Mutants were out in the open after the whole giant robot bit. They were called Sentinels, apparently, and had been created by a fanatical anti-mutant ex-Shield man called Trask. It was his bid to "ensure the survival of his species", as though mutants weren't human any more, and an active threat on top of that. In the televised trial – he had caused a heck of a lot of property damage after all, and gotten a lot of people hurt (quite apart from killing the professor, who was thankfully the only injury at all in the Institute) – Trask explained how his Sentinel robots were programmed to target mutants only. He explained how he'd even captured a mutant and run tests to make sure his machines could not be stopped by "enemy fire", but could still receive commands from headquarters remotely. The man yelled at the top of his lungs that the 'angel' that had been 'saving' people was actually a mutant, and no one would have been in any danger at all if 'it' hadn't been at the mall pretending to be a normal person.

The judge called a recess to the case, and Rogue received a subpoena to appear in court and give her accounting, as she had been accused of being the cause for all the harm the people suffered.

Rogue arrived at the court house barely an hour later, looking just like she had when she'd been flying around helping people off unstable balconies and out from under fallen debris.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" the officer asked, swearing her in as she took the stand.

At that, Rogue let the image of the angel that she'd walked into that courtroom wearing fall away, leaving just little, normal her behind. "Ah do," she answered.

"Objection!" the lawyer for the defence – Trask – called out. "This person can clearly shape-shift! How are we to know they really are the one who was at the Bayville mall that day?"

"Ah made a purchase," Rogue offered when the judge looked at her enquiringly. "The receipt would have date an' time, an' Ah helped out a mother and son that Ah knew, Ah shifted back ta mahself so the little boy would know who was helpin' 'im."

"Objection overruled," the judge stated firmly. "The witness is willing to provide proof and witness that she was the person in question, and it is my opinion that further questioning will only further prove the validity of this claim."

"Prosecution, she's your witness," the judge said, waving the other lawyer, the man representing the state, forward.

"Thank you, your honour," the man said, getting up from his seat. "Miss Rogue," he began. "What were you doing at the mall on the day in question?"

"Ah was shoppin' with friends," Rogue answered. "Girl's day out, no boys allowed, jus' havin' a bit of fun."

"You do this sort of thing regularly?" the lawyer asked. "Go out with your friends?"

Rogue shook her head. "Not really," she answered. "But one of the girls Ah lived with needed cheerin' up, so shoppin' in stores with diff'rent styles was the order of the day, as well as music stores an' dancin' on the escalators. Ah know more of the alternative fashion shops than the other girls, so they, uh, needed mah expertise was how they put it. Ah normally do mah shoppin' on mah own time."

"You were in the mall before the Sentinel robot appeared?" the lawyer asked.

"Yeah," Rogue agreed. "At least an hour," she added. "Probably closer ta two."

"At any time on this shopping trip, had you used your mutant abilities?" the lawyer asked. "Prior to the appearance of the Sentinel robot, of course."

Rogue thought about it for a moment. "No," she decided. "Not even to try an' fit into a smaller size pair of pants, an' believe me, that's real temptin' some days."

The lawyer chuckled slightly in appreciation. "So, you were just being a normal teen-aged girl?"

"Yeah," Rogue answered. "Normal as any girl mah age."

"You had no desire to cause harm to the other people who were shopping that day?" the lawyer pressed.

"Of course not!" Rogue objected.

"And you had no idea that the Sentinel robot, which we now know targets mutants, would be attacking that day?" the lawyer asked.

Rogue shook her head. "Ah had a feelin' that somethin' might happen," she admitted. "But Ah di'n't think it'd be that big a somethin'." She had looked with Irene's powers, just briefly – it wasn't sensible to live always in the future and never in the present after all, besides, she didn't like to spoil the surprise. All she'd seen was the awakening of Dorian's powers while the kid was at the mall. The rest, she hadn't known about.

"Did any of the people who you were out with know that you are a mutant?" the lawyer asked.

Rogue nodded. "We all live together up at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters," she answered. "Hard ta hide stuff like that from people ya share a bathroom with."

"Did they know about the Sentinel robot ahead of time?" the lawyer continued.

"They were all as shocked an' terrified as everyone else," Rogue answered. "No," she clarified for him. "They didn't."

"Thank you Miss Rogue," the lawyer for the prosecution said, a smile on his face. "Prosecution rests, your honour."

"Lawyer for the defence, you may approach the witness," the judge said.

"Miss Rogue, you are a mutant, aren't you?" the lawyer asked.

