A/N: OK, GUYS, I FORGOT TO WRITE THIS DOWN ON CHAPTER ELEVEN BUT WHEN I
ASKED IF YOU WANTED ANOTHER PAIRING, I DIDN'T MEAN I WAS GOING TO CHANGE
THE RIETRO. WHAT I MEANT WAS IF YOU WANTED ANOTHER PAIRING ASIDE FROM
RIETRO.
ALSO, THIS MIGHT BE MY LAST UPDATE FOR THIS YEAR. I'LL STILL CONTINUE IT BUT THAT'S LIKELY GOING TO BE AFTER NEW YEAR. WE'LL SEE. IT DEPENDS ON HOW MANY PEOPLE UPDATE. I FIGURED THAT MOST OF YOU WOULD LEAVE FOR THE HOLIDAYS. ANYWAY, IF I DO DECIDE TO POST ANOTHER CHAPTER, THE LAST ONE WILL PROBABLY BE ON CHRISTMAS DAY OR THE DAY AFTER SINCE I'LL BE GONE ON WEDNESDAY TILL AFTER NEW YEAR. I'LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO. SORRY.
ANYWAY, THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS. ENJOY.
~*~
Lance stood quietly in the middle of the street, his hands in his pockets as he looked down at the cracked asphalt. His boots laid near the dark stain on ground.
This part of town was blocked off, unused since it was too damaged. The city did not even bother to try to repair it. Nothing was left to salvage there.
Nothing at all.
He sighed and shut his eyes tightly, feeling a shiver run down his spine. He could still see it clearly, Pietro on the ground with a bloody Rogue in his arms.
He cringed as the memory replayed in his mind. Everything seemed clear and he could still see Logan's claws go through Rogue. He could still hear Rogue whimpering from the pain and Pietro sobbing openly as he begged her told hold on just a little longer. He remembered there was a lot of blood; blood on Logan's hands and clothes; on Pietro from holding her, on the ground.
The memory made him shudder as he backed away from the spot where she died, as if burned.
"On this spot, we lost you." Lance thought sadly. He sighed heavily, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall.
That was two months ago. Two months since she took her last breath and died in the arms of the boy who loved her and never got the chance to let her know. Two months since Rogue died by the hands of the man who was her friend.
Nothing was the same after that.
Wanda returned to hunting Magneto down, more ruthless than ever.
Todd almost got hurt from trying to stop her but in the end he relented and let her go. They all did.
Blob went on a hunger strike for a month until he passed out and was brought to the hospital. He was back in the Brotherhood house, a few pounds lighter and still grieving.
Mystique walked in and out of their lives, creeping on the streets of Bayville, looking for the body of her daughter. Everyone assumed that she had gone insane from looking for Rogue. She had long explained to them that they bury their own. That Rogue deserved a proper funeral. But the body was never found and Mystique just vanished.
Kurt had earlier freed her from the X-men and on Mystique's insistence he tried to live with the Brotherhood. That didn't last long however because everyone was hostile to him, Lance included. A few weeks later, he went back to Xavier.
Whatever friendship or truce they once called with some of the X members was gone now, whatever friendships that could have been made were now impossible to even think of. They were all mortal enemies from that point on.
They heard that Logan lost his mind from the guilt of killing Rogue and tried to hang himself. Xavier later put him in an asylum.
The Acolytes left too, probably went back to their secret hide out. Wherever that was.
And as for Pietro, he went into a rage after she died, attacking any X-men member that he saw on the street, going after them in the night, hunting them like animals. He once tried to kill Logan but something stopped him. No one knew what but he just could not bring himself to do it. He also tried to burn the X mansion but he gained nothing from any of it. The X- men still lived. After five futile attempts of eliminating their enemy, he stopped and for two weeks, he sat in his room and cried and barely slept. When he did sleep, he was haunted by nightmares. A month after Rogue's death, Pietro just packed his things and left. He didn't say good bye to any of them; didn't explain where he was headed. He just opened the door and walked out of their lives, probably for good.
