Chapter 3- Reunion over Coffee

Colorado- Brinkmen Estate, Kitchen 16 - March- 2008 (Very Late Night)

Raven Darkhomle- (Mystique)

Raven wasn’t as tired from the flight, but she knew that she should honestly be getting a nap in herself. Yet here she was, sitting with Irene sipping her mug of coffee. As she did, Raven watched Irene add three spoonfuls of sugar to the other coffee before taking a sip of her own.

“Why?” Irene didn’t answer her question. So Raven added. “Why would you betray me like this? Having us ally with some magic user?”

“He is not Moriarty. And before you start assuming things, Mage is not his career. It is his race.” Irene finally answered her.

“What?” the shape-shifter asked in confusion.

"I am not sure about all of the details. There are gaps in my memory. Like I know that he has a base, but what it is or where it is is completely lost to me… however, I am certain that he does not group himself with the rest of the world's population. That he and his people were made, not evolved." As her friend spoke, she continued to turn the handle of her mug around and around.

“Must be why Erik is so willing to trust him. While he isn’t a mutant, he also isn’t one of them either.” Raven mused, before taking a deep mouthful of the now cooler drink in her hands. She felt a shiver go through her body, as the caffeine kicked in. Then she waited for the other woman to put her own mug down before asking. “Seriously, what did you see, that makes you think this man will make our lives better?”

"As we both have learned. The further out my visions went, the less accurate the image I saw is. This is why when we tried to force what I saw to happen, it never worked out for us." the blind woman took a breath before continuing. "However, what I did see was the children there, smiling and happy. They weren't alone. There were other kinds, and it felt like a real community. A family… but more than that, you were there. Teaching and helping them. Instead of sneaking around and worrying everyone."

“Sneaking is what I am good at. My skills and powers do not make me the greatest fighter.” Raven pointed out before taking another mouthful of coffee. After swallowing she added. “And we both know how crappy of a teacher I am.”

“I worry about you though. All the deception and lies must take its toll on you. It is also why I am really worried for Rogue and her abilities. What is the real cost going to be for her to use her powers intentionally?” The other woman pointed out.

Raven paused at that. She honestly had planned to have the young mutant girl join her, once she turned eighteen near the end of next year. However, her friend had a point that her powers may make the young girl have mental issues later. 'As much as she would be useful for the cause, Irene is right. She would be such a help to us, but to just use her like that, first, we really need to test what her abilities will do and affect her in the longer term.' The shape-shifter thought about the girl they found three years ago.

“Has it really been three years?” she muttered the question.

“Almost four.” Irene corrected.

The sudden sound of air displacing and the smell of sulfur warned Raven that her son and appeared behind her. She tried to turn around and face him. His happy voice saying, "Mother!" was her only warning of him tackling her and her chair in a hug. His odd three-fingered hands rubbed her arms and shoulders.

Raven smiled as she hugged him back. Warmth filled her heart as she said. “Kurt my boy, look how much you have grown since last I was here.” He opened his eyelids, to reveal the glowing yellow orbs that were his eyes.

He released her, and stepped back so she could see him fully. Before he spoke he stood as tall as he could. “Yes, I hope to be six foot by the time I am eighteen, and can join you in the Brotherhood.” His tail curled in as it does when he is worried, before he added. “I overheard Rogue and a man speaking. He said that the enemy is coming.”

Raven didn’t want to worry them. As Exodus had shown back in New York, he should be more than enough to handle whatever the government sent. Yet on the other hand, she didn’t want to lie to her son either. ‘Lie to strangers, lie for the cause. In a heartbeat. But not to my children.’ She thought.

"They will be here before noon, but I see that they will wait once they know our guest is here," Irene answered his implied question. Saving Raven from having to make a choice on the matter.

Raven then stood up, before worry could cloud her son’s mind. “This means, you and the girls need to pack a bag. Pack light, like I taught you. Because we will have to run for a time, even if we win this coming battle.”

“Run? But this is our home. And run where?” her son was confused by the sudden admission.

