Sitting down at the edge of the stream Rogue glanced down at her watery reflection that rippled in the streaming moonlight. Pulling her knees up she rested her chin absently on them as she sighed thoughtfully. It was a still and warm night and she was far enough away that the cooling down ticking of the jet’s engine was a distant hum. Leaning back she pulled off one of her gloves as she proceeded to reach forward and trail her bare hand through the cool water. Her movements caused her reflection to ripple even further and she waited in vain for it to settle once more but her watery reflection continued to stare up at her in pieces. She was as displaced in the water as much as she was inside herself. A Rogue was many things, her mutation guaranteed that.
Leaning back against a tree she moved her gaze outward realizing with sudden disdain she was becoming thoughtful. She needed a moment to prepare for the next round of confrontation between her and the X-Men. Sometimes being stone cold and sarcastic came more easily to her each day but sometimes, when she had a moment to herself she could feel the familiar trickles of those things Mystique hated so much, ‘feelings’.
Because as much as she may harbor certain judgemental feelings towards the X-Men and as easy as it was to pick on them and their holier than now heroic tendencies, she’d been one of them but more importantly a few of them she’d considered to be her friends and maybe even family once. But those times felt like a life time ago, she wasn’t the same young woman who believed in hopeful ideals, who would look to Storm for friendly advice, or who would have sleepovers with Jubilee and Kitty, such things didn’t exist in her world anymore and she told herself everyday she liked it that way. She didn’t need anyone’s advice. She didn’t have time for childish sleepovers. The X-Men may run around in their fancy jet and their leather suits, but they were soft, too soft for the likes of her.
Softness gets people killed. She frowned and looked away from the bright moon. This wasn’t the time to think about those she’d known, perhaps even cared for, that were now lost.
Which is exactly why, it hadn’t been all that hard to smirk at the way Bobby and Kitty followed Storm around like lemmings. That the younger ones were still regulated to having to put the camp up. She was no rookie. The past year had guaranteed that.
She didn’t belong in their world. Their simple black and white world.
She may have felt that way before, a small feeling that maybe she wasn’t perfect enough for Xavier’s kind but then there’d always been Logan. He’d always been there in some form to remind her there was, no, had been someone she could relate to, who knew what it was to be an outsider in the world of outsiders. Looks like he learned to fit in, she thought bitterly.
It wasn’t as hard as she thought to keep her mask on most of all around Logan; in fact it came far more easily to her than she’d thought it would. Gone were the nerves she use to feel in making sure she appeared mature enough in his eyes. No spike of hopeful want building in the pit of her stomach. Maybe they hadn’t really known each other as well as she’d thought. Perhaps that’s why it had been so easy to slip away in the end.
“Are you certain this is what you truly wish to do?” Storm asked calmly, her gaze watchful behind Xavier’s old desk.
Rogue crossed one leg over the other as her eyes briefly drifted up through the window where she could see the three grave stones in the distance. Her bare fingers were absently tapping her thigh lightly.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to make many decisions for myself in my life,” she began softly. “When I finally begin to do it, suddenly people think I’m less of myself then I ever was.”
“I understand what you’re saying Rogue, but I don’t necessarily believe you should hold such views against those here at Xavier’s and...”
“Does it really matter what you believe?”
Storm looked up at her sharply.
Rogue sighed at the look of shock and cast her eyes downward for a moment.
“I only mean to say, Xavier believed in a world of freedom and that means just as much to me to be able to make my own decisions. You may understand why I want to leave but even you, Storm, didn’t understand my need to take the cure.”
Storm frowned and glanced down at her desk. “I don’t think less of you Rogue.”
“Don’t lie,” Rogue interrupted fiercely. “If you’re going to be running this school Storm you’re either going to have to learn how to tell the truth better or become an exceptional liar.”
The other woman watched her carefully, her eyes widening at the tone of her voice. Rogue waited for the consequences of being so up front but Storm sighed lightly before speaking again in a much quieter tone.
