Mystique pulled back. "Sorry, I had to test that..."

"Test it?" Morph said. "Is this a game?"

"No, a test," Mystique said. "Frankly, you're not my usual type, so I wanted to make sure the situation didn't just hypnotize me into imagining this was happening...but..." She shrugged. "I guess not. D--- it."

"I'm confused," Morph said.

"This is what I knew would happen," Mystique said. "I'm too weak. I can't hold out against this kind of plying... I'd agree to anything right now."

With a meaningful look.

Morph moved away. "Okay, that's not what this was about."

"I thought you'd say that," Mystique said. "But you see? I can't... If I ever will be able to, I don't know. Frankly, Morph, you're too much temptation for me."

"What?" Morph turned red.

"My standards were never that high to begin with," Mystique said, with some annoyance, "but still, the amount to which you continue to defy any attempt to predict your actions, it's kind of irritating at times...impressive, but... And then, you're new to all this...which means you don't know your limits yet. Without being crass, don't you think you may end up doing something you'll regret here? I can be quite persuasive...even if I know better..."

"Well...uh...yeah." Morph leaned away. "But, I mean...I don't have to say yes, right? You wouldn't keep--"

"No, not if you said no," Mystique said. "But who knows? I'm not very consistent." She shrugged again. "As for the rest of it...I've never really had any kind of relationship that didn't revolve around that and pretty much only that. I suppose I'm used to it. But the idea you have...this whole mutually beneficial thing? I have...pretty much no idea what that looks like in practice. And I didn't even think it really existed until I had to witness those annoyingly happy people upstairs. So maybe some people pull it off...but me? I wouldn't know where to start."

"But neither do I," Morph said. "I mean...maybe we have different problems, but we both have problems with this... So...I mean, I'm willing to try to figure it out. Are you?"

Mystique hesitated.

"I want to agree," she said, "but who knows...? A week from now ? A month? Could end up being a mistake."

"Well...here's the thing." Morph suddenly seemed calmer. "The world could legitimately end in that amount of time...and then we'd never know, right?"

Mystique tilted her head. "Uh huh...so?"

"So...why not a compromise?" Morph shrugged. "We give this a try for...well, however long this takes. And if it ends with us not dying, or merging or whatever, then we figure out if it's going to work..."

"Interesting idea..." Mystique said. "I mean...I like that the short term is inevitable either way, because there's really nothing to lose there...but even that...could be longer than you think."

"I feel like it being long is more of the idea than short," Morph said. "But...the other thing is...I think the...you know...boundaries thing is still important. One thing, I don't want this to be just...using someone else. I guess that's what I was trying to say before. I don't want to use you...or...vice versa. I'd hope you'd kind of agree on that."

"I...didn't even think of it that way." Mystique didn't like that idea being on her side in this particular manner.

"Well...okay then...so...if it's just going to be a short term thing anyway, it can't really hurt to hold off, so...you're okay with that?" Morph said.

"So what would we do?" Mystique said. "Nothing?"

"I mean...we can figure that out, but...it's worth a try, right?" Morph said.

Mystique thought. "No physical contact at all?"

"Well, not none maybe, but...not...uh...you know...a lot," Morph said.

"Define a lot."

"Please do not make me do that." Morph turned red. "You're as bad as the DJs are... Besides, I don't even know the answer to that. I don't know what people do."

Mystique smiled vaguely. "Okay...fine... So if I was to suggest another possible compromise...maybe just if I do something, and you don't like it, just tell me? I seriously doubt I'd care...but...that's...the only thing I could think of. I don't know how this works."

"I mean that's fair, right?" Morph said. "Can't get more fair than that... Wait, so are you actually considering it?"

"It's novel," Mystique mused. "And I do like trying new things... It's tempting. I admit...probably stupid, but...well, I guess I've done enough stupid things already. At least if I was trying to do something good for once...it might be better. I guess if you're willing to risk it, who am I to be the one to say no?"

