Chapter Fifty-Seven:


It had started off well enough.

Everyone knew their parts, everyone was in place. All the variables had been taken into account and a dozen backup plans had been laid out in detail for every possible complication that could arise.

Except for one.

They had been in position, about to make their move, when a commotion on the other end of the dock had caught their attention. A young kid, maybe about sixteen years old, had been running down the sidewalk, with half a dozen commandos in black night opts attire giving chase. As strange a sight as that had been, Henri and the others had been prepared to shrug it off and go back to the matter at hand, pulling off their heist, but the same couldn't be said for Rogue.

In hindsight, she wondered how she had known. Had she recognized the uniforms of the soldiers as being part of Operation Wideawake and put the pieces together? Or had her seventh sense kicked in out of the blue? All she knew for certain was that the kid was a mutant, and he was in trouble.

It had been instinct, really, to rush to his rescue. Like she'd told Magneto all those years ago back on the island, she'd spent too many years living under the roof of Charles Xavier. Later she would realize that she had put the heist in jeopardy by doing something so rash, but at the time all she could think about was that she was not letting Trask get his hands on another mutant.

The boy had put up a fight as best he could, but it was obvious he was exhausted and the soldiers outnumbered him six to one. He was struggling to form green energy orbs to fend off his pursuers when Rogue swooped in, delivering a right hook to the jaw of the lead soldier, who flew back into the wall and didn't get back up.

That did the trick, and the soldiers turned their attention to Rogue, giving the boy a chance to run. He didn't, though, and Rogue had to admit she was impressed. Instead, he dove behind a pile of crates in the mouth of the alleyway, using them as cover while he hurled energy orbs at the soldiers who were now opening fire on Rogue.

It was kind of amusing to see the expressions on their faces when all the bullets did was bounce off harmlessly.

Of course, once the kid's energy orbs took down one of the soldiers, they began firing on him, too, but before Rogue could move to his aid, the soldiers suddenly stopped firing, looking around in confusion. "Where'd they go?" one of them asked.

"They just vanished," another grunted, ticking his gun back and forth, like he expected them to jump out at him at any moment.

"What's going on?" the leader, who she had knocked unconscious at the beginning of the fight, groaned as he came to.

A very good question, but one that Rogue didn't need an answer to. Gesturing for the boy to stay put, she turned to see Tessa standing behind her, eyes narrowed in concentration, fingers resting lightly against her temples.

Wonder what she's got them seein', she mused to herself. She'd been on the receiving end of Tessa's illusions on more than one occasion, with her consent, of course, and they'd been incredibly realistic. It was one of the less-used aspects of the telepath's power, but a handy one.

A moment later the five soldiers who were conscious slid to the ground, all of them knocked out courtesy of one of Tessa's psionic bolts. Rogue didn't bother to check on them, she trusted Tessa's abilities as much as she did her own.

Nice work, she called to her friend.

Thank you, Tessa bowed her head slightly. How is the boy?

Lemme check, Rogue replied, looking over at the kid, who was rubbing his neck. "Ya okay, kid?" she asked, holding out her hand.

"Yeah," he groaned, letting her help him to his feet. "Thanks to you guys, anyway."

Rogue smiled faintly. "Glad t' help. Us mutants gotta stick t'gether at a time like this."

"Tell me about it," the kid muttered, dusting himself off and extending his hand in gratitude. "My name's Matt, by the way."

"Marie," Rogue said, shaking his hand warmly, then jerked her thumb at her companion. "An' this is Tessa."

"Hi," Matt smiled in Tessa's direction, who nodded in acknowledgment.

"Those soldiers didn' rough ya up too bad, did they?" Rogue asked him, frowning worriedly as her eyes raked him over appraisingly.

"Nah," Matt shook his head, smoothing down his ruffled hair. "I'm a little bruised, but I'll live."

"Ah'm glad t' hear it, sugah," Rogue grinned. "Ya need a lift home or anythin'?"

"If you could point me in the direction of the train station, that would be great," Matt replied, picking up the duffel bag that he'd lost in the scuffle. "I'm just passing through on my way up to Charleston."

"Nice city, Ah hear," Rogue commented, picking up his baseball cap from underneath a pile of crates and brushing it off a little. "Ya from those parts?"

"No," he smiled ruefully. "I'm from Florida." His smile faded, a flicker of sadness creeping into his gray-blue eyes. "Or I was, before my parents kicked me out for being a mutant."

Rogue and Tessa exchanged a silent glance, and Rogue smoothly changed the subject, steering the boy's thoughts away from his parents and the home he'd left behind. "What's in Charleston? Ya got other family up there?"

