Time Heals All Wounds
Ok – don't get all strange on me – I had to attempt it at least once – a pure NO OC story had to be done – I don't own them not a damned one – this time – I hope – maybe – nope not yet. (looks at the blank page in front of her – can I really do this?)
Ten years after X3 a heartbroken and much changed Marie comes home to the mansion – Can she handle the changes she finds – especially in the one person she counted on to never change.
Chapter 24 Encounters
He flicked another card and she dodged as it exploded where her head had been. She turned on the invulnerability and charged him. She hit him hard in the middle, ripping the staff out of his hands and scattering his cards across the floor. He didn't even blink – just rolled back to his feet, one of the scattered cards charging between two fingers.
"I don' tink you wan' to do dat, Chere." He said, a ghost of his normal voice, inflections all wrong, as if someone else were controlling him. That's when the differences hit her – he wasn't in control. She didn't want to hurt him, certainly didn't want him back in her head – so she was going to have to figure out a way to knock him out without hurting him too badly.
Just then Kitty phased through the ceiling.
"Are you coming – or just playing footsie with your ex?" She dropped to the floor next to Rogue.
"Kitty – can you get close to him, phase your hand through his head near his left ear and disable the device there?"
"GROSS!"
"If one of the implants is disrupted, it breaks Apocalypse's control." She said, remembering what she'd seen in med lab.
"Fine – but you owe me – you've had him in your head so you KNOW what gross stuff I'm going digging through."
"Funny."
Marie jumped into the air, and flew at him again. He didn't seem to even notice Kitty – as if she were invisible. Marie distracted him while Kitty got close and phased her hand through his head. He dropped like a marionette that's strings had been cut, and then shook his head.
"Chere – what happened?"
"Come on – we can ask questions later." Kitty said, grabbing both of them and dragging them up through the floors above them. The others were gathered in a cave hidden by some brush.
"The plane's guarded." Bobby said as they pushed through the camouflaged opening.
"Great."
"I can get in – get it ready to go." Kitty said.
"Not without the others, and if they don't see us near it – they may lower the guards later, make it easier to get to it when we need it." Marie said.
"Well, well we have certainly grown up." Mystique said with a smile.
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing – just remembering when you were a trembling weakling in the bottom of a boat, now look at you taking charge, I'm almost proud."
"Well don't be – you had nothin' ta do with it."
"I wouldn't be so sure." She gave the blue woman a strange look.
"So are we gettin' out of here or not?" Creed grumbled.
"Not without Logan, Warren, Juggernaut and Toad."
"What do you care about Jugs and Toad?"
"We are working together – or not at all." Marie said, facing down the large mutant. Creed snarled – but backed down.
Bobby and John were helping Gambit sit down.
"Kitty I want you to phase through Remy – disable any and all those devices in him." Marie said.
"On it." The other woman shifted into her ghost form and walked through Remy's seated one a couple times to make sure any electronics were disrupted.
Remy shook his head a few times to clear it.
"What happened?" Marie asked him.
"We were checkin' tings out, Logan and Storm said jes watch, so we jes watch. Next ting I know we down in dat lab down dere – an' your Logan – he about lost it when he saw dat woman – de red head – an her assistant. Storm too. Den dey split us up. Warren Logan and me down to de pit – some kinda gladiatorial fight ting, we don' know what happened to Storm." He said softly.
"She made it back to the mansion – to get help." Marie said simply, Remy smiled at that.
"Tank God! I was done scared for her after some of de tings I seen in dere an dat was before dat blue guy decided he like me – and took over. It was like I was dere – but not. I couldn't stop myself, but I could keep things from him, like what I know bout you, Chere. I know Logan doin his best too – from what I hear." He patted her hand, trying to reassure her.
"What about Warren – no offense to Logan, but Warren's the weak link here?" Marie said coldly. She suppressed the shudder at her own tone, but knew Logan would understand.
"I don' know. He was supposed ta fight today – against some green guy called Toad." Remy said. "But den de security was breached – you guys I'd guess – so Apocalypse sent me to deal wid it."
"If it's this easy to disable his control, we should be able to get back in fairly easily and get the others." Kitty said, Marie watched Remy as Kitty said it, and saw the gleam in his eye, a look she knew – he was lying.
"Apocalypse's control isn't broken – he's playing us. Get out – NOW!" Marie said, hitting Remy, hard across the back of his neck, hoping she hadn't killed him. Apocalypse was still in control of him – probably Storm too.
"Too bad you figured it out." Creed said, as a hand descended on her shoulder. Marie dodged, but Mystique, Bobby and John blocked her. Kitty grabbed her hand and shouted "Take a deep breath!" before dropping them through the floor.
They were lucky, there was another cavern under the cave, and they dropped into a shallow underground river.
"Well – that sucked." Kitty said.
"No shit." Marie responded.
The two followed the river looking for a way back to the surface. Kitty could take them but they didn't know what was up there, and without knowing didn't want to take the risk of walking into the middle of the enemy.
