Disclaimer: I own nothing. And I'm proud!
Rating: PG-13
Yay, I'm back! Bastard exams are over and I'm back. Have been so busy with stuff and now I'm kinda ready to tell it all to bugger off. There has to be life after education, there has to be...right? Right?!
"Where am I?"
Rogue was floating. Only she wasn't. To be floating you have to be capable of falling and it wasn't like that. She knew that for sure seeing as how she could float now. So, if she wasn't capable of falling... Rogue tried to look down at herself. But then she realised that she wasn't there, more than that. There was nothing to look down with.
She was not in her body. There was no body. She was just...what? Consciousness? Part of her wanted to cry, but she couldn't. She wasn't able to anymore. She tried to speak but then realised that she couldn't do that either. After all, she didn't have a mouth.
Rogue fought down the raising panic inside of her. Where was she? How had she got here? And more importantly, how did she get back? Because one thing was for sure, she wasn't staying here. She had to get back. She had finally sorted out her life. She was happy, and she refused to allow that to be taken away from her. She had to get back to Bobby.
With that thought her heart contracted. If she was here, that meant she couldn't be there, God he must be so afraid.
"Whoa, whoa calm down."
If she's been in here body Rogue would have spun around to see who it was that had spoken to her. But she didn't need to. She didn't need to. Partly because they weren't behind her, they were just there and partly because they hadn't spoken. They had just...communicated. And they...they were Jean?
* * *
Most powerful mutant he had ever come across huh? That was what the Professor had said. Well that was a title he was sure Rogue was gonna love. She hated thinking of herself as capable of causing damage at the best of times. Bobby walked down the hallway. He steps slowed as he neared the hospital wing. He wanted to see her; he wanted to see her desperately. So desperately that it made his heart ache in his chest.
But that was the problem. She just wasn't there. He had known it even before Ororo had confirmed it. Like Jean, whatever made them...them. It was gone. When he touched Rogue now...it just wasn't right.
He pushed open the door and saw Logan sat between the two beds. He had his head down and he held Rogue's hand in his right one and Jean's in his left, as though just by hoping, he could bring them back to him.
Logan hadn't said anything. When Ororo had explained, he had just nodded, he had already known. The only person who knew Rogue better than him was Bobby and he had known that Rogue was not there.
Seeing Logan like this was one of the most painful things for Bobby. He knew that Rogue would be sad if she could see him and he hated that. But the older man...it was like he had just stopped. Everything, like he was prepared to stop existing if he lost both of them.
Bobby put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, any change."
Logan looked up and took a few seconds to answer as though he was trying to ground himself to think about things clearly, "No, no change. Nothing."
Logan didn't say anything else he just turned back around and stared at the beds.
Bobby walked over to Ororo, "How's it going?"
Ororo met his eyes, she looked tired, "There's no change, they're not moving."
Bobby quirked an eyebrow, "I meant Logan."
She smiled a little ironically, "He's not moving either. It's like..."
"Like he doesn't care anymore," he finished for her.
She nodded, "I'm still to figure out what sort of drug was used. I'll let you know if I get anything new."
Bobby walked over to the bed and stoked a hand over Rogue's forehead. He kissed her gently and turned and walked back out of the room.
* * *
Pyro was breathing heavily. It was a lot harder to drag something this big than one would have imagined. Magneto walked in front of him. He couldn't help, he was still too weak and Mystique was off somewhere doing something else. Magneto glanced over his shoulder, "We're here."
"Thank God this thing weighs a ton."
Magneto looked down at the body still leaking black blood onto the floor, "It was a shame. May have been useful. But he's their leader and it's the only way."
Pyro nodded, "It should turn them."
Magneto sighed, "I hope so." He turned around again, raised his hand and knocked on the door. A small opening appeared as whoever was inside opened the hatch, "We know that you don't know us but we have to speak with you."
"Who are you?" The voice was waspish, neither distinctly male nor female. Just a hoarse whisper. As though the voice hadn't been used in quite some time.
Magneto stood aside and indicated down to the floor, "We were caught in a fight, we tried to save him. He fought bravely but there were too many."
The eyes looked down at the floor and there was the sound of a gasp and a whispered 'no'. About five seconds later, Pyro heard the bolt inside the door being drawn back as it was opened. He smiled internally.
* * *
"Where am I?" the question wasn't spoken but she knew that she had asked just as much as if it had been.
"Wherever I am, I guess you're there too."
"Have you been here all this time Jean?"
"Yes."
