Chapter 7 – What the hell?

Logan had to digest all this revealing information about Rogue given to him by Charles and he really wanted to go and see Marie to make sure she was okay with him being here as well as him knowing all about her powers and such.

He knew that going to see Marie probably wouldn't be the best idea but he wanted her own opinion on how the last three years have been for her and he needed to know whether what he saw in the hallway earlier that morning was a spare of the moment thing or because she actually hates him.

Logan walked through the corridors back towards Rogue's bedroom.

Along the way, lots of the students were staring at him and whispering when his back was to them. Probably all the rumors, Logan mused.

When Logan got to Marie's bedroom he could hear giggling and people talking. Logan being Logan naturally assumed his Marie was in the room with a man – how wrong he was. Logan burst through the door to find Jubilee shacked up with 'de Remy' in Jubes' bed.

"What the fuck are you doing in Rogue's room Yellow? And with this... who the fuck is he?" Shouted Logan, he was seething. Who do they think they are? And in my Marie's room!

Jubilee stood up, wrapping the sheet around her to make sure her modesty was still intact. Jubilee was more than furious with the wolverine, angrily she said, "This is mine and Rougey's room, when she's in the D.R. Room we have an agreement that Remy and I can have the space to ourselves Wolvie. So would you mind leaving us to it?"

Jubilee could tell Logan's nose was put out of joint from the fact that he didn't know she shared a room with Rogue. Logan replied rather sheepishly, "Right, sorry. Do you know where I can find her then?"

"I did just say that when she's in the D.R Room, Remy have the room to ourselves." Jubilee replied impatiently.

"Oh, of course. Sorry again." Logan started backing out of the room when he heard Yellow say, "Be careful, she likes her privacy."

What the hell did that mean? She likes her privacy. Most people did, Logan scoffed inwardly. Ha, you can't get privacy in a place like this.

Logan took the elevator down to the lower levels of the X-Mansion where the med lab, D.R Room and conference room were situated.

He could smell that Marie was here, her scent hadn't changed at all, still that chestnut and vanilla mix plus the intoxicating deeper undertone that was pure Marie. However, he couldn't sense the happy and joyful Marie he once knew; she was clouded with anger, sadness and self-loathing?

He could also smell that Charles was down here on the observation deck.

Logan was greeted with a sad smile from Charles when he came through the doors of the observation deck. He noticed the Professor's hands were clenched into a tight fist. A lot of stress perhaps?

He looked at the control panel, Rogue was on the hardest level there was in the Danger Room. She was battling with, was that, no it couldn't be... the Phoenix!

The scene in front of him was exactly the same as Alcatraz but instead of Logan going after Jean, it was Marie. She was using all the powers she had ever accumulated over the years including her skin – she was impressive and Logan could see why the Professor thought she was dangerous.

Dodging the flying objects or stopping them with her telepathy and magnetism powers; punching the lights out of any mutant who got in her way using her super strength and hand-to-hand combat skills; helping out her teammates and putting herself in the danger zone so that no one else got hurt. Marie was the best fighter Logan had ever seen.

She went up behind Mystique and broke her neck with one swift movement making a terrible crunching noise that sent shivers down both Logan and Charles' backs; then she went over to Magneto and using her own mutation, sucked him dry and finally, she went over to Jean and gave her one last pleading look before she knocked her out and metaphorically took her back to the Blackbird.

Suddenly the simulation ended.

Marie was definitely different; Logan could see that clear as day. She was ruthless, didn't flinch when she killed someone but she still cared. She would put herself in front of her teammates so they wouldn't get injured, rescue civilians even if they had been against her and she didn't kill Jean. But she was still different.

"Why did she do that simulation?" Logan asked Charles.

"She does it all the time, she wishes she could have been there so you didn't have to kill Jean. She blames herself for a lot of what happened that night and she does this simulation to try and find a way we could have saved Jean."

"But Jean's okay now, right?"

"Yes, she is but Rogue believes that if Jean had never died and you would have never left and as such she wouldn't have ended up like this." Charles turned towards Logan, "She hates herself, I'm sure you can smell the self-loathing coming off her?"

"Well, yeah. But why does she hate herself? She's perfect." Logan was confused and worried about Marie.

"Rogue knows she is dangerous and wishes that she wasn't so. Yes, she has a duty to the X-Men now and of course she has been helping me lately but she is still upset about what happened after Alcatraz. I believe she thinks she will turn into Jean and again, you will have to kill someone who is a good friend. She's worried about you Logan, not herself. She hates that she has put all of us in a difficult position should anything like what happened to Jean, happen to her. She knows none of us could really kill her, Rogue has your powers and that means she would be even more deadly than the Phoenix." Charles spoke gravely about the woman who he thought of as a daughter.

"Fuck." Logan shouted and he started pacing in the little room while muttering some inaudible comments to himself (probably a lot of swear words).

Then, suddenly, the door slammed opened and in came a seething Rogue who had obviously just had a shower and heard the last of Logan and Charles' conversation!