While Bobby stared at her like she'd done something completely inhuman, Marie numbly watched John get up from the ground and stumble painfully away, not bothering to take the unconscious Cajun with him. If that wasn't bad enough, she had the swamp rat himself swirling around her head, threatening to take over. She forcefully pushed his memories down deep inside her. She'd work on eradicating his mind from hers later. Right now they had a bigger problem.

"Come on, Rogue, let's get out of here before the cops come," Bobby was saying, turning his back to her and the mutant. His face was unreadable.

Marie wasn't sure whether or not he was pissed off.

"Bobby, we can't just leave him in the streets," she began. "It's not safe for him or us, who knows what'll happen."

Bobby turned around, confused. "What?"

"I said: it's not safe to just leave him. We have to take him with us," she answered a little annoyed. Now was not the time for Bobby to argue. "Besides, I think I really did a number on him, and I'd feel better if he got some medical attention."

She couldn't explain it, even to herself. The guy had tried to kill her, yet she was still bent on saving him. She was an X-man to the core.

Bobby, however, seemed less compassionate. He stared at her like she was speaking in another language. There was no way she was having an argument over this. Any one of her other teammates would have been helping her carry the guy by now. If this was because she'd kissed him…

"I'm not playing around, Bobby!" she said, her voice gathering anger. "Help me lift him to the car."

He only stared at her, his brow wrinkling slightly. "I don't know what you're saying," Bobby answered with deep concern etched across his face.

She snapped.

Bobby was taking this whole kissing thing way too far.

She was in no mood for his joking around. "Help me get him into the damn car!"

"I have no idea what you are saying!" Bobby answered back, frustrated. "Stop speaking in French!"

Marie froze. She was speaking French? How had she not realized it? It flowed so naturally from her lips that it felt like her native language. She actually had to concentrate to think words in English.

Before she could react, the Cajun broke free in her mind and she was bombarded with memories and thoughts. She stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, gasping as images of places and people flashed hectically through her mind.

… A blonde woman in a wedding dress sobbing uncontrollably… blood everywhere, staining the dress as she held a dying man… explosions, loud, loud explosions…

…"Git outa here, boy! Now! Them Assassins want payment in blood. Never come here again. You ain't a Thief and you ain't my son."… Exile… more explosions

… Diamonds… safety deposit box combinations… safecracker, she could hear the little numbers click-click-clicking as her nimble fingers—No! His fingers, worked the dial… more explosions…

… Picking pockets… hot wiring cars… picking locks… stealth, stealth, always quiet… explosions, explosions…

… Playing 'Go Fish', a card glowing in her hand before exploding… so much blood, her brother dropping his cards and running to Daddy for help…

… Red eyes in the dark. "I can help you for a price."…

… Kissing a pretty, little mutant before she blew up, all because she'd kissed her first…

"Rogue! Rogue!"

Someone was shaking her violently. She blinked, snapping out of it briefly. Bobby's hands grasped her shoulders firmly.

"Son of a bitch!" Marie swore. "He was gonna blow us up!"

"English, Marie!" Bobby shouted, still shaking her. "You're not him!"

Marie was confused. Too much was going on in her head right now to focus properly. He was in there, and he was too damn loud. For all his preoccupations with being stealthy and quiet, he was uselessly loud. She could hear him from every corner of her mind.

Bobby gently helped her up and away from the mutant on the ground. She leaned her weight against a fire hydrant trying to get her bearings back. Her hand felt warm on top of the cool metal hydrant. Marie snatched her hand away in horror as not only the hydrant, but her glove as well, lit up, crackling in a dangerous magenta glow.

Explosions, Explosions…

"Oh shit!" Marie swore, desperately pulling her glove off and ducking away from the fire hydrant, only to have her other glove light up like Christmas. She screamed in a panic and yanked it off as well.

The game of 'Go Fish' echoed in her mind. She was not blowing her entire arm to smithereens. Bobby had grabbed her around the waist and pulled her out of the way while encasing the magenta charged objects in ice. They exploded anyway, and Bobby half dragged her to the car, helping her climb in.

Before getting into the car himself, Bobby froze the water shooting out from the now non-existent fire hydrant. Marie sat numbly in the passenger seat, not touching a thing. Bobby started the car, and drove away. She couldn't help but think that they had left something very important behind as they headed back to the mansion in a panic.

He was so loud and alive in her head that it never occurred to her that he wasn't in the car with them. Bobby didn't understand French and had left him behind, unconscious on the pavement amongst bits of melting ice.

Remy woke up in a familiar, but unfamiliar place. He recognized the smell, the solid, metal bars, and surly gentlemen surrounding him as soon as his mind cleared from its foggy haze. He had one hell of a headache. Funny, he didn't remember drinking last night.

He looked around, disoriented. He must have gone drinking, he reasoned. He felt like he had a hangover and he was waking up in the police station's drunk tank. He couldn't remember a thing, must have been one hell of a bender.

"Hey?" he shouted to the guard, instantly regretting his loud tone as the sound resonated through his already aching brain. "What time is it?"

