Author's Chapter Notes:
Forgot to warn you, Beast fans: yes, I have previously classified him as a Feral (pretty sure). However, we'll give him a moment or two in the limelight before the ROGAN is back on.
Rogue was day dreaming in class again, not that anyone was really surprised. Logan had left only a few weeks ago, of course.

Even through her daze, Rogue could tell something was wrong. There was a shift in the air. Her dreams were no longer of labs and champagne and agony, but of darkness and blood followed by light. Confusing, to be sure. With a sigh, she returned to Storm’s lecture, stiffening when she heard a noise in the hall.

Storm didn’t hear it (but then, Logan had insisted on the barest of drains regularly to keep her senses sharp) so when Logan burst through the door with Scott on his heels, she jumped while Rogue focused on Logan.

“We got a problem, kid.” The snarl was intimidating, but Rogue was already packing. Scott shot back angrily

“That doesn’t mean-” Rogue rolled her eyes and met Logan’s gaze

“When are we going? How long will we be gone?” He relaxed a little, crossing his arms and grunting

“Few weeks at least.” When Storm and Scott tried to protest, he whirled to snarl at them

“When Victor fucking Creed interrupts a fight to get down on his knees and beg for your help, then you can tell me what to do! I’m not risking the kid because I didn’t keep an eye on her.” Rogue slapped his ass for that, walking out the door as she retorted

“Between you, Magneto and the Ween Squad, I’ve got almost three hundred years of life lived under my belt, Logan.”

Chuckling, he stalked out after her, chortling when he looked back to see Storm and the girls staring after her in awe while Scott looked distinctly uncomfortable.

CHLSTDoW

Within the hour, Charles had gathered Logan, Rogue and his staff in his office. They were waiting for Logan to speak, but that was proving hard to get started since he was leaning against the wall talking to Rogue in soft, near subvocal whispers.

When Charles cleared his throat for the third time, Logan straightened and pulled a file from the pack against the wall. Opening it, he spoke slowly, giving them the information with uncharacteristic caution.

“According to what I found when I went to another telepath I found, one who knew me before, I’ve been alive since 1835. That same telepath unlocked my memories and helped me regain equilibrium in time to reunite with an old squadron of mine. That squadron corroborated what Sabertooth told me when I pressed him about his plea.” Trading wary glances with Rogue, he continued

“The Sabertooth we’ve seen, I was at one point convinced he was my brother, because it was better than believing he was a carbon copy clone of my father. Fact is, he IS a clone, and my ‘father’ hasn’t been seen since I went into the Weapon X program. Some believe he’s dead, but my contact just believes he’s on another continent and either confined or contented to stay there. The clone, Victor, has been working with Sabertooth for a long time. He found out recently about the cloning, which should have been impossible when it was done, but medical mutants existed even before the turn of the century.”

Logan paused, standing in the middle of the room while they all stared at him. Until Rogue came forward, sliding beneath his open jacket to wrap her arms around his waist. Closing his eyes, Logan dropped the file and held Rogue as close as he could, bracing a hand on the back of her head.

Heaving a sigh, he finished
“Victor says there’s more than a few mutants in trouble with Magneto, because he’s gone mad. He started murdering the recruits who’ve displeased him. He came to me because according to Feral Law, as the eldest sane Feral on the continent, some might say the planet, I can call a tribunal of Ferals and bring down judgement on Victor, the other Ferals willing to face judgement and anyone else they may claim as theirs. He’s got at least two cubs that he says were either led or forced astray, one is that Allerdyce shit, but Victor says he’ll stand for them.”
His vice is grim, and the adults jump when Rogue stares up at him in horror and asks in a whisper

“Victor will stand in front of the entire Nation, for John? But, that means-” Logan nods, finishing her sentence uneasily

“Victor will die if the tribunal sentences him to it, and Allerdyce will be beaten, but should survive, unless he protests his status. Then he dies alongside Victor.”

Xavier listened to this, nodding himself when Scott protested the barbaric rules. He froze when Rogue snarled

“I just absorbed Logan’s memories, Scooter. Again. The Ferals govern themselves because they are ruled by the animal heart and the human mind as one. It is so easy for them to go mad, to lose themselves to grief and pain, because they live so much longer! They are in one moment more savagely human than you are in one lifetime. Each of them, including Mystique!”
Charles froze. Tentatively, he asks

“How is Mystique a Feral?” Shaking her head, Rogue glances at Logan, who heaves a sigh and says wearily
“Ferals are more common than you think, Chuck. Mystique is a chameleon Feral, Victor is a literal sabretooth feral, my sister-niece is also a tiger, the Cameron family from California has ruled the area as the resident shark Ferals since 1908, the Beaucherie family from Louisiana are alligators. The Darkholme from Germany is rumoured to be a bat Feral. There’s more, but all you need to know is we’re televising the whole tribunal. The X-men and the students of Xaviers’ are invited to attend, but deliberations are closed and any death penalty is administered the next dawn. If you remain in the area, only the very youngest escape watching the execution.”

Suddenly, Logan just looks so tired, so worn down, that when Rogue pulls him away with a murmured

“Come. You need to rest.” No one protests. She calls over her shoulder

“The tribunal will stand at Howlett House, in Alberta Canada in three weeks. I’ll give a lecture on Feral law before we leave.”

Then she’s gone, hauling Logan like he’s her lifeline. Xavier is left to wonder at their relationship, at this ‘Darkholme’ and if, just maybe there is something he can do for Raven, if Feral law is so different from human.
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