Thanks go out to the lovely spiffythefaery for volunteering her valuable time to beta read this and many other stories that I have in my warped mind.
Disclaimer: X-Men: Evolution is owned by Marvel and the WB. Phantom of the Opera is owned by whoever is in charge of the estate of Gaston Leroux.
"He does things which no other man could do; he knows things which nobody in the world knows."
- Christine
"Time to wake up Rogue," a soft gentle voice called. She gave no response, simply turned over to resume her sleep.
"Come on, you can't be late," the voice tried again, this time accompanied by a sharp poking. Rogue groaned into her pillow, trying to ignore the poking.
"All right Rogue, this is your last chance. Get up!" the voice said a third time becoming much harsher. Rogue buried her head further into the pillow, hoping to block out the annoyance.
"Your choice. Kurt! Bobby! Wake Rogue up!" the voice yelled. Rogue's eyes snapped open immediately.
"Ah'm up," she said as she struggled to sit up in bed. Standing in her doorway, Raven Darkholme looked on with a satisfied smirk. Her blue skin was sharply contrasted by her bright red hair.
"Good. I'd hate to think what my son and Bobby would have done."
"You're evil."
"If that's how you feel about it, I can have Victor wake you up from now on." Rogue winced at the thought of being awakened by the massive ball of fur. Chances were he wouldn't be so kind with her. Hell, she probably wouldn't remain intact if he woke her up.
"You win," Rogue grumbled. Raven flashed a toothy grin.
"I'd thought you'd see it my way," the red head said. Rogue nodded as she blinked to clear her head.
"Where's Kitty?"
"Breakfast duty." Rogue felt her skin pale.
"Ah think Ah'll skip breakfast today then."
"I'd advise otherwise. You're going to need your energy today," Raven replied, still wearing her grin.
"Ah don't like the sound of that."
"It's not that bad. You aren't in the Danger Room today."
"Ah feel a 'but' coming."
"But Logan, Victor, and Hank constructed an obstacle course for today. I dare say it will be full of nasty surprises."
"Sounds like fun," Rogue said bitterly.
"You'd better get downstairs; otherwise my son is going to get to the food first which means no food for you," Raven said as she began to exit the room. "By the way. Professor Xavier would like to speak with you before the morning training," Raven stated as she turned her head to look back at Rogue. Having imparted her information she walked out of Rogue's room and vanished into the halls of the Institute.
Rogue rushed down the stairs, attempting to get to the dining room before the rest of the Institute. Having spent a week at the mansion, she knew that it was best to eat breakfast before the daily scramble for food occurred.
She was too late. Rogue halted her progress at the edge of the dining room; watching the chaos unfold before her. Food was rapidly disappearing from the serving dishes to be splattered on to individual plates, only to then be stolen by a neighbor.
Currently Kurt had accumulated the most food, his pile towering above the other plates. The blue boy was digging into his breakfast, glaring dangerously at anyone who dared to approach his food. Beside the feasting Kurt, Bobby was amusing himself by freezing and melting Scott's drink.
Jean sat next to Scott, attempting to maintain some semblance of dignity while eating. Unfortunately Tabitha had seen fit to plant one of her boom balls in Jean's food, the resulting explosion sending food spraying all over her.
With the amount of food on the table and floor outnumbering the amount on plates, Rogue couldn't help but wonder if it was safe to enter the dining room. Watching an army of Jamie duplicates swarm over the table and claim war upon all those sitting there; Rogue decided that it was in her best interest not to have breakfast after all. Turning on her heel Rogue began to look for Professor Xavier.
She took no more than a few steps before Creed stalked past her, ignoring her presence. He had become rather irritated with the students as of late and his mood had not been improved by last night's antics.
Kurt and Bobby had convinced John that the rug outside of Creed's room needed to be removed. John had been more than happy to comply with the boys' request. Using his brand new lighter (which was immediately confiscated by Logan afterward) John had set the carpet ablaze. Manipulating the flame to his desire, John had sent the flames into Creed's room.
Creed had awoken to find that his room had filled with smoke and most of his possessions had been set ablaze. Had it not been for the extensive amount of fire extinguishers that he had wisely stored in his room and for Ororo's timely arrival at the scene of the blaze, half of the mansion could have burned down.
As it happened, Creed lost half of his room to the fire. He had talked to Xavier and had demanded, in no uncertain terms, that John be disemboweled for such a stunt and Kurt and Bobby be subjected to the rack.
