Author's Note: I slightly edited the last scene of the last chapter to include Jean and Ororo, which is more accurate with what happened on the show. I somehow missed this mistake while writing the initial version.

"You really should have left it to play out on its own" Fallen said when Kurt explained the situation to her on the phone.

*I know, but I was worried…*

"Kurt, it was supposed to turn out alright" she sighed nodding her thank you to Forge who brought their meals to the table.

*Everything is, but what's the point of knowing the future if we can't try to make it- I don't know, better than just alright?*

Fallen looked around to make sure no one is listening. Nobody seemed even mildly interested in them but still she lowered her voice. "Knowing the future wasn't exactly the point of coming here, was it?"

*No, but since the opportunity is there…*

She could see through her imagination how he shrugs with his arms wide.

She exhaled dipping one of her fries into ketchup. "Now pretty much the entire crew is suspicious of us though."

*I'm sorry…*

She inhaled in resignation. "...It's alright, I'm just worried that it gets out of hand. Keep me posted if something goes wrong today. And don't get in any more trouble, okay?" she smirked.

*I can't make any promises* he chuckled. *Alright- I think we're about to take off. See you tonight?*

"I don't know if we can make it, but Forge says he got us late afternoon tickets back booked, so… Probably."

*Great. I love you!*

"Love you too. Bye" she hung up and shook her head as she stacked the big cell phone back into her handbag.

"Already getting in trouble? Nice rate" Forge nodded in fake approval from across the small table.

"Let's just hope we're not thrown into an interrogation dungeon when we get back."

"That bad?"

Harris waved it off. "Don't get me started. I love Kurt but his decisions can be so questionable and frustrating sometimes…"

"I guess everybody's are sometimes" Silvercloud shrugged slightly as he leaned back in his seat with a hotdog in his hand.

"Speaking of decisions" the girl started eating as well. "How come you ended up living so separate of your family?"

They haven't gone to his relatives yet, choosing to satiate their stomachs first because the on-board menu on their plane was hardly satisfying and even less affordable. She still didn't know what they were like and what pushed him to move, so it was interesting to learn who Forge was before becoming the 70s guy trapped in a pocket dimension.

"I was of legal age so I decided to move to New York to study" he said slightly grimacing. "My family had hard time accepting my passion of parallel dimensions and they didn't believe they are real."

Fallen snorted bitterly. "Tell me about it" she started spreading ketchup over her plate with a tip of a fry. "When I revealed who Kurt is to my mother she was in complete disbelief, no matter how much she learned about it."

Forge's voice was softer than before; "You must have trusted your mother a lot to reveal that."

The girl's eyes became more distant and almost dead looking for a moment before she grimaced and shifted in her seat. "It doesn't matter now, none of my past matters."

"I think most everyone can tell that's how you think" Forge admitted. "But why do you think that way?"

"I don't think, I convey a fact. The person I used to be is dead" she stared sharply into her plate. "Especially the part that had any hopes to reunite with her mother."

Silence fell between them for the rest of the meal. They pitched in to pay for it and went outside to catch the bus that Forge checked beforehand. After they sat down and pulled onto the road Harris asked;

"So how long do you want to stay at your parents'?"

"...Just a dozen minutes" Forge responded, his eyes on the townscape passing outside.

The girl's eyebrows shifted up. "Why so little? Wouldn't you like to talk a bit?"

But Silvercloud just quietly looked out the window with a grimace.

xXxXxXx

The buss wasn't quite full of students, the geologist club not being as rich in numbers as sport teams of Bayville High, but they sure were an excited lot. Chatter was in the semi-warm air of the bus while the temperature outside was dropping drastically as they climbed ulong the mountain, causing their teacher - who dubbed as their driver today - to lean over the steering wheel with frustration. "Wonderful, it's starting to snow" he muttered.

"Yeah, fresh powder!" one of the boys in the front exclaimed happily.

"This isn't a snowmobile trip, people!" Mr Rudetsky reminded the excited students. "Too much of the white stuff means we turn around."

Moans of disappointment broke out again, now even louder than when he confiscated their gaming devices.

