Disclaimer: I don't own a thing

Title: Born for Bad Luck

By: Peanutbutter

"Boys I'm most done travellin', Lord I'm at my journey's end

B'lieve I'm most done travellin', Lord at my journey's end

Well I been lookin' for me a good partner, bad luck is my best friend..."

(Born for Bad Luck song by Brownie McGhee)

Chapter 12: Can't Recall A Time

"...This world's a painted picture

They're growing up too fast

The innocence of childhood

Just a mem'ry from the past

And I can't recall a time..."

(Can't Recall A Time song by Hill and Lewis)


This story is coming to you from my death bed, cough, wheeze, cough, gag. I think if it doesn't get any better I might just let it kill me. Urgh I hate being sick. Wheeze, cough, gag, enjoy this chapter. Sorry for the delay.


It was dark beyond the inky blackness of a new moon night, beyond lights off and no windows. There was nothing. Her fingers held no shape when she flexed them in front of her face, her body was melding, melting, into something she couldn't see or understand consumed by the darkness, thick black strips of clinging tar. She pushed against it only to have it cover her further, numbing her limbs and her mind.

There were flashes, moments when the the numbness would fade, a tingle racing up her body and into her mind, forcing her eyes open, forcing her fingers to fight, but they were becoming less frequent, barely a moment of light and clarity before the darkness pushed on her again.

"Marie?"

It had been years since she'd heard his voice. It was strange she had almost forgotten the slow twang to his words, the way he pulled his crumpled ball cap over his eyes, the annoying fish hook clipped over the brim, a huge metallic relic of the care free summer he turned sixteen. The grin he got when he thought of something to do, something involving mud, trucks, and sometimes things less than legal, but always harmless. The grin he got when he grabbed her hand and pulled her to his favorite spot.

"Marie, are you there, Marie?"

He told her he'd never taken anyone there, at least not a girl, and definitely none of his ball cap wearing gang of country boys playing at being men. He was different from them. He liked to sit in silence, hands thrown behind his head, staring at the sky. He didn't fill the silence with useless talk, talk about his new truck, the new biology teacher, what pissed him off about his parents. No, Cody talked about the future. He talked about college how he was going to be a big shot, how he was going to be so much more than a farmer's son. So she shared her dreams, showed him her maps, told him her plans for the future.

"Marie, I was thinking, about us..."

He used to blush, bright red across his face and over his entire neck. She loved it, loved the way his sun browned cheeks would redden at the silliest things. The brush of her hand over his bare arm, her fingers twined with his, her head on his shoulder.

"Marie I like you."

That's when it had gotten all messed up when he blushed, she did to. When he talked about the future he put her in it. When her fingers brushed innocently over his arm, twined with his, when her head rested on her shoulder sending a burn though her body, a want a warmth that she craved, everything fell apart.

"Marie, can I come over today?"

She still remembered his lips, soft, full lips that she had craved to have against her own. The way his body, warm, young, and strong had felt pressed delicately against her own. The first pull, strange and powerful, of her powers kicking in. She had thought it was normal, it was the rush you felt when you kissed.

"Marie, what's going on, Marie?"

His body seized, the warmth radiating off him dissolving into a tepid wave, panic crawling up her spin forcing her lips from his, her eyes to open. He jerked, eyes rolling into his head, shaking, broken, broken from her kiss, her lips, her skin of poison.

"Will you be my girlfriend? Will you go away with me? Will you love me?"

She had taken his future. Unconscious for months, dead to her voice, her tears. Her touch had taken him. Taken his blushes, his laugh, that stupidly perfect crooked grin. She never saw him open his eyes again, shunned, ashamed and lost she'd run before she found out how it ended. She couldn't forget him. He stayed in her mind, whispering, lost, and confused. He tried to get her to go back home, tried to get her talk to him, but she didn't deserve to hear him, to crave his touch, that stupid ball cap, and his sweet grin.

When the professor boxed him away, a memory, she hoped to forget, in the back of her head she'd hoped she'd never see his face again, that she would forget his eyes, blue and sweet, the taste of his lips, and the crawling blush that stained his cheeks.

"Marie, open your eyes."

Her lids lifted. She wanted to keep them shut, away from his face, from the memories of him, but she couldn't stop them from rising, not when he asked her. There was light, all around her, the ground was green, grass lush and spongy under her fingers. The air was crisp, light, and smelled of honey suckle.

