"Thanks for lending it to me." Rogue thanked her boyfriend for loaning her one of his books as they walked toward her room. "I thought it was great."

Danny kissed her. "Anything for my lady." He said in a faux gentleman-like voice.

Rogue blushed. Since dating him, Danny has proven to be an affectionate boyfriend, showering her with hugs and kisses.

"What was your favorite part?" Danny asked her.

"The part at the end where he turned into a werewolf and nobody knew it." Rogue answered. "You ever fought a werewolf?" She asked him, wondering if he actually fought one head-on.

"I teamed up with one once." Danny admitted as he remembered Wulf. "He was very friendly. Though he was hard to understand since he spoke in Esperanto."

"Esperanto?" Rogue asked, not knowing what that was.

"Some language that my old friend once knew." Danny elaborated before deciding it was time to head to bed. "Anyway, sweet dreams, Rogue." He kissed her again before he started walking to his own room.

Rogue smiled at her boyfriend before heading to bed herself.

The hours past as Rogue slumbered, tossing in her sleep as she had a strange dream.

A wolf howled in the distance in the woods as a medieval-looking castle lay in the center. In one of the towers of the castle, there was glowing green energy coming from test tubes and all kinds of machinery.

"Monster!" A familiar voice cried out. "What have you done to him?

In the lab, there were two shadows as they confronted each other. The dream then changed to a woman in a cloak with the hood on, covering her face as she fled the castle. In her arms was a baby who was crying.

As she burst out of the castle, she was followed by a man who flew in the air, wearing a cape and a helmet.

"Come back at once!" The man demanded, but the lady kept running as she stomped through the snow, attracting the attention of a pack of wolves. She made her way to a rope bridge when the wolves all ganged up on her as they snarled at her. She held the bundle up in the air to keep the infant safe from the ravenous animals when one jumped at her, causing her to drop the infant as it fell below into the water.

"NO!" The woman cried mournfully as she watched the baby fall to its presumed death.

The woman then turned to see one of the wolves walking towards her, as its eyes glowed red and its entire head was consumed in white flames.

"Everything falling to pieces." The wolf said in a cruel voice. A voice so scary that it frightened Rogue awake as she screamed.

Immediately, Danny phased through the door and went to his girlfriend's side. Scott and Jean followed later as they opened the door.

"Rogue!" He cried out in worry. "What's wrong?" He brought her into a protective hug as he rubbed her back, assuring her that everything was okay.

"I don't know." Rogue said as she was hanging onto Danny for dear life. "I was dreaming. Some kind of awful nightmare with these images. It was horrible."

"Yeah." Kitty said from the bed across from Rogue's. "Her shrieking totally freaked me out. I just about phased through the bed."

"Whoa!" Scott replied. "Finals must be really getting to you."

"No! It's not the first time." Rogue said. "I've had this dream before." She then thought about the being with the red eyes and flaming hair. "But this was time; it was different."

"How different?" Danny asked her. "And how long have you been having them?"

"These dreams started after that trip in the mountains." Rogue answered.

"What's going on, man?" Evan said sleepily as he and Kurt entered the room. "You guys okay?"

"Rogue's having creepy nightmares." Kitty told them.

"Whoa, what about?" Kurt asked.

"I'm not sure." Rogue replied. "There's a castle and wolves." She then remembered the baby falling to its death. "Oh, little poor baby. I didn't really see his face. But I seem to know..." She then looked at Kurt with a look of astonishment. "To know him somehow!"

"What?" Kurt said. "Why are you looking at me like that? What's wrong?"

Rogue pointed at him. "It was you!"

"What was me?" Kurt asked.

"Somehow I just know it was you, Kurt!" Rogue realized.

Kurt was now really confused. "What are you talking about?"

"In the dream, there was a baby crying." Rogue explained. "Someone, a woman, I think—I didn't really see her face—was running. And the baby was dropped into the river."

"And you think that baby was me?" Kurt asked.

"Why am I having this dream?" Rogue asked herself.