Rogue's mind was racing. If Jean was here, and she was here and Jean was also back at the mansion and not dead then that probably, logically, meant that she wasn't dead either. Just in some kind of coma or something. Although that thought wasn't altogether comforting, she was just pleased to realise that there was a chance she might wake up. "Do you know how we get out of here?"
As soon as she thought it she new that it was a stupid question. If Jean knew of a way to escape there was no doubt that she would have used it by now. But then again...Jean had communicated with the Professor. Reached out and touched him. If she had been able to do it once then why couldn't she have done it again?
Apparently though, she had asked all of this without even realising it. And Jean replied, "I have no idea. I wasn't even sure it would work but if you went and found me then I guess you must have heard me calling. I had been trying to reach the Professor for ages and when I felt...I thought at least that I felt some kind of connection...well I wasn't sure. And after a while...well I gave up hope again."
Rogue gasped, as Jean spoke she felt...a rush. Emotions, images. If she had been in a body and standing up she knew that she would have stumbled and fell. She saw...no...she felt Jean smile in sympathy, "It can take a little while to get used to it. There are no secrets here. Your mind and thoughts are not contained here. They're just...out there."
That made Rogue panic again, if her thoughts were just out there...where was there? Where was she? How was she going to get back? Back home? Back to Bobby. Her mind strayed to him, he must be so worried, they had been together when she could remember everything going black. They'd been...well, it must have frightened the life out of him to see her just...go like that, leave him...
Jean interrupted her thoughts with a teasing, "Hey, some of that is not suitable for bystanders."
Rogue mentally blushed, "Sorry. I'm just...everything's so mixed up in my head. I just...I have to get back."
She could feel Jean's sympathy, "Any suggestions?"
* * *
The Professor sat in the hospital wing. "So, it may be possible to wake her?"
"Yes, but we would have to reach her mentally."
Bobby shook his head, "I'm really confused."
Logan nodded, "For those of us who don't speak 'sad science geek' could you explain?"
Ororo sighed, "One of the first things that struck me was the similarity between Rogue's catatonia and Jean's. Jean's as we knew was a reaction to what happened to her. Her body's way of dealing with the shock of what had happened to it. I did some of the more obscure tests on the dart that was found in Rogue's neck. It synthetically induces that kind of shock. It attacks the nervous system and makes the brain think that the body cannot cope with its surroundings. To combat this, the consciousness of the brain shuts down."
Logan nodded, "But how does that help us? I mean, if we can't wake Jean why should we be able to wake Rogue?
The Professor turned to face him, "Because what happened to Rogue was synthetic. Not real. When the brain knows and accepts that it should wake her up."
Bobby unfolded his arms, "Well then can't you just try to communicate with her and tell her?"
The Professor sighed, "It's not so simple. The shutting down process, to deal with the stress is not voluntary. It's an automatic response. Something the body does with or without the persons consent. There is a good chance that her consciousness is, or lack of a better term, not there. Her mind will have to be lured back to her body. That...I have no idea how that can be achieved. If I could get to her; talk to her. Maybe I could instruct her to try to find a way back. But if I can't..."
Bobby rubbed his eyes, "So what you're saying is that you have no idea how to wake her up."
"We know what has to be done. We just have to find a way to do it."
* * *
A large number of mutants stood assembled round the corpse. It had been placed on a table in the centre of a large warehouse.
"Why would they do this? We've never hurt anyone. Even with our powers potential we have always been a group dedicated to helping. To not hurting anyone."
Magneto placed a hand on the mutants shoulder. He was truly sorry for the young girl's grief. Sorry that it had been necessary to do what had been done. But unfortunately, well it was the truth of her statement that was the issue. Fire breathers. Completely devoted to never harming anyone? A total and complete waste. They had massive potential to be tapped. "We don't know. We came around the corner and they were kicking him. We don't...we don't think he was conscious for most of it. They just, they just hate all mutants. They kept asking him where the rest were but...well obviously at first he wouldn't answer and at the end he wasn't able to. We tried to get there in time to help him but there were just too many."
She smiled a watery sad smile of thanks for their effort, "Were they all together?"
Magneto nodded, "These types of groups have more than tripled in the past six months. Vigilantes, devoted to killing us off one by one. I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't the end for all of us."
The girl's eyes flashed, "People like this will to be the reason for our destruction! We have done nothing wrong! We do not choose to be different!"
Pyro came forward, "We know. You're preaching to the choir here. We just...we've been running for a long time now. We been trying to...do something anything." He carefully recited the words he'd learnt, "We lost some people. We aren't many now. We just have to keep trying."
The girl looked at him, "I know who you are. You believe that hurting them is right. We've never believed that."
