Chapter 5
Rogue wanted to go home. Yes, home. Back to her old bedroom with the dozen maps tacked messily to the wall. She would plot a cautious adventure avoiding suspicious holes in the ground and keeping everybody safe. Bobby was dead, maybe. And, no, she wouldn't dance on his grave; she wasn't the type because she had two left feet.
Feeling her tiredness worsen, she let her eyes flutter closed. She felt hot and cold, mellow and anxiety-ridden. Damn it, her history studies homework was due today. She giggled softly; the pain radiating deep in her skull. This was for the best. Nobody said it better than Bobby. She was a burden. Everybody pitied her. You probably hated her.
Her eyelids flickered open; she gazed around at the spiralling darkness. What was that noise? You heard it, right? Like a soft, tumbling thud and a light, breathless groan. She felt weak now and understood death was close. With the world blurring around her, a pair of golden eyes crept across the dirt.
She wanted to flinch, kick or slap, but the darkness called her before she finished her flailing thoughts. The hours before she had run from the mansion were rocky, and no one told a story quite like her broken mind.
Logan stood metres from the wrecked control room, the lifeless Rogue in his arms. His healing factor worked overtime as he glared at Victor. He growled and looked at Storm. "This better be good."
Storm stepped forward, deliberately standing between the quietly warring brothers. "I invited him, Logan. We need his help."
Victor's eyes darted to Storm and every ounce of sarcasm and scorn he'd been waiting to pour on his brother died when she smiled at him. Despite her being braced for a violent confrontation, he couldn't get over her willingness to trust him. Stumped at first, he turned his full attention to her and smirked.
Watching the heated looks shared between Storm and Victor, Logan growled with a shake of his head. He carried Rogue over to Jean, muttering curses as he walked. "Storm's out of her goddamn mind," he told the redhead.
"Some might say the same about us," Jean whispered to him and hurriedly led the way to the infirmary.
A frowning Scott walked a nervous Bobby down the hall, passing Storm and her new and unwelcome recruit. "There's no room at the inn," he reminded her.
Oblivious to Scott's dismay, Storm smiled at Victor. "It's alright, Scott. I have room."
Victor followed her through a maze of corridors, and into the elevator, where they shared further heated looks. They walked down a hall littered with artwork and furniture and eventually stepped through a door that opened into a loft-style apartment. Light flooded through the enormous windows, and plants decorated the windows sills. Old furniture cluttered every corner, and he raised a half-impressed eyebrow at the living space, dumped his duffle bag on the floor and eyed her up and down.
Storm watered her plants, a daily ritual, and a harmonious technique she used each evening to bring peace to her mind. She mused silently on her day while carrying the metallic watering can from one plant pot to the next. "Do you think Rogue will be okay?"
His eyes narrowed at the line of questioning, and he smelt a rat. "You really did some digging with that research of yours."
"She's been through a lot, don't you think?" Storm asked him and ignored his comment as she tended to a drooping sunflower.
Victor scratched at his unshaven jaw and took a seat on an armchair decorated with several heavily patterned cushions. "It's better for Jimmy if he doesn't know the truth."
Gazing at him, Storm attempted to read the look on his face. "Your continued silence doesn't benefit Logan or Rogue, Victor." She picked up the pruning shears, removed several dead flower heads and left him with his thoughts.
The peace between them lengthened to the ten-minute mark, and Victor eventually broke it. With a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of his humanity, he sighed. "She looks just like his mother."
Several hours later, Storm called an important meeting for five o'clock that evening in the Professor's study. She invited every member of the X-Men and waited for their arrival. Logan stood at the back of the room, arms folded and scowling at Victor. While Victor leaned against the desk and snarled under his breath.
"How's Rogue?" Scott asked as the last of his teammates gathered in the room.
"I'm certain she will recover fully from this latest setback," the Professor announced, entering the room with Jean by his side.
With everyone settled, Storm began her presentation. "We now know who's in the receipt of our intelligence," she stated as the lone screen splashed aerial photos of a building in downtown New York City. "This is the only known base of the Friends of Humanity. Thanks to Victor, we can learn important information about the founder of this terrorist group."
