Written by: Robert N. Skir & Marty Isenberg
On a dark stormy night, a young woman is accosted by a man wanting her umbrella to keep him dry from the rain, only for the woman to change her face into something monstrous to scare the man away. Shortly after, she arrives at an abandoned building and enters a dark, unlit room. As she provides some light with her lighter, the woman transforms back into Mystique, who then lights a candle before speaking with someone hidden in the shadows, only illuminated by the lightning to be seen as Mister Sinister. Revealing that Professor Xavier is no longer with the X-Men, having gone missing with Magneto, Sinister tells Mystique that now is her chance to get Rogue, her foster daughter, back from them. Satisfied with the information she has received, Mystique transforms back into her disguise and heads back out into the storm, as Sinister laughs wickedly.
The next day or so, the Brotherhood is attacking a local marketplace, with Pyro intentionally trying to get the attention of the X-Men by creating their logo in the sky with his flamethrowers. Right on cue, the X-Men arrive to do battle with the Brotherhood, but after Rogue is knocked out of the sky and is about to rejoin the fight, she is confronted by a blonde woman in a blue coat. This causes Rogue to suffer several visions of something in her past, causing her great pain and distress. When the other X-Men notice her in trouble, they take her back to the X-Mansion.
Once there, Rogue tries to explain what happened, but another attack causes her to apparently suffer amnesia, as she doesn't recognize any of the X-Men, and in her distressed state, she shoots up through several floors of the X-Mansion before flying away. Concerned, Cyclops has Storm follow her.
Storm finds Rogue on the Statue of Liberty's torch, but as the two X-Women talk, right as Storm has convinced Rogue to return to the X-Mansion, another vision causes Rogue to take her leave to try and find the source, forcing Storm to follow her. Rogue reaches the roof of a hospital that the vision of the blonde woman led her to, and after breaking the lock on the door to the stairwell, heads down; she is unaware that Mystique is watching her head down, knowing that Rogue will be hers again soon. However, Mystique soon sees Storm approaching, and disguising herself as Rogue, lures Storm down to be ambushed by Blob. Before Storm can retaliate, Mystique sprays her with sleeping gas, then takes on her appearance to use Storm's communicator to call the other X-Men for help. When Wolverine, Gambit, and Cyclops arrive later, Mystique ambushes them with the Brotherhood, before revealing her reason to be Revenge for taking Rogue away from her. However, as the X-Men do battle with the Brotherhood, Mystique slips away to go after Rogue. Storm soon recovers from her sleep, and easily dispatches Pyro, Blob, and Avalanche with her powers, before they go into the hospital to help Rogue.
Inside, Mystique, disguised as the blonde woman again, lures Rogue to the room where the real one is sleeping in a heavy coma, before having Rogue temporarily absorb her shape-shifting power and memories to learn the truth behind the visions she's been having.
After Rogue was disowned by her father for being a mutant, Mystique, disguised as the middle-aged woman she had shown Rogue previously, took Rogue into the Brotherhood to help her gain better control over her powers. However, one night, when they were breaking into a military base to steal a plane, they were attacked by Ms. Marvel - the blonde woman. When Rogue took off in the plane, Ms. Marvel pursued her and attempted to fly the plane back to the base. On Mystique's urging, Rogue used her powers on Ms. Marvel, but began to become scared as she used her powers for a longer duration than normal, despite Mystique telling her to keep going. As a result, Rogue ended up permanently absorbing Ms. Marvel's powers of flight and durability, thus making her into the mutant she is today, but also rendering Ms. Marvel comatose. Because of that, Rogue left the Brotherhood and Mystique, and soon met Professor X, who used his psychic powers to help Rogue put the memories of Ms. Marvel and her mind, which Rogue had absorbed as well, into a dormant state. However, with Professor X no longer able to help Rogue, those memories and Ms. Marvel's mind have awoken, and she's trying to punish Rogue for destroying her life.
Back in the present, Mystique attempts to console and even hug Rogue, but angered at learning the truth, Rogue wants nothing to do with Mystique anymore. However, the temporary absorbing of Mystique's shape-shifting powers causes Rogue to find herself in a struggle with Ms. Marvel for control of her body, as Ms. Marvel uses Mystique's power to try and shape-shift Rogue's body back into her own to be reborn. She gets distracted by the arrival of the X-Men, giving Rogue a chance to fight back, resulting in Rogue shapeshifting herself into an identical clone of Mystique. When the real one tries to help, Ms. Marvel reasserts control, grabs Mystique after changing Rogue back into Ms. Marvel's superhero appearance, and flies off, with Storm giving pursuit.
However, back at the X-Mansion, Jean Grey is able to help Rogue via Cerebro, traveling into Rogue's mind to help her fight off Ms. Marvel's mind. At the same time, Mystique's powers wear off, and Rogue returns to her normal appearance. In Rogue's mind, when Ms. Marvel attacks Jean when she tries to intervene, Rogue appears to help, until Jean appears as a giant to subdue both of them long enough to try and reason with Ms. Marvel, warning her that if she destroys Rogue, she'll destroy the both of them. However, Ms. Marvel doesn't care, even when Rogue tries to apologize, and with tears streaming from her eyes, Ms. Marvel goes for the kill, only for Jean to intervene as she traps Ms. Marvel in a cage that Rogue closes and then covers with concrete, sealing Ms. Marvel's mind away once more, though not without Rogue crying as she does so. With Ms. Marvel's mind finally subdued again, Jean mentally tells Cyclops that Rogue is fine now.
