Chapter 20

What followed was one of the strangest science experiments Marie had ever seen (much less participated in). It involved Victor or Logan, slipping their fingers inside her, carefully not touching any of her skin and Marie turned her mutation on. Carefully. With a little practice she knew exactly where she was absorbing her mates and if they'd succeeded in avoiding her skin completely.

When they were done McCoy smiled, "I believe Rogue, that this is a good sign. As a preliminary experiment we're getting positive results. If you'll allow me, I'll come up with something that will allow me to test the tissue within your womb. That will be our next step."

"That's good," Marie smiled. "I gotta admit though, I'm worried about it turning on when I'm stressed."

"I understand," The furry blue mutant nodded. "And we'll test for that as well. Slowly but surely."

"Thank you Doctor," Marie squeezed Victor's hand and pressed a kiss to Logan's cheek. "I'd better get dressed."

"I grabbed you some clothes," Logan put the bag at the end of the bed.

"Thanks sugar. I wasn't lookin' forward to walkin' barefoot in a paper gown with my tail hangin' out," She grinned.


One thing that Marie hadn't missed about school was the mentality of teenagers. She could admit to a certain lack of patience with typical teenage drama. She'd had some of that before her parents had kicked her out but since fifteen her drama had been more the life or death type than normal teenage histrionics. She had noticed that teenage drama seemed to happen no matter the status of the X-gene. Maybe that could be a unifying cause for mutant and human parents alike. The difficulty of dealing with or raising teenagers. Always so certain they were right. And not thinking about the consequences of their actions.

Victor and Logan had brought her out to look at the cabin Xavier was having fixed up for them. It wasn't bad, a little rustic but it had a good kitchen and a spacious enough living room that her men wouldn't feel crowded. The half bath behind the kitchen wasn't huge but it didn't have to be so long as it was wider than Victor's shoulders.

The single bedroom upstairs would work pretty well, though a queen size bed was smaller than they were used to. The bathroom wasn't anything to brag about either. Simple was the kindest way of putting it, a single sink, tub/shower combo and a toilet. White tile, though at least it went to the ceiling around the tub. Though the showerhead hit Victor in the neck just like the one at the school.

They'd agreed it would serve its purpose for getting them out of the mansion. Though it needed more than a few weeks worth of work since there were a few leaks in the roof and drafts around the doors and windows. Weatherproof it wasn't. Xavier likely hadn't realized how much damage rain and cold could do even over a few years. They'd discussed the possibilities on the short walk back to the mansion and ultimately accepted that they'd be staying in the school proper for a while longer than they preferred but it couldn't be helped.

The trouble hadn't started until they arrived at the back entrance near the garage. The stink of paint had been the first indicator, the outraged murmuring at the edge of her hearing the second.

Bright green, hurled through the air and Marie instinctively turned on the telekinesis and halted what would have been a very large amount of green paint. A twirl of her fingers and she diverted it to the bucket it had come from, and with another twist of her wrist, removed the bucket from the hands of the student holding it. "That," She regarded the bucket of paint thoughtfully. "Could have been dangerous." A quick mental touch to Xavier's mind, requesting a faculty member, showing him what had occurred.

Most people didn't realize just how quickly Logan and Victor could move. Or how attuned the three of them had become over nearly two years of living together, practicing and sparring daily. Before she'd even taken the bucket away from the one girl, her mates were on the three students. Logan had two by the arm and Victor had simply grabbed the third by her hair and shirt.

"What the hell," Logan scowled down at the dark-haired girl he held. "Melody? Frida?" His gaze snapped over to the girl Victor held, "Kitty if you even think of phasing out of here I will personally hunt you down and you can't keep your mutation on forever."

"Wolverine, what the hell—" Scott Summers, well that was just perfect. Not the member of the faculty she would have suggested.

On his heels was Alex and he tapped his little brother, "Scott, I got this." He looked at the three girls and the bucket of paint Marie held, then the sable fur she wore. "Girls, you just earned yourself a month's worth of laundry duty."

"Not sure where this came from," She held the bucket out to Cyclops. "But I doubt this is where it belongs."

Alex nudged his brother, "Scott put that in the garage for now and give us a hand with the kids."

Marie handed off the bucket and regarded the girls. All of them had to be under eighteen, maybe only by a year or two to judge from their faces.

"And nothing happens to her for killing innocent animals," The dark-haired girl in Logan's grip burst out. "You know how many poor minks died to make that coat?"

Victor rolled his eyes, "First of all, that ain't mink." He handed the girl he held over to Scott Summers. Alex took one of the others, the blonde, and the group began walking towards Xavier's office. "Second of all, it ain't a new coat."

"Found an old coat, had it cleaned and tailored to fit our mate," Logan added. "All those sables you're cryin' for died about eighty or ninety years ago."

Alex gave the girl he was holding a shake, "You want to protest animal cruelty, people wearing fur and leather, do your research."

"And protesting on school grounds is pointless," Scott added.

"It's still wrong," She argued. "People shouldn't wear fur."

Marie raised an eyebrow. "Ya'll wanna protest animal cruelty, ya'll need to throw out your shoes. Take a look at your purses." She glanced at her men, both wearing leather coats lined with wool and smirked at Victor, "Know why people protest fur an' don't protest leather?"