Rogue sitting in the far back, with her arms and head rested on top of the chair in front of her was the only one whose face didn't turn into a grimace, as she was wearing one all along already. Her eyes spent majority of the time drilling into the back of Scott's head two seats in front of her.

While she sat back contemplating what she heard about Summers from Mystique, Mr Rudetsky was growing more and more reluctant to go through with the entire cave diving trip. The snow was gathering quickly and became more tricky the higher they found themselves, now already coating the road in a fine, slippery layer. It was never a good sign, much less when you're on a side of a mountain and one wrong move can sent you down a very steep slope. But every little turning of the wheel felt to him like taking that risk.

And finally on another turn the wheels came across what felt like ice, the back of the vehicle slid sideways completely throwing them off the course. Rudetsky gave out a scream and tried to maneuver the bus back to its position but it jerked sideways again too abruptly. Pushing the brakes seemed good for nothing and he heard himself scream along with the students who were shoved across the bus from side to side.

In just a moment they started skidding sideways, Scott saw the snowy ground slide in the wrong direction outside as they moved towards the slope at a quick pace. He managed to grab the window in this chaos and slide it open, holding on tightly to stay beside it. Having no time to think about possible consequences he removed his glasses and released a beam to create a deep straight line between them and the end of the ground.

His plan worked, as the bus made it to the dip its side wheels fell in, abruptly stopping the bus and sending students falling across once more. The whole vehicle tilted due to their access weight, but then fell back, finally stopping. Scott shut the window again before anyone regained any sense of direction to look around.

However looking around he saw that one person was holding to her seat when it all started, so she wasn't lost in the chaos enough not to see his performance. Rogue was staring at him wide-eyed from the back. Then she smiled in appreciation and he smiled back, relaxing.

"Everybody okay?" Mr Rudetsky asked getting up from the driver's seat, his hand clutching one of the metal poles in the front. "...Alright" he said seeing that some students are started but nobody seems injured. "We head back" he stated firmly and sat back down.

Despite the difficulties they just encountered students weren't happy to hear that at all, and once again moans of disapproval could be heard.

"Okay, okay people" the teacher called above the noise. "Now who wants to get up and push?"

"Mr Rudetsky?" asked a voice from the back and Rogue could be seen moving towards the front. "Why not take our snowmobiles to the cave an' wait out the weather there?" she asked with a small smile glancing sideways at Scott.

"Yes, love that idea!" agreed one boy in the front and a lot of other students seemed as eager. The happy buzz erupted as everyone cheered it on.

The teacher hid face in his hands with a goran.

xXx

The snowmobiles darted across the fresh snow with ease, each one a bright color carrying two teenagers in thick outwear, more often than not the one sitting in the back looking like they enjoy themselves less than the driver.

Scott and Paul however both enjoyed it as they made it to the front and sped just a little bit more than everyone else. Then in his peripheral vision they could see a red snowmobile catch up with them.

"Test yer metal, tough guy?" Rogue asked sending a challenging smirk from the front seat of it.

Beth, who clutched to her on the back seat, immediately shifted. "What? Wait, no, no racing, no!" she exclaimed.

But Scott's lips shifted into a lopsided grin. "You're on!"

Paul didn't seem to have any objections, he encouraged the race and just gripped Summers tighter smiling confidently as they sped up and left the girls behind. Just a moment later however the girls dashed off the main road and disappeared from their view for a moment, before they saw them on top of a steep stone slope running along the road.

Beth's shrieking scream warned them beforehand as girls' mobile made a few feet worth of jump down and heavily sat back on the road, scoring a dozen feet advantage over them. To catch up Scott refused to break before the next curve of the road and they barely missed a tree as they took the turn on full speed.

At this point Paul felt his adrenaline rush a little bit too much. "Woah, okay, you know what, I've had enough" he told Scott. Summers looked at the girls in front of them and the winning smirk on Rogue's face as she glanced over her shoulder. He didn't slow down. "Scott" Paul called. They sped up. "Scott!"

Beth's shrieks and yelps still were audible, although muffled by the snow that was falling thicker and thicker by the minute. The visibility was reduced beyond what was safe, especially on the speeds they were reaching. But they found a clearing and neither participant was going to throw away this opportunity to take the distance quickly.

