Chapter Fifteen

Ever since Logan announced to the X-men that Rogue wasn't coming back to Bayville, Kitty and Kurt hadn't been speaking to most of the other X-men and as a result had been spending more time with each other than almost ever before…although they both did have the occasional dates, Kurt was still seeing Amanda and Kitty was once again in the on phase of her off and on again romance with Lance, he wanted to go out with her more often lately…Logan was away and had been for a while.

At that point Kitty and Kurt were sitting on the roof of the Institute but Kurt was acting a bit weird…even for him

"Kurt is something bothering you?" Kitty asked

"Of Course, Rogue's not here…nothing feels right anymore" Kurt responded

"I meant besides that" Kitty explained

"I'm just a bit nervous about tonight I guess…I'd appreciate it if you'd come with." Kurt said

"Come with-to what?" Kitty questioned

"To get my sister back." Kurt said

"Kurt, we've talked to her several times, she doesn't WANT to come back." Kitty stated "Are you planning to drag her by the hair-she'd kick your butt or Felix would, Rogue says he's crazy good at martial arts."

"Not by force, I'm going to talk to her-make her see reason" Kurt said

"We've TRIED that" Kitty responded "She won't listen"

"Not over the phone" Kurt agreed "which is why we need to go there."

"Logan would take us but who knows when he's coming back." Kitty said

"We don't need Logan" Kurt responded "I've been in the X-Jet simulator numerous times, I can get us there or the auto-pilot can."

"Did Professor X agree to this?" Kitty asked

"He doesn't need to know" Kurt said "We'll go there, grab Rogue and come right back."

Kitty blanched "You want to STEAL the X-Jet! Are you nuts?! Don't you remember what Logan did to Bobby and the others when they took it?!"

"I'm not going for a joyride!" Kurt protested "I'm going to get my sister, besides they crashed it, I won't. If you don't want to help then fine, I'll go alone"

Then he teleported away determined to leave before Kitty could get the others to stop him. Luckily, it was after supper so he wasn't going much earlier than he'd planned

Kitty didn't even think about going to the others, she just ran after Kurt. On her way she phased through Berserker, he called after her "Hey, that's a major violation of my personal space" She was so focused on getting to Kurt in time that Berserker's words didn't even register-she kept right on moving.

When Kitty got to the Hangar, the doors were beginning to open. Kitty put a burst of speed, fueled by sheer adrenaline. She just barely managed to phase into the X-Jet before it began to move. She ran into the cockpit.

"Kurt, this is crazy!" Kitty exclaimed as they flew out of the hangar

"Maybe" Kurt said "but it's the only to bring Rogue home. Besides, we're committed now."

Kitty was sorely tempted to wrench the controls away from Kurt, but fighting over the controls was what had caused the X-Jet to crash the last time, besides she had never even flown in the simulator, she'd be more likely to crash them into the ground than get them safely back to the Institute. Kitty let out an exasperated "Ugh" as she realized Kurt was right, like or not, they were committed.

"When this goes south, I'm blaming it all on you." she snapped

"Fine, so as long you thank me when it all goes right" Kurt responded

Kitty decided not to dignify that with an answer.

A bit later Iceman went to go start washing the X-Jet, it was his punishment for ditching a training session the previous day only to find that the jet was not there; he figured this meant he was off the hook so proceeded to head to the student lounge until he was stopped by Mr. McCoy on his way there.

"Finished already?" he questioned "that must be a new record."

"What can I say, I'm the best" Bobby responded

Mr. McCoy looked at the young mutant expectantly

"Ok, the truth is the jets' gone, I figure that means I'm off the hook, right?"

"What do you mean the jets' gone?!" Mr. McCoy responded completely ignoring the second half of Bobby's sentence.

"I mean that when I went to go wash it, it wasn't in the hangar and the door was open" Bobby said

Mr. McCoy raced to the PA system. He was the only instructor on campus. Professor X, Storm, Jean and Scott were in Texas, trying to stop the state legislature from passing a bill that would pull state funding from any school that allowed mutants to enroll or if a student was revealed to be a mutant after enrolling, the school had to expel them within 30 school days of discovering the student was a mutant and schools that had mutants enrolled when the bill was passed would have to expel them 30 days from the day the law went into effect or lose their state funding and no one knew where Logan was…not that it was an unusual occurrence.

