Disclaimer: I don't own the X-men, they belong to Marvel. This is a rewrite of the original chapter, as found there were glaring mistakes made in the story and I had to rewrite and alter events. I do hope that people do enjoy this story still though, perhaps even more, despite the changes.

It takes place during X-Treme X-Men #16. For those that haven't read the X-Treme series I'll try to give summary overview on it as well as the characters you may not know about when reading this.

The X-Treme X-Men were formed by Storm in order to find the Destiny Diaries, books written by Destiny herself which told of the future. Vargas, a man claiming to be the next breed of human and not a mutant, was also after the diaries and killed Psylocke during the team's first outing. As the team continued on their mission, they met mutants Heather Cameron and her brother Davis (Heather possessing the power to manifest whatever abilities are needed to perform a rescue while Davis can teleport via a 'warp wave), whose father was a crime boss (though they had no idea of that) that was murdered by one of the X-men's enemies. After being saved by the X-men, they ended up joining Storm's team. Eventually, the X-treme X-Men became involved in a plot by an interdiamensional warlord called Khan, who wanted to invade earth, and decided that Gambit was the key to open up the gate that would allow his invasion to happen. Khan also had this minion of his impersonate Storm in order to try to sabotage the X-Men, who went into his ship to stop him, save for Rogue who was still on earth trying to save lives in Madripoor and save Gambit from his fate. Vargas however was also in Madripoor, hunting Rogue down because in the final Destiny Diary, it was told that Rogue would be the one to kill Vargas, and thus he sought to defeat fate. As he tracked Rogue down, he came across the fake Storm and slew her. Then he found Rogue and Gambit, who were unable to move at all due to Rogue being distracted with attempting to rescue Gambit. Taking the opportunity, he ran his sword through the both of them.

And that is where our story begins...

The Rogue Symbiote
By: David Knight

Volume One: Discovery
Chapter One: Awakening

A man with dark black hair, dressed in black shirt and pants, wearing only a black trench coat looked down at his handiwork, a broad smile on his face. Finally, the vampiric freak who would have dared to slay him was dead. Her and her wretched lover lay on the ground before him, his sword having gone right though their hearts.

"And thus, I beat destiny," the man known only as Vargas chuckled. So much for the so-called 'Destiny Diaries'…

He walked over to where Storm's body was and lifted it over his shoulder, smiling in satisfaction as he studied the limp form of the mutant who had once been the X-Men's field commander. He had two trophies now- and some of the most attractive ones he'd ever possessed, he had to admit- but had no way to carry them at the same time.

"Don't worry," he added, almost as an afterthought, as he glanced back at the two corpses still lying there, a broad grin on his face. "I'll be back for your corpse and my sword once I fetch my servants."

Without another word, he left the crypt, leaving the two bodies lying as they were. After all, they were, as he thought, dead; what harm could they do to him now?

Had he stayed for just another minute, he might have seen something that would have made him change his mind about that…

For even as the large form of Vargas departed the tomb, something was taking place that nobody could have predicted.

From the hole made by Vargas's sword, a strange substance came out from Rogue's back; it might have been taken for thick blood at a casual glance, but closer inspection revealed that it was a thicker, greenish-yellow substance that seemed to almost spread along Rogue's body as she lay there. Slowly but surely, it grew larger, beginning to cover her entire body, spreading over her tattered uniform and leaving only itself in its place.

As it reached her head, although still unconscious, Rogue's lips briefly curved into a soft smile, like someone waking up from a pleasant dream, before it was covered by the ooze.

Remy LeBeau had thought himself close to death.

He felt so much pain after being strapped down to this alter, being made to open that damn portal for Khan and his people to come through and invade the Earth…

Well, he couldn't let that happen at all now, could he? He may have helped Sinister to kill some of the Morlocks back in the day, but even at his worst, he would never have been party to something like… like that.

Despite the pain that seemed to consume his entire body, he managed to use what power he had to send a charged piece of rock out, intending to bring the house down on him. A suicidal attack, of course, but, if it destroyed the portal, he could 'live' with that, he supposed.

He couldn't even bring himself to smile at the bad pun that sentence invoked; it hurt too much.

But wouldn't you know it, his own cherè came in and protected him.

Stupidest move of her life, as far as he was concerned; touching, of course, but still stupid.

He was fine with dying, but not with her dying…

And, as soon as that thought had finished crossing his mind, that's when he knew for a fact what kind of state he was in right now.

After all his missions with the X-Men, he was finally going to die.

What with that son of a bitch- also known as 'Vargas'- stabbing him like that…

Damn! Gambit winced, as he tried to move slightly and felt the metal fragment in his chest. He still felt the blade in his...

