Mystique snuck away from everyone in the excitement about Rogue.

She managed to get out the back door into the yard.

She didn't really think she could get away, but she needed to breathe.

Rogue had actually come back! Unthinkable... Rogue never came back.

Mystique's amazement was only equaled in some part by her anger at it.

Why them? she thought furiously. Why was this bunch of misfits so much better than her?

Of course she knew the answer deep down: Villainy didn't suit Rogue, and it never really had. She'd gone along with it before because she was lost and wanted a home, not for liking it. As it stood now, she liked the X-men more.

Mystique managed to get as far as a few of the trees before she reached the limit of her pain endurance and she sank down under one.

Now out of the sight of any judging eyes, she could wallow in self pity...or grief...or a combination of both...maybe just regret that she had not managed to do anything about this right.

She couldn't help thinking of that stupid book.

Didn't she treat Rogue like she was hers? Didn't she go to any length she could to get her back, even at risk of destroying Rogue's own personality and well being? And for what? Just the scraps...just to not have lost her?

It all came up once she saw her again and saw how little Rogue was going to blame her for this...because Rogue didn't need to.... She'd moved on. Completely.

(Whether or not this was actually true, Mystique thought it was.)

All this had happened, and Mystique stood to gain nothing and had only lost what little she did have in it all. She played herself.

Thinking thoughts like this for long enough usually leads to tears, and before too long, Mystique was crying, quietly, but steadily.

It was pathetic, really... She'd almost rather have just had Rogue's scorn for her efforts than her complete disregard for them...but even scorn would have stung.

Maybe this realization had been long in the building, but now that it had finally come...slowly Mystique began to calm...and to think...and to feel empty. 

No anger now...no pleasure...just...empty.

She should have left Rogue alone, she thought, now that thinking this was way too overdue to matter. It would have been better for both of them.

She couldn't even be glad to see her back. She would only see shame in this, and they would only see her as the reason for it, whatever Rogue said.

Mystique had the conviction that all guilt-ridden people have that her feelings and opinions would be as shared and harsh to everyone else as they were to her, despite it being manifestly evident that the X-men mostly lacked both the imagination and empathy to understand why she did any of the things she did.

Shine might have seen it, but Shine was the only person she didn't worry about seeing it; nothing would shake that woman's determination...but Mystique didn't think it was enough.

And she was right about that--it wasn't, but it could have been a start...but Mystique didn't go back inside and find her and ask her for sympathy.

Instead she did the only thing Mystique was ever wont to do if she couldn't lie her way out of something: She got up and started running for it.

She figured she'd never get away from the X-men for good as long as she was alive...or at least as long as they thought she was. But the only way Morph had evaded them was when they thought he was dead...

Perhaps there was a chance.

Only adrenaline could have made her able to ignore her injuries enough to get as far as she did from the house until she found a small brook that cut over one part of the property.

For a normal person who could swim, it wouldn't be enough to convince anyone that she'd drowned, but perhaps, given her injuries, they'd buy it if she made it look convincing enough.

The whole idea was a little crazy, in fact, but Mystique didn't think of that. Though it was still early evening even after how long she'd been gone, it was dark in the woods and easy to trip or slip on something, so that she could very well be risking her own life by attempting this. But she was past caring for that.

Tearing off some of her clothes, she hooked it to a piece of wood that was sticking out of the river.

But how to be convincingly dead..? That was the hard part.

[And that's a weird sentence.]

Mystique supposed she'd have to injure herself in some way to pull it off. She picked up a rock...

[This is getting a little too thematic for me...and dark...geez...

Well, then again, it is Mystique. She's pretty messed up.]

* * *

Rogue didn't enjoy the welcoming everyone was giving as much as she could have. She was too sober...and fixated on the things she still needed to say.

She never noticed Mystique had disappeared. She was not very concerned with talking to her; she thought the less said the better. 

But after everyone had said they were glad she was back, and Xavier and Jean had both said they needed to rest after using Cerebro for so long (an unexpected bit of luck for Mystique's plan, if she could have known) and had retired, and it seemed it was time to just stop talking about it, Rogue nodded at Shine.

Shine had kept her exuberance about all of it to a minimum, as she could see well enough that Rogue was not feeling so upbeat.

Most of the others didn't notice. Wally kind of thought something was off, though, and Gambit, who knew there was, was also pretty quiet.

Shine was just sitting in one of the reading rooms, writing something in her notebook again, when Rogue finally looked in.

"Hey..." she said.

