The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
She smiled and put a finger gently on the side of his face, her voice steadier now, the menacing tone in her words all too clear, ‘Ah’ll make them pay Logan, for what they did to ya, for what they’ve done to all of us…ah’ll make ‘em all pay…’
Feels good to get back to this story, I still so much enjoy writing it. Song lyrics from the band Disturbed.
Feels good to get back to this story, I still so much enjoy writing it. Song lyrics from the band Disturbed.
‘You walk on like a woman in suffering
Won't even bother now to tell me why
You come alone, letting all of us savour the moment
Leaving me broken another time
You come on like a bloodstained hurricane
Leave me alone, let me be this time…’
‘You carry on like a holy man pushing redemption
I don't want to mention, the reason I know
That I am stricken and can't let you go
When the heart is cold, there's no hope, and we know
That I am crippled by all that you've done
Into the abyss will I run…’
Part 17-‘All For You…’
She could smell it…the crude, perverse pleasure that came from its coppery tanginess, could smell and taste it…blood, it poured down the walls, washed over her, drowned her in its sweetness, and sated her thirst.
Revenge, she had torn the place apart, with the weapons they had melded to the very soul and essence of her, she had ripped the labs to shreds, but still the screaming would not stop, the cries of anger, anguish and pain tore on and on, seeping into her very bones, pushing at the walls of her mind.
And now as she walked, it was with an aching burn that would not cease, a sickening haunting, pounding away at her, until all she saw came in a flash of red and fury. It would not stop, and she could not stop, the rage as she fought through the darkness of her broken mind, the black abyss that seeped through every pore, crippling her senses, until she could only crawl.
All the power, all the strength meant nothing as she felt stranded, abandoned by a faith she had not managed to grasp, a rescue she could not fathom, and a relief from this madness that would not come.
It left her broken, surrounded by her own useless rage, blinded by the cold metal, haunted by the darkness that beat down on her and in on her, thumping away, beat after resounding beat, as loud as thunder and just as deafening. It broke her; brought her down to her knees and she could only stare at her reflection.
She stared at herself in the cold metal of the laboratory cabinets, and did not recognise the face that stared back. The skin red raw and streaked with blood not her own, the hair unkempt and wild, the scars that tore deep, the bloodshot eyes.
They could not know, the demon they had unleashed and the beast she could now no longer cage, it stared back at her, the mouth twisted into a cruel smile, the eyes rimmed black, the soul vacant.
She roared and all at once was surrounded by a blinding light…
‘Cheri’e it’s me….!’
A hoarse cry suddenly awakened her as she stared wildly around her, whipping her head from one side to the other, not recognising her surroundings. Her breath came in shortened loud gasps, every breath a sound that rasped and grated. Rogue felt an arm reach out and grasp her chin firmly, a second hand wrapped around the top of her arm and held tight.
Rogue looked down at the hand and turned to stare up at the wide bulging red eyes of Remy, she had her hand wrapped around his throat, and had pushed him against the wall, squeezing the life out of him. Her other hand was raised and aimed right between his eyes.
It was what this other hand had protruding from it that caused her to scream out in horror, claws, three razor sharp bone claws, stuck out at least six inches long and embedded deep between her knuckles.
The pain, it was real, her skin sliced open and bleeding from the knuckles, it was real and it burned, deeper than she had ever known, pushing aside all the power she felt surging through her veins, until it was the only feeling she recognised. She released her grip around his throat and stared as he fell to the floor choking for a breath.
Rogue stared down at her hands, the bone claws, ready and willing to slice through anything that got in her way, a part of her now, base to the very nature of her, attached from the inside out. Logan’s power, what she had thirsted for, and what he had given her, Logan attached to her now, inside out.
She remembered, she saw it all again, and once more, the blood the pain, and the anger brought her to her knees. He knew what he had done to her, Rogue felt the sure idea that he had done it to her deliberately creep on her, those nightmares she had experienced, that excruciating pain, the maddening sounds that revolved around and round her tormented mind, they had been his, they were hers now.
‘Ya want my powers…you get everythin’ that comes with ‘em…’ that’s what he’d promised and that’s what he’d given her, staring at her hands, the blood on them drying quickly as the cuts healed over and the claws shrank back into the folds of her knuckles, the pain settling into a sharp ache, an itch she could not scratch.
