The mighty Wolverine is blown across the street for yet a second time. His body hits a parked car with a sickening thud. The burly man manages to make it to his feet, his costume torn in several places across his chest and back, his mask no longer covering his identity.
"Cajun...you're going to regret that."
Gambit smirks. "Is dat so, Wolverine?" He tosses a few cards from his hand, they scatter and land all over the car behind the X-man, exploding it to pieces, sending the canadian face first into the dirt.
Gambit quickly makes his way over to his wife's side. "Chere. You ok?" He holds out his hand to her and hoists her to her feet.
Jean brushes the hair from her face with her fingers. "Fine, Remy. I'm fine."
"Good. Lets find dah rest of dah crew then huh?"
She nods approvingly and the two scurry off. Rogue and Beast manage to catch a glimpse of the couple leaving the scene just as they arrive. Both of them almost stop in their tracks, until they notice a not so conscious Logan.
Rogue takes flight and lands swiftly at Logan's side. "Mah God. Logan. Logan? Can you hear me?" She rolls him over to his back and attempts shaking him by the shoulders lightly. "Come on now, Ah know them healing factors of yours should be kicking in now."
Beast jogs over to the two, almost panting. "I don't know whether I should be in shock or ..."
"Ah know Hank. But we need to get moving and help Cyclops and Kitty."
Beast nods agreeing. "Rogue he will be fine. His injuries are not serious. You can go on ahead and I will deal with Wolverine."
"Right." Again, Rogue takes flight and heads for her other teammates. "What in Sam Hill is going on?"
She spots Cyclops and Kitty, as well as a few other Marauders. Just as she makes her decent, their enemies make for the hills and run off.
"Ah'm on it." Rogue heads for her targets.
"Rogue forget it. Lets regroup." She hears Cyclops on her communicator.
"What? Are you serious? Ah'm right behind them."
"I'm serious. We got their message. Now lets get Beast and Wolverine and head out."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Several hours later back at the mansion.
Rogue sits alone under the comfort of the maple tree once more, reality now threatening to spill the contents of her stomach, she tries to calm herself. Tries to tell herself that what Logan saw and heard was somehow not true, it was a lie.
But then, as she sits and thinks more on the matter, the sinking feeling in her stomach starts to go away. Why is she so worried about what that damn Cajun does anyways?
She hears her thoughts screaming inside her head. Arguing. Reason, emotion.
He's a liar. Ah know. But Ah loved him.
He's a traitor. Ah know. But Ah...
Yah never could trust him and after this, how could yah ever?
Ah know.
Let him go.
She exhales a deep breath and nestles her chin on top of her knees getting ready to watch the sun set. The beautiful mixture of colors from the multiple trees in the distance do something to soothe her. The ray of the sun pouring over the landscape, the golden color of the pond and the sound of leaves crunching, this moment is perfect.
Wait a minute...leaves crunching?
She glances quickly over her shoulder to see Emma making her way towards the tree, covered in a beautiful long white fall coat.
"Wow Emma. Ah think this is the first time in a long time that Ah've seen you so covered up." She giggles. "But you still look amazing."
Emma smiles warmly. "Why thank you dear. Just because it's cooler outside, doesn't mean a woman should go without style."
Emma stands near Rogue, her concern sincere. "Rogue, I understand that you may not want to talk about todays ordeals. We are all in a great amount of shock."
Sighing, Rogue looks away from her scenery and stands to face Emma. "Look, Ah appreciate your concern. Really Ah do...it's just..."
"Rogue. What I am trying to say is that usually I would feel a great amount of pain rolling of you because of something like this. However, for some reason I sense only maybe a mild form of relief."
Shocked, Rogues eyes widen. "Ah...Uh..."
Emma waves of her attempts of an explanation. "Listen. I don't expect an explanation. All I am offering is that if you ever need someone to explain to, my door will always be open."
Relieved, Rogue smiles. "Thank-you, Emma."
"No need." The white Queen's smile fades.
"What it is Emma?" Rogue crosses her arms, the wind blows at both of their hair.
"I'm afraid that everyone is dealing with this in their own way."
Rogues eyes widen. "Mah God. How is Scott doing? Ah didn't..."
Emma nods her head. "Scott is alright. He's not happy with the situation and he really wants to get to the bottom of it. But he's not the one I'm concerned for."
Reality once more hits hard. "Logan."
"I was so hoping that you might be able to have a chat with him and maybe even Katherine. I can sense an incredible amount of emotions coming from the both of them. However, I do not foresee either of them coming to me for any...Well you get the idea dear." Emma smiles.
"Ah understand. Don't worry. Ah will talk to both of them."
Emma turns and makes her way back to the mansion. "Thank-you. Oh and dearest, do try to make your conversation with Miss Pryde either fast or last, because Logan is making quite a mess in the danger room."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Organization, is suppose to be the key. So if she can keep things organized, maybe that would keep her mind off of things. Like current events.
