Hey, I'm back!

Well, I wrote myself into a hole. I figure if Akira Toriyama can retcon the entirety of Dragon Ball GT, I can retcon a couple chapters of my fan fic. To be honest, chapters 77 and 77 part 2 were the product of trying to recreate the magic of chapter 73. At the time, I considered 73 to be my best work in over a year and I really wanted to make it happen again. In the end, I just wrote myself into a hole.

You must be asking (anyone who still has the same email address as they did back in 2014 and saw the story alert) why is she trying again? Why come back now? ... My life is pretty good at the moment and I really REALLY miss writing! I definitely haven't stopped. I day dream about my fanfics every single day. I had hundreds of hours of story developed in my head. This is just the first time I'm writing any of it down in a few years.

I thought long and hard about this. The old complaint is still valid, my main 4 characters (Rogue, Magneto, Charles and Irene) are as fleshed out as their going to get. Their strong personalities are too set in their ways and no one is giving an inch. Solution, at least one of them has to show some flexibility. Okay, here's my attempt to get out of the hole I dug my plot into.

This picks up the end of chapter 76.

Please enjoy

Taunting Repartee

Chapter 77 Rebooted:

Rogue held the phone in her hand for a moment, the ominous tone of Irene's words weighting on her mind. Rogue took a deep breath staring at the ceiling as she tried to calm down.

'What freedom?' she thought, replaying her own words in her mind. 'You've been manipulating my life since I was a baby. You've decided every place I ever lived; every 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. Evan was in danger and I-' she cut herself off.

"I tried to help Evan. I- I had to help Ororo. This is my family and..." she mumbled her voice failing her. "I have to do what I can to help them. No matter what the threats are. No matter who's giving them. She can't...," she stopped confused by something. "She can't tell me I have to protect everyone and then try to forbid me from doing it. It doesn't make any damn sense."

'You defied me,' Rogue recalled Irene's voice in her mind as tears ran down her face. She tried to take another deep breath as her hands were shaking. Fear was starting to get the better of her. The thought of Irene coming to take her again was becoming more real in her mind. She knew she was pressing her luck by helping Evan, but she couldn't bring herself to stop. Was she going to pay for it now?

'God, I could just imagine. She'd have Agatha come and take me. I'd wake up next to Mystique and have no where to go' she thought as she tried to take a deep breath. 'It'd be impossible for me to talk her into letting me come home. Not like with Magneto...' she thought as she let out a sigh.

"I was punished because I didn't stop Scott from being kidnapped and now I'm gonna be punished for trying to help Evan?" she asked confused. "If I'm suppose to help all of mutant kind, then why should anyone try to pick and chose which mutants I wanna help?" Rogue asked confused. "I should protect everyone I can... right?" she asked out loud. She glanced down at the phone, half expecting it to ring again. For her and Irene to have another conversation. 'God, I just want answers,' she thought desperately. "But I'm only gonna get the one's she wants to give," she said as tear continued to ran down her face.

"It's done anyway. I can't take it back and even if I could I- I stand by what I did," she said again, nodding her head. Her body shuddering in fear. "Even if it didn't do a lick of good," she said bitterly. "I did everything I could to help Evan. I pulled out everything I knew. I did everything I could and it wasn't enough," she said bitterly. "Why wasn't it enough?" she asked angry.

"Rogue?" she heard the fragment of Magneto ask. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Am I ever? Have a ever actually been alright my whole damn life?" she asked sorely as she sat up on the bed, tears falling down her face as she stared at her shaking hands. It was inevitable now; Irene was going to come and take her. It was obvious from everything that women had done till now. Irene had never shown weakness and always followed though on she said she was going to do.

Rogue had openly defied her, convinced herself she was doing the right thing.

"I was," she said her voice quivering. "It was the right thing. I just..." she said as she felt the lump in throat grow tighter. "I don't want to leave here," she whispered, finding it hard to breath. "I don't want to go to Mississippi or whatever you are," she said speaking to Irene, unable to stop herself. "But I couldn't not help Evan. It wasn't about defying you, it was about helping him."

She tried to take a few deep breaths, but nothing seemed to help.

"Why can't I stop shaking?" she asked as she attempted to recollect herself.

Rogue jumped as the phone rang again. She took a deep breath as her trembling hand pick up the phone and put it to her ear.

"Do you remember when you were four years old?" Irene started to ask; her voice soothing. "We were watching the television and the news had come on. There had been a murder. Do you recall?" she asked.

"Why would you let a four year old watch anything about murder?" Rogue asked overwhelmed.

"Rogue, do you recall?" Irene asked; by her tone it was clear her patiences was running out.

"I- I," Rogue stuttered trying to form words.

"Rogue, answer me now or else I'll send Agatha," Irene said sternly.

"No- no, I don't remember," she forced out.

"I need you to," Irene said.

"That- that was a long time ago, Irene. I- I'd have to go back and look," Rogue managed to say.

"Do that for me. Go back and look," Irene ordered.

"Why?" she asked before she could help it.

"There's something I want you to see, clearly" Irene said hostilely.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Alright, fine," she said rejected. She took a deep breath. "When was this memory? What month? I'll take me hours to go through a whole year and I need time to keep studying," she said.

