Chapter Twenty-Six:
Through the sky over Westchester, New York, Rogue skillfully guided the small aircraft towards the mansion. It was not as large as the X-Jet, but held herself and her two unconscious passengers comfortably. Her gloved hands held the controls firmly and she reached for a switch above her head to activate the communication radio.
Peter's voice responded back, acknowledging her impending arrival back to the school. Dr. McCoy was waiting to take the patients directly to the medical bay, which he and the students helping him would have to do the long way since Kurt was not returning with Rogue.
Her hands felt hot and nervous in her gloves, but not because of any anxiety about landing the craft safely, only out of concern for her passengers. After Alkalai Lake, the importance of training all the X-Men in piloting their various aircrafts was clear, and Rogue had been quick to learn the many subtleties of professional flying. Her first flight had been out of necessity as the dam of Stryker's base was breaking, and she felt no less urgency during this flight.
Rogue glanced back at the others and her eyes found Bobby's sleeping form. He was leaning back in one passenger seat, strapped securely so his head would not be jerked around in flight. The expression on his face was not one of peaceful slumber, but troubled and frightened in relation to the last thing he saw before loosing consciousness.
The hard, focused look on her face softened slightly as she noticed the bruises beginning to appear on his neck. Water from melting ice dripped from his hair and hands and she hoped his own cold touch would be soothing to those wounds. She wanted so much to be able to comfort him when he awoke. Hold his hand as Henry treated him in the medical lab, touch his forehead to check for fever, place more than light kisses on the abrasions and bruises...
Rogue's hands formed into tight fists around the aircraft's controls as her expression changed again. The warm light in her eyes turned cold and bitter, and she turned back away from Bobby quickly before that bitterness could focus on his face.
She did love him, for his kindness, his honesty, his silly humor, and most of all for his dedication, to her and to the X-Men. Even when everyone else in the school was afraid of her, Bobby had been the one who had taken her hand, drawn her out of the pit she had been buried in since running away from home.
Her mistrust of everyone (except Logan) had kept her from being close to her classmates right away, but Bobby just kept hanging around, inviting her to dinner every night for weeks, so properly like he was asking her on a date...until he finally did ask her on a date, off campus, to the movies. They had not been able to kiss that night, but he had not let go of her hand for the entire film.
Then, at Alkalai Lake, Bobby had been the one there the whole time. He had been the one to go back with her and help Logan during the attack on the mansion. He had been the one who stayed with her on the jet. He had been the one, again holding her hand, as they lay in pain during the attacks.
Bobby had been the one to walk up to Logan, take the hand of the man she thought of almost as a father, and say proudly without hesitation that he was her boyfriend, no matter what anyone else in the school thought.
Rogue gritted her teeth, and tried to force all of her hostile thoughts away with those memories. The other students knew about her power as much as she knew about their powers. They knew her limitations with physical contact, and the whispers about how she and Bobby would ever do certain things did not fall deafly on her ears.
Though, Bobby never mentioned the gossip, never seemed to care what anyone else thought. Whenever she was just with him, that was enough. But, Rogue could not deny the lingering doubt that someday...it would not be.
She then thought of the flirting Remy LeBeau with an amused, but slightly angry grin. He was annoying, but entertaining to say the least, especially since meeting her Wolverine 'bodyguard.' She wondered if he would still pay her such attentions, if he ever knew that those attentions could never be fulfilled.
***
Mary stood next to Henry McCoy and watched the small jet lower slowly into the landing bay. She shivered and folded her arms as the cold night wind blew down through the large entrance in the ceiling. As the jet settled, Henry nodded to her and Peter and they rushed over to the craft.
As Henry tried to walk faster, his posture bent forward. Mary noticed that he used his long arms once or twice to accelerate this pace. Not as if he was crawling, simply as if his massive form moved more naturally in that almost animal-like stance. The motion was not awkward or comical, but smooth and professional, the walk of a doctor.
They reached the jet just as Rogue lowered the back platform and stepped out.
