Rogue blinked groggily as her eyes opened. Her head still spun a little from whatever Sinister had used to knock her out. Sinister. Rogue stiffened as she remembered where she was. As her vision came into focus, she saw she was in some kind of laboratory. There was a long table in the middle of the room, covered with bottles of all shapes and sizes. Surgical instruments were on a small tray beside her, complete with syringes. The sight of the cold tools made Rogue's skin crawl. Trying not to look at them, she looked down at the bonds that held her. They were metal, but with Ms. Marvel's super-strength she should still be able to break them. Rogue flexed her muscles and tried to raise her arms, but to no avail. She realized with a start that there was metal around her neck also. She could feel the hum of energy humming through it.

As she tried to figure out what was going on, Rogue noticed a figure moving in the shadows. The clinking of glass and metal, could be heard, as he went about his business. As he moved, Rogue heard the rustle of material against the ground. The figure took a step back and Rogue tried not to gasp. It was Mr. Sinister. Before she could react, he turned around.

Seeing Rogue was conscious, Mr. Sinister smiled, showing rows of sharp white teeth.

"Ah, you've awakened. Excellent." He walked over to where she was strapped to a vertical slab of metal. "You really are quite fortunate, you know. You will be part of one of my greatest experiment."

"What do you want from me?"

"A very wise position to take, my dear. For now, I simply wish to ask you a few questions."

Rogue reluctantly nodded. There was nothing she could do to escape or fight, so she may as well stall as long as she could. "Go ahead."

"After you've absorbed someone, can you sense their presence in your head?"

"Yeah," Rogue said hesitantly. "It's like havin' their ghosts inside mah head."

Sinister smiled. "Wonderful. Can you sense Carol Danvers?"

Rogue started to nod, but stopped. "No," she said slowly. "Ah used to, but--" She stopped short and glared at Sinister. "What have you done?"

"I removed her manifestation from your mind. I'm quite a gifted telepath, you know." He said, turning around.

Rogue's heart nearly stopped. Desperately, she looked through her mind, searching. "No," she whispered. Her eyes burned with the beginnings of tears. "You bastard. You took him from me."

Mr. Sinister turned around. There was a syringe in his hand. "I beg your pardon?"

Rogue's voice was hoarse from the effort of not crying. "Logan. You took him out of mah mind."

"No, you misunderstand me, my dear. I didn't take him from your mind, I took his manifestation from your mind."

"What do you mean?" Marie bit out, miserably.

"There were only two psyches in your mind strong enough for me to actually separate as individual entities. Those two were Ms. Marvel and Wolverine. You still have the their imprints on your mind, they are simply no longer strong enough to have a visible manifestation in your mind. I'm sorry it has upset you so."

Then the tears started to fall. He'd taken the two friends she had in her mind. Cody was so faint, she could barely sense him, without submerging entirely into her own subconscious and Magneto never spoke to her. In that moment she felt more alone than she'd ever felt in her life. She didn't even have the will to be afraid, when Sinister raised the syringe to her arm.

"You'll feel a little pinch, but it will be over shortly, my dear. I merely need a sample of your blood."

"I'll kill you for taking him from me." Rogue whispered. "Ah needed him."

"Such dramatics." He drew a sample of her blood, into the syringe. "Here we are." He turned around and took the needle over to a small machine. After he had finished, he walked back over to Rogue. "And now, I'm afraid I need a slightly more personal sample." Rogue's pulse sped up as he took a pair of scissor off the tray and leaned down to cut a slit in the crotch of her jeans. Putting the scissors back, he reached for another instrument. "Just hold still, my dear, and this will all be over soon."

* * *

"De Marauders." Gambit ground out. "Wolverine, we don have time t' beat dem all!"

*You won't have to!* came a telepathic shout in their heads. Before any of the Marauders could react, the X-Men raced into the room.

"Wolverine! Gambit!" The two X-Men immediately dove to the side as Cyclops sprayed the room with his optic blast. The Marauders all scattered except for Prism. He smiled as Cyclops' energy redirected itself at the X-Men. Jean threw up a telekinetic field and the light splayed around the room.

Storm took to the air, and Jean and Scott separated into their battle formations.

As the fight began in earnest, a figure ran up to Wolverine and Gambit. "Where is my daughter?" Gambit's eyes widened as the woman's form shifted to reveal Mystique.

Before he could say anything though, Wolverine sniffed the air and ran ahead. Mystique and Gambit followed wordlessly behind him.

* * *

"You really shouldn't be as upset as you seem, Rogue. After all, this is all in the name of science."

