Chapter 4 "Cajun Style"
"Do you hear anything Logan?" Storm whispered.
"No," Logan grumbled after inhaling deeply. "That's what's botherin me."
The X-Men, which consisted of Scott, Storm, Logan, Rogue, Jubilee, Bobby, and Kitty, were standing in an open field outside of, what appeared, to be an old abandoned warehouse.
"Why do the bad guys always have to use old warehouses to do their work in? Why can't they ever be original?" Jubilee muttered to Kitty and Rogue, who in turn rolled their eyes.
"Shut up!" Rogue snapped. She didn't want to lose her focus.
Rogue hadn't slept a wink the night before. After Logan found her in the Danger Room and helped her clean herself up a little, she'd just sat up and stared out the window all night.
She watching the stars fade to nothing as the sun came up, and going over the events of what had taken place the night before. Why had she let Logan see her that way? Why had she cried in front of him? Why had she allowed him to be so close to her? Because you still love him, Marie whispered inside Rogue's head. You love him and you always have. Logan asked her why she had been fighting herself, and at first Rogue snapped because she didn't have an answer. Now Rogue knew. She wasn't fighting herself, she was fighting who she once was… and who she once was had won. Marie won…
Rogue shook her head, banishing her thoughts.
This was not the time to think about such things anyway. They were in the middle of a trap and she had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that things were about to get hairy.
"Get ready everybody! Their coming!" Logan shouted.
"How do you know?" Kitty asked, her voice quivering. This was her first mission and she was just a bit nervous.
"Because I'm stuck..." He answered through gritted teeth.
Suddenly the huge metal gate to the warehouse blew off. Through the dust Rogue saw The Brotherhood looming in the dim light. Magneto, always in the middle of his band of goons, had Mystique proudly at his side. Rogue glared at her. Mystique had always rubbed her the wrong way, not just because she was the enemy, but she always looked at Logan the wrong way and she'd always hated her for that.
On the other side of Magneto stood Pyro. He was no longer her old friend John that she and Bobby used to goof around with. He was nasty and hard. Something in his body had changed and he became as ruthless as Magneto, maybe even more so.
Rogue glanced over at Bobby, who was staring hard at Pyro. Bobby had been so hurt with John's leaving. They had been best friends. Their gazes met and when the battle began, Rogue knew it was going to be a battle between the elements. Ice and fire.
Magneto apparently had a few new recruits. There were two other women with him besides Mystique. One was covered in scales, like a snake. She was a green color, a lime green, and when she smiled she revealed long, sharp fangs dripping with fangs and a forked tongue.
The other woman was a tall, slender, tattooed black woman with a mean look on her face. She smelled the air and whispered something to Magneto, who in turn gazed at Rogue, smiling wickedly but saying nothing. Rogue just stared back, her eyes never wavering.
There was also two other men there besides Pyro, but there was no sight of the Cajun thief. One of then men was tall and lanky with sandy blonde hair and an evil smile on his face. Rogue didn't like the look in his eyes. The other was an Asian guy, looked more around Rogue's age then the blonde haired man, with spikes coming out of his entire body, almost making Rogue shutter.
"Well, I see the X-Men have found us!" Magneto said joyfully. "I suppose you want the thief?"
"Where is he, Magneto?" Scott yelled, ready to blast his old ass.
"Right here." Magneto waved his hand and Rogue saw a handsome man wrapped in some sort of mettle restraint come floating through the air. Magneto dropped him harshly from a high height.
"Bastard! When Remy gets out of here…" yelled the Cajun man, writhing and twisting on the ground.
"Oh do shut up." Magneto said tiredly and the let out a pained yelp. Apparently Magneto was squeezing the metal restraint harder around him.
"Stop it!" Kitty screamed. She was the youngest of the group and the sight of Magneto slowly crushing the captured man was too much for her. Magneto stopped, almost amused by her outburst, and loosened the restraints a bit.
"Is that better little girl?" He laughed. Bobby stepped in front of Kitty protectively. Magneto's eyes narrowed.
"Finish them." He said to his Brotherhood, and the fight was on.
The Brotherhood was the first to advance. Rogue unsheathed her knives from the wrist harnesses she wore, her eyes on Mystique. She's the one I want, Rogue thought.
The lanky tattooed woman circled Storm, as if feeling her out.
