Rogue does not want to leave her place beside Logan, but she must. She has a lecture to give, group leaders to call, food to prepare. Because she doubts Logan will want to drive to the house and sit through the tribunal sweaty.
She works on the list she’s entering into her battered notebook, eating absently, until it is time to get to the lecture hall. She stands in front of the X-men, having ordered Logan to remain in his bed, twisting his tag with her fingers. Pulling in a deep breath, she takes a sip of water before looking at the turn out. Once they’d heard that John was maybe on trial, many of the senior students turned out to listen.
Catching the eye of Kitty Pryde, aware that the other girl need specific information desperately, Rogue began
“Feral society is different from any other. Although they individually have characteristics of their animal, the behaviour exhibited most closely mirrors that of primates. Common themes in the hierarchy, universal to nearly every Feral, are mating and children. There are certain rules in play there, but I’ll get to that in a minute. You all are very lucky to have studied under or lived with the Prime Feral, because as the eldest sane Feral on the continent, possibly the planet, Logan’s name alone can offer you protection from most other sane Ferals. I say sane because they walk the line between human and animal every moment of their lives. Waking or sleeping, they are Feral. However, they will also accept even normal humans into the hierarchy, so long as another Feral claims them. The tribunal will deal with the powerful players last, asking if the less powerful or younger Ferals have mates to answer the Challenge. In this, a Feral may choose to take the punishment for their mate or offspring, or the mate or child of the accused may fight in a Challenge against equal opponents. As the mate of the Prime-” Rogue waited for the outburst to die down, sipping more water before talking over the crowd
“I cannot stand with the accused in a challenge, as I must assist the Prime with judgement. However, if St. John Allerdyce resists Sabertooth’s claim as his pride alpha, only Allerdyce’s mate may stand with him in the challenge. If he has a mate to stand with him, willing to do so, it is unlikely Allerdyce will face a Challenge.” Locking eyes with Kitty, she nodded, before focusing on Victor and Mystique
“Victor Creed alone will face a full Judgement. Were Mystique mated, she would face the same circumstances as Allerdyce. As it stands, that is how it should play out, so I will educate you on the Feral families before returning to my mate.”
Cracking her knuckles, Rogue stalled for a minute before beginning again
“Of the Ferals of North America, the Prime is Logan, always referred to as simply ‘Prime’ when acting in that capacity. The Russof family of Translyvania is the Prime family over there, and in 1920, Victoria Grace Creed, daughter of Victor Creed, mated Jacob Russof, joining the families. Their son Jackson is the heir to Primacy of both North America and Transylvania until Logan has a child of his own. The Beaucherie family is alligator Ferals, headed by the Madame Beaucherie, Sylvia, usually referred to as Gnash. The Cameron family of California are shark ferals whose head is always either Aurelius or Aurelia. The Reyes clan of Mexico are leopard ferals whose alpha is Pard. The only other Feral with the standing to attend the tribunal is Nightcrawler, Prime of Germany.” With a sigh, she slunk away, hoping things wouldn’t get too bloody.
However, she knew she had a confrontation to get out of the way. So she ensured she came face to face with Hank McCoy sooner rather than later, staring him down as boldly as she could. Before he could talk, she snapped
“Yes, you’re a Feral, but until you stop denying your mate her wish because you see yourself as a human in an animal’s body, you hold no standing. She’d love you for the rest of your life, if only you’d look with your heart instead of your mind!”
Her piece said, Rogue stomped off, barely reining in her temper. Her mate needed her, but he also had duties that were hers to carry out in his exhaustion. Even after grabbing food from the kitchen, it wasn’t too late, though. He was still sleeping like a baby.
Putting the food on Logans’ desk, Marie stripped off her clothes, easing in beside him to lay herself on his chest, relaxing when he rolled them so she lay beneath him, aware he needed this, needed her. They had a long ride ahead of them, but if they could turn it to their advantage, they could seal Logans’ Primacy while strengthening their bond.
Though she wasn’t sure when she drifted off, Marie woke up when she felt Logan stroking her side. He was studying her lazily, dipping his head to murmur to her
“I love you kid. I can’t imagine leaving you behind.” Marie tensed, relaxing when he telepathed information to her that was both interesting and obvious. With a sigh, she nodded and promised him “I’ll do what I can, but even a Prima can only do so much, my Prime.”
