was."

"Wow…that's…wow." Candy didn't know what to say to that, she did admit that this was nothing like how she thought what was going on. She had thought maybe his family was in some kind of business trouble.

"So…What kind of changes where they?" She looked at him a bit harder trying to see anything out of the ordinary. "I don't see anything different."

"It's…Under my shirt, you see I actually grew well wings out of my back."

"Really, you serious?" She looked at the jacket and she had noticed how his shoulders had seemed a bit broader then the last time but she had just guessed that maybe he had filled out a bit more. But taking a really closer look she was wonder if he was hiding wings under there. "Can I, well, can I see them?"

"You want to?" He asked her a bit glad at how she was taking it honestly. She nodded her head and he felt a small smile touch his lips. "Okay but not here."

"I got a place close by we can go to my apartment for a bit more privacy," She dug into her purse to pay the bill. They drove back to her apartment complex thankfully it had an underground parking lot sure it made the place more expensive but her parents were flipping the bill, sometimes being the 'rich brat' paid off. Although while Warren followed her there in his car her mind was thinking back on it all, 'Wow, wings huh? Warren never could be the type of guy to conform.' She joked and shook her head in amusement.

When Warren got to her apartment as she let them in, he took a quick look around. It was a very nice place, thick carpeting, the walls had wood coverings on it, very nice and comfortable furniture. He knew that the style reflected on her upbringing as did his own. A few paintings here and there on the walls but nothing major or new age, her tastes were a bit simpler.

Candy walked them to the middle of the room and turned around throwing her purse on a chair, "Okay then we're alone. Can you show me now?"

Warren nodded and took off his jacket. She then saw a bit of white on the shoulders and then she watched as he went to undo the straps. He explained they helped to keep his wings hidden and Candy thought that he didn't too comfortable with them on. When ht got them off she sighed in relieve and his wings expanded.

Candy stared at the wings, they were marvellous looking. She moved in for a closer inspection, "Can I…Touch them?" He nodded to her question and he gently ran her hands over the feathers they were very soft. "Wow…Warren their…Beautiful…Oh my god I just realized you look like an angel," She laughed a bit.

Then she stopped remembering something that had happened, "Warren…That 'angel' that was seen during that one Christmas was that you?"

"Yeah it was, I was so sick of staying in my apartment and I needed to get out." He explained to her and her touch felt kind of nice on his wings too, "I figured I was given wings for a reasons and so…Well I guess you could say I went out to play hero. Silly I know but I felt I had to do something."

She smiled at him hearing this, "You always were a good guy at heart. So what's it like? To fly that is I mean I assume you can."

"It's wonderful actually, I was scared at first and it took me a couple of weeks to get it down but I love flying. Sometimes I just go up into the sky for hours at a time, I feel totally free up there." He spoke about it with a type of passion she hadn't heard in his voice before. He made it seem so wonderful.

"That sounds so nice."

He had a thought as he took one of her hands, "Would you like to try it?"

"I can?" She said a bit scared but also very thrilled at the idea.

Warren nodded his head and she let him to a French door to a small patio. He literally swept her off her feet and the next thing she knew she was hugging his neck tightly as they jumped out the window. She was thankful she stopped herself from a scream but soon she found them flying over the streets.

She looked down as they rose higher and higher to the tallest buildings. She had never seen New York like this from the sky, the wind in her hair and against her skin. She loosened her grip a bit and a smile got onto her face. She started to see why Warren liked to fly it did have a sense of total freedom.

They flew around the city with her huddled up against him and to the both of them they enjoyed it. Warren liked showing her one of his new loves in life and together they flew though the skies for a couple of hours. By the time they got back to her place Candy had never remembered such a moment in her life it had been like something out of a dream.

"Warren that was simply amazing. Thank you so much for that." She said as she was against him her arms still around his neck looking into that pretty boy face with is golden hair and blue eyes.

He hadn't noticed that his hands had moved to her hips as he looked back into her beautiful face, "It was my pleasure Candy." Then before either of them knew it they slowly leaned into a small kiss. It felt familiar to them, and it strangely felt right as well. It had been so long since they had held each other and tasted each other's lips but it was like falling back into familiar and welcoming territory.

Warren slowly pulled back registering what had happened. "Candy, I-"

She placed her fingers onto his lips, "Don't Warren…Don't say anything. I missed you so much and I know you missed me." He nodded his head taking her hand and kissing it making her smile, "So let's not confused the subject with words."

They leaned in for another kiss as they both silently agreed to let things work out for themselves and to see where this would lead to.

NEXT UP CHAPTER 20: DARK INTENTIONS