MAGNETIC ATTRACTION
PART NINE
When the alarm on Remy's phone went off at 5.20am that Saturday morning, he felt so much despair he wished he'd just left the Acolytes altogether the moment Magneto had decided to call him leader.
It felt as if he had barely slept at all, as he'd had to get up several times during the night just to make sure that Pietro, Lance, and Wanda were all right. He'd been warned before about people who drank too much and wound up choking to death in their sleep from vomit. As much as he was mad at all three of them right now, he didn't want any of their deaths to be on his head.
The first person he woke up was Piotr; he turned the light on in Piotr's room, much to the larger boys dismay, sighing as Piotr pulled his head over his pillow while groaning.
"Time to get up," Remy stated lazily, he leaned against the door frame, "I need you to get Quicksilver and Avalanche up. Do whatever you need to, but get them up, and tell them I want to see them in the mess hall in about fifteen minutes."
Piotr gave a sigh but did not argue. Remy liked that about Piotr, he was good at taking orders and he always seemed to have his back these days. Remy pondered if he had to choose a second-in-command, whether Piotr would be a good candidate.
Probably not, thought Remy as he walked along the cold slightly sawdust-strewn floor towards Wanda's bedroom. He's never been good at thinking on his feet and giving orders. He'd make a good soldier, but not a commander.
Remy threw the door to Wanda's room open, making sure to be loud about it. He turned the light on, "Wanda, up. We have training," he said, speaking as loudly as he could.
Wanda groaned, pulling the blankets over her head to drown out both the light and the sound of his voice.
"Wanda, get your ass up, I'm serious. Meeting in the mess hall in fifteen minutes, then training. I'm not kidding around."
"Fuck off," Wanda muttered irritably.
"Get your ass out of the goddamn bed, I'm not in the mood for this," Remy warned.
"Shut up! I have a massive headache."
"Oh I'm sorry," Remy walked over, and yanked the covers off of her with one sweep, "Am I meant to feel sorry for you? Am I meant to be all sympathetic because you got absolutely wasted and spent the night throwing up?"
Wanda sat up; evidently on this occasion she was too exhausted for her powers to even affect the electrics or any other item in the room as usually was the case. "I said I'm not going!"
"The hell you're not," Remy retorted. With some struggle, he picked her up, receiving a few bites and scratches in the process (and no doubt later, some bruises), and put her over his shoulder.
"Put me down!" she shrieked.
"Thought this would suit you," Remy uttered, carrying her out of the room, "since you like playin' rough," he added under his breath as he carried her to the women's shower room, dropped her into the nearest shower stall still fully clothed from the night before, and turned the faucet on to cold at full blast.
Wanda howled in protest, her hair plastered to her face, the remaining makeup from the night before streaking black down her pale cheeks.
"Now," said Remy slamming his hand hard against the cold white tiles of the shower room, "Listen carefully, 'cause I'm not gonna repeat myself this morning. Get showered, scrub that shit off your face, get yourself dressed and get into the mess hall in fifteen minutes. Or else!"
Remy found that as he left the woman's shower room, Piotr was leaving the mens, having done basically the same thing with both Lance and Pietro. Great minds think alike, I suppose, he thought dully as he went to wake up Tabitha and Rogue.
Tabitha was already up, having fallen asleep early the previous night, and she was more than open to the idea of an early morning training session. Remy felt her undressing him with her eyes as she nodded in agreement that she would be outside in the yard at six am sharp.
He truly regretted having to go to Rogue's room to wake her up; she'd had to get up a few times during the night herself because Wanda had been throwing up violently. Remy thought it miraculous that Magneto had managed to remain undisturbed through the whole ordeal. When Remy opened her door and switched the light on, she was still sleeping soundly, and the light did not wake her. He sighed inwardly and called her name.
"Rogue..."
She did not stir, and he stepped in, putting his hand on her blanketed shoulder to shake her gently. He realised this was the second time within a seven hour span he'd had to waken her up. It seemed quite unfair. If he'd had the ultimate choice, he'd have let Rogue and Piotr skip the training session altogether.
They don't deserve this crap, Remy thought miserably, realising that he didn't even think the way he used to any more. There'd been a time when he'd have barely cared about anyone other than himself, and now...all he could think about how things affected everyone else.
