"Logan?" Banshee asked from behind the feral mutant. Banshee had heard of the X-Men before they had rescued Rogue, but it was afterwards that he learned more and more about them, especially Logan. It was his name that she screamed at the height of her nightmares, especially right after the rescue. It was with memories of him that calmed her more than any other. To her fractured mind he was family.
"What can I do for ya?" The Canadian turned the full force of his scowl onto the Irishman.
"I was wondering if you happened to see where Anna went, I haven't seen her since earlier. And after last night I'm worried about her." Banshee answered, constantly looking for the petite mutant.
"Her and the midget left, she said something about getting him something to eat…" Logan said before tilting his head to the side, like a dog when it's listening. "But now they're in the music room."
"The music room….?" Banshee was confused about why the girl he was charged to protect would be in the music room.
"What was that?" Logan asked as the new mutant turned and walked out of the room without another word.
"Just what was that about?" Remy asked as he slid gracefully into the recently vacated seat.
"Rogue." Logan grunted shortly, hoping that Remy would take that as a clue that he didn't wish to have a conversation. But, of course, it didn't work.
"So, you know this new fille?" Remy said taking a sip of his coffee.
"Yes." Logan grunted. He clearly didn't want to be talking, to Remy or about his girl to him. "And if you so much as look at her wrong, you will be a thief a little short on the jewels, got it?"
"Crystal clear, my Canadian friend," Remy replied before standing up and following Banshee's exit minutes before.
"Anna!" Banshee exclaimed walking into the music room seeing the object of his quest sitting before the baby grand talking to one of Xavier's students. "I've been looking everywhere for you! Don't go disappearing on me like that. I didn't know where you went."
Rogue looked up at Banshee with a slight smile and responded, "Sorry but Nymph needed to play…." Suddenly she got a far away gaze in her emerald eyes. The color suddenly was washed out to white.
"The time of war fast approaches. The thief of souls will be taken while her watcher and the guards are otherwise occupied with the fast coming Apocalypse. Only the one immune can save her."
Just as suddenly as her eyes changed they changed again. Jamie and Banshee were staring at the young woman, her emerald eyes looked at them both confused, "What? Do Ah have something on my face?"
"Anna, what was that? Was that a joke?" Banshee said harshly, ignoring the younger male in the room focusing on the girl, "Because if it was, it was just cruel."
"Sean?" Rogue questioned perplexed, "What are you talking about, I just told you that Nymph wanted to play the piano. Hey Jamie, are you training as a junior X-Men?"
"Yeah…. Oh, I'm late! I need to go get ready. You should come join us, it would be fun." Jamie said quickly throwing a quick smile over his shoulder as he ran out of the room.
"What do you think Sean? Should I go and train with them?" Rogue asked with such a little girl innocence that Sean couldn't stay mad at her.
"Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. You haven't trained in a while." Sean said softly as Rogue was jogging out of the room before all the words were out of his mouth. "I'll just go and call home."
Today, the elder X-Men were going to be testing the younger mutant's fighting styles within the Danger Room by pairing them with an older X-Man to fight. Relaxing along the wall Bobby 'Iceman' Drake and John 'Pyro' Allerdryce were chatting with Kathryn 'Shadowcat' Pryde (but she preferred to go by Kitty) and Jubilation 'Jubilee' Lee. Scott noticed that they were missing one of the younger mutants.
"Do any of you know where Multiple is?" Scott finally asked exasperated, looking back behind him toward the older X-Men for an answer when the juniors didn't look like they were going to answer.
"Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry." Jamie 'Multiple' Marddox said as he slid into the Danger Room, but before Scott could reprimand him for being late, another voice added itself to the conversation.
"Dios mio! Jamie why'd we have to run?" the sultry southern voice of Rogue wafted into the room. "It's not like you weren't already late, what's another five minutes."
"Just get in here." Jamie said quietly out the door before turning back to Scott with a little shrug.
"So, let's kick some mutated booty, little buddy!" Rogue said throwing an arm around Jamie's shoulder as she stepped into the room. Once again she was wearing her green and white fighting leathers while the other mutants were wearing black leather with slight individual differences.
"Rogue, what are you doing here?" Logan growled, but what surprised the other mutants was the sweet smile that appeared on her face at Logan's tone.
"Sugah, Ah'm here to show ya'll the correct way to kick mutant booty. Then after that, someone is gonna be a nice little boy and buy me a beer. Cause, ya'll know that there is absolutely no beer within this whole place, and believe you me, Ah've looked." Rogue said sweetly towards Logan with a devil-may-care smile. And even the most paternal instincts within Logan were destroyed, just by one look. Then just as suddenly the sultry look was shattered as she turned toward Jamie again and her eyes sparkled with such innocence.
"Alright, first up, Bobby, you're going to fight Storm. When the rest of us are up in the control room, then you can start." Scott said as he herded everyone out of the DR and into the control room.
