Hey People,
With 4 chapters left in the story I'm honestly wonder what the point is. I've been iffy about this story before I ever started to post it and even though the reviews I have received have been wonderful - I'm just not feeling like this is being received all that well. I can't help thinking that perhaps it's not X-Men Movieverse enough or its too rushed. I'll still post the next few chapters - I hate leaving fics unfinished when I can help it.
I'm grateful to all of you who did give me reviews and hope you'll enjoy this through till the end.
~Gimpy~
****
Damning light fluttered across the surface of her eyelids, rudely forcing her back to reality. She fought it as best she could, not wanting to feel the pain in full force instead of the muted lull it had become now. The choice was ripped from her grasp when the sound of someone humming softly greeted her dazed ears. Moaning softly, she tried to move her arms over her ears. Met with resistance, she pried her eyes open, cursing as the moment she did light slammed into her sensitive eyes. The humming stopped and the sound of metal grinding against stone grated at her nerves.
"You're awake. That's good, you were starting to worry me a little." The voice that rang through the hollowed room bounced off the walls and burrowed into her ears. Grimacing, Marie once again tried to move. Her wrists gained an inch before they were held back by something hard and cold digging into the flesh. She snapped open her eyes, unnerved by the offensive light until she saw it glimmer off the metallic shackles that pinned her lithe form to massive stone pillar before her. Curled on her side against the chilled pillar with her arms strained above her head, tears rose to the surface. They went unnoticed as Marie tried to move once more. The muscles in her arms and legs protested with such forced that she had to bite back a cry. Each and every bone in her body tensed up, new wounds voicing their presence.
The voice from before spoke up again. "Don't bother with that dear. It's rather pointless and you'll only end up hurting yourself further."
A gasp of breath burrowed into her chest, a wave of dust proceeding the air, burning as it attached to her lungs. Suppressing the urge to cough, she swiveled her shaking limps towards the voice, craning her neck as best she could simply to catch a glimpse of a face. A distinct shudder of repulsion rippled through her quivering form at the sight before her. An eerie smile crossed her captor's face followed by a chuckle.
"I really was worried that my men had gone a little too far, you've been out for over twelve hours." The man sat back down at his mahogany desk, but continued to face her. Indifferent to the compromising position she was obviously in, the man continued to talk as if they were old friends. "Hopefully you're not in too much pain. Are you?"
Marie froze at his question, paralyzed with fear, she remained silent. Perturbed and almost amused at the lull she'd fallen into, the man wheeled his chair closer. "Isn't it a little childish to be playing the silent game? Are we not both adults here?"
Exasperated at his callousness, Marie reared her head away from him, straightened her shoulders as best she could within the confines of her cuffs and ignored him. Her actions caused a malicious chuckle to reverberate from her captor. "Really Marie, do you honestly think infantile behavior will get you anywhere?"
Marie's eyes fell shut at the mention of her real name, the action not going unnoticed by this man.
"Which is it by the way? I've been wondering for quite some time now whether you liked to go by Marie or Rogue."
She didn't answer, merely turned and glared at him even when a cruel cackle bubbled to the surface. "Speak up, which is it?"
Stiffening her lip, she poured every last ounce of hatred into her scowl.
Her actions seemed to amuse him even more. Smiling, he pushed the chair closer and peered deep into Marie's eyes. "Do you know the literal meaning of the word rogue? Hmm? Didn't think so," sneering at her, he snapped his words into her face. "In a round-a-bout way it means an unwanted animal." He let the last two words drag on. "And that's what you are my dear, unwanted. By the world, by your people, by your friends. They don't want you around and the only reason you still are is because I need you."
"And you are most definitely an animal. Not the domestic type we take into our homes and feed and care for. No, no, you're not good enough for that. You're not even livestock, you don't provide or feed. You are simply a beast, one that should be hunted down like the mangy thing you are and slaughtered without mercy." His words were almost coos from an endearing friend, floating off his tongue like poisonous velvet. Each one stinging deeply, leaving wounds that would never heal.
"That is what I am going to do to you. There will be no mercy in your death and you will die, I can promise you that. It will be crude and endless and so painful you will beg for every one of your breaths to be your last. But don't be discouraged. In the end you will make us out to be martyrs and it will be a stepping stone in the right direction to freedom from the plague that is your people. Your friends will follow swiftly and it will continue until every last mutant has been dispelled from our land." A deafening hatred weighed heavily on his breath, every inch of it aimed at her and her alone. The daggers it shot in her direction burrowed deeply into her very being.
Silence spread across them like a smothering blanket. In a swift movement that caught the man off guard Marie burst forward with a growl, just barely missing his face. He fell back, startled for a moment. Regaining himself he rewarded her defiance with a violent backhand to her left cheek. The force shoved her to the side, the shackles wrenching her wrists and arms back as her body lurched to the side.
