Chapter 9

Magneto had been stropping around his office for ten minutes now. She was late. Magneto had set up the table and prepared the food, yet she was late. He wondered if she was even going to show or if she was making a fool out of him. There was a knock on his door and then it opened. Rogue was on the other side.

"My what happened to you?" Magneto asked, raising an eyebrow at the dirt all over her body, her ripped clothes and messy hair with a twig in it. She was panting slightly.

"Sorry. Fell out of a tree. Sorry I'm late. Hmmm, do you mind if I grab a shower first and change? I kind of stink."

Magneto held back his smile and laughter. "If you must."

Rogue nodded her head and kept it down like a shy little child. That only made him want to smile more.

"Please don't let me stop you from eating." Rogue said.

"Go have your shower Rogue."

Rogue nodded her head. She still looked like an embarrised child. She left, closing the door behind her. Magneto moved to sit behind his desk, silently laughing to himself., all anger forgotten about.

XXXXX

Rogue rushed through her shower, then changed into casual jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt. Mystique had given Rogue a few more clothes before she left. She was glad about that or else Rogue would have to change back into her baggy clothes she came here with. Rogue left her hair down as it was too short to pull back into a bobble or tie it up and ran back to Magneto's office. She knocked on his door.

It opened on it's own and Rogue saw Magneto was just begining to stand up from behind his desk. His eyes were that gentle blue as they normally were. And to think she used to see them as evil mad hard grey eyes. His light blue eyes were just so calming to her now, they reminded her of when you look out to the ocean and the sky kisses the sea. They were beautiful and peaceful. No one would be able to tell by looking at them all the hard times he'd been through. Magneto gave a light smile to Rogue as she stepped inside.

He couldn't help but smile at her red checks and dripping wet hair. It had taken an extra ten minutes, but she was finally here and ready to have tea with him.

"Have you eaten already?" Rogue asked.

"No. It would not be gentlemen like to begin eating without you." Magneto moved over to the small kitchen where he pulled out a clean white towel. "Here." He said as he walked towards Rogue.

She looked down at the towel a little confused and then looked up to him. He was stood close to her again. She liked it. When she didn't take the towel, Magneto took it upon himself to reach up and wrap the cloth around the ends of Rogue's short, yet fair wet hair. Rogue watched his face as he focused on drying her hair. His hands were nice and gentle. Soft as they stroked her hair through the cloth. Soon he resulted to wrapping the cloth around her head and drying her full head. He had to step closer then and wrap his arms loosely around her head. Rogue just kept watching his face. He looked down at her too as he gently massaged her head through the cloth. There was another moment between them. They both knew it, but neither did anything about it; neither took the leap or backed away. They waited for the other to do so, but they didn't. Instead they each took the time to enjoy being this close to each other.

Atlas, Magneto had finsihed drying Rogue's hair so it no longer dripped wet. He removed the cloth from her head and stepped back. "Shall we eat?" He asked her.

Rogue gave a small smile. "Sure."

They both walked over to the table and sat down at it. Magneto placed the cloth on the kitchen side first before using his powers to bring the metal plates of food over to them from out of the oven. With his mind he turned the metal dial on the oven off. In front of both Rogue and Magneto was now a warm plate of spagetti bolonaze.

"So, I take it from the twig in your hair you have been out in the forest today."

"Yeah. It was getting kinda stuffy inside. I really don't know how this place doesn't drive you crazy. How long have y'all been hiding out here?"

"A few years. I understand how prison like the base can feel. It is why most perfer to camp outside in the forest. For me, the metal" Magneto held up his hand and from the metal walls, a metal sphere formed in his palm. "is a heaven for me."

Rogue stared at the metal ball in his hand which swirled around in his hand. "I...I think I remember what it felt like. What it feels like... It sings to you, doesn't it? I think I remember it sing to me. It was beautiful, but... it didn't last long once the machine started."

Magneto moved to take off his glove, keeping the metal ball in the air with his mind and reached his hand across the table to Rogue. Rogue looked down at his hand, them up to him. "Go on. Listen to it."

