"What do you mean, there's a chance that Wanda's personality is
fighting Erik's personality. Have you run into Magneto lately?" Mystique
asked.
Professor Xavier answered as he strapped into Cerebro. "Recently we discovered that Rogue has been retaining not only the memories of those she's absorbed, but their powers as well. She's been practicing by herself and we only just discovered how good she's getting. She still had problems with certain personalities, like Magneto, and with such a panicked, angry absorption of Wanda, I'm afraid that she will take over Rogue and try to attack the Magneto personality. Unless Rogue can get Wanda under control, she could cause irreparable harm to Rogue and Rogue could cause irreparable harm to everyone else. You've seen what she's capable of."
Even the oblique mention of what finding out that her friend Risty had really been Mystique and that Mystique was her foster mother had done to Rogue visibly effected Mystique. "She's really learning control?"
"Yes. Listen, I can feel Erik, no Wanda, off near where we were going to go this weekend. Logan is closing in on the area."
"Let me help."
"I'm not sure that's the best-."
"Look, I know Wanda, she listens to me, and maybe I can calm her down."
The Professor gave her a long look. "All right. Come on."
Quickly gathering Storm and Hank and leaving Scott and Pietro in charge they all piled in the jet and took off.
Radioing in with Logan, they quickly closed in on Rogue's position.
When they arrived, they found Logan trying to talk Rogue back into control. "Come on kid, you're doing so well. Don't let them push you around." Across the clearing, MagnetoRogue and WandaRogue were duking it out.
"Logan, what happened?" Storm was the first to speak.
"When I got here, she was locked into some kind of internal struggle. I tried to talk her out of it and she smacked the tree and split off into these two. They started fighting and Rogue seemed ok."
"Rogue that was a very good temporary solution. I'm proud of you, now what can we do about getting those two under control?" Xavier nodded at Magneto and Wanda who were actively trying to subdue each other.
"They're too hard to control. I can't get Wanda to stop. Erik will stop if she does, but she won't."
"Rogue, may I try?" Mystique spoke up quietly. It was very unlike her to ask permission; this earned her many glances from the others.
"Yeah, okay I guess." Rogue stopped trying to restrain Wanda and Erik, letting Mystique step forward.
"Xavier, get Wanda here now, I need her for proof." Mystique said in a quick aside to the Professor. Then she turned to Wanda. "Wanda, do you remember when I told you about Rogue's powers?"
"I'll kill him!" WandaRogue started to attack MagnetoRogue again, but Mystique's words stopped her.
"Wanda! Listen to me! Do you remember what I told you about Rogue's power?"
"Yes!" She was still glaring at MagnetoRogue. MagnetoRogue raised a hand, staying on guard.
"Repeat it to me."
"Rogue's mutation is to absorb the life force, memories and, in the case of mutants, powers of any person or thing she touches through skin to skin contact. Residual memories are permanently absorbed." WandaRogue spit out.
"That is correct. Now listen to me. Among the people Rogue has absorbed is Magneto. It is the personality of his that you are fighting. You are actually a personality yourself. You live in Rogue now. It is neither your fault, nor Rogue's but you need to calm down and stop fighting her. If you don't you, as well as everyone else she has absorbed will die with her."
"I don't believe you. This is my body! I am Wanda. If I weren't, I would be inside her, not out here where I can fight him. He's standing right there, who else could he be?"
"You were inside Rogue, that's where you started fighting Magneto, remember? You both were fighting so much she couldn't control you and finally, she had to force you both out here using another mutant's power, to save herself."
WandaRogue stared at Mystique, pondering her words.
"Rogue," Storm said quietly into her ear. "Rogue, see if you cannot bring Magneto back inside you where he belongs and leave Wanda here to talk to us."
"Okay." It was an effort, but she was able to do it. As soon as MagnetoRogue disappeared, a loud shriek split the air.
"Where did he go?" WandaRogue demanded to know. Marching up to Rogue, she screamed at her. "What did you do with him!"
Bamft! Kurt 'ported in with Wanda, as the Professor had requested when he called the Institute.
"Do you see now Wanda?" Mystique put her arm around the real Wanda and walked her forward to face WandaRogue. "This here is Wanda. You are the part of her that Rogue absorbed in an accident at school. Do you remember that?"
WandaRogue took a long time before answering; staring at Wanda, thinking. "Yes. Are you really me?" WandaRogue spoke to Wanda directly.
"Yes I am." Wanda was totally confused, but she knew how to stand her ground.
