Author's Chapter Notes:
He had never been a religious man, but if there was a God, he surely was praying to him now, for what was on the other side of his door, surely was the devil.
‘I've been defeated and brought down
Dropped to my knees when hope ran out
The time has come to change my ways…

On this day I see clearly everything has come to life
A bitter place and a broken dream
And we'll leave it all, leave it all behind…

I'll never long for what might have been
Regret won't waste my life again
I won't look back
I'll fight to remain…’


‘Metalingus’- Alter Bridge



Part 18- ‘The World According To Rogue…’

His eyes flickered briefly across the bank of computer screens, before leaning back on his chair and yawning loudly. He propped his feet up on the counter and tucking his head back down on his chest tried to fall back to sleep. Nothing ever happened out here; he had no reason to be worried, this was the cushiest job he’d had to date. Damn near the easiest pay packet that left him smiling all the way to the bank.

Course the drawback was the fact they were buried hundreds of feet underground, buried under mounds of snow with a virtual mountain sat on top of them, wearing a crappy grey security guard outfit that itched in all the wrong places. Plus it got kinda lonely in the small office he sat in day in day out, but he could live with that, sides he reckoned company was overrated anyhow. Deciding to put sleep on the back burner for now, taking the headphones wrapped around his neck he slipped them over his ears, hit the play button on his music player and began bobbing his head along to the loud guitar riffs pounding away in his ears.

Eyes closed tight, imagining himself on stage as the next Dave Grohl, rocking out and dreaming of roadies throwing themselves at him, he swivelled around and round on his chair, the computer screens and his job forgotten.


She made her way purposefully across the steep ground, her knee-high, stiletto heeled boots crunching loudly. Digging deep into the snow, her white streaks of hair caught in a slight breeze, billowing softly around her, her pale skin marked now only by blood red lipstick she wore. Her eyes darkened with lashes of mascara, laced heavily so only the slightest flash of bright yellow shone out as her eyes glazed over and flashed menacingly.

Coming purposefully to a stop beside a huge fir, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pushing the tails of her long coat aside she crouched down, the long slit in her skirt revealing the skin of her thighs, and brushed her gloved fingers lightly over the snow. Wincing in pain, she staggered back to her feet and turned to the small crowd of mutants stood behind.

Her cold gaze met and held Magneto’s; she nodded slightly, ‘it’s here…’ she spoke softly, but clearly, her voice catching on the breeze and carried effortlessly away across and down the mountain.

‘Well done Rogue,’ Magneto smiled his approval at her, she hissed at him, turning back to stare at the ground and growling loudly.

She stretched out her arms, flexed and watched as the claws between her knuckles shot out; she’d become accustomed to the pain, that sharp wince, that feel of flesh parting and blood trickling down. She welcomed the pain now, kept it fresh in her mind, kept it to remind herself exactly what she was here to do.

Glancing back over her shoulder, she offered them a cold smile, ‘don’t go away now,’ she told them, before she closed her eyes and concentrated, and felt herself phase right through the cold solid ground, down deep into the ground underneath the fir tree. Faster than the time it took to blink, effortlessly passing through metres of cold damp earth and ending up falling into a cold, clinical corridor.

Landing gracefully on her feet, she glanced around her, white tiled corridors, and in an instant she saw them bathed in red, turning to the nearest security camera at the end of the corridor, nestled high into a corner, she stared up at it. Through black eyelashes and eyes devilishly yellow, she smiled before she blew a kiss into the lens and promised to unleash hell.


He sensed something was wrong before he saw it, caught in the middle of a monster guitar riff; it had been an eerie shift in the air that had made him stop and turn off the music. His back to the computer screens, and staring out of his office window for the first time he noticed the blinking green strobe lights of the tunnel, the emergency lights and power generator had kicked in. And he knew that only happened when something really went wrong.

Turning slowly back to the monitors, his eyes widened at the sight of a girl, white streaks in her hair, long leather coat, tight shirt and those hauntingly yellow eyes that stared up smiling at him. And then the picture was lost, the screen switching to an image of snowy static, one after another, each monitor simply malfunctioning, and the same grainy image.

