Disclaimer: I don't own no character, no singer, no song used in this fic.
A/N:
I forgot to acknowledge the song used in last chapter. It's Insensitive by LeAnn Rimes.
Please insert Dark Horizon 1 and 2 in between this chapter and the last one. Mend, twist, bend, and alter the episodes as you wish ('cause I only watched it once and I don't know how accurate my memory is). For those who weren't able to watch it, please do. It rocks (especially the first one). I loved it when Remy charged the rock covering the cave where Rogue was in and then he shouted, 'Fire in the hole!' *squeals inelegantly* Is it just me or was Gambit pretty much fearless (taunting Rogue while she was on a power-tripping rampage, taking shots at both Wolverine and Sabertooth at the same time)? Cool. He's digging himself an early grave, but it's wickedly cool. ^^
I'm a bit hesitant in posting this chap because I've heard that something really big happened in Impact. It's yet to air here in our country. I would really appreciate it if someone could send me a summary of the episode or tell me where in the Net I can find one. Someone already emailed me the ending but I wanted to know what happened in between. Please email me (and not post it in the review board 'coz someone might not appreciate the spoiler). Thanks lots!
Oh, and this chap contains spoilers (not a lot, just a little bit) for Dark Horizons. If you wish to be kept in the dark, watch the two episodes first before reading this installment.
RockStarChapter 9: While My Guitar Gently Weeps
"Oh," Rogue groaned. "My head,"
"Stripes? Hank, she's waking up!"
Rogue winced at the sudden racket that the call resulted to. "Mr. Logan?" Rogue struggled to open her eyes and was finally rewarded when she saw a very hazy picture of what appears to be Wolverine's face. "What happened?" Rogue asked.
"Like, Apocalypse happened," Kitty muttered.
"Did we win?"
Rogue's questions were met with silence, so Hank McCoy decided to change the topic. "How are you feeling, Rogue?"
Rogue groaned again in response. "My head feels weird," she admitted.
"Are your psyches acting up again?" This was from a very worried Charles Xavier.
Rogue frowned as she listened in. "No," she replied slowly. "It's actually quiet for once."
"Quiet?" Scott peered anxiously at her, his red shades reflecting Rogue's face.
"It's like they're all gone."
I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it need sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps
"It seems that Apocalypse took out the psyches in her head to replenish himself," Charles frowned as he looked at the half-opened medbay where Rogue was in. Most of the New Mutants were with her, along with Kitty.
"She has no idea, does she?" Logan growled.
"That her body was used by Mesmero used her a vessel to unleash Apocalypse?" Charles asked. "No. Neither does she know about Mystique."
"Do you think we should tell her?" Ororo asked, obviously thinking about the depression Kurt had lapsed into after they learned the fate of the metamorph.
"No." Charles replied. "Not now. Not yet."
I don't know why nobody told
you
how to unfold you love
I don't know how someone controlled you
they bought and sold you
Rogue groaned as she struggled to open her eyes.
"Chere?" A concerned voice asked.
A very worried face was the first thing she saw hovering over her. "Gumbo?"
"Nice to know that you still remember me," he grinned as he helped her sit up.
Great. She was in the medbay again. It was becoming a disgusting habit she can't seem to shake. Maybe later, Mr. McCoy would suggest she move all her stuff down here.
Rogue glanced at the wall clock. It says one, and judging from the light (or lack of it) from outside, it was in the morning. "How—" she began. Then she shook her head. "You know, I'm not even going to ask how you got in."
Gambit smirked. But his face immediately softened. "You got me worried for a moment there, chere," he admitted. "Don't do that again,"
"What, no gifts?" Rogue grinned, much to her companion's surprise and delight. "I don't remember much of anything, anyway,"
Gambit's grin got wider. "Too bad."
Rogue frowned. She didn't like his smirk one bit. It was like he knew something big that she didn't. "What?" She demanded.
"Oh, nothing,"
"Gumbo, if you don't tell it to me right now, I'll absorb it right out of ya,"
"Well, chere, it seems that you to Remy more than you care to admit," he said with a smug look on his face.
"What?" Rogue snapped. "I do not!" She denied hotly.
"But you kissed Remy. Don't say that ma chere go around kissing guys she doesn't like."
"I did not kiss you," she hissed.
Gambit nodded. "You did. And we got it all on tape."
"But how?" Rogue frowned. "The last thing I remembered was Ol' Buckethead and his henchmen," she glared at her companion who simply grinned unrepentantly. "Storming Scott and Jean's graduation day and saying that I—" her voice trailed off.
