Here I am! Did ya miss me? No, you just missed my fic, dintcha? Ah, that's ok, so long as you pretend you love me when you all review! Sorry it took so long to get this out, there are many excuses, but the most pressing concern was, my computer screwed up and decided that this site didn't exist! Shock horror! I gave you a long chappie to make it up! Well this chapter is annoying at the moment, I didn't really know where to take it, so, um, sorry if it sucks!

Ishandahalf: YEEESSSS! Cookies and cream shall rule the world!

Skye5: Rogue is definitely my fave, Kurt too . Glad you like, and no I'm not British, I'm from New Zealand.

UnknownSource: Ah, my faithful chapterly reviewer! Magneto has his reasons for having his silly Acolytes kidnap those poor kids, but you'll have to wait and see what those reasons are! Happy to see you still find humour in this chapter, I'm trying to keep it up! I know, it's terrible with no Piotr, but, um, he was busy. As was Sabertooth if you noticed that too, but we don't care about him ;). By the way, I had Kitty slap Bobby round the head, just for you!

Kagii: I love Gambit! As I've said, Pyro is growing on me too!

Jaina: Thanks for the tip, I'll try and work on that!

Everyone: Yay! Love you all! Thankyou for all the reviews, it just warms the cockles of my heart! (Whatever cockles are; who invents these sayings anyway?)

Disclaimer: Have love, not ownership. Damn this unfair world.

Xavier had a very unpleasant feeling in the bottom of his stomach. It was like snakes had curled themselves around it, and were now all battling for full possession. And he had the perfect word for it too. Guilt. There was no mistaking it. It was terrible. Definitely not on his 'Favourite Emotions' list.

'This is all my fault. If I hadn't let my own feelings get in the way, I could easily have prevented it. They will want to know why. They will ask my reason for not telling them sooner. And I must give it to them. It is high time they knew the truth.'

The telepath wheeled out of his room, heading for the rec. room. A small riot was taking place as all of his students bombarded their stunned teammates with questions.

"So, like, they just took them? Just like that?"

"Why would Magneto's lackies want a couple of kids?"

"Did you talk to them?"

"What did they say?"

"What did the parents say?"

"Poor little kids, how old do you think they were?"

"The Acolytes didn't get ice cream, did they?"

"What powers did the kids have?"

"Are you two ok?"

The teenagers were too stunned to reply to any of these numerous questions. Kurt kept teleporting to different parts of the room, tail waving agitatedly. Rogue was simply staring into space, nodding absently to everyone that spoke to her without really hearing them.

Logan came in. He saw the crowd gathered around Rogue, as she was the one who was actually stationary, and shooed them all away. He leaned on the back of her chair, waiting for her to acknowledge his presence. Finally she turned her expressionless face towards him.

"Hey Stripes."

Silence.

"You dealin' ok?"

She continued to stare at him for about a minute before answering.

"I'm just mad. I wanna help those kids."

"We will Stripes. You can be sure about that."

She didn't smile, but her face relaxed. She nodded at him gratefully.

"Students."

The room rippled as all heads turned to look at the professor.

"I have a few things to tell you regarding the kidnapping that Rogue and Kurt witnessed tonight. First is that although Rogue and Kurt made many attempts at convincing the children's parents to accompany them to the institute, they are originated in Spain, and so do not speak a word of English. Thus we will have to find out information on the children ourselves, and it may take a few days to secure their location. Magneto prides himself on having an unplottable residence."

There were a few noises of protest at this. The feeling of concern, it seemed, was mutual.

"I understand that you are anxious to save the children, but bear in mind that we must never go into a likely battle unprepared. With Magneto, we most certainly should be on our guard. But I assure you that we will go to the children's aid as soon as possible. In any case, I am sure Magneto will not mistreat those whom he needs."

"How do you know he needs them professor?" Jean asked politely.

"Yeah, can you be sure he doesn't just want them for, you know, kicks or something?"

There was a smack as Kitty slapped Bobby around the head and glared fiercely at him. Rogue turned, seeing as Kitty had beaten her to it, and waited for the professor to continue, a satisfied look on her face.

The professor glanced at Logan briefly, then sighed heavily.

"I will explain, but first there is something else I must say. It may be hard for you to hear. It is hard for me to tell you. But in order to give you a full explanation of my actions, it is something you need to understand."

He glanced around at the expectant faces of the teens. He didn't want to tell them. He didn't want to show any kind of dent in his calm exterior that could cause their faith in him to waver.

'No. I am being ridiculous. I can trust these children. Some will soon be adults. I have almost raised them, though none were as young as I, or Erik. But it doesn't matter. I have raised them and taught them from the beginning of their mutant lives, and I know that no matter what I say, they will understand and accept it.'