Xavier had, after much lecturing, calmed Creed down. John was put on probation for two weeks and was forced to clean the Danger Room every day. John merrily accepted his punishment; in his mind it was a small price to pay for the opportunity to play with fire. However, since Xavier had no proof that Kurt and Bobby had been part of the prank they had escaped unpunished.
Needless to say Creed wasn't in the best of moods this morning. He stalked past Rogue, his eyes flickering over her. He growled at her appearance and continued moving on, his thoughts entirely focused on committing bodily harm to the two boys intent on making his life a living hell.
Rogue froze as he stalked past, hoping she would escape the feral mutant's notice. Her emerald eyes locked onto Creed's massive back, heaving a sigh as he turned around a corner and vanished from view.
"I see that Victor's disposition has not improved since last night," Professor Xavier said as he rounded the corner. Rogue cracked a slight smile at the Professor's gross understatement.
"Good morning Professor."
"Good morning Rogue. I hope you slept well," Xavier said with a warm smile.
"It was better before Ms. Darkholme woke me up," Rogue returned wryly.
"Always is," Xavier returned.
"Ah was told that you wanted to see me." Xavier nodded at Rogue's comment.
"Yes. I have some information for you."
"Information? About what?"
"Ever since you arrived here you have inquired about Mr. LeBeau's whereabouts. I have received an update from him."
"Really?" Rogue said, brightening at the news. She was most anxious to see Remy LeBeau again but had yet to do so since arriving at the mansion.
"Yes. I talked to Remy last night. There have been some… complications with his visit to New Orleans. In addition I have located another mutant in New Mexico that Remy has volunteered to look for. His arrival back here will be delayed by two more weeks."
"Oh," Rogue replied, her good mood deflating at the depressing news. She would have to wait even more before she could see Remy and properly thank him for setting her up at the Institute. Rogue began to walk past the wheelchair bound Professor.
"Rogue, one more thing," Xavier gently called out to the girl, grabbing her attention. She looked at the professor with a befuddled expression.
"When you finish the activity for the morning, I would like for you to report to the Danger Room."
"The Danger Room? Why?"
"Logan wants to test your skills with the rest of the official X-Men," Xavier replied as he stole a glance at his wristwatch.
"Look at the time; I do believe that you have somewhere else to be."
Rogue nodded at rushed out of the mansion to the morning's activity.
Rogue quickly made her way down to the Danger Room, quite satisfied with herself. Not only was she supposed to train with the more experienced X-Men, but she had passed Logan's obstacle course with flying colors. The only others able to make that claim were Scott and Jean.
Kurt had attempted to bypass the course by teleporting to the end, only to have Logan throw him back into the gauntlet, twice. Kitty had attempted to phase her way through the obstacles but had difficulty when she was forced to leap over a ditch and avoid several projectiles shot her way. Bobby had nearly completed the course but had decided that it would be more amusing to freeze the ground underneath Lance's feet. Due to his probation John wasn't present at the session; instead he was forced to clean the Danger Room under Ms. Darkholme's watchful eye.
"I like, so hate those sessions," Kitty vented from her position next to Rogue. Rogue gave a light chuckle at Kitty's frustrations.
"Could be worse."
"How?"
"Bobby could have frozen the ground beneath your feet and sent you into the mud pile," Rogue replied with a chortle. Kitty giggled at the reminder of seeing her boyfriend tumble head first into the mud.
"You're right. It could be worse," Kitty resigned with a sigh. She was not in the best mood. Not only did she have to wake up early to make breakfast but she had to deal with an obstacle course and a Danger Room session.
"I so hate Logan right now."
"You hated Logan yesterday if Ah recall."
"Well. I meant I…" Kitty stumbled, trying to defend her statement. Rogue shot a smug grin in Kitty's direction.
"Quiet you," Kitty hissed. Rogue continued to grin at her friend. Kitty began to mutter under her breath about know-it-alls.
"Hey wait up!" Lance called out to the two girls, rushing to catch up with them. From the amount of dried mud on his face, it was clear that the boy had attempted to wipe his face clean from the earlier incident but had been mostly unsuccessful.
"I see that you've recovered from being Bobby's latest victim," Kitty remarked upon looking at Lance's dirty forehead. Lance's face darkened at the mention of the prank that had ended with him kicking the air, his head imbedded in a mud pile.
"Yeah. Recovered."
"Don't feel so bad. At least you're not the target of their next prank," Rogue commented as she punched the button for the elevator. Lance winced.
"I don't like the sound of that."
"Neither will Scott." The door to the elevator slid open and the three stepped inside.
