A/N: Sorry about the long wait, here's a new chapter for you, thanks for following it through the unintentional hiatus.
Multiversed
Disclaimer: X-Men and the Avengers are the property of Marvel, et al.
Seven
Rogue stared impassively at the eye-patch wearing form of Director Fury on the opposite side of his high-tech desk in the heart of the Avengers' headquarters.
After waking Logan up at the ass-crack of dawn when he found out Tony moved her onto his private floor – she would've paid good money to watch that hissy fit when Fury found out – the Director had her old friend hustle her straight up to his office after they grabbed some coffee and donuts. The coffee and junk food being Logan's rather inspired idea despite Fury wanting to see her as soon as she was roused from her sleep.
The first good sleep she's gotten in months too.
Stupid power-tripping super-secret spy guys and their one-eyed boss.
The bastard.
Although part of her got a giggle out of Tony's bleary eyed face as he stumbled in the door, a mug of coffee in a death grip in his hand.
"I don't recall asking for your presence, Mr. Stark." Director Fury said drily. This was going to be one of those meetings. Already he had Wolverine refusing to leave and now Iron Man was gate-crashing his office. As if the Rogue wasn't enough to handle all on her own without having backup in the form of two of the most pig-headed males on the planet.
"Come on, Fury." Tony drawled sarcastically. "You never ask for my presence. Iron Man's yes. Tony Stark, no. But this is still my building and as such I'll be wherever I want inside of it whenever the whim takes me. Suck it up."
Logan let out a little chuckle at Tin-Man's arrogant attitude with Fury. He was the only who ever really carried it off. Everyone else just gets squashed like a bug when they try that uppity shit with the Director. Outside of the Avengers Fury has little patience for anyone or anything that disobeys him.
And if it weren't for the unique powers and skills the Avengers possess, Fury wouldn't have any patience with any of them either.
"Right." Fury resisted the urge to roll his eyes – er – eye.
"What do y'all want?" Rogue asked with a sigh, playing along. Just because Tony already let her in on Fury's agenda doesn't mean she's not going to rattle his cage at least a little. "I already told ya boys where your security issues are. I held up my end of the deal. Why'm I still here?"
And she's definitely not going to make life easy on him.
"Be straight with 'er Nick." Logan said quietly. "None-a your dancin' around bullshit."
"What do you know about the Avengers Initiative, Rogue?"
Tony nearly choked on his coffee trying to prevent himself from laughing at Fury's question. With him and Wolverine floating around in her head – including all the super-duper top secret files Tony's hacked for shits and giggles – she probably knows more about the Avengers than anybody except Fury himself. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Wolverine holding one hand over his lower face – as if in boredom – to cover a smirk.
"Y'all are basically a government-sanctioned and supported group of superheroes who run around dealin' with whatever threats are beyond the capabilities of the police, military, and other government agencies to handle." She said succinctly. No point in making the good director crap his pants over the Rogue-sized security breach he has sitting in front of him by rattling off a bunch of information she's not supposed to have access to.
Nick raised his brows at the rather apt summary of what his team does.
"You've summed it up rather well." He said with a nod. "The reason you're still here, Rogue, is because several members of the Avengers team feel that you would be an asset."
He himself isn't one hundred percent sold, the information Coulson managed to dig up was still scant at best even with the investigative powers of S.H.I.E.L.D. behind him. They just don't know enough about her for him to be totally comfortable with her joining the Avengers.
"Ya don' say." Rogue drawled turning her head around to look at both Logan and Tony.
"Not just them." Fury admitted with a sigh. "Thor has approved you joining the team as well."
Rogue grinned at that. She'd thought the big guy was interesting when they met yesterday, he seemed to enjoy the fact that she's a cage fighter and was asking her where he could find a match for himself.
"Aww, I feel so loved."
"Regardless of the team's personal feelings on the matter, you are – from what I understand – an extremely powerful mutant with a specialized set of skills that allowed you to break into a secured facility. Since joining and then subsequently leaving the X-Men you've never lost a one-on-one fight." Besides having her in the building has already calmed Wolverine's grumpy ass down. "Altogether I'm inclined to offer you a probationary assignment with the Avengers."
