A/N: Prepare yourselves, this is really a long chapter!

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Seether

Chapter Eight – Reconcile

By Randirogue

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"…From in the shadow she calls and in the shadow she finds a way, finds a way. And in the shadow she crawls, clutching her faded photograph, my image under her thumb with a message for my heart, yes, with a message for my heart. She's been everybody else's girl maybe one day she'll be her own…" (Girl -by Tori Amos)

Rogue tasted the cover with her fingertips. There was so much there to devour. It still caught her off guard, the feel of things. How many hours had she had now with such a swollen sensitivity of the flesh? How many days? The collar was the cause of it. The return of the flesh. Funny, since the collar was once the means of the theft of her flesh… her virginity. Well, in the traditional sense of penetration at least.

That make her jerk. She'd known that, but she hadn't known that. If only she could remember the details.

"That's because it's locked away in the Core. Carol couldn't even access that. Ah grew up in the Core, though, so Ah know."

Rogue returned to her feast. The feel of the book truly amazed her. This was the most pristine copy of the Diaries that they had come across. The leather was oiled and felt waxy. The binding and corners had stretch marks from repeated folding, but didn't have the expected curl to the edges. It was thicker at the very bottom, reaching about an inch up and stretching all along its width. A musty odor rose from that area. Those were sure signs of water damage. But even that seemed as thought it had been worse at a previous time. At the top, slips of paper stuck out from between pages proving that it had been recently studied. Everything about the book revealed that its last owner had restored it and had handled it with extreme care.

This volume had been loved, cherished, prized... Why, Erik?

She feathered her fingertips across the title. The inscription was an old indentation, smoothed even in some places. She slid her fingers between the closed front and back cover. She felt the hundreds of edges of the pages. It was surprising how many individual sheets could be felt in this way. It was like holding the palm of your hand to the strings of a harp. Only there was more of them, packed closer together… and sharp.

Ow!

Giggle.

Rogue brought the paper cut to her mouth and sucked on it for a moment. Then she inspected the slice intently. It was only about half an inch long. It only went a few layers of skin deep.

Nothing that tiny should be allowed to sting so much. This is just stupid.

"..don't have to look through it now, Rogue." Xavier said.

Rogue returned her attention back to the room around her. She was in the war room, sitting at the conference table. It was the debriefing for the recon team that had gone to Genosha to check on Magneto. Not everyone currently residing in the mansion was present. Since it wasn't a serious battle-ready situation, only the first stringers were present: Xavier, Scott, Jean, Warren, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, Bobby, Rogue, Gambit, and Bishop. The more recent additions to the team—Emma, Sage, Neal, Jono, and Stacy X—had not been summoned. Rogue wished it involved an even smaller group since so much of the debriefing figured around her. The volume of Destiny's Diaries that she now felt up had been found in a resealable plastic bag in a safe in Magneto's private quarters in his citadel on Genosha.

"Hadn't planned on it," Rogue answered Xavier plainly.

"But he wasn't there?" Logan asked, eager to return the conversation back to Magneto. He noticed how Rogue tuned out while the discussion centered on her.

"No," Scott said. He shook his head. He still couldn't believe it. "Essex left that note."

The note was lying in a computer scanner and was projected onto the large screen monitor that took up most of the wall. It said:

X-Men,

Do not fret over Magnus. He is in capable hands. Mine, of course. He left a little something in the safe in his room. The safe's code is the date on which the crystal wave flooded the universe [1]. See that Rogue gets what he keeps in there. Magnus would want her to have it.

I've made copies for myself, of course.

~Essex.

Rogue returned her attention to the book. The others turned their discussion towards deciding on whether to attempt a search and rescue operation for Magneto. Believe it or not, due to recent, very personalized attacks on the X-Men, there were a lot of leave-him-to-the-wolves comments. Xavier was decidedly unhappy with that turn of not-quite-so-high-moral-ground attitude of his X-Men so he adjourned the meeting for the time being.

The attendants broke away, most leaving immediately. Some tried to converse with others, giving pause before making their exit. Bobby was in a category of his own. He stayed in his seat beside Rogue, but he didn't attempt conversation. He watched her with a studiously quiet gaze.

Gambit leaned in close to Rogue, and whispered, "Can we talk now?"

She flinched. Gambit cringed at first. But then he softened when he realized that it was because he'd startled her and not specifically because of his closeness.

She looked at him, smiling evenly, and answered, "Yes."

As they were leaving, Hank caught up with them. "Let me apologize in advance for this, Gambit, but I must insist upon Rogue's joining me in the lab. We have some results to discuss and many more tests to perform."

"Can't it wait," Rogue asked. She needed to talk to Gambit.

"It's okay, chere. Remy not be going anywhere anytime soon. We'll talk later."

Rogue nodded.

"Dat a promise?"

Rogue nodded again. When he turned to head in the other direction, she reached out for him. "Come with me," She made it a question, a plea.

