Hi guys, so heres the next chapter.

TFG

Chapter 4

It was the same three white walls, with the same glass front wall, and the same two small blue circles just in front of the glass. It was the same basic cot bed with the same toilet and sink for company. For what must have been the hundredth day in the row Remy Lebeau opened his unusual deep red on black eyes hoping that the white-washed hell he's been living in for the past eight months had just been one long nightmare. But it wasn't, it was real and it hurt every morning when he opened his eyes to find that piece of hope was shattered and he realised he had another day left in this bleached hell hole.

Remy got up from the small cot and stared around his nine foot by seven foot by nine foot cell. All in blinding white, which he was sure was another way to help drive the prisoners insane, but with Remy's sensitivity to light it was even more painful. Remy could see into the cell across from him and saw that the purple skinned man was lying in the foetal position on the floor and shaking violently. He wouldn't last much longer, and sometimes Remy worried about just how much longer he was going to last in this mad scientist slash military run hell-hole. He had seen so many other mutants go over the last few months. The current mutant in the foetal position was Mutant Subject 21 and he had mostly been going quiet over the last few weeks.

"I should have taken that job with bucket-head." Remy said quietly to himself as he sighed.

He tore his eyes away from the pitiful sight of another mutant finally succumbing to the end of their tether and walked over to the sink. They aren't allowed much water in the cells but Remy always made sure that he would wash his face. He just wished that he had a mirror to see the damage that had been done to him over the last eight months. He knew he lost weight and muscle mass so that now his light blue cotton pants and shirt hung off of his sinewy body. When he was free he was constantly training to keep his body at the peak of physical condition, but now all he can do is walk around his cell a few times a day. They also don't let you have razors so he couldn't shave himself, but as he rubbed his hand over his slight beard he knew it didn't really matter. One of the crazy scientist or nurses, or whatever they were, would shave him about once a month when he was unconscious and being examined. They also kept his hair pretty short, mainly due to the experiments they occasionally did on his brain. Remy looked slowly down at his hands and saw the new lattice work of scars across his hands. He had always had scars on his hands due to the explosive manifestation of his powers, but now they were even more extensive and covered most of his body.

Remy dropped his head down as he leant onto the sink. He was ashamed to admit that every time they took him he was afraid they would do something worse, so far he had been lucky. He had seen some of the others, so he really shouldn't complain about a bad hair cut and some new scars to an already scar ridden body.

"Morning 26," The voice on the other side of the glass said snapping Remy out of his thoughts. It was Kevin, the only friendly guard who worked in the complex; this meant that it was Thursday morning. Due to his previous employment and years of training Remy had memorised the guard's schedule, so he knew who was working and on what day that way he have some sense of what was going on. It was one of the few methods that were helping Remy keep his mind. It also didn't hurt that Kevin liked to sit in front of Remy's cell and talk about current events. Kevin even let Remy read the paper over his shoulders and told him everything that was on the news. And sometimes, Kevin would set a little table in front of Remy's cell, and the two would play blackjack for candy bars. There was even that one time when Kevin had the night shift and he brought in his little TV, every mutant in the place was thankful for that little TV. Kevin's superiors on the other hand had not been that impressed with the guards' attempts to rally the spirits of their captives.

Remy had made many observations during his time locked in the lab complex. He knew that there were only twenty cells and there would only be one "Mutant Subject" per cell. So, that meant that there could only be twenty mutants in the facility at a time, unless there was another room filled with containment cells, but so far none of the guards had let that slip so he seriously doubted it. There were two lines of cells, each facing the other, each exactly the same. There were ten cells per line and they were in complete isolation from each other. Except for one vent under the bolted down beds. These vents joined two cells together so if gas was released into one cell it would spread out into the adjoining cell to affect the next mutant as well and Remy had found that out within the first few weeks he was imprisoned when the sadistic guards had decided to knock everyone out one night for fun. Remy figured it's purpose must be help the spread of gas, so the guards only needed to set off 10 gas canisters instead of twenty. Unless its purpose was to encourage the insanity to spread quicker through the cells. There used to be a girl occupying the cell next to him, and she had been muttering constantly for the last three weeks. Or, at least she did. It was eerily quiet in the cell next to him at the moment as it had been for the last few days. Maybe, she had finally gone. Or, maybe she had been taken away for some other test. Remy had watched them take her slightly trembling body away for another bout of tests, and she had not been returned. Though Remy believed it was the former rather the latter. He knew that some of the Mutant Subjects had died on the table.

