Sorry guys for the long hiatus! I had that writer block thing going on with me and I just couldn't make myself write. Anyway, here is your chapter. I promise, next chapter will be here sooner.

.

Chapter Fourteen

The Unethical Part of It

.

"No, Logan," Professor Xavier shook his head at Logan. "I cannot read their minds."

Logan, who was standing beside Phoenix, looked at Professor and then back at me. Then, he looked at Phoenix, the current resident of my body as she sat on the chair beside me, with a face of utter sincerity and concern.

I looked back at Professor who was sitting behind the table, his face in complete focus as he looked at Logan.

"I understand," Professor answered. "I understand your concerns. And I know a lot of things because I've been around for quite some long time. But obviously, I cannot know everything."

Then, Professor turned his gaze at me. It was always a surprise to see Professor looking back at me, with a new face, a new voice, but the same old wisdom. I didn't know what exactly had happened… but maybe what happened to him was same as what happened to me? Because just like me… he wasn't in his original body. Though of course, for him, it was a turn for the good. For me… I had just lost my body.

His gaze returned to Logan and then, at Phoenix.

"Rogue?" Professor Xavier suddenly called out.

"Yes?" I asked, while at the same time, Phoenix looked at him and said the same thing.

I looked at her and then, turned to look at Professor, who was smiling at both of us. He looked at Phoenix and then, got up. "Let's have a walk?"

It was a surprise yet again to see Professor being able to walk. A new face, new abilities… However, I felt pained that Professor called Phoenix Rogue. I mean, hello? I'm Rogue! Right beside the intruder!

I've lost my identity and face. Could anything be worse?

"But Professor," Phoenix answered, her voice dripping with fake concern. "Do you think it's safe to leave her, here?"

She threw me an evil glare and then, looked back at Professor, her eyes soft and full of shit. God, she acted pretty well.

I gulped as Professor smiled and replied. "I'm sure Logan can handle himself… the others too?" He ended it in a question, looking at Logan, who nodded, then at Mystique.

Mystique all but smiled and uttered, "Must you, Charles?"

Then, he proceeded to look at Remy who sat beside Mystique on the far couches and gave a gruff nod, at Leslie, who sat a little way away from the pair of them with Eve and Marcus. Leslie gave a smile and then, looked at Marcus and Eve, who both nodded their heads.

Remy had arrived shortly after we reached here, flanked by Mystique and I swear I noticed both of them holding hands, which was lasted for about a maximum of two seconds. I think no one noticed it, not even Logan.

Summing it up in three words – weird but cute.

But then, if they were okay with it, then, I was happy for both of them.

Phoenix nodded and got up, placing a kiss on Logan's mouth, while I bristled. I bit my lower lip, trying not to utter a word as I focused on Professor Xavier's table with his weird collection of pens. They were there in a sort of pen stand, if you could call it that. There was this blue one, which–– oh, who am I kidding? I wanted to kill that bitch.

When I looked up and found them still kissing, I couldn't help but focus on Logan, while boiling up inside. Slowly, as if sensing my gaze, along with that of the whole room, Logan broke the kiss.

"Uh, I think you should go with Charles now," Logan told Phoenix. And I swear he whispered something to her in her ear.

In reply, Phoenix gave Logan a big smile to him, pecked him on the lips once, and followed Professor out of the room.

I looked at Professor's table, listening to the silence in the room. The way he whispered in her ear… what if Logan was double crossing me? What if… what if Logan didn't believe me and he was just trying to make me stay put by lying to me? What if… Logan was indeed trying to kill me, being under the impression that I was the Phoenix?

Until now… until a few moments ago… I trusted Logan and in spite of all the mind conversations he had with Professor, I was… sort of interpreting them in my favor. Now that I came to think about it… they could all have been against me and in Phoenix's favor as well. The answers were all one sided – the ones that Professor Xavier gave and Phoenix could have just as well have interpreted them in her support.

I gulped and looked at Logan, who was looking down at me.

"What are you doing, Logan?" I asked him, secretly hoping that he would relieve me of all my doubts.

He shook his head, pressing a finger to his lips. But Lord, I was tired of this.

"Stop it!" I screamed, getting up. "Stop all this, okay? I cannot do it!"

"Do what?" Marcus asked from behind Logan. We all peered at him for a second, before ignoring him.

"Logan… what's happening?" I asked him, with finality evident in my voice. I wanted answers and I wanted them now.

He waited a whole minute before finally sighing and answering, "She could have heard us! Marie, believe me… Charles is trying to get inside her brain… To get you back in your body. Just trust us. We want you back in your body before we even attempt anything. Because if we try anything now… your body will be affected."

"So… who's this Marie?" Marcus asked again. "And dude, what exactly is happening?"

Leslie shushed him. "Are you sure Logan?" He asked Logan, who turned to face him. "Are you sure she's the real Marie?"

"Yes," Logan answered. "Their smell. It's like… that day outside that bar." He faced me then. "I could smell Jean, which was actually Phoenix on the woman who I was followin'. I smell that on your body now… your real body… who is with Charles right now. And you… you smell like… my Marie."