"They're in there," she said pointed back into the craft, "Storm and Bobby. Unconscious, but they seemed to be breathing ok..."
Henry nodded and he and Peter climbed aboard past her. Each unbuckled and lifted one passenger easily, carrying them quickly off the jet and towards the main hall.
"What happened to them?" Mary asked and Rogue shook her head.
"I'm not sure," she said, "When we got there...Cyclops and Logan were the only ones on their feet. There was...God, there was a giant robot destroying a house..."
"A robot?" Mary asked, and then her voice fell, "What did it look like?"
"Like a person," she said, "A giant metal man who attacked them and used some kind of tranquillizer to..."
"Not metal..." Mary said softly, her eyes becoming distant.
"What?" Rogue asked and Mary shook her head.
"Not metal...or that man...Magneto...he could have stopped it, right?" she asked and Rogue shrugged.
"I guess so," she replied and then added angrily, "Unless it was his machine..."
"Sentinel..." Mary said quickly, "It's called a Sentinel. That was the last part of the vision today. But it was the general's...not Magneto's..."
"What general?" Rogue shouted, a little louder than she intended, but her tone did not faze Mary at all. Her face was somber and dark.
"I don't know. It...didn't say his name..." she said and then met Rogue's eyes with concern, "Where are the others?"
"Following the robo...the Sentinel," Rogue answered, "It took Gambit and some others. Magneto was following it, too."
Mary frowned in worried thought and then shivered again.
"I have a feeling...that following that thing is a really...really...bad idea..."
Rogue's face once again became hard and focused, "Let's go."
She turned quickly and began to march back up the platform into the jet.
"Wait..." Mary replied with surprise, "We can't go after them."
"If you feel they're in trouble, then they might need our help," she said.
"What do you mean we?" Mary asked, "What the hell good would I do against a giant robot? Besides, it was just a feeling, not a vision..."
Rogue walked back down and put a confident hand on her friend's upper arm.
"I'm learning to trust your feelings, Mary," she said, "You should, too. And, if we are going to be attacked by a giant robot...you're feelings would do better there than here."
Mary raised a cynical eyebrow, "The Professor would not like this..."
Rogue smirked, the expression sure and cocky, just like Logan.
"You can ask him when we get there," she replied, and pulled her along into the jet.
Mary hesitantly strapped herself into the co-pilot's seat. This would be her second flight ever, and she prayed Rogue was a steady driver. Rogue began flipping switches to start up the jet again, and it shuttered as the engines flamed to life. Mary grasped the arms of her chair tightly.
"Don't worry," Rogue said with a grin, "Logan's the one who taught me how to fly."
"Right, the same Logan that tears the motorcycle up and down the road," Mary said and then took a deep breath, "There are bags around, right...just in case..."
Rogue laughed at Mary's worried but comical expression.
"Under the right arm rest," she replied, and then changed the subject to help the other girl relax, "Hey, did you think of a code name yet?"
Mary blinked quickly and shook her head, "Um...no, I haven't really thought about it..."
"Well, you're on a mission now," Rogue said, beginning to lift the jet into the air, "I need to know what to call you."
The jet jerked forward and Mary closed her eyes.
"How about 'Airsick'?" she said with weak grin.
Rogue smiled back, "How about 'Alethia'? Dr. McCoy said she was a Greek goddess of truth…"
Mary tilted her head thoughtfully, "Um…that's ok, I guess, but...ah, oh, God..."
The jet was beginning to gain altitude and her stomach suddenly shook hands with her esophagus again. Rogue smiled sympathetically.
"How about just Mary?" she asked.
"That works, too," Mary agreed, closing her eyes.
The moment her lids fell, the image of the Sentinel rose in her vision again. Emotionless, cold, empty...dangerous. Its orders, now benign, compared to what it was capable of.
Mary quickly opened her eyes, forcing herself to manage the motion sickness and focus on her work at hand.
A world of work…ahead of all of them.
To be continued…