Wiping away the tear from her face, Carol realized she had already made her decision. She had just been putting off the inevitable. She had to help them, and she couldn't join Magneto. Her life, as precious as it was to her, wasn't worth her soul.

"Wake Jubes and try to keep her quiet," Carol said, moving away from the cell and over to the control panel.

Magneto hadn't trusted her with the combination to release the barrier, so she used the one-two combination of her fists into the control panel. The barrier sparked and fizzled, disappearing completely. Logan and Jubilee cautiously entering the hallway as soon as it was down.

"Marie?" asked Logan, looking in her eyes.

Carol looked away. "No. Rogue doesn't have any combat experience. Let's get away first."

Logan, who had at first looked disappointed and a bit suspicious, nodded at her logic. "Lead on."

Silently, Carol lead them through the halls that she had walked many times over the course of the past two weeks, trying to clear her head and figure out her future. She knew the way by heart, leading them through the labyrinth of twists and turns.

When they were only a few turns away from escape, Logan stopped. Carol and Jubilee immediately stopped along with him, trusting to his superior instincts.

"Logan, what's wrong?" Carol whispered.

Every muscle in his body was tense. His jaw muscles twitched as he tried to answer her question, but his response just came out in an unintelligible mumble.

Before she could react, a massive creature dropped to the ground behind her, and Sabretooth had her in his tight grasp. His strength was a match for her own, and with her hands gripped in that position, she couldn't get enough leverage to escape. She tried stomping on his feet and kicking back at his legs, but he only laughed at her. Jubilee wasn't doing much better against Mystique, who had been so well camouflaged against the wall, she'd seemed to appear from thin air. She was was using a much larger and stronger body than her natural, blue one, keeping Jubilee's hands pointed in a safe direction.

Logan was still motionless in the middle of the corridor, growling through his teeth. Magneto, one hand held out controlling Logan's skeleton, walked up from the direction they'd come.

"Carol, my dear, I'm surprised at you. After your friends turned their backs on you, we gave you everything: shelter, food, warmth, companionship. This is how you repay us?"

"You're right, Eric," Carol answered. "You gave me a place to stay when I had nothing, and I am grateful for that, but you're wrong about one thing."

"And what is that?"

Carol closed her eyes and surrendered the control she'd held onto so desperately for so long. Raising her head to meet Magneto's eyes, she answered his question. "My name is Rogue."

As she said the words, she felt her bare skin react to Sabretooth's grip, and the connection opened.

Rogue held on only long enough to render Sabertooth unconscious, but it was also long enough to allow her to take on his animalistic qualities. She shuddered as she thought of what his foreign mutation was doing to her body, but now wasn't the time for that.

Magneto was glaring at her as Sabertooth's limp form dropped to her feet, his thin lips twisted down in a bitter grimace.

"My dear, I had such high hopes..." he said quietly, the lethal edge to his voice apparent nonetheless.

"My mama always said not to count yer eggs before they're hatched," Rogue drawled with a smirk in his direction. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mystique and Toad attack Logan and Jubilee, but she had to concentrate on Magneto for the moment. The results of this confrontation would be decided with words, not a power struggle despite what the dueling four might think.

"Yah really should let us go, Erik. The trouble and pain we'll cause will cripple yer little group for a very long time. Even yah're not safe. Neither of my friends can be used as hostages, because yah know that if yah hurt either of them Ah'll kill yah anyway, even if it means having yah in my head for the rest of my life. Ditto on if yah try to fight me. So, as Ah see it, yer only choice is to let us go," Rogue reasoned as sweetly as she could around two much-larger-than-normal canine teeth.

"You've forgotten something, my dear," Magneto said with a small smile.

"Ah don't think so, Erik," Rogue said softly.

"But it's true. You've completely forgotten the manners your mother most likely instilled in you as a child, and what happens when you display bad manners, as you are doing now. For instance, being so rude to me in my own home. Tsk tsk, Rogue-child," he said somberly.

Rogue lifted her chin. "Are yah sayin' that yah would just let us leave?" she asked, not a shred of doubt in her mind as to the answer.

"Of course not. You are all far too valuable, even with the amount of retraining you will require. No, I am simply suggesting that giving in without a struggle would be the best for you and your friends," Magneto told her, smearing the word "friends" with contempt and repulsion.

Rogue smiled slightly as Toad flew overhead, his chopped up and bleeding tongue a tell-tale sign of whom he'd decided to mess with. The smell of scorched flesh told Rogue that Mystique was probably fairing no better with Jubilee.

"Who is going to help you, Magneto? Ah know--because Carol knew, of course--that we're all alone up here. Yer goones are somewhere out in America, trying to provide the professor with a little distraction. Well, it won't work. This world is not yers. It will never be the way yah want it to be. And getting yerself killed won't make yah any more of a martyr than yah already are, Erik," Rogue told him bitingly.

Magneto's face twisted in an expression of fury, but the look in his eyes told her that he knew he was defeated. He turned his head to glare at first Jubilee and then Logan. There's a saying that if looks can kill...well, if that were true, Magneto would've had all of them down on the floor with huge gaps in her skull.

Magneto whispered, "Fine."

Putting his arms out to his sides and using his magnetic powers, he rose above them all in the cavernous junction of the corridors, out of Rogue's reach. In Logan's case, Magneto's gaze *could* kill, and he was certain that this man was the cause of Carol's betrayal.

