Authors Note: I'm sorry the first chapter was pretty vague, lol, who am I kidding, this whole story is pretty vague, but if you've made it this far, you're doing good already! Also, as another kinda disclaimer, I know Rogue is really OOC, but I've leant more towards the nineties cartoon version, where she called everyone "sugah" and its hard doing it any other way...apologies in advance.
Thanks to anyone and everyone who took the time to review for me. You're very kind, very kind.
Star-of-Chaos: hmm, I hope it will be; I'm screwed if it isn't!
Ishandahalf: uber intrigued you say? Heh, coolness. The next few chapters will be quick like a bunny on crack! I promise! After that though...
Ms. Rogue Lebeau: yes sorry, Rogue is dead, but not gone and certainly not forgotten...
One More Star in the Sky
Chapter Two (In which there's always a simple explanation)
"Heaven!" Rogue couldn't believe it. She knew something wasn't quite right when she had found herself hovering above her own body back in Trasks base, but she hadn't been sure what to think. 'This has ta all be some kinda weird hallucination' she decided, 'Ah can't be dead!'
"Yep" Faye confirmed, "welcome to the other side!"
"This can't be real, its all some horrible dream an' soon Ah'm gonna wake up back in the med bay in tha mansion or somethin'" said Rogue, burying her head in her hands.
Faye sat herself and Rogue down in two of the reception room chairs and turned to face her.
"I'm sorry, but this is real, look." She pinched Rogue's hand a little. Rogue recoiled, feeling the sharp pain of the pinch.
"I'm afraid you've died Marie."
It was only then that the enormity of what had happened struck Rogue. She was really dead. She would never get to go home, she would never see her friends again, she would never have another fight with Kitty about the state of their room, she would never get to race Kurt downstairs in the morning for breakfast, she would never even get to annoy the perfect Jean Grey again. It was too much, and for the first time in as long as she could remember, Rogue felt tears begin to roll down her face.
"Hey, its alright," Faye comforted, putting an arm around her. "It takes some getting used to, but its not so bad really."
"If this is heaven..." Rogue finally managed to choke out, "that would make you an..."
"Angel?" Faye finished for her, "Yep, and now so are you."
"Ah'm no angel" Rogue said sadly, "Ah'm a terrible person."
"Well you can't have been that bad, otherwise you wouldn't be up here."
"Ah'm serious, Ah did some really bad things..."
"Everyone's done bad things Marie, but people redeem themselves, one wrong move doesn't make you blacklisted for life."
Rogue sat quietly for a moment. This was all so surreal, it was sort of hard to take it all in.
"Look" Faye suddenly cut in. "Lets go upstairs, I'll show you where you're staying and explain this whole thing to you."
Rogue nodded and got up out of her chair, following Faye back to the elevator.
"Hey, thanks Janette!" Faye called back to the receptionist as they left. Janette merely nodded, without looking up, as the elevator door shut in front of them. Faye shook her head.
"You try to be nice..." she trailed off, rolling her eyes.
It took a surprisingly short amount of time for the elevator to reach its destination. When the doors opened, they found themselves in a small white corridor, with a plain white door at the end.
"Ya get ya own lift?" Rogue enquired.
"Nope, but the lifts are funny, you just have to kinda think where you wanna go and it takes you straight there."
"Neat" said Rogue, her voice edged with sarcasm.
Faye turned the handle on the door, behind which was a completely white apartment. It was a decent size, with a living-come-dining room and a kitchen just off of that, there was also doors leading to what turned out to be a bathroom and two bedrooms.
Rogue looked around the living area she was now standing in. She had never seen so much white in her life, it seemed to be a running trend with this place and the amazing thing was that it was all spotless, anyone would have expected that much white to get dirty real quick.
Faye poured herself a glass of wine and sat on the couch, legs crossed underneath her, Rogue took a seat opposite her in a big white armchair.
"So." Faye started, taking a sip of her drink, "how did you end up here?"
"Ah was in this mutant group, the X-Men. These big robot things, sentinels, attacked us, Ah got captured, and they took me ta this military base. Ah don' really remembah much else but Ah know they did a load of experiments on me. Next thing Ah know, Ah'm floating above mah own body."
Faye winced, it sounded horrible.
"How 'bout ya?" Rogue asked back.
"Nothing as bad as that. I was driving hom one night and this guy crashed into the side of the car, luckily my boyfriend, who was driving, wasn't hurt that badly, but I wasn't so lucky. That was over a year and a half ago."
There was a small silence between them, it was strange, talking about your own death to someone you had only just met.
"Am Ah stayin' here with ya?" Rogue suddenly asked.
"Yep, I'm gonna be your "mentor" for a while, every newbie gets one."
"Mentor? Wah do Ah need a mentor? There ain't that much ta bein' dead."
"More than you think." Faye told her. "Every angel here has a job, that's how it works. I'm a guardian angel, and now, so are you."
