Chapter 23: Memory Palaces

Next morning, Rogue rose early and was the first one downstairs. After a quick breakfast, she made her way to Xavier's office. "I'm ready," she told him, sticking her head in the door.

"Good morning, Rogue. Please come in and lie down on one of the couches, and we'll begin."

Rogue lay down on the one closer to the door, and as Xavier wheeled around the head of the couch, she grinned. "Doctor, my friends told me I should have my head examined," she joked, feeling like a patient in a Freudian psychologist's office. "Okay, what do we do?"

Xavier smiled. "Well, unless you want me to swing my pocket watch for you, I'm going to help you enter a state of hypnosis. Unlike when you meditate on your own, you're going to be in a highly suggestible state so that I can teach you what you need to know. For now, close your eyes. I'll contact you with my mind, and then you just follow me."

Rogue's mindscape was similar to what he had seen before. The mansion grounds were still there, with Pyro's giant block looking a little scorched and cracked by now. Xavier realized they had begun this project just in time; much longer and Pyro would have been loose in Rogue's mind again, wreaking havoc.

The first stop was to visit Magneto, in the torch on top of the Lady. After a brief consultation with his old friend, Xavier caused a large drawing room to appear around them. There was statuary, and several large, comfortable chairs, and lamps, and a fireplace, and books. Books galore. Thousands of books. Erik looked around at his new surroundings and smiled.

"Charles, you've outdone yourself," he murmured. His eyes lit up at the sight of all the books. "So if I understand you properly, you've built me my very own memory palace, within the one you're going to build for Rogue? And what about the books? Whose are they?"

Xavier briefly explained the concept of a "memory palace" as a way to store information that one needn't keep in one's conscious mind, but that would always be accessible when needed. "The books are mostly yours and mine, though," he told his old friend. "Every book you've ever read, you will find in here, as well as every book I've ever read. There are also some few hundred books that had been read recently by many of the people whose minds I have touched." He smiled. "Since you'll no longer have any company but Rogue's, and that only when she chooses, I thought you might find some value in the companionship of books."

Erik looked up sharply. "You mean I'll no longer be bothered by the lady's other mental prisoners?" Xavier nodded. "No Wolverine? No hormonally-driven teenage boys?" Xavier shook his head. Erik smiled. "Then, my dear Charles, I have no complaints."

The next stop was Meridian, Mississippi, to build a memory palace for David. His was much smaller, as he was so much younger than Magneto and had far fewer memories. Xavier arranged it so that Rogue would have access to whatever memories and experiences he did have, but when he started to build the memory palace, David protested. "Actually, Professor… I'm pretty happy right here. If I could maybe get in a cable connection or something, that'd do me fine. I miss watching ESPN."

Xavier smiled. He spent so much time around political figures, mutants, telepaths, and deeply complex people, that touching David's mind was a sheer pleasure for him. He was so young and simple – his mind felt like flannel sheets in January, like comfort food, like a younger and more innocent time. "Very well, David. If you find you'd like anything else, you can simply let Rogue know in one of her dreams, and she should be able to fix it for you. And if she can't, then I will be able to."

David settled back onto Rogue's old bed with a smile. "Thanks!" He winked at Rogue, who had been with Xavier the whole time, but hadn't said anything, and asked, "Maybe the Playboy channel?"

Rogue gave him a look, but then closed her eyes for a moment and caused a television to appear. With a blink, she turned it on just in time for an ESPN commercial. David grinned, and waited expectantly. Rogue thought a minute, accessing her own memories of what Wolverine had liked to watch, and then blinked again. A scantily-clad, nubile female appeared on the screen. David's grin got wider. Rogue blinked again, and the screen suddenly went blank. David's grin faded. She explained. "This is the channel you can use to watch whatever I happen to be watching at the time, if I'm watching television. If I'm not, it'll just be like this. But I watch the news every night, and I watch hockey, and sometimes a sit-com. Is this okay?"

David asserted that it was perfect, and he settled back into the pillows on her frilly pink bed with a contented sigh.

Pyro was the most difficult to meet with. Xavier began by using his mind to control Pyro's mind, speaking to him as he had in the food court. Then he caused the imprisoning granite blocks to slide back into the earth and disappear.

Pyro burst forth in a sheet of flame. Rogue screamed, but Xavier just lifted his hand and forced the flames back away from them. "Pyro, stop!" he ordered, and Rogue could see Pyro trying to fight off Xavier's control.

Relentlessly, Xavier clamped down harder, and finally Pyro was held still. "Now then, John," Xavier said pleasantly, as though he weren't holding Pyro immobile and fuming. "We can get down to business."

Pyro was not cooperative. Xavier asked about where he had ever been in his life where he was happiest, but Pyro clammed up. Xavier just shrugged and probed into his mind, and stopped with a look of surprise. "If that's the case, John, then it is a pity you left," he said in his mild voice as he turned around and erected a magnificent facsimile of his own mansion. Embarrassed, John slunk away towards it.

"John! Wait a minute!" Rogue called. He turned back.

"The professor will make it so you can't get out of here," Rogue told him. "Your trying to take over my mind just won't work, because you won't have access to the rest of it – just this little corner right here. So how about you give over your kingdom-making and try to be friends with me?"

John rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right," and turned to go.

Rogue tried one more time. "John, if you burn this one down then you'll be stuck all alone in here with a burnt-out husk of a mansion with no one in it. So be careful, all right?"

He nodded without turning around, and then disappeared through the door.

"Well! That was easier than I expected," Xavier said. He smiled at Rogue's incredulous expression and explained, "I had expected him to try harder to hurt us. I hadn't taken into consideration that, if my mansion was his safest place, then deep down he might not want to really hurt us either."

"So what happens now?"

"Since you never know what might happen in the future, what I'll do is arrange a sort of temporary containment facility for anyone who might end up here as the result of an accident. I shall arrange for them to be, uh, 'siphoned' into the facility, so that you won't have to put up with their influence on your own actions and thoughts for even a moment. Then you can build their own 'memory palaces' for them at your leisure. Will that be satisfactory?"

"Yes! Professor, that sounds great! But what if it's someone who…" Rogue stopped and blushed a little. "If it's someone, let's say, whose influence I find useful…or that I don't mind, at any rate…" Her voice trailed off and she swallowed, looking away.

Xavier smiled a gentle, understanding smile. "Don't worry, Rogue. If you and Logan spend much time together, I feel sure somehow that it won't be long before he is back in your head. And you'll have full access to his 'influence' if you want it."

Rogue glanced up in relief, and gave Xavier a shy grin. "Shall we get started, then?"

A/N: Thanks for the reviews; they helped me get my X-Men head back on when I was in danger of being swallowed by "The Labyrinth." Almost there!