Gambit smiled warmly. "Glad to."

~~~~~~~~~~~

"…We told you all of our secrets, all but one. So, don't you even try, the phone has been disconnected. Dripping with blood and with time and with your advice. Poison me against the moon. I escape into your escape into our favorite fearscape. It's across the sky and across my heart and I cross my legs. Oh, my god. First my left foot then my right behind the other. Bread crumbs lost under the snow…" (Mother –by Tori Amos)

Red-orange-yellow fire breathed in the fireplace. The colored light tripped from the hollow to golden vases to golden candelabras to golden gilt frames and rebounded. The room glowed warm from it. Vargas enjoyed how it mingled and repelled his own duality. The scholar in him welcomed the satiating histrionic aesthetics inherent in that style of illumination. The warrior in him abhorred the cloistering effect of it. There was a philosophy of alacrity inherent in both.

He bent over his table and looked from one book to the other. He was seeking solidarity between his budding theory and the possibilities actualized by Destiny and recorded in her diaries. He compared four pages, two from each book. One book showed the woman entangled with him and formulating a hold over earth and the universe beyond. The other book showed the images that lead him to choose Rogue as his first kill. It was puzzling him.

Why is it in one book I eliminate Rogue while the other book clearly presents an altogether different role?

He was never to solve it with just the diaries he possessed. The connection was in other books. All the books were needed to solve the enigma. And even then, Mystique and Destiny had never been able to solve the riddle themselves.

What is fated and what is possible?

Don't we all desire the answer to that one?

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Go, go, go, go now. Out of the nest, it's time. Go, go, go now, circus girl, without a safety net. Here, here, now, don't cry, you raised your hand for the assignment. Tuck those ribbons under your helmet, be a good soldier. First my left foot, then my right behind the other… We told you all of our secrets. All but one, so don't you even try. The phone has been disconnected. Dripping with blood and with time and with your advice…" (Mother –by Tori Amos)

Vargas asked himself, "What is fated and what is possible?" Some people just ask it differently.

"What could be versus what should be?"

That may have been how Henry Peter Gyrich phrased the question to an assembly of politically powerful men and women, but he meant it to mean, "What is right and what is wrong?"

"That is what we ask ourselves every time we make a decision concerning mutants in this country," Gyrich continued. Those of us gathered here today know the answer to that. Mutants cannot be suffered." He held up two volumes of Destiny's diaries and said, "We have the opportunity to end the mutant plague by using one mutant's powers against them all."

The room exploded in commotion. Gyrich drank it all in. He lived for this. At one time it was a budding theory, a dislike, an undernourished bigotry. The disappearance and subsequent death of his wife and daughter provided all the nourishment needed to cultivate him into an engineering political force against all mutants. It was that source of nourishment that brought his attention to the diaries and the diaries to this assembly.

Gyrich found the first diary a year ago. It arrived in his mail with no return address, no fingerprints, no traceable link, whatsoever. He'd flipped through it and had all but disregarded it as pro-mutant propaganda until one particular page choked him. The page was filled with several images in circular pattern. The circle was topped by an image of what had to be Gyrich himself opposite an image of his pregnant wife. The duo was in the twelve o'clock position. Images moved clockwise from him and counterclockwise from his wife with child, culminating in a bottom picture, in the six o'clock position, of a figure cocooned and caught in a spider web. The cocooned figure had arms and legs spread so that it looked like an X. The whole thing was circled by a coiling phone cord. The cord linked the phone he held to the phone his wife held.

Clockwise from his image were two headstones, side by side. His wife's name was on one, but the other stone was unreadable. Next came a flashbulb, then a jumble of lines that he took to be dozens of double helix's melding into one double helix. After that was the cocooned figure at the bottom.

Counter clockwise from his pregnant wife was an image of what appeared to be a crying baby chewing on a teething ring that had a cross and a pitchfork on it. Next came an image of a skunk on a leash held between two women, one with sunglasses on. The skunk seemed to be doing tricks for them as it stood on its hind legs, twirling and begging. Then there was an image of the top half of a Sentinal and the bottom half of a person being sucked into a portal that looked like a piece of women's jewelry. After that came the culminated web and X person in the cocoon.

Fittingly, it was the sight of the light bulb that ignited his righteous realization: mutants destroyed his family, and it was his duty to see them destroyed. He was more than willing to take up the mantle of that one.

However, he was dead wrong, as was a common happenstance with those who studied the diaries. Personal intentions tended to cloud the analysis. Bigotry begets bigotry. Single-minded thoughts twist sight. It feeds itself and recycles through. He saw what he wanted to see, but not what he really wanted. And because of it, his family was truly lost to him. If only he were more open. He could've had his true heart's desire, his daughter to raise in a love-filled home. His heart's desire, his daughter, could've had him. Many could've suffered less.

And Rogue may have been able to touch.

All along.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"…And I hate and I hate and I hate and I hate elevator music, the way we fight, the way I'm left here silent. Oh, these little earthquakes, here we go again. These little earthquakes, doesn't take much to rip us into pieces. We danced in graveyards with vampires till dawn. We laughed in the faces of kings, never afraid to burn. And I hate and I hate and I hate and I hate disintegration, watching us wither, black winged roses that safely changed their color. I can't reach you. I can't reach you. Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again…" (Little Earthquakes -by Tori Amos)

Gambit wasn't the only other attendant to Rogue's visit with Hank in the med lab. Xavier, Storm, Jean, Emma, Sage, Bobby and Wolverine joined them as well. As concerned over Rogue as he was, Gambit still found himself throwing sidelong glares to Wolverine.

Hank reported his test results from the past few days. A good deal of it was things that most of the group knew from their individual experiences with Rogue's episodes. Rogue's genetic signature was changing, a now accepted fact as part of her mutation metabolizing the genetic structures of those she absorbed into her own genetic structure thereby changing it. However, this should only occur directly after the initial absorption, even when considering the changes in her powers since her absorption of Z'Cann. Rogue's gaining control over manifesting the powers of all those she'd absorbed in the past was a sign that the metabolizing resulted from the Z'Cann changes had completed. But Rogue's genetic signature was still changing. Even more confusing—it was changing while she was wearing the collar. That raised the question, how can her mutation be active when the collar shut off all of her access to her mutation? This was question number one.

The question was written on a board to be joined with the other questions that arose with every other answer they obtained. Once a question was answered it was erased and recorded into Rogue's permanent medical history. Yet, nearly every question they'd answered spawned a new question. It was all getting very complicated and confusing. This particular question was added to the list on the board titled: To Be Tested In Danger Room.

This first question was backed by Emma when she said, "Last night I detected a third party influence over Rogue and Logan's actions."

The statement affected drastic reactions from several of the group, most on the same wavelength of Poor Rogue, violated again… Bobby, who had been boiling with the mixed emotions of It could've been me, guilt over that thought, and anger at his friend's betrayal of Gambit, her off-again-on-again boyfriend, was washed in remorse.

Gambit was evidently startled by it. Relief, sadly, and anger flared up in his ruby on onyx eyes. He asked, "Y' mean Rogue and Logan were forced to…" He couldn't finish the statement.

Emma had no problem correcting his assessment though. "Oh, no, Gambit. They were both very willing." Emma gave Rogue a sisterly smile indicating birds-of-a-feather equality between her and Rogue as she continued, "More than once. You had to fulfill your agenda didn't you, dear?"

Logan huffed with masculine pride and, yet, annoyance at Emma's propaganda over it. Bobby winced. Gambit lowered his head, hiding his pained and furious expression under the shadow of his bangs. Rogue remained neutral. She felt a pang of sympathy for Gambit, but she had resigned not to feel guilty. Of course, she had help in that area from the very third party that Emma said had spoken of.

"It may not have been love, Sugah, but it was precious nonetheless… It had been necessary. Remember that."

Touch hurts less…

"Fear ain't a panic that's completely controlling ya…"

"Love hurts less…"

"Exactly."

Jean gave Emma a condemning look and said, "Emma and I have discussed this and we are convinced that this third party was the entity, or rather the persona, that we bumped into inside Rogue's mind."

Bobby's eyes widened, "One of the people she's absorbed?"

Gambit kept his expression guarded, but he thought, T'ank y', T'ank y', T'ank y', T'ank, until Emma's answer stopped him.

"No, my boy. It is a part of Rogue herself." Emma flashed that birds-of-a-feather smile on Rogue again, twisting it with impish delight, when she added, "She has an indulgent side… Several probably. Isn't that right?"

Rogue grimaced at her.

"Well, she has a point…"

Jean turned another condemning look on Emma and said, "From what we ascertained from this entity and from what we saw ourselves, Rogue has cut herself off from the earliest portion of her life. She's blocked off all memories from age six or seven and earlier."

Several concerned and sympathetic glances strayed to Rogue, who grimaced with annoyance.

"This entity calls this heavily shielded block the Core," Jean continued. "The entity says she escaped from the Core. She is a part of Rogue, but she is separate."

"And she has access to Rogue's powers even when Rogue does not," Xavier pointed out. "It was she who re-imprisoned the Shadow King and enacted the influence over Rogue and Logan by accessing Jean's and Psylocke's telepathy within Rogue."

"Don't forget what she did to Gambit," Emma reminded them happily. She turned a teasing grin on Gambit and said, "She said to tell you it was almost as fun as—"

"Emma!" Storm exclaimed with authority, "That is quite enough."

"Well it was!"

"Bitch," Bobby grumbled.

Gambit agreed with Bobby, but remained silent and guarded as he repeated to himself with greater fervor, T'ank Dieu! T'ank Dieu! T'ank Dieu!…

"Wait a minute, ya'll," Rogue said and looked to Gambit. "You're saying she did something to Remy last night? What did she do?"

Bobby and Hank shared a knowing glance and tried to share it with Gambit, but Gambit stayed silent and guarded.

"Well?" Rogue asked, crossing her arms in a challenge.

"Uh-oh, here it comes…" Giggle.

"Gambit was inflicted with visions, Rogue," Hank said in confusion. "He was linked telepathically."

"You made him watch it, Rogue!" Bobby snapped accusingly.

Giggle.

Rogue gasped. "Ya made him watch it?!" She accused the entity.

It took a moment for the realization to settle in, and once it did, Rogue's face fell. She went to Gambit, reached out to him. He didn't move, wouldn't accept her entreaty, so she hugged herself instead as she faced him.

"Ah didn't know, Remy!" Rogue cried out. When she continued, it was a plea, her second that day. "Ah swear it. Ah never would've done something like that to ya."

She reached for him again. His arms trembled at his sides, aching to hold her, but he wouldn't. He couldn't. It was too soon. It was too raw. Rogue didn't pull back this time. She cupped his face in her hands and locked eyes with him. Both hers and his were brimming with tears.

"Ah. Am. So. Sorry. Remy." She said separating each of the words for emphasis.

"I saw it, chere," Gambit whispered. He averted his eyes and added even quieter, "I felt y'… both of y'…"

Giggle.

"SHUT UP!"

"Oh, hug him already."

"Ah am."

She did. She enveloped him in her arms. She felt the fine tremor in his arms as they met her waist and she squeezed him tighter, closer. He encircled her as well, then, and bowed his head to rest his forehead wearily on hers.

"Ah still don' see why ya like him so damned much… Bobby's so much more like Cody."

"Shh…"

Gambit felt a hand rest on his shoulder as he held Rogue. "Don't," he said plainly.

Rogue raised her head from Gambit to see Logan beside them. Rogue tugged her lip between her teeth.

Logan ignored Gambit's warning and said, "I'm sorry, Gumbo."

Gambit gritted his teeth. He fought against attacking Logan. He grounded himself in Rogue's embrace. "For how I found out, oui. But not for what y' did."

"No, not for that," Logan admitted ruefully.

Gambit's whole body clenched. Logan's gaze flicked masculine pride on Rogue for the briefest instant. Still, Gambit saw it.

A charged card punched against Logan's chest. He flew back, slammed into one of the beds and hit the floor face first.

Giggle.

SNIKT!

Logan was slammed against the ground again as Gambit landed on him. The point of Gambit's telescoped bo-staff pressed into the back of Logan's head. Logan felt the tickle of fine lines of blood from the three points of the staff pricking his scalp. Head wounds always bleed the most.

Wolverine poised for Gambit's next move, ready to strike back. Gambit raised the staff to slam it into the side of Wolverine's neck. Wolverine leapt up, twisted and launched, claws first, at Gambit.

Lightning cracked!

"Don't stop them. Ah was enjoyin' the show."

Hank and Bobby pulled Wolverine back and held him. Rogue and Storm held Gambit. Jean maintained a TK shield between them. She held a heated glare on Wolverine. Xavier sighed and shook his head. Bobby looked as though he wasn't sure if he really wanted to hold them apart or hit Wolverine himself. Hank's enormous strength held Wolverine with ease. Still, Hank had been flustered by the fight. It wasn't that he hadn't expected a fight between Gambit and Wolverine sooner or later. They all had expected that. The timing of it caught him off guard, though. Merely the moment before it, it had appeared as though an understanding, a reconciliation between Rogue, Gambit and Wolverine was being reached.

Storm, on the other hand, had not been surprised. She was not fooled into thinking Gambit would be rid of his jealous anger so easily or so quickly. Accept, yes, maybe that. Forgiveness could even have eased itself in there soon enough. But the anger, the paranoia, that would remain for a while. Storm knew that it would bite at Gambit's deepest fears, eat away at his most cherished dreams like a burning acid.

Gambit's childhood, like Rogue's, was wrought with pain, betrayal and distrust.

Rogue and Gambit are alike in so many ways, thought Storm.

Living on the streets after being abandoned by his own parents hadn't made Gambit loath to crave or dare trust a family again. Even during those wretched times, he'd even managed to care for as many others in his position as he could in the process of fending for himself.

And yet they are so different at the same time* Storm thought as well, Rogue wants a family too, but her fears are so debilitating for her. She's allowed them to force her to keep those that could be the closest family always at arms length.

It had done the opposite for Gambit as it had done for Rogue. Even the banishment from Gambit's second family, the New Orleans Thieves Guild, the LeBeau clan, didn't crack that deep-rooted desire for family of his.

This incident between Rogue and Logan? It threatened Gambit's place in his third family, the X-Men. Worst of all, it threatened his most precious dream of a fourth family, in the future, with Rogue. Storm recognized all of this and was not fooled by the quiet, non-threatening visage Gambit maintained since the incident had occurred. Gambit's predicament pained her deeply. She had to reign in her own emotional mix of sympathy for Gambit and for Rogue and her disgust for Rogue's betrayal of her dearest friend. She had to prevent the skies from splitting with her thunderous outrage and shedding her sympathetic tears for her.

Sage, well, Sage watched in silence as she had the entire meeting. She sat on the edge of one of the beds and took it all in. She was a living computer. That was her mutation. She watched, she stored, she analyzed, she extrapolated, and formulated conclusions.

