Hey all! Since I did not get all 14 reviews are requested I did not post by the end of the month. However, the will to write this chapter overrode any and all desires to write the five papers that are all due on Monday (Kill me now!). So, yes you guys get a new chapter, and I, officially, have to stop procrastinating.

That being said, I'm not responding to reviews this chapter!

I'm sorry, but I have to write five papers in five days.

Speaking of reviews:

Thank you to all ten of you who answered my request by reviewing. You all are awesome! Please do not let the fact that I'm not responding to you all individually keep you from reviewing! I love what each and every one of you wrote! Thank you all!

Plus, I love reviews! The more of them I get the more likely I am to update faster. Case in point: ten reviews, I give you guys a update faster than I'm supposed to. Imagine what I would do if I got 15 reviews!!!!!! :HINT HINT:

Okay, no more delays!

Enjoy the chapter!

Taunting Repartee

Chapter 15

Rogue stepped into the Professor's office. Once inside, she took a seat on one of the wooden chairs. Scott was seated in the other lone chair, and Kitty, Kurt, Jean and Evan were all seated on the couch. All of them turned their attention to the Professor as he approached them.

"Professor, what's all this about?" Jean asked.

"I'm afraid we have an emergency of sorts on our hands."

'No shit,' Rogue thought, restraining herself from rolling her eyes.

"What emergency?" Scott asked.

"A patient of mine has gone missing," The Professor said.

'He has patients?' Rogue asked herself.

'Apparently so,' the fragment of Magneto offered.

"As some of you may know I have been working with a young woman, Wanda, with control of her powers over the past year or so. Unfortunately, I have not had much progress. Her anger keeps her from being able to control her abilities. However, that has not kept me from trying to help her and so I've had numerous sessions with her at the hospital. The poor child is a tortured mind and when you add that to the power of her mutant ability... well, she becomes very dangerous," said the Professor.

That name, the situation it sounded so familiar. She recalled from Eric's memories him leaving a small child, his daughter, at an institution. It was one of the cruelest things he had ever done.

'Relax,' Rogue reprimanded herself. 'There's no way he talking about Eric's daughter. I'm just being-'

"Her father," The Professor said, bringing Rogue out of her own thoughts. "He abandoned her there years ago when she became unmanageable," the Professor said.

'Okay, so he is talking about that Wanda,' Rogue thought. "So now, what?" she asked. "Maybe she just ran away?" she asked. 'It's what I'd do if I escaped from seven years of imprisonment,' she thought.

"No, I sense the hand of someone else in this. Someone else who may be planning to use those dangerous powers of hers... against us," he said.

'Well, that's just great,' Rogue thought sarcastically as she forced herself to mirror the looks of surprise that surrounded her.

"Professor, what exactly are her abilities?" Scott asked.

"Wanda's powers alter probability through hexes. Her powers increase the probability of unlikely phenomena," The Professor said.

"Like what?" Kitty asked.

"Spontaneous combustion of inflammable objects, decaying of organic material, deflection of objects... and mutant powers," he explained.

"Our powers?" Scott asked. The Professor looked over at him.

"I'm afraid so," The Professor confirmed.

"So, what are we gonna do about it?" Rogue asked.

"At the moment... nothing," The Professor said.

"But, Professor, if she's as dangerous as you say she is than we should-"

"I understand your concern, Scott," the Professor said interrupting him. "Everyone," he said as he looked at each of the X-Men in the room, "but at the moment. There is nothing that we can do. I will be working with Cerbro, starting tonight, attempting to find the girl. I am simply informing you of the situation at hand, so that no one will be caught unaware."

'Wouldn't that be nice,' Rogue thought to herself as she sighed.

"I will inform you all, when I know more. For now, it's late, and you all have school in the morning," he said signaling towards the door.

'Meetings over then,' she thought as she stood up like the rest of the team. 'But what if she's with her father? Would she even consider going with him after every thing he's done?' she asked herself as she watched her teammates walk out of the room. He had just spent over a month teaching Rogue how to control her mental powers. Maybe during that time he had come up with a way to help his own daughter. Maybe he had realized that helping someone he had no real connection with, while his own flesh and blood rotted behind bars was just plain wrong. ',,, No, that's not it,' she thought with a stifled laugh as she slowly walked towards the door. A look of dread crossed her face. 'Maybe he remembered just how good his telepaths are at making bad attitudes go away,' she thought as she reached the door. That seemed like the most likely scenairo.

'I don't think he put her up in that house of his, but it's worth a look... But what about Eric?' Rogue asked herself. She replayed the terms of their agreement in her mind. 'I didn't learn about this through any conversation we've had, and I'm not gonna say anything about the mansion,' she said before smiling. 'I can talk to the Professor about this,' she thought as she turned to at him.