Something was going seriously wrong. Panic came at him at last, in waves washing over him and causing a fine sheen of sweat to break across his brow. He caught the sound of his own quick breath, his heart thumping louder and louder in his ears, and suddenly he realised why that made him so nervous. It was the only sound he could hear, there were no alarms, no warning sirens, nothing, just that slowly flashing green light out in the tunnel, alternating between the darkness and the green.

He swallowed slowly, staring out of the window, his connection to the outside world, he’d sat here for years, watching the scientists walk down that tunnel, holding their passes up to the glass and waiting for him to buzz them through the steel door and into the next series of security checks.

But now, that window had a whole different meaning, that thick piece of glass was the only thing that stood between him and what was on the other side. The only thing that stood between him and…her.

Her, the devil, with the white streaks and the yellow eyes.

His jaw set tight he went to stand in front of the glass, morbid curiosity getting the better of him, he leaned into the window, straining his eyes to adjust to the changes in the light, the alternation between black and green.

Black and green…on and off…black and green…darkness and light.

Stood fixated by the light show, for the next few minutes as nothing else happened he began to relax a little, thinking maybe he’d scared himself senseless over nothing, and that would be the last time he’d sneak a few beers in to work to have with his lunch.

Then it happened, black into green…and her, pressed up on the other side of the glass, staring in at him, the green lights adding another pale, sallow look to her face, her red lips turned upward into a cruel smile and those eyes, flashing brighter than he could have ever thought possible.

He had never been a religious man, but if there was a God, he surely was praying to him now, for what was on the other side of his door, surely was the devil.


She rose up through the ground, phasing effortlessly upwards until she was stood in front of them again, she smiled at them stood in a wide circle around her, ‘let’s go,’ she simply stated before slowly walking up to Magneto and taking his hand in a gloved one of hers phased him through the ground and into the facility below.

She did that for each of them, Sabretooth, Mystique, Pyro and Wanda until at last there was only Remy, stood leaning against the fir and waiting for her. Rogue stepped up to him and smiled, ‘ready to go Swamp rat…?’ she whispered, reaching up and wrapping her arms around his neck.

He leaned forward, his lips only inches from hers, ‘anywhere ye say Cher`ie,’ he promised. She laughed a little at that, trust Remy ever the New Orleans charmer to know just what to say. Her arms still around his neck she phased them both through the ground and into the tunnel below.

Magneto had already begun to make their way down the tunnel when Remy and Rogue made their reappearance. He looked around and waited for his eyes to adjust to the green flickering light and as he did his gaze settled on the small office to the right.

The glass was missing from the window, and he saw a man slumped to the floor underneath a bank of computer screen, his eyes sightless and his head slumped at an awkward angle. Remy turned to look back at Rogue but she’d begun to move down the tunnel. He followed and heard the screaming start.


Rogue stood at the end of a long corridor, she walked slowly down looking one way and the other, both sides of the walls were banked by long lengths of glass. Her blood pounded away in her ears, anger burning her from the inside out, as she saw what was behind the screens.

Recognition, haunting images flooded in on her, the metal tables, the syringes, and those bone cutting saws. She saw them, the doctors in their lab coats, cutting them up, cutting, and probing mutants like they were animals. That was what this place was, a testing facility, a secret scientific laboratory, a death camp.

She saw it all again, being strapped to those tables, being cut open watching, the warmth, the blood flow out of her, spill to the floor and stain these crisp white walls. She felt her hands flex, the muscles clench into a spasm and the bone claws pop out with a sharp swish. And the pain, it was excruciating, she felt the horror, the pain, the misery of them all, every single mutant they’d experimented on, every one they’d cut, everything they’d done, buried here in their secret labs, she felt, and she saw it all.

It made her scream, in anger, frustration and hate, she screamed, and the sound reverberated, piercing the ears of everyone. The power she’d stolen from Siren coming to the fore, Rogue’s scream came at over a hundred decibels, shaking the walls and shattering the glass.

The silence followed, only the sharp tingling of the glass as it rained to the floor carried over the sound of her sharp breaths as she struggled to regain control. Her eyes flashed yellow, as she shifted her gaze quickly into one of the labs. A swift movement had caught her eye as she saw a lab coat disappear quickly behind a set of steel cabinets.