"GAHHHH!!!" he cried out as he felt the blade again, more intensely than it had been in the past…

Only this time, it was being pulled OUT of his body.

"Hush now Remy. Just… stay still," a voice whispered softly to him.

Even in the midst of his pain, Remy recognized the voice of an angel when he heard it.

After all, she was his angel.

"Cherè?" he gasped weakly, looking up to see her. He wasn't sure how she could still be alive after what Vargas had done to her- given how erratic her powers had been lately, he supposed it could have been Logan's healing factor kicking in at a convenient moment, but with the sword still in her like that…

Yet his eyes widened in disbelief at what he saw.

What he had heard was Rogue's voice.

But the figure standing in front of him clearly wasn't her.

It was a woman who looked even more shapely and endowed than his beloved cherè. The new arrival's entire body was a mix of green and yellow with some black highlights- the pain made it hard for his vision to focus enough on the fine details of the costume right now- and her hair was like the way he remembered his cherè the first time he saw her, slightly curly, but now it had come down to her back rather than the shoulder-length cut she favored these days- but all green with the white streak being yellow now.

Her eyes he couldn't say, only that they were large white patches…

Actually, in some ways, her 'eyes' now looked something like Spider-Man's mask if he thought of it; it had been a long time since he'd worked with the web-slinger during that 'Tombstone' crisis, but working with one of the world's most famous heroes was something that tended to stay in your mind, no matter how brief it was.

It was when she opened her mouth to reveal INCREDIBLY sharp teeth and a long tongue that he began to panic.

The wall-crawler's foes were normally not big enough to attract the X-Men's attention- they tended to focus on New York or the surrounding area, and thus stay out of the mutants' way- but right now, Gambit was reminded of the one foe from Spidey's enemy list who made it onto the FBI's Most Wanted with a regularity only surpassed by the likes of Doctor Doom or Magneto himself.

The brain-eating serial killer known to all as Venom.

"Don't worry Remy," the… person (Or whatever she was) said, holding Vargas's sword in her hands. "Vargas won't harm us again. I'll make certain of it."

She put her hand out and from it came a green gelatinous strand that went around his waist. Once again, Remy was reminded of Spider-Man; the substance looked like the web-slinger's webbing.

Of course, it did nothing to assuage his fears about the similarity between this thing and Venom; from what he'd read, that sucker could duplicate Spidey's webbing as well.

"That should hold the blood back for when they get to you," the woman said, as she turned around to study the exit to their 'tomb', clearly intending to leave.

Remy wasn't about to allow that; weakened though he was, he could still try to find out what the hell had happened to his cherè.

"Who..." he rasped, trying to ignore the sharp pain in his side as he talked.

"Hmmm?" the woman asked.

"Who… are you?" Gambit demanded, making a desperate effort to ignore the pain he felt as he continued to speak. "Where's Rogue? What did… you do to… my cherè, you… monster?"

The woman looked at Gambit for a moment, looking almost hurt as she studied the former thief. Then the face parted- the mouth literally pulling back, teeth and all, over the head…

And Gambit saw, to his disbelief, Rogue's face.

Admittedly, it looked as though she was sleeping, but it was her.

Before he could say anything, his cherè's face was covered again, and the female Venom look-alike was looking at him with an almost compassionate appearance.

"I am your cherè, Remy," the woman said, looking at him as tenderly as a woman with teeth the size of most people's fingers could look.

Without any more words she took off flying, leaving Remy at a loss for words and disbelief.

"What..." he gasped, staring up at the ceiling, "what the hell… is going on..."

Storm's body slung casually over his shoulder, Vargas continued walking through the ruined streets of Madripoor, not really caring about the people who died around him in the aftermath of the attempted 'alien invasion'.

Glancing over, he saw a person trapped in a collapsing building, but he didn't bother to even try to help that person as the building collapsed and crushed them.

It simply would have delayed him.

"Why should I even bother to help the weak?" he asked himself, glancing scornfully at the body he had slung over his shoulder, a smirk on his face. "Humans unlike me are like mutants; the failures of nature's great experiment to determine who is worthy to live."

Why anybody with powers and abilities far superior to the common flock used their talents to help those wastes of space he shuddered to think…

"And who made you god, Vargas?" a voice called out from behind him.

Vargas froze in disbelief at the voice he heard.

There was no way he could have heard that voice, for the simple reason that the speaker had been killed by his hand.

And yet, as he turned around, he saw someone that he knew was dead, having witnessed her die directly in front of him from his own actions, standing in the middle of the street as though she'd never been attacked by him in the first place.

