A/N3: June 24, 2015: And hello, once again. So, I know I said some four years ago that this story would be getting an overhaul, but it didn't happen. Why? Because, I decided to start on my older stories first, going from oldest to newest. Luckily, To Touch is now next in line. So the promised revamping begins. So, like I said last time, if you're reading this fic, the story will stay the same (with maybe some minor detail changes), but it should at least read better. It's still a story I wrote in my early 20's (a long, long time ago, lol. Ok, not really that long), so don't expect to have your mind blown, but I still think it's a decent read (that's not bias talking there, either). Anyways, on with the show…

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution.

A/N2 (July 27/2011): Hey all, I'm slowly rewriting/revamping all my stories. And after reading the first couple of chapters of this story, I realized that this one desperately needs a little tweaking. So, story line will stay the same, but I might add a couple of scenes in or adjust others. So, if you're re-reading this (though, I doubt you are) it may change slightly.

A/N: This is my first X-men Evolution fic ever. I hope you all enjoy it. This takes place after the events of Self Possessed. Please R&R.

Prologue:

"You must concentrate, Rogue," Professor Xavier urged.

Rogue fought the urge to roll her eyes at her guardian and mentor—did he not see the buckets of sweat she was dripping in her attempts to concentrate?—he was, after all, only trying to help. To give her what she'd always wanted.

Lips pursed together, she could see that the Professor wasn't very pleased with her efforts. Which made her feel all the worse. She was giving it her all, every ounce of her all. For goodness's sake, she's was down on the floor, on all fours—she had no idea when she'd fallen from her chair—before the Professor's desk, breathing harshly, like she was about to have a heart attack. But she knew better. It wasn't an attack of the heart she was about to have.

The tell-tale pounding at the back of her skull was back. And it meant only one thing. The psyches were fighting back. Hard. Just like the one and only time she'd lost complete control of herself. She wasn't a hundred percent sure, but she was betting that she couldn't take much more of this 'lesson,' at least not for today.

She hated to look it, let alone feel it, but Rogue glanced up over to the other side of the desk at the Professor, giving him a helpless look then. She needed to convey how dire her current situation was without words, because she didn't think she could get even a peep out, that's how tired she was. And she knew that he knew that if she were asking for help that was it. She was done.

"All right, that's it," the Professor exclaimed, looking very concerned now.

Rogue fell to her stomach, undignified, laying right there on the floor. She was exhausted. More than that, she was mentally and physically drained. But even though the Professor had told her they were done, she still had one more thing to do.

Closing her eyes, Rogue pictured her mindscape. Like a world created in a dream, Rogue and the Professor had initially done some work creating a world where she could inwardly turn to when the burdens of the absorbed psyches were too much.

When she re-opened her eyes, it was to a world alive with bright colors. It was what Rogue had always thought Hawaii would look like: lush greens edging a sandy white beach, with the bluest ocean possible breaking on the shores.

It was her calm, safe-haven.

Usually.

Right now it was chaos.

Everywhere she looked one of her psyches was running amok, pulling leaves off trees, breaking up sand castles on the beach, or splashing at the water. Their lines were blurred, hazy, as if they weren't really there—and she guessed they weren't—but she could generally tell who was who. And at the moment it was the psyche of Pietro doing the most damage.

Psyche-Pietro was just as restless as the real deal. She needed to get him under control first or else she'd never get the rest to settle down.

Currently, he'd found a banana tree and he was racing up and down it, bringing down the bunches for no other reason than for kicks it seemed.

"Rogue?" she heard the tentative call coming from far away.

She knew it was the Professor checking up on her. But she pushed his voice away. He knew what she was doing, and he could always peek in if he liked.

This was the part that took the most of her concentration and energy, corralling the absorbed masses.

She snuck up on the witless Psyche-Pietro and, with a bare-handed touch to the blurred outlines of his face, he was out cold. It was ironic that her methods of controlling them were exactly what she was trying not to do in real-life. It left a bad taste in her mouth when she thought about it hard.

After Pietro, the rest went down fairly easily, one-by-one.

