Simple Submission
Chapter 21
Two weeks had passed. Not a very long time. But in those two weeks a lot had changed. Professor Xavier was no longer Headmaster of the school. He told the students he was having a temporary leave of absence, just for a little while. All the senior Xmen followed suit. He employed some friends of the Xmen, experienced enough to aid in the fight against Magneto, and smart enough to teach the students. However, it seemed to be a poor show. Perhaps, not as many people agreed with the Professor than thought. And the teachers that did turn up didn't seem whole heartedly pledged to the cause.
The Beast had turned up the day after Gambit…left. His cheery disposition would normally have caused Rogue to befriend him, enjoying his laughter and bad jokes. But since her training had started, she had concentrated more on her mission and less on her friends. Once he had tracked her down and had asked to speak with her about her health. Although the questions were normal and Rogue saw no hidden meaning behind them, he had seemed to get a lot out of them and starred at her in amazement.
"You are an astonishing young woman Rogue. And to think, I have just had the pleasure of you company. Please, call me Hank." She had accepted his handshake but had left it at that. Finding no reason to search him out other than a few painkillers for that time of the month. He was a nice enough person, but on completely different page from where Rogue wanted to be, and that was a big difference.
Another teacher, Emma Frost, was a complete mystery. She seemed too regal to work in the school and was not liked by the Xmen. But she came anyway. It seemed she enjoyed irritating them with her arrogance and witty comments. Her provocative lack of clothing annoyed all the girls and led to a few hearts being broke amongst the students on the first day. Also, there seemed to be some kind of underlying tension between her and Storm, and if you walked into a room with them together, you nearly suffocated with the static electricity and residue of telepathy.
For the little time she had known her, Rogue had both been disgusted and intrigued. Their conversations usually involved deep thinking on Rogue's part and her mind being opened to new and interesting facts that would never have occurred to her without a little push in the right direction. What was slightly shocking was Ms. Frost's lack of respect for people's privacy. Xavier had always asked permission to enter a persons mind, but Ms. Frost simply barged in uninvited. Once Rogue had found her searching her memories of Gambit with a great deal of curiosity. Unfortunately for her, Rogue had being trying to forget Gambit, and since this was in total violation of her decision Rogue reacted violently.
She drew up her memories of the whipping she had taken from Magneto and sent them back along Ms. Frost's trail of thought, resulting in the Queen dropping to the floor and screaming in agony in front of her Physics class until she was able to retaliate.
She didn't draw a particular torture from her mind, but instead sent back excruciating pain which shot through all of Rogue's body and left her semi-conscious on the floor. Rogue gathered the little strength she had left, not thinking of what she was going to do, or how she was going to do it. But she somehow threaded the little power of mind together with her power of fire and sent the whole thing back along Ms. Frost's thread line. The thought that she was attacking a teacher never entered her mind.
Later, after they had both been released from the Med-Lab, Ms. Frost had taken her straight to the Professor's office. "What have you done to this child?" She screamed at him when they walked in. "Look," Rogue said, feeling completely at ease. The Professor wouldn't blame her, surely?. "If you hadn't entered my mind without-" But Ms. Frost didn't seem to be interested in what Rogue had to say. "She manifested fire through her mind and threw it at me. If I hadn't broke off the contact between us I would have been burnt from the inside out! There is no way her powers could have manifested this quickly without interference." She starred, challenging him. "Answer me Charles!" She demanded.
The Professor sat with his fingers steepled, looking deep in thought. "What were you doing in Rogue's mind, Emma?" He said it quietly and blinked only once. She drew back slightly, raising an eyebrow at him. "I was simply trying to get to know better your new obsession, Charles. See what she held that is of such interest to you." He nodded as if she had made an interesting point and blinked again. "And what did you find?" Ms. Frost starred at him, honestly not comprehending his answer.
"Charles what are you doing to her? Her mind is a maze leading nowhere. And you! You've become…different since the last time we spoke." She looked hurt, and for once she had forgotten about looking down her nose at people. The Professor looked at her for a long while, until finally her normal arrogant look returned. "I will only say this once Emma; go into any of my students minds' again and the consequences will far outweigh your actions."
After that Ms. Frost had avoided any sort of communication with Rogue, which, if she was truthful with herself, hurt her slightly. Was she turning into such a monster that even an arrogant pratt like the White Queen couldn't stand to speak with her?