Wolverine was shaking off his itch to brawl. He didn't really want to fight the Cajun. He had no beef with him. He sympathized with Gambit's position, even though he felt no guilt in his own role in it. He and Rogue had both consented, even if they were being driven by the entity, even if they wouldn't have done it at all if it were for the entity, and even if neither he nor Rogue had any intention of ever repeating the act again. But he would brawl with Gambit because of the same aspect of himself that boasted silently over his acts with Rogue. It was that primitive part of him, that part that could go feral, berserker even when provoked just right, that part for which he called himself Wolverine.

"Go ahead, Logan. Push it…" Gambit warned, begged. "Give me a reason to shove a handful of cards down y' throat!" The force of his fury jerked Storm and Rogue as they held him.

Rogue tugged on one arm while Storm held Gambit's other arm. Rogue slid one hand up his, along his shoulder, and across to the center of his chest. She pressed herself against his side, in front and under his shoulder to hold him. With the collar on, she was so weak. She had to use the weight of her whole body against him.

The closeness of him didn't make her flinch, didn't make her hesitate--

"Yes!"

"Thank Gawd, yes!"

--as she leaned into him and slipped one bare hand under his chin so she could capture his eyes.

"It's not worth it, Remy," Rogue said, pleading with him. Her eyes dimmed and her resolve withered oh so slightly.

"No! No, don't even think it, Rogue. Don't ya dare… Sugah, that's what this is all about. Ya'll are worth it."

Rogue slipped her arms around his waist and laid her head against his chest and whispered, "Ah'm not worth it."

"Damn it!"

Gambit stopped his protests and caught her in his arms. He stroked her hair and back. His lips feathered her forehead as he murmured to her in a combination of French and English. "Tu est avoir une fortune de ce You are worth it. Je suis ici I am here… Shh, ma petite, ma coeur my little one, my heart… C'est bien maintenant It's all right now. Everyt'ing's tres bien tout a l'heure… naguere Everything's very good right now... right now. Remy's here, chere. Ma mignonne, Remy loves y'… Chere, y' are worth it. Y' are worth more dan dis pitiful Cajun, n'est-ce pas? Oui, Je suis ici et Je t'aime I am here and I love you. Je ne suis jamais aller, ne va nulle part I'm not going, not anywhere… Je t'aime ma cherie, ma coeur, mon amour, ma petite I love you, my lovely, my heart, my love, my little one…"

It was mostly just pretty noise, but it was pretty noise that soothed them both.

"Not bad, swamp rat. … Yoah lucky she needs this right now or else Ah woulda accessed yoah catch, woulda made room for Bobby…"

"Shhhhhh…"

"Je t'aime aussi, Remy," Rogue whispered in his native tongue. She relished the feel of the rhythmic rise and fall of Gambit's chest against her, "I love you, too."

They were in a room full of their friends and teammates, but to them, they were the only things that existed in the world at that moment. They cried into each other. They comforted each other. They loved one another.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"…I wait so long for the walls to crack, but I know that I will one day have you back. And the hills are soft as a pillow. And they cast a shadow on my bed. And the view when I look through my window is an altarpiece. I'm praying for the living and the dead… I been locked out and I know we're through. But I can't begin to face up to the truth. I wait so long for the walls to crack. But I know that one day I will have you back. And I work with the bees. And every night I circle the moon. It's an act of simple devotion, but it can take forever when you've got something to prove. I been locked out" (Locked out –by Crowded House)

The inhibitor collars around his neck, wrists, and ankles were the most humiliating part. Especially, since they were made of metal.

How could I have been captured and imprisoned by this mad man so easily. I am Magneto, the Master of Magnetism.

He fell back against the carved natural stone wall of his cell in a mixture of defeat, futility, and righteous indignation. Rebellion swam in and out of him, too, from time to time. He let his head rest back. The cold dampness of the stone cavern felt good against his scalp, once it soaked through his thick white hair.

"…I am Eric Magnus Lehnsherr… And I let my concern for her distract me…"

He was in a cave made into a cell. At least that's what it looked like to him. His powers were negated. His captor was a man who was known for reaching his own righteous agenda through treacherous ways. The irony of it was not lost on Magnus.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"I found the secret to life. I'm okay when everything is not okay is not okay. Oh, we turn and we turn our little blue world upside down. I said, don't we love to turn our little blue world baby upside down? Inside my head a voice, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, and it says 'girl you're all the same, still coming out of your mothers, still coming out of your mothers upside down.'" (Upside Down –by Tori Amos)

Rogue was being prepared to remove the collar for further tests and monitoring while using her powers. She stood in the middle of the Danger Room. Dozens of remote sensors were taped to various areas of Rogue's mostly bare body. Hank needed bare skin to attach the sensors to so that the readings would be accurate. The sensors transmitted these readings to specialized programs in the control booth's computers. Hank, Storm, Sage and the Professor were in the control booth so they could analyze the readings as they occurred, yet still able to watch Rogue and the others down below. Jean and Emma were in the Danger Room with Rogue to interact with the entity or to protect Rogue from it if need be. Logan was there because of his healing factor. He was going to be in one of the tests Hank had planned for Rogue. Gambit was there because Logan was there. Hank wanted to get readings from Rogue as she used her absorption powers. Rogue was going to be touching Logan.

The only thing Rogue wore other than socks and sneakers was a black lycra sports bra and a pair of tight, black lycra bicycle shorts. It left nothing to the imagination. She was practically all skin. Gambit, leaning against the Danger Room wall near the door, could even make out her panty line from where he stood. He didn't like that Logan was going to touch her bare skin… Again.

Gambit looked Logan over. Logan wasn't covered much more than Rogue. He at least had on a pair of old jeans. Still, his entire upper body was bared so that Hank could monitor Logan's vitals with the same type of remote sensors as were being used on Rogue. Although, Hank didn't have to shave Rogue to apply them like he had to with Logan. Gambit glowered at all that smooth bare muscled chest, back, and arms that would be expected to make contact with Rogue's bare skin and Gambit practically growled. He really didn't like Hank's testing procedures.

Even worse, though, was how they looked like a couple of lab rats with all those sensors taped to them. It reminded Remy of dark days in his own past. It reminded him of Sinister. It reminded him of how Sinister had plans for Rogue. And that thought was the main reason that Gambit was able to curb the jealous rage that kept trying to bubble up inside him.

Interesting how it won't just go away though… n'est-ce pas? The entity mocked to herself. Gawd, ya'll are so much fun ta play with. Giggle.

They had to figure out what Sinister wanted with Rogue before Sinister made his move on her. These tests was their only hope of doing that, so Gambit would be as helpful and as supportive as he could.

There is that, too. We're mighty thankful that the mad man gave us a hand with this collar thing, but none of us like him too much. Or trust him… It's the only reason Ah'm not putting ya'll through the ringer right now, swamp rat!

Huh?! Gambit thought and raised a curious brow at Rogue, who was looking up at the control booth, facing away from Gambit. I heard somet'ing. Felt somet'ing.

The entity shut her shields tighter and gave a psychic grimace to Remy. How ya doin' that, swamp rat? Even Rogue can't evah heah me if Ah don't want her ta.

"Ya'll ready, yet?" Rogue called up to the control booth.

"One more minute," Hank said over the intercom.

Hank looked over her current readings. Her vitals and brain waves were scrolling on one of the screens. The other screens had several columns of scrolling signals also. Most of these columns were blank right then. These were the spaces he allotted to register and record the activity of Rogue's known powers that would spark to life once the collar was removed. He'd never recorded every mutant Rogue had ever absorbed so he had estimated the number of columns needed. Just to be safe, though he also inserted a command for the computer to open more columns as they were needed.

As he looked over the power read-outs now he noticed that one column was indeed already active. This was the one he assigned to Psylocke's power signature. He also noticed that one column had been added by the computer's auto-add instruction, and that it too was active. He had been hoping for that to happen. He had purposely not allotted a column to represent the entity, so that when he activated the sensors, it would be forced to add her column and thereby tell them which column represented the entity right from the start.

The other active column, the one he had created to represent Psylocke's telepathic powers, surprised him, though. It was on despite the use of the collar, which was odd, to say the least. Technically, no power should be active when the collar was on. Yet, here, two columns were active and she still had the collar on.

Hank compared it intently with the entity's column and saw that there was an even more specific correlation between the two.

"Ahh, that must be how the Shadow King now remains imprisoned even with Rogue wearing the column," Hank said and the others nodded.

Storm released a grateful sigh. She'd believed it when Emma had said that he was indeed imprisoned permanently on the astral plane. But she'd had her reservations. That was one villain that had truly terrified her for as long as she could remember.

Hank added these tidbits to his notes. He typed a few more commands into the computer and then looked over the list of questions they were trying to solve.

The list read, simply:

How can Rogue's powers be activated while she is wearing the collar? What is the entity/cloud/shimmering voice? How does the entity have access to Rogue's powers (even when Rogue is wearing the collar)? What else is inside the Core? Does what remain inside the Core have access to Rogue's powers? What is Union? Why can Rogue control all the powers she absorbs from others (even when they can't), but cannot control her primary mutant power? What is it about Rogue and her powers that interests Sinister?

They had come up with the list by pooling all known information about Rogue's powers and all incidents that had occurred since Rogue's first episode. Jean had suspicions that the entity had escaped long before the first episode, though not exactly when, but had been too weak until recently to have any major effect on Rogue. Nobody had any lingering belief that Rogue's recent episodes had anything to do with Rogue's change in powers as they were effected by her absorption of Z'Cann. They weren't absolutely ruling out the possibility, though. Their tests would cover that option. But nobody believed it any more. The entity and the Core were now taking the blame.

"Okay, all ready, Rogue," Xavier announced over the intercom.

Rogue looked from Gambit, by the door, to Logan, Jean, and Emma as the last three circled around her to deal with any initial reaction of her powers being released.

Everyone had gloves on, but she had so much skin bared. She raised her hands to the collar and paused.

C'mon, Sugah, Ah don't have that much control over yoah powers, ya know.

Even though everyone else was protected by gloves, she was without her armor of clothing. Anyone could still touch her. She took a deep breath and released it and closed her eyes and grasped the latch on the collar. And paused.

All right, already… I really do have more power ovah ya with the collar on… Really.

With her eyes still closed she took another deep breath. She gasped when she felt hands catch hold of her at her sides from behind, carefully only touching the sports bra. She looked over her shoulder to see Gambit smiling reassuringly at her and she sighed, more relieved. She unlatched the collar.

Nothing.

They all looked at each other.

"Was it just me, or were ya'll expecting some kind of big bang or something, too?" Rogue asked.

Gambit chuckled quietly. Dat's my Roguey.

He was sure she was okay now that the big moment was over so he removed his hands from her sides. Still, he couldn't bring himself to completely remove himself from her so he caressed a few fingers on the fabric of the sports bra on her back. Up and down, up and down, up and down. He couldn't help himself.

In the back of his mind the thought, Don' push her too much, too fast, Gambit, flitted around, but he'd wanted this for so long. Yes, he wanted to make love to her. How could he not? She was beautiful, passionate, tenacious, full of fire and sass, and therefore damn sexy. But more than that, he wanted to stroke her back without her flinching from him. He wanted what Bobby—and even Logan—seemed to have so easily. He wanted the little touches that made up true intimacy.

"Getting a little grabby, ain't he?"

"Shush up. Ah kinda like it."

"Ya would… Ah can make him stop whenever ya want. Just let meh know…"

"What do ya mean, make him—"

"Well, should we do something? Or do you just want us to stand here and look pretty?" Emma asked. She looked over to Logan and grinned, "Well those who can, of course."

"Give us a minute," Xavier said through the intercom as he watched lines and lines of text and code scroll by in rapid succession on all the screens. "We're getting quite a lot from the sensors."

"These screens are going nuts, Rogue," Bobby said excitedly.

They're not alone… Rogue rubbed her temples trying to ease her increasing headache. "Would ya stop banging around in theah? Ah don't want him ta stop."

"It ain't all about HIM, ya know… 'Sides, it's not like Ah'm alone in heah. The others are wakin' too." The entity felt the pulsing edges of the Core. "IT's wakin' up, too." Giggle.

"What are ya—"

"Rogue, do you know if all this activity is from the powers you've absorbed or your own absorption powers?" Hank asked over the intercom.

Damn you've got poor timin', Hank. Rogue thought, but answered aloud, "Don't know what ya mean."

"Well, what do you feel? Can you feel your powers? Can you sense their presence, their accessibility?" Hank asked.

"Right now, it feels kinda like when ya get pins and needles, but all over, all at once, even in my head. It's like static. It should clear up soon enough, though."

"Let me know when it does," Hank said and returned his attention to the screens.

He brought up Rogue's own genetic signature scans and looked over it. The moment the collar was shut off, her signature changed drastically. But it actually got closer to what it had been before Z'Cann. It was as though her DNA not only actually took into account that it metabolized other DNA, but it compensated for it as well. Like it took the information, the powers, and made it her own even as it kept them separate. Hank pulled up Rogue's earliest medical record from when she joined the X-Men. Sure enough, her current genetic signature was different from the original one, but it wasn't far off. To an outsider, it would have looked as though the two compared signatures were of relatives, cousins or aunt and niece, something within that closeness.

"Very interesting indeed," Hank said.

"What wrong?" Bobby asked, trying to cover up his concern with his curiosity, but failing. He wanted to stay angry with Rogue, but his caring for her was making that very difficult.

Hank gave Bobby a sympathetic glance, but then quickly replaced it with professionalism. He truly felt for his best friend and the position he's placed himself in.

"It's okay, Bobby," Hank said. "There's nothing wrong per se. There's just a lot more information here than I had expected." Hank turned to Xavier. "I'm not going to have too many answers during this session as I'd hoped." Hank sighed and messaged the bridge of his nose. "It's going to take a while to analyze this."

"That is why I am here, McCoy," Sage said. It startled everyone in the room. She'd been so quiet during all this, they had almost forgotten she was there.

"Indeed, it is," Hank said and turned back to the monitors.

The scrolling codes were slowing, revealing that Rogue's powers were steadying themselves. He watched them until they had fully slowed to what should represent an active, yet relaxed state. They all moved at roughly the same rate. All except two columns. One was hardly active enough to have prompted a display of it let alone the system's recording of it.

"It couldn't be, could it?" Hank asked, pointing out the quiet column to Xavier, who looked over it with curiosity.

"A latent power," Xavier said, making it a question.