"Mersmero," he affirmed. "He used ya just as he used everyone else."
Rogue groaned. "If I get my hands on Mersmero," she grumbled.
"How about another kiss, chere?" Gambit's face was dangerously close to hers, he wanted to change the topic before she could think too much about what she learned. "One we can both remember?" He leered.
Rogue gasped as she desperately pushed him away. "No! No more voices!" She cried out.
"Whoa! Whoa! Chere, relax. We don't want another attack of the killer psyches, henh?"
Rogue shook her head. "I won't get another attack, Cajun. They're all gone. Whatever happened down there, it took all of my psyches away." She then pulled her legs closer and hugged her knees.
"Shh, Gambit won't do anything to hurt you," he whispered soothingly as he caressed her hair. "He ain't the type to force the ladies to kiss him. It's usually the other way around,"
Rogue's head went up at that and glared at the thief. "How do you fit through doors? Your ego takes up so much space."
Gambit's smirk was back.
They lapsed into a not-so uncomfortable silence, with him drinking his fill of her and her just enjoying the momentary peace and quiet in her head.
"Hey," Rogue broke the silence. "I heard you kept both Logan and Sabertooth in check when y'all went out,"
Gambit grinned. "Those two were worse than kids fighting over the last piece of candy." He replied. "And they kept sniffing everything. It was disturbing,"
Rogue laughed and Gambit decided that he loved that sound. He vowed to do everything in his power so that he would hear it more often.
"Remy,"
"Oui, ma chere?" He was delighted at her use of his name.
"I'm hungry."
"Say no more," he said as he stood up and kissed her hands, which was covered by the blankets, with a flourish. With that, he left the room.
"Wait! Logan's—" but her warning came too late. "Sniffing around as usual." She sighed. She hoped that Logan was asleep, though she very much doubts it. Well, she did try to warn the Cajun.
I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
"Calm down, homme!" Gambit ducked down before he was fed a fistful of claws. He discreetly took out a card from one of the numerous pockets of his trench coat. He threw the charged card at The Rampaging Wolverine.
Big Mistake.
With a snarl, Wolverine launched himself at the Cajun. The little self-control he had tried to hold onto slipped. He saw red.
Gambit launched himself through the window, shards of glass following everywhere. He was now outside.
Logan was close behind.
"You asked for it, homme," Gambit was now holding his collapsible Bo staff, drawn in its full length.
Wolverine smirked. A fight. Just what he needed to calm his frazzled nerves. "What did you do to Rogue?"
"Nothing," Gambit said as he dodged another blow.
"You did something to her," Wolverine insisted.
"The last contact Remy had with her," two cards were thrown. "Was at the bar last week after she sung her song,"
"Song?" Wolverine stopped cold turkey. He straightened up. "You know about Scarlett?" He asked suspiciously, but he did retract his claws.
Gambit grinned as he too adopted a less tense, less offensive, but no less defensive, position. "Roguey may know about music, but Remy knows about his ladies,"
"Care to repeat that, bub?" Claws snapped up again.
Gambit grinned at him, once again charging his cards. "Any time you're ready, mon ami,"
Logan, Mr. LeBeau, please take care not to damage Ororo's flower garden. And the kids would really appreciate it if you keep the noise down, the professor said in their heads.
Logan retracted his claws, but he was still growling. He then faced the red-eyed Cajun and grabbed him by the neck. Wolverine placed his other hand on the younger man's neck then let out his two outer claws with the neck in between. "Hurt Rogue again and I won't miss the next time," he then quickly released him and stalked off.
To Remy's credit, he was neither intimidated nor put off by the older man's actions. He simply straightened his clothes and dusted himself off.
Mr. Lebeau, I would really appreciate it if you would come into my office any after the sun comes up. I wish to speak with you, the professor continued.
"Oui, monsieur," he grinned, certain that the meeting would definitely piss off a certain Canadian.
I don't know how you were diverted
you were perverted too
I don't know how you were inverted
no one alerted you
"Kurt?"
"Yes, my sister?" Kurt looked up eagerly from the magazine he was reading. "Do you need anything? Is anything hurting? Are you hungry? Do you—"
"Kurt!"
Kurt grinned sheepishly as he tried again. "Yes, my sister?"
"What happened during the fight with Apocalypse?"
"Er," Kurt hesitated. "Oh! I just remembered Kitty made me promise to check on her muffins!" With that, he quickly ported out.
