body link=##FF3300 body vlink=#660099

X-Men: Evolution of the Heart: Chapter Eighteen

Author's note: This chapter is based on the episode of Evo when Kurt first learns about his relation to Mystique. It's a bit different from the actual episode.

Shadowed Past

Through the dark night, a strange cloaked woman ran from a dark castle with a baby in her arms. A group of man led by a mysterious looking scientist chased after her. The baby wailed in to the night as the lady desperately tried to get away, but the men were gaining fast. Rain started to fall and thunder started boom in the sky. The mysterious lady soon reached a rickety old bridge, but just as she reached the middle a huge bolt of lightning struck the other side and she stumbled backwards...Dropping the baby in the process.

"NO!" yelled the lady as the baby cried in to the night and was inundated by the brisk river.

"Rogue! Rogue wake up!" came a voice.

Suddenly, Rogue bolted up out of her sleep in a cold sweat. She was breathing heavily and on the verge of tears as the last image of the baby falling in to the river hung clear in her head.

"Rogue, what happened? You were yelling in yer sleep," said Logan as the others crowded around her door.

"I...I don't know. I just had a bad dream. It was so real and...The poor baby and..."

Rogue was definitely getting hysterical. This seemed like more than her regular bad dreams that she had been having for years.

"Baby?" said Kurt curiously.

Soon, the Professor wheeled in to the room upon hearing the commotion. He had sensed the psychic disturbance and he knew it was more than just another bad dream.

"Rogue, what exactly did you see?" asked the Professor calmly. Rogue took a deep breath as she recounted the dream that was still fresh in her mind.

"I saw some lady running from these men...It was cold, dark, and when she got to the bridge...She dropped the baby in to the river. The baby..." Suddenly, Rogue looked towards Kurt. The images in her head flashed again and she saw the face of the baby. It was blue...

"It was you!" exclaimed Rogue.

"Vhat? Me?" said Kurt dumbfounded.

"That baby was you!"

"But, why would you have one of Kurt's dreams?" asked Kitty, for Kurt was at a loss for words.

The Professor could tell it was still a fuzzy dream, but he knew that it meant something. After a brief pause, the Professor knew he had to know more. "I think we should look in to this. Kurt, Rogue, please come with me. The rest of you should get some sleep. You all still have school in the morning," said Charles as he made his way to the living room with Kurt and Rogue.

Logan followed as well and so did Kitty.

"You heard the Prof half-pint. Back to bed," said Logan as he stopped Kitty from following further.

"But..."

"You can talk to him in the morning."

Knowing it was useless arguing with Logan, Kitty reluctantly headed back to her room. But she still wanted to know what was going on and why it involved Kurt. She noticed he had been a bit distant lately. They didn't talk as much anymore, but that was because Kitty had been spending time with Lance. Sometimes she felt she spent too much time with him. Kitty was so use to talking to Kurt all the time that this kind of distance from him almost made her feel...Empty inside.

"Kitty? Are you okay?" asked Jean as she, Scott, and Evan stayed back for a minute upon noticing the all too familiar look on Kitty's face.

"Yeah...I'm fine," said Kitty as she phased through the walls back in to her room.

Scott looked back at Jean after seeing what had just happened, and it didn't take a psychic to know that Kitty was lying.

***

As Rogue took a seat on the couch, Kurt stood near her with a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach. The Professor was eager to explore this issue further, but he couldn't fight the feeling that he won't like where this would lead.

"You haven't had this dream before have you Rogue?" asked the Professor.

"No...Never. I never remembered something like that happening to me," responded Rogue.

"The perhaps what you were experience wasn't a dream at all. Maybe it was actually a memory."

"A memory...Of Kurt?"

"Kurt, do you remember her absorbing you at any time before you came here?" asked the Professor.

"Ja, once or twice but that was almost a year ago."

"A year? Then it wouldn't make sense for it not to have happened sooner," said the Professor as he became more perplexed by this.

"I don't know...Maybe I was mistaken. It still is kinda fuzzy," said Rogue rubbing her head slightly.

"Then maybe I can help clear it up," said the Professor as he wheeled closer to her. "Just relax Rogue, I'm going to try and see what you saw." "Okay," Rogue said nervously, still spooked by the dream.

The Professor closed his eyes and began to search deeply in to Rogue's mind. It was a cluttered, cold, and depressing place and there were many areas that were intensely shielded. No doubt that they were thoughts and secrets that Rogue didn't want others to know. However, the path to the dream was open and soon it became clearer to see.

