Waiting for a Hero

Bib:

Rogue gets captured by the enemy and keeps hold of her hope that a knight in shining armour will come to rescue her.

Story:

When Rogue woke up to find herself in a dimly lit room, unable to move her arms, she freaked. That was until she remembered what had happened.

Xxxxx

The X-Men had been out on a mission and the mission had required them to break into a secret organisation. She had been paired with Wolfsbane. It was one of her first missions. While most of the other more sneaky and powerful X-Men, like Gambit and Wolverine, were out raiding the main mansion this secret organisation owned, Rogue and Wolfsbane were checking out some of the abandoned buildings the secret organisation had bought over the years. It should have been empty, but the Professor suspected otherwise.

Wolfbane was supposed to sniff out anything alarming and Rogue was there to keep an eye on her and keep her out of trouble considering she was still so young. When they found the underground tunnels though and couldn't find their way back out, all hell broke loose.

Rogue and Wolfbane had to fight countless henchmen to try and get away. Unfortunately, Wolfbane got hurt quite badly due to her lack of experience and Rogue knew from her experience that, if they both tried making it out, neither would. Something underground was blocking the psychic link with the Professor too so they couldn't inform him that the main base wasn't the mansion where Gambit and Wolverine were. It was where they were. They had gotten so lost underneath the tunnels too, only Wolfbane would be able to find her way out.

It was in that one moment, where Wolfsbane and Rogue had managed to outrun the hence man and find a quiet place to hide that Rogue saw the fear and hurt in Wolfsbane's eyes and knew what needed to be done. It was a scary decision to make, especially when she didn't know if these hence men would kill her if they got the chance. But, she had hope.

Rogue ran in the opposite direction from Wolfsbane, letting her follow the trail back above ground while Rogue used some of the ice powers she had taken from Iceman a few hours ago when she accidentally touched him. He was supposed to be here too and, if he was, they may have had a fighting chance, but Rogue had to work with the situation she had. She bought Wolfsbane as much time as she could, but eventually, the ice powers wore off and she was hit over the head, unconscious.

Xxxxx

Now, she found herself waking up in a jail cell of a dungeon. Rogue couldn't tell if she was still in the same place or not and she was surprised she was still alive. She hoped Wolfsbane had made it out alive and safe and had been able to contact the Professor.

As Rogue pulled at her handcuffs, she cursed herself, wishing she had agreed to letting Gambit hide some picks on her. The idea of him cutting up her skin and hiding them under them like he had on himself though had disturbed her when he offered. She didn't want that! And stupidly, she had refused to keep the one he'd offered to place in between her teeth because she was afraid she'd choke to death. She had a feeling he was going to rub this in when he found her again.

That thought made her snort. Yeah, Gambit would find her. She could never get rid of him at the mansion, and it annoyed her to no end most of the time. But now, she was quite glad of his stalking skills. It gave her hope. Hope that he'd track her down and get her the hell out of the jail cell she was in.

She was still terrified about what was going to happen to her. She felt lightheaded from the hit over the head and really rough from the beating she took. She was sure they had kicked her unconscious body when she was down. She could feel the bruising all over her stomach and it hurt to breath.

Rogue closed her eyes, trying to forget the part that she was scared and just focus on the idea that Gambit was coming for her. Wolverine too. He'd sniff her out. Actually, she wondered which one would come for her first or if they'd both come at the same time. Wolverine was more of the slice and dice kind, so she was sure she'd hear him first before she saw him. Gambit was the subtler kind and would sneak in quietly. She guessed it would all depend on where she was and what the X-Men thought was best to do. But she knew they would come for her.

Xxxxx

The minutes awake turned to hours. Hours turned to days. Or so she was told by the guard on duty who liked to torment her. There was no one else around. Just them and she reckoned he was bored considering he'd just been told to stand and watch her. There was no light to the dungeon she was locked in. Her head was spinning, and she felt thirsty and hungry so she wasn't too sure if he was right or not. From the way he kept rubbing it in, she thought he was exaggerating a bit.

xxxxx

Some more people in masks turned up to interrogate her. One of them a psychic. Rogue had put up all the mental barriers she could. She used everything the Professor had taught her, but the psychic was stronger than her. That had felt like an eternity, and to the psychic, it probably felt like that too considering they had to try and figure out the puzzle which was Rogue's mind. A mind that was filled with a lot of other people's minds. It hurt in parts to have the psychic roaming her mind. Mainly when she opened painful memories Rogue had tried locking up tightly or when she began struggling physically because having an intruder in her mind was uncomfortable.