"What are they up to?" Kitty asked of Rogue, who shrugged.
"No idea. Kurt just told me to stay away from Scott's room tomorrow."
"That sounds bad," Kitty commented. Lance nodded in agreement.
"That's beyond bad. That's a catastrophe."
"Ah know. But is it wrong for me to say Ah can't wait to see what's gonna happen?" Rogue asked. The other two answered without skipping a beat.
"No."
"Nope." The elevator slid to a halt and the door opened with a ding. The three teens exited and made their way to the locker room adjacent to the Danger Room.
As the three entered the locker room, they saw that the rest of their teammates had already arrived and were all but finished getting dressed. Raising their hands in greetings, the three made their way to their lockers to put on their uniforms. Dressing silently the group made their way into the Danger Room.
The massive room still made Rogue feel uneasy. The sleek metal surfaces gleamed in the harsh light; having been recently polished (thanks to John). Hidden behind the myriad of panels weapons lay dormant, ready to spring out and unleash their potentially deadly contents.
Hanging from the ceiling of the chamber was a small orb. The orb housed the controls for the Danger Room. From there the teachers could manipulate the scenario to test their students' skills while watching the action unfold at a safe distance.
"About time," Logan's rough voice came over the speakers.
"You get a special treat today. No scenario just a simple survival session. You go as long as you can. The level of difficulty will increase every few minutes. Let's see what you got," Logan said, his voice bouncing in the vacant metal chamber.
As Logan's gruff voice faded the room began to tremble as the machinery was activated. Panels along the walls were replaced by dangerous looking weapons.
Clenching her fists, Rogue prepared herself for action. The machines unleashed their attacks, sending the X-Men scattering across the Danger Room. Bolts of electricity and large saws were shot from cannons at the teens.
Rogue leapt aside as a bolt of electricity crackled over her head. Getting back onto her feet Rogue wished she had a better power than absorption. Jean and Scott were fairing well, Jean protecting the two from any attack while Scott disabled the machines.
Kitty and Lance were stumbling through the course. Kitty was continually phasing through attacks, each time taxing her even more. Lance attempted to cause enough of a vibration to knock the aim of the machines off target. While he was successful with some of his attempts, there were far too many weapons for him to deal with.
John was near Rogue, that much could be determined from the intense heat. If his usual maniacal laughing was any indication, he seemed to be enjoying himself. Any weapon in his sight was promptly melted. Rogue's observation of the flame wielding mutant was cut short as a saw tore through her costume, ripping the sleeve at the seems.
"Pay attention Stripes!" Logan barked out over the intercom. Nodding Rogue's eyes surveyed the Danger Room for anything coming her way. Edging her way to the wall, she leapt onto a swinging gun. Slowly climbing along the massive machine she reached out and unplugged the machine. The gun began to buck and heave, tossing Rogue to the floor below. She landed on her bare arm, the rest of her sleeve remaining entangled with the now quiet gun.
Casting a glance through the room, Rogue saw that Kitty and Lance had both vanished. Neither one having any luck with the Danger Room, each was more suited for a different battleground. John was trying to fend off two saws when the ground dropped beneath his feet. The center of the Danger Room descended into the floor causing John to lose his footing. The flame wielding mutant lost his balance and fell to the distant floor as an electric blast quickly followed him. He was out of the session. That left Scott, Jean and, surprisingly, Rogue, Kurt, and Bobby.
The two troublemakers were actually thriving. Bobby had created an ice dome to protect the two from any attack that the Danger Room could generate. Kurt would appear in a puff of smoke and disconnect a gun before retreating to the safety of the igloo.
Deciding that hiding within the chilly confines was safer than dodging the attacks on her own; Rogue rushed over to the dome and began to pound on the hard, cold surface.
"Bobby! Let me in!" Rogue called out as one of the saw blasters targeted her. Before she knew what was happening she found herself vanishing in a puff of smoke and reappearing inside the ice dome.
"Welcome to Casa de Iceman, where the surroundings are cold and the residents are cool," Bobby quipped. Rogue shot him a grin. Rubbing her bare arm, Rogue silently reminded herself not to touch anybody.
"Is it just me or has as the floor moved again?" Bobby asked.
"I'll check," Kurt replied as he vanished in a cloud of smoke. Just as the smoke began to clear, Kurt reappeared.
"We need to move!" Trusting Kurt implicitly Bobby immediately melted the dome, only to see a massive steel globe bearing down on them. Kurt vanished in another puff of smoke as the ball rolled near, about to crush them. Bobby generated an ice slide and shot out from underneath the sphere's shadow. Rogue had no way to avoid the massive ball; her speed couldn't carry her out of its path quick enough.
