Title: Dependant
Author: Bazzer
Rating: PG-13 (For now)
Pairings: Marie/Bobby, implied Marie/John, Scott/Jean, one-sided Jean/Logan, I guess I should put in Ororo/Kurt
Story Summary: Rogue may be the only one able to find Jean, but what happens when she goes missing, and John's the only person who know how to find her. There's one problem. He's in a coma.
Chapter Summary: Professor and Bobby talk, there's a scene with a comatose John, Bobby's power's are expanding, Xavier discovers Rogue's past in a dream, and Rogue wakes up.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, please don't sue.
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It'd been a week since the incident at the grocery and John was still under. The injection had been an altered allergen, specifically formatted to attack the system of a mutant. The symptoms largely revolved around the coma Pyro currently resided in. Charles had called in an old doctor friend, a certain Henry McCoy, as a specialist to find a way to wake him up.
It had happened on a Friday after classes and they'd taken the entire weekend searching for her. During the following week the X-men had been told to keep a sense of normality, continuing to teach classes and the such, searching the state when the time presented itself. But it was obviously not normal, when Rogue had not returned rumors sprang up immediately, mostly that she'd run again. Only Bobby, Jubilee, and Kitty, her three closest friends knew the truth. And they did their best to squash the more vulgar gossip.
And Bobby was the only one permitted to go to the MedLab and visit John, which he'd yet to do.
Xavier himself had spent all of his free time in Cerebro, none of the X-men had a full-nights sleep, especially Ororo, who largely blamed herself.
Xavier rubbed his face with his hands, lightly fingering to dark circles under his eyes that he knew were there. The entire group, all four of them, looked haggard and worn out. Sighing he looked them each in the eyes, "Try to get some sleep."
Logan stood, really the only one who could function semi-normal without so much sleep, "But-" he harshly bit off his own comment.
The team would do Rogue no good if they fell asleep out in the world. "I fear that with the little luck we've received on our blind searches it not a good sign." Scott snorted, earning him a glare from Logan. "I will continue my search on with Cerebro, but I am forced to believe that your's by blind leads will continue to prove fruitless." He closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to ward off a headache.
The next thing he said threw the four others for a loop and almost insured them no sleep for the night.
"Although, we must continue to rekindle the flame of hope, we must begin to entertain to idea that we will not find her. Please, go. Try to get some sleep."
Every one was too surprised by the fact that Logan did not raise an objection to state their own. Then the Professor turned his chair to face behind him, contemplating the midnight sky outside of his window. They took it as their cue to leave.
Kurt waited to get outside the door before kissing Ororo and telling her he was going to bed, hoping she'd take to Professor's advice and follow. He ported after she said she'd would soon. Logan hunched his shoulders and headed off to the garage. Scott knew what he was planning, he merely tossed Wolverine the keys to his motorcycle and headed toward to kitchen, the weather-goddess in tow.
None of them saw the Iceman, wrapped in shadow hiding behind the stand beside the door. He clenched his teeth and his nostrils flared uncontrollably, fighting off tears, and the feeling of uselessness. He'd been forbidden to leave the grounds, the X-men feared he would do something stupid. An accusation he did nothing to deny.
He figured he'd gone unnoticed until the Professor's strong voice called out, "Please join me, Robert."
Hanging his head in a dejected manner, Bobby languidly pushed the door open, the older mutant had his back to the younger and Bobby stood slightly agitated, the room temperature dropping a few degrees.
"She's not dead, Xavier," the icy resolve in his voice reminded Charles of his and Rogue's conversation on the day of Jean's memorial. The first and last time he'd heard of Rogue's dreams, he'd never pressed her to tell him and never attempted to find out about them on his own. Now he wished he had, more deeply than most other emotions he felt regret.
"Bobby..." he began, turning to the student.
"She's not," the temp again went down, as Xavier blew out a frozen breath.
"I know," he replied gritting his teeth, exhaustion allowed slight anger to show. "I've been informed that you're skipping classes, and that you haven't eaten in days." Bobby avoided his eyes, "You won't do her any good if she returns and you've died of malnutrition."
