AN: When writing the last chapter, I accidentally wrote the end of the story. I wrote this lone scene, then realized it was exactly how I would picture the story finishing. So, I'm working my way towards it….maybe another chapter or two.
Again, thanks for the continued reviews, I appreciate it and I've hit 50. W00t!
This is another chapter that went through several incarnations and I had a hard time getting it to come out like I wanted. Hopefully the end result is enjoyed.
O o o o o o o o o O
Rogue seemed to have recovered fully from the incident at the Southie construction site. The same could not be said for the unfortunate woman known as Ms. Marvel. Rogue was able to tell them that her real name was Carol Danvers. She didn't have any family available, so Xavier had her placed in a nursing home when it was clear she was not going to recover. Rogue suffered from the knowledge that she had essentially killed the woman and she would never return.
She also silently was suffering from occasional blackouts, but they seemed harmless enough, she wasn't passing out, no one was getting hurt, she just sometimes seemed to lose track of time easily. Wolverine had noticed there was something different, but had attributed it to difficult times she was going through.
Until one night.
O o o o o o o o o O
The night in question, Logan was out in the gardens, relaxing under the night sky. No beer, no cigar, just the wonder of the outdoors. He thought that the addition of Marie was all that was needed to make the night perfect.
Almost on command, he saw a silhouette saunter out of the mansion and approach him. It was Marie, his nose told him that, but there was something off in her walk. He watched her silently as she walked up, then sat down next to him. The first thing he noticed was that her gloves were off.
Alarm bells started ringing in his head. This wasn't Marie. He tried to look for any sign that it could be Mystique, but couldn't find anything that wasn't his Marie, down to the scars she had received. He mentally broadcast a note of alarm to Xavier.
Outwardly though, he was cool and playing along with whomever's sick game. He smiled at the stranger in front of him, allowing her to move to straddle him. "How about some fun, big, strong and sexy?" she purred in a seductive voice. Her hands went to the button on his pants quickly.
Logan couldn't take it any longer, he grabbed the woman's wrists, flipping her over and growling, "Who are you, and where is Marie?"
The woman laughed bitterly, "She's right here, isn't she? Except better." She winked, and looked to where Logan had grabbed her, touching the exposed skin without any pull of Marie's mutation.
"No, you ain't Marie, so where the hell is she, before I lose my patience." The time for patience was fast passing and the only thing that was keeping him from running the woman through was the fear that she would be necessary to get Marie back.
For a flash of a moment, the expression on the face shifted and he heard a quick whisper, "Help me," before it disappeared. He also noted that in those brief moments, the pull had started. Before he could react though, he found himself flipped over and hanging from Marie's wrists as she rose in the air.
"There is no help for you! You stole my life, it's only fair!" she screamed into the air as the Professor and Cyclops arrived.
"What's going on?" Scott asked in confusion, looking at Wolverine who refused to let go of Rogue, even as he was being dangled in the air.
"Carol Danver's personality has subsumed Rogue's. She's an incredibly strong mind and resents what was done to her," Charles explained quickly. "Logan!" he called to the larger mutant who was doing his best to wrestle the woman back down to the ground.
Logan looked over to the Professor and heard his disembodied voice in his head. "Logan, I can try to forcibly subdue Carol and make her accept her fate. If that fails, I can try to build a wall around her."
Logan let out a primal scream of rage, finally managing to bring Rogue to the ground, his thoughts anguished. He had done everything he could to prevent that from being done to Jean, and in the end, it had cost her everything. But was it right to alter the mind like that, would it just make it worse in the end?
Tears fell from his eyes as he pierced his claws through Marie's arms and deep into the ground to try and prevent her from flying off. "The choice is yours, Logan." Charles spoke aloud this time. He knew how much Logan was opposed to this in general, but they were running out of options. Either Rogue would live her life as Carol Danvers, or he could try and help Marie reemerge from her own mind.
"I'm so sorry Marie. I can't. I just can't." His voice was harsh with pain and torment. Mentally, he projected, "Do it." The body beneath him became still as the Professor started to work on her mind. "I'm sorry darlin', I just can't lose you," he whispered in apology, hoping to God that he made the right choice.
O o o o o o o o o O
Charles walked across Rogue's mindscape towards the blonde woman with an angry scowl on her face.
"Did she kill you too?" she asked bitterly.
