A/N - Makura Koneko; 'can you say update-fest?'
Sure I can. Update-fest.
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Thirteenth Fragment ~ 'Call of the Horizon'
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Lance stretched as he woke. Mmmm... something smelled good. He rubbed his eyes and turned to face Kitty. "Morning, Kitty-Kat. Need help... upstairs?"
She was gone. So was Hope. So was everyone.
Well, except fuzzboy. He was bunked down across the back seat. Lazy freak. Pietro was next to him, and spared Lance the briefest of glances before going back to his silent vigil.
Lance yawned, making his way outside. The speedster's stare was... disturbing. He followed the low conversation to a quasi-barbecue. Hope was asleep in her portable cot, and Kitty - Kitty was too close to the fire!
"Kitty! Freeze, honey. I'll get you somewhere safe, OK?"
Kitty turned to face his voice. "Lance Alvers, stop being such a goose," she chided. "I'm, like, learning how to cook."
"But you'll burn yourself..."
"I'm not a *total* dope. I *can* feel heat, you know."
"But - "
"I've *wanted* to learn how to do things for like, ever, Lance."
"But - "
Her forehead creased. "Aren't you proud?"
He sighed. "Sure I am, Kitty-Kat. Real proud." If he couldn't look after her... what use was he?
Then he noticed the sunbathing stranger on the deckchair.
"Who the hell is she?"
Kitty instantly knew to whom he was referring. "The new girl? Her name's Marie, but she really prefers 'Rogue'. I dunno why. She can borrow powers. She's just a little run down at the moment. And like, totally skinny. If Kurt was awake I think he'd be like, spoon-feeding her or something."
Lance blinked. "The hell?" _Miss one lousy meeting and it all goes nuts..._
Alvin began to explain. Once you filtered out the religious babble, he could spin a decent yarn. It *still* didn't make much sense when he was done, though.
"So... we have another mouth to feed," Lance surmised when he could get a word in edgeways.
"What?" Logan was nearby, feeding the fire with whatever safely flammable substances he'd been able to scrounge from in and around their immediate area. He spoke with a rare smile. "Don't ya like company, Rocky?"
*******************
Rogue grunted and slitted her eyes open. The harsh sunlight was far too bright, and they promptly shut again.
She was sitting down, that much she knew. Had she been sitting down before? Things were a little fuzzy, but she remembered touching Kurt and then falling. She must have blacked out. In a way, she felt better knowing this. Having spent so long lost in her own mind, it was good to finally have clear memories and be able to think straight.
However, the recollection also begged the question; where was she now?
The smell of woodsmoke filtered into her nostrils, tangy and sharp. She snorted, and at once there was the burble of low voices nearby. Something warm and soft brushed her leather-clad leg, and she opened her eyes involuntarily to see what it was.
A pair of huge brown irises stared back at her, visible just beyond the bulk of her knees. They were ringed with longer-than-long eyelashes and fawnish coloured fur, just slightly longer than Kurt's, and they blinked slowly at her.
Rogue startled, jolting her body and then feeling its protests as old wounds from her run-in with the Vanguard back in Bayville made themselves known. The owner of the brown eyes scuttled backwards in fright, and though her own were narrowed in pain, Rogue could make out the form of a small, visibly mutant child.
She cleared her throat. "Hello." Her voice was scratchy and weak, and it hurt to talk, but the kid looked so scared that it made her feel a little guilty.
A pair of feline ears twitched forward. "Hello," replied a quavery voice. "Are... are you a mutant?"
Rogue nodded. Not like she had to lie to someone who was so obviously also a mutant. No tricks there. "My name's Marie, but you can call me Rogue."
Blink. "Why?"
"I just like that name better, is all."
"Oh." The child chewed her lip and glanced over her shoulder. "My name's Robyn. Why're you dressed like that?"
Rogue looked down at herself and blushed. The leather Audrey had suggested she take was thick, but there were huge scoops of open flesh around the areas of her bosom and stomach - much more than she ever would have shown on her own. What covering she *did* wear was jotted with sharpened metal studs obviously designed to wound, and she could feel the telltale bulge of knives and other weaponry secreted about her being. A pair of spiked heels and a whip at her waist completed the dominatrix look, and she shuddered, both at what she must look like and the disconcerting notion that she knew exactly how to use the blades and whip to greatest effect on an opponent. Residual memories from Audrey, no doubt.
"Long story," she sighed, shaking her head in a way that clearly stated she didn't want to talk about it. "Where am I?"
"You don't know?" Robyn frowned. "Pie-Pie, Mommy and Mr. Logan brought you and Kurti back with them after they went out for their walk. They were carrying you, 'cause you were both asleep."
Rogue squinted. Pie-Pie was a nickname Todd had invented for Pietro, and the fleeting memory of a certain Toad being chased around the Boarding House by an annoyed silver blur brought a smile to her lips. "Are they around? I'd... I'd like to say thank you to them. Especially Kurt."
Robyn absently scratched behind her left ear. "Kurti's asleep in the bus, and Mr. Logan's teaching Kitty to cook on the fire. Lance is there too, and so is Mr. Alvin. I think Daisy's off with Mommy somewhere - she's my sister. They can't have gone far, 'cause Mr. Logan said not to stray in case we needed to move out quickly."
"What about Pietro?"
"In the bus with Kurti, I think. He's been waiting for him to wake up ever since you came back. He even said no to dinner because he was waiting for Kurti." She blinked again, eyes troubled. "I was a bit worried, but now that you're awake, Kurti should wake up soon too, and they can come and have some food before we have to leave."
"Oh," Rogue nodded, and sank back in her chair.
Robyn, apparently emboldened by the movement, crept a little closer, and Rogue saw a long, tufted tail snake out behind her. A thought suddenly occurred to the once-Goth girl, and she tilted her head up.
"Where's Mystique? You mentioned a whole bunch of others, but not her. I know she's around. I saw her... earlier."
Robyn stopped and pouted slightly. "Yes I did so tell you. I said she was off with Daisy somewhere. I can't fetch her, because I don't know where they've gone. I was in the bus with Pietro and Kurti when they left." Her expression turned sad.
At this, Rogue's eyes widened. "*Mystique* is your *mother*?"
