****************************************
She was standing in the shadows of the room, and Logan felt his heart give a little lurch in his chest. The automatic door hissed shut behind her, but still, she didn’t move into the light.
“Kid, what’s wrong?” He asked, struggling with the fatigue in his muscles to sit up. He didn’t know how long he’d been down this time, but he ached everywhere, and his skull was throbbing. She shifted from one foot to the other, and he thought that was strange, even after the last time he’d nearly died giving her his powers she’d at least come into the room, all sheepish and cute. But maybe this time was different for her, since it wasn’t some crazy mutant psycho, because this time, it had been her. “It’s ok, Marie. I ain’t mad, and whatever’s going on, we’ll work through it, I promise.”
She shifted again in the darkness, and the shadows played tricks on his overtaxed senses. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was off about her voice. “You promised you’d take care of me.”
He nodded, then thought maybe she couldn’t see him when she didn’t respond, so he answered verbally, “Yeah, and I meant it. You and me, Kid,” as an afterthought he added, “forever.”
There was no trace of her southern accent, that’s what was wrong, there was no easy twang to her words, “Why, Logan, why didn’t you just let me go?”
Deep within the Adamantium cage of his chest, his heart hammered a thunderous beat. She couldn’t be serious! “Marie,” and his voice sounded weak so he cleared it before trying again, “Marie what the hell did you expect me to do? I found you under six inches of water, blue, cold to the touch, not breathing. What the hell did you think I was going to do, just let you die? Let you leave me?”
The shadows moved strangely again, a jerking motion that looked wrong so he squinted to try and get a better look even as his anger rose within him. “What the hell did you want me to do?”
“Let me go.” And her voice was a whispered prayer in the silent room.
“Never! Ain’t never gonna happen, Marie.” He wanted to say more, but he remained silent.
“You don’t know what you’ve done, Logan. I was trying,” her voice died out then, and the shadows around her seemed to shiver. “I didn’t mean to do it.”
Something about those words struck him funny. It was obvious even to an idiot like him that Marie had meant her attempt. The alcohol, the hot water, those deep, pulsating slashes she’d made into her own body—the image of her blood pouring out of her as he’d tore her from her watery grave would haunt him for the rest of his life. But what could he say? What should he say? He wasn’t good at this kind of stuff, all he knew, all he cared about was making sure Marie was alright, and beating her until she swore to fucking Christ she’d never, ever do something like this again.
What he really wanted to say was on the tip of his tongue, stuck there by the knowledge that he was a bastard and she was a princess. But the beast within him knew the words, and it gave him enough strength to sit the rest of the way up on the bed, the wires attached to him completely forgotten.
It took over his mind, “Come here, Marie.” And the growl that rose from deep within his chest was primitive and possessive.
“I-I’m sorry, Logan. I’m so sorry.” But she didn’t move, and the sob that caught in her throat filled the empty room and forced the beast down until it was just Logan and just Marie, and there was way too much space between them.
He reached for her, “Marie,” sought her eyes in the darkness, “Come here Darlin, come on. You ain’t got nothing to be sorry for. We’ll get through this, I promise, I promise.”
Her fingernails on the metal wall sounded strange, “You always keep your promises, Wolvie, always.”
“For you hun, only for you. Now please, Marie, you’re starting to worry me here.” He plastered on a fake smile to make her think he was kidding, but she was way too smart for that. She knew he was scared, knew because he was in her head, and because she was Marie, and she always knew the things he didn’t want her to.
“I didn’t want to do it, Logan. You have to believe me…I didn’t want to do it. But,” and she paused, the air escaping her lungs, “I couldn’t help myself.”
He reached for her again, “It’s ok, Marie. I promise, I’ll make it ok. I promise.”
“You can’t make this better, Wolvie. You can’t make this go away. I wish you could, but even you aren’t that strong. And I’m,” her voice cracked, and a sob fell from her lips, “And I’m scared, Logan. I’m so scared.”
His feet hit the floor before he knew he was off the bed, the shock of the cold jolting his brain. There was something wrong. He sniffed the air, and it smelled like the whole school during field day, adrenalin, sweat, elation and fear, combined with that intoxicating scent that was his Marie.
And then with dawning crystal clarity that knotted his stomach with gut wrenching fear he understood. “Oh god, Marie.”
The tears were there then, he heard them hit the floor as they fell from her liquid eyes. “I’m sorry, Logan. I had to, I had to.”
