We enter the professor's office and Mr. Summers and Logan sit in the chairs before the desk, staring darkly ahead. I glance over at Kitty, Bobby and Remy and they nod in acknowledgement. They're scared too. Scared of what this means for the Xmen. Scared of what this will mean for us.

Professor Xavier enters from a side door, and he observes us all quietly. "You have a right to be angry." He says calmly.

"What the fuck is goin' on Chuck?" the Wolverine growls.

"I assume you all saw the Phoenix enter Rogue's car?"

"If you're talkin' about Jeannie, then yeah, we fucking saw her."

I glance at Mr. Summers, who's staring blankly at the wall. "What's going on Professor?" I ask softly. "Why didn't you say anything about this?"

"Because it wasn't safe. Please understand that any of you, had I sent you, would have simply gone in and retrieved her. You would have forced your own memories upon her, not allowing her to re-discover herself at her own pace."

"You're saying she has amnesia." I say quickly, trying to keep the yelling to a minimum from the two men glaring at the professor.

"It's a bit more complex than that."

"Professor, Jean is alive. She didn't die. You –

"That's where you're wrong Scott." The professor interjects. "She did, in fact die. Her mutation, as it turns out, is such that it overpowers her completely, burns through her very existence. It then rebuilds itself."

"She's a phoenix." Kitty murmurs softly from the corner.

"Precisely."

"So when she came back –

"She had no active memories of her life before she emerged from the lake."

"Why did you send Marie?" Logan growls.

"Because she would know what to do. She is the only member of this team who has had to actively deal with the personality of their mutation. The rest of you managed to integrate the characteristics your mutations present into your own personalities very neatly, primarily because they require you to be vigilant to the same extents whether you are on missions or simply walking the halls."

"Are you trying to tell me that because Rogue has another person in her head she can deal with my fiancé better than I can?" Scott asks incredulously.

I stare at him. "Another?" I ask carefully. "You mean like, just one?"

He looks at me. "What do you mean?"

My eyes widen, and I notice Storm, Remy, Bobby and Kitty looking at me the same way. I look at the professor. "They don't know?" I ask.

"Marie didn't think people needed to know about the rest. The only one causin' real problems was Carol. She figured the others would scare 'em."

I clamp my mouth shut and glance around the room. "Oops." I grimace.

Go ahead Jubilee. Rogue will understand, and I can tell you right now that Logan won't be the one to bring it up again. Tell them.

I glance at Logan, and he meets my eyes, nodding slowly. "Rogue doesn't just have Carol in her head." I say softly. "She has them all. Everyone she's drained, even a bit, since her mutation manifested itself."

Bobby's eyes widen. "All of them?" he chokes out.

"Even you." Logan clips.

"So you're telling me that Jean has more than one other person in her?" Scott asks.

"The Phoenix is simply that right now, the Phoenix. I don't really understand it, but as I was monitoring their escape from the brotherhood, she seemed to lose consciousness. She has not yet regained it, and I have been monitoring them as closely as I can without interfering. Your presence there – any of your presences – would interfere. She is not Jean, nor is she another person. She is re-identifying herself."

I wake more comfortably then I can ever remember waking. Taking in my surroundings, I am disturbed by the lack of greenery. This area is bland, without vitality. I see the small one who calls herself Rogue seated in a corner. She took from me! How dare she take from me! She seems lost in a small world beyond my reach, speaking quietly and without cause.

"I warned her what I would do. I told her what would happen if she didn't talk to me. I told her not to mess with me. I cannot be –

She stops, and I notice her eyes changing again. They are no longer brown, but deep blue. "I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do it ever again, but I had to. She was trying to stop me from saving her. She wanted me to stop the car, I couldn't, not with Mag –

Her eyes quickly turn to a stormy green.

"Eric. Eric can help me. Eric will save me, protect me."

She crosses to the phone through the air, flying again. How can she fly? I stop her movements with my mind.

"What are you doing?" I ask her.

"Fuck off Jeannie. I don't need your little heroic gestures." She growls.

