Chapter 10: Ten Minutes To Heaven

Trevor Fitzroy might have been considered attractive until one looked into his eyes. He was a large, reed-thin redhead, freckles across his cheeks. His eyes were brown, but that wasn't what one first noticed. Looking at him, you first noticed how those eyes never stopped moving. Flicking left and right, up and down, seeking out all exits and taking in every face. It was shady and made him look perpetually guilty. If eyes were the windows to the soul, then Fitzroy was a criminal through and through.

Rogue didn't need to be a psychic to know that even now he was plotting to betray his Hellfire "friends". She could hear his plans repeating in his mind, clearly broadcast to those who were looking. His two companions, both formidable telepaths, were great actresses that they did not show their knowledge of his mind. Emma pressed close, her white leather bustier immediately distracting him from the nerves that made his feet beat rhythmically against the floor. Her long blond hair fell over one eye attractively as she smiled at him.

"Don't worry, Trevor. You don't have to go in there if you don't want to."

He mumbled under his breath, not really paying attention to the platitudes Emma whispered.

Tessa, resplendent in an oppositely colored top to match Emma's own, did not comfort Fitzroy. Instead, she was staring into space, moving her fingers on her lap almost as if typing. A woman with a keen sense of intellect capable of moving faster than any computer ever created (that included in the future), Tessa was more of a threat than Emma was. Emma was just a telepath and a capable fighter. Tessa was smart and could outthink Rogue within seconds.

Tapping into Jean's telekinesis, Rogue sent the two sets of doors to this room, the ones entering the ballroom and the set leading into other parts of the Club, slamming shut. The two other people in the room, one a senator, the other his wife, jumped and let out a nervous titter even as they reached for the handles to re-enter the ball, not entirely comfortable with being here anymore. The sight of the prim and conservative duo made Rogue smile. If only they knew just what they were contributing their money to, they'd run in the opposite direction, if only to avoid bad publicity.

Rogue waited until the couple wasn't paying attention to slip beside them, telepathically assuming control of their bodies and their minds, though it took some effort. Telepathy had never been a particularly easy ability for her to control, nor was it pleasant. Many of the abilities she'd imprinted took a toll on her body and her brain. Her DNA just wasn't compatible with most of them. With each twist of her DNA to utilize a different ability, her body wore down. Already she'd aged faster than was normal, taking on the appearance of a twenty-year old when she was only seventeen. This, and the sometimes inability to control the psyches and their abilities within her mind, had led Bishop to training her in both hand-to-hand and many weapons.

As the political couple turned and started to move toward the trio across the room, talking quietly about the oddly locked doors they couldn't get through, Rogue pulled a small tranquilizer gun from her thigh-holster. No matter what Bishop tried to tell her, holsters that are located anywhere but shoulder are uncomfortable and tend to show. Rogue had practice so she didn't walk like a duck, but she usually felt like it.

The closer Rogue came to Tessa, Emma, and Fitzroy the more easily she could tap into their surface thoughts. Fitzroy's were easily heard, and easily dismissed. He was worried about what the Hellfire Club was asking of him, he didn't want to meet and greet "investors" and smile so nicely while they lambasted the mutant presence. At least in the future, he opined, mutants were out in the open and didn't have to deal with subterfuge. He'd never been good at hiding secrets.

Both Tessa and Emma were telepaths, so Rogue didn't expect to hear their thoughts; true enough in Emma's case, Tessa was broadcasting however. She was running through several simulations, calculating how much profit Shaw had made in the stock market today, and had the blueprints for the new Hellfire Club offices they were planning to build and was going over the corrections she'd ordered. She was doing all of this at once and within seconds. Her mind was so fast that even as Rogue sharpened her borrowed telepathy, she couldn't truly grasp what she could hear.

Still, Rogue let the telepathy slide back into an inactive state and turned to the old stand-by, her own talents. This took a bit of concentration because her own abilities were buried far beneath the surface abilities she used most often. Telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and shape-shifting, to name a few of the dozen that were there. One of those psyches in particular was kept "active" at all times.

