Chapter XIX

"Before the Storm"

Just like Rogue had predicted, it didn't take long for the rest of the X-Men to hear of her recovery. Soon she had visits from everyone, each one taking the time to tell her what she meant to them and to the team and for her to rely on them more. She was laying on her bed still reminiscing at everything that had happened since she came back. After Phoenix's display of power, she felt that it would be nearly impossible to beat her. How, then, was she able to go toe-to-toe with her in her visions? She let out a heavy sigh and wondered what could be done. She was, however, infinitely glad that she entered a comatose state after touching her. What would've happened if her mimicking Phoenix's powers caused harm to the people at the institute? She's had issues controlling newly acquired powers in the past, but she couldn't afford it this time.

"Hey," she heard someone enter the room.

"Hi," Rogue sat on the bed as she looked at her longtime friend.

"How are you coping?" Kitty asked.

Rogue just shrugged, "As best as I can, I suppose," while now everyone knew about her visions and the potential apocalyptic future, there were still many concerns swirling in her head, but she didn't want to worry her friends more than necessary.

"I...I know we haven't had the chance to talk, but there is something I'd like to tell you," Kitty said firmly. Rogue gestured for her to continue, but instead she felt Kitty throw herself at her and hug her tightly, "don't do that ever again you hear!"

The southern woman was in shock at Kitty's display and at a loss of words. Kitty continued, "Don't take such burdens on your own anymore. We are a team. We are friends. We are family," she said in between sobs. Only Kitty knew how much Rogue was missed by those she held dear. She was one of those people that missed her immensely, but wished her the best wherever she went. She knew that Rogue was very lonely, and constantly felt the need to isolate herself further because of her powers. Behind all that bravado was a delicate and fragile girl, yearning for friendship, sympathy, and of course...love. After hearing the reasons why Rogue had left, she couldn't help to feel angry at the girl and at the same time feel like she had failed her as a friend.

Slowly Rogue also returned the hug, "I promise I won't do that again," she said soothingly, as she patted the Shadowcat on the back.

"We are going to do this together,"

"We will," auburn-white haired woman replied.

{-}

"Scott!" Yelled Kurt from outside of Jean's room. They had finally convinced Cyclops to rotate in monitor duty and this happens.

Cyclops came rushing from the DR room after an intense training session, "What's wrong?" he asked, but Kurt didn't answer. He didn't need to.

Jean had fled the scene with everyone none the wiser.

"We need to get everyone together, now!"

"On it," he teleported to each and every one of the current inhabitants at the institute and teleported them to the base of operations.

"What is going on?" Wolverine asked gruffly.

"Yes Kurt, please explain," Ororo asked with just the right amount of concern without panic.

"Jean is gone," Scott stated as he entered the room.

"What!?" Rogue was just readjusting after 2 days of waking up, "How did this happen?"

"Let's find out," the professor said calmly as he summoned a holographic recording of the last few hours in Jean's room.

Jean had woken up and was struggling to gain control of her body, but after much struggle it seemed that Phoenix had taken control and used her powers to disintegrate part of the walls that connected to the outside world -almost as if these walls were made out of sand.

"Glad that wasn't me," muttered Nightcrawler as he saw those walls dissolve into nothingness.

"What will we do now?" asked Kitty worriedly.

Scott looked at the professor and as if reading his mind, "I'll use Cerebro, it might help us find her," Charles answered. "I know this is hard for everyone, but I need you to stay calm. Scott work with them on strengthening their psyche," the leader nodded. If they were to face a telepath, the best they could do was to try to strengthen their mental barriers.

Everyone nodded and started heading out with Scott leading them to the DR. Rogue waited for everyone to step out and even asked Warren to go ahead of her. "Professor, we need to talk," she said in her mind and the professor closed the door after everyone had left.

"Yes Rogue,"

"I need to tell you something I saw when I touched Phoenix,"

Professor Xavier waited expectantly.

"I felt Jean inside her and we were wrong," she paused trying to find the best words to explain her discovery, "Phoenix wasn't triggered by Jean's emotions, she took over her body,"

"What do you mean?"

"When I touched her, I saw how she was slowly consuming Jean, I guess she had been living inside her, almost like a parasite to a host, since her birth,"

"Go on,"

"Jean was fortunate that she was born with her powers, which helped her combat the thing inside of her," as she was absorbing the life force of Jean/Phoenix she was able to see more of her history, more than she had ever seen before when she had touched Jean in the past, "but she wasn't even aware that she was living with Phoenix inside of her,"

"Can we save her?"

Rogue's semblance deflated, "I'm not sure, Jean's life force was very faint but," she looked at him with determination, "we will do everything in our power to save her."

Professor Xavier nodded in thought, while he had all intentions of saving his student, the question remained: could they?

{-}

Cyclops was hyper aware that Rogue had missed out on the training session in favor of staying behind to speak with the professor. He would have to talk to her in private as soon as he could. He was tired of secrets and the team couldn't afford being in the dark anymore.

"Is this really working man?" Evan asked, not really seeing the relevance of this meditation thing.

