Disclaimer: I own nothing, which pretty much sums it all up.
Hey to all, moving on with the story. I have written the final chapter of the story so I know where I am actually aiming for now. Good thing, gives me . . .direction.
Anyway, this is the final chapter of this story. No. Not in the sense of actual chapters. I see, the break up as one chapter, the first mission as one chapter, and the finding of Jean as another, when I say chapter I sort of mean story arc. A few more chapters, as it's kind of a biggy. Enjoy.
* * *
"We can do this. It's possible, but there are things that are necessary . . . things that will have to be done. Do you understand?"
Pyro nodded, "I understand. Do you need anything?"
Magneto smiled, laying on his bed. He had not been quite the same since his last encounter with the X-men, he was getting better but it was taking time, and time was something that they did not have in abundance. The boy was going to be put to good use; he was going to have to be. They could not wait much longer, his own mortality had been placed in front of him with this accident, it couldn't wait any longer. They couldn't afford time wasting. Magneto needed him; Mystique could only do so much on her own. "I have the information on each of the mutants that we have to . . . deal with."
Magneto pointed to the sheaf of papers at the bottom of the bed on the table. Pyro picked them up and flipped through, he stopped when he came to the picture of a girl, beautiful with a prominent white streak in her hair, "She's in here?"
Magneto nodded, "I was hoping that she wouldn't be a necessary element, but her powers have grown so quickly . . . she is a danger."
Pyro nodded and swallowed, "What do you want to do to them?"
Magneto raised his eyebrows, "Do you care?"
Pyro looked down at his hand, the one with a finger missing and realised something. He didn't. He had told himself that he didn't care for weeks, months, and for the first time, he meant it, "No."
Magneto finally believed him, "I don't want to kill mutants unless it is absolutely necessary and at present it is not necessary. You will simply . . . take them out of action with Mystique's and my help."
"Okay. When?"
"Almost now."
* * *
Rogue knocked on the door. Within twenty seconds, a woman with short dark hair opened it, revealing Bobby's mother. Rogue fought hard not to glare at the woman harshly, "Mrs. Drake, I'm Rogue. Do you remember me?"
The woman went pale, "Of course," her eyes flicked to Logan who was standing behind Rogue, "Professor Logan."
Logan nodded, "We're here for Bobby's things."
The woman looked surprised, "Oh."
Rogue held out the letter, "He sent this to you and told us to get everything." She tried not to sound too harsh, "Where is it?"
Bobby's mother looked like she was about to argue with the younger girl's tone, but she seemed to think the better of it; of arguing with an obviously pissed off mutant. "Everything's boxed up and in the garage. I'll show you."
The fact the she closed the door and led them around the house, not through it, did not escape either Rogue or Logan. They followed the woman in silence, and let her open the door for them. Rogue glanced around and turned to Logan, "Do you think it'll all fit in the back of the van?"
Logan seemed to case it all up, "Yeah, yeah, it should do." He looked at her and indicated the contents of the garage. There was a disassembled bed, several bags whose contents were probably fabric, clothes and the like, and there were about twelve very large boxes, "Yeah, can you . . . you know?"
Rogue nodded, "Sure, I don't think I've found a limit yet, interesting test case. Just go open the doors and bring the van 'round?"
Logan seemed to hesitate, and looked to the woman, "You'll be okay?"
She smiled, "Yeah, fine." Logan turned and walked away. Rogue's eyes flicked back to the woman, and she noticed that she was not much taller than herself. And she had hurt him so much, granted he was okay with it now, but what gave her the right? What gave her the right to hurt her own child like she had hurt Bobby?
Rogue didn't know why she was asking; her own parents had done pretty much the same thing. Anger flashed in her and she struggled to swallow what she wanted to say, "Could you move please?"
The woman stared, "Are you not taking Bobby's things?"
Rogue nodded, "Of course we are, that's what we came for."
"Then where has he . . ?"
Rogue clicked her tongue impatiently, "He's gone to get the van. I'm bringing the things."
The woman blatantly looked Rogue up and down and almost scoffed, "Oh yeah."
Rogue had been waiting for her to move herself, now she was losing her temper. "Yeah."
"How?"
She raised both hands and everything in the garage moved about four feet off the ground, "Pretty much like this. Now move or I'm going to make you."
