"Are those your old friends?" Mystique asked.

"I wouldn't call us friends," Emma said.

"That's the Inner Circle," Scott said. "How did they get here?"

"Look, it's lover boy," Selene said. "But no Jean, huh?" She put a hand to her chin. "I wonder why that is."

"You know where she is?" Scott stepped forward, incautiously.

"Scott, don't!" Emma grabbed his arm. "It's a trick."

Another member of the Circle, Leland, they thought, slammed Scott and Colossus into the ground by increasing his mass.

"All right, just take the ones we need, never mind the others," the other, Shaw, said.

Cable shot at him.

He absorbed it.

"Now this is fun," Cable said. "I like an enemy I can see."

"What are you doing here?" Emma yelled at the Circle members.

"Among other things, revenge is sweet," Selene said. "Also, we found a better offer. And all they want in return is you, Emma. And a couple of these other twits, so why don't you just come with us quietly?"

"Never!" Emma said. "You think I'm letting you get your hands on me after last time? I don't know who your'e working for, but I'll find out."

She put her hand to her head.

"I wouldn't do that," Selene said.

Instantly Emma felt like her mind was burned with fire, and she fell into the snow. Gasping.

Selene smiled. "Like we'd come here without some kind of safe guard against your prying."

"Hey, leave her alone," Kitty said. She threw snow at them. "You don't look so tough."

Leland waved, and she got shoved into the snow also.

"Attacking little girl!" Colossus said. "You have no shame!" He struggled to get up.

"It's no use. I'm stronger than you are," Shaw said, punching him.

Kitty phased, passing into the snow.

Kevin motioned, and the snow around Leland turned into fire, and he began to yelp with pain.

He lost his hold on the others.

"You messed with the wrong people!" Jubilee said. "We're not helpless kids!" She shot at them.

They dodged her.

"Actually we thought of that," Selene said. She nodded at the other girl. "Mirage."

The mutant stepped forward and put a hand to her head.

Jubilee felt as if the ground had gone out from under her and she was falling into a dark pit.

Kevin yelped and then cried, "Get out of my head!"

The ground around Mirage turned into water, and she started to sink.

Leland, recovered, shoved Kevin with his power.

Kevin turned into his orange, glowing form and yelled, "Leave me alone!"

"Kevin, careful!" Ryan yelled. "Don't hurt us too. Just them!"

"I don't know how to..." Kevin hesitated.

Mirage reacted and shot something like an arrow at him, but it must really have been telepathic in nature.

Kevin fell over, temporarily stunned by it.

Leland pinned the others to the ground, but he couldn't hold all of them for long.

Warren broke free and shot feathers at them.

The Tear reappeared...(or it had never left, maybe) and swallowed the feathers.

Then out of it popped...another Angel?

Warren stopped dead short. "What?" he said.

That Angel, also blue and with metal wings, didn't say a word, he just hurled feathers at him.

"My word," Emma gasped. "That's the one I know... What is he doing here?"

Selene looked down at her. "We have a lot of friends, Emma...something you won't for long, I'm afraid."

"Selene, whatever this person has promised, you," Emma said nervously, "you don't know what you're doing. The world, both our worlds, it could end if you keep this up."

"Oh, you're so narrow-minded, Emma," Selene said, "as always...but you're weak, aren't you? Can't even use your telepathy now? Picking you off is easy. But that boy..." She glanced at Kevin. "He's a little hot-headed."

She reached out and touched him, and Kevin went from orange to his natural self and gasped.

"What is she doing?" Kitty cried.

"She's sort of like Rogue," Emma said. "But she won't get his powers...just life force. Don't let her keep it up--she could kill him."

"He's too useful to kill," Shaw said.

Selene smiled.

Suddenly she got hit with snow.

Trinity was shivering in the cold and from fright, but she frowned at her. "Stop it!" she said. "Leave him alone. Leave them all alone."

"What on earth is that?" Selene looked at her incredulously.

"A human," Mirage said in a voice that sounded wrong somehow...like Psylocke had, Mystique thought.

She was trying to back up, get a chance to transform into someone else and catch them off guard.

"A human? Here?" The Circle's men scoffed. "What a joke."

"I'll deal with her." Mirage motioned at Trinity.

Trinity suddenly gasped. "What...what are you?"

She backed up.

"What are you doing ta her?" Kevin asked. "Stop it."

