Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any of the characters

Chapter 8: Dream

Corey sat on the cold metal in the medical bay of Xavier's School, hugging his knees to his chest. He rocked slightly back and forth, whimpering occasionally. Over the past week his visions of the Cured, those who had taken the mutant "Cure", had spilled out of the realm of sleep and now constantly haunted him.

"Corey, do you want me to try and bind your powers again?" Alice asked, sliding onto the table next to him while avoiding skin contact. His visions had become so overpowering that when he made skin contact with anyone some of his visions transferred in his mind's effort to maintain his sanity.

"No," he sobbed quietly, burying his head into his knees. "They'll just come back worse if we try that. Just…just wait for Dr. McTaggert and Professor Xavier."

Alice looked at Corey, clearly concerned. Her hands clenched the edge of metal table, unconsciously shifting its polished silver surface through every color of the rainbow as she did so.

"Hello," Xavier said genially as he walked into the room. Moira walked in behind him, a small tablet PC in her arms. He considered asking how Corey was feeling, but when he saw him rocking on the table he drew his own conclusions.

Moira bustled over to the medical bay's computer and connected her tablet to it. A double helix instantly popped up, a small portion of which was highlighted and enlarged.

"Have you figured out what's wrong?" Alice stood, compulsively straightening her skirt and altering its color out of nervousness.

"We believe we have," Moira smiled at the girl, wanting to reassure her. Corey was far beyond caring whether they had discovered what was wrong with him at that point and was merely struggling to maintain his sanity.

"Would you like to explain, Moira?" Xavier asked, "Or would you like me to?"

"I think you should field this one Xavier, I'll take the next one," she replied, barely comprehending the complexities of what he was asking her to explain herself, let alone explain it to two fifteen year old who were emotionally rattled as it was.

"All right, where to begin?" Xavier asked himself quietly. He remained silent for several seconds before looking directly at Corey. "As everyone in this room is aware you are an extremely powerful telekinetic, telepath and clairvoyant. In fact, the upper limits of your psionic powers are unknown, but they surpass that of anyone alive on this earth."

Corey had stopped rocking to listen to Xavier, although his eyes were as wild and unfocused as they had been for the past several days. But Alice had the weird sense that he understood every word the Professor was saying.

"Just as everyone is aware of the persecution of mutants who are unable to hide their mutations," the Professor continued. Alice nodded, involuntarily glancing at Corey's indigo hair and pointed ears. "This is why you unconsciously repressed the segment of the mutant gene that would be visible to the naked eye."

"What?" Corey and Alice asked in unison, the former shocked out of his near catatonia by the impossibility of the statement while the latter was just shocked.

"Your subconscious knew the persecution you would face if this part of your mutant gene was active," Xavier repeated slowly, allowing the teens time to process the information, "so it used your telekinesis to repress that part of your gene and then placed potent telepathic barriers in the way to make sure you never discovered that part of your power was constantly being diverted to repress the gene."

"So what's going on then?" Alice asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Her skirt, which had been shifting slowly from color to color was now a rapidly swirling mass of shades and hues.

"I'm not sure," Xavier admitted, stroking his chin. "My best guess would be that Corey unconsciously felt guilty for repressing part of who he is and wished to release that part of him but lacked the power to…so he formed a connection with those in a similar circumstance, the Cured, in an effort to break-down the telepathic barriers. Unfortunately his conscious mind is fighting this change and is drawing out what should have been a relatively quick process."

"So what are you going to do?" Corey asked, slowly slipping back into the catatonia into which he had briefly risen out of.

"With your permission I'm going to put your conscious mind entirely to sleep and allow your subconscious to do its job," Xavier said, already making the necessary preparations in his own mind.

"Whatever," Corey replied, not even bothering to look up.

"I promise this won't hurt a bit," Xavier assured, gently pressing his hands on both sides of the young teenager's head.

"Depends on who's in Wonderland," Corey drawled as his eyes glazed over and then shut.

xXx

"Hello," Corey called, scanning the wreckage for someone, anyone, who would answer him, "Is anybody there?"