"Kurt!" Rogue called out. "Don't make me eat those muffins!" She sighed. She was baffled by everyone's continued avoidance of the topic of Apocalypse. Her usual visitors were no help at all. Wolverine kept on growling, Kurt kept on porting, Kitty kept on phasing, and Bobby, well, he kept on pestering her to get her strength back soon because their list of gigs were getting longer. She had imagined all sorts of possibility. But since everyone seems fine and the sun was still shining out of her window, she figured that something bad had happened, but nothing irreversible. They would survive, eventually.
"Allo, chere,"
"Swamp Rat," Rogue acknowledged him. "Since when were you given free access to the mansion?" Rogue demanded. If memory served her right, all of the thief's visits inside the Institute were made during night time.
"Since Monsieur Xavier and Remy had a heart to heart talk, my sweet lil' river rat." Remy grinned at her as he boldly swaggered to her bed and plopped down beside her. He then produced a white rose from somewhere within his trench coat.
"You talked with the professor?" Rogue frowned as Remy handed her another white rose.
Remy produced one more rose from his trench coat. "Oui." He replied as he made a show of producing his next rose. "Remy had to talk to your guardian, chere," another rose was handed to Rogue. "If Remy wants to ask for your hand in marriage," another rose yet again.
Rogue, who was by now holding a dozen white roses, all taken from different places from Remy's trench coat, stared at the smug-looking Cajun in disbelief. Then, she started laughing.
I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps
He liked to watch her sleep. It had become an addiction these past few weeks. Tenderly, he tucked an errant strand of white hair behind her ears, careful not to touch her. Such a temptation. He would not like anything more than touch that smooth skin, kiss that sinful lips…
But then, unlike with other women, he felt peace and contentment whenever he was with her. He had desperately tried to find such with the women he had been with before, women who could give him everything his body wanted and craved, women who could sate his every whim and pleasure. However, with the other women, the need and ache in his soul would come back right after, with more intensity than before.
But he found what he was looking for in a hot-tempered, passionate woman whom he couldn't touch.
Remy sighed. But she was so peaceful now. Less volatile. Ever since Apocalypse took her psyches away, she had been friendlier, more ready to laugh, more than eager to smile. At least something good came from that event. Well, that and the fact that she had kissed him, though it frustrated him to no end that he cannot remember it.
Remy was starting to care for the fille with a passion that was scaring the hell out of him.
What started as a game, a challenge, a clash of wills, in the beginning was quickly turning into something more—something passionate, something beautiful, something new, something pure; something that Remy knew that if he walked away from it now, he would regret it for the rest of his life, never mind the irrational fear and the voice that was telling him to run away while he still can.
Magneto was no more. He was free now from the madman. But Remy was afraid that he had fallen into something more binding that what Magneto can hold over him.
Rogue was now holding him captive.
And he wasn't sure he wanted to be freed at all.
Remy groaned as he slumped back in his chair.
This must be his punishment for all the women he had chased in the past. It was the greatest irony; poetic justice at its best. The man who had used women and made them pine and cry over him had become attached to a woman who can't touch.
He tried to remember the last time he was with another woman. He frowned. Not since he had met this girl the first time, back when he had handed her the charged card. That very evening, he had tried to pick up a fille. He was successful, but he found himself bored and uninterested. So he flirted with another one. And another. And then another.
But none were to satisfy.
The void he had felt was filled only when he saw her again.
And then he was assigned to trail her.
And he had fallen. Hard.
For a girl who couldn't touch.
Not only that, but she doesn't seem to take him very seriously.
Sure, she was flattered with the attention, but does she like him? Seems like she was still pining over ol' one eye.
Remy's thoughts were interrupted by a loud groan.
"No." Rogue trashed in her bed a bit. "No. Apocalypse, I don't want to. The voices in my head…no!"
"Roguey," Remy caught Rogue who had suddenly jerked upright.
Rogue whimpered as she struggled to catch her breath.
"Shh, Roguey, Remy's here." Remy soothed her as he rubbed her back comfortingly.
Rogue sniffled as she instinctively wrapped her arms around the Cajun for solace. She sighed deeply.
"Had a bad dream, chere?" He asked gently.
Rogue didn't answer.
Moments later, Remy heard that the Goth's breathing had slowed down and gone back to normal. He gently pushed her away from him and saw that she was once again asleep. He laid her down on the bed and tucked the covers around her.
