Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
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Fighting him all the way as he dragged her off to their borrowed black suv, Remy finally overpowered her enough to force her into the back before jumping in the shotgun seat and leaving John to drive. Her clothes was ruined, the blood that gushed from what to anyone else would have been a mortal wound drenched down her shirt. It was blood he had on him, those few heartbeats watching and fighting the urge to staunch the wound the worst in his life. Even after all these years Creed proved himself the big dog, slamming his fist against the dash and digging for a smoke.
"Where to now?" John asked after they were safely away from the burning club.
"Find a hotel, get cleaned up." Remy said, his voice cold and hard.
"What about your friend?" John asked.
Drawing on his cigarette as it blazed, the ember eating away at its length leaving ash behind, he flicked it out the window and hissed a smoky breath. The whole reason of going after Creed first was to find out where this Magneto was so they could surprise him, rescue Jubilee and his Rogue all at once and just run. Staring out into the night, their Petit was lost in the City that never slept, a city of millions, the thought of finding her feeling impossible.
"I, I know where she is..." Rogue struggled, forcing down a growl as she fought for calm.
"How?" John asked, Remy having the words on his lips.
"He, he told me when he took me by the throat. What you're thinking, I get it when I touch you for just a second." Rogue said slowly, clearly trying to figure out the words for something that must be so very different.
"Then we get cleaned up, after we go find her." Remy replied, fishing for another cigarette.
Tapping the bottom of the pack until one popped up, he looked to his side to see her trembling hand reaching out. Holding the pack to her, she took one and pressed it to her lips he still longed to kiss. Tapping another out and finding a zippo held out for him, he drew a breath until the ember burned and passed it back, gladly taking hers and lighting it if just to taste her lips. Looking at her reflection in the windshield, he saw the gesture wasn't lost on her, a faint smile flickering as she hauled a breath of smoke that had her coughing but quelling that necessary evil for the time being.
"We didn't exactly bring any change of clothes." John broached, heading down a side street at the sight of distant lights and sirens.
Digging into his coat to pull out a wad of cash from his war chest, Remy peeled off some bills and handed them off to John, stuffing it back in his duster. He could see him eying Rogue only in a way to judge her size before snapping his gaze back to the road, the only stolen glances to the blood and torn clothes that showed unmarred creamy pale skin beneath.
"How did she survive that?" John asked, pulling up to a light to wait out the red.
"Same way he did, he heal, he forced that on her right with everything else that make him a bad man." Remy whispered, having learned that much so far.
"She just touches you and...?" John asked, looking back to see her curl up on the back seat.
"Not the way our little Jubilee tell, she say Rogue killed him, that what I be told. He doesn't die easy though, comprende?" Remy explained, saving her from the burden.
"That's tough." John remarked, jerking the truck forward and heading off to the outskirts of the city.
Coming on a motel that sold by the hour, he had John pay through the night, taking the key to lead Rogue on in and off to the bathroom. With a promise of clothes and food on his return, John took his leave. Throwing his coat to the bed not caring what atrocities had been committed on it, he stripped down to his jeans and eyed his battered and bruised flesh in the mirror. Angry purple now, tomorrow it would be black and moving would be more than the ache it was now.
The shattering of glass had him spinning and throwing open the bathroom door, Rogue bent over the sink with fresh blood staining the running water in willowy wisps of crimson. Her clothes was thrown in a pile in the shower, dressed just as him in jeans and nothing else, her flawless skin having his suck a hard breath. She didn't pay him any attention, her fists grappling the sink as the last of the blood washed down the drain, shards of glass forced out to fall against the porcelain with a tinkling clatter.
Coming back with his pack of smokes and tapping it finding it nearly empty, he wished he had paid attention to it when John had obliged them to play errand boy. Sitting down on the toilet and staring at the filthy tiled floor, he lit one up and took a soothing drag before offering it to her. He saw her now in her fullest, just the hem of her neglige having his imagination running wild with what laid beneath those tight jeans picked out back in Beverly Hills.
