Mutatis Mutandis

Summary: In the aftermath of a war, four survivors struggle to hold on to their identities in the face of a society meant to destroy them.

This is our third Ceremony, but my stomach still twists into little hard knots when the fighting begins. The helplessness is worst-- the knowledge that control of my body is again taken from my hands. We're china dolls on a shelf, waiting to be passed to the winners here today. If I'm lucky, he'll be a friend. A protector. If I'm not lucky... A month can be a very long time.

It is on these mornings when I think of Logan the most. He was built to fight. He lives for it. That's not the way Scott works. All he ever wanted was a family and a safe place for them to live in peace...

In the aftermath of mutant registration, lovers have been separated and mutants must resort to desperate measures to gain any measure of safety. It's going to be a long journey for Logan if he's ever going to get Rogue back - in more ways than one. Meanwhile, Scott and Jean have a hard to choice to make between freedom and security for their child. A harrowing novella that doesn't shy away from the realities of living in a post-registration dystopia, but also shows how strong these characters are.

la bas: song of the drowned

Summary: When someone tries to settle Stryker's score with Logan, Rogue learns a few things about the price of secrets and what it takes to survive the truth.

Five months ago, she'd barely been able to pass for nineteen; now she can walk into any liquor store in the county and sell her age as twenty-one and she knows how to get around the I.D. problem. His redheads aren't the only women in town who know how to wield a tube of lipgloss like a machete. He turns down her offer, sticking with all the stubbornness of his latent honor to the deal he made with the One Eyed Wonder not to drink in front of students. But he doesn't try to stop her; maybe he figures he doesn't have the right, maybe he just doesn't know how. He could punch through metal and walk across fire and any other grand melodrama, just to save her, but he can't even look at the scars on her wrists without flinching.

Rogue's relationship with Logan causes more than one kind of trouble after she's kidnapped. Dark and excellent.

After the Fact

Summary: Rogue ties up loose ends in her life.

Three months in Seattle and seven before that: it's been nearly a year since she's seen him and always, always he looks the same. "What do you want?" she asks. She's proud that her voice sounds steady and strong.

"Coffee." He hitches the legs of his jeans and sits on one of the counter stools, and it's deja vu all over again. "You know how I like it."

She gives him a nod, glad the coffee's fresh because that *is* the way he likes it. Setting a cup in front of him, she stares hard. "That's not what I meant."

"It's all I wanted."

"You're full of it. Do they think you'll have a better shot at getting me to come back?"

He raises an eyebrow. "It's been three months, from what they tell me. You still don't believe they're willing to leave you alone?"

Marie runs away from home all over again, and it's going to take something radical to get her to come back. A lovely, hopeful story that's as much about her psyche as her blooming relationship with Logan.

Counting Backwards

Summary: One Rogue. Two timelines. Three personalities. Every possibility. Rogue discovers who she is, could have been, and everything she can become.

Standing in the middle of the lot, I stared around me, trying to get a grip on the situation, which was spiraling toward Freaky real damn fast. Slowly, I put down my bag and realized I still had my change clutched in my hand.

One five, three ones, some metal, enough to get a cab. I took the coins to stuff in my jeans pocket and began to fold the bills when I froze, staring in shock at them in my hand.

I mean, how often, really, do we take a good look at our money?

You know, if you were only going to read one story in this fandom (although heaven knows why you'd be here if you wanted to do that) this would be an excellent choice. Jus Ad Bellum is a wonderful novel on so many levels. It's a great exploration of Rogue's character and the relationships she forms with very different group of X-Men. It's an exciting adventure with action and romance and suspense. Most of all though, it's a long, hard look at the ideologies involved in the conflict between mutants and humans, and at how far people on both sides are willing to go when pushed. By the end, I understood where every character was coming from, and that's its most impressive achievement.

Jus Ad Bellum

Summary: Logan calls home, but he doesn't want to go back.

As soon as Marie figured out that she could expect phone calls from Logan at strange times, she started keeping the phone close. Last time he'd been back to Westchester, he'd seen the charging stand on the table next to her bed. It had given him a weird feeling, knowing that it was there so that she could take his late-night phone calls.

Later on, he figured out what that weird feeling was. It took him a lot longer to figure out what to do about it.

An gentle, understated story of how Rogue leads Logan to an understanding of what he wants and where he wants to be.

Tulsa