Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.
Thank you guys and gals for reading the previous chapter. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to read the newest chapter, too. And thanks to tx peppa for her nice review. Here is the newest chapter:
As Rogue stomped into the mansion's main library, she finally spotted the person she had been searching for non-stop over the past four hours.
She hadn't outright declared she was certain Victoria was the culprit, thinking it might not have gone over so well in the hospital room, but she had told her mother of her beliefs the moment they were alone in the hall. Lydia, like all of the others, had been unable to picture someone like Victoria secretly spray painting houses and attacking stages. At least her letdown had been gentler than everyone else's when she tried to question her daughter's reasoning behind her firm thoughts about Victoria.
At the end of the discussion, it still came down to the same idea that there was no certain proof that Victoria was the one behind the madness. It was beginning to drive Rogue insane that no one seemed to find things like a paint stain on her hand and a physical description that matched Victoria seriously. Sure, as her mom had mentioned to her in a far too calm voice for her liking, there were a lot of people in Lenox that had deep brown hair and a height around five foot six. It just wasn't enough to convince her to label Victoria as the mysterious attacker. She at least promised to tell the main investigators of Alex's concerns.
In the end, it just wasn't enough for the overcharged princess to handle sitting down. Whether anyone believed her or not, she was going to get the truth out of Victoria. Even if she had to force it out of the girl; Rogue was going to get an answer to all of the weirdness. The strangest part was that, way back in the recesses of her mind, the rage starting to build up in her chest was actually beginning to scare her a little too.
She could admit, if pushed to her limit, that maybe she was a little too concerned with Victoria, but there was something in her heart that had pushed common sense to the wayside long ago. There was no real verbal way to describe the feeling, but a new storm was brewing inside her that fueled the entire drive to take control of the situation. It was becoming harder and harder to control the sensations running through her veins and she prayed that she could keep it together long enough to figure out what was going on in Lenox.
"Alexandria," Victoria greeted her cousin with a somewhat cold stare, that wasn't too out of place considering their last interaction had been so charged.
"I talked to the guard." She spoke slowly and tried to keep her emotions level, "I know you are against everything I have tried to do for the people of this dimension."
"The people?" Victoria took a step closer to Rogue and finally let her polite outer shell start to crack, "The only people you have been showing any care for is the Morphs. You haven't spared a single thought to the people of this dimension that are just trying to live their lives and raise their families."
"So you admit it? You're the one who did all this just to stop the Morphs from living here!"
Victoria stared at her cousin as if she had lost the last shred of her sanity. Aside from the strange flow of the conversation, the mere idea that she could do anything so outlandish was hard for her to even consider. Yes, Victoria could admit that she had reservations about changing the lives of all the Lenoxians without any real thought, as her cousin had done. She also knew that Alex had been tying to pin various things on her, but surely the crazed woman before her didn't believe that Victoria would do anything to hurt her town and people? Through her entire life, Victoria had worked hard to do what was best for the people of Meridan district and Lenox. As far as the experienced leader could tell, the only person that was a real threat to the entire Lenox dimension was Alex.
"How dare you," With her pride damaged, Victoria's last shred of patience broke and she shouted back with as much force as Rogue, "I have done nothing but work my butt off to protect the people in my district! Then you come tumbling back into Lenox and start destroying everything our family worked so hard to create and defend!"
"What my dad wanted to create was an open line of communication with the Morphs!"
"Damn it, all you ever think about is them! After being raised by one, I guess you lost any sense of loyalty to the Lenoxians." The look of surprise on Rogue's face prompted Victoria to continue, "Yes, I heard about one of the Morphs taking you to Earth and even that you claim the one on your team is your brother."
"He is my family." Rogue growled out feeling a fire start building in her toes and the tips of her fingers.
"Listen to yourself! It is like you don't even realize who you are."
"I know exactly who I am!" The fire started to become warmer as it began to spread up her ankles and through both of her palms.
