Vetanda

This is set after the third movie, going with the 'Rogue didn't take the cure' alternate ending. I brought in some of the New Mutants from the comics, because I like the New Mutants. Also I have decided that Pyro is too awesome in general to be evil, and also, too awesome in general to be American (no offense intended to Americans, but those Aussies have you beat, no competition)

This is going to be a fairly long fic, originally it was supposed to be about 20 chapters, but has since then been raised to thirty and, knowing me, will probably be about 40 chapters by the end of this. Updates will come as quickly as possible, but life often gets in the way of writing and I may not be able to work on this fic as much as I'd like to.

But enough of my complaining, here's the fic.

Rogue nibbled on her thumbnail as the group observed the streets below. There were ten of the young X-Men in total, all sitting on top of a two story building that had a good view of the streets.

Although it was well past midnight, New Orleans was stilling bustling with activity. Many people crowded the street, some wandering around aimlessly while others going directly towards a certain bar, jazz club or restaurant. Somehow a musician was heard over the loud bustle, sitting on the corner playing slow jazz loudly with his case lying open at his feet, a cardboard sign asking for spare change. There were seldom any coins.

Rogue hadn't liked the idea of sneaking out of the mansion in the middle of the night to begin with, but she had assumed they would just be sneaking around the grounds, not really doing anything bad. She hadn't expected to be going into the city.

Noriko had told her that they would just be going for a walk around the grounds, maybe go for a midnight swim in the mansion's own pool since it was sooo hard to get the pool empty during the day.

Normally, Rogue wouldn't have even wanted to do that. But as her roommate climbed out of the window and latched onto the ivy that grew up the side of the Institute, she had felt a little thrill in her stomach, and on that tiny promise for excitement that had seemed lacking in her life lately, she had climbed out after her.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She blamed it on that thrill, especially when it escalated into full blown adrenalin as she scaled down five stories worth of dorms and classrooms with nothing but lush climbing plants keeping her from death.

If it wasn't for that thrill that had lasted for long afterwards, then she would have protested as soon as they'd met up with the others and she found out what they would really be doing. But she didn't feel up to it, and giddiness clouded her common sense. She had wanted to do something bad.

And she had felt bad. She had felt like it was okay to venture away from her carefully woven safety net, even if for just a moment.

Until that moment on the rooftop, when the excitement of sneaking off had faded and the realization of what she was doing dawned on her. This was too far from her safety net. If she fell now, there'd be nothing to catch her.

If they were found out, there would be trouble. At the very least they'd have to wash and wax the entire Blackbird without powers. Or do everyone else's chores for months. Really, depending on how Ms. Monroe's mood was that day, they could be getting the most terrifying punishment known to mankind. Which would be leaving their punishment up to Logan (insert horrified scream here).

Whatever happened, it could be avoided if they just turned back. But first she had to convince the others that what they were doing was freaking stupid. It was an honor thing; she couldn't just leave them behind while she ran to safety.

And also, it would have made her look like a coward, and a coward was something that Rogue was not.

She cleared her throat nervously.

"Guys, Ah don' know if this is such a good idea." She whispered to the other's backs, her Mississippi accent prominent even in the small sentence. Several heads turned back to look at her, and she could have sworn she saw an eye role or two.

"Oh, live a little Rogue," Tabitha scoffed, turning around to face her fully and cocking a hip, "We're in New Orleans. It would be a sin to come here and not have a little fun."

Rogue raised her eyebrows in a silent answer. How could they not see how reckless this was?

Oh ya, Tabitha. Her judgment of what was and what wasn't reckless was a little impaired. But maybe there was still hope for the others.

"We're here on a field trip, just because we're here, at this place doesn't give us a free pass to do whatever the hell we want!"

John snorted a quiet laugh, turning around as well.

"Are ya kidding?" He asked cheerfully, "Of course it does, Sheila! We're in New Orleans! The Big Easy! The Crescent City!"

"The Birthplace of Jazz!" Cessily Kincaid added as she clicked on an image inducer she had 'borrowed'. Her metallic silver skin flickered for a moment between random skin colors from brown to neon green, than rested on a freckled pinkish color. Nori and Josh soon followed suit, in order to hide their metal arms and golden skin, respectively, until they all looked like average, not mutant people.

Around them, the others were catching on to the little game of 'nicknames of New Orleans'.

"America's European Masterpiece!"

"The City of Chefs!"

"America's favorite city!"

"N'awlins!"

"The Queen City of the Mississippi!"

"The City of Light!"