"You have your own problems." Selene started draining his life force again. "Pass out already!"

Scott struggled to get up, despite Leland's hold.

Kurt began to stir. He might be able to move in a moment.

"Leave me alone!" Illyana cried. "Get away, you demons!"

She ran. The tear had reappeared near her. But it was chasing her, it looked like.

"Illy!" Colossus tried to get up and was shoved back down by Shaw.

"Do not forget the other ones," Shaw snapped at Mirage.

Mirage looked at Mystique and Wraith, and they seemed to see tall towering, monstrous-looking creatures around them.

Wraith didn't seem that fazed by this, he just ducked.

Mystique, on the other hand, wasn't sure what was going on, but she didn't like it...

Maybe it was a trick though...

"Not enough?" Mirage's voice said in her mind. "What are you really afraid of, then? Let's see."

Uh oh...

Mystique was suddenly in a house...no...not just any house...her house.

And she seemed small and tiny...

"Raven!" she heard an angry voice yell, as if it was really there.

Maybe it was instinct, but she ducked and covered her head. "Stop it!"

"Mystique?" Kitty came out of the snow. "What's wrong?"

Mirage just stared at her like she was a fire she was trying to put out.

Mystique knelt down. "Stop it..."

"Mirage makes your worst fears come to life," Selene said. She seemed to enjoy narrating things. "Nice trick, isn't it? You'll all be mad if she doesn't let up, but we'll make this easy. Hand over Magic and Frost and that gun-happy moron there."

Cable had gotten pinned by the new Angel's feathers already and was trying to break free

"And we'll let you off," Selene said. "Otherwise, you can all just live your worst nightmare, literally."

Trinity was crying.

Kitty trembled. "You're a monster..."

"It's just business, kid," Shaw said. "Don't make us get rough."

Selene dropped Kevin, who was now immobile. "Maybe I should actually kill one of them. Then they'd get the message."

Scott struggled to shoot her. "Don't touch them," he said.

Kurt sat up, and then he poofed and grabbed Selene, and then he poofed her on top of the house.

"Stop this!" he said.

"Or what? You'll drop me, monk?" Selene said. "That's not your way, is it?"

"I prefer not to use violence," Kurt said.

"Doormat." Selene touched him, and he suddenly shuddered.

"Kurt!" Kitty yelled.

She looked and saw some of the Morlocks were watching from inside the house.

"Help us!" she cried.

They just backed up. They were spooked.

They were all such cowards, Kitty thought furiously.

"Ah!" Illyana had backed up to the wall, and the tear was coming closer.

Kurt tried to pull out of Selene's grasp, but she was kind of hard to get away from.

"Angel, a little help," she called, as he dropped her.

Angel caught her, still wordlessly, and set her down.

Kurt fell into the snow head first.

Emma gasped.

Selene touched Colossus. "How about it?" she said to Kitty. "Give up?"

Kitty wasn't sure what to do. She was still a kid in many ways; this kind of decision making was not something she was used to... What to do? Who to help?

Cable tried to use his telepathy to stop Selene, but...nothing happened...

Then suddenly he cried out like someone had hurt him.

"You all really don't listen, do you?" Selene said.

Emma had had it.

She got to her feet.

"Maybe I don't have my power," she said, "but I know you. You're nothing but a coward, hiding behind your power. That's why you're here, isn't it? Can't stand to fight the monster behind this, so you're joining him? How typical of you, Selene."

Selene glanced at her, and then she let go of Colossus. "Maybe you'd like a taste of my power when you're helpless, Emma."

Emma knew this was stupid, but she had no other ideas.

"Like you're a threat even if I'm not as strong as I usually am," she said, with the most confidence she could muster. "You and Shaw, both so pathetic. You think you're powerful, but you're really not. That's why you let me do all the hard work for you."

"Big talk from someone who can't fight," Shaw said.

Kitty suddenly saw what Emma was doing.

She phased through the snow and then snatched Colossus out of Leland's grasp, phasing him through the snow.

At the same time, so that she wouldn't notice, Emma threw snow at Selene, who, enraged, forgot caution and pounced on her in return, knocking her into the ground and starting to drain her life force.

Shaw motioned to stop her. "Selene, wait. We need her alive. You might kill her if you do that."

He tried to pull Selene off.

Kitty yanked Scott out of the spot of the snow he was being held down in.