Kitty walks back and forth in her room, rearranging photos, notes, books, any thing she can find that looks like it's out of place. She is just about to start on her bathroom, when she hears light knocking on her door.
"Come in."
The door opens and she's surprised to see Rogue. She takes in a breath of relief.
"Thank God. I thought you were Emma coming to pay me a visit there for a moment. You know, to try and analyze my thoughts. See if everything is A OK."
Rogue smiles awkwardly. "Well actually sugah..."
"Oh come on. She's getting you to do her dirty work now?" Kitty shakes her head in disbelief.
"It's not that at all Pryde. She just kind of open mah eyes, you know. Ah was concentrating so much on how Ah felt, that Ah forgot about how everyone else might be doing. And since you won't go to her, she thought that maybe talking to a friend..."
Shadowcat plops herself at the edge of her bed. "Incredible..." She laughs lightly. "You know Rogue, you have more right then anyone here to be upset. If you ask me, a little alone time for yourself isn't greedy at all."
"Ah didn't say...what I meant is that..."
Kitty raises her brow. "Well whatever. All I am saying is that, this is a pretty big deal for you, and that she shouldn't have asked you to go around checking on everyone. You have enough to sort through."
Rogue still stands near the door, her head hanging low. "Ah didn't mean to upset you Kitty."
Laughing Kitty strides over to her friend. "Upset? You got to be kidding me right? Rogue, I'm not upset with you. Why would I be?"
Kitty takes her friend by the hand and they both sit at the end of her bed. "Listen, I'm just kind of on edge. You know?"
Rogue nods, not knowing what to say.
"Everything is just so weird, and this new stuff doesn't help. I mean, Jean's back. Or whatever. So I just know Emma's up there all depressed because Scott's wife is back from the dead. So that means, yay, more tension. And then..., then there's Wolverine. I mean, God. I am so not going near him for like a month now."
Kitty stands from the bed, breathing heavy. "Remember last time she came back. It was all, lets kill her, that works...And the time before that? I just don't understand why is it that we have to result to...."
Rogue holds out her hands. "Sugah. It's not like that. Yah know it."
The younger woman sighs. "I know. It's just, that's just how it seems. You know."
The room goes silent. The two women look at their hands placed on their own knees.
"Look, Rogue. For what it's worth, thanks. And please..."
"Don't worry sugah, Ah won't tell a soul." Rogue winks. "And please try not to worry so much. Yah must know that Scott is up there right now trying to figure out what's going on, and what the safest coarse of actions could be."
"Yeah, I guess." Kitty shrugs her shoulders.
Rogue makes her way to the door. "And if yah need to talk to anyone..."
"Oh Rogue?" Kitty jumps from her bed and dashes towards Rogue. "You are going to talk to Logan, aren't you?"
"Ah was planning on it."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The danger room. Why does it always seem so scary from the outside. The gigantic doors. The silence in the hall. The cool air that seems to only exist in this area.
Rogue feels shivers run through her body. "God, Ah must be insane to be going in there. But someones got to." She takes a deep breath. "There yah go again sugah. Talking to yourself like that. Not healthy."
She punches in her security code on the small panel by the door. The squares light up and blink accepting her numbers, there is a loud decompressing sound as the doors begin to separate.
"No turning back now."
Even before she enters, she can hear him. Grunting, charging, yelling, slashing. "Oh my."
She sticks her head into the room. Hundreds, of computer simulated corpses cover the ground. Not just any corpses.
"Gambit."
Her eyes, to her surprise don't water. To her surprise she's not even shocked. Why should she be?
"Logan?"
She can see him now, standing on what seems to be a hill made out of miscellaneous parts and scraps of metal. His posture is slouched forward, but he's not facing her. She also notices that he's still wearing his uniform from just a few hours ago.
His breathing is slow, but she can still hear the rage in him, it's low and comes from the deepest parts of him, almost like a giant wild cat letting out a low purr after devouring a meal.
"Logan?"
She takes cautious steps towards him. His figure doesn't move. She takes a few more steps, this time slowly making her way up the hill he is on.
"Logan."
She's just behind him now, and she is convinced that she can actually hear him laughing lightly.
"God, Logan. Sugah are you..."
Suddenly, he does something she doesn't expect. Something that scares the daylights out of her. He drops to his knees and covers his face with his hands, his claws still visible.
"I didn't want you to see." His body shivers.
Confused she sits beside him. "What are yah talking about?" she tugs at his left arm. "Logan, look at mah."
He grunts. "Leave." Wolverine tugs his arm from her grip and turns to leave in the opposite direction. "Leave, now."
"What? No." She starts after him. "Ah don't care what yah think, but you're no animal."
