7.
Emma waited impatiently. It was Sunday. FoH allowed her to see her daughter through a live video feed this one day a week. While it served to assure her that her daughter was still alive, it had also been an idea that Emma had planted into the minds of several key FoH leaders. Anything more than that would leave them wondering if she had used her powers on them. She touched the inhibitor collar which encircled her slender neck, and sighed.
Soon, five men came out of a back room. They all either leered at her or looked disgusted. She brushed both off with hardly a second thought. One man, whom she knew to be in charge of this particular facility, brought out a remote and a section of the wall folded away from itself to reveal a large plasma television. Emma tapped the collar. Other than that, the men in the room saw no emotion, only the cold air Emma always gathered around herself.
The television turned on, and she saw her daughter. She nearly dropped her façade altogether and jumped out of her seat at the sight of Elisha. One week had passed since she'd gotten to see her daughter, but nearly a year had passed since Emma had been able to hug her, to comfort and protect her. It was a burden which weighed more heavily on her soul than she would ever admit, even to herself.
Through the television, she saw Elisha sitting cross-legged on the floor drawing a picture. The camera panned to look at it. Emma allowed a smile to come to the surface when she saw the drawing. It was of two stick figures. Emma could tell that it was her holding her daughter's hand.
"When do I get to see Mommy?" Elisha asked the man holding the camera.
"In a few days." Said a rough sounding voice.
"That's what you said last week. And the week before that! I wanna see my Mommy!" Elisha protested, standing.
"Sit down." said the voice.
"No!" Elisha spat defiantly. Emma suddenly was on her feet, teeth barred as she saw the man backhand her daugher, sending her crashing to the floor.
"NO!" Elisha screamed. "NO NO NO NO NO!!" she was in a tantrum now, banging both hands against the floor. Emma's eyes widened. Objects around the room began to shake.
"YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!" Elisha screamed. The man holding the camera jumped as things started to fly around the room. Books, lamps, pillows, anything that was not tied down swirled around the angry child. Emma's chest locked up in fear. She saw an object race toward the camera, heard a grunt, then the camera dropped to the floor. Emma couldn't see anything. She began to panic. Suddenly a loud 'BLAM!' pierced the air. A second later, Elisha's face took up nearly the whole screen. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she rasped short breaths. Flecks of blood had landed on Elisha's cheek. Her breathing slowed, then stopped.
Emma was frozen, eyes wide. Dead silence filled the room. Then one of the FoH spoke.
"At least she has a collar on." he said
Emma snapped her head to face him, cocked her head to one side, and the man clawed at his head as he fell to the ground.
"What the...!?" cried one of the men.
Emma was in shock. As what had happened began to sink in, she started to tremble with rage. "You think this little trinket could hold me forever?"
She cocked her head again and another fell over.
"I... I'm sorry! It wasn't our fault!" another man cried.
"Not... Your... FAULT!?" She screamed. The full magnitude of her daughter's death hit her. She would have to go through life without the one thing she truly loved. The one thing she would ever love. She fell to her knees, looked up toward the ceiling and screamed. Everything went red.
*******
Charles Xavier sat bolt upright in his bed. It was as if he had just been punched in the stomach. His eyes widened. People were dieing. Hundreds of them, and slowly. He tried to touch one's mind to see who was doing it, and pure rage and hatred flooded his consciousness. His body writhed and he cried out as if he were being split in two. The raw emotion was too much for his rational mind to handle.
His door hissed open. Bobby, Hank, Jean and Cyclops ran in, followed shortly by Raien and Chimera. They all gasped. Hank had managed to bring a first aid kit. He quickly administered a sedative to Xavier's writhing form, rendering him unconscious. Jean was still in the doorway. Her eyes wide and panicked.
"My god..." she said holding her temples.
Everyone else looked around in startled confusion.
********
Hank watched his old friend laying on the exam table. The sedative still kept him asleep. What could have happened to throw him into convulsions? Hank thought.
