Ahhh, finally. For all you out there reading, no more back story. Yay! Lol.

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters—4 days after Liberty Island

"Logan!"

Rogue grinned and jogged up to her friend, who she knew was trying to sneak out without having any awkward goodbyes.

He smiled at her and looked her over. "How are you doing, kid? Okay?"

She nodded. He reached a finger out and touched the white streak that was a permanent gift from her experience at Liberty Island.

"I kind of like it," she responded, looking down at the platinum lock curved over her chest. She looked back up to his face and smiled. "Running away?" She had a teasing tone to her voice, but they both heard the faint plea behind it.

"Just for awhile, kid. The professor gave me something to check out up north. Don't worry," he said, tossing a cocky smile out, "I'll be back."

She bit her lip. "I don't want you to go," she said plainly, without whining or begging. He was the one person here she felt close to. They had come here together and had formed a tight bond in the short time they had been together. He had saved her life and she would never forget it. The fact that she was in love with him came second.

He thought for a moment, regarding her silently. Then an idea popped into his head and he reached up and dragged his dog tags up over his head. "Here, take care of these for me," he said, dropping them into her black gloved hand. She smiled and he turned to walk away.

"I'll be back for them," he warned lightly, opening the front door and walking through it.

"You better," she called out quietly, watching him for a moment and then closing the door.

XXXXX

Ever since she had regained consciousness after Magneto's kidnapping she found it hard to sleep at night. She didn't want to tell anybody in case it got back to Logan, but it was because she had too much of him in her. She had absorbed more of him than anyone else. His nightmares were hers now. She was constantly waking up in cold sweats feeling like she just went through the worst pain imaginable. Her body would feel sore and tense and usually tears would be streaming down her face.

She didn't want to tell anyone though because she knew it make Logan feel horrible. And that she couldn't let happen. She felt more protective over him than anybody, even though he could more than take care of himself. He was the most dangerous man she knew, she thought, climbing out of bed and putting her slippers on. Besides Magneto, she remembered darkly.

It was almost one in the morning and she was pretty sure that most everyone was in bed by now. Night was one of the rare times when she didn't have to cover up from head to toe and she decided to forgo her bathrobe. Her black nightgown was modest enough reaching to her knees. The straps were thin but covered her chest decently.

She padded down the hall to the stairs and walked quietly down, hoping that nobody was awake to bother her. She lifted her sweat dampened hair off the back of her neck and rubbed her eyes exhaustedly. Having other people's nightmares was taking its toll on her body.

The mansion was silent and seemingly empty, as she moved through the halls and made her way to the kitchen for a glass of water. She passed a weird kid who was staring at the TV and seemingly changing the channels with a blink of his eyes. Weird mutation. Better than hers, she thought, taking a cup down and filling it up halfway.

She wasn't really that thirsty. She was just bored and needed to get out of her room after the nightmare. Moving from the kitchen to the downstairs hallway, she briefly thought about going outside for a walk when she heard muted voices coming from an air vent on the floor. It was Professor X, she realized, as well as Scott and the others.

Her curiosity got the better as she heard her name repeated over and over, usually accompanied by heated voices. Why were they talking about her? she wondered uneasily. It didn't sound good either.

She snuck down to the lower level and tiptoed to the room that the voices had been coming from. It was Dr. Grey's office, she realized, wondering what they were doing in that room. Usually they used the professor's.

Apparently, the door was open because she could hear what they were saying before she even got close.

"I can't accept this," Storm was saying, "Professor, you've been like a father to me, but this is absurd. He's an animal. Have you forgotten how dangerous he is?"

A low growl issued from another occupant of the room. Who on earth could that be?

Rogue's curiosity was now at a feverish peak, but she couldn't rush herself, or else she would be caught. Who were they talking about? she wondered, tiptoeing carefully on the cold floor. It couldn't be Logan. She tried to keep her mind as blank as possible to prevent the resident psychics from detecting her too early.

"Storm, you must trust me," Professor Xavier said in his calm quiet voice, "There is more to this than you know, however, I cannot disclose everything to you just yet. I give you my word that when the time comes the three of you will know my reasons."

