Rogue instantly took hold of one of the branches and dropped her way to the ground, landing a little roughly but it didn't matter to her. In a rush she hurried to Kurt's side, tears starting to swell up into her eyes, blurring her vision and distorting the thoughts in her mind. "Kurt... oh Kurt....!" She could see the spot at which the bullet had penetrated into him, blood started to ooze out onto his blue fur, darkening the color as it began to migrate across his chest. Rogue took her hand and slapped it lightly across Kurt's face trying to get a response of any kind. Her other hand on Kurt's wrist trying to find a pulse of any kind. Kurt mumbled softly something in German, at least she thought it was German, that's just how badly it was mumbled and disoriented. "Com'on Kurt, hang in there," Rogue pleaded with him, trying to keep him alive. "I didn't come all the way out here just to bring back horrible news."
The crowd behind Rogue stopped and quieted in almost fear of what she was doing. She was a normal human, at least she looked human, she spoke human, but why was she helping this hideous monster of thing. They could hear her sobs and even see the twinkle of the lights hitting her tears that continued to run down her cheek. One of them from the crowd finally broke the silence, calling out to Rogue in German to back away from the monster, however she couldn't understand one bit of it. Again he called for her to back away but she didn't not understand, let alone listen, let alone follow such orders and abandon the wounded demon.
"Kurt... Kurt... listen to me," Rogue continued to desperately plead to her fallen comrade, "com'on you can't leave me like this. Their coming now, their coming to finish you off, listen to me... I won't let this happen." Rogue sat up for a moment from her crouched position over Kurt's fallen body to see the crowd closing in slowly, the gun pointed at Kurt to make sure that he wouldn't survive. Rogue turned back and looked down deep at the fallen monster still mumbled incoherently. He was a monster, he didn't look human, he didn't feel human, he just wasn't human. Then why could he think, why could he make so many people laugh so much like when he was at the institute? Why under the guise of the image enhance did he become human? Why was she caring so much, crying so much, over Kurt's fallen body? "Listen Kurt, and listen to me good. I know you can, I know you're still in there. I am going to touch you, and I need you to be thinking and concentration on your German language. I need to take it from you, I need to be able to word off the mob. Kurt... did you hear me? Kurt! Com'on, I need you right now, don't go off on me." Rogue thought twice about what she was to do in a moment. What would happen if she took all the energy that Kurt had left, and what little he still had, he could die from what Rogue was to do, but what other choice did she have? Kurt would most certainly die from just the wounds that he had now, let alone that there was an enraged mob that was arriving in any second to finish the job. "Well... here goes nothing. Pray to your God Kurt, we'll need all the help we can get."
Rogue reached onto Kurt's cheek, feeling the soft, fuzzy fur that he had always kept hidden under his image inhancer, how curiously comforting it was to feel in her hand. In a quick flash of light she was hit with a wave of thoughts and memories, abilities and secrets that had been locked away in the mind of the monster of the forest. She was instantly hit with the torture that his life had been and the fear he had always had of being discovered as a freak, a monster, a demon. The sound of the mob's cries, sucked Rogue back into reality, bringing the instant thought of German to her head. Quickly she turned to the crowd, staying between them and Kurt's body to protect it from the mob.
"Back off!" Rogue turned and shouted in sudden hatred and rage towards the mob in German. Shocked by her sudden commanding voice in a tongue that they could understand, they stopped dead in their tracks, however just a few feet from where Rogue stayed protecting the fallen monster. The tears continued to flood out of Rogue's eyes which she wiped away in disgust, only fueling her anger towards the mob even more.
"Why are you doing this?" a woman from the crowd called back to her, Rogue now fully understanding with her new ability to speak the language from Kurt. "Get away from it, it's nothing but a monster."
"He is not a monster, he is not a demon, he is a human being! Now leave him alone, he hasn't done any harm to any of you," Rogue called back. Just took a glance back to Kurt to make sure that he was still hanging in there. Kurt was now even more weaker from Rogue's touch and the even more constant loss of blood. Time was certainly running out unless something drastic were to happen. She turned back and whispered to Kurt, trying to keep him alert and awake, "Com'on Kurt, you can't give up now... com'on don't go out on me."
"It's not a human, it's a monster!" Cried someone from the crowd.
"How can you call something like that a human? It's a demon!" Another yelled out.
"It'll be the end of us all if we don't kill him now!" Cried the man in the front with the hunting dogs.
"He is not a demon! He is a human," Rogue tried to plead with them again, although she was obviously not getting anywhere, not getting through to them.
