Title: Dependant

Author: Bazzer

Rating: PG-13 (For now)

Pairings: Marie/Bobby, implied Marie/John, Scott/Jean, one-sided Jean/Logan, 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: Mystique realizes who Rogue is to her, John wakes, Rogue gets experimented on, and Bobby and John have a minor fight scene.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, please don't sue.

~!~!~!~

Mystique swirled the last remnants of her drink around in the glass, watching it as it whirl pooled and finally getting bored she drowned it. She stared down at the now empty glass, her thoughts turned quickly from bored to angry.

She closed her fist around the bourbon container until it shattered into glittering fragments. She turned her gaze to her royal blue hand, now dotted crimson with blood. Erik had been ignoring her sour mood, she always got this way around Marie's birthday.

"You seem a bit melancholy lately, my dear," he replied casually, looking up at her from the paper work he had on his desk.

He received a grunt in reply, "Well," he returned, not really fazed, "If you've nothing else to do you may as well begin a search for our long-since missing member."

She stood silently and began her way towards the door.

Erik laid the papers down and sighed, "How old would she be?"

The blue-skinned woman stopped, resting her hand elegantly on the doorframe. Turning so that he could see her profile, she closed her eyes, mentally counting. Her fingers twitched and she clenched her jaw, then sighed, "Eighteen, tomorrow."

Then she left, leaving Magneto alone with his thoughts and paperwork.

~!~!~!~

Mystique decided to look into the bedroom of light firefly, in order to see if there were clues as to his whereabouts. She knew Magneto was just trying to find something for her to do, Brotherhood members often had so much angst with in their personal lives they went missing for days, or weeks on end.

His drawers were slightly open, showing he had brains enough to grab a few articles of clothing before going out the door. His bed sheets were askew, probably being jutted to the side in the middle of the night, which would explain the fiery orange cell phone laying in the middle of his unmade bed.

She picked it up, it was turned off, most likely in the heat of the moment, and in the minute of stupidity. She turned it on and scrolled down to recent call. The last one was eight days old, at three in the morning.

She smirked, it was under the name 'Rogue.'

"Well, isn't this a nice turn of events," she muttered in her two-toned voice. She pocketed the cell and was about to report to Erik when a glint of shining caught the corner of her eye. Tucked safely under the bed sheets was a sleek silver picture frame. The glass cover was smudged with finger prints, and the metal rusted from tears.

She recognized the two images trapped beneath the glossy film. Pyro and Rogue, 'Don't they look cozy,' she thought.

The girl was lying down with her head resting on the other's stomach, both asleep. She could barely make out the words 'World History' imprinted on the front of the book face down and open, balanced on the girl's thigh.

Her left hand was behind her head, clutched tightly in the boy's left, while her right was placed gently on his, which was on top of her stomach. The material of her shirt was bunched up in his protective hold, revealing pale, and deadly, skin.

She smiled down at the content look of the couple, although she was vaguely aware that she was with, oh what was his name, Iceman? Yes , that sounded about right, and not the pyrotechnic that resided in this place.

She blinked, disgusted with her show of affection, it was just better if no one knew of her emotional side. It brought about too much pain. She was about to throw the picture down and leave when something again caught her eye. On the visible portion of Rogue's stomach there was a thin white line. Starting below her navel, probably below her pant line, and going strait up, to the folds of her black shirt.

It was a scar, Mystique stared, unconsciously tracing the barley seeable line, she knew that scar. Gods, did she know it. She felt an uncommon emotion prickling the back of her throat.

Hope?

~!~!~Fourteen years earlier~!~!~

New Orleans, not the safest city in the world, but one very good for hiding. And although they were a good thirty miles from the actual city it was still a dangerous part of the town.

Raven Creed stood on the front porch of her Victorian style home, she knew but rarely thought of the purpose of the home. Beneath the foundation, in a cellar that looked more like a room out of the Pentagon than a basement, was the Base of Operations of the Brotherhood.

