When Rogue went to bed that night, she was happier than she'd been for months. Logan was coming back, and he was coming back for her.

Not Jean, not Storm, but her.

He hadn't said it with words but his voice had made it clear to her: He missed her...and he cared about her.

The feeling that someone really cared about her was strangely alien after six months at Mutant High. Sure, the X-Men cared about her, but only as long as she was still a possible future teammate, a deadly weapon they could control.

Logan, though, hadn't seen or heard from her for half a year and yet he still cared about her. The thought made Rogue smile.

'I understand your clawed companion is on his way back,' Erik noticed, in a deliberate off-hand manner.

_Yeah,_ Rogue replied dreamily.

Erik nodded slightly. Rogue couldn't see the motion, but she could sense the feelings that accompanied it. They knew each other very well by now.

'Do you love him?'

There was no hesitation in Rogue's reply.

_More than anything._

Erik nodded again.

'Judging from his voice and words when he called you, I would think that he feels the same way about you.'

Rogue just smiled.

_I know._

Erik paused, choosing his next words carefully.

'Rogue, don't you ever wish that you could touch him - touch anyone you wanted - without fear?'

_Ya know damn well that I do! Or didya just wanna rip up some old wounds?_ Rogue replied bitterly.

'I didn't mean to upset you, child, believe me. I asked because...because I might know a way for you to control you skin.'

Rogue sat straight up in her bed, torn between fury and hope. She wanted so badly to believe him, but both the Professor and Jean had so far failed to find a way for her to gain control. They had even said that she would most likely never be able to touch again. And now Erik's words...Damn! Why was he giving her false hopes? Her fury returned with renewed strength.

_Yer lying! I don't believe ya!_

'You know I can't lie to you.'

_But ya can hide things from me. And right now yer hiding yer memories from the times ya touched me._

'Then let me prove it.'

Rogue gasped.

_Ya want me to touch someone? I don't want another person in my head, damnit!_

'And it will not happen. Trust me, child. When I touched you, I could control the amount of power you absorbed. I can teach you to do the same.'

_I..._

'Let me show you, Rogue. Let me prove that I am speaking the truth.'

_I..._ Rogue paused, then relented. After all, what did she have to lose? _Okay...Okay. But...just a quick touch. I don't wanna deal with another personality._

'Of course.'

Rogue took a deep breath and lowered the mental shields that separated her own personality from the rest of them. She felt a slight brush of mental fingers in her mind as Erik carefully - but quite confidently - took control. His touch was strangely gentle and, to Rogue's surprise, not as unpleasant as she had expected.

Erik made her body take a step forward, but instead of feeling trapped in her own mind, Rogue just felt strangely...detached. She saw - and felt - her body move but had no control over it. Instead, she found herself watching Erik's movements with a certain calculating coldness.

It scared her a bit.

Not the fact that she was technically at the mercy of the man who tried to kill her, but the strange coldness, the indifference, along with the sudden lack of morality she felt. Or actually, it wasn't a lack of morality, but more a deliberate choice to ignore it, a profound disrespect for the human society. It was something she'd only seen once before - in Erik's mind - and she desperately hoped that the indifference was merely a result of the lack of control. Another part of her mind, though, the more rational one, knew at some level that this was not the case.

The coldness had always been a part of her. The recent events had merely brought it to the front.

And suddenly Rogue felt a very real fear for what she might be capable of with these newfound emotions.

Meanwhile, Erik had stopped outside a door and now just watched as Rogue tried to cope with her rather terrifying discovery. Finally he spoke up.

'You look at this the wrong way, child. This...lack of humanity's so-called ethics will not make you a killer. In fact, it might very well save your life.'

_I'm not...oh, God, what's happening to me?_ Rogue whimpered.

'I believe it is called "growing up"...you just take it a bit further than most, Rogue,' Erik replied.

_I don't wanna end up like ya!_

Erik sighed.

'And you won't. We all make our own choices, my dear. And we all have to face the consequences of those choices. I've made my choice and I paid the price.'

He paused.

'There is no such things as 'good' or 'evil', 'right' or 'wrong'. They are merely different ways to describe the same things. Some would describe my actions as right, others as wrong.'

_And what's yer opinion?_ Rogue asked on a whim. She'd never cared much for philosophy, but over the months she'd found that discussing these things with Erik had helped her keep a firm grip on her sanity.

Erik shrugged mentally.

'I would call them necessary.'

He motioned at the door.

