Warning, this is major spoilers for the episode, "Remember It." It was hastily cobbled together in the aftermath of watching that episode and being up all night agonizing about it. There are errors and it hasn't even been proofread. But it needed life in the face of a most horrifying death.
~X~X~X~X~X~
"Shattered"
By Wiccamage
~X~X~X~X~X~
Someone was screaming.
Low, heartbroken wails of torment, and trauma, and disbelief rang in her ears and made her tighten her grip on Remy's broken, charred body. Sitting in the crater left behind by Gambit's explosion, she cradled him to her chest as tears slid down her cheeks to mingle with the blood staining his. Bare arms and fingers - skin that could suck the life out of someone, yet felt nothing but blood and burnt flesh now - wrapped tighter around Remy's back and face. She held him against her, as if trying to reverse her own powers to pour life back into him.
Erik's death had enraged her. Filled her with fury, and vengeance, and hatred so intense she could focus on nothing else except destroying that accursed, terrifying creature. She'd seen the green light, intent as it was on destroying her, and she hadn't cared. Knew her nearly invulnerable skin would probably protect her to a degree.
Probably.
But she'd never gotten the chance to confirm that theory, caught off guard as she was by the exploding motorcycle Gambit had hurled at her at the last minute. Once she'd recovered from the first blast, and the resulting rubble, she'd staggered to her feet, her blind rage momentarily stunned by Remy's act against her.
But she had only a moment to be angry with Gambit before she saw him, dangling by the long strand of metal that had impaled him and was connected to the MegaSentinel. And with that connection, she saw the gigantic monstrosity glow with all the brilliance of Remy's full power. Power that he had never put to full potential until today. Power that lit the whole sky with the same brilliance that Remy himself seemed to light up everything - and everyone.
She didn't hear the words he whispered as he held tight to the metal bar that had likely shredded all his internal organs. She was already flying, hurling herself toward him as fast as she could until…
Nothing.
White light and a high pitched whine as the explosion tossed her through what few buildings remained standing, buried her in layers of concrete and metal. Intense pain ripped through her body - her stomach and chest feeling like they had been detonated from the inside out as well.. But she barely paused, never even lost consciousness as she punched through what felt like 10 solid feet of debris, and surpassed the speed of sound itself as she found him again, lying in a crater, his body broken and smoldering.
Rogue didn't even know how long she'd been here now, cradling his lifeless body in her arms. She knew she should be helping with survivors, but she couldn't leave him. Magneto's demise had enraged her.
Remy's had shattered her.
She'd cried so long her eyeballs stung and swelled, capillaries bursting with the force of her tears. She had whispered to him, kissed his ashen lips, stroked the little that was left of his hair. He would hate that he'd lost his hair. Jubilee would tease him mercilessly.
Except…
The wails were louder now as someone knelt before her, gently touching her hand, trying to loosen her grip on his cold corpse as she sat with her dress in tatters. She had felt the high collar that held up the bodice fall away at one point as she'd rocked her Cajun in her arms, but she hadn't cared. All she wore beneath the shredded dress was a silly sticky silicone 'bra', and a pair of lacy red underwear - all of which could be on display for the whole world right now, and she didn't care a whit.
Another pair of hands draped a blanket over her bare shoulders, but her eyes were so swollen and blurry with tears that she couldn't even see who it was. The smell of sulfur barely permeated the stench of charred flesh, and an indistinguishable blue face swam through the sea of despair that was her vision.
"Rogue, meine schwester, please. You're in shock. Let me take him."
"NO!" the wailing stopped momentarily as Rogue snapped at Nightcrawler with such venom, it startled the dozen or so people standing nearby. Some were digging through the rubble, trying to find other survivors, but most were simply staring around, made dumb and mute by the horrors they had just witnessed. Had somehow survived.
Thanks to Remy LeBeau.
The wailing started up again as Rogue pressed Gambit even tighter to her chest, the wetness of the tears on her cheeks mixing with the drying blood on his as she joined them together. "Ah can't feel him. Ah can't - Ah can't FEEL him!"
