Okay, so I managed to finish this chapter super fast. But then I felt really conflicted about posting it so fast when I only two reviews for the last chapter. But I love this fic and I love all of you who take the time to read it. But I hope you all understand just how much time I spend on it. So, please show your support by posting a review this chapter! It would really mean a lot to me ^.^

Taunting Repartee

Chapter Thirty-Three

It turned out to be a forty minute drive before the came to a location that looked opened.

"This is totally the worst idea we have ever had," Kitty said as they both stared at the entrance to Lucky's Bar; the building was shady looking. The small parking lot the were in was fulled with cars and motorcycles. They watched one man stumble out of the front door; he staggered to the side of the street and threw up. "Eww," Kitty exclaimed.

"You wanna just keep driving?" Rogue asked.

"It like ten now. Everything closing and it took us so long to find this place."

"And without Cerbro," Rogue started to say.

"They have no idea where we are," Kitty finished. "No," Kitty sighed. "Everyone's probably super worried about us. We should let them know that we're alive," she said.

"Alright, then, let's make this fast," Rogue said as they both got out of the car. Kitty ran around the car and took hold of Rogue's hand. Rogue pressed the lock button on the keys before putting them in her pocket. "I hope they have a phone," Rogue muttered as they walked up to the building hand in hand.

"You- ah you girls wanna," the drunk man laughed.

"Eww," Kitty said again as they both tried to ignore the man and avoid the puddle of bile on the ground.

"Come on," Rogue said as they both walked into the building. They quickly walked past all the pool tables and marched straight up to the bar. "Excuse me," Rogue called out; attempting to get the bar tender's attention. Why did the music have to be so loud?

"Sir," Kitty called out as she waved over at the guy.

"What are two sweet young things like yourself doing in a place like this?" an older man asked them as he came up next to Kitty. Rogue wiped her head around to see the man getting way to close to her roommate.

'And I thought Max was creepy. At least he doesn't smell like something died,' Rogue thought. Kitty quickly stepped towards Rogue. "We're just trying to get that man's attention. Nothing for you to get involved with," Rogue answer.

"You girls lost? I'm real good with directions," he said with a smirk.

"We don't need directions," Rogue said strongly as they both took a step away from the man. "Hello," Rogue shouted out to the bar tender. He glanced at her for a quick moment before he turned back to the glasses of beer he was fulling up.

"Well, I'm sure there's something I can do," the man started to say as he placed his hand on Kitty's shoulder. Kitty gasped as she phased the man's arm went straight through her.

"You girls are muties?" the man said in disbelief as he backed away.

"Mutants?" another man asked as he and a few other men turned their attention towards them.

'Oh, no,' Rogue thought as they became surrounded. "We just wanna use a phone," Rogue said.

"Well, too bad you girls came in here 'cause-" the man started to say before he was stuck on the head with a pool stick.

"Rogue, let's-" Kitty started to say before they both started to run; Kitty phased them through whatever and whoever was in their way. Rogue turned her head around to glance at their protected.

'Victor?' she thought in disbelief as Kitty phased them out of the building. They both ran up to the car as Rogue pulled out the keys. They both gasped as they heard a gun shot from the bar. She pushed the unlock button and they both rushed to get into the car.

"Rogue, hurry up, okay?" Kitty asked scared as Rogue and she put on their seat belts.

"I'm going as fast as I can," she said as she put the keys in the emission.

"Oh my god, that's Sabertooth," Kitty gasped. "What's he doing here?" Kitty asked as Rogue started to car

"Trying to get drunk, what else?" Rogue asked as she started to pull out of the parking space. As she glanced back she saw her father holding onto his bleeding side as he ran towards the car. 'He was shot,' she thought. Rogue glanced behind him the bar tender came running out of the bar with a gun. She stopped the car and unlocked the back door.

"Rogue, what are you doing?" Kitty yelled. "You can't let-" Kitty started to say before Sabertooth got into the back of the car.

"Drive," Victor screamed. Rogue pushed the gas petal to the ground and raced down the road.

"Oh, god, Sabertooth is in the car. Sabertooth is with us in Magneto's car," Kitty said terrified.

"Relax, short stuff, I ain't gonna hurt ya. It's my night off," he said before he groaned. Rogue glanced into her rear view mirror to see Victor clawing into his wound.

"What- what are you doing?" she asked alarmed.

"Don't worry about me. Just drive," Victor ordered before he let out a low grunt. "Rogue, open the window," he ordered.

"Victor, you okay?" Rogue asked as she did what he asked.

"I'll be fine, now, that I got the bullet out," he uttered annoyed as he threw the bullet out the window. "What the hell where you two doing in Lucky's?" he asked.

"We needed a phone," Rogue answered.

"Why- hm- why were you there?" Kitty asked.

