Finding Marie Chapter 12, a x-men: the movie fanfic

Author's Notes: Thoughts are signified by 'these'. Emphasis and the voices in Rogue's head are in italics. Telepathic conversation is underlined.

Warning: Images of violence in this chapter.

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"Who are you?" Mystique asked as the white haired man who had just helped her and Rogue moved toward Rogue's unconscious form.

Mystique pulled herself up from the base of the wall where she had landed in a heap and made her way slowly toward them, not sure why Rogue had suddenly collapsed or whether it was just a trick of the personality that had taken up residence in her adopted daughter's body.

"Joseph Magnus," he answered, kneeling down and straightening Rogue's limbs out from the way she had slumped onto the floor. "Former prisoner of this establishment. And you are?"

Mystique hesitated. He and Rogue had walked in together, and there seemed to be something familiar about the man, but his very presence here made her more than a bit nervous. This could be some kind of trap. Perhaps by the group that ran the organization they had come to gather intel on. Or maybe he was actually working with her blonde attacker in an attempt to infiltrate the Brotherhood.

He looked up at her from his place on the floor and frowned for a moment, obviously still waiting for her answer.

Then his shapely lips twitched slightly and he remarked, "Unless I should call you 'Mama' as well?"

Mystique almost smiled in return before she remembered where they were and what had just happened.

"My name is Mystique," she answered as she moved closer to them.

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Joseph nodded as he lifted Rogue carefully in his arms, making sure her face rested against the white lab coat he was wearing and not against the skin that showed beneath. First on the agenda, make sure his angel was okay, and then find some clothes. Unfortunately, he had a strong feeling his first task would take some doing. Realizing there was a possibility that he could be more worried than he needed to be, Joseph again glanced at Mystique.

"She told me that she's touched others, by her own choice and not. Is this a normal thing, the new personality taking temporary control?"

His hope was dashed when Mystique immediately shook her head.

"No, this… it's never happened before. Not like this. She has voices in her head from the people she's absorbed, sometimes their preferences for things influence her actions and they often give her nightmares and argue with her, causing headaches, but no one has ever taken over before."

Joseph's eyes moved to the knocked out blonde on the floor, so close to where Rogue had been. His thoughts on what they should do about her were conflicted. He had no idea who she was or why she had attacked Mystique. It was conceivable that she was a mutant that the people who had been holding him had under their control, but with her strength, what would they have needed him and the others for? No, that couldn't be it, Joseph knew they were only interested in having one super soldier, not an army that would be that much harder to control. So why had she attacked? Joseph didn't know anything about Mystique, but he knew in his soul that Rogue was a good person, so how could her mother be that much different?

If they left the blonde here, the scientists would have a new, much stronger lab rat. If he or Mystique killed her before they left, they'd never find out what she had been doing there, and her genetics would still be available for his former captors to use. And what if her presence could help Rogue fight the personality that was in control of her body? They had to take her with them. But how would they convince her not to crush them all when she eventually woke? Joseph cringed at the thought that came to him, but he acknowledged that it was the only option that made sense.

Nearly back to full strength from the prolonged period of being awake without his control collar in place, Joseph concentrated. He manipulated the chair he had hit the woman with so that the metal twisted and flattened until it was a crude but functional stretcher.

"Put her on it," he told Mystique, motioning with his head toward the fallen woman.

"Why?" she asked, anger contorting her face, as she looked at the woman responsible for their current situation.

"We may need her to get my an… uh, to get Rogue back."

Mystique's yellow eyes widened at Joseph's words, and she immediately moved to comply. When she had lifted and settled the woman, Joseph concentrated once more and made the metal stretcher hover behind him as he led the way out of the room they were in and back toward the lab he had only just recently left.

Mystique looked confused when they entered the lab, but she had obviously decided to at least trust him temporarily, because she followed all of his instructions as he told her to gather up two of the control collars and several injections of both sedative and stimulant. Then it was her turn to lead the way as Joseph had no idea how to get out of the building or where to go from there.

