“I wish you would have called ahead of time,” Mystique said grimly as she followed Rogue up the stairs of her home. She hadn’t bothered moving back into her old room yet, leaving it for Rogue when she was ready for it. “That damn Danvers woman has been a pain in the ass since you left. She kept asking the most exasperating questions. ‘When are they coming back?’”
“I was told Danvers was dead,” Rogue returned slowly, turning around to look at the other woman. It had been well into the night before they arrived in Las Vegas. Not wanting to fly straight through in case someone - namely Logan - decided to follow her, she and the others had booked a flight from New York to Reno. There, they rented a car and a van to make the eight-hour drive, with she, Victor, and Havok in the car, and the others in the van. He probably knew where she was going, but it would make her feel better if he was a little put out by her travel plans. “I still have her psyche locked inside my head. What's going on?”
Mystique smiled slowly, realizing just how much the younger woman had been kept in the dark. “Yes, Carol Danvers is dead, but Savannah Danvers is alive and well down the hall. You’ll meet with her in the morning.”
Rogue turned back to the hall before her, making her way to the last, and largest, bedroom. Mystique still followed, wanting to fill her in on everything.
“Can’t we please finish this discussion in the morning, Raven?” Rogue asked coldly as she turned the doorknob. All she wanted to do was sleep at this point.
Mystique ignored her request, instead following her into the room and swiftly closing the door behind her, hoping that no one else would hear their conversation. “You need to know something about Savannah, now.”
“What? You found her, told her that her sister was dead, and she came running down to find out what happened. It’s a no-brainer, really,” Rogue replied as she peeled off the white t-shirt she had been wearing since she and the rest of her team had left the mansion early that morning. They were all currently back in their assigned rooms, trying to get some sleep before she put them back to work in the morning.
Mystique chuckled slightly, already a little agitated. “You must have had a hell of a time with Wolverine. Did you find out that he’s not as good in bed as you had always fantasized? Were you disappointed?”
“Go to Hell, Raven,” Rogue replied bitterly. “If you must know, the sex wasn’t just great, but outstanding. Made my toes curl. So good, that I just had to have another taste before I left.”
Mystique raised an eyebrow at the girl’s newfound confidence. “Then why did you come back without him?”
“I have a job to do, Raven. That’s what is important right now,” Rogue shot back sourly. She didn’t want to talk to the other woman about her love life. She was currently riffling through Mystique’s closet, trying to find something that would cover her own larger bust. There was an assortment of clothes, both men's and women's, and it didn’t take long for her to find something suitable.
“Fine. Keep all the juicy little details to your self,” Mystique sighed sadly. “There are more important issues that need to be discussed, anyway. Such as this Danvers woman.”
“What about her?” Rogue demanded, rolling her eyes as she pulled the new shirt over her head. It was a plain, black shirt that didn’t quite reach her belly button. “Is she throwing a fit or something?’
Mystique took a seat on the bed as Rogue turned to look at the older woman. “What’s strange is that she isn’t. This entire situation just feels wrong.”
Rogue cocked an eyebrow. “What else is going on?”
“For starters, I didn’t have to call her. She came with the rest of the X-Men the night Carol attacked you. I think it was through her that Wolverine was able to track you here. From what I gathered from everyone about that place you were in, it should have appeared that you were dead,” Mystique explained slowly, shrugging her shoulders. And the fact that she doesn’t seem to be as emotionally unstable as I suspect a person should be after loosing a close relative worries me some.”
“So you think there is something deeper than what she’s shown you so far?” Rogue asked thoughtfully, curiosity overcoming her weariness. “Has she spoken to you about anything?”
Mystique shook her head. “It's little things, nothing too big. Her sister’s childhood, how close they were. What I am curious about is why we didn’t know anything about her from the beginning. If she and Carol were so close, then why didn’t she call Savannah right after she was brought here, like the others? I hadn’t mentioned anything about the team to anyone until after those with a home to go to were well on their way.”
“That’s a good question,” Rogue replied slowly. “Have you tried to find any background on her?”
