A/N: IMPORANT! I thought I'd never write another Romy, well, can't live without those guys. But not to keep you for long, my dear readers. What I want to say is this fic is nothing you've seen before, at least on Romy realm. Writing this fic was a true struggle since I post a challenge to myself: to get inside Rogue's mind, soul and even body. Thus the story is told from Rogue's POV, more or less. I beg you to live with present tense and the story looking more like a movie script than a piece of fiction. I assume it is worth reading, cause… there is some interesting stuff here, you've never encountered before.

Disclaimer: X-Men belong to Marvel, no doubt about. I also want to mention that I watched Wolverine and X-Men only when I started to right the 25th chapter, so I am sorry for using some themes that are there. Well, they were kinda obvious anyway.

A Ride of a Lifetime

by Lady Arabella Malfoy

Prologue

Ah hate funerals. Never thought Ah'd hate them so much though after digging seven graves and looking at their tombstones. They were people Ah've lived with for six years, people, who were not friends, who didn't exactly cared about meh, but now they were dead. Mah feelings were controversial. Did Ah tell you, Ah hate funerals?

So how come? It all started in a rather ordinary way. One of the walls in the girls' wing of the mansion collapsed, which obviously woke up all its inhabitants. Ah told Kitty, rather disgruntled, that if her current boyfriend a.k.a. Avalanche was asking her out, he could use a bloody phone! Not to mention, it was three in the morning! At that Kitty made one of her 'cutely innocent' expressions claiming ignorance about the situation. Mah theory - Boom-Boom must've sneezed in her sleep. Whatever, Ah turned to the other side to catch some precious sleep till the morning Danger Room session. No such luck. Prof's telepathic message ordered us to gather in the living room. Ordered, not asked, as he usually did, thus the matter was rather serious.

As it turned out, Jean Grey a.k.a. Miss Perfect lost it. According to Prof, her inner demonic mutancy was unleashed and that mutancy could destroy everyone and everything. Mutant and human alike. Destroy the world for no apparent reason, just because she could. And so she must've been stopped. By us. Speak about uncomfortable.

The issue obviously called for joining forces. Some mutants like Angel and Morlocks joined right away. Magneto remained 'neutral' since the Dark Phoenix, as Jean named herself, was doing his job of annihilating humans. The Brotherhood reluctantly (with kicking and screaming as if they were children, not twenty-year-olds!) agreed to help that one time, as if their lives didn't depend it. The Acolytes just disappeared after the Apocalypses ordeal, living their own lives, or so Ah've guessed. At times Ah wondered, how different they were from us. Much older, completely in control of their mutant powers, they'd made their own decisions in life. Why did they work for Magneto anyway? Now they were gone to live the way they wanted with no obligations or duties. Ah wondered what the price of that freedom was, since they were still mutants with no people to look after them.

With the rise of the Dark Phoenix the existence of mutants was not a secret anymore, and that meant only one thing – witch hunt. If Ah had thought of the situation objectively, Ah could've agreed that humans had the right to protect themselves from the mutants who had powers beyond human control. But Ah was not objective. We were taunted and alienated from humans the moment our powers manifested, despite Prof's best efforts. We lived with that. But Ah was not going to live in a mansion with teenagers scared out of their wits because of the mobs threatening to smoke us out! The security system could take them all out in a flash, but no-o-o-o, they were humans, we couldn't attack humans, we were to protect them. But who would protect us?

Nobody knew what Jean was actually trying to accomplish – to kill all humans or all mutants or just kill everybody who didn't worship her as a self-proclaimed goddess or whatever else her crazy mind thought at one moment or another. In such unfavorable conditions, as our esteemed leader would say (He wouldn't though, Scott was completely crushed by Jean's betrayal. As much as Ah didn't like Jean, they had something real going on after graduation. The betrayal of a lover is much more painful than one of a friend, or so Ah've read.) there wasn't much we could do with the anti-mutant activists camping around the mansion. Getting groceries needed a plan of a full scale operation, firstly to weasel through the camp, then get a vehicle, then get to the mall, buy a LOT of food and get back without anyone noticing that we were mutants. To fulfill the last condition only those who didn't have any distinctive mutant features could get out. Thus Ah remained in the mansion. During day.

Help came from a rather unexpected and mostly unwelcome source. He just strawled into the rec room, which was the room we mainly used, since it was the most secure one, located in the very center of the half destroyed mansion. The sneaky Cajun had gotten that far only because Logan, our unhackable security system, was out. It was obviously taken into account. As Ah said, sneaky Cajun.

