A/N: Many thanks to Lillith Evans for the beta.

Disclaimer:I own nothing.

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John laid in bed, running his hands through Rogue's hair. He knew he should wake her up. Magneto would be furious if they were late to the War Room for last minute instructions on the mission. After waiting for a few more minutes he gently began to wake up. "Marie, Marie you need to wake up." No response. "Come on Marie, you have to wake up, we need to get ready for the mission." Nada. "Marie when I count to three and snap my fingers you will wake up. 1…2…3." He snapped his fingers, again nothing. Pyro was running out of ideas when he saw the corner of her lips curl up at the corners in a failed attempt to keep from smiling. John got another idea to wake her up, and he guessed it was what Rogue was waiting for.

"Alright you win Sleeping Beauty," John said as he leaned down and softly kissed Rogue's lips.

Her eyes fluttered open the second John broke the kiss. "Good morning."

"How long have you been awake?" John asked suspiciously.

"I woke up when you started to play with my hair."

"So you have been awake this whole time?"

"Maybe."

"So how come you didn't wake up right away."

Rogue grinned impishly and replied, "Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer? I wanted a good morning kiss."

"I should've known." Rogue punched his shoulder playfully. "Come on we have to get ready 'cause Magneto wants to give us some last minute instructions." Rogue nodded mutely and started to head back to her room. She paused at the door and then walked back to John who was still lying on his bed. She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek.

"I'll see you in the War Room in about ten minutes." John nodded and started to get dressed. Not surprisingly John was in the War Room before Rogue. Minutes ticked by and John glanced at the clock wondering where Rogue was. He was beginning to think about going to look for her when she came through the door. The first words out of Rogue's mouth were, "Am I late?"

"No Rogue the meeting hasn't started, but I have been wondering where you have been. It's not like you spend a lot of time on what you wear."

"I got side tracked. And what do you mean I don't spend time thinking about what to wear. Just because you can't tell that I care about what I look like doesn't mean I don't care…" John could tell that she was going to keep talking so he decided to interrupt.

"Rogue, I can tell you care about what you look like, because you always look beautiful. It's just different from Xavier's where you, Kitty and Jubilee would spend three hours picking out the perfect outfit to wear and then spend another two hours on hair and make-up. I'm sorry if I upset you."

"You didn't upset me, I guess my mind is just elsewhere."

"Ya think?" Pyro said mimicking Rogues southern accent.

Rogue promptly stuck her tongue out at John. "So what got you sidetracked?" He asked seriously back to his normal accent.

"I was getting advice from Mystique that none of the guys here will support."

"Am I included in that none of the guys will support the advice?"

"Yes."

John put his fake sad look on and replied, "But baby, don't you know that I support anything you do and support."

"That's not true and the reason you wouldn't support it is because it would not work for you."

"So what was the advice?"

"I'm not telling."

"Please," John asked putting on his best sad face. Rogue shook her head no and she did the zipping her lips shut and locking them thing. "Come on Marie," John pleaded. It was driving him crazy that she wasn't telling him because he wanted to know everything that went on in her life. Rogue shook her head in a final way to show that she was sticking to her decision of not telling him. "Fine if you won't tell me then I won't talk to you until you tell me," John declared in a desperate attempt to get her to tell him. Unfortunately for John, Rogue saw through his bluff and knew he would be talking to her before the mission started. In John's opinion, she knew him too well.

"Good luck with that Pyro," Rogue replied with a smirk as she went to talk to Scarlet Witch. As John watched her leave he realized what he just said and he promptly began to bang his head into the wall.

"Hey Rogue," greeted Scarlet Witch in a sort of enthused voice. Rogue had long since given up on hearing that cheer from any of the people in the Brotherhood "Long time no see."

"Witch, you saw me yesterday during training and yesterday after dinner in the TV room."

"Yeah, well that's different because your boyfriend was there so we couldn't do any real girl talk."

"Witch again, we are in an evil villain's lair where we train to kill humans to set mutants free, what girl talk can we do?"

"Well I could have told you about one of the older guys that is trapped at the 'facilty' might be coming to live here if he wants and he is fineeee not that you'd be interested but he is still so fine. See girl talk is possible." Scarlet Witch concluded with a smirk that was similar to one Rogue had shown Pyro a few seconds ago.