Briskly he turns towards her and pins her beneath him. He notices that her bracelet is turned on. "What makes you so certain?" He grawls. "Noticed that your little bracelet is on. I can make you into a bunch of little pieces right now."
Not even fazed by him, Rogue doesn't even struggle. She lifts her head to be just a few inches from his face and smirks. "Then do it sugah. What yah waiting for?"
He grunts again and allows her to sit. Still straddling her legs, he sits back, retracts his claws and rubs his hands through his hair. Rogue squirms away and kneels in front of him. She takes his face in her hands and smiles.
"See, you're not as bad as you or anyone else thinks."
He closes his eyes and grabs hold of her wrists. "I just didn't want you to see this..." His eyes scan the room. "Couldn't stand the thought of you thinking less of me. But Rogue, I had to make him pay. For everything. For what he did to you, to the X-men. And now, this? I just know he's up to something."
"But honey, these aren't real." She shakes her head still puzzled.
"I know. That's the problem." He snickers. "He's always been a low life. Always knew it. Said it more times then I can count. Everything he put you through. Should have ended a long time ago..."
"Uh huh." She raises a brow in his direction. "So what am I missing."
"I want to kill him! But I can't!" He turns and stares at her face. "I never could stand the thought of making you cry. No matter how much I couldn't stand that Cajun. And now, he has something I've always wanted. Something I thought I always needed."
Rogue reaches out to hold his arm, hoping that it somehow comforts him.
"Thing is, I don't. I was finally ok with it all. Her being gone." He takes in a quivering breath. "I just don't think that I can do it again." He looks down at his hands. "And he knows it."
"Wolverine...Ah..." Knowing her bracelet is on, Rogue turns and gives him a tight hug. "Sugah, we'll be ok."
He hugs her back, his big arms around her tiny waist, and sets his face on her shoulder. Then he pulls back.
"What about you darlin? How are you holding up?"
Rogue shrugs. "Ah...Ah actually think Ah'm ok. It feels like there has been this heavy burden lifted from mah shoulders. Like Ah can breathe."
"Because you know he's moved on and you can too? Or because you know he's still alive?" Wolverine grips her by the shoulders. "If I find out that he's doing this to hurt you, or Jeanie...I don't think I will be able to control myself this time."
"Logan..."
"He's scum. You have to see that. He's always been. You can't make a man come back if he don't want to Rogue. Even if he did, what kind of life would you have with him then?"
"Ah...don't know. Ah think that's why Ah'm ok with this."
Logan sits back stunned. "Come again?"
She shakes her head lightly. "Well not with all of it. I meant the part with him not being here anymore, with me. It's ok. Ah'm ok. Our relationship, it was all over the place. Never certain. So much has happened, that I thought I needed him, for me to be at peace."
She hugs herself bringing her knees to her chest. "Antarctica, god that was a mess. That's where things really ended for us Ah think. Ah saw then and there that he could never truly be honest, even with me. Then, Jean died, it was like ah lost a sistah. He was there, but not the way Ah wanted him to be. Then there was that thing were Emma came along, and Storm left. That thing with Xavier. Everything was just going down hill. Then Foxx...and he leaves."
"There were moments where Ah thought that there was no one else that would understand me, be there for me, because everything was changing so fast. It was all going so wrong. But then Ah had to look back, and everytime Ah did know what Ah found?"
Logan shrugs his shoulders.
"You, sugah. I always found you. When mah powers were out of control, you were the only one Ah trusted enough to help me through that. The only one who came to look for me. Ah never forgot that. You've always been the only constant thing in mah life."
Logan smiles. "Glad to know I make a difference somewhere." He takes a look around at all the Gambit bodies spread everywhere. "Sorry you had to walk into this darlin."
"Well, I can understand." She stands and looks off into the distance, dark skies with red clouds everywhere. Why did Wolverines world have to always be so dark.
She feels him tug her shoulder.
"Come on. Lets get out of here."
The two leave the Danger Room, both wondering if things were ever really going to get better, both knowing they have someone to count on. Maybe for now, that's all that matters.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
A.N : I realize that Rogue would not have her Mrs. Marvel powers after issue #169. But this is my story, and I say she has them ;)
Also, this chapter is not really action filled. It's more of the aftermath of what takes place for certain ppl after finding out that Jean is alive and apperently married to Gambit.
I assure that more is to come. I have many more chapters yet planned for this fic. Again, please enjoy and R&R.
Disclaimer : Yeah yeah....
Also, this chapter is not really action filled. It's more of the aftermath of what takes place for certain ppl after finding out that Jean is alive and apperently married to Gambit.
I assure that more is to come. I have many more chapters yet planned for this fic. Again, please enjoy and R&R.
Disclaimer : Yeah yeah....
Chapter End Notes:
It's getting there, wouldn't you agree ? :)