"I heard about a mutant safehouse there," Matt shrugged. "The word on the streets is that there are a couple farther north, but I figure Charleston is the closest, so I'll take my chances with that one."

"Sort o' like an underground railroad for mutants?" Rogue asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Matt nodded, excitedly. "That's it exactly."

"Sounds kinda cool," Rogue mused, glancing over at Tessa inquisitively. What do ya t'ink? Is it safe fo' us t' let him go?

We have no right to prevent him from going if he wishes, Tessa pointed out evenly. You suspect it could be a trap?

Ah wouldn' put it past Trask an' his goons, Rogue muttered in reply. Aloud, she asked Matt, "How'd ya hear about this place, sugah?"

"From one of my classmates back home," Matt answered, shifting his duffel bag onto his other shoulder. "His older brother is a mutant, and when he left town six months ago that's where he went Jimmy got a postcard from him and everything. He told him that the people who ran it were real nice."

"He say anythin' about those people?" Rogue inquired curiously. "Were they mutants, too?"

Matt's brow furrowed slightly. "I think so, yeah. I didn't see the postcard, but Jimmy read it to me over the phone. Jesse, that's his brother, said that they helped him find a job with some people with didn't mind hiring mutants. Last I heard Jesse was living in Boston and going to college there."

"Not a bad setup fo' him, huh?" Rogue grinned. "Yo' a li'l young fo' college, though, ain't ya, sugah?"

"I figured they could find me a place to finish up school and all," Matt said, stuffing his hands in his jean pockets. "Gotta get a diploma before I can go to college."

"That's true," Rogue nodded seriously. Once she had realized that New Orleans was going to be her home and she'd gotten settled in the LeBeau estate, she had decided to get her GED since finishing up high school was pretty much out of the question. No school would take her without getting her records from Bayville High, and that would make it all too easy for Trask and his buddies to track her down. Remy had made a few jokes about her being crazy for wanting to have anything to do with school when she didn't have to, but he had supported her, and Jean-Luc had been quite pleased with how quickly she finished the testing.

All that studyin' Storm an' Mr. McCoy were shovelin' at us paid off in the end, she thought lightly.

Beside her, Tessa's earpiece crackled suddenly, catching her attention and she watched as Tessa touched her fingers to the headset, but there wasn't a solid connection. The circuitry must have been damaged during the fight with the Operation Wideawake soldiers. Apparently the person on the other end realized the same thing, because Tessa's eyes turned glossy and distant, an expression that Rogue had long since come to associate with the other woman's telepathy.

"How old are ya, anyway?" she asked Matt, eyeing him curiously. "Fifteen? Sixteen?"

"I turned sixteen last month," he replied, his chest puffing up proudly.

"Ya get yo' license back home b'fore ya left?"

"Yep," Matt grinned. "Now if I just had the money to buy myself a car, I'd be set."

Rogue smiled, recalling how excited Evan had been when he got his license. He'd barely had it half an hour before he was begging Scott to let him borrow the convertible.

"Marie," Tessa said, and Rogue turned her attention to her fellow mutant thief. "Why don't you give Matt a lift to the train station, just to be certain that he makes his train safely. I will assist the boys and meet you back home shortly."

"You really don't have to go out of your way for me," Matt protested, but it was obvious he didn't mind having the company, or the protection.

"It's no trouble, sugah," Rogue assured him with a smile. "Jus' give me a second, okay?"

"Sure."

Rogue placed a hand on Tessa's arm, gently guiding her a few feet away. "What did they say?" she asked softly, without preamble. She didn't need to explain what she meant, even without telepathy Tessa knew her well enough to know what she was asking.

"They have retrieved the target, and are preparing for withdrawal now. I will cover their retreat past the guards with an illusion," Tessa replied evenly. "We will be heading home once we finish up things here."

"How mad is he?" Rogue asked, biting her lip nervously. She figured her brother-in-law had to be pretty sore at her for risking the mission, even if they had completed it without her. She couldn't blame him, she wasn't too happy with herself at the moment, either.

"Not very," Tessa promised, smiling faintly. "He had a few choice expletives when we suddenly veered off from our assigned posts, but he has since calmed down and wishes for me to tell you that all is well."

"Does he now?" Rogue murmured doubtfully.

Tessa gave her an exasperated look. "Yes," she insisted. "He does. He is tired, and to be honest a little irritated with me for following you against a direct order, but he understands why you felt you had to rescue the boy."

Rogue narrowed her eyes, studying Tessa's calm expression intently.

"We all do," Tessa added quietly.

Rogue believed her. After the horrific news report about the mutant killings out in California a few days back, everyone had been walking on eggshells around her, watching what they said and turning off the television when she entered the room. She hated it, but she couldn't blame them, not after the way she had reacted to the newscast.

