Chapter Seven: Rogue
And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
And sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight
~Goo Goo Dolls
Logan speaks:
I’ll never really understand why it happened that night. Maybe cause I’d just spent about an hour in a cold shower, thinkin’ of havin’ her naked and willing. Maybe it was just time, but even after all these years, it’s still a memory I’ve cherished.
It had the same fire and passion as that aborted attempt two years prior, but it was on a whole other level. My dreams didn’t come true, she never morphed into Jean. Instead, I was completely aware of who brought me to life that way. From that night on, Ororo starred in almost every fantasy I had. Jean was buried in my mind, thankfully. I let her go.
Doesn’t mean things were all rainbows and sunshine for ‘Ro and me after that. Hell, I’d’ve settled for just speaking to her the next day. I let her rush out at daybreak, figured she’d need some time to sort it out in her head.
But by the time I got downstairs, Chuck had a mission waiting for me. I don’t think he meant to intrude, but he did. I had to take Rogue, Colossus, and Shadowcat to Georgia. Seems an anti-mutant rally was outta hand. Wasn’t a hard mission, really.
Seein’ as I’d had a good night, I shoulda known it wouldn’t last. I never thought I was about to fly into one of the worst days of my life.
~**~
“Ah spy…somethin’ white an’ black.”
“Um…bird!”
Logan shook his head, glancing over at his co-pilot in dismay. They’d been in the air only an hour and already the girls were driving him insane. He understood the boredom and tension that came with the traveling into danger issue, but the non-stop “road trip” games were beginning to give him a headache.
“Ok, my turn,” Kitty chirped. “I spy something tall, dark and…”
“Peter!”
Snorting in a vain attempt to control his amusement, Wolverine noted a deep blush creep into his friend’s cheeks. The large Russian man cleared his throat, as though pretending he’d not heard the exchange between his friend and fiancée.
Checking the fuel levels and navigation equipment, he let the girls’ voices fade into the background. They had a knack for giggling in just a way that set his teeth on edge. Besides, he had something else to think about.
Deep blue eyes and smoky skin kept creeping around the edges of his mind. Try as he might to shove the memories aside, Ororo continued to push until he let some of his guard down.
It wasn’t like he’d been celibate during her absence. Once or twice, he’d gone out for the night and found some buxom blonde to play with for a few hours. These little romps never fulfilled his want for a companion “ something he would never admit to anyone “ but they staved off the physical hunger to be touched.
Unfortunately, he doubted that would be an option if Storm left again. The previous night had blown anything before it out of the water. Logan wasn’t a man that settled for anything less than the best. He’d warned her that neither of them would be able to just walk away. Though he wasn’t sure how true this held for her, if was definitely right on for him.
He wasn’t surprised that Jean hadn’t come out to play in his mind. She was gone and two years could do a lot to make a man believe it. He wouldn’t stop visiting her grave or missing her warm, calming presence, but he could finally think about her without shame and blinding pain. Maybe, just maybe, this is what it felt like to deal with something and move on.
The twister yesterday had to have been significant for Ororo. He’d heard her crying on the wind, picked up bits and pieces of what she said. For the first time, Logan wondered if she’d ever dealt with Jean’s death. It seemed as though she had now. That cyclone vanished and Ororo returned to the mansion with more fire in her eyes than he’d seen since Jean was taken.
He tried to not let it affect him. As he sat across from her at the dinner table, dutifully collecting Prita’s things as she tried to keep his attention, he’d fought himself to not see Ororo as she’d been before losing her friend. She was there, as she had been during his first visit to the mansion. That was a force to be reckoned with.
Love wasn’t far off, he knew himself well enough to notice the signs. His breath caught when her scent drifted his way, the stomach-swoop when she managed to smile at something…it was all a part of her mere presence chipping away at him. It could all be too late. Last night might have really done it for her, flushed him from her system. But he hoped, just a little, that maybe she still loved him.
Given time and opportunity, it wouldn’t be long before he loved her back.
“We are coming up on the landing site, Wolverine,” said Colossus in his usual deep baritone.
“Good,” he replied curtly, having been jolted from his thoughts. “Shadowcat, Rogue, get ready.”
“Yes, sir,” the girls replied in perfect unison.
After flipping several switches and ensuring the landing gear was down, Logan settled the X-Men’s prized jet on a lonely stretch of grassland just south of Atlanta. He released the protective harness holding him in and joined his small team as the hiss of hydraulics opened the rear hatch.
