San Francisco
"You, stop right there." She was hovering right behind her, her cropped blonde hair blowing in her face. "I'm an Avenger, you're going with me." Rogue just stared, her mind too large a mass of confusing and conflicting memories to really understand her. Avenger? Who was she? She just stared, like a deer caught in the road. Silent. Like she wasn't turning her teammates' brains into mush. "Stop your attack, now!" The Avenger's fist began to glow.
The scattered Avengers on the ground seemed to be released from Rogue's hellish, psychic torment. The mutant traitor pointed below her. "Now, to the ground." Rogue glanced down, then back at her. A clap of thunder was heard and lightning struck the Avenger, head on.
"Carol!" Someone shouted from the ground. She clenched her teeth together, then shot forward fist first into Rogue. Rogue crashed into the ground but she rebounded quickly, the ground shaking underneath her. The other Avengers fled as the ground splintered beneath them. Shrieking, Rogue sent gale force gusts of winds towards her blonde assailant, covered in a red, gold, and blue unitard.
They didn't seem to phase her, she flew right through them and crashed before Rogue, sending her flying back. "You must not know who I am," The cocky S.H.I.E.L.D agent said, dusting herself off. "I'm Ms. Marvel. You might've heard of her." Rogue glared at her, her eyes dark like a cornered animal. She wasn't completely positive who she was, she was cycling rapidly through memories and personalities, and it was not under her control.
"Well, Ah'm the Rogue." Rogue hissed, slinking along the shattered concrete. "Please, if ya don't wanna get hurt. Get away from me." She was hunched over defensively, postured a lot like her mentor. The Wolverine.
"Well, my bone head team got involved in this mess, so it's too late for that." She said, crossing her arms as if this commotion was a mild annoyance to her. 'Ah have to touch her..' Rogue thought. She'd thrown giant strength and the powers of a god at her and it didn't matter. If she was gonna escape back home with Kitty and Kurt, she had to. 'I'm not lettin' these creeps experiment on us.'
Rogue jetted to the sky, right as Iron Man tried to tail her. His suit was crumpled, bent in odd places and not super functional. He fell back to the concrete, watching helplessly as she flew towards the Golden Gate Bridge. "I got it, Tony!" Carol insisted, taking after her. He reached up in vain. 'She hasn't read those damn diaries, don't do it!'
"Ms. Marvel! Please! Wait!" He screamed. She never did listen to him.
Many thought she was a mutant, maybe a government experiment (ala Captain America and The Super Soldier Serum), but she was neither. She was part Kree, a race unbeknownst to planet earth for the most part. She had the power of the galaxy in her hands. She wasn't just earth's Avenger, she was the galaxy's champion. She kept universes safe. But, she hadn't met the Rogue.
Rogue flew desperately to the bridge, feeling the massive metal beneath her fingertips thanks to Magneto. Ms. Marvel caught up to her easily. Magneto could fly by changing the density and the magnetism of the particles around him, Jean flew in a similar way. Carol flew like a missile, a tank locked on to Rogue's position. She could feel the air flying off the other woman as she whipped around her, cutting her flight off.
"Enough," Carol called, eyeing Rogue with a hard face. "You've caused enough of a spectacle." She looked upwards as hail began to fall from the sky. 'How... How can one person cause all of this?' She looked around as the damage below. 'I have to end this.' She flew forward her fist cocked. She did exactly what she wanted her to do. She grabbed at Rogue's bare throat with her gloved hand.
In a flash, Rogue lit her body aflame with Amara's powers. The heat didn't seem to harm the Avenger, but it did singe away her glove. "Are you finis-" She paused when she felt the gentle tug of Rogue's powers. Then, it grew violent. 'No-No... She's absorbing me.' Rogue felt a white flash of hot light when their skin finally connected. She was unlike any other person she'd absorbed.
'S-So much power,' She thought, staring at her with wide eyes. 'No room, let me go-' The Avenger seemed frozen in place. Then, she screamed. They could both hear the Avengers screaming from below, cars stopping on the bridge to watch in terror. "Stop," Rogue hissed, reaching for the blonde's short hair. "Let go-" The other superhero was screaming, she didn't hear a word the mutant was saying. "Ms. Marvel-"
No human had ever absorbed Kree DNA before. For whatever reason, Carol was locked into place. She could feel her memories, her personality, her everything being ripped away. 'No,' She thought helplessly. 'NO,'
"STOP," She screeched, Rogue dangling helplessly in her hands. "TURN IT OFF-"
"Ah CAN'T-" Rogue bit out, writhing in her grasp. Her eyes glowed white and lightning struck, thunder clapped. The rain poured, but she would not let go. She was squeezing tighter, actually. "CAR-"
"STOP TAKING!" She shouted, clutching her head. Even her galactic powers were waning against this one mutant. 'I can't...' She slumped to the asphalt of the bridge, mute. In Rogue's head, the chorus of an entire universe was screaming in her mind. All the echoes she'd absorbed before, these new Avengers, and what felt like all of Ms. Marvel's memories. Every last one. She'd never felt anything like it.
Tears were streaming down her face before she realized Carol's limp body was dangling in her arms. She felt like nothing, like a doll...
"Rogue,"
They were finally there. Logan was edging closer, the entire team looking terrified behind him. "Rogue-"
"They won't stop." She whispered, both she and Carol going into the waters below.
