MAGNETIC ATTRACTION

Part Eight

The week at the warehouse had passed far more quickly than Remy LeBeau would have expected. There'd been an old saying that time flew when one was having fun, but he found it to be true that it also could fly when one definitely wasn't.

Most of the days were spent building as much of the new additions to the warehouse as he could, trying to involve the others as much as they would allow. Pietro would complain about being asked to help, but eventually become involved out of excuse of boredom (although Remy knew it was more likely he wanted to avoid the reprimand from his father upon return), and Piotr did as much as he could, being the one to do most (if not all) of the heavy lifting. Wanda frequently offered a hand whenever she was free to do so, but Remy kept her to manual jobs far from the power tools as her abilities would often cause them to come to life or things to fall apart if her mood suddenly shifted. Lance had barely offered any help; Remy had been on the verge of doling out punishments or finding something demeaning for the boy to do when he discovered him hiding in one of the damp basement rooms with his nose in a school book. A little snooping through some letters, applications and books had revealed to Remy that the boy was working on getting his GED and perhaps even hopeful to get into college, and so, for now, he left the boy alone, because he felt that Magneto might approve of this even if Lance was being lazy and unhelpful.

Through Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Rogue offered no help whatsoever, much to Remy's chagrin. He'd expected her to be with him on this, at least lending a hand, having been the first to volunteer at the start of the painting and cleaning project Now she was barely ever home. She went to college in the morning, and sometimes didn't come home until well past nine pm, by which time, everyone had downed tools and stopped working.

All Rogue would ask when she came through the door was if Magneto had been in touch, to which, as always, Remy could only reply truthfully that he had not been. The girl would then go to bed, and repeat the pattern.

Remy couldn't explain where she was going all day, and when Friday came, he decided he was going to find out for himself.

He found out what time Rogue's classes finished on Friday by snooping through her things in her room. He borrowed Piotr's van because it was more inconspicuous than his bike, and he parked far away in the student parking lot and waited. She left the college alone, clutching her books and looking somewhat down as always. He caught her glancing at Scott Summer's red convertible, which was parked in the same space it always was, and she had a strange almost wistful look on her face.

She probably wants to go home, Remy thought as he kept himself down low, watching her curiously as she slowly walked to the car he'd given her. She stood for a moment at the hood, shoving the books into her backpack, then tossed it in the passengers seat, got in and drove way.

He trailed her all the way to a local coffee house where she ate a muffin and drank what looked to be a latte, sitting alone looking glum and tired. When she'd done, she left again and he trailed her to the Bayville Library.

He waited an hour at first, then another. Stakeouts were all well and good when getting paid, but he had been bored by the first hour and when it came up near the third, he finally gave in, switched off his iPhone which he'd been listening to the entire time waiting, and got out of the van.

So this is where she's been hiding every day, he realised as he climbed the steps slowly. He realised in all his time living in Bayville, he'd never even set foot here. He laughed inwardly thinking how much this said about him and his interest in literature.

Despite being a small town, Bayville's library was big, and it had two floors and the place was surprisingly modern inside for such an old building. He found Rogue upstairs, sitting at a table near the adult horror section, her hair hanging over her face as she was writing into a notebook.

Casually, Remy sauntered over, dropped himself into a chair and leaned back, "so," he said, "this is where you've been hiding out."

Rogue raised her head, looking at him with an expression full of guilt and dismay, she dropped her eyes again and sighed, "how'd you find me?"

"I saw your car while I was driving by," he lied, he reached over to pull one of her books towards him, and he flipped it over. "History? Seriously?" he blinked, "you don't strike me as a history major."

"It isn't my major."

"What is?" Remy asked curiously.

"English lit," she replied.

"I see," said Remy, he put the book down. "It keeps you busy, I guess, since we ain't seen you hardly at all. You're meant to be occasionally at home helping you know."

"Ah know that," her cheeks flushed and she lowered her head further to hide beneath her hair. "Ah've just got so much course work to get through."

Remy shifted the chair around the table to sit next to her, "you sure it's not 'cause you don't like bein' around us?" he asked.

She shifted away from him a little, "Ah have nothin' against you all," she replied, "Ah've just been busy."

"Okay. But tomorrow is Saturday...and I don't care how much homework you have, you're gonna help some," Remy stated, "I can't just give you special privileges just 'cause I like you," he reminded.

Rogue threw him a look, "Ah didn't ask you to."

