Disclaimer:As always, the X-Men Evolution series is not owned by me and the characters are not owned by me, either – or at least, the relevant characters are not mine. Without further adieu...

Edit: This is the March 30, 2008 update. I'm adding indents and better spacing and divisions, because although I put them in on the original draft, is kind enough to remove them for me. So enjoy the easier-to-read-and-follow version of Chapter 4! And as always, feedback is love.

-x-

Rogue was rubbing her sore arms when she got back to her room, and she closed the door and sighed contentedly. When the mansion had been renovated, Kit had moved down the hall into a room with Jubilee. The Professor had asked that Rogue be given a private room.

Rogue shivered lightly. Her arms were covered, but her window was open.

She moved across the room to close the window, and she grunted as she pushed it down – it seemed like every muscle in her body was crying for bed.

"Well,chère, you look like you need one of Remy's patented massages." Rogue spun around, and did a quick roundhouse kick to the side where the sound of her attacker was.

Her foot was caught and the pair spun to the floor, Rogue on the bottom. She wrapped her legs around the waist of her attacker and pulled hard, rolling over so she was on top, grabbing at his arms and finally realizing who she was sparring with.

"Chére Remy knew we had an attraction but did not think you would act so soon." Rogue glared and punched at Remy's face, but he ducked and scooted right under her body, and flipped her over from behind and pinned her down against the floor.

As much as Rogue squirmed, Remy held fast and didn't let her get away. He seemed to be enjoying her wiggling.

"No worries, chère. Remy will gladly hold you here. Remy is glad to see that you are not the type of girl who just sits and enjoys, heh?" Rogue stopped struggling and Remy climbed off her. He offered her a hand up; she rejected it.

She quickly pushed herself to her feet and backed a few feet from the Cajun. She took one glove off, glaring, and held her hand in front of her threateningly.

"Cajun, if ya don't back the hell away from me Ah'll drain you into a coma and then have the professor kick you outta my head!" Rogue growled. Being intimidating came naturally to Rogue, after many years of tormenting school boys and younger mutants at the mansion.

"Now now, be nice to Remy. He just came to check up on his chère.Remy's missed you, you know." Gambit backed up and leaned against her closed window.

"Well Ah haven't missed you, so get the hell out so Ah can sleep." Rogue was mentally making a list of things to do tomorrow: get a lock on her window; stronger lock on her door; make Logan improve the mansion security systems...

"No worries, Rogue, you and Remy are going to be spending lots more time together 'soon as he moves in. See you soon, chère.." He opened the window and climbed back out swiftly and Rogue sighed angrily as she walked to the window and shoved it closed. The window pane shook with how hard she pushed on it, but she barely noticed.

She walked over to her desk and opened the main drawer. She pulled out the false bottom and tucked a few strands of white and crimson hair behind her head. Her hair was getting longer and longer these days, and Rogue couldn't be bothered to cut it. It was just hair, after all.

She sorted through a few personal items that were dusty and old. Just basic things that she didn't tell anybody about, or look at. Except for when she really needed to. A picture of Cody, some jewelery her foster mother had given her..and then, at the very bottom, she found what she was looking for.

It had been long over two years since she'd bothered to pull out the Queen of Hearts that Remy LeBeau had left in her hand while standing on the shores of Blood Moon Bayou. Rogue couldn't figure out why she kept it. She still didn't understand, but perhaps it was just a memory of the experience. She had all but forgotten about the card until that damn swamp rat had broken into her bedroom tonight.

She angrily threw the card back in the drawer and put everything back with gentle precision.

It was a stupid card. Just a stupid card. It didn't mean anything.

And Gambit didn't mean anything. She had better things to do then to be bothered by a stupid Cajun. And so she wouldn't think about him any more. And that was that.

-x-

Kitty cracked her knuckles and raised her blade in front of her, analyzing the problem. She bit her lip and inhaled slowly, trying to clear her mind.