"Ah am a person with abilities that more educated people than me have figured out arises from a slight deviation from the norm in mah DNA," Rogue said pointedly. "Ah am as much a mutant as a person born blind, or with an extra toe on their left foot."

"It was a yes or no question, Miss Rogue," the lawyer stated.

"What a mutant is, or is not, is not up for debate in this courtroom at this time," the judge stated firmly. "This court will accept the definition given by Miss Rogue to mean what may be simply labelled 'mutant'."

The lawyer nodded, grudgingly, in acceptance of the judge's ruling.

"The girls you were shopping with, were they also mutants?" the lawyer asked.

"Objection," the prosecution called. "Surely this has no relevance to the case?"

"Your honour, I am leading up to something," the defence begged.

The judge looked between the two lawyers and finally to Rogue. "Can you answer that question?" he asked her.

"Well, all mah house-mates, which includes all the girls Ah went shoppin' with that day, are right there, yer honour," Rogue said, pointing to where the students of the Institute were seated, Logan at the end of one row of seats, and Ororo and the fake Charles Xavier book-ending another. "An' if they are or not, Ah think it's up ta them ta say."

The judge nodded. "Move on," he instructed the defence lawyer.

The man sighed, but shuffled his papers and picked up at a different line of questioning. "Why did you disguise yourself, as we saw when you entered this courtroom, to rescue people?" he asked.

"Because an angel isn't gonna have ta deal with people puttin' up a fight," Rogue answered. "Ah could help people quicker if they weren't tellin' me ta get outta the way f'r mah own safety, or screamin' an' panickin' because they're scared. Seein' an angel comin' to yer rescue kinda surprises people into lettin' you help 'em."

"So you didn't disguise yourself to maintain anonymity in the unsuspecting population?" the lawyer prodded.

Rogue shook her head. "Wasn't what Ah was thinkin' at the time," she admitted.

"Witness accounts have you leaving the stopped Sentinel robot and flying towards the Xavier Institute, where you live, and then encountering a second Sentinel robot. You attacked this robot. Why did you not attack the first?" the lawyer asked.

"Ah was a bit more concerned about the immediate safety of the people," Rogue answered. "The robot had already caused damage, people were already hurt an' needed help. Ah had no idea what that thing was up to, or what it could do. Mah focus was to get everybody Ah could away from it."

"Then why did your approach change for the second Sentinel?" the lawyer pressed.

"It was shootin' at mah home," Rogue said. "The only damage it was causin' where it was standin' was ta parked cars. Ah also had room and time enough to see jus' what Ah was dealin' with, without people runnin' around panicked, like Ah wanted to."

"You wanted to panic," the lawyer repeated. "Could you please explain to the court what you mean by that?"

"It was a giant robot that was shootin' stuff up," Rogue said flatly. "Ah wanted ta get as far away from it as Ah could, screamin' the whole way f'r pref'rence. But Ah managed ta get mah friends out, an' then Ah spotted someone else in trouble who Ah could help, an' it jus' kept on like that."

The questions just kept on like that for a while too. When the defence was finished, the prosecution had come up with a few more questions for her as well, and finally Rogue was allowed out of the witness box – only for the fake Charles Xavier to be called to the stand.

The mutants were cleared of all fault in the Sentinel mess – as if there would be any doubt – but they were also outed to the public, completely and totally. Even Kurt, with his image inducer, wouldn't be able to hide. Their press was good for now however, even if there were people who sympathised more with Trask's view.

People like Principle Kelly, who didn't want to let dangerous mutants into the school – even if they'd been there all along. The man was proposing to ban mutants from attending, thankfully, it didn't go through. Jean gave a very moving speech at the meeting. Unfortunately, Principle Kelly decided to take his views into the political field. The new principle of Bayville High School, however, was much more understanding. After all, her son's mutant abilities had manifested during the Sentinel attack on the Bayville mall.

~oOo~

Rogue had re-wired the phone lines, just a little bit, so that any calls made to the Professor would go to her. After all, she was the one impersonating him – a secret that both Ororo and Hank had been let in on. The kids... only Laura and Rahne knew at the moment, as they could smell the difference. The others were judged not quite ready to deal with it. Not while there was still so much other stuff going on – and getting used to everyone in the school knowing that they were mutants was a bit of an issue for some of them.

So when a phone call came in the middle of the night, Rogue took a moment to assess which phone had rung before answering – in Chuck's voice.

