Me again, this is Eyliena with a new chapter of RETURN. At the time of writing this, I am stuck for a chapter title, but I'll make up something later, okay?
As you can probably tell, I'm always stuck for something to write as an author's note at the beginning, but I'm still always writing something here, doesn't that just annoy you? Maybe I should quit doing this and just go straight to writing the chapter, or maybe I should place a disclaimer on every chapter, but that would get kinda boring. I think this is a kind of way to get to know the author of the story you're reading. But for all of you who really don't care (or even if you do) here's the story and I'll stop babbling.

Rogue stepped out of Jean's car; amazed at the size of the cavern they were in. Jean had seemed to have a small cottage at the base of a mountain, but the cottage happened to hide a secret entrance to a hideaway inside the mountain.

"This is SO cool!" She exclaimed. Jean just smiled at her.

"I feel like saying 'welcome to my secret lair' or something like that." She said. Rogue smiled back at her. "I needed a place that would be a lot cooler than Xavier's school." She joked. "But seriously, I have kids here who have no homes, or have run away like some of Xavier's kids. The look of a school wouldn't cut it for me, though. I needed a secret place. So many of the mutants here just need a place to stay that was safe, and they need a place where they can learn to control their powers in peace."

"But how did you pay for all of this, how did you build it all?" Rogue questioned her.

"Well, getting the mountain all to myself was hard work, but building this place was the easy part. Its not like I needed professional builders, because there are an abundance of mutants who need a place to stay that helped me. Most of the people who live here already had jobs, so they could help pay for the materials, and it just all grew from there. Any of the mutants staying here who don't have special skills that are needed for jobs just work outside here on the farm, and that pays for all the food that is needed, and, of course, building materials for new rooms. Its like an apartment block in here, you're going to love it, Rogue."
After Rogue had finished looking incredulously around the entrance hall, she smiled at Jean.

"So, where's my room?" She asked.

There was a knock on Rogue's door in the morning as she was getting dressed after her morning shower.

"Hang on a second!" She called out as she pulled her t-shirt over her head and replaced the gloves on her hands. She opened the door to find Jean.

"Good morning!" Jean greeted her cheerfully. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, the bed is really comfortable and it is so great to have my own room."

"Apartment." Jean corrected her. "I hope you don't mind, but we should start our training right away. We have a long way to go." Rogue nodded and stepped out of the door, closing it as she began to follow Jean down the very wide corridor. Once again, she stared at the tall ceilings and endless hallways that they moved past as Jean led the way.

"The training hall is an interesting place." Jean commented as they walked. "But we're not going there today, because I thought that you might feel comfortable away from everyone else's curious stares on your first day here."
Right at the end of one of the seemingly endless hallways was a door labeled 'LOUNGE B6'. Jean pulled open the door to let Rogue in first.

"How'd you afford all this neat furniture?" Rogue asked as she entered the room and jumped onto a floral patterned couch that sat in front of a widescreen TV. Jean laughed at what seemed like a private joke.

"Everyone likes to have their home comforts, even in a place like this, so seeing as the rooms are too small to fit all of this stuff in, people buy their expensive things or bring them from their old homes and put them in the closest lounge room to them. The people in the area of this room all gave money to buy the TV. Then you have the furniture… I don't think the couple that own that floral couch could ever part with it." She smiled distantly then looked back to Rogue. "This is the closest lounge to you, so you can use the stuff in here. Just don't break anything, okay? Especially not the couch, you don't want to mess with that couple."
At the last remark, Rogue stopped bouncing on the couch and stood up to face Jean.

"So what are we starting with?" She asked.

"Take off your gloves." Jean ordered. Rogue did so quickly and Jean stepped towards her and held out her hands. "Hold onto my hand." She said. Rogue didn't agree with this. She stepped backwards.

"You've got to be joking, I'll hurt you, Jean."

"You can't hurt me." Jean assured her. Rogue reached a shaking hand out to one of Jean's, but pulled her hand back in recoil before she touched her at all. Jean sighed.

"You know that you have to start somewhere, Rogue. If you don't try this, you're not going to get anywhere with your power.

"Can't we start with meditation or something like that first?" Rogue pleaded nervously. "I don't want to… I can't hurt you, Jean. What if I can't stop it this time."

"Don't worry." Jean told her softly as she stepped forward and placed her hand in Rogue's. "I know how to deal with this."
Rogue closed her eyes and held her breath, but when nothing happened, she opened first one eye, then the other. Jean was looking at her sympathetically.

"See, there's nothing to be scared of with me." She soothed her. Rogue finally remembered to breathe and started taking deep breaths. "Now you have to focus." Jean said slowly. "What do you feel?"
Rogue's deep breaths had calmed her down and she closed her eyes to focus.

"I can feel… your energy." She told Jean. "But I'm not pulling it into myself. It is where it belongs."

"Can you feel my power?" Jean asked. Rogue opened her eyes to look at Jean once again.

"Yes." She stated. "And it feels like you're scared of it."

Okay, word limit for one chapter reached… and gone over. You're all going to have to wait till next time to fid out what happens in the rest of the first training session, mostly because my creativity is temporarily blocked. I also have a problem figuring out if the words I write are things that Rogue and Jean would actually say, so if you think that some of the ways they said some things could have been worded better, please tell me. I don't know if it really was as bad as I thought it was, so feedback is so greatly appreciated.
Eyliena