A wet, sickening crack echoed in the space, followed by a pain filled grunt. Rogue turned to see Logan on the ground, cradling his right leg. Toad and Mystique had retreated from the fight not minute earlier, so the only threat was Magneto, but he was enough.

Jubilee raised her hands to paff the floating man, only to be sideswiped by a flying metal strut. She fell to the ground, unconscious, next to Sabretooth. Rogue was hit in the same instant by metal tubing that immediately wrapped around her arms and legs, trapping her.

Another snap and an aching whine.

"Now do you see who is truly in control?" Magneto lectured her.

Rogue was overcome by the conflicting emotions running through her as she witnessed Logan's suffering. Sabretooth was enjoying it, the smell of blood bringing his personality to the surface. She pushed him down, trying to think. At every shuddering gasp, every stifled grunt, she wanted to scream at Eric, beg him to stop, but she knew that would only drive him on, so she bit her lip and swallowed her words. She had to get free, and there was only one person who could help her.

Reaching deep within herself, she touched Carol. 'I need your help. Neither of us can do this alone. We need to work together.'

Mentally, Carol nodded and reached out, touching Marie. Sharing the body, they combined their powers. Carol broke the metal tubing and took flight, attacking Magneto. After beating him into unconscious, Rogue took over, absorbing enough of his powers to help Logan.

Logan's labored breathing was the only sound, as she knelt down beside his broken body. Magneto had used his nearly impervious skeleton against him, twisting and pulling the metal to break the underlying bones. They couldn't heal until they were back in position.

"Logan." Pain filled hazel eyes met her own, as she took in his injuries. "Logan, I have to reset the bones."

"Do it," he grunted, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth against the upcoming pain.

"Here goes."

Rogue placed her hands hovering just above the compound fracture in Logan's leg. The tibia had been broken, one jagged end of it forced through the skin. As she called up Magneto's powers, the metal lined bone began to move. At Logan's pain filled gasp, she stopped, conflicting emotions running through her. Magneto laughed, Sabretooth thrilled at the smell of blood, Logan growled, David shied away, and Carol didn't know what to think. Logan had been downright mean to her when they'd been back at the mansion, but here he'd been really understanding. She realized that she didn't want him hurt.

"I'm sorry," Rogue whispered to him. She reached out to stroke his forehead, to comfort him, but she pulled away when she remembered she didn't have any gloves on.

Logan nodded at her, then breathlessly answered, "S'okay, just try to do it a little faster."

"I don't know how much control I have. I don't want to hurt you more."

"I trust you," Logan replied, and she could see that perfect trust reflected in his hazel eyes. It made her even more nervous about what she had to do.

Focusing Magneto's powers she prepared to try again. However, using Magneto's powers while trying to keep Magneto's personality down just wasn't working. He kept coming to the fore, trying to hurt Logan at the same time she pushed to help him. She sat back in frustration. Logan needed her help, right now. She had to get control of her mind.

Suddenly, the cacophony of voices faded and died. Marie was surrounded by silence, only broken by Logan's labored breathing.

'What happened?' Marie thought.

'I've got them under control,' Carol's thoughts broke through. 'Hurry. I can't hold them all back for long.'

Marie focused and pushed the bone back through the skin, snapping it into place and smoothing the adamantium over the break. Logan sucked in air like he was going to scream, his eyes bulging. Then they lost all focus, rolling back in his head as his breath came out with a sigh.

"Logan?" Marie asked, shaking his shoulders. "Logan!" She was starting to panic when she noticed the steady rise and fall of his chest. He'd passed out. Perhaps that was for the best.

Marie tried to hurry, resetting the bones before he regained consciousness. Eighteen breaks in all. She could see the open wounds healing, if she looked close enough, but it wasn't going nearly as fast as she'd hoped. They had to get out of here. Mystique and Toad could come back any minute. Sabretooth had a healing factor, and she hadn't touched him that long. Who knew when he'd wake up.

When she turned to look at Sabretooth, she saw Jubilee.

"Jubes!" Her friend's face was bloody from the gash on her forehead. "Jubilee, wake up."

Jubes muttered and reached out her hand to push Marie away. Marie jumped back just in time to avoid the touch. "C'mon, Jubes. I need ya to wake up."

"Five more minutes," Jubilee muttered.

"Jubilation Lee, get up this instant!"

Jubilee's eyes snapped open and focused on her face. "Rogue?"

"Yeah."

"Why are there two of you?"

"There're more of me than that," Marie muttered, then said in a louder voice. "Jubes, you were hit on the head. I need you to help us get out of here. How did you get here?"

Jubilee groaned as she tried to sit up. "Motorcycles."

That was not what she wanted to hear. How was she going to get an injured Jubilee *and* Logan away from here on motorcycles?

"Where'd you leave them?"

"About 10 miles away."

Damn. Of course, even if they were right outside, they were next to useless. She was going to have to fly them out of here. That would be awkward at best and deadly at worst. Jubes had a head injury and Logan was unconscious. What if one of them panicked? What if she dropped them?

Sabretooth's groaning made up her mind. Grabbing Jubilee under one arm and Logan under the other, she took flight, speeding down the remaining corridors and out into the open air.

They'd only gone about 7 miles when Carol's strained voice startled her. "Marie. Land. Now."

She'd just touched down in the middle of the forest, laying Jubilee and Logan down, when the voices broke through Carol's blocks and overwhelmed her.