“I may not understand Rogue, that is true but it doesn’t mean I care any less about you. Being an X-Men isn’t just about being teammates, I consider you a friend and as your friend I am sorry for my ignorance to your decisions.” She finished with a sad smile.
Rogue let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and relaxed a little more in her seat.
“Thank you,” she whispered back.
Storm nodded and leaned over the desk with more directness. “You will forever be welcome here, Rogue.”
Rogue’s lips twitched in morbid amusement. “I believe that coming from you Storm, I really do but there is a difference between being welcome and belonging. I just don’t belong here anymore.”
Storm sighed in what Rogue could tell was defeat and regret. There were already a few fine lines forming around Storm’s eyes and forehead, the stress of the past three months becoming physical reminders.
“I know you’ve been having some problems with some people here.”
Rogue snorted and glanced back out of the window.
“I know you and Bobby...”
“I broke up with him and believe me I wasn’t heartbroken and neither was he.”
Storm pursed her lips and Rogue could tell she was thinking over her next words carefully.
“Yes, I do believe you never truly loved each other that way but his and Kitty’s,” she paused. “Flirtations must have caused you some pain.”
Rogue reached forward and played with the antique clock on the big oak desk. “If you mean once again I was hurt by those I trusted then I suppose yes, it caused me,” she paused and looked up at Storm with a smirk that she knew made the other woman uncomfortable. “Discomfort, then yes, you may be right.”
Storm nodded again and leaned back in her seat. “Is running away always going to be the answer, Rogue?” she asked with open honesty.
Rogue frowned briefly but nodded slowly to herself before answering. “It ain’t running when you’re only trying to stay a step ahead.”
“A step ahead of what?”
Rogue shrugged but Storm appeared to answer her own question.
“If you only ever let people hurt you but never let them rebuild what you had once, that isn’t a way to live.”
“Fool me once, ‘Ro...” she murmured.
“I’m not saying you should allow people to walk over you, Rogue and you know that. I’m just saying in this case, you have a family here and family isn’t always perfect, it needs work on both parts.”
Rogue leaned back and eyed Storm for a moment. She could tell the other woman felt the truth to her words but it didn’t satisfy anything inside of her.
“I just think I need to find my own way,” she spoke confidently.
“Haven’t you been doing that since you found out you were a mutant?”
“Ah, but I’m not a mutant anymore,” she smirked at the shock on Storm’s face as she realized her mistake. “Maybe I just need a fresh start.”
Leaning over her desk again, Storm glanced at the papers in front of her. “I can see you’ve already made your decision.”
Rogue was quiet, as she found herself surprised by the other woman’s apparent grief over her decision, she hadn’t been expecting it but it didn’t change anything for her.
She was doing this for herself.
“If you sign these papers, a single bedroom apartment in the city will be yours,” Storm spoke with focus as she pushed the papers forward.
Reaching forward Rogue signed them.
“I assume you’ve handled your applications to the university.”
Rogue nodded as she finished signing.
“Thank you, ‘Ro.”
“Yes, well,” Storm muttered as she shuffled the papers together. “The Professor had wanted to make sure you would have a future ahead of you, whatever that may be and since you will not be staying here and taking over as part owner, it only seems appropriate to make sure you are prepared for the outside world.”
Rogue pretended to ignore the slight crack in the other woman’s voice at the Professor’s name. Standing up she made her way towards the door.
“Good bye,” she spoke up over her shoulder.
Storm didn’t reply immediately and she paused to glance back.
“Isn’t a bit cowardly to be slipping out when he isn’t here?”
Rogue’s hand slipped on the door handle.
“Even when he’s here, he isn’t here, ‘Ro you know that.”
Storm’s face fell and for a moment Rogue felt sorry for her as it was apparent she had a large weight on her shoulders.
“He does his best.”
Rogue’s gaze turned dark as she glanced back at the door.
“Yes, well I’m sure he’ll be fine here with you all.” With his own kind she kept to herself.
