"What the heck is going on?!" Paige asked as she entered the room, having been the last one to get to the medical research room. Although she was fully clothed, her long blonde hair was a dripping mess, with some shampoo still in it. "Couldn't it have waited until I finished my- oh."

Most of the X-Men were gaping up at the roughly human-sized hole in the ceiling, a mixture of confusion, worry, and awe etched into their faces. Few were actually doing anything at the moment—Xavier, Hank, Ororo, Piotr, and (to Paige's surprise) Destiny were currently conversing in hushed tones in a corner of the room, obviously trying to decide what to do next. Maverick was currently in another corner of the medical room, tending to Hisako, who had some bruising around her throat.

"Whoa! Hey, what happened?" Paige said, walking over to the latter two X-Men. "And where's Rogue?"

"That was what Xavier's mental message was all about," Maverick answered. "Destiny showed up a few minutes ago at the Mansion gates, and Xavier picked up on her mental warnings, allowing her in. Apparently Destiny—quite recently—saw that something bad was going to happen with Rogue, and Charles picked up on her thoughts, letting her in."

"So what did Rogue do?" Paige asked.

"Well, you're looking at it," Maverick sighed, giving Hisako a pill.

"What is this for?" Hisako asked, wincing as she did so.

"It's for the pain, it'll help lessen it," Maverick replied quietly. "Though it'll probably make you quite sleepy in short order. Right now you just need to take it easy—try not to talk too much, for one thing."

Hisako eyed the pill for a moment before popping it in her mouth and swallowing it with a bit of effort.

"Rogue suddenly woke up from her coma while Hisako was in here doing her daily system diagnostics, and pinned the poor girl against the wall," Maverick said, pointing to the slight dent in the wall to their left where it had apparently happened.

"Rogue did that?" Paige said.

Hisako started to speak up, but Maverick quietly shushed her. "Hisako said that Rogue was far stronger than she normally was. That, plus, well—look up."

Paige went over and looked at the hole in the ceiling—only to see that it went up not just to the next floor, but the floor after that and the floor after that, continuing until she saw a small patch of the overcast sky far overhead, through five floors total.

"Rogue didn't just have super strength, she could fly," Maverick said. "Plus, she called herself Monet Saint something-or-other before punching up through the floors and out of the Mansion."

"Yeah, the booms were loud enough that practically everyone in the X-Mansion heard it," Roberto chimed in. "Man, it freaked me out—I thought bombs were going off at first. I guess the only reason you didn't hear it was 'cause you were in the shower, Paige."

"I like the new sunroof, though," Jubilee said, smirking slightly. "We could use a little sunlight way down here now and then."

"I do not see how practical it would be to turn such holes into a sunroof," Laura replied. "In addition to the cost and odd construction, the sun would have to be at a very specific angle in order for its rays to get all the way down here."

Jubilee just gave Laura a pointed look of disbelief for a moment. When that didn't work, she turned to Kitty and said exasperatingly, "So when are your 'lessons' with X-23 gonna cover sarcasm, exactly?"

Kitty merely shrugged in reply, most of her attention focused on a handheld scanner with a monitor that she was holding.

"Monet Saint Croix… yes, that name does ring a bell, faintly," Hank was saying in a hushed tone in another corner of the room with most of the other instructors. "That was the Acolyte Rogue inadvertently killed when Magneto's underground tunnels collapsed in on themselves back on Genosha."

Typing on a small laptop he brought with him, Hank looked at the profile document he had pulled up and continued, "Let's see here… according to the debriefing files Fury gave us, her codename was simply 'M'… perhaps both a homage to her 'master' Magneto and the first letter of her real name? Age is—was—twenty at the time of death, and her special powers included—well, there it is... Her known powers were superhuman strength, nearly invulnerable skin, and self-propelled flight."

"That's a pretty impressive suite of powers," Ororo said. "And now Rogue has them and is calling herself by M's true name. Hardly a coincidence."

"It's not," Destiny replied. "Though M's body died during that cave-in, I am certain now that her powers transferred to Rogue's—along with her personality and memories."

"I do not understand," Piotr said. "The powers Rogue exhibits—they are only temporary, and they do not kill the person she touches. And she does not absorb an actual person when she touches them, only bits and pieces of their memories. Am I incorrect in this?"

"Theoretically, if Rogue were to hold onto someone for long enough, she could kill them," Xavier said, frowning. "She's just never done so."

"We did find her lying on top of M, both of them having been trapped under the cave-in," Hank added. "With the power transfer, that would certainly explain why M died but Rogue did not, as she now had—has—M's powers."

"And they had been there for quite a few hours before we found them," Xavier continued. "So Rogue did, apparently, 'touch' M to death."

"Wait a minute," Ororo said, motioning for Xavier and Hank to back up a little. "Using someone else's powers long after she had had physical contact with them, not having control over her own mind… is Rogue going through another 'self-possession' problem here? Is that what we're dealing with?"

"No, something even worse," Destiny said, shaking her head sadly. "They were in contact so long, when Rogue killed M, she didn't just get the Acolyte's powers and a certain aspect of her personality—she absorbed M in her entirety. M's powers, thoughts, experiences, memories—for intents and purposes, she and Rogue are sharing the same brain, the same body right now."

"That… that could be very dangerous," Piotr said, worried. "Especially since M is not exactly friendly to our cause."
"Is it possible that Rogue could have M's brainwave patterns or Mutant signature?" Kitty asked, joining in on the conversation as she stared at her handheld scanner with a look of confusion on her face.

"I suppose so," Hank said. "Why?"
"Well, that would explain why I'm not picking up Rogue's Mutant signature with this little gadget, which as you guys know, taps into Cerebro's systems… do we know what M's Mutant signature is? That way I can automatically filter out all the other Mutants with this thing and focus on where, exactly, Rogue is."

"I'm afraid we don't have any record of M's specific Mutant signature, no," Xavier replied. "Given that she was dead by the time S.H.I.E.L.D. rounded up the remaining Acolytes, they weren't able to record it."

"Then I don't see how we're going to—oh, hold on," Kitty said, interrupting herself. "Okay, Rogue's signature just popped up on the scanner."

"Where?" Ororo asked eagerly.

"Currently, high in the air over central West Virginia," Kitty said. "Man, she is fast if she's already there… she's heading—"

"West," Destiny interjected. "She's heading west… back to Genosha."

Wh…. What's going on? Where am I?

"Rogue" cursed. "And this day just keeps getting worse," she growled, soaring high above the clouds at a supersonic speed, the sun firmly at her back. "I was hoping you had died during the transfer."

