Xavier smelled the barest hint of sulfur less than a second before Rogue toppled onto his desk.
“Ow,” she mumbled, rubbing her hip as Xavier reared back in shock as far as the confining embrace of his wheelchair allowed. Suddenly realizing where she was, Rogue’s eyes widened briefly before a cool veil of dignity dropped over her face. “Professor.” She nodded to him as she gracefully swung her legs over the edge of his desk to stand beside him.
The professor maneuvered his chair back a few feet and tipped his head to look up at her.
“This is most…unexpected, Rogue,” he said, unwilling to admit even to himself that he found it difficult to mimic her stoicism.
Rogue shrugged.
“You don’t exactly seem surprised that you just teleported several hundred miles,” he tried again.
Another shrug. “I’m not.”
“But you were surprised,” Xavier persisted.
One of Rogue’s eyebrows shot up in eerie imitation of Logan. “Not everyday I end up draped over your desk,” she nearly growled, the tenor of her voice creeping into Logan’s deeper range.
Xavier blinked twice slowly, his mind racing. “Mindscape Rogue, I presume?” he asked quietly.
Logan’s leering smirk looked out of place on Rogue’s soft features. “Charles, Charles,” she mocked in Magneto’s cultured tones, “when will you ever learn?”
Feeling an unexpected surge of anger, Xavier demanded, “Enough, young lady. There is no need for games with me.”
An unrepentant shrug was Rogue’s only reply. Propping a hip against his desk, she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “So. Any ideas on the recent developments, Professor?”
“Too many to count,” Xavier admitted dryly. “The only one that makes sense, however, is that your mutation has been in the process of maturing the last several years and your full potential is just now emerging.” Rogue stared at him, face blank. “But you knew that, of course,” he added, hoping for a reaction.
Another damnable shrug. “Course I knew. Little Marie just didn’t know.”
“And now she does?”
“Yeah. She’s suspected for a good long while, though. Fought me like hell at times without even being aware of it.” Xavier wondered if he was imaging the admiring tone.
“Is she…gone?” the professor forced himself to ask.
For the first time since Rogue realized she was on his desk, he got an honest expression from her. The thunderous scowl she threw at him somehow made him feel like a fool for even asking the question.
“No, she’s not ‘gone’ in the way you mean. She’s here. I’m here.” Another shrug. “Don’t ask me to explain it, Chuck. It’s the ultimate existential question and I doubt I can answer it any better than you could answer if I asked you, ‘What makes you you?’”
“I see. So you’re still Marie, but not?”
“Sure. Why not. Call me Marie 2.0. Fully upgraded and integrated.”
Perplexed, Xavier pursed his lips. “Can you tell me what makes you different from the original Marie? Other than the power boost, of course.”
“I’m still me, Professor,” she said seriously. “Just more so.”
“Give me an example,” he insisted, probing a bit at her mind and encountering only an odd static.
“Cut it out,” Rogue demanded, “that tickles.”
His start of surprise making him choke on an inhalation, Xavier coughed spasmodically a few times. “That’s new,” he commented hoarsely.
“It’s always tickled,” Rogue returned serenely.
Suspecting that she was deliberately missing the point, Xavier allowed his implied question to go unanswered in favor of his first one. “I would still like an example, Rogue.”
“Like what?” came the unfazed response.
Casting about for an appropriate topic, Xavier finally settled on, “How do you feel about Logan?”
“Same as always.”
“And that would be?” Xavier cursed internally as he heard a trace of excitement in his own voice.
Rogue blinked in mild surprise. “Why Xavier, you old snoop. You’ve been wondering about that all this time and were never able to figure it out, were you?”
“Yes, well,” he hedged. “You and Logan were always the most mysterious of the mansion’s inhabitants, you know.”
Rogue laughed throatily. “And you had to listen in on all the students’ gossiping thoughts about us, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t intend to,” he said stiffly. Then he sighed. “It’s just that youngsters’ minds are so loud all the time.”
“I bet,” Rogue said in amusement, giving him a gamine grin and staring at him expectantly.
“Oh, very well,” he said tolerantly when he realized Rogue was stringing him along. “Rogue, what do you feel for Logan?” he asked directly.
Rogue gave him a slight nod. “I love him, of course. Always have and likely always will. Unless he does something completely and uncharacteristically assholistic.”
Xavier sputtered. “What?”
“You know,” Rogue said nonchalantly, “like turn into a condescending, beer-guzzling jerk.”
Xavier’s brows lifted in amusement. “There are plenty of people who would describe him in precisely those terms.”
“Yeah, but he’s not actually like that. It’s all just camouflage.”
“For what?” Xavier probed.
“Stop playing stupid, Chuck. You know as well as I do that Logan’s a big softie.”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.”