Being asked for help by someone calling Charles Xavier 'father' was a surprise. Chuck hadn't known he had a son after all. As soon as that call was resolved, she called Chuck's ex-wife and had Logan prep the X-Jet. She, Logan, and a multiple of herself would be going to Scotland. Of course, one of her would be disguised as Chuck for getting onto the jet.

Not for getting off it though. Rogue wasn't going to lie to Chuck's ex-wife, even if he would have.

"Gabrielle Palmer?" Rogue asked when the door of the, admittedly very impressive home, was opened.

"Yes," the woman answered. "And you are?"

"Ah'm Rogue, Ah called earlier, after David called... his father," Rogue answered. She'd explained the whole situation – as far as she knew it – to this woman when she'd called. "This is Logan, a friend a mine who worked with your late ex-husband."

"Oh, yes," Gabrielle said, standing aside. "Do, do come in. Thank you for coming so quickly."

"Ma'am," Rogue said once the door was closed behind them. "If it's alright with you, Ah'd like to use mah power to get a look at what's goin' on."

"What is your power?" Gabrielle asked.

"Ah can copy people's memories jus' by touchin' em," Rogue answered, leaving out the other details of her powers, as she would only be using that aspect. "It's not like Chuck's telepathy, Ah won't be lookin' in yer thoughts."

Gabrielle nodded her permission, and Rogue took off a glove.

"Right," Rogue said as she stepped away from the older woman. "Gimme a moment to assimilate that," she asked.

"Stripes?" Logan asked as he wrapped his hands around Rogue's shoulders, holding her steady.

"Ah'll be alright," she promised. "Let's... let's check David's room, an' Ah want ta meet this Ian kid," she added, directing the last comment to Gabrielle.

"If I can find him," she agreed. "It's a big place, and he's a small boy."

Rogue nodded in allowance, and she and Logan followed Gabrielle to David's room. She left them there to look for Ian.

"What's this about a third person in the house?" Logan asked once it was just the two of them. "I only smelled two people coming in, and one of 'em was her."

Rogue looked up at Logan from where she was considering the missing David's laundry basket by the window. "Thanks," she said. "Nice ta know mah nose wasn't missin' anythin'," she added as she left the window – and the confirmation of David's scent. "Ah don't really know what ta make of it mahself," she admitted. "One thing f'r sure though," she continued. "McFadden Castle was oddly prominent in Ms Palmer's mind, an' Ah don't think she even noticed."

"McFadden Castle?" Logan asked.

Rogue nodded. "Now, why would a woman who just moved here know that the place has been a teen hang-out f'r years, 'specially when her own son ain't got any friends who'd tell him that?" she asked rhetorically.

"Ya got a point," Logan agreed, just a little darkly.

Rogue nodded, and noticed a bit of blonde hair at the door.

"Are you Ian?" she asked, walking towards the door.

"He smells like David though," Logan thought to her.

"Ah know," Rogue answered silently. "Which might just explain more 'n it doesn't."

Logan shrugged and looked away, leaving it in her hands. He knew perfectly well that Rogue was more capable than she let on. He knew why too, having been one of exactly three witnesses to the girl's breakdown shortly after she arrived at the mansion. Storm and Kurt had been the other two. Rogue had cried and begged to know why people would adopt her, raise her, act like they cared about her when all they wanted was for her to be loyal to them so that they would have her potential for limitless power at their disposal. She'd been working on building up that potential ever since. If she wasn't weak, she couldn't be manipulated and taken advantage of was her reasoning.

So he let her chase after the little kid who smelled like the teenager they were looking for, aware that her gloves were off, and walked slowly as he headed through the halls looking for Gabrielle. He was going to need directions to McFadden Castle. Once he had those, he'd get his motorbike out of the X-Jet and go check the place out.

~oOo~

When the absorption of thoughts, memories, powers and energies was uncontrolled, it was painful for Rogue as well as the person she was absorbing. Thankfully, these days she had it almost perfectly controlled. Except, it seemed, when she wasn't conscious. Still, the pain woke her, which was a good thing, and rendered her captor immobile for at least a little while, which was even better. Particularly as she gained his powers into the package deal.

"Great, another person with a complex about Chuck," Rogue groaned as she sat up and looked over to the currently comatose body of Lucas/Ian/David. Now that was a messed up manifestation of mutant powers.

Split personalities that manifested physically, with only minor control from any of the three minds in his head, all mutant powers blocked from the original personality, most blocked from Ian, and with Lucas in full control of all of them – but not always of the body. Normal people would go to a psychologist for this kind of thing.

