A/N: This chapter doesn't have much action, but it is important as a transition. The last part of the chapter contains some important information, just for your info.

Collision Course

I just want you to understand,
that I know what all the fighting was for.
and I just want you to understand,
that I'm not angry anymore.
I'm not angry anymore.

-Ani Difranco "Angry Anymore"

A chill crept over the yard of the Institute, the morning vapor's evanescence to the sky forming trails into the newly bronzed heavens. Upon this yard, four people sat. And while seated against a backdrop of dew-coated trees when the sun began his slow orbit above their heads, a heated conversation began.

"Do we know what the next step is?" It was the blue-furred one who said this, his three-fingered hands folded together like he was praying.

The older man, the one with the very beginning of worry lines on his forehead, answered him simply, "Chuck thinks we're going to have to fight her eventually…"

"But she'll destroy us! She has our powers," exclaimed the young woman in the group, her brown hair straggly and her eyes tired.

And it was Remy, absentmindedly shuffling a deck of cards, who answered, "I'd rather be destroyed than do the destroying."

Silence as the four contemplated this new statement before one replied with a quiet acquiescence, "yeah."

The sun loomed higher, the lower portion still obscured by the thick forest guarding the edge of the property. The circle opened as another form took a place, their every movement coated in sadness and desperation.

The new one, another woman with no color to her but the golden glow of the sun on her white skin, asked of the four, "was anyone awake when Rogue absorbed you? Did anyone…see her?"

"No. The only one who woke up was the Professor."

"We're going to have to fight her, aren't we?"

"Yeah."

"And we might have to kill her, won't we?"

A cigarette flared into existence, giving the impression that is was used to buy time. They needed time it seemed, to contemplate the fact that they might have to end the life of the woman they searched for.

"I don't know if I can do it," said the blue-furred one by the name of Kurt.

The smoker, Logan, exhaled with a spew of acrid fumes. "You'll do it, Kurt. When she attacks you and you see how little of Rogue is left, you'll be able to do it. If we don't kill her, she'll kill us."

"Yeah…On the video, I saw her absorb us, attack us, have no concern for us, but I can't hate her for it, I can't."

Void answered this in the same clinical nakedness that she did in every other thing. "Rogue didn't attack us. Rogue exists within her mind in a sentient state. As long as she is under the influence of the serum, it as if she is sleeping. Her emotions, memories, and personality are still there, but frozen. She remembers nothing before the time she was first given the serum. You don't hate Rogue for it, you hate Trask for it, and that is the way it should be."

The woman, Kitty, slowly reclined back onto the grass, her small, svelte form cushioned by the dew-coated grass. Lying back, her rip cage pressed against the sky, each curving bone a dull sword combating the morning air. "I convinced myself a long time ago that Rogue was dead. Somehow, that made things easier. I healed, the scars appeared, and I tried to move on. But she's alive, and that makes everything so complicated…"

"Petite, don't worry. We've just gotta' do what we need to. If we've gotta' kill Rogue, we'll do it. After all, we'll be freeing her from Trask."

Logan contemplated this for a moment before replying, "I bet that's what she would have wanted."

Professor Charles Xavier was troubled.

He could feel the fissure in the team brought about by Rogue's death and revival growing deeper. His X-Men, his crowning achievement, were slowly drifting apart like marbles rolling, rolling, farther and farther away. Remy, Logan, Kurt, and Kitty had been an integral part of the team, each with their strengths and weaknesses. They had taught the recruits and stood by him. They fought for him…

Or at least they had until Rogue had died. Now they hated all that he was, standing stark against him, like crosses illuminated in brief flashes of brilliance.

Thank God for Scott and Jean.

He had, to an effect, raised them. They took his words as gospel, completely without guile or questions. They were his children and his fighters. They would destroy the seeds of anarchy planted by unrest. Everything would be alright.

But the fissure still grew.

How should he fix this problem? The recruits were still raw, unfinished and unready to take the places of those who had dissented. He needed the four who hated him.

Rogue would come again, he was sure.

She would come and destroy them in the name of Dr. Trask.

The Good Doctor had become his worst enemy, surpassing even Apocalypse and Magneto in his destruction. Apocalypse wished to destroy the world, but his X-Men had stood firm and defeated him. It had been Rogue, the dead one and the source of the splitting, that had done so. Against all enemies, the X-Men stood together and were victorious.

That is what made Trask his archenemy.

Trask had done the one thing that no other enemy had. He had destroyed the one thing no one else could, the resolve of the X-Men.

How dare he!

It seemed odd to him now that it had been Rogue who had caused the destruction of the team. Rogue had the capacity for limitless power, though it came at a terrible price. She had been impersonal and separate, never one to do any manner of the outings that the rest of the team partook in. And yet, the team had been destroyed by the loss of this one girl who he had reckoned (falsely, it seemed) disposable.

