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Healing	By : AngelofSnow Category: X-Men: (All Movies) > Het - Male/Female Views: 4234 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the X-Men movies, or any of the characters from them. I make no money from from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Healing

Title: Healing
Verse: X-Men movieverse
Timeline: post X-Men: The Last Stand
Author: AngelofSnow
Pairing: Eventual Rogue/Magneto
Rating: M � sexual situations � lots of them
Disclaimer: I don�t own the X-Men; but don�t you wish I did?
I would have done such a better job on X3, don�t get me started.
Summary: The Cure is only temporary. While healing Rogue and
Magneto find each other and realize they have more in common than they
originally thought.�

Soundtrack: I
recommend the song �Nessun Dorma� from the opera Turandot by Puccini. If you
are unfamiliar with that, play some opera or classical music.�

Dedication: I was
politely reminded by one of my favorite reviewers, XChocolateChipX, that I hadn�t yet mentioned her kind reviews in my
story. This chapter is for you. You�ll notice the scene at the end where I
weaved in your suggestion. And to everyone who has added me to their favorite
authors or favorite stories lists: all I can say is I am very flattered and
grateful. This story has been an epiphany for me. It has revitalized my love of
writing and taught me to believe in my own ability. I have you all to thank for
that. �

Chapter Seventeen:
My Secret is Hidden Within Me

Magneto and Rogue:

�� When faced
with great suffering, the human soul has two options: it can overcome its pain
or it can die. Rogue knew what it meant to be a survivor; she had dealt with
the tramatization of her parents abandoning her. She overcame her suffering
because she had to. One either went on and continued living life or one died.
There was no in between. Carly had to learn the same hard truth.

�� At first
Carly had been quiet and disoriented at suddenly finding herself in the care of
the Brotherhood of Mutants. But Carly adapted quickly, finding easy friends in
Rogue and Catalyst, both of whom had young faces and bright smiles that the
girl liked immediately. As the months of her stay with the Brotherhood
continued, the miraculous happened. She seemed to forget about her rape as an
event of the distant past although it was still recent; as only children with
their short memories are able to do.

�� Often
Magneto thought of sending the girl to live with the X-Men; despite how much
the idea disgusted him. He felt as though she should be around mutant children
her own age. But he kept putting the date off in order to enjoy watching how
well Rogue took to taking care of the young girl. They were inseparable and
whenever Rogue was not working with Magneto on her mutation she spent her time
playing with Carly. Rogue had even begun to tutor her in subjects like math and
reading so that she would not fall behind in her school work. It would seem
with or without the X-Men, Rogue had been destine to teach elementary school.
Erik couldn�t help but find Marie�s behavior endearing.

�� Rogue was
not alone in her love of Carly; every one at the fortress had taken to her as
their little mutant princess. Catalyst was a second mother to the girl; looking
out for her when Rogue was unavailable. Whenever she cooked a meal that Carly
seemed hesitant to eat, she would slip back into the kitchen and return a few
moments later with pizza, chicken fingers, or macaroni & cheese. Mystique
made endless trips to the main land, at first for necessary items like clothes
and school books; but later she was bringing the girl toys nearly daily. It was
not an odd sight to find Barbie and Bratz dolls scattered around the common
room and a disc of The Little Mermaid in the DVD player. Underneath all the
muscle Juggarnaut had a heart of gold and became a favorite of the girl�s
because he was very good at squashing bugs.

Rogue was deeply touched by Erik�s
interactions with the girl. He acted like the girl�s grandfather and even went
so far as to let Carly play on his office computer which remained off limits to
all including Rogue. Erik told Carly stories at night that he had created
himself about a little mutant girl named Princess Cathleen. Princess Cathleen
solved mysteries and saved her kingdom from destruction by evil humans countless
times. Carly smiled throughout every story, drifting off to sleep to the sound
of Erik�s soothing voice. But when Rogue listened in one night, she started to
cry. It was very touching to see a man who had once been imprisoned in a Nazi
concentration camp offer comfort to so young a sufferer of intolerance, abuse,
and rape.