Raven was completely well founded, and was on the brink of calling her life perfect. Aside from the blue skin and scales that adorned her body in secret, she was happy. Nice home, a good husband, powerful friends, and the pride of her existence, a small baby girl. Born of her genes, destined to be one of the most powerful mutants in the world and the reason Raven smiled every day.

But she was currently missing, gone outside to play near the creek only fifteen minutes ago with the neighborhood kids, she was no where within sight of the large wrap around porch.

"Mystique?" she waved off the highly cultured voice of her boss and friend reached out to her from the screen door, "Raven? Where ar-oh." She turned at the sound of the door being pushed open, then a sigh born from smiling lips carried his voice, "Where is she?"

"I don't know, I can't see her anywhere."

He walked to stand beside her, "She has her father's spirit and your speed, she'll be back soon. Come, the meeting is about to begin."

She followed him into the house, "How long?"

"No more than a half hour, we will long for her then, how much trouble could she get into?"

Neither spoke the words they knew were coming, with her genes, the answer was a lot. Erik placed his hand on her shoulder, almost having to push her into the house. He himself was almost halfway through the door when he heard the yelling.

Raven was back outside before he could blink and, slightly frustrated at Mystique's maternal instinct, he turned to follow her. He recognized the voice of the boy, Cody. He was of Marie's age with blond hair and bright blue eyes. Erik was unconsciously wary of the boy.

Doing a double take made the Master of Magnetism shake with chill of the utmost fear.

The young boy's hands and the front of his shirt was covered in scarlet blood, tears stream from his eyes, and his voice was hoarse from yelling. Mystique held the boy by his shoulders, shaking him in an attempt to get a strait answer amid his blubbering.

All she needed to decipher was Marie, hurt, and tire swing before she took off like a shot in the direction he'd only just come from.

Magneto, who held his wits about him a hell of a lot better, had the boy go inside and wash while he went to the lower level to inform the girl's father. Who seemed to follow his wife's example, and Irene was left to call the ambulance.

They didn't find out until later the circumstances of her injuries.

Apparently she had gotten into a fight with a fourth grader when she overheard him talking about her and her 'freak family.' The kid had pulled a knife when he was getting his ass kicked by a little girl.

It had been a clean cut, to the right and two inches below her bellybutton and strait up to the mid point about an inch below her breastplate. It hadn't hit any major organs but had cut through tissue and would scar.

Sabertooth couldn't have been prouder, his baby girl had his fighting spirit, while Mystique proceeded to shape shift into various people and beat up the members of the assailant's family.

~!~!~Present~!~!~

That had been two weeks before she was taken as she played in the yard. One of the doctors on call from that night had a history with the men who experimented on Victor. When he'd heard the name Creed he was on the phone with Stryker and Teed, the two head scientists from Weapon X.

Raven always had blamed Victor, and divorced him when he returned from his search from Alaska. After searching for five months, they'd given up hope and Magneto proclaimed her dead.

As she stared down at the picture the familiarity seemed to jump out at her, how could she have not seen it? Her throat constricted and she smashed the glass, hurriedly pulling the photo from the frame, and flipped it over.

'John & Marie: Before'

Mystique knew what she had to do. Talk to Erik, then her ex-husband, find Pyro, and speak to Charles.

Then confront her daughter.

The Rogue.

~!~!~!~

At the current time the young woman whose origins were slowly coming together was stuck in a large white room. She was again strapped down to a table, and the cloths she'd been captured in were trashed and her body terribly bruised.

Apparently Teed gets angry when one of his experiments escapes. And gets extremely angry when they help all of his other experiments escape and blow up his labs.

And as if her physical torture wasn't enough, he had to do it in front of Jean, adding mental humiliation onto her already enormous pile of emotional scars. For God's sake, she had to face the woman for every day for the rest of her life.

