Hi everyone :)
This is it people, THIS IS THE SECOND TO LAST CHAPTER. NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE THE OFFICIAL LAST CHAPTER OF THIS STORY. Can you believe that? Over a year and we're one chapter away from it all being over. Wow, it was a quick update as well, but it's not surprising; once I started writing I just couldn't stop :D
This chapter is my favourite one out of the entire story and it's basically the original idea that this entire story stemmed from. This one little chapter produced another 30 or so from my over-active imagination. So, I think everyone should say a big thank you to this chapter for if it wasn't for it, we wouldn't have had the past year together...Makes you think, kind of O.o
We're in need of some disclaimers for this chapter. I don't own any of the following I'm about to list:
Mighty Morphing Power Rangers
Lord of the Rings
Sailor Moon
The Incredible Hulk
Oliver Twist or the songs from the musical "Oliver!"
Harry Potter
I know what you're thinking; how is any of this involved with the story? You will see in time. I think this is going to be one of those things your either going to love or hate. All I ask is that you just give it a try and if you don't like it, fair enough, just be nice about telling me :)
Enough from me, on with the story:
"Rogue?" Jean asked, confused. As the figure ahead became clearer, it was very obvious that it was Rogue standing in front of them. It was a different Rogue though. It was a Rogue wearing a sleeveless t-shirt, it was a Rogue without gloves, it was Rogue without the strands of white hair.
"Close Jean, but no quahte." The teenager replied, casually strolling over to the two adults. "Ya could say Ah'm Rogue before she became Rogue. Ah'm her, Marie, the second before she had her first kiss, before her mutant ability kicked in for the first tahme."
Both the Professor and Jean gave her uncomprehending looks and the girl paused, wondering how exactly she could explain. She gazed off to the side for a short while before breathing in and attempting the explanation.
"The first tahme Rogue used her powers, it was such a massive shock to her system that it caused some major trauma. Her mahnd was damaged severely, almost totally ripped away from the rest of her brain resultin' in me. Ah'm a completely seperate entity to the rest of her. Basically, lahke this, Ah'm just lahke any other mahnd she's absorbed."
"So, the first time Rogue used her powers, her brain was damaged?" Jean checked, trying to understand.
"No, Ah said her mahnd was damaged, not her brain." Marie corrected. "The mahnd and the brain are two seperate things. The brain is rational; it reacts to electrical impulses and relies on them to act. The mahnd, however, is irrational. The mahnd acts on emotions, on hah we feel. The brain mahght control the body but the mahnd controls the brain. Withaht the mahnd, the brain would still be able to work, it just wouldn't have a reason to. That's basically what had happened to Rogue when you found her in the park Jean. Everything was still workin' fahne and the small part of her mahnd which stayed part of her was able to tell her what to do to a certain extent; there just wasn't enough there and it's hold wasn't strong enough to make her act half-way sane."
"What happened to make this all happen though?" The Professor inquired.
"Erm, it maght be easier to show ya rather than tell ya." Marie mused to herself, glancing off into space before looking at them both again. "Brace yaselves though; it ain't gonna be pretty." She warned, inclining her head forward to instruct the psychics to turn around. The two adults steeled themselves to face the horrors of Rogue's problem before slowly turning around...
Complete, utter chaos was spread ahead of them and deafening noise had suddenly filled the area. However, the anarchy wasn't horrible or gruesome or anything like that. No, it was just very weird. Dotted around the never ending area of white were various fictional characters who were either fighting off other fictional characters or trying to keep the dozen or so doors, which had suddenly appeared from no where, shut.
"All right lads, let's get to work!"
Jean and the Professor directed their gazes over to a scraggy old man with a pointed, light ginger beard and wearing a tattered green coat with a flat black Jewish hat resting on his head. In front of him were around twenty young boys, none older than twelve, all dressed in rough, worn, Victorian clothing. Beside the man stood another boy who was wearing a tattered blue dress coat and a stained top-hat.
"Line up!" The man ordered, his voice tuneful with a very definate British tint to his accent.
"Line up!" The top-hat wearing boy repeated, his voice in similar tone as the other boys got into line and began to march on the spot, their stamping feet creating a beat.
