Rogue

Anna’s journey begins in Caldecott County, where she was born to the beautiful Priscilla and her lover Owen. Her parents married far too early in their relationship. In an attempt to fix their decaying relationship, Priscilla got pregnant. Nine months later she birthed a baby girl that she named Anna-Marie. Unfortunately the young couple was whisked into a nature-loving commune where they joined in an insane plan to reach “the Far Banks,” a dreamland from Native American mythology, where the rules of the physical world no longer applied. The commune hired a shaman to take them to the Far Banks, but something went horribly wrong during the ceremony. Owen had planned to sacrifice Priscilla to the spirits of the Far Banks, but she took control of them and closed the mystical place behind her as she vanished. Grief stricken, Owen pleaded with Priscilla’s sister Carrie to aid him in raising his daughter. Anna-Marie, who had been nicknamed Rogue, didn’t have a pleasant childhood with her aunt as Carrie used a rough education on her in an attempt to prevent her from making the same mistakes her mother made. However, Anna did not go entirely without love, as her beauty was well recognized by the boys of her town. There is one boy in particular she fell in love with, named Cody Robbins. She was with him one night, under a full moon, during their first kiss, when she developed her powers, leaving her first love in a lifelong coma. Cody’s father and some of the town’s folk ambushed Anna’s home. While Owen fought off the mob, Anna stole one of his guns and ran as far as she could into swamp land. She was seen and chased by a small part of the mob while looking at her followers; Anna ran into a stranger and fell unconscious. She never saw how, but she was rescued by the time-traveling Cable. He quickly dealt with the mutant haters and left before Anna awoke. In the swamps, holding her father’s gun, she stumbled upon a beautiful woman named Raven Darkholme (Mystique).

Mystique took Anna home with her where she introduced the teenager to Irene Adler ( Destiny), Raven’s lover. In a few short weeks Anna grew to trust the two women, and she would expose herself as a mutant; what was most shocking to her was that her foster mothers themselves were also mutants. With this information she grew to further trust them, and even love them. It was with them she met her closest friend, another mutant girl her age who called herself Blindspot, her powers allowed her to erase anyone’s memories by touching them. Her powers seemed to counteract Anna’s mutation and they were able to safely touch each other, which pleased Anna to no end because this made her feel normal.She felt pressured by Mystique to join her terrorist group, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but Anna wanted a normal life. When Anna was dared to kiss a boy named Freddy, her powers kicked in and she drained him too. After that she would never speak to him again, and with no sign of a normal life ever being possible she joined Mystique and The Brotherhood. Anna frequently tested her limits. Mystique often needed to keep her in line, as Anna took her powers too lightly and enjoyed using her abilities for fun. Anna also dyed her naturally white streak brown, only to replace it with two white streaks on her temples, apparently in an attempt to look older.

During their final mission together, they were hired to travel to Japan and break into the house of Lord Dark Wind, the father of Lady Deathstrike. They were to steal his plans for the adamantium bonding process. In order to succeed, they had to team-up with Sunfire. During the mission, Sunfire was knocked out and Anna took his flame powers. She loved flying and wanted to keep these abilities, but they quickly faded, although not before Anna destroyed major parts of Dark Wind’s estate. Although they hadn’t accomplished their actual mission, the Brotherhood still classified this as a victory, and to celebrate, Blindspot took a picture of Mystique, Anna and Sunfire with Dark Wind’s burning property in the background. Back home, though, Mystique had enough of Blindspot and exiled her from the group. In order to protect herself, Blindspot erased Mystique’s, Anna’s, and everyone else’s memory of her to move on without being recognized. Life went on for Rogue, Mystique and Destiny as if nothing had happened. In time, Destiny received precognitive visions that warned her about the Avenger known as Ms. Marvel costing Rogue her soul one day.

Destiny discussed this with Mystique, who then vowed to not allow it, even if it would kill her. Anna, only hearing the last part, decided she would hunt down Ms. Marvel herself in order to protect her mother. However, Ms. Marvel had vanished from Earth and the Avengers‘ active roster, having been taken to Limbo by Marcus, was nowhere to be found. When Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants made their public debut, Destiny had convinced Mystique to keep Rogue back from the mission as a failsafe. Destiny proved to be correct, for all of the Brotherhood, except Mystique who was captured in their first mission by the X-Men. During this incident Anna learned that Carol had returned and was now living in San Francisco. Unaware that this would cause the danger that Destiny had predicted, she tracked down and battled Ms. Marvel on the plane.

