Chapter One
She slowly opened her eyes. Was it a dream? Vertigo could torture her with the news out of cruelty. She focused on her mutation. If she could absorb life force, she may be able to sense it. In the three years after Apocalypse, she had mastered control of her abilities, including calling forward the mutations she had imprinted in the past. It started to attract attention when she used different powers during battles with little to no contact.
Sinister couldn't resist temptation and, in a climatic battle between his cruelest Marauders and the X-Men, he snatched her. She had no idea if her teammates were alright. She hoped so. She could endure anything if they were fine.
She abandoned her research. She didn't find anything. The door opened and Sinister entered. She tightened her jaw and sat up. She watched his devious grin with worry and fear. After two, no, three months, fear of that monster was well ingrained. She recoiled when he tried to touch her cheek.
"Dear, we're family now. You're carrying my grandchild. And who could be a better mother for my heir than you? Your genetics, combined with those of my son, will create a powerful mutant that I will control. I will raise it to be the one who will lead the worthiest."
She tried to wrap her mind around the news. Sinister had a son? And this son's offspring was growing inside her? She felt raped.
"Your son?" her hoarse voice said.
"My son," Sinister nodded. "You see, Apocalypse granted me a long and fulfilling life. I was a baseline human and studied genetics. Apocalypse evolved me. In exchange I was to serve him and find Horsemen for him. I did but as you, my dear, defeated him, he had no use of them anymore. Back to my son. Even though I had longevity and healing factor, my body still aged. I started to clone myself as to survive the two centuries between my evolution and Apocalypse's rise to power. Someday, I decided to tamper with my origin genetic material to create a clone who would already be a mutant. I mixed my DNA with some of the father of Scott Summers."
"Scott? How... Why..."
"See, his great great grandfather used to be a test subject of mine. Therefore I followed his family line. I had detected mutation tendencies. The X-gene, if you like. I, hum, borrowed samples of his DNA. Mixing Summers and my DNA, I created a level five mutant. The baby was magnificent, so full of potential. Though, one night, the infant was stolen. I thought I would never see him again. Irony has it, he came to me when his power reached their full extent. He asked me to reduce his power level to one he could manage."
The last part of the story sounded awfully familiar to Rogue, though he couldn't connect the memories in her weakened, bemused state.
"So I did. Little does he know that I also took from him what I needed to impregnate you with his child. He also ignores he's my 'son'. Now dear, let's move you to a more pleasant room. My grandson needs the best."
Rogue felt used in the worst possible way. From powerful mutant, she just got downgraded to womb. She felt a wave of weakness wash through her, followed with the sensation she was absorbing someone. She had closed her eyes during her dizzy spell. She reopened them to find Sinister sprawled on the ground, unconscious. Using the information she had somehow siphoned from him, she made her way to the holding cells and freed the mutants he held captive. There weren't many. Surrounded with grateful mutants, they helped her to escape the secret lab. Strangely she found no memories pertaining to the identity of Sinister's son.
She would try and find him. He probably deserved to know the truth.
Four days later, at the X-Mansion
"Logan," called Kitty through her communicator. "I see activity in secret safe-way three. Could you go have a look?"
"Half-pint, you sure it's not some wandering animal like last time?"
"If it's an animal, it's human size and walks on its back paws. I'm pretty sure it's human. Can't get a clear picture, though. It seems that there is more than one person too."
With a grunt Kitty took as an agreement, Logan turned off his communicator.
He stealthily made his way through the darkened gallery. He was about to knock out the shadow when: "Good to see you too, Logan."
He stopped in his track. That voice. It couldn't be. She was... Gone. The X-Men had mourned her the last three months. She had been injured to the point of no recovery and her body was never found in the rumble. No matter how long he tried to stay to dig her up. Then human police showed and they had to go. The scene played out in his mind. He sniffed. It could be Mystique... No. It was her scent, tainted with chemicals and hormones.
Hormones.
He fell on his knees. Not many people could brag about getting the Wolverine down on his knees. "Ro... Rogue?" he said with disbelief, his hand outstretched towards her belly.
She strode toward him and helped him up. She tried to smile but a bitterness tainted it. "The one and only. Come on, you ol' softie. Let's get inside."
Without a word, they walked toward the secret entrance. The mutants Rogue brought with her followed. Some of them had been ready to defend her when Wolverine had sneaked upon them but they all relaxed when she called him a softie. He soon recovered enough to glare at the new recruits. "I hope none of them is the dad, or there will be shish-kabob for breakfast."