Once he got to the PA system Mr. McCoy announced "All students report to the Main Hall immediately this is NOT a drill." After he made that announcement he checked the security cameras in the hangar and then he tried to contact the X-Jet but got no response

There was a mad scramble of people running through the institute. Once they students began to arrive they began to murmur wondering what this was all about.

"Is everyone here?" Mr. McCoy asked even as he said it, he noticed that there were two familiar faces he wasn't seeing, one of them he had known he wouldn't see and the other one was no surprise given the first one's absence.

"Kitty and Kurt aren't here" Amara said

"When was the last time anyone saw them?" Mr. McCoy questioned

"Dinner" was the answer from most of them only Berserker had a different one "Kitty phased through me about an hour or two ago in the hallway. She seemed like she was in a real rush to get somewhere."

"And Kurt?" Mr. McCoy asked

"Not since dinner" Berserker answered

"What's this all about Mr. McCoy?" another student asked

"The X-Jet's been stolen and I think Kitty and Kurt are the ones that took it"

There were several gasps from around the room but Mr. McCoy continued "the security cameras recorded Kitty phasing into the X-Jet an hour and a half ago a split second before the Jet began to fly away. Kurt likely teleported inside a little earlier.

"Maybe they went after whatever creep stole it." Bobby said

"Maybe, but the security cameras didn't record anyone else in the room all day so unless there's a mutant with the power of invisibility running around here without us knowing…I think Kitty and Kurt taking it is the most likely explanation." Mr. McCoy

"Why are we just standing here talking about it?" Cannonball said "Let's go catch the jet and find out who took it for sure."

"With what?" Mr. McCoy questioned "the X-Copter's top is speed isn't even half that of the X-Jet, we'd never catch them and we don't have any other vehicles that can fly"

Cannonball didn't answer

"Have you tried calling them?" Amara asked

"Yes, the X-Jet is not responding to communications and neither Kitty nor Kurt are answering their communicators." No one was too surprised by Kitty, all of them knew she had the bad habit of leaving her communicator in her room. Kurt though, was normally pretty good about answering his communicator…unless he didn't want to talk to anyone.

"Why would Kitty or Kurt do this?!" a random student said

"Have you called Professor X?" another asked

"Not yet, I am going to do that right now." Mr. McCoy said pressing the button for Professor X's communicator-every X-man communicator had Professor X on speed dial, he also put him on speaker so the others could hear

Professor X was just getting ready for bed when his communicator went off "Yes, Hank is there a problem?" he said

"Unfortunately yes" Hank answered "The X-Jet is missing, we think that Kitty and Kurt took it, they are the only students unaccounted for."

"Do you know where they're headed?" Professor X asked

"Not for certain but according to the emergency transponder, the X-Jet is headed southeast…towards Italy."

"So their likely destination is Voltera." Professor X concluded "they want to go talk to Rogue in person…why didn't they just ask me?" the last part was meant more for himself than the rest of the group

"That's what I'm thinking too" Hank said

"Typical, even when she's not here, skunk roadkill still manages to cause trouble." One of the new girls said

"That's not fair" Amara countered "Rogue didn't make Kitty or Kurt do anything"

"If she wasn't over in Italy feeling sorry for herself-"the girl started but Professor X cut her off

"Enough, fighting amongst ourselves will achieve nothing." Then Professor X sighed and added "I have some friends over there, I will see if I can get this handled discretely."

A few hours later the X-Jet was suddenly surrounded by smaller planes on three sides

Kurt turned the communications system off 'Do Not Disturb' so the other planes could contact them

"Unauthorized aircraft, identify yourself." A male voice ordered over the intercom

"X-men on a mission to Voltera-it's important!" Kurt said

"Not anymore you're not" the voice replied

"But-"Kurt tried to protest but he was cut off

"No Buts! You have entered a restricted airspace, you're lucky you weren't shot down on sight."

"Restricted Airspace but these are international waters" Kurt said

"True" the solider agreed "however the United States Navy and the British Royal Air Force are doing joint-operations training in this area this week. You would have known that if you had been in communication with Air Traffic Control as all aircrafts are required to be while in flight under International Law. Now we will escort you to a safe area to land. Once we have landed you WILL exit the aircraft immediately and await further instructions, do you copy?"

"Yes sir" Kurt said

"Way to go, Kurt" Kitty snapped

Kurt was shaking his head "I don't understand, Scott said the Autopilot was programmed to avoid all restricted air spaces." Not realizing that communications were still open

"Autopilot…do you even HAVE a pilot's license?" the soldier asked suspiciously

"…No" Kurt admitted

"So we can add flying without a license to your list of offenses"

"Can I just say that this is all his fault" Kitty interjected "I was trying to stop him!"