Sage, Storm and Bobby perked up with that. Xavier studied the column a little more and compared it to the first entry of Rogue's medical files from when she first joined the X-Men.

"No, it's not," Xavier said out loud with surety. "See, she didn't have it before. It's likely a strong non-mutant talent, Collossus' artistic ability or Kitty's skill with computers, something like that."

Telepathically, Xavier said to Hank, "Keep an eye on it, though. It could be a latent power she absorbed from someone else."

"Or even what we originally suspected…" Hank felt Xavier's mental nod of agreement and studied both files, then nodded and said aloud, "I believe your assessment is correct. But I'll keep an eye on it as well."

Neither Hank nor Sage noticed Sage's silent curiosity over their exchange. They are hiding something, she thought.

Hank returned his attention to the other column that stood out from the rest. It was an extremely complex, dense coding. It moved at a much quicker speed than all the others, denoting active use. He pointed this one out to Xavier as well.

"Rogue, are you using any power right now? Telepathy, maybe." Xavier asked over the intercom. He doubted Rogue was able to use that particular power without alerting him to it, but it was worth asking.

"No, Professer," Rogue answered.

"How do you feel?" Hank asked.

"Normal, Ah guess," Rogue answered.

"Normal, ha! Ya'll aren't even complete. Ya need Union."

"Shush up about that, will ya!"

"That must be her original power, her absorption power. It does seem to regulate all the other powers." Hank said to Xavier after taking a final glance at the quicker, more complex column.

"That would make sense," Xavier admitted, skeptically. An idea hit him, and he activated the intercom. "Rogue, could the entity be using any of your powers without your knowledge?"

Rogue grimaced. She hated any and all references to her lack of control. She hated it even more that she had to admit that the entity did seem to have more control than she did herself in some respects.

"It's possible," Rogue admitted with a slightly defeated sigh. She felt Gambit stiffen at her back.

"Dat so, petite?" His voice was a blend of surprise, sympathy, and suspicion.

"She did it last night, didn't she?" Rogue snapped, shaking Gambit's hand off her back.

Merde! Y' just had to push it, didn't y' Gambit* Gambit thought.

"Ya show him, Sugah."

Rogue took a step away from Gambit and addressed Hank in the control booth. "She can use my powers and Ah can't always stop her. Ah can usually tell that she's doing something, just not what she's doing. An if she's doing more than one thing, it's even harder to tell."

"What about now?" Xavier asked.

Rogue closed her eyes and felt around inside herself. "Naw, she just watching right now."

Giggle.

Hank and Xavier looked to one another. Hank shrugged. "Probably our first assessment, but we'll find out soon enough." Xavier nodded in response. Hank spoke through the intercom, "Okay, Logan, your turn."

"Good luck, Sugar," Rogue said as she handed the collar she'd just removed to Logan.

Everyone watched Logan closely as he put it on. In the control booth, Hank and the others watched the Logan's readouts effectively go flat-line.

"All powers are nullified," Hank announced inside the booth.

Hank looked at Logan's vital signs readings and though they had sped up a little to compensate for Logan's lack of healing factor, allotting the beginnings of adamantium poisoning, but they seemed in order.

"Okay, Logan, take it off," Hank told Logan over the intercom.

They'd seen Logan go through adamantium poisoning once before, when the high evolutionary and Sinister had removed all mutants' powers, and it wasn't pretty. Nobody wanted to put Logan through that again. Well, Remy maybe, but that was just a petty knee-jerk response and he didn't really mean it.

Logan took off the collar and all of his readings returned to normal so they turned their attention back to Rogue. All except for Sage, that is. She had split her attention between the quicker, more complex column on Rogue's readout and the columns of Logan's powers. She continued to watch them for a few moments more after they regulated. She tuned everyone out and she analyzed…analyzed…analyzed…analyzed…extrapolated…extrapolated…and…

"...initializing power test one," Hank was saying. "Rogue, just—"

"Wait," Sage said.

She pushed her way to the monitors. Hank let her in with a curiously raised brow. Sage typed some commands and Rogue's and Wolverine's monitors blanked. The readings shifted to one monitor, side by side for comparison, and replayed the last few minutes.

"What do you see?" Sage asked.

Intrigued, Hank watched the codes scroll by. At first, it seemed as mundane as they had seemed upon his first study. But then he noticed the small difference that Sage wanted him to see. In the most dense and complex of Rogue's columns, one line of code disappeared and reappeared in synch with that of Logan's reading. In short, a secondary repetition of Logan's manifestation in Rogue existed within that most complex and confusing column of Rogue's reading. And that repetition seemed to be directly linked with Logan himself right then, as though Rogue was absorbing him constantly.

"Fascinating," Hank mused as he added another note to his ever-growing list of notes. He also added another question to the list.

9. Is Rogue continuously connected to those people whom powers she has access to and not just retaining a genetic memory of those powers?

"Rogue, did you feel anything when Logan activated the collar?" Hank asked over the intercom.

"Not a thing, Hank," Rogue answered, a question in her eyes, "Why?"

"Logan put the collar on again please?" Hank watches as Logan does so, then checks the monitors to see once again the same disappearing code from both Rogue's and Logan's readings.

"Do you still have Logan's claws?" Hank asked.

In response, Rogue popped them. A slight grimace flicked across her face in sync with the familiar SNIKT! Despite her invulnerability and healing factor, they still hurt a bit every time she popped them. She looked up to Hank and he nodded, so she retracted them. She watched the skin heal around the holes they had made in her hand. Her healing ability still fascinated her as much as the remaining pinch of pain that the claws exit had made still annoyed her.

Hank typed some commands into the computer and a holographic image melted around the four X-Men below. The walls and ceilings remained normal, but the floor became a field dense with hundreds of varieties of flowers and grasses that reached to their knees. Hank looked down to Rogue from the Observation Booth. "Okay, Rogue, use Logan's senses to find the dandelion."

Rogue scoffed at him, "Couldn't come up with anything harder?"

"We're not testing your use of the abilities as much as your access of them, Rogue," Xavier said through the intercom. "We will get to that later on."

"Whatever," Rogue said as she sniffed the air and waded through the grass and flowers. About forty seconds later, she grinned. She plucked the sole dandelion and held it up to present it to Hank and the others in the Observation Booth.

"Very good, Rogue," Hank said and made notes. As predicted, the column specifically representing Logan's powers imprinted into Rogue had sped up while she had used them. Yet, still, the coding within the most complex column was still gone.

"Logan, you can take it off now," Hank said over the intercom. To Xavier, inside the booth, he added, "Well, the connection seems to be superficial. She has access regardless of whether or not the original power's owner has access."

In the Danger Room down below, Logan removed the collar for the second time that day. He jerked when the onslaught of the potent scents of the myriad of flowers and grasses hit him like a sledgehammer. He eyed Rogue with curiosity, "How'd ya find it so fast, darlin'?"

Gambit felt a slight pang with Logan's use of the word 'darling.' Inwardly, he knew the endearment meant no more than it ever had before, but now it was a stab every time he heard it. The stab echoed with the briefest flash of a memory of what he'd seen the night before.

Giggle.

Gambit's head whipped to Rogue. He'd heard that. It wasn't Rogue's voice, but it felt like it came from Rogue. He eyed Rogue in a mix of suspicion and concern. He watched Rogue's wistful expression as she graced the flower's silky petals across her cheek and smiled at Logan.

Gambit wondered, Do y' really not know, chere?

"Not if Ah don't want her ta. Ah exist because she doesn't wanna know certain things."

"What are y' up to, petite?"

"Yoah starting ta really piss meh off, swamp rat. Stay outta it… Unless ya wanna end up outta Rogue's favor when Union comes. And it will."

Logan stepped up to Rogue, pulling Gambit's attention away from the telepathic communication with the entity. Gambit knew it wasn't logical, but he disliked Logan being near Rogue more than he disliked the entity. It seemed the more immediate threat, even though it was unlikely Logan would ever hurt Rogue. More likely t' pleasure her, Gambit thought. Another stab to his chest. Besides, when have emotions been logical?

"Well?" Logan pursued.

"Trade secret," Rogue said coyly.

"Don't give me that crap, Rogue. You shouldn't be able to use my powers better'n me," Logan said, getting annoyed.

Rogue sighed, losing a bit of her playfulness. "Ah didn't, Logan. Ah just like dandelions a whole lot. Cody used to pick 'em for me all the time."

Logan put a hand on Rogue's sports bra covered back, "Sorry, Rogue." His heightened senses heard and smelled Gambit step up behind him and Rogue, but he didn't remove his hand from her.

"Off, Logan," Remy practically growled.

Rogue turned around, anger streaking her face. Logan did move then, to prevent skin to skin contact of their bared upper arms.

"What's your problem, Remy?" Rogue asked. She wasn't angry, yet. But she was mildly annoyed.

"Yeah, what is yoah problem, swamp rat?" Giggle.

Gambit jerked back. "Y' didn't!"

"Yes, ah did."

"Remy!" Storm announced over the intercom. "If you keep this up we will ask you to leave. Do you understand?"

Gambit looked to his hands to see three cards had been drawn and charged to their full potential. He pulled some of the power back into himself, but they'd been charged far too much and he'd been holding them too long to extinguish the potential completely. He quickly tossed the cards to the far wall. Holographic flowers and grass sprayed all over them from the resulting explosion.

Gambit hadn't even realized he'd drawn the cards.

"I hear y', Stormy," he said as he backed up to the wall by the door again.

"He didn't do it, Storm," Xavier said from the booth.

Storm looked questioningly to Xavier, as did everyone else in the Observation Booth.

Xavier had noticed a connection between three of Rogue's columns on the screen. The overactive column, the dense and complex one, had one set of codes that repeated itself more often in the sequence even though the column didn't speed up at all. At the same time, the column that represented the entity sped up, and had greater repetition of the matching code within it. Xavier then found the original source of that repeating code in a third column, which became more active as well. It was the column that registered Gambit's powers imprinted in Rogue.

Xavier didn't voice the specifics, but instead said simply, "I believe it was the entity. And She is linked with this more active column."

Telepathically to Hank, Xavier added, "The entity is directly linked to that mysterious column, which I'm beginning to think is this Core they keep speaking of."

Analyzing… analyzing… analyzing…Sage picked up on Charles and Hank's silent communication. They were definitely hiding something. If they wanted to hide things from Rogue and the others, that was just fine. She was more than capable of figuring it out on her own.

"Our suspicions are gaining more and more ground, Professor."

"Yes, Hank. But I fear it may be even more than we had anticipated."

Extrapolating…Extrapolating…and… Sage wasn't going to let them distract her.

"Uh-oh… Ah think they found something, Sugah"

Rogue looked up to the booth. She couldn't make out exactly what was going on, but there was a lot of movement.

Inside the booth, Xavier felt the entity's probing of him, listening in on them. He turned to look down on Rogue to see if she was even aware of the entity's activities and was assured by Rogue's expression, that Rogue, was indeed, in the dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're counting my feathers as the bells toll. You see the bow and the belt and the girl from the south… all favorites of mine. You know them all well. And spring brings fresh little puddles that makes it all clear, makes it all… hey, do you know, hey do you know, what this is doing to me? Oh, here. Here. Here. In my head…" (Here. In my head. –by Tori Amos)

…And heart…

Magnus slowly blinked his eyes as consciousness returned to him. The bright light shining in his eyes made him want to keep them closed.

"Ahh, you're awake," Essex said and he moved the light so that it wasn't so directly in Magnus' eyes. It was a gesture of concern, oddly enough, since Essex had just completed exploratory surgery on him without consent. "Is that better?"

Magnus just grunted in anger. He tried to get a look at the room he was in. All he could see was the ceiling directly above him, a mechanical contraption that hung down over him with dozens of pliable arms snaking from it, and the bright light that had been moved out of his eyes. His peripheral vision was still fuzzy and he couldn't turn or bow his head in any direction to see any more of the room. His arms, legs, and hips were bound just as securely to the cold table on which he was laying. Cold table. He just realized that part. And that he was indeed lying down on his back. He was also still without his powers, even though he was not wearing any collars.

Pain, aching and throbbing, ran twin lines from his chest to his lower abdomen. Panic seized him as he put the clues together.

That mad man cut me up!

"Calm down, Magnus," Essex said as he rested a hand on Magnus' shoulder. "You will tear the stitches before the nannites have finished closing the wounds."

Magnus ceased his futile thrashing, little as they were considering his bound state, and Essex removed his hand from Magnus' shoulder.

"That's better," Essex said as he released the restraints on Magnus' head.

Once his head was freed, Magnus sighed and relaxed. He was humiliated. All he could do was watch as Essex inspected his handiwork and get his bearings more clearly in the room. From what he could see, it was some sort of recovered old medical facility, filled with all sorts of extremely advanced medical equipment. The equipment, though, was more advanced than anything Magnus had owned himself. In fact, the only other time he'd ever seen equipment of this magnitude was the Shiar adapted equipment at…

"Xavier… You stole this from Xavier…" Magnus croaked out. His voice was dry and hoarse. How long was I unconscious?

"I do not steal. The Cajun always took care of that," Essex paused, letting the information sink into Magnus. When it did, when the sneer crawled across Magnus' face, Essex grinned. It was always so much fun to toy with his subjects.

"I know he worked for you…" Magnus croaked out. It came out as a threat.

Essex, having gotten what he'd wanted, Magnus' reaction, continued as though Magnus never spoke.

"The government appropriated this equipment when Operation Zero Tolerance went into effect. At its end, I had the equipment turned over to one of my aliases." He surveyed the room with pride. "It really is remarkable technology." He mused for a moment, watching Magnus' furious expression, knowing what it was for. "They had all they ever needed to grant Rogue the control she has always sought." He paused, again letting the information sink in. He savored the twist of surprise and doubt that mixed in with Magus' fury. "I wonder why they never offered it to her."

A monitor BEEPED.

The BEEPS came from behind Essex, from a section of the room that Magnus had not yet been able to see because the mad man's body blocked it from view.

"Speaking of Rogue," Essex said with a sardonic grin. He turned and went to where the beep came from. Magnus could see the wall much more clearly now. It was a wall of monitors. One of them showed a video feed, without sound, of the Observation Booth of the Danger Room. Three others showed video feed of the Danger Room from opposing angles. Magnus nearly gasped as what he saw there.

Emma, Jean, Logan and Gambit stood off to the sides as Rogue fought with constructs of the holographic program. He ignored most of them, especially Gambit, mostly to keep his mounting anger from getting the better of him and causing him to rip out the stitches with his futile thrashes. He watched Rogue, though. She was hardly wearing a thing, just sneakers, socks, a sports bra, and tight shorts. She was sweating profusely, evident by the dark swallows on her barely there clothing, the hair plastered to the sides of her face, and the slight sheen on her skin when the light hit it just right.

