It had been a rough and long day for Rogue, having finally made it into Germany from New York. She was terribly tired when she left the airport at Hamburg but she couldn't sit back and take some time to regain herself. She had to find where this black forest where ever it was, then somehow find a way to get out there, and then try to find Kurt, if he even was there. This was completely stupid, why was Rogue there in the first place, she had no right or no business being in Germany. Who knew if Kurt was even there, she's following a lead that was found in a tabloid from 7-11. Besides which, even if Kurt was in that forest somewhere, why was it Rogue out there to investigate, why not "big brother" Scott who has to be the leader? Why not Jean who could probably track him down with her telepathic powers? Why not Kitty who actually cared for Kurt because he's Kurt? even though she probably would never admit it.
All this thought doesn't help, what if's and who should's aren't of any help now because it is Rogue that is in Germany, and not anyone else. Why was she even there? It's not as if she really cared for Kurt so much. Sure he was one of Xavier's students whom she could trust and had a small friendship with, but that was merely based on the fact that she and him were teammates and nothing more. Then why was she looking through her dictionary frantically trying to find out how to say "Black Forest" in German, but she wasn't having much luck. Stupid country, not a single person could speak English. Rogue's anger grew at how stupid she was to fall for this, to come half way around the world for no reason, just to look for someone who probably is at a different corner of the world. "Stupid Kurt," Rogue mumbled, "I understand his was his home, but why couldn't he come from Miami or someplace where I can actually understand someone."
"Hey there missy, lookin' for someone to talk to?" Rogue turned around with a startle hearing someone call to her in English. A man sat in a yellow taxi, arm hanging out the window with the other on the wheel, looking to her. "What are you looking for there missy?"
"You speak English?" Rogue was just a bit too startled to realize the expression on her face.
"Yup, I'm English by nature but I've been in Hamburg for the past few years. Usually get work from all the American tourists like you that arrive since I can get them places without needing help of a bumbling dictionary." The man nodded, he had a funny dark plaid flat cap that covered over a bit of his face, but a large and hulky brown mustache still shown it's way through. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"I need to get to the Black Forest, know how to get there?"
"Black Forest, nobody wants to go there anymore since the stories of the demon appearing there," the man replied. "Used to be where everyone went, although I honestly don't understand what's so scary. There are no such things as demons."
Rogue gave the man a slight laugh, "Right, so can you help me get there?"
"Sure thing missy, you're going to want to take the railway there and go on that till....."
*****
It had been about a day or so that Rogue had been traveling through the German country side, and now she saw herself face to face with the humoungus trees that made up the Black Forest. It probably wasn't too promising that her first action inside the forest itself was a yawn that she had never felt before. How tired she had been, never taking a break ever since her late night escape from the Xavier Institute to now here in Germany. Sure a quick nap here and there on the planes and trains, but nothing very comforting and healthy. "Kurt, you better be out here you fuzzy blue boy," Rogue just let out a moment of frustration. "I had better not come all this way just to come up with nothing."
The sun was up in the afternoon sky as Rogue began to walk through the woods and it's maze of trees. Where to even begin to search for him? The article just merely spoke of the demon being in the forest, but not specifically where he was. Besides which, the article never said how big these woods were, they was enormous. "Now what am I supposed to do? Just go up to these trees and ask them if they've seen this demon? Argh! Why am I here? Just what the heck did I plan on achieving?"
In a moment of rage she slumped to the grown and sighed, crossing her legs, she reached into her bag and pulled out a small sandwich she bought from a vender at one of the train stations. She took a quick bite out of it, so tired now that it was a struggle just to chew the bits of food and be able to swallow them. Stupid Kurt, this is all his fault. She leaned back and felt her head rest up against one of the giant trees. She took in a deep breath trying to regain herself. She took a quick blink and gave off another yawn, and blinked again.
However this time when she opened her eyes again, she was blinded by a light glaring itself right at her. She raised her hand up to the light to block it and turned her head to look at the woods around her. The sun had disappeared and night replaced it, covering the trees in blackness. "Oh my god... I... I must have fallen asleep!" This sudden realization hit Rogue with a startle.
She jumped up to her feet and look at what the light was blinding her. A man was all bundled up in a long overcoat holding a flash light directly at Rogue, speaking something to her in German which she couldn't understand a bit of. Seeing the man's coat made Rogue realize just how cold she was and how much the temperature dropped with the coming of the night. "Umm... I'm sorry sir, I don't have a single clue what you are saying?" She was trying to see in case this man just might happen to know English as well like at the airport, but luck wasn't with her this time.
