A/N: Evo reference alert. Thank you Evo for giving us the line: "My power is your power and I can take more than one."

Remy slid into the seat next to her. "You ready to be inside the inner circle?" His eyebrows bobbed up and down, and she couldn't help but laugh a little.

She was so early no one else was there yet. "Were you following me? You don't strike me as the early type."

"Was just stopping by to see you when you hightailed it over here."

"I'm nervous." she admitted. "I never properly joined the X-Men before. Didn't see how I could be of use." It felt like another life, when her powers were just a curse to her, something that kept her from kissing boys and not the very center of her identity and power. "It feels different now."

"The Brotherhood did the job you asked of them. Now, you're all grown up."

He was mocking her, but she smiled anyway. "I think I'm going to stay for good this time."

He smirked. "What a coincidence. I'm planning the same thing."

The meeting started slow. People chit-chated, and business was pretty dull when everyone got to it. Bobby watched Kitty play with her hair, and Remy rubbed his thumb over Rogue's knee under the table. It felt too soon for that kind of thing. She still missed Pyro, ached for him. But somehow, at the same time, she felt right under Remy's thumb like that, figured if anyone understood what she wanted from the X-Men now, it was him. Still, she shoved his hand away with her elbow, and stuck her tongue out at him. Hands to yourself, Cajun.

There was a lull, and someone asked if there's anything else anyone wanted to talk about. She shouldn't have, but she did. "What are we doing about the cure, or treatment, or whatever it is?" There was a silence. This was her first meeting since joining up and it was presumptuous of her to speak so soon, but it's all the Brotherhood talked about and she had been knee deep in everything, and besides Pyro and Remy and control, it was all she could think about. "The Brotherhood has been destroying data related to it for a year, and Mystique is positioned to get the last bits left. Soon, it's going to be a free-for-all. They're going to systematically murder every geneticist, politician, and philanthropist with knowledge or interest in mutant DNA, humans first, but they don't discriminate. People are going to start dropping." Silence. "Soon. Mystique'll do the job and she'll be out, and they'll move on to the next thing. They like to keep busy."

Gambit let out a whistle.

"No one wants to tell me the plan?"

Silence.

"Security." Remy supplied, and everyone's eyes were on him as if to say 'bad dog'. "Is she in or is she in?"

She waited a moment, let the silence and disapproval sink in, and decided to continue. "What about the cure? It could be dangerous. It could be involuntary."

"I don't agree with a cure anymore than you do," Storm started, "but people have been developing a power dampening treatment, not a cure. It could be useful to some. It's not permanent and it's not involuntary."

But it is permanent. Or was it? She didn't even know anymore. The past several years were just a haze and her mind was swimming. Her first kiss left her best friend convulsing. She was a runaway in Canada and she met Logan. She met Bobby and John. John became Pyro and Pyro left to become a terrorist. She took the Cure. She kissed Remy and he didn't exactly convulse, but she thought she had been ever since. She left. She became a terrorist. She loved Pyro then instead of John. She was burned by her own power in a new way. She was two people and then she was just her, sort of. Then she was here again in something like a completed circle. "But it's dangerous."

"We do what we always do." Professor X responded. He was calm, the way he was always calm and always smiling. "We recruit mutants here. We teach and protect them. We keep Hank and Jean on the inside of R&D and politics to make sure we keep an eye on things and influence their outcomes. We are not the Brotherhood. We do not make preemptive strikes."

"We don't have a disease."

"No, we don't." Storm was getting in a temper. "Many of us never needed to learn that."

It was a KO. Rogue knew that as well as everyone else in the room. "What are we going to do about them?"

Gambit chuckled as Storm responded. "Security."

Rogue let out a frustrated exhale. "We're going to need to do a better job than last time."

"Rogue!" Pyro screamed at the top of his lungs.

"I could have snuck in there and gotten her." Mystique was aghast at the loss of opportunity, the sheer stupidity of yelling. As long as she lived, she found herself surrounded by imbeciles.

"Where would be the delicacy in that?" Pyro rolled his eyes. "Rogue!"

He felt like his insides were boiling. It had been over a month and he had heard nothing from her. He knew she was safe there, but had also figured that she'd be feeling well enough to have sent him. A part of him was afraid that she was in there dead or comatose, and if that was the case he wanted her body back so he could find someone who could actually help her or mourn her or whatever was necessary, but he needed to have seen her weeks ago and he was not waiting any longer for anything.