Back with Rogue, with her mind finally no longer under attack from Ms. Marvel's, she lands on a roof to drop off Mystique, tells her off, saying she's with the X-Men now, and leaves with Storm to go home.
At a later time, Rogue returns to Ms. Marvel's hospital room; as she leaves some flowers for her, she reveals Ms. Marvel's real name, Carol Danvers, to the doctor when asked. After Rogue leaves, the monitor reading Carol's brain begins to detect activity again, as Carol softly reacts with a smile.
This episode provides examples of:
- All-Loving Hero: In the flashback, Xavier is this so much that he personally flew the Blackbird to Rogue's location simply because he felt her suffering.
- And I Must Scream: Dialogue from Ms. Marvel suggests that she was still somewhat aware of her situation, even after Xavier suppressed her.Ms. Marvel: I've been waiting a long time for this, sister!
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: During the climax, Rogue faces Ms. Marvel. Rogue reluctantly helps seal her away again.
- Berserker Tears: Ms. Marvel during her final fight with Rogue.Rogue: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it.
Ms. Marvel: "Sorry" doesn't give me back my life! - Big "NO!": Jean, before Ms. Marvel can finish Rogue. Followed by Ms. Marvel doing this, as she's sealed away.
- Catapult Nightmare: Rogue, when she makes up in the medlab.
- Deadpan Snarker:Blob: Was that supposed to hurt? Eat sidewalk! [throws Wolverine to the pavement]
Wolverine: Needs salt. - Despair Event Horizon: Rogue feels her situation is hopeless now that Xavier is gone.
- Fate Worse than Death: Rogue feels she's worse than a killer for what happened to Ms. Marvel. When Jean tries to warn her of the consequences of Battle in the Center of the Mind, Ms. Marvel says that ending things here and now would be preferable.
- Flashback: An extended one showing Rogue's life after her father disowned her. She is taken in by Mystique in disguise, runs away after what happens to Ms. Marvel, and is found by Xavier.
- I Have No Son!: During the flashback, Rogue's father disowns her for being a mutant, which is what forced her to run away the first time.Rogue's dad: You ain't my daughter. Not anymore.
- Ironic Echo: Rogue disowning Mystique echoes almost exactly what her father had said when disowning her.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Xavier suppressed all of Rogue's memories relating to working for Mystique and what happened to Ms. Marvel.
- Lesser of Two Evils: Xavier suppressed Ms. Marvel's mind and Rogue's knowledge of all this, as the only other option was the two of them struggling for control of one body and killing each other in the process.
- Magic Pants: When Rogue absorbs Mystique's powers, her uniform also shifts when she shapeshifts into Mystique and into Ms. Marvel.
- Mirror Scare: When looking in a mirror, Rogue sees a monstrous version of Ms. Marvel lunge at and try to strangle her. A panicked Rogue ends up breaking the mirror fighting back.
- My God, What Have I Done?: "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Mystique's attempt at restoring Rogue's memory relating to her was to make her remember that they were a family. However, it also made Rogue remember why she left her in the first place.
- Origins Episode: For Rogue.
- Previously on…: Focusing on Rogue's powers and how they make her feel isolated.
- Properly Paranoid: Jean finds multiple photos of the mysterious woman being present for events that would interest the team. Cyclops immediately suspects that this person wants to be seen by them.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The final scene suggests Carol may yet recover.
- Series Continuity Error: This episode shows that Rogue used to be a member of the Brotherhood alongside Pyro, Blob and Avalanche. For some reason, when Rogue met Pyro and Avalanche in Season 1, she didn't remember them, nor did they remember her. The former could at least be justified by Xavier blocking out much of Rogue's memory during her time with Mystique.
- Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Mystique shapeshifts into Carol Danvers.
- Sharing a Body: Ms. Marvel's mind is trapped in Rogue's. Even Xavier can't find a way to return her to her own body yet.
- This Cannot Be!: As Rogue acts increasingly erratic, Jean probes her mind. She's stunned to discover a second presence.
- Unwitting Pawn: Rogue accuses Mystique of just using her as a means to get rid of Ms. Marvel and sticking her with the horrific consequences.
- Villain Team-Up: Sinister meets with Mystique to reveal to her that the X-Men are without Xavier.
- Voices Are Mental: At the mansion, when Ms. Marvel briefly gains control of Rogue's body.
- Will Talk for a Price: Mister Sinister warns Mystique that the information he's about to give her will require repayment one day.
- Unperson: Xavier did this to Ms. Marvel, at least as far as Rogue was concerned. The plot demonstrates why; just seeing Carol's image is enough to awaken her true personality and nearly kill both her and Rogue. Meanwhile, the hospital Carol is in simply has no idea who she is, referring to her as just a Jane Doe until Rogue tells a nurse her real name.
- You Did the Right Thing: After it's all over, Jean tries to reassure Rogue by telling her Ms. Marvel didn't give her any other choice.
- "You!" Exclamation: During her nightmare, Rogue says this when seeing an image of the form that Mystique used when adopting her.
- You're Not My Father: Rogue rejects Mystique after the whole ordeal is over.Rogue: I ain't your daughter, Mystique. Not anymore.
