New York Train Station:
I am sitting here, in a navy blue seat by the window of the train that will take me far away from here. A woman and her young son sit opposite me on the other side of the isle. They’re snuggled close together, whispering quietly to one another. Something the mother says to her son makes him smile and let out a small childish giggle.
Four seats down from us an old man sits reading the paper in his matching navy blue seat, an old duster lay across the seat next to him, his dark brown brief case lay just underneath. Behind me I can hear the muffled sound of music coming off a teenage boy’s headphones that are well hidden underneath his beanie and multiple shirts.
I sigh in content as I re-adjust myself in my own seat. Double checking and re-checking to make sure every single inch of my skin (except for my face of course) is covered from head to toe. I glance down at my small green duffle bag that I had dropped on the ground in front of me. Everything I own in the world lies within that old beat up bag.
I am heading back to my roots so to say, back to Mississippi. The train ticket in my hand weighs heavily there. It was a tough decision to leave what I now finally consider my family. It was hard walking out on Slim and Logan. Leaving them behind was something I had never really considered in any of my escape attempts. I have always made sure that they moved ahead of me in life, got to the destination point nearly two steps ahead of me.
And now? Now I am the one skipping ahead and leaving them behind.
It slashes my heart knowing that this is it. That after I leave on this train I will never see them again. I will disappear into the woodwork and never be heard from again. I will be a ghost amongst men I guess you could say.
But it’s worth it, isn’t it? Leaving them behind. I can protect them better this way. Slim can get married and have his 2.5 children and white picket fence. And Logan? Logan can finally have a normal life, the life he deserves. He can be apart of something and make a life for himself, a life where he won’t have me there to constantly remind him of the pain that he has been given in life.
It’s only a fair trade isn’t it?
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters:
“It felt like she liked me,” Logan explained to Xavier as he stood next to him in Xavier’s large, open study.
“If she had held on any longer she could have,” Xavier replied back to the man next to him a small smile creeping up the corners of his mouth. Rogue killing the Wolverine-how very poetic.
“I didn’t know there was a soul out there that could even come close to doing what she did last night. I thought I would just live out my days until the world ended or something like that,” Logan explained further to the Professor.
“Yes, Rogue is a very extraordinary creature. She could very well be, once she works on her mutation of course, become one of the most powerful mutants on this Earth,” said Xavier. Logan looked down at the man with a skeptical look. Rogue? That small slip of a girl, the most powerful mutant on Earth? He nearly laughed out loud at that.
“Never underestimate her Logan. She can be a force to be reckoned with if pushed, trust me I know,” Scott Summer’s said as he entered the large office. Logan turned half his body around to look at the man, curiosity claiming his wild features.
Charles Xavier turned his wheel chair towards one of his oldest and truest students with a bright smile.
“Good afternoon Scott I hope classes are going well?” Xavier asked him. Scott just nodded in reply not looking away from Logan.
“What Scooter? You’re little sister get one up on ya?” Logan asked mockingly. Scott couldn’t help but smile.
“No not me, I know better,” Scott replied the smile never leaving his face.
“Scott, could you please go and find Ororo and please tell her to find Rogue for me? I understand Rogue hasn’t returned from the woods yet and I do not believe she is in the mood to have someone entering her mind just yet,” Xavier asked in his sophisticated manner.
“Of course Professor,” Scott replied and left without another word.
“Summers and Rogue are really close aren’t they?” Logan asked as he and the Professor returned to their previous conversation.
“Yes, one could say that,” Xavier told him.
“So what someone in their family die or something?” Logan asked, his curiosity reaching far beyond what he normally would consider enough information about a person. But something about this girl, Rogue, had the Wolverine in him on high alert. At first he would have to admit he was immediately attracted to the red head, Jean. But at dinner not two nights ago his attentions had turned else where.
