Crime and Punishment
Ok into unexplored territory here – A RYRO. With a little Victor mixed in because I JUST can't write a story without him.
I don't own them – any of them this time – but it's been fun playing with the dollies.
Chapter 10
"Ralphie Ralphie Ralphie" Victor said as he leaned on the man hanging from the beam, causing the body to swing. "Ya just don't get it."
"Vic, let's get this done." John said. He didn't want to drag this out, not this time.
"Now, John…I'm in an artistic mood." Victor said with a grin, a grin John didn't ever want to see aimed at him. "Just tryin' ta decide – is it worth pissin' off my wife ta have a little fun with this fucker."
"You'd better make up your mind, before I just shoot him." Jan said from the corner, a .45 in her hand.
"Baby – don't be like that. I will definitely make it up to ya. You like it when I'm in an artistic mood." John almost laughed and ruined the moment. The puddle of urine under the hanging piece of shit made it worthwhile."Now, see, I'm just gonna have ta kill him now, ammonia gives me a headache."
"I definitely don't want YOU to have a headache." Jan grinned at her husband.
"What do you want?" Ralph hissed, as he struggled against the ropes holding him to the beam.
"A full list – of all the people you have raped and/or murdered in the last year." Victor said pleasantly. He was having too much fun with this, and John could tell Jan was becoming upset.
"Hey – I need ta get back – I want ta tell her it's done." John said. He needed to see her face.
"Fine – give me the list, Jan over there will write it down, and I'll kill ya quick. Don't give me the list, the lady and the kid will leave – and they'll never find your body. Do you have family, Ralphie?" He asked, almost as an afterthought.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well – you give us what we want, your family will have a body to bury. Ya don't – well I might have ta pay a visit to YOUR wife."
"You wouldn't…"
"Now why wouldn't I…eye for an eye right. How many men's wives have you enjoyed…oh that's right, mutants don't have the same rights – so they aren't wives in your book are they?" He growled the last.
"VICTOR?" Jan snapped, cocking the gun.
"You gonna use that on him – or ME!" He turned, snarling at his wife.
"I'm trying to decide." She said. "This isn't justice."
"Victor – she's right. We want justice, not revenge." John said, although he was craving some time alone with this fucker. He'd hurt Marie.
"Revenge sounds good to me." He snarled. This was staying on script so far, but John was afraid Victor would forget the script, and from the look on Jan's face, that wouldn't be very pretty. John didn't want to get involved in a full all out physical fight between those two.
"Alright – just don't hurt my wife." He whimpered and started naming names. Jan was writing them down as quickly as he was talking. They all fought the flinch when Marie's name was put on the list. By the time he was done there were sixty three names on the list.
"Do it." Jan whispered, and turned and walked out of the room. John just nodded at Victor.
"Meet you in the car."
Victor grinned, the last thing John saw as he walked out the door were tears running down 'poor Ralphie's' face.
XXXXXXXXX
Marie curled up in the bed. John, Victor and Jan weren't back from their mission. Professor Baer was curled up at the foot of the bed. She wanted to sleep but something was keeping her awake.
It doesn't have anything to do with you. Her John said. It's just a mission.
I'm just worried. They aren't back yet.
Why are you worrying about CREED! Logan snapped.
Because – unlike YOU he hasn't abandoned me when I needed him. She snapped back. Logan growled but didn't argue.
Back off – metal boy, she's my girl now. John said to the Logan in her head.
I AIN'T anybody's girl. She snapped at both of them. John chuckled, and flashed the memory of his kissing her in the kitchen.
Trust me – he won't let that go.
She shoved him back into a box. Fluffybutt came up and curled up next to her, and she went to sleep stroking his fur.
She woke to loud sneezing outside the door.
"DAMN feline – I aught ta chooo blow it up. Chere – Magneto want ta see you – pronto." Gambit stuck his head in the door.
"You know they have over the counter allergy medicine that can take care of that."
"Don't work on me." He shook his head and ran. She chuckled, he was kind of cute with his runny eyes and sneezing.