…Had died?! What the…

M couldn't help but smirk as the foreign thoughts in "her" brain were mostly silent for a moment, piecing things together.

…Why are you in my body?! And how are we flying?!

"Oh, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience," Rogue said sarcastically in M's voice. "But since you killed me and all, you'll pardon me if I borrow your body for a while until I can get one of my own back."

I knocked you OUT, I didn't—

"The rocks fell on top of us, remember?" M replied. "I'm pretty sure you fell on top of me before I blacked out. I've already figured it out, so I'll save you the trouble—you were on top of me so long, with your skin touching mine, that your drained ALL of my soul—lifeforce, whatever you want to call it—into YOUR body. Thus my physical body died, but my consciousness and powers were transferred to you. And since you robbed me of my nigh-invulnerability, you survived the cave-in."

Look, whatever happened—this. Isn't. YOURS! Now get out of my mind before I MAKE you!

"MAKE me?" M laughed. "I'm in control right now. You can't make me do anything."

Suddenly, Rogue/M started to cringe and convulse in mid-air, her air speed starting to slow down.

Wrong, Rogue thought. I've dealt with many different "people" in my head over so long—I can get rid 'a you easily! You're not real, anyways—just an aspect of the person I absorbed you from!

Rogue/M convulsed more and screamed in protest, until the screaming finally stopped—and Rogue found herself controlling her own body once again.

"And let THAT be a lesson to ya," Rogue sneered, her voice her own again. "NEVER underestimate my willp—"

Rogue was interrupted by the sudden slow-down in the midair, the sonic boom M had created in her wake catching up with Rogue. She covered her ears in pain as the loud sound blasted past her, and to Rogue's terror, she began to plummet towards the clouds below.

"What the- what's going on?!" Rogue yelled, struggling to hear herself over the pounding her ears had just taken as she started to reach terminal velocity. "Why can't I—"

Fly? said M's voice in her head, I'm guessing it's because YOU have control of the body right now. And you can't fly, you idiot!

"That—that shouldn't matter!" Rogue shrieked, nearly hysterical as the clouds quickly rushed up to meet her. "I've ALWAYS been able to use the powers of the Mutants I've absorbed—without even thinking about it, even! I've just… been able to DO it!"

And what did I just tell you? I'm not just some echo of a person—I AM M! Monet Saint Croix! I can fly, and YOU can't!

Rogue winced as she fell into the cloud banks, unable to see her own hands in front of her face now. "So how do you do it, then?!"

Do what?

"FLY!" Rogue screamed. "How do you FLY?!"

Just like with your powers. I just—I just CAN. My powers emerged years ago—I don't even have to think about it anymore.

"Well, think BACK!" Rogue yelled, falling out of the bottom of the cloud bank. Looking down, she could see the heavily forested Appalachian mountains coming up below her. The clouds she had just fallen through were rather high, but still… there wasn't a whole lot of time left. A minute, if that. "How did you LEARN to do it?! I don't have the time to siphon through your memories right now!"

Yeah, like I'm gonna tell YOU.

"WHAT?!" Rogue shrieked. "If you don't show me how, we BOTH die!"

M let out a hurt bark of a laugh in her head. And what exactly do I have to live for, if I can't even control the body I'm in? Forget it. Like I said, you have your powers now. I have mine. And YOU. Can't. Fly.

Rogue was about to protest for a second, but decided that she simply didn't have the time to argue. Plus, what M had been saying did sort of make sense—when Rogue had absorbed other Mutants' powers temporarily, she could almost instantly pull up any memory from that individual's mind, if she knew what she was looking for—yet here she was, conversing with M. She struggled with control of her powers, of the people imprinted upon her sometimes—but she could never have actually conversed with those aspects of the people she had absorbed, since they weren't actual people. This M, she definitely seemed more like a real person in her mind than simply an aspect, a mental "ghost" of one. She reacted to things, came up with thoughts Rogue couldn't anticipate.

There was definitely something very different—and very wrong—here.

Finally, Rogue let out a roar of frustration.

"FINE! I'll let you have control—for NOW."

After a short convulsion again, Rogue smiled and did a swooping arc, flying back up from the tops of the Appalachians that were a mere couple hundred yards below now and quickly accelerating as she ascended up into the cloud bank again.

"Good choice," M smirked.

Like I had one, Rogue thought. So how long are you going to hold my body hostage, anyway? You can't fly forever.

"Oh, you'll want to go where I am just as much as I do," M said. "Don't worry, I intend to get myself out of your mind as quickly as possible."

What? And how exactly are you going to do that?

"I'm heading for Genosha," M replied, now rising above the clouds again, having regained her supersonic speed. "Where my body is. And, hopefully, some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that are still cleaning up the place."

Like they'll help out an Acolyte.

"They will if they want to live," M huffed angrily.

"Aaand now Rogue's signature's gone from the scanners again," Kitty said, quirking an eyebrow as she smacked the remote scanner in her hand a couple of times. "Are you sure this thing is working correctly, Mr. McCoy?"

"Let me see it for a second," Hank said, examining it as Kitty handed it over. "Hrrm… no, it's still scanning correctly. I think Rogue's signature is disappearing because M's is replacing it."

"I'm still not sure how that's even possible," Kitty said. "Is she still physically changing, like she did during that whole 'self-possessed' thing? I thought she only did that because she had absorbed Mystique's powers, too…"

"No," Hisako said weakly from a corner of the room, her hand on her throat. "It was somebody else's voice… coming out of Rogue's body."

"For all intents and purposes, Rogue and M are sharing the same form, and whoever has control at that moment can use their own powers," Destiny said. "We need to leave, now, if we're going to stop a lot of bloodshed. We need to go to Genosha."

"Hold on… 'we'?" Ororo said, crossing her arms. "And why exactly would we bring you with us? You've been allied with the Brotherhood ever since we've known you, and you willingly manipulated Rogue—your own daughter, in name if not in blood—into joining the Brotherhood when you knew she wouldn't have done so without Mystique's… intervention."

"Mystique is… no more," Destiny sighed, "And the Brotherhood is gone without her. There's still remnants of the global network she had set up left, but without her directing everything, it's likely someone else in another country will take the reins—or, perhaps, it will disintegrate entirely. It's too early to tell."

"Global network?" Kitty mouthed to Hank, who looked equally alarmed at that confession.

"Wait, how would you not know what is going to happen?" Piotr asked Destiny. "You can see the future, correct?"