He sighed then, pressing her closer, whispering
“Thank you.” Before beginning his mately duties. The pleasurable ones.
CHLSTDoW
It had only been a few days since Logan had returned for her, but Rogue was very happy. After the pleasure of fucking her mate, they had made arrangements to travel and prepare the house for the tribunal.
She did have to figure out how to handle her first real task as Prima, and was quite satisfied when the opportunity to begin was presented to her. In the form of Mystique approaching her while she watched Logan fight in a mutant bar.
The blue skinned woman sat across from her, studying her intensely. Marie met her gaze, startled when she saw the emotion in the older woman’s eyes. Swallowing the urge to snarl at the blue mutant, Marie nodded and spoke softly
“You’re Charles’ Raven.” Shock lit her eyes, but the Prima wasn’t chosen based on her looks, a Prima became Prima because she was strong. Rogue pressed on
“He’s your mate, isn’t he?” Mystique nodded, speaking with hesitant softness
“We fought, long ago. We tried to reconcile nearly twenty years ago, but I didn’t want the same things he did. I left, and-” The pieces begin to click together, and Mystique flinched when Marie asked
“Xavier is my father, isn’t he?” Calmly, Marie explained
“Logan found out that Nightcrawler is yours, and that you had another child a few years after him. Victoria trained me to control my mutation, and in doing so found I had more natural telepathic abilities than most. It was strong enough to consider that I was related to Xavier.”
Expression tight with pain, Mystique nodded, and elaborated
“I’ve never kept more than cursory tabs on my children. Nightcrawler- your brother Kurt- was a necessity to get his fathers help. Azazel told me I shouldn’t remain in touch with him because I’d poison him. My baby. But I thought he was right. You see, my eldest, Grayden, was born after Sabertooth and I encountered an aphrodisiac plant. He was a human who ended up hating humans, and he died young.” Tears, though probably faked, were glimmering in old, golden cat eyes. She swallowed and said
“I wanted to keep you, but after my sons, after I fought with Charles, I couldn’t be anything like a good parent. Believe what you like, baby girl, but I just wanted a world where you and your brothers could have walked in the sunlight, together, as siblings should.
As I did once, with Charles, but if I could have made a world where I could have raised Graydon and Kurt and you together, without hiding any part of yourselves, I’d have died happily. Even without Charles.”
Pinching her nose, Rogue thought for a minute. Her mother had been required to make awful choices, and from what she could glean telepathically, she’d been absolutely truthful. Her mother had wanted her, had wanted to raise her with her brothers. Brothers. She only had one now, but still…
“Does Kurt know about me?” Mystique nodded and replied
“When he realized I was his mother, about ten years ago, he started tracking me randomly for conversations. At first we were just getting to know each other, and then I told him about Graydon, about you. He worked to become the Prime so that you and I would have someplace to run, but he decided to keep an eye on you remotely so as not to interrupt your education after we found out that you’d mated the Wolverine.”
Rogue whimpered at that. Her family, her real family, they cared. Cared enough to offer safety, to leave her to her own choices. She shuddered gratefully when Logan scooped her up.
“What about Liberty?”
Shame coloured Mystique’s expression.
“I won’t forgive myself for that, so don’t think I’ll ask for it. Kurt never asked his sources for a photograph because we wanted to protect your identity, my child. I didn’t know it was you until Kurt cornered me a week later and berated me. I honestly did not know that the child, the person I’d so desperately wanted to keep safe was the one my master killed.”
She forced herself to meet Logans’ gaze.
“I know you can never forgive my errors, and that you’ll never care what I think, but I thank fate every day that at least one of my children mated someone strong enough to love them and live with them. I’ll sit in front of the tribunal, but I want you to promise me that no matter the death the tribunal chooses for me, I do not have to watch children suffer. Please, Logan, make the others understand why Kurt and Marie must recuse themselves.”
Marie stiffened.
“Why-” Mystique interrupted urgently
“I’ve earned the price for my penance, but that doesn’t mean I want you to suffer for it.”
With a nod, Logan slipped himself and his mate away, knowing he needed to make sure that his mates’ mother survived so they could come to a truce, and that he was in for a night of tears.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hi babies. So. Some OOC probably coming up. Some more surprises (KIOTR is still in store) and hopefully some satisfying fic. Again, the more feed back/prompts/reminders/trivia you give me, the better/more I write. And NO I'm not an attention whore, I want to actually satisfy my readership.