"Well, sort of," Robyn answered shyly, and began twiddling with the tip of her tail. "She's only been mine and Daisy's Mommy for a little while though. Until last night on the bus she was my *cat*. But she's Kurti's Mommy, and Kurti's been my big brother since I can't remember when. So that makes her my Mommy, doesn't it?"
Rogue tried to slot her jaw back into place from where it had fallen onto her chest. Four years of nobody, and now suddenly she was overburdened with family members - especially siblings. A brother and two sisters, all in the space of... how long was it? She peered up at the sky and saw that it was darkening rapidly, with flecks of starlight appearing here and there. It had been light when she fought Audrey - about midday, if she remembered correctly. God, how long had she been out of it?
"Are you OK?"
Rogue looked down again to see that Robyn had crept close enough to lay her hands on the side of the deckchair. "Yeah, just a little overwhelmed, is all. You see," she smirked, but not unkindly, "*I'm* Kurti's sister, too."
"You *are*?" Robyn goggled. "So now I have *two* sisters, and *two* brothers. Wow."
"Brothers?"
"Yeah, Kurti and Pie-Pie. They're my big brothers. I... I don't know if they're Daisy's too. I'll have to ask them. Daisy says Mr. Logan's her Fairy Godfather, so if she shares him with me, maybe I'll share my brothers with her. That's fair, right?"
The folks around here sure had some strange concepts of family.
Rogue tried to lever herself up, but groaned and fell back, too weak to move just yet. Her stomach let out a hollow growl, and she winced.
"You're hungry," Robyn stated, and stood on two legs to walk away, out of Rogue's field of vision. "I'll go get you something to eat and tell the others you're awake, Miss Rogue."
"It's just Rogue - " but the cat-child was already gone and she found herself speaking to empty air.
Rogue sank back, wondering if anybody else would come over to talk to her. She'd noticed Robyn listed off many people, and though she recognised some, there were others absent that made her gut sink. Not everybody had made it, then. It appeared the population of the Institute up on the hill had been decimated.
But years of torture in the name of science had hardened her to such things more than she perhaps cared to realise, and it was with only a pang of regret that she looked once more at the sky and bid farewell to her old comrades and mutants she'd never really known that well. Stories of the X-Virus hadn't missed the lab, even if the plague itself had.
She closed her eyes; grateful of the chair someone had been thoughtful enough to give her. In the old days she'd hated deckchairs with a vengeance, but right now it was the most comfortable spot in the universe, and she nodded her head forward with a happy sigh, tendrils of smoke and cooking smells sneaking into her nostrils and making her mouth water.
Wait a second. Smoke?
Rogue sat bolt upright and cried out as the wound in her arm split a little. She gritted her teeth and cast about for someone to summon over. They shouldn't be cooking with an open fire. Not here. Before going after Pietro, this was the place where Audrey had spread the oil!
"Put that goddamn fire out!"
"Rogue!" Mystique chided as she rounded the corner - curiously, minus Daisy. "*Language*!"
Logan, at exactly the same time said, "Watch yer mouth, Stripes."
But Rogue would not be silenced. "There's oil all around here! Ya gotta put the fire out!"
"You mean the oil I smelled a mile off an' poured sand in?" Logan deadpanned.
Rogue deflated. "Oh. Guess ya don' need me, then..."
"Nonsense," soothed Mystique, coming up to the deckchair with an air of emotion kept in check only by self-will. Had they been alone, she probably would have just given up and sobbed onto her newly recovered daughter's shoulder, but, as it was she retained a little more decorum in front of others' eyes. "We need everyone we can get."
"The people are comin' back," said Robyn with a broad smile. "An' we're gonna help a goddess fix the world."
Rogue nodded, but she wasn't really listening to the little girl. Instead, she held her coat shut over her clothes. "Is there... um... anythin' in your supplies that'd fit? I don't like the idea of dressin' like her..."
"Pie-Pie found somethin'," Robyn pointed at a pile of ladies' wear. "We've got underthings and everything. Even stuff for your... uh, what did he call it? Oh yeah, yah-yahs."
Rogue went bright crimson, and Mystique stifled a laugh.
"Uh. Thank you."
*******************
"...ow..." said Kurt. He immediately shifted so that more wounded portions of his anatomy weren't under pressure.
"Awake at last. You took your sweet time."
He sighed, unsqueezing his eyes. "Hullo Pietro."
He was nibbling his lip so fast Kurt was half-convinced he was going to chew it right off. "Ican'ttellher, you'vegotta," Pietro gabbled fretfully.
"...huh?"
"Todd. Yougottatellher. I think - maybe she liked him."
Kurt made a face. Rogue and *Todd*? Maybe in another world... Maybe in a different time... He sighed. "All right. But she probably knows anyway. She has my memories, now."
Pietro exhaled, and though there was no smile, the gratefulness in his eyes was enough. "Thanks. I owe you. Big time."
*******************
Logan was teaching Kitty the counting method of cooking[1], but stopped abruptly. Mystique, after checking over Rogue, had taken some quiet time to stare out the hangar door at the horizon. She had the look of someone contemplating deep things and, considering what she'd said to him before, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
"Hey, God-Boy. You take over."
"My name is Alvin, Blessed One."
"Mine's Logan. When you use mine, I'll use yours."
Alvin smiled and nodded, but he didn't say Logan's name. He joined Kitty at the cook-fire and instantly began praising her.
Logan barely noticed. He was paying more attention to Mystique. Or was it Raven, now? He couldn't tell. He crossed the distance between them in a few strides, and caught the end of a sentence she'd been speaking to the empty air.
"...of course it's going to take a while."
"Talkin' to dead people?" He knew that story. A couple of hundred years or so was enough time to pick up a few ghouls and whatnot.
She just nodded. "My ghosts follow me."
He leaned on the opposite side of the doorway, arms folded nonchalantly. "Know the feelin'."
She sighed. "Pietro's too young. Kurt's my son. Alvin? He's a norm. Todd's chosen you."
"Me? What for?"
"For a father. He wants a second chance at life. At love. At family."
Logan sniffed. She smelled sad and lost and... unfertile. "Ain't the right time. And your condition's not all that hot, either. Ya gotta get back to your right weight or nuthin'll happen."
Mystique spared him a sidelong glance. "Sometimes I forget exactly how old you are. You've seen everything."
He shrugged. "Seen humanity get up and fall down. Watchin' it pick itself up again's gonna be interestin'."
"We need more people," she said matter-of-factly. But there was something else to her tone. Something almost... pleading.