She pushed the knife down slowly and carefully concentrated on chopping the carrots in front of small pieces. She hadn't cut herself yet slicing up several vegetables for the evening salad. It was her turn to make dinner, which wasn't often. Kitty was more then aware of how many people hated her cooking, and how bad it was.

It made her more determined to become better at it. She didn't understand how she could be good at chemistry and bad at cooking. It made no logical sense.

Kitty figured it was time to go back to the basics. So for tonight, she was preparing spaghetti, sauce, and a salad. The shadowcat stopped to wipe the sweat off her brow; she was praying to every deity she had ever heard of that this meal would turn out alright.

"I'm impressed." An English accent came from behind her. She whirled around, holding the knife up to threaten whoever interrupted her intense concentration. And there stood Pete Wisdom.

"And what is so impressive, Mr.Wisdom?" The younger girl growled at him. She wasn't in the mood for his stupid antics; she had a meal to prepare and she would not, could not, screw it up.

"Well, I've never seen anyone light spaghetti sauce on fire before." Kitty was confused for a moment, but when he looked pointedly at where her spaghetti sauce was steaming and in fact, on fire, she screamed and ran over to grab the pot off the stove.

"Damn it all to hell and back!" Kitty cried out. She started cussing under her breath as she moved the pot into the sink to put out the fire and wash out the now useless sauce.

"Didn't think you had the smarts to swear like that, Cat." She turned the tap on and let the water run into the pot.

"Cat? I'm no animal Wisdom, but I'm sure you'll find one if you bothered to look in a mirror. If you'll excuse me, I'm trying to make dinner." He snorted and ran a hand through his hair and moved closer to the counters to look at the dinner she had prepared.

"Trying? Pryde, you've outright failed. Spaghetti is as basic as dinner gets and kid, you just lit it on fire." He moved around the kitchen slowly and produced a pot, a handful of tomatoes, some spare ingredients. Kitty looked at him curiously.

"What are you doing? It's my night to cook. You're probably not even on the schedule yet." He nodded.

"Maybe, but I'd like to eat tonight without having to be sick afterwords. And if that means I'm going to have to teach you how to cook, then I'm going to do it, damn all."

Kitty blinked, in shock. He started giving instructions. When the English mutant noticed she wasn't following them, he waved a hand in her face.

"Wisdom to Pryde." Kitty snapped to. "We gonna do this or what?" She nodded and this time, he gave his instructions slower, to bother her, but she was too busy trying to perfect them that she didn't notice.

-x-

Rogue was hungry. Again. She was missing dinner. Again. Though Kitty cooked, so perhaps that wasn't as bad as she was thinking it was right now.

Her stomach growled violently. Maybe it was that bad.

She and Logan were, once again, meditating. Today's exercise was much different then her usual. She was only allowed to use her mind for today's challenge.

"Today, we're going to focus on channeling people. Instead of channeling their powers, I want you to try and channel their personality. So instead of thinking about Scott's laser vision, I want you to think about Scott. Deal? So when I say a name, just think about that person, and we'll see what happens." He was being gentle with her. The numerous bruises she had acquired over the last week of floating and falling or getting stuck in the floor or bouncing rays off other things was wearing on her body. It embarrassed her to be treated special, or for him to go easy on her, but her body couldn't take any more torment so she had to accept it.

Logan sat a few feet from her, watching her closely. She was crossed-legged and breathing steadily.

"Jean." Rogue started to think about Jean. She was thinking about how the red head got what she wanted. Rogue didn't have thoughts for Scott anymore, because Scott was so in love with Jean that everything regarding him was pointless anyways. She was the only thing he ever thought about was little perfect Jean. Perfect Jean who hugs everybody and laughs and sings and got to go to college and who has parents and...

"ROGUE!" Logan cried out. She opened her eyes from her meditative state to find she was floating several feet above the air. She let out a gasp and started to plummet down, barely hearing Logan's "CONTROL!" that he screamed at her in an angry fashion.

