Ola guys! I know, I know. I'm such a lazy ass… I should finish my other story. But I've had major, major, major writer's block! In fact, I'm not sure if I'm going to finish my other story… Tell me now if ya'll like it! If so, I'll keep writing on it. If not, I'm going to just relegate it to the trash pile.

Anyway, I was reading Miss Information's "Inappropriate Conduct" and I absolutely fell in love with the Magneto/Rogue pairing! I'm still a die-hard Romy fan, no worries. But I wanted to try my hand at it. But I wanted to give due credit to my inspiration! Thank you, Miss Information! Much love and more stories!

Now, let's see, I'm sure ya'll will want a little summary here… This is going to be both a Romy and a Magneto/Rogue story. But there is no romance triangle. Mwhahahaha, yes, I'm evil. But I think you'll figure out how there can be both these pairings and not have a love triangle by the next chapter, I'm sure. All I'm going to say for a summary is that Rogue had been captured by Trask and experimented on (no big surprise there, as it's one of my favorite themes to do). One night, nearly four years later, a surprise comes to the Mansion, one that no one is expecting.

Just to clarify, Rogue in this story is twenty-one (the other various X-Men are in their early twenties, too) and Magneto looks like a young man. There's an actual incident where he was caught in some sort of capsule, I think, that made him look eternally young. Only, since I have the memory of a goldfishy, I can't remember what that capsule was called… Any help from the readers will be much appreciated. And I'm bringing in a character of my own for dear ol' Piotr in a sequel that I have planned for this which may or may not come to fruition, depending on my schedule. She will be my original character, although she will be loosely based off a character from Teen Titans.

WARNING: This is not going to be a light fic! I like writing dark stories, and this one is not going to be any different. Torture, rape, and death will all be featured in here, although some only in mention. But this is still going to be very dark and angsty, so if you like light, happy stories, move on. Also, there may or may not be sexual content, depending on my mood at the time of later chapters. And there will be foul language, of course. SECOND WARNING: Because to me it seems to take too much time to write in their respective accents, I'm just going to forgo that. It's easier, in my opinion, to read without them, anyway. Gambit will still talk in the third person and say random things in French, and Rogue will still have her cute little Southern sayings, like "sugar" and "darling", but for the most parts, their accents will not be prominent. Please don't make a fuss over this.

Okay, then, I think I've done my share of describing what's going to be coming up. Much love to Miss Information for giving me the inspiration to write a Magneto/Rogue story. Now, on we go!

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own anything name brand in here, including the X-Men, any brand of car, any music, or anything else I may mention. If you recognize it, I don't own it. I would love to own Remy, but sadly, I can't. So, there it is. Don't sue me. Which is silly, really, but I felt like mentioning it.

Desperate Situations

Chapter One

She woke up slowly to the sound of machines buzzing and beeping and the hushed voices of people surrounding her. Where was she? What had happened to her? She didn't understand any of this. Last she remembered there had been some sort of fight…

Rogue groaned softly in pain as memories became clearer. There had been a fight, one between Trask and his Sentinels. It had been a nasty fight, with casualties on both sides, though Rogue didn't think any of the X-Men had been killed. But many had been captured… including herself!

Her eyes opened wide with sudden alertness as she realized where she must be. Rogue was strapped to a gurney, IV's sticking out of both arms, clothed in a unisex, prison-like uniform of dull gray. The machines she had heard were random monitors, and men and women alike in shapeless white lab coats surrounded her bed. Crying out hoarsely in horror, Rogue tugged and pulled on the straps holding her down, fighting with all her might to get free. All of the sluggishness she had been feeling was gone, fled in the face in the face of her terror. Trask had her, and it was obvious he had drugged her so that he could experiment on her.

When she started screaming, the technicians swarmed around her, trying to calm her down again.

"No! Let me go! Let me go!" she screamed, over and over again, the blood pounding furiously in her veins. She had to get out of here, away from Trask and his cutting board.

Who else was still here? Surely she wasn't the only one. She couldn't be; if she was, then the X-Men would have already tried to save her by now. So there had to be others. Wolverine… Wolvie, she remembered Wolvie being taken. How long had she been out? How long would it take for the X-Men to find her? Find the others? Who else was here? Her brain was chaotically charged, whirling around quickly as she tried to escape.

The technicians around her pinned her down to the gurney, and one ominous looking fellow came over with a needle primed and ready in his hand. Rogue screamed all the louder, fighting furiously against her captors, her eyes wide and wild. But they were stronger than she was, and were clothed head to toe, so she couldn't touch any part of their skin. Without a care for her, the technician rammed the needle into Rogue's upper arm and pushed down on whatever clear drug they had put into it.