"If that were true at all, you would know that the Morphs are our enemy." Victoria's tone mirrored Remy's blunt, yet emotionally destructive one from earlier as she began to finally tell her cousin what she felt, "They stormed your home and tortured your entire family until they died in some machine. Do you know how many lives were lost that night? How many innocent people burned alive in the fire?! How can you just forget them?! How could you forget your own father's death by their hands?!"
"I will never forget." She could feel the control of her actions beginning to rapidly slip away, but she refused to give in now, "But if I can start to forgive them and trust the innocent Morphs after everything my family went through, then you sure as hell should be able to welcome them into Lenox!"
"If you actually cared about our family and the people of this land," Victoria took a sharp breath as her own memories of that night played through her mind like the nightmare she constantly fought at night.
She could still see the crowds racing in panic into walls of flames. Her father had tried so bravely to usher the guests through the safe paths. She hadn't been able to keep up due to her fear and short legs. The moment she had collapsed amongst the smoke and quickly approaching heat, her dad had reappeared right at her side and saved her life without a thought to his own safety. His pant leg had caught on fire from his many rescue efforts, and she still had nightmares of seeing her father's leg blackened and burned to the point where saving it was not even a feasible option.
So many lives had been destroyed that night, and yet the future ruler of the land she loved with all of her heart was willing to drag them down into destruction. She was not going to let someone like Alex destroy the lives of innocent people by allowing another Morph uprising to start.
"If you really cared about any of the people," She repeated with an icy tone, "you would have stayed back on Earth!"
Rogue's fist shot out before she could stop it and struck Victoria's torso with a great deal of force. The girl flew back like a rocket and crashed into the bookshelf. Various novels fell to the floor practically burying the girl, but she never took her eyes off of Rogue. As Rogue's chest heaved up and down in an attempt to stop herself from beating Victoria into one giant bruise, she waited for the other woman to scream or attack in retaliation. Instead, Victoria held a hand gingerly over stomach and watched Rogue with a level of shock that frightened even the overcharged X-man.
"You…" Victoria stumbled on the words as she clutched her wounded body and tried to make a solid sentence. As Rogue stared her down with a firm gaze, the girl finally blurted out, "Your eyes…are yellow."
The statement sent a physical shock through Rogue's body. She took a step back and dared to look at her reflection in a shiny shield hanging on a nearby wall. Just as Victoria had claimed, her green eyes had been replaced by bright yellow orbs, which were mysteriously similar to the telltale yellow eyes of a Morph. She clutched her own stomach with both hands and almost doubled over as a sudden feeling of nausea overcame her as she tried desperately to picture her own green eyes.
The door to the library opened suddenly, but Rogue couldn't force herself to see who had discovered them. She kept her eyes closed tightly and tried to settle her stomach with a few deep breaths. When she finally let her ears tune into the situation around her, she could hear Jude's angry voice demanding to know what was happening. What could she tell him? That she had lost control and suddenly started turning into a Morph? If he didn't think she was crazy already, then he would have locked her in an institution at the sound of that story.
Without a word to either of them, she shoved past Jude and raced down the halls unsure where she could turn. Maybe it was their past history of being there for each other when the whole world was caving in, or maybe it was the fact she truly needed his warm embrace, but as she knocked on the door, she couldn't have been more thankful to see those red eyes greet her own pair.
After their fight, and Rogue's absence at the first stage of Kitty's event, Remy had resigned himself to the fact that she probably needed time to cool off and figure a few things out on her own. He had felt a little bad about telling her so bluntly that he believed she was still pining away for Jude, but it had been the truth. He couldn't ignore the way she stared at that boy like he was the only person in the room. Despite the little he allowed himself to show it outwardly, watching the girl he cared so deeply for spend all her energy on another man hurt him deeply. In fact, it was ticking him off so much that he was starting to remember the many reasons he had once thought a real relationship with anyone was such a horrendous idea.
