CHAPTER 19: FAMILY PART 3
Peter was outside still waiting and trying to hope that his girlfriend was okay. He hoped that he was just being paranoid and it was nothing. Of course the universe just loved to toy with him and when his spider-sense flared he wanted to kick himself for even thinking it.
He stopped outside the bathroom on the one hand his spider-sense told him something was wrong in there and Rogue was in there as well. On the other…it was the woman's rest room and the last thing he needed was someone to know him going in there thinking he was some type of pervert.
When he heard the screams that's when he dashed into the room. He saw three girls down and out, Rogue on her knees and there in front of her was…Mystique?
He then ignored her and went to Rogue, "Rogue what's wrong!"
"Don't touch meh!" She shouted out and his spider-sense flared up even more when he tried to touch her. "Peter is stopped working…ah…mah head hurts…ah can't shut them out anymore!" She gripped her head tears in her eyes.
He was frantic wondering what to do and then he noticed that the 'jewel' on her bracelet was totally black. 'The hell? That's not supposed to happen, there should have been enough power left for two more months!'
He put that thought aside as took off his jacket. "Okay I'm here Rogue. Here put this on and let's get you back to the mansion."
She looked up at him with tear filled eyes as she shakily reached for it but then another stab of pain shot into her mind. Peter was looking at her when all of a sudden she shifted form and into a not to pleasant one either as she turned into Sabertooth. "Oh crap…Rogue?"
Sabertooth snarled out and attacked Peter gripping him by the shirt and slamming him hard against the tiled wall. "Damn Rogue now is NOT the time to start having mood swings with your powers." He grunted out and kicked her…him…whatever into the chest.
"Sorry about that but you're not giving me much choice," Peter said trying to think of something but then she/he cried out again and another form only this time Peter looked up, and up and up into Juggernaut.
"Oh man…This I really don't need."
Jean and Scott were dancing together enjoying the music, both of them having a nice time. They saw a few of the others too and so far everything was great. That is until a giant smashing sound was heard and people started to panic in the back.
"What the…what's going on?" Scott looked to Jean as she closed her eyes and placed her fingers to her temples. There were a lot of minds and she struggled to find something, then she moved to where she felt a lot of the fear building up. What she saw however though the eyes of someone else shocked her and she lost contact.
"Oh god it can't be…" She stated and Scott saw her pale a bit.
"Jean what is it?"
"It's Juggernaut!" She told him and Scott was in shock at that. He couldn't understand it, they put him away he should have been in prison still. There was no way he could have gotten out and Xavier not know about it and also get here so fast.
"Jean send a message to everyone else, we got to move!"
Peter groaned at he tried to get the stars out of his eyes. The last thing he remembered was a fist the size of a Volkswagen coming at him.
"Peter!" He looked up to see Scott there as he helped him up. "Are you alright?"
"Oh man I think so…although my spleen feels like it's halfway to Chicago about now…" he shook his head as he looked at the human sized hole that he must have made. No wonder he hurt from that hit and blacked out.
"Guys is it true?" Kurt and the others came up to them as everyone was scattering from the area and running out of the building. "Vas it really him?"
"Yeah Jean saw it," Scott told him.
"No it wasn't," Peter corrected him, "It was Rogue."
"What?" Everyone said at him, and so he explained it all. About finding Rogue and Mystique and how Rogue's powers were going out of control. For Jean hearing this brought back memories of what she had gone through and she knew how scared Rogue must be at the moment.
"Hey where the hell is Mystique?" Lance said to them, after hearing about her being there Lance checked what was left of the bathroom and he only saw three girls just coming around. There was no sign of Mystique.
Peter sighed and shook his head, "Why am I not surprised that she's not there? That woman knows how to sneak off."
-Later-
Rogue was running through the streets she didn't even remember how she got there. Last thing she remembered was being in that washroom with Peter…Then it all went blank, and now she was here running. She ducked down an alley to catch her breath.
Her head hurt and she couldn't focus. Something was just really wrong and she wanted help but what could they do? 'Is this what it's like to go slowly insane?' She wondered to herself. That was one of her greatest fears for the minds she had taken to just swallow her whole.
She could feel them now all of them trying to come to the surface, she felt like she was drowning.
Rogue didn't notice that she been followed ever since she had left the concert. Mystique in her bird form landed and shifted into her natural appearance. "Rogue."
The goth turned around and her anger flared in her seeing the blue skinned woman. "You! What do ya want? Isn't it enough that ya used meh not once but twice! What do ya want now?"
"Please Rogue I just want to help." She said calmly with a strange sense of emotion in her voice.