That had only been the day before, and Rogue was again left to herself in the room. She was well aware of the long sheet of glass that adorn the one side of the circular room. Behind it stood a plethora of scientists constantly monitoring her energy readings and mutational feedback.

Four armed guards wheeled in another person strapped tightly to a hospital bed, this one was another girl, young with bright green eyes, dancing in fear. Rogue felt in immense swell of pity and anger. This mere girl looked no more than fifteen.

"Don't worry, sweetie," Rogue whispered soothingly, "It'll be over soon." The girl whimpered as one of the guards hit the white-stripped haired girl with the butt of his gun. A warning to get her mouth shut, a warning she'd received many times before.

The guards stood back and were replaced by Teed and two other coats.

"Unit X," his wrinkled features spook to her, "Meet Theresa, a precognitive." Rogue turned away from them both and squeezed her eyes shut. She felt guilty enough absorbing people she didn't know, and Teed knew her dread of her powers on those she'd been introduced to.

The girl was sedated with the clear liquid that seemed to come hand-in-hand with the doctor, Marie was not as lucky.

Teed walked away, followed by his disciples like lost puppies, he walked to a wall and pressed a code into a keypad next to the one way glass. Rogue didn't have to look to know what was happening, a small computer folded out from the wall and with a few more codes a set on metallic arms would fall from the ceiling.

"Any last words, X?" she clenched her teeth and turned to the girl, who had been positioned directly next to her.

"I'm sorry," Theresa looked up to the ceiling, and the mechanical arms, her fight was gone, and spirit dead as if she already knew what was going to happen. Well, Rogue reasoned, she is clairvoyant.

The arm dropped and freed the arm closest to Rogue, then picked it up and slowly moved it till it was floating above Marie's bare arm.

The motion seemed to come hesitantly, then quickly and there was skin-to-skin contact. Both girls arched their backs in unison. The older ground her teeth, she'd refused to scream since her first night, the younger was not as controlled. The hand was removed and the guards stepped forward pushing her away. Teed came and placed a sliver band around her forehead.

Then she was alone in the white room, feeling dead to the world. She'd ben in there for two days, allowing the visions to temporarily blind her.

Pain.

Pain, and a hell of a lot of it. Her brain waves were recorded, but they would never know what she saw, and she knew that they were things she was not supposed to know.

~!~!~!~

Bobby stared across the room at the still comatose John. The Iceman considered it amazing that Xavier's "should be waking up soon" lasted for three days. This was only adding to the growing contempt he was beginning to feel for the man.

The door to his left opened and he recognized a familiar step, "Classes are over, I finished my homework, and I brought a snack down for later," he spoke without looking up. Ororo gently laid a calming hand across his shoulders.

"Any change?"

Bobby sneered at the unmoving boy, "No." He took in a breath that caused his entire body to shudder. "I'm scared, 'Ro," he confessed.

"We all are, child."

"I know, I kno-" he stopped suddenly grasping at his chest he fell to the floor, and curled tightly around himself. His breathing can out in sharp gasps and Ororo was shaking him madly, calling out his name.

Scott came running in and stop dead in his tracks at the sight before him. Not only was Bobby withering in pain on the floor. But in his bed John was experiencing a seizure. His limbs shaking uncontrollably against the railing.

Then suddenly it was over, Logan had come in at some point and shoved John back onto the bed, holding him still. Scott bent over to check on Bobby, "What the hell just happened?"

"Rogue," Bobby choked out, "She," cough, "they're hurting her."

"NO!" John sat straight up in his bed, throwing Logan off of himself, doubling over his stomach in pain, desperately grasping at his chest.

Logan was livid, jumping up he clutched the Pyro tightly by the shoulders, no doubt leaving bruises. Shaking him like a rag doll he yelled, "What?! Where is she?!"

It took both Ororo and Scott to pry him off of the poor boy, who was obviously scared out of his wits. Logan struggled futilely against them, and behind them Bobby found his legs. He ignored them and walked to John, a dangerous stagger to his step.

