JAMIE: Ready, Phil?
PHIL: *situates some badass goggles* Yeah.
JAMIE: Alright- CHAPTER 4! Go!
She screamed as her feet slipped through the mud that she was nearly coated with again, her fingernails were bloody from clawing at the ground and walls as she was dragged. She kicked and clawed- lashed out with everything she had, but it was never enough. They kept piling up, more and more of those uniformed demons grabbed at her and hooked their talons into her skin and worn out clothes as they dragged her towards the gates that loomed like death.
"Mama!" She screamed, reaching out for a woman being dragged in the opposite direction. "Mama!" She screamed again throwing out her arm towards the woman and she herself was dragged past the gates.
The metal gates closed, sealing her inside with the monsters that were still dragging her.
"No!" She screamed, hand still outstretched towards the gates.
She tried to kick harder, bite faster, elbow deeper- but she didn't have enough power. She needed to get out! She needed…
The sensation started in her fingertips. It was almost a burning sensation, but it didn't hurt. It felt like power. As if rising to respond to the power, the metal of the gates that had seemed so intimidating only moments before as she had been dragged by these monsters contorted to her will. It flexed dangerously. She grit her teeth and pulled harder, not knowing what the force roaring through her was and not exactly caring either. All she knew is she needed more of it if she was going to get out of here alive. If she was going to have any sort of revenge at all.
"Make him stop!" Someone commanded.
"Nein! Berühren Sie nicht mir!"Rogue screamed, jolting out of her sleeping state.
"Chere,"A mildly familiar voice tried to break through her panic. "Are you all right?" The man belonging to the voice tried to reach out and comfort her.
"Berühren Sie nicht mir!"She repeated, scrambling away from his grasp and pressing herself against the window.
"Rogue." He said firmly, reaching out for her again. "Calm down. It was only a dream."
She yanked her own hair in front of her face and studied the white streaks.
"Rogue." She repeated, her normally southern accent tainted by another, more foreign, one. "The girl with the powers…" She tangled her own fingers in the white parts of her hair.
"Rogue?" Remy was starting to become concerned. She looked up at him and he saw that her eyes were an experienced blue in the place of the innocent green ones she had displayed earlier.
He held her gaze for a few moments.
Finally, she put her hand up to her head, blinking away the blue eyes in favor of her green ones.
"What happened?" She looked around in confusion.
"You just had a little nightmare." Remy tried to assure her with a smile, suppressing her panic with his empathy.
"What did I say?" She asked airily.
"Something in German… I couldn't understand…"
"German?" She tested the word, still breathing heavily from her outburst. She looked confused for a moment, but then seemed to reach some conclusion. "Erik."
"Erik?" Remy looked at her funny, feeling some of his good humor return now that the concern had subsided. "How many men am I gonna have to fight for you chere?Bobby? Logan? And now Erik?"
She laughed uneasily, still slightly shaken.
"Come on, chere,"He gently took her elbow and helped her into a standing position. "Let's go stretch our legs for a minute." He said and Rogue noticed for the first time that the bus was almost completely deserted.
"Are we there?" She asked hopefully. The sooner this was over, the sooner she could fill in her old role of the outcast's outcast.
"Almost," He said gingerly, pulling her off the bus with him. "Just had to make a short stop."
She nodded as they walked. The bus station had been next to a train yard and her feet steered her towards it without her knowledge and Remy seemed to be content with letting her lead the way for right now. Civilization disappeared around the corner before the spoke again.
"Who's Erik?" Remy asked, toying with her sleeve. The man seemed to thrive off of touch, when he wasn't playing with her hair; he was tracing invisible patterns on her gloves, looping his arms around her shoulders, or something of that nature. A man like him wasn't meant to be around a girl like her.
"I don't want to talk about it." She said, trying to keep the bitterness out of her tone.
"You don't trust me?" He asked, smile almost blinding.
"It's not that." She shook her head. "I just don't want you to be afraid of me."
"I could never be afraid of you," He laughed, putting his arm around her waist.
Upon later review, it was probably that little action that prompted the entire ordeal. Just an innocent touch of slight intimacy.
Of course, Logan didn't really see it as an 'innocent' touch at all.
Before Remy knew what was happening, he was pinned to the ground by a growling, clawed animal.
"Logan!" Rogue screamed.
Logan considered responding to her voice for a moment before a long metal staff that had appeared out of nowhere came into contact with his jaw, throwing him off the man.
"Remy!" Rogue turned to the other man.
"It's alright, chere."This 'Remy' person assured her, twirling around the staff in his fingers and holding it stiffly behind him in a ready position. "I won' hurt him too bad." He grinned like the devil.
Well, that was the last damn straw.
Logan screamed with fury, launching himself at the younger man in full attack mode, losing himself to his animal side.
Rogue watched events unfold with a look of pure horror stuck on her face. She had only heard Logan this mad once, and that was when he had been fighting Sabretooth on top of the Statue of Liberty. One thing was certain right now, she had to get Remy the hell out of there!
Remy was doing a damn good job of holding his own against this Logan, who looked weirdly familiar, not that he had time to linger on that thought as he narrowly avoided claws aimed at his heart.
Blocking a second attack, Remy boosted himself into the air with his staff, flipping neatly over Logan and pushed him off balance in the same motion. He had the rest of the battle laid out in his head. Logan was going to turn, swipe, Remy would back up three steps, swing, and Logan would stumble back slightly to the right. Three more quick hits and he could probably subdue the man.
The only thing he didn't figure into this plan was Rogue.
She shot out faster than would have thought possible for a girl in her condition, kicked his feet out from underneath him and stole his staff, turning around only in the nick of time to block Logan's next attack.