Logan felt his chest tighten, and shook it off. "Ain't gonna happen when you're underweight, darlin'."
She exhaled noisily. "Must you be so practical?"
"I gotta. Only way to stay sane."
Another sigh, but she nodded. She knew that, even though she'd been unable to practise it. "We can forage for extra food supplies," she persisted hopefully. "It... couldn't hurt, could it?" There it was again, that pleading note. It had a strange edge to it - desperate, almost.
Logan just got up and walked away. Now was not the time to be thinking down that path. He had too many lives already depending on him to consider another just yet.
Mystique watched him go, silent as the grave.
*******************
She was too damn thin, even with a dress that fit on. Kurt hobbled over on his callipers, wincing and trying to balance.
"I brought you some soup. It's not too bad, or too rich."
"Thanks," said Rogue with a small smile.
He hunkered down, careful about his still-injured rear. "Feeling better?"
"I'm a lot clearer now. I still got her in the back of my head, an' I'm scared she'll get out... but I know I can get better. It helps."
Kurt nodded, and then sucked in a breath. Might as well bite the bullet. Putting it off wouldn't change the fact of the matter. "I... found Todd."
She looked up, eyes hopeful. It was enough to make his heart break. "Here?"
"No. In Bayville. The mobs..." Kurt wiped his face. His voice failed.
"Oh." Rogue felt her face crumple. Even though her eyes were dry, her body was wracked with sobs. "Why *him*?" she managed after a moment, traitorous shoulders threatening to judder again and *squeeze* the tears from her eyes. "He never done nuthin' to nobody..."
Carefully, Kurt wrapped her in a hug. "Ssshhhhh... at least it was quick, ja?" _Quicker than the virus, anyway._ "He might have been scared, but it was brief." Then he added the lie, "He never knew what hit him."
It was a small, thin comfort, and hardly a mercy at all.
*******************
Daisy was playing with something next to the wheel of the bus. Robyn spotted her easily, despite the gloom of the hangar, and abandoned the warmth of the fire to patter over.
"Whatcha doing?"
Daisy looked up, pale eyes enormous as she tried to see through the shadows. Whatever else her mutations, night-vision wasn't one of them. The little lizard-girl held a finger to her lips and pointed to the ground just beneath the tyre of the double-decker.
Curious, Robyn crouched down onto her hands and knees. "I don't see anything," she whispered, a little putout.
Daisy leaned forward and joined her 'sister' in peering under the vehicle. "Darnit!" she exclaimed. "S'gone."
"What's gone?" Robyn pestered, and sat up straight again. "What were you playing with?"
Daisy looked about her warily. "Promise you won't tell nobody?"
Robyn chewed her lip a little at that. Kurti had once told her it was wrong to keep secrets, just like it was wrong to tell lies. But her curiosity was piqued, and she nodded dumbly at the older girl. Though she didn't realise it, Robyn was fast becoming a sheep around the more-travelled and worldlier Daisy. She was more than a little in awe of her, owing to the fact she hadn't interacted with many children her own age in her short lifetime, and would probably have told her first lie if Daisy had ordered her to.
"Good," Daisy replied. "My Pa always said he'd drown one if he ever saw it and use it fer cookin' meat. I heard them over there," she jerked a thumb back at the cluster near the fire, "Sayin' that we need to find more food soon, an' I don't wanna see him cooked an' eaten!"
"See *who* cooked and eaten?" Robyn's soft eyes were wide, and she leaned in closer to hear Daisy's conspiratal whispers.
"Purrei."
"What?"
Daisy sighed dramatically. "S'not 'what', it's *pardon*. Mr. Logan taught me that. Go on, say 'pardon', an' I'll tell ya."
"Um... pardon?"
"Good." Daisy hunkered down once more, and murmured, "A puppy."
"A *puppy*!"
"Shhh! Keep it down, will ya?" Daisy waggled a scaly hand and looked towards the fire. When nobody appeared to have heard them, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, a puppy. I was playin' with him. Real nice he was, too. But he's run off now." She looked sad.
Robyn pursed her lips in thought. "I could try smelling for him, if you like," she offered. "Kurti says I have a real good nose, and I used to smell the mice and rats out all the time in our old home."
Immediately, Daisy's reptilian eyes brightened. "D'ya think you could?"
"I can try."
She crouched down again, closed her eyes and sniffed. A myriad of smells met her sensitive nostrils, some of which she recognised, others that were completely foreign and new. Over them all pervaded the aroma of grease and petrol; laced with dust and age from the floor itself. Robyn inhaled deeply; trying to filter out the scents she recognised in favour of those she didn't, and delicately picked to pieces everything else after the distinctive smell of dog. She knew what canines smelled like. They used to roam Bayville freely when she was little, and their scent was so unique she hadn't forgotten it, even after the gangs and desperate survivors had killed the last of them.
"You smell him yet?" Daisy's disembodied voice flitted into her ear, and she twitched them back, concentration broken.
"Give me a minute."
"I've given you a minute, now do you smell Clive yet?"
At this, Robyn opened her eyes, though she didn't raise herself up. "Clive?"
"Um, yeah. That's what I've decided to call him."
"Call who?" said a voice.
Robyn jerked in surprise and banged her head sharply on the underside of the bus. She fell out from under it, clutching at her ear and blinking profusely.
Pietro knelt down before her. "You OK, Robyn? Hit yourself?" She nodded, rubbing at the sore spot. Pietro checked for damages, but found none. "What were you doing under there, anyway?" he asked. "Little girls shouldn't be messing around underneath buses."
Daisy, who had sprung to her feet, now scuffed them, sending up clouds of dust that danced haphazardly on the air. "Just playin'," she mumbled. "We was just playin' around."
Pietro shot her a curious look, but didn't question her further. Instead, he told them; "Well, Alvin says the food's ready now, so you're both to quit playing and come eat."
"Food?" Daisy practically salivated, and ran off whooping before he could say another word.
Robyn continued rubbing at her sore patch, and followed at a more sedate pace and clutching onto Pietro's hand. "Pie-Pie," she said after a few moments.
"Yeah?"
"Guess what?"
"What?"
She sucked in a lungful of air through her sharp little canines. "Well, for one thing, it's not 'what', it's 'pardon'. And for another, I found out that Miss Rogue is Kurti's sister, and she says she'd gonna be *my* sister too. I guess she can be Daisy's sister, but d'ya think that means Mr. Logan's gonna be my Fairy Godfather, just like he is Daisy's?"