The past few days, Beast had become more withdrawn into his own mind. He'd been looking at his whole life, and it seemed empty. He had done so many great things, and he still had many things unfinished, but he was never truly happy, and he didn't know why. He loved Shakespeare, but he was frustrated that he could not go to the Theatre and see it first hand. Then again, while he loved the flowing prose and heartfelt tragedies, it too had never made him happy, it seemed more a way to cope with his day to day misery.
Hank looked at the floor. He dearly wished he could speak to Charles about this, but feared waking him. He'd always been withdrawn, and had never really wanted to talk about his feelings. So many things he despised about his life. His appearance had made dating a virtual impossibility. There were few that would accept his appearance. Once, he'd been in love, and felt those feelings from another person, but for her to love him, her life would have been full of the turmoil and danger that was being an X- man, and Hank refused to let that happen. He selfishly regretted that decision every day.
Hank jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Bobby. You startled me."
"You just looked really down. Want to talk about it?" Bobby asked
Hank looked at him. Bobby had always been his closest friend. He'd never been afraid of Hank's appearance, never talked down to him, or treated the way he looked like a disability. He wanted to tell him everything. How the endless procession of days became more and more hollow, how empty he felt inside. His mind screamed at him to speak.
Hank cleared his throat and looked at the floor again. "Thank you, my friend, but no." Hank suddenly felt weak. He didn't have the courage just to say a few words to his best friend.
Bobby pulled his hand back. A few moments of silence passed. "What about the Professor, how is he doing?"
"He's stable. I do not know what happened to put him into such a state, but I fear waking him. I'll let the sedative wear off naturally and hope whatever it was is over."
Bobby moved behind him, and hugged him lightly. "If you want to talk, Hank, just call me. Anytime you need to."
Hank nodded and tried to muster a smile. Bobby slowly turned and left. The door closed behind him, and for some reason, Hank couldn't take his eyes off of it.
**********
Bobby slowly walked down the hallway back to his room. The last few days had been torture for him. He was jealous. Raien and Chimera seemed so content with each other. They were like two best friends, who were also in love. Bobby didn't think he would ever find that kind of happiness. What were the odds that another man would be both a mutant and gay. And here. Ever since FoH had become more than just another hate group, the X- men had slowed their missions to a virtual standstill.
In the past, Bobby had always tried to keep himself busy to avoid the darker thoughts his mind drifted into when it was idle, but recently, those thoughts weighed heavily upon him. Especially when he saw relationships blossoming all around him. There was Jean and Cyclops of course. They'd always been in love. Gambit and Rogue too, they just hadn't admitted it until very recently.
Finally though, Bobby was beginning to understand some of those feelings. He'd always felt inadequate around women, which had turned out to be true, in a way. He couldn't believe that the hadn't realized he might have been gay. Looking back, all the times he drooled over Wolverine's body, the thought had never occurred to him. It must have been very awkward for Logan. Bobby knew Wolverine's sense of smell caught that kind of thing. He must have known all along, but never said anything. Bobby had always thought of the gruff short man as the type that would turn his back on you if you came out to him. He really was more complex than he let on, and a better friend than Bobby had thought.
He finally arrived at his room. He just went in, turned the lights out, and went to bed. The day hadn't been overly stressful, but a feeling of emptiness had surrounded him lately. He hoped sleep would ease it.
******************
Rogue sat on her bed staring at the top drawer of the small dresser across the room. Inside it, she knew was an inhibitor collar. Xavier had given it to her so she could pursue a more physical relationship if she chose to, but the insidious device scared her. Thoughts of the time she had spent captive on Genosha haunted her whenever she saw it. The feeling of helplessness those days had carried with them. Without her strength and ability to fly, she was weak. Human.
Slowly she got up, and cracked the drawer open. Seeing the red metal inside made her take a step back. She worked up some courage and moved forward once more, this time removing the collar from the drawer. It didn't feel quite so menacing as it looked. She tried to remember why she was doing this. Remy. She wanted to be able to kiss him without pulling back after only a fraction of a second. Every time she teased him, it had been worse on herself. She would give up so much to be able to just feel her skin pressed to his. This was the cost.