I would have smiled at him because he said 'my Marie' and I felt tingly all over. Tingly, in a good way. But I was too angry at him and I turned away.

He turned me to face him again, a hand on my cheek, while I tried to look at anything but him.

"Marie, look at me," he whispered. And I swear I could feel shivers traveling up and down my body with the feel of his breath on my face. I shook my head. I was angry with him and nothing was going to change that. "Marie." This time, his tone was warning.

When I didn't look at him, he shifted in front of my vision. "Don't be angry with me… I'm tryin' to save you."

I couldn't help but scoff.

"Look… I'm tryin' to help you here, pretendin' to be somethin' I'm not… And it's not easy. So, it'll be a huge relief if I expect some help from you."

I looked back at him in disbelief, my mouth slightly open. "It's also not easy loosing your body and then seeing somebody else claiming it to be hers, Logan," I snapped back at him. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not in my own body. And you keep on kissing her. It's not making it any easier."

"Oh yes, she is Rogue," Marcus called out from behind Logan. Leslie shushed him again.

"So you're jealous?" He whispered to me so that only I could hear it, giving me a smug lopsided smirk.

"That's the only thing you understood about the whole deal?" I asked in outrage, a little embarrassed.

He just gave me his smirk in answer.

I rolled my eyes. "You need to get over yourself."

"I bet you won't like me then, as much as you do now, if I did that," he replied.

This playful side of him was really liberating and I looked at him half expecting him to say that he was just practicing for a drama downtown.

"Please try and understand," his voice turned pleading.

In the end, I nodded. "Will you tell me what's going on then?" I asked. "I like to be ahead of things."

"We could open war here," Logan said straightening and going beside Professor Xavier's chair so that he facing everybody. "But then, we'd hurt Marie's body. We're trying to figure out a way to get Marie's body back to her first before trying anything. Only then can we fight her."

"But she won't let go," I answered him. "She told me that having a control over my body is advantageous to her. Apparently… I've been accumulating powers permanently instead of temporarily. Is it true?" I looked up at Logan for answer.

He nodded. "Yes," he answered. "You're getting powers for real. Especially from ones with who you're in close contact with for long intervals of time."

"But then, I should have acquired Leslie's, Remy's, everybody's powers!" I said. "I was in contact with them."

"Physical contact," Mystique answered. "Like handshakes, hugs... sleeping together? Physical."

"Oh," I said, blushing slightly. "But I didn't notice anybody's powers… I didn't even know."

"It happened involuntarily," Logan explained. "Like that one time when I hit you, you got real angry. And I saw Storm's eyes in yours. So it's takin' time to develop. But you are gettin' the powers permanently."

"Storm's eyes?" I asked, in spite of Leslie's 'Hit her?'

"Like when she's usin' her powers and you see just the white in them. When it's like her eyes roll back and the whites are visible."

I looked down at the pens in front of me. When did it happen? I didn't even know.

"Wow," I muttered.

"Charles thinks you have the potential of turning into a class five mutant," Mystique told me. "Wow it is."

"And you're not agin'," Logan said, smiling slightly. "At least not at the normal rate you should age. It'll take time to figure that out. I think you got that from me."

"From you?" I asked, looking back up at him to where he was standing.

"From me," he repeated with a definite edge to his tone.

Which would be perfect for us because he didn't age normally too. I could hear him tell me that even when he didn't say it. I kept looking at him because I couldn't look away just then, not when he was looking at me like there was only me in his world and nothing else mattered. And how long had I waited for him to look at me just like that?

I heard a cough behind me and I looked over at Marcus who was looking at me with an annoyed frown. Logan followed my gaze and looked at him with a pissed off expression. Wait. Did something happen between them?

"Um, Logan," I said, bringing his gaze back on me. It was practically hard to speak when he looked at me like that. "H–how exactly are we going to make Phoenix give me body back? Because really, I don't like being in this body. For one, I don't like red hair." Since I saw you with Jean, I added in my mind.

Logan hesitated. "Professor had an idea. But its… its bad. And he's working on it even now."

"Bad?" Mystique asked.

"He wanted to dig up Jean. And make Phoenix touch her body. Apparently, a body always calls to its soul. He's taking her there now. In a few minutes, we may hear about it. As in… go and fight Phoenix. Professor wanted me to ask you all… who all would fight?"

"Wait a second. Dig up Jean?" I asked. "As in… the grave down there?" I asked, pointing to the window.

Logan nodded gravely.

"But that's… she… we can't!"

Not only was it unethical, Jean had been in her grave for almost a year now. What would be the condition of her body? Okay, even if it was a considerable option for us now and body does call to the soul – which makes the whole thing I had with Phoenix soul–swapping – the body was also Jean's. Didn't Jean deserve as much as an eternal rest? We had to dig up her body and make Phoenix touch it so that Phoenix gets trapped in her body… and then what?

"We'll have to," Mystique said behind me. "It's not only about Jean. If Phoenix does have a body and she's just as instinctual as she was in the past, the whole world stands at risk, like the last time. Her powers are enormous. Coupled with the powers your body provides her, she'll be indestructible!"

