The days passed slowly, the Professor was still away, so no real help with
her permanent companion. Gambit would always be in the corner of her
vision, spying on the outside world without anybody being aware of his
presence. Rogue didn't know how she would cope with more than one visual
psyche.
Rogue learnt that she'd been expelled from school, having missed more than two weeks in a row. She was somewhat relieved to know this: no more big crowds, she could stroll around the Mansion without worry. She used this spare time to train, to Logan's disbelief.
Rogue threw her right fist at the punching ball, then her left... Right, left, left, right... And so on.
Sweat ran down her temples. She'd put her hair back in a ponytail, but a couple of white strands fell across her face, obscuring her vision now and again. Right...left....right... Again and again she hit the red punching ball hard, making it swing.
Rogue panted, stopping for a moment to regain her breath. Her face was flushed, her brows creased up in exhaustion. She finally sat down in the middle of the Danger Room. The punching ball, not used anymore, lowered it's self down into the ground. If Rogue needed it again, she'd just call Cerebro for it.
Rogue looked up at Gambit; he was standing in front of her in a white T- shirt and jeans.
"Hey," he simply said. Rogue didn't answer, finally deciding to lie down completely on the floor.
His face obscured Rogue's vision of the Danger Room's ceiling.
"What ya want, Swamp Rat?" she asked.
He smiled showing a perfect row of white teeth. "Chere is sweating like a horse... Not dat de-pleasant, Gambit thinks," His red eyes roamed her body in her old X-man suit, glinting in amusement.
"Keep those eyes of yours on mah face, Cajun!"
He faked a pout, but he quickly went back to smirking.
Rogue frowned. Remy looked so realistic, the faint scar at the far right of his cheek, his thick lashes, his high cheek bones, the light passing threw his copper hair falling around his face, the small subtle on his chin...
"Horses sweat, Men perspire, Women gently glow..." Rogue said. Where did that come from?
He cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Den chere, ya glowing like Remy's favourite star..."
Rogue shook with laughter... "Have ya got more of ya pathetic lines?" she asked after have calmed down.
"Hey!" Remy defended himself. "It usually works on de femmes..." He looked her over again but with worry this time. "Ya tiring yaself out, chere. Ya don't ya use Wolvie's powers to get fit?"
"What ya talking 'bout, Swamp Rat?"
Remy sat down next to her. "Chere usually uses de psyche powers all the time!" he started. "Remy forgot, chere doesn't remember..."
"How... How did Ah do it?" Using all the powers that she'd absorbed would be the kind of useful thing that would help in battle.
Remy looked pensive. "Not sure, Gambit think ya forced dem out... But ya can use mine fo' de moment, chere" he finally proposed.
Rogue bit her lip... Throwing exploding stuff was quite good... She'd already experienced his power first handed. How could she use them?
"Would ya let Remy guide chere?"
"What ya mean about guiding? ...Ah'm not doing any 'laying back'," Rogue told him suspiciously. "Hate the stuff."
"Nah... ya'll remember everythin', promise, an' give ya de control back afte'."
***
Logan was busy tapping some new exercises into Cerebro from the training sessions. Computers weren't his thing. Each time he'd do something wrong, tap a inappropriate word in or not manage to select an icon, he'd feel his nerves cracking. He just wanted to take his claws out and have a computer massacre. Each time he'd lift his fists, ready to do just that. Fortunately, he'd come back to his senses just in time to calm down and continue his job. It was normally Storm, the professor or Hank that did it, but like they weren't there... He got the annoying job. He preferred to plan everything just before the session started, outside, make unexpected changes to surprise the kids...
Logan smirked, for each mistake he'd make he'd get his revenge by making the sessions harder for the students... Talking about students, Logan would look up once and again at the camera screens, watching Rogue train in the danger room. She was now laying down on the floor. Logan shook his head, she shouldn't suddenly stop the physical effort, she should walk slowly until her heartbeat returned to normal rhythm. He'd give her his piece of mind later.
Rogue worried him. She'd been very strange the night before, acting like she'd never left the Mansion in the first place... And now she was training on her own... Before, she'd just close herself in her room, lay about listening to music, sometimes going jogging, a bit of exercise here and there. But today, she was overdoing herself. Logan wanted to know what had changed in her. She was paler than the last time he'd seen her, she looked always a bit uncomfortable, she winced unconsciously sometimes, as if she was lightly in pain. No one else than him had seen it. That was why he'd told her directly that Hank wasn't there.