"What happened, John?" he drew out his words, putting a warning growl into them. "Where is she?"

"She?" for his own defense John looked genuinely confused, then something behind his eyes clicked and they widened as Logan stop squirming, "Rogue?" he breathing became erratic as he reached forward to grab Bobby by the front of his shirt. "She's not here? Bobby, tell me this is one of your fucking sick jokes."

Bobby's lip curled in hatred, though more to the situation than the boy in front of him, "I hoping it was one of your's."

John released him and turned to sit on the edge of the bed, he buried his face in his hands and began muttering darkly. Bobby looked to the three adults in the room. Ororo looked horrified, it dawned on Bobby then, from the look in her eyes, that this was one of their last chances.

Scott looked like he always did, solider tall and strait faced, no emotion passed over his features. But one could barely detect the way his shoulders quivered with hopelessness, but you could only see it if you were looking for it.

But it was Logan that still managed to scare the hell out of Bobby. He was mechanically clutching and releasing his fists. His claws shifting in and out with each motion. His breathing was deep and his nostrils flared as his eyes bugged from his dilated eyelids. The veins in his neck popped out and for the life of him he couldn't get his eyes to show anything but the dying flicker of hope.

Bobby watched his own breath come out in a stream of white, and stared down at his hands, covered in a smooth glossy ice. He seemed to realize the intense cold that his body was divulged in for the first time in his life. He could feel in take over his body, and his insides.

Except.

He gently placed his fingers over his chest, a dull thud could be felt through the layers of cloth and ice, but now it throbbed with a burning sensation.

And it hurt. It hurt like hell.

And he knew, he just knew that Rogue felt it to. Because that was her, that was her pain, and he could feel it. He smiled as he released his throbbing chest. Rogue was alive, she was in pain, but she was alive and at that point in time. And he would find her.

~!~!~!~

"Please, Mr. Allerdyce, tell me what happened."

John didn't look at him, but instead at this hands. He methodically made swift motions with one hand over the other, then paused and squeezed his fists shut. They'd taken his lighter away from him.

"I'll tell you the same thing I told Frosty and Shades over there," he replied tightly, jutting his thumb backward toward two of the brooding men in the background. "We were talking in the parking lot in full view of Ms. Munroe." She flinched slightly at the unsaid accusation, and Kurt gently wrapped an arm around her.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Xavier leaned over his desk, gently setting his elbows down. This got the full-attention of every being in the room.

John shook his head sharply, and leaned back into the cushioned chair, "She told me to never talk about them, to anyone."

"Are you willing to risk her life, just for her trust."

He stood quickly, knocking his chair over in the process, he walked over to the windows, staring sown at the children playing. He folded his hands behind his back, his upper lips twitched as conflict battled across his coffee colored eyes.

"God dammit, John! If you know something..." Bobby let it drop off there, as well at the temperature in the room.

There was a growl that seemed to echo, and Ororo found out it was because of both Logan and Scott. Kurt squeezed her shoulder as she stood.

"The dreams, John, what do you know about the dreams?"

He turned around throwing up his arms, "All I know is that Rogue called me three days before we were attacked. She was fucking scared and crying. I threw on some cloths and drove for two hours till I got here." He stopped his tirade and ran his shaking fingers across his face, "All she would say was that they were coming back for her and Jean's was trying to warn her."

Scott seemed to appear from no where, roughly lifting him by the front of his shirt. "What?!"

"Jean's dead," Logan grounded out.

"Rogue sure as hell didn't think so," John sneered pushing Scott away.

"No," Xavier attempted to be the voice of reason as he wheeled himself from behind the desk, "Rogue knew she wasn't dead. As do I." No one spoke, nor moved. They simply didn't trust their legs or voices. "Neither I nor Rogue had any solid proof as to the actual status of Jean. But we had strong suspicions, and Rogue was in brief contact with Jean through her dreams." I think, he added unspoken.

