Rogue Darkholm stood smirking from her window as she watched the younger students get into the X-Van with scowls on their faces. 'There probably more like my subordinates now.' She told herself, and frowned at the thought. 'I never wanted to be a leader. Why in the hell did Jean and Scott have to leave? They couldn't have done online college? Assholes.' Rogue thought angrily. 'No come on stop it, girl.' She in-haled and ex-haled. 'Professor Charles Xavier isn't an idiot he knows what he's doing…and my experiences more than qualify me for this position.'
"But am I ready for this?" She whispered aloud to herself. 'It doesn't matter right now. I have more important things to be worrying about. Like my powers. Anyhow the other X-Men aren't going to be back for at least 2 weeks. I don't have to think about that yet.' Rogue told herself.
"Procrastination was always a talent of mine." She grinned to herself and checked the clock. 5 minutes before she had to meet Professor Xavier and Erik down in the library. 'Magneto.' She mentally corrected herself. 'Call him Magneto unless you're alone with him.' Not that she was trying to hide their- well whatever the hell they had going on between them, but she had enough to worry about as it was with ought having to explain to Professor Xavier why she had engaged in slightly inappropriate behavior with his best frienamy.
Rogue sighed as she buckled up her boots. Now all the barriers were going to come undone. It was going to be like it was before, loud uncontrollable noise, and having to share her head with resentful fragments. The door to her suit closed with a click as she descended the stairway to what she referred to as the never-ending headache of hell.
"Morning Professor X." Rogue greeted her mentor half-heartedly. He raised an eyebrow at her uneasiness. She acted as though she were about to start on a chore. But then again in a way she was. "Where are Magneto and Storm?" She asked as she scanned the almost empty library. Professor Xavier placed down the book he was reading on the stand next to him. "Dr. McCoy and Storm are de-coding the data taken from Nathaniel Essex's laboratory and Magneto informed me he would be preparing for your mental barrier lesson later on today. It's just going to be the two of us in today's session."
"Yeah, well maybe that's a good thing." She said as she took her seat on the couch. "My head is crowded enough as it is without bringing extra people along for the ride." Professor Xavier gave her a gentle smile. "Well Rogue before we delve into your mind I think there are several things we need to discuss."
The room went silent for a minute as Professor Xavier silently agreed on the words he would use. "First there is the subject of the barriers I put into place after the concert." Rogue tensed, remembering the pain of betrayal. "I never did apologize properly for lacking to acquire your consent before I put the barriers into place." Now it was Rogue's turn to be silent as she stared down into her lap. "Professor, you did the right thing." She stated uneasily.
"Excuse me?" He asked surprised. Rogue finally tore her eyes away from her hands to meet his. "I was a mutant with far too much power. More than you. More than Magneto. More than any mutant should ever have."
"And I did attack the X-Men…I did attack my friends. I was a serious threat to myself and everyone around me. And I'm not saying' you should be doing this to others on a daily basis or anythin' but in my case you made the right decision. I wasn't able to control it then."
Professor Xavier had a look of surprise and relief on his face. Rogue thought to point it out. "I'm just surprised you came to this conclusion so soon, Rogue. I thought it would take at least another couple of months."
"Yeah well just don't go makin' a habit of it Prof." Rogue said. He shook his head. "No, no of course not Rogue."
"Now what else do we have to talk about?" She asked. "Well there is still the matter of you becoming the field leader of the X-Men, if you are still interested. It is your choice, Rogue."
Rogue waited a bit longer than necessary for dramatic effect to reply. "Yes, Professor."
He smiled. "Excellent."
"Now there is just the matter of the fragments and psyches that have taken residence inside your mind. When you are ready I will put the both of us into a trance state of comatose, our consciousness will flow into your mind where we will start the work."
"What exactly are we going to be doing Professor?" Rogue asked uncertainly.
"We are going to organize the psyches to a point where they are so organized they can be contained and managed."
