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Rogue missed John more than he would ever know...

He was a part of the mansion group, a part of her class, a friend of Bobby's which she considered a friend as well. But they were not where his heart lay. He had ambitions of his own which conflicted to what Bobby and Rogue wanted. Rogue watched him intently, keeping her focus on her surroundings and her opponent and his squad. Most mutants traveled in packs. John was no different. He seemed to be leading this pack. He wouldn't be too much trouble without Erik leading him around. But it was definitely good information to report back to Logan and the others.

"Sometimes the right thing to do isn't always what's smart." One casualty was better than five. Where was her damn luck anyways? Brick buildings were around her, meaning too much of a fire couldn't start. The dumpster was all metal, with who knew what inside... Diving in or behind it would only burn more. She couldn't run either, he would char her to bits and then she would give away her bluff.

It was a bluff he had called out.

She cursed internally and bit at the pain that seared up her nerves. It hurt, like a million hot needles penetrating her skin. The tips of her fingers hurt the most and she swore she could see nothing but red. It didn't stop her from delivering the only blows she could to him. He might have gotten the best of her, but if she was going to fall, she would take a chunk out of her opponent.

John fell and she released him. Her hand couldn't take anymore. Crouched low to the ground like a defensive wounded animal, Rogue kept her burned hand behind her. She could feel the blisters already and she needed medical attention to stop the burn from hurting. It seemed every nerve in her body was throbbing from the pain and it was almost shocking. Her breathing had become more rapid but she kept as calm as she could. His dogs approached and he called them back... Perhaps he was so intent on finishing her off himself...

Ororo really should have asked her to leave the school. She wasn't one of them anymore. She couldn't play or tag team on missions... She was just a little human now. The weight of his words hit her, winding her of reason... Was it her fate all along to leave the school and lead a human life? If she survived this, maybe that's where her path would lead... It would mean ending a relationship with Bobby, and cutting ties with the people she considered family... Her name, her human name sounded so malicious on his lips... All the hatred coming from him, she couldn't stomach it. She was silent, but she kept her focus on him, kept her defensive stance up. But now... She was really starting to panic.

Gauging him by conversation, he was not here to be friendly. If anything, she judged that he was here to make a spectacle before letting his team come at him. Well... She had expected that going into the fight. Having Pyro here was no difference than if he wasn't here. If her luck was out there somewhere, she could sure use it right now... Things looked worse for her every second that ticked by. Why couldn't she have a cool power like freezing time? Instead, she was bestowed with the gift of death touch. It was such a violent power... "Ya use to be a part of mah home... John. Remember? You and ah and Bobby use to sit in the lounge together and hang out and talk and mess around on the grounds... Nothin's changed." Lie. She gave up he gift... But he didn't know that. He didn't physically see her take the cure. Maybe she could bluff them... It would be a pretty big bluff but without options, she had to take any chance she had.

"It's Erik. He's not a mutant anymore. Hank vaccinated him at the Battle of Alcatraz... It's probably why he's not around. Without his powers, Erik is just runnin' scared with his tail tucked between his legs. Get yourself a new leader. Be the leader of your own life." The Professor was dead. Rogue didn't have a leader. She went and did what her heart told her to and so far, it was working out alright.... Except for right now. Right now, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place, pretty soon to be six feet under. "Ah don't carry backup with me. Ah'm not constantly looking around for a fight." Now or never... Rogue took a step towards Pyro with her hand extended to him. "Besides, ah don't need it. Death touch still works. Ah just have it under control." She didn't flinch once while she fibbed. This had to work.

As expected, all attention was drawn to her. She nearly rolled her eyes when the five humans didn't do baby thing except gawk. Run, idiots! The woman addressed her and of course, the group seemed rather amused by her remark. Rogue didn't answer. Instead, her eyes flickered around her surroundings. Yes, she was seriously outnumbered. Life had always stacked the odds against her and yet, very single time, she had come out better than before. Maybe she just got lucky. Or maybe someone up above was watching her. Why, she didn't understand but hey, who was she to argue with divine intervention? Three to one, a mutant who manipulated hair and what else? Blind to the other two mutant's powers, Rogue didn't take the first shot just yet. It would be stupid to. Instead, she felt it best to focus on defense and tactics instead of a strong offense. She stood, one foot in front of the other, firmly planted into the ground with her hands to her sides. She might not have had a power, but she had stubbornness on her side. Most of the time, wit and snark were half the battle.

The stare down continued and Rogue was just about to lunge at the woman when a voice froze her where she stood. It couldn't be...

