"Gates." Emma says when she has everyone's attention, grinning slightly behind perfectly dyed platinum blonde hair and a pressed white blazer. She loves sitting in the captain's chair at the head of the room with Scott (he never did have the best way with words) and he's never been a fan of the unknown, he only faced it. This was the white queen's territory. "It appears our human brethren aren't onto them. Yet." Kitty types quickly on her netbook and the graphics update in the center of the circular table. Laura watches with disinterest (now taken the mantle as the future Wolverine so that he can do what he loves and train children). "And we should be grateful. But all one has to do is appear in a heavily populated area..."
Everyone stares at the twisted, gnarled branches and the clear portal glowing there as it hovered over fields. Piotr towers over his short girlfriend, Ororo sitting patiently beside him and Kurt. Gambit has gunmetal boots kicked up on the table (Emma's gotten tired of warning him about it), calm as always and hardly aged a day besides a few worn lines in his face. The retired thief sits up with interest as Scott and his wife stroll in, the latter looking annoyed that her quality time has once again been interrupted. She puts on a scowl for good measure, even as her husband grinned at her.
"Aw, leave chére alone. Remy do the X-Man work for the family..." A look that was once mischievous is filled with adoration for her as she anchored her hands on her hips. "She busy playin' mama."
"Wouldn't that require you to work?" Scott says, parking himself at the telepath's side and discreetly holding her hand under the table (like it was still a secret). "Besides," His face somehow becomes even more serious as Bobby and Kurt lean their heads and elbows on the table in apparent boredom. "We don't know what we're dealing with." Rogue had heard this before and seen the look on her friend and leader's face. After surviving the end of the world, Ms. Marvel, Mutant Registration and countless other horror stories (like Dark Phoenix), she is not phased by this.
"Oh, Ah got it. Don't know what's goin' on so you wanna throw me at it." Scott frowns, but the cajun balances precariously in his chair to Bobby's laughter.
"No," He begins but the frosted psychic at his side laughs. He'd known the southern girl for years and she could still find a way to be difficult.
"Well, it won't be our first option but I'd certainly like to have it." If Rogue likes anything about Emma Frost, it's that she's a straight shooter (and in that icy cold heart she wants Scott as much as another telepath did). Xavier's first student glowered in her direction. She didn't understand, even in her jest how many times Rogue has had to do that (and if he doesn't take it lightly).
"We have friends in Wakanda," Kitty continues over the banter as short-cropped hair jostles. "They're getting some crazy energy reading off these things-"
"And so far," An almost unaged Ororo continues, hands interlocked pensively in simple, burgundy dress. "Not even Vibranium has disrupted or broken them. It is comprised of and shooting off things never before recorded on earth." She can't really hide the concern written on her face. They did not like heading off into the unknown.
"Don't the Avengers have ties there? Access to a lot of the stuff we do..." Rogue folds her arms staunchly beside the ice mutant as his face grows more worried. She did not want to end up on any scene with them.
"We can't let them find a way to tie this to or blame us for it." Scott continues, jaws permanently clenched as he stands in a tight, dark, x-shirt. Some things had changed since they were younger, but not much. "We need to shut this down, figure out what's going on,"
"And not open the culture for speculation, for we know what that leads humans to." Hank finished, his tone surprisingly light considering the institute had been destroyed and raided multiple times in it's history. Whenever anything happened, mutants were looked to first as the reason in this day and age.
"We need to be quick, efficient, and painless." Scott continued, holding the eyes of the entire room even with his visor. He paced across the floor as he spoke. "The whole world will be watching us."
"Save some for later, darling." Rogue scoffs at the blonde but in exasperation, not jealousy like her younger counterpart. Many would think the vagabond beside her was not listening at all, cards rummaging in his hands and brassy hair hanging in front of his eyes. The thief is talented at splitting his attention, however.