Rogue looked down to his hand then back up to his face. Rogue slowly removed her black leather glove and slowly moved her hand to his. She looked back down to his hand , then, at the last moment, back up to him. As she wrapped her small fingers around his firm palm, the memories came flooding in. She closed her eyes and embrassed it. Horrible memories and resent ones. Rogue was able to push them back quickly before she could see anything. Then she felt it. She heard it. She hurried the humming of the metal that was as glorious as hearing a whole orchestra playing in harmony. Rogue felt the gentle carries of the metal as it hummed around her. Then she felt the movement of Magneto's hand in hers. She took her hand back.

"Do you hear it clearer now?" Magneto asked in his deep soft voice.

"Yes." Rogue said. She opened her eyes to see Magneto looking a little tired. That was another funny thing, she thought. She'd never think of a 'bad guy' sleeping. She wondered what Magneto would look like when he was asleep. She bet he'd look peaceful.

Rogue's eyes moved of his peaceful face to the ball sphere besides him. She could feel it. Hear it sing. She moved it with her mind so that the cold smooth metal came to touch her skin. The metal seemed extra special with Magneto's powers as it touched her. She looked to him to see a little smile on his face as she embrassed the metal.

"It's really amazing what you hear. What you feel. No wondered you don't feel trapped at all in here. It's empowering."

"Indeed it is. When I try to explain this to Mystique, she doesn't understand as well as us as she has never heard it's music. She has never felt it's power. It must be quite amazing to feel what every other mutants' endulgance in their powers feels like."

Rogue pulled on a small smile, and Magneto lost his. "No?"

"It's... Alright I guess. It depends on the power. With yours, it's beautful. With others, like Wolverine's it hurts." Rogue made a fist and looked down at her nuckles. She snorted. "Everytime." Rogue put down her fist and put down the metal sphere as she felt Magneto's powers fade. She looked back to him. "The memories and thoughts hurt too. They just burst into your head like an unexpected migrain. The worser the memories the worser the migrain... Then it's living with the memories and thoughts." Rogue began massaging her temples. "The stronger the memory the harder it is to push back and forget about. And... As for the persona, they all just pop up at random times and like to make comments about a load of random things. I manage to push them back and lock away the personas and memories, but they still get loose and free during the day. Especially when I'm on my own and tired. Night time is when they really get me."

"I am sorry. I never wished to cause you any harm of having to witness what I have been through. To be fair, I tried to kill you so you wouldn't have to suffer my memories." Magneto reached out the same hand she had just had hold of, only this time he had put his black gloves back on.

Rogue looked up to him. She held his gaze and shrugged. "I know. I had your thoughts remember?"

Magneto genuingly looked upset and sorry though. Rogue thought that was because she had absorbed him twice and knew him pretty well by now. Rogue gave a light hearted smile. "Are we going to eat at some point?"

Magneto attempted to return the smile. "I believe so."

They ate in silence.

XXXXX

Rogue couldn't help herself and went over Magneto's recent thoughts in her head. She had watched him eat and was amused by it, but the thoughts kept pounding to be listened to. So Rogue gave in and listened to them. She wanted to blush when Magneto's thoughts took over, taking her to the moments when they had been alone and close and how he had liked it just as much as she.

The next thing that came to mind was all that Magneto wanted to know about her. He genuiningly wants to know what had happened to her and how such a sweet girl had lost that sweet innocent look. It made her sad, yet happy to think that someone seemed to genuinly care about her. But then there was the cons. He had suspisions and he wanted answers. He wanted to find out information from her which he could use against the X-Men. He wanted her to join him and become his left hand as Mystique was his right hand. She hated the thought of being used, but at the same time, she liked that he wanted her.

The next thing that came to mind was the recent mission he had sent Mystique on. He had sent her to find out information on who Dr Nathianal Essex was. After they had finished eating, Rogue had made a decision.

Rogue put her fork down and finished the food in her mouth. Magneto had finished his food before her and now held his cup in hand. "You've sent Mystique to do a back ground check on Sinister?" Rogue said picking up her coffee and sipping it.

Magneto raised his eyebrow. "I sent her to gather information about a man named Dr Nathianal Essex."

Rogue nodded hers. "You're wondering why I called him Sinister?"

Magneto put his cup down. "You know of him?"