She closed her eyes and focused on the fact that she did not, at all costs, want to hit the ground. She needed to not hit the ground.

And suddenly, she stopped.

Rogue peeled one gloved hand away from her eyes to see that she had stopped, mid air, her face mere inches from the ground. She blinked her green eyes twice, curious that she was floating.

She stopped to think if she could raise herself back up again.

She concentrated on Jean again. On how Jean could just lift herself and fly and how Jean had perfect control of her powers that didn't scare people away and...

And as Rogue again became jealous of Jean Grey, she started spinning. "Ah!" She started spinning faster and faster in the air.

Rogue thought as hard as she could about how she wanted to stop and stay still. She thought about a tree, about how she could be a tree. Trees didn't spin – she would like that.

However, no matter what Rogue thought about, she continued to spin faster and faster until she felt as though she would have combusted from merely spinning so quickly.

She crashed into the ground with a thud. Logan had tackled her from the air into the ground to stop her from spinning.

Her mind swam and her body lurched. She crawled away from Logan slowly and dry heaved her lack of dinner into the corner. Promptly following being sick, she crawled half a foot away and collapsed into darkness.

-x-

Logan and Professor Xavier in the medical bay, watching over Rogue from behind glass as Hank performed routine blood sampling, and tests to see how she was doing. The screen monitoring her brain waves showed that she was agitated, and uneasy. Clearly there was turmoil happening internally with her psyches.

"She's not ready for the new mission, Chuck. Stripes needs more time. You can't put her out there if crap like this is going on."

"You know as well as I do Logan, that Rogue is going to be one of the few that are most needed. And that is why you are going to have to shift into field training, immediately. In fact, I think they should all start, not just Rogue." Charles folded his hands and leaned his chin against his fingers, his gaze locked on Rogue. Her breathing was erratic and unstable, and it worried him. Dr. McCoy had great faith that Rogue would make a full recovery once the psyches calmed down a bit.

The taller mutant growled, and added a few comments under his breath. "I hardly think that field training is going to save Stripes when her powers decide to go haywire in the middle of a reconnaissance mission, but then, she could just suck the information out of other people and do further damage to her brain."

The professor chuckled. Logan turned and glared at him, finally taking his eyes off Rogue.

"I assure you, Logan, I have thought about it." The corners of Xavier's mouth turned upward in a smile.

"And?" Logan leaned his back against the glass.

"I want you to start training with Rogue and the others we selected. Start, mind you – you are not tell them what their mission is. At this point, Logan, I feel it is better that they don't know. Continue your separate training with Rogue, and I will work out a solution to her problem."

Logan nodded and walked over to Rogue's bed side, sitting on the floor and talking slowly.

"Stripes, I'm sorry I'm pushing you so hard, girl, but you have so much in you. You're like me, girl, a survivor at heart. And...you deserve more then the crap the world's been throwing at us lately. Stupid DNA defect. It doesn't make much sense to me – a man's a man like a duck tastes good with sauce, y'know?" He sighed.

Charles nodded and pushed the button, moving away to allow Logan to express his thoughts in privacy.

He soon found Hank, working in his lab, a short way away from Rogue's bed. He smiled and moved up beside the blue doctor.

"Hank? I was wondering if you'd gotten around to that DNA test I asked you about."

The doctor turned and smiled, his glasses placed gently on his nose, and his lab coat seeming just a tad small on his large arms.

"Indeed, Professor. It would appear your theory is correct. Rogue has DNA matches within the system. The computer's still compiling, but I'll tell you as soon as it runs a confirmation." He smiled and nodded.

Charles Xavier nodded and went over to Cerebro.

-x-

Todd was walking through the core of the city, alongside Pietro, Tabitha and Lance. He was happy to get outside – he felt like he'd been inside with the other mutants for too long. Tabby was happily dancing around and Pietro was watching her with a smile. Lance seemed to be ignoring everybody.