So he waltzes in, nobody even notices him, until he speaks in that drawl of his, "Remy heard, you've got yourselves in a pretty mess, petites."

And then come blazes and blasts from all sides, which he evades simply by taking a leap backwards. Ah don't do anything, Ah just watch. Watch as they destroy the only comfortable room in the whole building. Idiots. Yeah, the kids and even those that were X-Men already were scared out of their mind, living from one attack to the next, be it an anti-mutant riot or humans brainwashed by Jean (those were very troublesome because of the 'ethical' issues). So they didn't ask to verify who the attacker actually was or if he was even an attacker. Ah didn't ask, but Ah understood. Ah didn't know him all that well, but those black eyes told meh all – they were blazing with fear. The great thief was on the run, and was looking for a safe harbor. Ah doubted he would disclose that little secret, maybe only to Professor.

The fight, an assault more so, was stopped by Storm, and later Professor showed up too, the racket must've interrupted his Cerebro session - he still attempted to get in contact with Jean's mind. After a long conversation, which nobody had heard beside its participants, Gambit was allowed to, oh no, not to join the X-Men, just to appear from time to time.

Which was obviously a very good decision for his health, because the moment Logan stepped over the threshold, he was very unhappy with Professor's decision. So unhappy that he made three distinctive marks, leaving Prof's room. Yet another wall crumbled.

At night the X-Men collected refugees – mutant families, kids with freshly activated powers – from a desolated locations. Meh and Swamp Rat were often paired for those missions. Ah certainly didn't volunteer, it's because Ah was the only one that could actually do the job and not fall under his self-proclaimed charms. What is there to fall for anyway? He flirts the same way with every skirt, meaning there is no one special to him, and they just listen with bated breath and can't stop drooling while staring at him. Okay, he is a handsome guy, but there are hundreds of those. How can anyone even think about such things when lives of the people around you are in danger?

Ah did come to admire some of his qualities however. First of all, he could totally kick ass. Using his mutant power and combinations of various martial arts techniques he could fight at both far and close range. He didn't need orders as we did, he could act independently and even issue orders to us. Of course, there was a big and loud debate about trusting Swamp Rat and relying on him as in following his orders (the guys were the ones protesting, there was no problem with the girls - airheads), but his intel was always right and missions accomplished. The last quality that Ah attempted to learn was his confidence in battle. Ah've been an active X-Men for a couple of years and Ah've still hesitated before using mah power on another being, Ah am not even talking about the younger ones. Gambit never hesitated, because hesitation was death by the enemy. Their guns hurt us as much as any other human being. Ah doubt Prof would agreed with meh, but in a death or life situation there is no time to think about ethics of right and wrong, you just want to survive and so you attack no matter who the enemy is. Ah learned that while being on a missions with Gambit, Ah wonder what it took him to learn it.

Three months of blood bath. Humans killing humans, mutants killing mutants, everybody killing everybody and no way to end the chain of insanity but to go to the source of it. The showdown battle happened rather unexpectedly. Seems that Jean became bored with making sandwiches from skyscrapers and messing with minds and making people kill each other or commit suicides. She knew that there was one mind she could not mess with and that was an itch she really wanted to scratch out. So she appeared in front of us in all her flaming glory when we were simply sitting in the park, having some resting time. It was three in the morning, no one was supposed to be out yet, so it was safe enough to creep from the shadows of the mansion and have some fresh air. We were all there. We had no plan as to what actually do to "stop" the Dark Phoenix, but she decided for us, instantly engaging in a telepathic battle with Professor.

Thankfully, Professor took all her attention, so we had an opportunity to come with a plan, but nobody had any ideas.

Until Gambit threw rather casually, as only he can, "Why not blow her up? It always solves the problem."

To which Scott obviously retorted with, "We can't! She is one of us! We can't kill her!" He didn't say, "I love her", the reason to which is also obvious, and Ah couldn't help but pity him. Ah am not into all kinds of sappy stuff, but his love could've straightened Jean out a little, Ah think.

The Cajun just answered with, "She is not your femme anymore," and stepped towards meh for some reason.

Ah threw him one of mah classic keep-your-hands-to-yourself look, but then understood his idea and didn't like it. Then Ah looked around, looked into the eyes of mah teammates, the people Ah've spent so many years with – they didn't like it either, but there was no other choice. Ah neared Storm and touched her forehead to borrow her flying powers, then took some of Logan's powers just in case Jean would notice meh coming and counterattack and when Ah almost touched Gambit's face, he stopped meh.

"Why do you always take fun out of life, chere?" he asks, his naughty thoughts written all over his smirking face. "You'll need quite a lot, take as much as you like."