The screaming died again as she spoke, and it was only then that Rogue realized it had been HER wailing all along.
Nightcrawler's face disappeared as he stood and teleported away for a moment to speak with someone. More people had gathered now, standing along the edge of the crater in the rubble, whispering and murmuring, and a few words managed to filter past the pounding of blood in her brain.
"Hero."
"Sacrifice."
"Millions."
"Revenge."
"Savior."
"X-Men."
And their names. Magneto. Gambit.
Rogue.
The sole survivor. The only one who had stood against the unstoppable being and come out alive.
Because of them. Because Magneto had tried to protect her. Because Gambit loved her. Because he had forced her out of the fight before she got herself killed. Gambit, who wasn't invulnerable, whose skin didn't protect him like he was made of diamond, had saved her, too.
He was far more precious than diamonds. She knew that now. Knew just how much she loved him. Had known the moment she kissed Erik that what she wanted, what she NEEDED - more than skin, more than touch - was the perfect, flawless love of Remy LeBeau.
Her Cajun.
Her Swamp Rat.
Her sobs echoed in the tiny valley the explosion had created, and Rogue finally felt some sensation come back into her body as she continued weeping and rocking the man she loved. The man who had died to save her. Who died saving millions of others. The man who was a hero amongst heroes. Whose name was now on everyone's lips as a savior, a martyr.
"Rogue."
Her name spoken again, and this time she at least recognized Kurt's voice, but she did not acknowledge him. Didn't move except to rock her Remy.
"Rogue, please. You're hurt. You're bleeding. Please, let me take him. Let me help you."
But she only squeezed Remy tighter and could feel it, this time, as some of his already shattered bones crumbled a little more.
"Okay, Kitty. Do it," Kurt sighed, his once jovial voice forlorn and quiet.
The name, belonging to a girl she hadn't seen in nearly a decade, surprised Rogue enough that she managed to look up at Kurt for a fraction of a second before a heavy band of metal snapped around her neck and she shrieked, finally understanding.
They had collared her.
Kitty - Shadowcat - her former friend and teammate was there, somehow, and had snuck up on her from behind while Kurt distracted her from the front. Not that they really needed a distraction. Rogue was so far gone mentally by this point, that she wouldn't have moved even if another MegaSentinel had attacked. She didn't even know if she could any more. Shock had slowly dissolved into intense pain, made sharper by the activation of the suppression collar.
Her strength, flight, and invulnerability all seeped away under the concentrated dose of radiation emitted from the collar, but Rogue didn't tear at it, didn't try to remove it or run.
She just held Remy tighter and sobbed louder, knowing they were about to rip him away from her weak, pathetic, incapable arms. Not the arms of a hero. Not the arms of a savior. The arms of one who had forsaken the love of her life, even temporarily, for the promise of touch.
The only emotion she could feel right now, other than grief, other than her shattered soul, was the self-loathing. The knowledge that in the end, she hadn't had a chance to tell him.
That he had been right. That she had chosen him. That she loved him.
A second later, another 'Bamf' and puff of sulfuric smoke, and Remy was gone, leaving Rogue barely enough of a warning to catch herself from falling face first in the dirt. A small, feminine hand grasped her shoulder from behind, but Rogue pushed it away, never even looking back at the small brunette girl she had once loved like a sister.
Kurt reappeared, holding Remy's burned black and blood red body in his arms as gently as a newborn just a few yards away, giving his corpse to a tall man made of metal. Somewhere in her brain, Rogue knew she recognized the tin man, but her mind was full only of Remy, and she launched to her feet, intent on reclaiming the man she loved.
But she made only one single, solitary step before her vision swirled, her legs gave out, and the world went black.
~X~X~X~
Wolverine was the first to run down the gangplank of the X-2, the team's second plane. Nightcrawler, wearing his familiar red and blue uniform, greeted him, his face morose and haunted.