However, the most confusing was her smell. Rogue smelt weird, it wasn't hormones (how does could drive him mad!). It was a bit of worry, some guiltiness (he knew those smells by heart.) and all the soaps that kids usually use... and something else. It was rather revolting, he tried not to cringe, he'd already smelt it somewhere before... Yes, on himself. It was the first smell he could remember, after escaping the governmental base where he'd been experimented on. It was Rogue that reminded him of it, when she talked about her nightmare. "The operations," she'd said.
The operations... Logan abandoned his tapping to look at Rogue on the screen.
"Cerebro," Logan told the computer. "Enlarge Danger Room view, frame on Rogue."
-Yes, Wolverine,- a feminine voice replied.
The scene was transferred to the big screen in the middle of the bureau. Logan lied back in his chair, watching as Rogue got back to her feet.
"Put the sound on," Logan ordered.
"Why should ah trust ya," Rogue's voice rang out clear from the microphones.
"Who's Stripes talking to?" Logan asked. "Has that new recruit, the invisible girl, missed school again and is lurking in the Danger Room?"
-Negative,- Cerebro said. -I can't detect anyone else. There is no one else there except Rogue.-
Logan scratched his chin. This was no good news if Stripes was starting to talk to herself. Or was she talking to her 'voices'? He couldn't decide which was worse.
His train of thoughts were interrupted when Rogue started speaking again.
"Ah'll skin ya if ya try and get control over meh... Just stay on demonstrating."
***
Rogue crouched in the darkness of the bushes, waiting for the sentinel's spotlight to change direction.
#Three, two one, go chere!# Gambit said threw the mental connection he was charring with the southern girl.
Rogue smoothly ran out of the bushes, a smirk on her face. She would be the distraction while Gambit did his own thieving... Reaching the wall, she flattened her back against it, and after retaining her breath, she sank into the concrete rampart with Kitty's mutation. She was in the wall, she did one with it. As she phased, her mental connection with Remy was cut. Fortunately, everything had been planned, and Rogue slowly counted up to ten.
"Three....six...nine....ten...."
She ran, she ran 'in' the wall. Unphasing her hand lightly, she used Gambit's power the make the exterior of the barricade flare up in pink. All the cameras and sentinels would see the bright trace running across the wall, without apparent reason. It was a distraction, yes, but not too foolish: it was important that Rogue didn't get identified.
And then it started: the booming of the explosions, the barricade destroyed into rubble. Rogue could hear, with Logan's heighten senses the people inside, yelling, the quick rush of boots against the hard floor, some useless orders sent out... "This will be fun," she thought to herself with another smirk.
***
Logan had gone back to tapping. He had to finish it before the kids came back.
Rogue was still on the big screen. She had stopped talking to Logan's relief and was still on the floor, looking up in the ceiling, her hands behind her head.
-She's sleeping,- Cerebro told him. -Her heart beat has returned to normal.-
Logan glanced at the screen from his keyboard. She was indeed asleep. Her eyes were closed. She looked peaceful that way. Logan had wondered if her psyches were playing a trick on her. However, all had gone well. No strange powers manifesting, no body transformation with Mystique. Rogue would just need to see the Professor when he came back.
He went back to his keyboard. Thinking about Charles and his trip came automatically down to Ororo, and to Logan's distress Kitty. He had the impression that the freshman was having special fun insinuating 'things'. Really, he and Ororo were both adults, they knew how to act properly, even if Ororo would sometimes lecture at his lack of heart...
Logan growled to himself. He did have a heart! Rogue was 'special' to him. She was kind of a lonely person, always on her guards. She'd seemed lucid enough before the whole Apocalypse thing. It was his job to put her back on track. He wouldn't tell her that he was worried sick while she'd gone.
Rogue had vanished suddenly. Kitty had blurted something out like 'voices' and 'she had a terrible head-ache'. It was only later that Hank confirmed that Rogue had been having some 'problems'. Charles had looked if he'd known it all along and had showed no surprise the information.
"What is done is done," the Professor had said philosophically.
"I'll tell ya what's done!" Logan had yelled back at him. "Stripes is missing after some psycho mutant from the dinosaurs time line came and hypnotised her!!!"