Lance hoped that someday Pietro would come back, and Mystique too.
He sighed again. It seemed that Xavier was right. By eliminating Rogue, they stopped Apocalypse. When she died, the Horsemen's attacks stopped and everything started to fall back into place.
No one heard about Apocalypse or his Horsemen again. And no one bothered to question it.
It didn't seem right that Rogue had to die that way, even for humanity's sake.
"I hope you find your peace." Lance whispered in the air as if Rogue could hear him. He then turned back and walked towards the Brotherhood house. He had by default, become their leader and he accepted it, knowing that they needed him.
Nothing was over just yet.
************************************************************************
Rogue stood in the middle of the desert with her feet hidden in the sand. The wind blew around her, making her dark hair swirl around her face. The sun hung overhead, sending wave of heat on the vast land.
She exhaled, brushing back a strand of ivory hair from her eyes. She looked back at the man beside her. He was dressed in white cotton, his armor suit hidden underneath, his body covered from head to toe.
"Tell me again why we are doing this." She said as she wrapped her head with the same material, covering it from the heat.
"Apocalypse wants to see how resilient you are to harsh conditions." The man answered. They were headed to Cairo to meet with Apocalypse and the three other Horsemen who were waiting for them.
"Ah, the mighty Apocalypse." Rogue mumbled. She wasn't too happy to have her skills tested, to be made to walk in the desert for hours without using her powers and to only rely on human skills.
"You should be grateful. If it were not for him, you would be a corpse right now." He said defensively.
"I am grateful." She rebutted. "But there are so many things that I don't understand. I feel like he's keeping something from me. From us." She squinted her eyes from the sun as she looked at the man named Davan.
He was in his early thirties, black hair, tall, well built, and a little quick-tempered. Everyone called him Death.
"Every great leader has secrets." Davan said gruffly. "It doesn't matter what he is hiding. You know almost everything about him. You know that he gave you his blood so that you would survive the wounds that your own friends inflicted on you. You know that he believes you are one of the most powerful mutants on earth. You know he has every faith in you. In us. We are his horsemen. You are his daughter." He said, pointing a finger at Rogue.
"But-"
"No buts, Rogue. Whether you were born from him or not, Apocalypse is as good as your father. You have his blood in you. You now carry his genes. You were given immortality. No one has ever been granted that honor so easily." Davan declared; his voice firm. "He saved you. End of story."
Rogue nodded silently, a small smile on her tanned face. Boy was the man stubborn.
Davan was right though. She should be grateful despite her confusion. She sighed and continued walking as she tried to think of her cryptic past.
A week ago, she woke up in Egypt with no memory, surrounded by Apocalypse and his for Horsemen.
They had explained everything to her. Her name was Rogue. Mesmero saw her fight, saw her great potential and suggested that Apocalypse recruit her but before that could happen she died in a battle between the X-men, Acolytes and Brotherhood of evil Mutants. They told her that one of the X- men killed her, one of her own friends.
The Horsemen then came to take her away and Apocalypse gave her a blood transfusion. She was placed in stasis until she came out of her coma, which lasted almost two months.
"Are we going to be forever isolated from humanity?" Rogue asked breaking her own train of thought.
Davan growled and looked at her. "What do we need humanity for?" He asked. "They tried to destroy us. They built machines to hunt us down. It's too bad you lost your memory. You were one of their captives."
"But we also try to destroy each other. Mutants alike." She whispered.
"Yes." He said. "Magneto once believed that mutants should stick together. Fight against humanity who has long wished for our extinction." Davan declared somewhat sadly.
"I don't remember him." She said, frowning a little.
"I know. He did believe it once but he sided with an old friend. Xavier. We told you about him. He was the leader of the X-men. He was the one who wanted to destroy you." Davan explained.
Rogue nodded, remembering what they had told him. She held no memories of the X-men or the Acolytes or even the Brotherhood.