The next part was relatively easy. She imagined gathering them all together in a house. She stepped up to the door of the house, twisting a key in the lock, locking them up tight and pocketing the key. Taking a step back, on top of the house, she dropped a seamless dome over it. And then around the dome, she mentally constructed a fortified stonewall.

There was no way they'd be getting out, not unless she let them. Like she'd done today.

"Rogue?" The Professor again.

She tried her hardest not to look at the obtrusive fortress of psyches marring the beautiful landscape. It should have set her at ease, but it was disconcerting for some reason.

Rogue closed her eyes after making sure one last time that all was calm and serene once again. Breathing in once, twice, Rogue opened her eyes to find the Professor's wheelchair next to her and the man himself leaning dangerously forward in his chair, reaching for her.

"Ah'm all right, Professor," she slurred.

That didn't set the man's frown at ease. He stared down at her in contemplation. "It's not getting any easier, is it?"

She sat back on her heels, her back hitting the edges of the chair she'd fallen from painfully. Wincing, she made the mistake of looking into the older man's eyes and she hated what she found there: doubt, uncertainty, defeat.

"It's… not," she conceded. He started shaking his head and she knew what was coming next: words of caution, words that would impede her goal. No, she couldn't let that happen. "But, ah want ta keep trying!"

Rogue had been working with the Professor for over a month now on trying to get her powers under her control. Ever since the day she'd lost complete control of herself, she'd seen the concern in the Professor's eyes—it was only a matter of time before it would happen again. And, somehow she had a feeling that this time she wouldn't recover herself.

The goal of the sessions, essentially, was for her to have conscious control on when she absorbed someone, giving her the ability to touch. They'd tried various methods, but so far, only the mindscape seemed to be sticking. Each session they'd release one of the psyches from the fortress and attempt to make contact with it. The Professor had a theory that, just like the real people, she could communicate with each of her psyches, too. If she could communicate with them maybe she could get them to cooperate. And that would allow Rogue to free up some mind-power to work on the control part.

It was a theory so far gone unproven.

Today, they'd made the mistake of releasing all the psyches at once. They hoped that some of psyches of their more rational counterparts in real life could coerce and convince the others into cooperating.

Yeah, that so didn't work, Rogue thought wryly.

What they didn't count on was the fact that there didn't seem to be one rational mind amongst them, despite who they were initially absorbed from.

Oh well, back ta tha drawing board…

Right now, she was so tired. She knew that if the Professor stopped talking to her right then, she'd fall asleep upright right there. Combine her sleepiness with an overwhelming sense of defeat… yeah she was so not in a good place just then.

She felt like control would never come. It was hard and not only mentally exhausting, but each session left her feeling physically ill.

Still, be that as it may, she just couldn't quit. Failure was not an option.

"Let's stop here," he told her, a sad look in his warm eyes.

"For now?" she said, an edge to her tone. She wasn't quitting.

He nodded once, conceding, "For now."

It was all written there in his eyes. It was a conversation they'd had right before they'd begun the sessions, while she was still hiding in the infirmary. She remembered him confronting her bluntly; she wasn't happy, he'd said. She would never be happy, he believed. It had been a shock to hear. And then he'd gone on to explain that the key to Rogue finding true happiness was finding control. Not only for her to be able to have the physical contact that all her relationships lacked now, but because he feared the psyches she'd absorbed would continue to try to break free, wreaking havoc with her mental health. It was crucial she succeeded at this. He wasn't giving up, she could see that now, but was momentarily deterred by how extreme her reaction to the session was.

"Ok. Ah ahm ah little tired," she confessed. He gave her a dry look. "Ok, ah lot tired…"

She hated to complain, to let on just how drained she was. But, it was pointless to hide it from the Professor, of all people. She also never wanted to seem ungrateful, because she was. Truly.

But the truth was, want it or not, she wasn't sure how many more of these sessions she could take.

Shaking herself out of that dismal thought, Rogue proclaimed, "Ah think ah need ah nap…" She started up off the floor, but fell right back down to the ground with a loud "Oof!"

