Ace of Hearts

Chapter 8

By Kanshisha Tenshi

~[ 3 ]~

            Rogue woke up feeling surprisingly warm.  She opened her eyes slowly and blinked in confusion.  The wall and door she lay facing were not her own.  She tilted her head and nearly screamed in surprise.

            She wasn't in her room.  She was in Gambit's, lying on his bed, with his arms wrapped around her.

~[ 3 ]~

            Gambit felt the girl's body stiffen, then move, and opened his eyes.

            "G'mornin', chere," he mumbled sleepily.  "G'back t' sleep."  He pulled her closer to him and tried to return to his dreams, but she pulled away.  He sighed as she turned on the lights.

            "Why the hell am Ah here?" she demanded, unlocking the door and opening it.

            "That's what I'd like t' know, mate," St. John said from the other side of the entryway.  Again, she nearly cried out in surprise.

            "What the hell's going on?" Sabertooth roared, coming around the corner.  Se spied Rogue, and frowned.  "So that's why the door was locked," he mumbled suggestively.  "Nice goin', Cajun, but I think the boss preferred her...unspoiled.  How'd you manage to do it, anyway?"

            "Watch yo' mouth, fur ball," Remy hissed, standing in front of Rogue protectively.  "We didn' do not'in'.  Show some respect fo' de fille."

            "Yeah, whatever," Sabertooth said.  "But I've got nothing to worry about with you, punk, so I know you can't make me."  Rogue snickered.

            "Ya got plenty t' worry 'bout with him, hair-brain."

            "Watch yourself, kid," he growled in warning, flashing his teeth at her.  "You're nothing to me, either."

            "But she is important to Magneto, mate."

            "An' me," Remy added.

            "Magneto's interest in her's the only thing keeping her out of a hospital right now."

~[ 3 ]~

            "Where's Rogue?" Neutra asked desperately.

            "That's what I'm about to find out," Wolverine replied."

            "She never came home last night," Storm threw in.

            "I'm coming with you, Logan."

            "Fine, but don't slow me down."

~[ 3 ]~

            "Take meh home, Remy."  Remy set the phone down on its cradle.  He smiled at her apologetically.

            "Can' do dat, chere.  Dat was de boss.  Got new orders, now."  Rogue was close to panicking.

            "Ah said take meh home, ya low-life swamp rat!"

            "You aren't going anywhere, girly."  Pyro approached her.  She stood frozen, every muscle tensed.

            Her powers still weren't working yet.  Pyro was right.  She wasn't going anywhere.

~[ 3 ]~

            Rogue sat down on the bed helplessly.  She was in Gambit's room, still, with Piotr temporarily guarding the door outside.  She'd tried the window, but it had been bolted shut from the outside.  And even if she broke the glass, they would hear and come running.  Not to mention she was in a three-story building, not counting the attic, with no pipes running down this side of the house.

            She was stuck in a home full of guys she hated, with no chance of escape.

~[ 3 ]~

            "What are we doing out here?" Lauren asked.  She and Logan were walking down a small neighborhood, with few houses that were far apart.  The houses were large, but empty...abandoned.

Every so often Logan would stop and sniff the air.

"Looking."

"For what?  I don't think--"

"For him."  She looked ahead, and saw Victor Creed lumbering toward them.

~[ 3 ]~

            Logan and Victor had immersed themselves in an all-out fight, leaving Lauren standing there awkwardly.  She would have helped Wolverine, but figured the advantage he would receive would upset some delicate masculine balance.  Instead, she looked around, avoiding the brawl.

::Flashback::

            "He didn't come alone," Logan informed her, sniffing.  "There's someone hiding out there; maybe two.  I'll handle Sabertooth, and you find the other guy."

::End flashback::

            She saw him, standing in the bushes.  The boy watching the boy was blonde; that was all she had time to notice before he ran off.  Ignoring the two fighting adults, she gave chase.

~[ 3 ]~

            St. John Allerdyce waited just inside the front door.  He looked at his watch.

            "3...2...1..."  The door flew open, and Lauren Marsters (A/N:  Couldn't resist!) stormed in.  She didn't see Pyro; just kept walking.

            "G'day, mate.  Can I help you?"

~[ 3 ]~

            "Where's Rogue and who the hell are you?"

            "M'name's St. John Allerdyce, but people call me Pyro.  As for the girl, she's upstairs."

            "Thank you."  She started to walk away, but he grabbed her roughly by the arm.  She felt a small twinge of pain where he touched her.

            "You're not taking her anywhere."

            "Oh, yeah?  Try and stop me!"  She started to use her mutation, but found she could not.

            She looked down, and saw a small trickle of blood run down her arm.

            "What--?"

