Just so you know, this fanfic is set on the same timeline as the show. So the last chapter ended on the same time as the episode 'Rogue Recruit'. This is just how things would have turned out when there is no Rogue to recruit. And sorry about all the time jumps, im just trying to get a lot established in only a few chapters.
Chapter 5: Empty
That very same evening, in the town of Bayville New York, the newly forming team of mutant teens called the X-men observed Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, demonstrating how to get past high tech security systems in the Danger Room.
"Stop Logan. It is, at the moment, all we can afford." The professor said over the intercom, having just entered the room from Cerebro.
"What can I say? When I give a demo, I give a demo."
Scott sounded skeptical. "Demo as in demolish or demonstration?"
Logan arrived in the control room in time to hear their newest recruit Kitty Pryde speaking. "Is it just me or is anyone else, like, totally freaked by all this? Oh, just me? Great." She said in response to their blank stares. Logan rolled his eyes as Kurt tried to show off for Kitty. Instead of impressing her he simply seemed to spook her even more and she phased from the room.
Logan wandered over to the professor who looked preoccupied. Scott had noticed too.
"What's up Professor?"
The other X-men turned to their founder who's brow was crinkled with contemplative thought. He looked up to meet their curious gazes. "Something that I am not sure is much to be concerned about, but the phenomena has been occurring quite often these days. While I was scanning with Cerebro, I picked up the briefest flash of a mutant signature before it vanished without a trace. It might just be a problem with Cerebro but this isn't the first time it has happened. I will register a signature for less than a second before it disappears. I can never pinpoint the exact location, but the manifestations always occur in roughly the same region. I can also get a glimpse of these new mutants' minds and it's always the same: fear, pain, and desperation. After the first glimpses, I never see them again."
His observations were met with apprehensive silence. Kurt's tail twitched nervously, Jean, Storm, and Scott looked worried, and Logan growled deep in his chest.
Scott was the first to comment. "How could the signatures be disappearing, unless they no longer existed?"
"Well Scott, there are ways to block Cerebro, but only those who knew the technology would know how. Or the answer is that the signatures don't exist anymore."
Logan snarled. "You think that whoever these kids are, that they're being killed?"
The professor steepled his fingers. His brown eyes were dark with concern. "I do not know my friend. I believe that we should try to discover more in this matter."
xxxXXXxxx
Vyce sat across from Essex in one of the offices on the upper floors of the complex. The geneticist had just returned from the study of the last mutant operative. The life leech was the last among their acquisitions to gain their mutant powers. They were nearly in the last stage of the project before they were ready to be put to use.
"You have done good work Dr. Essex. Of course, you will remain until the project is finished?"
The man grinned, flashing those sharp teeth. "Certainly. The possibilities for some of your mutants are vast. I have special plans for several of them to increase their already considerable powers."
Vyce sat back. Hopefully this would win back the favor of the Supreme Hydra. She had been showing great partiality to Project X-23 and he was eager to advance the progress of his own charges. Long years and good money had been put into this.
"Tell me of the leech girl. She was one of the most in demand when she was brought here."
"She is a magnificent specimen. Her file says she is just sixteen, a little late for most mutants, but I believe her powers are more developed than they would have been if they had manifested earlier. She is the most powerful leech I have ever seen. From the tests she can absorb thoughts, memories, energy, abilities, and even mutant powers with just a touch of her skin. Unfortunately her powers cannot be turned off, for now at least. I intend to fix that small problem as soon as possible. Even more fascinating, a psychic imprint of the absorbee remains inside her mind, permanently as far as I can tell. This could have unlimited potential. With time, she could access skills and powers that she has previously absorbed. I have not yet tested the limits of her absorbancy, but I will proceed as soon as possible." Essex spoke rapturously of the work that lay ahead of him.
"Very good. You have upheld our business deal well. When the work is finished you shall receive your promised fee: genetic samples and the copies of the records on all the mutant operatives, plus your cash price of fifty thousand. Now I must observe the final stage. Now that our residents are full mutants we can begin our real work."
xxxXXXxxx
Rogue felt in her bones that they were being marched to an end. Over the years, especially in the slaughter when she had first arrived, their numbers had been reduced to twenty six from the original number. It was a cruel game of survival, and not all wanted to see what waited at the end. Now those twenty six were being marched down a corridor none had been along before.