Pietro blinked under the barrage of information. "I... uh. I guess." _Rogue is Kurt's sister? Suppose I should've seen that one coming._
Robyn smiled and rested her cheek against the back of his hand. "Don't worry, Pie-Pie, I'm sure Mr. Logan can be *your* Fairy Godfather too. After all, you're my big brother."
Am image of Logan in tights and a pink tutu whilst doing a Marlon Brando impression flickered through Pietro's mind, and he suppressed a snicker.
Neither one of them noticed the pair of soulful brown eyes peeping out from behind the bus wheel, nor heard the quiet whine that accompanied them.
*******************
"The more I think about it," said Lance over their meal. "The less I like those fuel cans upstairs. Can we swap 'em for the junk in the jeep?"
"It's not junk," said Kurt a trifle defensively, "it's Forge's legacy. One of those gizmos is bound to be some good. He was working on something newish right up until - " He stopped, and shook his head. "All I know is that it's in there somewhere."
"What is?"
"Ororo's cure, of course."
"Either way, it's safer to have upstairs than all that gas," Lance argued. "It isn't right. And the fumes might affect Kitty. Or Hope."
"Hey, I don't mind," said Pietro. "Gives me something to do. I mean, besides seeing if airline food is the Twinkie of today. Or scavenging for stuff."
"I thought you *liked* scavenging," said Kitty, rearranging Baby Hope at her breast.
Pietro shook his head, eyes darting out of the door. "Not in *this* 'burg. People are fighting over clean water and selling their kids for *dogs*. It's getting ugly out there."
"Ja. Nicht we weg[2]..." Kurt muttered. "We're lucky we have supplies to last a while. If we find somewhere more civilised than here, maybe we can trade or something."
"Maybe those of us who can *pass* can trade," said Mystique judiciously. "There's still a large anti-mutant sentiment amongst the norms out there."
Kurt sighed, staring into his bowl and tracing the contents with his eyes. "Norms and muties. Muties and norms. Is there anywhere where it's just 'people'."
"The Goddess welcomes all into her paradise," Alvin reeled off.
Kurt raised a brow. "Ja? How many muties are there?"
"Including the Goddess? Two." Alvin blushed. "There's a trading town nearby where they - *sell* - the Blessed Ones. We try to buy their freedom, but... our resources are few. We haven't won a single bid, yet."
The effect on Kurt was electric. "THEY *SELL* PEOPLE?!" he roared, then followed his outburst by a string of curses in all the languages he knew. Which was quite a few.
Robyn plugged her ears, and Daisy followed her lead.
Hope woke up and cried.
"Someone," Kurt muttered once the air was a nice shade of cerulean, "is going to *pay* for this - this - ARGH! *Selling* people! How *can* they?"
"People are goin' backwards, Elf," said Logan calmly, hovering up his food like they were talking about the weather. "Slavery's one of the nasty things we left behind 'cause we could afford to. Now we can't, it's back."
"Doesn't it bother you? Ach, I knew we should've stolen a pig," Kurt griped. "Maybe two. That's how the Pig Brothers lived so long. Trading for bacon. You can get a lot for a pig..."
"People are worth more than animals, Elf."
"...Rrrrrrrr..."
"Don't you start growlin' at me 'cause you don't like the truth."
"I'm not growling at you, I'm growling at the world."
Daisy lifted one hand from her ear. "Have ya stopped cussin' yet?"
Kurt nodded, and his chest deflated like a popped balloon as his anger was abruptly replaced by a milder form of despair at the universe. "Ja. I'm safe, now."
"Can I be excused?" Robyn asked politely. "I wanna go play for a while."
"Ja... ja, go play. Just play safe, ne?"
"Uh-huh." She snagged Daisy on her way away from the fire. Soon, they were hanging around the rear of the bus, playing the oldest girl game in the world near the wheel - whisper and giggle.
Kurt sighed, watching them in the gloom. He took his bowl with him and went to stand by the hangar door, staring much like his mother had done not so long ago. Nobody made any move to stop him, but Rogue watched him go, then excused herself for a moment to follow.
"What's up?" she asked once she was close enough, sounding for all the world like a normal young woman without a murderous mutant hunter living in her head. Her physical appearance said she was twenty, but her manner of speech was still stuck in the rut of sixteen - the last time she'd been a free person.
Kurt shook his head. "It's times like this I miss meine Schwesters in Germany - my adoptive family..." He went back to eating, still standing up, eyes fixed on the horizon. "I don't even know if they survived."
Rogue's brows met, and she reached for his hand. He didn't pull away, and the gloves she'd found in the pile of cast-offs made a shushing sound as she rubbed his thumb with her own. She had no words to offer, but somehow... it didn't matter.
*******************
By sunset, Ariel had emptied his barrels and netted 200-something dollars without even changing location. Not bad for his first day of independent business.
Now for a place to spend the night. He'd filled his barrels mostly from the river running through the city of Reno, Nevada, but that was too dirty to sleep in.
_Don't get anything done by sitting around,_ he reasoned, and pushed his barrow through the quiet streets. Hardly anyone respectable dared to go out after sundown, which was why a good hiding place was of utmost importance.
He didn't get far before realising just how tired he was, both mentally and physically. He set down his cart and sat on a manhole cover, taking off his heavy vest and laying it beside him.
Unbidden by his conscious mind, a tube of water snaked out of the storm drain behind him. It assumed the form of a small dragon and curled around behind the elemental mutant. The water-being nudged its master's shoulder, calling his attention to what he had created. It then pointed its nose towards a nearby building from which a steady dripping could be heard.
Ariel rose, picked up his vest, and walked towards the building, dragon floating close behind. It passed him just beyond the doorway and led the way down a staircase. When his eyes adjusted, he saw the dim light reflecting off the surface of calm water, which rippled as the dragon rejoined its kith and kin.
A flooded basement seemed safe enough. Ariel ascended the stairs and picked up a wooden chair. As he undressed, he hung his clothes neatly. He then tromped back downstairs and dived gracefully into the water. He floated in the dark, gills flapping gently, and slept the sleep of the free.
*******************
To Be Continued...
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[1] You count a certain way, for a certain length of time, and that's when you know it's browned just right.