Rogue saw Remy struggle back to his feet, he inched closer to her, until she snapped her head back up at him and growled, the sound savage and feral stopped him in his tracks. Her eyes were glazed over and hungry, he recognised that look, he’d seen it so many times before, pupils dilated, the eyes bloodshot and hungry, Remy had seen Logan look like that so many times. In the middle of a battle, pure animal, coarse adrenaline, an untameable rage, the beast released.
He stepped back as she growled once more, not only at him but at the audience that had gathered at her room door, Magneto, Mystique and Sabretooth, all of them staring at the wild, unkempt thing, her clothes torn, hair strewn, this Rogue who it had seemed had finally taken on a power that was more than she could ever cope with.
‘AAAAAAHHHHH….!’
She leapt at them with a fierce howl, their instinct was to step back, Remy only managing to dive out of the door before they closed it on her, trapping her inside the room. They held the door shut as she pounded away inside, throwing her self at the door, scratching at the walls, growling and howling in turn.
Remy stared at Magneto, his neck still sore from where Rogue had held him, the savage look in her eyes haunting him, and for the first time since this had all begun, regretting the set of choices that had led him to bringing her here.
‘What now…?’ he asked Magneto, his voice shaken, dreading the idea that the changes wrought in Rogue now would be permanent, and if that was the case, how would they deal with her now, that animal they had unleashed.
But Magneto seemed unfazed, instead he smiled, ‘now, my dear boy…now we wait.’
‘What were you thinking Logan…?’ A sharp voice called out, Logan winced slightly at the sound, having excused himself from the infirmary he stood at the window of Xavier’s office, stared at the black emptiness of the night and asked himself the same question.
‘I gave her what she wanted,’ he whispered at last. He had given her what she wanted, his power, his strength, his mutation. His memories…he knew what she had to be going through, right at this very moment, the nightmares, and the blood, its scent, strong and invasive, as if it hung heavy in the air and all she could do was feel it. Feel it pounding away at her, rich veins of red, hearing it, seeing it, in herself and everybody else.
A raised awareness of the life blood that oozed in the veins that pounded away in everybody else around her, and that awareness coming with its own sick lustfulness, a desire to see that blood run.
He knew all that, he had been through it all, seen it, felt it, lived it, and he knew it was nothing less than hell, and in those few insane moment when he had kissed her he felt it was nothing less than she deserved.
‘What she wanted…?’ The professor repeated, he shook his head, ‘I’ve seen what’s inside that head of yours Logan, what happened to you, and what they did in those experiments…’ his voice faltered as he saw Logan’s back stiffen in quiet rage, ‘and now Rogue sees it, all that rage Logan, that bitterness, all that to put alongside her own.’
‘No my friend,’ he wheeled himself next to Logan, ‘I think you’ve given Eric what he wanted, a reason for Rogue to remain angry, a reason for Rogue to condemn the human race…’
Logan could only shut his eyes at the words, realisation dawning, a black cloud against an imperfect horizon.
It had taken almost a half the night for the noise, the sound of furniture breaking, the growls and snarls to finally quieten down, Remy had spent that time sat on the floor outside her door, his head resting back against the wall, he pulled himself to his feet, his back stiff, he turned the lock of the door quietly and pushed the door open slowly hoping she hadn’t found a way to climb out of the window.
She hadn’t, he saw her huddled in a corner, her skin covered in a fine sheen of sweat, clothes shredded, her knuckles bruised and bloody. She looked up at him, her eyes rimmed red with tears, Remy saw her struggle to catch a breath, and he approached her slowly, wanting to make sure the madness had passed, the feral beast locked away at last.
That was what they had to wait for Magneto had assured him, as long as she fought them, curbed the rage and pushed the demons inside down, she would be able to harness Logan’s power, as well as the nightmarish visions he had to live with. Rogue was strong, Magneto had assured them, more than Logan had ever been, she would cope with it, and she would overcome.
It seemed as if the old mutant’s predictions had been right, now as Remy crouched in front of her, he looked at her intently, and as she stared back at him he realised she was in control, but only just. Pushing herself slowly to her feet, using the wall against her back for support, she passed a battered hand through her bedraggled hair. She stepped forward and brushing past Remy headed for the now open door. He grabbed the top of her arm, careful to grab only a handful of clothing, and pulled her back.
‘Where are ye goin’ Cheri’e?’ he asked her.