"Hey." Shine looked up. "Rogue, before you begin, it's really not necessary to make any sort of apology to me, if that is what you want to do. Otherwise, I'm happy to listen."

"No, I need to say this." Rogue looked really guilty again. "And if you let me off, I might never, so you just make me get it out, Shine."

"Well...all right," Shine said. "Tell me."

"You were right about me." Rogue clasped her hands behind her back, like a schoolgirl, and spoke with the same embarrassment and shame as one. "I...I don't even want to say this--I figure it'll upset you--but I also can't look you in the eye if I don't own up to it, so...just remember, I was bein' real mean and small about it, and I know better. I really do know better--"

"Rogue, I'm not your mother," Shine interrupted. "I am your friend. Just tell me. I'm not going to hit you with a ruler."

"That might be better," Rogue said. "I swear, if you just say it's okay, I'll skin you alive."

Shine had to smile at how paradoxical that was. "You remind me of my friend Rumi at times. She once said, 'If you're dead, I'll kill you,' to her then friend, now husband."

That sounded exactly like something Rogue would say. She was kind of impressed by it.

"I'll have to remember that one," she said, but then she refocused. "Ah, don't distract me with cute stories.... Listen, I'm just gonna say it... When ya said I was trying to use ya, you were right. I was. And...it makes me sick, but I...I even thought..." Her voice got small. "...after I saved you, that it was good...because...I...didn't...I didn't.... Eh...it's so awful, but I didn't want to miss my chance."

She waited.

Shine was...not surprised...no...

But she was a little hurt, you could tell. Her expressions were transparent for all she was usually so careful with her words.

"I told ya," Rogue said miserably. "But I had to admit it... I guess...I really am more selfish than I thought I was."

Shine was quiet.

"Please say somethin'," Rogue said, "even if it's 'I hate you.'"

"I could never hate you, Rogue," Shine said.

"Don't be nice like that!" Rogue said. "I swear I can't stand it when ya do that! Just get mad like anybody else would."

"But I can't," Shine said. "I honestly can't... I'm too used to being seen that way to be shocked, and so it is hard to be mad... The truth is..." She hesitated. "...I do not like that you thought that, but if I was honest, I have thought just as horrid things about others, and I don't know anyone who hasn't. It's selfish all right, and we as humans carry the shame of thinking such thoughts...but know that I have them... I want to be angry at you a little, but I couldn't do it without condemning myself at the same time. You think it didn't go through my head that perhaps you saved me for such a reason?"

"Did it?" Rogue said.

"Of course...but that's a mean thought too, isn't it?" Shine said. "I know you're a hero, and you'd have saved me anyway. So you see, I'm just as selfish as you are."

"No, ya ain't," Rogue objected. "You've never been selfish in the whole time I've known ya."

"Just not so you could tell," Shine said. "But I have been. We all are." She stood up now. "I've had worse thoughts... I've hated people in the past, Rogue. Right now, I'm not ruled by it...and since you are here, and you are telling this to me, I take it you are not ruled by it either...so, despite my initial reaction...I think I can make peace with it. You have changed your mind?"

Rogue swallowed. "I think...I don't know--I still want it...what I meant before.... But what drove me to come back here was...this is horrible, but it wasn't even because I knew I was upsettin' everyone...I just felt like what I was runnin' from, I wasn't gettin' away from out there... It was followin' me... Maybe it's God, 'cause I was readin' this passage, and it sounds just like it..and I realized I'd rather be figurin' it out here, with people I know, than on my own. Is that pathetic?"

"No, it's the first wise thought you've had on the subject since we talked about it." Shine was a little too blunt.

Rogue was angry for a split second, then she realized she deserved that probably too much.

"Yeah, well...so...you're...I mean... Oh...I can't even ask. I don't deserve that kind of help from you anymore. That's what it is, isn't it? Forget about it." She started to leave.

Shine stopped her. "What if I said it was off the table now? Would you stop being my friend?"

Rogue glanced at her.

"I'd be right sore about it," she said. "But I figure you'd have every right to decide that now...so...maybe, yeah, we can still be friends.... Maybe what I'm waitin' for isn't just that anyway, even if it's what I spent most of my time thinkin' about..."

Shine's whole face cleared. "If you can say that, Rogue, then I have all the answer I need. Clearly God has done something to you while you've been gone."

"Huh?" Rogue said.

"I can't imagine you saying that a few days ago," Shine said. "So you want to know if all this has made you unworthy of help, and we should leave off talking about it? No, I won't go that far... But I want this: I want you to try to put it out of your head and patch things up with everyone else first. And when enough time has passed, we'll revisit it, okay?"