She visibly relaxed... Pyro knew her... She didn't expect him to attack her. They had been class mates... But anything was possible which kept her alert in her mind. She was ready to duck and roll if he shot at her with any fire streams. "Pyro?" He would either be saving grace or the one to seal her fate. The way he eyed her made her skin crawl, like she was a bunny being appraised by a predator... Still, she showed no fear. She addressed him like she would have a year ago, like one of Bobby's friends. He teased at her and she wasn't sure if he was just being playful or if this was the lion playing with his food before devouring it. "Home is where the heart is and mine is right here." She pressed a bare hand to her chest. She was a vagrant at heart. Home wasn't a specific place to her. It was where the people she cared about were, and it was where her heart would lead her. Often enough, her mind wandered back home to Mississippi. She longed for the south. And sometimes, she longed to be with the people who accepted her as a mutant.

"Come on, what are ya doin' out here with these people? Picking on people less than your size? Ya know better than that. Even Erik wouldn't pick on humans that meant nothing." Maybe mentioning Erik was the wrong way to get him and his people to settle down. But hey, she wasn't dead yet. Maybe she was doing something right...

Why was she even still at the mansion? She had no powers. But that meant she also had no place else to go... It made her wonder if she should consider telling Ororo that she would leave. But no one had asked her to leave. Maybe a they were just being polite... What business did a human have at Xavier's school? Well... She still had friends there. Bobby, Piotr, Logan, Jubilee... In the loss of her powers, was she also giving up much more than her ability to not touch? She had been so desperate to be able to get close to people, she didn't even consider that she might be asked to leave once she wasn't a mutant anymore.

These were the he thoughts that rustled through her brain all the time. Night and day, she couldn't focus on anything else. No wonder she was so restless... She had been up, watching movies late, writing, drawing, being active.... If only she could silence her mind... Which was why a walk in the city was clearly overdue. She needed to just be in a place where she felt she wasn't being judged. Maybe the people at the school didn't judge her. Maybe they did. First, everyone whispered about how sorry they felt for her, for her powers always keeping her from being intimate with her boyfriend, for being the reason Magneto came after her one night... Now, it was all whispers about how she turned her back on her own natural gifts... Did she even belong here anymore? No matter, whispers were whispers and the walls had ears. It was frustrating, having a home that you didn't know was home. It was more of a home when she had powers. Now, she just missed the south. She longed for those hot summer nights where the fireflies lit the path along the side of the road...

Rogue had been interrupted from her thoughts by yelling and shouting. Always the curious one, she stepped closer to the alley carefully, back against the wall as she peeked around the corner and saw a group arguing with another group. Five against three... The odds were stacked in favor of the group with more people. If a fight broke out, she'd have to wave down an officer in the main street. It was to her surprise when one of the aggressor's hair grew at incredible speed... Rogue crouched low to the ground, keeping cover behind a dumpster to get a closer look. By the time she had reached her next cover point, she saw the aggressor being strangled. She couldn't wave down an officer now. This was a human and mutant conflict. If the police got involved, there was a high risk of assaulting...

She should have kept walking... But even Rogue wasn't a fan of bullying, no matter which species it was. God damn it... Emerging from the back of a dumpster came a woman that was almost unrecognizable. Since the cure, Rogue had ditched the gloves, the long sleeves, the hood, and the plain Jane look. Now that she was confident about herself, she stood tall and approached the groups in conflict. "Stop it! Whatever ya'll are arguing about, it's not worth a life." Rogue knew they would turn their attention on her. It was a stupid thing to do, but better they targeted her than people who didn't know how to defend themselves against mutants. "Let them go. If you're lookin' fer a fight, ah'll gladly serve it up."

For a mutant terrorist and mastermind, he was actually very pleasant to converse with, and somewhat charming. Hell, her plan was to diffuse the situation and then head back to the bar where her bourbon was waiting for her. The choice was still up for grabs. Rogue's green eyes were fleeting, glance flickering back and forth to the seat in front of her and the bar where those two brutes were sitting now. They seemed anxious, like they were hoping she would come in join them. She was out of their league. WAY out of their league, and she meant that in the most humble way possible. It wasn't because she was pretty. She had heard many times the same compliment paid to her. Mostly it was because she didn't allow anyone to get close to her romantically. Then there was the obstacle of her power. She shrugged it off and turned her attention back to the man inviting her to sit. "Then ah won't take it as a challenge and simply as an invitation to have a seat and chat. Just two sorta strangers havin' a drink."