"Where is she, Elf?"
No greeting, no hugs, no 'thank god you made it.' Logan's purpose was singular. Everyone had their marching orders, given on the plane by Cyclops. Jubilee and Sunspot were left behind to take calls and relay news with the team. Hank would help with the injured, Jean would use the portable Cerebro and her telepathy to look for survivors, the rest would help with rescue and recovery, and Logan - Logan would tend to their own.
Or, what was left of them.
"We set up a makeshift infirmary," Kurt replied, his voice tight with exhaustion and hoarse from the smoke and ash.
Ash from the bodies. The ones who had been incinerated by that abomination.
Beast joined Wolverine a moment later as Cyclops rallied the others. Iceman and Archangel had joined them, as had Trish Tilby, the reporter.
~X~
Trish had been just outside the mansion when she had knocked on the door, trembling and pale faced. When no one answered, she had simply let herself in, the shock of the latest news - beyond that of the attack on Genosha - rendering all manners moot.
She'd entered, told the X-Men only to change it to channel 6 - not even her own station, and had stood silently in the corner of the living room, watching the carnage unfold on the television.
A video, shaky and zoomed in so far as to lose quality, was shot from the top of a crater in the middle of the destruction. Whomever had shot the video was narrating as the screen panned around to show the devastation. In a whisper voice, attempting reverence while also sharing the atrocities - and the truth - with the world, a girl's voice spoke.
"We - we were just attacked by a giant, three headed Sentinel. It - it killed people. So… So many people. But the X-Men were here. They tried to stop it. Magneto… he tried to stop it. He saved some of them, but… I - I don't think he survived."
Inside the Xavier Institute, Sunspot gasped, Jean covered her mouth with her hand, and Morph bowed his head while the narrator continued. "The rest of us were hiding up in the gardens when it came for us, too. We - we could see its eyes turn green, the green lasers that incinerated people, when one of the X-Men came. He saved us. It caught him, or something, and he… he made it glow. This bright pink glow. Then it blew up. The whole thing. He - he died saving us."
It took a moment for the image to stabilize and focus as it panned down to the crater, and once it did, the only vision in the frame was two people, or a single person rather, cradling a man's nearly nude body, rocking it and sobbing.
It took a moment for anyone to react, to understand what they were seeing, but Jubilee's sudden shriek of horror, the sound of Logan's claws extending, and the various yells and shouts of dismay and disbelief reverberated through the living space as Rogue's dirty, tear-streaked face finally shifted into recognition. And with her, the body she so desperately clung to as she whispered his name over and over.
"Remy… Remy… Remy…"
~X~
"She's in bad shape, Herr Logan," Kurt spoke as he looked at the two X-Men. He had teleported with Beast and Wolverine to the area just outside the makeshift hospital, as his sulfuric clouds could cause damage to the limited equipment, and the dying people, inside.
"We - we had to collar her, just to get her to let go of him." Tears pooled again in the former preacher's eyes as he recalled the scene and guided the men upstairs and down a hallway littered with bodies draped in sheets.
"She passed out once, initially, but we've had to keep her sedated after that. We - we think she has internal bleeding, but every time she wakes up she …" Kurt wiped his eyes on the back of his gloved hands. "Her body may be broken, mein freund, but I fear it is her soul that is beyond repair."
With that, he pushed open a sheet that was being utilized as a door, revealing a young woman laid out on a bed made of rubble. Someone's suit coat was acting as a pillow, and a familiar, long brown duster served as a makeshift blanket. At first her teammates didn't recognize her, face smeared with dirt, blood, and dozens of tiny cuts. Her normally pale complexion was almost gray, like death warmed over, and her white streaks were tinged pink and brown from ash, soot, and blood.
"My stars and garters!" Hank exclaimed, rushing to her side to check Rogue's pulse. "My dear girl," he swept a dirty lock of white hair from her face. "It seems you are in too much of a hurry to join our compatriots on the other side." He pulled back the brown duster, frowning as he recognized the familiar smell of it.