WandaRogue stood there looking at her alter ego. Then she looked at Rogue and then back to Wanda. "You know I'll have to live with him inside her head."
"I know that."
"Will you kill him for me?"
"I will kill him for me. You will jibe him for both of us. It's slow that way. But don't hurt Rogue. Some jerk at school did this, not her."
"Fine, I'll behave. I suppose you want me to show you how to use my powers." WandaRogue said this to Rogue.
"Only if you want to. I know it's scary."
"Fine. So do you wanna pull me in or whatever?"
"I will, as long as it's okay with you." Rogue carefully brought WandaRogue back into herself. Mentally, she stored Wanda away into a corner of her mind, well away from where she put Magneto. Then she looked around at everyone who was gathered to help her. "Thank you so much."
"Are you ok?" Storm asked for the rest of them.
"Yeah, I'm fine now. Mystique, you're helping her settle in and you're listening." Rogue said, nodding to Wanda. "I'm really sorry Wanda. I didn't mean to touch you."
"I touched you. Do you really have all my memories and powers?"
"Yeah, I do. I'm sorry, I can't help it. I-."
"Do you want help with my powers? I had a lot of problems with them especially with trying to control my rage as well as my powers at the same time."
Rogue was shocked. She expected the usually sullen Wanda to be angry with her. "I'd love that. Thank you."
"That is a very generous offer Wanda." The Professor said.
Wanda glared at him. Even though the Professor had tried to help her in the mental institution where she had been left by Magneto, she still blamed him for not getting her out sooner.
"Well, why don't we all get back to the Institute and make sure both of you are okay, and then if you and the rest of your charges would like to stay for dinner?" Being hospitable to Mystique was hard, even for the Professor.
The adults moved towards the jet, but Rogue pulled Kurt and Wanda back a bit. "Guys, is it okay if you didn't tell anyone about this? I kinda want to keep it a secret."
Wanda nodded, understanding the importance of keeping secrets, living as she was in a house full of boys. Kurt, a naturally open and social individual was less understanding.
"But Rogue, everyone will be so happy! You can do all these things. This is a vonderful thing!"
"No, it's not!" If their personalities could wane like they did before, I would never have had this problem!"
"I see that Rogue, but look on the bright side; you have me and Kitty and Scott and the rest of us right there to help you when things get crazy."
Rogue just looked helplessly at him. He didn't understand. "Just, don't tell anybody, ok?"
"Sure Rogue, no problem."
*****
Even though Mystique was skeptical about it, Wanda decided to follow the Professor's advice and stay over in the hospital wing for the night. Rogue was there too.
Between the two of them, they were able to scare or glare most of the other kids into leaving to complete other more pressing things they had to do.
Kitty babbled her way through an exit when Wanda started hexing various objects in the room.
At first there was and long and awkward pause. Then Rogue couldn't control the laugh that she had been trying to swallow anymore. Her explosive laughter set Wanda off.
"I wish," Rogue gasped out between gulps of air. "that I could do that to get her to shut up sometimes. She's really not so bad, but when she gets excited, she can go on and on."
"You can you know," Wanda said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "You have my powers now so, you can."
"But then they'd know."
"That's not a bad thing. We get enough grief off the norms, we should be able to enjoy some part of our powers. I, for instance, get a kick out of scaring people away. Other than this, there's nothing about your mutation that's even remotely fun."
"It's almost as if I steal from them."
"Rogue, you do. But we get it back and get better. See, I'm fine."
"I know, but I don't want them to resent me because I can do so much and I don't have any of their restrictions."
"You have your own problems. Anyone who resents you should be able to understand that. If they don't, it's their own fault."
"Wanda, I have them rolling around in my head. Everything about them. They do resent it, a little, all of them. That's one of the reasons the X-men personalities are so helpful, they feel guilty."
"Well-." Wanda tried to respond, but Rogue had turned over, toward the opposite wall.
"I don't want to talk about it. Goodnight Wanda."
Sighing, Wanda went to sleep.
****
All she could hear was the reverberations of metal as a door slammed, again; again; again.
All she could see was the grim face of her father as he stood by and let strangers drag her away.
And then came the sound of a different door along with the sight of different strangers in militant uniforms from farther back; through different eyes.
But fear was the same. Dark, thick and overpowering. Tentacles of the stuff dragging her back into a world of pain and more fear.
Rogue awoke screaming.
Sitting up and catching her breath, it took many long minutes for the panicked urge to run calmed down.