He took a step, and then another, and another, and then his eyes saw what he already knew, and the shock made him stare at her as if he didn’t know her.
She was wearing a pair of black and white track pants and a black tank top. Her hair was a riot of frizzy curls around her face, and she wore no gloves or socks. Her skin, was blue stainless steel, and her eyes were hidden behind a pair of Scott’s ruby quarts glasses. She was sporting twice her normal muscle mass, and the forked tail was swishing madly in irritation behind her. The wall, was covered in frost, and her hand was half buried within it.
“I’m sorry, Logan.” And this time the words sounded as if they had a slight Irish brogue to them.
He took another step. “Marie,” his eyes wouldn’t stop running over her body, “Marie, oh god, how many did you touch?”
He couldn’t see her eyes, but he saw the single tear slide down her cheek as her head came up to look at him. “All of them. I touched all of them. I had to, I couldn’t, stop myself.” She pushed off from the wall, and staggered a step forward, her steel skin echoing the step in the large room. Her fingertips with the yellow nails, rose to her right temple and she cocked her head to the side as he took another step. “They’re all talking so loudly, Logan. They’re all so angry.” She winced, and then she took off the glasses and Logan could see the blindingly raw power that now burned within her skull. “I can’t make them stop. Too much, too quickly. It’s overwhelming me…” Her features twisted into a painful grimace, and when she bared her teeth they were razor sharp points.
Her blue hand rubbed her temple and she hissed in pain, her beautiful face twisting in agony. “It’s too much, it’s all just too much.” She doubled over then, clutching her stomach as sparks fell from her clutched hands in a cascade of colors that lit up the room with dancing light. “Logan, it hurts so much.”
Then he couldn’t stand it anymore, and he was there, his hands at her hips, careful of her skin, and she was in his arms, and he was holding her, soothing her, telling her it would be alright, that everything would be alright, that they’d figure this out, that he’d take care of her.
How long he clutched her tightly against his chest, he had no idea. Time seemed to be marked only by the racking sobs that fell from Marie’s sweet lips, and the number of times he said those forbidden words. Slowly, the heart wrenching sobbing lessened, and the steel that covered her skin melted into flesh, and the blue hue turned a rosy pink, until her broken sentences were once again filled with her Southern twang, and the raw power left her eyes there glorious green once again. They were on the floor by then, she sitting in his lap as he rocked them back and forth, afraid that if he let her go, she’d disappear.
“I need you, Logan.” He stopped moving as the beast surged forward in his mind, and he found himself with his nose buried in her hair, smelling the unique scent of cinnamon and earth that belonged only to her. He closed his eyes in blissful pleasure, wanting her to say those words once again, and she did. “I need you, Logan. You and Erik are the only ones that can make them quiet.” She pulled back from him, and her eyes were liquid pools of pain, and he realized she was only half with him, the other half of her was lost inside her own mind, and once again the beast stepped back, and the man stepped forward. “I know I’ve taken so much from you already, Sugar, I know. But I need just a little more, Logan. I need you just a little more.” And her small little fingers rose until they were touching his cheek, and he closed his eyes at the touch, purred at the contact, and pulled her closer, waiting for the pull.
He’d give her anything.
The sound of pulsing electricity, of power in its most elemental form slamming against cold steel and ripping it to shreds hit his senses before his eyes could open. He threw himself to the ground, his body covering Marie’s as the med bay door was blasted off its track and hurled across the room with such force, it smashed through the far wall and opened a hole into the adjoining hallway. He didn’t have to guess who it was, he knew.
“Logan! Get away from her!” Scott, dressed in his black X-Men uniform stepped through the hole he’d created. For a moment he didn’t understand what Scott was saying, it didn’t register, but when that line of ruby quarts began to glow, bearing down on Marie who was suddenly trembling in his arms, Logan reacted.
He bared his teeth at his leader and growled, a full rumbling growl that caused Scott to take a half step back in shock, allowing Logan a few precious seconds to shift, covering even more of Marie with his body. His mind seemed to turn off then, and only one thought penetrated the haze, he had to protect Marie.
“Logan, she’s touched the entire school! We need to stop her, something’s wrong with her!” Scott’s hand was at the trigger release of his visor, and Logan watched as if in slow motion as the man who was not his friend but until this moment was not his enemy, dialed the blast to its fullest intensity.
“Logan,” Hank called as he and Kurt barreled through the opening at the same moment, Kurt teleporting to the side of Scott, his yellow eyes taking in everything as Hank’s analytical mind assessed the situation and came up with only one verbal response, “Oh my stars and garters.”