Each mutant was numbered rather than named. It was a way to make them seem less than human and they were only referred to by their numbers and to reinforce this they were each made to wear a cuff that held their Mutant Subject Number, their gender, their birthday and their mutant abilities. And as Remy was the twenty-sixth mutant in the lab complex it meant that something had had to have happened to six other mutants before him for there to be space to keep him in the cell. And he had watched a further nine mutants come and go during his months in the complex. At least the guard rotation remained the same so Remy could count on that normalcy and he had started to know them all by name and habit.

The man in front of him, Kevin, was short with dark hair and a slight tummy, like an athlete gone to seed. He was an older man, possibly middle-aged and he had a very kind face and happy eyes that seemed to hold a glimmer of hope, but Remy never knew what the hope was for. Remy had no idea why someone like him would be working in a place like this, but he had never asked and did not want to ask. The only concern Remy had at the moment was that Kevin was carrying what the guards assured Remy was actually food. Kevin put the tray down on a folding chair outside of Remy's cell then came up to the glass.

"You know the drill 26. Face the wall, hands in the blue circles or you get the gas again," Kevin said calmly and Remy complied. It wasn't in his nature to comply with people, especially those who were holding him captive, but he was hungry and refusal meant another day without food. And Remy couldn't go a fourth day without food. A side effect of Remy's mutation was that he had an accelerated metabolic rate and as a result he had to consume a lot of food, unfortunately his nature made him rebellious so it was an internal debate that was constantly being waged in his head, heart and stomach. So far he had gone three days without any food and very little drinking water. The reason for this enforced starvation was that he was being punished for knocking out four guards and a doctor during the last time they took him out for experimentation. They hadn't restrained him properly while they were getting all their equipment together and Remy had taken the opportunity as a chance hoping to escape. He only got as far as the door to the containment centre before he was knocked unconscious, but that was further than anyone had ever gotten before. It was also his ninth failed escape attempt. Though he never tried to escape when Kevin was on duty as the man may be old, but he was fair and always did the best for all the mutants under his "care" at the complex.

As soon as he was facing the wall and his hands were in the blue circles on the wall Remy heard the sealed drawer slide open and then close again with a loud snap. It took all his self control to keep his hands in the circle and wait until he knew that the door had closed. When he heard the final sound of the drawer closing again Remy raced across to the drawer at the front of the cell and grabbed the bowl that held the thin porridge that was like ambrosia to a half starved mutant. He wanted to gulp it down in one go but he knew better. This might be the only food he receives in a while so he was going to take his time on this meagre meal and enjoy it as if it was a three course feast at a top Parisian Restaurant.

"Anthony Hopkins most famous role as a psychotic doctor?" Kevin said as he sat down on the chair that was set in front of Remy's cell. He had taken out a newspaper and was attempting to do the crossword. This was why Kevin was on such friendly terms with Mutant Subject 26; he helped him with the crossword puzzle every week for the last eight months. This was another thing that was keeping Remy sane, being able to stretch his mind with pointless trivia every Thursday to Monday morning. This little interaction also helped remind Remy that he was indeed human and not just a lab rat. It gave him hope that somehow he could get back out into the real world.

"Hannibal Lecture," Remy replied as he sat down on the floor, taking small sips of his meal and sitting down next to the glass so he could see the paper over Kevin's shoulder. The Thursday crossword was always so easy Remy thought as he scratched the skin under his power suppressing collar.