She had almost fallen over when everything had lifted off the floor, "How . . ?"
Rogue almost wanted to say honestly, 'I killed two people and stole their powers', just to see the woman's face, but she restrained herself, "You know I'm a mutant." She grit her teeth as the woman stared at her like she was a freak. Rogue just wanted to get out of there, "Now please, move."
The older woman scowled, "You can't tell me what to do, you can't make me. This is my home."
"If it wasn't your home, I wouldn't have asked you first. Now I'm telling you." She didn't move, she just stood there defiantly. Rogue flicked a finger and the woman moved backwards about four feet away from the garage and stumbled as she stopped moving. Rogue made sure that she didn't fall, and then she started walking away, bringing the contents of the garage with her. "Logan?"
"Ready!"
She opened the doors and piled everything carefully in the back. Just as she was getting in herself, Bobby's mother appeared back in front of the house, Bobby's open letter in her hand, "Hey!"
Rogue turned around, "What?"
"Tell Bobby . . . Tell Bobby . . ." The woman couldn't seem to force the words out, "Tell him that I'm sorry it had to be this way."
Rogue felt her body tense in anger; she jumped down from the van and walked back to the woman, ignoring Logan calling to her. She stared the woman in eyes, her own full of barely contained fury, "It. Did. Not. Have. To. Be. This. Way. You chose it to be this way. We are not dangerous, we don't WANT to hurt anyone, in case you didn't know, I was the reason that the cops didn't die.
"I'm not ashamed of us, but you should be ashamed, of you. You chose to abandon your own son, because there is something about him that you don't understand. It's not something bad, or evil, or dangerous, it's just something you don't understand. You might have learned to understand it. He is a good person; one of the best and you could've still had him in your life. But you made your choice and now it's too late. I really hope you can sleep knowing that because of your cowardice you lost your son."
Rogue span on her heel and climbed back into the van. As she and Logan turned the corner Bobby's mother hadn't moved.
* * *
Everything moved up the stairs as Rogue and Logan climbed, there was no way that they could've fitted it all into the lift, "You do realise that this power may have been a lot of help to us when we had to move that damn bed."
Rogue grinned, "Yeah, I guess so, but never mind. Your fingers were okay."
Logan gave a definite 'hmph' noise, "Are you okay on your own the rest of the way? I wanted to go and check on Jean."
"Yeah, I'll be fine. You go."
Logan nodded, turned, and headed down to the hospital wing.
* * *
Bobby sat at the desk pouring over his books; he knew that Rogue was due back. He had expected to be apprehensive about seeing his whole life loaded up into boxes, but he didn't. He just wanted it over with.
He heard her call his name and he went to open the door, he saw her bringing a hell of a lot of stuff with him, and his eyes bulged, "My God, I never knew I had so much."
Rogue nodded, "Yeah you do, so you really shouldn't whine about me."
"You had more than this."
Rogue looked half tempted to argue, but seemed to change her mind, "Well, yeah but that's hardly the point."
Bobby smiled, "We'll argue about that later."
"Good plan, so . . . what do you want me to do with all this?"
Bobby seemed to think for a second, "I think that you should bring it in and we should look through it, see if there's anything we want to keep, and if there is, we will, if not we'll get rid of the rest."
Rogue shrugged, "Sure, should I leave the bed out here?"
Bobby nodded, "Yeah that's probably a good idea."
* * *
"And to think, after my stuff we thought that we wouldn't be unpacking for a while."
Bobby nodded, "I know."
The two of them sat on the floor in the middle of their room. They were surrounded by . . . well . . . everything. There was clothing, books, old games, a television and video combo, a computer, Bobby's laptop, and a games console. There were also things like, old calendars, and cards. Bobby barely glanced at them before he threw them away. He kept the ones from his grandparents, who Rogue knew were dead.
Bobby was only actually wearing his boxers, he had been trying on clothes, checking to see what still fit him and what he could either throw away or donate to the school. There was a supply of clothes kept for when new students arrived if they didn't have many of their own. Rogue had used these when she had first arrived, before Kitty and Ju had taken her shopping.
Bobby had already created a huge pile of stuff to be added and a somewhat smaller pile to keep. "I think that we should see if the Professor wants the bed and if he doesn't we should just sell it."
Rogue nodded, "Okay. What about the computer?"
