It was as if a floodgate had been opened in her mind and she heard a million people saying her name “Rogue, Rogue, Rogue,” as visions, or rather memories swirled in her head. She heard a million “Rogues” but only one “Marie” and Logan’s face swam to the front of her mind before being swept away as memories came in and shattered the carefully constructed illusion that was her past, replacing those false, happy memories with memories of a far less pleasant nature.
She remembered her home in Mississippi, her energy sucking powers developing, her parents kicking her out, hitch hiking across the United States and Canada. She remembered meeting Logan and Sabretooth’s attack. She remembered the Mansion and Professor X and Jean and Scott and Ororo and Bobby and John and Kitty and Jubilee and Hank and a hundred other people. She remembered Magneto’s attempt to use her, she remembered her white striped hair, and Logan saving her from Magneto’s machine. She remembered Alkali Lake and how they had all barely escaped alive. She remembered Scott and Jean’s wedding, gaining some control of her powers, her budding relationship with Logan, her 20th birthday, and then... nothing. That was all she remembered. She had no idea what happened after that or how she had ended up where she was.
Suddenly she was back beside Mike, leaning against the table in front of her, gasping for air. “Jane!” He yelled, grabbing onto her arm and steadying her, asking “Are you alright?”
She looked up to see that people had risen from their chairs in alarm. “Jane?” Mike said questioningly. She looked at him and at the people around her, realizing with a start that the sense of normalcy and family she had longed for had been fabricated in her mind by whoever had created Jane Bayfield. As much as she cared for Mike and Tommy, she realized that they could never be a part of her life in the way that they wanted. They needed a Jane Bayfield, but it wasn’t her.
She was a deadly mutant who fought alongside the X-men. She was the Rogue. She could only imagine having a family with one man. Logan’s face once again came into her mind, and she knew that she had to find him, and hopefully find out what had happened to her over three years ago. But before she could do that she needed to rectify the situation at hand.
“Jane?” Mike’s voice cut through her thoughts once again.
“Ah’m sorry Mike, but Ah can’t do this,” She said in the drawl she now recognized as her own. He looked confused not only by her voice but also by the sentence that she had just uttered.
“Wha... What do you... Jane?” he said questioningly, drawing back from her and looking at her as though she was a stranger, which she was. Everyone broke into shocked whispers of confusion. She turned to them all “Ah’m really sorry everyone, but Ah just can’t go through with this, Ah’m... Ah’m too young.” she said, trying to offer the simplest explanation without revealing that she was a mutant.
“Why don’t you tell these nice people the truth?” Helen said, swaying towards Rogue, eyes flashing a gold-yellow color. She knew those eyes.
“Mystique!” she hissed.
“Well, I see you’ve gotten your memories back. Pity. We thought that you would have a nice storybook ending, but it seems like I’m gonna have to kill you after all.” She said with an unforgiving smirk.
“Wha... what do ya mean? Why am Ah here?” Rogue asked, genuinely confused.
Mystique’s smirk faltered as she realized that Rogue didn’t remember quite as much as she thought. Perhaps she had revealed herself too soon.
Mike looked between the two women, “Helen... Jane... what the hell is going on?” Mike yelled in exasperation.
“She’s not your sister Mike.” Rogue said.
Mike looked over at Mystique who simply shrugged and quipped “In all fairness, she’s not your fiance,” before morphing into Rogue as she had been three years ago, complete with white streaks framing her face and leather gloves to her elbows. “She’s the Rogue,” she mocked before changing back into her blue scaled form. “And she’s a mutant.” She finished amongst shocked yells and a panic of people rushing away from the two of them.
Mystique lunged towards Rogue who instinctively spun away and managed to get in a well placed kick before Mystique had fully turned back to her. Mystique blocked her next punch and threw one of her own, landing it right between Rogue’s eyes.
Before Rogue could recover, Mystique had her pinned to a tree by her neck, “I knew we should have just killed you before, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.” Mystique whispered sinisterly, tightening her grip and completely cutting off Rogue’s airway. Terror welled inside of Rogue and just as black spots began to blur her vision, she heard a thunk and Mystique fell to the ground, revealing Mike holding a piece of wood.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Constructive reviews and/or praise are always welcome. I will add more chapters soon.