"Birth country of the poet Robert Burns?" Kevin asked picking up his mug of coffee that he had set down next to his chair.

"Scotland." Remy replied quickly.

"Author of the book 'My Sisters…'" Kevin started.

"Get your fucking hands off of me!" A woman suddenly screamed in what could only be described as a Southern shriek, causing both men to stop what they were doing and look towards the man door of the holding cells as they burst open. This was harder for Remy as he was behind the glass and couldn't get a clear view of the door, but he could see that the other mutants began to press up against the glass. At least the ones that were still mobile or conscious of what was going on around them.

What came through the doors of the containment complex was complete and utter chaos. It looked like twenty guards and a number of scientists were trying to restrain what looked a new prisoner. And from what Remy could see it was an absolute hellion! It had so far thrown two guards through the door before tumbling in with another guard trapped between her arms.

Remy had seen many new mutants being brought in and they usually fought. But the collars that the guards fastened to their necks stopped them being able to use their powers so the new prisoners never fought long. According to Kevin the only prisoner who had really fought for any length of time was Remy himself when he was brought in and Remy knew the only reason why he fought was because he had been trained to from a young age and refused to submit to the force of the mad scientist or crazed military fanatics. And this girl apparently had a lot of training too and had the same thought process as he had had, as she was giving all these guards a run for their money. And it was the most exhilarating thing Remy had seen for a long time.

Both Kevin and Remy watched, transfixed and unmoving, as the girl brought down two guards in one swift movement, her bright chestnut hair flying around her like a dark ring of fire. She was like a demon sent from hell itself to exact vengeance upon the mortals that occupied the lab complex. And she was getting closer to Remy's cell. He could see that more guards were running towards the hellion to try from all directions to try and contain her. One finally got a hold on her and threw her against the front of Remy's cell.

He saw the girl look up at him and he was stunned. This girl wasn't a demon, she was an angel. A beautiful and exquisite rose that was covered in hard and sharp thorns. She had the brightest emerald green eyes that Remy had ever seen, for that was the only thing Remy could describe them as, precious jewels. She was about eighteen or nineteen years old and was maybe five foot seven or eight. And she had the most unusual hair he had ever seen. Deep chestnut with two bright platinum white stripes framing her face making her pale skin shine brighter than the moon. Her deep red lips were a deeper colour than rubies and contrasted beautifully against her pale skin. And she was looking him straight in the eye. No one outside of Remy's immediate family had ever looked him straight in the eye before and it was enchanting. He was trapped in a spell with this angels eyes and he couldn't look away. He was hypnotised and so was she. He could not look away from her remarkably beautiful face.

For a few moments both young mutants were lost in each others gaze, through the sheet glass between them. The green eyed angel placed her hand on the glass and Remy mirrored the movement, placing his hand directly onto hers without letting his gaze leave the deep sea of her eyes. If the glass hadn't been in the way he would be touching her intoxicatingly soft looking skin. Then the moment was over.

Remy saw the shock suddenly move across her body as she moved her hand to the back of her neck. She slowly pulled what looked like a small dart out from behind her, looked at it and then her eyes rolled back as she fell to the floor. Remy quickly kneeled down on the floor, as if he was trying to catch her. He saw about twelve guards come running towards the glass and the body of the unconscious girl. The guards then started yelling something but Remy didn't seem to understand, all that mattered was making sure that the angel was alright. Until the gas was turned on.

Remy was hit by a cloud of liquid nitrogen gas which was so cold that it burned his exposed skin. It was one of the sadistic ways that the guards managed to control the occupants of each of the cells. It worked rather effectively considering that each prisoner only had a thin white t-shirt, a pair of thin blue cotton drawstring bottoms and grey slippers. They also had the power negating collars around their neck and an identification cuff on their left forearm. The cuff that consisted of a piece of metal which held their subject number, their gender, their date of birth and their mutant ability. It was held in place by some strange leather material that wouldn't rip or tear at all.