When they reached the outside of the structure, Joseph talked Mystique out of calling her helicopter closer as the lab was under restricted airspace and they didn't have the time or manpower to deal with yet another problem. Though both of them doubted that the blonde woman would wake anytime soon… she had been hit by a combination of a blow to the head and the effects of prolonged contact with Rogue's skin… Mystique kept a careful eye on the levitating stretcher as they hiked out to the waiting helicopter. Joseph kept part of his awareness strongly attuned to Rogue, knowing that in her current mental state and with her newly acquired strength she was just as much of a threat to them, if not more.

Neither figure had to be sedated during the journey to the conveyance, nor as they were being carefully strapped in, but when Rogue stirred slightly on the flight to what Mystique referred to as the Brotherhood House, Joseph immediately injected her with the sedative. When her blue eyes fluttered before closing again, he knew he had made the right decision. He glanced at Mystique and saw that she, too, had seen that her daughter still had the wrong eye color.

"If you don't mind my saying so, she doesn't look like you at all," Joseph observed just for something to say.

Mystique's lips twisted wryly, "I adopted her when she was twelve, when her mutation first manifested."

Joseph nodded, and thinking that keeping both of their minds temporarily distracted might help them better cope with their situation once they had landed, he struck up a conversation, asking about the Brotherhood House and then about Magneto and the other members of the Brotherhood when their names came up. He learned a lot of bare facts about the people Rogue considered her friends and the one who was her greatest enemy, but he knew from the way she spoke that Mystique was keeping most of the important details to herself. Not that he could blame her. He'd do the same in her place.

But what he really wanted to know, every hope and dream and experience that made Rogue who she was, what she liked, what she hated, her fears and greatest memories, was not something he could ask about. At least not until Rogue was herself again and chose whether or not to trust him with her confidences. Then he would ask her. If Mystique allowed him to stick around that long.

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When the pilot announced that they were five minutes out from the House, Mystique cut her conversation with Joseph short. She placed a call to the House, where Remy answered. Mystique quickly and succinctly apprised him of the situation and extracted his promise to immediately tell the others and to meet them on the roof with two stretchers from the medical room in the basement. The Cajun even momentarily dropped his habit of referring to himself in the third person when he realized the seriousness of what had occurred.

Mystique turned to study Joseph, who was once again checking on Rogue. He was a handsome man, probably in his mid to late twenties despite the white hair. He was too young for her, even if he hadn't been so immediately and obviously taken with Rogue. So what was it about him that felt so familiar? What was it that made her follow his instructions without much hesitation? Did he have some kind of charm mutation like Remy?

Mystique didn't think that was the case. She hadn't felt charmed, just oddly… inspired. Perhaps it was just the fact that he was confident and obviously powerful, and the situation they had found themselves in had made her latch on to anything that seemed stable.

Whatever the cause, his attempts at distracting her away from hysteria had worked. Mystique knew it was important that she keep as level a head as possible, especially when all four of their housemates were waiting on the roof with anxious expressions. Rogue might not be a part of the Brotherhood, but Avalanche, Remy, Wanda and Pietro all considered her their teammate and friend. And Mystique knew if Piotr were still at the House, he would have been the most worried of the group. Her adopted daughter and the Russian had become the closest of friends.

Though they immediately moved to help when the helicopter had landed and Mystique and Joseph began unloading their two "patients", all three of the young men of the House frowned at the stranger in their midst. Wanda was too busy wiping tears from her face while speaking quietly to Rogue's still form to truly notice him. Mystique knew further explanations would have to wait until later, but some sort of introduction was necessary for them to get through the next few hours. She mentally crossed her fingers at the amount of time that she hoped it would take to get Rogue back.

"Everyone, this is Joseph, he was a captive of the humans and he helped us. Joseph, this is Avalanche, Pietro, Remy and Wanda," she said, pointing quickly to each in turn. "Now let's get Rogue and the other one down to the medical room."

Each gurney now held an unconscious figure, so they were wheeled to the elevator that led straight from the roof to the House's lower levels. Only Mystique and Magneto could access the elevator, and it was only meant for emergencies. As Mystique glanced once more at Rogue, she knew without a doubt that this qualified.

The ride down was quiet for only a few moments before Pietro asked, "What can we do to help her?"

With a pang of shame and guilt, Mystique admitted quietly, "I don't know."

"Is there a place we can keep both of them where they could see each other but not be able to touch?" Joseph asked suddenly.