'Shall we?'

_Wait!_ Rogue ordered as a sudden suspicion entered her mind. _Ya knew about this, didn't ya? Ya knew about this all along! That's why ya even bothered to help me in the first place!_

It was one of the questions that had nagged Rogue since Erik had taken her under his wings, so to speak. Why had he bothered to help someone who wasn't even on the same side as him? While he couldn't lie to her, he could hide certain thoughts and memories, and that was exactly what he'd done whenever she'd tried to find some answers.

'Yes,' Erik replied truthfully. 'I did. I needed you to discover this by yourself, though. But it wasn't the only reason why I decided to help you, child. Yes, you live under Charles' roof, but you are still a mutant. I came to the conclusion that it would be better to help you survive rather than just watch the X-Men cause your destruction.'

_They wouldn't do that._

'No, not deliberately. But inadvertently, yes. You would most likely have ended up as an X-Man and spend the weekends saving the world.' The last part was added with a heavy dose of sarcasm. 'You would often have been wounded during those missions and would probably have ended up dead as a result of those wounds.'

His words caught Rogue by surprise. In his own, veiled way Erik had just told her that he did in fact care about her. Unlike the X-Men, he had looked beyond her potential and her powers and seen someone worth protecting.

Rogue wanted to say something, anything, but found herself unable to form any words that could describe how she felt.

'Well, my dear? Shall we?' Erik asked once more and nodded at the door.

_Yeah...let's do it._ Rogue agreed. _And Erik...thanks._

Erik felt the emotions that accompanied that last word and just smiled slightly before he opened the door. Rogue blinked. They were standing in Kitty and Jubilee's room, and she hadn't even noticed that before now.

They crossed the room and stopped next to Kitty's bed.

_Soooo...how are we gonna do this?_ Rogue asked uncertainly.

'Watch, my dear. Watch and learn.'

It started as a tingling at her fingertips, a faint buzzing. Even through the strange detached feeling that accompanied her lack of control, Rogue felt the tingling. The buzzing spread to her fingers, then her hands and continued through her arms. Rogue fought the urge to scratch her skin.

_Does it always feel like this?_ she asked, slightly annoyed.

Erik sent her an amused smile.

'Only while you are raising the shield. It will pass when it surrounds your whole body.'

Rogue waited impatiently while the buzzing ran through her face, then down to her chest, further down through her legs until it finally reached the tip of her toes and her entire body hummed with energy. The buzzing increased for a moment, then faded away and Rogue sighed happily.

'Rogue?' Erik asked.

_Oh...yeah. Yeah, go ahead._ Rogue replied and pushed aside her momentary flicker of fear.

Erik reached out and touched Kitty's cheek with infinite gentleness. The girl just mumbled something and snuggled closer.

_Oh, my god..._ Rogue breathed. That was bare skin she was touching. Bare skin she was touching with an ungloved hand. She knew that Erik couldn't have lied to her about it, but up until that moment Rogue hadn't been able to think of it as possible. But this...this was all the proof she needed.

Oh, God, she could learn to touch again.

Rogue wasn't sure how long they stood there - it could have been seconds, it could have been minutes - but finally Erik stepped back.

_No!_ Rogue objected. _Just...just a little longer, okay?_

'No, child, we have to leave before someone sees us.'

Rogue knew he was right but was still reluctant to let go. Sure, they would have a pretty big problem explaining what the untouchable girl was going in Kitty and Jubilee's room in the middle of the night -without gloves, no less - but this...this was touch. Just a few more seconds wouldn't hurt, would it?

Erik shook his head.

'We have to leave now, Rogue.'

Rogue sighed.

_Yeah...I know._

They walked down the hallways, neither saying anything about what had just happened. It wasn't until they were inside her room that finally Rogue broke the silence.

_Could ya...could ya really teach me to do that? To touch?_

'Yes, I could.'

_Would ya do it if I asked ya to?_

Erik frowned but said nothing.

_Please, teach me. I...I have to learn. I don't wanna go through my whole life without being able to touch,' she pleaded.

Erik considered her words for a long moment.

'I could teach you...but everything has its price, my dear,' he finally said.

_Anything you want,_ Rogue replied without hesitation - and meant every word. She knew that technically, they were enemies. They belonged on different sides, but right now she didn't care. Erik could give her the gift of touch.

That was all that mattered.

"Very well. The deal is freedom for freedom, Rogue. I will set you free from your prison...if you can set me free from mine."