Then Colossus charged Leland and Shaw and sent them flying back.

Selene turned, surprised, and Scott shot her with his laser.

Emma was nearly unconscious anyway.

Mirage turned to the new threats, and for a moment, she lost her hold on the others.

Jubilee suddenly blinked, and Mystique looked up.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked Emma.

"Oh, just fine..." Emma sounded like she'd gotten stomped on by an elephant. "Just a slight dizziness..." She tried to get up and fell back over.

Kitty was breathing hard. "That was one risky move."

Selene and Shaw started to struggle up.

"Help me!" Illyana yelled.

They looked at her.

Everyone turned. 

"Illy!" Colossus cried.

The Tear reached her, and she vanished into it.

Everyone just stared.

Even the villains didn't seem to have expected that to work so fast.

"Well...she didn't know how to fight at all..." Selene said.

Suddenly someone shot her.

She turned.

Ryan had fired his laser gun. He was shaking.

"You big bullies!" he said.

He fired at Mirage, who dodged it and then moved at him.

"No, leave him alone!" Jubilee shot at her wildly, and she fell back.

A mountain seemed to just fall on Jubilee, and she fell back in the snow.

The others snapped out of their daze.

Enraged, Colossus ran at Leland before he had time to respond and slammed him into a tree.

Scott shot at him to keep him down.

Mirage got up and started to move to stop them.

"Don't." Emma finally got to her feet somehow and put her hand up. "Stop it!"

"Emma, no!" Mystique ran at her and grabbed her. "She'll kill you."

Mirage looked from Mystique to Emma, like she wasn't sure which to attack.

Mystique wasn't sure what else to do here, so she just started to yell at her. "Are they controlling you in some way? Snap out of it, then! Fight it. Don't you realize what you're doing?"

Mirage stared at her, and for a moment her expression changed, and she looked around.

"No!" she gasped. "Not this! Not this! I didn't want to do this!"

Mystique took advantage of her distraction to kick her into the snow.

"Sorry," she said, pinning her down. "You'll thank me for this later, probably."

She tried to choke her out enough for her to pass out.

Mirage seemed to cooperate for a second...but then her eyes glazed over. "Get off of me!"

She shoved Mystique back with psionic force, and Mystique's head spun.

"Stop it!" Scott shot at Mirage.

She blocked it somehow and stood up.

"What are you afraid of?" she said.

Emma bit her lip.

"This isn't you," she said, putting a hand to her head. "Wake up, Mirage...whoever you are. Stop this. They're making you do it!"

Mirage hesitated, and then she turned to Emma.

Scott realized she hadn't snapped out of it.

 "Emma, stop it!" he yelled. "Don't!"

He jumped to shove her down.

Mirage blasted both of them with some kind of psionic force--then got her feet knocked out from under her. Mystique had transformed into something a little bigger and hit her.

Then she smacked her with something like metal, and Mirage was dazed for a moment.

Colossus, turning from Shaw, tried to run to her, then he stopped. Selene had drained a lot out of him, and it was catching up. He fell into the snow.

Warren, still battling his other self, looked down and tried to help them, but the other Angel got in his way and tried pinning him.

Then the Tear reappeared, this time where Cable was still dazed from whatever had happened to him.

Kitty phased him out of the feathers, and he ran, the Tear chasing him.

Cable fell over, weak.

"No!" Trinity suddenly yelled.

She sprinted over the snow. "Go away!" she yelled. 

And she shouted something about a name... It was kind of lost for most of them over the sounds of the fighting.

But, very oddly, the Tear suddenly stopped short, and then it caved in on itself and vanished.

Mystique stared at Trinity.

"What did you just do?" she said.

Trinity panted. "I...think I just...told it to leave..." she said strangely.

"Whoa..." Ryan was amazed.

"You little devil!" Selene suddenly grabbed at Trinity.

"Stop it!" Mystique shoved Trinity aside in the nick of time. "You fool, you'll kill her. She's just a human."

Selene just grabbed Mystique instead. "How stupid of you to volunteer, then. You're not that tough, Mystique."

Mystique felt much like she did when Rogue touched her...only it was even worse, because Selene seemed like she was taking some kind of murderous delight in doing it, and it was faster than Rogue.

At that fortunate moment there was a flash of light, and the rest of the team suddenly came falling out of a portal. At least most of them.

"What in the blue blazes!?" Rogue yelled.