It hurt! Rogue had gotten her tetanus shot, but nothing compared to the pain of this. Tears misted over her emerald eyes and she screamed in agony as the drug was poured into her bloodstream. It took affect immediately, too. No waiting around for this drug. Instantly, that sluggish sleepiness started to overwhelm her, making her limbs weak and rubbery. Her resistance eventually got sloppier and slower until she couldn't even lift an arm to bat away the infernal humans surrounding her, talking about her. Rogue's head lolled around limply as she fought to keep her eyes open, catching snippets of what they were saying.

"…good thing Danvers isn't here…"

"…gotta keep a better eye…"

"…don't let her touch…"

"…can't make the same… twice…"

Then Rogue was swallowed by the blackness once again.

She didn't know how long she was out for, only that one minute she was unconscious, and the next, she came wide awake. Something had brought her back to instant alertness, and that something was the sound of shrill sirens screaming in the distance. Rogue's eyes snapped open, completely aware of her situation yet at the moment, immobile. They must have finished doing their tests, for she had been tossed into some sort of cell, and none too gently, judging by the way she was sprawled in the corner and the various aches she was beginning to feel.

Staying still, Rogue watched surreptitiously as human guards rushed back and forth, obviously in a tizzy about something. None of them thought to look in the dingy little cell that she had been tossed into; she was always a great actress, and she looked like she was still unconscious. But she wasn't and she was now wondering what the cause of alarm was and how she could use that to her advantage. Rogue was a survivor; she would get out of here.

The bars in front of her cell weren't really bars at all, but laser strips. Interesting. If Rogue only knew how to access the various powers she had collected over the years, she could have gotten out of them easily. As it was, Rogue was too weak and hadn't yet conquered that particular skill, so she would have to figure out some other way of getting past those laser bars.

Fortunately, her cell was very dark, and the guards going back and forth didn't seem to be focusing too much on the prisoners. Rogue noticed a cell across from hers, though she couldn't see into it from her current position flat on her stomach. So, slowly, she pulled herself up. And almost gasped in horror when she did.

When she had fought Trask, her hair had been short, just above her shoulders. Now, it was at least five inches past her shoulders! What had they done to her? Had they aged her with some sort of technology? Or maybe they had some sort of mutant cooperating with them. Rogue watched in horror as the brown locks, once silky yet now oily from her captivity, slid over her shoulders in thick curlsas she pushed herself up, her distinctive white streaks still there. Her entire body trembled from the effort, feeling as if she had been beaten horribly and was now covered in bruises, though that wasn't the case.

Although, when she looked down at the arm that the needle had been stuck in, a large, purple bruise was blossoming, and Rogue silently groaned. It stood out starkly against her pale flesh, and in the dim light of the facility, looked nasty and damning. Sitting in a corner of her cell, Rogue felt herself over, to make sure she didn't have any broken bones, and came across another curiosity. She had always been a slim girl, even though she was seventeen, but her body didn't feel like the body of a seventeen year old now. It was still slim, but it had more curves. Her breasts were bigger and her arms and legs were far suppler, despite the horribleness of the situation. In fact, if she didn't know any better, she would say she was even an inch or so taller, though she couldn't be for sure, since she was sitting. She felt… older.

Confusion reigned for a moment, but she shoved that violently aside. She needed to have a clear head right now so that she could escape, not be distracted by her current physical state. Rogue still couldn't see completely into the cell across from hers, though she was pretty sure there was no one in there.

And then, miracle of miracles, the bars disappeared. With a loud screech, they just flickered and disappeared, as if whatever generator that had been producing them had been somehow disconnected. Rogue's eyes widened slightly at this sudden turn of events, but she wasn't about to turn down this sort of opportunity. It was her chance to escape. And it seemed that the guards had realized that, for many of them had stalled and lifted their weapons.

Casually, Rogue stood up, stumbling only a little. Adrenaline was rushing through her system, giving her the strength she wouldn't have had without it. She knew she would pay for it later, probably by sleeping for three or four days, but now, she felt invincible. Pity she didn't actually have that power. It would have been nice in a situation like this. Stretching out her tired muscles, Rogue looked at the guards who regarded her with wary expressions.

"Hello, gentleman. I believe it's time that we say our farewells," Rogue said pleasantly, the smile on her face dangerous.