"Rogue!" the Professor exclaimed.

Taking a second to figure out what just happened, the fact that her legs didn't want to hold her up just then, she shook her head out of its haze. "Ah'm all right." How many times did she have to spout that lie? she thought.

The Professor clearly heard that. "You're not," he said firmly. "One moment please."

She watched him wheel over to the door of his office, opening it; he called out, "Ah, yes, Logan, if you please, come in for a moment."

Rogue cringed. Not Logan, she thought. Of all the faculty at the mansion, he was the only one she truly hated allowing to see her weak. She guessed it was because she looked up to him. He was so strong, and she envied and coveted his strength. She didn't want him to think her frail.

He stepped inside, ready to argue with the Professor over anything—it was the man's way to be contrary—but stopped dead in his tracks instead. "Rogue!" he exclaimed.

"Ugh… Ah'm… oh, forget it!" she said. "Help meh up, will ya?"

Her teacher and friend was at her side instantly. Putting one arm under both hers, holding her up, but not carrying her. Logan knew her well, knew that she wanted to leave this room of— somewhat—her own volition.

"Let's go," she ordered, allowing her annoyance at herself to creep into insolence.

Logan didn't seem to mind her snippy attitude at least.

"Thanks Professor," she called over her shoulder, her words ending on a yawn.

He gave her a small, affectionate smile before Logan was turning them towards the door.

"So," Logan began conversationally. "Stupid question: how're you feeling? Ready for some danger room practice?"

She tilted her head back to see him giving her a knowing smirk.

"Not if ya don't want meh messing up so bad that ah somehow get Kurt's tail chopped off," she let him know blandly.

"Ouch, sorry I asked," he said amusedly.

She sighed. "Sorry Logan, ah don't think ah can do tha 'control' sessions and work out in tha danger room at tha same time. At least, not quite yet."

"No one's asking you to, Rogue," he assured.

She knew that, deep down; still she felt like she was letting the team down by not participating in training.

They were silent the rest of the 'walk' up to her floor. The closer she got to her room, the more relieved she felt. "Ah think ah'm becoming delusional. Mah bed is actually calling mah name. Ya hear it?"

Logan chuckled. He stopped in front of the door and reached out to awkwardly open it; he led her inside and Rogue plopped back on her bed ungracefully. "Sorry Logan, no more talk… ah need ta… sleep…"

She thought she heard a gruff response of, "Don't let the bed bugs bite…" But she couldn't be sure. She was out like a light.

Logan stood in the doorway for a few moments. No sixteen year old kid should ever feel or look as tired as Rogue had. She'd barely even hit the mattress and she was out. If it wasn't for his heightened senses, he would have been at her side, checking for life signs. This wasn't normal.

He pushed off the doorframe and, as quietly as possible, he shut the door behind him. He'd initially been heading to see Charles to talk about a new danger room program, but now he wanted to know about Rogue.

So, without any hesitation, he headed right back down to the man's office, letting himself right in. For his part, the Professor didn't look surprised to see him. Actually he looked… relieved.

Logan took a real good look at the older man. He looked almost as tired as the kid. What were they doing in these 'sessions'?

"What the hell is going on, Chuck?" Logan asked outright.

"Things aren't progressing as well as I'd like," Charles confessed; his banal words were betrayed by him rubbing at his eyes tiredly. The uncharacteristic gesture sold the gravity of the situation to Logan. "It's been… difficult."

"If it was going to be a piece of cake she'd have had this beat a long time ago," Logan pointed out.

"No, I know," he replied. He looked him in the eye. "It's a lot harder to gain control, though, when you have not only one, but dozens of people fighting you at every turn. It's exhausting for her… and me, really."

"No kidding," he said sarcastically. Concern softened his features then. "But will she be ok?"

"Physically, she'll be fine. She's suffering from exhaustion and probably dehydration—" Note to self, Logan thought, Put some bottles of water in Stripes room. ASAP. "—But I believe it imperative for her to control her powers," Charles finished grimly.

