Story: Rogue Pretender

Author: August Mayhem

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the setting. Anything that is not is canon of any kind of X-Men is mine. This is a continuous disclaimer and I won't be re-posting it every chapter.

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CHAPTER 1

"Who'll it be kid; us or them?"

She glanced up at the owner of the gruff voice, for once not needing to force a tremble. The cold still had a strong hold on her body.

"If Ah don't say you, ahm Ah gonna get thrown outta thihs jeht?"

There was the slightest hint of a smirk in that hard face. "No. Either we've earned your trust by now, or we haven't."

She didn't want to be an X-Men. She had a basic idea of what it meant and while it seemed heavenly at first, she had learned long ago that nothing ever came for free.

She looked at her clenched hands, trying hard to keep the shivers to a minimum, lest she look weak. But caught herself just after and worried her hands a little more. Hey, if they thought she was a pathetic teen who needed their help, they were more likely to give it.

"Not them."

The stocky man in front of her nodded and moved back to the front of the plane with the Professor.

She knew that this would take extremely careful planning and had the potential to blow up in her face, but hey, that was half the fun! She ducked her head to hide a grin.

*~*~*~*~*

That night she meditated about the X-Men while under the pretense of sleep, until everyone was safely in their dreams. Or nightmares, but that wasn't her problem.

She had been placed in a room with a preppy girl by the name of Kitty. Katherine Pryde really, and her X-Men name was Shadowcat. Apparently she could walk through walls.

She let out a small snort. With a name like Shadowcat, you'd assume her power had something to do with shadows, not becoming intangible. Ah well. A lot of these X-Men dorks had dumb names.

Like Nightcrawler; real name, Kurt Wagner. A furry male specimen of the human, specifically mutant, race; and, oh yes, he was blue. Scott, the moron who'd tried so hard to convince her to join their side, was named Cyclops. Which actually made sense considering his power…and costume.

Yes, all the X-men wore costumes. Not outfits, not some Superman-hide-it-under-your-normal-clothes-thing, though Kurt probably did that, but costumes. And they all looked impossibly stupid!! There was no way she'd ever let herself be put into some spandex-y thing with stupid x's in circles placed randomly about the torso.

The only person she hadn't seen in spandex, not that she wanted to, was the Professor. It was an odd anomaly when speaking about the man. When talking to him directly, he was Professor, or Professor X; but when you spoke of him, he was 'The Professor'. Very irritating really.

She quietly walked over to Kitty's bed gently placed a finger on her bare arm. She had to focus on getting just the smaller girl's power as she was asleep and couldn't do so herself.

After a few minutes, she was satisfied that she had received enough of her power to use for tonight as well as memorize and lock it into her 'vault'. She put on a small pair of shorts that would allow for ease of movement and wouldn't make any noise. A tight tee also ensured no rustling of fabric as she made her rounds of the dorms.

Logan would be last she decided. Or close to the last, but certainly not this early on. He has superior senses and she wouldn't risk her entire operation going up in smoke if he caught her.

Questions would be asked, she would be watched, visually and mentally, and that was unpleasantness that she would greatly love to avoid. A semi-dark grin fell across her mouth as she snuck out into the hallway.

The Rogue was back.

*~*~*~*~*

Having finished her rounds with little problems she made her way back to her shared room. She had almost woken Logan up while absorbing him, but thankfully the brief pain he had felt while she touched him could be attributed to his nightmares. She'd caught a glimpse of them.

She'd been very cautious in his room, no doubt he would be able to smell her when he woke up, so she masked her scent and quickly bamfed into his closet, using her recently renewed teleportation power, courtesy of Kurt and wrapped herself in his clothes.

She would need to make sure she touched everyone with bare skin, while they were awake, sometime soon so as to explain any random displays of their powers. Scott she already had from the previous two times, but felt that another couldn't hurt.

She'd been delighted to find a second mind with that of one Jean Grey. It was a dark mind too! Since she'd first met the pretty Princess of Bayville, and the Xavier Institute, she hadn't liked her. Everything about her was too perfect. She was too pretty, too smart, too nice, too popular with absolutely everyone.

It was delicious to find that she had such a dark mind within her own. Not that Jean Grey was aware of this consciousness, but still, it delighted the Southern belle to know the princess wasn't perfect.

Once safely back in her own room, she began to build her mental shields that would keep her safe from any psychic probing.

She was careful to put all her dark little secrets and thoughts into a locked area of her mind, which was then buried in the ground of her mindscape. She went over it again and again until the once dug up section could not be differentiated from any other area.

Knowing that her sarcastic thoughts and moods would be evident to any passing telepath, she built a tunnel that would connect her main conscious with the closely-guarded mental vault.

Looking at her work, Rogue noticed that there was a gaping black hole that even a novice telepath would notice. Rogue stuck her hands on her hips and scowled. Hell, even Spyke would notice it. And he was absolutely demented; at least from what little she saw of him at school.

Focusing on the black hole, and snorting at her pun, she broke it up into a million little pieces and scattered them across her mindscape. They would act similar to pores, catching all the things she didn't want people to know about and they all had tunnels that were impossibly thin that would trail further and further back, gradually joining up until the thought landed in her vault.

Glancing at the clock, Rogue noted that it had been almost 5 hours since she began her escapade.

Drawing on the other students knowledge of the institute's layout, the young mutant made her way to the kitchen to grab something to eat. It had been almost 24 hours since she last had something in her stomach.

No breakfast the previous day after the simulation, no lunch, 'cause she had no food to pack and it was only slightly impossible to get food on a mountain in a snow storm. And then she'd been lost with Scott for an untold matter of time.

And once they were rescued, she been taken to the medical lab they had on one of the lower floors and had been plugged up with an IV, and unconscious, for the better part of the evening.