"Sell that. The school doesn't need anymore, we can use the ones they have here and if we want to work in our room we could use the lap top."
Rogue laughed, "You should have left home ages ago, all this stuff'll be useful."
Bobby chuckled too, "Yeah, you're right. There are only a few books I want to keep, the rest we an just donate to the school."
"What about the rest of the furniture, if I'm right I think we have a wardrobe, a chest of drawers and a bookcase."
"Sell 'em. I have plans and we need some cash."
Rogue looked instantly suspicious, "Would these plans involve me naked?"
Bobby leaned over the face her, "Would that be a problem?"
She shrugged feigning nonchalance. "Only if you're naked too," she said leaning forward further.
"I'll be naked." He leant even further so that their lips were almost touching.
"Whatever it is, I can tell I'm gonna like your plan." She closed the small gap and brushed her lips against his. Bobby slipped a hand gently over her shoulder, upwards towards her neck, tangling his fingers gently in her hair to pull her closer.
She moaned into his touch and touched a hand to his cheek. Bobby moaned gently and pulled her over his lap to straddle his waist. She slipped her legs round and pulled him against her.
Bobby ran his hands down her back, he was quite happy to abandon the unpacking for a while. Before he could slip a hand under her shirt however, he felt her entire body tense under his fingers. He pulled back slightly and looked into her eyes. He felt panic rise inside of him when he saw the horror in hers.
Rogue gripped his shoulders and tried to reach behind her, before her fingers could find the source of the pain, she felt blackness rising around her. She looked at Bobby, trying to make him keep her there, "Bobby . . ." She saw his eyes last and then everything went dark.
Bobby caught her in his arms as she fell forward, her body the opposite of what it had been, and she went completely limp. "Rogue! Rogue!"
He laid her on her back, her eyes were closed and she didn't respond to his calling, "Rogue! God . . . Rogue can you hear me? Rogue?" He checked and felt for a pulse, relaxing only slightly when he found one.
He climbed to his feet. Not wanting to leave her, he opened the door and shouted out, "Help! Help!" Doors all down the corridor opened and heads peaked out, he looked at one of the older kids, "Go, get someone, the Professor . . . Logan, get Logan!"
The boy sped down the corridor and Bobby turned tail back into his room. As he quickly moved back over to her, he saw it. There was something silver protruding from her shoulder. He moved over and pulled her into his arms, he looked at it. It was a dart; someone had shot her. He looked over at the window; it was slightly ajar. Bobby felt anger rise, someone had shot her, and he couldn't think of many people who would know where she would be, where his room was in the mansion. He pulled it out of her shoulder. That had been why she had tensed, she must have felt it before it . . . did whatever it did.
He pressed his fingers to her neck again, the pulse was still there, it was still strong. He Has about to try to check out of the window when Logan came sprinting into the room. he took one look at Rogue and all of the colour drained out of his face, "Oh God. What happened to her?"
Bobby held up the dart as Logan sank to his knees, "Someone shot her. The window's open, and we didn't open it."
Logan looked at the window and then back at Rogue, "We have to get her to the hospital wing."
Bobby nodded and lifted her weight easily. Logan led the way and Bobby followed him into the lift. The older man pressed the button and the lift began to move downwards.
As the doors slid open again, they two men moved through them and headed for the hospital. Logan was talking to himself, "How could this happen?"
Bobby decided to answer it, "How many people know which room is mine, hence where she'll be? How many have something to gain from her being out of action, and who is able to get up to the fourth floor to do this silently?"
Logan's jaw tightened, "Magneto, with his little friends."
* * *
Ororo turned at the sound of the door opening. At first she was surprised to see Logan, he had not long since left, he had been here to see Jean. When she saw who was following, her heart gave a jolt.
Her eyes flicked to Jean and then back to Rogue's still form, cradled in Bobby's arms. Two of her friends were here now. How had this happened?
* * *
They had been gone in seconds of course. Magneto had lifted Pyro and he had seen to Rogue. She wouldn't wake. They wouldn't be able to wake her. At least not before it was too late.
Pyro sat in the front with Mystique while Magneto was in the back, "I got her. She's down."
Magneto smiled, "Good. We needed her out of the running. She was too powerful."
Pyro nodded, "I know."
Mystique smiled at Pyro too, "Good, you did well. So . . . where to?"
