A/N: It's me with another Evo fic. This one's another post Apocalypse fic (gasp What a shocker, I know.) This one's set about 6 months after Ascension. It's kind of my take on the Acolytes joining the X-Men.
Ages:
Gambit-21
Colossus, Pyro, Jean, Scott, Lance-19
Rogue, Wanda, Pietro, Blob-18
Kitty, Kurt, Toad-17
Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution or any of the characters from it.
"Difference is you're tryin to save your father. That's more than Ah did."
"How dare you!"
"What happened?"
"Your thought are in my head . I know everything. You played me."
"Rogue…"
"Ever since you put me on that train it's all been a part of a plan."
"Let me explain."
"You knew you'd run into someone from the Rippers at the jazz club. You knew they'd come after you. And you knew that I'd use my powers to help you because you wanted me to absorb information."
"I'm sorry Rogue."
"You used me, just like every one else."
"My father's life was at stake."
"Rogue…"
"Don't. You just did the wrong thing for the right reason."
"So what now?"
"Ah'm going back with the X-Men. Ah don't care what you do."
"Sure you don't."
"Well, Ah better go."
"You will be fine, chére. You got people watchin for you."
Rogue tossed and turned as scenes from Louisiana replayed themselves in her dream. She woke with a start when arm hit her bedside table. Rogue just sat there in the darkness, waiting for the realization that it was just a dream. When it came, she looked at her bedside clock. 1:30.
Rogue debated about trying to get back to sleep, but knew that she would just be plagued by the dream. She got out of bed and walked out onto her balcony. She hoped that the soothing silence of the night would help.
Her thoughts wandered as she looked out across the dark grounds of the Institute. Soon they were focused back on the dream. It was a constantly recurring dream since that night in Blood Moon Bayou. She had told the Professor about it, but he had just shrugged it off as another dream.
Rogue sat with her back against the stone railing. She hated having that dream. Hated being reminded of him. Not because she was attracted to him, which she was, but because he had been the one to actually know what she had gone through. And she hated that he had used it against her. She wanted to hate him, but she found herself unable to. And it bothered her.
Rogue sighed and let her head drop back against the railing. The dream always left her like this. She would sit awake for the next hour or two and think about everything that had happened to her in her eighteen years. The next day, she would be tired and moody. And to make it all better, she had a six o'clock danger room session with Logan. Add in the fact that it was a Monday and her day would be hell on earth.
Rogue sat there for another hour before she felt her eyes drifting closed. She briefly thought about getting up, but she was comfortable. Ah'll regret this in the morning was her last thought before he eyes closed.
Rogue jumped when her alarm clock rang. She reached over to turn it off when her fingers bushed the railing. Where am Ah? Rogue opened one eye and looked around. The night before came back to her when she realized that she was sitting on her balcony.
Rogue hauled herself to her feet, wincing when she found a sore spot in her neck. She stumbled into her room to turn the alarm off. Rogue grabbed her uniform and pulled it on, glad that no one had come in to wake her up, since she wasn't wearing her gloves and the tank top and shorts offered little protection from her deadly skin.
Rogue jerked her door open and headed for the elevator at the end of the hall. It opened just as she got there, courtesy of Kitty's repeated pressing of the button. The younger girl looked as tired as Rogue felt. Rogue watched her pull her hair up when a thought struck her.
"Hey, Kit, can Ah borrow one of your hair ties?"
"Sure." Kitty handed Rogue a spare and watched as Rogue pulled her hair up. The shorter white strands escaped from the hair tie, falling into place against her face. "You should wear your hair up more often. It looks good."
"Thanks. You look tired." Rogue watched Kitty smother a yawn before answering.
"I am. I have a history paper due and I totally put it off until the last minute so that I could spend Saturday with Lance."
"Ah figured it was another late night phone conversation." That was one thing that Rogue didn't miss when her and Kitty moved into their own rooms.
"Nope. I didn't finish my paper until quarter til three, so I'm ready to go back to sleep. If Logan has us stand around while he explains something, I just might."
"Ah'm sure he'd love that." Rogue had to smile at the thought of Kitty leaning against the wall, snoring, while Logan lectured them.
"Like, he'd totally kill me." The elevator dinged as the doors slid open. The girls made their way to the danger room doors to wait for the others. Kurt teleported next to them a minute later, followed by Scott, Jean, and Storm.
"Good morning, girls," Ororo said with a smile as she walked through the door.
"Mornin, Storm," Kitty and Rogue chorused before following her into the danger room.
"Everyone here?" Logan asked as he came down from the control room. He looked around and, satisfied that everyone was there, he started his before training spiel. "Okay. Nightcrawler, you're a hostage in this sim. The objective is to rescue Elf without getting caught. You're done when everyone is safely back out and you've regrouped at least a hundred yards from the building. Clear?"
