20

Saturday morning came and with it training. Rogue felt somewhat better from the passed night. The date that Gambit had mentioned had been on her mind. She was nervous about it. Sure, she was glad she had been able to make it up with him, but at the same time a date? She wasn't sure about it. Or whether it was a good idea to go out with him. She had thought he'd forgotten about it since he never mentioned anything about it since Monday, but then again, he had been avoiding her for half the week. She just couldn't see what good a date with him would do. If anything, she thought it would only bring trouble. Push him further away again when he realised nothing would come of it. But, she guessed she was just going to have to let him figure that one out on his own. After all, she had agreed to it and she did tend to keep up her sides of the bargain.

Rogue knocked on Magneto's door, presenting him with the laptop. He took it from her, excusing her quite quickly. Rogue wondered if something was up with him. He looked deep in thought. But she wasn't complaining about being dismissed quickly. She got out of there as fast as she could. Magneto still made her nervous.

She entered the gym, finding the others already there. She saw Gambit sat on a tall stack of mats, throwing cards into a bin and getting all of them in. When she glanced at him, he smirked back at her then winked.

Rogue blushed at first, then tsked and rolled her eyes, going to stand with Colossus who was limbering up. He stopped when he saw her.

"Rogue!" He said, moving towards her.

Rogue smiled, seeing him rush towards her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm alright. You?" she asked.

His smile was small, but it spoke volumes on his face. He looked relieved.

"Better, now that I know you are alright." He said.

Rogue chuckled at that, placing her hands on her hips.

"'course, takes a lot more than ole bucket head ta keep me down." She said.

Magneto entered then. They all gathered in a row, Gambit coming to stand besides Rogue. He wasn't looking at her, but for some reason, Rogue felt like his eyes were on her. He was just so smug this morning.

Magneto picked the teams once again, being quick and dismissive of the issue like he had been when she handed her assignment to him this morning. He had Rogue working with Gambit and Pyro and he was working with Sabretooth and Colossus this time. He set the scene once again in the gym with metal hills and boulders.

Rogue walked with Pyro and Gambit back to the starting line at the door. She didn't like it when she was told she was working with him. It just kept seeming as if he had won the lottery or something.

"The plan?" Rogue asked, looking towards Gambit.

"Same as last time." He said, smirk still on his face. Although, it did seem to falter as he remembered what did happen in the last training session, "just be more careful dis time around, non? Let Pyro handle Mags."

Rogue rolled her eyes at that and Gambit saw her look a little on edge.

"Wouldn't that be predictable? Maybe Pyro should try gettin' the flag instead?" Rogue asked.

"Awww, you just wanna spend time with dis here Cajun?" he teased.

"No! I-"

But Rogue never got to finish that sentence as the horn sounded. Rogue had barely crossed the line when the ground underneath her gave way and a large metal snake had risen up, surrounding her body, lifting it up from the air and crushing it. Rogue couldn't help but cry out as it strangled her body. She hadn't been ready. Hadn't been expecting that.

Gambit and Pyro glanced up at her, horrified, before they reacted, hitting the length of the snake and breaking it so it dropped Rogue. Both Pyro and Gambit had hesitated in their next moves as they were both in shock. Magneto never attacks like that. At least, never before.

Rogue's body slumped to the ground. Gambit managed to catch her so her body fell on him. But they were both soon moving as the ground started to act up once again. They sprinted, then became separated as the snakes that made the ground look as if it was the sea since they were jumping in and out of the ground, were following Rogue.

Rogue managed to use Kitty's ability to phase through some of them, but it was wearing her out quite quickly at constantly using it. Rogue had eyed behind her, seeing Gambit and Pyro stare on at the metal snakes chasing her.

So, that's how he wanted to play it? Rogue thought, getting pissed that Magneto was obviously calling her out. She was not going to end up knocked out for half the day again!

Rogue tapped into Sabretooth's powers, climbed a hill and jumped high into the air. The snakes followed her. Rogue took the opportunity while air bound and having Sabretooth's impressive eye sight, to search the field for Magneto. She couldn't see any of the other team and the snakes were gaining on her.

She noticed Pyro had created flames. Rogue tapped into Pyro's psyche, using his powers to pull the flames towards her. She managed to bounce off the heads of the snakes, going higher into the air.