Shaken to the core from the knowledge that she'd come close to touching his skin, learning his secrets, he backed away. It was too late, the simple touch of the back of his hand on her cheek for that split second revealed to her exactly what his plan was. Frightened even further into silence, Marie turned her head to a cross like stone alter sitting in the center of the room. Rustic chains at three of the four points confirmed her newly acquired understanding. That was her fate, her destined place to live the last few seconds of her life. Each one would be as he'd promised, excruciating and wholly devouring. A hell never imagined in the history of time would consume her every fiber until nothing of herself remained. Her body would become but a vessel to the life and mind of dozens. Each voice angrier than the next, each one unrelenting, screaming of horrors and vows of revenge.
She realized now why she was here, her purpose far more sinister then her capture. In her death she would take several others. She had no choice in the matter and that thought alone squeezed the breath from her lungs. In this sick plot she was the tool. Her glimmering eyes numbly stared at this man she now recognized as pure evil. She knew his name though he didn't deserve one. His pale sickly eyes gazed back at her with abandon, realization trickling behind them. Both became stoic with the understanding that the truth had been divulged.
"I won't let you do it, I won't let those people touch me just to fulfill your twisted need to be some crusading martyr," Marie spat at him viciously.
"You honestly think you have a choice? I know you can't control that skin of yours." The truth behind his words hit home but Marie refused to be his pawn.
"I'll die first."
"How? By holding your breath?" he mocked her maliciously. "And don't think for a moment anyone will come for you 'cause they won't. Even if they wanted to, there's no way they will find you, I've made sure of that."
It hit her hard, the conviction he held was for good reason. The knowledge she'd taken from him included the fact that this whole facility was covered in the same metal that Magneto used to protect himself. She never questioned how it was possible, her mind too rapt in her impending doom.
Bowing her head, Marie curled into herself. The metal on her wrists dug deeply into her arms, the welts all along her back and sides broke and bled from the strain of movement earlier but all she could think about was the lives she was going to destroy by the simplest act of touch. Her destiny was more than death itself, she was to be executioner to dozens of lives who knew no better then to follow the charismatic voice of a crazed lunatic.
At the sound of people moving about in the room outside of hers, she peered over. The sight caused her stomach to drop into an empty pit. Men and women of different ages and races were slowly filling the room, each one finding a place to sleep before heading off towards a large table in the center. Their last supper.
A curse fell before her hung head. She felt her captor move behind her, straying just far enough to avoid contact.
"You see those people?" He whispered. "You don't believe they are here by choice but know this. I gave them three days to take care of loose ends and left them with the choice. Each and every one of them came back to me. They aren't weighted down with fear of their own death. See their smiles?" He pointed sternly, and she couldn't help but look and drink in the joy that seemed to hold them all in tandem.
"Hear their laughter? They have faith, Marie, faith in what I preach. They believe that you will be their savior. You will take them away from a corrupt and tainted world and place them in the hands of god where creatures like you cannot venture. And they will go willingly, safe in the knowledge that their sacrifice will lead to the cleansing of impurities such as your friends. How can you ignore such conviction, such unyielding and blind faith? How?"
The pause that followed was filled solely with the laughter he'd spoke off. The men and women gathered around the large table, sharing loving hugs and endearing conversations. The sounds of their joy tore at the fiber of Marie's relenting strength. Her captor took her silence with reverence.
"You can't and that is why this not only is going to happen but must happen. I only wish you could be privy to what they feel. You wouldn't protest as much if you could."
Marie chanced a glance at him for a moment, cringing at the demure and soft look on his face. He sighed softly at her indignation, then stood. "Thankfully you're not required to understand." Rising in one swift movement that spoke of control, the man started to walk away.
Each breath Marie inhaled grew shaper and shallower, the force needed just for that simple act causing immense trembles to course through her body.
The corners of his mouth curved into a sadistic smile at the sound of a struggle behind him. It grew with every whimper as the ragged metal drew new lines in the milky white expanse of her wrists. "You can't fight this Marie." He called over his shoulder, a gentle chuckle echoing his words. "It's your fate. Your destiny." Turning slowly at the arching doorway he grinned, his beady eyes growing smaller. "It's your gift." With a flick of a switch, all light vacated the room and Marie could have sworn she'd seen his eyes glow a vibrant yellow in the pitch-black curtain that had fallen over her.
The whimper that followed the cascading darkness barely registered in her own ears. A thick desperation kicked in and she struggled against the shackles even more. Squirming and pulling, the skin beneath the metal tore and broke, even more blood adding to the grow pool beneath her. The stench hit her hard, the smell of her blood and tears mingled together creating a musk that overwhelmed her. For the first time in such a long time she prayed for the end to never come, at least not like this.
