-Unknown Facility, cell 14-
The routine has been the same for the last 159 days.
A buzzer goes off at, as near as she can figure, eight o'clock in the morning. A masked woman with brown hair comes in and slides a plate of powdered eggs, cold sausage and a cup of bitter orange juice under the Plexiglas wall of her cell. On bad days; a congealed substance that mildly resembles oatmeal.
Her body's demand for nourishment out weighs her sense of taste and she shovels the food into her mouth. By now she's overcome the automatic gag reflex that used to plague her as the cold, greasy substance eases down her throat. Most days she isn't bothered again until around five or six o'clock, when the same brown haired woman brings her a plate of either cold corned beef hash or on days she was fortunate, dry chicken breast and vegetables.
Her entertainment limited to whatever magazine or book whoever was on guard shift allowed her to read. One of the guards, Manny, wasn't so bad, he'd even lent her his Nintendo DS once, letting her play for over an hour. Others were much worse. In particular Jerome; who merely stared at her or one of the other girls there, masturbating furiously.
That was her routine and the walls of her cell were stained with his leavings as proof, but at least none of the guards ever took it any further than that. Especially considering that on Friday's they could have.
Friday was the day everyone hated. Because on any given Friday you might get your ticket punched right after breakfast.
The others there would all wait on Friday's fearfully, until they saw someone's cell get flooded with a blue gas. The guards when then open their cell door and drag the limp body away, leaving the rest thankful their name wasn't called. Most of the time they returned a few hours later.
Sometimes they didn't.
She'd been here a month and change before her number came up.
She awoke later, naked and strapped to a cold metal table being examined. She has no idea what they hope to learn, but they poke and prod her all the same. Their faces are covered, but their eyes are completely impassive, as if examining a menu at a restaurant.
After some time they inject her with something and she passes out again.
When she wakes up again she's in tank of green gel. It's thicker than water and she has a breathing apparatus attached to her mouth. She's still too sluggish from the chemicals in her system to do anything more than wait for what will be done to her next.
They bring in a host of what look to be military men and women with someone in a lab coat pointing at her. She cannot hear what is being said, but the way she is being looked at it can't be good. After everyone leaves, the air in her mask gets funky and she passes out again.
She awakes in her cell picking green bits out of her hair, because wash day is Tuesday she has to wait until then in order to feel somewhat clean again. So far in her 159 days of imprisonment she had only been selected four times; which is four times too many as far as she's concerned. But others have been worse off than her.
When she first came here she was defiant, confident that Logan would save her. But as the days stretched into weeks, she slowly lost hope. It was a gradual thing; just a little at a time, but it happened nonetheless.
When the weeks became months, she began to hate the X-men.
Hate being a mutant.
Most of all, Rogue began to hate the fact that she was no longer the least bit bothered by her "routine".
-War Room-
"So you're telling me we have to wait?" Logan cannot remember being more angry in his life. This hurt even more than the Adamantium bonding process, more than anything he's ever experienced.
Beast sighs. "I'll be working around the clock Logan, but if we have any hope of penetrating the facility I need to make the customizations on the Blackbird."
From what Aaron was able to get out of Vanessa, the facility was actually housed within the Colorado Rockies. Apparently, Welling wanted to make sure that rogue mutants breaking into or out of his facility was a complete impossibility. The only good news out all this was that Vanessa at least knew the exact longitude and latitude of the location.
As long as she wasn't lying that is.
Logan posed this as a possibility, but Beast only shook his head.
"I've repositioned a couple of Air Force satellites to get a read on the coordinates and there is a structure there and it is buried under almost a hundred feet of rock." Beast, exasperated rubs his neck uncomfortably. "I've gotten a couple of government contacts to confirm there is an off the books facility there." Beast looks in Aaron's direction. "Do you believe Vanessa was telling you the truth?"
Aaron nods, but adds. "Couldn't we have Magma bore us a tunnel through? Iceman could cool the tunnel enough for us to follow…" Logan turned to Aaron and nodded.
Just like his mother; always thinking…
"Yes, but the time it would take, will alert them forcing us to walk into an ambush." Beast returns obviously tired of arguing the point.
"But if you're talking about modifying the Blackbird, doesn't that mean modifying it to dig through the rock?" Alison asks. "I mean don't we end up with the same problem?"
"The modifications I'm talking about is for the landing; getting inside will require two mutants and a small infiltration team… So I've put in a call to two mutants who have helped us before…"
Alison and Ororo share worried glances, which Logan sees but isn't sure what they mean. "So when do these guys get here?" Logan asks.
"Forge and Mr. Wagner will be here tomorrow, or I guess later on today considering the time, until then I will keep doing what I can to get things ready…" Hank shoots Ororo a look of apology and at that moment Ororo excuses herself from the room followed by Betsy and Alison. Leaving Logan and Aaron to continue to press Beast over the operational details.
