Chapter Thirteen

Remy felt like he was fighting through a thick fog to wake up, but he knew there was a reason that he had to. He just couldn't remember it right now.

Finally he pried his eyelids open to see Rogue heading out of the door. He was about to call her name when he noticed how robotic she looked. Didn't they say that it was dangerous to wake a sleep walker up? He couldn't be sure but he didn't want to risk it. As far as he knew, she hadn't sleep walked before, but then given her nightmares and interrupted sleep patterns, he couldn't say that he was all together surprised by this turn of events.

Though he was unsteady on his feet, he followed her out into the hallway as silently as he could so that he didn't wake her. Hopefully she would just walk around for a while and head back to bed, but he couldn't risk her leaving the mansion for some dream-related reason.

He was surprised to see her leaving Storm's room and he wondered what kind of weird dream had made her go in there. A cold chill went up his spine as she approached Logan's door. He watched from their doorway as she went in and thirty seconds later, came out again.

What the hell was she dreaming about? Doing bed checks like they were at summer camp or something?

Rogue headed down the stairs and Remy followed at a safe distance. She went into each room along one wall, then came back the other way. While she was in Jubilee's room, he crept into Kitty's room, leaving the door ajar. From here he would have a perfect view when she entered Jean's room, across the hallway. He almost gasped in shock as he watched Rogue walk into the room, then as calm as you like, walk up to Jean and touch her cheek!

What the hell was she up to? Why was she doing this? Had Hydra reactivated her chip somehow? Was this their doing, or something even more sinister?

When she left that corridor to head for the boys rooms, Remy ran downstairs to the professors room. He barged straight in, not caring if he scared the man.

"Remy?" The professor felt a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him and he went to turn on the bedside light, but Remy stilled his hand.

"Rogue is walking around in a daze, absorbing everyone," he said quietly.

"What? Are you quite sure?"

"Positive."

The professor lay back and put his fingers to his temple.

"Mesmero!" he exclaimed softly. Then he screwed his features up, as though it was taking all of his might to do something. When he opened his eyes, he was breathing heavily. "She's outside Ray's room, go and get her, bring her to my office, please. Don't try to wake her."

Remy nodded and left. Rogue was just where Xavier said she would be and he gently picked her up and carried her downstairs. It took a few minutes for the professor to arrive, then Hank and Logan trailed in after him, Hank looked fine but Logan looked beat.

"I was unable to wake Storm," the professor explained. "I scanned her mind and she is simply unconscious, a very light coma if you like. She and the others should be fine by morning, if a little tired.

"Why did she do it?" Remy asked.

"She didn't, she was being controlled by Mesmero."

"So Mystique finally found us," he said with a sigh.

"So it would seem. I put both Mesmero and Rogue to sleep until we can come up with a plan to keep her safe."

"But doesn't she have shields, professor?" Logan asked.

"She does indeed, but they are at their weakest during sleep."

"So she sleeps when the rest of us are awake," Remy suggested.

"I don't believe that would work," the professor confessed. "Even though she is being controlled, she has access to all her own abilities, and as we have seen from her training sessions, she is quite a skilled fighter. With Mesmero's help, she may be able to overcome everyone in the mansion."

"Magneto," Henry said. "His helmet protects him from psychic invasions. Perhaps we could fashion something similar."

"That could take weeks," Xavier noted.

"Then I'll steal the original." Remy stated. "You just tell me where he is, I'll do the rest."

Xavier didn't like that option, but he liked Mesmero and Mystique getting their hands on Rogue even less.

"I'll see if I can find him," Charles said, thinking of using Cerebro, which gave him an idea. "In the meantime, I believe she should stay in Cerebro. The set up allows me to broadcast my telepathy, but it doesn't allow other psychics inside my head. She should be safe from Mermero's influence in there."

"I'll move one of the hospital beds in there," Hank suggested, since they had wheels and were more manoeuvrable.

"Good," Remy said, standing up. "And once the professor has found Bucket Head, I'll go steal me his bucket."

In the event, stealing Magneto's helmet proved to be unnecessary. For once the X-Men and Magneto had the same goal, preventing Apocalypse from rising.

Magneto came to the mansion alone to speak with his old friend Charles, and brought with him his spare helmet as a peace offering. Between them, he and Xavier worked out a temporary truce.