Rogue turned her head to the side. She was humiliated and miserable. Sinister seemed to be playing gynecologist and it brought hot tears to Marie's face that he could touch her so intimately. He'd taken Logan from her mind, and Marie was quickly losing her will to fight. All she wanted in the world was for this horrible man to stop touching her and just leave her alone.

Mr. Sinister put down his tools and took the tray over to wash them off. "Now that we've finished the physical examination, my dear, I think we are ready to commence with the mental testing."

Marie stared at him. The way he stood there so calmly, washing off his miserable instruments. She didn't want to watch anymore. Closing her eyes, Marie retreated into the recesses of her mind. As she drifted down layer by layer, she found herself in the same bar she had retreated to when she'd spoken to Ms. Marvel. Hoping against all odds, Marie looked around for a sign of Logan or Carol. Her heart fell as she realized they were both well and truly gone.

"Child, I believed you stronger than this."

Marie whipped around at the voice. "Magneto."

The man smiled. "Please, call me Erik. I dare say you know me well enough for that at least." Magneto gestured to a chair across from him at the small table. Marie took a seat, warily.

"Ah guess you can call me Marie.

Erik smiled. "Marie, why do you let him get to you?"

She looked at him like he was insane. "What do you mean? Do you see what he's doing to me? He's been scraping cells from every part of mah body he can, he's taken mah blood, and he's practically raped mah mind. What part of me hasn't he gotten to?"

Erik shook his head. "Child, he plays your emotions. He never took Logan from you. He merely took his manifestation." Marie looked confused and he sighed. "Marie, while Logan was in your head, you must have learned something from him. You saw his memories, can you honestly tell me you've forgotten everything?"

Marie slowly shook her head. Eric smiled kindly. "Marie, just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it's not there. Sometimes it's the things you can't see that help you the most. Information is power, Marie."

"Ah don't think he's gonna tell me anything that's gonna help me get outta here." Even in her mind, her voice cracked.

"Perhaps not, but don't let your cowardice keep you from trying."

Marie glared at him. "If Ah'm such a coward, why are you even trying to help me?"

Erik looked at her for a long moment, before he answered. "We often criticize in others the qualities we despise in ourselves." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, he looked tired and resigned. "It should have been me on that machine," he said softly.

For a moment they had a moment of perfect understanding. Strengthened by his words, Marie rose back up into consciousness.

* * *

"We're almost there," Wolverine muttered. Mystique and Gambit stayed close behind him as they ran through the passageway.

"You're farther than you think."

Wolverine stopped and growled as a voice came from ahead. A few moments later, Harpoon, Scalphunter, and Scramble stepped into the hallway in front of them.

"Remy, come back to join us have you?" snickered Harpoon.

Gambit glared at them, his hand reaching into his duster pocket.

Scrambler faked a pout. "Oh, what, no handshake?"

"Shut up, you two," snapped Scalphunter. He turned back to Gambit and the others. "Leave now, and we have nothing to fight--" His words of peace were cut off as Wolverine lunged at him.

"Go get Rogue." Gambit whispered to Mystique. "We'll hold dem back."

Mystique didn't reply. Gambit charged a few cards and threw them at Scrambler and Harpoon. When the two Marauders scattered, Mystique darted past them.

"Stop her!" shouted Scalphunter in exasperation. Wolverine roared and buried his claws in Scalphunter's metal armor. Scalphunter screamed. Whipping back around to face Wolverine, he formed part of his armor into a plasma gun, and fired it into the other man's chest. Wolverine grunted as he was shot backwards. Scalphunter stepped towards him to hit him again, but Gambit's charged cards, exploded around him, taking out his newly formed gun.

"Gambit say, you play nice, or you don play at all!" Gambit smirked. He turned to see Scrambler trying to run after Mystique. He let a few more cards fly into the ceiling, blocking the other mutant's path. Scrambler turned around with a snarl. Harpoon threw one of his namesakes in Gambit's direction, but Gambit managed to dive out of the way. As he stood up, Scrambler tried to sneak up behind him. As Gambit's kinetic sense warned him of Scrambler's presence, Wolverine suddenly flew past him, into the other mutant.

"Wolverine, NO!" Gambit shouted.

Scrambler smiled, as his mutant powers kicked in. Wolverine howled as he felt his powers being disrupted. Scalphunter had recovered and was forming a new weapon.

"Merde." Gambit muttered. He threw his cards at Scalphunter, only to be hit by a harpoon. Stunned, Gambit fell to the ground.

