Author's Note: Back again with chapter 2! TRIGGER WARNING: Unwanted sexual advances/molestation, BUT no explicit sex or rape. Read at your own discretion. We see quite a bit of bad in this chapter for Rogue (a lot of mental and physical stress), but also some good at the end. I took the names Atom and Murphy from a different show (props to you if you know what it is!), and I have no idea what compelled me to write in those names.
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Enjoy! :)
Chapter 2: Captive
Rogue POV:
I just stuck my nose up at them both. Good news? These damn dimwits take me and think I will accept any good news. I don't think so. And how do they even know my real name?
We all stood there silently and very intense. My previous wooziness was replaced by anger towards the people. "Why am I here and how do you know me?"
"Well, you're here for two reasons," the older man said and gestured for his apprentice to describe their plans. His lab coat red Dr. Murphy and his student's coat read Dr. Atom.
The young man spoke: "We can cure you. It will be a very simple process and our technologies will be able to extract the tissue that makes up your mutation through a simple surgery. Basically, we would drain you of your mutation."
Dr. Atom smiled through his description. All the while, I remained skeptical and unwilling to accept this blessing… or was it a burden?
"So, that's nice and all, but…" I began. "Why was I abducted and why am I being held captive?"
They looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation with their eyes. "So help me God, if I don't get any damn answers, then you won't see so much as a drop of my blood," I threatened. I wanted answers and I wanted them now.
Dr. Murphy continued where the other left off. "We… are strong believers that this world does not need mutants. However, we have funding that will enable us to safely eradicate the mutant race."
"Safely eradicate?!" I asked in frustration.
"Yes," the doctor continued. "Our plan is to use your tissue to inject into other registered mutants," he paused. That must be how he knows my information and there's no doubt he has records upon records of all the other mutants either. "We don't wish to hurt anyone, so injecting them with your mutation will stop their fertility line. If they cannot touch one another, then they cannot procreate. Simple as that."
"But even if you do have a list of registered mutants, there are still more out there. You can't possibly be so ignorant to think that you can just… find all the mutants in the world," I tried.
"Our funds will allow for proper engineers to build a device that can do so then. Anything is possible Rogue… such as being able to touch someone without hurting them. Don't you want that?" Dr. Atom tried to reason.
If anyone understood the pain of not being able to touch, it would be me and I could not fathom passing that to another individual much less an entire sub-species! I don't think I could live with myself if that were to happen. If I had to live a lifetime without knowing the touch of a lover, then so be it as long as it has to be no one else. "Well, I'm afraid that I have to decline your offer." While it would be nice to touch another human being without sucking the life and memories out of them, it would also be an incredibly selfish decision to make.
"I am sorry to inform you, but you have no say in the matter," Dr. Murphy replied in a low voice. "I am truly sorry if it seemed as if we gave you a choice to begin with."
Fighting Magneto, the Brotherhood, Apocalypse and all the other threats the X-Men had to face, I would love to admit that no matter how scared I ever was, I was able to remain fearless in some sense.
But this? Being trapped with no way out and not able to use my powers? I was fearful, and not just for myself.
Both men left the room shortly after and said they would be back soon for the operation.
As I sat against the wall, I found myself in a seemingly impossible situation. I couldn't do anything logical. Even if I killed myself, they could still get what they need. There was little chance of a rescue showing up anytime soon – the Professor couldn't track me through Cerebro due to the collar around my neck. Even Wolverine's impressive tracking skills couldn't be able to find me in time. I could try my own hand at an escape plan, but what were the chances of that working?
I was trapped.
It could have been minutes or hours before someone came in through the steel door. My sense of time was skewed.
"Get up," the man said.
God, if I see one more damn man today…
"I said Get. Up. Prisoner," the man repeated. And that's when I heard it – this was my original captor. I hadn't seen his face before, but it seemed to match his voice impeccably. He was burly and my measurement of height and strength from our scuffle in the street was very accurate.
