Chapter 21: Answer To Twenty One Years
Bayville, New York
Rogue watched as Gambit prowled her room, clearly already familiar with its dimensions as he moved easily through the clutter. His nimble fingers picked through her dresser top, ignoring the knick knacks and perfume bottles until he reached her jewelry box.
Even as he picked it up and turned to her with an "Aha!" look on his face Rogue remembered what he'd find there.
A year ago she might have blushed under her thickly painted make-up and tried to stop him from retrieving the item inside.
Gambit plucked out a playing card and held it out to her, and Rogue was unable to resist taking it, just as she had been unable to resist when he'd first given it to her.
"You kept it, cher."
"And?" Her voice was nonchalant and she eyed the card with coolness before handing it back to him. "What of it?"
"Gambit just finds it interesting, dat's all," he grinned charmingly though it seemed to have no affect on Rogue.
Rogue grinned at him and sat on the edge of her bed, crossing her arms and legs slowly as she studied the slightly older mutant's face. "Come now, Gambit, I feel we know each other better than that. You've been through my room, and I've been through your mind. How about we be a little more personal about this...Remy?"
Gambit's smile didn't lose any of its brightness at Rogue's use of his real name and instead seemed to grow more suggestive. "Just how deep you been in my mind, Rogue?"
"Deep enough."
"Then you know why Remy is here, oui?"
Rogue shrugged. "Not really."
Gambit set the card down on the dresser and turned to look in the mirror, watching Rogue as he did so. He practically purred as he replied. "Then Rogue-y didn't go deep enough."
Rogue's eyes hardened and you could hear her teeth grinding from across the room. "Then why don't you illuminate the matter for me?" Her voice was hard as she suddenly stood, moving to stand next to him.
Gambit turned and looked her straight in the eyes, black and red on white and green and Rogue realized with an inner jolt that they were almost the same height. The inches between them suddenly seemed too short and she could almost feel his thoughts ticking in the same direction hers were.
He licked his lips, his eyes sharpening as she did the same.
Rogue took a step back and the moment was broken.
Remy grinned before speaking. "The man you're looking for, Nathaniel Essex, goes by the name Sinister. I can take you to him."
"What's in it for you?"
Gambit's good humor vanished in a second and his eyes seemed like stone as he stared at her. "That's my business, and no one else's."
Rogue cocked her head and replied coldly. "If you're planning on taking my team somewhere, then it is my business."
"Gambit is not taking your team. Gambit is taking you."
Rogue swallowed the sudden weight in the back of her throat and turned to move to the door. "You take my team, or you take no one."
Gambit shrugged and followed her, waiting until she'd opened the door to walk through. He paused just outside. "Remy like it better when you threaten him with a Southern accent, cher. Reminds him of home."
Her door slamming echoed down the hall, almost but not quite hiding the sound of his quiet snickering.
Day 35
"Why are we doing this?"
"Several reasons that cannot be explained at the moment."
"Why can't they be explained?"
"Because we have eavesdroppers."
The foursome glanced upwards, their eyes alighting on the observation booth in the ceiling before looking at each other.
Rogue stretched, bending forward and reaching for her feet before moving seamlessly into a back flip, stopping mid-bend to work the kinks out of her spine. She continued to speak from that position and both Pulse beside her and Gambit in the observation booth took great pleasure in watching her do so. "Since we've added Sage to the team we need to work on how we move together."
Sage nodded in agreement as she smoothed her hands down her new outfit. It certainly wasn't the thong and corset kind of uniform the Hellfire Club preferred, but it was of close relation. Her outfit might have been respectable, it certainly covered more than enough skin, had it not been a) skintight and b) leather.
The only thing left bare by the outfit were her hands and one of her shoulders, and the contrast between the darkness of the material and the paleness of her skin had Bishop more than a little fascinated.
This was precisely why he faced away from her as he prepared his weapons for the simulation.
Pulse, on the other hand, stood there watching the other three prepare. He was wearing slacks and a button-up shirt (only half-buttoned). Most of the younger X-girls were agreeing that he was very attractive, whereas Rogue was thinking that he was a pain in her ass.
"Also," Pulse added with a grin, uncaring that the X-Men and Acolytes listened to every word they said, "Rogue is hoping to intimidate them a little. Show them what she's capable of doing now. A little show and tell to sever the emotional ties."
