"The Dividing Line"
Chapter Six: "Nothing to No One"
Kitty leapt out after Rogue, lagging only half a second behind. Her hands reached out to grab her, to phase them both into the ground.
A loud BAMF and Rogue was gone. Kitty saw the ground rising and closed her eyes. She phased right into it and tried to get her bearings, so she could get back to the surface at once.
Rogue re-emerged in the middle of the road, ten feet above ground. She fell down hard, and remained on the ground, writhing.
Noise. Endless noise. Coil of snakes, filling her skull, their venom pooling inside it, pouring out of her nostrils in the form of crimson droplets... scaled skin, sexy, slithering, writhing, hissing, whispering, murmuring, shouting, speaking, begging, pleading, laughing, crying, whimpering, moaning, desperate, joyful, mellow, turned on, intimate, repulsed, love, lust, hate, anger, pity, sorrow, melancholy, fire, ice, magma, light, fireworks, claws, tail, blue, black, white, red, soil, storm, rain, water...
Rogue groaned through clenched teeth as her forehead scraped the pavement.
Too much. Too much.
"Stop!" she cried out.
She could only make the word out from her own screaming. She was kicking, trying to find purchase, but her chucks were sliding on the wet asphalt and finding nothing but the surface. Both hands pressed on her head, she could feel her throat slowly pushing beyond sore as she screamed.
Blood was trickling down her nose in steady droplets, defying the chaos overwhelming her.
"Stop it!"
Pain told her that she had spared a hand to pound on the ground. Her hand was swollen, every blow was sending small shockwaves through her arm. But it was nothing, it was nothing at all, because she was raw power, who the fuck did you think she was? She was the motherfucking Juggernaut, bi-
"I said stop!"
Rogue's fist crashed into the road and shook the ground around it. Cracks emerged in the asphalt, fault lines bleeding out of the contact point.
For a fleeting, cruel second, the echoes were completely silent. For a moment, she was no one.
The noise returned at full-force, making her scream out. She rose to her feet, barely able to keep her balance, barely able to perceive anything.
"Rogue!"
Voice. Meaningless. Familiar. There was another voice, the same one, inside.
"Rogue! Hey!"
Rogue clenched her fists.
Emma Frost rubbed her temples. She didn't have to look to see that her white suit was ruined by the blood dripping from her nose. She had a throbbing headache, it felt like her skull was being split open from the inside. Shrugging it off, she closed her eyes and pressed two fingers on her temples to concentrate.
This is Headmaster Frost, calling all Hellions. You are needed. Assemble and come to the library tower. Now.
As she ceased her transmission, Emma Frost sighed. She stood up. Charles' wheelchair had fallen to the side, and he was unconscious. She breathed in and slowly, her skin turned into diamond. Congratulating herself for not risking her shoes, she ran to the window and leapt down. The suit was a lost cause, anyway.
All Kitty could see was Rogue standing there, still –too still-, as if waiting. She approached cautiously, hands shaking slightly, reaching for her shoulder. Kitty noted that Rogue's fingers were twitching.
Rogue suddenly clenched her fists and extended bone claws.
Kitty had barely a second to become intangible before Rogue, letting out a guttural growl, spun around and slashed at her. Kitty backed away, but Rogue didn't relent – the claws came at her with a flurry of slashes. Kitty stopped abruptly and decided to go through Rogue instead. She lurched forward.
All she could see in Rogue's eyes was pure, raw insanity.
Kitty went through Rogue and emerged from the other side. She was about to turn when Rogue, screaming out, unleashed a full, blood-red optic blast in her direction. Kitty cringed – the beam was a bit difficult, as she could still feel it piercing through her. She dodged to the side, became tangible and rushed to her feet. She had a brief second of hope before Rogue, moving impossibly fast, grabbed her by her ponytail and smashed her fist into her face. Kitty felt her nose break with the impact. Tears filled her eyes as Rogue spun and threw her down to the pavement. Kitty became intangible a nanosecond before her head hit the ground – and two nanoseconds before Rogue's foot crashed onto the concrete and buried her up to her knee.
Kitty emerged a little ways away from Rogue. Once she became solid again, she had to press her hand on her nose. Even breathing through it hurt. Rogue was just standing there, holding her head, screaming.
"Alright, little lady, you're coming with me!"
"Dob't!" Kitty called out.
The young man leaping at Rogue was wearing a black and yellow uniform, which led Kitty to believe that he was part of a team, like hers. Rogue spun around just as he unleashed a barrage of bright green energy. Rogue held out her hand, and the blast dissipated in waves. He landed on his feet, hands ready, but Rogue unleashed a wave of magma towards him. As Kitty sprinted towards them, he screamed, holding up a bright green shield. The shield was keeping Rogue at bay, but it was thinning...
Kitty leapt to deliver a kick. Rogue stopped her assault on the Hellion and grabbed Kitty by the ankle mid-air and brought her around. Kitty crashed against the Hellion and they both fell to the ground.
"Rogue!"