The list stopped abruptly as everyone turned to stare at Julian. He stood there obliviously for a moment until he realized that everyone had stopped the conversation.

"What?" He asked ignorantly, looking at the others shaking their heads at him sadly.

"Julian, The City of Lights is Paris. Not New Orleans." Tabitha half-scolded, half-giggled, before bursting into unabashed laughter. Her yellow-blond hair was unevenly cropped, and you could just tell that she had cut it herself in an insane spur of the moment thing. And from the way she was rolling around laughing, no one doubted the insanity part.

"Uh…" Sam said over Tabitha's noise. He actually looked a little embarrassed on Julian's behalf, "New Orleans is the Paris of the South…?"

Betsy shook her head sadly at Sam's sad attempt at redeeming Julian. Her bright purple bob cut fell into her eyes as she rolled them in an overstated kind of way.

"And back on topic," she said in a heavy British accent, "It most certainly does give us a free pass to do whatever we want."

Everyone had turned around to face Rogue now, all wearing smug expressions that said quite clearly that no matter what she said or did, they weren't going back to the mansion until they were satisfied with their night. But that still didn't stop her from trying.

"Come on guys, seriously. Think about what'll happen if we get caught! We should just go back to the mansion now while we still have the chance and act like nothing ever happened."

"That won't be necessary," Amara declared confidently, pulling her long blond hair into a ponytail "Because we're not going to get caught."

"But, what if Logan…"

"Not here." Josh interrupted, a little impatiently, "He decided to go back to New York early. He left hours ago."

"Alright, but Laura…"

"She already knows. Actually, she's covering for us."

"Storm…"

"Is really busy and won't miss ten students out of hundreds for one night."

"The other students…" this time Nori cut in.

"Are the only issue. Laura, Forge, and Sooraya are pretty much neutral about it, and are covering for us against the stiffs, who are mostly Kitty, Piotr, and Bobby."

"But… there are still so many things that could go wrong!" There were various forms of eye rolling and scoffing around her, "And- and… and why the hell are we on a roof, anyways?" said desperately, quickly running out of arguments.

"Because it's fun to climb things," Sam said simply, as if that fact should have been obvious from the start.

"And," Betsy continued for him, "We needed a secluded place to explain a few things to you. Thing to explain #1: You aren't going to tell him about this. Understood?"

"Bobby? But…"

"Understood?"

Rogue ground her teeth in annoyance; it wasn't like she would even tell Bobby about this little 'misadventure'. And even if she did, it wasn't like he would tell anyone else.

"Understood." She muttered bitterly, than glanced over to where John and Nori were now the only ones watching the activities below, "But what are we going to do anyways? We can't go to a bar or anything, we're still minors. Are we just going to stand on this roof the whole time? Because it's fun to climb things?"

Julian started to snicker as if she had just said something extremely funny. She turned to glare at him.

"What?" she growled, and he cut off the laughter, a grin still on his face.

Cessily giggled lightly before shooting a bright smile at Rogue. She didn't trust that smile.

"Thing to explain #2: We got fake IDs, Rogue. Didn't anyone tell you? We're celebrating little Josh's twenty-first birthday!"

She reached into the pocket in her light jeans, pulling out a shiny card, and held it out to Rogue with a sweet smile. Rogue took the card between her fingers hesitantly, then jerked it out of Cessily's hand with a little flick of her wrist.

She quickly glanced over it. Things had just gotten worse than getting in trouble for sneaking out, things had gotten illegal.

"Where did you get this?" Rogue asked quietly. Her picture looked like it had been taken for a real ID, but she defiantly would have remembered posing for something like this. Her name read 'Anna Raven' in official-looking letters.

John beamed as he pulled out a card of his own, flashing it in her face proudly.

"Forge made them for us! School pictures 'cause no one ever smiles for 'um and fake names. He was too much of a wuss to actually come, but he said making us fake IDs made him feel 'badass'. I say we've effectively corrupted him! And look, my name is 'William Meeks! How cool is that?" he giggled near-hysterically as he continued to wave around the card, "And it's fun to say! William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks…"

Betsy rolled her eyes as John continued to repeat his fake name.

"Well, the 'Meeks' part is defiantly off."

John cut off repeating the name for just an instant to snort a laugh.
"Oh, shut up Lola Hicks. William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks…"

"You know, I find that name kind of ironic. Not the William Meeks one, the Lola Hicks. I think that was Forge trying to make a joke. I mean, Betsy, a hick? Ya, like that would happen."

"Well, can't say I argue with that."

"Hey, John, can I call you Willy?"

Betsy burst out laughing.

