X-Men: Evolution

Blood Magics

A/N: Here we go; Blood Magics has been re- written. Finished the last edits just barely after midnight, making it technically 04/24/24 that I finished it on. I poured everything I could into getting this done asap. It has a total of 38 chapters and, once I have replaced all of the 16 chapters that are already written, I will post each new chapter at least weekly if not more often- I will update this every Sunday, and I'm going to try for updating it on Wednesdays as well, since people who have been waiting for me to finish this story since I started it over ten years ago deserve the end if they've hung around this long. If you have, by the way, thank you.

Now, I should let you know; getting this finished, my brain feels a little fried. I also have some other things that I need to turn my attention to. There is a third story in this trilogy, but it will have to wait a little bit before I can get to work on it, so that I can catch up on the other things I need to get done. But at least this story finally has an ending that I can post.

I'm going to have this note on both chapter one, the first chapter, and on chapter 17, which will be the first new chapter, since I stopped at chapter 16 when this story went on hiatus. Just in case anyone gets the alert for the new chapter, although I think emails are currently broken, so people might not.

17. Numb Agony

When Dragon's tears had finally stopped, the emotional agony she'd been radiating to Rogue the entire time had slowly died down as well, fading into a numbness. The closest thing Rogue could liken it to was shock. So, she'd kept her hold on the girl, even though it made doing her own homework somewhat awkward with just one hand. When the bell had rung for dinner, she'd hesitated- Dragon hadn't eaten with them since that one time- but it still didn't feel right to leave her somewhere, and she wasn't showing any indication that she was about to get up and go anywhere on her own, so she brought her down with her. Kurt's seat had been empty since he'd been missing, so there was an extra spot available; Rogue found two empty chairs next to each other, and set her down on one while taking the other.

She still didn't respond during dinner, even though a few people made an attempt to catch her attention; it was like she couldn't even hear them. Her eyes stayed fixed on some point on the side of the table, and she didn't touch the soup she was served. Rogue wasn't even sure if she was aware that it was there… or even where she was.

Rogue waited until the room was empty other than the two of them before getting Dragon's attention by tapping her gently on the nose until she responded. Once she finally had the girl's focus, she tried to keep it; she didn't want her to stare lifelessly at the side of the table again. She wasn't sure if she would consider it lucky or not when Dragon noticed the holes her claws had ripped in her shirt; it kept her attention, yes, but she didn't want to add guilt about the scratches she'd put in Rogue's shoulders to the girl's unhealthy emotional cocktail, and she wasn't sure if Dragon believed her when Rogue tried to tell her she hadn't scratched her.

Then Mr. McCoy had joined the conversation, and brought up a very valid point, one that Rogue should have been pondering herself already but had somehow not thought of; why hadn't she absorbed Dragon once her claws touched her skin? She should have. Hell, she should have been more careful when she picked the girl up, considering that absorbing her could have easily been an outcome, but it simply hadn't occurred to her at all… and even now, even though her rational mind told her that she should be confused about the fact that her mutation hadn't activated, there was something else in her mind that seemed confident that the fact that she hadn't absorbed the girl was normal. As normal as not absorbing herself any time her own hands brushed against some other part of her skin.

Rogue was torn between trying to understand why the idea of Dragon brushing against her skin wasn't giving her instinctive anxiety like it should have been, and continuing to try to distract the girl so she didn't fall back into her own head, when Mr. McCoy suggested the experiment. And it seemed like an answer to both; although Rogue couldn't claim to understand how Dragon's latent ability worked with the energy waves, if they tried this experiment and it worked- if Dragon could turn off Rogue's own mutation- then perhaps this gave her an innate immunity? Even if she wasn't turning off her power consciously, perhaps the fact that she could made it so that Rogue's power overlooked her. Or something. Rogue wasn't sure; but if they could find out, then perhaps, as Mr. McCoy suggested, it could then be replicated somehow… and Rogue had to admit that she would certainly like that. She would never admit it, not to anyone… but her inability to touch often made her feel lonely even in a group of her friends. She always had to maintain some distance, no matter what… and there were some days that she hated that.

Not all the time. Sometimes she didn't care. She did enjoy her own personal space, and she did like having solitude from time to time. But the fact that she could never feel like she was just part of the group, was just like everyone else, the fact that she could never just leave her room and not worry about if she was going to bump into someone… that was what she hated. Not having the freedom.

She was willing to risk a few more cuts to find out. Her right hand still had a healing cut on it that she was having to be careful of, anyway; what was a few more?

