Tara regretted ever thinking her previous assignment had been difficult.

Yes, she'd gone in not knowing how the dangerous mutant leader of the Brotherhood would react. Yes, she'd had to go with little notice in the middle of the night to make the meeting happen. But in every other regard, the meeting had gone fairly normal.

The same could not be said for any World of Wishes visit regarding Tony Stark.

The man was a complete attention whore. What had been scheduled as a private meeting with a young boy being fitted with a Stark Industry exoskeleton on his legs to help him walk had turned into an event for the entire wing as Stark interacted with patients, family and staff alike. Tara wasn't heartless enough to bring a stop to it, as she knew how important this surprise was to some of them, but nevertheless the situation was frustrating because she'd been inadequately able to prepare for it.

Superhero visits were regulated strictly by both the hospitals and World of Wishes: depending on how many people they were slated to meet, a certain number of security officers were required to be on hand. There were certain villainous individuals and organizations who didn't care about the presence of innocents if they saw a good opportunity to strike against a nemesis.

"I'm sorry you have to put up with his antics." Tara turned around to see Pepper Potts walking up to her, dressed to the nines in her professional wear as always. Hell, sometimes she wished she had been blessed with Pepper's sense of fashion. "I know it's not your first rodeo, but still…"

"He's not your kid, Pepper," Tara waved off her apology with a laugh. "You don't need to apologize for him."

Pepper gave her a grateful smile. "Well yes, but he's still my boyfriend…"

Tara rolled her eyes. "Pepper, if I didn't want to be here, I'd be sure to inform you in advance. Don't worry about it. Just– keep him from blowing anything up as a demonstration?"

"Deal," Pepper agreed with a laugh. "Thank you again, Tara. I'll treat you to dinner sometime when we're both free."

"Oh, yes please." Tara practically moaned at the thought of the five-star level food of Pepper's past dining spots she'd taken her too. As she saw Tony coming their way, Tara made sure to raise her voice playfully. "Tony, be careful, I might just steal Pepper from you!"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Go get your own brilliant CEO girlfriend if you want one," he blandly replied as he stopped to press a kiss to Pepper's cheek. "Honey, will you get mad if I donate some money to the hospital? Their PT wing could use some upgrades."

Pepper gave a mixture of a fond and exasperated sigh. "How much is 'some money?'"

"Oh… two million or so. Three, tops."

"We'll talk about it when we get home," she settled on saying.

"Yes, dear." Tony went back to play with the clamoring kids while Pepper and Tara stayed on the sidelines to supervise. Tara turned to say something to Pepper, but just as she opened her mouth, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She moved to check her work cell, until she realized the vibrations were coming from her other pocket: the burner phone she'd received from Magneto.

She'd sent a text the previous day, after her searches on her next secretive request went nowhere. The person she was looking for had been laying low recently, and when dealing with someone of this particular skill set, "laying low" equaled "being completely impossible to find."

"I'm really sorry, but I have to take this," she apologized to Pepper. The redhead waved her off without issue, and Tara left her side to go stand in the corner of the room before she answered the call. "Tara Knight speaking."

"Ah, Ms, Knight." She was slightly surprised to hear Magneto's smooth voice come through the speakers, figuring he might have passed off this task to one of his followers in the Brotherhood. "You seek my assistance?"

"If it's within your power, I would be immensely grateful if you could help," she agreed. "I've been looking for an associate of yours, Mystique? A young girl with a terminal illness has requested to meet her, and I was tasked with tracking Mystique down, but…" She let out a mixture of a laugh and a sigh. "I'm sure you're aware how well she is at being untraceable."

His chuckling was fairly reassuring to her. "I'll consider it, but I make no promises, my dear. I suggest you continue your search in the meantime, just in case. Although, believe me when I say this: if she agrees to hear you out, she'll find you before you find her."

"Oh." Tara's eyes widened, unsure if he was giving her advice or passing on a threat from the other mutant. "I'll keep that in mind, sir." She didn't want to risk saying his name where she could be overheard. "Thank you for your help."

"Have a good day, Ms. Knight." The line clicked off.

Well, there wasn't much else she could do at the moment. She'd have plenty of time to deal with this next case later… after she made sure everyone came out of this Stark "meet and greet" with their limbs intact.

The sun was beginning to set when she returned home for the day hours later, having stopped for groceries on her way back. The golden sunlight shining through the skyscrapers glinted in her eyes as she stepped up to the door of her apartment building, and she found herself stumbling as a result.

