7. FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
On her third night in the Guild mansion, Rogue had fallen asleep on the couch that she had taken such a liking to in the living room. Remy had been wandering the mansion like the insomniac he was when he'd stumbled across her. She was sleeping with one leg propped up on the coffee table while her head was leaning against the backboard in a way that she was going to feel in the morning.
Looking around, Remy spotted a blanket hanging on a rack on the opposite side of the room. He took it from its place and gently draped it over Rogue. She inhaled deeply as he did so and Remy froze in hopes that he wouldn't wake her up. When Rogue stopped shifting, Remy let go of the blanket and slowly backed away. The last thing he wanted was her catching him in the act, there was no telling what her reaction would be. She'd probably accuse him of trying to suffocate her.
Remy exited the living room without as much as a look back. He maneuvered through the dark halls of the mansion with ease. He had become attune to walking around in the darkness, so the lightless hallways were familiar territory. Remy decided to make a beeline for the kitchen, hoping that maybe a midnight snack would help him fall asleep.
He sat down at the table with a bowl of frost flakes that he methodically fished out one at a time with his spoon. After a while he was just creating a current in the bowl of milk with his spoon as he waited for exhaustion to take him.
Padded footsteps drew his attention toward the doorway. He watched a slim figure that could only belong to one of two women currently residing in the Mansion. The figure wasted no time in the kitchen in going to the fridge. With the door opened, a light went off and cloaked her silhouette in a cloud of light.
"Raidin' de fridge at dis time o' night? How do yo' keep yo' girlish figure?" he asked from his own cloak of darkness.
Rogue whipped around at the sound of his voice. She calmed down immediately after she saw his glowing eyes in the darkness, and wondered why she hadn't noticed his eyes upon entering.
"Runnin' from my problems helps." She quipped reflexively.
This amused Remy, "Somet'ing we have in common, no?"
"No." Rogue said harshly, closing the fridge doors haphazardly.
Remy was about to open his mouth the reply but a red flashing light on and off, lighting up the kitchens for brief moments and casting ominous shadows from its two occupants caught his attention first.
Rogue looked to Remy, "It don' take ah rocket scientist ta figure out what that means." she muttered, discarding her gloves and tucking them into her belt.
"It's time t'pony up on yo' part o' de bargain, Cherie." Remy said, taking the lead out of kitchen. Remy couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the truth of his words. All the doubts that the Guild had about Rogue were about to be tested in the face of combat with her former allies.
Remy and Rogue met in the entrance hall with the other thieves who had been roused from their beds. They all looked somewhat disheveled as they stood wide awake in their pajamas.
"Any idea where dey are on de property?" asked Etienne as he rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hand.
"Dey tripped a sensor on de north end." Responded Jean-Luc as he slinked from the shadows and into sight.
"Which means?" Rogue asked testily, annoyed with her ignorance.
"Means, dey're comin' through de front doors." Remy muttered to her.
A few antagonizing minutes passed as the Guild waited for the arrival of the X-men. Fortunately, the X-men didn't keep them waiting for very long. The ornate oak door was ripped off its hinges and X-men flooded in, Wolverine leading them.
Wolverine first caught sight of Remy. Looking at him with that feral grin of his, Wolverine growled smugly, "Knock, knock." However, Wolverine's eyes shifted from Remy to Rogue who was standing just a few steps behind him. "Rogue." Wolverine snarled. Remy tried to take a protective step in front of her, but Wolverine swiped past him and went straight for her.
Remy turned around to watch Rogue's eyes grow wide as she caught Wolverine just far enough away from her that the tips of his claws left three long scratches down her cheek. As she shoved him away, a trickle of blood ran down her face and neck so that it stained the collar of the old t-shirt she was wearing.
Remy started to come to her aid but Rogue stopped him, "Ah've got him. Handle tha rest until Ah put him down." she said through her teeth.
Turning his attention to the remaining X-men Remy started barking out orders to his family. "Theo, Emil, tie down de Iron Giant! Jean-Luc, Henri occupy red eye, Mercy try an' tail de girl who don' understand the laws o' physics!"
Remy didn't know where Tante Mattie was, but he hoped that she was far away from the entrance hall. A woman of her age and fragility needn't be caught up in something like this. Turning his attention to the only remaining X-men, Remy pulled out a deck of cards and started throwing them at him.
The man with a white and black uniform, with the white part making some odd looking star across his chest, managed to zip past Remy's projectiles and up into the rafters above them. That didn't deter Remy from keeping the man busy as if they were playing some odd version of hot potato.
While he battled off the new guy, Remy listened to battle monologue that Rogue and Wolverine were exchanging.
"I don't think ya realize what've gotten yerself inta here, Rogue." Wolverine's snarl carried an echo in the crowded room.
"No?" Rogue hissed as Remy tossed more cards the way of his opponent.
"Yer in over yer head." Wolverine growled.
"Ah think Ah've got it undah control." Rogue snapped. Remy heard the distinct sound of a direct hit.
Glancing over his shoulder, Remy saw Wolverine stumble backwards.
