***DISCLAIMER—I own nothing.  I was such a fool in the seventies to sell all of my stock in the X-Men to Stan Lee.  "Damn Stan Lee!  Damn Stan Lee to Hell!  Damn anyone who doesn't damn Stan Lee to Hell!"  Oh, wait a minute.  I wasn't born until 1981.  Hmmm, ok, so forget the last part, and remember the first—I own nothing.  [Bonus shout-out to anyone who recognizes the quote]***

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THE TIES THAT BIND

Soon the summer days lulled into a sleepy autumn.  The leaves that had been reborn from the barren arms of winter had blossomed into the fullness of summer and were now abating in a harmony of reds and gold.

With these changes in the weather, the younger students, although feeling a temporary relief at the cessation of boredom that often plagues the young during the last few weeks of summer vacation, turned their thoughts to a new and looming fear:  school.

Kurt, Kitty, Pietro, Fred, and Lance all decided after much deliberation to finish out their senior years at Bayville High in an effort to prove that they deserved to be there as much as Duncan's cronies—although their numbers were quite less after the attack on Evan where several of them had been arrested—not for the attempted homicide of a mutant, but on charges of possession of alcohol by minors, and the "reckless endangerment" of several civilians on the site.

The youngest students:  Bobby, Jubilee, John, Alex, Ray, Roberto, Rhane, Todd (who had elected not to return to Bayville High—understandable after the amount of emotional  pain he had incurred in his years there), Sam, Amara, Wanda (who, for reasons she couldn't quite understand, could not remember ever attending school) and Jamie were spared the terror of a new year in public schools by the certification of Ororo as a licensed teacher in New York State, boosting the Institute to a total of three teachers, and accrediting it as a certified Private School according to the State of New York Educational Bylaws.

Jean, Scott, Nita, and Piotr had decided to continue their education as commuters to the Manhattan campus of the University of New York.  The four of them left first thing every morning to attend their classes.  Jean, of course, was studying Pre-Med courses, Piotr: Art, and Nita and Scott had both elected business as the course they wanted to follow.

This left only two students at the institute that were not attending any form of school—Rogue (who had completed her GED during Summer Classes) and Remy (who had no intent on resuming any type of formal education). The pair managed to keep their budding relationship a secret from the others at the institute—a difficult thing to do when living in such close quarters as 21 other nosy teenagers, and with chaperones such as Logan who noted Rogues scent on Remy a little too much for him to be comfortable with.  However, Rogue and Remy had devised a plan to explain the questions everyone would have with them spending too much time together—every day, while the others concentrated on their schoolwork, the pair made use of one of the mansions many sparring rooms to hone their abilities.

It was dark by the time that Wanda awoke.  She silently slipped out of her bed and into the hallway.  She had only taken a few steps when a sudden chill ran up her spine.  She slowly turned around and took note of the cold, institutional passageway where the warm halls of the mansion had once been.  Cautiously, she took a few steps back towards where her room was supposed to be, when a pair of rough hands grabbed her from behind.  Struggling, she cried out for help, but was half drug, half carried into a cold, cold room.  She was forced onto a gurney and strapped down…a  piece of leather forced between her teeth and two metal probes held her head steady.  She screamed in horror as the first bolt of electricity shot through her body, rendering her speechless, only the smallest of guttural cries escaped her mouth as the horror of her "treatments" began.  In the brightest bolt of lightening she had ever seen, she was able to make out the face of the doctor who had ordered the treatments—her father--

Rogue was awake before her eyes ever opened.  Her room had taken a sudden electrical charge, and she could feel the change against her skin.  She forced herself out of bed, and looked in shock at the state of her room…light bulbs were exploding, a chair suddenly broke into half, and Wanda's bed was levitating off the ground, and the girl upon it gasped and cried out in terror.  Rogue telepathically screamed for the Professor as she cautiously made her way towards her roommate's bed.  Very carefully, Rogue jumped onto the tilting bed, and climbed to lie beside Wanda, her attempts to wake the dreaming girl in vain.  Taking a deep breath, Rogue did the only thing she could:  she carefully placed both hands on either side of Wanda's head…

