Chapter 5: Bella Donna's Wedding
Rogue had cried herself to sleep, and only awoke when she felt a sharp prick in her arm, and she stirred, finding the masked man, known as Marcus, at her side. She gasped and flinched, so fast that the needle in her arm, to which Marcus was injecting a bright blue liquid into her with, snapped suddenly, and blood spurted out of the other side.
"Ow!" she squealed.
"Stupid bitch," Marcus slapped her and yanked the needle from her bare arm and tossed it to the floor.
Rogue held her face, fresh tears stinging her tired eyes.
"You got a weddin' to attend," Marcus yanked Rogue up, Rogue felt her legs buckle underneath her, she wasn't sure why though, maybe just the shock that Remy might go ahead with this wedding, or maybe it was the drugs Marcus had injected her with. She wasn't exactly sure.
He lead her by the arm, his grip firm, squeezing her arm so hard she decided she probably should have been feeling some pain, but she felt so numb to it right now – numb to everything except the small sting of the needle mark.
They left the cell, Marcus still leading Rogue up a long dull hallway, the walls unpainted, marked with dirt, the cement cracking slightly revealing the dark brick behind it. To the end of the hallway was a staircase, and they traversed, appearing in a very small room that was no bigger than a closet. There seemed to be nothing but wall in front of them, Marcus put his hand against the wall and shoved, and the wall gave way, revealing it was a secret door. They entered into a lushly decorated hallway, their footsteps echoed on immaculate white and blue marble tiles, and the walls were papered in blue patterned satin. Rogue felt as if she'd stepped into another time.
Marcus pulled her along, Rogue was reluctant, she wasn't sure she wanted to witness the wedding of the man she loved. There were a thousand other tortures she would have preferred. Being stuck in a room listening to N-Sync and watching Kitty dance to all the routines would have been a more appropriate torture than this.
They ended up in a large room off the hall, the walls a deep red, the floor lushly carpeted. There were two people in the room Rogue didn't recognise, one of them was blonde and looked remarkably like Bella Donna, the other looked as if he were in his mid forties, with dark hair but stunning green eyes. A priest stood near the windows, a make shift alter of a small wooden chest. Remy stood near there, wearing a black suit, looking dapper – if not rather surprisingly strange as his black leather trenchcoat was over it - and confident, a little smirk on his handsome face. His hair, which had grown slightly too long, was pulled into a very stubby ponytail, his bangs still hung out as did the sides of his hair that were too short to slip into the hair tie with the back.
Remy's eyes shifted to Rogue, then looked away, as if slightly ashamed of having ditched her for Bella Donna. Rogue felt like running to him and slapping him, she felt like asking him what the hell he was thinking. She wanted him to look back to her so she could mouth the words to him angrily, but he did not turn.
Bella Donna entered, there was no music, Rogue felt there should have been. Bella Donna looked stunning in a magnolia coloured wedding dress, it was short, but still stunning, beaded down the torso in tiny little flower designs, the skirt flowed out, short at the front, but longer at the back. She wore a veil over hair that was curled and pinned. Her lips were the colour of rubies beneath the veil, and curled into a satisfied smile. Rogue suddenly felt so inferior to beautiful Bella Donna as she herself was standing there in very boyish looking pyjamas.
Remy glanced to Rogue finally, she looked at him, tears beginning to pierce her eyes, she wanted to mouth the words 'Don't do this' to him, but it wouldn't come, she felt frozen upon the spot.
Bella Donna finally reached the make shift alter, holding a small bouquet of white roses. She smiled at Remy, and Remy smiled back.
No, Remy, No! Rogue thought at him desperately, she felt like she'd faint from the emotional turmoil of the situation. Her heart feeling close to breaking.
"One moment," Remy said to the priest. "Chere," he looked into Bella Donna's eyes, "I want you to be the last woman I ever kiss for the rest of my life," he said softly, keeping his eyes on hers. Rogue could have sworn she saw his eyes flashing an intense red for only a split second.
