Part 4- ‘The many threads that conspire against us…’
Falling…falling, as Rogue stared with a horror that refused to abate and eyes that refused to close at the sight of cold hard ground rushing up to meet her, a silent scream formed at the back of her throat. The voices in her head screamed out loud, over and over…further and further…falling. She squeezed her eyes tight shut at last and awaited the inevitable.
Funny, the inevitable was taking a while, prising one eye open tentatively, she suddenly realised she wasn’t falling anymore. She was…floating? No, even better she was flying! Flying low across the grounds, but flying all the same…flying not falling! Rogue went from sheer disbelief to sheer delight at the sensation.
It was pure elation, adrenaline and kicks; she lifted herself higher effortlessly, flying straight up. Higher and higher spiralling as she went a loop the loop here and a pirouette there, and she couldn’t believe it, here was freedom at last. And it felt like heaven, or if not, at least it felt she could touch heaven.
When she at last forced herself to bring her feet back down on the solid roof, she sought to rationalise this latest development. Flying? Storm’s power surely, the wisely Ororo was a lucky woman to experience such joy as that, but if Rogue had developed this power, what others were awaiting her?
She smiled at the thought, the drink forgotten; she was perfectly sober now; a brush with death and such a delightful escape from it offered the promise of a new life. She was powerful, with more promised everyday, and if that was the case maybe, just maybe she could do well to put up with the voices.
The thought had her feet floating once more, it was such a strange thing, she got caught up in the moment, forgetting where all the pain went and letting out a joyful laugh. If she had new powers, she knew just who she wanted to show them to first.
Stepping onto the turret once more, she spread out her arms, and closing her eyes gladly dived off the building, wholly knowing the outcome this time. She loved the rush of coming within a hair’s breadth of the ground before lifting herself higher. She flew over to the main gate, up and over. She was soon in the city, diving in and out of the spaces between buildings; the air, the streets and the world rushing past her, and flying with a purpose as mischievous as her grin.
Mystique smiled slightly, in awe of the strength her leader portrayed. They had been watching the same news report that had had Logan fascinated, only instead of simply turning off the set once the report was finished; he used his magnetic powers to send the television flying into the opposite wall. There it had shattered into pieces and lay strewn about the floor, now nothing more than a pile of junk. His reaction to the news had been so sudden she had to duck quickly as the television set had whizzed past barely missing her head.
‘Mutant Registration Act…’ he muttered through gritted teeth, ‘I’ll be damned if I endure such persecution again…’
She allowed him to rant and fume awhile before she spoke; ‘You show much faith in this Cajun…’
Magneto had calmed enough to bother answering her, he paused, before smiling, ‘Monsieur LeBeau has his charms, I would not call it faith.’
‘Yet you entrust him with so vital a component of our mission, time grows short Magneto, if our plan is to succeed, a little more persuasion than simply the charms of a New Orleans thief may be required…’ Mystique crossed her arms across her chest, a determined doubtful look crossing her face.
‘The Prince of Thieves…’ He held up a finger to correct her, ‘You tried and failed to recruit our golden girl once before Mystique, it is time for a different approach. Besides you’ve never been known for your maternal instinct how can you be sure she won’t push you off a cliff a second time if you try to get close to her again?’ Magneto smiled slyly at the angry look that crossed Mystiques face.
His knowing smile grew wider as a sudden noise outside the warehouse was caught by his keen ears, ‘He knows what he has to do…Remy has what it takes.’
Rogue floated outside the window, suddenly apprehensive now that she had reached her destination. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, for some reason what his reaction to her new power would be was all she could think about. It was strange; she didn’t really know him, and as for trusting him, well he was a thief, or the ‘Prince of Thieves’ as he would sternly correct her, to trust such a man would be akin to sticking your head into the lion’s mouth. You would just be asking for trouble, and it would be one hell of a mess when that spell finally broke and those jaws came crashing down.
She inhaled deeply, and shook her head, come on she goaded herself; you’re here now, and besides who else are you going to tell? It had been one hell of a night; she’d lost and gained in equal measure. She’d lost a boyfriend but gained the power of flight and others besides; the strength to throw Logan across the room had most certainly not come from her, no that had definitely been Sabretooth.
Logan… Rogue’s subconsciously balled her hands into fists once more, when she thought back to their encounter. His betrayal had been worse than Bobby’s.