Almost there.

"When are you going to tell Rogue?" Scott asked calmly. "This cannot be kept from her for too long otherwise it'll break her trust."

"Yes, I know, Scott, but this must be handled delicately. No doubt she will be very against the idea at first."

Rogue was now very worried. What the hell were they talking about? Something dangerous that pertained to her? She had never been one for skulking around in darkened corridors and if they had something they wanted to tell her, then they could do it now. She moved into the doorway but instead of saying something aloud she gasped in horror.

The dark figure of Sabretooth leaning against the wall of the back corner, stared right at her as soon as she came into view. The other four adults jumped and turned toward her also. Anger began coursing through her body at alarming speeds. How dare they keep him here? Keeping the man who had delivered her to her near death in the school where she lived and not even telling her about it.

The voices in her head began clashing together and it drowned out the Professors. They were all pissed off for some reason or another. Magneto because he was under the impression that his soldier had switched sides, Cody because he was afraid, and Logan because he hated Sabretooth and feared for Rogue's safety. Of all of them Logan was the strongest and he howled in her mind, causing her to gasp and bring both hands up to her temples to help assuage the pain.

The teachers all wanted to help her and Scott stepped forward but was held back by Jean. "Don't touch her," she warned, not unkindly.

"The psyches are out of control," Xavier said worriedly.

"I told you we should have told her earlier," Scott said, raising his voice.

She couldn't really concentrate on what they were saying. Everyone else's fury, compounded with her own, blew it up far greater than it would have been normally. She looked up furiously at all of them and then bolted down the hall, seething in anger. What the hell was he doing here?

What do you think he was doing with them? Mangeto asked mockingly. Charles has always had his own agenda, even when we were friends. Why should you be any different?

Why the hell does the professor have him in here with kids? Logan snarled. You should touch him, Rogue. Let him see what happens when you play God with the wrong person.

In her anger, she really thought that was a good idea. She hadn't quite gotten used to having Logan inside her head yet and she wasn't surprised to find that he was the dominant psyche. Before Liberty Island, he wasn't so bad, but with a double dose of him he was sometimes controlling. It was hard sometimes to know if she was doing something because she wanted to or because Logan wanted to.

She could hear yelling in back of her, but she didn't care. She needed to get out of here before she did something that she would regret.

She threw open the doors and ran as fast as she could towards the woods. All she could think about was running away. She ran so far and so fast that soon she didn't even know where she was. She stopped and collapsed on the ground by a tree, panting and gasping for breath. Maybe all the exercise wore the psyches out too. Maybe they would shut up for once. They only seemed to disappear in the shower, thank God. And the toilet.

Excellent work, my dear, Magneto began in his mocking voice, you've managed to get yourself lost. Instead of staying put and finding out what that animal was doing there, you just took off. Nicely done. Now we won't know anything.

"Shut up," she spat, "I swear if you don't be quiet I'll-,"

You'll what? he laughed, Kill yourself to make me? Preposterous.

She opened her mouth to shoot off another retort to the voice in her head when all of a sudden she heard a branch snap in front of her. All her senses went on alert. Was there someone out there? She heard Logan growl quietly in her head and for once she let him take over a bit more.

She sniffed the air and recoiled when she definitely detected another person close by. She slowly stood trying not to make a sound. How was she going to get back now? Magneto's mocking words didn't seem so off base at the moment.

A chuckle nearby made her flinch. "Well, look at what we have here."

She stood up slowly and looked around. "Who's there?"

A rush of wind zipped her around face and she whirled around. Nothing. Suddenly, a man with green skin, wearing the bottom half of what appeared to a beat up looking Motocross uniform, descended from the sky into her line of vision.

"Who are you?" she asked, with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

He seemed to debate for a moment and then smiled. "Some people call me Airborne. I guess that will do for you." He hovered in the air without any sort of wings or wind holding him up. He smiled another nasty smile and raised a hand.