"Single file!
"Single file!"
"Left,"
"Right!"
"Left,"
"Right!"
"Left,"
"Right!"
"Aye, aye!" The other boys chorused together. The, music suddenly started playing and the old man began to sing:
"You can go but be back soon,
You can go but while you're working,
This place I'm pacing round...
Until you're home,
...Safe and sound.
Fare thee well,
But be back soon
Who can tell where danger's lurking?
Do not forget this tune:
Be back soon!"
Then, it was the boys' turn:
"How could we forget,
How could we let,
Our dear old Fagin worry?
We love him so,
We'll come back home,
In, oh such a great big hurry!
It's him that plays the piper,
It's us that pipes his tune.
So long, fare thee well,
Pip! Pip! Cheerio!
We'll be back soon!"
The song went back to the old man who began to march along energetically, the boys following on along behind:
"Cheerio, but be back soon.
I dunno, somehow I'll miss you
I love you, that's why I
Say, "Cheerio"...
Not goodbye.
Don't be gone long
Be back soon.
Give me one long,
Last look...
Bless you.
Remember our old tune...
Be back soon!"
Back to the boys':
"We must disappear,
We'll be back here,
Today...
...Perhaps tomorrow.
We'll miss you too,
It's sad but true,
That parting is such sweet sorrow.
And when we're in the distance,
You'll hear this whispered tune...
So long, fare thee well
Pip! Pip! Cheerio!
We'll be back soon!"
Both Jean and the Professor could only watch the display until most of the boys took up their posts at several of the doors and started to make a fuss, shouting and yelling mild curses at whatever it was trying to get through. A few others ran over to an ugly looking man with a face covered in coarse black stubble and then proceeded to jump on him, kicking and slapping him with little effect. The two adults turned to look at Marie who was rubbing her forehead as if she had a headache.
"They're courtesy of Remy and his Oliver Twist fixation." She revealed as though that would explain everything. Before either the adults could inquire further, the sound of crumbling rock came from their side.
"Hulk mad!" The easily recognisable, muscular, green man in nothing but a pair of ripped purple trousers, yelled from where he had crashed through a brick wall which had suddenly appeared in the middle of nowhere.
"What on Earth is this?" Jean gawked around as the Hulk charged over to one of the doors.
"This," Marie answered, gesturing at the chaos ahead of them, "is a visible interpretation of what is currently goin' ahn insahde Rogue's head. The good characters are extensions of mahself. The bad characters are the mahnds of others."
Just as Marie had finished, the entire cast from Lord of the Rings clashed with an army of goblins and other such monsters with an almighty crash. Jean winced slightly at the sound and sight. The Professor seemed unphased.
"Why has everything taken the forms of already exisiting fictional characters?" He inquired curiously.
"What can Ah say, mah imagination's crap." The girl shrugged easily.
"Ready guys?" A new male voice interrupted then and the three spectators turned their attention to this latest main event. Marie groaned upon seeing the five teenagers; three boys and two girls. "It's morphing time!" The guy, dressed totally in red, announced in a voice which really was too serious for the sentance.
"Mastodon!"
"Pterodactyl!"
"Triceratops!"
"Sabretoothed Tiger!"
"Tyrannosaurus!"
Neither adult knew quite what to say as the characters they recognised as the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers ran forward and began to help out in the fight. Once again, they turned to Marie for an explanation.
"Ya'd have thahght Bahbby'd grown aht of it bah his age wouldn't ya?" She sighed, shaking her head. Just then, grily music started to playing suddenly and Marie moaned loudly, rubbing her eyes. "Oh mah Gahd, this is lahke the eighth tahme today! Give it a rest already!" She yelled over to the side where nine female Japanese cartoon characters were all floating around, glowing various shades of various colours.
"If you don't mind me me saying," Jean spoke tentatively as they watched the display in front. "You're not that much like Rogue are you?"
"Of course Ah ain't." Marie agreed as though that was a given and didn't need to be stated. "Ah'm the same girl Ah was before Ah even knew I was a mutant. Rogue's been through a lot of shit which has changed who she is and understandably so 'cause..."
