Chapter X

Angel, angel, what've I done?
I've faced the quakes, the winds, the fire -
I've conquered country, crown, and throne.
Why can't I cross this river?
'Pay no mind to the battles you've won.
It'll take a lot more than rage and muscle.
Open your heart and hands, my son.
Or you'll never make it over the river.'
~The Humbling River by Puscifer

…

Fremont County, Colorado

Rogue carried him like a bride across the threshold into his hotel room. "Sleep it off, sugah," she said, gently laying him on the bed.

Behind her, a quick breeze announced another presence. She turned in time to see a girl leap and wrap a wire around her neck. If she hadn't been invulnerable, her throat would've split. She tipped forward and threw the girl on top of Remy. Unfazed, she rolled and pounced again, this time with a knife ready. The blade shattered on Rogue's eye and she caught the child, penned her to the floor.

"Knock it off!"

She bucked and spat, screamed and cursed.

"Petite…" Remy groaned, "Take it easy…"

The girl reduced from a full boil to a simmer.

Rogue rushed to his side. "Remy! Ah never thought Ah'd be so happy to not kill you."

"I get that a lot," he smiled. He slowly sat up, blood crawling back into his limbs. "Allow me to introduce Miss Bennett."

She studied the girl, who couldn't have been more than twelve. Her long limbs were strung tight and her eyes and lips were too big for her face, like a puppy that hadn't yet grown into its feet. She had olive skin, bright violet eyes, and black hair cut in an unruly bob. Two ram horns crowned her head and curled prettily under her ears.

"Marie Bennett?"

"The same," said the girl. "How did you find Remy?"

"Wait just a damn minute! How did you find Remy? And what're y'all doin' here?"

Marie filled a glass with water and brought it to him, gingerly placing it in his hands and helping him lift it to his mouth. He took a sip and quietly explained that Rogue wasn't a threat. Then he explained to Rogue that Marie was helping him track Ishii.

"How? Are you telepathic?" she asked.

"Something like that…"

"Rogue's a friend," he said. "We can trust her."

Her too-large eyes weakened. "I only trust you, Remy."

"Marie's a dream weaver," he explained. "She's been followin' Ishii since Scott died. She's made contact with whoever he's holdin'. Don't suppose you know anything more than you stole from me?"

"Her name's Raven. She – she's our daughter from another time and dimension."

His reaction was too pitiful to watch. Marie curled up in his lap, as if her presence might comfort him. After a moment, Rogue hugged him, too. He didn't weep or sigh. He didn't even complain. But there was a sadness in his eyes that nothing could erase. It broke her heart, too, although for different reasons. Rogue knew all about Raven and struggled to accept her, but Gambit only had to hear her name to love her with all his heart. What was wrong with her?

"She sees the dead," Marie said at last. "That's what he wants. She's too scared to move or eat."

Remy disentangled himself and walked to the window, as if looking at the great beyond could somehow drown out her words.

"I make her remember what he does when she dreams," she continued. "Names, dates, experiments… Remy says it's important. He says to tell her we're coming so she doesn't lose hope. You're going to get her now, right?"

"Y'all know where she is?"

"Generally," he said. "But no way t' get there."

"Rogue can do it! What're they gonna do? Shoot her?"

"But believe it or not, it ain't enough to be strong. Tell me everything y'all know. Everything."

With measured, practiced words, the young girl explained Ishii's process. First he traumatized his patients. Then he overwhelmed them with death and the dying. Deprived of every basic need and comfort, he aimed to break them in order to make them compliant. Then he pushed their bodies to the breaking point. Death was often long in coming.

"At least she won't be raped," Marie said indifferently. "I overheard him say that sexual trauma made the reactions too unpredictable. But she's been tortured every other way."

"Why are you tellin' me this?"

"Because if I had your powers, I'd be there already!"

"And she'd be dead."

Remy reviewed the blueprints for the building holding Raven. He'd marked every possible entrance and exit and mapped the route commonly taken by staff. Getting in wasn't the problem. Getting out – with an invincible, super-strong hostage – provided more challenges.

"Ain't enough to rescue her," said Rogue. "He's cursed her. There's a charm on her and another on him that binds her. We have to remove 'm both."