Tabby spotted something sparkley in a store window and dragged Pietro inside. Pietro laughed and followed her, holding her hand and fishing for his wallet.

Lance nodded and whispered, "Don't do anything conspicuous," before running into the corner store across the street.

And that is how Todd Tolansky found himself alone on the street of Perry Avenue.

He leaned against a street lamp that wasn't on and watched the people pass by. The normal people who complained about mutants. Todd didn't understand why they were so upset – it wasn't like he was going to slime any of them, but he supposed he was afraid of them the way they were of him.

A fly buzzed around his head. He tried hard to ignore it – he did. But it was all around his hair and in his ear and he could hear it like a dull roar in the form of a constant buzzing fly.

A flash of green caught Todd's eye and he perked up – hoping to see Pherma walking through the streets, thinking he could catch a glimpse of her and impress her somehow.

He hopped up onto the street post, using his tongue to catch the fly on his way up – not thinking.

"AHH! MUTANT!" Some woman screamed.

His eyes opened wide as he immediately dropped to the ground, hoping no one would notice him. It was useless.

He was shoved and pushed. People screamed at him. "Get out of here, you filthy mutie!"

Someone had the audacity to throw groceries at him.

Frightened, he tried to run away, but two large men blocked his path. They grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shook him forcefully until he was dizzy and disoriented.

"What's the matter, freak? Can't handle life out here with the normal people? After all, it's not our fault nature screwed you up." The first one said. The second one, a Hispanic man, punched Todd in the face. He fell to the ground in a thud, landing on his lower backs. He winced as the men hovered above him.

"No, please, I didn't mean.." he started, but the one man stomped on his stomach and he cried out in pain.

"Let's go, amigo," the second man tapped his friend on the shoulder, "mutie trash isn't worth our time." He looked down at Todd. "Adios, freak."

As Todd clamored to get back up, he was pushed down. A little girl in a yellow sun dress kicked his foot and yelled "You're mean!" which he thought was particularly uncalled for.

Every time he tried to get back to standing, someone pushed him down. Women, men and children muttered and shouted insults at him. Some men spat at him. Someone poured hot coffee on his head.

Tears were threatening to spill out of his eyes as he feet finally found the ground and he pushed himself to his feet.

As soon as Todd Tolansky was standing, he fell once more, never to stand again.

Tabby and Pietro came out of the store with a small bag in hand, still laughing. They saw as Todd stood and fell back to the ground.

"Todd!" Tabby yelled and they quickly ran (well, slowly for Pietro as not to attract any more attention) over to their fallen comrade.

When Lance came out of the corner store, pocket full of a new carton of cigarettes and a Bic lighter, he found Pietro cradling Tabby in his arms as she sobbed, Pietro staring blankly at Todd's lifeless body.

-x-

A/N:

WOAH!

Now that took me eternity to work on. I'm so sorry guys – I had a total block as to where I wanted to go after the Rogue/Remy scene. BUT I finally finished.

So. quick spots...

Sorry that this took forever. I can't believe I haven't updated since September! I promise to have chapter 5 up before March Break, okay? Is that better? University applications kicked my ass – but I am finally done.

Thank you: to all of you who have put me on their alert list or those who have put this story on alert. It makes me feel loved. I also feel loved to those of who you have reviewed and left me your thoughts – I can't write to please if I don't know what you want, right? So give me thoughts.

I am in need of a beta reader. This chapter is, sadly, un-beta-ed. So, I am looking for a beta. One who will scream at me when I'm not writing if possible. Second to that, one who has similar fandoms as me would be awesome..I'm also currently writing a Sailor Moon fic to be called Bad Habits of which I finished Chapter One. I don't even have spell check now that I'm using Open Office Writer...because the program is in Italian. I don't speak or write in Italian...so yeah.

Please review, and I'll see you soon!

Through Darkness and Light /x\