She took the cigarette and savoured it slowly, rolling it between her lips in a show and passing it back, turning to slip into the shower and slide her back down against the tiles. Exploring her hand and finding it healed without a scar to show for it, she looked back up to the shattered mirror and the blood still there as proof of what she'd just done.
"I saw him in it." Rogue whispered.
His stomach clenched, his breath hard to find as he held a lung full of smoke and fought not to hack and wheeze, letting it out slow and steady instead thinking on everything she had just revealed. Offering the cigarette again, she shook her head this time and he gave her a smile, throwing the half smoked butt in the sink to die with a hiss and crackle down the drain.
"You say you know what we be thinking, by just a touch? Oui?" Remy asked, admiring her beauty without a lecherous thought running through his head.
A nod with some whispered words too quiet to hear were her answer as she sat there looking the vulnerable girl he first met, dragged in with his Petit scared out of her mind. She had needed a shower then too, right along with a nights to rest and a good meal. He could only offer her two this time, not enough hours to find the friend that had bound them by that fateful meeting out on a beach. Getting to his feet and crouching in front of her, he caught her gaze in his crimson eyes that burned intensely for her.
"I want you to know what I be thinking right now Rogue." Remy whispered, watching her stare into his eyes to make her choice.
Reaching out with a hand, he brushed it aside without ever the two meeting, still staring deep into her eyes. Hovering his fingers under her chin, her eyes widened at just the touch he meant, her lips parting to protest but silenced as he pressed a kiss to them that was as frenzied and furious as his hammering heart. He felt the jolt that his little Jubilee had talked about that first night, braced himself for it and showed no discomfort instead putting into his thoughts what he had no words to express.
Her own breath was coming ragged as they broke apart, her fingers trailing over her lips licking them to savour the taste and burning the moment into her memory. A flicker of red as her eyes washed black told him she had his gift, his Rogue looking down to her hands in distrust.
"I think you have enough of your own Remy in you that you don't have to worry Chere, try it." Remy whispered, the kiss leaving him in dire need of a smoke now more than ever.
Taking it to his lips, he waited as she pressed the tip of a finger to it, the glow spreading along its length until it met his own fingers. Leaving it to her, she wrinkled her brow in the most demure bit of frustration, pulling it back until just the tip glowed and snapped in a small explosion of kinetic potential released. Drawing in that first drag, he exhaled slowly, his back screaming at him for crouching so long.
"Showers all yours when I'm done." Rogue said, joining him in getting to her feet and turning a shy back to him.
About to take his leave and offer her some privacy, he was frozen as she looked over her shoulder, her eyes ensnaring him. The snap of a button and the sound of a zipper had his breath hitch and the cigarette dangling from his lip, watching her thumbs run around the hem to the swell of her hips. They fell with a slinking shimmy and a twist, falling to the floor with the rest of the ruined garments. Staring at her with an appreciation he never had for those mythological beauties captured in stone and canvas, she revealed herself to him with a lazy turn to draw the shower door closed. Taking a stumbling step back as he watched her turn on the spray, he was glad no request for that privacy came now, unable to move from his place frozen in awestruck admiration.
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They were announced with the building shaking and the cry of car alarms wailing into the night, a squeal of tires and headlights dying in front of their room an encore as John came bursting in with a bucket of fried chicken and bags of clothes. Ravenous at the aroma, Rogue fell on the bucket and wolfed it down with abandon, a towel the one guarantee of her modesty. Offered a piece, Remy nibbled at it having no real appetite but knowing he'd need the food to fuel the fight ahead.
"I got good news and bad news, and then just some shitty news we gotta work with." John started, flicking his lighter with nervous energy.
"Just spit it out homme, I take it that be Stormy and the rest?" Remy asked, a nod off to the door to an abandoned lot that was the only place he figured the stealth jet fit.
"Fuck, just don't kill the messenger. Your friend got loose, the Prof had a missing person out on her and she was taken to the school. Then fucking Mags came for Lorna, shut down the school and took the both of them..." John started, looking to them with hands raised defensively fearing how the news would be taken.