"You won't be experts and your barriers won't be impenetrable, but this will at least help you put some resistance when a psychic is trying to overpower your mind," he told him and the rest of the group.

Even Logan was participating in this training, he'd dealt with telepaths before and it was not fun. "Don't complain Spikey and just do it,"

"Fine, fine,"

After another half hour of training everyone was released for lunch, and they would reconvene at the entrance of the institute to continue with the rebuilding efforts. There was still a lot of tension in the air and plenty of uncertainty, but everyone knew that they needed to move forward and not let themselves be paralyzed by fear. Scott observed from the gardens how the X-Men came together to rebuild the institute, despite the somber situation there were laughs and jokes thrown around, even Spike was teasing Logan on whose powers were more useful for the rebuild.

He smiled being grateful for having an amazing team but at the same time he worried that this battle might be more than what they could handle even as X-Men. They didn't know how powerful Phoenix was but if their last encounter with her was anything to go by, the odds weren't in their favor.

"Scott,"

The leader was taken out of his reverie by none other than Angel, "Warren, how are you?"

"As best as I can be considering the situation," He also looked ahead at the X-Men work together. "I wanted to talk about you about a few things," Warren, although a bit hesitant, pushed forward, "what are your thoughts on this upcoming battle?"

"What can I say, I'm not even sure how powerful Je-," he stopped himself, "Phoenix is," it was hard for him to come to terms with the distinction but he couldn't equate that destroyer with the woman he'd known all his life.

Warren nodded thoughtfully, "I understand, but we can both agree that she is very powerful," they walked towards a fountain that fortunately had survived the ruckus. "I'm worried about what our next battle will look like, and I can't help but ask, what will you do when you see her again?"

Scott took a long moment to answer, "I'm going to try save her,"

"At the expense of what?"

Scott didn't answer.

"Or rather, at the expense of who?" Warren asked pointedly.

Cyclops knitted his brows, "Are you questioning my loyalties Worthington?"

Warren remained calm, "I wouldn't do that, you are the leader of the X-Men, and I trust you," because at the end of the day he was an X-Man too, "but I also want you to be aware that you're in a unique situation here and your personal biases may cloud your better judgement,"

Scott understood where Warren was coming from, this situation was too close to home for him, more so than anyone else, "It may sound too ambitious, but I want to try to save everyone," He said resolutely.

Warren nodded in understanding, "I can relate to that sentiment and know that you count with my full support,"

"Thank you," he said grateful to the older man, but after a beat added, "I feel like there is something else you want to say,"

"There is," and there wasn't an easy way to say it, "it's about Marie, or Rogue rather," he saw the leader tense slightly, "I may be completely wrong but was there," he shook his head, "is there something going on between the two of you?"

Scott was at a loss. He wasn't sure what he would or should say. It was true that he had been struggling with his feelings for her for years, but now was not the time to confront those feelings. Not with ever present danger, with everyone's lives at stakes and so much uncertainty ahead. But if not now, when would the right time ever be?

At his silence Warren continued, "In just a few days here I've seen how you look at her, even at the engagement party, actually," he paused and smiled to himself almost disappointed, "I've seen how you look at her before. You did kiss her at the Winter Ball a few years ago,"

"You saw that?" It had been too long ago and barely even a peck on the lips, but it will forever remain a fond memory.

"Of course. Just like you obviously saw that I had a crush on her even then," And that was nothing but the truth.

Boy did Scott remember that.

Warren let out a sigh, "I guess I shouldn't even ask, I'm a man too and I've seen that look before," he took a few steps in front of Scott and faced him intently, "It's the same look I've given her many times over the years."

Even through his shades Warren could feel the intensity of Scott's eyes looking right at him.

"Rogue is very special to me," Scott started saying, "and I would be a fool not to see that she is someone you cherish," as much as he hated to admit it.

"I love her," Warren said, not missing a beat. Now wasn't the time and he's never told the woman in question these words, but he would fight for her any day. "And I don't want you to hurt her. Make Jean your priority, she was the woman you were going to marry not even a week ago."

"That's true but –"

"I don't know your history with Rogue, but you made your choice once she was gone. Don't you think she deserves to be happy? Think about the aftermath of this battle. What will happen after Jean is saved?"

Scott stayed silent. He understood exactly what Warren was trying to say. Warren wanted to be the one that looked after Rogue and he was asking him to step aside. Although his words made him ask himself, what would Jean do after all of this? She would need all the support in the world to get back on her feet. By the same token, he already felt like he had wasted seven years without Rogue, and now that he had her back, he wasn't willing to let her go that easily. Not after he knew why she had left and felt there was a strong bond between them. He couldn't say it for sure, but he believed that the emerald-eyed woman had feelings for him too. Only they knew how close they had become before she left and he felt there was this unresolved tension every time they were near each other, as if there was still something important that needed to be said between them.

"I don't know what will happen after Phoenix, all I know is that," the blond waited expectantly for him to continue, "I want Rogue to be happy."

"I'm glad you and I came to an agreement," said the CEO content to have reached consensus. He outstretched his hand signaling for a hand shake.

Scott took it strongly, "And I want to be the one that makes her happy," both men smirked at one another, this was a formal declaration of war.