"I think it may be a repressed memory." Danny theorized.

"But I was never there!" Rogue cried.

"Not a repressed memory of yours, but someone else's." Danny elaborated. "You absorb memories as well, right?" When Rogue nodded, he continued. "You told me that when you first discovered your powers, you were experiencing that boy's memories."

Rogue took this in as she nodded. "I think you're right. But whose memories are they?"

"Well, Rogue, what women have you absorbed since that field trip?" Danny asked her, making her eyes widen in realization.

"Mystique!" She yelled. "I'm having her memories."

"Wait, Mystique was holding me as a baby." Kurt said. "Why? Unless-"

"Maybe the professor can help us sort this out." Jean interrupted. "But let's do it in the morning. It's late."

'That's all right, Jean.' Xavier's voice telepathically said to all the students, except Danny. 'This is important. Rogue, Danny, and Kurt, please come to the library with Jean. And the rest of you, get some sleep. You all have finals tomorrow.'

"Man, there's no keeping anything from that dude, is there?" Evan asked as they all left Rogue's room.

"I've always known that my parents adopted me." Kurt said as he, Rogue, Danny, and Jean were with Xavier in the library. "But they never said anything about me being fished out of a river. And what does Mystique have to do with this?"

"Don't worry, Kurt." Xavier assured him. "We'll try to sort this out. Rogue, since this was your dream, I think I should start with you. Would you mind sitting here, please?" He gestured to the chair next to him. Rogue obliged as she sat down. "Now, just relax. Try to think of the dream."

"You sure this isn't gonna hurt?" Rogue asked hesitantly.

"Yes." Xavier answered. "Now please, just concentrate."

As he entered Rogue's mind, he saw visions of the laboratory in the castle.

"Monster!" The woman cried out. "What have you done to him?"

As he saw her running from the man, the professor managed to get a good look at her pursuer and recognized him as Magneto. He then witnessed the wolves cause her to drop the baby. As she reached for him, Xavier was able to get a peek at her face, confirming that it was Mystique.

Falling to the ground in despair, Mystique looked at Magneto with broken eyes.

"Why?" She asked him. "Why?"

Magneto didn't say another word as he floated back to the castle.

The memory then continued as it showed the baby floating down the river, where it was picked up by a couple. The infant held out its hand, revealing it to be blue, confirming that the infant in question was Kurt. The couple then headed inside with the baby, with Mystique watching them in the distance. She had a look of regret on her face as she turned around.

The memory then changed to show the wolf from before with the red eyes and the white flames. Xavier felt fear as he realized that it wasn't a memory. The wolf was looking directly into his eyes.

"Hello, Xavier." It said, causing Xavier to exit Rogue's mind. He was sweating and breathing heavily as he tried to calm himself.

"Professor, are you okay?" Danny asked him in concern.

"I don't know." Xavier said. "I saw something that was more than a dream."

"Danny told me it was a repressed memory of someone I absorbed, probably Mystique." Rogue told him.

Xavier nodded as he pushed aside what he had just seen in Rogue's mind. "Yes. And it is likely those are memories of Mystique, who appears to know about Kurt's past."

"Maybe you got those memories from me." Kurt suggested.

"You were just an infant in the dream." Xavier told him. "It is highly unlikely they were your memories."

"Then that must mean that Mystique is my mother." Kurt said as he sat down, taking in this bombshell. His mother. His real mother. Was Mystique.

'How could this be?' He thought to himself. How could Mystique have left him all alone? Why? Did she even care for him? And if she was his mother, then who was his father?

Xavier gave a look of sympathy to Kurt. "Kurt, I think we should try and find more evidence before we start making assumptions, and we've had quite enough excitement for now."

"But, professor!" He protested.

"Tomorrow, Kurt." Xavier said, not budging on the issue. "After school, I promise." He then turned to Rogue. "Rogue, have you been having this dream for quite a while?"

"Yeah." Rogue answered. "The same thing every time. Except for tonight."

