Dust and Blood

Legal Stuff: Don't own them, only borrowing them.

Rating: Not intended for children, story does contain mature subject matter. Injury and femslash.

It started out like just another training exercise. Professor Xavier was gone with Logan to over see a pro-mutant rally on the West Coast. Ororo was left in charge, but a family emergency came up and she had to leave with Evan. This left Scott in charge to lead the exercise. It was late, and it was Sunday. The team figured they could go out and train outside the city in an old junk yard which bordered some long abandoned mines. Give them a chance to have some fresh air instead of being cooped up inside the danger room. There were six of them in total, Scott, Kurt, Bobby, Jean, Kitty and Rogue. The exercise was simple, the team would just break into 3 parts and each pair would find a starting place. It would be like a school yard match of Capture the Flag. Easy enough they thought until it came to choosing partners.

"Jean and I will start over by the junky bus over there." Scott Pointed.

"Wait a minute Scott!" Kitty piped up. "How come you get to go with Jean... but Kurt and I can't be together!" She placed her hands on her hips and gave Scott the 'What are you going to do now' look.

"Look why don't we just draw straws…" Jean suggested. Murmurs went through the small group of agreement.

"Alright" Scott conceded. They fished around for six pieces of wire and made them all into three different sizes. Two of each size, then everyone plucked a wire from Scott's hand as he offered them. Kitty squealed with delight and jumped up and down hugging Kurt.

"We got each other!" She beamed.

"Ya dat's great Kitty!" He smiled. Bobby punched Scott in the arm lightly.

"Looks like it's me and you bro! The Cyclops and the Ice Man… we'll win for sure!" Scott just scratched his head.

"Yeah that's great man." Rogue and Jean just silently looked at each other. It was no secret that the two didn't really get along that well. Everyone quieted down until Jean again spoke up.

"Me and you Rogue. Lets show them what we can do right." She offered a small unconvincing smile. In truth inside she was torn, half the time they were on missions she couldn't pay attention when Rogue was there. Even though Rogue's dark demeanor turned most people off Jean found it exciting, like a puzzle just begging to be solved. She wasn't sure how well she could perform working next to Rogue during a simple game.

"Yeah I guess so." Rogue swallowed hard and squeezed the wire in her hand, silently cursing it. She knew it meant she was going to be close to Jean tonight. Its not the she didn't like Jean. That wasn't it at all. In fact she did like Jean, a lot. She always starts to feel strange when she is too close to her. When she can smell her perfume or her shampoo, when her skin is so unbearably close, and it takes everything in Rogue's power to not touch her silky hand.

"Alright team. It's just an exercise. Remember in a real situation we wouldn't be able to choose who we were fighting with, in a real situation we have to fight for each other no matter what our relationships are. So let's just have some fun with this and be back at the mansion of pancakes in a couple hours. Then we can discuss why Bobby and I beat you all so bad!"

"Yeah right Scott!" Kitty rolled her eyes. Scott handed out colored towels he grabbed from the master bath before heading out. He handed each team one.

"Ok let's just have some fun. Set our watches. We have 20 minutes to hide our flags then the game begins. Go!" Each team ran off in an opposite direction.

Rogue and Jean sat quietly with their flag. They were far out of sight from the other teams. The Junk Yard was really quite huge. They were sitting leaning up against some tires. Rogue was looking just ahead of them.

"Jean… Look at that bus…" She pointed just in front of them. "It looks about ready to tumble down that hill. It's resting just against that small rock sticking out of the ground. If that wasn't there the whole bus would tumble right towards us."

"Yeah you're right. I wonder how it got that way." She replied. Rogue shrugged.

"What are we going to do with that flag? Towel…" Jean smiled at Rogue's seriousness.

"I don't know… maybe we should bury it?" Jean offered. A small tremor rumbled the earth. Jean looked up at Rogue. "What was that?"

"I don't know" Rogue stood and looked around. "The brother hood has been gone for a long time; I don't think its avalanche." Another tremor rumbled below them, stronger. "Jean?"

"I don't know either. Maybe it's just the old mines… sometimes old mines cave in right?" Jean looked towards Rogue. Both at once turned pale as a third ground shaking tremor broke under their feet.

"Cave in?" Just as suddenly as Rogue said the words the ground opened under them, catching both of them by surprised. Rogue barely made out Jean's figure literally bouncing off the wall and tumbling down into the darkness. Above the small rock Rogue had been studying broke free with the tremors, sending the broken bus crashing down the small hill. Landing spare over the freshly made hole and blocking out the moonlight. Jean landed first, then Rogue with a sickening "Whoomp" knocking the wind out of her lungs. The whole world spun around her.

Scott, Bobby, Kitty and Kurt quickly found each other after the mild earthquake. Standing together where the exercise had begun, they all looked just a tad shaken up.

"Everyone ok here?" Scott asked them. A series of nodding heads assured him these three were ok. "Alright… where is Jean and Rogue?"

"Maybe they like, didn't feel it?" Kitty suggested.

"Nah, they felt it Kitty... they had to!" Kurt added. Scott just nodded.

"Yeah, Jean knows if anything like that happens to regroup, which means they might be hurt. Kitty and Kurt you two stay together, Bobby and I will stay together. You start on that side of the junk yard; we will start over on this side. We'll make a sweep for them. If Jean is conscious she will contact me then I will send a blast into the air with my powers so you two know to meet us back. But if she's not conscious she may need medical treatment. Let's do this!" The group quickly separated and began sweeping the area. There were no foot prints as Jean had flown her and Rogue to their destination, and the bus was covering the only evidence they were there.

In the darkness below Rogue coughed and slowly dragged herself up. She spoke, her voice dry and cracked.

"Jean?" Panic was setting in. It was Pitch black, the cave was full of thick metallic dust which hurt her nose and throat. She thought for sure her ribs were broken. "Jean?" She called again. No answer. Crawling along the floor she waved her hands over the sandy bottom until they brushed something. Patting the mysterious object she discovered Jean. She lowered her ear towards the figure. She could hear breathing… that was a bonus.

Rogue sat and ran her gloved hands over jeans body, trying to figure out what position the girl was laying in. When her hands touched her head she felt something slippery. Blood Rogue realized. Jean must be injured. She quickly tugged on Jean's shirt and ripped it. She wiped the girls head gently, trying to clean away the blood but not able to see in the darkness.

"Jean…Jean wake up please. Don't you die on me down here! We're a team dammit, you don't get to die down here. Not with me! Not on me... you can't die on me…" Tears stung the young Goth girl's eyes.

She had never considered before one of them actually dieing. Sure the X-men fight a lot… but she never thought one of them may actually die. Especially like this, there wasn't even a fight. Her hands moved over Jean's injured head, searching, cursing her powers, this would be easier with no gloves. Fingers stroking through her hair, touching her scalp trying to decide if her head is cracked or just cut. Finding no real massive damage Rogue sighed and hoped for the best. She sat silently and caressed the unconscious girl's hair.

Day 1:

Back at the mansion that evening Scott wasted no time contacting Logan. He told Logan and the Professor about what had happened. With no further questions the Professor and Logan were headed back to New York to search for the missing girls. In the den Kitty just paced back and forth. Kurt tried unsuccessfully to calm her.

"Rogue?" The voice was weak but defiantly there.

TBC: I will update again as soon as I can! Hope you enjoyed it!