"I won't be work for the government." She said immediately. "I won't be on their payroll and be expected to do whatever some idiot in Washington thinks is expedient."
"You can be on my company payroll." Tony offered. "I don't 'work' for the government either. Neither does Wolverine or Thor. We're all 'consultants' for the Avengers Initiative instead of S.H.I.L.D. members."
Rogue nodded, accepting the compromise. There's just too much of Wolverine and Magneto in her for her to want to work for the government in any kind of official capacity.
"Is that acceptable to you?" Fury asked impatient with the group cluttering up his office.
"There's just one thing." She grinned at him expectantly.
"Yes?"
"Ah'm gonna need some new clothes…"
R ~ & ~ T
"I can't believe she said that to Fury." Steve shook his head as Tony retold the story of Rogue's recruitment. The feisty mutant was off with Pepper getting the requested wardrobe after JARVIS took her measurements for her Avengers uniform.
Tony already had an idea for what her suit should look like…
"Believe it, Cap." Tony laughed as he danced around the boxing ring with Coulson while Wolverine, Captain America, and Thor all watched and harassed Tony. Bruce was hiding away in his personal lab working on an idea for Rogue's mutation work-around that Tony brainstormed after leaving her last night.
Once he'd experienced it for himself and got a description of how her mutation worked from the lady in question, he had a much better idea of what he's dealing with. And despite what everyone thinks he isn't doing it purely for his own lascivious ends.
Rogue possessed a mutation that isolated her from experiencing human touch, a basic need for their species.
If Tony and Bruce can figure out a way to alleviate some of her isolation, Rogue as well as those around her, her teammates and friends, will all benefit from it. She deserves to be able to hug someone without worrying about whether she'll wind up with all of their dirty secrets and darkest thoughts taking up permanent residence in her head.
"Rogue's always been sassy." Logan smiled around the unlit cigar he was chewing on. "Sassed back at me the first day we met, been that way as long as I've known her. Only person she ever showed a softer side-a herself to was Nightcrawler. She hated that Stryker used him to fake a hit on the President. Too close to home for her."
"Magneto?" Tony asked as he ducked a swing from Phil.
"Yep." Logan scowled down at the floor, not liking the reminder himself. She came too damn close to dying that night. He almost broke down crying in the long minute it took for her power to kick on. Longest sixty seconds of his damn life.
"Magneto?" Cap echoed, curious about their mysterious new teammate.
"Liberty Island." Logan growled out.
"That was Rogue? What was she as of sixteen then?"
"Yeah." A sultry voice answered from the gym entrance. "Ah was. Erik tranq'd me, kidnapped me, held me prisoner, and then mind-and-power raped me before handcuffing me to his radiation machine and leaving me there to die."
Rogue sauntered over to the trio watching Tony workout. She was still covered in leather but instead of her ragged uniform she was decked out in tight leather pants and a matching leather halter that showed off quite a bit more skin than Logan has ever seen her reveal. Yeah, she had a lot of fun exercising Tony's black AmEx on Fifth Avenue.
The rest of the Avengers present watched as she came right up to Wolverine, swinging her hips and smiling brightly the whole time. They weren't sure what it was about her that was making the hair on the back of their necks stand on end, but they knew something wasn't quite right.
"Logan?" She spoke sweetly, staring up at her old friend. "Can Ah talk to you outside for a second?"
Steve, Thor, Tony, and Phil all remained silent as Wolverine prowled out of the room at her side.
"Wha…?" Phil started to ask, confused by the turn of events.
"Shhh!" Tony shushed him. "I'm trying to eavesdrop here!"
"That's seriously unethical." Cap said with a laugh.
"Do you wanna hear this or not?" Tony rolled his eyes. Unethical. Pshh. It's like they don't know him at all.
A loud bang! Sounded from the hallway.
"We wanna hear this." The others decided immediately.
R ~ & ~ T
Rogue waited for the door to swing closed behind them before turning and shoving Logan against the wall with Magneto's powers, causing a loud bang to sound through the hallway as she kept him pinned.