"What was different about tonight?" Xavier asked, though he felt he already knew the answer.

"This time in my dream, there was someone else." Rogue explained. "I don't know who."

Xavier could only ponder what that thing was. "I understand, Rogue." He then decided to head back to bed. "Good night."

"Night." Rogue said as Danny escorted her back to her room.

"It'll be all right, Rogue." Danny told her as he tucked her in. "I've had nightmares before. They don't last long."

"About what?" Rogue asked him as she tried to fall back asleep.

Normally, Danny would've changed the subject, but since he was feeling sleepy, he confessed what was in his dreams.

"Nothing much. Just red eyes and white fire." Danny told her, making Rogue stiffen in fear as she remembered that particular wolf with the same features.

"What's wrong?" Danny noticed that Rogue was on edge.

"Can you stay with me tonight?" Rogue grabbed his hand as she pulled him closer. "Please." She implored when she saw Danny's silence. "I don't want to be alone."

"I'm right here, you know." Kitty said from her bed as she was cuddling a dragon plushie.

The two ignored her as Danny felt conflicted about staying with Rogue, not wanting to get in trouble.

"Rogue, I don't think that's a good idea." He told her, but he couldn't help the tugs on his heartstrings that occurred when she gave him that pleading look.

"Please, Danny." Rogue begged. "I need you. I'm so scared."

"Alright." Rules be damned, his girlfriend needed him. He then got under the covers as he and Rogue cuddled. "Night."

"Night." Rogue wrapped her arms around her boyfriend, feeling secure now that he was here.

The two then drifted off as Kitty decided to make a joke before heading to bed.

"Just promise me you two won't keep me up all night with your making out." She teased.

"Shut up, Kitty!" Danny and Rogue shouted, feeling embarrassed.

"You've been carrying a terrible burden for many years, Mystique." Xavier said to her. The two were in the principal's office at Bayville High, with Mystique currently in her Darkholme disguise. "Rogue's recent contact with you seems to have given her your darker memories. Nightmares about an unfortunate incident involving an infant."

"You're fishing." Mystique said suspiciously. "You know nothing."

"I know about your relationship with the boy, Mystique." Xavier revealed. "What I don't know is what Magneto did to him. Why did you run that night?"

Mystique got up from her seat. "Dear, dear Charles." She said mockingly, but Xavier could tell she was putting up a front to hide how she really felt. "How incredibly frustrating for you to realize that amazing mind of yours knows so very little, really."

"What were you two up to in that castle?" Xavier pressed. "Was it worth the loss of your son?"

At this moment, Mystique flashed back to that very night.

"Monster! What have you done to him?"

She could see herself as she witnessed Kurt fall to the banks of the river.

"No!"

Thrown off kilter by this, she accidentally dropped a book she was holding before turning around to glare at Xavier.

"Get out!" She demanded. "Get out now!"

Xavier complied as he went to leave, but he still had one last thing to say to her.

"Just in case you're curious, he turned out to be a very fine lad." He then left Mystique alone as she looked down in regret.

Leaving the school, Xavier then telepathically contacted Logan. 'Logan, I've got the coordinates.'

"Fire away." Logan replied in the seat of the Blackbird as he flipped a few switches as the jet took off.

Back at school, Kurt was waiting anxiously for class to end when the bell went off. He handed his test to the teacher before going to his locker to get his things.

As he was heading there, he saw Danny and Rogue approaching him.

"There you are, Kurt." Rogue said. "We've been looking for you. What's the rush?"

"You know." Kurt answered. "Prof said we would look for more answers after school. I can't believe my mother might be Mystique."

"I know, man." Danny said. "I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone. You haven't tried talking to her, have you?"

"Of course not!" Kurt responded. "What would I even say? Hi mom, I'm your son, and I just found out about it from a dream Rogue had."

Danny looked at Kurt with sympathy. "I'm sorry that you're having to go through this, Kurt."

"Yeah." Rogue agreed. "You sure you want to know?" She asked him.