"Marie?"

He was in front of her, long arms shoved in the pockets of his knee length shorts, ball cap low over his crystal eyes. His feet were bare. She focused on his toes trying to find a flaw in him, something that would make him just a figment. Her eyes raced up his legs, over the hair, the scar on his shin, his shorts, his John Deer t-shirt to his sun kissed neck and browned cheeks. He smiled.

"Ah didn' think Ah'd ever get ta talk to ya again. You've been avoidin' meh."


Essex walked closer, skin glowing in the dark fire filled hall illuminating the torn strips of his uniform that rushed over his shoulders and down his back like shredded wings. His eyes were locked on Rogue. Essex was looking past Remy, like he wasn't there at all. His eyes glowed, his lips, black and smoldering curled through his filed teeth over and over and came back, surprisingly devoid of red.

Remy stepped in front of her, reflexively shielding her from the man's view, forcing him to look back up. Essex did, disdain and annoyance dancing across his face. Remy was nothing more than a slight bump on his way to getting a hold of Rogue.

"Dat low," Remy drawled as he bent toward the ground his shattered wrist pressed against his side. He picked up a piece of rubble, hard and heavy the concrete block rested in his palm. "Pretendin' ta be someone you're not." He tossed the rock upward and closed his fingers around it when it landed. Trying not to think how Essex knew so much about him, about his father.

"Like the thief playing hero."

Calloused fingers closed over rough stone, warming, rushing with a sudden heat, his fingers burning. He didn't have time to plan where to throw it, or even what to do with it afterward. The charge was already set and he couldn't draw it back out. He tossed it, side armed and quick. Essex wasn't concerned his impassive face stared back at him until the explosion hit casting him back into the smoky shadows.

"Let's get outta here, cherie." Remy swiveled on his heel to face Rogue, haul her to her feet and get the hell out. He was surprised to find her on her feet, eyes staring intensely at the cloud of smoke Remy had just created. She cocked her head to the side.

"Huh," she whispered, stepped past Remy toward the cloud. "Ya after him too?"

"Rogue, we gotta go, chere, dis isn' de time for reminiscing." He reached for her his fingers barely touching her covered arm before she twisted her fingers closing over his wrist. She squeezed. The contact was brief. She pulled back almost immediately her hand flying to her head. Remy reeled backward. The contact wasn't enough to knock him out, but it was enough to make him a little unsteady, not to mention he could feel his arm throbbing from her touch.

"You think Ah came all the way out here and didn't plan to talk to him. Ah need to...need to," She shook her head stumbled to the side. "Ah, Ah...what's wrong with with meh?" She spun on him eyes a flame with passion, eyes that used to be green like polished stones were blocks of cold blue ice. "What did he do ta meh?"

"Rogue, cherie..."

She pushed him, before he could finish his sentence, or react to the chill burning behind the cold eyes. It shouldn't have been such a big deal, a shove from a five foot five girl, but it knocked him off his feet. He felt something in his chest crack, pain radiating up his side. His back hit the wall behind him knocking his breath out.

"That's not mah name!" Her voice cracked her accent thickening in her distress, making her face contort further.

"Carol Danvers."

She spun brown and white hair flying in tangled curls around her shoulders. Remy pulled his eyes away from the girl to Essex. He was still smiling eyes wide with interest. Her attention for the moment was directed somewhere else and thankfully so was his ex bosses. He moved to sit up, one hand braced under his body, but his lungs burned with the effort, forcing a pained gasp past his lips. For a second he couldn't breath.

"You're not getting away with this!" Rogue screamed clenched fists powered with a strength he hadn't known existed.

"What are you going to do?" Essex crossed his arms over his chest. "You're dead."

Before she could respond he waved his arm, palm outstretched. She flew backward, back smacking into the wall, harder, even than Remy had. The wall dented behind her giving in with the force of her body. She disappeared into the rubble, concrete raining around the hole. He'd pushed her though the wall.

Remy clenched his jaw. He was on his feet before he realized it, ignoring the pain, the hitching breaths. His fingers were burning a snapped piece of re bar whitening his knuckles as he clenched it. It glowed, bright, burning red. He thew it, calling out as his chest burned with the effort, sending wave of fiery pain rushing down his side and forcing him to his knees. The pole flew through the air, Essex still ignorant of it, eyes focused on the wall. The hole where Rogue was buried, dead, no one survived that.

