Chapter 2

Apocalypse surveyed the world with a mixture of triumph, and the utmost revulsion. After all these years, he had returned to the world, but look what had become of it. He could smell it in the air, feel it all around him, seeping into his new, almost impenetrable body. The earth had become corrupt; the planet was now infested with lesser beings. It was his duty to cleanse the world, and those who would stand in his way would suffer the same fate as all the others.

He breathed deeply, taking in not only the dusty, decrepit air of the old tomb, but the scene around him. Torches burned brightly, sending flickers of lighting flying over the carved, sandy stonewalls. It was just as he remembered; yet it wasn't the same. The stale air had been disturbed before he had awoken, and now, the scent of humanity was thick in the tomb. It was disgusting really.

Apocalypse looked down, staring all the long way to the floor that he now towered above. Right in front of him, bent on his hands and knees, was the creature he supposed had been responsible for his return. It was a human, yet not quite. He was a mutant, a psychic in all likelihood. He was stooped low, his head bowed in both reverence and fear. It was right that he should feel fear.

He spoke, his voice ringing through the dim chamber, making the lit torches dance even more violently along the walls. 'Who are you mutant, and what exactly is your reason for being here?'

The man looked up in awe and shock, almost as if he were scared that his efforts had all gone to waste. There was a frightened stutter in his words as he answered. 'My….my name is Mesmero, and I am here to serve you, My lord Apocalypse.'

The giant considered his words. It was true, to really succeed in his quest to rid the world of pestilence, he would be needing the services of mutants, even if only temporarily. He looked again at the cowering man on the floor, weighing up his options. Yes he would require a band of mutants, but there was no real reason why he couldn't be selective about it. He was sure he could find another willing psychic somewhere.

Besides, there was something about this mutant he just found irritating. Maybe it was his total fear, maybe just his manner. He looked into the mans face, bestowed him a disgusted sneer, and used his newly resurrected power to ensure that that was the last thing Mesmero ever saw.



Rogue woke up suddenly, fighting the urge to scream. Beads of sweat coursed down her forehead, and she was breathing fast, as though she'd just run a thousand miles. She gripped the side of her bed tightly, as she felt spasms of fear and tension run through her body. After taking a few, steadying breaths, and trying her hardest not to wake up Kitty or Tabby, whom she was sharing a room with for the moment, Rogue tried to piece together just what it was that had caused her to wake up.

She'd had a nightmare, that much was obvious. But it wasn't a normal bad dream; it had lacked the absurdity of a normal nightmare. She just couldn't quite picture what she had seen in the dream, though at the same time she had been astounded at the real, lifelike quality her dream had taken. It was like having a memory, which you were almost convinced happened, but you can't remember exactly what happened. Rogue remembered a dark room; it was old, and musty. Perhaps a tomb? But then, if it were a tomb, why did she have the lingering impression of glistening metal, and life as well as death. Just what was it that she'd seen?

The thoughts were beginning to hurt her head. Rogue had become almost used to just naturally knowing things. When she'd turned sixteen, she'd sort of come of age, and had developed, well, pretty much every mutants power. It was only thanks to a necklace, which had been given to her by her mother, that she was able to properly control her powers, and ensure that they didn't get in the way of her everyday life.

That was another thing that had changed in Rogue's life since she'd turned sixteen. Her mother had revealed herself, and she'd turned out to be an enemy of Rogues, who'd been made to abandon her with another mutant, named Destiny, when she was only a baby. Since her birthday, she'd gained a family, a boyfriend, and a group of real friends. And she'd been responsible for the death of another person, another mutant. Tears threatened to escape from Rogue's shining eyes, now glistening in the moonlight like rare jewels. She couldn't keep living that night over and over again. Rahne had died, it was her fault, and she had to ensure that it would never happen again.

She tried once again to recall what it was that had woken her up, but the details were even foggier now than they were before. Rogue moved to rip her hair out in frustration, and then fell back down on top of her covers with a resigned sigh.

On the other side of the room, Kitty stirred, clearly in the middle of a much more pleasant dream than the one Rogue had experienced.

'Mmmm Lance' was all Rogue could pick out from the mumblings of her sleeping friend, but from the dizzy smile on the girls face, this was a dream she did not want to be disturbed from.

Rogue felt a smile cross her own face. She now shared a room with two of the real friends she had made since she turned sixteen and absolutely everything in her life was turned on it's head. Only a couple of weeks ago, Rogue and her various friends and associates had left behind absolutely everything they had once known, including professor Xavier and the X-men. Rogue didn't have any regrets about leaving, Xavier had been a control freak, he had been the one to cause that awful evening where Rahne was killed, and Rouge never wanted to see him again (she had made this pretty clear when she had left). She did however; miss the other X-men who had stayed at the institute, particularly Bobby. But she convinced herself that things changed, and that maybe Bobby could change his mind and come out to join them in Bedford falls.