"Face the Wall, Hands in the circles!" One of the guards, who was definitely not Kevin, yelled at Remy and for good measure turned the gas on again to make his point. Remy moved as quickly as he could as his body was shaking from exposure to the cold gas, it also didn't help that the circles were in the direct line of the nitrogen gas streams so he had to stand in the frozen area. Some of the guards liked making them stand with their hands in the circles before turning on the gas. One poor mutant had had his hands frozen to the wall and had to rip off half of his skin in order to get away from the gas, he died three weeks later. Most of the guards did seem to be mutant hating fanatics who were being allowed to torture mutants just for the hell of it.

After that Remy couldn't see what they did to the girl as he had to hold his head between his arms and face the wall, but it was noisy. He could hear several people rush around to try and strap the girl to a gurney. Then he heard the voice of the crazed military man who was in charge of the guards yelling at everyone, while the voice of the lead mad scientist directed people about what to do with the girl.

"Ok 26, you can relax now," Kevin said once everyone had left with the new mutant.

"What was all that about?" Remy asked as he walked towards the glass watching the short man pick up his chair and his newspaper again, though the coffee was a lost cause as it had spilled all over the floor. Every other lucid and mobile mutant was also at the front of their respective cells, having witnessed the commotion. They all seemed excited as it was probably the most interesting thing they had all seen in a very long time, though 31 was still lying on the floor of his cell. And it looked like he's finally stopped moving.

"Don't know, but it looks like your getting a new neighbour and a pretty one at that, though she might be a bit of a handful. Author of the book 'My Sister's Keeper'?" Kevin said simply.

"Jodi Piccoult." Remy answered as he picked up his bowl of porridge to continue his meagre meal.

The first thing Rogue became aware of was the splitting pain in her head. Yet, when she tried to move her hand to massage her temples that was when she became aware of the second discovery. She was completely restrained and she couldn't move at all. Even her head was held in place by some sort of restraint.

Rogue tried to remember what had happened, but everything was slightly blurry. She remembered her fight with Jean, as well as her hurtful words and leaving the Institute. She remembered talking to Devon at his bookstore. She remembered the men in black clothes and the fight. She remembered waking up somewhere bright white that smelled like a hospital. She remembered guards filling in when she jumped off the table and started to fight. She remembered red on black eyes staring out at her from behind the glass. Then blackness again.

Rogue's emerald green eyes immediately sprang open as she began to recall more details about the men who took her and the mutant's behinds the glass. She realised that she was in a place where they put mutants in cages and it smelled like a hospital, this was the thought that terrified her. At first, when she opened her eyes, she thought she had woken up into a nightmare. But nightmares weren't this loud, vivid or painful.

All around her were men and women in lab coats. She couldn't identify any of their faces as they all had surgical masks and goggles on. Each person was either writing something down on a notepad, twiddling dials on various pieces of large medical equipment or talking to each other in hushed whispers. No one seemed to have noticed that she was awake, or if they did they didn't care. Rogue couldn't help but think it was probably the latter rather than the former.

The entire scene was truly terrifying as was being unable to move any part of her body, so natural Rogue was starting to become physically scared. Eventually one of the scientists noticed that her heart trace had suddenly jumped up to over 130 beats per minute. This scientist then turned to an older looking scientist next to him and whispered something causing the older looking scientist to look in her direction.

The older man was wearing the traditional white lab coat but didn't have any of the other "scientific" apparel that the rest of the men and women in the room were wearing. He had greying hair with dark eyebrows and even darker eyes. Eyes that frightened Rogue down to her very core as they were horrible soulless things that were appraising her.

"Well, it seems our new subject is awake," The scary scientist said to the others in the room, as if Rogue couldn't understand him.