She remembered hate though. A lot of hate inside her, for them, especially the X-men. She didn't know why but Xavier's very name made her angry. Perhaps it was because he tried to kill her and succeeded. But that was all she had. Mixed emotions, mostly hatred for an enemy that she couldn't remember.
Everything else was a blank.
Now Apocalypse was training her for the war that they were about to fight against all mutants and humans.
Only the strong will survive, he once told her.
And Rogue agreed completely.
************************************************************************
Xavier looked out his office window, his face contorted into a frown while his hands were clasped together as if praying.
The door opened and Scott and Jean entered. "You called professor?" Scott said.
Xavier nodded and turned his chair to face them. "Half of Egypt has been destroyed, twelve mutants were killed and four hundred humans wounded or murdered."
"That's horrible." Jean gasped, looking wide eyed and shocked.
"That's not all." Xavier said sighing. "In France more were killed. The capital was wiped out."
"Who could do something like this?" Jean asked.
"Apocalypse." Scott said darkly.
"But he's gone. We eliminated him by killing...killing...her." She stumbled on her words. She couldn't bring herself to say the same.
Uttering it was impossible and everyone in the X mansion avoided having to mention *her* name.
"We eliminated no one. Just her. Apocalypse was still released. He and his Horsemen just stopped attacking." Scott declared. "We only assumed he was gone because we thought...." Scott trailed off sighing.
"Scott is right. Her death did nothing to stop Apocalypse. He was still freed. Why he stopped for two months is beyond me." Xavier spoke up.
"But now he's back." Jean whispered.
"Yes."
"What do we do?" Scott asked.
"We stop them." Xavier declared. "We do everything we can, like before."
"Like before?" Scott echoed.
"Like before, Scott." The professor replied. "No matter who dies, we finish this."
"Don't we need back up professor? What about the-"
"We don't need anyone, Scott. The X-men has proved resilient time and time again. We defeated the Rogue, didn't we?"
Scott nodded gloomily. The professor is right. We need no one, he thought. "I'll assemble the team and launch the Blackbird."
Xavier nodded. "It's begun."
~*~
A/N: OK, IN MY OPINION THAT SUCKED. THERE WAS NO ACTION BUT ANYWAY, I NEEDED TO BRING HER BACK. JUST IN CASE IT DIDN'T MAKE SENSE, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED: ROGUE DIED AND THE HORSEMEN TOOK HER. APOCALYPSE THEN GAVE HER A TRANSFUSION ENOUGH TO BRING HER BACK. SHE WAS IN A COMA FOR ALMOST TWO MONTHS AND THE WHOLE TIME, THEY KEPT HER IN A STASIS CHAMBER TO HELP HER BREATHE, LIFE SUPPORT. YOU KNOW THE DEAL. ANYWAY, NOW ROGUE IS IMMORTAL. AND SHE HAS NO MEMORY OF WHO SHE WAS. IT'S A SIDE EFFECT TO HER DEATH AND RESSURECTION. I KNOW, I SUCK FOR DOING THAT. I PROMISE IT'LL GET BETTER FOR HER AND PIETRO AND THE BROTHERHOOD.
BY THE WAY, I LOOKED INTO THE WEBSITE THAT SOME OF YOU SUGGESTED AND THIS IS WHAT I DECIDED. DEATH WILL BE ERIC THE RED, ALSO KNOWN AS DAVAN SHAKARI. I PICKED HIM BECAUSE IN EVO WARREN WAS STILL GOOD AND I JUST COULDN'T PICK WOLVERINE. SORRY IF THAT SCREWS UP THE WHOLE THING. I HAVEN'T DECIDED ON FAMINE, WAR AND PESTILENCE YET. AND I HAVEN'T DECIDED IF APOCALYPSE SHOULD TURN ROGUE INTO ONE OF HIS HORSEMEN. I'D LIKE TO KEEP IT JUST FOUR. BESIDES, ROGUE IS MORE POWERFUL NOW THAN EVER. ANYWAY, ILL FIGURE THAT OUT LATER.
