'Ugh, my head.'
Rogue felt as if she were under water, and tried to clear the haze from her brain. Blinking against the bright lights above her, she attempted to take in her surroundings.
'The Institute, I think. Gene Therapy. But, that's not Dr. Agee. What the hell is goin on here?'
The fog began to clear from her brain only to be replaced with fear, as an unknown person stepped from the shadows.
"Who are you," she demanded," and what the hell are you doing to me?" Rogue looked down at the restraints holding her arms in place, panic lacing itself through her body.
The thing, man, above her grinned; red eyes flashing. The black lips sneered, "You have such potential girl, I only seek to bring it out."
She felt the prick of the needle, and the searing pain of the liquid entering her vein.
She tried to focus through the agony, to the bands trapping her arms. The surgical tray next to her began to shake and narrowing her eyes in concentration, she summoned the parts of Magneto in her head. If she could access his power, she could be free. She could manipulate the metal, and she would go to the X-Men. They would make the pain stop, if she could just concentrate.
"Oh GOD!" She cried out, thrashing against the restraints. The pain intensified, and the man above her let out a cruel laugh.
"There is no God here child, only Sinister."
Rogue's vision began to dim as the fog returned, overwhelming her senses. Gratefully she slipped back into the darkness, praying the nightmare would end.
Logan stalked through the mansion, the past few hours weighing heavily on his mind. He kept seeing the look on Marie's face when he went to touch her, the way her scent changed when she lied to him. He shook his head.
Something had been wrong, terribly wrong, and he was determined to find out what it was. He knew Marie almost as well as she knew herself, he'd easily smelled the lie on her, she had to have known he would. Try as he might to convince himself otherwise, the fact remained. Marie wouldn't lie. She just wouldn't, but she had.
Teenage rebellion he could understand, but there were too many holes in that theory to hold water. Marie had never been your typical teenager, too long on the road, and too many foreign memories had seen to that. As a young adult she was more mature than some of the senior staff; not to mention that whatever she was up to had her little friends worried, and her friends were notorious for their immature stunts. If something had Jubilee worried enough to come to him about it, it was something serious.
His need to protect Marie overriding his need to believe her, led Logan to the lower levels in search of answers. He slipped into the control booth of the danger room, and pound in his entry code. He'd seen Rogue take a beating during training and out in the field, and she'd never reacted like she had earlier. She was normally so deprived of physical contact that she welcomed it in any form; she'd never flinched away from him, not even after he'd impaled her with his claws. Focusing back to the task at hand, Logan concentrated on the display panel in front of him; with the press of several keys, he quickly accessed the Danger Room's simulation log.
Everyone who used the room had to be logged in, in part to measure their progress against the simulated combatants, and in part to keep the younger students from stumbling into the room and getting themselves killed. In this case it would tell Logan exactly what Marie wouldn't, the truth. Logan's eyes narrowed as the results were displayed on the screen, and the sharp sting of disappointment edged close to the surface.
Rogue hadn't seen the inside of the danger room in over two weeks. Logan fought the urge to release the claws and shred the inside of the control booth, opting instead to find Hank. He was coming up with more questions than answers from this investigation, and none of it was settling well.
Finding Hank had been easy enough; all a person had to do was follow the strains of Carmen that filtered through the hall. Logan followed the opera music and entered the lab quietly.
"Got a second Hank?"
The large blue man drew his attention away from the microscope he'd been studying, leaned over to turn down the music, and placed the glasses back on his face.
"What can I do for you Logan?" He steepled his fingers together and looked expectantly at the man before him.
"Just needed to ask you a quick question Doc. It's about Rogue."
Hank looked surprised for a moment before responding. "Logan, I don't pretend to understand what this is about, but you must be aware that it is quite unethical for me to discuss Rogue's medical history with you. It would be in direct violation of doctor patient confidentiality since you are neither guardian nor family member, not to mention that she is of legal age."
Logan was dangerously close to losing his calm facade, and glared at the doctor.
"Look McCoy, all I wanna know is if you've seen her recently. You can tell me that much right?"
Beast shifted slightly in his chair before answering.
"No Logan. No I haven't. In fact I don't believe I've seen her at all this week."
With his suspicions confirmed, Logan made his way to the elevator. Pounding in his access codes he began his ascent to the student wing. Everything made sense, all of the confusing little details fell neatly into morbid place; it had just taken him a while to figure it out. They'd all been there when the Professor first told them he'd heard whispers about a "cure", the way her scent had been changing, her unknown whereabouts, the secretive behavior. None of that was Marie. He thought about the mission he'd just come back from. He and Scott had raided and destroyed several labs that offered a 'cure', there was no cure; only a clever trap that lured the unsuspecting in for testing. He only hoped he wasn't too late to stop her before she made a terrible mistake. He pounded his fist into the metal wall of the elevator in irritation, cursing how long the machine was taking.