Rogues eyes lit up with hope. "Does that mean it will be quieter in my mind?"
Professor Xavier nodded. "Yes eventually we will have enough control to silence them."
"Well then let's get started." Rogue said suddenly liking this idea much better.
(Astral Plane of Rogue's Mind…Somewhere…Sometime)
"Rogue I thought you would like to know I just tore down the barriers that held the fragments back."
"Thank you." She answered as she watched rainbow colored sparks fly everywhere. "Or not." She added as she noticed the incoming wave of psyches. "Oh, Hell." She cursed. "Prof…
"I see them Rogue. Now if you don't want to be controlled in your own mind listen very carefully and follow my instructions." He said as he grasped her shoulders tightly.
He gently turned her so that her back was to the psyches and she was staring into him.
Suddenly Professor Xavier's voice was very calm and soothing.
"This is your mind, Rogue. You can control everything that happens here. This is your domain." Rogue in-haled and tried to turn to look at the psyches.
"No, Rogue." Professor Xavier said firmly and turned her back to face him. "Pay no attention to them. You are in control. And right now we need a bigger space."
Rogue's face turned to confusion. "Think it, will it, and it will happen in your mind Rogue. We need a wide open field. The majority of your Mississippi town was farm land. You can create a field just like the ones you played in as a child."
Rogue squeezed her eyes shut. "A field. A big, big field." She pictured her favorite one that had a large plateau towards the end that she once slid down.
"Rogue open your eyes." Professor Xavier commanded gently. She stared around her. Rogue and Professor Xavier were now in that field. The psyches were spread over the great distance, picking themselves off the ground.
"Well now we just have to catch them and organize them." Rogue said her voice oddly optimistic. "We should probably do this one at a time." She added. He nodded. "And maybe we should start with Kurt first, he'd be the easiest to convince to cooperate."
"Yes. Now Rogue listen. The barriers that I put up prevent the psyches from seeing what you were doing. They have no idea what we discussed."
Rogue stood stunned for a minute. "So they know nothing about what's happened within that past few days?" She asked.
"Correct."
"So what your saying is they have no idea we are bout' to catch them and lock them up."
"Also correct."
"We'd better be quick about this…and we won't be able to finish them all today. I recommend taking the hardest ones such as Jean and Storm out soon…then we'll deal with the rest."
"Agreed."
Rogue and Professor Xavier slowly eased themselves out of the trance state he'd put them in. "Not as bad as I thought it would be." Rogue mumbled. "So we got Storm, Jean, Beast, Wolverine, and we almost got Scott."
"Yes, had Wolverine not warned him, we would have gotten Scott."
"Those boxes aren't going to hold them forever."
"No. The boxes are only temporary until we catch all of them…after that we will set up a more permanent place of residence for the psyches."
Professor Xavier looked over at his exhausted student. "Get some rest Rogue. I'm going to telephone Dr. Moira MacTaggart and inform her of your progress."
Rogue nodded gratefully and laid her head to rest on the couch.
Nearly four hours later Rogue felt a gentle hand stroking her shoulder. "Rogue." A commanding voice with the slightest hint of a German accent spoke as the pressure increased. "Time to wake up dear."
She swatted his hand away and rolled over. Only to nearly fall off. Luckily for her Magneto caught her in time before she landed on the ground.
"Forgot I wasn't sleeping in a bed." Rogue mumbled as her back it the sofa. "Dinner is in a three hours and Charles asked me not to let you sleep too long. He also mentioned being in the astral plane was exhausting, but to be careful of your sleeping schedule. If you sleep for lengthy periods after your mind has been in a comatose state it may do damage to your body."
"Mmmkayy." Rogue said as she closed her eyes again. She head Magneto sigh and soon felt a hand on her shoulder. "Rogue did you not understand? You cannot go back to sleep."