She gritted her teeth and a tear escaped one eye as she brought the collar closer and closer to her neck. She felt the cold metal on her skin and gasped. Dumb girl, ya can do this. Its only a piece of metal. She thought to herself. The two ends of the collar met and the device began to hum. Fear circled in around Rogue and she clenched her eyes even tighter waiting for the hopelessness and despair to swallow her.
Nothing happened. She opened one eye, then the other, the muscles in her face finally relaxing after being so twisted in fear. She got up from the bed. She didn't feel weak. In fact, she felt stronger, in a way. A smile crept its way onto her face.
*************
Gambit awoke with a start. It took him a moment to realize where he was. Then he heard knocking at his door. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and answered it.
"Chere? What you doin' up so late?"
"Shut it, Swamprat, yer not ruin'n it this time!" she said grinning.
Rogue jumped into Gambits arms and pressed her lips against his. Gambit tried to pull back but Rogue grasped the back of his head. After a few moments, he relaxed and kissed her with as much passion as she had. Suddenly they were on the bed.
Dis be a dream. Gambit told himself. It gotta be. If it was, he resolved to enjoy it. Rogue stood and undid the zipper to the back of her jumpsuit. For the first time, Gambit saw the collar. He thought about what it represented. He had never thought about that as a way for them to be intimate. When he woke up he'd have to remember this. The jumpsuit fell away to reveal beautiful skin, which almost seemed to glow to Gambit. Suddenly his mind dulled. God, if someone woke him now, he'd kill them. On the spot.
She lay down next to him, her naked breasts pressed to his chest. Remy fought with himself. He wanted nothing more in the world then to just take her now. Dream or not, Rogue was here. With him. And very, very naked. He resisted the urge, but only barely. He kissed her again, lingering on her lips before kissing his way downward. His tongue on her neck made her gasp. Dis be the best dream Gambit ever had...
He found his way to her breast, lightly brushing it with his cheek. When Rogue arched her back and her breathing hastened, he let his tongue creep to the nipple, lightly at first, then harder, making Rogue gasp again. He almost lost it right there and just fucked her. Her scent permeated his very soul, his rational mind fighting a losing battle. He tongued the other nipple for a few moments, then moved down again.
His tongue explored her body, slowly moving toward the place he could tell she frantically wanted him... Needed him to go. Finally he tasted her. Slowly at first, then his tongue moving faster and harder. Rogue moaned, delivering another blow to Gambit's already wavering sanity. He stopped suddenly, eyes wide. He felt blockage. He gasped. Rogue was a virgin. Of course she a virgin. She never touch no one before, much less dis.
He moved up slightly and tongued the little nub he found there. Rogue's back arched and she cried out in pleasure. Gambit's body trembled as he fought the urges his body hurled at him. Her body shook and her breath caught in her throat. Suddenly she gripped his head like a vice and bucked, screaming his name. Gambit smiled to himself. He moved up as she recovered, caressing her silky skin.
He shed what was left of his clothing, his manhood aching with desire. He had to go slowly. This had to be a dream. Had to be.
"Chere, Gambit love you from da day he saw you." he whispered to her ear. She smiled at him, trust and longing sparkling in her eyes. He moved slowly to enter her, his mind fighting for control of his body. He felt the blockage again. He paused, then felt her hands on his ass. She pulled him down, and gasped. The last shreds of sanity he had left were destroyed as he gave in. Her fingernails dug into his back and her breathing came in halting breaths. She couldn't figure out if she was in pain or rapture. Or both at the same time. Gambit knew he couldn't hold on for long. She arched her back again and screamed in pain and pleasure as another orgasm rocked her body. She spasmed around him, driving him over the edge. His body shook as the tension in his loins took him. He grunted as he came, and his body lost all its strength.
He collapsed beside her, suddenly knowing it was not a dream. Rogue kissed his chest, and they drifted off to sleep tangled in each others arms, their love lingered in the air like a sweet perfume. Nothing would be the same for either Rogue or Gambit now.