"No, sweetness, why," Victor tugged the collar of his coat.

"Because it's easier to pick on 'rich' women, than motorcycles gangs," Marie smirked.

"They didn't seem to be throwin' paint on me or Jimmy did they," He glanced at the girls.

"Nope," Marie sighed.

"Why is that," Logan looked at the girls. "Why'd you throw paint on our mate?" Mumbling from the girls, something about her not being good enough for him, and he rolled his eyes. "Great. That's just what I want to hear."

Marie shook her head, "Sugar, I gotta get some practice in. And I need to meditate too."

Alex looked at her over his shoulder and nodded to Logan, "I got the girls if you guys want to head to the dance studio." He grinned at Marie, "Lorna added something to it."

"Oh yeah?" Marie grinned, "Can't wait to see that."

"Yeah, she's over there now, she's got a free afternoon, likes to practice," He gestured to the girls. "You know the drill, Professor Xavier's office, explain yourselves."

"Sorry about this," Scott nodded to Marie. At least he'd unbent enough to be polite. She was starting to realize that he didn't really have anything against her so much as he was suspicious of Victor. And Scott didn't get along with Logan, no doubt due to his old flirtation with Jean.

Marie smiled politely, "No harm done." True enough, though she doubted she'd made any friends with the girls.


It turned out that Lorna was twenty-eight, about six years younger than Alex, and she'd been on her own nearly as long as Marie. Xavier had known she existed, because he knew her father, but he hadn't been aware she was on her own. Alex had gone to bring her back to the school because he had met Lorna when she was still a teenager.

She'd been happy to practice with Marie, had shown off the pole she'd shaped and fixed from the floor to the ceiling. It could be removed with another flex of Lorna's mutation (or Marie's borrowed power from Magneto), so it wasn't in the way of other dance practices. "How'd you end up in that cell anyway," Marie asked as she demonstrated some of the simpler moves in pole dancing.

"From what Victor said you were in there four days before I got there," Lorna retorted. "How'd you get there?"

"My first night at a club, I was dancing, Logan was watchin' me, and there was a drug bust," Marie sighed. "Everyone got swept up. And as you know, they've got that rapid X-gene test. I spent four days listening to the Lieutenant's thoughts, learning the police station and when I finally got an opening I went. I also spent those four days mostly naked since they weren't going to 'waste clothing on a mutie'." No point in mentioning the near gang rape when it hadn't happened, it would only scare Lorna after the fact.

"They test everyone who gets arrested," Lorna echoed her sigh. "I wasn't sure if we'd done something."

"How did you get arrested," Marie looked at her.

"We were picking up some soap, shampoo, I needed socks," The green haired girl sighed. "The manager accused us of shoplifting."

"Got it," Marie knew the story all too well. She'd heard enough variations of it. Even had it happen to her once when she was sixteen and starved looking. Luckily, she'd been in a store surrounded by enough metal that she could run and manage stick the doors shut behind her. She shook her head, "How'd you like the school?"

"It's fine, weird to be studying again after doing nothing but work and work and stay on the move," Lorna smiled.

"Yeah," Marie nodded slowly. "I read a lot, but I don't know if I could deal with a classroom again." She rolled her eyes at the hallway where students were oh so slowly walking past, trying to act as if they weren't staring. "And I really can't deal with students."

"Yeah, first couple weeks here everyone acts like you're the latest attraction at the zoo," Lorna nodded. "Doesn't help that you're with Wolverine and Sabretooth."

"Oh, you mean there's girls that have a crush on my mate," She demonstrated another move and nodded for Lorna to try it. "I hadn't noticed what with the dirty looks and the paint getting thrown at me."

"Well," Lorna huffed as she slid down the pole, slightly less graceful than Marie. "He was here for six months, left, came back for another four and left again. Seems like everyone was thinking when he came back he'd stay."

"And they've figured out that he's not planning on it," Marie shook her head.

"I'm not gonna get this," The older girl shook her head. "Why don't you show me one of your dances?"

"Seriously," Marie shook her head. "Here?"

"I don't quite think we could just take off and head to the club in town," Lorna told her in a dry tone.

"Oh, gee, why?" Marie laughed.

"C'mon," Lorna cajoled.

"Okay, first, no music," She shook her head. "Second, really not, so not, appropriate for a school settin'."

"I can get music," The other girl pointed out. "And if you don't take off your clothes it can't be that inappropriate."

Marie groaned, "Lorna, you've never seen me dance."

"And I want to," The almost thirty-year-old rolled her eyes.

"Then when I get a job you an' Alex an' anyone else ya'll care to bring can come an' watch an' pay the two drink minimum," Marie told her. "I ain't dancin' here. I get enough 'moral outrage' due to me just being here."

Lorna made an inarticulate sound of aggravation and fell back onto the floor.


Victor, when she told him about the conversation, found the entire thing hilarious. "C'mon sweetness," He teased. "They oughta see how good you are."

Logan, while enjoying the thought, agreed that Marie had a point, "Hey I love our woman dancin' just as much as you. But she's got a point about it not being appropriate for a school."

"I've already got girls furious with me because I'm 'with' Logan," Marie reminded Victor. "The last thing either of us needs is the morality police getting up in arms about me being a bad influence."

