Gambit opens Rogue’s motel room and happily greets her. A startled Rogue can’t believe that Remy’s actually there and asks him why he has come. She pushes Campbell away from her and runs to him. Gambit finds that a stupid question, since he came to check on her because Rogue has been out of touch for a few days and he was worried.
Rogue says that she told Remy that she was fine. She asks Remy who else is with him. Gambit explains that he came alone. He doesn’t understand why Rogue acts this way. Gambit stops talking and, with a serious look, he notices that they are not alone. Campbell jokes about it, but Rogue tries to make it clear to Gambit that this isn’t what he thinks he is. Gambit doesn’t think anything, but soon will, hearing the weird tone in Rogue’s voice. Gambit wants to know who Campbell is. Campbell introduces himself, but Rogue tells Gambit not to worry about the man since he is a nobody to Rogue. Gambit bounces against a wall and tells Rogue that he now finally knows why Rogue didn’t want him to come there.
Rogue tries to make Gambit understand that there’s nothing going on between her and Campbell, but Remy doesn’t believe her. Campbell jokes about Gambit’s blindness and this makes Gambit even madder. Gambit punches around, hoping that in time he will hit Campbell. He isn’t as helpless as Rogue thinks he is. Rogue goes to stand between Gambit and Campbell, but then Gambit punches again and hits Rogue! Rogue hardly falls onto the ground. Gambit realizes his mistake and panicking he runs out of the room. He wishes that he had listened to Alex and Bobby and didn’t come here. Now, he fears that he is of no use to anyone.
Angus, the motel owner, sees Gambit running away and asks his friend if he’s alright. Gambit has already made it to the freeway when he hears Angus shouting at him. Gambit turns around to find out who is calling him, but then a truck arrives and almost hits him! Gambit can just in time jump away, but he loses his balance and falls off a cliff. There, he lies motionless.
Rogue gets up from Gambit’s punch and has a headache. Campbell tries to take care of her, but Rogue doesn’t want his help. She wants to know who he is and what his game is with her. Campbell tries to be nice to Rogue, but Rogue is impatient and tries to hit Campbell - but as she hits… Campbell fades away! A surprised Rogue asks Campbell what he is.
Meanwhile, Gambit gets up after his fall. He knows how stupid he has been and wants to go back to Rogue and try to apologize to her. He tries to climb back up, but as he does that, someone bounces into him! Gambit falls down again, and a girl apologizes to Remy for hitting him. Gambit stands up, and sees… the young girl that looks like Rogue! Gambit thinks that the girl truly is Rogue and can’t believe that he is actually touching and seeing her. At the same time, Rogue starts to panic and walks out of her room. Campbell follows her and comforts not to be afraid of him. A police car stops by and the officer asks Rogue if Campbell is bothering her. Rogue denies that, and she and Campbell go back inside. As they are in, the officer gets suspicious and suspects Rogue to be the same girl who was at the hospital riot yesterday, recognizing her white streak.
Gambit still thinks that he is still seeing Rogue, but wonders why he can only see her and not the environment around her. The young girl doesn’t know Gambit and apologizes for hitting him, but has no time for this and runs away. Gambit tries to stop her, but the girl is attacked by the evil spirits!
At Rogue’s room, Campbell has put a bandage around her head. Rogue has had enough of it and asks Campbell for an explanation. Campbell reveals that he is a mutant. Rogue sighs, since she could have known that. She asks Campbell what his powers are. Campbell confirms that he is a mutant, but not in that way. No… he is a mutant dream!
The young girl starts to run away from the evil spirits, which Gambit can see as well. He asks the girl, still thinking that she is Rogue, what the spirits are, but the girl tells Gambit that that is none of his concern. She warns Remy to stay away from her, since the spirits have no business with him, meaning that they will do him no harm. Gambit doesn’t want to let her alone and follows, but bounces into a tree.
Rogue wants to know whose dream Campbell is. Is he her dream? Campbell denies that, because that would make Rogue his mother. And Campbell’s mother wasn’t anything like Rogue. Campbell begins to explain. He says that his mother’s name was Hattie Sainte Ange. And Hattie was a difficult woman. You know the type: too smart for her own good, hypersensitive, torpedoed every relationship she ever had. Hattie even wrote poetry. But what was worse, Hattie seemed to have fallen prey to every sad and cruel whim fate had to offer. Including, at one point, a phantom pregnancy. She had all the symptoms… except an actual fetus. One night, Hattie had a feverish, very vivid dream that she was giving birth to the baby her body thought she was carrying. And when she woke up, the phantom pregnancy was over. And somehow, some way… Campbell was there! He was Hattie’s baby.
Hattie wasn’t the type to ask questions. She just accepted Campbell as a gift. Having him around settled her and brought Hattie out of herself. She started feeling better about life. And why shouldn’t she? Campbell was, literally, her dream child. What Hattie never knew, is that his life with her was only half the picture. For as long as Campbell can remember, he has been able to phase right into the dream dimensions. And there is more than just one. He knows that every individual has got their own. And, Campbell continues, there are also the bigger, more vivid ones, which are made up of the collective dreams of large groups of people who share something. Beliefs, or community, or whatever. Campbell finds those realities to be the most interesting. Anyway, Campbell adds, that’s how he found himself one day crossing over the Far Banks.
