Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men Evolution. There is has been said, please don't sue!

Summary: When life at the Institute becomes too much for Rogue she leaves to make a life for herself. Little does she know that she will find real friendship and a new family with the Acolytes.

I hope everyone enjoys the first chapter of this story.

The voices are getting louder. It is so hard to control them sometimes and lately it is getting even more difficult. All the new mutants here at the Institution make mediation impossible and there is no personal space…

Rogue stared down at the words she had written and with an angry growl grabbed the journal and hurled it at the wall. The little mental voice in her head that had suggested writing her thoughts down in a journal was going to die a slow painful death when she got a-hold of it. She stood and threw herself onto her bed. The Institute was oddly quiet and she had to remind herself that the peace wouldn't last when the new mutants got back from school.

Rogue had graduated from Bayville High two years ago and had decided to stay with the X-men, in part because she had no where else to go. She had no life plan and or family to go back to so there wasn't really a place for her to go. She could have sought out Mystique but what did you say when your mother was a psychopathic shape-shifting terrorist? It really didn't make for great mother daughter bonding.

As she thought about Mystique Rogue's head began to hurt and she buried her head in her pillow as several of the personalities in her head started giving her advice on her mother.

Stop! She begged silently. Much to her relief they quieted down but not without leaving behind a terrible headache. Rogue felt tears in her eyes and didn't try to stop them from falling. After all her years at the Xavier Institute she still hadn't gained any control and it was starting to aggravate her. Xavier kept taking in more and more new mutants and helping them with their mutations but he seemed to have forgotten about Rogue. She resented him for that. He had promised to help her but he wasn't.

She hated how her life was turning out. She was twenty years old with no plans for the future. She got a meager allowance from Xavier but she was saving that for a bike so she didn't spend very much of it and she still shared a room with bouncy, happy Kitty.

Just as Rogue was beginning to enjoy the relative silence of the house it was interrupted by the slamming of the front door. Rogue winced painfully as a dozen voices flooded her senses and several of the boys thundered up the stairs towards their rooms. She almost screamed at them as they ran past her room but decided that it was too much effort. Besides, yelling at them would only make them more nervous around her.

Every student at the Institute was warned on arrival by the older members of the house that Rogue had a temper and that her skin was dangerous to touch. They thought that she didn't hear the whispered warnings but she did and they hurt her a lot.

Suddenly Kitty phased through the door of their room and Rogue pretended to be asleep as the other girl fumbled around for whatever she was looking for. She was tempted to tell the younger girl to get out but didn't. Half the room did belong to Kitty after all. When the other girl had finally phased through the door Rogue relaxed a little and was about to get up when the boys from earlier came thundering back down the hall. Once they were gone Rogue suddenly felt drained and sleepy. With a sigh she buried her head in the pillow again and drifted off to sleep. She was rudely awakened by the voice of Jean Grey several hours later.

Rogue had awoken with a start expecting to see the perky red head hovering over her. She was not surprised to find the room empty. Jean's mind invaded her thoughts again and informed her that it was time for dinner. Rogue screamed and used all her mental strength to banish Jean from her mind as abruptly as possible. The constant invasion of privacy was something that also bothered Rogue. Jean saw it fit to invade her thoughts constantly. Most of the time Rogue kept strong barriers up that kept the girl out but when she was asleep those barriers fell slightly.

This particular invasion of privacy was the last straw for Rogue. She decided to leave the Institute, that night, and let them worry about her disappearance when they found her gone. That settled Rogue made her way down to dinner. She had spent the meal in silence and excused herself as quickly as possible. As she stood she had felt Jean gently poking at her brain to find out what was wrong.

Rogue had tried to ignore the invasion but as she got closer to Jean's chair and the telepath continued to pry Rogue lost it. She stopped behind Jean's chair and grabbed it. With all her strength, and a little that wasn't her own, she spun the chair around so she and Jean where face to face. She then leaned down and grabbed Jean's sweater to pull the frightened girl closer to her.

"If ya ever mess with mah head again I won't stop mahself from hurting ya. Mah head is mah head and I don't nead you invadin mah privacy." Rogue hissed as she dropped Jean back in her chair. During her outburst Scott had stood up and moved forward to stop her. Instead of stopping her he now had the full wrath of her fury turned on him.

"Go ahead Summers, help yer precious girl friand. Just leave mah alone." With that she turned and stormed from the dining hall. She got partially down the hallway before she allowed a satisfied smile to cross her face. That had felt so good. She had wanted to do that since she had met Jean and she had finally gotten to. It was too bad that she would be gone before she got to see Jean again. With a content sigh Rogue made her way to her room to start packing.

