Chapter 2
"What is this about Scott?" The Professor spoke and Risty had to rip her eyes away from Rogue. The heartbreak and pain in her lover's eyes was so hard to look at, but so hard to look away from too.
"I…" She stared at the old man with her eyebrows drew together. "I don't know. I just know… I was thinking he…" Her voice cracked and she felt her body shaking. At least the video was stopped, but her eyes were captured by the yellow of the blue woman's eyes. The hard edged defiance they held. That was her, she looked like that. "Is that my form? Am I supposed to look like that?" A bit of horror crept into her voice at the completely inhuman appearance. She'd pitied Kurt, and to know she look just as freakish was upsetting.
"Oh Dear." The Professor muttered. "We thought perhaps you were faking some of your memory loss, but that doesn't appear to be the case does it Mystique." Rogue's body shook when he called Risty that.
"Rogue?" Risty spoke softly as she stared into the southerner's face, and the way those eyes darted away from her hurt. "I don't…"
"Mystique." Rogue stared at her, seemed to be trying to see something that wasn't there.
"Risty." Risty whispered in response. "Please, Rogue, luv… I don't…"
"Ah can't." Rogue set her down a bit hard and pulled back in the chair. "Risty? Is she still alive, or did you…"
"I don't know." Risty's voice rose in her frustration. "I don't bloody well know anything. Not even who the hell I am!" Risty stood up, and shook her head. "I can't… I can't do this…" Rogue was rejecting her. It was a nightmare. "You said you wouldn't…" She stared at Rogue, feeling betrayed, before turning to run toward the door. No one stopped her.
Logan stared out the opened doorway for a moment. "We letting her go Chuck?" Rogue looked up into his eyes, noticed his lack of hostility as he just stood there, waiting.
"No." Rogue whispered before anyone else said anything. "She ain't going anywhere." Her voice became harder as her anger started to burn through her pain.
"She was tortured pretty bad darlin'," Logan stared at her. "She doesn't smell like anything but fear and pain." She barely listened as she ran past him and towards the opened front door. Mystique wasn't getting away. Not after having… tears blurred her vision, but the confused shouts of Kitty and a few of the others made it clear what direction the woman had gone.
The Professor felt a bit lost as he glanced at the other two men in the room. Logan took one last glance at the door before shutting it with a gentle kick. "Woman's terrified. Can't fake that."
"Henry, did you find anything?" It was hard to believe that they'd had Mystique in the mansion for almost two months and never knew it. Still it was hard to believe the woman was up to anything seeing the way she reacted to a few memories coming back. As he spoke he flipped a switch on the desk in front of him and the monitor changed to follow Rogue into the woods, obviously chasing Mystique. He frowned and debated about calling the other Xmen to help her, but something made him wait. He saw Mystique beating her hands helplessly on the stone wall that stopped her progress. Mystique would have been able to scale it, but this version helplessly took her anger and pain out on the wall.
"The drugs inhibited her powers, but not completely. They trained her to take the Risty form as her main form." Henry spoke with a bit of a whisper, like he couldn't bring himself to speak these horrible thoughts more loudly. He didn't elaborate on the training, but if the Professor wanted to understand this he'd probably have to watch these torturous tapes himself and read the files Logan brought back with him. "Her problems changing forms is caused by what they did. Her memory problems though…" The blue man shook his head. "I can't find a reason for those, except for the tendency for the mind to try and protect itself from pain."
"So what we gonna do Chuck?" Logan just stared at him, waiting for the decision, and in this one thing Charles wasn't sure he'd make the right one. He wasn't comfortable having the shapeshifter in the mansion, and really wasn't comfortable having her around Rogue.
She'd thought she could get out this way. The students at the entrance had her change course, but she'd felt she could escape. She'd followed an instinct that she no longer understood, but the wall was too tall. No one could jump that. Risty felt caged, helpless. She sank to her knees and wrapped her arms around her as she finally let the tears loose.
This was too much. She'd thought that something was wrong, but this… Mystique was a woman, clearly older. She felt like a stranger to Risty, but Risty could feel the connection, remember things seen from yellow eyes that felt foreign. "I was happy." She whispered through a tight throat.
"Mystique." Rogue's cold voice sounded a bit winded, and Risty just looked away shaking her head. Of course this would get worse. She didn't know who she was, apparently whoever she was wasn't a friend around here, and she lost her girlfriend because of it. This was horrible. The flashes of remembered tortures made it complete.
"Risty." Risty growled out. "I'm Risty. I don't care who the blue woman is, this is me." She wanted to believe that, but she couldn't. "This is so bloody fucked up."
"Mystique, where is Risty?" Rogue moved toward Risty and Risty could feel the angry threat the young woman held towards her now, as if it hadn't been her that Rogue told just a half hour ago that she would be there for her.
"I…" Risty lifted her head and stared into Rogue's impassive angry face. "I remember you sitting next to me at the assembly. You were so nice, and I felt like I'd won something when I didn't even have to try and get your attention." It was a strange feeling to have and Risty went quiet as she tried to think about that. She'd thought she'd picked a girl Rogue would like… God, it was a form. Risty's shoulders slumped as that treasured memory was destroyed by plotting she hadn't realized she'd done. "Oh God… Rogue." Her world was a complete lie, and the only real thing in it stood above her ready to fight. "I wish Logan never found that bloody place. I didn't ask them to look, I just wanted to forget. I just wanted to forget."
Silence drew Risty's eyes up again. Her eyes stared, waiting for Rogue to move. "You were always Mystique." Rogue spoke flatly. "You used me."
"No…" Risty's voice took on a pleading tone, "No, luv…. I love you… making love to you was beautiful."
Rogue's expression grew colder. "I wasn't even talking about that. You were never my friend."
Risty watched Rogue's fists clenched and worried that the girl would actually hit her, but Rogue turned away, leaving her alone.
The Professor could hear what was being said, but the way Risty curled up into herself to cry once she believed she was alone made the decision for her. Whatever happened to Mystique, it had really turned her into a teenage girl, one that would never recover without help. "Henry, can you come up with a cure for her?" Mystique had next to no control of her powers anymore, and while it would probably be best to leave her that way, this was a chance to try and get the woman to change.
"I can work to try and counteract the drugs in her system, but her memories aren't something medicine will help."
Charles glanced at the screen that still showed Mystique strapped to that table. That woman was still strong and defiant. He wasn't sure he wanted to see the other tapes where that was stripped from her. Seeing herself seemed to bring some memories to the surface. "Don't worry, I'll work with that." Charles was going to see if he could find more footage of the shapeshifter, some that was less painful, to mix in with the hours of tape Logan had found.
"You sure about this Chuck?" Logan spoke softly and Charles glanced at him and smiled.
"We have an opportunity to try and get through to one of our greatest enemies. Perhaps we can help her do more than remember who she is."
"What about this Scott thing?"
Charles' smile faded. Scott had done something dishonorable and Charles had a feeling he knew how Mystique got captured. He'd have to talk to the boy and find out what happened. He probably should also inform his students about Mystique's situation now.