Bella Donna nodded, smiling sweetly, she looked as if she were in some private euphoria at that moment.
"But…I never end a relationship with anyone without one last kiss…" he gestured to Rogue, then glanced back to Bella Donna.
Rogue felt her heart skip, she didn't understand what he was up to anymore.
Bella Donna gave a slight nod, as if she'd never been so sure of anything in her life.
Remy moved over to Rogue slowly, "Rogue," he gave a nonchalant shrug, "you know I gotta do this, right?" he asked.
Rogue looked away, and didn't answer.
Remy put his hand on her sleeved arm, "chere," he whispered, so quietly only she could hear him, "I must…have one last…kiss…" he placed something into her hand, and leaned down, planting a very soft kiss onto her lips.
The kiss barely lasted a second, and at first, Rogue didn't understand why Remy had flinched back so suddenly, then suddenly a burst of memories exploded in her head, a jumble of French and English words, and visions of herself in Remy's eyes. She glanced down at her hand and realised that what was in her hand was in fact a card – the queen of hearts. And it was glowing. She gasped and tossed the card towards Bella Donna, who ducked out of the way just in time as the card collided with the floor and exploded on impact.
"My powers!" she gasped. She realised that almost as suddenly as she'd been abducted from the Mansion, her powers had returned – and Remy's had apparently returned also.
"C'mon!" Remy grabbed a hold of her sleeved arm and yanked her towards the door.
They ran, cut off in the hall by five masked assassins.
Rogue leapt up into the air, Remy's hand letting go of her arm, she kicked one of them in the chest, knocking him back at least seven feet across the hall. A knife was thrown, missing her by an inch and imbedding itself in the wall. She grabbed a hold of the knife and sailed towards its owner, grabbing a hold of him by the collar of his long black coat, and raising up. She felt the weight of him pulling her back down, she realised her powers hadn't fully returned yet, in fact, although her absorbing powers had seemed to have returned, her strength seemed to be ascending back slowly. She somehow managed to pull the assassin twelve feet into the air and pinning him with the knife to the wall up nearest the second floor.
Remy flipped over, his feet catching one of the other assassins in the shoulders, knocking him over too, a punch to his left and a kick to his right knocked them off their feet for only seconds. The Assassin's came back for more, and he just barely dodged being sliced in the face by a very sharp looking knife.
Rogue grabbed a hold of a very large antique vase from a corner and tossed it at one of the assassins, catching him right in the head, he went down like a ton of bricks. Rogue didn't want to spend any more time fighting, she grabbed a hold of Remy under the arms and raised them both into the air, "close your eyes!" she cried.
"Chere, what are you gonna do…?!" he demanded, sounding panicked.
"Trust me!" she yelled at him.
Remy shut his eyes, turning his head a little to the side. Rogue flew towards the nearest window at the fastest she could go, the window shattering around them, she headed higher up into the air, trying to locate where the Assassins might have placed the X-Men's jet.
She spotted it, almost hidden in a small forest area, covered in foliage. "There's the black bird!" she flew towards it.
"Chere, they're gonna be lookin' for us…" Remy said, he then gasped as a arrow came flying past, grazing his arm and cutting through both the leather, suit and shirt, and some of the flesh on his arm. "Shit, we gotta get out of here NOW!" he tilted his head up to look at her.
Rogue tried flying faster, "I'm trying!" she yelled at him, "my strength isn't fully returned!" she felt herself already beginning to feel Remy's weight pulling her down.
"Damn it!" Remy dodged another arrow as he hung from Rogue's hands, it barely missed his leg, he looked down, "Keep us up high!" Remy cried at her.
"I can't!" Rogue gasped, they were coming down lower, and eventually his weight became too much for her to handle, they fell to the soft grassy area with a thud, and rolled across it. Remy pulled himself to his feet and pulled her up, they began to run, arrows tearing past them, embedding themselves in nearby trees.
