Chapter 10
Kitty and Kurt were sitting on the fountain outside the Xavier Institute while watching the drive and waiting for Logan to come back with Rogue. At first, both of them had been fully confident that Logan would find her and bring her back but as time went on, doubt began to creep in. However, neither one wanted to admit to their growing fears out loud.
Then they heard the sound of the large metal gates creaking open and immediately they both perked up
"I bet that's Logan!" Kitty said excitedly (her valley girl talk tended to disappear when her emotions got too strong)
"I hope you're right, Kitty." Kurt said not as enthused, after all the last time she had said that it had just been Scott and Jean returning from their date.
Less than a minute later however Logan's motorcycle came roaring into view. Kitty and Kurt both jumped up excitedly but their elation lessened considerably when they realized that Logan was alone.
Seeing the two kids, Logan stopped his bike close to them and removed his helmet.
The instant the bike stopped moving they rushed over to him
"Logan where's Rogue/ Is Rogue okay?" Kitty and Kurt asked at the same time
"Relax guys, Stripes is fine…she decided that she didn't wanna come back" Logan answered
"What?" Kitty responded with a shocked expression
Kurt's face took on a very sorrowful expression as he asked "Why would she do that?"
"Look, why don't I go put my bike away, while you guys gather the team, that way I'll only have to go over it once, all right?" Logan suggested
"Ok, Logan" Kurt responded and teleported away but Kitty didn't move
"Half pint, you all right?" Logan asked her
"Yeah, I just…really want Rogue to come back home." Kitty said
"I know, half pint, I do too." Logan responded and then Kitty turned and began to slowly walk back into the institute
After a while, all the X-men, newcomers and long time members had gathered in the large den
"Professor, what's this all about?" Jean asked
"As you all know, Rogue went missing several days ago, Logan went to find her. Now he's going to tell us what he's learned." Professor Charles Xavier explained and then he turned his power chair towards Logan and added "Logan, the floor is yours"
"All right" Logan began "so I tracked Stripes to JFK airport in New York. Found out that she'd gone to Seattle, called Fury to give me a ride. Then went to Seattle only to find out that, Stripes had gone to Voltera."
Amara raised her hand and began to ask "where is-"
"Italy" Logan cut her off "and save your questions, tell I'm done all right?"
Amara nodded and said "sorry, Logan"
"That goes for the rest of you too, got it?" Logan replied. There were nods all around the room. It was very rare for any of the X-men to argue with Logan and none of them did so when he was in a bad mood and right then, he was in a very bad mood.
Logan didn't bother waiting for the nods to finish before he continued "Anyway, we went to Voltera found out that Stripes was staying in some big old castle or something with her dad."
"Her dad?" Kitty blurted out unable to stop herself
"Yep, turns out Mystique took her from him when she was just a baby. Anyway, she told me that she'd rather stay there with him than come back with me."
"Well, good riddance" one of Carol's friends spoke up "We're better off without her"
"You take that back right now!" Kitty demanded
"No way, that bitch killed Carol, she never should have been here in the first place" the girl retorted
"That was Carol's own stupid fault, she should never have grabbed Rogue's arm" Kitty snapped back
"Don't you dare blame Carol, Rogue is just a disgusting leech-"the other girl began but she was cut off by Scott
"Girls, this isn't helping anything" he said
"Right, we need to get Rogue back" Kurt added
"No, Kurt" Professor Xavier replied
"Professor?" Kitty and Kurt both said in tones filled with utter shock
"Her mutation is way too dangerous, what if her psyches get out of control again? She's a ticking time bomb; she needs to be here, where we can keep an eye on her." Jean added
"Is that the only thing you care about? Rogue is our FRIEND!" Kitty yelled "and yet here we are treating her like she's some kind of, of…THING! I really thought better of you" she raised her right arm and pointed directly at Jean "Remember when YOUR powers went of control and Rogue risked her LIFE to help you and you dare to look down on her. It's no wonder she doesn't want to come back!"