ANYWAY, WHAT DO YOU THINK? I'D LIKE SUGGESTIONS.
MORE REVIEWS PLEASE!!
ALSO, THIS MIGHT BE MY LAST UPDATE FOR THIS YEAR. I'LL STILL CONTINUE IT BUT THAT'S LIKELY GOING TO BE AFTER NEW YEAR. WE'LL SEE. IT DEPENDS ON HOW MANY PEOPLE UPDATE. I FIGURED THAT MOST OF YOU WOULD LEAVE FOR THE HOLIDAYS. ANYWAY, IF I DO DECIDE TO POST ANOTHER CHAPTER, THE LAST ONE WILL PROBABLY BE ON CHRISTMAS DAY OR THE DAY AFTER SINCE I'LL BE GONE ON WEDNESDAY TILL AFTER NEW YEAR. I'LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO. SORRY.
ANYWAY, THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS. ENJOY.
~*~
Lance stood quietly in the middle of the street, his hands in his pockets as he looked down at the cracked asphalt. His boots laid near the dark stain on ground.
This part of town was blocked off, unused since it was too damaged. The city did not even bother to try to repair it. Nothing was left to salvage there.
Nothing at all.
He sighed and shut his eyes tightly, feeling a shiver run down his spine. He could still see it clearly, Pietro on the ground with a bloody Rogue in his arms.
He cringed as the memory replayed in his mind. Everything seemed clear and he could still see Logan's claws go through Rogue. He could still hear Rogue whimpering from the pain and Pietro sobbing openly as he begged her told hold on just a little longer. He remembered there was a lot of blood; blood on Logan's hands and clothes; on Pietro from holding her, on the ground.
The memory made him shudder as he backed away from the spot where she died, as if burned.
"On this spot, we lost you." Lance thought sadly. He sighed heavily, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall.
That was two months ago. Two months since she took her last breath and died in the arms of the boy who loved her and never got the chance to let her know. Two months since Rogue died by the hands of the man who was her friend.
Nothing was the same after that.
Wanda returned to hunting Magneto down, more ruthless than ever.
Todd almost got hurt from trying to stop her but in the end he relented and let her go. They all did.
Blob went on a hunger strike for a month until he passed out and was brought to the hospital. He was back in the Brotherhood house, a few pounds lighter and still grieving.
Mystique walked in and out of their lives, creeping on the streets of Bayville, looking for the body of her daughter. Everyone assumed that she had gone insane from looking for Rogue. She had long explained to them that they bury their own. That Rogue deserved a proper funeral. But the body was never found and Mystique just vanished.
Kurt had earlier freed her from the X-men and on Mystique's insistence he tried to live with the Brotherhood. That didn't last long however because everyone was hostile to him, Lance included. A few weeks later, he went back to Xavier.
Whatever friendship or truce they once called with some of the X members was gone now, whatever friendships that could have been made were now impossible to even think of. They were all mortal enemies from that point on.
They heard that Logan lost his mind from the guilt of killing Rogue and tried to hang himself. Xavier later put him in an asylum.
The Acolytes left too, probably went back to their secret hide out. Wherever that was.
And as for Pietro, he went into a rage after she died, attacking any X-men member that he saw on the street, going after them in the night, hunting them like animals. He once tried to kill Logan but something stopped him. No one knew what but he just could not bring himself to do it. He also tried to burn the X mansion but he gained nothing from any of it. The X- men still lived. After five futile attempts of eliminating their enemy, he stopped and for two weeks, he sat in his room and cried and barely slept. When he did sleep, he was haunted by nightmares. A month after Rogue's death, Pietro just packed his things and left. He didn't say good bye to any of them; didn't explain where he was headed. He just opened the door and walked out of their lives, probably for good.
Lance hoped that someday Pietro would come back, and Mystique too.