Everyone nodded. "Good." Logan left the room, only to reappear above them in the control booth. The danger room walls faded into darkness. There was a large warehouse several hundred yards in front of them. They could see several security guards roaming around.
"Elf, get yourself inside. Shades, you're the leader on this mission. Rogue, you're second in command. If Cyclops fails to complete his responsibilities, it's your show." Rogue nodded to show that she understood as Kurt disappeared in a cloud of blue-black smoke.
Scott waited a few minutes. "Shadowcat, go with Rogue. You're both more agile when it comes to enclosed areas and Rogue can use your powers to get both of you out of there if we get caught. Jean, you're with me. You two move in from the back and me and Jean will move in from above. Notify us by com if something comes up." The girls nodded their understanding and headed off.
Rogue and Kitty stuck to the larger hiding spots when possible. The were careful to stay low and only move when they were sure that no guards were looking. They reached the back of the warehouse with little trouble.
"Watch my back while I check it out." Kitty stuck her head inside the building and looked around. It seemed empty. She grabbed Rogue's hand and phased them both through.
Rogue pressed a hand to her communicator. "Cyke, this Rogue. We're in."
"Confirmed. Have you found the target?"
"Negative."
"Proceed with caution."
"We will. Over and out." Rogue nodded to Kitty and the two girls snuck silently down the hallway. Kitty stuck her head into each room as they passed it in search of Kurt. They found him in a room halfway down the hall.
"He's in here." Kitty phased Rogue in. Rogue kept an eye on the door as Kitty phased Kurt out of the restraints that were holding him.
"Cyke, we've got him."
"Good, now get out of there."
"Okay." Rogue had no sooner finished speaking that a guard burst through the door. Rogue quickly got into her fighting stance and eyed the guard. He was a large man, but that was all Rogue could tell. His uniform hid his body and a hat covered his head. He looks familiar.
"Kitty, get Kurt out of here." Rogue yelled the order over her shoulder, careful to keep an eye on the guard as he rushed her. Rogue knocked him away with a roundhouse kick that connected with the man's jaw. He sprawled across the floor for a moment before jumping up and coming at her again.
"We're not leaving you behind."
"Just go!" Rogue's tone left no argument. She swiped at the man's feet with her leg, bringing him down once again.
There was no way that Kitty was leaving a teammate behind. Kitty hit her com button. "Cyke, we need some help down here. We've got Nightcrawler, but there's a guard that Rogue's fighting.
"We're coming." Scott's voice was muffled by the sound of metal slamming against metal.
Kitty looked back to see that the guard was now covered in a metal armor. Rogue was trying her best to fight him off, but her kicks were having no effect. As a last ditch effort, Rogue pulled off her glove and pressed her bare hand to the arm of the guard when he swung at her. Kitty watched the guard drop to his knees.
Rogue pulled her glove on and grabbed Kurt. "Let's go!" She grabbed Kitty's hand and pulled the girl through the wall. Rogue hit her com as they ran through the building. "Cyke, we've got Kurt and we're getting out of here!"
A wall exploded in front of them, stopping their progress for only a second. Kitty grabbed Rogue and phased her and Kurt through the rubble. The were nearly out of the building when a figure stepped into the hall in front of them. He twirled a card in his fingers before the card was surrounded in a glowing flame.
Rogue swore as the figure threw the card toward them. "Kit, Ah'm gonna borrow a little of your power." Rogue ripped of a glove and briefly tapped Kitty. She held the contact long enough to get her powers, but not enough to weaken Kitty. "Take him." Rogue handed Kurt to Kitty and disappeared through the wall next to them.
The figure looked around in confusion. Kitty watched Rogue phase behind him and take him out with a well placed kick. He was sent flying into the wall across the hall. "Let's go!" Kitty took off at a run after Rogue.
They reached the outside with no further problems. Rogue led them to a small patch of woods a good two hundred yards from the warehouse before calling Scott and Jean. "Cyke, we're out. Meet us in that small patch of woods on the East side of the building."
"Roger. We'll be there in a minute." Sure enough, Jean and Scott soon floated down in front of them, courtesy of Jean's TK. The scenery faded back into the steel walls of the danger room.
"Good job. Stripes, way to watch out for your team," Logan's voice blared over the loudspeaker.
"Bravo, chére." Rogue whirled around to find the object of her dreams behind her. "You've gotten better."
"How did you get in here? Ah thought you were just part of the run."
"I see that you've met one of your new teammates." Professor Xavier wheeled over to the group. "Gambit has agreed to join us." The other guard walked over, no longer in his metal form. "So has Colossus."
"Professor, they're Acolytes," Scott blurted out, eyeing the two older boys with disgust.
