"Is that fear that I sense from you, Xavier?" Magneto smiled smugly.
The Professor turned away from the computer screen, where he was having a video- chat
with one of his old friends, and ironically, one of the X-men's worst foes.
"Rogue was always a wild card..." Magneto continued, " She was always so easily
manipulated into being on either side of the law."
"That is not fair to say about her, Eric," The Professor responded, still looking away from
the computer screen.
Magneto let out a low laugh, "You thought you could help her, but you lost her.
You lost your little sheep."
The Professor raised his eyebrow. Reading Magneto's mind was impossible due to
the way he blocked it. However, Charles could sometimes still read his actions like a book.
Throughout the years, many X-men left and returned to the mansion. Magneto would laugh a bit
about it, as a way to point out The Professor 's failure. All this extra teasing about Rogue, however ,
was very suspicious.
Was he trying to have her return to the Brotherhood?…Or was this about the X-men
being weakened to an attack?
Many of the X-men's foes would follow the same plan in battles: Attack Rogue first. If one
defeats the strongest X-man first, then the rest of the team would be much easier to get to.
"No, no…do not even try." Magneto warned The Professor as he felt him trying to read his mind.
He looked a bit nervous. " Until next time, Charles. " With that, the video-chat window closed.
The Professor looked out his window and his thoughts went back to the day Rogue and Gambit left.
Gambit stood by the door of his office. Arms folded, he looked like a nightclub bouncer. Except
That instead of kicking people out for not having a proper I.D. to get in, he was keeping his
nosy teammates from eavesdropping.
Cyclops started banging on the door from the other side with his good arm. "I want you out
of this mansion right now, Gambit! You hear that? YOU ARE OFF THE TEAM!"
The Professor ignored all the noise outside the door and focused on Rogue, who was sitting in a chair across from
his desk.
"Professor, Ah really appreciate everything you ever done for me. Ah really want you to know that. " She looked up into his face with almost the same sad look she had the first time she ever came up to him. "You took me in at
a very desperate time in mah life. …even though this entire team hated me for the whole Ms. Marvel incident …an' everythin' Ah had done….They all threatened to disband if you let me in. but you did anyway. Ah will never forget your kindness."
"Rogue," The Professor 's heart sank a bit, as he sensed this was Rogue beginning a farewell to him.
He began a sentence, but wasn't sure how to continue.
There was something that The Professor never admitted to anyone else. Of all the mutants he ever came across in his life, he felt the most disappointed in his inability to help Rogue. He made a lot of promises to help her with her powers. The personalities she absorbed were like a hundred little echoes bouncing off the corners of her mind. He truly wanted to make them all disappear. However, after all these years of intense therapy, and experimentation, he still couldn't find a way to help her….or even reach her. He never dared to say it to her face, but he actually gave up believing that he would ever help her a while ago.
Rogue knew this though. She noticed how their therapy sessions lacked any new approaches over the years. She also noticed how he lessened their frequency. At first, she was relieved, because she felt so bad about how they exhausted the Professor….but then she realized he was running out of ideas. She turned to the only other person who still had hope for her- Remy.
"Rogue, you are the student I am the most proud of." The Professor finally gathered his words. The banging on the door stopped, as if Cyclops had heard that last sentence. "You are exactly the example of hope I am always talking about. People can change. Watching you turn your life around with the X-men was one of the best things I have experienced. You changed….People can change. You can be… good."
Rogue smiled at him. Part of her thought his words were very sweet. The last sentence left her with a bit of doubt. She wondered if he was warning her that she was going to revert to old habits.
The Professor continued , " I can also sense your feeling of needing to leave. I wish you would reconsider."
"Professor…Ah.." Rogue looked down. " Ah don't want to leave… Ah have to leave. "
Remy walked over to the desk and put his arm around Rogue. They both looked at each other before Rogue continued. " Remy and Ah have to leave. We don't want to stay on a team where nobody trusts us. …You
have to agree it's unfair…. Ah know we both have an awful past life. We've both done terrible things when we
were younger…We are tired of our teammates constantly dragging that out… and constantly judgin' us
for what we are gonna do based on what we used to do…."
The Professor knew she was right and had no reply. Thousands of thoughts swam in his head on how he was going to spend time with the X-men with trust-building exercises.
