Chapter 8: Turned

-The night after the Middleverse incident-

After the Middleverse incident, everyone was going to Duncan Matthews party... Well, everyone except Gavin, who had opted to instead go to the usual meeting place where he and Rogue usually met up. That being a park that was near the Xavier mansion and the Brotherhood's boardinghouse.

The boy ran as he tried to get there on time but ended up running late. The auburn haired southern belle was sitting on a bench in the park, and was waiting for him.

"Hey, sorry about that, things got crazy at the Institute. I hope I didn't keep you waiting." Gavin heaved as he ran up to her and leaned over while trying to catch his breath.

Rogue smiled a bit as she waved his concern off.

"Not that long. Ah've only been here for five minutes." She assured him.

"Oh good." He said as she got up with him, both then started walking to a nearby dance club, which was called the "Bayville Ballroom" which they regularly went to. As they entered the club was dimly lit with neon colored strobe lights all over the place and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling.

The two then went to a booth as both discarded their jackets, revealing that Rogue was wearing a completely new outfit: She was showing more skin as she wore a dark purple halter top, long purple gloves that come up to about her shoulders, and a knee length skirt covered with a white chain that hangs around her waist. She also had on knee high boots, and a light purple scarf that protected her neck and chest areas.

Gavin immediately started to blush at the sight of this outfit, having gotten used to her usual gothic get up. This one honestly looked kinda hot on her. "N-Nice outfit, by the way." He told her sheepishly.

"Thanks." She smiled back.

The two ordered their drinks. Gavin ordered a Coke with extra cherry flavoring added, and Rogue ordered a Sherry Temple, her usual drink.

As the two waited for their drinks Gavin decided to bring up a topic he had been wanting to talk to her about. "So, have you given 'it' any thought?" He asked. 'It' referred to Rogue defecting from the Brotherhood and joining the X-men, which he brought up every other outing.

Rogue looked down in thought for a moment as she went over her thoughts on the matter. Ever since these outings began, she started having doubts related to what Mystique was telling her.

"Yeah, Ah have, but I need a little more time, I need to know for certain if what Mystique told me was wrong about the rest of the X-men, and not just you." She told him.

The boy nodded before he took her hand as their drinks arrived. "And our contact training, has it helped with your powers at all lately?" He questioned.

"I'm not sure, honestly." She shrugged. "But, I think they may be helping, at least a little."

Gavin smiled at her warmly. "That's good."

"So, uh, Gavin?" Rogue asked nervously.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"That guy with the shades, Scott, is he really as bad as the Brotherhood makes him out to be?" She asked while blushing.

This surprised the boy, but he just shrugged and decided to answer her question. "Well, ya see, Scott's kinda hard to pin down…" He said as he started to explain it to her.

As the two were talking, one of the waitresses who was cleaning the table next to them glared at them at the corner of her eye before she got up and walked away behind a corner, away from the crowd. She then suddenly changed shape into none other than Principal Darkholme!

"So, that's how it is, is it?" The woman hissed before stepping out of the club and started walking down the street. "Very well then, Mr. Shirakumo. Two can play at that game."

-The next morning-

In the danger room everyone was doing a rescue simulation, and everyone was doing their own roles, both Evan and Kitty took out the guards (played by Wolverine and Storm), and Kurt, Scott, Jean and Gavin were doing the rescuing.

Gavin, meanwhile, was on lookout duty, which honestly irritated him. "Remind me again why I can't just get in through the air vents by just turning into smoke?" He asked Scott.

"Too risky, one wrong move and you might trip the alarm." Scott said as he removed a panel from the roof. As they looked down Gavin noticed that there was someone under a tarp behind a bunch of lasers, he could tell it was someone because of the pale hand that stuck out from the tarp. "Storm! You okay?" Scott tried to call in a voice just above a whisper.

As soon as he said that Gavin immediately knew something was off. For one, Storm was playing the role of a guard, not the hostage. And the hostage's skin was way too pale for it to be her. "Storm? That's not-" but his statement was too late, as Jean was already telekinetically floating them down.

As Scott tried to get to the covered figure, it was immediately revealed to be in actuality, Rogue. Gavin's eyes widened in shock. "It's a trap!" He yelled.