Magneto shook his head, "We don't want to hurt anyone, but that doesn't mean that we are prepared to let them hunt us down one by one, like cattle. We believe that we can eventually get to the point where we can co-exist peacefully. We just don't think that we are there yet." He pointed down to the dead mutant "Do you?"
The girl looked down at the mutant. Their leader, her father, "I guess maybe not. But we have to try."
"I agree. But how? Do we roll over and let them kill us off? Or do we try to prove that we are here to stay and not prepared to let them slaughter us?"
There was a mutter around the assembled group. Some looked doubtful. Some agreed. None looked opposed. Magneto smiled.
* * *
The Professor was alone in the hospital wing. Truly alone. The two women weren't there. He would have to tell the others in the morning. What Magneto was doing. What he was trying to cause. He didn't know if they could handle it right then. Only Bobby seemed to realise that there had to be a larger significance to what had been done to Rogue. The others were just feeling the pain. Bobby was feeling it too, more than any of them. He was determined to fix it. Anyway he could.
But the Professor was concerned. He didn't know how far Bobby was prepared to go to fix it. It had taken him a long time to make the boy swear not to go after Magneto himself and force a cure out of him. And when Bobby found out what Magneto was up to...would he still be prepared to wait. The Professor wasn't sure.
He sighed and for the hundredth time he cleared his mind. "Rogue? Jean?"
* * *
Bobby lay down. This was the eighth night that he had got into this bed without Rogue by his side. He rolled over and buried his face in her pillow. His throat tightened. The scent was fading. He knew everything small thing about her and he knew it was fading. It had been too long since she had used it. Maybe another two days before it would be gone.
He had sprayed it with her perfume about three days ago to make it last longer and it helped a little. But when all was said and done it just wasn't the same. Sure it smelled like her perfume, but not her.
He wrapped his arms around it and hugged it tight to his chest. He didn't try to fight the tears. The first two nights he had tried, tried to be strong for her, refused to give up. Now he just wasn't sure if he had any fight left inside of him.
But he did know one thing. Even if when he was alone he crumbled, he was not giving up. She was coming back to him. He was going to bring her back. He knew what he had promised the Professor, but he didn't care. He breathed in the scent of the pillow again. Two days. Two days and it would be gone. Well then, that's how long he would give to the Professor. Two days to come up with a plan. If he couldn't...then Bobby was taking matters into his own hands.
Rating: PG-13
Yay, I'm back! Bastard exams are over and I'm back. Have been so busy with stuff and now I'm kinda ready to tell it all to bugger off. There has to be life after education, there has to be...right? Right?!
"Where am I?"
Rogue was floating. Only she wasn't. To be floating you have to be capable of falling and it wasn't like that. She knew that for sure seeing as how she could float now. So, if she wasn't capable of falling... Rogue tried to look down at herself. But then she realised that she wasn't there, more than that. There was nothing to look down with.
She was not in her body. There was no body. She was just...what? Consciousness? Part of her wanted to cry, but she couldn't. She wasn't able to anymore. She tried to speak but then realised that she couldn't do that either. After all, she didn't have a mouth.
Rogue fought down the raising panic inside of her. Where was she? How had she got here? And more importantly, how did she get back? Because one thing was for sure, she wasn't staying here. She had to get back. She had finally sorted out her life. She was happy, and she refused to allow that to be taken away from her. She had to get back to Bobby.
With that thought her heart contracted. If she was here, that meant she couldn't be there, God he must be so afraid.
"Whoa, whoa calm down."
If she's been in here body Rogue would have spun around to see who it was that had spoken to her. But she didn't need to. She didn't need to. Partly because they weren't behind her, they were just there and partly because they hadn't spoken. They had just...communicated. And they...they were Jean?
* * *
Most powerful mutant he had ever come across huh? That was what the Professor had said. Well that was a title he was sure Rogue was gonna love. She hated thinking of herself as capable of causing damage at the best of times. Bobby walked down the hallway. He steps slowed as he neared the hospital wing. He wanted to see her; he wanted to see her desperately. So desperately that it made his heart ache in his chest.
But that was the problem. She just wasn't there. He had known it even before Ororo had confirmed it. Like Jean, whatever made them...them. It was gone. When he touched Rogue now...it just wasn't right.
He pushed open the door and saw Logan sat between the two beds. He had his head down and he held Rogue's hand in his right one and Jean's in his left, as though just by hoping, he could bring them back to him.
Logan hadn't said anything. When Ororo had explained, he had just nodded, he had already known. The only person who knew Rogue better than him was Bobby and he had known that Rogue was not there.
