Title: Chances

Disclaimer: Don't own (except Chasm & the song at the end. I wrote the song! It is mine all mine!!!!) so don't sue....(please)

Rating: PG-13 for language, adult content & adult situations

A/N: Wow, I made it to Chapter 5! Thanks for the reviews! Please keep reviewing...







They sat stoically at the oval meeting table waiting for the others to join. Jean, Scott and Oruro were the first ones to get to the council room. It took Xavier a few minutes to locate Logan. He was off the grounds in the woods; still looking for any hint or clue as to where Rogue was. He was on his way in at the moment. Hank walked in, still wearing his med-lab coat. He had the night shift watching over the sick kids. As Gambit, Jubilee, Bobby and Kitty walked in, the original X-team looked quizzically at the professor, but kept their mouths shut. The room was silent as they awaited the Wolverine. They all knew that he had taken this the hardest, with his promise to protect her and all. He had gone into the woods early yesterday morning. The professor had told everyone to let him go. But just in case Sabretooth or Mystique were still around, Jean and the professor had mentally kept an eye on him. Just to make sure he was alright. The silence was almost palpable, so thick was it with tension and worry. Then they heard footsteps echoing through the hall. Xavier didn't tell them what had occurred with Cerebro, only called them to the council room. Logan slammed the door opening, making everyone jump. He was breathing heavily, so everyone assumed that he must have ran to get to them quicker. Logan took in his surroundings then, again he sat next to Oruro. Just for good measure. Seeing Jean with Scott still hurt. But he was so preoccupied with Marie that he barely had time to think about it except when he saw them together.

Everyone turned toward the professor simultaneously, waiting for him to begin. Xavier looked at his students and began to relate to them the events at Cerebro leading up to this moment. Everyone took their time absorbing the new information that had been brought to their attention. Gambit, Kitty, Jubilee and Bobby had looked down-right haggard walking in, being woken up at this godforsaken hour, but now their attention was solely on the professor. They wanted to offer help, but not knowing how, they kept quiet. They still wondered why they were here to begin with. Gambit would have already been apart of the X-men, but he had come to the school later then the rest of the kids, so he had to catch up with them. School wise at any rate. Kitty, Jubilee and Bobby were almost graduated as well, but they had decided to take a few extras in class. Rogue had been a couple years ahead of them, as she had preferred to take the summer classes, rather then just go for the extra three years of what they deemed college here.

Logan glanced at the clock. Three a.m. He wondered what sort of hell Marie was going through now. He guaranteed that she wasn't being as "coddled" as she had been the last time. He felt the bile of rage rising in his throat as he thought of all the things they could and probably would be doing to her. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face. His claws were itching to come out and extend themselves. But he forced the impulse down. Not the time, not the place. "Not the same Logan." A voice reached his mind. Xavier. He hated it when the old man read his mind. It was an invasion of privacy. "I wanted to see how you were taking the news."

Logan sighed audibly and thought back very loudly, "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST ASK THEN?"

"Well, I figured that asking aloud would make everyone aware of what state you were in, and that invasion of privacy was a good deal more unforgivable then this minor offense." Logan could not argue with that logic, so he decided to drop it and go back to rubbing his face. Xavier smiled slightly at him, knowing he had won that argument. Scott interrupted at that moment.

"What do you have planned professor?" Xavier looked at Scott, his second-in-command.

"At the moment, the only thing I have planned is to go on a hunt for Rogue. Other then myself trying to find out Magneto's plan. I may have an idea. But it borders on the incredulous. I wouldn't put it past Magneto, but I didn't think that he had sunk that low on the scale of morality. He must be getting desperate. But this does not seem to be his style..." Xavier mused.

Hank frowned. "Professor, what are you getting at?" Xavier shook himself out of his reverie.

"It is not a foregone conclusion that I am right. This may totally be off track. But I believe that Magneto has always had an express interest in Rogue's mutant powers. And that he may be wanting to use them for himself." This time Jean broke in.

"But professor, that didn't work last..." She gasped and then looked at Logan. Which made every head turn towards him. He had no idea what they were getting at.

"What?" He demanded irritably.

"Logan," the professor began. "What did you uncover on your search?" Logan thought that a strange question at a time like this, but answered anyway.

"Well the military outpost that you had sent me to was deserted, but a few clues were left behind. I went into the basement and found a few skeletons. None of them were human. Well they might have been at one point, but at the moment they were grotesquely deformed. Mutant experimentation had gone on there. Sick humans out for revenge against something they knew nothing about. I scoured the place with a fine tooth comb and in certain hidey-holes found old needles still filled with some sort of red fluid. I still have them, I wanted to bring them here, but never got around to it." He coughed sheepishly at that. He continued. "Also found some old dog tags, like mine. One was a mutant named Chasm, another Aqua. I forget the others. In some rooms there were metal tables, with adamantium clamps, I assume to hold their victims down. Blood still stained the walls." Logan knew he would start to get angry is he continued on that subject. So he said instead, "Why the hell is that so important now? I thought we were talking about Marie."

