Title: Deep in your Shadows (The Truth and the Lie Remix)
Author: M Kari (meinterrupted@livejournal.com)
Summary: 'It's a strange feeling to no longer have a body.'
Rating: Adult general
Characters: Rogue, Magneto
Spoilers/Timeline: Post X2.
Word Count: 600
Notes: Many thanks to roguewords and cornfields for beta'ing and handholding. ^_^ And thank you to Alia for such a fun story to play with! Written for '08 slackers remix-a-thon. Story list is here.

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It's a strange feeling to no longer have a body.

To be fair, you have a body, but it is miles away, doing things you should be doing, planning how to protect and enhance the position of mutant kind. And you have a second body, this girl's body, though it is perpetually strange and control over it eludes you.

Her consciousness has blocked you out for years now, relegating you to the back corners of her mind, leaving you mostly undisturbed. The other personalities are little more than white noise, a soft hum far from her forethought. In this small partition, away from the growling ape-man, you wait.

Waiting is something you have always been good at. The other you waited for so long, so long in that plastic box, until Mystique could orchestrate your release. Before that, you waited for years in that Place, that horrible awful Place, until the soldiers came to free you all. You have learned patience in your long years, and it serves you well now.

Slowly, ever so slowly, you become more powerful. She thinks that you will fade away, fade like the boy she nearly killed, the whispers of classmates accidentally touched. But you are too deeply embedded in her brain, too entwined with her psyche to simply dwindle into nothingness.

You begin to talk to her, your thoughts touching hers in such a low whisper that even she isnŐt sure if it is you, or if all the voices in her head have finally made her crazy. She begins to believe, to understand, in ways Charles and his protégés never could. She sees what you see, knows what you know, and in that moment, she fears you, fears what the two of you have become.

Have you always been so naïve, Marie? Your chuckle reverberates through your shared brain, waking the ape-man, who growls to her defense. You back down, for now, sliding back into your corner, silently waiting until the animal calms down and you can resume your planning.

He protects her for days, blocking you out, but the damage has already been done. You could slink away into the edges of her psyche forever now, but she will never be the same again. (You don't, of course--you never could stay quietly in the background, and that is one reason you and Charles parted ways.) Your mannerisms have become hers, and you relish that little bit of control you have gained over her.

You make yourself known to him sometimes, a tilt of her mouth, a word she doesnŐt know, a glance with more experience than her years could give her. Charles knows what you are doing, knows it is you that has nudged her to this precipice, but he cannot stop himself from despising the girl just a little. He worries for his other charges, and that splits his loyalties. For all his moral talk, he values the lives of the many over the lives of the few.

You feel her despair, her need for comfort. She wants to go to Logan, bury herself in his chest and cry, run her gloved hands under his shirt to feel his heartbeat. But more of her wants to feel his skeleton under her fingers, sense the metal respond to her commands. She wants to slide her bare skin against his, feel his essence slipping from his body into hers. She wants to drown Marie in Logan, drown you both in Logan, until there is nothing left but him.

Because losing herself to him is better than losing herself to you.

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