Twenty-One
Rogue did not sleep well after the last incident. As happened on a regular, sometimes nightly basis, she dreamed the dreams of others. This night, she spent time in the Black Forest and then in Japan, on Liberty Island and then in a containment camp. She swam back and forth between the Wolverine and Magneto, and suffered a momentary panic upon waking.
Where am I? What the hell am I doing in Marie's bed?
Oh, I'm Ma—Rogue.
And then Logan began pounding on the door, and she knew it was him before he spoke by two valuable clues: 1) the door threatened to kiss the floor; and 2) she could smell him.
"You awake yet?"
Half of the cemetery down the street would be awake after that banging.
She considered hollering back from where she lay but decided to give any soul who was still asleep the courtesy of meeting him at the door. Pulling on a sweatshirt of Bobby's over her nightgown, she opened the door but didn't step back to let him in. She wanted to go back to bed, to possibly dream some of her own dreams.
"Yes, Logan?"
He frowned, opened his mouth, started to speak, apparently thought better of it, and closed it again. Nell was obviously having an effect on him. He sniffed. "Didn't sleep well?" His eyes had softened in that way they did without warning and she couldn't be rude to those eyes.
"It was a long night, Logan."
"Gonna' be a long day too. Chuck's gone after a new recruit."
She straightened. "Now? After everything that's – when we don't know – son-of-a-bitch, Logan. What now?"
He shrugged, frowning in that characteristic 'can't do anything about it right now, so let's move on' fashion.
"That's not why you're here at 6:30 in the morning, is it?"
He grinned darkly. "Substitute duty."
"For whose class?"
"One-Eye's."
"And he wants me to take it over? Did he leave any notes?"
"No, I'm the substitute. You're the assistant."
Rogue waited. She didn't really want to know. "And the lesson?" she finally asked.
"Self-defense."
"No."
"Yes."
"No. Get Bobby or Colossus or Kitty."
Logan lowered an eyebrow. "Seriously. You're backing out on the chance to kick ass after last night?"
She sighed. "It's your ass, Logan."
"It heals."
He meant it. He was perfectly content to let her bruise him because the damage was fleeting. And since he didn't see it as an issue, he never assumed or even understood why others might.
"Use Nell," Rogue tried.
"She's gone too. Looks like Chuck wanted to separate the troublemakers." He braced his hands in the doorframe. "Come on. It'll be – what's the word?"
"Cathartic?"
"Maybe. It'll do you good. Besides, we gotta' work on your basic reactions. The elbow was all right, but if you'd head-butted him in the nose, he might have drowned in his own blood."
"God, Logan."
"Danger Room. Ten minutes."
"Fifteen," she said, and shut the door.
When she had made herself presentable and retrieved a cup of coffee, Rogue made her way to the Danger Room. Logan had pulled in a wheeled chalkboard and was busy labeling a crude drawing of a man. He paused halfway through a phrase – "only bends one" – and seemed to be thinking. He finished it, "way. Never heals right."
Rogue scanned some of the other remarks. He had an arrow pointing to the nose, "Cartilage. Weak." There was also a star by that one.
She pointed. "The star. Is that to remind you not to leave out the part about driving the nose up into the brain?"
He looked at her.
"Self-defense, Logan."
He didn't move.
"They're just kids."
"Their enemy isn't."
She took a deep, bracing breath. "Maybe save that part for X-Men only?"
Logan frowned, but he wiped his thumb over the star, erasing it. "Anything else, Mom?"
"Have you labeled the major arteries?"
"You are going to suck all the fun out of this lesson," he said, and with a quick swipe, "carotid" and "femoral" disappeared.
"It still looks a little like Scott," she said, meaning the figure. Logan had given it glasses and labeled those as well: "impair vision."
"Yeah," he said. "I know."
Rogue shook her head and finished her coffee while he finished his visual aid. Then they discussed the order of the lesson. She gave him credit there. The first part of the lesson focused on using mutations when possible or physical blows to first disorient and damage an opponent's senses rather than on causing serious physical damage, which he saved for last, after incapacitation, and only for an enemy who "doesn't know when the hell to stay down."
By the time the students arrived, they had run through some of the moves a few times, slowly, with minimal contact despite Rogue wearing long sleeves and gloves. She forgot sometimes how gentle he was, but even while showing her how to cause severe pain, he was patient and soft-spoken. He demonstrated the same movements again and again until she improved, and he praised her when she succeeded.
"Good, good. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to work. Again."
For the next hour with the regular students and the young X-Men, Logan explained a move and then Rogue demonstrated it. Then each student got a chance to try at least two of the moves on Logan, some of whom had to be firmly coaxed to approach him, whether because they were timid or simply reluctant to hurt the beloved Wolverine. Logan made Kitty and Colossus take turns assaulting his knees, in order to demonstrate that angle and precision is far more important than strength.
