Spoiler Alert: For all of you wondering out there, Rogue is supposed to be acting weird!
Rogue sat down on a bench during her free hour. 'I love it when it's like this.' She thought to herself. 'Nobody around.'
"Hey Skunk Head, shouldn't you be in gym like the rest of your mutie friends right now?"
'Oh, hell.' Rogue turned to face the same asshole that had broken Kurt's image inducer, and that had taunted Spyke. He was a senior like her, but you'd never be able to guess with the way he behaved. This was at least the third time he'd called her a skunk, not that he remembered the first time, thanks to Jean's telepathy.
"You know it's really none of your business!" Rogue shouted back. "You and your stupid mutie friends think we should all be afraid of you don't you? Yeah, well I got news for you mutie, we anit!"
'I'm to damn tired to deal with this shit right now.' She thought angrily. 'Why can't this asshole leave me alone?'
The boy got closer until he was up in Rogue's face. "If I were you I wouldn't get that close." She warned. 'Cause I might knock you out, and I really don't want any part of you in my head.'
"Just keep yer' fuckin distance and everything will be ok." She said as she slipped her glove off. "You don't tell me what to do!" He said as he reached for her bare wrist.
"Big mistake." Rogue said before he fell to the ground unconscious. 'That's weird, I should hear his voice inside my head.' But Rogue shrugged it off and landed a hard kick to the boy's stomach.
'Where did that come from?' She asked herself.
'Well you'd best make it look like he got into a fight or teachers are gonna get suspicious.' The voice said helpfully. 'Your right.' She thought as she landed another kick, this time to his nose. A small bit of blood came out.
'Why not another?' The voice asked. "Don' see why not." Rogue said out loud in a slurred voice.
She kicked him hard in his chest again. 'Mmm. Now I'm really tired.' She thought as she stumbled backwards. 'I have the key to the institute van, maybe I could crash there for a while.'
"Hey, Rogue, you ok?" Kitty asked hesitantly when they got back to the institute. Rogue kept her face pointed straight ahead and closed her eyes. "Mmmmhhhmmm."
Rogue, unlike the others, headed for her room, unfortunate for her Kitty blocked her path.
"It's just that, I heard you got into a fight with Magneto, and lately your either biting someone's head off, or letting them walk all over you. Not to mention skipping half your classes."
"It's like your bi-polar or something."
Rogue's eyes narrowed. "Kitty get out of my way." She practically growled the words. "I want to go to my room."
"Why? You usually do your homework outside or in the library, or the living room." Kitty persisted.
"Well today I'm taking a little change in my schedule. I'm not gonna be doing my homework, I'm gonna be sleeping." Then in a slightly angrier voice she ordered Kitty to move again.
"Rogue what is with you?" Kitty asked as Rogue made her way down the hallway. Rogue didn't answer and she didn't turn around as she opened her door. "You missed the training exercise today because you slept in!"
Rogue didn't answer, and instead slammed her door shut.
'Where is this all this coming from?' She asked herself as she laid down on her bed. 'Kitty is one of my best friends.'
"Maybe it's just the result of an absorbtion." She mumbled. 'Whatever you say to make yourself feel better.' The voice said playfully.
'Little lies, remember? Lies you would tell yourself to make yourself feel better.'
'What's that supposed to mean?' Rogue asked angrily. 'Have you considered that this is who you are?'The voice asked. 'Angry, bitter, defensive, aggressive, soul sucking monster.'
"Stop it!" Rogue shouted. 'This is exactly what I don't want to hear!'
'Why? Beacuse it's true?'The voice laughed. 'Monsters suck life, they take it drain, kill, steal, whichever you prefer, but your still one of them.'
Tears rolled down Rogue's face. "Soul-sucking monster." She whispered aloud. 'Is that what I am?'
Sleep didn't come easily that night, and when it did, it was after dinner and the training session that she'd missed.
A teenage girl crept quietly through the noisy streets. She tried not to be seen, the less witnesses the better. She came up from behind a boy her age. She could hear his satchel clank together with the sound of money inside.