He unlocked the door to my cage and I backed as far away from him as possible in the small area. Soon enough, he had me cornered and I could smell his cigar-filled breath as he used his body to hold me down as he pierced a syringe into my upper arm.
"What the hell?!" I screamed. I tried pushing him off me and making a run for the steel door, but almost fell on my face immediately.
My eyes could no longer focus on specific details of the area I was in.
"Prisoner is sedated," the man said into what I assumed was a walkie.
I could hear the faint sound of wheels running over harsh concrete, and had the sensation of being lifted – someone grabbed my arms, while another grabbed my legs. I could also feel leather straps redundantly restraining my numb limbs.
I could feel myself going in and out of consciousness. One minute, we were in a poorly lit hallway; the next, fluorescent lighting; the next an operating room.
"Please… don't do this… I'm begging you," I said, even though my own voice sounded hundreds of miles away in my mind.
I could not keep my eyes open anymore and could feel the light pressure of a mask being put on my face.
"Oh, my dear, we are doing this for the good of humanity," Dr. Murphy smiled behind his own fabric mask.
My last thought before succumbing to muddled darkness was the thought of holding hands with another being, no barriers in between. How selfish.
How selfish, indeed.
Unlike before, my body woke up with a sense of peace. I opened my eyes the moment my brain would allow me to and gazed around at the surroundings from my position on the ground. Next to me sat another glass of water with a note taped to it.
Before picking either of the items up, I felt something sticky on the back of my neck – at least they had the decency to take off that damned collar – and touched it. I applied light pressure to the middle of the irritated area and retched back in pain. They… they cut me open. How could they? My sense of privacy was eternally shot and I felt broken.
It was then that I took the note from the water in shaky pale hands and read:
Congratulations, you have been cured. ~Dr. Atom and Dr. Murphy.
I looked at the simple note with disbelief and bile rose to my throat, yet I willed it to stay down. I picked up the cup of water and threw it at the concrete wall, only wishing it was glass so that I may hear the refreshing noise of something being shattered. I no longer possessed poisoned skin.
A bitter laugh rose through my mouth and I wept into the comfort of my inner arms, backing myself into a corner of the cell. I tried to will away the pain at the base of my neck, but the physical and moral injury was a crude reminder that I was indeed cured.
Congratulations, Rogue.
Hours Later:
I woke to the sound of an opening door, but my eyes refused to blink. At least, my eyes didn't do so until another door was unlocked and opened. I fixated on the figure that was standing in front of my now-open cell door. It was my original captor – whoever he was.
What I wanted to do was get up and beat his ass for kidnapping me. Some part of my unconscious mind was telling me that he damn well deserved it. But, I felt as if all that fight had left my body. I felt weak.
So, I glared at him and said nothing. He didn't deserve the satisfaction of my questioning voice.
It wasn't until he shut my cell door with him still inside that I fully sat up. Admittedly, the movement was dizzying. However, my growing anxiety willed my body to start going into survival mode again. Fight or flight, the adrenaline was back.
"Sorry for taking you the other day," the burly man said while standing in front of the door to my cell nonchalantly. Ah, so it had been at least a day I had been here.
"You mean kidnapping me?" I seethed in response. It was difficult to sound tough when my voice was cracking from its lack of water and use.
He chuckled to himself a little and casually pushed his body off the door. He sauntered around my small jail. "Damn, thought the docs would've better accommodated you… given you a bed or at least a pillow" he said while paying little attention to the details on the concrete wall. "Then again, you are a mutant."
And there it was – yet another person to deny me something as simple as shelter because of my genetics.
"Well, not anymore…" he smirked. At this, he started coming towards me.
"What… what are you doing?" I asked incredulously.
"The thing is, you were the girl who had poisonous skin," he came closer and closer to me. "Untouchable, if you will. That's what the docs said." If I wasn't creeped out before, I sure as hell was now. "But not anymore."
I could not find the strength to stand up, but I attempted to scoot away from him as much as possible. Every step he took towards me, I would back away further from him.
