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[OOC: continued from here.]

[Oh look, that eyebrow of her's was starting to creep up her face with the look she was giving him. Carefully clearing her throat, Mystique took one or two more steps towards him before pausing and giving him a look, it somewhere carefully balanced between curiosity and maybe a touch of accusation.] Did you actions happen to involve Sentinels? [It was spoke closer to a comment than a question, as if she could already guess the answer.]

[No point in denying it. He meets her gaze levelly.]

They did.

[Well wasn't that interesting?] I see.

[Moving those last few steps in towards him, Mystique stopped just short of him, head raised to match his gaze.] You're following in his steps, and I've seen the type of man it will turn you into. One who is so focused on his goal he is prepared to burn the world down around him. [Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she made no movement of aggression or violence against him, just keeping her stance and not backing down.] I would advice rethinking any future plans you may have for back home. [It was all too easy to think what her world would be like without Magneto's influence. She doesn't know if it would be for the better, but it was sad to see a man so wrapped up in his own hype he was blind to what set him on his path in the first place.]

[His posture changes subtly as Mystique enters his space, his spine straightening, shoulders growing stiff. The mention of the other Magneto is enough to immediately set him on edge.]

I'm not following in anyone's steps but my own. [His tone is low, and brooks no argument. He knows who he is, and he can't define himself by what happens in other realities, no matter how similar those men might be. Yet Mystique's words have the sting of truth to them, because that was exactly what he had done. He had tried to kill his own Mystique to prevent the Sentinels of the future from ever happening. One life for millions. When that failed, he had gone after the President instead, to demonstrate through power that they would not be oppressed and lead to imprisonment and slaughter.

He lets the silent moment stretch on before continuing.] I've already rethought them. I had little choice but to do so. I don't need to be told - I already know how one future turned out when I stayed on that path. [Something that became clearer in hindsight, in the aftermath of Washington and his failed plans. Clearer still in those other worlds, where he'd had to regain his memories and see them from what was almost an outside perspective.]

Then I hope you keep to that when you return. [Mystique didn't back down immediately, keeping her close proximity to him for several more long moments, however she did eventually take those few steps back. Looking off into the distance for a moment, she found enough words to continue her thought.] I don't blame you for what you have done, Erik, I may understand them more than most do because I have been at his side for many years. [Her gaze returning once more to him.] But I have also seen his hate overcome what he had set out to do, and that was to save mutants suffering through the same fate others have. [She wouldn't say 'your family', it was too close, too personal to bring them up, even if it was still left hanging in her words.]

I hope you find a better way. [Saying her piece and leaving him with more than enough to consider, her form began to change again, melting away not into a wolf but her raven form. There was one more look to him before she lifted herself into the air to fly off.]

I've met the Kurt Wagner of my world, now.

[It takes a long time before Mystique answers, several days in fact as she awakens in her room on the Golden, confused on what has happened. She's heard others have gone into comas but they typical wake up with new memories. Then again, she is dead, hard to get new memories after that.

It's an extra half a day before she notices the message, having spend the first half getting her body awake again and moving like it should after being still for so long. What is waiting for her is unexpected.]

Is he your son? [No punches pulled there, direct and to the point. Also, when had Raven gone into a coma? She hadn't even noticed the girl gone, not that she kept close tabs on her.]

[ It takes her a long time to manage the will to reply to Mystique once they actually get back to the topic - it's been a little while, and she has to come back to it, her heart heavy and her hands shaking a little. Raven has to take a deep breath, has to force herself to calm down, and she can't handle the idea of actually admitting it to anyone.

But Mystique gets it. She understands. And maybe that would be enough. ]

He might be.

[Mystique knew more than most about hiding in plain site, that the instant you started to act unusual it would draw attention, but even with knowing that and knowing her actions could draw attention, she switches over the journal to private. She doesn't trust these communications, not after the devices that were found on the ships. Setting it to a private mode was no guarantee, but hopefully it would stop most who would attempt to pry.]

I'm sorry you came back then. Or that he is not here as well. [It was more than she would be willing to say to others, but if Raven has lost her Kurt as well...]

It's fine. He's probably better off back there.

[ It takes Raven a little while to be able to speak, and she's cautious before she breathes out and forces herself to keep writing, to keep typing. ]

He's an X-Man.

It's to be expected, I guess. [And no doubt the safest location for him.]

Did you ever meet, [Mystique almost wrote 'my Kurt', but quickly stopped herself. Kurt wasn't hers, not anymore.] The Kurt that came from my world?

No. I don't think I did.

I'd probably have hated him at first. [ Because why not be honest? ]

[Mystique was blunt, no reason to expect Raven not to be.] He's part of the X-Men. He joined them after Xavier found him in Germany with his parents. [Mystique was also not delusional (even if others would argue that), she knew the Wagners were more his parents than she ever had been.] It's very well suited for him. I don't doubt it's helped him a lot, taught him to be part of a bigger community and to help accept himself more.

I found him in Germany. He didn't have his parents with him - he was in a cage fight with another mutant. [ So much for it being better in the world - at least Charles realised that now. Things were going to get better and she was going to be able to help it. ] Maybe it'll do the same for my Kurt. I mean, the one that I know.

Was he there under his own choice or forced into it? [Because that was now the most important part of this conversation, even if it wasn't 'her Kurt' who had gone through it. It better had been his own stupid choice, not some forced mutant fighting ring for the entertainment of others.]

The cage fight? It wasn't his choice. I got him out of there.

[It takes awhile before Mystique writes back, needing to step back from the communicator to cope with the anger that Raven's answer created in her. Kurt, any Kurt, any mutant, forced against their will to fight, no doubt for the entertainment of humans, it pushed at the edges of her rage. It was what she fought against, for mutants to not be the play things, the demons, the experiments of humans, and to hear her 'son' was one of those...]

Good. That you got him out.

Edited 2016-09-19 11:17 (UTC)

[ It's infuriating and Raven knows it; she's been there herself. She had watched it happen. The idea of it being Kurt, though, someone important and precious... No, it doesn't matter. Any mutant suffering like that deserves so, so much better than what they've been given by the world. ]

That's what I did. I found mutants and I got them out of trouble.

[The fact that Kurt, and others, were forced to fight... Mystique couldn't picture Kurt as a fighter, or her Kurt at least, as clearly Kurt Darkholme was more than capable of taking care of himself and others as needed. But the boy from her world? He barely fought, even against the Brotherhood, it was more just an obstacle course for him, bouncing and porting between targets.]

That is the goal. [And it was, plain and simple but so very complicated at the same time. To help mutants, even those that didn't seem they wanted help. It's all her goals had ever been, to make sure others didn't go through what she did.]

Because it's that simple. [ It's not, and she knows it. It's still hard for her, not being able to do enough for mutants, to help them enough, to push herself forward and give everything she can for them, but... Maybe one day she'd be able to.

Maybe being at the school would be enough. ]

He's safe, now. And so am I. We're both X-Men.

I'm not entirely surprised. [Not with Charles' influence on Raven. Then again, Mystique hasn't gone digging into the girl's past, half an act of hopefully shared respect that Raven wouldn't try to do the same thing to her, but also because Mystique didn't want to go looking. There was still a fine spike of hate within her for what Raven had been gifted in her life, and Mystique was so use to thriving on hate to survive.]

There isn't anywhere else I wanted to be. [ And Kurt was there; Hank was there... Charles was there. Where else would Raven want to be? Where else could she go? After almost losing her brother, losing herself, the idea of being distant from him was, frankly, terrifying. ]

Hey Risty, are you doing anything this evening?

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