"No need to shout Corey," Rogue replied, stepping from behind a broken wall. She was wearing a brown tank-top that was virtually the same color as the blasted landscape around her, and would have been incredibly hard to spot if it had not been for her single lock of snow white hair. "I'm right here."

"And where is here? What is this place?" Corey gestured at the broken wall, the pillars, shattered marble and broken busts. Everything was a dingy brown, as if some great explosion had covered it with dirt. But even under a layer of filth where he was standing became instantly recognizable.

"No!' he sobbed, sinking to the floor. "What happened here, what happened to Xavier's?"

"Nothing," Rogue replied calmly, kneeling next to him. "This isn't Xavier's, so nothing could have happened to it," she explained to him, seeing his scared, searching gaze.

"Then where are we?" Corey asked, his mind unable to accept that he was not sitting in a condemned Xavier's, even though he knew that less than a second ago he had been sitting in a medical bay, barely able to hear himself think over the rush of voices from those who had taken the Cure.

"About one hundred years in the future," Rogue said, cocking her head to one side. "Actually, in your mind, in the future. It's hard to explain, English doesn't really have the proper verb tenses for time travel or precognition."

"One hundred years?" Corey managed to gasp, his indigo eyes swirling with fear. "But I'm not that powerful of a clairvoyant, my whole deal is telekinesis."

"Wrong," Rogue replied, gently stroking his cheek and then pulling her hand away. "You are possibly the most powerful clairvoyant in the world, rivaled only by the seer Destiny. Everyone in this time knows that."

"But, you can't be one hundred years in the future; you look like you're only sixteen still. And this can't be the future, not this doomed, blasted place. The Sentinels sound bad, but they can't be this destructive!" Corey cried, gesturing at her, and then at the ruined landscape. "It just can't be!"

"Wrong on all counts," Rogue sighed sadly, standing up and taking his hands. "I'm not in the future. In fact, the Rogue you know will be dead before next Christmas, just like all of the other X-Men. And this is the future, at least in one possible timeline. But it's not caused by the Sentinels; it's caused by someone far more deadly."

Corey looked at Rogue, speechless. She was standing there, telling him that this was what the world would be in one hundred years, but she would be dead before the age of twenty-one, and that the Sentinels, the greatest threat to mutant kind, was not the cause. It was just impossible.

"You're lying," Corey hissed, stepping away from her. "Why would I have a vision of you, in the future, if you're already dead? And why you? I barely know you, why isn't Alice talking to me? She's my girlfriend. And what does all of this have to do with my mutation?"

"Listen," Rogue hissed, pulling him close to her face, "there isn't much time, and he's coming. This little message is being given to you by mutants in the future. You won't remember most of it, and what you do with be nothing more than a vague feeling when you look at someone you care about who is going to die, or hear a statement about the future."

Corey looked away, thoroughly chastised. Whatever was going on, he didn't think she was lying, and it seemed important.

"What I'm about to say you will remember, all though it will make little sense to you until all seems lost," Rogue once again took his hands in hers, comforting him like a sister comforts a little brother during a storm.

"The mutants are using Rogue as an avatar because in the end, it will be she who matters most, and it will be she who drives you to the solution if the circumstances are right," Rogue said slowly, as if reciting something a teacher had made her memorize. "In the end, when all seems lost and you wish to comfort the one who shares your heart, it is her you must go to."

Corey looked deeply into her eyes, willing to see some small piece of her that was lying, that this was only a figment of his imagination, but all he saw was the truth, and a deep, terrible sorrow.

"I'm sorry this burden has been placed on you," Rogue said quietly, looking away. "That is why I will tell you that the future is responsible for the repression of your mutation. They knew about they Cure, and about your power level, so they took steps to make sure your conscious mind would be put entirely under at some point to give you this message. After this, your visions of the future will be more…prosaic. I really am sorry for any pain this has caused you."

"Why are you sorry? This isn't your fault, and going with what you told me, you didn't even exist until the Professor put me under, and you won't exist once I'm awake," Corey said, feeling her sorrow.