Kurt went to his locker as he got out a book. "Rogue, haven't you ever wondered who your real parents are?"

"I guess so, yeah." Rogue said as she thought about it. She always asked Irene about it, but she was always vague about the answer. "Sometimes. But Irene was always a good mom to me until after she pulled that manipulating shtick with Mystique." She said bitterly, making Danny squeeze her hand in support.

"And what about you, Danny?" Kurt asked his friend, knowing nothing about his family history.

"My parents are dead." Danny said bluntly, catching Kurt and Rogue off guard with the lack of emotion in his voice.

Kurt felt regretful about asking that question. "Oh, man, I'm so-"

"Forget it." Danny cut him off. "It's the past. And I wish I could give you some advice on what you're going through, Kurt, but all I can say personally is that what's in the past is best left there."

"How could leaving my own past behind be good?" Kurt asked incredulously, getting Scott and Jean's attention. The two were talking to a fellow classmate when they decided to see what all the commotion was about.

"Because it might be too painful to remember." Danny stated to his friend.

"Maybe you can live without knowing the past, but I've got to know the truth about my life." Kurt said in frustration as he pressed the button on his watch, revealing his true form. "I'm out of here." He then teleported away.

"Kurt, wait." Rogue tried to grab him, but Danny held her back.

"Let him go." Danny told her. "He needs to figure this out by himself."

Rogue sighed, feeling bad for Kurt. "You think what you said is right?" She asked him. "Leaving the past behind."

Danny just gave an indifferent shrug, trying to hide what he was feeling on the inside. "Sometimes the past is too painful to think about."

"Man, what was that about?" Scott asked as he and Jean approached them.

"He's still worked up about last night." Danny answered.

"Ah. Well, we better go find him." Scott said as he went to look for him.

"Actually, Scott, I think it's best that we let him cool off on his own." Danny suggested.

Scott nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

The group then walked off, not noticing that the boy Scott and Jean were previously talking to had heard everything. The boy then walked past a corner and turned into Principal Darkholme, who had a conflicted look on her face.

"Are you sure about this?" Pietro asked as he and Darkholme met behind the bleachers outside. He was handed an envelope and told to deliver it to Nightcrawler. "I've seen the defenses they've got."

"Don't worry." Darkholme reassured him. "You're fast enough. You should be able to get in and out of there undetected."

"Why is it important?" He demanded. "What are you telling that blue-furred freak?" He asked suspiciously.

Darkholme narrowed her eyes. "Never mind. That's none of your business. Just deliver it."

Knowing that it wasn't wise to test Mystique right now, Pietro sped off to fulfill his task.

Meanwhile, Xavier was at a computer in the underground area of the school, waiting for Logan's report.

"Looks like this is the place, Charles." Logan said to him over the Blackbird's communicator. "I'll set her down in the woods nearby and go in on foot."

"Good." Xavier said as he was looking at a map that displayed the Blackbird's location. "Keep me informed."

"Right. Logan out." The X-Man responded, as Charles sensed Pietro's presence as the speedster jumped over the gates and made his way into the institute.

'Quicksilver.' He thought to himself.

The speed demon passed through the front door and dashed past Kitty, who was reading a book. The sudden wind caused the pages to turn.

"Hey, who opened a window?" She asked Evan and Storm, who were also in the foyer with her.

Kurt was hanging upside down from his ceiling, staring at a photo of him with his adoptive parents, when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. He teleported outside to see who it was, but no one was there. Confused, he teleported back inside his room, only to find someone had slipped an envelope under the door.

Picking it up, he opened it and found a note.

"If you want to know the truth, come to the new mall construction site at sundown. Come alone." Kurt read. He slipped the note and envelope in his drawer as he looked at the sun lowering.

"Why not?" He asked himself as he teleported away, determined to get the answer to his past. If he stuck around, he would have heard another knock on his door.

"Yo, Kurt." Scott greeted as he walked into the room. "Professor X says he may have some info..." He found the room empty. "Kurt?" He looked up at the ceiling in case he was hanging there, but Kurt wasn't there either. "Kurt?"

