It took another two days before Wolverine finally dragged himself through the front door.
"Logan!" Scott yelled as their leader stormed into the mansion nine days after Kitty and Rogue had been attacked. "What the hell?! Where have you been?! You're supposed to be the leader and you take off for over a week with no word to anyone!? What the hell is wrong with you?!"
Scott was advancing furiously on the older man, who simply held up a hand in a "not now" gesture.
Typically that type of behavior would not deter Cyclops in the slightest, but it was at that moment the former team leader noticed Wolverine's atrocious appearance – and smell. His clothes were singed, muddy and frayed around the ankles, arms, and parts of the torso, and he reeked of all manner of bodily odors.
Taking a step back, Scott wisely allowed Wolverine to pass by toward the elevators, hesitating only a moment when the stout Canadian pressed the down button.
"Tell me you got 'em at least," the young man finally whispered.
Logan took a long, shaky breath and promptly put his fist through the wall.
"I couldn't pick up a damn thing," his voice shook with barely contained fury as he admitted his defeat. "I hung around that place for six damn days trying to find ANYTHING that would give me a clue and I got nothin.'"
Cyclops sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "What about the other three days?" he asked as light-heartedly as he could.
"Got hit by lightning… Couple a times." Wolverine turned toward Scott's direction without making eye contact. "How's she doin'?"
"She only woke up a couple days ago," Cyclops sighed. "Storm and Jean have been keeping watch – no one else has been allowed in to see her yet. Jean said she won't speak, and her powers still haven't come back."
A strangled growl escaped Wolverine's throat as he balled up his fists. The elevator opened and Wolverine slowly stepped inside. "I was gonna take a shower and go see her, but… You wanna join me for a Level 10 instead?"
Scott gave a sad smile, but nodded. "Sure, but I'm takin' the stairs," he called as he headed for the basement. "'Cause you REEK..."
Wolverine chuckled a bit as the doors closed behind him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Ten days.
Ten. Days.
Ten agonizing, horrendous, drug addled, torturous days since "IT" happened…
She knew this because she was constantly listening to conversations that were carried on just down the hall from her room. There was always someone trying to see if they could say hello or bring her flowers or something. But Jean or Storm always stopped them well before they could reach her and see the sorry state she was in.
The only people she had even seen since she'd awoken three days ago were Jean and Storm, and that suited her just fine. Rogue knew that there was no reason to be nervous or afraid of the other X-Men, but she hated that they knew – they KNEW what she'd been through – and that pity would be written all over their faces when they visited. Just like it still was evident on Jean's face every time the telepath entered the room.
Storm was the only person Rogue could tolerate right now. At least the weather witch still treated her like a person and didn't try to make small talk when she was very obviously NOT in the mood to speak. So instead, she listened as one of the two women would talk quietly to potential visitors and sympathetically shoo them away.
Their responses were always the same.
"She's not up to visitors yet… She really needs her rest right now…. She's getting stronger every day… I'm sure she'll love the flowers/chocolates/teddy bear/etc…"
Rogue was a little surprised that no one had asked how she was dealing with… IT … though. Sure, they had all asked how her wounds were healing and if she could move her shoulders yet; if she'd be up and about soon – but no one had asked about … IT.
The only people she had even heard mention anything related to IT was Beast, Storm and Jean. Beast had asked how her sutures were healing while Jean and Storm had discussed her possible physical therapy treatments.
What she was most surprised to hear, however, was that they still had no clues as to her attackers. The whole subject made her sick enough that she would frantically push the call button every time it was mentioned, but the few snippets she'd gathered told her they knew next to nothing about the men save that there were two of them – one big, one small.
On one hand, she was grateful. If her friends didn't know the mens' identities, then they could never know the full details of what had happened. There would be no trials, no facing her attackers and no reason she'd have to relive it all.
On the other hand…
She would always worry about them coming back for her. She would always be afraid that they would want to send a stronger message by finishing the job – or worse yet, coming after another of her teammates.
Kitty had only narrowly avoided Rogue's fate when the men had abandoned the small girl at the last minute. Rogue had the advantage of using her powers to absorb Logan's healing ability – provided her powers ever came back – but Kitty would have had to live with the physical scars and reminders for the rest of her life. That is, if the petite brunette could have survived such an attack.