How would they defeat Rogue? Trask would invariably send his puppet to attack them again, and they would face her. Hand to hand combat would not succeed, and neither would the direct use of powers. Perhaps he should discuss this with Void. After all, the albino girl had, in fact, come from The Compound in which Rogue was being held. Ah yes, that would be the best course of action.

He reached out to the young woman's mind, finding the bitter static of her mental form. She, in the astral plane, existed as a bright, color-filled shape. He supposed it was only because she was without color that she desired to express that which she did not have while in the mental world.

Void

Her mental answer was as cold and icy as her corporeal one; What is it, Sir?

He noted the lack of Professor. Perhaps Remy's misguided idea that he was not a teacher had poisoned even this one…

I wish to speak with you in the Library

There was hesitation on the other end; he supposed that she was discussing this with the others near her on the front lawn (for yes, he could see them from his window).

I will come with Kitty

Had she some special kinship with the girl? He would have to pay careful attention to this development, as he did with all friendships with his X-Men. They could not allow their love for friends or significant others override the real purpose for their being, their mutations.

Good

He wheeled himself over to the cabinet in which he kept important papers. Using a mental code, he could both lock and unlock it. He freed the latch and opened the burnished wooden doors. A steel box was within, measuring about a foot and a half by a foot. This too he unlocked with precision, revealing the thin manila folder inside. Setting it in his lap, he wheeled back over to the table.

"You wished to see me, Sir?"

Void's snow-white form was stark against the mahogany doors, the purity of her body made incongruous by the worn denim jeans and black sweater. He supposed those clothes had belonged to Rogue. The thought was slightly surprising, given the nearly untouched room that had belonged to the wayward girl. Kitty had moved from the dorm she had shared with the untouchable as soon as possible, leaving Rogue's various pieces of clothing and random objects still in their haphazard condition. Black combat boots remained in an x-formation on the floor where Rogue had put them nearly a year and a half ago, and one of her many mix c.d.'s still resided in the c.d. player…

The room was as untouchable as Rogue had been.

"Sir?"

He was snapped out of his current train of thought by Void's call. Looking up at her he replied, "Yes, Arashi, please take a seat."

Kitty, a pale and slightly emaciated shadow, took one of the chairs at the table beside the albino.

The Professor took the manila folder and slipped the sheets of paper within out onto the table. Spreading them into a fan formation, he picked up one white sheet from the array of documents. It was a blank piece, sterile and forbidding. "Void, you said you shared a room with Rogue at the Compound, correct?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Can you remember what it looked like?"

"The serum repressed most of it. Trask uses the serum as a sort of self-destruction device in case we were ever rescued. It makes it so we cannot remember most of what occurred during our stay. But I was in the Compound before he began using it, so I can remember most of the layout. May I have a pen?"

He handed her one, and she began to draw. Minutes passed and the only noise was the breathing of all three and the brittle scratching of the pen. The young woman finished and pushed her drawing across the table. In thin, spidery script, Arashi had written "Compound Level Two"

Her voice was monotone. "This is the floor on which Rogue and I were kept. There are five levels, each with ten sectors. Thirty to forty cells are in each sector. I was in Sector 6, cell 831. Rogue was to my left, so she must have been in 832…"

She trailed off and looked to Kitty, who gave her a weak smile. "Good, good," said the Professor, looking over the documents. "Do you remember where the Compound was?"

Void's eyes widened with surprise. "Do you really think he'd tell us? We knew nothing…"

"Alright then," The Professor steepled his fingers, his brow creasing with concentration. "This probably won't be a problem, as I expect Rogue will come after us soon enough. Do you have any information to help us formulate a strategy?"

"The serum is the key."

"What do you mean?"

"For Trask to keep Rogue's thoughts repressed, she must be under the constant influence of the serum. Were it to run out, she would remember everything, including her capture and ensuing torture. She would attack him and either escape, die trying, or kill herself. So, if we can keep her occupied long enough for the serum to run out, she will know us and stop fighting."

"But what if, in her moments of insanity, she kills herself?" The Professor's eyebrows dove into a frown of worry as he awaited her answer.

"I am sure that Rogue would rather die at her own hand than be used as a tool against those she loved."

"Alright, how long does the serum last?"

"We were given the serum once every three hours. However, physical activity and increased heart rate causes it to deteriorate, shortening the effects. He will have given her the maximum dose, meaning that we will need to keep her in combat for an hour to two hours at most. But, with her absorption and control of your powers, I do not know if you are capable."

"We will find a way."

Void's frost-white lips formed a thin, cold smile. "I would not be so sure..."

It is my hope that you enjoyed this chapter, as I worked hard to get it out. It was not an easy task, being that I had very little inspiration with which to work, but oh well.

Oh, and while writing I listened to "You're a God" by Vertical Horizon