Bobby squeezed his eyes shut, conjuring her face. This one angry with him for not taking care of himself. A fleeting smile crossed his features as the girl in his head promised to take care of him. Then it was gone, his sapphire eyes snapped open to the Professor's dark ash-colored ones.
A look nothing short of frozen set on his face, until the Professor voiced what he called him in for, "Dr. McCoy says that the young man in the MedLab, a certain Mr. Allerdyce, should be waking up soon. If you are positive in the fact that you will not be sleeping tonight, maybe you should keep him company, until the time."
Bobby responded with a soldier's nod, and turned on his heel, not even pausing as his "Thank you," flitted behind him.
Xavier sighed again, and closed his eyes as the temperature slowly returned to its original status. Folding his fingers across his lap he opened his eyes to the door Bobby had left open. Speaking into the void of nothing around him, he kept his eyes trained ahead of him. "Peter," the metal man appeared from the shadows of the back doorway.
"Yes?" he replied flexing his fingers.
"Keep an eye on him, I feel he will be very... key... in Rogue's return."
There was a pause, then the standing mutant voiced his mind, "There are rumors, that you speak of her, as if she is dead."
Xavier's breaths deepened, "They are rumors." Then Colossus excused himself to follow his friend and do his mentors biding. Xavier wheeled himself out to follow his own advice and get some sleep.
~!~!~!~
Scott looked down at the soda bottle he was cradling, he felt it as it began to freeze beneath his touch. Glaring through his red visor it reached a low and he looked up to Ororo, who turned a curious glance to him, groaning as the realization set in, "Got to bed, Storm, I think I should handle this."
Nodding sadly she made her way slowly to the teacher's dorm area. Scott stood and placed the frozen drink in the sink, turning to follow the same path as the Iceman, on his way to the MedLab.
~!~!~!~
It had been damn near two months since Bobby had seen the boy before him face-to-face.
Do you always do what your told? That fucking sneer began to burn its way into his mind. The metal bar at the bottom of John's bed shattered into millions of frozen shards beneath his hands, leaving his fingers shaking.
It took the warm hand of Scott setting itself lightly on his shoulder for him to snap out of his daze. Staring down at his hands he was shocked to see them coved in glossy ice, and completely flexible, his voice came out as a choked sob, "What the hell is happening to me?"
~!~!~!~
Ororo walked out of her room, her light nightgown blowing slightly from the ever-present breeze that darted gently around her. Walking past three doors and on the other side of the hall, she knocked gingerly on the door to Kurt's room.
"Kurt?" she called out lowly, not wishing to wake to people around her.
She got no response except the billowing of the curtains by the nightly winds. Kurt was on the balcony. Silently she padded into the room, and to the open doors leading to the small balcony. Smiling she turned her head barely to watch him, hands folded in prayer and head bowed in grave concentration.
He smiled as he crossed himself as an ending prayer, letting out a satisfied breath he hopped down from his crouched position in the railing. He opened one of his arms as he used the other and to safely tuck his rosary into his pocket.
Ororo fell quietly into his embrace, "Ju knov, I zink zat Vrogue vas one of ze only people who vere not surprised by my appearance. It vas as if, she vas comforted by it." He tipped his head back in thought, considering the stars for a moment, "As if," he breathed, "As if I 'elped 'er by looking different."
Ororo nodded, despite the fact she did not understand why, "I zink," he looked down at the woman in his arms with a grin, "I feel pity for ze men who 'ave 'er," she shot him a confused look, "Zey are in for very, very big surprise."
Ororo smiled back at him, small and sad, but it was a smile, "I think you're very right," was her reply before burying her face into his chest.
~!~!~!~
Scott and Bobby sat in silence, the older stared out across the room at the comatose Pyro, while Bobby stared down at his balled fists, watching the ice slow ebb away. Logan had ambled in and tossed the keys back to Scott, his hair miffed and the smell of beer evident on him.
The sound of Logan releasing his claws got the attention of the two other men in the room, Scott stood, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I say," he prowled over to John's bed, lightly setting his claws on Pyro's chest, "We kill 'im. He was the last one with 'er, 'e did somethin'," he growled.
Scott snorted, "Right, he kidnaped her and then put himself in a coma." Logan glared at him.