The silence grew very heavy and lingered in the room. After a long period of awkwardness, Rogue finally stood
up. " Ah'm gonna go and grab my stuff…well, grab what's left….Ah guess that's just my jacket…"
Remy looked up, " I'm so sorry about dat Chere, …" He thought back to a week ago…
Suspicious about Rogue defecting, Cyclops tried searching for clues of her guilt. He busted into her bedroom with the rest of the team and started looking though everything.
Remy was angered by the invasion of privacy and started fighting everybody. Cyclops only saw this as proof of Gambit trying to hide something for her.
"All of your stuff is in here too?" Cyclops exclaimed in shock as he looked around. " Since when are you two sharing a room together?"
'None of yo' business where I sleep." Remy yelled at him. Rogue was extremely private, and he didn't feel like he needed to brag about the fact that she asked him to move into her room with her a few months before that.
"Oooh my…. " Warren laughed after peaking at Rogue's lingerie in the top dresser drawer.
He then start opening the second dresser drawer….the private drawer….the drawer where they kept their favorite "toys." Remy became infuriated. Rogue was an extremely kinky girl when she was ALONE with him. She'd be mortified about all the immature jokes her teammates would throw at her if they were to see the contents of that drawer. Meaning to just put his hand on the drawer, to keep it shut form Warren, Remy charged the entire dresser on accident. Everybody ran out of the room, just in time before the explosion.
The entire room was destroyed. All of Rogue and Remy's belongings were now ashes. He swore out loud to himself at his extremely stupid move.
"…Right! You were definitely NOT trying to hide something from us, Gambit!" Cyclops yelled sarcastically. He then shook his finger at him , "…Don't worry , I'm going to find out what it is."
Remy snapped out of the flashback by Rogue's sweet voice. " Don't worry about it, Rem. It just means we have nothing' to take with us…We can start over completely." She smiled at the Professor and waited for Remy to leave with her.
"You go ahead, cherie. I'd like a few last words alone with the Proff." He said. Once Rogue exited, he leaned into The Professor "She can be 'good' ? What was that supposed to mean? I suppose I'm bad for her?"
The feelings The Professor sensed from Remy about leaving were completely different than the ones Rogue had. Resentment and distrust ruled over Remy.
"She is emotionally damaged, Gambit." The Professor warned him.
Gambit shot him a frown. He was angry at how The Professor was always challenging him about Rogue. It was almost condescending.
He had nearly scolded the two of them on how extremely dangerous it was for them to do their touching ritual. Rogue got really scared and had them stop. Luckily, it only took Remy a few days to get her comfortable again and the ritual resumed.
"Love does not conquer all, Gambit. ' The Professor continued. " If you take her away from here, you will learn this fast. You cannot fix years of mental torment with just love. It takes therapy , self-realization, and -"
"I may not have your training in psychology, but I know what's good for her." Remy cut him off. " I've been in love before, and you are right. It does not solve everythin' . Sometimes it makes things worse. It clogs up your arteries, it disfigures you, it blinds you from doin' the right thing. You've always acted like you know how to help her better than I do. …but you what? I have somethin' I can give her that is even better than love- it's hope. It's that hope you said you had in her, but the hope you can't give to her."
"Remy," The Professor tried to calm him down.
Remy had grown very angry. He took a deep breath and stood up. " You may have given up on her, but I haven't . I'm never gonna give up on her."
With that, Remy left the room.
The Professor stared at the door that slammed behind him. He held onto a new hope- the hope that the two of them would make the right decisions.
"Well,….we could steal it…" Rogue raised her eyebrow as she slipped out of the hot tub.
"Steal? You know I like stealin'. " Remy replied as he watched her dry off and pull her sundress on. " But since when are you a
thief like me?"
" Since I haven't been sure 'bout which side we should be on. " Rogue took a sip of her gin and soda. " I mean, what are we goin' to do with ourselves now?"
"Well, in life dere's de good way, de bad way….an' de Remy LeBeau way…" He smirked and started getting out of the hot tub.
"Isn't the Remy LeBeau way, the wrong way?"
"Yes, but a lot more fun…"
Rogue let out a long laugh. "Let's do it, then."
Remy leaned into her , "You serious? 'Cause I usually steal alone….don't trust anybody else. It'd be sweet to do it wit' you… You still in?"
Rogue nodded. "I'll make the deal and then we'll steal it." She breathed out slowly. She felt like she had just made a deal with a devil. .. Le Diable Blanc….A very sexy devil who had just her pinned against the screen door. She had turned her life around. She was good. However, she secretly always liked how Remy indulged her bad girl side. Those piercing eyes of his were always searching for a way to free her.
