It was surreal to walk into the Mansion through the front door. Mirror had not done it for years, usually choosing to arrive via various reflecting surfaces... but a lot had changed since the last time they had entered, and it would have felt awkward to mirrorwalk in completely unannounced. With this in mind, Maya stood at the front door like any normal visitor on a normal day, and wondered how the hell she had come to this.

The Mansion had always been home, for years, ever since she'd first arrived in New York. But a couple of months ago, just as the world was about to go to hell in a hand basket, Mirror, who had been a member of the X-men for most of her/his adult life, disappeared one day from the next. Or probably that is what it seemed like for others, most likely, although Maya suspected some of them knew better. She would never have left her team, unless it was a matter of life and death.
It was a matter of life and death.

It all began when her girlfriend's parents contracted the assassin's guild Mirror's mother belonged to to kill Mirror (because their life was not enough of a messed up movie plot already, duh). Jillian had to fulfill the contract or carry the consequences, and even though she was good at stalling, the guild eventually put two and two together, between their own shapeshifter and the gendershifting kid. At that point, it was all hell and brimstone, and rather than bringing the fight to the Mansion, Mirror decided to leave and cut all ties. At least until things would be sorted out.

The sorting took the better part of half a year, and spanned several continents. Constantly on the run, mother and daughter/son tried their best to disappear, faking their own deaths multiple times, changing names (and faces), hoping that eventually the guild would just give up on them. They did not. There was rarely ever a worse time to be a mutant, or to be a mutant chased by mutants, on the run. So eventually Jillian and Mirror stopped running. And they struck a deal. One that neither of them would talk about for a very long time. In fact, they could not, even if they wanted to - before letting the go, the guild put them through the workshop of their resident telepath, erasing or locking away any information that could be harmful to them.
So now Maya was back in New York, under her own name and miraculously alive... and she was not sure on the details of how she managed to pull it off. Or what price she paid. It was a dark, nagging feeling in the back of her mind... overshadowed by relief at the sight of her only real home.

"Hello?..." she called out, pushing the front door open and dropping her backpack "Anybody home?..."

Rebecca was growing to love her role as a teacher at the Mansion, but there was still something oddly nostalgic about walking the halls. Most days she took the same path through the halls to and from her class to ensure she stayed on schedule, but there were occasional days where her classes ended and she had a window of free time. Nessa had plans and Agnes was working, so there was no urgency for Rebecca to return to her apartment for the night.

She felt akin to a ghost, drifting through hallways she navigated as a teenager, passing through the kitchen where “the honey incident” happened with Agnes, and the lounge where her first American birthday was celebrated. It was almost surreal being back, as if she was flipping back to a past chapter in her life, writing over the old pages.

Of course, she was not flipping through solely metaphorical pages; as Rebecca walked, she had a copy of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit she was skimming through. She was encouraging her students to find a novel they could connect with, and she was not so hypocritical to assign work she refused to do herself. It was a novel she enjoyed regardless, and it took her back to her first years in America, coming to terms with who she was and how that fit in with who she always had been.

The building she walked through was filled with memories, but not quite the same people. Of course, many of her classmates had moved on, and residents came and went with life. It was disappointing to come home to a place she loved missing some of the voices from her past she wished to hear again.

"Hello?... Anybody home?..."

Rebecca was stepping into the foyer of the Mansion, preparing to leave for the afternoon, when one of the voices she found herself missing called out from the doorway—or one of their voices, at least. Rebecca looked up from the book cradled on her forearm, spotting a young woman around Rebecca’s age with black hair cut just above her shoulders.

She smiled from across the room, her nostalgic trip through the Mansion making her more vulnerable to such an unexpected reunion. ”Maya... it's sae guid tae see ye again.”

Maya expected, or hoped, to see a lot of faces on her returned - and was definitely nervous about some. Sam was likely to have her ass for disappearing without a trace. She had already figured out that Evelyn was not around, which made her sad... but many others were. Maybe she would luck into meeting someone who was not likely to greet her with a punch in the jaw, she thought as she waited in the foyer...
... but the person that turned the corner was the last one she would have imagined to find here.