Rogue stiffened, then snickered. "I couldn't tell you who the dad is if I wanted to, Logan. It's Sinister's doing. My only clue is that the sperm belonged to his son."
Snikt.
"Relax. I think I killed Sinister. I need Hank to examine me. I've had dizzy spells. Whenever I come to, someone's been drained. He was unconscious when we took the lab to the ground. If he isn't dead... Then I'll be safe nowhere. He will find me and take me. I don't want to bring trouble to the X-Men but..." she stopped to swallow a sob. "I'm pregnant, I'm scared, I drain people uncontrollably... I didn't know where else to go."
Wolverine nodded, at loss of words. "It's good to have you back, stripes. We all missed you. We thought you dead."
She smiled through her tears. "You know me, I'm too damn stubborn to die!"
"Just like me, kid. Just like me."
They reached the door. Wolverine pushed it open. Kitty was on the other side, waiting for whatever, ready for everything. Except. "Rogue!" she squealed. "Rogue! It's like, impossible! The building collapsed on you! We thought you dead! I was, like, crying for weeks! I need a hug!"
Kitty had always respected the fact that, despite her control, Rogue wasn't much of a hugger. She opened her arms to welcome the valley girl though. With another squeal of delight high enough to make Wolverine, Wolfsbane and anyone with sensitive hearing within a mile wince, she launched herself at her roommate and best friend.
Both girls shed happy tears. Wolverine stepped in and caught Rogue when another dizzy spell much like she had described hit her. As soon as he caught her she started to absorb him. He fought against the drain to remain conscious. In her state, she shouldn't fall and risk her baby's safety. He had seen how she stroked her belly while talking about it. She loved the pup already. Maternal instinct kicked in.
He saw Kitty wobble on her feet. One of Rogue's follower caught her and steadied her. She smiled at him and gasped when she saw Piotr. Colossus. One of Magneto's lackey. She phased through his hand and stood away from him. She tried to ignore the pained look on his face. Rogue opened her eyes. She worriedly looked at everyone around her. "Damn. Again. It's getting closer each day. And I'm only about a month along."
"Let's take you to the medbay."
She frowned. She wanted Hank to check her vitals but she hated all and every lab, hospital and medical facilities, courtesy of Sinister. She let Logan lead her, the dozen of mutant staying behind with Kitty.
"Kit?" she called. The valley girl turned toward her friend. "I wouldn't be here now without them all. Could you take them to the dormitories? They're all friends. I've absorbed enough of them all the last four days to know that much."
"Fine. I'll come down and see you when my night shift of surveillance is over."
Rogue smiled. "I'd love that, Kit. See ya."
The dormitories were two huge common rooms, containing beds and basic furniture. One for girls and one for boys. She divided the group by gender and showed each their dormitory. Most were happy to see no bars and a bathroom with separate showers. No one to ogle them while undressing and cleaning had a great appeal. Kitty wondered what were the odds that Rogue's group contained six girls and six boys. Though, she amended, some like Colossus could be called men or women.
"I am Kitty, or Shadowcat as some of you may know. I would like to thank you all for bringing Rogue to us. You are welcome to stay here for as long as you need. This is a school, therefore we expect you to behave accordingly. Now you know where your sleeping facilities are... I could show you the kitchen?"
A global murmur of agreement settled the matter. She led the group to the huge kitchen made to accommodate large groups of people.
She sat at the head of the table while the new recruits helped themselves. Soon they were all seated and eating. Kitty recognized some of them, like Colossus or the Scarlet Witch. Most, though, were unknown. "Like, Wanda," Kitty started. "How did you all end up with Rogue?"
"Sinister captured us all. Some of us spent months in his hands. Let me introduce them. The green haired girl here," she showed the girl sitting next to her. "Is my half-sister Lorna. Also known as Polaris. Same powers as our father. The blonde girl is Illyana Rasputin, aka Magick. She has teleportation and magic powers. Sally Blevins, or Skids, has a deflection field. Attacks skid on it. Theresa Cassidy, or Siryn, inherited her father's sonic scream. Her dad is Banshee. Vanessa Carlysle, codename Copycat, has shape-shifting and power-copying abilities, different from Rogue but I don't know all the technicalities. The guys... Well, you know Piotr. Illyana is his sister. Julio Richter, or Rictor, generates vibrations. A bit like Lance. Cypher, well Douglas Ramsey, can decipher any language. And really it's any language. Russel Collins, or Rusty, has pyrokinetic abilities. He cannot control them like Pyro, though. James and John Proudstar, Warpath and Thunderbird, have strength, speed, durability, keen senses, you name it. This is our merry little group."