"Really?" Rogue's whole face changed. "You're serious?"

"When I'm satisfied," Shine said. "And by I, I mean God, because it was His leading on the whole thing to begin with that made me say no before. I didn't have any desire to punish you--I hope you know that now--and God didn't either... All this was so you would see the truth about it, but it's no use if we just go right to that now. You are going to have to learn to wait. But I won't lie to you either and say I think it will never be the right time. God isn't like that... Whatever He wants for us is best...and what you discovered in your time away, your job is to follow that, not just what we've talked about. I am not God."

She gestured widely. "But when God says it's time, we'll deal with the rest too. It's all in the timing. God often promises us things long before He gives them to us, to see if we'll let it make us selfish and obsessive, or if we'll learn from it... You got off on the wrong foot, but you can't change that. That's the good thing--we can change our attitude at any time. I see you've already
started. This is good."

Rogue blinked. "You think I changed? But...I don't feel that different."

"Good," Shine said. "A feeling like that would concern me at such a time. A burst of enthusiasm would only make sense if you thought this was going to be easy...but if you see that it's going to be hard, then feeling the same, that doesn't matter. It's what you decide to do now, that's what matters."

"I...decide..." Rogue thought. "Oh...that's what it all comes back to, ain't it? Just like.... I gotta a wild story to tell you later, maybe tomorrow. I don't want to talk about it yet--I'm so tired...but...you don't know anyone named Judy Phillips, do you?"

"I don't even know a Judy," Shine said, "or a Phillips. Should I?"

"Doggone it," Rogue muttered. "It's like it's all planned..." Then she got another odd look. "Maybe it is..."

"Probably." Shine had no clue what she was talking about, but she knew what she thought of it. "And, Rogue...you do forgive me also? Perhaps I did not go about this the right way."

"No, no," Rogue protested. "I kept thinkin' about what ya said the whole time I was gone... I'm just mule-headed, that's all it is. You did fine, I swear...and Kurt too...both of ya...even Momma...but I know she was just tryin' to be a pest."

"Rogue, I talked to her while you were gone," Shine said. "And I really don't think she's quite as hard-hearted as you think. She did feel bad."

"She did?" Rogue raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, she did, but she's so stubborn!" Shine said. "Seems like it runs in the family. But even so...whatever she said...think of how you have felt and multiply it by 5 a least... She feels like that all the time. Try to have some pity. She's a very tormented woman."

"Well...I know," Rogue said. "I mean...I guess I can sort of see it.... I ain't that good at understandin' people, I think." She rubbed her head. "What do we have to say to each other now, though? I want to forget about that time, and she doesn't."

"She might be right," Shine said. "Forgetting about it is another way of running from it, isn't it? She knows that. I don't mean you should dwell on it, but would it kill you to at least talk about what happened to her, and not in a blaming game kind of way, but just...rationally? I'm asking for your sake as well as hers. This tension has got to stop."

"I...I don't know..." Rogue began.

Morph opened the door with them.

"Shine, is Mystique here?" he asked.

"No...isn't she locked back up?" Shine said.

"No," Morph said. "We just realized none of us had put her back, but I thought maybe you had her with you."

"Oh...Wally might."

"No, he's been watching his show," Morph said. "I asked him, and he said he thought she left a while ago, but he wasn't sure when."

"Oh no," Rogue said. "What she done now?"

"Perhaps your return has had an adverse effect on her," Shine said. "Mystique does not handle guilt very well..." She put her hand to her face. "In fact...that on top of what we'e been talking about... But she seemed all right earlier..."

"I don't know." Morph sounded a little guilty. "Kurt and I did have this conversation with her.... I might have gotten a little mad. She said something really strange about...knowing she'd hurt us...or maybe she just meant Kurt..."

"Why'd she say that?" Rogue said.

"Because it's what she does," Shine said. "And she's not here, you say?"

"Maybe we'd better check all over the house..." Rogue said. 

Shine's eyes lit up.

"No, too late for that," she said. "She's gone away from the house... I can't see so well, too many tall trees around. They all look the same. But she's out there somewhere."

"What...exactly do you see when you do that?" Rogue said.

"It's...like their soul," Shine answered. "I see it, like how Xavier sees minds...but I sort of get a vague idea of what's around them, sometimes...to help me figure out where they are, but it's like a path: It's not very clear what's surrounding it, just a straight line...so all I really know is she's outside..."