�� Rogue grew
very attached to Carly; but it wasn�t that much longer until they were parted.
It was sad to see the girl go�but she couldn�t have thought of a better home
for her. When Johnny Unitas Hepburn came to visit, back from one of his
recruiting missions, he fell instantly in love with the young girl. The two
victims of mutant discrimination made a perfect pair. Hepburn had children of
his own about Carly�s age, though he wasn�t allowed to see them anymore. Carly
thought the 6 foot 5 inch tall ex-football star was a big teddy bear. It was a
match made in heaven. Although sad to see her go, the Brotherhood relinquished
Carly to Hepburn�s care and the two traveled around the world together
campaigning for mutant tolerance and preaching the Brotherhoods� message to the
masses. In so many ways, it was Carly who gave Hepburn the foundation and love
he needed after his life had been destroyed by mutant discrimination.

00000000000

�� Hepburn was
a gift the Brotherhood could not possibly have done without. Magneto, despite
all his charisma and savvy public speaking ability, could never have brought in
the numbers of recruits Hepburn did. Mutants from around the nation and around
the globe flocked to hear him speak. Suddenly, branches of the Brotherhood of
Mutants were popping up all over the country. Magneto could hardly keep up with
all the correspondence between their Camden, New Jersey branch and their Atlanta,
Georgia branch, and their Missouri branch, etc.
etc. The Brotherhood�s numbers had swollen to over 10,000 members. Realizing
one person alone could never possibly run all this, Magneto called upon a
mutant friend of his named Professor Jeri Kojak.

Professor Kojak was a female mutant
with abilities not much different from Charles Xavier�s. She could pause time
and read minds, but not at the level Charles had. Professor Kojak had been a political
science theorist before losing her university chair because she was a mutant.
She and Magneto had had a short-lived affair several years ago. Because of
this, she was one of the few people Magneto trusted enough to organize the
Brotherhood�s fledgling branches.

�� Professor
Kojak along with Multiple Man began to travel back and forth overseeing the
start of several Brotherhood branches that began training mutants in earnest. Meanwhile
Magneto began negotiations with the mutant dictator of Bangladesh. If
he was going to successfully conquer and occupy Australia, he would need all the
help he could get.

00000000000

�� Rogue had
been reminiscing about Carly with Catalyst one night five months into her stay
at the island fortress when she finally learned why Catalyst had joined the
Brotherhood. Trying her best not to cry, Catalyst had described her human older
brother�s struggle with stage four stomach cancer. Although Catalyst was able
to slow down the cancer�s growth with her mutation, she couldn�t cure it. So
Catalyst had tried her best to develop an anti-cancer drug to target the
tumor�s cells. However, the scientific community is a tight-knit one. There are
very few scientists in the world and it is an elite profession where peer
review is given credence. When it became obvious Catalyst was a mutant, she had
been unable to receive any more research funding. Magneto had stepped in and
offered the required money out of his own pocket.

�� Rogue was
learning that there was even more to Erik then his memories told her. He was so
much more complex than he had seemed to her four years ago on top of the Statue
of Liberty. Although she did not always agree with his methods, she was
beginning to understand the passionate need behind them to help mutants
everywhere. Often he took things to extremes, but after suffering so much persecution
at the hands of the Nazi�s Rogue couldn�t help but forgive him his zealotry.
Slowly, very slowly, the idea that the Brotherhood might be doing some good
crept into Rogue�s mind and she found the thought hard to dismiss.

00000000000

�� Sitting in
Erik�s study one day, Rogue called him out on where he had been sneaking off to
early in the morning. His head rose from the charts he was studying and gave
her a wide-eyed startled look.

�� I don�t
know what you are talking about.� He went back to his charts.

�� You�re not
getting off that easily, Mister. I�ve heard you take the launch at six o�clock
the last few days in a row. Where have you been sneaking off to?� Marie had the
audacity to wave her index finger at him.