Gun shots echoed in the entrance hall, Remy whipped around to see Henri and Jean-Luc ducking behind a cedar chest, firing pistols on Cyclops, who was hiding behind an antique sofa that was now bullet ridden. Tante Mattie would not be happy when she came across that, assuming they survived this fight, they may not be so lucky to survive Tante's rage.
"What's yer play here? Huh?" Wolverine demanded of Rogue, "Teaming up with these low life's, ta what end?"
Rogue's quip was unheard to Remy as he was distracted by his opponents bounding back and forth among the rafters.
"It doesn't haveta be like this." Wolverine said to Rogue. "Ya could still leave with us."
Remy spared a look back at Rogue and Wolverine, Rogue was shaking her head at the small, hairy man. "Can't do that, Logan." she was out of breath, "Ah ain' got what Ah came for. Now quit holdin' back. It's showtime." She leapt toward Logan, her bare hands out for the kill.
Turning his attention back to the bat in the rafters, Remy kept him there with some skillfully tossed cards that just barely missed him every time. The guy was fast, Remy'd give him that.
"Don't tell me the Wolverine has grown soft in my absence?" Rogue mocked loudly.
Meanwhile, Remy was growing frustrated with his opponent. He swore in French before shouting, "Come down here an' fight me like a man!"
The man bounded back down to the ground so that he was standing right in front of Remy, "Not if you keep using such obscene words." he said condescendingly before disappearing back up into the rafters.
"Oh, I'll give yo' obscene words." Remy muttered, taking a step back.
In the background, Remy heard someone yelp. He turned to assess what had happened, only to find Henri lying on the ground some fifteen feet behind the chest he had been taking cover behind.
Just when Remy thought things were getting bad, they got worse. A screechy gasp as if someone were drawing their last breath sounded to his left. Looking toward that sound, Remy caught sight of Rogue standing eerily still with Wolverine's hand formed in a fist against her stomach. Rogue held onto Wolverine's shoulders as her eyes widened. The tips of Wolverine's three metal claws poked out of Rogue's back.
"ROGUE!" Remy screamed out of instinct as he realized the severity of what he was witnessing.
"There's tha Wolverine Ah was lookin' for." Rogue said as the blood pooled out of the sides of her mouth. "Now's time for my rebuttal." a smirk touched her blood stained lips as her arms flew up and grabbed Wolverine's face.
Remy could only stare as Wolverine's eyes flew open in shock as Rogue took what she needed. First, the scratches on Rogue's face disappeared, and then she pulled Wolverine's claws out of her with one hand as she continued to hold onto his face until the three holes in her stomach became whole once more. When she was done, she pushed the now unconscious Wolverine away from her and let his body hit the floor. She turned her attention to the rest of the fights in the entrance hall.
The first thing she saw was Remy staring at her in utter awe. She gave him a smile before she drew in a deep breath and briefly enjoyed how easy it was to do so without metal claws puncturing her internal organs. Briefly surveying the area, she must have decided Remy was having the most trouble or in the most danger because she went right to him.
Or maybe it was something else drove her to him first, but Remy didn't dwell on that.
"Yo' good cherie?" Remy asked her the second she was next to him.
Rogue scoffed, "Gonna take more than stabbin' me in tha gut ta kill me."
"Noted," Remy said in relief as he tossed more cards at the man above him.
"Imma need ya ta actually hit Northstar, Sugah." Rogue said impatiently.
"Been tryin'." Remy replied through his teeth, "He ain' exactly an' easy target."
Remy knew he was right this time. This Northstar was too fast to be a long range target, and he wasn't stupid enough to come close except that one time he taunted Remy.
Rogue took another deep breath and stepped in front of Remy and started shouting, "Jean-Paul! Seems ta me like ya're the same ball-less pussy ya was when Ah left. Come down here and face me..." she added one final word to the end of her sentence, a terrible slur for a man of his sexuality.
Northstar stopped dead when Rogue's words reached him. Remy had to admit that they had taken him by surprise as well. Northstar's face ranged a bunch of different emotions starting with hurt and ending in anger. In that ending fit of rage, Northstar darted at Rogue. Remy finally understood her play when he watched her hand- now equipped with three bone claws escaping from her knuckles- rise up to meet Northstar.
Remy could only stare at the sight of Rogue impaling her former teammate like Wolverine had done to her just a few moments earlier. Northstar's eyes widened as he looked down at where her fist met his stomach in confusion. Some blood leaked from his stomach and stained the white fabric of his uniform as Rogue caught him and lowered him down to the ground gently.
"Ah'm sorry, JP." Rogue whispered to him as he laid his head on the ground. It looked like Rogue kissed his cheek, almost his ear before she stood up to deal with the rest of the X-men.
Unable to shake the look of shock plastered on his face, Remy tried to say something to Rogue, but couldn't. She had just shelved one of the most infamous X-men and killed another in front of his very eyes. Of all the things he'd thought her capable of cold blooded murder was not one of them. He was starting to wonder just what kind of person Rogue was after all, and if her behaviors were justified or if she were no better than the rest of them.
NORTHSTAR!" cried Cyclops as he spotted his teammate's unmoving body on the ground. He looked directly at Rogue, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" he demanded in anguish.