God knew SHE barely had…
Taking a deep breath, Rogue winced as a stabbing pain shot through her ribs. Storm had explained the extent of her many injuries, but the searing pain throughout so much of her body was explanation enough.
With the aid of the electronically adjustable hospital bed, Rogue slowly sat up a little. She flexed her toes and ankles, rolling them around to test her pain levels. So far so good. Her right ankle and lower leg still twinged with pain, but at least it wasn't broken.
Next she wiggled her fingers, splaying them wide before making a few weak fists. Testing her elbows and arms, she did a few makeshift arm curls to find that while they were still sore from being in such an awkward position for so long, they were relatively unharmed.
Wincing slightly, she then rolled her shoulders forward and back a few times before slowly checking her full range of motion. Experimenting with just one arm at a time, she lifted them up, over and sideways, noting a few small clicks and pops that hadn't been present before.
Momentarily satisfied, Rogue carefully lifted both hands over her head, taking the opportunity to stretch out her tender and underused muscles.
She took a deep, relaxing breath and gasped as her ribs protested loudly. Her whole body reacted reflexively, drawing in on itself. The sudden jerking movements, however, put unnecessary pressure on her lower extremities and Rogue instantly doubled over in pain.
Her arms instantly wrapped around her aching abdomen and she had to bite her lip from crying out. With a few small, steady breaths, the Southerner slowly forced her body to relax and tried to will the pain away. When that didn't work, she instead reached over and depressed the IV button to deliver more morphine.
Within a few minutes, the drug had kicked in, her pain had subsided, and Rogue felt herself slowly drifting back into peaceful blackness.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
As Rogue enjoyed a peaceful, drug-induced slumber, the rest of the X-Men met in the War Room.
"Do we have anything yet?" Wolverine leaned against the large round table in the center of the room.
The question was met with silence.
"Shadowcat?" the Canadian questioned gruffly as he folded his arms and looked at her expectantly.
"I uh," Kitty started, "I've looked over all available surveillance images from the mall and the surrounding buildings – the bank, the restaurants, everything – but there's no clear images of the men in the van."
The brunette tapped at her laptop for a moment until a few still images of the white van popped up on the main screen in the War Room. " As far as I can tell, they came from the south end of the mall and waited at the edge of the parking lot until one of the cars close to ours moved. There aren't any continuous video feeds of the area, just short clips every few minutes. The cameras run on a timer as the flip through all the incoming feeds, so you only get a few seconds of footage at once. But…" She pulled up two clips side by side, one showing the van at the far end of the parking lot and the other showing the vehicle pulling in next to their car.
"You can see from this that they were waiting for the perfect place and time to strike. It was definitely a planned attack and NOT random."
Wolverine nodded, "Ya did good kid. You think you can find out whether they tracked you all the way from the mansion?"
Kitty chewed her lip and sighed as she closed her laptop. "I've been trying, but most of the cameras from the mall to the mansion are government controlled. They're uh, a little harder to ... access."
The leader grunted with a small smile as both Beast and Scott winced. "Lemme put in a call to Fury. He can probably get you LEGAL access to those cameras, but I'll need some leverage." Wolverine then turned to Beast.
"Hank, you got anything on that compound Rogue was injected with yet?"
Dr. McCoy cleared his throat as he removed his glasses, placing them gently on the table in front of him. "I'm afraid all of my contacts have had the same answers – no one knows anything about this substance and it's barely traceable as is. I've taken daily samples of Rogue's blood and while it appears that the chemicals have all but left her bloodstream, the effects thereof are ever present."
Bobby scratched his head from his seat next to Kitty. "Uhh…"
Shadowcat rolled her eyes at him. "It means the bad stuff is gone, but she's still powerless."
"Oh, right, I knew that," the boy waved his hand at Kitty as if he wasn't entirely clueless.
