Chapter 40
Clark cannot believe she would just show up like this. It takes some gall, let him tell you.
Domino pushes her way out from the stands and strides up swiftly to her sister.
"Hey Dom!" Rogue greets her merrily. "You're looking good!" she compliments the monochrome mutant.
Dom puts her hands on her hips and taps her foot angrily. "What the hell?" she just asks it.
"Well ah'm not rejoining y'all if that's what you're thinking," Rogue dismisses that idea before it even begins. "Ah just thought ah would come watch Jean and Scott graduate...ya know for old tahmes sake. Despite what happened ah still considah y'all mah friends. Mah rathah deluded, mistaken and misguided friends ta beh sure but still."
Dom...is speechless which believe you her is not an easy thing to achieve.
"So is that too much ta ask?" Rogue asks. "Just for meh ta come here and watch. Ah promise ta beh on mah best behaviour," she vows. She lifts her hand as if taking an oath. "Scout's honour," she says with a shit eating grin.
"Domino," the Professor's voice breaks in. "If she wants to watch she is free to. Besides perhaps you two could catch up."
Domino arches an eyebrow. The Professor means more than just 'girl talk'. He means more a subtle probing to see how Rogue actually is. Well, Dom guesses that ass kicking she promised to give her sister to knock her back into sense will have to wait.
The 2 siblings turn and head back to sit in the stands.
"Hey ho, daddio!" Rogue jokily greets Logan, her genetic father. "So what have I missed?"
Logan looks at her though narrowed eyes.
"Oh not much," Domino answers lightly. "Just him having a reverse gender clone."
Rogue's head snaps round. "Say what?!"
"Reverse...gender...clone," Domino repeats slowly. "With the metal claws and everything."
Rogue did not expect that at all. She has another sister. That is a genuine surprise for her. "Is she here?" she asks, looking around for someone who might fit the role of being a female Logan.
"Nope. Long story."
"Well ah guess that's anothah one ta add to the collection," Rogue says with a nonchalant shrug as she shakes off the shock a little too easily all of a sudden.
"Another one?" Logan queries.
"Collection?" Domino queries.
"Oh, well ah guess ya should know," Rogue decides to tell them. "Magneto has this...guy...it's an alliance thing. Well he's been tracing and finding all tha Weapon X kids. Have ta beh a dozen of them now."
Domino and Logan look shocked. They had no idea there were that many of them. And now they're with Magneto. Plus it's not like they too haven't been looking for the mutant kids Stryker created but they got nowhere in tracking them down. How did this guy Rogue is mentioning do it?
"I'm going to fry her," Claire murmurs quietly. She promised herself she would do it next time she saw Rogue.
"Leave it," Clark says as he comes to sit beside his sister.
Claire looks at him disbelieving. "Oh come on, how can you just sit there?" she wants to know. Of all people she figured he would most want to do something about Rogue considering they're exes.
"Claire...graduation. No trouble. Not today," Clark insists upon.
Claire folds her arms and slumps. "Fine," she says moodily, sulking she didn't get to fry the Mississippi native.
Short time later Principal Kelly moves to stand behind the lectern set up on the stage built for the day. "Welcome," he greets everyone. "I think back to the first time I spoke in front of all you. Change was the theme then and it has never been more important than it is today so as you go out into this rapidly changing world it is essential that you take control of your futures. You may look across from you and see students who have certain advantages over you. Don't be deterred. Any disadvantage can be overcome. You can prevail. We can..."
Kelly stops and gasps and there are sudden murmurings.
"Oh no!" Kelly declares in horror.
What he is in horror at is the arrival of Magneto and the Acolytes. Polaris, Gambit, Colossus, Pyro, Sabretooth, the 2 Lady Masterminds and Quicksilver.
Scott groans. "There goes graduation," he mutters.
"Dang," Rogue curses under her breath. "Ah hoped we could get through tha ceremony first before they arrived."
"What?" Domino asks, miffed by that.
