Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Also Do Not Own The Show 'DC Super Hero Girls'.
Thank you for reading this chapter! I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to read this story. Thank you for reading the story and the newest chapter. Part of the inspiration for the flying track was taken from the new cartoon 'DC Super Hero Girls'. I have only seen the first movie episode thing, but it seems like an interesting idea.
On the day of the opening ceremony, Rogue felt like she might pass out in front of the entire crowd. Due to her new position as participant instead of trophy passer-outer, she had been, thankfully, relieved from standing on the tall podium with her family and the games planning chairman. Instead, she stood beside a very confident looking Remy and focused her mind on the warmth his hand sent through her body as he kept a strong grip on her gloved hand. She could feel a hundred pairs of eyes staring at her and the non-image inducer version of Kurt standing on her other side.
Despite the media frenzy over her and her mother, few, if any, of the people in Lenox knew about Mystique and Kurt's involvement in her life. They knew she had lived on Earth for a long time and was taken by a mysterious figure on the night of the attack, but that was about it. The various tabloids in the dimension had speculated about how she wound up with the X-men and found her way back to Lenox, but only a few had the right story. None of them, that Rogue had seen, mentioned her foster brother or the fact she had been raised by a Morph.
She took a big breath and let it fill her lungs as deeply as she could. Remy squeezed her hand even tighter to remind her that he was still right beside her. She offered him a small smile that was meant for just the two of them. Despite the pounding in her head and the fear that a riot may start, she kept her head high and watched her mother stand next to uncle William at the main podium.
The introductions to the game were given out as normally as any other sporting event. The teams' districts were called and their section of players lit up brightly, and then were shown on a large projection screen for the entire crowd to see. It was tradition, according to Eleanor's description, for the hosting district to be announced last, but that was scrubbed for Earth to be announced last. It seemed safer, in the queen's opinion to announce the team and not leave people standing in a big crowd to argue the details. It would be far too easy to start a fight in a big crowd surrounded by tons of spectators.
When the time came to introduce the Meridan team, Rogue managed to sneak a look past Kurt and over to the proficient looking group. They were dressed in matching uniforms, as were all the teams besides the recently thrown together Earth team, but their outfits looked somewhat fancier than the other groups' outfits. Each of them stood straight as a board and kept their gaze focused on the people at the podium. The only thing human about them, as far as the world could see, was the fact they had to blink every so often.
As the other X-men examined what seemed to be the strongest competitors, the princess kept her eyes glued on one player in particular; Victoria. Unlike the rules that normally kept Rogue out of big events like these, Victoria was free to play the games or compete in a power match whenever she pleased. The rules expected Rogue to be so filled with power that she was unable to play fair but she knew, and the rest of the dimension seemed to be realizing, that it just wasn't so. Their so-called mimic was just another face in the crowd.
When Victoria spotted Rogue's stare, she furrowed her brows and let her full lips curl into a competitive grin. The movement broke the robotic behavior of the team, but it did little to settle anyone's fears. Kurt, who had only met Victoria at the very quiet and uncomfortable dinner at the Duke's mansion the night before, followed his sister's line of sight and noticed the woman pulled her gaze from their team immediately. He turned back to his sister's face and gave her a goofy grin to try and cheer her up.
It wasn't like he didn't know what she was risking taking this move. The people of Lenox adored Rogue and her family, and yet she was willing to risk everything she had gained by standing next to him and outwardly supporting the Morphs. He thought that she was one of the bravest people he knew, even though she would never believe such a statement. Rogue was always too shy or self-conscious to realize that people thought highly of her. But if anyone was a coward, in his opinion, it was probably him. He had watched so many people that he was certain he was somehow connected with be treated like they were dirt and hadn't spoken out once. Rogue was willing to risk her newly discovered home and he hadn't been willing to even turn off his image inducer. But it would all be different now that they were standing here together. He was almost certain that their friendship could show the people of Lenox that it was possible for both sides to get along.