He couldn't believe he left her side.

"Rogue!"

He saw her. She was at one of the windows and his blood chilled for a second, and it actually felt good because it was relief. She was there, standing, alive. He wondered if Carol was in there looking at him, or if it was Rogue, his Rogue. None of them knew what would happen, and no one knew what it meant that Carol hadn't woken up and Rogue hadn't come back.

Of all the ways he thought he might lose her, body snatchers had never been on the list. But she was there, alive.

"Rogue!"

They heard it just as they were starting to leave. She all but ran to the window, and everyone gathered around her, except for Remy who was playing disinterested by the door.

Pyro had come back, full force with Magneto and Mystique by his side. He'd come back for her.

Seeing him again was like falling through memories: soft lips, burning skin, spit and sweat, lust and love, trust and loyalty. It all hit against the distance between them.

She swiped at Bobby's wrist for a power up to counteract Pyro, leaving her palm flat against him. Taking him in was easy. She already knew she couldn't trust him a lick, even if the bonds between them were harder to break than some. He bristled at the pain of it, but still had some stamina from when they were dating years ago, stolen kisses and strokes with an expiration date ticking. They made eye contact. His eyes were a cold blue that only makes her long for Pyro's warmer eyes. She saw apologises in them that mimicked every time she looked at him since she rejoined. She wondered if he was taking the bite of her powers as an act of penance, realized that somewhere under their issues they're probably best friends, thought that maybe he just wanted to help her in whatever limited way she would let him.

The X-Men started to rally, but she knew she had this. She was sure of it. "I am not having y'all go out there making a bigger mess of all this than already needs cleaning up."

"You can't go out there alone." Logan's voice was definitive.

"I sure can." She replied. "There's only three of them."

Logan gave off a sound that she wasn't sure was a chuckle or a scoff, but she could feel that it was in approval.

She continued. "I've got plenty enough power to take them. All y'all people will do joining in is make this an all out war. This isn't about y'all. It's about me. It's about me and them."

"Rogue-" Professor X started, and she knew he was going to go into some kind of 'we're all in this together' speech.

"No." She cut him off, and everyone was all ears at the disrespect. "Y'all don't seem to understand yet. My power is all of y'all's powers. I don't need any help." She gave a pause, let it sink in. "It'll be easier without everybody else getting in the way. It's not up for discussion."

She turned then, didn't want anyone thinking she was going to listen to their arguments, change her mind. She heard Remy start up, "chere", but she brushed off the warmth that slide down her spine every time he called her one of his pet names. Now wasn't the time. She had Bobby's powers, and realistically, it was the only one that would benefit her given the sheer strength of the powers she already carried inside.

But, Remy wasn't one to give up without having it out first. "Non, it's too dangerous."

She could almost forget how stubborn he is. She turned to him. "I'm dangerous." The rest of the X-Men seemed to have accepted her speech, though she knew they'd be waiting at the edge to spring into action if she needed the help.

"I'm not letting you go alone."

"Remy, I'm invincible and I have poison skin!" She watched his lips twitch, wanting to argue further. "I'm strong. I can fly! I can do this."

Remy opened his mouth, closed it, licked his lips. His fingertips glowed as frustration clouded his mind.

"Remy, Pyro'll go for your throat. It'll be easier if I don't have to worry about protecting you." She walked over to him, stroked his covered chest.

He bristled a little. "How about a power up?" He offered her an open palm, his long fingers reaching for her in the distance.

She considered him, his broad shoulders and intense gaze, the way his mouth seemed always at the edge of suggestion, how his gesture hit the moment with an intimate clarity. For all his jokes, they didn't have secrets between them anymore.

"I don't need it." She turned away, opened a window, and took off flying.

The core Brotherhood, the three of them, were waiting for her at just the edge of the driveway. They made no move at her appearance as she landed, except Pyro whose hand twitched in betrayal of his uneasiness. They weren't itching for a fight, hoping she'd come back without any issues, but they wouldn't have come, all three of them, if they weren't prepared for one. She asked herself how Mystique would play it. She needed to catch them off guard.

She sauntered up to Pyro. He looked beautiful in that moment. He always looked his best at high noon on sunny days. His smoky blue eyes came alive in this kind of light, taking on an almost golden hue that made them look darker than they really were. The sunlight played with the highlights he bleached into his hair. She missed the deep brown. She couldn't believe this is the last time she'd get to touch him as… well she was something more than just his girlfriend. The word seemed particularly small just then.

