Disclaimer: I do not own X-men. I do own the Lenox characters and other minor characters of my own creation.
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Sunil rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he considered the terms of my bargain. He already had the upper hand as far as I could tell, but I had little doubt that he would refuse my offer. If there was one thing this jerk enjoyed, it was a good mind game. If he took the offer, he would get the chance to not only destroy me, but he could do it in front of his followers and my own family and friends. On the other hand, if he chose not to play our game, he would probably send out more guards till we finally broke down. But I was almost certain that Sunil was far too full of himself to ignore the chance to cause such suffering and receive so much ill-gotten fame.
"You do raise an interesting offer." He finally spoke up but seemed to enjoy drawing out his answer.
"Rogue," Kitty grabbed hold of my left arm and squeezed tightly as if she thought I was going to vanish. "Please, don't do this. We took out the guards and we can take out this guy. But lets, do it together."
The other X-men nodded their heads and continued to murmur in agreement with Kitty. It wasn't like Kitty was throwing out a completely insane idea. Together, we could probably get a good shot at Sunil. But one look into her big blue eyes and I knew that I would never be able to go along with it. Sunil was most likely packed with a huge amount of power and he had no qualms about unleashing it on any of the people who opposed him. From my own memories of that fateful night, I knew he wasn't above killing his own family if they stood in the way of his plan. The X-men had been the closest thing to a family I had known for ages, and I couldn't let them be killed because of me.
This was my fight and mine alone.
It was my family that had been destroyed, it was my decisions that led us here, and it was up to me to put a stop to this all or die trying. Sunil couldn't get away with destroying the Lenox family. My memories weren't the dependable, but I felt a surge of family pride and defensiveness swell in my heart as I thought about the lives lost to this senseless fighting. If I didn't stand up for the Lenox line, then we were officially gone for good.
"Well, Sunil?!" I growled up at him and felt Kitty's hands grow tighter on my sleeve.
"Impatience is a very poor quality, in a well-bred lady," The taunt was followed by a wide toothy smile, "I am willing to accept the terms of your offer."
"No!" Jude stepped up and blocked my eye-line to Sunil's seats.
He turned on his heel and stared me straight in the eyes. Although his brow was dipped so far down that his eyes looked impossibly small and angry, there was a tear trying to slip down his right cheek. Besides Lydia and myself, Jude had the most honest claim to being upset. He had been there that night and witnessed horrors that no one ever should. But even his anger couldn't deter me from this plan.
Jude was the only one left who I knew could save Lenox. Maybe his heroics wouldn't come in a big battle with Sunil, but he was the one who could pull together the armies and save the innocent people if I failed. Jude was the hope for the future of this dimension. Sure, I had royal blood, but I was of no use to anyone when it came to actually ruling a kingdom. If anything did go wrong, Jude would be there with the plan to save everyone; I knew it.
"Jude," I mumbled the name out in almost a whisper, feeling both scared and sure of myself, "You need to promise me that you will keep everyone safe."
"No, Al-"
"Stop," I held up a hand and shook my head, "You are the one who can save them. If I die in there," he tried to interrupt me again, as did a few X-men, but I shook my head again and tried to speak louder, "If something goes wrong, you have to take them out of here and get everyone to the safe ground. That means the Morphs, too. They aren't horrible creatures and they need someone like you to keep them safe if Sunil attacks. Help as many of them as you can. Please, Judie"
Jude stayed silent, aside from a few very jagged, deep breaths, and let the idea simmer for a moment. I knew from the way his green-blue eyes shimmered that he didn't like the idea, but that he could understand it a little bit. I knew Jude wouldn't like this plan, but I was pretty glad to see he could at least understand where it came from. Someone had to protect those left behind. No matter the cost.
"If you're done," Sunil interrupted the moment and floated a foot or so above his box seats. "I think it is about time we started this little contest."
"Fine by me," I nodded my head and tried to remain firm, despite Kitty's constant hold on my arm.
"You have three minutes to say your goodbyes." He commanded before nodding to another guard near Lydia's captor.
After the curt nod, a small bubble appeared over our section of the field. The entire thing was a bright neon blue and, judging from Logan's attempt to shred it, completely impenetrable. He snorted after a few failed attempts and backed away from the edge of the bubble as if he didn't trust it. The ground that wasn't covered by our bubble lost it's original hue and turned a very dull color.
Without warning, the floor began to swirl and everything and everyone within the dull colored arena slipped underground.
Kurt watched the whole thing with a jaw dropped so low his chin practically touched his collarbone. He mumbled something in German that I couldn't understand, and turned to look back at me and Kitty. The sight of beaten men and piles of rocks sliding into some kind of whirlpool was pretty hard to ignore. I wondered if Sunil even cared that the soldiers who were still conscious were yelling in terror. Did he feel anything for these men and women?
Once the people and the last of the debris had been sucked into the earth, the land returned to its normal flat state. The whirlpool effect vanished as quickly as it had appeared and my group was left trying to grapple with what we had just seen. The bubble around the arena shifted back to its normal hue and suddenly the whole place looked as clean as the moment I had first been thrown into it.
"Well," I sighed and looked at Kitty and my fellow mini-bubble occupants, "I guess we have to say something…"
The X-men looked around at my Lenox friends and seemed to be debating whether they would have any success in trying to change my mind. Axel rubbed his hands nervously and placed one of the sweaty hands on my shoulder. He squeezed reassuringly and tried to keep a straight face. I offered him my best smile and gave him a quick thank you. Eleanor looked at us in turn and seemed far less certain about the fact Axel was giving into my choice.
"This is crazy," Scott, who had been trying to pace unsuccessfully in the small space, turned on his heel and looked at me, " We can still find a way to do this together."
