Rendezvous Illusions
Disclaimer: don't own any thing okay? Relax.
Summary: Post X3, After the dust settled at Alcatraz, allot of mutants went missing. Rogue has acquired the cure and is looking for Bobby…Does John Allerdyce know where his former best friend is?
Harder to Breath
She hadn't expected red carpets to be rolled out for her or bouquets of cheery colorful flowers to be handed to her when she solitarily walked back to Xavier Mansion, a school for the gifted-mutants, but Rogue did expect to see her boy friend Bobby Drake to greet her.
She tiptoed around hallways in the early hours of the morning, careful to avoid any unwanted collisions with a sleepy student on his or way to the bathroom and start questioning her wide awake creeping around the mansion, she thought of freshening up slightly before finding Bobby but then she changed her mind went to the boy's side of the rooms.
Some of the doors were left slightly ajar, so was Bobby's, she pushed her way inside she didn't expect to see an empty room with a still made bed.
It reaffirmed her fears that he might be in fact be with Kitty Pryde, her best friend. A justified conclusion, after she's seen them, interacting more 'friendlier' then usual.
Last night they spent studying calculus in his room. Kitty and Bobby. Rogue faltered steps away from Kitty's room working up the nerve to throw open the door and shout "HA you cheater!" if she caught them in a compromising position, If Bobby was there at all.
Maybe he wasn't.
Maybe she was over analyzing the situation more than necessary.
Maybe she should just knock on Kitty's room and get this over with. It's only when she raised her hand to lay it on the door knob something stopped her, a shadow. Larger then her own and unmoving. Fear over powered her as she turned to sneak a look at who was behind her, a large paw like hand came to rest on her shoulder.
"Logan!" she blurted out turning around completely, bright red faced, as if she had been caught doing something wrong. Her fake smile died down when she saw him completely. He was all bruised and bloodied and …sad.
Not the usual 'this worlds hopeless' sad, but as if 'someone died' sad. Oh god. Who else?
"Hey kid…" he said awkwardly extracting back his hand, his eyes wild and teary. She wondered if he were under the influence of something? The hallways were dimply lit at this time and it was hard to tell whether Logan was critically injured. She guided him out of the hallway, trying to steer him towards the medical wing.
Logan let him self be led by Rogue, he didn't refuse treatment or for that matter realize that she was touching him using her bare hands, and it wasn't really affecting him.
"Where's everyone!" She wondered aloud, nudging Logan in the ribs lightly. She hadn't been gone long, what tragedy took place while she was out?
Bobby wasn't in his room, the thought brought and unwelcome lump in her throat, the feeling of hot fear simmering at the pit of her stomach, she stopped sat Logan down and prepared to question him properly.
"Logan? What…"
He barely raised his eyes to meet hers as his posture slumped once more in a depressing battle weary way, his voice raw when he spoke, "Jean's gone…for good."
He's been dreaming allot since the Alcatraz collapse. Apocalypse. That's what the newspapers have been calling it an almost-Apocalypse, which could have ended their bright little, shiny world.
There were shards of memories flitted together like unsuspecting lightning bolts that struck him during sleep. Brief addled memories of the fight, the explosions, the destruction, the golden gate bridge being beautifully yanked off its hinges & the cries of mercy. Death rang out rampant during the final battle...he remembered that well. It wasn't all fragmented like the rest of his memories about the actual 'fight'.
The numbers of deaths were listed in the newspaper, maybe that's why it made it easier to remember them, and there were several human causalities. Almost double the number of mutant causalities. For some reason his regular excursions of the newspapers were becoming as of late …frantic. Like he was searching for something or someone?
Not recognition. Somehow he wasn't that eager for credit after the conclusion of the battle. His fight exhausted mind was probably frightened to reveal 'what' it was he was looking through the papers so extensively for. He wasn't sure. He had deliberately blocked memories of that night.
For the last few weeks the papers had talked about nothing but the destruction and causalities incurred, the reactions of survivors, government plans, threat to the national income and the dead listed in the order found.
Dr. Jean Grey, Scott Summers and Professor Xavier were in the obituaries as well and had been for a long time, before Alcatraz. Erik Leshnerr aka Magneto had been listed missing and still extremely dangerous. Brotherhood declared disbanded and possibly destroyed.
Frustrated, he balled up the newspaper and watched it go up in flames in his hands. The charred remains tickled his hands like uninhibited danger of some haunting memory; He rose and threw them out his apartment window and watched as they dispersed in air mocking him.
