[Absolved: To be cleared of charges]

"Where could they be?" Rogue asked.

"Maybe dey disappear," Gambit said.

"Emma couldn't disappear. She's already here!" Rogue said.

"They're not gone," Shine spoke. "I looked for them. They're still here."

"So why don't you bring dem back?" Gambit said.

"I think it's pretty obvious why that would be a bad idea," Shine said.

"Yeah, but what would they of all people have gone off to do together?" Wally asked. "They hate each other."

"Yes, but their hate is the kind that both of them could call off if it was for a common cause," Shine said. "They're that type of woman."

"It's been hours," Morph said. "Maybe we should just go get them."

"And give 'em a piece of our mind," Logan said. "They knew the rule--we shouldn't be goin' off alone."

"To be fair, we determined the risk to Mystique was low," Hank said. "But Frost...it's strange she'd take it. Apparently she thinks she's safe as long as she's already here."

"I think I just heard a car," Kurt suddenly said, hanging from the ceiling. "Is that them?"

"Ain't no one else left the house," Logan said.

A moment later, both women came walking in, neither of them looking happy with the other.

They also didn't look happy to see a whole welcome wagon of people here.

"I see," Emma said.

"What were you doing?" Scott said. "Why did you leave the house?"

"Where you been, Momma?" Rogue said at the same time.

Everyone else started talking at once until Emma finally said, "Do you all want us to answer or not?"

Everyone shut up.

"We found a bit of a lead," Emma said. "Though it is going around in circles, it would seem. I need to use Cerebro to find some people, and I require Mystique's help, unfortunately, to do so. If this works, we may have a clue."

"You got a clue?" Scott said blankly. "How?"

"An old flame," Emma said, glancing at Mystique with a not very nice look. "Gave us a tip off."

"Ya better not be talkin' about Sabretooth," Logan said. Then he sniffed. "No...I can smell 'im."

Mystique shot him a look that basically said, "On ME?"

But she didn't even touch him... Guess Logan was just that attuned to it... Come to think of it, that made sense.

Morph looked at her in shock. 

"Sabretooth? I should know that name..." Scott said.

"He's bad news," Logan said. "And why would he help you? What did ya offer 'im in return?"

Mystique was on the point of saying nothing, but Emma spoke first.

"Mystique has her ways of getting information, and it's really none of your concern, is it?" she said. "I read his mind. Actually there wasn't a whole lot to it...but we did learn that Genosha is currently looking for mutants with teleportation and telepathy...and doesn't that sound familiar? Just like our little dilemma. That's no coincidence, and we all know it. We have to find that little upstart, and fast. Mystique had a location to try, but if that fails, then there's some friends of hers who might know where to find her. Anywhere but Magneto's camp. It would be madness to go back there after the way you all snubbed him."

"He attacked us," Storm corrected.

"And Shine told him to frick off," Wally said.

"Yes, whatever," Emma said. "I would have paid money to see that, but no matter."

"Well, uh...good work, I guess," Scott said. "But...why didn't you alert us?"

"It was stealth, Scott," Emma said. "More people would only have made our task more difficult... Come, Mystique, or shall I start probing your memory now?"

"Get over yourself," Mystique said, following her.

Silence.

"I guess they don't need us..." Wally joked.

"They're good," Hank said. "But foolish, still. This cannot happen again."

"I get the feelin' Momma did it to spite us," Rogue said. "I just can't figure out why. She's been in a temper ever since yesterday... Morph, did somethin' happen in that time palace?"

Morph swallowed. "Uh...well...you know...uh...my friend could have maybe given her a scare or two."

"He know who she was?" Gambit asked.

"He did," Morph said.

"Dat would scare her," Gambit said. "And anyone else."

"Gambit, shut up," Morph said. "It's not funny. We shouldn't throw people's pasts in their faces like that. Don't you know that?"

Gambit was surprised at his anger. "Gambit know...but Gambit wonder why you so concerned about it all de sudden."

