WARNING: This and the following chapter are serious, emotional and dramatic breaks in the humor of the story to 'keep it all real,' as I like to say. Rogue notoriously has major issues with betrayal of any kind so I could imagine no humorous or fluffy way for her to learn of the fact that she wasn't cured. Again, I'm afraid Scott is put in a very poor light, but have no fear he will eventually redeem himself to all.
The revelation scene is short, as I didn't want to combine it with the comfort attempts by the team, which is the chapter that will follow as soon as it's written. Hopefully I'll have it for uploading tomorrow.
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Revelation
Pulling away from Kurt, Rogue's wide eyes watched Scott disable the drone she and Kitty had slammed into before dispatching another that was coming up behind him.
But, she thought dazedly, he's cured.
Suddenly all the machines in the room died down as the simulation ground to a halt.
"Summers, up here now," Logan growled over the intercom. "Everyone else scram."
Knowing exactly what her man was up to, Rogue didn't hesitate to rush ahead of Cyclops up into the control room.
Once inside the room, she moved to slide an arm around Logan's waist as they awaited a more slowly approaching Scott.
"Ya saw it too?" she asked her lover while they waited.
"Sure did," he replied with a growl. "Something don't smell right here."
"Ah know just whatcha mean, shuga," she was saying as Scott exited the elevator and stepped into the room, "Ah smell a rat."
Startled by the way the girl was looking straight at him as she said that Cyclops stiffened.
"Hey, look, I wasn't making a move on your girl again of anything, I was just helping Kitty and Rogue get away from that drone," the young man explained, totally not getting why he was there.
"I know that, Cyke. Neither of us could help but notice how ya took that drone out though and that's what you'll be explaining to us now," Logan growled.
"It was a survival exercise, Logan, I used my powers. Nothing to alert the media about," the boy replied.
"Tha point ya still ain't getting', ya moron, is that ya ain't got anah powahs ta be usin," Rogue stepped forward to poke him in the chest.
"Wha - " he began before remembering the ruse he'd refused to have any part of just that morning.
Glad neither of the two people glaring at him for an explanation could read minds, Scott began searching his brain for what to tell them and how to tell it.
"I … I took the antidote!" he finally shouted as his mind latched on to Kurt's excuse.
The girl in front of him studied his features and body language and frowned.
"No you didn't," she said with quiet certainty. "Whah would ya lie about that?"
"I … I'm not lying."
"Yes, you are, bub. I can smell it all over you. Fess up, goggle-boy," Logan growled as he moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Rogue.
As he'd proven yesterday, the boy was not good in such confrontation and he backed away from the pair until he was pinned by them against a control board.
"It wasn't my idea," the trapped Cyclops began, "I swear, I didn't even really agree to do it. Betsy made me."
"Made ya what?" Rogue leaned forward to demand, causing him to bend back over the controls he was pressed against.
"Trick you into believing the serum was permanent. She had this whole theory that if you believed you were really cured then you'd stop thinking of your skin as a bad thing and be able to touch just like that. The stuff Hank gave you only lasted twelve hours. The girls all made sure you got touched and all during that time so you'd believe you were all better and they made me take more doses to keep making you think I was cured to," he confessed in a rush. "I told Hank no more this morning so the drug has worn off and I'm back to full power."
"What?" Logan and Rogue both demanded.
"Yer lahin', Scott, Ah can still touch. Ah'm cured," Rogue removed her gloves and placed a bare hand on the boy's face.
He shrank back trying to avoid the draining touch, but was surprised not to feel any reaction to the touch.
"It's the truth, Rogue. You can touch only for as long as you believe your skin is safe. If you start to doubt that or think it's poisoned again, that's it. The switch is flipped and you absorb again."
"No," the girl whispered in disbelief even as a small voice began arguing that Scott had no reason to make this up.
At those sprouting doubts, the fingers still lying against Cyclops' cheek began to tingle with just a hint of her skin's powers.
Charles wheeled into the room at that moment and took in the scene before him with a defeated sigh.
"I tried to get here before this," he said regretfully.
