Girl-On-Girl Action [Mystique, Aurora]

[Aurora]

(immediately after 'A Restless Dream; nighttime)

Mystique had her eyes on a handful of papers, walking back to her room with a cup of coffee in hand. She heard the thump and the laughter, and wondered what kind of mania Aurora was in in the middle of the night. Nearing the door, she leaned in a bit.

“Jeanne-Marie, are you alright?” She said in the young girl’s voice she’d used last night.

Aurora stopped, still in mid-air, and looked toward the door. Her brow furrowed. 'Who is that?' she asked herself, drifting toward the door. She couldn't help but laugh at the girl's question, though, whoever she was.

"I hope she's not," came the brutally honest reply in a sing-song tone, as though sharing an inside joke with the girl on the other side of the door.

Mystique raised her eyebrows, recognizing Aurora’s voice. Her own voice returned.

“Aurora? Is that you? It’s Mystique. You’ve been… gone. Are YOU alright?”

An amused laugh could be heard from inside the room as Aurora recognized Mystique's voice and realized who the new girl had been. "As 'alright' as I'll ever be, I think," she answered bluntly. Clearly, she had come to terms with the fact that she was far from normal.

"So you met her, huh? Now you see why she drives me crazy." Aurora was a step away from the door, so Mystique could hear her but so she wouldn't be hit by the door when it opened.

Mystique opened it carefully, peeking in. “Actually, she’s sweet. If a bit ignorant.” She closed the door behind her. If something was going to happen, she’d contain it before it got out into the hallway.

“Is she that impossible to deal with? We tried to reason with her, but she’s a little too scared by what we do to settle in I think.”

Aurora scoffed at the description of Jeanne-Marie as she moved as a blur to the bed, becoming clear again as she stopped and lowered herself to sit on it. "She knows you can hurt her; that's why she didn't go screaming banshee on you like she does to me." Aurora didn't know that for a fact, but that was what it had to be, in her mind. She sighed and shrugged. "Maybe you knocked some sense into her."

She paused a moment, lifting her hand to the side of her head. She'd ignored the growing headache in her elation to be back in her body, but it was starting to pound her skull. "Speaking of knocked…Why is my head killing me?"

Mystique smirked. “I knocked some sense into you. I had to, to get you inside. She was fighting pretty hard.”

“Aurora why is it you and she aren’t at peace. My thought is, if you can’t come to some kind of agreement with her, there may be a time we’ll have to kill YOU in order to prevent HER from doing something she shouldn’t. But if she were okay with the exchange between you both… maybe it wouldn’t so much of a problem for you. Either of you.”

"We aren't at peace because she wants to get rid of me," Aurora said, looking from the bed to Mystique. "So she can go back to her little catholic school and live her life as a boring, celibate nun."



"When I first came out…Well, it wasn't really two separate minds. I guess we were the same person…But it was when she tried to jump off the roof." Aurora stared at the sheets again as she thought years back. "She thought it was amazing, a wonderful gift from God." Her tone was hard to read; it managed to waver between sarcasm and remorse.

"She told the nuns about it, and they said she was lying. You know what they tried to do? Tried to beat the devil out of her."

"That's when we really split. Because she didn't have the guts to leave, let alone stand up to them. She hated her mutantcy, pretended like it didn't exist. God, I was buried deep. But I popped up again, and she got in even worse trouble because she had refused to leave the first time." Aurora spoke without sympathy; Jeanne-Marie had made her choices, just as Aurora had made hers.

Aurora let out a deep breath, making a faint hissing noise. "I don't see how we could ever share space," she said heavily without looking up to Mystique. She had hoped that Mystique would have the answers; she could solve anything, couldn't she? Nothing could keep her out, or in, for that matter.

[Aurora]

“What I want to see for you Aurora…” Mystique spoke very much like an older sister figure, almost a mother, only without the authority. Just the firm confidence of a woman who knew and had seen more. “Is to not feel in danger if Jeanne-Marie comes out. If you have animosity with her, perhaps that is your survival method. I can appreciate that.”

“But I don’t want to have to shoot you in the head because Jeanne-Marie decides to do something erratic at the wrong moment.” The tone in her voice was both caring and cold; she didn’t want to kill the girl, but she would if she had to, and without remorse.

“So tell me what you believe you can do to resolve the situation. You don’t want to be a risk to the Brotherhood, I know you don’t.”

Talking with Mystique one-on-one was much different than Aurora had expected. She didn't make an effort to sound tough or all-knowing, though Aurora knew she was extremely tough (and 'all-knowing' not being far of a stretch). She wasn't at all cold as Aurora had seen her be before.