"Ew, Emma. C'mon, petite. Nobody wanna think about... Cyclops tryna talk dirty, bleh!" The couple is not phased by several snickers. "We got children in attendance," He gestures toward a miffed brunette.
"Call me a kid one more time, Gambit. This 'kid' is trainedc as an assassin." Dark lips twitch upwards at the thought of her tiny roommate beating her husband's ass (she could do it, too). The mental image almost makes her forget that once again, she's about to run even the slightest risk of not returning to her daughter. It is a risk she must take to protect her and so many other precious children. And even the ungrateful humans who cannot save themselves.
"If we could focus, please..." The muscular man turns to his long-standing teammate with a frown. "I would feel better if you came, Rogue." They went half mast to space and he still blames himself for his wife's demise. The pale girl is still an X-Man and technically the man's number two on the field (even when Jean lived among them) but Irene came first. So did her Danger Room classes and watching over the school and Charles (something the southern goth promised to do in her friend's absence). "But I can ask Logan."
It's a moot point, they both know while the man is valuable to have in any capacity, they have Laura who is younger, more agile, and had a much better healing factor. For all they can do, they cannot emulate Rogue's unique absorption power. Only one known mutant on earth could, and she won't see the battlefield until she's older than her mother.
"He's the real babysitter," She settles for, trying not to look troubled with so many eyes on her. She feels like the teenage version of herself, unsure and a bit perturbed, but she feels better when Remy grabbed a gloved hand. "He can deal with my class, then. Ah'll go.." When would she be able to say when? Would she ever?
"Uh, Rogue?" Remy's eyes twinkle in the direction of one of Logan's favorites, a nimble firework-making mutant he's always gotten along with. Her sweatshirt is bright pink and her hair cut even shorter than Kitty's these days.
"Jubes, quoi?"
"Logan and I are taking over her class later, but..." It takes no stretch of imagination to wonder what's coming next. Irene is a pleasant child, adored by all her teachers (even chilly Professor Frost). But she inherited her mother's moodiness for sure. She is smart, precocious, and low-level empath or not, she can feel her mother's emotions. Read them like children's books and feel them instantly. She knows when something's up, and when she disagrees she hides like the spy who sired her knowing she will come.
"Oh," Remy sits up at attention for the first time in the meeting. "Une fillette, petite fille. YOUR daughter," He only says that to watch his wife's cheeks go red as she sits up. Only person on earth that gave Rogue's moods a run for their money, but he wouldn't have it any other way.
"Oh no, how do ya think she sneaks around like this?" Logan ambled over to see the breakdown for himself when he heard raised voices. "Ah don't sneak, Ah stomp everywhere." Somehow, the pale mutant is surprised when her kid does this every time X-Men stuff ripped her away. It should be expected at this point.
Scott clears his throat, seeing the hairy man's desire to take back the team issues like the old days. He wore them ragged but it made them the team they were. "We should get m-" An accusatory glare from Rogue silences him, and then he feels bad for even suggesting she rush away without a proper goodbye (as her real mother had disappeared one day and is still missing).
"Ah'm not leavin' until Ah speak with her!" Emma rubs a temple when Rogue's accent sharpens. She can remember all the times Raven abandoned her, left her to wonder if she was angry or ever coming back. "You know that-"
"Please. You know I can't take it when she gets going..."
'Be nice, Emma.'
'Her accent. It's my kryptonite!'
"Hell," Logan tosses a beer can into the trash and lumbered past Jubilee with a indignant growl. "Ah'll go get the brat myself so you can get a move on." He'd finally gotten how to wrangle an anxious and rambunctious child.
"Don't call her a brat!" Both parents cry in unison, Kitty snickering at how protective they were of their own kid. Just the parents they promised to never be. "She's sensitive,"
"All that huffin' and puffin, what do ya call it then?" The whiskered mutant tries to growl in his older age, but it is hard as he looks lovingly at the kids who all got to grow up in a tattered flannel. "She's y'all's kid alright."