A growl was Rogue's answer, the chicken vanishing even faster in angry bites with threats and promises of violence spat. Staring back with cold, hard eyes meant for another, Remy gave a thankful nod to John for the news.
"Shitty news?" Remy asked.
"We think we know where they are, Jean filled me in after scaring the crap outta me down at the Colonel. The Prof reached out and touched of one of them, your friend had time to yell something before he got forced out. King Kong, he liked the view, they think he's at the Empire State Building." John added, looking between them with one last flick of his lighter before gripping it in a tight fist.
"The school?" Remy asked, catching the worry in his Rogue's eyes.
"Black out, the Prof was stuck down in his lair or whatever the fuck it is. Bobby, he's...fucking Mags had Pete clobber him like some fucking puppet before he had a chance to shift, that's the word I was given. He's pretty beat up." John struggled, his eyes burning hot with a need for retribution.
Nodding at the news, Remy climbed to his feet and started digging through the bags, handing off clothes to Rogue who forced down one last piece of chicken mechanically. Turning his back to them, John stood rigid and ready for the fight to come.
"I take it that Stormy be needing help?" Remy asked, hastily changing.
"They're not gonna turn it down, that's the word I got. Hope you're not afraid of heights, Doc Grey is gonna be dropping us in." John managed with a humourless chuckle.
"Right on the building, merde, this be something to tell over drinks someday." Remy laughed with a hard edge to it.
"We're gonna make him pay for hurting everyone we care about." Rogue coldly spat, pulling a T over herself and finding her shoes.
"Yeah, about that, word from the X folks is we're there to take them down hard and hand them over to some crazy government spooks the Prof knows. After the bar, I just mean..." John started, going silent as a gloved hand too him by the shoulder.
"Sugah, he's gonna get what he's got comin' ta him, that just depends on how Jubilee and Lorna are when we get there." Rogue promised.
"Oui, that and interest." Remy added, leading his Rogue off.
"Like I said, don't shoot the messenger, I'm the only one that can mess with Drake and I don't share." John said, slamming the door shut before joining them.
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"Do you want to know why I'm doing this?" Erik asked from the window.
Behind him Toad toiled over the contraption, checking it's construction again and running through a diagnostic check list. Bound to chairs by twisted metal piping, Jubilee sat with her mouth still bound and gagged by hardened mucus, Lorna the only one to answer as she still struggled against the will of her captor trying to twist the metal free.
"Because you're fucking crazy?" Lorna spat, growling as she tried to flex free the pipe about her one arm.
"You should really save your strength my dear, you'll need it if our company doesn't come. Sadly time is growing short, I need them to see us first hand, to hear our voice and know we won't go peacefully." Erik advised, a twist of his hand tightening the pipes.
Glaring hard at him, she turned her attention away seeing no point in giving him the attention he clearly sought. Looking to the girl years younger than her at her side, she saw the fear back in the eyes, understanding it herself first hand.
"She looks thirsty." Lorna said, Jubilee nodding her head with a whimper.
Turning to look to his other captive, Toad looking up from his work with a questioning look, Erik waved him off and back to work to walk over and none too gently strip the mucus gag free. Gasping for breath, Jubilee found enough saliva to spit at him despite her thirst, Erik left to wipe it off his face with a handkerchief even as he held a bottle of water up for her to drink deeply from.
"I'll never understand you..." Jubilee ground out between clenched teeth, breathing hard to catch her breath.
"Maybe that's for the best child, Toad?" Erik replied, calling out to the harried man at the contraption.
Knowing what was coming and pressing her lips tightly shut, the mucus hit and hardened in seconds, Mortimer going back to his check list with his place kept by his thumb. Staring up at Erik himself, Lorna took a calming breath and did just as instructed, saving her strength for whatever was to come.
Walking back to the window and looking out at the city, he found his thoughts bothered by just how awry his plans had gone. He'd have blood on his hands by the end of the night, nothing new, but never before had he spilled the blood of one so young and innocent.