Logan who knew how much it cost for her to trust anybody had promised her that she could trust him, and she had trusted him, even allowed herself to feel something more than affection for him, but he had lied, they had all lied.
So Remy LeBeau it was then, not because he was the most honest, that was something he had never claimed to aspire to, no she knew just what to expect from him and it certainly wasn’t the truth. At least he was up front about it; he seemed to wear the trait like a badge of honour. As long as you didn’t expect too much, you could never be too disappointed. And she knew never to expect too much from the Prince of thieves.
But he had saved her tonight, and it was only the second time she had ever seen him commit so selfless an act. Even as she had claimed to need no such rescue, he had been there…, and now she was here. Besides she had to tell someone, the excitement was practically killing her.
She floated closer to the window and was pleasantly surprised to see it slightly open, she smiled to herself and wondered if he employed the same tricks she did by climbing in through the window after dark. She didn’t doubt he was better at it than she could ever be, the art of the covert entrance being part of his profession. Nor did she think Magneto kept such a tight ship as Professor Xavier.
Rogue wedged the window open further and floated right in. Gently lowering herself to the floor, she approached his bed slowly, the gentle snoring the only sound in the room. Her smile widened as she saw him turn slowly onto his back.
Trust Remy LeBeau to be the type of mutant to sleep half naked. Her eyes ran slowly up the length of his arms, across his shoulder blades and along the perfect physique that was his naked torso. The tight chest muscles rose and fell gently as he breathed; she tilted her head slightly and smilingly allowed her gaze to travel further, down to his stomach and the waistband of his pants.
She climbed onto the bed gently, barely allowing her full weight to rest on the bed, and placing her knees on either side of his waist straddled him, still being careful of letting her weight rest on him. Cautiously placing her hands on either of his arms, she leaned forward and held her breath as he stirred slightly beneath her. She stayed stock still, and made sure he was still asleep before she began blowing gently along the length of his jaw, down to the crook of his neck. She got bolder then and allowed her finger to follow the same path, along his jaw and the length of his neck.
She watched amused as his breathing increased and he murmured something in his sleep, when he still showed no sign of waking she made to play her little game again. Leaning forward she blew a cool breath along his jaw, and as she raised her hand to trail it along his neck once more, Remy’s eyes suddenly flew open and he grabbed her gloved hand in his own.
Applying the slightest pressure, he smiled slyly at her. She held his gaze unfazed; he began to raise himself slowly up from the bed into a sitting position, she sat back on her haunches as he did so, not moving from the position that now saw her sat astride his lap.
He still held her hand in his own, the fingers interlaced tightly. Their faces and lips were barely inches apart, when Rogue became aware of Remy raising his other hand and slowly trailing it over her free hand, up the length of her arm and up to her shoulder. He seemed to contemplate the bare skin of her neck before moving down, the slightest brush past her front and along her side before coming to rest on her hips.
Remy applied the slightest pressure here, and she found her breath catching in her throat, he still held her gaze, fascinated by those green eyes sparkling clearly in what little light there was in the room. Remy smiled feeling revenge was in order and gently began blowing along her jaw and neck in the same teasing manner with which she had tortured him. She closed her eyes and found herself arching her neck slightly; his fingers left her hips and found their way along her thigh. As he slowly trailed them up and down, Rogue released a long contended sigh.
He brought his face close to her ear, carefully so as not to touch her skin, ‘As much as I’m enjoying this mon ami, why are you here?’ His voice sounded strange and husky to his own ears.
She opened her eyes and smiled at him, ‘Ah don’t know swamp rat, let’s see, can you keep a secret…?’
He laughed, ‘Cher`ie I’m a thief, secrets are part of our code of honor…’
Taking her hand from his grasp she placed them both on his chest letting them rest there for a while, ‘Good…’ she whispered, ‘Ah was hoping you’d say that.’ She pushed him back onto the bed and climbed off him. He leaned back on his elbows and watched amused as she pushed her hair back and let out a flustered puff of breath.
Suddenly reaching out she grabbed his hand and pulled him from the bed until he was stood in front of her. She placed a finger under his chin tilting his head up slightly, ‘Ah wanna show you something amazing…’ she whispered looking straight up at him.
