Chapter 5

Hank was waiting by a set of microscopes. He took of his glasses and put them in his coat pocket. "Raven," He said, addressing her, "What do you need?" He asked. Raven sat down on a stool in front of him. "You have my blood." She said, rather brusquely. Hank frowned. "Do I?" he asked, before standing up and walking over to a large cupboard.

He opened the doors and rummaged inside. "I can't seem to find it…" He trailed off. Raven gave short chortle of laughter. She stood up and walked over to him. "That's because I didn't tell you where it was." She said, her humour easily coming back to her. In that moment, she was no longer the cured human, ex-mutant and bitter, but young and happy again.

Raven bumped Hank aside before sticking her hand in the spacy cupboard and feeling for something pressed up far against the wall. She stuck out her tongue in concentration, before triumphantly taking her hand out and waving a vial of crimson liquid in front of Hank's face. She bounded back over to the microscopes and gingerly laid the vial down.

"Remember when you took my blood for your antidote?" She asked him with a coy smile as the memories rushed back. "I always knew you had kept it."

By now, Azazel and Storm had entered the lab, leaving Logan behind in the hall. Raven was sure the man wasn't even there anymore. Azazel walked over to Raven and stood behind her as she sat back down, handling the vial with gentle hands. Hank walked over to where the woman had bounded over and took the vial. He held it up to the light and stared at the crimson contents.

"Why do you need it? I forgot I even had that," He muttered embarrassedly. Raven smiled. "I need you to inject it into me." She said. Hank frowned and put his arm back down, twirling the vial in between his fingers. "How did this come about?" He asked her, sitting down on another stool and lying the vial down on the metal bench top.

"I had an idea, when I drove here. My mutation has been suppressed, right?" She asked, and Hank nodded. "But that means that the mutation gene hasn't been taken out of my body." She explained. Hank's frown changed into a look of bewilderment. "You're suggesting that a shot of your mutation gene-rich blood will help to free the mutation genes that have been suppressed?" He asked; his eyes lighting up with sparks of excitement.

Raven nodded enthusiastically. "Isn't that highly dangerous?" Storm asked, eyeing the vial with Raven's blood warily. Hank sighed. "It shouldn't be. The only component of Raven's blood that she misses in her current state is in fact the mutation gene. If anything, she needs the mutation cells to be unsuppressed so she can live healthily again." He explained.

Raven sat beside him, nodding eagerly and supportively. In one sudden movement, Azazel stepped forward and took Raven's wrist. In the next moment, with a bamf of red smoke and sulphur they were both gone.

Raven found she was dizzy and disoriented when she opened her eyes again. Her back was pressed up against the trunk of a stout tree, with Azazel looming over her. Raven met his eyes daringly. "Azazel? Where are we?" She demanded. The man quieted her by pressing his lips to hers. Raven barely got the time to respond before Azazel had backed away.

"You do not need this." He said curtly, his thick accent twisting the words until they were barely distinguishable. His accent only ever thickened when he was agitated. Azazel began to pace. Raven frowned and brushed away a stray lock of black hair. "What do you mean?" She asked, not understanding what Azazel was doing, and where they were, and why on earth she was here. Her mind still spun from his hasty kiss, and her thoughts were fogged.

"You do not need this cure, Raven." He said, and Raven noticed how he deliberately used her human name, instead of her mutant codename. "You are fine now. You do not need to be mutant." He told her, "Why do you want this?" He demanded.

Raven frowned. "Because I want to be me again." She said fiercely. "I don't want to be stuck in this goddamned human body. I'm not used to it, Azazel, and I want out." She said. Azazel stared at her and his eyes hardened. "The risk is too great. You will be hurt, and I will not let that happen." He said briskly.

"Azazel, I…"

"I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU AGAIN!"

Azazel's voice thundered and Raven couldn't help but cringe in partial shock and fear. The man had stopped pacing and now faced her, with his eyes glowing. The colour of his irises intensified in the light.

Raven stepped forward and gently placed a hand on his bicep. Azazel calmed from her touch, but his eyes hadn't lost their heat just yet. "Azazel, I'll be fine." She whispered. His larger, redder hand came to rest over hers. He let out a heavy sigh. "You are sure?" He asked. Raven nodded resolutely.

Confliction shone in Azazel's eyes. He knew of his own desire, and that was to keep her safe from harm. This injection potentially provided harm, so she was to be kept clear. But this was Mystique's choice, and if she believed in it, then Azazel had a hard time convincing himself otherwise. In the end, she had always been her own person, and not even her love for him was able to sway her in her beliefs.

He stepped close to her and palmed her cheek in a large red hand. Raven sighed in relief at the contact. This was something she had definitely missed. Azazel's eyes met hers, and Raven's crinkled at the corners when she smiled. "Ya lyublyu tebya, dorogoy" He whispered. Then he bent forward until his lips connected with hers. The kiss was slow, and Raven found that in that moment she was reminded most of the things she had missed about Azazel in his absence. The flow of memories only stopped when Azazel broke away from her and leant his forehead against hers.

The next second, they had disappeared and reappeared not in Hank's lab, but in a room below the mansion itself. Raven found the change starkly different. What had once been a bunker capable of handling nuclear attacks was now a perfectly functioning and operational base for the X-men. Raven understood in a flash. They would have to keep her here. If the impromptu procedure succeeded they couldn't just let her run off to Erik, now that she knew every little secret the X-men used to hide from her.