"Oh dear, are you alright? Here, let me get one of those bags for you."

Tara regained her footing as a pair of hands slowly grabbed one of the bags from her hands before it could tear open and fall to the ground.

"Oh thank you…" She looked up to see it was one of her neighbors on her floor who had come to her rescue. She gave the woman a strained smile as she shifted her remaining bag more securely in her arms. "Reese, I thought my eggs and milk were gonna be goners for a moment there."

The older brunette grinned kindly back at her as Tara led them to the door and punched in her keycode. "Anytime, Tara. I'll help you carry these up."

Tara nodded in agreement as she held the door open for Reese to go through first. She let out a relieved sigh as they entered the air conditioned lobby and let the door close behind them as they headed for the elevator.

"How was your day?" Reese asked as the elevator landed on their level with a soft ding and opened for them. "It's certainly a hot one today!"

"It was alright," Tara replied as they stepped in and she pressed the button for their floor. When she backed away from the panel, she made sure she was standing on Reese's right, so her hand was blocked by her grocery bag as she reached down to pull something from her cross-body bag. "Luckily, I was inside working for most of the day, so I haven't been outside in the heat much."

Reese hummed in understanding. "Well you didn't miss much! I just came back from a run through the park. Almost considered taking a jump in the pond!"

Tara grinned as the elevator came to a stop and opened on their floor. "Always tomorrow to try that," she joked as they exited into the hallway and Tara headed for Reese's door, which was the opposite direction from hers. Her jaw tightened as Reese laughed and didn't question where they were headed, and she tightened her hold on the item that she'd pulled from her purse and had hidden in her hand.

"Well, here we are!" Tara said in a fake cheery voice as she stopped in front of Reese's door. "I can take it from here."

"Aw, dear, it's alright! I can help bring them in, I'm in no rush."

Tara bent down to place her shopping bag on the ground, as if she was moving to unlock the door. Instead, she spun on her heel and fell into a defensive stance facing Reese. Her hand was raised warningly in her neighbor's direction, the small bottle pepper-spray she'd slipped out of her purse held at the ready. She pulled her phone out of her pocket with her other hand, her thumb hovering over the power button, ready to press it five times and activate the emergency alarm.

"Funny you said that, because this is Reese's apartment, and you're not her. You've got three seconds to start talking."

All signs of levity left "Reese's" posture and expression as she stood ramrod straight, reminding Tara of a gymnast. her eyes narrowed dangerously as she pulled her shoulders back and stared down at Tara. "How did you know?"

"Reese jogs in the mornings. And besides, she's on a business trip. Asked me to look after her place."

The fake-Reese observed her silently for several moments, and Tara found herself preparing to activate her pepper spray when the other woman gave a short nod. "You'll do."

"Excuse me?"

The woman's amused huff was reminiscent of a nature video where a battle-worn lioness watched over a cub learning to pounce for the first time. "I won't repeat myself," she replied with a raised eyebrow. "You were the one looking for me, after all."

"Prove it," Tara ordered, not yet willing to relax.

"Smart," the fake Reese praised dryly. "Only a bit though– there's a security camera pointing our way from behind me, and I'd rather not be seen." At Tara's nod of approval, a ripple of blue crossed the left side of her face as Reese's features washed away and were replaced with vibrant cobalt skin and a bright yellow eye. "Satisfied?"

Well, it was hard to argue with that.

Tara tried not to let her curiosity get the better of her as she poured two glasses of wine at her bar kitchen, despite the very blue mutant in gray sweatpants and a white tank top seated on her couch. She had been the one looking for Mystique anyways, and it wouldn't do to be rude by staring at her. The woman was probably sick of that sort of attention after all these years anyways.

Tara made her way over to her sitting area with both glasses in hand and gave one to her guest before she took a seat on the far end of the couch. "So… sorry to be blunt, but why did you come here?" She paused for a moment as another thought struck her. "And also, how did you know where I lived?"

Mystique shrugged blithely as she sipped at her wine. "The internet really does know everything if you know where to look," she simply said, before she raised her glass towards Tara. "You have good taste. As for why I'm here? Erik and I may have our differences, but I still pick up the phone when he calls. Usually." She smirked.

There was definitely a story to be told there, but Tara did not feel like being dragged into any superhuman drama, so she wisely kept her mouth shut.