Her packing had been interrupted a few minutes later by the sound of timed knocking. Rogue didn't bother to look up and eventually the door cracked open and Kitty poked her head in.

"Are you like okay Rogue? Everyone was pretty worried when you stormed out." Rogue turned to look at her roommate.

"A'm fine Kitty ah just couldn't take Jean invading mah privacy anytime she wants to and ah snapped." Kitty nodded.

"I like totally understand Rogue. I would probably get pretty mad if she invaded my mind like she does to you." Now it was Rogue's turn to nod.

"Yah have no idea how bad it gets sometahmes Kit."

"Well I just like wanted to make sure you were like okay. I was like worried you know? Anyway, we are watching a movie downstairs. Do you want to join us? I'll get Bobby to give up his chair so nobody has to worry about touching your skin." Rogue had almost agreed until Kitty threw in the part about Bobby. The younger girl hadn't even realized that she had hurt Rogue by what she had said.

"Naw Kit, Ah'll pass. Thanks for the offer though." Kitty shrugged her shoulders and left Rogue alone in the room. With her roommate gone Rogue turned back to her bed and knelt down. She pulled a shoe box out from under the bed and placed it on the bed. She then sat down and opened it. This box held all the money she had been saving since graduation.

To her pleasant surprise the box was much fuller then she thought it was. She slowly began taking the bills out and counting them. By the time she was finished she was overjoyed to find that she had saved almost a thousand dollars over the last couple years. It still wasn't enough to buy a bike with but it would buy bus fair and pay for a hotel wherever she decided to go.

Now that she knew how much she had she had to decide where she was going. Someplace warm, you have been up north for too long. It would be nice to go back home.One of the voices in her head suggested. Rogue couldn't help but feel a slight bit of appreciation for that particular voice. It was one of the few kind voices she had absorbed and it often offered advice and counseling. This was the voice that had told her to try the journal and Rogue decided that killing this voice wasn't such a good idea after all.

South it is then, how about New Orleans? I've always wanted to see the Big Easy. The little voice seemed excited about the prospect and Rogue made up her mind and reached over to grab the cell phone she had gotten last Christmas. She called the bus agency and they informed her that the next bus leaving for New Orleans would leave at 8:30 am. Rogue booked a ticket on that bus and got the location for boarding information. She then sought out the little voice in her head and told her to safeguard the information.

The little voice readily agreed and happily accepted the task it had been assigned. With the worry about transportation out of the way Rogue returned to packing. She shoved her clothes into her duffle bag and then began collecting some of her more important possessions. She left the band posters and wall coverings up but packed most everything else. She really didn't have a lot of stuff and the room, while slightly different didn't look like she was abandoning it in the morning.

She walked over to the window and opened it. She and Kitty had a room that had a patio that was overhung by an awning. It was one of the few nice things about the room. Currently there was a large patio chair that was big enough to keep her duffel from sight and she stashed the bag under the chair until she was ready to go.

Kitty returned to the room a couple hours later to find Rogue in bed. The older girl was pretending to be asleep but in truth she was listening as the sounds of the house died down. Shortly after midnight she felt safe enough to leave her room. She got up quietly and grabbed the change of clothes she had left under her pillow. She then made her way to the bathroom where she changed.

After going back to her room she pulled on her shoes and opened the window. She wasn't worried about waking Kitty because the girl could sleep through a tornado and not be phased. Once she was outside she closed the window and grabbed her bag from under the chair. She dropped the bag over the patio railing and watched as it landed with a soft thud on the ground. There was nothing breakable inside because she had put things such as her CD player in her backpack which she had also placed under the chair.

Now all she had to do was reach the ground without killing herself. She looked around until her eyes fell on one of the towering flower terraces that Storm had put in a few months ago. With courage born of desperation she leaned over the rail and grabbed the frame. It bent slightly but held her weight. As quickly as possible she started climbing down. Reaching the ground was easier then she had thought it would be and she grabbed her duffle bag. She then made her way across the grounds to the security gate. After entering her access code she made her way outside and the gate closed silently behind her.

A small smile graced Rogue's lips as she watched the gate close behind her.

We all have to make our own choices and I made mine. Good bye X-men hello life.

Yea, first chapter done. Please review, I LOVE review! Feel free to say what you think, but please don't flame.