The pole pushed through the flesh of Essex's shoulder, the tip barely breaking the surface. He only had time to grimace fingers closing over the pole before it exploded.


"I'm sorry," the words poured past her lips tears springing to her eyes unbidden and uncontrollable.

"For what?" He asked shrugging his shoulders. "For putting me here?"

She couldn't speak, her throat clogged with tears, thick and hot her face burned against them, couldn't see for them, fat and round they blurred her vision with each watery drop. She hiccuped, her voice dying in her attempt to apologize.

"Ah admit, for a while, Ah was mad but mostly it was because Ah didn't know. Hell Marie, ya wouldn' talk to meh."

She sought him out, wiping the tears from her cheeks and eyes only to have them well up again. He was kneeling in front of her now, hands twined across his bent knees, long strong fingers. She had always loved his hands, his touch like silk across her skin.

"Thanks, Ah think, but Ah've got calluses, lots of 'em, not soft boy hands." He held them out his voice fraying on defensive. "Just because Ah don't want ta be a farmer doesn't mean Ah don' work."

She sniffled. "Ah didn't mean," she paused. "How did you know Ah was thinkin' 'bout your hands."

"Ah'm in your mind Rogue. Ah feel it, hear everything you're thinkin'. Ah know you better than Ah did before."

Her face was still hot, tears streaming, but the clog was gone for the moment and she could breath, speak. "Ah never got ta tell you Ah was sorry."

"Ah know you are." He shrugged, flopping into the grass in front of her, fingers crossed behind his head. "The professor explained everything anyway."

Rogue watched his eyes. They floating into the distance. She followed his line of sight to the water. There was a lake stretched out in front of her. She knew the lake. It was Cody's lake.

"How do you know the Professor?"

Cody continued to stare at the water. "He came to meh when you first arrived at the institute. He's the one that convinced meh it was best, for you, if Ah stayed away, at least for a little while. He made meh this place. My own corner of your mind. My own little world inside yours."

"So you're stuck here?" Rogue whispered. Her sweet future bond Cody stuck in the past, stuck inside here forever.

"Don't get all mushy," Cody piped up. "You think Ah don't know Ah'm not Cody. Cody still lives in Mississippi, is in college, probably married, and despite all that talk still livin' in town. Ah always loved it, no matter what Ah said."

"You can't, Ah mean you can't be okay with this!"

He rolled to a sitting position. "But Ah am. This meh, gets ta be with you, and believe it or not that's all Ah ever really wanted. Ah know I was young, that we were young, but Marie Ah knew Ah loved you."

"How can you forgive meh?"

He was silent for a moment eyes resting so intently on her own that she had to turn away from him. Her cheeks burned with the boldness of his gaze, crystal blue eyes that knew more than they were letting on.

"You should go see me."

Rogue closed her eyes.

"You should find me in good ol' Mississippi and talk to meh. Ah know Ah'd like to hear from you. You can get the confirmation that Ah can' give."

"What if ya hate meh?"

His voice was whisper soft, air blowing against her ear, as he leaned in close. "Then Ah'm an idiot, but you already knew that, beside Ah meh, Ah know Ah won't hate you."

"Ah'm sorry."

"Listen, do meh one favor, stop apologizing."

"Ah hurt you."

"People get hurt, thats life."

"Ah didn' want to hurt you! Ah didn't ever want to hurt you and when Ah touched you, when Ah kissed you...Ah could have killed you!"

He was calm. "You finished."

She ignored him biting her lip. His fingers tickled the skin on her chin, forcing her to jerk away from him. She tumbled onto the grass, pushing away from his touch.

He stayed back, hand back on a bent knee. "Is this why it was so easy?"

"What are ya..."

"Is that why it was so easy for you let go, give her control?"

"Cody, Ah don'..."

"There are so many people trying to save you, and you're just going to let it end like this. It's not your fault. It's really not your fault."

Her voice was rising even though his was remaining light even and calm, though no less intense. "Ah don't understand."

"Carol."

