We had been inside the caves for a while and the biology teacher had been explaining things, I didn't care enough to really pay attention.
I only took part in this program for the extra credit.
In my boredom, I saw Anne walking deeper into the cave and I punched Scott on the arm.
"Ouch," he winced and I turned his head with my hand to Anne's direction.
We sneaked out of the professor's lecture, grabbed our flashlights and followed Anne into the darkness of the cave.
We lost her.
I was looking around with my flashlight, but then I heard a quiet "Wow" from Scott's direction.
I turned to see what he was looking at and saw a beautiful waterfall.
I walked next to Scott as we both got closer to it.
But then I noticed something Scott hadn't, there was a huge gap between the ground we were standing on and the waterfall.
I grabbed his arm sternly before he could take a step further and he looked at me in confusion.
I pointed my flashlight to the gap and he gasped, taking some steps back.
"Oh God, thank you," he said and I smiled in return.
"You're welcome."
I walked closer to the gap shinning the area, the gap led to a river. I wonder where could it further lead to, maybe another waterfall outside the cave.
"What do you want from me?" Both Scott and I jumped in surprise when we suddenly heard Anne's voice.
"We don't want anything from you," I answer, louder than I expected.
"Well, except maybe your friendship," Scott said smiling slightly at her.
Scott was really trying to help her.
"Wanna know what I want? The truth. Am I a target for you and your X-Freaks?" she asked getting closer to us.
What had Mystique done to her?
What had we done to her?
I didn't say anything, how could we even explain something like this.
She trusts and believes whatever lie Mystique tells her.
We are the bad guys in the story Mystique narrated for her.
There is really nothing we can do about it.
But I am not ready to give up on her, not yet.
Neither did I, nor Scott said anything.
"It's true, isn't it? I know all about your stimulation battle, the one that I'm the enemy," she said her voice cracking and she begun to walk away.
This was exactly what Scott was afraid of, maybe he knows Anne better than we do.
"No! That's not true, we don't want to hurt you, we actually never did," I said and she stopped walking, she turned to face us.
Scott took a step closer to her, but Anne kept a distance between us.
"It's complicated, but we want you with us," Scott, and I don't really think this was the best moment to say that.
"Oh yeah? Well, sorry not interested!" she said and started to walk away again.
"Hey we're have you guys been?" the blonde boy with brown eyes known as Paul, Scott's friend, said and walked to the scene.
"Here is your friend, Paul, but I bet you never practiced fighting him! " Anne said ready to walk off but then Paul walked up to us.
"Am afraid you would lose that bet Anne," Paul said and morphed into Raven Darkholme.
My eyes widened.
I knew something was up with this woman.
"Mystique" I said out of words.
My throat felt dry.
Everything made sense now, it was all clearer.
Scott was speechless and frozen in place.
"Hello, Scott, Kathryn. Are you surprised to see me?"
"Or maybe you're more surprised to see me?" she said laughing darkly as she turned in her true form.
"Principle Darkholme, you are Mystique!" Scott said finally making the connection.
"Something Charles neglected to tell you. Nice of him, wasn't it? You have no idea what else he has been hiding from you," she said and my jaw dropped.
Professor knew and didn't say anything to us!
"He knew" I whispered to myself in shock, I had blind trust to the professor.
How could he hide something that important from us?
"Oh, yes, Kathryn, he did, it hurts to be led by one of your most trustworthy people in your life, doesn't it?" She smirking at me and I felt my anger boil.
Seriously, I could feel my chest burn.
"So, let me fill you in. You X-Men are nothing but puppets for Charles Xavier and I am a sharp blade cutting your strings, just so I can see you fall! " she said raising her voice at the last part of her sentence and pushed me and Scott down the edge.
I screamed, but soon got myself together and grab into a piece of rock and grabbed Scott with my other hand.
"You, ok? " I asked panicked.
"Yeah! Yeah! You?" he said and I could tell he was feeling anxious.
"Let's just say I got better days."
I was holding us both, trying my best to pull us up but it was getting harder.
How are we going to get out of this?
"Scott! Kathryn!" I heard Anne yelled.
I could hear screaming and voices.
What the hell is going up there?
Surprisingly enough, I saw Anne jump down and land on the piece of earth I was holding to.
She first pulled Scott up and then me.
"It's kind of hard to tell the players without a score card around here," Scott said and Anne grinned
"Thanks for the lift, Anne," I told her and she looked up.