>>”Maya... it's sae guid tae see ye again.”

"Becca!" Maya's jaw dropped in surprised, but the expression soon turned into a grin "No way! You're back?"

She laughed and moved forward to hug the redhead if she'd let her. It seemed like Mirror was not the only one returning to the Mansion... the last time she had thought about Becca was when she briefly believed they had a child together. Which did not make this meeting any less surreal. And yet Becca was a friend, and Maya could not have been happier to see her.

Becca was happy to see she was not the only one pleasantly surprised to find the other in the Mansion. The longer she was back in New York, the more she kicked herself for falling out of contact with so many of her old friends. As both Maya and Gawain, they had been a positive presence while Rebecca was in America; after Rebecca’s breakup with Agnes, after the Ragman incident, and just as her friend through the college years before she left for her Masters in England. She was sad to leave a friend like that behind, and downright crushed to return and find out Maya had herself left the state.

This was why it was such a good feeling to have Maya meet her with a warm hug. Rebecca wrapped her arms around her friend’s waist and squeezed tight, glad they could finally be in the same place at the same time for the first time in years.

Once she felt the hug had lasted a sufficient amount of time, (or at least as close to “sufficient” as was acceptable in public, since she could have been fine hugging Maya for the next few hours,) Becca broke away, still smiling uncontrollably. ”Ah finished skale an' moved back lest month!” It was surprisingly easy to explain her coming and going in and out of the states, but there was more mystery surrounding her friend. ”Ah was disappointed ye werenae aroond, but nae a body coods quite explain whaur ye went. How hae ye been, hin?” On sight, Maya seemed in fine condition, but there was more to being okay than looking physically intact. "Ah must hae missed sae much."

Becca hugged her, and Maya hugged the redhead back, chuckling as she almost lifted her off the ground. After having lost so many friends, it was good to get one back, for a change. And since some of the reunions were bound to open with a punch, Maya was especially relieved that Becca was not in a fighting mood.

>>”Ah finished skale an' moved back lest month! Ah was disappointed ye werenae aroond, but nae a body coods quite explain whaur ye went. How hae ye been, hin?”

"That's... a long story." Maya sighed "And it involved a telepath so I only remember parts of it anyway."

Eventually, she would have to figure out how to tell people what happened. Of course, she could not just go around telling everyone... but those that mattered needed to know at least some portion, or some version, of the truth.

>>"Ah must hae missed sae much."

"I missed you too!" Maya smiled "You wouldn't believe the stuff that's gone down around here since you left..."

It was comforting to see she was not the only one enthusiastic about reuniting, as Rebecca could feel herself connected to the ground only by the tip of her shoes. Maya was not as tall as Gawain, but she still had a good four inches on Rebecca, and she was one old friend who Rebecca had no qualms being literally swept off her feet by.

Maya’s time away from the Mansion was complicated and… incomplete. Rebecca’s curiosity was swelling, but she kept it to herself. She did not know if those “missing parts” were her choice or if they were taken by force, and this was a happy reunion. No need to press possibly sensitive issues right away, since they were both back.

They were both back. It felt good to realize that.

According to Maya, there was indeed plenty the Scot missed out on between her departure and Maya’s, and she was excited for someone to possibly fill some holes in the Mansion timeline.

”Please fill me in. Ah was walkin' doon memory lane anyway.” Rebecca slipped her arm around Maya’s, interlocking at the elbow. ”Walk wi' me. Let's catch up, luv.”

It was nice to have Becca back; Maya did not even realize how much she missed her redheaded friend, until she saw her in the flesh again. There was a time where she would have done anything to find her... and what a time it had been.

>>”Please fill me in. Ah was walkin' doon memory lane anyway. Walk wi' me. Let's catch up, luv.”

Maya dropped her backpack on a chair, and grinned as Becca hooked her arm around hers. There was a long story to tell in deed... but she could just stick to the highlights for now.

