WHO: Little!Rogue/Anna Marie and Mystique (Earth-616) WHAT: mother-daughter time! WHEN: Monday, January 25th, prior to this post WHERE: in the hallways RATING: A for Adorable and H for Heartbreaking
Anna had woken up in strange rooms before, but usually she’d gone to sleep in them first. Or at the very least she would hear familiar voices coming from not that far away when she woke up. There was none of that here though. Even the room she was in seemed completely foreign to her. There weren’t any windows, nothing to help her figure out where she might be. She tried not to panic as she continued to look around while slowly getting out of the bed she’d woken up in.
The photograph of her with her two moms taped to the wall startled her; she definitely hadn’t expected to see that there at all. She pulled it off and kept looking around for anything else that might show that one of them were nearby. But there wasn’t anything. Taking deep breaths, she forced herself to calm down, Irene’s gentle reminders that ‘panicking never helped’ echoing through her mind as she headed out of the room and into the hallway.
She tried to look as inconspicuous as possible as she walked along, made sure to school her features so she didn’t look as frightened as she felt. Then maybe people would think that she knew where she was going and leave her alone so she could locate one of mothers. It felt like it took hours to walk through the never ending labyrinth of tunnels before she rounded a corner and spotted someone with very familiar blue skin heading down the hallway.
“Momma!”
After several months in Mount Weather and over a century of living, Mystique had grown to feel like there was little that could truly shock her. She'd had so many strange experiences in her long life; they had only grown stranger in the years since her daughter Rogue had joined the X-Men and she had lost her beloved Irene. She'd been very private about the pod bringing her photographs of the family she'd once had-- herself and Irene mothering the young runaway Anna Marie who eventually became "Rogue".
Rogue had kept a lot of distance, emotionally and physically, since arriving here. That was no surprise; Rogue had left home long ago, and Mystique hadn't exactly been trustworthy or reliable since then. It had actually surprised Mystique when Rogue invited her to the mutants' Christmas Day. She'd given one of the treasured photographs to Rogue. Sure, she had some selfish reasons behind it. She wanted to remind Rogue of how happy and loving those days had been, and it was manipulative to use Rogue's emotions like that. But why did manipulation have to mean she wasn't genuine? She wasn't going to give up on wanting her daughter back.
The latest strange happening was people reverting to youth or childhood. Mystique was glad that missed her. She could always make herself look as young as she wanted, but she had no interest in turning back time to her own early days. But if she could've gone back to those happy days with Anna and Irene…
When she heard a voice call 'Momma!', she was sure she had just gotten caught up in her reminiscing. She instinctively turned towards the voice-- and there was the genuine, breath-stealing shock of seeing her little girl standing there, looking just as she had decades ago, young and trusting that her momma would always take care of her. Mystique's voice cracked with emotion on answering, "Anna?"
Anna relaxed a little at the acknowledgement, grateful that she had actually found her mother in the weird, new place that they seemed to be. She practically propelled herself at Mystique once it was confirmed that it was really her, running straight for her and hugging her tightly. While she might have been able to stave off outwardly panicking, the fear she had been feeling hadn’t simply gone away. She needed to feel that her mother was really there, that this wasn’t some trick that she didn’t understand.
“Where are we? Where’s mommy ‘rene?” she asked as she continued to hold tightly to Mystique. “I don’t remember you sayin’ we were gonna be going nowhere.” Usually she was told if they were going to be moving, where the next location was going to be. Change was inevitable but hard for an eight year old to deal with when it happened suddenly. She hugged Mystique a little tighter as she asked, “Why weren’t you there when I woke up?”
One of them was always supposed to be there.
Mystique had been experiencing a lot of heartbreak in the last several months; first she'd found old cassettes from Irene leading her to believe that Irene had foreseen a way to bring Irene back to life, and after fulfilling the prophetic words, Mystique learned Irene had lied, trying to manipulate her into bringing back Logan by using Mystique's love to make her think Irene would be the one to return. She was mourning Irene all over again.
