Chapter 5: Shot in the Dark
That next day, Rogue was exhausted, and endured all classes like a zombie, staring into space and occasionally dropping off to sleep momentarily. Light-headed and limp-bodied, she felt as though she would sometimes pass out from the exhaustion weighing, and nodded off for almost fifteen minutes during lunch. As lunchtime drew to a close, she headed to her locker, feeling frail, arms hanging by her side, she felt slightly off balance. She wished it had been somehow easier to fall asleep after the fiasco with hitting the ceiling.
Rogue finally approached her locker, and turned the combination lock and opened it, and reached in to search out a small notebook, her notes for her history class.
"Hey…"
Rogue turned slightly to look over her shoulder, Kurt standing there, looking at her, he too looked tired, however he looked less tired than she felt. "Hi…" she said softly, she kept her eyes on his for a moment, before turning back to the locker to find her notebook.
"I…I'm sorry for getting angry with you," he admitted softly, he dug his toe into the tile floor, his eyes falling to his feet as he did.
Rogue stopped, and turned towards him, "forget about it…it was my fault…I…"
Kurt kept his eyes on her, "How are you feeling?" He asked softly.
"Tired…didn't sleep again," she sighed, she rubbed her forehead a little, then went back to looking for her notebook.
"I know how that goes," Kurt admitted, "Never mind though, only two more classes before the end of the day…" he put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, Rogue looked over her shoulder at him, but did not flinch as she normally did.
Rogue remained silent and continued to look for her book, Kurt squeezed her shoulder in a reassuring fashion and then let go.
Kurt looked at her, "Something wrong?"
"I can't find my history notes…"
"You can use mines?" Kurt suggested.
Rogue looked at him, "I…don't you need them?" she asked.
"I study, unlike you," he teased.
Rogue smirked a little, lightening up a little more than before. She shoved one of her books that she'd pulled out back into the locker, as she did out of the corner of her eyes she saw a reflection on the mirror that she kept glued to the inside of the door on her locker, she didn't recognise it, she turned and looked towards the mirror in the reflection she saw Blonde hair, and a familiar face – it did look like Miss Marvel. She gasped, and jumped back, dropping her books, her eyes widened.
"What is it?" Kurt caught her as she stumbled unsteadily backwards, tripping on her own foot, and almost falling completely.
"I…I…" Rogue looked around her, no blonde females in sight, how could she have seen such a reflection while looking in the mirror – it would have been her own reflection but no one else. She walked back over the mirror and glanced into it, seeing her own reflection, her own pale face, and dark green eyes staring back at her – she could see hear own fear on her expression, her bottom lip was trembling.
Kurt picked the books up from the floor, "what is it?" he asked again.
"Nothing, I thought I saw a spider…" Rogue lied, she did not want to admit what she had seen, it would make her feel even crazier – especially after all that Kurt and Kitty had been trying to get her to admit that she may have absorbed all of Miss Marvel. She didn't believe it were possible – but…she was starting to.
"But I thought you liked spiders…" Kurt looked at her curiously, he handed her the books.
"Not all spiders," Rogue quickly grabbed the books and shoved them into her locker roughly, and slammed it shut, avoiding having to look at the mirror again. "Lets go, we'll be late for class…" she urged.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Kurt asked, he grabbed a hold of her arm before she could venture any further forward.
"I'm fine," she pulled back, "will you stop treating me like glass, I'm not going to break…" she started walking towards the hallway leading to the History class. She had made it almost around the corner, when a sharp pain in her head made her stop in her tracks, she grabbed her head, it felt like someone was trying to drill into her skull, the pain more intense than anything she had ever felt in her life. She clenched her teeth and tried to pull herself together as it slowly began to dull down.
"Rogue?" Kurt took a hold of Rogue's shoulders, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing…I had a pain…in my head, but it's going away…" she tried to assure.
Again, this time more persistently, the stabbing pain in her head, it hurt so bad her vision became blurred and the light became hard to focus upon, it hurt so bad she screamed, and felt herself lose her balance, and felt Kurt's hands catch her under her arms before she could fall to the floor. A sudden screaming began to manifest itself in her head, at first it was almost distant, and it began to grow louder. Vaguely she could hear Kurt's voice, but could not make out what he was saying, the noise of the screams drowning out everything else.
She gained focus with her eyes and on the reflection of a silver locker door, she could see the almost-seemingly distorted figure of Miss Marvel staring back at her, it looked as if she was smiling,
"You…" Rogue screamed, she looked at the lockers, she pushed Kurt out of her way, and stood firmly, glaring at the image of Miss Marvel.