Rogue was using several powers not her own, as far as Magnus had known. He watched her toss charged cards at one opponent, blast another with optic beams, strike one with lightning, and freeze another. The opponents were coming faster and faster, though. She Bamfed away from one, used the sound to create a laser to shoot another, a telekinetic bubble crushed one more. She phased through one, absorbed an energy beam of another and directed it back at it. Over and over again she used the combined powers of every one he had ever recognized that she had come into contact with. When she popped Logan's claws from her hands, Magnus watched closer to see if the were laced with adamantium, but of course they were not. Before he could process that, one of her opponents gouged her side. Magnus held his surprise and confusion in check when he saw Rogue's wound close up on its own. But the wound had slowed her down and her opponents were piling in on her.

Magnus' jaw tightened. He had a feeling he knew what would come next and he didn't want to see it. He didn't want it to be true. But it was. A blue/purple haze surrounded the pile. The metal opponents shook and then were thrown in every direction at a speed that the video feed was barely able to register as anything more than a blurred streak. The others in the room took cover from the shrapnel. Rogue was left alone in the center of the room. Blue/purple energy crackled off of her with frightening intensity. Slowly, a bubble of the same energy enveloped her and she rose up from the floor not under her own flying ability, not from Storm's summoned winds, not from Jean's telekinesis, but from his own magnetic powers… and maybe Joseph's too. But Magnus didn't like that she had absorbed Joseph as well. That she had touched him… kissed him, maybe. Little did he truly know about his southern friend, and one time ally, and one time…

"It isn't possible…" Magnus whispered as he watched everyone that was in the Danger Room and in the Observation Booth react to Rogue's display of power with fearful and astonished expressions. He knew how they felt.

"Oh, but it is, Magnus," Essex supplied without taking his attention from the few monitors that his body still blocked from Magnus' view. "Rogue is now a veritable one woman army."

Magnus listened to him, but he kept his attention on the monitors that showed Rogue in the Danger Room. The bubble snapped off in the blink of an eye and Rogue plummeted down. She caught herself in a crouch that was identical to a combined use of Gambit and Psylocke's skill and agility. It was easy, smooth, and lithe.

"Rogue can now access all powers she had ever absorbed from anyone… Ever. And it seems, she now has control over them."

Rogue stayed in the crouch for a long time. The others approached her, even those from the booth. Rogue raised just her head then, directly into the line of the camera that sent the video feed to Sinister's monitors. It was as though she was staring right at Magnus, himself, along that feed, across all those miles that probably separated them at that moment. He felt as though she was pleading with him as stubborn tears creeped down her cheeks.

"It is truly amazing, isn't it," Sinister said with a combination of awe and sickening scientific arousal.

"What have you done to her?" Magnus asked, still keeping his attention on Rogue. Most of the X-men stayed several feet back because of her bared skin. Three moved closer, though—Wolverine, Gambit, and Iceman. Rogue threw them a warming glare through her tears.

"I have done nothing. I haven't needed to. Rogue is becoming what she was meant to be," Sinister said with that same twisted grin.

Magnus watched Wolverine and Gambit stop their approach in response to Rogue's glare. Iceman, surprisingly to Magnus, continued towards her though. He was fully dressed and wore gloves. He knelt before her and grasped her shoulders as Rogue's entire body tensed and a severe grimace of pain contorted her face. Beast rushed out of the Danger Room and up to the Observation Booth just in time to watch the monitors registering Rogue's accessing another mutant's powers.

"I am waiting," Sinister continued despite the turmoil showing on the screens.

Magnus was riveted to the image of Rogue's tortured form as her back bucked into a severe arch, then quickly curled forward again. Wolverine leapt forward, but not within touching distance. Gambit flinched like he was going to jump to her too, but he remained where he was. He settled for a brief hateful at both Iceman and Wolverine, before turning concerned eyes on Rogue again.

Rogue's shoulder blades swelled. Bigger, bigger, two points pushed out the skin on her upper back. Then the points burst from her skin. Blood streamed down her back like tears. The points grew, extended, a joint formed in each one and they bent at an oddly graceful angle. They were bones, Magnus soon realized just before skin and feathers started flowing from the bones. Within twenty minutes Rogue had Angel's wings spanning their full breadth from her back.

Rogue collapsed forward, allowing Iceman to hold her as sobs wracked through her. The wings curled delicately around the two of them.

Magnus was stunned.

Sinister was pleased.

"I may not have to wait much longer, though," he said as he turned towards Magnus. "I have many preparations to make, so if you'll excuse me."

Magnus tried to continue watching the video feed while Sinister removed the bindings and replaced the collars on him. Magnus saw Gambit finally approached Rogue and tentatively finger the feathers on Rogue's new wings. The expression he wore both stunned and angered Magnus more, though Magnus only revealed it with the hard lines on his brow. Love was there in Gambit's expression, sure enough, the gut wrenching uncontrollable kind of love that could near obsession if a person was pushed just the right way. It almost drowned out everything else that was evident in Gambit's visage. But there was so much more there. There was jealousy, which surprised Magnus—

Who or what would that scoundrel, that gene-traitor, be jealous of? He's wrapped her to his designs from almost the beginning. Even in his own head, it sounded like a growl.

There was heartache—

Serves him right…

A gnawing tormented worry... and fear.

"No, wait!" Magnus called out as he was dragged, struggling the entire way, out of the room, losing sight of the monitor. Fear of what?!

So caught up in the video feed of the Danger Room, Magnus never saw the other monitors which showed the similar columns of Rogue's powers that were displayed on Hank's monitors in the Observation Booth of the Danger Room.

Half way down the hall, Magnus finally stopped his thrashing. He'd torn his stitches a bit and blood edges the wounds. But he didn't feel it. He didn't even notice who had been dragging him away. He didn't care about any of that. All he cared about was finding out what Sinister had planned for Rogue and what he was going to do to stop it. Well, that, and the expression that had plagued Gambit's face. He thought about that too. He'd recognized every bit of it easily… Read it like he could read his own face… his own moods. Why shouldn't he have been able to? The same look, the same emotions had crossed him on more than one occasion. For the same reason as it struck Gambit. For something he'd set aside long ago. For something that ached in him from time to time… every now and then.

For Rogue.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"In my head I found you there and running around and following me, but you don't, oh, dare, now. But I find that I have, now, more than I ever wanted too." (Here. In My Head. –by Tori Amos)

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry…" Bobby murmured to her over and over again as he held her. He didn't even take care to make sure the bared skin of their faces touched. It was the last thing on his mind. He just didn't want her to hurt anymore. He just wanted everything better for her. She could be with Gambit, sleep with Logan, never talk to him again. She could do anything that she damn well wanted as long as she would be okay again. He wouldn't be mad at her anymore. Just be okay again.

He didn't have to say any of that to her. He barely even had to think it. If it wasn't evident in his voice, it was evident through her access to Jean and Xavier's telepathy and even more so through Gambit's empathy. The feeling behind all of it—the desperation of it—pounded its way into her. And she understood. And she accepted it. She welcomed it.

She had her best friend back.

"It's okay, Bobby…I'm okay." She said and lifted her head from his shoulder. She looked him in the eye, taking care that none of her bared skin broached his in their closeness.

Bobby blinked a few times, clearing his eyes of his own tears, letting her words settle in. "You're okay?" He asked skeptically.

"I'm okay," Rogue said to him.

She felt Gambit stroking the feathers and she shivered a little. She understood what Gambit wanted as well. He wanted what Bobby had wanted, but he wasn't willing to give up as much for it. Rogue smiled. She wouldn't want him too. She uncurled the wings from around her and Bobby and looked up to Gambit with as much of the smile she could give him.

"I'm okay," she told Remy too.

"No we're not. That HURT!"

Rogue ignored the entity and concentrated on Gambit running his fingers along the feathers to the base of the wings. With one gloved finger he tentatively brushed the place where they escaped her back.

"Y' healed it already…" he said.

"Healing factor—it's all the rage these days," Rogue said with a laugh.

Gambit's worried frown twitched with a slight smile but remained a frown nevertheless. It stopped Rogue's nervous laughter.

"It still hurt?" Gambit asked her.

"A little, but it's fading."

"Why'd you do it, Rogue?" Bobby asked, his pained tone turning her attention back to him. "It's not like you'll ever need them. You can fly on your own power."

"On Carol's power," Rogue corrected quietly. She sighed, then answered his real question. "Because Hank needed me to do all of them—ALL of them—so he can figure out what's going on with me. And Ah want to solve this." She turned a sympathetic gaze to Gambit, "Before anything worse happens."

Gambit nodded.

"You don't have to do anymore today," Bobby said, drawing her attention back to him.

"He's right, ya don't."

Rogue laughed for real that time. "If Ah stop, Bobby, Hank'll never be able get me near the med lab or the Danger Room again to finish it."

"That's true, too."

Bobby smiled.

"Ah just love his smile."

Rogue continued to ignore Her and focused on Bobby regardless of what She wanted.

Bobby understood. She's always been the most stubborn person when it came to dealing with medical concerns, even worse than Gambit. She'd only gotten more stubborn when she gained controlled access to Logan's healing factor. Tests for premeditative reasons were nearly impossible to get her to comply with, let alone sessions with Jean or Xavier to help her deal with the mental strain of having so many personas within her mindscape. She always had some reasonable excuse to get out of them. And every once in a while she would give in, like today, just to keep everyone off her back about it.

"Fine," Logan said with insistence. If she won't listen to Bobby, and Gambit won't speak up, maybe she'll listen to me. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them until there was only a foot between them. "But this is the last one," he said as he tugged on the fingers of his gloves.

Gambit held a hand up to stop him. Logan almost growled, but caught himself.

"Go on, swamp rat. Pick another fight with Wolvie… Upset Rogue some more."

"Non."

"Ah know ya want to. Ah can make ya want to. Ah can make ya do anything."

"Non!" That time Gambit shook his head to help his consternation against the entity. He fought it. He felt the catch as she tickled it and he fought it. And he felt her back off.

"Ya'll're just lucky that it matters ta meh that ya matter ta her."

Gambit looked to the others and they moved off to their designated positions. All except Bobby. Gambit didn't think they'd be able to pry him from the room until Rogue left. Just like Gambit himself. Gambit felt a kinship with Bobby in that moment. When all was said and done, Bobby genuinely cared for Rogue and did a good job of it, too. Gambit wouldn't fault him for that. Then Gambit looked up to the booth to Hank and the others as they returned. He skipped by Logan and finally settled on Rogue. He had to steady his gaze before he could say what he had to say to Rogue.

He spoke slowly, forcing each word out as he said, "Way I see it y' got three more tests at de minimun if y' want Hank to get anywhere close to a real understanding of what's going on wit' y' powers."

Bobby stood up then, anger apparent on his face. He didn't want Rogue to go through with even one more test.

Gambit's gaze flicked to Bobby only for an instant before he lowered it back to Rogue. "If I figured right, y' only got Mystique's powers left to access."

He paused as Rogue looked down. It still hurt her that her mother tried to kill her. She stabbed Rogue in the stomach with a specially designed blade. The only thing that had saved Rogue was that Mystique had seemingly not known that Rogue had Logan's healing factor… and claws.

"How could she not know. She'd studied the diaries. Don't let her fool ya. She knew exactly what was going to happen. She counted on it." The entity said it to both Gambit and Rogue, her voice shimmering with the venom of it.

"Y' have y' own power to test," Gambit swallowed hard then and looked sternly at Logan, "Y' absorption powers not de others. Y' used those in some way or ot'er during the ot'er tests."

"And her," Rogue said for him. Gambit nodded. Rogue started to stand and both Gambit and Bobby grabbed an arm to help her up.

"You get that, Hank," Logan called up to the Observation Booth, "Three more tests. Ya better get what ya need from them 'cause there won't be any more." It almost came off as a threat.

"We understand," Xavier said through the intercom.

The Danger Room wasn't needed for these last three tests. There was no need for a simulation of any kind. All that was needed was Rogue, the entity, and at least one other person. She had three others close to her though and she was grateful for each one of them. Jean and Emma were in the room, hanging back by the door, but Bobby, Gambit, and Wolverine stayed close to her. They were her grounding. She loved them more than anyone else in the world. And she was really grateful to have them.

Rogue gripped Bobby and Gambit's hands tighter as she did the first obstacle. Her image, her demeanor, herself rippled away, replaced by Mystique's own image and demeanor.

I'm the perfect spy now, Momma. Not only can Ah can impersonate anyone, like you can, Ah perpetuate the trick by actually using their powers, too. And your training had nothing to do with it.

Rogue held the image for an excrutiating thirty seconds. Then she let it wave away with a disgusted shake of her head.

Gambit faced her and locked eyes with her. "What y' want to do next?" He motioned to Logan with a tilt of his head, to point out that option, but careful to never lose her locked gaze. "Or her?"

Rogue nodded towards Logan.

"Y' want me to stay wit' y'? Hold y' hand?" Gambit asked and Rogue emphatically nodded. She looked to Bobby, and nodded to him too. "He'll have to touch y', then, chere. Y' okay wit' dat?" He asked tentatively.

Rogue nodded. She also bit her lip to keep from saying the obvious, He touched a lot more last night, didn't he. But she didn't say it. The remark would've reopened wounds that seemed to have just started to heal between her, Gambit, and Bobby. But that wasn't all of it. Touch still scared her, not as much as her powers scared her anymore, not like it used to, not with this type of touch at least. And she really hated using her absorption powers despite how much she sometimes craved using them. Regardless, she wanted this solved more.

Bobby and Gambit moved to Rogue's sides as Logan moved to stand in front of her. Only a mere few inches separated her and Logan. Gambit noted that a hand would barely fit widthwise between them. Gambit felt another pang of jealousy and couldn't distinguish whether it came from the entity or him. Either way, he ignored it as best he could. He fought against it with everything that was in him.

Logan took off his glove and lifted his hand up. Bobby and Gambit squeezed Rogue's hands with their gloved hands. Rogue squeezed back in anticipation. Surprisingly, she remained carefully aware of not squeezing their hands too hard with her superhuman strength so that she didn't accidentally crush them in the process.

He showed her his gloveless hand and held it beside her cheek, just out of reach. Logan held her chin with his still gloved hand and locked eyes with her. He willed her to focus on his eyes, on him, and not his touch. She listened. His palm flattened against her cheek.

So soft, was his last coherent though before he felt himself drain into her.

Rogue's body gave one great spasm, her wings stretched to their quivering widest span, her mouth opened in a silent scream that she refused to let out, and she raised her hands to her head despite Bobby and Gambit's grip on them. Still, they held on, their hands pressing against Rogue's temples with her motions. That's when Wolverine collapsed. They both instinctively caught him and shoved him away from Rogue's bared skin. There was so much of it on both of their bodies that if he'd fallen against her it could've risked his life. They had to let him fall to the floor and hope that Jean and Emma would check on him. Rogue's grip on their hands was strong enough that they couldn't let go of her even if they wanted to. But they didn't want to. They both watched her with desperate concern for her carved into their faces.

