Taunting Repartee

Chapter Ten

'Guess not,' Rogue thought with a sigh as she turned her attention but to the other three people in the room.

"Rogue, what was permanent?" Professor Xavier asked again. Rogue fumbled with the tissue in her hand as took a deep breath.

"It's not important," Rogue said softly. "Can we… can we do this tomorrow? I ready just wanna go to bed. It's been a long day," she said staring up at the Professor: her eyes begging him to accept.

Last night he had not wanted to talk and she'd let it go, why shouldn't he do the same for her?

"But you haven't done anything today?" Mr. McCoy said. It took all of her self-control to keep from snapping at him.

"That we know of," Charles Xavier pointed out. "Kitty told me of Magneto's phone call last night. Has he attempted to contact you further?"

'Yes,' she yelled in her mind. She glanced up at the Professor, no reaction. She sighed. "No."

"Can you contact him?" the Professor asked.

"Yeah," she said with a nod. "I have a phone number." Professor Xavier reached over to the table on his left, and picked up a little notepad and pen.

"Would you write it down?" he asked as he handed the pad to Mr. McCoy, who held it out to Rogue.

"Yeah, sure," she said as she took the objects from Mr. McCoy. She quickly wrote down the number, and handed it back to McCoy. "What are you gonna say to him?" she asked before she could stop herself.

"Hopefully, I can convince him to stop pursuing you," Xavier answered.

"Not likely," Rogue murmured. Her comment caused the Professor to raise an eyebrow. "He's stubborn, always has been."

"How do you know that?" Mr. McCoy asked.

"I-" Rogue started to say before the Professor cut her off.

"Rogue has a fragment of Magneto's mind within her own, and thus has a very intimate knowledge of his past."

"Do you have such knowledge of every fragment?" Storm asked.

An image of Storm's mother, on the floor dying, flashed in Rogue's mind. She quickly pushed it back, as a tear rolled down her face. She wiped it away with the tissue.

Rogue was reaching her limit.

"I can't handle anything else today. Can we please talk about all this tomorrow?"

"Rogue, what happened today?" Xavier asked.

"Nothing," Rogue screamed as she looked down at her hands.

"Clearly, something has. Did he call you again?" he asked. She didn't respond. "Did he come here?" he asked.

Rogue's heart started to race.

"Has he threatened you?" The Professor asked strongly. She kept looking at her hands, away from him.

He was so close to the truth, but if he found out…

Rogue took a deep breath.

"He… he wasn't here at the institute," she said calmly. "Nothing happened today," she lied.

"Rogue, please look at me," The Professor asked softly. Slowly her gaze met his. After a moment he said, "I don't think I believe you."

'Good,' she thought to herself. She watched his eyes widen. 'Oh, god,' she thought in a panic. 'Did he read my mind?. That is not good.'

"That would be rather vast understatement," Magneto said from behind her. In front of her she saw Storm and Mr. McCoy jump to their feet.

'They can see you?' she asked in disbelief.

"Obviously," Magneto said dryly.

In the blink of an eye a lighten-bolt formed in Storm's hand, and was thrown towards her and Magneto. He deflected the lighten bolt back towards Storm. It hit her in the chest, and down she fell, unconscious.

Mr. McCoy took a step forward, attempted to get to Storm. "Stay where you are if you wish for the girl to remain unharmed," Magneto said.

"He's buffing," Rogue screamed.

"Oh am I?" Magneto asked as he put his hand on the side of the chair where Rogue could see it. Like a snake, a piece of metal slithered down, over his hand, and onto the chair. With fear in her eyes she watched as it slid towards her. She tried to get off of the chair but Magneto quickened his movements, and the metal slid up around her throat, forming a necklace of sorts. Her hands went to her throat, attempting to get it off of her, but it was no use. The only person, who could remove the collar, was the man who put it there.

Rogue glanced up at him.

From the maddened expression on his face, it didn't look like Magneto was in any mood to be merciful. The only way to get out of this without anyone else getting hurt was if she did exactly what he said.

She lowered her hands in a sign of surrender.

His eyes met hers, as a small smirk came to his face. Rogue watched as he turned his attention back to the other three people in the room.

"Back. Away. Slowly," Magneto said.

"Magnus," the Professor started to say as he inched forward. Rogue gasped as she watched the Professor's chair forcefully being pushed back against the wall. Several books came crashing down on him. Mr. McCoy turned around to look at the Professor.

"I'm alright," The Professor yelled as he threw the books off of him. Mr. McCoy turned back towards her and Magneto; it looked as through he was getting ready to jump at Magneto.

"Mr. McCoy, do not make me repeat myself," Magneto said as the collar constricted on her throat, almost blocking the flow of air to her lungs. The Collar's movement hadn't hurt her, but it was enough to cause her to gasp. And that sound was enough to keep McCoy from advancing.