He sighed again. It seemed that Xavier was right. By eliminating Rogue, they stopped Apocalypse. When she died, the Horsemen's attacks stopped and everything started to fall back into place.
No one heard about Apocalypse or his Horsemen again. And no one bothered to question it.
It didn't seem right that Rogue had to die that way, even for humanity's sake.
"I hope you find your peace." Lance whispered in the air as if Rogue could hear him. He then turned back and walked towards the Brotherhood house. He had by default, become their leader and he accepted it, knowing that they needed him.
Nothing was over just yet.
************************************************************************
Rogue stood in the middle of the desert with her feet hidden in the sand. The wind blew around her, making her dark hair swirl around her face. The sun hung overhead, sending wave of heat on the vast land.
She exhaled, brushing back a strand of ivory hair from her eyes. She looked back at the man beside her. He was dressed in white cotton, his armor suit hidden underneath, his body covered from head to toe.
"Tell me again why we are doing this." She said as she wrapped her head with the same material, covering it from the heat.
"Apocalypse wants to see how resilient you are to harsh conditions." The man answered. They were headed to Cairo to meet with Apocalypse and the three other Horsemen who were waiting for them.
"Ah, the mighty Apocalypse." Rogue mumbled. She wasn't too happy to have her skills tested, to be made to walk in the desert for hours without using her powers and to only rely on human skills.
"You should be grateful. If it were not for him, you would be a corpse right now." He said defensively.
"I am grateful." She rebutted. "But there are so many things that I don't understand. I feel like he's keeping something from me. From us." She squinted her eyes from the sun as she looked at the man named Davan.
He was in his early thirties, black hair, tall, well built, and a little quick-tempered. Everyone called him Death.
"Every great leader has secrets." Davan said gruffly. "It doesn't matter what he is hiding. You know almost everything about him. You know that he gave you his blood so that you would survive the wounds that your own friends inflicted on you. You know that he believes you are one of the most powerful mutants on earth. You know he has every faith in you. In us. We are his horsemen. You are his daughter." He said, pointing a finger at Rogue.
"But-"
"No buts, Rogue. Whether you were born from him or not, Apocalypse is as good as your father. You have his blood in you. You now carry his genes. You were given immortality. No one has ever been granted that honor so easily." Davan declared; his voice firm. "He saved you. End of story."
Rogue nodded silently, a small smile on her tanned face. Boy was the man stubborn.
Davan was right though. She should be grateful despite her confusion. She sighed and continued walking as she tried to think of her cryptic past.
A week ago, she woke up in Egypt with no memory, surrounded by Apocalypse and his for Horsemen.
They had explained everything to her. Her name was Rogue. Mesmero saw her fight, saw her great potential and suggested that Apocalypse recruit her but before that could happen she died in a battle between the X-men, Acolytes and Brotherhood of evil Mutants. They told her that one of the X- men killed her, one of her own friends.
The Horsemen then came to take her away and Apocalypse gave her a blood transfusion. She was placed in stasis until she came out of her coma, which lasted almost two months.
"Are we going to be forever isolated from humanity?" Rogue asked breaking her own train of thought.
Davan growled and looked at her. "What do we need humanity for?" He asked. "They tried to destroy us. They built machines to hunt us down. It's too bad you lost your memory. You were one of their captives."
"But we also try to destroy each other. Mutants alike." She whispered.
"Yes." He said. "Magneto once believed that mutants should stick together. Fight against humanity who has long wished for our extinction." Davan declared somewhat sadly.
"I don't remember him." She said, frowning a little.
"I know. He did believe it once but he sided with an old friend. Xavier. We told you about him. He was the leader of the X-men. He was the one who wanted to destroy you." Davan explained.
Rogue nodded, remembering what they had told him. She held no memories of the X-men or the Acolytes or even the Brotherhood.
She remembered hate though. A lot of hate inside her, for them, especially the X-men. She didn't know why but Xavier's very name made her angry. Perhaps it was because he tried to kill her and succeeded. But that was all she had. Mixed emotions, mostly hatred for an enemy that she couldn't remember.
