Discovery 1.7

Anna didn't watch as Erik Lehnsherr, the leader of The Brotherhood of Mutants, walked past their seats and out the front door of Annie's Dinner. She did, however, hear the gradual shuffling of feet as every soul other than her mother and herself traipsed out the entrance. She heard the revving of car engines and other motors outside and listened to them till they slowly disappeared.

"Come now, hon, it's time we got going." She felt her Mom next to her rise out of her seat, but Anna did nothing to follow her. "Anna, honey-"

"I can't," Anna replied. All she could do was stare at the place where the mysterious man had sat. The man, with only a few words, could make both his mothers submit like they were lap dogs.

"Anna, we don't have time-"

"Then leave me here!" Anna said a little more loudly than she intended. She felt like a frog had crawled into her throat and her vision had begun to blur from the tears crowding the corners of her eyes.

She felt a hand graze her shoulder and she jerked back reflexively. "Don't touch me! I don't even know who you are! Who the hell is Mystique? Who are you? Who have you been this whole time?"

"Anna we can talk in the car." Her mother's voice was strained like tightly wound leather.

"No! I'm tired of being thrown around like some sort of prisoner! I'm not going another inch until you tell me what the hell is going on!"

"Anna!" Her mother grabbed her arm and jerked it - then stopped. She stared at Anna's hands. Anna followed her mother's gaze back towards her own hands and spotted three boney spears puncturing the back of her gloves. Her mother looked back at the kitchen staff behind her and thrusted Anna's hand back under the table. Her Mom looked back at her. "Keep your hands at your sides and follow me." She said through clenched teeth. She then jerked Anna to her feet and she held her tightly at her side till they were through the door and outside. They didn't walk for the car though, instead, her mother led her around back, out of view of the road, and pushed her against a wall. "When did you talk to him!" She snapped.

"To who!"

"To the man you got those claws from, Anna! He's dangerous, he could have killed you!"

"Of course, he could have! Seems like everyone wants to kill me! How do I know you don't want to kill me?

"I am your mother!"

"Are you?"

Raven looked down at her, blinking her wide brown eyes. "Yes." She stepped back and let her arms fall to her sides. "Yes, honey, of course, I am your mother."

Anna looked into her Mom's face, still breathing heavily. "Are you, or are you this 'Mystique' the guy kept calling you?"

"I'm both. I've been working as an agent of Magne-, of Mister Lehnsherr for a number of years now. It's how I met Irene, it's how we fell in love, and it's how we ended up adopting you as a baby. It's all thanks to Mister Lehnsherr and the Brotherhood."

"If that's true -" Anna sucked in a breath. "Then why did you keep all this from me? Up until a few days ago, you worked at an aeronautics company. Now I find out that you're working for some sort of… mutant… underground military force?"

"The Brotherhood is more than that, sweetheart. As you'll soon see, it's a safe place for people like us."

"What if -" Anna bit her lip. "What if I don't want to go?"

"Anna don't be silly." Her mother made to walk towards her, paused, and looked back down at the long spikes jutting out of Anna's hands. "What did that man tell you exactly?"

"He told me… that I wouldn't feel like I had a choice."

"Of course, you have a choice, honey. You always have a choice."

"Then why doesn't it feel like it?"

Her mother's back went rigged. "What would you rather do then? Risk it out there all alone? Without any support? Anna, your Mah, and I have worked very hard to protect you. You haven't seen how horrific the world can be. Especially to young women."

Anna felt her inner arm graze the pen stuck inside the hem of her sleeve. "Maybe… I wouldn't be alone."

In that moment, her mother seemed to grow double in size. "I think I understand. You're thinking of joining them."

"Well then explain to me what is so bad about them! I was in one of their heads, and so far that's the most truth I've been given since this whole shit show started! All I've heard is one lie after another! About living with some sort of invisible skin condition, about knowing who you and Mah were, about who I was - I… What am I supposed to believe anymore!"

"You're supposed to believe me!" Her mother shouted. "The one who loved you! The one who sheltered you when no one else would!"

Tears clouded Anna's vision, and she dropped to her knees. "I don't know how to trust you anymore. I don't know…"

A hand, a thick man's hand, picked her up and pinned Anna against a wall by her upper body. She opened her eyes and looked into the face of her mother, whose expression was so severe it could cut glass. Anna looked down and saw her Mom's forearm transformed into one big rippling muscle that she couldn't escape from under. Her Mom then pulled a phone from her pocket and dialed a number.

"Irene, start the car and open the glove box. Inside you'll find a flat silver case filled with syringes and serum. Prepare one. Anna… is going to make this difficult."

While her mother was on the call, Anna managed to wiggle the pen free from her sleeve and remove the cap with one hand, but she couldn't swing the thing around to cap it on the other side.

When the phone was back in her pocket, her Mom looked back at her. "Anna. I know this is severe, but I'm rescuing you from yourself. You go down that road with them it will be nothing but pain."

"Mom -" Anna gasped for air. "Please! Please don't do this!" She could hear the rumble of a car engine and the crunch of nearby gravel.

Her mother shook her head. "Baby, please understand I'm doing this to protect you. I have to do this. It has to be this way for your own good. You have to believe me."

Around the corner, a car gently rolled forward, but it wasn't a gray Toyota Corolla. The car was a beat-to-hell burnt sienna GMC gremlin.

"Irene!" Her mother shouted without looking over her shoulder. "Follow the sound of my voice! I need the syringe!"

The car door opened and a man with dark hair and cowboy boots stepped out of the driver's door.

