Charles sat before the pair who were occupying the couch in his office. Rogue was unexpectedly happier than he had seen her since she had returned to the mansion. Logan looked uncertain, worried, though at the same time had an air of calm to him.
"Rogue, Logan, you are certain you wish to do this together?" Charles clarified, accepting their simultaneous nod of confirmation. "Very well, Rogue, can you describe what happened last night, why did you do what you did?" he asked gently.
"It started in the morning, Daniel had his check up, and Logan was telling Jean about the problems he was having, she found the scarring in his lungs and she said why it happened and I... I just felt like such a terrible mother... I did that to my child, it was all my fault... and... I don't know what happened, at first, I was just feeling sorry for myself, I- I found one of the students weed stash and I started smoking, and that made me feel even worse, like I was just a failure... then everything went fuzzy, I assumed it was the drugs and I was falling asleep... I don’t really remember anything clearly until I was standing outside the front door..." Marie paused in confusion, before her eyes closed, and she seemed to be looking within herself.
Without opening her eyes, she spoke, "Logan wants to say something, he says... there's something in here, a... darkness, like a cloud, it floats around in the back of her mind but when her emotions pick up it starts to grow and swirl... It's like... a manifestation of all the voices of all the people she's absorbed before, like they've all melded into one and they're trying to take over but they only can when she's emotional, all their insecurities and fears being amplified... Chuck are you able to see this?"
Logan couldn't help the odd feeling that shuddered through him, hearing 'himself' speaking in Marie's voice; that was a first, he hadn’t realised she took so much of him. He watched in silence as Marie and Charles both sat still, clearly communicating telepathically.
Charles pulled back suddenly, appearing shocked. "I must concur, I suppose it makes sense for the visceral reactions to remain, fear, anger, base instinct that would last longer than coherent thought but... the level of vindictiveness and the sheer vile nature of some of the emotions being pushed... it is almost like a conscious force is attempting to control the reactionary focus..." he posed thoughtfully.
"That's not all Chuck, I know Marie thought I wasn't here all this time, that I’d faded away, but I was here, I've been here the whole time in her head but it was like I was trapped, behind a one way mirror, I could see her and everything but she couldn't sense me, it wasn't until I touched her this time that I was able to break through," the Logan in Marie continued.
Charles considered this statement thoughtfully, he had known Marie carried Logan's memories inside of her mind, and some of his baser instinct. It had been ten years since Logan had last touched her, yet Charles had never found a trace of the fragments of his psyche. Logan himself was not familiar enough with telepaths to hide from him, even his own mind was only somewhat shrouded from Xavier due to interference from his metal plated skull...
"Metal. plated. skull..." Xavier murmured thoughtfully, a frown marring his brow. "Logan, is there any sign of Magneto in Rogue's mind?" he asked, a hint of worry in his tone. Before anyone could respond, Marie suddenly broke the relative silence of the room with a piercing scream, before dropping limply to the floor, her descent only broken by Logan's fast reflexes, as he caught her mid fall.
"What--?" Logan began to demand gruffly.
"There is no time to explain, we must get her to the med lab immediately," Charles instructed, already on his way to the door. He called to Jean as they went, and she slid into the elevator behind them as the doors were closing.
"I am theorizing here," Charles began, "But I believe the 'dark mass' the psychic projection of yourself has observed Logan, is an attempt by someone with a knowledge of telepathy to hide their presence, the only person I know, aside from another telepath, who would not only have that knowledge but also have had contact with Rogue, is Magneto... I would surmise, Magneto was not strong enough in his presence to directly influence Rogue, to compel or direct her actions, so he has settled for using the other voices in her head to foment confusion, fear, to slowly work his way through her defences," Charles suggested, as the elevator descended.
"Why not just push her to the Brotherhood or something?" Logan asked, "Why encourage her to kill herself?"
"Magneto is still in prison, the Brotherhood is but a shadow of what it once was, Rogue has collapsed his dream... he has been slowly but surely working at destroying hers in turn, and yours, for saving her... Magneto would not be above such sadistic ritualism, and he has the patience to play the long game," Charles warned.
"Then why is Marie unconscious now?" Logan demanded, as he gently set Marie down on the examination table, now that they had reached the lab.
"He has been discovered, I believe Magneto is playing his final hand, Jean, I will require your assistance," Charles directed, parking himself at Rogue's head, as he gently eased into her mind while Jean quickly strapped her down.