She tangled her hand in his hair, brought her palm across his face and traced the line of his brow with her thumb. She tried to memorize the lines of him without being too obvious. She wanted to kiss him, but if she kissed him, she'd be sucked back into the underworld. If she kissed him, he'd never let her go. She loved him, but she needed that part of her life to be over. She needed to be the better man. She needed to be an X-Men again, on the right side again, even if she had to tear his heart out of her chest and leave it bleeding at his feet. He looked at her the way he always did, eyes wide and mouth a little open, awestruck at the force of everything between them.

"I've missed you." The words tumbled over each other as they managed to say them just almost in unison, just barely off beat of one another.

She stepped away from him, wondering if she'd already lingered too long to keep her imminent betrayal from becoming obvious. She turned, walked straight into Mystique for a hug. Magneto was bemused by this, smug even judging from the sound that escaped his mouth. Mystique wrapped her arms around Rogue, and Rogue was struck by how much she'd miss her too, how much gratitude she felt toward the woman, how much Mystique was just not the enemy anymore, how much they were like sisters or mother-and-daughter. The word Mama came to the edge of her lips, and Rogue wasn't sure if she said it out loud, but knew that Mystique could feel how much she meant it as they held each other.

Rogue went to Magneto next. She worried about this step. She avoided him as much as possible during her time at the Brotherhood, back at Alkali Lake when they became unlikely allies, planned to forever since he used her own powers against her and left her for dead on top of the Statue of Liberty. The irony had obsessed her in the last moments of life before Logan had brought her back from the edge of death. She was sure Magneto had done it on purpose, a bit of sick humor to go along with his absolute disregard for life.

She extended her hand. He wasn't a stupid man and he wasn't a reckless man. Magneto was something of a genius. She had hated him enough to make a full assessment of his strengths and weaknesses. She figured this was her best bet. He was a leader too, like Professor X. Leaders have to take risks for moments like this, moments where someone swears fealty to them. He stared at her a while, and she could feel the anger prickling at her skin. She knew she couldn't hide it, but she tried to bring her respect for his abilities to the forefront. He was a genius. He was a strong leader. He was the only person on this earth that Pyro and Mystique loved more than her. He was a formidable opponent. He took her hand.

She slammed her powers around him like a vice grip, choking him with them. She threw her other hand to the side, building a wall of ice the way she'd seen Bobby do a thousand times before to spite Pyro, to buy them some privacy, to show off. She saw the metal gate behind Magneto quiver, and she wanted to laugh at his impotence even as she recognized the sheer strength of his power that he could command it at all while she was sucking it out of him. Pyro certainly never managed to. Logan had almost died as she'd stolen away his healing abilities. She wondered now if she had stood half a chance if he hadn't done the foolish thing and underestimated her. His own second hand had taught her this kind of subterfuge after all. She had long since stopped being the honest good girl she had been, and it was his fault as much as his undoing.

Mystique had managed around or over the wall, which Pyro was diligently trying to melt down. She could hear his screaming, wails of anger, impatience, heartbreak. She grabbed Rogue off Magneto with a lack of grace so uncharacteristic that Rogue understood immediately as Mystique gave up the upper hand. It was too late for him. He struggled at the edge of consciousness on the floor. Mystique took a moment to just hold him, and Rogue allowed her the intermission.

Mystique turned back on her with a hatred in her eyes that was hard to swallow. She launched at her, her fingers turning to long claws, and Rogue dodged just as she'd been taught. She dodged again and again, a calm washing over her as she fell into the familiar routine of their training sessions, even as Mystique was washed over with barely held together emotion. The woman cared about two people in the entire world, and one had just taken out the other. It was exactly the kind of thing she was vulnerable to. Rogue let the assessment chill her blood.

Finally, Pyro melted down a large swatch of the wall that surrounded them. Rogue wasted no time. She pulled at the metal gate, knocking him over as a segment of it flew to Mystique, her mentor, and wrapped around her with a rough grip, lifting her off her feet and rendering her trapped. Rogue used the force of the metal pull to bring Mystique into her palm. Mystique's body relaxed in her grip, bringing forth a dignity so intrinsic to herself that Rogue was left pondering the moment again and again, this betrayal. It colored everything that came after, a flow of righteous anger and then cold acceptance to the new order of things.