Rogue shivered. While in that room Mr. Sinister had talked while he examined her powers and she had heard something that had horrified her. Ten years. This had been her prison for ten long years. She wasn't a child anymore, in mind, body, or spirit. She had a woman's figure now, long legs and curved hips. Her face wasn't round, but shaped and set. Days beyond count spent training had hardened every muscle.
She looked ahead. Kayla was right in front of her. The Native American's face had been chiseled like a marble statue. She was also taller and more curvacious than Rogue.
Her eyes then fell to Remy and Rowan, men of eighteen. Rowan, true to former assumptions, was the tallest though Remy wasn't far behind. His features were straight and sharp, but his blue eyes were still as soft as ever.
Remy, if seen in any other company, would have turned every female head his way. His auburn hair was still bowl cut but gleamed even in the poor lighting. His face had lost any childish roundness long ago, replaced with high cheek bones, a straight nose, arched brows, and a full mouth. He stood over six feet with muscles long and wiry like a panther's.
Rogue knew that this wasn't where they belonged. They should be out in sunlight, with friends or family and living life as it should be lived. Instead they were buried. Ten years or more without sunlight or fresh air.
They arrived and it felt like they were being led to death. The metal doors hissed open and each young adult was led into the room. Twenty six chairs that would have put the electric chair to shame in inflicting fear awaited them. Rogue was forced into her chair and strapped in. She felt a small pressure in her mind and she gratefully opened her thoughts to Kayla's telepathy.
"Courage everyone. Whatever happens, we're together in this." The message was reached out to all twenty six of them. Rogue could hear the panicked thoughts of the others. Only her three friends remained steady.
A hiss echoed and the panic escalated to barely contained hysteria. Devices were set on each of their heads, the bands settling across the forehead and the crown. Blinkers flicked down over their eyes, but not before they caught the glint of several monstrous needles. She could hear one voice over the rapport. "God help us." Rogue recongnized the voice. It was the voice of the blonde girl she had saved in the massacre; her name was Tracy, a technopath. "They're mind wiping us."
Cries shuddered over the connections, but another girl's voice was heard, hard as steel. "They can't unless we let them. Fight it, don't give in."
"De femme's right. Stand up to it. Dey're takin' de last t'ing we have an' we can't let 'em get it."
Rogue said nothing, but her defiance rang like tolling bells through their minds.
Rogue felt a prick, very faint. Then shots of pain, violent and swift as bee stings, as the needles were driven through the scalp, flesh, and through the skull itself into the vital points in the cerebrum. The cries she heard this time touched her ears and not her mind.
Rogue fought the wave of nausea at the spinning and aching pain. She could fear the sharp points in her brain and it was inflicting an apocalypse of a headache. Kayla's voice spoke once more as the blinkers before their eyes began to flicker.
"Together. We promised." Rogue's mental image reached out and joined hands in a circle with her friends. Even in her psychic form, her hands hurt as they were squeezed tight. She knew she was doing the same. They were clinging to the only solid things they could.
The blast of light in their eyes hurt, almost burning their retinas. Fire and ice pulsed down the needles and into their minds.
Rogue felt her body seize up and begin first to twitch, then to writhe desperately. More pain, always more pain. Her mental self felt a pull like a giant vaccuum at her back. Turning her head she saw a massive black hole on the astral plane that was attempting to suck away all memories, relationships, personality, trying to leave her an empty shell.
She seized tighter to her friends' impressions as they too were being pulled away. Wails reached their ears as the other mutants gradually vanished into the black holes, but they clung tight.
An awful feeling afflicted them all, like they were cracking apart slowly. Rogue could feel something slipping away and she fought the urge to cry. The one thing she thought they would never take, her God given name, was being taken where she could never get it back.
"Leave it be." Kayla screamed over the roaring winds in their minds as their earthly bodies thrashed and yells pounded the walls and ceiling. "All we need to know is that we aren't slaves, that we were meant to be free. Remember each other, and nothing else matters."
They all slipped away. In the beat of her heart, Anna Marie was gone. With a flash of light, the name Remy was lost. Just as quickly the titles Kayla and Rowan were gone as well.
