Chapter 34: Revelations and Bonding with Rogue

Rogue smiled sadly.

"Ah didn't know who it was for."

Alara nodded, staring at the picture.

"Why are you crying?" Alara asked, glancing up from the picture.

"Ah don't know. Ah just walked in on Scott and Jean and they were kissing and…"

"Scott and Jean? Why would you cry about that?"

Rogue's eyes filled with tears and she began to sob.

"Ah like Scott."

Alara blushed furiously.

"Oh. I'm sorry… I didn't know."

"It's all right. No one but Kitty and now you know that ah like him."

Alara hung her head slightly.

"I won't tell anyone."

Rogue smiled, sniffing and brushing a tear off.

"Ah'm glad."

Alara looked up to the wall and sighed.

"I'm in that sort of predicament."

"Oh really? What are you sad about, sugah?"

"I like someone too, but he's going out with Kitty."

"Lance?"

"No," Alara exclaimed, laughing.

"Kurt?"

Alara nodded.

"Sugah, Kitty's not goin' out with Kurt because she likes him. Kurt agreed to go out with her to get even with Lance."

"Oh… Really?" Alara asked hopefully.

Rogue nodded.

"Why would ah lie?"

Alara shrugged.

"I lie all the time."

Rogue and Alara laughed slightly and Alara smiled gently.

"You want something to drink?"

Rogue nodded.

"Please."

Alara looked to her dresser and held her hand out. Two Cokes flew from the dresser to her hand. She caught one and the other levitated in front of her face. Suddenly, the can and its contents became transparent and it phased through the wall towards Rogue, who reached out to picked it out of the air. When she touched it, it solidified into a can of soda again and Rogue opened it, the carbonation fizzing. Alara smiled as she opened hers and it fizzed as well. They both drank their sodas and burped loudly, laughing heartily afterwards. Rogue looked at Alara.

"You really cain't see me?"

Alara nodded.

"But you knew where to send the Coke."

Alara nodded again.

"I can sense where you are just by reading your thoughts. I can see through your eyes even, if I wanted to."

Rogue blinked slowly.

"You can read mah thoughts?"

Alara nodded for the third time and replied, "I watched Jean make her brush move by levitation this morning so I can do that now and Xavier has spoken to me once or twice and read my mind once so I can do that."

"Really? And you don't want to do anything with that power?'

Alara shook her head.

"I don't believe in things like that. It's an invasion of privacy."

Rogue stared at her for a minute.

"You don't seem like you're surging."

Alara smiled.

"I can feel it surging though. If I try to change into something other than myself, I'll change into something different."

Rogue nodded.

"Ah suppose that seems right."

"Hey, you can absorb people's powers, right?"

Rogue looked at her suspiciously.

"Yeah."

"Absorb some of my energy and it'll mean that I won't be surging any more."

"Ah don't know. Ah'm not sure that would solve the problem."

"Can I at least try it? I want to get out of here!"

"Well…"

"If you do, I'll do anything! I swear!"

Rogue then looked interested.

"Really?"

Alara nodded.

"How ahre you going to get it so I can touch you?"

Alara winced.

"I'm taking a huge risk if any number of things going wrong, but I'm going to try to do to me what I did to that Coke."

"AHRE YOU CRAZY? YOU COULD CUT YER ARM OFF AND AH'LL GET IN TROUBLE!"

"Ready?" Alara asked, starting to turn transparent. Rogue stared fearfully as Alara stuck her arm through the glass.

"Hurry Rogue. I can't keep this up forever like Kitty can."

"Kitty cain't keep it-."

"Okay. Okay. Just hurry. Please."

Rogue took off one of her gloves and put a hand on Alara's arm. Suddenly, alarms went off as Rogue began to drain Alara. Alara closed her eyes in pain, trying to keep herself transparent. Before Rogue could finish, however, Xavier came in with Logan and Scott. Rogue let go of Alara, who fell backwards a second before turning whole again. The alarms shut off quickly.

"Owwwwwwwwwww…" Alara groaned.

"Alara," Xavier called to her. "What were you doing?"

Alara sat up painfully.

"I got Rogue to try to suck up my powers so that I wouldn't be surging anymore."

Rogue rubbed her hand, which had begun to burn. She put her glove back on quickly.

"Rogue, that probably wasn't a wise decision on your part," Scott scolded her, causing Rogue to look at her feet.

Alara, and only Alara, felt the heartache Rogue felt as he scolded her.

Damn that Scott. How dare he scold Rogue. He's making her feel really bad, Alara thought. She glared at Scott with fire in her eyes.

"Leave her alone, Geek Boy! It's not her fault!"

"Calm down Alara," Xavier replied, before Scott, who was scowling, could reply. "We know it was your doing."

Alara nodded solemnly.

"I just wanted to get out."

Rogue's hand started burning even more, causing her face to scrunch up painfully. Logan looked over at Rogue.

"Hey kid. You okay?"

"What's happening?" Alara asked, trying to see.

Rogue took the glove off again to see her hand had begun to turn purple and swollen. Logan snarled in surprise, Scott gasped slightly and Xavier, upon seeing this, rolled over to the glass wall. Alara was sitting on her right hand absent-mindedly.

"Alara. Let me see your hand."

Alara held up her left hand robotically.

"The other one."

She held up her right hand, glancing at it, then screamed briefly and gawked at it, startled by the sight. Her arm was purple and swollen up to the elbow. Thin, red cuts formed on her skin and a spot shaped like a hand was the only place it wasn't. She blinked slowly, thinking it was a hallucination, but after a moment, she began to poke her arm gingerly. Pain shot through it, causing her to cry out.

"What happened to my arm?" she cried out.