Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Y'all are appreciated.
A/N: Audioslave has a new CD, and it is most awesome.
Chapter Fifteen: Don't Smoke in Bed
Rogue slowly brought the plane in for a landing, surveying the new Bayville as she did so. It wasn't such a small town anymore, especially given the notoriety the X-Men's disappearance had brought it. On the west side of town, a large mutant-themed amusement park was in the building stages, and many tours were set up about town. Rogue caught a glimpse of several varying in levels of vagueness (from Telepathic Tours, with stops on all of Jean's and Professor Xavier's favorite haunts, to Brotherhood of Tourism, which encompassed the "bad" side of mutancy, which was camped up in the old Brotherhood house).
She ignored all those signs of hypocrisy, given that the residents of Bayville couldn't stand the mutants when they were there, but were more than prepared to profit from their disappearance. Rogue adjusted the controls just a touch, and turned the plane to face the X-Mansion, as it was now called. Looking at it in the waning afternoon light, Rogue felt empty. There would be no joyous coming home for her. This was for business.
The plane settled down without a sound, a benefit of having up-to-date technology, and Rogue wasted no time in leaving it behind. There was roughly a mile between her and the manor, which was currently full of tourists clamoring for a bit of distant contact with the oh-so-dangerous mutants. Even now, a TV blared in a break room about the odd "blackout" of communication in Australia, though it was more in an abstract noting way that it was mentioned. Rogue pushed the thought of all the innocents perishing Down Under, and focused on this small sidetrip. If all went well, she'd be done within minutes and back on the plane, heading to said continent to exact the rest of her plan.
Once in sight of the grounds, Rogue crouched down, moving forward slowly so that the few guards that walked around (think rent-a-cop), wouldn't see her. Inside, her senses told her, three hundred or so people were moving about in various groups, with guides and without. No one would notice the sudden appearance of one more person.
Visualizing where she wanted to go, Rogue tapped into her adopted brother's powers, pulling them to the surface and using them to transport herself to a small closet near the front door. Though she couldn't see it, doing so briefly caused her skin to flash blue, though that quickly disappeared so that she was normal looking when she left the closet (or as normal as a skunk-haired woman could be).
Rogue started to walk through the mansion, smiling a bit as people walked by, and only when she was outside of Xavier's old office did she actually encounter resistance.
"Ma'am? I'm sorry, but that room is off limits, and the museum is actually closing early today. You'll have to leave the premises." The guard was small but shapely, his mind an open book of southern politeness and manners. Rogue didn't hesitate in the brief spike of telepathy used to knock him unconscious. She let him fall where he would. The only real thing that interested her about him was the thought that passed easily from his mind to her's. X-Force had called ahead and asked the staff to evacuate the premises, meaning that they'd guessed where she was going, if not why.
Rogue swiftly entered the room, heading right for the safe. She needed to leave here before X-Force, or anyone else, arrived. It was best this work was done in private, lest Sebastian Shaw's plans unfurl before they were supposed to. It would be most rude to be the cause of such a thing, Rogue thought to herself as she slowly punched her way through the metal door of the safe.
X-Force arrived just as Rogue was leaving. Unfortunately for them and Rogue, they weren't the only ones.
Storm took to the air, her arms thrown out as a storm roiled above. Wolverine popped his claws, Gambit charged cards, Jubilee sparked, Cannonball...stood there threateningly, and Magneto floated serenely. Xavier...rolled as intimidating as he could.
Rogue smirked at them, a new backpack, freshly stolen from the gift shop, wrapped around her shoulders. She stood with her hands on her hips and studied the oh-so-threatening picture and fought the urge not to snicker. Then, a small warble on the edge of her senses made that smile freeze.
With a gust of fire, and a little concentration, Phoenix blew Storm out of the sky and careening into Magneto, both of them crumpling to the ground, but conscious. Above them all, the Phoenix soared, her body encompassed by fire, moving within a pyre shaped like a bird. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground, smiling coldly despite the fire about her. In a uniform off red and gold, with hair curled and moving within a wind of its own, she was the only one truly intimidating there, but then again, Rogue was used to the bitch's power plays.
Rogue stared at Phoenix through slit eyes, and under the radar began to pull powers to her, curling them like a tight ball within her, waiting only to be released. If necessary, she would make her last stand here, and to hell with the innocents.
Phoenix did not attack however. She stared back at Rogue, sending a small branch of telepathy to the other Mutate, waiting for Rogue to accept the entreaty. What they must speak of wasn't needed to be heard by others.
Rogue reluctantly accepted. What?
Have you gotten it?
Gotten what?
I take that as meaning that you have. Hand it over.
No, Jeannie.
I am Dark Phoenix. I will not be denied.
Ya're in denial. Ya ain't shit, Jeannie. Ya're a mutant with personality problems, but other than that, ya're no more powerful than Ah am. And ya most certainly are not a goddess.
I am what I say I am. Do not make me repeat myself. I care nothing for these people, and I will destroy them all if you do not.
Big loss.
Rogue made damn sure her face was as impassive as possible as she transmitted that last sentence, and she watched as fury rolled over Phoenix's eyes. Behind Rogue, the mansion suddenly shot up in flames, so suddenly that it knocked X-Force off their feet, but not Rogue. No, she'd been prepared for what was to come.
It wasn't Phoenix, that'd done it, however. Rogue turned to the flames and watched as a tall Asian man walked out of them, his black hair long and loose, his golden eyes dispassionate as they stared at his mate.
"Hello, Sunfire."
"Mate, you have done me a dishonor."
Rogue smiled and waved over her shoulder at Gambit. "Mate meet lover, lover, this is my mate."