Rogue gave a soft groan and rolled over, her eyes fluttering open slightly. Remy noted she'd fallen asleep in her makeup and her clothes.
"Chere, it's time to get up for trainin'."
"Do we have to?" Rogue sighed tiredly.
"Sorry, but yeah. Magneto says six am. You have like, I dunno, half an hour to be ready."
"Okay," was all she replied with.
"Be outside in the yard about six am, okay?"
"Ah will..." she assured, sitting up, her hair a mess, her eyes puffy.
Remy showered as fast as he could, skipped shaving, dressed as quickly as possible and went to the mess hall. Surprisingly, Pietro, Lance and Wanda had already arrived and all three were sitting at a table, looking sickly and exhausted. He could only feel satisfied that they would be as miserable as he was for probably most if not all of the day. At least that was something.
"Do you guys even remember anything from last night?"
"That you dragged us out of a great party," said Pietro dully, he was pushing around an empty paper cup idly.
Wanda wouldn't even meet his eye, nor respond to him. Lance simply gave a shrug.
"I covered for your asses last night. Magneto came back while you were out clubbing and getting drunk," Remy stepped to the end of the table, looking down it at all three, he placed his hands on the surface and leaned over it a little, giving them each a dirty look. "You know what'd happen to all three of you if he found out? You think he's going to invest time and effort and money on any of you with your acting out this way?"
"Whatever," Lance muttered.
"Yeah, whatever," Remy shrugged, "whatever, right? 'Cause education doesn't cost money or anything, does it?"
Lance looked up suddenly, his brown eyes almost vacant.
"You have a plan. Hell, I can almost admire that. Get a GED, make up for the years you spent slacking in school, maybe get into college so you have something to fall back on," Remy explained, "but that stuff takes money. Magneto pays, and he pays well, and get this, he might even be willing to help you out with paying for education."
Now, Lance looked completely embarrassed and somewhat regretful.
"But I doubt he'd be much interested in payin' for the education of a drunk stoner," Remy continued. "And you..." he pointed to Pietro, "You go out and do this shit and act like it's all cool, because hey, you're Magneto's son. And Magneto's son should get away with everythin', right?"
Pietro snorted in contempt.
"Hell, you might get away with it, you might not," Remy folded his arms coolly, "but he's never gonna respect you. You're just another lackey, that's it. That's all he sees you as. He has nothin' to be proud of, and I can see why, since all you do is go out of your way to be obnoxious and disappointin'. You go into everything half-assed, you never try, and you don't care. And you wondered why he chose me as leader, and not you? Keep wonderin', maybe you'll figure it out one day."
Pietro had nothing to say, his mouth was open, but he seemed beyond words now, so instead, he looked down, his cool eyes, the same colour as his father's, were cold and angry.
"And Wanda..." Remy set his jaw, "if you really want your daddy to put you away again, just keep on doin' what you're doing. Trust me, it's gonna happen. You don't take your medication, you get angry at the littlest things, you destroy half of our stuff on a near daily basis. You haven't trained properly a single day since I've been here. You don't work on controlling your powers, you just let them cause chaos wherever you go without so much as a care..."
"So what?" Wanda shrugged, "You know I try."
"Try harder," Remy said. "From now on, you have to. All of you have to. This is it. This isn't some Brotherhood bullshit, we're the Acolytes now. We're above all that teenage incompetence crap. We're supposed to be exceptional...unbeatable. We don't know what Magneto is going to have us facing out there. We don't know what's ahead of us and we need to be ready for it. Magneto wants us to be like the X-Men, but the way you all are acting right now, the only thing we'll be is a joke."
All three were looking to the table top now, their cheeks still pale and their eyes still bloodshot.
"Now..." Remy said, "I haven't said anythin' about last night to Magneto. And I don't intend to...long as you'll make me a deal and agree that today, and for the rest of the time you spend in this team, you'll work your asses off. So how 'bout it?"
Rogue was exhausted. It seemed to her that she had barely slept at all; when Remy had come in to her room and shaken her awake it had been as if she'd just closed her eyes. She wasn't sure how long she had slept, only that she'd been up and down through the night because she'd gone to check on Wanda, concerned that the girl may accidentally choke in her sleep.
When she arrived at the yard a few minutes before 6am, she discovered that no one else had quite made it there yet other than Magneto, who was standing looking up at the dark sky. The floodlights in the yard lit up his hair and it almost seemed to glow.
