Thanks for all the reviews, you guys! :D He he, okay, just a couple of things for you all...This is a R/G, don't worry about that. The little hints of Rietro are just that, nothing more. Rogue is with, and always will be with, Gambit ;) As for what happens next, well...you'll just have to wait and see ]:)

~BQ


Chapter Twenty-One:


"Where are the Acolytes?"

Evan looked up from the comic book he was reading. "Out," he answered with a frown. "Magneto had something for them to go do."

Rogue sighed in defeat. So much for telling Remy about the device. She supposed she should have come back inside sooner, maybe she could have caught him before he left, but she'd been rather emotional outside on the beach, and she'd decided to take a walk to gather her composure again before coming back to the house.

Now she wished that she hadn't.

Oh well, she thought. Ah guess Ah'll jus' tell him later. She smiled, imagining the look of shock on his face when she told him. Or maybe she wouldn't tell him at all, maybe she'd show him. Maybe she would just lean over and kiss the boy.

She grinned to herself. The swamp rat would prob'ly have a heart attack.

"What are you so happy about, man?" Evan asked, seeing her smile. He smirked slightly. "I figured you'd be sad that Gambit was gone."

Rogue blushed slightly. Is it that obvious that we care for each other? she wondered. "Ah dunno what ya talkin' 'bout, Evan Daniels," she replied, lifting her chin indignantly.

"Sure you don't," Evan said, rolling his eyes. "So, really, what's got you in such a good mood, girl? You're practically glowing, and it's wigging me out."

Did he just say 'wigging'? Carol demanded. Good Lord, you X-men people are idiots, aren't you?

Carol? Rogue replied. Ah'd hush up if Ah was ya, or else Ah'm goin' t' hafta pull up that wall 'gain an' shut ya up mahself. It's ya choice...

Wisely, Carol didn't reply, and Rogue was relieved. Carol hated being blocked like that, and Rogue could understand why, it was like being blind, paralyzed and locked in a dark room all at once. But the main reason she was glad Carol had quieted down was because the strain of blocking her was terrible, and it gave Rogue pounding headaches.

"I must admit," Hank said, appearing in the doorway from the kitchen, his brows furrowed as he sipped a cup of tea. "I am most curious about this sudden burst of excitement from you, my dear. I haven't seen you this happy in...well, to be frank, I've never seen you this happy."

"Come on, girl," Evan ordered with a grin, resting his arms on the back of the couch as he turned to face her. "Out with it."

"Lord, ya'll are nosy, aren't ya?" Rogue muttered, but she couldn't help smiling.

"Yeah," Evan confirmed with a nod. "We really are. So you might as well spill it now, it'll be easier on you if you do."

"What are ya gonna do," Rogue drawled. "Annoy it out o' me?"

"If we have to."

Ah really wanted t' tell Remy first, Rogue mused to herself. But Ah guess it would be a good idea t' be sure it works right before Ah go givin' that boy false hope. Ah doubt that Magneto would lie, not 'bout this, but Ah can't be sure. So there's only one way t' find out, huh?

"Alright," she sighed dramatically. "Ya'll win, Ah'll tell. The two o' ya are jus' too aggravatin' t' resist."

Evan leaned forward eagerly, his comic book forgotten beside him on the couch. Even Hank looked intrigued, as he leaned against the wall, his eyes watching her curiously.

Taking a deep breath, Rouge walked over to the couch and stared down at Evan. "Ah need ya t' do me a favor," she told him.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Ah need fo' ya t' trust me," she replied softly. "Ah know what Ah'm doin', so jus' trust me on this, okay?"

Evan nodded. "Okay."

Rogue pulled off one of her gloves, draping it over her shoulder, and reached a trembling hand towards Evan's bare face. He blinked, surprised, and started to pull back, then stopped, obviously remembering his promise, and swallowed hard, closing his eyes as he waited for her powers to suck his dry.

Rogue's fingers touched his cheek, then her palm, then the heel of her hand came down to cup the strong curve of his jaw. She let out a sharp breath of air when nothing happened, and tears welled up in her eyes.

Evan noticed right away, and his eyes snapped open in disbelief, his jaw dropping. "What...? How...?" he stammered. "You didn't absorb me."

"Oh, my stars and garters," Hank breathed in awe.

Okay, now he really is an idiot, Carol couldn't resist muttering.