"Rogue is there something you wanted?" The Professor asked curiously.

"Yeah," she said as she quickly crossed the room, and took a seat on the chair Scott had been sitting on. She was much closer to the Professor now. "You remember that phone number I gave you?" she asked as she looked over at him.

"...No..." he said startled, as he moved away from her, turning his back to her. "I'm afraid you will have... you have to remind me," he said.

"How could you forget?" she asked confused. 'Unless Eric erased that conversation too,' she thought panicked. 'Why would he do that?' she asked herself as she looked down. 'Professor was supposed to call Eric after we had talked. I mean, unlike Eric messed up that conversation to the point that he needed to erase it, and the cause of making the call? But why would he allow that? ... I don't understand... Eric's better at this... at deception than I am. There's no way that he-'

"Rogue," she heard the Professor scream.

"Yeah?" she asked as she looked up at him. "Why did you scream?" she asked annoyed before she shook her head. "You said it softer before screaming, but I didn't hear," she said answering her own question. "Sorry," she said as he gaze met his.

"It's... it's alright," he said startled, wide eyed.

'Why does he look surprised? This ain't the first time he's seen me drift out of a conversation. Not even close,' she thought confused. 'How much could Eric have erased?' she thought panicked. 'I gotta think this through, without an audience that has no idea what I'm talking about.'

"Rogue, I must apologize-" he started to say.

"I'm the one who should be apologizing," she said interrupting him. "You're right. It's really late, and I've got a danger room session in the morning. How about we talk about this another time?" she asked. 'Say yes, say yes, say yes.'

A smile came to his face. She thought she saw a hint of relief in his facial expression as well.

"Very well," he said. "Another time," he said as she stood up. She quickly walked to the door. It took effort not to run. "Good night, Rogue," he said just as her hand was gripping the doorknob. She forced herself to twist her head to look at him.

"Night," she said with fake smile: she had perfected over the past few days.

She fled the room, closing the door behind her.

'What the hell is going on?' she screamed in her mind as she walked briskly down the hall.

'Well, let review, shall we?' the fragment said gleefully. 'My daughter is out of the hospital. Most likely by my counterpart's hand, by means of mental reconstruction," he said before chuckling. 'Charles, ever observant, is convinced, of all things, that someone is going to use her, rather formable, abilities against all of you." He paused again to laugh.

God, she wanted to hit him...

'And to top off all of this wonderful news, that tiny bit of information about Wanda, is just about all that Charles is aware of at the moment,' he said before falling into another fit of laughter.

She wanted to hit something.

But it was late... everyone knows that she wasn't the danger rooms biggest fan. If she, all of a sudden, started engaging in late night sessions people would ask questions. Questions she couldn't answer right now.

'Maybe one of the gyms...' she thought as she headed for the elevator.

Twenty minutes later, Rogue was, in sweat pants and a tank tops, in one of the Institutes many sublevel gyms: Imaging Magneto's face was on the everlast bean bag as she punched it as hard as she could. She had been at this for serval minutes now, and had worked up a sweat.

'Does that help?' Magneto asked.

'Yeah, it does,' she thought as she kicked the bag.

'Your situation?' he asked. She paused, taking a second to catch her breath. 'Honestly?' he asked.

"No," she said bitterly. "... It doesn't change a thing," she said before punching the bag.

'Then why do it?' he asked.

"Why not?" she asked him before she resuming her assault on the black bag in front of her.

'There are more productive activities you could be engaging in,' he said.

'Like what?' she asked.

'You wish to learn the truth of things. You want answers. There is only one place you will get them from. There is only one person you can get them from.'

'You want me to call him,' she thought as she ached her leg up for another kick.

'Why not?' he asked. She paused her attack.

"I am not saying yes to him," she said.

'That is not what I suggested,' he said.

"This time," she added as she walked over to the bench, and picked up the water bottle she had retrieved from the kitchen. "So, what? You want me to call him, and then what?" she asked. She twisted the top off of the bottle, and brought it to her lips. 'Talk about the weather, somehow casually bringing up the Professor's recent memory loss?' she asked as she took a large sip of water. "Yeah, that'd go over well," she said before leaning down and grabbing her towel. Wiping the sweat off of her face. She took another large sip.

'You're a smart girl. You could be subtle.'

"Not subtle enough. He'd see through it in a heartbeat... the only thing I would gain from that conversation is a new list of things I ain't allowed to talk about..." She took another sip of water.'He might come back,'

'Take my place.'

"You took his," she corrected.

'You would like that wouldn't you?" he asked, ignoring her statement. 'To be rid of me?' he asked.