Emma waited impatiently. It was Sunday. FoH allowed her to see her daughter through a live video feed this one day a week. While it served to assure her that her daughter was still alive, it had also been an idea that Emma had planted into the minds of several key FoH leaders. Anything more than that would leave them wondering if she had used her powers on them. She touched the inhibitor collar which encircled her slender neck, and sighed.
Soon, five men came out of a back room. They all either leered at her or looked disgusted. She brushed both off with hardly a second thought. One man, whom she knew to be in charge of this particular facility, brought out a remote and a section of the wall folded away from itself to reveal a large plasma television. Emma tapped the collar. Other than that, the men in the room saw no emotion, only the cold air Emma always gathered around herself.
The television turned on, and she saw her daughter. She nearly dropped her façade altogether and jumped out of her seat at the sight of Elisha. One week had passed since she'd gotten to see her daughter, but nearly a year had passed since Emma had been able to hug her, to comfort and protect her. It was a burden which weighed more heavily on her soul than she would ever admit, even to herself.
Through the television, she saw Elisha sitting cross-legged on the floor drawing a picture. The camera panned to look at it. Emma allowed a smile to come to the surface when she saw the drawing. It was of two stick figures. Emma could tell that it was her holding her daughter's hand.
"When do I get to see Mommy?" Elisha asked the man holding the camera.
"In a few days." Said a rough sounding voice.
"That's what you said last week. And the week before that! I wanna see my Mommy!" Elisha protested, standing.
"Sit down." said the voice.
"No!" Elisha spat defiantly. Emma suddenly was on her feet, teeth barred as she saw the man backhand her daugher, sending her crashing to the floor.
"NO!" Elisha screamed. "NO NO NO NO NO!!" she was in a tantrum now, banging both hands against the floor. Emma's eyes widened. Objects around the room began to shake.
"YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!" Elisha screamed. The man holding the camera jumped as things started to fly around the room. Books, lamps, pillows, anything that was not tied down swirled around the angry child. Emma's chest locked up in fear. She saw an object race toward the camera, heard a grunt, then the camera dropped to the floor. Emma couldn't see anything. She began to panic. Suddenly a loud 'BLAM!' pierced the air. A second later, Elisha's face took up nearly the whole screen. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she rasped short breaths. Flecks of blood had landed on Elisha's cheek. Her breathing slowed, then stopped.
Emma was frozen, eyes wide. Dead silence filled the room. Then one of the FoH spoke.
"At least she has a collar on." he said
Emma snapped her head to face him, cocked her head to one side, and the man clawed at his head as he fell to the ground.
"What the...!?" cried one of the men.
Emma was in shock. As what had happened began to sink in, she started to tremble with rage. "You think this little trinket could hold me forever?"
She cocked her head again and another fell over.
"I... I'm sorry! It wasn't our fault!" another man cried.
"Not... Your... FAULT!?" She screamed. The full magnitude of her daughter's death hit her. She would have to go through life without the one thing she truly loved. The one thing she would ever love. She fell to her knees, looked up toward the ceiling and screamed. Everything went red.
*******
Charles Xavier sat bolt upright in his bed. It was as if he had just been punched in the stomach. His eyes widened. People were dieing. Hundreds of them, and slowly. He tried to touch one's mind to see who was doing it, and pure rage and hatred flooded his consciousness. His body writhed and he cried out as if he were being split in two. The raw emotion was too much for his rational mind to handle.
His door hissed open. Bobby, Hank, Jean and Cyclops ran in, followed shortly by Raien and Chimera. They all gasped. Hank had managed to bring a first aid kit. He quickly administered a sedative to Xavier's writhing form, rendering him unconscious. Jean was still in the doorway. Her eyes wide and panicked.
"My god..." she said holding her temples.
Everyone else looked around in startled confusion.
********
Hank watched his old friend laying on the exam table. The sedative still kept him asleep. What could have happened to throw him into convulsions? Hank thought.
