Chapter 4: Death

Rogue was dreaming.  Everything was dark and distant, and voices seemed to linger in her head, but very far off, as if echoes in a large bare room, so far away from her she could barely even hear them.  But despite she could not make out what the voices were saying, she could recognise bits and pieces of words…there were two voices – men's voices.  One was speaking in a very thick Southern drawl, it was Remy LeBeau, she recognised it instantly, the other voice…it took her moments to distinguish, was Jared, the British accent standing out against Remy's when he spoke.  Voices sounded angrier, yet words were not making sense.

             There was darkness all around herself, and she was confused, she felt around, nothing but air around herself, she could not even see her hands   She looked all around herself, hoping for some light, something distinguishable from the blackness swathed around her, but nothing. 

             She began to run frantically, she was suddenly aware that there wasn't even a floor she could run on, it was almost like walking on air, or perhaps walking on an inflatable mattress, she felt herself slightly bounce with each step

             Blurred visions began to pass by her, faces, there was Remy, his voice began to become clearer, "I wouldn't blame you if you stayed," His voice was soft, unhappy, his face faded into darkness.  Rogue reached out as if to grab it before he left.

             "Remy!"

             The voices in the distance now sounded closer, but the words were muffled, as if she were listening to them through walls almost.  Remy began to come into focus as she ran, he was standing, just as he had moments before she'd left him for the night.  He looked at her, his face flustered, "I get so distraught over everything that sometimes I find it difficult to breathe!" his voice echoed, he faded into the blackness like before, his voice fading with it. 

             Rogue wanted desperately to wake up from this dream.  Wake up, she told herself sternly, praying her eyes would open to the familiar four walls of her bedroom.  But she didn't.  Instead she travelled steadily through the darkness, the voices growing steadily louder, but still muffled.  And then a boom broke through the darkness.

             Rogue shot up from the bed when a loud boom shook the whole building.  At first she thought she'd been dreaming it, but the shaking left her so rattled inside, that she realised this could be no dream.  She glanced over in the semi-darkness, shafts of moonlight spilled in, lighting up Kitty Pryde, who, also jumped up, her ponytail bouncing over her head, she threw it back in a gasp.

             "What was that?" Kitty gasped, she sounded shaken.

             Rogue climbed out of bed, "I don't know…" she pushed her white streaks out of her face, looking around, the building was settled once again, but they both knew what they'd heard.  Rogue drew her breath and headed for the door, "c'mon…"

             Across the hallway from Kitty and Rogue's room, Jean Grey stumbled out of her room wide awake, hair flowing behind her as she ran up ahead.

             "Jean, you heard it too?" Rogue asked breathlessly as she ran behind Jean, Kitty in tow.

             "Yes," Jean breathed, they began to run down the stairwell leading into the second floor where the boys dorms were, "It came from Gambit's room."

             Rogue's eyes widened and she took off to the air, flying above Jean's head down the hallway.  The other boys from the dorm were coming through their bedroom doors in pyjamas and boxer shorts, rubbing their bleary eyes, staring at Remy's doorway – the door itself had caved backwards, Rogue landed on the floor near some debris that was on the carpet in the hallway, she peered into the threshold.  Half of the threshold and wall to Remy's room was missing, and as she peered into the room itself, she found that half of the wall between Remy's room and the bathroom was missing too, as well as the outside wall, meaning she was looking directly out into the back lawns.  Debris was everywhere, furniture scattered.  Dust billowed through the room, making everything slightly hazy, Rogue was surprised that the ceiling light was still working under the conditions, she watched it swing back and forth, it casting strange shadows across the room.

             "Looks like something caused an explosion…" Jean trailed off, standing near Rogue's side, she began to climb through the threshold, stepping over large chunks of wall and furniture that had been blown up.

             Logan came rushing through the threshold, he looked tired, and confused, his hair sticking to one side, his bed clothes severely wrinkle.  He pushed Rogue slightly aside to get past, "what happened?!"
             "We don't know…" Kitty admitted, she phased her way through the rubble, "we just heard this loud boom…and then came down and it was all like this…" she glanced up, seeing some dust fall from the ceiling, is it even safe to be in here?"

             Rogue frowned a little, "nothing is on fire…this isn't any normal kind of explosion…this is a kinetic explosion…" she looked around frantically, "where's Remy though?"

             Jean put her hands to her temples, "He's not in this vicinity," she said, "I can't sense him at all…" she said.  She moved around slowly, looking carefully around.  She could barely believe there was so much debris from the explosion.

             "Maybe he's unconscious…" Kitty suggested quickly, she sincerely hoped that their friend and team-mate had not been caught in the explosion itself.

             Rogue rushed over to the hole in the wall and gazed out, more debris had piled up outside, no sign of Remy LeBeau though.

             "No, I'd still sense him," Jean assured, "he may have escaped…or died…otherwise I would sense him."

             "He's not dead!" Rogue cried at Jean, "he has to be here!  He just has to be…" she began to pull up large chunks of rubble, it was everywhere, she forced her back into it, her superhuman strength making easy work of it, there was a large pile of debris and scattered furniture near the corner against what was left of the remaining wall.  He mattress of the bed was lying askew, the wooden frame had been exploded in half, propped half against the wall and the other half in the pile in the corner.

