Mirror, Mirror

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… Napping is good. I recommend it highly. J InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, Dracena and Greywolf are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting. J ProPhile: Patience, grasshopper. Morgan: *gloke * Readers/Reviewers: I’m going to be updating the archives on the yahoogroup soon. If you’re missing chapters, let me know and I’ll make sure to send them your way when I update the zip files.

“You irritate me greatly, did you know that?”

“Suspected,” Sabretooth grunted, shoving the bundle that was Essex into the opening in the cement. “Now I know.”

Mystique hated being guised as a man. It itched, she decided. She blamed the facial hair. “Shut up,” she muttered. “Just do your job!”

Sabretooth did not look up as he gave the bundle one final shove, watching as the rolled up Oriental rug vanished into the darkness with a dull thud. “Done.”

The shapeshifter nodded grimly. She felt dirty, disgusting, and most of all, infantile for what they had just done. There had to have been a better way, she thought, something more refined and less…thuggish. “It’s nearly noon now. We can make it back to the lab by three if we’re careful.” She turned to start the trek back through the alleys to the main road but was stopped by Sabretooth’s heavy hand on her shoulder. “What?” Shrugging his grip off, she shot him a narrow-eyed glare. “We had to. Did you want to be part of his mess?”

Sabretooth was silent for a long moment; it was not his characteristic stoicism but rather something more uncertain. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he looked on her, his massive size doing nothing to dull the impression of a lost little boy peering out through his eyes. “No.” He dropped his hands to his sides and rocked forward on his toes. “Raven…”

“I am not Raven to you anymore,” she cut him off tersely. “Call me Doctor Essex until I change. Do not call me Raven or Mystique. You know better,” she added, unable to stop the admonishing tone in her voice. “The longer we can keep people from realizing he’s gone, the better. He’s not liked by all but he *will* be noticed as missing unless we’re careful. Now,” she smiled thinly with Essex’s face, “work with me here.” She slid behind him, her back scraping against the alley wall, and placed her hand between his shoulder blades. “Don’t try anything stupid. Keep up appearances.”

Sabretooth grunted in response and let her push him gently down the alley. The car was just there, he could see it’s bumper. It was a quiet street, mostly residential, mostly elderly residents, and they would likely go unnoticed. Mystique gave him another little shove and he walked faster, heading for the driver’s side door. He would be the chauffer, it was decided, and she would sit in the back as Essex. It was a role had had played many times for Magneto and one he was sure he would play again before all was said and done. The bodyguard, the hired help. The grunt labor. A damp, slapping sound made him stop in his tracks at the end of the alley, forcing Mystique to nearly run into him. She had heard it too, he knew, by the way she tensed and the way her breath became very soft and still, like she was playing dead. “Didn’t push him down far enough,” Sabretooth muttered, turning to face the dark at the end of the alley.

“Nope,” Mystique sighed. “Didn’t kill him good enough, either,” she added, her form shifting as the words came, her body becoming her own for the sake of the coming fight. The shape at the end of the alley resolved itself, standing up straight and lean. It was not Essex. Mystique blew out a breath she had not been aware she was holding before taking a step towards the Morlock at the end of the road. “Problem?”

“Yeah,” the female voice replied. “You could say so. Dumping bodies, Mystique?” Marrow padded forward, her posture that of someone ready to spring. Her gaze flickered to Sabretooth but she did not acknowledge him in any other way. “You know that’s not going to work. He can’t be gotten rid of so easily, no matter what Callisto plans.” She smiled, her expression distinctly amused. “You need to watch where you step.”

Mystique flexed her fingers almost subconsciously, wanting to strike preemptively but restraining herself. “There is no time for your melodrama. Take up your problems with Essex,” she spat. “Or better yet, Professor Xavier. He seems to be your guardian angel these days!”

Marrow growled low in her throat as the other two mutants turned towards the car again. “He’s not my angel,” she snarled. “Know where your loyalties lie, Mystique. Soon enough they’ll be tested.”

Sabretooth stopped, one hand on the car, and looked over his shoulder at Marrow, standing as she was, barely in the shadows. “What does that mean?” he asked slowly, his thick voice almost too soft for her to hear.

She leaned forward, her hands in plain view but still near her knives. “It means, you’re being idiots. It means what you’re doing here,” she jerked her chin in the direction of the open sewer grate behind her, “is compounding the problem. Essex will be waiting for you in the end. You’re not escaping him. He wants you. He needs you. He’s the worst kind of jealous lover—the one who feels entitled.” She stepped out into the sunlight then, wincing as the glare off the car hit her eyes. “Go back to Magneto now if you think you can, but Essex will still find you.”

“He’s dead,” Mystique said flatly, the car door open and a shield between her and Marrow. “He’s not a ghost or the bogeyman.”

Marrow laughed then, a loud and rollicking sound that was rusty in her throat and mouth. “Keep a good thought, Mystique. I’ll see you in the below.”

A/N Mystique and Sabretooth have a problem, neh? And no, they’re not out of the woods yet!