The past few days, Beast had become more withdrawn into his own mind. He'd been looking at his whole life, and it seemed empty. He had done so many great things, and he still had many things unfinished, but he was never truly happy, and he didn't know why. He loved Shakespeare, but he was frustrated that he could not go to the Theatre and see it first hand. Then again, while he loved the flowing prose and heartfelt tragedies, it too had never made him happy, it seemed more a way to cope with his day to day misery.
Hank looked at the floor. He dearly wished he could speak to Charles about this, but feared waking him. He'd always been withdrawn, and had never really wanted to talk about his feelings. So many things he despised about his life. His appearance had made dating a virtual impossibility. There were few that would accept his appearance. Once, he'd been in love, and felt those feelings from another person, but for her to love him, her life would have been full of the turmoil and danger that was being an X- man, and Hank refused to let that happen. He selfishly regretted that decision every day.
Hank jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Bobby. You startled me."
"You just looked really down. Want to talk about it?" Bobby asked
Hank looked at him. Bobby had always been his closest friend. He'd never been afraid of Hank's appearance, never talked down to him, or treated the way he looked like a disability. He wanted to tell him everything. How the endless procession of days became more and more hollow, how empty he felt inside. His mind screamed at him to speak.
Hank cleared his throat and looked at the floor again. "Thank you, my friend, but no." Hank suddenly felt weak. He didn't have the courage just to say a few words to his best friend.
Bobby pulled his hand back. A few moments of silence passed. "What about the Professor, how is he doing?"
"He's stable. I do not know what happened to put him into such a state, but I fear waking him. I'll let the sedative wear off naturally and hope whatever it was is over."
Bobby moved behind him, and hugged him lightly. "If you want to talk, Hank, just call me. Anytime you need to."
Hank nodded and tried to muster a smile. Bobby slowly turned and left. The door closed behind him, and for some reason, Hank couldn't take his eyes off of it.
**********
Bobby slowly walked down the hallway back to his room. The last few days had been torture for him. He was jealous. Raien and Chimera seemed so content with each other. They were like two best friends, who were also in love. Bobby didn't think he would ever find that kind of happiness. What were the odds that another man would be both a mutant and gay. And here. Ever since FoH had become more than just another hate group, the X- men had slowed their missions to a virtual standstill.
In the past, Bobby had always tried to keep himself busy to avoid the darker thoughts his mind drifted into when it was idle, but recently, those thoughts weighed heavily upon him. Especially when he saw relationships blossoming all around him. There was Jean and Cyclops of course. They'd always been in love. Gambit and Rogue too, they just hadn't admitted it until very recently.
Finally though, Bobby was beginning to understand some of those feelings. He'd always felt inadequate around women, which had turned out to be true, in a way. He couldn't believe that the hadn't realized he might have been gay. Looking back, all the times he drooled over Wolverine's body, the thought had never occurred to him. It must have been very awkward for Logan. Bobby knew Wolverine's sense of smell caught that kind of thing. He must have known all along, but never said anything. Bobby had always thought of the gruff short man as the type that would turn his back on you if you came out to him. He really was more complex than he let on, and a better friend than Bobby had thought.
He finally arrived at his room. He just went in, turned the lights out, and went to bed. The day hadn't been overly stressful, but a feeling of emptiness had surrounded him lately. He hoped sleep would ease it.
******************
Rogue sat on her bed staring at the top drawer of the small dresser across the room. Inside it, she knew was an inhibitor collar. Xavier had given it to her so she could pursue a more physical relationship if she chose to, but the insidious device scared her. Thoughts of the time she had spent captive on Genosha haunted her whenever she saw it. The feeling of helplessness those days had carried with them. Without her strength and ability to fly, she was weak. Human.
Slowly she got up, and cracked the drawer open. Seeing the red metal inside made her take a step back. She worked up some courage and moved forward once more, this time removing the collar from the drawer. It didn't feel quite so menacing as it looked. She tried to remember why she was doing this. Remy. She wanted to be able to kiss him without pulling back after only a fraction of a second. Every time she teased him, it had been worse on herself. She would give up so much to be able to just feel her skin pressed to his. This was the cost.