�� If you must
know,� Magneto let out a sigh, �I have been going to a construction site on the
main land to practice using my mutation to manipulate large quantities of
metal.� He didn�t like admitting out loud the way the Cure had weakened him.
Erik stared at the picture of the Golden
Gate Bridge
next to his bookshelf. Rogue for her part politely switched the topic of
conversation, noticing how uncomfortable it made him.

�� Do you mind
if I switch the music that�s playing?� She walked over to his Bose stereo,
holding a pack of CDs Erik hadn�t noticed before. She had brought them from her
room that morning when she came to his study to work on her mutation control.

�� I thought
you enjoyed Puccini�s Madame Butterfly, Marie?� Erik played either opera or
classical music exclusively. He took great delight in introducing Rogue to cultural
experiences the Southern girl had missed out on. She had never objected to his
love of opera before. Rather Erik had often seen her smile at the graceful
arias and rousing chorus numbers. She had asked him on a number of occasions to
play his Mozart albums.

�� I do. I
never thought I would, but I do. But Erik� can�t I play some of my own music
for once?� It was not lost on Magneto how hard Rogue worked to say �I� and not
�ahh�. Her bright smile was impossible to resist and with a wave of his hand he
used his power to pop open the CD tray and yielded the stereo to her. After a
few moments the high strumming cords of country music began to play through the
Bose�s $300 speakers. Brad Paisley�s soft crooning voice sang �Little Moments
Like That� as Marie began to sing a female accompaniment with a twang that said
her attempts to change her accent where purely for his benefit. �

�� I am
willing to let you play music you pick Marie, but this,� he motioned to the
speakers, �is not music. If these cowboys are so depressed and heart broken
over women why don�t they just commit suicide or become gay like in Brokeback Mountain?� Clutching her stomach, Rogue
dropped to the rug and rolled around caught in fits of hysterical laughter.
Magneto begrudgingly realized he enjoyed making Marie happy. He wanted to hear
her laugh like this often. Finally she was beginning to see his dark humor.

�� Okay, you
may play one hour and not one second more of your music per day. The rest of the time we will listen to what I want.
Is that acceptable?� From her spot on the carpet Rogue looked up at him sitting
behind his desk. Her smile was infectious and Erik�s eyes roved over her svelte
form lying on display before him. The mounds of her breasts were clearly
defined by her tight shirt covering them. He felt himself grow hard at the
sight and almost missed Rogue nodding her head in acceptance.

0000000000

�� Rogue was
eating some toast for breakfast a few mornings later in Magneto�s study. They
had been making steady progress controlling her mutation. Rogue found that
stopping the pull of her skin was like trying to hold her breath. As she
practiced she could do it for longer and longer each time. Magneto was unsure
if she would ever be able to stop it permanently, but she could stop it long
enough so that she would no longer accidentally harm those around her. Erik
wondered why she still wore his gloves around when she hardly needed them
anymore.

�� Let�s see
how long you can control your mutation for today.� Magneto said sitting next to
Rogue on the couch. She set down her toast and pulled off the large black Gucci
gloves, eager to test herself. Taking a few deep breaths, which were completely
unrelated to controlling her mutation but helped to calm her, she took his
hands in hers.

They held hands and watched the
clock tick slowly by. At first Rogue showed no signs that stopping the pull was
hard for her, but after the clock passed three minutes she clenched her teeth,
willing herself not to give in to it. They continued to hold hands and Magneto
waited for her resolve to falter. It didn�t. Four minutes passed by. Rogue�s
forehead began to bead with sweat and her grip on his hands grew tighter. The
two watched in silent excitement as the clock hand passed the five minute mark.
Letting out a breath Rogue hadn�t realized she was holding, she wrenched her
hands away from his as the pull began strongly. She fell back against the
couch, smiling as though she had just won a marathon. Magneto raised his
magnetic shield back in place and smiled back at her.