Carefully she reached out and took hold of it. The girl gently worked to unhook it. Finally it was loose and the white haired thief had her prize. The boy though seemed to notice the loss of weight and turned around. But the girl had already melted into the crowd.
She laughed as she hid behind a building and opened the small satchel. She pulled out one of the coins, expecting to see bronze, or if she were lucky, silver. Instead she found a gold piece.
"Gold?" She said to herself. "Yes!" She said as she dug around inside the bag some more. "They are all gold!"
"Indeed they are thief." A smooth voice came from behind her.
It was the boy she'd stolen it from.
"You call me a thief?" She asked. "It seems as though I am not the only thief here, where did you get gold coins?" She asked slyly. "It doesn't matter, I need them more than you do." She said, not bothering to wait for his response.
"Give them back!" The boy said angrily. "How dare you call me a thief! I am Prince T'Challa of Wakanda!"
That made the girl stop dead. "And I am Princess Ororo of Kenya."
T'Challa sighed. "I have no time for games, give me the money back."
T-Challa held his hand out moving his fingers patiently waiting for Ororo to give the satchel back.
"I am not playing games! I was once a princess and a goddess!" Ororo said as she crossed her arms and glared. "Alright your highness, now give me back the money!" T-Challa clearly didn't believe that the girl was once a princess, or regarded as a goddess.
"What is going on out here?" Came an obnoxiousness voice as the door to the house opened. "Do you have my money, you white haired brat?"
Ororo clutched the sachet terrified. "Amahl." Was all she could say.
Rogue groaned as she heard the sound of her alarm clock go off. 'I'd better go to the training session today.' She thought as she rolled out of bed. "Damn that was a bizarre dream, felt weird too. Like I wasn't dreaming. Oh hell, I'd better get to the danger room."
When Rogue did finally get to the observation deck to observe her teammates she was at least an hour late.
"Strips!" She heard Logan yell from behind her. "You didn't show up at all yesterday, and you show up late today. Kurt and Kitty told me you didn't show up to half your classes yesterday. This not how a leader acts! Rogue, your supposed to be setting the example, and lately you've been doing everything but that."
Rogue turned to face him with an angry look in her eye.
"Piss off mongrel." Rogue hissed.
"What did you just say to me?" Logan asked. "I said to piss off animal." Rogue responded angrily.
"Rogue what the hell has gotten into you?" Logan asked as he took a step closer. "Maybe Chuck was wrong, maybe it was a mistake to make you leader."
Something in Rogue's blood ran cold as he said those words. To Rogue, it seemed like time stopped. A persistent humming in her head got louder. She could feel the weight, feel the singing, and she could feel the weight of Logan's metal coated bones.
"So hopefully today's lesson on restraint goes better that last time, I don't want any trips to the infirmary this time, an no mutant volleyball." Beast said as a net raised up out of the ground.
"Ready,set-
"GAAAAHHHH!" Logan hollered as he came crashing through the window and landed on the danger room floor.
At first no one moved. "Wolverine?" Beast asked as he went to help him up. "What happened?" Bezerker asked as he looked up to the control center.
The glass above them shattered. "Cover you heads!" Beast called as the students ran. Jubilee was the first to reach the danger room door.
"We're trapped in!" Jubilee shouted as she frantically pounded on the door.
Meanwhile downstairs the Professor was having some issues of his own.
He gasped shocked as he completed his mental scan of the school. "No." He whispered. 'New students, remain in the danger room, Erik, Jean, Scott, and Storm report to my office immediately! This is an emergency!'
Professor Xavier wheeled himself out of his office and into the foyer and waited. When she finally emerged out of the elevator she was confronted by the leader of the X-men and her mentor.
Rogue gave him a sinister smirk that didn't belong to her. Her eyes turned white with red rim, it looked like red eyeliner that his female students were so fond of.
Her skin looked paler than it should have been, and Professor Xavier noticed that her fingers twitched with a slight blue spark.
"Rogue, we need to speak."
This is part one of the Manifest "arc" that shows a darker Rogue. Sorry this chapter is kind of short I'm short on time, and this chapter came a little sooner than I expected. The next chapter will be at least twice as long.
Sorry, no time for reader review response, short on time.