"On the boys or girls," Victor smirked at her and Marie rolled her eyes. "All right, I get your point," He conceded. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to practice." Logan nodded his agreement on that point as his brother continued, "But all those girls didn't have a chance with him anyway. None of them were his mate or he'd've stuck around or given 'em his tags."

"I'm thinkin' we oughta be a little less…discreet," Logan smirked. "Show just how much we love you when we want. Not just when people ain't lookin'."

Victor's mind had gone to another point, "I wonder if half of the redhead's problem with you isn't jealousy. You're young, beautiful, and you move like you're made for sex. She might not have appreciated your performance in the club but for damn sure her boytoy did. And now you're here, in her territory and every time she tries to put you in your place she gets slapped back."

"Does it matter why she's got a problem," Marie couldn't care less about Jean's motivations. It came down to results. "She's got one." She glanced at Logan, "She was actin' awful proprietary of you sugar. Any reason for that?"

"Told you darlin', I flirted with her, but she made it real clear that 'nice girls' marry the 'good guy'," Logan grumbled. "Made a pass when I first got here, got slapped back, Scott got huffy, so I kept flirting just to annoy him. She made it real clear that she didn't want me so why she'd be pissed I'm with you now, I don't get."

"Because you ain't flirtin' with her anymore and making the boytoy jealous," Victor pointed out with a 'duh' tone to his voice. "So boytoy doesn't give her all that attention to make sure her eyes stay on him instead of you?"

Logan flopped back onto the bed with a groan, "So I'm finally happy. Got my family, my brother, our mate…and she's pissed because I'm not panting after her and making Scott pant after her even more?"

"Seems like," Victor tickled the sole of his brother's foot as he passed making Logan snort with startled laughter and yank his feet away from the edge of the mattress. "The woman just…seems off."

Marie shook her head, "This school is worse than a soap opera." When both her men gave her incredulous looks, knowing she didn't watch much tv she shrugged, "Just because I didn't watch them doesn't mean I didn't hear about soaps when I was at school. Drama on top of drama on top of melodrama." She wrinkled her nose, "Blech."

Victor chuckled, "Should've heard 'em when they were on the radio."

Logan pushed himself up onto his elbows with a sigh, "So what's our play here? Move out to the cabin and fix it ourselves, stay here until it's fixed and ignore her, confrontation, what?"

"Dunno," Victor shook his head. "Like I said, the woman just seems off. Like off her meds type of off."

Marie considered her mates thoughtfully. Victor's senses had the edge over Logan's. Maybe because he'd had to use them constantly since he manifested. Or Logan just didn't pay as much attention to what his nose told him versus his eyes and ears. But if Victor thought there was something wrong with the woman… "What is her mutation?" She looked at Logan, "I know telepathy's a part of it."

"She's a telepath," Logan nodded. "But she's telekinetic too, apparently a strong telepath and a bit of telekinesis."

Marie nodded her understanding, "Has she ever had problems?"

"I heard when she first came to school there was a bit of a to do, but not about what," He shook his head. "Most likely it was because she had a hard time shutting other people out. Chuck said he had trouble when he was a kid."

"Hmm…" She'd have to think that one over.

"So? What do we do," Logan looked at the two of them expectantly. "I'm fine with whatever, just wanna know."

"Wait," Victor looked at her and she nodded her agreement. "Let's wait, stay 'til the cabin is finished, we can move out there. Look into finding something of our own in the area. Close enough that if we need help we can get it, but far enough that everyone in the school can't just walk five yards and bother us."

Logan nodded as he considered that, "Westchester's a big enough town that they've got clubs too. If you wanted you could keep working." He looked at Marie.

"Let's see how everything goes," She smiled at the two of them. "Maybe they'll catch Erik, and it won't be an issue." From their expressions they didn't think it likely but saying so wouldn't make any difference. Marie lay back on the bed and remembered again Xavier's expression the second time he'd entered her mind and seen her memories. He knew something.


"I heard she has poison skin; you touch her and you lose your mutation and die." A pause, a soft murmur and the same voice, "They're saying she's having sex with Wolverine and Sabretooth!"

"Lucky." That one was more wistful than gossipy.

Marie looked up as she heard the excited/horrified whispers. The school library was wonderful, full of books she hadn't read, computers for research…and (not so wonderfully)…teenagers. And the new animal at the zoo was a hot topic of conversation. Whether or not they knew she was only one aisle of books over was debatable. She pulled the book she'd chosen off the shelf and walked around the corner, leaning against the bookshelves at the end of the aisle waiting for the three girls to notice her.

A very slender blonde girl with an armful of books and hair falling to her waist, a girl with light brown hair and another with electric blue hair cut into a bob and almond shaped eyes, all three paying no attention to their surroundings. Bookbags had been set on the floor near their feet. To judge from the notebooks and pens along with the armful of texts the blonde held they'd likely been in the middle of pulling references for an assignment when the urge to chit chat got the better of them.

"Why does she need two guys anyway," The brown-haired girl checked the title of a book in the blonde's arms as she talked. "I mean, Wolverine finally comes back, and he isn't chasing after Doctor Grey anymore so there's finally a chance… and he brings Sabretooth and a stripper with him?"

"How do you know she's a stripper," The blonde wondered as she put one of the books back.