"Don't start this," Shine warned him. "It won't end well... As for the girls...I think they are trying to show us up. Goodness knows Emma has enough ego to do it."

"Hey," Scott said.

"I like her and all," Shine said, "but you know she is cheeky, as they say in England...but that's fine, I suppose. Raven, on the other hand, I think, is just punishing us. But there's no help for it. On the plus side...I guess there's something gained here... Good thing for them, isn't it? You'd all have let them have it otherwise."

"Perhaps we should anyway," Storm said.

"Won't do any good." Shine walked out of the room.

"I want to hear what it was," Rogue said.

Pretty much everyone went out, except Morph and Wally.

"You okay?" Wally asked him. "That was...a pretty cold blow, I admit."

"Oh, sure." Morph didn't look okay. "Just...you know...Didn't take long, did it? That's what she does though..."

"You don't seem okay," Wally said. "Dude, it's just me."

"No, it's not a big deal," Morph said. "I told you, its not like that. Just stop it." He seemed irritated.

"Okay..." Wally said. 

But now he was with Shine: He wasn't buying it. How clueless could you be?

* * *

Emma's search yielded results at fist.

Then when she was in the middle of it, she suddenly had one of her episodes of feeling attacked, and she started yelling.

The others hurried to get her out of the machine, and she swung at them wildly because she didn't recognize them.

Scott grabbed her hands to try to stop her from hitting someone, and she snapped out of it a second later.

But she was shaken up all over again.

Xavier said she had better not strain her telepathy like that. It seemed any use of it beyond the basic mind probing was setting her off.

That made sense with the theory of her being cracked...but it made Emma feel more useless than ever.

She was quickly sinking into a kind of vague depression about it...

To make matters worse, seeing the whole thing made Scott remember a few things, like Emma had been looking for Xavier back in their dimension...and looking for Jean...

He still couldn't put a face to Jean's name, due to not having seen her since arriving...but he was starting to remember that she'd been a large factor in his life in some way. He just hadn't quite remembered what.

Emma went to lay down after that.

Mystique got scolded by the others for going off alone without alerting anyone and was told that she knew better by now.

She didn't listen to any of it with any kind of compliance.

"Your Cyclops isn't here," she said. "Let's act like it. If I wanted a lecture, I could have gotten one before. We got you information. Leave it at that."

"That's not how this team works," Storm said.

"How does it work?" Mystique said snidely. She moved her arm. "You need me. I know things...so stop treating me like I'm one of your pets. And you needn't bother about me acting like a team member. I'm going to leave this mansion as soon as we have solved this problem, if we solve it."

Morph heard that and winced.

Then he felt mad.

"Ya are?" Rogue said.

"Yes...though it's a long shot that we'll even get to that point," Mystique said. "For now, my wagon is hitched to yours. I can accept that, but stop acting like you own me."

They all looked at her for a long moment.

"If that is how you feel, I suppose," Storm said. "But even for that, you do need us. We can't afford to be out of the loop. You want us to allow you to help? You have to do what we do. Otherwise, why are you still here at all?"

Mystique knew better than to screw with Storm.

"Fine," she said. "In the future, I'll inform you if I have an idea."

Privately, she thought that this time around, they'd have said no way if she'd told them, so it was just as well.

To be honest, she was probably right about that, at least for Wolverine.

Morph was reaching his limit, though.

After the meeting ended, with the others deciding how to visit the warehouse and look for Psylocke and track down the brotherhood also--if Xavier was able to find it using Cerebro, once he knew who he was looking for...Mystique walked out of the room and out to the front of the house, feeling she needed a break from being yelled at.

Of course, being alone only made her think about the last 24 hours or so, and how she'd gotten a very new idea of herself from them.

And it wasn't a pleasant one.

"Hey!" Morph startled her by following her. "Have you lost it?"

Mystique turned, a little nervously.

"What the h---, Mystique?" Morph shocked her by actually using edgy language. "Is this your idea of some kind of joke? Or you really just thought that was a good idea?"

"I didn't need to hear this from you," Mystique said, trying to back up.