"Professor?"

He looked up at Scott's concerned face. Confused, even. He didn't understand. But he would. They all would.

"I am sorry Scott. It's alright. As I said, this is difficult to say."

"Professor, you can tell us. We respect you. Who could understand better than we could?"

The professor allowed himself a small smile. His logical side had been proved right.

"As you wish."

"I knew of these children before Rogue and Kurt encountered them. I have detected them, or their mutant signature, many times through Cerebro. But until recently, the location has always been too vague for any action. Now, however, I can almost completely read into the girl's whereabouts, and I believe she will develop her powers very soon, perhaps even in the next few weeks. She is already showing signs of her mutation, unlike her brother, whose abilities, I believe, will not appear for at least another couple of years. But even this I have known for almost a month now. Yet I have not shared it with any of you. Why? Because I do not trust you? Of course not. My reason, or excuse as you may call it, is my past. My own experiences have clouded my judgement and caused the fate of these children. I have no doubt that we are able to save them, but I feel I must explain my choice to you. If you do not wish to hear it, that is fine, but you do have a right to know if that is want you want."

He paused. The room was filled with nodding heads as the students unanimously made their decision. He gave a resigned sigh.

"Very well then. When I was very young, only about 7 years old, my mutant abilities manifested. Though my parents were shocked, they found a great interest in the powers I possessed, and wanted to learn more, and help me grow stronger. They viewed my abilities as a gift, and something to be celebrated and cherished. Despite this belief, however, they kept my mutation secret, as they knew that many people would not accept my difference, but fear it. Mutants were very unheard of at this time. So, in secret, they learnt as much as they could about my new powers, helped me to try and gain control, and taught me anything they thought could someday aid me. By the age of 9, I had a reasonable grip on my telepathy and could prevent tuning in to others' thoughts unconsciously, like I had for the first one or two years. I hadn't mastered the actual use of it though. But that year, my father was killed. We didn't know how it happened, one night he just didn't come home. My mother was unable to devote hours on end to work with me and my telepathy anymore. The powers were momentarily forgotten.

"Then, one day, when I was helping my mother with the dinner, strange thoughts invaded my head, torrents of them that I couldn't stop. I collapsed to the ground in pain, clutching my head. My mother rushed to my side, and when I explained my condition, she immediately knew that after months of oppression, my powers were once more forcing themselves to the surface. After that, mother worked with me constantly, and soon I had complete control of my powers. I could probe anyone's mind from within a 10-mile radius without them knowing it. I had new faith in myself, and my mother was absolutely bursting with pride.

"But, unbeknownst to us, someone else knew of my ability. They had been watching my progress and knew exactly what my powers were, how I used them, and how far I could control them. They were terribly afraid, but also intensely curious. So men were sent to capture me. They took me away from my mother, and I believe she was put in prison for working with power such as mine behind the government's back. Or simply so she would be unable to find and rescue me. I was taken to a military prison, kept in isolation, and observed continuously through a video camera in my cell. Being a child, though, I was unaware of this, and frequently used my powers to try and contact my mother. After about a month, they became impatient with holding me there to no avail. They wanted to know more, they were extremely wary of me, yet at the same time fascinated. I was transferred to an experimentation lab. I was there for almost 4 years, undernourished, and treated like an animal. Many, many experiments were conducted on me. Some so cruel I came to believe they thought I had no feelings, that I was immune to the pain. They put me through intensive battle exercises, some even real battles, not to train me, but to see how much I could handle. While I was held there, I met another mutant, around the same age as myself. His name was Erik Lensherr. You now know him as Magneto.

"Erik and I were put through many of the same experiments, because our powers differed. Erik's parents had not been aware of his mutation, so his control was not as advanced as mine. But in the dark, quiet of our cells, at night when we had some peace, I taught him, I helped him to use his power, because someday I wanted to get out of there, and I knew he did too.

"In one battle, a real battle, we were put on the back row, with orders to protect their men. All I could do was convince the opponents not to use their weapons against us, but Erik was much more capable, with his acute control over metal. The first minutes of fighting had us doing pretty well; none of 'our' men were seriously injured. But then we were attacked from behind, and lost our concentration. A soldier got a bad cut to his waist, and one even lost the use of his arm. Somehow, Erik received the blame, and that night as I was kept awake by the sounds of his punishment, I knew we had to get out, and we had to get out now.

