Author's Notes: Thoughts are signified by 'these'. Emphasis and the voices in Rogue's head are in italics. Telepathic conversation is underlined.
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Rogue didn't know how long she had slept, but she woke up in the dark, sobbing uncontrollably. The usual nightmares had been made even worse by the hatred the three newest residents of her head kept spewing. She sat up, scooting back against the bed's headboard, her knees drawn up to her chest.
Outside of swear words, the three thugs had a limited vocabulary, relentlessly taunting mutie and freak over and over.
Rogue jumped when the door to her new bedroom swung open. But seeing a concerned Mystique there, Rogue relaxed slightly. She didn't want to have woken up her new housemates with her nightmares before she had even met them. Mystique moved quickly to her side, sitting beside Rogue on the bed and pulling her closer.
"Sorry, Mama," Rogue whispered as the other woman soothed her.
"Don't ever apologize for needing me, Marie." Mystique sighed softly, "I have a lot to make up to you, but I'll never be able to if you keep me out of your life."
"I'm here, aren't I?" Rogue asked bitterly.
"Yes, and I appreciate the fact that I will know that you're somewhere safe while I can't be with you, but just being here isn't going to help us reconnect. We both lost memories, and Irene is gone. I don't know if we'll be able to get back what we lost, because there was no one else who knew what we knew."
Rogue was silent for a minute before quietly asking, "What about Mesmero? If he did this, could he undo it, too?"
"I don't know," Mystique answered. "Even if he could, I don't know where he is, only Magneto would know that."
"You're going to break him out, aren't you?" Rogue asked quietly.
"When I find him," Mystique answered honestly. "They're keeping his location top secret. What he did was wrong, and I will kill him before I'd let him attempt it again, but he is important to me. And he's important to other people as well."
"Who, Sabretooth?" Rogue asked derisively. "We should try to keep that animal happy."
Mystique sighed heavily, "No, Rogue. Magneto is important to his children and the rest of the Brotherhood."
My son Pietro and my daughter Wanda, Erik informed her. And not all mutants have the same ideals as Charles. Does that mean they shouldn't have a place to stay, a way to help each other?
'Erik,' Rogue stopped his tirade. 'You know you'll never recruit me, so save the speech. I understand. It doesn't mean I have to like that Magneto's in charge.'
Erik fell silent, the only things in her head besides her own thoughts the sharp headache and vague words of all the voices fighting it out.
Rogue glanced at the clock on the wall across the room. Thanks to the enhanced night sight Logan's heightened senses gave her, she could see the hands and numbers even from that distance. 4:23. She had slept for three hours, longer than she had thought, but not long enough considering what she had been through. But in the state she was in, she wasn't sure she wanted to risk going to sleep again. One of the other voices might wake up instead of her.
"Do you want to talk about the nightmares?" Mystique asked softly.
"I have them almost every night," Rogue sighed. "Sometimes they're just one person's. On the worst nights, like tonight, it's a mix of everyone's. World War II, labs, relatively normal nightmares from the humans."
"You haven't found any way to control them better?"
Rogue shook her head, "I was going to try Yoga next, but I've tried self-hypnosis and meditation already with no results."
"Xavier wasn't able to help you?"
Rogue stiffened, but remembering what Mystique had said about letting her in, she admitted, "I didn't let him try. I… I touched him while he was in a coma, and I was afraid if he tried to help he'd know."
Mystique nodded slowly. "Whenever I get free time, I will look for someone to help you. Until then, is there anything that helps at all with the voices? I think you used to swim when Cody got too loud."
"When I was at Xavier's, Scott let me use the Danger Room. It helped tame the Wolverine. Erik prefers reading. Once the two of them are placated, they usually keep the others suppressed."
"Erik?" Mystique questioned softly.
Rogue answered carefully, "It's why I prefer for you to call him Magneto. The Erik in my head has been good to me but… well, it helps to think of them as different men."
Mystique nodded and leaned forward to press a kiss to Rogue's head, her hair a shield against her deadly skin.
"Let's go to the Danger Room, then, shall we?"
They both got up from the bed, and Rogue smiled shyly before saying, "Thank you for stopping the Mutant Registration Act. I know what you're doing in Senator Kelly's place is important."