Kurt was confused, seeing no one there but Rogue, staring at a warped reflection of herself on a slightly dented silver locker door. "Rogue?" he asked.
"You took my life!" Miss Marvel's reflection spoke back to Rogue, Kurt watched, seeing Miss Marvel's voice coming out of Rogue's mouth, and he stepped back, slightly in shock. He could feel the eyes of the students in the area on them both, watching, stopped in their tracks.
Rogue looked at Miss Marvel, "I didn't take your life!" she screamed, tears beginning to stream down her face.
"You took my life, and now I'm going to take yours…"
"NO!" Rogue screamed, clenching her fists she headed straight for the locker, she rammed the underside of her fist into the locker, causing the door to dent badly in the process, she shrieked and cried and grabbed onto the metal door, tearing it off with a strength she'd never possessed before and threw it down to the floor, falling to her knees she began to pound her fists roughly into shiny surface, denting it until she no longer saw the reflection of Miss Marvel.
"Someone get security!" one of the students shouted in the background.
"Rogue!" Kurt grabbed onto one of Rogue's arms and tried to pull her away, "stop it!"
Rogue jerked her arm away and pushed Kurt aside as if he weighed nothing, her roughness caused Kurt to fall over completely. The shrieking in her head continued severely again, Rogue grabbed onto her head. "Leave me alone!" she screamed at the voice in her head, feeling Miss Marvel's presence in her own almost stronger than her own. She pulled herself to her feet and began to run, her direction unknown. The pains in her head manifested again, feeling stronger and before, she felt as if her brain were being pierced, and the screams were drowning out the sounds, she kept running.
Kurt pulled himself up and followed, teleporting his way down the hall not caring if everyone saw him do so, "Rogue!" he cried at her.
Someone had left their school bag filled with heavy books right in the middle of the floor, in Rogue's way, as she ran her foot caught on one of the straps and she felt herself tripping over, losing her balance, but instead of falling to the floor, she felt herself almost taking a leap into the air, and found herself sailing through the air towards a wall, she pushed her hands out in front of herself to try and stop herself from hitting the wall, and instead of slamming straight into the wall, she went straight through it, as if the wall were nothing else but rice paper.
Kurt watched in absolute shock as Rogue broke through a brick wall, leaving a massive hole, he continued running, trying to figure out how he was going to calm her down without having to fight her.
"Kurt, what's going on?!" Kurt stopped, and turned, seeing Kitty coming around a nearby corner, she gaped at the hole in complete bewilderment.
"Rogue has totally flipped, c'mon…" Kurt grabbed Kitty's hand and pulled her along.
"We should get Jean," Kitty stopped him.
"Why?"
"Because Jean is telepathic…come on, she's in the girls restrooms, I just saw her," Kitty yanked Kurt the other way.
Rogue sailed through the air, spinning, out of control, she crashed into a light post and knocked half of it to the ground, luckily killing no one in the process, she could hear Miss Marvel's voice in her head.
"Stop fighting me!" Miss Marvel's voice screamed at her.
Rogue tried to keep her thoughts in check, "Get out of my head!"
"If I would I could!" Miss Marvel's voice screamed at her from her own mouth, "You ruined my life!"
"I didn't mean to!" Rogue screamed, tears streaming down her face, blown dry by the wind as she soared through the air, "I swear I didn't mean to!"
"That doesn't make things better!" Miss Marvel shrieked, Rogue felt herself losing control, she soon realised that Miss Marvel was gaining control of her body, she was soaring higher and higher, beginning to feel dizzy.
Kitty ran into the girl's restrooms in time to see Jean putting on Lipstick, "Jean!" Kitty gasped, "Rogue is going crazy, we need you…"
Jean Grey ditched her lipstick and followed Kitty, Kurt was outside in the hallway, they ran towards the end of the hallway, where the large hole was. "What happened?!"
"I'll explain later, we need to find Rogue, she's in trouble," Kurt stated, he grabbed a hold of Kitty and Jean's arms and teleported the three of them into the school grounds outside, an area where Rogue was nearby.
"Oh my god, she really CAN fly!" Kitty gaped, looking up to the sky, seeing Rogue gaining altitude higher and higher, almost out of sight.
Jean put her hands to her head and concentrated on Rogue's mind, "she's…she's not in control…Miss Marvel is in control of her…she's…she's going to try and suffocate her at a high altitude…"
"Stop them!"