Lightning flashed on the astral plane and they held strong. Smell of food, feel of wind, all were let go as they held tight to what was truly important.
One last bolt jolted their minds before the machines powered down. The mutants lay exhausted, unable to move, most stripped of themselves and left as husks.
Limpid eyes blinked open. Anna Marie was gone, but the Rogue remained. That piece of her had remained. Her gaze flicked to her friends. They were still her friends, but tears pooled in her eyes as she realized she no longer knew their names. Her own mind felt strange to her; nothing was familiar. No memories of her time before her arrival here, emotions wiped away that she had knew had been there before. There were things that had become clearer though: the massacre, memories of pain and training. Her name was gone, yet she had managed to hold on to her relationships with the other three, and the name she had given herself. It truly was her only name now. Several seats down, the boy with the red and black eyes blinked then met her stare.
"Rogue." He whispered. He had remembered as well. She tried desperately to find his name. He was truly the most important person in her life and her first friend. The looming void began to terrify her. There was nothing to find.
She choked back a sob and turned her head away. Her hands clenched tightly on the armrests of her chair. The bitterness and anger and pain was growing into murderous rage. The world began to shimmer red and needles pricked her hands. She heard a humming and her eyes flicked downwards. Her hands spread kinetic charge through the chair as the guards ran to apprehend her. It shattered beneath her and she wasted no time.
Rogue flew from her bindings and her eyes had changed from oceanic to demonic. Several of the operatives stared in shock, their minds wiped absolutely. The teen girl's face was twisted and she lunged for the first guard, not caring for her intent. He tried to subdue her but she seized his jacket, snarling like a rabid wolf. The force of her tackle knocked them to the floor, toppling the other men. Her hands glowed and his clothes caught. She rolled away before the man went up in a bonfire.
Another guard managed to stand and tried to grab her again. With shocking strength she threw him off before stumbling backwards. Her hands were bare. She connected with skin and it blazed with light as she felt the rush of energy into her mind with a brand new power. Her teeth grew sharp, black fur sprouted all over her, and claws grew on her fingertips.
Her eyes were wild, but she could hear yelling. She looked to see a fierce blonde girl struggling in her bonds. The same look of bloodwrath inflamed her blue eyes and Rogue knew what she wanted. With the kinetic powers still in her possession she set light to the chains, blowing them to smithereens. The girl jumped up, a grin on her face. Her feet lifted from the floor and she shot forward, bowling them over.
Behind them the other teens were roaring, wanting the fight, wanting bloodshed. The blonde round house kicked someone who went flying into the wall. They opened fire on her but the bullets just bounced off harmlessly. She yanked one of the bolted metal chairs from the ground in retaliation, swinging it like a club. Meanwhile, Rogue was using her friend's powers to release the others. They broke out with a vengeance.
Rogue leapt back in, claws flashing through the throat of a man in her way. He fell and she took on the next, burying her teeth in his shoulder this time. The taste of warm blood was awful but satisfying along with the man's screams. The emptiness inside fueled her rage further and she worked faster and faster; tearing, ripping, clawing, slashing, biting, leaving a mass of blood behind her. She could hear the other mutants taking their revenge, but she was too preoccupied by her own. She had waited long years for this. Ten long years.
A whining pierced the air at a deafening pitch and something that felt cold and almost slimy collided with them. It wasn't tangible, but it caused them to collapse. They seized their ears as blood rolled down from their eardrums. Rogue could feel the fur retracting on her face and the claws inching back in.
The mutants looked up to see Mr. Sinister standing there holding a small device in his hand. His pointed smile was still on his face, but his eyes flashed in such a way that it had them cowering like dogs. The guards at last subdued them.
"A very avid demonstration. Would the two leaders follow me?" He asked pleasantly.