Xavier shook his head slowly. "No, I am here of my own volition."
"At least one of us is." She crossed her arms in front of her. "What do you want? I'm not ready to die."
"Rogue did not want to harm you, that was not her intention." Charles spoke in a comforting voice. "If she could undo it, I know she would." He used his mental powers to try and pacify the woman, make her more open to hearing the other side of the story.
Carol rolled her eyes, "Sure. And now she has undone it. I get her life and body since she took mine." Her eyes dared him to disagree with the equity of the situation.
"I think you know that is not truly fair." Xavier's mind reached out to see what Marvel's memories of the event were. "You grabbed her first."
"But I didn't know!" she replied defensively. "She should have stopped it from happening."
Charles shook his head, "She can't. She doesn't have control over her mutation. She's worked at it but it eludes her."
"Well, I can control it, so maybe it's better then that I have it too now."
His eyebrows raised in surprise, "That's why her power wasn't working when you were in control, not because you couldn't access it?"
She looked uneasy, "Well, yeah. I didn't want to do that to anyone, no matter what else was happening. I just kept it off." She paused, some of the anger starting to dissipate. "How could she live without being able to turn it off?" Unwillingly she felt a swell of pity for the girl. She looked suspiciously at the man before her, knowing he was someone of great mental strength, wondering if he was influencing her mind.
"I'm sure you have access to her mind right now, have you bothered to look?" he asked, then waited as she concentrated, a slight hint of shame coming to her features, her anger overshadowing all of her other thoughts.
Rogue fell from nowhere with a thud onto the floor. Her expression was that of someone who had lost all hope. "What do you want?" It wasn't clear to whom she was addressing her statement.
Carol studied her, clearly accessing the information from the memories of Marie, a horrible knot in her stomach appearing the more she saw. Carol was not an evil woman. She was angry and sad and frustrated, but she was not evil. Clearly the girl in front of her was not evil either and had been through more than most people could tolerate.
"Damn it." Marvel sat down on a bench that suddenly appeared on the scene, her head resting in her hands. Worse than any of the other memories was the overwhelming guilt that Marie felt for absorbing Danvers. She had given up fighting because she felt she deserved the fate.
Xavier looked between the two women, he was sorry that there wasn't more that he could do to make any of this right. Neither of them deserved to die, but his loyalty was with Rogue and he intended to assist her in regaining control of her body.
"I will never stop trying to find a way to return you to your body." Charles stated, hoping that maybe an agreement could be reached. Carol stayed silent while Rogue continued to sit there with deadened eyes.
"Will you stop sitting there and feeling sorry for yourself?" Wolverine made a sudden appearance, growling at the beaten figure of Marie. He turned to glare at Carol, "I hope you're proud of yourself, making her feel like shit over something she had no control over."
Carol looked at Logan, her eyes widening and then turning back to Charles, "How many people does this girl have in her head?"
Charles couldn't help but smile in amusement, "Not nearly as many as she used to."
Logan smirked at that comment, then turned back to Marie. "I said get up!"
"Stop yelling at me, Logan!" she finally muttered. "She's right, she was innocent, and I killed her."
"Bullshit. It was an accident, and no more your fault than it was mine that first night in the mansion." He crouched down to look Marie in the eyes, referencing the night he stabbed her with his claws, the night he felt endless guilt about. Marie always rode him that it wasn't his fault, he couldn't have known she was there, and now he threw that back in her face.
Carol was watching the exchange between the two, "He's your…" she trailed off, searching for the right word and when he glared at her, she just finished, "Yours. And you drained him too?" she asked incredulously, as if this supported her supposition that Rogue couldn't handle her powers.
"I asked her to, to try and protect her from people like you." He turned his attention back to Rogue, his voice quiet and angry, "You're going to let this stuck-up bitch boss you around?"
"Logan," Charles began in a warning tone. He was ignored.
"You're going to let her take over your life? Try to take over your life with me?" Now he sounded truly pissed off.
Anger flashed in Rogue's eyes, "No!" She looked over at Carol and stood up. "I'm real sorry, you seem like a nice lady, but I'm going to have to have my body back." Her tone was apologetic, but her posture threatening, the essence of Logan clearly seeping into her.
"Wait, Rogue." Charles held up a hand, he really didn't want to see Marvel hurt, and knew Marie would be better off in the long run if Marvel wasn't a hostile personality in her head.
