A/N:

Cough! Cough! This story! It was neglected like no other story of mine before. I apologize and thanks for the people who kept asking me to finish it. I'm finally catching a break, after having moved abroad yet again. Never thought I would, but here I am, in Portugal this time.

I'd recommend you read the previous three chapters, you probably don't remember details. And, as always, I hope you enjoy (and review) it.

-o-O-o-

As they walked side by side towards the nearest coffee shop, his hand found hers and closed over it. Just like that, she thought, amazed. They kept on walking without a word. She had been so distracted, playing thousands of different scenarios in her head. Anxiously anticipating the moment ahead of her.

She was astounded, could barely believe how far she had come, how distant she was from her 50s housewife self. Already the cafe was in sight and her mind still swirled in thoughts.

Customers in and out, shiny silver tables and chairs, modern art prints framed on the walls and light jazz music, there they were. She appreciated the faux chic atmosphere, her eyes looked around, instinctively scanning her surroundings, looking for any familiar faces. Would anyone recognize her? Could perhaps anyone call her out? Judge her for being out and about with a man who was not her husband? Her devoted husband who was at work busting his ass to put food on their table. Argh! Just push those thoughts away, silly! She commanded herself. There were no neighbors, no cops, no acquaintances at all. All she found were the servers in smart matching garb, serving fancy coffee to people who wore false smiles.

She was breaking the rules, she knew it, breaking them so bad. She should have been at home instead, or out shopping something to cook up for dinner. One thing was for sure, she most definitely should not be in the company of a man who wasn't her husband and who, coincidently, also happened to be too damn good looking for his own good. She took a side glance and thought of how life must be for him, what with all the stares women threw his way, having people instantly get charmed by you must be annoying, she pondered. Tedious even! She giggled lightly at her own silliness.

"Would you mind sharing the joke, chére?" His sensual voice woke her up.

"That was nothing, hun." She replied, shaking her head in amusement.

"Well, here we are. What can I get you, mon coeur?" He asked her.

"Mon what? Well, it's Anna. The name is Anna."

"Just an endearment way to address you, chére. No need to get all worked up. I can call you just Anna if you prefer."

"Sorry, I… It's alright, I like 'chére'." She smiled foolishly. It felt nice to be giddy. It had been so long since she had been alone with a man that wasn't Lucas. Oh, Lord! Was this a date? God no! It couldn't be! It was most definitely not! She told herself and stopped playing games with him, telling him she wanted whatever he was having. In a minute he was back with two small cups of dark roasted coffee and two butter croissants.

'No drawings on my coffee? Just this black little thing? No marshmallows or cream on top?' She thought to herself while she tried her best to smile and hide her disappointment. He noticed and smirked at her. Her unrefined ways were endearing to him and made him want to kiss her at that very moment. She looked every bit like the small town girl that she was.

"What is it, sugar? Quit staring at me already. You're making me uncomfortable." She reprimanded him lightly, adding a little smile to her lips, trying her best not to sound harsh.

"It's just that…" He paused. She shot her eyebrows up, encouraging him to continue. "Bon, you look so much like the girl I love, used to love, still love… er, well, I guess you got the picture. Your eyes, just like hers, so much so that it's unsettling. It feels as if she were dead." She gasped at his words so he continued, and tried to explain the unexplainable. "You look exactly like her, but at the same time, nothing like her. I see you, you are the spitting image of her but the way your lips curl into shy smiles, the way you walk, the way you move, it's all so off. You're so different from my Rogue."

"Rogue?"

"Yes, that's her name, I mean, how she prefers to be called."

"That's a hell of a weird name." She commented, just a second after making a face as she tasted the black coffee. The sight made him chuckle.

"Weird, huh? That's not even half of it…"

"Tell me more about her." She asked with unabashed curiosity, and he was happy to oblige, telling her all about his Rogue, the fierce courageous woman with a short temper, but a big heart, willing to sacrifice her own well-being for the sake of others.

"Wow! She sounds like an amazing woman."

"She is." He confirmed.

"But her elevator doesn't go all the way to the top, bless her heart." He laughed hard at her words.

"Enough about Rogue, why don't you tell me a little about yourself?" He asked her, his voice gentle and reassuring, the kind he used when he wanted people to trust him and so she did. Shyly at first, but in the end, she opened up to him. She told him all about her, as far as her illusion permitted. She seemed to have all the details of her make-believe life covered.

There was nothing extremely remarkable about her, that one thing was evident. She knew she was very uninteresting compared to that Rogue of his. But still, he listened to her, he seemed genuinely interested. She hadn't expected that. He was a great listener. He showed interest, asked questions. She barely talked to Lucas these days and never anything that was meaningful.

"Lord! Look at the time. I really gotta go, Mr. LeBeau." She was up and leaving hurriedly just like Cinderella at midnight.

"Hey, Anna!" He called out.

Before she could say anything, he fired away.

"Can I have your number? I could use a friend here in this town."

She hesitated for half a second before saying it out loud for him. He didn't write it down though, he said he was good at memorizing numbers. She waved goodbye and off she went.

Her phone rang just minutes after she got home with her daughter. It wasn't him, it was the lady from the shop. She got offered the job, without even thinking of talking to her husband about it, she said yes. She'd start the next day. When Lucas got home, she told him about the job and they had a fight over it. He thought she should have told him about it. She had never even mentioned she wanted to work, decisions had to be made about their daughter.

"What's got into you, Anna?" His question rang in her ears all night long. She couldn't sleep. Good question, hun, she thought. What in the world was happening to her? She would very much like to work out an answer to that too.