"Tell it to the judge, lady" the soldier snapped "boy, do NOT close your communications channel. I will give you instructions periodically and I expect you to follow them promptly, understood?"

"Yes sir" Kurt said again

The rest of the trip seemed to drag on forever in strained silence expect for the soldier snapping instructions to Kurt periodically. The only interesting bit was the landing…which Kurt confessed to Kitty, he had never managed to do in the simulator without the autopilot. At which point Kitty nearly strangled him, but luckily for both of them the soldier was able to talk Kurt through it. It wasn't pretty, a flight instructor would have had a LOT of criticism for it but with the soldier's help, Kurt managed to land the plane without breaking anything, barely.

When Kitty and Kurt exited the plane they were surrounded but not by American soldiers as they expected and they weren't British or EU soldiers either, the men surrounding the pair were SHIELD agents.

"Kitty Pride and Kurt Wagner" Nick Fury stated as he walked between his men and the mutants "Pleasure to see you again."

"You tricked us" Kurt said

"No, you tricked yourselves. I never said I was a member of the US Military you assumed that I was. Nevertheless you should be thanking me, I saved you from flying into a whole lot of trouble. Professor X has contacted the EU regarding the pair of you. They are searching for the X-Jet and when they find it, they'll throw you both in prison…as we speak they are using Professor X's knowledge of your abilities to develop special prisons for you while they figure out how to harness your abilities for their intelligence forces."

"Professor Xavier wouldn't let them do that!" Kitty protested

"He doesn't know what they're planning. They told him that they would consider his request for leniency in your punishments, that's all." Fury responded

"How do we know those aren't your plans?" Kitty questioned

"If they were, I would have hardly let you go, the first time that we met now would I?" Fury stated

There was brief pause as both Kitty and Kurt tried and failed to come up with a response to that

"Why go to all this trouble?" Kurt asked

"Simple, I am hoping we can make a deal" Fury answered

"What kind of deal?" Kitty said mistrustfully

"The best kind in the world, the kind where both sides get something they want out of it." Fury stated

"I assume you have a proposition in mind already" Kurt stated

"Quite perceptive of you" Fury complimented "It's simple, I'll arrange safe transport to Voltera for you. I'll even use my considerable influence to make your legal problems go away and in exchange you go talk to your friend and tell me everything you can learn about her father and his associates."

"What?!"They both exclaimed

"You're asking me to betray my sister!" Kurt added

"No, I don't think Rogue is guilty of anything." Fury said "I don't know that the Volturi are up to anything nefarious either but I don't know that they aren't and that's the problem; I just know that they are an organization of mysterious mutants with unknown loyalties, goals and motivations."

"Rogue's father isn't a mutant she would told us!" Kitty said

"Maybe she doesn't know…I am not certain that they're mutants either to be honest, I simply know that they aren't regular humans and that Aro is their leader."

"Aro, that's Rogue's dad!" Kitty exclaimed

Fury nodded "the very same…I have been spending the last several weeks trying to find out what the Volturi are and if they are a threat to the national security of the United States but my men have not been able to infiltrate their stronghold to find out."

"That's where we come in" Kurt realized "You want us to sneak in for you."

"If you need to yes, but you probably won't have to. Aro dotes on Rogue-"

"How do you know that?" Kitty questioned

"It's pretty obvious from what she's told you over the phone-"

"You've been monitoring our phone calls?!" Kurt said angrily

"Of course" Fury said simply "we're spies, that's what we do."

"But Rogue didn't have her phone until a couple weeks ago!" Kitty protested

"True, but we knew that Rogue would likely reach out to you so we started monitoring both of your phones the moment Logan contacted me for help getting to Seattle because he thought Rogue was in trouble. We continued monitoring when I came to Voltera and met Aro Volturi-"

"Wait, you've been inside and you couldn't find what you need to know?!" Kurt said

"There were extenuating circumstances" Fury replied evasively "when she contacted you regarding her things using Felix's phone, we added both their numbers to our surveillance as well. Moving on, as the best friends of Aro's only child, I'm confident the two of you will be allowed inside and given some freedom. Once you've had the chance to talk to your friend you should be to find out what I need to know and once you have the information and give it to me, I'll arrange your transport home when you're ready to go back to the States. What do you say?"

Kitty and Kurt exchanged looks

"Do we have a choice?" Kitty asked

"Of course" Fury responded "You can accept my offer or you can say no and I'll hand you over the EU authorities."

