Author's Note: I don't own X-Men Evo, as I said in chapter one. I realllllllly don't want to have to say it over and over again, so please, just don't mention it...

Chapter 2: Stone Cold Heart

A few hours earlier...

Down in a place called Caldacott County in New Orleans, woman sat in her home, sitting in a comfortable arm chair. Although she couldn't see, she felt the presence of the man who sat opposite her.

"Did you get her?" The blind woman asked him.

"Yes, but I still don't see why you vant this hunk of stone so very much." The man replied, his face shrouded in darkness. His voice was deep and had a German accent playing on it.

"You do not understand. But I do thank you for saving it. Did anyone see you?" The blind woman asked.

"Nein, Irene. You should know better than to think they could catch me. I am a master of shadows." The man replied with a brilliant white smile that glowed even through the darkness. Irene couldn't see them, but she knew that fangs were also present in that beautiful mouth. Irene heard a faint swish, swish noise as something moved through the air.

"Of course. But do not get too cocky, Wagner. Those X-Men have good defense. Not to mention if Kurt saw you-"

"I do not care about the boy. He could not catch me anyway."

"He is your son, he has a right to know-"

"He is not my son!" the man bellowed as he stood. "He is that wretch's son! Just give me my payment and I can leave!" Irene stood up using her cane, and, with her superb hearing that one tends to gain when they are deaf, listened to the man's breathing to discover where he was. She pulled out a key, and opened the safe that she'd memorized...Raven had always kept money in there... she pulled out one hundred thousand dollars, and paid the strange man.

"Danke. Now I vill be leaving. I hope what's left of my beloved vife shall keep you company...although, she had always had a stone cold heart." The man laughed cruelly as there was a flash, and a sound like a bamf, and all that was left of the man was the stench of brimstone and sulfur. Irene walked over to what the man had delivered. She ran her hands along the smooth stone, where she knew Raven's face was.

"Raven, why did you do this?" Irene asked into the silence. She knew not if Mystique could hear her. But she did know she could not reply.

"Do not worry, Raven, I will restore you." irene told the statue.

Irene had had a precognitive vision, hours earlier, of Rogue destroying Raven... she knew she could not let it happen. She saw Kurt crying over the shattered remains of her partner, her dearest friend...she saw Rogue, a triumphant look in her eyes, but Irene could see past that...she could see the hate, love, and sadness inside her soul, something no one else saw, not even Rogue. From there, she had to rescue Raven's stony body from Kurt. But she couldn't do it alone. She was, in fact, blind, so she could not have done it alone. But she knew one man who could make it inside undetected, one man who could make it out with Raven and leave a fake behind. That man was Marko Wagner. He had been Mystique's husband, Kurt's father... he was just like Kurt, only with red skin and black eyes... the blue skin and yellow eyes had been inherited from Raven, of course.

Irene's fists clenched. She knew that Raven had done the wrong thing, going into leagues with Magneto. It was Magneto who had sped up Kurt's mutation. Kurt should not have been born with the ears, the tail, the skin, none of it. And he hadn't been born with it. Magneto had brought it on. He had experimented. Raven had hated him for it. She knew Kurt could've had at least 10 years of being normal, not being afraid of how she looked.

She'd thought of that word again. Had. She spoke of Raven as though she were dead. But Raven wasn't dead...merely trapped. Irene would find a way to bring her back.

"I swear it, my friend." Irene began feeling tears well up in her useless eyes. They began to spill down her cheeks. "I swear it!" She shouted at Raven. Irene couldn't see it. She couldn't of. But somehow, she knew. She knew when a single tear ran down Raven's smooth, cool face. Irene didn't know how, but she knew that she would free not only her partner, but her...friend.

It's gettin' on from here, folks! Marko Wagner is not actually Kurt's father's name, but whatever. I made the red skin and looking like Kurt thing a reference to the comics, a direct link to Azazil. Please, review! And yes, now you know how Mystique survived, because that wasn't her being pushed off at all!