The graduates sitting on the field and their friends and family in the stands panic and make a run for it.
"Everyone remain calm!" Principal Kelly tries to alleviate the fear before someone gets hurt. "And exit the field as quickly as possible," he instructs them.
As the stands mostly empty and the students of the Institute gather to face off against Magneto, Emma and the Hellions stand off by the side and just watch. This is not her fight.
Rogue, meanwhile, stands alone in the stands essentially. Magneto lifts the many metal folding chairs and uses them to surround her. Rogue smirks in amusement in response as the chairs orbit round her.
"Magneto!" the Professor calls out to him as he moves to confront his old friend once again. "Explain yourself," Charles demands, his patience and impeccable manners being pushed to the limit because this made no sense...unless Rogue was lying about why she was here.
"Yes Father, why are you here?!" Wanda angrily demands to know. She is barely keeping her powers in check at seeing him but has learned enough to not let her anger consume her as before.
Magneto's breath hitches momentarily at seeing his daughter. Dressed as she is she looks just like her mother, Magda. So beautiful. He snaps out of it and focusses on the here and now. He points at Rogue. "She's under Mesmero's control, Charles," he explains what he he is doing here.
Logan and Domino look at their relation standing there, trying to judge whether that's true or not. Rogue does seem remarkably calm and suspiciously disinterested in what is going on.
"What proof do you have?" Charles asks for before he'll just take Magneto's word for that.
"My surveillance cameras captured them meeting," he relays what he needs to. It was after Gambit and Frenzy came to him and explained the situation. It is also the only explanation he needs to give as to why he is here. He vowed he would make Mesmero pay for what previously happened. He vowed he would stop Apocalypse being released and Magneto is a man of his word. Rogue is now the link he needs to find Mesmero.
"How did you find her, then?" Storm wants to know as to how Magneto could possibly know Rogue was here.
"I tag all my Acolytes with a unique magnetic resonance signature I can detect almost anywhere on Earth," Magneto explains.
"Paranoid much," Domino critiques.
The 2 Lady Mastermind focus their combined telepathic might on Rogue. "He's nearby. She's talking to him," they report in sync.
Charles shifts his gaze to Rogue and uses his own telepathic powers and indeed he picks up the telepathic conversation.
Rogue laughs...laughs long, hard and manically. "Y'all have no idea what is about ta happen," she virtually cackles the warning.
"Rogue, you can fight him!" Jean calls out, recalling her own experience of being under Mesmero's control.
Rogue just laughs more. "Y'all have no idea what is going on eithah, Jean. Ta, ta now!" she waves at them.
A green haze starts to form next to Rogue.
"Merd," Gambit mutters. It's all his nightmares at once.
Magneto, however is prepared. He remembers the night he rescued Haze, trapped in her bedroom. Her lead lined bedroom. From a pouch hidden underneath his cape he summons a lead bar and splits it in moments into several thin rings and flings them at the solidifying shape of Alicia Baker. They wrap round her tight, neutralising her powers instantly, pinning her arms to her side and trapping her legs and she falls over, trapped.
"Ah," Rogue remarks, her confidence faded a little. "Didn't see that coming," she admits. She then smirks even wider than before. "But none of y'all saw this comin' eithah." She flings the chairs still orbiting around her at them all with huge magnetic force.
It catches even Magneto by surprise. When did she steal his powers?
He blocks the ones thrown at him as does Polaris in the same manner.
The rest of them just have to dodge or flick the chairs away depending on their power as Rogue orchestrates them, her fingers makes motions through the air like she is a conductor. She starts to rise into the air using whose power, who knows?
While they are all distracted avoiding getting hit she takes off through the sky at a great speed.
No-one notices the blur that leaves after her that is Clark.
Principal Kelly, who was hiding behind the lectern during all this, emerges angry and fed up. After all how many times have mutants caused disasters around him? Far too many times. "Mutants have terrorised this world long enough!" he proclaims. "Someone has got to stop them," he declares and if no-one else will do it he will!