"Logan!" Rogue cried, the staff she had appropriated glancing off of his claws as the murder in his eyes stayed constant. "It's me!"
Logan was beyond reaching at this point.
"It's me!" She tried again, retreating in the face of his claws. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Remy get back up and try and come to her aide. She didn't want anyone hurt. Forcefully pushing Logan off of her, she turned to Remy again, slamming the staff into his chest, sending his back to the ground. She whipped back around to Logan quickly, but not quick enough.
Three claws pierced her stomach.
"Rogue!" Remy was rushing towards her again.
The scream snapped Logan out of it.
Rogue.
"Dammit, kid." Logan cursed, retracting his claws and easing the bleeding girl to the ground.
She gasped for air with something that could have resembled a smile on her face. "Nice to have you back." She said wetly.
"Sorry."
Remy was quick to start medical procedures, but Logan cut off his movements.
"She'll be fine." He snapped, peeling off his own glove and laying his bare hand against Rogue's pale face.
Her back arched momentarily as she felt his life force fading under the contact. Gasping for air again, she pushed herself away from a panting Logan. She could feel the pain ease in her abdomen as her stab wounds healed over. The rasp in her throat started to ease, her breathing became less laborious and a healthy flush returned to her cheeks.
"Dammit, Logan!" She looked down at herself. "This was my last shirt!"
They both burst out laughing and embraced warmly.
"Well, hell." Remy said. "I'm confused."
"Sorry," Rogue said, finally looking at him. "I guess I should have explained when I had the chance."
"You don't have to explain anything to him, kid." Logan growled. Remy locked eyes with the man.
"Do I know you?" They both said in unison, quickly on their feet, one with claws on hand, the other with a deck of cards.
"Children!" Rogue interrupted, struggling to stand. Remy and Logan both went to help her at the same time and upon realizing this, resumed attack positions. Rogue turned to Remy. "Remy, let Logan be, he's just a little grumpy because he hasn't seen me for over a year."
Logan chuckled at his lecture before Rogue turned on him.
"And you, Mr. Wolverine-."
"Wait." Remy's attack position loosened slightly. "Wolverine?" His face split with a smile and he regarded Logan again. "Logan?" He burst out laughing.
"What?" Logan barked.
"Your hair looks so much dumber than the last time I saw you!" Remy gasped for air, wiping at tears of laughter. "I didn't think it was possible!"
"When was the last time you saw me?" Logan asked trying not to be self conscious about his hair… it spiked up sometimes, he couldn't help it…
"Uh…" Remy looked thoughtful for a moment. "A couple years ago. You needed to go to an island and I was the only man that knew the way." He turned to Rogue. "You should have seen him. The man does notlike airplanes."
Rogue giggled. "Oh, I know that. There was this one time in the X-Jet-."
"I don't remember you." Logan said, cutting into the story mostly because he wanted answers, but also because he hated it when they told the story about how he tried to jump out of the jet in mid-flight.
"An adamantium bullet to the forehead could to that to a man I suppose." Remy responded coolly.
Logan pulled Rogue closer to his chest, wary of the Cajun man who knew things about him he didn't.
"Logan," Rogue said in a soothing tone. "Remy is a nice guy. He helped me."
Logan's eyes ran over the man again, trying to sum him up. He had helped Rogue, he knew things about Logan's past and he was quick with a smart remark and a fight, the kind of man Logan could relate to. Only problem was, He. Had. Touched. The. Kid.
"Come on, kid." Logan started to tug her away, deciding he wanted nothing to do with the man. "We're goin' home."
"Not so fast, homme."Remy quickly slipped Rogue out of Logan's grasp and stood in front of her protectively. "I promised de bellethat I would help her back home, an' I haven' done that yet. So, she's not leaving my sight until she tells me she wants me to leave."
"Only one problem, bub." Logan growled. "You don't have a ride." He crossed his arms over his chest smugly as the bus tore down the road behind him.
"It seems we have something' in common." Remy flipped a set of keys around in his fingers.
"The hell?" Logan patted down his pockets.
Rogue groaned.
"You both are actin' like five year olds!" She complained.
"I wasn't the one that stabbed you in the stomach!" Remy protested.
"He's stabbed me before." Rogue brushed it off. "It's more like a greeting now than an actual threat."
"So that's it? Healing is your power?" He looked at her funny. "That's not scary."
"No." Rogue shook her head. "Healing is Logan's power."
"I'm confused again." Remy admitted.
Rogue and Logan shared a look, Logan understood now. Remy didn't know she couldn't touch. If he reacted anything like the others had when she explained it, Logan would never have to worry about where Gumbo was putting his hands ever again. Maybe he could tolerate the man after that.
"Remy," Rogue started, breaking away her eyes from the company surrounding her in favor of staring at her feet. "I'm a leech."
Remy wrinkled his brow in confusion.
"If I touched you right now," She continued. "I'd know why you were in Baltimore actually, how you stole those keys out of Logan's pockets, and the most terrible things you have ever done. I'd have all of your powers but a fraction of your control. You'd probably go into a coma and never wake up."
She can't touch at all.Remy realized, shooting down several of his plans with the girl. Damn.
"So?" Rogue said after a few silent moments, looking up to catch his reaction. Wolverine smugly looked on.
"I think that sounds like a challenge, chere."He smirked like the demon he was. "And Remy LeBeau has neverturned down a challenge."
Logan and Rogue stood still, mouths dropped, stunned by his reaction.
"Now," Remy regarded their faces with amusement. "I'll go lift us another motorcycle and we can be on our merry way."
He walked away, whistling a perky tune.
Rogue didn't know whether she was relieved or afraid of his reaction. One thing was for sure, she didn't really mind the feeling.
Logan was wondering how many years of therapy the kid would need if he gutted the Cajun right now. Three? Four?