Well, here you have the third chapter of my first Romy.  Things will be revealed...  But not completely!

Disclaimer:  Tainz owns nothing you recognise!

**********************************************************************  

            Rogue had never been one to wake up quickly.  She usually became aware of her surroundings a few seconds before she opened her eyes, and this morning was no exception.  She felt strong arms around her and her eyes snapped open.

            She saw a scruffy, familiar face on her pillow.  "Logan!" she exclaimed in shock.

            He snapped awake instantly, looking paranoidly around.  He visibly relaxed when he realised where he was.

            "What are you doin' here?" she asked, pulling away from him.

            "You cried yourself to sleep, after your fight with Kitty.  Didn't want to wake you up."

            Now standing over him, she turned her head slightly to one side, thinking.  "What're ya talkin' about?  Ah never cry.  And Ah must've already been asleep when Kitty got in from her date with Lance.  Ah don't even remember her comin' home."

            Logan was now sitting up.  "You threw all her stuff into the hall and attacked her.  Don't you remember anything?"

            Rogue shook her head.  "Ah think ya should go get the Professor to check your brain out.  Somethin's wrong."

            Logan looked at her in concern, sniffing the air.  He could smell fear.  She was scared of him, but he knew it wasn't his mind that was having a problem.  She honestly didn't seem to remember.

            "Why don't we go down together?  I bet Chuck's waiting for us."

            Watching him cautiously, Rogue nodded.  "Maybe that's the best idea."

            She followed him to Xavier's office and, sure enough, the Professor was waiting there.  He looked up tiredly from his desk and hung up the phone he was speaking on.

            "Moira, I have to go," he said.  "Good-bye."

            Logan tapped his toe impatiently and the second the phone was resting in its cradle, he verbally pounced on the Professor.  "Stripes here don't seem to remember anything from last night."

            Xavier nodded slightly.  "I expect so."

            Rogue relaxed a little, thinking that the Professor was saying that nothing had happened.  "So it's somethin' wrong with Logan, not me?"

            Xavier didn't respond to her question.  "Why don't you go get some breakfast?  I believe that Kurt is making waffles."

            Rogue hadn't expected the Professor to put her off like that, but knew that he was trying to get her to leave.  "All right.  Ah don't want to miss that."  She left, not quite sure what to make of the whole situation.

            Xavier turned to Logan.  "I didn't think that she would remember last night."

            "It was a pretty serious event, Chuck.  How could she forget?"

            For once in his life, Charles Xavier didn't know how to answer a question.  He'd been on the phone most of the night and he was exhausted.  Even if that hadn't been true, he simply didn't know how to put the truth into words.  He stared into space.

            "Chuck.  What the hell's wrong with her?"  Logan approached the desk.

            "She's in trouble."

            "I knew that.  What kind of trouble is she in?"

            "Her mind is degrading.  The human brain was never intended to house a multitude of psyches and sets of memories.  It puts undue stress on the primary mind."

            "You've been helping her with that.  She can shut them up better now."  Logan didn't understand why this was such a major concern at this point.  Rogue was having an easier time of locking the psyches away, as far as he could tell.

            "Just because they're silent doesn't mean that they aren't there.  They're still tearing her mind apart and destroying her."  Xavier rubbed his eyes.

            "You aren't saying...  No.  Not Rogue.  She's just a kid."

            The Professor looked up, confused for a second, then he caught the thought.  "No.  She isn't dying, at least, not in the true sense of the word."

            "Then she is dying."

            "Her mind is being destroyed.  Her body will remain intact, but she can't fight the fact that her brain is overloaded."

            "Then she'll survive?"

            "Yes.  She will survive, if by survive, you mean that her body will continue to breathe and move on its own.  Rogue, however, will be as dead as if we had buried her.  She will not exist as we know her.  All that will remain is a shell, torn between many opposing minds and attitudes.  She will be a danger to herself and others, especially us."

            "That isn't true.  She's a survivor.  She'll be fine."

            "Last night wasn't the first time something's happened like that, where she's done something and doesn't remember it."

            "When else has it happened?"

            "It's only been little things.  It started last spring.  I began getting phone calls from her teachers saying that she was handing in strange, incoherent assignments and that she was talking back in class.  She always denied it and when I scanned her mind she didn't remember it... but one of her psyches always did."

            "She's fighting it.  She won't let them win."

            "She doesn't know what's happening."

            "You haven't told her?" Logan bellowed.

            "Keep your voice down please, Logan.  No.  I haven't told her.  She's terrified that this might happen and telling her that it is happening would only accelerate things.  She wouldn't keep up the fight."

            "She'll figure it out on her own you lousy..."  Logan stopped and took a deep breath to calm himself down before he said or did something that he'd regret.  "What are you going to do about it?"

