If there was one thing Scott now knew for certain, it was that you don’t tease Logan when it comes to the topic of Stryker. Especially not if the topic of Stryker also inconveniently brought up his involvement with the dark haired southern beauty wallowing in her room upstairs. That much was clear if the way Logan’s eyes darkened with rage and the grip on Scott’s throat became unbearably tight. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” he snarled out.
Scott choked on his words, unable to force out sounds through the tight hold Logan had on him. The fingers loosened mercifully, but those deadly claws were still threateningly close to his face, and he had to swallow his fear. “You…” he rasped out, licking his lips. “You should talk to the Professor.” He curled his own hand around Logan’s, desperately trying to free himself from the choking grip.
“I don’t think so.” Lowering Scott to his feet, he let go of his throat only to grab him by the scruff of his neck. “At least, not alone.”
0
The loud, noisome banging at his office door startled Charles out of his concentration on the paperwork in front of him. He could feel Logan’s fury radiating even through the heavy barrier between the man and his office, and the mental block Logan had put up against his telepathic powers. Waving his hand tiredly, he opened the door just as Logan stalked towards it, Scott in tow.
The larger man threw Scott into one of the chairs, sending it skidding backwards a few feet, and stalked towards Xavier’s desk and slammed his hands down on the top, hard enough to leave dents. “Talk. Now.”
Charles sent a questioning look towards Scott, who croaked out “Stryker” as he rubbed his throat.
He heaved a great sigh at this, tenting his fingers together and examining the infuriated man before him. His muscles were rigid with tension, the back of his hands bulging grotesquely as his claws threatened to expose themselves. His jaw was ticking as he clenched his teeth too tightly together, and his eyes were wild with rage and some other undistinguishable emotion.
“Sit down.”
Logan grudgingly backed away and plunked his body down into one of the lush chairs. “Better get to some explainin’, Chuck.”
“Very well.” He paused, wondering where to begin this story.
“Marie came to us when she was fourteen years old, a freshman in high school. Her powers were unstable and harmful, and more volatile than any of us could remember seeing before. She was a very soft-spoken girl, orphaned at a young age, and a known mutant. She called herself Rogue because of her long history of moving from home to home, so you must excuse me if I alternate between the names. I adopted her when I found out about her dilemma, and no sooner had she introduced herself to me for the first time, when I thought of her as my own daughter. However…she nearly killed her friend, Robert Drake, the second week she was here. She had been exiting the bathroom and pulling her gloves back on when some money fell out of her pocket. She didn’t notice, and when Bobby grabbed her hand to give it back to her, she absorbed his powers at a dangerous rate. He would have died if Scott hadn’t been able to pull them apart.
“Marie was tormented over the whole experience. She locked herself in her room for days, and when she finally emerged, her mind was tortured even further. Erik Lensherr, also known as Magneto, the leader of the Brotherhood, has a follower named Mystique, who has the unique ability to transform herself into any person at any given time. She takes on their mannerisms, their voice, their scent, but the words she says are her own, leave no doubt about that. The only way to truly tell if it is her is if that person is acting differently than normal, and the slight discoloration of her eyes; every now and again, they’ll flash gold.
“Mystique approached Marie during the next day’s afternoon, disguised as Remy LeBeau, our resident French teacher. She taunted Rogue, under the guise of giving her advice, and eventually persuaded her into running away. There was nobody here to go after her, no one to stop her, and on the train, Magneto captured her. He had been working with William Stryker on a technology which, Stryker had told him, would utilize Marie’s extreme powers and bring out the latent gene in humans which would cause them to become mutants. The transformation would kill the body, because it would not have time to adapt to the sudden genetic change. Stryker was, of course, lying to Erik. The machine would instead attack mutants, sending out waves and waves of sonic pulses, ones that only mutants can pick up on, and would eventually kill all of those he deemed unworthy.”
Xavier paused, taking a look at Logan for the first time since he had begun his story. The feral man had gone nearly deathly pale, and his hands were shaking with barely suppressed rage as the animal within him snarled and demanded to get revenge on those who had hurt the girl he cared about. Scott was gazing at his hands, shimmering tear tracks on his cheeks as he remembered those few painful hours where she had gone missing.
Heaving a sigh, he continued. “Unfortunately…this machine would require all of Rogue’s powers. She would die before all the other mutants of the world had.”
Logan stood abruptly at this, knocking over the chair he had been sitting in. He began pacing through the office with long strides, and waved Charles on to continue.
