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: Okay, I have an idea. Since I really dislike Scott and refuse to let Rogue have a crush on that moron, she'll have a little crush on Pietro instead! I mean...It's so much easier to be jealous of Pietro since more than one girl hangs off his arm at a time. Anyway, you'll have to excuse any inaccuracy in the begging of this chapter. I didn't see the beginning of the Cauldron Part 1 because I was spending the night at friend's house and didn't get back until after Jean kicked poor Toadie's little butt. Thanks so much for the reviews.
---Chapter Five: To the Victor
Rogue honestly wasn't surprised when Jean easily defeated Todd. The poor fellow was no match for her. That was the very reason that she had followed him. She was not about to let Jean of all people join Magneto's team. She just couldn't let that happen...and she wasn't going to. Jean seemed slightly smug about her victory and as she turned to walk away, the goth girl sprung from her hiding place and delivered a swift and powerful kick to the side of Jean's ribs. The redhead barely had anytime to recover before a hand collided with her face and threw her into a tree. She groaned and rubbed her nose, checking to see if it was broken.
"Rogue! What are you doing?!" she demanded. "First Toad and now you? What's going on?"
The other girl said nothing and launched herself at Jean once again. The physic was ready for her this time and held her back with telekinesis. She narrowed her eyes and approached her.
"What did I do to deserve this?" Jean asked.
"Oh, you've done a lot of things, actually. Like takin' down mah friend there," Rogue said, gesturing with her head to the well Todd had fallen into. She smirked a bit. "Besides...Ah really jus' don't like you."
Jean flung the girl away with her telekinesis and tried to leave. She stopped in her tracks when she heard the faint whistling sound of the air being sliced and she turned to see Rogue about to punch her again. Forgetting that hooded sweatshirt Rogue was wearing had fairly short sleeves, she reached out and grabbed her wrist to stop the blow. Both girls let out a cry of surprise and Rogue jerked away. She did not want that girl's thoughts in her head! However...she had held on long enough to get a good dose of the girl's powers.
"Uuhh," Jean groaned, holding her head. She winced and tried to stop the dizziness that swept over her, but she recovered too late. Rogue lifted up her hands and floated into the air. She pulled Jean along with her and began swinging her around with ease. While she did this, she couldn't help but wonder...Why could she control Scott's powers when he couldn't? And why did she have such good control of Jean's abilities when the redhead had trouble levitating a book?
"Guess the institute ain't all it's cracked up to be," Rogue muttered.
She shrugged and with a powerful wave of telekinesis, drove Jean into the ground. So she wasn't six feet under...Killing Jean hadn't been her intentions no matter how tempting the idea was. She won. That was all that mattered.
A metal orb floated down to her and she gave a small smile as she flew over to it. To go the victor go the spoils, as they say...
---
So what if the X-Men had once again foiled Magneto's plans? So what is Mystique was missing and Magneto thought all of them were failures? Who cared! Rogue got an excuse to kick Jean's butt. The only thing she regretted about it was not getting a copy of the incident on film. At least that way they'd have something to watch on TV. After the Brotherhood had changed back into their casual clothes they all sat down around the living room, all of them exhausted. Pietro had been knocked out when Evan managed to sneak up on him and he now was holding an icepack to the back of his head. Rogue found his reaction to being carried off Asteroid M by Evan quite amusing.
"I really hate the X-Men, you," Todd muttered.
"Join the club," Fred sighed. "Hey...I've got a question. If you lost to Jean then who beat her?"
Rogue raised an eyebrow at them and they stared at her in awe.
"No way!" Todd exclaimed. "You didn't! Details, yo, details!"
"Yeah, Rogue!" Pietro tossed the icepack over his shoulder. "Give us the play-by-play!"
She smirked and crossed her arms.
