Rogue woke groggily the next morning. She pressed her hand against her forehead. It didn't hurt or thump but it left her with a very odd and especially dulled sensation, almost like she was slightly intoxicated. As it turns out separating bits and pieces of a person's life force wasn't as much fun as she thought it would be. It was much more natural to take on a persons persona as it was, powers and psych in all. For some reason using them all together just felt right, and well...natural.

Not that it wasn't helpful to learn more about her power. It was always a miracle to learn something new, even if it wasn't something she would be using again, hopefully.

The light eliminating through the window would blind Rogue soon enough. The sun was just peaking over the horizon, she would have to prepare for school soon enough. Still asleep, Magneto tightened the arm he had around her and groaned softly. Rogue smiled to herself. He would be waking up soon too.

Carefully she twisted around to face him. Magneto certainly looked very peaceful sleeping next to her, his breathing even and a few strands of his hair falling to his side. Using her gloved finger Rogue traced a line across his jaw, watching as she stirred. She stopped touching him just as his eyes opened.

"Mornin'." She greeted him. "Sleep well?"

Magneto smiled back at Rogue. "Good morning, Anna Marie." He blinked, unusually lazy today and had no wish to leave the bed. "I slept very well, thank you." In all honesty he had never had a night which he slept better.

Her finger lightly tapped him on his lower lip. "Even with the interruption?"

Magneto grasped her finger quickly and with her watching, brought her hand to his lips to kiss. "Yes. I slept especially well before and after the interesting interruption." Referring to Rogue's late night experiment with her powers that resulted in a perfect bit of broken skin on his shoulder. He continued to kiss her open palm. "Care to explain that my dear? I want to know exactly how you went about it."

The smile vanished from Rogue's face. "I don't how I discovered I could separate them at first, it just sort of came ta' me. With only one psych out of their cage and not so loud I was actually able to focus and feel the psych. I could feel that it was made up of different properties. Memories, feelings, abilities, thoughts. I was able to pull and separate some aspects from the others."

"Interesting. Did it cause any distress or trauma to you in any way?" Magneto prodded, concerned as he knew what horrible pain her mutation could cause her.

Rogue shook her head, relieved. "No. There was no pain at all." She sighed. "At least not to me." She added.

Her lover arched an eyebrow at her questioningly.

"At first if the persona gave any resistance it caused them pain, but as long as they stayed relaxed and let me do my thing all was good."

Magneto grinned, highly satisfied. "Then perhaps, my dear, you finally have some leverage over them to persuade them to behave and keep quiet."

"You're suggesting I threaten them whenever they get loud?" Rogue asked.

"Precisely."

Rogue rolled her eyes, not considering the idea to have much weight. "Threatening people is not exactly my style. Maybe I'll keep that idea of yours as a last resort if things ever get really out of hand."

"But of course. I seem to have forgotten. Well no matter, if you should ever wish for guidance in that particular field feel free to come to me. You're a fast learner and I would be glad to tutor you in the proper way to threaten someone." Magneto's rare joking lightened the mood quite a bit, he could tell the girl was suppressing a smile as she rolled her eyes once again.

The sunlight coming through the window forced Rogue to close her eyes so not to be blinded by the morning. It was a pressing reminded that as much as she would love to lay and laugh with Erik she did have to prepare for school. Magneto evidently noticed too as he used his powers to pull the curtain shut, blocking any form of light passing through.

Rogue sighed as she gently removed his arm from her, reluctant to leave him.

"Flip the suppression device on please." It really was a small request, and Magneto was willing to comply.

She leaned down and kissed him apologetically. Twice on the lips and once on the shoulder mark that had begun to slowly heal. This small but sentimental gesture seemed to please him as he removed the gloves he was wearing and gently stroked her neck. Her mark looked weeks old, she had cut off the healing factor right before it fully healed.

After releasing him Rogue walked to the his wardrobe. Down in a neat pile where some clothes she kept specially for nights like these.

Meanwhile downstairs the X-Men where faced with pressing issues that quickly caused panic and anxiety amongst even the oldest senior members.

A prized collection of original work from Machiavelli, Montesquieu, John Locke, and many other famous philosophers were treated with the utmost disrespect and thrown about all over the room. Charred firewood and ash were sprayed all along the expensive carpet of the Professor's study, and a lamp had been smashed into tiny pieces that now lay on the great oak desk. The professor was nowhere to be found though, in the mansion or otherwise. His wheelchair remained sitting in the middle of the torn apart room.

It was really actually a very fortunate thing as he would be shocked at the state of his office and favorite pieces of property.

Unfortunately it meant that the founder and leader of the X-Men was missing.

It is surprising how the disappearance of one individual could cause so much chaos in the mansion. Beast and Scott where going through security tapes, Storm flying above the fast acres of land searching for any sign of him. Kurt was working on getting a hold of Wolverine as they could really use his nose right about now. Even the New Mutants were doing their part as they scoured the grounds on foot.