Looking at her from the window, he wondered just which of those few women he had sought comfort with over the years, which had brought her into this world only to cast her off to an orphanage, found by his dearest friend like any other child he'd found before. Wishing again she'd never been found, maybe then he could have found the strength to take the chair himself and trust his oldest friend to take care of his sacrifice. That trust had weathered and cracked, a poor base for the future he planned.
Feeling a tremor run through the suite, he looked to his drink sitting atop a desk to see the rings running to the centre, closing his eyes and reaching out. Looking back to Jubilee he offered her a smile, expecting this ever since her frantic words of warning had been cried.
"Times up, tell me you're ready?"
"Just a handful more, otherwise it'll rip itself apart. Good, good, good, acceptable, and...done!" Mortimer replied, focused on the inner workings of the device he had been toiling over following the designs crafted by Erik himself.
"Good, I'll handle moving this into place, you bring the girls along and tell Mystique to be ready." Erik said, waving his hand as the entire device tore through the window in a spray of glass joined by the screaming wind.
"History is written by the victor Toad, don't falter!" Erik said as he stepped out into the night.
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"Can't you get closer?!" John yelled over the rushing of air and roar of the engines, standing at the edge of the bomb bay doors.
"You wanted to help!" Scott yelled, banking the Blackbird for the final approach.
Looking to the two who in the span of a day had accepted him more than he had ever been in his whole life, he swallowed hard and gave a nod to his teacher standing there. Jean tried to look reassuring, but staring down at the buildings below and just how far they had to fall, she thought a bit of honesty might be more welcome. Glancing to the two across from her and then to her own love, she reached out to brush his mind and draw some of the assurance he offered.
"John?" Jean asked, turning her attention back.
"Yes Miss Grey?" John asked, his voice betraying him as he slipped back as if he were still in class.
"Release your harness, we jump in three." Jean instructed.
Closing his eyes against the sight of the city below and finding the carabinder for his harness, he did the unthinkable and released his only tether to the jet. Feeling a hand on his back, he opened his eyes to see Remy offering him a pat, the four of them having to trust another. Dressed in her X-men black leathers, Jean gave them all a smile and drew a breath for the moment to come.
"One, two, three..."
Leaping out of the jet that looked to tear away from them only to realize it was the other way around, the wind rushed past as in their free fall to the landmark below. Out there in the night was their final ally, living up to her namesake as a Windrider, scouting ahead of them. The building was closer now, the spire once meant for the marvelous future of Zeppelins looking a lance to the heavens from their vantage. Hardly noticeable at first, just as he was fighting to hold in his scream that welled in his chest, John felt the pressure against him that had nothing to do with the wind.
"Get ready!" Jean yelled, their descent slowed but still rapid.
Hugging the edge of the building, windows raced past all too close, the wind ruffling their hair even still with that pressure holding tight to their chests and gripping them in a welcome hold. Even now Remy and Rogue were sharing looks as John himself fought to believe his teacher would never let them honestly jump out of a jet to their deaths. Just as the floor of the observation level neared the moment he prayed for happened, their fall coming to an abrupt halt, tumbling to the safety of a tested and true floor.
"I've never tried that with so many before." Jean gasped, running her hands over her face taking an excited breath.
"You, you tell us that now!?" John cried, a warning look from Remy and Rogue alike silencing him.
Seeing her smile in a way he had never at the school before, he found out his teachers were human after all, not just the people who held the line of law and order dishing out detentions and assignments. Yet as he smiled at her in kind, he saw her snap her attention above them with that smile vanishing. Faster than he could even see a body fell in their midst, lashing out with legs that sent him skittering down the empty deck struggling to breath.
"Magneto said we had company, guess that makes me the welcoming committee!" Mortimer called out, leaping into a backflip to land at a safe distance away.
"No, he's already started! Go, I'll handle him!" Jean cried frantically.
Tilting his head in surprise, Toad smacked his head and shook off the familiar feeling of telepathy at work. Eying the retreating youths, looking to breath deep instead he lashed out with a barrage of mucus, catching two for his effort.
