Title: Power Loop
Fandom: X-Men/Heroes
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
It's the horror section of the med room. They've been quietly draped off, silently hidden behind a curtain. Out of sight, out of mind. Because there's nothing anyone can do. But they're not out of mind. Never out of mind. The silence just intensifies the horror as you look at their faces, the silent screams, their eyes locked on each other as they watch the never ending cycle continue. Their memory rests in the consciousness of all mutants, a testimony to the unknown, the fear that arises with every mutant power. For every power there is a drawback. Every power has a catch. Some are obvious, some sneak up on you. And sometimes the horror that the power can inflict on you is greater than anything that you can do to anyone else.
They were hailed as some of the most powerful mutants of their time. Unlimited power, unlimited possibilities. The ability to absorb a power, anyone's power, and make it their own. They were unstoppable. Especially when the regeneration was thrown in to the mix. But like most powers, the greater the boon, the greater the danger. For life can become a much greater hell than death.
She thought she knew her limitations. Obvious and painful enough before she learned better. Don't take too much power because each person's power is tied to their life, making their lives hers each and every time. And they don't always recover. She learned to limit herself, to only take so much and be wary of taking anything to begin with. She had enough to deal with on her own. But like all humans, she could not live in isolation. So she searched and found another of her kind. Another who understood what it was like to have so many different powers at one's fingertips, different voices rattling around in one's skull.
They thought their skills would negate each other. How can you absorb the power to absorb when that is already the power you have? But there is always a catch. In that first moment of touch, that first contact it was heaven. Until Peter Petrelli started gasping. Rogue watched the life slowly drain from her counterpart to his death as she stood frozen in shock. Then he gasped back to life as his regeneration took hold and Rogue felt her own life slipping away. Back and forth, back and forth, they drain and regenerate almost too quickly to follow as each of their powers goes in to overdrive trying to compensate for the other's. Too quickly for their minds to catch up and break the connection. The power builds on every cycle until it's too great and the backlash of breaking that cycle without control could destroy everything. And so there they stand for eternity, forever living and dying at each other's hands, against each of their wills, both praying for a release that will never come.