'Just because he comes back, doesn't mean that you would go away,' she thought as she took one last sip of water, emptying the bottle. She headed for the door, throwing the bottle in the trash-bin on her way out. She walked down the hallway.

'Do you honestly believe that he would want both of us speaking with you at the same time?' he asked a she stepped onto the elevator.

"Maybe..." she said as she watched the doors close. "Maybe not, but I don't know. And if it's a choice between one or two of you..." she said as the lift got to her floor. 'It's not worth the risk,' she thought as she stepped out of the elevator, and walked towards her room.

'You can not abstain from taking action forever,' he said.

'Watch me,' she thought as she walked into the guess bedroom she had adopted as her own. Tonight she didn't feel like putting up a pretense in front of Kitty. She just wanted to go to sleep.

And so she did...

All of sudden her breathing was heavy, and there was darkness...

Her eyes opened, she was running down one of the many hallways in the institute. She felt a hand on her arm.

"You must come with me," Eric's voice said.

She spun her head around as she ran.

There was no one behind her, no one in front of her.

All Rogue could hear was the lumping of her own heart, and her jagged breath.

Her eyes closed, only for a moment...

She opened them, she was standing in the infirmary. She looked down. There was a needle in her hand. She stared at the needle confused.

"I need it now, Anna," Eric said. She looked up. Eric was standing next to her. He was holding out his hand. "Give me the syringe." She looked passed him. His body was blocking most of her view, but she could still see part of a leg.

A blue leg...

Her heart raced, as tears ran down her face.

She blinked...

She felt hands on her body, something cold at her back. She opened her eyes. Eric had her pushed up against a wall of the institutes' elevator. It was moving downwards. She stared up into his cold blue eyes.

"Anna, stop fighting me," he commanded.

"What did you do to him?" she screamed as she struggled against his hold.

Her eyes closed...

Darkness...

"He is not your concern at the moment," she barely heard Eric say.

Her eyes opened. She was in the kitchen, staring out the window. She glanced up. She saw the Professor running away from the institute.

Confusion consumed her.

The Professor ran towards the front gate, and jumped into the air doing a flip over it. He continued to run past the gate, and out of her view.

She looked down, there was broken glass and water surrounding her on the floor.

Darkness once again...

"What do you want from me?" she called out into the darkness.

"Absorb him, Anna. It is the only way," Eric said.

Her eyes opened, she was standing in front of the door to the Professor's office. She looked down at her hands. She gasped.

There was blood on her fingers.

"Now," Eric said. She quickly turned around.

He wasn't there.

"Where's the Professor?" she screamed.

"It is too early for you to know all of this," She heard Eric say from behind her. She spun around. Now she was in the subbasement.

He wasn't there either...

"Do you wish to bare more secrets?" Eric asked as his hand gripped her shoulder.

"No," she said as she turned her head to look at him. "But, what choice do I have?"

"None," he said.

Her eyes closed again...

"Trust me," Eric whispered in her ear.

Her eyes flew open as she sat up in bed.

'What the hell was that?' she asked as she took deep breaths.

'It is called a nightmare,' the fragment offered dryly. 'I would think you would be used to them by now,' he said.

'I am,' she thought. "I am use to it... But not that kind of nightmare," she said as she got up, and headed into the bathroom. "My nightmares are usually stuff that's happened," she turned on the light, and sauntered to the sink. "That was different," she said as she turned on the water. She washed her face. The cold water feeling good on her face. 'Very different,' she thought. 'It felt like...' she thought as she dried her face off with the towel that was hanging on the rack next to the sink.

She replayed some of the dream in her mind. One image stood out.

The blue leg...

"I'm gonna make sure Kurt's okay," she said as she ran of the bathroom, and bedroom.

'Do you honestly think-'

"I don't know what to think,' she thought as she ran down the hallway. She slowed her pace as she got to Kurt's door. She slowly turned the doorknob and quietly opened his door a crack. She peered inside.

There he was asleep in his bed: safe and sound. She let out a sigh in relief.

'Are you satisfied, now?' Magneto asked annoyed.

'I guess,' she thought as she closed the door, careful not to make any noise. 'Dream just... it didn't feel right,' she thought.

'Too real?' he asked her as she made her way to her room.

'No... that's the problem. Everything happened in clips. I kept switching from one room to another. It felt... fake,' she said as she walked into her bedroom.

'Most nightmares do,' he said.

'Not mine,' she stressed as she got into bed. She pulled the covers over her body. 'Mine always felt real. That's why they were scary.'

'This one frightened you as well,' he pointed out.

'For a different reason,' she said as she closed her eyes.

'And that is?' he asked curiously.

"Like I'm gonna tell you," she said. She took a deep breath, as she prayed for dreamless sleep.