Remy watched as Rogue walked up to the control room whispering and laughing with Jaime. Remy noticed how earlier, when she was talking to Logan, how she went from sultry and sexy to innocent and carefree in less then a heartbeat. The girl was a mysterious enigma that needed to be figured out. As the junior X-Men went out individually to showcase their fighting styles Remy noticed that Rogue never once looked out the window to observe the other X-Men fighting. She would talk to anyone who would start up a conversation with her, but also when there was silence, Remy noticed that she never once sat still, she'd close her eyes and it would appear as though she was listening to something that no one else could hear. Finally, Kitty dragged herself in from her fight with Scott signifying that all the junior X-Men had gone, that just meant that Rogue was the only one yet to go.
"Alright, Rogue, show us what you got." Scott said as he took his seat behind the control panel. He punched in some stats into the computer to find the perfect foil to Rogue with the information that they had about Rogue, which wasn't much. There was a match. "Rogue and Remy go on…" Just as Scott was tell the two southerners to go into the DR the computer produce another name. "Logan, the DR computer says that Rogue matches both yours and Remy's fighting styles. So it will be you two against Rogue."
The two male mutants looked from Scott to each other to Rogue. "Well let's go boys! It's not like Ah'm getting any younger, and Ah'm so totally going to kick your collective bums." Without waiting for the two males to respond Rogue jogged out of the control room to the DR.
Rogue took up a relaxed position waiting for the two mutants to get ready. At first Rogue just watched the two watch her. When neither of them looked like they were going to move, Rogue cocked her head to the left, and liquefied. One second she was standing in front of them watching, than there was a puddle where she was standing. As they tried to understand what was going on the puddle moved. Behind the two men Rogue re-solidified, and executed a perfect round house kick to Logan's back.
As Logan went flying across the room, Remy turned pulling his bo stick from one of the many pockets in his trench coat. Extending the stick he brought it twirling around hoping to get her off center. But again the girl disappeared, but in a cloud of smoke this time instead of into water.
Logan came barreling back at Rogue thoughtless of who he was attacking anymore. He grabbed her around her waist and bodily lifted her from the ground, but before either could do anything about her momentary capture, she dissolved into shadows. They lost her into the shadows as neither could see her as she flitted from shadow to shadow.
Before a warning could be issued Logan felt a quick stabbing before he dropped temporarily out of commission. Remy jumped over Logan and tackled her. The two grappled for ten minutes on the floor until Rogue stilled. Remy paused wondering why she just gave up. Suddenly her head shot forward and captured his lips in a kiss. Remy would probably classify that kiss as the best he ever received in his life. But before he could think any farther, everything went black.
Logan sat up just in time to witness the kiss. Conflicting emotions warred in his mind, first was jealousy as he watched the man briefly return the kiss, and secondly rage from the thought that Remy liked it in any way.
Logan jumped at her and tackled her off of the unconscious Cajun. When Logan had her pinned the first thing he noticed where her eyes, no longer the gorgeous emerald eyes but the scarlet on black eyes of the wayward X-Men watched him.
"Hey, Logan, game over." Rogue said sweetly smiling up at him before giving him a peck on his cheek. The last thing Logan thought before blacking out was, illogically, wondering why she just kissed him on his cheek when Remy got a lip lock.
Walking back into the control room Rogue smirked at the dumbfounded looks from the assembled mutants as they realized as two of their best were lying motionless on the floor. "Don't ya'll worry- they should be waking up…." Rogue said tilting her head to the right, "Now."
The two picked themselves up off the floor and staggered into the room. They looked around making eye contact with every single mutant there and nonverbally threatened anyone who dared repeat what happened here to anyone.
"So…. Who's buying my beer?" Rogue asked with a grin, reclining in a chair next to Jamie, scarlet eyes watching the assembled mutants. But as they watched the colors bled out to white and Rogue's voice took on a cryptic edge, "The thief of souls is the key. When the dark king holds control of the thief, he holds control of the future and the past. The watcher and the guard will be distracted at the crucial time; none should leave the thief alone…" Then the normal emerald color returned to her eyes, "Come on, Ah need to get my drink on. There are only so many hours in the night that can be devoted to beer. And I plan to capitalize on all of them. Who ever wishes to go can meet me by the door in thirty minutes."
The X-Men were left in stunned silence as Rogue left. She didn't even appear to be aware of what she just did. Scott watched the doors swish shut. "So, who wants to explain to me what just happened?" Alex asked perplexed.
"I don't know. But I'll talk to you guys later, I need to get ready." Warren said taking a step towards the door, "I'm not passing this up, you realize that she just took down both Logan and Remy? And not to forget, she's hot! I'm going to treat her to the best night of her life… she just made mine."
"Hey, wait! You don't get her!" Alex yelled running after Warren.