The lady in the cloak could clearly be seen and she was carrying a crying baby just as Rogue had said. Then, as the lightning struck the bridge and the baby fell in to the river, Charles Xavier got a clear look at the lady's face...It was Mystique. But there was more, the baby didn't drown. It floated down the river and washed up in a shallow creek running behind a small farm. Then, there were some frantic words spoken in German in the distance. A young couple ran over and picked the crying baby out of the river...Then it all stopped. There was another flash to another time separate from the one just witnessed. The image before the Professor was now that of a crying 4-year-old girl cowering in fear in a dirty old orphanage. Then, the same lady in the cloak picked her up...After that all went blank.

The Professor then opened his eyes and looked back at Kurt.

"Vell, vhat did you see?" asked Kurt eagerly.

"It was no dream...It was a memory. But I'm not sure whose it was," said the Professor, knowing that it was partially a lie because he had a pretty good hunch who it belonged to.

"But why was Kurt in it and why am I the one having the dream in the first place?" asked Rogue.

"I'm not sure. I need to look in to this further; we'll talk about it tomorrow afternoon. Until then you should both get some sleep," said the Professor not wanting to reveal this to Kurt just yet. He had to be sure. The two teens simply nodded as the Professor wheeled himself out and headed back to bed. Rogue started to walk back towards her room, but Kurt lingered behind.

"Are ya gonna be okay Kurt?" asked Rogue with a concerned look on her face.

"Ja...I'll be fine."

Then, the blue mutant ported back to his room where he tried to get some sleep, but now that was all but impossible.

***

The next day, Kurt was still restless from the previous night. He trusted the Professor to keep his word, but he couldn't fight this feeling that there was something he was keeping from him. Kurt was silent throughout most of the morning and didn't eat a very big breakfast, which was very unusual for him. This didn't go unnoticed, especially by Kitty. However, it was clear that Kurt didn't want to talk about it, so Kitty was forced to watch and worry.

When they got to school they all broke off in to their respective groups. Evan skated off towards some of his skateboarding buddies, Rogue went looking for Risty, Scott and Jean went off together towards their first class, and Kurt ran off by himself. Kitty tried to follow him, but before she could get very far, Lance waved at her from a distance and signaled her over. She looked over at Kurt, who seemed lost in his own thoughts. Slowly, Kitty then made her way towards the ever-impatient Lance Alvers. As she walked over to him, she noticed Scott and Jean.

Jean had linked her arm around Scott's and they were walking off happily towards class. Kitty had seen the dramatic shift in their behavior ever since the horrible incident with Duncan. They had been spending a lot more time with each other and were noticeably happier than they had been in months. They were still insinuating that they were hanging out just as friends, but to Kitty and the rest of the group they acted like a couple. Sometimes they teased the pair about it, but it did little to dissuade them. Kitty sighed as she saw the smiles on their faces and for a brief moment, pictured herself like that with her and Kurt.

"Hey Kitty! Hurry up!" said Lance.

Kitty was unfortunately snapped back to reality by Lance's voice. She could only sigh as she went forth to meet him, but Kurt still never left her mind.

***

Not long after the six teens left for school, Ororo and the Professor drove off in his car to a meeting that had been set up at the last minute. They were to meet somebody along a deserted stretch of road not far from the Brotherhood's house. As they arrived they could only sit and wait.

"Are you sure she'll be here?" asked Storm.

"Positive. She may be a master of deception, but this is an issue she can't ignore," responded the Professor.

After only a few minutes of waiting, a small black raven descended from the sky and landed a few feet from the two mutants. Then the bird shifted in to Mystique.

"This had better be good Xavier," said the blue shape-shifter sternly.

"I would think so Raven...It involves your children," replied the Professor.

Mystique's interest for the subject grew upon hearing this. Her _expression shifted from her usual angry, stern look to one of actual concern.

"What about them?"

"They may know the truth now...There's no more denying it. I knew they would find out sooner or later, but I didn't expect it to be this soon."

"But how?!" said Mystique growing angry once more. "Did you tell them?!"

"No, I didn't know the whole truth myself until recently. It turns out your 'daughter' has been having a few bad dreams lately."

Xavier watched as Mystique grew uncomfortable by this revelation. Her secret was finally coming out.

"You can't hide from the truth anymore Mystique...I know now. And Kurt and Rogue deserve to know as well. You can't deny them that."

Mystique was left speechless for a brief moment.

"I tried my best for the both of them...I did everything I could," said Mystique finally still trying to remain strong before her enemies.

"You did everything...Except the right thing," said Storm.

Mystique's expression grew bitter upon hearing those last words.

"Are you aware of what became of your children after you left them?" asked the Professor.

"No...I couldn't come in to contact with them. It was better for them that way," responded Mystique.

The Professor only sighed, knowing that was a terribly false assumption.

"I think you may be wrong in assuming that," said the Professor.

Mystique looked at the Professor curiously.

"What are you talking about?" asked Mystique in a demanding tone.

The professor didn't know the extent of what happened to Kurt and Rogue in their times before joining the institute. They, along with the rest of the group, guarded their secrets so strongly that even he couldn't uncover them if he tried.