"I know that. But while you're out I'm the one who has to make excuses as to why it's alright for you to skip out on doing stuff back home, but not them."

"Then don't make excuses for me," she sighed and closed her notebook. "Ah'm not askin' for any favours."

Remy blinked; her attitude seemed quite uncalled for considering he hadn't been all that hard on her. "I'm sorry...did I...uhm...do something?" he asked.

"No," she replied. "Has Magneto called, yet?"

"No," said Remy. "He hasn't called at all since he left. Sure he'll be all right though. He can handle himself."

"Oh."

"Rogue...there anythin' you want to tell me 'bout?" Remy asked softly, he leaned across the table a little.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...all you ask every night is whether he called...it's all you say to anyone. You don't ask how anyone is or...how our day has been, or...anythin'. You just...come and go."

"Magneto said we could come and go as we please," Rogue pointed out.

"He also wanted everyone to participate in this project to fix the place up," Remy replied.

"I'll help tomorrow. Just get off my damn back, okay?"

"I...fine," he shook his head at her and stood up. He hated to have to be mean, but he forced it, just to avoid feeling rejected. "But I expect your ass downstairs tomorrow at six am. I don't care how late you been up studying."

"Fine."

Remy hated how he left things with Rogue. He drove around for a while, trying to make sense of her attitude towards him. He couldn't understand how it had gone so wrong. One minute they'd been friends, then all of a sudden, it seemed not at all.

I shouldn't have followed her in, I've probably just blown this whole thing. Might as well call Wolverine back right now and say it's all over. She's never going to trust me now.

While he had the van, he went to the all night hardware store just outside of town, and he picked up new supplies for the weekend, hoping to get a lot more work down on the training area at least so they could start using it soon. At least that way, the team would have something to do other than argue and laze about playing console games and complaining about how their lives sucked.

He arrived at the warehouse a little after half nine, and just in time to see the others spilling out of the place dressed up for a night out. Wanda's hair was streaked with bright red, her body stunning in a tight red PVC bodice and matching shorts, complimented by a spiked collar and bracelets. Piotr looked slightly out of touch with an old-fashioned shirt that might have come from the 1980s, and a pair of dark jeans. The others looked far smarter than Remy would have given them credit for.

"Where do you think you're all going?" Remy raised an eyebrow as he began unloading the few supplies he'd picked up from the van.

Piotr helped, "we are going to night club."

"Nightclub?" Remy turned to look at them all, he could already sense trouble.

"It's new," said Wanda enthusiastically.

Remy paused to look between them all, "you're not going," he said firmly.

"Like hell we aren't," said Lance, he was already heading towards his jeep.

"You know the rules, no drinking, no drugs. What do you think goes on at nightclubs?"

"Hell, why do you think we want to go?" laughed Pietro as he climbed into the passengers seat of Lance's jeep, Wanda and Piotr climbed in to the back.

Remy shook his head, "no, you're not going. You three..." he gestured between Wanda, Pietro and Lance, "can't even go anywhere without causing a stir. You honestly think I'm gonna let you to go a nightclub?"

"You think you own us?" laughed Pietro. "You might be the leader when we're meant to be 'on duty', redneck, but it's a friday night, and you aren't keeping us home just so we can sit and put up walls and sweep up sawdust."

"Pete," said Remy warningly to Piotr.

Piotr shook his head, "they are right. We work hard all week...and for what? We need time off...to unwind. It will be fine. We will be responsible."

"You I can trust to be responsible," said Remy, folding his arms, "but them? No way."

"You can't stop us. We're old enough, we can do what we like," Wanda stated coldly, she gave Remy a look of warning. As much warning as there was, he had the feeling she would still be tapping on his door in the middle of the night nonetheless.

"And what if your dad comes back?"

"You think he'll care?" Pietro scoffed, "he hasn't even cared enough to call all week. He does this all the time. He probably won't even come back for another week. Maybe even a month."

Remy sighed. He knew that if they were caught, or if anything went down, then it would be his head on the chopping block. Magneto was likely to find out either way. Wanda had been right though. He certainly couldn't physically stop them, and he certainly couldn't drag them physically out of the car and take them inside, there were four of them and only one of him after all, and one of them was twice his size, and another too fast to even touch let alone drag out of a car.

"You know what," Remy uttered, "I'm too tired to argue."