She jumped up and dressed quickly. She didn't know what Magneto wanted now.
"Ahh – here she is." He said with a smile as she walked into the conference room. Jan, Victor and John were sitting there. She noticed a strange tension between the couple.
"What?"
"It's done." Victor said.
"What's done?"
"We've managed to find addresses for either the other victims or their families; you are the only one we are telling in person."
"What?"
"We found them…all three of them. They're dead."
"What? You just killed 'em?"
"No, we made them identify every person they hurt, confess to the crimes, and then they were killed." Jan said, the three signed confessions were on Magneto's desk.
"I'm sending copies to every family." Magneto said quietly.
"That's…"
"Justice." Victor said.
"That's why I called the cops."
"They back burnered it, every one of the cases; they had sixteen reports, there were sixty-three total." Jan said.
"How could you go along with this? You are a cop?"
"Sometimes human justice just doesn't work for mutants – this was one of those cases." Jan said, but Marie could tell she didn't completely believe it.
"I don't know how I feel about all this." Marie said quietly.
"Justice has been served. No other brothers or sisters will be harmed by these men. Marie – you were just one of many, and were selected because of your taking the Cure. All of the victims were mutants who'd given up their powers voluntarily – within a clinic. They were chosen for that reason. The ringleader worked at the clinic where you'd taken your injection."
"My God."
"I understand you are stunned by this, training will be postponed until tomorrow." Magneto said simply. She just turned and walked out.
"Rogue – wait." John came up behind her.
"I can't believe you DID this?" She said.
"What would Logan have done? Would he have let them go?"
"I don't know." She was dazed. He reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Don't touch me, John." She said.
"Marie…I didn't do this for you. I want you to know that. You were part of it, but so were all the others. These guys – they'd progressed to murder, when they found out the Cure wasn't permanent. Of the sixty-three only fifty are alive, that's thirteen mutants murdered."
"I need ta think, John. I need ta…"
He pulled her hard against his chest. "Take it – use your powers, take it - everything that happened – I want you to."
"No."
"Please." He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers but she refused to use her powers.
"Marie – please. I didn't do anything wrong. The police – they weren't going to do anything and these guys were still working, and had moved up to killing, they had to be stopped."
"So you killed them?"
"Only one; Vic killed the other two."
"Oh. That's supposed ta make it alright?" She stepped further away from him.
"I made it quick; he didn't suffer, much, after he gave us the information on the third guy. Vic's a master of psychological torture."
"I figured that out on the platform."
"Baby…"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT! YOU don't have that right?" She spun on him. His eyes were blazing.
"So who does? DRAKE!? WOLVERINE!?" He rushed her, backing her against a wall, gripping her arms in anger.
"NO one."
"The way you said that, somebody does." He snarled, before bringing his lips crashing down on hers. His body temperature was rising with his anger, and she was struggling to breathe. His mouth was demanding, his hands moved from her arms to her back pressing her against him. She moaned against his mouth, molded her body to his. She'd been craving this for so long. "Tell me that didn't make you forget him." He hissed in anger as he let her go.
"I can't forget him – he's in my head." She whispered. That made him back up.
"What – I know you have Logan, Bobby, Magneto, that David kid, and ME! Its LOGAN ain't it. This time I'm just an echo of an echo." He backed up and turned away, but not before she saw his eyes.
"John."
"NO! Get out – get away from me. I hope he comes to get you." He started to walk off.
"John." She ran to catch up. "It's not Logan."
He snorted and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Leave me alone, ROGUE!" He almost ran down the hall.
"John – it's you." She said it softly, and knew he heard when he stopped dead; the look on his face when he turned made her heart stop.
"This is rich – I'm an echo to my own echo. Go to hell, Rogue." He was breathing hard and she wanted to run to him, but she knew he needed to calm down first. She could turn on the invulnerability and he wouldn't be able to burn her, but it wasn't his powers she was afraid of.
"You're not an echo – you just ain't earned the right." She said.