"Well, for starters, a couple of months after you left, you and I had a baby." she noted with a pokeface, waiting to see Becca's reaction before she burst out laughing. The memory was funnier now - it had been quite stressful at the time.

"Okay okay, sorry, I just had to... geez, I was going mad, trying to track you down. This baby showed up outta nowhere, and it was a gender shifter like me, and someone put me down as a father... remember Allison? Mutant girl, lived in the Sanctuary for a while... she had a kid, and I ended up being involved, and no one knew where the baby came from so we all just assumed it was mine. Me, Sam, my girlfriend, Miss T... I was full on ready to be a father. And, well... I figured the only one who could have had my baby was... you. So I left a whole lot of panicked messages an' all. And then eventually Alli came for the kid... haven't heard form them for a while. So." she chuckled "There's that. By the way, how is your girlfriend?"

Walking arm in arm, Rebecca was expecting Maya to ease her in to the news she missed while she was gone. Rebecca was wrong.

"Well, for starters, a couple of months after you left, you and I had a baby."

The comment actually stopped Rebecca in her tracks as her brain ran through every way that sentence could have just happened. Mouth ajar, she muttered to herself, ”But, Ah—wait. You and Ah. Bit. Ah’m th’ ain wi… whit?” No matter how she sliced it, the news of her and Gawain’s secret love child made no sense since she was the one being surprised by it.

Rebecca’s confusion was enough to throw Maya into a laughing fit. They continued their walk and Maya explained the complex saga of the child she thought they had together. Apparently, Rebecca not being around sent a lot of people into a tizzy trying to explain a mysterious gender-shifting infant. The whole scenario was mental, but even worse when she realized she could have solved everything immediately. ”Ah am sae sorry, Maya! Efter everythin' wi' th' Ragman, Ah needed tae lay law. Changed mah number, took online classes, e'en went under a fake nam fur a while.” Being known as “the Ragman victim” was making it impossible for Rebecca to mentally recover from her trauma, so her logical solution was to drop off the face of the Earth for a while.
”Ah ne'er realized Ah was th' missin' piece ay a soap opera,” she mused with a smile. ”Ah mean, dornt worry, when Ah decide tae lit ye know abit uir kid, Ah'll introduce ye myself.” Hoping for a little revenge, Rebecca donned a poker face of her own for as long as she could before she cracked with a smirk and a wink.

Moving on from fake babies, Maya asked about Rebecca’s girlfriend, which gave her pause. How did Maya know about Nessa, she initially thought, before a more reasonable explanation occurred to her: Agnes. ”Oh, Aggie. Sae... we broke up efter college. Ah went tae Oxford fur mah Masters. She joined a travelin' orchestra. Honestly, Ah only recently got back in tooch wi' 'er noo 'at we're baith back.”

She anticipated questions about where the two girls stood now, but instead of explaining that she had a girlfriend, it felt more honest to explain, ”Agnes is engaged noo. So, yeah… things change.”

Becca's reaction to the story of Baby X was about what Maya had expected it to be. She was confused and stunned at first, and then looked a little guilty, even though really none of it had been her fault.

>>”Ah am sae sorry, Maya! Efter everythin' wi' th' Ragman, Ah needed tae lay law. Changed mah number, took online classes, e'en went under a fake nam fur a while.”

"That's understandable. It was totally not your mess to clean up anyway" Maya chuckled. She never really blamed Becca for any of it - that is, once she found out she was not the mother. She was still only human...

>>”Ah ne'er realized Ah was th' missin' piece ay a soap opera. Ah mean, dornt worry, when Ah decide tae lit ye know abit uir kid, Ah'll introduce ye myself.”

Maya stared at Becca's serious face for a shocked moment, and then scoffed.

"Not! Funny!" she laughed, poking Becca in the ribs "You don't even know how damn scared I was..." Having to raise a child alone, not to mention having to explain its existence to Evelyn... It was about time to change the subject to something more uplifting. Or so she thought.

