Chapter 3
Rogue could feel the woman's icy hands as they wrapped around her subconscious, dragging her in. She felt herself being pulled further and further away from her physical body, until at last her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and her body hit the floor. She tried to fight it, but the woman had been part of her mind far too long, she had become much, much stronger than any other personality inside Rogue's head, fueled on by hate, anger, and a desire to destroy her captor.
Now Rogue could see her clearly, the woman's who life she had destroyed, the only person she had even killed.
The woman was actually more of a teenager than a woman, an almost identical copy of Rogue except for a few minor details. Her hair was all one color, absent of the two white stripes that decorated Rogue's head, and her eyes were a normal brown color, not filled with the emerald brilliance of Rogue's own.
Rogue didn't know her name, just her title, and that was more than enough.
"Mom," she breathed. This wasn't the woman who had adopted her, Mystique, no this was her real mother, her birth mother.
Her mother laughed harshly as Rogue addressed her, "Me, your mother? Oh please, I never wanted to have you, I wanted to get an abortion, but my family wouldn't let me," as she spoke, she advanced towards Rogue. Rogue tried to back away but found herself trapped by a wall.
'This is my mind, I just need to will the wall away,' Rogue thought as she pushed against it with her mental strength.
The woman, Rogue's mother, laughed again, "Your mind? Give me a break, I was the one who made you, I was the one who created this mind, so I'll be the one to control it." As she spoke, thick, black tendrils reached up out of the floor, wrapping around Rogue, holding her in place. "I want to make you suffer for what you did to me, I Will make you suffer."
She walked up to Rogue, cupping Rogue's face in her hands, forcing her to look into her eyes, "Now lets begin, shall we?"
Looking into the eyes of her mother, Rogue realized what was about to happen, "No, no please. I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."
Her cries were met by the cold laugh of her mother, "Of course you didn't mean too, but I don't really care," She leaned down and pressed her lips to Rogue's forehead, "Sweat Dreams," she whispered as Rogues body began to disappear, retreating further into her subconscious, "Time for you to know my pain."
Someone was telling her to push, another person was holding her hand. Emotions coursed through her, fear was a big one, but excitement and love accompanied it. She would be a mother soon, sure she was only a teenager, a teenager who had made a mistake, but her family was supporting her, and now she would have a lasting memory of her boyfriend who had died in a car accident seven months ago. The Doctor told her to push again, and she did, happy at knowing that her child, her baby girl was almost here.
That's when she felt it, a strange, almost sucking feeling, as if something had grabbed hold of her and was slowly suffocating her. As the feeling got worse, any ability she had to describe it was lost, she tried to scream but found her lips to cold to move and she was hardly aware of the sudden flurry and panicked voices that surrounded her. What made it worse was that she knew she was going to die, and that nothing anyone could do would save her. She could feel the icy hand of death bearing down upon her, and in the last second before her eyes closed forever, one thought entered her mind, 'I've created a monster.'
Rogue screamed as her mind was wretched out of the memory of her birth. This was the first time, the very first time she had ever been on the receiving end of her power. 'That's what I do to people, that's what they feel. Oh god, I do that to people, I make people go through that, I make them feel that pain!' For reasons unknown, her powers had manifested at birth, and then receded again. Rogue had assumed that that it had something to do with overloading her circuits, as it were. As a baby she could only handle so much, so when the entirety of her mother's soul was absorbed into her, her body couldn't handle any more. As a result, her power was once again forced into dormancy where it stayed until 16 years later when Cody just had to ask her for a dance.
In the real world, her physical body began to scream as well, twitching madly on the floor. A new strength surged into her, something dark and primal, something that was now a part of her.
Still screaming, she used her new strength to break down the walls holding her captive, closing them again once she was free. She was in a frenzy, a blinded state of pain and she didn't even hear her mothers harsh screams of disbelief and furry at being once again locked away.
And then the feeling overtook her, the darkness consumed her and she fell.