Lance had pulled the jeep off before he'd even finished speaking, and Remy watched them go feeling that gnawing feeling that he'd made a mistake in giving in. So far, he was a lousy leader, and he had no doubt in his mind that Magneto had made a mistake in asking him to be the one in charge.

He went in and tried to do what he could to the building project on his own, mostly spending his time glancing over Piotr's sketches of how it all would look, and smoking cigarette after cigarette until his throat practically burned.

Rogue arrived through the doors at ten thirty, her eyes slightly puffy from exhaustion, her shoulders slumped, her bag dragging from one hand. Remy put his cigarette out on the unswept floor, stomped on it several times to make sure it was out properly, and looked at her.

"Hey," he said coolly, trying to pretend as if he'd never had any issues with her this evening at all. Judging by her expression, she was trying to pretend the same.

"Hey," she responded, "where is everyone."

"Gone for the night," he shrugged, "I guess they sick of listenin' to me too, huh?" he cracked with a wan smile, he took another cigarette out of the packet, then stopped himself, wondering why he was chain smoking, he sighed and put the pack back into the pocket of his jeans, aware she was watching his every move.

"Listen, about earlier," Rogue began as she started to walk over, looking quite uneasy.

"Forget it," he waved the idea off almost as if it were a tangible puff of smoke he could clear away, he moved over to the table to look over the plans again, although he was too tired to make sense of them any more, "I was out of line."

"Ah just...Ah don't know..." Rogue sighed as she took a seat on the nearby chair, her bag propped between her knees.

"You're not comfortable here," Remy finished for her.

Rogue's dull green eyes dropped to the floor, her expression sad.

"I get it, really," he admitted, "but...you're never gonna be comfortable here if you don't spend time here...or spend time with us. I get that you have issues with everyone. I do too, but..." he shrugged, "it's...just somethin' we have to deal with and put up with. I don't feel like I belong here either, you know. Never felt like I belonged anywhere, it's why I usually just come and go from place to place and never hang around. This the longest I've ever stuck around."

She snorted a little, "you belong," she responded, she leaned her head back, "me on the other hand...I've never fit in anywhere. I don't think Ah was meant to. Why else would fate just give me these powers that mean Ah can never touch anyone else ever? That just seems to confirm Ah'm not meant to be around people."

Remy leaned against the table, his eyes carried across to her, he looked her up and down, drinking in the paleness of her skin, the olive green of her eyes, the fullness of her lips and the dark lines of her makeup. "It won't be that way forever, chere."

"It feels like it."

Remy watched her as she went upstairs, and he sighed to himself, feeling quite helpless to everything at that moment. Being here, being leader, being at odds with Rogue...it made him feel like he wasn't himself any more and he couldn't help but wonder if the best thing to do would to be just take off without a word so that he could go find himself again on the open road rather than stay here and try to be someone he wasn't.

It was barely half an hour later, as Remy was idly sweeping up the sawdust, that a voice disturbed his dull thoughts.

"Why is it so quiet?"

Remy slowly glanced over his shoulder, recognising Magneto's voice at once, "You're back."

Magneto was carrying a shoe-box sized parcel under one arm, and a suitcase in the other, "There were several flight delays, a few storms affected the trip," explained Magneto, "did you not receive my messages? I tried to call but was given no reply."

Remy turned fully to his boss, leaning on the sweeping brush casually, "I got no calls, no texts, I've had no calls since Monday."

Magneto tilted his head to look at him curiously, Remy assumed it was to gauge whether he was lying about this or not.

With a grunt, Remy removed his phone from his pocket and tossed it over, "see for yourself."

Magneto caught it not with his hands, but with his powers; he dropped the suitcase he was carrying, and picked the phone up and begun to swipe through the thing, checking for any missed calls, or texts. Remy wondered if he'd should have double-checked first to make sure he'd deleted any old texts from Wanda regarding the intimate nature of their relationship. He usually deleted text messages immediately but had been known to forget from time to time.

"Nothing at all..." said Magneto, he tossed the phone back and Remy caught it in one hand.

Magneto's pale eyes scanned the progress the team had made on building the gymnasium. Only one full wall was up, and part of the other, but the flooring had been laid, and there were already beams to indicate where the ceiling and upstairs area was going to go once it was done.

"You've made some excellent progress," Magneto admitted, seeming pleased.