Destiny sighed in exasperation, it obvious that she was getting tired of having to explain this to people. "I do not outright see the future, Colossus—if I did, do you think I'd be living in a one-story home in Mississippi? Think about it. I'd have played the stock market and made myself—and the Brotherhood-rich a long time ago. No, I see probabilities, likely pathways that events will take—and even then, I'm only outright certain when it's the very near future, as in the next few minutes. The further away we go from that, the less certain I am and the more foggy and general my perception of things is. Once we get further into the future than a few months, I have only the vaguest notion of even the most significant upcoming events."

"Then how can we trust that you know what is going to happen to Rogue?" Piotr frowned.

"Because it's going to happen in just a few hours, you big metal simpleton," Destiny snarled. "And although I'm not absolutely certain, my visions have shown me that it is VERY probable right now and getting more likely with each passing second."

"Simpleton?!" Colossus growled, changing into his steel form. "Why are we taking this from her?"

"Calm yourself, Piotr," Xavier said sternly, rolling in between the two arguing Mutants. "And you as well, Irene. You surrendered yourself to our care because you were worried about your daughter—and I can tell that your concern for her is genuine, even if I… question your methods in the past. Nevertheless, this does not mean that we will give you free reign here. Do not push us."

"Right… understood," Destiny said, sighing. "Let's just… get this over with."

"So we're just going to trust her?" Paige asked. "Rogue isn't the only who's been lied to about the 'lofty aims' of the Brotherhood, after all."

"I scanned her mind before I let her in in the first place," Xavier explained. "She is telling the truth, Paige. But rest assured, I'll keep an eye—and my mind—on her."

"You have to know I have nothing to gain from leading any of you astray," Destiny explained. "I can see pathways and probabilities, that's it. I can't punch through buildings, fling projectiles around, or read minds like many of you can. Even if you don't believe that I care about Rogue in this, you have to believe that I wouldn't lie to you simply for my own safety, at the very least."

"She is sorta making sense," Kitty confessed.

"Alright, let's get going on this before Rogue gets any further away," Xavier said. "Storm, suit up and prep the X-Jet."

"Will do," Storm nodded, quickly making her way out of the room.

"You realize that Rogue is moving so fast she's still going to beat us to Genosha, even with the Blackbird at its max speed?" Hank asked Xavier.

"Yes, of course—and that's why more than just Destiny and I are going to accompany Ororo," Xavier explained. "We're going to need Mutants who can restrain Rogue, but without accidentally hurting her or themselves in the process. Jean would normally be my first choice in a situation like this, but of course she and Scott left on their honeymoon a few hours ago. So, in addition to Storm—Nightcrawler, Mercury, Iceman, Multiple—I've going to need you all suited up and ready to go, as well. Beast, Shadowcat—you both stay on communications, in case we need anything further from you. The rest of you, try to repair those holes in the ceiling."

"Awesome, combat duty!" Bobby said eagerly as the rest of those Xavier had addressed went out of the room to suit up.

"Yeah, against Rogue," Jubilee said, shaking her head. "Just be careful, Bobby."

"Oh, I know that," Bobby said, grinning. "I'm excited because I don't have to just stay here and plaster up those holes in the ceiling all day, unlike some unlucky X-Men."

For that, Iceman got a blast of fireworks in the face.

What're you doing?

"It's called landing," M sneered, falling quickly towards a small gray line far below in the Nevada desert that quickly grew larger, becoming clear that it was an interstate highway. "Maybe you should learn it some time."

Cut it out, y'know what I mean. We haven't even hit the Pacific yet—why are you stopping?

"I'm getting weak," M admitted, pausing as she landed on the middle of the desert highway with a sudden BOOM, a cloud of dust and dirt being launched into the air from the impact. As the debris cleared, Rogue saw that the asphalt under which she stood was cracked in concentric circles outwards from the impact point.

Could've fooled me.

"Relatively," M said. "You think I can make it halfway around the world without a bite to eat? I mean, I guess I could sleep too, but I'm in a bit of a hurry."

Wait a minute, Rogue thought as M turned towards a nearby truck stop in the Nevada desert and she felt M's-her—leg muscles tense. You're not—

"I am," M smirked as she launched herself forward, in the blink of an eye smashing through the front windows of the stop and landing right in front of a shocked waitress.

The few present in the truck stop immediately starting yelling and heading for cover, but the stunned waitress didn't have time to even duck before M's arm shot out and grabbed hers.

Tears started to come out of the overweight woman's eyes as M twisted her arm backwards.

"I'm in a bit of a hurry," M said sadistically as the waitress grunted, her arm bent at such an angle that it would surely break if M pushed it back much further. "So get me something that doesn't take long to-nnnngh…"

"I…. I'm so sorry," Rogue apologized, now back in control of her own body as she abruptly let the waitress go, who quickly ran into the kitchen. "I'm not myself—I didn't mean—"

No! What are you doing?! M thought, now stuck as a spectator for the moment.

"I'm taking back over, now that I'm on the ground!" Rogue growled. "And you're not gettin' back out, now that I think I'm getting the hang 'a this."

Then I hope you've got a plan to get out of this.

"'A course I do!" Rogue said. "I'll call Professor X, have him wire this place some cash, an' then—"

A loud blast sounded out from behind Rogue, and she felt a sudden intense pain in her leg.

As Rogue collapsed to the ground, crying out in pain from a pistol blast to her lower left leg, one of the truckers who had taken cover underneath a table stood up, a stunned look on his face.

"W-wow… I didn't actually expect that t'work…" the older man admitted.

Nice, Rogue. M thought. You gonna let me back in control now?

"Never!" Rogue seethed, struggling to stand back up.

"Never what?" the trucker asked, his attitude quickly getting more cocky as he aimed his pistol at Rogue's head. "Listen up, you psycho littl' Mutie, you think you can blow in here and do whatever you want just 'cause you got powers? You can't. Move and yer dead."

You don't let me take control now and we're both dead.

Fine! Rogue thought back. I'd rather die than just let you kill and bully people around in MY body!

Here? Now? Oh, but Rogue, you have so much to live for! Don't you want to ever see your X-Men friends again?

"Shut UP!" Rogue yelled.

"Oh, now yer backtalkin'?" the trucker said, whacking Rogue in the side of the head with his pistol. "That's it, I'm puttin' your butt down."

Last chance.

…If you harm or kill anybody else here, I WILL take control back. No matter what we're doing, Rogue thought back. Got it?

"Deal," M sneered, back in control of Rogue's body just as the trucker fired his pistol at her head. To his surprise, the bullet ricocheted off of Rogue/M's head, and before he could respond, M simply stood back up, pushed the trucker hard enough to knock him off his feet but not hard enough to seriously harm him, and then grabbed the man's unfinished dinner from his table before running out of the diner, stuffing the food into her mouth.