****
The hours dwindled like an hourglass, each grain taking lifetimes to fall. It built up around him, encasing him in time's deadly grasp. The edge he'd bore the moment he'd learned of her capture became a vice grip, adding to the pressing mounting beneath his tense exterior. It frightened Storm to see that despair riddling his features so darkly. Every time she peered over her shoulder at the looming figure burrowed in the shadows of the Library, a shiver ran down her spine. His presence had been constant for half the night, making her task nearly impossible but she appeased him. Where else could he go? There was nothing he could do and being near a possible fountain of information seemed enough to keep him from strangling Scott.
Removing Logan from her sight once more, she turned to stare at the computer screen. Twelve hours had equaled to barely a thing and desperation was starting to sink in. The Professor too had come up empty handed, his contacts were either unable to help or just plain wouldn't. It seemed that this Williams character had a following, his group the poster-child of all anti-mutant groups. It made her sick to think anyone would willingly do nothing to help them when a life was on the line, especially that of a young woman such as Rogue.
Heaving a frustrated sigh, Ororo typed 'Mark Williams' into another search engine and waited impatiently for the list of sites to pop up. Taping her long manicured nails across the wooden desk lightly, she groaned when the same damn sites she'd seen endlessly for the last hour appeared before her.
"Damn it!" she cursed, shoving away from the terminal and running her hands over her face. Eyes dry from staring at the bright screen for so long started to water and she let them.
"What?" Logan's husky voice rang out, eliciting a sharp cry from the distraught woman.
Relaxing some, she glanced back at him and frowned. "I'm not getting anywhere. No matter how many times I type his name into countless search engines, I keep getting the same damn sites… And none of them help." Resting her chin on her hands, she peered at him and bitterly smiled. "Any suggestions?"
A dry shrug was the answer she expected instead he cocked his head and mumbled under his breath.
"What?"
She got the shrug and then he spoke, "The guy doesn't want to be found so it's not like his address is going to be just sitting on some page out in the open."
"Yeah… I guessed as much already." The skepticism laced in her words would have angered him were he not so numb.
"Well he's been in the news a lot right? So he must have a following. I mean if this Brad Pitt Marie seemed to like can have a groupie list, why not this guy?" At Storm's confused look, Logan began to think he was wording this wrong or the idea was simply idiotic. "What do groupies like to do most?" Still he got nothing from her and groaned. "Jesus do I have to spell this out? Gossip! Conspiracy theories. Rumors. Everything is based is on some form of truth or another."
For a moment Logan was afraid he was going to have to keep talking but the light finally clicked on and a smile formed on the once forlorn face.
"That… actually makes sense." The surprise in her voice did not go unnoticed to Logan.
"Gee thanks."
Stopping mid-swing, she smiled at him, "No thank you." Rejuvenated, she returned to the search bar and started typing feverishly.
With a roll of his eyes Logan leaned back onto the wall and tried to ignore the little mumbles that flew from the woman's lips every few moments. Closing his eyes, he once again battled with the need to block out the world and to worry desperately about his Marie. He didn't feel right ignoring the situation, it was as if he'd forgotten her. Never in his life would he be able to but she still had thought it. She'd truthfully believed he had forgotten her but it was the exact opposite. He hoped he'd made that clear to her earlier, made her understand that letting her slip his mind was impossible. Just the image of her hurt and frightened, believing she was alone, ate at his very soul. No matter what it took, he was going to get her back. Death would drink his last few breaths of life before he stopped trying.
"Logan?" Storm's disembodied voice stopped his thoughts from traveling any further down the deprecating trail. Lifting his head, he murmured a soft, 'hmm?' and she answered just as softly, still staring at the machine he understood nothing about. "You love her right?"
If it had been anyone else asking the question Logan might have snapped or closed in on himself but he respected this woman. She was far wiser then Chuck proclaimed to be and truly cared. Something he had yet to truly feel from the others. So he answered truthfully and solemnly. "Completely."
Just that simple admission broke a small damn that had barely been holding back the tears. The wimp he'd become since coming back surprised him and yet he'd known. Known that just seeing her face would crumble his stone mask. Even that knowledge though didn't make it any less embarrassing.
Her white hair fell from its pinned position behind her ears and she nodded softly. It was then he caught a whiff of salty tears that were not his own, noticed the bold arch of shoulders and stains tainting the one cheek he could see. His breath caught, his heart stopped and his mind raced. He felt as if the world was opening up even further, coming within inches from swallowing him whole.
"What?" His thunderous command seemed more like a whimpering murmur. "Storm?" Stepping deeper in to the room, the world folded in on him, his vision tunneling in on her figure and the machine before her. He didn't see her turn away from him, didn't see the tears. Everything but the screen before him vanished into a blur of clouded images and in a damning moment, the earth moved those final inches and he lost himself in the black cavern below.