As they walked back towards the mansion Scott said, "At the end it will be her choice, but I can tell you this,"

"Go on,"

"I'll be fighting for her every step of the way,"

{-}

There was so much uncertainty ahead of him and he would cross all those bridges when the time came. He was indebted to Jean, that much was true. She was very special to him and a friend he had known for many years. However, since the last fight with Phoenix, he felt like this fog had been lifted and as much as he loved Jean, he wasn't in love with her and hadn't been for so many years. He felt as if to some extent those feelings of loyalty and love had been projected on to him and he acted almost as if someone controlled him…

He snapped from his couch in realization. Could it be that without him knowing, Phoenix had entered his mind? It was unnatural for him to feel like those feelings of love had simply vanished. He wasn't a fickle man. He wouldn't simply leave Jean or forget about her just because someone had taken over her body. His unresolved feelings for Rogue were a testament to how strongly he could feel for a person. If Phoenix did control him (for whatever sick and twisted purpose she had) a lot of things would start to make sense. Like the fact that he didn't remember much on how he proposed, or how when he realized that Rogue had left all he wanted to do was to look for her, find her, and bring her back home, but something stopped him -and he couldn't really explain what it was.

"Scott," Rogue called from the other side of the door.

"You can come in,"

She stepped inside his room and closed the door behind her, "It's been quite the day, hasn't it?"

"It has," they weren't sure if getting no news of Phoenix was good or bad, but for now the saying: no news is good news, would have to suffice.

"Your place is nice," she said as she looked around his place. With all the events happening and how she was trying to avoid him in the beginning, she didn't really get to see his place. It was a miracle that it hadn't been destroyed during battle.

"Thanks," there was an awkward silence around them, like they weren't sure how to act around each other, but they were adults now and they didn't have time for any awkwardness. "What brings you here this late at night?"

She cleared her throat and took a seat opposite of him. "I wanted to fill you in on what I told the professor earlier today,"

He was so glad he didn't have to confront her over that.

"I'm sorry to say but," she lowered her eyes, "I don't know how much of Jean is left,"

"What...what do you mean?"

"When I touched Phoenix, I felt Jean's life force in her -"

"Then doesn't that mean Jean is still in there?"

"She is...but her life force is very faint Scott," she hated telling him this, Rogue knew how important the redhead was to him, but she wanted to be as transparent as possible. "You also need to know that it is thanks to her that we are still here," she said with a very small smile, "she saved us, last time,"

He wasn't sure what to say, this was too much to take in all at once. But his resolution to save Jean hadn't waivered. "You touched her. What did you see?"

Rogue let out a sigh, "Phoenix is not someone we can take lightly Scott. She's probably more powerful than anything we've ever faced before," what came next was even harder to say. "She, Phoenix I mean, had been living within Jean for a long time. To be honest, I don't know how much was Jean and how much was Phoenix these last few years,"

Slowly all of Jean's odd behaviors in recent years, his memory loss episodes, and just things that plainly didn't make sense to him in these last few years and he never thought to question were now starting to fall in place. Phoenix played them, played him, and no one knew for how long.

"How could I not know?" he said to himself in reproach.

She placed a supporting hand on his shoulder, "Let's focus on what we can do, not what we can't change,"

He rested his hand on top of her gloved one, "Thank you…"

{x}

"So what do we do now?" Asked Logan from his side of the round table. All X-Men were together assessing the different options, but no one had a concrete idea of what they would or how they would beat their newest foe.

"He's right professor, a frontal attack clearly did nothing last time," said Hank wisely.

Professor Xavier laced his hands and rested his chin in thought, "We need to be careful and methodical,"

"We don't even know what we're up against," Ororo said with clear concern.

Kurt and Kitty shared a look of concern and held each other's hand. This could be their last battle.

"Let's focus on what we know," Scott pitched in, "She's a telepath, telekinetic, and apparently also has control over matter," if that dissolving wall was anything to go by.

"Scott is right, with as little as we know, we can take it from there," Rogue said not missing a beat, "I think continuing to strength our psyche will increase our chances of getting close to her," Hank gave her a look, "but not too close of course,"

"Professor, you are also a telepath, do you have any advice? Any way that we can block –" Warren was interrupted by a beeping sound.

"Someone's at the door?" Evan raised a questioning brow.

"It sure seems like it," Kurt answered as he keyed data in the digital keyboard that manifested.

"You've got to be kidding me," Scott said somewhere between annoyed and surprised.

"We don't have time for this," the familiar 'clink' of his claws filled the room.

On the screen were the familiar silhouettes of the X-Men favorite foes…

"Charles, will you let us in?"

Magneto and his Brotherhood of misfits were right outside their doors.

{x}

Don't mind me just dropping this a couple of years later…I have no words, but I made a promise of finishing this, and I'm sticking to it, as long as it takes.

Please excuse grammatical errors, I've seen this document more times than I care to count, and I'm sure some things were missed.

Infinite thanks to: StarlightSaffire, Daniel6, xSireiHime, TieDyeJackson, and FairyofDreams for reviewing the previous chapter.

Love,

Kim