Everything seemed perfect in her life. She had everything she ever dreamt of as a child: a stable happy home. She was a mother and a wife and fulfilled her roles perfectly. But then, she met that man and all of sudden she felt like that wasn't enough. She had to leave her comfort zone, to be bold, to be someone else.

After hours staring at the ceiling, her eyes finally drifted closed. And she dreamt of Remy LeBeau, yet again. There was something about him, there was something about them within close proximity with each other. Their connection was taking over her peace of mind. She saw him in her dreams, him touching her naked body. His touch was unhurried as if they had forever to be like this. His wandering fingers tracing hypnotic circles with his thumb while he plundered her mouth like the pervert she'd accused him of being that day in the car park.

"I love you, Rogue." He whispered in between moans and kisses.

She sat up in bed, startled. Covered in sweat, breathing frantic, she tried to calm herself down and go back to sleep when she realized Bishop was watching her.

"Are you okay? You don't look okay." He asked emotionlessly.

"I'm… I'm fine. Just a bad dream. Sorry, did I wake you up, sugar?"

"You didn't." He replied coldly, He sighed heavily and turned his back to her, trying to go back to sleep, or pretending to do so.

-o-

Two days later, Psylocke was finally able to reach the facility where they were hospitalized. Their vital signs remained stable. God only knew how their minds were, though. Upon arrival, she was informed that the patients, especially the big man, got agitated sometimes.

The professor had contacted her after she and the rest of the team managed to stop the most imminent threat of complete destruction of London. He guided her into his memories. Farouk and Xavier were playing some sordid game. She remembered Farouk's words to Xavier and sighed deeply.

"Pushing against the surface tension of a person's illusions is exhilarating. You won't be able to wake them up this time, I've sunk them deep."

And deeply sunken into their illusion they were as she soon enough found out. Without a second of hesitation, Psylocke moved closer to Remy LeBeau, touching his temple with both her hands, she closed her eyes and concentrated hard in the task ahead of her. Her forehead furrowed into an agonized frown.

"Bollocks, LeBeau! We're not done yet. I still need you lot." She muttered under her breath. Rogue and Bishop were not an option for her, she couldn't reach out for them, she had tried but they were too long gone, their illusions too embedded in their minds.

For her utmost despair, LeBeau proved to be hard to reach too.

"Fuck me! LeBeau! The fuck you're doing or should I say not doing?" She found him in a café, waiting for Anna Marie.

"Betsy!" He exclaimed. "Have you moved here too, mon ami? It's quite a pretty little town."

"I haven't moved here, LeBeau, you twat! You were supposed to wake them up. You don't remember any of it, do you?" The confused expression on his face told her the whole story. He had succumbed to the illusions himself. Rogue was now a shop assistant, who had befriended Remy LeBeau while still faithful to her husband Lucas Bishop. They used to meet for coffee every day at the mall. In their minds, a month went by and Remy had been successfully friend zoned, even though Rogue had wet dreams of him every night.

As soon as Psylocke said the words, Gambit was back in the game with her, well aware of what he had to do. He updated her on Bishop and Rogue's recent activities.

"And I surrendered to the authorities for this, Remy LeBeau? Bloody hell! You are still as far from shafting her as you were before I left you! Thank God they bought the story I told them and let me go as long as myself and the others helped fix some of the mess we made."

"Bon, she's slowly changing her ways. I think we made some progress." He offered.

"Remy, Farouk is winning! If you guys are not out of here in a day or two, you'll be all irremediably brain damaged, stuck here in this illusion forevermore. We thought you could sex her up, maybe that would jumpstart her memories of you. Remember? I'm starting to doubt that would work too." She confessed, visibly in distress.

"There must be a way." He wanted to offer some valuable input, but he was feeling hopeless himself.

"Farouk's hold is too strong." She shook her head. "I wish there was more I could do. Just maintaining a link to the astral plane so I can guide you is so consuming."

"I appreciate your effort, Betsy. It's just… It hasn't been enough. And you're simply not catching a break, eh? How's everyone outside? Is London still standing?"

"That is under control now. Everyone is in one piece. But it has been hard, extra harder without you, Bishop and Rogue. We just barely managed." Remy sighed in discontent, he wanted out, he wanted to help, but most importantly he wanted her back, his Rogue. All he wanted was for Anna Marie to just wake up and remember him, even if not all their memories were good happy ones.

"The Shadow King attacks creating a reality for you the moment you arrive at his realm. It may be your worst nightmare or your greatest fantasy. But it's always vivid, always real. LeBeau, I know you are a smart man, there's gotta be a way for you to show her that this place here isn't real." She paused. "There's something else, as long as he's busy playing with you three, he's not controlling any other psychics out there. That's why I could break free. I almost destroyed London, Remy! So, think about it, you are fighting in a different way, but you're still fighting."

"That's good to know, Braddock."

"You were never a quitter, Remy. Not that I remember. You gonna pull this off. However, I don't know if there's still room for subtlety. You gotta hit her hard, give it all you got. You made this woman fall for you time and again. It can't be that much harder than before."

"The problem is, she is under my spell alright, but she's as faithful and loyal as one can be. She won't be cheating on her husband."

"Then, find some other way."

And with those words, she left him as she saw Rogue walking into the café. She eyed the telepath with curiosity as she walked past her.

"Hello there, Rogue." She said carelessly, incredulous green eyes almost popped out of her teammate's face.

"Good luck, Remy!" She called out to him before leaving the astral plane, and Remy to his own resources.