"No, enough of this." Morph blocked her way. "I'm tired of it."

"I don't care what you want," Mystique said. "Get out of my way."

"You want to be angry?" Morph ignored her words. "Fine, be angry, but going off and risking your neck and Frost's too? What if he killed you?"

"And what do you care?" Mystique said before she thought about of it. "Takes care of your problem, doesn't it?"

"No, no, it doesn't," Morph said. "That is not what I ever wanted, and I told you we don't do that.... If you'd actually think for one second about it, you'd realize that makes no sense. If we wanted that, it could have happened ages ago."

"It doesn't matter," Mystique said. "It was still fake."

"Nothing was fake!" Morph said. "Except that you never really intended to trust us, did you? If anyone was lying, it was you."

"Don't you pin this on me!" Mystique said. "I may be a deceiver, but I didn't lie to you." She looked fierce. "I never saw a point in that."

"Why should we believe that?" Morph said. "You don't believe us."

"Then we have nothing to gain with this conversation." Mystique tried to walk away again, and he stopped her again.

"Are you going to keep doing stuff like this?" he demanded. "Is there something you want to get out of it? Or do you just want to go back to that life? Trying to make a plan?"

"If I didn't know better," Mystique said, "I'd say that sounded jealous."

She meant that entirely to be a random jab to shut him up, not a serious point.

Morph kind of knew that, but he was caught off guard...because that was basically what Shine and Wally had been saying to him, but he never expected Mystique herself to say it. It was kind of disconcerting.

He knew that she wasn't serious, though. No way would she ever say that for real, not her.

But his silence puzzled her. She was expecting more of anger after that.

She looked back, puzzled, and could see the confusion instead.

But she interpreted it as his usual distaste for the idea.

Right...she shouldn't have touched that old nerve... She thought, as angry as she was, it was a cheap shot.

"All right, maybe that was a little too far," she admitted sullenly. "But stop bothering me about it."

Morph gave her a weird look.

Mystique didn't know how to read it.

"So you actually didn't intend to say something that cruel?" Morph said.

"I--" Mystique realized her mistake. "No, but--"

"Then why are you saying it?" Morph said. "You just want to make me mad. That's it, isn't it? What kind of sick satisfaction do you get out of this? You've been trying to make me crazy ever since the time palace, and for what? I didn't do anything! Mimic did. Remember that!? And I'm really, really sorry he did. But I can't control him, and I can't control the past, and I can't control the future. I'm just as lost as you are here."

"You knew," Mystique argued. "And you didn't say anything."

"Yeah, you know why that was?" Morph forgot caution for the moment--he was too mad. "Because it's really, really hard to learn that kind of thing about yourself, for anyone. I should know--I found out I basically died in one timeline. That's how I fell through time. That's how this whole thing started. Hey, I'm glad it did, now. But at the time? I didn't know if things would ever be back to normal. It's like that for all of us. By the time I thought of it, I already knew it was a bad idea to fill you in. You have mental breakdowns all the time--you think you could handle that kind of pressure?"

"I--" Mystique began again.

"Maybe you can," Morph cut her off. "Fine, you win. But it just isn't nice to do that to someone on purpose. If it happens by accident, it happens, I guess. That's how it was for most of us. But no one just looks for that kind of information, and they don't just tell it like it's nothing. That's stupid. And look how it turned out? If you weren't determined to be so suspicious about this, you'd realize this is just why no one would talk about it... It's a big burden... It's not easy. Why do you think I retired? You can't take that kind of pressure forever."

Mystique's retort died on her lips.

What could she say to that?

"And FYI--" Morph was still mad. "--even without all that, you're being ridiculous, because I already told you more about it than I even told my other friends, because you kept asking. And now? I really wish I hadn't now. Because I thought this would happen. But if honesty is what you wanted, then you're delusional now."

Mystique was still quiet.

