We return to SHIELD's camp shortly after. Rogue speaks with an eloquence and logic that matches her passion. To my surprise, Fury and his cohorts listen. In my heart, I wonder if this is yet another mistake. I should not lead anyone else into this battle; no matter what else comes, the battle is between Zaladane and me. There is but one way Zaladane must be dealt with. Not for pride, or arrogance, because of her disregard for any life but hers. She would let us all burn for her greed.
I should have kept walking. I should not have been this weak to have tried to ally myself with others. And now my cares will weigh me down, each one as heavy as Atlas' entire burden.
There was enough time for a full planning session, and afterward everyone got a chance to rest. They had to wait for the sun to go low against the horizon; it was the only way they could hope to avoid visual contact before absolutely necessary.
Everyone retired; there were hours yet. Rogue and Magneto made their excuses; the camp was no safe place for them; mutants would not be welcome, and it seemed unnecessary to task someone to guarding a supposed guests' safety. Ka-Zar decided to stay behind, and Zabu, well, Zabu went wherever his humans did. He hadn't seemed interested once the report had come from the flanking troops that the citadel was abandoned, and all those who had survived were seen marching sedately under Worm's domination. Shanna had been seen among the taken, along with the majority of the village elders. At least Zaladane wasn't so far gone as to destroy the entire infrastructure of the Savage Land. Yet.
And so, Ka-Zar stayed behind, uninterested in anything else but the assault they planned for the morning. As for the mutants, they returned to the citadel, it wasn't that far from the SHIELD area, after all. Especially when one could fly. They kept low and passed the ground with no interruption. As Magneto's feet touched the balcony of his quarters, he held Rogue in his arms, but when she tried to move from them, he merely shifted enough to capture her attention, and then her mouth. She didn't touch the ground once as he carried her inside, back to the bed they might have shared the night before. Tonight, they were not letting that chance pass them by again.
In a way, this seemed to be the reward for their patience and restraint then was sweet indeed. If Rogue had an idea of what sex might be thanks to her powers, Magneto had no desire to let her languish in any concern of inexperience. If this was to be a first for them, they would treat it as such. He would treat this as a moment of discovery like it was for them both. He would treat her with the reverence she deserved. There was no one else, there had been no one else. There was only them, only now.
The short night passed.
"Who told you Ah need combat armor?!" Rogue demanded angrily as a pile of supplies were shoved into her arms. Off to the side Magneto was discussing a matter of tactics in flanking Zaladane's base of operations in the bright morning sun.
"Fury said Magneto requisitioned it, ma'am. Said it was a formal request." the soldier answered and promptly turned away to give her access to her assigned helicopter.
Rogue had a feeling that everyone had a damn good idea of what transpired the night prior, and it astonished her at how little she cared. She was in an odd juxtaposition of wanting to crow it to the skies in bright lights, and go hide all at once. Rogue wanted to tell her mothers, her friends, and no one all at the same time. She wanted to ignore all this and do it again. That last thought was the only sentiment she stomped down immediately; there would be plenty of time for that after the assault, after their victory was engendered. She refused to consider any other alternative.
Between then and now, though, was the battle ahead, and she'd fight it like every other fight she had ever joined; with every ounce of her being. This, however…
Rogue turned to look at Magneto, doing her damndest to keep her face neutral. He seemed to have no problem, and he noted the clothing in her arms with an approving nod, and a questioning quirk of an eyebrow. It was plainly clear; would she understand? He had requests. And she had agreed to them.
How irritating, despite being caught in their agreement, she wanted to indulge in her emotions. She knew she couldn't though, and her hands were tied. Worst of all, he knew it! Rogue cared about what Magneto thought of her, and castigating him, doing anything that countermanded his orders just before the fight was unacceptable. So's blushing like a schoolgirl. Rogue thought to herself, feeling her temper rise. Was it anger, arousal, or something else altogether? Confused, but unwilling to concede any ground, Rogue decided that she wasn't going to let him get the better of her in the moment.