When the normal class period ended, the young X-Men remained. Logan went back to the board and filled in what Rogue had earlier thrown out, and the next half-hour was spent in a lecture without demonstrations, where the message was clear: these moves are a last resort. These moves kill.
Dismissed, Kitty and Colossus walked out together, whispering and laughing, and Bobby gave Rogue a quick, uncertain glance before following. She said nothing. There was nothing to say.
Logan was washing the evidence from the chalkboard when she picked up her coffee cup and went to leave.
"Marie."
She faced him. He put his hands on his hips and studied her, thinking.
"Look, the last few days, they've been…" He searched round the room, as if the words might be there, and she felt herself blushing, remembering some of the more awkward moments, the conversation on their ride back from the bar that the Wolverine in her head had sought.
"You don't have to—" she started.
He held up a hand. "I know you're not a kid, Marie, not like the others, not for several reasons. I need you to understand why I won't put you on the front line."
"Logan, I—" She smiled. "You're in my head."
He smiled too. "There's far too many people in your head, but that's not why. You're smart and you're strong and you'll do what needs to be done, I know that, but I'm not pitting an archer against a tank. There's no sense, no good that will come from putting you in a fight you can't win. I would use you for stealth. I would suffer you to sacrifice yourself but only if you were the last man standing…and I don't intend to go down easy."
For a few moments, she couldn't speak. The weight of his remarks was an anvil on her ribs. She struggled for a coherent thought. "Sacrifice myself?"
"For the kids. Never for us. Never for me." He closed in on her, staring down. "I trust you to protect them, if I can't, if the others go down, if the kids can be saved, I trust you to do that."
Tears were coming. She didn't want to cry in front of him again. She bit her lip and held her breath.
"No, no. Don't. Don't cry. Don't do that. Ah, come here." He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tightly. "You're such a girl."
She laughed and smacked his back. "You're such a—"
"Logan!"
Bobby was standing in the doorway.
Logan stepped back, but kept his arm around her, his hand on her shoulder.
"They're back," Bobby said. His eyes darted back and forth between them, but his face remained impassive. He seemed to have finally learned Logan was not a threat to him, even as far as she was concerned. But he looked sad and she missed him again.
He had no sooner disappeared down the hall when she heard the Professor's voice in her head, summoning the X-Men to his office. Logan rolled his eyes and pressed his hand against the small of her back, guiding her to go through the door before him. As soon as they were in the hall, she heard him muttering to himself, something about installing an intercom system.
Her own mind was occupied with questions. Had they brought the mutant back with them? What kind of power would he or she have? Was Magneto behind this and if so, what would that mean for the team?
Spooked. It was the only way to describe Scott's face, the first thing Logan saw as he strode into Xavier's office. The man was a wire pulled taut and humming.
The others were no better. Nell had the look of a vigilant wolf. Even Xavier appeared to be thinking hard and fast. And the root of it all, the lit fuse, looked like a drowned mall rat. She might have tipped the scale at a hundred pounds but only after a heavy meal, which she obviously hadn't seen in a while. Her hair was a mess of red dye and oil. She'd painted her nails the color of blood.
She looked up as he and Marie entered and he met her eyes and knew. The dumbasses had brought in a viper. They might as well have held the door open for Mystique.
Storm ran into his back and bounced off and Colossus caught and steadied her. Logan turned to see the others nearing and moved aside, guiding Marie until she was flanked on one side by Nell and the other, him. To his right, Scott looked at him and gave a quick, curt nod.
"Figured as much," Logan muttered.
"Any trouble here?"
"No. But you probably won't like the homework you get back."
Scott started to speak, but Xavier did at the same time. "Everyone, thank you for coming. I brought you all here to meet our newest student, Lena. For the near future, she will interact with only those of us in this room and even then on a limited basis. Lena, these individuals are my faculty and trusted associates."
Logan smirked and spared a glance at Nell, but her eyes were set firm on the girl. Xavier introduced everyone in turn, clockwise around the room, ending with Bobby, Kitty, and Colossus where they had clustered at the door. Lena eyed each of them in turn, her eyes lingering on Colossus and Bobby until Logan cleared his throat.
Xavier gave a small laugh. "I hope you all will endeavor to make Lena most at home. Since her power manifested, she has had some painful episodes. I trust most of us can empathize. Until we can be certain she has mastered her power, Lena understands it is in everyone's best interest that she be fairly isolated. Are there any questions?"
Kurt, perched on the windowsill like a blue albatross, raised a hand.
"Yes, Kurt?"
"What is her power?"
"Ah, yes. I apologize. Would you care to describe it, Lena?"
She looked at the floor and shook her head.
Xavier went on. "She can manipulate water and the water that makes up the composition of anything else, in the atmosphere, for example, or in our blood."
They had to be kidding. This was a joke, a bad joke.