Pietro started to shake his head, but Avalanche spoke up, "It would not be difficult to create a holographic program with cells facing each other. And the illusion can be reinforced with the containment shields that are supposed to be for emergency use in case the bots become unstable."

The elevator doors opened and Mystique motioned the others forward. "We'll take them both to the D.R. then."

Mystique felt her heart clench when the others nodded and followed her instructions. Rogue had affected their lives more than Mystique had realized. They even knew without asking that what they had always called the Danger Room had been re-christened by Rogue because of Xavier's training room having the same name. Did this mean that they had accepted the change as easily as she first had when she brought Rogue to the house? And if Rogue truly did mean that much to them, what would it mean when Magneto was back? For him, for her, for them, for the Brotherhood and for her adopted daughter?

Her gaze turned once more to Joseph. It was obvious to her from his actions and the way he watched Rogue where his loyalty would lie if he stuck around and it ever came down to a choice. The fact that his ability was so close to Magneto's would cause problems, as well. Magneto relished being the strongest, the undisputed leader. But Mystique couldn't worry about any of that at the moment. They had to find a way to get Rogue back, or all of her concerns would be superficial at best.

Motivated by the desperation of the situation, Avalanche and Pietro very quickly set up a scenario that matched Joseph's vague specifications. Each stretcher was wheeled into it's own 'cell' complete with a clear front. The two cells faced each other and were reinforced by shields that Pietro would raise and drop at Mystique's command. Only Mystique and Joseph stayed in the DR with the two 'patients' in case something went wrong, Mystique because she wouldn't leave Rogue and Joseph because he was the one who had an idea of what to do. Wanda and Remy had brought some basic first aid supplies as well as two pairs of gloves before joining Pietro and Avalanche in the observation room.

Joseph slipped on a pair of gloves and checked Rogue's unconscious form for injuries. Mystique watched him, both of them noting that though she would undoubtedly be very bruised and sore from the fact that the blonde had swatted her halfway across the room, Rogue did not appear to have any broken bones or bleeding injuries. When he had finished checking her, he placed both gloved hands on either side of her head, closing his eyes in seeming concentration. Mystique shrugged at his latest action. Maybe he was praying for her or something.

When Joseph appeared to be done, Mystique asked, "Did you want the stimulant now?"

"No, not yet," Joseph shook his head. "I need to speak to your attacker before I attempt to reason with her personality." He paused and sighed before saying softly, "I need one of the control collars."

Mystique balked at the idea of doing something like that to Rogue, "No, you're not going to put one of those things on her."

Joseph turned fully to stare her down for a minute before calmly saying, "I don't want to restrict Rogue anymore than you do, especially with one of those… things. But if she wakes up, there is no way we can control her. If she escapes before Rogue is back in control, you will lose her forever."

Forced to concede that Joseph had a very good point, Mystique reluctantly handed him one of the collars. She again noticed the gentle way this stranger handled her daughter, his touch a mix of reluctant and reverent as he slid the device into place around Rogue's pale throat.

When he once again put his hands on Rogue's head and closed his eyes when the collar was in place, Mystique asked, "What are you doing?"

"Making sure I could still sense her," Joseph answered as he stood up straight, tucking a section of hair behind his ear. "She's faint, the other personality is rather strong, but Rogue is still there."

Mystique frowned. "You're a telepath?"

Joseph shook his head as he headed toward the blonde woman, Mystique signaling the shield around Rogue to be activated as she followed.

"No, not exactly. But I do have much better reception than other non-telepaths, especially when near an actual telepath."

Puzzled, Mystique mentally filed the information away for later.

"Collar," Joseph prompted when he reached the gurney holding the blonde woman.

Mystique handed him the second of the two devices, not objecting one bit to using it on this woman. His movements, this time, were quick and efficient. A few moments later she passed him one of the syringes of stimulant. When there was no sign of waking from their 'guest' five minutes later, a second dose was used.

"Do you work for Dr. Slaken?" Joseph asked the moment the blonde woke up.

She sneered at the name and spat, "Of course not!"

"Then why did you attack me?" Mystique demanded.

"Because you do work for those bastards," the woman answered as she scrambled off the bed on the opposite side from Joseph and Mystique. She stood oddly for a moment, her muscles straining as if she was going to take off. "What have you done to me? You took my powers!"