[2] Better off gone.
Sure I can. Update-fest.
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Thirteenth Fragment ~ 'Call of the Horizon'
*******************
Lance stretched as he woke. Mmmm... something smelled good. He rubbed his eyes and turned to face Kitty. "Morning, Kitty-Kat. Need help... upstairs?"
She was gone. So was Hope. So was everyone.
Well, except fuzzboy. He was bunked down across the back seat. Lazy freak. Pietro was next to him, and spared Lance the briefest of glances before going back to his silent vigil.
Lance yawned, making his way outside. The speedster's stare was... disturbing. He followed the low conversation to a quasi-barbecue. Hope was asleep in her portable cot, and Kitty - Kitty was too close to the fire!
"Kitty! Freeze, honey. I'll get you somewhere safe, OK?"
Kitty turned to face his voice. "Lance Alvers, stop being such a goose," she chided. "I'm, like, learning how to cook."
"But you'll burn yourself..."
"I'm not a *total* dope. I *can* feel heat, you know."
"But - "
"I've *wanted* to learn how to do things for like, ever, Lance."
"But - "
Her forehead creased. "Aren't you proud?"
He sighed. "Sure I am, Kitty-Kat. Real proud." If he couldn't look after her... what use was he?
Then he noticed the sunbathing stranger on the deckchair.
"Who the hell is she?"
Kitty instantly knew to whom he was referring. "The new girl? Her name's Marie, but she really prefers 'Rogue'. I dunno why. She can borrow powers. She's just a little run down at the moment. And like, totally skinny. If Kurt was awake I think he'd be like, spoon-feeding her or something."
Lance blinked. "The hell?" _Miss one lousy meeting and it all goes nuts..._
Alvin began to explain. Once you filtered out the religious babble, he could spin a decent yarn. It *still* didn't make much sense when he was done, though.
"So... we have another mouth to feed," Lance surmised when he could get a word in edgeways.
"What?" Logan was nearby, feeding the fire with whatever safely flammable substances he'd been able to scrounge from in and around their immediate area. He spoke with a rare smile. "Don't ya like company, Rocky?"
*******************
Rogue grunted and slitted her eyes open. The harsh sunlight was far too bright, and they promptly shut again.
She was sitting down, that much she knew. Had she been sitting down before? Things were a little fuzzy, but she remembered touching Kurt and then falling. She must have blacked out. In a way, she felt better knowing this. Having spent so long lost in her own mind, it was good to finally have clear memories and be able to think straight.
However, the recollection also begged the question; where was she now?
The smell of woodsmoke filtered into her nostrils, tangy and sharp. She snorted, and at once there was the burble of low voices nearby. Something warm and soft brushed her leather-clad leg, and she opened her eyes involuntarily to see what it was.
A pair of huge brown irises stared back at her, visible just beyond the bulk of her knees. They were ringed with longer-than-long eyelashes and fawnish coloured fur, just slightly longer than Kurt's, and they blinked slowly at her.
Rogue startled, jolting her body and then feeling its protests as old wounds from her run-in with the Vanguard back in Bayville made themselves known. The owner of the brown eyes scuttled backwards in fright, and though her own were narrowed in pain, Rogue could make out the form of a small, visibly mutant child.
She cleared her throat. "Hello." Her voice was scratchy and weak, and it hurt to talk, but the kid looked so scared that it made her feel a little guilty.
A pair of feline ears twitched forward. "Hello," replied a quavery voice. "Are... are you a mutant?"
Rogue nodded. Not like she had to lie to someone who was so obviously also a mutant. No tricks there. "My name's Marie, but you can call me Rogue."
Blink. "Why?"
"I just like that name better, is all."
"Oh." The child chewed her lip and glanced over her shoulder. "My name's Robyn. Why're you dressed like that?"
Rogue looked down at herself and blushed. The leather Audrey had suggested she take was thick, but there were huge scoops of open flesh around the areas of her bosom and stomach - much more than she ever would have shown on her own. What covering she *did* wear was jotted with sharpened metal studs obviously designed to wound, and she could feel the telltale bulge of knives and other weaponry secreted about her being. A pair of spiked heels and a whip at her waist completed the dominatrix look, and she shuddered, both at what she must look like and the disconcerting notion that she knew exactly how to use the blades and whip to greatest effect on an opponent. Residual memories from Audrey, no doubt.
"Long story," she sighed, shaking her head in a way that clearly stated she didn't want to talk about it. "Where am I?"
"You don't know?" Robyn frowned. "Pie-Pie, Mommy and Mr. Logan brought you and Kurti back with them after they went out for their walk. They were carrying you, 'cause you were both asleep."
Rogue squinted. Pie-Pie was a nickname Todd had invented for Pietro, and the fleeting memory of a certain Toad being chased around the Boarding House by an annoyed silver blur brought a smile to her lips. "Are they around? I'd... I'd like to say thank you to them. Especially Kurt."
Robyn absently scratched behind her left ear. "Kurti's asleep in the bus, and Mr. Logan's teaching Kitty to cook on the fire. Lance is there too, and so is Mr. Alvin. I think Daisy's off with Mommy somewhere - she's my sister. They can't have gone far, 'cause Mr. Logan said not to stray in case we needed to move out quickly."
"What about Pietro?"
"In the bus with Kurti, I think. He's been waiting for him to wake up ever since you came back. He even said no to dinner because he was waiting for Kurti." She blinked again, eyes troubled. "I was a bit worried, but now that you're awake, Kurti should wake up soon too, and they can come and have some food before we have to leave."
"Oh," Rogue nodded, and sank back in her chair.
Robyn, apparently emboldened by the movement, crept a little closer, and Rogue saw a long, tufted tail snake out behind her. A thought suddenly occurred to the once-Goth girl, and she tilted her head up.
"Where's Mystique? You mentioned a whole bunch of others, but not her. I know she's around. I saw her... earlier."
Robyn stopped and pouted slightly. "Yes I did so tell you. I said she was off with Daisy somewhere. I can't fetch her, because I don't know where they've gone. I was in the bus with Pietro and Kurti when they left." Her expression turned sad.
At this, Rogue's eyes widened. "*Mystique* is your *mother*?"
"Well, sort of," Robyn answered shyly, and began twiddling with the tip of her tail. "She's only been mine and Daisy's Mommy for a little while though. Until last night on the bus she was my *cat*. But she's Kurti's Mommy, and Kurti's been my big brother since I can't remember when. So that makes her my Mommy, doesn't it?"