Pyro threw a fireblast at her so strong that she couldn't help be reminded of that first time she'd seen him at full force, burning down the hospitals without discrimination. She threw ice against the flames as more of a knee jerk than anything else, leaving Mystique in her battle to match his strength with powers that weren't her own. She couldn't quite catch him in the middle, and she wondered if she would catch burns or if Carol would protect her skin from it. She saw the shift of blue scales in her periphery. Fuck.

She closed her eyes. This can't be happening like this. "I'm going to stop on three!" Leap of faith.

The truce was an uneasy thing, but it had caught. She turned and saw that Mystique had taken Magneto and left them. Rogue stepped out through the space Pyro had created. She needed out of the little battleground she'd built. Her skin shivered with blue scales like a nervous tick.

He hated himself as he watched her now yellow eyes with admiration and lust in equal measure. She was becoming everything he always knew she could be, and she was leaving him just as she fell into the full force of her potential.

She wanted to ask him to leave the Brotherhood, to be with her, to be an X-Men again. The words dried up and chapped her throat. He'd never do it, and she knew it as surely as she knew that she couldn't go back. This was the end of their story, a backwards Romeo and Juliet where they perpetuated the war between their families instead of trying to end it.

He panted at her, somehow both exhausted and just getting started. She stood hard against him, still, and he looked for the guilt inside of her without finding any. The anger came at him quick. This moment, this last moment, was almost over.

"You attacked us." It was something so obvious he wasn't sure why he'd said it, except that there had seemed to be nothing else to say.

Maybe he needed to hear it out loud to make the moment feel real.

He contemplated telling her that he loved her, could feel his lips forming the words, but they felt wrong now, like a goodbye, and he couldn't bear it. He couldn't bear the thought of leaving here without her. He couldn't bare the thought of never waking up to her face again, never hearing her laugh again or lose her temper, never again here his name fall out in a Southern drawl, never again feel her body lash against his before succumbing to inertia, never again feel her pull him inside of her and make them one the way he feels like they are, the way he really thought they could have been.

He thought that's what he wanted now. He wanted her to take him in completely, be with him always. He fell back a little, sucking a hard breath as he felt air in the spaces where they had once fitted together. He closed the space between them in long strides, held her by the waist, rested his forehead against her. "Do it now." It was a prayer.

She couldn't. But, what could she do? He wasn't leaving and he wasn't staying either. "Don't ask me to hurt you." The words felt like something stupid when they hit the air.

She was already hurting him in the worst way she ever could.

She pulled at every bit of mistrust she'd ever held against him. His leaving her without saying goodbye at Alkali Lake. His eyes on her when she was Bobby's. His lack of words, lack of action in those small moments that she'd wanted him too. All of it, all gathered together, felt so small compared to what she was doing to him now.

He pulled back again, and she died in those murky eyes of his. She couldn't stop him before he kissed her. It felt desperate in a way his kisses had never been before. His hands raked across her back. She held onto him for dear life, tangling her fingers into his hair despite herself. She knew better than this. She couldn't do this. She couldn't let him tempt her back. She couldn't go back. She couldn't.

It was how he tethered her to her gravest sins that did the trick.

Her powers crept into him with a subtlety and softness only he'd ever been fortunate enough to feel. It was slow, and she let him brace against her when his strength started to waver a little. His hands were braver, everywhere now, seeming to be trying to touch every part of her before he passed out. His touches were hard. He's pulled her body into him, squeezing her between his palms like he couldn't recognize that they are two separate bodies anymore. She wanted to too, to give way to the abandon of the moment, but she couldn't or she'd drain him dry.

She followed him down as his legs gave, made sure he had a soft landing, let his mouth fall away from hers and reigned her powers in before she could do more damage than he'd asked for.

She just looked at him for a while. He almost looked asleep, peaceful. He was so pale. He might even look dead. He almost could be. He almost could be, but he's breathing.

His grief slammed inside her, mixed with and magnified her own.

She left. She left. She left.

His head pounded and his body ached. He could feel a few rocks digging into his skin where he laid. She left.

It didn't feel like something real. But it must have been. She'd taken all of him that she could take, and she'd turned around and left him passed out in the dirt. She left.

She left. He dragged himself up, looked out at the mansion. That had been home once, but he'd never regretted leaving.

Fin.

Thank y'all so much for spending quarantine with me. I love the Ryro fandom so much. You guys are spectacular.