He ran his fingers along her shoulder and she counted the seconds. He gripped her hair in his hand and pulled her head back. His other hand explored her neck and she counted the seconds.
"You sure you wanted to end your Birthday here? " He leaned into her ear and spoke in a low and seductive voice , "You know I could've taken you anywhere. Would've taken you to The Bahamas, Paris…. Milan, ..anywhere you wanted…"
" Ah know you would have….but I love this house…" She was starting to lose her ability to speak as her lover chose new places on her body to touch. She counted the seconds he spent at each one….. "I wanted to end the night here….in our home. " She managed to open her yes and look into his.
"You enjoyed your day?" He asked .
"Remy, Ah loved everything. The breakfast in bed….the afternoon at the beach….dinner on our own boat at sunset…then riding around slowly while watchin' the lights turn on in the skyline like they were stars.."
Remy watched her intensely as she described her day.
" This town has the best skyline Ah've ever seen anywhere….Oh and Ah loved it when we docked downtown we got to hear some of the music from the festival…"
He had never seen Rogue this calm and full of bliss….and she looked so incredibly beautiful in this state.
Remy continued to admire every part of her sexy body with his hands and smiled while she counted the seconds….. They were getting longer.
"You make me wanna do a lot of terrible, terrible, things for you, Anna." He whispered in her ear.
She whispered back into his ear , "You make me want to let you do terrible, terrible things to me, Remy."
She woke the animal inside of him with those words. He picked her up by her waist and started kissing her mouth….
She counted the seconds….
He playfully bit her shoulder and she counted the seconds…
He struggled with the screen door , and carried her inside the house. He kissed her cleavage and she counted the seconds….
He threw her on the couch . She counted each second his fingers touched her as he slid her bikini bottom off from under her sundress.
She slid her hands under his shirt and ran her nails across his back….and counted the seconds.
"Anna , are you happy?" He asked in between planting kisses all over her legs. She counted the seconds.
"What are you talking about, Remy?" Rogue sat up a bit to look at him. She was bewildered. " What kind of question is that? Ah'm so happy."
Remy pulled her close to him. "Anna, I want you to trust me in this moment."
" Ah do " She kissed him quickly, and counted the seconds.
"Anna, I want you to focus on how happy you are right now." Remy stared straight into her eyes. It felt like he was staring right into her soul.
"Ah'm so happy. Ah'm so happy you showed me a new life. Ah'm so happy with this beautiful house, this city, the beach outside…Ah'm so happy you love me…."
"Keep thinkin' all that," Remy pulled her dress off. "Keep thinking' 'bout how much I love you…and how I've always wanted to do this to you…." He pushed Rogue comfortably onto her back.
He kissed her inner thigh…and she counted the seconds…..
He licked her up a little higher and she counted a minute.
His lips moved up even higher and she counted a minute and few seconds….
When his mouth reached her spot, she lost count.
She lost herself entirely. She was lost in the best experience of her life. She was lost in Remy's love , and it was a place she wanted to be lost in forever.
Remy watched her toes curl… he watched her arch her back… he watched her nails
rip the couch cushions. He watched her moan as she climaxed…
She begged him to enter her, but he wanted to keep watching her in this moment.
He pushed her down and kept watching.
"Rem- you know Ah -Ah can only do that once…." She tried to argue.
He proved her wrong. Moments later he watched her climax again….
And then again a third time.
She pulled him up and declared that she couldn't take it anymore.
When he made love to her, she thought about how he had freed her.
How he kept his promise…..and she was so happy…..
There were no clothes….no gloves…..no body stockings….
just their skin…..
After trillions of seconds later, he collapsed on top of her.
"Happy Birthday, ma chere…" He said to her sweetly and kissed
her breasts before resting his head on them.
She kissed his forehead. "Now, how am Ah supposed to top this on
your Birthday?" She replied.
"Robert, I have had enough of your jokes. Do have a report, or don't you?" Cyclops asked.
All of the X-men had assembled in the war room and were listening to each other's reports. Cyclops had ordered everybody to monitor all the people he thought were suspects in trying to kill him.
"Yes, yes, of course I do." Bobby Drake cleared his throat and shuffled his paperwork. He found Cyclops' paranoia incredibly comical. "Hey everybody, I was assigned to spy on Gambit and Rogue…and I have to tell you , I've found some things that you would find very suspicious, Scott…." He leaned over to Cyclops, who raised an eyebrow in anticipation.
"Yes, like what?"