Rogue had to fight to keep her eyes open. Magneto handed her a glass of ice water. She drained it before handing it back to him.
"Do you feel better?" He asked. Rogue nodded, feeling more awake with the help of cold liquid.
"Well enough to discuss something of importance?"
"Yeah."
"Good." Magneto said as he moved closer to her and brushed a stray lock of white hair out of her face.
"You wanted to discuss…whatever the hell this is." Rogue said as she tried not to be distracted by his hands.
He chuckled lightly. "I do believe it is called a relationship."
Rogue looked startled for a moment. "Is that what you want this to be?" She asked. Magneto continued to run his hands through her hair. "Yes." He answered. "Is this what you want?"
"I-yeah it is."
"You don't look certain."
"The only thing I'm not certain about it why you want a relationship." She pointed out. "Your Magneto for crying out loud."
He twirled a white lock in his fingers for a minute or so before looking into her eyes.
"Perhaps I've taken a…fondness to you." Magneto said as he abandoned the lock of hair and let his bare hand travel further down to her waist. He moved his lips closer to her ear.
"And a desire." He whispered.
"Really?" Rogue asked, knowing full well he had. She let her hand wonder down up and down his chest, carefully feeling every muscle.
"Oh yes, Rogue. With your pale deadly skin, those white streaks of hair, and your blush." His voice was suddenly deeper. He lightly nipped her ear. Not nearly enough to start the transfer, just enough to make her jolt in surprise and gasp.
"Wipe that smirk off your face." Rogue hissed.
"I don't take orders Rogue…if anything girl it's going to be you taking the orders." Rogue shivered and bit her bottom lip.
"You like that idea?" Magneto asked with a dark laugh. Instead of answering Rogue crawled into his lap and kissed him.
She could feel his smirk, damn him. Magneto's free hand came up to firmly push against her head. Effectively pulling her closer to him.
The transfer took longer to start this time a light pull that caused Magneto to nip her bottom lip.
"ROGUE WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" She heard Cyclops angry voice screaming at her. Rogue jolted from the shock and pushed Magneto back.
Suddenly all the remaining psyches that weren't caged were angry. Very angry. "HE'S A FORMER TERRORIST THAT IS USING YOU!" She still had Cyclops screaming at her.
"Whazt are you thinking Rogue?" Kurt asked her. "I cannot believe my shister would listen to such filthy thingz and respond to them!"
It felt like she was going to explode. It was like all the new mutants, and Scott and Kurt were pounding on her head. Punching and kicking, trying to do as much damage as possible. They had never lashed out like this.
Tears spilled over her eyes. "Stop it!" Rogue shouted. "God it's killing me, please you're hurting. Stop it now!"
'Good maybe now you won't act like such a desperate whore that will throw herself at her murdering enemy!" Cyclops screamed.
"Rogue?" Magneto asked confused.
"I'm not a whore!" Rogue shouted.
"REALLY ROGUE? BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE THAT FROM HERE! THIS ISN'T SOME HARMELES FOOTSIE. YOU IN HIS LAP PARTICIPATING IN HEAVY FLIRTING! THE TYPE OF FLIRTING THAT USUALLY ENDS UP IN BED. YOU DISGUST ME!"
The pounding was getting harder. Now it felt like someone was taking a hammer to her head. "You are being used you pathetic, desperate, dead weight, pathetic excuse for human being, you SLUT! You should be ashamed." Cyclops wouldn't stop screaming.
Rogue threw herself onto the other side of the sofa, curled up and put her hands to her head. "Stop!" Her tears blurred her vision so badly she couldn't see. "I'm sorry!" Rogue shouted, in so much pain she would say anything at this point to get them to stop.
Rogue felt his hands on her face, forcing her to take in his life force. "No stop it!" Rogue tried to tell him. "They're gonna get angrier."
Magneto strong arms slammed down on her, forcing her out of her fetal position, flat on her back while she was still absorbing him.