Emma Frost, however, had no intention of forgetting Rogue. Instead, she had been watching her, talking with other teachers and confronting the Xmen about the Professor's plan. But all she got back was that Rogue had been through trauma and that she needed the Professor's help. Even Wolverine was keeping a tight lip about the whole affair. But if they thought this would put off a woman like Emma Frost, they were wrong. So she looked for outside help.
Since he was gone Rogue had kept herself busy. She did not understand how she could have become so reliant on him in such little time but if she stopped only a minute, her thoughts would go right back to him and all the hurt would resurface. Not good for a person trying to concentrate on keeping her emotions under control. So she blamed it all on Magneto. If he hadn't killed John then she wouldn't have become an empty-shell and Gambit would still be beside her.
She trained every day, sometimes with the other Xmen and sometimes without. And she took a new power whenever she could. Jubilee's, Kitty's, Peter's and Bobby's powers were hers. But before she could move onto the senior Xmen's powers she had to learn how to control the other's.
It was slow starting but after the first two powers, it had been a breeze. Now she was trying to control all at the same time. She could use the two conjuring powers together and even Kitty's phasing, but it was using Pete's body armour simultaneously that was giving her problems.
At night she was nakered. Dropping into bed and falling asleep soon after. But this was the time that she cleared her head of thoughts, all except one that refused to go away. "Gambit" She called out to him, searching through the darkness of night, intending to possess his body. No such luck.
"Chere." He responded gravely, sensing her presence in his mind. "Hello Gambit. How are you?" They could see each other in a sense, not physically, but mentally, and she could feel his emotions; controlled under a bed of rocks. He was holding back from her. "As well as can be expected, Remy suppose." There was a pause where Rogue wondered what she was doing, how stupid she was being. But Gambit felt it and before she could break the connection he reached out and touched her mind, searching for any kind of thought that his Rogue would have. But found nothing.
"I'm sorry Gambit. About everything. I never wanted any of this to happen. If only Magneto hadn't-" But he cut her off and for a second he felt his repulsion that he was blaming everything on the Master of magnetism. "Gambit see your powers have grown again chere." She was hurt by his dismissal of her belief, but if he felt it, he didn't say. "Yeah." She said, blocking out his thoughts from some parts of her mind where he was unwelcome. "So have yours. I wasn't able to control you the way I have John and Logan. How come?" He laughed through both their minds, echoing it until she felt a small twinge of a headache forming back in her body. Wherever she was now, she couldn't feel the pain.
"I have made a pact wit de Devil." Eventually came his reply, which was nothing short of cryptic, something which annoyed Rogue intensely. She was quiet, trying to work out what he mean until she gave up and felt the worse part of the whole situation come up. Their separation. "I wish things had turned out differently Remy. With you, I was really…happy." She felt him sigh and reach out to her gently. She was just a girl really.
"Tings happen for a reason girl. It's up to us t'decide whether to accept it, or fight to change it." But she disagreed with him. "It's too late to change things now. Magneto will die for what he's done and I'll be the one to kill him." Complete silence followed this, such empty thought that Rogue feared that he had broken their connection and had left, but he simply sighed.
"Just remember chere, whatever you do, you always hurt the ones you love." Somehow this put fear in her heart. "Remy, promise me you won't do anything stupid. Promise you won't try to go up against the Xmen. They'll-" Again he cut her off. "Remy gotta go now Rogue. He got business to do." She tried to hold him back put he slipped out of her thoughts so easily and left her with one single thought. "Je reve de toi."
Gambit picked up the glass of bourbon and took a large gulp of the fantastic liquor. "You know mon ami, I look at alcohol and I know there is a God. Someone has to put us out of our misery once and a while." The man across the table from him didn't look amused. "Did you get the information?" Gambit nodded and looked up at the steel ceiling, trying to clear his head. When he didn't answer the man got impatient. "Mr LeBeau-!"
Ever the laid back type, Gambit answered sounding as lazy as possible. "He's gone further with de training. She has more dan one power now and can use 'em at de same time. She has enough to take down Shakedown, runner boy and your daughter. She gonna flatten your precious brotherhood if you don't get some help."
Small metal balls started to float round the room, close to Gambit's head. "And you would like to volunteer for the position?" Gambit shook his head. "One of the positions. You in no way ready de attack de Xmen got lined up for you. You gotta build a whole army of mutants. Xavier's crazy. He'll use de whole school if he has to. Anything to see you go down."