"I can't believe I'm finishing leftovers," M groaned. "As soon as I get back in my own body, Rogue, I'm going to kill you. Slowly."

We'll see about that, Rogue thought back as M ran out onto the highway, hurriedly grabbing some of the remaining food in her fists and then taking off back into the sky.

The uncomfortably silent trip in the Blackbird was interrupted by the cockpit's comlink suddenly clicking on.

*Storm, are you there?* Beast's voice came through. *Storm, come in.*

"I'm here, Beast," Storm said, taking a hand away from the controls and pressing down on the call answer button. "What is it?"

*Kitty just picked up a report of an attempted robbery at a truck stop in the middle of Nevada. Reports said the girl seemed very confused and kept arguing with herself. Security camera footage just came in, shows that it's Rogue. Trucker attempted to stop her, but was rebuffed.*

"Rogue didn't-" Storm began, fearing the answer.

*No, no one's dead, thank goodness,* Beast replied. *But there was some fairly significant property damage, along with some minor theft—someone's dinner, apparently, before Rogue took off again.*

"Wait, arguing with herself?" Nightcrawler said from his seat, a bit excitedly. "That means that Rogue's fighting back!"

"Yes, but apparently it wasn't enough," Xavier replied, "as we're still tracking her due west. She's about halfway between California and Hawaii at this point. We're catching up to her—slowly—but she'll still arrive at Genosha about twenty minutes before we do, given our current estimated trajectories."

"Thanks for the information, Beast—keep us in the loop," Storm said in thanks before taking her hand off the call answer button.

"Is this what you were talking about when you said that Rogue was going to cause a lot of bloodshed?" Iceman asked Destiny. "'Cause it looks like we just dodged a bullet, there."

"No," Destiny sighed. "No, the bloodshed will be on Genosha."

After a few moments of silence, Iceman asked, "So… is that it? Or can you give us any more hints—y'know, something that actually might HELP us when we're fighting one of our own?"

"Bobby…" Xavier began, his voice stern.

"Well come ON, what are her powers good for anyways if she can't help us here?!" Iceman replied, exasperated. "I mean, wow, we would've found out something was wrong with Rogue a whole MINUTE later if she hadn't showed up…"

"You don't think I get frustrated with the limitation of my powers sometimes, too?!" Destiny retorted. "Often even when I can see something very concrete, I myself am helpless to do anything about it—I often had to call on Mystique, which itself took even more time… Look, all I can tell you right now is that the longer we wait, the harder it will be to undo this. …Perhaps if I could've seen just a bit more into the future, I could've kept Rogue from join- Look, just… nevermind."

"W-wait a minute," Mercury cut in after a moment of silence. "After all this, you still… would've preferred it if Rogue had stayed with the Brotherhood? Even after seeing what's happened to them—h-how they were used all this time?!"

"Don't get me wrong, I wasn't thrilled with most of the other individuals Mystique had recruited—though in her defense, Magneto was running the show at that time…" Destiny said, pinching her sinuses. "But Rogue, she… she would've been good for the cause, I think."

"So the cause matters more than telling your own daughter the truth," Mercury said, crossing her arms.

Everyone in the rear seats except Destiny turned towards Mercury, surprised—it was very unlike Cessily to be so unapologetically frank.

"What? I'll never understand such m-mindsets. Especially given how good my own mom was to me…"

"You don't think this was a hard decision for me to make, after how attached I had grown to her during the years she was with me?" Destiny shot back. "At first I had loathed the responsibility, Mystique dumping this little girl in my lap. I had obviously never had a child myself, never gotten married—could you imagine someone marrying someone else who could predict the future—and was blind, as well? No, that was never going to happen.

"But Mystique, clever as she was, knew how to get me past that. One day—shortly after I had been recruited into Mystique's burgeoning Brotherhood network—we had happened to pass by an orphanage as we were talking. I had a vision almost instantaneously—oddly intense and far-reaching—that a girl in that orphanage would eventually become a very powerful Mutant, instrumental in the fate not just of us, but of the world. Mystique immediately stopped the limo, took me out, and took me into the orphanage and asked me which girl. (By this point, I assume, she had morphed into someone else that wouldn't have drawn as much attention.) At first, I was convinced she was joking. But as soon as I heard the girl's voice amongst the others, I immediately picked it out. I didn't know how I knew, but I did. She then thanked me for my help, took us back out, and we went back into her limo and continued on our trip. I figured Mystique would come back and adopt the girl via some other alter-ego later, and thought that that was it as far as I was concerned.

"I must admit it was one of the few surprises in my life when she showed up at my door the next week, the little girl with her. It must have been a rather sudden, spur-of-the-moment decision for her—something very improbable, or I would've seen it coming. I'm not sure what had suddenly driven her to adopt the girl under my name, but she had. Anyway, when she handed the recent adoptee over to me, she only called the little girl by the name 'Rogue'. Obviously that wasn't her actual name, and I immediately asked her to cut it out with the codenames and tell me the girl's real name, if I was going to be taking care of her. But she wouldn't. She told me if I called the girl by her real name, we'd get too attached. It'd be too difficult to give her up when Rogue's powers manifested, she had said. So I was to only call her Rogue—a codename. To think of her as a means to an end, something impersonal, a tool to be used—and a person a far, distant second, if at all. And of course, Rogue was only four at the time, so she doesn't remember her own real name, either. As far as she's concerned, it's always been simply 'Rogue', as I'm sure you all know by now.

"Believe it or not, Mystique's attempt to de-humanize Rogue actually made me accept the responsibility, at first. Mystique, she knew that given the combination of my blindness and my powers, that I would deliberately shut off any real connection with anybody to avoid being used later—I was a shut-in, a hermit, and I didn't want to change that. So at first, I accepted Mystique's rationale.

"I don't think I'd say I treated Rogue badly for the first several months she was with me, but I certainly didn't even attempt to connect with her. I did the minimum required, and that was it. But of course, the little girl grew on me—she saw my blindness and uncanny ability to 'see' much of what was coming as something cool and wondrous, not something to use against me. We quickly grew close, though she occasionally referred to things we had done together that we never, in fact, had—I eventually figured out that Mystique had been spending short stints of her time with Rogue too despite herself, in my form. I never made much of it, though, for fear that Mystique would take her away from me.

"Of course, when she became a teen, Rogue rebelled a bit, as nearly all of you teenagers do. That didn't make it any easier on me when her powers manifested and I had to give her up to Mystique—and then worst of all to YOU lot, after Rogue found out the truth about what happened that night.