"Magneto, what do you want?" Xavier asked.

"At the moment, to teach a lesson," he said Rogue felt the collar gently move upwards, telling her to stand up.

She didn't fight it. She didn't fight him.

After she was out of her seat, the chair moved across the room, in front of Mr. McCoy blocking his path. The collar moved again, in Magneto's direction. Promptly she looked up at him. "This is what happened when you do not keep to your end of our deal. Your family suffers. This was all avoidable, Anna, but you just had to leave little hints."

"I didn't mean-"

"Oh, didn't you?" Magneto asked cruelly as he took a step forward. "When Charles' asked you if I had contacted you today, you thought yes. You were disappointed when he did not hear. Minutes later he did notice and. Here. We. Are… Are you pleased now?" he screamed.

"No," she cried shaking her head. "I made a mistake."

"You most certainly did," Magneto said dryly.

"But that mistake has been made, and now we do know," The Professor said.

"Not for long. Blindspot," he called out loudly. The door to the office opened and in stepped a young women, with short black hair, and blue eyes. She was dressed in a white shirt that stopped short of her belly button, black shorts, and black shoes.

"Yes, sir?" Blindspot asked, her hands on her hips, as she stared up at Magneto. She dipped her head to the left, and glanced at the Professor. "I think he just tried to get into my mind," she said as she pointed to the Professor.

"Thankfully, you are immune. Really, Charles, did you think I bring just anyone with me?" Rogue looked at the Professor. The expression on his face was one of terror.

"Magnus, how are you doing this?" The Professor asked. "Why?" he asked.

"I have my reasons, Charles. Reasons that I do not wish for you to know."

'Where is everyone else? Why hasn't the Professor called them?' Rogue asked herself.

"He has, tried, my girl, but has found that his psychic range has been severely diminished."

"Who do you want me start with, sir?" Blindspot asked as he stepped further into the room.

"In a moment," Magneto said as he looked down at Rogue again. "Outside," he commanded, his head gesturing towards the door. Without hesitation, she walked passed him, and out of the office.

"Rogue, wait," she heard Mr. McCoy shout out. She felt the collar slip of her neck, and swiftly turned to see it now at McCoy's neck, in the form of a knife.

"The only way you can help them is by leaving," Magneto stressed.

"I'm sorry," Rogue murmured before she fled the room. She turned to see Magneto staring at her, before the door slammed close.

Not knowing what else to do, she sat down against the wall, parallel to the office's door. She drew her knee up, resting her chin on her knees. She glanced up at the closed door, wondering what was he was doing behind it.

A shiver ran down her spine.

She probably didn't want to know.

Rogue sighed, as she replayed what had just occurred in her head. Tears ran down her face for the countless time that day, as she accepted the blame. If she had keep to her end of the deal, none of this would have happened. Storm wouldn't be on the floor, a knife wouldn't be at Mr. McCoy's throat, and the Professor would be still be blissfully unaware of how unsafe his home really was.

And she?

'I'd probably be in bed by now,' she thought sadly. 'If I had just…'

She inhaled deeply. She shook her head.

'I wouldn't let this happen again,' she thought determined. 'I won't,' she thought as she glanced up at the door.

All she could now was wait…

………………………………………………………..

And all you can do now is wait!

Sorry that's it for this chapter. I know they're getting shorter, but I'm almost two weeks late the time I promised to finish it. So, I wanted to get up something to you guys to read. It's not that anything I written is different because the chapters are shorter, just it's taking more numbers to get from one place to another. For example, chapter nine, ten, and eleven (If I had more time in the week to work on the chapters) would all be one chapter.

So, yeah. I'm working on it. Slowly but it's being written.

On a good note, I might, be getting my lab top back sometime this week! If that happened, then I'll have a lot more time to work on them, because I wouldn't have to ran around campus searching for an open class room.

That would be awesome!

I miss my lab top :(

Anyway! Reviews!!!!

Night Foliage: Sorry about the cliff hanger in the last chapter… and the one in this chapter…

I'm not going to say any details about what you wrote in the middle paragraph of your review. To do so, would give away pieces of the plot, and I would rather you read it as I write it. Hope you're okay with that.

Anyway as usual, I'm really, really, really, super glad that you're enjoying my fic. I'm can't wait to hear from you again ^.^

Myst4drgn: HI!!!!!!!! Thanks for putting my fic on your favorite story list! And for the review! Hope you liked this chapter!

RogueNya: Hey, you! Yeah, Magneto can do anything he wants!!! That was the whole point to the last few chapters.: for Magneto to make that message clear to Rogue. And at this point I think the message has been more than received.

Thanks, for the kind words, and I can't wait to hear what you have to say about this chapter!