"No, that's not good enough," Morph said. "You can say no. I'm not just going to say I coerced you into it so if that's how you feel--"

"All right, fine," Mystique cut him off. "I hate it when you make me say this kind of stuff... Fine. I'd like to try. That was...hard to say."

It felt hard to say, all right.

What was she even agreeing to right now? It sounded ridiculous.

Maybe she had hit her head earlier.

"Really?" Morph looked way too happy for the situation at hand to justify.

"You do realize that we could disappear at any point in that time, right?" Mystique said.

"Can you not ruin the moment?" Morph said.

"Sorry..." Mystique shrugged. "This feels a little anticlimactic... Feels like we should kiss again or something."

"Is that how that works?" Morph said. "Like you just say it? Because in movies--"

Mystique kissed him again. "You really talk too much."

[Well...huh...

That worked out surprisingly well...for now...

How can I feel scared and all touchy feely at the same time?]

* * *

Morph and Mystique weren't the only ones with things to settle after all that.

Wally managed to get Kitty to calm down finally, but all the kids were too scared to go to bed normally, so they camped out in the living room.

Shine, after checking on everyone, went into a room to cry by herself.

Hank reached the house, with the two new arrivals, and got filled in by everyone else, to his distress. But he had some information that surprised the other X-men.

"I'm afraid I may have an idea why the Professor vanished so quickly," he said. "I am not sure he gave up on the idea of accessing the Astral Realm after the DJs warned us not to... He seemed eager for them to both leave the house... A well meant gesture, but perhaps it was foolish."

"Are you tellin' me he caused this?" Rogue was mad and sad at the same time. "It wasn't just the people with power bein' here...he opened us up?"

"He was desperate, Rogue, and worried about Jean and Scott. They are some of his oldest students," Hank said.

"Is dat any excuse ta put da rest of us in danger?" Gambit said. "All dem kids. If de DJs say it was a bad idea, den it was a bad idea. Dey de experts on dis dimensional stuff."

The others looked at him strangely.

"It's hard to argue," Storm said. "But...it does us no good now."

"Now we have no telepath," Logan said. "Frost is pretty much useless."

"I dunno, I heard she didn't do too bad," Rogue said.

"She pushed herself too far," Hank said. "I think it may take days for her to recover. Psionic attacks of mutant nature would have been bad enough, but that Selene's power is deadly. A little more time and both she and Mystique might have parted from us permanently, Colossus also. Proteus, they wanted alive."

"How is Momma?" Rogue asked.

"I believe she will recover," Hank said. "But it was close. Morph was staying to watch her."

Gambit and Rogue exchanged a knowing look.

"They certainly are chummy now," Logan noted.

"We owe her," Storm reminded him. "Twice now, the children have been left to mostly her watch, though it was not intentional. Both times she has managed to keep them alive--with some help from Frost and Jubilee... They did well, but I wish they hadn't had to... Trinity most unexpectedly may be the reason they all survived."

"I think it was all of them," Wally said. "They're brave kids, but this sucks...and I can't believe Xavier just ignored what we said."

"It's only a theory," Hank said. "I just didn't think he was convinced after your talk... But more concerning...we now know there are people behind this who will attack us. Can you keep them from coming back, Mr. West?"

"We can try," Wally said. "One good thing, if you can call it that, is if it was Professor X, then as long as no one does that again, our barrier should work. But now that they got in once...well, it can be easier for them to get in again, if we don't watch it. Sort of like they know the way now. We'll have to reinforce them every day, I think. And this is just patching the problem. We know some of the people behind it now. I just wish they'd said more about why."

"But mystery is their greatest asset," Storm said. "We can't fight what we don't see and don't know. I fear...it may soon be too late." She leaned on her hand.

