Logan hitched his duffle bag higher on his shoulder, his eyes cold on Xavier’s.
“Don’t even think about tryin’ to stop me, Chuck.”
Xavier’s hands tightened on the arms of his wheelchair. “I would not presume to do so, Logan. I do not believe that I would even want to do so. I urged Rogue in every way possible to stay, at least until you woke. Something was driving her away, and maybe you can find the answer.”
Xavier’s keen blue eyes were steady on Logan’s face as he whirred the wheelchair closer to Logan, away from the front door. “I do have one request, however.”
“What?” Logan heard the harsh tone of his own voice, and didn’t care enough to gentle it.
“Jubilee and Kitty have been through quite an ordeal, and the last time they saw you you were nearly dead. They are waiting in the War Room to start their debriefing. Would you take a moment to reassure them that you are well before you go?”
Logan closed his eyes, swallowing down a lump in his throat as shame welled up within him. Not only a reasonable request, but something he damn well should have thought of on his own -- would have thought of on his own -- if his head hadn’t been so muddled with anger and frustration and fear for Marie.
He dropped his bag next to the door with a thud. “Sorry, Chuck. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Xavier’s eyes were sympathetic. “You were thinking that you need to find Rogue, and find her you will. We will do everything we can to help. I will continue to look for her with Cerebro, perhaps she might have occasion to take the suppression collar off...”
Logan shook his head, interrupting Xavier’s reassurances. “She can touch now. She doesn’t have to be afraid anymore. I was blind not to realize how much it meant to her. She wouldn’t give that up, not without a damn good reason.”
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I’ll go see the girls and say my goodbyes. Thanks for settin’ me straight.”
He had already turned when Xavier’s voice called after him. “I have no doubts that you will find her, Logan. I just wish I were more certain what will happen when you do.”
Me too, Logan thought bleakly as he made his way to the War Room.
__________________
Kitty and Jubilee were staring at the conference table, looking small and subdued, but both of them jumped to their feet as he walked in.
“Wolvie!” Jubilee practically launched herself into his arms and he caught her with a laugh, gathering Kitty into the hug with his other arm.
The girls clung to him for a moment, and he could feel the fragile hold they had on their composure. He squeezed them tighter, their familiar smells washing over him. He had hardly had time to process it -- Jubes and Kitty, back safe where they belonged. If nothing else, he had Marie to thank for that.
Kitty’s eyes glistened with tears as they separated but Jubilee hid her feelings better, sending Logan a saucy wink with a snap of her ever-present chewing gum. “So glad to see you up and about, dude. Last I saw you looked like a drowned puppy.”
He favored her with a mock growl, and she held up her hands in surrender. “No offense!”
He sat down at the table, and motioned them to do the same. “How are you both doing?” he asked. “And the truth, not a smartass response, Jubes,” he cautioned, and Jubilee closed her mouth with a snap.
Kitty looked at the table, her hands clenched tightly together. Jubilee looked at her, her eyes shadowed with concern, and then met Logan’s eyes squarely. “Kits here got the worst of it. I was zonked out of my head on happy pills for most of the time. I guess they only had one of those suppression collars at first, and didn’t want to get phased six feet under. Me they just kept too doped up to even make a spark, at least for the first few days. Then they got another collar for me, and we were both awake for awhile.”
Logan sensed a new tension in the room. “Kitty?” he asked gently.
Kitty looked up finally, her eyes sparking with anger even as the tears started to fall. “She should have left me! It was my fault -- “
“Dammit, Kits!” Jubilee snapped. “Stop being such a dumbass!” She looked at Logan again. “There was one day...I don’t know, they got the dosages wrong, or something. Before they got a collar for me. I was able to pop the back of the van, and we got out. Started running. Thought we had made it, even, and then they swoop right in and we’re back where we started. Knocked me out cold, and when I woke up they had another collar for me.”
“It was my fault...” Kitty started again.
“Like hell it was, Kits!” Jubilee’s voice was close to cracking, and she took a deep breath. “Even if we had known the collar had a tracker in it, I never would have agreed to split up. Anyway, that big blond asshole Sabretooth would have tracked me with his nose just as surely as they tracked you with the collar. And I bet his range was better than 15 miles...”
Jubilee stopped, taking another deep breath. She grabbed Kitty’s hand, squeezing it tight, her voice thick now with tears. “I would never have left you Kits. Never.”
As if in slow motion Kitty leaned toward her, and then suddenly she was in Jubilee’s arms. Jubilee hugged Kitty close, smoothing her hair as sobs racked her body. She looked up, eyes defiant, ready to tear Wolvie a new one if he had any smartass comments to say about all this, but found only empty space where he had been sitting.
_________________________
THREE WEEKS LATER
Rogue sat, her back pressed up against the back wall of the cell, looking at her hands. She had probably seen more of her bare hands these past weeks than she had since she was sixteen. Her skin was no threat to them with the collar on. They had taken her gloves as well as everything else she had when she got to the facility, giving her in return only short-sleeved scrubs that kept her shivering day and night.