"Ah've sent a message" Rogue replied, "Northstar is dead. You Are Next." she snarled, dried blood still coating her face and stomach. Northstar's fresh blood covered her hand.
"I don't think so."
Rogue and Remy whipped around to see the petite brunette, who Remy had come to assume was Shadowcat, clutching the fabric of both Wolverine and Northstar's uniforms. She glowered at them as she phased down through the floor, taking them with her.
Colossus let out a furious cry as he finally broke free of the trick wires the Marceax's had contained him with. "Cyclops, now would be good time for plan of the B."
"But!" Cyclops objected.
Colossus shook his head, "We have been bested, my friend."
Cyclops's lips curled as he acknowledged the Russian's point. He cranked up the knob on the side of his visor. Rogue's eyes widened as she recognized what that meant.
"TAKE COVER!" she cried as Cyclops opened fire on the Guild. This wasn't a typical blast either, this blast wasn't as controlled, its range was wider and its power more raw than anything Cyclops usually fought with.
Before Remy could react, Rogue tackled him to the ground and shielded his body with her own. While Cyclops's blasts were not of the laser variety, they were able to repel things with such force that it was similar to the effect of a bug smacking against a windshield. They were the bug, his blast was the windshield.
Clutching Remy tightly, Rogue maneuvered their bodies so that as they twisted as they skidded across the floor so that she would take the brunt of the force and the coming blow from the wall. With Logan's healing factor on retainer, she harbored no fear of permanent injury.
Rogue grunted as she took the entirety of the blow with her own body as they smacked against that far wall. Remy found himself in a very favorable position, with his head nestled between Rogue's breasts, while the rest of their bodies were tangled.
"At dis rate, Imma start t'inkin' yo' care 'bout me." Remy said cheekily.
Rogue shoved Remy off of her and rolled her eyes. She jumped to her feet and looked around wildly for any trace of the X-men. They were gone. Using Cyclops's beams as a decoy, they had fled the Guild Mansion.
Remy had the instinctive feeling that now that they knew Rogue was here, they wouldn't be back.
Remy made mental notes of his family as he surveyed the demolished entrance hall. Henri and Jean-Luc were stirring at the top of the staircase that they had been propelled up; Mercy had just made her way back to the hall and was at Henri's side as she attempted to help him to his feet. Theo and Etienne poked their heads out from the doorjamb of the adjacent room they had ducked in to escape the blast as Emil tediously made his way through the front door.
Emil looked around in confusion.
Remy's scathing glare was upon his cousin, "An' where de hell were yo'?"
Emil rubbed the back of his neck, "I was tryin' t'hack int' dat fancy jet o' dere's."
Remy stormed over to Emil, about to ring him out with his fists when Rogue caught Remy's attention. Rogue fell to her knees, clutching her head. She moaned in pain as bone claws erupted from her hands only to retract and erupt again. As she knelt there, attempting to regain control of herself, she suddenly began to levitate off the ground.
"What's she doin'?" Theo asked, his brow furrowed as he eyed her cautiously.
Emil made a face, "Her file said she was prone to being overwhelmed by too many psyches. T'ink 'bout it, Captain Marvel last week, Congressman Brightway a few days ago-"
"Wolverine an' Northstar jus' now." Remy added quietly.
Emil nodded, "I doubt her mind has had enough time t'completely process an' file away all dose separate personalities from her own, causin' this." he motioned a hand toward Rogue's still floating body. She writhed in the air, but none of them were sure how to help her, or if they should even attempt to.
Remy thought back to the other day after Rogue had absorbed Brightway and she hadn't recognized him, or more importantly, herself. He hoped that this would not be a similar experience. He could only assume that it would be worse this time around.
Rogue's piercing screamed deafened Remy's ears as the fear washed over him. As she continued to clutch her head, two claws on her left hand retracted, leaving only one. Slowly, Rogue started to lift higher and higher into the air.
Remy caught Rogue's ankle and pulled her back to the ground as calmly as he could until he was grasping her shoulder. "Rogue!" he said desperately, "Rogue!"
She said only one word before she collapsed into Remy's chest, unconscious. Her voice had been so meek and tender that had Remy not witnessed it come out of her mouth, he wouldn't have believed such a tone were possible from the fierce woman that he clutched onto.
"Help." she had whispered.
A/N: To recap, there won't be a update next week but this should be a one-time thing. Also, with this chapter we have reached just beyond the half way mark! Thank you for the well wishes on my trip!
To (possibly) answer Paulina Ann's comment about Rogue being too harsh, I am totally aware that she was/is. However because this is Remy's POV we don't get to see why she is acting like that. I will address it in a later chapter (possibly extensively if I write the companion piece from her POV). Specifically the penultimate chapter is a Rogue POV chapter that goes back and recaps some of the major plot points so we finally know what she was up to/thinking. Think of it like the flashback montage of an episode of Leverage where it shows the team's slight of hand! And as for Belle, I have plans for her too :), this isn't your standard "Belle is an antagonist and evil incarnate" story, I find that trope tired. I tried to make her human, or at least as human as someone whose day job is being an assassin can be. I hope that answer suffices!