Rogue tried to slot her jaw back into place from where it had fallen onto her chest. Four years of nobody, and now suddenly she was overburdened with family members - especially siblings. A brother and two sisters, all in the space of... how long was it? She peered up at the sky and saw that it was darkening rapidly, with flecks of starlight appearing here and there. It had been light when she fought Audrey - about midday, if she remembered correctly. God, how long had she been out of it?
"Are you OK?"
Rogue looked down again to see that Robyn had crept close enough to lay her hands on the side of the deckchair. "Yeah, just a little overwhelmed, is all. You see," she smirked, but not unkindly, "*I'm* Kurti's sister, too."
"You *are*?" Robyn goggled. "So now I have *two* sisters, and *two* brothers. Wow."
"Brothers?"
"Yeah, Kurti and Pie-Pie. They're my big brothers. I... I don't know if they're Daisy's too. I'll have to ask them. Daisy says Mr. Logan's her Fairy Godfather, so if she shares him with me, maybe I'll share my brothers with her. That's fair, right?"
The folks around here sure had some strange concepts of family.
Rogue tried to lever herself up, but groaned and fell back, too weak to move just yet. Her stomach let out a hollow growl, and she winced.
"You're hungry," Robyn stated, and stood on two legs to walk away, out of Rogue's field of vision. "I'll go get you something to eat and tell the others you're awake, Miss Rogue."
"It's just Rogue - " but the cat-child was already gone and she found herself speaking to empty air.
Rogue sank back, wondering if anybody else would come over to talk to her. She'd noticed Robyn listed off many people, and though she recognised some, there were others absent that made her gut sink. Not everybody had made it, then. It appeared the population of the Institute up on the hill had been decimated.
But years of torture in the name of science had hardened her to such things more than she perhaps cared to realise, and it was with only a pang of regret that she looked once more at the sky and bid farewell to her old comrades and mutants she'd never really known that well. Stories of the X-Virus hadn't missed the lab, even if the plague itself had.
She closed her eyes; grateful of the chair someone had been thoughtful enough to give her. In the old days she'd hated deckchairs with a vengeance, but right now it was the most comfortable spot in the universe, and she nodded her head forward with a happy sigh, tendrils of smoke and cooking smells sneaking into her nostrils and making her mouth water.
Wait a second. Smoke?
Rogue sat bolt upright and cried out as the wound in her arm split a little. She gritted her teeth and cast about for someone to summon over. They shouldn't be cooking with an open fire. Not here. Before going after Pietro, this was the place where Audrey had spread the oil!
"Put that goddamn fire out!"
"Rogue!" Mystique chided as she rounded the corner - curiously, minus Daisy. "*Language*!"
Logan, at exactly the same time said, "Watch yer mouth, Stripes."
But Rogue would not be silenced. "There's oil all around here! Ya gotta put the fire out!"
"You mean the oil I smelled a mile off an' poured sand in?" Logan deadpanned.
Rogue deflated. "Oh. Guess ya don' need me, then..."
"Nonsense," soothed Mystique, coming up to the deckchair with an air of emotion kept in check only by self-will. Had they been alone, she probably would have just given up and sobbed onto her newly recovered daughter's shoulder, but, as it was she retained a little more decorum in front of others' eyes. "We need everyone we can get."
"The people are comin' back," said Robyn with a broad smile. "An' we're gonna help a goddess fix the world."
Rogue nodded, but she wasn't really listening to the little girl. Instead, she held her coat shut over her clothes. "Is there... um... anythin' in your supplies that'd fit? I don't like the idea of dressin' like her..."
"Pie-Pie found somethin'," Robyn pointed at a pile of ladies' wear. "We've got underthings and everything. Even stuff for your... uh, what did he call it? Oh yeah, yah-yahs."
Rogue went bright crimson, and Mystique stifled a laugh.
"Uh. Thank you."
*******************
"...ow..." said Kurt. He immediately shifted so that more wounded portions of his anatomy weren't under pressure.
"Awake at last. You took your sweet time."
He sighed, unsqueezing his eyes. "Hullo Pietro."
He was nibbling his lip so fast Kurt was half-convinced he was going to chew it right off. "Ican'ttellher, you'vegotta," Pietro gabbled fretfully.
"...huh?"
"Todd. Yougottatellher. I think - maybe she liked him."
Kurt made a face. Rogue and *Todd*? Maybe in another world... Maybe in a different time... He sighed. "All right. But she probably knows anyway. She has my memories, now."
Pietro exhaled, and though there was no smile, the gratefulness in his eyes was enough. "Thanks. I owe you. Big time."
*******************
Logan was teaching Kitty the counting method of cooking[1], but stopped abruptly. Mystique, after checking over Rogue, had taken some quiet time to stare out the hangar door at the horizon. She had the look of someone contemplating deep things and, considering what she'd said to him before, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
"Hey, God-Boy. You take over."
"My name is Alvin, Blessed One."
"Mine's Logan. When you use mine, I'll use yours."
Alvin smiled and nodded, but he didn't say Logan's name. He joined Kitty at the cook-fire and instantly began praising her.
Logan barely noticed. He was paying more attention to Mystique. Or was it Raven, now? He couldn't tell. He crossed the distance between them in a few strides, and caught the end of a sentence she'd been speaking to the empty air.
"...of course it's going to take a while."
"Talkin' to dead people?" He knew that story. A couple of hundred years or so was enough time to pick up a few ghouls and whatnot.
She just nodded. "My ghosts follow me."
He leaned on the opposite side of the doorway, arms folded nonchalantly. "Know the feelin'."
She sighed. "Pietro's too young. Kurt's my son. Alvin? He's a norm. Todd's chosen you."
"Me? What for?"
"For a father. He wants a second chance at life. At love. At family."
Logan sniffed. She smelled sad and lost and... unfertile. "Ain't the right time. And your condition's not all that hot, either. Ya gotta get back to your right weight or nuthin'll happen."
Mystique spared him a sidelong glance. "Sometimes I forget exactly how old you are. You've seen everything."
He shrugged. "Seen humanity get up and fall down. Watchin' it pick itself up again's gonna be interestin'."
"We need more people," she said matter-of-factly. But there was something else to her tone. Something almost... pleading.