"A guardian angel?" Rogue said in slight disbelief. "Ah'm not so sure Ah lahke the sound o' that."
"Well, you'll get given a case to work on, but you won't necessarily stick with that person forever."
"What? Ya just kinda give up on people after a while?" Rogue asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Nooo, not exactly. Some peoples problems just get solved, they don't really need you anymore. You don't stay in one job forever either, people are always switching jobs, being promoted and demoted, like one big company, it would get boring otherwise." Faye explained, taking another drink.
"Switchin' jobs?" Questioned Rogue, this was all so confusing...
"Yeah, guarding people isn't the only job in this place. Angels run everything, there are people who make sure the days run on time, that the stars are always shiny, people who specialize in specific seasons, all that jazz."
"Rahte..."
"Ooh!" Faye exclaimed suddenly, putting her glass down. "We should find you your new clothes, they'll be here by now."
She got up off the big white sofa and went towards one of the bedrooms, gesturing for Rogue to follow.
The bedroom that was to be Rogue's was pretty plain. It was all white, with a large double bed, a wardrobe and a dressing table complete with mirror. The floor was white and wooden, and there was a white fluffy rug beside the bed.
Faye went to the wardrobe and opened the doors with a dramatic flourish.
"Ta-da!"
The wardrobe was filled with clothes, all white and all Rogue's size, despite the fact they were in a colour she probably wouldn't have chosen to wear, she was glad to see them, she was still wearing her tattered, torn X-Men uniform.
"Well," Faye said, "I'll leave you to get changed."
-o-o-o-o-
A short while later, Rogue emerged from the room in a pair of white pants and a soft white cashmere jumper.
"Ah don't mean ta sound ungrateful, but does everythin' have ta be wahte?"
Faye laughed. "Yeah it makes everyone look like they're living the space odyssey or something"
"Ah have a question," Rogue began suddenly, "If you're an angel, and Ah'm an angel, where are the wings and tha halo, and the long wahte robes?"
"I have the wings but I don't always use 'em, they're heavy! Try carting huge feathery things around with you for a while, then you'll know what back pain truly is."
She lifted up the back of her shirt to show Rogue two long faint marks on her back, a slightly different colour from her skin.
"They come out there, doesn't hurt or anything, then I put them away when I don't need them, you'll get yours once you know how to use them. As for the halo, no-one ever wears them except for parties, kind of a dressing up thing."
Rogue nodded. "There's anothah thing Ah wanna ask ya about. Mah mutant power, Ah could neavah touch anyone, skin ta skin, Ah'd absorb 'em, put 'em in a coma...Ah was wondrin'...do Ah still have mah absorbin' powers now that Ah'm...dead."
"Hmm, I doubt it. Technically you haven't got skin to absorb people with, do you wanna test it out?"
"Ah'm not so sure" Rogue started, she didn't wanna hurt anyone, already dead or not, but before she could stop her, Faye reached out and touched the bare skin on her face. Nothing happened, no fainting, no new memories, nothing.
"Ah can touch!" Rouge exclaimed. She knew that it was probably because she didn't have proper skin anymore, but at that moment, it all seemed trivial.
She had got the one thing she had craved for so many years.
Faye smiled; it was good to see this girl had at least one upside of an afterlife.
"I gotta go see someone, do you just wanna make yourself at home? I'll be back a bit later." She told Rogue.
"Sure, ya go, Ah'll be fahne." Rogue waved her off.
With Faye gone, Rogue tried to take a better look around the apartment. There wasn't really much that gave away anything about her new roommates personality; there were no photos of anyone that wasn't completely dressed in white, there were few traces left of Faye's former life.
By far the most unusual thing though was the window on the wall opposite the door. Looking out of it, all that Rogue could see was sky that stretched for miles, punctuated with fluffy clouds. It had been a beautiful blue earlier, but now it was turning shades of pink and orange as it got later and later.
Rogue decided that perhaps she should get some rest; it had been a long day all in all. Crawling into the soft white bed that felt suspiciously like a cloud, Rogue thought about what had happened.
Faye seemed nice enough she supposed, maybe a little too like Jean for her liking, but rather uncharacteristically for her, she decided to give her a little more time. She wished that she could see her friends just one last time. She missed them all so much, she never thought she would, it was scary just how big an effect they had had on her life. For the second time that day, she felt warm salty tears run down her cheeks.
Eventually, she drifted off into a deep sleep. Her dreams filled with angels like Faye, and Devils like Trask...
Is everything explained a little bit better now? I'm kinda worried that this story is completely incoherent to everyone except me! Don't worry too much about Faye, she's really only there to make everything easier to explain. I'm also gonna take a guess that if your dead, you wouldn't actually need to eat or drink or sleep, but it makes for good filler, non?
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me so far, you're being very patient! Sorryness, but theres still a little longer to wait for Remy, but he will turn up, promise!
So does anyone feel like reviewing? Anyone at all? Pretty please? ;)