Beneath him, Marie flexed her fingers against his hips, her hands trembling as she whimpered a subsonic plea for protection. And just like that, Logan flew into action.
His claws extended, splitting the air around them with the unforgettable sound of metal slicing through flesh. His body shifted, one hand going up and over Marie’s shoulder, centering his chest over her head to block any incoming attacks. His feet shifted and then braced for the spring while his muscles vibrated and the adrenaline pumped strongly in his veins making the world narrow to Scott’s face and nothing else.
Perhaps that was why he was unprepared for the attack that came from above. Not from Scott but from Storm whose awesome powers directed the electrical charge that filled his body to the point of painful incapacitation. Beneath him, Marie screamed.
“Kurt, contain her!” Scott commanded. Logan tried to move to protect her, but every muscle, every fiber of his being was screaming with a hundred thousand volts of electricity. Unconsciousness threatened, but he pushed it back, wrapping his body protectively around Marie’s as his sensitive hearing fought the rush of the blood in his veins to hear those demonic feet shifting lightly on the cool surface.
“Not today.” It was the only warning they received before Marie shifted, her body teleporting from beneath his and disappearing. He’d been close to her though, close enough to hear her heart beating in tandem with his, so he’d known, he’d heard it, that hadn’t been his girl’s voice.
Realization hit him hard in the gut and he braced himself, felt the electricity sparking along his spine, making him jerk a little as his healing factor worked over time while he sat up. Storm called out a warning, but he held up his hand, his eyes going immediately to Scott. “That ain’t her, Summers, that ain’t her voice. Something’s wrong with her.” Then, almost pleading, “Don’t hurt her.”
That gave Scott pause, but he quickly overcame his indecision. “She attacked the children, Logan. She even managed to touch the Professor. Whether something’s wrong with her or not, she needs to be stopped.”
And with heart wrenching agreement, Logan knew Scott was right. It was Marie, but it wasn’t, something was terribly, horribly wrong, and he could sense her suffering under whatever it was that had hold of her. But he couldn’t say the words, couldn’t voice his agreement that something was wrong with the one thing in his life that made everything right. So he nodded instead, righted himself, and then turned to Kurt who looked torn. “Get me to her!”
The night was beautiful, crisp, and clean. The lawn was sparkling with three am dew as the moon shone full and bright above them. Silhouetted by its brilliance was Rogue, her beauty beyond description as she silently commanded the clouds above her with the expertise of Storm’s 32 years.
“Rogue!” His voice was haunted but robust, filling the air. Behind him, in the house, he could hear the cries of children, confused and screaming, desperate to understand what had happened. Logan could imagine the scene, the chaos, as they awoke to find their roommates still passed out from Rogue’s vampiric touch. It seemed impossible that she could do something like this, something so impossible, but she hadn’t been the same since the Cure, and she’d been lost since it wore off.
“Isn’t it beautiful, Logan?” The southern charm was replaced with Storm’s earthy, African dialect. “All this power at her fingertips, and she has no idea how to use it.” Suddenly, storm clouds filled the air, and lightening jumped from one to the other lighting up the sky with raw power. Over the raging thunder he heard her laughing, a soft sweet laugh that broke his heart, because that was Marie’s laugh. “It is wasted on her, all of their powers are wasted on them. So few understand, Logan. They do not know what is coming. But I know,” and her chin tipped down to look at him on the lawn, and he felt his breath leave his lungs at the look of madness in her eyes. “I know, I have seen it, I have lived it! It will end them all, and they will not even see it coming.”
“Rogue, stop this at once!” The wind ripped around them, thunder crashed above them, and the screaming continued within the sturdy walls of the mansion, but still, Logan heard Xavier’s voice. He turned, seeing the older man and Jean standing together just outside the mansions front door. Xavier’s hand was out, palm flat, beseeching, but beside him, Jean looked murderous and her eyes glowed an unholy shade of fire.
“They’re lambs to the slaughter, Charles, and you are the Sheppard. Will you take that responsibility to your grave? Will you weep over those of your children?” Her tone was no longer Storms, no, this one sent a chill down his spine, one that even Storm’s electrical bolt couldn’t match. This was cultured, refined, and filled with such horrifying sadness as to be cruel. This was Magneto’s voice, his words coming from Marie’s sweet mouth, and as if to prove the point, Logan felt his body suddenly pulled taunt, stretched, his arms and legs forming a human star as he was raise into the brilliant darkness fifteen feet above the mansion lawn. “Will you lead even the unwitting fools to their unknowing sacrifice?”
