DISCLAIMER: Don't own X-Men!
Sorry for the wait guys! Hopefully this will help get those juices flowing again!:D
Rogue sat in her hotel room trying to fight off the emotions that plagued her ever since she had sat down in this stupid building. She knew that loosing control would mean loosing her advantage. What exactly that was, she had no clue. Was is advantageous to have a storm of voices on the verge of rampaging through the various personalities that they held and therefore making you underling to the peers around you who could actually control what was going on in their minds? What the hell was going on in this place, and why the fuck did the world choose now to start collapsing around her?
She'd lost two X-Men, two friends, and parts of the school that she had taken so much pride in. The headmaster and teachers all decided to go for a vacation to God knew where. And to top it all of her mentor, Logan, the man who she'd be willing to bet her life on his judgment was missing. She had no one to turn to other than her fellow leaders, Scott and Jean. And they were being mournful lazy asses with no intention to make any managerial decisions on what to do with the teams.
Should they go on the offensive? Try to hunt them down, and take Legion out in one painful swipe? Should they wait and pray that the entire fiasco was over with, all the while forgetting to avenge their fallen team members. Now Rogue, avenging is not the job of an X-Man. She hated when Xavier's voice would randomly ring in her mind as she reflected back on the lessons that she had learned in her years at the institute.
What the hell should she do?
Now, to add to her distress, her powers were going out of whack. Gambit should have been dead. Four times over. That wonderful kiss that they had shared should have drained all of the life out of him and then some. But he was still walking. What the hell was going on around this place?
A knock at her door pulled her out of her near mental break down. "Rogue?" Aura voice sounded muffled as it tried to get through the solidity of the door. "Dr. McCoy says that he's ready for you. The suite's all set up."
Rogue had called Beast out from his vacation to help her. She needed to know what the hell was going on with her if she wanted to stay sane. It was bad enough that on a normal day she had no control over her powers. But to add to it they seemed to have a mind of their own as they chose who to absorb and who to spare. Rogue took the elevator up to the twentieth floor suite that they had set the lab up in. The makeshift med bay would due until the spare dorms were cleaned out and ready for use. She didn't bother knocking on the door. Aura had already set herself up on a couch, waiting for Rogue to show up. She was curious as to why she had witnessed Rogue making out with Gambit rather than giving him CPR. "Ah, Rogue!" Hank said, placing down a vial that he was inspecting. Strolling over from the far side of the room, he shook her hand. "Thank you so much for coming, Dr. McCoy. I could really use your help." She said, on an exasperating sigh.
"Rogue, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Hank? You know that you're not a patient, but a friend!" He said, patting the back of her hand and guiding her to a bed that had a plethora of monitors and cables laying on it. "Now let's have a look shall we?"
Beast took over an hour and a half to do a CAT scan for abnormal activity, assessed different barriers of where her powers would start working and stop, examined different fronts of energy that she emitted while using them. Her powers would try to absorb anything that she touched it was just a matter of whether or not it had something to absorb. Apparently the tests that involved her man handling a fuzzy pink gorilla plushy were inconclusive.
Beast shook his head as he pulled off his head phones. "There's just nothing that I can find that's different than normal. All of the tests that I performed on you here were identical to the ones that I did six months ago for check ups." Running a hand through his hair, he sighed. "Just what was it that you were doing when your powers had their short out?" He asked.
Rogue fought off a blush. "I-I'm not so sure that I should say." She said, casting a look to Aura. It was a dare for the pale girl to open her mouth. Aura smiled as she took it. "I think that I should go get Gambit." She hopped up off the couch and moseyed to the door.
Hank looked at Rogue. She could tell that he didn't know what to think of that last statement that was made. "Rogue?'
"Its nothing, Dr. McCoy. Really. Just….just the worst kinda slip up." She said, shaking her head.
"Rogue, I think it might give some clue as to what's been going on with your powers. It might be best that you tell me what…erm….heh. What happened exactly?"
"I really don't think that you want to know." She said, hanging her head in her hands.
Silence fell upon the room as Gambit and Aura walked back in. Gambit noticed that she looked like she was annoyed. He noticed the little line that formed between her brows. The way that her hair fell in front of her eyes as she cast her gaze downward towards the floor. It was as though she thought that she could find the answers lying within the elaborate and ornate rug that spanned the room. Almost like reading a book, he noted.
"Ahem. Doctor, I think that you have your cause of symptom." Aura said smiling.
Rogue glared at her as Gambit took a seat at the dining area's large table. Propping his feet up, crossing them one at a time, he asked, "What's up doc?"
"Hm. I'm not entirely sure, my boy."
"Aura, what the hell are you doing?" Rogue asked glaring at her.
"Helping you." She said with all seriousness. "Hanky, I think I know why your tests aren't working."