The Acolytes and the Brotherhood soon joined Magneto and they worked as a team with the X-Men though understandably, the arrangement was not without it's conflicts, especially in Danger Room training sessions. The only exception was Sabretooth, who upped and left the moment Magneto had suggested working with the X-Men. No one felt it was a huge loss, mainly because the conflict between he and Logan would be distracting to everyone else.

"Hey, Rogue," Pietro gave her his friendliest smile. "It's good to see you again."

"Yeah, you too," Rogue said, feeling slightly uncomfortable with all these new people around.

"So, we're going to face off against Apocalypse together, that should be cool, huh?"

"I guess, except I'm under house arrest."

Pietro gave her an odd look.

"Didn't your father tell you? I'm the one who's supposed to release him."

"Oh." He didn't know what to say about that.

"There she is! Rogueie! I've missed you, sheila." Pyro pushed his way through the crowd and enveloped her in a hug. Rogue tried to gently push him off but before she could, he promptly fell to the ground, unconscious.

Conversation around them slowly stopped as everyone noticed the body on the floor. Rogue wished that the ground would open up and swallow her whole.
Then suddenly an arm went around her shoulders and she turned into Remy's chest.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you should always respect personal boundaries, unless you're born with my natural charm, of course."

Most of the men groaned at his lame joke, while most of the girls laughed.

"Whatever," Logan said, pushing through the crowd, picking Pyro up and slinging the mutant over his shoulder. "Anyone who doesn't want to share with Crocodile Dundee here, better claim a bedroom before I get upstairs," he said, causing the mansion newcomers to scramble from the room, pushing and shoving each other in an attempt to get upstairs first.

The first test of their new team came surprisingly quickly, not 24 hours after Magneto's minions had moved in, the mansion's alarms went off.

"Mystique?" Magneto asked Xavier, sounding surprised. It wasn't like her to be so open in an attack.

"No, soldiers." Xavier exclaimed. "I believe Hydra have come to recapture their former mercenary."

"Rogue worked for Hydra?" Magneto sounded impressed. He had known of Rogue's attack on him, he recognised her immediately, but he hadn't known that she had been in the employ of Hydra at the time.

"It wasn't voluntary," Charles assured him. "In fact it was you who damaged the chip in her head which was controlling her, thus allowing her to escape."

"Can we save the chit chat for later?" Remy asked as he dashed past. "I think we have a whole platoon on its way."

Surprisingly, once given a common enemy, all three groups of mutants worked well together, exchanging nothing worse than a few barbed comments while they fought. At the end of the fight, a grudging respect had even formed between a few of the former enemies, and it seemed that one romance was budding. After Colossus had saved Kitty from a bullet, she seemed rather enamoured with him, and he in turn showed a protective streak towards her, even carrying her back into the mansion, though she swore that she was fine.

Remy was searching the mansion for Rogue, knowing that she would be blaming herself for the injuries the team had suffered. He had searched the lower levels and was now on the first floor, poking his head into each room.

"Ah, Gambit, you fought well out there."

Remy had hoped to duck away unseen, but Magneto had spotted him.

"Thanks," he stopped in the doorway, unwilling to be rude to a former client, but also wanting to resume his search for Rogue as soon as possible.

"I was surprised to realise that you had come to Charles for help rather than to me. I thought that we made a good team. We have worked well together in the past."

"I couldn't be sure of your allegiances," he answered honestly.

"Given my former friendship with Mystique, I can understand that." He smiled, showing that there were no hard feelings. "You know, the offer to join my Acolytes is open ended," he said. "You and your companion would both be very welcome."

"Thanks, mon ami. But as I've said before, I don't do too well taking orders."

"I would be willing to give you much freedom, far more than my other Acolytes. Wouldn't it be nice to have some place to call home? Somewhere that you are wanted, where you have friends who fight for the same cause you do, company that doesn't have to be bought in some seedy bar?"

Remy could tell that Mags hadn't been keeping up with his lifestyle; Remy hadn't trawled the bars for months now.

"You have been running ever since the guild exiled you," Magneto continued. "Doesn't it get tiring?"

If he had heard this speech before meeting Rogue, he might have been tempted but as much as he did want a home, he knew that Magneto would just use Rogue and her powers for his cause. She didn't need that.

"It's a tempting offer, but I'm afraid I must decline."

"Very well but remember, the offer is open ended. When you are tired of the nomad lifestyle, living out of suitcases, never staying one place too long, give me a call."

"Will do," Remy assured him, then turned away and resumed his search for Rogue.

With so many new inhabitance, Rogue had found the only quiet place in the whole mansion to sit and think. Well actually, it was on top of the mansion, the roof.

