She watched the approaching silhouette, remembering it fondly. She gripped the hand resting in hers and smiled into his blood red and black eyes. She was one of the few people he allowed in, past the glasses and hardened glares. She glanced at the others in the car with her, some old friends she'd become reacquainted with over the last few years, others who would find the situation they were going into strange and almost surreal.
She'd known Scarlet Witch from before, they'd been students together, her brother however was new to the concept of where they were going. He had been one of their first recruits, after Wanda came to her begging for help she couldn't get from the school. The dark, almost pitch black of Darkness' skin and eyes was split by a small smile, the lighter grey of his teeth catching the setting sun.
She'd led this team - co-lead this team for almost five years. The call had taken her by surprise, and it took a lot of convincing to get Gambit to agree to come at all, much less listen. She hoped he would. The mansion's resources were much better than what they'd cobbled together on their own.
"Chere, Gambit don' like dis one bit, des place no drol,de X-Men, dey play by dif'rnt rules dan we do.". He spoke softly and she hears quiet agreement from Pietro and Dark.
"Ah know, but they're mah friends too and they need our help." Living in New Orleans had only deepened her accent over the years.
"Friends?" Wanda asked. "After what happened, what he...". She stopped as Marie turned to look at her. It was a forbidden subject, why she'd left the mansion, and she wasn't going to discuss it now when they were in the shadows of its walls again.
"Yes, friends, besides he's not here anymore. They finally saw the animal, the monster, inside and threw him to the wolves."
"Yeah, after how many girls disappeared?" She heard Wanda mutter under her breath.
Marie ignored the remark, knowing it was true, but without Charles to ferret out the truth, he'd been able to get by with far more than most realized. She shook her head and opened the passenger door of the car to greet the group standing on the steps of the school she'd once called home.
"Rogue, welcome home." Storm said, wrapping her in a careful embrace, avoiding bare skin.
"Its good to be home". She replied.
She looked at the others, and surprised herself at not feeling a gut wrenching rage at them.
Therapy seemed to have worked. She could smile at Kitty, Pitior, Jubilee, even John without any bitterness toward them. All of them were as much victims as she was. She hugged Hank and made note of the absences. Scott, found wandering in the Canadian forests a month after Jean died, was not in the welcoming party. Neither was Emma, his new wife and the new resident telepath at the mansion. She felt a small stab of pain at the other notible absence, but she'd really not expected him anyway.
She quickly introduced her team and felt Gambit's comforting presence at her back. "You remember Wanda, this is her brother Pietro, he prefers Quicksilver, he's damned fast on his feet. This is Darkness, we call him Dark for short, our telempath, and mah co-leader Gambit."
"Chere, it has been a long time, gambit tink he never see dat Goddess again.". He surprised her by giving Storm a big hug. She felt a small pain of jealousy but smiled at him when he turned back to her. She felt his hands resting on her jeans clad hips as he took his usual stance behind her, and she rested one hand over one of his, bare skin brushing his perpetually gloved fingers.
"Your rooms are ready, we can talk after you've settled in." Storm said, indicating the open door of the mansion. Marie stood there watching her team, her family walk into that open maw and felt a cold chill down her spine.
"Not'in will get dem, mi amore, we will see to dat.". He whispered in her ear and gave her a little push. "You talk Gambit into dis, you aint backin' out now."
She picked up the bag Dark had set next to her and set her shoulders. She was going to face these demons, it was her final step in healing, facing the people she thought had failed her. She felt Gambit's arm settle comfortably on her shoulders as he walked at her side. "You ain' alone Chere, you got Remy."
She smiled up at him as she walked through the door, but she couldn't stop the pained cringe as they closed behind her, as if trapping her forever in her nightmares. She followed Storm up the long staircase and down the familiar hallway.
"We put your team all on this wing so you'd be close. Of course your room is still available, if you want it Rogue." Storm said softly. "Remy, you're room is here."
"No, Ah'm in with Gambit." Marie said firmly. She felt the comforting squeeze of his hand on her shoulder. Ororo looked at her in askance and she just gave her a smile. Ro shrugged and smiled back.
