I am breaking my pact of no writing until finals are over, but this fic came to me while sitting my AP class wishing the overhead would start on fire. This one-shot is a bit different than my regular stories.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters listed in the story.
She struggled in with the rope that bound her hands and feet to a wooden stake cemented to the ground. Around her, piles of wood caressed her feet and twigs struck at her ankles. She wanted to scream for help, but the gag covering her mouth kept her from doing so. A heavy Genoshian collar hung loosely around her thin neck. She looked at the faces of the few that stood around her. Some she recognized, others she did not.
"Nice to see y' again, chere." A Cajun accent purred as a match was struck and thrown into the burning wood below her. Rogue stared in horror at the person in front of her. She knew that face. She had seen it in her mind so many times.
"Normally, I be much quicker with de killing, but I figured y' needed somethin' a little slower and longer. Somethin' so y' know how much pain y' inflicted." Belladonna Boudreaux said as she was handed a glass of red wine from one of the other assassins. She smiled and raised the glass to her lips and took a sip. As she pulled the glass back and looked at it and swirled it around.
"De last date me and Remy were on before we were to be wed, he took me to our favorite spot underneath de stars. We stayed up all night talking and what plans we had for de future. He brought a bottle of wine for de both of us and we downed it in ten minutes. How we stayed awake all night is still beyond me." Belladonna chuckled before she threw the glass at the flames and caused them to increase and spread around Rogue faster.
"Never in our future was dere a skunk haired woman who would destroy both our lives." Belladonna glared at Rogue as the other woman looked down at the flames that began eating away at her pant leg. "Y' ain't nothin' but a thief." She accused and pointed a finger at Rogue.
"Y' steal people's lives and memories for y'r own pleasure. If somethin' makes y' mad y' get rid of it, don't y'?" Belladonna snarled at Rogue, who shook her head at the blond. "Non? How can y' say dat? Y' stole Remy's life, didn't y'? Y' left him in de snow to die and told no one else where y' left him." She placed a hand on her hip.
"People say dat I be sick and twisted in de head, girl." Belladonna tapped a finger to her head and smiled. "I could do so many terrible ding's to y'. All of what I could do is nothin' compared to what ol' Jean-Luc LeBeau would do to y'. De man was so ticked off when de Thieves Guild brought back his dead son. Tante Mattie was screamin' and cryin'. Mercy fainted when she saw what happened to him. De rest of de family cursin' de X-Men for what happened to him." She spat at Rogue.
She remembered getting the call that Remy had been found in Antarctica. Though Remy had been banished from New Orleans, Jean-Luc kept tabs on where his son went. When he found out that Remy hadn't come back to the mansion, he had him tracked to where he last had been. He had stopped everything and had his thieves go to Antarctica to search for the boy. She remembered dropping the phone when she had been told he was found frozen. The next day she saw her ex-husband's body and swore she would find out who was responsible.
Luckily for her, one of the X-Men had volunteered the information and had even handed Rogue over to the Assassin's Guild.
"Interestin' isn't it, non? Y' die by fire, he died by ice." She looked up at Rogue, whose eyes were red and pleading. She wanted to open her mouth and explain every accusation against her was false. "Don't worry, y' don't need to explain anythin' to moi or anyone else here."
Belladonna looked back at the other assassin's who watched the brown and white hair women slowly be consumed by the flames. She moved over to the wood pile and picked up and log and threw it on, causing some of the flames to shoot up.
"Y' can explain to Remy why y' left him. Why y' thought it was fit to leave him dere." Belladonna snarled at Rogue as parts of her hair began to singe. "Well instead of waitin' years for y' to die. To move on and forget about de sin y' committed, I give y' dis chance to meet him in Hell sooner den expected. Y' can explain to him why his sins are worse den y'rs." She cocked her head to the side as the flames began to eat away at Rogue's skin and smack her head against the pole that held her.
Belladonna reached into her pocket and pulled out a ruffled card. The card was the queen of hearts that was torn and faded. She held the card up so Rogue could see it before her eyes shut again to try to block out the pain. "Dis is what we found in his frozen lifeless hand." Belladonna sneered and threw the card into the fire at Rogue's feet. "Even before death, he still thought about y'. Y' nothin' but a disease dat infects people's minds. Except mine of course." She growled and walked closer to Rogue, but keeping her distance from the flames.
"Y' stole my memories. Every damn ding dat I ever felt or thought about all because y' wanted to be closer to him. Know what it is like to kiss him, hold him without a barrier between. No one gave y' a right." She yelled and watched as Rogue's head fall to her chest. "Y' deserve dis not only for what y' did to Remy, but every other person whose life y' tried to steal." She said, but knew it was only to herself now. Rogue wasn't moving anymore as the flames ate away at her skin.
Belladonna sighed and moved a few steps back, but not turning her back on Rogue. No, she knew better than to do that. "Enjoy y' peace while y' can because when I join y' in Hell it will be worse." She hissed and moved over to a person who was standing off to the side.
The other stood in the shadow's to conceal his or her identity. They had watched from the drop of the match till when Rogue stopped moving. "Does it bother y'?" Belladonna asked the person. "She was y'r teammate. I surprised y' would want to help with dis." She commented to the X-Man.
"She got what she deserved. If she is willing to leave a lover behind, how can we trust her on the team?" The X-Man said before turning around and leaving for the jet that was parked two miles away. The X-Man began to wonder if justice had really been brought out. They had just done the same thing that happened to Gambit, an unfair trial that lead to death.
The X-Man stopped and looked back and the burning stake holding the dead woman. Memories of seeing her and Gambit together race through the mind. The two had seemed so happy at times and miserable at others. Both had kept secrets from each other, one for selfish and the other to protect them self. The X-Man had felt almost sad and guilty for what had happened to Rogue, but images of Gambit's frozen body after the Thieves Guild had found him raced through his or her mind as well.
The kid didn't have a shirt and was expected to try to survive in the coldest place on the planet. He didn't stand a chance against the elements of the cold. It did almost seem right that Rogue have to die the same way against the heat. Belladonna was right, it was fitting.
One die by fire the other by ice.
A/N: The X-Man who helped Belladonna can be left open; whoever you want it to be is that person. This fic can be interpretted different ways. Good, Bad?