"From Antiquity," Hank had corrected him.
He could still remember the professor's annoying calm face. Logan had been in distress; he had found no smell trail that he could follow, nothing at all! That mutant hater principal Kelly said that he'd asked her to come to his office and that she'd never turned up. Logan had been in such a state of panic that he could hardly remember what happened after. Ororo had finally been able to soothe him, the professor knew something.... but all that Wheels said was: "She's chosen her path. I can't tell you that she's safe. However, I assure you that Rogue is conscious of her decision. She'll come back when it'll be time..."
What had stopped him from coming after her was the sudden apparition of new mutants. They seemed to be sprouting everywhere at once. Then they were the terrorist attacks that had been going on regularly... The last in date was a big laboratory in Ohio, with all the soldiers and security systems that would make the Pentagon jealous. Most of their security guards had been killed by some powerful mutant while the base had nearly been torn down. Had it been Apocalypse? Hank got a job over there; undercover, to do some research on what had exactly occured.
***
A young woman with purple hair swung her brilliant pink knives at her attackers, she wore a nasty smirk on her face, and a red tattoo over her left eye. Who could have guessed that Rogue was inside the woman?
Rogue used the soldier as a human shield while she brought up Jean's mutation. Bullets whizzed by Rogue's head, only slightly missing her. Fortunately she already had Logan's powers on and was able to heal any wound, and dodge most of the bullets. Rogue cursed as a one of the shots lodged itself in her thigh. She was happy that Logan always looked out for her in his own way. While Kitty had decided to be stubborn. Why had she suddenly refused to make Rogue phase?
They were about twenty, all with machine guns, shooting in Rogue's general direction. The number was quickly increasing. They were faceless dark forms in he same green uniforms.
Rogue finally brought up a telekinetic shield, the bullets crushing against the invisible barrier. She threw the soldier's body at her attackers, several meters in the air, with an inhuman force; trying to disable them.
Rogue could have breaked down their offensive line easily: by multiplying with Jamie's power, knock them all out with a psychic attack and kill them with Pyro's flame controlling. However, her job was to distract them without giving out who she really was. Rogue was in hiding. It had to stay that way: concealed with the help of Mystique's powers behind the Asian features of a young woman.
She hissed in displeasure as she decided to run from their shots. She had to take them away from where Gambit was operating.
#Gambit? Soon finished?# she asked the thief threw her mental connection.
#Soon dere...#
The bullets ceased raining upon the running Rogue.
Rogue turned around to yell at them. "Finally undertud that ya're beaten?" she asked, a smirk on her face. However, she secretly tightened her shield: she wanted to get out of here alive preferably.
Rogue was limited in her power using: she couldn't allowed getting identified by the hidden cameras... The "Boss" would kill her for it. Rogue was having a hard time controlling her moods: she felt like creating an earthquake by stamping her foot, crushing them inside their own base, showing them what kind of mistake was pissing off a mutant.
The crowd of soldiers suddenly parted to make place for a bazooka.
"Shet..." Rogue mumbled to herself before sprinting away. ¤Blob, Ah need ya now if ya don't want mah body t' get turned int' a hot dog!¤ Rogue told him as she ran with all her might.
¤Hot dog? Where?¤ the brotherhood mutant asked getting out of his reverie.
¤Blob! Bring up ya powers! Kitty! Stop playing selfish!# Logan's healing factor wouldn't be enough this time.
There was a hissing of the rocket launcher before the missile shot out. This wasn't the kind of rocket that you could jump over like in Mario, the plump Italian plumber gameboy thingy (Jamie's references). This high tech missile wouldn't miss. Rogue braced herself against the coming blow, hoping that Blob would be quick in action, just for this once.
***
-Logan, something is wrong with Rogue.-
Logan's head snapped towards the screen at Cerebro's declaration. Rogue was still lying down, but her back was arched, cold sweat was running down her face.
He didn't think twice: he jumped out of his chair exiting the office.
Logan ran threw the corridors, down the stairs across the hall, the living room, entering the elevator to access the lower floors.
He tapped his foot impatiently inside the cabin, torturing himself with questions on Rogue's condition. He should have never let her try session 55. Was she unconscious? Was she in pain? He should have guessed something had been amiss that first night Rogue had stayed when she'd returned. She'd looked frail, but her hard exterior had managed to hide it well, too well... Or were her voices trying to overtake over again.