The blue haired girl wore a set of bracers on her arms, visible as her sleeves fell back while she grabbed another book, "She heard Doctor Grey complaining to Mr. Summers, uh, Cyclops, not Havok."

"What do you think that's like?" The blonde asked curiously. "I can't imagine taking my clothes off in front of people I don't know. Or people I do know honestly."

"Can we go back to the poison skin thing?" The brunette shook her head as she jotted something down. "Why would you become a stripper if your skin's poisonous. Wouldn't covering up be safer?"

"Professor Xavier wouldn't let her wander around if it wasn't safe," The blonde shook her head.

"Has either of you seen Sabretooth?" The blue haired girl asked and got twin head shakes in reply. "He's huge. Bigger than Wolverine by at least two inches. I saw him coming from the garage with Wolverine and their girlfriend."

"Is that when Kitty and them got in trouble," The brown-haired girl inquired. "I heard they're on laundry duty for a month."

"Yeah," Blue hair nodded, pulling a couple more books. "I guess she and Melody and Frida tried to throw paint on her. It didn't work. Not sure why. They seemed pretty confident that she wouldn't be expecting it." She shook her head, "I get that they want to protest people wearing fur, but the coat she was wearing… I heard them say it wasn't even new. They bought an old coat so it wouldn't be killing more animals."

"Can you imagine wearing a fur coat," The brunette was on wardrobe envy now apparently. "How soft it'd be? I saw her when she was in the dance studio. She had some killer green heels."

"Hmm… I saw that green jacket she was wearing when the three of them came out of the Professor's office," Blue hair agreed. "It was Chanel or I'm a redhead."

"Can you imagine making that much money that you can wear Chanel with jeans?" The blonde sighed, "And she's got Wolverine in love with her."

"It could just be sex," The brunette posited. "I mean, two guys? Maybe she can't decide?"

"He might be dangerous but between Wolverine and Sabretooth I'm not sure I could decide either," The blue haired girl offered in a dry voice. "Seriously though, two guys?"

"And a stripper, with poison skin," The brown-haired girl shook her head. "I mean how does sex even work if your skin is dangerous? Does it just not work against them because they heal? What's that mean for everybody else? And they just let her wander around without an escort. Like she's not dangerous."

Marie was starting to wonder just how oblivious these girls could be. None of them had even looked around to see if anyone else could hear the conversation. They were lucky Victor or Logan hadn't come to get her yet. Time to put a stop to this before her mates did arrive and heard the gossip. They wouldn't hurt kids, but Victor would be happy to give them a scare and Logan probably wouldn't stop him. A quick glance to make sure her clothes were in order, and she started down the aisle towards their little section of bookshelves, "Hey ya'll, I was lookin' for the biography of Nikola Tesla," She gave them a big smile. "It's s'posed to be in this area, d'you mind?" She pointed at the text in question.

"Tesla," The brown-haired girl didn't sneer at least though she did have a questioning tone to her voice. "Do we need that one?" She asked the blonde.

"It's not on the list," The slender girl shook her head.

"What're ya'll workin' on?" Marie kept the smile on her face as the brunette handed her the book, making sure her hand went nowhere near Marie's bare fingers.

"It's a presentation on Edison's inventions," The blue haired girl answered when it seemed like no one else would. Up close it was easier to see that she had some Asian ancestry, dark almond shaped eyes and skin that looked slightly tanned.

"Sounds like a hellacious good time," Marie commented wryly and smiled again. "Thanks for the book." She took a step away and turned back to them, "Girls, if you have questions, sometimes the easiest way to get answers is to ask the person you have questions about. Gossip and speculation…they'll only get you in trouble. You don't want to get caught makin' nasty comments about someone who's got a quick temper and a thin skin." She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, "Victor an' Logan have about had it up to here," She leveled her hand at her forehead, "With people sayin' nasty things about me when they don't even know me."

"You call him Victor?" The blonde blurted out wide-eyed and immediately turned bright pink. "Oh my god…sorry?" She had very pretty green eyes, even appalled as she was at herself.

Marie laughed, "What would I call him? Mr. Creed? Sabretooth? That's a little formal between mates."

"Mates," The brunette narrowed her eyes, also brown, darker than her hair. "Then you aren't in a…relationship with Wolverine?"

"Oh, yes, I am," Marie gave the girl a smile. "We're also mated." She pushed her hair back and showed them the twin marks on her throat. "This is Victor and this is Logan," She pointed out each mark. "If you look at their throats, they each have my mark on them, mirroring these."

"How?" The blue haired girl shook her head. "That just seems… I mean… they don't seem like…"

"The type to share?" Marie finished dryly. "We make it work. I belong to both of them. And they both belong to me."

"But…not to each other?" The blonde asked curiously and rolled her eyes when the other two gasped, "Oh please, like you weren't wondering the same thing and dying to ask."

Marie smirked, "Well they're brothers sooo…" She shrugged, "When they first asked me out I asked if they were together and Victor just says, 'not into incest'. That pretty much answered the question."

"They're just so…" The blonde gave a little shiver and Marie gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Cutie, they're alphas, if you don't find them attractive, at least on a superficial level, you're playin' for the other team." She smiled and held out her hand again, "I'm Rogue."

"Your skin…" The brown-haired girl was looking at her hand as if Marie held a knife.