As she held Anna tightly in her arms, stroking Anna's hair, she was glad she could literally close her tearducts. She wasn't foolish enough to hope that this would be permanent. This had to be one of the stupid temporary things that happened in this place, and soon she'd be mourning for her lost relationship with her daughter. Rogue had never really understood that sometimes Mystique had to act on Irene's prophecies and do horrible things to bring about a better future. Sometimes, Mystique bitterly wondered if Irene had lied about those things, too, and meant to see their relationship ruined for unexplained reasons.
For now, though, she could show Anna as much love as she could and hope that Rogue would remember it. "I'm sorry I wasn't there when you woke up," she said. Anna had experienced abandonment much too young, so the two mothers had been mindful of being both physically present and emotionally available. "I would have told you, but coming here wasn't planned. Irenie isn't with us right now."
It was comforting to know that she hadn’t woken alone on purpose, that she hadn’t been so carelessly left behind like she had too many times before. She might have been with her mothers for a few years by that point, but Anna still hadn’t shaken her fear of abandonment quite yet. It was something that might never go away, but it had at least lessened in the last few months. She closed her eyes, leaning into her mother’s touch as she listened to her words, frowning at the mention that Irene wasn’t there. That didn’t seem right at all to her, but at least her momma had said it was ‘right now’. That had to mean she’d be with them again soon enough. Anna couldn’t even imagine a world without the other woman in it. She didn’t really want to.
She pulled away a little so she could see her mother’s face clearly, tried to read her mother’s expression for any more information about what was actually happening. “It’s okay. She’ll find us,” she assured with a nod. After all her mom had promised they would be making chocolate chip cookies soon before she went to bed and Irene wasn’t one to break promises like that. So the older woman would have to show up eventually or they’d go back to her.
At least they had each other here.
“Are we underground?” Anna wrinkled her nose as she glanced around the hallway, taking it all in again. “ ‘Cause there are no windows and it smells weird here.”
Mystique saw no reason to needlessly traumatize Anna with where Irene really was; she was careful to control her expressions. Assuming that Irene was just somewhere else was just fine. She remembered how sensitive Anna had been as a child despite the tough tomboy exterior. Eventually she'd stop hugging Anna quite so tightly, but for now, she kept a close hold.
She smiled at Anna's question; despite Irene's own physical blindness, Anna had been taught to observe her surroundings. "Very good thinking. We're inside a mountain."
Anna nodded again, pleased that she’d gotten that part right. Even if she didn’t really understand why they would be in a mountain. She was just going to look at this as an adventure she got to have with her momma. Maybe they were trying to find something special out. She held up the photograph she’d gotten off of the room she had been in. “I found this picture of us in the room I woke up in.” She remembered the day it had been taken, her first real Christmas. The big smiles on her and her mothers’ faces showcasing just how happy they had all been.
“Did you put it up for me?” Because Anna definitely didn’t remember having put it there. She was pretty sure it was supposed to be in a frame on one of the tables back at their house.
Eventually there would be more questions, Mystique knew, so she'd have to think up an explanation to give Anna for where they were and why. She couldn't and wouldn't let Anna out of her sight if she could help it; this was precious time and anyone else would ruin it for them. Since there were no more questions yet about the mountain, though, Mystique could focus instead on the photograph.
"I knew you'd like to have that," was her answer; lying by omission came easily to Mystique. "That was a very good Christmas, wasn't it?"
“It was the best Christmas I ever had,” Anna told her with a big grin. She carefully tucked the photo into her pocket, trying to not crease it too badly, but wanting it away for safekeeping. “The toys were nice but I think I liked breakfast best.” There hadn’t been any yelling or drinking which only led to even more yelling like when she’d lived with her aunt. And there definitely hadn’t been any hitting which had been the best present of all in Anna’s opinion.
“But are we here to get somethin’?” she asked, voice dropping low as she glanced around, making sure no one could overhear her. “Cause ain’t that why we usually do things without Mommy ‘Rene?”