"I am real, in your mind. I have emotions, and feelings, and a past. I'm a messenger, gifted with the knowledge of all of the mutants who wished to communicate with you, but in your head I'm also a person," Rogue said simply, kissing him on the cheek. Rosy light was beginning to filter through the crack in the wall behind her, surrounding her in a gentle halo.

"Sun is coming up," she whispered in his ear, hugging him fiercely, "time to go back through the looking glass."

xXx

Rogue stared down at Kitty and Piotr who were kissing on the bench next to the fountain. Although she was not aware of it, tears were flowing down her cheeks as she stood there, watching her two friends sitting exactly where she and Bobby had sat weeks earlier.

"Are you okay?" Angel asked quietly, his feathers rustling slightly as he walked up behind her. She jumped slightly, shocked at how quietly he had crept up behind her and a little angry that he had seen her crying.

"I'm fine," Rogue lied, her voice cracking. She wiped her eyes quickly on her sleeve and turned to face the older man. "I just had something in my eye."

"That is the oldest cover-up in the book," Angel teased, moving slightly closer. He was so close that she could smell his cologne, mixed with the scent of baby powder, probably from whatever he used to keep his wings clean. It was new, and Rogue found it rather intoxicating.

"As you already know I just broke up with my boyfriend, I think I have a right to be a little upset," Rogue countered breathily, her nose and throat clogged from crying.

"Really, from what I hear you two were over a while ago. Are you sure you're not upset about the fact that you lied to yourself for so long? Or that you took the Cure for someone who didn't love you? Or that your powers came and you just realized how much being a mutant meant to you?" Angel pressed, looking deeply into her eyes. He took another step closer until she was almost touching his bare chest.

Rogue looked up into his eyes and saw the same sadness she felt. He felt the same sorrow: at not being able to truly be part of the world, of being made an outcast by your power, and even at not being able to be with someone because of his mutation. She felt a connection with him in a way that she had never felt connected to Bobby.

"Is there an all of the above answer?" Rogue stepped slightly closer until her body was pressed tightly against his. "Because that's the one I think I need."

"Hmmm, I think I may need to come up with a new multiple choice test," Angel joked, looking deeply into her eyes. He bent his neck slightly, unconsciously trying to kiss her, but before he even got close a gloved hand stopped him.

"No," Rogue said firmly, feeling his lips through her paper thin gloves. In less than a week she felt the pain that came with not being able to touch anyone, of being completely isolated and alone. "I can't."

"Is that why you took the Cure?" Angel asked, taking her hand. "Because you can't touch?"

Rogue stared at his hand for a second, wondering what it really felt like, and knowing that she would probably never know. "Yes," she whispered, folding his hand gently against his chest. "My mutation makes it so that I absorb life-force on skin contact. Normal humans are put into a persistent vegetative state, and mutants I absorb their powers. Before the Cure the power absorption was temporary, now it's permanent. It was uncontrollable before…and after."

"Are you sure?" Angel bent in closer, almost whispering now. "Are you sure it's uncontrollable? Have you even tried to control it since the Cure?" he asked, trying once again to kiss her. Once again she blocked him.

"No, and I don't plan on testing my powers anytime soon," she replied, whispering too. "My first boyfriend is in a coma, and my second I recently knocked unconscious for twelve hours. I really don't think testing it is a good idea."

"You're right," Angel nodded, pulling away slightly. Then, in one fluid motion, he wrapped his arms around her and planted his lips firmly on hers.

Rogue tried to pull away, but found that he was too strong. She was beginning to curse the time she had not had her powers, because that meant she did not have to take any of the Danger Room sessions, and was a little out of shape as a result.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. She could already feel Angel's energy beginning to flow into her body, and knew that Angel would die if she did not do anything. She concentrated on where her body met his, willing an invisible barrier to stop the flow. At first nothing happened, but slowly the flow died. She even found that once the barrier just beneath her skin had been erected she did not even have to concentrate to maintain it.

Her eyes slowly flickered open to Angel's muscular chest. But she slowly raised her head until she was looking into his deep blue eyes.

"You were right," he smiled at her, bending in to kiss her again, "that was a really bad idea."

xXx

Corey's eyes flickered open, the bright florescent lights temporarily blinding him. As his eyes adjusted to the blinding white he became aware that at some point in his sleep he had been laid along the table, his shirt removed and the wires to several machines strapped to his chest.