"It ain't right!" He retracted his claws and pushed off the bed, stepping heavily toward Scott, "He," pointing a shaking finger at the bed, "The BROTHERHOOD, LYIN' in a COMFORTABLE BED COMPLETELY PROTECTED! WHILE ONE of OUR OWN is GOD KNOW'S WHERE, HAVIN' GOD KNOW'S WHAT BEIN' DONE T' 'ER! I AIN'T GONNA LOSE MARIE, LIKE I LOST JEAN, AND YOU SHOULD FEEL THE SAME DAMNED WAY!" he bellowed out.
"God dammit, Logan," the man replied without flinching, his voice low and lethal, "You don't think I do," he ground his teeth together, "I will not lose her, I will not let her die!" Taking a long breath to calm himself he resisted the urge to grabbed Logan's collar for emphasis, "He may know something to help."
"What if 'e doesn't, Scott, what if we're keepin' 'im alive, and he doesn't know shit?" worry leaked almost unnoticed into his voice, and Scott too began to think what if as well.
"No," the voice sounded from behind Logan, Bobby was standing beside John, a frosty glare coming from his blue eyes, "As much as I hate to admit it, John is Rogue's best friend, now and forever, if she told anyone anything, she told him every thing."
He closed his eyes, fighting back tears, and silently cursing Rogue for not telling him and himself for not asking her.
Logan was still skeptical, "But what if?" he sounded lost, grasping at straws.
"If he doesn't," eyes shining as they bore into Logan's voided black ones, and raised an eyebrow at his small and sick attempt of humor, "Then you can kill him."
Logan grinned catching on, taking a small amount of comfort in the approval.
~!~!~!~
Xavier laid back in his bed, in a desperate attempt to follow his own advise. Sleep had not come easily for many nights, long before Rogue's kidnaping and Jean's sacrifice. But this night seemed different.
Sleep called him to his bed, the silk pillow case beneath his head felt softer than usual. Drowsiness beckoned him to unconsciousness, and gently lulled him to a rather uncomfortable dream.
Xavier's eyes fluttered open, looking around he found himself in a field of tall grass, the sounds of a creek filtered in along with the morning song of birds and the fading call of mating grasshoppers. He heard a small girl laugh, giggle more, behind him and he wiped his body around. Finally taking notice in the fact he was standing in the field.
The actualization of the situation set in, he was dreaming. Or was he in a dream? He had a bad habit of doing that, being asleep gave his mental walls small time to relax, but they were usually strong enough to hold throughout the night.
The girl giggled again, this time closer, but from the other direction.
He smiled in what he hoped was a friendly matter, "Who's out there?" he called amused. This was obviously a happy spot, the sun rose brightly in the East and the early morning skies weren't dotted with clouds.
A voice returned an answer, along with an other giggle, "You shouldn't be here," was that a warning? Xavier thought.
"Not a warning," it was definitely a small girl, "Just a piece of advice."
"Why? Why shouldn't I be here?" He asked taking a step toward the voice.
"Because the bad men are coming," the voice was directly behind him. He turned his head, looking over his shoulder, a tree had sprung up beside the creek. He tuned slowly, spying a set of bare feet hanging from a tree branch.
"What bad men?" the feet disappeared, "I won't hurt you."
"I know," Xavier jumped and spun around. A small girl no more than five stood there, she barely stood up to his waist, with her chocolate colored eyes were old with knowledge she shouldn't have and her dark brown hair hung loosely in a makeshift ponytail. She smiled with thin lips, her bottom one cracked and bruised. Pale skin showed deep purple bruises on her cheek, eye, and arms. Her arms were draped defensively across her chest, no doubt shielding contusions there.
Xavier kneeled in the dirt in front of her, taking in a shaking breath he reached out his hands to her. She flinched back sharply, shaking her head with a sudden smile. "Don't touch me."
He knew those smiling eyes, he knew that hair, although this was definitely a different style, swallowing the lump in his throat he blinked and stood, "Rogue?"