They didn't even have time to lift their guns. With a feral snarl, Rogue launched herself at the guards full force. On her peripheral vision, she noticed a few other captive mutants doing the same the thing with their various powers. One girl, with long black hair and slightly silver skin forcibly lifted a guard all the way off his feet and threw him into three other guards charging down the halls. Smiling viciously, Rogue followed the girl's suite, attacking with a ferociousness that she didn't know she possessed. She didn't particularly want to absorb any of them, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to kick the living shit out of somebody. And though they wore armor and she was barefoot, they didn't stand a chance.

Eventually, the three or four other mutants that had been battling the guards in the cell block had dashed off to find their own freedom, leaving Rogue and the silver skinned girl to fight on their own. But the number of guards left charging into the corridor was dwindling until it completely stopped, and all the guards were either unconscious, fled in fear… or dead.

Panting in exertion, a crazed look in her eyes, Rogue stood among the bodies, her fists clenched at her sides as she fought to control the blood lust seizing her. What in the world was wrong with her? She had never felt this sort of rage before, this passionate, overbearing need to wreck havoc on anybody. It was a new, frightening feeling, and one that she didn't particularly dislike, which worried her. But there was no one left to fight; she needed to get out.

The silver skinned girl ran over to her and lightly touched her shoulder, her scarlet eyes just as turbulent as Rogue's emerald ones, "We need to get out of here. More will come, and we can't fight forever."

Rogue looked over at the girl next to her. She was devastatingly beautiful, in a tragic sort of way, with long silky black hair that fell past her waist and two scarlet stripes almost identical to Rogue's white ones streaking down the front. She was as tall as Rogue and built athletically, her shimmering skin rippling with power underneath her gray outfit. But her scarlet eyes were tortured, a feeling Rogue knew only too well.

Nodding curtly, Rogue ordered, "Come on, this way."

The two girls started to run along the corridor, dodging the fallen guards and taking out any new ones that appeared. The siren was still shrieking loudly, red lights going off everywhere Trask of whatever had caused this. But Rogue didn't care what had started all this; she was only grateful for a chance to escape. They finally got to a corridor that had a window, and with a look to the other that needed no explaining, they crashed through it.

Rogue ignored the scraping of the glass against her skin; the small wounds were nothing to what could have been done to her. And just as she was about to land, the strangest thing happened. She didn't. Something, or rather someone, grabbed her by the armpits and lifted her into the air.

Looking up in surprise, Rogue realized the girl she had been escaping with could fly, and was obviously strong enough to carry her and stay in the air. Rogue was almost giddy with relief; this would make escaping that much easier. She shot a weak smile at the girl, and the girl smiled back before soaring over the chaos.

The guards noticed the two of them flying away, and bullets peppered the air around them. The girl holding Rogue swerved and flew higher, taking them out of reach until the bullets stopped. Fortunately Rogue wasn't afraid of heights, or she would have been puking by now. Looking down at the ground beneath them, Rogue watched the erupting bedlam apathetically. Someone had obviously attacked Trask's compound, and for that she was grateful, for she had been able to escape. But beyond that, she felt, surprisingly, nothing.

However, first things first…

"Thank you. My name is Rogue."

"They call me Argent, and you're welcome," the girl, Argent, responded, her voice husky and scratchy, as if she had suffered and recovered from a neck wound. "Where do you want me to take you, Rogue?"

"However far you are going is better than I could have expected," Rogue said truthfully, extremely grateful once more for the girl. But really, she shouldn't be thinking of Argent as a girl, as it was obvious that Argent had to be at least twenty, maybe twenty-one.

Rogue sensed Argent struggling with something before the girl simply said, "I have no home, so wherever you want to go, I'll take you there."

Rogue was silent for a moment, considering this. The poor girl, she knew how having no home felt. "Where are we? Where is this base?"

"Nevada."

"Can you get me to New York?" Rogue asked. The Professor would surely offer Argent a place among the X-Men; obviously she was a pretty powerful mutant.

"Yes, though it might take me a few days," Argent answered. "Where in New York you heading?"

"Bayville," Rogue said softly, looking at the ground some two hundred feet bellow them. Argent still held her by her armpits, leaving the rest of her body to tangle precariously over the open air, but Rogue was exhilarated by the danger it presented, by the wind weaving through her hair. They were flying at a pretty good pace, and the cool air on Rogue's heated skin felt excellent.

Argent hummed softly, the vocal equivalent of a shrug, "I don't know where that is, but you can direct me there once we get into New York. You got family there?"

"Sort of," Rogue responded truthfully. "You'd be welcomed there, too, you know. The professor, the man who owns the place I stay in, he takes in people like us, trains us to use our powers. He could help you, too."