"I - I thought it would help her calm down," Kurt explained sheepishly, "if she had something of his to cling to." His face fell again, however, as he looked down at his hands and pulled a small box from a zipped compartment in his own uniform. "I - I found zhis in one zhe pockets…"
He handed the tiny parcel to Logan as Hank shifted his stethoscope around under the coat. He had pulled the garment back up after realizing it was affording Rogue's sleeping form a modicum of privacy within the tatters of her own red dress.
"Dang it, Cajun," Logan whispered, tears pricking his own eyes as he revealed a tiny engagement ring nestled inside the box. He quickly closed the lid and shoved the jewel in his own pocket, turning to focus on the young woman who was still alive, if only just.
Kurt cleared his throat and spoke again, softer. "I was with him this morning. I told him that their souls touched with every glance, and that he should just marry her. It was a suggestion made in jest, but it appears he took it to heart."
"Logan," Hank's voice wavered slightly as he finished his initial exam of the unconscious girl, trying not to get caught up in the emotion of this latest blow. "If you're able, she's going to need your powers. Kurt was right - she does indeed have internal bleeding. It's a wonder she has survived this long."
Wolverine was already ripping off his glove with his teeth as Beast spoke, and stood at the ready, waiting for one of the other men to remove the collar around her neck. Kurt nodded once and pulled a small key from another pocket to detach the device.
"Keep that where it is, Nightcrawler," Wolverine warned. "If she's outta her mind, like you say, we don't need her losin' it and trashin' the place even worse." Both Beast and Kurt tipped their heads in agreement and watched as Logan placed both of his bare hands on either side of Rogue's face.
After a moment, he frowned, concern marring his features as the transfer did not immediately take effect. "Come on, Rogue, take my healing. Live, dammit!" Raspy, shallow breathing was his only reply, however, and he bent, touching his forehead to hers.
Still, what should have been a tug was no more than a tingle - a tiny jolt of electricity against his skin - and he swore, stepping back and ripping the shirt of his uniform up over his head. "It ain't workin'. She's dyin', Hank!" While Nightcrawler and Beast stared on in confusion, Logan swiftly removed his boots and pants, leaving only his boxers. "We gotta maximize contact," he barked, pulling Gambit's duster off Rogue's barely dressed body. With a deft slice of a single claw, he cut the garment right down the center, pulling it away to reveal creamy white flesh mottled with huge splotches of purple and black bruises all along her ribs and stomach.
The cream colored silicone bra now stood in stark contrast against the white-gray skin of Rogue's breast, and the red frilly lace of her underwear made Nightcrawler turn his head, blushing. Wolverine paid the young man no mind, however, as he scooped her up and handed her to Beast before laying down on the cement slab. "Lay her on top of me, make sure every inch a skin is touchin'," he barked, his own heart rate rising as Rogue's fell.
Beast nodded and draped the girl's nearly nude form on top of Logan's, chest to chest, ensuring everything from her fingers to her toes were connecting with the gruff Canadian's.
"Come on, Stripes! Don't you dare die on me. Not after Gumbo gave his life t' save all of ya!" Still, all he felt was the smallest tickle against the places where her bare skin connected with his.
"Beast!" he yelled a second later, "get Jeannie on the line. Find out where she is and have the Elf get her here, A-Sap. Maybe she can jumpstart Rogue's powers or somethin.'"
Another nod and a quick call with his communicator, and Nightcrawler was porting directly from the room, other patients - and repercussions - be damned. He returned in less than 10 seconds with both Cyclops and Jean - still wearing the mobile Cerebro unit - who stared in shock at the sight of both Rogue and Logan laying nearly completely nude and Beast standing nearby, watching.
"Uh…" Scott stammered, unsure of what to make of the strange situation as he held an armload of blankets they had been passing out to survivors.
