Well, I'm back! Thank you to all my reviewer...muah! I love ya! Haha

"Ouch," Rogue's murmur was heard as her eyes fluttered open. She shot an accusing look towards John, who sat next to her with a cloth. "What are you doing?"

"Cleaning up a mess," was his response, clear in a monotone voice. He lifted the cloth up to show that it was stained red. Stained with blood. Her blood.

"Did somebody catch the number on that truck that totally just ran me over?" she attempted to find a lighter side of the conversation. Or at least not to have John glowering at her like that. Even if they were enemies, they had once been good friends. She couldn't help but admit that she hated the fact that he hated her.

He didn't laugh, however. Still, his eyes were cold. "That's one way to refer to her," he spat with disgust, and suddenly Rogue realized that she wasn't the only reason he was upset, if at all. It was that chick who had pretty much kicked her ass.

"Who is she?" she asked in confusion as she slowly propped herself up, hissing at the pain in her head, back…and everywhere. She had a feeling she was rather bruised. As if the cuts weren't bad enough.

"You mean truck girl?" he scoffed before rolling his eyes. "Callisto, or so she calls herself. Not that anyone should actually care."

Smirking, Rogue raised her eyebrows in his direction. "Something tells me you aren't exactly happy about Dark-and-Gloomy. What, did she mess with your ranks or something? Lower you down from Mr. Metal Happy's right arm?"

If looks could kill, Rogue had a feeling she would be dead. That or Callisto, perhaps both. But as John sent her a glare of death, his tone was nearly as poisonous. "What the hell would you know about it, anyway? We're all replaceable. You should have seen what he did to Mystique. Or Raven now, I guess," he sighed. "The moment she took the cure, he ditched her. And she did it for him, you know. A guard was about to shoot Magneto, and Raven saw it. She moved in front of the dose so that she'd be hit instead of him. Her whole life had been about her mutation, she loved it. And she gave it up for him. I guess her reward was the fact that he didn't kill her for being human. Because the moment it took affect, and she was nothing more than a woman, laying naked in the truck, all he said was that he was sorry. She wasn't one of us anymore. As if she hadn't done so much for him."

Sighing, John shook his head. "We're all replaceable to him. And I won't deny the fact that I happened to like Mystique a whole lot more than this bitch."

"Oh really?" Rogue made a somewhat deranged laugh. "Something tells me that I feel the same," she declared. And she had hated Mystique with a passion…although she did have personal reasons for that.

Smirking, John shrugged a shoulder. "Can't really say as I blame you," he sighed once more before setting the cloth inside a bowl with rather red water.

As the two sat in an awkward silence, Rogue bit her lip nervously while she tugged absentmindedly at her glove. "Um…why are you doing this?"

A puzzled look ran across John's face.

"I mean, why are you helping me? And talking to me. I did technically suck out part of your life."

Giving a meaningless shrug, John nearly laughed at his response. "I would have thought you could figure that one out. First off, I would have done the same thing in your shoes." Pausing, he allowed himself a chuckle before he continued. "That and there's the fact that you nearly killed Callisto. In my opinion, that makes you a goddess."

Grinning, Rogue nearly allowed herself to laugh at that comment before sighing. "If only she had held on just a little longer, no?" she raised an eyebrow. "Something tells me that we would all be in a better world."

"Oh believe me. This would be frickin' paradise. That and Storm would be giving you an award. Something tells me she hates the bitch more than I do," he laughed. "It'd be like the first year you showed up. Remember how much she hated toads after that whole incident with Frog boy?"

Suddenly Rogue, too, burst into laughter, ignoring the jolting pain in the back of her head. "How could I forget? Oh, do you remember when Logan, right before he left for Alkali Lake," she began, cringing as she thought of how Jean had died there. "He had put a dozen inside her room. For usually being a composed woman, especially around the students, I've never heard her curse like that."

By now, John was practically rolling on the ground. "Yes! We were playing foosball, you had just gotten back from telling Logan goodbye, when Storm ran down the stairs screaming for him to come back." Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to reminisce on that moment. "My God, that had to have been the best day at the school. The look on those little kids' faces. Half of them had been afraid of her for a month. And Jubilee had that frog notebook and she threatened a detention."

Frowning, Rogue raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember that…"

"You were probably too busy staring at Bobby to notice."

Freezing, the two of them stared at each other while a stricken look passed Rogue's face. Cringing, John shook his head. "Look, I'm sorry."

Before he could continue, Rogue shook her head. "No, just forget it," she sighed, looking away. "Look, I'm a little tired, my head hurts so I think I'm just gonna…er…lounge here."

She gestured to the ground.

Frowning, John nodded. "Alright, I have to go talk to Magneto anyway." Sighing, he gave her an apologetic look. "I'm really sorry."

"I said forget it, John," she muttered before closing her eyes and John nearly cursed.

"Yeah, right. Forget it."

Walking away, he kicked at the ground, sending an assortment of leaves flying through the air. He had just had a decent conversation with her. Something he hadn't expected with the enemy. And he went off and ruined it. Oh well, he had to go off and thank Callisto. After all, if it hadn't been for the hatred Rogue and him shared for her, they wouldn't have even had that conversation. Now how to start it…oh yeah.

"Yo, Callisto. Thank you so much for being a frickin' bitch."

Grinning to himself, he nodded. "Yeah, that's good stuff."

Alright, there it is. I am so tempted to update the next chapter now, I'm rather proud of it. I think some may find the end amusing, although I am not sure. But I'll hold it out. Haha, I have an odd goal...to make it to possibly 50 reviews by the end of this chapter. Well, let's see how I've done, shall we?

R/R!