“Not consciously, no,” Rogue conceded. “But you never once thought twice about leaving any of the children in Logan’s care, did you?”
“Well, no,” Xavier said with some surprise. “Should I have?”
“Course not,” Rogue said impatiently. “And that just proves my point. Whether it factored into your conscious decision making or not, you always knew that Logan isn’t the type to ever hurt or neglect a child no matter what.”
“I would think everybody can see that, though.”
Rogue shook her head. “No. A lot of them only see the beer-guzzling jackass image. That’s why Jean never gave him a real chance, you know.”
“What?” the professor asked in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Jean was so good at reading people that she thought she had Logan figured out from the get go. Basically, she stopped looking before she got past the exterior.”
“I don’t think that’s entirely accurate, Rogue. Some part of her knew him fully. I don’t think she would have asked of him what she did otherwise.”
Even before he finished, Rogue was shaking her head. “Nope. She asked him to kill her because she thought he was nothing more than a beer-guzzling jerk with no feelings. You’ll notice she wasn’t asking you or Scott to do the deed.”
Xavier frowned. “Hmm,” he considered. “I hadn’t thought of that. I always just assumed it was a combination of Logan’s abilities and Jean’s knowledge of his sense of justice and sacrifice that made him the logical choice for her.”
“Nope. Self-absorbed bitch right to the end,” Rogue returned in an almost cheerful voice.
“Rogue,” Xavier chided with real disapproval.
Sighing, Rogue conceded, “I know, I know. Jean wasn’t all bad. I just didn’t like her much for obvious reasons.”
“Logan?” Xavier questioned.
“Of course Logan,” Rogue scoffed. “Now, can we move on to the real issue here?”
“Which is?” Xavier was forced to ask, feeling as if he had been left behind several minutes ago.
“My upgrade, Chuck.”
“Oh! Oh, yes, of course. Do you foresee any more…improvements?”
“As far as my abilities go, you mean? No, not really,” Rogue replied, shaking her head. “I imagine my control will improve, and I’ll continue to clone whatever powers I encounter. But I don’t think any more ‘Rogue originals’ will emerge.”
“Rogue originals?”
“Yeah. You know - powers and abilities unique to me. Everything from here on out will just be me getting comfortable with what I have.”
“I see,” Xavier said, pressing his fingers into a steeple. “And how quickly do you think you’ll be able to adapt to your new abilities?”
Another gamine grin and a wink was Rogue’s only response before she disappeared, leaving only a bit of blue smoke and the scent of sulfur in her place.
* * *
“Where the hell’d she go, Elf?” Logan growled in Kurt’s face as he tightened his hold on the blue mutant’s collar.
“I don’t know!” Kurt cried, wrapping his three fingered hands around Logan’s. He briefly considered teleporting in an effort to escape, but tight as Logan’s clenched fists were, he’d just end up bringing the man with him.
Todd, just a few feet away, was pale, his mouth gaping open as he looked between the other two men and the place where Rogue had been only moments before.
“Can’t you follow her?”
“No,” Kurt protested, tugging experimentally at Logan’s hands. “It doesn’t vork zat vay.”
“Then how the hell are we supposed to find her?” Logan roared, shaking Kurt for emphasis.
“Um, ‘scuse me,” Todd interrupted timidly.
Logan‘s head whipped around and he glared at Todd. “What? he snarled,
“Would the professor be able to find her?”
Todd was fascinated by the way the tension visibly seeped out of Logan’s muscular body.
“Yeah. Yeah, Chuck could find her,” he said in relief, dropping his hands from Kurt’s collar and absently smoothing the fabric in a gesture Kurt found somewhat disturbing coming from Logan.
“Zen ve vill just call zhe professor, ja?” Kurt said calmly.
“Yeah,” Logan muttered, already rummaging in the pockets of the coat he had been wearing earlier. He pulled the phone out and flipped it open. For several long moments, he just stared at the illuminated display, his fingers not moving to dial.
“Logan?” Todd said.
“What if he can’t find her?” Logan asked, his voice low and husky.
“She certainly can’t be found until somebody looks for her, my friend,” Kurt said gently. “Call zhe professor.”
His jaw clenched tight, Logan closed his eyes briefly before hitting the button that speed dialed the mansion. The first ring hadn’t even finished when the professor picked up.
“Logan, Rogue was just -”
Bamf
Logan didn’t hear the rest of what the professor was saying.
Raising an eyebrow in Logan’s direction, Rogue asked cheekily, “Did ya miss me?”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
My most sincere apologies for the long silence! I did, in fact, move again, and my computer did not survive the trip. Got a new computer and updates here and for Last Chance will continue as fast as I'm able to write them.