Still Holding Out For You
By Lady Trunks
Part 21

And now a short message from Comics Continuum:
Beginning on April 5, X-Men Evo will air on Cartoon Networks on Saturdays at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) and 10:30 p.m. and on Sundays-Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. (ET/PT). Four new episodes from X-Men: Evolution's third season are expected to air in May on Kids' WB!. The show has been picked up for a fourth season of nine episodes.
Yay! Do the happy dance!! Evo is BACK!!

Ellen- I love DoR based fics! I would love to read it if you decide to write it.

Christina- Glad you like it. ^_^

Nightshade- Girl, you are putting way too much thought into this (and subsequently making me put too much thought into it). ^^;; My first thought was to have her absorb Ms Marvel, but I wanted her to be able to block her absorbtion powers (to draw out the suspense) so she can't be healed. So, my thought was if Joseph can form a electromagnetic barrier so he can touch her, couldn't a telekenetic barrier do the same? Only if the tk is her own, she would be able to touch anyone (*wink, wink, nudge, nudge* ^^) all the time if she's powerful enough to maintain the shield. So I added my own lil' OC because the only other option would be Jean, and as much as I might enjoy killing her off, she is going to be used for something in this fic.

X-DarkHorizon-X- Don't do any permanent damage to him! Occasionally he has his usefulness. Plus if you seriously damage my muse I'll never get new ideas. Of course, then I could have a vacation... Sorry, Toddikins, you're on your own for this.

Carla- Well, I'm glad you're back. And I'll see what I can do. It might take some time though, considering the whole Rogue's in a coma thing. ^_^

UntouchableHeart- Thank you!

syrenwytch- Aww, the wonder of adjectives... um, adverbs?... Um, words. Actually, Cherry will have a large part in the next chapter. And I'm starting to feel bad for Pietro. It's hard to write angst when it's your two favorite characters.

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Rogue felt herself begin to hyperventilate at the realization. She had actually killed someone, with just a touch she had taken another person's life. Wearily, she sank to her knees, tears streaming down her face.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed there, but suddenly she felt something urging her to get up. Inexplicably she knew that she needed to go, that staying where she was would have disastrous consequences. Despite that, the girl couldn't force herself to find the energy to move. The guilt and hopelessness weighed her down, and she wanted nothing more that to stay where she was and cry.

'If you don't move, you'll never wake up.' A voice said. With a startled gasp, Rogue searched for the source of the voice, but found only nothingness.

"Whose there?!" She called, voice quivering slightly. She tried to recognize the voice, but for some strange reason, couldn't find anything to distinguish the words.

'That doesn't matter. You need to go now. Find you're way back.'

"Back where? Where am I?"

'You know where you are.'

Rogue had absorbed psychics before, and therefore had a pretty good guess. "In my mind?"

'Yes. And if you don't wake up soon, you never will. You must return!'

"Why should I?" Rogue asked shakily. "After what I did. What I am. No one will miss me if I don't wake up."

'You know that's not true.'

Suddenly Rogue heard another voice, "You can't give up. Because you and me, we're a team. And I'm not going to give up on you, so you're not going to give up on yourself."

"Pietro?" Rogue asked, eyes widening. "What? How?"

'How is not important. Just know that there are people waiting for you to wake up. You're running out of time. You need to go.'

"Fine." Rogue rose to her feet. "But where am I going?" There was no answer. "Oh, just great. My mind can't even give me directions."

With no particular destination, Rogue began to walk into the darkness, hoping that she was going in the right direction.

~*~*~*~

"Farther investigation into the Bayville Mall Incident has yet to reveal the identity of the people responsible for bringing about the recapture of Linda Davenport, a woman who was sentenced to life in a mental asylum after she brutally murdered five people. The police are baffled how the people, a group of three teenage girls, could have stopped the mad woman and then disappeared without a trace. Witnesses say that they saw Linda Davenport and one of the young women fall from the upper level and crash to the level below, a fall of over 50 feet."

With a sigh Kitty shut the TV off. Though almost a week had gone by since the incident, the news still had something about it on almost every day. It was a good thing that Professor Xavier was able to make everyone forget the use of their mutant powers, otherwise the sensationalism would have been even more overwhelming. It was just a shame that he didn't have the time to make them forget that the girls had been there at all. They were being called heroes, supposedly saving the lives of all the people in the mall.

Though Kitty was sure that was an exaggeration, she was kind of proud that they had been there to help everyone. Who would have guessed that the woman was a mass murderer who had escaped from the nut house? If they hadn't been there then a lot of people could have been hurt or even killed. But the glory was rather double edged, serving to remind them that Rogue was still lying in the hospital bed in a coma, possibly with a psychopath trapped in her brain. Not exactly a pleasant thought.

Thoughts of her roommate made her decide to go down to the medical ward to check on her and see if there had been any change. Kitty arrived at Rogue's room and stood outside gazing in. Rogue was still lying unmoving in the bed, hooked to all those machines that Kitty hated. They made Rogue seem so… frail. Not at all like the tough façade she normally showed. Time had caused some of the swelling to go down and her bruises had started to fade to a nasty greenish color, which were only highlighted by the casts incasing her arm and foot.

Kitty then turned her attention to the person at Rogue's side. Ever since he had first been to visit her, he had hardly left her side. He had to be forced to go to school, and the second it was over he was back at her side, holding onto her hand. There was a kind of hopeless tragic-ness about the whole situation that made it hard for Kitty to be in the same room with the two of them without crying.

As if sensing her standing there, Pietro looked up and saw Kitty. She almost gasped, not having become accustomed to the change that he had undergone. Gone was the carefree smirk that he had habitually wore, and his normally perfect hair was in a careless disarray that seemed to heighten the drawn look of his features.

Forcing back the lump in her throat, she made a suggestion. "Why don't you go get something to eat. I'll stay with Rogue." He looked like he was about to protest so she interrupted him, "It will only take a few minutes… Not even that since you're you. You're not going to do her any good if your in a hospital bed as well!" The threat of being separated from her (even if it was only another room) seemed to do the trick and with a brief nod, he quickly left the room.

Kitty took his chair by the bed, then leaned over to talk to her friend, praying that she would be able to hear. "I hope you get well soon, Rogue. I'm not sure how long Pietro can last like this."

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I know it's late but FF.net wouldn't let me upload yesterday. It actually was done though, so don't blame me. ^_^