-Living room-
"Ororo, wait up!" Alison calls after Ororo who she and Betsy had been practically chasing all the way up from the sublevels. Alison wished there was some other brilliant engineer Hank could call, but it's not as if Reed Richards or Tony Stark were likely to help a group of mutants break into a government facility.
Then again neither of them ever had to worry much about government interference either, despite the numerous laws they'd broken. It always ate at Alison that mutants were the ones feared and hunted, when you had a drunken playboy tooling around in the worlds most powerful battle suit.
Finally Ororo runs out of steam, flops on the couch, drawing her knees up to her chest. Betsy and Alison join her on opposite sides. In times like this, Alison knew it was best not to say anything at all. You were more likely to make someone more upset than encourage them, by offering your opinion.
With her chin resting on her knees, Ororo does the last thing that either of them expects, stands from the couch and begins pacing. Mumbling to herself angrily.
"Ororo…"
Ororo holds her hand up to silence Betsy and shakes her head. "No, Betsy." Ororo face is both angry and sad. "I don't want to be comforted or consoled because you cannot do either. You cannot make it so that… he will not be in this house tomorrow…"
"No I can't…" Betsy begins. "But I would like to point out that Fo- he is old news, he's nothing, he's nobody, but a means to help bring back Marie." Alison knew the Brit meant well, but she was being too logical about it her approach.
Ororo doesn't need logic from us right now…
In fact Alison knew exactly what Ororo needed to hear.
"Listen to me; you are not that same girl he hurt all those years ago. You are Ororo Monroe; weather goddess, stone cold fox and girlfriend of the sexiest man on two legs… no offense Betsy."
"To each their own…" Betsy retorts, smiling.
"Your job is to show this fool that you're over him, that you don't need or want him in your life because you've moved on to bigger and better!" Alison stands grabbing Ororo's shoulders.
Ororo smiles radiantly, before her face clouds over with doubt. "But what if I'm not over him…?"
Alison and Betsy share a look of disbelief. "How could you not be?" Alison manages.
"You don't understand…" Ororo states in a huff collapsing into a lazy boy. "He was my… first… my first everything. It's easy to say you're over someone when you don't have to see them every day but…" Ororo trails off shrugging her shoulders. "God, I feel like I'm stuck in some poorly written story where the writer keeps coming up with plot devices to keep me from being happy…"
Alison can't help but giggle at the thought. "Well if you and Logan just hooked up the first day he came back, then the rest of the story would just be filler…" Now all three women laugh together, but it's Ororo who stops first.
"Should I tell Logan? You know about… him?"
"You have to!" Alison answers. " I mean how would you feel if I showed up at the school and me and Logan had done the horizontal hokey pokey and didn't tell you?"
Ororo raises an eyebrow. "I'd have serious questions about Logan's taste in women…" Ororo manages to dodge the first couch pillow that Alison throws at her, but is unable to avoid the second.
-Rachel's room-
"How are you feeling?" After the frustration of having to wait to bring back Rogue had led to a full on shouting match between Logan and Hank, Aaron made his way to Rachel's room to check on her.
"Exhausted, but my mind is clearing…" Rachel answers honestly. He had no idea the process of rooting out the sleeper would be so taxing for her, but he's glad that they were able to uncover her.
"Good thing we didn't save Rogue for last huh?" Aaron quips trying to lighten the mood.
"If it had been up to you, we would have…" Rachel smiles caressing his face. "Oh man, and I sent her to your room that night too… I'm glad you had enough self control not to… well you know…"
Thinking back on that night, if Rachel hadn't already lay claim to his heart he might have and then he would have inadvertently had sex with the woman who had a hand in his mothers death.
Never thought I'd think a good thing that a woman owned my heart…
"I own your heart huh?" Rachel tugs on him making him lie next to her on top of the covers.
"No fair peaking in my head, Ms. Grey!" Aaron lies on his back bringing her head to rest on his chest, sighing contently. "How will the boys in S.H.I.E.L.D. ever take me seriously again? Knowing that I have turned into… this…?" Truth was he enjoyed the closeness that their psychic rapport gave them, besides there was nothing in his mind that he feared her seeing. Not anymore
"A tamed lion, is still a lion…" Rachel answers dreamily beginning to feel herself nod off.
"Says you." Aaron snorts, kissing her forehead. "I better go before I fall asleep…"
"Why?" Rachel asks sitting up slightly. "Kitty doesn't mind if you sleep here, do you Kitty?"
"As long as all you do is sleep…" Kitty mumbles, trying obviously to get some rest.