"Faster!" he groaned, hitting the inside of the elevator. Finally the doors opened, letting him out into the high-tech white corridor, leading him towards the Danger room.
Rogue was lying on the floor, not moving. Logan's heart clenched with fear at the sight of her pale face. Her forehead was scrunched up in pain, her fist clenched at her sides.
"Stripes! Wake up!"
Rogue was shook quite violently by Logan. Her head throbbed at the sudden movement.
"No..." she muttered. She didn't want to go back into the nightmare. She wanted it to stay dark and cold... alone.
But another shake made her open her green eyes. She peered up into Logan's face. Where had he come from?
"Logan? Ya shouldn't be here," she whispered hoarsely. "He'll get ya..."
"Stripes, ya losing it! Just look at me!" Logan was panicking: Rogue was acting very weirdly. It was as if she was alienating. Rogue was like a daughter to him, and seeing her in this state, her eyes rolling lightly back in her head, not managing to make coherent phrases, made him worry more than anything else.
"He'll get ya... use ya..."
Logan lifted Rogue in a sitting position, her head rolled backwards. He was quick to tilt it towards her chest. He put his hand to her forehead, she was warm, way too warm. Sweat was beading down the side of her face, her hair was matted against her neck. And her eyes... they would roll around, not focusing.
"Kid, get a grip. Ya're in the Danger Room..."
"Did you accomplish the mission? Am Ah that badly hurt?" She kept glancing to her right, looking off into space.
"Look at me, Stripes," Logan told her taking her face in his hand. "Ya overdone yaself real good, ya know?"
She started to shake terribly. "Make it stop..." she cried out. "Gambit! What have you done to meh?"
Invisible to Logan, Gambit stood next to him, his face stern. Remy looked pained to see Rogue this way, flinching lightly at her flying accusations.
"Remy kept his word, he made chere remember..."
"Ya tricked meh! Ya were meant to show how t' use mah powers."
"Remy showed ya by makin' chere remember what she lost. What did chere expect?"
"Ah don't 'want' t' remember!" she finally confessed.
"Gambit make sure chere remembers, den," Remy said before disappearing, satisfied with Rogue's last words.
************************
oh!!!!! hope this chapter didn't wipe you out on the way to understanding.... *feeling nervous... What counts is that you understand what Remy psyche is up to. I inserted a Logan 'moment' to show you what Rogue looks like on the outside.
Ok, first thing first: I got a bit troubled about was the Giddy resemblance... I know Giddy too well not to wipe the comparison away. True, this is Romy fic, there is Sinister inside it, and Gambit is in Rogue's head! Ouch... Is it a mere coincidence? Maybe not, Giddy is a fantastic X- men (evolution) fanficion, and I've followed it since nearly the beginning, and I'm still following it with Love of my life... I might have got influenced by it... who knows? Seven Sunningdale's absorption theory is very good. However, mine follows other lines, my psyches have all they mental abilities, they are complete "people", I imagined that they could evolve (like here: voices to whole pictures). And for the touch thing, tell you now, it's not by forcing Rogue's will on them, or making her psyches happy that she'll be able to touch... Here she'd just make them happy to not get bugged to much. I used another, lets say, 'technique', something psychological, I suppose.
RemyLover: you're totally right, Remy is toying with Rogue's mind. Proof in this chapter.
Snitter in Rivendell: Wouah! Love the compliments! I hope some of your questions are answered with the big paragraph just above.
Sarah-Crysala: Don't worry, real Gambit will be coming up. But will Rogue manage to make the difference?
Winter fire: if you tell me your speculations, I might just slip some hints in the author notes... *winks.
Panther Nesmith: totally right! I prefer the real Remy, something, let's say, more solid? At least Rogue could show off with real Remy because the others would see him. But I don't think it's really Rogue's kind to show off. (I'm just wishing it was me... sigh)
Weeble Wobble chic: it was a bit long to update... but this chapter is longer!
Ishandahalf: Glad you're pleased! Confess that I'd like a remy for myself too!
Unknown source: Yeah, I know it 'kind' of resembles Giddy... Like I said higher up.... But Remy's soon going to have a new psyche companion!
