Sigh, well, here's the second installment to my little world of fantasy.  A little more background this time, I actually started writing this story three years ago for a High School Creative Writing class.  I revamped the first chapter, but this chapter is entirely new.  It's kind of hard to write since I've been off this train of thought for so long, but a different train will come along.

Quick word to my reviewer, c-marabini, thank you very much for the advice, I'm not used to this website yet and it might be a while before I get a handle on the formatting.  Oh, and in response to your profile, I hope 20 years old isn't too old to write fanfiction, otherwise, I'm in trouble.  ;o)

Anyways, here's the story…

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Disclaimer:  I own very little, and the X-Men are one of the many things I DO NOT own.  Don't sue, plus, it would not be worth your time *empties pockets* see, nothing.

This is a quick view at what's going on in Rogue's life on the same night as Chapter one.  I've upped the rating because of one bit of foul language I had to include to establish a character.

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The Other Side.

While our favorite thief was out admiring the stars, the person in his thoughts was not having such a tranquil moment.

"Ruf'n' crappy, stupid goddamn thing!"  The girl was storming around her room, fists clenched, emerald eyes flickering with rage, trying not to throw the frustrating piece of mechanical evilness half-way across the world. Half-way across the world?  Am I exaggerating?  No need to, the truth is much more interesting, yet somewhat sad.  The beautiful (yet very ticked off) partial red-head went by the name "Rogue" and was a student at Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Children.  A child she was not, being a full 24 years in age, but a student, yes.  Currently she was a student struggling quite a bit with a very important assignment.  She would not accept failure on her part, but she glared at the machine that was on her wrist, suspecting failure on its part. 

"'Ah never did like electronics," she growled, looking directly at the device, in a pseudo-threat.  The device just didn't flinch.  She sighed deeply, "okay Rogue," she said to herself, "You've got to concentrate.  You can do this; you've GOT to do this!"  She took another deep breath and screwed up her courage and strength before reaching down to her wrist and pressing a button on the mechanical bracelet.  A green light flickered to life and she sat back down in front of her television.

Rogue, like the man off thinking about her, was a mutant.  Her mutant powers, however, were a bit harder to control.  While Remy had learned to control the explosive detonators that were his hands within a few months of gaining his powers, Rogue was still struggling with hers, many years after that horrible day they came to the surface.  It was one of a thousand memories she tried to push away as much as possible, but it's hard to quite the voice inside your head when it's not your own.  Rogue grew up in a small Mississippi town, doing all the things any normal Southern Belle would.  She rode horses and played dolls as a young girl and tried out for the cheerleading squad in Junior High.  She had always been a natural beauty, and her childhood best-friend, Cody, fell for her as soon as his voice started cracking and his body started doing strange things.  Cody was raised to be a Southern Gentleman though, and while he had feelings for Rogue, it took him quite some time to get up the nerve to ask her out.  Rogue had agreed to go out with him, trying to not let out how much she liked him when accepting his offer.  Their first date was amazing, as first dates should be.  They were young, in puppy love, and the world (well, at least their small hometown) was theirs for the taking.  The happiness was not meant to last however, as, just when the date was ending; Rogue's world took a drastic dive.  Cody had walked her to her door and they had both stood there saying those nervous phrases, waiting for the other to make a move, when Cody bent forward and his lips met with Rogue's in her first kiss.  It was the most wonderful feeling for about three seconds, and then the tingly feeling of a first kiss morphed into pain.  Cody felt his energy, no, his life, draining out of him.  Rogue felt as if her mind was being entered, invaded.  She heard his voice in her head, scared and pleading, "What's going on?  Oh God, please stop!"  She heard his cries for help, and she tried to pull away, but something kept her from moving.  It wasn't until the boy collapsed on the ground, his consciousness gone, never to return, that the two broke contact.  But the voices in Rogue's head continued.  He was still there, still in her!  She ran inside to fetch her parents, scared and helpless.  When her father saw the boy on his porch and listened to Rogue's story, his eyes echoed the pain, fear, and shame in his heart.  He had heard about strange happenings in other places, when people suddenly took on super-human abilities.  Mutants they had called them.  He stared at his daughter, huddled in her mother's arms.

"Mama," he spoke to his wife, "let go of that muttie!"

Rogue stared at her father, fear-stricken.  Her mother backed away from the frightened girl, and Rogue looked back at her.  "Mama…" she pleaded.  The woman looked away, tears in her eyes, her head shaking.  "Mama?" Rogue questioned her mother, but her father replied.  "No, this fine woman is no mother of a mutant, no mother of a FREAK!"  "Daddy!" Rogue pleaded.  The man blared back at his child, his own flesh and blood.  "NO!  'AH am no father of a FREAK!  'Ah have no child!  You have disgraced this family, destroyed everythang 'Ah've worked for, you have no place in this house anymore!"  The man grabbed the scared child by her shoulder and threw her out the door before slamming it in her tear-filled face. 

From then on, Rogue had been on her own, until he found her, took her in, taught her how to control her powers to an extent; he adopted a lost soul.

Rogue shook her head, snapping back into reality and glanced down at the device on her wrist.  The green light was still on, though it had started to blink.  She smiled, she was getting better.

Over the years, Rogue had learned to control the voices in her head of the people she had touched, thus absorbing… absorbing what?  Their thoughts, their memories, sometimes their powers, their life-force it seemed.  She had also learned to control her "adopted" powers of super-strength and flight.  However, she still struggled on preventing the addition of another voice to the bunch.  Dr. Hank McCoy, a friend, colleague, and fellow mutant known as The Beast, had focused his super intelligence into assisting the girl that felt no human touch for years.  He had created a device that could sense when Rogue's powers were active and she practiced controlling them by concentrating and then touching the extra-sensitive surface.  She did this once a week at first, her sessions lasting about half an hour before exhaustion hit her.  Slowly, the sessions became longer, and then more frequent.  Finally, Beast presented Rogue with this high-tech bracelet, that she could turn on and then go about her business, with her sub-conscious working to control her powers.  It did not block her powers, it was simply an aid.  When her powers returned, the bracelet would beep at that annoying frequency all machines seem to have and the light that stayed a steady green when her powers were in full control would flash red violently.

Rogue couldn't find anything good on the small television set that glowed in front of her, so she settled for some new reality TV. show and she stared rather blankly on it until exhaustion forced her eyelids to fall and sleep swept over her.  Her left hand dropped to her side and the remote dropped to the floor as the bracelet continued to blink slowly.

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Well, that's it… for now!  I hope the spacing on this entry comes out better.  I also hope you enjoyed this segment; it was fun to write, though I think my little tangent about Rogue's past might have been a bit too long…  As always, please review!  Thank you, come again!

~YllisBellaDonna~