That's when the Rogue look-alike touched Scott and used his own powers to fire a laser at Kurt. Scott looked at him before waving his arms. "Hold on, stop the simulation!" He yelled.

Their surroundings were suddenly replaced with the danger room. Xavier and the others followed him down into the training area.

"Scott, you know you are not to stop a simulation unless you are injured." Xavier chided.

"Speak for yourself professor, I'm pretty sure that really hurt." Kurt groaned as he got up.

"And what was with that? Rogue wasn't part of the briefing." Scott said.

"It was merely the element of surprise. I am merely trying to prepare you for every possible outcome." The man stated.

"And what about Rogue?" Gavin asked as everyone looked at him. "Are we honestly supposed to think that we have a chance of winning her over if this is what we think of her behind her back? Trust is a two way street, ya know."

Everyone was silent as his statement sunk in. What he said was definitely true. How could they expect her to trust them if they couldn't show her the same courtesy?

-Later that day-

Scott and Jean were walking to the parking lot of the school so that they could get to the bus in time for a field trip that was happening. Gavin was supposed to go too, but unfortunately Principal Darkhölme kept him from going for some reason, though if he was being honest, he didn't really feel like going anyway.

"So he threw off your game by sticking Rogue in the simulation, what's the big deal?" Jean asked.

"Me messing up isn't the problem." Scott retorted.

"What then? Because he chose Rogue?" The redhead questioned.

"Yeah, I guess. Look, I'm just saying, Gavin did have a point. Honestly how are we supposed to expect her to join us if we keep thinking of her as the enemy?" Scott questioned.

"It was just a simulation Scott, and besides, you know that the professor wants to trust Rogue just as much as us. He's just trying to prepare us for what may happen is all." Jean told him. "No one's trying to stop you from trying with Rogue."

Little did the two know that as they passed one of the school's darker alleyways, principal Darkhölme heard the entire conversation as she smirked and started walking off towards the school.

(Elsewhere)

Rogue was in the middle of doing some kick boxing with a large punching bag, and then took a break and looked out the window, seeing the geology club getting ready for their trip. She sighed sadly as she looked on, her gaze lingering on Scott.

That was before she turned around and saw the principal standing there. "Principal Darkholme!" She gasped.

"He's never going to be your friend Rogue, you know that don't you?" The woman questioned.

"Who? Scott? I don't want to be friends with him." Rogue stated, waving off the question.

"Oh? And what of that rather, eccentric boy, Mr. Shirakumo? To my knowledge you seem to be spending a fair amount of time with him as of late." Darkhölme inquired with a raised eyebrow.

Rogue froze when those words left her mouth. "... How do you know about that?" She asked warily.

"Oh Rogue, my dear, when it comes to my students I make it my duty to know everything." She grinned. "You do remember that Xavier and his students attacked you, don't you?"

"Well yeah, but, lately that part's been… Fuzzy." The auburn haired girl said.

"Well just this morning, I overheard them talking about how in a simulation they had, with you as their target." Darkholme told her.

Rogue's eyes widened at that bit of info. She was a target in one of their simulations? Suddenly, she realized that the type of simulation went unspoken. She decided to address that.

"And just what kind of simulation was it?" The southern belle questioned with a raised eyebrow. If she caught Darkholme off guard, it wasn't shown.

"They didn't say. Though…" The woman said as she set a bag down. "Why not ask them yourself? I've arranged for you to go on that trip, so it should prove most enlightening. I think it's time you sorted out who your real friends are."

-A few minutes later-

Rogue ended up getting on the bus after Jean was replaced with her due to Darkholme deep-sixing her to make room for the other girl.

The bus then started its drive into the mountains as it started to snow rather hard, almost as if they had unwittingly drove themselves into a blizzard.

"Alright! Fresh powder!" A student cheered, which was echoed by the rest of the class.

"Don't get too excited, too much of the white stuff and we turn around! This isn't a snowmobile trip after all." Mr. Rodenski, their teacher, called back to the students.