St. John Allerdyce closed his window, locking it tightly so the charred remains of the papers didn't fly back at his face. His fears un assured, the surly young man let out a feral snarl resisting the urge to throw something at the wall or setting the room on fire, Unless he wanted to be thrown out of the building. Which he didn't, not yet.
Not until he found what he was looking for what was threatening to give him repetitive nightmares.
After Professor Xavier, Scott Summers and Jean Grey's death there were a few missing mutants who were missing and were yet to be pronounced dead if not returned to the mansion themselves.
Robert 'Bobby' Drake was one of the mutants who were listed missing.
After the Alcatraz facility collapsed and Jean Grey's alter ego almost destroyed the world, an inventory of causalities and damages had to be done by Orora Monroe, Who was also the new head mistress of Xavier high.
Ostensibly, no proof was yet available that the missing mutants were in fact dead, but it was a practical possibility and Rogue knew it but refused to believe it.
Mutants missing from the school had amounted to 11, Bobby being almost purposefully top of the list. As the weeks dawned on, Rogue waited, hopeful for his return or some news of his capture by the Brotherhood as some twisted revenge or the state police as a mistaken member of the brotherhood.
The news of her taking 'the cure' had spread through school like rapid fire, turning several against her in the space of a single night. Several refused to acknowledge her existence in the mansion; others tried to be supportive of her decision around her but branded her traitor behind her back. If Bobby was with her she would have taken offence to the way her friends were treating her but she had been silently too distraught to behave like she took notice of there retaliation against her decision.
Storm had tried to speak to her about it, Logan had thankfully remained locked up in his room, There was no more Jean Grey, Scott Summers or even Professor Xavier for that matter to try and talk to her about the possibility of Bobby having died and her having to accept it sooner than late so that the grieving process would be slightly easier.
She wouldn't believe it, not until she could see a body. And more than anything she wanted them to be wrong. The news channels never flickered off in the mansion. But there was no news of the 11 mutants that had vanished form Alcatraz without a trace.
There was a possibility they might have been close to where Jean Grey had started the powerful process of disintegrating everything within close range be it human, metal scrap or mutants.
But everyone had left the Island according to what little was decipherable from Logan's testimony to Storm. She had been overworked, stretched beyond her capacity and quickly starting to fight the possible losing battle of having to reassure the children that everything would be alright and that there missing friends would magically return. The dark circles under her eyes revealing all this too well.
It's because the initial battle had made things worse. Lines had been drawn. Irrevocable Differences had settled coldly in the hearts of humans and some misguided mutants. Hope was steadily failing like emerging warnings of a thunder storm. There was only so much Storm could do …to alter everyone's course of behavior with Rogue wouldn't be a lesser difficult task.
Rogue would have to deal with the consequences of her decision on her own. The fact didn't make her bitter or sad as she had imagined it would, it just added to the list of problems she shelved to deal with on a later date. For now she had to focus and find Bobby.
Katherine Pryde had made it back to the Mansion, with maximum damage. Most of her bones broken, she had also suffered some brain damage. It might be irreversible. She could fall into a coma which she might never rise from. For now things were unclear.
Remaining teachers were afraid to comment on her condition or of others who had gone to fight the battle at Alcatraz; it had been too emotionally bruising and haunting to talk about in school hallways. So no one spoke about it.
Dr. Hank McCoy remained stoic and in complete charge of the medical treatments being administered to the injured. Rogue had visited Kitty and watched as her friend battled against monotonous, inevitable permanent sleep.
Her color faint, she looked almost transparent and so young. Rouge had cried then. Holding on to her limp hand and prayed the hardest she had in the longest time. Silently trying to communicate that she was sorry about the jealousy she had wrongly felt for her friend and boyfriend.
Someone had told her that they've been plotting her birthday. That's why they've been meeting frequently behind her back. The revelation shamed her, made her feel cheap and petty. Her decision of getting rid of her powers wavered although it was too late.
The assuredness she felt after getting the cure had boiled down to nothing. All for nothing…Maybe if she had waited a while longer and had confronted them? Or if she had been at the battle with them? She wouldn't have been so miserable and distraught about the missing x-men.
She felt responsible. Everyone who had been there had somehow replaced her. She could have been helpful, her powers could have protected her friends, helped quite possibly to recover Jean? She didn't want to know at this point. The could have been's came as treacherous reminders of her failure to be of help, her selfishness in full view of hers and others.
