[OP: "Trouble is a Friend"-- Lenka]

"All right, here you go." Rumi handed two phones to Morph and Mystique. "I already put our numbers in."

"With pictures," Zoey added.

"So if there's trouble, just call us," Rumi said. "Or text. We have to rehearse today, so you stay close, but you can't be in the studio itself."

"Bobby's number is there too," Zoey added, "since we don't normally have our phones out while we're practicing, so just text him SOS or something. We told him to let us know if you did."

"Wow...thanks." Morph was almost touched. "Normally, people don't take our safety this seriously."

"Well, the one thing that we're all worried about is Gwi-Ma, so..." Rumi shrugged. "And ourselves. If you see anything at all, tell us, even if it's not around you. The demon attacks have been...a lot lately."

Mira shot her a look but then nodded. "Yeah, let us know right away."

"How do I unlock this?" Mystique was staring at the screen, and there was an image that was like a screen saver on a computer.

"We didn't put in any number code, so just swipe it," Zoey said.

"Swipe it?" Morph said. He shook it.

"No, swiping it is this." Zoey ran a finger across the screen horizontally.

Morph swiped at it, and the phone opened with a bunch of little boxes on the front.

"Oh...okay...where are the digits?" he asked.

"Are you...for real?" Mira said.

"You guys really are boomers," Zoey snorted. "Look, see the icon with the phone? That's your calling app."

She pressed it, and it opened up. "Now you hit this for contacts...Oh, and I changed the settings to English for you."

"They weren't set in English?" Morph was looking overwhelmed. "Wow..."

"And you text with this app." Zoey tapped it again. "I guess you won't use the other apps, since you're such a dinosaur, but here's a map app, a clock app, calendar app, and your tracking app, which I turned on already in case we lose you. Bobby uses it for us all the time."

"Wait, you track with this?" Mystique shook her phone. "Turn it off. I don't want you tracking me."

"Why? Are you planning to do anything suspicious?" Mira asked.

"No, but it's an invasion of privacy to do it without my permission," Mystique said. "Do you just do that to people here?"

"We just like to be safe," Rumi said. "Please, we'll turn it off after the Idol Awards if you want, but just till then we all should take precautions."

"Then you turn on yours also," Mystique said.

"If it makes you feel better, fine." Rumi took out her phone.

"Wait, what?" Mira said.

"Mira, it's only fair," Rumi said. "Besides, I trust them now."

"On what proof?" Mira said.

"Mira, we're standing right here," Morph said. "Can you at least pretend you care if you hurt our feelings?"

Mira frowned at him. "Look, maybe you're sincere, maybe you aren't, but until we know for sure, it's just stupid not to do this."

"We could say the same." Mystique folded her arms.

Finally the argument ended in Mira giving up and letting Rumi do it, since Rumi and Zoey told her it was likely Morph would be able to locate them anyway, and this was really more for them than the three girls.

Mystique probably would have let Mira win that fight if she'd known how to turn her location off, but she resolved to ditch the phone if she needed to sneak anywhere. She wasn't attached to the idea of using it, since the tech was foreign to her, and, unlike the girls, she could easily imagine other ways around the communication issue.

Morph got distracted playing with his phone, trying to figure it out, and no doubt doing a lot of things he didn't really need to do on it. He wasn't really even listening to the argument after a while.

Finally, when it was settled, the girls said they had to get to their practice.

They got to the train and rode a few miles and then got off.

"Just stay outside the building," Rumi told Morph and Mystique. "And if you see demons, let us know. But it should be okay. Plus, we can start singing if we need to."

"So your voice is better?" Zoey said.

"Yeah, I'm doing a lot better," Rumi said. "I guess resting was all I needed."

But she didn't seem 100% sincere about that.

"If she was any worse of a liar, she'd have a billboard on her forehead saying she was lying," Mystique said. "How have they not caught on?"