“Homes are just places. It’s our lives and those of our family that matter… As for where, I haven’t been there yet, but Exodus tells me that Magneto has gotten us a new base to live at.” Raven started cold and stern when she spoke. When she had to be the adult in their relationship, but was warm again when telling him that they had a place to go to.

He looked so sad and hurt, but kept back his tears.

She knew that he would do something stupid if she didn’t give him a task, so she asked. “When the fighting starts, if it starts, I need you to look after your sisters. Should they break in either of the doors, what must you do?”

Kurt took a deep breath before answering. “I am to teleport the girls out of the house to the old well. It should be far enough away that they won’t look there… I still can only take a person at a time when I jump.”

Raven took a step to rub his shoulder, as she smiled and said to him. “That’s fine. It’s more than I can move.”

He smiled at her encouragement. As he did, she could see his pair of enlarged canines. They reminded her of the boy's father. Raven regretted bedding the man. After all, Azazel had betrayed her and joined a rival mutant group, but still, she loved the child they had made together.

She smiled at him to cover up her momentary thoughts of his father, and waved him closer. Mother and son hugged again. They stayed like that for a moment, till she released him and repeated her suggestion to him. “Go pack a bag.”

He nodded before stepping back, and disappearing in a puff of smoke and sulfur.

Raven sighed once he was gone. “Worried about them surviving the attack?” Irene asked from the table. Raven delayed answering by taking another sip from her now lukewarm coffee.

The shape-shifter wasn't and admitted as much. "No, I am worried that we will be turned away from our new home. Exodus made it clear, that this mage is the one in charge. And even though the kids are only a year or two younger than Erik's, both of his kids were already getting trained by now. While I had you hold back. Because I wanted these kids to still have something of a childhood."

Irene didn't say anything to eliminate her doubt. This meant while there was hope in her visions, there wasn't a guarantee from them. Raven waited a bit more, but when the other woman took her third sip. The shape-shifter stood up and muttered. "I have to make a call."

Then Raven climbed the stairs, she continued passed the second floor, towards the third. On her way to the rarely used second master bedroom, she stopped and used her powers to lengthen her legs and arms, so that she could reach up and pop open the attic. She then lengthened her arms a touch more, and pulled herself up into the crawl space.

Once inside she again used her powers, but instead to make herself smaller and younger. This way she wouldn’t need to actually crawl around. Raven hoped that things hadn’t moved around too much in here, as she sought out a device she knew to be stored up here.

It took her a few minutes shifting and moving the boxes and bags around, till she found what she sought. A large plastic and steel footlocker, that Erik had stolen from the Xavier mansion’s sub-basement. She took a deep breath as she reminisced about her brief time as an unofficial X-man. She had originally only joined for the access it brought, but after meeting Charles and Erik and recalling her own kids, she actually wanted to change the world for their kind.

Taking a breath she found the nerve to open the crate. On the top were her old uniform and costumes she had worn both as an X-man and during the first Brotherhood. Under them were a collection of old model pistols and knives. All items were shifted so that she could reach deep into the crate.

At the bottom was what she sought. A magnetic phone. Erik had designed it before they formed the first brotherhood. To anyone but him, it was basically useless, as the device basically plucked the magnetic sphere like a piano string. But with it, any member could be able to get his attention anywhere on Earth. She doubted any others of the devices that they had made still worked, as the other members had all gone their own way.

It took her a couple of tries to pull the wide device out of the crate. Once out, she tested the phone's charge. ‘Forty percent. It should be enough. I hope he can see the sky wherever or whatever he is doing.' Raven thought before powering the phone up to full power. She waited the minute for it to run through its startup protocols, before typing up a message for him.

‘Erik, it is Raven… are you free?’ she sent. She sat back expecting it to take a while. And she may need to send another message before he would respond, and yet she didn’t in the end. He responded within a couple of minutes.

