Chapter Four: Trouble In The Mind

Her house was silent, like a tomb, and like a tomb she felt the air cloying at her throat. How could she lay here in the dark beside her life partner and knowing that tomorrow she would be gone, and not be restless? Shadowcat smiled into the dark and felt Wisdom shift beside her, throwing his large arm over her stomach and pulling her close. She hated his touch. She hated the touch of people period. Mutates were not supposed to crave the comfort of human touch. Shadowcat didn't; Kitty did. Shadowcat was never quite sure when the distinction was made, or rather, where the line had been put, but she had gradually become aware that Kitty was still there, somewhere inside.

The process of mutant to mutate was supposed to wipe out any individual identities, any emotions, any tendencies, and any attachments that had been formed in a former life. That way, the Leader could form the specimen each mutate had been designated to be. Once the process was completed, the bar code and ID number was tattooed onto the back of the neck and the mutate was sent into the community to perform its function, or its mission as the Leader bid. Shadowcat was a stealth operative, a mutate designed for quiet operations, be they thievery or murder. She'd done both many times.

For that first year, she'd been a solo operative. Some, like Phoenix and Rogue, had been assigned life partners immediately, but the Leader had deigned that Shadowcat wait. Wait, she did. One year, five months, and one day, after a mission in Sudan, Wisdom had arrived at her door. He'd handed her his orders, he was to be her life partner. They would work together on all missions; except for the rare one that only one operative was needed. Eventually, when their functions had been obsolete, they would mate and form a child. Some, like Phoenix and Cyclops, had gotten a head start on that part of the life.

Wisdom stirred beside her, and Shadowcat turned her head to study him. The first time she'd met him, he'd been an attractive older man, and nothing more. They'd gone in for tests, confirmation, and tagging...the next time she'd seen him, he was something more. His skin had drawn her touch, his eyes fascinated her. The telepaths had done something. Sometimes, if Shadowcat wasn't near him often enough, she grew antsy, nervous; she needed him near. Not as much as he needed her. Through experience, she knew that he gained symptoms of withdrawal a lot faster than she. This would play into their plan. Shadowcat and Rogue had five days to get away and somehow complete their plan before Shadowcat would die. The link between her and Wisdom would kill her.

BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!

Shadowcat slapped the alarm off, but Wisdom was awake. She'd hoped to avoid this encounter. Wisdom grinned at her, not noticing how stiff she was. He swept his hand down her hip before sliding on top of her.

"Good morning, wife."

"Is it good?" Shadowcat asked, deliberately letting herself relax though inside she screamed for want of running away.

"It will be in a minute..." And the morning went on.

Rogue studied the foyer of the Citadel. It was quiet, and at four a.m. it was the only time it was. Two inane guards sat at the security desk, monitoring all the halls and rooms on this floor. For every floor of the building, there was a security desk, and at the top, near the Leader's level, was the main security office, where everything in the building and outside it was monitored.

The guards, Wolfsbane and Morph, were inconsequential, since neither would be able to stop the plan that even now was in action. Rogue smiled as her fellow defectors stepped through the door. Shadowcat looked as nervous as ever; she'd never been a good liar. Rogue trusted her, trusted that she'd not crack though. There was nothing else she could do but trust at this late stage of the game.

Beside Shadowcat, Sage looked as calm as ever. Sage was one mutate that Rogue actually liked. While the process had worked on Sage, it hadn't worked quite like the Leader had intended. Sage still had free will. Like Rogue, she'd kept it to herself, only to recognize on an instinctive level the same level of disdain in Rogue. Together, they'd set this plan up. With Sage's computer like mind, and Rogue pure brawn and brashness, there wasn't even a chance of failure in their minds.

The guards perked up; discarding the training programs they'd both been working on. Wolfsbane was eager to work her way up the Citadel hierarchy, and her partner Morph was more eager to keep up with her. They dutifully checked the two mutates in, just as they had with Rogue thirty minutes ago. She hadn't gone to her office as she'd said, instead taking to the corner where shadows kept her hidden from sight. Shadowcat and Sage knew where she was, however, as her exact placement was part of the plan.

Rogue smiled in the dark, and watched as Sage calmly directed Shadowcat to the staircase, forgoing the elevator. It was a suspicious move, but it was necessary. Rogue gently reached out with her telepathy, encountering numerous signatures nearby. The spooks were three levels up, and Phoenix was four levels above that...in the Leader's quarters. Rogue quirked her eyebrow at that, and made a mental note of it. What was Jean Grey doing in the Leader's quarters at four a.m. while her mate slept away the morning?

Rogue left her question as that, a question, and proceeded to contact Sage. Sage was a spook, i.e. telepath, herself, so it was an easy connection.

Sage?

Yes, Rogue?

Are ya ready with the package?

I am, we're delivering it indirectly to the Leader now. Rogue nodded as she understood Sage's euphemism. The problem with providing a distraction large enough to allow the four of them that were in on the plan, was that the building was full of telepaths. How do you keep a plan to attack the leader of a cult-like community from a bunch of people devoted to protecting the person? Surprisingly easy. Or, at least, it would have been...

REEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOO! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOO!

