Chapter Three

Rogue had a quirk she never grew out of. Ever since she was a little girl staying the night at a friend's house, sleeping in an unfamiliar bed never rewarded any rest. She would literally toss and turn all night long. Maybe stare at the ceiling a bit, or imagine dull-eyed sheep just so she could count them all. The worst part was when she closed her eyes and it felt like hours had passed by, only to check a clock and realize it'd actually been about fifteen seconds.

Damn. She'd go back to imagining sheep. Maybe think up a new one with bat wings and satyr horns. She'd name him Ricardo.

Ricardo the Demon sheep!

From hell.

I'll bet insomnia comes from hell…

Rogue sighed. It was no use. She couldn't picture Ricardo and so let her mind wander instead. She avoided thinking thought about all the crazy-ass shit happening to her lately. Refusing to dwell on Magneto, unwilling to consider if Emma was right about Logan's being affected or not, never bothering to wonder how she would survive on her own. Come morning she'd have to leave the mansion. That was the part she skipped thinking about the most.

She groaned, wearily acknowledging the daunting twilight hours ahead of her if her mind wouldn't rest. All the while Quicksilver's stolen memories pressed against the front of her cranium. She sighed. Now was as good a time as any she supposed. She opened her mental flood-gates and let his consciousness wash over her.

It was going to be a long, long night.

It came as no surprise that Rouge 'woke up' the next morning feeling like a cranky bitch the size of Godzilla. Puny mutants beware! She hadn't had her coffee yet!

She smacked her shoulder into the door jam on her way out the bedroom. Swearing loudly, she stomped into the kitchen, scowling at anyone who dared to look twice.

She'd forgotten that she was still in her underwear.

So yeah, people totally looked twice.

She pushed through the kitchen's swinging doors and growled. She was hungry. But more than that- she wasn't a morning person. A shrimpy pre-teen boy gaped at her from the television set, his eyes blinking rapidly as he memorized the sight of her panties. The TV channels skipped in step with the fluttering of his eyelids.

Rogue cocked a brow at him and he turned bright red. He ducked his head and fled from the room.

That's right boy! You'd better run! I'm the mother-fucking Godzilla of breakfast-time!

She chuckled darkly.

'Cause she was in a dark mood.

Quicksilver had been a nasty fellow, she'd decided. She didn't feel a moment's regret for what she did to him. She already planned on giving him a nice punch in the face if they ever chanced to meet again. The guy was a tool.

And now he was her tool. She smiled to herself. The speedster had given her a whole plethora of breaking and entering tactics that would come in handy sometime. If someday she should wonder, hmm, how do I pop this lock? his memories would come flooding back to her.

Rogue scavenged a cup of coffee. With lots of sugar and cream, thank you! She chugged it down in greedy gulps and tossed her dirty mug in the sink. It's not like she'd be staying at the mansion, so why bother cleaning up? She picked out a red apple to sink her teeth into it and ate it on her way back to the bedroom. She'd pack up her things and then bid her goodbyes, as promised.

Walking past the library she caught snippets of muffled conversation and pressed her ear to the ajar door. She recognized Forge's voice inside complaining about 'poor communication'.

"You didn't tell me I was picking up a dead guy!" he was accusing whoever else was in the room.

She blinked. At first not comprehending what dead guy he was talking about. But then the dreadful realization sunk in and Rogue swallowed the rising lump in her throat. Instantly regretting what had been overheard, she remembered that Forge had been placed in charge of bagging Magneto's baddies for the MRD. He must have gone back for Quicksilver but found a corpse instead…

I touched him to long, she realized sadly, I killed him.

A feeling of guilt sucker punched her in the gut. Wasn't she just thinking he deserved it a moment ago? Wasn't she just strutting around, feeling like the bad ass ghost rider of mutant justice?... Or something along those lines? Her head spun. Damn she felt sick…

She retreated back into the locked confinement of her four bedroom walls gasping, sinking to the carpet floor. Grief overwhelmed her, but it wasn't pity for the dead.

