Author Team: INFERUS SCRIPTORS
Genre: Drama, Angst and ETC
Rating: PG 13 (for now)
In the deep confines of a white padded room a young woman --more of a child, really-- huddled in one of the corners. Dark stains ran down her face from the tears that she had shed. And even though no one in this godforsaken place addressed her in any way, her name was Rogue.
She was dressed in a simple pair of white pants and a long sleeve shirt. She sat with her knees pulled to her chest and her arms folded around them. Her head was bent forward, resting on her knees. Her isolation was not an uncommon thing for her, being that she would usually distance herself from others. This time, however, the circumstance of her isolation was not of her choosing.
She looked towards the only opening of the cell-- a door with a small slot for the minimum food she received; there was no window, and no doorknob. She was trapped with people that hated and despised her.
With the sudden opening of the door, Rogue tried to sink further back into her corner. Peaking just above the rim of her knees, she saw three men. One was a doctor that she normally saw, and two were guards. All of them were fully covered to protect themselves.
With a gesture from the doctor, the two guards went over and held her down while he applied a sedative to her. She put up no struggle as the doctor gave a command for personnel to come in with a gurney. Lifting her onto it, they quickly took her out of the cell, and into one of the testing labs.
A few nurses checked her heartbeat, her blood pressure, and other such stats. Then they took blood samples, skin sample, hair samples, and anything else that was safe for sampling.
The worst was that Rogue, despite being sedated and weak, could still tell what was happening to her. She could feel the mild pain of having the blood drawn from her veins; the feeling of the latex covered hands checking her vitals, and the feeling of them on her exposed skin. It was nothing, however, compared to the humiliation that she suffered. Constantly, she wondered why her friends had not come to save her from this persistent torture.
One of the men started to clear the usual physicians out and a new team of them came in. She was quickly turned over and knocked out.
When Rogue slowly awoke, she heard the faint conversations between two of the doctors. "She's been out for over a week. Are you sure that Dr. Peterson did the operation correc..."
The conversation was cut short, though, when they noticed her waking up. They checked her, and one of the men turned to the other. "Get Dr. Peterson in here quick. He needs to make sure that the operation was a success."
It was a while before this "Dr. Peterson" actually came, though. But when he did arrive, he acted swiftly, getting one of his nurses to turn Rogue over on her stomach. He bent over to see her face and said in a calm voice, "Now I want you to follow my finger with your eyes, girl. Do you understand?"
Seeing her nod, he started moving his finger back and forth. And, getting the proper response, he took out a little voice recorder and said into it, "Patient number 05637 has responded well to visual and audio tests. She seems to have successfully recuperated from the operation. Time will tell if the neural implant will work as designed."
Neural implants? The words hung in her mind as the doctor continued to check her stats. Finished with that, he checked the IV that was attached to her right hand.
Funny, Rogue thought, why didn't I notice that before?
After checking that it was still secure, and that the IV bag was still somewhat full, Dr. Peterson gave a nurse some instructions and walked over to a table in the room where he proceeded to record his findings. When the nurse was finished with her tasks, Rogue made her first attempt to move. She found that she could barely move her head, let alone the rest of her sore and weak body.
What did they do to me!?
After a few more futile attempts to move, she gave up and attempted to speak with her captors. "W-whe-re...am....I…?"
It was harder then she thought that it would be, and her voice sounded weak and scratchy
from nonuse.
Neither doctor nor nurse answered her, being that her voice was so weak. She tried again. "Where . . .am . . .I?"
It was a little stronger this time, and still no one seemed to hear her. "Where am I?"
Everyone in the room spared her a brief glance. Then they looked at each other, shrugged, and returned to their work. Again, she repeated her words in the loudest voice she could muster. One of the doctors scowled, "Shut the mutie up! Give her a sedative or something!"
Just before one of the nurses thrust a needle in her arm, she thought, "Mutie?"—and was knocked out.
She awoke in a cell again. But this one was different. The old one, she remembered, had been a smooth, off-white color. This new one, however, was a dingy color. It looked like it was dirty, or overly used. Disgusting.
It took time for her to be able to move again-- she guessed hours. Thankfully, though, her head did eventually become mobile. Then her arms loosened, which allowed her to pull herself in to a form of sitting.
She would never have guessed sitting could be so hard without the use of her legs. This must be how the professor felt when he first lost his legs, she decided. The professor. Just the thought of him brought tears to her eyes. She figured she'd never see him, or any of her fellow X-Men, again.
She wondered what had happened to the others that were captured that day. Were
they going through the same heinous experience as her? Were they in the same building as her? Were they even still alive? She had to stop thinking these those thoughts. It just wasn't possible to kill an X-Man. Then again, considering her present predicament, maybe it was.
"Ugh! Why am I thinking like that? They're probably coming for the others and me right now!" Rogue cried suddenly.
"You would be wrong, my pet." Said a cocky, middle-aged man that had slipped silently into the room.
"What do you know!?" Rogue demanded.
"Well, your 'friends' did come. They saved the others and left you." He smiled wickedly.
"You're a liar!" Screamed Rogue.
"You don't believe me? Let's see what the cameras have to say then." He gestured to the hanging television in the corner. "Play it." He ordered whoever was there.
Looking up at the TV, Rogue watched the rescue of the X-Men and Brotherhood
members. Everyone got out safe………but her.
Quickly, the video came to an end. Rogue couldn't stop the few tears that fell down her face. Turning around toward the door, the strange man threw one last glance at her and said, "Face it. You'll be here forever, my pet." And with that, he walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
"NO!!!!" She wailed, running towards the door and slamming her fists onto it. "NO!! YOU'LL SEE!! THEY'LL COME FOR ME!! JUST YOU WAIT!! THEY'LL COME!! THEY'LL COME FOR ME!!"
Soon her battered body demanded her to stop, and she slumped to the floor, putting her head in her hands. She began to cry, murmuring, "Please....someone.. save me....."
Outside the door, the man known as Cameron Hodge smiled. Turning to one of his personal guards, he said, "Go contact the Triumvirate for me and tell them that operation will begin now."