Chapter Five: Out of the Past
And here's Chapter Five! Admittedly, Rogue doesn't kick ass in this chapter, but she does stand up for her friends at the beginning, and I changed some of her lines and added some new ones.
Cellorules: Thanks for your feedback! And yes, cutting her scenes from Days of Future Past was probably one of Singer's worst decisions. From what I found, he cut her scenes because her role was "too self-contained".
0001234: I'm glad you loved it! And yay, someone wants Mystique to be Rogue and Kurt's mother in this! That means I don't have to rewrite it! By the way, for anyone that likes Doug Walker the Nostalgia Critic, he recently started doing videos where he reviews and rewatches the X-Men movies, and like you said, he quickly realized that Rogue's role was pretty much Jubilee's in the cartoon. Maybe if they didn't put so much focus on Wolverine, they could've done Rogue justice (along with Cyclops, Storm, Phoenix, etc.)
And Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men.
Rogue ran through the halls and heard someone call her name. She stopped in her tracks as Bobby and John ran up to her. "Bobby! This way!"
She led them around the corner, but they stopped when even more HYDRA soldiers blew open a window. They turned around and ran down the stairs. They headed for the front door, but they burst open, and they were blinded by flashlights.
Rogue bravely took a step forward, ready to defend herself and her friends. "What do you want from us?!" she demanded from the soldiers, her eyes glowing red.
Then they heard a roar. Logan jumped down from the top of the staircase, his claws out, and crushed the soldiers beneath him. Standing up, he said, "Let's go."
However, they were stopped once more by a helicopter flashing a bright light at them.
"Come on. This way." Logan led the three teenagers away from the hall, Bobby moving ahead to take them to an escape hatch.
"This is it." Bobby quickly opened it and ran inside, John and Rogue following.
Rogue, however, stopped to turn around and yell, "Logan!" just as Logan shut the door in her face.
He faced the HYDRA soldiers, drawing his claws. "You wanna shoot me? SHOOT ME!"
"Don't shoot him!" a man ordered, slowly walking around a corner. "Not yet."
Logan stilled. That voice was uncomfortably familiar...
"Wolverine?" The other soldiers' flashlights prevented Logan from seeing the surprised look on this man's face. "Well, I must admit, this is certainly the last place I'd expect to find you. How long has it been? Fifteen years? You haven't changed one bit." He stepped forward. "Me, on the other hand –" He gestured to his withered face. "– nature."
Logan slowly retracted his claws. He'd seen glimpses of this man's face in his nightmares...
Bobby and John ran down the tunnel, but Rogue stopped them. "Wait! You guys, we gotta do something. They might take him away!"
"He can handle himself!" John protested. "Let's go!"
"He's handled himself for years before he met me!" Rogue shot back. "He needs to let other people help him! And the X-Men are supposed to work together! Come on, Bobby!"
Bobby wasn't sure what to do. They needed to get to safety, but the girl he had feelings for wanted to stay behind to help Logan, and he couldn't just leave her.
"I didn't realize Xavier was taking in animals," the man sneered at Logan, "even animals as unique as you."
"Who are you?" Loan demanded.
The man just smiled. "Don't you remember?" he asked him.
Logan slowly walked towards him...
A wall made of ice formed between Logan and the HYDRA soldiers.
"NO!" he shouted. "NO!"
"Logan, come on!" He turned around to see Rogue and Bobby peeking out through the escape hatchet, Bobby's hand producing ice across the wall. "Let's go!"
On the other side of the ice wall, the man placed his hand on it in awe, Logan mimicking him.
"Logan!" Bobby called out to him.
"Go!" Logan ordered them. "I'll be fine."
"Enough of that, Logan!" Rogue snapped impatiently. "You're an X-Man, and the X-Men are supposed to be a team! Come on!"
She was right. Even if he could handle himself, he couldn't afford to let them get hurt or even killed on their own, especially not Rogue. Finally, he headed back towards them just as the familiar man went to blow up the ice wall.
They ran through the tunnel until they reached a door that opened in the floor of the garage. They turned on the lights and quickly found a dark blue car and got in.
"I'm driving!" said John, heading for the driver's seat.
Logan just pulled him away. "Maybe next time."
Scowling, John got into the back seat with Bobby, as Rogue got in the passenger's seat and Logan got behind the wheel.
"This is Scott's car," Rogue realized just now.
Logan just smirked. "Oh, yeah?" He extended his middle claw and used it to start the car. Rogue just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
First his motorcycle, then his girl, now his car, she thought to herself in amusement. Men.
Soon, they were speeding away from the mansion.
On the road, John spoke up, "What the hell was that back there?"
No one answered for a while. Rogue stared at Logan before he said, "Stryker. His name is Stryker."
"Who is he?" Rogue asked.
Logan glared at the road. "I can't remember."
When everyone went silent, Rogue suddenly felt a wave of déjà vu. This was similar to how her first real moment with Logan went: sitting quietly in his truck as he drove, giving her the cold shoulder. Then she took something from her wrist and handed it to Logan. "Here. This is yours."
He took it, and saw that it was his dog tag. He had given it to Rogue before he left, promising her that he would come back. He smiled at her, which she returned.
Then it got quiet again.
"I don't like uncomfortable silences," said John as he reached in between Logan and Rogue to turn on the radio.
"What are you doing?" Rogue asked, moving her bare shoulder away from him.
The radio began playing N*Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" to the annoyance of everyone else. John quickly turned it off and pressed another button, which revealed a thin X-shaped emergency phone.
"I don't think that's the CD player," he joked.
Logan took the phone. "Sit back," he told John.
"Where are we going?" Bobby asked.
"Storm and Jean are in Boston," said Logan. "We'll head that way."
Bobby froze (no pun intended) hearing this. "My parents live in Boston."
"Good," said Logan.
And there's Chapter Five! I've seen some people comment on Rogue's original line, "They're gonna kill him!", basically saying that she somehow forgot that Logan can't actually be killed, and had a healing factor. I felt the need to change that. As for the bit about how Logan can't afford to let Rogue and the others get hurt and whatnot, well, I tried my best. Basically, I'm trying to say that Rogue understands that the X-Men are meant to be a team, and that they should be working together and helping each other out. And Logan is technically a member of the X-Men, and Rogue is aspiring to join them some day as well, so she's trying to get him to stop doing everything by himself and remind him that he's got allies.
And just for that one second gag of Pyro playing N*Sync, let me share a highlight from CinemaSins' "Everything Wrong With X2: X-Men United In 4 Minutes Or Less":
"Damn, don't let Stryker know that the mutants' one weakness is N*Sync."