Rogue smoothly finished her flip, and immediately cocked her hip as she studied Pulse. His words struck a little close to home. "Shut up, Gus."
Her eyes connected with Bishop's and the information that only the two of them knew passed between them silently.
This was also a means to distract the X-Men.
Pulse grinned and responded sarcastically, "That's Augustus to you, dearie."
Rogue glared at him but turned away from the opportunity to verbally spar with him. "Bishop, are you ready?"
Bishop drew his gun, sighting down it at Pulse. "Oh, yeah."
"Sage?"
"Yes," she replied to the unspoken question as she removed a pair of sunglasses from a hidden pocket and slipped them on. They were not ordinary glasses, however, but within the lenses were a hidden monitor directly connected to her mind. That allowed her to view data streaming from her subconscious. With them she could analyze and decide the best actions to take in any combat situation.
Rogue tilted her head and cracked her neck, continuing the movement down her body until she'd released all the tension from her body. Casting green-grey eyes upward Rogue used her version of telekinesis to begin pressing buttons on the controls above.
Xavier and the X-Men instinctively took a step back from the display, not shocked so much as surprised at the display of power. Xavier was mostly intrigued by the fine tactile control she had over the ability. In the past Rogue's use of others' abilities had often been without the specialized control over them. She had the knowledge to control them, but she was much like a battering ram with them.
That could also have been a trait of her personality, however. Rogue had never been one for the details, but would rather rush into battle. It was one of the things Xavier had always worked on with her. She had little patience; she'd always wanted results immediately.
He had a feeling that that hadn't changed for her.
Rogue opened her eyes as she finally located the simulation she wanted to use and watched as the Danger Room shaped the room around them into a dangerous obstacle course that doubled as a maze. "The objective today is..." Rogue grinned at Pulse. "...take down Pulse."
The man, looking so fragile standing next to the leather-clad warriors, only smiled back. "Ohhh, bring it on, little girl."
Bishop tapped the watch he wore on his arm. "You have thirty seconds for a head-start. I suggest you run."
Pulse clearly agreed because he took off running immediately. He disappeared into the maze of the room and Rogue took a second to admire the speed and agility he possessed. Though he wasn't dressed for combat, he rarely was, he had the skills to make this an interesting and difficult battle. She didn't need to declare this a "No powers" battle, because he could turn them off at any time he chose. As a thief, he had strength and flexibility encoded into every muscle on his body.
Twenty seconds after Pulse had taken off running, Rogue gestured to Bishop to follow. "He's had long enough," she explained as she started to hover just above the ground, power strumming through her body and filling her with energy.
"That's not entirely fair," Sage murmured as her hands moved through the air, her mind and thoughts elsewhere as she began to run several programs/thoughts through her mind.
Rogue quirked an eyebrow down at the woman and started to rise higher. "The world isn't fair, Sage."
Xavier heard the worlds and wondered at the bitterness behind them. Rogue had always been bitter, but the level of harshness in that one sentence was astronomical. At his sides Storm and Wolverine exchanged a glance, their thoughts on the same path. Rogue had always been one of the most monitored students in the mansion, especially by the adults. Her powers and her natural disposition had been a dangerous combination, and often the three adults had worried about her.
Gambit and the Acolytes stood apart from the X-Men, but it hadn't been on purpose. It was just the way the group seemed to stand when they came together.
Magneto stood apart from all.
Rogue's eyes scanned the room below her, her eyes easily tracking Bishop but unable to locate Pulse as yet. She knew from what little of his psyche that remained in her mind that his instinct would be to hide. He was not naturally a fighter, if he could avoid conflict he would.
Suddenly, Rogue felt a weight dragging her down. It was not a physical weight, but rather was gravity's pull. The psyches within her mind slowly began to disappear.
First went her self-healing ability, the little gem from Wolverine that powered her body as she used her imprinted abilities. Immediately, the damage to her physical state caused by using the psyches became clear. Pain racketed up her body from her chest outward. Her head pounded as the telekinesis she was using immediately sent her blood pressure sky high.
Then the telekinesis began to go.
The ground was rushing upwards very quickly, Rogue realized as her body spun in mid-air. She needed to prepare herself for hitting it, didn't she?
She couldn't really think when Pulse used his ability on her.
Rogue shook her head and concentrated, she could feel blood slowly dripping out of her nose at the effort, but she was able to twist her body so that her feet were facing the ground. She hit the floor hard, the reverberations vibrated through her bones and she could almost hear the sound of several of the bones in her feet breaking.