Rogue and the blonde were yanked to their feet and pushed past the geneticist. The blonde spat at him. "Go to he-," but her curse was choked off as a mechanical collar and metal leash was placed around her neck and she was jerked like an erring hound. An identical collar was placed on Rogue's neck and they were both pulled into the dark corridor. Rogue cocked her eye behind in just enough time to see the frantic faces of her nameless friends before they vanished.
xxxXXXxxx
Xavier pulled off the headset of Cerebro. He knew that what he had been detecting was no glitch now. It had been about a week or so since that night he had decided to investigate further. He wheeled to the window of his office and looked outside. The sun was shining, but not where he had just been. For the briefest instant he had seen a glimpse of many united minds, minds intent on slaughter. Young minds.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to push away that horror that he had felt in that instant. The mental impressions that he had registered were teenagers, the same ages as his X-men, but they were dark and haunted. Something was definitely wrong and he had to do something about this. He thought of how he was discover any more information on occurances such as these. An idea emerged. It was a long shot, but about the only thing he could do. He could hear the laughter of his students outside, getting home from school. He could distiguish each of them: Scott and Jean, his first charges; Kurt, rambunctious and playful; Kitty, bubbly and innocent; and Evan, their newest member. If he could save these young people from whatever terrible thing that was happening to them, he would take that chance.
"Logan." He called the man telepathically.
"What's up Chuck?"
"I need you to get in touch with your old associate, Nick Fury."
xxxXXXxxx
Rogue was back on the cursed table. She could still taste blood on her teeth. Beside her the blonde was still struggling, but against the unbreakable bonds she stood no chance.
Sinister returned to the room. Vyce remained behind in the shadows, watching the proceedings with pale eyes.
Sinister glanced over the two girls carelessly. "You really should behave. The more trouble you cause, the more comes your way."
The blonde got away with her tirade this time. Having rough HYDRA guards around one almost 24/7 gave one a vast and colorful vocabulary. Sinister just stared with amusement as she cussed him out, her eyes flashing like chips of ice.
When she stopped at last for breath he simply rapped her with a thermometer and turned to a set of monitors that he began to adjust. "Strong language Ms. Carol Danvers."
The blonde jolted, uncertain. "How can I be sure that's my name? And why tell it to me right after I've been brain raped?" she growled.
"I assure you, that is your true name as it is on your file. The reason I tell it to you is that I feel it unimportant whether you know it or not now."
"Why?"
Sinister ignored the question and just set the monitors, connecting the two girls to them. They became more frightened. What was going on? At last Sinister turned and answered.
"Just a little experiment that I have been considering for some time now, by consent of course. Yet now, it is killing two birds with one stone: conduct a vital experiment and punish troublemakers."
Rogue gasped as a cold metal claw seized her by the wrist as Sinister undid the bindings on her right arm. It dragged her hand up and slowly began to lower it toward the blonde.
Carol's eyes widened and they darted to Sinister. "Devil!" she snarled and thrashed with manic desperation. Sinister simply shrugged.
"Not the first time I have heard it. I hope it isn't too unpleasant for you my dear. Truly it is unfortunate what must be done. You powers would have been a great study, but you are a handful. And I suppose I'm really not losing your powers. Just fitting them into a smaller package."
Meanwhile, Rogue was crying fitfully now. She knew that her powers inflicted pain as well as caused it in herself, but she didn't know what would happen if she didn't let go. She had put one of her weaker peers in a coma for three days with a touch just longer than normal. "Ah'm sorry!" She sobbed continually as her hand came closer and closer to Carol's face. "Ah'm so, so sorry!"
"Not your fault," said Carol, her face set in a stoic mask. Her eyes flashed to Sinister with bitter hate blazing in them. "I swear by whatever I once held dear, you'll pay for this."
Rogue's hand touched Carol's face. The lights blazed again, but her hand couldn't move away. Rogue felt the typical pull of powers, thoughts, and mind into herself but then it changed as the lights continued to flicker. The pull became stronger and more deeply painful. Her heart sped up, but in her ears she could hear two heartbeats, both beating to the same frantic rythmn. For a moment her vision blurred, like she was seeing two sections of the ceiling at the same time. Her mind felt like it was being physically beaten, shoving it aside as a new one settled in beside it. The pain peaked and both girls screamed louder than they ever had, even more than when their memories were being purged. For an instant they were one person, merged into one mind between two, one body between two. Then Rogue felt a snap like a breaking cord and Carol's arching body fell slack onto the table. Rogue shuddered with a last shot of pain like a lightning strike as a massive strength settled in her limbs, her skin hardened, and she lifted an inch from the table. The room seemed to shrink and she felt claustrophobic, and she longed to break free and find the open sky. Then she too fell limp. In her head she heard a faint wailing from poor Carol before it fell silent in the far reaches of Rogue's mind.
xxxXXXxxx
The sun was setting over the Atlantic ocean, setting the sky in a beautiful array of tropical colors. It was especially lovely over Bayville Bay.