"Alright, I will put Wanda in your old room then." Storm smiled again and hugged them both. "Dinner should be ready in about an hour, I'll let you get settled in and we'll talk about the situation after dinner." She walked off down the hallway with the rest of the team.
Rogue opened the door and smiled. It did feel good to be home. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle her old room but this held the homey feel she was used to at the school.
"Chere, do you really wan' ta do dis? Gambit tink we had a good ting goin' in de Big Easy, we don' need all de gadgets here, we do fine wid what we got?" He dropped his bag on the dresser and sat in the chair by the window. She glared at him, and put her bag on the large king sized bed and opened it. As she pulled things out and started putting them away he shrugged and got up and started unpacking his own bag.
"Gambit know what happened to you here is not someting you talk about, non, but Chere dis can' be good for you." He pulled out several soft undershirts and shorts he wore under his body armor. She looked over at him as he started stripping out of the soft Kevlar suit he'd designed to keep the team safe from his mutation. She walked over and slipped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his chest as he pulled her close against him. "Gambit worry dat you over tinkin' dis. You need to let go, let go of de pain from here, let Gambit make it all good." He whispered.
"You do make it 'all good' Swamp Rat." She whispered back and leaned her head back so he could capture her mouth with his. His hands slipped under her blouse lightly stroking the skin of her belly. Her fingers stroked the bare skin of his arms, the slight electrical charge just making her entire body tingle in anticipation - anticipation he had great skill in meeting and exceeding on a regular basis.
"Remy'd make it all good now, but even Remy can hear your stomach grumblin'." he whispered against her lips. He was right, she hadn't eaten while they packed, or even on the layover when everyone else grabbed something from the airport snack bar. She smiled at him, losing herself in his eyes for a moment, before she felt and heard a loud rumble from her middle.
"Guess you're jes gonna have ta wait ta get inta my pants, Swamp Rat." She said as she slipped from his arms and grabbed a change of clothes from the drawers. "Ah'm first in tha shower."
XXXXXXXXXX
He watched the car pull up, shocked when she actually stepped from the sedan onto the grounds she'd sworn she'd never return to. She'd never forgiven him for not noticing, for not knowing what was going on, never forgiven him for his senses not picking up on what was wrong. The day she left was a day branded in his memory forever.
"YOU PROMISED TO PROTECT ME!" she screamed, throwing things at him, whatever she could get her hands on.
"I didn't know...I thought you..." He ducked a knife thrown at his head. She was getting serious about trying to hurt him now, both physically and verbally.
"YOU knew, you had ta know...you could smell the fear, the blood, the pain, and not just mine. HE KILLED HER! She came here ta be safe from people like him, monsters, animals like him and you didn't protect her either. You're no better than he is. You're an animal." She groaned the last as she collapsed in tears. He reached to touch her but realized she was wearing too little for him to safely touch her - and he didn't need her feeling his guilt along with hers. She had enough to bear on her own.
"Marie..."
"DON'T call me that, don't EVER call me that again!" She screamed at him. "You lost that right when you didn't stop him, when he did this ta me." She pulled her blouse open, revealing the deep frost scars on her body, across her breasts, and down under the waist of her pants. "He raped me...was gonna kill me, woulda if Jubilee hadn't come lookin for him and he had ta leave me."
"You never said anything." He said, backing away from her.
"You were supposed to protect me, but you couldn't protect me from him." She said, suddenly calm. "Ah can't stay here anymore, Ah can't look at any of you anymore. Ah was supposed to be safe here..." She fastened her blouse and picked up the bag on the ground. "Ah'm not even sorry ta leave. Ah hate this place and ALL of you in it."
He watched her with the tall guy in the trench coat and realized she'd found something he couldn't give her. She'd healed somewhere, somehow, and again he'd not been there to protect and care for her. He climbed on the bike and turned onto the northbound highway. She would be better off if he wasn't there, at least until she got settled. He'd give it a few weeks before she had to look at him again...he'd never stopped loving her, and he wasn't ready to face the hate in her eyes again.