Mystique smiled, "You're welcome. I never thought anyone would thank me for it. And I'm glad you understand. But remember, if you do truly need me for something, you're my daughter and you come first."
"Thank you, Mama," Rogue answered.
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There was quite an impressive array of weapons in a locker outside the Danger Room (Rogue had decided to call this one "the DR" so it wouldn't make her think overly much of Xavier's). Luckily, throwing knives were part of that arsenal. Mystique gave her a questioning look when she strapped the sheaths to her thighs. Rogue explained about Scott thinking it would be similar to claws.
It was very different from claws, of course, but Rogue had grown to like them. She was good with them, too. Rogue thought she might be a little rusty after having no practice for several months (she had quickly discovered that kitchen knives just weren't the same), but once she tested the weight of the knives in her hands, she took it up as if she had never stopped.
Mentioning that she hadn't had a good workout since first going undercover as Senator Kelly, Mystique joined Rogue in the DR. They were on the twelfth level when the robot Rogue was fighting hit one of the knives out of her hand, hard. It flew to where Mystique was pummeling another of the robots, and Rogue realized it was going to hit the other woman in the back.
Mama, look out.
Mystique ducked, the knife's point jamming in one of the robot's arm joints. Mystique called a halt to the program, turning to stare at Rogue.
"How did you do that?"
Rogue blinked, realizing that she had psychically shouted instead of doing it out loud. And yet Mystique had still heard her.
"I… I don't know. I was able to use Erik's power once when I really needed it after I thought it had faded. Through practice, I realized that if I concentrated I could call it up again; I guess I can still access Xavier's power as well."
Mystique looked thoughtful, a hint of worry in her yellow eyes. "It might be better if no one else knew that. Xavier is very powerful, and there are those who would try to get their hands on you if they thought they could access that power without having to go through the X-Men."
Rogue nodded her understanding. Okay, Mama.
This might come in handy someday, Mystique thought back to her.
Like kids in a candy store, Erik commented fondly in Rogue's head.
Rogue grinned.
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Half an hour later, Mystique had finished giving Rogue a tour of the house, including giving her the codes to some of the limited access areas, like the DR and Mystique's office, which contained the phone Rogue would be able to use to place calls she didn't want traced. They scheduled a time for Rogue to call "Senator Kelly" in three days, Mystique telling her that they would schedule future calls then.
On the way to the kitchen where she would meet the rest of the household, Rogue asked, "When you found me in the alley, you said that it was Destiny that lead you to me. That was Mama Irene's codename, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was," answered Mystique, an almost wistful tone in her voice. "Before she died she post-dated a letter to reach me at the right time and told me that you needed my help and where to find you. She also sent me a picture of the three of us together so I would remember your place in my life and my true form."
"Can I see it?"
"I left it in Washington, I'll bring it with me next time I'm home."
"Okay." Rogue paused for a moment before asking, "Why were you using that form?"
"I don't know." Mystique shrugged. "I can't think of any reason Magneto would want me to look like that; maybe Mesmero got creative, I have no idea."
They had reached the kitchen door, and Rogue followed Mystique into the kitchen. Five young men and a young woman sat at the table. They all looked up at her, and Rogue wondered how many of them knew her history with Magneto. Mystique had said she hadn't told them anything, but that didn't necessarily mean they hadn't found out some other way.
"Everyone, this is my daughter, Rogue, she'll be staying in my wing of the mansion. Rogue," Mystique indicated the first of Rogue's new housemates, "this is Wanda Maximoff, also known as the Scarlet Witch."
Wanda had auburn curls that fell just past her shoulders and light blue eyes. Magneto's eyes. The other young woman smiled at Rogue but said nothing.
"Her twin brother, Pietro."
"Quicksilver," the silver-haired young man she had seen the night before smirked as he cut Mystique off. "What'd you do to your hair?"
He had been eating a cereal that was more sugar than anything else, his spoon and arm moving so fast it had appeared to be a blur to Rogue. He had the same light blue eyes as his sister, and a slightly darker complexion.
"Stress," she answered softly.