“That’s another thing,” Mystique stood from the bed and walked to the desk, grabbing a file from the shelf. “I did a little research on her, found some interesting facts. She is an FBI agent and she’s been working undercover at various mutant clinics for the last three years. She was in the clinic that you were taken from.”
“When did you learn this?” Rogue asked swiftly, reaching for the folder.
“Just a few hours before you arrived. I haven’t really had a chance to look into it further,” Mystique replied musingly, gesturing for Rogue to take a closer look. “I was going to read more after she was in bed, but then you showed up at my door with a horde of grumpy, smelly men, demanding food.”
Rogue flipped through the file quickly, looking for anything that would pop. She found it towards the back of the file, a name that made her blood run icy cold. Turning the folder back to Mystique, keeping the page open, her entire body tensed. “It seems that when Ms. Savannah Danvers was in her senior year of college, she was linked to a newly emerging radical group known as the Friends Of Humanity. Not only that, but she was romantically linked to the founder of the group, Graydon Creed, for about ten years. I assume, after hearing Carol’s own tale, Savannah left the FOH due to her sister’s manifestation. It was also around this time that she left her local police department to join the FBI, so that may also have had something to do with it.”
“So, my fearless leader, what do we do about this?” Mystique asked, closing the folder and tossing it on to the bed.
“I do believe that it's not too late to wake and speak with Ms. Danvers. I have a few questions for her that just can’t wait until morning,” Rogue replied, suddenly relieved of her exhaustion.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Good morning, Savannah,” Rogue said sweetly, knocking on the door as she opened it. Savannah was currently sitting up in her bed, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “My name is Rogue, and I have some questions for you.”
“What time is it?” Savannah asked slowly, looking around the room for a clock.
Rogue smiled, standing before her at the end of the bed as Mystique quickly closed the door. Although it seemed that both women were smiling politely, there was no denying the danger their presence represented. “It’s about two in the morning. You have a few things to explain. How is Graydon doing, by the way?”
Savannah didn’t blink an eye as she answered. “I wouldn’t know, I haven’t seen him in years. Not since I broke it off with him. Why?”
“Why did you break up?” Rogue asked quickly, ignoring the other woman’s inquiry. “I mean, you two were together for a really long time. What was it, ten years? I’ve known people who weren’t together for nearly a third of that time before getting married.”
Savannah shrugged her shoulders, her calm demeanor not wavering. “We just never really talked about it. I broke it off when I was accepted into the FBI. He didn’t want me to join, but it’s what I’ve wanted since I was in high school.”
“Did you know that Creed is the District Attorney here?” Rogue asked, keeping control of the conversation.
“I really didn’t. All I knew was that I was coming to get my sister. I got a call from her asking me to come down and see how things were going,” Savannah replied, her eyes shifting from one to the other. “She didn’t think that you were capable of handling this whole mutant team.”
“Really? And how do you feel about what happened?” Rogue asked, wanting to get her perspective. Mystique was right, the woman wasn’t really showing any kind of emotion regarding her sister's death. But what she didn’t know was that now that Carol was locked in her mind, Rogue already knew what she was leaving out. Carol had called Savannah to come down to help overthrow her, in the hopes that Carol would be able to move into the position of leader.
“Carol did it to herself,” Savannah replied quickly, her voice becoming stronger, more level. “She shouldn’t have done it. If you hadn’t been capable, then it would have been obvious almost right away. She knew better than to try to take you out herself, especially the way she did. I think that lab changed her.”
“Or maybe there was more to it. Maybe it wasn’t so simple. Maybe she wanted to help her big sister in her cause and was planning on getting the cure right after our team was taken care of,” Rogue replied slowly, her anger breaking through her sweet demeanor. “You see, there is something special about my mutation. Something that wasn’t documented in the clinic I was taken from. I already know you were there, so don’t deny it. You know my mutation is my skin, that when I touch someone, they go into a coma, or die. That when I specifically touch a mutant, I steal their abilities: Logan’s regenerative mutation, Carol’s superhuman strength and ability to fly, along with her invulnerability. But when I hold on long enough to kill them, I take their powers, or if I touch them enough times like with Logan or Sabretooth, my mutation copies theirs completely and I can continue to use it afterwards. These little details weren’t documented because, well, I didn’t know.