"If she didn't want to get the cure…and was willing to stay here…I wouldn't worry," Aurora said carefully. "She'll never be a good fighter, but if she would at least stay put until I come back."

Which presented a dilemma: Who would want to live their life waiting around for someone else? It didn't even cross Aurora's mind, as she couldn't have cared less how Jeanne-Marie spent her life, as long as it didn't bother her.

"I can try talking to her," she said reluctantly, her opinion of how that would turn out evident.

Mystique recrossed her legs. Yes, she could be distant when she wanted to be. And if their leader were a more like Magneto had always been, she would prefer to stay in the background and let him deal with the… administrative issues.

But Pyro was not that sort of leader. He needed Mystique there, needed her experience with the Brotherhood and with life in general to steer things where they needed to go. She would do all that she could- so long as he continued on as he had the last few days. What few people understood about Mystique and the Brotherhood was that her loyalty lied very little with the young man at the helm and everything to do with the ship herself.

“I think for your sake you need to consider Jeanne-Marie as anyone else here. If you were constantly at odds with Angie, for example, you would both be sat down and expected to work a certain peace out- whether you liked one another or not.”

“I was very nice to Jeanne-Marie when she was here, because I want her to come to understand what the Brotherhood is about and accept it on her own terms. I don’t think she really has anything to offer us but if she can find something here for herself, then we won’t have as much to worry about when she… visits.”

“I don’t think beating her into submission is going to help this time, Aurora. You may have to try a different tactic. Even if she at first only wants to fight. Do you think that’s even possible?”

[Aurora]

"There's no hurt trying, right?" Aurora said, as though trying to convince herself. She wanted to solve the problem more than anyone, even if it meant having to coincide with Jeanne-Marie forever. It would be better than fighting her and running the risk of having Jeanne-Marie win at some point in a place where she could get her hands on the Cure.

"I'm not even getting anything from her right now," she said, realizing that her mind was peacefully quiet. That sort of privacy must have been nice for Mystique and the others to enjoy year-round. For Aurora, it was not a given.

"But when I do…I'll try to talk to her," she gave her word as she met Mystique's eyes, nodding slightly.
There was a long pause, before Aurora spoke again. "Mystique?" she asked, her smooth, low voice more curious than anything else. "Am I crazy?"

Mystique looked seriously at the young girl. Oddly enough she’d been asked the same question by Pyro not too long ago.

“Aurora… I don’t know the nature of your mutation, or how things came about. Multiple personalities in mutants isn’t unheard of, even without insanity. And even if you are, you seem entirely functional. Once upon a time, my mutation was considered demonic possession.” She smirked.

Aurora's eyebrows rose at her last comment, and she didn't argue it. She could fully see the religious witch-hunter types from long ago trying to burn a blue-skinned woman at the stake or toss her into the river or something equally ridiculous.

"Don't let Jeanne-Marie hear you say that," she muttered before throwing Mystique a lopsided smile to show she was joking. She didn't respond to Mystique's answer about her sanity-there was no need to drag it out. If she was crazy, she was crazy. Mystique was right; she was functioning perfectly fine. When her other half wasn't getting in the way.

"Oh, by the way, before all this I was wondering: is there any kind of training here? I think I could have done a lot better in Baltimore, especially against that pretty boy X-Man with the wings." She grimaced, remembering how he'd choked her to what he assumed was death and let her fall twenty feet to the pavement. "The only thing that makes me good is my speed; the fact that people don't have time to defend themselves. I don't want to have to rely on that."

Mystique nodded. The more they spoke, the more she liked this girl.

“There is no formal training no. Before Magneto left, the vast majority of our members had been involved in the mutant fight for so long, they didn’t need training. Gill, Python, myself- we’re ancient.” She almost grinned.

“But I trained Pyro when he first joined us, and I’m happy to help you. Maybe we should talk to Pyro about comparing talents and seeing who can help who become a bit more… substantial?” there was humor in her voice.

Aurora's eyes began to glow with excitement as she thought of training. "That would be awesome," she said eagerly. For better or for worse, Aurora lived for battle. Baltimore had given her a high she'd never imagined possible, and she couldn't wait until the next conflict. Heads would roll-or, more accurately, fly. And come to a sudden stop.

"I just figured you were the most skilled fighter out of everyone-I mean, the others are powerful, of course, but I wouldn't have much trouble dodging Cain, or Pyro's fire." She hoped she wasn't being too presumptuous; she wasn't trying to boast, it was just how she saw things. She knew that they were higher mutants than she was, and better trained, but she could be miles away from their attacks in split seconds.