Magneto took a deep breath, "To start a war."
Hey to all, moving on with the story. I have written the final chapter of the story so I know where I am actually aiming for now. Good thing, gives me . . .direction.
Anyway, this is the final chapter of this story. No. Not in the sense of actual chapters. I see, the break up as one chapter, the first mission as one chapter, and the finding of Jean as another, when I say chapter I sort of mean story arc. A few more chapters, as it's kind of a biggy. Enjoy.
* * *
"We can do this. It's possible, but there are things that are necessary . . . things that will have to be done. Do you understand?"
Pyro nodded, "I understand. Do you need anything?"
Magneto smiled, laying on his bed. He had not been quite the same since his last encounter with the X-men, he was getting better but it was taking time, and time was something that they did not have in abundance. The boy was going to be put to good use; he was going to have to be. They could not wait much longer, his own mortality had been placed in front of him with this accident, it couldn't wait any longer. They couldn't afford time wasting. Magneto needed him; Mystique could only do so much on her own. "I have the information on each of the mutants that we have to . . . deal with."
Magneto pointed to the sheaf of papers at the bottom of the bed on the table. Pyro picked them up and flipped through, he stopped when he came to the picture of a girl, beautiful with a prominent white streak in her hair, "She's in here?"
Magneto nodded, "I was hoping that she wouldn't be a necessary element, but her powers have grown so quickly . . . she is a danger."
Pyro nodded and swallowed, "What do you want to do to them?"
Magneto raised his eyebrows, "Do you care?"
Pyro looked down at his hand, the one with a finger missing and realised something. He didn't. He had told himself that he didn't care for weeks, months, and for the first time, he meant it, "No."
Magneto finally believed him, "I don't want to kill mutants unless it is absolutely necessary and at present it is not necessary. You will simply . . . take them out of action with Mystique's and my help."
"Okay. When?"
"Almost now."
* * *
Rogue knocked on the door. Within twenty seconds, a woman with short dark hair opened it, revealing Bobby's mother. Rogue fought hard not to glare at the woman harshly, "Mrs. Drake, I'm Rogue. Do you remember me?"
The woman went pale, "Of course," her eyes flicked to Logan who was standing behind Rogue, "Professor Logan."
Logan nodded, "We're here for Bobby's things."
The woman looked surprised, "Oh."
Rogue held out the letter, "He sent this to you and told us to get everything." She tried not to sound too harsh, "Where is it?"
Bobby's mother looked like she was about to argue with the younger girl's tone, but she seemed to think the better of it; of arguing with an obviously pissed off mutant. "Everything's boxed up and in the garage. I'll show you."
The fact the she closed the door and led them around the house, not through it, did not escape either Rogue or Logan. They followed the woman in silence, and let her open the door for them. Rogue glanced around and turned to Logan, "Do you think it'll all fit in the back of the van?"
Logan seemed to case it all up, "Yeah, yeah, it should do." He looked at her and indicated the contents of the garage. There was a disassembled bed, several bags whose contents were probably fabric, clothes and the like, and there were about twelve very large boxes, "Yeah, can you . . . you know?"
Rogue nodded, "Sure, I don't think I've found a limit yet, interesting test case. Just go open the doors and bring the van 'round?"
Logan seemed to hesitate, and looked to the woman, "You'll be okay?"
She smiled, "Yeah, fine." Logan turned and walked away. Rogue's eyes flicked back to the woman, and she noticed that she was not much taller than herself. And she had hurt him so much, granted he was okay with it now, but what gave her the right? What gave her the right to hurt her own child like she had hurt Bobby?
Rogue didn't know why she was asking; her own parents had done pretty much the same thing. Anger flashed in her and she struggled to swallow what she wanted to say, "Could you move please?"
The woman stared, "Are you not taking Bobby's things?"
Rogue nodded, "Of course we are, that's what we came for."
"Then where has he . . ?"
Rogue clicked her tongue impatiently, "He's gone to get the van. I'm bringing the things."
The woman blatantly looked Rogue up and down and almost scoffed, "Oh yeah."
Rogue had been waiting for her to move herself, now she was losing her temper. "Yeah."
"How?"
She raised both hands and everything in the garage moved about four feet off the ground, "Pretty much like this. Now move or I'm going to make you."
She had almost fallen over when everything had lifted off the floor, "How . . ?"