The other X-Men either looked suspicious, curious, or downright murderous. With a grumble, Victor stood and watched the screen as a mugshot appeared. "His name's Graydon Creed."
"Graydon Creed?" Jean questioned and glanced at the Professor.
Charles gazed at Victor with a look of understanding. "Yes, Jean, Graydon Creed, the son of Sabretooth and Mystique."
Logan snorted and shook his head. "I should have known," he muttered.
Victor scowled at his brother with a snarl and eyed the others with a glare as he remembered his last lone mission with Mystique. "We thought we'd dealt with it ten years back, dropping his ungrateful ass over motherfucking Greenland."
Storm patted his arm reassuringly and wanted to keep things civil. She continued the presentation and clarified why they needed Victor's help. "The Friends of Humanity group has the potential to cause devastation in the lives of mutants, and they will continue to target every one of us until we stop them."
"You make it sound simple," Bobby said, excited to be included in his first briefing.
"It's simple enough from where I'm standing. They need putting out to pasture permanently," Victor answered ominously.
"You're suggesting killing your own son," Scott pointed out, frowning.
Victor hated it when he had to explain himself. With his fists clenched at his side, he stalked to the door. "He stopped being my son when he turned into a mutant-hating bigot."
The X-Men gazed at each other, and the discussion continued late into the night. Bobby eventually left to fetch a soda, and when he reached the kitchen, he spotted Rogue. Surprised at first, he soon felt ashamed of his behaviour towards her and wanted to apologise. "Can we please talk?"
She watched from her spot close to the garage door. Her gloved hand brushed against the doorknob and with the shake of her head, she stepped inside the garage and left him behind to contemplate his shame.
"Rogue, wait," Bobby called to her and followed her outside.
"I don't want to talk to you, Bobby Drake," she said, a hurt gaze in her eyes.
He realised she wanted to leave, and he felt responsible if anything happened to her outside the grounds. "I can drive if you want me to?"
She paused next to his vehicle and gave a small nod of agreement. It was for the best; she decided. She couldn't be a burden to her friends any longer.
Another two hours went by before the X-Men disbanded their briefing. The Professor, Jean and Scott congratulated Storm for her research, while Logan contemplated smoking a cigar. Eventually, they parted ways and Jean followed him outside so they could talk alone. "What did you think of Sabretooth's confession?" she asked him.
Logan lit his cigar and pocketed his lighter. "It doesn't surprise me," he grunted honestly.
"It surprised me. As Scott said, he plans to kill his own son," she replied, standing with him on the back patio.
They watched the stars overhead and Logan breathed in the surrounding scents. He smoked his cigar and sighed. "He's out of options, Jean."
Jean stared at him, unconvinced. "But killing his own son, Logan? Could you do that?"
With a deep inhale of cigar smoke, Logan snorted in response to her question. He sure as hell hoped he didn't have a kid out there somewhere.
The patio doors behind them suddenly opened, and Storm called for them. "We have a problem."
Logan breathed out a heavy ring of smoke and crushed the cigar under his boot. He followed Jean inside, watching her ass as she walked ahead and shrugged off Scott's annoyed look. "So, what's the problem?" he asked Storm, and expected to hear about more trouble from the anti-mutant dicks.
Storm led them to an empty room and slid a disk into a slot on the television screen. When she pressed play, the X-Men watched the recording of Rogue and Bobby's argument in the control room. They viewed it in silence, and Logan's eyes narrowed when the footage ended. The other X-Men stared at him, and he growled. "Give me five minutes with him, that's all I'm asking."
"You don't understand. Rogue left the grounds with Bobby two hours ago," Storm explained worriedly.
While the Professor used cerebro to search for the two missing students, Logan waited impatiently outside with Jean, Storm, and Scott. Rogue would be the death of him, or he'd be the death of Bobby Drake. He didn't mind either way. Right about now, he needed a vacation with beer and Jean, somewhere with a motel bed and a do not disturb sign thrown into the mix.
"We made a mistake letting Bobby join the team," Jean admitted after a while, concerned for the vulnerable Rogue's safety.
"He didn't get my vote," Logan reminded her, and eyed Scott with a scowl.
"I thought he was ready. He always showed me a willingness to step up and do the right thing," Scott told them defensively.
