The dinner table at the Xavier Institute was quiet. Unusually so.

"Like, where is Kurt?" asked Kitty.

"He's probably deliberating," Rogue replied. "Ah would be."

"What for?" the brunette asked curiously.

"Haven't ya seen tha news?! Whaddya think he'ad be thinkin' about?!" With that outburst out of the way, Rogue got up and stormed from the room.

"Kitty," the Professor started, "Kurt…; There was…"

"The Elf killed someone in self defence today," Logan finished for him. There wasn't really anyone else in the room who could. Just after he did so, Remy set down his knife and fork, and folded his napkin, setting it down next to his plate.

"Oh," said Kitty, distantly.

"I'm sure it was an accident, Kitty,"continued Charles. "It's not… the kind of thing Kurt would do."

"Excusez moi," said Remy, standing up. He didn't offer any explanation, just quietly left.

"What's his deal?" asked Logan. "You'd think he'd done it himself."

"Remy has his reasons, Wolverine," Piotr replied. "However, I am sworn to secrecy."

The Canadian started to stand, but then decided to trust Colossus on this one. "They better be good reasons," he growled as he sat back down.

Perching on the balustrade of his balcony, Kurt sighed. The construction of his new wall aside, he felt he was in the wrong place. The X-Men weren't killers. They didn't make mistakes like that either. He hung his head, and a single teardrop slid down his cheek.

Behind him, Rogue stepped in between the woodwork of the wall's frame. She walked up to the balcony beside her brother, and leaned against the railing. "We're havin' ice-cream with chocolate chips after dinner," she suggested.

Kurt didn't hear a word she said. "I don't belong here."

"'Course ya do," said his sister. "We're yoah family."

Kurt snorted. The mention of family had been a mistake. "No. I don't." He jumped from his perch.

"Kurt, don't go!" yelled Rogue, jumping to catch him. She only succeeding in launching herself far enough over the rail to crash over the top of it, and she barely stopped herself from falling the rest of the way to the ground by catching one of the balusters. She scraped down the outside of the railing and her hip bounced off the end of the balcony's slab floor before she was left hanging from the one hand.

"Ouch," she said dryly before reaching up and grabbing another pillar with her free hand. 'Great,' she thought to herself. 'Kurt's going to run himself straight into some trouble.' The southerner looked above and considered the amount of effort involved in pulling herself up, deciding that dropping to the floor below would work better. From where she was, though, she'd need something to break her fall — an eight foot drop on to concrete is not something you just do. She pulled her lower body up to wrap a leg around the floor when she smelled tobacco smoke. After looking down, Rogue relaxed again.

"Put it out, swamp rat!" she yelled. The Cajun looked up, startled, to see her dangling from the balcony directly above him, and immediately tossed his cigarette away.

"What are y' doin' up dere, chérie?" he asked.

"Falling," Rogue replied, and closing her eyes, let go.

Remy caught the southerner as easily as if catching falling women was something he did on a daily basis. He looked down at the girl that was lax in his arms. "Isn't dis th' way I'm s'posed to carry y' o'er d'thres'ol after we marry, chérie? An'ere I t'ought y' didn't trus' me."

Rogue opened her eyes and glared at him. "Do you want me to suck the laife force raight outta ya?"

The Cajun shrugged. "It's a start."

Rogue made a noise somewhere between a growl, a groan, and a sigh, and rolled out of his grip. As she did so, she reached into his coat and removed a two foot long metal pole. "Borrow this?" she asked, and didn't wait for an answer before turning and running for the garage.

"Wait, chérie!" yelled Gambit, running after her. "Don' y' need it open?!"

Rogue stopped suddenly and turned around, causing Remy to crash into her. "When I need it," she replied, and pecked his lips. It was purely to get the information that would be at the front of his mind, she told herself. That would, despite that he might try to hide it, tell her how to use every function of the staff "Thanks," she said as he fell to the ground, and then she turned away and continued running.

Behind her, Remy groaned. He was surprised that giving in to it had made that much difference, that he hadn't even properly passed out. "Y' welcome, chere," he mumbled, pocketing the keys to his bike. If Rogue was going to follow her brother in to danger, she wasn't going without him.

Rogue cursed as she discovered the lack of keys on her person. She was sure she hadn't put them down yet. 'I don't have time for this,' the southerner thought as she ran out from the garage again. Looking to the gate, the mansion, and back again, Rogue noticed two surprising things. One was Remy pushing himself up off the ground – shouldn't he be out cold? – and the other was Warren Worthington III, walking up to the gate. An opportunity. She ran for the gate.

"Rogue!" he exclaimed as she punched in the access code to open it. "How are you? I'm just here to talk to the Professor about this Az–"

He never got to finish what he was saying on account of passing out. Rogue wasn't normally one to tap and run like that, but she figured she'd already done it once this evening and she technically knew the Cajun better than Angel. 'Angels versus demons and they're all really mutants, huh?' Rogue shook her head and continued running. As she did so, the physical characteristics unique to Warren's mutation began to take effect. She realised too late what the implications of this would be on her clothing, and was only saved from a 'wardrobe malfunction' by the hem that connected the straps on her top. Her over-shirt fell away, useless.