"Lena and I need to discuss a few things and then I'll coordinate a schedule with everyone. For now, you are free to carry on, but the mansion remains on lockdown, lest anyone forget." He eyed Logan and Nell in particular. Logan raised an eyebrow. Nell continued to watch the girl. If Nell had anything to say about Xavier shanghaiing her into the X-Men, she was saving it.
When the group bottlenecked in the hall, Logan caught Scott's eye – at least, he thought he did; he could never tell with those ridiculous glasses – and twitched his head toward the Danger Room. Scott followed, then Storm, Nell, Kurt, Colossus –
Logan spun around. "Really?"
They were all following, even Kitty.
"We're X-Men, aren't we?" Bobby asked.
Logan had clothes older than some of them, or he had, before his trailer had exploded and he'd woken up in this flea circus.
"That's up for discussion."
"Logan," Nell said. "They need to know."
"Oh, yeah? Why'd you let him bring that back?"
"We didn't get a vote," Scott said. "Let's go."
They congregated in the Danger Room, where Logan immediately discovered he'd forgotten to clean the other side of the chalkboard. Scott stopped to stare as he came around and pointed to the words scribbled there.
"Why is there a list of body parts on my blackboard?"
"Later. Tell us about this kid."
Nell told them. She explained what she knew based on evidence and what she knew based on gut, and when she stopped, the silence was awful, like the quiet after a concussion blast, because those still alive were deafened.
Logan thought of some of his darker memories, some of the flashes of wars he could almost recall. Man was capable of acts that devils wouldn't sink to, but that was war, that was the hand of grown, greedy, stupid men.
He had never met a bloodthirsty child.
Storm spoke up first, her voice shaking only at the start. "Can we be at all certain Magneto is behind this?"
Nell looked to Marie. "No. Not yet. Although it's worth asking your insight."
Marie's face was torn between disbelief and disgust. She flinched when Nell called her name and repeated the question. He thought she must be as side-swiped as he. He wanted to protect her from such ugliness.
She sat down abruptly in one of the chairs and looked at her gloved hands. "You want to know if I think Magneto would use her to get to us. It's hard to say. She's unstable, but she's also lethal. He's safe enough, wherever he is. We're not. Would he use someone like her? Yes. Is she his agent? I don't know."
She was wilting by the last remark.
"Fair enough," Logan said. "We prepare for the worst."
The other X-Men couldn't have looked more lost in a maze. Lost and hopeless, like kicked puppies. Only Nell had a face of stone, as she watched Marie, but he already knew he could rely on that one. She hadn't hesitated with Pyro.
He didn't want to kill a child, but he wouldn't stand by and let one murder other children or anyone else. There was a trend in the other's faces: it was too far for them. They were digging in an empty box for alternatives.
"How?" Colossus finally asked.
"If she's not with the Brotherhood, if there's any good left in her," Storm said quietly, "the Professor will get through to her."
She was trying to convince herself. No one argued.
When everyone left, Nell hung back with Logan. "We need to figure out a watch. I want to know what that kid is doing every second."
"We'll need help." The rest of the mansion needed watching too. He was not leaving the perimeter unchecked.
Nell considered. "Kurt."
They agreed it was best to keep that part quiet. Storm would nag about privacy.
Kurt was only too willing to join their plot. He said of Lena, "She makes my skin crawl."
By evening, Xavier had put together an extensive schedule for his newest pupil. Among her various private lessons with Storm and Scott, three hours were reserved daily for meeting with the Professor.
A week went by quickly and without incident, and the quiet only made him more suspicious and restless. He compensated by assigning a lot of sprints and teaching Kitty how to throw him or Colossus over her shoulder in a fight. He and Nell divided nightly patrols and checked in regularly with Kurt for updates on Lena.
The quiet was made more unsettling by Lena. Each day after her session with Chuck, she was different, a little softer around the edges, a little brighter in the eyes. Everyone saw it. Storm tossed it up to the Professor's guidance. Nell didn't trust it. Scott was too quiet.
He was about to corner the man and ask why the hell he looked like he'd seen a ghost, when there came a knock at the front doors. There were two kids passing by. They froze and looked to him and Scott where they approached the stairs.
Scott had started up the stairs. He came down. He looked uncertainly to Logan. Logan positioned himself behind one of the doors. The two kids ran off.
Scott opened the door, one hand on his glasses.
Nothing happened. Logan waited.
Still nothing happened.
"Hi. Are you Professor Xavier?"
Logan turned and opened the other door. Standing on the walkway were two boys. Well, one was a boy. The other was at least twenty. They were kids, at any rate. They had the look of brothers.
"No," Scott said. "He's here, though. Can we help you?"
The oldest spoke again. He was tall, over six feet, with long, shaggy hair tucked behind his ears. He put an arm around the other, who was half his size. "We were told we'd be safe here. My brother and me. We're mutants."
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