“Rogue and Scott are not biologically related Logan,” Xavier said as he saw Logan’s face turn from curiosity to confusion. Xavier new Logan would act in this manner, questioning authority in every aspect. Nevertheless, Xavier never expected Logan to be this curious about Rogue in particular.
“When they where very young both experienced traumatic events that lead to the deaths of their entire families. Rogue’s family died in a fire and Scott’s died in a plane crash. Shortly after both where quickly adopted by a man named Doctor Nathaniel Essex. A man of science he used to call himself,” Xavier replied with a concerned look. He felt that Logan was digging just a tad too deep.
“What you didn’t believe him?” Logan asked curious on what story the two mutants had that was so hush-hush in the mansion. Even the good Professor refused to release any information on the mutant pair.
“Oh don’t get me wrong Logan, Dr. Essex was a man of science, he created some astounding things that lead to some of the research that is now used today in helping with the study of the mutant genome. It’s the way he got the information that no one believes in,” replied Xavier.
Logan just looked at Xavier with a raised eyebrow. Out of his shirt pocket he pulled out a half smoked cigar and stuck it in the corner of his mouth and began to chew on it.
“You are searching for answers that I can not give you Logan,” Xavier told Logan as Logan folded his arms across his chest. He didn’t say anything just looked down at the Professor with that cocked eyebrow.
“Yes, well then, it’s a rather long story Logan. You might want to ask Rogue about it sometime,” said Xavier as he wheeled him self over to his great oak desk.
“Well, Rogue ain’t here right now,” Logan replied as he switched his cigar to the other side of his mouth. He wasn’t going to give up on this little venture just yet. Not after Xavier blatantly trying to drop the subject more than once.
Xavier looked up at the man before him. He never really wanted to be the one to tell Rogue’s story to Logan. He had wanted that to be her place. But then again who says no to the Wolverine? With his duel personalities, (the Wolverine and Logan) Xavier had yet to be able to full infiltrate Logan’s mind. Only catching bits and pieces from him when he was sleeping and usually it was always the same scene. Logan in the lab with both Stryker and Essex’s leering over his face in that dark, green room.
No he did not want to tell this story at all.
“Dr. Essex’s was a very driven man, driven mad by his need to discover what made mutants so special, made them different from everyone else. Because of this he searched for what he believed would be the perfect mutant. He searched for the mutant that held the key to what and how the mutant gene was created and how it was formed. For more than five years or so Dr. Essex’s believed Scott was that mutant.
“Essex did terrible things to Scott even to the extent of removing his eyes and placing them back into place just to see if maybe there was a connection on that front. Essex is the reason why Scott can not gain control over his mutation. Essex removed the part of Scott’s brain that help controls the mutation within the human body.
“Nevertheless, Scott was forced to live in a cell underneath the house that for most of his child he had lived in with Rogue and a few other mutants. In this so called underground prison he lived two cells down from another mutant that Essex’s was using for other another research project. That mutant had been in captivity long before Scott or Rogue had ever gotten there. But they had kept him alive for research purposes.
“Rogue during this time period had begun to manifest when she accidentally touched one of the young men within the house. Luckily for her Essex’s believed Rogue to be uncontrollable and a waste of valuable space. But knowing he simply couldn’t just toss a mutant subject away he enlisted her into doing a job that not even Essex men were allowed to do. Rogue was placed in charge of taking care of the test subjects.
“She was forced to clean Scott and the other mutant injuries and to make sure they were feed and bathed properly everyday. It was during her time as nurse that she fell madly in love with the other mutant. A man they believed to be uncontrollable and animalistic. He had been underground and tortured for so long that he barely had any human aspects left within him.
“The mutant killed many of the Doctor’s men when entering his cell and for awhile wasn’t feed or bathed for nearly two months before Nathaniel decided to use Rogue.
He believed she was the last choice he had. If this mutant could kill Rogue, a child, then he would be terminated. He wasn’t useful if no one could get near him. However the mutant didn’t kill Rogue, instead he listened to her and came back to himself a little bit each day. Until, for while, during their last year or two together he was completely human again.