"I was hoping to have it completed before you got back," said Remy truthfully, he pocketed his phone then began sweeping again, "but there's been issues. Some goofing around...nothing major," he decided to withhold the information about Pietro and Lance getting drunk and stoned during the week. "Rogue and Tabitha have school, so their help is only so limited, and Lance is apparently working on trying to get some classes so he can get his GED and get into college...so I've let him have time to study."

Magneto seemed amused, "Avalanche wants to go to college?"

"I was as shocked as you are," Remy responded, he pushed the mess into a dust pan, then tipped it into a trash bag.

"Hmm. That's interesting. Perhaps I should invest something into his education," Magneto reasoned, "after all, the more educated my team is, the better prepared they are."

"I agree," Remy said, feeling somewhat disappointed that he had not continued with his own education and had never finished high school.

"How are Rogue and Boom-Boom adjusting to life here?"

"As well as can be expected."

"And where are the others?" asked Magneto as he looked around, it was the second time he'd asked and Remy hadn't had an answer for him the first time either.

Searching his brain quickly, Remy answered truthfully first, "well, Tabitha is in her room sleeping I think. Rogue is upstairs..." he calculated quickly to what would sound like the most plausible lie, and then tried to add some comment to it as if it would make it sound even more true, "the rest of them all went to see some stupid double feature thing at the movie theatre...action films with Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. Pretty gay if you ask me, wanting to see that much oiled up muscle," Remy rolled his eyes.

Magneto frowned a little at the comment, but let it slide. Evidently, the lie was enough to keep him satisfied for now. "How has training been going?"

"Not very well...I haven't had the resources. I've set something up, but I only finished it this morning...it'll have to do until we can get the training area and gymnasium together..." Remy explained.

"I'd like to see the team training together tomorrow at six am sharp. It's time everyone became serious about their training and commitment to their positions in the team."

"No problem," Remy nodded. "I'll have them ready in the yard at 6am sharp."

"Now, if you'll excuse me," Magneto picked up his suitcase and headed towards his office area, "I'm going to rest, I'm very tired. I do not wish to be disturbed for any reason."

"No problem," said Remy again, watching him go.

Angrily, he kicked an empty paint bucket the moment Magneto had gone, and immediately wished he had not. If Magneto had heard, he did not come out to complain about it. Remy paused to consider what he was going to do. He was going to need Rogue's help.

Rogue had dropped off to sleep listening to her MP3 player; it seemed to her that she'd just closed her eyes for a moment after sitting on the bed, and it wasn't until she felt herself being shaken rudely awake that she realised she had nodded off.

"What?" she asked confusedly, yanking the ear-buds from the MP3 player out and blinking tiredly; Remy LeBeau was hovering over her, his hair tinged slightly with sweat, his face eerily calm.

"I need your help," he said softly in a very low voice.

"Ah'm tryin to sleep," she sighed unhappily.

"I know, chere," he put his hands under her elbows and pulled her up into a full sitting position, "listen, I need your help or I'm in deep shit..."

"What is it?" she asked she dabbed at the corners of her eyes, hoping her makeup had not run or smudged.

"I'll explain in the car," he pulled her to her feet, "c'mon."

Rogue followed him tiredly to the car he'd bought for her; he'd grabbed the keys from her dresser on the way out. He was the one to take the wheel, and she sat in the passengers seat, fighting her exhaustion poorly as he pulled the car as quietly as he could out of the warehouse yard.

"What's going on?" she asked, she fiddled with the radio just so there was some noise to help her wake up a little.

"I'm in such deep shit," said Remy, "Magneto is back."

"He is?" Rogue sat up a little straighter, "when-?"

"It doesn't matter...what matters is that Pietro, Wanda, Lance and Piotr are at an over-twenty-ones nightclub and if he catches them so much as with liquor on their breath..." he shook his head in disgust. "Then I'm in shit."

"Like you care?"

"Look..." said Remy, "all I need to is get them out of there, get them home to bed, and make sure that they're awake at six am for a training session. All we're gonna do is go in, find them, and get them home."

"Why couldn't you do that alone?" Rogue asked.

"Because there's no way all four of them are going to fit in this car," Remy explained, "someone is gonna have to drive Alver's Jeep back too."

"How are we getting in?" Rogue asked. "Do you have a fake I.D.?"

"I have my driving license," he shrugged, "not that I think we'll need it."

"Wait..." Rogue glared over at him, "you're twenty-one?"

"Yeah, what age did you think I was?" Remy raised an eyebrow.

"My age?" she shrugged.

He gave a vague laugh, and thought she was slightly naïve. Still, he supposed he shouldn't blame her.