"To be fair, Raven, we never suspected her real secret till Jinu let it slip. Wouldn't have been my first guess, since she's a hunter." Morph was still scrolling. "Wow...the apps are really intricate. And the quality is so much better than at home. I could get use to this 1080p resolution."

"Morph, focus," Mystique said. "Now what? We're not just going to stand out here and waste our time, right? The Saja Boys are no doubt in the area, like they said. They're stalking them."

"I really don't know if they are," Morph said. "I think we should just wait. Our best bet is to help the girls with whatever they're doing until we get more information."

Mystique sighed. "I suppose... Well, I'm going to find the bathroom then. They rushed us out of that other store."

"Sure, maybe I'll find some place to sit out of the sun."

It wasn't hot, but it sure was bright in this city.

However, while he was stting under a tree in the parking lot, he noticed one of those red light waves rippled over some of the walls in the distance.

"Hmm." He looked up. "Maybe should let the girls know."

Then he thought that Raven had been gone for a lot longer than usual.

Uneasy, he got up and ran around the building till he found a door that led inside with a restroom sign.

He shifted into a woman before going into the ladies' room.

At first, he was glad he found nothing going on in there, but he saw no Mystique either.

Then the gaping hole in the wall that was shimmering with red light caught his eye.

Was that...wasn't that what had happened in the bathhouse?

Oh no.

"Raven!" he called, shifting back into himself. "Raven?!"

He dashed out of the room and out the door again.

* * *

Mystique had found the restroom and had just been washing her hands at the sink when she saw a red flair.

Then a hole appeared in the wall near her head.

She jumped back and screamed, but it was no use--she was alone in there. The studio was pretty private, so only staff would have been around even if someone had been close, but all of them were in the front of it instead.

Then dark, misshapen things began to crawl out of the hole.

They were discolored, lumpy, had horns, fangs, and claws, and looked vaguely humanoid but  not like humans.

Mystique didn't waste any time asking herself why they'd come out in this room, she just ran for it.

She should have screamed again when she got outside so that Morph could hear her, but she was too scared to think of that. She just bee-lined in the opposite direction, since they were right on her heels. They were a lot faster than she expected them to be.

Then some of them appeared in front of her--maybe another hole in the...half moon, or whatever it was, was around.

She stopped short.

Then she dodged as one of them swung at her.

She raced for the wall.

Another of them reached out now and grabbed her by the neck before she could move out of its reach.

Then it slammed her into the wall.

"Show yourself," it said, in an inhuman growl. "Outcast."

Mystique grabbed at its claws to try to pry it off, but she was choking right now.

She reverted to her blue form because she couldn't focus enough to maintain the transformation anymore.

The demon seemed...surprised.

It almost pulled back, but then, as if something told it not to, it doubled down again.

"Gwi-Ma sends his regards" said another one, coming up behind it, holding out long claws. "And a warning--if you interfere further, you will be cut down along with the Hunters..."

Raven gasped for air.

Then, as if she'd slipped into a waking dream, she saw something very different in front of her.

Fire...but the fire had a mouth, a huge, huge mouth that opened like the door of an oven.

It was dark, but it was still hot, somehow... She could feel fire on her skin.

"You're not one of them, no matter what disguise you put on," the fire spoke, and its voice wasn't human...but also not like the other demons. It was slippery, like it was trying to wrap around your mind, but still grating, like it was a nail file.

It reminded her of Sinister in a way, the mix of taunting and threatening that he'd always spoken with... It got under your skin.

Then she blinked, and she was back in the real world, not sure what she'd just seen.

The demons were still pinning her to the wall, and two of them were hovering overhead now also.

The clawed one reached out.

Then something else hit the big one holding her and knocked it away, making it let go of her.

Morph had finally found her and turned his arms into longer extensions of themselves and grabbed the demon by his back.

He slammed that one into the ground.

Mystique fell to the ground, gasping for air.