"Lair!" Rogue shifted into Mystique by accident as she went for a kick but the older woman dodged it. "First ya manipulate meh into tha Brotherhood!" She went for a backhand strike that went wide, "Then ya pretended tab eh my friend!"
She turned into Risty at that point and threw a straight punch that Mystique deflected and turned back into herself, "Ya just used meh all the tahme!"
"It's not like that Rogue there are reasons I did what I did," She said to her as she fought her off. She gripped her and suddenly found themselves teleported to a strange roof. Rogue using Peter's strength and agility got out of the hold easily enough.
"What possible reasons could you have to manipulate meh like that!"
"Rogue don't you remember?" She asked her, "You have my memories use them…We've known each other before when you were four years old you were taken in remember?"
Rogue thought back, she only had a few memories of that time. "Yeah…Ah was taken in by Irene…"
"And someone else…Remember?" She asked the young girl hoping that she would but maybe a little help would do the job, "Remember that blond woman?" With that she turned into a blond woman of thirty-five and for Rogue it was a person she never really thought about.
Rogue took a few steps back her eyes wide as saucers. She remembered that person but how could she know? Then memories of seeing herself as a young child entered her mind and they were Mystique's memories. "No…" She said weakly backing away from her as other memories started to surface.
"Yes you know the truth don't you?" Mystique said stepping forward, "I adopted you Rogue, I'm your mother and I had to leave you in the chair of my close friend Irene. I'm sorry I wasn't there but there were…complications. I've wanted to tell you for so long."
"That's why I wanted you in the Brotherhood and why I was Risty. I needed to be close to you, to watch over you. I already lost one child I couldn't let go of another."
Rogue couldn't handle this it was too much but the memories kept slamming into her mind. She wanted to deny it all, that this woman who had caused her so much pain wasn't her mother. But the truth kept on showing up in her mind. "No…it's not true…it's can't beh…"
She had tears in her eyes from this, "It's not true!" She shouted out and with Jean's powers pushed Raven away and flew off into the sky tears falling from her face.
Meanwhile the others were already looking for her. They had changed into their costumes and were trying to find her, Xavier was with Ororo in the X-Jet with a few of the others and Logan was with the rest in the Van. With the exception of Peter who was in his Spider-X uniform trying to find her his own special way.
Before they left he had found the bracelet he made for Rogue, it had been broken when she shifted into Juggernaut but on a closer look it seemed that it was overloaded. He hadn't designed it with Rogue's powers going off like this and somehow she must have overloaded it. Well he'll think of a new improved version later, now his girlfriend was out there literally out of her mind and her powers out of control.
He was sure there was a joke in there but at this moment he didn't feel like joking. "Damn it where are you Rogue? How the hell can you find someone in a place this big anyway?"
He stopped on the top of a building, "Come on big guy help me out here, give me a sigh or something…"
Peter waited and nothing happened so he hung his head and sighed. He was going to move on when a thunder clap was heard only he looked up to a clear night sky. Peter heard it again and looked over his shoulder to where it sounded like where it was coming from. There in the distance several blocks away looked to be a storm only it was centered around a certain area.
"Either that is a sign from god or Rogue just accessed Storm's powers…" Peter looked up at the heavens, "Please let it be you big guy, no offence she you're less scary."
Peter jumped off the building heading there.
Xavier also felt the surge in mutant power and he felt Rogue's mind but he couldn't contact her. All the other personalities were surfacing and he couldn't get into her mind because of it. He was very worried especially since he was trying to make sure no one witnessed these events. Xavier didn't like to invade other's minds but for this he had to.
It was taxing but he had to make sure no one got into the fight as well. He managed to send a message to all the X-Men to where she was and hoped they got to her in time.
Rogue meanwhile was lost in her own body, it was so confusing. One moment she was in one place the next the other with no memory of what was going on, or just vague memories but she couldn't remember, she didn't have time to remember. She was now floating above the streets not sure how or why when she looked down she though of all the humans that lived down there and she felt this cold hatred in her.
Images of a place with wire fences and guards with guns entered her mind and she felt hate. All the metal below her started to groan and shift under her powers. She reached out to start ripping it all out of the ground when a van pulled up. There was something familiar about it but she couldn't place it.
The X-Men in the van got out and looked up to see Rogue there, currently there was Cyclops, Jean, Avalanche, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Spyke and Scarlet Witch. Logan was next to them on his bike in us usual brown and black uniform with the mask. "Oh man I really don't have a good feeling about this," Lance said looking at Rogue.
"Okay people remember try not to hurt her, we need to try and get her down and calm if we can," Scott told the others. He really didn't like this but they had to stop her, he got flashbacks to when they had simulations with her as the enemy back when she first showed up in Bayville.