Cyclops's knuckles rasped on the polished wood of Rogue's door, hoping to elicit an answer from the girl who had unfailingly ignored him this past half-hour. She hadn't come down from her room yet (as far as he knew), and wouldn't see anyone. Both Ororo and Scott had tried consoling whatever it was ailing her, but she wouldn't answer except to reassure them she would be leaving within the hour. `Ro had accepted defeat and walked away, but Scott was still entreating her. He was a stubborn man, and he planned to wait it out. She had to leave her room eventually, he rationalized. Everyone had to pee eventually.

So he knocked firmly against the wooden frame yet again, feeling very determined. "Rogue, please open up and talk to me." He pleaded.

Still no answer. Jean would have at least acknowledged him by know, and Scott found that frustrating. Just how long did she plan on ignoring him? His hands balled into fists and the urge to break the door down struck. He dismissed the temptation, knowing that brute force wouldn't accomplish anything. He had to be sensitive and patient. He would wait until she was ready to let him in.

But then Logan came sauntering through the hallway looking fiercely irate. He dismissed Cyclops with a contemptuous roll of his eyes before shoving him aside and filling up the door frame.

"Rogue!" the big man's voice lashed. "You have exactly five seconds!'

"One-!" They heard the immediate scuffle of activity within the bedroom. "Two-!" She let out a stifled squeak and fumbled with the lock. "Three-!"

Click.

The door was open.

So much for sensitivity.

Cyclops stared at the floor, refusing to meet Logan's cocky smirk. But even without looking up he could feel that eyebrow being raised. Damn Logan and his mocking smirks!

Scott waited, eyes downcast and feet shuffling awkwardly until Logan scoffed and went inside the bedroom, closing the door behind him. Scott was conflicted by the opposing desires to 1. See Rouge and 2. Save face, and the 3rd strong urge to slink away on his belly. Like a worm.

He decided to save face. Puffing out his chest he strode proudly into his teammate's room… and immediately deflated.

There was Rogue, breathtakingly beautiful and even more luminescent then the Venus of portrait. Her long shiny hair with its angel like curls, those green, green eyes, that skin which caused the moonlight to stare in envy... She was so beautiful. She made him feel like his heart was going to melt.

And then there was Logan, kneeling all together to close to his Adonis. She linked their fingers and whispered to him in a voice to low for Scott to hear. She smiled at him with a familiarity that squeezed his chest. Seeing them together, so intimate, so comfortable with one another felt like an ice cold bucket of water dumped on his head. Jealousy steamed out his nose.

Sure he was being irrational. But he really couldn't help it. Seeing Rogue again had stirred something deep within him and now he felt like his internal compass pointed due strait- at her. He couldn't let Logan get in the way of that. This was why it didn't matter that his ego had suffered a considerable blow, or that he was secretly chicken-shit of the great man-pillar of testosterone. She made him feel like he was walking through a thick sea of mist, with her face being the only source of navigation. His North Star, if you will. He couldn't let that metal-boned bastard screw that up for him. And so before he knew it the shades were off and he was blasting a hole through Logan's adamantium chest.

Revenge was sweet.

"I killed someone yesterday Logan. He was trying to spirit me away to Magneto, so I touched him, and now he's dead."

Silence.

"So you're feeling guilty? Is that it?"

"I guess so. It's complicated."

He scoffs. "Who'd understand that better than me?"

She smiles. "You're right."

"Course I am."

Another smile. This one's sad.

"Logan… what happens when you take a life? How are you supposed to feel?"

He ponders. "I'm not sure if there's a right answer for that."

"Well, how does it make you feel?"

His eyes lock onto hers. There's a dangerous edge to that look.

"Satiated."

She nods her head. She can remember the feeling, from his memories. He enjoys killing more than he likes the other X-Men to know.

"Logan? What if I don't regret it? Does that make me a bad person?"

"Do you feel like a bad person?"

She frowns. "I don't know."

"And are you sorry he's dead?'

"I am. I didn't intend for him to die; it just happened."

"But if you could go back, still not knowing that what would ultimately happen if you touched him, would you do it again?"