Aura went on to describe how she had stumbled upon them in a sweet embrace. How Rogue was clutching to Gambit as though he was saving her very life with one kiss, and how Gambit held her with such intense gentleness that Aura was forced to reevaluate the Cajun. The girl didn't leave any details out. Rogue was disgusted by every word she said. Not because Aura was saying them with such a dramatic flourish, but that they were all true.
Rogue felt a flush creeping into her face.
When Aura finished her lovely little novel, Dr. McCoy sat with his fist under his chin, and equations running through his head. Rogue could see the variables flying through his head. It was making her go somewhat crazy watching him as he worked through the problem, thinking of all the possible options that could have happened. Rogue was resisting the urge to wiggle and fidget in her seat. She could admit that she was curious as to what he was thinking, what on Earth could have made Gambit be spared by her powers, but she also knew that she could live without knowing just as well. Either of the two were very likely to strain and stress her thoughts, that were already spread too thin.
"Rogue." Dr. McCoy said after a long time thinking. "I think that you need to explain how you were feeling when you were...erm…kissing Remy, here."
Rogue was certain that the flush that was creeping in had made a permanent home within the apples of her cheeks. Damn them all ta hell and back!
"I dunno. Happy?" Rogue heard Gambit snort from his prop against the wall. "Got somethin' ta say, Swamp Rat?" She asked, noticing her accent getting stronger.
"Yeah. Mon cherie, y'were more than happy t'be kissin' me."
Rogue snarled. "Yeah. Happy that I wasn't sappin' the life outta ya. At least that way I didn't have ta deal with all your greasy and perverted thoughts floatin' around in my head!"
"Ha. Whatever y'got t'tell y'self t'help sleep at night, chere." He said confidently flicking hair away from his face. Rogue angrily stood up and stormed over to him. She stood toe to toe, tilting her chin up, waiting for him to make the first move.
"Ya wanna take this outside, Gambit?!" She said angrily.
"T'd be my pleasure, petite." He said sneering. Rogue saw his eyes flicker in Dr. McCoy's direction, and then the world went dim. In such a brief instant he had captured her face with his hands and was plunging her into a deep kiss.
It happened again. She wasn't killing him. Every memory that was racing through her head was her own. It was her own recollection of their last passionate encounter. Her own heart that she remembered pounding in her head. Her own light sigh that escaped as Remy broke away.
And her own anger filling her heart. "Who the hell do ya think you are?!" She gave him a push in the chest. "Just tryin' t'help, chere."
"More like tryin' ta get yourself killed! I ain't your chere, Remy. Never will be. Now, LEAVE ME ALONE!" Rogue said before she threw her hands, which had begun to burn with kinetic force, up and stormed out of the room.
Or at least tried to.
"Rogue. I've figured out what's happening." Rogue stopped dead in her track with eyes wide open.
Kitty could ignore the ugly glares that Pietro was sending her from across the room, even though they burned into her back like two of Wanda's hex bolts. She could deal with the snide remarks that started pouring out of Lance's mouth in the form of muttering nonsense that only an ex-girlfriend could understand.
She couldn't believe what was going on. Rogue had called her out to tell their embarrassing story and didn't give crap what it had done to her own relations with her team members. It felt as though she was just implanted to the ending of Mean Girls, where everyone seemed to think that she was the one who pushed Regina George in front of that stupid bus. And now she had to attain for her sins.
As much as she respected Rogue as a team leader, she hated her in this moment. The girl could make anyone be able to work in a team, but she could also just as easily be the biggest and unforgiving bitch in all existence.
Kitty had noticed several things. Jean was not calming down. She kept looking over her shoulder as though someone was going to pop out of the shadows any moment now. Logan was no where to be found. He was the one who had started the god damn fight and now he had vanished into thin air. And that the rubble was not going to be cheap to replace.
Shaking her head she went back to work for a few minutes before she heard someone pushing their way through the blocked revolving door.
"Kitty! What the hell happened?!" Gabriel Anthony Houswerth, the third of the only three winged mutants on Xavier's attendance sheets, tripped over large chunks of cement.
"Gabe?!" She said, dropping her work and rushing over to him. She'd never admit to it, but the sight of his tall and lanky frame caused her heart to flutter and warmed her blood. After the adrenaline had flooded her veins with a cold current of nerves, his gray eyes looking into hers was the first thing in a long time to reverse it. She couldn't explain why she was attracted to him, or why he made her so nervous, but she did know that he did just that.
She nearly laughed when Lance perked up from his post and gave her the most concerned look ever when he saw the sparks that she was giving off.
Kitty wanted him to hug her, wanted him to make it all go away. But couldn't explain why it seemed like it would make her feel more empty than ever.
"It's a…long story." She said with an uncomfortable smile.