"What does that mean?"
"The you in my head's been there, you weren't."
"What? Because I left, because I walked out of that plane?"
"No, just – it's hard ta explain. You aren't the John in my head. I know that ain't fair, but you ain't the one that talked me out of tryin ta kill myself, inta tryin ta live again - after.. You aren't the one who was there twenty four seven with jokes, and gettin pissed off at me, and pushin me ta survive. That John can call me Baby, and does."
"Marie. I can. I can be that John if you give me a chance."
"I don't want ya to be." He closed his eyes but not before she saw the stab of pain at her words. "I want you to be you." She walked up to him and put her hand on the side of his face.
"Marie." His voice was strained.
"I need you." She whispered.
"What?"
"The John in my head can't hold me." He looked down at her in disbelief. She slipped her arms around him and laid her cheek against his chest. She could feel his elevated body heat through his shirt. She felt his arms slip hesitantly around her, and then he was crushing her to him.
"I'm never letting you go." He whispered.
"I don't want you to." She felt his cheek brush against the top of her head.
"I'm here."
"I know."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"I know."
"I'm not Logan, I won't run off on you."
"Who are you tryin ta convince, you or me?"
"I don't know."
He just held her, and for the first time since she'd run away from Meridian, she felt safe, at home.
XXXXXXXX
He'd let her go. He wasn't going to push, not now. She needed time to heal, to realize that she could trust him, that he wasn't going to hurt her. It had been one of the hardest things he'd ever done, letting her slip out of his arms and walk to the kitchen. She needed him. Those words had made his heart race.
It was strange, playing second fiddle to himself, but for now, it was enough. He knew it wasn't another man who would take her away from him. He just had to convince her that he could be the man in her head. He just hoped he could live up to him.
He waited a few minutes and followed her. He needed coffee – bad. Something stopped him at the door.
"So you never did tell me, about her?" He heard her ask someone in the kitchen.
"Not much to say. She's beautiful, talented, everything I could ever want her to be." Mystique said.
"Who's her dad?"
"I don't know. I was trying to live a normal life, for a change, I was in college, and … was raped."
"Oh – she's the one you had to give up because of that."
"Sort of – I was also involved with another woman at the time and we decided that it would be best for her to be raised in a traditional family."
"What happened to her?"
"We are still friends, Erik talked me into coming back not long after, and Irene – well she just doesn't fit in with us.
"Your daughter?"
"She was adopted by a couple that couldn't have children of their own. She grew up in a small town, with lots of friends. I don't even know if they ever told her she was adopted."
"And you're proud of her."
"Very."
"Does she know – that you're her mom?"
"No. But I look out for her."
"She's lucky."
"I can't always be there, and she's been hurt, twice because I just couldn't be there."
"I'm sorry."
"Both times I didn't even know, until after the fact."
"The first time?"
"I didn't know who she was until after. I'd lost track of her, she'd run away from her adopted family, I didn't know where she'd gone. I didn't even know what she looked like at that point. She'd grown up since the last time I'd seen her. She nearly died that time. I wasn't told her name, if I had been, it never would have happened." Mystique's voice was hard, angry.
"Is she a mutant?"
"Yes." John heard something strange – he'd never heard tears in Mystique's voice before.
"Well, she's lucky. I'd like ta meet her, tell her just how lucky she is." Marie said.
"You have." Mystique said.
"Did she go to Xavier's?"
"For a while."
"Who is she?" He heard a hitch in Marie's voice.
There was silence in the room, and then Mystique walked to the door. He was stunned. He'd never seen her cry. She turned and looked at him, before giving him a sad smile, and turning back to Marie.
"You." She walked down the hall, the shattering of ceramic the only sound from the kitchen. He ran in. She was standing there, her coffee cup in pieces at her feet.
"Marie."
"I'm surprised – but I'm not." She was shocked. He watched her hands tremble.
"I didn't know."
"I know." He walked over and pulled her into his arms. Her tears cooled him down.
"You're home, Marie. I'll take care of you."