Dragon hesitated, even after her assurances; Mr. McCoy had come to stand right next to the two of them.

"You're… sure?"

"Absolutely. Just try being as careful as you can, and Ah bet you'll do it just fine."

Dragon lifted her front right paw up slowly, hesitated, then breathed shadows onto it. It was actually interesting to watch; bits of dark mist dripped from the paw to vanish to nothing in the air as Dragon reached forward, claws aimed towards Rogue's hand. She hesitated another moment, cringing, then made a small, rapid swatting motion at Rogue's palm.

Rogue didn't think she would ever be able to adequately describe what she felt next; she felt as though Dragon's claws made contact, but not with her; rather, it felt like some sort of layer she had never been aware of that lay over her skin was cleaved open, starting at her hand and swiftly traveling up her arm and then spreading across her body, and her skin underneath felt raw… but not painful. In fact, it felt like a… relief, like she'd finally taken off an outfit that was several sizes too small.

"Okay. Yeah, the colours… the colours have stopped." Dragon said, shuffling her paws.

"And look at that. No new marks on Rogue's hand… no power outage." Mr. McCoy smiled. "Well, Rogue?"

"I… feel different." Rogue admitted. "I… Ah dunno how to describe it, but… Ah feel like somethin' changed."

"Well, give it a try then." Mr. McCoy said, holding out his hand. Rogue hesitated for a moment, but reached out her bare hand and placed it on his.

Nothing happened.

"There we have it." Mr. McCoy mused. Rogue took her hand back; the scientist tapped one of his own claws against his chin. "How interesting. There are a few other things that I'm looking into for now, but the possibility of making something keyed in to turn off the specific energy wave that your power works with… the idea has merit to it. In fact, this ability she has might just be something that warrants extensive study, as it could result in the future in being able to control anyone's excessive power surges… just image what that ability could have done back when Jean was having trouble controlling her own power. Dragon, had she been with us, might have been able to stop it with ease. Of course, that's only a theory, but it's very much worth looking into in order to have the possibility of easily and quickly calming down someone raging out of control. And most certainly in cases like yours, as well."

Rogue stared at her own hand, something that was almost always covered up for everyone else's sake.

To have some sort of path to the possibility of not having to worry… to be able to decide whether or not she wanted to wear gloves that day, and to leave them behind if she did not…

Rogue grunted as she felt something like a shock in her chest and head, as if someone had hit her with static there, and a tingling sensation spread over her body. It felt almost familiar, the tingling, yet she had never felt it the way she did now, as if her entire body had taken on the "pins and needles" feeling, but it wasn't quite the same as that, either. It spread to cover her body in its entirety, and Dragon said,

"Oh! It's back now. The colour over her skin all came back."

"Ah… well, we did know the effect of your power is temporary. It seems to be a bit random, too, lasting longer at some times and less at others… Scott also mentioned that before." Mr. McCoy mused.

"He thinks with practice that I might be able to make it last longer."

"Quite likely. Well, now that we have that determined, I don't think there is anything else that we can do with that information tonight. I'll take these into the kitchen, and start getting back to work on the things that need to be looked into now, so that I can eventually get around to seeing what I'm able to do with this. Dragon, I'd advise you to finish your dinner."

"Oh… right." The girl was less than enthusiastic.

Mr. McCoy gathered the dishes he'd put down earlier and left. Rogue reluctantly pulled her glove back on; if the tingling she felt had been her power re- activating… it struck her as strange. She'd never felt it before, but she could now, if she concentrated. It had sort of died down to a just- barely- there hum, but she could still feel it.

She looked back at Dragon, who'd certainly been adequately distracted during the "experiment," but looked melancholy again now.

"Come on." Rogue said, and picked her up, completing the action this time. Shifting the girl to one hand and standing up, she picked up Dragon's soup in the other, the one dish that Mr. McCoy had left where it was. Having grabbed everything, Rogue carefully headed out of the kitchen and up to the floor that everyone's rooms were on, went down into the teachers' wing, and into the room that had become Dragon's. Placing the bowl on the little table that had been set there for precisely that purpose, she put Dragon on the floor next to it, but it didn't take a telepath to see that Dragon still wasn't all that interested in eating.

Rogue looked at the girl for a moment, trying to think. The idea that finally came had Rogue smiling; she wasn't sure why she hadn't thought of it earlier. It was what Rogue used when she wanted to escape reality for a while.