"I got it under control, it's off right now," She shook her head. "Perfectly safe to touch. These days it only come on when I want it to or when I'm really freaked out."

"I'm Illyana," The blonde offered, shaking her hand. "My brother is Piotr? The big one who turns to metal."

Marie whistled, "He's as big as Victor. Better hope Magneto doesn't come around or his mutation won't be much help."

"Noriko," The blue haired girl shook her hand hesitantly.

"I'm Sofia," The brunette took her hand. "Is it true you're a stripper?"

Marie grinned, "Why don't we grab the books you need and sit down, and you can ask me all the questions you want. Fair warning, I won't always answer."

The girls weren't going to turn that down, finding a table in the corner of the library and hurriedly marking off their references so they could get all the information they were craving. Marie shed her jacket and grinned at them when they all looked at her expectantly.

"So, are you?" Sofia asked impatiently.

"I'm an exotic dancer," Marie corrected her. "Stripping is a very generic term and it's considered by the women in my profession to be the…lowest rung on the ladder. Most exotic dancers start out as strippers, no formal training, and they work their way up." Funny, this was the same sort of conversation she'd had MJ. "I've been working in gentlemen's clubs since I was eighteen, and I've had ballet lessons and I'm good at gymnastics. So I went from stripper to exotic dancer a lot quicker than most women."

"What's it like?" Noriko asked, "I mean, being on stage, and men staring at you?"

"Empowering," The dancer smiled. "And degrading both. I dance and contort and display, and men want me. But they don't want my mind, don't look in my eyes, they don't care about me. They want the fantasy."

"Sound less sexy when you put it like that," Sofia observed bluntly.

"It is," Marie shrugged. "No one becomes a stripper or exotic dancer or whatever because that's the career they want. It's not about empowerment, it's a means to an end. Every girl on stage is trying to make money the only way she can. In some clubs it can be dangerous if the bouncers don't pay attention, or the private rooms aren't monitored. The clubs get a percentage of the dancer's tips and there are fees sometimes if you miss a show or your shift. Dancers aren't employees, it's all by contract and clubs can get rid of a dancer whenever they want. No union. No protection. It's incredibly competitive. And it's a finite career. Because no one can dance forever."

"So you don't like it?" Illyana tilted her head.

"Sometimes I do," Marie half smiled.

"Have you ever done lap dances?" Noriko asked curiously. "I don't quite get…I mean…"

"What's the point of 'em," Marie cut to the chase and the girl nodded. "It's another type of fantasy. You sit on a guy or girl's lap, and you bounce, writhe, rub up against them and make them feel like you want to be there, that you want to tempt them, get them worked up."

"Sounds…" Sofia had an 'eewww' look on her face.

"Well yeah," The older girl chuckled. "It's fun for the guys, or girls, who get them but for a dancer, it's just a good way to get tips and a flat fee for a dance."

"How'd you meet them," Sofia changed the subject in the abrupt way Marie was observing seemed part of her personality. "Wolverine and Sabretooth?"

"They came into the club where I was dancing," Marie smiled. "Paid for a private lap dance, paid extra so that I'd dance for one and the other could watch. Logan won the coin toss so Victor watched me dance for Logan first." Her smile tilted wickedly as she remembered her men, their reactions to her and hers to them. "That was the only time a lap dance was just as…stimulating for me as it was for the guy I was dancing on."

"Just with Wolverine," Sofia was clearly trying to define the parameters of the trio's relationship.

"No, once his time was up and it was Victor's turn…it was just as powerful," She shook her head. "I felt like an ice bath wouldn't cool me down after I danced for them. They started coming to the club regularly. Took them a couple weeks to ask me out." She smiled slightly, "I wasn't sure about it, but they were polite even when bouncers weren't around to protect me. And they didn't know about my skin."

"Wasn't it weird?" Illyana asked quietly. "I mean…two guys?"

"A little," Marie chuckled. "I mean, I never really dated before my parents kicked me out, they were pretty strict. And after… well…" She shrugged. "I had some experience, after I got control of my skin, but nothing that could compare to how those two made me feel." She smiled, "I mean, imagine you've got a crush on a guy. And he makes you feel everything the romance novels talk about."

"But two of them?" Sofia shook her head. "Doesn't seem like it could work."

"I was glad that both of them wanted to date," Marie admitted. "I really cared about them both, one just as much as the other. There wasn't anything that made the other come out first. When they said both of them, I was a little weirded out, but I was also relieved. Because if I'd had to choose one of them, I'd still always love and want the other as well."

"So you're like…really in love…with both of them," Noriko clarified in a thoughtful voice. "I thought Sabretooth was supposed to be this dangerous, evil, sadistic animal."

"Everyone has done things they regret, made choices that had no good option, just make the best decision between two awful possibilities," She thought of Victor and how broken he'd been, the cracks in his façade showing plainly as he knelt in front of her and pressed his face to her ribs, so grateful she was alive. "Sabretooth… he's Wolverine's older brother. He had to make a lot of hard choices to protect Wolverine, keep them both safe early on. And later…he'd gone a little…sideways…made some bad choices. Some of them hurt people. Some of them hurt me."

"But you're in love with him," Sofia's dark eyes were wary, her jaw set.