"Hey, don't say that," Wally said. "I better check on Shine, but there might be a clue in all this anyway. They have to make a mistake sooner or later--they're getting cocky. At least they didn't get all the people they wanted. You have to take the wins with the losses...though honestly, I could live with the Professor and Warren; they know the drill--they can fight, but the kid...that's the rough part for me." He sighed and left the room.

"Yeah, me too." Rogue looked miserable.

"Where's de New Scott?" Gambit asked. "Surprised he not here ta fill us in."

"I think he was checking on Emma," Hank said. "Perhaps he's concerned. She had too many close calls. But I confess, in a way, it's a relief. We were not sure about her being on our side, but certainly she could have not risked so much if she truly wanted to abandon us."

"Maybe we judge people too harshly in general, huh?" Rogue remarked.

* * *

https://youtu.be/pWEP2-PAb0Q

[Curses- The Crane Wives]

Emma didn't stay in the infirmary--she moved into one of the studies.... She didn't want to be around the other upset people. It only stressed her out more.

She felt pretty ill after the multiple shocks and Selene's power...and defiled, in a way. Selene was too unpleasant.

Also, she felt they'd failed.... They had one job--keeping the people from being taken...and Illyeanna was gone. And Xavier.

She wondered...was it the Merging? Or were they just incomplete? Were events lining up? She knew from Morph's thoughts that Illyana, a different version, had died once...though how was hidden from her. Xavier was in a coma.... Was it all getting too similar?

What next? If that was the case?

Scott finally found her in there.

One look at him and she knew he was thinking exactly the same thing about the missing people. She didn't even need to read his mind.

"Are you all right?" he asked...kind of awkwardly.

"As well as can be expected," Emma said dully. "I can't say the same for Mystique."

"I heard Beast say she'd be okay," Scott said. "It was close, though... Another few minutes, even... I'll give the DJs this, they have excellent timing."

"I'd have preferred it a little sooner myself," Emma said. "But better late than never."

What did he want? She wondered to herself. 

"Does this seem...like it's starting to get more similar?" Scott had almost read her mind. "Professor X disappearing...I mean...not in a coma, but..."

Were they just going to talk about this now?

"For different reasons, but yes...the bare facts are eerily lining up," Emma said. She frowned. "Even the swapping...in a way that's a mirrored event. People sharing memories... And now, we have names but still no answers."

She put her head in her hand. "It's impossible. And no telepathy worked on them."

"Which seems like it has to do with your problem," Scott said. "And even Cable couldn't. Something about it is nagging me, like it should be obvious, but it isn't. And now that girl got taken, and Warren. How much more could we have failed?"

That about summed it up.

"Between you and me, if one of us had to vanish, I would have preferred Cable," Emma said with bitter irony. "He was singularly unhelpful--and Wraith. At least Magik has some nerve. But it won't matter. I'm sure they'll be back."

She looked at her hand. "For all of us."

"You took a lot of risks," Scott said. "You're lucky they didn't kill you. Especially that part with Selene--that was crazy."

"Necessary." Emma didn't feel like a lecture. 

Anyway, why did he care?

"So...Mirage...she was being controlled?" Scott changed the subject. "Like Psylocke...but how?"

"I have no idea." Emma closed her eyes. "All I saw in her mind was panic. She shut me out, or something else did. Without my defensive capabilities, I couldn't press in hard enough to break through. Should it be a relief that she was being controlled, or should it be frightening? The latter, I think."

"How does someone control that many telepaths?" Scott wondered.

Exactly.

"Hypnotism could do it," Emma mused. "Strong...magic perhaps. Regular telepathy shouldn't be able to. But that's only a supposition. Why did you come in here?"

Scott looked down. "To check on you," he admitted.

"Why?" Emma tilted her head blandly. "I'm sure no such courtesy is required."

"I might also be feeling a little guilty," Scott said slowly. "I almost forgot, but...we haven't really talked since...Genosha."

Emma had made sure of this as much as possible, so that was no surprise, but his regret was.

"So?" she said.

Not another lecture, she thought.