"It's okay, you're up now." Wanda's quiet voice reassured her. "Was it my memories?"
Rogue looked over at her. "Yeah. Yours and Erik's."
Wanda looked as though she wanted to say something but had thought the better of it. Instead she spoke. "You'll never be there again, not really. I'm sorry."
"Do you know? You're the first person to ever apologize? I must have relived the nightmares and memories of thirty people again and again, and none of them ever apologize." Rogue's voice was still shaky, but there was an anger of her own underneath it; one that could not be reasoned with till it had run its course.
A feeling that Wanda was very familiar with. "They just resent you."
"Yeah, and leave me alone with it. Like when Miss Perfect's telepathy started developing faster, she almost killed herself she was so overwhelmed. So, I bled off a good portion of that to the point where it almost seemed as if I were in her and she in me. It gave her space to come to herself because I was carrying most of it. Who did she thank? Scott, for 'talking her down'."
"Bitch."
"And then there was this dream I had from Mystique about Kurt. It was all about what was important to Kurt; what did I know, what did I see, where did it happen? As if I were a computer to be picked at for answers." Rogue was crying now. "And none of them ever say thanks, or condolences. That time when I first started using all the powers of those I'd absorbed, they were scared of me! They, scared of me! I was terrified! There was nothing at all I wanted more than someone to talk me down, but no, they just kept attacking! And when I finally got it under control, Logan and the Professor convinced me to let him drive them out all at once. Leaving me fragile and alone. Logan and Kurt and the Prof tried to keep me company, but I don't know how to be that vulnerable. Then, when I finally know how to deal with just being me, I get out of the infirmary, I got a dose of Scott and Ray, and then," Rogue stopped, seeming to come to herself out of a very bad memory. "I'm sorry Wanda, it's late and I woke you up."
"It's ok, really. What happened with Mesmero and Apocalypse?"
"It doesn't matter. Mystique is back and they're loose and free in the world. I just get the feeling that if I hadn't been so alone in my head when Mesmero showed up that somehow, I could have withstood him."
Minutes slipped by before Wanda or Rogue did or said anything.
"I for one feel better that you know what I've been through. It makes me feel not as alone. Is that too terrible?"
"Yes." Rogue returned to her usually blunt way of getting at the point. Both of them knew, that terrible as it was, it was more understanding than either had ever gotten.
Professor Xavier answered as he strapped into Cerebro. "Recently we discovered that Rogue has been retaining not only the memories of those she's absorbed, but their powers as well. She's been practicing by herself and we only just discovered how good she's getting. She still had problems with certain personalities, like Magneto, and with such a panicked, angry absorption of Wanda, I'm afraid that she will take over Rogue and try to attack the Magneto personality. Unless Rogue can get Wanda under control, she could cause irreparable harm to Rogue and Rogue could cause irreparable harm to everyone else. You've seen what she's capable of."
Even the oblique mention of what finding out that her friend Risty had really been Mystique and that Mystique was her foster mother had done to Rogue visibly effected Mystique. "She's really learning control?"
"Yes. Listen, I can feel Erik, no Wanda, off near where we were going to go this weekend. Logan is closing in on the area."
"Let me help."
"I'm not sure that's the best-."
"Look, I know Wanda, she listens to me, and maybe I can calm her down."
The Professor gave her a long look. "All right. Come on."
Quickly gathering Storm and Hank and leaving Scott and Pietro in charge they all piled in the jet and took off.
Radioing in with Logan, they quickly closed in on Rogue's position.
When they arrived, they found Logan trying to talk Rogue back into control. "Come on kid, you're doing so well. Don't let them push you around." Across the clearing, MagnetoRogue and WandaRogue were duking it out.
"Logan, what happened?" Storm was the first to speak.
"When I got here, she was locked into some kind of internal struggle. I tried to talk her out of it and she smacked the tree and split off into these two. They started fighting and Rogue seemed ok."
"Rogue that was a very good temporary solution. I'm proud of you, now what can we do about getting those two under control?" Xavier nodded at Magneto and Wanda who were actively trying to subdue each other.
"They're too hard to control. I can't get Wanda to stop. Erik will stop if she does, but she won't."
"Rogue, may I try?" Mystique spoke up quietly. It was very unlike her to ask permission; this earned her many glances from the others.
"Yeah, okay I guess." Rogue stopped trying to restrain Wanda and Erik, letting Mystique step forward.
"Xavier, get Wanda here now, I need her for proof." Mystique said in a quick aside to the Professor. Then she turned to Wanda. "Wanda, do you remember when I told you about Rogue's powers?"