"Goddess!" Storm gasped. She hadn't used the intercom and still they heard her from within the Observation Booth. It drew Bobby and Gambit's attention up there. They had to crane their neck at an odd angle to look up there because Rogue's hold on theirs hands locked them in their positions. Sage and Hank both moved frantically over the consoles. Through the booth's window, they saw Storm tending to Xavier, who clutched his head in what looked like pain. Both Gambit and Bobby then craned their head in the other direction to get a look at Jean and Emma, who both also held their head in much the same way as Xavier did. Their attention was drawn back to Rogue as they felt her grip loosen on their hands and her wings relaxed, almost curling to rest their extreme weight on Bobby and Gambit's back and shoulders.

Rogue's legs wobbled and they both clutched her hips to help lower her to the floor. Her eyes were wide and she was gasping to catch her breath. Slowly her breathing began to grow more normal. The weight of the wings sagged to the floor at their tips.

Rogue looked up suddenly, like she had an idea. Logan's healing factor was in overdrive inside her and she wasn't going to waste it. She looked to Gambit in excitement and fear before she scrunched her brow in concentration. Neither Gambit nor Bobby realized what she was doing until, along their backs, they felt the wings sliding inward toward their bases at Rogue's shoulder blades. They were melting inside her. It was their birth in reverse.

Gambit pivoted in front of her and pulled her against him, into his lap. She held tight to him, careful to keep her bare skin from connecting with his face or the few bare fingers not covered by his gloves. She let go of both of their hands and clung to Gambit. Bobby sat to her side, watching helplessly. Logan was stirring awake behind Gambit. Jean, Emma and Xavier still held their head, but weren't so pained. Rogue buried her head into Gambit's chest as the wings made their much slower journey out of existence.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Jesus! Shit. Shit. Shit." Rogue whimper-cursed heavily against Gambit's unmoving chest as he held his breath and clutched her to him. Gambit held his breath and watched the death of the wings. It seemed to be in slow motion it took so long.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." The entity cursed even more roughly than Rogue did. She also broadcasted it to everyone in the mansion.

"Hank!" Bobby called, worried because the removal of the wings was taking so much longer than their birth had. It also seemed even more painful and Bobby didn't think anything could've looked more painful than their birth had.

Hank obviously activated the intercom, because the scrambling of those in the booth echoed in the eerily quiet Danger Room as did Hank's repeated, "Stars and Garters!" However, when Bobby looked up to the booth, he saw that Hank and Sage's attention were strictly on the monitors and not on Rogue on the Danger Room floor.

Gambit stopped watching the wings dissolve when Rogue sagged against him completely. He hurriedly checked to make sure she hadn't passed out from the pain. He was surprised to see a serene look on her face. Gambit used a gloved finger to raise her head to face him. She met his eyes and whispered happily, "It stopped hurting." Then she closed her eyes and slumped against him.

"Hank!" Gambit screamed as loud as he could.

At the same time as Gambit's distressed holler the Danger Room doors opened and in two's and three's most of the other X-men entered. They were struck surprised in different ways as they surveyed the room. They had all been alerted there by the Entity's broadcasted curses but didn't know what they'd be arriving to see. Cyclops went immediately to his wife, Jean. The others moved to Emma, Logan, and Rogue in no significant order or manner. They just moved to check on the well being of their teammates. Logan came fully awake, brushing the concerned teammates off him as he made his way to Rogue's still form. The remaining foot long span of the wings slurped away in a final sudden rush. And Rogue jerked her head up.

"That was really loud, Remy." She said with annoyance as she cupped her ears.

Gambit stared at her in perfect stunned relief for a long moment. Then he suddenly grasped her to his chest, holding her to him as though it were a promise to never let her leave his embrace again.

Rogue released a quiet giggle against him as she embraced him back. "Ah love ya, too, Remy."

Gambit stroked her hair and back with his gloved fingers and whispered to her in a voice a little hoarse with emotion and the strength of his calling out for Hank just a moment before. "Merde! Remy t'ought he lost y' for a moment dere." He pushed her back from him by her shoulders just enough to make comfortable eye contact with her. With all seriousness, he said, "Don't y' ever do dat to me again, mon couer. Ever."

"Trust meh, Remy. Ah ain't nevah letting those things loose again." She twisted to look at Warren who had joined them when he saw the wings disappear. "No, offense, Warren," she said with a small laugh.

Warren eyed her with a new respect and replied in good humor, "None, taken, Rogue. None taken."

"Everyone okay down there?" Hank asked over the intercom.

"'Bout friggin' time," Logan grumbled as he stood watch over Rogue between Bobby and Gambit.

"Tell me about it," Bobby said. "I never thought I'd ever see Hank more concerned about research than the immediate health of someone. It better have been good."

Gambit ignored the others. Nothing could drag his attention from Rogue's welfare. Not even the pestering Entity could deflect his concern. He hadn't even taken notice of how quiet the Entity had been since she ceased her curses at just about the same time that Rogue had slumped against him.

"What y' say, chere, y' okay?" Gambit asked.

"Ah'm okay," Rogue said steadily. In fact, she hadn't felt so good for a long time. Everything about her felt more right, more normal than she could ever remember feeling. She didn't show her enthusiasm for it though, because she feared that Gambit and the others might take it the wrong way and become even more worried, even more fussy.

"Logan, Jean, Emma?" Hank asked after hearing of Rogue's welfare. Logan and Jean answered in the affirmative, Emma on the other hand, did not.

"What the fuck was that?" Emma demanded as she stormed toward Rogue.

All in one graceful, controlled motion, Bobby stood, iced over, and froze Emma's feet in place. It happened so suddenly, Emma almost fell forward on her face with the abrupt stop of her movement. She opened her mouth to make another bitchy demand when Logan stepped up beside Bobby and popped his claws with the familiar, Skint! He was joined by the appearance of Nightcrawler following his accustomed Bamf and accompanying smell of brimstone.

"I would not advise it, Liebchin," Kurt warned as he stood protectively between Emma and his foster sister.

"Everyone settle down!" Scott commanded. All eyes turned to him, except for Gambit and Rogue. They never took their eyes off each other. Scott made his way over to Rogue with Jean, who was apparently fine, at his side. "How are you, Rogue?" He asked when he reached them.

Rogue finally looked away from Gambit. "Ah'm okay," she said. When everyone frowned, disbelieving her, she added, "Really. Ah want to do this one last test and call it a day."

"Non, Rogue," Gambit said, turning her back to him. "Gambit was wrong. Dat's it fot today."

"Remy," Rogue said, placating him, "Ah know you're worried 'bout me. But Ah gotta do this last test. Ah want to fix what ever is wrong with me. Ah have ta."

Gambit nodded just as Hank piped in over the intercom, "It's three tests, now, I'm afraid, Rogue."

Everyone looked up to the booth as Hank explained, "There's two more column's now."

"Ah've gained familiar company," The entity broadcasted to everyone.

Confused looks abounded. Hank answered their silent questioning looks with, "That is what we suspected. But that only accounts for one of the columns." He waited as all eyes turned up to him in the Observation Booth. "Rogue has also gained another person's powers." He stammered slightly over the next part. "Absorbed another mutant without skin to skin contact." The room exploded into exclamations.

Xavier broke up the bickering and confusion. When they all quieted down, he said, "And to answer your colorful question, Emma, we believe it was you she absorbed."

Emma crossed her arms across her chest and stabbed an accusatory, self-righteous glare at Rogue.

Rogue moved away from Gambit's embrace then and stood. Gambit followed, staying protectively close to her as Rogue faced Emma who was still frozen in place even though the ice was beginning to melt around her feet.

"Sorry if Ah offended ya, Sugar," Rogue said flippantly, "but for what it's worth, Ah didn't know Ah was doing it and Ah certainly couldn't stop it."

"But how?" Scott asked.

"Don't rightly know, Cyke." Rogue said pointedly. "Ah felt it happen. It was the smoothest absorption Ah've evar felt."

Rogue turned to Emma and said, "Ah hardly got any of your mind, Emma. Ah felt it start and Ah got scared and all Ah could think was, 'not your mind, not your mind.' It repeated over and over again. It was usually worse when Ah absorbed more than one at a time, but when Ah kept repeating that, Ah felt the draining of your mind slowing down. Gawd, it almost felt like Ah had a little bit of control. Small as it was."

Rogue sighed and turned to Gambit. "It was when I sagged against ya, Remy. For those few moments it all seemed so easy."

"How y' feeling now, chere?" Gambit asked. His concern hadn't lessened one bit with her news. It hadn't necessarily grown either. It just changed. There was more to deal with now, but her words and tone of voice also were telling him that what she felt had given her a renewed hope for gaining control of her powers. Even if the changes were harming her in the process, he couldn't help but be excited that she had not given up hope. Despite everything that had happened recently—the implications of her previous sexual abuse and the rest—a large part of him held her uncontrollable powers as the greatest villain to their relationship. And their relationship came second to only one thing, her welfare.

"The control's gone," Rogue said sadly, though still with that tinge of hope to it. "Ah think it was just a side effect of the second piece's release."

She looked up to Gambit and her eyes shined brilliantly with the full weight of her hope. Gambit's heart leapt to his throat with that look. It thudded madly and nearly choked him he was so excited by her expression. He could barely focus on her accompanying words under the radiance of that look. But he heard her say, "Ah think she was tellin' the truth all along. Ah think this Union thing she keeps rambling on about will be good for me. Ah think all ma control's locked in there with all those buried memories."

Remy wanted to kiss her so badly in that moment, he nearly did kiss her. But he caught himself, he stopped the pull of the catch by the pestering Entity, and he hugged her enthusiastically instead. Rogue gave a burst of laughter with his embrace. They received a few confused looks from all the X-Men present, even more looks of excitement and relief for them, and more than a few chuckles at the silly, childlike grin that was plastered on Remy's face as he held her.

Xavier and the others allowed Rogue and Gambit their moment, albeit not privately. But then Xavier had to interrupt it. He announced from the Observation Booth, "I'm sure we would all like to finish this up, so we should proceed with these last few tests."

He didn't have to add the concern, 'And pray that nothing else pops up.' Everyone was thinking it loudly enough for him to know it needn't be said.

Rogue and Gambit reluctantly released each other. The excess team members exited the Danger Room and returned to their previous tasks. Cyclops and Nightcrawler were the only two people that had responded to the Entity's broadcast of pain that remained. They joined Xavier and the others in the booth to observe. Both of their concern had been piqued for both Jean and Rogue respectively, and they were too distracted by their concern to return to their previous tasks.

"Ready when you are," Hank called down over the intercom. To the relief for all those present, the tests of Emma's telepathy and shifting to diamond form went very smoothly. The test of the first Entity was a little more difficult as they had to figure out how to test her. Hank wanted to test her use of Rogue's powers both with and without the collar on, but knew he couldn't convince Rogue nor her four protectors—Gambit, Bobby, Wolverine, and Kurt—to go for that. A short discussion ensued reminding them that they had readings of the first entity's accessing Psylocke's, Logan's, and Gambit's abilities from earlier. More than one of Rogue's protectors insisted that that information would have to be enough for Hank on those aspects. That's when Gambit pointed out that what they really needed information on was the catch. That got everyone's attention. Even Rogue was surprised by the term.

"It be what She call it…" Gambit said a little sheepishly at first. He became more assured as he continued. "She never said it directly, but de more she used it on me, de more I noticed it. She's caught on to me, t'ough, and can shield it better now."

"What're ya talking about, Remy?" Rogue asked.

"I t'ink she's been manipulating me since I woke up in de medlab just before y' first episode."

"That's a lame excuse for your recent behavior, Gambit," Bobby said with obvious disbelief.

"Oui, Bobby," Gambit admitted with complete steadfast surety. "But it not be an excuse. Remy takes full responsibility for everyt'ing he's done [2]. It don't change dat it's still true… dat it happened. Hank even has evidence of it. She did it at least twice dat I picked up on since we came in here."

"Will she comply with this test, Rogue?" Hank asked.

"Don't know," Rogue answered, kicking herself for the number of times she'd said that exact phrase since Hank started his evaluations. She turned to Jean and said, "Ah can ask her, if ya want."

"Let me," Jean said as she stepped closer to Rogue. In the Observation Booth, Cyclops stiffened, but didn't object. "It'll let me keep with my promise to help her."

Rogue nodded as she remembered Jean's conversation with the entity when Jean and Emma had helped free her from being bound within her own mindscape. The thought made her shiver. Gambit, suave gentleman that he was, immediately took off his trench coat and offered it to Rogue with his trademark inviting, charming, jump-start-your-arousal grin, and a knowing wink. Rogue, uncomfortable with all her bare skin, especially after everything that had occurred that day so far, took it graciously. He helped her put it on, then held her protectively and comfortingly by her upper arms as Jean stepped in front of Rogue and the others stepped back to give them room.

Jean was able to merely connect telepathically with the first Entity without having to enter the astral plane and Rogue's mindscape there.

"Ah know what ya'll want."

"And what do you think about it? Will you do it?" Jean asked her.

"Will it help Rogue have Union?" She simply asked.

"I won't lie to you. If the readings Hank gets indicates that you are causing Rogue harm, he will not advise it. And Rogue may not react positively to that."

"And if his readings show that we're helping Rogue, it'll help her come ta terms with it. Is that how it goes."

"That's what we expect, yes."

"Then Ah'll do it."

"Okay. Just follow Hank's directions."

"On one condition…"

Jean sighed mentally then said, "What is it?"

"Ya'll stop referring ta meh as the Entity. It's kinda insultin'. 'Sides, there's two of us loose now, and there's gonna be a lot more."

"Well, what's your name?"

"Rogue, of course." And thought to herself, Duh! Then continued to Jean, "We're all Rogue. We're not like the ghosts of those she's absorbed. We are her, just severed bits of her."

"What would you like to be called, then? Is there a name you'd prefer?"

"Ah don't want ta be anyone else. Ah like bein' Rogue. Ummm… Ah got it. Ya'll can call meh Eleven. That's how old Ah was when Ah was trapped in the Core. Ah don't think there'll be any duplicates if ya refer to us in those terms." [3]

"That's an agreeable term. Eleven it is."

Jean looked to Rogue and nodded. Then she turned up to the Observation Booth and said, "Ready to go, Hank. She's listening. Oh, and she wants to be called, Eleven." Several confused glances were the response given her. "I'll explain later," she told them.

Hank gave his instructions and watched his monitors for the impending flurry of readings. Via telepathy, Eleven explained to everyone present exactly what she was going to do. They chose an obvious, yet not too painful example for Hank to monitor. Rogue faced Gambit as the Eleven repeated her actions—if not content—of what she had done to Gambit just the night before. She drew on Logan's powers this time. Like with Jean's ghost within Rogue's mindscape on the previous night, Eleven imbued herself in Logan's ghost's chord that was attached to the web containing Rogue's supposed absorption power basis in the corner of Rogue's mind. Like the night before, she coated the chord, surrounded it, embodied it, and she felt it quiver. And she shimmered in return. She gained control of Logan's powers.

