Chapter 4: Revelations
In the laboratory…
Piotr had changed back into his normal form once he had fallen to the floor after Kitty took his heart out of his chest. Now, he was lying motionless on the operating table with the intruder looking over his prone body. The intruder was smiling wickedly at Piotr's body and in one of his hands; he held a large sharp knife and was cleaning it with an old white rag.
"Well, it seems that you couldn't handle that little "incident" you had with that ghost girl. Perfect! This will only make it much easier for me to cut your chest open and take out the most vital organ that is essential for my potion to work: YOUR HEART!" yelled the intruder as he raised the knife over his head, preparing to cut open Piotr's chest.
Suddenly, a mysterious being phased through the walls of the laboratory and ran towards the intruder, giving him a swift kick to his head. The intruder then fell over backwards and slumped on the ground. Kitty then stood up from the ground and yelled angrily at the intruder, "NOBODY, BUT NOBODY MESSES WITH PETER RASPUTIN AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!"
At the sound of Kitty's voice, the intruder slowly woke up and shook his head to wake up faster. When he saw Kitty standing by Piotr's prone body, he smiled wickedly and said, "My, my. You are quite a feisty woman aren't you?"
"Enough with the creep talk! Who are you and what are you doing here?" Kitty demanded.
The intruder just looked at Kitty with an unpleasant expression on his face and he said in a chilling voice, "You really want to know who I am? Well, I'll tell you, ghost girl. My name is Dante Chills, better known as the Mind Warper. I am a mutant, just like you, as I have the power to warp people's memories and turn it against them for my own gain. Even though I was aware of this great power, I wanted to do more with my mutant abilities that would allow me to become the most powerful being on the planet! So, I decided to do some research on how to obtain such massive power to enhance my mutant abilities. It wasn't until one fateful day that I found an ancient book that contained ingredients to a powerful potion called the Aurora potion that was used over one thousand years ago. According to the ancient book, it said that in order for the Aurora potion to work, a mutant's heart must be cut out of a mutant and thrown into the potion."
"Really? Another villain trying to make themselves more powerful scheme? That's just so lame," commented Kitty.
"Call it what you like, but you won't be making sarcastic comments after I tell you why I'm here at this Institute. I came to this Institute because I heard of the mutant superhero group the X-Men; and that they now reside at the Jean Grey Institute. What better way to obtain a mutant's heart than to come to an Institute full of mutants? Of course, I knew that it wasn't going to be easy to steal another mutant's heart if they are up and about. So, in order to easily obtain a mutant's heart, I used my mind warping powers to twist the memories of my victims, hoping that the sheer pain of those twisted memories will cause my victim to faint in endless agony!" said Dante maliciously.
"You're sick if you think that messing with people's minds will get you want you want," said Kitty menacingly.
"Well, let it be at the expense of other mutants then myself," said Dante smiling.
"At the expense of other MUTANTS?"
Dante had a shocked expression on his face as he heard a deep and threatening voice come from behind him and before he had a chance to turn around, he felt a steel hand grabbing him by the throat from behind.
"PETER!?" said Kitty in shock.
Dante then said in a low voice as Piotr's grip started tightening on his throat, "So, you're going to kill me just because I messed with your pathetic mind?"
"You have no idea what I have been through for the past two years," said Piotr menacingly tightening his grip even further.
"Peter, listen to me. Don't kill this guy! You're not a killer!" said Kitty trying to soothe Piotr.
Piotr just looked at Kitty with a cold look in his eyes and said, "He had emotionally scarred us Katya! He not only made me see my own heart be ripped out of me right before my eyes, but he made me relive a nightmare that I desperately wanted to put behind me for the past two years!"
"I know! I feel the same way too Peter! But killing him is not going to solve anything," said Kitty.
Dante was now gritting his teeth as Piotr was applying more pressure to his throat and he choked out, "So, if you feel the same way ghost girl, then why aren't you killing me right now? Why are you just standing there looking like your mind had never been invaded at all?"
Kitty stared coldly at Dante and said in an icy tone, "Oh, my mind has been invaded alright and I'm not really happy about that."
Kitty then looked at Piotr with a soft expression and said, "Piotr, do you remember when Emma or Cassandra Nova or whoever it was, twisted with our minds years ago? I never really told you what really happened in my mind, although you told me about how Sebastian Shaw was trying to make you angry because of what happened to you…before that terrible incident."
Kitty took a deep breath and continued, "In the twisted memory I got, we had a son together and we were a happy couple. But one day, the other X-Men were telling me that something was wrong with my son and that he needed to be contained. Of course, I refused to give up my son, but then you betrayed me and let our son get taken. So, I decided to get my son back at any cost and after I got him back, that's where the nightmare ended."
Kitty continued looking at Piotr, who suddenly had a shocked expression on his face. Kitty continued, "I didn't tell you everything about it because I was still upset and I was afraid that our relationship would have been heavily affected by that…nightmare. And yet, we still beat the odds by staying together, no matter how bad things got after all that."
Piotr started releasing his grip on Dante's neck a little bit and said quietly, "So what you are saying, is that we still pursued our relationship after all of that because we faced our greatest fear of being apart from each other?"
Kitty nodded slowly, tears coming to her eyes, "Yeah, Piotr. That's exactly what I'm saying. Dante twisted my mind by making me think that you would kill me for power and he twisted your mind into thinking that your heart was ripped out. But at the same time, it's like he made us realize that we weren't brave enough to face what happened to us years ago; the fact that we couldn't even confide in each other about the state of our relationship or how the events years ago affected us emotionally."
Piotr then let go of Dante's neck and said in a reassured tone, "Then, I suppose we must work on confiding with each other, Katya."
Kitty smiled and then went up to Piotr and hugged him tightly and Piotr hugged Kitty back. But unknown to them, Dante was slowly reaching for the knife that was knocked away from the operating table and just as he was about to use the knife, his face was met with a steel fist that punched him across the room and into the wall of the laboratory.
Kitty and Piotr were still hugging each other, neither one paying attention to where Dante landed, when Kitty asked Piotr, "Feeling better now?"
"Da. I feel really good right now," said Piotr softly.
"Well then, we better get this guy to prison before he harms anybody," said Kitty.
Dante was lying on the floor, groaning miserably, while Kitty and Piotr picked up his body and took him out of the Institute out of harm's way.