Each of his young teammates was dressed in the signature “X” embossed black leather, making them look like something out of a comic book. Snorting to himself again, Logan cracked his neck from side to side, the popping sound making Kitty grimace.
“I hate it when you do that,” she chided. “Sounds like someone’s snapping metal.”
“Uh,” Rogue cut in. “That’s cause he is snappin’ metal.”
“Shut up,” Wolverine ordered them both, following Colossus out of the plane.
The girls shot him reproachful glances, but remained quiet as they began the short walk to the convention center said to be the heart of this out of control rally. His sharp eyes detected nothing as they eased down the road, careful to avoid being seen by mutant or human.
When they reached a fork in the road, which according to the map would circle the convention center before meeting two miles north, he stopped the team.
“Ok, Rogue, Colossus I want you two to take the northern path. Circle around, stay in contact, and try to get a good idea of the layout,” Wolverine ordered. “Shadowkitty and I will go south, see who’s got the spoon in the stirring pot.”
The larger man nodded, leaning down to kiss his tiny fiancée on the cheek. Logan rolled his eyes toward Rogue as the couple whispered for a moment. He couldn’t blame them, even though the last X-Man death was a while ago, the idea that one might lose someone they loved stayed with a person. So, he let it go without saying anything, nodding to his friends when they parted.
“Good luck, keep the comms open, ok?”
“Be careful,” Rogue cautioned him as she turned to walk with Colossus.
“Yeah, you too,” Wolverine grunted before she was out of earshot.
With Kitty, he began to make his way on the edges of the road, listening to the various shouts of protestors and threats from guarding policemen. Though she was almost constantly silly and could giggle him into insanity, Wolverine enjoyed pairing off with Shadowcat. She took orders without question and added her opinion without sounding overly arrogant.
They reached the large pavilion several minutes later. The silence between the two X-Men was not strained, but worn and comfortable like an old pair of jeans. If he had to choose anyone to hang out with on a boring mission, it’d be a tough choice between Marie and the little kitten.
Course, her battle skills were also useful.
“Look out!”
Without even a pause, Kitty phased into the ground as Logan rolled in the opposite direction. A beat later, her teeny hands reached up from the pavement, yanking him down with her. It was an odd feeling, seeping through rock and dirt like she did. He didn’t really have time to dwell on it, though.
She phased them up top, a few yards from where the advancing mutant had stood. Wolverine sniffed the air, not finding anything in the man’s scent that was even vaguely familiar.
“What is it?” Kitty asked as the mutant searched for them.
“Dunno,” he admitted. “Smells like a laser mutation though. That’s what I saw headin’ for ya.”
“Oh,” she gave him a tight smile. “Thanks.”
Logan shrugged, holding up his hand to silence her. He put three fingers up, dropping one, then the other, and the last. As one, Shadowcat and Wolverine burst from the bushes they’d hidden in, closing in on the mutant from two sides.
Kitty reached him first, spinning her tiny body around with agility he knew for a fact was borne in training sessions with him. She successfully landed two kicks, then phased through the pavement again. The mutant continued to search for her, even as Wolverine leapt into the air, pouncing on him.
Shadowcat emerged from the pavement again, grabbing the man’s legs and hauling them down so that they remained locked into the ground.
“Now, you’ve got yourself a predicament,” Wolverine snarled, sitting on the man’s chest. “See, the kitten here can just let go of your feet and when the paramedics come, they’ll just have to amputate to get you out.”
The man’s eyes were wild with fear, but he didn’t respond.
Snikt!
Three razor sharp claws slipped through tendon and flesh from Wolverine’s hand, coming to rest at the man’s throat.
“I didn’t know you were mutants!” he screeched. “I thought you were some Navy S.E.A.L.S. or something!”
“I call bullshit,” Kitty said, her voice sharp. “What do you think, Wolverine?”
He inhaled deeply, catching the scents of fear and sweat from the terrified mutant.
“Now, I dunno, little kitten,” he said honestly. “He might be telling the truth.”
“Well,” she said with false thoughtfulness. “Maybe I should phase his balls through the ground, that outta make sure he’s telling the truth.”
Inwardly, Logan was rolling around laughing. Kitty could be ruthless when she wanted to and nothing got her proverbial fur in a bunch like a mutant taking a cheap shot at another.
“You know, maybe you’re right,” he admitted. “Knock yourself out.”
“I swear! I just want to protect mutants!”
“Yeah, yeah, a likely story,” Shadowcat yawned.