As he leaves no-one pays him any attention.
Charles moves swiftly to respond to the situation. "Logan, track Rogue," he orders the best person for the job.
"Doc, don't try and stop me," Domino warns him that she's going as well.
"Very well," Charles accepts.
"You two," Magneto addresses Gambit and Sabretooth. "Go with them."
Sabretooth snarls. "No," he rejects that. Him and the runt. He feels sick.
Logan growls back. "I don't need their help...especially Creed's," he says, feeling as sick as Sabretooth does about the prospect.
"Logan," Charles snaps sternly. "You two have to put it aside. There's too much at stake," he says, realising what it must mean if Mesmero has returned. He must be close to gaining the 3rd key. They have to prevent that at all costs.
"For Rogue," Dom presses Logan further. That's more important, his daughter is more important than his vendetta with Sabretooth.
Logan and Sabretooth glare and growl at each other, both deeply unhappy.
Gambit is actually relieved Magneto suggested it because he has to go after Rogue.
Since everything they all need is at the mansion they all agree to return there. A new temporary truce between them. It still hasn't been noticed that Clark is missing.
Clark blurs along the ground following Rogue. Yeah he could fly up there and stop her but he's hoping she'll lead him to Mesmero. He can end this today if he catches the bald, tattooed man.
It's at the city limits she starts to descend toward a black car with blacked out windows. She lands next to it. Clark stops behind some scrub and conceals himself. The back door of the car opens and out steps...
"Mystique?" Clark queries rather puzzled. Last he checked it was in Mystique's file that her mind was so formidable she couldn't be read let alone controlled...which must mean she's voluntarily aiding Mesmero. Or at least that's the assumption Clark is making from her presence.
Voluntarily aiding him control her daughters. Seriously she's a piece of work.
"Where's Alicia?" Mystique demands to know from Rogue.
"Magneto showed up earlier than expected and subdued her," Rogue reports.
"And you just left her?!" Mystique exclaims.
"Uh, hello, tha entire Xavier Institute was there as well as ol' buckethead and tha Acolytes. Ah'm flattered, Mama, that y'all think ah could defeat that many but afraid not. Ah just had ta get out there while ah could."
'Mama? What the hell?' Clark asks himself. He's still waiting for Mesmero before he makes a move but right now he can't understand this at all. Rogue hates Mystique. Clark knows this to be true. What has Mesmero done to her because this is not simple mind control.
"Relax mama," Rogue tells the blue-skinned woman with an easy laid-back attitude. "Once we have succeeded in our task we'll pick up Alicia and Kurt. No-one will beh able ta stop our Great Pharaoh."
Mystique is still tense and unsure of this but it is what she has chosen to do.
Clark is getting more lost by the moment. Pharaoh?
"Greetings, Star Child."
Clark spins round to come face to face with Mesmero who has managed to appear like a ghost without tripping Clark's senses.
Mesmero's eyes are full of interest in what he sees before him.
"This ends now," Clark states in cold fury.
Mesmero's lips curl up. "It hasn't begun yet," he retorts. He pulls out a metal staff from under his cloak and twirls it round and points one end at Clark in a challenge.
Clark almost rolls his eyes at the ridiculousness of it. Like that little stick can stop him.
Suddenly the tip of the staff glows a bright green and since Clark is in his clothes for the ceremony he is soon groaning in pain as he drops to his knees.
"How...did..." he tries to ask about what can only be kryptonite. Only it affects him like this.
"Apocalypse knows all," Mesmero answers simply before smashing the alien teen across the face with his staff, knocking Clark down to the ground.
This little kerfuffle draws the attention of Rogue and Mystique.
Rogue blurs(either Impulse's or Quicksilver's power) and grabs the staff away from Mesmero. "What are ya doing?!" she practically screams into his face. "Do ya know what this does ta him?!" she shouts angrily.