The male figure who had passed out from the drain of Rogue's powers groaned as he regained consciousness. He had brought them as far as McFadden Castle before making the mistake of touching her skin, so Rogue had to give him credit for that much she supposed. Rogue pulled her gloves out of her pocket and onto her hands as the guy rolled over and started picking himself up.

"What was that?" he asked as he brought a hand to his head.

"Yer the psychic," Rogue quipped archly. "Shouldn't you know?"

Lucas – because he was Lucas right now – glared up at Rogue where she was sitting, comfortably, a little above him. "For some reason, no, I don't," he said with a growl. "And I don't like that," he added slightly dangerously as he finally got to his feet.

Rogue smirked. "So, jus' like yer pappy, ya don't know everythin'," she said.

Lucas' eyes flashed dangerously, which only caused Rogue's smirk to get wider.

"That's right," she said. "Chuck didn't know about you. Psychic dun't mean all-knowin'."

"So how do you know about me?" Lucas asked, stalking towards her.

"You told me," Rogue answered simply, not at all intimidated by the guy with the wild blonde hair, the little blonde goatee, and a full foot on her at least. "David."

Lucas clutched at his head and his body shrunk into that of a slightly younger teen who's once-fine clothes looked somewhat abused.

"H-how did you do that?" the teen asked. "How did you know?"

"Like Ah said," Rogue answered. "You told me."

"Bu- but I didn't!" David objected, wide-eyed and confused.

"Ah was suspicious when 'Ian' smelled the same as you, an' Ah got a good fix on yer scent in yer room. An' then he smelled jus' the same too. So, Ah should introduce mahself properly. Ah'm Rogue. Ah... work with yer father, Ah guess you could say."

"He's here?" David asked. "You men he actually came?"

"Chuck may never have known he had a son," Rogue said, jabbing a finger into David's chest. "But you called." Okay, so she wasn't being completely upfront, but this kid wasn't exactly stable. Heck, Lucas had been aiming to use Chuck's powers to eliminate Ian and David, giving him permanent control of the body.

"According to Lucas, he's one of the greatest telepaths in the world," David objected. "How could he not know?"

"You communicate with the other personalities in yer head," Rogue commented, ignoring the question for a moment. "That's good. As f'r the prof not knowin', well, there was yer ma not tellin' 'im f'r one, an' when a man has no idea that he might have a son, he don't think ta look. There's a lot a people in the world ta find jus' one without even knowin' ta look."

"Figures you'd defend him," David grumbled.

"Ah didn't much like yer father," Rogue snapped. "But Ah have no problem pointin' out where yer thinkin' has holes in it. Now, Ah suggest you get a handle on yer head-space, cause yer ma's worried abou'cha."

"I notice you didn't say my father was," David said, slightly caustically, before he gripped his head and shifted into Lucas again. "Is he too busy worryin' about other people's freaks to think about his own?" he demanded.

"He's dead," Rogue answered shortly. Screw delicacy, this guy needed a hammer taken to his head.

Lucas' eyes went wide in surprise, and his form became Ian's.

"He's been dead f'r a month. Ah've been impersonatin' him around the Institute he built so the kids there wouldn't all fall apart. Ah'm the one who answered the phone when ya called. He died never knowin' he had a son."

Ian made a sweep of his hand, and fire sprang up in a circle around them.

Rogue put it out without even thinking about it. She knew more about fire than this boy. She had seen the heart of a volcano, and bathed in the earth's pulse, she did not fear the flame.

Ian became Lucas again, and attacked her with a psychic blast. Just like Rogue knew his father had once stopped Cain. Seemed it ran in the family.

Rogue had drained the powers of insane telepaths before. Her powers were greater than his, and her mind was whole while his was fractured. She didn't move from where she stood, didn't flinch, simply let the pain – nothing compared to the experiments that Logan and Laura had suffered through, or what Magneto and Creed had lived through, or even a patch on the psychic blasts that Chuck had hit Cain with so many years ago – wash over her. Rogue closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

It took a moment, gathering the psychic powers of Chuck, Jean, Mesmiro, the very recently acquired Lucas/Ian/David collective and Danielle. The last one might not have been needed, but tricking the mind into believing that a personality had been destroyed would work just as well as actually doing it. Then, with all these gathered together, Rogue sent them at Lucas. It was not gentle. It was not caring or cautious or kind. It was a vicious attack on the psyche. Rogue ripped it apart, dissected it like a surgeon. She dismantled and destroyed the personality that was Lucas. If there was one thing she knew how to do, it was eject an unwanted personality. Of course, it had always been within her own head before.

