Through a Mirror Clear
By Alyson Hurt

Part Ten

Note: This chapter includes a lot of not-nice stuff, including violence and implied sexual assault. If you're young and/or sensitive to these things, it may be best toskip this.

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters, and I’m not making any money off of them. I don’t know that Marvel would
want them back after all this, either – they’ll all be pretty damaged goods after I’m done with them. <insert prolonged Dr. Evil-like cackle> Erm...yes...Anyway...Thanks again to my betas. All feedback will be properly worshipped – just send it all along to alykat@subreality.com. Previous chapters are archived at my own Down-Home Charm http://www.public.asu.edu/~alykat/X-Men/Rogue/rogue.htm and other wonderful fan-fiction sites.

June 1999

"Hell wasn’t a major reservoir of evil, any more than
Heaven...was a fountain of goodness; they were just sides in
the great cosmic chess game. Where you found the real McCoy,
the real grace and heart-stopping evil, was right inside thehuman mind."
~from "Good Omens"~by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Bobby stirred restlessly in bed, grasping for lucid consciousness through the haze of dulled pain and fading
painkillers. He tried to raise his arms above his head to stretch, only to have the sharp pain in his chest and arms
snap them quickly back to his sides.

'OW! Whatthehellhappenedtome?Whydoesithurt?What'sgoin'on?WhereamI?'

"Hank?" he mumbled groggily through parched lips. He heard no reply, although he thought he heard a noise nearby. "Hank...?" he tried again. This time he heard no noise, but his hair began to prick up on the back of his neck. Fighting against the groggy fatigue that weighted down his swolen eyelids, Bobby slowly opened his eyes. And found himself staring straight into a pair of intense green eyes that sparkled dangerously.

"Rogue?!" Startled, he tried to jump backward in bed, crying out in pain as the sudden movement ripped out some of the
stitches in his abdomen. Instinctually, he simultaneously braced himself against the pain and iced up his left arm
with battle-honed speed to place an icy vise grip on Rogue's neck. Rogue blinked at him in apparent surprise. Although his grip did not hurt her, she looked mournfully at Bobby with hurt and sadness. "Ah -- Ah didn't mean for what happened ... to
happen, Bobby," she stammered.

Bobby's grip only tightened, and his eyes narrowed. The adrenaline coursing through his body dulled his pain, and
his focus was directed entirely at Rogue. She placed her bare hand on Bobby's iced one at her throat and coughed uncomfortably. "Please let me go, Bobby," she said plaintively. "Ah understand that you're angry with me--"

"Angry?" Bobby said heatedly, his hoarse voice rising in volume. "Angry?! I'm more than fucking 'angry,' Rogue."

"Bobb--" Rogue's plea stopped short as she felt the air in her lungs begin to freeze. Her hand tightened around Bobby'sicy one. Bobby's anger only intensified, and he felt new energy surge through him. "I bet this is how you felt when you beat me to
a bloody pulp, huh, Rogue?"

Rogue's eyes were open wide, pleading with him to let her go. They quickly clouded over as Bobby continued to freeze
the air in her lungs, and Rogue's grip on Bobby's wrist laxed until her arm dropped to her side. Bobby let go of her throat when she slumped forward onto him, her limp form draped across his recently stitched-up abdomen. He felt all energy evaporate from his body, and he leaned limply back into his pillow as he stared numbly athis now-thawing hand. Shaking, he placed his bruised right hand on Rogue's shoulder, trying to rouse her.

"Rogue? Rogue, please tell me you're all right. Please? Rogue?" His efforts only served to aggravate the pain in his abdomen and tear some of the stitches. But he continued trying to shake Rogue into consciousness. "Oh god ... Rogue? Please? I didn't mean it ... god ... I don't know what happened ... Rogue?" Bobby jumped back when Rogue suddenly sat up. "Rogue?"

She smiled dangerously at him and reached out to cup his bandaged jaw in her right hand. Closing her grip tighter,
she said menacingly, "Always the underachiever, huh, Bobby? Never one to actually *finish* a job." Bobby screamed out as his jaw shattered in her grip. "How about I give you a lesson in completion?" Her smile tightened at the sight of the tears of pain welling up in his brown eyes.

"Say goodnight, Robert Drake."

"HANK! CECILIA!"

The team's two doctors heard Rogue's frantic screams as they stepped off the elevator down the hall. With a quick glance
at each other, they broke into a sprint toward the MedLab, ignoring for the moment the scalding heat of the freshly-brewed espresso that splashed from their coffee mugs onto their hands and clothes."Rogue?" Hank called out as he ran.

"Hurry! Please!" Rogue cried. "It's Bobby -- I --"

"Calm yourself, child," Beast said as he rounded the corner into the room. His manner was calm, but his voice betrayed
his concern. "What has happened?"

Rogue stood up from Bobby's bed, revealing the young man's bloodied body. Stunned by the sight, Hank and Cecilia
momentarily froze with horror in the doorway. Rogue promptly knocked them out with a burst of concentrated
ice aimed directly at their heads. A smirk on her face, she walked with catlike grace toward the doctors' prostrate
bodies. As she closed in on them, she noted with satisfaction a small pool of blood forming beneath Hank's head.

"One of the originals," she murmured. "One of Xavier’s *favorites.*" She chuckled. "This will hurt him greatly."
She heard a moan escape Hank's lips, and a wicked grin crossed Rogue's face. She stepped back for a moment. A good *kick* would feel really good about now. And with super strength, it might be especially satisfying to see how a
350-lb blue gorilla might ricochet off the walls.She hesitated.

Deep within her mind, another figure leaned back against the wall of the cave that served as her prison. Her eyes
squeezed shut and her mouth set firm with grim determination, she concentrated. 'Get it right this time, girl,' she thought to herself.

A shard of fear threatened to break her co