Disclaimer: Nope, still can't claim ownership.

***x***

In all the different scenarios Rogue pictured her homecoming playing out meeting up with a de-powered Mystique and her blind companion Destiny was not one she had entertained. Staying with the two women for those two years was even more out of the realm of possibility, but to the disgraced mutant it was home.

Rogue knew Mystique as a trained assassin ruthless and cutthroat, determined to have her way by any means necessary. While not planning human man's downfall, Mystique - Raven as she was calling her human self - was caring and understanding towards Rogue, acting much like the older sister Rogue never had. And Irene was the mother figure. The women convinced Rogue to stay with them while she decided her next move.

For the first year and a half, Rogue was settled and centered. She lived a normal life as a normal 17-year-old girl. She went out with the local boys as Raven taught her foster daughter how to be more comfortable in her skin such as flirting and subtle moves to ensnare a man's attention without really trying.

It was, however, when Raven's powers came back that Rogue's peaceful life was ripped away from her. It was also around the same time that Rogue learned why the two women took her in - Destiny had saw in her visions that the Cure wasn't permanent. She saw both Mystique and Rogue regaining their powers - a future Raven herself was counting on. Feeling angry and betrayed, Rogue tried to run away - a move that was doomed to fail as Destiny had foresaw long before it happened. Living with a seer made any sort of planning difficult.

Accompanying a resisting Rogue back to her childhood home, Mystique carefully explained why they hadn't told Rogue of the Cure's unreliability and why it was unsafe for her to go out into the world by herself as a mutant. Among Destiny's visions, they told Rogue, was one of a woman by the name of Carol Danvers who would hunt Rogue for her power. The women urged the young mutant to take down Danvers before she could make the first strike. The image Irene painted was one that confused and frightened Rogue. She still had nightmares of her time at the Statue of Liberty where Magneto tried to drain her to power his machine. She carried a daily reminder of the hellish event as two snowy white streaks shockingly highlighted her dark hair, framing her face. The thought of someone else using her in that way sent cold tremors traversing her spine.

Though she dreaded the idea of having to take someone else out, according to Destiny's vision, it was killed or be killed, and Mystique was more than eager to share her superior fighting skills with Rogue. Rogue already knew basic fighting from her brief time as an X-Man so her training with Mystique built on those skills and then some. Rogue learned how to fight dirty (which Mystique claimed was necessary when battling those would do anything to win), how to be cunning and most importantly, how to use absorption to her advantage. While Mystique couldn't help Rogue control who she absorbed and when, she did help her foster daughter learn how to use the powers of others while keeping their psyches to a hush.

After six months of the intensive training, Destiny had told Rogue it was time to face the mutant known as Miss Marvel.

Rogue remembered feeling nauseous as she waited outside for Danvers to return to her San Francisco home. She had been more nervous of the thought of a showdown with this woman whom she had only recently learned had the ability to not only to fly but possessed superstrength and was near impossible to hurt. When Rogue had questioned her ableness to absorb such a mutant, Mystique had advised that Rogue hold on to the point incapacitating the other woman.

"It's the only way you'll know you've won, Rogue," she had said sternly. "Do you want a repeat of New York? Are you going to let someone use you like that again?"

And when the pretty blonde woman in question strolled to her front door, fumbling with her keys, Rogue made her move. It was hard to miss the woman's look of pure confusion as she was confronted but all Rogue could think of was Destiny's words, "She will kill you, Rogue, if you let her. She wants her powers and will do anything to get them. Don't let her, my dear. Don't let her."

Rogue grabbed Carol's hand, her face, any uncovered skin as the stronger woman struggled. But Rogue wouldn't let go. She couldn't. It was her or Miss Marvel, and there was no way Rogue was losing this battle. Carol's psyche and power trifecta flowed into Rogue. This absorption was different than the others and the young mutant couldn't help but think of how powerful she could be. Though she had never felt this way while using her power, Rogue continued her tight grip. As Carol finally sunk to the ground unconscious, Rogue knew she had won - she had saved herself from yet another mutant who wanted her power and would kill to get it- and victoriously flew away to meet her foster mothers.

***x***

It didn't take Rogue long to realize that she had been duped, and by the very women she had come to love and trust. Miss Marvel had never wanted to hurt her - hadn't even known who Rogue was. She realized that prolonged skin-to-skin contact with another mutant led to the permanent addition of powers and their personality. With Miss Marvel's super strength, flying ability and near-invulnerabilty came the addition of a very intelligent, very angry Carol Danvers. Despite her psyche blocking exercises Rogue had learned, Carol wouldn't stay quiet.