The villains, such as they were, turned.

"Oh dear," Selene said. "I think we're outnumbered now..."

"You were outnumbered before," Kitty said snidely.

"Hey!" Morph said. "Let her go!"

Selene stared at him. "Hmm...interesting... Well, another time, then, Time Traveler."

Morph stopped. "What?"

"Or I could just kill her," Selene said.

"Put Momma down, you witch!" Rogue said.

"Make me," Selene said.

Rogue was going to, but Mirage, now recovered, must have done something to stop her because she fell into the snow, gasping.

"Rogue!" Gambit threw a card at Mirage, and she deflected it.

"Stop her!" Kitty yelled at the others. "She's the most dangerous."

The Flash dashed up behind Mirage and plucked her up. "Hi," he said. "Sorry."

He tossed her into the fountain, which only had water in it because the ice had been cracked by Kurt before.

Mirage gasped at the cold water, but it distracted her.

Clouds gathered overhead.

"All of you, step back," Storm said.

Selene looked at her warily.

Logan extended his claws.

Morph had gone very pale and didn't seem to be okay.

Trinity, standing up out of the snow, suddenly shoved Selene hard and knocked her aside.

Warren shot feathers and pinned her down.

"Time to escape..." Mirage said.

Emma, who was just beginning to recover, suddenly gasped at her word choice.

The Tear reappeared, but instead of one of them, it just swallowed up Shaw and Leland and then Mirage, and it came at Selene.

Trinity stepped back from it in time.

Mystique, looking up dizzily, thought she saw something on the other side of it...something that looked like empty space...

Then it moved to the Dark Angel, who was still fighting the Good one.

Then, to everyone's horror, instead of just swallowing up the Dark one it caught both of them, like a net, and they both vanished into it.

"Warren!" the others cried.

But he was gone.

"Illyana..." Colossus was crying where he was still lying in the snow.

Everyone stood there for a moment.

"I don't know what happened..." Shine said. "They never should have been able to get into this place...unless..." She suddenly looked worried. "Maybe the powers of some of you are interfering with ours...weakening them... They don't like to share space... All of you together, maybe... I never thought of that, but..."

"Illyana is gone." Kitty suddenly started crying hysterically. "They took her... Is she dead?"

"No, not dead," Wally said. "Really, she's probably fine..."

"They took Warren and the Professor..." Kitty went on. "Are they going to take all of us?... I hate this..."

Wally came up and hugged her. "Hey, Kitty...we're still here.... It's okay..."

Kitty just started sobbing and buried her face on his arm.

Jubilee looked around. "That was so horrible..."

"Professor...X is gone..." Scott sat up weakly. "I heard... It's happening again."

Emma looked weak. "All of us..." she muttered. "No escape.... Sooner or later..." she collapsed again.

"We have to get all of you inside the house. It's freezing," Shine said. "Come on...they're gone for now... They know they're beaten."

"Morph, are you all right?" Storm asked him.

He shook himself a little. "I...think so..."

For a second he'd been flashing back...Magik dying...Sunfire...

It was horrible... that cold fear...

Shine and Logan ran to dig Kurt out of the snow, and the others all began moving to help the people who couldn't walk.

Morph hurried up to Mystique. Trinity was tugging her arm. "Come on..." she said. "Say something."

Mystique heard her like she was hearing her through cotton...

She tried to answer, and couldn't form words.

"I...I'm sorry." Trinity looked up at Morph, who knelt down. "She tried to save me... I don't know what that woman was doing...something about life force, but I didn't react fast enough..."

"Not your fault," Morph said. He lifted Mystique up. "I think she'll be all right..."

He didn't sound very sure.

Mystique had the impression she was moving, though her vision was still going in and out after that, and she gasped.

"Oh, good she's alive." Trinity almost was ready to cry also.

Scott looked over. "I've had that power used on me," he said weakly. "It takes it out of you for a while... Maybe she can't hear you...but, as long as she's still alive, I think she'll recover from it. I don't think it's permanent, kind of like Rogue's isn't."

"It would have killed me though, wouldn't it...?" Trinity said in a small voice.

"Mystique's more resilient than most people," Morph said, trying to convince himself. "She probably just figured she could take it more than you... Nothing to feel bad about, kid. We all have our weaknesses... Just better get her inside...and you should go home, though..."