He smiled and reaching up took a few strands of her hair and ran the ends through his fingers. ‘Ma pretty one I thought you already were…’
She smiled, and pushed his hand away, ‘Down boy, not that sort of amazing, no, just watch.’ She walked to the open window and started to climb out. Remy started to protest suddenly remembering just how high up they were, and wondering for the first time how she had gotten into his room. Surely someone would have heard her climbing up those steps, and across the hallway, those floorboards had more than their share of creaks than the average cockroach and termite ridden warehouse.
Rogue climbed out of the window and lowered herself onto the thin ledge just underneath it; she inched her way onto it, and watched Remy’s face change from mildly curious to seriously concerned.
The ledge barely offered the space for the front half of her foot, but she balanced on it all the same, and standing straight up, her face level with his, stretched her arms outwards. Smiling at him, she threw her head back, closed her eyes and stepped backwards of the ledge!
‘ROGUE!’ Remy’s panicked call was too late, as was the hand he had reached out to grasp her with before she had jumped. His fingers clutched thin air as she escaped him. He found his chest tightening, the fear in his face all to clear.
He hung his head in disbelief, until a familiar voice caused him to look upwards, ‘Don’t worry sugah, I didn’t go far…’ His eyes widened in amazement as his petite cher`ie came floating up towards the window, arms held behind her back looking mischievous.
Remy’s anger at her cruel trick only took a moment to surface, he passed a shaking hand through his hair before cursing in French, words Rogue believed she would not care to have him translate. She tried to apologise, he wasn’t having any of it. He eventually calmed down enough to allow her to explain.
‘The powers, they’ve just started coming to me, and ah can control them this time, ah don’t know why it’s happening now, but it is…. Whenever ah need them they just seem to be there, everyone ah’ve absorbed, their power, it’s mine.’
And to demonstrate she raised her hands above her head palms outwards, the way she had seen Storm do, and suddenly thick, angry black clouds appeared out of nowhere. Covering the clear night sky, and bringing with them a fierce wind.
‘You see…!’ The wind whipped up her hair and she looked every bit the goddess. Lowering her arms and allowing the sky to clear again, she floated close to the window and close to Remy once more.
‘Now swamp rat…’ there was no malice in the words now, they seemed to be her term of endearment for him, ‘you said somethin’ about ma bein’ on the wrong team?’
Joe Evans, the bar owner who had been a little too excited about his sixty seconds of fame, was still cleaning up his bar when the quartet of heavy serious looking men entered. As he stopped picking up broken glass in his dust-pan mid-stoop, he called out to them without looking up, ‘Sorry guys the bar’s closed tonight…’
A gruff voice, harsh and demanding all at once replied, ‘We ain’t after a drink…’
‘No…?’ Joe had the good sense to look up at last. He was not the smartest of people but even he could see that the burly men were something that ought to be taken seriously. Even he didn’t want to hazard a guess as to what sort of weapons they were concealing under their long trench coats, or how cold their eyes were under the dark glasses they all wore.
And then a thought struck him, they were here to rob him. Well if that was the case they were out of luck, the incident with the mutants had left him with very little takings for the night. Still, he would be inclined to give them the clothes of his back if they demanded.
One of the quartets, evidently a leader type figure stepped forward, ‘Heard you had a bit of trouble with the some mutants?’
His accent was hard to place; Joe thought he had heard it somewhere before, sometime this very night. The distinct Southern slant had him guessing as it to being somewhere from along the Mississippi river, but the intimidating stance of the man assured he couldn’t quite ascertain why it felt so familiar.
‘One of the mutants you said had her powers in touch, she touched a guy and he dropped right?’ Joe nodded along feebly. The next thing he knew he was having a picture thrust under his nose.
‘Is this the mutant you saw…?’ The Southerner demanded. He urged Joe to take it and study it closely, Joe wasn’t going to argue.
The picture was of a very pretty young girl in her early teens. It was nothing extraordinary, a picnic scene, a happy family. He peered closer at the photo, and began to nod eagerly. Granted she looked a lot happier and a lot less drunk in this picture and she wasn’t wearing those black leather gloves, but there were the unique white streaks in her hair, and the striking intensity in those green, green eyes…
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Rogues many powers absorbed from other mutants are beginning to manifest themselves, and though she may be enjoying the sensation now, she’s going to find everything comes at a price…