Dismal Angel 2010 – Episode 1
Chapter 5: Preliminary
The War Room was alive with life at five minutes to seven pm when Rogue stepped through the threshold. The X-Men – and a few non-X-Men – sitting around the large circular steel table in the centre of the room, their voices intermingling with each others so she couldn't even begin to fathom who was saying what. However, when Rogue made her presence known by stepping over, all fell silent, and they all looked up at her with something of a guilty air, then their eyes fell from her to look at anything other than her. Rogue sighed, she'd known she shouldn't have come.
Already she could feel their secret stares, and she could tell they were thinking about her and judging her vulnerability already. She could already practically hear their voices saying 'Poor Rogue' in a whisper to each other. She turned about to leave, Kurt caught her at the doorway, he was just coming in, and they almost collided, Kurt capturing her by the arms to stop them smacking into each other.
"Rogue, not leaving are you?" Kurt asked, his tone almost too cheerful for the situation at hand, his silvery yellow eyes overlooking her quickly. He could see her tension mounting, it showed in the way she stood, in the way she tried to seem casual and composed as she stood there with an oversized dark grey t-shirt hanging off the shoulder revealing an all over black bodysuit underneath, slight stains upon the front and under the arms of the t-shirt suggested she'd been working out – perhaps to vent some of her anger.
"No," Rogue lied, she feigned a smile, and forced herself to lie to her adoptive brother, "I was actually coming looking for you…"
"Well, here I am," Kurt patted his own chest in the manner of Tarzan.
Rogue felt a slight disappointment, she wanted to escape entirely, she didn't want to have to have to retell her version of this story again, she'd relived it so many times in her head already, and whenever she thought about it the vision of Jared's crushed body haunted her dreams the following nights. "Yeah, there you are," Rogue turned and stepped back in sheepishly, she took a seat beside Ororo Munro, and Samuel Guthrie.
"Long time no see, Rogue," Sam smiled at her bashfully from behind his long golden bangs of hair, his cheeks turning pink.
Rogue couldn't force herself to smile back, "I take it the Professor pulled you all the way here from your X-Force Duties to take part in this damn fiasco," she sighed, knowing that Sam was part of another mutant freedom fighting team, she hadn't seen him in almost a year.
Sam gave a curt nod, he reached over and put his hand on her arm, the leather of his gloves pressing gently against the fabric of her sleeve, "I'm sorry they're putting you through all this, Rogue," he said softly.
Rogue gave a vague nod, and looked away, she folded her arms and crossed one leg over the other, Professor Xavier entered the room upon his hover chair, his head high, hands together neatly. At his back, Remy LeBeau followed, head hanging low, hair covering his face – and a very large bruise and swelling on his jaw left by Rogue from earlier that morning. Behind Remy, Logan entered, he seemed far more disgruntled than usual, and his fist was angled squarely at Remy's back, which – to Rogue – seemed to indicate if Remy made a false move, Logan would surely unsheath his claws.
Kitty, who was sitting wedged between Kurt, and Bobby, glanced quickly over to Rogue to check that her friend was alright, but the emotion building in Rogue's expression when Remy entered the room spoke many volumes, and Kitty only wished she had the ability to turn back time and avoid this whole thing from ever happening somehow.
"Thank you for all coming, everyone," Professor Xavier took a place at a far end of the table where he was in view of everyone, "I know some of you do have more important obligations at hand, so we will try to make this trial as brief as possible."
Jean Grey glanced over everyone with an eager air of importance, as she counted heads to make sure everyone was present and accounted for, Scott Summers was standing near a very large monitor built into the wall, his arms folded, and grim face suggesting his keen intent to listen closely to the Professor's every word.
Hank McCoy had a cardboard folder in front of himself, and he watched the Professor as he pushed his glasses rectangular spectacles further up his nose.
"November the third, two-thousand-and-three, a large blast sounded, disturbing almost everyone in the mansion from slumber at approximately two-zero-five am," the Professor said, his voice loud and clear, he turned to Jean and looked at her with an air of indication that she should speak.
Jean stood up so everyone could see her, "When I woke up, the first thing I did was glance at the clock – it was about two-zero-five am. Even though I'd been asleep I'd felt the blast shake the mansion, I knew it hadn't been a dream. It seemed to have come from a level below so I left the room running, just as Rogue and Kitty came dashing out of their room, and as I was running, sensed that the blast had come from Gambit's room – near the end of the hall beside the bathroom and across from Sam's room," Jean explained.
Rogue looked down to the table, the memories of the traumatic night flashing through her mind in bits and pieces.
"When the three of us got to the hall, Sam and Bobby were coming out of their rooms, the door to Gambit's room had been blown off completely and was on the floor, myself, Rogue and Kitty went in, the room was in a shambles…" she explained.