"I know a bit about him, yes. Dr Nathianal Essex. The mad mutant scientist." And those four words was all it took for Magneto to become serious as he listened to Rogue. "To those who know truly know who and what he is, they call him Sinister. He's a scientist who likes to see how mutantions work and how mutants can control their powers. Where their powers come from. Why they have powers. Why they're a different colour skin. Anything and verything he wants to know about mutants. And he isn't afraid to get physical for his answers if you understand what I mean."

Magneto looked very disturbed. "Experimentation on mutants."

Rogue didn't meet his eyes. She was struggling to cope with her own emotions as it was. "Yes." Was all she could say.

"How do you know this? Has he..."

Rogue looked up to Magneto's eyes. He noticed that she had a hard emotionless look to her eyes. One filled with anger and hatered, but one that gave nothing else away. "No." She said. Magneto watched her carefully and wished he knew her better. But what he believed and felt were different to what she told him. Although, he had a feeling she was lieing to him for a reason. He decided to play her game and except what she said. "I absorbed someone who had though. They were lucky to get out alive."

Magneto sat forwards, business taking over his pleasent character which Rogue had gotten to know and like; a lot. Rogue saw him shift and she shifted too with attitude. She always did and always would if it was to do with Sinister. "Do you know where he's base is for experimenting on mutants."

Rogue's frowned deepened. "That's a tricky question to answer. Sinister is a very smart man with bases all over the country. Some empty, some in use. He likes to change bases every now and then so even if one of his bases were to be discovered there would be the chance that either the base will be empty and he will lose no mutants, but only the base, or he'll lose some mutants, but he'll still have more in the other bases. Another problem is that he is having bases built all over the place all the time and even having some of the old bases ripped down and houses built over them."

Magneto sat back in his chair, anger and rage clear on his face. Rogue felt his questions in his head and moved to answer them all. "You wanna guess where Sinister was getting all his fudings or should I just tell ya?"

Magneto looked back up to Rogue. "The president."

Rogue nodded her head. "You knew and you took it upon yourself to kill him because you couldn't take down the bases and didn't know which one to if you were to." Rogue nodded her head. "You couldn't have attacked them or stopped them, even if you could. Sinister must have had guards surrounding the camps. Cameras, traps. You couldn't help free the mutants trapped so you did the only other thing you thought would be of any use. You killed the president to stop Sinisters findings." Rogue nodded her head.

"Yes. Sinister had no where else to run. He was losing a lot of bases because the president had stopped paying for them and he was going to end up losing mutants. He'd have to chose to let them go or kill them off. Of course he'd have to go with killing them off, as he couldn't have anyone revealing what he was doing now could he. And from what I've ex-, erm, took from this person's memory they'd rather be dead then have to spend another night in one of those God aweful cells."

Magneto watched Rogue. Watched her slip up and her hands shake a little in anger as she gripped her cup. Noticing her shaking too Rogue put the cup down and pulled her hands in closer to her chest. The tell was still in her eyes though. Magneto reached over and took Rogue's hand in his. She looked to him and he saw the anger start to fade a little. She looked away again. "It was a mistake what I did... I shouldn't have killed the president."

"You did the right thing. The action anyone in their right mind would do in your position."

Rogue let out a sarcastic laugh. "Ha, yeah right. What would you have done if that was you Magneto? Would you have wasted time plotting to kill a man discretely? No, you would have gone straight ahead to the bases and destroyed each and every one of them; freeing every prisoner while you were at it. You have the power to."

"You said Sinister could just have more bases made. If you were to destory the bases, there would be more built and more mutants rounded up and put in them. You helped prevent-"

"But I haven't prevented anything have I?" Rogue yelled in anger. She turned that anger on Magneto as she rose from her chair. "Sinister is going to be elected president. And then your worst fear is going to come true. World War 3 is coming as soon as Sinister takes control. The last president might have been bad, but he's nothing compared to Sinister. They say Hitler was the devil. They were wrong. It doesn't compare anywhere near to Sinster."

Rogue turned her back on Magneto and went to storm out of the room. Before fully leaving though, Rogue turned back around and said, "Call Mystqiue off! You have the information you need, call her off now before she becomes another test subject." And Rogue left Magneto's office, slamming his door behind her.