"I also spoke to Shine," Scott said.

Emma blinked.

"Oh, say no more," she said. "I know what that's like."

"She makes an interesting case," Scott said. "In her mind, your actions were mostly well-intentioned with unfortunate results. She was pretty convincing. I was surprised. She also seems to trust you."

"Her mistake," Emma said with more sarcasm than she meant. "But given her other friendships..."

"She said one other thing," Scott said. "She said we can trust you as far as we can get you to explain your intentions--something, I realized later, I never actually asked. I didn't think it mattered, but maybe it does. I just want to know, was your goal really to help? Or was it to get power?"

Emma frowned.

What a question...

Shine and her meddling! What had she told him?

"The truth is," she spoke finally, knowing answering was unavoidable, "I did believe The Phoenix was dangerous. If I had some inkling that the Circle might have its own purpose for hunting it, I ignored it. After a certain point, it was the only way to justify how everything went wrong."

She bit her lip before continuing. "Their methods are less than scrupulous, but I don't like hurting people. Not all of them did, I thought. In hindsight, I probably should have known any group Selene was in was going to be after something more sinister. And perhaps Shaw too. But, in hindsight, everything would have been different. The Professor was an accident."

With a nervous glance. "One I used...but...an accident. I suppose that's still wrong. The Circle was angry after it failed. I had to come up with a plan to keep my standing with them. Selfish, I suppose, but at the time, I didn't care about the X-men. After I got to know them, I regretted what happened, but there was nothing to do about it, and the only thing to show for it would be to complete the mission, I thought. And then I was enlightened about their intentions, and the only thing to do seemed to be to abort it. You know the rest."

Scott listened in silence, which she couldn't read. Even the thought of trying to use her telepathy right now gave her a headache.

"So that's the truth?" Scott finally said, still unreadably. "It was a job to you."

Emma shrugged. "Not all of it..."

"It's unfortunate," Scott said, after a moment of thinking. "Getting rid of The Phoenix was probably a good idea, but the way of going about it was too different. It seems we could have offered a compromise...if we knew from the beginning."

"It's only too clear now why the Circle did not want to try that," Emma said. "As for me, I didn't suppose anyone would trust us. I was right. But that was my own fault. There's some irony in that--feel free to acknowledge it--but in the end, it didn't matter."

"It did matter," Scott said. "I still think honesty matters."

Emma felt small.

"Still, with more time, I do see why it was...difficult," Scott said slowly. "Maybe what you did seemed like a good idea. I can't even say the X-men would have understood if you told them the truth. Shine told me we used you. I never thought of it that way. I'm not sure I agree with her. But if it looked that way..."

"Used?" Emma repeated. "I didn't think so."

"Not at all?" Scott said, with relief.

But then Emma thought twice about it.

"Oh, I suppose I saw it that way at first," she recollected. "She must mean how I traded my power for a place on the team. Yes, I suppose that is using me--but agreed upon, so I don't see the problem."

"It's not very X-men," Scott said.

"How quaint." Emma was amused. "Thinking you're above that... Well, if that were true, that would be a rare find. I suppose it's true for the other members. But Wolverine was suspicious of me. I didn't really blame him, though it was annoying."

"Did you think I was?" Scott said, not liking that she'd changed her mind. "About Jean?"

Emma didn't want to talk about Jean.

But then again, should she answer?

Shine would say to...oh...no, she even had her doing it now!

Was it just inevitable? She got inside everyone's heads.

Shaking herself a little, she focused. "I didn't blame you. I offered, after all."

"To earn trust," Scott said.

Emma supposed she deserved that. "At first. Not that I didn't want to find her."

"For you own reasons."

Emma winced. "Yes."

Pause.

"I guess that's not lying," Scott said, as if to himself. "I don't like it, but.... And did that ever change?"

Emma shook her head uncertainly. "I don't know. My motive became blurred even to me after a while. We all wanted to find her, so I stopped thinking about why."