Logan felt his chest tighten, and shook it off. "Ain't gonna happen when you're underweight, darlin'."
She exhaled noisily. "Must you be so practical?"
"I gotta. Only way to stay sane."
Another sigh, but she nodded. She knew that, even though she'd been unable to practise it. "We can forage for extra food supplies," she persisted hopefully. "It... couldn't hurt, could it?" There it was again, that pleading note. It had a strange edge to it - desperate, almost.
Logan just got up and walked away. Now was not the time to be thinking down that path. He had too many lives already depending on him to consider another just yet.
Mystique watched him go, silent as the grave.
*******************
She was too damn thin, even with a dress that fit on. Kurt hobbled over on his callipers, wincing and trying to balance.
"I brought you some soup. It's not too bad, or too rich."
"Thanks," said Rogue with a small smile.
He hunkered down, careful about his still-injured rear. "Feeling better?"
"I'm a lot clearer now. I still got her in the back of my head, an' I'm scared she'll get out... but I know I can get better. It helps."
Kurt nodded, and then sucked in a breath. Might as well bite the bullet. Putting it off wouldn't change the fact of the matter. "I... found Todd."
She looked up, eyes hopeful. It was enough to make his heart break. "Here?"
"No. In Bayville. The mobs..." Kurt wiped his face. His voice failed.
"Oh." Rogue felt her face crumple. Even though her eyes were dry, her body was wracked with sobs. "Why *him*?" she managed after a moment, traitorous shoulders threatening to judder again and *squeeze* the tears from her eyes. "He never done nuthin' to nobody..."
Carefully, Kurt wrapped her in a hug. "Ssshhhhh... at least it was quick, ja?" _Quicker than the virus, anyway._ "He might have been scared, but it was brief." Then he added the lie, "He never knew what hit him."
It was a small, thin comfort, and hardly a mercy at all.
*******************
Daisy was playing with something next to the wheel of the bus. Robyn spotted her easily, despite the gloom of the hangar, and abandoned the warmth of the fire to patter over.
"Whatcha doing?"
Daisy looked up, pale eyes enormous as she tried to see through the shadows. Whatever else her mutations, night-vision wasn't one of them. The little lizard-girl held a finger to her lips and pointed to the ground just beneath the tyre of the double-decker.
Curious, Robyn crouched down onto her hands and knees. "I don't see anything," she whispered, a little putout.
Daisy leaned forward and joined her 'sister' in peering under the vehicle. "Darnit!" she exclaimed. "S'gone."
"What's gone?" Robyn pestered, and sat up straight again. "What were you playing with?"
Daisy looked about her warily. "Promise you won't tell nobody?"
Robyn chewed her lip a little at that. Kurti had once told her it was wrong to keep secrets, just like it was wrong to tell lies. But her curiosity was piqued, and she nodded dumbly at the older girl. Though she didn't realise it, Robyn was fast becoming a sheep around the more-travelled and worldlier Daisy. She was more than a little in awe of her, owing to the fact she hadn't interacted with many children her own age in her short lifetime, and would probably have told her first lie if Daisy had ordered her to.
"Good," Daisy replied. "My Pa always said he'd drown one if he ever saw it and use it fer cookin' meat. I heard them over there," she jerked a thumb back at the cluster near the fire, "Sayin' that we need to find more food soon, an' I don't wanna see him cooked an' eaten!"
"See *who* cooked and eaten?" Robyn's soft eyes were wide, and she leaned in closer to hear Daisy's conspiratal whispers.
"Purrei."
"What?"
Daisy sighed dramatically. "S'not 'what', it's *pardon*. Mr. Logan taught me that. Go on, say 'pardon', an' I'll tell ya."
"Um... pardon?"
"Good." Daisy hunkered down once more, and murmured, "A puppy."
"A *puppy*!"
"Shhh! Keep it down, will ya?" Daisy waggled a scaly hand and looked towards the fire. When nobody appeared to have heard them, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, a puppy. I was playin' with him. Real nice he was, too. But he's run off now." She looked sad.
Robyn pursed her lips in thought. "I could try smelling for him, if you like," she offered. "Kurti says I have a real good nose, and I used to smell the mice and rats out all the time in our old home."
Immediately, Daisy's reptilian eyes brightened. "D'ya think you could?"
"I can try."
She crouched down again, closed her eyes and sniffed. A myriad of smells met her sensitive nostrils, some of which she recognised, others that were completely foreign and new. Over them all pervaded the aroma of grease and petrol; laced with dust and age from the floor itself. Robyn inhaled deeply; trying to filter out the scents she recognised in favour of those she didn't, and delicately picked to pieces everything else after the distinctive smell of dog. She knew what canines smelled like. They used to roam Bayville freely when she was little, and their scent was so unique she hadn't forgotten it, even after the gangs and desperate survivors had killed the last of them.
"You smell him yet?" Daisy's disembodied voice flitted into her ear, and she twitched them back, concentration broken.
"Give me a minute."
"I've given you a minute, now do you smell Clive yet?"
At this, Robyn opened her eyes, though she didn't raise herself up. "Clive?"
"Um, yeah. That's what I've decided to call him."
"Call who?" said a voice.
Robyn jerked in surprise and banged her head sharply on the underside of the bus. She fell out from under it, clutching at her ear and blinking profusely.
Pietro knelt down before her. "You OK, Robyn? Hit yourself?" She nodded, rubbing at the sore spot. Pietro checked for damages, but found none. "What were you doing under there, anyway?" he asked. "Little girls shouldn't be messing around underneath buses."
Daisy, who had sprung to her feet, now scuffed them, sending up clouds of dust that danced haphazardly on the air. "Just playin'," she mumbled. "We was just playin' around."
Pietro shot her a curious look, but didn't question her further. Instead, he told them; "Well, Alvin says the food's ready now, so you're both to quit playing and come eat."
"Food?" Daisy practically salivated, and ran off whooping before he could say another word.
Robyn continued rubbing at her sore patch, and followed at a more sedate pace and clutching onto Pietro's hand. "Pie-Pie," she said after a few moments.
"Yeah?"
"Guess what?"
"What?"
She sucked in a lungful of air through her sharp little canines. "Well, for one thing, it's not 'what', it's 'pardon'. And for another, I found out that Miss Rogue is Kurti's sister, and she says she'd gonna be *my* sister too. I guess she can be Daisy's sister, but d'ya think that means Mr. Logan's gonna be my Fairy Godfather, just like he is Daisy's?"
