Pain
Pain drove her from the black void of unconsciousness.
It felt as though her insides were being attacked by a blowtorch. Her breath came in gasps; her heart labored and her stomach began to boil. She felt as if each organ was literally being melted and then reshaped.
She tried to let out a scream, but her vocal cords rebelled.
Bile rose in her throat and spewed from her mouth, and then rolling back down her throat as her jaw locked. She choked, trying to expel it from her mouth but the synapses that sent messages from her brain to her muscles just could not connect.
Her body tensed, trying to curl into a fetal position, but was obstructed by something that kept her upright.
Her jaw unlocked, and she released a never-ending soundless scream as the pain went on and on.
Eventually, her mind withdrew from the pain, giving her the only release it could; unconsciousness.
The second time she woke, she knew instantly that it was back. Her skin was humming, over-sensitive from its long confinement.
A wave of grief swept over her as she thought of the freedom she had lost. And Logan wasn't even here to help her grieve. It wasn't fair. She had longed so much for what was a given to everyone else, had given up so much to protect those around her. She was tired of having to think for everyone else. The worrying, of having to make sure that every inch of her was covered so as to ensure there safety would all begin anew. She was tired of having to plan ahead, so as to avoid places with a lot of human traffic, where the likelihood of her shrugging past someone could in an instant turn fatal.
The pain that lived in her chest grew to gigantic portions and tears leaked from beneath her closed eyelids.
It was back to being an outsider, the observer, once again. A small sob escaped as she struggled with the weight of her grief.
"Well, well, well. It seems sleeping beauty has awakened," came a mocking voice.
Marie's eyes flew open. The bright light hit her eyes and she hissed in pain as her eyes struggled to adjust and focus on the owner of that voice. Her body tensed and went instantly into 'flight or fight' mode.
And that was when she realized that she was strapped to med lab gurney.
'What the hell?!' she thought.
"Who are ya?" she asked hoarsely, as her eyes focused on the tall, brunette, dressed in a white lab coat, standing directly to the base of the gurney.
"Are you sure that's the first question you want to ask, darling? Is that the one that's to the forefront of your mind?" she asked mockingly.
"Where am ah?"
"Now, now, Rogue –"
"Marie!" she growled.
"Well since we reversed the cure, I would say that you're back to being poor little, pitiful Rogue again. And as I was saying before you rudely interrupted me, don't you have a better question than those? Really, I credited you with more intelligence than you're suggesting at present. Now try again. They do say 'third time a charm'."
Marie looked around the room, as far as her strapped head would allow her too, taking in all that she could. She looked at the trays of medical instruments next to the gurney she lay on. She looked at the large glass chamber filled with some sort of green vapor and the one next to it that looked to contain the liquid version to it. From the far corner of her vision she saw the lab assistants scurrying from one computer to another, making various notations on the clipboards in their hands. And lastly she spied the camera in every direction that she looked. The room struck a chord in her.
'It reminds me of the med lab at the Mansion, sorta… no! It reminds me of the med lab in Logan's dreams,' she thought.
And that's when she felt real fear kick in.
The woman sniffed the air as the scent of her fear reached her and she smiled approvingly.
"Ahhh! Now you're thinking. So what's your question now, Rogue darling?"
Marie took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady as she asked, "Why am ah here?"
"And she asks correctly!" the woman said in a high falsetto voice. "And your prize is…" she paused, "a test drive of your skin."
As if in slow motion, Marie watched as the woman raised her bare hand and moved it to her bare ankle, strapped to the gurney.
Involuntarily her feet jerked, trying to get away from the woman's hand. But there was no give in the strap.
She watched in horror flesh met flesh.
Immediately her skin started imprinting.
"Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, thrashing. But it was to no avail. She just held on tighter.
Pressure began at the base of her brain, as the new entity forced its way into her mind. All of Lilly's thoughts and emotions, imprinted itself into her. She had access to all her memories. But worse, she saw all her goals. She saw the extent of what she had planned for her.
The pain increased a hundredfold for each second that Lilly held on, until she felt that it would split her apart.
And then… It stopped. For a few seconds, there was peace in her mind.
And then the noise came rushing back, as her mind tried to sort through the information that it had just received.
With the realization of what Lilly was going to do filled her mind, Rogue opened her eyes, filled with shock, horror and disbelief, and looked at the weakened Lilly.
Smiling, the weakened woman said, "Welcome to hell… Rogue."
A/N: Thanks so much to my first three reviewers, cooltangerine, PyroWhore and of course my beta, Sublime Angel. And yes, chica, I will try to watch the grammatical errors. Fixed the one you spoke of.