For hours Logan sat and waited, at one point Jubilee wandered down to get an update, and assure Logan that Emily and Daniel were happy and healthy and being taken care of. He felt like an asshole for up and leaving the kids so suddenly and without warning, but he couldn't face the idea of leaving Marie's side. He had let her go once before, when she needed him more than ever if what Charles had said was true, he was not leaving her now. Finally, a frazzled looking Jean stepped away from the table beside Marie, making her way across the room to collapse in an exhausted heap into the chair beside him.
"I think we did it," she murmured tiredly. "He had used the whispers of the other voices in her head to hide and shield his presence, by the look of it he managed to force what Rogue had of you into isolation of sorts, he couldn't control you, and he couldn't purge you, so he hid you so you couldn't help Rogue," Jean explained.
"How much longer is she going to be out?" Logan asked softly, as his mind began spinning again.
"Not long, Charles is helping her back now but she will probably be tired and want to sleep, I'll be keeping her down here to monitor her for the rest of the day," Jean replied, just as the med lab doors opened and admitted Ororo with lunch.
"She's waking up," Jean told Logan softly a few moments later, not bothering to smother her smile as Logan immediately leapt to his feet, and was at Rogue's side before her eyes began to flutter open.
"Logan," Marie whispered, spotting the dark figure standing at her side, his gloved hand clutching her bare one.
"I'm here baby," he murmured, smoothing back her mussed-up hair, watching the soft smile he had missed so much light up her face.
"I love you so much Logan, I'm so sorry for hurting you, I'm sorry for letting him influence me, I'm so, so sorry," Marie suddenly spoke, her dark eyes intensely regarding him.
"It's okay Marie, it was him, it's his fault, I won't hold it against you," Logan responded.
"No," Marie stressed, "No Logan, at the end of the day it was my choice, everything I did, I decided to do, I let him influence that decision but he was playing off my insecurities, and I let him win, I let myself down, I let the kids down, but most importantly I let you down, and I will never be more sorry for anything in my life than that... it might not seem like an important distinction but it is to me, I need you to understand that, I need you to accept it, before we can move on... Can you forgive me?" she asked softly, a wayward tear running across her face and into her hair.
"... I understand what you're saying baby, I forgive you, and I'm sorry you had insecurities for him to play off, I... we need to talk about that I guess?" he replied gently.
"Yeah, but not now, I'm tired Logan, so tired," Marie answered, a few more tears joining the puddle in her hair even as she sighed wearily and closed her eyes.
"You sleep Marie, I'll be right here," Logan assured her, running his fingers through her hair gently.
"You don't have to stay with me, the kids need y--" Marie began.
"The kids are fine, Jubes and Scott are looking after them, you need me now, Emily understands, Daniel's just sleeping he won't even notice, I'm not going anywhere Marie," Logan interrupted, taking a seat on the chair Jean pushed in his direction to make his point. "Now, you close those beautiful eyes and get some dream time going, good dreams only, you hear, don't want to have to be waking you up because of any nightmares."
"Yes sir," Marie replied teasingly, watching with a smile as he chuckled before kissing her hand tenderly, and her eyes blinked closed.
Once Logan was sure she was asleep he asked quietly, "Anything I need to know Chuck?"
"We were able to vanquish Magneto's presence from her mind entirely, the projection of yourself was very useful in that regard, quite strong, and a very solid presence, whereas Magneto was more... almost ghoulish, the projection of yourself was even... equipped, with claws, however they weren't metal, they appeared to be bone, and 'you' didn't appear to be surprised about that..." Charles explained.
"How did you find out this projection of me had claws?" Logan asked suspiciously.
"Unfortunately, the only way to rid Rogue entirely of the presence was to kill him, a process the projection of yourself took a rather substantial amount of pleasure in... don't look so shocked Logan, Rogue was right there beside you helping," Charles added, with a chuckle at the suddenly wary look Logan was giving.
"So, to get the psyches out of her mind, they had to be murdered?" Logan confirmed, scowling at Charles as he said, "So, she killed the me in her mind?"
"No, you are still present in her mind, Rogue refused to remove you herself, refused to let us remove you, and refused to let you remove yourself, I believe her exact words were, 'if you kill yourself Logan I will just touch you again, don't make me have to see that'," Charles informed him, sobering some at the revelation. "The you in her mind has accepted her request to remain, Jean and I helped Rogue to build you a room, in her mind, where you now reside, though I understand Rogue has opted to 'leave the door open' as it were, for you to come and go as you please or as she needs you."
"Is that safe?" Logan asked.
"It is much preferable to the alternative," Charles advised.
"Which is?" Logan queried.
"Rogue being left alone to the mercy of any unfortunate, or not so unfortunate, soul she is forced to absorb in future," was the response. With that Logan was left alone at Rogue's bedside.
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