Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just letting them out to play

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Chapter 4

Magneto sat forward, "What about Charles?"

She swallowed hard, "I don't think he really died. Moria thought she heard him from inside the body of a comatose sociopath, but now she isn't sure."

Eric leant back, "So that's what that smile was all about."

"But when Emma touched me…"

"Emma? Emma Frost?"

She nodded.

Eric laughed.

"You know her?"

"Only by reputation. She is sly, I will give her that."

"She found Scott. We had all thought that the Phoenix had killed him, but she found him, after months of searching. No one is quite sure how."

"Something is missing."

She nodded, "Something important."

He stood up, "Come, there is some people you should meet."

Confused, she followed him, "What? Who? Where?"

--

An hour later she was standing in a warehouse, beside Magneto and a tall man whom looked a little like Scott, with the exception of the eyes, a demonic red on black, facing out towards a group of a dozen people, all looking lost and unsure of why they were there.

"My brothers and sisters," Eric began looking amongst the group, "We are all here because we are alike. We were mutants, and now are mutants lost without our birthright. Together we will regain what was lost; together we will help our kind. We have had a rare experience, we have lived in the shoes of those who hate us, and we have seen things from the other side. There is a chance to rid the world of their hatred; there is still a chance to find ourselves, when we again have our powers, able to walk amongst them again, without fear and hatred."

Rogue watched with an arched eyebrow. He wanted equality? She knew that humanity had changed him, she just didn't realize how much. And she wasn't sure if she should believe it.

As the crowd broke apart, Magneto and the man at his side walked with Rogue away from the others.

"Are you for real?"

"You doubt it?"

"You did try to use me to turn the world leaders into mutants. World domination has been your thing, it's hard to think of you as an equalitist now."

He grinned at her, "I have lived longer than you my dear, I have seen horrors that are impossible to forget, and I have seen change in nations and individuals. This change in me cannot really be that hard to imagine after the horrors I have myself brought to mutant and human kind alike." He gestured to those gathered around, "This is my way of making amends."

"You're helping all these people to re-discover their powers? Is it possible?"

"We are finding out." He looked to where a young woman stood, bidding Eric's attention. "Excuse me."

She looked at the man who was watching her intently. "What?"

"You're from Mississippi."

She broke into a grin at his heavy accent. "Louisiana?"

"Oui. I am Remy LeBeau, called Gambit to those who get in my way." He held out his hand.

Cautiously she shook his hand, "Rogue."

"You were an X-Man?"

She nodded, "Briefly. You?"

"I was a thief, still am, well, free lance mostly now. Mag's has told us about you. Your powers." He took a step forward, "You don't have to be afraid of us."

"I'm not." She was surprised to find she wasn't. Usually knowing that people knew what she could do, at least made her uneasy. Maybe she was coming out of her shell, so to speak. "What can you do?"

He held up a hand, within it was a playing card, as he concentrated it started to glow a pinkish gold. "I turn potential energy into kinetic. I make things go boom."

"Cool."

He let the charge fade, "It wasn't. The power grew too quick, I was too strong. I couldn't touch anything, anyone without being scared that I would hurt them."

"I know how that feels."

He smiled, "I know. That's why I'm telling you."

She swallowed hard, she was blushing. "So, you went and got the "Cure"?"

"Oui."

"Were you happy?"

"Non. I was empty."

"Incomplete."

"Oui."

"So how did you get hooked up with Magneto?"

"He caught me picking his pocket. He saw my eyes, and he knew."

"They didn't go away with your powers?"

"No. It was another reason I wanted the cure. They scare people."

"I kinda like them. Red is one of my favourite colours."

--

She returned to the mansion that night, with instructions to keep her eyes open for anything unusual going on. She was still unsure about Magneto's intensions, but decided that she could trust him, at least for the moment. At least until she got her powers back.

She found Peter sitting and drawing in the front room.

"You missed supper." He looked up, "I saved you some."

She sat beside him, "You're an angel."

He set his paper down, "You have been gone a lot. Why?"

"Have you ever felt that there was something you've had to see through, something that you know others wouldn't understand—something important?"

"Yes, coming here. My parents didn't want me to. I come from a small farm, where they didn't know what being a mutant was. They hated me there, my parents wanted to keep me safe. From those around us, from the world. But I thought I could be one of the ones to save it, the world, those who cannot save themselves."

"I think something is going to happen, something big. I don't know what or even if, but, all I know is that I have to be really for it. Just in case."

--

That night, after much of the mansion was asleep she made her way down to the sublevel, to where Scott slept, still unable to wake up. Rogue looked at him, if it wasn't for his breathing, she would have thought him dead. Maybe in his mind, he was…

Getting an idea, she shook her head. It was a bad idea, a very very bad idea. But she knew she was going to do it. Scott wore the goggles that he did while sleeping, just in case he woke up, to keep his optic beams in check. Beside his head were his glasses, the ones that were found at Alkaline Lake.

Cursing under her breath she put them on and removed a glove. Concentrating on her breathing she reached out with a shaking hand, and touched him on his exposed neck. For a moment nothing happened. Then, as she sighed with frustration, she felt it stir. Willing it forward, she held on, feeling the now long unfamiliar sensation of being filled from the inside out.

She was inside him; there was a wall. She was starting to break through it. She was now the one in the comma, she was now being whispered to, being told she was the only one strong enough to stop it. She was being told she was loved, that someone couldn't kill her; they could only hold her back. There was now a tingling behind her eyes. And now, there was pain…

They screamed together as she broke contact. She was flung to the ground, the glasses falling in the process. She could feel the beginnings of power that she could barely hold back. Confused as to who she was, Rogue darted away, leaving the med lab as Logan and Storm rushed in.

Sitting before them was Scott, sitting up, clutching his head, panting hard. He had just screamed her name, Jean's, as memories he wished he didn't have came rushing back to him. Ororo rushed to him and held him as he trembled and sobbed and remembered everything, everything except what was taken from him.

As Ororo comforted their long lost friend, Logan stood, looking to the ground where the glasses were, the undeniable scent clinging to the room, making him wonder, what the hell he was missing, and what Rogue had been doing down there.

TBC...

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Very, very fun!

Please let me know how I'm doing on this one.