"Carol, Marie. I would like to have time to find out if we can place Carol back in her body somehow." Wolverine and Rogue growled in unison. "But Carol, you cannot take over Rogue's life." Carol took a step back into a defensive position. "Listen to me, there is room for compromise." Now all three people looked at him expectantly, without lowering their guards.
Charles used his mental powers to try and calm all the personalities that made up Marie at that moment. "I propose a trade of sorts, until we find a way to put Carol back in her body." Six sets of eyes turned instantly suspicious.
O o o o o o o o O
"What in the hell is taking so long?" Wolverine growled, "I gave him the damn permission to do what he needed." They were still on the lawn outside, not wanting to disturb either body for fear of it causing problems with the Professor.
"Will you just shut the hell up, Logan?" Scott snapped angrily.
Wolverine's jaw clenched and he had to resist the urge to go and shove his claws through his too-tender abdomen. Instead, he tried to maintain control, "What the hell is your problem?"
"I don't know, a woman I care about is about to get lost in her own mind. And both times, you've made the call, you've decided their fate; we know how well that worked out last time." Scott retorted.
Logan flinched. Part of him wanted to go over and run Scott through, but another part still felt guilt about Jean and that he was against the Professor blocking the Phoenix. It was his fault. And now he risked losing Marie in much the same way. Maybe this was his penance for everything he had done.
Scott was poised, ready for a strike from the other man, but it never came. "I was wrong," Logan said flatly. "I was wrong and it cost both of us Jeannie." It was the first time he had really said that out loud, much less to another person.
A strangled cry escaped from Scott and he raised his glasses and hit Wolverine with his optic blasts, knocking the man back ten feet.
Instead of charging back at Scott in retribution and anger, Logan merely stood up and walked back to where Marie laid, crouching down beside her. "I'm sorry. And hopefully this isn't some sort of karmic payback, because Marie deserves better than this. She shouldn't have to pay for my mistakes." He didn't look at Scott at all during his little speech, unable to look at the visible proof of just how big his mistake was with Jean.
Scott was shocked, his mouth open as he looked at Logan. He would have never expected an apology from the man, nor the level of honesty and intimacy that he just displayed. He closed his mouth with a snap, finally saying quietly, "She's strong, she'll be ok."
Logan didn't say anything more, his focus was on Marie and waiting for any sign that she was going to rouse from the inner turmoil she was trapped in.
O o o o o o o o O
"The problem with all of this is that I have to trust you. I give her a foothold, and next thing I know, I'm screwed and gone, never to be seen again." Carol was still suspicious.
Charles smiled, "You're right, you do have to trust me. But also trust that I could bury you, without your consent." He cast a glance to Rogue and Wolverine, now in mirrored crouched poses, ready to attack, "And trust they could very well be successful in destroying you. But we need not come to violence, if you will trust us."
Carol glanced over to Rogue and Wolverine, "Do you swear you will hold up your end of the deal?"
Immediately Rogue broke her aggressive posture, regarding Carol carefully. "Do you swear you will hold up your end?" Wolverine hadn't moved yet, but with a light touch to the back of his neck by Rogue, he relaxed.
The mutant formerly known as Ms. Marvel cast her gaze between the three other faces with her. She was outnumbered and this seemed to be her best shot of survival. She swallowed hard, closed her eyes, and stuck out her hand. "Deal."
O o o o o o o O
Marie sat up suddenly, gasping for breath, looking around wildly. Logan immediately went on the defensive, his claws coming out, unsure whether it was Marie or the other woman who was appearing.
"Logan!" Charles's voice cut through the confusion quickly. "It's alright. It's Marie."
And just as suddenly as they appeared, his claws disappeared and he gathered Marie into his arms for a tight embrace, unmindful of her skin. When he felt the all-too-familiar pull of her mutant power, he reluctantly released her. "You ok?" he said gruffly, trying to hide the emotion in his voice.
"I think so, thank you." She turned towards Xavier, "And thank you too. I would have never been able to do it without the both of you." Marie brushed her lips quickly across Logan's cheek, too fast for her skin to recognize the contact.
Xavier nodded, then turned and headed back inside. Scott had long since gone inside, and the light of a new dawn was breaking over the horizon, leaving the two of them alone to talk.
O o o o o o o o o O
Little bit of a cliffie, but it needed to be broken here, so please forgive me.