"How would you know?"

"Oh, in the files that Mystique and Pyro got they had description of all the mutants over twenty-one and he was there."

"Right."

"Well like you would care about any other guy when you have Pyro." A small smile formed on Rogue's lips. "So how are things between you two?"

"Um I'll tell you in a minute, but first can you tell me what he is doing? He should be somewhere behind me."

"He's banging his head into a wall. Why is he banging his head into a wall?"

"First, we are doing good. He's banging his head into a wall because he sorta said something really stupid and I bet he's regretting in now." Rogue said in a happy tone.

"Okay what did he say? Spill now."

"Well he said he wasn't going to talk to me again."

"What! Why? Better question actually why are you not freaking out like me?"

"Cause he'll be talking to me before we leave. He's just upset because I wouldn't tell him something he really wanted to know." When Scarlet Witch raised her eyebrow Rogue elaborated, "Mystique gave me some advice to calm my nerves before I came here and I'm not telling him."

"Why not?"

"Cause he would totally flip out."

"Can you tell me?"

"Sure, not problem. I was a little nervous about leaving and possibly seeing the X-men."

"Well I'm nervous about seeing them, but Mystique didn't give me any advice, so why did she give it to you?"

"You don't know?" When Witch shook her head Rogue decided to tell her, "I used to be a student at Xavier's and I know all of the X-men. Hell one of them was like a father to me." She paused here remembering Logan, she would have smiled but the idea of using her powers against Logan was keeping that smile off her face. "While I can fight and kill people that I don't know and are hurting mutants, I'm not sure I can do the same to them. They are my former friends and well, family because people would always take care of me."

"So why did you leave?" Scarlet Witch asked obviously very confused since Rogue was talking about them in a very loving way.

"I found out my boyfriend cheated on me with three girls and then he had the nerve to say he loved me."

"Bastard." Scarlet Witch was obviously no longer confused.

"Yeah well I ran a way and was heading to Anchorage, but Pyro grabbed when I left a bar and brought me here. Okay so back to what we talking about first Mystique suggested that instead of fighting the X-men right away she said that I should use my knowledge about them against them. It might not work, but if it does then everybody else would have fewer people to fight."

"Okay good advice for you, but why wouldn't the guys agree with it?"

"Guys, not just guys here but also all guys, prefer to talk with their fists instead of their words. Guys here would want me to do the same thing, but I might not be able to, or ready for that fact."

"Gotcha, but Pyro would let you do whatever suits you."

"Witch, if I see my ex-boyfriend, Pyro would want me to kill him not reason with him." Rogue drawled carelessly with a wave of her ungloved hand.

"True."

"So tell me about this hot guy that is supposedly coming here."

Before Scarlet could open her mouth to respond Magneto entered the room. "My brothers and sisters, today we shall be liberating our fellow mutants. The necessary precautions have been taken care of to make sure we won't have any technical malfunctions like last time." Magneto droned on and on about being careful, yada yada yada. It went in one of Rogue's ears and out the other.

It was partly because she was nervous, but more dominantly because she had heard this lecture everyday for the past week.

When Magneto dismissed everyone Magneto held Rogue back. "Rogue do you feel confident that you can handle your part?"

"Yes Magneto."

"Remember Rogue, one last instruction; since you are not classified as a terrorist, yet at least, so you will be separate from the rest of us. If you run into trouble though make sure that you call for back-up we don't want to loose anyone on this mission."

"I'll be careful Magneto."

"Alright Rogue, now go make up with Pyro I don't want him to be distracted throughout the mission."

"Yes sir." As Magneto watched Rogue run to see her boyfriend he thought what he would have given to have her childhood without the horrors of the Holocaust bedded into his brain."

Meanwhile John was standing idly in front of the door to the copter waiting for Rogue because he was miserable without her, even though he had just seen her ten minutes ago. When he caught her heading towards the helicopter he stopped her. She looked up at him with a quizzical gaze and he responded to it by showing the woman who was in charge, by begging for her forgiveness. "Rogue I'm sorry I blew up at you earlier. I didn't mean what I said about ignoring you. I don't care if you tell me what Mystique said, just please don't be mad at me." Rogue just stared at John with an unreadable facial expression, for what seemed like and eternity to John, until she moved.