Through the pain he saw Scott’s optic beam blast out of the lower corner of the mansion, heard the foundation crack, heard the children inside screaming, begging for help and parents that would never come. Beast’s agility propelled him out of the crumbling side wall, threw him twenty feet into the air, until he was below Rogue, his eyes, calculating the distance. He didn’t get a chance. From around the side of the house came the sound of sundered metal. The wire frame of the security fence came into view, hurled at an astonishing rate. Even as it sped through the air, it morphed, the metal liquefying, shifting, until it was a solid metal sphere, and as it slammed into Hank, Logan heard bones breaking even from his considerable distance.
Another optic blast tore through the night, and though Logan couldn’t see it, he heard the beam strike Marie, heard her sweet voice cry out in pain, and felt his blood boil in his veins. The words were out of his mouth before he could draw them back, before the ridiculousness of it all settled in, “Don’t hurt her!”
Then, in his mind, he heard Charles, Logan, you must talk to her. She will listen to you. You must calm her down. That made sense, Marie always listened to him, they listened to each other. And she did need to calm down, she did need to stop, and then Chuck would get her head screwed on straight and everything would be fine. He’d take her to see that hockey game he’d been talking about last week, and he’d sneak her a beer like he always did, and she’d look at him with those beautiful eyes and that sassy little smirk as she drank it, and everything would be right in the world.
She’d be just fine.
“Marie! Marie, you gotta calm down, Kid. I know you’re pissed, I know you’re hurtin’ but everything’s gonna be ok,” he paused, then added what he knew would reach her, “I promise.” And just like that, the wicked tension throughout his body lessened, and in her eyes he saw recognition, and she was afraid. It broke his heart to see that kind of fear. “Darlin’ it’s ok, everything’s going to be ok, just set me down and we’ll figure this out.”
He could see the need to comply in her eyes, she could convey so much through just a look of those expressive eyes. She wanted this to stop, he knew that, knew it on instinct, like he knew her. He saw her fighting with herself, first her fingers, then her hand, reaching out for him, begging without words for him to help her. But then her face twisted, her eyes closing, and when she opened them, she wasn’t there. Her fingers curled into a fist.
“NOW!” And before he knew what Scott’s cry for action meant, Marie was hit again with an optic blast that shredded her clothes and blistered her skin. The sky above her opened and from the heavens the lightening crackled and broke until first one, then two, and when Marie stayed aloft, three bolts slammed into her body again, and again, and again. Then from nowhere Kurt appeared in a free fall above her, tagged her shoulder and teleported her out of the sky.
Released from his magnetic prison Logan fell like a stone to the earth, barely managing to soften the impact as he hit the ground. He rolled, spinning as he did so, his vision searching for her and Kurt. He saw Scott holding the intensity dial of his visor doing the same, while the Professor and Jean scanned the outskirts of the grounds.
The sound of Bamf filled the air at the bottom of the steps that led into the mansion, but it wasn’t what they expected. Kurt’s unconscious body hit the stairs and bounced once, before slamming him across them like a broken ragdoll. From around them, the sound of Kurt’s mutation came again and again, but even Logan’s acute hearing wasn’t fast enough to track Marie’s movements. He was always a half second too slow to catch her, only witnessing the black cloud of sulfur she left behind.
“Jean!” Charles’ voice this time, and he turned his head in time to watch Jean take two steps away from the Professor before her hands went to her temples and she stared out into the darkness. None of them were ready for Marie’s sudden appearance at Jean’s side, or the barreling force as Rogue slammed into the mansion’s resident princess with the impact of a freight train. The two of them went tumbling down the stairs, neither one making a sound, and maybe that was the most eerie part of it, they were absolutely silent. Marie’s hands reached for Jean’s face, but the red head managed to throw up a shield in time to prevent contact. Marie’s clawed fingers glanced off the shield but that didn’t deter her, she struck again and again, and each time she did, the invisible shield contracted closer and closer to Jean’s face.
Then, out of the silence came Marie’s scream, her voice filled with not just her own, but dozens, and dozens of voices, as if a hundred people were speaking all at once. “We will not let you win!”
Logan sprung, his mind knowing that Scott would shoot, anticipating the angle, and rushing the flying body of a little girl he’d saved and who had saved him in return. He caught her mid air, slamming into her and propelling their bodies around the side of the staircase, half hidden from the view of the others. His hands were around her naked arms, his thighs on either side of her hips while his feet locked her kicking legs in place as the sky lit up above them brighter than the noon day sun.