"Do I look like I would work for an anti-mutant group?" Mystique snapped, ignoring the blonde's other accusations. "I was there with stolen ID and passwords to get information on the group. And because of your jumping to conclusions, my daughter is hurt."

The other woman glanced across at Rogue and flinched.

"How was I supposed to know why you were there?" she mumbled. "I'm sorry about her, but she did attack me."

Mystique opened her mouth to yell at the woman again, but Joseph held up a hand to request silence. Fuming, Mystique closed her mouth and crossed her arms, glaring at the blonde woman.

"Now you know why Mystique was there. My name is Joseph and I was a prisoner of the lab," at this the blonde looked at him with interest, "until Rogue, Mystique's daughter, freed me. I'm trying to return the favor, but I need your help to do that."

"Carol Danvers," their sullen prisoner introduced herself. "What exactly would I have to do?"

"I just need to know why you were there," Joseph answered.

"That's it?"

"Hopefully," Joseph replied honestly.

"And then you'll let me go?" Carol pried at the collar with both hands. "You'll take this thing off of me?"

Joseph shrugged expressively, "That's not up to me. But if the information helps me help Rogue, I'm sure Mystique would be a bit less eager to exact revenge."

Carol looked at her, and Mystique nodded once, reluctantly.

Sitting back down on the gurney, Carol sighed before relating, "I had a younger sister who was kidnapped by a group like Slaken's a few years ago. They ran tests on her because they knew I was a mutant and thought she would be too, and they couldn't capture me. When they couldn't find anything through more conventional methods, they killed her and dissected her body. Since then any time I hear a rumor of a lab that holds mutants, I go in and help anyone being held against their will to escape. When I saw Mystique act as if she worked there, against her own kind, I jumped to the wrong conclusion. I've run in to mutants who hate what they are so much that they do work with the humans, and I thought that was the case here."

Mystique felt her anger surge again, but Joseph was nodding, so she buried the feeling.

"You have more than just super strength, don't you?" Joseph asked Carol.

She nodded. "I can also fly and am invulnerable to projectiles and a certain amount of concussive force."

Mystique blinked at the thought that Rogue might now be bulletproof. She knew her adoptive daughter could already levitate the same way Magneto could, but Mystique had a feeling straight flying would mean a lot more to Rogue. If they got her back, this attack could have been a blessing in disguise. Even if Mystique couldn't manage to dissuade Magneto from trying to use or harm Rogue once he got out of jail, Rogue would now be more than capable of holding her own against him.

"Stay here," Joseph instructed Carol, who nodded in response.

When the white-haired young man walked toward Rogue, Mystique had Pietro lower and raise the shield around it as they moved from the inside of the holographic room toward the other.

Joseph was watching Rogue's prone form with intense concentration, but he stopped and waited when he was about four feet away from her, still outside the shield.

"Do you need another dose of the stimulant?" Mystique asked when he didn't move.

"She's already awake," he answered dryly.

Blue eyes opened and Rogue's face scowled at him. Much like the real Carol had done, the imposter in Rogue's body slipped from the stretcher onto her feet and tried to push off the floor. When she failed to fly, she stared at her hands in confusion. She ran her hands over Rogue's body, frowning at each obvious difference in terrain. Her eyes narrowed almost to slits when her hands reached the control collar. She turned toward Joseph, probably due to the simple fact that he was standing closer to her.

"I don't know what you did to me, but you can't keep me here," a voice that lacked the Southern drawl it should have had said. "What do I have to tell you to make you let me go? My name is Carol Danvers and…"

"That," Joseph interrupted calmly, pointing across to the silent but watching blonde, "is Carol Danvers. You're just an echo, a copy of her personality that was too strong for Rogue to deal with on top of the physical damage Carol had already done."

"What's your point?" she asked angrily, Rogue's features twisted with the fear of the currently dominant personality. "I didn't ask for this, and I shouldn't have to suffer for it."

"Even if you don't let Rogue have her body back, you'll never have anything of your own. Her family would never let you just leave while they still had even the slightest hope of getting her back. And even ignoring that, you would have nowhere to go, nothing to call your own. Carol Danvers' life belongs to the real Carol Danvers, and no one in their right mind would believe that you were her."