She noticed Pyro was glancing at her, confused.

"Keep the flames comin' Pyro!" Rogue yelled.

Pyro smirked and did as he was commanded.

Rogue manipulated the flames, splitting them up and forming little fire balls. She throw them down towards the ground, making them crash and set off mini fires everywhere for her to use.

Gambit had been going the same way he had last time when he noticed what Rogue was trying to do. He couldn't jump as far up into the air as she could, but he charged five cards in each hand and let them fly into the air.

Rogue noticed the pink charges and dropped Pyro's psyche to reach for Emma Frost's. Using Emma's little telekinetic abilities, Rogue touch control of some of Gambit's cards and made them fly into the snakes attacking her, putting them down. She was able to stay in the air with Emma's powers.

Gambit smirked at Rogue's use of his powers and kept moving, ducking his hand into his pockets and letting loose as many charged cards as he could.

Rogue took control of them and made them fly further. Where the fire balls Pyro had given her hadn't been as effective, Gambit's explosions were. Rogue watched the explosions go off, making unsettling the ground. She searched for Magneto as the explosions dealt damage.

Her idea worked. She saw that Magneto had actually created metal shields over Sabretooth and Colossus. Sabretooth was making his way over to the left hand side of the gym, looking to corner Gambit off who was making his way to the flag. Colossus was near Magneto. All three men had had to retreat out of their floating metal shields that were actually like large umbrellas. Once the explosions had hit the umbrellas, they went to explode and they moved to avoid being blown to pieces in the explosions. Rogue actually felt a little guilty for Colossus. She knew he was metal and could take a hit. But at the same time, she didn't want to fight him or hurt him. But this was business.

"Pyro, go left. Protect Gambit. Sabretooth's on his tail." Rogue said, using Emma Frost's powers to communicate with Pyro.

Rogue then focus back on Magneto as Pyro went running off away from her. She focused on bringing herself down to the ground now that the opposing team were distracted and on the run. She felt like she'd ran twenty miles using Sabretooth's, Pyro's and Emma's abilities. She had to spit on the ground as she clutched over, feeling like she was going to be sick. But she had Magneto in sight. She could feel herself becoming drained from using so many abilities in one short time. She had to try and take Magneto down and fast and her anger at him was definitely helping her through it.

Rogue focused on Sabretooth's powers again, keeping his strength in her legs as she shot herself off the hill she had landed on towards Magneto. Once she was shooting forwards, she decided to do something she had very little experience doing. Rogue put her hand forwards, summoning some of Pyro's flames up towards her from the ground and let them consume her. As Rogue concentrated Pyro's power in one hand, she focused on Sebastian Shaw's power in the rest of her body and absorbed the flames. She had to release some of his power in her feet to keep her flying forwards, but she was gaining speed and heading straight for Magneto.

Magneto gasped, seeing a fiery Rogue flying straight for him. He instantly lifted and tried to form a shield. Rogue saw it coming and punched it with the hand that had Sebastian's stored up energy in it. She focused some of that energy into her hand so a hole formed in the metal wall blocking her. But Magneto kept bringing the walls up, one straight after the other as quickly as he could.

Eventually, Rogue couldn't hold out punching through all the walls and eased her power so she bounced of the wall and onto another metal hill. She was breathing heavily. All of the power was draining her extremely quickly. But there was no way in hell she was giving up that easily. Magneto had trapped her, tormented her, humiliated her, made her think the worst of herself for allowing the Acolytes to be hurt because of her. She was mad and wanted her revenge on him. The man who kept singling her out and attacking her.

Magneto had only been focusing on the shields in front of him, not at his sides which were open.

Using the fire that was left over all over the battlefield, Rogue dropped Sebastian's powers some more and focused more on Pyro's power, making the flames lift and twist in the air, shooting at him like flame throwers at his open sides.

Magneto saw what she was doing and went to defend himself straight away. A part of him was shocked and terrified at the tremendous powers this girl possessed. The other side of him was enjoying this. This challenge and he refused just to play defence. Magneto reached out, feeling for the ground under Rogue's feet. It was a strain on him too using his powers so much, but he would conquer.