Hearing those words Logan and Rogue both snaps their heads around to look at the man who'd spoken them.
With growing horror, the girl saw the truth on his face and fully believed Scott's words.
"Oh GAWD," she cried out as her skin reacted strongly to the thoughts now swirling in her brain.
For a long moment the pull of her mutation on Cyclops' skin was too strong for her to break the hold and she began sobbing incoherently and tearing frantically at her hand to get it off his face.
Logan helped her as soon as he saw she was unable to break free herself by grabbing her shoulders and hauling her back against his chest, leaving Scott to crumple unconscious to the floor.
Rogue's eyes had closed as she struggled to break that connection, but when it was broken she opened them to look worriedly around her.
A reddish white beam of power shot from her green gaze and wrecked any part of the control room she looked upon until with a sob she clenched her eyelids shut and tore away from Logan to face the direction the Professor had been in when she saw him.
"How could ya do this ta me?!" she demanded before opening her eyes. "Ah thought Ah was ovah all this! Ah thought Ah could be normal now!"
Fortunately, Charles had anticipated the action and moved to a location safe from the girl's borrowed powers.
"Rogue," both Logan and the Professor exclaimed.
Clenching her eyes shut again and balling her hands into fists, she allowed herself to be turned by the gentle hand of her lover on her shoulder.
"Were you in on it too?" she asked him coldly.
"No, darlin', I'd never do that to you," Logan stated with a gentle stroke to her cheek.
"Don't touch me!" Rogue screamed fearfully as she felt his bare fingers skim her flesh.
Not even stopping to think, she opened her eyes to look tearfully at her love only to blast him back against the windows of the observation room with Scott's mutation.
Still forgetting that she knew how to turn the dangerous blasts off, she screamed in agony at the sight of him pinned their by her accidental action and again clenched eyelids closed.
With a hand over those eyes for added protection she sobbed and stumbled her way into the elevator.
"Rogue, stop. It's not like Scott said," the Professor began desperately as he watched her actions. "There was no malice involved. All we wanted to do is help you."
She leant against the doors of the lift, holding them open for a moment to hear him out.
"No more lies!"
"I am not lying to you, Rogue. We have found a way for you to live the normal life you want. I apologize for having to deceive you in order to prove our theory, but it has been proven by the fact that until just now you've been able to touch freely," he wheeled toward the elevator. "I know I cannot ask you to trust me right now, but please, hear me out. I can help you."
With a deep breath, she reigned in her absorbed power and slowly opened her eyes to meet the Professor's.
"Thare's no helpin' me. Ah'm poison."
Her words were final and he knew she believed them as her tear-filled eyes shifted from him to look at Scott passed out cold on the floor then her lover who laid sprawled out from the blow she'd dealt him. Her shoulders shaking with the sobs beginning to wrack her frame, the girl then stepped slowly back into the lift and left the doors shut between her and the Professor.
~~ Everyone, be on the lookout. Rogue's found out about our ruse and it isn't going well. Betsy, Kitty, Kurt, Tabitha, find and try to calm her down. ~~~
Having given that telepathic order to the team, Charles turned to glance over the still knocked out Scott and then watch Logan peel himself off the Plexiglas Rogue's blast had thrown him against.
"How could you do it, Charles?" the man asked as he stretched his sore muscles and prepared to follow after his mate. "How could you lie to us both like that?"
"Trust me, Logan, it was for the best. My only regret is that I was too late to stop Scott from revealing his version of the truth like that."
Logan simply growled at the Professor for that and stalked past him into the elevator.
"Logan! Find her, calm her and bring her to me," the bald man ordered before the lift doors started to close. "I can help her!"
The elevator doors closed and the car shot to the upper levels of the institute without Logan verbally replying to the words.
Telepathically, though, the other man communicated with Charles to let him know he had been heard.
~~ I'll only give you one shot, bub. Blow and we're both gone. ~~
~~ Trust me, Logan. I will not fail her again. ~~
~~ Then we'll get her to you. Just keep that promise. ~~
