Chapter 9
"So, planning t' stay, chérie?" Gambit asked, handing her the helmet.
"Thinkin' about it," Rogue shrugged as she put the helmet on. "Ah think it really depends of what kind of reception Ah get."
"I t'ink dat you're a li'l concerned about somet'ing dat's not going t' be a problem, river rat," then he grinned. "And if it is, after I've been reacquainted wit' Stormy we can go back out ont' the road together, and I can turn yo' int' a real t'ief."
Rogue laughed.
"Partners in crime, huh?"
"Sure, it'll be fun," Gambit grinned, getting on the motorcycle. "We work well t'gether, yo' and I."
"Until Ah start crampin' ya style with the next woman ya decide ta get in bed with," Rogue smirked and she climbed on behind him.
"We'll just go t' her place."
Rogue snorted in amusement and off they went.
Gambit and Rogue switched places as they grew closer to the school. After all, Rogue knew how to get there and Gambit didn't. The familiar landscape brought with it the large fence and before long they could see the gate. Rogue slowed down as they approached and tried her security code in the panel. She was rather pleased that it was still accepted and the gates opened. They continued down the driveway and stopped in front of the main doors.
"Well, dis is fairly impressive," Gambit said appreciatively as he got off the bike and looked around.
"Ah don't like it," Rogue said, taking off her helmet. "It's too quiet."
Gambit shrugged and followed Rogue inside. He frowned then, feeling a prodding in his mind, and grunted.
"What?" Rogue asked.
"Telepath - your professor I guess, trying t' get int' my head."
She raised her eyebrows.
"Ya can block that?"
Gambit shrugged.
"My ability t' tap into energy also creates some kind o' static shield that makes it difficult if not impossible fo' telepaths t' even detect me, let alone get int' my mind. This cerebro must be really somet'ing."
"Huh cool. Any other abilities ya haven't told me about?"
Gambits' silence told Rogue that he did, and was deciding whether to actually tell her about it or not.
"I've a couple of secondary mutations," he said finally.
"A couple?"
"Agility, dexterity, and hypnotic charm."
"Hypnotic charm?" Rogue repeated.
"And now that yo' know about it, it's not really gonna work on yo' very well any more, neither."
"Wait... you've been... this whole time?"
"If I had been using it on yo' dis whole time, chérie, we definitely would have done dat naked moonlight swim," he said, grinning slyly at her.
Rogue chuckled softly, then abruptly stopped.
"Jubes?" she exclaimed, running over to the body slumped in the hallway.
"No!" she cried, her alarmed eyes refusing to focus on either of them. "No!"
"I'm just going to assume that your professor is doing t' her what he tried t' do t' yo' last night," Gambit said.
"Ah guess so too -"
"We meet again, Rogue."
"Chérie?"
"He's in muh head," Rogue said.
"Interesting new friend you have there." said the Professor.
Rogue began pulling out her voices. It worked last night to block him out, so hopefully it would work again.
"Ah'm pullin' out muh psyches again -"
"Yo' are? But why?"
"It blocked him out last night. Look, Remy, we need ta get ta Cerebro- chances are that's where he is. If he's connected with everyone in the mansion then openin' the doors will disconnect him, but we risk killin' everyone he's connected with. We need ta find Kurt. He's blue, fuzzy and has a tail. Not ta be mistaken with Hank, who's also blue and fuzzy, but big and tailless," Rogue said quickly, needing to get this out before the surge of psyches make coherent conversation impossible, and pointed up the stairs. "Boys quarters that way. He's a teleporter. He can get us in there - or ya can get me ta absorb him. Hopefully muh powers have come back enough for me to borrow his powers."
"Rogue -" Gambit began, but then saw her eyes start to roll up in her head, caught her and sighed. "D'accord."
"You don't think I'm prepared for your little psyche shield Rogue?" the Professor laughed. "Oh no, this time, we play a different game."
Gambit lifted Rogue in his arms and started up the stairs. Maybe he should have left her where she was, located this Kurt dude and then come back for her, but he didn't feel right leaving her like that. Especially having already seen what happened last time.
Her eyes were closed as she kissed. Then there was a sharp pain, a feeling like she was being drained, her mouth went dry and her mind seemed to loose capacity to think. Abruptly the sensation stopped and her mind and body needed a chance to recover themselves. She looked up - into her own face.
Rogue cried out in alarm.
"It's okay chérie."
"Oh... so that's what it feels like."
She wanted her - no... no this was Bobby's memory. This was Bobby looking at her, wanting her, wanting to be with her. He was afraid. It was his fear she was feeling. He hated being absorbed, but he wanted to kiss her. To touch her and hold her in his arms. But he was afraid, so very afraid.
"No... please..."
"You're a parasite, Rogue," the Professor taunted her. "You hurt everyone you touch. You take them and make them part of you. No wonder they're all afraid of you."
Gambit made it up the stairs and turned towards the boys wing. Well, the direction he though Rogue had indicted as being the boys quarters anyway. As he went down the hall, he started trying doors.
She was struggling. No, he was struggling. Jacob. He was holding her hands, trying to avoid her stompings and kickings. It wasn't right. No mutant should be allowed to be this attractive.
"And just think, sugah, not that long ago ya were wantin' ta buy me a drink," she taunted him.
He hated her.
Rogue choked back a sob.
"It'll be the same with him, you know," whispered the Professor. "Sure, he'd friendly enough now, but one day Rogue, one day you'll absorb him, he'll know, and he won't come near you again."
"No. No."
"There's no point in denying it, Rogue."
Gambit grunted. That telepath was starting to make headway through the static around his mind.
"You're poison."
