Cold Hearts
By Lady Trunks
Chapter 2

Rogue leaned back in her bed after she had dropped the bomb, taking in the others looks of astonishment. Not that she could blame them, Scott was always so controlled that the thought of him hurting another person was implausible. In fact, up until the day before she would have been one of the most vocal in denying any such accusations. Of course she had also had a crush on him, something that she would vehemently deny if questioned. But any feelings she might have had for him had changed, and the only thing that she now felt for her former leader was hatred.

She figured that they would doubt what she said but to her surprise they seemed to accept it. She waited for the questions she knew were to come. "Wait." Lance said. She waited for him to add more thinking he was speaking to her, but then she realized that he was actually talking to Pietro who looked like he was getting ready take off at his regular super speed. "I'm going with you." It didn't take a genius to know what was going on. The two felt that they had to protect her, and were planning to confront Scott themselves.

Their eyes locked in a silent battle for a second. After a few tense seconds Pietro nodded his head and remained in the room. "Don't kill him," Rogue informed them both firmly. Pietro just cocked an eyebrow at her, disagreeing with that. Lance on the other handed voiced the question for both of them, "Give me one reason why not."

Her eyes turned hard and her face became expressionless, "Because I'm going to." Seeing that look on her face caused the others to feel a bit of fear. Anger would have been expected, but they couldn't see any. In fact she seemed perfectly calm when she said it, which caused the words to be even more chilling. Anger or annoyance were expressions that they were accustomed to on her face, but this decided lack of any was just nerve-racking.

"Rogue, are you sure you're okay?" Todd asked her hesitantly, concern evident in his voice.

At his question her expression changed and she smiled at him reassuringly, "Of course, Frog boy. I'm fine."

Seeing that reassurance the others turned their attention back to the matter at hand. "Me, you, and Wanda will pay ol' Cyke a visit. Fred, you and Todd stay here with Rogue." Lance gave the orders, briefly forgetting that Pietro was now in charge. Pietro choose to ignore it this once and went to Wanda's room.

With a brief knock on the door, he impatiently waited for her to answer. Though she had been a lot more pleasant since Magneto had altered her memories (meaning no more attempts to kill him), he wasn't going to take any chances by barging into her room. But after a few seconds and still no answer he got impatient enough to open it a crack. "Wanda?" he called into the room, when there was still no answer he went ahead and pushed it open further. He saw her laying on the bed reading a book with headphones on.

"WANDA!!" He yelled, finally managing to get her attention. He got ready to dodge out the door if it became necessary, but she didn't look like she was going to kill him. She calmly shut her music off and laid her book down.

"Yeah?"

"Come on, we got ourselves a little mission." He briefly told her what had happened. Though she only knew Rogue from battles and the short time they had fought with the X-Men, she quickly agreed to help. He left her, informing her that they would be leaving in 20 minutes and went to change into his uniform.

They all met in the living room, with the exception of the bed ridden Rogue. "Kick his ass, yo." Todd told them. Freddy nodded in agreement and the three took off in Lance's Jeep.

"Okay," Lance said, "let's go over the plan. There's no way in hell that the X-geeks are just going to stand there while we beat the shit out of their leader. So, you guys distract them and I'll take care of Scott."

"Iagreewiththeplan,justnottheplayers. YouandWandawilldistractthemandI'lltakecareofScotty-boy." Pietro said. Lance looked like he was going to argue but Pietro cut him off before he had the chance, "Ithinkyou'reforgettingwhotheleaderishere. BesideI'mfaster, IcantakecareofScottbeforetheothershavetimetorealizewhat'sgoingonandyou'repowerwillprovidemoreofadistraction."

Lance nodded curtly, reluctantly agreeing with his 'leader'. They arrived at the institute and Lance parked on the street. It was easy enough to get through the gate, Wanda simply zapped it, and it disappeared. Unfortunatly, or maybe fortunately, an alarm went off and the X-Men assembled with Cyclops in the lead. None of the adults seemed to be present, which would make it easier than they had expected.

Avalanche sent a huge tremor at the assembled X-Men that caused them all to tumble to the ground. That was all the prompting Quicksilver needed and in a second he was at Cyclops, giving him an uppercut at 60 miles an hour. Anyone who had been able to see his face would have instantly noticed the resemblance between the boy and his father, Magneto. It wasn't very often that Pietro was mad but when he was it was a daunting sight. And he was obviously furious at that particular moment.

The impact of the punch caused Scott to fly back, taking Pietro with him. Seeing this, the other X-Men went to aid their leader but soon found Wanda's power causing them to do weird things, like phase halfway through the ground and get stuck there or port into the mansion's refrigerator. They quickly gave up going to their leader rescue and turned their attention to the other two attackers. It didn't take them long to figure out that they only got attacked when they tried to go to the aid of their leader, for whatever reason.

With little they could do, they finally stopped to watch the fight between the two leaders. It was obvious to anyone that Scott was losing. Pietro was attacking in a flurry of punches that didn't allow Scott a moment to react. "Can't you make him stop?" Kurt asked Lance from beside him.

The older boy just gave him a quick glance, "It's nothing that he doesn't deserve for what he did to Rogue."

Kurt stared at him, stunned and was about to ask him what he meant by that statement but before he had a chance the boy was moving towards the fighting two. Wanda took her cue from him and together they managed to pull Pietro off the bloody boy. Pietro was still in a fury and started to attack him again but Lance held him back, "Time to go, Speedy. You know what she said." Reminding him of Rogue's words not to kill him.

Reluctantly Pietro pulled back, but not without another punch to Scott's stomach that caused the boy to bend over in pain. They started to walk away when Scott's angry voice cut stopped them in their tracks. "The Bitch is not fucking worth it." Pietro spun around, ready to forget the promise to Rogue and go ahead and finish the asshole right then and there. Before he had a chance, Lance was lifting the boy off the ground and glaring at him.

"If you ever come anywhere near my family, you are fucking dead Summers. That includes Rogue you worthless piece of shit." He hissed the words at him and Scott swallowed nervously at seeing the pure rage on the other's face. At that he casually flung him to the ground and once more started walking with the others.

All the X-Men were silent until they disappeared from view, before Jean asked the question that all of them had. "What was that all about?" She asked going to Scott's side and offering him a hand up.

"Who the hell knows with them?" He snapped angrily brushing her hand aside. He slowly got to his feet by himself and walked into the mansion the others following behind him, keeping their questions to themselves.

However one person remained outside, a frown on his face. There was more going on here then Scott was letting on, and it involved Rogue. Obviously if he wanted his questions answered, he would have to take them elsewhere. Having decided that, and with a pretty good idea of where he could find the person, he disappeared in a flash of smoke.

~~~~~~

Well, another chapter done. If you didn't figure it out, the person at the end was Kurt, of course. I'm sorry about the vagueness of the fight scene, I don't do them well. I hope it wasn't to bad. Next chapter should have what happened between Rogue and Scott.

As for the vote, I haven't made a count yet but I think Pietro is in the lead. It's still close though so definitely vote. I've even had a few votes for Remy, but he isn't an option. Only Rola and Rietro. I should also add that this will probably have some Kurtty in it but NO Lacitty. She was to mean to him in Mainstream. Questions and comments are always appreciated (ah, who am I kidding I need them to survive.)