            "Organic compound they used on mutants in Area 51.  Sorry, mate, but you and the girl are going nowhere."  She collapsed, and he carried her upstairs.

~[ 3 ]~

            Rogue heard the approaching steps from the stairwell.  They were sluggish, lazy.

            "Wha'd you do t' her?  If you hurt her, Remy'll--"

            "Relax, mate.  I just drugged her--like I was told to."

            "By who?  De boss?"

            "Exactly.  The whole bloody plan's falling into place just like he predicted!"

            "Don' get too excited.  Once de femme finds a way she get out."

            "Which one?"

            "Either.  An' Remy not 'bout t' get his femme angry at him...'gain."

            "Oh drop the bloody act, will ya?  You damn well don't have t'pretend around me."

            "Who said Remy pretendin', mon ami?"

~[ 3 ]~

            Pyro set Neutra down on the couch.  He looked over at Piotr Rasputin, Colossus, who had said nothing the entire (Author:--story!) time.  The silent Russian glanced back at him, then returned his attention back to the picture he was drawing.  Gambit was standing outside the room Rogue occupied like a sentry, which left St. John Allerdyce completely ignored.

            Good.

            He carefully studied the girl he'd carried.  He looked over at the file cabinet standing in the corner of Magneto's open office/bedroom, at his teammates, then back at the cabinet.  He snuck in, opened it up, and quickly found two folders.  He ran out of the room before anyone thought to look into it.

~[ 3 ]~

            "What's dis?" Gambit inquired, snatching the folder out of Pyro's hand.  He looked at it in surprise, then glared.  "What de hell kind o' sick joke you tryin' t' pull?" he snarled, waving Rogue's folder in the air.

            "That ones for you, mate.  I'm interested only in this one," he added, holding up Neutra's folder.

            "An' why might dat be?" Remy asked slyly, recovering.

            "None o' ya bloody damned business!" the Australian snapped.

~[ 3 ]~

            Remy walked into his room and looked at Rogue.  She rose and strode over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

            "Remy, let meh go...please..." she asked, her lips so close to his ear he could practically feel them, with her warm breath tickling his skin.

            "Sorry, chere...I really can' do dat."

            "Please?" she asked sweetly, pulling him toward the bed.  She gently pushed him onto it, and he looked up at her quizzically.

            "I got m'orders, petite."

            "Too bad," she said with a sigh.  "Guess Ah have no choice then, huh, sugah?"  Before he knew what was happening, she brought her lips to his.

            That was the last thing he remembered.

~[ 3 ]~

            Rogue pulled back as soon as she felt Remy's body fall limp.  She laid him back gently and looked at the door, her now red-on-black eyes glowing with determination.  Ignoring the unconscious form on the bed, she flung the door wide.

~[ 3 ]~

            Pyro picked up the girl and carried her into his room, despite the look Piotr threw his way when he did so.  He set her down on the bed and flipped through her relatively small folder.  He threw it down in disgust; Magneto hadn't collected much information on her yet.  It only contained the basic information that anyone could guess just by looking at her.

            He heard a door open.

~[ 3 ]~

            "Get outta mah way," she growled at Piotr, "before Ah blow ya away."

            "I can't allow you to leave."

            "Ah've heard that too many times today."

            "Sorry for the redundancy, but you cannot leave."

            "Well Ah'm sorry, too.  Sorry ya feel that way.  And sorry for ya if ya don't move."    She picked up a paper, the object glowing on contact as she charged it.  Her red eyes shone defiantly at Colossus as she held the paper up menacingly.  "Move," she commanded.  Reluctantly, Piotr complied.  While he could take her on in hand-to-hand combat, she had a weapon that could likely blow his metallic frame away.

            Rogue stepped through the stairway door, ran down the stairs two at a time, and blew the first-story door down with the paper she'd been holding.

            Upstairs, Neutra awoke with a groan, but by then Rogue was long gone.

~[ 3 ]~

Author's Notes:  Okay, I'm bad at getting dialect down for more than...90% of the characters.  Meaning, I don't know how Piotr talks since I haven't heard him talk much, and I don't speak Australian...heck, I think I'm getting all the characters wrong, but that's just my opinion.  Also, I made Rogue's eyes turn red-on-black because that just makes sense.  If you were to take Remy's mutation away, his eyes wouldn't look like that.  They'd look normal, same as Kurt and Mystique.  And besides, when Rogue absorbs Sabertooth she gets hairy and...yucky.  So it makes sense to me that she'd get a little eye change.

Meanwhile, sorry for the long delay in getting this chapter up.  I'm probably the world's best procrastinator since I still haven't started work on my project for Biology...

Well that's all for now, I guess.  Questions?  Comments?  Issues?  Review!  And go see the movie Daredevil!