Beast cleared his throat again. "Furthermore, I've extracted DNA samples, and it does not appear that her gene sequences – particularly that of the X-Gene – have been damaged or changed. The drug appears to act as more of a neurotoxin, merely blocking her abilities from usage rather than destroying them. "
Kitty snuck a glance at Bobby, but the blonde was more interested in his shoes at the moment, so she simply shrugged and decided not to interpret this time.
"A neurotoxin, huh?" Wolverine began pacing the room, running his hand through his disheveled hair as he considered the possibilities.
"Jean," he finally stopped close to the redhead. "Do you think you might be able to go into her head and turn something like that OFF?"
The telepath chewed her lip for a moment. "I, I don't know. Honestly, I doubt it. If it's a physical condition, rather than a psychological one, I don't think my telepathy would help at all. I would need to telekinetically remove the problem, but since we can't really pinpoint its location, I don't think there's anything I can do."
"Right… Thought it might be worth a shot askin' anyhow," the Canadian acknowledged as he began pacing again. "Any luck gettin' into Rogue's mind yet?"
Jean shook her head. "No," she replied quickly. "Rogue's mental blocks are formidable, even while she's sleeping. I haven't been able to get anywhere near her memories of that day, and I'm afraid if I dig any deeper or push any harder, I could cause her even more damage."
"Storm?" Wolverine turned to the weather witch with a smidgeon of hope in his eyes. "She talkin' to you yet?"
With a sigh, Ororo shook her head slowly. "I'm afraid she still hasn't said a word since waking. She communicates with me, but never verbally and never in regards to what happened that day."
Frustrated, Wolverine cracked his knuckles, itching to tear into something, but miraculously keeping his claws in check.
"Kurt? Please tell me Wanda knows something?"
Everyone turned hopefully to the blue, demonic looking mutant, but his yellow eyes held only sadness. "Nien. She knows nothing of the attack or the chemical. She was very concerned and said she can send a healer if we wish for one."
"We'll keep that in mind – I imagine Rogue'll be itchin' t' get out of that hospital bed pretty soon," Wolverine replied with a small smile. The others grinned slightly as well as they considered the Southern girl's fierce temper and small shred of patience.
"Sadly," Beast chimed in, killing the slightly uplifted mood, "she's in no condition to go anywhere without the aid of such a healer. If she does want to leave the Med Bay, we will definitely need to take Wanda up on her offer."
"We shall leave the decision of a healer to Rogue, herself," Storm commanded quickly. There was no room for argument in her tone as she spoke to the group. "She has been through enough without having others invading her mind and body in a place where she should feel safe and protected. I shall ask her if she would like us to send for this healer, but it must be her choice."
After a moment's silence, Wolverine stopped and stood before the group once more, his arms folded stoically.
"Agreed. But we don't even know if this healer will do her any good or not. This crap they injected her with might block other non-medical means of helping her too. The fact is we ain't gonna be able t' really help her until we know more about the men who did this. Like it or not, we gotta get Rogue to talk to us. We gotta know exactly what she knows."
Storm stood suddenly, her eyes flashing white. "You would ask her to relive everything in the hopes that we MIGHT find her attackers?! Logan…" she trailed off, casting an uneasy glance toward Kitty and Bobby.
"I know, 'Ro, I know. I don't like it any better than you do, but it's gotta be done. She's gotta try to remember everything she can about that day or …" Wolverine trailed off for a moment, trying to collect himself, "Or we may never catch who did this and undo it all."
"Logan, we all know this can never be undone…" Ororo spoke softly as she cast him a sad glance.
"Well, gee, I don't know," Bobby piped in, shattering the solemn mood. "Once we catch these guys, they'll give us the cure – or at least tell us what they shot her up with – and then Logan can heal her ribs and stuff and poof, undone! I mean, this is Rogue we're talking about. It's not like taking a beating is going to really faze her. I bet once she's got her powers back and this crap is out of her system for good, she'll be back to normal in no time!"
The others smiled encouragingly at Bobby's optimism, but for Jean, Logan, Beast and Storm, their inside knowledge of Rogue's true condition kept their faces somber.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Thanks to Chica De Los Ojos Café, whose enthusiasm about my return to fanfics and this story reminded me to update! Sometimes I just need a good kick in the pants. ;-)
