Marie

The ride from my small hideaway to New York only took a few minutes.

Well, no. It took a lot longer than that, but it only seemed like a few minutes with the way my head was goin’. I sat there in the overly plush chair with my eyes shut, feeling exhausted. So much had happened in the past few hours that I ... I didn’t quite know what to process first.

Did I worry about Stryker? About Logan? About whyever Erik and Charles had gone incommunicado? How about the fact that I was returning like a ticking time bomb; not knowing when my mutation was going to return. Oh. And there was Remy, and Raven...

I knew Raven’s history with Erik and Charles.  There was no way... no fucking way that they hadn’t known who she was. Why had they kept me in the dark? I admit to feeling a little betrayed. Them sharin’ a mind with me was... well, I had stupidly thought that they wouldn’t be able to lie to me. Knowing that they could- and they did- even by a lie of omission, well. It hurt.

I knew I was bein’ a coward about this, but I couldn’t face looking at Jubes right now. Not that I was embarrassed about what me and Logan had just done. God, no. How could I be? He’d been so...

I blushed, looking at him out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting in profile, looking out of the window, hand clenched in a fist at his side. He hadn’t had much to say, either.  That was another worry.  Not that Logan wasn’t talking, because I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t speak unless answering a question he found worthy or making a smartass remark, but the set of his shoulders made me think that something else was going on in his head- something that was really bugging him.

“Prepare for landing.” Ororo’s voice was clipped as it came through the head piece, and the suddenness of it made me jump.

Jubes caught my gaze and tried a half smile. It made me wonder what she was thinking, what they’d all been thinking. God, this debrief was gonna be a nightmare.

Erik? Charles? I tried.  Logan?

Nothing.

It was almost ... jarring in a way. Weird, like part of myself was missing.  Considering how much of a pain in the ass they were, it was kind of ironic. Now, I found myself talking and having no one answer. It was..... weird. To be alone in my own head. Kind of scary, to be honest.  I guess I didn’t realize how much I’d counted on the boys, or at least Erik, for advice.

The x-jet landed, and for a moment I caught a glimpse of the mansion. It made my throat tight. I was surprised at the jolt of homesickness I felt at being on the grounds again. When I left, I had done so in such a panic that I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d ever be back,but this place as as much of a home as I’d ever had; where people knew me,and accepted me.  It made the fuzzy memories of my own childhood house all but disappear.

The underbelly of the Mansion still gave me the creeps. The cold, metallic decor made for easy cleanup, but it was far from welcoming. We were a glum group as we made our way to the conference room. There was no small talk or teasing- just the uneasy feeling of an impending clusterfuck of such epic proportions that all we could do to protect ourselves is hold up an umbrella against the shitstorm.

Ororo didn’t even bother with giving us water as we all sat around the table, me, then Logan, then Hank, then Ororo at the head, with a woman I didn’t recognize,  and a man I didn’t recognize at the other end. Kitty, Jubes, Kurt and Bobby sat huddled together at the other end, looking miserably out of place.  I knew how they felt.  I felt like a kid who had just graduated from the kiddie table to the adult table.

“First of all, I want to make clear that this is not in any way a disciplinary hearing. No one here is in trouble, or anything of the sort. It is, however, going to cover some things that ... well, quite frankly, things that are going to hurt to hear, so if anyone wants to recuse yourself, now would be the time to do so.”

I looked over at everyone from under my hair.  No one peeped.

I took a deep breath, and everyone’s eyes snapped to me as though I’d banged a gong.

“I took the cure,” I blurted. It wasn’t perhaps the best start, but once I started, the words were easier. “I’m not a member of the X-men anymore.”

The conference table erupted into an immediate cacophony of sound.  It hit me like a wave, and just like that, I was overwhelmed.  

“She cannot be trusted!” Any Dummkoph Mädchen who would willingly--” Kurt’s tail whipped around furiously.

“We gotta make sure that she’s not hearing anything top secret--”  Bobby sent me a filthy look that honestly shocked me.  I couldn’t imagine why he was furious at me, then I realized and the guilt piled up.  I hadn’t even broken up with him, not officially.  I’d slept around with him- once, well. Technically twice, and had even had Remy---.  I’d be furious too.

Ororo shot me a helpless look then turned to intervene.

Snickt.

Logan stood up, slowly.  Every eye in the room turned to him, and the sudden silence rang like a bell.  He didn’t yell, or growl, or anything like that.  He didn’t need to.  I knew what the muscle ticking in his jaw, under his side burn meant, and evidently everyone else did too.  