Really, it was a plan that could've worked for hours – hunter stalking his very aware prey – but the wall that came up behind my back signaled that there was no more running now. "Please stop," I cried, my resolve breaking apart.
"I mean, I'll be the first person who touches you," he said as he grabbed both of my hands with one of his and pinned them to the ground roughly.
"Don't do this!" I yelled at him and tried kicking him away. All the while, he held my legs down with one of his. His thigh and knee rested across both of my lower legs and I was beginning to lose feeling in them.
No man had ever dared to touch me the way he did and it was positively horrifying. He ran his hands all over my upper body and neck, but he paid special attention to the column of my neck. "So soft…" I could hear him mutter as his hand caressed the exposed skin.
Two things happened in this moment: he started to close his hand around my slender neck and I could feel his pants begin to tighten and something slightly jabbed my thigh. The hand around my neck continued to cut off my airway more and more and I began to struggle for breathe. Right when black dots began to swarm along with my vision, he let go of my neck and I let a big gulp of oxygen into my lungs.
My victorious air was short-lived though as he began running his hands over my breasts through the clothing rather painfully. "Damn, you gotta nice rack on you," he said sleazily. Who even says that?
As he began to dry hump my legs like the dog that he was, I tried to distance myself from the present situation. I was physically too weak to resist him. I hadn't eaten in over a day and I hadn't drank anything, for that matter as well. I was without my mutation, which in itself could have given me strength.
I was just too weak to fend him off. I was too weak.
As much as I tried to take myself out of the situation, the vulgar sensation of his hands on my body brought me back again and again, as small sobs wracked my body. The sick fuck probably liked that, too.
I could hear more so than feel the ripping of my shirt as he tore the protective garment and the accommodating bra from my torso as he fondled my nipples roughly.
This moment in time felt so unreal. Part of me wanted to throw up bile at the whole situation. First, these maniacs kidnap me; then, they take away my mutation without my consent; and now, I'm being raped.
That other part of me was fixated on the fact that I was about to lose my virginity – something that I thought I would hold on to until my death. Even when I thought that I could never touch another human being, I still thought that my first time having sex would be with someone who I loved. Not this. Not with this rapist.
As his hands traveled further south on my body, I began to weep silently. When he popped the button on my jeans and pulled down the zipper, I was surprised to hear a mixture of something that sounded like a bang-crack-clink instead of feeling my pants being pulled down.
My captor dropped to the side, unconscious and I just laid on the ground for a moment, contemplating what had just happened.
"You need a hand, Cherie?" a familiar voice asked.
"Gambit?" I asked, surprised by his presence.
"Please chere, aren't we passed those formalities?" he charmed, casual as ever. "Better getcha outta here before he wakes up, I didn't hit him that hard."
Apparently, the noise I had heard was Gambit's bow-staff hitting the man's head. Serves him right for what he was about to do to me.
"Why are you here?" I asked, truly baffled.
"Just running an errand for ole-Magneto is all," he replied casually.
"Magneto's still around?" I exclaimed.
"Don't worry chere, he ain't digging up any trouble today," he finished.
And in that moment, I felt a wave of calm spread over my half-naked body. In the ugly fluorescent lighting, it was refreshing to see the face of Remy LeBeau, no matter how arrogant and disgusting he was. Even though I was sure he wasn't here for a rescue mission, I was still thankful. If I were being honest with myself – which I wish I hadn't – I preferred seeing him in this moment rather than any other X-Man. All things considered, it was nice to know that he wouldn't take any of this seriously. That's what I needed right now to carry on. The rest I could figure out later.
I feebly attempted to get up from the ground, heeding Gambit's words carefully. He was right; if there was a camera in my jail cell, then people were sure to know that something was wro-
My thoughts were cut off by a piercing alarm that made me curl in on myself. Even Gambit couldn't help a small jolt of surprise.
"We gotta go," I yelled over the alarm.