"I read a lot," Marie seemingly changed the subject. "And about a year before I met Logan and met Victor again, I'd read about Mahatma Gandhi. He said something that really made me think about people and how they act. He said, 'I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.' I liked that because I'm from the south and part of our history classes cover the Civil rights movement in depth. Martin Luther King read Gandhi." She smiled, "But Gandhi also said, 'It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence'."

"Wait," Noriko tilted her head, one hand tugging at a lock of electric blue hair. "So he said if you're angry and you want to fight it's better to do it than pretend you don't want to because you can't?"

"Pretty much," Marie nodded. "That's what got me started reading him. I found the dichotomy of those viewpoints really interesting. And I came across something else he said that I remembered when I met Victor again, 'The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong'." Her eyes met Sofia's. "I had to learn to be strong, strong enough to forgive, long before I saw Victor again or carrying all that hate and anger around would've twisted me, crippled me. And honestly, when we met, I didn't even recognize him he was so changed. When I realized who he was… it was so easy to forgive what he'd done."

"Well because you're in love with him," Sofia rolled her eyes as if she found the sentiment irritating.

"No," Marie shook her head. "Because he truly regretted his actions. He thought I'd died. Thought he'd been part of killing me, a couple years before, and he regretted what he'd done. It was part of what made him want to change, made him realize he'd gone wrong. If I hadn't forgiven him in my heart, let go of that anger and pain, I wouldn't have been able to fall in love with him." That seemed to get through to the girl, her jaw softening slightly as she nodded.

Marie stiffened, frowning as her skin prickled with awareness. It seemed as if the atmosphere in the library had changed. Something, like a hot breeze, but sending a chill through her, hair on the back of her neck standing up as Noriko opened her mouth to speak. Something wasn't right… the hum of her mutation rising to her skin defensively, straighten up, look around, Noriko greeting someone and a hard hand coming down on Marie's shoulder, fingers biting into her skin, the peekaboo shoulder top no barrier.

Hot. Fury. Jealousy. Pain. Fear. Jean Grey her mind bleeding into Marie's and something…something else…pouring into her…flooding her mind, rising like lava and filling her until she'd retreated to the top of her crazy staircases, and it was all she could do to hold everything in place, hold the lava within herself. It filled her body like it filled her mind, burning Burning BURNING until she hoped she wouldn't set fire to the library with the heat she had to be exuding.

A scream, hers, she dimly recognized her own voice, terror and pain.

A distant roar of rage and anguish. Another joining it only a half second after.

Hang on. Hang on.


She didn't know how long it was before Xavier joined her mind. She'd retreated her the safest place she had, the meadow, walling up all her doors with stone to keep the lava (but not lava? Her stone wasn't melting), the fire, from invading more of her mind. Wolverine and Sabretooth guarded her there, and she knew instinctively that they would guard her corporeal body the same way.

"Professor," She greeted him tensely, her eyes half on the lava that threatened the edge of her meadow. "You know what this is don't you?"

"I do," Xavier nodded. "I am sorry Rogue."

Marie rolled her eyes, "Don't give me 'you're sorry', help me contain it."

"Rogue, it is a malevolent cosmic force," The telepath replied. "I fear it is beyond your ability to contain."

"Explain what a cosmic force is doing inside Jean Grey, who as near as I could tell was simply human, a mutant, not an alien," Marie demanded. "But first tell me if anyone was hurt, besides me."

"The students are fine, Jean is unconscious, but I believe she will be fine, no one else was harmed," Xavier informed her quickly. "Wolverine and Sabretooth are with you in containment." When she lifted an eyebrow he added, "There was some concern you might…lose control and they refused to leave you."

"Uh huh," Marie rolled her eyes. "Okay, now explain the cosmic force inside a human being thing because that just doesn't track." She tilted her head and regarded the lava with a frown addressing it directly, "If you want to be called Phoenix why don't you act like a Phoenix instead of trying to burn out my mind with molten rock? Why are you so pissed off anyway?"

The lava began to roil and roll alarmingly before coalescing into the form of a burning red and gold bird, graceful as a hawk and larger than an eagle, bending in a motion that gave the impression of a bow. Marie quickly looked over her mind and noted that some of her books were disordered on their shelves, but nothing was missing or burned, not even the doors to the various personalities in her mind. "Thank you," She nodded to the bird. "I don't mind you being here but everyone else has their own place. Would you like me to make you one? Where would you be comfortable?"

The impression she got was an expanse of star-studded space, a burning white sun and cosmic winds and Marie nodded. In response she created another staircase, branching off from the beginning of her Escher room stairs and an open doorway with stars behind it. "I'm afraid that's the best I can do for now."

The Phoenix darted into the room and out again, looped around her mind and back into the room. Marie was reminded of nothing so much as a robin building a nest, busily flying around gathering 'its bits of twine and twee'. Funny, now that it had calmed it didn't feel malevolent or shadowy. Bright and warm and curious about everything, yes; angry and ready to take that fury out on the rest of the world, no.

She turned to the Professor who was regarding her with something like worry, "All right. Now that she's comfortable and not trying to take over in her attempt to communicate…" She arched an eyebrow at him inquiringly.


