Chapter 2

"Professor, I'm sorry but no."

"Rogue, just tell me why. We all know how much you want to touch; now all I have to do is go in your mind, and you won't let me. I want to help you, so why won't you let me?"

"I won't because... I just can't. I trust you, I do, but there are some things in my mind that nobody was meant to see."

"Like what?"

"Like… Professor, I know I can't stop you but… please don't do this. I know you don't understand it's just… if you do this…" she was on the verge of tears, "I can't tell you what will happen, but it will not be good."

"I'm willing to take that risk. Tomorrow I'll do it. Tomorrow you'll be able to touch." He was concerned, but not about to let a student punish herself because of some past memories she didn't think he'd accept.

Rogue didn't say anything; she just walked out of the room, only to run into Scott, literally.

"Sorry about that," Scott said, then noticed tears in her eyes. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

The concern he felt towards her made her smile, even if she really just wanted to break down crying. "You didn't hurt me, and it was my fault." Then, without thinking she continued, "It's not like I haven't been hurt before, anyways."

"What?"

"Huh? Oh, never mind. Just forget I said anything."

"What did you mean, you've been hurt before?"

"I… nothing. Nothing."

Mentally noting everything she'd said, like he'd been doing for months now, he said, "Ok. So, why were you talking to the professor?"

Hesitantly, she said, "He figured out a way I can touch, I don't know all the details except after tomorrow I'll be able to choose when my powers work."

"You don't seem as happy as you should be."

"That's because I have more reason not to be happy then to be happy," she said, then quickly went to her room before he could ask any more questions.

The next day

"You don't have to be so worried, it won't hurt a bit, you just need to relax," Professor Charles Xavier tried and failed to soothe Rogue. He had no idea why she was so worried, and he wished he did but chose not to pry into her thoughts. She was like his daughter, and he didn't want to invade her privacy. So, without hesitation, he went into her mind. It was amazing.

The first thing he noticed was that there was something like a house, and tons of mazes and traps all around. He wondered why. Then Rogue appeared beside him. At his look of surprise she said simply, "It's my mind, I don't have to be telepathic to enter it." He accepted the simple explanation. "And, as for all the traps, I don't like others entering without permission.

"What do you need to see?"

"Your memories. Oh, what's in that house?" Rogue cringed at the mention of it.

"I might as well show you. But don't say a word in there unless you absolutely have to, I'll explain it later." They went in to it, and he found it was easy to enter, though turning to look back after they were in, he saw it looked virtually impossible to get out of.

He snapped out of his thoughts about it when he saw Logan's psyche just walking around in the house. "What the hell are you doing here Chuck?"

"Shut up Logan, I'm showing him around."

"Damn it."

Xavier looked incredibly confused so Rogue added, "He wanted you to help him get out. As for why he's here: don't ask, I won't answer."

Another three psyches appeared before he could protest. John, Bobby, and an unfamiliar figure appeared. Rogue smiled slightly at the unfamiliar one, and then she continued. "I'll show you some of the rooms, but don't go into any of them, and don't ask about the rooms I don't show." Going up a flight of stairs he hadn't seen before, they reached the first room. "This is where Jean's psyche stays, I ran into her once so she's sorta still alive in a weird way. I'd let you say hi, but here everybody's different, even I'm a little bit warped in here." He'd noticed she was. She wasn't bad, but she wasn't as sweet as usual, and she seemed to want to get out ASAP. "This next room is Bobby and Johns, and up there is Magneto's. The one across from Magneto's is Cody's; he was with Bobby and John. He's the first guy I kissed. Next to his room is Mystique's, don't even bother asking when I touched her. Three doors up (A/N: she skipped all the rooms between them) is Logan. Scott's across from him."

"I know you don't want to tell me, but who's at the head of the hall?"

"I guess it's pointless to lie to a telepath. That's… well, you can go in there, so see for yourself. Just make sure you don't go in ahead of me, you don't want to know what will happen otherwise." They went in, and Charles almost had a heart attack. It was Rogue, only she looked… different. She was lying in fetal position on the floor, and as soon as she saw the professor she whimpered, went as far into the corner as she could, and before he could approach her Rogue grabbed him and pulled him out. Next thing he knew they were out of the house.