"Rogue's powers seem to be depleted - that or she is subconsciously repressing them. Her injuries are dire, however, and she will not survive without the use of Logan's absorption abilities," the blue furred medic explained.
"Jean," Logan pleaded from underneath Rogue's still unconscious form. "See if you can go in her head, kickstart her powers somehow."
The redhead bit her lip, trying not to show her nervousness at the sudden, intense, and dire demand for her powers.
"You can do this, Jean," Scott encouraged her, hand on her shoulder. "I know you can."
"We don't do something, right now, and she's as good as dead," Wolverine growled. "I can feel her heart slowin', blood freezin' as we speak. It's now or never, Red."
Jean nodded, placing her hands over the temples of Cerebro and closed her eyes. The others watched as her face contorted in first sadness, pleasure, remorse, and shock, then determination, rage, pain, and finally pure anguish as Jean relived all of Rogue's memories from the last few hours.
After a few long minutes, as Rogue's body gasped in one hard fought breath after another, Jean opened her eyes, tears already streaming down her face. "I - I couldn't bring her back. She - she refused to come out of her mind." The telepath furrowed her brows in trepidation and sadness. "So I tried something else. I just hope it works…"
All eyes shifted back to Rogue and Logan, who was still lying under Rogue's unresponsive body. "What did you…?" Wolverine trailed off, stiffening suddenly as purple veins protruded under his skin and he gasped from the sudden absorption.
Beast leaped forward, quickly reactivating the suppression collar and lifting Rogue off of Logan before she killed him. It only took a moment for Wolverine to somewhat recover, however, and he shakily stood up from the table as Nightcrawler offered him support. A second later, Beast had laid Rogue back on the table and Jean telekinetically lifted Gambit's coat from the floor to cover their teammate.
Five sets of eyes watched anxiously as the young woman moaned and shifted slightly. Slowly, a pale but steady hand came up to scrub her face as she moaned lightly. A collective sigh of relief resounded from around the room, yet Jean still stood, anxiously watching her 'teammate.'
Finally, tired yet alert eyes opened and glanced around the room as she slowly sat up, blue eyes narrowing slightly at the unfamiliar faces.
"Where - where am I?" Rogue's voice was steady, but changed; her characterist southern twang replaced with a clipped, northeastern accent that rang almost a full octave higher than Rogue's typical tone. "What happened to me?" Shaking hands clutched tighter at the coat that had fallen slightly, and she covered herself with a panicked glance at the five figures standing around her. "And where are my clothes!?"
"Rogue…" Nightcrawler started, staring at his 'sister' in wide-eyed shock.
"This isn't Rogue," Jean sighed, taking one of the blankets she discarded and draping it over the young woman's shoulders. "This is Carol. Carol Danvers."
~X~X~X~X~X~
P.P.S. I AM still working on Getting Warmer, although I have barely cracked the first paragraph of the next chapter. At least I have it outlined and I know what I want to happen. I just always struggle with that first segue when I end one chapter and start another. I lose that momentum and inspiration and it takes me while to get it back.
This story was purely cathartic 'therapy' that my brain and heart needed in order to move past Remy's death (which dang well better be temporary).
Notes:
P.S. This is probably NOT going to get finished, like ever. But here's what I had in mind, in case any of you are curious:
Carol takes over Rogue's mind and body as Rogue is far too traumatized by recent events to come to terms with the loss of Remy. Kitty gets reintroduced and gives Carol/Rogue a hug, not realizing that the collar she's wearing isn't active. But nothing happens. Carol doesn't absorb Kitty, or Wolverine. When she actively TRIES to use Rogue's powers, she can, but it isn't in a constant state of being 'on.' (this is comic book canon, btw, that Carol can control Rogue's absorption powers even as Rogue cannot)
Immediately after this scene, Wolverine asks Nightcrawler to take him to Gambit's body, so they can have a funeral. Gambit, however, is nowhere to be found. Carol is off helping look for survivors, unburing rubble, and generally unconcerned (she didn't LIVE/watch it all unfold, after all) by what happened to Gambit or Magneto. Later, the team reconvenes and Wolverine informs them that Gambit's body is missing and he lost the scent down by the docks. In total, 12 of those confirmed dead have gone missing, and 3 of the seriously wounded survivors - those who fought and won various battles - are also missing. Wolverine reveals that he smelled Sinister in several of the places where people have gone missing.