The entire arena fell into a silent hush as the head of the games looked to the group of mismatched Earthlings and a princess. With their X-men uniforms on they at least looked like they were prepared for a sporting event of some kind. As the man started to name some facts about Earth, like he had done for each of the other groups, the crowd began to whisper and talk about the strange sight before them.
"Did he just say we were from some place called 'Hayville'?" Kitty whispered behind Rogue.
"At least most of the statements are right," Jean whispered back to the girl and kept her game face on despite the hilarity of the misspoken bits of Earth trivia flowing through the speakers.
When the last statement about their team had been announced, the time to applaud came awkwardly. Meridan had gained so much applause that they had to ask the audience to hold back their enthusiasm a bit. But the sound that greeted Rogue's team was a basic, polite clap and a few cheers from the more royal-obsessed crowd members. The whole thing was a bit degrading to at least two of the X-men, and forced both Logan and Rogue to scowl and look away from the crowd.
Thankfully, the event had finished with their team announcement, leaving the group free to go and explore Meridan until the big party that night at the Duke's grand garden. Most of the X-men had decided to go and study the practice areas for their particular events, instead of following the majority of the teams who planned to spend the rest of the day relaxing. Rogue walked Gambit over to his training ground and watched him expertly hit a few targets before excusing herself to see the flying course.
As she approached the large obstacle field, she first noticed the rings hanging high in the sky. A few flyers were already racing through them and trying to find the most aerodynamic way to complete the course. Below the rings, was a designated track for the random team coaches who were busily yelling out various orders to their players. They took their eyes off of the flyers for only a moment to offer Rogue a polite head bob, then jumped right back into studying their teams.
Aside from the rings, she spotted a few randomly placed pillars and a dark looking tunnel floating in the sky that curved to the left, then suddenly shifted to the right as another flyer approached. The sight of such an obstacle made her stomach twist strongly. This was only the training course and the flyers currently racing through seemed so confident that they barely flinched when an obstacle suddenly flipped or grew sharp, pointed speed bumps.
"Are you going to take a run through?" Victoria's voice broke her cousin's mini panic attack and brought her back to the moment at hand. "You will never make it through if you don't practice on the easy course."
Easy course? Anna thought in surprise as she managed to keep a straight face. The last thing she wanted to do was let Victoria get under her skin. She still believed that there was something wrong with this woman, and she wasn't going to let her get anywhere near her head.
"Ah know what I'm doin'." She snapped in an accent-coated voice while her subconscious reminded her that she had no idea whatsoever what she was doing.
Victoria squinted and scrunched her nose a little at the sound of her cousin's voice. The accent seemed to be an unpleasant sound in her ears and Rogue had to admit it was a bad sign to her own pair, too. Ever since Remy had told her that her accent became thicker when she was nervous, she had become somewhat neurotic about watching her speech patterns. Having a sign that told the world you were out of your mind was not on her list of acceptable behaviors.
"I just thought I should warn you that this course is difficult for experienced flyers. A novice,"
"A novice?" Rogue snapped at the word, taking it as a jab at her skills in general. "Ah am no novice."
"So you have been through this course before?" Victoria's tone shifted from the good sportsman, to haughty in the blink of an eye as Rogue bristled up. "Then I assume, you don't need any warnings about the fire spots or electricity barriers, princess?"
The words stuck out in Rogue's mind like a neon green sign. She hadn't seen any fire or electric parts in the course, but there was a lot more course that she hadn't walked by yet. She made a mental note to have a very long talk with Eleanor about this particular issue, then faced Victoria again. She still believed that the girl was bad news, but it was hard to put the view she had of Victoria against the idea that she seemed to be trying to give her advice on the course. What kind of competitor did that? Then again, how was she supposed to know that Victoria's advice was right, anyway?
A loud yell broke their moment and forced Rogue to snap her neck to the side so fast she almost gave herself whiplash. One of the flyers from before hovered over to the sidelines with a large black scorch mark on her left leg. The minute she landed her coach ran over and started to chastise her about looking out for the third fire loop, before checking her leg for any damages.