Wolverine was on his knees, as Scrambler's power tried to twist his mutant abilities. He felt like his nervous system was trying to rewire itself. Scrambler got cocky, though, and left himself open. Wolverine's claws caught him in the kneecap. He screamed as the adamantium sliced through his bone, severing his leg at the knee. He fell to the ground in shock at the sudden amputation. Wolverine twitched as his healing factor righted itself. Before he could turn around, a slayspear sliced its way into his chest. Roaring in rage, Wolverine ripped the slayspear out of his flesh. As the muscle pieced itself back together, he charged at Harpoon.

Gambit gritted his teeth, trying to shake off the effects of Harpoon's weapon. He looked up to see Scalphunter forming another gun from his armor. Standing up, Gambit ran over to Scalphunter. The Comanche warrior turned, but Gambit was too close. Grabbing a hold of Scalphunter's body armor, Gambit charged the metal.

"Stop!" shouted Scalphunter. Desperately, he tried to bring his finished weapon around to fire at the Cajun, but it was too late. A bloodcurdling shriek rang out as his armor exploded, taking most of Scalphunter's flesh with it.

Gambit stood there, breathing heavy. Images of another bloody battle floated through his mind and for a moment he felt the urge to run. Shaking it off, he turned to see Wolverine finishing Harpoon off. The other mutant's head had been severed from his body. Wolverine looked up and met Gambit's gaze.

Without a word, they both turned and raced in the direction Mystique had gone.

* * *

As Marie became aware of her surroundings, she saw Sinister was tinkering with a strange helmet. It reminded Marie of Cerebro.

"What's that?" she asked coolly.

Mr. Sinister looked up at her. "Ah, I see you've decided to come out of your shell. How very brave of you." He looked back down at the machine. "To answer your question, this is one of my own inventions. It is what allowed me to remove Ms. Marvel and Wolverine from your psyche. In essence, it projects me into your mind, allowing me to see what needs to be done."

"Why are you so interested in what's in mah mind?"

"If I am going to use you in my experiments, I need to know what I'm dealing with. I can't have random manifestations attacking me, now can I?" Mr. Sinister chuckled. "Also, I dislike surprises."

"What do you want with Remy?"

"Nothing really, anymore. He has served out his debt to me, and the only reason I brought him here was to enlist his help in bringing you to me. As you can deduce, I no longer need his services."

Marie glared at him. "I don't believe you. Remy would never help you."

Mr. Sinister raised his eyebrows. "Again?"

"What?"

"You mean, he would never help me again. There is much about the Cajun that you don't know, I see."

Marie tried not to let her emotions show on her face. Mr. Sinister looked amused.

"May I remind you that I am a telepath? I don't need your facial expressions to tell me what you're thinking, I can read your mind if I choose. Though I will admit, it is not easy in your case. Ms. Marvel's Kree heritage seems to have made you quite difficult to psi-scan."

"Ah thought you took her outta mah head?"

"You don't have a very good grasp of science, do you? As I explained already, I removed her as a psychic image. You absorbed all of her, my dear. I took out her substance. You still bear the impressions of her DNA. Just like you still bear the impressions of Magneto."

"So, Ah still have her powers?"

"Yes, but don't get your hopes up. That inhibitor collar around your neck makes that point mute."

"Ah didn't absorb Logan completely. How come you could take him away?"

Mr. Sinister sighed, exasperated. "Of course you absorbed him completely. You were practically dead when you absorbed him. Your body took a copy of his essence to recharge your own."

Marie swallowed as what he was saying, sank in. "Ah almost killed him, didn't Ah?"

"Quite so." Mr. Sinister nodded. "Now, let us get on with it." He took a step towards Marie. A blast of energy hit the wall next to his head. Mr. Sinister whipped around

"Get. Away. From. My. Daughter." ground out Mystique. She leveled her energy rifle at Sinister's head. As Mr. Sinister stepped backwards, Mystique's eyes fell on Rogue, her pants torn open and her stomach bare from where her clothing had been destroyed by Sinister's earlier plasma blast. Her eyes widened. "You bastard." she whispered.

Sinister's face was composed. "Mystique, how nice to see you again. Come to relive old times?"

Mystique began to pull the trigger. Before she could fire her shot, Wolverine and Gambit burst into the room. Mr. Sinister unconsciously took a step backwards. Wolverine was practically frothing at the mouth, his eyes wild. Gambit stood beside him, red on black eyes glowing demonically, his face set in an expression of rage Covered in the Marauders' blood, the pair made an unholy sight, that even unnerved the sinister scientist.