The other demons surrounded Morph and scratched at him.

Morph thankfully was ready for this. He shoved them anyway and then turned his hands into long curved swords and slashed at them.

It did not seem likely that it would have any effect on them, since they were not the same glowing, ethereal weapons of the Hunters, but, to her surprise, the swords cut them easily, and they turned to dust.

Morph was surprised also. "Huh...that was new."

More demons were closing in behind him though.

One of them sprang at him and knocked him over before he was ready.

He kicked at it.

"Morph!" Mystique stood up now.

More of the monsters appeared from around the corner... There had to be a hole there.

Morph sliced some more, but he was worried that there were too many for him to handle.

Mystique wasn't sure what to do. She kicked one of the small ones aside.

"I command you to leave us alone," she said, using the name she'd been taught to use. "Now."

The creature back up, hissing at her, but...was it hesitating?

"Not that easy," said another big one, starting to attack from above.

Mystique jumped back and raised her hands--and in her hand suddenly she found something hard and solid.

It felt like a gun.

On instinct, she raised her hand and shot the demon in mid air.

It burst into smoke also, and she was left shocked.

Then she stared at her hand.

In it there was a glowing weapon that looked like the laser blaster she'd used before while working for Apocalypse...but it was glowing. Not the same color as the other women's--it was of a lighter, more white than blue shade, so pure it looked like crystal in her hand, instead of metal or plastic.

[Found this picture of a quartz model of a gun on alibaba.com. I guess people really make anything. Though it's not a blaster, but we'll have to use our imagination for that part.]

"Raven!" Morph cried.

She realized she'd let her guard down. More of the demons were already rushing to bite her.

She raised the gun and shot both of them, and they disappeared also.

Morph blocked some of the ones charging at her and slashed them, and they vanished.

A few more then appeared behind them, but before he could do anything, someone threw a knife through one, and someone rammed a spear through another.

Then Rumi appeared from behind them, holding out her sword.

"I just got done with the ones around the corner," she said. "The hole...was there, but it's closing now... Wow...was that all of them?"

"Two holes and there's only about 5 of them?" Zoey was surprised.

"No." Mira was frowning at Morph, and then she pointed her blade at them. "There were more. I saw them."

Then she frowned. "And I saw you. You killed them!"

* * *

The shocked expressions of Zoey and Rumi were hilarious after Mira said that, but then they stopped and got a grip.

"I'm sorry, but is she right?" Rumi said. "Did you? Wait..." She locked in on Mystique's glowing hand gun. "Where...did you get that?"

"This?" Mystique held it up like it was a foreign object to her. "I don't know. I yelled at one of them, and then this appeared in my hand when it pounced. I didn't even think it, it just happened."

"And I can do this anytime." Morph lifted his blade arms. "I just have to harden my arms, but I didn't think that it would actually cut them. I was trying to get some distance... Strange, isn't it?"

"Hold up, I thought only we could do this," Zoey said strangely. "How can you?"

"Yeah, this doesn't make sense," Rumi said.

"I knew you weren't telling us everything." Mira frowned. "Spill. What did you do?"

Mystique closed her hand, and the gun disappeared out of it. "Shine's sword," she said to Morph. "It has to be something like that...but it's a gun for me."

"I think it's because you're more comfortable with a gun," Morph said. "Shine always said that sword was just a physical representation of her weapon anyway. She likes swords--for her that makes sense. For you, a glock makes a lot more sense. You're a dead shot anyway. For me, just improvising makes more sense, so I guess it worked okay with my mutation." He shifted his arms back to normal. "It's a big relief. I was wondering why we couldn't fight any of the demons here. Seemed a little unfair."

"That explains nothing," Mira said.

"Are you...hunters?" Zoey said. "But there're only three hunters."

"There are only three of you." Raven folded her arms. "We're not hunters... We're just from...somewhere, or Someone, that has the ability to fight spirits. Not like you do, but...I guess if we need to, we can."