"The same authorities that you just said were planning to experiment on us" Kurt said

"I didn't say you had a choice between two good options" Fury explained "I simply said you had a choice. I don't know what you're complaining about-I'm the one that's getting the short end of the stick, here."

Kitty and Kurt exchanged looks again "Fine, we'll do it." Kitty said

"Excellent" Fury said and then turned one of his aides "Special Agent, Bosco"

"Sir" the agent responded

"Escort these two to the chopper over there and tell the pilot to fly them to Voltera." Fury ordered

"Yes sir" the agent replied and motioned for Kitty and Kurt to follow him.

"Wait" Kurt said "What about the X-Jet?"

'I'll see to it that it's returned." Fury said

The two exchanged glances and followed the other agent

The pilot in the chopper rebuffed all their attempts at conversation so they wound up enduring the trip in silence.

While Kitty and Kurt had been on their way to Voltera, Demetri and several other members of the guard had returned to Voltera with Mystique in tow. While they were prepping Mystique for her 'trial' Aro went to speak with Rogue

"Demetri has returned with Mystique, we are going to pass judgment on her for her crimes against our coven."

"Crimes?" Rogue said

"Kidnapping you, breaking into our domain, among others-do you wish to be there?" Aro explained

Rogue shook her head, her emotions toward her so-called mother were a tangled mess that she didn't want to even try to sift through "Ah don't wanna see her again"

"As you wish" Aro responded…he preferred it that way, it would make punishing Mystique simpler if he didn't have to worry about Annalisa having a change of heart in the middle of the proceedings. He turned to leave but Rogue stopped him

"Ah I don't know why I'm sayin' this but…please don't kill her."

"Don't you want revenge on her after all she put you through?" Aro questioned

"Ah GOT revenge" Rogue reminded him "Ah shoved her off a cliff-it made me feel worse not better-ah don't wanna go through that again or Ah thought Ah did."

"…I will consider what you said but I cannot make any guarantees" Aro said

Rogue nodded, she hadn't expected anything else.

Aro then joined his brothers in the unofficial throne room where the three typically passed Judgement

Once Aro had seated himself, the guards brought Mystique in and threw her on the floor

"Mystique, I will not waste time with informing you of your crimes, you are well aware of them. Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

"Everything I did was for her own good-"Mystique began

"Really? Stealing her from her family, lying to her all her life, pretending to be her friend to spy on Xavier were ALL for her own good? Do you take us for absolute fools?!" He raced over to her, grabbed her neck and squeezed…he was carefully checking his force, using enough to make it hard for her to breathe but not enough to cut off her flow of air completely. "You are going to pay for what you've done, I would make you pay in blood but your body doesn't HAVE enough blood to cover the debt you've incurred so that means you can either pay with service or pain."

"Pain?" Mystique asked not quite certain what he meant

Aro was still holding her neck so he knew EXACTLY what she was thinking. He dropped her to the ground and looked at Jane. Jane got the message immediately and struck Mystique with her gift

Mystique screamed the pain was worse than anything she'd ever experienced and she'd been tortured before.

After about 10 seconds Aro raised his hand "that's enough for now, Jane"

Mystique took a few seconds to compose herself "You said something about a service, what do you want? Espionage or-"

Aro cut her off "It will not be just ONE service. Jane is extremely furious that you used her form to steal my daughter. My hand is the only thing keeping her from playing with you until you die. I WILL withdraw that hand unless you give me a reason not to."

Mystique understood what was going on here-Aro wanted her to serve him like she had been serving Magneto although he would not tolerate her doing her own thing on the side the way that Magneto did.

Aro decided that Mystique had felt the stick enough so it was time to dangle the carrot "In time, if you prove yourself worthy, we may even reward you-"

"With what?" Mystique asked

"Don't play dumb, you know that we are vampires and you know our strength. We are also immortal…we could make you immortal as well." Aro didn't need to touch her to know that she was interested, he saw her eyes light up.

"What do you want done first?" Mystique asked

"For now, remain here. We are still in the planning stage however you will STAY AWAY from my daughter. She has said very clearly that she NEVER wants to see you again, you will not go near her unless she comes to you."

Mystique opened her mouth to protest but Jane struck her with her gift again and Mystique screamed

After a couple of seconds Aro raised his hand "Jane, stop" firmly "that was unnecessary"

"I just wanted to make sure she understood what the consequences of questioning you were master" Jane said

"I appreciate that, dear one, but you should have actually let her speak first, now the listen might not set in as well." Aro responded "next time wait until I ask."