Rogue almost wanted to say honestly, 'I killed two people and stole their powers', just to see the woman's face, but she restrained herself, "You know I'm a mutant." She grit her teeth as the woman stared at her like she was a freak. Rogue just wanted to get out of there, "Now please, move."
The older woman scowled, "You can't tell me what to do, you can't make me. This is my home."
"If it wasn't your home, I wouldn't have asked you first. Now I'm telling you." She didn't move, she just stood there defiantly. Rogue flicked a finger and the woman moved backwards about four feet away from the garage and stumbled as she stopped moving. Rogue made sure that she didn't fall, and then she started walking away, bringing the contents of the garage with her. "Logan?"
"Ready!"
She opened the doors and piled everything carefully in the back. Just as she was getting in herself, Bobby's mother appeared back in front of the house, Bobby's open letter in her hand, "Hey!"
Rogue turned around, "What?"
"Tell Bobby . . . Tell Bobby . . ." The woman couldn't seem to force the words out, "Tell him that I'm sorry it had to be this way."
Rogue felt her body tense in anger; she jumped down from the van and walked back to the woman, ignoring Logan calling to her. She stared the woman in eyes, her own full of barely contained fury, "It. Did. Not. Have. To. Be. This. Way. You chose it to be this way. We are not dangerous, we don't WANT to hurt anyone, in case you didn't know, I was the reason that the cops didn't die.
"I'm not ashamed of us, but you should be ashamed, of you. You chose to abandon your own son, because there is something about him that you don't understand. It's not something bad, or evil, or dangerous, it's just something you don't understand. You might have learned to understand it. He is a good person; one of the best and you could've still had him in your life. But you made your choice and now it's too late. I really hope you can sleep knowing that because of your cowardice you lost your son."
Rogue span on her heel and climbed back into the van. As she and Logan turned the corner Bobby's mother hadn't moved.
* * *
Everything moved up the stairs as Rogue and Logan climbed, there was no way that they could've fitted it all into the lift, "You do realise that this power may have been a lot of help to us when we had to move that damn bed."
Rogue grinned, "Yeah, I guess so, but never mind. Your fingers were okay."
Logan gave a definite 'hmph' noise, "Are you okay on your own the rest of the way? I wanted to go and check on Jean."
"Yeah, I'll be fine. You go."
Logan nodded, turned, and headed down to the hospital wing.
* * *
Bobby sat at the desk pouring over his books; he knew that Rogue was due back. He had expected to be apprehensive about seeing his whole life loaded up into boxes, but he didn't. He just wanted it over with.
He heard her call his name and he went to open the door, he saw her bringing a hell of a lot of stuff with him, and his eyes bulged, "My God, I never knew I had so much."
Rogue nodded, "Yeah you do, so you really shouldn't whine about me."
"You had more than this."
Rogue looked half tempted to argue, but seemed to change her mind, "Well, yeah but that's hardly the point."
Bobby smiled, "We'll argue about that later."
"Good plan, so . . . what do you want me to do with all this?"
Bobby seemed to think for a second, "I think that you should bring it in and we should look through it, see if there's anything we want to keep, and if there is, we will, if not we'll get rid of the rest."
Rogue shrugged, "Sure, should I leave the bed out here?"
Bobby nodded, "Yeah that's probably a good idea."
* * *
"And to think, after my stuff we thought that we wouldn't be unpacking for a while."
Bobby nodded, "I know."
The two of them sat on the floor in the middle of their room. They were surrounded by . . . well . . . everything. There was clothing, books, old games, a television and video combo, a computer, Bobby's laptop, and a games console. There were also things like, old calendars, and cards. Bobby barely glanced at them before he threw them away. He kept the ones from his grandparents, who Rogue knew were dead.
Bobby was only actually wearing his boxers, he had been trying on clothes, checking to see what still fit him and what he could either throw away or donate to the school. There was a supply of clothes kept for when new students arrived if they didn't have many of their own. Rogue had used these when she had first arrived, before Kitty and Ju had taken her shopping.
Bobby had already created a huge pile of stuff to be added and a somewhat smaller pile to keep. "I think that we should see if the Professor wants the bed and if he doesn't we should just sell it."
Rogue nodded, "Okay. What about the computer?"