"What if Ah don't get in?"

"You will. Don't worry," Remy assured.

Remy managed to find the new nightclub, and even more miraculously, managed to find a place on the street to park. He spotted Lance Alvers' jeep parked not too far away which only confirmed they were in the right place. There was a long line of people waiting to get in, but Remy took Rogue's hand, and dragged her straight to the door.

The bouncer thrust a hand against Remy's chest instantly to stop him, "where do you think you're going."

Remy smirked, "inside. You'll probably find I'm on the guest list..."

Rogue caught the flash of green beneath Remy's hand; as the bouncer was glancing over the guest list on a clipboad, Remy tapped on it, placing what looked like two crisp twenty-dollar bills.

"See...there I am right there..."

"Ah...Mr. Abudashi...won't you come right in," the bouncer smirked, lifting the velvet rope to let Remy and Rogue pass by.

Rogue held onto Remy's hand as he led her through the red-lit hallway, "Mr. Abudashi?" she gave a strange laugh.

"It got us in, didn't it," Remy pushed the doors into the main club area open, and he gazed around, "okay, uhm...you go left, I'll go right..."

Rogue stood for a moment, gazing at the thick gathering of scantily clad women, and drunk men dancing and writhing over the dance floor. The bar was barely visible behind lines and lines of people eager for alcohol. Lights flashed and flickered, and the music was so loud she just barely heard Remy's voice over it at all. Immediately she realised this was a very dangerous situation. She'd been in situations like this before, being so close to many people, so much naked flesh in such close range...someone could certainly get hurt.

She looked at him concernedly, he seemed to be able to read her thoughts even though he was certainly no telepath.

He leaned close to yell to her ear, "don't worry, you'll be fine...you won't hurt anyone."

"But what if Ah do?" she gazed around, feeling panic rise into her throat, making it hard to breath.

Remy turned her to look at him, gripping both of her shoulders and squeezing them reassuringly, his eyes met with hers, an intense gaze with his strange and fascinating eyes that momentarily, she found it hard to tear her own away from. "I promise, you'll be fine."

She finally agreed because she was eager to be out of the place; and she began the search for the others. It was Piotr she found first, ironically because he was much much taller than most of the other people in the club, and stood out in his old-fashioned shirt like a sore thumb. He was drinking what looked to be a simple orange juice, and he seemed perfectly sober although somewhat insecure judging by the look on his handsome chiselled face.

"Rogue," he yelled in surprise, his blue eyes wide.

"We need to get everyone out of here..."

"What is wrong? Is there fire?" Piotr looked around, seeming almost distressed.

"Magneto is back," she said loudly.

"Huh?" he asked.

She pulled his collar down so he would stoop for her to yell near his ear, "The boss is back!"

Piotr's face seemed to go a strange shade of white, he looked around, "we must find others."

With fifteen minutes of searching back and forth from the bar to the upper level of the club, to the smoking area outside, Rogue and Piotr did not happen upon any of the others. Shoving through people trying to make it through the crowds was almost impossible, and eventually Piotr, gripping her hand tightly and pulling her along, had to try and clear the path for her as she looked every which way hoping for her eyes to fall on a familiar face.

God, this is insane, this place is too mobbed, something bad is going to happen, she thought, her stomach in knots.

A hand landed upon her shoulder, and instinctively she tried to swat it away only to turn and find that Remy was attached to it. She took a deep breath, shaken.

"Don't do that!" she yelled at him.

"Sorry," he held up his hands.

"You find others?" called out Piotr.

"I found Pietro and Lance," Remy answered. "I locked them in your car," he stated to Rogue, he reached out, dangling a keyring that was quite clearly a plastic model of a breast. "Here's Alvers' keys to the Jeep, it's parked up the street. Find Wanda and bring her home as quietly as you can."

"I will stay and help," Piotr offered.

Remy disappeared into the crowd, and Rogue and Piotr continued to look. It seemed they'd been over the place twenty times back and forth, and still hadn't come across her.

"Ah don't think she's here," Rogue stood on her tip-toes to call out to Piotr.

"Maybe bathroom?" Piotr shrugged.

Rogue blinked, it was the one place she had not checked. "You're a genius," she said, gripping his hand and leading the way, trying not to get lost in the massive place. Whoever thought there were this many twenty-somethings in Bayville? She wondered to herself as she approached the small hallway to the bathroom area. She let go of Piotr's hand, "Wait there..."