“He isn’t fine, Rogue and he’ll be less fine when he finds out.”
“That isn’t true, ‘Ro,” she began. “Eventually he’ll be back to busting the heads of the bad guys, you guys gave him the perfect career.”
Storm suddenly looked her straight in the eye. “Are you really so blind to how important you are in making him feel a part of this place?”
“I ain’t a part of this place anymore and he hasn’t spoken to me in some time, so honestly ‘Ro I don’t know how I could be blind to someone I never even see to begin with.”
She turned and finally pulled the door open.
“Good bye Rogue,” Storm whispered as though somehow defeated. “You’ll always have a place here.”
Rogue shut the door quietly and kept moving forward.
Ever since then she’d been moving forward, never looking back.
And Storm had been so very wrong; Logan had done just fine without her, she could see that with her very own eyes tonight. He’d found his place, standing with his fellow X-men in all their leather glory.
If she was still a romantic, if she was still several decades younger in her mind’s eye perhaps she would have raged against the act of fate and how unpredictable it was because really, if she was honest with herself, a long time ago she’d thought her and Logan had been on the same path, that the day he’d let her into her truck and saved her life in more ways than one she’d finally felt that feeling of belonging. A hopeless romantic she was not anymore. Belonging meant wanting and wanting meant pining away like a hopeless teenager who’d seen the edge of the world but still came back and being that girl meant she was weak and she’d learned since her time out in the real world, that being weak, that being afraid was something a girl had to keep close to her heart and away from the eyes of the world if she wanted to survive.
She could hear familiar footsteps approaching behind her but she didn’t move. Acknowledging him meant too many things, things she wasn’t willing to show.
She could survive. She’d done it time and time again. She could survive this. She could survive his confrontation because she was Rogue with the heart of stone. Her skin was no longer the only thing that kept people away. She’d been extensively educated by some of the finest in the powerful sharp weapons of the English language and even a few others.
So here she was waiting to throw her knives, because she wasn’t going to let him open up any old wounds. She wasn’t going to let him walk back into her world, only to leave again. He didn’t get to run the show anymore and he was about to find out how strong she was.
The strongest thing she’d ever done was give up on him and her feelings. She wasn’t going back to being fragile again.
She’d adapted like him, like the Wolverine; throw all the hate and anger at her and she’d do one better than just heal any second later, she was invulnerable, impervious; she didn’t need to fall out of a plane to prove it.
“Rogue,” he called from the shadows behind her, his voice rough.
She smiled to herself. It was already her playing field, he’d known enough to call her Rogue, which meant he was unsure of how to play this out with her.
Standing up, she slowly put her glove back on and glanced over her shoulder at his dark figure.
“Logan,” she responded back, her tone light and calm. Twirling around slowly, she eyed him as he stepped out into the moonlight across from her. “Shouldn’t you be back at camp?”
The glare on his face that was part frown, she could already tell was going to be standard throughout their conversation.
He didn’t respond and she hid the twitching of her lips by glancing back out at the stream.
“Yes, well to be honest I was actually expecting you sooner but I suppose you had X-Men business to attend to first.”
He stepped closer and she felt the smile leave her face as she felt his over-whelming presence behind her. His silence did un-nerve her but she kept her spine relaxed as she waited.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” he growled out.
“I think Mystique already covered the plans,” she let out with an impatient sigh. “I’m sure she’d be willing to take any of your questions.”
“Bullshit, Marie,” he spat. “You and I both know I’m not talking about business, even if I know you’re leaving something out.”
She blinked twice and realized it had been too hopeful to think he wouldn’t notice.
“I want to know what the hell is going on with you,” he spoke up again, his voice harsh as the words grated through his clenched teeth. He was angry.
She turned around to face him again and she was glad for the dimming moonlight as she felt the shadows hide half of her face.
“You’re going to have to be a bit more specific.”
His gaze snapped at her sharply, with even more focus if possible.