That must have been Azazel's influence on them. If he truly was an X-man now, he must have told them sometime, indirectly, of her. Charles must have known, her mind whispered, and she choked back tears. Even now, with her hand poised on Azazel's bicep, with his hand covering hers, Storm was looking respectfully away. Almost embarrassedly, Raven noted. The public display of affection also had Logan scowling (Well, he always scowled…) and even Hank didn't know where to look.

The room was rectangular, with metallic white and chrome silver walls. High-tech equipment in the same colours stood in various places by the wall and in the middle of the room stood a low bench. Hank sat on a stool next to it, with a syringe in his hand. Raven's blood sat in the syringe. A sudden wave of nerves and nausea overcame her.

Azazel pulled her to him once more, hugging her tightly before loosening his grip and letting her go. Raven gave him a supportive smile, before sitting down on the bench. She hoisted up her sleeve, exposing her shoulder. Hank nodded. "The risks are that your own blood thinks that the blood containing the mutation gene is an antibody, and you end up with blood poisoning. Now, that possibility is terribly small. These were the genes you were born with, so it shouldn't be a problem." He explained.

"We are going to place you in unconsciousness, so it's easier to monitor your vitals. You're okay with that?" Hank asked. Raven lay down and squirmed until she settled comfortably. She nodded her head once. Her eyes flitted about perhaps a tad more nervous than she should feel. "You're sure about this?" Hank asked again, and Raven shot him a glare.

Hank shrugged and moved around for a few minutes, grabbing equipment. Azazel moved from his spot next to the wall to kneel in front of Raven. He eyed the black strands of hair and almost gently threaded his fingers through them, much like he used to with her shorter hair. "You know," He started, his voice low enough so only she could hear. "If this works, you should wear this skin more." He said. Raven smirked, and she felt more and more like her older, surer self.

Azazel stood, and brushed his hand along her cheekbone. Like that training session she dreamed of, and still remembered, she shivered. Another flicker of a smile crossed Azazel's face. He moved away from her just as Hank lowered the oxygen mask over her face. One breath of the gas and she was already half-asleep. It only served to remind her how damn tired she was.

"Azazel." She said, her voice husky with sudden sleep. The man looked up. Concern fleeted briefly across his face, before it vanished. Raven smiled. "We have a son." She said, before the clutches of unconsciousness took her and tore her away from the world of the conscious. She hadn't noted his reaction, but it would have been spectacular.

~O~O~

Azazel saw Raven's eyes close through the mask. The next second, the needle punctured her skin and slid inside. Hank pressed the plug and the crimson liquid entered her body. But his thoughts were elsewhere. Through the haze that temporarily had him trapped, he could hear her voice, saying endlessly that 'They had a son."

All of a sudden, the tendrils of thought connected into a single wire of explanation; snapping together the missing pieces and forming the only explanation Azazel could really think of. In the days after returning from a long mission, surely a year and a half long, Mystique had been incredibly sombre and depressed.

Azazel had asked her time upon time what was wrong, but she never gave it away. In the days before his departure, when they had already been sleeping together for quite a while, he could remember waking up every morning with Mystique hovering around him. Her lips would be pursed in such a way that it looked like she was hiding something huge. But he had risen, oblivious to it all.

Those days had been hectic, and he could now see that the news was that she was pregnant. It struck him so sharply that he turned away from the others for the smallest of moments. He could have kicked himself for being so incredibly insensitive in both the days before and after his leave.

He could see a reason for it all, though. Keeping quiet before he left was to ensure that he didn't worry during his mission. Not telling him of her sombre mood afterwards was to ensure that he didn't worry, either. Azazel could have shaken his head at Mystique's dogged determination to hurt the ones closest to hurt the less. It was one of the things he had grown to admire.

He turned back, and his lips quirked upwards at the corners. She was beautiful when asleep, even in this form. He would keep her, he decided, whether her theory worked or not. With her presence he was again reminded how much he loved, and he refused the lack of her mutation to get in their way.

Times passed slowly, as Mystique's blood worked its way on her system. Hank monitored her vitals and gave frequent updates when Azazel asked for one. Azazel himself spent a lot of time reminiscing about better times when she had still been at his side. He paced around the bed, looked at her and then moved on. Worried was not the word to describe him.

Finally, Mystique uttered a small moan and began to stir. Azazel was at her side in a second. Hank also joined her on the other side. He looked back at the computer monitor that displayed her vitals and nodded. "She's waking up. Whether or not this has worked, it will begin to take effect in a few seconds." He told Azazel. Azazel spared the doctor one look to tell him that he understood, but then his eyes were riveted to Mystique's face again. He covered her right cheek in a large, crimson hand in a show of support.

Mystique's eyes opened.

They were gold.

FIN

And that, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to the end of the final chapter in this story. I want to thank all of my readers for your supportive comments and your reads, because it's super nice to know that my hard work has paid off!

As to what happens after this chapter is for your imagination to decide. I'm super tempted to write a sequel-style one shot to finish the series off, but i'll have to see what I'll do and if I've got time.

Finally, this chapter was dedicated to Spyro Dragon Hero, who reviewed nearly every update and sent me sweet reviews and PM's. I hope I did you justice, buddy!

Please, leave a review about whether you would like a sequel, or don't hesitate to PM me.

~ SunsetWanderer