"I'll kill him!" WandaRogue started to attack MagnetoRogue again, but Mystique's words stopped her.
"Wanda! Listen to me! Do you remember what I told you about Rogue's power?"
"Yes!" She was still glaring at MagnetoRogue. MagnetoRogue raised a hand, staying on guard.
"Repeat it to me."
"Rogue's mutation is to absorb the life force, memories and, in the case of mutants, powers of any person or thing she touches through skin to skin contact. Residual memories are permanently absorbed." WandaRogue spit out.
"That is correct. Now listen to me. Among the people Rogue has absorbed is Magneto. It is the personality of his that you are fighting. You are actually a personality yourself. You live in Rogue now. It is neither your fault, nor Rogue's but you need to calm down and stop fighting her. If you don't you, as well as everyone else she has absorbed will die with her."
"I don't believe you. This is my body! I am Wanda. If I weren't, I would be inside her, not out here where I can fight him. He's standing right there, who else could he be?"
"You were inside Rogue, that's where you started fighting Magneto, remember? You both were fighting so much she couldn't control you and finally, she had to force you both out here using another mutant's power, to save herself."
WandaRogue stared at Mystique, pondering her words.
"Rogue," Storm said quietly into her ear. "Rogue, see if you cannot bring Magneto back inside you where he belongs and leave Wanda here to talk to us."
"Okay." It was an effort, but she was able to do it. As soon as MagnetoRogue disappeared, a loud shriek split the air.
"Where did he go?" WandaRogue demanded to know. Marching up to Rogue, she screamed at her. "What did you do with him!"
Bamft! Kurt 'ported in with Wanda, as the Professor had requested when he called the Institute.
"Do you see now Wanda?" Mystique put her arm around the real Wanda and walked her forward to face WandaRogue. "This here is Wanda. You are the part of her that Rogue absorbed in an accident at school. Do you remember that?"
WandaRogue took a long time before answering; staring at Wanda, thinking. "Yes. Are you really me?" WandaRogue spoke to Wanda directly.
"Yes I am." Wanda was totally confused, but she knew how to stand her ground.
WandaRogue stood there looking at her alter ego. Then she looked at Rogue and then back to Wanda. "You know I'll have to live with him inside her head."
"I know that."
"Will you kill him for me?"
"I will kill him for me. You will jibe him for both of us. It's slow that way. But don't hurt Rogue. Some jerk at school did this, not her."
"Fine, I'll behave. I suppose you want me to show you how to use my powers." WandaRogue said this to Rogue.
"Only if you want to. I know it's scary."
"Fine. So do you wanna pull me in or whatever?"
"I will, as long as it's okay with you." Rogue carefully brought WandaRogue back into herself. Mentally, she stored Wanda away into a corner of her mind, well away from where she put Magneto. Then she looked around at everyone who was gathered to help her. "Thank you so much."
"Are you ok?" Storm asked for the rest of them.
"Yeah, I'm fine now. Mystique, you're helping her settle in and you're listening." Rogue said, nodding to Wanda. "I'm really sorry Wanda. I didn't mean to touch you."
"I touched you. Do you really have all my memories and powers?"
"Yeah, I do. I'm sorry, I can't help it. I-."
"Do you want help with my powers? I had a lot of problems with them especially with trying to control my rage as well as my powers at the same time."
Rogue was shocked. She expected the usually sullen Wanda to be angry with her. "I'd love that. Thank you."
"That is a very generous offer Wanda." The Professor said.
Wanda glared at him. Even though the Professor had tried to help her in the mental institution where she had been left by Magneto, she still blamed him for not getting her out sooner.
"Well, why don't we all get back to the Institute and make sure both of you are okay, and then if you and the rest of your charges would like to stay for dinner?" Being hospitable to Mystique was hard, even for the Professor.
The adults moved towards the jet, but Rogue pulled Kurt and Wanda back a bit. "Guys, is it okay if you didn't tell anyone about this? I kinda want to keep it a secret."
Wanda nodded, understanding the importance of keeping secrets, living as she was in a house full of boys. Kurt, a naturally open and social individual was less understanding.
"But Rogue, everyone will be so happy! You can do all these things. This is a vonderful thing!"
"No, it's not!" If their personalities could wane like they did before, I would never have had this problem!"
"I see that Rogue, but look on the bright side; you have me and Kitty and Scott and the rest of us right there to help you when things get crazy."