Moving around the kitchen with far more grace and experience than one would expect of a newcomer, she began making herself something from home.

*~*~*~*~*

She had just finished mixing everything together when a ragged Logan walked through the door.

"What are you doing up?" His voice was even more gravelly than normal. She jumped, possibly more than strictly necessary, but she could always attribute it to it being her first night here; playing the part of an unsuspicious, startled teenager.

"Logan! Yah startled meh!" She grabbed a wet cloth to wipe up the food she'd spilt.

"What are you doing up this late kid? You should be sleeping off your mountain scare."

She mentally scoffed at the fact that being stuck on a mountain would scare her. She schooled a careful mix of blankness and timidness on her face before shrugging a shoulder.

"Ah'm naht so good with new plahces, yah know? And Ah've got a lot on mah mind." Oh, if only he knew. Logan nodded his shaggy head, grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down at the counter.

Rogue found two plates and dished the food onto them before grabbing two forks and putting a plate in front of Logan. His eyes snapped open as his nose took in the smell of spiced rice with pieces of cooked chicken added in.

He looked over at the young Southern with a raised eyebrow.

She shrugged again. "Allus found eatin' home-cookin' tah be the best thang to get mah mind off sleepless nahghts." A small grin overtook her face as she put the first forkful in her mouth.

Logan took a bite and quickly swallowed so to get more off the tasty food. Savoring the mélange of flavors he looked at the white and russet haired teen.

"What is this? I can taste some herbs, way too much Cajun spice and some lemon."

Big green eyes looked at him in surprise. "Wow sugah! Ah am impressed. Not many people get tha' so soon. If evah!" Rogue mentally narrowed her eyes. His senses were much sharper than she had previously thought. She'd have to be careful around him. Or get on his good side.

"Why is there lemon? It tastes alright but I wouldn't think it would normally be put with the other spices."

"Well Ah actually made Cajun Chicken Liver," Logan almost choked. "But you gahs don't have any o' that. So Ah used the leftover lehmon chicken instead."

Nothing more was said while they finished their food, dumped the dishes in the sink and went back to bed.

*~*~*~*~*

Rogue was woken up by her overly-peppy roommate, not 3 hours later. Forcing herself to get up, her plan to avoid people and come off as grumpy couldn't have gone better. She figured it was because she didn't have to pretend how she felt.

Her late night activities had gone on much later than she had planned and as such didn't get much sleep. But she had started the basics of a relationship with Logan, and that was more than she had hoped for; especially for the first night. They'd have to spend more time together to build that camaraderie she would need. And she had just the plan.

She hadn't brought any of her school things the day before, because of the trip, and they hadn't picked them up last night; so it seemed the Rogue was stuck for the day and would most likely get detention for not having her books.

…Which would really piss her off. She needed a believable lie as to why she didn't have any books… Rogue thought of various possibilities while mindlessly munching on disgustingly sweet cereal, her narrowed eyes glaring at bowl in front of her.

Everyone else stayed away. Jean tried to make conversation but was studiously ignored, though not deliberately. And just as everyone stood up to leave, the Professor's voice rang inside all their heads.

'Scott, Rogue, I'd like for you two to stay here for the day. Just to make sure there are no residual effects from your excursion yesterday.'

Rogue halfway snarled. Kitty's eyes widened in alarm and she shifted further away from the gothic girl. Kurt sent a sparing glance at the dark girl, before noticing that Kitty was moving closer to him in an attempt to get away from the girl. He grinned.

'Damn! Ah cahn't believe Ah spent so much tahme thankin' abou' how to get out of detention when that old mallard was jus' gonna get up an' tell meh tah stay!'

Once the other teens had left, Rogue and Scott received private instructions to go to the medical lab. The professor would meet them there.

Scott, despite the obvious bad mood she was in, decided he would try to speak with Rogue.

"So you're part of the X-Men now huh?"

Sparking green eyes glared up at him though smoky eye makeup and russet-white hair. Scott gulped and nervously glanced away, making a mental note to never get her angry at him. Even though he was taller and more muscular than she was, he had no doubt that the Southern girl would not hesitate to whup his ass, and good.

'No, Ah ahm not a part o' the X-Men, yah moron! But I don' need y'all as mah enemies! 'Sides, long as y'all thahnk Ah'm with you, ya won' bothah meh abou' whose sahde Ah'm reallah on! An' Ah get free food and a comfeh bed outta all thehs.'

She was glad the telepathic, red-headed bint had left for school already. She'd really need to focus her thoughts and mental defenses against 'The Professah'. Or maybe, a finger tapped her lips, unaware that Scott was watching her movements in mild interest.

'Mehbeh Ah could just pretend tha' a nat'ral mental defehnse is a par' o' mah pow'rs.'

A grin threatened to break out. 'At least until someone brehks through…Or Ah let mah guard down… Aw hell, i's just gonna be too much trouble to be on guard alla tahme.'

The Logan in her head sent a rumble about how he was on guard all the time. Rogue flicked him with a mental finger. 'Yer also insane sugah. Ah rathah lahke the way Ah ahm.' She ignored the roll of his eyes. And promptly bumped into Scott's back.

When exactly he had gotten in front of her she didn't know. She knew even less about why let alone when he stopped. Though sensibly the "when" would have to have been shortly before she bumped into him, otherwise she would have undoubtedly been lost in the large mansion.

"Rogue? We're here."

"Yehs, Ah can see thaht, thahnk yah! Heaven knows th' only othah rehson yah'd stop short' is cause Miss Red suddenly decahded to strip in public. Or privahte. Whichever yah prefer."

Wide, startled eyes followed the darkly clothed young woman as she moved passed him to sit on a couch in the Professor's office. A small smirk made its way across Scott face as he moved into the room and shut the door behind him.

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