Cold Hearts
By Lady Trunks
Chapter 7

Rogue sank weakly against the door and slid to the floor, for the first time letting go of the tears that had been building inside of her all day. It was one of the best methods of relieving stress, something she desperately needed after such a traumatic day. Why did everything have to be some damn complicated all the time?

First there was the incident with Scott. She had been forced to stay home from school because she was still weak from the stress she had gone through at the concert when she had her breakdown. Using the absorbed powers after they had lied dormant for a while was a lot more difficult then using them after she had first absorbed them, and using so many of them all at once had overloaded her mind and body and she was prescribed bed rest to help recover. It was strictly by chance that she had over heard the professor and Scott (who had stayed home on the pretense of looking after her) talking about the incident and Xavier revealing what he had discovered while in her mind.

***

Rogue wondered down the hall in her pajamas in search of food. Though she had been forbidden from getting out of the bed, with Ororo and Logan gone in search of Mystique and Hank out of the mansion, there was little choice to but to get it herself. Besides, not being fond of hospitals, she was grateful to be out of the med lab.

The sound of voices coming from the study caused her to stop in her tracks. As far as she knew, the professor was the only one that was going to be in the mansion, but obviously that wasn't the case. She immediately slipped into the stealth mode that Mystique had drilled into her, and silently pressed herself against the wall. The door had been conveniently left open, a sign that the people inside had been under the impression that no one was around to over hear.

She ventured a cautious look inside the room and saw Professor Xavier leaning forward on the desk, staring at Scott intently. "This power surge of Rogue's is going to cause a lot of problems with Colonel Wraith. Given her association with Mystique plus the incident at the concert will cause them to cause them to question my ability to control her. Plus the knowledge that she posses such an insurmountable power and the probability that in a battle we would be unable to stop her, will also go against us."

"So what does that mean in terms of our deal with them?" The leader of the X-Men asked.

"When we made the deal, I agreed to arrange for them to find mutants for their experiments in exchange for them leaving the school alone. But it was also with the understanding that I would be able to control the other students completely so that if the Weapon X Program ever had need of our assistance the other students would work for them at my request without question. But if they believe that I can't control the students the deal will be off."

"I thought that you were taking measures to assure Rogue's acquiesce."

"From the first moment I learned of Rogue's existence I have recognized her potential. Unfortunately Mystique beat me to her and with her complex mind it's almost impossible to control it. And after entering her mind, I found that she was actually sent here by Magneto to learn what she could about the program. Despite her power, the girl has quickly become more of a liability than we can afford. I'm going to need you to dispose of her."

Though Rogue had known about the things the Professor had done from Magneto and what she had learned while spying, it was still a shock to hear him calmly inform Scott that they would need to 'dispose' of her. As soon as she heard the words she retreated to her room moving silently so as not to alert them to her presence. Her cover had been blown and there was nothing to do now except abort the mission. Arriving in her room she quickly threw on some cloths and her boots. She grabbed the few irreplaceable things and tossed them in a bag. The rest could be replaced. She grabbed up her brown trench coat and pulled it on as she made her way towards the front door.

She reached the bottom stairs and went straight for the door. A voice from behind her brought her up short. "Hey Rogue. Where are you going?"

Rogue spun around in surprise at the sound, reflexively raising her arms in front of her defensively. Realizing her mistake, she immediately tried to play it down as she looked at Cyclops. "Just going for a little walk. Thought the fresh air might do me good." She tried to give him a small smile but knew that it must look forced.

Cyclops walked closer, his eyes taking in the bag in her arms. "Really is that right?"

For the first time she noticed the gloves on his hands, which was rather unusual. Sensing that time was running short, she turned around and yanked the door open with every intent of running out. Cyclops read her intent, and gave up all pretenses of friendliness. Instead he opened fire and shot an optic blast at her.

The attack would have hit her dead on, and quite possibly killed her if she hadn't thrown herself sideways at the last possible moment. Instead of a fatal blow, it just grazed her side searing a hole in the flesh there and sending an intense wave of pain through her body. Knowing that this was an actual battle for her life and every second counted, Rogue immediately went on the offensive, and sent a barrage of punches and kicks his way. He blocked the moves, and only a few managed to actually do any damage. She aimed a jab at his face, which finally made contact. Before she could get another good hit in, he sent a powerful round house at her that sent her reeling back into the wall. Before she could sufficiently recover from the force of the hit, he was in front of her, aiming a punch to her head that sent it crashing into the wall behind her. The force of the impact had her ears ringing and eyes watering, as dizziness swept over her in a cascading rush. She pushed it back, knowing that if she gave into it, it would all be over.

In a last desperate attempt, she sent shoved him backwards and aimed a kick at Scott's middle. He blocked the move with ease and, grabbing a hold on the leg, used it to yank her forward. Reading the move, she let her body go slack pulling him off balance. Taking advantage of this, she dropped to the floor and used her leg to sweep his legs out from under him. He was sent crashing to the ground and without a second's hesitation she had leapt on top of him and using her weight managed to pin him down briefly. Since she had gloves on her hands, and knowing that she only had a few brief seconds, she did the next best thing and pressed her face against his. The absorption began immediately and he desperate tried to knock her off of him. Rogue only held on tighter in response, and within a few moments he was out.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, she rose rather unsteadily to her feat and sweeping up her bag left the mansion and never looked back.

********

After that, she had wondered around having no firm destination in mind but not wanting to be somewhere where she could be found if they were searching for her. For hours she had just wandered the back streets of Bayville, taking frequent rests while desperately trying to remain consciousness. By luck (or maybe even a subconscious desire) she had found herself on the same block as the Brotherhood boarding house.

So here she was, once again a member of the Brotherhood, only now she was a co-leader with Pietro. And then there was also the emotional scene with Kurt. She was rather surprised and comforted at how he had believed her when she told him about Xavier. Then there was the fight with Gambit, which wasn't that surprising because every time they were in the same room for more than a couple minutes they were fighting about something. Also there was the scene with Magneto that she couldn't get out of her mind. And then, most surprising of all, Pietro's sudden declaration. It was almost too much for a girl to handle.

Just then she heard a knock on the door. She dried her eyes and rose to her feet. Rogue released a huge sigh of frustration, sensing that she just wasn't going to receive the peace and quiet that she so desperately desired. Silently vowing to herself that if this was Gambit, he wasn't going to live to see another sunrise, she pulled the door open. She blinked in surprise when she saw who it was. Lance.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I was seriously tempted to just abandon this fic, what with the plot already having changed twice on me, and me feeling like it was going nowhere. But I didn't want to let all of you readers down, since I know how annoying it is to start reading a fic and then have it be abandoned. And I think I know roughly where I want it to go. Unfortunately it's going to be a long and drawn out process.

As to the pairing, I was surprised how many people were for Magneto (I thought it was only me…). There were also some people completely against it. The biggest optical seems to be his age, despite the fact that in Operation Rebirth he was made younger, and they do have a history in the comics. For instance, she is paired with him (has a kid and everything) in the `Age of Apocalypse' timeline of the comics and in that Pietro's actually 10 years older than her. There's also the implied relationship between the two in the Savage land. And then the whole Joseph thing… Does it seem like I'm arguing for Magneto? I don't know why, since that would be even harder to write since Pietro already told her that he 'likes' her and everyone should know by now I'm a huge Rietro fan. But I seriously haven't decided, but want everyone to know that if I do end up going that way I will address the age thing (I even have an idea, but maybe I'll use that for a different story). So let me know who you think, to help me decide.
~LT