This caused everyone to groan in dismay, the ride continued to go on for about half an hour before the bus made a turn when a sharp curve appeared, causing the bus's trailer attachment to swerve off the road and almost fell off the cliff, the vehicle then started to swerve uncomfortably until Scott opened a window and used his heat vision to cause a ditch to form, stopping the bus from moving and saving them, though no one was able to see this through the confusion.

After this, Rodenski was going to have everyone push, but Rogue had a Much more appealing idea. "Say, Mr. Rodenski, why don't we just take our snowmobiles to the cave and wait out the weather there?" She suggested, getting a round of approval from the others.

The man sighed as he had no choice but to just go with the idea, seeing no better option. Once everyone got a snowmobile, they all started heading in the direction of the cave that they were supposed to be going to. Scott was driving his while riding with one of his classmates, Paul. While Rogue was riding with another classmate.

That's when the southern girl decided to ride up next to him. "Hey! Wanna race, Summers?" She challenged him, getting an alarmed look from her passenger.

Scott smirked in response. "You're on!" He shot back. The two then sped up (much to their passengers' chagrin) and started to race. Scott started to pull ahead, but that was when Rogue came flying out of nowhere and landed right in front of them. As Scott attempted to close the gap, they came up to a ledge, and out of nowhere, Rogue started slamming into them, almost driving them off the cliff. This caused Scott to slow down and let her pull ahead as he tried to stabilize.

"Man, that girl is wiggy, she didn't care what happened to us." Paul noted in slight shock.

"Yeah… Where did that come from?" Scott wondered in utter confusion.

(Elsewhere)

-Xavier mansion, the professor's room.-

The telepath was in the middle of sifting through paperwork when he noticed that his window was open, as he rolled towards it in an attempt to close the entrance, he was suddenly stopped by a magnetic pulse that not only closed the windows, but also sent him rolling back and slamming into his dresser. As he tried to get the chair to work, he noticed that he couldn't get it to move.

"Magneto, what are you doing here?" The man asked sternly.

"I've come to pay you a compliment, Charles. Your young charges, they seem to be… Flourishing under your tutelage." Magneto stated in the same voice that had been talking to both Mystique and Pietro.

"Yes, they're doing quite well." Xavier agreed, struggling to get his chair to work.

"I am referring to the development of their mutant abilities. You seem to be doing well with that." Magneto corrected, rather judgmentally.

"Yes, I am very proud of how much they've grown." Xavier agreed, seemingly refusing to acknowledge the judgemental tone.

"Proud, but yet you do not trust them." Magneto judged rather harshly.

"I do, I trust them with my life." The man retorted.

The living magnet then growled as the magnetic pull got stronger. "But not with the truth!" He yelled before he pulled Xavier towards the closed window, causing the glass to shatter as he disappeared.

Minutes later, the professor then went to the main living room where he was discussing the incident with Logan as a fire roared in the fireplace.

"I dunno Chuck, maybe he's right. Why not tell them the truth?" The scraggly mutant asked, a toothpick that hung from his mouth moving around as he spoke.

"How am I to explain to them that their principal, whom they are to obey and respect, and their enemy, are one in the same?" Xavier questioned in worry as he put his hands on his temples.

Logan was about to answer when Jean and Ororo came in. "Trouble's brewing." The latter of the two said. "A blizzard is occurring just up in the mountains."

"Right where the geology club is." Jean added.

"Jean, I thought you were going with them?" Xavier questioned.

"I was, until Principal Darkholme deep-sixed me to make room for her little Rogue." Jean stated indignantly.

"Rogue… You're right, trouble is brewing." Xavier agreed.

Little did they know that Gavin was listening in on the whole conversation, and he Now was walking back to his room, hands in his pockets, and a murderous glare on his face as he thought of what Mystique might be doing with Rogue.

(Meanwhile)

-Back in the mountains-

Scott was currently looking for Rogue in the cave that the club had hunkered down in, when he came across an amazing waterfall. As he marveled at it, he almost stepped over a very steep cliff. As he managed to correct himself, he noticed Rogue was standing right behind him.

"Rogue, I was looking for you." The boy said to the southern girl.

"What is it you want from me, Scott?" She asked rather bluntly.

"Me? Well, nothing really. Except maybe your friendship." Scott explained rather plainly, not really getting the meaning of her question.