"You didn't lead the Circle to her, once you found her," Scott said.

Emma hadn't noticed this oddity in what happened.

"No," she said, "I suppose not. I thought the X-men should find her first. The plan was to return her after the Phoenix was gone.... What purpose would there have been in keeping her? I now suspect they intended to just kill her, but at the time..."

"I didn't think you'd admit that." Scott was blunt.

"I see no purpose in lying about it now," Emma said. 

Scott was quiet for such a long time, Emma found it torturous.

She supposed he was angry again.... She was almost becoming numb to it.

Almost. Not quite.

"I guess Shine was pretty much right," Scott said. "That's basically what she said. Did you tell her that?"

"Oh, not in so many words," Emma said, dryly. "But it shouldn't really surprise me that she practically read my mind. Her ability to do that without using telepathy is uncanny. Let me guess, she thinks I'm the victim in all this, and that you're all being too harsh."

"Yes." Scott was surprised.

"I didn't actually think that was going to be right," Emma said, also surprised. "I was being sarcastic."

"But that's what she thinks," Scott said, "in so many words. She.... Didn't anyone tell you? She told off the entire X-men pretty much, after Genosha...didn't like what they were saying about you...didn't like what I said either."

"Oh, she didn't..." Emma felt wan.

"I've never seen anyone shame people so completely," Scott said. "All of them...they just dropped it. And they haven't brought it up since. I've never been spoken to that way in my life...and then I got another round of it later.... My mistake asking for clarification, I guess. In the end I felt ashamed. I think I was too hard on you."

Not the ending Emma expected.

"No," she said. "I didn't blame you for being upset. Don't listen to her. She's...well...opinionated."

"She seems to know you pretty well," Scott said. "And everyone else...even me.... I don't remember telling her anything about myself, but.... The point is, I think she was mostly right. So, I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize." Emma was embarrassed. "I deserved it."

"Is that true?" Scott said. "Pretty much every member of the X-men has a past. I kept thinking about what she said, that we all overlook it in each other, but not anyone else...and then, Wally, he said it was wrong to treat someone like that who was having such a difficult time.... Made us all think about what exactly we're trying to do here.... So I think I do need to apologize."

Emma pursed her lips.

"I will accept if you'll stop talking about it," she said. "I still didn't really need one, but.... I ought to kill her...both of them. I never asked for this. They'll make everyone think all I do is complain to them." She frowned. "I never did. Not once. I didn't ask for them to defend me. How pathetic would that be?"

"They said it's because you're their friend, and they think if someone disrespects you, they are disrespecting them," Scott said. "I can't see anything wrong with that.... Normally I'd agree with it. That's what got to everyone, actually, I think. I'm not sure--I don't know them that well. I don't think anybody thought you put them up to it, though. It didn't sound like that, they just seemed to really believe what they were saying.... I think you should know about it." He turned slightly. "After earlier, I think you earned everyone's pardon for not telling them the truth. But if there's anything else...I suggest you tell us."

Emma was stunned.

"Scott, wait," she said, standing up. "Perhaps I shouldn't have gotten upset.... Truthfully, I don't like people helping me, which is plain to see...but...I'm not ungrateful."

Scott paused. "Maybe you should let them help with your problem, then. It's getting bad, isn't it?"

Emma almost was going to lie and say "not that bad," but she caught herself.

Then she lowered her head. "I almost can't stand it," she said quietly. "It's getting worse all the time. I...I almost can't even sleep anymore. But it feels like admitting it would make it closer...more real."

Scott hesitated. "You really don't remember what happened?"

"No," Emma said. "Not after exploding.... In fact, I'd never know if I was successful."

She'd been dying to ask this but lacked the nerve.

"You were," Scott said. "The Phoenix is gone.... I only remembered that later.... Maybe there's something else you should know. I forgot about this, but it came back earlier, in the infirmary.... Jean and Hank, they were going to try to reassemble you."

