Learning to Deal
I don't own X-Men Evolution (or X-Men for that matter) characters or anything concerning the show, comics, ect. No suing! Be civil in reviews (if there are any).
Cerebro drew Charles Xavier's attention from the book he was reading, 'Once and Future King', to the computer conceal that had been revealed behind a wall. Approaching the conceal Charles saw that on the computer screen two separate biographies appeared.
The first biography seemed normal enough. Name: Sydney James. Address: 9822 South Drive in ----, South Carolina. Age: 17, junior at St. ---- High School. Power/s: May take the appearance and voice of anyone he wishes. All very typical information to find about the usual mutants that Cerebro was known to locate.
The second biography was what really caught Charles' attention. Name: Rogue Darkholme. Last known address: The Xavier School for the Gifted in Westchester, New York. Age: 18, dropout of Bayville High School. Power/s: Ability to absorb the memory, life force, and/or power of anyone she makes skin to skin contact with. NOTE: The use of the absorbed power is temporary and leaves the absorbed person unconscious, in a coma, and can even kill.
We've found her, Xavier thought with a sigh of relief and defeat. Now I must tell Kurt when he gets back from school, hopefully he will keep his promise and not go after her.
The last note about Rogue's powers was bothering Xavier now, it had been since the day when she lost control. How could anyone just assume that the powers Rogue absorbed were just temporary rather than stored somewhere like all her personalities and absorbed memories? Although he had helped Rogue to contain-not every-most of the personalities there seemed to be the potentiality that those personalities could return stronger than ever.
Perhaps I should revise that, he thought.
"You want to tell Kurt or should I?" came Scott's voice from the doorway.
"I should tell him Scott, but thank you for the offer," Xavier replied. "How long have you been there?"
"Just a few seconds, but long enough to read the information," Scott answered, entering the room entirely. "Should I prep the jet for take off to go get her?"
Xavier pulled up an image of a map on the screen; on the map were two little red dots where the two mutants were located. Sydney James was in one spot but Rogue was on the move.
"There's no need to, she's on the move again and she may not be returning there anytime soon if at all." Xavier looked up at the student he almost thought of as a son only to find the student now teacher had his brows knitted together into frustration. "She may not return now especially since she'll have figured that we know her position," Charles added.
Scott understood what the Professor was saying but that keep the urge to get the jet ready for take off disappear. In fact it did just the opposite, it made him want to go after her even more.
"Scott, I know you want to go after her but Rogue wants time to herself and she had specifically asked us not to follow. We live up to her request," the Professor reminded.
"I know Professor but it just doesn't seem right for us to sit by as she wanders about looking for herself or what it is that she's doing," Scott reasoned. "If she was having a problem she could have came to Logan, Storm, Mr. McCoy, Jean, you, or I for help…"
Charles held up a hand to silence the younger man. "I know Scott, that is how most of us would have handled our problems but I don't think that is what Rogue needed, one of us to be almost patronizing her in the worst possible way, by treating her exactly like the others but without the same confidence."
"I don't understand Professor."
"If you are helping, say, Bobby with a problem with his powers or just his personal troubles you will be able to sympathize or lend some advice. Can you tell me that you can honestly do that with Rogue?" the Professor inquired.
Scott thought about it; he couldn't really relate to Rogue as far as her powers. Sure, he felt like an outsider at first and even to that day he still felt his powers were a curse rather than a blessing, but it could be controlled unlike Rogue's. Her personal troubles…well, she didn't really talk too much about that. Most of the time Rogue closed herself to others when someone tried to open her up on topics like Mystique, especially Mystique. Most of the advice Scott had given Rogue in the past was just something's he had come up with on the spot and they weren't exactly the best advice, rather pathetic to be honest.
"I get it now Professor, I'll keep an eye on Kurt to make sure he or any of the others try to go out looking for her," promised Scott but behind his glasses he held an expression of reluctant defeat.
"Thank you Scott," Charles nodded, backing away from the control panel then closing the wall. "I know what you're next question is Scott and the answer is no. Do not go after Sydney James either, if Rogue was to see any of you she would panic and run, perhaps hurting someone along the way."
"But she has already hurt someone," pointed out Scott.
"And she's running."
How could she have ever thought that life would dare be good to her? No, of course life couldn't be good to her, her the mutant who did more harm than good to others or herself.
The moment that life seemed to be going great life just had to give Rogue the verbally kick in the ass to remind her that her life sucked! Now, she was wandering down along a highway that was very lacking in cars.
How could life get any worse?
Rogue heard a car speeding down the road towards her; it was coming from the direction that Rogue had just came from. Turning around, Rogue saw that it was Marian's Oldsmobile coming at her.
"Oh no," she groaned, speeding up her pace.