Gambit rose up on his elbow and spared the effort to give a small wave.
"Do you truly think you'll be able to stop the plan? You are a traitor to our people."
"We are no people. We are monsters, aberrations, caricatures of life. We must be destroyed," Rogue whispered as she stepped close, even now drawn to his skin. The bond between them was one way, from him to her, but she had loved and been loved by this man for two years. Some yearnings were purely physical.
Rogue placed her ungloved hand on his chest, and without regret, sent a powerful wave of Iceman's abilities into him. She froze his heart within seconds, and soon the hoarfrost spread around his body, showing the great temperature drop within. Even though it ached within her mind, her body taking great pains to continue the process, she killed her husband with little thought and effort. Killing isn't an act that requires great concentration. It merely requires a will and a way.
As Sunfire froze into an ice statue, likely for a very long time, if not forever, Rogue removed her hand and turned back to Phoenix, who watched placidly. "Do you want applause, Rogue, for killing your mate? Such a thing is punishable by death."
"In ya society, not mine. It wasn't murder," Rogue explained. "Ya can't murder something that ain't alive."
Phoenix cocked her head to the side. "He had feelings, emotions, thoughts. Even if they were repressed, they were there. He lived."
"Do we have souls, Jeannie? Can abominations like we have them? Can such a thing be created?"
Phoenix wasn't amused anymore, for this was a question she often asked herself, but found even that she, a goddess, had no answer for it. She didn't appreciate Rogue bringing her own failings to her attention.
Phoenix lashed out with her telekinesis, lifting Rogue off her feet, sending her sailing into the flames. Even as she did so, a second tangle of telekinesis removed Rogue's backpack, and brought it to her. Though Rogue infuriated her, there was no need to waste energy in destroying what could someday again be of use to Phoenix.
Behind her, X-Force rallied together, combining their powers in strategic ways to attack Phoenix, who they all felt was a formidable opponent. In sync, Jubilee and Wolverine ran around each other and up to Phoenix, intending to electrocute her via Wolverine's claws which would be jammed into her back. Enough to paralyze for a few seconds, though they didn't get the chance. Psychically sensing them, Phoenix moved before they got close and sent them flying into the air and into the forest. She turned and gestured for the rest of them to "bring it", and oh yeah, they brought it.
Colossus and Magneto paired together, with Magneto using his abilities to send Colossus soaring through the air fast as a bullet right at Phoenix, who merely raised her hand and froze Colossus where he flew. With a small twist of her fingers, the metal skin he'd formed around himself disintegrated, never to return. Colossus, in tremendous pain from the loss, fell to the ground unconscious.
Next was Gambit, though as usual he had no partner. He charged up a deck of his cards, and sent them sailing into Phoenix as one. However, the second they left his hand, they hit a telekinetic barrier and blew mere inches from him, sending him flying back, momentarily stunned by his own gifts and temporarily blind.
There were only three of X-Force left, Phoenix could see, and one of them was only a beta mutant, making him barely noticeable, though it was adorable to see him try and attack her. Cannonball, who was invincible when he flew, didn't even get the chance. As he prepared to charge at her, Phoenix blew out his right knee cap, making it impossible for him to move, let alone fly. Storm was more difficult.
The element of surprise had taken the Amazon down the first time, but not again. Storm called the jet stream to her, suddenly stirring up 150 mph winds that made even Phoenix falter. She pushed forward though, to the eye of the storm, where Storm and Xavier were waiting. The wind pushed harder, almost pulling her skin from her flesh, but still she pushed forward, invading the eye with an audible pop, slamming her hand onto Storm's forehead and pushing her consciousness into a stream of nightmares. Storm fell to the ground screaming.
Xavier watched from his chair as she did so. "What are you?"
Phoenix smiled. "I'm everything. I'm nothing. I am what I am, something you could never contemplate."
She used the winds already stirred up to fuel her newest punishment for Xavier. Funneling beneath him, she caused the dirt to shift until a large sinkhole formed, collapsing under his weight, with only her telekinesis keeping him above ground. "Tell me, Xavier, can you sense anything from me?"
He looked at her calmly confused. "Like what?"
She hesitated. "Like a soul. Do I have a soul?"
Xavier studied her face. "No. You don't."
He fell into the abyss.
Phoenix wasted no time taking to the air, returning to her master with the backpack she'd procured. Leaving behind waste and carnage that Bayville hadn't seen in many years. She also left behind survivors.
Rogue stirred herself from the smoldering coals about her, the destruction of her teenage home. She stepped from those flames, her clothes mere ribbons around her and studied the so-called "Best Team on Earth". Most of them were unconscious or too far away to aid her. She didn't really need it anyways.
Rogue pulled the large red jewel from her jacket pocket, or what was left of it. While contemplating it's luminescence, she used her borrowed mental abilities to catch Xavier who was still falling down the sinkhole, a rather large one, and pulled him upward back to the surface.
He gasped as his chair touched ground, red in the face from screaming, but other than that, somewhat readied to her cause. He breathed in rather deeply, and out again. "Thank you."
Rogue ignored his thanks, and continued to fiddle with the jewel. "You know what this is?"
"That's-"
"Yes, it is. This, Professor, is the key to everything." She turned those deep gray eyes to his. "Nothing is as it seems. Nothing. This explains everything, if you know what to ask and who to ask it of."
She turned and started to walk away, not caring that the others were stirring, or that a group of twenty touring downstairs were burning alive, or that Gambit was blinded, Colossus's mutancy castrated, or that those still awake watched her as she did so. She left them behind. They were useless to her now. She would walk this path alone.