Quickly she felt the other voices of the psyches being drowned out by Magneto's presence in her mind. Rogue's eyes snapped open. The pain was dulling, the psyches couldn't fight anymore.
"Thank you, Erik." She whispered as she tried to recover. He removed his hands and broke the connection. "Their quiet now." Rogue said as she scooted closer to him. "Thank god you can put two and two together." Rogue mumbled as her head hit his shoulder.
Magneto loosely wrapped his arm around her waist as he recovered. "What where the psyches saying?" he asked as Rogue's crying stopped. "It wasn't just what they were sayin', it was like they were trying as hard as possible to hurt me. Like they all had taken hammers to my head."
"Cyclops was doing a lot of the yelling. Telling me how angry they were, I was desperate, and that I should be ashamed of myself."
Magneto pushed Rogue back a bit so he could look her in the eye. "Listen to me very carefully Rogue." His voice was tense, he sounded angry. "You are not a whore. You are not desperate. There is nothing for either of us to be ashamed of."
"Does Cyclops get chastised for lusting after Miss Grey?" He asked her. Rogue shook her head.
"I know I have nothing to be ashamed of, Erik. But don't you think what we have going on is kind of…inappropriate?"
"Inappropriate how Rogue?" He asked. "You are a young woman fully capable of making her own decisions, your experiences have made you older than you appear-so please do not bring up your age-, and you are not my subordinate we are both senior staff members of the X-Men."
"Now granted there are going to be times and places where I am going to have some level of authority over you…
Rogue blushed and grinned, as she smacked his shoulder lightly. "With the way you're talking it's hard to believe we haven't done anything other than make out." Rogue smiled.
"Oh, I promise you dear, we will get farther once we're sure the psyches are done causing harm to you."
"I can't believe I tried to ignore the..lust..that has being goin' on between us since the day in the danger room."
"Rogue I learned last night it's much more enjoyable to stop resisting what you want." Magneto assured her as he leaned in for a kiss.
Rogue stopped him y putting a finger to his lips. "Even if it makes you feel weak?" She asked. "I got your mind inside of mine Erik; I know how you first felt about wanting me."
"It could possibly be worth it." He said as he kissed the gloved finger against his lips.
"Possibly." Rogue repeated. "It's true I didn't like being caught in your grasp at first. I didn't like the idea of smiling at your spats with the New Mutants or enjoy watching you get so angry. I didn't like the idea of admitting your complex mind fascinated me, and that you were a smart girl despite your serious grammar issue. Keep in mind Rogue I have not cared for anyone in a long time…this is difficult for me.
Rogue smiled. "I know it is. I just wanted to hear you say it." He frowned.
"You're not manipulative often." He pointed out.
"Well I learned from the best. Maybe I shouldn't be hanging out with you so much." Rogue grinned. "And I grew up in the south, my accent and my grammar ain't my fault."
Magneto suppressed a smile as he let her head fall to his shoulder.
And Cuuuuutttt! Finished with this chapter! Review?
Anyway here's a preview of the next: Rogue has a training session with Magneto this time. Beast and Dr. MacTaggart prod Rogue with science sticks, and Rogue deals with nightmares that aren't hers!
Batty QUEEN: Fortunately for Rogue Professor X hasn't seen what's going on yet. I can't do that to Rogue just yet, poor girl has enough on her plate.
Angelpaint07: I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for your review!
Crystalstar1999: Thanks for your review!
Midnight Lost: I am planning on making Rogue a little bit darker due to the nightmears, but not nearly as bad as before.
Marigab: Thanks for your review!
1983Sarah: Thanks for your review!
Darksaber92: Thanks for your review!
poison magnolia: You'll see darker Rogue in the coming chapters,k for right now I want her to be happy before she goes through hell.
Wolfoak19989: I'm glad you like this pairing! And Rogue's supposed to start her Krav Mega training very soon. Thanks for your input!