This is not the one who calls herself Rogue. This is the one within her who wishes me harm. I don't like this one.

"You're not the one who belongs in that body." I tell her softly.

"Let me call Eric Jeannie."

I look at her. "I don't think so. Why are you calling me that?"

"She didn't tell you?" the one in the Rogue's body laughs a bit. "You, darling, are the insufferable Dr. Jean Grey. Mutant Activist of the pacifist persuasion extraordinaire"

"I want to talk to the one named Rogue."

The eyes shift to brown again. "The one Rogue betrayed you Phoenix. She drained your power from you to make you pliant."

"This is true." I acknowledge. "I wish to find out why before I injure her."

The eyes soften, and become blue once more. "Phoenix?" she whispers.

"That is what you have called me, yes."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know what else to do. Magneto was so close –

Green eyes pulse. "Eric would have protected us!" she screams.

"I want to talk to the one Rogue!" I shout at the body before me, pushing all others within her to the back of the mind.

Blue eyes shine. "I don't think I can do this Phoenix." She sobs.

"You must. I have questions for you. Your answers are the most comprehensive. You will not let the others dominate you as they are." I release my hold on her and she lowers to the bed next to me.

"Tell me about Jean Grey."

"I already did."

"You told me she died at the lake. You lied."

"I didn't lie to you. I told you what happened through the eyes of her friends. Jean Grey died at Alkali Lake, saving us all. You have her body. You have many of her memories. I do not yet know if you are still her."

"How does one change a fact such as that?"

She looks at me. "You've just seen me flick back and forth between three different people like it was nothing. I absorb energies, personalities. When I killed Carol Danvers and took her into myself, I studied and meditated to gain control of her. Your resurfacing came, and I have to be honest with you. I don't completely have control of her yet, as you've seen. You're very powerful Phoenix. Very powerful. For the amount of time I touched you, it should have killed you. You've been out for three weeks. And every minute of it has been a struggle for me. Because I now have seven extra voices in my head. Some are mere shadows. David, and John, and Bobby. Their voices are weak, they don't try to control me. Eric's voice is irritating. He hardly ever spoke until I killed Carol. Now they plot against me. Logan's voice is reassuring. He keeps me strong, holds me up straight, makes sure I fight. He was my strongest ally. He thought I didn't have any secrets from him." She pauses. "Until I touched you." She says softly. "You're standing there like a queen Phoenix, and he can't see you as anything but Jean. But you're not. Not yet. You're stronger than her. More controlling. You're not a follower, because every day since you came out of the lake you've had to survive. You've had to learn how to do everything again. You're not the same person anymore. That's why I call you Phoenix. Because if I try to think of you as Dr. Grey, I'll forget that."

"You believe that my rebirth changed me." I state.

"I do." She says softly. "I know that my experiences with the others have changed me, hardened me. Forced me to define myself. That's what the lake did to you. It forced upon you the need to define yourself. To finally say – this is who I am. This is what I can do. You didn't hesitate. Not for an instant. And it's because of that that I think you've changed."

"So you do not think I am this Jean?"

"I think you're trying to figure out who you are. Trying to mix the knowledge you've gained as the Phoenix into the memories you have of Jean's life. You're trying to become the person you always were but weren't yet ready to admit was within you."

"As you've done with the Rogue and Marie."

She smiles. "Ah'm tryin' sugah, Ah'm tryin'."

"The accent again. That is the one Marie who is so well mingled with the Rogue in you."

"Ah grew up as Marie. Born and bred in Mississippi. When mah mutation manifested, ah was isolated, alone. A rogue in the world. The two have always gotten along, but it was a long tahme before ah realized that Marie was mah strength, not mah weakness. Ah use her when it's real important for me to be mahself."

"Then the others won't be coming back? You are going to speak with me?"

"Your little shove kicked'em where they needed it. They'll be quiet now. You should know though, that one of them was you."

"I figured as much. She understood me quite well."

"So, where d'ya wanna' start sugah?"