"As you will see this specimen's powers have manifested as an unconscious conscious energy drain. As you remember I had touched this specimen's bare skin without incident while we had her under sedation," Scary Scientist continued.

"What the fuck are doing!" Rogue screamed, trying to thrash her way out of the restraints, but it was no use. They were too tight and no one seemed to notice or care about her discomfort.

"Gag her," Scary Scientist said simply and one of lesser scary scientist came out with what looked like a ball gag and tape, and he managed to get it in Rogue's mouth and secured while no one else batted an eyelid.

"Now, as I was saying, while she was unconscious her powers did not activate and did not drain me of my energy, but now that she is conscious her powers will manifest and render any subject who touches her skin unconscious, while taking their thoughts, energy and in the cases of mutants, their powers. What she has taken then will stay in her mind."

Rogue felt like she was in the middle of an out of body experience. Here she was captured and chained to a hospital bed while these scientists talked about her power as if she wasn't here, or she was some sort of lower being that couldn't understand what they were talking about. It was disconcerting how much they knew about her powers and her psyches. It was just plain terrifying being rendered helpless by these maniacs.

"Now, its my hypothesis, that since her first manifestation was so traumatic it's the memory of this that is keeping her powers active during her conscious state, which is demonstrated through her skins inability to absorb during the unconscious state," Scary Scientist said while gesturing to one of his assistants.

"I believe that by removing her memories her powers will cease to be permanently active. Of course, by removing her memories she will be easier to control. As you will see from her profile, she has been trained extensively to fight, add that to her mutant capabilities it would mean that we could have a perfect weapon. Mr Stryker, don't you agree?" Scary Scientist asked one side of the room.

That was when Rogue noticed the gallery.

It was filled with men in suits and men in uniform and she recognised them,

They were part of the group known as "The Friends of Humanity" who crusaded for humankind against the mutant menace as they called it. Rogue knew that their objective was the subjugation of mutants; they were currently trying to get a bill passed that would require the registration of all mutants, which was the brainchild of her former High School Principle who was now currently the Mayor of New York City. Now, lying here at this moment of time, Rogue knew what their true goal was. It was the destruction of mutants. And they had brought Rogue here to aid their cause.

The scary scientist then turned towards another younger scientist and whispered some instructions that Rogue could not hear, but sent the room into a whirlwind of activity. The Scary Scientist then left the room, but Rogue could still see him through the glass. She was so intent on watching him that she did not notice what was going on around her secured head. Until she heard the whizz of the clippers.

The younger scientist had begun shaving her head. That was when Rogue realised what was going to happen to her. They were going to operate on her brain to remove her memories. She remembered Kitty telling her about a chip that Logan had placed in his head to control him when he became Weapon X. After what she had just heard from Scary Scientist maybe they would do that to her as well. She would become like Logan, no memory, only jumbled images and someone else controlling her.

She began to cry out of hopelessly and began pleading. But of course no one heard her due to the gag in her mouth. And if they heard, she doubted that they would have cared enough to help her. They were looking at her like she was some sort of animal, something less than human, and were going to do horrible things to her. And she couldn't do a thing to stop them.

The Scary Scientist came back in to the room and motioned for another younger scientist. The younger scientist then removed her gag.

"Please, please don't do this!" Rogue screamed, hoping someone would listen.

"Don't worry Mutant Subject 36, when you wake up you won't remember a thing. If you wake up, of course," Scary Scientist cooed to her before gesturing to the younger scientist.

She watched Scary Scientist move towards the other side of the room, where the sinks were situated. Rogue had seen enough medical TV shows to know what was about to happen. That was where the main surgeon would scrub up and once he was finished scrubbing up then they would begin.

One of the younger scientists came towards her, carrying a tray of things that Rogue couldn't see, but they clanked like they were metal. What she wouldn't give to be able to draw on Magneto's or Kitty's power right now.

That was it! She had their psyches locked away in her head, all she had to do was focus and bring them forward.