Jean had the decency to hand her head a bit in shame but Kitty didn't notice. The tears Kitty had been fighting to hold back were beginning to overflow, however, her pride would not allow her to cry in front of these people and so she fled from the room.
"Kitty, wait" Kurt said and went after her
"Kitty's right." Professor X declared "Rogue is not a leech nor is she a bomb; she is a human being and deserves to be treated like one." He paused for a moment as he ran his gaze around the room, a gaze that only Logan, Hank, and Storm were able to meet before he added "I am deeply disappointed in all of you." His gaze lingered on Jean and Scott. Despite his best efforts, Scott and Jean were his favorite students, they had been with him the longest and it was they, he was the most disappointed in.
"Professor-"Scott tried but Professor X did not allow him to finish
"No, Scott. If Rogue wants to remain in Voltera, we will respect her wishes…I can't honestly say that I blame her." Then he turned his power chair around and left the room, leaving a very subdued group of X-men behind him.
Meanwhile Kitty had run to her room and locked the door behind her, unintentionally slamming it in Kurt's face. For a moment Kurt stood outside the door for a moment wondering if he should poof in there or let her cry herself out in peace. Eventually Kurt decided that Kitty wanted to be alone and that he should let her do that, so he went sadly went back to his own room.
Later that night
"Come on, Rogue ANSWER ME!" Kitty shouted. It took every bit of self control she had to resist the urge to throw her cell phone in sheer frustration. She had been trying to get a hold of Rogue for over half an hour to utterly no avail. Then she heard a knock on her door
"Go away" she said, not wanting to deal with anyone just then…except her former roommate that is.
"Kitty, I know you're upset" that was Jean's voice Kitty was sure of it "but…can we talk?"
Kitty sighed then she stormed over to the door, opened and snapped "make it quick"
"May I come in?" she asked
"Anything you have to say to me, you can say out here" Kitty replied
"Ok…I'm sorry for before" Jean began "I know I was wrong, I never should have said that stuff about Rogue."
"You really think that's the only thing you did wrong?" Kitty asked with a raised eyebrow. Jean just looked at her, confused. Kitty shook her head
"Look, I know you and Rogue never got along but that doesn't mean you should treat her like she doesn't exist, that you let people spread lies about her behind her back, or that you spread them yourself…besides I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." With that Kitty slammed the door in Jean's face
"Kitty wait-"Jean protested
"Just leave me alone Jean" Kitty snapped at her. Jean sighed and then she reluctantly headed to her own room
10 minutes after that
"Come on Rogue, answer your damn communicator!" Kitty shouted. She had tried everything she could think of to get a hold of Rogue, face book, Skype, cell phone; you name it but still no response. Someone knocked on her door
"I told you to leave me alone, Jean!" Kitty snapped
"It's not Jean, it's Ororo" Ororo responded "May I come in?"
"It's open" Kitty answered not moving from her bed
"I'll take that as a yes" Storm said as she opened the door "What's all the shouting about?" she asked
"It's Rogue, Storm" Kitty explained "I keep trying to reach and she won't respond to anything…what if she doesn't want to talk to me ever again?" as her eyes began to fill up with tears at the thought of forever losing her best friend
"Calm down, Kitty. Rogue's probably sleeping right now" Storm told her gently
"Sleeping, but it's only quarter after eight" Kitty argued
"Here, its quarter after eight" Storm explained gently "Italy is six hours ahead of us. This means its quarter after four in the morning where Rogue is"
"Oh" Kitty's expression brightened as comprehension dawned "So that's why she's not answering"
Storm nodded "Yes, Kitty. I'm sure Rogue will contact you in the morning…now why don't you get some rest; you've had a pretty rough day"
Kitty nodded that sounded like a good idea to her "I hope you're right, good night Ororo" Kitty said
"Sleep well, Kitty" Ororo responded and then she left the room, gently closing the door behind her.
The next morning
Kitty was rather rudely awakened by the sound of her phone going off, because she had been roused from a deep sleep, she didn't bother to even glance at the number before she answered
"Hello?"