The whole reason that they had ended up in Bedford was pretty interesting. After leaving Bayville and the institute, Rogue's initial plan had been to head north, and settle in a nice town somewhere near a city. She had however, made the mistake of giving map reading duties to Todd, and it had been about five hours before any of them had realised they were actually going in completely the wrong direction (Todd was never going to live it down). They had been planning to turn back, when Mystique, the only adult in the bunch, had spotted a sign for Bedford, and had immediately turned that way. It turned out that she knew someone who owned a house at the edge of the town, right near the beach, who could probably let them stay for a while. Unfortunately, when they got there, they discovered that Mystiques 'friend' had died some years ago, and that the house had been abandoned for a while.

Nobody had been interested in the house for years, and once meeting with the towns estate agents and lawyers to prove her connection to the previous owner, she was able to happily inform the teenagers that she had been able to purchase the house 'on the cheap', owing to her being a close friend of the old owner. To this, Pietro had raised his eyebrows indignantly, saying 'you didn't notice they'd died, how close a friend could they have been?'

And so, completely unaware of the intrigue surrounding them, the group had moved into the old mansion. It was almost as bad on the inside as it looked from the outside. Wallpaper was peeling from the cold stone beneath, and very little of the original carpets remained. But it was with grim determination, and incredible enthusiasm, that Mystique launched herself into the restoration of the house, along with the somewhat reluctant mutants. Over the few weeks they'd been there, they'd hardly ventured outside because they'd been so busy. New carpets had been laid down by Fred, Kurt, Lance and Scott had been entrusted to paint the entire house, Todd was entrusted with electrical repairs, being that that was the only class he'd ever paid any attention in back at Bayville, and Pietro was the delivery boy, zipping round the grounds with necessary tools and a sarcastic comment for all the workers.

The girls on the other hand, had decided to take upon themselves the extraordinary task of decorating the house, which consisted of flicking through home decorating magazines, and oohing and ahhing at pictures of furniture and curtain samples. When the things pulled up in the delivery trucks, the girls all screamed with excitement as the somewhat bemused deliverymen unloaded their cargo. When the trucks were safely out of eyesight, Rogue used her powers to lift the various bits and pieces to the desired places in the house, just how they had planned it. However, when the boys finally finished their various jobs, Rogue suddenly 'tired' of using so much energy, and for the next hour or so, the female members of the house watched with amusement as the boys struggled to move heavy loads round and round rooms, with Mystique yelling things like 'No, over there' and 'fool! That's the wrong way round!'

Lance was the first and last to get fed up with the treatment. Standing up for himself and his comrades, he announced 'that's it, we aren't gonna do this any more', with his arms crossed in defiance. Unfortunately, the moment he lifted his arms in rebellion, he sent the sofa he had been holding falling to the floor, and somehow his foot managed to break its fall. It was funny, Tabby remarked later, just how much like a girl Lance Alvers sounded when he was screaming.

But as Rogue looked around the darkened room now, she was forced to admit that the guys had done a good job. The room they slept in was massive, and more than enough to fit three beds. The warm colours surrounding the beds gave the place a cosy, safe feel, and the window that was the rooms focal piece was emphasised dramatically with flowing, velvet red drapes. There were more than enough bedrooms in the house to give everyone their own room, but the three girls had been adamant that they would be sharing. After everything that happened in the past, nobody really wanted to be alone at night anymore. The only person to brave a single room was Mystique of course, who occupied the bedroom that was adjacent to the girls. On the other side was the room housing Kurt and Scott, and opposite were Fred and Todd, with Lance and Pietro down another corridor. Despite both Kitty and Rogue's protests, Mystique would just not risk letting her daughter sleep so close to her boyfriend. Rogue had protested that that Kurt was next door with Tabby in their room, but it was to no avail. Tabby's laughter at this argument had started what was to become the first and biggest pillow fight the girls had ever taken part in.

After all the decorating had been done, they'd only had a couple of days left before they had to start school. Mystique had enrolled them at the local high school sometime during the summer, and had told them all, in no uncertain terms, that they would be attending. Rogue had to admit that letting Mystique take a bigger role in her life was one of the best things she'd ever done. Not only did her mother ensure that all Rogue's problems were not dealt with alone, but she also felt that she was getting closer to Mystique every day. Knowing that she had family on either side of her was a great feeling, but it would have been even greater knowing that Pietro was across the wall.

She was kind of looking forward to tomorrow, which would be her first day at the new school. Rogue still hadn't actually seen it yet, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that, for the first time, she was going to walk through school doors knowing that she was being completely herself, and not worrying about getting close to anyone, or letting anyone in. she wasn't alone anymore.

Rogue gave another sigh, that was far less frustrated, and sunk into her bed, letting the gentle noise of the breeze outside lull her into a contented sleep. As her eyes drooped shut, and her thoughts drifted away, so did all her thoughts of that disturbing dream.



'Argh Kurt, that's the fifth time you've done that this summer!', was what Rogue woke up to the next morning. She opened her eyes blearily to see sunlight streaming in through the window, and a very angry Tabby standing sodden in a bathrobe. Rogue smiled sleepily. She could already guess what had happened.

