The Rogue

Author's Note: Again, thank you for all the votes, and I hope that you guys are enjoying this so far! And sorry for all you people who think I'm making Logan… too much of a bad guy, I've been trying hard to make him like himself… but not, and I'm kinda screwing it up, but bear with me. He'll get his fluff with Marie. It makes it more interesting when both guys are sweet on her…^-^

Votes so far:

Scott: 60

Logan: 45

The votes might be wrong, Lycos shut down on me, taking the recent votes… hopefully hotmail won't do the same.

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Scott made his way into the Medlab and found Marie on one of the beds. She had so many wires connected to her that she looked as if she was dying. That thought made Scott nauseous, as he sat down beside her. Taking one of her hands in his, he stroked her bare knuckles with his thumb.

" When you get better, Marie… you and I are going to work on your control…" he whispered.

"Not bloody likely," Logan growled as he came from the shadows. Scott stood up, gently placing Marie's hand on her stomach.

Logan growled and walked towards Marie, and stroked her cheek. " Damn it Scooter, why are you doing this?"

Scott stepped back in shock. Logan had never sounded so helpless before. As Scott examined the man closer, he saw the sadness radiating from his eyes.

" Marie… don't you trust me?" he heard Logan whisper as he knelt down to kiss her cheek. "Why did you push me away?"

Scott stared as Logan kept talking to Marie as if he weren't even there. Logan stoked Marie's arm and kissed the back of her hand as he sat beside her. Scott turned around and found Jean leaning on the doorway, gazing at her sadly.

" Come on Scott, its best you leave them alone," Jean said, playing on words.

Scott's expression tightened and shook his head.

" Not without a fight," he said. " She deserves better. Even he agrees."

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Marie was cold. Everywhere she turned, it was dark. She heard so many screams, so much pain. So many tests… her brain hurt from having absorbed too much. She saw men carrying her towards a table, placing something in her.

'Am I in Logan's dream?' she wondered. Then, she saw her reflection on the mirror. Her hair was still auburn, no platinum in them, she was wearing some sort of a collar, and the men… surgeons… they were operating on… her?

'Where am I?' she thought, panicking. She felt the pain again, starting from the back of her neck and coursing through her body. Then, nothing… she was suddenly being carried towards a cell of some kind. There was nothing there but a metal bed with a thin sheet of fabric.

Someone else was with her, another woman. She had long blond hair and blue eyes, and had a similar collar attached to her neck. She seemed forlorn, but something in her eyes told Marie that she was accepting her fate.

'What?' she wondered.

Suddenly, she felt the pain once more, the more she backed away from the woman, and more evident the pain was. Slowly, she inched towards the blond and the pain was slowly dulling.

" Hold my hand. It'll ease the pain," the woman said.

Marie looked down at her hands and found that she had no gloves on. To think of it, Marie wasn't wearing any clothes and neither did the woman.

" Its what they want you to do," the woman begged. "They'll let you and me go if you just hold my hand…"

The pain came back, and Marie shook her head, biting her lip from the pain. She refused to take anything from the woman, not her powers, not her life. Nothing!

Marie held back a sob as the woman dove for her, grabbing her shoulders. No matter how much Marie fought the blond, she held on. The woman was quickly turning purple, and the veins in her body were visible on her skin.

"No…" she sobbed, as the woman lay limp on the cold, damp floor. Men came inside and took the woman away as soon as she had fallen.

Marie had expected someone to start talking to her soon, but nothing came. Her mind was empty, she discovered. No residue of the previous people she had absorbed. Nothing was there. Then, her surroundings shifted, she was back in the school, in her bed. Jubilee and Kitty were fast asleep in their own beds.

~ Come back little Rogue… we've got plans for you ~

Marie clutched her head and screamed.

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Logan woke up, hearing Marie scream. He knew it was a bad idea to remove her from the Medlab, but no one paid any attention to him. He ran towards her room and found her roommates trying to calm her down.

" No!" Marie sobbed, she was scratching at her arms, and Kitty was crying as she tried to talk to her.

Logan held Marie in his arms. "Hush, darlin'… its just me…" he whispered. He felt helpless, not knowing what was wrong with her.

Marie slowly began to quiet down. She looked up from his bare chest and sniffled a small thank you. She blinked a few times and smiled softly.

" What happened?" he asked.

Jubilee watched in anger as Logan stroked Marie's hair. Kitty held her back and shook her head. " Rogue needs him right now… as much as you and I don't approve… "

Jubilee sighed and nodded.