>>”Oh, Aggie. Sae... we broke up efter college. Ah went tae Oxford fur mah Masters. She joined a travelin' orchestra. Honestly, Ah only recently got back in tooch wi' 'er noo 'at we're baith back. Agnes is engaged noo. So, yeah… things change.”

"Oh." Maya blinked "Well... I guess I missed a lot too, then." It sounded like something that happened a long time ago, so at least she did not put her foot in her mouth too much... "I h... well. I had a girlfriend too, but... um, I had to leave, for a while, and I didn't... exactly tell her." she scratched the back of her neck "And I don't even know if she is still... around anymore. I know she's not here, and... her family didn't exactly like me."

Maya absolved Rebecca of guilt regarding the mystery baby, but that did not change how her absence added more stress to her friend’s life. There was no point in arguing with Maya; she would not let Becca argue the case for why she was a bad friend, so maybe she had to just accept that they were going to be fine and she did not ruin everything.

Of course, she was testing the “not a bad friend” limits with her cheeky joke of another surprise child. Her reward for such a cruel but funny taunt was a poke to the ribs that caused her to squirm and giggle. ”Ah’m sorry, Ah’m sorry! It was tay open fur me.” It was probably a terrible thing to joke about given what Maya already went through, but she dropped the bomb on Rebecca first, so return fire was only fair.

Maya sounded sympathetic to Rebecca’s romantic revelations, which was kind of her, but honestly, she was already starting to accept where things were. Becca was ready to mention her new girlfriend and how things had started turning around for her, but got more interested in Maya’s love life.

There was a girlfriend, of course; as Gawain or Maya, they were a catch. Beautiful (or hansome,) fun, and adventurous. Rebecca’s timing in hooking up with Gawain, while possibly vulturous, was also fortuitous. The two of them catching each other right after breakups was probably the only way their rendezvous would happen before another girl could get her hands on the gendershifter.

Except Maya left without a word. It sounded necessary, but it was easy to put herself in the girlfriend’s shoes and picture the heartache of finding herself alone and abandoned. If it was Rebecca, the urge to run off and start fresh would be strong, but she would not say that to her friend. Instead, she focused on the last comment. ”They didnae like ye? Soonds ridiculous! Yoo’re totally th’ kind ay lass ur lad a girl woods want tae brin’ haem tae meit th’ folks.”

Her hand teasingly tousled Maya’s hair and she smirked. ”A total catch.” Maybe the girl was really gone, or maybe she would turn up eventually, but Maya would be alright. She would find the right girl, and until then, she had a fantastic friend back in her corner.

>>”They didnae like ye? Soonds ridiculous! Yoo’re totally th’ kind ay lass ur lad a girl woods want tae brin’ haem tae meit th’ folks. A total catch.”

Maya snorted as Becca ruffled her hair, and laughed a little at her compliments. They were kind, even if the kind of missed the point of the situation.

"Well, uh... they were not completely okay with the lesbian part, even before they knew I was a mutant." she confessed with a shrug "Not that either of us cared. It's not exactly news that there are some bigots out there..."

Especially after recent events, it wasn't. Maya waved the topic away.

"So, are you back on the team, then, or did Sam not get to you yet?..."

The X-men team would need all the members they could get - especially if Mirror was not the only one who tended to go awol in the middle of all kinds of messes happening. Maya looked a little sheepish about that. She knew that she owed a lot of people a long, long explanation...

Becca was aware that she glossed over the more weighty topic of whether Maya’s girlfriend would still be there for her. She knew all too well what it was like to leave and return to find things and people not where you left them. As much as she wanted to be optimistic for Mirror, she could not bring herself to be the friend who told her, “It will work itself out,” or “You’ll cross paths again,” when she knew that might not be the case.

It was disappointing to hear why Maya’s girlfriend’s parents were disapproving. ”Sad truth. Hate’s e’rywhere these days.” Becca had been lucky: her parents approved of who she was, and Nessa’s parents had already handled both their children coming out at an early age. Agnes’s parents were hateful people, but prison did a good job of making sure she never had to meet them.

