Still Holding Out For You
By Lady Trunks
Part 26

This may surprise you all, but I am NOT a psychic (technically, but sometimes I do wonder… ^^ I know what you're thinking!), so I have no idea how this would actually go. Just go with the flow…

mori- If it helps, think of it as a dramatic pause... That lasts a day. ^^ I hope this was soon enough for you.

Lucky439- The bunnies are scary though. What if they hurt me? ^^ It confuses me to. Actually the whole mind thing does. Which is why thesse chapters are so... weird? I think that fits. And I no the feeling. I have a little sister that I love, but sometimes I really just want to strangle her... ^_^

X-DarkHorizon-X - You might become a country fan after all. And I haven't even gotten started on The Dixie Chicks. ^^ And I wasn't meaning for it to be Anti-Xavier but I think I may have made it seem that Pietro doesn't like him to much, which I kind of did on purpose. Besides sometimes Anti-Xavier is good. ^_^ And 16 is young. Ah, the good old days. But 20 *is* old!

HoneyBug16- It was my intention to have them talk... It really was. But then I realized that I don't have a 'plan'. So... Tomorrow for sure... I hope.

Ellen- So, were you planning to just kill him off or have him be in Rogue's head? Because the possibility for humor in that situation is huge. ^_^ I can just see her walking around having an argument with him in her head and everyone looking at her like she's crazy, expecially if she doesn't tell anyone that he's still in her mind. And then she starts to refer to herself as 'we' instead of I. ^_^ And yes, the brotherhood definitly know, though I'm not sure exactly when they find out or if they knew from the begining. I would say probably by A Shadowed Past, because they follow his orders (from Magneto) instead of Mystique's.

DragonBlond- So now I'm not a liar! Make up my mind!! ^_~ So you're only 15 now? Now I definitly feel old. Just please don't let me start acting all maternal!! *shudders* As for the fic, I'll go look it up now. And what can I say but YES!! Come on over to the dark side! You know you want to... If it makes you feel better, you can pair her with both Remy and Pietro. It's something I'm working on... but it gets kind of complex. Have you ever noticed the sililarities between the two? And I honestly, (I SWEAR THIS) meant to have them reunite this chapter. But I couldn't think of a plan. But tomorrow. I'm almost sure.

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"Okay Pietro, I need you to relax." Professor Xavier spoke soothingly to the boy who was sprawled across a bed next to Rogue's in the medical ward. Pietro tried to do as he was told, closing his eyes and evening out his breathing, but it was rather difficult to relax with the monitoring machines they had hooked to him to keep track of his vitals just in case. "Okay, I'm going to psychically link your mind to Rogue's, and guide you in. Once your past her mind shields you'll be on your own, but I'll continue monitoring your mind. If something goes wrong, I'll immediately close the link."

Pietro nodded and waited for the link, not quite sure what to expect. A second later he felt as if his mind was being guided. The sensation was surprisingly similar when you are dreaming but are only half asleep: almost like your awake, but with a slightly more surreal quality to it. A few seconds later he was standing at something that looked to be a brick wall. It took him a couple confused seconds to realize that this must be the shield that the professor had been talking about, only Rogue's mind was controlling how it appeared.

He searched for a way to get past it, but there was no opening as far as the eye could see. He glanced up, considering taking a different approach, but the wall seemed to go straight up as well. It was all just brick upon brick upon brick. 'Well,' Pietro thought to himself. 'that's just great! I have to coerce the Professor into helping me into her mind, then realize that I have no clue how to get through her shield.' He sighed in frustration. He leaned his back against the wall to relax why he tried to come up with an incredibly brilliant plan (or at least one that wasn't completely stupid)… and promptly fell right through it landing in a heap on the ground.

He immediately jumped to his feet and reflexively glanced around to make sure no one had witnessed his less than graceful entrance, momentarily forgetting where he was. The information was recalled to mind as soon as he took in his surroundings. And what he found was not a reassuring site. Now, he wasn't a telepath (which was really to bad because the things he could do with those powers…), but he was pretty sure that it wasn't natural for a mind to be so… empty. Not a normal mind at least.

But there was time to dwell on that later. Right now he needed to find Rogue. So, where do you look in someone's mind to find said person. They never taught this kind of thing in school. Well, there was always the Quicksilver method. With that thought in mind he began quickly searching by going over the space before him (thankfully he still had the use of his mutant speed since his mind was also super fast due to his mutation.[1]).

His search took longer than he had anticipated, due to the very complexity of Rogue's mind. He had just about given up ever finding her, when he noticed something odd coming from his left. He rushed towards that direction, hoping that he had finally found who he was searching for.

The nearer he came to his destination, the more apprehensive he got causing his pace to marginally slow. Maybe he should have taken the time to come up with a plan. Of course, when did he ever stop to think his decisions out? And why mess with a system that had always worked in the path. With that decided he began to speed up once more.

Within minutes he arrived at his objective, and stopped in shock. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but it wasn't for Rogue to be locked in some kind of mortal combat with a person in her head. Though normally he might get some kind of pleasure watching two girls fight it out, now was not one of those times. He could tell that Rogue was tired, her punches were slower than they would normally be and didn't quite have there normal strength.

'What-to-do? What-to-do? What-to-do? ' His head repeated over and over like a mantra.

He had to be careful, otherwise he might through off Rogue's concentration. But he couldn't just sit back and do nothing. A plan began to take shape in his mind.

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1. Little FYI, His mind is actually 5 times faster than a normal human. No wonder he always has a comeback.