Essence of Soul

Chapter 3

Rogue shut the journal and stared at the cover for a moment. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Kitty phased through the door. She immediately shoved the book under her mattress.

"Can't you ever knock?" she narrowed her eyes at her.

"Sorry, this is, like, my room too, you know," she stuck her tongue out at her. Rogue gave her a death glare that didn't seem to bother the girl. "I came to tell you, breakfast is, like, almost totally over… so if you want to eat anything I suggest you, like, get down there."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," she stood and walked out of the room, never noticing that a corner of her journal was still visible. Kitty glanced at it, but shrugged and phased out of the room.

As Rogue walked down the metal staircase, she couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen, but she dismissed it thinking she was just being paranoid about her secret relationship with Remy.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts as she walked into the kitchen. Looking around, she noticed that Jean, Scott, Ororo, Logan and Professor Xavier were all in there, almost as if they were waiting. Well, Scott and Jean were carrying on their own conversation, which made the atmosphere less tense.

*You're just being paranoid again…* she told herself as she picked up a glass of orange juice, making sure there was no pulp in it.

"Did you enjoy your company last night, Streaks?" Logan asked gruffly. Panic broke out within her and she dropped the glass she was holding in pure shock. Luckily, Jean stopped it telekinetically and set it in the sink.

"Jean, Scott would you excuse us?" Xavier looked at them over his shoulder. They nodded and exited the room quickly.

"Rogue, would you like to tell us about your little visit?" Ororo asked.

"Not especially," she replied and was about to leave the room, but was stopped by Logan.

"Don't move, I want to know about this Gumbo," he crossed his arms.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she turned her back on them.

~Rogue, we know all about Remy, don't make this harder on yourself~ Xavier spoke into her mind.

"You have to stay away from him, Rogue, he is ally to Magneto," Ororo explained.

"So? Lance was too and you let Kitty date him!" she accused, turning back around with an angered look on her face.

"That was different," she said.

"I don't see how," Rogue muttered and crossed her arms, looking away from them.

"I'm sorry, Rogue, but we can't allow you to see him, not until we can trust him," Xavier said.

"You can't do that!" she shouted.

"Rogue, if you do care about him, don't you worry that he might come in contact with your skin? He can't touch you," Ororo said. Rogue again looked away, not wanting to say anything to provoke the situation even more.

"He can, can't he?" Xavier looked at her. Rogue simply glanced at him momentarily, still saying nothing.

"But how?" Ororo asked. Rogue rolled her eyes and pulled down on her choker.

"You removed them from the others, but not me," she said, "he has an activator."

"Well, we'll fix that," Logan made a fist, pulling out his blades and advancing towards her, "that puppy's coming off."

"No! Don't!" she placed a hand over the small device and backed away from him.

"Logan, it's attached to her jugular vein, it has to be surgically removed," Xavier informed him. "We're going to remove that device so that your powers won't be limited."

"I'm sorry, Professor," Rogue walked up to him.

"For what?" he asked. He suddenly read her mind and was about to stop her, but it was too late. She reached her hand up and touched his face, there had been small holes on the tips of her gloves.

"For this," she drained his power and winced at the sheer energy of it. Removing her hand, Xavier weakly looked up at her.

"Rogue, what are you doing?" Ororo advanced on her, only to have a red beam of light emerge from her eyes, sending her and Logan several feet back.

"Professor… forgive me," was the last thing she said before running out of the room and down the hall.

"What the hell was that?!" Logan asked, rubbing his sore head.

"Apparently, that torture trained her to advance her power," Ororo groaned.

"So they taught her a few new tricks… well I've got some tricks of my own," he muttered and helped Ororo to her feet.

Rogue blinked several times, making sure she'd erased Scott's power from her holding. She started concentrating on the most recent time she'd absorbed Jean's telekinesis, just in case anyone tried to stop her.

"Rogue!"

She looked back to see Kurt bounding up to her, she smirked as she thought of the perfect way to get out of the warehouse they now called home. Kurt looked at her strangely, not quite sure why she'd been running.

"Sorry, Kurt…" she smiled weakly and touched his cheek. She watched as he dropped to his knees slowly.

*I hate to do this to them all, but I have no choice…* she shut her eyes tightly and teleported out of the warehouse, into the surrounding forest. *I have to find him… where would Remy be?*