Standing by the window
Eyes upon the moon
Hoping that the memory
will leave her spirit soon

Rogue has many memories. Not all her own. Watching her father be dragged away by armed guards, guards drinking champagne while she soundlessly screams in a tank of water, water that freezes to solid ice as she touches it, melting again when flames play from her palm. She is old, she is ageless, she is young.

She has witnessed the darkest days of humanity, hoping that this will never happen again, the innocence of growing up in a loving and caring house, growing up in an orphanage where she learnt early on that adults were all dangerous, and the kids more so. Memories of a house of laughter, cookies and piano playing. The last confuses her, until she remembers that it was her own childhood, before her abilities manifested.

She is so many people. She is Marie, and Bobby, and Erik, and John, and Logan. All their gifts, all their memories, taken by her curse.

She shuts the doors and lights
And lays her body on the bed
Where images and words are
running deep
She has too much pride to pull
the sheets above her head
So quietly she lays and waits
for sleep

She has been taught techniques by the Professor on clearing her mind for sleep. She applies these now, allowing the soothing piano music to help her in this task. She suppresses each of the myriad voices in her head, and begins to slowly drift off.

She stares at the ceiling
And tries not to think
And pictures the chains
She's been trying to link again
But the feeling is gone

There are links between all the people she has touched. She finds out more about them each time she concentrates. However, tonight, mercifully, there is silence.

And water can't cover her
memory
And ashes can't answer her
pain
God give me the power to take
breath from a breeze
And call life from a cold metal
frame

She sighs. It sums up everything she has taken, either willingly or forcefully.

In with the ashes
Or up with the smoke from the
fire
With wings up in heaven
Or here, lying in bed
Palm of her hand to my head
Now and forever curled in my
heart
And the heart of the world

Rogue sleeps.