"Through my telepathy, I convinced my guard to unlock my cell door, and go and enjoy a bottle of Swiss wine. I crept towards Erik's screams and when I saw what they were doing, I became furious. My anger caused my ability to surge, and for the first time, I knocked the 2 guards unconscious with my emotionally charged power. I did the same with his torturers, and putting his weakened arm around my shoulders, I told him it was time to go home. I half-carried him down countless corridors, as he was far too weak to support his own weight. I think he even fell unconscious at one point. But I carried on, determination and anger giving me strength. By the time we had reached the first floor, however, I too was wearying, as Erik's weight, plus the draining effort to knock out anybody we passed was fast becoming too much for me. As we rounded a corner, I was suddenly faced with around 15 men. The alarm had obviously been raised, and I was not the only one who knew I couldn't handle them all. As I tried even the first few, I could feel my concentration slipping, and my head screaming in agony. I admit I was ready to give up, there were far too many of them and I couldn't handle it on my own. But then strips of metal tore themselves off the walls. They wrapped themselves around the men, and in two's and three's, threw them into a room. The door fused itself to the wall. I looked down and saw Erik's eyes were open and his hand was outstretched. He smiled weakly up at me and asked whether or not we were escaping. We went down the stairs, along the hall, through some doors and out of that place forever."

Xavier took a breath as his story came to a close. The silence echoed around the room. Mouths were hanging open and eyes were fixed unblinkingly on him. He racked his tired brain for some sort of satisfactory conclusion.

"They never came for us again," he told his shocked students. "We travelled for many months, then went our separate ways. There was never any public caution on mutants, we could only guess that the scientists and soldiers from the lab were too scared to bring us into light. And unless I'm very much mistaken, this is the first time our story has been told."

"Thus, I believe Magneto has come to the conclusion that mutants who manifest their abilities at a young age will become extremely powerful. This is why he has kidnapped the children. And the story I have told you is why I did not want them to be treated as mutants, before they had a chance to be human beings."

Once again, silence was his only response. Most of the teenagers looked stricken. Some looked angry. Some even had tears in their eyes. But each of their expressions was laced with sympathy. And suddenly the professor found he didn't want to hear their words. He knew that they would accept it, and maybe talk amongst themselves, or with him, when they were ready.

"Thankyou for listening so attentively. I must go to bed now, and so must you. Remember, some of you still have school tomorrow. I will see you all in the morning."

He began to wheel towards the exit, but a voice stopped him.

"Professor?"

"Yes Kurt?"

"Thanks."

The others nodded their agreement. Xavier bowed his head, and smiled.

"You are, as always, quite welcome."

Kitty woke with a start, and immediately sneezed into her pillow before realising she had phased through it. She gave a muffled groan and phased back atop her bed. She sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Hey Rogue, are you awake?"

An incoherent grumble answered her. She swung her bare legs to the side of her bed and faced the bundle of bedclothes that was her roommate.

"Well, you better hurry up, cos it's, like, 7:45."

There was another, louder grumble, and a sleep-disheveled Rogue emerged.

"Oh great. And I so feel like going to school today."

Kitty walked over to her dresser and began brushing her hair before replying.

"I reckon, and, like, after he told us all that awful stuff last night! What a total mind job!"

Rogue, marveling at how amazingly preppy her friend could be at times, grabbed her bathroom necessities and headed for the shower. She glanced at the clock on the far wall of the rather large 'smallest room' briefly before jumping into the hot water.

'Oh man, I'm hardly going to have enough time to blow-dry my hair this morning. What a great start.'

Feeling clean and marginally better after the shower, Rogue wrapped a towel around herself and headed back to her room. She picked out her attire for the day - sleeveless, off the shoulder, dark blue top, arm-length gloves and baggy-ish black jeans. She regarded her reflection critically, then reached for her hairdryer to perform the fastest blow-dry in history. Once satisfied with her two-toned hair, she whipped on her mask of makeup, and hurried along the hall to find Kitty.

"Hi Rogue."

The flustered girl turned to look at Scott.

"Hi Scott. Do ya know where Kitty is?"

"No, haven't seen her. You driving again?"

"Yep. Jean's still letting me take her SUV, though I wouldn't say exactly graciously."

Scott chuckled. "Nothing personal, well not to you anyway. She's worried you might have a sudden fit of madness and let Kitty drive."

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Yeah like I have some sort of death wish. God, where the hell is that stupid girl anyway? I'm in enough trouble as it is, and I have no idea how I'm meant to concentrate today."

"Yeah, are you sure you're gonna be ok?" Scott asked seriously. "Seeing them get kidnapped, then hearing all that stuff, it must have been pretty nerve-racking for you. Maybe you're stressed enough as it is."

Rogue studied him, her hand on her hip. He looked genuinely concerned.

'Since when has he started caring about my wellbeing?' she wondered.

"I'll be fine."

Suddenly Kitty barreled through the wall, panting, interrupting the odd little moment.

"There you are!" they cried in unison.