Pulse stepped out of the shadows, his eyes glowing with his mutant ability.
With the glow of the power and his natural golden coloring, he looked almost like an avenging angel. He held out his hands as if to say he was sorry for doing it, but Rogue wasn't having any of it.
She rushed him as soon as she had her wind back, her hands curling into fists as she ran towards him. Bishop finally arrived on the scene seconds later, rushing the man as well from a flanking side.
The two warriors met in the middle, Rogue leaping into a high kick that flew over Pulse's head as he ducked and Bishop's leap for Pulse's middle being narrowly avoided as the man rolled to the left.
Rogue skidded as her feet met the floor and she used the impetus to leap for the wall, pushing off and reaching for Pulse's arm, finally making contact. With a tuck and roll, she landed on the floor and he flew over her body, heading face-first for the wall several feet away.
Pulse twisted in mid-air and used his hands to flip himself over the wall instead and once again disappeared into the maze. His laughter and taunting words echoed back through the walls. "You'll have to try harder than that, Rogue."
With him and his powers moving out of influence Rogue's "borrowed" abilities flooded back, but only succeeded in making her headache worse.
Rogue closed her eyes and tried to find Wolverine in the psyches, his orb was brown with streaks of red and white, but found the effort to be a bit too much. "Bishop," she whispered as she felt herself slipping to her knees.
The older man, who had been preparing to follow Pulse, turned at her voice and moved to her side immediately. "Headache?"
She didn't even need to nod, he knew already.
Rifling through several pockets Bishop frantically searched for what was needed to keep Rogue from going into overload. It was a situation they'd been in several times and they knew if they couldn't cut off the pain it would send her into a seizure, which for someone with her nature of powers would be very, very bad.
Bishop's fingers curled around an inhaler in his breast pocket and he pulled it out quickly, pressing it into Rogue's mouth and squeezing the release button at the same time. The air-borne acetaminophen was quickly absorbed into her body and the tension and pain that'd made her body feel stiff and her mind fragile eased.
Rogue's fingers brushed his as she took the inhaler from Bishop but only her eyes told him of her appreciation. She stood slowly, inhaling another mouthful of her medicine before slipping it into a pocket of her uniform. She watched as Bishop slipped into the shadows, his eyes concerned. She shook her head wordlessly, and spared only a glance for the observers above. She didn't care what they'd made of her moment of weakness.
Her voice carried through the Danger Room easily, the irritation in it carried with it. "You did that on purpose, you bastard!"
Pulse laughed but the echo in the room made it impossible for Rogue to use that to close in on him. "You shouldn't broadcast your weakness to enemies, Rogue."
Though he hadn't intended it, his point was sharp. Rogue's eyes again found the observation booth above.
You shouldn't broadcast your weakness...
"I didn't know we were enemies," Rogue replied, hesitating a second before again using telekinesis to lift herself up, not into the air this time, however. She set her feet down on top of the wall and with preternatural ease balanced on it.
"You never know your enemies until they stab you in the back, darling," his voice was a lot closer this time, and his words even more so.
Who was the backstabber?
The X-Men?
The Acolytes?
Or Rogue?
Pulse was about to scale the wall just below Rogue, presumably to incapacitate the most powerful member of the team when a gun blast came through the wall just inches from his hands.
On the other side, Bishop readjusted his gun and listened to the voice in his head.
Sage spoke telepathically into his mind, her eyes studying the field as her mind studied the data. Two inches to your right.
Bishop shot again, narrowly missing Pulse's arm, but the smaller man was already fleeing. Rogue jumped off the wall and landed on top of the thief, slamming him into the ground harshly. The sound of his head thumping against the floor was harsh but satisfactory.
"Say it," Rogue commanded as she used her telekinesis to pin Pulse facedown on the ground. As long as he couldn't see her, he couldn't use his ability on her.
"No," Pulse said in a calm voice, testing the strength of her "bonds" as he lay there.
"Oh, come on, Pulse-y, you know you want to," Rogue purred as she stood and stared down at him, stilling holding him there with her mind. "Say 'uncle'."
Bishop came around the corner, smoothly reloading his massive gun, and grinning. "We win?"
Rogue grinned and nodded. "He won't admit it, but yes."
Bishop's smile slowly faded. "Nope."
