Disclaimer: The X-men are not mine. Never have been. Beth is, though, so please don't steal her. I'll probably lend her to you if you ask nicely.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Three hours later, Rogue perched on a desk in Remy's office. He looked tired and bewildered.
"And well?" she prodded gently.
"She was…a ballerina. Dey had a picture of her on tour with de group. She was a talent out of nowhere…only fourteen when she started."
Rogue was shocked to almost see tears in his eyes.
"Den one day she smashed up a classroom with her bare hands, and refused to dance. She went wild, as though possessed." He swallowed and turned away, letting a fringe of auburn hair cover his face.
"She always had a visitor, supposed t' be her fa'er, but dey never believed dat. She hated him. Den one day she disappeared. She sent dem a note to say dat she wouldn' be comin' back, had gone back to 'er family…"
He cut himself off, trying not to let his voice shake, or any emotion to show through his demonic eyes.
"But she had no father, Rogue. Don't 'y get it?" he turned towards her, and she could see that his heart had been torn open.
"Dat man—dat man was Sinister."
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"This is not permissible Logan!" thundered Charles' voice.
The Wolverine raised an eyebrow with a twitch of boredom.
"I am truly surpised at ya, Chuck. Didn't ya see…surely a telepath of ya power would have realized, that Beth isn't just a little girl. You saw the fight, you have the tape. And you can see that Angel's bashed up. Two against one, but she gave us a fight well beyond a bit of Gumbo's training."
"Logan, listen to me! She is just a child, she fought with fear, not ability."
Wolverine coughed, then laughed. With the remote control that he held in one hand, he rewound the tape. Across the room, Angel gave him a brave smile. A few dozen strands of cartilage in his wings had almost snapped, and there were numerous bruises on his arms, chest and face.
As Charles Xavier leaned back in his wheelchair and examined Beth's demonstration of acrobatic endurance, the doubt tickled at the back of his mind. He seemed to have some sort of dark cloak about his mind, something was hiding from him.
He gasped and was thrown forward by some unknown force, clutching his head as his mind opened up again, for a moment it seemed as though all the thoughts of everyone in the world thundered in around her. So many years of practice allowed him to lock them all out again, but there was one voice that stayed.
Kill and eat, it told him, in a cold, passive voice. And then he knew. He knew everything.
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It was early morning, and they were once again on a flight headed back towards the X-men.
This time, Remy had a feeling that his stay would be a little bit longer. He had to work everything out with Beth, and this time he wouldn't take any blank looks or interruptions for an answer.
Rogue had nestled her head sleepily against his shoulder, and although he felt bad about it, he turned up his collar so that her cheek didn't touch his neck.
He looked out the window, and for an instant he thought he saw Beth, laughing as she set on the tip of the airplane's wing, her wavy hair rippling in the wind about her head. Then he thought about what he had found out, and what Jean had told him. Something was not right. Like him, his little p'tite had been hurt by Sinister, too. It was a curious coincidence that they had been united by fate…
Perhaps not a coincidence at all.
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This time their baggage was not lost, and Remy picked up his cases. Rogue's had not been retrieved from the hotel, as he had feared that however had poisoned her could still be lurking around, in fact, might be tracing them right now.
A light tap on his shoulder made him spin around, and he was suddenly enveloped into a huge hug by a young woman with shoulder-length jet black hair and rose-tinged sunglasses.
"He, what's dis!" he managed to exclaim when she let him go.
A huge smile crossed her features, and she removed the sunglasses. He was suddenly looking right into Jubilee's cattily slanted Asian eyes.
"Now, Gumbo, you owe me an explanation. I heard that you passed right by the mansion and didn't even stop to say hi! That's like, unpardonable." She grinned, all the same. "But I've missed you so much I can't stay angry."
"Same here, p'tite. Now, tell me, who else's part of de welcoming committee?"
Behind his black shades, his red on black eyes were already beginning to simmer as he watched Wolverine walking towards him, followed by Storm.
"Hey, Gambit." Logan looked tense, and his icy blue eyes shone like a wolf's. Then he relaxed as Storm put a hand on his shoulder. "Welcome back. We have a matter to solve, 'bout Beth. But first we have to find her."
"We sure do," said Remy, and there was a splitting edge of sarcasm in his tone.
He took a step closer to the Canadian.
"And if we don't, I will kill you."
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A.N.: A tiny chapter, but you said update very, very soon, and I took you literally. So here you go, a few more answers about Beth. Heheheheh, and a lot of surprises to come:-D