"William Meeks, William Meeks, ABSOLUTELY NOT! William Meeks, William Meeks, William Meeks…"

"Aww, please?" Amara whinned, giving out a nice long false whine at the 'please'.

"HOLD ON A SECOND!" Rogue suddenly yelled, effectively ending the conversation, including John's incessant repetition of 'William Meeks'. "You do realize that this is an awful idea, right? This is illegal. VERY ILLEGAL. We can't do this!"

Betsy simply smirked at her, like Rogue was the one being unreasonable about the situation.

"Sounding a little hysteric there, Anna." She quipped lightly, "It's not that illegal. Didn't you break into the white house one time?"

"Ya, to save your ungrateful asses from hell! And my name is not Anna. It's Rogue. Okay? I refuse to take this ID! You people are being idiots! CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT AN AWFUL IDEA THIS IS?" She yelled, practically screaming the last sentence as if that would help it get through their thick skulls.

Everyone was silent for a beat before Nori spoke up.

"I agree with Betsy, you are hysteric. I think you need to calm down a bit. Josh?"

Josh nodded gravely and placed a heavy hand onto Rogues shoulder. She tried to shrug away, but he held firm.

Fast spreading from his hand, Rogue could feel a cold feeling seeping through her veins. She could feel her heart slow, and she could feel her fears and anger and, well, hysteria start to disappear, as well as the small headache that had started to build up.

Rogue wrinkled her nose, actually making a conscious effort to be angry, but found she couldn't do it. It's a hard thing to do when you have a mutant that can control pretty much anything in pretty much anything's body against you. It's quite simple, really. No symptoms of anger or fear or hysteria, no anger or fear or hysteria. He'd might as well be an empath.

"There, better?" Josh said in a sickly-sweet voice as he took his hand off of her shoulder, though the calmness it had caused remained. Rogue shot a half-hearted glare in his direction.

"Ah hate ya, Josh."

Josh cracked a smile at that.

"Of course you do." He said in dry sarcasm, "Oh, and try to remember, tonight it's Jacob."

Rogue rolled her eyes at him.

"Ah'm still not going to a bar."

Her friends all smiled.

*later*

"Ah can't believe Ah let ya take me to a bar." Rogue muttered to Nori from her stool. She was sitting at the bar with shoulders slouched over her pop as she looked dully into it. Nori just laughed at her dreary expression, leaning back slightly in her own stool.

"And I can't believe that you actually believed that when I said we'd go to dance club instead, you didn't think there'd be alcohol," she took a swing from her beer as if to prove her point further. She sighed contently, ignoring Rogue disapproving glares, "Ahhhh, foreign. The only stuff we can get at the mansion is the crappy quality Canadian stuff that Logan's so fond of. I mean, I get the whole 'I'm from Canada so Canadian beer must be good' thing, but it just can't beat something off-continent."

Rogue's jaw dropped in shock.

"You've been drinking Logan's beer? Aren't ya afraid of being, ya know, sliced and diced?" She asked. Nori just rolled her eyes as if it wasn't a big deal. Even though it was most defiantly a big deal.

"Ya, we all have. Been stealing Logan's beer that is, not sliced and diced. What? Did you think John was sober when he tried to set the swimming pool on fire?"

Rogue looked away guiltily, okay, so it might have crossed her mind once or twice that her friends were occasionally under the influence of alcohol when they shouldn't. But she had chosen to ignore it. What was the saying? Ignorance is bliss?

"Well, Ah might've wondered for a while," Rogue muttered, tracing the pop tab with her pinky, "After all, he did succeed."

Nori laughed and took another swing. Their friends were all in various stages of getting drunk, with John and Tabitha in the lead.

Actually, Rogue was pretty John was trying to set something on fire, but he couldn't seem to get the lighter to spark.

Thank God for that.

"So, you didn't get caught stealing Logan's beer?" Rogue asked, casting a sideways glance at Nori.

"Oh, we got caught all right, first time. Logan just looked at all of us and said 'Danger Room sessions first thing in the morning. If any one of you has a hangover, I will show no mercy.' And so none of us got any hangovers." She shot a crooked grin towards Rogue, "That man sure knows how to keep a bunch of kids in check."

"That he does," Rogue agreed, then as an afterthought added in a mumble, "except when he goes out of town that just gives them an invitation to go overboard."

Nori just giggled.

"Well, it hasn't killed us yet!" She took another long swing, finishing of her bottle and turning to the bar to order another.

