Summary: A ramble on Rogue. One shot.

A/N: Hello. This is the sort of thing that comes into my head when I'm tired and can't sleep. A bit trite and obvious, and I'm sure it's been done before; but for what it's worth, here it is.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own words. Seriously - I'm poor. There's no point in suing me.

My Name Is...

When asked for her real name, what does she say? It's the gesture that counts, after all; the feeling that they are being trusted with her deepest secret. The confidence. But what name does she give?

Perhaps it depends on who she's talking to, and how she feels at the time. Honestly, she's not sure what her real name is any more. She's not sure who her real self is for that matter. She's made up of all the people she's ever touched; she has all those memories floating around in her head that used to belong to other people. Which of those memories are really hers? Which of those names is hers? How much of who she is and how she feels is from herself? When she makes a friend, when she makes an enemy, when she falls in love – is it her who feels these things? Or is it the ghosts of her curse; their lingering emotions that she feels?

And all around her "The Mutant Question" is blazing in the headlines, lighting political fires across the world. All those people with such strong opinions. Arguing. Fighting. Tearing the world apart to make it safe for "people like us".

Who are they, she wonders, these "people like us"? There's nobody quite like her, she's sure. What with all the minds she's absorbed over the years, she doesn't know what she really thinks about the whole messy situation. She just knows that she wants to be left in peace.

But she's never at peace, never alone. She carries her echoes with her always.

Sometimes she thinks she might crack: start calling herself Legion and laughing demonically. Her mercurial temper and uncertain loyalties have lost her many friends, and she doesn't think anyone would much notice, or care, if she did go crazy. Maybe she will, one day. But not today.

Today, she is just Rogue. Whoever that is.