As the sun was beginning to set, Pietro was leaning against a tree as he was speaking on the phone with Magneto. The one who truly ran the Brotherhood.

"That's what the note said." Pietro said. "She's gonna meet that little blue creep tonight. And that Wolverine guy and the Blackbird were gone, just like you said."

"Hmm." Magneto pondered. "As I feared. Good work, Pietro." He praised the boy as he was in a lab that was inside the same castle from the dream. He was looking at the monitor in the lab as he was watching out for the Blackbird, knowing that Wolverine would be here soon enough.

"Now I need you to do something further for me." He said to Pietro. "Get the others and intercept Nightcrawler before he gets to Mystique." He commanded as he saw the Blackbird land. "She must tell him what he wants to know. I have to take care of a visitor."

After landing the jet and navigating through the wilderness, Wolverine soon found himself in view of the castle. He managed to climb up the rocky surface before pulling himself up on the drawbridge.

He sniffed around as he caught a familiar scent.

Magneto.

He then entered the castle and hid behind a pillar to overlook the interior. It was empty. He then climbed up some stairs, and as he was about to enter a hallway at the top, he was electrocuted by two devices on either side of the wall that shot out a pulse at him.

Hissing in pain, he managed to stab one of the mechanisms, causing the electricity to stop.

As he continued on his path, two turrets appeared and shot lasers at the orange-suited mutant, who dodged the blasts as he jumped off a wall and propelled himself to one of the devices and slashed it, causing it to propel to the other one, destroying both in the process.

Wolverine then found a set of wooden doors, and preparing to engage in a one-on-one confrontation with Magneto, he burst through the doors and into the lab, only to find everything trashed.

Shelves were pushed down. Shattered glass from beakers littered the floor, along with all kinds of research equipment that was damaged beyond repair.

As he walked down the stairs to closely observe the site, he heard Xavier's voice over his walkie-talkie.

"Wolverine." Xavier said. "Report."

Wolverine took the device off his belt to respond. "Looks like I was expected. I think this place was some sort of..." He sniffed the place as he got the answer. "DNA lab or something. But whoever was running it pulled out recently. Real recently." Wolverine added, as he could tell that this place was destroyed not too long ago. He then noticed a bomb on the wall, counting down from ten seconds.

"Sorry, doc! I gotta sign off. Now!" Wolverine said to the professor before he jumped out of the window, barely managing to escape the explosion, which caused the entire castle to crumble as Wolverine ran back to the Blackbird.

Danny was walking down the halls of the institute when Scott came up to him.

"Danny, Kurt's taken off." His friend told him. "The professor wants us to check out his room."

"What are we looking for exactly?" Danny asked as the two entered Kurt's room.

"I'm not sure." Scott answered. "Professor X thinks Kurt might have had a visit from Pietro this afternoon."

"That little pipsqueak?" Danny groaned at the thought of him being involved. "Great."

"Yeah, and I guess he could get past the mansion security with no problem." Scott assumed.

As the two were looking around, Danny went through Kurt's drawer, where he found the note from earlier. He read it and sighed, knowing what had happened to Kurt.

"Shit." He mumbled. "Scott, look at this." He showed Scott the note.

Scott read the note before looking over at Danny. "Get the others. We gotta move."

At the construction site, Kurt teleported in as he took a couple steps forward, looking for whoever told him to meet here.

"Okay, so I'm here." Kurt said.

"Hello, Kurt."

Kurt looked behind him to see the same woman from Rogue's dream, wearing the same robe with a hood over her face.

"You!" Kurt cried as he remembered the description of the figure that Rogue gave. "Who are you? And why don't you show yourself?"

"You already know me." The woman took off her hood, confirming Kurt's fear that it was Mystique. "Son."

"No!" Kurt shouted at the revelation that Mystique really was his mother. " No! It's impossible!" His shock then turned to rage as he was confronted with the identity of his biological mother. "What happened to me? Why didn't you-" Before he could say more, Blob landed on his feet in between the two of them.

