Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men Evolution. If I did, you could bet Gambit would have his TAS hair back.

A/N: Gosh I hope this doesn't come out all warped...

The Borrower

You can't help everyone. Sometimes, in helping one person, you manage to hurt another. Just like in hurting one person you may in fact help another. If you hurt everyone, you will help no one. But in trying to help everyone, you won't be able to avoid hurting someone. Not forever. There lies the difference.

You can't help everyone.

The alleged baby of the New Mutant team, Jamie Madrox, was now thoroughly used to the high school routine, and consequently tired of it. As he dangled off the end of his bed, chewed pencil hanging from between his teeth, contemplating his algebra homework and finding it made as little sense upside-down as right side up, he probably would have preferred to be doing anything else, right up until Cyclops buzzed him with a reminder that it was his turn to train with Rogue.

'Urgh... I forgot,' he groaned, hauling himself upright and leaning over to activate the two-way communication link. 'Do I have to?'

'Come on Multiple,' Scott's voice buoyed over the intercom. 'An hour or so's training won't kill you.'

'No, it'll just leave me unconscious for the rest of the day,' Jamie grumbled back.

'The whole point of letting Rogue practice absorbing powers is so that she can refine it,' Cyclops explained with a patient but very rehearsed-sounding tone.

'She's had her powers for years, how much more refining can it take...'

'Well obviously she's improved, but it's still a lot of power to deal with. And given all the powers she can potentially borrow, it helps to be able to contr-'

'Y'know, getting knocked out sounds pretty good right about now,' Jamie put in, and deactivated the intercom. Wearing a resigned sort of grin, he made his way over to the wardrobe to retrieve his uniform.

With no other powers to fall back on, Rogue's 'borrowing' ability, as Cyclops put it, was proving to be more and more of an asset in certain confrontational circumstances. (Read: skirmishes.) What Rogue, and in fact a great deal of the X-Men feared, was that she might one day do serious damage to herself or someone she absorbed. What if she held on too long, or concentrated too hard? And then came that unbidden thought in a voiceless whisper: What if she killed? But it could not be said that this worry plagued Rogue alone.

Everyone has their own personal demons.

Cyclops' optic blasts, sans the visor, were raw, inescapable power. Unreined weather could tear the heavens apart if Storm relinquished control over her emotions. Bestial instinct had taken over Beast once before, and despite his calm demeanour he feared the possibility of it happening again. And no one knew for sure if all of Jean's psychic capabilities had yet been tapped, and if there was a reserve in her mind with the capacity to overpower her.

Rogue disliked taking the powers of the stronger mutants. Though she inherited, to some degree, their control, it was not always strong enough to match the unbridled genetic transformation that surged through her. Searing red energy lashing from her eyes, bolts of telekinetic power pounding into the walls... She had not dared try to tackle Storm yet, and not even Professor Xavier felt inclined to encourage her to.

The team-mates awaiting energy drainage this afternoon were Multiple, Jubilee, Wolfbane and Sunspot.

'There ain't no sunlahght in heah,' Rogue pointed out to Cyclops as he directed them into the Danger Room.

'Non-issue,' he told her. 'What I want you to do with Roberto is take away just enough energy that he's disabled, but not unconscious.'

'Aw, not that again,' she groaned. She was still having trouble getting that objective just right. 'When would Ah evah wanna keep a person disabled but concious, again?'

'When you want them to talk,' Cyclops replied levelly. 'The rest of your objective is to take Jamie and Rahne's powers- see if you can use them together- and absorb Jubilee's powers but try not to use them.'

'Great,' murmured Rogue. 'Give me the fahrworks triggahd bah emotion an' tell me not ta use 'em.'

'Hey, it's not like they're completely uncontrollable!' Jubilee said indignantly. A couple of bright firecrackers sparked from her hands right on cue.

'And what's the "objective" for the rest of us?' asked Sunspot.

Cyclops smiled the smile of those in command. 'Make it fun. This is your training as well, after all.'