"How can you call that thing he human. Look at the evil in his eyes, look at the tail, it looks like one of Satan and his minions. Look at the fur, look at the ears. It's nothing more than a monster sent by the devil!"
"But he can think, he can speak, he can care and love, does that not make him human to your eyes?" Rogue's tears began to stop up for the moment, her mind so concentrated on denying the mob their kill that she didn't even realize it at the moment. "He is nothing more than a mutant, and mutants are still humans, we were born of humans, and we live as humans. I too am a mutant, but do you find me to be a demon? a spawn of the devil? Would you take firearms out on me?"
"He's haunted the forest now, he's chased away travelers passing through here," the woman from before cried out, she like the rest of them still in the mode for bloodlust. "He has made a pact with the devil to use it's demonic powers to cause us harm."
"Has he done any harm to any of you?" Rogue demanded, the rage in her swelling up again. "Has he ever laid a hand, let alone a finger onto you?" The mob all began to exchange glances at each other, a little uncertain now. Sure the monster had shown up and scared people away, however he had never really damaged anyone, he had never chased them down the path and threatened their lives. "He doesn't mean any harm, he is just a human, one that would not wish to do any damage to any other of his kind."
"He is a demon, he will come back and do such damage for sure," the man yelled.
"He is dying!" Rogue screamed back at him, her rage was now fully in control over her mind and body. She felt like striking him, but stayed back to keep the mob away from Kurt. "If he was a demon with Satan's powers do you think that he would be here with blood gushing out of him? Do you think he'd be here lying on the ground barely holding onto a string of life?" With her still gloved hand, Rogue allowed some of the blood coming from Kurt's wound onto her hand, it's color still a bright red. "Look at the blood, it's the same type and color that would come from you or me? Mutant or not, he is still human, he isn't a demon! He is going to die!"
The crowd quieted suddenly, the girl was right. The monster had red blood, the monster was probably dying with just that one shot any ways, he was not getting up. Should a demon die? Can a demon die? They had no idea, they had never battled such a thing. They only knew of it's existence from old folk tales and stories from generations long past. "But how do we know for sure?" someone called out, almost in disbelief.
"He's dying and none of you are helping!" Rogue just screamed in disgust, "You are all murder's of a fellow man unless you help! Isn't anyone a doctor or something here?" Rogue looked to the crowd, most turned their heads as to not look directly at her with eye contact. She just gave a sigh of disgust, there wasn't anything more she could do, Kurt was doomed.
A man from the crowd stepped forward, "I am a doctor, however I don't know what I can do. I don't know him and what his mutation can do to the medicines."
Rogue turned to him, seeing him looking over Kurt's injuries, he was certainly on the edge of death. "Then let me do it. When I touch you, I can steal all your thought and memories, including all your medical knowledge. I can try and use that to help Kurt with what I know about being a mutant. It's the only chance we have."
The man took a moment to think of it, but took a final glance at Kurt and rolled up his sleeve and extended it to her, "Take it."
With a nod of thank you, Rogue reached over with her bare hand and grabs the man's wrist, another shock wave of thoughts and memories flooded her brain in a rush. The man gave a final soft groan and fell the to ground in a blackened out state. Rogue was getting confused and weak herself, now she had two people's thoughts rushing through her, plus her own, it was taking heavy work. "Don't worry about him, he's just past out," Rogue called to the crowd, knowing they'll be shocked, "he'll wake up in a little while and be perfectly normal."
Now with her medical knowledge, Rogue looked to Kurt and began to examine his would, the bullet hole still gushing blood that was staining his chest. "Com'on Kurt, keep hanging on, we've got some help to try now." With a glance back to the man's fallen body, she took from him a small leather bag he carried always, filled with clothes and bottles of pills and ointments that she could use. She opened one of the ointment bottles and spilled some of the liquid onto one of the clothes, placing it gentle over Kurt's wound. Kurt howled suddenly in pain from the effect of the medicine getting into his wound, "I'm sorry Kurt, I know it hurts but it's the only thing right now that can help." She wiped the cloth again over his wound, cleaning out the blood that was coming from it, as well as getting the blood to stop. She continued this process again, the blood stopping and healing with each time. The pain of Kurt's wound being clean had woken him up from his dull state, having him be alert from the shock of it. "Com'on Kurt, keep with me, the wound looks like its starting to heal a little. I think this stuff is working."
Kurt gave a moan of pain from the medicine cleaning out the blood, "I... I'm trying..." he was still very weak, but now alert to the situation around him.