The girl smiled with glee, he could tell she was holding back a laugh, "I'm not Rogue." Shaking her head she twirled around arms spread wide, "Rogue doesn't exist here, not yet anyway." She stopped as if remembering something, "I'm," she waved him closer and he bent down to be eye level with her. Tipping his head he brought his ear as close to her as he dared, "My names Marie Creed. But the bad men," she paused considering telling her secret, "The bad men are gonna take me, and hurt me, and the I'll go to the mutant hater. And then I'll be Marie D'Acanto until I become Rogue."
She sprung back, and turned doing a small cartwheel and a somersault. Xavier blinked in surprise, was she actually happy about it?
"Who are you?" she asked suddenly stopping her joyful acrobatics.
He made a wide gesture to himself, "My names Charles Xavier." He smiled at her, "I'm one of Rogue's friends."
She laughed at him, and his smile faltered slightly, "What's so funny?" he asked wanting to be in on the joke.
She covered her mouth to stop the giggles, "Rogue doesn't have any friends, she's not allowed to have them. Especially, telepathic ones."
Xavier blinked, how had she known he was a telepath? She shook her head at him, "You told me silly, or," she paused and tapped her chin in thought, "Or you will tell me, on my first day of school."
"Well, then, why aren't you allowed to have telepathic friends?"
"Mommy says."
He again blinked, "What?"
"Mommy says," she threw up her hands in annoyance, "One of mommy's rules: Never make friends with people who have the potential to know more about you, then you do."
"Your mother doesn't seem to be a very trusting person," Xavier observed.
"That's what Uncle Erik says."
"Uncle Erik? As in Erik Lehnsherr?"
"Yeah," she wrinkled her nose in thought, "Aunt Irene calls him," she bit the inside of her cheek, then her eyes lit up, "Magneto!"
Xavier stepped back, and took a deep breath to calm himself, a question biting at the inside of his head, "Marie, whose your mother?"
"Daddy called her Raven, but Uncle Erik calls her Mystique." Xavier couldn't breath, this couldn't be happening. One of his X-men was a relative to Erik, she couldn't consciously know about it, could she? Was she a spy? Her mental shields were impeccably good.
The girl giggled again, slightly annoying Charles, "Of course she doesn't know. The bad men take her," she sounded as if he was the child and she the adult, "and she doesn't remember, and Mommy and Daddy and Uncle Erik and Aunt Irene all think she dies. 'Cause no one can find her."
The sky flashed, and began to pulse with light, Xavier wiped around. "What's going on?!" he yelled.
Twisting around to face Marie, she looked scared, "I don't know this has never happened before!"
The images disappeared in flashes and he was left alone in a dark area of nothingness, "NO!" he heard her screaming.
"Marie?!" he called out as pain shot up and down his body, "Marie, where are you?!"
"NO, STOP, PLEASE!" Choking sobs reached his ears, the sound was surrounding him, choking out a response.
Xavier shot up in his bed, the black ness faded into the shadows of his room, navy and gold appeared from the void, his breathing came out shallow and unstable. Sweat dripped from his head into his eyes.
"Oh God," was all he could muster, as the cries of that small girl rang continually in his ears. His mind pulsed with uncertain knowledge, and he was not sure what was, or had, happened. Whose dreams were they? What happened to Marie? Of all the questions that flowed through his mind there was one thing he was certain of.
He would not sleep for a very long time
~!~!~!~
Rogue was in pain. Her head was killing her, not that of a headache, although she was sure she had one. But that of the feeling that her mind was stretched to far and was on the verge of snapping like a rubber band.
She tried to lift her hand in an attempt to rub her suffering forehead, but found it impossible to move. Small pinprick like feelings prickled at her wrists and elbows, they quickly spread like molten lead up her veins, and throughout her body. She felt herself go rigid and curled her fingers tightly, snapping her mouth shut as she forced her eyes open.
Learned control taught her to not scream, despite the intense need to relieve the pressure building up behind her throat.
Someone behind her was clicking their tongue, each 'tsk' felt like a stab to the side of her brain, and she desperately wished them to stop, but didn't trust her voice to tell them to. She flexed her fingers and tested her limbs.
Nope, she still couldn't move. All appendages were securely pinned, or strapped down, including her head.
"You think I'm stupid, child? I know what can happen when you are free to move about."