"You're back," Rogue said, trying to sound surprised as she approached.
"Yes, I returned last night."
Rogue tipped her head to the side, "I didn't know. Did you get back late?"
"Near eleven, I think it was. It was a sixteen hour flight and then a three hour drive. It was very tiring."
"Ah'll bet. You must have slept like a baby," Rogue searched his pale eyes, she'd said it simply hoping for a response that would give her an indication of whether he had witnessed or heard the events from last night.
"I slept more soundly than I think I have in years," Magneto answered softly, "you seem tired, though. Is Gambit overworking you?"
Rogue gave a nervous laugh, "no. College is though..." she crunched her toe idly into some broken glass, wondering why it was that no one had ever bothered sweeping the yard up. "So...did...you uh...how was Japan?"
"If you are asking if I managed to obtain the components I need to build the machine...then I did," Magneto stated.
"That's...that's great," Rogue tried to contain her need to smile.
"But please understand, you may need to wait a little longer. You are probably aware there are several projects here that need my attention immediately."
"Ah know that there's a lot of plumbing and electric work needs fixing, and the gymnasium and the training area need sorting out," Rogue sighed. "Ah'm sorry...Ah'm not tryin' to be impatient..."
"I understand, Rogue. I promise, I will not fob you off with excuses. I would still like to work with you individually to see if a way to control your powers physically can be achieved in the meantime, at least until I the extensive time I need in order to build the machine."
"Okay," Rogue agreed, not quite thrilled about the idea of working one-on-one with Magneto, but willing to give it a chance simply on the basis that her evolution would be the end result eventually.
As their conversation ended, the others begun to arrive, starting with Tabitha and Piotr, and then Pietro, Wanda and Lance with Remy trailing behind.
Rogue examined the three who had drank the night before and they all still looked quite ill. She was positive it would be a good long while before they ever thought about drinking again.
"You three look terrible," said Magneto at once, he put his hand on his daughter's face and tipped it up so he could examine her.
"There's somethin' goin' around," croaked Wanda, pushing her father's hand away weakly.
Magneto seemed slightly suspicious about their appearance, but for now, was willing enough to drop it.
Remy stepped up in front of everyone. "Okay, so..." he swung his hands at his sides casually, "we ain't got a training room yet, and it's gonna be a while until we do," he explained, "in the meantime, I've set something up with Colossus's help until then..." he gestured for everyone to follow him.
Piotr and Remy led the way to the woodlands, both holding flashlights to light their way. Finally they came across a clearing, and Remy went to start up a generator which was connected to several floodlights in the area.
It seemed that Remy's temporary training area was a simple hand-built obstacle course using various materials on hand. Rogue could only see parts of it, yellow tape around trees to indicate a starting point, and the first hurdle seemed to be an incredibly huge net which went way up into the trees at least, by her reckoning, twenty feet. There was a ditch of dirty water directly at the bottom which she assumed was in case anyone should fall, and the only way across the ditch – which had to be at least ten feet wide, were two rickety looking logs.
"You have been busy," said Magneto, rubbing his chin.
"You want us to do this?" Pietro asked incredulously, Rogue saw Wanda give him a sly elbow to the ribs as if to warn him off.
"And you'll be timed," Remy said.
"Is this actually one of those impossible obstacle courses that there's no way of finishing?" asked Lance glancing up at the top of the net.
"No, it's do able."
"I timed. Gambit did in five minutes, twelve seconds on first run."
"I bet I can do it in ten seconds," said Pietro smugly, although afterwards he looked away, his face turning almost green, he seemed to swallow hard as if he thought he was going to vomit and had to force it back.
"If you think you can," Remy took his iPhone out of his pocket and opened up the stopwatch app, smirking, "course ends right behind me, right here," he gestured to the left.
"We don't get to look at it before we do this?" asked Tabitha.
"No," Remy said, "The point of the course is that you don't know what you're facing, and you won't immediately know how you're going to get past what you find..." he glanced at Pietro, almost knowingly. "You'll be going in pairs. Pietro and Lance can go first."
Rogue saw the smugness in Remy's expression. Oh yes, he was going to make them suffer today. She supposed it would be hard to blame him for doing so either.