/
He heard the scream, they all did, but he heard it first. Lupin was on his way to ask Rogue to come down to dinner when it had happened. He had felt it in his mind before it had reached his ears, that, cold, deadly call he knew all to well. It was the cry of the wolf, the anguished scream of the transformation.
Rushing into her room, he found her lying on the floor, her body writhing uncontrollably. She had already started to change, claws and fur growing on her body. Raising his wand he yelled "Illarum!" (Latin for wall), causing silver bindings to shoot out of the end of his wand and form a cage around the now fully transformed wolf.
The wolf snarled at him with fully exposed canines then threw itself against the cage, falling back with a yelp as a current of electricity shocked its hide. "Sorry about that, kid," he whispered to Rogue. She was on her feet again but was, for now, staying in the center of the cage.
"Lupin! What's going on?" Molly said in a worried tone, "Is Rogue…" her voice trailed off as her eyes landed on the cage. "But it's not the full moon, how is this possible?"
"Move aside, Molly," Moody's voice was gruff as he pushed past her, followed by Tonks and Arthur. Outside in the hall Harry, Hermione, Ron, and his siblings strained to see what was going on.
"Should we call Dumbledore?" Molly asked in a small voice, wincing slightly as Rogue once again threw herself against the cage, only to be repelled in the same manner as before.
"No, he's out right now talking to the ministry, we can fill him in when he gets back. She's already fully transformed, the only thing we can do know is wait for the transformation to reverse," Lupin told her. "I'll stay here and watch over her."
Moody turned to the group of kids, "You're all going to Hogwarts a little early this year," he told them with a lopsided grin, "We need to know if anyone has ever changed when it wasn't the full moon before."
"I'll stay too," Tonks hadn't realized she was about to say that, the words had just seemed to spill out of her mouth. Her desire to protect Rogue had surged to the surface when she heard the scream, and staring at the wolf Rogue only made her desire to help the girl increase.
"No," Moody told her, "You get to lead the research team, you'll be more help there than sitting here watching her hurt herself on that cage."
Tonks knew he was right, she had only graduated from Hogwarts a short time ago, so of the adults, she was probably the most familiar with the library as it was now. 'I'll still be helping her' she tried to tell herself, but as she turned to leave the room she made the mistake of once again looking back into the eyes of Rogue. It was probably her imagination, but she thought that as their eyes met, there was a brief flash of humanity in those eyes, but then she blinked and that was gone. As she left she winced as she heard the wolf yelp, having once again thrown herself against the cage.
/
Harry looked up from a thick and utterly useless volume in-titled Mystical Miracles as Tonks groaned loudly and plopped her face down into her latest book.
"I give up!" she exclaimed exasperatedly, her voice slightly muffled by the book, "No werewolf has ever changed out of the cycle before, I'll bet Moody just wanted to get rid of us."
Harry was inclined to agree, the thought had already passed his mind several times. If there had ever been a documented case of a werewolf changing at a time other than the full moon, Hermione would have known about it. She had, after all, done a report of werewolves in her third year, and he was sure she would have found something.
"Ah, come off it Tonks," George said, walking over and pulling Tonks's face out of the book.
"Yeah, who cares if our weekly visit to headquarters landed us back here, doing work of all things," Fred said, coming up to stand on the other side of her.
"Now don't get us wrong, we're not bitter or anything," George, again.
"Nope, not one bit bitter," Fred confirmed.
"Just kinda makes us feel like letting loose, time for some fun you know?" George continued, he and Fred pushed the back of Tonks's chair till it was leaning back on two legs, dangerously close to falling over. She was looking back and forth between the twins somewhat nervously.
'Uh-oh,' Harry thought, George and Fred had been whispering together for the last several minutes or so, both wearing identical evil grins. Harry had an idea that he was about to see whatever they had been planning, he also had an idea that the aftermath wasn't going to be pretty.
"Hey, let me down!" Tonks yelled as her chair wobbled slightly.
"Not before a kiss," Fred said wickedly.
"Wha-" Tonks managed to get out before George kissed her fully on the lips. When he pulled away Tonks had gone completely catatonic and was sitting unmoving in her chair. He and Fred put her chair safely back with all four legs on the ground and walked away looking as if nothing had happened.