The days after her encounter with Miss Marvel were spent trying to keep her sanity. Destiny and Mystique hadn't counted on the fact that for Rogue to fully absorb another mutant it would interfere with their plans. They had wanted a powered-up Rogue to resurrect the Brotherhood of Mutants. Or in this case, as it was just the three women, the Sisterhood. But as Rogue spun out of control, many times with Carol Danvers' psyche coming to the forefront - with one particularly harrowing event where Rogue, under Miss Marvel's control, held a standoff with Mystique, using Destiny as bait - the women knew they needed to go to drastic lengths to help their daughter and proceed with their plans for mutant dominance.

As much as Mystique loathed to contact him there was only one person who could help the girl for whom she had grown fond of -- even if the girl had started out as a means to an end. Dr. Nathaniel Essex was known to the mutant world as a brilliant geneticist. If anyone could help Rogue regain control of her mind and perhaps even her poison skin, it was Essex. The man known as Sinister had questionable methods, but he was brilliant at what he did. And what he did was research and manipulate mutant genetics. Mystique knew of no other options. She called the doctor and set the appointment. Though Essex assured Mystique he could help, she had a sinking feeling that she had sold Rogue's soul to the devil, as she return the phone to its cradle.

The mutant women brought an unconscious Rogue to a non-descript building in the Arizonan desert. Pumped full of enough sedatives to kill 20 large men (a low estimate considering Rogue's newly acquired invulnerability made it near impossible to adminster a sedative and keep her incapacitated), Rogue was brought to Sinister.

As Rogue's limpless body was settled on the operating table, Essex surveyed her with the calculated appraisal of scientist about to embark on his greatest experiment yet. It was a look that chilled Mystique, a woman who had both seen horrid atrocities and perpetuated them, to the bone. At this point, Rogue started to stirred, her eye lids struggling to open. A heavy confusion settled into her muddled brain, and she could half make out that she was in some sort of hospital or operating room. She let a half-cry as a pair of demon eyes came into view. The figure was blurry, but the eyes - a cold red puncturing the haziness - left her frightened.

"Dear Rogue," she thought she heard the demon say calmly, "you are about to have everything you've ever wanted. Just relax." He had inserted a small plastic tube into a vein in her left hand and then she remembered nothing.

***x***

The procedure involved Essex making a small incision towards the back of Rogue's head - to the parietal lobe. It wasn't until after the surgery that Rogue realized the price of Essex helping her. He left the groggy mutant girl with an exact promise that he would be in contact.

A couple days later, Rogue awoke in a panic. She was at home and in her own bed, and remembered faint pieces of her brief time with Sinister. The memories of the past few weeks - the total absorption of Miss Marvel, the betrayal of her guardians, the struggle to maintain control against the powerful and destructive Danvers psyche, the quick surgery with a questionable doctor... Then it hit her. Carol was gone. Not completely, Rogue knew innately, but locked behind a closed door of sorts in her mind. Rogue was in control here.

Though a meeting with her maligned mothers a short time later confirmed one thing - she could in fact touch without impunity. She could control her power. She would have been estastic if that truth hadn't come without a price.

As Mystique explained her control was a result of an operation with a scientist named Sinister, a name that didn't exactly inspire traquility in Rogue. The blue-skinned mutant confirmed that Sinister's service did not come free. Rogue would be called upon to help him as he needed.

"You agreed ta that?!" Something inside Rogue exploded. It wasn't enough that she had been used and tricked into almost-fatally absorbing another mutant who nearly drove her insane. Now she was recovering from crack brain surgery performed by a creepy doctor who apparently had her at his beck and call. Mystique gently but firmly assured Rogue owed Essex one job, and one job only.

Overwhelmed and scared by the information, Rogue bolted from the house, taking to the sky at supersonic speed. Her only intent was to get as far away as she could. She flew until the adrenaline wore off, leaving her bonelessly tired.

Later she returned home, quietly packed some belongings, grabbed her keys to the shiny, red convertible Mystique had given her for her 18th birthday (nothing but the best when you roll with Mystique, she thought sardonically) and gunned it out of the driveway, never looking back, impatient to put as many miles between her and the two mutants she had come to think of as family. They had used her for the last time. As she took a corner sharply, the sports car easily navigating the change in the road's direction, she mused faintly that she was once again running from her life and from her home.

***x***

Pulling up to the mansion's impressive gates, Rogue exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding. Her heart was beating out of her chest and her hands were sweating uncomfortably inside the driving gloves she was wearing. She was more nervous about returning to Westchester than she thought she would be. If she had half a brain, she would'veturned around and kept driving, but she needed them, the X-Men. For better or worse, she was home.

Tugging on her gloves, which were a sweaty mess inside, she rolled down her car window and nervously pushed the call button.

"Xavier's. State yer business," came the gruff response. That voice that had lived in her head for so long was now barking at her through the tinny sound system and she could've cried from the familiarity of it. It only seemed right that Wolverine would be the gatekeeper who would accept or deny her entrance onto the mansion's grounds.

Taking a deep breath, she announced herself. "It's Rogue."