As Paul felt the vehicle jerk forward even faster than before, he shook his head in disbelief. His eyes widened when he saw that Scott's headed for a slope below which was the main road. The same road that - on one side - was a fall down the mountainside to inevitable death. "No, no, no! Forget it, you maniac!"

Scott could hear Beth yelling at Rogue something about feeling sick.

Paul yelled behind him as the snowmobile lost touch with the ground and for a dreadful moment darted through the air before hitting the road and speeding on. Rogue and Beth were right beside them in a matter of moments.

And all of sudden, they turned just enough to hit them from the side. Their snowmobile rapidly found itself a mere half a foot from the deathly slope. Shocked, Scott turned his face to Rogue only to find the challenging smirk gone and replaced by a hateful frown. She jerked the red scooter at them again and one of their skids found itself on the edge of the steep fall, the mobile started to slant into the fall. "Lean in, LEAN IN!" Scott yelled and both he and Paul forced their entire weight onto the other side.

The mobile dropped back down onto the road. This time Summers didn't need to be told to quit as he slowed down to a complete stop, both boys staring after the disappearing red snowmobile in the distance.

"Man, girl's wiggy" Haits said, stunned. "Didn't care what would happen to us."

"Yeah… Where'd that come from?" Scott frowned in confusion at the disappearing girls.

After a few breaths to calm down they drove on, this time however slow enough to take no risks. It took them less than a minute to reach their destination - an open cave, where Rogue already leaned back against the red automobile parked at the entrance. Bath was leaning against the wall behind her, apparently trying not to throw up.

"No trophies for second place" the goth said when they pulled up in front of the cave.

Scott got off the vehicle and approached her with a slight frown. "How does a southern gal like you learn to handle a snowmobile?"

A daring smirk was back on Rogue's dark-painted lips and she let out a brief chuckle. "Let's just say Ah'm full of surprises" she ran her gloved finger over his square chin before turning around to enter the cave.

xXxXxXx

Fallen stood beside Forge looking at the two memorial stones, unable not to think back to when she stood beside Kurt less than a month ago, looking at a similar grave on the other side of the world.

"I see why you weren't planning on talking to them" she said in a lowered voice.

"They passed 22 years after I got stuck in the Middleverse… a car crash. Aunt Margarette told me" he scoffed with slight bitterness. "Mind if we visit her? I know parents left behind some photos I would like to reclaim."

"Sure."

"But… in a moment" he whispered.

"Take your time" she replied gently.

"Time is one thing that I've had plenty of. It's strange how I still feel like it's all slipped right through my hands."

A few minutes later they were leaving the cemetery grounds. "It was so obvious, I should have figured" Fallen said. "I was going to make a joke about you introducing a minor to your parents but I guess it's even less appropriate now than it was originally."

Jonathon snickered with a half-smile. "You can joke all you want, it's been long enough. Their graves weren't even the reason why I wanted to come to Oklahoma again, it was the photos my aunt has."

"Then let's hit the road again."

xXx

Another forty minutes later she was yet again reminded of how far back in time Forge's old life is, as they walked through corridors of a hospitium to see his mother's younger sister who he said he remembered as a livid middle-aged woman. Clearly, that couldn't be the case anymore, and she couldn't help feeling frustrated as they passed by open rooms with bed-ridden patients at the brink of death.

Forge didn't say anything to acknowledge the situation, but she could see how it weights him down by the tired look in his eyes.

They arrived at the room one of the nurses instructed them to; the door was open, and inside was an older black lady sitting in a wheelchair by the window. Her hands were slightly twitching in her lap and her fogging eyes were absently on the floor. She didn't acknowledge their presence until Forge spoke up;

"Aunt Margarette?" he sounded hesitant and nervous to talk to her. It wasn't surprising, really.

The woman very slowly shifted her eyes to him and for a moment watched him absently. But then a frail but genuine smile curve her lips. "Jonathon, is that you my boy?" her voice was low and hoarse, clearly difficult to get out like her lungs weren't capable anymore. Her skinny hands shuddered as she reached towards him.

Fallen remained by the door as Forge got down in front of her, capturing both her hands. "Yes, it's me…"

"You've been gone for over 20 years… You look just as I remember..."