She felt it. A cold hand in her own, flesh against bare flesh. She fought the pull, fought her powers, but the effort did nothing but push her into a panic. Her powers kicked in immediately, drawing from Carol's body, her life, her mind flooding Rogue's. She couldn't let go.

"She's taken over."

Cold, glazed eyes stared back at her, hazy, blank, empty. Her body was still, blond hair around her shoulders, limp, dull, lifeless.

"Ah killed her." Her face paled her fingers shook. "Ah killed her. The little girl, the little girl, Ah killed her."

"Essex killed her."

"Ah, it was meh, Ah touched her. Ah killed her."

"You were barely alive!"

Cody was gripped her shoulders shaking her. When had he gotten so close? When had he gotten so angry?

"It's not your fault."

"Ah killed her," the chill froze her, numbing her limbs, dulling the sound of Cody's desperate words. She had always known it would happen. She had always been so careful, so careful when they came back after being free for so long. She had tried not to hate them, not to hate herself, but she'd done it. She'd screwed up.

"Don't you know they're fighting for you! All of them are fighting for you! You can' give up!"

He was barely there. His features fading, his voice a whisper. He was so close, fingers on her clothed shoulders, but his voice was a wavering sound barely reaching her ears. She wanted to reach for him, touch his cheek, tell him it was alright, but her fingers wouldn't move. She closed her eyes.

"Dammit, Marie, Rogue!"

She was falling, the darkness falling back around her, closing her in. She let it fall, pulled for it, longed for the darkness, but there were too many fingers, long slender digits interrupted by rounded knuckles, fair skinned, dark skinned, flesh covering smooth and scarred palms, all of them grabbing, touching, pulling her. She felt them on her skin, bruises left by eager, strong hands, scratches, faint brushes like the wind kissing her skin. She tried to curl into herself, will them away, but all it did was make them angry, make them push harder, pull harder, swirl faster.

A hand brushed over her shoulder, stronger than the rest. The touch forced her out of her slump, her eyes to open wide, to hear the voices, to recognize the pulling fingers. His touch wrapped around her like the comforting blanket of a father's embrace. She wanted to stay there, live in the touch go back to the grasping pleading fingers, but she didn't deserve it, didn't deserve their words, their sympathy. She'd killed a girl.

The darkness suffocating, thick like a heavy wool blanket and sticky like tar it brushed over her unrelentingly. The hand was still strong on her arm. She tried to pull away from it. It yanked, jerking her violently out of the darkness she'd been falling into, forcing her eyes open. One word pushed past snarling lips to reach her dulled ears, 'look'.

The swirling confusion of her mind was stopped leaving clarity in it's wake. She saw Remy, the wayward thief, leaning over her carrying her, protecting her. Surprisingly unnerved by the out of body experience, she watched herself confront Essex. Watched herself slam through the wall, still alive and conscious, but hurt. She watched Remy get to his feet, staggering, angry, bent on revenge. He threw the charged bar and all at once she knew he'd made a mistake. Charged it too hot, too soon, to close to himself. He was going to die.


John covered his face, diving back around the corner; pulling Bobby with him. It had been instinct to grab him and seek mutual cover. Later he'd plead insanity. After all Drake was the enemy. The explosion rocked the hall before Bobby could question him. The ground shook the ceiling cried, bits of plaster raining across their heads and dusting the black uniforms into a light gray.

"What the hell?" Bobby asked hands still over his ears.

What the hell was right. John had rounded the corner only a twenty seconds ahead of Bobby. He'd had about ten seconds to take in the scene, Remy slumped on his knees; Essex with his fingers wrapped the the glowing bar, before he'd pulled Bobby out the way and dived for cover.

The hall was still shaking, the roar of fire reaching John's ear with a eerie familiarity. He reached for the burn, calming it pushing the white hit to a red orange before snuffing it out completely. The hallway was still heated, steam rising off the ground and affecting visibility. The ground was charred black at the front of the hallway, inches from the toe of John's foot.

John uncovered his head breath coming in gulps, sweat forming on his brow. He was afraid to step around the corner, afraid that his nightmares would await him on the other side. The ones where the charred corpses left by the burning flux of his powers were his friends.


Well that's that. Sorry it took so long, but I've started the next chapter already so it should be out Monday, but maybe I'll be able to get it out a little sooner than that. Tell me what you think.