Here's the last chapter of my story at last, (I was starting to think I'd never get it typed out). I hope you like it. Please review and tell me what you think, good or bad. And if you have any ideas for my possible sequel to 'Seared in Dreams,' or a story challenge, e-mail me or tell me in a review, I'd appreciate it (writers block. Curses!). Anyway, thanks to all my reviewers- you're the best!
Chapter Six
"Rogue? You awake chére?" An insistent male voice called, drawing her from the recesses of her unconscious mind. She groaned, struggling to open her eyes. "Remy? What happened?" She felt his gentle touch as he brushed back the hair that had fallen over her face. Worriedly she asked, "Where's Logan?" From the direction of the electrical blast that hit her just after Apocalypse's metal cell started closing, he would've been badly hurt too. Though if she'd survived… "Back at de X-mansion, of course, chére. You suffered a bad electrical shock and he isn't much better. I thought for sho' you wouldn't wake up dis time. It was all I could do to keep strong in front of des enfants." 'Des enfants?' he groggy mind echoed. 'Children? But how… oh no!' Rogue finally managed to lift her heavy lids to peer into the concerned face of the man she loved… or the older version of him.
So she was back here. And nothing had changed. He kissed her softly and she felt his love and his relief when she desperately kissed him back, the salty taste of her tears mixing in with the sweetness of his kiss as they drenched her pale cheeks. Rogue pulled back, pressing her face to his shoulder and taking sorely needed breaths. 'Magneto must really be kicking himself for taking me on since I kept endin' up here one way or another," she said with a watery laugh, breathing in the calming scent of him. She sensed his confusion before he laughed, "You'd be surprised chére." 'I wish,' the southern belle thought wistfully, a second before the door to the med lab opened to two very familiar looking kids. "Mom! Wait 'til you see—" BOOM! "—what I can do," the auburn-haired five year old finished, having accidentally blown up a chair just by concentrating on it.
Her eyes widened as they focused on his lean face, which looked older than what she knew he must be. 'And tall for his age too, like Remy,' she thought. The Cajun's brow furrowed, "Chase-" "Mommy!" Another voice, this one younger and decidedly more girlish, cried happily. A two year old with dark brown hair and stripes launched herself at Rogue and she looked at Remy with wide, confused, eyes. 'Two?' she thought in amazement, her arms pulling the child in for a hug as she examined her. A laugh came from the doorway as a tall, thin woman with long brown hair and blue eyes came in- right in front of a man with cropped blue/black hair and dark eyes. But there was a quiet humor on his face too that she immediately recognized despite the more grown-up, serious appearance. "Kitty? Kurt?" she asked, her confusion compounding.
"What are you doing here?" "Baby-sitting. We were so worried when you got blasted destroying those machines in the mission against that anti-mutant organization. Whatever inspired you to go in there like that after we took down the leader and freed the other mutants?" The younger woman chided in a cultured tone, not once using 'like' or 'totally'. "I'm sure that's what they deserved," she murmured distractedly. "Look at me! Look at me! I'm a ghostie!" A girl of about four giggled, suddenly appearing near Rogue's bed then going all white and phasing through the nightstand. A marvelous combination of Kitty and Kurt's powers. 'And looks,' she noted, observing the coffee-colored hair and tawny/golden eyes. Her best friend and her brother. 'Who would've ever thought?' Rogue mused, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. It only broadened when St. John and Piotr walked into the room, Amara and Tabitha close by their sides respectively- all talking amiably.
She looked to Remy, face glowing and emerald eyes sparkling with happiness, and the connection opened between them as his warm, bare hand held hers. She leaned back against the pillows as years worth of images danced before her closed eyelids. 'So this is what became of us all- this is the destiny I was born to fulfill. And why I was gifted with these powers.' Rogue nearly gasped as the sensations, the 'memories' coursed through her and her whole body burned with something unidentifiable, her mind spinning. 'I was born to save the world, to unite my three families.' She didn't hear all the worried voices, didn't feel the panicked hands on her or see her friends' terror- she was too far away from them and from herself; trying to see more, know more, with this limitless power.
But then world grew dead black as her soul took a tumble, crashing back into herself. "Rogue? Rogue?!" Remy's voice finally reached her ears and her eyes snapped open, dazed. "Stripes? You alright, kid?" She heard Logan ask in his usual gruff way, worried. Rogue smiled brilliantly as she picked herself up from the cold stone ground of Apocalypse's tomb. "Better than ever," she said in a voice hushed with awe, surveying the mutants gathered both in and outside of the pyramid with vision surpassing that of any living being. She felt Remy beside her and took his hand, eyes never leaving the group. "Better than ever." Then Jean Grey stepped into Rogue's line of site, coming forward to greet her with a worried, caring expression.
Her eyes darkened as she looked at the older girl with a loathing, resignation, and a little sadness. After all, she had so much ahead of her. Glancing to the Professor, she saw almost an identical expression on his face. He knew it as well as she did. Shaking her head, she smiled again and squeezed Remy's hand as she forced that particular vision into the back of her mind. That was still years away. "Let's go home," she said warmly as she gazed at him and then the group again. "All of us." They had come so far, but there was so much more ahead for them all. And now Rogue knew that together they could handle even the greatest challenge. Because it was in their blood. It was their destiny.
*************************************************************************************************************************************************