“Oh I didn’t realize I needed a list,” he snapped but his tone was surprisingly sarcastic. “How about you taking off and leaving without telling me, without a goodbye!”
He was yelling now, his tone still deep and low but his voice was rising and she noticed he was straining to keep his fists clenched.
“Leaving behind a cold trail, which means you were running! Running away, why?!”
She remained silent, feeling the heat of his words building like a tidal wave as the light in his eyes became almost golden.
“And then never coming back, never even a phone call to know you were alright, or what the hell was going on with you after the cure had worn off, after the government admitting it had been a mistake?!”
“And you know Rogue,” he paused to drag out her name like it fumbled around in his mouth like broken glass. “I definitely would like to know what you’re doing with Mystique, why the hell you were able to survive falling from a plane, and even what you’re keeping back about this job but to be fucking honest with you I’d like to know how I’d gain such a low status in your life that you thought it was okay to just drop me, like you were the only one in this relationship who gets to decide!” he finished with a heaving breath.
There were only a few seconds Rogue had to adapt to the fact that while Logan had said most of the things she’d been expecting, there were a few words and expressions on his face that threw her off and she couldn’t show that, she couldn’t pause and reflect what that meant because that be just slipping into bad habits again.
So instead of widening her eyes and showing a glimpse of shock, she counted to five and licked her lips slowly before stepping forward.
“Well now, I just don’t know where to start,” she retorted and the sarcasm was well evident.
He blinked quickly and in a flash she could see the rising fire in him of hot white anger that was held back barely with open disbelief.
“Rogue, how about we start with the fucking beginning and you leaving with...”
“Really, Logan,” she interrupted with a hard edge to her voice, the calm sarcasm gone. “Let’s not pretend I ran away like some ghost in the night. Give me a little more credit.”
“You can’t call it running away when you’re not around to see, because then Logan,” she paused tightly. “I just call that leaving, I call it living my life and I didn’t need your permission to decide where my place in the world was going to be.”
“And really, if I had of known when you would’ve been around or sober or even talking to people I would have maybe been able to have given you that goodbye but you were locked away in your room even when you were around and I learned after the second time, well enough to know you didn’t want to be disturbed.”
She could feel the trickle of emotion flow out with her words but she felt it was needed, that evidently it was even cathartic for her but she made sure that her anger didn’t spill over into the feeling of betrayal, because that would mean just too much to give up.
The hard set of his scruffy jaw let her know her words had an effect of silence on him and the thin set of his lips let her know he was still angry, but the change in his eyes let her realize she didn’t have to tell him anything more, he knew enough, he knew she was right and maybe she saw regret in his eyes but she wasn’t willing to look any closer.
But she couldn’t help it as the words spilled out of her mouth. “Don’t tell me I made the decision all by myself Logan, to be correct, you had made it for me. You made it all the more easier. Your months of silence made it clear that I wasn’t a part of your world anymore and I wasn’t a part of the mutant world either. So don’t call it running when I’d already been given several pushes out the door.”
She glanced at the ground briefly, pretending she’d said the words to hurt him and that they weren’t out of spite or pain.
“I messed up,” he muttered and his voice was gruff. It was only three little words and somehow he made them sound so broken.
She glanced back up at him but she stared into the night past his right ear, refusing to look him in the eye, she didn’t want to see the emotion there, she didn’t want to feel it either.
She was about to reply when he surprised her not only with his words but his tone. He was suddenly angry again.
“I fucked up, Marie; I know that but you...” he sighed almost desperately. “You didn’t even give me the chance to know you wanted another life, you just broke contact with no promise...” he trailed off and she could tell he was unnerved to use the last word. “It wasn’t fair, Rogue,” he finished more harshly.
She opened her mouth to reply but he didn’t give her the chance as he stepped closer.