The team concludes that Sinister must have somehow been involved in the attacks, and in the 'grave robbing'. Wolverine and Cyclops, along with a few other survivors on the island (old favorites from TAS -Psylock, Archangel, etc), gather together to hunt him down. The other X-Men stay on the island to help find survivors and/or rebuild. Xmen work with Val Cooper (miraculously still alive) to give a press conference where she declares Magneto and Gambit national heroes and organizes humanitarian aid to Genosha.
Magnetois later found, and it's discoverd that he, Leech, and a handful of the Morlocks are still miraculously alive. Carol 'knows' Magneto, and knows he played a role in what Rogue did to her all those years ago. She is disgusted by him and nearly smothers him in his sleep. She is stopped by Storm, who has dealt with the Adversary alongside Forge, and the two of them flew in Forge's private plane to come help. (Storm does not have her powers in this story version).
Carol informs Storm of Magneto's wickedness, of his role in Carol's misfortune/demise, and the way he seduced a young Rogue, manipulated and used her, knowing how powerful she would become. Carol's psyche, her own disdain for Magneto and the way he groomed Rogue, was one of the reasons the girl left him in the end. "She's still all twisted up, thinking her feelings were real. But she knew. In the end she knew it was only the touch she wanted, not the man. That I was right about him all along. Just a shame Gambit didn't live long enough for her to tell him that she loved him. That she chose him, in the end."
Meanwhile, a few days later, Wolverine, Cyclops and team (I'm guessing I'd make it some kind of strike team from the comics), find out where Sinister is hiding and sneak into his base. He has several bodies of the dead victims disected and/or in tubes of some kind of fluid. Gambit is not among them. Four are missing, in total. Strike team gets attacked by Apocalypse's new horsemen - including Gambit as Death (also comic canon, btw, but not because Gambit dies - although he DOES do it to try and 'save' Rogue and others).
yada yada, filler stuff, then at last, Carol ends up confronting Gambit. They are pretty evenly matched for strength and power, except Gambit/Death can now charge living/organic objects (he can't normally do that in the comics, or the series). Carol/Rogue is pinned and about to be killed by Gambit/Death when she manages to pull Remy's ring and hide it in her hand. Death thinks it's a weapon and laughs when he sees it. Carol explains, "It's hers. She can't bear to part with it. Found out you were going to propose, and it just broke her even more. She told Magneto no. That you were right and some things are deeper than skin/touch. She LOVES you. Even now I can't absorb you, can't KILL you, because some part of her won't let me. Because she'd rather die than lose you again."
Gambit fights off Apocalypse's influence (like in the comics) and collapses. X-Men take him home and care for him. Carol looks after him for a while, but can feel how much Rogue loves him, and Rogue returns to her own mind/body.
The end, Lol.
Cyclops stared from Rogue/Carol to Jean and back again as Wolverine growled.
"Are you crazy, Red? You remember what happened last time she got out?"
"I didn't have a choice, Wolverine," Jean snipped right back. Rogue has buried herself so deep in her own mind, I wouldn't have gotten her out in time to save her. Carol is here, and willing, to take over for a while."
Carol, looking to the rest of the world like Rogue, nodded slowly, raising one eyebrow as she took in the different faces. Some she knew, others she'd only seen from the deep recess of Rogue's mind, but could not put names to the faces.
Beast cleared his throat, stepping closer to Carol/Rogue. "Ahem, uh, Carol - is it? I'm Henry McCoy, geneticist and acting field medic. Is it alright if I ask you a few questions regarding your current state of health?"
Carol/Rogue raised an eyebrow.