Then Mr. Sinister regained his composure. Before anyone could make a move, the door opened in the wall beside Rogue. Harpoon, Scalphunter, and Scrambler, Arclight, Blockbuster, Prism, and Riptide stepped out.

"That's impossible." Wolverine growled.

"No," Mystique corrected him grimly. "This laboratory is full of clones."

Wolverine snarled and Gambit's eyes flashed, but before they could attack, a voice called out from behind them.

"Rogue!"

Cyclops, Jean, and Storm raced into the room. Immediately taking in the situation, they lined up with Wolverine, Gambit, and Mystique.

Mr. Sinister sighed. "All right. Let's all be reasonable. If any of you make a move, Rogue is finished."

Everyone froze. For several moments, the X-Men stood there, helplessly. Gambit's mind raced a mile a minute. Finally, he had an idea. He looked at Sinister, to make sure his attention was elsewhere. Sinister was concentrating on Cyclops, watching for the X-Men's leader to make a move.

*Jean! Jean y' hear me?*

*Yes, Gambit. What is it?*

*Kin you block Gambit's thoughts for a minute? Don let Sinister read m' mind*

*All right.*

Gambit groaned, slightly. He flexed his muscles as hard as he could, letting his body shake. As he expected, Mr. Sinister swung his head over to him.

"Problems, Remy?"

Gambit didn't answer. He gritted his teeth and collapsed to the ground. Slowly, his duster began to glow bright magenta.

Mr. Sinister's eyes widened slightly. He moved towards Remy. Immediately Wolverine leapt forward towards Marie. After he slashed her restraints, he carefully cut the collar from her neck. Marie smiled as she felt her powers flare back to life. That smile died, as she saw Gambit.

"Remy!"

Gambit looked up at her and Marie gasped as she saw his eyes glowing like hot coals. Sinister was kneeling beside him.

Suddenly, Jean's voice sounded in Logan's head. He turned to Marie.

"Gambit says scram. We gotta get out of here." He and a reluctant Marie ran out of the room. The other X-Men and Mystique backed away and, keeping an eye on the Marauders, followed them out.

The Marauders stood around in bewilderment. Without a direct order from Sinister, they had no reason to attack. None of them fancied sacrificing themselves in a battle with the other mutants, if it wasn't directly ordered.

The X-Men rushed from the building. As they got outside, Cyclops hit a button on his uniform and the Blackbird's cloaking device shut off. They all ran up, to board. Behind them, an explosion sounded.

"REMY!" screamed Rogue. Logan tried to hold her back, but she wrenched herself from his grip. Without thinking, she took to the air, flying like a speeding bullet back to the building.

"Rogue!" screamed Mystique.

The building started to collapse, and the X-Men watched in horror as a chunk of the roof fell towards their teammate. Jean reached out with her telekinesis -- only to stop in shock. She and the rest of the team stared in amazement as Rogue swung her fist up to meet the solid stone. With a crunch, she connected and the rock exploded into shards.

"How . . .?" Cyclops murmured.

Minutes later, Rogue flew out of the building, an unconscious Gambit in her arms. She flew into the jet, the rest of the X-Men getting on after her. When she laid Gambit on the sick bed, Jean moved to take care of his injuries. Rogue went into the back and grabbed a pair of jogging pants and a sweatshirt from the cabinet.

As she changed her heart beat frantically against her chest. She'd used Carol's powers in front of her teammates. The jig was up, and it was time for her to come clean. As she stripped her tattered uniform off, Rogue reflected on how much had changed in such a short time. Shaking her head, she pushed down her exhaustion and all the unpleasantness of the day. She slowly walked out to the main section of the jet.

When Gambit was stabilized, and Cyclops was piloting the team safely home, Rogue let herself collapse into a chair beside Mystique. Logan watched her settle down, and slowly walked over to take his seat on her other side.

The tension in the small area was thick enough to cut with a knife. Rogue could see the twitch in Cyclops' jaw, knowing he was dying to question her. Rogue knew the only reason the questions hadn't started already was Jean's calming hand on his arm.

Rogue sighed and immediately every eye was on her. Even Cyclops turned his head slightly to hear better. Mystique took on e of Rogue's hands in hers and Rogue could feel everyone's gaze shift to the gesture. Beside her she could feel Logan stiffen at people's suspicions of her. Marie looked at him with a small smile to reassure him she was all right. Then she turned to face her teammates.

She began in a small voice. "It was at the battle against the Sentinels, at the home for mutants. Ah was getting the kids on the jet, an Carol just fell outta the sky." Her pulse beat a little quicker as doubt threatened to cease her story. "She was dyin', there was nothin' Ah could do. She begged me ta take her powers, and fight for the kids." She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "So Ah did."