Rogue felt the ground move underneath her and predicted what was coming. Whilst still keeping Pyro's flames surrounding Magneto, she focused on Sabretooth's strength and athletic skill as she jumped high into the sky. The sharp headed snakes rose from the ground, but missed their target, chasing after her in mid-air.

Rogue knew that, if she got caught by those snakes again, she would be toast. The best way to get rid of them was to get rid of the caster. Dropping Sabretooth's power, Rogue drew forth the little control over Magneto's power that she had. With one hand, she pushed down the wall that was guarding his front. It was slightly difficult to do, but because Magneto was focusing on the snakes and keeping up his shields at his sides, he had less control over the shield in front of him and Rogue had figured that out.

Rogue called some flames up, towards her and then, aimed them straight ahead at Magneto.

Magneto tried to pull his front shield back up, but he felt Rogue's iron grip on that shield and he couldn't fight off her control, keep the shields he already had up defending him from fire and attack her with snakes all at the same time. Then, as he was glaring at Rogue, he noticed something move in the corner of his eye.

Magneto reached out and grabbed Colossus who was in full metal form. He sent Colossus flying, bringing the metal man before him to act as a shield.

Rogue saw this and, out of panic, moved to split the flames so they shot off at either side of Colossus who seemed to be panicking himself as he tried shielding himself in mid-air.

Magneto watched the flames fly by, surprised his last second plan worked. He smirked to himself though, knowing Rogue had just showed her weakness.

The snakes caught Rogue in the air, wrapping around her and holding her. Rogue reached out her arm that was still free as the snakes began to crush her. She was going to move the flames that were attacking Magneto's sides to attack his front.

But then, Colossus screamed out. Rogue lost her concentration, losing control of the flames as she watched Magneto torture Colossus. Colossus' arms and legs had sprung away from his body and it looked as if he was on a rack as Magneto stretched out his body. Colossus was screaming out in pain.

"No! Stop!" Rogue screamed, not wanting to see Colossus being tortured and ripped a part.

Rogue completely lose control of any power she had control over. The flames deteriorated in mid-air. Her grip on the metal shield she'd been preventing Magneto from using was gone. Her full concentration was on Colossus and her mind was searching for a way to save him from Magneto's torture.

Magneto saw Rogue pained expressions. A memory of her concern over the acolytes before when he said he'd punished them came back to him and he smiled wickedly. Not only did he have his opening, he had found something that may come in handy as blackmail. Taking advantage of the opening presented, he used up the last few ounces of his strength, he flung himself and Colossus to one side as he set a tidal wave of metal in Rogue's direction. He had merged the shields that were guarding him and used some of the metal hills to form it. Rogue's eyes widened as she saw the pure metal wave coming at her. It hit her before she could do anything. The snakes surrounding her body left her, helping to form this metal wave that was striking her and tackling her into the far side wall of the battlefield.

Rogue realised what was coming and she was terrified. She felt Colossus' psyche come forwards without her permission and her skin change to armour as she was slammed with extreme force into the wall. But, although Rogue's body was protected by a shield of metal, it only did so much to protect her from the damage. Rogue felt her guts, where the metal had mainly hit her, become crushed. It was an odd sensation. She felt like a tin can being stamped on and like her organs were in the middle of it. Luckily, Colossus' armour did manage to save her life and protect her from having all her insides crushed. But she did spit up blood.

The impact had been too much. Rogue's metal form left her as she began to pass out. Her unconscious body dangling over this metal block that kept her pinned against the wall.

A siren sounded. But it was sounded by someone from the wrong team on the wrong side.

"That's enough!" Gambit yelled.

Sabretooth had jumped him. He was inches away from the flag when he did. He had his bo staff out and was holding his own, but he was pissed. He didn't have time to fight Sabretooth. As soon as Magneto attacked Rogue from the moment go, he knew he had to end it fast.

Pyro had showed up and began to help get Sabretooth off him. Gambit ran for the flag, grabbing it. He was keeping an eye on what was happening with the fight between Rogue and Magneto. That was when he saw Rogue go in for the hit to finish Magneto off and Magneto use Colossus as a shield. Torturing the poor man.

He'd frozen for a millisecond, shocked himself that he would do such a thing to his own teammate.

