"Hmmm, uuhhnn," Rogue was awaken by the painful moans of the young man lying next to her. She hopped out of her chair and checked his vitals. He was badly burned and bruised, but other than that he was fine, if you didn't take into account the fact he had been in a comatose state for the last week. He was a mutant, recovering in the safe haven known as Xavier's Institute.
Next to his bed laid her roommate, Kitty Pryde, hooked up IV's and a bunch of other machines, Rogue wasn't about to guess their function. All she knew was that those machines were keeping Kitty alive while she traveled down the road to recovery. She wasn't as burnt as the young man, whom, Rogue was told, was one of Magneto's lackeys. But she had breathed in so much smoke from the fire, it nearly killed her.
Rogue looked at her friend, fighting the urge to hit something. Kitty didn't deserve to be hooked up to machines, fighting for her life. She deserved to one of those girls whose greatest concern was what to wear to the Winter Formal, not fighting the world against some Holocaust survivor bent out to punish humanity with magnetic powers.
"It'll be okay Kit, you're make it out alright, just don't give up," Rogue brushed aside Kitty's brunette hair from in front of her face tenderly, and went to put fresh water into the enormous vase that contained the multitude of wild flowers the other students had brought down to lively up the hospital room.
Looking around the room, Rogue could notice the vast difference between the two halves the room had been split into. Half of the room, Kitty's half, was decorated with wreaths, bright posters that vibrated Kitty's energetic personality around her bed, containers of various sizes holding bright flowers, mostly pinks and yellows, and get-well-soon cards, which were pinned in a mural style around her headboard.
Less than five feet from her bed the brightness and happiness ended. The other half of the room had no decoration, no personal notes of well wishing, no proof of living short of the beeping from the heart monitor. Rogue walked over to the young man and sat down at the foot of his bed. She didn't pity him, instead she was sympathic towards him. She knew all too well what it was like to be the outcast, the loner.
"Magneto must have treated you boys like crap, huh?" Why am I talking to this guy, it's not he can even hear me, besides he's a bad guy. . . I was too once. Maybe this guy just needs a second chance to do the right thing, whatever that happens to be. "I wish you could talk to me, say something, cause it feels like I'm talking to myself and that's rarely a good thing when it comes to me." Rogue leaned over the edge and grabbed his medical chart. "Let's see, according to Dr McCoy, you're a mutant like the rest of us. And your power is transformation into inorganic material, ooo Mr Big shot huh? I remember you. You're the one who can turn into a giant metal soldier, aren't you? Yeah - " Rogue was interrupted by a loud crash in the other room. "Whose there? Visiting hours are over. Go back to your rooms before I get the professor."
Rogue rose quickly and made her way into the waiting room of the Medical Wing, gasping at the sight before her. "Kurt! What in sam hill do you think you're doing?" Kurt Wagner, her adopted half-brother, sat at Dr. McCoy's computer, typing furiously away. He looks bigger than I recall, and darker too. It must be all those burgers he's downs everyday. Kurt looked up, with an angered look at his face. "Wait a sec, you're not Kurt," the man leapt out of the chair, flipping over Rogue and landing behind her. He moves like Nightcrawler, but his eyes, they're so full of hate. Rogue felt something wrap around her waist and before she could grab her glove off, her hands were pinned to her side. PROFESSOR, IN THE and in a puff of smoke she and the intruder, disappeared.
In the next room, the young man stirred and a single name crossed his lips before he fell back in exhaustion, "Rogue."
End of Chapter