"Besides, I had some free time," Mystique continued. "After seeing what you were capable of, it did seem worth hearing you out."

"Wait… what I'm capable of?" Tara echoed back in confusion.

The blue mutant raised a perfect eyebrow. "According to the gossip sites, you're the only liaison ever present when Stark visits hospitals. We all know what a loose cannon he is, yet you seem to keep the events incident-free."

"Okay… fair enough."

"What do you need from me?"

Tara slipped her work phone out of her back pocket, opened it to the pulled up case file, and leaned forward to hand it to Mystique. She settled back and took another long sip of her drink as she watched the mutant scroll through the file. "Paige is seven years old and going through chemotherapy… her mother died a year or so ago from a related genetic cancer. Paige has been declining lately and asking if there's a way to see her mother again." She sighed and rubbed at her cheek tiredly. "We've collected videos and photos from friends and family, but then her aunt asked if her wish could be extended to any shapeshifters or magic users willing to help."

Mystique nodded absently and pursed her lips as she continued to read, and Tara distracted herself by looking out her window and sipping on her drink. She didn't want to make her uncomfortable when she was here to ask for a large favor.

The silence was broken a few minutes later when Mystique handed the phone back. "How soon can this be arranged?"

Tara looked back at the redhead with a slight frown as she considered. "Off the top of my head, tomorrow evening I believe."

"That's acceptable." Mystique tipped her head back as she drained the rest of her glass and then licked her lips. "Before I go, do you mind if I get a refill? It's been a while since I've had a wine night."

Tara blinked in surprise for a moment before she openly gestured towards her kitchen. "Go for it."

As the tall redhead winked at her before she got up and sauntered towards the bottle resting on the countertop, Tara lounged deeper into the soft cushions of her couch as she took another liberal sip of wine.

It seemed this was quickly becoming her new sense of norm. If it kept up like this, she'd need more caffeine to start getting through the day.

The visit was… not what she was expecting, to say the least.

Tara hung towards the back of the room, out of Paige's sight as Mystique held her hand and sang softly to her from where she sat next to the girl's hospital bed. She was the spitting image of Paige's mother, and as she watched the girl's hazy eyes begin to droop shut, Tara wondered if she'd fully remember this moment. Maybe she'd think it to be a dream, but either way, it'd hopefully give her a happy memory to cling to as she fought for her life.

Paige had been asleep for quite a while by the time that their second hour was up, and Tara moved to inform Mystique that they'd have to be on their way soon. She was surprised to find the mutant staring at the pristine white sheets with a vacant look in her currently-brown eyes.

"I'm a mother too," Mystique murmured after a long moment. "But not one like Paige's. It's strange to think that now, for a moment... I was there to comfort."

Tara didn't think Mystique would be one for hugs, so she gave the woman a soft smile instead. "You've eased her pain. She can sleep easy now with the memory of her mother watching over her one last time."

Mystique didn't respond verbally, but Tara still caught sight of the way her brow furrowed in thought. Whatever epiphany she'd had was weighing heavily on her, but any evidence of it was smoothed away from her expression as she rested Paige's hand gently on her stomach and quietly stood so Tara could escort her out.

She made sure to wait for an empty elevator on their way down, wanting to have one last moment in private with Mystique before the woman left. As the doors slid shut, Tara noticed how much calmer the air was between them than the day before, when the mutant had masqueraded as her neighbor.

"Hey," she called softly, gaining the other woman's attention as she pulled a long, white paper bag out of her purse. "Consider this a thank you for giving me a chance– I promise, it won't bite," she added with a grin. "I happened to have an extra bottle, and since you liked it so much..."

Mystique carefully took the parcel and unrolled the top to look inside, a similar smile then spreading across her face. "You'll do," she repeated her praise from the previous day. "I'll remember this."

Tara hung back as the elevator reached the bottom floor with a ding and opened to the bustling lobby. She didn't bother trying to keep Mystique in sight– she'd already blended into the crowd and vanished without a trace.

Pepper Potts: MCU version. Tony : mix of MCU and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Mystique can be any version you want honestly. Mystique's children are Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Graydon Creed.

A/N: Sorry this took so long. I started this a month ago but kinda burned out of ideas so I put it aside for a while. Thank you for all the reviews! Mystique was one of the most requested ones so it was fun to write her. I think we'll be straying away from X-Men characters for the next chapter, but for now, this will stay here (bc I'm lazy). Thanks as always for reading!