She focused hard on Kitty first, but she wouldn't come. She could hear the faint sound of Kitty in her head but she wouldn't come forward and try as hard as she might, Rogue couldn't make herself intangible and phase through the table.

Rogue then began to focus on Magneto to at least start to control what was on that tray, as the younger scientist had now set it down and had begun to organise whatever it was that was on that tray. But, again she couldn't seem to bring his ability forward. She didn't understand why it wasn't working. She had been working on this for over a year now, it should work.

"Now," came Scary Scientist's voice again, "We have fitted Mutant Subject 36 with our energy cancelling collar, just so she doesn't get any ideas. As you are aware, the energy cancelling collars suppresses mutant abilities, and since Mutant Subject 36 has absorbed many other mutant's abilities it is essential that her powers be suppressed. You have all heard of Mutant Subject 26, who so far has had nine failed escaped attempts. If we were not suppressing his mutant abilities with the collars than he could have blown out a wall and walked out. It is unfortunate that 26 has had years of extensive training which makes him difficult to manage. We use other methods to control him."

"Will 36 still have her knowledge of her extensive training?" One of the suited men asked as the younger scientist began to fill syringes with liquid. One clear liquid and one thick white liquid.

"Yes, and no. With extensive training comes instinct and what is colloquially called muscle memory. She will retain the ability to do what her training has taught her to do, but she will not retain the knowledge of how she attained it."

"You said that she has all of the people she absorbed in her head, will they still remain?" A uniformed man asked.

"No, we will remove all current memories. She may retain a shadow of them, but I doubt these people memories will be able to tell her anything. If a shadow remains it will only a shadow of the powers that she has absorbed."

"What do you expect to use 36 as?" A uniformed man asked.

"Well, Mr Stryker and Colonel Trask have expressed interest in her. I expect she will absorb as many mutants as she can and then we will use her to police and destroy the mutant menace. After that, it'll only be the cost of one bullet to complete eradicate these abominations from the pages of history. Now, once Dr Kent has finished anaesthetising the subject we can get started. If you would like to stay and watch I do warn you it will be about five hours long, but if you will follow my assistant Miss Jackson, she will take you to one of our conference rooms for some refreshments," Scary Scientist said pleasantly to the collected group of horrible uniformed and suited men. Rogue watched as all the men collected left from the room behind the glass, leaving Rogue alone with the assortment of terrifying scientists who were focused on operating on her brain.

The younger scientists had been fairly quiet during Scary Scientist's question and answer session, as well as his lecture, but now they all seemed to be full of activity and noise. The machines had started up and had begun to whir and tick and beep. Other pieces of medical equipment had been brought out and were currently being attached to the table. The younger scientist that brought out the tray was now approaching her with what looked like canulas. She was watching him so intently she did not notice the other scientist behind her head bringing down an oxygen mask. The mask was releasing a gas that had a slight smell to it, but that could have just been the plastic of the mask.

As the mask began pumping oxygen into her body the younger scientist placed the canula into her arm. Then he reached around and placed another one into the other arm. He began to attach saline drips to the canulas before turning back to the tray to retrieve the syringes. That was when Scary Scientist decided to talk to Rogue again.

"Now 36, Dr Kent is going to put you under and then we shall begin." Scary Scientist cooed again before signalling to the younger scientist, who was obviously Dr Kent.

Dr Kent then raised the white coloured liquid filled syringe and pumped it into her body.

Rogue immediate began to feel sleepy and everything became blurry. She tried to focus again on drawing someone, anyone's power to aide her, but she was too woozy and the world had become to fuzzy. She tried to focus on the people again but they seemed to be moving farther away, they were definitely sounding like they were miles away.

She tried to stay awake. They can't operate on her if she was still awake after all.

But she couldn't.

Once again, Rogue's whole world went black.

Though, this time, it was for the last time.

Rogue would never open her eyes again.

So, theres Remy.

please rate and review.