"She's gonna explode," Ron whispered in his ear, trying hard not to laugh. And sure enough, Tonk's face, and hair for that matter, were going completely red. After the red had reached a peak of color, she did explode, or rather, the table in front of her did.
Harry dived for cover under his own table, Ron and Hermione following suit. Tonks had turned towards Fred and George, and Harry now saw that her eyes were red as well, and had taken out her wand.
"YOU TWO!" She all but yelled.
"What us?" –Fred.
"Couldn't be"- George.
Both twins were looking perfectly innocent, but that didn't stop Tonks from trying to blast the hell out of them.
Several minutes later Tonks, her face, hair, and eyes now somewhat calmer looking returned to her seat and resumed reading. Behind her in a scorched pile Fred and George lay in a crumpled heap.
"Blimy, she really is an Auror," Ron said, sounding impressed.
"They got exactly what they deserved," Hermione said, trying to sound disdainful but she was having a hard time keeping the amusement from her voice. Ginny, on the other hand, had no such qualms and was laughing uncontrollably.
"Yeah, great show," Harry said, managing to pull off a grin, but his heart wasn't in it. His mind had been completely occupied with worries about Rogue, and while Fred and George's act had been amusing, it put them nowhere closer to helping her. Rogue was a mystery to him, as she was to everyone else, but he found that the mystery intrigued him, he never had been good at keeping his noise out of other peoples business.
"I wonder what Rogue would look like if she smiled," Harry voiced aloud, more to himself than to anyone else, he tried to imagine it and failed.
The conversation at the table stopped and everyone turned to look at him, even Fred and George managed to twist their heads enough to stare.
"Harry, what the hell? She's like a freaking death zombie!" Ron exclaimed.
Harry could feel his face start to burn, but was saved having to answer by Tonks, who changed her face to look like Rogue's and smiled largely at him.
"Wow," George whispered, Fred managed a weak whistle.
"Yeah, wow," Harry breathed. The face in front of him was beautiful, no, more then beautiful, it was, well… he couldn't think of a word to describe it, it just was. He felt a sharp pang in his chest as her face faded back into that of Tonks, shaking his head, Harry closed his eyes. The face was still there, shining just as beautifully as before.
"Harry," Ron said turning towards him gravely, "I take back what I was said before, no way someone that beautiful can be a zombie" Ron was the only one to miss the jealous look Hermione shot him, until his next statement erased it from her face, "I give you my full permission to date her."
"It was just a question," Harry said quickly, "I didn't mean anything by it, honest!" But he couldn't stop his heart from skipping a beat as he pictured her smiling face again, but in his mind, she was smiling only for him.
Seeing the expression of Harry's face, Tonks felt something inside of her stir as well. She found herself able to forget about the twin's 'joke', her mind completely lost in wishing she had a mirror and could see whatever it was that was making Harry look like that. She couldn't quite identify the emotion that had arisen in her as a response, it was probably that damn protective streak again, but she tried to push it aside. It wouldn't do to get annoyed over the boy's hormones, he deserved to find someone, but somewhere inside her that emotion just refused to completely disappear.
/
Lupin hoped she would change back soon, it had been almost eight hours and she was still in her wolf form. The others had all gone to bed, having come back empty handed from the school library several hours ago, and Lupin was the only one still up. He had refused to let anyone else stand guard over her, feeling it was his duty as her 'wolf father' to look over her. He had had to give her a sleeping spell a little while ago in order to quite her down, it was the only way to keep her from continually smashing her body into the cage, but by now the charm was starting to wear off.
She raised her head slowly off the floor to look at him, and Lupin was relieved to see a few hints of her humanity in her eyes, that meant the call of the wolf was disappearing and she would return to her human form soon. 'Good,' he thought 'She won't be trying anything more tonight.'
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, feeling calmer now that he knew she was past the worst of it. Before he realized what was happening he had drifted off to sleep, his head resting comfortably against the back of the chair.