"Leave Ishii to me," Marie boasted.

"To us," said Remy. Then he told Rogue: "You'll move quicker alone."

"Ah'll draw the guards. Won't be able to hide anyway, so Ah'll distract 'm from y'all."

"Better wait," said Marie. "He'll kill her before he'll let her leave."

"Right… Y'all grab Ishii and then Ah'll move for Raven. We'll head north for the Arctic. Won't be cozy, but it'll provide good cover while she recoops."

"Then we'll head south," he replied.

'South to where?' she wanted to ask. And when would she see him again? She didn't dare ask with his mini-assassin disciple present. His eyes softened but whatever words he wanted to speak were silenced by a helicopter suddenly outside the window. A spotlight circled round and burned through the thin curtains. An amplified voice told them to place their hands on their heads, and the hall trembled with dozens of marching boots.

SHIELD.

"Go get her," Remy said.

She gave him a kiss for luck and stole a healthy dose of thievery. Of course he had the blueprints memorized, and there was always the possibility that his subtle charm might work better than her blunt force.

Like a bullet, she blew through the window and shot into the earth's astrosphere. SHIELD scrambled to catch up. A curved trajectory carried her directly over the solid concrete fortress. When she dropped, guards opened fire, but the rounds missed or failed to pierce her body. She crashed through the roof to the floor where Raven was being held. Luckily, she didn't have far to go, but unfortunately, it gave the guards easy access. Like ants, they poured from the roof into the hall. She ripped a door off its hinges and flung it like a Frisbee. They hunkered down and radioed for backup.

She ran to the lab which held Raven's cell. Steel doors and cement walls crumbled like tissue paper beneath her fists, and any staff nearby had evacuated. They hadn't bothered to move Raven: her mind was imprisoned in ways invulnerable to Rogue's almighty strength.

Naked, she huddled in a corner. When she heard footsteps, she quivered.

"It's alright," Rogue said. "Ah'm a friend."

But it wasn't alright. A power-negating collar – once popular on Genosha – had been drilled into her spine at the base of her skull. More heavy-duty bolts affixed a steel plate into her head and wrapped around her eyes. No wonder she saw only the dead. At least Rogue knew what had been hexed, but how would she ever remove it? Raven's skull might crumble. A nicked nerve could leave her paralyzed. This required a surgeon's precision, but they hadn't time to find a surgeon.

She wrapped her coat around the poor girl. At first, she fought against it, but then she relaxed.

"Ruh – Rogue?"

A smoke bomb rolled into the room and Raven coughed.

"It's me, sugah. We've gotta get this thing off you."

"Do it," she said bravely.

"Don't ask me to stop or Ah'll never have the nerve to start again."

"Like a b-band-aid!" She struggled to breathe.

The steel plates peeled away like ribbon, but she took great care with the bolts. She tried to get a feel for how deeply they were embedded. Then she gathered all her courage and plucked the first one. Crimson blood poured into Raven's face. She removed the second one, and this time, Raven screamed and fought her. She struggled for every one after, but all her might couldn't slow the process. It was awful. Her face bloated with agony and her cries were inhuman. Rogue took great care not to accidently crush her head while exerting great strength to remove the bolts. Blood caused her fingers to slip on the final one – the pin holding the collar at the base of her skull. She wiped her hand on her pants and tried again. This time it came out. Raven thrashed in agony and finally pushed free, matching Rogue's might.

"Ah'm sorry," Rogue wept, cradling her head.

She was bleeding like a fountain. Apparently, her returned powers wouldn't instantly heal her wounds, but she wouldn't die. At least the smoke didn't irritate her anymore. While Rogue found cloth to wrap her head, SHIELD made their demands. How terrified they must've been: knowing she had all the power.

"Do you know where Ishii is?" she asked Raven.

"He lives… in the basement…"

"They've probably cleared the building already. Damnit!"

"No… His door's on a time-release... Requires special… clearance to open… No one wants to wake the General… to save Ishii… No one likes him…"

Another bomb was thrown and a flash preceded a high-pitched whistle. Agents poured in as Rogue dove through the floor, dragging Raven along. They continued swiftly to the bottom level, clipping a guard, but not pausing to assess the damage. Rogue actually by-passed the basement the first time and sunk into the foundation. When they came back up, the area was empty. They raced through the halls, kicking open every door until they finally found the sleeping doctor.