Why let him know that it was his father's fault her hair was two colors? It wasn't her place to drive a wedge between them. Not that knowing Magneto had hurt her would necessarily do that, but she and Mystique had already decided to keep Rogue's encounter with Magneto a secret until it had to be brought up. Mystique didn't want the Brotherhood members giving Rogue a hard time if they believed it would put them in Magneto's good graces.
"And this is Colossus," Mystique continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.
Maybe Pietro interrupted her so often she was accustomed to ignoring him. The man Rogue had seen Quicksilver arguing with stood up and came around the table to take her gloved hand in his large one.
"Piotr Nikolievitch Rasputin," he introduced himself, his voice rough with an obvious Russian accent. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you, too," Rogue smiled up at him.
Colossus was very tall, well over six feet, and had black hair and dark blue eyes. He was very attractive, but there was an air of sadness around him that made Rogue think of a caged animal that wanted nothing more than to be released.
"Dominic Petros, also know as Avalanche."
Another man, this one with dark brown hair, brown eyes and an olive complexion, nodded.
"And Remy LeBeau, also known as Gambit."
"Mystique saved the best for last, chere," Gambit grinned. "Remy be at your beck and call."
Mystique frowned, "Stay away from her, LeBeau."
Remy turned his red-on-black eyes in Mystique's direction. "You injure Remy! What has Remy ever..."
"He's married," Mystique flatly told her daughter.
Remy began stuttering about 'arranged marriage' and 'separation'. Rogue tried not to laugh. Even if Mystique hadn't warned her away, she wouldn't have been interested in the Cajun. He was too smooth. She wanted someone real, who would never hide who he was or what he was feeling behind slick words and suggestive glances.
Mystique glanced at the clock and then at her.
"Do you want to say good-bye here or walk me to the helicopter?"
"I'll walk you out," Rogue said quickly, somehow not yet ready to be left alone with her new housemates.
It was only after she had said an emotional goodbye to Mystique, promised to call at the appointed time or as soon as she needed something, and gone back into the house when she remembered that Mystique had not warned the others not to touch her.
"Great, now I have to go track down all of them and tell them about my skin," she muttered to herself.
"Actually, Mystique told us last night."
Rogue nearly jumped out of her skin before realizing what Wanda had said.
"She did?"
Wanda nodded, "And let me tell you, Avalanche was not happy at being woken up for that."
"Sorry," Rogue said softly.
"It's okay," Wanda responded.
The other woman shrugged and tossed her hair back, giving Rogue a once over.
"You want me to show you around town? We could go shopping, too, if you'd like. I assume Mystique gave you money."
Rogue nodded. "If you're sure it wouldn't be any trouble."
"Trouble?" Wanda laughed. She linked her arm through Rogue's and steered them in the direction of Rogue's room. "You have no idea how nice it's going to be not being the only female in the house anymore. I swear, one of these days those guys are going to actually have a pissing contest in the backyard or something. Way too much testosterone for a single household."
Rogue laughed. "Mama told all of you, right?"
Wanda nodded.
"And Gambit still hit on me?"
"Honey," Wanda said in a trust-me-I-know voice, "that man flirts with any pretty girl."
Having reached her room, Rogue slid her wallet into the pocket of her jeans and grabbed a jacket. It was cool outside, and the jacket would be added protection against accidental touches. As she was putting it on, something caught Wanda's eye.
"A dogtag?" Wanda questioned.
Rogue touched the metal hanging around her neck, "It belongs to Wolverine, a friend of mine. He gave it to me for safekeeping. He saved my life."
Wanda studied her for a minute. "He saved you from my father, didn't he?"
"How did you know?" Rogue asked after nodding in the affirmative.
Wanda linked her arm back through Rogue's and the two young women headed toward the mansion's garage.
"Your powers and Dad's 'mishap' at the Statue of Liberty. He wouldn't risk himself like that. I'm sorry he did that to you, I hope you won't hold it against us."
"I won't."
Rogue smiled sadly. She hadn't been at Xavier's long enough to bond with any of the girls, and except for Jean and Storm they had all been younger than her, too young to understand her feelings of loneliness and fear at not being able to touch others without hurting them. It was going to be nice to have a friend her own age who she could share things with.