Carol resisted Anna’s powers like nobody before and something went wrong. Anna found that, somehow, her metabolism had permanently retained Ms. Marvel's mind and powers. Fearing for her own sanity and identity, since she kept hearing Carol's voice in her head, Anna threw her body off the bridge, hoping that her physical death would also kill the voice in her head. Unfortunately for Anna, she was rescued by Spider-Woman, who brought Carol to a hospital where Charles Xavier could partially restore her memories. Under Mystique’s guidance, Anna proceeded to attack the Avengers one by one, absorbing the powers of Thor and Captain America, with Raven impersonating Nick Fury, she tried to free the rest of the Brotherhood from prison. However, the remaining Avengers and Spider-Woman prevented the breakout. As most of her stolen powers were already fading, Anna escaped with Mystique to avoid being captured as well. Several weeks later, the X-Men sneaked into the Pentagon with Carol to delete their data files. In one of the corridors, they ran into Anna, who was there thanks to Mystique's secret identity as a government agent. Immediately, a fight started and Anna absorbed both Wolverine and Storm’s powers.

After regaining consciousness, Storm created an air vortex to carry Rogue away, as she did not want to endanger the Pentagon personnel by a fight. Soon, Mystique tried once more to release her teammates from prison. Anna and Mystique easily defeated the guards, but Rom (the Spaceknight), discovered the breakout. He easily rendered the Blob, Pyro and Avalanche unconscious, because they fought unorganized. Mystique angrily decided to leave them in prison for a while longer. Searching for new allies, Mystique, Destiny and Anna found Hybrid (a half-human, half- Dire Wraith) and offered to team up with him against their common enemies, Rom and the X-Men. In combat with Rom, Rogue touched his Galadorian armor and absorbed some of his inherent nobility in the process. When Hybrid revealed his plans to turn the entire Earth, including mutants, into his slaves and cattle, the mutant trio opposed him before fleeing. While Rom battled Hybrid alone, Rogue showed the potential for goodness for the first time, as she went back against Mystique’s orders, finding she could not bring herself to leave without helping the Spaceknight. Wanting revenge on the X-Men for having spoiled their plan to assassinate Senator Kelly, Mystique and her partners assaulted Angel.

During the fight, Rogue was supposed to absorb the knowledge of the X-Men’s whereabouts from Angel’s mind but she did not want to use her powers on him, as the wings were a physical mutation and Rogue feared what effect that would have on her. While distracted with their own problems, Dazzler took Anna and Mystique by surprise with her light powers. Anna then developed a grudge against Dazzler, the woman who had everything that she wanted. Having been a fan of her music before, she now saw that Alison Blaire had also a controllable mutant power and a beautiful boyfriend. Slowly, the personality and memories that Anna had permanently absorbed from Ms. Marvel began to overpower Anna‘s mind, affecting her control and her sanity. Finally, after seeing that Mystique clearly couldn't aid her with these problems, she turned to Charles Xavier and the X-Men.

Shortly after moving into the X-Men's headquarters, Anna changed her hair back to its original style with the single white streak, to reflect her inner change and to support the idea of a fresh start. Naturally, the X-Men were suspicious of the former enemy among their ranks, especially Wolverine, who was good friends with Carol. However, slowly but surely, Rogue gained the X-Men’s trust, by risking her own life to save Wolverine’s fiancé, Mariko Yashida. Naturally, Mystique noticed that Anna had left the house and, before long, she tried to get her daughter back. While the Brotherhood kept the rest of the X-Men busy, Mystique infiltrated the mansion and knocked out Xavier. She believed that he must have mentally controlled Anna to make her abandon the Brotherhood, but after Rogue stated that it was her own choice to join the X-Men, considering that Xavier might be her last chance to control her power, Mystique reluctantly agreed and left.

Rogue found a message from Colonel Mike Rossi, asking for help. Rogue immediately went to help him and rescued him from the SHIELD Heli-Carrier. Without realizing it, she accessed memories and personality traits of Carol Danvers, and even her voice and accent changed. She had stolen the very identity of Carol Danvers, everything that had made her the person she was, was forever lost to Carol and locked away in Rogue’s head. After being framed for murder, the government planned to use a prototype power neutralizer on Rogue. Rogue was still struggling against the Ms. Marvel personality that was still inside her. Mystique learned of this in her guise as a governmental employee, and Destiny's prediction of the danger. They alerted Storm to Rogue’s whereabouts and after she had found her, Storm and Rogue finally sorted out their differences and Ororo proved her trust by volunteering to let Rogue absorb her power. Rogue was tempted to permanently absorb the weather abilities but resisted, not wanting to betray the trust placed in her.

Suddenly Henry Gyrich and his forces attacked and it became painfully clear that Mystique had not revealed the full extent of Destiny’s vision. Whoever would come to Rogue’s aid would have to take her place and it was now Storm who was hit by the power dampening blast meant for Rogue. With Storm incapable, Nightcrawler became temporary leader of the team, and he tried to test Rogue for the seventh sense that Ms. Marvel had possessed. It seemed that she was only able to manifest this vague ability under great stress, and she had absolutely no interest to develop this ability any further. When attacked by Nimrod, the X-Men were almost defeated. Buried under the rubble of a construction site, Rogue saw no other chance than to absorb the powers of her unconscious teammates all at once. The gamble worked, as Nimrod was confused by Rogue’s use of multiple mutant signatures at once.

