It was dark; a dank smell ran through the air polluting what he could breathe with its foul stench. There was little light in the small place and the shadows claimed most of what he could see. Strange clinks and clanks would come from the darkness around him but Kurt felt no fear; it was as though he was merely a spectator, watching his own body move forward into the darkness.
Suddenly a tune started up, as though it were being ground out of a rusty music box. Slowly the tune turned to words and Kurt found himself moving towards the sound. The music faded slightly and a small child like voice rose up to complete the words, "Lovely day, come to play, while the hangman is away". Kurt stopped moving, recognizing the tune from a German nursery rhyme. The voice echoed these words and they in turn bounced off the unseen walls all around him. Panic took hold of Kurt, dragged him down as the floor turned to tar beneath his feet. He felt his heart thudding hard against his chest as though it might thump right out of his ribs. Terror overtook him and in a violent struggle he thrashed in a futile attempt to free himself from the tar which had taken on the shape of hard hands that choked his body of movement.
"Kurt!" the voice was familiar, but it had a deafening effect that brought Kurt to the surface of his dream, pulled him up from his muddled thoughts and into his own bed where a very agitated Rouge was attempting to hold his body still.
"Rouge?" Kurt asked, his voice breathless from the struggle of his dream, which he realized had been taking place in reality as well. Rouge had her hands on his forearms gripping him tightly, trying to keep him from thrashing.
"Yeah it's me! So will you stop with the freaking pro wrestling moves?" she shouted. Kurt hadn't even noticed but his leg was wound around her own, bending it in a very unnatural way.
"Oh! I'm sorry Rouge!" Kurt apologized, quickly releasing his leg and letting his arms go slack. At once Rouge let go of him and slumped down in a chair that was pulled up next to Kurt's bed. She swore a few times bending her leg this way and that to make sure it wasn't injured. It was then that Kurt took stock of his surroundings. It was true he was in his bedroom, his sheets wrapped around his clothed body. But, it wasn't his location that sent panic coursing through his veins it was the fact that he could see the moon outside from his window.
On any other evening Kurt would have thought that it was a treat to see the moon so easily from his window, but now it brought on a hurried panic. 'The last time I saw her it was early at least 4am…the last time…' Kurt thought. He glanced up at the moon again silently cursing it for turning time forward.
"How long!" Kurt demanded, sitting himself up and gripping the sheets in his clenched fists. He could feel every muscle in his body tighten as the horror fully washed over him.
"Huh?" Rouge answered still attending to her leg.
"How long have I been asleep?" Kurt yelled. His voice had taken on a severe tone that he saw made Rouge cringe back.
"Only a day!" she answered, her slight fear turning to anger at Kurt's outburst.
"A…day…" Kurt murmured. It only took a second before he was up and walking towards the door.
"Wait!" Rouge screamed stumbling as she whipped herself out of the chair and slid in front of him.
Kurt stopped, staring down at her. It was the first time he ever really straightened himself up to his full six foot height. Suddenly Rouge no longer looked so tough; she looked small, insignificant and easily removable.
"Why?" Kurt ground out, his lips barely parting to let the words out. Anger was not only within him it had become him. He needed no reminder of either what had pushed him into unconsciousness or what they had done to Nym. Those memories were fresh in his mind, but the ones that could give him sanity, the ones that would remind him that the people in the institute were his friends, were suddenly fading.
"Kurt please…" Rouge said, her voice going soft as she looked down, her brow furrowed. Kurt had never seen her look like this and that was enough to momentarily shock him out of his rage induced state.
"Rouge, tell me where she is." Kurt ordered his voice softer, almost haggard with the culmination of events.
"Kurt, I-I can't. You know how they feel about her, the Professor and them. Why push them to this extreme? You don't understand, so just calm down and go back to bed. " Rouge said, saying each word with a child-like slowness. She then glanced upwards to Kurt. Her dark eyes were crinkled from her expression as she gently reached her hand up to his shoulder, letting it set there lightly.
Rouge's touch set him off, he snapped his body away from hers in a sharp movement, backing away slightly. Kurt was no fool; he knew well what Rouge could do without those gloves. And chances were that if the adults had asked Rouge to guard him they had expected her to use her powers to keep him under their control.
