The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
“Rogue.”
She heard Logan’s voice calling her, but didn’t stop her determined walk towards the building. He caught up with her easily, falling in step next to her. She felt like her whole body was on fire, the anger thrumming thru her like an electric current and all she could see was the three girls, huddling in the corner, grasping to each other, wide eyes and full of fear and then screams, bullets flying, hitting flesh. Her hands balled into fists. They couldn’t have been much older than ten years old, their whole lives ahead of them. The tears were flowing freely down her face now, but she didn’t even notice them, any sadness had given way to the rage long ago. Rage at what had happened to the girls, at what had happened to her, to all of them.
She felt a hand starting to draw near her. She stopped suddenly and turned away, snarling at Logan, “Don’t touch me!”, then taking a deep breath, resumed walking, adding, “It’s..not safe,” hoping he understood her meaning. He looked at her skin and then nodded.
“So, what are we doing here kid?” he asked, pausing as they came up to the door leading into the building. At least he knew better than to try and stop her. What was she doing? She was running on pure adrenaline, pure fury, wherever it took her. She was out of control. When she didn’t answer he just nodded as if that was answer enough. “Right, we’ll start in the lower levels, work our way up,” a large blast to the far side of the building causing him to pause, “Once the Brotherhood rewire the jet to get that broken turbine working, they’ll have the power to get the altitude they need, they’ll drop that bomb without hesitation. Toad ain’t the smartest mutant in the world, that’ll give us a bit of extra time, but not much.”
“Well then, let’s not waste time here chatting,” she said, pushing the door open, a thought coming to her, she turned and looked at the Wolverine. “You trust me?” she asked.
His eyebrow went up as if he was debating his answer, “Yes.” That was all she needed to hear, reaching down into the depths of her mind she found the ability she was looking for. Looked like her time in the lab was going to be useful after all. She grabbed Logan by the arms, “Then hold on tight sugar.” She winked at him before lifting them off the ground. Navigating the tight corridors and stairwells she had them downstairs in no time, only bumping them into things a few times. Overall a successful first flight, she thought to herself. She set Logan down and watched as he proceeded to throw up.
Once the heaving stopped he glared at her, pointing a finger in her face, “NEVER fucking do that again!” he growled.
“Less yelling, more moving,” she said, hiding a smile at the thought that the big, bad Wolverine suffered from motion sickness. Making her way down the hallway, they checked every door they passed. By the time they had finished searching the floor five minutes had passed, ten guards were now on the deceased list, and they both felt sick to their stomachs. Two mutants, out of what had to been at least one hundred. That’s how many survived.
Apparently the three girls were just the beginning of an order to exterminate all mutants in the facility. Defcon 1 orders. Rogue had taken the memories of one of the guards. Logan hadn’t been happy about it, but when she let him know that the Wolverine in her head was being very helpful in keeping the guy in his place, he seemed to calm a bit. In truth, at first she hadn’t meant to, but after going through so many cells and finding nothing but death, she had been so berserk she had grabbed the first guard that stumbled upon their path and drained him dry without even thinking.
After the incident, Logan had grabbed the military grade gloves off the corpse and given them to her. She had to admit, she was touched by the gesture. It seemed unusually thoughtful for the man when she compared it to the memories of him she had in her head. Granted, he had seen firsthand how bad the voices could affect her and the last thing they needed was her going off the deep end right now. There was no way she was going to be able to control her skin with her emotions in so much turmoil right now. Perhaps he was just being practical.
By the time they finished covering all the lower levels, they had gathered a group of about twenty mutants and were covered head to toe in blood and gore. It was worse than either of them could have imagined and they had been through some pretty unimaginable things. Many of the corpses they passed had been so far into starvation, that the bullet to the head must have been blessed relief. There was a whole level dedicated to children. That had been the hardest and she didn’t want to think about what they had done to the few guards they found there. She still had bits of their flesh stuck in her hair. It was less then what they deserved. Afterwards, both she and Logan were left hanging on by a thread. The desire to kill, to destroy, to tear every single speck of the lab to the ground, making her muscles clench painfully tight.
So, at first, when she heard the loud sound of a jet turbine coming to life, she felt an ecstatic glee course through her body. Finally, the lab would be nothing but dust! Then, she caught the look on Logan’s face. They were in the middle of the compound, the closest door to the outside miles away. If she flew them, MAYBE she could get the two of them out before the blast hit, but then the rest. She looked around at the ragged group of mutants they had collected. All huddled together, the women instantly gathering the few children to them, mothering instincts unable to be destroyed by the worst the lab could do. A few of the younger men had taken to surrounding the group, eyes alert for danger. She couldn’t just leave them!
She looked deep within herself for something, anything and then found a glimmer of hope, but it was making the Logan in her head nervous. He was growling in disapproval.
You’ve never done anything like this before, you’re still learning to use your powers, you can’t just grab them out of the bag and mess around with them. You don’t know what that might do to you.
What other choice do I have?
He didn’t respond, but it didn’t matter. They were out of time and she was already summoning the power to her, her hands started glowing.
“Logan, get everyone together, as close as you can, to me, NOW!” she yelled, building up the power, pulling it out from the deep recesses of her mind in long tendrils.
“Rogue?” The word filled with concern as he watched the glow around her hands intensify, but seeing the determined look on her face, just shook his head. “You heard her!!” he bellowed, his voice echoing across the now silent corridors, “Everyone gather in, as close as you can!”
Using all her concentration she started to push the glow out, making a telekinetic shield surround the group. It was the power of the young girl who liked to ride horses. If the lab had only known what was really inside of her, waiting to come out. All it had taken was a small push in her mind to mature the power within herself. At first she hadn’t been sure she could do it.
She heard the group gasp as the shield stretched out farther, becoming visible to the naked eye as it intensified. Pouring all of her own energy into the shield to strengthen it, she tried to focus, ignoring the sudden silence that seemed to stretch throughout the whole facility, the soft buzz of an object flying thru the air at amazing speed, the feel of Logan's arms wrapped tight around her, covering her body with his own while she knelt on the ground and just held on. Hoping, praying it would be enough as the buzzing got closer.
"Logan," she gritted through clenched teeth, hoping he could hear her, wanting to say so much, in case this didn't work, in case this was the last time, but there was no time left so she had to settle for the most important, "My name's Marie," and then the whole world exploded in smoke, fire and ash.