It was the psyche that gave her "control" over her ability, though really it wasn't control at all. Rogue liked to think of it as cheating, but she figured if God wanted to punish her, then she had no problem with outwitting him.

It took a few seconds to take it offline and to pull her abilities to the surface. When she felt the tingling in her fingertips, she knew she was whole again.

The couple passed the trio, and though Emma and Tessa were aware that Rogue was there, they assumed she was a telepath. She'd caressed their thoughts with it, and secondary mutations were rare. Since both of the women were powerful telepaths, they felt they had no need to be threatened.

They were wrong.

Turning at the last second to stand before them, she felt Emma and Tessa turn their attention to her. Tessa stood, shifting her mental tasks to the background and facing her. She slid her hand to a small gun hidden in her thigh-high boots but hid her hand in the cape to not reveal her hand early. Emma wasn't worried about that.

"Hello, Rogue. We've been looking for you," her voice was sultry, breathy, practiced to be cool. Emma let her fur-trimmed pearl coat slide to the floor, revealing the Hellfire outfit beneath. White halter top, corseted, with matching white leather pants, both skintight. It was expertly detailed; you couldn't even find the seam between boot and pants.

Rogue smiled, folding her arms over the green velvet she was decked out in, feeling very colorful indeed next to the white-washed Queen. "I've felt you. If you meant to be subtle, you failed."

Emma arched a smooth blonde-ish eyebrow (bleached) and replied snidely, "I don't do subtle."

"That much is clear," Rogue replied slowly with an arched brow as she moved her eyes up and down Emma's proudly displayed 'assets'.

Emma slowly paced around Rogue, ignoring the insult. "I'm very interested in you and what you can do. I felt your presence a month ago, and have had people looking for information about you ever since."

She hadn't found anything, Rogue knew; when she'd joined the Brotherhood Mystique had informed her that any and all public records relating to her had "disappeared" in the night. As far as the world knew, she was Rogue, a mutant formerly enrolled in Bayville High. "What'd you find out?"

"You've exhibited telepathy, psycho-kinesis, teleportation, and numerous other abilities. Since the most mutations a mutant has ever had are two, no one is quite sure how you have so many talents. S.H.I.E.L.D. has the inside track, but we've yet to bribe the right person," Emma said as she pouted most prettily. If Rogue had been a lesbian, it might have had some affect.

She grinned, tilting her head in a way that accented her long vulnerable neck, going for an innocent look. "Would you like to see how?"

"No," Emma replied, her friendly look turning into one of feral intention. With a dance in her eyes, the large amounts of skin revealed in her outfit turned hard and then transparent. "I have a second mutation myself, Rogue. Isn't it nice?"

Rogue didn't need to touch Emma to know what she'd become. Diamond, pure diamond; one of the most indestructible mineral/gemstones on Earth. The only thing harder and more indestructible was adamantium, which Rogue didn't have and couldn't fabricate. Since Rogue needed skin-to-skin contact to activate the imprinting, she'd have to try another route.

"That's a shiny new coat, you got there, White Queen," Rogue commented, leaning back as if to appreciate. "Can you read my mind while in that form?"

Emma looked at her suspiciously. "Yes."

"You're lying," Rogue replied tapping into her psycho-kinesis to send Emma spirally back against the wall and pinning her there. Mere feet away, the Senator and his wife screamed, having been released from Rogue's control scant minutes ago.

Tessa arched an eyebrow and noted Emma's predicament. "If you are planning on taking me out now, I should tell you that I have already alerted security. You will not get far."

"You got any second mutations, Tessa?"

"None that will gain me an advantage."

"Good."

Rogue slid her bare hand onto Tessa's face, watching apathetically as the woman slid into unconsciousness while Fitzroy whimpered beside her. In his extremely agitated state, he couldn't teleport or even really move. He was a coward, one used to taking orders instead of giving them.

