"No." The Professor sat up in bed. His face was filled with fear as he tried to get to his wheelchair. "No," he said again, more urgently, more frantically. It couldn't happen. It had to be stopped. It had to be stopped before…

His eyes flew open as he felt her enter him. She was inside his head, his body, his heart, his soul…engulfing him, surrounding himself with her. He watched as she concentrated on his mind, his powers. Her eyes were shut, but her mouth was open slightly. Her body swayed gently as the world before her changed.

Images swept over her vision as his memories entered her mind. Canada, the bar, wrestling in the cages, sitting next to the kid who was watching the news, she was the kid, a fight, the pain of his claws shooting out of his hands, the pain of being feared, getting into his car, finding the kid, finding her. And then--then it was black. Something was wrong. She was swept up with images of pain, of isolation, of sadness, of death. She cried out and pulled away from him, shaking and in tears.

He watched her as she backed away from him. She looked at him as though he was a monster; she was scared of him. "Marie?" She continued to back away from him. He tried to walk towards her, but stumbled. He felt wiped out. He grabbed onto the window sill to steady himself.

"Logan!" The Professor entered the room with Scott, Jean, and Storm. The Professor knew it was too late. "What have you done?"

He looked at Rogue again. "I was just--" Just trying to help sounded so trivial at the moment.

Jean and Storm went to Rogue.

"What happened, Rogue?" Storm asked.

Rogue wrapped her arms around herself. She was still shaking, still afraid. She looked into Logan's dark eyes, eyes that were as dark as the void she saw in him. "I saw it."

"What did you see?" said Jean.

"I saw everything," Rogue said softly.

The Professor lowered his head. A sudden fear came over him.

"How could you have been so stupid, Logan?" Jean paced the room later that day. "Allowing Rogue to tap into your memories, your powers, that was too dangerous, for you and for her."

Logan stood apart from the group. He felt like he was getting a lecture from his parents. What next? Was he going to get grounded? He crossed his arms across his chest with an annoyed expression.

"Do you even care about what you did to her?" Jean said. "Something happened last night. Something that even the Professor is worried about."

"I do care, Jean," Logan said. "Do you want me to admit I messed up? Fine. I messed up!"

Scott smirked. "And who's going to clean up your mess now?"

Logan took a step towards him with a growl.

"Stop it," Storm said. "We have to remember that Rogue is in trouble. The entire school senses something is wrong. We can't have the children see us fighting."

"Storm's right," Jean said. "I'm sorry, Logan."

He nodded at her.

Jean glanced at Scott.

Scott sighed. "Sorry."

"Yeah, me too," Logan said.

The Professor came into the room. He felt the tension in the room. "Did I miss something?"

"How's Rogue?" Logan asked.

"She's resting," the Professor said.

"Did she say anything else about last night?" Jean said. "Did she give anymore details?"

"It didn't trigger her memories, if that's what you mean," the Professor said. "She has memories, but they're not hers."

"They're mine?" Logan said.

The Professor nodded. "I'm also afraid she tapped into something else."

"Like what?" said Scott.

He thought about the voice that was screaming inside his head last night. The one that had caused him to wake up, to be alarmed, to know that he had to go downstairs right away.

"I can't say at the moment," he said.

"Well, I'm going to go see her," Logan said.

"No," the Professor said.

Logan looked at him. "No?"

"She's resting, Logan," he said. "I prefer it if you don't visit her right now."

"Fine." Logan stormed out of the room.

Bobby sneaked a look around the corner to see Logan leaving the room. "Hey." Logan turned to him, looking upset. Maybe this was a bad time. "Uh…"

"What is it?" Logan asked.

"I was just wondering about Marie," Bobby said. "Is she alright?"

"The Professor says she's resting," Logan said. "I assume she's fine."

"If you don't mind me asking," Bobby said, "what happened last night?"

Logan was silent for a moment. Really, he had no idea what happened last night. One minute, he and Rogue were talking, the next she was scared to death of him. What had she seen?

"Listen," he said to Bobby, "you wanna see Rogue?"

Bobby nodded.

"I do too." Logan glanced back at the room. The door was shut. "Go to her and bring her to the clearing in the woods."

"I might get caught," Bobby said.

"Then don't." Logan turned to leave.

"It was intense, Bobby." Rogue wrapped a piece of grass around her gloved finger. "I felt like I was in control and out of control at the same time. It was scary." She stopped in the middle of the pathway in the woods. "And I'm still scared."

Bobby looked at her with concern. Maybe it was a bad idea to bring her out here to meet Logan. She was still shaken up over what happened. "Marie, I--"

"Rogue."

They looked up at Logan. He came towards them. Rogue's eyes immediately filled with fear. "Stay away," she said.

"I just want to talk to you," he said.

Rogue turned to leave the area.

Logan followed. "Rogue, please, I need to know what happened last night. Why are you scared of me now?"

She stopped with her back towards him.

"Rogue?" He slowly came up behind her.

"I saw it, Logan," she said on the verge of tears.

Bobby approached them, listening to their conversation.

Logan frowned at Rogue's answer. "I don't understand."

She turned to face to him. "I saw you." Her lip trembled. "I saw what was inside of you."

Jean stood before the bathroom mirror. She looked at brush and watched as it floated to her. She grabbed its handle and brushed her red hair, glancing at her reflection. She cried out at the sight. The reflection was her, but she was different. Her face was pale, almost ghostly, her eyes red like flames, her red hair long and untamed. She reached up to touch the mirror with her right hand; her reflection's left hand did the same.

"Jean?"

She blinked and the pale woman with long red hair vanished.

"Jean?" Scott came into the bathroom. "Are you all right?"

She blinked again. "I'm fine."

They entered the mall and surveyed the area. Scott walked into the store where Rogue had been attacked. A saleswoman came up to him.

"I'm sorry, but you aren't allowed in here," she said.

Scott looked at her with a frown.

She stared at his red visor. "We've been having trouble with you people."

"You people?" he said.

"Mutants," the woman said.

Scott sighed. "This will only take a moment. I'm looking for a girl who was caught shoplifting here."

"If you're talking about the mutant girl, the police are taking care of it." The woman turned to leave.

"We need your help," Scott said. "We need to find the girl so we can help someone."

"Who?" the woman said maliciously. "Another mutant?"

Scott took a step towards her.

The woman jumped back at his movement. "If you don't leave this store immediately, I'm going to call security."

Jean and Storm came up behind Scott.

"There's nothing here," he said to them.

The woman watched the three mutants leave and let out a sigh of relief. Good riddance. She checked the clock and saw that it was closing time. She shut the doors and locked them before heading to the back room. As she started her paperwork, she heard a noise from behind her. She looked up to see nothing. Just her imagination. She turned back to her work and screamed.

Standing before her was…her. She stared at her own face and her own hair and clothes. "What the--"

Her duplicate grabbed her suddenly, twisting her neck.

Mystique smiled at the sound of bone breaking.