Rogue made it to the mansion grounds before Logan. She hid herself well, far above the sidewalk and watching for him to arrive. He took a while, but he wasn't on his motorcycle or drinking, so it wasn't a surprise. What completely startled her was that he was a half hour away from their agreed time, the most punctual he had ever been.
She hardly made a sound as she landed on the ground behind him. Her legs didn't hurt at all, too, but that was because of Carol's powers…
Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvel, had been a mutant with the basic powers of flight and super-strength. In no less than four out of six alternate universes, the outcome had been the same; Rogue would drain Carol dry, killing the woman and stealing her powers. For good.
Rogue, in her new and complete body, kept these powers, along with the control over them that she had worked so hard to gain.
"Hey Logan." Quickly he turned around, attempting to pin her by her neck to the nearest solid thing, in this case, the outer wall. She blocked it… with claws of her own. Even she was startled. "Ah kept those?"
Rogue dropped her block, and his arms returned to his side. The arms weren't limp, though, and both of them kept their claws fully extended.
They circled each other as they spoke.
"Is Xavier still in charge a' th' X-Men?" Rogue asked first.
"Yeah," Logan said. "How do you know so much about us?"
"Ah'm from an alternate dimension," Rogue answered simply. "Well, a couple…"
Logan waited for her to embellish. She didn't. "Who all's on th' team?"
"That counts as a couple of questions," Logan pointed out. Rogue shrugged and waited for her answer. He sighed. "Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Beast, Kitty, Kurt, Boom-Boom, Spike, me.
"What're your powers?"
Rogue actually flinched on that one. Her powers had helped cause an interdimensional train wreck of sorts, and she still couldn't safely touch the skin of another person. "My skin absorbs mutant powahs an' memories. Ah touch you, Ah know everythin' you do."
"If you've already touched me," Logan said slowly, "and you can steal memories, then why do you still need information?"
"It's a new world, with new playahs. Ah jus' need t' get back in th' game. You think Ah'm kiddin' with th' whole, 'I come from another world' thing?"
Slowly Logan began to nod, then sat down. "This sounds like it'll take a long time to tell."
"You sure you wanna hear it?" Rogue asked, hoping he'd nod. He did, and she stopped before saying, "First, Ah was usually raised by Mystique. Got a problem?"
Logan tensed, but his curiosity got the better of him. "Not necessarily…"
"Good," Rogue said, smirking, and she sat down to talk with him. Her claws never retracted as she spoke. "Second, Ah'm basically ageless in a teenage body. Dunno how old Ah am, but a nice average is 'bout seventeen.
"So, ah'm a south'ner. No, ya don' need to know where down south. Ah joined th' X-men at age sixteen, and stayed with them fo' nearly two decades. You taught me how ta fight, Logan. Always have, 'less it was Mystique."
"When she raised you?" Logan asked slowly.
Rogue nodded, frowning. "Ah always eithah called her momma or hated the blue bitch. Kinda weird now.
"Anyways, Ah went off on an average mission. Now, in this universe, th' x-men were basically a police force, so all we did was catch mutant criminals. One 'a them, for some reason, had a device that let 'im travel through alternate dimensions. He opened th' damn portal an' Ah didn' get there in time. Bishop, head of th' team at that time, had the same thing, an' we followed him. Well, the two of us did. The criminal Rogue was in the middle of a heist with some'a her friends, and Ah was about to cuff all'a them and leave 'em. We touched, an' she was in mah head, jus' like everyone else.
"Problem was, we weren't just in th' same head. Our bodies had fused inta one… an' Ah had t'deal with her bein' in charge at first. We stole the dimension-hopper thing from th' same damn criminal Ah'd been tryin' t' cuff, an' we were off.
"We're the same person now. We took thirty-one other versions of us into our body, an' damn if we weren't stupid enough to all get absorbed by th' thirty-second. Smart as a whip, no trainin' whatsoever. Slipped under our arm, and grabbed hold. Then, in our mind, managed to meld everyone into… Me."
Slowly Logan nodded. They stayed still in silence for a few more seconds, then he said, "Damn. Any schitzo problems, blame the alternate personalities, right?"
"Frequently," Rogue said, frowning and leaning forward, massaging her temples. "Now Ah'm aligned on both sides, Ah have people Ah care about both sides, so Ah have t' be neutral."
"Or ya can start over," Logan suggested slowly. "The only tie you have in this world is shaky at best. You decide what you do, no one can blame ya fer anythin' you decide, kid."
Rogue nodded slowly, her body shivering slightly from a cold breeze. Quietly Logan stood up, dusted off his jeans, and started to walk off. He paused and turned, probably about to offer her a chance to stay at the X-mansion, but Rogue was gone, leaving behind no trace of her existence. Logan just shrugged and turned around, glancing at the moon as the silhouette of a young woman passed in front of it.