Group Fic
Chapter 4 by Te (Wahinetoa on usual growling disapproval and brooding hostility had taken a pained, longing expression as soon as his gaze touched on the Southern Belle, stalking from the mansion into her very own hellish wedding.
It was as if his gaze, his presence, changed her. Rogue aka Anna-Marie spun on her heel and turned into his strong embrace. Rough, sure hands gently holding her forearms covered in the white satin gloves, pulling her, unresisting into his body.
And -- is it Ororo's imagination, as she watches Anna fall there, almost as if she's grateful. Relieved?
An emotion sluices through Storm as she watches this scene take place.
"Has betrayal and love, made us all fools?"
Wolverine is aware of everyone's eyes on him, but he don't care. He strokes her wet cheek. Rain, perhaps? Tears? "Anna,.. Darlin'"
Anna and Logan share a look, that neither Jean nor Ororo needs to see, because it speaks volumes of itself.
The only one that doesn't, is stalking like a thundercloud of his very own towards them.
"Rogue!"
Logan sweeps the protesting belle behind him, choosing to face the Cajun's malice on his own.
"You got somethin' to say, bub?"
Gambits footfalls briefly loose their conviction, at the predatory exhibition. "Yeh, an' it between her and I, Logan."
Ororo's heartbeat doubles, her gut writhing. Damn you Remy - Don't tell her about us! Don't make us both fools!
Ororo's out of the window, drifting down before any of them notice - her faster than usual fall.
Logan's hackles rise. "Not in that tone, it ain't."
Remys eyes narrow, like a hunter staring down the barrel of a gun.
Wha' de hell is goin' on here?
His own part in this unhappy mess not so clear-cut as it was five minutes ago, when he believed he'd made a choice and it was taken from him. Ororo was pregnant. So who was the father!
He glared at Logan. The passion in his eyes, the... Was he protecting Rogue, or himself? Or perhaps... His minds eye conjured up the subtle flirting between her and Logan in the past. All the times he messed up, and Logan was there to pick up the pieces.
His gut twisted. A heated pause, dragged into unbearable accusing silence.
With a kick, Remy pushed off again from his bullish stance and headed towards Anna and her protector, determined to say his piece.
And knock them both on their as---
"Rogue!"
Wolverine had focused so intently on the bristling Cajun, that he at once believed Remy had said her name again. But he realized too late, that it was not a mans' voice, but a womans'. Ororo's.
Both men stared up in horror as Ororo and Anna Marie collided in mid-air.
The air around them forming a protective bubble, as havoc wrecked outside it. The wind picked up chairs, flowers and chunks of earth, flinging them at the mansion, at the X-men and crashing with thundering force.
Gone was Maries auburn locks, replaced by a ribbon of billowing white. Her eyes a mirror version of the struggling dark diva. Before either man could move, Jean was barring their way.
"It's the ruby, Anna is wearing. It senses Storms powers in Anna, but knows she's an impostor. It's gonna kill her and Storm, if she doesn't relinquish the gem soon." Jean yelled at them, as the world around them, rented apart. She kept most of it away from the mansion with her telekinesis.
Logan was beside her, snarling displeasure. "Why don' my Anna give it up!"
Jean ignored the "my" part of that statement and continued. "Neither of them have the strength to reach for it. You'll both need to do it for them." Jean clenched her jaw, pushing a gateway into the vortex, slowly and sure.
"Separate them now. Take the gem from Rogue, return it to Ororo. But hurry," she breathed harshly, "The goddess only serves ONE mistress!"
Inside the bubble; a battle raged as fierce as any woman had known.
Storm reached out. "Rogue!"
Anna unclenched her fists, eyes pleading. "Storm, Ah can' stop it! Da gem is killin' mah..."
Her head tilts back, Ororo's jewel digging savagely into her breast. Ororo's eyes go wide. She's never seen it do this before, but then the jewel has never had two mistress' to answer.
She has no time to contemplate, when the jewel starts cracking, fissures of black striking out like talons. Anna jack-knifes in pain, her whole body wracked with it.
Ororo cries out in anguish as her sister convulses. She has to stop this.
Storm closes her eyes, summons all that she is, focusing it till it fills her skin. She opened her eyes, gathered her own authority in the Goddess. "Cease this madness at once," she commanded. "Return to me!"
Suddenly, the talons from the ruby snap back on Ororo, acrimonious, wrapping their inky black around her. Eyes on Rogue as she slowly rights herself, the jewel resolute on punishing another. The true mistress.
Logan is beside her - his arms anchoring Marie to his granite heavy form. Claws extend, slash at the black coiling masses, till he frees her. It's then that the vortex enters the bubble, blowing them back from the safety of the eye, to the swirling mass of wreckage and ruins. Pummeled bloody by it.
Ororo needs to stop this madness, even as she feels herself being torn by her own ruby. Her headache intensified, pounding and tearing at her with furiously. In her periphery she sees the Cajun try to make his way to her. But the images of him berating her, condescending in the loft, were overwhelming her at every juncture.
The ruby crackles, magnifies the emotions and powers around them. Electricity pulsing out of its ruby darkness. She felt the power whisker between Rogue and Wolverine, her and Gambit, straining and crashing, moving the X-men back with the rest of the wedding debris, just outside their immediate circle. The wind picked up, howling at them, striking to part them.
Ororo smelt the heady stench of sulfur and ozone, signifying -- Kurt appeared in the tornadoes eye, grabbing hold of Rogue with one hand and the growling Canadian with the other. His beautiful gold eyes focused briefly on Ororo as she fought the call of the Ruby. Praying she could hold Remy in secure stead without harm, till Kurt could return.
It was then, as he teleported with Logan and Rogue, that the vortex mimicked his action, turning on its mistress in a horrific pall of dark and light.
Remy screams, throws the cards he's holding at the black ribbons sinking into her skin.
"Dieu, why isn' she fightin' dis!"
But he knew why. He swore that if he had another chance, he'd take back what he said and love her and this child. Because living without her, leaving without her wasn't an option.
The squall pushed him back, denying him to reach for her. In horror he watched her face be swallowed by the tendrils - and a chasm of light open up beneath her.
Below the xmen rallied to go into the deadly fray and save their two companions. Jean managed to discern that Rogue no longer wore the Goddess amulet, but had an oval bloody scar for her trouble wearing it. Logan was beside her, and they clung to each other like lovers.
But all eyes returned to Gambit and Storm, fighting for their lives within the pall. Kurt had managed to teleport again, just reaching the outer fringes of the bubble, when everything came to a standstill. The ruby falling to the earth at Jeans feet, shattered into a million pieces.
Then, in a sickening cold rush - the three xmen above glowed into a single light, and winked from existence right before their eyes.