Pyro and Sabretooth had glanced over at hearing Rogue's shouting just in time to see the ending as well.

All three men were shocked to see Magneto muster all his power into one large attack which hit Rogue square in the chest and lower body and tackled her across the room all the way into the opposite wall. All of them had stopped fighting while this happened, in disbelief, as they heard the boom of metal slamming into metal.

Gambit jumped for the horn on the opposite team and rung it, yelling out "That's enough!" He was pissed. Terrified. On edge. But mainly pissed.

Magneto had gone too far. All his emotions, fears and thoughts hadn't completely crossed his mind, but phrases such as he killed her, he's dead, he's gone too far, he's a dead man, crossed his mind.

Then, coming too at the thought of Rogue dead, he moved his glare off Magneto and on to Rogue. The dust was starting to clear and he could see her body hanging limply over the metal that still pinning her chest and lower half to the wall. She was bent over it, sprawled out. Gambit couldn't see Rogue's face, just her hair everywhere. One of her hands had fallen on the metal, the other dangling by her side.

Colossus had felt as if he himself had been struck when the wave hit Rogue. He had been in agony at his own torture and pissed at Magneto for using him as a shield and attempting to pull his body apart. But, when he saw Rogue get hit, it was a greater agony than any physical pain Magneto could unleash on him. He saw her turn to metal and was slightly glad she had absorbed him. But when her body slammed against the wall and dust erupted, shielding her for a time, he felt like he had been killed before his very eyes.

As the dust began to settle and Rogue's lifeless body started to come into view, he forced himself to return to his human form. His body acted before his mind. He was running across the clear field that had been carved out by the metal wave towards Rogue.

"Rogue!" he yelled out as he got closer to her. She didn't respond. Just lay there.

"Crickey." Pyro gasped as Colossus' cry brought him back to himself.

It also brought Gambit back to himself as he began to move towards Rogue too. He was walking at first. His eyes never leaving her body that looked dead. Was she dead? Then, as he realised he was walking, he began to run, using his bo staff to manoeuvre himself closer, faster.

Colossus had reached Rogue first. He was tall, but even he struggled to fully reach Rogue on his tip toes. He grabbed at her covered arm, and her head moved a bit. Colossus' eyes widen in horror as blood came from Rogue's face and on to his shoulder. He was scared. Petrified. She wasn't moving. She was bleeding. He felt beyond angry as he turned and yelled back: "Let her go!"

Magneto, who had fallen briefly to his knees, had climbed back up and had watched his work be revealed to him from a distance. He saw Rogue slumped against his metal slab. He could see she was not moving. He had won. He had his blackmail. He had won the fight. He had proved he was the dominate one of the two. But, he did begin to fear he might have killed her. Especially when Colossus began to yell something towards him. What was the use in finally learning her weakness if she were to die?

Gambit soon slide down a hill and began running towards Rogue's body. Colossus had begun to try and slip in-between Rogue and the metal and push it off her, but it was hardly moving.

"Move the meal!" Colossus yelled to Magneto again.

Gambit struggled to see Colossus passed the large slab of metal still holding Rogue to the wall. He knew Colossus was panicking though and trying to get Rogue free. Gambit's logical mind had begun to come back to him as he stood beside Rogue's limp body.

"Move the metal back slowly." Gambit yelled, worried that moving the metal too quickly might somehow kill Rogue.

Magneto had risen into the air and came closer to his three recruits. He heard Gambit's command. He did not like being bossed about, but he decided it was not the time for that debate. Slowly, Magneto began to pull the metal back.

Rogue's body was still stuck against the wall like a squashed fly though. As Magneto began to slowly move the metal away, both Colossus and Gambit heard a sort of gagging sound. For Colossus, more blood fell on him.

"Easy! Easy!" Gambit yelled up to Magneto, climbing up the slab that had Rogue pinned and moving towards her head. He cupped her face, lifting it carefully, seeing one of the most horrifying sights in his life. Blood was flowing from her mouth and she looked as pale as death. There was definitely internal bleeding. Magneto had done some major damage. Gambit gasped, feeling his whole body slump as he held Rogue's unconscious face in his hands. She shouldn't be dead. She couldn't be!