"Don't thank me yet! " She yelled as Mystique made a pile of rocks decay on us.
We all moved to the side trying to avoid them, but end up falling down.
Thankfully we landed inside the river.
It was frozen cold and my winter clothes made it harder to stay on the surface, but I pulled through it.
I got worried as I couldn't locate the others.
"Scott! Anne! " I screamed
"Am here! " Anne screamed as she struggled to stay up and I saw Scott placing his arm around her, holding her up.
"Hold on," he told her and she obeyed.
"Oh no," I said as I noticed that the river was coming to an end.
I got to Scott and Anne, helping them all as much as I could.
We were trying to support each other, but all our efforts were wasted.
We fell.
The river ended in another waterfall as had I correctly assumed earlier.
We landed on some kind of bridge made of rocks, covered in snow and ice.
Fuck! I landed badly, feet first,
I am lucky I didn't break anything.
"You alright!?" I asked and stood on my knees.
"I am ok," Anne whispered breathlessly.
I waited for Scott's response but he only ground in pain, he was laying on the ground, half conscious.
"Scott! " Anne screamed and got next to him.
"Listen Scott, you are going to be ok, it's going to be ok," she said and paused as she looked at our surroundings.
I began to look as well, for a way out of here.
I looked under the bridge and saw deep darkness. There is no way we are surviving a fall like this.
Honestly, I couldn't find any solution other than to sit here and wait.
Anne met my gaze and looked down as well.
Her eyes widened as she looked back and forth between Scott and the bottom.
"Oh man, we are gonna die " she said and I burst out laughing.
"I love how optimistic you are," I said and she smiled weakly at me.
Something caught her eye and turned to me alarmed.
"Kathryn, he is bleeding!" She yelled and I immediately stood up, but only to gasp in pain and fall back down.
"What? What happened?" She asked, anxiety rising inside of her.
"I need you to stay calm, but I might have twisted my ankle when we fell" I said and her eyes widened.
"We are gonna die," she repeated and I crawled to Scott's side to take a look at his wound.
He was bleeding from the head.
"Glad that you took it so well," I said smiling at her as I unzipped my soaked jacket and grabbed my knife from my boot.
I felt cold breeze hit me, but I pulled myself together.
I cut off a part of my wet shirt with my knife and placed it against Scott's wound.
He whimpered and writhed a bit and I tried to comfort him.
"It's gonna be ok, I am gonna get us out of this mess," I whispered to him and then turned to Anne.
"Thank you for saving us back there," I said to her, my voice gentle.
"I owned it to you, Mystique had me pretty mixed up and her mind is a mess, but I saw enough to know that you are not my enemy, I really thought she cared about me," she said looking at me in the eyes after a long time, I could see sadness written all over her face.
"She might care about you, sometimes it is hard to understand adults, they never seem to understand us," I said trying to comfort her.
"Kathryn, I am sorry for what I did to you, I am sorry for what happened to you," she said and I looked away.
"I...you don't have to say sorry, it wasn't your fault," I said in a whisper and she sat closer to me.
"Was it true? What I saw." She said and I shivered.
"What did you see? " I asked uncomfortably.
"Mixed images, but it was enough to understand that you had a sorrowful life so, was it true?" she said and I made eye contact with her gray eyes.
"Yes, yes, it was " I said and placed Scott's head on my lap.
"Are you afraid?" she asked and I sighed.
"Yes, sometimes, but you know what I am really afraid of right now, is what you think of me after you saw my past," I said and she got even closer to me, our shoulders touching.
"Look, I don't care about what you did before, I care about the person you are now and you have done nothing wrong by me. Do you forgive me for what I did?" She asked and I smiled, leaning in her.
"It's ok, really, we are good," I said and her face brightened.
Out of nowhere I heard a growl, I immediately tried to locate the source of it but the snow blocked my view.
But as it growled again, I recognized the sound.
"It's a wolf," I whispered and gripped my knife.
The wild animal finally revealed itself at the other side of the bridge walking towards us.
"It's Mystique! " She yelled and begun to shake my shoulders panicked.
"How can you tell?" I asked her, it could always be a random wolf .
"I can," she said sternly and I nodded.
She dragged Scott farther away as the wolf approached and I backed away as well.
I wasn't really in the best state for a battle either.
"X-Men, they are coming." Scott mumbled and my eyes widened in happiness.
"They are? Great!" Anne cheered .