"Well, they are living in a house near the beach in….. Chicago….which I think is suspicious…." Bobby paused and looked at Scott.
"Why is that suspicious?" Scott asked
"Well, isn't that where Al Capone worked out of ?"
"ROBERT DRAKE!" Cyclops pounded his fist on the table. Emma tried to call him down, but was unsuccessful. " I demand you take this seriously!"
"Ok, Ok," Bobby looked apologetic, " Ok, so here is the report of my observation day : At approximately 11:23 am, Mr. LeBeau stepped out of the house to throw out the trash. At approximately 11:25 a.m, a small cat walked up to him and tried to let itself into the house. At this point during the interaction, Mr. LeBeau shooed it away with his foot before entering the house. Now, I can't confirm or dis-confirm if said cat is actually their pet, or just some stray."
"ROBERT!" Scott pounded his fist again.
Bobby pulled his paperwork up to his face so he could hide his laughter. He continued in a very serious voice, " I know that Rogue likes cats, so I feel that it is highly possible they would have adopted a cat. Mr. LeBeau's history of getting jealous when he has to split Rogue's attention with somebody else, makes the shooing away of the cat make a lot sense….. However, I have never seen Rogue as the type to fall for a tabby. She's always liked those bi-color or tuxedo cats…"
A few muffled chuckles sprinkled around the room.
"Stop talking about the fucking cat!" Scott exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, Scott." Bobby lowered his paperwork from his face and gave him a very convincing and astonished look. " I was trying to be observant...At approximately 1:15pm, Mr. LeBeau exited the house, this time accompanied by Rogue, who was wearing a suspicious looking bikini…" He paused and looked at all of his male teammates. He then winked ," I found it suspicious that her tits could look even more phenomenal than I have ever seen them."
"That's it, Robert! Did you get any relevant information?" Cyclops snarled.
"Well, at approximately 1:35pm, that lucky LeBeau bastard grabbed those incredible tits..." Bobby tried to stop laughing, "That's relevant isn't it?"
"Bobby, please…" Emma pleaded with him to be serious as
"Well, I tried stick around longer to figure out what they are up to! Their pool looked really sweet. So, I had this idea about how funny it would be if I crept up over their fence, and just did a huge canonball into it. They would have killed me, but it would have been a hysterical surprise. ….but then I got the X distress call, and I zoomed back over here and we had to fight Omega Sad again…"
"Omega Red" Storm corrected him.
"Yeah, whatever Omega Sad makes more sense because he is such sad looking guy with that stupid costume." Bobby replied.
"I've had enough of you. " Cyclops grabbed Bobby's paperwork to read it over. His blood rushed to his temples when he realized the pages were completely blank. " You asshole! " Cyclops rolled the papers together and began hitting Bobby with it.
"Scott! ' Emma exclaimed , "While Bobby was too busy clowning around to notice something right under his nose, I found something interesting…"
Cyclops paused and looked over at his blond girlfriend, in shock. "What? Why didn't you say anything before?"
She only smiled and laid out a folder of photos on the war room table. She kept this quiet from Cyclops on purpose so she could get some recognition from the whole team. She was tired of being treated like Cyclops' shadow.
" I've been keeping tabs on the Brotherhood….Mystique, in particular, since she has tricked us with her shape shifting a lot of times. It seems that she and Sabertooth…are..might be rekindling their romance….or he's at least working with her and The Brotherhood.
'Victor Creed? " Beast asked surprised. "He's been missing for years. Wait until Wolverine finds out he's back."
Emma shot him a dirty look for trying to steal her moment of attention. " Yes, Beast, I was surprised too. Now, Bobby, you might find these satellite photos I have to be interesting. You were a little too busy drooling over Rogue's bikini top to notice who she is connecting with. Care to explain these? " Emma pulled out a series of photos from her folder and spread them out on the table.
They were of Rogue and Sabertooth. They were seated at a table in an outdoor beer garden.
"Emma! You did so well…" Scott complimented her softly under his breath. He admired each photo as if each one was some sort of pot of gold.
Bobby snagged the last photo out of Scott's hand. He furrowed his eyebrows at the image of Rogue and Sabertooth shaking hands.
"I knew it." Scott said in a matter-of-fact tone. " I knew Rogue was involved with The Brotherhood again.
Everybody is under strict orders to not associate with her or Gambit. They are clearly involved with the enemy."
Scott paused and looked at Bobby, who was still looking at the last photo. " That means no canonballs into their pool, Robert."