"Sell that. The school doesn't need anymore, we can use the ones they have here and if we want to work in our room we could use the lap top."
Rogue laughed, "You should have left home ages ago, all this stuff'll be useful."
Bobby chuckled too, "Yeah, you're right. There are only a few books I want to keep, the rest we an just donate to the school."
"What about the rest of the furniture, if I'm right I think we have a wardrobe, a chest of drawers and a bookcase."
"Sell 'em. I have plans and we need some cash."
Rogue looked instantly suspicious, "Would these plans involve me naked?"
Bobby leaned over the face her, "Would that be a problem?"
She shrugged feigning nonchalance. "Only if you're naked too," she said leaning forward further.
"I'll be naked." He leant even further so that their lips were almost touching.
"Whatever it is, I can tell I'm gonna like your plan." She closed the small gap and brushed her lips against his. Bobby slipped a hand gently over her shoulder, upwards towards her neck, tangling his fingers gently in her hair to pull her closer.
She moaned into his touch and touched a hand to his cheek. Bobby moaned gently and pulled her over his lap to straddle his waist. She slipped her legs round and pulled him against her.
Bobby ran his hands down her back, he was quite happy to abandon the unpacking for a while. Before he could slip a hand under her shirt however, he felt her entire body tense under his fingers. He pulled back slightly and looked into her eyes. He felt panic rise inside of him when he saw the horror in hers.
Rogue gripped his shoulders and tried to reach behind her, before her fingers could find the source of the pain, she felt blackness rising around her. She looked at Bobby, trying to make him keep her there, "Bobby . . ." She saw his eyes last and then everything went dark.
Bobby caught her in his arms as she fell forward, her body the opposite of what it had been, and she went completely limp. "Rogue! Rogue!"
He laid her on her back, her eyes were closed and she didn't respond to his calling, "Rogue! God . . . Rogue can you hear me? Rogue?" He checked and felt for a pulse, relaxing only slightly when he found one.
He climbed to his feet. Not wanting to leave her, he opened the door and shouted out, "Help! Help!" Doors all down the corridor opened and heads peaked out, he looked at one of the older kids, "Go, get someone, the Professor . . . Logan, get Logan!"
The boy sped down the corridor and Bobby turned tail back into his room. As he quickly moved back over to her, he saw it. There was something silver protruding from her shoulder. He moved over and pulled her into his arms, he looked at it. It was a dart; someone had shot her. He looked over at the window; it was slightly ajar. Bobby felt anger rise, someone had shot her, and he couldn't think of many people who would know where she would be, where his room was in the mansion. He pulled it out of her shoulder. That had been why she had tensed, she must have felt it before it . . . did whatever it did.
He pressed his fingers to her neck again, the pulse was still there, it was still strong. He Has about to try to check out of the window when Logan came sprinting into the room. he took one look at Rogue and all of the colour drained out of his face, "Oh God. What happened to her?"
Bobby held up the dart as Logan sank to his knees, "Someone shot her. The window's open, and we didn't open it."
Logan looked at the window and then back at Rogue, "We have to get her to the hospital wing."
Bobby nodded and lifted her weight easily. Logan led the way and Bobby followed him into the lift. The older man pressed the button and the lift began to move downwards.
As the doors slid open again, they two men moved through them and headed for the hospital. Logan was talking to himself, "How could this happen?"
Bobby decided to answer it, "How many people know which room is mine, hence where she'll be? How many have something to gain from her being out of action, and who is able to get up to the fourth floor to do this silently?"
Logan's jaw tightened, "Magneto, with his little friends."
* * *
Ororo turned at the sound of the door opening. At first she was surprised to see Logan, he had not long since left, he had been here to see Jean. When she saw who was following, her heart gave a jolt.
Her eyes flicked to Jean and then back to Rogue's still form, cradled in Bobby's arms. Two of her friends were here now. How had this happened?
* * *
They had been gone in seconds of course. Magneto had lifted Pyro and he had seen to Rogue. She wouldn't wake. They wouldn't be able to wake her. At least not before it was too late.
Pyro sat in the front with Mystique while Magneto was in the back, "I got her. She's down."
Magneto smiled, "Good. We needed her out of the running. She was too powerful."
Pyro nodded, "I know."
Mystique smiled at Pyro too, "Good, you did well. So . . . where to?"
Magneto took a deep breath, "To start a war."