"Ok so – Mystique, Bobby, John, Sabretooth, Storm and the others are ALL under his control, HOW?" Marie said.
"Well – those devices in Remy were on certain points in his body that control electrical impulses. If he were a computer circuit board – they were set up to control power flow."
"But he doesn't NEED them to control them – it just makes it easier?"
"I don't know. I know there were eight devices I shorted out."
"We need to figure this out – we have to stop him." Marie said.
"Well – if it were a computer system, the implants probably keep power from flowing in certain directions, which would make it easier for him to control multiple subjects, simply because the electrical impulses from the brain were being 'circuited' in the right direction already." Marie just glared at Kitty.
"What – I know computers."
"Our friends aren't computers – and I know Bobby, John and at least Mystique didn't have those, or you would have shorted them out when you phased – so he' s got to be struggling to control them, and probably Storm from this distance. Also his men don't all seem to be under control, just the mutants."
"Ok – so we know he's controlling the mutants, but the normals working for him are just working for him." Kitty said
"Also – the lower powered mutants are more like automatons, while those who are higher powered – or that he has special interest in, have more personality. Siryn for example, she was like a robot, didn't recognize, didn't answer questions, just made assignments."
"What was he talking about, the red head in the lab and her assistant." Kitty asked.
"I swear it was Jean – but you saw Logan kill her, right?"
"Yeah, that's impossible."
"Her assistant is Scott, but he's more like an automaton." Marie said.
"Damn." Kitty looked at her in shock, trying to absorb the impact. Marie had just filed it away, as something to deal with later.
"Okay – so we are dealing with Bobby, John, Logan, Remy, Warren, Mystique, Juggernaut, Toad, Jean, and Cyclops BEFORE we can take down the big guy." Kitty listed them off on her fingers. "He's controlling at least TEN people, with very little effort!"
"We don't know it's very little effort. He could be spending all his power controlling them – and we haven't seen Logan, Warren, Jugs or Toad, so they could be asleep – out of the picture." Marie said as she climbed up some rocks to check a point of light in the wall.
"Good point."
"Scratch that. At least Warren is awake." She said softly.
"What." Kitty climbed up next to her. Warren was half unconscious, laying on a rock in a cave in front of the pile of rocks the two women were trapped behind. "Could he have escaped?"
"Well – with that broken wing, and the cuts and bruises and dried Toad slobber, I would more likely guess he got thrown out after losing." Marie said matter of factly.
"Guess again, Ladies." Warren said, raising his head. The rocks just tumbled down, the two women tumbling down into the cave. The mutant shifted form – turning into Mystique.
"SHIT!" Marie said as she climbed to her feet.
"Kitty – phase through me." She said shortly.
Kitty glared at the blue woman.
"I'm NOT under his control – he has something against women, I don't know, he doesn't take complete control of their minds, I was able to fight him off."
"Do it." Marie said to Kitty.
"Okay." She phased to ghost form and walked through the shape shifter.
"No electronics." Kitty said.
"Fine – one more way ta find out then – I'm gonna hate this." Marie said, taking off a glove.
"Marie – don't, please. There are things in my mind I don't want anyone knowing, especially you." Mystique said softly. "Please, just trust me."
"How'd you know my name."
"Someone said it, Ice boy I think."
"He always calls me Rogue."
"From before when we had you."
"Only one person knew my name back then – Logan." She said.
"Fine – I'll explain, but now isn't the time for anger." She said softly.
"What?"
"I've watched you your whole life, Marie d'Ancanto."
"Why?"
"You are very important to me." Mystique said with a hushed tone. "Please don't ask more than that."
"If you want me to trust you – you are gonna have ta trust me." Marie said harshly.
"Fine – Its your funeral. I'm your mother."
"WHAT!"
"I left you in an emergency room twenty eight years ago. At the time – I was working with the Hellfire Club and didn't want anyone to know I'd had a child. Your power is so like mine, I'm surprised you never figured it out, especially when your adopted parents told you the truth."
"How'd you know about that?"
"I've kept track of you. You are my daughter." She said simply. Kitty was just staring at them with her eyes wide, both hands clapped over her mouth.
"Apocalypse coulda taken that information out of Logan's mind." Marie said simply.
"You were wrapped in a green blanket, your face was covered, but not your hands, you never could stand anything on your hands. I don't know how you learned to wear gloves. You were six weeks old when I left you." Mystique said softly.
Marie was stunned. Those were details she hadn't even told Logan. Even the d'Ancanto's didn't know, that information was only in the sealed adoption file, and only Marie had seen it.
"My God!"
"Rogue?"
"She's tellin' the truth – or she found out information that no one else has somehow." Marie said simply. "Fine – it's the three of us, against Apocalypse."
She knew she could trust Kitty, and something told her she could trust Mystique – to a point. She had been willing to let Magneto KILL her – her own daughter. She wasn't going to trust her very far.