Magneto starred at him hard, trying to work out his alternative motive. "On the phone you mentioned more news for me. So far you haven't told me anything I had not already suspected. Apart from your recommendation which I will take into account." Gambit wondered how anyone could like this pompous ass sitting in front of him. He thought of throwing a charged card directly into his face or pulling a Jedi on him, and changing his view of things to suit Gambit's own agenda. But pushed it away without luck. Wouldn't have worked anyways.
"I know who killed your boy." Magneto raised an eyebrow at him and allowed the balls to swing closer to Gambit's head. "Pietro is just fine-" Gambit scoffed. "Not dat one. Pyro." Remy scowled as he remembered seeing the pyrokenetic for the first and last time, in the arms of Rogue.
Magneto's eyes bulged. "How?" Not straight to the culprit, Remy liked that. "I got mon frere Henri talking to the Guild of Assassins. Any assassination goes down' dey know about it." And have probably done the dirty deed themselves. But he left that last part off.
"Dey have proof of a contract from right here in the Big Apple." Remy snarled the last, crucial piece of information. "From Greymalkins Lane."
Magneto leaned back in his chair, looking unconvinced. "Back to my friend Charles? He wouldn't have been so stupid as to leave a trail straight back to his precious school. You must be mistaken Mr. LeBeau." Gambit roller his eyes and slid a folder of documents across the table to him. "Dats all the proof you need. Bank statements, Phone bills, everytine. De bastard did it, and I want to do something about it." Magneto smiled at him. "Well I can give you the tools and the back up you need Mr. LeBeau, but that's only if I think you're as crucial to my brotherhood as I think you are."
He let the steel balls drop to the floor causing a clank that perturbed Gambit none. The Cajun starred at the madman with a taste for dramatics and felt his face drain of emotions. "I'm goin to kill Charles Xavier wit or witout your help. You got notin' to loose by taking me on board, and I can even offer to train up de juniors on de team. From what I've seen, they need all the help dey can get."
Magneto watched him for a number of seconds, seemingly making up his mind or perhaps trying to psyche Gambit out. If that was the case, too bad. After a while though, he smiled. "Welcome to the brotherhood of mutants Gambit. You are now member of a select group in my organisation; 'The Acolytes'." He steepled his fingers much like Xavier and smiled. "Meet Mystik." He waved a hand and the steel wall to the right of him slid back to reveal a slender woman with skin like toxic blue. "Bonjour Gambit." She said, sliding along behind him to get round the table to Magneto.
"Touchy-feely kinda person, non?" She smiled seductively at him and placed her hand on Magneto's shoulder. The old man watched Gambit' face for reaction but seeing none he looked slightly disappointed. "She is my most trusted one and any order from her you take it like its me." Gambit leaned back on his chair and shrugged. "Gambit be a lousy follower. More of a free-agent really."
Gambit had time to see Magneto's face like a thunder cloud before the chair he was sitting on was literally lifted out from under him and he was flat on his ass. He bounced up, bo-staff and cards at the ready, but instead of an attack from the woman, a large white tiger sat on the table watching him with hungry eyes. Magneto smirked at him. "Well from now on Gambit, you are no longer a 'free-agent'. You are my thief and you better learnt to take orders quickly. Mystik doesn't like incompetence amongst her staff."
The tiger growled at him and jumped off the table so that he had to move back or be flattened. Magneto got up to go but turned round and waved a hand in Gambit's direction. "Oh by the way Gambit, while you are under my leadership you will call me Lord Magneto. Do you understand?"
He walked out then and after pacing once across the room and back again, watching Gambit the whole time, the tiger bounded after him.Gambit had the rest of the evening to ponder who was more crazy; Magneto or Xavier. Then his brother rang.
"Remy, we got a new visitor. The White Queen. And she wants to see you." Gambit rolled his eyes. "Tell her I'm busy." He heard her voice mumbling in the backround. "She says it's about Rogue and if you don't come see her, you gonna be convinced you a petite femme for de rest of your life." The threat wasn't even needed. But it had a nice effect.
Yes, Yes. I know. I'm one lazy Son of a Gun. But now it means Colette can finally update. YAY. That chapter was weird but don't judge me by it, I'm still trying to wrap things up for the end and I'm planning a sequel. It takes time you know…thanks for everyone's reviews.
OH and one more thing. I'm goin to Canada on Friday" YAY.
Catty.x.