"Well, maybe if I hadn't held on so long-"

"No. No 'ifs'. Start thinkin' that way and you'll go insane. I'm talking Yes or No, would you still have used your power on him?"

She is silent.

"I think… Yes. I would have. Definitely I would have. He would have taken me if I hadn't."

"So… does that make you a bad person?"

She sighs. "I don't know? Does it?"

He shrugs. "Like I said I don't think there's an answer for this question."

She bites her lip.

"Logan?"

"Yeah Marie?"

"I don't think I'm a bad person."

He pats her hair. "Neither do I."

"And Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"…If I asked you to kiss me, would you?"

His breath hitches. He hopes she doesn't notice.

"Are you asking?"

She smiles at him. There's a sultry gleam in her green eyes that he's never seen her wear before. It's very arousing.

"Logan I want you to kiss me."

Well then…

He's ready to oblige.

He leans in-

-and gets blasted in the chest.

There are some moments in life that seem surreal, like when your Lottery ticket wins the big bucks, or your grandma calls from jail asking if you'd post bail, or (in Rogue's case) when the man your about to kiss gets knocked off his feet by a high-powered optic beam.

When that happens, you're often left in a daze wondering why the hell his tongue isn't in your mouth.

Or maybe that was just her.

Logan bellowed in outrage, (whether that was directed at the searing pain in his chest or the rudeness of being interrupted was unknown). Only one thing for sure: He went down as a sexy 'I'm-about-to-jump-your-bones Logan', and came back up the Wolverine.

His body made a metallic creak as he mutely climbed to his feet. Numb, inspecting the sizzling cavity where his pectoral muscles used to be he snarled, his eyes eerily lifting to glare down Cyclops's smug face. There was a signature within look he gave- and it promised full compensation.

Cyclops's blast had consumed his skin and muscle, and only his metal skelo-structure had been enough to shield the heat from melting a hole through his core. The lasers had licked at his vital organs, but they were otherwise protected within the encasement of his shiny, exposed adamantium ribcage. He looked gruesome, like the goddamn terminator.

Everyone knows you can't stop the terminator!

Cyclops had enough time to think OH SHIT! before he was charged.

Their bodies smashed through the drywall in a tangled clamor of fists of limbs that ended up with Cyclops on his back while Logan pummeled his face into one swollen purple bruise. Another blast leaked out of Cyclops' eyes which hurled the bigger man off him- temporarily. The reprieve was short lived as Logan pounced on him once again with doubled ferocity one had to wince at.

Rogue watched the violence unfold with a horrified fascination. Besides feeling hot and sticky inside that two men would actually fight over her, she was growing massively agitated. Cyclops had never given the impression of liking her before the other day, so his sudden outbreak seemed unprecedented. If she didn't already know better she'd assume he'd fallen victim to her love-me-mind-control same as Magneto. But that was ridiculous; she'd never taken his memories before! She tried taking his powers once, but it hadn't worked since he'd been unconscious at the time. Rogue had always just assumed it's been a dud.

However… She'd been wrong before.

She knew she'd have to break up the cock fight before Cyclops discovered six shiny claws embedded in his gut, but she also knew there was no way in hell she's be able to physically separate them. At 5'5 they dwarfed her, so unless she had super strength tossing herself into the rough and pulling them apart was the equivalent of stupid. But all that left was her mutant power- and she knew she couldn't do that them. Not if it made people go crazy.

And especially not after killing Quicksilver.

There was no way she would take that risk, and so in the end she did what most rational minds would have thought to do first: she ran for help. She vaulted down the hallway at record-time speeds, having unwittingly invoked the dead Speedsters ability. Time slowed down just as it did before, only this time she was too distracted to notice the difference. She tumbled into Ororo's office and babbled for the weather witch to come up and help her because Logan and Cyclops were killing each other in her room. Then she spun on her heels and rocketed away.

A heart beat later Rogue had raced back to the brawling men and screamed in their ears, ordering them to stop. But they wouldn't hear her-

"Stop it!" She shrieked letting her fists beat wildly against Cyclops's shoulder. One of his eyes was swollen shut while the other one blasted against Logan's claws. The adamantium absorbed most of the laser, burning red hot from the heat and giving his claws the look of a sword freshly aglow from the forge. The rest of the flesh on his hands and forearms had sizzled off the bones, not even making a bloody mess since he was literally evaporating.