This was the longest Rogue had ever
controlled her mutation for and five minutes was a huge milestone. Her joy
radiated from her and she leaped across the couch into his arms, hugging him
tightly against her. It had been several months since their urgent tryst in the
airport hanger and Rogue had begun to wonder if he was no longer interested in
her in that way. But as she held him, feeling his cheek pressed against her
own, she felt his erection grow hard against her stomach. She gulped, sucking
in a hurried breath and pulled back from him, unable to meet his eyes. She had
waited so long for him to acknowledge her attraction to him that she was afraid
of his reaction now that she knew he at least somewhat felt the same way.

Desperate not to continue the awkward
moment, she grabbed Erik�s hand and pulled him from the couch.

�Come on, let�s show the others.
Pyro will be so happy!� She dragged him behind her running at full speed down
the hallways of the island fortress till they found Pyro watching TV in the
common room.

�Pyro I can stop it for five
minutes now! Let me show you.� Rogue took his hand in her own and stopped her
mutation in the same manner she had done before. As the minutes ticked by Pyro
echoed Rogue�s excitement. After a few minutes he gave her a friendly hug.
Rogue, effervescent in her happiness, squeezed him against her body and gave
him a kiss on the cheek.

When she pulled away she caught the
angry snarl Magneto was casting in Pyro�s direction. It took her a while to
realize her mistake and his jealousy made her heart leap in hope.

00000000000

�� A week
later, Magneto lied to Rogue. He justified it in his mind as for the sake of
the surprise he had planned for her. Still the words made his mouth turn sour
in disgust. He didn�t enjoy misleading her so completely. He told her he needed
to attend a UN summit meeting in New
York City that week and that he thought she should
accompany him. As the tensions between humans and mutants had been steadily
rising for the last several months, most of the Brotherhood including himself
and Rogue had been cooped up in the island fortress. He wished to change that
and give Marie a reward for how hard she had worked at learning to control her
deadly skin.

�� Taking the
helicopter, they set out on Friday morning and arrived in NY in the early
afternoon. Rogue had stopped wearing his gloves as she no longer needed their
protection. If someone touched her she could stop the pull of her mutation and
no one would ever suspect she was a mutant. Rogue had looked over at Magneto as
their taxi passed by the UN without stopping and headed South to the garment
district. In front of a tiny shop that had bridal gowns in the window, he told
the cabbie to pull over and wait, as he held the door open for her to step out.
They entered the formal wear shop and Erik approached the counter and addressed
the woman behind it.

�Do you have the order for Erik
Lensherr ready?� The woman searched a rack behind the counter and pulled out
two plastic garment bags.

�Yup, Mr. Lensherr. We have a men�s
tuxedo in size 38 and a woman�s ball gown in size 4. Will you be needing
shoes?�

�Yes. Size ten for me. And Marie?�
Rogue was so taken aback it took her a few minutes to collect herself. He wears size ten shoes�

�What size shoes do you wear?� The
woman asked.

�Size seven and a half.� Rogue had
no idea what was going on here. She kept glancing at Magneto but his calm,
cool, collected demeanor gave nothing away. The woman handed them the bags and
gave them shoes.

�We have changing rooms in the
back.� She pointed to the rear of the shop.

�� Change into
your dress Marie.� Erik said as he put his arm on the small of her back and
ushered her to towards the changing rooms. They each took one and Rogue opened
the opaque garment bag to reveal a stunning floor length gown in an ivory cream
color with a halter top and backless cut. There was no why she could possibly
wear a bra with it, the strap would show plain as day. She got undressed and
made to put the gown on, when the label caught her eye. It read �Donnatella
Versace Original� and bore her signature in blue pen.

�� When she had
finished she stepped out of the cramped room to see Magneto waiting outside for
her, clothed in his black tuxedo. She loved the way black set off his white
gray hair and she couldn�t take her eyes off him. He looked regal, and Rogue
wondered if he knew how handsome he was when he wasn�t trying to look like
Magneto, the terrifying mutant leader.

�Do you approve of it?� He asked.