The blue eyes that clashed with Rogue's auburn and white hair glared at him. "You can't keep me here forever. And maybe it's time for a change. With the combination of her powers and mine, I could go anywhere, do anything. I could do so much."

Joseph's mouth firmed and his next words were deceptively calm, "Look, we know you were only there to help, that you hate the idea of any mutant being locked up unfairly. But that's exactly what you're doing to Rogue. You're making her a prisoner in her own mind."

The woman who was not who she appeared snapped her head back as if in shock. She was silent for a few minutes before Joseph spoke again, his voice now soft and coaxing.

"Do the right thing, just let go. Please."

"I can't… I don't…"

Carol-in-Rogue's hands flew to clutch at her head as if in horrible pain. A scream that somehow sounded more like Rogue than Carol ripped from her throat and she fell to her knees. Moments later she slipped completely to the floor. Mystique glanced at Joseph when he made a gasping noise. The white haired man signaled for Pietro to drop the containment shield around Rogue's body.

Pietro looked to Mystique for confirmation, and after a momentary hesitation, Mystique nodded. Joseph immediately moved close to her adopted daughter and fell to his knees. Mystique considered having Pietro raise the shield around both of them to be on the safe side, until Rogue's voice was heard.

"Mama?"

Mystique looked down into dark green eyes. She released a heavy sigh of relief and joined Joseph on the floor, carefully helping Rogue sit up before she hugged her daughter.

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Joseph smiled softly at Rogue when she looked at him over her adoptive mother's shoulder. Though the gesture was as tired as the young woman herself appeared, Rogue's answering smile was warm.

"Thank you, Joseph," Rogue said, reaching out one gloved hand to lay it gently on his shoulder. "As soon as you made her doubt what she was doing to me, I was able to break through."

Mystique pulled away from Rogue slightly and turned her head to look at him as well, "Yes, thank you. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been there today. Anything you need, anything you want, all you have to do is ask."

"You don't owe me anything," Joseph answered. "If it hadn't been for Rogue, I would still be trapped and scheduled for execution." He looked down at his odd outfit with a rueful expression. "But I would appreciate some clothes and a place to stay until I can get back on my feet."

"It's de least we can do, homme," Remy replied as the others joined them on the floor of the DR. "You can have de room next to Remy's."

Joseph frowned. "I thought you were Remy?"

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Rogue laughed along with the others at Joseph's confusion, all except Remy, who crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at them.

"Rem has a problem with the word 'I' so anytime he refers to Remy or Gambit, he means himself," Rogue told Joseph.

The newest addition to the house's white eyebrows flew upwards but he nodded in understanding. The turning of her head had brought to her attention the fact that she had something around her neck that wasn't there before the incident with her mother's blonde attacker. The fingers of Rogue's right hand moved to the collar-like device around her neck.

She had to let go of it when Mystique helped her stand. Even with the shape shifter partially supporting her, Rogue's body screamed in protest at having to move into that position. Rogue remembered Carol swatting her away on her first impulsive approach and flinched. Her whole body felt bruised despite the fact that she had been able to minimize the damage of her fall.

Why hadn't Logan's healing kicked in and repaired the damage to her body? Thinking about Logan made her realize that in the moments since she had regained control, she had not heard from any of the people in her head. Something was still wrong… it was the collar. This must be what the sign above Joseph's head in the lab had meant by control collar. Did this mean all of her powers were suppressed, including her skin?

Still leaning against her mother, Rogue moved an ungloved hand… she wondered momentarily if they were still back in the room where she had pried Carol off her mother where she had dropped them… to lightly skim her mother's exposed skin with a fingertip. Other than Mystique's skin twitching slightly at the sudden contact, nothing happened. Rogue wrapped her fingers around her mother's arm.

"Rogue!" Mystique said, startled.

But it was Joseph's worried tone that broke through the increasing fog of pain to reach Rogue, "Angel, I think you need to take the control collar off now."

"What are you talking about?" demanded Wanda. "Not everyone wants to have their powers. This could be a blessing to Rogue."

"It's okay, Wanda," Rogue murmured. "He obviously knows something we don't, and I don't feel very…"

Rogue started to collapse, only Pietro's quick reflexes as he moved forward and caught her in his arms stopping her from getting up close and personal with the floor.