"And on top of that, your way of handling it is so childish," Morph said. "I just...I can't even begin to say how childish it is. You can't drag everyone else down with you though...and we can't let you do that to yourself either. The others were just trying to tell you that, and you're not listening to them out of spite. Well, be mad at me if you want, but they're seriously not a part of this, and they're just trying to keep everyone safe, so can you just do that? Please?"

The please was more exasperation than anything else.

Morph thought this speech would get him punched for sure...and he kind of regretted it as soon as he finished making it. What was he thinking? She was stressed enough as it was.

But instead, Mystique seemed calmer than before, if anything.

She just stared at him.

The silence got awkward.

Finally she spoke. "I think that's the most I've heard you yell."

"I wasn't yelling," Morph said.

"Close enough."

"Well...I..." Morph felt kind of guilty now. "I just got carried away."

"Yeah...obviously," Mystique said flatly.

"If you're going to punch me, I probably deserve it..." Morph admitted.

"No," Mystique said. "I could...but..." She sighed. "I deserved that."

"What?" Morph said.

"You're right," Mystique said. "It is counterproductive to do that... I hate people lecturing me, that's all."

"Well, you kind of asked for it--" Morph began, then stopped. "No, that's not right."

"Oh, go on." Mystique waved her hand. "I'm sure you want to say it. Get angry. I don't care."

"Well, I do," Morph said. "I hate being angry."

"It might be good for you once in a while," Mystique said. "You're way too chipper all the time. It's annoying."

"Better that than being negative all the time!" Morph said. "And why are you suddenly not upset? Are you bipolar now?"

"I think you're mad enough for both of us at the moment," Mystique said. "And I'd never know it, just to listen to you the rest of the time. Surprising." She almost looked amused.

"Oh, is this suddenly funny?" Morph got mad all over again. "This is what you wanted? Do you even actually care about what happened, or are you just looking for an excuse to get upset over something? You're willing to ditch us over this... You didn't even try to work it out first, but that's...just spite."

"Well, if I'm so bad, then why bother?" Mystique shot back, finally a little mad again. "I never said I was good. I still don't know about what I learned... There's no other reason for you to be nice to me, except what I said. So--"

"You know the funny thing about that," Morph interrupted, "is that it kind of ignores me not being very nice at first...something I've been kind of ashamed about, to be honest... I mean, that's not usually me...but I was in such a funk over Sinister and the other stuff, I don't know what was going on in my head. Figures that didn't bother you, but this does... Your logic makes no sense."

"You said you remembered it later," Mystique said.

"Yeah, way later," Morph said. "And if you needed that cleared up, you could have just asked, not stormed off and said all those things. I know you said something to Shine also, but she never said what, because she's cool like that, and she wouldn't sell you out. If you don't believe me, you should believe her at least. She's not a RT, so it's not like she knows all about the timeline... But for the last time, I really, really didn't think about it. You'd understand if you did this all the time... It really doesn't stay at the forefront of your mind."

Actually Mystique could sort of understand already... The thing with the Time Broker was already seeming more like a dream than anything else after just one day.

But she didn't say that.

She was listening instead--finally.

Morph had a point...sort of...

But that did not mean she was just going to trust it, just like that.

"So what was the reason, then?" she asked.

Morph wished she hadn't asked that.

"I...well..." He felt kind of like he was turning red.

"At first, I was just trying to make up for how I was acting," he said slowly. "Which...I told you already...so...there's no real mystery about it.... After that, I guess it just...I don't know...it seemed right."

Not good enough, Mystique thought.

"Because I'm the way I am," she guessed.

"No..." Morph said. "I mean...kind of.... It's hard to explain. It was interesting."

"Like a psychology case," Mystique said.

She supposed that shouldn't have offended her... Emma had said almost the same thing... Oh right, Emma had said it to snub her, so of course it offended her.

"No," Morph said.

Mystique crossed her arms and turned slightly aside. "This is getting us nowhere... I don't know what to believe, Morph."

"Well, at least that's honest!" Morph said, heatedly. "But...ah, there I go again. You really drive me nuts, you know that?"

"I gathered," Mystique said. "I never asked for this though. That's on you. Why keep bothering me if I annoy you so much?"