"Fine," Pietro said, he took off his hooded top and tossed it towards his sister, he cracked his knuckles. "I'll beat your time too."
Remy reached into his pocket and produced a small foghorn while Lance and Pietro readied themselves at each end of the markers Remy had set down. The foghorn sounded, and the two rushed off.
Pietro did as Rogue had predicted which was to immediately use his powers. Before he'd even gotten to the top he was tangled in the net, hanging by his ankle and struggling to get himself up out of it. Rogue blinked as she stood beside Remy, watching with slight amusement.
"Did you do something to the net?" she asked.
"That'd be telling," Remy responded, keeping an eye on the clock.
The others waited, making bets on who would make it out of the course first. All bets were still on Pietro, who took a minute to tear himself out of the net and get over it and to the other side where he disappeared entirely.
"He's faster than Lance, surely he'll get out first," Rogue commented.
"You think so?" Remy asked.
A few minutes passed, and the others kept an eye on the finish line of the course, the last hurdle was a slide attached to a net from the other side. It was Lance who made it to the finish line. The boy was caked with mud, his hair was thick with it, his clothes were nearly black. The one part of his face that hadn't gotten coated in the stuff was bright red from the effort, and he was gasping for breath. Despite the exhaustion.
"Well done," Remy said, seemingly impressed, "you actually beat Quicksilver."
"Yes!" Lance punched the air.
"Where's Pietro?" Wanda asked, her expression full of concern.
"I don't know..." Lance breathed, "Last I saw him, he was behind me. How'd I do?" he asked of Remy, falling to his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"Twelve minutes, and forty-nine seconds" Remy responded, "faster than I expected, actually," he had a pencil and a small note book, and he wrote this down. Rogue was quite surprised at how well organized he was regarding this. She'd expected something a little more slap-dash when it came to Remy's training.
"Pietro still hasn't finished," Wanda pointed out."
"He'll be fine," said Remy; something told Rogue that he already full well knew exactly where Pietro was. "Wanda and Rogue, you're next up."
Wanda tossed her brother's hooded jacket to the ground, cracked her knuckles and readied her stance at the starting line. Rogue prepared herself, giving Remy a curious glance as he raised the foghorn to the air and set it off.
And they took off.
Rogue learned immediately that all was not as it had seemed. The net was slippery, as if the strings were coated with oil. And even though she was wearing gloves, she found it incredibly hard to keep her grip the first through tries and her leg slipped into the muddly water below her. Wanda fell in altogether and had to pull herself out awkwardly, panting already.
Some strings were weak, and snapped beneath her boots as she climbed, and others seemed like elastic, prone to stretching, twisting and tangling, catching the heels of her boots and trapping her, making it hard to fight her way to the top. It seemed to take several minutes. On the other side, there was a slide consisting of thick sheet plastic and this was most definitely oiled. Rogue slipped down roughly, spinning out of control and landing with a thud to the bottom in very thick gloopy mud. Rogue was sure she felt her ankle twist, but she forced herself on, aware that Wanda was still caught up in the net at the other side. She took off running in the directions that were indicated by the tape on the trees.
There was so much mud it was hard to get through; and it was so thick that it nearly yanked her boots off as she fought her way through it. There was running through trees, ducking and jumping over small ravines. She spotted the edge of a net that seemed to be half-hidden beneath branches and leaves and she dodged it, having a feeling that there were some traps set up.
She came to a very long log crossing across a massive hole which seemed to be about fifteen feet deep; on further inspection, she saw it was full of muddy water. It seemed to be the only way across; the sides were fenced away with chicken wire, indicating that the only way to go was forwards across the narrow and rather rickety looking log.
"Shit," she whispered to herself as she stepped onto it and felt it rolling slightly beneath her feet. She began her way across slowly, balancing, trying to remember her training with Logan about balance and knowing where her centre was. She heard a sloshing sound below and she looked down to see that Pietro was down there, trying to get his way up. "Oh, there you are," Rogue realised.
"I can't get up!" Pietro fumed, "the sides are too slippery..." he revealed.
Rogue took another step forwards, watching as he tried to pull himself up the muddy walls and ended up sliding further down. He tried using his powers to propel himself up, but this only seemed to create a more slippery area, and he slipped back down miserably. She wondered if it were because he was so hungover that he had become so inept, as she'd seen him be pretty capable at such things in the past.