Pietro blinked under the barrage of information. "I... uh. I guess." _Rogue is Kurt's sister? Suppose I should've seen that one coming._
Robyn smiled and rested her cheek against the back of his hand. "Don't worry, Pie-Pie, I'm sure Mr. Logan can be *your* Fairy Godfather too. After all, you're my big brother."
Am image of Logan in tights and a pink tutu whilst doing a Marlon Brando impression flickered through Pietro's mind, and he suppressed a snicker.
Neither one of them noticed the pair of soulful brown eyes peeping out from behind the bus wheel, nor heard the quiet whine that accompanied them.
*******************
"The more I think about it," said Lance over their meal. "The less I like those fuel cans upstairs. Can we swap 'em for the junk in the jeep?"
"It's not junk," said Kurt a trifle defensively, "it's Forge's legacy. One of those gizmos is bound to be some good. He was working on something newish right up until - " He stopped, and shook his head. "All I know is that it's in there somewhere."
"What is?"
"Ororo's cure, of course."
"Either way, it's safer to have upstairs than all that gas," Lance argued. "It isn't right. And the fumes might affect Kitty. Or Hope."
"Hey, I don't mind," said Pietro. "Gives me something to do. I mean, besides seeing if airline food is the Twinkie of today. Or scavenging for stuff."
"I thought you *liked* scavenging," said Kitty, rearranging Baby Hope at her breast.
Pietro shook his head, eyes darting out of the door. "Not in *this* 'burg. People are fighting over clean water and selling their kids for *dogs*. It's getting ugly out there."
"Ja. Nicht we weg[2]..." Kurt muttered. "We're lucky we have supplies to last a while. If we find somewhere more civilised than here, maybe we can trade or something."
"Maybe those of us who can *pass* can trade," said Mystique judiciously. "There's still a large anti-mutant sentiment amongst the norms out there."
Kurt sighed, staring into his bowl and tracing the contents with his eyes. "Norms and muties. Muties and norms. Is there anywhere where it's just 'people'."
"The Goddess welcomes all into her paradise," Alvin reeled off.
Kurt raised a brow. "Ja? How many muties are there?"
"Including the Goddess? Two." Alvin blushed. "There's a trading town nearby where they - *sell* - the Blessed Ones. We try to buy their freedom, but... our resources are few. We haven't won a single bid, yet."
The effect on Kurt was electric. "THEY *SELL* PEOPLE?!" he roared, then followed his outburst by a string of curses in all the languages he knew. Which was quite a few.
Robyn plugged her ears, and Daisy followed her lead.
Hope woke up and cried.
"Someone," Kurt muttered once the air was a nice shade of cerulean, "is going to *pay* for this - this - ARGH! *Selling* people! How *can* they?"
"People are goin' backwards, Elf," said Logan calmly, hovering up his food like they were talking about the weather. "Slavery's one of the nasty things we left behind 'cause we could afford to. Now we can't, it's back."
"Doesn't it bother you? Ach, I knew we should've stolen a pig," Kurt griped. "Maybe two. That's how the Pig Brothers lived so long. Trading for bacon. You can get a lot for a pig..."
"People are worth more than animals, Elf."
"...Rrrrrrrr..."
"Don't you start growlin' at me 'cause you don't like the truth."
"I'm not growling at you, I'm growling at the world."
Daisy lifted one hand from her ear. "Have ya stopped cussin' yet?"
Kurt nodded, and his chest deflated like a popped balloon as his anger was abruptly replaced by a milder form of despair at the universe. "Ja. I'm safe, now."
"Can I be excused?" Robyn asked politely. "I wanna go play for a while."
"Ja... ja, go play. Just play safe, ne?"
"Uh-huh." She snagged Daisy on her way away from the fire. Soon, they were hanging around the rear of the bus, playing the oldest girl game in the world near the wheel - whisper and giggle.
Kurt sighed, watching them in the gloom. He took his bowl with him and went to stand by the hangar door, staring much like his mother had done not so long ago. Nobody made any move to stop him, but Rogue watched him go, then excused herself for a moment to follow.
"What's up?" she asked once she was close enough, sounding for all the world like a normal young woman without a murderous mutant hunter living in her head. Her physical appearance said she was twenty, but her manner of speech was still stuck in the rut of sixteen - the last time she'd been a free person.
Kurt shook his head. "It's times like this I miss meine Schwesters in Germany - my adoptive family..." He went back to eating, still standing up, eyes fixed on the horizon. "I don't even know if they survived."
Rogue's brows met, and she reached for his hand. He didn't pull away, and the gloves she'd found in the pile of cast-offs made a shushing sound as she rubbed his thumb with her own. She had no words to offer, but somehow... it didn't matter.
*******************
By sunset, Ariel had emptied his barrels and netted 200-something dollars without even changing location. Not bad for his first day of independent business.
Now for a place to spend the night. He'd filled his barrels mostly from the river running through the city of Reno, Nevada, but that was too dirty to sleep in.
_Don't get anything done by sitting around,_ he reasoned, and pushed his barrow through the quiet streets. Hardly anyone respectable dared to go out after sundown, which was why a good hiding place was of utmost importance.
He didn't get far before realising just how tired he was, both mentally and physically. He set down his cart and sat on a manhole cover, taking off his heavy vest and laying it beside him.
Unbidden by his conscious mind, a tube of water snaked out of the storm drain behind him. It assumed the form of a small dragon and curled around behind the elemental mutant. The water-being nudged its master's shoulder, calling his attention to what he had created. It then pointed its nose towards a nearby building from which a steady dripping could be heard.
Ariel rose, picked up his vest, and walked towards the building, dragon floating close behind. It passed him just beyond the doorway and led the way down a staircase. When his eyes adjusted, he saw the dim light reflecting off the surface of calm water, which rippled as the dragon rejoined its kith and kin.
A flooded basement seemed safe enough. Ariel ascended the stairs and picked up a wooden chair. As he undressed, he hung his clothes neatly. He then tromped back downstairs and dived gracefully into the water. He floated in the dark, gills flapping gently, and slept the sleep of the free.
*******************
To Be Continued...
*******************
[1] You count a certain way, for a certain length of time, and that's when you know it's browned just right.
[2] Better off gone.