He was not a stranger to nightmares. He knew what it was like to wake up in cold sweat. And he knew the pain of waking up from a nightmare with no one to comfort him.
He vowed that Rogue would not have to go through that. He would help her through her evil dreams, even if it meant staying at her side every time she fell asleep.
Oh, oh, oh
oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
oh oh, oh oh, oh oh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah
"Hey! Rogue! Rogue!" An excited voice announced the arrival of another visitor in the medbay before he could be seen.
Rogue, who was still asleep groaned. "Ten more minutes, Kit," she muttered as she turned and buried herself deeper into her blankets.
Bobby popped in her room.
"Better keep it down, mon ami," a smirking Cajun who was seated beside Rogue's hospital bed told the excited teen. "Roguey needs her beauty sleep."
"What are you doing here?" Bobby demanded. He glared at the Cajun. The older man made him feel like an idiot or something, just by sitting calmly beside Rogue. And he definitely didn't like the proprietary air that the Cajun had over Rogue's slumbering form.
"Haven't you heard?" Gambit asked as he began to reshuffle the deck of cards in his hands. "Gambit be the newest addition to the X-men,"
"Is that right?" An intimidating voice asked.
"Bonjour, Monsieur Wolverine," Gambit calmly greeted the newest arrival.
"If you're the newest X-man, then I need you to be in the Danger Room in five minutes. I'm sure you know where it is," Wolverine snarled.
"Oui," Gambit replied simply.
"You too, Ice Box," with that, Wolverine stalked away with an evil grin on his face. The Gumbo with him in the Danger Room. It would be a good way to release his pent-up stress. He unleashed his claws. Oh, yes. He was going to enjoy this indeed.
"I'll be right back, chere," Gambit promised the sleeping Rogue as he stood up and followed the Wolverine.
Bobby, now left alone with Rogue, placed the newspaper he was holding on the table near the bed where he was certain it would be the first thing she saw when she wakes up. Satisfied, he followed the two men.
Beyond Stereotypes: An Interview with 1 of X
By Trish Tilby
They're the next biggest thing on the music industry. Four fresh, young teens from Bayville High had got together to do what they do best—make music.
And what is their edge over the rest of those struggling musicians?
They're mutants. Everyone of them. From their techno-man Forge, to the sweet keyboardist Kitty Pryde, to the dashing drummer Kurt Wagner, to the carefree guitarist Bobby Drake, right down to their mysterious singer, known only as Scarlett. Collectively, they're known as 1 of X.
Rogue folded the newspaper she was holding with a grin. The guys were thrilled, no doubt about that. The five of them even had a great picture on the front of the entertainment pages.
But she found herself thinking that since the psyches were gone, nothing was keeping her in the band. Nothing, that is, except her love of music.
She wondered if she would keep the façade.
She sighed. She'll cross the bridge when she gets there. Right now was focused on surviving the medbay with her sanity in tact.
"Stripes, just because he followed you home, doesn't mean you can keep him."
"Keep ma chere out of this, mon ami, this is between you and me."
"Don't call my sister chere or whatever, you slimy dude,"
"I have a name, you know. And I'm right here," Rogue stifled a groan. The testosterone level in the room was enough to give her blood poisoning or something. Men.
~tbc
P.S.
The song is While My Guitar Gently Weeps by the Beatles. Thanks to Taineyah for the suggestion. The song is so kick-ass. ^^
Oh, yeah, I'm not a journalist, never wrote any news article before, and that's the best I can come up with. So bear with me.
Um, OK. I have some (alright, a LOT) of Author's-Rants-before-she-answers-the-reviews: first of all, I cannot find the plot in this story! Argh! I thought I had one when I started, but then things just kept on happening and I can't get any of my characters to behave the way I want them too. So now, I'm thinking of changing the title to fit the changing plot… Second of all, when are they going to show Impact here? I heard it was a must-see episode and Rogue had given in to her dark side. I am so obsessing over it. Oh, and the name of the band. 1 of X. I had a lot of great suggestions, but I chose this one (given to me by an Internet friend. Hi, 2xtreme!) because it was, um, unique, I guess. But knowing him, he might have gotten it from some obscure Website or something. Kidding! That and the fact that he promised to buy me coffee if I use the name he suggested. Nope, I can't be bought, but I am for rent ^^ And I'll be wanting my coffee, you hear?
Sorry I have to forego the answers to review for this chap. My MS Word is going bonkers so I have to borrow my brother's computer, and right now, he's kicking me out. So sorry!