"She's right, we wouldn't go looking for it," Morph said. "That was self defense. Raven, what happened? The bathroom was empty..."

"They just oozed out of the wall." Mystique shivered at what happened. She hadn't had time to think about it before. She started shaking. "And one of them grabbed me." She put a hand to her throat. "And I saw something. I saw this fire...and it spoke. It was a mouth."

"Gwi-Ma..." Rumi said in a ghost of a voice.

"You saw Gwi-Ma!" Mira was shocked.

"How?" Zoey said.

"It was like...a telepath was invading my mind," Mystique said.

"You heard him in your mind!" Rumi seemed far most bothered by that than just the other idea.

"It wasn't like it was in my thoughts, but I heard something," Raven said. She closed her eyes. "He was...threatening me."

"What did he say?!" Rumi grabbed her by her arms like her life depended on the answer.

Mira and Zoey were quite surprised.

"He--" Raven stopped.

He'd said no matter what disguise they put on...they wouldn't be one of them...and that they couldn't interfere anymore...

If she repeated that to Rumi, it might sound pretty suspicious...or would she assume Gwi-Ma was lying?

She didn't know.

"He said we'd be cut down," she said, which was true. "Like you."

"Rumi, let her go." Morph pulled Rumi off, though not hard. "She's scared enough without you shaking her too, okay?"

"Oh...sorry," Rumi said, stepping back. "I just...I got...worried. No one ever just sees him like that."

"No way, he shouldn't have been able to cross the Honmoon like that," Zoey said.

Raven rubbed her head. "I...don't think he did," she told Morph. "I think I saw him with...different eyes, the way Shine sees things that aren't there, sometimes. I think it was like the veil between this world and that one was gone for a second. I don't think he could have reached me--that's why he sent the others--but he wanted to send a message."

Morph nodded soberly. "I should have come to find you sooner. I got distracted..."

"We can't stay gone for too long." Mira looked at the studio. "Bobby is probably wondering why we rushed out of here like that anyway. So...you're okay?" She seemed genuinely concerned.

"I'm okay now," Raven said, but she wasn't.

"We'll talk about how you did that later." Mira turned. "We have to go finish."

"Yeah, but stay close. Better just come inside," Zoey said. "Though I don't think anything will pop out of the same place."

"We'll be right there," Morph said.

The girls headed back inside, but they shot them surprised looks.

Morph pulled Mystique into a hug.

"Did he say anything else?" he asked.

She nodded shakily. "He...called me an outsider. And he said that no matter what disguise we put on, we don't belong here or...something like that. And this was a warning not to interfere further."

"That is...really blatant." Morph was stunned. "This Gwi-Ma is not subtle at all. I'm sorry... Are you doing okay?"

"No." Raven closed her eyes. She could still see the fire.

She opened them again. "It felt real. How did he do that to me? We...pulled spiritual weapons out of nowhere and fought him. Why could he reach me so easily?"

"After what you said, I think you're right--you saw through the veil." Morph looked at her thoughtfully. "We must be able to see through it easier because of what we are, sort of like Shine and Wally can. I think... Gwi-Ma just knew that you'd be able to see him, so he used that to try to scare you. But he's a big bully, that's all. We must be doing something right if he thinks we're interfering with him. Only, we can't go anywhere alone again after that."

She shook her head. "He nearly had me..."

"Alone, we're vulnerable," Morph said. "But together, we can handle it. We were doing a great job before the Hunters showed up anyway. Only...how do we explain how we did that?"

"If we don't tell them the truth, they'll never believe it was just that we're special," Mystique said. "But if we tell them the truth, then we're not only mutants to them, but we're worse. Aliens... We don't belong in this world. Why should they let us help them then?"

"Or they might want our help more. We just showed we could be useful."

"Or a threat. Mira already doesn't trust us. If she knew we were something she couldn't even believe in the existence of, she would never trust us at all." Mystique looked away. "No one ever does."