Rogue plainly looked down at the jumble of items in her arms, screwed her face up into a grimace at him for the briefest of moments before turning to change into the armor, smooth-faced and calm. She never saw the slightest smile on Magneto's face, gone almost as quickly as it was there before he settled his helmet. How much will this cost? Not me, but my allies. Magneto thought, glad the helmet would hide his thoughts from allies and enemies alike.
Not me, but her. It is never me that suffers the most.
The helicopters jounced in their passing of the treetops, skimming as close to them as they'd allow. The people inside rocked with every meter, but there was little else they could do. The pilot tried to apologize, but Fury wasn't having it.
"You're doin' fine, Major. Magneto…and Semyanov's right, we would've wasted time trying to get a hold of someone. We have to stop this here, and now." He paused and looked at the X-Man. "You got something you want to say, Rogue? Spit it out. I don't take sour faces in my army."
"First off, Colonel, I ain't in yer army," Rogue retorted, shifting in her seat. "The second; Ah'm not angry, Ah wanted us to work together, 'member? Ah'd love to have a nicer look on my face if I could get this stupid suit to fit." She yanked at an offending shoulder strap, trying to resettle the buckle.
"But Rogue, darling." Ka-Zar cooed at her, causing some of the men to smirk at the banter. It always helped to hearten the troops before battle. "You look so damn cute."
He sat down next to her, so they could speak in relative privacy. "Magneto asked it, and we both know why: it's time you faced facts. Your powers are gone." Rogue grimaced momentarily as if she wanted to spit before subsiding. She'd let him say what he needed to. After all, what else was there to say in response?
"You're good, and you held your own in a jungle that eats trained groups whole. But for this fight you need the protection that armor gives, and we all know it." Ka-Zar sat back and sighed. "Let him have this, Rogue. If I could have Shanna here right now; I'd wrap her in every bit of armor here, and that includes the blast door."
"She wouldn't allow that, Ka-Zar," Rogue said, smiling at him. Hearten the troops. He still had it.
"Yeah," Ka-Zar said and smiled back at her, a little sadly. "You're right."
Rogue started to say something but before she could, there was a sudden call over the communication system. "Targets incoming. Jesus Christ; there's dozens of 'em!"
"Evasive maneuvers, fan out to give each other ro-!" Fury ordered and the helicopters began to shift and arm their weaponry.
Semyanov struck before Commander Fury could complete the command.
"For my Dimitri!" Semyanov howled as he fired an enormous pulse cannon at Magneto. "For country! For humans!"
Magneto was hit by a wide-range beam broad enough to scan past his body and hit the helicopter Fury's group was aboard. The flying mutant fell, and so did the Commander's vessel.
It took three men to pull the Colonel from his weapon, all of them screaming various insults and curses at him.
"You've killed us all!"
"It was a necessary sacrifice, lieutenant. Those men would rather be known for being of the company that killed Magneto, instead of aiding him!"
"Weapons up, they're gonna take us from the air!" a soldier called as one of the pterosaur riders screamed in delighted challenge.
Machine met men as above a pulse flared. Machines dropped from the sky like lead weights, completely dead, and the men led their flying reptiles in pursuit.
At some point in the not too far future, Rogue woke to the sound of something shuffling nearby. No…it's a huff. A sniff?
Rogue opened her eyes just as a huge pair of jaws closed down on her midsection with a crunch that sharply snapped through the jungle. She made a wordless cry as the reptile tried to toss its head back and have her slide down its gullet. Before it could she had squirmed enough to get an arm out and slammed it against the side of the dinosaur's face.
Its teeth shattered under her forearm, and the entire thing keeled over mid-bite, dead in one stroke. Rogue slid through the sides of the dead creature's mouth, shaking off an armload of spit. She had been thrown further from the copter, perhaps the most out of anyone that had been aboard save Fury. He had been sucked out almost immediately, as he was by the open door.