He hated it then and he really hated this now. "Kurt?"
The blue mutant nodded and teleported up and grabbed Rogue from behind, "Easy zhere Rogue, ve just want to help you," He teleported again but somehow something went wrong. It felt differently and he suddenly found himself hitting the ground hard and Rogue was somewhere else. "How did…"
"Elf move!" Wolverine shouted as Kurt teleported from a lighting bolt from Rogue.
Scott fired an optic beam only to have it stopped by what looked like a TK shield like Jean's. Jean herself tried to enter her mind but it was too much for her. All the voices were too much and she had to pull out of Rogue's mind. "Ugh…I can't get into her head there's too much in there."
"So looks like we do this the hard way then," Evan said as a few spikes grew out.
"Evan put those away we need to be careful I said!" Scott said to him.
He retraced the spikes, "Sorry man but what else are we going to do?"
"Wanda try to see if you can knock out her powers," Scott told her and the other goth nodded her head. She had been working on her powers in private lessons under Xavier and even doing some mental exercises with him during the day to help her with concentration.
She focused on her powers and fired a blue hex bolt at Rogue but she saw it coming. She vanished in a puff of smoke and reappeared next to them. She shifted again only this time into Venom, webbing fired out at Wanda's hands and they were coved in them.
"Oh great like this guy wasn't hard enough the first time," Kitty said phased though the body.
"Hey up here!" Came a voice and 'Venom' looked up to see Peter there on a street light. "Come and get me!"
Peter guessed that the Venom mind might be go after him and he was right as he found this new Venom leaping after him with speed that matched Quicksilver. 'Damn I didn't know she could use more then on power at a time!'
He tried to get away but ended up getting slammed in midair, and fell crashing to the street. "Rogue…Fight it!" He said while struggling only to feel a tremor from Lance knock her off balance and she turned back into Rogue only she looked up at Lance with a not so too pleasant look on her face.
The battle went on and soon the X-Jet landed with the others, the New Mutants leaped into the fight now and Rogue saw herself with so many opponents as they slowly surrounded her. "Come on Stripes just calm down an let us help ya." Logan told her trying to calm her down.
Rogue suddenly accessed Jamie's powers and made many versions of her. Her eyes glowed red as she fired multiple beams at everyone. Some got hit by the optic blast others managed to dodge it. Wanda with the help of a couple of others managed to get one hand free.
She saw an opening and took it, and hexed the lot of them. It was a wide shot and it tore up some of the street but at this point she figured it was messed up enough as it was anyway. The hex knocked all the Rogues back and onto the ground all of them dazed from it.
It was then that when Rogue was on the ground now with the multiple versions of herself was when Peter and Logan stepped in close to her hoping to reach her somehow. "Come on Rogue fight this! You never let people push you around so why start now!" Logan said to her.
"He's right Rogue," Peter jumped in hoping they could get her to pull it together, "You're one of the strongest people I know and I believe you can do this Rogue, come on and fight it!"
For a moment there she looked at them her eyes lost their glow as she tried to fight them off. She closed her eyes as her personality tried fighting to the surface. The clones merged back in and she fell to her knees, "Ah…Ah don't know…if ah can do this…"
Peter was next to her instantly holding her in his arms. "Rogue listen to me…You can do this."
"Ah don't know…" she said weakly.
"Rogue I am NOT losing you, you understand," Peter told her his voice full of worry, "Rogue you have to fight…because…Because I love you and I'll never let go, never let you fall and I'll always be there for you whenever you need me no matter what."
She looked up at him as he pulled off his mask to show her his face. She saw that he meant the words, and that he would do exactly that. She held him tighter as she used him as her anchor as she tried to fight it off. She pushed everything away but Peter…and what she felt for him as well.
The next thing she knew Xavier was there helping to purge her mind, it was all hazy and the last thing she could remember was falling into Peter's arms and him holding her. Everyone gathered around her as they looked to see Peter holding an unconscious Rogue.
"Did it work?" Kitty asked Xavier seeing the two of them.
"I…I don't know," Xavier sighed to himself he still sensed those minds inside of Rogue but they were more dulled down now. He just didn't know what the effects would be or the full impact on this.
-The Next Morning-
Aunt May was with Xavier as they walked the lower levels of the mansions. She never really liked these levels they were always so cold down here on herself, and now she saw why Xavier wore those turtleneck sweaters and jackets all the time with how much he spent down here.
She walked into the infirmary room yet again it seemed. They had just gotten out of it and already poor Rogue was put back in and Peter had gone with her. She was starting to wonder just how dangerous this life was and maybe this wasn't such a good idea coming here.
