"Would it really be that bad?"
"What?" Logan barked, amazed that anyone, even Marie, would have the
audacity to barge into the danger room while he was running a sim.
In the few short weeks he had been back Logan had become infamous
for programming his own impossible programs and leaving the safety
protocols off.
Looking at her now he supposed that `barge' was perhaps not the
right word as Marie was lounging idly against a wall as he stood
panting in the middle of the imaginary carnage he had wrought.
"You not having to rescue me every other mission. Would it really
be that bad?"
"Kid, what the hell are you talking about?"
"It just seems like half the missions you've gone on with the team
have been to save my sorry ass. I figure teaching me to fight might
reduce the frequency of your getting killed is all," Marie reasoned,
as she threw him a towel.
"End Program," Logan called. As the industrial complex faded around
him he wiped the sweat from his face and ran an irritated hand
through his damp hair. He crossed the room to sit on a low bench
near where Rogue was leaning all the while determinedly avoiding
looking at her, even as she took a seat next to him. "Look kid, you
don't need this shit in your life. Leave the geeks to save the
world…"
"No Logan," Rogue interrupted sharply, a steely edge of
determination in her voice. "When Magneto had me strapped in that
machine I learned in an instant what you learned 15 years ago in
that damn lab - that my own mutation could be used against me. The
one thing I figured would always keep me safe, keep me
untouchable. " She looked at Logan steadily until he met her eyes
before continuing on. "I don't ever want to be helpless like that
again Logan. I don't want my body used and my mind raped because
some asshole thinks I would make a good battery."
Logan fought the urge to just pop his claws and go kill Magneto
right then and there at Marie's blunt description of her experience
at Liberty Island. It was too close to his own experiences and he
fucking hated *Hated* that Marie should have had such horrors in her
past too. He struggled to form a reply but Rogue wasn't finished.
"Have you ever really stopped to think about what is possible with
my powers Logan? I have, and it scares the hell out of me. I can
kill with a touch. I can absorb memories, information, powers.
Think about that. What if there was a way to make the absorption
permanent? What do you think the government, or Magneto, or anyone
would do if they figured that out?" She stood up in agitation and
began pacing the room. "This isn't about joining the X-Men, it
isn't about fighting the forces of `evil.' It's about survival,
plain and simple."
Logan looked at her with pride and a little bit of awe. She was
like a prize fighter in the ring dancing around him. Each word she
spoke a body blow, fiercely delivered, and she was unrelenting. She
knew exactly where to punch and what would hurt him the most. And
she wasn't finished.
.
"If you won't train me Logan then I'll find someone who will, cuz
I'm not safe. You won't always be there to save me. I don't want
to *need* saving," she stressed. "I just want a chance Logan. I
need this." She continued on in a softer tone, "You know, you made
me the wrong promise that day on the train. You shouldn't have said
you'd take care of me. You should have said you'd teach me to take
care of myself." And with that she stopped, standing poised in the
middle of the danger room, waiting now for his reply.
Logan's expression was unreadable. A cold knot of dread formed in
the pit of his stomach as for the first time the full weight of the
power she carried, her potential, and how vulnerable she really was,
hit home. And the bitch of it was he knew she was right, knew Chuck
was right, and that undoubtedly these same thought had occurred to
the telepath as well.
He studied her with a critical eye, seeing clearly the girl she was
and the woman she could become. The last vestiges of baby fat clung
that clung to her face and limbs even now sliding away. Her gangly
limbs and girlish curves would become toned and dangerous in time.
Big brown eyes – once so scared but now only looked determined, wide
cheekbones, those quirky lips of hers, that ridiculous gap in her
front teeth. He loved it all, had loved it since she sat in the
front seat of his truck, eating his food and insulting his camper.
But suddenly the stakes were higher. She was asking was a
commitment – something he had spent his remembered life avoiding.
This wasn't a ride to the next town, maybe it never had been. His
choice was made the second he stopped for her in the middle of a
snowy, Canadian highway.
Even as acceptance settled over him Logan felt the wolverine in the
back of his mind sit up and purr in recognition of a mate, one with the
potential to be as strong as he was, in the girl before him. An
imperceptible shudder curled up his spine at the possibilities now
before him and a slow, feral smile curled his lips as he rose
fluidly to his feet.
"We'll start tomorrow," was all he said before turning his back and
disappearing into the locker room.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000