"My parents went out though..." Trinity said. "I can't really go home yet... I don't want to anyway, not till I see how everyone is... What was that?"

Morph didn't know how to answer, so he just shrugged and hurried inside.

[Drinking game, if you're old enough to be into that--take a shot every time I used the words "into the snow" in this chapter. It was seriously a weird amount.]

* * *

Mystique swam up out of the half-conscious state she was in slowly and not really sure what had happened.

She thought for a second that Selene was still there and that the Tear had just vanished for a second, and she sat up and tried to swing blindly at her.

Morph caught her arm. "Whoa, there, Tiger... No one's here."

Mystique blinked. "Oh..." She lowered her hand.

She was in the infirmary...of course...

Then she realized what happened. "But they got Illyana...didn't they?"

"And Warren," Morph said. "And the Professor..." He looked sad. "I can't believe they got three of us."

"They didn't even want Warren..." Mystique said slowly. "Must have been a consolation prize."

"Or an accident, from the look of it," Morph said. "But he didn't come back...so..."

"But there was something," Mystique remembered, and started to get up. "Kurt...it didn't take Kurt. It spat him out. I have to ask Shine what that means--"

She almost fell back on her face. Apparently she was not ready to get up yet.

"Can you not do that?"  Morph put her back on the bed. "I think you've done enough for one day. Selene almost killed you. Did you know that?"

"It definitely felt like it," Mystique muttered. "Give me Rogue's power any day over that woman's... I think she's a sadist."

"Normally I would find that funny, but not really right now." Morph seemed really shaken up, she suddenly realized. "That scared the crap out of me."

Mystique suddenly realized this was a little awkward.

"Well, it was unusual..." she said. "But not unheard of...draining powers."

"Not that," Morph said. "I mean...what you did, to save Trinity, that was really brave and all, but...I thought I was going to have a heart attack."

Mystique stared at him. "Oh?" she said uncertainly.

"Yeah," Morph said. "Reminded me of some stuff... I thought for a second...I was too late." he sighed. "I'm so stupid."

"Why are you the stupid one?" Mystique said dryly. "I'm the one who did it... Maybe if I knew it would feel that bad, I wouldn't have..."

"Well...Trinity would have been killed by it," Morph said. "So the kids think you just saved one of them again."

"I'm developing a bad habit of making them think I do this on purpose," Mystique said. "But I'm sure they'll get over it." She folded her hands. "So why are you in here? Shouldn't you be talking to the others, figuring out what happened?"

"Actually they're all too shaken up right now," Morph said. "And...I kind of wanted to be here."

Silence.

"I think maybe we need to talk again," Morph said.

"Now?" Mystique said. "Really? Look, there's no need to, really. I'm not really angry anymore about it, and, I know, you feel guilty for leaving it on a bad note like that under the circumstances, but it happens, and the last thing I really want to hear right now is that friends still can care about other friends getting hurt, because I already know that--"

She was interrupted by Morph grabbing her face and kissing her.

Maybe it was the adrenaline from the last hour, but her heart rate sped up like crazy. 

She was so shocked, she stopped talking and just stared.

Morph stopped. "Sorry...you were just kinda going on..."

She had no words.

"I was doing some thinking." Morph did not want to wait till he lost his nerve. "On the plane, I mean, not just after this...and I think maybe some things still aren't clear... I admit...I was...kind of freaking out after the other day, because this is new to me, and I've never really been any good at this kind of thing...so maybe it was intimidating, too... You're just ready to jump into stuff. I'm not. But at the same time...it has really been the worst not talking and not hanging out the past couple days."

Mystique didn't understand, but she didn't interrupt.

"And another thing," Morph said. "I really would have thought it would bother me that my friends probably won't think this is a good idea...but some of them said something about it, and I realized, I really didn't care. I wasn't even thinking about it, and for me that's...kind of never happened before...and I realized it's because I just kept thinking about what you said, and it upset me...but differently than I thought... I guess I just didn't want to lose you."

Mystique had no words, none... She didn't even think she had thoughts right now.