Worse, not only did the woman have the nerve to look as though she was prepared to fight him again- regardless of the fact that he'd managed to kill her with relative ease the last time the two of them fought it out- but she also held his sword!

"Psylocke?" he said, staring incredulously at the female British telekinetic mutant standing before him.

The purple-haired mutant commonly known as Betsy Braddock simply smirked as she held Vargas's blade.

"Back from the dead, you bastard," she said, her eyes narrowing as she raised the sword in a combat stance. "And I'm here to take your life."

"I don't believe in resurrections," Vargas growled.

"Don't you know anything about the X-Men?" Psylocke asked, chuckling at his angry expression. "At least half the team have been thought dead before now and come back against almost all the odds; why should I be an exception?"

Vargas growled low in his throat. He did recall hearing something about some of the X-Men surviving near-death experiences in the past- nothing definite, and he'd never seen the need to ask for further information given that he hadn't been dealing with any of the apparently resurrected mutants- but still, it might have been possible…

Enough! Vargas told himself, angry at his distraction; contemplating about whether or not some idiots with no clue about how to use their powers properly might be capable of coming back from the dead wasn't the issue at the present moment.

He was the master in this fight; it was time he made sure that 'Psylocke'- or whoever she was- realized that.

"I see that you have my sword," he said, casually indicating the weapon with a slight grin on his face. "Tell me, what did you think of what I did to that Southern Whore and her thief lover?"

Psylocke's eyes narrowed as she stared at him, her fingers flexing over the sword she held in her hand…

Then, much to Vargas's surprise, she then tossed it back to him.

"Pick it up, you coward," she said, glaring coldly at him as she shifted her footing into a combat stance. "I'm going to make you bleed with my own bare hands. I'll tear out your THROAT with my own FINGERS if that's what it takes!"

"Well now," Vargas said with a smirk, putting down his trophy before picking up his sword, quickly shifting into a position where he could use the sword effectively, "that eager to die for real, are you?"

He chuckled once more as he stared at Psylocke, his earlier confidence once again restored at the feel of his familiar blade in his hands. "You really think you can beat me without a weapon?"

Psylocke simply smirked. "If you think you can cut me," she said, as nonchalantly as if she was just dealing with a common human. "Go ahead and try, you bastard."

Vargas took that as a challenge. Raising the sword, he charged at the woman, knowing he could take her down; after all, he'd already done it once. He brought his sword down towards her with a blow aimed directly at her stomach, already eagerly anticipating the rush of blood as his blade cut into her…

Instead, he was shocked as he saw her hand catch his sword with an open palm; the blade might as well have been made of soft rubber for all the impact he seemed to have made to her skin.

With a simple grunt, Psylocke broke the sword, leaving Vargas speechless as she looked at him, a wide grin on her face.

"My turn," she said simply. Without any warning, green-yellow spears suddenly shot out of her body- it vaguely reminded him of something he'd read about porcupines, back when he'd been little better than the rest of the flock- and launched themselves at Vargas, impaling him directly through his arms and legs.

Overcome by the shock and pain of the attack, Vargas was sent flying backward into a nearby wall. As soon as his short flight had stopped, he moved to get up, only to find the spears suddenly shifting to become some sort of wire. Before he could adapt to this new change, the wire had wrapped around his legs and arms, restraining him so tightly that not even his enhanced strength could break them. Looking up, he could only watch in slowly growing horror as Psylocke walked toward him smiling wide.

"What's wrong?" Psylocke laughed maliciously. "Don't tell me this is all the great hunter Vargas has to offer?" she added tauntingly. Before Vargas's increasingly horrified eyes, Psylocke's dark purple hair changed to emerald green and dramatically increased in volume.

More than that, like those old reports he'd heard about the 'Inhuman' Medusa… the hair seemed to be alive…

A fact that was confirmed when part of the hair stretched out and wrapped around Vargas's neck, the wires tightening around him as the tentacle lifted him up to a position where he was eye to eye with his opponent.

"Surely you could do better than this," 'Psylocke' added, grinning at him.

"You... you CAN'T be… Psylocke," Vargas gasped, staring in desperation at his foe. His adversary may look like Psylocke, but she had never possessed these kind of powers; she was a telekinetic, and nothing more.

"Gee? You just figuring that out now?" 'Psylocke' rolled her eyes, in exasperation. "And I thought you were meant to be better than humans…"

As Vargas watched, his horror changing to confusion, her form changed from the normal-looking form of Psylocke into what looked like a woman dressed in a full-body outfit of tight-fitting green-yellow.

At least, she looked human until she opened her mouth to reveal teeth that would have made a shark look like a vegetarian.