He coerced a name out of her and of course, he was receptive to it. She expected that much. Magneto was practically a diplomat for mutants in his own way. He would most likely take his time trying to figure her out instead of just diving into the enigma that she was. A lovely woman having a drink alone in a dark bar, one that fended off drunken brutes... There was a story behind that. Had to be. Whether she would give it to him or not was yet to be seen, even in her own mind. She wasn't certain she should be sitting with him in the first place. But hell, what was life without a little risk? Her life was a walking talking risk and if she couldn't touch, then she'd get her endorphins by taking a few gambles and bathing in the rush of it all.

He released her hand. For once, it felt like she wasn't being looked over appraisingly. He seemed more interested in the content of her character, not the equipment she was born with. He was already refreshing company. "Ah dare say the feeling is mutual." She smirked and let her hands settle in her lap. It was habit to keep her hands from people, even if she was wearing gloves. There it was. Story time. Rogue had a novel. Several. But he was asking for a brief summary of a page from her book. "Just gettin' away from real life for a while. Ya ever get to a point in your life and wonder how ya ever got there? That's what Ah'm doin'. Havin' a drink, and wonderin'."

Rogue figured that he would judge just what she felt. Just because she wasn't physically put through the trauma, didn't mean it didn't leave scars. For Rogue to touch someone, absorb someone, was so painful. It was like having your insides ripped from you, only to be messily stuffed back in and while the wound was still tender, having it poked and prodded like she was a piece of cattle. The emotional pain... It was all there. For weeks, Rogue was flooded with melancholy at the deaths of the camps... She had the rage, but it wasn't hers. It was his. That was the hardest part... Separating him from herself... Separating other psyches from herself... Of course he wouldn't understand. Why bother arguing. She was a child to him and there was no convincing him otherwise. His narrowmindedness was not her fault. It wasn't her job to fix it. Magneto could say whatever he damn well pleased. But that didn't mean he wouldn't get a rise out of her... Sure she had matured plenty since their last encounter, but Rogue still refused to be talked down to. And with his tone, she was ready to sink her claws right into him and pull like a wildcat.

"Ah don't need to run away from the world to know it's horrible and scary. Ah have you for that." She had just as much to fear from the humans as she did from other mutants. Magneto was the reason The Professor was captive. He was the reason the school was raided, and her classmates were behind bars somewhere like animals. She just didn't discriminate. If you tried to hurt her or her friends, Rogue would come out and bite, regardless if you were human or mutant. Behave yourself, and Rogue would reward that behavior with southern charm and a kind smile.

"Look, Ah'm away that there isn't a place for me anywhere. Mutants come after me, humans come after me. Mah own parents would have turned me in if ah didn't leave, and when a did leave ya tried to send Sabretooth to pick me up, a scared little mutant girl who didn't know how tah fight back." His point came across loud and clear, and then some. Rogue didn't stand for either side like she should have. Rogue stood for her friends and the people who took her in, kept her safe. Rogue stood for good people. That was the bottom line.

"Maybe, but ya can't just wipe out an entire race and not expect dire consequences. Nature has a balance. Ya gotta let that work itself out or we're just gonna ruin the planet." Fuck, hadn't Erik seen Jurassic Park? Completely removing or reintroducing a species into the wild came with hazards and a million unexpected negative consequences. It was unbalancing a global ecosystem... Politics or not, removing a species off the planet in a matter of days was just... Stupid... For a man of great experience and age, he was blind.

Oh Erik... That was cute...

It was the silence before a storm. Her brow visibly twitched at his statement. It was one thing to call her own experience small and young... But when she was speaking of his experience, the one that HE forcibly put into her own head, that's when she let the fires burn. "Why, what could ya ever be talkin' about? Mah experience is tha same as yours, Erik. Don't you remember?" Rogue kept her gaze focused on him, and approached slowly, unflinching of the bark and pebbles that hurt her feet with every step she took. It was him that took hold of her temples and wouldn't let her go. It was him that made her see the ghetto through his eyes, watch the death around him, the gas that leaked from the chambers, smell the stench of death... It was because of him that Rogue would never get a tattoo. Needles scared the devil out of her. "214782. Remember tha things ah see when ya force yourself on mah mind before you insult my experience. It's your experience ah speak of, Erik." Rogue wasn't a child. She walked like one, looked like one, but after absorbing him and Logan, she had matured quickly. With the touch of her skin, Erik had practically stolen her youth. There was no coming back from the Nazi ghettos.