Rogue shook her head slowly. For people who claimed to do a lot of drinking, not one of her friends seemed to realize how much they were going to regret the ridiculous amount of alcohol they were consuming without a second thought. Just because Logan was already gone for New York, they seemed to think that getting a hangover would be no big deal.

Rogue sipped her pop. They were in for one hell of a morning. Or later today, actually.

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Tabitha started singly loudly and out-of tune along with the music while she danced in an awkward, jerky manner. Rogue groaned in embarrassment for her, covering her face with her hand while Nori just laughed loudly. She tipped her drink towards Rogue slightly. Her words had started to slur together into a messy heap.

"Oh, cim' 'n Anna. Av' a drink er twooo. I guarant...t…t… promissse th' night'll be morrre funnn." Rogue suppressed another groan. No, not a groan. A pissed-off growl.

"I already have a drink, Tamika," Rogue said coolly, "It's a Mountain Dew, see?"

Nori just laughed, a little hysterically, at the mention of the name on her fake ID. She curled a strand of electric-blue hair around her finger absently as she glanced around.

"Welll, 'mm donnne wit' keepinggg y' compny 'ile y' sulk. Seee ya."

Nori pushed away from the bar sloppily, beer in hand, and slowly stumbled her way over to a group of guys she had been eyeing earlier. It almost made Rogue want to remind her that she had a boyfriend, but she knew that it was a lost cause, as Nori probably wouldn't even remember David's name at this point.

"Don't get date-raped." She muttered instead, looking back to her drink. It was funny, she had always thought that her roommate was more responsible than this, and had enough sense to stay home like a good girl.

But then again, Rogue thought as she glanced to where Nori was now borderline obnoxiously flirting with some guy with long blond hair, that's what most people expect from me too, and yet here I am.

But at least she wasn't going overboard, she hadn't touched a single drop of alcohol since arriving and had told every guy, the ones that she didn't know already, simply to go away if they said two casual words to her.

So far no one had been persistent enough to stick around.

Well, that's a little depressing. She thought as she sipped from her drink. She had kind of been hoping one of them would stay anyways. She was feeling a little lonely lately. For a split second, she actually considered buying something alcoholic to fade out all her stresses for a little while, but then she again noticed Tabby and thought better of it.

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The night wore on, and all of her friends became increasingly more drunk. Some random Goth girl in red and John had been making for a while, which was funny because it had only started because she had helped him spark his lighter and he had ended up forgetting about the fire in favor of her anyways.

John ditching fire for a girl, now that was different. Didn't matter now though. The both of them were unconscious on the ground, the girl sprawled over his chest.

Around the time Tabby disappeared into the bathroom to throw up, a figure slipped into the chair beside her. From the corner of her eye, she could see that it was male, and she was about to tell him to get lost when she noticed something key, something that should have been obvious.

His skin was metallic gold.

Josh.

Rogue gasped in surprise, almost falling off of her stool. His image inducer must have been malfunctioning and he was too drunk to notice.

"Josh!" she hissed once she'd regained her composure, glancing around at the other people in the bar. People had, unsurprisingly, already started to notice the conspicuous mutant in their midst and were scrambling to get as far from him as possible. "Damn it, Josh! What's wrong with your image inducer?" she whispered furiously.

Josh just blinked at her dumbly.

"Mmm' imagggg indssrrr?" he slurred thickly, as if his tongue was too thick for his mouth. Rogue cursed silently, moving away from him slowly as more people began to make a bubble around Josh. She didn't want to look too friendly with a mutant, as bad things might happen.

"How the hell are we going to get you home?" she growled lowly from the side, and then glanced around the place at her friends. Those who weren't hammered in similar ways like Josh were actually unconscious, namely Tabitha and John (Goth girl still there, equally unconscious), "No, how the hell am I going to get everyone home! You weren't all supposed to get wasted!"

As if in an answer, Josh made a funny gurgling noise in the back of his throat and fell off the stool.

People had started whispering among themselves, their words sounding like an angry buzz, and Rogue thought she heard the word 'muttie' stand out from the jumble more than once.

Making up a plan as she went, Rogue marched over to Josh furiously, grabbing his shoulders, trying, and failing, to get him to stand up, and yelled the first thing that came to mind in a fake northern accent.

"Jacob, you stupid Bandejo!" she seethed, using the name she knew he was using here as well as a curse that a random psyche had on hand, "You painted yourself gold? What the hell! Twenty-first birthday, and you paint yourself gold? That's it, we're going home."

She inconspicuously took off her gloves, stuffing them in her pockets and grabbed onto his bare arm, feeling the pull of her powers for just a few seconds before letting the limb appendage slip through her fingers. She looked at her palms with a wrinkled nose as if something gross was there.