            "There isn't anything I can do, except try to keep her comfortable.  I was on the phone all night with Moira McTaggert."

            "Rahne's foster mother?"

            "Yes.  She's agreed to take Rogue's case on when it is no longer possible for her to remain here."

            "What?  There's no one better qualified to help a mutant than you."

            "Moira specialises in mutant research.  Even if she is unable to help Rogue, and I doubt she will be able to help, she has the facilities to keep more dangerous mutants.  The point is fast approaching where it won't be possible to keep Rogue in a setting such as this, where other children might be harmed."

            "You're giving up on her and sending her to Scotland?  I won't let you."

            "I'm not giving up.  I'm considering the safety of the others.  I f I do it, it will be because I don't have a choice.  She attacked Kitty last night.  She bruised the entire side of Kitty's face.  Kitty's eye is swollen shut.  You have trained Kitty in self-defence and Kitty's mutation makes her untouchable, yet Rogue managed to injure her.  When Rogue becomes uncontrollable, it might be a younger student, without much training.  What if it had been Jamie?  Or Amara?  Rogue will only become more and more dangerous."

            "I was considered uncontrollable and dangerous.  My mind was destroyed, once."

            "It isn't the same, Logan.  Your injuries were repairable.  You had something solid to fix.  Rogue won't have that."

            "Go to hell, Chuck.  She'll make it."  Logan started out the door.

            "Logan, she only has about six weeks."

            "Don't read her obituary yet."  Logan headed off to the showers.

***

            After leaving the office, Rogue had gone to the kitchen as suggested.  Kurt had indeed been there, making waffles.  He turned to her when she walked in and she saw his face go from happy to terrified and angry in half a second.

            "What's wrong?" Rogue asked.

            "You have to ask?  I thought she vas your friend.  How could you do that to her?"

            "To who, Kurt?  Ah haven't done anything."

            "Vhat is it about you that you have to destroy things?  You shoved Mystique off a cliff and now you attack Kitty.  Vhy can't you ever just...  I don't know...  Be happy.  Just leave things alone."  He glared furiously at her.

            Rogue shook her head.  "What are you talkin' about?  Ah never attacked anyone, let alone Kitty."

            Just then, the kitchen door swung open and Kitty walked in.  A huge purple bruise covered almost half of her face and her left eye was closed.

            "In here for one last meal before you go?" Kitty asked, her voice dripping poison.

            "What happened to you?"  Rogue moved towards Kitty and Kitty stepped back, almost backing right out the door.  "Did Lance hit you?  Because if he did, Ah'll kill him."

            "You are, like, so pathetic.  How can you pretend nothing happened?  You tried to kill me."  She turned around and left.

            Faced with all the evidence, Rogue couldn't deny that she must have done something to her roommate.  Shaking her head in disbelief, she backed out the other door to the kitchen.  As soon as she was out, she started running.  She ran out of the mansion and into the woods.  She ran as hard as she could, half hoping that she'd run into some kind of time warp and be able to go back to yesterday.  Finally, she came to a small creek, dried by the heat into little more than a trickle.

            She followed the creek for a few minutes, until she came to a seemingly impenetrable wall of bushes.  She dropped down to her hands and knees and crawled through a narrow path made by the creek when it flooded in the spring.  After a moment, she came to a small clearing and she was able to stand upright.  A still, clear pool stood in the centre of the clearing.

            She took her shoes off and dabbled her feet in the icy water.  This was her sanctuary.  Nothing could touch her here and she could try to figure things out.  She lay back in a small patch of sunlight and thought as hard as she could, but she couldn't remember anything.  A twig snapped and she sat up quietly.  Sometimes small animals came here to drink and she liked to watch them.  No animal came waddling out of the underbrush.

            "Is anyone there?" she called.  The woods seemed to have gone silent. 

            There was no answer, but suddenly there was a crash.  "Merde," a muffled voice exclaimed.

            "If you want ta take me back ta Magneto, you're gonna have to be a little quieter when ya sneak up on me to kidnap me," she said.  She pulled her shoes back on and stood up, ready for a fight.  She knew that she had better chances of fighting off would-be kidnappers in an open area instead of when she was crawling through her tunnel.  She could be ambushed in the tunnel.

            A few minutes later, an auburn head poked out of the underbrush.  Black and red eyes looked at her.  Wincing with pain, Remy smiled.  "Remy not here to kidnap you."

            "Y'know, for a thief, you make a lot of noise."  She glared at him.

            "Dere be a few differences between bein' silent in a museum or a house and bein' silent in the woods."  He grimaced.  "The woods bite back."

            "What?"