“You did it all on purpose in the end, Marie, you set up a fake trail, you lied to Storm and you just took off, that’s running away.” An almost feral smirk developed on his face that heightened his anger. “You just didn’t want to face any old problems, you just couldn’t wait to get away and start new ones. Repeating the pattern over and over. How many other people did you leave along in the dust? I stayed around Rogue. I waited and it just didn’t seem to matter because you don’t play by the same kind of rules.”
The glare on her face was very real as she directed it at him but a quick curl of her lips and she had an almost ridiculous smile on her face even if she felt differently on the inside.
“What does it matter, Logan?” she asked with a laugh in her voice. “What if I did run away? I don’t care. Do I need to spell it out for you? I know exactly what I did to get away Logan and if you’re waiting for me to say I regret it, then you’ll be waiting a very long time for that particular train that won’t be coming.”
He snorted at her and shook his head.
“I can only imagine the type of person you’ve become hanging out with Mystique of all people.”
“Well, originally I looked up Magneto but it turned out he wasn’t in the phone book.”
His eyes hardened immediately but his jaw loosened.
“Well I suppose that would be the ultimate betrayal and you never do anything half way, do you?”
She was forced to look away from him as she could see the treachery in his eyes. She honestly didn’t want to be that much of a bitch. She didn’t want him to think she was ungrateful for what he had done when Magneto had almost killed her.
She openly sighed and relaxed her posture.
“I wouldn’t do that Logan. The man did almost succeed in killing me. I know how much that cost you.”
“It didn’t cost me anything,” he snapped.
She nodded and folded her arms as she realized she’d let out a mental sigh, glad to know he didn’t regret it either.
“But Mystique, Rogue?” he spoke up. “She was a part of it, she...”
“I know what she did,” she snapped back with determination. “I’m not stupid.”
“No, I know that. Which makes me wonder why?”
“Things aren’t always as clear as we wish them to be and sometimes you have to make compromises and sacrifices along the way.”
He was watching her intently and she tried to keep the beat of her heart still.
“Why would you go to her and not us?” he demanded.
She shook her head with a sad smile. “There are people in this world who have things no one else could possibly give them and sometimes those opportunities present themselves and we do what we have to do to survive.”
His observation of her was starting to throw her off so abruptly, the almost familiar smile on her face disappeared and she glanced back at him blankly.
He almost stepped back in shock but he just shook his head at her.
“I don’t understand.”
“And you probably never will,” she supplied, succeeding in sounding almost bored.
He clenched his fist again. “You’re not like her, Rogue,” he stated fiercely.
She laughed heartlessly. “You have no idea.”
“Just stop,” he snapped. “You honestly want me to believe you’re like her, that you’re a selfish bitch who would turn at the flip of the coin. That you don’t care about people, who get caught along the way in your games, that...”
She interrupted him with a yell. “You don’t know me anymore Logan and you hardly did before.”
“I knew you,” he hissed through his teeth. “And I know parts of you now, I know what you’re doing, you’re just trying to run again. Mystique is not your people, Marie...she..”
“She’s my mother, Logan!” she yelled back, with a knowing smile on her face at the surprise on his. She may have felt something shatter inside of her at telling him and in seeing the shock on his face but it only motivated her further to tell him he had no place in deciding who she was.
“What?” he gasped and leant back with confusion settling in as well.
“You heard me,” she shot back with defiance. “I’m more her ‘people’ then you think.”
“You’re lying!” he directed back at her with a glare.
“This is just another one of your ploys.”
“You can tell when I’m lying, Logan.”
“It’s not possible,” he seethed more to himself.
“I’ve found a lot of things are possible in the last year or so.”
He looked up at her sharply as she saw the focus bleed back into his eyes.
“So you didn’t know then, you found out recently,” he spoke more as a statement.
She nodded.
“Then how do you know she’s telling the truth?”
“Look, Logan, you can fight this all you want but she’s my mother and obviously you can’t accept...”
“Oh no,” he interrupted harshly. “I’ll accept it. I’ll accept it because I can tell it cost you something telling me that.”