"Trying to get drunk, what else?" Victor answered. "Kid, you can slow down now. No one's following us," he said.

"Ya sure?" Rogue asked. She heard sniffing.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he answered. "And why are we in Magneto's car?" he asked as Rogue decreased the car's speed.

"He let us borrow it," Rogue explained.

"Why the fuck would Magneto let two x-men borrow his car?" he asked with a laugh. "...You are still with the X-Men, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am," Rogue said.

"I ah- saved his son life," Kitty answered.

"Pietro? That little shit?" Victor asked.

"Yeah," Rogue said with a smirk. "That any way to be talking about your boss' son?" Rogue asked with a smile.

"I can take care of myself. I deal with my boss any way I fucking choose. You should be more careful. Almost got yourself killed tonight," he said in his matter-of-fact- tone she'd had to endure as a child.

"Thanks for your concern," Rogue said dryly.

"Hey, watch your tone," Victor warned.

"Or else what? You'll ground me?" Rogue asked annoyed. "Don't ya think you're a little late to pretend you're my father?" she asked in anger.

"What?" Kitty asked quietly; she glanced at her friend for a moment to see Kitty's eyes widened.

"It ain't my fault we haven't talked. You never called," he said.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Rogue yelled. "I was only ten years old. I was supposed to call you?" she asked in disbelief. "You were the parent. You were supposed to call me, or come see me. Fucking anything would've good to know that ya actually gave a shit," Rogue finished.

"I did give a shit. I wrote to you all the fucking time when you were little; on your birthday, for Christmas and shit. I left you phone numbers so you could call me. But you never fucking did," Victor screamed back. "Ungrateful little-"

'What?' Rogue thought as she pressed her foot on the brake; bring them to a short stop. She put the car in park.

"You're just like your mother," he said.

"I am nothing like Mystique," Rogue yelled as she turned to face him. "You don't know me. You've haven't known me in over six years because ya haven't been apart of my life-"

"And whose fault is that," he said bitterly.

"I don't know yet. Shut, the fuck, up and let me find out," Rogue shouted before she closed her eyes.

"Rogue, what are you doing?" Kitty asked.

"Yeah, what the fuck are ya doing?" Victor asked. Rogue sighed before opening her eyes. She hated having to explain this.

"I got fragments of both you and Mystique in my mind; and gonna look and see what happened. The only thing I remember is ya all sending Gray ta college and me moving in with Irene-" she tried to explain.

"That home-wreaking cunt," Victor muttered. Rogue felt a surge of anger overtake her.

"That home-wreaking cunt raised your childrenwhenever you and Mystique decided that you were too busy to be parents; before and after ya all got divorced. So, don't even try and say a bad word about her. She was the only constant person in my life unti-," Rogue screamed.

"I don't have ta take this shit," he yelled as he opened the car door and got out. Rogue got out after him.

"Yeah, just run away," she screamed as he ran off the road and into the wood. "Just leave me like ya always do," Rogue screamed as he ran out of her line of sight. She felt like she was a child again watching both of parent's cars drive away; abandoning her. "...You bastard," she screamed out into the dark; a few tears running down her face. She was fighting to keep control over herself.

"Rogue?" Kitty asked as she felt a hand on her arm. "Do you, like... wanna hug?" she asked uncertainly.

"Kitty, I would love a hug right now," Rogue muttered as Kitty moved in front of her.

"Come here," she whispered as she pulled Rogue into a hug. Rogue carefully put her arms around the girl trying to avoid her skin. Rogue let herself cry for a few minutes.

"Kitty, I," she started to say through her tears, "I love ya like a sister... you know that, right?" Rogue asked.

"Yeah, I know that. I love you too, Rogue," Kitty said as she squeezed a little harder.

'Oh, what I'm I doing?' she asked herself. "...This is nice but really dangerous. I don't wanna knock ya unconscious" she said as she slipped out of the hug. "Let's just go home," she said as she wiped her face. "No more stops. They'll know where alive when we get home. Which'll happen faster if we just drive," she ranted.

"Okay," Kitty said. "Okay, let's go home," she said with a smile as they both walked back towards the car. "Do you-"

"No, I don't talk about it," Rogue answered quickly as they both got into the car. Their doors closing within seconds of each other.

"Okay, we totally don't have to," Kitty said as she put on her seat belt. "But if you, you know, want to?" Kitty started to ask.

"I know," Rogue said as she put on her seat belt. "Thanks, Kitty," she said as she forced herself to smile at her friend. Rogue glanced down at the steeling wheel. Now all she had to do was put the car back into drive and make the three hour trip to Bayville. But between everything that had happened today she couldn't bring herself to start driving yet

Why did this hurt so much? She had handled worse, right? With Magneto and everything he had put her through she should be able to just brush this off. It's not like this was first was the first time he had abandoned her. This wasn't new.