�It�s too stunning for words. I just
wish I still had my opera gloves. They would have gone perfectly with this. If
only someone hadn�t burned them.� She
raised one eyebrow at him saucily. Magneto was very serious when he replied.

�If I had my way Marie you would
never wear a pair of gloves again.�

They dined at The 21 Restaurant and
throughout the meal the curiosity was killing Rogue to know why they had gotten
so dressed up.

�I take it there ain�t no UN
meeting.� She stated the obvious.

�Mind your accent Marie,� and he
pushed an envelope across the table to her. She opened it in her lap and out
fell two tickets. They were going to the Metropolitan Opera Company�s
production of Puccini�s Turandot. An hour later they were sitting in a box on
the right side of the theater, no one suspecting there were two powerful and
dangerous mutants in the audience. As the curtains opened Marie asked him what
the plot of Turandot was because she was unfamiliar with it.

�Turandot is a princess of Peking, China.
There is a magic spell on her that says she can only marry the Prince who
correctly answers three questions. Princes who answer incorrectly have their
heads chopped off. Finally one prince gets all the questions correct and is
able to marry Turandot. But he sets a condition up for Turandot, who is known
to be a cold unfeeling Princess. If Turandot can guess his real name before
dawn, she will not have to go through with the wedding and instead the Prince
will be killed like all the others before him.�

�Why would he make such a
condition? It only hurts his chances.� Erik gazed at her, feeling his heart
beat wildly in his chest. Would she see
the hidden meaning in taking her to see this opera? Would she understand what
he meant to say by this? He was very scared of her rejection. He was an
emotionally cold person, several decades older than her, and still weakened
from his battle with the Cure. Could she understand his intentions and accept
him despite his faults?

�Because the prince wants to be
sure Turandot loves him and is not marrying him out of necessity.� Rogue turned
a little pale at this. She turned her head back to the stage before Erik could
tell if she got his veiled hint.

The opera was well performed and
Magneto�s heart swelled as the tenor belted out the famous aria �Nessun Dorma�
at the beginning of the third act. He looked over at Rogue to see her face wet
with tears as she read the translation projected above the stage:

�No one sleeps, no one sleeps...
Even you, o Princess,
In your cold room,
Watch the stars,
That tremble with love
And with hope.

But my secret is hidden within me;
My name no one shall know, no, no,
On your mouth I will speak it
When the light shines,
And my kiss will dissolve the
silence
That makes you mine.

Vanish, o night!
Set, stars!
At daybreak, I shall conquer!�

Rogue felt the tenor�s strong voice
vibrate in her chest and she knew in her heart what Erik meant to tell her. No
words were needed between the two as they left the opera house and flew home in
the helicopter. On the ride back Marie feel asleep on his shoulder.

0000000000

Author�s Notes:
As Nathalia Potter suggested to me:
"Every time you leave a review, an
author's inspiration begins anew!� That�s so true. So be a dear and review.

�The Princess Cathleen stories are real
(though they never featured a mutant). My Dad used to tell them to me every
night to go to sleep.

Thanks for comparing me to Shakespeare KumaDaPuma. That�s what every writer dreams about.

Many asked to see Johnny
Unitas Hepburn make a second appearance, so here he is. Hmm, where did I
get the name for Professor Kojak�s
character? From one of my most faithful reviewers and good friend of course. If
you haven�t yet figured it out the character of Catalyst is the author�s attempt to write herself into the story.
It�s my Hitchcock appearance. I walk on the screen quick and then I�m off
again. I lost two of my family members to stomach cancer and it is a terribly
underfunded disease. I spent a summer researching anti-cancer drugs, although I
did not make much of an impact.
The scene where Rogue eats toast: that goes straight to you evilerk.

And wow! So many good suggestions from so many loyal
readers. I did not anticipate such lovely interest in my story. You guys make
me blush. I love you all. Someone even called me the best fanfic writer ever.
My heart is gushing. I cannot tell you enough. I love you all.

Preview: �Let me leave no doubt in your mind. The next
chapter is what we have all been waiting for.�
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Healing