Piotr stood, folding his arms, his expression determined, as if he were standing guard.

There was a cluster of women in the female bathrooms. They stood at mirrors, fixing their hair, applying makeup, she noted several of them giving her strange looks in the reflections as she passed by, looking under stalls to see if she recognised any shoes.

"Wanda?" Rogue called out hopefully. "Wanda!"

No reply, and the noise of the girls talking and laughing amongst themselves as they teased their hair, combed their mascara on and blotted their lips on toilet paper was extremely loud, she doubted she was even heard.

One noise made it through the commotion of it all though, one noise that Rogue wasn't able to ignore. The sound of someone being violently sick. The other girls heard it too, because some screwed up their faces and decided that this was the time to leave to go back to enjoying the club.

Rogue followed the sound of retching to the nearest stall and she pushed on the door a little, it was unlocked, but there wasn't enough room to step in. The smell of vomit hit her before she saw the shock of black hair. "Wanda?"

"Go...away..." Wanda managed between bouts.

Rogue somehow managed to squeeze herself awkwardly through the small space the door would let her through. When she was in she saw that Wanda was kneeling there, hurling, and her heel wedged against the door had been what had been preventing it from opening properly.

"Your daddy is home," Rogue said nervously.

Wanda turned to look at her, her makeup was smeared, her eyes were bloodshot, lipstick was halfway across her cheek. "You told him we're here," she accused.

"We just wanna get you guys all home so that he doesn't catch you all out," Rogue tried explaining feebly.

"Yeah, right..." Wanda turned to the toilet, she was sick again.

Rogue had to wait at least another fifteen minutes before the waves of vomit finally let up enough for Wanda to leave the stall. All the while, Rogue had stood there, stomach churning, feeling quite nauseous herself at the smell and sight. When they got out of the stall, the bathroom was almost empty; Rogue dragged Magneto's daughter to the sink, wet some paper towels and did as best she could to wipe the vomit from her face, and the PVC bustier the girl was wearing.

"How much did you drink?" Rogue asked out of curiosity as she tried to get vomit out of the girl's hair, wondering how in the world it had gotten up there in the first place.

"I don't know," gasped Wanda for breath, her colour off, her eyelids heavy. "Why are you..." she swallowed, "why you even trying to help me."

"Ah'm not doin' this for you. Ah'm doin' this for Remy. He shouldn't have to be made to suffer at Magneto's hands just because you all decided to go out and get wasted," Rogue explained truthfully.

Wanda snarled at this, and two of the lights above the stalls blew up; sparks flew. Two of the girls who'd been washing their hands gave a gasp, one of them ran out in panic.

"Don't worry about Remy. He doesn't need you looking out for him."

"Uhm...whatever," Rogue shook her head, she dragged the girl by the wrist, "come on," she led her out of the bathrooms.

By the time they had reached Piotr, Wanda was already staggering quite badly, falling about. Piotr picked her up and thrust her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing. Rogue led the way out of the club, and noted the disapproving looks of the bouncers and club staff as they left. A bouncer remarked that they were now officially banned from ever returning. Rogue wasn't bothered with this one way or the other.

By the time Piotr had loaded Wanda into the back seat of Lance Alvers' Jeep, the girl had passed out, and was snoring so loudly it was almost quite comical. Rogue tilted the rear view mirror so she could watch as Piotr strapped the seat belt upon her.

"She's gonna have some hangover tomorrow," Rogue commented.

"I am sorry we ruined your night," Piotr checked the belt on Wanda, then got into the passengers seat.

Rogue slipped the key into the ignition and started the engine. "Doesn't matter. We're a team, we're supposed to stick together, and help each other out."

"That is a good way to look at it."

An odd wave of calm left Rogue feeling strangely content despite the events of the night having caused so much stress in the short time she'd been involved. She supposed her first 'outing' with the team could have gone much better, but at this point, she was sure, it couldn't get any worse. Besides, even if it did get worse, it wouldn't matter.

Magneto was back. And he would find a way to make it better for her.

She was almost certain of it.

End of Part Eight

Thanks to those who reviewed the last part. It's always nice hearing what you guys think, even if you're not so keen on the whole Wanda and Remy situation. As to those who wondered where characters like Toad, Blob and Pyro are, you never know when those guys might turn up ;)

Hope you enjoyed this part and can't wait to hear more from you guys. You make writing so much fun.