A/N: Sorry for the long delay! Should have another chapter out much sooner. This one is pretty short but at least it's something.
Pack Challenge
Disclaimer: XMen is the property of Marvel/Fox.
Chapter Three
"So Stripes," Victor said leaning back against the bench seat. "What is it you do for Wheels, anyway?"
Wolverine just took another long draft of his beer, watching the two of them carefully. He still isn't one hundred percent behind Vic's plan to share her as their mate – assuming that she's tough enough and wants to take them both on that is – but he's willing to go along with his brother for the moment. His hazel/gold eyes caught every little flicker of expression crossing her lovely, scarred face while his brother attempted to finesse more information from the dangerous woman.
"Whatever they need me for." Rogue shrugged her shoulders and gave a little smirk. "Mostly information gatherin' and such. Sometimes things a little more…hands on."
Assassinations.
The brothers could read between the lines on that one easily. They already knew she moved and fought like a killer. With her joining up with the X-Men as a teen the only place she would've gained those skills was with Wheels's outfit. And wasn't that interesting that the "white hat" Xavier keeps an assassin on retainer.
"How exactly does your mutation work?" Victor had a very specific reason for wanting to know. Her power sounded a lot more like absorption to him than merely "poison skin". More like a spin on Mystique's skin-walker abilities.
His brilliant mind had started working away on the puzzle of Rogue's mutation from the moment they found out who she is. It held interesting possibilities as far as her being a potential mate.
Possibilities like keeping her alive with his and Jimmy's regenerative mutation.
The perfect mate.
One just as dangerous as them who they won't have to worry about outliving like the three wives Jimmy's already buried.
Itzu and Kayla were a pair of vicious cunts though. Only the first – Mariko – was worth a damn even if she was only interested in the human side of his little brother. Took Victor a fucking decade to put the pieces of Jimmy back together after she was poisoned along with their unborn daughter.
"When I have it turned on I absorb a person's life force, energy, thoughts, memories," she took a drink as she stared off into the distance. "The whole package."
"And if they're a mutant?" Logan asked quietly.
Rogue pinned him with her jade green eyes. "Then I get a copy of their power grafted into my DNA. I'll be thanking you to keep that quiet, though. Nobody's quite sure how long I keep powers and I'd like to keep it that-a way."
oOoOoOo
Logan could barely believe what he was hearing. Victor was right all along. She really did have the potential to be their perfect mate. There was only one problem though…
The brothers shared a long look.
They were each over one hundred and fifty years old. Combined that had over three hundred years' worth of memories, most of them filled with blood, gore, and pain.
Could they really do that to her? Subject her to what it's like to be them?
"Why didja wanna know?" Rogue asked once it was obvious the brothers were lost in their thoughts.
"You do any checking on us?" Logan asked casually.
She grinned, catching on quickly.
"Y'all wanna share your healin' powers with me?" She gave a wistful thought to getting rid of the scars crisscrossing her body. It would be wonderful to be able to look into a mirror again without seeing a constant reminder of what Magneto did to her.
"We're thinkin' 'bout it." Vic said roughly. "You're tough and a great fighter but we still don't know much about ya. Don't know if I like the thought of my memories haunting ya for the rest of forever."
"Yeah." Logan agreed gruffly. "What's in our heads…it ain't no picnic in there."
"No shit." His brother scowled before finishing off his beer.
Before they could continue their conversation they were interrupted by one of the last people Rogue wanted to see this far from Westchester, New York.
"Hey boys!" A voice rang out over the crowd. "Look who it is! The Rogue herself!"
"Fuck!" She bit out a curse under her breath as she glared over at the obnoxious mutant that seemed to plague her wherever she goes lately. "What the hell is Pyro doing here?"
The brothers growled in unison under their breaths. Must be recruiting season again for the mutant outfits in the States.
"This is neutral territory, boy." Ripcord, the owner and a fellow mutant, warned the Brotherhood member. "Don't go startin' any trouble in my place."
Saint John Allerdyce held up his hands in a peaceful gesture.
"I'll be good." He said with a mocking grin. "Scout's honor."
"You weren't ever a scout, Sinjin." Rogue mocked him from her seat between the Feral brothers, using the English nickname for St. John. "And you're not much on honor either."
"Like you're one to talk, leech." Pyro leered at her as he came to stand by their booth, secure in that Ripcord's house rules will keep Wolverine and Sabertooth from attacking him out of hand.
Rogue just tsked as a crowd made up of a mix of mutants – both Brotherhood and neutral – gathered behind him.
"You really need some new material, Sinjin." She shook her head in mock-disappointment. "That one got old years ago."
"And yet, it's still applies." He sneered, eyeing her up and down.
"Pyro, man." One of the Brotherhood members hissed at the hotheaded man. "That's Sabertooth and Wolverine she's with."
Rogue rolled her eyes. She's one of the most powerful mutants on the planet but it's the Feral Brothers the Brotherhood are pissing themselves over. Of course when Victor and Logan climbed to their feet and scowled in unison, she could kinda understand why.