Rogue closed her eyes as more tears ran down her face.

"It's going to be okay," Kitty said as she put her hand on Rogue's arm again.

"No, it's not," Rogue muttered as she reopened her eyes. "That was the first conversation I've with that man since I was ten, and all we did was- I-" Rogue felt the tears starting to swell up in the corners of her eyes again. "I still don't wanna talk about it," she said quickly.

"Okay, it's just seems like you really do wanna talk about it," Kitty said.

'Kitty, you have no idea how much I wish I could tell you,' she thought to herself. "If I start talking about this, I- we really need to get home. It's so late now. I can- we can talk later," Rogue said.

"Hey, whatever you want to do, Rogue," Kitty said. Rogue closed her eyes for a moment and taking deep breaths; attempting to clear her mind.

It took her a few minutes but by using a breathing techniques Ororo had taught her she managed to regain her composure.

"Okay... I'm okay," Rogue mumbled before she finally took the car out of park.

Rogue let out a sigh of relief as she drove past the "Welcome to Bayville" sign. She leaned forward and turned off the G.P.S. She knew her way to the high school from here. Besides the computer's voice had been getting on her nerves. She didn't know how Kitty had been sleeping through it for the past hour.

'Professor?' Rogue thought. 'Jean?' she called out.

She received no answer.

'I probably ain't close enough to the institute yet,' she thought as she turned onto Bayville Ave."Kitty," she called out softly as she reached over and gently shook her arm.

"Rogue?" Kitty muttered.

"Time to wake up, sugar," she said as the placed her hand back on the steering wheel. .

"We home yet?" Kitty muttered before yawning.

"Almost, we've in Bayville," Rogue answered.

"That good," Kitty mumbled sleepily as she turned over in the chair. Rogue smiled.

'I'll just wake her up when we get there,' she thought to herself."Just ten more minutes and we'll be call-' she cut off her own sentence as she saw a red car riding towards her on the opposite side of the road. 'Is that Scott's car?' she asked herself. As it got closer she saw black strips on the sides of the car. 'Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is,' she thought as she beeped the horn a few times.

"Ahh," Kitty exclaimed as she opened her eyes fully. "Okay, I'm awake," she said annoyed as Rogue pulled the car over to the side of the road..

"Sorry, Kitty," Rogue said as she got out of the car. She jumped up and down waving at them . Thankfully, Scott took the hint and stopped his car as well.

"Oh," Kitty said surprised as she got out of the car. They watched Storm and Scott jumped out of the car. They ran up to them.

"Rogue? Kitty?" Stormed exclaimed. "Are you both alright?" she asked as she took a good look at them..

"Yeah, we're okay," Kitty answered.

"Thank goodness," Storm said as she let out a sigh of relief.

"Professor?" Scott asked into a communicator.

"Where were you two?" Storm asked.

"It's a really long story," Kitty said. "We had the craziest day," Kitty said.

"Yes, Cyclops?" the Professor voice came through the communicator.

"We found them. Repeat, Storm and I found Shadowcat and Rogue," Scott said.

"We fought the brotherhood, and then Magneto showed up and he was totally creepy," Kitty said.

"Magneto?" Stormed asked alarmed.

"Wait, again?" Scott asked in disbelief as he turned his attention to the Kitty..

"Yeah," Rogue sighed. "I don't think he's given up trying to recruit me yet," she said. "This is actually his car. He let us borrow it," Rogue said. She watched Scott raise an eyebrow. ""Like Kitty said it's a long story. This isn't the first time I've had a run in with Magneto. Scott I'm sure you remember the last time," she said. He nodded. "And I don't really feel like telling it a millions times. Especially, the part about Sabertooth," she said. She watched Storm's eye's widen in fear.

'Why did I have ta remind myself about that?' Rogue asked herself in anger. She felt tears forming the corners of her eyes as bits and pieces of the conversation threatened to replay in her mind.

"Rogue, are you okay?" Scott asked.

"No," Rogue answered. "No, I'm not okay," she said as Kitty put her hand on her arm again. "I've been trying not to think about it, too much. And it's worked for the last few hours. Like I said I don't wanna talk about this too much. So, can all the explanations wait until we're in front of Prof, please?" Rogue asked.

"... Very well," the Professor's voice said after a moment. Rogue was monumentally taken by surprise by his response until she looked and Scott's hand and realized he still had his communicator out. "Please get home safe. We will talk then," he said.

"I just-" Rogue started to say. She paused for a moment waiting for Scott to push the button on his communicator again so the Professor could hear her. "I just gottta drive Magneto's car to the high school. It was kind've a condition of borrowing it," Rogue said.

"Storm, take the car there and then fly home. Rogue, Kitty go with Cyclops" the Professor ordered.

"Yes, sir," Scott said into the communicator. "Come on, let's get you girls home," he said before he turned to cross the street. Kitty followed after him.

