Disclaimer: Marvel's.


Rogue stood on the bridge overlooking the small koi pond. The breeze ruffled her hair lovingly, like a mother soothing a child. She eyed the piece of white that fell across her nose. She reached up and rubbed it between her fingers. She wondered why she had kept it. Maybe it was because she didn't want to forget. But with the nightmares that haunted her, she thought maybe she never would. She sighed and looked into the sky. It was a cold day, the clouds thick and dark with snow. She wanted the pure whiteness to wash away the sins of the world for a while, to blanket her in a safe cocoon.

That night had seemed surreal. It was hard to believe that a mere twenty-four hours had passed. She had come to in her own body, pained and injured as it was. She had re-dislocated her shoulder, broken her nose, and suffered many lacerations, punctures, and bruises. Physically she was the worst of them all. Mentally…well Jean wasn't doing so hot either.

They couldn't find out what the virus had done to her, nor what the Phoenix was. She was under quarantine, being watched by Beast. The Professor and Magneto had disappeared somewhere. They hadn't heard from him since. Most of the new recruits were still around. Kurt was settling in. Emma Frost had been taken to the medical ward for her burns. Sinister and Mystique had gone missing.

They had acquired two other people along the way. The first was a mysterious man who went by just Logan, the man that had brought Xavier to Magneto's citadel. How he knew where it was, or how to contact Xavier, or even why was a mystery. He just hung around, smoking cigars and casting everyone stony glances. The other was the psychic energy Rachel. It appeared that her being in the Astral Plane during the time that Onslaught was vanquished created a sort of Limbo for her, in which her mind stayed in the present, while her future body traveled through a wormhole created when her timeline vanished. She was adjusting as best as she could, leaving behind everything she ever knew and loved and trying to survive twenty years in the past. She hadn't said exactly what her relationship to the X-men was, except that she knew Wolverine, but the resemblance to Jean was striking and very apparent.

Then, there was Gambit. He had stuck around for a few hours, joking with easy camaraderie, even allowing Beast to run a few tests on him. But he refused to talk about his apparent power boost and his lack of control. Jean had asked him why he hadn't roasted Onslaught on the spot, to which he had casually replied, he didn't want to kill everyone in the room. He hadn't spoken to Rogue. Rogue hadn't spoken to him. And she didn't want to.

Or so she kept telling herself.

She started when someone's hand descended on her shoulder. It was Scott. His face was tired, lined. He had been running things with the Professor gone, a lot to shoulder for a seventeen year old boy. He rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin, and rested his arms on the rail beside her.

"You holding up okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. You?" she said.

He shrugged. "Seems funny that the world can be so unchanged with what we went through." He looked at her. "I want Jean to take a look at you when you are ready. You absorbed Onslaught twice. You can't be…unscathed from that."

Rogue shrugged and turned away.

"How's Jean?" she watched Scott's face harden, and he stared into the pond. The large orange fish swam around happily, their tails moving too and fro. Soon it would be time to move them indoors, so they wouldn't freeze in the water.

"She…won't talk to me. Or anyone." He couldn't keep the hurt from his voice. He had protected her after all. That's what he was mad at. Wasn't it? He rested his head on his forearms.

"Ah'm sorry," Rogue said, so quiet he wasn't sure he had heard her right. He looked up at her, catching her eyes through his ruby visors. She had proven herself to him, sacrificing the necklace to Onslaugth. Absorbing him. He had been unable to appreciate it then, but she had come back with them. Had sat white and silent in the back of the plane, staring straight ahead. He wondered what she had seen. But she had come back with them.

"Beast is experimenting with the necklace. I told him he should just bury the piece of shit. But he said there might be something he could learn from it. Something to help you." She looked away from him, the emotions on her face raw.

"There is no help for me." She threw a rock in the pond, and the fish swam away.

"There's always help. You have to ask for it. That's what gives us hope."

"You never give up, do you?" she asked him. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Always lookin' for the sunny side. The world has shit on you, Scott Summers, and you smear it all over yourself and ask for me because you ain't completely covered yet."

"That's an…interesting analogy." He couldn't keep the laughter from his voice. "I am optimistic Rogue, because without it I'd break down and cry."

Rogue snorted. A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Ah ain't for all this bonding shit. Ah've had a little too much of it, lately."

Scott let out a short bark of laughter. "Well, Kurt just wants to get to know the sister that saved him." Rogue rolled her eyes.

"Ah ain't his sister."

"Tell him that," Scott replied. Rogue looked calmer now, her face more serene. "He's still here, you know."

She looked up, her face a mask of indifference. "Where else would Kurt go?"

"Not Kurt. Remy."

"Oh. Yeah?"

"He's thinking about staying." He watched her shoulders hitch up.

"Hope we have enough towels."

"It's okay if you don't. Remy can just steal them," he said, coming up behind them. He nodded at Cyclops, a brief, firm motion of his head. Scott tilted his chin, as much as he would give the man.

"I have places to be," Scott said, slipping off. Gambit stood next to Rogue, looking lost. Rogue stared ahead at the water. Behind them, the sun began to set on the old day, bringing with it new promises, and new hope.


Well that's it folks. But stayed tuned for the sequel: Razorblade Romance.