"So...you're agreeing with Gwi-Ma?" Morph said strangely.

Mystique hadn't realized she was doing it till he said that.

A cold feeling like someone had dashed her with ice water ran over her skin.

She was agreeing with the devil? Basically...

She went very quiet.

"Let's just get inside," Morph suggested.

* * *

The mood was somber when the Huntrix were finished with their practice and then the subsequent costume check after it.

Once they were in the car, on the way back to the tower, Rumi didn't wait to broach the subject again.

"So what are you two?" she asked. "Are there other hunters?"

Morph had been thinking about how to answer this, and, seeing that Mystique was not going to say anything, he cleared his throat:

"We seem to have some power similar to yours," he said. "It looks that way, anyhow...but it's not quite the same. See, we're part of this religious group, and that group has power to oppose demons. We call it authority, sort of like your voices, but we use it with words, more often. Though, come to think of it, our mentor does say singing helps, and she sings all the time. We always felt like it was a little goofy to use that in a fight, but you have proven her to be pretty on point there..." With his signature laugh.

No one else was laughing.

Morph started to wonder if humor would get him anywhere in this world.

"I thought we were the only ones," Mira said, as if her whole identity had come down to this question.

"You are," Morph said. "We're not the same kind of thing as you. But isn't this a good thing? You said you could use backup."

"To watch out for Gwi-Ma, but this is different than what we expected," Rumi said. "How much else have you not told us?"

There Mystique glanced up and gave her quite the look of disbelief.

She recoiled and looked more subdued.

"So...if you can fight demons too, why didn't you say anything before?" Zoey said.

"That was our first time doing it," Morph said sheepishly. "Technically, we were supposed to be able to, I thought, but I've never used it before, not like that, and it just happened... You must have had that once too."

"Once," Zoey said thoughtfully. "Well...at least you unlocked a new strength then." She looked at the other two. "It's not a bad thing, is it? We were worried about being able to watch them at all times."

"It does make sense why Gwi-Ma would want them now," Mira said. "He already has it out for us. Anyone else who could fight demons would be on his list for certain." She frowned. "But at least this proves you can't be working for him."

"Glad we got that cleared up finally," Morph said weakly.

"But who are you?" Mira frowned. "I'm sure there's more to it. Who is this mentor of yours? Why did you come here? You didn't know about the Honmoon, but you can fight demons? You can see it, but you didn't know what it was? None of it adds up."

Morph sighed. "Mira...I really, really wish I could tell you. But what if telling you is dangerous?"

"Dangerous?" Mira sat up straighter. Maybe that hit a nerve after the Rumi conversation. "We're the only ones who could help you!"

Rumi was looking very uncomfortable.

"I don't know about that," Morph said. "But we've learned that telling people the full truth is risky, not because they might not be trustworthy, but because...well, when you have enemies, you have to be careful about things like that. Look, normally you don't tell anyone else about your secret lives as Hunters, right? You admitted that people knew about it once, but nowadays you could never get anywhere if they knew. We have cameras, phones...computers... maybe back in the day, you could be a hero, and people wouldn't crowd you too much, but those days are over. You do your jobs in secret so you can do them without endangering anyone else, right? We're the same. We're on your side, but we don't want to put you in harm's way any more than we already have."

"But what if not telling us puts us in harm's way more?" Zoey said.

Rumi was staring at the floor in a way that would have clued both of her friends in that she was feeling guilty if they hadn't been too distracted by Morph.

Morph paused. "Fair...but it's not an easy thing to understand either. And there's one other thing you should know--the job we're doing...it's short term. We're going to go home after a little while and not help you anymore. So if we started outing people like the Hunters, it would be pretty mean of us to just leave after that. That's why we prefer to keep it a secret. I think we're here because you're facing a situation that's a little beyond your usual scope."