The coldness of the room immediately sucked Rogue in.  The pain of the electrical bolts seemed to tear her apart, and in the background, she could hear the laughter of those watching her.  A brief reprise in the treatment had her gasping for breath as she felt the tears streaming down her cheeks, then, just as suddenly the treatment resumed.  After several agonizing moments—minutes?—hours?—of the treatment, she was yanked from the table, arms bound around herself in the straight jacked and forced to walk—though her muscles were tired, and her legs threatened to buckle—back to her room—no, her cell.  There she was thrown into the darkness and all she could do was look up, and wait for the light—

Rogue slowly pried open her eyes, then just as quickly squeezed them closed to block out the intrusive light.  Taking a deep breath, she turned her head and slowly tried to open them again.  A chill ran through her body as she noticed the medical equipment beside the bed and as she struggled to sit up, she began to panic as she realized she was strapped down.  Struggling against the straps quickly proved to be useless, and seemed to cinch the binds tighter.

~Rogue, please calm down~

~Professor?  What's happening?  Why am Ah strapped down?  Please, Professor, don't let them get to me~

~Rogue, It's ok.  No one will hurt you here~

The Professor wheeled his chair into the room.  "Rogue, please relax.  Dr. McCoy is on his way to remove the binds.  Take a deep breath, everything is ok now."

"Why am Ah here?  What's going on?"

Xavier frowned as he surveyed Rogue.  "You don't remember?"

Rogue paused as she turned her thoughts onto the night before.  "Wanda.  She, she had a nightmare, Ah think.  She wouldn't wake up, so ah tried to get rid of some of the thoughts in her mind, purge them out, just enough to wake her up." She paused.  "She is ok, isn't she?"

Xavier gave a tight smile.  "She's fine.  We have her in the other room." He took a deep breath and looked towards Rogue.  "What you did tonight was very dangerous, Rogue.  I know you only had the best intentions in mind, but your actions could have harmed more than just Wanda.  By the time we arrived at your room, we had two girls at full hex power—it took a great deal of might from both Jean and I to finally calm the two of you down.  By that time both of you were unresponsive.  As we attempted to remove you from your room down to the medical bay, your hands would suddenly fly out and throw hex bolts at whoever was near you—Bobby is still defrosting down in the Sauna and Rhane is stuck in half wolf form.  We had to bind you down for the safety of everyone around."

At that cue, Dr. McCoy bustled into the room.  "Ah, I see you're awake.  Good."  He hurried to the side of the bed and undid each binding  "Does it hurt anywhere?  Any pain in your head?  Arms?  Legs?"

"No," Rogue whispered.  "Ahm fine."

"Glad to hear it, Stripes" Logan replied from the doorway.  "Charles, I hate to cut this meeting short, but we got company coming.  It's Magneto.  And he ain't alone."

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OK, so end another chapter.  Sorry it was so late getting it up, but I hit a major case of brain freeze (or writer's block as some of you fancy-pantsies call it)  Anyways, I took the time to outline some of the major storylines I want to start up. 

Replies to Reviews:

Eternity's Voice—thank you so much for all the incredible ideas.  I love your story, it's always great to find a story which has such deep characterizations, and I am so honored that you like my story.  I am currently looking for a muse, and I would love it if I could run some story ideas by you sometime…if you wouldn't mind, just email me and let me know.

Nie Starwhistler, Llady Red—thanks for not flaming about the tweaking of Remy's past.  LOL, its so hard to try to incorporate the 30 years of Marvel history into a story—but I try to research any characters I want to add so I can hopefully strike upon something true to the character—unlike some stories I read where the characters do not even resemble who they are supposed to be.