"Rogue," Marian's voice cried out as the car pulled up along side the teen with its passenger window rolled down. "Rogue honey, get in the car."
Marian's voice didn't sound angry but Rogue didn't know want to make the mistake of trusting the woman only to find that Marian was only going to hand her (Rogue) over to some anti-mutant cult. Still, this was Marian; the woman was one of the sweetest people Rogue had ever met, besides Kitty.
"Go away Marian," Rogue choked out, she had been crying for a while after absorbing a bit of Morph. She did that most of the time when she accidentally absorbed someone who was not the enemy.
"Rogue," Marian called out again from her car.
The teen didn't reply again and she wasn't showing any signs of slowing down anytime soon.
With a frustrated sigh, Marian slowed down and pulled her car off to the side of the road. Pulling to a stop, Marian parked the car and turn off her vehicle.
If she's not going to get into the car then Ah'm going' to talk to her at least, Marian decided as she got out of the car and chased after Rogue. "Rogue honey, please stop and talk to me. Tell me what happened!"
What happened? The words repeated themselves constantly in Rogue's mind as she began running. Who doesn't know what happened? Ah completely screwed up one of the few good things in mah life!
"Oh!" Marian tripped over a rock and fell to the ground, it had caused Rogue to stop and turn around.
"Oh my Gawd!" Rogue cried out as she veered around to see Marian on the ground. All of a sudden the instinct to help this woman who had shown so much kindness towards her overwhelmed any possibility of a trap.
Reaching Marian, Rogue knelt down in front of her and put a gloved hand on the woman's shoulder. "Are you okay?" she inquired breathlessly.
"Yeah, yeah, Ah'm okay, jus' fell," assured Marian with a bit of an ironic smile touching her lips. "Guess my legs jus' aren't what they once were anymore, another sign that Ah'm growing old."
Rogue couldn't help but crack a tiny smile of her own. However, the moment soon passed and Rogue began to realize that she should be running again before Marian prevented her escape…
Too late, Marian had already grabbed hold of her wrist.
"Tell me why you're running Rogue," Marian implored, watching the young girl's face for any hints. The only hint was the downcast eyes and the sort of panic-ashamed expression that fell across Rogue's features. "Rogue…"
The young mutant could feel Marian's sympathy radiate off her and she could see the older woman move in to hug Rogue, but that was the last thing that Rogue wanted.
"Don't touch me," Rogue commanded softly as she backed away a bit.
Keeping her distance, Marian didn't want to spook Rogue or make the girl feel the need to run off again, Marian sat there and just put her hand on Rogue's gloved one. This was the first time that she had to ever deal with a runaway and Marian was at a complete lost of what to do, especially with this young girl who was obviously very distressed about something that had happened.
"Come back with me and explain it all to me, please," stated Marian softly, giving Rogue's hand a gentle squeeze.
Fear gripped at Rogue again. What if Ah hurt her? she thought in panic. "A-Ah can't."
Seeing that any ground that she may have ever gained with Rogue was slowly being lost, Marian had to try a different tactic.
"Rogue, look at me," she commanded gently. Slowly, cautiously, the girl looked up to stare at the older woman in the eye. "Ah'm not going' to leave ya here alone, Ah'm not going' to let anyone harm ya, an' Ah refuse to let ya wander on your own when you still have a place with Timothy and Ah. Now, please get in the car and Ah'll take ya back to the diner."
A look of terror crossed Rogue's face.
"You can stay in back and Timothy can help me out until closing. Ah'll close early and ya can explain everything to me tonight," Marian promised. "Okay?"
"You won't understand," Rogue muttered, looking down at the ground again.
Marian wanted to reach out a hand and tip Rogue's face up, but she knew that Rogue didn't wish to be touched for whatever reason. "Rogue, you have only known me for a week, and during that time you have learned what my daily life is like. Daily life is nothing compared to my history, so we're still strangers to each other. Don't presume to know what Ah do and don't understand, okay," reminded Marian.
She's right, we are strangers to each other still, thought Rogue, but the doubts of Marian's reaction being positive still lingered.
"Come on, let's get going so that Ah can relieve Carol of the work Ah have her doing," smiled Marian, rising to her feet and pulling Rogue with her. "Just promise me one thing hon, don't run away from me ever again."
A larger smile crossed Rogue's face this time. "Promise," she nodded, knowing that Marian had yet to let go of her hand. Most people would probably have reminded Marian to let go but Rogue preferred to enjoy the unaffected contact that she had with the woman, even if there was a piece of leather separating their skins.
Will she still do that when she knows the truth? Rogue wondered as she sat down in the car, no longer having that contact with Marian, and put on her seatbelt, what was left of one anyway.