"Oh, so we need your help to bail us out?" Mira was instantly offended. "We're not good enough?"

"Good enough is not part of this," Mystique finally spoke, and with more firmness than they expected from her.

Even Mira was affected by it. She sat back.

Mystique then went on: "You can be good enough all you want, but the evil fights unfair. It tries to sabotage you from the inside or the outside. It doesn't wait for you to figure out targets, it acts to destroy as much as it can. You're struggling with the Saja Boys as your opponents. If Gwi-Ma was to add more to his attack than he has already, you wouldn't be able to keep up with both anymore. Perhaps, we are here so that does not happen."

"We don't need your help," Mira insisted. "We never have. We're the Hunters."

Morph and Mystique exchanged a glance.

"If that's how you feel," Morph said, "we don't have to help you...but...I should warn you that if you tell us to go, we have to go, and we can't come back...ever. So before you say that, think carefully about it."

Rumi pursed her lips. Then she said, "Mira, we can't take the chance."

"What?" Mira didn't want to hear this from her right now.

"Even if there is the slighest chance we might fail," Rumi said, "we have to think about that. I believe we can win, but Gwi-Ma has been doing a lot lately... We've made mistakes... It couldn't hurt to have insurance."

"So you're just doubting we can do this now?" Mira took that the absolutely worst way possible.

"Guys," Zoey said nervously, "we don't need to fight over this. Really, it's not a big deal if they hang around just in case. Why rush to kick them out? I mean, they can fight demons!"

"But that is our purpose," Mira said.

Morph understood the problem here.

"Hold on," he said. "We weren't saying we're taking your job away. Clearly, this is your thing. I'm just saying that there could be more of it than three people could deal with. You're just human, right?"

"But it's still our job," Mira insisted. "And, as far as I can tell, you've only made it harder for us because we need to watch your backs as well."

Morph was cowed, not by her anger, but by the suspicion that she might be right. They had fumbled this pretty badly so far by not knowing their stuff... Maybe they weren't helping.

Mystique didn't like this.

She definitely didn't want to fight Gwi-Ma after earlier, but Mira was being a pain.

"Look," she said, sitting up now, "I didn't come all the way to Korea, go hungry for 2 days straight, and get attacked by some demons, just to have some college-aged brat tell me that I'm wasting my time."

"What did you just--" Mira began.

Mystique didn't let her finish. "In case you missed it, Mira, Gwi-Ma doesn't like us. He threatened me to stay out of your affairs. I don't know if it has to do with the Honmoon or something else, but, clearly, he thinks us teaming up could be a bad thing. The last thing I want to do right now is fight demons. I hate putting my life on the line, but we can't leave till we do our job, and you can't stop till you win those danged Idol Awards."

She was hitting her limit.

"So either you can accept it like an adult--" Mystique then said what was just like what Shine would have said "--or you can pout about it like a child. But, either you kick us out now, or you stop complaining about it. Last I checked, the Saja Boys have been winning. Maybe it's time to reconsider your strategy."

Mira's mouth dropped open.

For a second, she was too angry to speak.

Rumi decided to jump in again before she found her voice.

"You're right," she said. "We really do need a new strategy. They've been outsmarting us at every turn...and you two have something that could give us an edge--a dose of their own medicine, even. But, we are still the Hunters... Why don't we agree to work separately on this for now? You can try to figure out whatever you're supposed to be doing here. I mean, you wanted to ask your mentor anyway, right? And we'll keep working on our plan. Then everyone is happy."

Mira did not look happy.

"It could work," Zoey said. "Maybe you're not supposed to be helping us with the Idol Awards. Maybe you have a different job. What does your...boss or whatever, say about this?"

"As far as I know, just to do the right thing," Morph said. "To free people...to show them compassion. There's no play-by-play on how to save them, but if someone wants to be saved, they can be."

Rumi looked at him sharply. "What did you just say?"

"I said if someone wants to be saved, they can be," Morph said.