"No," I shook my head and finally left Kitty's embrace, "We can't Scott. I am doing this on my own."
Had you told me even a month ago that I would be telling the leader of our band of mutants that he would have to back down and listen to me, I would never have believed you. But here we were and I was not going to back down on my position no matter what they said, "You all just need to focus on staying safe. Ah got this."
Remy, who had never let his stare leave my face raised one eyebrow very slowly. I had felt his stare throughout the whirlpool incident, but this was one held a new flicker of intensity. He was catching wind of a weakness, namely my accent was slipping through, and it was all he needed to be put on alert.
Unlike Jude, who I could understand by a mere look into his eyes, Remy remained a mysterious figure to me. It was probably one of the things that confused and attracted me to him so much. There was so much I didn't know about him, and so much that I knew I wanted to know about him.
"Rogue," He walked up to me slowly and seemed almost uncertain about what he wanted to say. The mere pause in his normally confident manner made my stomach churn uncomfortably. "Whatever you do Chere," He leaned close to my ear and let out a warm breath, "Promise me that you will make it back."
"I'll try m-" I mumbled out, but he cut me off with one deep look.
It wasn't good enough to just try and survive. Remy wasn't going to take the best guess I had. He wanted my all; He wanted to know that I was going to do everything in my power to save the people I cared about, "I'll keep them safe."
He leaned forward and planted a kiss on the top of my head, "I want you safe."
The statement whispered just loud enough for the two of us to hear, brought an honest silent gasp of surprise out of me. I had been so concerned about keeping the people around me safe that I hadn't put much thought into the idea of my own mortality. Sure, I knew that there was a chance I could die in the battle. Okay, there was probably a super, ginormous, amazingly large chance of death, but that hadn't really affected me.
I couldn't say I had given much thought to what the world would be like without me in it. Jude would take care of Lenox and the X-men would still be a solid team. They could go to Earth and everything would be back to normal.
All I had to do was take out Sunil by whatever means necessary and the world would be a better place. My sacrifice, whether it meant death or some sort of violent mutilation, was the best thing for everyone I was almost certain.
But why then, did Remy's words strike such a chord in my chest?
"You," Remy whispered one more thing into my hair, "Are important. Princess or X-man. You alone are the most important thing to Remy, Cherie. Promise me, you will stay safe."
"I," I took a slow breath and watched his eyes as he pulled back from my face and stared into mine, "I promise, Remy."
"Time is up." Sunil's eerie voice broke the entire mood of our bubble and turned everyone's attention back up to the box seats, "You know it would be very rude to be late for your own demise."
"What about my mother?" I asked him and spared a glance to the frail looking Lydia. "I haven't gotten a chance to say goodbye to her!"
Sunil glanced at my mother and shrugged his shoulders, "Her? Well, I doubt she will be with us much longer as it is. You can just say your goodbyes when you meet in the afterlife."
The words brought out my inner fire and I slammed a fist on the bubble holding us hostage. Sunil laughed at the action and floated from his seats above the arena and down into the far side of the field. He shook a finger in my direction and offered me a small tsk-tsk sound. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn that he was trying to get me more revved up before our fight.
Every time he opened his mouth something more idiotic and horrible then the last statement seemed to tumble out. Didn't he have any idea that I was at my best when I was angry? At least, I had always figured my skills improved with enough provocation.
"Don't let him get under your skin, Stripes," Logan's gruff voice joined my silent fumes.
He crossed his arms and scanned the field for some type of advantage or plan. When he came up as empty as I had, he shook his head and looked into my eyes, "Give him an extra kick in the ass for me."
"Logan," Storm, the most mature of us all, placed a hand on his shoulder. "She needs to stay calm and disable him as quick as she can."
"The kid has this." The gruff man added, giving me the first sign of confidence I had received from my teammates. Logan had always been gruff to most people, but I knew he really believed in me if he was willing to offer any kind of compliment. Part of me wished I could have taken him into the ring as my fighting partner. "It's not gonna be easy, kid."
"Betrayal never is," I added, remembering our past conversations when my powers had first exploded on Earth. "It sticks with you until you do something about it."
"Hmm," He snorted and, if I wasn't mistaken, offered me a proud look, "Kick his ass, Stripes."
As if on cue, my restraints began to emit a new cooling sensation. I noticed them start to turn a lighter silver color and tried to pull the remaining one off of my wrist. It didn't budge, but at least there was no electric shock this time. The man standing beside my mom in the box announced that the challenger needed to enter the arena or forfeit. I shot him a confused stare and he merely motioned for me to step forward. Kurt tapped the bubble and found it was as thick as ever.
"Might as well try myself," I mumbled to him and gave him a small thumbs up. Kurt backed away and stood with the rest of my team. I turned briefly and offered them one last look, before walking right through the barrier. It was surprisingly easy to slide through, expect for my one arm that was missing its harness. I had to give that one a good tug to get it free.
Once I was out on the field, I took my position across from Sunil. He was frozen in place and seemed unfazed by the fact I was free and clear to attack at any moment. I had assumed he would be stretching or at least trying to shock me with the collars. But the old man merely stood still and watched my every step.
"There is no sense in using those anymore." He waved his hand in front of me and my shackles fell to the floor. "My, you did fight them didn't you, Princess?"
I rubbed the burns on my neck gingerly and spared a quick glance to my wrist. "Quit the small talk, Sunil."
"Impatient as always, Princess." He curled his lip and exposed those jagged teeth I was sure would be in my nightmares for years, "But for once, you are right; It is the time to finish what was started all those years ago."
"Just try it." I snarled back and smiled internally as Logan chuckled from my small cheering section. If this was going to be my last fight, I was going to give it my all. I took up my fighting stance and with one last breath, flew forward with all of my strength.