Kitty nodded. "Thank you, Wanda. Now who is over 18?" Piotr, Wanda, John and Vanessa raised their hands. "The four of you have graduated?" They nodded in response. "If you stay here, people who didn't graduate yet will enroll for the next school year. The ones who did... We'll see. We're short on teaching staff and we need hands to help us keep this boat floating. Anyway, this is a discussion for another day."
As soon as they finished eating, she led them back to the dormitories. She walked to the control room, checking on her way that all students were asleep and well. Satisfied, she resumed her place to watch the screens and monitor the hallway activity. She poured herself a coffee. Just one hour and she would be relieved of her duties. Just one hour and she would see Rogue.
She hadn't seen her in months, even mourned her death and now she knew the girl was alive and well, she has the urge to rush to her side.
A bit over an hour later, she phased through Bobby's door. He was late. Actually, he was still asleep. She pushed him off his bed and phased when he shot ice cubes in every direction. "What the...?" he exclaimed.
"You're, like, ten minutes late and, like, Rogue is back. I want to see her! Now get to the control room!" she dropped the hand-held monitoring device on his stunned body and marched out.
"Wait, what?"
She ignored him. He would better start his shift now. She had a friend to see. Walking out of the elevator, she sauntered toward the medbay, her anger forgotten. She spotted the blue furred mutant who was in charge of all things medical. "Hank! How is she?"
Hank jumped. Her ability to phase made her as quiet and discreet as a mouse. He smiled at her. "She's fine, I believe. I'm worried about those dizzy spell though. Logan said she drained both of you without any skin contact."
"She did. Is it a new evolution of her mutation? Did Sinister tamper with her powers?"
"I believe it's related to her pregnancy," said Hank evenly.
"Huh, come again?" said a puzzled Kitty.
"She's pregnant. A baby is growing is her womb. Six weeks. In less than eight months, there will be a baby Rogue within these walls."
He wasn't sure which part he didn't understand and as a teacher, he was used to phrase the same thing differently for his students.
Kitty almost fell on her butt. Hank grabbed her arm and led her to a seat. "Are you alright, Katherine?"
"Fine. You said... Pregnant? How?"
"I believe it is Sinister's doing. He took an ova from her, impregnated it in vitro, and implanted it back in Rogue's womb. I would provide you with more details but..."
"It's not necessary, thanks. Is it, you know, Sinister's...?" she let her voice trail off, unable to link the words Sinister and Baby in the same sentence.
Hank shook his head. "Sinister explained to Rogue what he did. The baby is... Sinister's grandchild, or so you could say."
"Sinister has a son?"
"A genetically altered clone. It's indeed fascinating. If Rogue and her friends hadn't destroyed his lab..."
"I wouldn't let anyone get his hands on Sinister's research. No matter how good that person is. Not even you, Hank."
Both turned to the owner of the voice. "I understand, Anna."
She smiled at the blue, furry mutant. "Hank, I know you fancy calling people by their birth name, but I don't fancy hearing the name Mystique gave me. Now, I need to find the father of my baby. Sinister said that he ignores his origins... I also need to talk with Scott and Alex... Whoever is the father... He's also their half brother. Sinister mixed his DNA with their dad's."
Kitty scrunched up her nose. "Ew! That's like, so weird!"
Rogue gave her a wolfish grin that would make Logan proud. "Imagine Scott's face when I will tell him he's gonna be the uncle of Sinister's grandchild!"
Kitty stared at Rogue with her mouth agape then burst into laughter.
"Are you done with your examination, Hank?" Rogue asked. "I'd like to spend some time with my best friend before the cat is out of the bag."
"Of course, An... Rogue. Go ahead. I would advise you to eat something. You haven't had a decent meal in days. It's not healthy for the baby."
Rogue smiled at him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Thank ya."
The girls linked their arms and walked toward the elevator, to get to the kitchen. Rogue eyed the mess the new recruits left. "Thank ya, Kit. You took good care of them."
"It's normal, Rogue. It's what us heroes do."
"What us heroes do, when enemies come knocking, is put them in a containment cell the time a mind-reader scans them. I appreciate you didn't do that. I've grown close to Wanda and Piotr the four days it took us to arrive here. Piotr is a real sweetheart, by the way. Magneto was holding Illyana captive. He left the Acolytes as soon as she teleported out of Mags custody."
"She 'ports like Kurt?"