"Sabretooth. Get over her now!" Gambit yelled.

"I don't answer to you, scum!" Sabretooth said.

He and Pyro had already been approaching the group, although, not running towards Rogue like Colossus and Gambit had done. So, when Gambit called out to him, he was already somewhat close.

Magneto hovered close in the air, seeing the mass amounts of blood coming from Rogue's mouth and dripping down the side of the metal and onto Colossus. Gambit was hanging onto Rogue, cradling her face gently as if, one wrong move would kill her already lifeless body. Colossus was trying his best, still, to free her, as if there was still a chance. Magneto watched the reaction of his men, realising he had not been keeping an eye on the affairs and relationships that were forming in his own team. The pain that these two men were feeling over Rogue's hurt, it was… interesting and explained a lot about the previous night. But it also rose a lot of questions. How could one girl come into his base and flip it on it's head in such a short amount of time?

"Do it." Magneto said to Sabretooth.

Sabretooth snarled, but approached Rogue. He climbed up next to Gambit and touched her face. All became extremely on edge as Sabretooth didn't snarl out and pass out in pain straight away like he had done the last time he touched her. He looked pissed at the girl. He was getting blood all over his hands as he touched her.

"She ain't absorbin'." Gambit said out loud to himself. "She ain't absorbin'." He said again, actually making it real as he came to the conclusion why she wasn't absorbing Sabretooth.

Gambit turned, his eyes sparking up at Magneto. "You killed her!" he yelled at him. Gambit couldn't control his powers as the metal underneath him began to spark with energy and turn a bright pink colour. "You killed her!" he yelled again, becoming dangerously close to murderous.

"Cool it rat! Your girlfriends absorbing me. Just slowly. I ain't sittin' around here all day though while she does." Sabretooth said.

At hearing this, Gambit felt his anger begin to cool a little.

"Gambit, draw in your charge! You'll hurt her." Colossus said.

With Colossus' instructions, Gambit reached down and began to absorb the energy back into his body. But his anger was still there. Brimming. Magneto had gone too far this time. Too far.

Sabretooth began to sway as Gambit finished withdrawing his charge. Then, finally, Sabretooth cried out as Rogue's absorption power grew stronger. Sabretooth held on longer, knowing that it wasn't enough. What she absorbed wasn't enough. If her absorption powers were this weak, then Sabretooth guessed the copy she had of his power was weak too and wasn't going to be enough to save her life. It would take a very strong dose of his own healing ability to help him survive being splattered against a wall like this.

Eventually, Sabretooth couldn't hold on much longer and fell off the slab to the ground. Magneto began to move the slab a bit more. Rogue coughed up some more blood, still unconscious as her body reacted all on it's own.

Finally, Colossus was able to slip in-between the slab and the wall. He reached out for Rogue's body as Magneto kept slowly moving the slab away. Finally, Colossus caught Rogue's body, pulling it forwards and over his shoulder. Gambit had tried guiding Rogue's head, as if that were the injury, towards Colossus as carefully and as gentle as he could. Colossus wanted to cry as he felt her broken body begin just to flop over his. He moved her out from between the slab and wall quickly, as if Magneto might decide to suddenly ram the slab and complete his job in killing her.

He moved Rogue's body to be bridal style in his arms as he lowered her limp body to the ground. As he had been moving her, he'd felt her bones moving in ways they shouldn't have moved. Felt her body softer and squeeze in places that should have been a lot firmer with muscles. Tears came to his eyes as he looked down at Rogue. She looked dead. Her body was flattened and deformed in places and so much blood was coming from her mouth. She looked dead. She couldn't be dead. Colossus couldn't lose another sister.

"Take her to her room and clean her up." Magneto commanded.

"Gambit, Pyro, see to Sabretooth." Magneto said, beginning to turn in the air as he headed for the exit.

"You went too far dis time, Magneto." Gambit called, as he stood up, his eyes still gleaming.

He had been too worked up to move from where he had been crouched. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Colossus lifted Rogue's battered body and took her away. He was glad. He felt extremely dangerous at that point. What Magneto had done, singling Rogue out from the beginning, attacking her, using Colossus against her, it had been beyond cruel.

Magneto turned slightly, eyeing Gambit dangerously.