'Should have taken the god damn stairs,' he thought impatiently.
Logan was out of the elevator before the doors had had a chance to fully open. He made his way quickly down the hallway and to Marie's room. He tried the door knob, only to find it locked. He could hear Marie thrashing on the other side of the door, in the throes of a nightmare he thought he knew all too well. With a SNIKT he released one long adamantium blade, and sliced through the lock. Logan pushed the door open and stopped dead in his tracks.
He felt the pull on his body as metal bones reacted to an unseen magnetic touch. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Marie on the bed, hair matted against her sweat dampened face, silent tears leaking down her cheeks; struggling against some intangible force. The most horrific sight that assaulted him however, were the small objects that seemed to orbit around her like a force field. The assortment of nails, thumb tacks, hair clips, and other small objects continued to whirl around the room, as Logan stepped forward.
Fighting through the flying metal, he carefully made his way to the bed. The closer he got, the more Logan felt the pull against his skeleton intensify. Sitting next to Marie, he tentatively put his hands on her shoulders and called out to her.
"Marie, wake up Marie," he called. "Wake up darlin', it's only a nightmare. C'mon Marie wake up." Gently, he shook her shoulders.
With an angry cry she unleashed three bone claws from her ungloved hand, and drove them into his chest.
Logan felt the claws enter and grit his teeth. He wondered if that was what she had felt when she attempted to wake him that terrible night. "Marieā¦," he ground out, wincing as the jagged claws invaded even further with each indrawn breathe.
Her eyes widened in horror as she looked down at her hand, at the protruding claws, and the man impaled on the other end.
"Oh- oh my G- God," she gasped, taking in shaky breathes.
In shock she retracted the claws, and Logan grunted as they slid from his body. Marie scrambled from the bed shaking uncontrollably, a mix of shock and horror on her face as she watched the wounds on her hand close.
"Wha- what's WRONG with me!" she cried, rocking herself back and forth.
Logan stood, and tried to grab for her hand. She wrenched away, slamming herself flat against the wall.
"Don't touch me, don't TOUCH ME!" She screamed. He knew he had to diffuse the situation and quickly, Marie was on the verge of hysteria. When he advanced again she unconsciously put out a hand to ward him off, and he froze. In her conscious state her grasp of the magnetic powers was apparently much stronger and her emotional state only served as an amplifier. Logan struggled futilely to get free; desperation was driving him as he watched her fall apart. Rogue simply stared down at her hand like it belonged to a stranger and began to sob, giant tears streaming down her face.
"Marie," Logan pleaded, "c'mon darlin', let me go. We can figure this out. Hank will know what's going on."
She looked up at him, and for the briefest of moments he thought she was going to listen. Regret replaced the shock in her eyes, and she slowly shook her head.
Inching her way to the door, she concentrated carefully on keeping him in place.
"I'm sorry Logan. I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry," she sniffled before wiping the tears away. "I can't stay here. I'm so sorry."
"Marie, Marie don't DO this!" he shouted, the situation had gone from bad to worse.
She looked behind her once before whispering, "I love you," and slipped from the room.
She had to think, she had to get out of the mansion. She didn't know how long the magnetic hold would last; she didn't even know how she'd done it in the first place. First the cut healing, then the claws, and now this. She shut her eyes and tried to focus. She had to escape. A taxi would take too long and she needed to get out and away now.
'The Institute. Dr. Agee can fix this. He'll know what's going on,' the thought struck like lightening and she made her way to the garage.
'Can't take one of the cars, they all have tracking devices after the mansion raid.'
She looked up when she heard one of the motorcycles start, to see Remy placing a helmet over his auburn hair. Her decision made, she called out to him.
"Gambit! Wait a minute."
He turned and flipped up the visor, "Hello chere." He smiled brilliantly down at her from the seat of the bike as she approached.
"Anything I can do for you?" his red on black eyes sparkled suggestively.
"I need a ride into the city Rems, think you can take me?"
Remy winked and threw her a helmet. "Anything for a beautiful woman such as yourself, hop on."
Throwing the helmet over her hair she scrambled quickly onto the back of the bike.
Gambit gunned the engine before turning to her, "Hold on tight p'tite."
After what seemed like an eternity, Logan felt the invisible hold on his body relax. When he was finally able to move again, he went tearing out of the room. Slicing through the door, his only thought was of getting to Marie. He heard an engine being gunned and raced for the main entrance praying to whatever god would listen that he'd be able to stop her. Throwing open the main door, he was just in time to see Rogue seated behind Remy as they disappeared down the drive.