The story he told her, of Jean's past, the accident, her father (and her father's mindset and behavior, there was a real prize in the parent department, right up there with her parents) and the memories Charles had repressed, sickened her. And then the rest came out. The space shuttle, the energy that had entered Jean, and (seemingly) gone dormant. And Jean's growing mental instability as her mind struggled to contain what she'd absorbed. Her mental barriers breaking down and increasing her instability (and intolerant attitude) since she had nothing to help her deal with the trauma Xavier had hidden.

"Well," Marie sighed. "It'll be nice to meet the real Jean. Once she's had some therapy and dealt with the trauma of accidently killing her mother and being disowned by her father. Not retreating into her father's attitudes as way to compensate for his disapproval." She stared at Xavier, "Aren't you supposed to be smart? What made you think repressing her memories and putting fake ones in their place was a good idea? I mean, haven't you ever thought of why I have all these doors?"

"I…no, actually, it hadn't occurred to me except as a way to contain the disparate personalities," The Telepath admitted.

"Because doors open," Marie emphasized the last word. "I could box them all up but then the temptation is to just forget about them, repress them." She gestured at a couple doors that looked like they led to a janitor's closet or tool shed, "Even the personalities I don't like have a door. Because they have to be dealt with." She folded her arms and stared at him, "If they're not…well… you get someone going nuts from PTSD when their mind gets stirred up by an outside force."

"And you really think you can contain the… Phoenix," Xavier shook his head. "How can you possibly do so when Jean or I, telepaths of considerable strength and skill, couldn't?"

"You're telepaths," Marie shrugged. "You think everything is about the mind," She gestured at her mind palace with all its doors and stairs and books.

"And it isn't?" Xavier frowned thoughtfully.

"Healthy body, healthy mind," She reminded him of that ancient philosophy. "I absorb people's memories and mutations, energy. The first boy I kissed ended up in a three-week coma. I absorbed his energy. And Doctor McCoy figured out that every mutant I absorb, gets coded into my DNA. They become a part of me. Physically. Mentally…they'll fade away if I don't give them any attention. They'll still be there but they're like…old memories, vague and faded. No strength to them. I can use their mutation and that's all that'll remain eventually. Like remembering that I broke my arm when I was eight, but I don't feel the pain of it."

"You believe you can hold the Phoenix…because the energy has become part of you?"

"I don't know if I could do it forever, not if she decided to leave and if she wanted to just take over she probably could," Marie looked towards the swooping bird. "But I don't think I'll need to try and contain her. She," It just felt like the Phoenix was female for some reason. "She has something she wants, or needs, I don't know. But she'll leave when she's ready to. Maybe she never will. It's up to her."

"And if what she wants endangers the rest of the world," Xavier regarded her steadily.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Marie shrugged and looked at the Phoenix again. "Are you okay like this? My mates are really worried about me right now. They weren't prepared for you to be in my mind."

A trill of liquid notes in reply and Marie shrugged again, "All right." She glanced at the Professor, "You'd better go. Erik is really irritated with you, and I need to calm him down."

"The…people…memories…they can hear what's going on? In your mind?" That seemed to astonish him.

"Well, yeah," Marie gave him a look that suggested he was the crazy one. "They're in here too. Personalities, not just static memories. Like I said, doors, not walls or boxes." She turned and began to walk down to Erik's plastic room. "I trust you know the way out?"


When she opened her eyes the steel walled room she was in wasn't much of a surprise, "So this is containment." She remarked dryly. "Very hospitable."

"Sweetness," Victor pressed his face to her neck, breathing hard for a moment. "Baby, are you all right?"

"Scared the shit out of us darlin'," Logan was doing the same thing.

"Sorry," She purred reassuringly conscious of the Phoenix in her mind watching everything curiously. "I've never taken in anyone that powerful before."

"Jean?" Logan sounded confused but he didn't stop breathing in her scent.

Marie sighed, "Nope. The immensely powerful cosmic entity that was squatting in Jean's brain."

"Yeah, the… what again?" Victor sounded extremely…displeased.

"Okay, long story short, Professor Xavier did something really short-sighted and stupid with the best intentions," She began the generalization. "It involved repressing Jean's traumatic memories when she was just a little girl. She grew up, no idea there's even a problem. Enter the Phoenix, a cosmic force that pretty much saved Jean's life a few years back. Jean didn't even realize the Phoenix was there. But all that energy…it started to break down anything artificial in Jean's mind. Like fake memories. All that trauma just started to…leak all over her mind and she started trying to compensate for her father's rejection by adopting his intolerant attitude towards anyone he'd think beneath him."

Logan frowned, "And Jean started to go a little…"

"Sideways," Victor finished. "Hell, no wonder she smelled weird."

Marie nodded, "When Jean touched me, the Phoenix took the opportunity to leave Jean. It kinda…rushed…into my mind. My skin went on because she felt like a threat, but the Phoenix just started filling me up until it was all I could do to stay in charge of my own mind."

"So, its…staying?" Victor frowned. "Won't it start to hurt you the way it hurt Jean?"

She shook her head, "I don't think it's staying forever, just until something it wants, or needs is done. Or until it gets bored. Phoenix is…learning I think. But no," She took his hand. "I don't think it'll mess with my mind the way it did with Jean's."

"How do you know," Logan kissed her knuckles. "Got all the faith in the world in you darlin', just don't understand."