Before anyone could speak again, Peter’s voice crackled on their communicators.
“Wolverine, Shadowcat, we have a problem!”
“What is it?” Logan questioned immediately, all thought of interrogation gone.
“It’s Rogue,” Colossus, for the first time in Logan’s memory, sounded afraid. “She cannot release her!”
“What? Who? Where are you?” Wolverine shouted as Kitty released the still unknown mutant’s legs.
As though on cue, a frail young body dropped onto the hot pavement behind him. Turning, claws still extended, Logan watched in horror as his young friend screamed. Her thin arms were up to her face, clawing at her flesh as though something were hurting her on the inside.
Shadowcat and Wolverine moved as one unit, rushing to the form of their hurting friend.
Careful to avoid contact with her skin, Logan tried to pull her into his arms. Rogue’s body seized, as though she were going into shock. Colossus appeared only seconds later, his metallic body changing swiftly into human skin.
“There was a mutant flying above us. She came down as though to fight,” he explained over Rogue’s screams. “Somehow, their skin touched. Rogue could not let go. I believe the girl is dead.”
“Oh my God,” Kitty breathed, clutching her lover’s arm.
Wolverine clutched Rogue to him as her seizing subsided. Tears streaked her youthful face as she held on to him, her body suddenly going slack.
“Help…us.”
~**~
Though the Professor was not completely back to his old self, he immediately ushered Rogue’s unconscious form into the med-lab, shooing everyone away. The flight back home was barely remembered and Wolverine was thankful that Peter was such an accomplished pilot.
Between the massive youth and his bride-to-be, they’d collected the unnamed mutant’s body and rushed Rogue back home, leaving Wolverine to hold the girl to him, begging her to wake up. No one was certain what had transpired or if she would be all right, but Logan felt better by degrees at just having her in the care of the Professor and Hank.
So he stood, still in his X-Men uniform, outside of the med-lab, watching Chuck mentally probe Rogue’s mind through the thick observation glass. In his hands, the outer top of Rogue’s uniform was twisted over and over again as he fought for control.
She was his teammate, his friend…watching her scream and shake in his arms reminded him so much of those last, terrifying moments with Jean. Pacing, his eyes never leaving the pale, prone form and her caregivers, Logan berated himself.
I shouldn’t have separated the team. Shoulda stayed together. Shoulda brought more back up…
“Logan?”
At Ororo’s soft call, Logan looked up, not noticing the tears in his eyes. Her face seemed to crumble and she hurried the two steps to him. Her arms immediately surrounded him and he clung to her, heedless to Prita’s presence being squashed between them.
“How is she?” the woman asked softly.
“I dunno,” Logan admitted, not pulling away. “She kept screamin’ sayin’ “Help us”. I don’t know what happened.”
“Shh,” Ororo patted his back soothingly. “Whatever it is, the Professor and Henry will find the answers.”
“I hope so.”
Prita’s annoyed squeal broke them apart a moment later. She scowled up at her mother, then held her arms out to Logan. He reached for the little girl, still holding Rogue’s uniform. Of course, he remembered Ororo’s wishes a moment later and dropped his hands.
The look of confusion and hurt on Prita’s beautiful little face almost broke his heart.
Ororo shifted the girl on her hip, clearing her throat nervously. This was the first time he’d seen her since her escape from his room that morning. He wanted to ask if she was all right, but his mind was resolutely locked onto the white-streaked figure in the med-lab.
“Petite?”
An unfamiliar voice coupled with an even more unfamiliar scent came down the hallway. He found the scent of bad cologne, burning paper, and cheap cigarettes offensive to his keen nostrils.
“In here, Gambit,” Ororo replied over her shoulder, not sparing Logan a glance.
A tall, lanky man clad in tight trousers and a worn brown duster appeared in the doorway. Logan blinked openly at the man, whose eyes were a glowing red. The gloves on his hands were cut to reveal select fingers and he could almost sense this stranger was agile, graceful, a formidable enemy.
“W’as happen, mon chou,” he said with a thick accent. “You done run out on poor Gambit.”
“I am sorry,” Ororo was apologizing. “My friend was on injured on a mission.”
“Votre ami?” the man called Gambit pointed to Logan.
Wolverine glared from one to the other. There was a sense of familiarity between the two. They stood close together, too close for Logan’s comfort. Their speech patterns and terms of endearment spoke volumes of the relationship.
It was only by force that he kept his claws carefully sheathed.