“You stupid shits push her out and you’ll never make it through this. She’s more loyal-” he shot a look towards Bobby and Kurt, both of whom immediately looked down at the table, breaking off eye-contact.  “-more important to this team than any of us.” He shrugged, popping in his claws and sitting down again, still perfectly calm.  “She goes- I go.” He shrugged.  “Simple as that.”

My heart gave a funny sort of leap.  Him defending me meant- it meant a lot. It was important, and I knew he could hear my heartbeat accelerate.

“Now, no one is pushing anyone out. That’s ridiculous. Rogue--”

“Marie,” Kurt muttered under his breath.

Ororo turned her head and stared at him with a look on her face perfected by disappointed teachers everywhere. “Rogue has plenty to offer, even with her decision to block her gift. She is a valued member of this team and if anyone has an issue with that you will take it up with me. Directly. Is that understood?” There were a few sullen nods from around the table. Even Hank looked like he wanted to argue, but since he hadn’t spoken up either way, I didn’t know which way he was feeling.  The spots that Scott, Jean, and the Professor always took were glaringly empty.

I waited a few beats, then opened my mouth, continuing.  “But, before I did that, Cured myself, I had...  echoes of mutants I’d touched. In my head.”

I waited for someone to call me crazy, but when no one did, I allowed myself a heartbeat of relief and continued. “Three of them were the strongest, and stood out the most. Erik Lensherr, Logan, and ... the Professor.” Calling him Charles, though he was much more of a “Charles” to me than a “Professor, even with his current radio silence, was bizarre.

“So you hear them as-- “ Hank leaned forward, fascinated despite whatever he had been feeling.

“Not just voices. Personalities.” I scratched my head. “And... they’re all working together. Or had been. I guess there are a few other things going on that necessitated them taking a more direct approach, but I don’t remember much of that.”

Logan nodded.  “There’s more.” He huffed a little breath- not quite a sigh. “Marie’s blackouts were caused by something... some remnant of the Dark Phoenix.”  Hearing Logan call me “Marie” rather than “Rogue” wasn’t the insult it was from any of the others. Lord knew I liked the way he said my name.

Everyone started talking at that, voices babbling over one another in shock. I hadn’t heard Logan refer to Jean that way- or rather, the being that had been manipulating all of us. It brought home to me exactly how much we all stood to lose if we didn’t figure out a plan.

“The Dark Phoenix has been working from within for the longest time.  The Professor told me that when Jean was a kid, he had to block some of her mutation for her own good- that it was too dangerous for her. I mean, he used her to fine-tune Cerebro, and we all knew she was powerful. But what none of us realized is that part of that... being was well.  Controlling a lot of us. Manipulating, at the very least.” I stopped, unsure of exactly how to continue.

Ororo spoke slowly, as though she was still putting it all together. “So, we have this---”

“Wheels calls it the Shadowbeast. Whatever it was, it’s currently only in Marie’s head.”

“We hope.” Hank spoke softly, looking heavily subdued. “It’s easy enough to extrapolate that Rogue’s cure gave this Shadowbeast the power to act.  Did you say that it had taken over for you?”

I shrugged with one shoulder,  looking at Logan.

He nodded. “It takes that time to attack her mind, and when Marie’s ...Marieness... gets pushed aside, Chuck steps up to keep the Shadowbeast from taking her over.

“Perhaps it is looking for a foothold, such as with Jean’s mind.”

That was absolutely not the most comforting thing anyone’s ever told me. Jesus. Which brought to mind this:  Where the fuck were Charles and Erik? And my inner Logan? With them MIA what the heck was I supposed to do if that .. that Shadowbeast came back?

“Is it possible to speak with the Professor?” Hank tilted his head in that way he did when his mind was going at about fifty times the speed of anyone else’s.

Logan shook  his head before I could say anything. “No. Too dangerous.”

Hank nodded. “Agreed. Until we know more about it, that would be foolish.” He turned to me. “Tell me, how far had the Professor’s lessons progressed? He was teaching you to control your mutation, yes?”

“Wait- if you were getting help then why did you want the Cure?”  Bobby looked at me from across the table, his eyes very blue against the tan outline of his face. I felt ages older in that few seconds, like Bobby was just a kid, asking a question whose answer he knew was gonna hurt.

“That’s her business,” Logan did growl this time, and it made something low in my gut tighten. “What’s our business is that Stryker is back.”