"Leave me alone!"
Gambit poked his head into the next room to see a blue, furry mutant with a tail, lying on the bed.
"Ahh, yo' must be Kurt."
Kurt was to busy being trapped in his own mind to answer.
More memories flooded Rogue's mind. All featuring her. All featuring hate and fear towards her.
"Rogue-chérie, we've found him," Gambit said.
He touched her face with his gloved hand, looking for some sort of reaction. He pondered whether he should force the absorption himself.
"Nobody loves you, everybody hates you," the Professor sang tauntingly the paraphrased children's song.
"Chére?"
"They all flinch and back off when you come near. Even Bobby feared you in the end. He'll be the same. In the end, you'll only have victims, but not friends."
Rogue frowned.
There was something, something very important. Something she needed to remember. Where was it? She began to rifled through her memories. It was around here somewhere.
"C'mon, girl, we're here. Yo' need Kurt's power remember?"
She - no, he, Logan, looked down at her in distress. He cut her free from the machine, but she was still out of it. He tried touching her face, waiting for that sensation he'd only felt once before. It was terrible, but if it saved her life it would be worth it.
That draining sensation didn't come. He closed his eyes and held her close. They'd been too late.
His eyes opened again. He could feel it. It was there, slowly at first, but it was there. She was absorbing him after all.
"Ah do have a friend..." Rogue said softly. "He saved my life."
"I'm your friend too," Gambit insisted.
Their eyes met.
"Remy?"
"We found Kurt."
"Need ta act now, before he counter attacks."
Gambit grunted then, feeling a shaft sink through the psionic static. Rogue looked at him in alarm and reached out for Kurt. Please let this be enough.
She was being chased.
"Demon! Demon!" screamed the mob.
No, not she. Kurt. Kurt was being chased. He couldn't escape!
Rogue gasped as she relinquished contact. So that was what the Professor was attacking him with.
"Well, well, well," said the Professor to Gambit. "This is a very mixed up little mind isn't it? So many interesting memories you have here. Wait... she absorbing Kurt?"
The Professor got the answer to his own question before he'd even finished thinking it. Rogue and Gambit appeared in Cerebro, right behind him.
"Ah'm sorry, Professor," said Rogue. "But this ends now."
Hand ungloved, she reached around and placed both of them on his face. The absorption began immediately, what's more, she could feel his connection, not only with Cerebro, but with all the residents of the mansion.
"No! You can't do this!" He objected.
"Too late, Ah have ta," Rogue replied. "Ah don't know what ya thought ya were doin' attakin' everyone like this. Hell, Ah don't even know how you're even alive, but one way or another, Ah'm ending this, even if Ah have to kill you."
"Rogue!"
Rogue did a double take. There were two Professors in here? The one that called out to her was trapped in a cage, while the other screamed and ranted at her.
"What on earth?"
"Rogue, you have my powers," said the Professor. "Please, you must help me."
The other professor grasped her.
"Don't go near him," he snarled.
"That's my dark side, Rogue. The Phoenix was Jean's dark side, this is mine. You must free me."
"You feel my power, Rogue, do you want to see what I see? See what's in the minds of your so-called friends? Tell me chérie how much do you know about your new little friend, Remy LeBeau?"
Rogue lifted her finger and pushed the dark professor away. This conversation was happening as fast as they could think, but Rogue was still absorbing him, and he was growing weaker. She turned to the cage and wrenched open the door.
"Thank you," said Professor Xavier. "Now, will you help me cage him?"
"Of course."
Together they reached out, and grabbed the dark professor. Although he screamed and raged and struggled, he was no match for their combined powers and together they plunged him back into the cage, securing it shut.
Rogue gasped and let go of the Professor. Behind her, Gambit grunted.
"Remy? Ya okay?"
Gambit put a hand to his head.
"I'll be fine, chérie."
Rogue nodded and moved in front of the professor where she could see his face. She studied him carefully.
"He's going to be out for awhile," she decided. "Better get him ta the medlab."
As she still had Kurt's powers she reached out to both the Professor and Gambit. Touching them, she concentrated and teleported the three to the medlab.
"I don' t'ink I'm gonna get used t' dat."
"Heh, don't worry sugah, they'll wear off sooner or later," Rogue grinned. "Help please?"
Gambit conceded and gave her a hand moving the Professor's body onto the bed. Behind them they heard a groaning sound.
"Say... is dat the other blue guy yo' mentioned?" Gambit asked, pointing.
Rogue turned.
"Hank!" she exclaimed, rushing to his side. "Are ya okay?"
Hank looked up at her with a groggy frown.
"Marie?"
"It's Rogue now," Rogue said firmly.
"Water... please..."
"Of course."
She started to get up when Gambit handed her a cup. She smiled her thanks and handed it to Hank, who sipped slowly.
"Kurt was first, then Kitty..." he began.
"Ah know. He went after the people who'd be able ta interfere with Cerebro first," Rogue said. "It's been over a day."
"That long?" Hank managed a weak smile. "No wonder I'm so hungry. You... you need to get food and water to everyone. Something light."
"Okay. Any new folks Ah need t' know about?"
"No one new since you left."
"Yo' teleport me t' the kitchen chérie," Gambit said. "I'll get started on the food while yo' find everyone."
Rogue nodded and a moment later they were in the kitchen. Gambit looked around and rubbed his hands together gleefully.
"Well, well, well. Dis is what I call a kitchen."
"We do haveta feed a lot of people," Rogue said, eyeing him with amusement. "Think you can find everything, or should I show you around?"
"I t'ink I should be able to find everything," he said. "Yo' go ahead."
"Okay then."
With a BAMF, she was gone.