“It was during those last years together that they fell in love with one another. A story even Shakespeare would have craved to write about. It was a bout six months before we were able to get Scott that Rogue had contacted us through another mutant that had once lived at the house. With his help we discovered what they had been doing to the mutants and what they still were doing. We had planned on attacking the facility with in the week when Rogue called us urgently saying that plans had changed they were moving the mutants the next day.
“I immediately got everything ready and got there as soon as possible. But we were too late. Nathaniel had already given Rogue to another mutant, at the time we didn’t even know which one, the other mutant Rogue had been love with had also already been transferred out of the facility, or so we thought. All that was left was Nathaniel Essex and Scott about to leave to another undisclosed location.
“Nathaniel was killed during the rescue of Scott and we were never able to find out what had happened to Rogue and the other mutant. That is until we found Rogue by accident some months back. Apparently Magneto is the one who took Rogue for Nathaniel. Knowing that Rogue had a power that out shinned everyone in his Brotherhood he had to have her. So for a little more that fifteen years Rogue has been hidden away by Magneto keeping her out of the lime light until the time he needed her skills.
“What’s a Magneto?” Logan asked breaking for a slight intermission in Xavier’s tale.
“A very powerful mutant. He believes a war is brewing between mutants and the rest of humanity. I’ve been following his activities for some time,” Xavier explained. Logan just nodded his head and waited for Xavier to continue.
“In the end however Rogue was able to escape on her own and has since then lived here with us and Scott. Trying hard to recover from her own ordeal and start to finally live a normal human life,” Xavier finished allowing Logan a moment to take everything in.
Logan didn’t say anything for a long while. He felt pity for everyone in the story. Even for Scott. But he that wasn’t what was bothering him. A tickle at the back of his mind had started as if he had heard this story before, that this story was significant to him some how. But the tickle stopped and he lost whatever it was his mind was telling.
“So you ever find out who this other mutant is and where the guy is now?” Wolverine asked the Professor.
“Unfortunately no, Scott and I have looked for both of them for years and hadn’t had a lead on either of them until only recently. Rogue hasn’t given us the identity of the missing mutant. I think she just wants him to live his life the way he wants to. I don’t think she want’s to complicate his life anymore than she has to,” Xavier explained to the man before him.
Xavier hoped this was enough to impede Logan’s curiosity for now before Rogue could be returned to the mansion.
Charles Xavier hated lying to the man in front of him. Especially since he knows that with the information that Rogue has on him he could easily solve all of Logan’s questions. Well most of them that is. But that wasn’t his place and he had already said more than enough.
It was during these quite musings that Storm and Cyclopes both entered the office with near panic.
“It’s Rogue…,” Storm began as she stopped just a little past the door, but the Professor finished her sentence.
“She’s missing.”
“What do you mean she’s missing?” Logan asked as he looked at each face in the room.
“We searched everywhere and can’t find her,” Strom replied frantically.
“I thought you people could keep her safe? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?” Logan questioned them. His anger rising.
“Jean is on her way now to prep Cerbro. With Rogue’s mutation it is hard for me to locate her on my own,” Xavier explained to a confused Logan.
Logan just looked at the man as he wheeled out of the room and then went and picked up his jacket.
“Where are you going?” Scott asked from beside the door just behind Storm.
“I’m going to go find her,” Logan replied as he roughly pulled his jacket on.
“How?” Storm asked as she looked worriedly from Scott to Logan.
“The traditional way,” he said stopping next to Storm before continuing, “look.”
New York Train Station:
“Hey kid,” Logan said as he sat down in the navy blue seat next to mine. For a moment I was a little taken aback. I hadn’t thought that out of all of the people in the mansion it would be him.
“Hey,” was my cool reply.
“I am sorry about last night,” he said nearly too quiet for my own ears.
“Me too,” I responded just as quietly. We sat there in silence like that for awhile before he spoke up again.