"Irene! Please hurry! I need-" A fist like a brick fell against the back of her mother's head and drove her to the ground. Anna slid to the gravel and gasped for breath. Stars in her eyes, she could just see a leathery hand reach down for her.

"You alright, kid?"

She looked up, and just beyond the fading sun, she looked into the weather-beaten face of Logan. With a trembling arm, she slipped her hand into his and he hoisted her up. Once she was back on her feet, he pulled his arm away like she was going to bite him.

"What?" She panted, one hand holding her up by the wall.

"Last I was within arms reach of you, I woke up with a hell of a headache." He grunted.

"How…"She sucked in a breath. "How did you find me? The pen -"

"I had some help from an egg-head with a computer. It can track when a mutant power is going into overdrive. So, in a stupid twist of fate, it was a good thing you borrowed my abilities." He pointed down at her hands. "Speaking of which, nice stickers you got there."

She made to look down at her hand, but when she looked, something else caught her eye. On the ground, out cold and dressed just like her mother was a woman whose skin was all blue scales.

"Oh my god." She covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my god." The tears started anew and streaked down her face. "Mom…" Anna fell to her knees at the woman's side, both hands clenched to her mouth. "Mom - what are you?" She asked, breathless.

"She's a mutant, like all of us," Logan answered.

"But why did she hide it from me? Why hide behind a mask?" Anna lowered her hands to touch her mother's arms but stopped herself.

"Probably because she was scared."

Anna leaned over the prone body. "Oh… Mom."

"I'm sorry kid, but it's time to make a decision."

Anna looked up, cheeks stained with tears, at the squat man with a little too much hair.

"What makes you all different? How are you different than The Brotherhood?"

"Well, kid." Logan crossed his arms. "You were the one poking around in my brain. Why don't you tell me?"

Anna breathed a long sigh and closed her eyes. She saw visions of a great mansion, of the bald man from before. She also saw teenagers her age, one with sunglasses and another who was entirely blue with a long tail. She saw a room filled with lasers and explosives, then a dining hall loaded with freshly made food. She sucked in another breath. "Are you… going to kill me if I say no?"

Logan blinked. "What? Of course not."

"C - Can I leave if I want?"

"Yep. No obligation."

Anna looked down at her mother and up again at Logan. She nodded with a fresh set of tears wetting her face.

"Well alright then." Logan gave her a smile and helped her back to her feet. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"Great, why don't you get in the passenger sea-" Logan was cut off as he was thrown face first into the ground. Straddling his back with a wild look, was the blue figure that had just been lying on the ground.

"You aren't taking my daughter anywhere!"

"Jesus Chri-" Was all Logan could make out before having his face driven into the hard gravel a second time by her fist.

"Mom! Stop!" Anna cried and tried to push her off his back, but was thrown back herself.

"How dare you! How dare you try to take her away from me!" Her mother hissed with the rage of an animal. "Xavier will get his pet wolverine back in pieces, because when I'm done -" Anna would never hear the end of her mother's threat. Instead, the wild blue woman lurched backward as two electrodes drove into her left shoulder and audibly filled her with volts of electricity. Her mother fell backward, seizing and writhing on the ground. Eventually, she stopped and craned her neck down toward her chest. "I-Irene?" She muttered, mouth spilling over with saliva.

Anna looked and around the corner stood her Mah, holding a taser between her two hands. "The girl has to go, Raven."

"Why?" Raven asked from the ground, her shoulder smoking and her voice horse. "Irene, what are you doing!"

"I love her too, Raven," Irene said through a wall of tears. "And I can't stand around anymore and let her become another tool in his arsenal, like us!"

"Do you know what will happen to her out there, Irene? The world will kill her! You're killing her, Irene!" With that, another wave of electricity was sent through the taser down to the electrodes in Raven's chest. She continued to seize, her mouth frothing, till she stopped moving. Anna covered her eyes.

Logan pushed himself back to his feet and wiped the blood off his face with his arm. "Er, thanks." He looked back at Raven. "Is she -"

"She's only unconscious," Irene answered crisply. "It'll take a lot more than that."

He looked at her. "How did you… with the blind thing -"

"I see everything. Every scenario, every way something can play out. I could see where to aim." She then took him by the scruff of the shirt and pulled him close. "You listen here, Logan. You and your boss better take care of my daughter or so help me I will do everything in my power to end you and everything you care about. Do you understand me?"

Logan straightened up and reclaimed his shirt. "Loud and clear, ma'am." He looked back at Anna who had concealed her face with her hands and was leaning against the wall. He took her side and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Can you hear me?" She nodded, trembling under his grasp. "Okay. I'm going to lead you to the car and I'm going to get you out of here. Alright?" She nodded again and he lead her gently to the burnt sienna gremlin, popped open the passenger door, and gently guided her inside. He then shut the door and stood.

"You know, Destiny. Considering you and your daughter have kinda gone rogue here, I could maybe see about setting you up with -" When he turned to look at Irene, she and Raven were both already gone.

"Wow, that blind woman can truck." He looked around and shielded his eyes against the setting sun. Sucking in a lungful of air, he walked around to the other side of the car and sat in the driver's seat. The car rattled and rolled under his weight and he jammed in the key. He paused and looked over at Anna who was shaking in the passenger seat, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. It seemed, finally her sharp spikes had disappeared. He leaned back, fished a moth-eaten blanket out of the back seat, and wrapped her up in it. He then cranked the key, turned over the engine with a lurch, and pulled the old car onto the road.

"Where are we going?" Anna asked eventually, the fast-moving humid air from the cracked window blowing her bangs every which way.

"Home."

"Where's that?"

"Bayville, New York."

"Were driving to New York …in this?"

"Oh, we won't be driving."