He chewed the cigar in his mouth, the wind preventing him from smoking it as he remembered months of trying to track her down, but he'd taught her too well, she had too much of him in her still, even after the cure. She'd eluded him at every turn, until he was called back for something earth shattering, but after every mission to save the world he'd go back to looking, hoping to find her, hoping to prove that she was wrong.
He pulled into a diner and climbed off the bike. A smoke, some coffee, maybe some food would help the ache in his gut.
"What can I get ya, honey." The waitress behind the counter gave him an appraising once over. He smiled and noticed her chestnut hair hanging in a ponytail, the wavy ends just brushing her shoulders, the bangs framing her face.
"Coffee, and a menu." He said.
"Sure." She walked off and he noticed her ass swaying as she walked to the row of coffee pots. He took a deep breath, no peaches, no cinnamon. He waited hoping, even knowing it was useless, for a reaction from his body. She was a pretty girl, and he should have some kind of reaction, but nothing. He bit back a growl of frustration. She wasn't Marie, the only woman he wanted, the only woman he couldn't have.
XXXXXXXXXX
Hank walked in to her office and she smiled at him. He walked around the desk and rested his hands on her shoulders, kneading the knots out slowly with skilled hands.
"Ororo, are you sure this is the wisest course of action. Rogue is still deeply disturbed about the past, I know her assistance in this matter would greatly expedite things, but Wanda and Pietro are unknown elements, and this Darkness, we have never even heard of him before. I know you and Mr. LeBeau are old friends, his apparent timelessness concerns me as well."
"Hank, I don't know what else to do. The warnings were very specific, something is going to happen and Rogue has to be here to stop it." She shook her head. She hated dealing with precognatives, they were never specific enough to really know WHAT needed to be done, but invariably were proven right if you didn't listen to them. That was the nature of the warning though, if you moved to prevent it you stopped it so it didn't come true, or maybe it did, it was too confusing to deal with.
"Perhaps we should do nothing." He said quietly.
Storm looked up at him and ran her fingers lovingly through is blue whiskers. "Never. I can't lose you too." He leaned down and kissed her gently.
"You don't know that it will happen. Time is not set in stone, my love."
"I don't know that it won't and if I can stop what she showed me, I will, with every drop of blood and sweat in my body." She said fiercely. "We need her and her team to stop this, I can't lose you, not now."
XXXXXXXX
"Wanda, why do we have to be here, you know I hate this place."
"Rogue needs us. And you owe her."
"I won't owe her forever, someday I'm leaving, I'm going to find our father and kill him." Pietro snapped.
"Please...give this a chance."
"The old man that ran this place wasn't able to help me, I don't know why you think Rogue can."
"Trust Dark. He says she can. He says we are needed here."
"Well go fuck your Dark, and leave me alone. I need a drink." Pietro snapped, leaning back on the bed.
"Not now, Pietro, please give this a chance." Wanda said from the door as she closed it.
"Yeah right."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
The door closed quietly behind her. He was sitting, lotus position in the middle of the rug on the floor, his jet black skin almost glowing in the fading light. She walked toward him and his eyes snapped open. The only way she could tell they were open was the reflections off their moist surface, they were completely black. His lips parted, the lighter grey teeth revealed in a smile.
"Wanda, love." He whispered.
"I don't know if Pietro is going to play nice in the playground." She said as he stood slowly, stretching as he straightened, before holding his arms open for her to rush into.
"Control, little one. I keep telling you there is no rush. Time will happen as it does, savor each moment." He tilted her chin up and brushed her lips with his. "We have all the time in the world."
"You keep saying that, but you also said time is short." She whispered.
"For them, not for us, my little one." He whispered, claiming her mouth with slow deliberation. She moaned against his lips, her hands tracing the firm muscles under the ebony velvet under her hands. She had a bit of her brother's impatience, but she trusted Darkness completely. He would make sure everything would work out for the best. She knew her friend faced great trials ahead, worse than anything in her life before now, and as long as Dark was there to protect them, everything would work out.