"Chere, you go!" Remy called out as he caught her twisting back to see both him and John held fast with a foot glued to the ground.
Turning his attention to Jean, he shifted his weight around grinning at her as he worked his throat for another blast of mucus. Thinking he had easy prey, he had to tilt his head in shock at seeing the gobs of cement strong spit freeze midair and harden, hurled back at him in a turn about attack.
"Go!" Jean screamed, waving a hand and shattering the binding mucus by her will alone.
Looking to Toad, Remy and his teacher alike, John held his ground and dug out his lighter and a flask. Throwing the one guy who ever treated him right a wink, John was glad that trust was returned in kind as Remy raced off after his rogue.
"Sorry teach, Mister Summers would give me detention for life if I let anything happen to you." John said in answer to her angry look.
"Shoulda run when you could have kiddo!" Toad taunted, looking to yell instead for a lashing inhuman tongue whipping out of his throat.
Holding his ground and sipping his flask, snapping his zippo open with practised ease earned from a night of living it up, he spit vodka and called on his gift, an inferno engulfing the path of the attack. Forcing all the anger and resentment he had felt always being the outsider, the bad boy, the one none of the girls gave a second glance, the flame ate hungrily feasting on the spray with a roar of combustion that nearly drowned out the awful scream. As night reclaimed the moments dazzling day, John looked around expecting to find a beaten man, only for a warning cry and exertion of her prowess saving him.
Tumbling to the ground beside his teacher, John looked to where he had been moments before and felt fear again seeing tiles and cement shatter in a show of strength. Landing hard and lashing out with his tongue again, Toad pressed his attack.
"I hope they're doing better than us!" John cried as he dove clear.
"Don't worry about them, focus!" Jean yelled, finding an opening as Toad leapt at her to catch him midair.
"Worry about yourself luv!" Toad laughed, horking up another volley of mucus to break her concentration, forced to let him go to block the binding attacks.
Leaping back with acrobatic grace, the wet splashing noise of his last step had him look down to the puddle at his feet with a bit of rubbish in the form of a water bottle sitting there. Sniffing and tilting his head as he saw the trap for what it was, flexing his legs to leap free he found it was too late, a shark toothed zippo thrown at it to light the flame that rose as a column into the night.
"How's that for focus!" John yelled back, clenching a fist and slashing at the air, the flames dying by his will.
"What have you done John?" Jean whispered, reaching out to the burned and beaten man to force him into a dreamless rest.
"I ended what he started, what do you think that would have done to me!" John snarled, pointing to the shattered section of the deck.
Biting back a harsh retort, she turned her attention to the first aid their fallen foe would need, reaching out to her love to call for a sortie. Taking her face in her hands looking to her onetime student, she couldn't help but catch the thoughts radiating off him just as hot as the flames he wielded.
"I'm going to need your help, we have to stabilize him as soon as we're on the Blackbird, it'll give you a chance to see fist hand just what you're capable of." Jean said instead, not needing telepathy to know just the shock that jolted through him.
"We'd be no better than them otherwise, do you want to be seen just the same as men do things like this to us? Hurt our friends, change them, terrorize cute girls?" Jean asked, reading his thoughts now and pulling out a vision of a hopeful picture he held close to his heart even if it wasn't his.
"Fuck me, just tell me we're using rubbing alcohol and leeches." John snarled, stalking up to lend a hand at last.
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Racing ahead and knowing Remy was at her back by his scent alone, she ran around the observation deck hearing a scream and hating herself for being thankful it wasn't Jubilee. Finding easy strength as the thrill of the hunt coursed through her veins, Rogue fell to all fours digging for purchase with claws and whipping around the last corner to come skidding to a halt at the sight she saw.
Everything from those memories forced on her struck her low, tumbling and rolling to land hard at the very wall of the observation level fo the Empire State building. Spitting blood and snarling, she looked up to see the green haired girl whose name she had know right along with a phone number and a sense of dread, Lorna Dane.