She immediately noticed five razor sharp talons protruding from his fingers and she backed away. He wasn't bothered at all by her response to his mutation. He simply flew closer and lunged at her, getting a fistful of her hair and dragging her up into the air with him. She flailed around in terror, not only for herself, but for him too. If he touched her skin, even for a moment, he would lose his powers and they would both die. Unless she could learn to use his fast.

"Don't touch me, please!" she begged, him fighting the urge to reach and grab his hands. His nails were digging into her scalp and it was painful.

He only laughed and flew higher. "Why not? What are you going to do about it?"

"You don't understand," she began quickly, "My skin. It's-,"

He grabbed her by the throat and hauled her up. "You really need to…" His eyes lost focus and he gasped for air as her mutation began to take his life force from him. Unfortunately, she was taking his powers also.

They halted mid air and she felt his grip relax on her throat a second before they slowly began to free fall toward the earth. In the distance she could see the outline of her school and silently begged God to let someone see them. If she didn't grab a hold of him, she'd fall and die. But if she kept contact she might kill him before they reached the ground and she would die anyway.

The psyches howled in her head and instinctively she reached around and grabbed hold of his waist. He was spasming and jerking, his wide accusing eyes staring into empty air as they fell. She concentrated with all of her might, closing her eyes and feeling his power running through her body.

She strained with every ounce of her body to control his power and land them safely. Her eyes were screwed shut and slowly but surely she felt them slow down and drift towards the earth. She dared not open her eyes for fear of losing control. A loud voice below made her snap them open and look down.

She was about fifty feet up still and below her were Storm, Scott, Jean, and Sabretooth. A sudden thought struck her.

"Jean," she yelled, trying to do everything at once. It was hard controlling someone else power. She flung Airborne away from her quickly hoping that Jean would know what she was doing by this. She did, extending a hand and catching the falling man mid air, placing him effectively on the ground. Both her and Storm turned to check him over. Sabretooth stood nonchalantly in the background, none of this looking like it effected him at all.

Rogue saw the man's pale green face and her heart lurched, causing her to free fall suddenly. The ground rushed up at her and she willed herself to stop. When she opened her eyes, she was staring at green grass that was three inches from her face. Her arms were stretched out horizontally and she could feel the energy vibrating between her and the earth before she heaved a breath and collapsed onto the grass.

She laid there for a moment before groaning and rolling over, holding her head with both hands as Airborne's screams echoed around her head.

Where the fuck am I? he yelled. What did you do to me?

Hey, buddy, can it, Logan snarled. You're lucky I don't rip you apart for what you did.

"Can you guys be quiet please?" she moaned, shakily standing up and rubbing her temples.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked in a concerned voice. He walked over and sighed when he remembered that he had to keep his distance. She looked like she needed a hug.

She squinted up at him and nodded. "Yeah, it's just, that guy is screaming in my head and Logan's threatening to kill him and everything is jumbled up." She stepped to the side to look at the body lying on the ground. "Is he dead?" she whispered, putting a finger to her mouth to chew on apprehensively.

Storm looked over sorrowfully and nodded. Rogue felt like she had just been hit with a hammer.

"But, I didn't hold on to him that much longer than I did Logan on the Island. He can't be dead."

Storm put her white gloved hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "It was only Logan's mutation that saved him that time Rogue. This guy apparently didn't have enough strength to hold on."

The fuck I didn't! Airborne shouted. It's hard to hold on while a leech sucks the life out of you.

She glared into the air at his comment. "Well, I tried to tell you," she shot back, taking in Storm's confused face and amended her statement. "Um, him. I tried to tell him not to touch me but he would listen."

"Who was he?" Scott asked, coming up beside them. "I've never seen him before." Jean walked up and put her arm around his waist.

"He said to call him Airborne. He came out of nowhere and grabbed me by my hair before I could say anything to him. Then he started choking me up in the sky and…" she shrugged, sorrowfully looking down at the ground. This was all her fault. If only she hadn't lost her temper and run off, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't have killed a man.

The overwhelming feeling of having yet one more person inside her mind, coupled with the shock of having caused his death, was too much and her vision went dark. She saw the brief outline of Scott as he caught her before falling unconscious.