He felt her struggling with unnaturally stolen strength, heard the house above him shake from the foundation up; he looked into her eyes and saw nothing he recognized. Pain, fear, rage, and hatred filled her eyes as she looked at him, as her hands hooked into his biceps. She was wild, tormented, and unnaturally beautiful. But she wasn’t his.
“Marie! Stop, you have to stop!”
“NO,” and she was screaming, her murderous eyes locked onto his, “Nooooooooooooooooooo.”
He didn’t recognize her, didn’t know her, and the pain of that filled him so suddenly that it cut through the adrenalin racing through his blood, slamming into his heart with a pain of such loss he thought he might die right there. “Marie, don’t—“
Suddenly she lifted her head, her mouth opening, as she screamed, and screamed, and screamed. Her fingernails lengthened, slicing into his arms, hitting the metal encased bone as she locked them together.
And then he felt it, the pull of her mutation, he heard her screaming suddenly cease, watched that delicious smile of pure joy and satisfaction flash across her features as she took him into herself, drew his mind deep within the confines of her own, until he couldn’t see her anymore, could only feel, and even that was beginning to fade.
Darkness filled him, but even in that moment he was struggling for her. His mind, his thoughts reached for her and he sent his final conscious thought to her as it faded into black, “I’ll take care of you, I promise, Marie.”
***********************
“I woke up in the med bay three days later. By then Xavier had already turned her off, and he’d convinced the others it was for the best, for Rogue’s protection as well as theirs. He started spouting off about her mutation and mental state being too fragile, that she was in a quiet place where she could be in peace.” Logan gritted his teeth, his voice filled with pain, “That she was insane, and if he woke her up she’d try to kill them.” He scoffed, “He blamed her mutation, that it had gone haywire, that the voice I’d heard had been Marie’s new voice, her mad voice. But he could never be 100% convincing, he could never get me to believe it. So I kept pressing, couldn’t he try this, or do that, or make her forget, or whatever the fuck he needed to do, until he finally just flat out told me he wasn’t ever going to wake her up.” Logan turned and locked eyes with Magneto, saw the surprise and horror there as much as a dawning understanding, “As if I’d just let it go. As if I’d take that cock and bullshit answer.” He looked away then, back at Marie’s serene face and smiled slightly to himself even as he reached out to brush a stray hair into place. “But I guess I did for a while. I kept thinkin’ I could convince him. But when he came right out and said it, damn near threatened to make me forget she’d ever existed if I kept pressing the issue, I knew I had to get her out of there for good.” He looked back at Magneto and his smile was anything but jovial. “Then I see your last press conference, and there’s a shit load of mutants standing behind you, and I get to thinking, Chuck and Jeannie aren’t the only telepaths out there, and the odds are good that you’d keep one or two around for good measure. So I pack her up, cart her across the globe, and here we are.”
His voice died with his last words, and he fell silent in the rapidly darkening room. Long shadows traced the floor, giving it a sense of foreboding that knotted his stomach. This was the moment of truth, this would determine a good portion of the rest of his life, of that he was sure. He took a breath, “I meant what I said, Lehnsherr. Name you’re price, whatever you want, and I’ll get it for you. You want someone dead, I’m your man. You want a whole lot of someone’s dead, done. Hell, you want me to turn the floor of the UN into a bloodbath fine, I don’t give a shit, but in exchange you give me back Marie. You find a way to wake her up, and you find someone to fix her. That’s all I’m asking.” Then his voice hardened and Logan’s spine straightened, “But if you won’t, if you agree with Xavier—“
Magneto stood, his figure dashing and enormous in the suddenly small room. His body was tall, straight, and if Logan wasn’t mistaken, he was filled with righteous anger as he walked to Marie’s bedside. “Rest assured Wolverine, I do not share Charles’ opinions on the matter, at least not from your account. However, what I know of my old friend makes it seem unlikely that you have all the facts of Rogue’s case.” At Logan’s growl, he held up a gloved hand but didn’t turn to look at him, “Charles is many things, self-righteous comes to mind, but what he is not, is the type of man to give up so easily on a child. He spent nearly a decade trying to reach young Mr. Striker, so the idea of him giving up so quickly on one of his own is both intriguing and disturbing.” Magneto frowned, and he looked for a second as if he were worried about something, “Yes, not like Charles at all.”