"She could barely walk to the living room," Morph said. "Barely move at all, so how could she get that far?"

"Morph, that woman can do anything," Shine said. "I've seen her walk off a bullet shot and a fall down a dam like it was nothing, with enough adrenaline."

"That time she got shot tryin' to help Kurt, you mean," Rogue said.

"She what?" Morph said.

"Did...did I really never share that story?" Shine said oddly. "How stupid of me.... Yes, Rav--I mean, Mystique once saved Kurt. She probably still has a scar from that, come to think of it, but her skin is so dark, I never could see it. Creed shot her. Such a gem, that man. The point is, she somehow survived that. I think she could walk a mile with bruised ribs."

"Momma was always a little stubborn," Rogue recalled. "I remember one time one of the boys workin' for her sassed her. She took a stick and knocked him off his feat. Scariest dang thing I'd ever seen up till that point."

"It often surprises me--" Shine was yanking on shoes. "--that in all the myriad of super powers and people with them I've known, an angry woman is still one of the things men are most afraid of, from world to world. And women, for that matter. Go figure."

"Why didn't you ever tell me she saved Kurt?" Morph asked, even as Shine was dashing out the hallway and yelling for Wally.

Rogue had already flown out the window, saying, "I'll look over the trees."

"I really thought I did," Shine said. "Perhaps I thought it was too personal.... But why are you so upset?"

"I mean...it would have made it a little easier to see why you supported her so much," Morph said.

Shine paused. "You're right...sorry.... Mystique is touchy about Kurt. I didn't want to risk anyone bringing it up, so I stayed away from talking about their meeting. But a lot about how she feels about Kurt is mixed up, even in her head. Perhaps now, how she feels about Rogue also is.... Tricky thing about starting to think that way, it's really hard to stop. But if she's at all like either of her two sane children, I'm afraid of what she'll do if she gets into such a low head space."

"We'd better find her," Morph said.

Shine was glad at least that Morph was on her side about this.

Wally joined them. "She's actually missing, isn't she?" He knew that look on Shine's face.

"We have to find her fast," Shine said. "She's out in the woods alone, but you know it could take me hours to find her, even if I could walk a straight line..."

"How far could she have gone in this amount of time?" Wally asked.

"Without knowing when she started, I'm not sure," Shine said.

"What's going on?" Kurt had heard them yelling.

"Your mother has gone off alone again," Shine said. "And...we're afraid she may not be in a good frame of mind. Kurt, you can help us find her, can't you?"

"Of course," Kurt said.

"Logan..." Wally said. "Logan's better at tracking than any of us, at least in the woods."

"I shudder to think what he'd do if he found her, but time is more important right now," Shine said.

Wally got Logan, who cursed at the idea of tracking down Mystique, but of course, he wouldn't let her get away.

They all spread out to find her.

* * *

https://youtu.be/YQWs0AYFq4k

Mystique was almost surprised no one had found her yet.... She had gotten over the brook easily enough.

Maybe they still hadn't noticed...

How far could she get?

Where was she even going?

It was getting darker in the woods every minute.... She tried not to think about what Shine had said about people possibly walking through these woods.

Another minute of thinking that, and she'd start seeing them. It would be easy for the mind to play tricks on one, under the circumstances...

As if on cue, she almost thought she saw Sinister standing by some trees...but it was just shadows and shrubs...

Still, it made her heart pound.

It was madness to attempt this while injured... Mystique assumed she'd be all right; she'd walked off injuries before...but she hadn't taken into account that two fractured or bruised ribs are a much larger problem than a shallow bullet wound, unless the wound is infected.

It was becoming clear to her that this idea had been foolish...but she had even less hope of finding her way back in the dark than she did of stumbling out on the road at some point...so the only thing to do seemed to be to keep going.

She was losing track of time and sort of just walking in a daze, then she stumbled across something that snapped her awake...a bear!

Now, in the middle of summer, a bear, especially a black bear, alone, isn't that big of a threat.

But to someone who's alone, already tired, injured, and not in a good frame of mind, any bear looks like a threat.

Mystique gasped, more from shock than anything else.

The bear looked as startled at her, but being fat and lazy and well fed, it didn't make any move to run away fast. It just sort of stood up and scratched at itself.

Then it started to waddle her direction, curious. It wasn't a very old bear. Maybe it hadn't seen a human or mutant up close.

Mystique stumbled backwards and ran for it, tripped over a root and landed on her hands...jarring herself badly... Her last dose of pain meds was worn off by now.

She almost blacked out.

