Chapter Twenty-One

Wolverine had come to get Rogue and Magneto and tell them that a meeting was starting which they should be in it. Both Rogue and Magneto made their way towards the main room in their own time. Rogue was the last to step into the room. All eyes were on her as she stepped in. Magneto's and the Wolverine's included. Magneto looked normally at Rogue as he always had (no emotion showing in those pale eyes of his), but Rogue could see the hatred and anger in Wolverine's eyes. She was lucky he wasn't lashing out at her with that glare.

With Rogue in the room, the Professor led the meeting. "I'll start off this gathering by congradulating my X-Men on working quickly and hard on reaching out to those of you who are new faces and those who are old friends."

"This isn't a time for congradulating little acomplishments, Charles. This is a time for planning for war. There will be plenty of time to give praise after." Magneto said, rather bored and iritated.

"Not if you don't make it through this war." Wolverine growled out at Magneto.

Magneto turned, eyeing Wolverine with amusement in his eye. Rogue watched to two and found herself iritated. She knew there had always been this fued between the two ever since they meet, but this time she had a feeling she knew what it was over. Rogue felt bad knowing she'd hurt Wolverine, but at the same time she didn't regreat kissing Magneto and she didn't care he'd seen. If anything, Rogue felt like telling Wolverine, tough. He didn't like her the same way she'd liked him, he couldn't stop her from... Well, she didn't think she liked Magneto. Not in that way. But there was just something about him. Something that got to her. Maybe it was because he remembered her or that he believed her, but for some reason what happened happened. She felt how she felt, but she was done with it. Done with the feelings. She had an idea, knew what was coming and she knew that getting close to anyone right now would only do harm. Besides, they weren't getting on well before they all came together, why start now?

"That's enough Wolverine. " Said the Professor.

"He's right Charles. Some of us might not be coming back." Said Magneto.

"Perhaps, which is all the more reason to show the appershiation that everyone here has brought. Now, I believe there is a gender for us all meeting here and I would like to focus on the main points. We all know that with a dead president," Everyone's eyes turned to Rogue. Rogue just shuch them off like they were nothing, "it means there is no authority figure for this country to led and to defeat mutants from these new robots which are being called Sentianals."

"Ha, not like there'd be any help for mutants even if the president was alive." Rogue muttered.

"Rogue." Warned the Professor. Rogue looked up from the wooden table that had a hug map of America on it to look the Professor in the eye.

"It's the truth. The president was a mutant hater and was fueding the inventor of the Sentinals to wipe us out, only Sinster has other plans." Rogue said with a sharp whip of hate and disguest at the end of her tongue.

"You seem to know a lot about this man, erm, Sinister. How, may I ask?" Spoke Beast.

All were silent and eger to know the answer to Beast's question. Rogue looked from Beast to Magneto who she'd recently saved from her past horrors. He was the only one not looking at her. He was looking down at the table, a bit pale. Rogue felt a bit sink thinking of the place. Magneto had only been in there a few days were she had been in there longer. Rogue wasn't sure if she could revisit that place. Not for a third time. Rogue looked to Wolverine seeing him leaning against the wall, still with that cocky anger look on his face. Everyone else just had bewildered faces, including the Professor. Looking at the Professor, Rogue's anger sparked as she remembered who's fault it was she had left the mansion and had to suffer under that man's hand. Through that anger and spit towards the Professor for kicking her out Rogue was able to tell her story.

"After you kicked me out, and y'all chased me away, I started travelling on the road. I had no idea where I was heading or what I was doing, but I thought I'd try heading back down south, then maybe up to Canada if there was nothing left for me there. But when I was traveling, I noticed I wasn't alone. I was being hunted. One night the hunters, Sinister's men, The Nasty Boys, tried corning me. I was ready for them that time and managed to escape them. I escaped may times, but one night they caught me off guard and knocked me down till I was unconsious." Rogue paused, listening the the deadly silence in the room and basking in it. She felt horrible.

"Rogue, you don't have to explain yourself if you don't wish to." Magneto said in a calm tone. Rogue looked up to him. It had taken a lot to tell him. He had been more comforting than this silence.

"Yes, she does!" Inforced Cyclopse.

"Scott, leave her be." Said Jean.

"For once I agree with one eye, spit it out strips!" Growled Wolverine.

Rogue saw how Jean seemed to be slowly loosing her cool as her eyes appeared to turn red as she glared from Cyclopse to Wolverine. Rogue didn't find being under pressure making it easier for her. Instead, she looked to the Professor to see if he would push her into telling her story.

The Professor was looking straight at her, a look of sympathy in his eyes that just seemed to get more sympathic. Rogue was puzzled by this reaction. Then she felt something like a twang of emotion that didn't feel like her own. Why did he look like he cared that she'd been kicked out and hunted down like a wild animal? Rogue's eyes widened as she turned to Emma.

"Stop him from reading my mind!" Rogue told Emma through a mental connection.

Emma looked startled, then looked from Rogue's face, to the Professors, then back to stared at Rogue confused. "Rogue, he isn't in your mind." Emma replied.