"Which memories do you need to see?"

"What was that last room?"

"I can't tell you yet, unless you want the real me to be like that too. Its kind of complicated anyways. Now which memories do you have to see?"

"I need to see when your powers first manifested, any particularly stressful times between then and when you ran away, and that should be it."

After a minute Rogue sighed and finally said, "Alright, you can see them. I'm going back to my body." With that Charles was left alone. A large screen came down, like it was a theatre. And he'd never forget what he saw. The kiss with Cody was bad enough, knowing how awful she must have felt. Compared to the rest it was nothing.

"I'm sorry!" sobbed Marie. "I didn't mean to!"

"Sorry's not good enough, you worthless bitch! You were never wanted, except by that stupid boy Cody, and now he's not here to protect you!" Marie's father grabbed a large wooden board and struck his daughter with it until she was lying on the ground and not making any attempts to get up. Then he moved on to throw his cigarette at her. His aim was alright, and the flame hit her shoulder, burning the flesh. If you looked closely you could see many more burns identical to that. Her sleeve caught fire, but she just let it burn. She didn't bother moving, knowing it wasn't worth it. After her father had walked away, she gathered the strength to crawl up the stairs.

That was one of the first memories she had between her powers manifesting and running away, it had been several months, and it was one of the better and shorter ones. She came back towards the end, some of the worst memories. She came back to her body knowing how to control her powers. He came back to his body wanting to kill her parents.

When he got out he noticed that Scott, Ororo, Kurt, Bobby, Kitty, Jubilee, and- surprisingly enough- Logan were all in the room. He also noticed that Rogue was crying, and it didn't surprise him.

"Come on kid, what's wrong? I mean, it might not have worked but…"

"It worked, Logan," Xavier managed to get out.

"Then what the fuck is wrong?"

Marie, as he'd just learned was Rogue's real name, nodded at Xavier. "She… she had to relive some very… very painful memories of things she didn't deserve to go through at all." He made sure to emphasize painful.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Logan asked.

"Just tell them, they might as well know," Rogue choked out.

Giving her a concerned look, the professor told them, "To make a long story short: her parents abused her."

"Because she was a mutant?" Bobby asked.

"I'm not sure." The professor turned to Rogue, mentally telling her she didn't need to tell them if she didn't want to.

"They abused me since I was about 8 years old. It just got worse when they realized I was a mutant."

"Um, you don't have to answer but how'd they beat you if they couldn't touch you?" Bobby asked, being his sensitive self. Rogue looked at professor, and he got the message.

"Her parents beat her with a wooden board, threw things at her, and did anything else they could. I will not go into any more detail than that." Jubilee unconsciously started to make fireworks, Logan's claws came out, Scott made fists, Bobby froze the door,both Kitty andKurt looked ready to kill, and outside a lightning storm suddenly started. Apparently they hadn't expected one of their top students to have a past like that.

"It's not a big deal, you don't need to get so upset," Rogue said. It didn't workbut noweveryone in the room stared at her.

"Not a big deal?"

"Look, you can't change the past, I was used to it, and it wasn't THAT bad." She was lying and she knew it, but she didn't want their pity. People here already felt sorry for her because of her powers, she didn't want them to feel even worse now that she could touch.

"What's the worst they did?" Scott asked, hoping her definition of bad and his matched. And knowing that he wouldn't like her answer.

"Um… the worst? Probably when they broke my arm, my leg, and burned my hand so badly I couldn't use it." The professor looked shocked, and she added, "That was before my powers manifested. Actually, it was after I came back from my first date."

"Uh… I… um… th-they… what… how…" Scott lost the capability of making complete sentences. Finally, he regained it. "I'm going to kill them."

"That could be difficult, considering the fact my mom was killed a year before I came here and God only knows where my dad is."

"…What happened to your mom?" Kitty asked, even though she didn't really care.

"Mystique killed her. She wasn't thrilled when she found out about my parents. Of course, now she thinks you've all brainwashed me so she doesn't care much about me now."

"Huh?" was the general response.

"…um, she's kinda… well, she USED to care because… it's kinda weird but… she'smymom."

"What?"

"She's-my-mom. There, I said it."

5 reviews chapter 2