Ororo had slid back intro her chair, no longer able to control her shaking legs, Kurt perched on the back of her chair. Logan stood, blinking hard, shaking his head in an attempt to see if he was truly awake. Bobby had retreated to the back of the room, leaning heavily against the wall. Scott stared, unsure if he was to be joyful because Jean was alive, or angry with the Professor for keeping it from him.

Only John remained standing, he'd heard it before.

Before anyone could question the way Xavier handled the situation, Bobby was back. His concern for Rogue greatly outweighing the surprise of Jean. "About what?"

Every one looked to him with confusion, Xavier raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"John said that Jean was trying to warn Rogue. What was she warning Rogue about?"

Xavier blinked shrugging, he was on the verge of making a verbal response John interrupted with a quiet voice, "Teed."

Logan looked to him, "I know that name," he muttered darkly.

"Who?" Bobby voiced the question every one, except Logan and Xavier, was thinking.

John looked at him like he was stupid, "Teed," he repeated when he got the same look from the Iceman. He threw up his arms in exasperation, "Teed!" he almost yelled, "You know! The guy who experimented on Rogue after her mutation emerged! The reason she fucking afraid to walk outside alone any more!" Now he was yelling, pointing an angry finger at the window he'd been contemplating moments before.

Bobby blinked, he reached out shakily for the arm of a chair close behind him. He found it and wrapped his frozen fingers around the arms, sitting down hard, with an incredulous look on his face.

John was breathing hard, his shoulders were hunched as he balled his fists tightly. Pyro's palms itched, desiring the comforting flame of his lighter. His thumbs twitched in the single-handed motion of igniting it.

"Rogue," the icy voice of Bobby quavered and he cleared his throat, "Rogue was experimented on?"

"No shit." Revelation flashed across the chocolate eyes on the flamethrower, "You didn't know?" It was a question, not a statement, then, "You didn't know."

"She never told me," what was he trying to do? Defend his inferior knowledge of the one person he should know more about?

Anger flashed, "No wonder, she might have if you weren't trying to shove your tongue down her throat every time you see her."

The room, which had just returned to normal temperature, dropped again into the 60s. "Why I ought to..." he jumped up grabbed the shorter boy by the front of his shirt. He picked him up with strength born of jaundice and shoved him against the nearest book case.

"Face it, Drake," John sneered into his face, "You don't know anything about her."

Bobby dropped him and threw his fist at his face. It smacked him in the nose, forcing his head to wipe backward. John blinked , then stared crossed eyed at his now bleeding nose, "Son of a bitch," he muttered wiping the crimson liquid away.

He made a motion as to lunge at Bobby, but was held back by Logan, as was Bobby by Scott.

"Take it back!" Iceman tugged against his restrainer.

"Make me."

The similarities between the two contending men and the X-men holding them back was unbelievable, Xavier almost did a double take. And half expected Rogue to step out from the shadows and groan with a, "Ya know I'm standing right here."

But she couldn't because she wasn't there. But now he knew how to find Rogue. With barely a thought and a wave of his hand both John and Bobby stopped struggling. Logan and Scott blinked in unison and backed away from the frozen boys.

He sighed and leaned backward into his chair, he pinched the bridge of his nose, not used to fist-fights breaking out in his office. "Get John to the Med Bay, and make sure his nose isn't broken. Find out if Dr. McCoy has found out what those...pains...were."

"Where are you going, Professor?" Scott asked as Xavier turned his back toward them.

"I need to get to Cerebro, but this time I won't be looking for Rogue's mutant brain waves, or Jean's. I'll be looking for Teed's. After all human brain waves are much easier to uncover."

~!~!~!~

Sorry it took so long. I'll try to get the next one up quicker.

And a cookie goes to whoever can guess why John's picture is titled 'Before.'

Until then, I'm Bazzer.