'Kurt' Tabby scolded, doing her best at being very angry, 'will you please stop Bamfing into the bathroom when I am showering. And I know what you're about to say' she said, cutting off the fuzzy blue elf who was about to speak, before continuing, 'but I don't care who you are, once is an accident, but five times is most definitely not.'

Kurt looked down, trying to hide his smile with a pretend frown, 'dammit' he muttered huffily, 'I've still yet to see anything good.' Then, seeming to forget that he could teleport, he ran from the room, with his girlfriend chasing after him.

Rogue laughed at them both, and then threw herself out of bed, digging her feet into the carpet and stretching luxuriously, letting out a big yawn. After washing she went to her wardrobe, and picked out whatever was nearest. She didn't really care how she dressed today. She yanked a brush through her hair, pulling it into some sort of order, before grabbing her bag and heading down to the kitchen for breakfast.

Tabby and Kurt were noticeably missing, but the rest of the house was present, all eating fruit or the fattiest food they could find. Rogue smiled across at Lance, who returned her grin, before she walked up behind the mass of silvery blond hair that was Pietro. She mussed up his hair softly, and before he could react, brought her lips down to his by means of saying good morning. It wasn't like he was complaining about it.

Quicksilver pulled pack, slightly breathless, and Rogue took that opportunity to steal his grapefruit half, running to the other side of the table and high fiving Todd before sitting down. Pietro looked mortified. 'Awww Rogue, I feel so used, and the was the last piece!'

Rogue looked up from her food, and gave him a quick grin. 'Sorry honey, but we'll get you a new grapefruit.'

'Jezebel' Pietro muttered, frowning. Down the table, Rogue stuck her tongue out at him, and then laughed at Fred and Mystique, who was trying desperately to keep up with the boy's demands for pancakes. As it turned out, Fred could eat a lot faster than Mystique could cook. Rogue looked at the plate of food that was about to be guzzled, and stuck out her hand, doubling the amount of pancakes there. Both Mystique and Fred gave her grateful looks. Rogue rose from the table and made to finish getting ready, when Pietro, who had looked like he was deep in thought, stopped her.

'Hey, how come you didn't do that with the grape fruit?' he shouted, moving to follow her as she left the room. On their way out, they bumped into Tabby and Kurt, both with their arms locked firmly around the other. Noting Rogue's raised eyebrows, Tabby smirked at her friend, saying 'we made up.' Before sauntering into the kitchen, Rogue noting that they had their hands in each other's pockets.

Shaking her head, she went upstairs, with Pietro in tow, determined to get his girlfriend to replenish their grapefruit supply.



It took quite a few minutes to get everyone into the cars. Lance was at the wheel of the jeep, trying to calm down an excited Kitty, who was jumping up and down on the seat in anticipation. 'Ooh, I wonder if like, they'll have the same classes as they had back at Bayville. And what if he people are the same type, and what if the school works differently, and what if..' Lance clamped a hand over her mouth gently, and looked into her eyes with an amused expression. Kitty giggled.

Scott came out the door and threw himself into the back seat, looking slightly nervous and apprehensive. Behind him, Rogue gave his arm a friendly squeeze. She was sort of worried about Scott. He had given up everything to come with them, even though he didn't really fit in. she hoped that would change once they started school. Scott gave her a reassuring look, and she then climbed into the front seat of the other car, driven by Mystique. In the back seat, Pietro was looking particularly sour faced; being stuck next to a gooey eyed Kurt and Tabby. Rogue rolled her eyes, and reached into her bag, handing something to him in the back seat that made Pietro's eyes light up.

'A grapefruit! You do care!' he said in fake voice, wiping an imaginary tear from his eyes. Rogue tried to hit him in the arm, and failed miserably.

The drive to school was pretty uneventful, put as they pulled up to the gates; Rogue was shocked to see that a large crowd of students and teachers had assembled in front of the entrance.

'We can't be that interesting, can we?' Rogue murmured, looking at the assembled party in shock.

'Oh well' Kurt said, shrugging his shoulders, 'might as well get this over with'. He and Tabby opened the door and stepped out the car. Rogue was about to follow suit, when Mystique touched her arm. 'Have a good day dear' she said, a smile playing at her lips.

Rogue nodded, and leaned over to kiss her mother on the cheek, 'see you later mom.' She said, grinning like an idiot as she got out the car and into Pietro's arms. She noticed that the crowd dropped jaws slightly when they looked at her, which made her slightly uncomfortable. But as she passed the crowds, she could see two girls talking about her, baring a startling resemblance to friends of Jean Grey. She caught some of their comments, and stopped still on hearing one of the girls describe her as a 'slut'.

A year ago, a comment like that would have sent Rogue flying home to change, or to the toilet in embarrassment. But she raised her arm in a wave, sent the girl flying to the floor, and reminded herself that this was definitely not last year.

DISCLAIMER: Characters and situation are property of Marvel and WB

AUTHORS NOTE: Yay!! Chapter 2!! Now I've done both perspectives, I can actually get into the story!!! Chapters should be longer than last time, because I have a lot more storylines (I hope). So keep reading, and I hope you enjoy this story as much as you enjoyed the last one! REVIEW!!!!!