"Mystique...Your children have not had normal lives to say the least. I can't tell you the kind of things they've been through because I respect their privacy and also because...I simply don't know. They guard their secrets even more than you do. But from what I do know I can say that despite what they have been through...They have turned in to fine young individuals. And I'm proud to have them at my institute."

The Professor's words left Mystique at a loss, for the things he had just said left her with a great sense of worry. Before he could say anything else she shifted back in to a raven and flew away, but not before giving both mutants a stern look.

***

"Hey Kitty, over here!" yelled Lance from the cafeteria as lunch let out.

"Oh, hey Lance. Listen, I can't talk now, I have to meet a friend," replied Kitty.

She knew Lance would get too uptight if she just said she was going to meet up with Kurt. Every time she mentioned his name, Lance would get angry for no real reason. This was the main thing about Lance that Kitty had come to hate the most. He never respected her friends and was very cynical when he talked about them. Needless to say they did fight about this a lot, so Kitty did her best to avoid it...However that only made a things worse in the end.

"Come on Kitty, you've been avoiding me all day," said Lance in an exasperated tone.

"No I haven't! I just have a life outside of you," defended Kitty even though there was some truth in his words.

"Its fuzz boy again isn't it?" said Lance sternly knowing that he was the only one who could make Kitty act like this.

"His name is KURT!" yelled Kitty as her anger grew.

Kitty didn't like to yell, but Lance was always good at pushing her limits. She could stand some of the arguing they had, but she couldn't stand it when he started insulting her best friend.

"Whatever...Look if you want to go with 'Kurt'," started Lance in a sarcastic tone, but upon that Kitty cut him off.

"Kurt is my best friend! He has been there for as long as I can remember! And if you can't respect that then DON'T TALK TO ME!" yelled Kitty who had had it with Lance's jealousy of Kurt.

Before he could respond Kitty stormed off. Lance was left dumbfounded by what had just happened. For the time he had been pursuing Kitty, Kurt had always been the major roadblock. He was constantly looking out for her, and always seemed to interrupt them when things were going good. Lance disliked Kurt from day one and was not willing to let him get in his way.

"Damn elf..." said Lance to himself as he watched Kitty stormed off, "I swear one day you'll pay for all your bullshit."

***

Finally, the last bell had rung and Kurt rushed to his locker to drop off some of his books. As he was about to run off, he heard a voice come up from behind him.

"Hey Kurt wait up!" It was Kitty.

"Hey Kitty," said Kurt as he hurried off to meet Scott and the others.

"What's the big rush? You've been, like, out of it all day," said Kitty even though she had a good idea what the answer was.

"I just vant to get back as soon as possible. I vant to see vhat the Professor has found," replied Kurt.

"You mean about Rogue's dream? What did he say about it?" asked Kitty. Kurt just sighed. The thoughts and memories of the dream that were described to him had haunted him all day. He couldn't get them off his mind.

"He said he had to do more research...But I can't shake the feeling that there may be more to it than that," said Kurt as they walked out the front door.

"What do you mean?" asked Kitty.

The look on Kurt's face went sour after that. He didn't want to say anything else about it, even though it was Kitty talking to him. He still didn't feel good about her being around Lance from the Brotherhood. Ever since then she had spoken to him less and less even though they were best friends.

"Come on Kurt...I didn't avoid Lance and his scrutiny all day for nothing. Please talk to me...You're my best friend. You know that don't you?" said Kitty with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Kurt looked back at her and saw the look on her face. He was surprised to learn that she had avoided Lance all day for him.

"I know...I've always known. It's just that...This is something big...I can feel it," said Kurt.

"Just be careful...Don't be surprised if what you find out is really something you'd rather not know," replied Kitty with worry all too apparent in her voice.

"I'm kind of use to that by now Kitty...Ve both are."

Kurt then held on to her hand as the anxiety only grew from within, but in the presence of a good friend...It didn't really matter.

***

"Pietro, I have an assignment for you," said Mystique upon finding Pietro slumped on the couch of the Brotherhood home.

"Can it wait...Wrestling is about to come on," moaned Pietro.

"NOW!" yelled Mystique not in the mood for games as she grabbed him by the shirt collar and forced him off the couch.

"Ow! Okay jeez! What's the big deal?" said the speed demon as he stood under Mystique's penetrating gaze.

"I just need you to do this for me. Drop this letter off at the Xavier institute in Nightcrawler's room," said Mystique handing him a letter.

"That's it?" said Pietro sounding almost disappointed by the simple assignment.

"Don't ask questions, just do it!" yelled Mystique.

"Okay! No need to go all psychopath on me!" said Pietro as he zoomed off.

Soon after he left, Mystique went upstairs and grabbed a large dark cloak. "I'm coming...My son."

chap nineteen

back