In a trashy house in one of the lower class neighborhoods of the city a woman sat in the one neat room in the house, an earpiece in and her eyes scanning the screen of the laptop that sat on the desk. The woman wasn't ordinary. She had blue skin, yellow catlike eyes, and flame red hair past her shoulders.
Mystique listened to the earpiece, but her attention was elsewhere. It was her job, assigned by Magneto, to keep tabs on communications to and from the Xavier Institute. Magneto wanted to know of any mutants Xavier intended to recruit hoping to reach them first. Mystique was normally brutally focused on her tasks, but today was different.
Ten years. Exactly ten years to this day that her dear friend had been murdered and the girl had been taken. Not just a girl Mystique reminded herself, her daughter.
When Mystique had adopted the little girl the main purpose had been for the girl's destined powers. Yet when she had met the tiny southerner, she had seen something endearing in her. Her spunky attitude and unshakable stubborness had left in Mystique something she had never felt for anyone but Irene: care, even a tenderness.
The cold woman had seen many dark things in her life, but it had been a deep wound when she had arrived at the house in Caldecott too late. The door had been blasted in and the living room and little Anna's bedroom had been ransacked. The worst was Irene. Raven hadn't cried, but the lonliness and grief inside of her was no less for her dry eyes, when she had seen the dignified woman and her oldest companion lying dead on the floor with a bullet to the back of her head. The girl was gone.
A crash from downstairs caused the shapeshifter to jump slightly. She hadn't realized how much she had lapsed into the memories. She stalked to the door and threw it open. She could hear yelling coming from downstairs.
"Don't make me come down there! Nothing had better be broken or there will be hell to pay." She bellowed down to the living room. The bickering fell like a bird in hunting season. She slammed the door and went back to work.
Over two hours she listened to several inconsequential phone calls between the kids and their friends and a call from a telemarketer. At last she heard Professor Xavier answer the phone. The caller ID was unknown. She turned up the volume to better hear the conversation.
"Xavier Institute."
A voice that Mystique recognized and detested came over the line. "Never thought I'd see the day where Logan called me instead of the other way around. Said you had something to ask about."
"Yes as a matter of fact. Something has come to my attention that I find disturbing. From the activity I suspected that SHIELD would know something about it, seeing as it is their job to regulate situations such as these."
Fury sounded bored. "What exactly is the situation?"
"I have been detecting a lot of recent mutant activity lately, but each time for never more than a moment. I am able to get a swift glimpse of the minds I detect and the impressions are always ones of deep distress."
Fury paused before asking a question. "Do you know where these mutant impressions are coming from, where they can be located?"
"Not yet. It's along the east coast of either North America or Canada, that is all I can discern for now."
Fury humphed but he sounded rather pleased. "This is a fortunate development. We've been on to something for sometime now and I think that what you've provided is the key to busting this wide open. Can you tell what powers those you've detected have?"
"The only clear one I had a reading on was confusing. Female I believe, but I couldn't lock onto her mind. There was interference, like she wasn't the only one in her own mind."
Mystique jolted a bit. What had Destiny said to her all those years ago? "The power to draw in the minds and energies of others with just a touch of bared skin." Mystique shook her head. It couldn't be possible. She strained to hear perfectly, in case there was more. Unfortunately, Fury seemed wary of divulging any more information over a line that might be bugged, which it was.
"Keep an eye on this situation and alert SHIELD if anything new develops, especially if you discover the location."
"I will consult with my team on this matter and we will be in correspondance soon. Thank you for your time." There was a click and the line went dead.
Mystique removed the earpiece and set to record. Could her daughter have been found after a decade? She wouldn't tell Magneto about this, not yet, but she would be keeping a very close eye on this from now on.
xxxXXXxxx
Night had returned, as far as they could tell. The nameless four sat in a circle in a field of purple mist, conjured for their convening by the telepath, a common ground for all of their minds. However, they were no longer four. The young blonde woman sat hunched in the circle of the four friends with her eyes downcast. Unlike the others she was slightly transparent with no body to return to. Rogue sat near to her but didn't look at her. It was agreed among the other three that they wouldn't speak of it. Carol was brave but she was clearly shell-shocked that she was only a consciousness in someone else's mind. Rogue was horror stricken by what her power had made her do. She had made several attempts to apologize to Carol but the other girl would only wave her off, making her more disgusted with herself.
