Shadowed past

' The girls took that better than I expected. though, now I've got two very powerful and very dangerous women looming over my shoulder. Dear lords give me strength. Maybe, I'm overthinking this, after all any man would kill to be in my position.' Stark thought as he settled into bed.

" AHHHHH!" Rogues scream sounded throughout the mansion.

" GIRLS!" Stark yelled as he burst out of his room, both guns drawn.

" What's wrong?!" Stark yelled as he kicked the girl's door in. Stark scanned the room looking for any enemies before dispersing his guns.

" Anna, what's wrong?" stark asked as he wrapped his arms around the woman.

" Rogue, are you all, right? What happened?" Scott asked as he and the others ran to the girl's room

" Ah don't know. Ah was dreaming. Some kind of awful nightmare with these images. It was horrible." Rogue answered.

" Yeah. Her shrieking totally freaked me out. I just about phased through the bed." Kitty said to the group.

" It's alright, We're here. I'm right here with ya." Stark whispered into the woman's ear.

" Whoa. Finals must be really getting to you." Scott said

" No! It's not the first time. Ah've had this dream before. They started when I moved to the institute." Rogue argued

" What's going on, man? Are you guys, okay?" Evan asked as he storm and kurt all walked into the room.

" Rogue's having creepy nightmares." Kitty answered

" Whoa, what about?" Kurt asked

" Ah'm not sure. There's a castle and wolves. Oh, poor little baby. Ah didn't really see his face. But Ah seem to know...to know him somehow." Rogue answered while looking at kurt

" What? Why are you looking at me like that? What's wrong?" Kurt asked

" It was you." Rogue said while pointing at kurt

" What was me?" Kurt asked.

" Somehow, Ah just know it was you, kurt!" Rogue spoke.

" What are you talking about?" Kurt asked

" In the dream there was a crying baby, someone, a woman ah think Ah didn't really see her face, was running and the baby was dropped into the river." Rogue said

" And you think that baby was me?" Kurt asked

" Why am ah having this dream?" Rogue asked

" It's okay. We'll figure it out. I'll be with you every step of the way." Stark said.

" Maybe the professor can help us sort this out. But let's do it in the morning. It's late." Jean spoke up.

" That's all right, jean. This is important. Rogue and kurt, please come to the library with jean. And the rest of you try and get some sleep. You all have finals tomorrow." Xavier said

" No way am I leaving one of my girl's alone when she needs me." Stark argued.

" Ah'm okay. Ah'll be okay. You need ta rest. Kurt and Ah'll be back soon." Rogue said to the man.

" Okay, but if you need to talk come to me, I'll be there for ya. Always." Stark said while kissing the woman's forehead.

Stark watched as the group slowly dispersed leaving only him and Kitty alone in the dark room.

" You okay, kitty?" Stark asked as he wrapped his arms around the woman's waist

" Yeah, I'm okay. Just a little worried about rogue." Kitty answered

" Yeah, me too. Come on let's get you back into bed." Stark said as he lifted woman up into a princess carry.

" Wanna sleep here tonight?" kitty asked

" Probably, not the best of nights." Stark said before seeing the woman's face

" Really, the puppy dog eyes. Fine, okay you win." Stark said as he put the woman down into her bed before joining her.

" Yay!" Kitty exclaimed while grabbing onto the man.

' Overthinking things. Right.' Stark thought as he and kitty went to sleep.

The next day at school.

" Man, that test was easy. I thought Finals were supposed to be hard scott. What happened?" Stark taunted

" Hey, we're not all super geniuses like you ok." Scott replied.

"Yeah, yeah!" Stark shot back.

" Anna, are you doing, okay?" Stark asked

" You've been asking me that since this morning and Ah keep telling you ah'm fine." Rogue answered.

" Sweetheart." Stark called, pulling the woman close to him.

" What?" Rogue asked

" You keep telling me you're fine, but I can clearly see something's bothering you. What is it?" Stark asked.

" If ah knew ah'd tell you, but ah don't know yet okay." rogue replied " Can we talk about this later?" Rogue asked

" Of course, I'll see you after class." Stark said before leaving the woman.

" What was that about?" Scott asked.

" It's her dream again. She won't tell me what she and the professor found. Well, whatever it was as long as it doesn't come back to bite us, I'm fine with her keeping it to herself." Stark answered.

" Yeah, man sometimes the best thing to do is just drop it." Scott said

" You ain't lying scott. Come on, we got one more test." Stark said

" Don't remind me." Scott groaned as he and stark walked to class.

After school.

" Yo, stark?" Scott called as stark ate with Kitty and rogue.

" Yo, what's up scott? You need something?"

" Have you seen kurt?" Scott asked

" Yeah, he's in his room." Stark replied.

" Thanks." Scott said before walking off.

' Hm, wonder what that's about.'

Stark wondered before a fast object sped by creating a cold wind.