“Luckily, we found out soon enough where Magneto and Stryker were holding her. We made our way to Liberty Island as soon as we could, without a moment to spare. Her captors had apparently been arguing over the true intent of their deadly machine when one of Stryker’s guards tranquilized Erik with an extremely strong sedative. He took him to the Statue of Liberty, where Rogue was bound and chained to the mechanism. He…forced Marie to absorb almost all of Erik’s power, overwhelming her system but giving her what was needed in order to start up the machine.
“By the time we reached the statue, we had feared it was too late. Luckily, Ororo Munroe, a weather goddess affectionately known as Storm around the mansion, was able to lift herself and Scott up to where the three were. Scott used his power to take out Stryker, who was still holding onto Erik. Both men fell away from Rogue, lowering the shield that had formed around them. Scott got rid of the chains easily, and he and Storm were able to bring Marie back to safety.”
“No, we didn’t,” Scott interrupted, voice hoarse from emotion and Logan’s earlier attack. “Storm did. We didn’t. She’s the one who let Rogue absorb some of her goddess powers in order to heal, while I stood around helplessly. I didn’t do a damn thing. I just stood there and let Rogue suck Ororo into unconsciousness.”
“Scott, if not for you, Rogue would not be alive today.” Xavier sighed, rubbing his fingers over the bridge of his nose. “Logan, I’m going to assume you have wondered about the white streaks in Rogue’s hair?”
Logan snorted, still pacing restlessly. “Once or twice, yeah.”
“Have you ever heard the idea that, once you have experienced something so traumatic, your hair turns white? The stress on Marie’s mind and body caused her hair to turn white in the front, and Scott was able to disengage the machine just in time to keep it from spreading to all of her hair. Unfortunately, the aftermath of that night was not easy for Rogue in any way. She has the memories from Erik, years of violence and death and the separation between him and his parents at Auschwitz. She had memories from Ororo, of the death and destruction she had seen in her time. Memories from Bobby, of his family’s decision to disown him. And now…she has yours.”
Logan fell suddenly to his knees, body heaving with emotion. His claws unsheathed with the smooth sound of sliding metal, and blood trickled from between his knuckles. Tears were fighting from behind his eyelids, the information overwhelming him. He knew that his initial reaction to her revelation was uncalled for, but he had no idea how inappropriate it was. All she had been trying to do was see what he had really been thinking at that moment; she had no idea what horrors lurked inside his mind, the memories of pain and scalding hot metal being grafted onto his bones, the nightmares-
“Prof,” he whispered, raising shining eyes to Xavier as he stood. “She’s…she’s gonna have some nightmares. Bad ones. Mine. Nightmares of Stryker’s lab, of…” he glanced down at the weapons that protruded from between his fingers. “Of how I got these.”
“Fuck.”
Logan and Xavier turned their attention to Scott as his fist collided with the wall and came away bloody. “Hasn’t she had enough?” he shouted hoarsely, to no one in particular. “Hasn’t she been through God damn enough?”
“Scott, calm down,” Xavier said, wheeling himself from behind his desk and over to the two men. “Marie has been through extremely traumatic experiences, yes, but as long as she has the support of those around her, it’s all we can do to make it easier on her.” He settled his piercing gaze on the both of them individually. “Do we have an understanding?”
“Yeah,” Scott whispered, dropping his head into his hands.
All he got from Logan was a gruff nod before he strode out of the office, claws slowly retracting back into his skin.
0
Marie was huddled on her bed underneath a blanket, eyes watery and red and note cards still haphazardly scattered on the floor as she stared blankly at Jubilee’s poster of Johnny Depp. Every now and then, a shuddering sob would wrack her system, but fade as quickly as it had come.
Sighing, she slowly unwrapped herself and stood on shaky legs, determined to go to the bathroom and wash her face of all signs of crying. She was about to do just that when her door burst open once again, and Logan stood there, staring at her with such an unexplained intensity that it momentarily took her breath away.
“Mr. Hathorne?” she questioned quietly, running worried eyes over his aggressive stance.
“Call me Logan,” he demanded gruffly, taking a step forward. His eyes were startling and expressive, and she was losing herself in them at an alarming rate.
“Logan,” she whispered, the name falling with surprising ease from her lips.
It took him barely any time at all to close the space of five feet between them and crush his lips to hers.
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Chapter End Notes:
so the next few chapters won't be as slow to getting here; i've written up to chapter nine, and it should only be a few days between updates now.
thanks!
thanks!