Seeing Logan like this was one of the most painful things for Bobby. He knew that Rogue would be sad if she could see him and he hated that. But the older man...it was like he had just stopped. Everything, like he was prepared to stop existing if he lost both of them.
Bobby put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, any change."
Logan looked up and took a few seconds to answer as though he was trying to ground himself to think about things clearly, "No, no change. Nothing."
Logan didn't say anything else he just turned back around and stared at the beds.
Bobby walked over to Ororo, "How's it going?"
Ororo met his eyes, she looked tired, "There's no change, they're not moving."
Bobby quirked an eyebrow, "I meant Logan."
She smiled a little ironically, "He's not moving either. It's like..."
"Like he doesn't care anymore," he finished for her.
She nodded, "I'm still to figure out what sort of drug was used. I'll let you know if I get anything new."
Bobby walked over to the bed and stoked a hand over Rogue's forehead. He kissed her gently and turned and walked back out of the room.
* * *
Pyro was breathing heavily. It was a lot harder to drag something this big than one would have imagined. Magneto walked in front of him. He couldn't help, he was still too weak and Mystique was off somewhere doing something else. Magneto glanced over his shoulder, "We're here."
"Thank God this thing weighs a ton."
Magneto looked down at the body still leaking black blood onto the floor, "It was a shame. May have been useful. But he's their leader and it's the only way."
Pyro nodded, "It should turn them."
Magneto sighed, "I hope so." He turned around again, raised his hand and knocked on the door. A small opening appeared as whoever was inside opened the hatch, "We know that you don't know us but we have to speak with you."
"Who are you?" The voice was waspish, neither distinctly male nor female. Just a hoarse whisper. As though the voice hadn't been used in quite some time.
Magneto stood aside and indicated down to the floor, "We were caught in a fight, we tried to save him. He fought bravely but there were too many."
The eyes looked down at the floor and there was the sound of a gasp and a whispered 'no'. About five seconds later, Pyro heard the bolt inside the door being drawn back as it was opened. He smiled internally.
* * *
"Where am I?" the question wasn't spoken but she knew that she had asked just as much as if it had been.
"Wherever I am, I guess you're there too."
"Have you been here all this time Jean?"
"Yes."
Rogue's mind was racing. If Jean was here, and she was here and Jean was also back at the mansion and not dead then that probably, logically, meant that she wasn't dead either. Just in some kind of coma or something. Although that thought wasn't altogether comforting, she was just pleased to realise that there was a chance she might wake up. "Do you know how we get out of here?"
As soon as she thought it she new that it was a stupid question. If Jean knew of a way to escape there was no doubt that she would have used it by now. But then again...Jean had communicated with the Professor. Reached out and touched him. If she had been able to do it once then why couldn't she have done it again?
Apparently though, she had asked all of this without even realising it. And Jean replied, "I have no idea. I wasn't even sure it would work but if you went and found me then I guess you must have heard me calling. I had been trying to reach the Professor for ages and when I felt...I thought at least that I felt some kind of connection...well I wasn't sure. And after a while...well I gave up hope again."
Rogue gasped, as Jean spoke she felt...a rush. Emotions, images. If she had been in a body and standing up she knew that she would have stumbled and fell. She saw...no...she felt Jean smile in sympathy, "It can take a little while to get used to it. There are no secrets here. Your mind and thoughts are not contained here. They're just...out there."
That made Rogue panic again, if her thoughts were just out there...where was there? Where was she? How was she going to get back? Back home? Back to Bobby. Her mind strayed to him, he must be so worried, they had been together when she could remember everything going black. They'd been...well, it must have frightened the life out of him to see her just...go like that, leave him...
Jean interrupted her thoughts with a teasing, "Hey, some of that is not suitable for bystanders."
Rogue mentally blushed, "Sorry. I'm just...everything's so mixed up in my head. I just...I have to get back."
She could feel Jean's sympathy, "Any suggestions?"
* * *
The Professor sat in the hospital wing. "So, it may be possible to wake her?"
"Yes, but we would have to reach her mentally."
Bobby shook his head, "I'm really confused."
Logan nodded, "For those of us who don't speak 'sad science geek' could you explain?"
Ororo sighed, "One of the first things that struck me was the similarity between Rogue's catatonia and Jean's. Jean's as we knew was a reaction to what happened to her. Her body's way of dealing with the shock of what had happened to it. I did some of the more obscure tests on the dart that was found in Rogue's neck. It synthetically induces that kind of shock. It attacks the nervous system and makes the brain think that the body cannot cope with its surroundings. To combat this, the consciousness of the brain shuts down."
