"Marie – "

"Don't call me that!" she ordered Logan as he again tried to offer her some kind of comfort. "There's a reason Ah couldn't remember that name. Mahrie is dead! Rogue is ahll Ah have left!"

"No!" He gripped onto her shoulders and jerked her upright to snarl into her face. "I've put up with this shit for two days now and it stop right now! You are Marie and you have a hell of a lot more than Rogue left. You have your life. You have your health. You have your friends here. And God dammit, Stripes, you have me!

"I know – " she went to refute the claim in those two words, but he shook her roughly, "Yes, I do. I know how you feel. All of us, even me deep down, want a cure for our mutation. Just wants to live the kind of life society has always said people should in books or on TV. You're not the only one that had hope that that Kent bastard had been on to something good for us just because you're the one most able to show your emotions at how badly you wanted it. Having that hope taken away is NOT the end of the world though. We take the blow, shake it off and focus on reality again.

"I've given you all the time I'm going to for you to lay around here and mope like all your dreams have been shattered, because they haven't. You dreamt you'd be accepted someday as you are and among everyone here you are. You dreamt that I'd sweep you up in my arms to be carried off to bed and made love to and I have. I'll do it again, too, every night of the rest of our lives!" he pulled her head back and claimed her lips hungrily.

For long moments he simply devoured her lips and she was too stunned to respond. Slowly the numbness that was all she'd felt in the two days since the brief euphoric rise then shattering fall of hope in the lab faded and she began to respond. As she did he laid them both back on the bed and wrapped her in his arms.

"You dream of controlling your mutation and you're getting closer every day."

He said when he finally pulled away from her lips as they'd begun to react to the touch of his by drawing in his memories and mutation. Braced on his elbows above her, he looked deep into her eyes and continued his rough, passionate speech.

"You dream of lots more you've yet to tell me, but you better believe I'll make it all come true somehow. Marie is not dead inside you, she's just hiding until she strong enough to come out again. I'll make you strong enough. I'll make you so strong you'll never have to hide again."

He spoke those last words directly to the little girl and scared awkward teenager barely felt in the depths of Rogue's soul.

She heard them and began to cry and grow stronger.

Soon Rogue was sobbing as she felt the angry, isolated, defensive, mutant personality that bore that name merge with the gentler, more vulnerable human one that was Marie.

Together as one for the first time since her mutation manifested itself, they clenched Logan tightly to the body they shared and cried against the crook of his neck where it met his broad, strong shoulder.

Realizing he had finally broken through to her, Logan squeezed her back, vowing to himself never to let go.

"I love you, baby. I love you so much, Marie."

He spoke the words hoarsely - over and over against her throat and lips and face.

"I love you too, Logan. Ah have for so long and Ah will forever," she finally relied after nearly an hour before she fell into an exhausted sleep.

~*~*~

"I'm ready to do it now."

The Professor looked up from the papers on his desk to see Rogue standing just inside the doorway of his office.

He was confused by her statement for a moment before her thoughts and body language told him exactly what she meant.

"I knew it would not take you long."

He smiled and sent out a call for Kitty to meet them outside the chamber where they held Mystique was still being held. He then motioned for Rogue to proceed him through the institute to that location.

They had a moment together before Kitty arrived and he used the time to ask a question he felt he already knew the answer to, but wanted to be sure.

"Would you like me to go with you?"

"No. I have to do this on mah own."

"What's up?"

Turning at Kitty's words and approach, he smiled at the other girl's easy return to her rather carefree ways after the traumatic events in her friend's life.

"I need you to take Rogue into see Mystique, then return to wait here with me until she's ready to leave."

Questions like "Why'd she wanna see her?' flew around in Kitty's thoughts, but she didn't speak them. She just offered her hand to Rogue, who latched onto it, and led them through the wall into the room beyond. Only seconds later, she returned alone.

~*~*~

"So this is why your Professor wouldn't let me go? Rogue needed to see her mommy?"

Mystique's taunt had no effect on Marie, who let the words pass by with no more response than a smile.

"You'll never get to me again."

The woman's blue body tensed at the absolute certainty the words were spoken with.

"Whatever your plans are – past, present or future – know that the only way they will ever include me it will be as the person guaranteed to thwart them. You will not ever manipulate me again. You will never be able to control me. I will never run from you again. You will now forever be the one that seeks sanctuary from me.

"You wanted me strong and powerful and I am. I will grow stronger every day here with the X-Men and the powers you wished to control will be used against you at every turn. If you ever again give me the slightest reason to harm you – hurting my friends or I – I vow now that it will be the last thing you ever do."

She moved forward to look directly into the shape-shifter's blank yellow eyes.

"You can call yourself my mother, curse me to be your daughter, but never doubt that no matter what, I will be your greatest enemy."

She knew her words were heard and forcibly accepted when Mystique's shoulders slumped and the woman's gaze fell to the floor.

~~Send Kitty back in now.~~

Standing up straight and staring down at the woman who had tried so hard and often to permanently damage her life, Marie and Rogue both screamed in triumph.

"Oh," she added as Kitty entered and began leading her out of the room through the wall, "and Mother all that goes double for the Wolverine."

~*~*~

"Can I go now?"

A slightly broken Mystique asked of the Professor, not even looking up as he was assisted into the room by Kitty.

"You had to know this kind of reaction was possible when you formulated such a plan, Mystique."

He frowned and looked at the shape-shifter with actual concern.

"Oh, I did, Xavier. I knew you and your crew try to manipulate her first. I never guessed you would succeed though."

The woman turned on him with her familiar rage and hatred.

"We had nothing to do with Rogue's decision, except to support it. You always failed to notice how strong the girl was, not just her powers. That oversight is what has done this, not the X-Men."

She made to attack him, but he shouted into her mind, causing her to grip her head and fall back.

"Enough!"

Seeing she would not again try to harm him during this final meeting there, he relented.

"Before I send Kurt in to take you from here, I just want to second whatever it is that Rogue said to you. I also wish to issue a final warning to you. In trying to control Rogue with a device you knew would at the very least permanently damage her body and perhaps even kill her, you went too far. Break even the smallest law in the future and I will see that you are imprisoned with no chance of escape for the rest of your life. Harm any of my students again – ever – and I will allow Logan to handle the situation however he sees fit."

They both knew the Wolverine's method of punishment would be her death.

He felt the woman take his warnings to heart and finally called for Kurt to teleport into the room.

"Kurt, please be so kind as to take out this garbage."

"Vith pleazure."

As Kitty reappeared inside the chamber to lead the Professor out for the last time, Kurt appeared atop the fencing that surrounded the institute grounds.

Without hesitation, he dropped his biological mother from his perch down onto the garbage piled at the curb for pick-up.

"Good-bye Mozzer," he said firmly, wiping his hands as if to rid them of the memory of having touched her for even a second.

He gazed at her as she laid sprawled where he'd dropped her – not hurt physically, but still reeling from all the emotional blows she'd sustained – then quickly dismissed her from his life as he teleported back into the institute.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: I said a few chapters ago that Mystique is one of my favorite villains and I've not changed that stance, but as I wrote this piece I began to feel this was the way it should go. The X-Men really had reason to kill her, if ya think about it, and she deserved to have them all tell her what's what, especially Rogue.

Also, I used just a hint of the movie Rogue in this series and I hope you noticed above how I turned Evo-Rogue into her namesake in the film, Marie. If not, then know now that's what has happened and why I write her as "Marie" in the next and final chapter.