"But Jean! Her body deserves–"

"Yes it does. And Jean died trying to save you guys, the world. Would she want Phoenix to re–awaken and wreck havoc over the world as we know it?"

Okay, that was a valid point. But when I looked at Logan, he was facing the window, away from me. But I knew the emotion that'd be reflected across his face even without seeing it. It would be sadness for what we were about to do and remorse because he had to be the one to kill Jean that one time. And now, we were going to do it again. We weren't even letting her body rest after her death.

"I'm with you and so is Eve. I'm afraid, Marcus doesn't have any fighting skills."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "And you can fight?" I asked him.

"Yes. Not only can I read minds, I can cause aneurysms."

"Um, wow," I answered back. "You never told me."

"Didn't have it. I didn't want to scare you off."

"I wouldn't have been," I told him.

"Remy's with you too," Remy spoke up for the first time.

When I looked at Mystique, she cocked an eyebrow at me. "Do you even need to ask?"

In reply, I smiled.

"Okay, I need to get this clear," Leslie spoke up again. "Even if this Phoenix does get called into that body, then what happens?"

Just as I had thought moments ago.

"Then Phoenix re–awakens in Jean's body," Logan answered turning to face us. "Which means that we'll have to fight Jean again."

"Not Jean, Logan," Mystique corrected her. "You'll be fighting Phoenix. Again."

Not to mention that the condition of Jean's body would have deteriorated in the last year. We'd fight… a zombie Jean with Phoenix's soul.

"But isn't it all happening again?" I asked. "Phoenix gets trapped in Jean's body, we kill her and her soul escapes. We couldn't kill her the last time and only Jean was killed. The body is only a shell for the Phoenix. We have to destroy the soul, the very essence that's Phoenix."

"I forgot all about it," Logan said, looking at me. His face seemed serious but I could make out the lines of sadness and those dim eyes in his face. "You're right. How do we ensure that Phoenix dies this time and not just escapes all over again?"

"I think I have an answer to that!" Leslie exclaimed suddenly.

We all looked at him.

"Look I know I'm a stranger to most of you, um, all of you, but I've read your thoughts and I know what I'm talking about. I know minds since I was kid. I've read through thoughts, desires, feelings, emotions. I think I can explain."

"Then explain," I said to him, smiling in encouragement.

His smile was grateful. "From the very beginning, there were two essences living inside Jean's body, two personalities," Leslie began. "One was calm, in control. The other was violent and instinctual. When that accident happened at Alkali Lake, the more dominant side of Jean, that's Phoenix took over her in an attempt to save the body they both shared. Though of course, it wouldn't have been sudden. Phoenix must have had control of the body at times throughout Jean's life. Jean couldn't have saved the body unless Phoenix overcame her and that marked the beginning of the dominance of Phoenix that Professor Xavier tried so long to subdue. Occasionally, you could see Jean, but for the majority of time, it was Phoenix who controlled her body, her mind."

Logan nodded. "That's right. Right before… right before I killed her, I saw Jean. She asked me to finish it."

"Exactly," Leslie continued. "When you killed her, you killed Jean because it was she who re–surfaced during those last moments. Phoenix fled the body that was destroyed and the funeral that was held was that of Jean."

He paused, giving us all the time to take it in.

"Jean died and Phoenix re–surfaced, taking the control of somebody else's body," I completed. "The body that I'm currently using and killed the owner of that body." I paused, remembering all that Phoenix had told me before. "But I was supposed to die when she took over my body. She said that. But I didn't. Why?"

"The first time Phoenix did it, there one body and two souls, leaving the owner of that body without one, while Jean overtook her body. So, that essence, that soul was lost. The soul of the body which you own now, Rogue. When Phoenix swapped her body with you, there were two bodies and two souls. She would have thought that it was supposed to have the same effect on you as it happened the first time she did it. It should have killed you. But she hadn't done enough of those body–swapping things to realize that with two bodies and two souls, the souls get swapped and nobody dies."

I nodded. That made sense.

"And when she realized that we had merely swapped our bodies, she tried to make me look like Phoenix and herself as me. So now, I die anyway," I told them.

"Okay, I believe in spirits and souls now," Eve said, speaking for the first time.

"I think when we kill her this time, we'll kill Jean," Leslie concluded. I noticed how he said 'we'. "Since there is only one soul to kill this time. This time, when she'll falls, she'll die."

Everybody fell silent for a few minutes.

"Professor has already gotten the grave dug," Logan said. "He just told me. They were walking around, giving me time to explain this to you all. By now, I think they must have reached the grave. Now, we fight."

"How did he do it when he was here all the time?" I asked, even though by the end of that question, I knew the answer.

Logan tapped his head, smiling. But even his smile was saddened.

Of course, Professor Xavier told someone through that mind–wave thing he did for someone to dig Jean's grave.

"I think we should go then," Mystique said. "We have a big fight coming up. Plus, we have to get Rogue to her body before all this starts."

And before we could even get up to do anything we heard a scream so loud and filled with agony that we were out of our seats and going out towards Jean's grave without anyone telling us to do so. Jean's scream. No, Phoenix's scream. The fight had already begun and I still had to get my body back.

Reviews are love!

So, read and review!