Chapter VII
Shake your head, have some fun.
Forget our mothers and past lovers,
Forget everyone. Oh, I'm so lucky.
You are my best friend.
Are you wild like me?
Raised by wolves and other beasts
I tell you all the time, I'm not mad.
You tell me all the time, I got plans.
Me and you
We could do better, I'm quite sure.
~Bros by Wolf Alice
…
Manhattan
Rogue sat in the semi-darkness of her hospital room watching footage from her phone.
'Unit XP was funded by the anti-mutant terrorist organization, Purifiers, led by Jason Stryker. Stryker's goal was to not only eliminate mutants, but also to eliminate their associates. To this end, he established Unit XP first in the States. Eventually, the Unit had so many victims and practitioners that it required a larger, more organized structure. A massive underground prison was built in the Arctic. There, it is estimated that anywhere from three-thousand to thirty-thousand carriers of the X-gene were subjected to inhumane medical experiments.
'Many of the medical staff and guards have come forward for clemency, including head-of-staff, Dr. Ishii, who confessed to executing Stryker. They claim that Stryker held their families hostage and threatened to harm them unless they complied. So far, no charges have been filed, though the Attorney General says investigations remain on-going.'
She closed the news and logged onto her work website. There, she accessed depositions filed by the medical staff. Vivisections, infectious diseases, sleep deprivation, starvation, frost-bite – all had been administered. There were no documents from the victims because there were no victims left to speak.
"You're supposed t' be restin'," Remy said, taking the device away. His right hand was wrapped in thick white bandages to conceal cuts from the elevator cable.
"This happened on my watch."
"You lost a kidney. Heart and liver went int' distress. How much harder you wanna push?"
"Ah'm layin' down! Any more sedate and Ah'll go into a coma!"
He sat in the stiff chair beside her bed. "Wanna hear about Raven?"
"Why not?"
"She's back at Grey. Agreed t' Storm's terms, so once she's got her certificate, she's got a job. Unless she goes t' the home instead."
"The home..?"
"She's been workin' at the orphanage."
"Speaking of sad, how's Guthrie?"
"Alive, I reckon. She doesn't say and I don't ask."
She nodded and checked a watch she wasn't wearing. "What was that? Two minutes? We gonna make small talk all day or you gonna tell me what happened to Marie Bennett?"
"Storm hasn't said," he shrugged.
"Ah'm supposed to believe you're stupid now?"
"Everyone else does." He smiled and reached for his inside pocket. "Got you somethin'."
"God, not another cross-word puzzle-" She was silenced by a pair of plane tickets. "Valle Soleada?"
"We need a vacation," he said quietly. "I'll take y' anywhere you wanna go, but come with me. I can't sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see you layin' in a pool of blood. Feel like we're gonna die if we don't get out."
Valle Soleada. The beach-front town had been their place. For one brief summer, they'd shared a home like any ordinary couple, and in her heart, that was where she longed to return. It wasn't just a vacation. He was asking for so much more. She thought of all the reasons to decline: Raven, her team, the investigation of Unit XP. None of it mattered. Like that twenty-year-old he'd first met, she was as eager as ever to ride off into the sunset with him.
…
Upper East Side
Manhattan
"Oh my god!" Darce stood slack-jawed. "You live here?"
Rogue smiled smugly. Finally, someone appreciated her penthouse! "Rarely. Since Gambit's takin' me to California, figure there's no sense in lettin' it sit empty. Ah appreciate y'all house-sittin' for me."
Fence ran to the view overlooking the city. "Babe! I can see our building from here!"
"Ah don't have much food, but y'all are welcome to help yourselves. And Ah don't have cable, but Ah do have wifi."
Fence smiled. "I'll fix that!"
"Why would Ah wanna pay for cable when Ah'm never – oh, you weren't gonna pay… Thank you, but no."
"Don't worry, m'am," said Darce. "I'll make sure nothing illegal happens while you're gone."
"Babe!" Fence called again. "Come check out the bathroom. This is way better than the HoJo!"
She tossed them the keys. "Call me if y'all need anything!"
Heading for the airport, she felt lighter than she had in ages. She was as giddy as a teenager gearing up for prom. 'It's just a vacation,' she scolded herself, 'We've had loads of them'. But this was different. The past year had been one crisis after another and transitioning from an X-Man to an Avenger hadn't been easy. In fact, her team had been downright hostile at the beginning. Things were better now, but they'd never replace her X-family. And no one compared to Remy. She'd have to put everything on the table (and so would he) in order to start over with a clean slate. It wouldn't be pleasant, but she was determined to get it right this time.
…
Pier i Café
Manhattan
"Sorry, but I can't make it," said Rachel.
"Oh." Raven's heart sank. They'd made lunch plans and she was already at the restaurant. She clutched her phone, terrified at the prospect of eating in the city alone. "Why not?"