No...it looked to her that there was no traction on the sides, it had apparently rained all night turned would have been fairly hard walls into slippery muddy slush. Tthere was no way up as far as she could see. As she got to the other end after her careful and slow balancing act across the log she heard Pietro calling up to her.
"You're not just gonna leave me here?!"
"Why shouldn't Ah?" she asked, looking over the edge at him, careful to not get too close in case she should slip down there too.
"Come on!" yelled Pietro desperately, "this water is freezing..."
It occurred to her that should she pull him out, he would probably backstab her anyway. He would most likely push or pull her in and leave her there. But another thought did occur to her, and that was that he was trapped, and that if Remy had his way, who knew how long he was going to be left down there like that? It was cold this morning, and that water probably was freezing.
With a sigh, Rogue went to break a branch from one of the trees which as just long enough for him to reach and grab. She braced herself against the other end of the log and pulled hard as she could while he fought his way up. While she was struggling to get Pietro out, Wanda practically ran across the log in the most impressive balancing act Rogue had ever seen and shot straight ahead, without even giving a second thought to stop and help her brother.
They both fell to the ground panting exhaustedly after she'd eventually managed to pull him up. He said nothing to her, and certainly not 'thanks'. Instead, he got this feet, and in a blur, he sped off in the direction the markers indicated.
At least he didn't throw me in there, she thought as she took off running, realising she was far behind now.
There were several more obstacles to overcome. Swinging over another ravine from rope to rope, trying to get across a small clearing without setting off landmines which shot mud in several directions, and fighting her way through a tunnel hidden by bushes, trying to avoid getting scratched by thorns and sharp twigs. When she got to the final obstacle – the net at the end, she was so tired she could barely pull herself up and as she reached the hard plastic slide on the other side, she tumbled over, slid to the ground and landed with a soft thud.
"Eighteen minutes, and ten seconds..." Remy noted down, he reached a hand down to her despite hers was thick with mud.
She let him pull her up, she gave a sigh and tried to wipe the thick mud from her knees after, looking down at the mess of herself. She noted the amusement even in Magneto's eyes.
Pietro was sitting on the ground, looking annoyed, Rogue threw him a dirty look, knowing that she'd have probably beaten Lance's time if she hadn't stopped to help him out of the ditch.
Maybe Ah should have left him there, she thought dully. She sat nearby Wanda, who was complaining to anyone who would listen about the fact that she'd lost one of her shoes in the mud and hadn't been able to find it. Rogue thought it ironic that the girl had gone looking for the shoe but hadn't even bothered to stop and try to help her brother out of the ditch.
Piotr and Tabitha were the last to participate in the obstacle course. There was no surprise that Tabitha – much smaller and much more lithe than Piotr – made it through much faster than Piotr did, almost beating Lance's time (two seconds different, which had given her reason to lament). Piotr, although certainly having helped build the course, had taken the longest time to get through it, and when he finally did arrive everyone had almost assumed he'd gotten trapped in the same way Pietro had.
Rogue sat on the woodland floor, caked in mud, uncomfortably cold and saturated in her clothing.
Remy was leaning against a tree casually, he gave everyone a few minutes to relax.
"So," said Lance, he was trying to get the caked mud out of his shoulder length black hair, "who won? I did, right?"
Remy snorted, "you think that's what this was about? Winning?"
"It wasn't?" asked Wanda.
Remy replied simply. "To be honest, if there was going to be a winner for this course, then it's gonna be Rogue."
Rogue blinked, staring up at the young man blankly, she didn't understand how he could think this, when she'd apparently taken the longest to get through the course thanks to having to stop to help Pietro.
"Bullshit! I was the fastest!" Lance objected.
"Quiet," warned Magneto, who had been standing silent up until now, observing them all.
Wanda's face fell, "How could she be the winner?! She took nearly twenty minutes! You got to be jokin' me! She took longer than anyone else! This is favouritism!"
"This isn't about who was the fastest."
"Yeah, right," Lance uttered.
Remy and Magneto shared a look, Magneto seemed quite interested on how Remy was going to handle this situation.
"I sent you in as pairs, and the first thing you all do is assume it's a race..." Remy frowned, "Quicksilver got caught in one of my traps...and the only person who even bothered to stop and help him out of there was Rogue. Wanda, you passed right by! I know you must have because you got out of there two minutes ahead of Rogue."