"I can't use my telekinesis from so far a distance…Rogue is moving too fast for me to catch up with her using my telekinetics to reach her…"
Kurt grabbed a hold of Jean's arm, "hold onto me tight," he instructed, he felt her hand grab onto his arm, and he teleported, in steps up into the air, feeling unsafe and unsteady he continued, afraid Rogue – his adopted sister – may die.
"Higher!" Jean held on tightly to Kurt, "I can almost reach her, Kurt, keep going."
Kurt concentrated on going further up into the air by teleporting, "I feel dizzy!" he gasped for air. "I don't know how much higher I can go!"
"Hold on, it won't be much longer!" Jean gasped, feeling lack of oxygen begin to leave her Dizzy as well, fearing that they might not make it in time.
On the ground Kitty dialled the phone number of the Mansion, and paced frantically as the number rung, she prayed someone was home, finally Logan's voice answered.
"Hello?"
"Logan, it's Kitty, come to the School, Rogue is in trouble…" Kitty said quickly without taking a breath.
"With the Principle?" Logan asked in confusion.
"No, Miss Marvel is taking over her body and trying to kill her or something!"
"We'll be right there…" Logan promised, and then hung up.
Kitty put her hands together, and prayed to God that Jean and Kurt would somehow make it in time to stop Rogue from suffocating at the high altitudes.
Rogue spun through the air, she flew through thick clouds, coming out soaking wet and shivering, her head swimming, her lungs tightening, she tried to breath faster, but with Miss Marvel in control of her body it felt impossible, she prayed for help.
Rogue, she heard a voice in her head, it's alright…
From the corner of her eye she could see Jean Grey and Kurt, teleporting through the air, she felt herself being pulled downwards suddenly.
"NO!" Miss Marvel screamed in Rogue's voice. "You can't stop me!"
Jean pulled Rogue down further, "Fight her Rogue!" she cried loudly.
Rogue closed her eyes, trying to maintain her thoughts and gain control of her own body, "I can't!" she screamed.
"Yes you can!" Kurt called to her, "You can do it!"
Rogue screamed loudly, trying to force everything out of her mind, flashes of memories came into her head, memories of happy childhood with loving parents, of winning child beauty pageants and being on the gymnastic team at school. Memories of going to a school dance wearing a beautiful navy dress made of satin and shimmering with beads, and memories of standing with feet in the ocean whilst kissing a handsome dark eyed boy – who seemed so familiar – under a moonlit sky. They were things she wanted to feel were hers, but they felt so unfamiliar to her, but she wanted them so bad, she wanted to believe she was remembering things of her own life.
"We're losing her!" Jean felt the presence of Rogue beginning to fade.
"Rogue, fight her!" Kurt yelled as loud as he could, "I believe in you!"
Rogue tried to cancel out the memories of Miss Marvel, she thought of things she'd done in her life, the first time she put black lipstick on, the first time she met the X-men, the first time she touched another mutant and absorbed their power. She concentrated on memories of when Kurt called her his sister, and when Kurt had been there for her even though she hadn't wanted him to.
She looked out of the corner of her eyes, seeing Kurt look at her. "Fight her!" he called out at her.
"No!" Miss Marvel's voice screamed from Rogue's mouth, "She took my life!"
Jean kept concentrating, the lower they came from the altitude they had been at the better their breaths returned.
Rogue, beginning to gain control of her body, reached out to the distance to reach for Kurt's hand, "Help me…" she pleaded.
Kurt teleported over, and grabbed a hold of her hand, still holding onto Jean, he teleported them directly to the ground, he kept his eyes on hers, "fight her, sister," he said directly to her.
Rogue kept her eyes on Kurt, at the same time remembering the last time they fought together, and unhappily remembered that very morning when they'd fought, she held onto his hand, feeling Miss Marvel's memories beginning to quickly fade from her own, but from sheer exhaustion, and possibly from the lack of air she'd had, lost consciousness.
Kurt, seeing the opportunity to get the three of them to the ground, teleported them there, they landed with a thud hard on the grass, and Kitty fell to her knees beside Rogue, "is she alright?"
"She's unconscious, but…her psyche is dormant…for now," Jean said, "she nearly died…"
Kurt pulled Rogue up and held her, remembering that time a month ago when he'd held her, worried that she would die.
Just in time, Logan and Professor Xavier arrived in the van.