She was no psychologist, but she had absorbed Mr. McCoy a few times in the past, so if she had to take a guess at what exactly had happened to her, she'd call it post-traumatic stress. She was a mutant, just like those kids, and she'd endured her own horrors at the hands of Operation Wideawake. If not for Remy and the other Acolytes, she probably would have ended up just like them. It made her angry to see other mutants being persecuted and hunted, but to see those kids treated so cruelly, killed to make a statement, filled with a fury she hadn't known in a long time.

And it had brought back memories, painful memories, and caused old fears to stir to life again. Had Jean and Kitty and Kurt and those lucky enough to have escaped the destruction of the mansion suffered like that? Had they died in similar ways, at the hands of hateful men who didn't even think they had the right to exist?

The identities of the slain mutants had been released later that same day, a handful of runaways who had been cast out of their homes because of their mutations. Teenagers with no one to miss them when they disappeared.

Rogue hated herself for thinking it, but sometimes she thought maybe Mystique had done Scott and Bobby and the others a favor when she blew up the Institute with them inside. Trask had much more... creative ways of ridding the world of what he saw as the 'mutant menace'. She knew firsthand what that man was capable of.

Maybe that was why Remy and the others had been so concerned about her in the past few days. Remy had barely left her side since her breakdown, even though she had assured him at least a dozen times that she was fine, and she hadn't failed to notice that when Remy wasn't with her, Lucas or Emil was usually hanging around.

It's sweet that they all care so much, she thought with an annoyed sigh. But Ah wish they'd jus' back off an' stop treatin' me like Ah'm made o' glass or somethin'.

Oh, well, she'd find a way to put a stop to that right quick. Maybe she should drag Bella out for a while and go shopping. The assassin had been complaining about not having enough blue things set up for the baby, so she was certain Bella would be thrilled to hit the shops with her.

"Ah'm sorry," she sighed aloud. "Ah put the heist in jeopardy an' Ah-"

Tessa placed a hand on her arm, cutting her off. "You have nothing to be sorry for, my friend. You followed your heart, and it very well may have saved that young man's life. That was very heroic."

"Ah'm supposed t' be a thief," Rogue snorted softly. "Not playin' the hero."

Tessa smiled, a mildly amused smile full of admiration and respect. "Ah, I am afraid you are too much of an X-man to be anything else, Marie."

Despite herself, Rogue smiled, shaking her head. "Ya would have made a pretty good X-man yo'self, Tess. Ah think ya an' the Professor would have gotten along real nice, an' Scott would have died an' gone t' heaven t' finally have someone on the t' team who took his orders seriously."

O' course, ya would have driven Kitty an' Kurt insane, she added to herself, but the corners of Tessa's mouth curved up anyway, suggesting that she'd heard.

"Listen, thanks, Tess," Rogue said seriously. "Fo' backin' mah play back there. It... it really means a lot."

Tessa squeezed her arm lightly. "What, as you and Mercy are so fond of saying, are friends for?"

Chuckling, Rogue let out a long breath of air. "Thanks, Tess. Ah'm gonna go ahead an' take Matt here over t' the station. Ah'll see ya'll back at home. Tell Remy Ah said not t' get himself in t' too much trouble while Ah'm gone, will ya?"

"I will tell him," Tessa replied. "But I doubt it will do much good."

"Yeah, me neither," Rogue retorted dryly.

She turned back to Matt, who was shuffling his feet on the pavement, trying hard to give them some privacy. Casting one last smile at Tessa, Rogue moved towards him, clapping her hands together to get his attention.

"Ya ready, hot shot?" she asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Whenever you are."

"Okay, then," she replied. "Ah'm gonna fly ya there, so it's up t' ya how we do this. Ah can hold ya under the arms, or Ah can scoop ya up an' fly ya in style."

"Which is easier?"

"To be honest, it's easier on me if Ah carry ya," Rogue shrugged.

"Let's do that, then," he said. "Uh, how do I..."

He trailed off as Rogue swept him off his feet easily, grinning down at him. "Jus' sit back an' relax, kid. Ah'll take care o' the rest. Ya ain't afraid o' heights or nothin', are ya?"

"I hope not," she heard him mutter as she lifted off the ground.

"Jus' don' throw up on me or anythin' an' Ah won' drop ya," Rogue laughed.

"I'll try," Matt promised weakly.

"Good," she retorted cheerfully. "Then Ah'll try not t' drop ya."



A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, guys, it's been hard to find writing time while I'm in Italy. This post might be a little rushed, so my apologies for that, but that good news is I head back to the States in a few days, so I should be able to get a good post up sometime soon :) Until then, hope you enjoy!