"Well, if y'all insist...Ah followed Toad to the mansion because Ah knew he didn't stand a chance against the X-Men. After Little Ms. Perfect threw him into a well, Ah snuck up on her and hopefully kicked her ribs in. Then Ah punched her and Ah know for a fact Ah broke her nose 'cuz it looked a little crooked and Ah could'a sworn Ah heard it crack. She lifted meh up with her little powers and started tryin' to figure out what Ah was up to and when Ah wouldn't talk she just sorta tossed meh aside. Now y'all know there was no way Ah was gonna let her beat meh so Ah tried to punch her again and the idiot grabbed mah arm! So Ah had her powers, flung her into a few trees, and then Ah eventually finished her off. And there ya yahoos have it. Jean Grey goes down and Ah'm only sorry Ah didn't video tape it."
The boys stared at her a moment before they burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Pietro held his sides and felt his eyes tearing up and Lance tried his hardest not to cause an earthquake. This was just so rich!
"Aw, man, yo! I tell ya, I wish I was wasn't unconscious when that happened!" Todd snickered.
Rogue stood up and walked into the kitchen. "Irene sent me some money the other day. Wanna order out for pizza or something?"
"Sounds good!" Lance said, as they rest of the Brotherhood followed her into the kitchen.
"M'kay, then what'cha all want?"
"Mmm...Three pizzas with everything on it!" Fred answered. "And two boxes of breadsticks."
"Wanna split one?" Todd asked, looking up at Lance.
"Fine. Get a pizza with half pepperoni and half cheese."
"Yeah, yo! I'll have cheese and fly pizza!" Todd grinned.
"I'll just have a salad," Pietro said. "Pizza is way too fattening..."
"I'll just eat whatever Lance and Todd don't," Rogue said to herself. "Alright. That everything?"
"Yep."
Rogue picked up the phone and leaned against the counter. "Hello? Yeah, Ah'd like three pizzas with the works, one with half pepperoni and half cheese, a large salad, and three boxes of breadsticks. And...Two liters of coke."
"Uh...is that all?"
"Yeah, that's all!"
"Pick up or delivery?"
"Deliver it to the Bayville Boarding House. Ya, that one. How'd you know? Twenty minutes? Alright. Thanks."
They were lucky Mystique was missing because she would not have been happy to find the living room in the condition it was. A slice of pizza had somehow gotten stuck to the ceiling. Pizza and breadstick boxes and empty coke cans and liters littered the floor. There were a few pieces of pizza left on the coffee table, swarming with several flies. So much for all of the cleaning Rogue had been doing since she arrived at the boarding house, but what did it matter? No Mystique, no real reason to keep the place clean. Rogue was sitting on the couch with on arm draped over the armrest and her head leaned over the side. Todd was curled up next to her with his head resting in her lap. Pietro was lay on the floor with his arms wrapped around one of the liters of coke. Fred and Lance were asleep in two recliners. None of them seemed to care about the mess.
---
Rogue awoke with a yawn and stretched her stiff arms high above her head, careful not to knock Todd from her lap. She gently shook him awake and proceeded in waking the others.
"Do we have to go to school today?" Todd asked, groggily.
"Yeah. Unfortunately."
"Give us one reason why we should," Lance muttered, stifling a yawn.
"Kitty."
"That works."
They all somehow managed to wake up and get dressed. Lance cracked his neck as he climbed into his jeep and Pietro sat next to him. Once again, Todd perched himself atop Fred's shoulder and Rogue sat next to them. He really needed to get a bigger car...
"Is a van out of the question, yo?" Todd asked.
"Yes."
"Ah wouldn't worry about it," Rogue said.
"Oh?" Lance looked at her in the review mirror. "And why not?"
"Ah hade a ride back in Mississippi. When Irene sent meh the money she also sent a letter that said she was sending it to meh."
"Good!" Lance started up the jeep. "Because it's too crowded in here."
When they arrived at school Rogue caught sight of Jean, still supporting a broken nose. She smirked when Jean sent a glare over at her before storming into the school. To the victor goes the spoils and knowing that she had succeeded in humiliating Jean was the greatest spoil she could have asked for.
---
A/N: And there is chapter five! Once again I would like some help with this. I wanna know what your opinions about Tabitha are. I am not found of her at all. If no one really likes her I'm not keeping her in the Brotherhood. See you next chapter!