During the Mutant Massacre, history seemed to repeat itself. Rogue was temporarily rendered vulnerable by Scrambler’s power canceling effect, and as she was about to be hit with one of Harpoon’s energy lances Kitty Pryde jumped in between, believing to phase both of them to safety. Yet, the energy spear interacted with Kitty’s intangible form, leaving her stuck in phased state. Rogue was saved, but once again at the price of a teammate being harmed. Soon afterwards, Dazzler found herself attacked by the Marauders, and reluctantly joined the X-Men, as she, by herself provided a too easy target. To get into shape, Dazzler excessively trained in the Danger Room and Rogue was not too pleased when she learned that Alison was running simulations with Rogue as the villain.

During the Fall of the Mutants, the X-Men battled a mystical entity known as the Adversary, who was bent on destroying and remaking the multiverse. In the final battle, the X-Men's physical and spiritual essences were used as fuel for Forge's energy star, which closed the doorway to the Adversary’s plane of existence and saved the multiverse. They, in effect, died. Roma, a prisoner of the Adversary and guardian of the multiverse, used her powers to recreate the fallen X-Men from scratch, making her own minor alterations. Now invisible to cameras and all forms of detection equipment, the X-Men resettled to Australia, claiming an abandoned ghost town in the Outback as their new base of operations.

The X-Men used their new status to attack anti-mutant threats around the world, which also brought them in conflict with the island nation of Genosha. Their own super powered agents, the Press Gang, captured Rogue and Wolverine and the unthinkable happened as Wipeout fully canceled both of their abilities. For the first time in years, Rogue was able to experience skin to skin contact, though it now happened against her will. Thanks to a special form of digitalized teleportation, Rogue arrived naked to the prison of Genosha, and the guards took a few liberties when they put her into a cell. Rogue completely withdrew into her subconscious. There, she found out that some psychic residue had remained of all people she had absorbed and now these phantoms tried to overwhelm her. As Anna was fighting for sanity and control within her mind, unexpected help was provided by the permanently absorbed personality of Carol Danvers. She was more than the psychic residue, in fact, she was as solid and real as Rogue. As Carol, with her spy training, was more suited for escaping from the prison without any superpowers, Rogue let Carol take over. From then on, Carol and Rogue agreed on a new modus operandi - the two personalities would actually share the body, with each having their times of dominance, or acting as back up when one was rendered unconscious. It also seemed that Carol had no trouble to keep the absorption power under control. While she was using the body, she touched Psylocke's bare skin without any effect. Evidently, Rogue’s lack of control was strictly psychological in nature.

During Inferno, the X-Men were demonically influenced and started to behave strangely. Rogue was scared by the experience, as it showed her what another presence in her mind could make her do. Afterwards she no longer allowed the Ms. Marvel persona to surface, prompting Carol to take control by force. When the X-women went shopping in a California mall, they run into Jubilee. With Carol in control, she decided to get a new hairdo in the style of Ms. Marvel, and later picked up some personal belongings from her old apartment, she even made Rogue wear the Ms. Marvel costume. The two women did not manage to get their difficulties sorted out again, as soon after, the X-Men fought an all-out battle with the merged Nimrod/Master Mold Sentinel, which ended with the robot being pulled through the Siege Perilous, a mystic gateway that judged all beings and placed them into different lives. On its way into the portal, Nimrod / Master Mold grabbed Rogue, ready to take her along. The X-Men were unsure what to do but, knowing that this was their only chance at victory, Rogue ordered Dazzler to blast both the robot and herself through the Siege. It was said that everyone who entered the magical portal would be judged by the highest of powers, the good and ill of their lives being weighed in the cosmic balance, only to be reborn into a new life without remembering the old one.

Weeks later, Rogue emerged in her room in the Australian Outback town with her memory completely intact. At first, she thought that the whole explanation of cosmic balance and second chances was a hoax, but then she discovered that she no longer had Carol‘s abilities and memories. She was now ground-bound and vulnerable. Suddenly she was attacked by Ms. Marvel. It seemed that the Siege Perilous had attempted to separate the two women and provide each one with a body her own, but there wasn't enough life-force to sustain both of them. Rogue tried to escape through Gateway’s portals and was sent to the Savage Land. Ms. Marvel meanwhile ended up on Muir Island, after being possessed by the Shadow King, she followed Rogue and continued the battle. Whoever had the upper hand of the battle was healthy, while the other withered away. Rogue was about to give up, since she didn’t want to “kill“ Ms. Marvel for a second time, when suddenly Magneto stepped in. He rendered both, and when Rogue woke up, Magneto had used machinery to drain/kill Carol‘s body and restore Rogue to full power, without the Carol personality in her head.