Multiversed

Disclaimer: See Prologue.

Four

After spending a fun-filled evening with her tails, Rogue retired to her oh-so-comfy cell and prepared to wait them out. Eventually Captain America will get tired of sitting outside her door and once the automatic locks kick in she'll have some damn peace and quiet. Once she'd drained Logan she was knocked out and hustled immediately to this cell for questioning by various members of the Avengers and S.H.I. until Logan finally woke up and broke up the party, brokering her release in the process.

Logan's guilty conscience was working in her favor at least, even if it has made him more…clingy than normal.

Well, she kept up her end of the deal: she showed them how she got in. Now she just has to wait until they get just a little more lax in watching her and she'll get herself back out of Stark Tower and leave the Avengers all far behind her. She's had enough run-ins with superheroes and superhero-wannabes to last her a lifetime.

R ~ & ~ T

Tony was only moderately surprised when JARVIS alerted him to a visitor requesting access to his personal rooms. As the only other ally the gorgeous and stubbornly-mysterious Rogue had here, Logan was sure to seek him out eventually, even if it was only to warn him off making a play for her.

Which he still fully intends to do, deadly powers or not. Where there's a will there's a way and Tony isn't a genius engineer for nothing.

He'll figure out a way around Rogue's mutation…hopefully before he dies of a terminal case of blue-balls.

Hearing the whoosh of the elevator doors opening from his place lounging on one of the large couches in his living room, Tony called out towards the foyer.

"Hey, Fur Ball. What's up?"

Logan just growled as he moved over to the sideboard with its selection of glasses and decanters. Making his choice, he pours and promptly throws back three fingers of Scotch without a shudder before filling the glass nearly to the brim and joining Tony in the main living area, taking a seat on an armchair flanking the Iron-Man's seated position.

"Why do you wanna keep the kid here?" He asked the playboy bluntly.

Tony wrestled with his answer for a moment. After learning what he has from Rogue's school files, in addition to the scraps Coulson dug up and JARVIS promptly hacked, Tony's answer greatly differs from what it would've been a few hours ago. Before she was just a slightly-wounded but beautiful dove in need of a safe place to land. And as far as ass-kickers go she's clearly not half-bad.

But after what those files contained…

Yeah. His answer isn't nearly that cut-and-dried anymore.

"How much do you know about your friend?" Tony asked in turn, trying to buy himself some time.

"More than most, less than I oughta." Logan admitted after a moment. "The kid…she's tough. Self-reliant, ya know. She only ever told me a coupla things about herself and I know that's still a lot more than what most know. Damn sight more than whatever Philly-boy is going to put on Fury's desk in the morning." Logan said with a short chuckle as he took another drink of Stark's fine booze.

"I hacked some files." Tony said with a shrug. "Most of it matches what she told you: didn't stick around at Xavier's for long after you left, kept a pretty low profile, etc."

"What doesn't match up?" Logan asked, his voice a low growl. He hated the thought of the pretty-boy making problems for the kid.

"That run-in with Viper she was talking about?" Tony raised a brow, waiting for Logan's nod before he continued. "It was a hit. Your "kid" spent some time running around with both the Thieves and the Assassins Guilds out of New Orleans."

"Fuck." Logan scrubbed one hand along his jaw. "Fury'll never let her stay now. And she needs to stay." Logan pinned Stark with a fierce look. "Much as I hate the thought of someone like you anywhere within a hundred miles of Rogue…she needs to stay here where at least she'll have me to watch her back." Like I shoulda been doing all along.

"Don't worry." Tony chuckled taking a sip of his own drink. "S.H.I.E.L.D will never know. Phil's report is much more benign than that. He doesn't quite have the hacking power that JARVIS and I possess. But," he leaned forward pinning Wolverine with a hard look of his own. "I need some questions answered about her and her power before I step back up to the plate and go to bat for her."

Logan had a feeling it would come down to something like this. Stark had the ability and the motivation to hack Xavier's, hell he could probably hack the Pentagon, the CIA, and NASA let alone Mutant High. But there's things about the Rogue only Logan knows. And then there's the things she doesn't share with any-damn-body.

"You know it's impossible to hide shit from the Rogue…right?" Logan asked arching a sarcastic brow. "She can take the information straight from your head. So if you are plannin' on tryin' to get close to her…I would suggest comin' clean with whatever you know about her and sooner rather than later. Because if there's one thing she hates above all it's bein' lied to and manipulated."

"Fair enough." Tony said with a shrug. Not many people did care for their trust being abused in that fashion. "Does Rogue retain the powers she absorbs from other mutants?"

"Depends." Logan said. "For a time, definitely. For good?" He shook his head. "Hard to say. She came here for my healing factor but that might just be because whatever Viper did to her wiped out whatever portion of it she'd retained from our last encounter."

"You said she can pluck information from my mind…" Tony trailed off, thinking rapidly. "She absorbs more than powers and energy…doesn't she?"

"Yeah." Logan said with a sigh. "Far as I know she's never told anyone else…and there isn't a telepath born that can get inside Rogue's head. Too much goin' on and her shields are too damn strong. But she "copies" the people she touches. The longer or more intense the contact, the better the copy. She probably has a fully-functioning copy of me runnin' around in her head."

"Wow, no wonder she's sarcastic and has trust issues." Tony said whistling.

"Watch it, bub." Wolverine growled.

"That was mainly what I wanted to know." Tony said. "I'm thinking that if we can convince good ol' Nick to let us keep her that I'll have JARVIS design and therapy program for her to work through her multiple-personality and Logan-abandonement issues."

"Don't forget parental issues." Logan said absently, clinking the ice in his glass. "She was a runaway when I met up with her. Kicked out when she manifested. And she manifested in a shitty way."

Tony just arched a brow in a silent question that remained unanswered as Logan shook his head.

"No way, bub." He said firmly. "You're gonna have to find that one out yourself."

He shrugged, leaning back against his couch before rising to his feet to see Wolverine out. As they walked over to the elevator, Tony had a light bulb moment.

"Hey, Wolverine?" He asked as the gruff man pressed a button for his floor.

"What?"

"What's her real name?"

Logan just gave him a little smile and a one-fingered salute.

"O-k then…" Tony said turning and laughing. He'll just add that to the list of things to ask Rogue himself.

R ~ & ~ T

Next Chapter: Rogue's escape attempt, mainly Rogue and Tony fluffiness.