"Thanks, Speedy," she whispered shakily. Rogue could feel them all staring at her in concern, but she didn't have the energy to open her eyes. "Joseph, what's wrong with me?"

She felt the warmth of his body when he came close to her and Pietro, his gloved hands going to the collar's control panel.

"The collars don't just suppress mutant powers," Joseph explained calmly as he worked to get the device off of her neck. "They also drain the energy of the mutant wearing them, especially when the mutant tries to use their abilities. It's worse for you, my angel, because…"

"My skin is always on," Rogue finished for him, her eyes opening once again as the device left her.

Joseph nodded as he stepped back.

He had just gotten the collar off of her, and already there was a difference. Rogue's skin tingled for a few moments, and the odd but warm sensation Rogue recognized as her borrowed healing factor kicked in. The voices in her head were back, Erik and Logan both concerned about her. The new presence of Carol was silent but sullen.

Rogue disentangled herself from Pietro, careful not to touch her friend skin to skin. Carol's invulnerability merged with Logan's healing to speed it along, and she was soon feeling much better. Accessing Carol's memories, Rogue pushed off the floor and flew quickly around the room. It was easier and faster than levitating using Erik's skills, and the others looked up and watched her in wonder.

When she landed, Rogue faced Carol. The blonde was frowning slightly at her.

"I'm sure neither of us wants to see the other ever again, but I know this whole thing was a big misunderstanding," Rogue said calmly. "I have your powers now, and to be honest I have several others, so I'm more than an even match for you if you try anything. If we let you go, will you stay away from us?"

Carol looked down for a moment as if considering, but she nodded almost immediately.

"Pietro, could you go drop the shield around Carol please? And go ahead and shut down the program."

Pietro nodded and took off at top speed for the control room.

Rogue glanced at Mystique, noting that her adoptive mother's look meant 'We need to talk' and turned back to Carol one more time, "Give us a minute."

We can't just let her go, Mystique thought with a bit of anger when she and Rogue had moved a few feet away.

Mama, Rogue communicated lightly. I'm okay now. Better than okay. And with how long I held on, even without the collar I don't think Carol will be able to use her abilities anytime soon. We can't just keep her prisoner here, and I don't want you to kill her. I would feel like it was my fault.

"It wouldn't be," Mystique answered aloud.

"It would still feel like it." Rogue tried a different tact, "I'm asking as a favor to me."

She didn't say that it was partially in return for Mystique's role in what had happened to her on the Statue of Liberty, but it was what she was implying. Mystique grimaced, but nodded with a sigh.

"Fine. But I want her taken out of here blindfolded. She already knows too much."

Neither one of them said anything about Rogue taking Carol to Xavier's, but they both knew that was the only real option she had.

"Come on," Avalanche was saying to Joseph. "You can borrow some of my clothes until you can get your own. We're about the same size."

Joseph turned to look at her as he followed the slightly younger man out of the DR. Rogue smiled, thanking him once more without words for his part in her regaining control of herself. He smiled back before disappearing through the doorway.

'The release code for Carol's collar should be 43769,' he sent back to her.

"I'm going with you," Mystique said suddenly.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Rogue asked.

"I won't go onto the school's grounds, but I'm not letting you go all the way there alone with her."

Recognizing that it would be easier just to give in, Rogue nodded and moved to Carol's side, removing the control collar from the blonde's neck.

Carol stood and touched her neck briefly before saying, "I feel the same as I did with the collar on."

Rogue suggested, "Try flying."

The blonde woman who sometimes referred to herself as Ms. Marvel tried and failed to fly.

"What's going on?" she asked, her voice showing her panic.

"It's because of how long we touched," Rogue said, keeping her voice level in an effort to help calm the other woman. "The last time I touched anyone near that long, it took a week for his ability to come back, but it did come back. Just give it some time."

Looking only slightly mollified, Carol nodded.

While Mystique blindfolded the blonde and led her to the garage, Rogue ran to her room to change quickly into normal clothes from her uniform. She slipped on a pair of gloves and grabbed an envelope that had been tucked into a drawer in her dresser. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

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The drive to Xavier's school was completed in silence. When Mystique had parked across the street from the main gate, Rogue untied the blindfold from Carol's head.

"I'll be back in a bit," she told her adoptive mother. "I'm gonna explain what happened to Xavier and pay him back for the money he lent me when I left."