"Hey, Kitty…did ah wake ya up?" Rogue's voice said through the phone. Immediately Kitty felt re-energized, Storm had been right; Rogue hadn't been deliberately ignoring her it was just the stupid time difference
"Kind of" Kitty admitted "but that's okay" she added quickly "are you safe, are you hurt, is that Italian dude really your dad and is he making stay in Italy cause if he is, I am so gonna-" she said all of that very fast
"Relax, Kitty, breathe" Rogue replied having long ago gotten used to the speed that Kitty talked at, Rogue was able to keep track of each of the questions "Ah'm perfectly safe, not hurt at all, yes, the Italian dude is really my dad and ah'm staying cause I want to not cause he's makin meh. Didn't Logan tell ya?"
"Well, yes, but…" Kitty trailed off. She didn't need to say that she hadn't wanted to believe him because Rogue had figured that out on her own. Suddenly Kitty noticed Rogue's phone sitting on her bedside table
"Wait a minute, how are you talking to me when your phone is still here?" she asked not that she was complaining mind you, cause she was glad to be hearing from Rogue but it was still odd
"Oh, I just borrowed Felix's phone that's all" Rogue answered
"Oohh, who's Felix, is he cute?" Kitty asked, any mention of boys always caught her interest
"No, he's just some guy that works for my dad, that's all" Rogue replied
"Hey, I'm right here you know" A male voice interjected, Kitty assumed it belonged to this Felix character
"No comments from the Peanut Gallery" Rogue said back and then she resumed talking to Kitty "Speaking of mah phone…could you possibly send it to me, along with the rest of stuff. There should be some money in my wallet that I left there; if that's not enough I'll send you the difference."
"I can do that but are you sure there's nothing can do to make you come back to Bayville" Kitty pleaded
Rogue sighed "I'm sorry Kitty but no, there's nothing you can do…ah've been thinking for a while that the institute isn't the best place for meh. Ah didn't tell ya cause ah knew it would upset ya." For a moment neither of the girls spoke and then Kitty asked
"Have you talked to Kurt yet?"
"Actually ah called him first" Rogue admitted "but he's not answering his phone, probably still asleep"
"Yeah, he sleeps like a log" Kitty agreed and then her stomach growled very loudly. So loud in fact, Rogue heard it through the phone
"What was that?" she asked
"My stomach" Kitty answered "I was too upset to eat dinner after Logan told us you weren't coming back so now I'm really hungry."
"Ok, Kitty you go and get something to eat" Rogue said
"Wait, how should I get in touch with you?" Kitty asked quickly
Rogue thought for a moment and then Felix spoke up "She can just call my phone" Kitty couldn't hear but Rogue did
"Really, are you sure?" she asked
"Yeah, remember we said that I was gonna show you some new moves" he replied
"Yeah, but are ya sure ya don't mind us using your phone?" Rogue questioned
"Nah, nobody calls me anyway" Felix responded
"Rogue, what's going on?" Kitty asked now that she was officially lost
"Felix offered…actually why don't I just let you two talk" Rogue said and she handed the phone back to Felix
"Hello?" a male voice said after a minute
"Hi, are you Felix?" Kitty asked
"Yep, your name's Kitty right?" Felix responded
"Yeah" Kitty answered still not sure what was going on
"Ok, I'll give you my cell phone number and until Rogue gets her cell back, you can call me when you want to talk to her, and that Kurt can call too" Felix offered
"Wait a minute, how do I know if you're gonna be near Rogue when I call" Kitty asked
"That's easy I'm Rogue's protector, I'm always with her." Felix explained
Furious Rogue yanked the phone out of Felix's hand "That is not true, I do not need a protector." She insisted
"Well, you've got one regardless" Felix said "I failed before but I won't fail again"
"So the number" Kitty pressed not wanting to listen to them get into an argument
"Right" Felix said since Rogue had given him the phone back after having said her piece. He then gave her both his cell phone number and the shipping address of the Volturi stronghold so Kitty could send Annalisa her things.
"Ok, I got it. So I'll call you guys later" Kitty said
"Very good, bye" Felix responded and then he hung up.