They looked into the darkness around them. They could hear the faint murmurs of the absorbed psyches in Rogue's mind, but everything else was empty. The memory wipe had been crude, more an experiment than a normal procedure. It had erased many memories but hadn't replaced them, so they knew that they had had them once but no longer. Where they should have had memories of their young years was only couldn't remember anything of their time before here: the boy with black and red eyes knew he had lived in a beautiful city and that he had promised to take Rogue there, but he couldn't remember its name or what it looked like. The girl with gold eyes couldn't recall who had cared for her when she was little, though she knew someone had. No one could really picture what the outside world looked like.
The snowy haired girl shivered.
"I feel naked, without a name. I know I had one but I can't reach it."
The two boys stared at the misty chess board that sat in the center of their circle. It was one of the few recreational things that HYDRA had allowed and they were all very good at it. Skills hadn't been removed from their minds, just what was important to them personally. The dark haired one made a strategic move and captured the demon eyed one's knight. The dark haired one sighed.
"I never knew that not having a name would feel so lonely, so wrong. I guess we should be grateful that we were able to hold on to what mattered most of all." He dropped his hand for his opponents turn. His fingers twirled and small sparks and tendrils of silver-blue light played around his fingers. With a flick of his wrist the platinum light went shooting off into the misty darkness. A rumble like thunder rolled in the distance and the light flickered.
The demon paused. "Dey may have taken our Christian names, but we's not nameless. I t'ink ev'ryone was born wit deux names, une dat no one knows 'less you let 'em. Like Rogue."
Rogue looked at him curiously. "So y'all are sayin' we should make up names or somethin'?"
"Exactly."
"Like what?" His chess opponent inquired as he took his turn. The others were now listening with interest and even Carol had lifted her head.
"Somethin' special 'bout each o' us. Somethin' that sets us apart from ot'ers."
The dark haired boy smiled almost skeptically, shooting off another of his white-blue bolts into the mist. The demon watched and pointed triumphantly. "Dere's yours. The Archer, wit' arrows o' energy and cold flame 'stead o' wood an' steel."
"Archer. I like it." They turned to the girl with gold eyes. Rogue thought and found one that fit, at least she thought so.
"Y'all made us promise to stick together. You began this. You were the Genesis."
Genesis sighed, a weight seeming lifted from her shoulders. "Genesis will be my name. I never thought it would feel this good. Of course, we can't forget our newest sister." She smiled sadly at Carol who dipped her head gratefully. "You're willing to keep fighting, even if you have no body anymore. That's amazing, Ms. Marvel."
Carol laughed, albeit sadly and somewhat bitterly, but her eyes weren't quite as dead anymore. "I don't know about a marvel, but I won't lie down until Sinister is in his grave. Just, I don't know how to do that yet."
Rogue turned to her. "We'll find a way. Sinister said that Ah can let absorbed psyches loose in mah head so Ah can use their powers. Maybe we can get ya out one day, somehow. Until then, Ah prahmise that the next time Ah see that sick excuse for a humanoid being Ah'll rip his head off for ya."
Carol smirked, cold glee shining in her metallic blue eyes at the thought. "Thank you Rogue."
They all turned to the last of their number. Rogue cocked her hip and turned her head. "An' what about you Demon Eyes?"
He didn't respond but turned to make his move in chess. He contemplated the board before moving a pawn. Archer instinctively swiped the pawn from the board. Red eyes gleamed as the black queen took the open space to checkmate the white king.
"De Queen's Gambit. Gotta sacrifice somethin' for de greater good of de game, de team." He murmured. He raised glowing irisies to his team, who didn't question his analogy on sacrifice for the greater good. "Gambit'll do."
This chapter was up a little sooner than I expected, because I'm going on vacation and won't be able to write for at least a week. Hope you enjoyed, and don't worry, they will get out eventually.