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Glaring Decipher

Chapter One

Magneto stood in front of the small classroom in one of the sub-level of Charles' mansion, hardly believing he where he was. To the best of his recollection less than two weeks ago he had launched an attack on Apocalypse which had ended in his utter defeat. And now he was standing in front of Charles's students, his own children and brotherhood among them, readying himself to teach, in actuality some months later.

It was almost laughable, considering how many times he and Charles had budded heads over the last two years. It had taken him by surprise when Charles had offered him a place at his school as an instructor or all things. But alas here he was ready and able to mold the next generation of young mutant minds. Where should he start?

Magneto picked up the dry erase marker from the desk, uncapped it and turned to the board.

"Welcome, " Magneto started to say as the whispering among the students died down and their attention turned to the front of the room. "To the basics of strategy," he said as he wrote the title on the board. "What is strategy?" he asked as he turned back to face his class.

"I would write this down, if I were all of you," Magneto told them as most of the students raced to grab their pens. "Strategy is defined as 'the science and art of employing political, economic, psychological, and/or physical force to support the adoption of one's intentions.'" he glanced around the room as he spoke slowly, allowing the students time to write down every word he had said.

Except for Rogue, interestingly enough. So far, she hadn't written down a word which he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in response to. Although, the girl did seem to be paying attention. She hadn't taken her eyes off of him since he had started speaking. He had to force himself to not maintain her gaze. There was this look she had in her eyes every time she stared at him. He had noticed it the day he moved into the mansion. Fear, hate, fascination? Something else entirely? He wasn't quite sure what to make of it or her. Although he had allowed himself, on occasion, to meet her gaze for a prolonged period of time in hopes of deciphering it's meaning: now, in a classroom full of watchful eyes, was not the time.

"Also," he continued, "for our purposes as 'developing and leveraging one's strengths and advantages.'" he quoted. "Now, the avenues one might need to explore in order to plan and implement a strategy are rather vast. But, at it's core there are four things one needs to do."

"Question is, what are those steps? Rogue?" Magneto asked as he made eye contact with her. "Since you are not taking notes, I assume you know the answers already," he said pointedly. He was not the type of teacher to tolerate laziness. He might as well make an example of her now and set the tone he expected in his classroom. Which seemed to work instantly as the classroom tensed with his statement. Night-crawler, who was seated next to Rogue, quickly pulled out an extra pen and tried to hand it to Rogue.

To his surprise the girl did not look sheepish at being singled out, instead a smirk came to her face: which she quickly moved to hide, as she refused to take the pen from Night-crawler.

"Having clear goals is the first step," she said as she made eye contact with him again.

'That look again,' he thought to himself. Some of the students turned to look at Rogue as she gave her answer.

"Second is a profound understanding of the competitive environment," Rogue said. Magneto raised an eyebrow at that.

'Where did she learn this?' he asked himself.

"Third is an accurate appraisal of the resources that are available to you and if possible a clear understanding of the resources and capabilities in your opposition's hands and the four step is an efficient plan to implement the strategy you've developed," she finished. All of the students turned back to look at him: they all knew the answer sounded impressive. But was it correct? That was him to decide. Magneto looked down at his desk for a moment.

"Very good," he said after a moment. "I couldn't have said it better myself," he said as he made eye contact with Rogue again. She smiled at that and the look in her eyes intensified. He watched her quickly remove the smile from her face. "Would you please write those steps on the board for the rest of the class?" he asked.

"Sure," Rogue said before she stood up from the third row and walked up to him. Their eyes met again as he handed her the marker. She turned from him to walk to the board and did as he instructed.

'Interesting, how she keeps trying to hide her emotions,' he thought as she wrote on the board. 'Not well enough, of course. It's shows in her gaze whether she intends it to or not. I know there is something here. I just don't know what,' he thought. "Thank you," Magneto said as Rogue turned back to him and gave him back the marker. "Would you mind staying after class? I would like to have a word," he told her.

"Sure," she said again.

"Thank you, please take your seat and continue to not take note," he said dryly. Rogue let out a small laugh. But quickly stopped herself.

"Sorry," she said quickly as she met his gaze. "I didn't mean to laugh. Just- deja vu," she said. He raised an eyebrow at that. He watched her roll her eyes and sigh. "Sorry," she said again as she moved past him.

"Let's," he started to say as he watched Rogue walk back to her seat. They made eye contact again as she sat down, "look at these four steps a bit more closely," he said to the rest of the class as he forced himself to break eye contact.

Hey! Welcome to my new story! I'm trying something new with my style of writing. Usually, I express nearly everythign through dialog. However in this story there is not as much cause of Rogue and Magneto to speaking to each other all of the time and a lot of the times they are surounded by other people. So, it's going to be interesting. At least I hope so!

This was a bit of a teaser, but what do you guys think? Are you intruged, board? Please let me know? :)

Thank you again to everyone who keeps supporting me! After I annouced I was writing a new story, so many of you added me to your Author Alerts! Thank you so much! I can not wait to show you whats in store for this story. Please let me know your thoughts?:)