Rogue just looked helplessly at him. He didn't understand. "Just, don't tell anybody, ok?"
"Sure Rogue, no problem."
*****
Even though Mystique was skeptical about it, Wanda decided to follow the Professor's advice and stay over in the hospital wing for the night. Rogue was there too.
Between the two of them, they were able to scare or glare most of the other kids into leaving to complete other more pressing things they had to do.
Kitty babbled her way through an exit when Wanda started hexing various objects in the room.
At first there was and long and awkward pause. Then Rogue couldn't control the laugh that she had been trying to swallow anymore. Her explosive laughter set Wanda off.
"I wish," Rogue gasped out between gulps of air. "that I could do that to get her to shut up sometimes. She's really not so bad, but when she gets excited, she can go on and on."
"You can you know," Wanda said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "You have my powers now so, you can."
"But then they'd know."
"That's not a bad thing. We get enough grief off the norms, we should be able to enjoy some part of our powers. I, for instance, get a kick out of scaring people away. Other than this, there's nothing about your mutation that's even remotely fun."
"It's almost as if I steal from them."
"Rogue, you do. But we get it back and get better. See, I'm fine."
"I know, but I don't want them to resent me because I can do so much and I don't have any of their restrictions."
"You have your own problems. Anyone who resents you should be able to understand that. If they don't, it's their own fault."
"Wanda, I have them rolling around in my head. Everything about them. They do resent it, a little, all of them. That's one of the reasons the X-men personalities are so helpful, they feel guilty."
"Well-." Wanda tried to respond, but Rogue had turned over, toward the opposite wall.
"I don't want to talk about it. Goodnight Wanda."
Sighing, Wanda went to sleep.
****
All she could hear was the reverberations of metal as a door slammed, again; again; again.
All she could see was the grim face of her father as he stood by and let strangers drag her away.
And then came the sound of a different door along with the sight of different strangers in militant uniforms from farther back; through different eyes.
But fear was the same. Dark, thick and overpowering. Tentacles of the stuff dragging her back into a world of pain and more fear.
Rogue awoke screaming.
Sitting up and catching her breath, it took many long minutes for the panicked urge to run calmed down.
"It's okay, you're up now." Wanda's quiet voice reassured her. "Was it my memories?"
Rogue looked over at her. "Yeah. Yours and Erik's."
Wanda looked as though she wanted to say something but had thought the better of it. Instead she spoke. "You'll never be there again, not really. I'm sorry."
"Do you know? You're the first person to ever apologize? I must have relived the nightmares and memories of thirty people again and again, and none of them ever apologize." Rogue's voice was still shaky, but there was an anger of her own underneath it; one that could not be reasoned with till it had run its course.
A feeling that Wanda was very familiar with. "They just resent you."
"Yeah, and leave me alone with it. Like when Miss Perfect's telepathy started developing faster, she almost killed herself she was so overwhelmed. So, I bled off a good portion of that to the point where it almost seemed as if I were in her and she in me. It gave her space to come to herself because I was carrying most of it. Who did she thank? Scott, for 'talking her down'."
"Bitch."
"And then there was this dream I had from Mystique about Kurt. It was all about what was important to Kurt; what did I know, what did I see, where did it happen? As if I were a computer to be picked at for answers." Rogue was crying now. "And none of them ever say thanks, or condolences. That time when I first started using all the powers of those I'd absorbed, they were scared of me! They, scared of me! I was terrified! There was nothing at all I wanted more than someone to talk me down, but no, they just kept attacking! And when I finally got it under control, Logan and the Professor convinced me to let him drive them out all at once. Leaving me fragile and alone. Logan and Kurt and the Prof tried to keep me company, but I don't know how to be that vulnerable. Then, when I finally know how to deal with just being me, I get out of the infirmary, I got a dose of Scott and Ray, and then," Rogue stopped, seeming to come to herself out of a very bad memory. "I'm sorry Wanda, it's late and I woke you up."
"It's ok, really. What happened with Mesmero and Apocalypse?"
"It doesn't matter. Mystique is back and they're loose and free in the world. I just get the feeling that if I hadn't been so alone in my head when Mesmero showed up that somehow, I could have withstood him."
Minutes slipped by before Wanda or Rogue did or said anything.
"I for one feel better that you know what I've been through. It makes me feel not as alone. Is that too terrible?"
"Yes." Rogue returned to her usually blunt way of getting at the point. Both of them knew, that terrible as it was, it was more understanding than either had ever gotten.