Then Magneto turned back towards Emma, “What did you see when you touched her mind?”
The involuntary shutter that ran through the blond worried Logan. The fact that she moved as if approaching Marie was physically painful worried him even more, but her actions were obviously bothersome to Magneto as well, because he placed a hand on Emma’s shoulder as she approached. The blond shared a pained glance, and then looked directly at Logan, and he knew the news was going to be a hundred times worse than anything he could imagine.
“When a telepath turns off the mind—prevents signals from running from the mind to the body—the mind immediately begins to protect itself, it slows down, shifts, creates a safe haven for itself. Often it takes the form of a childhood home, or a place special to the person. The mind’s own private sanctuary. It’s a place similar to what we envision when we’re told to meditate, or find our happy place.” Her soft British accent caressed the words and drew Logan with her, making him struggle to focus on the gravity of what she was saying. “This shift happens automatically. The same thing happens with coma victims even if they can’t remember it when they wake up. Memories aren’t formed here, it’s just a place of existence.
“It’s the safety of this place, the familiarity of it, that protects the mind. We as humans have this capacity to dream, to create a world of our own in our minds, and we can stay safe there until our body can be reconnected…or we pass into the next life.” Those long, manicured fingernails stretched and then her arm shifted until the tips of her white nails were brushing through the white streaks of Marie’s hair. It was a motherly gesture, a comforting gesture, and Logan found it disturbing that this stranger would so easily offer it to someone she didn’t know.
But some atrocities are so horrifying they form an instant bond. When Emma spoke again, there was confusion, fear, and the hint of tears in her voice. “The Charles Xavier I know would never have done this, never. Whatever happened to the Professor changed him. He’s simply not capable of something so…unethical, so…evil.”
“Emma?” That gloved hand went to her lower back, offering comfort from a man who had killed so many in the name of mutant freedom.
Her crystal blue eyes lifted until she was looking at Magneto, and when Logan saw the single tear, he felt his heart stop. “He didn’t just turn her off, Erik, he put her in the darkness. He deliberately put her there with her mind still functioning.”
Logan stood, the chair scraping behind him when Magneto gasped and took a step back as if struck. With lightening fast reflexes, Logan’s hand shot out and grabbed the blond’s bicep. “What the fuck does that mean; what the hell did he do to her?!”
As if in shock, Emma looked down at his hand on her arm and then back up at him. She didn’t try to remove his hand, just shook her head as if in denial. “I wouldn’t believe it, but I know Xavier’s signature, he was the last one in her mind, it couldn’t be anyone else.” She shook her head again, “Imagine you’re placed in a sensory deprivation chamber. Only this one isn’t you floating in a pool of water in darkness, this is absolute. You can think, you can feel, you know, but you’re body doesn’t exist, your physical form doesn’t exist. You see nothing, feel nothing, experience nothing at all, and you’re aware of this, completely and utterly aware that you’re totally alone, and no matter how far, how hard you reach, you can’t find anything. You’re mind would immediately search for an anchor, because we all need something to hold onto, but there isn’t an anchor. You start to doubt everything, yourself, your existence. Are you real? Is your life real? Do you exist? And then you start to forget, because without a base, you have nothing to build on and the foundation starts to erode. Suddenly you can’t remember how old you are, then even your own name. You don’t remember where you came from, or your own face. The darkness begins to creep into your mind, into the very state of your being.
“And if you think this is some slow torturous process you’re only half right. It is torturous, because at first, you can feel yourself going insane. But it isn’t slow, it just feels that way.” And here she paused and pulled back until Logan’s dead fingers released her arm. She seemed to struggle for a moment, looking at Marie’s beautiful face, and then her lifeless hands, then her face again, “The longest I’ve ever heard anyone surviving in that state of being was three days, and when he was woken up, there was almost nothing left of him. The Professor lasted only a few hours before he couldn’t stand it any longer.” She looked up at him then, and there was pity in her sad blue eyes. “She’s been there for months.”
He wasn’t looking at her anymore, he couldn’t, now all he could look at, all he dared to look at, was Marie. A million thoughts ran through Logan’s head in the moment, that single second, and the only thought that stayed was, “I’m too late.”
At the foot of the bed, Magneto refused to accept the answers right in front of him. “Charles would not do such a thing. You are wrong.”