“Non,” Ororo said. “Dans là.”
She pointed into the med-lab, to the frail figure lying motionless on the bed. Gambit moved to the window, leaning causally on the frame. Logan reached over to tug on Storm’s elbow, glancing toward the man with confusion in his eyes.
“Oh!” she seemed to remember herself. “You two have not met.”
“Non,” Gambit said from the window. “Gambit start thinkin’ Stormy don like to share her friends.”
“Quiet,” she ordered him playfully. “Remy Lebeau, this is Logan a.k.a. Wolverine. Logan, this is a dear friend of mine, Remy also called Gambit.”
Gambit turned his head, looking at Logan with those devil eyes over his shoulder. They stared at one another, as two alpha males would when one breeched another’s territory. Logan could already tell that this little bastard was going to cause him no end of trouble.
“Charmed,” Gambit said in a flat tone. “Stormy never mention you ‘fore today. Must be new.”
“I’ve been around a few years,” Logan corrected him. “Funny, she’s never mentioned you at all.”
Gambit’s eyes went back to the med-lab window, though Logan was sure the girl on the examination bed was not what the man was concentrating on.
“Not to worry, mon ami, Gambit not one you forget.”
“That right?”
“Oui. Dat right.”
“Boys,” Ororo warned, shifting the baby on her hip. “Play nice.”
“Gambit always play nice, chere.”
It irritated him, for absolutely no reason, how Gambit’s voice changed when he addressed Ororo. Where he was cold to Logan, there was a warmth and genuine adoration in his tone when his words were meant for her. He wanted to gag the cocky asshole and yank Ororo into another room. He wanted to know where this man had come from and why.
“I want to see Rogue,” Ororo said clearly, handing Prita toward Gambit. “Take her for a moment, please.”
“Sure,” Remy grinned at the child, making popping noises with his mouth as he took her in his arms. “We be jus’ fine, Stormy.”
“Call me that once more,” Ororo said through clenched teeth and a sweet smile. “And I will ensure you never father children.”
“Ouch, dat hurt,” Gambit teased her in response.
The white-haired beauty turned to Logan, her back to her friend as she entered the med-lab.
“Be nice,” she muttered so lowly it had to be meant for his ears alone.
Logan growled at her.
Once she was gone, he was left alone with the French-speaking idiot holding Prita. The little girl glanced at Logan, her eyes filled with tears she was close to shedding.
“You’re hurtin’ her,” Logan snapped at LeBeau. “Don’t hold her so tight.”
“Wat da Wolverine know bout babies, eh?” Gambit spoke to Prita. “We ok, eh, petite?”
A beat later, Prita howled. The sound bounced off the walls so loudly it hurt Logan’s ears. He clamped his hands over the offended organs quickly, wincing when the baby’s decibel level climbed higher.
“Wat Gambit do to you, eh?” the man sounded worried.
Prita was reaching for Logan, but he remembered Ororo didn’t want him spending time with the child. Swallowing hard, he shook his head, which made her cry louder.
“Sorry, runt,” he grunted through the lump in his throat. “Your mom don’t want me holdin’ ya.”
He turned on his heel, ears still ringing and left the hallway. Prita’s cries grew more desperate as the doors to the elevator hissed closed behind him. Once he was alone, he pressed his hands to the wall and fought the urge to slam his head through it.
She didn’t want him near Prita, which was bad enough, considering he adored that kid. Worse was that she felt comfortable leaving Prita with that idiot. Why was he here?
Then it hit him. Ororo must have called on this “friend” to come to her rescue. For what? To save her from him? Did she really want to distance herself from Logan that she called in a chaperone to keep her honest?
Snarling to himself, worry still creeping into his thoughts over Rogue’s unchanged condition, Logan stepped out of the elevator a moment later and headed for his room. If distance was what she wanted, he’d give it to her.
~**~
Several hours after the aborted mission in Georgia, the Professor, Henry, and Marie emerged from the med-lab. Rogue’s self-inflicted cuts had been doctored, fresh white bandages covering her weary face. She moved cautiously, her actions jerky as though she was no longer comfortable in her own skin.
For some reason, she did not touch anyone or anything when the trio met the rest of the X-Men in the War Room. Logan took a seat beside her, careful to ignore Gambit’s intrusion. He’d planned on taking Scott aside at some point, to pry information out of his friend. Something about this accented man sent his predatory instincts into a massive overdrive.
