Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men.

AN: Woo, I'm back! Okay I am enormously, tremendously, extremely, and exceedingly sorry that this chapter took so long to write. Alright. Well here it is. Chapter Twenty. Thank you for your patience.

The Fourth Acolyte

Chapter Twenty: The Heroic Sabertooth

Rogue began to whimper as Mastermind transmitted the fake memory to her. Her head was bent low, hair covering her eyes which were shut tight in concentration. It was obvious to the acolytes that she was fighting what was being shown her. Rogue was trying to convince her mind that it wasn't real.

"Keep going," Magneto demanded. "Finish the memory. Make it real."

Mastermind nodded and continued. He threw his best at Rogue's mind, making the memory seem more real and more intense. Just as he did this Rogue let out another whimper. There was no way she was going to fight this.

The ramp of the jet raised and it started to take off. Rogue took a few uncertain steps back. Wolverine grinned at her sadistically. "I'm gonna enjoy ripping you to shreds. There's no room in this world for people like you."

He charged at her, claws out, ready to impale her and tear her apart. Rogue dodged him, narrowly missing his claws, making him run into a snow bank. Growling, Wolverine picked himself up and started back towards Rogue, but she had already begun running away from him.

"Go ahead and run!" He yelled after her. "It only makes it more fun for me!" He added with cruel laughter.

Shit, shit, shit, Rogue kept thinking in her mind. Why the hell did Ah ever get mixed up with those X-Men? She kept asking herself, but it was to late to change anything now. All she could do was try and stay alive, an idea easier said than done. Wolverine was quickly gaining on her. There was no way she was going to be able outrun him. Rogue came to the conclusion that there was only one thing left to do. As she ran she started to take off one of her gloves. She didn't want him in her head, but it was either that or die.

Wolverine slammed into her before she could get her glove halfway off. He slammed her so hard she ended up landing on the snow covered ground with a hard thud, her head hitting a sharp rock as she landed. The blow to Rogue's head made her vision blurry and her senses dull. Before she knew what was happening Wolverine had grabbed her and turned her over so she was lying on her back. His fist collided with her jaw once and then he pulled it back above her, claws shooting out, reflecting the light around them. Rogue knew the next time he brought his fist down his claws would impale her and she would die.

Pietro watched closely as Rogue's eyes seemed to tighten more and more. It looked like she was in pain, and that was killing him. Was this really worth it? Hurting Rogue just to make her join them? The more Rogue struggled in her chair, the more Pietro squirmed. For once he didn't feel bad about letting Magneto lead Wanda into a trap to change her memories. Compared to this Wanda was lucky, at least she was given happy memories. Her pain had been replaced by happiness and peace, Rogue's happiness and peace were being replaced by pain.

"You've never been such a bleeding heart before Quicksilver," Magneto commented without even looking at Pietro. His eyes were still on Rogue and Mastermind. After Pietro said nothing Magneto continued, "You need not feel for her pain, by tomorrow morning it will be nothing more than a painful memory that works to our advantage. Do not let your personal feelings get in the way of our goal."

Pietro continued to say nothing and just watched Rogue with his fists clenched. "I'm sorry Rogue," he whispered quietly, yet Magneto still heard him.

Without so much as a glance toward his son he said, "When you are done Mastermind come see me in my office, and Colossus when he is done carry Rogue back to her room. A memory alteration of this degree will exhaust her mind considerably. I doubt she will be conscious after he is done." And with that Magneto turned his back on Mastermind and Rogue and headed toward the door, but when he reached the door he stopped and turned around, finally looking at Pietro. "Quicksilver, come with me."

For the first time Pietro tore his gaze away from Rogue since Mastermind had begun the mind alteration and looked at his father in surprise. "What? Why?"

"Do not question me Quicksilver!" Magneto said harshly. "Come!"

Piotr put a sympathetic hand on Pietro's shoulder, "Do not worry, I will look after her."

Pietro nodded and turned to follow his father while Mastermind continued implanting the false memory into Rogue's mind.

"Please don't," Rogue murmured as Wolverine stood over her, his claws ready to come crashing down and impale her.

Wolverine shook his head back and laughed. "If you didn't want to die kid, you should never have been born."

Rogue shielded her eyes as the claws came down as if she could protect herself that way, but the pain of feeling cold steel go into her guts never came. She heard a loud roar and felt the harsh shudder in the ground as Wolverine was violently pushed into it. Rogue opened her eyes to see a very large blond man standing over her.

"What's the matter Wolverine?" the large man roared. "Xavier not let you beat the x-kids as often as you like so you gotta go beat one of Magneto's?"

Wolverine was back on his feet in seconds, "stay out of this Sabertooth," he warned. "Getting rid of the kid's just a side ordering, but getting rid of you would be like a gourmet meal."

For a minute the blond man and Wolverine just stared at each other, the blond man in an attack position and Wolverine with his claws out ready to strike. Then the chaos started. Wolverine leapt up at Sabertooth, his claws ready to go downward into him, but Sabertooth reached out, grabbed the Wolverine's arms and threw him aside as if he were nothing. Wolverine however still managed to land on his feet and lunged at Sabertooth again.

