Cold Hearts
By Lady Trunks
Chapter 3

Note: I think I'm going to have to be changing the title of this, because I found out that there is a Rola by Lotus Pen (a great author, very angst-y, a must read for Rola fans) by that name. So, any suggestions? I'll probably have to change the summary too because I got an idea (you'll know it when you see it) that wasn't originally intended. So… Read. And Review. Todd tells me I'm a review whore. I vehemently deny it.

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Todd stood at the door after Lance, Pietro, and Wanda left a thoughtful expression on his face. "Things are going to really change around here now." He told Fred in a detached manner.

The other boy nodded and responded, "Not necessarily a bad thing."

"Yeah. I just hope we live to enjoy it." He said contemplatively. "I'm going to go check on Rogue."

Freddy nodded in response and the younger boy hopped up the stairs. He arrived at the door to Lance's room and knocked softly. There was no answering and figuring that she was probably asleep he pushed open the door. Entering the room he saw her lying on the bed and figured that he had been right and she was asleep. Then he noticed that her eyes were in fact open and glazed over. Fearing that she might be having a seizure or something he rushed to her side.

He was reaching to shake her, when he saw something amazing happen. Right before his eyes the bruises on her face and the swelling disappeared. Also the split on her lip closed and then disappeared, leaving no trace that she had ever been injured. He yanked his hand back in shock, staring down at her face as if he didn't believe what he was seeing. Suddenly she blinked and the looked at him, "Hey Todd." She said but it came out weakly as if she was tired.

"What just happened?" He asked incredulously.

"An experiment." She said weakly. "I need to sleep now." With those words she closed her eyes and immediately fell asleep.

Todd remained at her bedside staring in wonder at her. He wasn't sure how long he remained there but a knock on the door broke his spell and he hurried downstairs to see whom it was. Hopping down the stairs he saw that Fred was answering it.

"Is Rogue here?" He heard a German voice ask that he immediately recognized.

"What are you doing here?" Todd asked hostility obvious. Though he had made a truce of sorts with Kurt after the boy had helped him save Wanda, the situation with Rogue changed all that. Though she had yet to tell them exactly what happened he did know that she had been hurt while living with the X-Geeks and they (including Fuzz-ball) had failed to protect her.

"I'm here to talk to Rogue." Kurt told the other boy trying to refrain from yelling at Toad. What right did he have to keep him from his sister? Any argument that the two would have was cut off at the arrival of the other three members of the Brotherhood's arrival.

They hopped out of the jeep, victorious expressions on their face that quickly changed to frowns of annoyance at the sight of Kurt. "Whatdoyouthinkyou'redoinghere?" Pietro demanded of the boy.

"I'm here to talk to Rogue," Kurt said firmly, concealing his fear despite the fact that just a few minutes ago he had seen these three make short work of his whole team.

"To bad, she's sleeping right now. Send her a card." Todd said, shutting the door in Kurt's face.

Todd turned around and leaned against the door as if expecting the X-Man to try and force his way in. He was quickly reminded of the problem with this plan as a second later a familiar bamf sound was heard heralding the arrival of the blue elf.

"If you don't mind I'll wait for her here." Kurt informed taking a seat on the couch.

"Why you…" Todd sputtered, ready to slime him for his insolence.

"Chill Todd. Let the fuzz ball talk to her." Lance said.

"Whatever." Todd grumbled but calmed down a little, but still said sarcastically, "Make yourself at home. Can I get you anything? A flea collar perhaps?"

Kurt completely disregarded the sarcasm of the question. "Hmm, maybe some chips if you have some. And a soda would be nice. All that porting makes a guy hungry."

Todd looked about ready to explode at his impudence, but Freddy left the room and went into the kitchen to fetch the desired items, and returned a few seconds later with a can of Dr. Pepper and a bag of Fritos. Since they had to wait for Rogue to wake up before they could get any answers, Lance switched on the TV to a basketball game. Soon everyone, with the exception of Wanda (who went to her room in disgust) and Pietro, were caught up in the game.

Pietro silently slipped away and made his way up the stairs to check on Rogue. He eased the door open and entered her room to stand beside her bedside… And stopped short at the sight of her. Her face, which had been badly bruised less than an hour before, was now completely healed. His first thought was to wake her up and ask what was going on, but decided against it when he saw how peaceful she looked lying there. He reached out his hand and carefully brushed her hair away from her face, admiring how it looked without the normal makeup. There would be plenty of time for answers later, when she was rested. With that decided he left the room and headed back downstairs to join the others.

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Rogue awoke feeling physically refreshed if not emotionally. Deciding that it would best to face the masses she got up and made her way towards the living room where she assumed everyone was gathered. When she arrived she discovered that her assumption had been correct, and there was actually one more person than she had been expecting.

When they noticed that she was awake, everyone turned their attention to her and Kurt rose to his feet to make his way to her side. As he got near her she did the last thing everyone was expecting. She burst into tears and threw herself into his arms. The others gazed in shock at the site of her in the arms of the elf, but the two were completely oblivious to everything but each other as they carried on a broken conversation in German. After several minutes of this, they finally turned their attention back to the others after Rogue had composed herself.

"I guess you're probably wanting to hear what happened." It wasn't exactly a question, but the others nodded anyway. Well, you see, it's like this." She began. Before she could continue to explain however, the door was thrown open.

At the unexpectedness of this they all immediately jumped to their feet and stood protectively in front of Rogue, which caused the girl to roll her eyes. The darkness prevented them from instantly seeing who it was that had the audacity to enter their home without permission. Soon the question was answered as none other than Magneto entered, followed by all of his Acolytes with the exception of Sabertooth.

Seeing who it was, the BoM members and X-Man stepped back slightly.

"Father,Icanexplaineverything. Well,atleastIcanexplaineverythingassoonaseverythingisexplainedtomethatis…" Pietro immediately stated, not wanting to invoke the wrath of an angry Magneto. His explanation was cut short as the leader held up his hand to silence him.

"Explain your status." He demanded.

"Well, youseewhathappenedisthat…" Pietro was stopped as once again his father's voice cut him off.

"Not you." He said. Pietro was stumped as to who he could be questioning when a voice came from behind him that only generated even more confusion.

"My cover was blown, due to unforeseen complications with my mutation. It allowed Xavier to get past my mental block, and discover the reason I was there."

At these words everyone spun around a stared at the speaker in utter confusion.

"Rogue, you work for Magneto?" Lance asked her, eyes wide. The others reflected the look.

"Surprise?"

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Bwahahaha! I know it was short but that was simply too great of a cliffhanger to overlook. So, tell me were you surprised?? I was. Still taking votes for Rietro or Rola, the last time I counted it was pretty even. There was a smidge of Rietro there… Not too much yet. I'll try to put some Rola in the next chapter, which hopefully won't take that long to get out.