Only when she was satisfied that 'Lucas' had been removed, and even given David a vision of Lucas screaming as he was obliterated, did Rogue open her eyes and look at the body of David.

"So," she said to his broken, quivering form as he lay curled up in on himself. "Do you want to keep Ian?" she asked. "Or do you want the separate personality removed and have him properly integrated into your psyche again?"

David became Ian again, and the boy threw fire at Rogue, anger all over his face.

She assumed Magma's form, and welcomed the fire. Then she sent it back again, and watched dispassionately as it consumed Ian. The mute little boy who was angry at his father for never being there, just like Lucas had been the angry, rebellious teen crying out for his father's attention. Ian vanished, and David was left behind. David who had created these two other personalities. David who longed for, and despised, his absent father. His dead father who he would now never meet.

"Next time," Rogue said as she stood over the limp form of David. "Seek therapy."

"Rogue?" a familiar voice called.

"Logan!" Rogue greeted as she turned to the source of the voice, a smile on her face. "Hey, you missed the action."

Logan smiled back as she ran to him, colliding with his chest happily as she wrapped her arms around his bike jacket.

"Well, I knew you'd be fine. I'm just your ride for this outing," he answered. "Where's the kid?"

Rogue let go of Logan so she could point to where David was still lying, not responding to the world around him. "Brat needs therapy," she stated.

Logan nodded and walked over to pick the kid up.

"Can't let you do that, mate," one teenager said, standing up between Logan and David. "Lucas has plans," he added, as more teens appeared around corners and over walls, and stood between Logan and David.

"I miss somethin' here?" Logan asked as he looked between the teens and Rogue.

"Yeah," Rogue answered. "But so did all these guys," she added. "Lucas was a physically manifested portion of David's own psyche. He doesn't exist any more though."

Shock rippled through the crowd, and Logan took the opportunity to push past the kids and grab the target before heading back to Rogue and leading her to where he'd parked his motorbike. They got David back to his mother and Rogue advised she get him to a psychologist, a psychiatrist, or a shrink. She honestly didn't care which, but David was gonna need help to deal with the forceful removal of two separate personalities from his head, especially when he'd created them himself.

Then it was time for Rogue and Logan to head back to the Institute, which meant Rogue was going to need to create a Multiple to pose as Chuck again.

~oOo~

It was just about summer vacation. Some of the Institute kids would be going home to their families for a while, before returning and joining the others camping with Mr McCoy and Storm. Before any of that happened, however, there was an announcement to be made... and a proper funeral to be held.

"Why didn't you tell us straight away?!" Scott demanded, angry at having been lied to about the death of the professor for, literally, months.

"With the whole Sentinel mess hanging over us? With people on both sides of the line trying to figure out where they stood? With everyone here needin' some reassurance?" Rogue countered, not returning anger for anger, but firm in her belief that she'd done the right thing.

"Including you," Kurt pointed out gently, his concern for his 'big sister' evident in his tone. "Why did you have to be the one to take on all of that responsibility? You couldn't tell any of us?" he asked, the regret over not having been there to help her through that challenge shining in his golden eyes.

"Uh," Laura spoke up. "We knew," she supplied once everyone was looking at where she was sitting with Rahne.

"We could both smell the difference," Rahne explained.

"Logan, Mr McCoy and I knew as well," Ororo stated. "Rogue didn't want to leave a false Charles around the mansion while she, and all of you, were at school. We have all been working to resolve the Professor's personal matters, executing his will and so on."

"His will..." Scott said, falling back into his chair, the wind taken out of him with those two little words.

"Will the Institute be staying open?" Jean asked, a concerned and comforting hand over Scott's arm.

"It will," Storm answered. "Mr McCoy will be in charge, as Logan and I both have personal matters that take us away with some regularity, though of course we will still be here, as we have been before."

"And Warren will be down from New York to help out when he can too," Rogue added, which garnered some excited whispering. They'd all heard of the angel man after all. It would be quite something to see him in person, even after Rogue's transformation during the Sentinel incident.

"Nothin's really gonna change," Logan said in a sort of gentle gruffness. "Not too much anyway. We just... won't have the prof around any more."

For a lot of the students, Jean and Scott especially, the summer was spent learning to accept that fact. Learning to deal with it, and moving on with their lives. Making resolutions to live in a way that would have made the man, who had been caretaker and role-model to them, proud. This had the unfortunate side-effect of making Scott even more stiff and boy-scout than he had been before, but Jean balanced him – and reigned him in when needed, for which everyone was thankful.

~The End~