"You're strong." Said the tattooed woman. Storm didn't speak, just kept her eyes narrowed and attention focused. She began to summon the winds when the woman attacked quickly. Her power was super speed. She was all over the place and Storm just couldn't keep up. The woman had knocked Storm to the ground before she could blink. Storm was angry, summoning the winds, spinning as fast as she could and coming down hard on the woman, catching a punch to the face. The fight was on.
Logan could finally move after Magneto walked away, apparently fleeing the warehouse in case the fight went in favor of the X-Men. Logan angrily advanced on the lanky sandy haired man but found him to be a formidable match.
The man reached up to hit Logan, Logan taking his claws and slicing away at his arm, and only finding the stub growing back into a full arm. Logan rolled his eyes. This is going to be annoying, he thought.
Kitty and Scott were dealing with the spiky Asian and the reptile woman while Rogue and Mystique circled each other.
"So young," Mystique mused. "And yet such tortured features. Everyone was afraid of you, just as they were afraid of me."
"Yeah, but unlike you, I can control my powers now." Rogue spat. Mystique smiled.
"And unlike you, I'm comfortable in my own skin. I can smell it on you. Your self loathing. You've never been good enough…" Mystique gave Logan, who was struggling with the man who could grow his limbs back, a long look and smiled. "You were never good enough for him. He'll never love you."
And that was it.
Rogue lunged toward Mystique letting out a loud yell. Rogue slashed wildly with her knives, Mystique evading her every move. Rogue was so blind with rage that Mystique could easily avoid her wild swings.
You have to calm down Rogue, a voice said inside her head. You have to focus. Rogue stopped for a second, focusing her energy on Mystique. Maybe it was true. Maybe Rogue wasn't and never had been good enough for Logan, but Rogue knew she was sure as hell good enough to kick Mystique's ass.
Rogue attacked strategically next, knocking Mystique's clever feet out from underneath her and pinning her down. Mystique wrapped a leg around Rogue's middle and pulled her over, giving her a hard kick to the chin which sent Rogue sprawling.
Rogue looked around to see her other X-Men doing well in the fight, pushing back the Brotherhood. Logan had cut loose the captured man who had in turn joined the fight. He'd knocked out the girl Storm had been fighting and they went to help Kitty with the reptile woman. In the mean time, Bobby faced off against his once best friend.
Bobby and Pyro circled one another, waiting for the other to make the first strike.
"So, got rid of the untouchable girl, huh Bobby boy?" Pyro said, his voice cruel and empty.
"John, it's not too late. If you give up now I'm sure the professor will be easy on you." Bobby tried. He couldn't help it. He felt like he had to try to reach John, at least one last time. John just laughed.
"I'll never be a slave to that old man again. Not ever!" John advanced, throwing fireballs left and right, which Bobby did his best to avoid. Bobby hit John in the chest with a ball of ice, knocking the wind out of him. The two were at a stand off. Their powers were equal and both knew it was going to be nearly impossible for one to beat the other.
"Pull back! Hurry! Get to the helicopter!" Yelled the Asian man. All of the Brotherhood obeyed this command, but not before Mystique gave Rogue one more good punch.
"Someday, little girl, I'm going to kill Logan slowly in front of you, and then I'll kill you." She said lowly in Rogue's ear. Rogue pushed Mystique off of her, swinging her blade around and barely catching Mystique on the cheek, slicing it open. Mystique screamed, clutching her cheek, and began to run toward the warehouse. Rogue knew that was not the last time that she would see Mystique.
Back in the jet the X-Men nursed their wounds and discussed the small skirmish that had gone down.
"Why did they give up so quickly?" Kitty asked, holding a cold cloth onto her bruised cheek.
"Because," Answered Scott. "Magneto must have bigger plans and didn't want his men hurt."
Rogue sat in the back nursing a busted lip. She felt like she had a few bruised ribs but she didn't say anything. She didn't want to admit that the blue bitch had gotten the best of her. Logan sensed her pain from his seat and thought about asking her if she was alright, but by the looks of her, he thought it might be better not to say anything. Whatever Mystique had said to her made her pretty upset. Logan didn't smell anger on her, only hurt.
"So, what is your name, chere'?" The Cajun thief leaned over to Rogue, giving her a prize winning smile. The first thing Rogue noticed about him was his startling eyes. They were red, blood red. The color of anger, Rogue thought absently.