They made it through the forest, scrambling to the blackbird. "I don't have the key…there's an emergency computer system there that'll open it," she stopped running as they reached the large black jet. Rogue yelled at the blackbird. "SR Blackbird Voice recognition, X-Men Team, Member, Designate Marie D'Ancanto, Alias Rogue!!" she cried at the computer.
"Access Code Required," a computerised voice demanded from the blackbird itself.
"Fuck, what is the code?!" Rogue put her hands to her head, she'd never had to take the blackbird on her own, she'd forgotten what her personal access codes were. "Two-five-nine-one!"
"Access denied."
"Three-six-two-nine!" Rogue screamed at it.
"Access denied."
"Six-nine-four-two!" Rogue screamed, trying to think of the number.
"Fuck this," Remy muttered, he reached into the pocket of his black trench coat and yanked out a small case, "raise me up to the door…"
Rogue put her hands under his arms and raised him up, his weight still trying to pull her back down. She watched as Remy opened the small case, several small silver instruments were within, she soon realised he was going to pick the lock.
"Can you do this?!" she asked.
"I've done it before," Remy stated, "got bored while you guys were in class one day."
Rogue felt an arrow hit her back and bounce off, "At least my invulnerability is back…" she drew her breath. "Remy, hurry! They're gaining on us!"
"Nearly there! I've got a hurt arm!" Remy muttered, his concentration on the tools he was using.
The door swung down as Remy picked the lock on the door masterfully, they flew in, and Rogue pushed the button inside to close the door, she heard several arrows and knives bounce off the metal door as it did. She rushed towards the controls, "thank fuck I took a recent crash course in piloting this thing," she headed towards the jet. "Fuck…" she clenched her teeth.
"What now?!" Remy demanded.
"I need the two keys! There's two keys to start this thing."
"For fucks sake, Marie," Remy rolled his eyes, he dropped into a seat at the controls, "Take this," he was still holding the case of lock picking tools, he handed her one of the tools, at the same time, he pulled out a similar one and put it in the lock place on the control panel. "Push it in," he commanded.
Rogue did as she was told.
"At the same time as me," he drew a breath, he heard a strange clicking sound and realised the assassins were trying to break back into the jet. "Okay, move the pick…south, west, south, north, west, east, north, north, south!" he yelled.
There was a hum, and all the lights on the control panel came on, Rogue pulled on a lever and the engines started up, soon, the Jet was speeding along the grass, knocking small trees and bushes out of the way, and it was taking off.
"We made it!" Rogue gasped, she laughed, she put the jet on auto pilot, and wiped her brow tiredly.
The door suddenly swung open, Rogue screamed, the air was trying to suck them both out of the jet, the assassin who'd tried to pick the lock had obviously succeeded, but hadn't managed to get in before the take off.
"Fuck!" Remy tumbled out of the chair and slid towards the open door, "Rogue!" He cried out.
"NO!" Rogue screamed, the air was trying to pull her along with, she grabbed onto everything nearest as made her way towards Remy, she grabbed his arm and held on, "Remy, you need to get the door closed!" she called out to him.
"I Can't!" Remy looked at her panicked, "My arm hurts, I can barely move it!!" he yelled at her, his hair flailing violently about his face.
Rogue couldn't see him for her hair in her face, "You have to try, Remy!!" she wedged her foot against a nearby bar under a chair that was on attached floor, and moved towards the door, still holding on. Remy's injured arm flailed, he tried to reach the button to close the door but couldn't.
"I can't!"
"Remy! Hurry! I can't hold on much longer!" Rogue clenched her teeth.
Rogue's foot uncaught itself from the bar of the chair and they sailed towards the door, just as they did, Remy slammed his fist against the button and the door slammed closed suddenly, they both collided with it hard, Rogue landing on him.
"Ow…" Remy groaned, he cradled his arm, pain searing through it.
Rogue clenched her teeth, "this time we really did make it…"