"Rogue." Rogue turned around to look at Storm besides her. Storm placed a hand on her shoulder. "Child, I understand you don't trust any of us in this room and opening up about our past troubles can be hard. But if there's anything you can tell us which can help us defeat Sinister, then we will all be every greatful." Storm said.

Storm was the same old; calm, kind and sweet to the very end. Rogue looked around the room once again, taking in everyone's face til finally she came to look at the Professor again. "Y'all wanna know how I know so much about Sinister, dontcha. Ya wanna know if y'all can trust me. Well guess what. I don't know if I can trust any of you lot, so this is how it's gonna go down. I ain't tell you people no more till I get good reason why I should trust y'all."

Wolverine slammed his fist down on the table. "This is insane. We're going to war and need every bit of information we can get! Only your dumb enough and selfish enough to not trust us? How pety! There are lives at state here. Get over yourself and start-"

"How's about we start talkin' about you then, Wolverine? Hum, how's Weapon X? Found anything out from your past yet? Figured out that you were an assassin who used to kill and abdouct mutants for the Weapon X programme sometimes? Hmmm? How's about we talk about those metal claws of your and how you really came to-"

"Why you-" Wolverine started.

"Enough! Both of you!" Cried the Professor. "She's right Wolverine. She has no reason to trust us. I... I know I have not wiped anyone's memories of Rogue, even if she says I have; even my own. But, at the same time, we are all strangers to each other with preduices against each other. To be able to...win this war." The Professor said while looking up to Magneto who had somewhat of a smug look on his face. "We must put our preduices aside and look to what is really important. Rogue, if you please. Tell us all you can."

Rogue raised her eyebrow. The Professor sounded so... believable. But he was a psychic and a good one at that so he must be good. Rogue pushed it aside, still feeling as if there was another presence in her mind. Rogue looked to Emma, whom was still staring at Rogue with an rather confused look about her. Rogue looked back to the Professor, whom looked schemeing with his hands together like that and leaning forward, staring at her too. He scared her. But not as much as the memories in her head. Rogue turned to look at Magneto, whom had a soft look to his face.

"I won't go into detail, but basically..." Rogue looked away, down to her feet." I got captured by the Naughty Boys, taken to one of Sinister's camps, experimented on for days on end, then, finally escaped... I...There was this explotion and... And I think there was a raid going on and... I got free during that." Magneto raised his eyebrow at this. Something about those events seemed to add up in his head.

"I went to go find Sinister and I found him where I thought I'd find him. In his office, yelling at people and trying to regain control of his camp and also escape. His people left him, and then he was just about to turn and leave. I jumped out from the shadows where I was hidden, hell bent on rage to kill him with my bare hands. I'd gotten off my collar and could use my powers again, so I ran at him, jumped on his back and just started punching him. I punched him and punched him till I started to absorb large parts of his mind... He managed to use my weak areas and lack of fighting skills to kick me off him and out a window. I don't think he planned to kick me out of a window, but he did and I landed hard on the ground below. I saw him looking out of the window, down at me t check if I was OK, and I was. I was in pain, but I rolled around, got up and ran. Ran like hell was on my tail so I could just get away from that mad man and his mad camp. I ran thinking that I could run away from him in my mind too, but that was it. I made the biggest mistake of my life that day. I absorb that creepy basterd and now he's forever apart of me and stuck in my head." Rogue's hands had gone pale white from how hard her fists were. Anger and hot tears coloured her eyes in. All in the room were shocked, yet moved by the Rogue's story.

"The advantage though, which I still do really hate is that I got Sinister's ideas and his plans in my head. I knew what he was thinking, what he was going to do and best of all I know how he thinks, so I can prodict his moves better than anyone else can. From his mind, I learned about the president and I learnd that he was a mutant hater who gave Sinister money to capture mutants and experiment on them. Ha, he was actually planning to set up a unit called the MRD to find and take down mutants that were supposibly 'too powerful' or 'too much' of a 'menis' to be out on the streets livin' normal lives. The president was a horrible person who was putting hundreds of mutants to death while he was supplying Sinister money for his stupid camps. So, during the first two weeks of being free, I knew what I had to do to hender Sinister helpless, which was kill the man who was supplying him. Only, I didn't realise he'd apply for president. It's not like he's got a qualification or nothin' to be president and it wasn't in his mind at the time, so I never saw it coming. Then the rest, you guys know about me I guess."

There was silence in the room. Magneto's fists were white as he figured out what it was that made something tick in his mind. Around the same time Rogue escaped was around the same time he ordered Pyro to take out that base. If he had of gone with Pyro and taken it down with him, he would have been able to find Sinister and kill him so none of this would of had to happened. Magneto felt enraged with himself for being such a fool.

"Thank you Rogue. Thank you for being so open with us." Said the Professor, trying to retake control again.

"Oh, I ain't done just yet Professor." Rogue looked down to the map on the table in front of her. It was a clear map of America for them all to look at, but as Rogue looked at it, she saw little red crosses on the map which located where Sinister's camps were. In her minds eye, she pictured chest pieces upon the map too. All in the exsacte same place they had been in when her game with Magneto had ended. She knew what to do. "See, I'm gonna tell y'all how to take down Sinister once and for all."