"When I met Rogue for the first time, Mystique had taken you to see me. You were in hysterics, on the verge of madness. She wanted me to help you."

"Ah kno' mah own head Magnus, these words have no meaning to me." She was furious now, her mind spinning with questions she desperately needed the answer to. 'Why was Magneto here, along with Gambit, had he come to join just like Remy?...Remy! His name is Gambit, get tha facts clear girl!'

Heaving a laboured breath, he turned to face the entire room. "Rogue had joined the Brotherhood the day immediately after her powers manifested; she was trained explicitly by Mystique and was in many ways her lieutenant." Gauging his audience as having captured their attention, he continued.

"She was involved in many tasks of espionage and attacks. Her mutation allowed for easy access to secrets and memories." She snorted in disgust of his opinions, but kept her gaze steadily locked on him. 'Much courage to look into the eyes of the enemy' he pondered. "One mission in particular became her last, until control could be assumed. Rogue, how much do you remember of the memories unlocked by Charles?"

Breathing deeply, all eyes turned to Rogue, whose brow was furrowed in frustration. "Ah remember me and a man, we were sneakin' aroun' some base, an air base ah think. We had knowck out a few guys and my head was swimmin' with all the new persona's. When we got to a jet, we were ambushed by a whole buncha soldiers. The others dealt with them and ah sneaked onto the jet. Ah don' remembah much aftah that." She concluded with a heavy sigh.

Cyclops spoke up finally, "What happened after Magneto?"

"She was attacked by Carol Danvers, an officer for the air force, she was...genetically altered. Her abilities were beyond normal humans. When she came after you, I don't what happened. All I knew was that she was comatose and so were you."

"If I might, I would like to try something a bit more unconventional" with that, Xavier placed his hand on the side of his head and then placed the other hand on Rogues. The room was enveloped in a bright, white mist and then a bright blinding light enveloped all of them.

The Astral Plane

Everyone stood enveloped in the mist, glancing warily around. Seats then formed from the mist as the Professor appeared and invited all to sit down. When none would, the chairs disappeared. Turning to the blank expanse, he furrowed his brow and cast his hands outwards, conducting the clouds into shapes and forms. These formed figures and buildings, which Rogue immediately recognized as the Air base.

"Keep moving, they're right behind us" a masculine voice came through. His facade broke as in his place a blue skinned, red haired woman now stood. Turning to look at Rogue, she smiled, genuinely smiled, like a proud parent to a child who has done well in school. "They will come for us, but we can get away, use the memories you absorbed and you will be able to pilot this plane. I have faith in you, my daughter".

Turning to face the flight consol, she strapped in and focused on the psyches recently absorbed and pushed back. Taking hold of the joystick, she glanced out of the cockpit to give one more triumphant smirk to her mentor. Accelerating once Mystique was out of the way, she ascended into the sky, feeling the thrill of the approaching nightly abyss.

But before she could, the jet came to a jarring halt. Her head smacked against the panel, destroying some of the dials. Tuning back, her eyes met blue as she saw the floating figure of Ms Marvel. The ghostly images formed before their eyes. Neither Rogue nor Remy could believe what they saw, a part hidden from her life, she no doubt would never have remembered.

Ripping open the cockpit roof, she removed Rogue from the seat and held her before her. "Put meh down yah yahoo" 'Oh great, a kid, and a southern one at that' "Listen I don't want to hurt you, just go quietly and we can sort the rest out." Not giving her time to finish, Rogue ripped off her gloves and clasped the side of her face. Initially unfazed, her eyes widened as she grew weaker and threw her to the ground harder than she meant to. Leaving an indent, Rogue got up and jumped up off her feet like a torpedo, slamming her in the chest. Momentarily, Rogue grabbed Marvel by her arms and swung her to the ground. Hearing the extent of the fighting in the hanger, Rogue took off to help her friends and mentor.

'I remember this, the power, the confidence, the potential to do anything' the realisation slowly dawned on her and she hid her eyes from the upcoming scene, not wanting to see what came next.

Hurtling towards Mystique, Rogue quickly batted the attacking soldier away before moving on to help the others. It was short work as she bounded off the walls and ceiling, getting a hand of Marvels ability shortly, finally ricocheting around the wall like a pin ball. The mist shifted to her point of view as she moved normally, while all else travelled slowly. She targeted each man, slamming into each one, not enough to cause death, but definitely internal injury. Coming to a stop, she found herself facing Ms Marvel. Both looked at each other, taking a defensive stance for mere moments. When neither moved, each lowered their guard. That was until a harpoon shot through her shoulder.