"Rogue." She said shortly. She didn't ask him what his name was. She didn't care, but he offered the information anyhow.
"Remy is the name." He said, still smiling, in his thick accent.
"That's nice." Rogue said flatly. She wasn't in the mood to be flirted with, which was what he was obviously doing.
"Thank you for taking part in saving my life."
"I'm not the only one."
"No, but you're the prettiest one by far, so Remy thought it was best to thank you first."
"How nice for Remy." Rogue snapped, finally having enough.
"You have spunk to you chere'," Remy pointed out, apparently not catching Rogue's not so subtle hint to leave her be. "I like that."
Rogue smiled coyly, leaned in close to Remy, and whispered "You wanna know what I like?" Remy just cocked an eyebrow. "Being left the hell alone!" Remy simply laughed.
"Remy understands. You are hurt. I shall talk to you when you are feeling better." He leaned back over and sat straight in his seat, still smiling.
Rogue rolled her eyes and was glad that was over. She didn't want to deal with that. She was still sore from Mystique getting the one up on her. Mystique had pushed ever single one of Rogue's buttons and did it well. Rogue wasn't exactly sure how but she did. He'll never love you. Those words echoed in her mind over and over and over until Rogue felt like she would explode. He'll never love me, Rogue thought. He'll never love me.
The team met in Charles' office after they had time to recuperate from their mission. They all took showers and changed clothes, some even going down to the infirmary to get a check up from Hank. The most serious injury was Storm's dislocated shoulder.
"Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Remy LeBeau, also known as Gambit." Charles said and Remy nodded his head, smiling toward Rogue.
"Remy'd like ta thank yah all for what yah did for him today." He said.
"We are glad to have you with us Mr. LeBeau." Storm said kindly.
"Please cherie, call me Remy." He said, giving Storm a charming smile, making her blush. Logan rolled his eyes. This guys a charmer, he thought gruffly.
"Well, we hope you will attend the dance that we plan on having." Charles said.
"Only if I can be companied by dat beautiful spunky woman sittin over dere." Remy said, pointing at Rogue. Rogue hadn't been paying attention until she noticed people looking at her.
"What?" She asked.
"Remy new here, so Remy don't know many folks, so will you help me out by going to da dance wit me and introducin me to folks?" Remy asked her politely.
Rogue didn't know what to say. At first she was initially angry that he would even ask in front of everyone, knowing it would be rude for her to turn him down. Then again, when had Rogue ever worried about being rude.
"I don't think so." Rogue said flatly. Logan beamed. That's my girl! Unfortunately for Logan, Rogue saw him smile. That rat bastard, she thought.
"Aw, cmon chere, please don't make Remy beg."
Rogue cocked an eyebrow and looked at Logan. He had a kind of nervous look on his face, like he was afraid she would reconsider.For a second in time, Rogue thought that maybe, just maybe, what Mystique had said had no truth to it at all. Maybe Logan could love me, Rogue thought. Or at least like me. He was jealous, that was plain and simple. It was written all over his face and it made Rogue almost giddy. Let's see how far I can push this, she thought.
"Alright Remy, I'll go with you." Rogue said, then smirked at Logan. His face got red with anger and his jaw set.
"Alright, it's settled then. Now, Scott will show you to your rooms and why don't you all relax this evening. You've earned it." Said the professor, and everyone left to their separate rooms.
Logan caught up with Rogue outside of her room.
"I don't think it's such a good idea you go with this guy. He seems sorta…" Logan started and Rogue cut him off.
"Cheesy? Fake?" She said, almost laughing.
"Well, yeah… if you know that then why're you even thinkin about goin with this fella?" Logan asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Rogue weight this question heavily in her mind, thinking of a proper answer.
"Because you were scared I would go. Because of the way you looked at me... like you were actually looking at me as a woman you care for, not a kid you felt obligated to." And with that, Rogue went inside and shut the door, leaving a very confused Logan standing in the hallway.
Authors Note: Hey ya'll, thank you all for being so patient with me. School is hectic, I'm failing Economics I hate that class and things are just tough right now.
My boyfriend is over seas cries and I'm stressed about that too, but writing this helps me deal with missing him so much. Thank you all for reviewing and giving me a reason to keep writing, and in turn giving me a reason to stay sane. Chapter 5 will be up soon I hope, but I make no promises. Be kewl everyone! -Ali