" I dunno," Marie said. " I…I remember Jubes was going on and on about the meaning of having dog tags. Then… I felt this hot pain coming from my neck…"

Logan felt a lump in his throat as he asked her to turn around. He brushed of her long hair and held back his anger as he saw a scar. It was as if there had been something planted in her, much like something had been placed in his leg before he escaped from Alkali Lake. He had removed it himself and found that life had been less painful after that.

"What is it?" Jubilee asked. " What?"

"It's some kind of a locator… back-" Logan stopped and sighed. " 15 years back… I found one surgically attached to my leg. I had ripped it out and I never felt better… but… fuck…"

Kitty took a look at it and gasped. " It's on her neck… on her SPINE?!"

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Times like these made Xavier sympathetic towards Eric Lensherr. So many things that humans' hands have done towards fellow man…

Logan had called a meeting with the X-Men, both seniors and juniors. Ororo, Storm, Munroe was seated beside Xavier and Jean Grey. Scott was leaning by the door, wary of the news. Bobby sat beside Jubilee and Rogue, still sleepy and confused. Kitty was a wreck; she hadn't stopped crying since they had found out about the implant in Rogue's spine.

"Maybe it was put there for a medical reason," Rogue reasoned quietly.

"No darlin'… trust me, it wasn't for no medical reason," he said darkly. " Those bastards placed that on you, to keep track of you…"

Rogue looked at him with confusion.

"But, you met me just months after I had been thrown out of my house," she said. " How could I have been placed in a lab and experimented on?"

The room fell silent. Jean looked on sadly. Wondering how it was possible.

" Look darlin'… I don't know… but what I do know is," Logan started. " That scar looks about ten to eleven years before."

"Is it possible that your mutation was already there when you were seven or eight?" Jean asked.

Rogue shook her head. " No, my parents never said nothing, and I touched people fine."

" Professor, could it be possible that Rogue is not as young as we think?"

The group all stared at the doctor. He cleared his throat and fixed his glasses as he continued. " It is just a theory, but that mechanism surgically implanted on her spine could be the reason why her mutation cannot be controlled, and it is also a possibility that it erased her memories of being experimented on."

Rogue shook her head, denying everything, chanting in her head. " My name is Marie, I am eighteen, I was born in Mississippi, I just finished High-"

She stopped talking and blinked. She had kissed Cody on her eighteenth birthday; she had just finished High School and was on her way to Yale… then…

" I…" she stammered. Clutching her head as the pain came back.

"Marie!"

Both Logan and Scott dove for her as she fell from her seat. Logan got to her before Scott, growling as he even inched closer.

" Look, Logan. Marie is in pain. I want to help her. Last time she barely listened to you!" Scott said angrily.

Logan snarled in anger, but gently placed Rogue into Scott's arms. He heard him whisper softly in her ear, calming her down. To the rest of the group, they were oblivious to the words of endearment being spoken to the girl. But to Logan, Scott may just as well be screaming it in his ears.

" Baby, come on… talk to me," Scott coaxed, stroking her hair.

Rogue saw flashes of her nightmares in front of her eyes. 'The cell, the woman, she was real' Rogue thought. The pain on her neck dulled, but it was still there. As she fought to remember more, the pain became unbearable. Finally, she remembered one thing…

" I'm not eighteen, Scott…" she whispered, tears glistening as they fell. " I'm 28…"

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Dr. McCoy had placed Rogue back into the Med.-Lab and the meeting had continued. Kitty, Bobby and Jubilee had volunteered to stay with Rogue as she slept.

Xavier felt his dinner rising up towards his throat as he thought of the experiments done on Logan, being done in Rogue. He felt anger well up inside him. He had considered everyone in the school as his children, but Rogue struck him as much more than that. He felt connected to her, like she truly was his daughter.

Logan was in tears. He didn't care whom saw, or what they thought. His emotions were loose, and he was angry and confused. Never had he thought of Marie, being a victim of the government. Every fiber in her had been too innocent. His claws were unsheathed, tearing three holes in the floor. Logan didn't mind now that the government had taken his memories.

What Logan minded, was that they had taken hers.

He wondered how he could have missed it. The experience aging her mind, the truth concealed behind her brown eyes. He should have seen it, he should have seen the signs. He heard the Professor clear his throat.

"Let's investigate this matter tomorrow…" he started. " We should let this information… sink in."

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Author's Note: Hey all! Thanks for the reviews! And for the votes! I've been doing my research, hopefully lessening the deaths in my story… Did you guys know that Carol Danvers doesn't actually die?! If you did: why didn't you tell me sooner? Could've saved me all the worry…