The bear followed her... Now she'd aroused its curiosity further. Most animals will chase you if you run, if they have any hunting instincts at all.

It started snuffling at her feet.

Mystique kicked it in the nose.

She'd have done better to just lie still, because that made it a little mad. It snarled at her and took a swipe.

Even so, it was a half-hearted swipe. It didn't really want a fight, it was just annoyed, but it scratched her a little with the tip of its claws.

Mystique scrambled up, ignoring her burning injuries, and ran as fast as she could manage.

The bear didn't bother to chase her this time, so she got away... After a while, she realized it wasn't dangerous and she'd just probably exhausted herself further for nothing...

That kind of exertion, coupled with the medication and dehydration and pain, made her really dizzy once she slowed and the adrenaline went down.

Mystique sank onto the ground and thought to herself that this was not a smart idea... She should have...stolen a car or something...

The treetops kind of spun, and then she knew no more for a while...

* * *

"Anything yet?" Rogue asked Logan over the com-links.

"I sniffed 'er out to the brook," Logan said. "Dang wench, she probably went through it so I couldn't track 'er... There's blood around though... Maybe she was hurt... Maybe she jumped."

"Logan!" Rogue cried, horrified. "She wouldn't do that! She's a survivor."

"Look, I ain't sayin' whether it was on purpose or not," Logan said. "If she was stupid enough to try to leap across and not wade, she could have fallen in and hit 'er head. We don't know. I can't track 'er. Likstar's not close enough, but if you see 'er, ask 'er. She'd know."

"I can't see her through the trees," Rogue said. "Maybe if they went into a clearin'... Just keep lookin'. Maybe she went off the other way."

"If she's gotten that far, maybe we should just let 'er," Logan said. "What's the point of keepin' her anyway? She doesn't belong at the mansion, and she's just a deadweight."

"Logan!" Morph said sharply. They were searching together. "That is not a good thing to say. With all her problems, she is still a person."

"I don't remember you bein' such a big fan of that before," Logan said.

"You knew she once took a bullet for Kurt," Morph said, in a different voice, "and you never told me that."

"So?" Logan said.

"So...it just seems important...and I'm sure you weren't worried about privacy."

"One nice thing does not make up for a lifetime of evil," Logan said.

Morph shook his head. "When you talk like that...I just don't see why you ever came looking for me at all."

Logan was puzzled. "Morph...ya can't keep comparin' yerself to that woman."

"And why not?" Morph would have been horrified if someone else had said that to him weeks ago. "It's not that different, Logan... Maybe...I just think...if there's hope for someone like that, then there is for me too. You think I don't still wonder if that evil is inside me...?"

He shivered.

"It's not," Logan said.

"I've...been having nightmares about it again," Morph said slowly. "They had stopped...but away from Muir island...and the treatments...there are moments, Logan."

In the middle of searching, in the woods, didn't seem like the best time to bring this up...but what time ever is?

"You'll get through it," Logan said.

"Don't you ever feel like you can't ever shake your past?" Morph said. 

"I..." Logan faltered. "Of course...but I've done a lot more than you have."

"Maybe you don't like Mystique for a different reason," Morph said. "Maybe you don't like her because she reminds you of you."

"We're nothin' alike!" Logan said.

"Well...I didn't think you were," Morph said. "But I've talked to Shine a lot about this...and one thing she keeps making me realize is that we judge other people by how we'd judge ourselves, a lot. And I don't want to let them off the hook because I can't let myself off the hook. Maybe you're more sure than I am, though... I just think, if even Mystique can do something brave for once and help Kurt out...maybe it's not impossible for the rest of us to change...and maybe I actually need to change... I don't want to be the kind of person who can turn on his friends ever again."

"Morph..." Logan wasn't sure what to say.

"You two still chit chattin'?" Rogue buzzed in. "I don't know if I saw somethin'...but there's a bit more of a thick patch of trees... Do ya think she'd have hid in there so we wouldn't see her?"

"She's crazy enough to do that," Logan said. "But is she dumb enough? She couldn't hitchhike or anythin' from there either."

They moved that direction. Logan sniffed suddenly. "Wait...I think I got 'er.... Smells like blood though..."

"Uh...what does that mean?" Morph said.

"Well, offhandedly, I'd say it means she's bleedin'," Logan said drolly. "But specifically? I don't know, there's some wild animals around here, but this time of year nothin' worse than a coyote or maybe a bear would probably be around."

"Bear?" Morph said. "We have bears in these woods?"