Well! Chapter 9 all ready, and (real) Remy is making himself rather discreet. I'll have to see about that! *grins! REVIEW PLEASE!!!!!!!!
Rogue learnt that she'd been expelled from school, having missed more than two weeks in a row. She was somewhat relieved to know this: no more big crowds, she could stroll around the Mansion without worry. She used this spare time to train, to Logan's disbelief.
Rogue threw her right fist at the punching ball, then her left... Right, left, left, right... And so on.
Sweat ran down her temples. She'd put her hair back in a ponytail, but a couple of white strands fell across her face, obscuring her vision now and again. Right...left....right... Again and again she hit the red punching ball hard, making it swing.
Rogue panted, stopping for a moment to regain her breath. Her face was flushed, her brows creased up in exhaustion. She finally sat down in the middle of the Danger Room. The punching ball, not used anymore, lowered it's self down into the ground. If Rogue needed it again, she'd just call Cerebro for it.
Rogue looked up at Gambit; he was standing in front of her in a white T- shirt and jeans.
"Hey," he simply said. Rogue didn't answer, finally deciding to lie down completely on the floor.
His face obscured Rogue's vision of the Danger Room's ceiling.
"What ya want, Swamp Rat?" she asked.
He smiled showing a perfect row of white teeth. "Chere is sweating like a horse... Not dat de-pleasant, Gambit thinks," His red eyes roamed her body in her old X-man suit, glinting in amusement.
"Keep those eyes of yours on mah face, Cajun!"
He faked a pout, but he quickly went back to smirking.
Rogue frowned. Remy looked so realistic, the faint scar at the far right of his cheek, his thick lashes, his high cheek bones, the light passing threw his copper hair falling around his face, the small subtle on his chin...
"Horses sweat, Men perspire, Women gently glow..." Rogue said. Where did that come from?
He cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Den chere, ya glowing like Remy's favourite star..."
Rogue shook with laughter... "Have ya got more of ya pathetic lines?" she asked after have calmed down.
"Hey!" Remy defended himself. "It usually works on de femmes..." He looked her over again but with worry this time. "Ya tiring yaself out, chere. Ya don't ya use Wolvie's powers to get fit?"
"What ya talking 'bout, Swamp Rat?"
Remy sat down next to her. "Chere usually uses de psyche powers all the time!" he started. "Remy forgot, chere doesn't remember..."
"How... How did Ah do it?" Using all the powers that she'd absorbed would be the kind of useful thing that would help in battle.
Remy looked pensive. "Not sure, Gambit think ya forced dem out... But ya can use mine fo' de moment, chere" he finally proposed.
Rogue bit her lip... Throwing exploding stuff was quite good... She'd already experienced his power first handed. How could she use them?
"Would ya let Remy guide chere?"
"What ya mean about guiding? ...Ah'm not doing any 'laying back'," Rogue told him suspiciously. "Hate the stuff."
"Nah... ya'll remember everythin', promise, an' give ya de control back afte'."
***
Logan was busy tapping some new exercises into Cerebro from the training sessions. Computers weren't his thing. Each time he'd do something wrong, tap a inappropriate word in or not manage to select an icon, he'd feel his nerves cracking. He just wanted to take his claws out and have a computer massacre. Each time he'd lift his fists, ready to do just that. Fortunately, he'd come back to his senses just in time to calm down and continue his job. It was normally Storm, the professor or Hank that did it, but like they weren't there... He got the annoying job. He preferred to plan everything just before the session started, outside, make unexpected changes to surprise the kids...
Logan smirked, for each mistake he'd make he'd get his revenge by making the sessions harder for the students... Talking about students, Logan would look up once and again at the camera screens, watching Rogue train in the danger room. She was now laying down on the floor. Logan shook his head, she shouldn't suddenly stop the physical effort, she should walk slowly until her heartbeat returned to normal rhythm. He'd give her his piece of mind later.
Rogue worried him. She'd been very strange the night before, acting like she'd never left the Mansion in the first place... And now she was training on her own... Before, she'd just close herself in her room, lay about listening to music, sometimes going jogging, a bit of exercise here and there. But today, she was overdoing herself. Logan wanted to know what had changed in her. She was paler than the last time he'd seen her, she looked always a bit uncomfortable, she winced unconsciously sometimes, as if she was lightly in pain. No one else than him had seen it. That was why he'd told her directly that Hank wasn't there.
