The truth of what had happened to Rogue, from Magneto's perspective, had been hardest for Jubilee, especially when she had learned of Apocalypse and his plans, and who, besides Storm, had been enslaved as his Horsemen.

She was close to both Morph and Wolverine, and the idea of the two of them being trapped by Apocalypse upset her.

But the revelation of Gambit being the fourth Horsemen had sent her into a fit of hysterics.

He had given his life for mutant kind. They had mourned him, buried him. And now Apocalypse was parading around a carcass as part of his crusade.

Magneto wasn't sure what Apocalypse's motives or reasoning was for doing such a thing, but he was almost certain it had something to do with Rogue.

As they often did, his thoughts drifted to her. The memory of her going through the Siege, tears in her eyes as she had uttered those final words.

Your heartache…wasn't in vain….

He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't hear Storm calling his name from the doorway.

"Magnus?"

He turned away from the window. "Hmm? Yes?"

She could see from the expression on his face that she had pulled him from his thoughts. She held up two steaming cups in her hands.

"I thought some tea would do us both good."

He sat in a chair, sipping the tea she had brought, a chamomile blend with just a little bit of honey. They sat in mostly silence, and he wondered what was on her mind that she felt she needed to bring tea as an offering.

"I felt a desire to….check in with you. Hearing your account of all that has occurred since the asteroid was quite a lot."

"Jubilee is not taking it well. I can't say I blame her. The people she was closest to are enslaved by Apocalypse, or…." He struggled to say it out loud. To say that Rogue was gone.

"She is not lost, Magnus. You must believe that."

"No." He looked straight at her, and the weariness, the fear she saw there was unlike anything she had ever seen from him before. "I cannot allow myself to hope that, Ororo. Bastion took her through the Siege for one purpose, and that was to fuse her to himself. If I begin to hope…" He trailed off, the cup shaking slightly in his hands.

She gently reached for the cup, and set it down before taking his hands in hers.

"Magnus, listen to me. We know not what will happen to her. I know you are worried for her, you fear for her. But you must hold on to hope that she will emerge victorious over Bastion, that she will come back to you, and to us."

He gripped her hands a little tighter, and she could see the slight crumbling of his resolve, the normally stoic man breaking inside.

"If I begin to hope….then what happens when she is no longer her? When she is a part of Bastion?"

"Then we will face him, together. I promise you, here and now, that I will stand by you, no matter the outcome. But you must promise me, you will hold on to the faith you have in her, the love you have for her. Trust that she will emerge, stronger than ever. So that you can look her in the eyes and say that you kept your promise to her."

He was not at all surprised at her insight into his mental state. It was no secret that Rogue's disappearance had brought him great grief and pain, and he did his best to hide it. But on days like today, where he had to tell Jubilee and Roberto that she was gone, it was not so simple.

"...how can you have such hope, Storm?"

She smiled. "Because you had hope for me. You faced me on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro without fear, reaching out to me, calling me out of Apocalypse's grasp. And do not call it simply repaying the favor for saving you from the X-cutioner."

He tried not to smile at that. "Are you accusing me of evening the score?"

"Such a scandalous accusation, I know."

He chuckled at that, a genuine yet melancholic noise. She squeezed his hands once more.

"I know that it seems bleak now. But we must have faith in her. Just as she has had faith in you, in all of us."

He grew quiet for a moment. "I am afraid…..afraid of who will step through that Siege when the time comes."

"I know….as am I. But Rogue is strong….one of the strongest people I know. She will persevere. You must believe that, Magnus."

She felt as if everything before being pulled into the Siege was a weird dream. Like she was seeing it from a strange angle, trying to make sense of it all. She saw the choices she made, the fears she had, the doubts that kept her up at night, and she wondered how she had not seen it all before. How she could have lived her life in such a timid way.

She had been afraid of herself. Afraid of her own choices, to make up her own mind. Sure, there had been times where she had stood her ground, but were those times really that important?

It all seemed so skewed, knowing that her choices, her direction, had all been dictated by the machinations and opinions of others. She watched her memories anew, wanting to reach down and shake herself, make herself see that this was a bad idea and to run home.

Home. Where was home? The places she had once called home had all been temporary, not permanent. What did 'home' even mean anymore?

She felt like she was being thrown, and she cried out. What was happening?

"Go, Legacy."

She felt herself being tossed through the Siege, thrown until her body collided with a tree, and she fell with a thud to the ground. The soft grass caught her fall, and she heard the clunk of something small and metal fall nearby.

She groaned, sitting up and looking around. She was surrounded by trees, the humid air feeling familiar to her.

Reminds me of the Savage Lands, wherever ah am.

A glint of something shiny caught her eye, and she looked in the grass, and there, on a golden chain, was the Siege Perilous.

It's a necklace now?

When she placed it in her hand, she heard the voices speaking.

"Use us wisely, Legacy. You hold all the power now."

What the hell did that mean?

She tried to stand, and found her legs a little wobbly.

This is weird. Ah don't feel….

The realization hit her all of a sudden. The powers she had absorbed from Carol. They were gone.

Ah, hell.

She couldn't fly, or use her super strength. Which means she was back to the starting point.

She looked down at herself, and was a little surprised to see that the clothes she had been wearing when she went through the Siege were….not there. Instead, her clothes were a little tighter, still in green and white, but more conformed to her body. The cloak around her was light so she wasn't too stuffy yet, but she needed to find out where the heck she was.

Ah need to get home, wherever that is.

She heard the sounds around her, animals and the sound of water somewhere nearby.

She moved through the trees, finding there was something familiar about this place.

She came across a clearing, and she gasped as she realized why.

Right in front of her, off in the near distance, was a place she thought she would never return to.

The Citadel.

Ah'm in….the Savage Lands?