Gambit has hurt himself, and the young girl asks him if he’s all right. The evil spirits take advantage of her kindness and capture the girl. Gambit hears her screaming and tries to help, but doesn’t know what to do. The girl tells Gambit not to blame himself. The spirits hold the girl tighter and then they vanish.
Campbell further explains that most of the dream realms he has visited in his life were free-form places. There was no hierarchy in them, no rules at all. There were just waves of sound and symbols. But the Far Banks was different. Something bad had happened there. Something that dried up the free flow of the dream stuff. Campbell asked some of the natives what had gone down, but they mostly talked a lot of nonsense. Though they did imply that there was some kind of presence there who had acted malevolently. Campbell decided to keep his distance, since there were plenty other pleasanter places to wander.
Campbell didn’t think about the place ever again, until a couple of weeks ago. Suddenly, bad things started happening here in Caldecott. Apparitions. Freakish invasions of ethereal-type entities, which caused all kinds of chaos. They even drove people to murder and suicide. Campbell knew enough to recognize those creatures as Dream Beasts. Campbell could smell it on them. But that shouldn’t be possible. Campbell explains that dreams have no motive force in the material world. They should just dissipate here. Campbell figured something must be pulling the Dream Beasts across the boundaries.
At first, Campbell thought that he was responsible. He thought that maybe, all his dimension-jumping had finally ruptured the veil between the two worlds he inhabits, but then he thought: “what if they are not being pulled here? What if they have been sent?” That’s when Campbell remembered the Far Banks. So, he returned there. Campbell kept walking those acres of scorched ectoplasm until he discovered the cancer at its core. And, when he found it, it wasn’t anything Campbell expected. It didn’t take him long to figure out what it meant, and that there was only one person in the either dimension who could put a stop to it. And that person would be Rogue.
Rogue doesn’t understand why, because, until yesterday, she had never before heard about the Far Banks’ existence. Campbell knows that could be true, but it’s the reason he lured Rogue back to Mississippi in the first place. But Rogue doesn’t understand that either, since she came to Mississippi on an X-Men mission to… Rogue knows that they had a reason, but can’t remember it for some reason. Lauren steps forward, and tells Rogue that she came back because of her.
The evil spirits have left an opening after they teleported away. Gambit doesn’t know why, but he can see it. He wants to rescue “Rogue.” And the only way to do that is to go through the opening. But it’s very small. Gambit charges up his cards and hits the opening and makes it bigger! Gambit jumps through it, promising “Rogue” that he will rescue her.
Meanwhile, outside the room, back-up police officers have come. Inside, Rogue remembers Lauren and why she decided to stay to find her mother. Rogue doesn’t know how she could forget Lauren, like she was a dream. Campbell explains that’s because Lauren is not a mutant. Campbell explains that she is actually one of the Dream Beasts, which have caused so much trouble around there. Campbell tells Lauren that she can go now. Lauren thanks the man and teleports out of sight.
Rogue can’t understand that she is one of her enemies, because the Beasts are evil. Campbell denies that, explaining that the Dream Beasts indeed caused some bad things, but really they are wide open to suggestion, like Rogue has already found out. Campbell just suggested to one of them to be a helpless mutant girl whose powers are out of control. Rogue asks Campbell what about the damage they brought to Dodson. Campbell confirms that all that was just a dream as well. Everything but the damage the people did themselves. He promises that those people will have forgotten all about it by now. Campbell tells Rogue that all of this was just set-up to lure her back home.
Rogue doesn’t understand why Campbell just asked her for help. Campbell says that’s because of what he is: a dream. And dreams aren’t rational. Besides, he says, this is what Rogue wanted. Subconsciously, at any rate. Campbell knows that Rogue wanted mystery, suspense, romance and danger. And Campbell has brought her all of that. Campbell says that he is susceptible to the unconscious desires of others. Not quite as open to suggestion as the wraiths are but, enough to say, Campbell is what Rogue made him to be.
Rogue says that there’s still a man out there… a man she loves… who needs her help. Campbell tells Rogue that there are worlds who needs her help more. He says that Rogue is the only one who can stop the Far Banks from leaking into the material plane and driving it to madness and destruction.
Outside, ready to make their move, the cops try to break open the motel door.
Ignoring the noise, Rogue asks Campbell how she is supposed to do that, since she can’t even go to the Far Banks. Campbell says that she can, since Rogue is concussed, wounded and disoriented, which is ideal for crossing over. He tells Rogue to just take his hand and he’ll lead her there. A portal opens and the cops have almost breached in. Rogue takes Campbell’s hand and asks what she is going to fight there.
The cops enter, and Rogue and Campbell step through the portal. Campbell tells Rogue that she is going to fight… her mother!