Rumi thought. "I see."

"What if I said no?" Mira looked at the other two. "No, I'm not okay with this."

They looked at her soberly.

She looked away. "All right...fine. They can stay. But enough getting in our way. If they can fight for themselves, they don't need to follow us everywhere. We need to focus on our teamwork, not theirs."

"Fair enough," Morph said. "We'll do our own legwork. Can you live with that?"

"I guess," she said very sullenly.

"Good, great," Rumi said. "Glad we worked that out."

But the mood remained tense.

* * *

At the tower, the Hunters talked in private.

"I'm sorry," Rumi said to Mira. "I know they make you uncomfortable, but we couldn't just... throw them out. Look at what nearly happened today."

Mira was starting to be more rational about this.

"I'm not completely unsympathetic to them," she said. "Though I come off that way. Of course, if Gwi-Ma wants them dead, I want them to survive...but why can't they just go back where they came from? Then we don't need to worry about them, and he won't probably care about them either."

"We don't know that for sure..." Zoey was pretty down for her. "Any of us going off alone would make us vulnerable. It's the same for them. We can't just assume they'd be okay."

"I didn't think we could just turn our backs on them," Rumi said. "But, I promise, if you want them gone after the Idol Awards, we'll tell them to leave, okay? Just...it's too chaotic right now. Gwi-Ma has been attacking all over the city, so, if we sent them away now, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night over it."

"That's only a few days away," Mira said. "I can tolerate them for that long, but, if they haven't shown themselves to be fully on our side by then, they're gone."

"Okay, we all agree then," Zoey said.

Perhaps she wasn't really so sure about that idea, but she didn't want to get in the middle of this and stir up even more anger.

After that, Mira calmed down, and things felt a little more peaceful, but the fact was none of them were as sure about this as before.

And Rumi had her own things to worry about.

* * *

She took them aside into her room after that conversation.

"I'm starting to think you know more than you've let on," she said. "You were asking about my secret last night, but you never told me yours either...and you still aren't."

"The difference between you and us," Morph said, "is that our secret is going to put you all in danger if you know, but yours is one that puts people in danger not to know. Plus, it'd be easier to want to tell you all the truth if you acted like you wouldn't just kick us out as soon as we do anything that's remotely hard to accept." He shrugged. "Sorry, but Mystique and I are used to not being treated well when we show our cards."

"You think so?" Rumi sat on her bed. "I'm no different than you... I'm not one to show my cards."

Mystique glanced at Morph.

Then she sighed. "Fine, we'll talk about it. We know already."

"You know...what?" Rumi gripped her shirt tighter.

"Your patterns," Mystique said.

Rumi gasped. "What? no! No, how could you know about that?!" She leaned away from them. "Did...wait, did Jinu...? He wouldn't have!"

"What? You're sure he wouldn't betray you?" Mystique said.

But Morph wasn't going to sink Jinu like that.

"We went to him," he said. "You weren't there. We did it behind your back. And he told us by accident. I swear, he thought we already knew. We tricked him into it. So it wasn't his fault."

Rumi clenched her collar slightly. "So he did...but he didn't mean to...but you still know?!"

"Rumi--" Morph turned into an image of Beast, and then into Kurt, and then into a gorilla. "Look at us... Do you really think we're judging you based on having a weird thing about your appearance?"

"I'm more upset that you didn't tell us the truth when you saw what the others assumed about us," Mystique said. She flashed her blue form and then her disguise. "I've been called a demon many times... You could have said something about it."

"I tired to...but I couldn't... They don't know about it," Rumi said. "And you can't tell them, please."

"If we were going to tell them, we could have already," Morph said. "Not like it would have been hard. Mira already thinks you're hiding something from her."

"She told you that?"

"It was obvious even if she said nothing," Mystique said flatly. "But, now that you know we know, how about you explain how you got them?"

Rumi's eyes widened.