"They can't find us," Scott continued and I noticed that the more we moved, the more was the bridge cracking.
If they don't hurry, we are gonna have a bigger problem to deal with.
"Shit!" Anne said disappointed.
"I got an idea! " I yelled
"Lay him down " I said and she did.
"Open your eyes Scott," I instructed him, taking his glasses off.
He opened them, and his optic blast was shot in the sky.
I just wish the X -Men saw that.
I placed his glasses back on.
One problem solved two more to go.
Mystique was getting closer and closer.
Anne took her glove off, and was about to touch Scott.
But she looked at me for permission and I nodded.
She absorbed his powers and her eyes glowed red.
Scott lost full consciousness.
Mystique was just inches away now.
"A friendly advice teach, do not mess with the Rogue! " Anne yelled and blasted Mystique off the bridge.
But that wasn't enough to stop her, she turned into a hawk and got back up.
The blast Anne shot, made the bridge give in even more.
With the slightest movement the bridge was gonna break apart.
My eyes widen in joy as I heard the load sound of the blackbird, and then I saw it placing itself next to the bridge.
The wind the jet created was almost blinding so I turned away and so did Anne.
Mystique was getting ready for her next attack, but the jet's door opened revealing Wolverine.
"Give it up Mystique, because you are gonna be fighting the Wolverine! " I heard Logan yell and saw Mystique fly away.
The bridge was about to break down.
Anne was holding Scott and I was sitting on my knees right next to them.
Logan carefully jumped on the bridge and, some pieces of it still broke down.
Wolverine took hold of Scott and Anne placed my hand around her shoulder and her other hand was supporting me by the waist as we ran into the jet.
One second after we reached the jet, the bridge fell apart.
We are some lucky sons of bitches.
We sat down on the ground while, Logan laid Scott on the floor for Storm to take care of his wound.
I was feeling breathless, cold and I was soaking wet.
Anne sat next to me in a similar state.
"So, whose side are you now on, kid? Ours or theirs?" Logan asked Anne opening the door of the jet's back room.
"If I don't say you, will I get thrown out of this jet? " She asked, looking rather uneasy.
"No, not our style, either we have earned your trust by now, or we haven't," he said and she looked around, her eyes moved to Scott, then to Storm, the professor, who was driving the jet and then mine.
I smiled and gave her reassuring nod.
She finally turned to Wolverine.
"You," she said and everyone smiled.
"Welcome to the X-Men," Logan said and grabbed two blankets from the back, he handed the one to Ororo to cover Scott and the other to me and Anne.
"You will have to share," he said and I looked at Anne waiting for a response.
"I don't mind," she said softly and I nodded.
"I don't mind either," I said and we covered ourselves with the blanket.
"Good job, half-pint" Logan said patting my shoulder and then sat next to professor in the co-pilot seat.
"Thank you," I whispered and I knew he heard me.
For all it's worth, I am dropping out from this biology program.
-Time Skip-
Back at the institute after me and Scott had our wounds treated, we all gathered in the small living room.
It was time to speak to the professor and I was surprised to see that everyone was as mad as me at him.
I was sitting in an armchair, while Anne and Scott sat at the sofa.
Kurt sat at the arm of the armchair I sat on, while Jean and Evan were standing furious.
"It's the same thing as lying to us! We got every right to know who our principle really was!" Jean yelled throwing her arms in the air.
"Yeah man! What did you think we would do? Go after her?" Kurt shouted feeling wronged.
"It was like we were playing with fire and didn't even know it! " I added.
"Anne? " Professor asked for her opinion.
"It's not my place," she said feeling uncomfortable.
"Sure, it is, you are part of the family now," I said wanting her to voice her opinion.
"Yeah girl! Tell us what you think!" Kurt encouraged her.
"Well, I think...No. I've learned that honesty is really important between people you care about, at least it is to me," she said and I nodded.
"You are right, all of you, I must apologize for keeping this from you. But please understand that there gonna be many challenges, secrets, elements of surprise, some you are ready to face, some you are not. In the future I will try to do better, knowing which is which," the Professor apologized and everyone stood up.
Well, everyone except me.
I won't be up for a week or so.
"Thanks Professor, it's nice to know we all got something to learn, that's what makes us the X-Men," Scott said proudly.
I think I get why professor did what he did, even though I didn't like it.
Leaders must make harsh decisions, even if they don't want to.
They are forced to hide things for the safety of their people and the greater good.