"But as much as I'm loathe to admit it—yes, Mercury, you're right. The cause is—well, WAS—more important than my daughter. I think that you all—given all you've been through for YOUR cause—would understand that."

Mercury looked ready to respond angrily, but abruptly shut her mouth and turned away, looking out the side window.

She had to glance over at Iceman in surprise, though, when he said exactly what she almost had.

"Y'know what, Destiny—Irene?" Bobby began coldly. "I know the whole point of that bit was to try to drum up some sympathy for you, but all it's made me realize is how much better off Rogue's been with us—y'know, people who see her as something more than a pawn in the end, even if she's a pawn you 'love'. So here, you can take my sympathies and you can shove 'em."

The rest of the voyage continued on in a rather uncomfortable silence.

"There it is," M said. "On the horizon—Genosha. Finally, this whole nightmare is almost over."

So, how d' you know your plan's gonna work?

"I don't KNOW, but it's worth a-" Suddenly M/Rogue's eyes grew wide and she stopped, hovering in mid-air. "Wait a minute, how do YOU know MY plan? I never told you it."

I just- wait, you DIDN'T tell me?

"NO."

There was silence from Rogue, though M could tell that this made her feel even uneasier than M herself did.

Cursing, M sped up even more as she began her slow descent. "Somehow our minds are starting seep into each other…. I've got to get out of this body NOW."

Although there's nothing more I want than t' get you outta my body—especially if neither of us are gonna have any privacy any more—I don't know if I like your plan. You better not hurt anyone.

"I won't—I don't want YOU taking back control and having us getting shot again. Though once I'm back in my own body—no promises, of course."

There was silence from Rogue's end, though M knew—somehow—that Rogue had wanted to "say" something, but didn't.

"…What?"

…You're lying. You're planning on killing anyone you come across, if that's what it comes down to.

"How did-" M groaned. "Right. I guess there's no use in trying to lie to you any more, is there?"

No. Though looking back through your memories, I'm not sure why you feel you're so darn entitled to everything. Money, some kinda utopian kingdom, and now you think that if you can't get your own body, you'll push me out of mine.

"Because YOU PUT ME IN HERE!" M screamed.

Not on purpose…. But seeing what you've got goin' on inside your own head, I probably shoulda just killed you instead…

"Oh, that is IT, this is WAR now," M yelled as she continued to close in on the island. They were close enough now that they were able to make out individual buildings and structures—S.H.I.E.L.D. had built back up a few, but most were still in ruins from the battle months earlier. "You want this body back, I DARE you to take it from me. There's no way I'm relinquishing control until I'm out of here."

There was silence for a moment before Rogue simply replied, Typical.

Since they were already starting to read each others' minds, M didn't have to ask what Rogue had implied by that comment; she knew. "You have a problem with my upbringing, Rogue? It was certainly better than the single-floor hovel where YOU grew up."

I don't hate you 'cause you are—well, you were—brought up in a rich family. If I did, you think I'd be with the X-Men? Professor Xavier's the richest person I've ever met, and Angel's not far behind 'im. No, I hate you because you take your money for granted—think you're entitled to it, even though you didn't do a thing personally to earn it.

"I'm. A. Mutant," M growled as the island quickly grew to encompass their entire field of vision. "Homo superior. It's time we as a species lived up to it—and I'll show you just how superior we are!"

*You see that?*

"Looks like an incoming Mutie," said the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent into his communicator. "Just like Professor Xavier warned us about. An X-Man gone rogue."

*No, her name is Rogue.*

"Give me a break. What kind of a name is Rogue? At best it's the Mutant's codename."

*Look, just—forget it, okay, Menard? Do we have the turrets operational?*

"Yeah, I'm manning one of 'em," Agent Menard said, his tone a little confrontational. Since the Genoshan battle, the remaining towers surrounding the island had been partially torn down and re-converted into electrical cannons. There was also a fairly small garrison force of about two dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives left on the island, both to help finish the clean-up and as a precaution against any other copycat Mutants trying to rebuild their own home on S.H.I.E.L.D. soil.

"But this rogue X-Man—or Rogue, whatever—" Agent Menard continued, "It's not heading for us."

*Wait, what? Why would it go through all the trouble to fly halfway around the world and then not try to take out us first?*

"I dunno, but I remember from the briefing we got that the X-Man was really confused. You better get your butt out here, she just- Ooooo! That's gotta hurt…"

*What?! What happened?*

"She just plummeted face first into the beach sand—near where most of the Acolyte graves were. Get your gun, get everyone who's not manning a turret down there—see if she's dead or not."

I'm not letting you do this!

"Ahh, see, but that's where you're-" Rogue said in M's voice, before it abruptly switched to Rogue's again. "-RIGHT! You AIN'T killing these-"

"—S.H.I.E.L.D. agents?! I've seen your past experiences with them, Rogue—they've played you enough times where I know you don't have enough much respect for them."

"Especially not in comparison to YOU, who've—"

"—tried to help secure our rightful place in the world?! Well, excuuuse me!"

A few S.H.I.E.L.D. scouts were watching the bizarre scene unfold before them on the beach. They themselves were hiding behind some palms near the tree line on the shore, their guns powered up and ready—but they couldn't seem to tear their eyes away from the teenage girl arguing with herself—in different voices, in the middle of the beach.

"You ever seen anything like that?" one of the scouts whispered to the other. "I mean, I heard of havin' multiple personalities, but this is pretty… ridiculous."

"I'm not sure what this girl's problem is," said the taller and bulkier of the two, "But it's clear she isn't going to come peacefully with us if we make our presence known. Take her out now and ask questions later when the other X-Men get here."

"You sure that's a good idea?" said the first scout as the other leaned over the side of the tree he was hiding behind and lined up a shot. "I mean, this clearly has somethin' to do with this Mutie's powers—if we neutralize them—"

"—then she no longer poses a threat," said the second scout, looking through his scope. "Any problems she has after that, we can deal with."

The first scout sighed and activated his communicator. "This is Agent Simmons to all incoming personnel. The target is alive and well—repeat, alive and well. Approach quickly, but cautiously. We're lining up the first shot, but she's still clearly unstable."

*Roger that.*

"How are you-nnngh- resisting me this time?!" Rogue asked herself—in her own voice.

"You're not the only one who's getting the lay of the land—so to speak," Rogue said, back in M's voice.

"So then which one are we looking for, then?" Rogue snapped back to M—in her own voice. "There's tons of graves here, and they're all unmarked. How do we know- AGH!"

A pinkish radiation blast quickly shot out from the beach's tree line, striking Rogue directly in the chest and knocking her back to the ground.