Eventually though, Rogue was sure the secret organisation got what they were after from her. Although, she wasn't quite sure how much information on the X-Men they were able to gather. The psychic kept pushing her conscious to one side while she unlocked certain doors in her mind and left it messy.

While the psychic was interrogating Rogue's mind though, she was able to dip into the psychics' mind as well and was able to get a few more details about the group that had kidnapped her. The other masked faces were by her side on the physical plain, keeping Rogue pinned closely to the wall so she couldn't physically touch the physic to absorb her memories, but the Professor taught her this little trick of finding the door into a psychic's mind and she used what she learnt while she could before she was caught and cut off. The person behind all this was Lord High Evolutionary and he'd kept her alive because of his plans to experiment on her and use her mutant DNA in many disturbing ways.

Rogue couldn't stay awake much longer after the psychic battle, but she did hear orders given to torture and beat some more information out of her when she next woke.

Xxxxx

When Rogue did wake next, she kept her eyes closed, remembering what had been said. She tried to keep her breathing even so that the guard who already loved to torment her wouldn't notice she'd woke up and delight in torturing her physically.

As Rogue sat on the cold dungeon floor, still having her arms chained up high above her head, she thought of the X-Men. She needed to think of them because the longer she stayed in that cell, the harder it was to believe they would reach her before something really really bad happened to her. Rogue just kept telling herself over and over again in her head that: "Everythin's alright! The X-Men are comin'! The X-Men are comin' for meh! Remy's comin' for meh! Everythin's gonna be finah!"

Rogue cursed as the guard realised she was awake. Finally, she opened her eyes to see the guard who was bouncing around with childlike joy before her cage, telling her just what he was going to do to her. It was hard for her to keep her eyes open and keep the chant going in her head.

When the guard temporarily moved away from her cell to stick his head out of the dungeon and inform the other guards she was awake, it gave her a chance to tell herself not to panic and to stay strong.

She watched how the guard came back towards her cell and was followed by one of the other guards who had been just outside the door. Rogue glared her tormenter down as he went to open her cage, but she found her eyes shifting to the guard behind him.

His face was hidden under the mask all the members of the secret organisation wore and his body was hidden under the hooded cloak they wore too. Rogue watched as the guard behind her tormenter lifted his arm out from under his cape and hit her tormenter in the back of the head. Rogue watched in satisfaction as her tormenter's face hit the mental bars of her cage first before he fell to the floor. She couldn't help the little smirk that appeared on her face nor the snort that escaped her as she caught the whiff of the Cajun spices she had grown so familiar to smelling.

"Took ya long enough," Rogue said with a dry voice.

Gambit reached up and removed his mask, a smirk of his own behind it.

"Je suis trés désolé mon chérie. Got here as fast as I could, but when y' go runnin' off in t' the flames the way y' did, makes it rather difficult t' follow," Gambit said as he reached down and took the keys from Rogue's tormenter.

"But ya found meh," Rogue said, her voice breaking as she spoke.

The crack of her cage opening was music to her ears and when Gambit was before her and his warm breath tickled her neck as he worked on her cuffs, it made her dizzy with happiness.

"'course I did. Couldn't leave mon femme locked up in chains now, could I?" he asked.

Rogue's eyes had closed, not much caring what Gambit was saying, but was just glad he was there, and she could hear his voice. The relief mixed with pain as she felt her arm come loose from the cuff just seemed to be the final few straws which were taking it out of her.

"Guess not," Rogue muttered out.

"Shhhh," Gambit said as he moved onto her next cuff. "Save y' strength. I gotcha now chérie. I gotcha."

The same sensation of relief and pain she'd felt in one arm when it was released from it's cuff was felt in the other. Rogue sighed as she felt Gambit's arms work their way under her and lift her up. She couldn't use her noodle like arms, but Rogue turned her face into Remy's chest and breathed him in, her smile never falling as she felt him walk with her out of her jail cell.

Rogue heard a large explosion and other ruckus somewhere in the lare she was being held in. It only made her smile grow larger as she realised who it was.

"Ah knew y'all would come," Rogue muttered out as she curled herself up more against Gambit's chest.

If Gambit said anything in reply to her, she didn't hear it as the world around her began fading fast. Although, Rogue was pretty sure she felt a little, but gentle weight touch the crown of her head.

xxxxx

French Translations

Je suis trés désolé mon chérie - I am very sorry my darling

Mon Femme -My Woman