Smiling quietly to herself, she walked slowly into the lab, grinding her boots purposefully into the glass, crossing across the shattered window and heading for the cabinets. She could him breathing, the smell of fear heavy in the air, sweat and panic coming off him in waves and making her smile.

She stopped next to him, saw him crouching, his back pressed against the cabinet, his eyes wide, and muttering something to himself. Rogue lowered herself down to him, resting back on her haunches; she leant in close and whispered, ‘Ya know ah reckon we should call pest control, what d’ya think?’

He stared up at her, his eyes brimmed red, fear masking his every feature, ‘w-what do you want…?’ he managed at last, she stared at him a while, seeming to contemplate her answer, reaching out she ran her gloved fingers down the side of his cheek, ‘don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt…’ she promised him, her voice soft.

She lied.


Rogue rubbed her palm thoughtfully and regarded the pathetic husk of a man lying at her feet with some disdain, he was breathing still but only barely, but she wasn’t finished yet. Replacing her gloves, she stood back and concentrated.

The scientist body began to rise from its slumped position on the floor, he groaned, offering a useless struggle, Rogue’s telekinesis carried him effortlessly through the air turning him over mid point and slamming him down roughly onto the metal surgical table.

She kept his arms pinned to his side, and looked around the lab thoughtfully, cabinet doors flew open, tools and equipment pouring out of them to fall noisily to the floor, her gaze quickly scanned the contents, until her cold smile meant she had at last found what she was looking for.

From his viewpoint, flat out on that table things could not have looked worse, staring up he watched as a half dozen syringes floated across the room and hovered above him, and then there were half dozen more, and they kept coming until he lost count. His mouth locked in a hoarse scream, he watched as the cold glints of pin point sharp needles were held inches over his body.

Rogue’s sharp heels clicked across the floor as she came to stand at the foot of the table, holding his gaze as he silently begged her to stop. She held up her palm, waited for a second before her fist closed and the razor sharp needles came plunging down…


She moved down the maze of corridors with ease, now that she knew the place like the back of her hand, she’d taken everything she’d needed to from the scientist she’d found in the lab.

The images of his mind played in front of her now, she walked at the head of the group, helping to clear the way for the rest, Magneto and Mystique making sure to take care of the rest of the lab personnel, they were all swept aside before her as she made her way quickly down the corridors, finally turning into an octagonal room that she recognised instantly.

Holding cells, rows of them, piled along the corridor, ones on top of the other, her eyes narrowed and she gritted her teeth in anger, she saw and felt the misery that existed behind those locked doors, the pain and fear that marked their existence.

Stepping forward until she was stood in the middle of the room, her eyes blazed yellow as she outstretched her arms, seconds later a large creaking filled the room, the sharp metal of the doors began to buckle and bend with her will, her strength shook the walls, dust and tiles began to fall to the floor as she kept on concentrating.

The groans of the metal and walls became deafening, the rest of the group stepped back, seeking refuge in the recess of the corridor. They looked on as Rogue’s strength broke and brushed aside the locked doors that held so many.

Every door buckled and broke, and came crashing to the floor around her, sharp clangs that resounded and shook the earth. And at last, as the dust settled they appeared, her newly released mutants, prisoners freed from their chains, by her.

She smiled, who would have thought it, Rogue…the salvation.


They stared at the mess, silence enveloping them all, the sheer wanton destruction all too clear about the place, and the cause of it a certainty that fell heavily for all of them. The senior X-men stood around the decimated labs, wondering just what in the hell Rogue had done.

None of them had been aware of this place, an underground testing laboratory hadn’t even appeared on their radars, but Magneto had sent Xavier a message. Come and see, he’d promised, see what she’s now capable of.

They had come, and witnessed a sight they could not have believed if they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, and a thousand different nightmares came to the fore for at least one of them. Logan, he’d known something of med labs and scientists in white coats, the sort of scientist now lying dead on a cold lab table with at least a hundred needles poking in him.

He couldn’t pretend to be sorry, his teeth gritted together, he could smell the fear, the blood staining the place and he could smell her, Rogue. She had taken her revenge, ‘all for you,’, she’d promised him, only thing was Logan got the sense this was just the beginning.

