The air was cool and dry. This was the first thing Rogue noticed as she swam up from the deep black sea that had engulfed her. The second thing that caught her attention was how dry her tongue was, thick and swollen in her mouth. Of course Jean would have planned for a way to keep moving her, Rogue thought grimly as the memory of a sweet-smelling cloth covering her nose and mouth floated to the top of the swirling quagmire of her brain.
Her eyes felt sore and gritty, but Rogue knew that it was important to get the lay of the land, so to speak, as soon as possible. She cracked one eyelid open and then the other. Her small, windowless-room was lit by a single fluorescent light suspended in the middle of the ceiling. She was stretched out on a flimsy cot, Rogue saw as she raised herself up on her elbows to help with her recognizance of the room. Unfortunately there was very little to see, which meant that there was little here that she could use in an escape attempt.
Since her groggy senses were starting to regain some clarity and focus, Rogue stood up and began stretching to help push that change along a little. She ran a hand over her belly, but the slight swell was still there. She felt a little light-headed from the relief that nothing felt overtly wrong to her.
“We’re gonna get out of here, baby,” she whispered as she looked around. “Ah just have to figure out how.”
The walls were thick white-washed cinderblocks. Rogue could break those, but it would take time. Her best bet was waiting until someone came to feed her or collect her, then. With that in mind, she sat back down on her cot to conserve her strength.
As she reached up to scratch an odd itch on her neck, Rogue realized she was wearing some kind of metal collar. She ran her fingers over it carefully. There was a hinged seam on one side, a depression that felt like a key hole next to the seam on the other. The metal was strangely smooth, giving no indication why they wanted her to wear it.
A sound outside the door caught her attention just before the handle turned, admitting two men in black uniforms. “You’re coming with us,” the taller, dark-haired one said while the blond stared at her with a look that made her hide a shiver.
“Like hell Ah am,” Rogue said, lifting her chin and staying right where she was.
“One way or the other, you’re coming with us. We can do this nicely or not. It’s up to you,” the first man said. The second edged closer, an eager look in his eye that Rogue didn’t like at all.
Suddenly the blond made a grab for her arm. She tried to pull away, but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been. When his grip didn’t let up, she kicked at him. Again, there wasn’t as much force behind the move as she expected. He didn’t go flying into the wall, just grunted and kept his hold on her arm.
Panic starting to well in her, Rogue tried to turn on her skin in order to give these two a shock. It wasn’t there. The ability that had been with her so long, that she had fought so hard to control, was no longer accessible. The first guard laughed at the way her green eyes widened in shock.
“Just so you know, you won’t be able to use your perversion here. Now come on,” he said, grabbing her other arm and helping the blond, who still hadn’t spoken, pull her from the safety of her cot and towards the door.
Rogue tried to fight them all the way down the dim corridor, but it was no use. None of her power was available. What had Jean gotten her into? Did the woman hate her so much?
Logan leaned against the wall outside of the Cerebro chamber, deliberately not looking at Scott as the younger man paced back and forth in front of the door.
“That’s not going to help anything,” he commented, ignoring how much he wanted to let loose the claws and attack the nearest object, which could be the door, the walls, or Scott for all he cared.
Scot ignored him and kept pacing. Finally, they heard the sound of the round metal door opening. The two men turned quickly to face Professor Xavier as he rolled out. The look on the old man’s face scared Logan more than anything he could remember since that night when Rogue caught him and Jean in the kitchen.
“I have located Rogue. I have the coordinates, but…I need you to be careful, Scott. Jean did not put up any resistance to my probes. I was expecting at least a token effort, but there was none. I did find traces that suggested she was hiding herself from me and is at the same location as Rogue, but I find it strange that she would hide herself and not her victim,” Xavier said, a deep frown forming between his dark eyes.
Scott frowned as well. “Does she want us to find Rogue? Why? Why take her if she’s going to make it so easy to rescue her?”
Logan spoke up. “It’s a trap for us, too. She set a trap for Rogue because she feels like Rogue stole everything she wanted, and now she’s setting a trap for us because she probably feels like we abandoned her in favor of Rogue.”
Scott glared at him. “How do you know?”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “I lived with the woman for three months. The few times we spoke, all she could talk about was how unfair it was, how no one wanted to give us a second chance, the benefit of the doubt, et cetera. I stopped listening for a while because it was all the same thing, over and over. It got damn annoying. Then there was the way she reacted to the news of the baby.”
“Jean left before we made our announcement!”
Shaking his head, Logan told them, “Jean found Rogue’s test results. I found her crying in the med lab. She was talking crazy, but at the time I wasn’t feeling too stable myself. I think she left right after that, but she knew.”
Scott went pale. He asked the Professor, “Would she hurt Rogue? The baby?”
Xavier shook his head slowly. “I am no longer sure what exactly Jean is capable of. It is possible that she wants to exact her revenge on Rogue. She always was able to hold a grudge if she felt slighted as a student,” he replied uncertainly.
“We have to get Rogue before Jean does something to her that we can’t fix. Trap or no trap, I’m going there to get her. The rest of the X-Men can come with me or not,” Logan said firmly. “Where is she?”
The Professor sighed and told him the coordinates. He looked at Scott. “I will not force the team to go into a trap, even knowingly,” he told the team leader.
Scott raised his own eyebrows. “I doubt we’ll have to do any forcing,” was all he said.
Logan almost hated to admit it, but Scott was right. Within minutes of being called to the briefing room, the entire team was ready to go, with the exception of Ororo and Bobby who would be staying to guard the children. Logan was the first one to stride up the ramp to the Blackbird, and he stared unseeing through the window as they lifted off. All of his attention was focused on the mission and the woman he couldn’t lose.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
A short addition. I hope to get to the meaty rescue part in the next week or so. I hope you're enjoying this.
Chapter End Notes:
So, what do you think? Love it, hate it? Let me know!