She knew that voice, leathery and scratchy, completely unpleasant to the ears, the sound of it made Rogue want to lash out, but she was unable. She used a groan to clear her throat, "My, my Teed you sound awful. Heard you went to hell, how's your dad?"
His decrepit face appeared over her, blocking out the light from the hanging light above her. The thin pink line that served as a mouth twisted upward into the malicious grin of a sadist, seeming to double the jagged lines set into his face. It pushed the skin of his cheeks upward, bunching at his eyes, making them look like they were closed, but Rogue could barely make out the hint of his black eyes.
She involuntarily cringed away from his decaying features, and every muscle in her body tightened around her bones. "What's the matter, X, scared?" he questioned an algolagnic twinkle sparkling in his void-like eyes.
She ground her back teeth together, a snarl formed on her mouth, "Give me a sec to get used to it, Doc. It's been a while since I looked into the face of pure evil."
"What? They don't have a mirror in the hole you crawled out of?"
Her arms jerked against the straps and attempted to lung at the man, he jumped back with the spring that a man his age shouldn't have. A menial amount of fear snapped across his face, and Rouge rolled out a primal growl. A sick smile spread to his features, "Well, well, well, she does have some fight left in her."
He circled around her feet and Rogue followed him with her eyes, "Don't worry, X," he nodded to her, "We can fix that." He stopped next to her head on the left side, and picked up a small glass jar and a syringe. He stuck the needle end of the medical instrument into the top of the upside down jar, and extracted a large amount of the clear liquid.
Rogue half-expected him to jam it into her aorta, instead he pick a tube that was connected to something behind her. She followed the half she could see and was vaguely aware of the iv stuck in her arm, as well as the small black suckers attached to various areas of her body, constantly reading the reactions of it.
Immediately she could feel her muscles unconsciously relax and she fought to stay alert in her consciousness.
She heard the man beside her sigh, "I do suppose I owe you something, you did save my life from that," he paused and she was sure he was conjuring a picture, "that freak."
Rogue weakly beared her teeth, "He has a name."
He ignored her, "I'll give you a choice."
"I'll take the one where you die."
He continued unfazed, "Choice one: you allow me to preform my experiments on you voluntarily, or," he did not give her time to comment. He picked up a small remote control from the cart holding the jar and used syringe. First he adjusted the slab of metal she was connected to so she was at a forty-five degree angle, staring at the metal walls, that looked strangely like the wooden ones in the School.
Which told Rogue there was something behind them, and Rogue was almost afraid to see what it was.
"Or," his voice reached her ears, "You watch me so them on her."
The walls gave way, and split apart from the middle revealing a long glass cylinder, standing on end. It was filled with a green liquid and Rogue knew that the water was probably drugged, but that wasn't what scared her. It was the person inside the tank.
Hooked up to as many wire as Rogue herself was and with an air mask allowing her to breath underneath the water, the woman floated, she would have looked slightly angelic with her red hair fanned out behind her, had it not been for the medical wiring and metal suspensions holding her still.
"Jean," muttered Rogue, finally losing the battle with reality she'd been fighting for what felt like weeks.
"I'm sorry," he was so close to her, but she couldn't find the strength to turn to him. "I didn't hear your answer. Perhaps you'd like choice number three. Which is really just a combination of choices one and two."
Rogue closed her eyes, it took to much energy she didn't have to keep to them open. "Burn in hell, you sick son of a bitch."
"I think I just heard a vote for choice number three." He closed the doors and resumed her position lying parallel tot he ground. "Of course you should know," Rogue lost consciousness with his voice fading in her ears, "There never really was a choice."
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I do believe that was the longest chapter I've ever written.
OK, so I hadn't expected to make Xavier's dream last for so long, but hey, you get bitten by the muse bug and you ride it out, or something that like, I think. Honestly, I hadn't expected it to turn out like that,, it was kind of a surprise to me too. If you like it, YEAH! If not, uh, well, I'm not sure what I'll do.
And after it I wasn't going to put the thing with Rogue in, but someone asked where Jean was so I put it in.
See! I do read the reviews and listen. So I need you to write them. Thanks Bunches! Bazzer.