The man kept speaking, going off about something, although it sounded as if he was quite angry over something. He finally grabbed Rogue's arm and tried to pull her with him in a hurry, showing that he was egar to get out of the woods and wanted to take her with him. Rogue throw her arm, ripping it away from the man in disgust. "You get your hands off of me, I ain't goin' anywhere with you," she yelled to the man, although she doubted that he was even listening let alone understanding. His eyes were fixed up at the trees, swinging his head to look from tree to tree in a quick motion. His hand began to tremble wildly, the evidence of this being how much the flash light was trembling and it's display of illumination wobbling on the trees. Quickly he moved the flashlight to aim at the trees, searching frantically for something. He tried to grab at Rogue's sleeve again, but like before, she shook him off with a threat this time to pummel him if he tries it once more.
With blazing speed a shadow in the forest moved and knocked the light from the man's hand sending it flying through the trees and off a distance. The man took no moment's hesitation and took to his heels, flying out the way that he came in a scream, ranting off on something in German that Rogue couldn't understand.
Rogue herself was too busy steadying herself, standing in fight position and looking around the darkness for what is was that just scared off the man. "Com'on out, I know you're out there." She kept on a pivot looking around from tree to tree, her only light being from the flashlight that was too far away not to do much of any good. "Show yourself, I'll take you down, I know your there."
In the darkness, a pair of yellow eyes glared at her with a bit of snarl. The eyes moved quickly from ground to tree and then to a tree following that. Rogue spotted them and tried to keep track of their movement but the eyes were moving much too fast and she was back to guessing, looking around for the hopes to glimpse the eyes again. "I know where you are, so no use in trying to hide yourself." Obviously a lie, and Rogue cursed herself in the belatedness of it.
"And do you now? Then vhy are you looking in the wrong direction?" A voice spoke out directly behind her, causing her to jump and spin with a swing of her fist that connected, sending the speaker of the voice down hard to the ground with a groan. Quickly Rogue scurried over to the flashlight, once taking possession of it, she pointed it towards where the person was on the ground. Wait a sec.... yellow eyes.... spoke English but with the heavy German accent... The light made it's way to the body revealing that it was Kurt.
"Kurt! Oh my... Kurt... I'm sorry," Rogue hurried over to his side trying to help him up, "I... I didn't mean to, I just... reflex, that's all."
Kurt shook his head, trying to get the cobwebs out from the hit he took. "It's okay, I'll be fine." He took Rogue's hand and got back to his feet. "So I take it zhe rest of zhe X-men are around here somewhere? Guess my hiding job didn't do so well." With a leap of agility, Kurt grabbed hold of a nearby branch and tossed himself into the trees.
"No Kurt, wait!" Rogue called after him, "there isn't anybody else, I'm the only one here."
This caught Kurt's attention. He stopped from his trees and turned. "Of all the people vhy are you here? and vhy are you alone? vhy come all the way out here?"
"I... I don't know myself actually," Rogue caught herself in confusion. That's a question that even she herself didn't have an answer to. "Look, I came out here all the way by myself because I knew that the others would just screw things up. I figured you were out here from this," she reached into her bag and pulled out the tabloid, tossing it onto the ground at the base of the tree that Kurt was in. He dropped with amazing grace and agility and looked at the paper.
"You came after me all this vay just because of a phony newspaper?"
Rogue blushed lightly inside of herself at the stupidity of the idea, "Yeah... but it was the only thing that any of us had to go on."
"So then why should I know that the others aren't following you?"
"Because I left in the middle of the night without telling them. Heck, I never even showed any of them the article to think over. I just took off." Rogue started to realize the voice of caring in her when speaking to Kurt. Well not fully caring, but coming much closer than she ever had before to anyone or anything else. "Look, I came out here all by myself because I knew that all the others would just bumble things up. They already have because they don't know what you are going through right now, at least I know...." She shut herself off quickly. She was always so bundled up over herself and just now look at her, just blurbing away, not even thinking about the words that were coming out of her mouth, she was just saying them.
"Know what?"
"I know so perfectly what it feels like to be the outcast, and I'm taking it that's what you are going through right now. It's why you left."
"I left because I was only causing trouble for me and trouble for the other's by my being in New York." Kurt turned his back, leaping back up into the trees, the newspaper still in his hands. "Professor Xavier is a wonderful man with a wonderful dream, but that's a dream that can only be brought about by and for humans, something of which I am not."
"You listen here fuzz boy, I did not come out here, half way around the world, just to hear you sulk and groan over yourself."
"But do you not find it true? Look at me, I am not human, I am nothing! There is nothing in the world like me! I am a complete and total freak, and there is no other way to say it."