Rogue turned to see Emma Frost, standing there. Her skin was glistening and she looked determined to stand her ground. With a shriek, Rogue went cannonball and launched herself towards Emma Frost. Emma Frost side-stepped her and brought down her elbow. The blow connected at her waist and brought her to the ground. Emma Frost shifted her position and punched Rogue's back, eliciting a groan. Before she could rewind another blow, Rogue spun and slashed with her bone claws, which tore into the fabric of the suit, but broke upon coming into contact with her bare ankle. Emma Frost rose her foot to stomp on Rogue, but Rogue, with a slickness Emma Frost had rarely seen, flipped herself onto all fours and then leapt up like a frog. She sped up in mid-air and rushed towards Kitty and the recovering Hellion.
A wall of sand, somewhat wet from the rain, gathered in between Rogue and her intended targets, slowing her down. When the sand condensed itself into a form, Rogue was facing a girl concealed in a black burqa.
"That's as far as you go." The girl said.
Rogue growled.
"Sooraya!" Emma Frost called, "Don't hold back!"
Sooraya slowly became a cloud of particles, hissing in the air. Rogue, feeling her anxiety and blind rush build up the longer she stood, was nevertheless still, poised and waiting. A torrent of sand-like particles rushed forward and tore into her. Rogue could feel small grains stripping off pieces of her flesh. The pain from the pricking of the particles was nothing at all to her. Dust in the wind.
Rogue ignited, parts of exposed flesh stinging, and she steadily rose the temperature around her, until the heat started to melt parts of the ground underneath her. Sooraya, around her, crystallized into pieces of glass and shattered on the ground.
Kitty almost shrieked when she saw Rogue's mangled body started to patch the wounds up at an incredible pace. In a few seconds, Rogue, standing there in her tattered clothes, snarling.
"You'll pay for that!"
Rogue turned to face a rock giant – wearing a comically undersized, black and yellow jumpsuit, the lumbering figure came swinging. Rogue dodged with ease and backed up a few paces. She closed her eyes and held her hands out before her.
A blast of green energy distracted her. Rogue retreated, and that was when Rockslide's stone fist connected with her jaw. She felt it break, only a minor nuisance to the healing factor, and fell. She phased into the ground and disappeared.
"Where'd she go?" Rockslide asked, looking around, "Yo! Hellion! Where is she?"
"Jesus Chri- for the last time, man, I'm a telekinetic!" Hellion said, "Not a telepath!"
"Behnd youw!" Kitty slurred.
Rogue emerged from the ground behind Rockslide, with her fists clenched. A strange rumbling sound began to reverberate through the opening, and before Hellion could react, Rockslide broke apart into small rocks, which fragmented into pebbles.
"No!"
Hellion's protest lasted a second before a potent optic blast crushed his nose, dislocated his jaw and knocked him unconscious.
Kitty's kick managed to connect with the back of Rogue's head, but she seemed unfazed by it. Rogue turned slowly, causing Kitty's panic to go through the roof in a split second. Kitty phased into the ground before Rogue could react.
"This is ridiculous..." Emma Frost said to herself as Rogue, once again overwhelmed, moaned and stumbled blindly onto the road. The lamp posts around her curled into spirals, their lamps shattered. The wind picked up and the clouds overhead started to grow thicker. The rain was coming down in large droplets now, soaking those below.
The rumbling of thunder above. Rogue's body was switching between burning hot and freezing cold, shifting the air around it erratically.
Emma Frost broke into a run, preparing to use the momentum she could gain to her advantage. While the physical subjugation of Rogue wasn't the best option, letting her run rampant wasn't acceptable either. A telepathic take-down was impossible.
Emma Frost's punch landed on top of her head and disrupted her balance. She didn't relent. She came at her, usually aiming for her head, with crosses, left, right, right, right, left, right, an uppercut, a kick to the stomach, grab her by the hair, knee to the teeth, again, again, again, again, feeling her jaw shattering again and again and again - until she was convinced that she was bordering on brain damage, she wouldn't stop. Blood and teeth were flying off of every blow, every punch caving in her skull, all of which was being rapidly patched up by the healing factor kicking to overdrive.
A hand grabbed hold of Emma Frost's shirt.
"Stob!" Kitty said, "Yoo're killinbg her!"
Rogue, her hair still in Emma Frost's hand, reached for her right hand and pulled the skin clean off of it, revealing dense rock underneath it. A second later, her now-rock hand was covered with plates of organic metal. Rogue delivered an uppercut to Emma Frost, causing her to stumble back, which she used to touch her right hand and charge it. Before anyone could react, Rogue threw a punch and got her opponent straight in the face.
Her hand detonated with a dull, muffled explosion. Emma Frost's face shattered – diamonds of various shapes and sizes scattered all over. Her body shook, and then she slumped to the ground like a rag doll.
Rogue pulled back a stump. Her hand was gone.
Voices. Voices. Voices. They weren't satisfied, they were never satisfied, they wanted more. They needed more. More. More. More. More. More! More! MORE!
Rogue fell to her knees, cradling her head as her healing factor rebuilt her right hand.