However, the most confusing was her smell. Rogue smelt weird, it wasn't hormones (how does could drive him mad!). It was a bit of worry, some guiltiness (he knew those smells by heart.) and all the soaps that kids usually use... and something else. It was rather revolting, he tried not to cringe, he'd already smelt it somewhere before... Yes, on himself. It was the first smell he could remember, after escaping the governmental base where he'd been experimented on. It was Rogue that reminded him of it, when she talked about her nightmare. "The operations," she'd said.
The operations... Logan abandoned his tapping to look at Rogue on the screen.
"Cerebro," Logan told the computer. "Enlarge Danger Room view, frame on Rogue."
-Yes, Wolverine,- a feminine voice replied.
The scene was transferred to the big screen in the middle of the bureau. Logan lied back in his chair, watching as Rogue got back to her feet.
"Put the sound on," Logan ordered.
"Why should ah trust ya," Rogue's voice rang out clear from the microphones.
"Who's Stripes talking to?" Logan asked. "Has that new recruit, the invisible girl, missed school again and is lurking in the Danger Room?"
-Negative,- Cerebro said. -I can't detect anyone else. There is no one else there except Rogue.-
Logan scratched his chin. This was no good news if Stripes was starting to talk to herself. Or was she talking to her 'voices'? He couldn't decide which was worse.
His train of thoughts were interrupted when Rogue started speaking again.
"Ah'll skin ya if ya try and get control over meh... Just stay on demonstrating."
***
Rogue crouched in the darkness of the bushes, waiting for the sentinel's spotlight to change direction.
#Three, two one, go chere!# Gambit said threw the mental connection he was charring with the southern girl.
Rogue smoothly ran out of the bushes, a smirk on her face. She would be the distraction while Gambit did his own thieving... Reaching the wall, she flattened her back against it, and after retaining her breath, she sank into the concrete rampart with Kitty's mutation. She was in the wall, she did one with it. As she phased, her mental connection with Remy was cut. Fortunately, everything had been planned, and Rogue slowly counted up to ten.
"Three....six...nine....ten...."
She ran, she ran 'in' the wall. Unphasing her hand lightly, she used Gambit's power the make the exterior of the barricade flare up in pink. All the cameras and sentinels would see the bright trace running across the wall, without apparent reason. It was a distraction, yes, but not too foolish: it was important that Rogue didn't get identified.
And then it started: the booming of the explosions, the barricade destroyed into rubble. Rogue could hear, with Logan's heighten senses the people inside, yelling, the quick rush of boots against the hard floor, some useless orders sent out... "This will be fun," she thought to herself with another smirk.
***
Logan had gone back to tapping. He had to finish it before the kids came back.
Rogue was still on the big screen. She had stopped talking to Logan's relief and was still on the floor, looking up in the ceiling, her hands behind her head.
-She's sleeping,- Cerebro told him. -Her heart beat has returned to normal.-
Logan glanced at the screen from his keyboard. She was indeed asleep. Her eyes were closed. She looked peaceful that way. Logan had wondered if her psyches were playing a trick on her. However, all had gone well. No strange powers manifesting, no body transformation with Mystique. Rogue would just need to see the Professor when he came back.
He went back to his keyboard. Thinking about Charles and his trip came automatically down to Ororo, and to Logan's distress Kitty. He had the impression that the freshman was having special fun insinuating 'things'. Really, he and Ororo were both adults, they knew how to act properly, even if Ororo would sometimes lecture at his lack of heart...
Logan growled to himself. He did have a heart! Rogue was 'special' to him. She was kind of a lonely person, always on her guards. She'd seemed lucid enough before the whole Apocalypse thing. It was his job to put her back on track. He wouldn't tell her that he was worried sick while she'd gone.
Rogue had vanished suddenly. Kitty had blurted something out like 'voices' and 'she had a terrible head-ache'. It was only later that Hank confirmed that Rogue had been having some 'problems'. Charles had looked if he'd known it all along and had showed no surprise the information.
"What is done is done," the Professor had said philosophically.
"I'll tell ya what's done!" Logan had yelled back at him. "Stripes is missing after some psycho mutant from the dinosaurs time line came and hypnotised her!!!"
"From Antiquity," Hank had corrected him.