"Fighting against oppression and persecution is peachy fuckin' keen." Rogue shrugged. "Personally, ah think Ghandi did a better job. Had more style too." God she hated his mutant terrorist uniform. He may have had finesse in his plans, but he lacked some serious style. By the way he walked around so high and mighty with something up his rear, she expected at least a little class. "What about the pasts of mutants? Children of the atomic bomb, as ah once recalled it being told in a lecture. Maybe you expect little children to get into a debate they know nothin' about but had ya even taken a second to get tah know me before letting me loose in your little box, ya would have known that ah'm not a child and ah certainly don't debate like one."

And now he was questioning her loyalty to her own kind. "If ah was as shallow as ya perceive me tah be, then ah wouldn't be supportin' mutants. Ya'll have always been the ones who try tah kill me. Seems more trouble comes from us than the humans." Oh how she wanted to really give him a piece of her mind and slap his teeth out. He probably would have wet his Depends adult diaper. "Good thing ah'm deeper than a puddle."

Rogue tilted her head, eyeing the man suspiciously before deciding to believe he was who he said he was. He arms fell to her sides and though him being Magneto didn't make it better or less awkward of a situation, at least she wasn't being lied to. Or played. Rogue looked past him, wondering if Bobby or John were around so she could draw their attention. No such luck...

Her pride wouldn't allow her to call for help. So she stayed and braved the conversation... Or whatever the hell he wanted.

Nothing personal? She wouldn't even dignify that with a response. Instead, her eyes darkened with a glare like she was ready to lunge at him. She had always been called a hot head. Right now, she didn't have the luxury of getting hot. There was a shaky alliance holding right now, one that her school mates and teachers depended on. Magneto could easily remove himself and Mystique from the equation and then all intel would go along with them. They would be going into the base blindly.

Rogue never liked to trust people that she was forced to. "Ah realize you're holding a code of honor to the highest of your regards. Ah wish ah could be as blind. Maybe life would be easier for me. Maybe ah would be just as miserable. Genocide never proved anything, other than hate kills. And death fuels more hate. When does the cycle stop? Maybe when all of us are dead." Rogue turned and kept on walking.

Sure, she was angry with him, but she also remembered a time in her life when things felt so hopeless. Even then, she hadn't turned her aggression on people who were different from her. What had he gone through that fueled so much hatred? He had grown up in the Jewish Ghetto, seen death first hand. Her voice softened a bit at her next question. "Ya've seen hatred at it's worst... Why would ya wanna follow in those footsteps?"

The tensions in the air were thicker than the humidity. She could practically drown in them. On one side of the camp, she could hear Logan and Jean talking. Bobby was most likely helping to set up the rest of the tents from the Blackbird, and Nightcrawler was keeping to himself. She didn't care where Mystique and Magneto were. They had history. Important history. Rogue knew she was safe with Logan and Bobby not too far off.

It was rare for the group to be in the middle of nowhere without a bunch of other students running around. It was an opportunity to feel the grass on her skin, the plant life brush her calves while she wandered without anyone being too close to touch her. Everyone was preoccupied with the escape turned mission at hand. It was hard to sleep or get any sort of rest when she knew there was nothing to contribute to the group or the cause. She didn't fly, she wasn't strong like Logan, or have elemental powers like Storm and Pyro and Bobby. She was just kind of there...

In high school, kids always said for every flaw you have, be sure to read a book. If you're flawed, you might as well be smart. Still in the middle of high school, Rogue really couldn't consider herself much smarter than common sense. She was no science wiz, mathematician, botanist, or chemist. She was just trying to get through high school and learn how to have any benefit to her powers. The worst part about it? Trying to stay positive. She had to if she believed she was going to get control of it. Would her relationship with Iceman be in vain? She didn't know. Bobby had to believe though... If he was in it, then he had hope. More than she did.

She had been stroking a fern with her fingertips, the rough texture of the plant sliding between her fingertips when she heard his voice. Rogue straightened up. He was alone, without the protection of his oversized blue bulldog. Magneto was pretty delusional but even she knew he wasn't dumb enough to strike at her in the middle of the woods. It would break the shaky alliance between the factions. Unfortunately, they all needed each other. The more of them that worked together, the better chance they had to succeed in rescuing their comrades. "Ah can't get the feeling of flyin' out of mah head." Releasing the fern, Rogue turned and faced him, still keeping a comfortable distance on account of her exposed flesh.

"Nature doesn't need protection from me. It's why ah love it. Mah feet are just fine." She would rather feel something than nothing at all. "An' why are ya being nice? You tried to kill me a while back... Oh ah swear tah god, if this is Mystique playin' a joke, ah swear ah will slap her somethin' fierce."

Rogue crossed her arms, clearly unamused at the idea that someone was playing a trick on her.