Gambit offered a hand without thinking, and I took it. Like always, I expected the tell-tale feeling of his life force flowing through me – his memories, his powers, his skills – but none of that happened and we both looked at each other, stunned. He didn't have to ask any questions, because he knew.
Gazing upon Gambit now, I became the slightest bit elated that I could finally touch people without hurting them. But, the continuation of the blaring alarm allowed me to push that thought aside for now.
As Gambit helped me to my feet, I almost fell into his broad chest from lack of balance. I could fully feel the weakening effects of no water and food in my system and became dizzy upon standing up to my full height. The amount of sedatives from the past day(s) still in my system did not help.
"This ain't no rescue mission Gambit," I stated firmly. "Just go. I'll catch up." I didn't mean it.
Gambit broke down his bow-staff and equipped it below his trench coat. "Not leavin you here, Rogue," he stated seriously. I hadn't seen him so serious in a long time. "This just turned into a rescue mission," he stated back just as firmly.
The way out of the complex was fairly easy; for a place so big, it was severely lacking in security measurements. I guess their funding only extended so much.
The alarms continued their incessant noise and I couldn't help but chuckle at this all.
Gambit looked to me with a confused expression. "Something funny?" he asked.
"You're a pretty bad thief, letting all those alarms go off," I said playfully.
"Well if being a bad thief means I can save you again and again, then so be it," he stated matter-of-fact. I felt a small flutter in my stomach at his kind words, whether they were true or just one of his lines.
I looked at the passing walls bitterly as Gambit and I made our way through the long, winding hallways. I currently had an arm draped across Gambit's shoulders and his own arm was lightly but firmly wrapped around my waist to keep from falling. I so badly wanted to rest my head atop his shoulder and fall into a blissful sleep that was surrounded by scents of spices and hints of cigarettes; but, that would have to wait for a later time.
When we finally made it outside after quite a few impressive twists and turns on Gambit's part, the humid and warm night air was the first thing I felt on my skin. How much of that skin was feeling it? I dared to not think about it.
We made our weary way down the road some. Gambit said, "Don't you worry, Rogue. We'll get you outta this shit hole soon enough." And we carried on until we came to an area with dense bushes lining the street. Out of the corner of one of the bushes, I could see the sparkling of something metallic. "Your bike?" I asked.
"Well but of course, chere!" he exclaimed. "Ready to ride?"
"Sure thing Swamp Rat," I said with a sigh. I tried my best to cover up my lithe body from his view. My shirt, now that I noticed, was ripped deeply down the middle. And I actually liked this damn shirt! It didn't take much of a passing gaze to even see my black bra for that matter. Luckily, my pants didn't sustain much damage aside from dirt and grime. Turning around from my travel companion, I made the best decision I possibly could make and ripped the rest of the shirt down the middle. With that new tear, I was able to tie the shirt just underneath my breasts, so they were at least hidden from view. On that note, I made sure to button my pants back up with shaking hands. Well, this'll have to do. I had no mirror, so I could only hope this looked somewhat normal.
When I turned back around to face Gambit, he was taking off his trench coat and he handed it to me. "Here, it gets cold," he said in a serious tone. I didn't know if he really was concerned about my being warm or cold, or if was just to dilute others from looking our direction; in any case, I accepted his token and tied it around my body tight. The coat was heavy, but warm – so blissfully warm.
When we finally rode off into the night, I rested my tired head against the back of Remy's shoulder and held on to his waist a little tighter. Ever the slightest, I could feel him lean more into me as well, seeming to give as much comfort as he could.
As I sat on the back of Gambit's motorcycle with the wind rushing through my hair and the roar of the engine, I began to silently cry about the past day or so. Some tears were reserved for pure sadness; some tears were held for absolute hatred; some tears were even saved for relief; and then some tears were shed for everything in between. My only true solace in the moment was knowing that I was with the one person in the world who would understand these confounding emotions I held.
What are your thoughts? It got pretty graphic there for a moment, but I hope I did it justice. Don't forget to review/follow/favorite for more! :) Keep it classy everyone!