NO!

"Got the target, repeat, GOT the target!" said the bulkier S.H.I.E.L.D. agent into his communicator, as he and his fellow scout ran out from their cover positions, their power-neutralizing guns that had been reverse-engineered from Nimrod technology still gripped tightly in their hands. "Shouldn't be any problem anymore— OOF!"

"That's what YOU think," M laughed mirthlessly, having flew forward and punched the S.H.I.E.L.D agent so hard in his jaw that she had instantly knocked him out. "Thanks for weakening Rogue enough with those guns of yours to give me better control, though!"

NO! Rogue thought, trapped within her own body—despite her best struggles to regain control again. You can't do this, you little—

"Who are you calling 'little'?" M said. "Don't you remember—I was taller than you."

The remaining conscious S.H.I.E.L.D scout aimed his gun nervously at M/Rogue, who quickly slapped it out of his hands, the force of the slap sending it spiraling into the ocean water.

"How are you still using your powers?!" the agent said in a panic, beginning to back up a few steps despite himself.

"That's for me to know and you NOT to find out," M said, picking up the agent by the scruff of his collar and crushing one of his hands as he tried to reach for a spare gun strapped to his side.

That blast must've neutralized my powers—or a least weakened 'em—enough for YOU to take over… great…

"Now, I'm going to need some information," M said in a disturbingly sweet tone. "Which one of these graves is mine?"

That's enough already, you sadistic-

"Wh-what?" the agent responded, barely managing to grunt out the reply over the pain of his mangled hand.

"Oh, right," M replied distressingly before rephrasing her question: "Which of these graves contains the body of M? Monet Saint Croix—one of Magneto's Acolytes?"

"I—I don't know!" the agent said quickly. "We just dumped the bodies in coffins and then into the graves—we didn't keep track, I swear!"

"Then I guess I'll have to do this the dirty way," M said, turning towards the rows of unmarked sandy graves as she flung the agent several dozen yards. If he didn't die on impact, he certainly didn't move to show that he wasn't.

Getting down on her hands and knees, M began scooping handfuls of sand off the tops of the nearest grave and tossing them into the air as fast as she could.

After about a minute, she saw the top part of a coffin. Getting more excited, she began to dig even faster, and it wasn't long at all before she took the top half and cracked it off of its handle, flinging it behind her on the beach.

M wasn't expecting to get lucky enough to find her body in the very first grave she had dug out—but what she found was far worse than the expected "fresh" corpse of one her former teammates.

"No…. NO!" M screamed, tears starting to come out of her—or, rather, Rogue's—cheeks as she knelt down over the body. "It's too far gone… already too far decayed… there's no WAY I could transfer my mind into a body in this shape! Rogue… Rogue, HOW LONG HAVE WE BEEN OUT?!"

I… I don't know any more than you do!

M cursed and pounded the corpse in front of her, over and and over again, tears coming out in gasps until the Acolyte's dead body was a pile of mush. "I just want my own LIFE BACK! Why did this happen to me? WHY!?"

"Don't move!" they both heard, and looked up to see roughly two dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents bearing down on them, all of them armed to the teeth—and with "real" guns this time, not the power nullifiers the scouts had brought with them.

"I don't know what's going on here, you 'rogue'," said Agent Menard, "But it stops now, you hear it? This is island is S.H.I.E.L.D. property again, and you're trespassing on it. Surrender now and we won't hurt—"

Menard never got to finish his sentence, as M had suddenly launched herself up and flown into the agent's body so hard that his torso separated from his limbs almost instantaneously from the sheer force of the impact. Menard was dead before he had even realized what had happened.

"Who's NEXT, you bunch of—" M began.

I WILL NOT LET YOU DO THIS! Rogue "thought" as "loudly" as she could, but M was beyond paying attention to her anymore.

You're not the only one, Rogue, interjected a familiar voice into their mind.

M turned around, confused at the sudden OTHER voice in her head, but didn't have time to react before Nightcrawler bamfed into existence right behind her.

M cursed just as the blue Mutant leapt at her, teleporting them both into a nearby cave—one that Nightcrawler had used during their covert mission in Genosha a few months ago.

M threw Nightcrawler off of her, who grunted as he impacted the cave wall behind them both pretty hard.

No sooner had M turned back around then she felt an extremely cold blast hit her body, freezing her in place.

Inside the temporary frozen prison, both M and Rogue assessed the situation—elsewhere in the cave were Iceman, Mercury, Storm, and several Multiples guarding Professor X in front of the Blackbird, which had landed outside the cave's entrance. Not only that, but next to Xavier was—

-Irene? Is that you?! Rogue thought before she could stop herself.

M smirked. Irene? Who's…. oh, right. Your "mother". New priority target, then.

NO!

"Everyone, she's changed her target—she's going for Destiny," Xavier yelled, which M now definitely recognized as the other voice that had been in her mind a moment earlier. "Her mind is too muddled, I can't get a hold of it right now."

"Rogue, please!" Nightcrawler coughed from behind M. "You've got to fight this 'M' person!"

M cracked the ice around her easily, sending shards flying everywhere.

"Sorry, Rogue's not here—care to leave your name and number?" she grinned before launching herself at Iceman, who instinctively began to put up a defensive ice wall in front of him—which of course didn't work. M/Rogue slammed through the ice barrier easily and into Iceman, sandwiching the X-Man in between her and the cave wall behind him—the impact was loud and hard enough to create an Iceman-shaped crater in the wall.

"She's right—Rogue's not in control now, for whatever reason," Xavier said.

"We have to stop this, before their minds meld together any further!" Destiny warned.

"My thoughts exactly," M smiled as she stepped away from Iceman. The latter slumped to the ground, unconscious, his ice "skin" around him the only thing that had saved him from having his bones and organs crushed from the impact.

M began to launch herself at Destiny—only to find herself stuck to the ground, a silver puddle anchoring her legs.

"You're not going anywhere," Mercury burbled.

"First and only warning—let go of me," M snarled.

"Not until you hear us out," Mercury said.

"Not. Interested," M said, emphasizing each word with a punch in the middle of Mercury, the sheer force of the impact sending the puddle splashing outwards, despite Cessily's best efforts to stay solidified around M/Rogue's feet.

Flying towards Destiny again, M was immediately blown back by an intensely strong gust of wind directed at her from Storm.

"You're quite powerful, I'll give you that," Storm said, yelling to make herself heard over the roar of the winds she was manipulating. "Unfortunately, you're also quite predictable."