"Ya've killed many people," the creature that had once been Psylocke said, a long tongue 'flicking' briefly out of its mouth as it spoke. "But even more importantly… ya nearly killed my host."

Host? Vargas asked himself, the question momentarily overtaking his fear. What does that mean?

"An' let meh tell ya somethin'... " the woman said with malice. "That wasn't smart at all."

"What... are you?" Vargas gasped, fighting through the rapidly-increasing pain around his arms and legs as the 'wires' seemed to tighten.

"I?" the creature said, its accent changing to a more casual, less heavily-accented voice as it moved the hair tentacle holding him so that he was drawn even closer to the creature. A broad grin split its horrific face as its tongue flicked out to slightly 'lick' his cheek- leaving a thin, cold line of drool that made him flinch- before it spoke again.

"I have no name, Vargas," the woman continued, still speaking in the less accented voice that Vargas couldn't stop thinking was somewhat familiar. "But consider me... your executioner!"

As soon as she'd finished, the tentacle released Vargas, allowing him to fall to ground as he stared up at her in ever-growing fear, his arms and legs still bound.

"You've taken so many lives," the creature stated as it glared down at him, contempt evident in its very body language even if its face was a mystery. "So many people that didn't have to die. Even now you could have helped people in this city…"

"For what purpose?" Vargas snapped, finally gaining the confidence he needed to speak back against this nightmare. "They are weak! They don't NEED help! They simply die as nature intends them to! I am nature's chosen! I am the one that will lead..."

He was cut off by a rapid kick to the stomach that sent him into coughing fits.

"Blah Blah Blah!" the woman said, staring up at the sky in a bored manner as she shifted her fingers into small daggers while continuing to stare skeptically down at him. "Honestly! Do all villains have to say the same crap? It really pisses me off; if I'm going to nearly get killed by someone, couldn't they come up with some original dialogue, for crying out loud?!"

Despite the fear that was beginning to spread throughout his system, Vargas tried to glare up at her in his usual confident manner.

"What are you going to do?" he demanded; he may be tied up, but he was still determined to act as though he was still in charge of the situation.

"Before I end your life…" she paused, grinning broadly at him, displaying the mouth of disturbingly sharp teeth, "I want you to see who my host is."

As Vargas watched in horror, her mouth seemed to draw back over her entire head, revealing the apparently sleeping face of…

"ROGUE---AGHHH!!!" Vargas gasped in shock, his words cut off as he felt himself being stabbed, accompanied by a vague blur where Rogue had stood, as though she had moved too fast for him to see.

Wait a minute…

There was no pain.

He looked down and saw something that seemed to answer that question at least; she hadn't stuck her hand into the front, but in the back.

What…? He thought briefly, confused by this recent turn of events. But…

Suddenly, with no apparent warning, he fell to the ground, unable to move his legs at all.

"I thought my host would hate me if I took your wretched life in the actual sense- and trust me, right now I'd rather not risk making her mad," the being said as she looked back with a fanged smile that reminded Vargas once again of a shark. "So I did the next best thing. I took away your life as a warrior. I took your legs from you. You're a cripple now Vargas."

Vargas's eyes widened in horror.

"Kill... me..." he gasped, trying not to focus his mind on the growing numbness where his legs should have been registered by his senses. "Warriors should not have to live like this!"

"And the people you slaughtered?" the creature sneered at him. "Did they deserve it?"

Sniffing at him as though he was just something to wipe off her shoe, she turned away, glaring at him over her shoulder. "You were never a warrior Vargas… just a coward. Enjoy the rest of your life, knowing that you can no longer do any harm at all to anyone. Be thankful I didn't decide to take away your arms."

With that, she then walked away from him.

"Come back here! Come back!" Vargas yelled after her as she turned to look at where Storm's body still lay. "COME BACK AND KILL ME!!!"

"It's over Vargas," the creature said, as she paused over the fallen body of the X-Men's leader, bending down to scoop up the body of the lifeless mutant and giving him one final look.

"Deal with it," she said simply, her gaze practically radiating venom as she stared at him; indeed, for a moment, remembering how erratic this mutant's powers had apparently been lately, Vargas was almost afraid that he would be incinerated by the stolen eyebeams of that 'Cyclops' individual…

She then turned around and walked back the way she'd come

Finally, as it finally began to dawn on him that she was not going to come and end what she had begun… that he was indeed doomed to spend the rest of this life as a pathetic mockery of a man… with no hope of release or restoration of the prison his own body had become… he let out a scream of his own.

Back in the tomb, Gambit laid on his back, unable to move and cursing himself for his weakness, even as he tried not to dwell on the other 'problem' facing him right now.