She felt awful. Bobby had a broken ankle, Kurt had a concussion, Jubilee had a broken nose and someone called Todd had a bullet wound to his shoulder, and all because of her. She had come to ask these people for help, but she had never meant to cause them so much trouble. Maybe it would be better to give herself to Hydra, they would probably be able to stop Mystique from capturing her.

"Chère?"

She turned to see Remy climbing onto the room from their bedroom. "How'd you fine me?" she asked, With Magneto's spare helmet on, not even the Professor could find her at the moment.

"Process of elimination, I already looked everywhere else."

He sat beside her, having guessed the bleak direction of her thoughts. He had seen her face as Kurt was carried in, unconscious, and knew that she would blame herself.

"How's Kurt?"

"He's is fine," Remy said. "He woke up five minutes after he got to the med bay... He's been asking about you ever since."

That made her feel even worse, not only had she endangered his life, she wasn't there for him. She was an awful sister.

"I told him you were fine, just overwhelmed. He understands."

"Thank you."

He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. She allowed herself the comfort and curled into him.

"Is it ever gonna stop?" she asked softly.

"I don't know, Rogue," Remy answered honestly. As much as he might want to, he couldn't lie to her. "What I do know is that none of this is your fault."

"It's me everyone wants."

"But it wasn't your choice for them to come after you. It wasn't your choice to join Hydra, it wasn't your choice to be adopted my Mystique, and it isn't your choice to wake this Apocalypse up. Don't ever forget that you are the victim in all of this."

"I'm not a victim," she said, though right now she felt like one.

"No, you're a survivor," he said. "But that doesn't mean that bad things weren't done to you, it just means that you're stronger than all of them combined."

They sat in silence for a while longer until Remy could feel that she had relaxed a little.

"So, hows the helmet? I must say, you look very fetching."

Rogue couldn't help a small smile. "You'd think I looked fetching in a smock."

"I would, especially if it was wet."

She laughed and sat up.

"Okay, okay, you win, pity fest over."

"You'll come back inside now?"

"Sure. Besides, I haven't thanked everyone yet."

Rogue wasn't really the type to give long speeches to everyone, so instead she ordered 70 pizzas (well they did have Fred in residence), numerous portions of chicken strips and potato wedges. When everyone crowded around the front door, eager for a portion, she paid the delivery guy and explained, "Just my way of saying thanks. That's wasn't your fight so... thanks."

In short order the food was removed to the rec room and quickly devoured.

"You know, kid-"

Rogue jumped as Logan appeared behind her.

"Sorry, I was just going to say, that wasn't our first run in with Hydra. Today they were after you, but that doesn't make it your fault."

Rogue nodded her understanding but she knew that if it hadn't been for her presence here, hydra wouldn't have stormed the mansion today.

"Why were they here before?"

"Various reasons, biggest being for another of their creations."

Rogue looked to his hands as she realised something. "X-23? Is she a relative of yours?"

"Not exactly. She's my clone, somehow." He couldn't have explained how they altered his DNA if he'd wanted to. "You knew her?"

"Not really. I heard the doctors talk about her sometimes, and a couple if times they had us fight for training exercises, but that's all. I wondered if she'd escaped."

"How so?"

"Well about four months before I escaped, they suddenly sent me on assassination missions. Before that, they'd always been her job. Plus they never talked about her any more."

"They really spoke freely around you?"

"Why wouldn't they? Far as they were concerned, I was well under their control, even if I did remember what they said, I couldn't have told anyone."

Logan nodded his understanding.

"So, where is X-23?"

"We try to call her Laura these days, and she's off trying to destroy Hydra. Unlike you, she was born there, taught only to hate and kill. She doesn't have any memories of what a normal life is like."

Rogue could tell from his voice that he felt a connection to the girl and missed her.

"I'm sorry."

"Ain't your fault, kid."

"Ain't yours either," she countered.

He smiled, conceding the point. Though he hadn't had anything to do with creating her, she had his DNA and that made him feel a degree if responsibility for her.

"Nice hat by the way," he said with a smirk, tapping her helmet with his knuckle.

"Ha ha!"

Logan smirked and headed into the melee to grab some pizza for himself before Fred got it all.

"Hey, chère!" Gambit said, emerging from the affray victorious, with a pizza box in one hand and a portion of chicken strips in the other. "Why don't we find somewhere a little quieter to enjoy this?"

"Sure." They headed up to their room.