"What?" Emma almost gasped.

"Hank had a theory about it," Scott said. "It seemed right to try. But Jean said she wasn't sure she could find all the...pieces.... I don't know how you got here, from the house, but maybe your problem is because they missed a piece.... I think they must have kidnapped you from the house. Me too, now that I think about it.... I was standing on the cliff. So...it makes sense."

"If you were at the house," Emma said, "they must have known what happened almost right away.... What could they think...? If I vanished also...they're bound to think it's connected."

"So?" Scott didn't see the issue. "Is that the truth?"

"Don't be dense," Emma said, forgetting who she was talking to. "They'll think I did this...some kind of plan, no doubt... Lovely, if we ever do get back, I can look forward to that conversation."

She rolled her eyes.

"It would take about one sentence to explain that's not what happened," Scott said. 

"If you think Wolverine would believe that after one sentence, you have a higher opinion of his trusting nature than I do," Emma said. "But of course, we may never get back."

Uncomfortable silence.

"If the others were here, it really wouldn't be so bad to be away for the MRD," Scott said. "Still, maybe that world needs the X-men. I know Xavier would think so."

"And in their absence, one by one...I wonder what will happen," Emma said. "It's easy to forget that our dimension is at risk as much as this one, since we only see the effects here...but they are probably happening there too. But they will have no clue why. Can you imagine if President Kelly started getting flashes of memories of this world? He might have a conniption."

"Might do him some good." Scott was salty about that still. "But why should any good come out of the whole thing...? It's just one disaster after another. And we can't seem to stop it. I feel useless."

"How do you think I feel?" Emma said dryly. "I am useless. Only thing worse than being here is being unable to do anything to help. Now the other telepaths are all gone. The irony is cruel."

"Still, if there's any way to heal you, shouldn't you take it?" Scott said. "Not keep risking it?"

"I am not doing it on purpose every time," Emma said. "It seems inevitable. Why even try?" She sighed. "I keep thinking, maybe one time, it will work. Old habits, I suppose. But now I am just complaining."

"I...didn't mean to make it harder," Scott said, with some guilt. "I got focused on what happened. I almost forgot that what's going on here is bigger than that."

"Understandably," Emma said.

"Normally, I'd think I'm better that that," Scott said. "So no."

"But we really can drop it," Emma said. "I'm sick of talking about it anyway."

She rubbed her forehead. "Of all of it, really. But that is at least one thing I can afford to stop thinking about. Plenty more trouble to go around."

Scott almost cracked a smile. "True.... I guess it's over."

"Good," Emma said. 

And I will have to either shake Shine later or thank her, she thought to herself.

On second thought, maybe she was the one who was being shaken. The room suddenly seemed kind of unsteady.

Oh, no, it was her.

She went lightheaded from standing up for so long and started to collapse again.

"Emma!" Scott caught her.

Emma was so, so tired of this. She never used to faint, ever. And it was the nastiest feeling, really. Whoever thought it was romantic in books was a moron!

She looked up with some frustration. "I'm all right..."

Then she stopped. They were awfully close.... It made her feel unsettled.

Scott stood her up. "Maybe you should get some rest."

He wasn't making eye contact...though it was hard to tell with him.

"I think I should." Emma was anxious to get out of that room.

"Come on." Scott opened the door. 

"I can manage. My room isn't that far from here," Emma protested.

"You just collapsed after standing up for a few minutes," Scott said.

She hated that that was a good point...

Resigning herself to how humiliating this was, Emma allowed herself to be helped the rest of the way down the hall, but then she insisted on going alone. She'd die of shame if someone saw them...

She got safely in her room and leaned on the door and sighed.

"Being here is dangerous in two ways," she said to herself. "So easy to forget.... We have to find them, fast." 

[Or we could put it off and see what happens...

Right, that wouldn't be very responsible...

Makes for the more interesting plot though.]