The cerebro doors glided open and Charles appeared, deep in thought. "They're nearby, at a convenience store."
Logan turned to leave as soon as he heard the news. "Give me the address," he ordered, ready to track them down.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Storm replied, and volunteered to drive to the store. "She's just upset, and I'm sure he's feeling ashamed."
"He'll be feeling more than just shame when I gut him," Logan growled threateningly.
Storm marched ahead with purpose and promised Logan she would find both Rogue and Bobby and bring them home safely. Eventually, he gave in and returned to Jean's side with a scowl, as he searched for another cigar and agreed he needed to calm down.
When Storm reached the garage, she searched for her car keys in her coat pocket and smiled when she noticed Victor approach her from the doorway. "You'll get used to this. Living in a school means we're never far away from a crisis."
With a grunt, Victor watched her unlock the vehicle. "You want some company?"
As she gazed at him, she nodded and unlocked the passenger side door for him. "Are you sure you want to involve yourself in this?"
Victor settled down beside her with a scowl. "It ain't like I can do much more damage," he reminded her and thought of the kidnapping and Ellis Island. "She's just like Jimmy, you know, hard around the edges but soft inside. He used to run off like a little girl too, every time his fucking head was turned."
Storm drove them to the convenience store, the silence between them comfortable. In less than twenty minutes, they used the coordinates and discovered Bobby's abandoned car.
With a sniff of the air, Victor stalked around the vehicle suspiciously and came to a halt when he found Bobby's unconscious body. He nudged the boy roughly with the toe of his boot and eyed Storm.
Quietly retracing his steps, Storm crouched down to check on Bobby. "He's still breathing," she said. "It looks like someone struck him across the back of the head."
"Yeah, Mystique," Victor warned her and looked around for any signs of his troublesome ex.
An alarmed Storm stood and followed his careful gaze. "Mystique's been here?"
"With one other, and they took the girl," he confirmed as he spotted a security camera on the side of the building.
Storm and Victor shared a look, and she led the way inside the building. She asked to view the security footage, and when the guy behind the counter rudely denied her request, Victor intervened. He hauled him clean off his feet and threw him headfirst into a wall of snacks.
"Victor, we don't use violence against humans," Storm scolded him as she watched the man collapse under a mountain of soda cans and boxes of Cheez Its.
"Speak for yourself," Victor muttered and headed into the backroom to start up the security system. With a few impatient thumps of his fist against the keyboard, he soon discovered the keys he needed to press. He found the correct footage and played it with a growl.
Standing beside him, Storm recognised the people on the tiny screen. "There's Rogue arriving with Bobby. She enters the store, he searches his car for something he left behind, and look, there's Mystique." They watched Mystique, but another figure who stepped out of the shadows with a rock in his hands surprised Storm. "That's John Allerdyce, another student at Xavier's and Bobby's friend."
They watched John strike Bobby over the back of the head, and Victor looked her way. "Some friend, huh?"
"John's the leak," she whispered and realised how foolish they had been. "He's working with Mystique and leaking our mission objectives to her, but why?"
"How the hell should I know?" Victor asked her, and narrowed his eyes at the grainy footage.
Mystique had shapeshifted into Bobby Drake and sauntered into the store to fetch Rogue with John close on her heels.
With her cell phone in her hand, Storm noted the sinister smirk on John's face as he'd burned the rock with a burst of flames. She talked to Scott and ordered the immediate launch of the X-Jet, explaining the current predicament to him. "It's St John Allerdyce, Scott. He's responsible for leaking our missions." When she ended the call, she gazed at Victor. "What does Mystique want with Rogue?"
Victor shrugged and with her help, he made a copy of the security tape and then destroyed the surveillance equipment. "Maybe she wants to spend time with her daughter?"
"I'm being serious, Victor," she replied in an annoyed tone and took the security tape from him.
He followed her outside with a growl as they waited for the X-Jet to arrive in the car lot. "Those birth certificates you dug up weren't fakes, she's Mystique's daughter."
Shocked into an uncertain silence, Storm checked on the unconscious Bobby again. As she worriedly sighed, she gazed up at Victor. "Then I pray for Rogue's sake that Mystique discovers her maternal side before it's too late."