She sighed deeply, ‘ah have to go see him, ah have to know if it was real, everythin’ ah saw, ah have to know…’ Rogue tugged her arm, but Remy refused to let go. He knew she was talking about Logan, and he caught the tone of sorrow in her voice, sympathy and something like regret was etched deep in her tone. His jealousy came to the fore as he pulled her back; he had never heard her sound like that, certainly not with him empathetic, and gentle even.
‘You can’t go back Rogue…you said you understood that,’ he snarled at her, pulling her back so she stood directly in front of him.
She growled at the force he used, her eyes flashed a menacing yellow as she grabbed him by his shirt collars and lifted him clean off his feet, slamming his back against the wall she snarled at him, ‘green really ain’t a colour that suits ya swamp rat,’ she pushed back again, before her grip loosened and her voice softened. She looked up at him with sadness, ‘ah know ah can’t go back, ah don’t want to, but Logan saved ma life more than once, ah owe him this…’
She released him and moved towards the door once more, before calling back softly over her shoulder, ‘ah’ll be back before morning…’ she smiled gently, ‘ah promise…Remy.’ It was one of the few times she used his real name, assuring him the promise she had made was one she intended to keep.
Lying on that bench, staring up at the stars he stood by her feet, taking in the sight of her. The torn clothes, the skin shredded at the hands, and the wild, untamed hair, so much of it reminded him of what he had been, all those years ago, before the academy, before Xavier had helped him grasp and hold onto some sort of sanity.
It made him ache to see her like this, he ached simply to hold her in his arms, to hug her, hold her against his chest and soothe the visions away. But this gap, this wide chasm between them seemed to stretch wider with every step she took in the opposite direction, until even this slight distance, from where he stood to where her head rested back against the bench, this short distance seemed like an eternity.
He sat down where he was, on the damp grass of the Academy grounds, waiting for her to ask the questions he knew she had and dreading the answers that he had to give her. He waited and kept on waiting as the silence stretched on, until he at last heard the ruffling of her clothes, he saw her slide off the bench and come to kneel directly in front of him.
First came the inevitable anger, she slapped him hard across the face, ‘ya bastard…’ she spat at him, ‘what did ya do to me…what did ya give me?’
His smile was rueful, despite the ache that tore deep; he smiled and laughed a little, a small taste of the cruelty she had lately offered everybody else. ‘Nothin’ ya didn’t ask for sweetheart…’
Her response wasn’t the one he expected at all, she tilted her head, her bottom lip began to quiver and she looked so much like a lost little girl.
He stared at her as the tears rolled softly from the corner of her eyes, reaching up he softly brushed the moisture away, the slightest of touches, never letting her mutation take hold, ‘Logan…’ she whispered, ‘was it real?’
Was it real, all of it, the pain, the tearing of skin, the aching burning needles, the blood, all that blood, was it real, had she seen what he had been through, had she witnessed the tragedy of his life firsthand?
His silence only confirmed it all, her head dropped, and he heard her ask again, ‘Why are ya still fightin’ for ‘em Logan, after all that, why are ya still here?’ Her voice soft but clear with anger, made him smile gently.
‘Cause there ain’t nothin’ else kid, the alternative, those ideas of takin’ over you talk ‘bout? It can’t happen we’d screw it up worse than they already have, d’ya really the likes of Magneto are gonna do a better job? No, Rogue we can start a war, and they’ll only hit back harder, and in the end we’ll screw us all to hell.’
Worse…? Rogue shook her head at him, how could they possibly do a worse job than these humans already had, worse than the FFH, it didn’t even seem possible. Their cruelty, their selfishness, their hate had led them to this, had led the world to this. To a fight between mutant and human that was inevitable.
She smiled and put a finger gently on the side of his face, her voice steadier now, the menacing tone in her words all too clear, ‘Ah’ll make them pay Logan, for what they did to ya, for what they’ve done to all of us…ah’ll make ‘em all pay…’
Logan grasped for her, even as she pulled away, ‘No Rogue!’ He watched on helplessly as she stepped back and disappeared into the darkness. She turned a deaf ear to his words.
‘Yes Logan…for you…’
‘You don't know what your power has done to me
I want to know if I'll heal inside
I can't go on with a holocaust about to happen
Seeing you laughing another time
You'll never know why your face has haunted me
My very soul has to bleed this time
Another hole in the wall of my inner defences
Leaving me breathless, the reason I know…’
That I am stricken and can't let you go
When the heart is cold, there's no hope, and we know
That I am crippled by all that you've done
Into the abyss will I run…’
Stricken- Disturbed