"Look at all of us, we're all freaks," Rogue shot back, even though it did hurt herself a little to admit to it. But in the essence of the word, yes all the mutants of the world were exactly freaks.
"But you're a human vith powers. You all are, nothing like I am. Do you have skin? do you have five fingers and toes? do your eyes glow in the dark? are they of a bright yellow color, larger than normal humans eyes should be? Do you have blue fur that covers your body? Do you valk upstraight like humans are supposed to?"
"Do you think that I believe myself to be a human, fuzz boy?!" Rogue shot back. She had traveled all this way just to get put down by him, making her entire pilgrimage nothing but a gigantic waste of time. "Aren't humans supposed to be able to touch one another?! Aren't they allowed to possibly now how it feels to have another's arms around them and to be able to interact with them? What happens if I'm in the hallways of school and I bump into someone? They pass out like it was nothing. Do you find that to be human yourself?"
"Do you zink that I know vhat it'z like to have someone's arms around me. You know full vell dat such a thing can't happen to me as vell. One touch from anyone and they would know of my secret underneath my inhancer. Besides vhich, look at me. I am a demon, a monster, I am not human. Vhy would anyone vant to put their arms around me and care for me? Certainly not my mother, whomever she is."
"Look at me, I look perfect human don't I?" Rogue shot back, her anger still with her, "my mother still left me as well and I know didn't love me. It's not your looks, it happens to everyone. Besides which, there are people out there who actually care for you Kurt, they actually do love you."
"Ja? Like whom? Those villagers whom have been coming after me nightly?"
"Like the Professor, like Scott, like the other students at the school."
"I was a student, it vas more of a watching than a love."
"Then you certainly haven't seen what has happened at the school since you're departure. No one is themselves, it's nothing but a large building of dark and gloomy people, wondering the house in a melancholy cycle of days now." Rogue was just fed up with Kurt, she felt like she should smack him if he wasn't up in the tree. "Everyday Scott is off trying to find out where you went off to, I'm sure he is still searching aimlessly. I don't think that Kitty has had a moment where she was dry-eyed since you took off from school, she just keeps going off on how this is all her fault or something like that."
"Keety?" This certainly caught his attention, he turned again, staying in the tree but at least looking down face to face with Rogue, "But vhy vould she care? She just doesn't know vhat it is like to be the outcast of zhe outcasts."
"I know I certainly know how you feel."
"Oh, and how to do say that? You don't know how I feel."
Rogue reached into her bag and pulled out the red notebook, tossing it onto the ground at the base of the tree, much like she did with the paper. "I stole it from Scott's room right before I ran off to the airport. I know how you feel, not being able to really communicate your feelings to anyone. I've been like that for my whole life, even long before I was ever discovered as a mutant. My mutation shouldn't be a big surprise for me, I've been such an outcast and a freak my whole life."
"But you don't look like I do, you can get avay vith being human."
"They still put me down, they still treat me just as low as if you were to walk into class as the blue fuzz ball you are. Everyone puts me down, even the people at the institute, they think lower of me. How am I supposed to feel like anything when the one place I can go to feel even with everyone else still shoots me down and looks down at me. I read you're times when you believe the others can't bare the sight of you because you're blue and walk funny. I know they look down at me like that, and it has nothing to do with my yellow eyes, or tail, or odd shaped feet because I don't have any of that."
"So then vhy do you care?"
"You are making way too much out of this humanity business. You are nothing more than a regular outcast which is how life works. But you know what, we are all outcasts, it's not like you are anything that no one has seen anymore. You ain't a freak, you just different and miss viewed. But there are others everywhere like that, like me."
"A freak I am and I shall alvays be. When I came to zhe institute I vas able to try and hide myself behind a computer, but I've realize zhat truly I am a freak and zhat is my reality." Kurt turned his back again ready to take off into the forest's night, but he sighed. This was someone whom he had trusted and he just couldn't leave her like this. "Come and follow, I have a place vhere you can get back to sleep and eat some, but avay in safety."
Rogue followed Kurt through the pitch blackness of the forest, dodging between trees for minutes, with Rogue on the ground and Kurt making his way spectacularly through the trees with such speed and agility that must be unmatched. After a while they finally came to a clump of trees that grew very tightly packed in-between each other with the branches of all the trees mixing and mingling with each other. It made for a perfect shelter, the branches making it almost impossible to see through from the ground, yet they were sturdy enough for them to hold up people whom were up in them and walking around. Rogue took in a quick gasp at just how perfect of a retreat this was for the "Black Forest Demon."
