Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Thanks: To my best friend Kate, who after reading the first chapter had to be taken away in an ambulances. (Okay, so it was the next night and she had a bad migraine, but still…) And to MiraiXenia18, who gave me my first review. You rock!!
Chapter Two
"I think this is the last of it." Rouge said, handing a box to Cyclops. They were standing next to the holding hatch of the blackbird, putting in the boxes of files they had found. "Why don't you take one more quick look while I start the jet?" Scott asked. Rouge gave a nod, "I'll be back in a minute."
Rogue walked briskly through the storage building, scanning from left to right, trying to see if anything was forgotten. A small noise made her jump, 'there's no one here, I'm just imagining things.' She turned towards the door and felt a stinging in her neck, after a quick sway she fell to the floor.
Scott was getting worried, he had started the jet, and was ready to go the second Rouge got back, but she wasn't back. He knew it would take her more then 'a minute' but she should be here by now. 'What could be taking so long? We got everything, she was just looking to see if anything dropped.' Undoing his buckle, Cyclops walked to the ramp. 'Where is she?' The sound of tires brought Scott to the bottom of the steps.
Racing back into the plane and taking off, Scott kept repeating the license number of the van that had taken Rogue.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jean stood in the door to the game room, studying, trying to theorize the course of action that would bring about the best possible end reaction. Logan was staring at his dog tags, watching the sun reflect on them. He knew Jean wanted to talk to him and he wouldn't stop her, but he wasn't going to start it either. So, for now he pretended that he hadn't heard her footfalls, or the fact that she had talked to herself before entering the doorway. He would just continue to look at the tags and replay his conversation with Marie.
Marie had been in the middle of singing her heart out when Cyke had burst into the garage, alerting Marie to his presents. "Hey kid." He had said, feeling like he had been caught spying on her. "Logan?" she put so much into his name: questions, surprise, some fear 'she didn't think anyone was around to hear her', and the smallest bit of… desire?
It couldn't be, but, my god, she had grown in the time he was gone. She looked remarkably at home in her X-Men uniform. "You running again?" the memory of the train station came to him, the Marie of that day a sharp contrast to the one before him.
"My first mission," she had said proudly. "Mission?" he choked out, the one mission he had gone on coming to a sharp focus. "Is the Brotherhood really that bad?" he asked, trying to keep the fear from his voice. She must have caught it anyway, because she answered quickly, "It's nothing like that, it's just a document pick up. That's why I'm going, nothing for me to get hurt on." "Oh" the thought of Marie being sent out to fight had scared him more then he was willing to admit. "Hey," she said, stepping closer to him. "I'll be back for these." She pulled the tags from a small pocket along her leg and handed them to him with a wink.
"Rogue, we need to go." Scott's voice had taken Marie to the door were she turn back, "Did you find anything?" she asked. Concern evident in her eyes. He smiled at her, "We'll talk after your mission."
Jean had formulated an approach and was now walking towards Logan, "Logan, we need your help."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rogue had no clue how long she had been in this place, whoever was behind this had given orders to keep her drugged most of the time. All she had was flashes of wakefulness.
Brightness, too much light, she was on a… table? Voices.
"Well, of course she's mutated. We just need to find out how." "Do you think the gloves have something to do with it? Her touch or something?" "It could be, tell everyone to double glove with her."
No! her skin was pulling, trying to absorb. She tried to speak, to warn, but couldn't. The pulling stopped and she waited for the memories to come, the horrible sounds of a personality trying to take over. It didn't come. What was happening?
"Placed rat on subject's bare skin, rat died after thirty seconds. Further analysis will be done to determine cause of death."
Pain, stinging in her back.
"Port three is in place, starting on port four. God Damn! Someone put her back under. She'll pull them out!!"
Her thigh was tingling. Looking down. A hand on her thigh. A tattoo gun. Letters.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Marie woke up to find herself alone in a room. Looking around she couldn't see anyone else. She stood slowly, her legs feeling weak. After getting use to standing, she began to look around. She was in a sleep alcove, stepping out, Marie found her self in a room with a small table, a sofa, and an entertainment center. Going through a door, she found the bathroom and realized that this is what had woken her up, the need for a restroom.
Coming back into the living room, Rogue walked over to the shelves, rows of books, videos, and CD's greeted her. What was going on?