"Rogue, why didn't you tell us?" Jean asked gently.

Rogue hung her head. "Ah'm sorry. Ah was so scared you wouldn't believe me. Ah was afraid you'd think Ah did it on purpose."

"Rogue, don't be ridiculous. We trust you, we would have understood." Cyclops insisted.

Rogue looked up with a harsh laugh. "Really? Do you really think any of you understand me? What Ah go through on a day to day basis? Ah had to constantly cover mahself head to toe for fear of accidentally hurtin' one of you. Every day Ah dealt with your paranoia. Think about it. Can you honestly say that, aside from Logan and Remy, any of you ever gave me a hug, before Ah learned to control mah powers?"

At that statement, Logan looked at her in surprise. Marie turned to him and he smiled. "Way to go, Marie. I knew you'd do it someday."

Marie smiled back. "Thanks, Logan."

Cyclops cleared his throat. "Speaking of your accomplishment, Rogue, we never did ask you how you finally managed to control your powers." Logan almost growled at him. Cyclops was trying to sound encouraging and curious, but it was obvious that he was wary of what Rogue might have done to get her control.

Rogue looked at the back of Cyclops' head. "Mah Mama helped me."

"Who?"

"I did." Mystique spoke up.

The sound of a switch being signified that Cyclops had turned on the automatic pilot. He turned around in his seat and even with his visor on, Rogue could practically see his surprise. She waited for him to formulate his question.

"I don't understand. If she's your mother, then why did she help Magneto? He almost killed you."

"It wasn't her." Logan said simply.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"But we saw her, Logan." Jean protested.

"It wasn't her." Logan said again. He tapped his nose. "The nose knows."

"I believe I can explain this one." Mystique said calmly. She turned to Rogue. "A long time ago, I was with a man named Victor Creed." Logan stiffened at the sound of that name, but Mystique ignored him. "He wanted me to join a team of mutants called the Marauders. I considered it, but I turned down the offer when I found out that the Marauders had massacred a community of mutants called the Morlocks. I managed to leave, but not before I met the leader of the Marauders."

"Mr. Sinister." Marie said knowingly.

Mystique nodded. "Yes. I escaped with my life, but Sinister had managed to extract a . . . sample. Blood to be precise." She frowned. "Had I known what he was going to use it for I would have fought harder to get it back."

"Wait a minute," Cyclops broke in. "You mean to tell us that the Mystique helping Magneto was your clone?"

Mystique nodded. "You may have noticed I am not covered in scales. Nor do I make it a habit to run around without a stitch of clothing." she said dryly. Then she became serious. "When Rogue came to me telling me about the information Gambit confronted her with, I knew someone was manipulating the situation. I decided to do some investigating of my own." She turned back to Rogue. "When you left my apartment, I back to where Sabretooth had taken me the day I was to have joined the Marauders. The place was abandoned, but there were still some computers left. Most of the information was gone, but the name Remy LeBeau kept popping up here and there. I knew Gambit must have had a few run ins with Sinister. When I went to the X-Mansion to find you and warn you, I found that assassin that was lying in the bushes outside. I enlisted the X-Men's help and we revived the assassin. After some convincing, Jean got the location of Sinister's base from his mind. When we got there we found Gambit and Wolverine fighting the Marauders. The rest, I believe, you know."

Everyone was silent for a few minutes, letting all this new information sink in. Finally, Storm spoke up.

"There's only one thing that I do not understand." She turned to Rogue. "You mentioned that Gambit confronted you with some information. What information did are you talking about?"

"Gambit found mah glove beside Carol's body. He--" She stopped and took a deep breath. "he dug around to find out more about me. Somehow Sinister found out he was researching me and he sent Gambit a bunch of false information about mah mama and all that stuff that happened with Magneto."

"Why didn't Gambit come to us with this information?" Cyclops asked sternly.

"How the Hell should she know, One Eye? Why don't you ask Sleeping Beauty when he wakes up?" Wolverine snapped. He was fed up with the way everyone was plaguing Marie with questions, after all she'd been through.

Cyclops gritted his teeth, but let the subject drop. Turning back to the controls, he switched of the automatic pilot. The rest of the ride was silent as each member went over what they had learned.

Marie sighed and Mystique per her arm around her, drawing Marie's head to her shoulder. Marie closed her eyes and tried to relax as her mother stroked her hair and whispered soothing words. Beside her Logan watched the others, daring any of them to bother her. She smiled. He was always there to protect her.