Rogue's plight had not gone unnoticed. A scarlet beam slammed into the ground in front of the ball, creating a fairly large divot in the ground. While small compared to the size of the orb bearing down on Rogue, the divot was large enough to prevent the orb from continuing on its path.
Rogue shot Scott a look of thanks and made her way over towards him. Still relying on the strategy of Jean protecting them and Scott attacking, the two had lasted longer than almost everyone else. Kurt and Bobby continued to dodge attacks around the room but they were tiring from the constant assaults. It was only a matter of time before one of them fell.
Making her way next to Scott, Rogue watched as he blasted an attack orb from yesterday's scenario into smithereens. Beside Scott, Jean closed her eyes in concentration as she expanded her mental shield. As she did so, several of the weapons in the Danger Room targeted the trio.
Bolts of electricity slammed into the shield, skittering along the surface of the protection. Several saws slammed into the invisible force field, each blow causing Jean to wince with pain.
"Scott, I can't hold the shield much longer," Jean whimpered as several attack orbs converged their fire upon the shield.
"Hold on Jean!" Scott called to her as he tried to blast away the orbs. The metallic spheres dodged Scott's blast and continued to shoot away at the shield. Several more electric blasts slammed into the shield forcing Jean to cry out in agony.
"I can't hold it anymore," Jean cried out as she dropped the protection. More electric bolts slammed into the floor in front of the trio, sending them airborne with the explosion. As Rogue soared through the air she noticed that Scott was dangerously close to her bare arm.
Landing roughly on her back, Rogue watched as if the entire scene was in slow motion. Scott bounced as he landed, skidding to a halt. His forehead brushed against her arm. The contact was minimum but more than enough. Rogue stiffened and braced herself for the oncoming rush of feelings, memories and powers.
Scarlet beams erupted from Rogue's eyes. The energy chewed through the metal surface, slowly heading towards the control room. Although she couldn't see anyone Rogue knew that everyone was looking at her in horror.
"Close your eyes Rogue!" Professor Xavier called out over the intercom. Following his advice she clamped her eyes shut, cutting off the deadly beams. Her eyes shut tightly; Rogue heard the sound of weapons retracting into the walls. Feeling Scott's memories and feelings fade Rogue cautiously cracked an eye open.
She saw the teachers rushing into the Danger Room as the rest of the students looked at Rogue with shock. While they all knew what she could do they had yet to see what happened when she absorbed someone. Scott lay unconscious near Rogue. Jean was on her knees bending over Scott, cradling him in her arms.
Rogue slowly got to her feet as Jean turned her frightened gaze at her.
"What have you done to him?" Jean shrieked, horrified at what had just occurred. No one said anything as the teachers rushed over to check Scott. Jean stood up and made her way towards Rogue continuing to shriek.
"What did you do? Tell me! What did you do to him?" Rogue looked at the shocked faces of her friends, the nasty snarl on Jean's face, and the concerned looks on the faces of the teachers. She did the only thing she could think of. She ran.
Rogue had no idea where she was in the vast mansion. She had fled from the Danger Room, running as fast as her legs would carry her. Punching the call button for the elevator, Rogue felt tears fall down her cheeks.
As the elevator pulled to a halt and its doors opened, Rogue rushed out and hurried up the staircase, past the confused Jamie. Reaching the top of the stairs Rogue took a sharp left as opposed to the normal right. Hurrying past the boys' wing of the mansion Rogue went deeper into the western wing of the Institute.
Continuing her fasted paced trek, Rogue found herself in a part of the mansion she had never been in before. Bringing her steps to a halt, she took a moment to recall just where she was. She had been running in such a blinded state that she had no idea as to her whereabouts. The rooms looked as if they had never been used. All the bedrooms on the second floor were located near the stairwell. There was never any reason for anyone to travel this far back into the Institute. Curiosity overtook Rogue as she began to wonder what was stored in these unused rooms.
Opening the door to the room on her right, Rogue peeked inside. To her surprise it was vacant. It was quite large, several times larger than her room. From the looks of it, the room was once a ballroom. A small ballroom, but a ballroom nonetheless.
Stepping inside the small ballroom Rogue took a good look at her surroundings. Dust had claimed the room for its own uses and spread out; covering every surface. Several large windows decorated the far wall. Despite the fact that they were closed, the howling wind could still be heard. Rogue reached out for a light switch. After a few moments of searching she found her objective and flicked the switch. To her disappointment not one light burst to life to reveal the rest of the room.