"My apologies, I will be more patient next time, master" Jane replied

Just after that Kitty and Kurt landed on the outskirts of Voltera. The Shield agent escorted them to within sight of the Volturi fortress

''This is as far as I take you" the agent said "Good luck in there" and walked away

Kitty and Kurt exchanged looks one last time and then slowly walked over the gates of the compound

The gates were locked but there was a guard on the inside near them

"Scheduled tours are not available-"Santiago began but Kurt cut him off

"We're not here for a tour-we want to see Rogue"

"There is no one here by that name" Santiago stated

"He means Annalisa-Rogue's a nickname." Kitty responded

"I'm afraid she is unavailable-she has given strict orders that she is not to be disturbed." Santiago said in the order itself had come from Aro not Annalisa. Human visitors were never allowed inside without permission from the three but none of them were available to ask at the moment because Mystique was being tried.

"She'd WANT to be disturbed for us, we're her best friends" Kitty protested

"Riight and I am the Queen of Sheba. Move along" Santiago responded

"Just ask her-"

"Move along" Santiago repeated "Before I call the police."

Kitty reached in her pocket but her cell phone battery was dead "Oh great, my phone's dead." She said

"Mine still has a bit of juice, I'll call Rogue and tell her we're here." Kurt said and called Rogue's number but unfortunately for them, Felix was having Rogue practice some of the blocks he'd taught her over the past couple of weeks and their cellphones were on silent in the next room so neither one answered. The same thing happened when Kurt called Felix's number.

"They aren't answering" Kurt said he was getting more and more frustrated by the minute

"Move away, now!" Santiago ordered but Kitty and Kurt didn't budge so he pulled out his cell phone to call the police but Kitty grabbed Kurt and pulled him away

"Kitty, we didn't come all this way to give up now!" Kurt protested

Kitty waited until they were on the other side of the compound before responding "We're not giving up, we're sneaking in. Now hold on" she then phased them through the wall.

The walked across the grounds some until they reached the first wall of the building, Kitty phased them through it too.

They then began to wonder around the compound trying to find Rogue-they didn't dare call out her name for fear of someone other than Rogue or Felix hearing them. After what seemed like forever Kurt said "Man, this place is a maze. How are we ever going to find her?"

"We'll find her, eventually. We just have to keep moving" Kitty said

Unfortunately for them Jane happened to be near enough to hear the exchange and since she didn't recognize the voices she decided to investigate.

Jane found Kitty and Kurt almost immediately after Kitty finished speaking "You don't belong here." She told them and then she used her gift on Kitty.

In what was the only bit of truly good luck Kitty or Kurt received that day, the room where Rogue and Felix were practicing was close enough for them to be in earshot when Kitty began to scream.

"What the?" Rogue said a split second later she realized who the voice belonged to "Oh god, KITTY!" and then ran toward the sound with Felix following close behind.

Kurt didn't know precisely why Kitty was screaming but he knew that the blond weirdo was responsible so he yelled for her to stop it and when she ignored him, he lunged at her. Jane countered with a swift and hard punch to Kurt's chest. Kurt was thrown backward and crashed into a nearby wall. The dual impacts broke several of his ribs…one of them punctured his lung. He began to cough up blood, that was Rogue found them "KURT!" she cried out and raced over to him

Jane stopped attacking Kitty with her mind as she realized these two were important to Annalisa…she might be in trouble for this.

"What did you do to him?!" Rogue snarled as she cradled Kurt's body. Kurt saw that she was there, he tried so speak to her but all that came out of his mouth was more blood

Jane and Felix were both pushed to their absolute limits trying to stop themselves from lunging at Kurt, Annalisa, and Kitty who had rushed to Kurt's other side as soon as she was able to move.

"Hang on Kurt!" Kitty urged "We'll get you to a doctor!"

"Ah don't know if that's the best option…I'm not sure a doctor can fix this" Rogue said

"WE CAN'T JUST LET HIM DIE!" Kitty screamed

"We won't" Rogue said and looked at Felix

Felix realized immediately what she wanted but he wasn't certain that he could do it. He grabbed hold of nose before speaking; he wasn't certain his self-control would allow him to take in the air he needed in order to speak without his sense of smell being restricted. "I've never turned anyone before. I know how it's supposed to be done in theory but Jane has more experiencing turning people, she should do it"

"She's done more than enough already" Rogue snarled angrily. She swore that if Kurt didn't make it, she'd find out if her touch could kill a vampire. Her voice softened "Felix, I trust you, you can do this."