"Moon Gorgeous Meditation!" A heavily Japanese accented voice called and Marie had to leap out of the way wave of shards of silver light which sudenly raced towards her.
"Do ya mahnd! Ah'm trahin'a have a conversation here! Jesus!" The teenager yelled angrily.
"I'm guessing Sailor Moon came from Jubilee." Jean mused.
"Not really. Let's just say that, if Ah were you, Ah'd be seriously concerned abaht ya fiance's sexuality." Marie answered distractedly watching as a Harry Potter stood in front of a bunch of black cloaked, skeletal figures and yelled "Expecto Patronum" at the top of his voice, his wand pointing up at the floating monsters.
"This is all well and good to see but it doesn't explain what has actually happened." The Professor pointed out.
"Seriously? It's painfully obvious to me." She replied. "Look at all the monsters and baddies compared to the number of heroes. We're totally swamped! Mah control on Rogue ain't stable and with so many mahnds all trahin' to get through all at once, it's no wonder a couple are managin' to slip through."
"What happened to lead to everything getting so out of hand though?" Professor Xavier continued to question.
"Ya wanna know what happened?" Marie asked, sounding suddenly annoyed though both psychics knew it wasn't directed at them. "Remy bloody LeBeau is what happened." With that, she turned to the "battle" ahead of them, a megaphone suddenly appearing in her right hand. "Remy! Get ya fat ass over here!" She ordered, her ampliphied voice still sounding relatively normal due to the rest of the surrounding noise.
"What?" The familiar voice of the Cajun suddenly came from behind.
"Ahh Remy." She grunted as they turned to the man. "Professor, Jean; this is the guy we "affectionately" call Head Remy." Marie introduced before looking at the man. "Ah was just tellin' them hah this mess is all yar fault."
"Funny, dhere was Remt t'inkin' it was all yo'r fault." The man sneered darkly to which Marie glared back hatefully.
"What?" Jean inquired, confused by with accusation.
"Head Remy does not approve of the way Ah do business." Marie explained in a forced pleasant voice, her dark glare remaining on her face.
"And can yo' blame me? If yo' had jus' let Rogue tell the Professor when t'ings firs' started to go wrong..."
"Ah was handling it!" Marie interrupted angrily.
"Yo' obviously weren'," Head Remy yelled, stalking over to stand right in front of the teenage girl. "Odherwise we wouldn' be in dhis situation wit' all dhese minds runnin' abou'!"
"Enough!" Marie cried furiously. Suddenly, silence feel over them in a thick blanket as the chaos behind completely disappeared. The silence remained unbroken for quite some time before the Professor decided to take control of the situation.
"I think you should tell us exactly what's happened, right from the very begining."
Marie shot Head Remy another dirty look before sighing, her features relaxing, making her look tired. "It all started a few months back. Rogue's powers started to glitch a bit; she absorbed people withaht actually realising she'd done it. This led to everything gettin' a bit...Crowded, in here. It started to get a bit too much for me to handle comfortably and that's when Head Remy made himself an active member in all this; what a happy day that was." She muttered sarcastically.
"With his empathy," she continued, "he has mahld psychic ability so he was able to help me control the other mahnds. But Rogue's powers didn't settle and more and more mahnds kept swarmming in. When everything fahnally did calm dahn and her powers stabalised there were too many in here for us to handle. We couldn't even silence them let alone control them and Rogue started hearing voices, keeping her awake at nahght. She was falling to bits; so we made a decision.
"Head Remy made communication with Rogue for the first tahme and then proceeded to mahldly manipulate her actions in order to make her "run into" the actual Remy. Because Head Remy's only a very small part of the original mahnd, he's not as strong as the actual Remy. When Rogue met the real one, Head Remy emitted a type of psychic vibe which instinctively drew the real Remy to her lahke a moth to a flame. And, when she was in pain or needed help, the vibes would fade and the real Remy would help her, innately knowing that the addictive vibes would return when she was once again comfortable."
"So he really doesn't actually love her." Jean concluded, sounding understandably sad.