"I guess it's fun, in a way," Morph said, oddly, shrugging. "It's real, isn't it? At least...that's what I thought about it. But you don't anymore, huh? It's actually pretty depressing."

Now he felt sad.

"Fun to mess with me," Mystique said dully.

"Are you doing that on purpose? Just putting the worst spin on it?" Morph said.

"I don't know--you're being so vague, what am I supposed to think? So far none of this really is enough to convince me I was wrong."

"Do you want to be convinced you're wrong?" Morph demanded. "Or are you going to think that no matter what?"

Silence.

"Just tell me what you want," Morph said, still mad.

https://youtu.be/1RDtuIovSPc

["Be With You"-- Cadmium]

Mystique had frozen.

When was the last time she'd even heard those words?

She smiled oddly...not a happy smile.

"I don't know," she said. "Isn't that funny?" Funny in her tone meant the opposite. "I really don't know anymore..."

Before she knew what was happening, she had suddenly burst into tears, the kind that come on when you think you're calm, but you've really been extremely upset under the surface. [It's the worst feeling, too, when you cry like that.]

Morph was, quite naturally, puzzled by this change of emotions.

One thing about Mystique whenever she cried, that she didn't know, was that it completely changed her whole demeanor from hard and bitter to pitiable and almost like a kid. It threw people who thought they knew what to expect from her.

Morph had seen her cry enough times by now to be more prepared for it, but it made him feel like kind of a jerk again.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I was too harsh."

"Don't!" Mystique snapped. "I don't need an apology. I deserved that and more... I just wish for all that I wasn't...ah..." She sank to the ground and covered her face.

I'm a fool, she thought to herself. Even if all I thought was true, who wouldn't have done what they did? They could have just killed me... Who am I really mad at?

In a burst of clarity, it fell into place for her.

It was like with Kurt all over again... She couldn't make him mad at her, no matter what she said...but he saw right through her; he knew she was just angry at herself.

"Mystique." Morph carefully put a hand on her shoulder, not sure what to do here, since she usually didn't like that.

Mystique ignored it. "I couldn't take it... You were right... I knew it... I just didn't like it," she said, trying to compose herself. "My course in life has always been one thing...and I knew it wasn't right, but I didn't know it could put the whole universe in danger... I'm one person... Who would ever think they have that kind of responsibility? I didn't want it. I hate what I learned. You should have just told me something, from the start, threatened me, killed me, I don't know...anything but this."

"Whoa, now." Morph grabbed her arms. "Hey, that's crazy talk. You can't think like that... Look...plenty of us in the Exiles could have been the same. It's just not that simple..."

Mystique shook her head.

"Hey, look at me," Morph said.

She looked up.

"I'm serious," Morph said. "Most of us have that... Most people are more important than they think they are--that's just the truth of it.... Anyone can be important...but, on the flip side...then we're not really any better or worse than anyone else. If the people are still ignorant of it, that's all. If you let this get to your head, you'll get this really elevated idea of your own importance...and it makes you paranoid. I don't believe in killing people just to control what happens."

"Really?" Mystique said oddly. "Isn't that kind of stupid?"

Morph almost laughed at how...in character that was.

"I guess...it might seem stupid, but it lets you sleep better at night," he said. "All this time, were you really just upset about that?"

"I was upset about all of it," Mystique said in a small voice, no longer able to lie about it effectively. "But I suppose that part was the worst of it... I can't stop thinking about it... I thought it would kill me, when Mimic said that...and I thought all of you would agree with him, deep down... I would have..."

"But we don't, really," Morph said. "Seriously...and it's not like all that was on purpose. You really should cut yourself some slack..."

"Over almost destroying the timeline?" Mystique said.

"It happens." Morph shrugged. "Shake it off, that's what we do."

Mystique just started crying again.

Not sure what else to do, Morph tried hugging her instead.

Surprisingly, she allowed this.

That lasted for a few minutes at least, Mystique trying to compose herself and failing several times.