He could still remember the professor's annoying calm face. Logan had been in distress; he had found no smell trail that he could follow, nothing at all! That mutant hater principal Kelly said that he'd asked her to come to his office and that she'd never turned up. Logan had been in such a state of panic that he could hardly remember what happened after. Ororo had finally been able to soothe him, the professor knew something.... but all that Wheels said was: "She's chosen her path. I can't tell you that she's safe. However, I assure you that Rogue is conscious of her decision. She'll come back when it'll be time..."
What had stopped him from coming after her was the sudden apparition of new mutants. They seemed to be sprouting everywhere at once. Then they were the terrorist attacks that had been going on regularly... The last in date was a big laboratory in Ohio, with all the soldiers and security systems that would make the Pentagon jealous. Most of their security guards had been killed by some powerful mutant while the base had nearly been torn down. Had it been Apocalypse? Hank got a job over there; undercover, to do some research on what had exactly occured.
***
A young woman with purple hair swung her brilliant pink knives at her attackers, she wore a nasty smirk on her face, and a red tattoo over her left eye. Who could have guessed that Rogue was inside the woman?
Rogue used the soldier as a human shield while she brought up Jean's mutation. Bullets whizzed by Rogue's head, only slightly missing her. Fortunately she already had Logan's powers on and was able to heal any wound, and dodge most of the bullets. Rogue cursed as a one of the shots lodged itself in her thigh. She was happy that Logan always looked out for her in his own way. While Kitty had decided to be stubborn. Why had she suddenly refused to make Rogue phase?
They were about twenty, all with machine guns, shooting in Rogue's general direction. The number was quickly increasing. They were faceless dark forms in he same green uniforms.
Rogue finally brought up a telekinetic shield, the bullets crushing against the invisible barrier. She threw the soldier's body at her attackers, several meters in the air, with an inhuman force; trying to disable them.
Rogue could have breaked down their offensive line easily: by multiplying with Jamie's power, knock them all out with a psychic attack and kill them with Pyro's flame controlling. However, her job was to distract them without giving out who she really was. Rogue was in hiding. It had to stay that way: concealed with the help of Mystique's powers behind the Asian features of a young woman.
She hissed in displeasure as she decided to run from their shots. She had to take them away from where Gambit was operating.
#Gambit? Soon finished?# she asked the thief threw her mental connection.
#Soon dere...#
The bullets ceased raining upon the running Rogue.
Rogue turned around to yell at them. "Finally undertud that ya're beaten?" she asked, a smirk on her face. However, she secretly tightened her shield: she wanted to get out of here alive preferably.
Rogue was limited in her power using: she couldn't allowed getting identified by the hidden cameras... The "Boss" would kill her for it. Rogue was having a hard time controlling her moods: she felt like creating an earthquake by stamping her foot, crushing them inside their own base, showing them what kind of mistake was pissing off a mutant.
The crowd of soldiers suddenly parted to make place for a bazooka.
"Shet..." Rogue mumbled to herself before sprinting away. ¤Blob, Ah need ya now if ya don't want mah body t' get turned int' a hot dog!¤ Rogue told him as she ran with all her might.
¤Hot dog? Where?¤ the brotherhood mutant asked getting out of his reverie.
¤Blob! Bring up ya powers! Kitty! Stop playing selfish!# Logan's healing factor wouldn't be enough this time.
There was a hissing of the rocket launcher before the missile shot out. This wasn't the kind of rocket that you could jump over like in Mario, the plump Italian plumber gameboy thingy (Jamie's references). This high tech missile wouldn't miss. Rogue braced herself against the coming blow, hoping that Blob would be quick in action, just for this once.
***
-Logan, something is wrong with Rogue.-
Logan's head snapped towards the screen at Cerebro's declaration. Rogue was still lying down, but her back was arched, cold sweat was running down her face.
He didn't think twice: he jumped out of his chair exiting the office.
Logan ran threw the corridors, down the stairs across the hall, the living room, entering the elevator to access the lower floors.
He tapped his foot impatiently inside the cabin, torturing himself with questions on Rogue's condition. He should have never let her try session 55. Was she unconscious? Was she in pain? He should have guessed something had been amiss that first night Rogue had stayed when she'd returned. She'd looked frail, but her hard exterior had managed to hide it well, too well... Or were her voices trying to overtake over again.