"Well you need to tell me about it! I went back to the mansion when the taxi driver dropped me off from the airport and half of it was gone! Luckily, I got a hold of Logan and he told me where you were all staying! What the hell has been going on around here! Honestly, I'm gone for one week…" He said, guiding her over to a private corner of the room.
Kitty retold her story for the first time. Explaining about Legion, the bombs, the fighting, the dissent. All of it was being poured out to Gabe, who looked a little stunned.
"Kitty…there's something that I need to tell you, I-" Gabe began before suddenly grabbing Kitty and sweeping her out of the way of tons of debris that was now flying through the air again.
"X-MEN! YOU DIE TODAY!" A girl's voice screamed after the loud explosion. "LEGION ATTAAAAACK!"
"What do you mean, Doc?" She asked without turning around. Rogue felt frozen. She was paralyzed in the spot where she stood, and couldn't feel anything but the sensation of her blood running cold with fear.
Had she lost her powers? Was she developing a secondary mutation? Could she control it? What the hell was this?
"Rogue. I'm afraid that what's going on has nothing to do with your powers and everything to do with Gambit's."
"What the hell are you talkin' about, Dr. McCoy?"
"Well….Rogue, its Gambit that is helping you touch him. I'm afraid that he'll be the only one that you can touch. Its…when Remy gets…aherm, excited to say the least, his own kinetic energies start to expand as a compensation. Because Gambit's brain had experienced the pain of being absorbed, instead of telling his nerves that he shouldn't want to ….make contact they say that they'll figure out a way around that pain. In essence it's as though his body puts up a force field of impenetrable kinetic energy that your powers absorb instead of his actual life force. And within that force field is where you absorb his powers."
Rogue sat in a state of shock. For some reason she felt disappointed. There had been a hope that she had started to control her powers, some bleak and fleeting light had been illuminated within her mind and was so quickly extinguished. "So…so its not me?" she asked, not wanting to hear the definite answer.
"I'm sorry, Rogue, I'm afraid that its not."
Amara crawled up the stairs desperately. Hoping for someone to come and find her. The elevators had been trashed. The flood lights were all turned on. She crawled for her life, praying that someone, Rogue, Gambit, Ashen, Angel, anyone would come along and save her.
She knew that Legion was close. Day, Nightmare, was latched onto her. All that Amara could think about was how the girl had eyes like the devil, and a soul to match. She remembered the way that she screamed that she'd have vengeance on Magma when the fireball that had been pulled from the ground had hit her square in the back, singeing off most of her hair that hit the small of her back. "YOU BITCH!" She could still hear the scream echoing in her mind. But what she could hear even more was the cackling that echoed through the stairwell.
Amara's arms were giving out. She knew that her leg was broken in at least two places, and that the opposite ankle would be swollen to an ungodly engorged size. But what she wasn't expecting was her arms to start shaking as she tried so hard not to cry and to focus on heaving her body up two stairs at a time, trying to get to the ninth floor, where Rogue would be. If she could make it to the ninth floor, she could scream. She could stand a chance if she made it to the ninth floor.
Amara wouldn't let herself stop at the sixth, where she was currently trying to work up the strength to pull herself the rest of the way up. If she stopped here, yelled out for help, she'd be putting innocent bystanders at risk. This girl, Nightmare, she was willing to kill her for cutting off her hair. Something told Amara that she wouldn't show mercy to a few good Samaritans who tried to help her.
"Oh. Where did you go, mein cutiepie?" She said, with a disturbing cackle.. Amara could hear the sound of her teleporting, smell the sulfur. Who was this chick? Amara tried not to wimper as she heard the sound of "BAMF, BAMF, BAMF" getting closer and closer.
Is this how Tabby felt? She wondered as her arms finally collapsed and Day's piercing red eyes came to fill her vision.
She was so close. She could taste…..smoke. Blades. Blood.
An ear shattering scream and hiccough filled Rogue's ears. "Amara." She heard herself whisper before sprinting out of the room. She didn't care about whatever it was that McCoy was jibbering on about, explaining to her in scientific terms that she didn't care about. She could only concentrate on finding Amara.
She knew it was Amara's scream. She could feel it. And feel her slipping away.
"No. I won't loose another." She gritted to herself, tears filling her eyes.
Another, quieter scream. "HELP!" And another wet hiccough.
Rogue rushed into the staircase, flew down the stairs. Her heart was pounding. Her breath was coming in gasps that were filled with the smell of brimstone, death, and burnt hair. She didn't know what drew her here but…..
She saw the blood on the landing wall. Then the body.
A single blade stuck out of it. With a flowing yellow ribbon that billowed with the breeze Rogue's sprint had caused in the narrow stairwell. X-MEN SHALL DIE. ONE AT A TIME.
OOh. C'est tres scary non? it shall get even better in the next chapter. :D