The professor just looked at him calmly and said, "Well, in a way we are talking about Rogue. Or what could be her present situation. When Magneto was in prison, he requested information on every known mutant. Unfortunately our Rogue was one of the "known" mutants. Thanks to her parents. They gave away her information to the F.B.I. thinking to help her. But the F.B.I. never found Rogue once she ran away. She knew how to disappear. However, there is nothing in the reports about her new found powers."

Ororo interrupted. "How did Magneto get his hands on that information?" Jean answered her.

"We all know that they are trying to force mutant registration. So when Magneto requested that information, they could not, under law, deny him. It's like when a child molester lives in your neighborhood, everyone is entitled to see the charges he has faced. They can request information on the crime."

"Great, so we are being labeled with children molesters. That is just wonderful." Logan spat out. "What did Magneto want with it? What good is having a mutant list going to do him?"

Xavier continued. "With that list, he could find other mutants with strange powers and try to recruit them into the Brotherhood. But he could also try to use their powers to exploit them.

And how your past fits in Logan, is maybe what they are doing to her right now. Magneto may be experimenting with other mutants to see just how their powers work. Do you remember the news article about certain governors and senators disappearing? My idea is that he is still trying to turn the most powerful humans into mutants so he can place them in their positions of power. But this time with them on his side. The destruction of the human's world could be rapidly coming to an end. They might end up as slaves, if not worse, under Magneto. They and anyone that tries to aid them." He looked solemnly around the table. Giving each and everyone of them the chance to back out. Not one of them left. Xavier had known his children, and that they would stay. They would fight to the death for him, if the need came. Even Logan.

Logan's face had turned ghostly white when Xavier mentioned that Rogue might be suffering the same fate as he had.

"What would Rogue have to do with all this? Unless he was using her as a transfer of power. If he could find out what causes her ability to take on others powers, he might find a way to transfer that power from one mutant, to her, to the human." Xavier nodded at Logan's quick intuition. "How many people will she have to do this to?"

Xavier bowed his head slightly. "The missing politicians are numbering at five right now. Magneto won't take anymore for the moment. He knows that it would be too obvious if he kid-napped all of them and then returned them at the same time. He is probably using these minor governors right now as trial runs. But there are many people that have positions of power in this country. Not to mention other countries."

This entire time, the younger students had kept quiet and just listened. But Remy, better known as Gambit, decided that he need to speak up. "If chere is in danger, we need go and save her. Dat girl cannot handle dat much of other's memories and pain and suffering. She is having hard 'nough time trying to handle what she has now. Wit' Magneto's memories, Logan's, Miz Marvel's and who knows who else, she cannot take on much more." (A/N: I have no idea how the hell you are supposed to imitate a french accent, so please bear with me!)

Xavier smiled at the determined young man, Logan frowned at him. 'Chere?' He thought to himself. Was there something going on there? And who was Ms. Marvel?

Xavier answered all of their questions. "That is exactly the reason that you are here, Remy. You and the others, if you are willing, are invited to join the X-men. We will need your help."

Remy, Jubilee, Kitty and Bobby looked at each other and smiled. The day they had waited for was here. They nodded at the professor, giving him their okay. This might not have been the way they thought it would happen. Not with all the trauma going on. But they were given a chance to test their skills and fight to get their friend back. Hell yeah they wanted to be a part of the team.

Logan growled. "Ok, this is great, new members. When in the hell are we going to get Marie back?"

Xavier turned to Logan. "We are going to start looking for her right away. But that task falls to myself and Jean. You and the others will be training while we search for a more positive location."

Logan didn't like to wait. But he knew that he would have a better chance of rescuing Marie with the team, then without. And they would go when the professor said. In the meantime Logan would pray like he had never prayed before, that he got to her before the "medics" did.





* * * *



Is this the world that you created?

Is this the life that we must lead?

If you knew the pain it would bring

then why are we here?

If we live only to die

with only momentary happiness

then why are we here at all?

Oh God, Dear God

I can't take on this pain

Oh God, Dear God

I'm not very strong at all

not very wise at all

but it hurts all the same

I keep dreaming of the time that will come for me

When I can hope and when I can dream

keeping my wishes alive

but still the past it lingers on

still the past it lingers on

when the day of reckoning comes,

when we see the light

will you be there to greet us?

Or will we suffer the night?

Oh God Dear God

I can't take on this pain

Oh God Dear God

I'm not very strong at all

Not very wise at all

But it hurts all the same



Rogue sang the song softly to herself. She had written it when she was on the road, by herself so many years before. It had so much more meaning now. She prayed to God as she had prayed before. Her faith not wavering. Tears crept down her cheeks as she thought of the torture that she would go through again. Very soon. She did not cry in front of them, did not scream. She refused to give them the satisfaction. She had yet to see Magneto again. In her dark, silent world, she cried out for help. She cried out to God and she cried out to Logan. "Logan, I need you now. Please come for me, please..."