She gritted her teeth and a tear escaped one eye as she brought the collar closer and closer to her neck. She felt the cold metal on her skin and gasped. Dumb girl, ya can do this. Its only a piece of metal. She thought to herself. The two ends of the collar met and the device began to hum. Fear circled in around Rogue and she clenched her eyes even tighter waiting for the hopelessness and despair to swallow her.
Nothing happened. She opened one eye, then the other, the muscles in her face finally relaxing after being so twisted in fear. She got up from the bed. She didn't feel weak. In fact, she felt stronger, in a way. A smile crept its way onto her face.
*************
Gambit awoke with a start. It took him a moment to realize where he was. Then he heard knocking at his door. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and answered it.
"Chere? What you doin' up so late?"
"Shut it, Swamprat, yer not ruin'n it this time!" she said grinning.
Rogue jumped into Gambits arms and pressed her lips against his. Gambit tried to pull back but Rogue grasped the back of his head. After a few moments, he relaxed and kissed her with as much passion as she had. Suddenly they were on the bed.
Dis be a dream. Gambit told himself. It gotta be. If it was, he resolved to enjoy it. Rogue stood and undid the zipper to the back of her jumpsuit. For the first time, Gambit saw the collar. He thought about what it represented. He had never thought about that as a way for them to be intimate. When he woke up he'd have to remember this. The jumpsuit fell away to reveal beautiful skin, which almost seemed to glow to Gambit. Suddenly his mind dulled. God, if someone woke him now, he'd kill them. On the spot.
She lay down next to him, her naked breasts pressed to his chest. Remy fought with himself. He wanted nothing more in the world then to just take her now. Dream or not, Rogue was here. With him. And very, very naked. He resisted the urge, but only barely. He kissed her again, lingering on her lips before kissing his way downward. His tongue on her neck made her gasp. Dis be the best dream Gambit ever had...
He found his way to her breast, lightly brushing it with his cheek. When Rogue arched her back and her breathing hastened, he let his tongue creep to the nipple, lightly at first, then harder, making Rogue gasp again. He almost lost it right there and just fucked her. Her scent permeated his very soul, his rational mind fighting a losing battle. He tongued the other nipple for a few moments, then moved down again.
His tongue explored her body, slowly moving toward the place he could tell she frantically wanted him... Needed him to go. Finally he tasted her. Slowly at first, then his tongue moving faster and harder. Rogue moaned, delivering another blow to Gambit's already wavering sanity. He stopped suddenly, eyes wide. He felt blockage. He gasped. Rogue was a virgin. Of course she a virgin. She never touch no one before, much less dis.
He moved up slightly and tongued the little nub he found there. Rogue's back arched and she cried out in pleasure. Gambit's body trembled as he fought the urges his body hurled at him. Her body shook and her breath caught in her throat. Suddenly she gripped his head like a vice and bucked, screaming his name. Gambit smiled to himself. He moved up as she recovered, caressing her silky skin.
He shed what was left of his clothing, his manhood aching with desire. He had to go slowly. This had to be a dream. Had to be.
"Chere, Gambit love you from da day he saw you." he whispered to her ear. She smiled at him, trust and longing sparkling in her eyes. He moved slowly to enter her, his mind fighting for control of his body. He felt the blockage again. He paused, then felt her hands on his ass. She pulled him down, and gasped. The last shreds of sanity he had left were destroyed as he gave in. Her fingernails dug into his back and her breathing came in halting breaths. She couldn't figure out if she was in pain or rapture. Or both at the same time. Gambit knew he couldn't hold on for long. She arched her back again and screamed in pain and pleasure as another orgasm rocked her body. She spasmed around him, driving him over the edge. His body shook as the tension in his loins took him. He grunted as he came, and his body lost all its strength.
He collapsed beside her, suddenly knowing it was not a dream. Rogue kissed his chest, and they drifted off to sleep tangled in each others arms, their love lingered in the air like a sweet perfume. Nothing would be the same for either Rogue or Gambit now.