Title: Chances

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters... (Damn!)

Feedback: Please! Am I wasting my time and yours with a lame story????? Please review!

Rating: Pg-13 for language and adult situations...







Logan pulled up to Xavier's school for the gifted. The engine idling while he surveyed his surroundings. Not much had changed in seven years. Same buildings, same landscape. There were kids outside playing like usual. Some playing basketball, others playing catch, the younger ones were playing hide 'n' seek. The older ones were just hanging out as older kids were wont to do. Every now and then he would catch one of the kids using their powers. One of the older boys' was flipping through a deck of cards. Normal enough. Except when one started glowing. He tossed the ace of spades into the air and watched it explode. No one even gave it a second glance.

Logan shook his head. Only here... he thought to himself. He turned the motorcycle off and walked swiftly into the school. His anxiety growing with each passing stride. As he neared the elevator, he realized he didn't know where to go. The apartments? The lower levels? The classrooms? He decided against the classrooms, considering most of the kids were outside. Just as Logan decided on the apartments, a familiar voice sounded in his head. "Hello Logan. Welcome home. We are in the lower level meeting room; if you would be so kind as to join us..." It sounded more of a command then a request.

'Some homecoming' he thought.

"I apologize for the lack of fan-fair, Logan. There has been a rising crisis and we have been expecting you..." The voice stopped short. Logan's first thought was Marie.

'What the hell happened????' The voice didn't answer, so Logan assumed the worst. Dread and panic flared in his chest. He felt as though his heart would explode. 'If she is dead...' He let the threat go unfinished. His stride widened, he half jumped into the elevator, as it was open and waiting for him. As it reached the bottom level, Logan thought the doors were taking forever to open. He unsheathed his claws, ready to rip the doors wide open. They opened before he could inflict any damage. Disappointment rushed through him with bitter clarity. He needed something to take his anger out on.

Rushing out of the elevator, he took the right corridor. All the 'what-ifs' running rampant through his mind. Whispering voices seemed to suddenly surround him. "This way, come this way, last door, we're here, come, down here." The voices overlapped one another. Just like the first time he had come here and met the professor. Logan growled irritably. "I know where to go dammit." The voices stopped.

The never-ending corridor finally came to an end. He jerked open the door to find some familiar faces and some not-so-familiar faces looking at him. The one face he so desperately needed to see was not among them. Logan forced himself to stay calm. "Where's Marie?" A huge beast of a man, with blue fur and rippling muscles looked confused behind his spectacles. (Spectacles??? It seemed a contradiction of terms)

The beast-man asked softly "Who's Marie?" Jean looked at him and smiled.

"Hank, he means Rogue. That was her given name."

"Oh. Ok. Got it now." Hank settled himself in his chair again. Logan looked at the professor, then Ororo, then Scott and Jean. Seeing Jean again was like alcohol in a knife wound. It stung. He quickly looked back at the professor.

"Where is she, Professor? What happened?" He forced his voice to stay low. Professor Xavier sat at the end of the long conference table. His face solemn, he clasped his hands in front of him.

"Logan, Rogue is missing. We have reason to believe that Magneto has taken her."

"First off, isn't Magneto in a plastic bubble? Second, why did he take Marie again? And third, why do you people keep calling her Rogue? Her name is Marie." He shouted that last part. "Logan sit down, and we will explain all we know." Jean implored him.

Logan looked at her scathingly, "Well babe, you just better hope that what you know is enough." He sat down next to Ororo. He figured it was the safest bet. For them all.

"To answer your last question first," the professor started, "Marie, is no longer Marie. When she joined the team she chose her name. That was Rogue."

Logan's mouth dropped open. "She's too young to be a part of the team. For pity's sake she's only a kid."

"No Logan. She is no longer the child you left behind. She is a grown woman of twenty-four. And has been a part of the team for three years. She is an exceptional woman and an asset to our force." Everyone at the table nodded their heads in agreement. "From what we could gather she left the mansion night before last, in the middle of the night. She does that now and again, to walk off the memories of her nightmare."

"Nightmare?" Logan asked.

Jean looked at the professor. He nodded slowly as if in agreement. Logan knew that they were having a mental discussion. Jean turned her head to Logan and folded her hands in front of her. "Logan, Rogue...err.. Marie, she has had the same recurring nightmare since you left. It seems as if the nightmare is in part your memories."

Logan's heart jumped in his throat. His memories? How? He asked as much.

"Ever since you held her on the statue of liberty, the connection between you two is incredible. Every time you sent her a note or postcard she knew the day before that she would get one from you. She also could sense you within any couple hundred mile radius. But with the good came the bad. She also has this nightmare, that is a reflection of your memories."

Logan almost didn't want to ask his next question, he didn't want everyone at that table to know his past. But this was Marie, so he asked hoarsely "Which memory?" This time Jean looked to the professor for him to continue.

"The one with you strapped down, and the "Hummer" is injecting you with needles. Also opening your skin with a laser. Hummer is the name she thought of....."

Logan cut him off. "I know who the "Hummer" is. Is she watching this happening in the dream or is it happening to....." Jean slowly nodded.

"To her." She said quietly. Logan put his head in his hands. To have Marie go through that... Inconceivable. She knew now. She knew what a freak he was. And she had to go through it with him. He wanted to tell them about his dream. The one he had the night before. If this "connection" between them was real, then that very well could have been Marie calling for him to help her. He proceeded to tell them about the dream, with Marie being tortured and her calling for him through the distance. The reason he was here to begin with. They all agreed that it was very possible, and most likely probable that it was her, calling to him. The timing was right. And the connection was there.

They then began to talk about why Magneto had her, what he wanted with her, how they would find her and then save her.









A/N- Ok. Is it alright? I know the past 2 chapters have not been very exciting, but the next ones will be better. I just wanted to take care of the minor technicalities first! Please review!! Thank you- Candi