"Get out!" Mystique commanded Blob, but he ignored her as the rest of the Brotherhood surrounded Nightcrawler.

"Whoa!" Quicksilver said as he showed up. "Far as you go, fur boy. This conversation's over." He was then lifted off his feet by an invisible force and thrown into a pile of planks.

The force then revealed itself as Danny as he turned visible. He shot some ecto-blasts from his eyes at Toad, knocking him into a cement mixer. He then grabbed Blob by one of his legs and swung him around before throwing him at Avalanche, launching the two into a brick wall.

"What kind of game is this, Mystique?" Nightcrawler accused, thinking that this was a setup.

"I didn't summon them, I swear." Mystique said. "I just want to talk."

Danny then turned to Kurt. "We'll be waiting outside if you need us." He then vanished, leaving the mother and son alone.

"Why did you leave me?" Kurt demanded, wondering if Mystique had abandoned him.

"I didn't want to, Kurt." Mystique confessed as she got closer to her boy. "You fell into the river. I tried to find you, but you were already discovered." She began to tear up. "I wanted to take you back, but I realized you were safer with them."

"Safe from who?" Kurt pressed.

"Magneto." Mystique snarled. "He experimented on you to try and force the X-gene to activate at infancy."

"You let him experiment on me?" Kurt was justifiably horrified at the fact that Mystique did that to him. But could he really say he was surprised? He knew how she manipulated and tormented Rogue, or how she shot Danny. So why was he really shocked by this?

"How could you?" Kurt said quietly, trying to hold back his tears.

"I didn't know what he would do." Mystique said, her voice filled with regret. "I took you out as soon as I could. Please, Kurt." She held out a hand to her son. "Come with me, my son."

Kurt looked at the hand and contemplated a bit before he finally made his decision.

He slapped the hand away.

"No." Kurt glared at Mystique. "I don't want anything to do with the things you've done. Goodbye, mother." He then teleported away, leaving a crying Mystique behind.

"There was nothing of the lab?" Xavier asked Logan as the two of them, along with Scott and Jean, were in the library.

"Nothing." Logan confirmed. "Whoever was running it didn't want us finding anything. But before it went kablooey, it looked like a place Dr. Frankenstein might have been comfortable in."

"Genetic experimentation on mutants." Xavier said to himself, disgusted by the thought. "I hadn't realized that he was willing to go that far. And poor Kurt."

All four of them looked down, feeling sympathy for the blue mutant.

Kurt was on the roof, with Danny and Rogue on either side of him.

"I still can't believe Mystique is my mother, and she let that happen." Kurt bemoaned as he looked down.

"I'm sorry, Kurt." Danny apologized, wishing that he could take away his friend's pain.

"You were right, Danny." Kurt said. "The past is best left forgotten."

"Yeah." Danny sighed before he looked Kurt in the eye. "And that's why we focus on the present because right now, Kurt, you have family." He gestured to himself. "You got me, Rogue, the professor, Logan, Storm, Evan, Kitty, Scott, Jean, and your adoptive parents." He patted his friend on the shoulder. "You have people who love you, Kurt. Never forget that."

Kurt smiled sincerely at Danny. "I won't." His face then had a look of melancholy. "But how long until this pain goes away?"

"Never." Danny grunted. "It doesn't go away. You just have to be patient, and soon it will lessen as time goes on." He put his hand over Kurt's shoulders. "But we'll be there to help you through your pain."

Kurt then gave Danny a look of gratitude. "Thank you."

Mystique, sadly, had no one to comfort her as she looked out the window of her office. She saw a car drop off a girl, who thanked her mom for the ride.

"Thanks for the ride, Mom. See you after school."

Mystique closed her eyes, hurt by the rejection from her own son. The hurt soon turned to anger as she reflected on the source of all her troubles.

Daniel Fenton.

He turned Rogue against her, and now he did the same to Kurt.

That bastard will pay for all she's done to her.

She'll see to it personally.