"Faster!" he groaned, hitting the inside of the elevator. Finally the doors opened, letting him out into the high-tech white corridor, leading him towards the Danger room.
Rogue was lying on the floor, not moving. Logan's heart clenched with fear at the sight of her pale face. Her forehead was scrunched up in pain, her fist clenched at her sides.
"Stripes! Wake up!"
Rogue was shook quite violently by Logan. Her head throbbed at the sudden movement.
"No..." she muttered. She didn't want to go back into the nightmare. She wanted it to stay dark and cold... alone.
But another shake made her open her green eyes. She peered up into Logan's face. Where had he come from?
"Logan? Ya shouldn't be here," she whispered hoarsely. "He'll get ya..."
"Stripes, ya losing it! Just look at me!" Logan was panicking: Rogue was acting very weirdly. It was as if she was alienating. Rogue was like a daughter to him, and seeing her in this state, her eyes rolling lightly back in her head, not managing to make coherent phrases, made him worry more than anything else.
"He'll get ya... use ya..."
Logan lifted Rogue in a sitting position, her head rolled backwards. He was quick to tilt it towards her chest. He put his hand to her forehead, she was warm, way too warm. Sweat was beading down the side of her face, her hair was matted against her neck. And her eyes... they would roll around, not focusing.
"Kid, get a grip. Ya're in the Danger Room..."
"Did you accomplish the mission? Am Ah that badly hurt?" She kept glancing to her right, looking off into space.
"Look at me, Stripes," Logan told her taking her face in his hand. "Ya overdone yaself real good, ya know?"
She started to shake terribly. "Make it stop..." she cried out. "Gambit! What have you done to meh?"
Invisible to Logan, Gambit stood next to him, his face stern. Remy looked pained to see Rogue this way, flinching lightly at her flying accusations.
"Remy kept his word, he made chere remember..."
"Ya tricked meh! Ya were meant to show how t' use mah powers."
"Remy showed ya by makin' chere remember what she lost. What did chere expect?"
"Ah don't 'want' t' remember!" she finally confessed.
"Gambit make sure chere remembers, den," Remy said before disappearing, satisfied with Rogue's last words.
************************
oh!!!!! hope this chapter didn't wipe you out on the way to understanding.... *feeling nervous... What counts is that you understand what Remy psyche is up to. I inserted a Logan 'moment' to show you what Rogue looks like on the outside.
Ok, first thing first: I got a bit troubled about was the Giddy resemblance... I know Giddy too well not to wipe the comparison away. True, this is Romy fic, there is Sinister inside it, and Gambit is in Rogue's head! Ouch... Is it a mere coincidence? Maybe not, Giddy is a fantastic X- men (evolution) fanficion, and I've followed it since nearly the beginning, and I'm still following it with Love of my life... I might have got influenced by it... who knows? Seven Sunningdale's absorption theory is very good. However, mine follows other lines, my psyches have all they mental abilities, they are complete "people", I imagined that they could evolve (like here: voices to whole pictures). And for the touch thing, tell you now, it's not by forcing Rogue's will on them, or making her psyches happy that she'll be able to touch... Here she'd just make them happy to not get bugged to much. I used another, lets say, 'technique', something psychological, I suppose.
RemyLover: you're totally right, Remy is toying with Rogue's mind. Proof in this chapter.
Snitter in Rivendell: Wouah! Love the compliments! I hope some of your questions are answered with the big paragraph just above.
Sarah-Crysala: Don't worry, real Gambit will be coming up. But will Rogue manage to make the difference?
Winter fire: if you tell me your speculations, I might just slip some hints in the author notes... *winks.
Panther Nesmith: totally right! I prefer the real Remy, something, let's say, more solid? At least Rogue could show off with real Remy because the others would see him. But I don't think it's really Rogue's kind to show off. (I'm just wishing it was me... sigh)
Weeble Wobble chic: it was a bit long to update... but this chapter is longer!
Ishandahalf: Glad you're pleased! Confess that I'd like a remy for myself too!
Unknown source: Yeah, I know it 'kind' of resembles Giddy... Like I said higher up.... But Remy's soon going to have a new psyche companion!
Well! Chapter 9 all ready, and (real) Remy is making himself rather discreet. I'll have to see about that! *grins! REVIEW PLEASE!!!!!!!!