"ROGUE-"
Rogue was huddled. Naked. Alone.
'San Francisco...' She thought, her mind barely able to form the thought. No, she wasn't there. She hadn't been there for some time. Was this Gensoha? She didn't know, anymore. Her memories, her mind didn't feel like her own. Too many strange, unfamiliar thoughts, feelings. Memories. And her's were too painful to face. All she could do was shrink inwards...
"Stand up." She shrank, too scared to see her abusers, alone. "I said stand, Rogue. You're not in danger. You're in your mind." Slowly, Rogue looked up to see the woman. The blonde woman. 'San Francisco...' "But we are in danger." Soon, Rogue could see the shadows, the silhouettes of all she'd ever touched, like an army.
"We." Rogue repeated, hunched over and covering herself. Her eyes dropped to the floor.
"Yes," Carol grit out, losing her patience, fast. "They hurt you, didn't they?" She tried, knowing she'd need to appeal to Rogue to get control of her body. Rogue didn't answer, but the look on her face said it. "You're young, and vulnerable. You can't get out of this situation. I can. I have years of training through S.H.I.E.L.D." She looked up at the Avenger for the first time.
"You're not me." She answered, her eyes dull.
"You think I might not give your body back? Least of our problems, right now." Rogue heaved a cross between a sigh and a sniffle. "Please." She grit out. "Let me save us." Rogue couldn't go back there, not after... She shut her eyes tight. It didn't really matter if she got back to her own body at this point.
"Ok." She whispered.
Rogue had gone from cowering and fearing even Logan to nearly catatonic. She slumped against the wall, her eyes glossy and her breaths heavy. It scared him, most people who got this bad off did not return. Not anytime soon, anyways. He was holding her close, the girl's shivering body dwarfed in the bloody shirt of his uniform. He was talking lowly, softly. Reminding her there were people who cared about her, who would not judge her and hurt her. He wasn't sure she could hear him, and that made a lump in his throat grow.
Then she sat up suddenly, her stare clear. Lucid. "Rogue-"
"Not Rogue," She hushed, looking around in the holding cell. The two guards were still there. Logan stared at her, trying to understand what that meant. She didn't sound like Rogue. "We have to go get out of here-"
"Carol?" He looked as if he'd seen a ghost, and he had. Rogue's psyches had taken over, but not like this before. It didn't speak well of her mental state. "Carol, what're-"
"The girl couldn't stand to be... Present right now." She avoided Logan's stare. "We have to get out of here, so you can heal those wounds and free the prisoners." Logan clamped his mouth shut, they would talk about what was going on in her mind later.
"Alright," He answered, clearly not happy about it.
Currently, Xavier's School For The Gifted
Charles broke apart, needing the telepath's equivalent of a breath of fresh air. As painful as they were, Logan's memories were shedding a lot of light on Rogue's current state. "She relinquished full control to another psyche..." Rogue's powers never failed to amaze, terrify, and shock him. The more he learned about it, the more he wondered how Rogue dealt, at all.
"It was kind of good, Carol had tons of training about getting out of situations like that. Didn't take her long, neither." He lit a cigar, and considering the day they'd had, Charles let him. "But, it happened because she retreated so far into herself." Logan clutched a fist so tight around his lighter it shattered. Charles only sighed.
"I know. It is extraordinary, but not good. Not at all. Her sense of self should never be so weak." He rubbed his fingers over his bald head. "So, when it was time for Carol to go back, Rogue wasn't ready to come forward..." Logan nodded wearily. "What we are left with is that inner child she's never honored, never been treated right. Which makes her reaction to Gambit interesting..."
Logan's face darkened. "The people she trusts on the team, here at the school... That she would never view sexually or even romantically, she trusts the same. Gambit, she doesn't because anyone she views in any sort of potential romantic light-"
"Terrifies her, deep down. Because of her mutation, her ability to hurt others-"
"The way her father hurt her." Charles dipped his head solemnly as Logan's mouth hung open.
"Y'think... The way her mutation manifested-"
"I do, certainly now." It'd always been Logan's worse fear, but he never wanted to believe it. That it could've ever been that bad. Worse, the girl had tried to walk tall. Tough it through all that pain, pain that brings the toughest and strongest people to their knees. All the training sessions, tough love, getting on her, he regretted it all now fully understanding the weight of her demons. "Mystique and Destiny knew her powers were coming, and how. Who knows what added pressure they put on her trying to bring them about."
Logan scrubbed a hand tiredly over his face. "So, what now?" The psychic's face became hard.
"If I had to guess, her self, her ego... It's doing some serious work in her mind. Maybe, finally coming to terms with what happened to her and Ms. Danvers. I do not have an answer, a timeline... But we must trust and support our friend. Her working through this, all of this, as organically as possible is best case scenario. Her mind can not stand any heavy work now."
The rough man nodded. She was safe, physically healthy, things could've been worse. They thought they'd lose her in California. If all he had to do was wait, he could do that. "Get some rest, you look exhausted. We'll continue... Soon. I've been given a lot of insight towards Rogue's powers. I'll be speaking with Hank about that." Logan nodded dumbly, standing to exit. "None of this.. It's not your fault."
Logan grimaced. He'd blame himself for her father if he could. He grunted, appreciating the man's attempt to quell his turmoil. That would happen when she opened her eyes, looked at him with the same recognition she did before Genosha. He wandered into the hall, alone.