“Thank you all for coming,” Charles said as Henry helped Marie to her seat. “Gambit, a pleasure as always.”
Most of the X-Men turned to greet him, some of them even in a friendly manner that made Logan wonder if he’d been on the team in the past. Glancing at the mutant beside Storm, he rolled his eyes at the laid back manner in which he reclined in his chair. Something that looked like a playing card flicked through obviously nimble fingers. It was like something out of a bad movie.
“I am sure you are all concerned about Marie,” Chuck said, indicating to the young woman. “I can safely say that she will recover, but the incident in Georgia is not likely to leave her any time soon.”
“What happened?” Logan demanded, looking over to his friend.
“She came outta nowhere,” Marie said quietly. “We were fightin’ an’ somehow she got hold of mah face. I started…” She gestured weakly. “Ya know…but Ah couldn’t break the connection.”
“For a reason still unknown to us, Rogue and the other young mutant became irrevocably linked.”
“Ah killed her,” Rogue said miserably.
“Hey,” Logan shifted in his seat, drawing her gingerly into his arms. “It was an accident.”
“Her name was Carol Danvers a.k.a. Miss Marvel,” Henry tapped at the console imbedded on the table, bringing up a glowing holographic dossier. “She was a mutant, roughly Storm’s age.”
“Why was she in Georgia?” Ororo asked quietly.
“She and a small group of mutant activists were attempting to protect the mutants at the rally. She, apparently, thought Rogue and Colossus were enemies,” Hank offered in his unflappable calm.
“That’s what the other one said, the guy that attacked Wolverine and me,” Kitty chimed in.
“As for Rogue’s condition,” Chuck smiled in that soft, fatherly manner reserved for the most personal of moments with his X-Men. “She will have Carol Danvers with her for the rest of her life. The dual personality is now dormant, but…”
“Ah have new powers,” Rogue’s voice was soft, weary. “Powers Ah don’t know how tah control.”
“But if you have the memories of Miss Danvers…” Scott pointed out, only to be cut off.
“When I suppressed the Danvers personality, I suppressed all of her memories,” the Professor’s voice was weak, filled with sadness. “Our Rogue will have to learn to use these abilities.”
“What are they?” Logan asked, curious. Rogue snuggled closer, making him rub her back soothingly.
As far as he was concerned, just the fact that she was alive was enough for him.
“Miss Danvers possessed superhuman strength and the ability to fly.”
“Fly?” Storm said, sitting up and drawing Rogue’s attention. “You can fly?”
“Yeah,” the girl replied quietly. “Or Ah’m s’posed to.”
“I can teach you how, my dear,” Ororo grinned. “Is it pure will or like myself?”
“Oh no,” Hank nudged Ororo. “She doesn’t need telekinesis or wind to fly. Once she learns, it will be under her control.”
“Amazing,” Ororo winked at her. “We will begin tomorrow, once you have rested. Flight is a gift indeed.”
“As for strength,” Colossus said in his usual soft manner. “I will teach you how to control it. Though frightening, superstrength is not so bad of a mutation.”
Logan, however, could feel Rogue stiffen the more they tried to help. She stood suddenly, shaking her head while tears splashed down her cheeks.
“Tha’s nice an’ all, but Ah killed a woman!” She cried, shaking off Logan’s attempt to soothe her. “Ah killed a woman an’ got powers from it an’ no one seems tah give a damn!”
Rogue rushed from the room, stopping only to open the door. When it pulled completely from the hinges and tore the doorframe off, most of the X-Men leapt to their feet. Mind still whirling, Logan looked to Chuck.
“I cannot erase everything, Logan,” he said as though reading his mind. “She will have to come to terms with it all in time.”
“Let’s hope she doesn’t hurt herself or someone else before she learns to use her powers,” Cyclops frowned. “Poor kid.”
“She’ll get through it,” Logan said stubbornly, staring after her.
“’ow ya know dat, mon ami?” Gambit asked from his place beside Storm.
Logan turned to him slowly, looking at every other mutant gathered around the table. Snikt! His claws sliced through the back of his hand. Logan held them up for inspection by the speechless newcomer.
“Those of us that have dangerous powers know some of what she’s goin’ though,” he growled. “She’ll get through it. We all did. And she’s got us to help her.”
“That’s what makes us the X-Men,” Logan’s ears twitched at the tone of Cyclops’ voice. “We help each other.”
He was surprised when the team’s leader stood, jerking his head toward Logan and the door.
“Lets go talk to her.”
“Right behind ya.”