"I know- I'm back…"

One of the caretakers entered the room to drop some change of bedding for later, she briefly welcomed the visitors and elder woman's eyes shifted to her. "Ginny, look… This is my nephew I told you about… He hasn't aged a day for 30 years…" she said with a hint of pride to her voice. "Isn't that a miracle, Ginny?"

"That's wonderful indeed, Margarette" the woman agreed before smiling to Fallen like she meant to say 'don't mind the silly claims'. Fallen faintly responded to the smile; of course a n employee at a place like this wouldn't take anything like that seriously.

Ginny left and Forge turned to his aunt again; "I wanted to ask you... if I can have the family photos you got from my parents' place?"

"Oh, my most treasured possession" pride weaved with sadness in her voice. "Of course, you should have them, Jonathon…"

xXx

"I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to re-enter world after over two decades of absence" Fallen said when they were sitting across from each other in a neighboring park.

Forge didn't lift his eyes from the photos he pulled out the small, battered box. "I've stepped into 1995 as a 24 year old, but I should be turning 47 next week. And that excludes the years of the future" he whispered like it was a secret that no one else knew. "If I didn't jump dimensions twice… I could be your grandfather. Or Kurt's. Including the future I could well be in the walls of that facility myself, as an inmate."

"Morbid thought, isn't it?" Harris lowered her voice as she reached to pick a few of the photos from Forge's side of the table. "Or do you ever feel like you actually want to grow old at last?"

"And be dependant on people to do the simplest tasks while I drool, hardly aware of my surroundings, if at all?" he grimaced shaking his head. "No, thank you, I'll take being confused about my age any day."

"Agreed" Fallen stated moving through the photos. They were all very old polaroid photographs of a balding white man with a thick mustache and a little bit of a beer belly peeking from his usually elegant (in its late 60s way) clothes, and an equally elegant black woman with piercing dark eyes and her hair neatly permed in big curls. There was one photo of them alone, on the others they were in company of two boys at various stages of their lives.

The younger one Fallen recognized to be Forge. However what captured her attention was a single photo of the older boy that seemed his most recent. It was very clearly taken in militar, an american air forces uniform was perfectly fitted to his broad-shouldered form.

"Is this your older brother?" she asked flipping the photo for Forge to see.

Silvercloud inhaled deeply and let it out. "Yeah. Ralph" he grimaced calmly replacing the photographs in the box. "He went missing during military operations in Laos three years before I followed suit and went missing myself."

xXxXxXx

The dark gray sky that was nearly completely obscured with thick, white pooh that Storm tried to keep out of their way by running a strong current of wind just ahead of the jet's peak.

Wolverine growled with frustration. "We're movin' too slow. Spread a little more sunshine, would'ya?" he looked back from the pilot's seat.

"I'm a weather witch, not a snow plow! I'm doing the best I can" the woman frowned at him from behind her sparkling hands extended towards the front of the vehicle.

"How are we s'pposed to find them in this weather?" Logan asked. "

"Kurt said to sit Blackbird in the mountains and watch out for a sign" Xavier said absently.

The other man's brow twitched, he examined Charles' expression. "Why are we doin' what the kid says? How would he know?"

"He knows" the man responded as absently.

"Ye, I get that" Logan turned his eyes to the mountains again looking for a good spot to sit the jet and wait for whatever the 'sign' they're supposed to get. "All 'm sayin's that if I didn't know better I'd say the Elf is an enemy within, considerin' the shit he knows. But I smell he's a good kid. Still it bothers me that ya refuse to tell how he knows it."

Now Xavier's eyes regained focus at last as he looked at his friend. "Some things are better left unsaid."

"And how come yer the one who gets to make that call, huh Chuck?"

"By being a part of this team you agree to let Charles make certain calls, Wolverine" Ororo stated firmly.

Wolverine's eyes narrowed a little more. "Yer in on it, aren't ya, 'Ro?" silence responded to him, but he knew what he needed to know without words. "Smelled that the Elf lied that he doesn't know anythin' about Jean's kidnappin'. And you too, Chuck, getting stressed when I asked if he does. Or now. I don't know what games you're playin', both of ya, but I don't like bein' played."