He growled suddenly, the loud vibration causing Storm and Scott to turn to look at him quickly, Logan had his claws bared and was staring into a darkened corner of the lab. Almost on cue stepped a tall, fair-headed man, a black patch covering one eye and a perfectly pressed uniform, covering some well toned muscles.

‘Fury…’ Logan spat out his name with disgust. Nick Fury simply smiled slightly and nodded towards him, ‘good to see you again too Logan.’

He brushed past Logan and went to stand looking over the body, his head tilted to one side, he spoke firmly, ‘so when exactly were you going to let S.H.I.E.L.D know your Rogue has, well for the lack of a better word, gone…Rogue?’

Logan growled, ‘ain’t none of S.H.I.E.L.D’s damn business!’

Fury turned on him quickly, ‘Oh yeah, well a couple dozen humans lying cold in a morgue and the human pincushion here says different,’ he glared at Professor Xavier, ‘you know the rules, soon as there is a threat, as soon as any of you become a threat S.H.I.E.L.D has the right to be informed!’

‘For what…?’ Logan had grabbed Fury by the collars and was lifting him clean off his feet, a pair of sharp adamantium claws pressed to his neck, ‘so you can put us down?!’

The others pressed forward, wanting to calm Logan down before this got any further out of hand, but Fury had come prepared, out of the shadows stepped dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers, black helmets covering their faces, and their guns aimed at the X-Men.

‘Did ya know ‘bout this place Fury?’ Logan ignored the guns pointed at his head, ‘did ya know what they did here?’ He gestured with his head to the labs, this cold, murderous place.

Fury stared down at him, ‘No, we knew something about a lab underground; we always figured it was research and nothin’ more, which sorta begs the question, how’d Rogue find out about it?’

Logan snarled, ‘Nope, it sorts begs the question, why the hell didn’t you find out ‘bout it?’

‘I already said we didn’t know…!’ Fury repeated, his one good eye narrowing and a frown crossing his face.

‘Ya didn’t know, or ya didn’t wanna know?’ Logan retorted, shaking his head in disbelief. He knew S.H.I.E.L.D, once upon a time he’d even worked for them, and there wasn’t a lot they didn’t know.

Fury sniggered, despite Logan tightening his hold around his neck, ‘You want to talk about culpability Logan, here and now, in front of your friends, want to tell them what you used to do for a living…?’

‘Screw you Fury, you one-eyed prick..!’

‘She’s an X-Man…’ Xavier interrupted, ‘or at least she was, this is a family matter, we will deal with it, we will bring Rogue and the others to account, S.H.I.E.L.D. need not concern themselves with this.’

Logan pushed Fury back, letting go of his collar at last, but still keeping his claws unsheathed, Fury rubbed his neck and stared at the Professor, ‘It’s too late for that, she’s gone too far, we can’t overlook this, there’s too many dead to count Xavier.’

‘Ya heard him,’ Logan pressed forward once more, ‘we’ll deal with it, so how ya ‘bout ya go back to that pie in the sky of yours huh?’ His voice was tinged with the clearest of menace.

Fury smiled, ‘Deal with it, is that what you’ve been doing? Funny seems a lot like you’ve been burying your heads in the sand.’

‘Trust me…’ Logan chuckled, ‘ya don’t wanna talk ‘bout buying things right now,’ he flexed his hands, the cold adamantium gleaming.

Scott had had enough, he stepped between the two men, ‘Look before this turns into a pissing contest between the two of you, how about we figure out exactly what Rogue was doing here in the first place.’

It was the Professor who came up with the answer at last, his voice, soft and pained shook as he spoke. He had seen it all, deep within his minds eye, using his psychic link to pass over the resonance Rogue had left behind he had seen it all, the destruction she had wrought and more, the prisoners she had released, mutants every single one of them.

Mutants that like her, had been betrayed, had been used and broken by the humans, and suddenly it had become all too clear what Rogue’s intention had been, why she had come to this place. And looking up at both Nick Fury and Logan, he spoke his fears to them all.

‘She’s building an army…’
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