So when he opened his door to find a shaken, teary-eyed Rogue, he had been more than a little surprised to feel his frustration soften. He ushered her in without a word and wrapped his warm arms around her as soon as the door closed. She buried her face in his shirt and he gently stroked her back as hard sobs started to wrack her body. He didn't know what had pushed her into such hysterics, but his own instincts began to rise quickly. Whoever was behind this was going to get a visit from him, and it wouldn't be pretty.
When Rogue finally stopped crying, he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. She remained quiet as he led them over to the bed and gently coaxed her into sitting down with him. With one arm around her shoulders and the other gently clutching her limp arm, he could feel her pulse racing quicker than the dazed look on her face would have allowed. It was almost as if she had been too shocked by whatever or whoever to do more than manage a few unsteady breaths.
"Chere?" He spoke softly and pet her hair, "Talk to me."
"I am an idiot." She finally mumbled so roughly that he had to strain to understand the words, "I should have never come here."
The words weren't making too much sense to the Cajun, but he let the girl vent in hopes she would start making some intelligible statements as she went along. When Rogue refused to say anything else to him, Remy kissed the side of her head gently and tried to comfort her as best he could from the mysterious ailment.
"First off," he told her in a sweet voice, "you definitely aren't an idiot. Don't know who got you this worked up Chere, but Remy be happy to go and teach 'em some manners."
"Is that so?" She mumbled through a sore throat while keeping her face buried in his shoulder, but seemed to be showing the tiniest bit of humor at his statement.
"'Course, Remy charge a few cards and they be running for the hills in no time." He chuckled softly at his own joke, then noticed her back stiffen strangely before suddenly loosening into a state that appeared more fluid then seemed natural for his girlfriend. "You okay, Chere?"
"Actually," She turned to look at him, her green eyes sparkling strangely in the dim lighting of the room, "I am feeling better than I have in a long time."
She shifted her body so that she could face him and offered a thoughtful smile, "And you, have deserved this for so long."
When her lips suddenly found his, Remy couldn't help but smile. He still wasn't completely sure what was going on in Rogue's mind, but he wasn't going to pass up a chance to kiss her. They had waited so long for her to have any kind of control, so it almost seemed wasteful to not accept every touch they offered each other. The warmth and comfort of the kiss was great, but as Rogue started pushing the kiss deeper instead of pulling away from the action he began to grow concerned.
He tried to voice a question when she momentarily moved back to take a gasp of air, since he knew full well how hard it was for her to control her powers for a simple peck on the lips, but Rogue recaptured his lips and started pushing him back on the bed. Despite a small red flag in the back of his head, Remy agreed to the motions and found himself staring up at his girlfriend's eyes as she smiled down at him.
Somehow through the distraction of Rogue's warm kisses and the closeness of their bodies, he found the questions racing through his brain were still unavoidable. She ignored his quizzical look and held his wrists with both hands as she straddled his waist. He raised an eyebrow as it dawned on him that she didn't seem to be having any trouble touching his bare wrists or any interest in paying attention to his now verbal attempts to stop her motions and get some answers.
"Chere," He hid his nervousness through a bleak attempt at humor, "Not that Remy isn't enjoying the show, but how are you suddenly able to do this?"
A new smile crept over Rogue's face and her eyes began to shift into something completely different than the bright emerald green he loved. The bold yellow coloring was bright enough to standout even in their darkened room. He stared unblinking at the eyes and noted there was no longer any sign of an iris or pupil. The only thing that could be seen as her smile shifted into a scarier expression was a hauntingly empty pool of yellow. He jerked against her tight hold of his arms, but she kept him still with a few hard squeezes to his wrists. He didn't know what was going on, but as Rogue leaned down and chuckled at him he knew that something horrifying was just beginning.
"I think," She told him in a voice that no longer sounded like her own sassy tone, "I will take your idea and charge a few things up."
The sudden kiss lacked anything but a maniacal passion. Remy squirmed and groaned as he felt the sudden draining affects from Rogue's powers come into play. She ignored his obvious attempts to escape and left her once warm lips on his until the world around Remy turned dark.