"And then you get it on me. You stupid shit." All around the crowd was turning back to whatever they were doing, apparently actually believing that some eccentric twenty-one year old had painted himself gold. Rogue wondered for an instant if these people were actually that gullible, or if they were just too drunk to care.

She brushed the thought away almost immediately so that she could sort through the information she had just absorbed from the now-unconscious Josh. She could feel power, his power that she had taken, tingling at her fingertips.

She grimaced a little when his memories hit her like a slap in the face, suddenly downloading every little thing about him into her mind in an instant.

She really didn't want the memory of her, no, Josh's, parents disowning him after he saved his brother's life with his mutation.

Slamming the new voice in her head back with a mental barrier, She pulled back on her gloves and gently placed a hand on Josh's head, dipping gently into the powers she had absorbed from him.

It was a funny sensation, feeling his entire body working to keep him alive under her fingertips. She could feel every part of him functioning separately and yet together. The buzz of his nervous system, the movement of messages slowed from his night of drinking. The churning of his digestion, on the brink of making him vomit to try and expel some of the poison he had consumed. She could feel the heavy thumping of his heart, his ragged breathing, and the alcohol in his blood. Oh, how she could feel the alcohol in his blood.

To her borrowed powers, it felt like a disease, its presence making the nerve ends in her hands sting almost painfully. The power reached out, feeling its way around his many different organs and cells for a way to tweak a quick fix to the problem, settling on the liver at last.

More tweaks that Rogue was barely conscious of, made so the liver could process the alcohol more efficiently and quickly without burning out.

And then, five seconds later, Josh was sober.

Still unconscious, but sober none the less.

She gently pulled back from Josh, shaking her head a little in an attempt to clear it of the precise map of his body the borrowed powers had drawn for her. She had to admit, it was a little overwhelming, knowing that with a little twitch of a finger you could cut off a person's life.

While trying to help him, she had seen a million in one ways to make his life end. Just like that. She bet that with a little practice, she could even change a person's very DNA. But she wouldn't have the powers that long.

He would.

She hooked Josh's arm across her shoulders and lifted him up off the ground. She didn't know what to do with him, but it didn't seem right to leave him on the floor, especially if the humans at this place actually grew brains and realized that Josh was a mutant. Dragging him over to one of the many empty booths lining the far wall of the building, she laid him down in a semi-casual way, so it looked like he had fallen asleep after some heavy drinking.

Then, in a random burst of good humor, she grabbed a napkin from the table and a pen that someone had left beside the pile and wrote quickly on it in big printing:

Warning: Wet Paint.

"Painted himself gold," she muttered under her breath as she placed the napkin on his chest, "What kind of idiot would believe that? But then again, this is New Orleans; maybe it's normal here…"

She glanced up just in time to see Amara joining the collection of unconscious drunk friends, and grimaced. She was going to need to sober up someone still awake soon, or she was going to have to carry ten people back to the institute on her own. But then again, her eyes lingered on Tabitha for a moment; she could leave a few behind.

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He watched from the shadows, from behind dark sunglasses despite the barely lit room. In one hand was a glass of bourbon that he didn't drink, in the other was a playing card that he flipped idly in between his fingers in subconscious movements.

It had been lucky that the girl had snuck out with the other foolish Xavier students, dividing herself from her protective teachers. But his work would have been so much easier if she hadn't gone to such a popular dance club. And if she had just gotten drunk with the rest of them, it would have been as simple as walking her out while her friends didn't notice until they woke up on in the alley behind the club the next morning, hung-over and pick pocketed out of all their money.

But that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. Remy LeBeau was looking for a fight, a challenge, and as he watched the girl place a hand on her purple-haired friend's shoulder, suddenly snapping her away from her drunken haze, he knew that he would get one.

No, Remy is not a good guy. But it's more complicated then that, so suck it up. And yes, I may or may not have an unhealthy obsession with him… mostly his eyes… mmmmmm eyes.

You know, I think I may have a thief fetish.

In case you didn't notice, I'll be disregarding the past of any characters that came up in the movies in minor parts (i.e. Psylocke… okay mainly just Psylocke)

I'm just going to throw this out there, but writing people talking in slurs is fun! Try it sometime, you just have to talk out loud as you type. So it's best not do try this while in a room with someone else who doesn't know what you're doing. ("No, mom, I'm not drunk or high or talking to imaginary friends.")

REVIEW! Because if you don't I frown :(

And remember, flames aren't for reviews; they're for burning things while laughing hysterically.