Logan looked up, hoping by some miracle that he was right, but the shaking of Emma’s blond head stopped his hope. “This was done deliberately. He chose to put her there. The mind is absolute, it will protect itself, no matter what. Only a telepath can force a mind out of its normal survival pattern. Xavier’s signature is the only one here, which means it was him. He purposefully—willfully—took her mind from the protections it built itself, and he put her into the darkness. He,” and at this Emma turned away, walked towards the frosted glass of the window and stared at the hazy shade of nothing, “He did this to her on purpose. He wanted her to go insane. He was…he deliberately tried to kill her.” Her hand went to her temple and she brushed back her hair. “Without the mind the body dies.”
Silence filled the room once more, each occupant caught in their own private hell. Logan’s legs couldn’t support him any longer and sat back in the chair as he stared at Marie’s restful face. In his chest his heart heaved, and a thousand different regrets filled him to the point of breaking. He was too late, he’d waited too long, and now Marie, his beautiful, brilliant, lovely, Marie was gone. He didn’t think anything could hurt more than not knowing who he was, but this, knowing her and losing her, that was a pain beyond any he’d ever experienced before.
He felt the tears burning tracks down his face, and he didn’t care.
And then Emma spoke again, her voice filled with awe as she turned back to the room. And to Logan, she was an angel framed by the dying sun, offering him hope. “But it didn’t work.”
“What do you mean? You just said—“ Pyro stood and turned to look at the blond, and even Magneto turned to watch her.
“I said Xavier plunged her into the darkness, I said he deliberately tried to kill her, but he didn’t. She’s still alive. She,” and Emma turned fascinated eyes on Marie, “adapted. Maybe it was her own mutation, or maybe the fact that she absorbed Xavier right before he shut her away, but regardless, she found a way to survive.”
“How?” Magneto’s voice was strained in the darkness.
Emma shook her head, “I don’t know how she did it, but she managed to fight her way through the darkness and pull something in with her.” Taking a step forward she approached the bed and laid her hand on Marie’s head. “At first I couldn’t tell what it was, she’s wrapped so tightly around it it’s become a living part of her.” Suddenly Emma’s head came up and she locked eyes with each of the desperate men stationed around the room. “Let me back up. Outside when Erik asked me to determine if I could help her, all I could determine was that she was in the darkness, at least at first. And then—as completely crazy as this sounds—I felt her stir. So I went deeper, like wading through thick mud, until I couldn’t go any further, but she was there. She didn’t acknowledge me like most minds would have, but I could tell she was there and she wasn’t alone.
“Remember what I said about the darkness, in it you have no physical form. But somehow she’d created a vague outline of herself, and within that outline, buried deeper than I could see, was something glowing in golden light. I couldn’t tell what it was, because just the shock of seeing her, of realizing she was even there threw me out of her mind. I knew we had to get her inside, that I needed to figure out how long she’d been like that. I thought maybe it had only been a few days, but when you started telling us it had been months I started to doubt what I’d seen. Maybe I’d misinterpreted what I was looking at. It’s rare, but it does happen. But then you told us she she’d retained Magneto’s memories and then I realized what I’d seen her clinging too.” She stopped, a triumphant expression on her face, so that she seemed to glow with some inner happiness.
Logan wanted to ask, it was his turn, but his jaw wouldn’t work, he couldn’t form the words, so he just sat there, staring at her, begging her to continue. When she didn’t, Magneto lost patience, “What did you see, Emma?”
Startled, she looked up and then blushed a pretty shade of light rose. “Sorry.” Then she shifted her focus and looked at Logan. “She cares about you very much, that’s so very obvious by just a cursory look in her mind. You’re everywhere. Every thought, every memory she unconsciously holds at the forefront of all others has you.” Then she turned to look at Magneto, “And surprisingly, you. They’re older memories, images of you as a boy, a younger man, segments of your life that resonated with her. She looks to you as if a mentor, or a teacher, and she looks at Wolverine as something…well, as something more.” The blond drifted off, again before seeming to come back to reality, and her fingers moved once again, caressing Marie’s cheek. “It’s not surprising then, not really. She would have needed something meaningful, something that represented the unknown element she was thrust into, while offering her comfort in the physical. Something that reminded her of the two people she needed most in the world.
“The Star.” And her eyes went to Magneto’s and then Logan’s, “It’s The Star of David, the symbol of the Jewish faith, the very faith that sustained you through the worst experiences of your life, sustains you now. And it’s metal, comforting because it reminds of her of Logan, and it sings in the darkness like all metal does for you, Erik. She’s clinging to her faith, because it is her faith, her faith in God, and her faith in Wolverine.” Then her face broke into a triumphant smile and she turned to look at Johnny before placing her hand on his shoulder. “She’s alive, and she’s sane, and she’s in there.