Ororo swallowed loudly enough an her focus on the snow wavered, her own discomfort was clear as day to Logan.

Xavier continued to look out the front window without turning to face him for a moment. Eventually he did turn and looked at the man apologetically. "I'm afraid you will need to trust me with this."

"If I'm to trust ya" Logan said firmly. "So should ya, me."

"I'm afraid, my friend, that this is bigger than us."

xXxXxXx

"Okay, we're stuck here, might as well make the best of it" Rudetsky said to his students once they all arrived at the destination. "So, in review… Metamorphic rock" he gestured with his entire hand to a slightly shimmering wall of the cave. "Question: What has altered it from its original state? Answer: heat, pressure or chemical change? It was one thing, now it's another. A mutation. Okay, over here… Somebody point out examples of other igneous rock formations" he led his students down one of the paths leading into the cave.

Scott didn't follow along, his eyes scanned the darkened cave and fell on Rogue. Just as he laid his eyes on her, she turned around and climbed up a different path.

Rudetsky's voice as he explained about hot molten material and deformations still echoed back to him, so the teacher didn't care that they detached from the group. Therefore Summers followed the faint light of Rogue's flashlight wondering what she's up to this time.

As he walked the narrow path the teacher's voice slowly faded into silence and all he was left with was the echo of his own footsteps and- water? Finally he reached a big, open room and couldn't help but 'wow' at the beautiful sight of underground hot springs with a waterfall and steam coming off the water. Enchanted by the view he wanted to come closer to the pond, his eyes fixated on the sparkling water.

Then his half of his foot stepped on the thin air and he gasped, shifting back not to fall into a wide crack in the ground. He shone his flashlight down, but the beam couldn't reach the bottom of the pit. 'Man, that was close' he thought with relief. But then a thought occurred to him and he looked around concerned.

"Rogue?!" he called out.

All that was caught in the beam of his flashlight were rocks and stone. Until finally it illuminated the girl, and she was so much closer than he expected. He almost stumbled back and fell into the seemingly endless pit behind him.

The look on the girl's face was chilling, her green eyes were drilling into him. "Ah need to know, Scott. What is it ya want from meh?"

Now he noticed the underlying fear below this layer of fierce.

"I- I don't want anything. Except maybe your friendship" he dropped the beam not to blind her, and a hint of guilt stirred in his guts. He felt stupid for feeling guilty, he didn't do anything wrong, but he wished he's done something right, and not doing that was his fault.

The girl shifted like his words didn't play well with her. She closed in on him. "You know what Ah want? The truth. Am Ah a target for ya and yer X-Freaks?" she frowned harshly.

"We- uh-"

"It's true, isn't it?" the brief grimace on her face showed that she was hurt by his hesitance. "Ah know all about your battle simulation. The one where Ah'm the enemy?"

The worst part was she didn't even sound angry anymore, her voice quivered with hurt, and she turned around to leave him with that image of pain in her eyes.

"No, no- wait! Rogue…" Scott's heart skipped a beat at the thought that he might just let her walk out of here believing that he's ever agreed upon using her like that in their trainings. However she found out about it in the first place, at this moment it was of lesser importance than what she made of it. "It's complicated… We're not who you think we are" he said as she stopped and looked back at him, so clearly tired of the mind games. And he didn't blame her one bit. "We've never tried to hurt you, you've been lied to. We want you with us…"

"Yeah?" she fully turned to him only to gesture at him to stay away. "Well, sorry. Not interested."

She started walking away, her eyes still lingering on him over her shoulder for a few steps. But when she looked ahead again she stopped caught in the blinding beam of another flashlight.

"Everything alright?" a male voice asked. "Rudetsky's looking for you."

She blinded and saw it was Haits. "Paul, he's your friend" she gestured to the blonde boy and looked back at Summers again. "But I bet ya never practice fighting him" she rolled her eyes and headed towards the narrow passageway behind the boy.

"I'm afraid you'd- lose that bet, Rogue."

All of sudden both teens turned their full attention to Paul - or rather Principal Darkholme that suddenly took his place halfway through the sentence. Their jaws dropped in shock.