"You have to stop!" she commanded. Her voice was turning hoarse and her fingers scratched at Cyclops, who still had Logan pinned under his optic beam. He pushed her aside but she wouldn't let off him. Couldn't he see she was saving his life? Her nails found purchase on his cheek and raked an angry scratch down the side of his face. He reacted to the pain by backhanding her across the mouth, sending her reeling against the floor. She cracked her head on the hard surface and her vision swam. Groaning, she rolled onto her belly and felt herself drool. She tasted the coppery explosion of blood in her mouth and realized it wasn't salvia dribbling down her chin…

I give up, she thought glumly. Just tell me who wins. I'm just gonna' take a little nap in the corner…

But wait- wasn't there a rule about concussions?

Oh, that's right. No sleeping.

Goddamnit.

Rogue sighed. And winced. And retched.

If you couldn't already tell, she was having a really, really shitty morning. It nearly got better- but alas, she was un-kissed and feelin' pissed off.

Having two men kill each other over you is NOT SEXY, she decided. (Or maybe the problem was that it wasn't sexy enough). Either way, Rogue was finished with them. They could just kill each other than, for all she cared! Whatever!

She was glassy-eyed when Ororo finally sprinted into their midst with Emma Frost following just behind. If Rogue could have moved her lips she would have cussed them out. Honestly, hadn't she told `Ro to move her ass ages ago? Ms. Munroe needed to hustle!

The weather witches' eyes were like saucers as she absorbed the physical trauma enfolding around her. Right off the bat she noticed more destruction of school property, namely the second hole in the wall (besides the dozen scorched marks and broken furniture). Her two team mates looked like either one might fall over dead: Cyclops looked like he'd been clubbed, then run over by a truck, then dropped out of an airplane window to subsequently bounce down the side of a mountain. And Logan-

Logan looked like a skeleton from the waist up. Cyclops' eyeball infernos had done a number on his body, and by all accounts he looked like he ought to be a twitching zombie. However she found him instead still bounding on his feet. His carnage hadn't slowed him down in the least. He really was a terminator!

And then- there was Rogue.

Always, always Rogue.

That girl was a one-stop catastrophe waiting to explode. And there she sat, shrugging at the Mansion staff with an expression on her arched eyebrow that asked Well? Ain't ya'll gonna' do somthin' bout this?

They would deal their little cataclysm of destruction after they'd broken up the fight. It worked surprisingly easier than either woman had anticipated. All they'd needed to do was telepathically hypnotize Cyclops into sleep, (which was the easy part, given that a gentle flick probably would have made him pass out) and subdue Logan. The last part was much trickier.

But Adamantium made a good lighting rod, and it worked out okay. In thirty seconds Ororo was panting, but she had separated the men and neither looked like he might spring up again unexpectedly. Although- Logan had already begun his reconstructive healing. Now THAT was a freaky thing to witness!

Emma helped to steady Rogue on her feet while Ororo cradled the girl's face in her hands. Her lip looked like a blood balloon where it had swelled along the split. It would be days before she healed.

"Whui wwedy du woa nnow." Rogue mumbled, unable to form the words around her injury.

"Ssh, don't try to talk." `Ro's pale eyebrows knit in concern.

Rogue grunted with obvious irritation, trying once again to unsuccessfully communicate. Her face furrowed as she thought up an idea: pinching her fat lip between her forefinger and thumb to keep the sound from being confounded. Success! It worked! She kept her lip pinched and very slowly, very carefully explained to Ororo and Emma what she needed:

"Have someone carry Logan out to a car before he wakes up and kills us all. I'm leaving and I'm taking him with me."

She knew she wouldn't start feeling better until the mansion was a tiny spec in her rearview mirror.

AN: Supposedly a normal telepath can't read Rogue's mind since it's so jumbled. Even Professor X would have had a hard time making sense of it, that's why it took so long for him to find her on cerebro in X1.