As soon as the five mutants were assembled in the Danger Room, and Cyclops was secured in the Control Room, Jubilee cracked her knuckles in an anticipatory fashion. 'Fun, did he say?' she reminded everyone with a smirk.

'She's got that look on her face again,' Rogue groaned. 'Ah think mebbe Ah'll save you 'til last, Jube...'

'First mistake is revealing your tactics to the enemy!' Jubilee laughed. There was a bright flash of light from her hands- those darned fireworks were worse than the old fashioned camera a professional photographer might wield at you. Bedazzled, Rogue stumbled a few steps backward, unable to see anything for the time being. 'Bet you didn't see that coming!'

Playing off of this disadvantage, Jamie wasted no time in scoring a nifty slide tackle that tripped Rogue up in a both efficient and amusing manner. 'Or that!' he and the clones made by the impact grinned triumphantly.

'Of course Ah didn't see that one, Clone-boy, Ah'm blahnd!' she retorted irritably. 'Hey Laser-Gaze, cain't ya get these kids to quit foolin' around?'

'No, and not for lack of trying... Go on the offensive, Rogue,' was the only help she got.

'Ah'll give ya offensive...' she grumbled, quickly rolling to one side ice and jumping back to her feet on Multiple-free ground. The effect from Jubilee's blast was wearing off, and her sight was returning in a blurred pattern of lights and darks. One of the dark shapes she managed to focus on long enough to recognise as Sunspot. She darted nimbly toward him, removing one of her gloves as she went. 'Now just come easy, Roberto-'

Roberto backed up a few paces and crouched down slightly into a fighting stance, raising his fists to block her if necessary. However, when Rogue was within a few yards of him, he chose instead to rely on- 'Rahne! Little help!'

A ginger-haired wolf sprung from nowhere, snarling enthusiastically, and collided full force with her opponent's torso. They both went flying backwards, landing with a smack on the floor some feet away. Still bearing Wolfsbane's momentum, Rogue slid over it, feeling the friction rub through the fabric of her uniform and heat her back.

'Hope none of y'all are plannin' to kick a gal while she's down!' she called as she made to grab hold of Wolfsbane's shoulder with her bare hand. But Rahne was already leaping off her, leaving Rogue to right herself once more. 'Urgh, pesky mutt.' Not letting the wolf go so easily, Rogue took a running jump into a forward flip, landing nimbly before Wolfbane and reaching down to catch her. Before her hand could make contact though, a series of small explosions erupted on her back, causing enough distraction and disturbance of balance for Rahne to slip away again. She began to reconsider not tackling Jubilee as soon as possible.

From the other side of the room, the wolf gave a series of amused sounding yips before transforming back into her human appearance. 'Will ye be leaving all the work tae us women, then, you two?' she chided the boys.

'Only because you enjoy it so much,' Jamie replied before ducking away from Rogue, who had decided to come at him next. The three multiples of his had been formed both veered out of the way too, but Rogue caught one and leap-frogged over it, landing by Jubilee, who she grabbed by the face just as the younger girl's hand stretched out to discharge more sparks of energy. She stood there, breathless, for a second after Rogue surrendered her hold, swayed on the brink of blackout, then lurched forward into her opponent's arms. Rogue set her down out of the way before turning back to the remaining three. Her fingers crackled with the absorbed powers, and she fought to keep Jubilee's abilities at bay.

'You're getting better,' Cyclops told her earnestly.

'Thanks, Scott,' she replied wearily, before heading off to Beast's lab. He was always eager to monitor and record how long she could retain another's memories and capabilities relative to how long the contact period had been, how much force had been used and so forth. Rogue hadn't so far worked out exactly what Beast had learned from the study so far. All she could comprehend from his reports was that the time of exposure and period of retention were directly related. After that she was pretty sure he stopped using English words.

Keeping Jubilee's firecrackers down after absorbing her lifeforce had been like trying to keep a tub of chocolate ice-cream down after a teacup ride. Rogue knew it would have been easier on herself to save the fireworks shooter until last, but it was obvious that the girl was going to be a hindrance in defeating the others.