Hope for Bobby's and everyone else's return faded in the general, Student and Teacher body except for hers.
She had to hope or else she'd go mad.
The nightmares had been getting worse. John almost stumbled when he was walking past a cheap novelty shop displaying different items of interest. The ivory white arm length gloves caught his attention and jolted his evasive memory. He hadn't seen Rogue at the battle. He hadn't in fact seen her at all. Where was she and how the hell come hadn't he wondered about this earlier?
The thought made his empty stomach flip flop slightly. Had she really not been at Alcataraz or was her face one the memories his brain had been trying to block out?
He walked into the novelty shop looking at the differing arrays of items on offer. There was a gun with a silver glinting polish that made him pause after he'd taken a hold of the gloves.
He took out his lighter at the counter, his reassurance and credit card for the moment. Threatened the old proprietor with bodily harm and asked for a clip to load into the gun. The owner, after a moment's hesitation, handed over the clip and backed away from the counter allowing John to leave. Too worried about the threat to his life, John didn't have to try hard, he might be a young punk but he probably looked like a nightmare himself after the past few weeks and with the recurring memories he'd been trying to shove away.
He walked out with both items, the Gloves boxed in a gift box and the gun with a loaded clip shoved deep into his pockets.
He taped the box shut with his cell number inside, after debating for a night what to do with them he sent it to Xavier Mansion and waited for something, anything.
Rogue had decided to go looking for answers regarding the missing mutants herself.
Proper answers as to what there real fate had been. She was neutral about this.
It wasn't going to be easy and she wasn't going to ask for help from anyone in the Xavier mansion in case they try to stop her. Which she had no doubt they would, at least the teachers, and maybe Logan, if he knew...
She was looking up info regarding Alcatraz Island and whether it was still under police and government scrutiny, because she couldn't very well go snooping around the rubble if they were standing spot on to prevent her from doing so.
It's when she discovered that they had indeed left the facility still in ruins up to its own devices. It had become somewhat of a tourist spot as of late and was being regularly visited during the day times. That she received an anonymous package delivered to her room.
A cardboard white box which had been neatly taped shut. The tape looked suspicious but not frantically wrapped as if in urgency. No one came to her room these days but just as precaution she locked her door shut at seemingly the conspicuous nature of the package.
She cut the tape open with a pen knife and opened the lid with raised expectations. It could be some news about Bobby. The moment her eyes made contact with the enclosed item …she almost fell off of her bed.
Placed delicately within the confines of the cardboard box lined with cotton and layers of tissue paper lay… silken, vividly white gloves. One atop each other. Methodically placed as to hide a small scrap of paper between the gloves.
A number and name scrawled almost hastily on it. John, it read. Her feet grew cold at the name. She recognized and remembered him well. Surly, St. John Allerdyce, Rule breaker, fierce competitor, and Bobby's best friend. Before he had joined the brother hood that is.
Rogue untangled herself from the bed sheets feeling uncomfortable at the prospect of the 'enemy' contacting her. He wasn't really an enemy. He used to be hers and Bobby's friend and sometimes he had tried to be a lot more with her. And she had refused to feel any more for him than a friend.
She refused to believe that it had driven him to leave their side, the right side and join the brotherhood.
The teacher's rooms had phones. She realized fitfully that she'd have to wait until everyone fell asleep to venture out to either Mr. Summers or the Professors room to use it.
John's unwilling desire to dream didn't stop the nightmares from coming. They came in sordid waves; fiery explosions rocked them out of focus when he tried to tread one memory at a time.
He had seen Kitty Pryde standing atop a pile of rubble at Alcatraz watching him, only her silhouette visible in the darkness. He was fighting someone, some x-men, probably nameless…and she had tried to stop him by throwing something heavy on him.
He ducked it, took his eyes off of his previous target and took a running start after her. She watched for a moment and took off running. He could hear someone calling his name in contempt…some other x-man; again he couldn't see the face because he ignored him and caught up with her faraway from her friends his comrades and made her fight him.
Even though she was unwilling, sad and full of rotten anguish about knowing him and not wanting to fight him. It made him madder and only fueled his desire to hurt her. She tried to block out his punches, kicks and fire. And failed, not miserably, he noted without distaste. At least she was fighter about it. She managed to duck the fire and make it through the hand to hand combat.
But collapsed when he threw her down the pile of rubble they were both precariously perched on…he heard her scream, long, hard and helplessly.
Then woke up in bed drenched in sweat, at the insistent ringing of his cell phone by his bed side.
