Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men
characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the loan of Ilehana Xavier. Blaze is,
always has been, and forever will be mine, so there!
A/N: Don't forget to review!
Scene 8
The reverberating noise of the blackbird jet taking off in the rain had barely faded around the mansion as the cab pulled up by the gate and a young woman climbed out. Brushing back a wet strand of ice-white hair towards her dark brown ponytail with a gloved finger, Rogue bent to pick up her dusty bag and set off up to the door. Was this a homecoming? Or had she come to say goodbye? Should she have quit university so easily, so few weeks into the semester? Or was it a mistake she would always regret, no matter how unhappy she had been at college? Too many questions rumbled round her head. She hoped the Professor was in a patient mood...
The mansion was strangely noisy as she pushed the door open. Small children charged up and down the corridors, whist older ones argued over the foosball table. There wasn't a familiar face in sight. Oh, she recognised people, but couldn't place names nor name powers. Where were the X-Men? When she needed them most, where were her friends? Where had her home gone?
She stood still for a moment, unsure of her ground, before one of the school's pupils spotted her and smiled. The strange teenager, somehow so young even though he couldn't have been more than a year or so actually younger than Rogue, disappeared for a moment further into the rec. room. Clutching her bag like a weapon, Rogue gulped and walked towards the rec. room entrance. Like a saviour in a worn-out trench coat Gambit was already getting to his feet, strange eyes worried.
"Hey Chere, whatcha doin' here? You supposed to be in college..." His confusion was obvious. Trying to be non-committal, Rogue tossed back her troublesome white hair and tugged her bag over her shoulder.
"I dropped out. It just wasn't for me." She looked past Gambit briefly, searching for a sign of the other X-Men, the Professor, Logan, Storm, even Ilehana. She did not especially want to waste her carefully rehearsed 'so what if I'm a failure' speech on the Cajun. Where the heck where they all?
"Maybe Gambit not the person to tell ya dis, but there nobody else here, so it tough. College not for you, then fine, but too many folks not get to go at all..."
"You're right, Gambit. You're not the person I had in mind to talk to about this." She retorted tartly as more and more of the kids began listening in to their conversation. "Where's the Professor? What's goin' on?"
"We better go use Xavier's office." Remy sighed. It was bad enough he was left babysitting this rabble without having to break the news about Bobby to Rogue as well. "You enfants not break anythin' else while Gambit gone, or there be trouble."
"Anythin' else?" Rogue couldn't help asking, but Gambit didn't fill her in.
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"Oh no!" Rogue interrupted Gambit at the mention of Bobby taking ace. "We had a student die from that at college..." Panic rose in her voice as she said, "He's not, is he?"
"Non, Chere. Bobby gonna be fine, Gambit sure..." He wished he could be as sure as he sounded, but if someone had died already? "Who died at your school?"
"Well, its not been confirmed or anythin'. Not that it was ace anyway. But it everywhere, an' I mean that. It's too hard to pretend not to be a mutant as it is, with everyone so touchy-feely an' needy. But this ace makes mutants not hide, like, at all. Avalanche might have been the worst, but there were loads more mutants causin' trouble. An' then the FoH freaks start causin' problems for all the mutants....." Her sweet southern belle voice died out, she shrugged again and avoided Gambit's soul-piercing eyes. It wasn't just that she'd hated the course, the boring ole lecturers with no idea what was happening beyond their precious campus, she'd actually been scared for her safety with the other students. There'd been no Logan to absorb healing powers from if one of the students knifed her through the chest. She'd been threatened just on the suspicion that she was a mutant. If the other students knew how dangerous she could really be...
"Gambit sure it don't sound like his kinda fun, this university. But you sure it that bad Chere? Whatcha gonna do if not go to college?" There was actual concern in the Cajun's tone, and none of his trademark teasing. His honesty threw Rogue, what could she be but honest in return?
"I was thinkin' of travellin'." She admitted. "I...I didn't get too far last time I tried, got kinda side-tracked by a Wolverine. It wouldn't be forever, just till I get my head sorted out, you know?"
"I know." Gambit admitted, wasn't so long since he'd been in the same mind. An image of a young girl, blond hair in thousands of tight plaits, eyes always quizzical and searching his own filled his mind and cut his sentence off short. He'd thought he'd had it sussed out once too, like Rogue when she went away to university. But you just can't predict every throw of the dice... "Best way's jus' to go, Chere. Jus' go, an' don't look back."
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The blackbird hovered low, landing slowly and carefully. On board the Professor touched a finger to his temple, reaching out to the mutant in the cab pulling away from the mansion. Behind him, Ilehana muttered something along the lines of "No..." as she sensed Rogue's resolve. Charles Xavier echoed his daughter's feelings, right now they needed every X-Man they had, soon it would be too late and the world may well have changed beyond all hope. But even knowing this, Rogue, Marie, would not think about staying.
**After school, before college... ** Forgotten words from a so much younger, so much more naive girl who hadn't even known she was a mutant... **I have to go, Professor. I'll be more use to all of you out there, doin' things. Settin' the example you taught me to be. Please, just let me go? **
Ten minutes later, well on the way down the road to who knows where, Rogue finally relaxed, certain that where he would always watch over her, the Professor would not demand she remain an X-Man if her heart was truly set on something more...
