Flashback (one year ago)
Eleven months… He’s been gone eleven months. Not a word from him in all this time. Rogue knew that Logan wasn’t the writing or calling kind, but yet, she *knew* that something was wrong; she just felt it. A knowledge so deeply rooted in her bones that she had lost the ability to sleep or eat these last few days. Looking up at her reflection in the mirror that morning, she knew that she had to take action. The rest of the X-men, and especially Scott, had looked at her coolly when she asked if they’d had any news from Logan. None of them had heard of him in almost a year and nobody seemed to find it odd.
“Professor, maybe you could try and locate him with Cerebro?” Sue pleaded with the telepath, in hopes that he would embrace her cause more willingly than her teammates and teachers.
“Locating Logan is almost impossible, I’m afraid, Rogue.” Xavier replied in a soft but dissuading voice.
“But why? How would you know it for sure? Please, Professor, I’m not asking …” She cut herself as her voice suddenly failed her. Regaining a semblance of composure for the sake of her peers and mentors, she added in a tone that she hoped didn’t betray her deepest fears:
“I just want to make sure that he’s alright, that’s all.”
The soft buzzing sound of Xavier’s wheelchair echoed in the richly furnished study, adding to the softness of the hushed atmosphere of the room.
“My child…” Feeling the change in Rogue at his word, catching his faux-pas, he addressed her again after a short pause. “Rogue, I too care greatly for Logan, I assure you. To be completely honest with you, I’ve been trying to keep tabs on him for some time now, but I was never able to reach his mind; his mental shields preventing me from doing so, even with Cerebro.”
At that the young woman felt a wave of pure panic rising in her, the projection so strong that it made the two telepaths present in the room wince in unison.
Storm, being her usual pacifying self approached the girl she sometimes saw as her younger sister, making to lay a loving hand on her shoulder but catching herself at the very last second, fearing an eventual rejection. In a dream like voice, she simply stated: “He is fine, dear, I’m sure. If it wasn’t the case, don’t you think that he would have tried to contact us?”
“But what if he couldn’t…?”
Scott Summers, in all his Leading glory chose this moment to say his piece: “He doesn’t deserve that you worried so much about him, Rogue, you should know it by now. In all this those months he spent doing God knows what across Canada, he never saw fit to let you know that he was at least alive; it’s time for you to come to terms with that and move on.”
The young man never saw it coming. All those years of training were no match compared to an outraged Rogue, who with a few swift strides was in her teacher’s face, tightly fisting the collar of his impeccable navy polo shirt.
“Say that again?” Barked the young woman in all Wolverinish way. She still had a piece of Logan in her mind after all, and the man known as Cyclops should definitely know better than to provoke the Rogue.
Jean chimed in then, agreeing with her fiancé, for a change.
“Rogue, he’s right. If Logan wanted to come back, he would have by now. I’m sorry…but somebody has to tell you to move on Rogue, it’s not…”
“Oh, you would know, wouldn’t you? It’s not what, uh?” Rogue retorted, her eyes never leaving the face of the man she held in an iron grip, but her voice oozing enough venom to petrify the read headed beauty standing two steps away from her.
“It’s not what?!” She yelled this time, feeling her patience running thinner with every passing second.
“It’s not healthy.” Came the hushed answer from the usually silent Kitty Pryde.
“That’s what you all think, isn’t it?”
As silence filled the room, eyes looked intently to the carpeted floor, Rogue’s temper flared to all consuming rage at the attitude of those she believed were her family, people who should care about her. She also associated them as Logan’s new found family after the first few days they had spent at the mansion together. They had shown so much care, love even, to the both of them, her and Logan… How could they think so little of him after all he had done for them and with them? Sure he hadn’t stayed very long after Liberty Island, but wasn’t what he had sacrificed for people he had barely known proof enough of his value as a man, as Human being? How could they give up on him that easily?
“That’s enough.”
The short sentence calmed the building quarrel at once, and the Fearless Leader of the X-men took this opportunity to free himself from a grip he never thought would so tight, not from someone as fragile looking as his young student. Pride and embarrassment fought behind his ruby colored glasses at his protégée’s efficiency, but he just stepped back cautiously, making sure that he was out of harms reach this time.
Looking over her fellow X-men, her whole body consumed with fury and disappointment, she said the only thing she could think of, not caring for the consequences.
“Fine,” She said coldly, trying her hardest to keep her voice steady and the tears at bay. “You can count me out from this very moment. Don’t you ever try to find me or Logan again. I don’t want to have any kind of business with you anymore.”
With that said, the young woman stormed out of the room, tears blurring her vision, as she made the vow to find Logan all by herself if those she trusted refused to help her, or even at least try to understand her fears. Once in the safety of her bedroom, she reached for the dog tags she kept around her neck by day and by night like a talisman. Clutching them in her gloved fist, she finally crumbled to the floor in a pitiful weeping heap, calling the one and only name that mattered to her now: “Logan…”
End of flashback. Present time.
“You were right once again Dr. Matheson!” Expressed The Voice in devious glee. “The girl made quite a number on him, and we can only hope now that you are also right about the rest.”
Voice strained and resigned, the young man replied in what he hoped was cold and scientific detachment: “The subject’s reactions were indeed to be expected, sir. The young girl…uh, female we put with him seems to have awakened a kind of animal possessiveness in him, and we now count on a new bonding before tomorrow, if he is healed before then.”
“Very good, indeed! When do you think you can start with hormone treatments?” Inquired The Voice, buzzing with unveiled excitement.
“The formula is ready, sir, and ready to be administrated.”
“Then why wait?”
“Nature can only go so fast, I’m afraid, sir.” Was the doctor’s elusive reply. I need more time, he thought…just a little bit more time.
*******************
He woke up to the feel of smooth fingers running through his hair, and something that felt… warm. He cracked open one eye, then the other, his vision being slowly filled with the vision of his cellmate’s face. He was still lying on the concrete floor of their prison, but somehow the young woman had managed to prop his heavy head to rest in her lap. He felt so tired, every single muscle in his body screaming with pain, and he wondered why. Suddenly feeling the dampness of the floor beneath his body, and seeing the anxious expression on his unfortunate companion’s face, he started to gradually remember the morning’s events. Boots, the screeching sound of metal wheels and pain, pain like he had never known before. His passive demeanor changed in a heartbeat, as he suddenly rose to his feet, eying his surroundings with a terror stricken gaze.
“It’s okay Logan, they’re gone…” Came the muffled whisper aimed at his troubled heart and reaching right to his core.
Lifting a timid hand to him, Rogue pleaded her weary protector to come back and get some more rest. Awkwardly taking her hand in his huge one, he lifted her to her feet and guided her to the bunk a few feet away from the sea of blood they still stood in. He then looked at her like for the first time, taking in her state; the brownish smudges on her cloths and on her face making his heart race with dread. Eyes widening in horror, he took hold of her frail shoulders and started to turn her each and every way in search of any injury. She let him do until he was satisfied and finally smoothed his hands over her face over and over again in what she thought was a reassuring way for him.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Your reviews are like air to me!
Shorter Chapter in a way... But we gradually get to know how Rogue ended up in this Hell, and at the same time, we get to see hope burgeoning amongst the darkest folds of destiny's cloak.
Enjoy!!!
Shorter Chapter in a way... But we gradually get to know how Rogue ended up in this Hell, and at the same time, we get to see hope burgeoning amongst the darkest folds of destiny's cloak.
Enjoy!!!