A four-issue mini series published in 1996, starring the two title characters, Sabretooth and Mystique, a pair of the X-Men's most frequent villains. The series was written by Jorge Gonzales with inks by Pier Brito, colors by Kevin Somers and finally Ariel Olivetti doubling on pencils and covert art.
The series is a side-story that takes place during Mystique and Sabretooth's time on X-Factor during the 1995 run of the series, written by Howard Mackie.
Mystique embarks on a mission of her own outside of X-Factor to deal with an old enemy. Given Sabretooth's connection to the same enemy, she frees him from his cell to accompany her on the mission, feeling he can be useful in helping her achieve her revenge. However, Creed also wants revenge on the man, so it's a free-for-all on who gets to him first as the villainous duo try to cooperate long enough to see their goal is completed before they kill one another.
The series provides examples of the following tropes:
- All Love Is Unrequited: "Love" is too strong a word, but Creed has sexual attraction to Mystique -making advances toward her & bringing up their past in Germany. Mystique finds him deplorable & threatens him when he touches her hair.
- All Men Are Perverts: At one point, Creed points out how nice Mystique's scent is when she's angry before stroking her hair and saying he's turned on. Mystique promptly turns into a monstrous version of herself and warns him not to touch her & that they don't have time for his gross innuendos.
- Give Me a Reason: Mystique removes Creed's collar, but keeps it with her and says it's for security. In turn, Creed warns her he'll kill her if she tries to put his collar back on, and he may do it just for thrills so she'd better be careful because he hates being threatened. Mystique lets him know the same and says they'll see who comes out on top.
- Pet the Dog:
- Mystique's core motivation is revenge for not only herself, but what Destiny went through as well with flashbacks once again illustrating how much Mystique loved her.
- Sabretooth wants to kill Cypher, but opts to put his own urges on hold to stop her signal from processing and launching a thermonuclear submarine strike against Russia.
- Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Hydra Agent, Catalyst was a source of this for Creed, whom he tortured for at least a week with Creed getting shivers down his spine at the memory of it years later.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: In order to get away with Sabretooth, Mystique transforms into a large gargoyle-like creature with wings to carry him. She warns him to stop struggling since her strength doesn't change as her form does.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Creed & Mystique clearly. They are capable of teamwork, but they argue like cats & dogs while doing it and complain about each other's methods.
- You Have Failed Me: Cypher murders her underling when he fails to do his job in killing Mystique and Sabretooth.
- Villain Protagonist: The two title characters who both have very few redeeming points.
- Would Hit a Girl: Sabretooth punches Mystique in the face after she pulls a fast one on him and kills the target they both wanted.
