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Taunting Repartee

Chapter Seventy-Six:

Magneto laid in Rogue's bed the next morning, his girl was laying in his arms. It was early, only six am; when he felt Charles' mind in his.

'Charles, don't you dare wake her up,' he told him warningly. 'Mr. Daniels is with the Morlocks. He is not in danger, and I will not allow you to put Rogue's freedom in jeopardy by waking her up to continue a search you do not require her assistance to undertake,' Magneto told him strongly.

'Magnus, relax, we're on the same page regarding this,' Charles informed him. 'I was wondering if we could use Quicksilver again? The boy was a great help yesterday,' he said. Magneto let out a sigh.

'Go ahead,' Magneto told him.

'Thank you,' Charles said before slipping out of his mind. Magneto let out another sigh as he closed his eyes again.

Charles sat in the ruins of Spear Sports industries: he was speaking with Mr. Spear. The creator of POW-R8 had managed to put two and two together.

"You have to believe me," Mr. Spear started to say, "I didn't know it was dangerous to mutants," he claimed as Charles scanned his mind.

"I... believe you, Mr Spear," Charles lied.

"If they just told me. Why didn't they say anything?" he asked.

"These people, " he started to say before sighing, "they've learned not to trust anyone. I'm afraid they seen the dark side of human nature too many times. They now only depend on themselves," Charles told him as Mr. Spear walked him to the door. He heard Mr. Spear let out a sigh.

"I wish they had just told me. We could have avoided all if this," he said.

"So do I. But thankfully, now you do know and you can keep this product of yours for hurting any other mutants," Charles said as he continued to read the man's mind.

"Of course," Mr. Spear's said: however his thought painted another picture. Mr. Spear couldn't wait to be back in production. All he was seeing was dollar signs.

"I wish you luck," Charles said as he exited the building.

"You as well, Professor Xavier. Thank you for stopping by," he said as they shook hands. They needed to shut this place down, but how?

Ororo continued to search with the full team of X-Men. They had been searching for three hours when she finally caught sight of Evan.

"I'm here," Evan called out.

"Evan," Ororo called out as she ran to him. Something was wrong, there were bone plates all of over his body: those hadn't been there yesterday.

"Wait," he said hold his hand up in front of him. "Stay back," he ordered. "I'm-" he started to say placing his hand on his forehead: he looked like he was in some kind of pain, "gong though some changes," he told her.

"That doesn't matter," she told him. "Let me take you home," she said.

"No," he said strongly. "Not right now," he said as he started to walk away from her. "I just gotta take a break. Everything's so crazy right now," he said making eye contact with her again.

"But we can help you though this," she said: trying to persuade him to come with her.

"Please don't worry about me," he said turning his back to her again. "Or look for me," he said as he walked towards to a group people hiding in the shadows. "I'm with friends. Good bye, Auntie-O," Evan said as he and the group of people walked off out of her line of slight.

"Wait, Evan," Ororo called out as she ran out after him. "Don't go," she yelled. "Evan," she called out as she ran to the front of a waterfall of sewer water. Evan was no where in slight. They were gone again. 'What am I going to tell his mother? I promised to protect him,' she thought sadly.

Rogue opened her eyes as she yawned. She glanced up to see Magneto laying by her side. She smiled at that: she was still getting used to the welcomed change of having him in her bed nearly every night. Better still, no one was giving her grief about it. She glanced over at the clock and saw the time. She let out a sigh: it was nearly one pm.

'I hate it when I'm too exhausted to wake up on my own,' Rogue thought with a sigh as she started to get up: untangling herself from Magneto.

"Good morning," he uttered. She looked back down at him.

"Good afternoon," she corrected: a little annoyance in her voice. "Did they find Evan?" she asked as he opened his eyes and glanced up at her.

"Briefly," he informed her.

"But he choose to stay with the Morlocks," Rogue said: it wasn't a question.

"Yes," Magneto answered regardless.