"What do you mean?" he questioned; the grim response from the usual optimistic leader threw him.

"When Rogue absorbs someone a part of them, the person's consciousness, stays with her. As far as I can tell, there is nothing we can do to change that fact. It's the nature of her powers," the Professor explained slowly. "The problem is that they still think they are the one that's in control. The absorbed psyche doesn't grasp that they're somewhere else now; how can they, they're only a minuscule fraction of the actual person?

"I believe it's only a matter of time that we have an incident similar to the last one, only this time I'm not sure Rogue has it in her to fight them off. At least not so soon."

"That's not good." Logan shook his head. "How do we stop that from happening? You've got to have a solution?"

There had to be one; Logan knew Charles too well. He knew that the man was always thinking two steps in advance.

Logan watched as the Professor reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled something out. He set the object on the desk in front of them. Logan glanced at it. "I believe I may have come up with a temporary solution."

He snatched the thing off the desk, only to see that it was a watch; except this watch looked just like Kurt's image inducer.

"An image inducer?" Logan asked, as he turned it over in his hands.

"Yes, but with some adjustments I've made especially for Rogue," the Professor said, eyes never leaving the inducer. "I've been working on it ever since she joined us. It acts by suppressing her mutant X-gene, and it has the added bonus of allowing her to touch. I'm hoping it will also help with the psyches she's absorbed, tamping down their intensity."

"So, why is this only a temporary solution?" Logan asked, handing it back to Charles. It immediately went back to the desk drawer.

"Well, it would only mask her powers, much as Kurt's only masks his appearance. The psyches will still be there, even if they are kept under rein. They will eventually overcome the inducer," he explained solemnly. "We will still have to work together on controlling her powers on her own."

Logan considered this; knowing Rogue, she would want to keep trying as well. She wasn't about half-ass-ing anything, that's what he liked most about her. And she was a firm believer of 'if it looked too good to be true, then it was.' He didn't think they'd have a problem there.

He knew that was exactly what Charles's silence just then was all about. Worrying about the girl's reaction upon receipt of the device. Worrying for nothing, Logan believed.

"What do you think, Logan? I'm afraid if I give this to Rogue that she'll think it an answer to her prayers, so to speak, and not want to get to the real problem."

Smirking—he knew it—he answered, "Rogue's a smart kid. I know if you explain it to her, she'll listen and understand. All she wants is the truth. You know she doesn't like being lied to or being kept in the dark, so tell her."

The Professor seemed to consider this for a moment and said, "I believe you're right."

After another stint of silence Logan spoke up, "So, Charles, when will you give it to her?"

"We're throwing her a birthday party tomorrow. I think this," he said, patting the closed desk drawer, "will make a wonderful gift, don't you?"

"Chuck, it will not only make her day or year, but her whole life," Logan stated accurately.

So that's it for this initial chapter. If you've read (and remember) the older version of this, you'll see that this one has a lot more meat to it. More explanation of what's going on with Rogue and her powers. That's one of the things I'm hoping to change during these edits, putting more about what's happening with her powers. So, I hope you'll enjoy that new bit.

Old A/N: I can't remember Logan ever calling Rogue 'Stripes' but that's what everyone seems to be writing so maybe I missed it.

So, a couple of things to mention: Yes, I do like to write out Rogue's accent phonetically, so I hope that doesn't turn people off. I'll give a little Rogue dictionary at the end of each chapter, just in case you're confused. Also, this story was initially an up in the air pairing story for Rogue. Initially I was in between a number of male characters. In the end the story does lean towards a Scott/Rogue/Pietro triangle. So, if you're looking for Rogue/Remy or Rogue/Logan, etc. it won't really be in this story. And lastly I appreciate all reviews, criticism or otherwise, but I would really appreciate civility with reviews. Because, really, if you don't like it don't read it.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!

Rogue Dictionary:

Ah/ah: Depending on sentence context could mean 'I' or 'a.'

Ta: to

Ya: you

Meh: me

Mah: my

Ahm: am

Ah'm: I'm

Ah'll: I'll