Rogue flattened herself even further against the wall as an alarm she'd never heard before started to sound. Immediately, she called for Sage and Shadowcat to return to the foyer. Below her, Wolfsbane and Morph sprang into action, moving to lock the front doors, which just happened to be modeled after vault doors. They shut, they ain't coming open again. Rogue had no choice but to act.

She launched herself out of the corner, and using her flight abilities picked up speed. Swooping down she reached for Wolfsbane, but grabbed Morph instead. It was his surprise that allowed her the seconds needed to throw him over the desk and into the wall of monitors. He was unconscious, and only mildly hurt. Wolfsbane was extremely angry, however.

As soon as Rogue swooped again, seeking to grab her, Wolfsbane reached for her gun but not fast enough. Rogue swiped the mutate with her fist, also knocking her unconscious. Rogue touched down behind the desk and studied the flashing message that was covering all the screens not broken by Morph slamming into them. Within seconds, Shadowcat and Sage had phased through all seven flights of stairs and were joining her there.

"What's code 324?"

Rogue sighed. "Assassination attempt."

Sage quirked her eyebrow questioningly. "The package hasn't activated yet."

"It wasn't us...but we're taking this opportunity. Call Bishop. Tell him we'll be there in a few minutes. We're leaving now."

Shadowcat and Sage turned immediately, and Rogue waited until they'd left the building before turning back to the monitors. She pulled the keyboard towards her and started to program in a series of numbers. The screens blacked out instantly. Elsewhere, the psychic plane that linked all telepaths in the building went down. The security keeping the Community out of the radar was completely down, and it would take almost three hours to get it up again. Rogue smiled. The perfect time frame to allow her, Sage, Shadowcat, and Bishop to get the hell out of here.

The plan had been simple. They would use a distraction at the Citadel to simultaneously take down security and any monitoring the Leader had in place. As insiders to the most intricate of processes, between Rogue and Sage they had all the information they needed for that. When they'd succeeded in that, Bishop and Shadowcat would ensure that they actually made it past the perimeter, which was simultaneously patrolled by aerial mutates and border robots (read Sentinel). Shadowcat would frequence her phasing field so that they couldn't be seen from above, while Bishop would use his energy blasts to take out any opponents that could see through the shield like the border guards.

Simple things tend to complicate very quickly. Luck was on their side, however, and they made it all the way to the small town fifty miles away without incident. They'd intended to trade in the vehicle for another, and make it to the next town on the coast, and do the same thing there, and so on and so forth, until they'd made it to Sorhan's shipping port, the only open border on Genosha. This plan changed the instant they stepped foot into that small town, one that had a name, but none of them knew it. Usually, Sage would have gleaned the information needed from the thoughts of nearby pedestrians...but there were none to glean from.

Rogue stepped down off the back of the jeep and studied the figures in the middle of the road. At first, Bishop, the driver, had thought they were animals, but they weren't. The entire populace was in the street, the one that went through the middle of the town and continued down the entire coast of the island, and they weren't standing.

They weren't doing much of anything, considering how dead they were. Sage leaned down but didn't get out of the jeep. "It looks like a psionic wave did this."

"I thought psionic waves only incapacitated people?" Shadowcat asked.

Rogue shook her head. "With enough force behind them, any kind of psychic attack can kill." She should know, she'd once wiped out Congress with one...oh, yeah...all in a good day's work for the Leader. "We need to move on, now."

"Why the hurry? I thought we were gonna draw this out, try to stay out of sight as long as possible?" Bishop asked, his deep, raspy voice matching the hard, African exterior. Most people couldn't tell that his mother had been a Caucasian/Aborigine woman, and that his father had been African American...they looked at him and saw "black". Rogue looked at him and saw an ally, a very powerful and knowledgeable ally. Shadowcat looked at him and saw a threat...of course...she was the only one of the four of them who had mutate conditioning. She probably saw them all as a threat.

"We're ditching this ride, and we're not going to Sorhan. Ah think we should grab a boat and take our chances at sea."

"You know they have more security directly out to sea here than they do in Sorhan, why take the chance?"

"Phoenix."

Shadowcat lowered herself to the ground beside Rogue and studied the forever frozen in agony, screaming faces of the people surrounding them. "What about her?"

"She knows what we're doing."

Bishop grunted. "She's going to tell the Leader."

"Ah doubt it."

Sage studied Rogue's face. "Why?"

"She just tried to kill him."

Shadowcat gingerly started to walk through the bodies, heading for the small dock several hundred feet away. "How do you know?"

"When the alarm sounded, she was the only one in the room with him...and she's got motive."

"What motive?"

"Ah can't say right now...Ah've just had a feeling...the past couple weeks...she's been planning something."

"And you didn't feel it necessary to tell us?" Sage asked, a hint of anger in her voice. Rogue smiled, never having seen Sage lose control even that little bit.

"No, Ah didn't. We didn't need anymore complications. The Leader was already chomping at the bit to begin the Awakening, and we couldn't stall the plan because Uber Bitch wanted to cause some trouble. Let's go. We don't have time to dawdle."

Rogue joined Shadowcat where she was walking to the peer. Behind them, Sage and Bishop shared a brief look before hurrying to the peer as well. If Rogue was hiding this, what else might she be hiding from them?