"What the fuck, Marie?!"
"What the fuck, Logan?!" She shouted back. "Why the hell would you tell them about that?"
"They're just tryin' to get to know ya, kid. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Not like what happened on that statue is a secret or anything."
"It might not be a secret but it still is my business, Logan. If I wanted them to know about it I would've told them myself when I was ready."
Logan tried to cross his arms over his chest and growled harshly at her when he still couldn't move.
"Would you really have?" He asked softly. "I know you better than anyone from Xavier's and I still don't know your last name. Would you have told them about your aversion to Magneto and the Brotherhood? Ever?"
It was information the whole team needs to know. If the Avengers ever have to take on the Brotherhood they'll need to know about Rogue's history with them, down to one of her best friends up and joining them at Alkali Lake. It was pertinent information and not something she could just keep to herself, no matter how much Logan wishes things were different.
Shaking her head slowly, Rogue released him from her control making him fall to the floor in a heap since she had him pinned a couple feet off the ground.
"You know you can't keep shit like that to yourself." He continued softly. "Didn't we learn that lesson the hard way when Stryker came calling?"
"That was different, Logan." She smiled at him gently now that her temper had cooled. "You didn't have any memory of Stryker or what he was capable of. There was no way for you to know or prevent what happened."
"Thanks, kid." Logan clamped his cigar back between his teeth. "You really plannin' on stayin' here with me an' the hero squad?"
"Better than hooking up with a bunch of geeks." She teased him about his stint with the X-Men. "And considering how my last job went…well. My old contacts probably won't be throwing anymore work my way for a good long while."
He eyed her thoughtfully. "You up for a match, darlin'?"
She grinned. "Thought you'd never ask."
R ~ & ~ T
The occupants of the gym made themselves look busy i.e. Phil and Tony started sparring again while the Captain and Thor threw insults at them, each thinking over what they'd heard.
For Agent Coulson and the Captain, they were similarly intrigued by Rogue's reference to a bungled job, correctly guessing that it was the one she spoke of with Wolverine while in holding. One where she ran afoul of another mutant named Viper. Interesting that whatever line of work she was in put her in opposition to a known HYDRA operative.
Thor's thoughts were more along the lines of wondering which of them was the one thrown against the hall. At first glance one would assume it was the petite Rogue that went flying but something about how easily she dropped him when she first arrived told the Thunder god that there might be more to her than even Stark guesses. He found himself excited to watch the matchup between the two veteran cage fighters, admiring Lady Rogue even more for stepping into the ring with a beast like Wolverine.
As for Tony, nothing they spoke of was news to him. Except, that is, for the overwhelmingly obvious bond between the two former X-Men. No one had any doubts that the two are close, especially after watching them in holding and then having Logan champion her so fiercely to Fury.
But the way they spoke to each other, fearlessly and without restraint when both are combatants to be wary of, made it very clear that their bond runs deep inside of them into their very blood and bones.
They might as well be father and daughter.
Wait.
Now that's a scary thought.
Tony shuddered a moment. Bad enough that he's halfway in love with a dangerous mutant with a dubious background and an interesting – to say the least – taste in friends.
But the Wolverine's daughter?
Just castrate him now, thank you. It would be much less painful than if Wolvie did it himself.
He shut down that line of thought as he moved to stand on the sidelines along with the rest of his team, Natasha, Bruce, and Clint having shown up as Tony and Phil were finishing their match. JARVIS must've alerted them that their new teammate – who Tasha and Clint still haven't met – was taking on the Wolverine.
"Well this should be over quickly." Clint commented as he hopped up onto the mountain of mats stacked against the wall, going for the high ground as usual.
"No kidding," Tasha rolled her eyes as she sat next to her partner.
Tony and Thor traded a glance before turning to face the deadly pairing of Hawkeye and Black Widow.
"Care to bet on that?" Tony smirked.
"Indeed, I would accept your wager." Thor smiled as Clint and Tasha traded looks with the rest of the team who were doing a piss-poor job of hiding their smiles.
"Ok," Clint sighed. "What don't we know about our new teammate?"