She flinched back and hated herself for it.
“But even if that’s so, do you really think that’s just going to let me excuse this farce you call of being a person. You’re not her Marie. Blood or no blood. It’s a damn simple fact and I don’t want to see you hiding behind it.”
The continued disgust she’d been planning on from him with her little revelation was non-apparent and even as she frowned thinking of another tactic she could feel that fluttering in her stomach that told her forgotten hope was making an effort at a comeback. Clamping it down, she looked him dead in the eye.
“I’m not the same person, Logan, I’m probably not even a sane person, my mutation kind of guarantees that.”
“Stop looking for any logic,” she added.
He glared at her and took a step back as his arms finally relaxed at his sides. She could see he’d suddenly come to some form of a decision.
“Bullshit,” he muttered the single word as if it explained everything.
He turned around as though he was about to leave but he eventually turned back.
“Fine, Rogue,” he emphasized her name again. “If you want it to be just business, that’s the way it can be.” He eyed her and she felt her trademark smirk slipping back on her face but he added,” For now.”
It sounded like a promise.
She shrugged her shoulders. His other promise hadn’t worked out all that well so she figured she had nothing to be too concerned about.
“I believe you about Graydon and the FOH but don’t think I’m just going to think your little stunt this morning was just to get our attention.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” she replied with another shrug.
“You were looking for a particular book,” he continued. “Why was it so important?”
“It was nothing of importance,” she responded flippantly.
“If it wasn’t important, give it back then.”
“I dropped it when I was flying away.” She smirked back at him.
“Liar,” he breathed.
“Alright,” she muttered and pretended to pick at the bark on the tree beside her. “Xavier had known about early plans for the government programs and he kept a record of them in a journal of his. It was just early plans for the sentinel program.”
He sniffed the air and tilted his head.
“You’re lying,” he responded. “And if Xavier would have kept files on that, he would have told the X-Men and...”
“He failed to tell you a lot of things.”
Logan clenched his jaw. His silence confirming he agreed with her.
“Why did you say you had a right to it, that Xavier...”
“Okay, the truth?” she spoke up and continued in one breath. “It was a book full of prophecies and is essential in decoding other prophecies.”
He glanced at her for a moment and finally narrowed his eyes at her again.
“You think I’m an idiot, Rogue,” he exclaimed. “Is it impossible for you to be just straight with anyone?”
She dropped her jaw and looked at him in amused surprise.
“Logan, I am telling...”
His head whipped around towards the left suddenly and he held his hand up as she noticed his nostrils flaring as he focused outwards in the dark of the night.
Scrunching her face up in confusion she was about to throw a crass remark his way but she noticed the tautness to his body and recognized the signs of a possible attack. They weren’t alone.
She eyed the darkness in vain, knowing no matter how many times Logan had given her his power in the past she had nowhere near as good senses as he did. So she did the sensible thing and remained quiet.
Logan growled loudly and Rogue recognized it as a warning.
“You might as well come out,” he yelled out into the night.
When nothing moved between the shadowed trees she whispered low, “How many?”
“One,” he breathed back without turning his back. “But I don’t know why he’s still hiding.”
Rogue swallowed dryly at the knowledge that there was only one man in the forest who had somehow found them in the middle of nowhere. There were only a few possible candidates, which meant things were about to become complicated, even more so.
She spotted the red eyes moving forward through the trees and knew she was in trouble.
“Sorry mon ami but Gambit wasn’t too fond of interrupting such a heart to heart,” the familiar voice called out through the dark. “Especially when Gambit never seen da Rogue so flushed.”
She scowled at him as he stepped into the moonlight across from her and Logan.
“I never knew you to have such manners,” she responded back in annoyance.
Remy smirked at her and the action only emphasized his sleek high cheek bones that did wonders for his face. He was a very handsome man and while she found herself enjoying the image he presented, his actual personality and smugness only irritated her.
He tilted his head with a small nod knowingly at her as he stood straight and with a fair distance between him and Logan who was eyeing Gambit with open hostility.