“And most importantly, I can wake her up.”
He didn’t remember standing, but suddenly he was, and once again he had her by the arm, “Then do it! Wake her up!”
“No.” It wasn’t spoken maliciously, or with the contempt Logan had heard come from him so often. It was low and quiet, a word spoken out of necessity but painfully, as if it wasn’t the word he wanted to say, but knew needed to be said anyway.
And it was because of that, Logan only turned his head at the Master of Magnetism and asked, “Why?”
At the foot of the bed, Magneto shook his head, “As I said, Wolverine, I do not believe you have all of the facts. I have known Charles for many years, and he is incapable of this atrocity. There is something more going on here than is readily apparent, and until we know what it is, I am not prepared to unleash her mind if she is in no danger of losing it.”
Anger flashed in him like white hot lightening, but Johnny’s voice caught him off guard and he lost his focus. “He’s right, Logan. You even said something was wrong with her, that she’d gone mental—“
“But you just said she was sane.” He said, his eyes locked with Emma’s.
She nodded, “She’s sane in that she’s not insane from the isolation, but I couldn’t connect with her. I have no idea what her full mental state is going to be like. Besides,” she cut him off when he tried to protest, “you can’t just wake up someone’s who’s been in this type of mental state for as long as she has been. The shock alone would drive her mad, or worse, kill her. No, this needs to be done slowly, with control, so that I can monitor her progress, find out what the Professor was so afraid of, and help her mend whatever’s broken so when she does wake up, she’s the woman you remember, not the woman from that night.”
In defeat, his hand dropped from her arm, because even he could recognize that they were being reasonable. He hated it, wanted the blond to plunge her pretty little head into Marie’s and drag her back out into the bright sunshine of his world. But if doing that would harm her in any way, even endanger her, he couldn’t subject her to it, wouldn’t risk her safety.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do something. In the lull he popped his claws and met those crystal blue eyes that had suddenly widened. “I’m not letting you leave her in there.”
To her credit, she didn’t step away from him. “I have no intention of leaving her in the darkness. I have a plan.”
“Then spill it already!” Johnny nearly yelled at her in frustration.
Beside him she scoffed, then rolled her eyes before looking back at Logan pointedly until his claws receded. “I’m going to pull her out of the darkness. I’m going to allow her mind to do what it should naturally do, correct itself and create a safe haven. Once she’s there we’ll be able to monitor her progress and determine her true mental state, then slowly ease her back into the world.”
“How long will it take,” asked Magneto.
She shrugged. “Getting her out of the darkness shouldn’t take long, maybe an hour to guide her back into the light. She’ll need time to get acclimated, for her mind to begin rebuilding what it’s lost. How long that takes will be up to her. Some minds build their paradise in a matter of moments, others take years.”
“Years?” Logan looked down at Marie, of course he’d wait years if years was how long it took, but there had to be a faster way.
“I said some, most people take a few days to a few weeks. All we can do is wait and see.”
Logan had heard enough. Without hesitation, he turned to face Magneto, ready to offer again whatever it took to free Marie from her prison. But Magneto held up a gloved hand, cutting him off before addressing Emma. “Do it. Whatever it takes to make her comfortable. I want to know the moment she’s out of the darkness, and I want you to personally monitor her progress. You’ll make sure I’m informed of all of her progress.” Then he turned as if to leave the room.
“Hey, wai—“
“Wolverine, as a mutant, Rogue is free to remain here under the protection of Genosha law. I will provide her with the best medical attention, including access to the full power of mutant healers. She will remain here in comfort until she awakens.” Magneto had the door open before Logan stopped him.
“And what about me?”
With a turn of his head, Magneto spoke over his shoulder with a smile in his voice. “Once again, you think it’s all about you.” And with that, he opened the door and walked out.
Stunned, Logan turned back to the others in the room, only to find Emma in the chair next to the bed, her head bent down, her eyes vacant—already working on Marie’s condition. Confused, he turned to the only other person in the room, only to see Johnny already headed towards the door. “What the hell did that mean?”
When Johnny turned back he was all smiles. Shaking his head, he walked up to Logan and clapped him on the shoulder, “It means, welcome to the dark side, Wolvie.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
What you've all been waiting for!
Chapter End Notes:
Ok, I admit it, I'm nervous as to what you guys thought. Letting me know would be really helpful...otherwise it'll be another sleepless night.