"I haven't seen Magneto in over six months and I sure as hell ain't working for him." Remy's eyes burned in annoyance at Scott's tone and what he was implying. "And it's Remy. Remy LeBeau. I don't go by Gambit unless I'm working."
"If it ain't de infamous Remy LeBeau."
Rogue shook her head to get rid of the memory that was threatening to surface. She looked at the other X-Men's expressions as they regarded the two boys standing in front of them. She stepped forward and held out a gloved hand. "Welcome to the X-Men."
The taller man carefully shook her hand. "Thank you. My name is Piotr. I really don't prefer Colossus unless I am working, as Remy said."
Remy gave her a cautious smile. "Thank you, chére." He looked at the other X-Men behind Rogue. Kitty offered him a smile, while Scott and Kurt glared at him. Ororo, Logan, and Jean's faces remained impassive.
Professor Xavier decided to break the tension. "Kitty, Kurt, I believe that you have school. It's seven now, so you may want to begin getting ready." Kitty and Kurt nodded and headed back toward their rooms. "Scott, Jean, Ororo, the New Recruits should be awake. Please see to it that they don't destroy the mansion."
"Yes, Charles." Ororo walked toward the exit with Jean and Scott. Scott kept looking over his shoulder at the group left.
"Logan, if I may have a word with you. Rogue, will you please show the boys to their rooms before you get ready for school? They're in the empty rooms at the end of your hall. I've had their things placed in the rooms already. Remy is on your side and Piotr is across the hall."
"Sure. Follow me." Rogue walked out with the boys in tow. She could hear Logan and the Professor talking behind her, but she ignored it. They were always talking about something.
"If you're hungry, I can show you where the kitchen is first."
"No thanks, Rogue. I'd rather have a shower first."
"Me too," Piotr agreed.
"Okay. To the elevator then." Rogue pressed a button and waited. "What made you decide to join the X-Men?" The two men looked at each other before Remy nodded to Piotr.
"Magneto released me from my contract."
"What about you?"
"Jean Luc." Rogue let that one go. She remembered her encounter with Remy's adoptive father.
"Y' mean she can do all that with the touch of a finger?"
"Forget it."
She closed her eyes to ward off another unwelcome memory.
"You okay, petit?" Rogue opened her eyes to see Remy staring at her in concern. Then she noticed that the elevator's doors were open.
"Ah'm fine." she stepped into the elevator with the boys and pressed the button for their floor. Remy gave her a searching look, but didn't press it. "Where's the other member of your old team?"
"Pyro joined the Brotherhood," Piotr informed her. "He seemed to believe that they would be easier to live with."
Rogue nodded. "They're not bad to live with. The house is a wreck though."
"You are still enemies, da?"
Rogue shook her head. "Not really. We get along better since we joined up to fight Apocalypse. They're still the Brotherhood and they still cause trouble that we have to fix, but it's not an us against them fight anymore."
Piotr visibly relaxed at her statement. "You were worried about fightin them?"
"I do not wish to fight John. He is still a friend."
"Ah know how you feel. Ah lived with the Brotherhood before Ah joined the X-Men. The first fight against them was hard. Ah didn't want to hurt them, because they weren't the reason Ah left."
"Mystique?" Remy's question was so quiet that Rogue almost missed it. She nodded and he didn't ask anything else about it.
"Here we are." The elevator doors slid open and Rogue stepped out into the carpeted hall. She led the way down the long hall, pointing out who lived in which room as they went. "All the New Recruits have roommates, but the senior X-Men get their own room. This one's mine." She kept going past her door to the end of that hall. She pointed to the door on the left. "That one is Remy's and that one is yours, Piotr. If you have any questions, just ask."
"I've got a question, Rogue. Can you come get me before you go to breakfast?" Remy looked at her hopefully.
"Sure. It'll probably be at least fifteen minutes."
"That's fine."
"You want me to get you too?"
"No thanks. I'll find my way to the kitchen later."
"Alright." Rogue went back to her room to take a shower. After her shower, she put on a pair of black pants, layered a tight hunter green tee over a black long sleeved tee, and pulled on her black gloves and boots. She took the time to put on some black eyeliner and mascara, choosing to skip the rest of her makeup. She pulled her hair back like it had been earlier, since she didn't have time to blow dry it. Rogue grabbed her book bag and went to get Remy.
She knocked on his door. A second later, it opened. Rogue glanced at the barefooted Cajun in front of her. His hair, in the same cut she remembered, was hanging in his eyes, still dripping water. He had thrown on a pair of dark blue jeans with a black muscle tank. He eyed her Goth outfit and smiled.
"You comin or not? Ah don't have all day."
"I'm coming. Just let me grab my shoes." He put on socks and trainers before running a towel over his hair to get rid of most of the water. "Let's go."
Rogue turned and walked down the hall toward the entrance. Remy walked along next to her. "You know that I really am sorry about what happened before."