Then, from there, she spread her cloud form to encompass the catch that was latched onto Gambit. Once both were activated and under her complete control, she moved onto step two. She used the Logan's chord to pop the claws in Rogue's hands, Skint! Rogue winced slightly, as usual, although for a shorter length of time and with much less intensity. The pain of the claws was nothing compared to manifesting and recalling Warren's wings. She then bounced the experience of it across Gambit's catch.

A vision, like the night before, hit him, smacked the inside of his skull and bounced around as it flared against the back of his eyes. It consumed his vision, his sense of touch and pain, and he heard the familiar Skint as if it was actually happened to him. But Eleven couldn't go without some form of torment of Gambit since he'd been even more successful at fighting her manipulations of him. She drew the vision out, played it in slow motion for him. She also made him experience it as if it happened to him.

FLASH! A small itching, tingling—almost infintesimal in its beginnings—attacking the back of his hands, accompanied the image of six bone points—three on each hand—as they inched their way ever so slowly towards the skin just between his knuckles on each hand. The tingling, itching grew in sync with the inching motion of the claws themselves. When they pinched the skin between his knuckles, the itching, tingling became a searing pain as the claws tore their way ever so slowly through the delicate skin there. The pain continued as the claws inched their way to full extension. FLASH!

Gambit stifled his reaction to just a grunt, though his concentration and his pain was plainly etched on his face. He held his shaking hands, palm down, out in front of him. He stared at them, as the vision had been twisted to be seen as though it was actually happening to him.

FLASH! The claws spring back in, compounding the retracting pain of it with the enhanced velocity of it in contrast to the excruciatingly slow release of them. FLASH!

Gambit's hand slap back against him, jolting him back a step with the intensity of the envisioned retraction of the claws.

Giggle.

Gambit gasped and tried to catch his breath.

"That was just cruel," Rogue thought to Eleven as she went to Gambit.

Rogue clutched the extra long sleeves of Gambit's trench coat in the palms of her hands and caught hold of the sides of his face. She held his gaze as his breathing regulated. "How ya doing, Remy?" Rogue asked with care.

Gambit nodded over and over again, getting over the shock of the vision. Rogue, in response, wrapped her arms around him and stroked circles on his back, murmuring to him, "It's over now, Remy. It's all over. It wasn't real, okay? It wasn't real…"

When he calmed down, she pulled back and held his gaze again. She asked, "Do you want to stop?" He shook his head, so she asked, "Can you go through it again?" He was still for a long time, but then he finally nodded his assent. She stood on tip-toes, bent his head lower so that his bangs protected his brow, and she planted a slow, soothing kiss there.

She turned her attention to Jean and said, "Your turn, Sugar."

Jean tried surface telepathic communication with the second Entity like she had done with Eleven.

"She won't answer to Entity," Eleven stated with mock helpfulness.

"What should I call her?"

"Eighteen… No, nineteen? No, eighteen… Nineteen, definitely nineteen. Ah think." [4]

Jean tried the surface telepathy a second time, calling out the designated name of Nineteen. Finally, she got a response—a creepy one—but a response nonetheless.

"Step into my parlor, said the spider ta the fly," Came Nineteen's cryptic invitation for Jean to enter into Rogue's mindscape. Her voice wasn't as bright or tinny as Eleven's was. The quality of Eleven's voice was what had Rogue calling her the Shimmering Voice. Nineteen's voice was much deeper, thick and sprawling like the muddy, debris filled waters of the Mississippi when it flooded after extreme rainfall. It was throaty, with just a hint of rasp, giving Nineteen's voice a sadistic and yet tantalizing quality.

Chicory. Her voice was like chicory.

Jean looked a question to Rogue, who had been privy to the exchange. Rogue answered with a shrug as she said, "That's the first Ah've heard from her myself, Jean. Ah don't know what to tell you. It's up to you."

Jean nodded, and without hesitation, took up Nineteen's invitation. Emma backed her up and waited outside the web fencing on the outskirts of Rogue's mindscape. She took the role that the five had performed the last time Jean entered Rogue's mindscape. Xavier monitored from outside. His previous experience revealed that his presence was not welcome in a profound extremity. So Jean had Emma alone to stand guard as Jean inched up to the fence.

"Nineteen?" Jean called out.

Laughter. Haunting, taunting laughter answered Jean.

Several strands snaked out from the endless expanse that spread out from the inside of the fence. Lightning quick, they snatched Jean and spirited her deep within Rogue's mindscape. To Jean it was as though the strands encoiled her, then she felt motion, then she stopped, and just appeared, as if teleported, in the middle of a vast, dense cherry tree orchard.

Jean surveyed her locale. The cherry trees reached for miles and miles in every direction. Hundreds of mostly under-ripe cherries dangled precariously from the fragile twigs that tipped and edged the sturdy branches. The ground was blanketed with thick layers of cherry blossoms. More cherry blossoms floated in whispers from the trees, adding to the blanket on the ground and a rosy tint to the most immediate atmosphere. The flurries, the soft and soundless carpet of petals, the trees—all of it was deceptively serene. A cold edged the locale as a murky blackness pressed against the tops of the trees sliced here and there by strands of the webbing. It felt like perpetual winter, perpetual night, and perpetual suffocation. This was hell disguised as heaven as an added torment.

The reference of all the cherries was not lost on Jean. She understood the significance there quite clearly.

"Nineteen?" Jean asked with much less confidence.

"Right here," stated Nineteen's chicory voice laced with that haunting, taunting laughter to it.

Jean caught sight of figures just on the left side of her peripheral vision and turned so that she could look at Nineteen straight on. But Nineteen never did appear straight on. Nineteen always stayed on the left side of Jean's peripheral vision.

Laughter. Haunting, taunting laughter deadened in the torpid atmosphere of the orchard. "Ah am a stolen thing, Jeannie dear," Nineteen's chicory voice said. "No one will ever really see me—Ever—Ever—Again."

"…watching us wither, black winged roses that safely change their color. I can't reach you. I can't reach you. Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again. Give me life, give me pain, give me my life again…" (Little Earthquakes –by Tori Amos)

Jean finally stopped turning, trying to get Nineteen completely in her view. She stood still and looked out the corner of her eye. She got as detailed a view of Nineteen as she could get. Unlike Eleven, Nineteen had a much more human definition of herself. She had Rogue's appearance at about that age. Her body was tall, thin and wiry, yet curvaceous in all the right ways. Everything about her body structure screamed that she was just exiting puberty and brimming on womanhood. She wore her hair similar to Rogue's at that time. It was a punk sort of style that was spiked on both sides of her head so that the white stripe edged both interiors of the spikes. The effect was both enticing and repelling all at once. It strangely stated a rebellious nature toppling a buried yearning for conformity, for acceptance. She wore Rogue's dress of that time as well. An inky black body suit was topped by another spring-leaves green leotard. This over top leotard was French bikini cut, arcing over her hips almost all the way to her ribs. It was strapless. The front came to two points above her breasts and the back dipped almost to the small of her back. She hands were covered with opera length gloves that came to a point on the silhouette edge of her arms. Her stiletto-heeled boots reached more than midway up her thighs and also came to a point front and center. Both the gloves and the boots were the same spring-green color as the over-top-leotard.

Her demeanor was cocky, indignant, and fiercely independent.

More than seen, Nineteen's image was sensed, sort of like the memory of a lost and forgotten thing from long ago. It was fuzzy, with several lines detailing the silhouetted edge of her form. It was like a 3-D picture when viewed without the 3-D glasses. It was an exacting cut of her in triplicate. Each version layered the next, overlapping with the briefest of misalignment. It made her seem more vivid than life itself, like the 3-D picture when viewed with the 3-D glasses. This extra vividness only made it more tempting to catch true sight of her. But she stayed always out of reach, always gone. Always stolen.

"These were my thieves," Nineteen declared almost with pride.

Tethered from her wrists, ankles, and neck by withered rose stems that were long and sinuous like thin, scraggly vines were five male figures. The thorned stems coiled around their arms, torso, and legs. Instead of hair the top and back of their heads were covered in dead black roses. But they really didn't have the true appearance of hair. It was more like their heads were flower pots in which the dead black roses floated in a dark, syrupy fluid. Blood? The fluid dibbled in sparse lines down the sides and front of their faces. Their faces were even less determinable than anything else. There was nothing identifiable about them, nothing to indicate them as individuals. Jean couldn't even pinpoint what it was about them that made her think they were even men.

"But now they're my prisoners... my possessions... my playthings."

Nineteen's body made a snapping straight movement, though her posture and position never really changed. The movement triggered a tightening of the stems that coiled the five men. Jean heard the eerie straining, twisting tension creep through the stems more than she actually saw them tighten. It reminded her of the sound of a rope bridge creaking as it rocked in the faint wind. Tiny rivulets of the same black, syrupy fluid that dribbled down their faces escaped their freshly thorn-pierced skin.

"I take it your not very fond of Gambit, then?" Jean asked Nineteen.

Nineteen sneered and hissed, "Sssscroundrelllllll..."

"Doesn't seem like Gambit and Rogue will have much of a chance if Union happens," Jean said.

"Don't Ah wish," Nineteen said as her sneer became a frown. "But many still favor him. And Rogue thinks highest of him and she is really the most predominant of us all."

"But if you had your way…?" Jean asked.

A venomous grin slithered across her lips. "If Ah had my way, Ah'd have a sixth pet."

"Who are they?" Jean asked.

Nineteen gave a bark of that haunting, taunting laughter then, in her chicory voice, sing-songed, "Jean-Jean, Jean-Jean-Jean... Are ya hear to play psi-witch or did ya have an actual purpose for disturbing my moving in... out... in." She sighed and it barely passed her lips before the torpid atmosphere of the cherry tree orchard smothered it. "Which ever you'd prefer, really. It doesn't matter much ta me either way. But ya can only have one."

Jean furrowed her brow in annoyance, but it made it even more difficult to see Nineteen out of the corner of her eye so she relaxed her expression as best as her annoyance would allow. Jean had never really known Rogue in this stage of her life. Jean had been with X-Factor with Scott and Bobby and some of the others during this phase of the X-Men. She hoped Rogue wasn't like this then. She doubted she would've liked her much if she had been. She definitely wasn't much fonder of Nineteen than Nineteen was of her pets or Gambit.

Jean gave her answer through gritted teeth. It was a request really. "Will you participate in the test?"

"Yes," came the chicory voice. "Now wasn't that easy?""

Jean didn't bother to respond. She just left. She couldn't get away from Nineteen fast enough.

"She's called Nineteen." Jean spat out the words to Hank and the others as though they tasted foul. "And she's agreed to repeat Eleven's display."

Rogue and Gambit were holding hands. Rogue gave his hand a squeeze before speaking, "Ya ready, Remy."

"No, Rogue," Jean jumped in. Rogue and Gambit both gave her questioning expressions, which Jean answered with, "I thought you'd heard, like you did with Eleven."

"Didn't hear a thing, Sugar," Rogue stated simply.

"She really doesn't like Remy," Jean said, her obvious distaste for Nineteen was obvious in her words.

"And Genoshan slave collars. Can't forget those."

"It could be dangerous for him," Jean added, ignoring Nineteen's interruption though not her comment.

"No." Nineteen was broadcasting it to everyone in the Danger Room and the Observation Booth as well. "It's the swamp rat or not at all. He's my one condition."

"Your condition?" Rogue asked it with an unusual haughtiness to her usual molasses voice.

"Eleven wanted ya'll ta stop calling her The Entity or The First Entity. That was her condition."

"And we stopped calling you The Second Entity," Jean countered.

"No, ya'll referred ta me as The Second Entity. Eleven told ya ta call me Nineteen, not me. Though Ah do appreciate it, it ain't my condition."

"I'll do it," Gambit piped in before the bickering could continue.

Rogue dropped his hands and grasped his clothed shoulders. "No, Remy. Ah won't let her hurt ya."

Nineteen gave a mental pout. There was nothing cutely petulant about it. It was venomous. It sent shivers up Rogue's spine. Gambit felt Rogue's shiver and became wary of going through with it for the first time.

"Ah promise not ta mortally wound him or permanently damage him." It came out as an annoyed whine.

"You'll do exactly as Eleven did," Jean asked cautiously.

"Ah'll do what Eleven did. Ah'll bounce Logan's accessed power across Gambit's catch."

Jean looked to Rogue, who looked to Gambit.

"It be de only way de femme will do it. And Hank needs de results in order to figure dis out, n'est-ce pas?" He waited until Rogue nodded before he continued, "Den I don't see no way out of it without skipping it completely." He narrowed his eyes on her, but kept them soft, placating. "And y' need dis. I'll do it for y', chere. Non problem."

Rogue bit her lip as she decided. Finally, she closed her eyes and gave one curt nod.

Nineteen kept her word… sort of. She accessed Logan's powers within Rogue by crushing a handful of cherries in her clenched fist and letting the juice coat the chord linking his ghost. It sprouted withered, thorned stems that tethered themselves to Nineteen. Then she activated Gambit's catch with a mere whisper of her chicory voice. She prompted the popping of Logan's claws in Rogue and bounced an echo of it along Gambit's catch.

That's where Nineteen differed from Eleven. She didn't just send Gambit a vision of Logan's claws popping.

SKINT!

She gave him the real thing. Gambit yelped in pain and surprise when the bone claws sprang from his hands. Blood splattered Gambit's trench coat that Rogue was wearing, Rogue's barely-there clothing, and her bared stomach from the force of the sprung claws. More blood seeped out of the raw wounds on Gambit's hands as Nineteen kept them popped out.

"What the?!" Logan exclaimed. Everyone else present responded in much the same manner.

Laughter. Haunting, taunting.

Rogue stared at him wide-eyed and clutched his covered wrists to comfort him and keep him from hurting himself or anyone else with the claws. "Ya got it, Hank?" Rogue called out frantically.

"Yes," came Hank's curt and shocked reply over the intercom.

"Yoah in trouble," Eleven sing-songed. Giggle. "Glad it's not meh."

"Get rid of them, Nineteen!" Rogue demanded with an authority nobody ever expected from her. "NOW!"

So focused on Gambit was she that she didn't even realize she said it out loud. It didn't matter, though. Nineteen heard her loud and clear. She did as Rogue commanded, sweetening the make-up effort by accessing Logan's chord again and bouncing an echo of his healing factor over Gambit's catch.

Rogue and Gambit watched the claws retract and disappear from Gambit entirely. They watched the wounds knit themselves and heal over to reveal new pink skin.

Gambit looked at Logan with new-found respect. "How do y' do it, Logan?"

Logan just shrugged. "Never had much of a choice, really."

Gambit turned the question to Rogue. All she needed was his expression. She didn't wait for his words before she answered, "It doesn't hurt as bad as all that for me. Invulnerability dampens it, ya know."

"But de wing's were so much worse, chere. How?" He asked her.

"Ah lived, didn't Ah? Ah just remind myself that it would've been worse if Ah wasn't invulnerable or didn't have the healing factor. Ah just deal, Ah guess." Rogue shrugged. "Like Wolvie."