Wanda had that expression that said she really didn't care. Even her brother seemed somewhat disgusted and looked away from his sister, shaking his head.
"You could have worked as a team to get through the course, you could have helped each other out of the nets, could have helped each other out of the other traps or get through faster...but instead, you cared only about yourselves."
"You set us up!" Pietro shot, his pale eyes cold and angry.
"And it worked," said Remy.
Magneto folded his arms, his expression stern, "the point of this exercise was to see you all working together as team-mates, you all failed...except from Rogue, who seems to have a better understanding of teamwork than any of you," he frowned.
Rogue felt her cheeks grow hot, she stared down at the ground, wishing she could disappear into it. This wasn't going to do anything for her popularity with the team, she decided.
"You all failed this exercise miserably, and there will be punishment," Magneto continued.
"Aw, come on," Pietro groaned.
"Your punishment will be that you will go through this course again and again until you get it right. And I will be watching the entire time," Magneto commanded, "Lance and Pietro, you will go again, and this time, you will work together."
Lance and Pietro gave mumbles of resentment and protest, but set to go off again, exhausted already.
When five minutes had gone by, and the next pair were to go through after Lance and Pietro, Rogue stood up to team up with Wanda again, but Magneto stopped her.
"Not you," Magneto said.
"Huh?" she blinked.
"You already understand the value of teamwork. The others are being punished. You, however...do not need to be."
Rogue chewed the inside of her cheek, staring up at his clear blue eyes; she'd never noticed how incredibly soft they could be, or how incredibly soft his voice could be either. He somehow didn't seem as much of the tyrant she'd expected him to be.
"Go get showered and changed. Enjoy your Saturday."
"Thanks...Ah guess," she said.
Magneto used his powers to float off, apparently to rise up high enough into the trees so he could observe the team participating in the obstacle course. In Rogue's place, Tabitha paired up with Wanda.
Rogue wandered over to Remy, who was placing his phone, pencil and notebook down upon an old tree stump, apparently readying himself to participate too; it seemed that he would be teaming up with Piotr, which to her made sense as it seemed they worked quite well together. "Ah've been given a reprieve," she said casually.
"You've earned it," Remy responded. He swept his hair from his face and tied it into a small, stubby ponytail, which Rogue immediately hated, leaving her deciding he should cut his hair.
"It's...kind of impressive...all this leadership stuff you've been doin'."
"It is?" he asked, rolling up the sleeves of the old sweater he'd chosen to wear.
"Did you come up with all this stuff on your own?"
"Most of it is just stuff I learned with the Thieves. They used to run us through these kind of courses all the time. It's a lot harder doin' a course like this in the swamps. If this had been Louisiana, that water woulda had gators," he smirked.
"Ah doubt that the Thieves guild had you workin' in teams though."
He gave a shrug, "I'm just goin' on stuff I've learned in movies and in books, and some common sense. Faking my way through things is what I do best, and this ain't no different."
She dug her toe into the dirt a little, hands behind her back, "Ah think you're a better leader than you give yourself credit for..." she admitted softly.
"Thanks, but I think you're over-exaggeratin' just a tad," he winked. "So...what are your plans today? You goin' to see your X-Men friends?"
Rogue thought about this, "Ah...Ah don't know, actually...it's probably not a good time to go visiting...too soon, you know?"
"If you leave it too long, they might think you've severed all ties with them," Remy replied, "they're still your friends after all, and good friends are hard to come by."
Rogue realised that he was right of course. The thought of visiting everyone didn't sit well with her yet though. "It's just...the questions...Ah can't deal with them all askin' me why Ah left."
"Hey, at least they care enough to ask, right?" he headed over to the starting line, where Piotr was already waiting to go. "Well, whatever you decide to do, I hope you have a good day. It's probably gonna be a lot less stressful than the one I'm about to have either way."
Rogue smirked, she certainly didn't doubt that.
End of Part Nine
As always, thanks to everyone for their thoughtful reviews. I'm always excited when I saw the review alerts show in my inbox. Truly makes my day. I hope everyone enjoys this instalment, and continues to enjoy as I keep adding (which I'm hoping will be more frequently than the updates of the previous stories I've posted).
Anyways, love you all 3