“But there was another little discrepancy with my mutation that I never shared. A little thing that I hadn’t thought really mattered at the time. You see, when I touch someone, not only do I put them in a coma, but I get a copy of their whole being locked in my head. I get copies of their personalities, what they were thinking at the time, their quirks. I even get their memories. Forever. And I can delve into any one of them at any time. Even things that they have learned, like when their big sister comes home and teaches them how to tell when someone is lying.”
Savannah began to squirm, becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation. “So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you’re lying about a few things. Graydon Creed, for one,” Rogue replied bitterly, walking closer. “You haven’t really lost touch with him over the years, have you, Savannah?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. All I know is that you killed my sister. Even this story of self-defense is a little contrived, don’t you think?” Savannah asked, her answers becoming defensive.
Rogue shrugged, moving closer to her. “Something else about the people I touch, like in the case of your sister. If I take their lives, they don’t just die. The body will be an empty shell with no vital signs at all. Its heart will no longer beat, it will no longer breathe. The actual body would be completely useless. But the mind won’t be. It’s not just a copy that I get within my head, but the entire entity. Living on and trapped forever within my mind. So, we can do this one of two ways. Either you can stop lying to me and tell me what Graydon is up to, or I can just touch you and get the information that way. I’m sure your sister will love the company.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Make sure Victor takes care of her completely. I don’t even want to hear of a body being found,” Rogue said swiftly, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she and Mystique left the room, closing the door on the comatose body.
Mystique smirked, impressed with the shorter woman’s technique. “Was it really necessary to touch her? You could have just beaten the information out of her.”
“Yeah, but that would have been messy, and I'm already so tired. Plus, it’s not that hard to lock her away, and now she's up there with both Victor and Logan,” Rogue replied with a shrug. “I don’t want any of the others to know about this, just Victor.”
“When are you going to have the team strike Graydon?” Mystique asked quickly, following Rogue back to her room.
Rogue shook her head, closing the door behind them. “I’m not. This is going to be a solo mission. I’m not sure if I can trust the whole team.”
“What about those you can trust?” Mystique questioned, becoming worried. She wasn’t sure if this new idea was smart, but she had to have faith in Rogue. That was why she had asked her to head this little project.
“The only two that I trust completely are Havok and Victor,” Rogue explained quickly. “Havok doesn’t have the experience yet and this job is too big and important for him to fuck up. And I need Victor here in case my solo mission is jeopardized. If you don’t hear from me in 12 hours, send the rest of the team. Have Victor on standby.”
“You want them to go in blind?” Mystique was beginning to doubt this plan and wasn’t sure if Rogue had completely recovered from her coma anymore. Maybe there was some brain damage that hadn’t completely healed.
Rogue laughed lowly, a sound that sent chills up the other woman’s spine. “That’s how it usually is, Raven. You never really know what you're getting yourself into. But no, it won’t be completely blind. Give them all of the information you have, including location and layout of Creed’s private residence.”
“But we only know the location,” Mystique said quickly.
Rogue grabbed the single small bag she had returned with and threw it to land at Mystique’s feet. “I did my own research while I was at the mansion. I have blueprints and layouts of both his home here and his vacation house in Miami, plus passwords and codes for all security and shifts that any guards may take. He has a large security system, including bodyguards. It seems that his life has been threatened numerous times by various mutant rights activists since he became District Attorney. They have everything they need; make them study it while I'm gone. Lead them to believe that I'm just out doing surveillance for tomorrow night or something.”
“When do you leave?” Mystique asked, feeling nominally less queasy about the idea.
“One hour. I want to take a shower first, and the timing is better in the early morning, when the guards are just about to do their shift change.” Rogue turned, ready to invade the closet yet again.
She hadn’t told Mystique everything she had gleaned from the mind of Savannah Danvers. There were some things that the team just didn’t need to know.