Scott tapped a finger on the keyboard nearby him, and on the monitor, a still-photo appeared of the damage that had been caused that night, Rogue felt a terrific jolt of horror rush through her, the picture so clear and large it was almost like being in the room again.
"The wall to the outside had almost been completely blown away, some of the debris had come inwards rather than outwards though. Logan came in then, while I was trying to telepathically scan the wreckage for any survivors –finding none. Logan told us that he had picked up two scents. One was Remy LeBeau. When Rogue began to search the debris, she found Jared Rickman – the other scent – a seventeen year old student who had previously run out on the X-Men after having an argument with Rogue and using his powers on Kitty," Jean explained.
Rogue forced herself to become cold to reliving this, she glanced up to where Remy was standing near the monitor, hands both clasped together, head hanging low, she only saw a trace of the red glint of his eyes slightly showing through his long brown hair.
"Jared had died from head injuries, which Hank confirmed may have come from when the wall came down upon him," Jean explained, "but the events surrounding Jared's death are…shady at best. Remy had darted before we'd had time to arrive into his room, and when we did a search for him, there was no trace of him. That night Cerebro only managed to pick up very small signals from his mutant signature – however nothing influential enough to trace."
"This…could be due to an amount of MutantX," Hank said, "a drug that had been used on Remy when he'd been previously kidnapped," he explained, "where is no factual proof on this theory," he added woefully.
Jean continued, "so what we're all here to find out…" she glanced over to Remy and gestured towards him, "is if it's possible that Remy LeBeau is really guilty of murdering Jared Rickman on third of November two-thousand-and-three, and to determine if there is any evidence that he did."
Remy said nothing, he simply glanced at them all through his hair.
"Before we begin to question Remy, I would like to ask Rogue some questions…" Jean said, she glanced towards Rogue.
Rogue felt herself shrinking in her chair, she folded her arms more tightly, looking down to the table, there was no way of getting out of this now, everyone expected her to say something, and she had to do what she felt was right, "ask away."
"When was the last time you saw Remy before his capture last night?" Jean asked, she looked at Rogue.
Rogue tried to focus on the question for a moment, but found herself thinking what a decent Lawyer Jean might have made, "hmm? Oh…" she blinked and came to her senses, "around eleven pm," she said, "I went to his room, he was signing divorce papers," she explained.
"What did you both talk about?" Jean asked, she felt the Professor's eyes staring at her, smiling at how Professionally she was treating this trial, despite law was not her chosen profession.
Rogue paused for thought, trying to remember, "we talked a bit about his wife…Genevieve," she responded, she felt as if her heart were stinging just to think of it all again, "then we talked a bit about other things…" she closed her eyes for a moment and forced herself to remember, "he said somethin' about his family would be disgraced by his marriage to Genevieve, and it ended up in this strange discussion – he was talkin' about wanting to up and leave everything, get a whole new identity," she said, "which seemed so strange to me at the time because he had it good," Rogue's voice was full of bitterness.
Remy raised his head slightly in response to her voice, and looked at her, his eyes peering through his long hair.
"He told me he wasn't leavin', and I said goodnight shortly after…went to bed," Rogue finished her statement.
"And then you woke up around the same time as we all did?"
"Yeah," Rogue nodded.
"So there's some suspiciousness about why he was wanting to leave, then?" Bobby interrupted, without even waiting to have been asked his opinion, he wasn't sure if he was allowed to speak, he felt rather like a jury member in a court case, but decided since he knew everyone, he didn't need to be coy. "I mean, he talks about leaving, and then boom, Jared is dead," Bobby said, "so far, he seems one-hundred-percent guilty."
Jean gave a wan smile, "we're not ready for a verdict, yet, Bobby."
Professor Xavier glanced to Kitty, "Kitty and Rogue were studying the footage from the security monitors approximately an hour after the event took place," he gestured to the monitor on the wall.
Scott pressed another key on the keyboard, and a video began to play, a very fuzzy black and white image, a tall lanky boy moving quickly towards the mansion from the direction of the gates.
"Jared apparently still had access," Jean said mournfully, "and walked right in at one-forty-three am," she gestured to the numbers at the top of the screen indicating the time and date.
Professor Xavier drew his breath, "so with those accounts of what happened that night, I don't think we need to press anyone for questions, just yet," he stated, he turned to Remy, "So, Remy, are you ready to tell us your side of the story? You're here because you're under suspicion of murdering Jared Rickman, will you tell us your account? Are you guilty?"
Remy smirked a little, he felt as if he were in some movie based around a court room rather than the war room of the Xavier estate, but his smirk faded into his rough face, and his expression became grim, and with a dry hoarse voice, he spoke.
"Oh, I'm guilty alright."