Rogue felt Raven trembling and softly told her: "Wait outside."

Ishii kicked off his covers and scrambled for his glasses. This boogeyman, who had mutilated and massacred so many, was hardly five feet tall. Bald, shirtless, with buckling knobby knees, he was the picture of pathetic. She quickly grabbed his bottom jaw. If he had a fake tooth filled with cyanide, this prevented him from swallowing it. Then she pulled his memories.

A young medical student with a different name and a habit of torturing mutants was approached by William Stryker. Under his employ, Ishii was able to open medical clinics, where he continued to experiment and injure mutants under the guise of charity. Eventually the government would catch on. He'd change his name, move, and open another clinic. After M-Day, when so many mutants died or lost their unique abilities, Ishii had to go underground. Not only were mutants more difficult to find, they were also more visible. If too many of them shared the same doctor and suffered the same symptoms, he'd lose his limited supply.

So new subjects like Marie Bennett had to be abducted. In fact, he'd tried to relocate her to Unit XP the day she escaped. Her handlers said she'd been unresponsive for days. They didn't expect a little girl to be so clever. They were lax and left her unchained for the move from her cell to his vehicle. She escaped and nearly exposed the entire operation. They had to silence her.

Hospitalized, Ishii couldn't reach her, but when he learned she'd been taken by Cyclops, he knew he had to act. Stryker's son, who'd replaced his father, deployed his army to annihilate the splinter cell of X-Men. It backfired. Unit XP was uncovered and Ishii came too close to being exposed.

While the authorities scrambled to disprove his lies, he weaved an intricate series of spells. First, he enchanted high-ranking officials. They were happy to keep him safe in exchange for his findings. Deprived of hunting, abducting, and slowly torturing victims, he instead re-lived the acts through confessional stories. Everyone in the fortress knew what he'd done, but they mistakenly believed he was too valuable to expose or harm. In fact, he was a breath away from disaster.

When the Terrigen bomb further thinned the mutant herd, Raven came to his attention. She couldn't be killed. He wanted to examine her reaction to Terrigenesis, and gather samples of her cerebrospinal fluid for future test subjects. He suspected her DNA held the possibility of species-wide resistance to the fatal virus… But it could just as easily accelerate death.

Once she was obtained, he had to make sure that no one came to rescue her. A sloppy spell re-enforced by some wicked hexes erased the memory of her. Pictures or video footage that he may have missed could be mistaken for Rogue. And because she wasn't from this world, there were limited documents to ever reveal her existence.

Enraged, her grip tightened until his jaw fractured.

"Your hex," she said. "Where?"

His memory revealed a tiny explosive buried in his sinus cavity. If he thought himself above harm, he was wrong. She pressed her thumbs against his forehead until it broke like an overripe melon. Then she dug out the device known as the Decimator.

"You're a mess," was all Raven said when she emerged.

Rogue took her hand, trying to channel her strength into this still-bleeding woman. "Ah'm gonna go outside and let them arrest me now. They'll take you to a hospital. Get you patched up. Ah'll come as soon as Ah can."

"I know you will. I've got your coat."

She cracked a smile.

…

The pain in Raven's head was terrible, but she'd experienced agony before. Endurance was a matter of will-power. She simply withdrew into her mind and offered the pain to God. Hide, shut out. Hide, shut out. As easy as breathing once you had the hang of it.

At the hospital, she finally stopped bleeding. Like Christ, she'd lost every drop of blood, and although she didn't die, her body burned. Agony was all she knew. And then…

Her father held Rogue as she bled to death.

Alone in the dark, Honor sobbed.

Meg screamed. Another contraction forced her body forward into labor. Her mother held one foot and Oli held the other. "I can see his head!" someone said, but she couldn't hear over her wails.

Oli had sent his team for re-enforcements, and they were en route, but wouldn't arrive in time. He fought alone. It was David and Goliath, and David was about to get his ass kicked. He thought of Meg and Jack. Then he thought of all the Megs and Jacks he was protecting and told Cyclops to fire everything he had. There was no time for escape. Trying to save his own life would only jeopardize the mission. Oli died thinking he was a hero who'd saved the world.