"So, Irene gets what she wants... again," Rogue said bitterly. "And I wasn't there-"

"They didn't need your help, Anna," he told her. "They had Pietro: who did more than his fair share to make up for both of our absences," he said as Rogue let out another sigh.

"I understand why you didn't let anyone wake me up, but I was very clear about what I wanted to do," Rogue told him as he sat up.

"Are we really going to fight about this, Anna?" he asked her before she let out a sigh. "The boy was found, without you. All I did was ask Charles not to wake you. Your body, as per usual, desperately in need of rest, did not allow you to wake up until you got at least eight hours of sleep," he informed.

"No, we're not gonna fight over this," Rogue told him. "It's-" she started to say before she let out a sigh. "I would have done the same thing if I were you," Rogue told him with a sigh. He leaned up and kissed her: her eyes closed as she placed a hand on his cheek. "Please don't make it a habit," she said dryly.

"I'm not promising anything," he said before he kissed her again. "I'll do what I have to to protect you, Anna," he said. "Even from yourself," he said before he kissed and forehead and stood up. Rogue let out another sigh as she stood up.

"If she gonna take me, the damage is already done," Rogue reminded him.

"That's what I'm afraid of," he said darkly. Rogue let out another sigh. "I want to take another shower. The sewage smell is still lingering. I'm not leaving you alone, my girl. Either, you need to absorb m-" he started to say as she glanced up at him.

"You can't be here twenty-four seven, Max," she said."You have a life to live, your kids to spend time with, meetings to go to, a business to expand, mutant-kind to fund," she said as he let out a light chuckle.

"And a woman to love," he said warmly. She couldn't help but smile at that. "We'll make it work, Anna. What other choice do we have? " he asked. She held his gaze for a long moment, before she let out a happy sigh.

"Turn off he inhibitor field, please?" she asked as she walked up to him. She watched his gaze move the machine in the corner for a moment before returning to her gaze. "Thank you," she smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She pulled him into a kiss as his hands moved to her back. He ran his hands up and down her back as they deepened the kiss. She pulled away from him a few moments later. "I got your powers for at least a half an hour now," she said.

"I won't be that long," he said before he gave her another peck on the lips. She watched him back out of her arms and go into the bathroom. She moved back over to the bed and laid down again.

"Why am I still so out of it?" she asked herself. She closed her eyes as she heard the water start to ran in the shower. Her eyes snapped open as she heard her cell phone ring. She quickly grabbed her phone and looked at the caller ID; the number was unknown. There was only one person it could be. Rogue took a deep breath as she opened the phone and put it to her ear.

"I thought I made myself clear," Irene said: her tone displeased.

"What I did didn't make any difference. So, why does it matter?" Rogue asked.

"You defied me," Irene said darkly.

"My friend was in danger. He was missing and hurt. What kind of person do I think I am to think I could sit back and do nothing?" Rogue asked.

"You put your freedom in danger," Irene said.

"What freedom?" Rogue asked incredulously. "You're been manipulating my life since I was a baby. You've decided every place I ever lived: ever person I've ever come in contact with and how long they've been allowed to be in my life. I don't have freedom, I have the life you've decided to give me. If you're going to take me back to Mississippi or god knows where there's really ain't much I can do about it. You've already made me not protecting myself against you and your powers a condition of Jubilee's safety," Rogue said as she was shaking. She stopped to take a deep breath: as tears ran down her face. "Evan was in danger and I was able to help. So I defied you and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. You can issue all the threats you want, but I will not compromise what I stand for: not for you, not for anyone, ever again. I will never sit by and ignore a friend who's in danger. I just won't," Rogue finished strongly despite the tears running down her face.

"We'll see," Irene said before the phone went dead.

Hey all! Sorry I've been away so long! Work got crazy again, and then I decided, because my current job had given me shingles, to put myself on the job market and find a new job: which I did! I start next week! But right now I'm on vacation at my mom's place, which means I have time to write! It's a short chapter this time to help me get over some writers block. Next chapter should be up within the next five days! Thank you so much for all of the support and thank you for reading! I'm not done yet, I promise! :)