"You told me."
"I mean it. I'm sorry that I used you. I'm sorry that it came down to it. I really didn't know what else to do."
"Don't worry about it. Ah forgave you for it a long time ago."
"Why?"
"What?" Rogue glanced at him.
"I didn't deserve it."
Rogue sighed. "I saw in your memories that you really didn't have any other choice. You knew that you had to rescue him and I was willing to help after you guilted me into it. It was wrong, yeah, but I've done plenty of wrong things in the past. And you did have a good reason. It's not like you were doing it because you got some kind of sick pleasure from it."
"I still don't see why you were willing to let it go."
"Like you said, we've been down the same roads. I really wanted to hate you for using me. But, believe me, I understand your reason better than anyone else here."
"You don't have a problem with ex-Acolytes joining the team?"
"None at all. I don't know much about Piotr, but he doesn't seem like the type to try and screw us over. And the fact that you were willing to save someone who had done nothing but use you, just because he was willing to take you in, says something about loyalty. Here's the kitchen."
Rogue walked through the door and took a seat at the table. Remy looked around at the empty seats available before sitting down next to Rogue. They each grabbed a plate and started eating. Rogue was almost done when Logan came into the room.
"Stripe, if you want a ride, we're leaving."
"Coming." Rogue grabbed her plate to put it in the sink when a hand stopped her.
"Go. I'll take care of it, chére. Don't want you to be late." He grinned at her.
"Thanks." She grabbed her bag from the floor. "Ah owe you one."
"Just consider payment for showing me around a little." Rogue ran out of the room. She got to the door just as Logan pulled up wit the X-Van. She climbed into the empty passenger seat. "Thanks for getting me. Ah didn't have any idea what time it was."
"I figured that you'd be running a little late after showing them to their rooms and to breakfast."
"Yeah." Rogue pulled on her headphones for the short ride to the school. The music that everyone else listened to gave her a headache. Ah've got to talk to the Prof about getting a car.
Rogue jumped out of the van when it stopped in front of the school. She still had plenty of time until her first class, but she wanted to get out of the noisy van. Kitty seemed to agree and jumped out as fast as her.
"God, they're, like, so loud." Kitty was careful to keep her voice low enough that only Rogue could hear her.
"No kiddin. Ah'm gonna go crazy before this year's over if Ah have to keep ridin with them." Rogue opened her locker and grabbed her first period book. Rogue and Kitty had lucked out and gotten lockers next to each other.
"So, like, what was up with you and that Remy guy this morning?"
Rogue glanced at Kitty, trying to figure out how she should answer the question. "We have an understandin of each other."
"How?"
"You remember my little trip to Mardi Gras?"
"Yeah."
"That was with him."
"I know. Kurt told me. But I figured tat would give you a reason to hate him, not have an understanding with him."
"It should. But Ah learned that we have some things in common when Ah was with him." Rogue felt a breeze rush past her and sighed before turning around to face the speed demon.
"With who? Ooh did Roguey have date?" His blue eyes lit up at the chance to annoy his old teammate.
"Pietro, go away."
"Why should I?"
Rogue sighed. "Fine. Don't then. Ah'll leave instead." Rogue walked off with Kitty. They shared most of their classes since Kitty had been skipped a grade when their new principal saw her test scores.
"What do you have in common?" Kitty picked their previous conversation back up, more than used to finishing conversations that had been interrupted.
"Ah don't know how much he wants anyone to know, so Ah can't really tell you anything. Sorry, Kit."
"It's no problem. So is that it?"
"What're you talkin about?" She glanced curiously at Kitty, wondering how much to reveal.
"There's something else there, Rogue. A spark or something."
"Ah'll admit that Ah'm attracted to him. He's not bad looking, but Ah doubt that he'd want a girl he can't touch."
"You can still get close to him. I mean, he's in a new place and, like, his only friend there is Colossus. Gambit doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would stay to himself a lot."
"You're right. Ah can see Piotr staying to himself, but not Remy."
"So hang out with him. If it's meant to be, it'll work out. If not, you've got a friend with an understanding of you."
"Thanks, Kit." Rogue slid into her seat for senior English.
"Like, no problem. It's the least I can do after you never said anything about me sneaking out to meet Lance when we shared a room." Kitty took her usual seat next to Rogue at the two person table.
The teacher took her place in front the class. "Okay, students, settle down. This is Senior English. Anyone that isn't a senior may leave now." She gave a pointed look to a few younger kids in the front row. The hurried out of the class. "We've been in school for over a month and the freshmen still can't find their way around." She shook her head and turned to the blackboard.
Okay, so here's the new fic. I'm debating on whther to leave it as a Romy friendship or turn it into a romance. Let me know what you think about that. I hope you enjoy it. R&R. I love getting that little e-mail.