M managed to regain her momentum in mid-air and began accelerating towards Storm, but Storm responded by increasing the wind speed. Minor stalactites and stalagmites in the cavern started to crumble from the intense force, but M was still managing to overcome the winds, slowly but surely.

"You…can't…. keep me… back… forever!" M screamed in fury from the middle of the makeshift wind tunnel. "This cave will… collapse… if you make this… any stronger!"

"I don't need to," Storm said confidently as dozens of Multiple duplicates surged around her, literally throwing themselves at M. The Acolyte possessing Rogue's body withstood the first couple of duplicates thrown at her with a groan, but eventually had to give under the weight, giving up suddenly and sending herself—and the Multiples piled in front of her—into the back wall of the cave far behind her, hard.

As the wind quickly died down and the unconscious duplicates faded out of existence around the crater she had made in the rear cave wall, M shook her head. Before she could so much as get up, though, more Multiple duplicates dove on her. Grunting, she threw a few back into the cave ceiling, only to have several more take her place. After a few more swings, M realized she was finally beaten and stopped struggling as Professor X and Destiny cautiously made their way up to her, Storm flanking them and clearly willing to unleash her powers again if M so much as made a move.

"You can't do this!" M screamed. "I'm still a person—a Mutant, like you! I have rights!"

And I don't?

"You're absolutely right, Monet," Xavier replied. "Unfortunately, you forfeited those rights when you became involved with a genocidal terrorist."

"Then lock me up and throw away the key—whatever you want!" M said desperately. "Just give me my body back!"

"Xavier, we're rapidly running out of time!" Destiny interrupted. "If you don't get this done within the next few minutes…."

"Understood," Xavier said, and placed his fingers on his temples, concentrating.
"NO!" M screamed, and began thrashing violently, throwing Multiple duplicates off of her in multiple directions—all of the Jamie dupes fading as soon as they were launched away from her. "No…. no…"

Suddenly, she stopped, and Rogue blinked and shook her head. In her own voice once again, she asked, "Am… am I me again?"

"…Sort of," Destiny said. Even though she was blind and her eyes hidden behind shaded sunglasses, Rogue could tell that if her foster mother were able, she would have averted her gaze from her daughter at that moment.

"…What do you mean, 'sort of'?" Rogue asked.

…What's going on? Am I… am I still here?

"Oh HECK no," Rogue said angrily, immediately standing up (now that a hoard of Jamies were no longer covering her body). "Why is she still in my head?!"

"Your minds—though mostly separate—are now linked, to a limited extent," Xavier replied, steepling his fingers. "…I imagine this isn't a complete surprise to you."

"So?!" Rogue said. "I don't want another person—especially this person—in my head! I don't care if I lose a few memories or whatever, get rid of 'er!"

Huh. For all the high-and-mighty talk about making sure I don't kill anybody, you're certainly willing to kill me.

You're already dead, Rogue thought back. You just haven't realized it yet.

…Shut up.

"Rogue, it's not that simple," Xavier explained. "This isn't the same situation as when you were 'self-possessed'. Those personalities I erased from your mind back then—they were mere fragments of people, not real. This person—Monet, M, whoever you want to call her—she's… well, as you might have gathered by now, she's a full person. And, from what I've glimpsed from her mind, her plan was to lure us back here and get her mind transferred back into her own body by holding yours hostage. However, neither of you had any idea that it's been three months since you went into a coma."

"Three months?!" Rogue said, M's thoughts echoing hers.

"I understand that this is a bit shock for you—and certainly a burden," Xavier replied. "But, well…. I suppose this would be simpler if I talked to M directly. May I?"

"She's right inside here," Rogue shrugged. "Talk to her."

Let me out! …Why can't I retake control again?!

"Although Monet is still in your mind, I installed a bit of mental block," Xavier said, as if in direct answer to M's questions. "She can still become 'dominant' and take control of your body—but only if you allow her to."

"And why would I wanna do that again?" Rogue asked.

"Rogue, honey, the X-Men are ready if she tries anything," Destiny said. Behind her, Rogue saw Storm, Multiple, and Mercury—who had been helping Nightcrawler walk up towards the others- tense slightly in response. "But to figure this out—if we're going to figure this out—we need to talk to her directly."

"Fine," Rogue groaned. "But I can re-take control again if I want to, right?"

"Of course," Xavier replied.

Rogue's eyes started to roll back into her head for second, but then quickly re-focused, her facial expression abruptly changing.

"So, are you going to get me out of here or what?" Rogue now said in M's voice.

"I don't think you're in much of a position to make demands," Xavier said, his eyes narrowing. "However, if you're willing to work with us, perhaps we can work with you in turn."

"Don't give me that," M said, crossing her arms. "You want me out of here so you can have your Rogue back."

"I won't deny that," Xavier replied. "But that doesn't mean you won't get a second chance at life in turn."

"And what if I liked my first try? …Well, other than letting you all get the better of us."

"Make no mistake," Xavier said, his tone lowering as his voice—uncharacteristically—became slightly threatening. "If you become too unruly and refuse to cooperate, I will erase as much of you as I can from Rogue's mind. I will not allow one of my students to live a tortured existence, even if it means I have to erase you to do it."

Why can't he just do it anyways for a piece of trash like you? Rogue thought.

M was visibly taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered. "Alright, then. What… what are your terms?"

"I think both you and I know that I am your most probable way into your own body again," Xavier said, leaning back again as his tone returned to normal. "Since it's been three months, you obviously know that your real body is no longer capable of supporting life—it's decayed too much to the point where even if we were to jumpstart your heart and did a blood transfusion, you would die within seconds."

"Get to the point."

"My point is, IF you cooperate with us and our goals, IF you leave Rogue alone enough to be her own person and take a 'backseat' to her own wants and needs, and IF you promise not to simply go on a rampage as soon I transfer your mind out of Rogue, I will work very hard at finding a way to get you into a different body so that you can be your own person again. Whether it's via some sort of cloning technique, or perhaps a transfer into some kind of mechanical body—I'm not sure. It would take a great deal of time and research to figure out, that's for certain. But if you agree to all of these terms, I WILL do it—of that, I promise you."

Then what do I get in return for all this?! Rogue thought.

M looked back and forth between Xavier and the stern faces of Destiny and the rest of the X-Men. After a few moments, she finally sighed. "Well, if that's what it takes—fine. Yes. I… agree to your terms."

M/Rogue's face tightened briefly, and her expression changed abruptly again, her expression and posture now obviously Rogue's. "Well, that's just dandy for her, but what about ME? This is my body in the first place, and even though it might hurt me a little, you COULD get rid of 'er, Professor. So why won't you?"