"Of course I do...but he couldn't be allowed to interfere now could he," Mesmero responds calmly.
Mystique is awfully confused. "What is going on?" she demands to know because to see Superman, and she could see it was Superman despite the normal clothes he was in, to see the powerful boy prone on the ground was a sight one does not expect.
"This idiot is trying ta kill him," Rogue spits out in fury.
Mystique looks at the still glowing staff and then back to the groaning in a foetal position on the ground boy. "You're hurting him," she says in astonishment. She's never seen anything hurt him...apart from that one time when he was blinded but she never did figure out what happened there.
"Even the Mighty Achilles, blessed by the Gods as he was, had a weakness," Mesmero poetically explains it. "Now you can either knock him out Rogue or I'm afraid I'll have to subject him to more," he gets back to business.
Rogue sighs. It's not just her lingering feelings for Clark. It's that Apocalypse has plans for him. However, he can't interfere right now. It's too soon. Mesmero is correct about that. She reaches out and down and touches Clark's face with her bare fingers. "Ah'm sorry," she apologises and then absorbs him...and it works. Her enhancement via kryptonite or a gift from Apocalypse, it doesn't matter. The point is it works and she drains just enough to knock him out, leaving Clark an unconscious heap on the ground.
Mesmero takes his staff back from Rogue and the green glow fades to nothing.
Rogue puts a hand to her head. "Whoa, ah forgot what a rush his power is," she says, almost dizzy.
"You've absorbed him before," Mystique states. She was there. When Rogue's powers went haywire.
"Yeah but ah didn't really get ta enjoy them before they wore off," Rogue laments with passing out and all. By the time she woke up they were gone. "Though it did come with some rather beneficial permanent side-effects."
"Your current powers," Mystique figures out what she means. So that's what happened. Mystique had wondered how it came about. Though why has it turned out to be permanent? Mystique is about to get that answer.
Rogue shrugs. "Well ya know mah powers weren't designed ta absorb an alien. It was bound to end up a bit fruity."
"What do you mean, alien?"
"Guess," Rogue dead-pans. "Ah mean if ya can't get it from 'Star Child' ya really are getting slow in your old age, Mama."
Mystique's mouth opens and shuts like a gaping fish as she gets it. "Alien...as in...from another planet?" she asks in a shocked whisper.
Rogue shrugs. "It's not such a big deal once ya get use ta tha idea," she lets it play off lightly.
Nope. Mystique's going to need another minute here.
Mesmero chuckles at her reaction, finding it amusing.
"You knew?" Mystique accuses.
"Apocalypse knows all," is how Mesmero explains it.
"But he looks..." Mystique argues about Superman's human appearance.
Rogue rolls her eyes. "Yep, heard that one a million tahmes," she complains. She then grins lustfully. "Though one up for his side he certainly knew how ta make the stars explodes for meh," she quips with a positively sinful look.
Mystique gapes more. "You slept with him?!" she cries.
"There wasn't much sleeping involved. Fucking mah brains out sure," Rogue phrases it crudely.
"He's not human!"
"Ya don't lahke humans!" Rogue argues back.
"Or mutant!" Mystique alters her attack.
"Hey, at tha tahme he could touch meh when no-one else could. How can ya blame meh for wanting ta know what it was lahke?!"
Mystique can't. She rubs her head as if trying to banish the images from her mind. "No mother should know what their daughter gets up to in their sex life, Rogue," she murmurs.
"Ah can't believe ah'm saying this ta a, lahke, century old woman but grow up," Rogue tells her with a touch of snideness and also revealing what she now knows about Mystique's rough age.
"Didn't you have that human boyfriend?" Mystique accuses.
Rogue rolls her eyes. "Yes...and Clark was very sweet...and don't roll your eyes about that but we broke up. Ya know, it happens."
"And when did you sleep with this...alien?"