"Well, well Sleeping Mutie is finally awake. Finally, found true love's kiss while you were here." The guard sneered.

Remy was used to the mutant comments; he'd been hearing them his entire life. It was hard not to with his peculiar eyes. Far as he knew, he was the only one with red on black eyes.

"When can I leave?" Remy asked, hiding the annoyance in his voice really well.

"Soon as I say so," the guard answered hotly, disappearing around the corner.

Remy sat down on the bench he'd previously been passed out on, and began tracing last night's events out. He'd been sent out to case a place. A movie theatre. That's right. He had been out with Pyro.

Last evening's events slowly unfolded in his tired mind. Pyro had a personal agenda to attend to and needed back up. Remy was unoccupied at the time, and Magneto had sent him with. Not because Pyro's agenda was so important, but because Magneto didn't want him snooping around. The Brotherhood operated with its followers in the dark, being spoon fed only necessary information in small doses.

Apparently, Pyro had it in for some damn X-man, and Remy had been dragged into the fight. Fighting the guy's girlfriend, no less. To Remy, it was a humiliating step down and a step in poor manners. He was by no means a chauvinist. He just didn't like hitting girls.

This girl in particular was really good looking, which made her even harder to fight. Such a pretty, little face with sparkling eyes and full pouty lips… what could he say? Women were for loving and not fighting? Not the best answer in his line of work, but it was the only answer he had. He was thankful she wasn't that good of a fighter, it made it easier not to hurt her.

The idiot, Pyro, had let his anger get the best of him and was quickly defeated by the ice mutant he'd called on. Remy had no idea what their beef was. Anyway, with Pyro down, that left Remy to deal with the girl and her angry boyfriend. He had no intention of becoming a popsicle and reacted the only way he knew how.

Take them both out at the same time.

He hadn't meant it to be a big explosion, just enough to damage and leave them wounded, so he could get away. He didn't really want to maim the pretty, little thing wrapped in his coat, and then she'd kissed him…

…and he'd woken up in the drunk tank with a killer headache.

The little minx had done something to him.

"Son of a bitch," he swore to himself. "She was trying to kill me… and I tongued her."

"Those are usually the ones that haunt you," a large man beside him answered in slurred words. "Women that taste of poison always taste the sweetest."

"Yeah," Remy answered back absently. She had tasted good.

The guard came back, jingling his set of keys. "Come on, Sleeping Mutie, you're free to go back to your castle. Unfortunately you'll have to leave your true love behind in this cell," the guard sang while unlocking the cell. "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

Remy got up from the bench and followed the guard. He signed a few release papers at the door, paid his fee—along with a public mischief fine for wrecking a city hydrant. Something he was damn well sure he didn't do, but was in no mood to argue and extend his stay at the station. He left with a jolly whistle and a jump in his step, to the confusion of the police.

Once outside, he jangled the asshole guard's keys, tossed them up in the air a few times before he threw them down the sewer drain.

Let's see how his commanding officers like incompetence, he thought jovially as he headed back to his apartment for a shower and a decent sleep.

Marie stared in the picture mirror in Professor Xavier's office in misery. She had the Cajun mutant's eyes. She hadn't slept, for fear of touching something and charging it again. This was far worse than her own mutation.

His personality had taken over hers for the better half of the evening and she'd watched in horror in the back of her mind as she'd hit on Kitty, flirted with Jubilee and stared at Storm's breasts. The evening finally ended with her challenging Logan to a duel after he'd caught her picking his pocket.

She clutched her hands together tightly. She had his power, his memories and she couldn't send them away. Storm had managed to calm her down, and Marie was okay as long as she didn't touch anything and his personality didn't flare up again.

"The Professor said this might happen; the stronger the mutant, the longer the effects," Storm said gently, standing across from her in the vast room. "You've always been unconscious or in a controlled environment after you've encountered a strong mutant."

"I barely touched him."

"Bobby said you kissed him," Storm said.

Marie stiffened. "He left me no other choice. He didn't even see it coming," Marie answered quietly. She decided not to mention the fact that he'd kissed her back, softly mingling his tongue with hers until she pulled away and let him fall.

"Bobby seems concerned about it. He thinks that might be why you're hanging on to him."

"That's not true!" Marie snapped back. "I'm not hanging on to anything! It's him hanging on to me!"

"Calm down, Marie. I'm just relaying to you what I've been told. I need you to fill in the gaps."

"Is Bobby mad at me?" she asked.

"No. No, of course not," Storm said in a motherly tone, coming forward and placing her hands on Marie's shoulders. "He's only worried about you."

"I kissed another man right in front of him."

"It saved your life and his. It was a clever move, Marie. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You utilized your mutation to best suit the situation. That's what you've been training to do."

Marie smiled. Storm had a wonderful way of reassuring people, and had a natural talent for commanding the team and teaching. She felt a tiny bit better.

"Thanks, Storm."

"He'll fade away like all the others, just keep practicing those techniques the professor showed you."