He aimed the gun at Rogue and fired.
Rogue instinctively took to the sky and created fog to hide herself there. Her mind was already speeding through the possibilities, latching onto a solid one when Sage's voice suddenly broke through fog.
"The new name of the game, Rogue, is take you down. My calculations indicate that Pulse is too easy a target for this practice."
Rogue grinned and shrugged. "If you want to play, darlin', all you had to do was say so."
An energy blast, one of Bishop's, flashed through the fog too close to Rogue for comfort. It was also too close to the control room where the X-Men were located for safety. She adjusted her position accordingly and began to strategize.
Sage was clearly the one locating her sight unseen, but Bishop was the brute force behind it. If Rogue came down to take out Sage, then Pulse could de-power her and Bishop could remove her from the game.
She'd have to take Sage out without dispersing the fog that hid her or coming out of it.
Rogue had several abilities catalogued that could do that, but they'd also do some structural damage to the Danger Room.
Rogue bit her lip in indecision.
She had those abilities, but she also had one that would do damage only to her.
The question that remained was which she would rather risk. The Danger Room and by extension everyone in it, or just herself?
Rogue's body assumed the lotus position of her legs folded and her hands resting on her thighs even as her mind already made the decision.
Her astral form slipped from her body easily and unseen to anyone who was not telepathic. It drifted downwards from the ceiling easily, and Rogue could feel her heartbeat back in her body beginning to rise. She would only have little time to do this.
Jean Grey stood at the window and watched this with fascination. Her eyes were wide and more than a little envious as she watched. Unconsciously her hand reached out and grasped the Professor's where he had wheeled himself to the window as well. "I didn't know she could do that."
"She can do a lot of things we do not know about, Jean," Xavier admonished, but he too was fascinated. Astral forms were very difficult and very taxing to create. He himself could create one but had done so only twice in his life. Both times he had ended up in a coma as a result, the first one lasting two months.
Xavier realized he was holding Jean's hand and let go quickly. His mind was struggling to grasp this new variant in the situation. An astral form was a characteristic of only the most powerful telepaths on the Earth. As far as he'd known, he'd been the only one able to create one.
However, Rogue wasn't using his ability to create that astral form. The telepathic wave she was emitting was mainly an amalgam of Jean's.
Xavier wheeled himself from the window and backwards until he was next to Magneto. The other people in the room were watching the action below so intensely that they didn't notice. "I believe we need to speak after this, Magnus."
Magneto was unsurprised and simply nodded.
Gambit moved through the crowd to stand next to Jean. He didn't hold her hand, however. "What is she doing?"
"Something amazing," Jean confessed as she placed her hands on the pane of glass between her and the action, her mind eager to reach out and connect with Rogue's, to know how she was doing what she was doing.
"Gambit knows that, he can feel it. Just...what exactly?" Gambit asked distractedly, unconsciously mimicking Jean's movements and placing one of his hands on the glass.
Jean turned her head and studied Gambit's face. "You have a form of telepathy?" She asked quietly, not wanting the others to hear the conversation since he clearly didn't want anyone to know.
Gambit shook his head, his eyes scanning the nearby faces. He projected one word into her mind, with startling ease. Empathy.
Jean nodded, her estimation of him rising as she did so. Empathy was a lesser form of telepathy, more easily controlled, but it was still telepathy in a way. When she spoke this time it was for the group's benefit as well as his. "She's projecting an astral form, essentially taking her consciousness from her body."
"Is that hard?" Kitty asked, her eyes concerned. From her side Colossus reached out and grasped her hand, providing comfort where she needed.
Jean nodded. "It's very difficult. As far as I knew, only the Professor could do it."
Scott was sitting at the controls and turned to Xavier when Jean said that. "Is that true?"
"Until now, yes," Xavier replied coolly. It was very clear to those that knew him that this was not a good thing.
"Look!" Nightcrawler suddenly yelled, transporting himself from the ceiling to the front of the group, blocking everyone's view as he attached himself with all five of his limbs to the glass.
"We will if you move, Kurt!" Scott said as he stood and pulled the blue-furred teen off the glass.
All they saw was fog.
"What are we looking for, Kurt?"
Nightcrawler's eyes were wide as he too looked for something in the fog. "Meine Schwester cried out and fell! I think something is wrong!"
The fog suddenly began to dissipate and the teams waited anxiously to see what they would find on the ground below.