"Wow, this place is amazing," Rogue gave credit to Kurt for finding such a place. "It's such a perfect place to hide yourself. But how am I to get in there? I can't teleport to the other side of the branches."
"You don't need to, zhere's a small opening on the other side you can climb up," Kurt showed her, climbing up it himself.
"Why should you need it though? Why not just port in there?"
"Because I don't use my powers at all."
"And why is that? You have them, it may be a curse to have them, but why not use them if you've got 'em?"
"All it vill take is just one teleport and zhat vould set of the computer at the institute and zhey vould be here in a moment's notice," Kurt explained finally making it to the top of the shelter above in the trees. He turned and offered a hand to try and help Rogue get up into the shelter as well. "I just vant to be left alone and not bother vith zhem any more. I've caused zhem nozhing but trouble and it's just for the best. Plus, I'd rather try to zhink of myself as more of a freak and not a mutant. It sounds more like a cover-up, at least I can admit to vhat I am."
"But then why run back here to Germany? Why come back to where this whole thing started, to where your mother left you and were you rejected by your people?"
"Because I'm home here, I survived like this for years before Xavier ever showed his face to me. Plus, I've run to zhese voods before, and I know zhem vell. Zhey have a very mysterious aura to zhem and can possibly be vhere a demon can make a living. It's easy enough to just scare off any few people whom seek trouble."
"A demon?" Rogue seemed a little shocked, "but why call yourself one? I thought you were a man of God, one whom was against demons and would fight them off?"
Kurt gave a laugh, "Just look at me, I am a demon and zhere is nothing else you can say about it. I look like a giant cat creature, everyone said so, even Keety."
Rogue was about to continue their conversation when they were cut off by the sound of voices a little ways off in the distance. There was a group of people shouting in great anger, although Rogue couldn't tell what they were saying because of the German they were shouting it in, but she could easily pick out the rage in their voices. Kurt's ears instinctively shot up and he rushed to the edge of the shelter and looked out, listening intently to the voices come. "Oh no...." fear could be picked out from his voice. "They must have been following your tracks on the ground, they've found me." Rogue could see the hair all over Kurt's body raise up in anticipation of what was to come. Before Kurt could always just scare a few away and if any trouble came he could just take off into the woods and disappear for a while. But Rogue was here, Rogue was in the shelter which was exactly where the mob was coming towards following her tracks. Never could they follow his tracks since he moved through the trees.
"Oh god...." Rogue froze as well. "Kurt... I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean for them to come after you. I didn't, honestly!" She looked over his shoulder, seeing the lights from flashlights coming towards their shelter. At the front of the pack was the man whom Rogue had earlier ran into, the one who woke her up from her sleep along the path in the forest. He held onto two dogs, that were sniffing out the ground and following the direct path she took. "Kurt, take off. Get out of here and save yourself, they're just tracking me not you. If you teleport out of here you can get far clear of them and off to safety." Kurt didn't budge, he just kept frozen, watching the mob coming closer to them from the darkness of the night. "Com'on Kurt, get going. Teleport, do whatever you do, just get the heck out of here."
"No, I do not use my powers," Kurt more or less mumbled this to himself than speaking in reply to Rogue.
"Kurt you have no choice! Get out of here!"
"No! There is another way." Kurt turned quickly to her. "They are after me, not you. Zhis has nozhing to do vith you. Once I draw zhem clear of here, get out of here yourself and get back to New York."
"Kurt wait! That's too dangerous!" Rogue tried pleading with him, but it was too late, he'd already made his way to the edge of the shelter and leaped out onto another tree nearby. Rogue could hear the mob explode into even more shouting and finger pointing to the demon near-by. "Kurt!" She tried desperately again but to no avail.
"Get out of here Rogue!" Kurt called back watching the mob down below him. More screaming came from the mob below, shouting in German and pointing at the evil in the trees. Suddenly a gun shot rang out, soaring the bullet towards Kurt that just missed him over his left shoulder. "Mein Gott!" he cried, "zhey are really after me zhis time." Kurt jumped to another tree, just barely dodging another bullet fired by the crowd. It had become a game of dodgeball with life or death implications on it. "Rogue, I've got zhem busy, get zhe heck out of zhere! Make a run for it!" Kurt screamed for her to make her escape jumping from one tree branch to another with his grace and agility. Another gun shot rang out and the bullet this time found it's mark and struck Kurt to the upper chest, a little to the left of his center. The force of the blast knocked him so hard that the course he was taking in mid-air was changed immediately, sending him soaring to the ground, landing with a sickening thud onto the ground below. A roar went up from the crowd.
Rogue could not believe what she was just witnessing. "Oh my god no! NO! KURT!!!"
***** ***** *****