Everyone, and boy do I mean everyone, froze for a second at that.  We all knew what that man had done to Logan, and I was pretty sure that’s why so many of them gave him a break; not calling him on his rude behavior when they would call anyone else to task. What they’d done to him was somehow worse- but it caused people to forget about his other mutation. Heck, even I didn’t really think about how old he was- or my brain would hurt. The adamantium was such a part of who the Wolverine was now, that in a very weird way (and no one would ever phrase it quite this way to Logan), the Wolverine was the Wolverine because of Stryker. To have him mention his nemesis so calmly- that was worth everyone’s shock.

Even though I knew Logan had to be acting given his reaction when Remy told him back in my apartment, I still couldn’t shake the feeling it gave me.

“He’s behind the Cure- but I think we knew that.  What you might not have known is that he’s also mixed up in the way it’s distributed.” Logan took a deep breath. “It’s a sterilization agent. These mutants who are desperate enough to be norms... when they take this shit they’re being sterilized. He wins twice: no more mutants, and no mutant babies.”

I could feel every single eye on me and forced myself to keep calm.

“Hm. If the mutation is reversed, it is possible that the sterilization agent doesn’t work as planned.” Hank’s voice was once again the voice of reason. I had to fight not to look at Logan. I was so busy trying to remember the last time I’d had my period that  it took me a second to realize that Ororo was speaking.

“Three days ago, this woman, Irene,” she indicated the dark-haired woman to the right, “told us that Rogue’s life was in danger. Her mutation allows her to see the future, and it appears that they have a connection that made it easier for Ms. Adler to identify what was to happen.”

The woman shifted in her seat, and I saw immediately that she was blind. I had been so wrapped up in everything else that was happening, that I hadn’t paid much attention to the two strangers in the room.  

“May I?”

She looked towards Ororo and when Ororo nodded at the woman’s companion, she smiled, standing when he gently touched her forearm. He led her around the table over towards me. I sat up when she stopped beside me, her hands fluttering slowly in front of my face.  

“May I?” she repeated again.

I nodded, then immediately felt stupid for nodding and said, “Yes.”  

Her fingers were light, like butterfly wings as she looked at my face in the only way she could. The man near her hovered, watching me a little suspiciously. She touched my cheeks, then brushed over my lips, and my neck, my eyebrows, forehead, ears and the shape of my head.

“Raven tells me that you are quite beautiful.”

Raven?

“My name is Irene Adler. I am also known as Destiny, and yes. I am gifted with precognition. I have had several visions of your adventures over the years. So much so that they were quite beloved and looked forward to. They stopped quite suddenly, and were replaced with terrifying visions of your demise, but without knowing what had happened to you in my visions, I had no way of knowing where you were.  When Raven contacted me to tell me that you were in Colorado, I knew what would come to pass.” She stepped away, and I knew that I was gaping at her a little.

Maybe that’s why I was completely surprised when the man grabbed me.  The knife just appeared in his hand and he had his hand wrapped in my hair, and holding me as a hostage in front of his body before I could blink. My eyes met Logan’s and for just a moment I saw the absolute terror in his gaze before the man began walking with me, moving slowly backwards.

“You must forgive me.” I heard a muffled thunk thunk thunk and saw Destiny swing a small crossbow onto her arm. “I am... sorry, for this. You are... broken. You simply cannot be trusted to keep her safe.”

I cried out when instinct sent my head turning to see who she had shot. Kurt, Hank and Storm all stood stock-still, small crossbow bolts quivering where they had been buried in their bodies. Turning my head so suddenly caused both the man to rip out what felt like three handfuls of hair, and the blade of the knife to slice into the tender skin of my throat.  The man raised his other hand, and there was another thunk thunk thunk, and Logan, Bobby and Jubes froze in place, exactly like the other three.

I heard the ping as something dropped and the room rapidly filled with stinging, acrid smoke.

Not even mutants could completely ignore physics. We coughed just like any human would, and my slightly belated attempts to slow the man down by scrambling against the metallic frame of the door were all for nothing.  I felt something explode on the back of my head and thought I heard the roar of Logan screaming my name before blackness overtook all of my senses.

*****

Logan

You ever have an electronic pulse shoot through your body, when half of it was covered by adamantium? No?  Well, it sucked.  Every muscle and bone in my body rang like a fuckin’ bell.  I lost track of time. I could have been frozen there for minutes or for hours.  When the device shut abruptly off, I swung into action. I could smell that that Destiny bitch and her strong and silent partner had taken Marie towards the elevator to the main floor, and it was easy enough to enter my code into a small panel near the conference room.  

I heard Bobby and the girls coming to, and Ororo’s shocked voice, but didn’t have time to waste.