The Harpoon had moved fast, incredibly powerful, it had managed to pierce Rogue's and Ms Marvels skin, bone and armoured clothes. Adamantium surely! But they were pinned to one another, the power of the spear pushing her towards Marvel before it was embedded in her shoulder too and finally implanting in the wall behind her. With exposed skin touching, it was all Rogue could do to stop the absorption. Carol was falling weak, tired from her battering and blood loss. Before collapsing from the strain, she looked into the tear filled eyes of Rogue and heard one final utterance, "Ahm sorry, ahm so sorry."

Pulling off Ms Marvel, her strength now in Rogue, she pulled the harpoon from both their shoulders. Turning, she saw Mystique, in her male persona from before, holding the gun. Hoping to give her a piece of her mind she marched forward, but gave way to the pain and torment in her mind as she fell to the ground in exhaustion. Sparing one sidelong glance to the fearful look on her mother's face, her world, like the plain, turned black.

Returning to normal, the members within the room collapsed from exhaustion and anger. On Xavier, Scott and Remy for the act that Rogue was forced to go through by Magneto's orders and Magneto for the intrusion into his mind. But Rogue was most of all...pissed off!

"You Monster, ya Bastard, ya SON OF A BITCH! Ah killed someone, ah pulled the lahfe from her eyes and spit in her face by forgettin' her. You made me worse than a killer. And you Xavier-oh it's ALL COMIN' BACK NOW! Why in the hell would you do this to meh, make meh forget it ever happended lahke a broken plate swept 'neath the carpet." she descended into hysterics so much, she never noticed the look everyone was giving her. Looking down, she saw herself floating off the ground with the armrest of the sofa held firmly in her hand having been crudely torn out of place. 'What's happenin' to meh'.

"Rogue, please, we hid this from you for your own safety. Danvers mind was tearing yours apart. Had we left it any longer, you would have been lost. All memories of this event were erased from the minds of the observers and witnesses. This way, you would never be reminded and be thrown into the abyss we pulled you from." Xavier tried to justify his actions, but he knew in his heart that this was merely a fool's war and he was digging his own grave.

"What about Danvers, where is Carol?"

"Intensive care, her body is maintained to this day, trapped in a probably permanent catatonic state. I couldn't return her mind to her body; the process was and still is much too complicated and it seems that her mutated genes were abnormal to even you; it struggled to process the abilities they had matured and your DNA has now become fully saturated by these abilities." His voice was steady and calm, hoping to instil those emotions within her state of mind.

"So she's like that cause o' me. And ah get to reap the full benefit of her misfortunes." The bitterness and self deprecation in her voice made even Magneto and Remy despondent. She had finally come to her senses and drifted back to the ground, where she swayed for moentarily, adjusting to the news presented to her.

"Rogue you were not in control of the situation, it was against even your power to avoid it, the absorption had took its toll on both of you, you rejecting the powers and unnatural life force and her losing her strength as time wore on"

'Mah Gawd, would the bad news ever stop coming at meh' no sooner as she thought those words, Ororo entered with the black envelope. She was mildly shocked at the certain level of destruction within the office, immediately turning to face Magneto, her eyes white in focused rage. "Do you feel bitter Magneto that we have rejected you so you attack us".

"Ororo, wait it wasn't him, it was-" but before Xavier could finish, Scott spoke up.

"Storm, it's just some minor power fluctuations, we have it controlled." As Ororo moved to respond, the conversation was again interrupted by Rogue. "Wait, yah mean Magneto and Gambit were not allowed join. Ah thought we gave second chances, everyone has done something wrong in their life and let live here, why is this any different?"

Scott in kind replied. "This is complicated, they can't join because they are too dangerous" worked up to frustration, it immediately disappeared as he realized what he just said. "No, wait, Rogue, I mean..."

"Save it Summers, ah read yahre thoughts, ah know how yall feel. I'm just glad we can stop beating around the bush" with that she turned and left the office, leaving a very confused Gambit and Storm behind. But the rest of the occupants knew what she meant, it didn't take a telepath to see what she meant.