Magneto's heart was still burned with the fresh pain of Illyana's death, her funeral, as they returned to the west bank of the Hudson in waves of scintillating light. Her name was on his lips, stamped forever in his heart, despite the years here that separated it; it bled from him like an open wound. He thought his heart would bleed itself dry-

And like grateful earth accepting rain, that pain leeched a little away from him, as the hand that held his tightened a little in his grip. His eyes turned to her, and he was captured by the depths of love within them. Deep, vibrant, soulful. She saw him. She knew him, knew him as he knew himself on his best and worst days. She had seen those from him many times, witnessed them herself in flesh, and in the memories he and others held. She was parallax embodied in flesh, a repository of power in the shape of one gentle soul.

"Go gently now, sugah." she said, her eyes half-filled with tears, and a sad twist to the smile at her mouth. "Only so much we can carry with us." Such wisdom from someone so young. Of course. She had absorbed his memories, his powers just before reality fractured around them, and again in multiple instances as they traversed universes. And of course, she had just absorbed him again upon returning to this reality. Along with a dose of his thoughts and memories each time. She knew the depths of his sorrow, of his pride…of his love.

Seeing those eyes anchored him, steadied him. In each reality, each time he laid eyes on her, he could break whatever it was that had forced them to jounce from one time and place to another. They had always arrested him, made him pause. She had such power over him.

And she never abused it. "With the two of us, Ah think you're right, we can fix this, now."

"Yes." Rogue could control her powers; she wasn't pulling more than the tiniest of whispers from him; she was more than strong enough after the interuniversal tryst, after taking his strength so many times. She didn't need it now; and they used it only to maintain silent communication with one another.

Like a dance, he led her, and they rose into the air using his powers in concert. The fields that they had to manipulate - raw stuff of the universe reality - required two opposite poles to work most effectively. It would have taken all of his attention to perform the task himself, but with Rogue there, even with the sliver of his power she had imprinted, this was mere child's play.

It didn't take long; somewhere under a handful of minutes. But eventually the crisis was contained, and standing before them was a very pale, very nervous looking young man. Sweat poured off of him as he looked up at the two super heroes. Well, Magneto was fairly certain the young man wasn't really looking at him as if he were a superhero. It was another reason it was so good to have Rogue here. Whenever she suddenly flashed that dazzling smile of hers, he knew that somehow she would find the answer without laying a finger on the young man.

"Hiya there, welcome back t'Earth. Mind if me 'n my friend ask you some questions? Then you can go sit fer a spell. You've really been through it."

Elsewhere:

His hands crashed as fists on the console before him. Oh, how he itched to kill both mutants, how close they had been to destroying the pair down to their base atoms! He could easily dive into the computer here, take his rage out on some junk code, and beat the anger out of him. But no. He was going to stay here, remain calm. He could do it. He was able to do anything.

"So much for that." A thoughtful voice purred, the sound of it like slippery circuits coiling about in tendrils of nanotechnology. "I had hoped this would kill my beloved sister, and her latest paramour." Bastion mused to his partner. The pink-skinned man with his white hair, and severe black suit seemed to be a study of color blocking.

It was at odds with the curling, whirling, stygian magic and technology that made up Cameron Hodge's body. He had sold his soul to three buyers; the demons of Limbo, the Phalanx, and to his own black ambition. "It would have worked; the pulses were gaining intensity, frequency, and duration! They shouldn't have been able to counter this fa-"

"But they did," the former leader of a government agency designed to hunt mutants down said. Now, Bastion had partnered with his dear half-brother -

'If he can even be called that' Cameron thought to himself as he regarded the situation - Graydon Creed to turn the Purifiers and the Friends of Humanity into a new, more powerful group: The Purifiers of Humanity. They were behind the seemingly random attacks around the world keeping all the heroes occupied. It had been a perfect chance; strike so much random chaos at once that surely the carefully laid traps and plans would have netted at least one heroic sacrifice. One vainglorious fool's Hail Mary.

Even this plan, the culmination of months of planning, had been designed specifically to take out Rogue and Magneto. Once it had been discovered that the pair had become an item, as it was bandied about in the mercenary circles, plans had begun to spin.

'Fortunate for Deadpool and his extremely large mouth,' Hodge thought to himself in smug fury. "We'll kill them, we'll kill all of them!" he promised aloud.

"Most certainly," Bastion said, again epitomizing chilly, organized code, and ruthlessly logical patterns while Cameron Hodge churned with eldritch nano-wizardry. "Let us move on to plan , then. I think it will suffice to finally rid us of the Master of Magnetism, and hopefully my pesky family members as well." He looked down at his hand. "I would love to tear their hearts from their chests myself."

Hodge smiled encouragingly at him. His foul mood was wiped away like a counterspell, or an antivirus purge.

"Well…the night is young yet. Let's see where it takes us."

For Now, an End