A few months ago, before everything went to shit, Cyclops and I had pointed out to the Professor that having a top-secret underground lair was all well and good, but when you had to wait on an elevator to get in or get out of said underground lair, you were putting people at risk. It had been probably the only thing that the two of us had agreed on in any sort of recent history.

I staggered against the wall as my body twitched from a leftover magnetic pulse, and with a muttered curse, I pulled the little crossbow bolt out of my shoulder and flung it to the ground.  There was a hiss of a door being unlocked, and I launched myself through the doorway so quickly that sparks flew from where my claws scraped against the metal doorway. I pounded up the stairs and burst through the dining room moving as fast as I’d moved in awhile.  The dining room doors swung wide, and I scented the sharp tang of Marie’s blood.  It caused me to stop suddenly, and I turned in a full circle, sniffing the air.  

She wasn’t bleeding much, but I knew that she wasn’t here.  I followed the tiny drips of the blood trail out of the door and down to the “public” parking lot. Whatever vehicle they took was long gone.

It had all been too clever, too well-planned.  Destiny had completely fucking played us. I didn’t even know if Marie was really her daughter or not. That could had been a lie, too.  Whatever it was, she had Marie, and we did not.  I didn’t realize that I had cut through two of the rosebushes on either side of the driveway until they both fell at my feet.

I closed my eyes, feeling the shame of failure drift over me like a cloak.  I realized that while I had sprinted through the mansion like a madman, Hank and Ororo had probably started rallying the troops. Hank would have had the entire mansion under surveillance, and maybe one of those tapes would give me an idea of what to do- where to go to find her.

The kids gave me wide berth when I finally made my way back into the mansion, down the stairs and into Hank’s labs.  I saw that Jubilee was sitting on one of the cots, sniffing. Her wound was bandaged, but her whole body language was hunched in on itself.  I knew exactly how she felt.

“Anything?”

“Marie’s bleeding.”

Hank nodded, as though he had expected this, and gestured with a needle and some sutures towards the monitors. Not needing to be doctored up, I turned and walked that way. I saw Marie being held by knifepoint on the elevator, struggling as much as she could with her long hair wrapped securely around the guy’s fist. The lift wasn’t all that long, but I heard her low, “You’re gonna regret this when he finds you.” and it made what was left of that shrivelled, useless thing called my heart beat feebly.

“Your Wolverine? Yes. I quite imagine so.” Destiny shrugged with one shoulder as the elevator doors opened with a cheerful ding. “No matter. we shall meet soon enough.”

Goddamn right we would.

I saw Marie touching everything she could, leaving me a trail to follow, saw students gaping at her, and one little dude whose powers allowed him turn into stone, launch himself at the guy who was holding Marie’s feet, hanging onto the man’s ankle like a burr.  The man simply kicked him off, and the kid landed against the wall with a cry. Maybe eight years old, he was being seen to by a sorry-looking Beast. Watching the huge, blue mutant try to tone it down so he wouldn’t scare the kid would normally be better than Monday Night Football, but today it just made me tired.

Storm made a satisfied sound in the back of her throat, and handed me a printout.  The man’s name was Gregor and he looked to have travelled as Destiny’s companion for quite some time.  The information on Destiny also explained how a blind woman could shoot with such deadly accuracy; simply put- she predicted the future so well that she could see what was going to happen in her mind, and appeared to just have her body follow through.

“Do you think the story about Marie being shot was a lie?”

Storm gave a graceful shrug and excused herself. “Take Jubilation with you. Find Marie, bring her back. We will continue planning our offensive against Stryker, and-” she huffed out a frustrated breath- “try to put something in place for the remnants of the Dark Phoenix.”

“You’re gonna have a bunch of fucked up mutants with suddenly returned powers needing help.” Storm nodded and gave me what was probably her version of a manly slap on the shoulder before going off.

“Come on, kid.”

Jubilee gave a sad sniff and wiped her face. She nodded and jumped off of the table, wiggling her shoulder a few times to test the stitches.  Her phone chirped, and she looked down at it almost automatically, shaking her head.  “It’s starting,” she whispered.  “Protests and... wow. Everyone, even the norms are suddenly our best friends. That can’t be what he wanted.”

I raised an eyebrow and we turned to walk to the garages. I knew that Hank’s vehicles would go more quickly than anything either Gregor or Destiny could come up with, and we had the vehicle’s info, so we could track it with a nifty little thing Hank had created for us to use with traffic cameras. I wasn’t too worried.  

“Oh. That asshole, Stryker. He’s gone off his nut.”  

I found that hilarious for some reason, and knew I didn’t quite manage to hold in my amusement.  

“He’s got this group, called the Purifiers and they’re... well... did you ever see the Blues Brothers?”