"Oh, if ya don't bother them, they won't bother you," Logan sniffed. "Bears are mostly harmless if ya keep a safe distance. Unless they're fresh out of the cave."

"Let's say we didn't keep a safe distance and we stumbled on one," Morph said.

"Then run," Logan said. "But I could take a bear."

Morph figured he could, but could Morph? Well, he could turn into one... That ought to count, right?

"Well, let's hurry," Logan said.

* * *

Mystique thought she heard voices...but maybe it was just a dream... She'd been half dreaming this whole time... She didn't often have nightmares, but when she did, they were never mild... She'd worked for too many unpleasant people for that...

Sinister...Creed...Apocalypse...even Sabretooth...all faces she didn't care to see again...

Suddenly something snapped real close, and she was startled out of her daze enough to sit up.

But she was still partially out of it...

"Ah ha." It was Wolverine. "There ya are."

In this frame of mind, Mystique was easily scared and sure that Wolverine was just there to do something she wasn't going to like... He always had reminded her of Sabretooth a little too much anyway.

So she backed away. "Get away from me!" She picked up a rock and threw it at him.

"Just as ungrateful as usual," Logan said. "Last call to just leave 'er here."

"Just go away!" Mystique said. "I didn't do anything to you! I've never done anything to you, you brute! Just leave me alone." She put her arms over her head.

"Logan, I think you're kind of scaring her..." Morph said.

Mystique looked up.

"I didn't touch 'er," Logan said. "Something else did, though... See those claw marks?"

"And it wasn't you?"

"Morph, I wouldn't attack someone who's already unconscious!" Logan said.

"Oh...right...sorry," Morph said.

Mystique looked from one to the other.

Then she slid backwards, up to another tree.

"Just go," she said.

"Not that we care," Logan said, "but ya do realize you'll probably die out here, alone... Ya seem half way there already."

"So, what, go back do so you can keep me prisoner?" Mystique spat. "Or something worse..."

"Logan...does she seem a little out of it to you?" Morph asked nervously. "Like...delirious maybe?"

"Or her normal crazy." Logan wasn't buying it. "Don't trust it. She's probably just waitin' to pounce."

Mystique was actually quite close to being delirious, despite what he thought. Her mind only had a shred of a grasp of the situation, and it was dim.... She was ready to slide back into unconsciousness at any moment, but the last burst of adrenaline was making her stay on edge.

Morph would have found this off-putting...but he suddenly saw himself in it...just like when Logan had found him...that same wild, desperate, uncertain expression.

Perhaps it was just the last straw, but he realized Mystique really wasn't that different than anyone else...just much, much worse at hiding it.

Inching a little closer, he said in a much calmer tone, "Hey...you've got Shine and Rogue all worried, all right? You should just come back... They'll be upset if you don't. And I promise none of us are going to do anything to you."

Mystique's eyes went from Morph to Logan, like she doubted this very much.

Logan sighed and backed up a little, muttering about crazy women and extra trouble.

Mystique's mind cleared just a little... Right...this was foolish...

She got to her feet slowly. "I never really thought I'd get away," she said flatly. "I don't know why I even tried."

"Me neither," Logan said rudely.

"Don't tell Rogue about the bear," Mystique said.

"Bear?" Morph said.

"She'd think it was stupid." Mystique wasn't making sense even to herself. "But everything looks so different at night..."

"I don't see any bears..." Logan said.

Kurt suddenly popped out of nowhere.

"Brothers, I finally found you," he said. "I--mother!"

Mystique flinched. "Kurt!" she said, in a very scared voice. "I didn't...I..."

"Are you all right?" Kurt tried to help her, but Mystique staggered away from him and ran into Morph directly.

"Okay, can we all just calm down?" Morph said, trying to grab her arms.

"They'll find us." Mystique was still incoherent. "All of us..." She started shaking.

"I...think she's...not vell," Kurt said.

"Yeah..." Morph was horrible with medical stuff.

"She's goin' into shock," Logan said. "Too much strain probably. Look out, she's gonna--"

Mystique suddenly fainted.

Morph managed to catch her, and then Kurt rushed to take her other arm. "Mother?"

"No use," Logan said. "She's not gonna come out of it for a while, I'd say....We'll have to carry 'er back... Of course she'd give us as much trouble as possible, even in this state."

"Brother," Kurt said in a tone Logan had never him use, "that is no vay to talk about someone who is ill. Now let us hurry her back, so Dr. McCoy can help her. This is most distressing. Did you see how afraid she vas?"

"Whatever..." Logan grumbled.