Specifically, the fact that he was dying.

He was fading in and out of consciousness, incapable of the focus required to stay awake, and there was no sign of anybody coming to help him; it was safe to say that he was definitely dying this time around.

Of course, the shock given to him by what he saw of his cherè didn't help much either.

Then again… Gambit mused to himself, as he fought desperately to keep his eyes open as that thought occurred to him once again, Maybe it's what I need…to fight to make sure I don't die... until I know what the hell happened to her…

"Rogue..." he gasped desperately, wishing that somebody was there to hear him. "Need… to help... her..."

"Gambit!" a voice yelled from off to the side, breaking through to him more effectively than any of his own thoughts cold have done.

Sage…. Gambit realized, smiling to himself in relief as he recognized his teammate's voice.

"Where's Rogue?" Sage said again, sounding closer this time. "Did she go after Vargas?"

"Sage... Rogue... not herself..." the Cajun muttered.

He could barely speak; every breath he took hurt the wound in his chest, and he felt like he was going to black out for good any minute…

But they had to know about Rogue.

"Rogue... not herself..." he gasped again, staring desperately up at the vague form of the woman standing over him, pain clouding his vision. "Venom. Looks like… Venom..."

That was all he could say before the darkness took him once more.

Sage frowned at Gambit's words as she waited for the medical teams to arrive. They had only just finished dealing with Viper, the Princess of Madripoor when she had made her presence known to 'help' them deal with the recent invasion.

Naturally, Viper had paid the price for her actions; the green-haired criminal got a bullet in the gut from Storm for nearly crippling her, and Sage herself had made sure that the criminal lord got the message never to cross the X-men again.

"How's he doing?" Bishop asked, looking anxiously at Gambit from where he stood off to the side.

"Not good… but you already assumed that much," Sage replied, before looking back at Bishop with an anxious expression. "He mentioned something about Rogue not being herself. About her looking like… well, Venom, apparently."

"Venom?" Bishop asked, his eyes widening in shock.

Of course, Sage could hardly blame him. None of the X-Men had ever had any personal encounters with Venom, but they'd fought alongside Spider-Man on many occasions- hell, during the Secret War he'd once managed to fight off six of their most prominent members single-handed- and knew that he was more than capable of handling himself in a fight.

For Venom to be able to actually overpower somebody like that…

It did not help Sage's mood to think that someone that powerful could be out there right now, and all they had to oppose him with were a bunch of wounded X-Men.

"What would make Gambit say that?" Bishop continued, staring in confusion at his wounded friend. He looked like he was about to say more, but then a yell from off to the side distracted them both.

"AH! What the hell is that?!" Davis Cameron shouted, pointing just up to a hill. He had been freaked out and repulsed by the golden monster that they were saying was his sister, which he couldn't believe, and had been looking in another direction from the rest of them.

Heather couldn't help but hate how her brother thought of her now, with her Shi'ar like attributes, but looking up along with the rest of the X-men, she had to be almost grateful for him looking away; if he hadn't, they might have missed the… well, thing coming down the hill right now.

Sage had no idea what it was, but it could definitely be described as a Venom-like monster, given the gleaming teeth she could see even from here…

And was that Storm in her arms?

The woman looked over to where the REAL Storm currently 'stood' ('Stood' being a loose description, given that her severe injuries meant that she needed support from Neal Shaara/Thunderbird just to stay upright).

"Storm?" the creature (Now close enough for Sage to see that it seemed to a woman with ridiculously large teeth apparently dressed in a skin-tight green-yellow material that she couldn't identify) said, in an accent that Sage found shocking familiar. "If that's you, then who is it that Vargas killed that Ah'm holding in mah arms?"

"R… Rogue?" Storm gasped, looking up in shock at the sound of her old ally's voice coming from this figure.

"Not… exactly," the woman replied, sounding almost hesitant as she looked at the assorted X-Men around her. Sage noted with surprise that the creature's voice had actually changed between this sentence and the previous one; where before the creature had sounded like Rogue, it now sounded more like the average American woman, lacking Rogue's distinctive accent. "Rogue is… well, she's my host, and right now she's sleeping- healing, to be precise; getting stabbing by that Vargas guy took a lot out of us- as I run the show. You can call me… well, actually, I'm not sure what you can call me, to be honest; I'm still working on what I should name myself now."

The word 'host', along with what Gambit had said about Venom (Which was definitely as apt a comparison as any, given the sharp teeth and what Sage could see of the woman's tongue) put all of the pieces together for Sage as she narrowed her eyes.

Much as she hated the thought of having to go up against one of these in their current state, she knew exactly what they were dealing with.

A symbiote.

To Be Continued...