Rogue watched with fascination and fear as Sabertooth and Wolverine engaged in this violent fight. She had never seen fighting like this before. Their movements were full of rage and pure hate. The look in each mutant's eyes while they fought each other was so intense it made Rogue shiver. Even though this man had just saved Rogue's life she was terrified of him.

Once again Sabertooth grabbed hold of Wolverine's arms and threw him so far Rogue didn't think it was possible for even a mutant to be thrown that far. Wolverine collided head first into a giant boulder and slid to the ground unmoving. The man called Sabertooth stared at Wolverine's lifeless body for a few seconds and then looked over to Rogue. He looked as if he was torn between finishing things with Wolverine and going to Rogue. Whether he was going to go to Rogue to help her or hurt her she had no idea. Even though he had saved her life she couldn't be sure if he had done that to help her or to hurt Wolverine, the man he clearly had a strong hatred for.

Sabertooth eventually chose Rogue and approached her at a slow pace. He large figure and animalistic face caused Rogue to shrink back as if hoping to preserve herself by crawling back a few inches. She would have run but the thought of standing up made Rogue's head throb and swirl with dizziness.

Sabertooth stood before Rogue and offered his hand. "Come on." Rogue did nothing but stare at the hand uncertainly. "He wont be out long, so hurry up," he growled.

"Y-yah work for Magneto?" Rogue asked, her teeth chattering from both cold and fear.

"Yeah," Sabertooth replied. "So?"

"So does Mystique," she spat out.

"Look kid," Sabertooth growled impatiently. "Mystique did what she did today of her own accord, not Magneto's. She's hardly worthy a servant of Magneto's anyway. She'll be gone soon. Now come on. I'd love nothing more than to kick Wolverine's ass again, but I don't have the patience or the compassion to worry about protecting you while fighting him. Now lets GO."

"I'm not. . .going back. . .to the brotherhood," Rogue's voice was firm.

"And I'm not taking you. The brotherhood is for kids, runts like Avalanche. You come with me you'll be on a much tougher team."

"No Mystique?" Rogue asked.

Sabertooth smirked. "No Mystique."

Rogue looked over at Wolverine's unconscious body and then forced a smile. Sitting up she put her hand in Sabertooth's. "I'm in."

Mastermind pulled his hands away from Rogue's head with a satisfied look on his face. "It is done. Standing up he looked at Sabertooth, "She now admires you more than she ever admired the Wolverine. She believes Wolverine tried to kill her after the X-Men rescued her and Cyclops from Mystique, and that you came and saved her life."

Sabertooth smirked, "This is gonna be interesting."

"Now I shall go inform Magneto that my work is complete," he bowed his head and left.

After Mastermind left Colossus approached Rogue and began undoing her bonds. Magneto has been right, Rogue looked incredibly exhausted. She was on the verge of unconsciousness, and even if she was aware of what was going on around her at the moment she would forget it in the morning or think she was merely dreaming. Her head was bowed down with her eyelids half closed and a tired moaning coming from her lips.

"Maybe I should be the one to take her up," Sabertooth said, an evil grin on his face. "She is after all, a daughter to me."

Colossus did not even bother to hide the glare on his face as he looked at Sabertooth. "Magneto gave me the order. Not you."

Sabertooth merely shrugged and walked away, a grin still on his face.

xXxXx

Pietro paced around his father's office as Magneto sat at his desk shuffling papers. However this was getting difficult to do because Pietro's pacing was speeded up by his mutation, causing a gust of wind to blow through Magneto's papers and completely disorganizing them.

"Pietro!" Magneto boomed. "Stop your pacing at once!

Pietro stopped abruptly and slumped down in a chair. "Why am I even here? You don't even need me?"

"You are here Pietro because I could not stand by and allow your heart to bleed all over Mastermind's work. It was a pitiful sight to watch and you were quickly losing the respect of your peers," Magneto informed him emotionlessly. "If you continue with this guilt trip I will be forced to send you away. Rogue would become very suspicious if you started looking at her with guilt in your eyes."

Before Pietro could reply to this Mastermind opened the door and stepped in. "It is done Lord Magneto," he said.

Magneto looked at Mastermind approvingly. "Good." Then turning to look at Pietro he said, "You may go now Quicksilver, but if I see you give Rogue one strange look you will be sent away until you learn to mask your emotions better."

Pietro shuddered as Magneto said this and simply replied, "Yes father."

xXxXx

Rogue had the strangest feeling like she was being carried, but she was far to out of it to care. It felt as if she felt as if her mind was floating on a cloud and her thoughts were far to scrambled to make sense of anything. All she could think about was how unbelievably tired she was. Even if she was being physically carried by someone it could have been Wolverine himself and she would be much to tired to care. She let her head rest on the shoulder of her carrier.

Her thoughts kept drifting in and out and she unable to hold onto any of them. Then she felt as if she were being lowered onto a nice soft bed. Her head left the strong shoulder it had been resting against and was laid down on a feather soft pillow. Rogue felt heavy blankets being pulled over her and then that feeling that someone else was there left. If this was real she was alone now. Rogue opened her eyes briefly and only saw the darkness of her own room and the continuous shrinking of the light from the hallway as someone closed her bedroom door.

With the click of her door shutting her bedroom was engulfed in darkness. Her heavy eyelids closed shut once more, and sleep washed over Rogue like an ocean tide to strong to resist.