The girl was silent for a moment, considering what Rogue was saying, "What are your powers? You didn't use any back in the fight."

It was Rogue's time to pause now. She didn't know quite how to answer this; she didn't want Argent to be afraid of her and drop her in some remote spot without a chance to get home.

"Are they really that terrible?" Argent asked, her voice amused.

"Yes. I… absorb people," Rogue said hesitantly, balking at giving her all the information. She hardly if ever told anyone the entire story unless forced to.

Argent, apparently, was going to force her to, "Absorb? I don't understand."

"My skin. All I have to do is touch someone, and I absorb their energy, their life force. And, if they are a mutant, I absorb their power, too. But I only keep their power for a little while before it fades away. I even get the memories and psyches of each person I absorb…" Rogue trailed off, wincing in pain at that particular thought. Now she waited for Argent to scream or shout in fear and drop her, or at the very least touch back down on ground and part ways with her. Very few people actually wanted to be Rogue's friend.

There were several moments of tense silence where Rogue feared that Argent would reject her before the British girl said softly, "I'm sorry. All of your skin?"

"Yes, all of it."

"That must be a bitch. So, you can't have any physical contact with anyone if your skin is exposed unless you want to… absorb them?" Argent asked, her voice curious.

Rogue nodded, "That's right. All it takes is even half a millisecond of touching, and the person is out cold."

She could hear the grin in Argent's voice as the girl said, "That's bloody fucking awesome, you know. Tragic for you, of course, that you can't touch anybody. But still. Fucking awesome."

Her reaction caught Rogue off-guard. Rogue's powers had been called many things. Powerful, deadly, dangerous, frightening, all of these things. But never 'fucking awesome'. No one had ever responded to her powers with the amused, impressed tone that Argent was speaking in, and while Rogue was slightly confused over it, she was also secretly thrilled. She felt like a little ten-year old who had managed to creep out her best friends with some disgusting story and had all the attention and awe focused on herself. So Rogue had to prevent the goofy grin that was spreading across her lips and try to respond modestly.

"Thank you," Rogue murmured, glad that Argent couldn't see her flaming red face.

"I mean, really, you're so bloody powerful, you could even take me down. And that totally rocks," Argent continued. "It may be a bitch for you, sure, but it's an even bigger bitch to the people you are taking on. And from that fighting I saw, I assume you're a pro at taking people on."

Rogue nodded again, "Yes, Professor Xavier gathered a group of mutants, myself included, to stop another mutant named Magneto from attacking humans. But that was before mutants were found out, before Trask got me…"

"Professor Xavier, you say?" Argent asked suddenly, her voice sounding strange.

"Yes, Professor Charles Xavier. Have you heard of him?" Rogue asked, her voice hopeful. Maybe he had been on TV, speaking out to try to find her.

Argent was silent for a moment, and Rogue sensed that she wanted to say something but was unsure of how to say it, "I remember hearing, about four years back, of a Professor Xavier and his group of X-Men that had been fighting the mutant Magneto being caught by Trask. They were the ones who unearthed us."

"Four years?" Rogue asked sharply in confusion. "What do you mean, four years ago?"

"I've only been in America for about two years, so my information may be a wee bit fuzzy on the exact details. But I remember the date exactly, because that was when we were exposed. Because of Professor Xavier and Magneto. I wouldn't forget a date like that. I'm sorry, luv," Argent said mournfully, "but it truly has been four years since that particular incident occurred. Professor Xavier already rescued his X-Men a long time ago, although Trask had managed to evade capture, which is why he is still out getting mutants today."

If they weren't flying, Rogue would have turned around and screamed at Argent. Her thoughts were chaotic once more, and a new burst of adrenaline was running through her. Four years? She couldn't be right, she just couldn't. Rogue's memory was that it happened just yesterday. There was now way, no way at all, that she could have forgotten four whole years. No, Argent had to be mistaken. Besides, even if it had been four years, the X-Men would have rescued her along with the others, like she had said. They wouldn't have left her behind… would they?

"Rogue?" Argent asked after a moment, worried by her silence. "Are you okay?"

It would explain why she looked older. She didn't look seventeen; if the time table was accurate, if it were 2006 instead of 2002, she would be twenty-one now, and her body certainly looked it. But they would never, ever leave her! But maybe they couldn't find her. Maybe Trask had spirited her away before they could rescue her and they were still looking for her. That had to be the case. Rogue would be devastated if it weren't. But it was. It was. It was.