"No. She creates some kind of portals. No brimstone. She uses another dimension. It's called Limbo. She can send people there. She also has a soul sword." Rogue fixed herself a plate and started digging in the food. She moaned when she swallowed the first bite. "It's so good to eat. Hmm."
Wolverine entered the kitchen, in his uniform, the hood pulled back on his neck. He stopped when he saw the girls bonding while Rogue was eating. "Half-Pint, Stripes, you two are still up? What are you doing out of the medbay?" he pointed at Rogue.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm pregnant, not sick. I can sleep later."
Wolverine grunted. He would never admit it but he was relieved she was talking back to him with her usual wit. He eyed critically the white uniform she had on, the one Sinister made all of them wear, that was now more black than white, caked with mud at some places. "You can shower too."
She grimaced. "Yeah, that too. Anyway, why are you up at this ungodly hour?"
"It's almost five am. Time to torture the kids," he said with a grin.
"Aren't most of them home for holidays?"
"Some stayed behind. Can't let them slack off."
Rogue shook her head as he departed. "I feels like I was gone longer than three months, but not much changed."
Kitty giggled. "Indeed. Now why don't you tell me what you're itching to tell me?"
"Can't fool ya, can I?" She said with a smile. She pushed a flash drive towards Kitty. "I've managed to secure this... Sinister's database. Most of it is meaningless babbling to me. I need you to try and find out who Sinister's 'son' is. I need to know who is my baby's dad. I trust you with this because you are my best friend, and this will be destroyed as soon as I find out who he is. I will not let any other scientist play god with this information. My life is... changed. I don't want it to happen to anyone else."
Kitty knew that Rogue wanted to say ruined. Though, for her baby's sake, she was making herself love it, desire it. Rogue read Kitty's look as well as Kitty read hers. Both fell in companionable silence as Kitty fingered the flash drive and Rogue finished her plate.
Without a word, they got up and went to Kitty and Rogue shared room. Rogue went to the ensuite shower and change while Kitty sat at her computer to try and crack Sinister's code. She was a computer genius, something most forgot, taken by her valley girl persona. Her IQ was Einsteinesque, her grades were as high as they could get and she was remotely majoring in Science and Computer while staying at the mansion and teaching the teens.
"I thought it was only two months," Rogue said as she exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. "When they told me I was pregnant... They also told me it was my birthday. I was abducted in the beginning of May, so it was almost three months. One month of my life is missing because I was gazed, drugged, whatever. He could've put me in a stasis chamber, I wouldn't know about it."
Rogue pulled her clothes on her dry body, happy to feel the familiar fabric, to smell the familiar scents. She sat close to Kitty.
"Did you have time to..." she tentatively asked, motioning to the computer.
"I cracked the first encryption code, yes. So you have more information about the person who..."
"Sinister said he came to get his powers under control. He is level five. He got some brain surgery done. Even Sinister's memory about it seemed... Gone. Or locked away. Somewhere even I couldn't access."
Kitty bit her lower lip as she went through the files. "If he was that intent to hide who his son is... It may be that I don't find anything in his archives."
"I know... Just... I'm thankful for your help."
They fell into a comfortable silence. Rogue didn't feel like sharing more of her haunting experience. Kitty almost gave up when she opened a document and met more encryption. She bounced excitedly on her chair. "Does 'heir' ring any bell to you?"
"Sinister called my baby his heir. Why is that?"
"There is a file I cannot open. It has this name. The encryption code is harder. It may take me some time to crack it open."
They smiled at each other. "Some time? How long...?"
"Days. Maybe weeks. I have to design a software that will automatically try and identify the code, verify it's not further coded, check for viruses..."
"Okay, okay!" said Rogue, rising her hands in surrender. "You're the genius."
Kitty looked at Rogue's side of the room. "All your things are still there. I refused when they wanted to move them. Also... Kurt might have announced your death to Mystique... You could... Contact her. She was quite distraught. Kurt and her spent some time bonding."
"Right now, Kit, I'm going to lie down and sleep some. I guess there is more risk I'll drain someone if I'm tired."
Kit changed into her pink pj's. "Yeah. And we can't have you draining us all, can we?" she said flippantly.
Rogue chuckled. "Indeed we can't."
AN. There you go, the first chapter of Rogue's Baby. It's longer than my usual chapter length. Over 3500 words.
Disclaimer: I can't believe I didn't do it when I posted the prologue. Oh well. Consider this disclaimed. Everything copyrighted/recognizable belongs to their rightful owner. I make no profit – and don't intend to – and I pay Marvel for Comics stories, not the other way around. It's all for kicks and giggles.