Pushing the door open further to allow more light into the ballroom, Rogue moved towards the center of the room when she heard Professor Xavier call out to her. Not call out with his voice, rather with his mind.
"Rogue. Everything is alright. Would you please come down here?" Xavier called out mentally.
"Go away," Rogue thought back, knowing that the professor would pick up her thoughts.
"Please come down Rogue. Scott has awoken and is perfectly fine. Jean has settled down and I would like to talk with you," Xavier tried again.
"Go away. Leave me alone," Rogue mentally snapped.
"Very well. When you feel like coming down I would like to talk with you." With that Xavier cut their psychic connection. Rogue scowled to herself as she sat down on the wooden dancing floor.
"Stupid Scott. Stupid Jean. Stupid powers," Rogue muttered to herself. As Rogue complained about the unfairness of life, the wind began to pick up. The sound of the wind blowing against the mansion walls was increasing in decibel levels, getting loud enough to drown out her muttering.
Rogue paused to listen. It was if the howling wind knew exactly how she felt. As it continued to blow Rogue realized that the wind was no longer howling. It was laughing.
Rogue shook her head. Wind couldn't laugh. Yet it clearly was. Freaked out, she stood, intending to exit the ballroom.
The door slammed shut, cutting off all light and trapping Rogue inside the room. She froze, fear beginning to overtake her. The wind was still laughing at her. Shaking her head to clear it she realized that it wasn't the wind doing the laughing, it was the room was laughing at her.
"Who's there?" Rogue barked as she clenched her hands into fists, ready to defend herself. There came no reply, only more laughing.
"Ah said who's there?" Again the room did not answer but continued its cackling.
"Ah'm warning ya. Show yourself."
"Or what?" the room answered, its voice sending shivers up Rogue's spine. It seemed to come from all corners of the ballroom, as if it was the room talking to her.
"What do you want?" Rogue asked, slightly frightened. This time, only the moaning of the wind replied.
"Answer me!" Rogue snapped.
"Amusing," the room answered in its deep resonating voice.
"What's amusing?"
The room began to chuckle once more. "You are."
Rogue clenched her teeth. "Oh yeah? What's so funny?" The room remained silent, mocking her.
"All right Ah've had enough of this!" Rogue snapped. "Ah've had a really bad day. Ah just had an accident because of which my friends think Ah'm a freak! So Ah'm just itching to take my anger out on someone. Show yourself!"
"That's too bad," the room answered. Despite its cold voice, it sounded like the room was actually sorry for Rogue.
"Ah don't need your sympathy."
"I didn't offer it," the room returned coldly. Rogue couldn't help but shiver. For a moment she wondered if this was just Bobby playing a prank on her.
"Now that we've cleared that up, let me go!" Rogue snarled as she began to blindly walk towards where she thought the door was.
"I can help you," the room whispered into Rogue's ear. Whirling around she stared into the darkness.
"What do you mean?"
"I can help you. I can give you what you always wanted."
"And what's that?"
"Control. Over your powers. Over your life," the room replied sincerely.
Rogue couldn't help but be intrigued by the offer. "How?"
"My methods are my own. I can teach you control. But I require a few items in exchange."
"What?" Rogue warily asked.
"Do you want help or not?" the room snapped at her, its voice surprisingly soft despite its harsh demeanor.
Without thinking Rogue replied, letting her heart answer for her. "Yes. Ah want help."
"Good. Tomorrow night and every night after that you will meet me in the room across the hall at seven o'clock. It will be locked. Knock three times and I will unlock it for you," the voice said. Rogue nodded. "Also you must tell no one. If you breathe one word then I withdraw my help. Understand?"
"Yes."
"Good. Until tomorrow night then." With that the door opened and light began to pour into the ballroom. A quick glance told Rogue that it was empty. Pausing for a minute to collect herself, she hurried out, pondering what had just occurred.
She was going to be able to control her powers. No more hiding behind long clothes, no more being cut off from the world. No longer being looked at by her friends as a freak. If the mysterious voice kept its word, she'd have what she always wanted. To be able to touch. As Rogue strode down the hall towards the front of the mansion she prayed that it would.
Yahoo! Fun, fun.
Looks like our mysterious ghost has made contact. Just who is it? Anyone's guess. The candidates are numerous; anyone you have yet to see is a suspect.
Muhaha.
Ishandahalf – Owe you? I owe nothing. It was a choice and I never promised a Romy. Fortunately for you there will be your Romyness in this story but not till later.