"It was the best for me, too," Mystique said sincerely. There had never been a happier Christmas for her; Anna's pure joy had been contagious. Irene had shared her own girlhood traditions with Anna and gently teased Mystique about wanting to make Christmas "perfect". She couldn't hold Anna all day, so she grasped Anna's small hand instead.
She crouched closer to Anna's level and kept her voice down as well. "Irene… sometimes has her own agenda." That much was true. And there were times, too, when Mystique had gone somewhere without Irene, but brought Anna to teach her something or to serve as a distraction. People really looked the other way when there was an adorable child stealing their attention. Mystique hadn't always explained exactly what she was doing on such trips. "I can't tell you much right now. You know I always wear a shape when we're in public, but this is a special place with a lot of different kinds of people. So we're going to blend in here just by being ourselves, okay?"
“Like more mutants?” Anna’s eyes widened with excitement at the very idea of that. She knew both of her mothers were mutants and one day she would get an ability of her own. She couldn’t wait for that day because she truly believed it would help keep them together forever. And that was all Anna Marie wanted right now, was to be with her small family forever. Nothing else sounded better to her than that. “I like that you don’t gotta blend in. Your blue skin is my favorite.”
It was the prettiest thing she had ever seen, had been a big enough shock when her mother had revealed it to her the first time they’d met back in the woods when she had been hiding. It’s what had gotten Anna to even give Mystique a chance. “But okay. You just tell me what you’re needin’ me to do and I’ll do it, Momma. We’ll just stick together.”
"That's right, more mutants, and other kinds of people, too." Mystique remembered how excited Anna used to be about the idea of other mutants, and especially about being one herself. If only they'd known what Anna's eventual power would be, maybe they could have all prepared better for it. Maybe Anna would have started out with control of it instead of having it activate in such a traumatic way. Maybe the family would've always stayed together. Unfortunately, Irene's gift had tended to be either maddeningly vague or absolutely precise, and the nature of Rogue's power had been one of the vagaries.
There were a lot of potential landmines ahead now, like seeing the other world's Mystique and Rogue, and the X-Men talking about Rogue's future. Mystique couldn't just lock Anna away in her room without network access. Anna would get cabin fever and then she'd see other people using tablets in the mess hall. Oh, and it'd be cruel, of course; Anna was no Rapunzel, but plenty would accuse Mystique of being an evil witch. She needed to keep Anna's head from getting turned, though.
"I need you to be very careful when you talk to other people," she said. "They're going to say things that might confuse you. You know how Irene sees possible futures? Sometimes people can move through time and they come from those possibilities. Two of them are even like you and me if we'd never met when you were little. But you have to remember that they're just possibilities. We have each other, and I love you."
Her lips twisted at the idea of another set of them who had never met each other when she was little. That wasn’t a world Anna would have wanted to grow up in at all. It would have meant staying in the woods by herself or having to go back to her aunt’s house and neither of those options offered the warmth and love that she’d had with her mothers. She felt bad for the other two and doubted that either of their lives were as happy as she felt when she was at home.
“I’ll be careful when I talk others and I won’t pay them no mind if they try to confuse me,” she promised with a nod. Especially if it was another grownup. Anna had learned long ago that they sometimes had their own agendas when trying to tell her things. “I love you too, momma. We got each other and we’ll have Mommy ‘Reney again soon too.” And for Anna that was really all that mattered.
Mystique hugged Anna tightly again and used it to hide her face. She didn't bother trying to stop her tears a second time. 'I love you too, momma.' She hadn't heard that in a long time, and it both warmed and pained her.
If only Irene was really going to be here with them. If only they could go back.
"I know you'll be good," she said when she could speak. "Let's get you some breakfast, and then I'll show you around, hmm?"
Anna hugged her mother tightly, sensing that she might need it, though not all that sure why. “Okay. I am so hungry I could probably eat a horse.” She wriggled her nose in amusement before taking her mother's hand again.
This place might be big and a little scary but Anna knew she’d be fine. She had her momma, they had each other, and that would be enough to get the two of them through anything.