But how did that explain the fact that she didn't remember four years of her life? Where had those four years gone? Surely she would have known... They couldn't have wiped out that much memory... Or even wiped it out that precisely, and left the rest of her memories. And what would be the point? What the hell was going on?

"Rogue?"

"Huh? Oh yes, yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry… just, thinking…" Rogue said weakly. Argent didn't know that Rogue's memories made it seem like it was just yesterday that she had been taken, and Rogue was certain she didn't know Argent, so Argent had no reason to lie to her. And Rogue could always absorb the silver-skinned mutant, just to be sure, but she didn't really want to jeopardize their newfound friendship like that.

"So, will your professor take me in, do you think?" Argent asked, and Rogue heard the worry in her voice.

"Of course he will," Rogue answered automatically. "He takes in any mutant that asks for his help. He is a very nice, generous man. He runs a school specifically for mutants, a boardinghouse where we can live in safety. You'll be very welcome. And your powers will be welcomed, too."

"Will I have to join the X-Men if I do?"

Rogue shook her head, "Not necessarily, not if you don't want to. You don't have to join the X-Men to stay in the Institute; in fact, most students don't. We only have a very small number, and most of us are actually orphans or without guardians who would try to stop us from being X-Men, with a few exceptions."

Argent listened to this and nodded, "That's good. I think I would like to be an X-Man. What do you do?"

So Rogue explained to Argent what the purpose of the X-Men was as they flew along in the night, answering any questions she had. Rogue was one of the few who had knowledge of the other side so she could give a well-informed opinion on what it was like to be an X-Man and what it truly meant to fight someone else, another mutant. Argent explained what her powers were: she could fly and her silver skin was impenetrable to anything, be it lasers or bullets or spikes. She would be a blessing in a fight against other mutants, and (as Argent had said that anti-mutant terrorist organizations were becoming very popular) against humans, too.

Rogue was very depressed when she heard that the humans were getting more and more violent towards mutants, but not all surprised. It was human nature to fear what they didn't know, and it was also human nature to be violent, nasty beasts that attacked anybody when provoked, whether that provocation was real or not. She was still stewing over the fact that she had been missing for four years now, even though it only felt like she had been missing for a few hours. Yet no obvious answer or solution popped into her brain. In fact, when she tried to think about her past, her head hurt horribly, making her very suspicious.

"Well," Argent said after a while, "I think we should touch down for the night and camp out in the trees. It won't be fun, but I don't want to risk going into town. It will take us a couple of days flight to make it to New York."

So they camped out under the stars. Rogue was so weary, she fell asleep instantly.

It took them exactly three days to reach Bayville, New York, finally reaching Rogue's home by about nine o'clock in the evening. Which was a good thing, since that meant that many people were in bed, and the darkness could hide the two mutants, who would obviously stand out in the ratty clothing they had been left in from Trask's experiments. Both of them reeked horribly, their hair tangled messes around their faces and sweat and dirt clinging to every part of them. Argent was so tired from flying and carrying Rogue that she was leaning heavily on the slightly taller Southern girl.

Rogue felt like a deep weight had been removed from her chest when she saw the familiar wrought-iron gate and brick wall surrounding the Institute. Home. She was finally home. It was as if the welcoming arms of the X-Men were already around her and she was safe and sound, all her questions answered.

Neither of them wanted to wake up the entire Institute, which would have happened had they pushed the button on the intercom system, so Argent gathered all her energy and managed to lift the both of them up and over the ten foot wall. She very nearly collapsed when they made it to the other side, but Rogue kept her supported, despite her own weariness.

The two of them stumbled up the circular driveway to the front doors of the mansion, Rogue murmuring to Argent the entire way, "It's fine, we're almost there. It's going to be fine."

Rogue knew the sensors would have already picked them up and alerted their presence to whoever was doing security that night, so she didn't even bother to ring the doorbell. Someone would come and open the door.

And she didn't have long to wait. Within seconds of gaining the porch in front of the doorway, the double doors swung open to reveal two people.

Rogue's eyes widened as she came face to face with a striking pair of emerald eyes surrounded by two streaks of white hair.

"Oh my god."

BUM BUM BUM! Cliffy! Muwahahahahaha! Like you don't know who the other person is, but still. Cliffy! Anyway, I hope ya'll like it. I'll post the next chapter once I see what the response to this story is. Comments would be appreciated. Suggestions will be considered, I swear, because I really like other people's ideas and love to hear them. Flames, however, will be used to roast marshmallows over.

Until the next chapter! Sparky