"Rogue, as I said before, she's a real person," Xavier said. "Even though she was an Acolyte, it doesn't seem quite right to—"

"You're dodging the question," Rogue frowned. "…Why?"

"Because you both need to be in there… at least for a while," Destiny interjected. "My vision clarified shortly before we arrived here on Genosha—that if we were successful in separating your and Monet's minds, we'd need you—the world would need you both, desperately. And soon."

"So we're basing all of this on one of your visions?!"

"Rogue," Destiny began, "I know there's been some hard feelings between us lately, but you knew from growing up under my care that my visions—"

"Maybe I emphasized the wrong part 'a that sentence," Rogue interrupted. "So we're basing all of this on one of your visions? You, who I trusted—trusted more'n anybody, who was such a great mom for as long as I can remember, and then you LIE to me on the most frightening night 'a my life and try to get me to join up under the Brotherhood again?"

"Rogue, honey, please—"

"NO! No, you don't get ta call me 'honey' ever again! You never even showed up again after that night," Rogue said, a few tears starting to trickle from her eyes despite herself. "Y'just left me out there, not knowin' what I was doing, in with the wrong crowd… I've never even seen you since then, and now you're suddenly back and asking ME to trust YOU? No… No, Irene. Not ever again."

Destiny's head dropped, her expression hurt, but her silence acknowledging the truth in what Rogue said.

"Rogue, don't do this for her," Xavier said. "Do this for me. Please. If we've got something coming soon that we're going to need you for—again, I realize that—than we have to be ready. From what little Destiny has seen and told me, this… event, whatever it is- going to be something more disastrous than anything we've faced yet—we're going to need every advantage we can get. I understand how much this is asking of you… but Irene was the one who pointed us in the right direction when M gained control of your mind, and she's the one who knew what had to be done to… stabilize this situation."

Rogue's head drooped for a moment, in thought.

Slowly, she looked up again at Nightcrawler- who was rubbing his back, but otherwise seemed none the worse for wear.

"Kurt? What d' you think?"

"I trust the Professor—after all we've been through," Nightcrawler shrugged. "But I get if you wouldn't be up for it—I don't know if I would, that's for sure."

Rogue was about to respond when the clattering of a couple of small pebbles falling down from the top of the cave mouth sounded out, and everyone turned their attention directly to the source as a few S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers slowly made their way down to the beachside cave and entered, their weapons readied.

"Ah, so here's where you went," one of the soldiers said. "It looks like things are under control, now."

"Yes, they are," Storm replied. "Thank you."

Rogue eyed the weapons the soldiers were carrying, and then turned back to Xavier, a slight smirk appearing on her face. "Okay, I'll do it—for now. On one condition…"

I can't believe you used that thing for THIS.

"Haven't you ever had someone else you were… y'know… kinda interested in?" Rogue asked the voice in her head. "Especially if the other guy you were kinda interested in was… well… taken?"

She was currently leaning on the outside of the Mansion gates, holding something behind her back and out of view of anyone approaching. The sun was going down behind the horizon, giving the whole area a very orangish tint that was magnified even more with the fall trees' leaves. In the distance, she heard the distinct rumble of a motorcycle—and it was getting closer.

Yeah, I have… but this guy… you don't know where he stands. At least YOU know I hate your guts… though I have to admit, Professor X treats all of you better than Magneto had led us to believe…

"Well, it's only been a day," Rogue mumbled as the motorcycle rumbled up to her, its owner bringing it to a stop a couple yards away and slowly approaching her. "Once you're with us for a longer period 'a time, you'll learn that that's not the ONLY thing Magneto was lyin' to y'all about."

"I'm here, Rogue," Gambit said, walking slowly up to her, with just a hint of caution in his demeanor. "I heard about all that… crazyness… that went on yesterday. You sure you're… alright, cherie?"

"Yep," Rogue said, taking a couple of slow steps further towards Gambit. "The Prof says I've recovered fully from the coma, even if my arms and legs are a little weak from the lack 'a exercise an' everything. I just have, y'know… a spectator for the time being."

"Spectator"... I hate my life…

"It ain't too late to have the Prof take you out," Rogue warned M.

"You talking to that new voice in your head?" Gambit said, smirking a little.

Huh, you weren't kidding…. he IS kinda hot—especially with those eyes of his…

"Yep," Rogue grinned, stepping even closer to Gambit until they were less than a foot away from each other. "But that's not why I called you here."

"Well, why then?" Gambit asked. "What is you need me for… and what exactly do you have behind your back, there?"

Gambit instinctively took a step back as Rogue brought out a large blaster in front of her—the same kind, Gambit recognized, that S.H.I.E.L.D. had used against the Acolytes during the battle of Genosha.

"Wait, how….?" Gambit began.

"In return for me dealing with this extra person in my head, the Prof arranged for me to get one of my own," Rogue said, smiling, emphasizing not only the ray gun, but that her hands were gloveless. "Y'know… for times like this. It only lasts about an hour, and it's been about thirty minutes since I called ya. In that time, I've given Kurt my first real hug, shook hands with Mr. McCoy, high-fived Kitty, and smacked Jamie in the back of the head… lightly, a'course."

Gambit only smiled. "I am duly impressed, cherie… I never would've thought of that."

I have to say, this Gambit guy is someone I wouldn't mind spectating…

"So," Gambit began to smirk, "What exactly do you have planned for us?"

Rogue crossed her arms, smirking back. "Not exactly what you're thinking, I can tell ya that. I mean, you DID use me as bait… multiple times."

"I know," Gambit said, his face becoming serious again, "And I'm really, truly sorry about all that, Rogue… but—"

"Forget it," Rogue said, putting up a hand to stop Gambit's apology. "The Prof showed me security cam footage of me in a coma—a couple 'a days ago, when you… when you were there. I… saw what you almost did."

Gambit's gaze lowered down to the asphalt. "Huh… shoulda known that would've become public knowledge eventually at a place like this."

"You were willing to knock yourself out just to revive me," Rogue said, holding one of Gambit's hands in hers. "That proves t' me—more than anything else—that you haven't been just playin' me this whole time. So I think it's time we tried having a… a real relationship. Slow—we'll take it a step at a time—but I think I'm ready to take a chance with ya. Now, for our first quick half-hour date—there's a great spot over by the cliffs where we can watch the sunset. C'mon."

"You have no idea how much—and how long- I've been wanting to do this, Rogue," Gambit said as Rogue began leading him off the path towards the Mansion's cliffs.

"Oh, I think I do," Rogue said softly, more to herself than to Gambit, a few tears of happiness sneaking their way down her cheeks. "I think I do."

The End
 

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