Logan nodded, "But how does that help us? I mean, if we can't wake Jean why should we be able to wake Rogue?
The Professor turned to face him, "Because what happened to Rogue was synthetic. Not real. When the brain knows and accepts that it should wake her up."
Bobby unfolded his arms, "Well then can't you just try to communicate with her and tell her?"
The Professor sighed, "It's not so simple. The shutting down process, to deal with the stress is not voluntary. It's an automatic response. Something the body does with or without the persons consent. There is a good chance that her consciousness is, or lack of a better term, not there. Her mind will have to be lured back to her body. That...I have no idea how that can be achieved. If I could get to her; talk to her. Maybe I could instruct her to try to find a way back. But if I can't..."
Bobby rubbed his eyes, "So what you're saying is that you have no idea how to wake her up."
"We know what has to be done. We just have to find a way to do it."
* * *
A large number of mutants stood assembled round the corpse. It had been placed on a table in the centre of a large warehouse.
"Why would they do this? We've never hurt anyone. Even with our powers potential we have always been a group dedicated to helping. To not hurting anyone."
Magneto placed a hand on the mutants shoulder. He was truly sorry for the young girl's grief. Sorry that it had been necessary to do what had been done. But unfortunately, well it was the truth of her statement that was the issue. Fire breathers. Completely devoted to never harming anyone? A total and complete waste. They had massive potential to be tapped. "We don't know. We came around the corner and they were kicking him. We don't...we don't think he was conscious for most of it. They just, they just hate all mutants. They kept asking him where the rest were but...well obviously at first he wouldn't answer and at the end he wasn't able to. We tried to get there in time to help him but there were just too many."
She smiled a watery sad smile of thanks for their effort, "Were they all together?"
Magneto nodded, "These types of groups have more than tripled in the past six months. Vigilantes, devoted to killing us off one by one. I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't the end for all of us."
The girl's eyes flashed, "People like this will to be the reason for our destruction! We have done nothing wrong! We do not choose to be different!"
Pyro came forward, "We know. You're preaching to the choir here. We just...we've been running for a long time now. We been trying to...do something anything." He carefully recited the words he'd learnt, "We lost some people. We aren't many now. We just have to keep trying."
The girl looked at him, "I know who you are. You believe that hurting them is right. We've never believed that."
Magneto shook his head, "We don't want to hurt anyone, but that doesn't mean that we are prepared to let them hunt us down one by one, like cattle. We believe that we can eventually get to the point where we can co-exist peacefully. We just don't think that we are there yet." He pointed down to the dead mutant "Do you?"
The girl looked down at the mutant. Their leader, her father, "I guess maybe not. But we have to try."
"I agree. But how? Do we roll over and let them kill us off? Or do we try to prove that we are here to stay and not prepared to let them slaughter us?"
There was a mutter around the assembled group. Some looked doubtful. Some agreed. None looked opposed. Magneto smiled.
* * *
The Professor was alone in the hospital wing. Truly alone. The two women weren't there. He would have to tell the others in the morning. What Magneto was doing. What he was trying to cause. He didn't know if they could handle it right then. Only Bobby seemed to realise that there had to be a larger significance to what had been done to Rogue. The others were just feeling the pain. Bobby was feeling it too, more than any of them. He was determined to fix it. Anyway he could.
But the Professor was concerned. He didn't know how far Bobby was prepared to go to fix it. It had taken him a long time to make the boy swear not to go after Magneto himself and force a cure out of him. And when Bobby found out what Magneto was up to...would he still be prepared to wait. The Professor wasn't sure.
He sighed and for the hundredth time he cleared his mind. "Rogue? Jean?"
* * *
Bobby lay down. This was the eighth night that he had got into this bed without Rogue by his side. He rolled over and buried his face in her pillow. His throat tightened. The scent was fading. He knew everything small thing about her and he knew it was fading. It had been too long since she had used it. Maybe another two days before it would be gone.
He had sprayed it with her perfume about three days ago to make it last longer and it helped a little. But when all was said and done it just wasn't the same. Sure it smelled like her perfume, but not her.
He wrapped his arms around it and hugged it tight to his chest. He didn't try to fight the tears. The first two nights he had tried, tried to be strong for her, refused to give up. Now he just wasn't sure if he had any fight left inside of him.
But he did know one thing. Even if when he was alone he crumbled, he was not giving up. She was coming back to him. He was going to bring her back. He knew what he had promised the Professor, but he didn't care. He breathed in the scent of the pillow again. Two days. Two days and it would be gone. Well then, that's how long he would give to the Professor. Two days to come up with a plan. If he couldn't...then Bobby was taking matters into his own hands.