Tessa's telepathy immediately joined the psyche that represented telepathy, but Rogue found that her memories would not subside. It had taken months of training to create a way to control the psyches, with the most important factor being that Rogue could no longer think of what she took as souls or even people. When she imprinted, she immediately catalogued what she took according to what she could do, not who it was.

All telepathic imprints combined under one psyche, the same with teleportation, and with energy conversion talents. She could manifest the different types of each with concentration, but otherwise they became generic caricatures of the broad talent.

This was the first time Rogue had imprinted someone in the traditional skin-to-skin contact of her abilities in over a year. The last time she'd imprinted someone that person had died and she'd fought long and hard to heal from the experience. It was ironically appropriate that Rogue return to her true time and the true nature of her abilty.

As Tessa's actions and thoughts for the past five years slid through Rogue's mind, struggling to gain a foothold in the obsessively control environment, Rogue knew immediately she could not leave Tessa behind.

She would prove too useful.

Rogue pulled both of her ever-active psyches back into service, and pulled another to active as well. Grasping Tessa's wrist, Rogue ignored the pounding at the doors and Emma's screaming. "Now, now, Trevor. Calm down. We're gonna go for a little ride. Keep your hands inside the portal, lest you lose one."

She wrapped her free hand around Fitzroy's wrist and pulled both of them close to her body. She'd need a large portal, which would take a lot of energy, and she didn't have much to spare. The constant travel of the last day and a half, combined with the stress of the entire situation was hard to bear. She was only human.

Sifting through the various teleportation abilities she could harness, she settled on her first and favorite. Her adopted brother's talent, one of the few she could use to travel with other people.

With a blast of brimstone smoke, the trio disappeared, Emma fell from the wall and faceless Hellfire soldiers burst through the doors. Rage twisted her perfect plastic-face as she stood and dusted off her pristine clothing. "She wasn't alone. Find the man she arrived with."

Shaw stepped through the doors and took in the damage and his missing assistant. "Where is Tessa?"

"Rogue took her."

"Rogue?" He wondered aloud, recognizing the name and connecting it the woman he'd been hunting earlier. He'd took little interest in Emma's pet project of the last few weeks, but he'd asked Tessa to watch and take note of it all.

Tessa, who was now gone.

"Send out the envoys. They'll not have gone far." Shaw turned, stopping at the door to smile at all the startled and curious party-goers nearby. He spoke over his shoulder, making sure his words weren't loud enough to be overheard. "Contact Xavier. This is his wayward student we're dealing with."

Emma nodded and though she'd not set it up herself, she was inordinately pleased. They'd finally be moving ahead with their plans for Xavier's Institute. Plans that had been a long time in the making.

Two miles Uptown, Rogue appeared with Fitzroy and Tessa moving far enough way to collapse into Bishop's arms. "Did too much. Not much energy left."

Bishop took note of the two other people, then did a double take. "Who's the girl?"

"...Xavier's spy...in the Hellfire Club..." Rogue managed to say between yarns. She was crashing fast and didn't have much time to explain. "...might need her..."

"Where's Pulse?"

"Damn."

"Forget him, didn't you?"

"...damn..."

Cerebra beeped, a signal being sent to Xavier's hand-held computer as he worked on an academic paper in his office. With a frustrated sigh, he'd been so close to enunciating the sociological differences amongst Americans, he reached for the small Blackberry. Reading the message within, he felt the frustration ease even as he mentally called for his X-Men.

Rogue had teleported into a brownstone in Manhattan; the same place where four mutant signatures, including her own, were idling. Since Xavier knew they wouldn't stay there long, he had only so much time to get his X-Men there and to find her.

He'd send Nightcrawler ahead to make sure that she either didn't leave, or that she was followed if she did leave. It was risky, Kurt was emotional and might reveal their attention too soon, but he'd have to risk it.

They wouldn't lose her again this time.