"Fire, huh…" Rogue mumbled to herself.
"See you at the race." Victoria smiled cheekily and flew away from her cousin without another word.
Rogue slept fitfully through the night. She had attended the opening party for only a short time, not wanting to be part of the all-night extravaganza when her confidence and head were so badly shaken. Instead of partying with the other players and coaches, she had spent most of her night sitting beside Remy while nursing a tall glass of Lenox's famous champagne.
Past experience had taught her how dangerous the stuff was, but it was the main drink served at the party besides water, and she was craving something strong enough to take the edge off of her nerves and various fears. Watching the X-men dance with some of the players from another not-so-popular team had made her feel a little better. But it was mainly Remy's warm arm curved around her waist that brought her the most comfort.
As per the usual, the Cajun had been able to sense her mood before she even realized what was going through her head. He had kept the hand resting on her hip busy most of the night, by drawing gentle circles along her hipbone with his thumb. The motion reassured her and forced the grumpy girl to smile at the boy a few times during the night. She knew how blessed she was to have Remy by her side and tried to focus on his random jokes and stupid lines as the noise of the party wore on.
Watching Remy had comforted her in other ways as well, since she was able to avoid looking at Jude and the girl who had rarely left his side throughout the night. It was strange, in fact, it was almost unheard of, to see a Lenox party where neither Rogue nor Jude made any effort to talk to the other. They remained on opposite sides of the room through most of the night and only caught each other's gaze once. Rogue had never considered Jude to be as obstinate as her, but it seemed they had both said enough to hurt each other pretty deep.
"If he would just believe what I told him." She mumbled and punched her pillow to try and get comfortable, "Whatever happened to the guy who trusted me to run a whole kingdom? How could he not believe Victoria is up to something?!"
As she settled back into the warm blanket she tried to push the idea of Jude and Victoria out of her head. If they wanted to get together in some stupid way, she didn't care. She warned him about the girl and he wouldn't listen. He deserved whatever she did to him.
Even as the thought rambled around in her angry brain, she knew it wasn't right. Jude may be a jerk who didn't believe her feelings about Victoria, but he was still her friend. Whether he liked it or not, she just couldn't let Victoria get close to him. She wasn't going to let Jude or anyone else she loved get hurt on her watch.
Sleep was lost to her as she continued to toss and turn in her bed. She was almost starting to regret not giving into Remy's pleas to stay the night in her room, but figured a midnight snack would be an easier solution to her insomnia. There was no chance of accidently absorbing a bowl of ice cream, unlike the flirty Cajun who would have probably pulled a dumb move and gotten knocked out in no time flat.
As she walked through the quiet mansion, she realized that it must have been later than she expected. Unlike the castle in Kurt, where she had taken the authority to install more digital clocks, the Meridan mansion was decorated with a very traditional theme that included large grandfather clocks and other ornate looking timepieces, which unfortunately did not glow in the dark. She expected the party to still be going strong, but the entire place was eerily peaceful.
"Wouldn't hurt them to put in some nightlights in these halls." She mumbled as her foot suddenly tripped over something hard and she was sent to the floor in a messy heap. The next thing Rogue heard, besides her own grumbles, was a voice mumbling something nearby. She couldn't see exactly how she had fallen to the floor or what she had tripped over, but she ignored it to focus on stranger problems and flew off towards the sound of the voice.
She found the source, an upset Victoria, standing in the mansion's front yard with her eyes focused on one of the large front walls of the building. Smeared across the giant canvass was a rather unnerving message; 'The Bloody Revolution Will Come To Lenox!'. The graffiti was so large that it easily took up two and a half stories of the house. Whoever had made this must have worked quicker than any graffiti artist Rogue had ever seen. How could they have covered so much space in a place like this without being spotted? She wondered as her eyes looked back to Victoria's face. The girl had lost her surprised expression and seemed cool as a cucumber now. It was as if she had walked outside and seen nothing but flowers plastered all over the wall.
"What happened here?!" Rogue demanded of her cousin, who took a step back at the sound of the loud voice.