She's just like anybody else, Morph was thinking, through that time. Same as Magik, same as all of us... Mimic is wrong... I almost feel sorry for him. He just doesn't get it... Maybe he never has.

"This is foolish," Mystique finally said, pushing away like she was ashamed of herself now. "I shouldn't be doing this. After all, whose fault is it but mine? Why aren't you yelling at me anyway? That's what should be happening."

"Yeah, Mystique, I don't know how to tell you this, but I think you're seriously messed up," Morph said. "That's not how friends are, okay? At least not ones who are any good."

Mystique just gave him a long look, then she stood up and wiped her face off hurriedly. Like she thought someone might have seen that.

"It's stupid to cry and take on about it," she said. "Facts are facts..."

"I mean...if you need to let it out, what's wrong with that?"

"Coming from the person who never wants to show any negative emotions?" Mystique said.

She had him...

"Well, I kind of just yelled at you so..." Morph said, "I guess it's a weird day for both of us..."

"I asked for it," Mystique said, hugging her sides. "A better person would have just let you explain from the beginning, but that's not me..."

"Or it is you," Morph said. "Technically you did just listen me... Huh, I didn't even notice... Why?"

"I don't know," Mystique said. "I've never seen you that angry. I guess it was kind of intriguing. Figured it was the real deal and not some stupid excuse."

There was so much wrong with that...but it also made sense... One way to tell if someone is lying is if they don't seem like they have any feelings about it at all.

Morph thought it was odd if losing his cool in front of her was what had convinced her he was sincere...but, then again, it was Mystique... Maybe that added up.

"You never fail to surprise me, you know that?" he said, resigning himself to it.

"I suppose I could say the same," Mystique said wryly.

At least she was okay now...hopefully.

"Don't tell anyone about that," she added.

"I wasn't going to," Morph said. "Just don't tell them I blew up... They already think I'm unstable."

"You can be," Mystique said.

Then she shocked him by putting a hand on his shoulder. "But I think that's better in a way... At least it's real."

Then she stepped back. "I'm out of here, before someone catches me bullying you again."

"Why--?" Morph began, not even sure what he was going to ask, maybe, Who's bullying who?

Mystique was already walking away in a hurry until she went into one of the side doors of the house.

Morph stood there for a second

"What was that?" he asked the sky.

The sky didn't answer him.

Morph leaned on the wall and shook himself. "I think I need my head examined again... Why was that cute?"

This wasn't good... This really wasn't good.

Mystique got into the house and then sank down in one of the small hallways.

"What did I just do?" she asked herself. "Why...?" She smacked herself in the head. "I can't have an ounce of self control... Stupid, stupid, stupid..."

She leaned back against the wall and sighed.

"This never ends well..." she muttered.

Come to think of it...this specific scenario had never happened at all...

She couldn't blame herself for breaking down like that...but something was a little off...

After some hard thought, Mystique discovered it was Morph's reaction... It wasn't exactly precedented...

He was so weird...

But something about that...it almost...it almost seemed more like...

No! Was she crazy? What a stupid thought. That would never, ever happen.

Sure, with most men, but...not Morph. She'd settled that ages ago.

Shaking herself from her stupidity, Mystique got up and hurried to find a better place to hide and try to get herself back together.... Though with her track record, it was unlikely she'd succeed at doing so. But at least no one would be watching her.

https://youtu.be/Brb7zIxjYjs

["Heart Attack" -- Demi Lovato.]

[Huh...

What a roller coaster.

This might be a weird thought, but I keep thinking if Morph's power makes him hormonal, in his words, that could explain why he can go from happy to sad to angry so fast.

Sure, he's normally pretty happy, which I think you can be even if you're hormonal, but it's easy for stuff to set you off too. Every woman knows that...

It seems like it only really shows when he's not in his comfort zone, but that would make sense; that's when flare ups tend to really catch you off guard.

I'd just say Mystique is a hot mess, period, so this interaction going from 0 to 100 to whatever is in between always made sense to me.

But something seems like it shifted there too... The tea is hot.]