His (hopefully) future mate's words gave Felix courage and he released his nose and knelt down beside Rogue. He turned Kurt's head and moved his hair away from the side of his neck. The neck housed some of the body's largest and most important veins and arteries, plus it was as close as Felix dared get to the site of Kurt's actual injury.

Rogue took Felix's free hand with her own free hand and squeezed in silent reassurance

Felix squeezed it back a bit and then sank his fangs into Kurt's neck, trying to inject as much venom as he could while not taking that much blood.

"Oh God, you're vampires!" Kitty exclaimed in shock and horror, just now realizing what they had been talking about when they had been speaking of turning Kurt

Before too long Felix withdrew his fangs and Kurt twitched, he was in even more pain than he had been previously

"Why is he like this, what's happening now?" Kitty asking

"Felix's venom is working its' way through the boy's body improving it in every way." Jane explained "The transition is painful but when it's over, he will be faster, stronger, smarter, and tougher…when it's done he will never be hurt again."

"No one ever told me about pain" Rogue said

"Did you really think that a body could be changed that drastically without any pain?" Jane asked disdainfully

"You forget who you're speaking to Jane" Felix snapped angrily "she's our master's daughter, show some respect for your superiors"

"I know who she is, thank you Felix" Jane snapped back and then her tone softened considerably as she addressed Rogue "I apologize if I caused offense, it was not my intention."

"You should have thought of that before you attacked my brother" Rogue snarled

"He lunged at me, I simply defended myself" Jane replied

"He's human" Felix said "he was no threat to you"

"He only attacked you because you were attacking me!" Kitty protested

"You two invaded our sanctum, I was defending it as I am duly bound to." Jane responded

"Enough!" Felix interjected "Jane, why don't you go find Aro, he needs to know what's happened"

"Indeed he does" Jane agreed "Very well, I will inform him…remember the law claims her"

"What law?" Kitty asked correctly deducing that Jane was referring to her.

Rogue shook her head, she didn't want to think about that right now…Kurt was near death's door, she couldn't stand it if she lost Kitty too.

A bit later one of the doctors came by and he deemed it safe to move Kurt to a nearby bed. A little after that Aro arrived with Jane and Renata with him.

"Hello Kitty, my name is Aro" he introduced himself "I'm afraid I need to speak to you in private for a moment."

Rogue opened her mouth to protest but Aro stopped her "It's about the law, it cannot wait."

Kitty hesitated

"Go" Rogue said "Ah'll, stay with Kurt."

Reluctantly Kitty allowed Aro to lead her to the next room

"Jane told me what happened" Aro began "I know apologies do not mean much in these circumstances but I am sorry, I do wish that things hadn't turned out this way."

"So do I" Kitty said "I would have liked to meet you but not like this. I still can't believe you're a vampire"

"Which brings me to the subject that I need to discuss with you. Our highest law is to keep our existence a secret from humans, you know of us, legally I must either turn you, keep you here where you can be monitored every minute of every day to make sure you never reveal us or kill you."

"Why can't you just let me go, I won't say anything and no one would believe me if I did!" Kitty protested

"You live with two powerful telepaths, can you stop them from reading the secret in your mind?"

"They wouldn't do that!" Kitty argued

"Not intentionally perhaps" Aro said "but Jean has already lost control of her telepathy once, who can say that she will not do so again? My people cannot afford the risk, not in this day and age."

"Rogue told you about that?" Kitty gasped in surprise

"She did not have to" Aro said "I have a gift somewhat like hers, when I touch someone I get every thought and memory they have ever had. Annalisa touched my hand to prove that she was my daughter"

"Didn't she knock you out?" Kitty asked

Aro shook his head "Unlike hers, my gift is not blocked by clothing. I can give you until Kurt awakens to make your choice but-"

"Rogue won't let you do this!" Kitty protested

"Annalisa knows the law. She may not like it, she will certainly be saddened if you chose death but she will understand my actions. You don't have to die though, you can become a vampire like Kurt will be and then you, he, and Annalisa can truly be BBFFs or whatever kids say these days."

"BFFs" Kitty said "Best Friends Forever" and then her voice trailed off, lost in thought

"Yes, that…if you both become immortal, you can make that saying literal and not a mere exaggeration." Aro said and then he left

Kitty quickly returned to Kurt wanting to support him through this.