Title: What's with the X?
Summary: AU. What would have happened if Lance and Todd had recruited Rogue and she never left the Brotherhood?
A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Okay, the couples will be Romy and Tonda. I would pair up Lance and Kitty, but she gets on my nerves. Oh...and for future reference, what are your opinions about Tabitha?
---Chapter Three: Dark Relations
"This so isn't fair," Rogue muttered, slouching back in her bus seat. "Why is Mystique makin' us do this?"
"Does it honestly matter? What Boss Lady says, goes!" Todd shook his head. "But you're right, yo. This is pretty pointless."
Lance leaned over the seat they were sitting in and wordlessly pointed to the people boarding the bus. Rogue scowled when Jean and Scott walked passed them and took their seats. Kurt, Kitty, and Evan followed. Lance tried to talk to her but she completely ignored him and sat as far away as possible.
"Oh, great," Pietro muttered. "Not only did she condemn us to a morning of hell, now we're stuck with the X-Geeks!"
Rogue leaned up against the window and sighed heavily. This was not going to be a good day. Kitty and Kurt were tolerable, but Jean and Scott? Oh, this was not fair...
"Whatcha thinkin' about, Roguey?" Pietro asked, playing with her hair. He was careful not to touch her skin.
Rolling her eyes, the girl swatted him away. "About how much of a nightmare this is gonna be."
"Hey, you being stuck with us is no where near as bad us being stuck with you!" Jean said from the back.
Todd sat up and looked over at her. "Were we talking to you, yo? I don't think so."
She snorted and went back to talking with Scott.
"Ah hate mah life sometimes," Rogue muttered.
---
As the Brotherhood hiked towards the mountain all Rogue could think about was how to get back at Mystique. Pietro was thinking the same thing. In fact, he gave up going fast for once so he could slow down to stay next to Rogue and plot revenge. Rogue suggested enlisting Fred's help to get her car onto the Bayville High roof. Pietro just said they should burn down the school.
"How does that help us get back at Mystique?" Rogue asked.
"...It doesn't. But at least we wouldn't have any school for awhile."
She slid her gloved hands into the front pocket of her sweater and walked faster so Pietro wouldn't have to walk so slow. She shook her head to clear her white stripes from her face and glanced around. No sign of the X-Men.
And no sign of Todd.
"Hey, where did Toad go?"
Lance stopped walking and saw that Rogue was right. He wasn't anywhere to be found.
"HEY!" he called. "TOAD! Where are you?"
"Over here, yo! Check this out!"
The Brotherhood ran over to him and found him leaning against a KEEP OUT sign.
"What's this?" Fred asked.
"A short cut," Todd said, grinning. "See, I figure we just sneak through here and..."
Rogue raised an eyebrow and leaned over him to look inside. "Ah dunno, Toad. This really doesn't seem like a good idea."
"Oh, come on, yo! What could go wrong?"
---
"What could go wrong?" Rogue mocked, collapsing onto the couch. "Ah'll tell ya what could go wrong! That tunnel nearly crushed us! And then we have to team up with X-Men to take down some yahoo! That's what could go wrong!"
"Hey, us having to fight Mr. Unstoppable was not my fault, yo," Todd said, sitting next to her. "Besides, we survived, didn't we?"
"I think I broke a nail," Pietro complained.
Lance cracked his neck and leaned against the wall. He glanced at the clock built into the VCR and saw that it was nearly nine-thirty. He glanced at his fellow mutants, all of them still clad in their uniforms. Pietro had helped Rogue make hers. It was a purple body suit with knee-high black boots and baggy black gloves. She also wore a shinny black breastplate. He couldn't help but think she looked attractive. After all, she was the only girl in the boarding house and it didn't help she was just good looking. He had liked Kitty, but now he wasn't sure. She sure didn't seem happy to see him earlier. He wanted to blame it on the X-Men and it very well could've been their fault she was suddenly giving him the cold shoulder, but part of him knew that he had gone overboard when he nearly killed her parents.
"Lance, you there man?" Todd lightly knocked a fist against his head.
"Don't do that!" Lance jumped slightly and pulled away. "What?" he realized everyone was staring at him.
"You got that look in your eyes," Fred said.
"Look?"
"Think about a certain kitty?" Pietro asked smirking.
"So what if I am?"
"You're both pathetic," Rogue mumbled.
Lance felt heat rise into his cheeks. He knew he was blushing. He quickly looked away and said, "Come on. We should hit the sack. We have school tomorrow, remember?" Then he ran upstairs.
Rogue shrugged and followed him, her boots making a dull thud noise against the staircase. She trekked down the hallway to her room, which was the closest to Mystique's. Beside her was Lance's room, then Fred's, Todd's, Pietro's, and a vacant room at the end of the hallway. She tiredly pulled her door open wide and walked inside.