Ah almost blew up into his face! That Casanova was flirting when our lives were on the line! But then Ah thought, what the Hell, why not? So Ah kissed him. Our lips were connected for seven seconds, Ah usually count to know when to stop. Or was it ten? Ah seemed to be a little distracted at that moment. Ah have to give him credit, he stood for five more seconds with that annoying smirk of his and only then fainted.

Ah rose into the sky, coming onto Jean from behind. The duel in the astral seemed to be quite intense since it started to effect reality too – the trees in the park started to crack and fall, the nearby houses – collapse. The X-Men run off to help the inhabitants, while Ah was left with the blowing torch in front of meh. Without further ado, Ah grabbed her by the neck – Gud, it was hot! Were those real flames or only a telepathic projection, they burned for real. But that was not important, Logan's healing power was slowly kicking in, and Ah put all mah effort into charging Jean Grey. Ah didn't ask myself, how do Gambit powers work on organic organism, Ah just gave it mah all.

Through the flames Ah saw as Professor's form went limp – he must've lost. The now victorious Dark Phoenix wanted to bask in triumph, but noticed little old meh on her back. With force no Sentinel could match she threw meh through the air, but it was too late, there was enough manipulated kinetic energy in her body for the said body not to withstand it. The blast was enormous! The wave threw meh at least ten kilometers away. Ah doubted Ah'd live.

Somehow Ah survived. It took meh about six hours to half walk half crawl to the Institute. Ah fell into mah bed without wanting to see or hear anyone. The next day guys started digging graves. Seven of them. For Professor, Dr. McCoy, Blob, Cannonball, Spike, Jubilee. They all died at different times protecting us or humans who didn't know anything about their help, about their lives sacrificed for the better future. The last one was for Jean Grey. Scott insisted on the last one. Everybody agreed, nobody had strength to argue. Her casket was empty, but Ah bet Scott was quite willing to take the place. He looked and moved like a zombie, giving orders to organize the funeral. Something died in him too.

There was a priest among the refugees so he conducted the ceremony. Logan, Ororo and others said a few words, Ah doubt anyone listened to them. Ah can bet all mah savings that everybody have a question running through their minds: what are we going to do now? Professor, who basically held us together, was gone. The mansion was ruined. Mutant haters are everywhere. What in the Hell are we going to do now?

But in the deepest part of our minds is running another question: who will be next? What if it was not only Jean? She was the very first student of Xavier's, what if with time we all lose control of our powers? So who will be next? Ah can feel all those side glances thrown at meh. Nobody knows what happened up there, but they know that a part of the Dark Phoenix is inside meh. How large is that part? What if Ah go crazy too? Absorb everyone around meh? No way Ah'll want that, but do they care? They now know what true fear is and they don't want to feel it again.

Ah look around too. Ah can't pin point it, but something is amiss. Someone is missing. Ah look at the names at the graves, Ah look around meh and Ah don't see his auburn hair. This couldn't be happening! Ah couldn't have killed him, then where is he?

"Where is Gambit?" Ah snap at the nearby mutant, who happens to be Kitty of all people.

"Nobody told you?" she asks back all teary eyed, but Ah see panic behind those tears.

"Where the Hell is Gambit?"

"There was this big explosion and it was like an earthquake and when we got to the park, it was totally destroyed, rubble and trees everywhere. He couldn't've survived."

"Wait a minute. You took Ororo with you when she fainted, why didn't you take him too?"

Kitty was quite near fainting too, Ah must be quite scary. Oh, yeah, Ah am. "We forgot."

"How the fuck did twenty people 'forget' to take a fallen teammate with them?" Ah am screaming now, and Ah don't fucking care that Ah disrupt the service. Team spirit mah ass!

"Well, he is not usually on the team, so…"

"Then where is the body? Why didn't you retrieve it?" Ah was clearly losing mah patience. Ah felt Gambit's powers itching on mah fingers. Ah didn't know why they were still there, but definitely wasn't going to stop myself from using them if Ah don't receive a satisfying answer.

"The police was all over the place by the time we got there-"

"So what? You left him to die! Bloody Hell! You have a grave for a murdering maniac and can't pay tribute to someone who gave his powers, risked his life to save your sorry asses? What farce is this? You are not worthy of his life, you should be in those graves instead!"

With that said Ah run into the mansion, get to mah room and through some things into the bag. Ten minutes later Ah am mounting now masterless bike and getting the Hell out of there. Ah've lived with those people for six years. Ah have no desire to spend any second more. Haven't Ah said, Ah hate funerals?