"Which...maybe I felt like...you know, if we try this, and it doesn't work, that's what was going to happen," Morph said. "Friendship is safe...you know... Friends, I can keep, but I don't know about the rest. But I should have said that from the beginning, not said what I said, so I'm sorry about that. Shine's right, I didn't really give you a chance one way or the other. And then you got the wrong idea from that, but I think I'm the one who's got a problem, really. I mean, we both do, not gonna lie, but that's kind of why we became friends...so I guess that was comfortable for me... But when it's uncomfortable, it's not because of you, it's because of me... I just don't know how to do this. But...it wasn't that I didn't want to try. I just didn't know how to make you understand why I was hesitating, and...also why I wanted to be careful, not to rush too much...so..."

He paused. "I really wish you'd say something..."

Mystique swallowed. "To...what?" she said finally.

"I don't know, anything," Morph said.

Mystique looked down. "I don't know what to say... I'm pretty sure I've never heard anyone say any of that in my entire life, and it sounds like a bunch of bull... I mean...I can tell you're serious, but I think there's something wrong with you. What am I, if not expendable?"

"Don't say that," Morph said a little sharply. "That's not a good thing to say."

"Isn't it true?" Mystique said. "I would never have expected this. I really don't know if I have the capacity to even meet half of that..."

"But you already were," Morph said. "That's what I've been trying to say... I just didn't say it before... Look, why did you come get me at Genosha?"

"I...don't know. I just figured something would have gone wrong," Mystique said. Was this a trick question?

"Because you knew it would," Morph said. "No one else knew that."

"Well, you didn't tell them what was going on." She downplayed it.

"Because they don't care," Morph said. "I mean, they're great friends, but...that's all. I'm not sure I'd worry about them that much either. But...when you're closer... Is this making sense?"

"No," Mystique said.

"I'm trying to say I kind of think we're already more than friends," Morph said. "So maybe there's no really going back to that. And the only thing to do is go forward."

Mystique was quiet again.

"Of course, if that's not where you are with this..." Morph began to back track.

"Shut up," Mystique said. "Let me try to wrap my brain around this... So...you think we're...stuck?"

"Well...I think I need you," Morph said.

Need her?

Mystique had only heard that line used one way...but she didn't think that was the way it was being used here.

She felt warm...and kind of scared at the same time. What was going on here?

"I mean, I got really, really scared--earlier, I mean," Morph said. "I didn't want it to be over... I know that sounds really cheesy, but...it's true at the same time. I mean...for crying out loud, finding someone else with a similar power isn't that easy, is it? Let alone one you like and get along with and you'd prefer spending time with more than other people. I mean, how many people can say that?"

Mystique thought this was starting to sound like a speech from a movie. [Ah, gee, she is perfect for him.]

This was so surreal.

"I think I'm still hallucinating," she decided. "Mirage put me in some kind of hypnosis, right? There's no way this is real."

She smacked herself. "Ouch..."

"That was actually pretty dumb," Morph said.

"Yeah," Mystique admitted. "It was."

"So what do you think?" Morph said. "Any of this changing your mind, or...?"

"Well...after a speech like that," Mystique said, "I have to think... It's pretty heartless to refuse, but, if I give in, I look like a sentimental weakling. So, I'm in a corner. And you're the one who said this wasn't going to work because of 'different expectations' or whatever. I don't see how that's changed."

"I guess that's true." Morph deflated a little. "I just didn't... I guess I thought it wasn't that big of a deal...like it wouldn't change that much to make that choice...but that was just the easy way out. It's not that simple. You can't put a genie back in a bottle, right?"

"No, you can't," Mystique said. "And I have to say, that was pretty stupid of you to think that."

"Ouch..." Morph said.

"It's possible I...overreacted..." Mystique said with some difficulty. "But I figured in the end it all came to the same thing. Also it could be a mild concussion talking here, so don't take this too seriously, but, as selfish as I am, I didn't really want to hurt you, Morph. So perhaps it was just for the best not to give in to this... In the long run, I'm not sure I'm really what you're looking for."

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure I even know what that is," Morph said. "But..."

"That was a very nice speech," Mystique went on, slowly. "I don't know if I buy it. I think you're high on adrenaline right now. Probably saying stuff you don't really mean."

"You think so, huh?" Morph got offended. "That is so like you. Just can't accept anything good ever, can you? What's it gonna take, huh? I mean, I just said all that really difficult and embarrassing stuff, and you still don't believe me? How cynical can one person be?--"

He was cut off now by Mystique pulling him closer and returning the kiss.

Morph was just as surprised as her.

[Went from scary, to sad, to spicy in this chapter...and this conversation isn't even done yet.

Whew...I'm getting whiplash.]