As it turns out Wolverine is going to be unavailable for a long while. Fury was short on the details and just mentioned that it had something to do with Captain America and a de-thawing process. Then he ordered Agent Hill to pack up the gear and take the juvenile delinquents back to the Nest. If they wanted to track the Professor by scent they would have to settle for the untrained nose of New Mutant member Wolfsbane.

A pity no one thought to tell a field leader like Rogue.

"When was the last time anyone saw him?" Rogue demanded. "And why am I just now hearing about this?"

Kurt winced. "Zorry Rouge. After we discovered zhat he was missing everything more or less went to chaos." His tail flicked back and forth as he continued to scan the area with Dr. McCoy.

"Are we sure Lilandra or some other aliens didn't swoop in and pick him up?"

"Negative." Beast confirmed. "We would have gotton some type of reading if that had happened, and he wasn't teleported anywhere either. Our new sentient based security system would have picked that up."

Rogue rubbed her temple, trying possible scenarios through her head. "Well damn. So to sum it all up we cannot rely on technology or S.H.E.I.L.D for help...we are left with mutant powers."

"What do you have in mind?" Beast asked.

"At this point an untrained armature nose is better than no nose. Lets get Rhane out there to see if she can catch a scent."

Beast reached for his communicator. "Kurt and I will remain here looking for clues to Charles's disappearance. I'll call and have Rahne ready upstairs."

"Have her meet us in the Prof's office." Rogue said as she went for the elevator.

Her first stop was the room of Charles Xavier. If Rahne was going to try and track him she would need something to go off of. Normally going into the Prof's room and shifting through his laundry until a shirt was found would be slightly awkward but at this point everyone was to worried to really care. When Rogue arrived at the office Magneto and Rahne were both waiting.

Rogue held up the shirt to the red-brown colored wolf sitting on the floor. Rahne sniffed it twice before circling the room and taking off down the hall and stopping at a dead end. She sniffed the wall before flashing Rogue a confused look.

Magneto waved his hand once, causing a portion of the wall to slide to the side, reveling a tunnel. Rogue nodded her head. Of course. Servants stairwell. The Professor had it redone before he opened the school. If memory served correct it would lead them straight to the smaller kitchen kept slightly below grounds. If Rogue had to guess she would say the small kitchen connected to one of the many tunnels that ran through the Xavier Institute.

Her theory at least explained why nothing had shown up on the video cameras outside.

Rahne went down the stairwell first, followed closely by Rogue and Magneto.

"Remind me again just how long the tunnels are that run under the mansion." She requested.

Magneto sighed angrily. "There are several of them, each going well beyond a few miles."

"Great." Rogue said sarcastically.

As she suspected Rahne lead them through the small kitchen, connecting to one of the tunnels Charles had build for escape purposes before he opened the school. The tunnels where old and dusty but Rogue could make out two drag lines in the dust, as if a package(or a person) had been to heavy to carry and simply been dragged instead.

Next to her Magneto clenched his teeth as he took notice of them too.

Rahne suddenly barked and took off down the corridor. She navigated through the twists and turns quickly before stopping short at an object on the ground. An expensive leather shoe was laying in front of her, laces undone and all. Rahne wined softly as she laid her head down next to it.

"The Professor's?" Rogue asked.

The wolf nodded and started walking ears tucked down, clearly upset.

Soon enough they came to an upwards slope that had a door at the top. Rogue pushed it open and stepped out. By the looks of it they were at least five miles from the mansion. Rahne wailed again and this time, she covered her head with her paws.

"She lost the scent." Rogue explained to Magneto. "They must have taken him by air from here."

"Wolfsbane, did you catch anyone else's scent when we were down in the tunnel?" Rahne gave a another small confused whine and rolled over onto her side.

Rogue now looked equally confused. "That doesn't make any sense, the Prof didn't drag himself down that passageway." The girl wolf whined one final time before transforming back to her human form.

"I can't explain it." The girl's Scottish accent reminded Rogue of Moira. "But there isn't another scent, I'm positive."

Magneto took off his helmet and let it float beside him. "That would narrow the list of possible kidnapers considerably."

A beeping of Rogue's communicator interrupted whatever she was going to say as it went off loudly. Hoping for good news she reached for it and clicked it open. "Please tell me you have something." She says, expecting it to be Beast or Kurt. "Because we've hit a dead end."

Female laughter came from the other side. "Ah, Rogue it is good to hear your voice again."

Rogue stood frozen. "I-Irene?"

"Don't sound so surprised darling. I am sorry to call you under these circumstances but I have information that could help you considerably concerning the disappearance of your Professor. Rest assured my daughter I'm calling as a concerned mother, and if I do not intervene there will be bloodshed of the ones I care about most."