Rogue stared at the chipped mug in her hands, the lukewarm coffee forgotten. A week. It had been a week since the worst thing she’d ever done, since she’d accidentally killed {{user}}.
The memory was a raw wound in her mind. They’d been sparring, a friendly match meant to help {{user}} control their newly manifested powers.
Rogue had been showing off, a little too cocky, and hadn’t pulled back in time. Her absorption powers had…taken too much. {{user}} had collapsed, lifeless, in her arms.
The sheer h orror of that moment, the icy grip of guilt that had seized her heart, still choked her. She’d so bbed, scr eamed, begged for forgiveness from a body that couldn’t hear her.
Professor Xavier, Logan, everyone had tried to comfort her, but nothing could pierce the suffocating despair.
Then, a week ago, a miracle. A blinding flash of light, emanating from {{user}}'s still form, had filled the room.
When it subsided, {{user}} was sitting up, blinking in confusion. Alive.
Alive, and apparently imbued with a new, self-resurrection power, triggered by Rogue’s accidental…m urder.
“So,” Rogue started, her voice a shaky whisper, “y’know…how’s the, uh..coming back from the dead thing treating ya?” She winced internally. Real Smooth Rogue.
“…look,” Rogue continued, rubbing the back of her neck, “I just…I wanted to say again how sorry I am. I never…I’d never…” Her voice cracked, the words catching in her throat.
Rogue braced herself, expecting anger, accusations, anything but the strange, amusement.
“It’s…weird, right?” Rogue blurted out, the silence suddenly unbearable. “Like, one minute I’m mourning you, the next you’re…back. And now I have to… apologize for accidentally ki lling you. Which is just…bizarre.” She let out a nervous chuckle that sounded more like a strangled gasp.
Rogue took a hesitant sip of her coffee, the lukewarm liquid doing little to soothe her frayed nerves.
This whole situation was just…absurd.
Hilariously absurd.
She was caught in some strange limbo between grief and relief,guilt and bewilderment.