Rogue felt the transformation coming on again and gritted her teeth against the pain, all the same she was not able to keep a small whimper from passing her lips. She reached her arm through the bars of the cage, careful not to touch the sides, her sore body reminding her harshly of the electric shock she had endured time and time again while in her other form. Lifting a pile of clothes, probably left their by Lupin, who was now sleeping in a chair in the corner, she quickly dressed and, after making sure only the bare minimum amount of skin was exposed, called to the sleeping man.
Lupin woke when someone called his name, looking up, or down rather, he saw Rogue crouched in the cage. Waving his wand the cage disappeared allowing her to stand.
"How are you feeling?" He asked worriedly, noticing with a small pang of guilt, Rogue's grimace as she moved.
She surged in response, "I've been better."
Lupin thought she was done speaking, but then she opened her mouth once again, "Was that normal? What happened to me? I thought we were only supposed to change on the full moon."
"Normally yes, we're still trying to figure out why you changed early. Dumbledore should be coming back today, I'm sure he'll know something." After Lupin finished speaking an uncomfortable silence filled the room.
"Um, I'll be going then, you should probably try to get some rest, you didn't get much last night," he said turning to go, but her voice stopped him.
"Lupin?" she was shuffling uncomfortably from one foot to the other looking down at the ground, "I wanted to thank you for last night, for watching over me like that, so um, thanks," he noticed her face had gone slightly pink.
Lupin grinned back at her, feeling the tension drain from the air, "Anytime," on a whim, he added "By the way, you really should get some sleep, you look like shit."
Instead of glaring at him, or turning away, Rogue rolled her eyes saying, "Yes, Dad," emphasis on the dad.
He grinned at her one last time and left the room feeling happier than he had in a long time.
/
Rouge wanted to sleep, her body ached all over and the thought of disappearing into a world of nothingness was more then tempting, but two things were holding her back. One, the voices in her head, and two fear of her mother. The voices weren't a big deal, she had been dealing with those for a long time, but her mother, that was the real problem.
Rogue had never had to worry about her mother's voice in her head, she had always kept her locked away so deeply in her mind that even the professor hadn't found her. Up until this point, she had held a false since of security about the cage she held her mother in, but now that security had been shattered. Rogue now realized how easily her mind was disrupted, and how easy it had been for her mother to escape. She had to train her mind, make it stronger, but the question was, how?
"Go to sleep Rogue, we'll wake you if she starts to act up again," Kitty assured her.
"Yeah sure, in case you haven't noticed, I've gotten pretty good at tuning you all out when I sleep."
"Can you sleep through each and everyone of us yelling? Don't forget, even Magneto and his crew want you to live, despite all their talk. If something happens to you, all of us disappear." This was a fairly new voice in Rogue's head.
"Lupin?" she questioned.
Logan growled, "Don't trust him Rogue, he's not one of us."
"Ah, you're just jealous cause he's treating Rogue like a daughter," Kurt piped up, "Imagine, the great Wolverine with a soft spot for kids."
Rogue drifted off, reassured by the comforting banter of her friends. She may hate her power and what it did to her, but at least while she may be condemned to live in the real world alone, inside her head the few people she counted as friends would always be with her.
She would deal with how to strengthen her mind when she woke up, but for now she could finally allow herself to drift into a peaceful sleep.
/
The 'War Council' as it had been dubbed by the twins was now in session. Dumbledore had returned only a few minutes ago only to be hustled into the 'War Room', also named by the twins.
"Do you think this has anything to do with You-Know-Who, Dumbledore?" It was the question on everyone's mind.
"Lupin, in your experience has anything like this every happened to you?" Dumbledore asked.
"No, at times when I become stressed or worn out the wolf seems to give me strength, but I've never transformed when it's not the full moon."
Dumbledore sighed and rubbed his temples, "Everything about this girl is strange, and I think we all know there's more to her than meets the eye, but until she trusts us, we can only speculate as to what that is. As far as her unwarranted transformation goes, all we can do for now is keep a closer eye on her and help her strengthen her mind."
"Occlumency?" Lupin asked.
"Occlumency." Dumbledore confirmed.