“So you running again?” Logan asked me and I didn’t know if he was being serious or not.
“I heard that the Professor was mad at me, you know for what I did to you,” I tried to explain to him. It was true to some extent; Bobby Drake did tell me that Charles was upset with me.
“Who told you that?” He asked me with that silly raised eyebrow thing he does.
“A boy from the school,” I reply knowing he can smell a lie a mile away. We were silent again as a passenger came and sat a few seats ahead of us across from the old man reading the paper.
“You know the first boy I ever kissed ended up in coma for three weeks. I can still feel him inside my head,” I confessed to him as I looked up at him. The hood to my cloak slipped back a little and I almost reached up and pulled it back down out of habit, but the look in Logan’s eyes as I had told him about what happened the first time I ever touched someone made me stop.
He looked sad as if he pitied me. I hated that look, but for a moment I allowed myself to pretend that he knew everything and was telling me yes, he understands and wants me to come home. He’s going to tell me he wants me to go home to the mansion with him, to be with him like we were supposed to be. But of course my reality swoops in and fixes that right up.
“There are not a lot of people in this world who’ll understand what you’re going through. But I think this guy, Xavier, is one of them. He seems genuinely want to help you. And that’s a rare thing for people like us.” Logan said, I think more to him self than to me. But it still had the same effect either way.
He leaned down closer to me then, his breath tickling the side of my face as he spoke to me.
“I’ll take care of you,” Logan whispered to me and I felt my heart catch. He had once said something similar to that to me once upon at time. He didn’t keep it, I did however.
“You promise?” I say without thinking, knowing what I am doing is silly and stupid. But this is Logan and well I just can’t stop.
“Yeah kid, I promise,” he says to me and I could fall out of my seat at that. The train starts to movie and the ticket collector starts to move about the train asking for everyone’s tickets. I know Logan doesn’t have one, but I can’t help but smile at how he’s going to have to get out of this one. Because really I just couldn’t see Logan hiding in the bathroom.
We don’t even make it out of the train station before we come to an immediate halt. Everyone is lurched forward at the abrupt stop, a bag or two falls out from atop the seats on to the floor below. The mother with her son look around frantically wondering what is going on. The old man sets down his newspaper and I know the kid behind me has pulled his headphones out of his ears and is standing up.
Logan looks worried as well as he too stands up. When he’s half way to the full standing position the entire front end of the train is ripped apart like paper. I already know who can do that to a train. I too begin to stand from my own seat. Afraid, yet knowing what-no-who is behind this disturbance.
Magneto softly lands at the front of the now destroyed train. Wires hang loose and sparks start to fly here and there and I know that at any moment something will catch on fire.
“You must be the Wolverine. That remarkable metal doesn’t run through you’re entire body, doesn’t?” Magneto asked Logan as he used his mastery of magnetism to pull Logan up off his feet and start to pull at the metal that lines his bones.
“What do you want from me?” I hear Logan ground out through clenched teeth.
“My dear boy, who ever said I wanted you?” Magneto asked him with his own version of Logan’s raised eyebrow move. Logan turns his head slowly and looks with pure fear at me.
I know what this means. I know that I was wrong, so, so wrong.
“Rogue….run,” Logan ground out as Magneto pulled tighter on the metal in his body, spreading his metal claws out like play dough.
I froze for a moment as I decided if I should really run away or stop and help Logan. I knew I couldn’t over power Magneto with Logan within his grip. So I did something I am not very proud of doing. I ran.
“Young people,” I heard Magneto mumble and then all of sudden I felt something hit me in the neck and all I saw was darkness as my body hit the floor of the ruined train.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Alrighty finally after draft after draft after draft I have finally completed this chapter! I think I've rewritten this chapter at least five times! I am so glad its done and hopes it alright.
Chapter End Notes:
So I know it wasn't that interesting nothing revealed or anything fancy. But just wait until later after Rogue's resuce from Liberty Island. Trust me it's going to be good.