Rahne she had gone after next, in order to keep the nippy wolf from repeatedly darting in and throwing her off course. But Jamie ended up her next victim, out cold like Jubilee, though he and his clones had put up a valiant fight before she finally manage to touch skin to skin with the original Multiple.

Roberto had, as anticipated, been tricky. Not only did he fight well (and was constantly defended by Wolfsbane), but also Rogue kept holding back, not wanting to grab his skin too suddenly or forcefully. She ended up coming to him last, first using Jamie's powers to create enough copies of herself to surround and subdue Rahne. Once Wolfsbane was out, a pack of werewolf clones were at Rogue's disposal, and Sunspot didn't last long after that.

She had been aiming to take enough out of him to render him disabled. He was just that, for a few moments. He had sunk to his knees, seeming simply weak and exhausted... but still conscious. Then his strength just failed him, and he keeled over like Jubilee, Multiple and Wolfsbane had done. Rogue still needed to refine her touch. Cyclops had refrained from mentioning this to her; he was tactful enough to know not to preach. Well, sometimes, at any rate.

It was a time after the training session when a number of Jamie clones were running around the kitchen, their antics all coming together in a conglomeration of culinary art to form a very large sandwich. Rahne leaned in at the doorway, eyebrows raised. While Jamie had perked up considerably, she was still rather groggy. 'Is that yerself yer feeding there, of all o' mutantkind?' she asked.

'Having the energy zapped from you really takes it out of you,' he replied matter-of-factly. 'Unsurprisingly.'

'Quite a show ye put on,' she commended him. 'I would've jumped in, but there was more chance of landing on a Multiple than a Rogue.'

'No worries. I think I'd rather take on Rogue than be clawed. No way am I darning patches onto half a dozen uniforms!'

Rahne gave a mild smile before turning from the room and ambling down the hall in search on a nice soft Brazilian shoulder to rest her head against.

In the rec room, Kitty was venturing into the world of video games, and consequently being virtually creamed by Bobby Drake.

'This is so completely pointless!'

'You only say that because you keep losing,' came the smug reply.

'Duh! It's completely pointless to play something that only results in my little robot being hurled off the screen time after time!'

'Much to learn have you,' croaked Bobby.

A small but exasperated squeal escaped Kitty's throat. 'Why am I even playing this anymore?'

'Because you won't be satisfied until you beat me.'

'Oh, please. As if I'm that obsessive or simple-minded-'

'So you give up?'

'And let you off easy?' Kitty thundered. 'Prepare to be fed your own bumper!'

The door swung open unobtrusively. 'And here Ah thought someone had turned up the volume on an action movie,' she remarked quietly to the inhabitants of the rec room not engaged with video wars, namely Roberto and Sam.

'Grab a bucket of popcorn and pull up a seat,' Sam chuckled. 'This is better than a movie any day.'

Rogue perched on the arm of their sofa with the air of one not staying long. She glances down at Roberto.

'Y' okay theah?' she asked, her voice dropping even further so the tone could not be discerned.

Roberto simply nodded. 'I was up and about before the others... You're getting better at measuring how much force you use.'

'Getting better,' Rogue repeated with a sigh. 'It sure don't seem that way,' she added in an undertone that Roberto overheard.

'Only because it's gradual,' he told her confidently. 'You know, you'll surprise yourself one of these days.'

'Thanks Rob,' she murmured, turning her green eyes on the screen where Kitty's battle-bot was once more being beaten to a molten metal pulp. 'By the way,' she went on, neither raising her voice nor removing her gaze from the screen. 'Ah think mebbe y'should postpone that dinner with Rahne you're plannin'. She's got a history test on Thursday mornin', and she'll be busy studyin' for it 'til then.'

'Uh...' Roberto's cheeks heated a little, and he cleared his throat awkwardly. One of the noises that came from him during this sounded much like, 'Thanks.'

Furth A/N: Many thanks for reading my first foray into the realm of fandom! Here's hoping it wasn't too awful. Reviews are most assuredly welcome; it's the only way I'll learn, after all. : )

Madelgine