Mystique nodded her understanding. Carol followed Rogue out of the vehicle and up the long drive to the front door of the mansion. A student Rogue had never met answered the door and led the two women to the Professor's office. Xavier didn't look surprised to see them, and Rogue wondered briefly if her mind block had disappeared or worn off.

Rogue and Carol each told him their side of what had happened at the lab, and Xavier agreed to shelter Carol until her mutation came back or however long she decided to stay. When the other woman had been lead from the room by the same student who had answered the door, Xavier's full attention turned to Rogue.

Needing to do something other than sit silently, Rogue pulled the envelope from her jacket pocket and set it on his desk. Almost all of her savings from New York was in that envelope, but since she had moved into the House, she hadn't had to pay for anything. And Rogue felt that it was past time she returned what the Professor had lent her.

"It's all there, plus a little extra for interest," Rogue said calmly.

"Is it Brotherhood money?" Xavier asked.

Rogue frowned. "Of course not. It's almost everything I had saved from my earnings when I was living in New York. I'm not a member of the Brotherhood. I don't understand why you can't see that if you knew we were coming."

"I pulled it from Miss Danvers' head, not yours, Rogue. You're still able to block me."

"Oh," Rogue responded. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. It's been a long day."

"I understand." Xavier scooped the envelope toward him and into a drawer in his desk. "May I ask why you are staying with the Brotherhood if you haven't joined them?"

With a small sigh, Rogue told Xavier a short version of her barely remembered history, ending with, "Mystique is the only family I have left now. I have to give it the chance to work out. Staying at the House is the only way I know to do that."

Xavier nodded slowly, "I see. Well, if it should ever become necessary to leave, know that you will still have a place here."

"Thank you for the offer. I do need to ask a favor before I go."

"Yes?"

"I need to ask you to keep an ear out for dimensional travel mutants," Rogue said straight out. "There's a mutant named Joseph who's staying with us now who isn't from our world. He deserves to be able to go home if at all possible."

Xavier's eyebrows had arched upwards, but he nodded, "And how shall I contact you if I do find someone with that gift?"

"Piotr knows how to get a hold of me. If anything changes, I'll have him let you know."

"Very well," Xavier replied.

Having said and asked all that she came to, Rogue stood. "Thank you, Char… Professor."

There went the eyebrows again. "You're welcome, Rogue."

She turned to go, but couldn't help asking after the friend she hadn't seen for nearly a year. "Have you heard from Logan?"

Rogue knew Scott would have told her during one of their monthly calls if Logan had called or visited, but she also knew Xavier had other ways of contacting Logan that maybe he wouldn't share with Scott. And it wouldn't have been in character for Scott to be the one Logan tried to contact anyway.

"No, I haven't."

Rogue nodded to herself and made her way out of Xavier's office to meet up with Piotr in the hall.

"There was a rumor you were here," he said as he hugged her close. "I had to come see if it was true."

Keeping it brief, Rogue told her best friend what had happened to her as they walked slowly toward the main door of the school.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Piotr asked worriedly when she was done.

"For now," she said, admitting with her tone that she wasn't sure she would stay that way. "I'll tell Wanda to call you immediately if anything happens from now on. I have to go now, though. Mama's waitin for me."

Piotr extracted a promise for Rogue to call soon before letting her go.

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Rogue rolled over and stared out of her window. She had been trying without success to sleep for over two hours. Rogue supposed her lack of feeling tired was due to the fact that the invulnerability she had so recently gained had combined with Logan's healing factor and the two powers had finally caught up with the physical and psychological injuries she had received. She probably wouldn't have to sleep nearly as many hours as she used to. But what to do in the middle of the night?

Everyone else was asleep. Rogue had reached out psychically to make sure everything was as it should be an hour ago, still feeling guilty about everyone worrying so much about her. She seemed to have the uncanny ability to attract danger. She stifled a giggle when the fleeting thought that it might be part of her mutation crossed her mind.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Rogue stood and stretched. She wasn't in the mood to work out in the DR, still not quite comfortable with her newly gained super strength. It would probably be a good idea to have supervision when exercising, at least until she got used to what she was now capable of.