The ground started to shake as chains of lightning crashed, tearing into cars, into soil, lighting up trees. The pavement cracked and split, simultaneously as bony spikes protruded from her body and flew in every direction. Kitty was caught by surprise and one of the spikes impaled her through her forearm. She screamed and went down to avoid any more projectiles.
She drew her knees to her chest and did the one thing she could do in that moment. She prayed.
Before she was even done, her prayers were answered with a mercifully familiar BAMF.
Rogue's tail swished back and forth, curled in on itself. Her hands charged up her fingernails and they detonated, one by one, making her scream out her teeth. Agony tore into her eyes as wild winds started to drag along anything that wasn't nailed down, and Rogue unleashed a wave of red energy, simultaneously as fireworks went off inside her palms.
"Tick tick tick..." she heard herself say.
A ball of light exploded in her hand, stripped the flesh to the bone. Her lower leg to phase through the ground and get stuck there. Pieces of debris started to orbit around her in a halo, moved by excess telekinetic energy. The cars around the area were crushed inwards as snow, rain and hail descended from above.
Her fingers froze, before burning up and discharging pure electricity. Rogue swallowed and a green, elongated tongue emerged from between her teeth to crack on the concrete, slobbering, whipping from side to side with increasing speed.
She bit down and severed it, moaning at the pain. The tongue fell and laid there, twitching.
Rogue's skin turned a shade of blue, before returning to its natural pallor.
Too much. Too much to contain, too much to absorb. She screamed. Again. Again. With her, the others screamed, the others shouted their defiance of her will, her self.
"Rogue!"
Standstill.
Rogue turned around, her claws constantly extending and retracting, her tail appearing and disappearing, the debris around her circling precariously, her breath freezing the air around it.
There he was.
Scott was standing in the rain, in his X-Men uniform, not too distant from her. His presence brought the echoes' voices to a grinding halt.
"It's me." He said.
The echoes started to whisper.
"Get away from me!" she could manage.
"No."
The echoes were murmuring.
"Ah'll hurt you!"
"You won't."
Scott started to walk towards her.
Jean, with Professor X at her side, arrived at the mangled mess of the sidewalk just in time to see Scott taking a step towards Rogue. Jean took a step forward herself, but Charles' hand grabbed her arm.
"Professor..!"
"No, Jean." Charles said, "Let him go."
Jean wondered if she could.
Seeing him start to come closer, Rogue tried to back away. The echoes assaulted her with endless noise, bearing down on her with all their strength, vying for control.
"Ah can't control it, Ah can't control it!" Rogue screamed, "Too many- there's too many of them!"
Scott began to walk towards her.
"No!" she took two clumsy steps back, "Don't!"
"It's okay!"
"Please..." she whimpered. Her voice was quivering.
"It's okay." he said, still continuing to advance, "It's alright. You're not going to hurt me."
"Why do you keep saying that!?" Rogue shrieked.
Scott didn't respond. He kept walking.
"Ah wrecked everythin for you, took everythin from you and gave nothin back!" she shouted, "And Ah'm this and they're talkin ta me and they'll take me and Ah'll be nothin, Ah'll be no one! Ya hear me, Summers? Ah'm no one!"
"No." he was at arm's reach.
She lashed out. The claws tore into his cheek, spilled his blood. Scott clenched his teeth and bore it.
"Ah'm a piece of shit!" Rogue shouted as her claws retracted on their own, "Ah ain't worth this, Ah ain't worth anything!"
Scott's arms reached out for her. The echoes were screaming.
"Ah'll just disappear! Just leave, let 'em take me! It'll be like Ah never happened, Ah promise, Ah promise!" she shouted, pounding on his chest with weak fists, pushing and pulling him, shaking where she stood.
"I can't do that. I won't."
"Why?" she choked, the echoes subsiding, "Why're you still here? Why are you with me, why won't you run away!?"
"Rogue..."
Rogue growled through clenched teeth, frantic. Her hands were grabbing his uniform, pushing him away and pulling him closer. She was shaking from head to toe. Her teeth were chattering.
"Ah fucked you over all this time and you're still here!" she said, "Why are you here, why won't you let go? Why are you holdin on to me!?"
Scott's gloved hands reached up and cupped her cheeks. It stilled her somewhat, made her pause. She went all rigid.
"Because I love you." He said.
He leaned in and gently kissed her, sending a torrent of thoughts and emotions into her. She shivered from head to toe, and as he withdrew, she choked. He was coursing through her, and she found that he had nothing but love for her.
Rogue sobbed and, screaming out, broke down. Scott wrapped his arms around her then and pulled her closer as she grabbed handfuls of his uniform and cried, screaming and sobbing. Her knees buckled and Scott caught her. He carried her down gently.
"Shhh..." he whispered, one hand running through her hair, "Shhh, it's okay..."
Jean, standing on the sidewalk, watched as Rogue wept. Scott, her Scott, was holding her close, gently rocking her back and forth. Through the hissing of the rain, Jean could hear him.
"I've got you..." he was saying, "It's okay, I've got you. I've got you..."