Rogue turned to the crowd behind her, looking to them for all the help she could get. "Com'on, I need your help! We have to get him back to town, get him more medicine. Please, his life is hanging in your hands." Again the mob looked around at each other in disbelief, not knowing what to do. "Please!" Rogue begged again, "There is no time!" A large and bulky man from the back pushed his way forward and gave a nod to her. With no words spoken, he got his arms around Kurt's back and lifted him in a cradling position and started to make his way back towards the town.
Rogue gave a sigh of finally letting down for the moment, a small smile creeped across her lips. Two other men from the crowd came over and helped carry the doctor who was still out cold. The whole crowd was now moving back to the town in a silent fashion, not a word spoken between anyone, but an understanding achieved by all.
*****
The dawn from that awful night finally rose and the day went on in the town, almost without any change what so ever. The doctor whom sacrificed himself to Rogue's touch was back and alert for the most part although still a little groggy, but awake enough to go about his business. Inside his own home however Kurt lay past and bandaged up in one of the beds, still very weak and in lots of pain, however he was going to live. It would certainly be a long and slow road to recovery, but the blood had stopped and the wound cleaned in time so that no infections could penetrate. For most of the day Rogue merely wondered around the town by herself like normal. She had lost her ability to speak German with the passing of time and wasn't able to understand what the people around her were saying. She did keep a close eye's watch over Kurt to make sure that everything was going smoothly and that nothing drastic or tragic would happen.
As the day passed, Rogue looked into her bag of things to try and occupy her mind from the numbness of boredom. She read through the article about the "Black Forest Demon" over and over again, now having lived it. Finally she picked up her German-English dictionary again, and started to go through more of Kurt's red notebook, just something to keep her mind busy. She'd gone through most of it as it was and Kurt knew, it wouldn't hurt to just go through a little more, it might help her in trying to get Kurt back to the institute once this was all finished.
January 12
The snow is outside falling and it just hurts me almost with the coldness and purity that comes with the change of weather. As cold as I always feel normally, the winter is most certainly not helping me in any of my situation. Please do not get me wrong, I am very grateful to the professor and to everyone here, especially my friends and teammates for at least taking me in and allowing me to at least attempt a real life. It's just that I can't help but feel the snow of purity almost burn into my skin from when it lands on me. I enjoy my friends and I enjoy living this life here in Bayville, but I really know that it's nothing more than a fake of a life.
Why can't people just accept me for who I am and not care? I guess it's because of my differences and freakiness in just appearance. I try to be human, I truly do. I despise these powers sometimes, I try to use less and less of them to bring myself back to humanity but no one has ever thought me as that. I wish to think that my parents didn't want to give me up, that they really loved me and had to do this all the better of me, but deep inside I know that's not true. I know they must have dumped me off just to get rid of their freak. Even my friends here, I can tell that there is always a sort of shyness and fear in them when I am around them, just for their knowledge of what I really look like. I enjoy them so very much, and it's nice to be so joyful and always joking around with them, but it's just something that I can do to try and make them forget what I really am, to try and get them to accept and befriend me for what I really am. Maybe even love me for being this freak that I am, although I know that I am asking for too much.
It's just so hard having to live behind a mask of jokes and pranks and image inhancers, but I can't allow the others to know just how I feel, it'll only make things worse. They look to me as sort of a picker-upper of a person to help them when they are down, just imagine if they found out how apathetic I am myself. Then my freakiness would really come into the lime light and I might loose even the tiniest of respect they have for me past my hideous shell. I wish that someone out there could help me, but I know that's impossible. No one is like me and knows my troubles, and even if I did ask anyone else they'd just give me a quick and falsely optimistic answer just to get rid of me faster and not look at my grotesque appearance. So it appears that I am stuck speaking this all to you, sorry you have to live with nothing but sorrow of my condemned self.
Well Jean just past by telling me that dinner is on so I have to end my writing here and be of. Thank you for at least listening.
Rogue gave a gasp at just the personal thoughts and believes that Kurt had always kept hidden inside of him. Even after his entire disappearance episode, she still could not get over that these words were Kurt's. He was always so bright, so cheer, so willing to help others, but he was right. He had blue fur, fangs, a tail, yellow eyes, like something out of a horror move that prays on people's fears. She gave another glance into the room where Kurt slept peacefully, finally getting some rest after all the physical pain he'd taken just the night before. Rogue herself gave a deep yawn and quietly curled up on a couch that was in the doctor's home, just outside of Kurt's room. She carefully placed the red book back in her bag and closed her eyes. It had been a while since she had a descent's night sleep and fatigue had finally caught up with her and drifted her off to sleep.