Rogue groans. She has no intention of telling Mystique about Clark's secret identity. "Does it really mattah? Sheesh, y'all are so uptight. Yes, ah had sex with an alien. Yes, it was really pretty fantastic and yes ah also had a boyfriend. Tha order of when all that happened is so not relevant and also none of your dang business. Ah mean, geez, did ya give Alicia this interrogation over her sleeping with Gambit?"
Mystique chokes. "She was doing what?!" she screams. She didn't know that!
"Sleeping with Gambit. What? Ya didn't know that?" Rogue asks curiously.
"No!"
"Well y'all learn something new everyday now don't ya."
"I'm killing him!" Mystique vows. She'll hunt him down and by the time she's done no-one will ever be able to identity the body.
"Aw, don't knock it until ya try it, Mama."
Mystique feels faint as she figures out what that means. "You too?!"
Rogue shrugs. "Ah needed ta distract him. He was suspicious about mah behaviour."
"So you thought, hey I know, I'll have sex with him?!" Mystique persists, not letting this go.
"Yep," Rogue responds succinctly with a self-satisfied grin.
"Is there any of my children he hasn't slept with?!"
Rogue ponders that. "Ah don't think he's Kurt's type," she dead-pans.
"Not funny!" Mystique snaps waspishly with a harsh glare.
"Can we discuss this in the car as we go?" Mesmero requests, feeling he's probably let this drag on too long as matter of fact. "They are almost certainly in pursuit of us by now," he points out.
"He's right," Rogue agrees. "Come on. We should go," she says as she steps into the car.
"We're not finished having this talk, Rogue," Mystique warns her daughter as she steps inside the car too. Good God is there anyone left in her family Gambit hasn't slept with. When she gets a hold of him she swears she's going to rip his balls off and mount them on her wall as a trophy.
Mesmero gets in the drivers seat since it seems mother and daughter want to 'talk'. The quicker they free Apocalypse the better just so Mesmero doesn't have to listen to more of this.
Some time later coming along the same road are 4 motorcycles ridden by Domino, Gambit, Sabretooth and Logan. They had picked them up at the mansion and then left immediately in pursuit of Rogue.
The 2 feral mutants are up front competing for the lead, glaring and snarling at each other.
Logan was just in his biker gear for the moment.
"Well...this is gonna be interesting," Gambit drawls at the prospect of putting up these two mortal enemies.
"Is that your word for it?" Domino asks him. She had also made quick change when they were at the mansion. She's dressed in her x-men uniform only with a long back coat on top. Helps hide her weapons so they don't get pulled over. "I can think of quite a few others."
Hmm, on another day Gambit would so be flirting that woman's tight black pants off. However his main focus is Rogue and only Rogue. He does care for her. Truly...or as much truth as he cares for anyone he supposes.
Logan sniffs the air and catches a familiar scent. So that's where the kid got to. "Up ahead!" he calls out, signalling for them to slow down and pull up.
They do so and Logan rushes over to behind the brush at the side of the road.
The rest catch up.
Domino's eyes widen when she spots Clark lying on the ground unconscious and goes to help Logan with him.
"Don't get it. Who could take him out?" Sabretooth wonders.
Clark groans. "Mesmero," he answers as he starts to come round.
"How?" Dom asks.
"Glowly green staff...the certain green I hate," Clark answers vaguely, realising who is around him.
Logan helps Clark to his feet.
Clark rubs his aching head. He feels wiped. "Mystique."
"What?" Logan asks.
"Mystique. She was here. With Mesmero. They seemed to have formed an alliance...I think," he modifies that to give himself some wiggle room in case he's wrong. He supposes he is guessing a little that fact but it seems the most likely scenario from what he knows before he was knocked out.
Logan and Domino look at Sabretooth and Gambit for an explanation.
"Thought she was working for your boss," Logan comments.
"She is," Sabretooth says gruffly.
"Doing what?" Dom asks. "And don't give me the classified crap. This is too important."
Gambit relents and concedes she's right. "She was undercover. Infiltrating de ranks of de Friends of Humanity. Her mission was to find out de identity of its leader."