"Why do you linger here?"

"What is my pain compared to theirs?" Raven replied.

Somewhere else, she heard Meg's mother saying: "I told Rogue to wait for me! Of course she didn't listen. Where's Dr. Strange?"

Rogue stood, saw the blood stain, and knew she'd lost the baby. It was the lowest depths of misery. And it never ended. Every day, her heart continued to plummet.

Raven wiped, saw the blood, and knew she was losing her baby.

"You wanted to die, didn't you?"

"No," Raven weakly answered.

"Life is pain."

Raven saw Remy waiting at her bedside. Someone else was watching from behind her eyes, too. Cautiously, he held her hand and apologized.

"Wanna make it up to me?" said Raven's voice. "Fuck me. You know the old saying – the deeper the kin, the deeper the in."

It was supposed to be the best night of her life. Vaughn asked Daddy for "permission" to marry her and also for Momma's ring. Daddy doted on her – on all his children, really… Well, except for Oli. Raven was delirious with joy. She never dreamed Daddy would say no or that Vaughn would unleash his frustration on her. It had to be a joke. A misunderstanding. A nightmare. When she told Vaughn not to give up – to ask again – he said they were over. He'd already "wasted" five years of his life. If she wanted to marry him, she could get Daddy's "permission". Then he left her. Just like everyone else. He left.

"No one loves you. They never did."

Far away, Meg's mother said: "What happened? Rogue said she removed the enchantments."

"She tried," replied a man. "Her interference triggered another spell. Looks like Ishii's mind is now in Raven's body. Can you-"

Jack.

He always loved her.

"He was just a baby. Infants aren't capable of love."

That's not true. The first time she held him, he looked up at her and he knew her. Like he'd known her all her life. Some part of her wondered if this boy wasn't her mother re-incarnated. He seemed so wise.

Softly, a man said: "Fight him, Raven. He's trying to turn your strengths against you. Don't let him."

Vaughn.

He married her in the end – just like he promised: with Daddy's blessing and Momma's ring. Daddy had been selfish keeping her to himself. He wanted to break Vaughn's heart like Vaughn was breaking his. He wanted to prove how unworthy this man was… But Vaughn proved him wrong. Didn't matter how many times he said 'no', he kept coming back. He didn't elope like a thief in the night. He didn't try to usurp his father-in-law. And his persistence paid off by bringing Raven around to his side. Finally, Daddy knew he risked losing his favorite daughter if he kept it up. He gave Vaughn the ring and said, "With all my heart, I give her to you."

"You let them die! You should've been with your brother! Then they'd still be alive!"

"God let them die. I'm not God."

"You're a coward!"

"Yeah, maybe I am…"

"Fight him, Raven."

"Insults won't defeat me. He tried to enslave me, but my soul has already been bound to heaven. I am a child of God, created in His image. My brother was the Alpha, the first to die, and I am the Omega. My journey is much longer and my sacrifices greater, but when we reunite, he'll see that I am no worse for my burdens. All the senseless sufferings serve a purpose. Ishii wasn't brought to me to face defeat. The cycle ends with me… I forgive him as I hope He forgives me."

She felt Ishii's soul tear from hers. He clung with bleeding nails that remained even when the rest of him had been ripped away. Granting him grace was to be her life's final act. She was sure of it.

But a small, still voice echoed: "Not yet."

…

To Be Concluded…

…

Author's Notes: 'The Humbling River' inspired most of Raven's personality and that philosophy bled into the whole story. Obviously, the "river" is a metaphor; what for is debatable. But I used Ishii as the un-crossable river. It required Marie's cunning, Gambit and Emma's investigations, Darce's honesty, Raven's sacrifice, and Rogue's strength to finally conquer him.

When Raven connected with her family's pain, she was witnessing their agony. I don't know why she thought that would inspire her, but it made her feel connected to them, anyway. Ishii quickly turned it into a weapon. Fun fact about Jack: although Oli and Meg's child was pictured in X-Men: The End, no name or even a gender was revealed. I decided 'Jack' was short, sweet, and simple. Only later did I learn that's also the name of Oliver Twist's buddy, 'the Artful Dodger'. Sweet serendipity!