"Nate's in town and needs my help."
"With what? Maybe I can help, too."
"With pranking you!" Rachel snuck up behind her and covered her eyes.
Raven pulled her hands away to see Nate holding her mother's green jacket. She gasped: "You found it! Oh, Nate, thank you! Where was it?"
"He had it. That vile man had a grudge against Gambit and I believe you were caught in his game." He paused. "You're lucky you didn't lose more than your coat."
"Stop being so melodramatic," said Rachel. "I'm starving."
They settled at a table and Raven immediately updated them on her robotics project. It was exactly why Rachel insisted they leave the school for lunch. Since Raven started visiting the orphanage, she'd sometimes bring other teachers from the Grey, and together, they'd run a training course with the children. One little boy, Samuel, was too frail to participate. She'd designed a light-weight protective suit to protect him during the games. It wasn't complete yet, but she practically lived in the lab now.
"When it's finished, he'll be able to feel what the suit touches."
Rachel sat back. "That's incredible. You should patent it."
She shrugged.
"If you don't," Nate said, "someone else will. They'll profit off your creation."
"As long as it's helping people, I don't care."
"What if they don't wanna help others? They'll have the power to withhold it, too. Or sell it only to militaries. Then you'll have that on your conscious."
"Nate!" snapped Rachel. Taking a calming breath, she told Raven: "I'll put you in touch with my tech buddy in Cambridge. He'll know how to help."
Raven didn't think her creation was special. It was basically a full-body version of the prosthetics she'd created for Issa, her brother who'd lost an arm, and Honor, her sister who'd lost a leg. But she agreed to call Rachel's friend anyway. Tomorrow. Today she had too much to do.
Back at Grey, she called Remy on the video phone. Rogue was there, too, of course: looking too pale for a beach-body.
"Someone wanted t' learn t' surf," Remy said. "I had t' drag her back in like a drowned rat."
"Salt water's good for my stitches."
"But swimming's a demanding sport," said Raven. "You're supposed to be resting your heart."
"Ain't much chance of that!" she smirked.
She rolled her eyes. "Speaking of – I have a date tonight! How do I look?" She backed away to reveal her outfit. "Trendy, yeah? Rachel helped me pick it out. I haven't been on a date in ages."
"Who is it?" asked Rogue.
"No one you know."
"Do I know him?" Remy asked.
She flushed. "Stop picking on me! I can ask annoying questions too. Remy, have you popped the question yet? Why not? Where's the ring?"
"Typical woman t' leap from 'love' to 'matrimony'."
"Well, it's what I want," Raven said. "But you guys don't."
"How do you know?" asked Rogue, offended.
She shrugged. "Don't live as long as I have without developing a sense of people. Some are the marrying sort and some aren't. I just don't think you guys need it like I do."
"Be sure t' tell your date all this," he said.
She smiled. "Yeah, no. Be safe out there. I love you guys."
"Love you, too," Remy said.
Rogue turned to him after he'd hung up. "Y'all say 'I love you'?"
"She's very expressive. Says it to everyone. She'll probably be sayin' it t' her date before the night's over. Speakin' of…" He accessed Grey's front gate security camera from his phone. Eventually, a taxi pulled up and carried her away. "Fence can get its destination."
"That man's on his honeymoon!" she protested.
But he obliged all the same. Raven's cab was going to a restaurant called 'Angelo's', and he connected Remy to their security camera. Eventually, she entered with a tall, dark man.
"Nil." Remy hissed. "I knew it!"
"Who?"
He explained that Nil had been one of the upstarts reaching for leadership of the Guild. Not only had he tried to kill Gambit, but he'd also brainwashed Danger into trying to kill him, too. More recently, he seduced Raven and launched a cyber-attack against the Guild.
Rogue processed all this and said: "Let her be."
His eye brows shot up.
"Our parents tried to micromanage every decision we ever made, and see what happened? You don't want that kind of relationship with her. She's a twenty-five year-old invincible widow, not some nineteen-year-old innocent."
"He's only with her t' get t' me. And you want me to let him?"
"Ah'm tellin' you to let her make her own mistakes. Otherwise, she's gonna cut you out of her life entirely."
He shook his head. "Sorry, chere, but everythin' in me's tellin' me t'-!… I need some air."
"Remy-"
"Don't wait up."
…
Angelo's
Manhattan
"No sale."
Nil raised a brow inquisitively. "Pardon?"
"This whole thing reeks of seduction," Raven said, looking around at the cozy booths filled with close couples. "And I'm not buyin'."
He smiled. "One good turn deserves another, my dear. I was instructed to treat you to a lovely evening and then tell you that my heart isn't in pursuing you. Any sexual interaction might require emotional intimacy, which I have no intention of, and I believe he wanted me to appear contrite."
"Gambit?"
"Do you have a brother?"
She smiled. "Nate… Then I release you. There's no need to waste a hundred dollars on a date you don't want."