Mystique would most likely volunteer for the duty. Her adoptive mother had been hovering since Rogue had returned to herself. And although it was slightly suffocating, Rogue was touched that the other woman cared that much. Her mind drifting once more to what had happened in the mission gone awry, Rogue decided to see what was on the disks Joseph had liberated from the lab. He had given them to Mystique once he had been given normal clothes, but Mystique had yet to go through the contents.

Trying to tiptoe to her mother's office and be as silent as possible, Rogue accidentally wound up flying slowly down the hallway, her body remaining vertical and her bare toes only a few inches off the ground. It surprised her at first, but she shrugged and remained in the air until she was in the office. Now was as good a time as any to practice.

When Rogue had settled at her mother's desk and turned on the computer, she picked up the data CDs and shuffled quickly through them. There were three labeled "Lab Surveillance" and Rogue decided to check one of them out first. She opened the CD drive and popped the disk in, waiting as the machine let out the slight whirring noise that indicated it was reading the new information. Luckily the data was in a standard video format that was playable on Mystique's computer.

The first video shocked Rogue. There was a man, obviously the mutant named Adam from what Joseph had told her of him and what was happening on the screen, being repeatedly mutilated. At first each cut or burn with various instruments was carefully measured and recorded by a lab tech along with the subsequent healing. But when they had what was apparently enough information about how fast the tied down man healed from various wounds, the man inflicting the wounds got sloppier, like he was just having a good time.

Rogue was thankful the video had no sound. From the contorted look on Adam's face and the amount of blood he lost and the depth and severity of the wounds, he must have been making soul-destroying screams for help or mercy. There was a directory of dates available, and with a sick feeling, Rogue next chose the date as the one she recognized as the termination date of the mutant known as Adam.

A few seconds later, she really wished she hadn't played it. Intellectually she had known that to kill someone like Adam, or Logan for that matter, would take something extreme, but she had never expected to see someone being dissected and dismembered while still alive. It was difficult to tell, but Rogue was pretty sure Adam had been alive through most of what they had done, until they had removed his head from what was left of his torso. Perhaps the worst part of the execution was the fact that it had been accomplished in full view of the cells the mutants had been kept in, Joseph forced to watch from inside his cell with the control collar in place, his face devoid of any color.

Rogue chose a date further back and confirmed that both Joseph and Adam had been forced to watch the woman named Charlie being killed, though her death had been accomplished by a simple bullet to the head.

Enough, Erik gently commanded in her mind. You already have nightmares from what I saw in the concentration camps. You don't need to see any more of this. Just make sure your mother knows about it so she can get that place shut down legally.

The Logan in Rogue's head grunted an affirmation, and Rogue thanked them for their protectiveness, taking the disk out of the computer and setting it aside to tell Mystique about in the morning. Also setting aside the other surveillance disks, Rogue chose a CD simply labeled "Data" next. There were three main files on this disk, and Rogue opened and scanned through each in order.

The first file pertained to Charlie, who because of her name and powers was assumed to be her dimension's version of Charles Xavier. Charlene Xavier had been a thirty-something children's psychologist with family money and political connections. None of that, of course, had been able to protect her from a dimension-hopping kidnapper.

Adam's was the second file. The lab's scientists had not been able to make a direct correlation between him and any of the known super healers, despite a brief reference to the name Wolverine. Oddly enough, Adam had been a doctor for the military where he came from. Rogue supposed the fact that he could brave the front lines of battle without too much of an ill effect had enabled him to help more soldiers than an ordinary man would have been able to.

Joseph's file was the last one. Rogue read the bare facts of his life with interest. He had been an only child going to law school until a drunk driver had hit the car he and his parents had been in. The accident had killed his parents, and at the age of twenty-two had triggered the rather late-in-life manifestation of his mutant powers. His hair had also turned white from the shock of the trauma. Facing more adversity in the political arena of law, Joseph had become a sculptor. Rogue made a mental note to ask Joseph about it the next day and moved on to the last paragraph. Although the believed connection between the two other captives and mutants in this dimension had been noted at the top of the other documents, Joseph's was at the bottom.

Rogue forgot to breathe for several minutes. A few months earlier, genetic material had become available for DNA testing, confirming Joseph Magnus' counterpart in their world. Joseph was his dimension's version of Erik Lensherr.

Joseph was Magneto.