"Well for one, because I'm used to people that aren't me in my head," Marie shrugged. "I've got everything organized and labeled and I've made rooms for everyone I ever absorbed. I know what's in my mind." She rubbed her chin, "Maybe if I hadn't bumped into Evangeline, absorbed her some, and her mutation… it was definitely the start of making sure my mind stayed mine. Getting control of my skin was important but if I hadn't gotten my head straight, got everything organized and the personalities partitioned off, I wouldn't have been able to stay in control of it."

"Aren't all your little rooms in your head artificial?" Victor was obviously thinking the whole thing through.

"If Professor Xavier had been the one to create them, I think they would be," Marie nodded. "Like he made Jean's fake memories and repressed the real ones. But I made everything in my mind." She considered how she could explain it, "Think of it as the difference between building your own house and moving into one that's been built. Something you built, you know the ins and outs, everything about it."

"Does it hurt," Victor's grey eyes were fixed on her daring her to prevaricate.

"At first, yes, just like any other mutation," Marie nodded. "But now, it doesn't hurt at all. I made Phoenix a room and she…it…is just…watching. I didn't try to close it in because I think it would just want to get out and having a door battered down would hurt." She sighed, "I am tired though, being unconscious isn't the same as sleeping."

"Rest then," Logan rubbed her back. "We've got you."


After the 'incident', as everyone referred to it, in the library there were more rumors than ever. Marie rolled her eyes, sent Victor out to get her some actual ballet gear and began to put some serious effort into the discipline. Logan bought her a laptop a while back and now that they were in one place she could work on getting her GED if she wanted. It was handy for finding classes on ballet online as well as academic classes.

Xavier had asked that they remain in the mansion for the time being (even though the cottage renovations were progressing well). Apparently he didn't have as much confidence in Marie's mind as she did. She couldn't blame him too much for that. He was twice her age and vastly more experienced and knowledgeable about the human mind. The idea that a twenty-year-old would be able to contain a powerful cosmic entity seemed laughable when she considered the situation objectively. She also had the idea that Xavier would have been better prepared for Phoenix to be a dark force rather than a benign one.

The 'experiments' with Doctor McCoy and her mutation had continued through their stay in the school as they began figuring out how Marie's mutation worked in more depth. Despite how tedious the nature of scientific experimentation could be, it was still good to actually know more about her mutation. After one of the experiments was done, Marie brought up the possibility of removing the metal from Logan's skeleton, at least partially.

"As long as the adamantium is coating his entire body Magneto can do whatever he wants. He could really hurt Logan if he wanted," Marie held Logan's hand. "I wouldn't like to chance removing it from his spine or skull, and on his claws it's actually useful. But everywhere else?"

"It's a constant drain on his healing," Victor added. "And metal covered bones or not, there are wounds that will put him down and take a lot longer to heal because part of his healing is always dealing with that metal in his body."

McCoy considered the slightly shorter feral, "Charles mentioned you have some memory issues. Do you recall how the metal was applied?"

"In liquid form," Logan replied shortly. "I remember it was excruciating."

"According to the records I found, they drilled into him until they reached bone, then slid something like syringes down through the hollow drills and pumped the liquid adamantium directly onto his bones," Victor growled his fury. "I don't even want to know how they figured out that would work."

"I would theorize that removing it would be equally painful," The doctor cautioned.

"Not if you drug him," Victor put a hand on his little brother's shoulder. "And get Xavier to keep him unconscious."

"I dunno if Chuck would be able to do it," Logan shook his head. "The metal isn't quite like old Bucket Head's helmet, but it works against him."

Marie tilted her head, "What about Doctor Grey?"

"I don't know if Charles would advise that at the moment," McCoy frowned. "She's still a bit…"

"Unstable? Fragile?" Victor finished dryly. He glanced at Marie, "Sweetness, would you be able to do it? If you got your passenger to help?"

She half smiled thinking it over. Victor, uncomfortable with the idea that Marie was housing a separate entity, not just an absorbed copy of someone's mind, had begun calling Phoenix her 'passenger'. It wasn't an entirely inaccurate term if Marie was being honest. "Let me check honey."

Talking to Phoenix wasn't exactly like talking with any of the other people in her head. For one thing, Phoenix wasn't just a shadow or a copy of a person. It was a person (entity?) and simply couldn't be completely locked up. The bird of fire swooping around and in and out of the 'galaxy' area Marie had created for her might listen and talk to her or it might not. It was an odd feeling, being ignored by something in her own head. Marie sighed and shook her head, "I don't think I can do it honey, at least not now, maybe if I had a better understanding of how her power works... But it doesn't help at the moment."

"We can ask Xavier and see," Victor shrugged. "I just get the feelin' that Magneto hasn't stopped looking for you sweetness."

"I'm sure he hasn't," Marie agreed. "That's why I'd feel better if he wasn't able to keep Logan from moving around."

"We'll ask Charles if it's possible," McCoy nodded. "And go from there."


Author's Note: So I borrowed the idea behind Dark Phoenix from one of the later movies and merged it with one of the comic universes. Lots to choose from there. I didn't want to do exactly the same thing I've done in other stories. I've never liked how the movies always seem to turn Jean into the big bad eventually. It's just been done (and more than once) and I'm bored with that.

Sorry this is a week late. Holidays and PTO here got me completely off schedule.