As I tried to mention in Chapter 1, this has also been published on . Hope chapter one wasn't too graphic. If there are enough people (5ish?) who think it was, let me know which parts you believe I should remove.

Chapter 2 is a quick flashback to how Rogue was taken (a portion of it, at least) as well as the team's recovery efforts.

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It had been hours – four hours, twenty-two minutes, and thirty-eight, no thirty-nine seconds– since witnesses had watched Rogue get shoved into a white van by two men.

The two were out to do some holiday shopping. Rogue hadn't wanted to go, but Kitty had whined and begged until the older girl gave in. They were just getting into the car to leave when they'd been jumped.

Kitty had woken up on the ground with a crowd of people surrounding her. She was told the paramedics had been and an officer was on his way from inside the mall.

"What, what happened?" Kitty asked as she grabbed her head and tried to sit up. Many gentle hands guided her to a sitting position and kept the disoriented girl from toppling over again.

"You've got a head injury, miss. Try to keep still," an unfamiliar male voice spoke softly to her as she tried to pinpoint the source. "What's your name?"

"Sha – uh, Kitty," she responded almost automatically. Feeling the back of her head, Kitty groaned as she reached the tender area. "Did I fall?" she asked to no one in particular.

"Some men tried to kidnap you!" an elderly woman called from near the back of the crowd. "I saw the whole thing! He jumped out and hit you on the head while the big one grabbed your friend."

Kitty's eyes widened, "Oh my gosh, Rogue! Where is she? Is she okay?!" The young brunette tried to jump up to find her teammate, but the hands from the crowd coaxed her back down quickly.

"Whoa, calm down. You could have serious trauma," the soft male voice coaxed again. "Do you have anyone you can call?"

Momentarily overcome with vertigo, Kitty nodded slightly. "My, my phone." It was quickly retrieved from her purse (which was, surprisingly, still nearby) and handed to the male voice, which turned out to be the police officer. "Logan." She muttered as she tried to make the world stop spinning.

Kitty closed her eyes and leaned against a tire as she listened to the officer talk to Logan.

"Hello, is this Logan?" Kitty could only imagine Wolverine's gruff voice on the other end of the line.

"This is Officer Lillenquist with-…"

"No sir. Sir, sir, SIR!" The officer was obviously having a hard time getting Logan to listen.

"I'm here with Ms. Pryde now, sir. She was attacked in the parking lot and sustained a head injury. The paramedics will be here shortly."

Her dizzy spell subdued, Kitty was now gazing up at the officer as he spoke with Logan. Noting that the young girl was staring intently at him, he turned away and spoke in hushed tones.

"We don't know sir. No sir. There's no sign of the other girl. We have more officers on their way. We've already filed an APB for her. Yes. Yes, of course sir."

The officer took a deep breath and turned back around with a forced smile. "Your …friend … will be here soon." Nearby Kitty could hear sirens coming closer. "It sounds like the paramedics are close," Officer Lillenquist stated. "We'll have them check your injuries and either take you straight to the hospital or wait for your friend Logan to get here."

The paramedics were checking over Kitty's head and vision in the far end of the parking lot when the X-Men arrived a few minutes later.

The officer was still waiting with Kitty when the team came running over. Storm hugged the girl, relieved, while Logan marched up to Lillenquist to get the full story.

As Officer Lillenquist relayed the situation, they discovered that an elderly woman had seen two men jump out and attack both girls. According to the witness, a tall, thin man had surprised Kitty from behind and knocked her over the head with a crowbar. Another much larger man had jumped out of a white van parked next to their vehicle and grabbed her friend before jumping back inside the vehicle. When the two men heard the old lady yelling for help, they abandoned the little one and drove off.

Officer Lillenquist postulated that Kitty had been left behind because she was too far from the van to load quickly. He claimed that it had been a lucky break for her, but all Kitty could think about was Rogue.

Thankfully, the paramedics declared she only had a mild concussion and would only need to be hospitalized overnight for observation. However, when Logan explained that they had a medical doctor on staff at the school, the EMT's left with a signed waiver of liability.