"Ororo, I'm- I'm sorry," Rogue said as she turned back to glance at her teacher..

"It is alright, child. I am just relied that we found you both unharmed," she said before she got into the car.

"Me too," Rogue muttered as she turned back towards Scott's car.

They had finally returned to the institute about half past one in the morning. Thankfully, the Professor had shown them some mercy and had allowed them to go to sleep. Rogue laid in bed; despite being exhausted she couldn't fall asleep.

"So, they're okay?" she heard Kurt ask from outside her door.

"Yeah, me and Storm found them earlier," Scott said.

"Good, that's good," Kurt said softly. "Where were they?" he asked.

"I don't know," Scott said. "The Professor said they could explain in the morning. We'll know more then. Come on, let's get some sleep," he said before yawning.

"You're sure they're okay?" Kurt asked.

"Yes, Kurt," the Professor said. "I'm certain that they are fine. It has been a very stressful day. Please go get some sleep," he said. "You can speaking with Rogue in the morning," he added.

"O-okay, Professor," he said.

Rogue closed her eyes; a few tears ran down her face. She felt so guilty about running off like that; about following Magneto's orders.

'If you hadn't gone along with it then Kurt wouldn't be able ta talk to me tomorrow morning. He wouldn't be able to talk to me at all... If they knew they would understand. I know they would,' she thought to herself. 'Prof probably would've done the same thing himself if it meant protecting all of us,' she tried to convince herself. 'Sleep, girl, just...just go to sleep,' she thought.

"Rogue?" Kitty whispered. "You okay?" she asked.

"I...I don't-," she started to say as she wiped tears away from her face.

"Do you, like, wanna talk now?" Kitty asked.

"Kitty, it's late. We should-" she started to say.

"Rogue, your totally crying your eyes out right now. Do you, like, really think I care about sleep?" she asked. Rogue smiled at that. "Besides it's not like we have to go to school tomorrow. The Professor letting most of us stay home," she said.

"Yeah, 'cause they were up all night looking for us," she said guilt-stricken.

"It wasn't all night," Kitty said.

"Everyone usually in bed by ten," she muttered.

"Rogue, you're being way too hard on yourself. It's not like you're the only one to blame. I could've said no," Kitty pointed out.

'No, you couldn't of,' she thought. 'Max, didn't give you that choice,' she thought both enraged and depressed.

"Hm- so about Sabertooth?" Kitty she asked slowly. Rogue could tell she was being careful about asking that question. "He's your dad?" she asked.

"Yeah," Rogue muttered. "He adopted me when I was, like, four," she told Kitty.

"Him and Mystique, right?" she asked. Rogue nodded.

"That so crazy," she said. "I, like, can't picture those two living together or taking care of kids," she said.

"Yeah, they where both really bad at it," Rogue said. "Well, okay that ain't entirely true. When they wanted ta be good parents they knew what ta do. Raven was pretty good with me when I was really young. She used ta braid my hair and read me stories before I went ta bed. She used to make cookies, like, all the time," Rogue said.

"Mystique baked?" Kitty asked in disbelief.

"I know. If I hadn't of lived through it I wouldn't believe it either," she said with a smirk. "She- she used ta be a good mom," Rogue said sadly.

"What about Sabertooth?" Kitty asked.

"He was kind've a good dad, I guess. Never hit me or anything like that," Rogue said.

"It takes more than that to be a good father," Kitty pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," she muttered.

"Girls?" Storm asked as she opened their door a crack. "It is very late. You should be asleep," she said.

"Sorry," Kitty said as she smiled at Rogue.

"Yeah, sorry," Rogue said as she smiled back.

"Good night," Storm said as she started to close the door again.

"Good night," Kitty said.

"Wait, Ororo?" Rogue asked. Storm stopped her movements

"Yes?" she asked as their eyes made contact.

"I just wanted to say thank you for all the meditation stuff you've been teaching me," she said.

"We've only had one session," Storm pointed out.

"Yeah, I know but it helped me out today. Helped me keep my emotions in check so I could, ya know, do what I had ta do. Get me and Kitty home safe. Thanks for that," Rogue said.

"You are welcome," she said with a smile. "You still want to have another session next Tuesday?" she asked.

"Yeah, definitely right after school," Rogue said.

"Alright," Storm smiled. "See you both tomorrow," she said.

"Good night," Rogue said as Storm closed the door. "Night, Kitty," Rogue whispered.

"You sure you don't need to talk more?" she whispered.

"Yeah, I'm okay now," she whispered back. "I don't wanna get you anymore trouble," she said.

"Rogue," Kitty whispered.

"Really, I'm okay now," Rogue whispered. "We'll talk more tomorrow, okay?" she asked. "Look I ain't crying anymore," she pointed out.

"...Okay," she whispered. "Night."

"Night."