Turning on her in genuine surprise as the rings of metal started to swing around in ever gaining speed, the man to blame for it all had the audacity to look sad with his features light by the growing glow growing from Lorna. In his arms he held Jubilee close, almost tender, bound tight in wire and pipe and looking terrified.
"Let her go!" Rogue snarled, climbing to her feet and rushing at him.
Sense honed by years alive she couldn't even imagine to bear were lent to her, that dark part of her mind answering to the racing of her heart and her lust for blood and revenge. Leaping to jump at a wall dodging the first of the metal railings lashing out like snakes, she twisted hard on her ankle and didn't care as it broke knowing it'd heal, ignoring the pain and using it to feed the beast. Kicking off and dodging another attack she saw the first bit of respect if not anger rise in those eyes of the one who held her Petit, thinking of how Remy always included her in care over the young girl.
Screaming in anger at first, then in rage as rebar tore free of the concrete to lance her through the chest, she snarled feeling cheated at being so very close now. Jubilee was bawling despite the green filth over her mouth, tears blinding eyes that were only ever meant to be bright and happy. Gripping a rod of steel and forcing it further through her wounded flesh that healed almost as fast as it could be cut, she struggled to get closer still.
"You had your chance! You don't even know what you made me do!" Erik roared, thrusting his arms out again as more lances of rebar tore at her.
She had to struggle against the red wash over her eyes, not knowing if it was just the range or blood blinding her. Forcing herself to stare at Lorna one last time thinking her a sister by circumstance, only then did she realize the screams tearing out into the night weren't her own.
"All you had to do was take my hand! You out of all of us could have done this without any risk! You forced me to sacrifice my daughter to save us all! Know my pain!" Erik wailed.
Hearing his words she felt fear like she had never known in her life fill her stomach, tearing at the bramble of steel that bound her to the deck just a few faltering steps short of being able to save them all. The glow was expanding, the rings moving so fast she couldn't even see them, but it was Jubilee alone she had eyes for as she was raised into the air and hurled out over the edge. Thinking her heart would break, everything she had endured for nothing if she couldn't save her for Remy and Cynthia and that selfish part of her own soul, Rogue caught the the scent of the evening rain just in time to renew her soul for one last plea.
"Blast the sonovabitch Jubilee!" Rogue snarled.
She could smell her Petit's fear and terror, despairing that it awoke something in the darkness of her soul knowing it had nothing to do with Uncle Vic, it was the part of him that was forever part of her now. The beast that wanted to chase, the thing that saw a flash of teeth as a challenge, the animal deep down all those years of evolution couldn't erase. In all of those scents though she smelt the one thing she was looking for and tore her gloves free, the smell of ozone before a lightning strike and the smoke of spent fireworks.
In an explosion that blinded her she felt a body thrown against her and gripped it tight just as he had always wanted her. Drawing Erik in, she felt everything he was thinking and dug deeper having suffered this awful curse twice now. She felt his power become hers, drew it in and swore just like she had with her Uncle Vic that she would turn it against him. Casting him off, looking now a tired old man, she had the strength to let go now and turned to another girl she had come to save tonight.
The glow was spreading, blooming out to engulf the whole of the building and just seconds away from spreading to the others. She knew what that glow did and she would never have that forced on anyone else, never wanting it herself in the first place. Reaching out with that borrowed power, she gripped the rings in a moment fueled by rage and the peace knowing her Petit was safe with her Remy's Stormy lady. They shattered in her grip and she held firm, the glow vanishing in the blink of her tired eyes and struggling heart.
"Rogue!"
Opening her eyes again she thought it strange she was laying down on the cold concrete, wondering why everyone looked so far away from her.
"Roguey!"
Why was Jubilee crying, she should be happy, they saved her just like they promised to do. Why was Remy struggling to hold her as she kicked and screamed she wondered.
"Marie!"
Why was Remy calling her that, that wasn't her name anymore, she went by Rogue now. Why wouldn't they just let her rest, she was so tired. She just wanted to lay down for a while, the night was so dark and warm, she'd see them in the morning after all.
"Marie...!"
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