Danvers? Rogue snapped. Wall.

Carol shut up rather quickly.

"How?" Evan asked, still blinking as if he thought he was dreaming. Rogue half-expected him to pinch himself. "How is this possible?"

Rogue smiled, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Magneto," she answered softly. "He made me somethin' t' neutralize the affects o' mah absorbin' power." She fidgeted with her bracelet so that both he and Hank could see it. "The metal is some kind o' element he found on Asteroid M, it cancels out mutant powers. An' this stone is-"

"Selectonite," Hank finished, recognizing it as he took her wrist in his large hand, studying the bracelet. "My word. This is most astonishing. It would seem that Magneto has adapted the stone's properties to limit Rogue's absorbing powers, while allowing her to still access those powers she absorbed from Miss Danvers." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Is that correct?"

Rogue nodded, and rose off the floor an inch or so to demonstrate.

"My word," Hank said again, absolutely mesmerized.

"This is so cool, man!" Evan cried, grinning. He stood and reached out his bare hand to take hers in his, and when nothing happened, he grinned even more. "Sweet!"

Rogue laughed. "Ah'd hafta agree with ya on this one, Ev."

"You must be psyched, Rogue!"

She nodded. "Ah am."

"And," Evan said slyly, a wicked gleam creeping into his eyes. "I bet Gambit will be, too."

Rogue opened her mouth to reply, raising her hand to shove him over, but Hank cut her off, speaking to Evan. "If you don't mind, Evan, I'd like to speak to Rogue alone for a few minutes. It's rather important. You may continue with this lighthearted teasing later."

Rogue frowned slightly at the seriousness she heard in his tone.

"Sure thing, teach," Evan replied. He winked at Rogue, squeezing her hand again. "I'm happy for you, girl."

"Thanks, Ev," she said with a small smile, and watched him bound out of the room and up the stairs. When he was gone, she turned to look at Hank, and shifted uneasily when she saw his grim expression. "Ya aren't goin' t' tell me that Ah shouldn't be friends with Gambit, are ya?" she blurted out worriedly.

Hank blinked, startled. "No," he responded. "Why would I?"

Rogue shrugged. "Ah dunno. Ah guess Ah jus' don't think the others would be much appreciative o' me bein' close t' him, that's all."

"Ah," Hank said, nodding in understanding. "I see. Well, the others are not here, now are they? And I personally would not mind it at all if you decide to pursue a closer friendship with young Monsieur LeBeau. He's quite taken with you, it would seem."

Rogue blushed for the second time that day. Guess it's a lot more obvious than Ah thought, she admitted ruefully. "That what ya wanted t' talk t' me 'bout?" she asked curiously. "Me an' Remy?"

Hank shook his head. "No," he said. "The matter of which I asked to speak to you about is of a greater importance, I think." He hesitated, a rare occurrence for the X-man known as Beast, and gestured to the couch. "Perhaps you should sit down, Rogue."

Rogue tensed. Whenever adults said that you should sit down for something, it was always something bad. Slowly, she lowered herself down onto the couch, pushing Evan's comic book off to the side and out of her way. "Okay," she replied. "Ah'm sittin'. Now tell me what this is all 'bout, will ya?"

"Of course," Hank said, seating himself in the armchair across from her. "Do you remember that day in the med-room?" he asked. "When we first arrived?"

"Ya mean the day Ah attacked Pietro, jumped Magneto, an' wound up passin' out on the beach?" she asked dryly. "Yeah, I kinda recall somethin' 'bout that." She frowned, biting her lip. "Why?"

"I don't know if you remember, or if you were even aware of it at the time," Hank said. "But since your new powers make you pretty much invulnerable, I went ahead and took a blood sample from one of your open wounds."

Rogue nodded in confusion. "Ah remember that. Ah think Ah might have wondered if Ah would have broken the needle if ya had tried to take blood the normal way."

"I imagine you might have," Hank admitted with a weak smile. His smile faded, though, and his gaze bore into hers. "I took the liberty of scanning your blood into Magneto's computer, to check for any abnormalities or discrefrencies that might be lingering after our imprisonment at the Operation: Wideawake base."

Rogue's mouth went dry. Was there something wrong with her? Had Trask done something to her at that base that she didn't know about? She swallowed hard, trying not to let her sudden fear show. "An' what did ya find?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly.