"You took your bloody time, didn't ya? We're gonna be late again, thanks very much!"

"Hey, I have been looking for you everywhere! Jean took her SUV out to talk to those kids' parents, cos she can, like, speak a little bit of Spanish! We have no way of getting to school!"

Rogue scowled. She should have known. This day was definitely going to be one for the book.

"Fantastic. Now what are we supposed to do? Ask Logan to borrow his bike?"

"Hey, I'll drive you if you want. It's not like I've got anything better to do."

Kitty squealed gratefully.

"Awesome, thanks Scott! Let's go, come on we're already, like, pushed for time here."

The three of them ran out to the garage. Rogue and Kitty jumped in the back seat as Scott started the engine. Kitty was bouncing on the spot. She turned to look at Rogue.

"So, which Acolytes were at the ice cream store?"

Rogue sighed irritably. She knew this was coming.

"Pietro, Pyro and that one with the cards."

"Aaw, so that big metal guy wasn't there," sighed Kitty, sounding all too disappointed.

"Probably off terrorising a kiddy fair or something," Rogue muttered grudgingly, but Kitty wasn't paying any attention.

"What is that?" she exclaimed suddenly, pointing at Rogue's throat, where the crystal necklace was now hanging, the black velvet looking amazing against her eerily pale skin. Rogue clutched it defensively.

"I just found it hanging in my locker the other day," she retorted. "Why let it go to waste?"

By now Scott had pulled up in the school's carpark, and was turning around to peer at the necklace too.

"Wow, Rogue, it's like, so pretty," Kitty breathed, having prised it from Rogue's grasp and was unintentionally pulling Rogue towards her as she tried to get a better look. "So, there was no card or anything?"

"No," Rogue half-lied shortly, not liking the attention. Scott was leaning over the back of his seat. "Listen, we have to get going."

"Oh, yeah!" Kitty let go of the necklace, and phased her way out the car door. "See you later Rogue, thanks for the ride Scott!"

She hurried off. Rogue pushed the door open, eager to get away too for once.

"Thanks," she told Scott. "We'll walk back if ya want."

"No, it's ok, I'll pick you guys up," he replied.

"Ok. Bye then."

"See ya."

He drove away, and Rogue walked into school.

Now that she was alone, and not in a flaming hurry, she could finally try to think about what the professor had said. It shocked her, really. She couldn't believe someone would treat kids like that.

She reached her classroom, opened the door, and was surprised to find it was nearly empty. Maybe they had been earlier than they'd thought. She found a seat at the back, and got out her books. Then she waited, her head swimming. So many mixed feelings were running through it, she didn't even know which one to concentrate on. She was angry at the Acolytes and Magneto, kidnapping unsuspecting kids because they would supposedly become super-powerful was taking it a step too far in her opinion. She also felt sympathy for the little kids, and their parents. They would all be so scared and confused. She was sad for Professor Xavier, and, she supposed, Magneto, because of what they had been put through. She sort of understood the professors decision, she knew why he would want to protect the kids from going through what he did, but at the same time she was immensely irritated at his failure to know that times had changed, that the X-men could've helped them, and now it was going to take ages to find them.

"Hey Rogue."

Rogue had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed someone else entering the room. The voice violently jolting her back to earth caused her to jump and whirl around. Lance looked slightly surprised.

"You sure were in a world of your own, weren't you?" he commented, putting his bag down and taking a seat next to her. She shifted in her own so that her body was turned towards him.

"You try having a night like mine, and see if you can concentrate," she retorted.

"Why, what trouble you get into this time?"

"Huh, as if you can talk about trouble! No, it was more others causing the trouble, and me being caught right in the disastrous middle."

At that moment, the teacher arrived. He put some heavy-looking books down on his desk. He waited as the last few students filed in, then got right into a lecture. Lance raised his eyebrows at him, then turned back to Rogue without changing his expression.

"Do tell."

By the time the period was over, Rogue had told Lance everything, excluding the professor's story. Although recently she and Lance had become almost friends, she knew that if it were her story, she wouldn't want it discussed by half of Bayville high. Especially not the brotherhood.

Lance had been as angry as she was. He demanded she tell him when they had found them. Rogue promised she would. Now she was sitting in biology, irritable, frustrated, and impatient. She just wanted to scream. Just when she seriously thought she was going to go crazy sitting there a moment longer, she heard a voice.

We've found them.
Nya! There ya go guys, it's finally starting to take shape! Again, I don't like this chapter, it was basically an interlude, to keep you going. Plus I wanted to show a little Lance-Rogue friendship. Anyway, if you actually did enjoy it, review! The more reviews I get, the faster chapter 5 will be out! Thanks for reading!