" Ugh, who opened a window?" Kitty asked.

' The hell, Quicksilver?' Stark thought before following the man.

' He just dropped a note in Kurts room and now he's gone. That's it? he came here to deliver mail? There's no way it's that simple.' Stark thought as he watched the boy leave.

" If you want to know the truth, come to the new mall construction site at sundown." Kurt said in his room. Unaware that stark was listening.

" Eh, what's the harm?" Kurt said before teleporting away.

' That can't be good, guess I'm on elf duty today.' Stark thought before following the boy.

Later

' I thought the note said sundown. This isn't sundown, sundown was two hours ago!' Stark complained to himself. ' I swear if this was for nothing, I'm gonna blow a fuse.'

' Stark? Can you hear me?' Xavier asked through their psychic link.

' Yeah, I hear ya.' stark said back

' Where are you?' Xavier asked

' I'm with kurt right now.' Stark said

' Hold tight we're on our way.' Xavier said.

' That's not the best idea professor. If this is real kurt needs this. If not, I'll pull him out.' Stark said back.

' Hm, then we'll wait nearby just in case.' Xavier said.

' Alright but stay low.' Stark said back.

" Okay, so I'm here." Kurt said

" Hello, kurt." A voice said.

' Wait a damn minute, no way!' Stark thought.

" You, You're the one from rogue's dream. Who are you?" Kurt asked.

" You already know me, son." Mystique said while pulling her hood down.

' Damn, even I didn't see that one coming.' Stark thought.

" No! No! It's impossible. What happened to me? Why didn't you?" Kurt was asking the woman before the blob jumped down in front of him.

" Get out." Mystique demanded.

" Well, far as you go fur boy. This conversation's over." Pietro said as he and the rest of the brotherhood surrounded Kurt.

' Stark!' Xavier called out.

' I know. I'm on it!' Stark said back

" You know, you guys really are pathetic." Stark said as he appeared in front of the group and grabbed both Kurt and Mystique, Flashing away with both mutants

' I got him professor. get back to the mansion.' Stark said

' I've already told the team.' Xavier said

" Why did you grab me too?!" Mystique yelled.

" I figured you'd want some alone time with your son. Is that so bad?" Stark asked.

" Stark? How did you know where I was?" Kurt asked

" I've been following you all day. Couldn't let anything happen to my blue brother now, could I?" Stark joked. " I'll give you two some alone time." Stark said before flashing away.

After some time, mystique left, leaving kurt by himself.

" You ready to go?" Stark asked the boy.

' Ya, I'm ready." Kurt said.

Without saying another word stark grabbed the boy and made his way to the mansion.

" I'm here if you want to talk kurt, I always will be." Stark said before leaving the boy to his thoughts.

" So, the dreams rogue was having were really mystique's." Logan said

" I'm afraid so. Rogue must've picked them up when she touched her. Mystique may very well be the boy's mother." Xavier said.

" There is no doubt. She is his mother, Xavier." Stark said

" Was there anything left of the lab?" Xavier asked.

" Nothing, whoever was running it didn't want us finding anything. But before it went kablooey it looked like a place dr. Frankenstein might have been comfortable in." Logan said

" Genetic experimentation on mutants. I hadn't realized he was willing to go that far. And poor kurt" Xavier said

" So, when are you gonna tell kurt about all this?" Scott asked

" I'm not so sure the elf needs to know. At least, not yet. Some of this stuff could be pretty damaging." Logan said

" Maybe not today, but he will need to know and very soon. Kurt is beginning to question his own existence and if we don't answer him trust me someone or something will. When that day comes, we could very well lose kurt because we decided to hide this from him." Stark said much to the displeasure of Scott and jean. " It's okay red." Stark said as he rubbed the top of the woman's head. " I'm not saying today, but eventually we have to come clean to him." Stark said before leaving the room.

The next day at school.

Knock knock knock

' Who, is it?' Mystique wondered.

" Come in." Mystique said

" Hey." Stark said as he entered the room.

" What do you want?" Mystique asked with venom in her voice.

" I figured you'd want this. It took a lot of time for me to make copies of these." Stark said pulling out a photo album of kurt.

Mystique took the book of pictures and wiped her eyes as tears began to well up.

" We're enemies. I've tried to kill you and your friends many times. Why give this to me after all of that?" Mystique asked.

" Just because we're enemies doesn't mean I hate you mystique. I hate magneto because he is a selfish, arrogant bastard. You aren't like him. We aren't like him. We fight for the future of the next generation. You care about what happens to our people, our kids. Even if you do it in your own crazy way. And I believe a mother deserves to know that her son is ok. Take care of yourself mystique and take care of kurt. Whether he knows it or not, he needs his mother." Stark said before leaving the office.

After some time, mystique looked through the book and came to a stop.

" You stupid fool. Thank you." mystique said as the tears she had been fighting back came forth.

" You're welcome, lady." Stark said before vanishing from the school.