Everything else was a blank.
Now Apocalypse was training her for the war that they were about to fight against all mutants and humans.
Only the strong will survive, he once told her.
And Rogue agreed completely.
************************************************************************
Xavier looked out his office window, his face contorted into a frown while his hands were clasped together as if praying.
The door opened and Scott and Jean entered. "You called professor?" Scott said.
Xavier nodded and turned his chair to face them. "Half of Egypt has been destroyed, twelve mutants were killed and four hundred humans wounded or murdered."
"That's horrible." Jean gasped, looking wide eyed and shocked.
"That's not all." Xavier said sighing. "In France more were killed. The capital was wiped out."
"Who could do something like this?" Jean asked.
"Apocalypse." Scott said darkly.
"But he's gone. We eliminated him by killing...killing...her." She stumbled on her words. She couldn't bring herself to say the same.
Uttering it was impossible and everyone in the X mansion avoided having to mention *her* name.
"We eliminated no one. Just her. Apocalypse was still released. He and his Horsemen just stopped attacking." Scott declared. "We only assumed he was gone because we thought...." Scott trailed off sighing.
"Scott is right. Her death did nothing to stop Apocalypse. He was still freed. Why he stopped for two months is beyond me." Xavier spoke up.
"But now he's back." Jean whispered.
"Yes."
"What do we do?" Scott asked.
"We stop them." Xavier declared. "We do everything we can, like before."
"Like before?" Scott echoed.
"Like before, Scott." The professor replied. "No matter who dies, we finish this."
"Don't we need back up professor? What about the-"
"We don't need anyone, Scott. The X-men has proved resilient time and time again. We defeated the Rogue, didn't we?"
Scott nodded gloomily. The professor is right. We need no one, he thought. "I'll assemble the team and launch the Blackbird."
Xavier nodded. "It's begun."
~*~
A/N: OK, IN MY OPINION THAT SUCKED. THERE WAS NO ACTION BUT ANYWAY, I NEEDED TO BRING HER BACK. JUST IN CASE IT DIDN'T MAKE SENSE, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED: ROGUE DIED AND THE HORSEMEN TOOK HER. APOCALYPSE THEN GAVE HER A TRANSFUSION ENOUGH TO BRING HER BACK. SHE WAS IN A COMA FOR ALMOST TWO MONTHS AND THE WHOLE TIME, THEY KEPT HER IN A STASIS CHAMBER TO HELP HER BREATHE, LIFE SUPPORT. YOU KNOW THE DEAL. ANYWAY, NOW ROGUE IS IMMORTAL. AND SHE HAS NO MEMORY OF WHO SHE WAS. IT'S A SIDE EFFECT TO HER DEATH AND RESSURECTION. I KNOW, I SUCK FOR DOING THAT. I PROMISE IT'LL GET BETTER FOR HER AND PIETRO AND THE BROTHERHOOD.
BY THE WAY, I LOOKED INTO THE WEBSITE THAT SOME OF YOU SUGGESTED AND THIS IS WHAT I DECIDED. DEATH WILL BE ERIC THE RED, ALSO KNOWN AS DAVAN SHAKARI. I PICKED HIM BECAUSE IN EVO WARREN WAS STILL GOOD AND I JUST COULDN'T PICK WOLVERINE. SORRY IF THAT SCREWS UP THE WHOLE THING. I HAVEN'T DECIDED ON FAMINE, WAR AND PESTILENCE YET. AND I HAVEN'T DECIDED IF APOCALYPSE SHOULD TURN ROGUE INTO ONE OF HIS HORSEMEN. I'D LIKE TO KEEP IT JUST FOUR. BESIDES, ROGUE IS MORE POWERFUL NOW THAN EVER. ANYWAY, ILL FIGURE THAT OUT LATER.
ANYWAY, WHAT DO YOU THINK? I'D LIKE SUGGESTIONS.
MORE REVIEWS PLEASE!!