Maya moved their conversation forward and Becca gladly accepted. ”Ah’m back oan th' team an' awreddy one mess ay a mission in.” There were bad missions, and then there was anti-mutant armed security attacking her at a political gala. ”Ance Ah was back, Ah was stamped back in quick. Barely got tois words it ay Sam.” Cold Steel was the Leader of the X-Men, but Rebecca never seemed to find the chance to meet the man one on one. To her, he was the definition of stoic.

”Ah hink th' team jist needs people back,” she admitted to explain why it was likely so easy for her to return to her spot on the X-Men. ”Which is wa Ah’m doobly glad tae see ye. Ah loch it when ye hae mah back,” she added, grinning. There were inappropriate jokes she could make given their history, but she chose to refrain.

”Ye… are comin’ back, reit?” Maybe it was presumptuous of her to assume after Maya’s mysterious time away, she would be looking to jump right back into the action. The team could use her, but maybe it was not what she herself needed.

>>”Ah’m back oan th' team an' awreddy one mess ay a mission in. Ance Ah was back, Ah was stamped back in quick. Barely got tois words it ay Sam.”

That was good, at least. Maya smiled. Sam had to be desperate for active X-men members, not that Becca wasn't good or experienced. Even before Mirror left, they were struggling to keep up the member roster, and with all the things happening in NYC, they really needed more hands on deck.

>>”Ah hink th' team jist needs people back. Which is wa Ah’m doobly glad tae see ye. Ah loch it when ye hae mah back. Ye… are comin’ back, reit?”

"Right." Maya nodded with a determined look that soon melted into a smile. "That's the plan, anyway, if Sam doesn't punch my lights out first for leaving..."

He had every reason to, from what she had heard about what went down in New York in her absence.

"I... had to skip town for a while. They... um. Put a hit out on me. For personal reasons. So I had to take care of that. I didn't want that mess following me back to the Mansion... But it's done now. So yeah, I'm sure there's a uniform for me somewhere..."

It was a relief to know Maya would be coming back to the team, assuming she survived her reunion with Sam. Unlike Becca, the gender-shifter had a more established relationship with the team’s leader, so Sam might have more to say about Maya disappearing so suddenly.

He might also have something to say about Maya apparently running because a professional hit was placed on her, and Sam would not be the only one. Wide eyed, Becca watched Maya as she explained her absence. ”Maya, Ah micht punch yer lights it!”

She understood Maya had gone through quite an ordeal, and while she was happy to see her friend again, there was no way she was going to skim by the fact that Maya chose to deal with professional assassins on her own. ”Hun… yoo're oan an actual, fur real team ay real life superheroes. Wa didne ye...”

It was hard to chastise Maya for handling things on her own when she was not there to help her handle her situation. Becca dropped the annoyed act and sighed. ”Listen, jist... next time ye fin' yerself in a mess, remember Ah’m aroond noo.” Maya would have left regardless of whether Becca had been around, surely, but at least she could make it clear now that was no longer an option for her.

>>”Maya, Ah micht punch yer lights it!”

Maya sighed. She knew that what she had done was right, but she also expected that it would need a lot of explanation. Becca must have realized that too, because in the end she did not punch hed after all.

>>”Hun… yoo're oan an actual, fur real team ay real life superheroes. Wa didne ye... Listen, jist... next time ye fin' yerself in a mess, remember Ah’m aroond noo.”

"I know." she nodded with a sigh "It's just... we were not prepared for what was coming after me. Not by a long shot." she might as well explain what happened, she decided "It was bad enough that my girlfriend's posh parents put a hit out on me... and almost comical that they managed to hire the assassin guild my mother works for." Maya smirked "Mom stalled them as long as she could, pretending to chase me, but honestly, how hard can it be for a shapeshifter to finish a hit?... So we decided to run for it. I did not want their entire lineup of hand-picked mutant ninjas to come knocking at Xavier's, and that was only a matter of time."

So she left. It was bad timing, and a lot of bad consequences... but it was the right thing to do.