            "Remy step on the wrong stick and it come up and smash him...  It just smash him real good."

            She snorted and examined the slightly ill look on his face.  "Y'all got sacked by an inanimate object."

            "Maybe."  He looked sheepish.

            She shook her head as the rest of the Cajun appeared slowly from the underbrush.  "Ah should kill ya for followin' me here.  Ah hate ta be followed."

            "You not gonna kill Remy."

            Knowing he was right, she changed the subject.  "If you're not here to kidnap me, what're you here for?"

            "It a crime if Remy like to go find a quiet place to t'ink?"

            "Tink?  That'd better not be a short form for tinkle."

            "Tinkle?  Non.  Remy come to t'ink, not take a leak."

            "What the hell are ya tryin' ta say, swamp rat?"  For some reason, she felt it necessary to make fun of him.  She figured it was just a way for her to blow off steam.

            Remy's face took on a look of intense concentration.  "T'ink...Sink.  Non...  Th-th-ink. Think," he finally got out.

            She laughed.  "You've probably heard English all your life.  Why can't you even speak it right?"

            "Pourquoi tu ne parle pas français perfectemente?" he countered.  (A/N:For the French-impaired out there: "Why don't you speak French perfectly?")

            "Je parle français.  Ich spreche Deutsch.  Ah can probably speak better in more languages than you've ever heard, Ah just can't be bothered satisfyin' you."

            "Chere, you not need to do anything to satisfy Remy.  Just lookin' at you satisfy him."  He grinned and moved towards her.

            She became utterly serious.  "Get away from me, Cajun.  Y'aren't supposed to be here.  This is Institute property."

            He stopped walking, shaking his head.  "Chere, this be government property.  It part of some kind of nature preserve.  Anyone allowed here."

            "Don't call me Chere.  I ain't your dear and I ain't some ancient singer who's had so much plastic surgery she could pass for Barbie."

            "All right then.  What you want Remy to call you?"  Again, he moved towards her.

            "Ah may not be able to throw you out of these woods, but you're gonna stay away from me.  Ah'm stayin' on this side of the pond, you stay on that side."

            Remy nodded.  At least she wasn't trying to kill him.  "Fair enough, Petite."

            "It's Rogue.  You can call me that or you can not speak to me."

            "Rogue...  It a extraordinary name for a extraordinary fille."  Remy recalled the words of the sorceress.  He wished that the ring was ready, but the flower still hadn't opened up fully. 

            "What're you doin' here, anyway?  Ah highly doubt you came here to think.  Ah'm not even sure you're capable of thought."

            Remy ignored the last part of her statement.  "Remy saw you running and t'ink he come make sure you okay."  He shrugged.  "He not mean for you to know he here."

            Rogue glared at him.  "Well, Ah know you're here and Ah'd like to know you were gone."

            Remy sat down next to the pool of water, staring into its murky depths.  It seemed to hold thousands of secrets, just beyond where he could see them.  He glanced at Rogue, who had sat back down, clearly unwilling to be the first to leave.  Her eyes stared back at him, willing him to go.  They held the same mysterious quality.

            "You gonna go or not?" Rogue asked.  "Ah was here first, so Ah think you should leave."

            "Remy not goin' anywhere.  He like the view here."

            They sat like that for a couple of hours, in stalemate.  Occasionally, Rogue would throw an insult at him and he'd brush it off.  Every so often, he'd find a way to tell her she was beautiful and she'd dismiss it as a lie. 

            Finally, the sun was overhead, beating down straight into their little forest room.  The humidity, which had been steadily increasing with the heat all morning, became unbearable and a foggy haze hovered over their little pond.  Rogue's hair stuck to her forehead and neck.  Normally, in this position, she would have taken off her mesh overshirt and her pants and jumped into the water wearing only her underwear and tanktop, but she didn't dare, not with him around.

            She found herself semi-dozing in the heat and suddenly shook herself awake as Remy stood up.  Was he leaving at last?  She hoped so, because she wanted to go home and apologise to Kitty.  She also wanted to ask the Professor what was going on.

            To her utter amazement, he pulled off his shirt and dropped his pants, standing in only his boxers, which were dark red.  Grinning impishly, he waded into the little pool and sat down.  He dumped handful after handful of water over his head, then lay back in the cold water.  She watched the way the water glistened on his muscled chest. 

            "Ah always knew it was dangerous to absorb Kitty," Rogue muttered to herself.             Remy sat up.  "You want to join me, Rogue?"

            "Do Ah look impressed?" she responded.

            He knelt on the bottom of the pool and promptly fell onto his face.

            "Guess Ah shoulda told you there was a sinkhole in there, huh?"

Until next time,

Tainz