"This dinner will cost significantly more than that… And I didn't say I don't want to be here."
"There won't be a New Orleans encore."
He snickered. "I hope not. Getting you drunk, buying you a room, and getting your jollies off, only to be sent away, was not a pleasant experience."
She lowered her voice. "You mean we didn't-?"
"You were asleep. I know you good Christian girls grow up thinking all men are mindless hounds and all women are irresistible, but I'm no beast, my dear. And you were little more than a doll. I could buy one if that was my fetish. I could buy thousands and none of them would have a brother. Why, if I had half a brain, I'd run." He leaned towards her. "But since the wine's already open, I say we forget about brothers and brains and indulge our baser instincts."
She should've thrown her water in his face and stormed out. That's what a proper lady would do if a man so blatantly propositioned her. But he had a way of making her do all sorts of unscrupulous things. She went home with him and, like countless women before, spent half the night.
…
Valle Soleada
Secretly, Rogue was glad he'd left. She hadn't had a moment alone since they'd boarded the flight, and now she finally had a chance to check in with Hill. Turns out, Dr. Ishii had not been subjected to the Decimator and could not give consistent details about his supposed family allegedly being held hostage. SHEILD now believed that he was in fact the mastermind behind the whole project – not Stryker. They were combing through evidence, dragging out subpoenas, and cobbling together a case to present to a grand jury.
'Good,' she thought. 'Maybe Marie Bennett will see justice after all.'
Once she'd done what she wanted, she became irritated that he hadn't returned. Who did he think she was? Did he expect her to wait at home like a ninny? Before charging the bars, she stormed the beach, and found him sitting out of reach of the surf.
"Ah don't even know why you're mad!"
"I ain't angry."
She huffed and rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Then what?"
"She's gonna get hurt. Because of me."
She sat beside him and let the wind whip her hair. "Did ya ever think that maybe it'd happen even without you? If not him, some other creep. She's on the rebound. Trust me, it won't last…"
His eyes searched her. She felt completely disarmed by his silent gaze. Heart pounding in her ears, the truth ripped out like a stubborn root.
"Do you wanna talk about Magnus?" she asked.
"Do you?"
"Not really, but if you need to-"
"I don't," he snapped. After a moment's silence, he said more kindly, "You're here now. That's enough."
She nestled into his shoulder. "Ah've really enjoyed bein' here with you. Got me thinkin'… When Ah go back home, Ah'm really gonna miss you. Unless…"
"Unless what?"
"Never thought Ah'd be askin' a man this, but… would you live with me?"
"That's romantic!"
"Come on, Remy, Ah'm goin' out on a limb here."
"I realize that," he took her hand. "Of course I want to, but I don't wanna disappoint you… It's massively worse t' say 'I wanna move out' instead of 'I wanna go home'. Last time, I walked in and all your stuff was gone and y' never even said-"
"My powers were outta control! Ah couldn't risk-"
"But we never even talked about it."
"Ah didn't wanna make a scene, Remy. It was somethin' Ah had to do and you couldn't change what needed to happen."
"See, you still don't get it. It ain't about you and me, it's about us." He paused. "I ain't sayin' no. Let me think on it."
"Okay."
He showered her face with kisses, washing away her look of defeat. "Doesn't mean I don't love you, Anna."
She caught his mouth with hers and dared him to prove it. Sometimes she thought she was nuts to want this man, but there was nothing in her life that she'd ever wanted more. When they came together, she knew he wanted it, too. Fear and doubt complicated his decision, but those feelings weren't stronger than the stars that had been moved to put them together. It didn't really matter where he was. He always belonged to her.
…
To Be Continued…
…
Author's Notes: Unit XP is based on Unit 731: the Japanese concentration camp set in China during WWII. (Fun fact: 'XP' is the ancient inscription of 'Christ'. It was eventually reduced to just 'X', which is where 'Xmas' comes from.) The man largely responsible, Dr. Shiro Ishii, never even stood trial. Japan only de-classified his documents last year, and because many of the guards/doctors are nearing the end of their lives, they're finally speaking about the crimes they committed. Harbin, China has a museum built on the old site.
Valle Soleada is the fictional beach town where Remy and Anna lived in X-Treme X-Men Vol. 1. After their powers returned, they lived (platonically) together at the school until Mystique tried to seduce Gambit in the 'Bizarre Love Triangle' storyline. She failed, but succeeded in breaking them up. Raven engineered limbs for her siblings in my fic 'Raven Legacy: Coming Home'. I had her pegged as the next Forge since she was a little girl in my 'Honor' series, but life's taken her on a number of detours. Hopefully she'll stop fighting me and follow her destiny!
And finally, Samuel is inspired by several sick children I've encountered, including Sam Berns. He did a documentary for HBO and a TedTalks. If you look them up, keep the Kleenex handy.