After several minutes he sat up, willing the wires off as he did so. Corey glanced around the room which was almost entirely empty save Alice, who was sitting in the corner of the room reading.

"Hey Alice," Corey croaked, his throat incredibly dry. "How's it going?"

"Corey!" she jumped out of the chair, her book dematerializing as she did so. She ran to the table and embraced him tightly. "You're okay," she sobbed quietly into his ear. "I was so worried."

"How long have I been out?" Corey sat up slowly as the room spun around his head.

"A day and a half," Alice supplied, releasing him and stepping back. As he stood up her eyes roamed from his feet to his chest and finally to his face, fear and joy intermingled on her face. "What was it like?"

"I don't really remember," he responded slowly, sauntering over to the counter and checking through the drawers and cabinets. "It's all a blur. I think I was in the mansion, talking to someone...a girl I think…and she said something like in the end, when all seems lost and it is the one who shares your heart you wish to comfort, you must go to her. I think it was talking about you…and Rogue," he looked up, confusion clouding his sharp features. "That doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Not really," Alice replied, walking over to him. "But then again you've been having visions of people whose lives have been turned upside down by the Cure, you've barely slept for thirty minutes straight in week, why wouldn't your dreams be a little strange?" she asked as she embraced him from behind. "What are you looking for?"

"My shirt and stuff," he said absent mindedly, rummaging through another drawer. "I can't find it."

"I took it upstairs," she whispered in his ear, pressing tightly against him and biting his ear gently.

"You'd better not let Xavier or Logan see us doing this," he teased, turning around and pressing against her. "Did you at least bring me something to change into?"

"No, it didn't. I didn't sleep well last night in that chair and my mind is a little fuzzy. Besides, I think you should probably grab something from the team lockers, I don't think your old clothes will fit well," Alice said quietly as she pulled away from him.

"What do you mean?"

"Look in the mirror," she replied, blushing slightly.

Corey walked across the room to the full length mirror, realizing as he did so that he did not need his glasses anymore. But the image in the mirror was almost unrecognizable, at least below the head. Before he had been thin, although not particularly muscular or athletic, but apparently his remaining mutations had dealt not only with his mind, but his body.

The vast majority of his body fat appeared to have been metabolized, which only accentuated the new muscle that had suddenly grown overnight. And his skin, which had been pale and heavily freckled, was now a pale, enchanting blue.

"I've got to say that the whole bookish, little brother, quiet thing you had going before made you pretty adorable but now you're hot in an bookish, athletic, elf way," she said, coming up behind him, a large smile plastered on her face.

"Thanks," Corey replied wryly, crossing his arms across his chest. "But do you think we could find me a shirt and some socks, we're underground and the tiles floors are pretty cold."

"Sure," she took his arm and began leading him to the doorway when a shout broke the relative silence.

"Professor Xavier," the familiar voice of Syren called, her voice amplified by her mutant ability.

"What's going on?" Alice asked. Corey's eyes glowed with soft blue light, the only sign that he was actively using his powers of clairvoyance. Fear and confusion invaded his eyes as the light faded.

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, but I had a lot going on. And school's starting soon, so I thought that I would forewarn everyone that it might take me longer to get new chapter up that usual (though not this long I hope). I hope you like this chapter.

Just so you know, the next two chapter are character profiles on Alice and Corey (which may be updated periodically with new things or things I've forgotten). People have asked questions about their abilities and power levels and stuff, so I thought I would give some background.

Thanks to lunafan, DarkAngelmi818, Kari Lynn Crain, Scarlett Ivy, La Noir Rose, dancingelf1986 and roguepixie04 for the reviews.

Thanks AshCarroll aka ShadowDiva, CelticHero, Hawaiian-plumeria, Kari Lynn Crain, Leah, lunafan, roguepixie04, Sessywuver and songbirdJC for adding me to your alerts

Thanks dancingelf1986, DarkAngelmi818 and Kari Lynn Craine for adding me to your favorites.

I think that's all the thanks you's. I hope you like the chapter. Please review.