“Not exactly one for movies, kid.”

“Oh come on, you had to have seen this part. ’Illinois Nazis? I hate Illinois Nazis’?” She looked up at me with an expectant look on her face. “Nothing? Well damn, hot stuff. First time we get a chance, you’re watching that movie. But there’s a part that reminds me of the norms on TV and the Purifiers.  I’ve never seen such support for us before.”

We ducked through the low door to the X garage, and I quickly scanned our choices.  I knew they were all heavily-modified, and safe.  My bike wouldn’t work, not with the three of us, and the only thing left was a mommy-wagon, a schoolbus, and some tiny thing that looked like a roller skate. They must have taken most of the fleet for driver’s ed.

Shit. Mommy-wagon it was. I heard a snort and flicked Jubilee on the back of the ear. “Keep it up and your ass is stayin’ here”

She raised both hands and smiled before sliding in.  Long experience had her buckling up. “You seem-- okay. Weirdly okay. I thought you’d lose your shit again.”

I grunted and wished heavily for a cigar. “Well, that Destiny chick didn’t seem like she wanted to hurt Marie. She looked pissed when she saw, or preconceived or whatever that he’d cut Marie with that knife.” Now him I wasn’t too fond of.  I put the car in gear and we peeled out of the garage, hitting the gates and driving through.

Jubilee nodded. “Yeah. Mostly she seemed worried that we wouldn’t protect her well enough. I don’t understand why she’s so worried about Marie though. Do they know each other?”

I shrugged, realizing that the answer to that question was well above her pay grade. Shit. Sometimes I thought it was still above mine. I knew that I wasn’t going forward until I had Marie back though.

Not after everything.

We drove on the coordinates Beast had given us, making sure to follow the instructions on the GPS installed in the vehicle. We were only five miles or so behind it, and gaining.  This vehicle didn’t have the turbo that my bike did, but it went quite a bit above the posted speed limit.

I tried not to think too much about the shitstorm waiting for us back at the mansion. My focus was on Marie, and that little blue dot of the GPS.

I wish I could say that I had anticipated what happened, but no. I was just as shocked to see that it had stopped as Jubilee was.

“Oh shit, hot stuff, go! Go go!”

I didn’t need her to tell me.  I pushed the little vehicle to its limit, making it there in just a few minutes after we noticed that it had stopped. I jerked the wheel, and was jumping out before the car had fully stopped.

The sedan was crashed on the side of the road, and there was a body  at the front of it.  Destiny. I could tell that Marie was gone before I fell to my feet beside her.

“You... you must.....”

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, pressing helplessly at the wound in her chest. She was bleeding out, and there was nothing we could do to help her.  

“Marie. My... daughter. Gregor betrayed...you must help her, Wolv--.” She broke off, coughing weakly.  I could see the whiteness of her eyes flicker to the weird shade that they’d done when she’ predicted Marie’s death at the train station.

“Oh no...” Jubilee whispered, falling to Destiny’s other side. “Logan?” Her eyes were wet when she met mine.  

“Stryker’s... a building. War. Years of war on shelves, like dreams. Marie is there. She’s bleeding, crying. You can save her, but... but...” She gasped, and it sounded like she was choking on blood. “Tell Raven I...  I love...---”

She didn’t finish.  Destiny gave a huge, gasping breath and died on the filthy pavement in front of me and Jubilee.

“Oh god, Wolvie. What do we do?”

I lifted Destiny’s corpse and set her onto the back seat. I didn’t need to test for breath, or listen at her chest.  There was nothing to listen to. She was dead, murdered by the asshole that took Marie. I sure as shit wasn’t her biggest fan, but she’d used her last dying breath to make sure I could find Marie, and that was worth everything to me. I wasn’t going to leave her for the cops to find and deal with.  Storm would know what to do for her.

I heard the blades of the helicopter before I saw it, and knew we were much too far away to do anything as it landed briefly. It was easy enough to imagine who it was landing for- the timing couldn’t be anything else. I popped my claws as I watched it fly away, towards wherever the fuck Stryker’s hideout was these days.

With Marie.

The familiar rage flowed through me, clearing my head.  Nothing was right. Rescuing her from Colorado had just made it more obvious for Stryker that she was back at the mansion. Destiny’s heart might have been in the right place, but her machinations had in effect tipped him off.  Whatever was going on in Marie’s head was terrifying, but imagining Stryker using her, using the Shadowbeast like a dog on a leash?

No. I would not let that happen.

Not again.

The helicopter flew into the distance.  I watched it disappear until it was just a tiny speck in the clouds.

TBC!