Remy twirled his bow staff absently in his hands as he ideally watched them.
Logan snarled at him and looked back at her in alarm. “You know this stalker?” he asked with incredulity, by jerking his thumb at Gambit.
Rogue stepped closer and propped her hand on her hip.
“Stalker, such an appropriate word,” she muttered through clenched teeth and raised one eyebrow at the still relaxed Gambit.
“Oh Chere,” he chuckled with his familiar husky voice. “Don’t say such cruel things, not when Remy,” he stopped twirling the staff and pointed it at her as his glowing red eyes roved over her body from head to toe. “Know you so intimately.”
She rolled her eyes.
Logan, she could tell had the oddest expression on his face as though he didn’t like the implications of Remy’s words and specifically his tone.
“What the hell are you doing here, Remy?” she voiced, wondering how he had found her this time. “Didn’t you cause enough trouble, blowing up the bar?”
“Now, it ain’t dis thief’s fault you’ve been hiding so much Rogue,” he spoke softly with amusement as he proceeded to twirl his staff around.
“How do you two know each other?” Logan blurted out suddenly and his tone told her he was starting to lose what little patience he had quickly.
Remy only continued to smirk at her, his gaze moving past Logan and he winked at her.
She snorted indelicately and folded her arms.
“He would be the consequences of a one night stand.”
Logan for his part appeared openly taken back before his expression morphed quickly from a frown to a glare.
“Tsk, tsk,” Remy started. “It was more dan once Cherie, if Remy recall several...”
“Several mistakes,” she finished.
He raised the bow staff behind his head and rested it across his shoulders.
“Dhey’re only mistakes now because we’re both playing on da other side of da road,” he spoke softly, almost ignoring Logan who was surprisingly silent. “Things don’t have to be dat way, if you’d only reconsider.”
“Fuck off, Remy,” she spat. “You’re the one selling your soul and I won’t let you drag me down with you.”
His red eyes narrowed but instead of anger he looked resigned.
“You always were a stubborn one,” he muttered.
“You’re selling out your own kind.”
He lifted his clean shaven chin at her. “And who exactly are you fighting for dese days?” he asked and his red eyes glanced at Logan. “Remy sure he ain’t da only one who wants to know.”
Logan finally stepped closer and the claws on his right knuckle slid out silently but still gleamed in the night threateningly.
“What do you want Cajun?” he hissed.
Remy tilted his head at Logan. “You mean she hasn’t told you...”
“He works for Graydon,” Rogue interrupted quickly.
Remy eyed her in surprise.
Logan stepped closer towards the other mutant with his claws up. “A mutant working with mutant hating scum like that, well now I know all I need to know about you, bub,” he snarled low.
“Then you ain’t seeing da big picture,” Remy replied slowly.
“You’re a traitor!” Rogue yelled at him, feeling her anger rise in being confronted with another man from her past she’d trusted only to find out she’d been wrong.
“Je suis ce que je suis,” he replied solemnly. (I am what I am)
“We can’t have him running back to Graydon, Logan,” she spoke up hurriedly. “He can’t know...”
“Don’t worry, Rogue,” Logan replied with his eyes on Remy with a predator’s smile. “I think I know of a few ways to deal with him.”
“You be mistaken mon ami, Remy ain’t planning on going anywhere.”
Rogue’s eyes widened as she recognized the serious tone in his voice. Quickly, Remy reached into his brown trench coat and pulled out an Ace of spade. He had it charged in seconds as the card glowed red.
“Logan!”
She ran forward as Remy flicked the card at Logan’s chest. She reached him just in time as she pushed him down and they both fell to the ground as the charged card exploded against a tree and pieces of bark flew around them.
She landed hard on top of Logan and he looked up at her in shock. She leaned up slowly as his chest heaved with each breath. His hand she noticed was on her butt and although it wasn’t uncomfortable, far from it, she was slightly alarmed at their rather awkward position.