"Oh we're not saying that she'll definitely win." Tony laughed. "I'm simply suggesting that it's not going to be as easy as the two of you think."
"There is more to Lady Rogue than meets the eye." Thor agreed with a nod.
Tony and Rogue locked eyes for a moment as she mouthed 'Lady Rogue' in disbelief. He just gave her a shrug and a half-smile. The guy was an ancient god, he'll call you whatever he feels like.
"Rules?" Rogue asked Logan as the rest of the team settled into making wagers.
"No Mags." Logan said with a growl. He hates when she pulls that shit on him. He's still pissed from when she did it a little bit ago in the hall.
"Anything else?" She arched a brow. Logan has no idea the arsenal of powers she has at her finger-tips now.
"No Phoenix." He whispered too low for their audience to catch.
She just nodded grimly before pouncing with a swift roundhouse punch and the fight was on.
As Tony watched the match he tapped his earpiece, speaking too low for Wolvie's Feral hearing to pick up.
"Jarvis," he murmured. "Play back the argument from the hallway earlier as well as their pre-fight confab."
"Yes, sir. One moment."
Arms folded over his AC/DC t-shirt, Tony watched along with the rest of his team as the pair in the ring duked it out in a rough bare-knuckle brawl, with the much-smaller Rogue standing toe-to-toe with the vicious Wolverine. She was holding her own to without using any of her powers, something Tony didn't necessarily expect.
He arched a brow as the entire conversation, including the stipulation of not using the Phoenix's powers played in his ear. Five years later and Jean Gray was still a sore spot for both of them. Interesting.
Steve winced as after a particularly nasty high kick from Rogue, Logan growled his eyes flashing gold as his claws extended.
"Now they've stopped playing." Thor commented, leaning nonchalantly against a pillar. "From what I understand of Midgard's 'mutants', they consider using powers against one another as breaking some sort of code unless they are in direct opposition like the X-Men and the Brotherhood."
Bruce shook his head, disagreeing.
"They set up the rules before they started." He pointed out. "Logan stipulated two powers that Rogue isn't allowed to use, it stands to reason that not only are there other powers Ms. Rogue has at her command but that use of his powers is allowed as well."
"They're just getting started." Fury said as he stepped from the shadows. "Wolverine was Rogue's first teacher in unarmed combat. He wanted to see what she's learned since then. Now that he's started with his claws, she's free to retaliate."
The group watched in silence as Rogue crouched, palms flat against the floor.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she gathered herself decided on which power she wanted to reveal to the group at large. Making a decision, she slicked the floor with ice as Logan stepped forward, making him slip and fall. Pouncing she extended her own – albeit temporary – bone claws, holding them firmly against his neck as she pinned his arms to the floor with her knees.
Nick started clapping slowly at the display while those of the Avengers who bet against their newest addition – Clint, Steve, and Natasha – agreed with a time and place to settle their debt.
"Nicely done, Rogue." Fury said as he moved over to stand outside the ring, joined by the rest of the team. "I couldn't help but notice that neither of the mutations you used is your primary mutation."
"No," she shrugged, "they're not. It would've been over almost at once if I used my prime power on him. The ice is a permanent gift from an ex while the claws are a temporary one from Logan."
"Is every mutation you absorb permanent or is there a limit?" Bruce asked, his scientist's mind working rapidly with the addition of this new information. She would make one hell of a weapon…
"Some are, some aren't." She said shortly as she climbed from the ring. "That's my business. All y'all need to know is that I can fight and if/when we ever need me to use a power I might possess I'll say something. Otherwise it's something I'd like to keep private."
With a nod for Fury and a smile for Logan and Tony she took her leave to go shower off and find some breakfast.
"She's a little…" Clint trailed off.
"Prickly?" Tony offered with a laugh.
"Rogue's a private person." Logan sighed, hands propped on his hips as he stared after her retreating figure. "Learned the hard way how fucked up this world can be. By the time she was sixteen no one knew her real name or where she came from. Just that she was a mutant runaway like so many others."
"Except you." Tony commented as he walked off. "Once she trusted you."
"Yeah." Logan looked down at the floor. "Once upon a time she did."