What is with this place?! She thought to herself as she scrambled to her feet. Every single nightmare Ah can think of has happened t'me- - she broke off seeing the helicopter half in a broken cradle of trees on the other side of the clearing. There were saurian creatures; a little larger than human, swarming over the wrecked cabin. The crew!
"Hang on!" She cried out, sliding in the loose soil the dinosaur kicked up as it died. She tried to will herself to fly above the ground. Nothing doing. This made no sense; didn't she just one-hit an enormous lizard?
Why can't she fly? She could fly before! She heard the men screaming and stumbled out onto firmer soil. She had to help them! Perhaps she could leap up there.
Between thought and deed a loud road exploded through the crash-impacted copse. Zabu leapt down from a higher tree, and against another's trunk before slamming into one of the animals and riding it to the jungle floor, snarling the whole way.
Ka-Zar jumped down in a more human-fashion, but his ferocity was equal to Zabu's. Despite that, they were both too late. Ka-Zar tried to assess who he could triage, but in the time it took to dispatch the creatures the men had been lost. Ka-Zar grimly began to take whatever weaponry he felt most comfortable with, and mentally saluted the men. They didn't deserve this.
"I'm sorry we were too late," Ka-Zar said to the men he had just joked with. Death was a necessity of life, but this? "Rest. You did your job well."
"Worse further back," Fury said as he rappelled down. "It's callous; but the faster and farther we're from here, the better. Before Zaladane's people come huntin'."
"For whatever it's worth," Ka-Zar said as he shouldered a large assault rifle Fury handed him. The man had enough on him for three soldiers. "They aren't the threat to worry about. In fact, Zaladane's people - even the super-powered ones - have learned the hard way to give this jungle the widest possible berths.
"And why is that, Ka-Zar?" Fury said, scanning the local jungle area with his remaining eye. "What's hiding here?"
"Why don'cya tell us, Fury?" Rogue asked in response to his query. "Why exactly were you down here? The U.N. said this land's protected. No one's s'posedta spoil it- "
"Well, didn't you just answer your own question, sweetheart. Semyanov notwithstanding - and I will have his head for a door stop," he swore to the two, who nodded grimly. The man had allowed his brothers in arms to be butchered. He assaulted Magneto, the only person who could have kept them afloat. Whatever Fury planned was going to destroy the man, in career and life. He could have it. "I was sent here to check on that very fact."
"Bullshit, Fury. You don't take the field just 'cause you wanna stretch yer legs," she countered back, but before she could, Ka-Zar interjected once more.
"Look around, folks!" he said in a subdued, but urgent voice. "This whole area tells you what you need to know." The two stared at him, surprised and confused by his assertion.
"This whole area was a wasteland not so long ago. Terminus scoured this land to bare rock." His mouth twisted, remembering the entire affair vividly. "The trees around us are grand ol'centennial ones. They achieve this kinda crown structure well into their first century. I've seen hatchlings with their own clutches of adolescents, 'cause Mama 'n Papa're full grown. Yes, the High Evolutionary restored the land to growth, but the process he used had drawbacks." Though it seemed that was how every gift the High Evolutionary bestowed was accompanied by. "Problem is; when you put that kind of extreme environmental pressure on a dynamic organism, you should expect an equally dynamic evolutionary response."
Spoken like a true Lord of the Savage Land. "So you're expecting a smarter class of dinosaur in this area? That's why everyone avoids it?"
"Commander Fury, these things were smart enough already; they didn't need the boost. Our only option is to move, and be as quiet as we can about it. Follow me. I know how to get where we must go."
Rogue looked back to wherever the other copters fell one last time before taking point. She was the one in the most amount of armor, even if it was showing signs of significant stress, and was apparently the strongest. Zabu prowled amongst them as they went; his jaw agape, lips peeled back to expose his teeth fully, and fur bristling. Whatever was in the jungle was shifting and moving amongst the trees, but kept their distance.
For now.