"Of course he loves her!" Marie explained, exasperated. "We stopped usin' the vibes back during the Louisianna incident. No, that claim was made up by a stupid, jealous idiot." She muttered, glaring at Head Remy once again. "Everything was fahne after that until he decided that he didn't want Rogue and Remy together after all. He started ahff by just sulking, but then he started takin' action. That's when Ah had no choice but to lock him away with the other mahnds. Unfortunately, that meant he couldn't help me anymore and that's when things started to get bad really quickly.
"First there was the whole being chased half way across the country bah the army. Then Logan left. Then Remy left. All that stress caused a lot of strain but Ah managed to cope, somehah. Then, when rescuing Remy from forcibly getting married, everything fell apart. Mah control snapped and all the mahnds got aht."
"See, her faul'." Head Remy interrupted.
"Ah ain't finished yet and ya know it!" Rogue snapped before resuming. "Even though everyone was aht Ah was able to stay in control. But then, Mr Green-Ahyed Monster here decides he's had enough. He purposely caused Rogue the most amount of pain possible whenever the real Remy came near her and then, if that alone weren't enough, he went and told her abaht me!"
"She had a right to know!" Head Remy insisted heatedly.
"Ya knew what would happen to her if she did!" Marie shot back.
"Yo' expected me to trust you after everyt'in' yo'd done?"
"Everything Ah've done, Ah've done because it was what was best for Rogue at the tahme. She is not yours Remy, she's mahne! And if anyone knows what's best for her it's me."
"Everyt'in' yo've done had been ou' of pure stubborn selfishness!"
"Hah dare you..."
"That's enough!" The Professor silenced them sternly, seeing that this arguement was leading to nothing. The two minds stopped instantly though they continued to glare at each other visciously."Now, Marie, calmly, tell me what happened when Rogue found out the truth."
Marie took a deep breath before exhaling with a whoosh. "One thing ya gotta understand is that the mahnd shouldn't ever be seperated from the brain. It's not natural, it ain't rahght, it just shouldn't happen. When this idiot mentioned mah exisitence, even though it was nothing specific, it became a conscious fact to Rogue and her brain, understandably, couldn't comprehend what was going on. So, instead of trahin' to understand, her brain did the next best thing; it got rid of them problem, pushing me away.
"If it hadn't been for the fact Ah was already under a lot of stress, Ah probably would've been able to withstand the rejection. As it was, it was just the fahnal step and everything shattered. Ah lost complete control for the first tahme ever and Ah ain't been able to get it back since."
"So, what now? How is Rogue going to get better?" Jean questioned worridly.
"Ah'm glad ya asked that Jean." Marie replied, suddenly perking up. She turned to the Professor and smiled. "I think you're the only one who's gonna be able to set things rahght again. Basically, we need a total do over; every single mahnd in here that don't belong needs to go."
"Won't that effect Rogue's health though?" The Professor inquired.
"Yeah, but there ain't a way arahnd it. The other mahnds have to go and the only way to do that is for you to suck 'em aht one bah one." Marie explained.
"All right." Professor Xavier sighed sounding resigned. "There's nothing left for us to do here then, we'll take our leave now."
"It was nice to meet you Marie." Jean smiled.
"Lahkewahse." The teenager returned the gesture.
"And if something like this happens again, have Rogue tell someone immediately." The red-head ordered.
"Duly noted." Marie grinned, giving them a playful salute as they faded away from the area, leaving Rogue's head completely. She turned to Head Remy, her grin remaining though it turned slightly nasty. "Ah would say Ah'd miss ya, but that would be a lahe."
Head Remy rolled his eyes at her in distaste as he turned and walked away, fading from sight while he did so. Marie watched him before stretching her arms and back while releasing a satisfied breath.
It would be nice to have a little peace and quiet again.
And there you have it; everything's explained. I bet some of you are kicking yourselves and wondering why you didn't figure it out before :D Wow, that was so incrediably long! I didn't think it was gonna be this long O.o Hmm, didn't mean it to end that abruptly though...Oh well, I'm just gonna over look that :D
All that stuff about the brain and the mind I just totally made up so I have no idea whether it's correct or not. I suppose no one will ever really know about that kind of thing; all we can do is speculate.
All to come now is the Epilogue and then it'll be all over :(
See you all for the last time next chapter, take care :)
Hugs
Dream