A door opened and a man with a tray walked in. "Your up, good. And how does your back feel?" Marie just looked at him. "Your back," he prompted. "How does it feel?" "What is this? What do you want?" Marie asked. "You confused, I understand. A lot has happened in the last week, you eat and I'll try to answer any questions you have." He placed the tray on the table and lifted the lid. "Chicken breast, carrots, and a caesar salad. Simple, but nutritious." Marie sat down warily, "Please, ask anything." the man said. "Who are you?" "A good place to start, I'm Roger Moore, Dr. Moore." "What is this thing on my back?" Marie's hand want to the small of her back as she said this. Under her shirt she could feel the box and the band that held it in place. "Well, simply put, a battery pack. We did some tests on your mutation and discovered you… well put an electrical drain on living things. The pack releases a small charge to keep you balanced, thus allowing touch." "I can touch?" "Freely my dear." Marie looked at the doctor in confusion; "You did experiments on mutants, why are you helping me?" "I must admit to selfish reasons. I have been part of an ongoing project, and we had need of a female." Marie could feel the blood starting to drain from her face. "What?" "We will keep you here for less then a year and then you will be free to go." "What are you going to do to me?" her voice was so soft she almost didn't hear herself, but the doctor did. "It's already done, for almost fifteen years we, the project, have been trying to produce a new subject. We have had woman from every age rang, background, none of them, well, took." Marie thought she might pass out, "It will be a few days before we're certain, but we have high hopes for you. In the mean time, you will be treated like royalty, if you want anything, just use this call box." Marie look at the phone type thing next to the door the doctor had come in. "I have something I must attend to, but we will see each other soon." Marie tried hard not to throw up as Dr. Moore left. She was unsuccessful.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Logan hadn't slept in six days; he couldn't stand the thoughts that came when he tried too. Thoughts of Marie, of what might be happing to her. He had tried at first, nightmares were something he lived with, but his nightmares had taken a new twist, instead of him in a tank with lines all over his body, it was Marie. After that dream Logan refused to sleep, instead he spent that time in the danger room or the gym. He was in the gym when Ororo came; "The Professor has found her."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Marie wouldn't do it, she couldn't. She was not going to allow any pain to be inflicted on another. Even if it meant her life in the process. Thinking of the warning notes on her hairdryer and the battery pack, she came up with a plan.
Sit on the edge of tub as it filled, Rogue stared at her jean clad leg, tracing the word on her thigh, even thought she couldn't see it. "No regrets." She told herself. 'I only wish I could have told Logan I love him.' Rogue swung her legs into the tub and slowly started to lower herself the rest of the way. The first shock made her pull up out of the water. 'I can't let them do this.' With a firm resolution, Rogue let herself drop.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Logan was tense, everything had gone to plan; the team had met with only two guards that were quickly silenced. Now they were splitting up. "Jean, you and Storm go the living quarters, see if you can find her there. Logan, you and I will take the labs, see if we can't find out what's going on."
Logan looked at Scott; the two men had developed a small bond over the past week. Logan had gone looking for Cyclops after the first nightmare, wanting blood. He had found him in the gym, covered in sweat, and crying. That was enough to stop the animal side, to see that Scott blamed himself more then Logan did. There wasn't any big break through, no heart-to-heart, but Scott did show Logan the danger room.
The two men were now in the lab and Logan was itching to be let lose. The surgical table, the rows of instruments, the freezers, Hell, even the file cabinets made his skin crawl. "Please tell me that we're going to destroy this." He said to Scott. He waited and finally Scott said, "Once we have Rogue, you can start with the freezers." Logan raised an eyebrow, "Freezers?" he asked. Scott clarified, "They're storing mutant… D.N.A. The less the have the better. Do you agree?" Logan had to admit that was a good plan, now they just need to hear Storm's voice over the com. saying she and Jean had found Marie.
The com. didn't speak, instead, the building's intercom was heard, "Med. team to living area, Med. team to living area."
Locking eyes, Scott asked, "Can you take care of this. I think I'd be more help in the living area." "Do you want any of this left?" was Logan's only question.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"We have her!" The cry didn't come from the com. 'Jean'. After disabling the last remaining things in the lab, Logan took off running for the Blackbird. After pulling himself in, the first thing Logan did was look for Marie.
"What happened?" he asked. "She has some kind of electrical box wired to her back." "Is that why a med. team was called?" Logan asked. "No." With a prompting look from Logan, Jean continued softly, "She… she, well, she…" "Spit it the fuck out Red!" "She tried to short out the box in the bathtub." Storm supplied, coming to Jean's aid.
Logan couldn't help himself; the claws came out as he give a deep growl. After bringing himself under enough control to sheath his claws, he asked, "Do you know why?" Jean shook her head, "Other then the box, I can't tell what they did to her. She was only there a week. I can only hope that it's the only thing they had time to…"
Jean stopped at a sound from Rogue. The doctor was at her side in a heartbeat, shushing and checking at the same time. "We have you Rogue, everything will be fine. Don't worry, I'll take care of the box. It's all right." "No." it was so soft that Jean almost missed it. "What's wrong, honey? What do you need?" Rogue looked at the doctor, "Read" she managed to say. Jean look at the young woman then slowly cleared her mind as she tried to find what Rogue was unable to say.
Logan watched the scene before him, he felt almost high from the fact that Marie had spoken. So what if it was only two words. She was going to be all right. That train of thought crashed as Jean's eyes flew open. "Oh my God!"