"What?" She said never losing her poised demeanor, "I don't know. I just found the wall like this."
Before Rogue could get any more answers from the girl, the lights in the front of the house flipped on and people began to flood out of the mansion having been awoken by Rogue's yells. They all strode out in a mixture of confusion and annoyance as to why they had been pulled out of their comfy beds at such an hour, until they looked at the graffiti. A few of the girls gasped and Kurt put his hand over his mouth in silent shock. They knew there had been troubling brewing, since it was the main reason their team had been formed, but the idea that someone could pull a stunt like this so close to them was frightening.
"What happened?" Jude asked the girls, whom everyone seemed to realize had been the only two outside.
"Jude," Rogue took the leap and prayed that her friend would believe her this time, "I think I know." She pulled him to the side as best she could and tried to speak privately with him despite the nearby crowd, "I came out here and found her standing in front of the wall. She didn't look scared or anything. That has to be suspicious, even to you. I told you that there is something strange about her, and what excuse could she have for being out here at this time of night anyway?"
Instead of the affirmative nod of understanding she had been waiting for, Jude merely sighed and rubbed his temple. He looked at her disheveled hair and big green eyes and for the first time started to wonder what was happening to his friend. Why was she so determined to throw Victoria under the bus? Where was the girl who had been willing to fight any monster to save her family?
"Stop this, Alex," He finally told her in a calm, yet stern tone. "You aren't making any sense."
"I'm not making sense?" She glared at him and poked his chest so firmly that he was pushed a step back, "You are the one who isn't making any sense. I keep telling you that there is something wrong and you refuse to believe me. I know what I am talking about, Judah."
"No, you don't."
"Oh, yeah? I don't understand these things?" Her anger and hurt bubbled up to a boiling point and let her mouth snap out a quick and biting statement, "Which one of us was it that trusted Griffin and sent me off with a fake Axel again?"
She regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. Rogue knew in her heart that the incident with Griffin had been one of Jude's biggest regrets. She had defended him and told him again and again that she knew he couldn't have known it was really Griffin in disguise, but now all of her support, despite it's truthfulness, was pointless. She had hurt Jude to his very being and could only stand there mumbling a soft apology as he took a step back from her.
"Thank you for your opinion, Rogue."
Instead of yelling at her and calling her some list of colorful words, Jude's brow dipped down and he answered in a voice that was so firm and dethatched that it really surprised Rogue. She had only heard him use that tone once or twice before when he had been chastising Griffin for picking on her before they knew she was the real princess. Now he stood in front of her and used the same acrimonious tone to push her away and protect Victoria.
Jude turned to the people gathered around and started to give orders immediately. He assigned guards to scrub the building and keep closer watch over the area before trying to convince everyone that the mansion was still safe. The biggest wound, for Rogue, had been watching him gently take Victoria's arm and lead her back towards the house. The others followed his lead and seemed to believe they really were safe now that the guards were on high alert.
Rogue remained frozen to her spot, unable to fathom the idea that she no longer seemed to have any respect in her friend's eyes. Remy placed his arm around her shoulders and gave the top of her head a gentle kiss. She breathed in the scent of his cologne and watched as Victoria and Jude neared the front door. The girl picked her free hand up from her side briefly, and Rogue spotted what she was almost certain was a red paint stain on the base of her palm. She jerked slightly at the sight, but before she could say anything the girl's hand slid into her pocket and the pair disappeared into the house.
"There is something wrong with her." She mumbled to Remy, knowing full well that he could probably hear the pain in her voice. "Something isn't right here, Rems."
The boy whispered something into her hair that the girl couldn't understand and hugged her to his chest protectively. He made a mental note to keep a closer eye on Victoria, but he also kept a side note in his head to figure out what exactly was going on between Rogue and Jude. He refused to jump to any conclusions despite the flood of angry, hurt, and extremely unpleasant emotions racing through him, but the way she seemed to be pining over Jude by attacking any woman who got close to him, was like a kick in the heart to the young man.