Behind her, on his motorcycle, Remy cursed as he saw the girl's new wings spread, and she left the ground. In contrast to Angel's classic whites, the southerner sported black, Ravenesque wings, with a white band near each end. Still, Rogue did look like an angel. An angel of death. He revved the bike's engine and sped after her, ignoring Warren's prone form at the gate.

X-Men rushed out of the mansion, startled by not the noise itself, but Logan's reaction to it. The Canadian growled, seeing Gambit, Rogue, and Kurt – who was so far off that no-one else would be able to – moving away. "Suit up," he commanded, "Something bad's going to happen." He looked down at the unconscious Warren. "And it's already started."

His wings folded behind his back, Kurt sat on the edge of the precipice. Watching the sea was, for whatever reason, of great comfort to him, and here he could watch it, still, far from any of the people he had betrayed. Or at least that's what he thought.

Hidden in the trees behind him, Rogue just watched on. It was probably best to wait for him to come back of his own accord, and she was just keeping on eye on him. Ready in case he got himself into trouble. Thre were two more there, but neither Kurt nor Rogue were paying enough attention to realise this.

After a short while, the southerner decided that it wasn't worth just waiting for her brother, and one thing he really needed right now was someone to lean on. She stepped out from where she was hiding, apparently not careful enough to avoid a stray branch on the ground.

Kurt's head turned at the snapping sound. "Vhy did you have to follow me here?!" he yelled. "Couldn't you just–"

"If it was me, it's what you would've done." Rogue said it so quietly that ordinarily he probably wouldn't have heard it, but as things were if she'd said it any louder it wouldn't have had any effect.

After a brief reprise to guilt over blowing up at his sister, Kurt's madness returned to him. "Now I know vhy you wanted me to avoid teleporting," he scoffed. Turning away, he tried to do that very thing, and was surprised when instead he was thrust backwards and his dimensional gate was forced wide open.

At that moment, several things happened. One, several of the creatures that lived in that dimension jumped through. Two, some grotesque looking beings appeared around the area. Many had wings and horns similar to Kurt's, and had arrived in much the same way he often did. Three, Rogue launched herself into the air, opening Gambit's staff and spreading her wings.

Not long after, another winged man stepped through, and Rogue recognised him as a memory of her adoptive mother's past hit her in a flash. It was more than likely that Mystique had been telling the truth — Rogue could remember the event in disturbing detail, and really could have done without it. He looked pretty much like a red version of Kurt, but larger and with claws.

"Thank you, my son," he said to Kurt.

Kurt had been about to descry what he'd just heard, but Rogue was first to the punch. "You leave him alone!" she exclaimed, drawing the man's attention as now Gambit's power too surfaced in her, causing the staff to burn in his characteristic red flame.

"No! You'll not take me, Azrael!" the man cried, seeing for the first time Rogue in her full glory, black wings outstretched and wielding a burning weapon. He took one of his own weapons and flicked it at her.

Rogue barely had time to react before the dagger buried itself in her stomach and she fell to the ground. The last thing she saw before the blackness overtook her was Azazel carrying a struggling Kurt away through the boy's own portal….

Ack! Almost 10 days since the last update. That's not gonna make ya's happy. Probably neither did my cliffy.
Before anyone make a fool of themselves, Azrael and Azazel are not the same. You may note that to Remy, Rogue looked like 'An angel of death.' Make the connection.
Kudos to UncannyAsianGirl for both pulling me up on and helping me sort out Kurt's family background. Y'all may wish to re-read chapter 7 as some connections made have been dropped.
Next chapter: What has Azazel done with Kurt? Who were the other two there? Is Rogue dead? (C'mon people, like you have to ask that question? As such I ask all Rogue fanatics who are plotting my death to please wait for the next chapter before making any rash desicions).
I'll try to get it done ASAP, but if it's not there by Monday don't hold your breath because a week is a long time to try. I won't be near my computer in this time.

Responses to Reviews

Miss Poisonous: I didn't mix the 'verses by accident, but I missed a discrepancy between the two that I shouldn't have. They are frightening, aren't they?

UncannyAsianGirl: Do you realise that was over 1000 words?! Now, let's try and keep this short, by removing some no-longer-relevant threads:
Kitty then suddenly lost her ability to air walk it seems. I decided she wasn't aware she was doing it.
You missed the Rogue not remembering absorbing Logan bit?
Let's just assume that Rogue knew what the cards were. It wouldn't be hard to figure it out, using chaos theory projections from the last time she absorbed him. As to N'Awlins and stalking away, the Evo Rogue is touchy, and Remy reminded her of the time he used her.
Rogue's accent has gone soft, and the southerner thing comes back when she's nervous or stressed, or just at the beginning of a sentence sometimes. This is intentional.
Some other less related stuff; Mind if I steal the Kitty thing in another fic? It would be funny, and I was already planning on doing creppy stuff to her. Thanks for the link to mcskins' (Now go have a look at the top of the script for Rogue Recruit :·P Yes, it got there after you pointed me to the site). Thanks also for the link to the directory, though I already had that very page in my auto-completion list.