A/N: Don't forget to review!
Scene 8
The reverberating noise of the blackbird jet taking off in the rain had barely faded around the mansion as the cab pulled up by the gate and a young woman climbed out. Brushing back a wet strand of ice-white hair towards her dark brown ponytail with a gloved finger, Rogue bent to pick up her dusty bag and set off up to the door. Was this a homecoming? Or had she come to say goodbye? Should she have quit university so easily, so few weeks into the semester? Or was it a mistake she would always regret, no matter how unhappy she had been at college? Too many questions rumbled round her head. She hoped the Professor was in a patient mood...
The mansion was strangely noisy as she pushed the door open. Small children charged up and down the corridors, whist older ones argued over the foosball table. There wasn't a familiar face in sight. Oh, she recognised people, but couldn't place names nor name powers. Where were the X-Men? When she needed them most, where were her friends? Where had her home gone?
She stood still for a moment, unsure of her ground, before one of the school's pupils spotted her and smiled. The strange teenager, somehow so young even though he couldn't have been more than a year or so actually younger than Rogue, disappeared for a moment further into the rec. room. Clutching her bag like a weapon, Rogue gulped and walked towards the rec. room entrance. Like a saviour in a worn-out trench coat Gambit was already getting to his feet, strange eyes worried.
"Hey Chere, whatcha doin' here? You supposed to be in college..." His confusion was obvious. Trying to be non-committal, Rogue tossed back her troublesome white hair and tugged her bag over her shoulder.
"I dropped out. It just wasn't for me." She looked past Gambit briefly, searching for a sign of the other X-Men, the Professor, Logan, Storm, even Ilehana. She did not especially want to waste her carefully rehearsed 'so what if I'm a failure' speech on the Cajun. Where the heck where they all?
"Maybe Gambit not the person to tell ya dis, but there nobody else here, so it tough. College not for you, then fine, but too many folks not get to go at all..."
"You're right, Gambit. You're not the person I had in mind to talk to about this." She retorted tartly as more and more of the kids began listening in to their conversation. "Where's the Professor? What's goin' on?"
"We better go use Xavier's office." Remy sighed. It was bad enough he was left babysitting this rabble without having to break the news about Bobby to Rogue as well. "You enfants not break anythin' else while Gambit gone, or there be trouble."
"Anythin' else?" Rogue couldn't help asking, but Gambit didn't fill her in.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Oh no!" Rogue interrupted Gambit at the mention of Bobby taking ace. "We had a student die from that at college..." Panic rose in her voice as she said, "He's not, is he?"
"Non, Chere. Bobby gonna be fine, Gambit sure..." He wished he could be as sure as he sounded, but if someone had died already? "Who died at your school?"
"Well, its not been confirmed or anythin'. Not that it was ace anyway. But it everywhere, an' I mean that. It's too hard to pretend not to be a mutant as it is, with everyone so touchy-feely an' needy. But this ace makes mutants not hide, like, at all. Avalanche might have been the worst, but there were loads more mutants causin' trouble. An' then the FoH freaks start causin' problems for all the mutants....." Her sweet southern belle voice died out, she shrugged again and avoided Gambit's soul-piercing eyes. It wasn't just that she'd hated the course, the boring ole lecturers with no idea what was happening beyond their precious campus, she'd actually been scared for her safety with the other students. There'd been no Logan to absorb healing powers from if one of the students knifed her through the chest. She'd been threatened just on the suspicion that she was a mutant. If the other students knew how dangerous she could really be...
"Gambit sure it don't sound like his kinda fun, this university. But you sure it that bad Chere? Whatcha gonna do if not go to college?" There was actual concern in the Cajun's tone, and none of his trademark teasing. His honesty threw Rogue, what could she be but honest in return?
"I was thinkin' of travellin'." She admitted. "I...I didn't get too far last time I tried, got kinda side-tracked by a Wolverine. It wouldn't be forever, just till I get my head sorted out, you know?"
"I know." Gambit admitted, wasn't so long since he'd been in the same mind. An image of a young girl, blond hair in thousands of tight plaits, eyes always quizzical and searching his own filled his mind and cut his sentence off short. He'd thought he'd had it sussed out once too, like Rogue when she went away to university. But you just can't predict every throw of the dice... "Best way's jus' to go, Chere. Jus' go, an' don't look back."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The blackbird hovered low, landing slowly and carefully. On board the Professor touched a finger to his temple, reaching out to the mutant in the cab pulling away from the mansion. Behind him, Ilehana muttered something along the lines of "No..." as she sensed Rogue's resolve. Charles Xavier echoed his daughter's feelings, right now they needed every X-Man they had, soon it would be too late and the world may well have changed beyond all hope. But even knowing this, Rogue, Marie, would not think about staying.
**After school, before college... ** Forgotten words from a so much younger, so much more naive girl who hadn't even known she was a mutant... **I have to go, Professor. I'll be more use to all of you out there, doin' things. Settin' the example you taught me to be. Please, just let me go? **
Ten minutes later, well on the way down the road to who knows where, Rogue finally relaxed, certain that where he would always watch over her, the Professor would not demand she remain an X-Man if her heart was truly set on something more...