"Hello, Scott" the woman approached him. "Are you more surprised to see me- or me?" her voice became more manancing as she spread her arms and her body transformed; first her hair turned red, then her face turned blue, and her dark gray suit turned into a white dress as she chuckled at the boy's alarmed and shocked expression.

"Principal Dakr- You're Mystique?" in his bafflement he didn't know if he should be polite or throw himself at her with fists.

The blue woman rested her hands on her hips. "Something Professor Xavier neglected to tell you. Nice of him, wasn't it?" a nasty smile played on her lips as she squinted her eyes at him. "You have no idea what he's been hiding from you. Let me fill you in."

Rogue gritted her teeth completely unsure of whose side to take, she lingered aside rapidly tossing the facts in her head, trying to make sense of everything that didn't seem to make any.

"You, X-Men, are nothing but puppets for Charles Xavier!" Mystique drove her finger against Scott's chest, nearly knocking him down into the pit. Rogue moved closer, hating the idea that this conflict can get any more physical than that. "I am the sharp blade cutting your strings! Just so I can watch you FALL!"

And the worst case scenario happened, Mystique used the opportunity that Summers is in shock and shoved him back, off the ledge. He let go of the flashlight, suddenly regaining his senses, but it was too late as he yelled and felt himself become weightless as he fell.

xXx

So maybe this was the final push she needed.

Rogue never before felt the way she felt when she heard herself shriek 'NO!' at the top of her lungs while she rushed towards the ledge. Not even that night when she realized her powers, was she this afraid as she was for Scott's life at that moment.

Because while she demanded answers, she never wanted anyone hurt in the process.

"SCOTT!" she got to her knees on the edge of the hole. Only her echo responded. She jerked her head around to look at Ally- Raven- Mystique- that lying, multi-faced bitch! "Why did you do that?!"

"I'm protecting you dear, from his lies" she smiled at her as she crossed her arms as if proud of herself and what she's done.

Rogue turned away from her, her hand traveling to her face to cover her eyes. It seems so clear now, how she's playing her. She felt her guts turn at the thought that she let herself be wrapped around her lying shapeshifting finger for such a long time.

"He only wants to hurt you. Just like Charles Xavier and all the other X-Men" the woman continued.

"An' ya DON'T?" Rogue snapped around. "What did ya do to Paul?!"

"Let's just say he missed the bus thanks to a little miscommunication about the departure time" Mystique responded, still a hint of joy to her voice, like she didn't just kill someone, like she didn't see Rogue's anger. She just shifted her form to look like Paul again and extended her hand. "Now, let's rejoin the others and break the tragic news."

Rogue couldn't believe her eyes. This person she used to treat like a mother seemed to have been lying every step of the way and just killed someone in cold blood. Now she wants to act like nothing happened and dares to smile.

'At least Paul is alive' she thought. And the fact that at this point she'd expect a double murder from the woman sent a cold shiver down her spine.

But it also put a closure to her trying to figure out who is the friend and who is the enemy. The sense of closure gave her clarity she lacked this entire time since the night at Caldecott's Cemetery.

She frowned looking at Mystique's - or 'Paul's' - extended hand and then on her own. She knew what she has to do. She slipped her finger under the glove and quickly removed it, reaching to grab the exposed palm.

"No more secrets!" she grabbed the shapeshifter's wrist before the woman realized what she's up to. Suddenly there was this familiar, electric sensation, flashes of black and white and unrecognizable images made her shiver. Mystique struggled trying to free her wrist, but she weakened by the moment and shifted back into her natural self, too drained to keep up the pretend face of Paul. "Your powers are mine! You're memories are mine!" Rogue hissed at her.

No more secrets.

Scenes flashed in front of her eyes. Of Raven sitting in the limo with Irene, talking to her about how Rogue's powers just manifested.

Of Raven coming up with the plan to impose as the X-Men and attack Rogue that night. Of how she enrolled this plan. She saw herself from Raven's eyes. She saw her own fear from the point of view of those who invoked it.

Or rather, the one person who invoked it.

One moment, one short moment, and it all made sense.

It was all her.

Author's Note: Okay, so last minute I decided to make this episode a 3-parter after all. Partly because at the end there's going to be a very important moment. Can you guess what's going to happen?