Rogue flung her arms around John's neck and pulled him into a tight embrace, which he gladly accepted. "Oh course I forgive you sugah. After the mission I'll tell you what Mystique said." Rogue detached herself from John a little bit so she could look at his face. "If I need you in there you'll come find me right?" Rogue asked, just wanting to make sure she had backup if she needed it and that John knew she wasn't going to be traveling with the group.

"Course Rogue, but I thought you were coming with the group."

"Last minute change, since I'm not officially classified as a terrorist yet, if I travel by myself it will seem less suspicious and if the X-men are there they, in theory won't bug me as much as they will the Brotherhood."

Pyro frowned when he realized Rogue wouldn't be coming with them.

"I don't like this Rogue."

"Me going off by myself?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Don't worry John, I'll be fine. I've been trained for this remember?" John wanted to argue with her, but he knew better, especially if Magneto gave her orders.

"Just be careful, 'kay Marie?" John pleaded as he carefully wrapped his arms around her petite frame and rested his head on top of hers, careful not to touch any skin.

"I will be careful John, I have no intention of going anywhere, anywhere without you."

"I know, I just don't want anything to happen to you." Rogue smiled at his concern, glad that for once that she wasn't the one worrying like crazy.

"It'll be fine John. If I have any trouble I'll contact you and you can come be my knight in shining armor." John agreed to help her if there was trouble. "Come on Pyro let's get on the helicopter and do this mission."

"Okay baby." He gently squeezed Rogue tightly before releasing her and following her onto the copter. As everyone was getting settled Magneto walked onto the helicopter and motioned for Mystique to start their flight. The ride to the building was silent everybody trying to prepare for the battle to come. They all knew their assignments. Mystique would change into a guard and unlock the doors allowing everybody to get in. Magneto would be waiting outside ready to rip away all the guard's guns at the slightest bit
out trouble. Arclight, Destiny and Scarlet Witch would be waiting at the temporary base they set up about two miles away from the building so that they could give medical attention to any of the mutants that needed it. Sabertooth and Toad would be helping the mutants escape to the base because they weren't sure what state these mutants would be in. Rogue and Quicksilver were in charge of freeing all the prisoners. Pyro would be there to take care of anyone that got in their way.

Magneto walked off of the helicopter and motioned for everyone to start the mission. Pyro gave Rogue's hand one last quick squeeze so it wouldn't affect him before following Magneto off. Mystique got inside successfully and unlocked the door. Everything was set Quicksilver, Sabertooth, Toad and Pyro entered as one big group. Rogue waited for two minutes then entered.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice," said a man in a suit as he walked down the hall. "We noticed that on the security camera of the government building that was broken into a couple weeks ago that one of the people was a blue woman, she looked like one of Magneto's henchmen. Also one of the mutants that came here looking for a job told us that he have a prediction that we will be attacked today. I don't know why," Although he
did know it was because they were torturing mutants," probably because we're helping mutants and Magneto is determined that mutants stand alone. Help from anyone would be disastrous, especially humans. Will you help us?"

"Attacking people just because they want to help mutants sure sounds like that bucket head. Yeah we'll help. Storm you take Colossus and scout the west side. Cyclops you take Polaris, Shadowcat and Jubilee and wait out front. Make sure none of Magneto's goons get out. Iceman, you come with me and we'll take care of the west side."

"Yes Wolverine," they all replied and Iceman followed Wolverine. As they all exited the room the man smirked evilly.

"Perhaps they shall kill each other in the process and then we will be rid of the two biggest mutant menaces."

Rogue walked through the hallway quietly when she heard a something coming from inside the room. She knew that she should open the door to see what was going on, but she already knew. She had been here before in her dreams, in this room there was the girl being operating on. Due to Logan's enhanced senses she heard two pairs of running feet coming towards her.

"Hey you, get away from that door," a voice shouted that Rogue knew all too well.

"Stay away from me Bobby," Rogue responded as she turned to face Bobby and Logan, and wondered what had she done to piss off the fates.