"What's the fun in that?" Aaron whispers, nipping at the soft spot on Rachel's neck right below her earlobe.
"You are an evil, evil man Aaron Carter…" Rachel whispers wrapping her arm around him possessively.
-Holding cell-
Vanessa was exhausted, but all things considered things it could be a lot worse.
She had come seconds away from dying tonight, as if needing proof, she bandages over her cuts throbbed with a slight ache. What scared her most was the fact she almost was glad of it. She'd grown tired of her lot in life. Working for Welling wasn't always bad, but rarely was it good.
Of course she did them and would do them again if it meant her brother could be safe.
When his power first manifested itself it killed her parents and nearly killed her as well. The only way she found she could control it, was to keep him asleep; constantly sedated. Keeping someone in a coma for the rest of their lives just so that others could be safe, it was just so unfair in her opinion.
Then along came Welling and his offer to help, as long as she would do something for him in return. One thing became two, became ten, became she doesn't know how many. As the months bled into years, Jeremy's condition hadn't changed, but she never doubted Welling was trying to help,
She couldn't afford to.
Now she'd found out that many of the things, if what Aaron had told her was true, had been a lie. That she was on the wrong side of this conflict and people had died as a result. How valid could Welling's promises be?
As she tosses and turns on the cot that Beast provided her, she wonders what's going to happen next.
Once they get back Rogue, will they simply let her go? Where would she go to? And what about her brother? Would they help him control his powers so he could have a normal life? They apparently help mutants control their powers, and Jeremy hadn't done anything to them, but what if they punished her by punishing him?
She didn't know what to think and because of that, despite how tired she was, she couldn't sleep.
It was only a few hours until the sun came up, but it's not like she had anywhere to go.
Rogue had class this morning with Logan, combat training, but she wasn't Rogue, not anymore.
She sighed thinking how the people she imitated had such rich and full lives in comparison to her own.
Marie couldn't have skin to skin contact with anyone, yet people here loved her, accepted her and treated her like family. The residual memories of her life as Rogue are still vivid; laughing with Tabitha, sharing a meal with Logan, playing terrible clarinet in Alison's music class, she had no idea that life could be like that. Full of hope and variety.
She now realized that she would do anything to have a shot at a life like that. For her and her brother.
Anything.
-Logan's room-
Logan had been staring at the ceiling ever since he came up to his room.
Shouldn't of gone off on McCoy like that… but this is Marie we're talking about!
Logan had just hours ago been ready to kill his own son, in order to protect her. It was a clear indication of what she had come to mean to him and now he knew for sure that, like Jean, she was going through the worst kinda hell right now. He didn't want to wait another hour let alone another day. But just as he had with Jean, he would wait, because it was the only way that he could be sure Marie would be brought home.
Logically he realized this even before Beast started the shouting match that had degraded into snarls and posturing, but the adrenaline of tonight's activity would not wear off.
Rogue was gone, replaced by someone who managed to fool everyone here. And would have kept fooling all of them if Aaron had not maneuvered his way on campus.
He couldn't help but swell with pride that it was his son who had foiled the sleeper. His son that came up with a way to take her down and his son that got them the information they needed. Seeing him in action made him miss Aaron's mother; made him wish he'd gotten the chance to be a family. Just the three of them.
His mother was every bit as fiercely determined as he was, probably more so. It was one of the qualities he'd been drawn to when she first joined the team.
On their first mission she'd grabbed Sabretooth by the throat and told him that if he ever called her "Frail" again she would snap his neck. When he responded with; "whatever you say skirt…" Logan remembers hearing rather than seeing his neck break. When Creed recovered days later and asked how she knew he would heal from that, she shrugged and said she didn't.
That may have been when Logan found himself falling for her.
The more they worked together the more he discovered other qualities he loved about her too. Some of the same qualities he saw in Ororo.
He wonders with a frown if he was just chasing ghosts again. Jean was so much like Rose; Ororo so similar to Samara. Given all the manipulation done to his mind, he wasn't sure if he could rule it out completely.
But maybe that didn't matter. Maybe someone reminding you of another person you loved wasn't a bad thing as long as you weren't looking to replace one with the other. He'd been looking to Jean to replace Rose, but Ororo he cared about because of who she was. Not who she reminded him of, that was just an unexpected perk.
Still when he told Ororo the truth about Aaron would she see it that way? She already felt self-conscious about the way he chased after Jean in the beginning. He didn't want to do any more damage to the woman's self-esteem. Or to the relationship that was still very early and fragile.
He felt like it was wrong to be thinking of himself when Rogue was being held away from her family all this time, so he decided these were thoughts for another time.
When she comes back I'll have a daughter and a son…
He supposed that thought should scare him.
He's happy that it doesn't