DISCLAIMER OVER WHOLE STORY: I do not own X-men and never will. End
This story is set after the 2nd movie, but before the 3rd. It does not follow any of the X-Men: The Last Stand storyline.
This is a re-write, beginning from chapter one. I've only done 1 so far, and chapter 17 is where the re-writes will end.
Eyliena
'Something is coming!
She was sure that the voice came from inside her head, but Rogue looked around herself in confusion. Whoever had sent the telepathic message had sounded desperate, so she stood up to search for anyone around her.
There was no one else in amongst the library stacks, so she reclaimed her seat and bent her head back down to continue her work.
The telepathic voice came to her again, just as desperate, but this time louder than before.
'Gather your forces' It pleaded. 'They'll be needed in the upcoming battle.' Rogue threw her pen down onto the table as her homework was interrupted yet again. This was important, and someone was messing around sending telepathic messages into her mind. The voice was so strong that it had obviously come from inside the building, and considering that all the telepaths were students apart from the Professor, she was betting that they'd have to be just outside the library door, too.
"Ray!" She called out angrily.
"This is SO not funny. I am now officially sick of hearing voices in my head!"
There was no reply, so Rogue stood up and moved around to see if anybody was hiding in between the stacks.
The room was quiet. There wasn't even the mutter or giggle of Bobby or anyone else who's bright idea it would have been to play a joke like this. Rogue frowned as her eyes scanned the room.
"Okay now, joke's over. You can come out!" She called into the silent emptiness. It was late at night, so everyone had either already gone to bed, were watching the TV or were entertaining themselves some other way before they settled down for the night.
Rogue moved over to the door, searching the hallway for any sign of a student. Rogue was completely alone, and there was no kid in the school powerful enough to project their thoughts through walls. Anyway, if this was someone's idea of a joke, then they would want the glory for totally freaking Rogue out, so they'd want to be around to see her reaction.
Rogue started to make her way back to her table to retrieve her belongings. She stopped suddenly, deciding that maybe it was more important to tell Professor Xavier right away.
As she exited the library once more, she bumped into Logan.
"Oh. Logan. Hi." She greeted him, looking around herself self-consciously.
Logan didn't seem to mind that she had run into him, he just spoke abruptly to her as if he didn't want to waste any time with chit-chat.
"Hi. Hey, you know, I have to go and see Xavier right now, so I can't stick around and chat." He said gruffly.
"Well, that's exactly where I'm going, so we can go together." Rogue told him cheerfully. Logan just stared at her for a second then started off down the hallway, leaving Rogue to catch up and walk along beside him.
"So, kid. What're you goin' to see the professor for, huh?" Logan asked her. Rogue looked down at her feet as she walked.
"I know it sounds stupid, and it may have just been someone's idea of a joke, but…" She trailed off.
"But what?" Logan just stared straight ahead, he didn't even look at Rogue as he spoke to her, but Rogue looked up at him.
"I heard a voice in my head, but there was no one else in the room. No one here is powerful enough to project through walls yet, are they?"
Logan suddenly stopped short. Rogue stopped, too and looked at him curiously. "What?" She asked.
"It wasn't just me, then." He said softly.
"What?" Rogue repeated.
"Don't worry. Just come on. If it wasn't just us, then there're probably already others who have gone to see Xavier." Logan reached out to grab Rogue's arm, but stopped when he saw that she wasn't wearing a glove on her right hand.
"I was writing." Rogue stated simply, then turned and kept walking down the hall.
"And don't tell me not to go." She called behind her to Logan. "If what the voice said was true, then you're going to need me, too." Logan ran a little to catch up to her, and she looked him in the eyes. "And I'm not a little kid anymore, Logan. You can't protect me forever."
"But I promised I would." Logan replied calmly and softly.
xxx
"We're going to have a school meeting tomorrow, but until then you have to keep everyone calm." Professor Xavier told everyone in the room.
Only a few kids had been freaked out enough to go to the headmaster, and from what Rogue had heard of their ordeals, they didn't hear any words in the mix of the telepathic connection.
Even some of the professors made no move to mention more than a desperate gargle. "Now all of you should go back to bed and mention to everyone that all of this will be explained in the morning.
Everyone filed out but the X-men team and Rogue. "I thought some of you might stay." Xavier said, closing the door behind the last of the stragglers who moved out of his office.
"What about the message?" Rogue asked him. Everyone else in the room nodded.
"Well, I thought it was best not to alarm those who hadn't heard it." He looked around the room. "Although I doubt that all of you heard the whole thing anyway."
"Do you know who sent the message?"
"Well, it seems that whoever did tell us this is extremely powerful, because they have blocked their mind from me. I don't think that even Cerebro would find them."
"How do you know it wasn't magneto?" Logan asked.
"Magneto doesn't have that kind of power." Scott stated.
"Scott's right. Magneto doesn't possess any telepathic power, and anyway, he blocks his mind from me with the use of his helmet. There is nothing here but the willpower of the mutant to stop me from reaching them."
"Another one of Magneto's new flunkies?" Logan suggested.
"No." Storm said. "Why would Magneto want to warn us of anything? It is not something that he would do."
Rogue was thinking hard, and when something occurred to her, she opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced by a look from the professor.
"Tomorrow morning we're going to have an assembly." Xavier told the people in the room. Everyone except Rogue and Logan moved out of Xavier's office.
"Logan, you can go." Xavier told him. Logan gave a glare to no one in particular before leaving the office and closed the door behind him.
"Professor." Rogue began. "When it… I felt… It felt like I knew the person who was communicating with us." Xavier gave Rogue a sympathetic look.
"Rogue, I know who it was."
"But you said that-"
"That she was too powerful for me to zone in on? That is true. Jean has grown truly powerful."
"Jean?" Rogue was truly shocked by this revelation. Her legs wobbled underneath her and she sat down on a chair.
"You shouldn't tell anybody else about this." Xavier warned. Too many feelings can be hurt around here, and Jean expressed her reluctance to let anybody else but you know."
"But why me?" Rogue questioned. "I'm not anything special."
"Well Rogue, that is all a matter of opinion." Xavier stated. He maneuvered his chair around his desk and in front of Rogue. "Jean believes that you have so much untapped power and wants you with her so she can teach you how to use it." All Rogue could do was stare at the professor.
"What?" She asked, taken aback by the statement. "I don't have any-"
"I know that it's a shock." Xavier interrupted her. "But there are some things that you just have to do sometimes." He commented as he moved towards the door.
"You have a choice to make about where you are going from here, and if you choose to take the path that Jean has requested you take, then you're going to have to pack and say goodbye to your friends. You may be gone quite a while. Whatever you choose, though, Rogue, you can't tell anyone that Jean is still alive."
With that last comment, Xavier left her in his office, leaving Rogue to run through her feelings in her head, and make the choice alone.
Please review. I like reviews.
Eyliena