"Hold you tongue." Magneto said.

"Non! You went too far dis time! She coulda died. And what for? You were bang out of order Magneto!" Gambit said.

"My office now!" Magneto demanded, his eyes glowing.

"Hey mate," Pyro said, placing his hand on Gambit's shoulder, "I know your upset, but take it easy."

Gambit glared at Pyro, his eyes just as dangerous as Magneto's. The look Pyro was giving him though made him re-think himself. He stormed off, heading towards Magneto's office like he wanted.

Xxxxx

Magneto entered his office after some time. He had left Gambit to cool off since he did not appreciate his attitude. Magneto found him leaning against the wall in his office as he entered. Magneto walked straight passed him and grabbed a file from his draws. He threw it on his desk for Gambit.

"Inside is the location of a base I need you to obtain information from and a memory stick for you to upload the information onto." Magneto said.

Gambit didn't move from the shadows. Magneto waited.

"Is there a problem?" he asked, becoming rather inpatient with Gambit's attitude.

Gambit finally stepped out of the shadows and towards Magneto.

"Why you torturin' de girl? She ain't gonna stick around if she knows every trainin' session's gonna involve you beatin' the hell outta her." Gambit said.

He had been upset at seeing Rogue, yes, but the time away from her battered body had given him time to think on how best to approach Magneto. He wanted to find away to confront the man and make him stop with these attacks on Rogue. It was easier said than done though, he knew. He knew telling the man out right that he was wrong like he had done wouldn't work. In fact, it would probably only make him worse. Now, it had come to this. But, he was wary of his footing with the Master of Magnetism, considering, he had told Magneto he was wrong and he couldn't take that back now. He was rather surprised Magneto had gone straight into business like he had rather than punishing him for speaking out of tongue.

"She is a powerful mutant who could be so much more than her current potential. I am simply trying to bring that potential forwards and the only way I can do that is by giving her a challenge." Magneto said, having used that excuse as a way to justify his actions to himself.

"So this really is all trainin', huh? No hidden strings attached?" Gambit asked, not buying it.

Magneto stood from his chair, his eyes flickering white dangerously.

"I will remind you of your place. You have been speaking out of tone to me too often. This is your final warning. If you step out of line once more, well, let's just say I will not hold back as much as I have been with the girl." Magneto said.

Gambit felt his blood boil. Was Magneto seriously trying to use Rogue against him? He kept a calm face though, continuing to tread carefully.

He snorted, "It ain't that I'm interested in de fille's safety. You see her as an asset and I'm tryna keep dat asset. She be business. And I'm just warnin' you to lay off her unless you wanna ruin dat business over some ego match your havin' with her on who's de strongest." Gambit said.

There were crackling noises as metal ripped from walls in the room. Gambit stayed stood with his arms crossed, unphased, even though he was a little panicked.

"I've warned you about your tone!" Magneto said.

"But you know I speak de truth. You keep pushin' her, soon, she's gonna leave. And if she's as powerful as your sayin' she is, den we really can't afford that, can we?" Gambit said.

There was a pause, but soon, the metal returned to it's place and Magneto sat down.

"I will let you off with a warning this time. But this is the last time I will tell you to watch you tone with me. I am doing what is right. If the girl is to fear me, but gains ultimate power in my training, then it shall be. That the file and leave. I want the information as soon as possible." Magneto said.

Gambit took the information and left, rather frustrated that he couldn't seem to do anything to make Magneto ease up on Rogue. And, more importantly to him, he was pissed that Magneto had tried to force his hand. But perhaps, maybe Magneto was right. Maybe he was getting too close to Rogue. Maybe he should cancel that date. But then… there was just something about her. Some itching desire to know something, or more, have her sarcoma to him. He snorted at that. He hadn't thought of her as a challenge for a long while. But she had been the one to waltz in, flirt with him without needing to flirt back with her and then, shut down his advances whenever she could. She was a puzzle. A desire in some sort of strange form. He wanted something from her. He didn't think it was sex, but… there was definitely something he wanted from her. Maybe the date was a good idea after all. Maybe he could get out of her what he wanted then. Maybe, that something he could get out of her would make her stick around and keep fighting for Magneto.