Her walls were painted a dark lavender colour and her carpet was dark green. She had a window over looking the backyard, draped in black velvet. Her bed was in the corner of her room, covered in black sheets and dark green comforter. Beside her bed and under the window was a desk. There were two pictures sitting on it, one of Irene holding her gloved hand and another of Todd and herself asleep on the couch. The desk was a mess of graded homework assignments she never threw away, a few books, a coupe pencils, and a sketchbook filled with random dark drawings. Her closet was on the opposite wall of her bed and hanging from the door was a Korn poster.
For some odd reason Mystique had personally bought Rogue whatever she needed. In fact, most of the books littering her floor and desk were from the shape shifter. The guitar sitting in the corner of the room was given to her by Irene.
"Home sweet home," she sighed, pulling out her green and orange pajamas. She changed and crawled into bed.
A woman ran as fast as she could, hugging the bundle in her arms closer to her chest. Her eyes were wide in heard and she knew she was being followed, but she dared not look over her shoulder. A gasp escaped her lips when a wolf lunged at her out of no where. She collapsed to the ground, and the bundle fell from her hands...
"AAAAHHH!" Rogue's scream ran throughout the boarding house and the other residents ran into her room, shocked, alarmed, and a bit annoyed that she had woken them up.
"Was' a' matter?" Todd asked sleepily.
Rogue's head fell into her hands and she struggled to catch her breath and slow her rapidly pounding heart. Taking in shaky breath she looked up at the other members of the Brotherhood.
"It...it was so real," she whispered.
Lance frowned. "You just had a nightmare."
"NO! It's wasn't! I know it wasn't!" she protested.
Pietro leaned against her doorway. "Maybe you just have someone's left over memories."
"...maybe," she sighed.
Todd hoped over to her and gently rubbed her back.
"You gonna be okay, yo?"
"Yeah..." Rogue silenced and then her eyes widened. "Oh mah..."
"What?" Fred asked.
"It...it was Mystique!" she gasped.
"Huh?!"
"In mah dream! It was someone running away and they dropped a baby off a bridge and..." she stopped when she saw Pietro staring at him. "Y'all think Ah'm losin' it, don' 'cha?"
"No...what else did you see?"
"The strange thing was the baby looked a lot like Kurt. Which is weird because why would Mystique...Pietro?"
"Where'd he run off to?" Lance looked down the hall and found that Pietro was long gone.
---
"Mystique is Kurt's mother?" Rogue asked in surprise.
Pietro nodded.
"So...Why can't we let him know that?"
"We just can't." Pietro whispered. "Magneto doesn't want him to know."
Rogue sat down on the steps next to him and took a small swig of her soda. "Ah never saw that one comin'. But...there is a resemblance, isn't there? Can't believe Ah never thought of it."
"She obviously doesn't like talking about," Pietro answered, snatching a stick of celery out of Rogue's paper lunch bag and nibbling on it. "I don't know if she ever intended to tell him or not. Xavier talked to her about it today."
"How d'you know?"
"Toad makes a fairly decent spy, did you know that?"
She snorted. "For havin' the most powerful mind on Earth Xavier sure let's a lot of stuff go under his nose...Why'd he suddenly start talkin' to her about it anyways?"
Pietro frowned as he looked her in the eye.
"When you had that nightmare it was so strong Xavier picked up on it."
"Oh. Sorry?"
"It's not your fault...I think now it's obvious that memory belonged to Mystique."
"Guess so, huh?" she noticed that Pietro had already finished the celery and was munching on another piece. "Pack your own lunch, yahoo!"
Pietro seemed a bit startled, as if he hadn't even realized what he had been doing. He smirked and vanished a second, returning with a can of soda. Rogue eyed the can cautiously and scooted over a bit. She did not want to be near Pietro if he was on a sugar high.
"What are we gonna do about this then? She's gonna tell him sooner of later."
"We just have to make sure that doesn't happen." Pietro finished his soda in one gulp and began to head back into the school. "Come on or we'll be late for out next period!"
Rogue frowned and slowly stood up.
"It ain't right," she muttered. "He has a right to know the truth."
Sighing, she ran after Pietro.
---
A/N: And there is chapter three. Hoped ya liked it. Chapter four will have an aftermath of Shadowed Past with a little bit of Rogue/Kurt bonding. I need some advice on how to write up The Cauldron. The fights are still going to be Shadowcat vs. Blob, Nightcrawler vs. Lance, Spyke vs. Quicksilver, and then that scene with Toad vs. Jean. What should I do about Rogue? I'm thinkin' Rogue can tag along with him and then beat Jean after he loses. What do you think?