'Damn you May don't even go there,' She thought angrily to herself. 'Peter is happy here, he's got more friends then you've ever seen him. He's got a girl in his life, and then let's not forget all the other children here as well.'
When she walked into the room both of them saw Logan there leaning against the transparent wall looking at the bed. On it was Rogue sleeping with Peter still in his X-Men uniform sleeping by her bedside. His gloved hand was in hers hunched over sleeping. "Has he been here all night?" Xavier asked his old friend seeing him there.
Logan nodded his head, "Hasn't left her side."
"Or you," May said giving him a little smile, he just brushed it off or tried to but she saw through it. She knew that he had a rough exterior but that inside was a good man. "You really do care about her don't you?"
Logan let out a small growl of frustration, it didn't help seeing Xavier's amused smile on him as well. "Look the kid…well she's had it pretty rough. I can relate I guess…then you're nephew comes in and for once I actually she her start to smile. He's good for her and makes her happy and she deserves it."
"She makes him happy too," May stated seeing the young man that was her nephew who at times was like a son to her. "He was always so lonely…After his parents died Ben and I feared it may affect him and maybe it did. He threw himself into anything else then dealing with that pain…He threw himself into his studies later on and he isolated himself from everyone."
She sighed remembering how Ben and her tried to get Peter to open up more but he was always so shy and timid around people. She feared that he would grow up so lonely just so he wouldn't be hurt again with someone leaving his life. But then Ben died…And Peter found an outlet for himself, as Spider-Man.
As Spider-Man he could do something with the world, he could feel like he was making a difference that what he did mattered. She saw this now, she saw that Spider-Man was just a mask that was just something that was deep inside of him. Spider-Man was just a costume, nothing more.
The core of what Peter Parker was wasn't his powers or his suits, it was what was deep inside of him.
Seeing him there now she saw this part of him now, the part that cared.
Xavier had his own thoughts at the moment about seeing those two together. Logan had been right they were good for each other. That they saw in each other a mirror of the other, where as Rogue isolated herself and turned inward and put on a darker persona to hide in. Peter went the other way with smiles and jokes to hide what he was from the world.
They decided at that moment to enter the room, the sounds of them slowly started to wake Peter up. He still ached from that fight, 'Oy…mental note…you're girlfriend is scary when angry and don't piss her off.' He thought feeling those aches.
"Peter?" He looked up to see his Aunt and the others there.
"Oh hey…What time is it?" He yawed and stretched out but regretted that action when his shoulder got a slight stab of pain.
"It's seven in the morning Peter, how are you feeling?" Xavier asked seeing his physical reactions.
"I'll live," He looked back to Rogue though and sighed. He hated seeing her like this, "How is she doing?"
Xavier looked at Rogue and then back to what Hank had found out. Beast had been working on her throughout the night and they think they had found an answer. "We've been looking at her condition and there are a few…surprising results."
Peter narrowed his eyes not liking this, "Define surprising."
"Well so far from what we able to get so far somehow when Rogue absorbed that living suit her body had taken on a few of it's primary abilities mainly the one that enhances the host."
Peter nodded when he was in the suit he was faster and stronger then ever. He wondered what this had done to Rogue though. Xavier continued on, "We were aware of something like this but when she showed no real change we thought that maybe she hadn't touched it long enough."
He sighed then as he realized that mistake, "But it seems it was laying dormant in her system. We will have to run some more tests but apparently it caused Rogue to go through a power surge. That's why her powers we'll have to see what the full effects are on her though."
Peter hoped that the worst was over at any rate. He looked over at her just sleeping there looking totally relaxed and it was hard for him to see her like this. She just meant so much to him and he couldn't stand to see those close to him hurt.
"Peter maybe you should get ready for school," May told him gently.
He didn't move at first, "I…I just want to be here for her, I want to be here when she wakes up…I don't want to leave her alone."
"She's not along kid," Logan told him, "She never has been there is a mansion of people that care for her and she'll never be alone. And I'll stay just in case."
Peter felt a bit better about although he still wanted to be there for her. He gently squeezed her hand and leaned in close to her, "Rogue…Just remember what I told you…I love you and I'll never let go, never let you fall and I'll always be there for you whenever you need me no matter what."
He was about to let go when he felt her squeeze back and she opened her eye at him. She looked at him with her green eyes as a few tears fell. Peter looked into her eyes and smiled running a gloved hand over her cheek. She smiled back at him not saying a word but Peter didn't need words, her eyes told him all that he needed to know.
NEXT UP CHAPTER 20: BACK TO NEW YORK
I also have something in my forum about this that I think my readers should look up. It's for a future part of the story and I'd like you're opions there on it.