"Oh? And here I thought you had plenty of time to do all sorts of things besides studying," Irene said irritated. Rogue put her hand to her forehead, suddenly exhausted. Of course, she shouldn't have expected Irene to make it easy on her. It was daunting, thinking about going though a whole year of her memories with Irene.

"You have two weeks or we will have this conversation in person. Let me know when you find it," she said.

"Two weeks?" she asked shocked. "I- yeah that's- that's plenty of time. I can- I can get that done," Rogue muttered.

"Good. See that you do," Irene said before the line went dead. Rogue put the phone down on the bed.

Magneto was finishing washing the soap out of his hair as he thought her heard Rogue speaking.

"Anna, are you alright?" Magneto called out as he pulled his head out from under the water.

"Yeah, yeah," he vaguely heard Rogue say as he turned off the water.

"Anna?" he called out again he got out of the shower. He thought her heard her say 'fine' after that but he couldn't be sure. He quickly opened the door and peered out. She was sitting up on the bed, the phone at her ear.

"I can- I can get that done," he heard her say into phone.

'Get what done?' he asked as he quickly reached for a towel. He dried himself off as quickly as he could while keeping an eye on the room from the bathroom door. No one else was in the room, as far as he could see and sense. He wrapped the towel around his waist as he exited the bathroom.

"Anna?" he asked as he looked at her. There were fresh fallen tears streaming down her face, her eyes bloodshot, her breath heavy. It was obvious who must have been on the phone "Was that Irene?" he asked regardless seeking the confirmation.

"Yeah," she answered her eye casted on her quivering hands. He didn't need to ask if she was alright. The answer was apparent from her demeanor.

"What did she want?" Magneto asked as he walked toward her. Rogue let out a laugh under her breath. "Anna?" he asked worried.

"I was-," she said as she looked up at him. "I need a minute. Could you get dressed first?" she asked.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Alright, I'll only be a moment," he said before he swiftly made his way over to the dresser, pulled out his usual attire and dressed as hastily as he was able. While he was getting dressed, he kept an eye on her girl through the mirror. She looked lost in thought, as she so often did. He turned back to her and briskly made his way to the bed, as he put on a pair of black gloves. He sat beside her. "What happened?" he asked as he put his hand on her arm.

"I was- I was kinda having a panic attach," she said. Her eyes still hung low, glancing at her hands.
"I was so sure Irene was about to come and make good on her threats to take me for disobeying her. I mean, she should," Rogue said with a laugh. His eyes widened in shock.

"What?" Max said perplexed. He must have misheard her.

"Max, she gave me rules and I didn't listen to them," she said as she looked up at him. "She told me what would happen if I didn't. By all rights, that's exactly what she should do right now," Rogue said.

"Anna," Magneto said as he placed free hand on her other arm and her turned her to face him. "Listen to me," he said as his glaze met her. "What she is doing, none of it is right. She has no right to you or your life," he said strongly. Her eyes were becoming glassy. She blinked for a moment, before a painful look crossed her face. "Tissue?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said quickly, almost automatically, before sniffing and wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "I- just- I know. I know that. I do. It's just- just, let me finish, please. This is hard for me to say," she pleaded.

"Alright," Magneto nodded as he rubbed his thumb against her arm in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

"I don't want her in my life, Max. She killed my mother. She gave and then stole me from so many families," she said while shaking her head in disbelief. "She's dictated every moment of my life. Every Single. One. She thinks my future belongs to her. That everything I do belongs to her and her will. It shouldn't belong to her. It should be mine," Rogue said desperately.

"But no one can stop her. You've been trying for years. She knows everything, Max. I can't fight her like that... I can't fight her. But when she gave me orders and clear consequences for disobeying her, I didn't," she said incredulity. "I chose my morals over her will. So, yeah," Rogue continued dejected. "By right, from the rules that she established, and the same damn reason you kept trying to keep me from rebelling against her, she should adduct me and- and show me that my actions have consequences," she said as Magneto released her arms.

Rogue let out a laugh.

"But she didn't do that," Rogue said with a smile. "Instead she called me and-" she stopped as she let out a sigh. "I gotta find some memory from when I was four years old," she said.

"What memory?" he asked.

"I'm not even sure if it gonna matter what memory it is. I'll find it within the next two weeks. I will. I'll make time for it," she said before she rubbed her hands over her eyes. He watched her rest her face in her hands as she took a deep breath. She let out a sigh as she fell back against the bed, her hands resting on either side of her head.

"It's only a year worth of memories. Irene knows I'd only need a few hours to find whatever it is she wants me to find. Which means the two weeks is either a countdown to the next big whatever fuck's gonna happen next, or she just wanted to help me stop having a panic attach. Or both... maybe," she said with suspicion.

"I don't know," Rogue said shaking her head as she stared at the ceiling. "Either way, she kinda gave me her word that I won't see her in person as long as I find this memory in the next two weeks," she said. "It's kinda comforting after all the times she and Agatha have shown up lately. I'm not sure," she said her eye far away. She let out another sigh. "I'm hungry," she said suddenly.

"What?" he asked, taken back by how quickly she had changed the subject.

"We haven't really eaten much since we started searching for Evan. I could eat," she said with a shrug.

"Alright," he said carefully. "Let's go get something to eat then," he said as she sat up.

Hi, I know it's a little short. But I'm just trying this out again and seeing how it goes. Please let me know if you enjoyed it? Thank you!