"Really? Well you know what Ah want? The truth! What was that simulation you and your friends had with me as your target about, huh?" She snapped. "What kind of simulation was it? Were you guys tryin' to learn how to fight me?"

Scott blinked. He was wondering how she even found out about that to begin with, but decided to leave that subject alone to focus on Rogue's question.

"Actually, it was a rescue simulation." He replied, causing her to blink in surprise.

"What?" She gasped, backing up slightly. She then decided to ask something else that had bothered her for a while too. "Then what about Gavin? He's been constantly coming around me, trying to help me with mah powers and has been even trying to help me get used to socializing in what he calls a 'No strings attached' relationship. Did your X-men put him up to that?" She asked, wanting answers.

"... Is that why he's been coming home so late?" Scott asked as he scratched his head.

"What?" Rogue gasped in even more shock before backing up. "Then… Why would he? Why would he be doing that if you didn't put him up to it?" The girl clutched her head as her thoughts raced. None of this made any sense!

Just then, Paul came walking up to them. "Hey, Rodenski is looking for you guys." He told them.

Rogue and Scott then looked at the boy and both noticed something was off about him, more specifically, that his attire was different. At first glance the differences seemed inconsequential, but at second glance it was hard to ignore.

"Wait, you're not Paul. Who are you?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, you're not the Paul we know." Rogue added.

That's when the boy gave an evil smirk before he then transformed into the principal, and then into that of Mystique. Scott's eyes widened as he saw this.

"Principal Darkholme? Y-you're Mystique?" Scott gasped.

"Yes, Scott. I see Charles neglected to tell you. Nice of him, wasn't it?" Mystique said as she forced the boy to back up to the edge of the cliff.

"What are you doing?" Rogue said in panic.

"I'm protecting you, dear." Mystique said simply. "The X-men only wish to use you. And I refuse to let that happen." She then turned to Scott. "Yes, you are all just puppets of Charles Xavier, and I'm going to cut your strings, just to watch you fall!" The woman snapped as she pushed him over the ledge and watched him fall down into the depths.

"Scott!" Rogue cried as she ran to the cliff. "Why did you do that?!" She demanded as she faced Mystique.

"I already told you, to protect you, so you wouldn't fall for his lies or the lies of that freak of nature that weasled you into his corner." Mystique snapped.

At the mention of who she assumed was Gavin that Mystique was referring to, Rogue became angry at her for insulting the very person who only wanted to help her.

"No!" Rogue exclaimed while unlatching one of her gloves, the girl whipped around and grabbed onto Mystique's arm, draining her memories and seeing everything. Every lie, every deception, and saw that everything Scott had said was true.

As the blue skinned woman fell unconscious, Rogue ran over to the ledge and tried to look for Scott, hoping, praying that he was still alive.

When she peered over the edge, she was relieved when she saw Scott barely hanging on to a smaller cliff about halfway down.

"Oh Scott, I'm sorry. I'm coming!" She yelled down to him before leaping down to the same ledge. As she landed, Scott grabbed onto her arms as she tried to pull him up.

"Ya know, it's getting harder to tell the players around here without a scorecard." He chuckled as they tried to get up.

"Just hang on!" The girl said in concern right before a boulder, which was being pushed by Mystique, fell over the ledge as it crashed into where they were standing, causing it to crumble and them to fall.

They fell until they crashed into a ledge that gave way and then into the stream down below, causing them to be swept away by the current. Scott grabbed Rogue and managed to divert them until they floated right onto a small bank.

Both then slowly started to limp towards a large rock bridge, at least until Scott fell unconscious due to both the cold and a small head injury he sustained.

"Scott!" Rogue cried as she pulled his head into her lap. "We're gonna be okay, we're gonna be-" That's when she realized just how high up they were. "Oh man, we're gonna die!"

Mystique watched them from the clifftop before she transformed into a wolf and leapt down with the intent of finishing them off.

Rogue gasped in horror before she grabbed Scott and then started dragging him away from the wolf, but realized they were cornered.

"X-men… Are here… Can't find us." Scott groaned as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

Rogue looked around before she laid him down. "Then let's give them something to find." She said as she removed his shades. "Okay Scott, open your eyes."