             Logan stood sniffing the air, "I'm pickin' up two scents in here…" he said, "two recent ones…Gambit…and—"

             "JARED!" Rogue squealed, she raised a very large piece of the wall that had collapsed, underneath it was the crushed body of Jared Rickman, a very large bleeding head wound near his unruly and uncombed bright blue hair, his mouth hanging open to an odd angle.  His arm hung at an odd angle as if broken, he was unmoving, lifeless.  Rogue tossed the large chunk of debris out of the hole in the wall, and began to pull the other pieces of rubble to uncover him from it, then and fell to her knees besides Jared when he was finally free of all the wreckage, "Jean, help me…"

             Jean slowly knelt down, "I'm not sensing anything from him…" she murmured, she reached and picked up Jared's wrist, which under most circumstances would have been impossible, her hand should have gone right through him.  Instead, nothing happened.

             "His powers…" Rogue whispered, she pressed her fist to her mouth in horror.

             "No pulse…" Jean felt for a pulse, she checked his wrist, then his neck, "No breathing…" she listened for breathing, for a heartbeat, "no heartbeat…nothing…He's dead…"

             "No!  He can't be!" Rogue gaped, tears filling her eyes, "can't you bring him back to life, can't you resuscitate him?!"

             "This is a severe head wound," Jean gestured, "nothing can be done for this…he must have died instantly…" she chewed her lip.

             Rogue broke down into tears, "no…" she whispered, she turned away, she couldn't look anymore.

             Hank McCoy came rushing through, "I came as soon as Jean telepathically sent for me," he puffed and panted, "clear the way, get everyone out of here," he ordered, "Kitty, get Rogue out of here," Hank looked down at Jared's dead body, "NOW!" he commanded.

             Kitty pulled Rogue to her feet, "c'mon," she pulled.

             "No!" Rogue screamed, "I need to find Remy!"

             "We'll find Remy," Logan assured, "Get out of here!"

             Rogue allowed herself to be pulled out of the room, still grief-stricken and hysterical, "He can't be…he just can't be, Kitty!" she sobbed, falling to the floor in the hall.

             Kitty pulled Rogue back up, "Calm down."

             "CALM DOWN!?!" Rogue bellowed emotionally, "My boyfriend has just fucking died!"

             "Ex-Boyfriend!" Kitty reminded, he herself could find no sympathy, the boy had nearly killed her, why should she mourn his death?  "The one who numerously tried to push you into a relationship with him, the one who hurt you, the one who abandoned you after nearly killing me!  Do you really think he's worth crying over!?"

             Rogue put her hands over her eyes, "I still cared for him!"

             Kitty frowned, "what the fuck was he doing here anyway!?" she asked of herself, "how the fuck did he get in?" Rogue tried to head back to Remy's room again, Kitty grabbed a hold of her and stopped her, "no!" Kitty frowned.

             Rogue looked at her, "you can't stop me from seeing him!"

             "Rogue, that boys brains were showing, do you really want to see him like that again!?" Kitty asked, "as if you're not disturbed enough you want to cry over his dead bleeding body!  We can't help him now, no one can," she assured, "c'mon, me and you will go down to the war room and see if we can track Remy on the security cameras…"

             "I want to know what happened, Kitty!" Rogue stared back down the hall, towards where the unhinged door was now lying at an odd angle on the floor, "I want to know why Jared was here, and I want to know what caused that explosion…"
             Kitty didn't want to admit it, but she knew what had, only one thing could have caused such an explosion without there being any burning or fire damage to the room.  Remy LeBeau's kinetic energy.  What could he have charged up to throw such a massive explosion though?  The whole room had been left in wreckage, Kitty knew Remy's powers were alarmingly impressive and yet she couldn't have pictured him managing to leave this much damage, this was more damage than he'd even caused in the nightclub the night he'd tried to kill Rogue's rapist. 

             This time reminded Kitty of that, what if this had been deliberate.  "Rogue…" Kitty asked, she began to lead Rogue down the hall, she wanted to go to the war room to hopefully trace Remy and get everything under control, "did Remy hate Jared enough to want to kill him…"

             Rogue gaped, "what?!"

             "Well…look at it, doesn't it remind you of the nightclub?  When he tried to kill the guy who…who…"
             "Remy isn't a murderer!"

             Kitty looked back down the hall, "Remy is my friend too, Rogue, but do we know him well enough to know he wasn't capable of just flipping out and wanting to hurt someone bad enough he'd actually do it?"

             Rogue frowned, "Don't call him a killer."

             "I'm not, its just a hypothesis…but there might be a logical explanation…"

             Rogue hugged herself, tears still streaming down her face, she could barely believe Jared was dead, and even more, she couldn't believe that Kitty would want to hypothesise that Remy had murdered him.  It was just impossible.

             "Look, we'll have the answer soon enough, right?" Kitty asked, "if we look at the security tapes, we should be able to get a rough idea of what happened…cameras face off that way, they might have seen something."           

             Rogue sighed, "alright…"