*****
Rogue was stirred awake hours later, the sun had gone down and lights from lamps and bulbs had replaced it's light. The doctor stood over her, shaking her awake on the shoulder, although making sure that he wasn't getting a hold of her skin at all, learning his lesson from before. Rogue rubbed her eyes in a blur, hearing the doctor saying something to her, but she had lost her German and couldn't understand a word he was saying. In a final effort, he took her gloved hand and started to lead her out of the house, which Rogue was too tired to try and go against. The doctor opened the door and took her around a corner which showed... the X-Men blackbird with Xavier, Ororo, Kitty, and Scott unloading themselves from it's insides.
"Professor!" Rogue was shocked and amazed at how they were able to pinpoint her exact location so quickly. She had only been gone a few days or so, but there they were, the professor and other's from the institution. "But... how... how did you know where to come?"
"Cerebro detected your use of mutant powers last night in the forest around here," Scott answered, looking around at the village behind her. "Did you find Kurt? Is he alright?"
"Kurt umm...." Rogue bit her lip, "let me at least say that he is going to live, positive of that, however he is in really bad shape. I don't know what's really wrong with him, but he's in the doctor's home resting as best he can."
"What happened to him?" Ororo couldn't help but wonder, tapping into her motherly side that she had gained watching over the younger mutants at the institute.
"It's... it's a long story," Rogue just couldn't get out all the details at the moment.
"You still shouldn't have gone off alone like that," the Professor scolded her. It was a stupid thing to do, just to take off like that without warning and without any mention of her whereabouts, but it was necessary. She knew that no matter what trouble she would get into that she did the right thing, whether Xavier would accept it or not. This was something that only she could do to try and help out a fellow outcast of the outcasts, whether or not they openly admit to it or not. Perhaps they would never understand, but it didn't matter now.
*****
Rogue stood just outside Kurt's room listening in to what the others had to say to him, to make sure that he was alright and that he could make the trip in the Blackbird back to the institute where he could rest fully. So many questions they were throwing at him, why he left, what happened while he was gone, why back to Germany, what happened to cause him the injuries. Rogue just shook them off. Such stupid questions, they would never understand. Although if she were on their side, she might as well have been wondering the same questions, but that didn't matter to her.
"We'll go get the cart from Blackbird and we can get you on that," the professor spoke, "it will be easier to wheel you in on that. I don't want you to do any physical activity of any kind for a while. You are still very badly damaged."
"Danke professor," Kurt replied.
Xavier, Ororo and Scott all filed out of the room and made their way past Rogue, at least acknowledging her presence but not speaking. Who knew what she was thinking, it was always a mystery to them. Always the way it was, the way the outcasts keep to themselves, thoughts included. Rogue turned to go back into the room and just check up on Kurt, but stopped forgetting that Kitty hadn't come out with the others. Kitty was sitting on a chair directly next to Kurt's bed, a firm hold on his three-fingered hand, she trying to hold back the tears.
"I'm sorry Kurt, I didn't mean for this to happen," Kitty sobbed, now almost tears of joy that she knew Kurt was back and alive, "I didn't mean to chase you away, I had no intention of that. I never have."
"Zhat's alright Keety," Kurt mumbled, he was still quite weak and just getting his voice out was a struggle. "It's nozhing zhat you have done, it's... it's just something zhat I've been fighting inside of me for a vhile now."
"Just know that I've never thought of you as anything less than what you are," Kitty sighed, just her emotions overwhelming her. "Sure seeing you as this blue demon takes some getting used to, but once past that, you're just the same Kurt that you would be if you weren't a mutant. You are just like the rest of us, and you are just as human as the rest of us at heart." Kitty offered a smile that she forced herself to have through the tears that started to escape out of her eyes. She sunk her head into Kurt's stomach, trying to hide her tears, "I just figured that you left because of what I'd said. Blue, purple, green, fuzzy or not, you're still the same elf to us both inside and out."
Rogue couldn't help but uncharacteristically smile at the scene. Such a brat Kitty was, always so optimistic, always so perky and full of life, but always so kind and willing to see through people. Even if those people are fuzzy with cat's eyes, even if they are a freak. She could see through to find out just how much they weren't freaks inside. Things would work out for Kurt. Maybe the people around him did see through his appearance more than he thought, or at least they might now. Kurt will make it, he'll be alright.
.... and so the tale ends