The shade wearing teen managed to do so, resulting in his eye-beams shooting into the sky.

On the X-Jet, Logan and Charles were flying through the sky with Storm giving the aircraft a cone of clear air to fly in without turbulence. When Scott's eye-beams shot up, Logan spotted it.

"There they are!" The graggly mutant exclaimed. "Charles, take the controls." He ordered as he got out of his seat and sent to the door.

With the other two, Mystique was still walking up to them as a wolf. Seeing no other real option, Rouge touched Scott and gained his powers.

"Hey teach, didn't anyone ever tell you? Don't mess with the Rogue!" She yelled as she blasted the shapeshifter off the rock ledge, but this caused the bridge to start crumbling in the process. Mystique turned into a bird to avoid falling, but before she could attack, both the X-Jet and Wolverine appeared.

"Give up Mystique, or you'll be tangling with the Wolverine!" Logan growled as he deployed his claws, causing Mystique to screech and fly away.

Logan retracted his claws before he leapt onto the crumbling bridge to grab Scott and Rogue and back onto the X-Jet just in time for the naturally occurring bridge to completely fall apart.

As they flew back to the mansion, Logan walked back to the girl as she sat huddled up in a corner, shivering from the cold she was previously in.

"Alright Where's your allegiance kid, is it us or them? Time to make a choice." The man told her straight out.

Still shivering, Rogue looked at Logan. "I-if Ah don't say 'you,' am Ah g-going to get tossed off the j-jet?" She asked.

"Nope, not our style. We've either earned your trust or we haven't. It's your choice all the way." Wolverine stated while shaking his head.

The southern girl looked at Scott with Jean and the others, then she thought back to Gavin. After a few seconds she turned back to Logan. "Ah choose, you." She told him.

The man smirked as he went back to the jets controls, now they needed to go home.

-Xavier Institute-

"It's the same as lying to us." Jean snapped as Xavier finished explaining the situation with their principal and Mystique.

"Yeah, why didn't you tell us?" Kitty questioned.

"Yeah Professor. What'd you think we were going to do? Go after her?" Kurt added.

"Kurt's right, man. if she wants to pretend like nothing's going down, we can too." Evan nodded.

"What about you, Rogue?" Scott asked.

"It's not mah place to say." Rogue said.

"Sure it is, you're part of the family now." Kitty told her.

"Damn straight." Gavin piped up, who was sitting on the couch on his back, with his legs folded meditation style and hanging over him, his arms crossed and eyes closed, hair dangling from the couch due to his upside down position.

"Well, I think that sometimes adults hide things to help protect us, but I know, no I've learned that it's also important to be honest with those you care about." Rouge said firmly.

Xavier then looked at his currently upside down student. "Gavin, is there anything you'd like to say?"

"Other than I'm a little ticked off that you kept us in the dark this long? No, not really." He shrugged, eyes still closed.

The man nodded. "Then I will only say this: There are things you will learn that you are ready for and those you are not. Secrets, lessons, elements of surprise. But in the future, I will try better in knowing which is which."

Everyone nodded in agreement. It was good to know that they weren't the only ones who had things to learn.

(Elsewhere)

-Chicago, Illinois, night time-

In the woods just outside of the windy city, a large shadow hovered over a grove of trees as the shadow got closer to the ground. It revealed itself to be the same red dragon that had been spotted in the Rockies, but now this creature slowly started to shrink and change shape, it shifted until it became a human woman.

She looked to be in her late twenties with caramel blonde hair, fair skin, was around 5'7" and had a fairly curvy but decent hourglass figure, but her most striking feature was her emerald green eyes. She wore a pair of jeans (which were damaged) a tank top, a pair of black boots, and lastly a well worn black leather jacket.

The woman stepped into the city and sighed. "Just a few more states to go Chelsea, just a few more states to go." She sighed to herself before pulling out a rather worn business card of none other than the Xavier Institute for gifted youngsters from her jacket pocket. "I hope that place is as good as you said it's cracked up to be, Bast, wherever you are." Chelsea sighed to herself as she made her way to the nearest train station, her next destination? Bayville, New York State.