"So Magneto could deal with him no doubt," Logan mutters.
"She's double crossed us," Sabretooth snarls angrily.
"You're surprised?" Logan asks in disbelief. Mystique can't be trusted. She can never be trusted.
"Can it runt!"
"Stow it!" Dom snaps at the two of them. "Rogue, Superman? What about Rogue?"
"She was here. I followed her, hoping she would lead me to Mesmero...but something's odd. She doesn't act like she's under simple mind control. She seems perfectly aware of exactly what she's doing."
"Gambit doesn't believe d'at," he refuses.
"Look Cajun," Sabretooth addresses him. "Just because you're fucking her..."
Logan cuts Creed off. "He's doing what?!" he cries out, giving Gambit the glare of death, contemplating personally performing a castration on the native of New Orleans.
"Oh merd," Gambit mutters. He was hoping that wouldn't come out.
"You don't know the half of it pal," Dom says in half-amusement because Gambit can't realise Logan is Rogue's father. Not that she plans to share that or her own relation. Though she can't be certain exactly how much Rogue has said in these months her sister has been with Magneto.
Clark tries not to think about it...but that could be because his brain feels like cotton wool right now. "The car's gone," he notices.
"What?" Dom asks.
"There was a car. Mystique was inside when I got here," he explains.
Dom snaps her fingers and points at Sabretooth. "You, pick up the scent," she orders since Logan is holding Clark up right now and if the car is gone they must have taken it for whatever reason. Though considering the power Rogue showed she possessed Domino isn't sure that makes sense. She could have flown them all away. They would never have been able to follow her in the air...unless she is trying not to overuse the power and was forced to by Magneto showing up. That's an explanation. Doesn't make sense but it is one.
Sabretooth thinks for a moment about arguing but the woman's stare makes him think twice. Damn those eyes...they remind him of Silver Fox. She had eyes and a stare just like that.
As Sabretooth sniffs around for the scent, Logan lowers Clark back down to sit on the grass verge...while mentally storing to remember to kill Gambit once they have Rogue back. "Kid, you look terrible," he gives his blunt opinion about Clark's current appearance.
Clark runs his hand through his hair. "Rogue absorbed me," he mutters his last memory before he passed out.
Logan swears in his head. A Clark powered Rogue is going to be a nightmare to stop.
"This isn't make any sense," Clark gives his view.
"Yeah, I got that too," Logan agrees with him. "How bad are ya?"
"She didn't take it all. Just enough to knock me out...I think."
"Can you get back to the mansion?"
Clark looks up, about to object.
Logan cuts him off before he can. "You're in no shape. Go home. Recharge. When we find them we'll need you at your best to stop her because she's not likely to be talked down is she?"
Clark has to sadly shake his head in agreement with that statement.
Dom comes up and bends down to look at him. "How you feeling?"
"Slightly better," Clark reports. She sighs. "I'm sorry," Clark feels he needs to apologise. "Sorry I couldn't do better and get her back."
Dom smiles kindly. She really was fond of him. She playfully punches him on the arm. "Don't worry about it. If life was easy it'd be no fun."
Logan looks at her strangely. "You are nuts," he gives her his view. What he wouldn't give for an easy life.
Dom grins crookedly...and a little bit insanely. "Yeah so? What's your point?"
"Got the scent!" Sabretooth reports.
"Duty calls," Dom phrases it.
Clark nods. "Be careful," he gives them his best wishes.
"Again where's the fun in that?" Dom asks with a manic grin.
Logan rolls his eyes. "The world is doomed."
Author's Note: May seem odd Rogue showing up but it'll be explained. I'll go with its part of Apocalypse's plan. Considering I added Domino essentially being Rogue's sister I felt I had to add her to the hunting party. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Dark Horizons part 3 as the X-Men and Acolytes alliance means all of them under the same roof and certain family members finally get to meet up and talk.