Most of the parking lot had been cordoned off with police tape, so checking for clues was off the table for now. Instead the team headed home to check with Cerebro and the Professor. And, although Kitty was ordered straight to bed, she spent most of the following three hours hacking into security cameras in the surrounding areas.

XXX

The X-Men had no luck finding Rogue with Cerebro; likewise, they could not reach the Professor despite Logan's constant, furious attempts. Using a few security cameras, Kitty had managed to track the vehicle to the far side of town near the docks. Nightcrawler was left at the mansion to tend to Kitty while the rest of the team searched all the buildings in the surrounding area. As they left the mansion, Jean managed to pick up a tiny blip from Rogue, as if she had managed to brush against someone for a brief moment. Although Jean couldn't get a full reading of Rogue's exact location, it was a sign that they were on the right track.

Scott guided the X-Jet over yet another building as Wolverine, Storm, Iceman and Beast searched inside. As an empty crate crashed through a window and exploded against the pavement, even Cyclops and Jean could tell from the cockpit that Wolverine was having no luck finding their missing teammate.

"Wolverine," Jean spoke calmly into her headset as she sat in the copilot's seat and looked down toward the building. "If you continue on like this, someone's going to call the police and we'll have to abandon our only lead."

On the other end of the microphone, she could hear Wolverine growl and retract his claws. "I know red, I know. I'm sure it's the damn MRD's. They've got to have a base out here somewhere, but I can't even get a whiff of 'em. This place should reek of those bigots."

Scott sighed into the microphone. "We don't know it was the MRD, Logan. It could have been Magneto."

"Or Sinister," Beast chimed in.

"You have a history with Weapon X, do you not?" Storm asked.

"And the Reavers," Iceman joined from the far end of the building.

Jean nodded from the cockpit. "There's the Hellfire Club, too."

"Mojo," Cyclops added.

"Mystique!" Iceman yelled.

"Nah, Mystique usually works alone, and she really doesn't have a beef with us right now," Wolverine deduced.

"No!" Iceman called into the headset, "It's Mystique. She's HERE!"

From the plane, Cyclops and Jean glanced toward Iceman's location only to see Mystique slowly approaching the young man.

Wolverine and those on the ground quickly joined the young man as Mystique stopped about 10 yards away from the group.

The X-Men were clustered together in defensive stances as Mystique held her hands in the air as a sign of peace. In one hand she held a single piece of paper.

"Mystique," Wolverine growled, "You behind Rogue's disappearance?"

"No," Mystique answered quietly. "I had no idea she was even missing until I got a call from my friend Destiny. She informed me that Rogue had been taken and that it was absolutely essential that the X-Men find her immediately."

"Why the urgency?" Beast questioned. "What will happen if we do not find her?" Storm and Wolverine shared an uneasy glance as they awaited an answer.

"Destiny is a precog. She sees the future. If you don't find Rogue – and soon – someone else, someone much worse will and it could lead to an Apocalypse unlike any other." Mystique was growing anxious as she fiddled with the paper in her hands.

"I've got the map of her location here. Destiny was able to scribble it out before she sent me to find you. It's an aerial view." Keeping her head down, she was getting very antsy as she anxiously waited for Logan to take the parchment.

"And why should we trust you?" Wolverine asked. "How do we know it isn't a trap?"

By now the two were only feet away from each other and Mystique suddenly looked up and met Wolverine's eyes.

The rough Canadian was shocked to see light tears glistening in the woman's eyes.

"Please," Mystique whispered, "Please just trust me James. Just trust me and FIND HER before it gets any worse…"

With that, she gently stuffed the paper into Wolverine's stunned palm and turned to leave. As she did, however, she touched her temple gently and paused, looking up at the plane. Then she quickly transformed into a raven and flew off into the dusk.

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PLEASE Read and Review. Again, this story IS contending for my time with one of my other fics. The one with the most reviews gets updated the fastest!

Love & Light,

Wiccamage