"Nothing bad," he assured her, seeing her apprehension. "Well, I suppose that depends on your point of view," he amended with a slight wince. "But it's nothing to do with your health. You're perfectly healthy as far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with you."

Relief washed over Rogue and she sighed quietly. Looking up, she asked, "So then what was it that ya found?"

Hank shifted uneasily. "Magneto has blood samples of all of his agents," he began in a hesitant tone, as if he was uncertain how to explain what he was about to say. "He had a sample of your blood on file, as well."

She raised an eyebrow incredulously.

"From the time when he captured you on Asteroid M, I believe," Hank answered her unasked question. She nodded, satisfied. That made sense that he would have taken blood from her and the others that he had captured as his 'perfect mutants'. He'd probably taken blood from Storm and Jean and the others, too.

Lord knows it would have been easy enough for him, she thought. We were all out cold in those suspended animation tubes o' his.

"While running a cross-reference of the blood sample I took the other day in hopes of comparing it to the previous sample Magneto has of your blood," Hank continued. "I was surprised to note that the computer not only turned up one perfect match for your blood," he paused, giving her a significant look. "But two others with twenty-five percent identical or above DNA strands, as well."

Rogue blinked. "What..." she said, shaking her head, confused. "What are you saying? What does that mean?"

"It means," Hank said slowly. "That Magneto's computer contains files on two of your blood relatives."

Rogue's breath failed her. Two of her blood relatives? She'd never known about even one of them, let alone two. Irene had always avoided the subject, and Rogue just assumed that her parents hadn't been the kind of people Irene wanted her associating with. But that hadn't stopped her from wondering, from wishing all of those years that she knew who were family was. She had a vague recollection of being dropped off with Irene. She had been just a baby, but somehow she had a memory of tears and kisses as she had been handed to Irene.

"Is it m-mah mother?" she stammered softly, her voice shaking as bad as her hands. She grasped the edge of the couch to keep her fingers from fidgeting, but she held on so tightly she didn't need to look down to know her knuckled were going white.

"Yes," Hank answered, something akin to regret and-sympathy?-in his tone. "One of them is your mother."

Rogue bit her lip, her chest tight. "Well?" she prodded softly. "Who is she?"

Hank's eyes darkened, and this time she knew it was with pity. "You aren't going to like this, my dear," he warned.

Rogue swallowed hard. "Ah'm a big girl, Hank," she said, once again using his first name as if to support her claim. "Whatevah it is, Ah can handle it."

"Very well," Hank sighed. "Your mother is Mystique, Rogue."

Rogue blinked. Had he just said...? She tried to protest, and her mouth moved, but no sound came out. Her head was spinning, her heart pounding so loud she couldn't think. She couldn't find words, so she just stared at him in disbelief.

Hank stood and moved to her side, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I am sorry to be the one to tell you," he told her quietly. "And I wish I could change it, could give you the mother that you deserve, but I can't. I wish I could tell you that the lab results were wrong, that there was a mistake, but I checked them several times, and even had Magneto check them, too. We were both shocked, and studied this thoroughly to be sure that there wasn't some glitch with the computer."

"She's really...?" Rogue rasped, even though she knew. In her head, the pieces were already coming together, the puzzle completing intself. She had flashes of memory of herself as a child, memories she could not have possibly remembered, like that day she had been left with Irene. Those memories could only belong to her mother. She had absorbed Mystique plenty of times, some of the memories must have stuck. After all, that was how she'd found out about Kurt...

Hank nodded sadly. "I'm afraid so."

"Then the second match?" Rogue said hoarsely. "Was...Kurt?"

"Yes," Hank said gently. "Kurt is your half-brother, Rogue."

She bit her lip, staring past him at the wall in silence for a long moment, her brain trying to process what he had just told her. Mystique was...and Kurt was...

Tears stung her eyes and she couldn't take it. With a stifled sob, she sprung up from the couch and hurled herself out of the room, not heeding Hank's cries. She ran through the house and out the front door onto the beach, and didn't stop running until she had put a good distance between herself and the house.

She came to a stop on the bluffs overlooking the ocean, and collapsed to her knees, finally letting out the sobs that had been threatening to overtake her since Hank confessed his findings. Her shoulders shaking, she pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged her knees, burying her face in her lap.