"Oh, no. Ah was moody... Ah'll give ya that." She rolls the cuff of one oversized denim sleeve and looks menacingly towards the people who were snickering. Even Piotr seems to be stifling laughter as she tries to understand why everyone thinks she's so similar to her daughter. "Ah was MOODY, but Ah never ran o-"
"Okay, what about the time I accidentally ruined your makeup and I looked at your diary?" How the smaller girl remembered that, Rogue isn't sure, but she's angry all over again. Her brother chimes in after her with a held up finger.
"Ja... Or the like three times you tried to run off and find Mystique yourself?"
"Or-" When Bobby speaks, the goth's withering glare silences him. He has finally learned what poking the beast got him. "Nevermind."
"Non, keep goin'. Remy love hearin' 'bout chére's past. She don' talk so much about it." It's too easy not to tease his partner as she stews, so annoyed that Scott would get on her for her wily daughter's habits, and Logan would never let it go and she'll start that same train of thought wondering if she even wants to save the world anymore. She finally already has hers: Remy and Irene.
"Cause we have an impressionable young one, THAT's why. One of us gotta parent. And... Okay," She looks like she could murder her friends and sibling. "EVEN if Ah wandered off.." The clawed mutant had already gone to find her daughter as she pouts. "Y'all know Ah could handle myself." It's clear from the look on Scott's face that opinions on that are subjective. "She-"
"She safe, Rogue. She don' leave the grounds." Remy says seriously, simultaneously hating and falling in love all over again to see her fret and care so deeply for the child they made. "Wolverine track her down, this all be fine. You say bye before ya pull off." It's clear from the look on Emma's face that she's dragging her boyfriend in their minds, but she doesn't object. "Ca va? Everythin' been okay?" He's become very attuned to his partner's anxiety and this was out of sorts for her.
Rogue sees it clearly, even if he sleeps soundly at night. Right beside her. Curled around her, finally for the first time in his life sleeping until morning. But she sees. The visions. Nightmares. She can't be sure anymore, but she sees.
Her friends turning to stone and dozens of gnarled skeleton hands clawing for her, aching to drag her down to the depths of hell as everything is destroyed. A fate she's ran from her whole life, but she's never been able to escape.
"I'm coming."
"Rogue?"
Everyone quietly tries not to panic when it becomes clear she's spacing out, something else taking her attention altogether. They know from the past it is not a good sign, even the telepath eyeing her closely. "Just... Ah'm gonna worry about her. Knowin' what we know is out there..."
"We are going to investigate this gate together, not marching to Auschwitz Anna. There'll be plenty of time to spoil her later." It's clear her melancholy mood is making the expensively dressed woman uncomfortable. The school doesn't need any hard times. Remy sees an evil look cross his wife's face, but he grabs her arms pleadingly.
"God, Emma if you had a heart I might rip it out." It is no surprise the Xavier Institute's resident genius and psychic don't along often.
"Da, da Katya..." Kurt soothes. He thought Mystique and his sister were bad but then Emma Frost met Katherine Pryde. He'd take the family affair anyday.
"See? Her murderous intent is rubbing off on smaller team members."
"Please. Track her down and make sure everything's fine... Before we," Scott clears his throat like there was ever any chance he wouldn't let his teammate do this before they left. "You know." She doesn't take long to hover away, her brow furrowed when she turned away from those who could see.
Maybe after this she would transition off of team placement. Her younger (and childless) teammates were still going strong, coming into themselves and aligned with the vision of the X-Men. She had a child, and she planned to reside at or very close to the school and have time with the family she never had. She'd be around if they needed her.
Her mother had been a normal, southern hippie and something still found a way to happen to her (the jury's still out on whether or not Mystique and Destiny had anything to do with it). 'Ah know most of all her fear,' She thinks of Scott and her promise she made to always be there if he just came back to them after Jean. And she would. 'He has Emma, Kitty... Everyone,'
Maybe. Maybe after this mission.