Julie surveyed the room with a smile. This year she had decided to have a company Christmas party. Of course as there were only five people in the company, they had all decided to invite friends.
Julie spotted Annika and Binar chatting together in one corner, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the party and she shook her head. Now there was an unlikely couple. Actually Binar and anyone was an unlikely couple.
The door opened and in came Rogue, Gambit and Shannon.
"Hey!" Julie greeted them enthusiastically.
"Hey, Merry Christmas," Rogue replied.
"Merry Christmas," Shannon said.
Gambit nodded.
As the only people the three had met before was herself and Annika, Julie started taking them around and introducing them to everyone (although she only pointed to Binar). As the four approached Corinne and Cliff, Corinne felt a sense of recognition when she looked at Rogue.
"These are my friends, Shannon, Rogue and Gambit, and this is Cliff and Corinne."
"Hey," Cliff said.
Corinne held out her hand to them.
"Hi," she said shyly.
Rogue reached forward to shake the offered hand. The two girls' eyes held each other for a moment, then Corinne gasped and Rogue reefed her hand away.
"What... how..." but that was all Rogue could stammer out before Corinne's power of premonitions took hold of her and she fell into a series of visions:
Rogue was walking past a door from which she could hear two voices arguing with each other. One of them reminded her a little of Gambit's voice, but not quite.
"I don't care if your mother is willing to carry the baby for us. Why can't you understand that I want to carry my own child?"
"Honey I get it, I do, but -"
"No, no I don't think you do -"
"I don't want you to get killed by our own child! If our baby gets my powers -"
"I know, I know, it's not uncommon for mutants to get powers in the womb, and you were one of them. Been through this."
"Yes, we have been through this! I thought that we were agreed -"
How the argument ended, Rogue didn't know, for the scene changed.
"Marie? Marie is that you?"
Rogue stared up at the woman before her.
"Mama?"
**********
Rogue was looking at herself in the mirror. She appeared to be maybe a year or two older, it was hard to say. The door bell rang and she waltzed off to answer it. There was an older gentleman on the otherside, with greying hair and something strangely familar about him although Rogue couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Bobby," she heard her voice saying coldly.
And with a start Rogue realised that was exactly who she was looking at.
"Rogue," he replied just as coldly. "You haven't changed a bit."
She shrugged nonchalantly.
"Come in?"
"I think I'll stay right here where people can see me."
"Whatever you wish. What can I do for you?"
"Stop killing people."
Rogue laughed.
"Now wherever did you get a fanciful idea like that?"
"Gambit, Hank," Bobby replied, checking off names on his fingers. "The Professor, Julie, Rachel, Shannon, Piotr, Jean, Scott, Misha, Mystique -"
Rogue started.
"Ahh? Didn't think I knew about Mystique, did you? Lets see, who else?"
"Bobby, you're being silly," Rogue said, reaching towards him.
Bobby moved away and shook his head.
"I'm not stupid enough to let you touch me, Rogue," he said. "What's the point Rogue? Why are you doing this? So you can look young? Is that what this is all about? It's called plastic surgery!"
Rogue felt a sneer form on her face and she felt a great deal of surprise when she found herself reaching out to Bobby telekinetically.
"I'm a parasite, Bobby. Or had you forgotton?"
Rogue began absorbing Bobbys' life force and though she railed against this thing that she would never even consider doing, she continued to absorb until Bobby was nothing but an empty husk.
**********
She was in the med lab at Xavier's with Gambit and Hank, both of whom were looking a few years older.
"What do you mean, I've been absorbing the foetus?" Rogue wailed.
Rogue jerked in surprise, which cut off that vision, but the scenes hadn't finished flooding her yet.
"Mick? What are you doing here?" Rogue asked.
Mick shrugged.
"Just curious."
"Somehow I doubt it."
**********
Rogue was in bed reading a magazine when the door to her room opened. She looked up and felt herself smiling at the people who entered the room. There was something familiar about them although Rogue was quite certain they'd never met. One, a little girl, bounded over to her.
"Grandma!" she shouted merrily. "Merry Christmas!"
Rogue reached our for her grandchild and gave her a hug.
"Merry Christmas, Sugar," she replied.
**********
Gambit put his arms around her.
"Another dizzy spell?" he asked.
Rogue felt a tear roll down her cheek.
"Maybe I'm just not meant to have children."
The scenes started to flash by faster and faster. Rogue stopped being able to make sense of them, and then she was back to herself again. She stared at Corinne.
"Rogue?" Gambit was saying the same time Cliff was inquiring after Corinne.
Rogue stared up at Corinne, shaking her head.
"No," she denied. "No... I shouldn't have... that shouldn't have happened!"
"What shouldn't have happened?" asked Julie.
"I absorbed her!" Rogue shouted, half crying. "I had it turned off! It shouldn't have happened!"
Corinne closed her eyes for a moment, took a breath and shook her head.
"I'm sorry Rogue," she said softly. "But I knew this was going to happen, hmm... the day I met Julie, actually."
"You did?" Julie replied, startled.
Rogue shook her head and Corinne knelt down beside her.
"I don't know what you saw, and I don't want to know," she told her. "Some of what you saw will happen, some of it won't. Some of it probably contradicts. Just knowing the possibility of something happening can be enough to change it.
"... You mean some of what I saw is real?"
Corinne nodded.
"Maybe all of it, maybe most of it, maybe just one or two."
"Oh hell."
"Believe me, I understand your pain completely."
"But... but how do you know? Which is real, and which isn't?"
Corinne shrugged.
"Experience, mostly. You develop a knack for it after awhile. But even just knowing can change it. And telling other people can change it too. Of course, sometime knowing and telling is what brings it about."
Rogue closed her eyes and bured her face in her hands. She shuddered.
"Rogue?" Gambit asked.
"I know, I know," Corinne said. "Believe me, I know. But hey, at least now you can't turn your power off as well as you used to."
Rogue peered at her with tears threatening.
"You have no idea."