Kurt suddenly realized what she had just said, how she had accused him of being the foolish one! 'How dare she' the thought ran rampant through Kurt's mind twisting Rouge into a vicious being.
"Fuck you!" Kurt screamed channeling his anger into his words, letting his voice shake the room. "Fuck you all! How in the hell can you say that? How in the hell can you! Were you so freaking different!"
Kurt began to pace back and forth in front of Rouge watching as her eyes flew wide at his crass words. But he wasn't done yet; "It's been three years, three goddamned years of this shit! You don't think I'm smart enough to understand what's going on? You think I'm some damn child who can't put two and fucking two together!"
"Kurt just calm…" Rouge began. But no sooner had she started than Kurt advanced towards her, his tail whipping back and forth behind him in anger as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Rouge slowly backed away, taking careful steps away from Kurt's approaching form.
"No! No more calm! No more nice! No more fucking letting you all treat me like this! Like I'm not even a living thing!" Kurt shouted, his voice going hoarse at the end. At this Rouge abruptly stopped backing away, her face had turned from mild fear to confusion.
"W-what?" Rouge stammered out.
"You heard me! Goddamit, it's about time you heard me!" Kurt screamed, resuming his anger fueled pacing as he fidgeted irritably with his hair, running his hands through it, trying to hide his face. 'I won't let her see me cry!' he inwardly swore. His anger had taken a surprising turn. Instead of defending Nym he had gone into a breakdown, re-living all those times he had been the team's punching bag.
"Kurt…I-I don't-" Rouge tried to begin. However she was interrupted by Kurt's swift movement as he unexpectedly took a step towards her.
"Of course you don't! You never did! For all that our stupid 'sibling' bond was you never thought of anything but what you were going through! What about me? What about me!" he had broken. The tears ran down his face, covering his cheeks in a thick stream of salt. But for all his words, for all his declarations, no sobs wracked his body, no choking breath tried to stifle him. It was so much less climactic.
"Kurt…" Rouge whispered. He could tell she had nothing to say, his name had merely been an automated response.
"Just tell me…. Tell me where she is…" Kurt said. The tears still fell from his eyes but his voice was surprisingly even, almost casual in a way.
Rouge looked down, unable to meet his stone like gaze. Slwoly she lowered herself to the ground. Bringing her knees up Rouge wrapped her arms around them, tilting her head down. "They're not here, the adults. The Professor took Logan, Storm and Dr. McCoy to a treatment center for mutants to discuss sending her there. The Professor wants her locked up. They told me to make sure you stayed under, to try and control you if you wake up." Rouge confessed. "But they didn't take her. She's here, in the lab. They have her all hooked up to these machines that are feeding her medicine to keep her under. The Professor said he had to leave her here until they were sure that the facility could take her."
Kurt let out a small sigh, his tears had stopped and the exhaustion from his outburst was beginning to settle in his bones.
"So, when are you going to try and restrain me then?" Kurt asked quietly.
"I…I can't…" Rouge answered squeezing her knees even closer to herself.
"Thank you Rouge." He answered as he walked around her slumped form and towards the door.
"They'll come for you, you know that? The Professor, he hates her. The things he says about her… I just… I've never seen him that way before. He won't let her go… he won't just let her escape so she can hurt more people. The Professor cares for justice and peace too much to allow it." Rouge said in an attempt to persuade Kurt out of his next course of action.
"Then what about the people who hurt her? What about the two times that the Professor has tried to kill her? What about that? Where do you see the justice in those actions? And what about the bruises on her body, the broken bones, the scares that still mar her skin? Where was justice when those things happened?" Kurt asked the pain evident in his voice.
A silence consumed them then. Rouge with no response and Kurt with nothing left to prove. He made a movement for the door then and in one last attempt Rouge let out a deep sigh.
"Kurt?" she asked lifting her head from her knees. "Why are we doing this to each other? How did everything, all that we've been through, come to this?" Kurt stopped; he felt a trill of guilt go up his spine.
"It didn't have to…" Kurt answered his voice trailing off.
"And how did you expect it to end?" she asked her tone desperate.
"I didn't expect it to end at all…"Kurt said. At his words Rouge's head shot up in surprise. She was just about to say something when a loud bamf sounded throughout the room signaling Kurt's teleportation. Rouge was left with no one to hear her whispers of apology and quite tears.