“Are you alright?” she breathed in concern, her chest pushing against his as she exhaled and a shiver traveled up from the base of her spine.
“Yeah,” he grunted and she knew as he watched her, his eyes wide as she felt him observing every line of her face, she knew he’d not only been surprised by the attack but by the fact she’d been able to push him out of the way and protect him from the flying debris so easily.
Their oddly private moment was interrupted as she spotted the quick flash of sliver out of the corner of her eye and she leaned back barely in time as Remy’s staff blew by her face but ended up whacking Logan hard in the chest, who she could tell wasn’t happy about it as he grunted as the air was knocked out of him.
Jumping up Rogue grabbed the staff quickly and pulled it free from Remy’s strong grip with her super strength and pushed it forward as it hit him in the chest and then she caught him under the chin. He stumbled back in surprise and she spotted the blood around his lips where the end had cut him. Without giving him a chance she spun the staff around and aimed for his knees, but he was quick.
Adapting to his fall Remy did a sloppy back flip and was successful in landing too far for her aim to reach. He crouched low and narrowed his eyes at her; she almost thought he looked surprised and maybe even offended. He stood up quickly and wiped the blood that dribbled down his chin.
“Vous avez toujours rendre les choses plus intéressantes, elles doivent être Rogue,” he voiced with a mixture of bitterness and playfulness. (You always make things more interesting then they need to be Rogue)
She looked at him sadly for a moment. “Il n'est pas de ma faute que vous avez l'habitude de choisir le mauvais employs,” she replied solemnly. (It's not my fault you have a habit of choosing the wrong jobs.)
“But it doesn’t matter does it Remy?” she added as her voice became stronger. “Nothing matters as long as the price is right.”
“A thief’s prerogative, Chere,” he replied as he launched himself forward.
The thing with Remy was that although he was muscular, his slimmer build made him incredibly quick and agile. He was a skilled fighter and he was good at what he did. However, Rogue knew that the trick with him was to tire him out so his moves suffered poor execution.
She narrowly avoided a high kick to her head as she stepped back.
She also had her super strength, which was an advantage but there was one other advantage Remy hadn’t counted on.
The Wolverine.
Remy’s hands were quick as he attacked her but she caught him right in the jaw again with a fast punch and he stumbled back a fair amount completely dazed only to be confronted with a very pissed off Logan.
Logan spun the surprised Remy around and punched him square in the face twice. Remy stumbled again and Rogue ducked as he bumped into her and tripped. His body landed with a loud thud behind her.
He groaned but didn’t move as his eyes fluttered closed.
She glanced at Logan as he stepped closer and he nodded at her. It had almost been like team work. Like they’d just been practicing in the danger room, like old times. Only they weren’t smiling at each other now and congratulating one another.
Merely, Logan became quiet as he dragged the unconscious Remy against a tree and started to silently look around for something to tie him with. She saw him rummaging in the bushes for some long vines but she knew with Remy it would pointless.
Picking up his favourite bow staff, she knew he would be angry with her later for what she was about to do but he’d just openly attacked her and she wasn’t feeling all that giving. Using her superior strength she started to bend the staff and then gathered Remy’s hands as she finished bending the metal and wrapped it around his wrists.
Logan stood behind her and immediately dropped the vine but if he’d been surprised his presupposed scowl hid any other emotion.
Rogue shrugged. “It won’t hold him for long, he’s a thief.”
Logan grunted again at her and moved forward to pick up the beaten mutant. Quickly, he threw Remy over his shoulder and silently made his way through the trees back to camp.
“I’ll get Bobby to freeze him if he tries anything,” Logan muttered over his shoulder. “You hear that swamp rat,” he added louder and Remy groaned low as he blacked out again.
Walking through the forest after Logan and Remy, Rogue glanced up at the night and shook her head. Fate it seemed had just thrown two of her past problems together and thought it was hilarious; she on the other hand was not in agreement.
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