‘Raven! I am shocked that old thing still works, yes I am free. Just helping some SHIELD personnel rescue their captured comrades.’ Slowly appeared on the phone’s display before her. The magnetic phone worked like a Morse code machine, but on the magnetic fields of the Earth.

‘SHIELD? I thought you were working with some magic person.' She quickly typed back. The phone wasn't as fast as modern smartphones, but it was basically untraceable. Short of someone else having both his mutant powers and strength in them.

‘SHIELD sent a team in to investigate the region, and we are posing as good hosts for the mage. It’s all part of a plan to make it look like the region is a sovereign nation, so they have to back off.’ was Erik’s reply.

Raven sat back for a moment in thought. ‘They’re trying to create a fake nation as a shield. It might work… if we are building a nation there should be more than enough room for the kids then.’

Then she started typing an update. 'Destiny called me on a Braddock phone… so Exodus and I are getting the kids and Destiny ready before looking for Copycat. Shouldn’t take me too long to find her, once on the road.’

Raven sat back and waited for the confirmation that he would usually send, but it took longer than she expected, and when it did, the reply wasn’t what she expected.

He told her. 'No… Nath'aniel has made it clear, only the Brotherhood may stay in the Citadel. So you will have to find somewhere else to shelter your family. Only you, Copycat and maybe Maker may come here… I hope you find somewhere for them. You could try Genosha, I doubt Selene would refuse you.’

She had to read, and reread the reply. Raven felt tears start to form in her eyes, as she read the reply for the third time. For a time she quietly wept, with everything going on, she knew that she couldn't let the kids hear her crying. Raven shouldn't bring even more despair into this situation, but reading that reply broke her somehow.

‘After all I have done for him, for them. For the cause.’ She thought in anguish as she cried.

After some time, she caught her breath and looked at the phone again. Raven wiped her eyes before she read the reply for the fourth time. Then she read it a fifth time, and smirked. ‘Don’t give me an inch Erik. I will take that mile.’ She thought as the phone shut off due to lack of power.

She then looked at her old costumes. It was basically a pure white tabard, a utility belt, with skull-shaped pouches, and matching white long-sleeved gloves and thigh-high boots. Erik compressed a thin layer of metal in between the layers of fabric. So the costume was more durable and protective than its simple appearance suggested.

Since her role had become more spy and infiltrator than a soldier in this version of the Brotherhood, she had gone for a simpler outfit as of late. With the sash and loincloth small enough she could make a pouch inside of herself to hide the garments. Since technically Raven could make herself appear to be wearing any outfit or disguise if she really wanted to.

However, it was hard to conceal her more combat-ordained costume, so she often times needed to strip and stash it when her abilities were needed. 'Yet with the coming battles, perhaps it would be best to return this old thing to service?’ She wondered.

Then she looked at the magnetic phone. It and some of the other things stored in the crate really couldn’t fall into the government’s hands. However, they would be limited on what they could take with them, as even she would need to pack light.

“Well Erik, it served its purpose," Raven stated, before stuffing the phone back into the crate.

She then pulled out a few of the guns with a decent amount of ammo remaining for them, and a handful of grenades that she stashed into the skull pouches of her utility belt. Raven left a couple of grenades behind in the crate, and primed them with fishing wire, then rigged the lid of the crate before tossing her old X-man uniform atop of the trap.

Satisfied, she gathered up her old Brotherhood costume, belt, and the selected guns, before dropping them down the attic entrance. Then as she fell back down to the third floor, she let her powers relax and she returned to her natural form.

Raven gathered up the gear and walked them to her rarely used bedroom. Once there she took a breath, as she knew the coffee was doing its job and had really woken her up. She debated whether she should keep her simpler outfit still, or just wear the older one.

In the end, she shrugged and took off and threw it across the room. She then went to her closet. At the foot of it was a half-dresser, which held her undergarments. She pulled the two drawers open and rubbed her chin in thought as she looked over her choices. "What to wear to impress a mage?" she pondered aloud. Raven would not break up her family, and she most certainly not leave them with that harpy Selene.