"I'll be right back." She told Dragon, and left the room at a rapid walking pace; hurrying along, she followed her very familiar route from that hallway to the library, and started looking through books for people on the younger side, looking for something that might work. When her eyes fell on the Narnia Chronicles, she smiled, grabbed The Magician's Nephew, and hurried back to Dragon's room as quickly as she could.

Dragon was sitting right where Rogue had left her, looking forlornly at her untouched soup. Picking her up one last time, Rogue sat on her bed, set Dragon on her lap, opened the book to the first page, and began to read out loud.

Dragon seemed startled at first, but after a few minutes, she caught on, brightened a little, and settled down to listen. Reading aloud wasn't something Rogue did much, and her voice began to get tired after a while, but she pushed on, and didn't stop until it came to her attention that Dragon was no longer awake to listen. Marking that page in order to come back to it, Rogue set the book on the bedside table, carefully shifted Dragon onto the bed- she was small enough that she fit entirely onto her pillow- and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

Who knew what tomorrow would bring, but at least Rogue could finish the rest of her homework and know that Dragon wasn't going to be suffering from the emotional agony that had been coming off of her earlier.

Not to mention that she was, without a doubt, going to spend a large part of the night considering the tingling sensation that she could just barely feel that she now associated with her powers that she had never noticed before.

Ororo glanced over as Rogue came into the kitchen, rubbing her forehead.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah." The goth mumbled. She reached for the mug she used most often; Ororo knew her well enough that she used it for both coffee in the morning, and tea at night. Someone else had already set the coffee maker brewing, so at the moment, she needed to wait. "I just… had a hard time getting' ta sleep, and then when Ah did Ah had this… Ah guess nightmare that I was in Dragon's body, and somethin' was chasin' me but Ah couldn't get away because I couldn't fly."

Ororo frowned. It seemed odd for Rogue to have that particular dream, but then again…

"You did spend the full day after you got back from school comforting her after she found out. There's also been a lot going on. The stress is likely getting to everyone in some way or another." She acknowledged.

"Yeah, maybe." Rogue muttered. Having retrieved her usual mug, she headed away to a different part of the kitchen.

Dragon, Ororo knew, stayed in her room until everyone else had left before coming to claim breakfast, but considering that several of the adults were also leaving and at around the same time, she wanted to make sure that she knew exactly what was going on today, so once Ororo finished her own breakfast- toast with tea, she only occasionally drank coffee- she got up and headed upstairs.

Dragon's door was closed; when Ororo knocked gently, she heard Dragon call out, "yeah?" in response, and took this as an invitation to come in. Opening the door, she found Dragon sitting on the desk in front of the window, positioned so she could look out. The soup bowl from the dining table last night sat on the little table she ate her lunch and dinner at, empty; Ororo wasn't sure when she'd had it, but at least she had.

"Good morning, Dragon. Did you sleep alright?"

"I guess. I had a dream some big monster was chasing me around, but I couldn't fly, so I couldn't get away."

Ororo frowned; she'd had this exact conversation not even ten minutes ago. She couldn't blame Dragon for the nightmare, but for it to match so closely…

Well, regardless, it had to be a coincidence. Didn't it? Neither Dragon nor Rogue were telepaths, they couldn't just share the nightmare with each other.

"I see. I'm sorry to hear that. Whatever time you need to take to get used to what's happened will be fine. I hope you know that."

Dragon, looking at her until now, looked away, back out the window. Ororo waited for a moment, then decided to move the subject along; clearly, she didn't want to talk about it.

"I came up because I wanted to make sure that you were aware of what was going on today. You already know most of the others will be going to school; however, myself, Mr. Logan, Mr. McCoy, and Professor Xavier, as well as Forge whom you met yesterday, will all be getting on the X- Jet and flying down to take a look at some place that could potentially have a connection to Kurt and why he disappeared. We should be back late this afternoon, and Jean, Scott, and Piotr will all still be here if you need anything. Jean knows to bring your lunch in here for you."

Dragon looked back at her as Ororo spoke; after she finished, Dragon looked down at the desk.

"Okay."

"I'll take this back down to the kitchen with me… and I'll put a chair against the counter so that you can get onto it for the fruit bowl." Ororo added, coming further into the room so she could grab the empty soup bowl.

"Okay."

"I'll see you later this afternoon, Dragon."

"See you." The girl echoed quietly.

Ororo left the room and closed the door again with a small sigh. Everything had been thrown into complete upheaval last Saturday… and it felt like months had passed since, but it was only Wednesday morning. A single week (or rather less than) hadn't had this much trouble packed into it since… well, since the week Dragon had arrived.

And Ororo was a little afraid of what else it might bring.