“Mother,” said a meek, masculine voice, “Mother, I’ve come for you.”
Mystique looked up and smiled. “It’s about time, Nightcrawler. Bad things are on the horizon. I’m glad you came to get me.”
“No problem, mother,” Nightcrawler whispered, teleporting quietly into her cell. His expert tail picked the lock with a pin and his mother fell to the floor of the dank prison. He picked her up and held her in his arms for a moment. His fingers messaged her numb, weak arms until the feeling had come back to them. “Mother, I have to get you out of here and get you into hiding.”
Mystique smiled. Her palm traced Nightcrawler’s blue, scarred face. “How did you know I would be here?”
“I went through SHIELD files. Peter Maximoff helped me because I promised I would help him find his sister if he did so. SHIELD has become very interconnected with the organization who took her, you know,” Nightcrawler answered in his thick, German accent.
“You truly are like me,” Mystique chuckled, pushing away from her son and pacing the cell. “But why would Peter help you if I intend to go after his father once I get out of here?”
Nightcrawler shrank back in fear, and his dirty fingernails scraped against the stone walls. “You intend to go after Magneto? But the government! The treaty! The sentinels!”
Mystique silenced him with her finger. “He has wronged me in too many ways to count. I’m done caring about that treaty the mutants signed with the humans. I’ll put my toes out of line if I want to.”
“But mother! They have your DNA!”
Mystique froze and thought for a minute. “It doesn’t matter anyway. They’ll find a way to make them powerful anyway. Who needs me when they have Rogue? I suspect that’s why she’s on the run, in any case. But there is nothing I can do about the lethality of the sentinels. The humans should recognize that there is no need to fear what is coming, and there is no way to prevent us from disagreeing on so sensitive an issue. They cannot prevent me from taking my revenge. But if you’re scared, son, you can leave. I’ll escape from here on my own.”
Nightcrawler shook his head. “No. I’ll help you, mother. I cannot betray my own flesh and blood. Ich kann nicht.”
“Could you betray your religion?” Mystique asked. “What we are about to do involves murder of the highest degree. It will involve betrayal. It will involve lies, lust, and just a hint of greed.”
Nightcrawler fingered his cross for a moment. “God will forgive me,” he said at last. “I shall have to make many new carvings on my skin, but I will be forgiven.”
“Excellent,” Mystique said happily. “Let us begin, then.”
Her son grabbed onto her and used his father’s power to teleport straight up through the glass ceiling of the prison and out into the main hallway. From there, Mystique transformed into the first prison guard they passed and Nightcrawler pulled a small device out of his pocket. “What is that?” Mystique asked.
“Image inducer. It gives me powers like yours,” he replied, transforming into the next guard they passed. Together, Mystique and her son left the prison unimpeded.
Once outside, Mystique spat upon the grass. “SHIELD shall pay next. When I have finished Magneto, I’ll get m revenge upon the team that dares to call themselves the Avengers.”
“But mother, they helped us so much. They saved us from alien attacks twice. And they continue to grow stronger.”
“Not for long,” Mystique whispered, transforming into a beautiful, blond woman with eyes of the deepest blue. “God, I hate this form. I hate looking like one of them. It just isn’t natural.”
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Chasing the Sun (Pyro/X-Men)
Fanfiction*You don't have to have read Goddess to read this, but it is recommended. However, you can read it anyway if you loved X-Men because it doesn't spoil Goddess* John Allerdyce, also known as Dynami Taigan Barton, also known as Pyro, is confused about...