~~~~~~~~~~~

"You say you'll give me a highway with no one on it, treasure just to look upon it, all the riches in the night. You say you'll give me eyes on a moon of blindness, a river in a time of dryness, a harbour in the tempest… You say you want your love to work out right, to last with me through the night. You say you want a diamond on a ring of gold, your story to remain untold, your love not to grow cold. All the promises we break from the cradle to the grave, when all I want is you…" (All I Want is You –by U2 off the Reality Bites soundtrack)

"…all she wants is control, but—" Hank severs his words to Xavier as the med lab doors open and Sage walked in.

She stalked straight to them and said, "Can the crap. Lose the secrets. I've figured most of it out already."

They stare at Sage, stunned, as she pushes between them and types commands into the console. Rogue's files flip open, one after another after another after another. The readings from the day's tests finally open. Sage zeroes in on the column that was oddly more active than all the others. She types in some more commands and the column splits apart into dozens and dozens of separate columns. It was just like when Hank had separated Logan's power column within Rogue's readings. Each new column represented a different ability. And the oddly overactive column had many, many columns within it.

Hank and Xavier watched her in a mixture of awe, surprise and guilt. They'd been caught.

She resized the screen showing the newly separated strains within the overactive column until it only covered half the screen, but fit all the myriad of columns side by side widthwise. She then reopened the screen she retrieved the data of the overactive column from, and resized that screen to cover the top half of the screen yet still fill all the myriad of columns side by side widthwise. She typed more commands so that the matching columns from both screens lined up on top of each other for a more obvious comparison. When she was satisfied with the display, she turned and clinical, yet accusingly derisive glare on Xavier.

"This is the Core. It's a complete duplicate of all of Rogue's powers. And more." She indicates the differing columns on each screen as she mentions them. She continues to bombard them with her revelations, making sure to give neither the opportunity to make false denials. "The Core is missing Eleven and Nineteen's columns because they have broken off from the Core. But still they are encoded within the remaining columns in the Core. They cannot be completely severed from the Core because they are, as they claimed, part of Rogue. These extra columns are the other pieces that have yet to break from the Core. This column, and it's coding within every other column—ON BOTH SCREENS—is something altogether different. Probably something Rogue's never exhibited before. That part I'm not sure of. But it formed inside the Core when Rogue's mutation completely manifested. Rogue has never had access to it. And the Core has complete control of it. But the most surprising thing—" Sage stepped back and gave them both a vicious sneer "—is that you've known this all along."

Hank was the most obviously taken aback by Sage's accusation. He stammered, "The Core… We knew about the blocked memories. It's the main reason that she is so impenetrable by telepaths without her leading them inside. We really did think it was from the Kree genes at first. Then Magneto removed Carol from her, and still Rogue was impenetrable. So, yes, we had an idea. We were aware of the Core. But what was in it? That, we didn't know. We had suspicions, yes, but never anything concrete, and surely nothing this extensive."

Sage smiled at Hank. "You, maybe, probably, only knew that much."

"That's all I knew. I would never keep such a thing from Rogue. This could help give her control."

"If it didn't kill her and—"

"Stuff it, Xavier. You had your suspicions of her having more powers. You've played her from the moment she got here. You've dangled your promise to help her control her powers over her head this whole time."

"I've never forced her to be here," Xavier replied calmly, confidently. "She, like all the other X-men are welcome to come and go as they please."

"True. But you still didn't pursue this control issue as you promised. Why? The answers are all here, Xavier. So, why not help her gain control?"

Xavier took a deep breath and shook his head. His surety, his confidence in his beliefs never wavered. He looked back up to Sage with an even, nonthreatening gaze. "Because of what likely initiated the creation of the Core, I fear that she may not be capable of control. And I will not release whatever is in there without some assurance that she can control it."

"Professor, you really believe that?" Hank asked.

"It is a reasonable belief, all things considered." Xavier looked pointedly from Hank to Sage. "Do you realize what type of power is likely contained in there?"

Sage sank onto a nearby chair. "I figured as much."

"Oh my Stars and Garters!" Hank's face lit up with the realization. "You mean—"

"Yes, Hank. Exactly."

~~~~~~~~~~~

"She was a January girl. She never let on how insane it was in that house by the woods, by the woods, by the woods. Black-dove, black-dove, you're not a helicopter. You're not a cop out either. Black-dove, black-dove, you don't need a space ship. They don't know you've already lived on the other side of the galaxy. She had a January world. So many storms not right somehow, how a lion becomes a mouse, by the woods…" (Black-Dove –by Tori Amos)

Rogue hovered upwind of Gambit for a long while before she approached him. She enjoyed just watching him. It pained her that so much of his brooding was all because of her, but it thrilled her that so much of his joy was also because of her. But, this night it was not just to watch him that she watched him. She was delaying the inevitable, the terrifying, the necessary. She was delaying their talk.

She had been so eager to open up to him earlier that day. Thinking back to that moment between the end of the debrief and beginning of the tests, she remembered thinking that nothing could lessen her enthusiasm about their talk. Of course, she never would have imagined the day they would have either.

"Ah figured out who they are," Rogue said as she settled down beside him on the mansion's roof, knees drawn up to her chest. She used her power of flight, the one she'd had the longest, the one from Carol, to lower herself silently, directly into her sitting position.

"Who?" Gambit asked without turning towards her. His ruby on onyx eyes sparkled in the moonlight.

"Eleven is the me that absorbed Cody. It's why she's so stuck on Bobby being like Cody. It's why Ah only remembered that kiss with such vagueness. Why Ah remember most of my kisses so vaguely. They're tied up with other things. The good got hidden away with the bad. It's also why Ah've remembered it so clearly since she's been loose."

"How long?"

Rogue sighed. "A while. It's probably why Ah let myself get so close to Bobby. And honestly, Gambit, Ah'm glad it happened. Ah really needed him. He really is a lot like how Ah always imagined Cody would've grown up to become."

"And Nineteen?"

"She's harder to talk about," Rogue said wearily.

"I understand," Gambit said, lowering his head in anticipation of her closing off to him again.

"No, that's not what Ah mean," Rogue said, realizing what he was thinking. She didn't even need to use her telepathy. It was enough of a repeat performance between them that it was more than obvious what he thought she was doing… again.

He turned to her then. "Really?" He asked her with his penetrating, knee-weakening gaze. She caught her breath with the intensity of it.

"Ah've never told anyone about what happened before. It kinda got locked up as well. Ah really thought it was less than it was. Ah don't know, maybe even Carol really thought so, too."

Gambit eyes flickered wide with surprise then softened just as quickly. He didn't want to scare her off with his reactions. But, still he knew what was coming, the general gist of it anyway, and he needed to hear it from her, she needed to tell it.

"It still hasn't all come back yet. The details will come out slowly like it did with Eleven. But Ah know what mostly happened." Rogue lowered her head and took a deep steadying breath.

Ah can do this… He won't scare off… Ah can do this…

He wanted to reach out and touch her, brush her cheek, stroke her arm, something, anything. Just to urge her on. Just to comfort her. But he did nothing. He didn't want to shatter the fragile moment.

"There were five of them… Magistrates… Prison guards. No, perverted bullies…" The sobs started in, then. "And Ah didn't have my powers (sob) 'cause o' that damned collar (sob) one right after the other (sob) they didn't even have to hold me down (sob) most of the time (sob) Ah just laid there (sob) numb (sob) broken."

Gambit did hold Rogue then. He cradled her in his lap. One hand under her knees, one around her back, he rocked her gently, trying to ease her sobs.

"Ah was weak. Ah didn't do any (sob) anything to stop them."

He rocked her until she quieted. She'd grown so still he had to check to see if she'd fallen asleep. As soon as his eyes met hers, she buried her head into his chest to hide from him.

"They kept laughing." With her words the sobs returned. She couldn't stop them, the guards or her sobs. She punched Remy's shoulder, careful not to hurt him with her strength even though she was really punching against her helplessness. Her helplessness back in Genosha and on the roof right then. "And it hurt, but they kept laughing (sob) like it was some big joke (sob) that it was my first (sob) my first time (sob) ever (sob) that Ah knew (sob) ever (sob)."

Gambit clutched her tighter. His eyes lit with anger and he silently cursed the rotten bastards that had violated her, hurt her, took something that was extra special to her because it was forbidden in so many ways. He'd had his suspicions, most of the X-Men did. He thought he'd prepared himself for hearing this if indeed it were true. Nothing, he realized in those long, drawn out moments, could've prepared him for hearing how his love was brutally raped directly from her own mouth, mind, heart.

What made it worse, was something he'd tried, and failed, to push out of his mind some time ago. This horrible story was the answer to the question that he'd been wondering about since their one time in that cave in Antartica.

Her powers were negated den, too, Remy. Y' damned fool.

He'd never asked her about it, though. How could he? Who was he to question her history with intimate touch when he had his own, much more sordid, varied, and pleasurable sexual history to conflict with hers? So the untouchable woman wasn't a virgin. What did it matter? Right?

Lots, apparently.

Still, he was glad he'd never asked. He was glad he let her confide in him on her own terms. Besides, by her own admission, she didn't remember the worst of it. She didn't remember the rape.

Rapes. Plural, Remy. Merde! Five of dem. One after anot'er. Dieu! Fucking bastards!

"Ah always knew—thought—it'd never happen (sob)." The sobs were still there, but they didn't increase anymore. They lessened with the release of some of the burden that produced them. "But Ah always imagined it. Ah always hoped, even though it wouldn't, couldn't happen for real. (sob) Ah pictured like it was with us (sob)."

Rogue jerked up and faced him directly. Her expression was panic stricken. "Gawd, Remy. Ah never thanked ya!"

Gambit laughed. He couldn't help himself. It was so absurd that she'd panicked over that. Thanking him for that. THAT. The timing was the most ridiculous part, but… "It should be me thanking y', Rogue. Trust me on dat one."

Rogue laughed! He rejoined in with her. Their laughter nearly shook Rogue out of Gambit's hold. It wracked them until their stomach's ached, until they were weak and they had to lay back on the roof, in each other's arms, because they didn't have the strength to hold themselves up anymore.

It had been a long time since they had a good laugh together.

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To be continued in Chapter 09 – Foil.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] I'm sure none of you need me to reference this, but I will anyway. The crystal wave ignited the Age of Apocalypse story line. It was preceded immediately by Rogue's fateful first kiss with Gambit, leaving him in a coma and her with his powers, personality, and memories.

[2] Notice how Gambit returned to third person with his admission of continued responsibility for his previous childish behavior? This is a statement of his subconscious denial of it, a self-protective mechanism that even he doesn't pick up on. I just wanted to make sure that was understood. *This chapter explained the childish and out of character actions, etc., of people like Gambit and Logan. It was/is 'Eleven' manipulating them purposefully through the catches.

[3] This, as revealed (and noted a second time as 4) during Rogue's conversation at the end of this chapter, is the age of Rogue when she absorbed Cody, and the first known manifestation of Rogue's mutation. If this was specified to have occurred at different age in complete surety in the comics, then I apologize. For the context of this story, I'm sticking to her being eleven when it happened.

[4] This is another estimation of age on my part that I will just accept as though it was canon for the purposes of this story. If you hadn't figured it out by the cherry orchard reference, and from Nineteen's hatred of thieves and Genoshan slave collars, Nineteen is a very important memory aspect of Rogue. It was her that lost her virginity when she was by Genoshan magistrates raped while she was imprisoned and had her powers stripped from her (for the purposes of my story).

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Missy42 – Thanks for the lyrics to "Upside Down" and "Here. In my Head." They both worked well in this chapter, I think.

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