Her gaze wandered up from her left hand to her wrist. She absent-mindedly traced the pattern of the delicate blue vein against the pale skin. Could she do it if she had to? It would have to be fast -- more than a simple bite, a vicious tearing of the teeth would be required to get that vein open and maybe even the one on the other side before they stormed the cell. She wasn’t sure if she had it in her. She was scared to find out, but it might be someday soon. The tests couldn’t last forever, and then she’d know exactly what they wanted with her. And exactly what she was willing to do to keep them from getting it.
She heard the scrape of boots coming down the hall, and pushed herself to her feet, keeping her back warily against the rubber wall. The whole cell was some kind of rubber polymer -- floors, wall, even the ceiling, although she wondered how she was expected to try to bash her head open up there. Maybe there was some kind of super-jumping mutant in one of the other cells, she thought cynically.
The front of the cell was barred with the same polymer, leaving the entire cell visible to the hallway. What there was of it, anyway -- the sad toilet in the corner and the sad foam mattress on the floor. And the sad, sad girl cowering in the back, Marie thought sarcastically, trying to mock into submission the fear that sound sent shivering through her body.
The boots came closer, an ominous scraping sound now detectable along with the tromping noises. Marie watched the three shapes pass, the two guards half-dragging the third figure between them. Marie heard the door of the cell next door swish open, and then a thud and a grunt as the figure was thrown inside. The door swished closed again, and the boots tromped away.
Marie gave it a few minutes before making her way to the shared wall. The wall here was in panels, but there were joints with up to an inch of space between them. She looked through the crack, but the figure didn’t move.
“Forge?” she whispered. No response. “Forge?!”
“Leave me alone, Rogue.”
She closed her eyes in momentary relief, before the tone of his voice sunk in. It wasn’t that he sounded upset -- she was used to that. It was that he sounded like he wasn’t feeling anything at all, his voice flat and lifeless.
“Hey, Forge -- quit napping over there,” she needled, hoping to get some life back into his voice.
He pushed up on his elbows with a groan, and then to a sitting position. He tried to push himself up to a stand and she heard his breath suck in with pain. He sat for a moment, his head hanging.
“C’mon, Forge, wakey wakey.”
“Fuck you, Rogue.” That was better, his voice had a little spark to it. She laid on the Southern accent thick, knowing that usually got a laugh out of him.
“Sorry, sugar, even with this collar you don’t stand a chance with me. But you can keep dreamin’ about me. Ah don’t mind.”
That forced a reluctant chuckle out of him. He scooted back until his back was next to the crack in the wall, resting the back of his head against the panel. She pressed her own temple to the panel next to it on her side.
“Maybe if y’all are extra sweet, I’ll let y’all take me to the cotillion...” she started.
“Number 39! Silence.” The announcement snapped over the speaker, the words barely out before the shock hit her. A mild one, just a warning, starting at the collar and radiating in both directions until her whole body was wracked with pain. She gritted her teeth until it passed.
She and Forge had it down to a science. The cell would be monitored closely for ten minutes after a disruption, and then the security feed would start cycling through the other cells. At ten minutes and fifteen seconds, she started again.
“Was it bad this time, Forge?” she asked seriously.
“Don’t get in trouble for me, Rogue.”
“Then answer my question. Was it Clara?”
He shook his head helplessly. Just when she thought he wasn’t going to answer, he started speaking, his voice hoarse with emotion. “I don’t know how I did it before. Three years and I never gave that kid a thought unless I was writing out the check. And now...the way they make me watch her every day. I know what she likes for breakfast, and which Pretty Pony is her favorite. I know how her eyes twitch when she sleeps, and how she sucks on two fingers when she’s scared. And I try not to care, but then they hurt her, and...” his voice broke off on a groan. “I’d do anything to stop it, Rogue. Anything. I’m so fucked.”
“Did they hurt her today?”
“Just twisted her arm. Not even enough to leave a bruise. That damn woman they have pretending to be her nanny came up to the camera, just as bold as you please, and twisted her little arm until her face turned red, and she was crying so hard she couldn’t even yell for her mommy...” He stopped, burying his face back in his hands.
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, fuck.”
They were both silent for another long while, and then the words started to spill out of him as if he couldn’t stop them. “I know the stuff they’re making me make -- that collar around your neck was just the start of it, I know it’s gonna hurt people a million times worse than they’re hurting Clara, but I can’t help it, Rogue, I can’t let them hurt her, she’s my baby girl, I know I didn’t care before but I do now and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Rogue, I’m so sorry...”
“Hey!” She interrupted his desperate litany with a sharp whisper. “Don’t apologize. There’s nothing else you could do. Are you listening to me, Forge?”
She forced her fingers through the gap in the wall, and felt him grab them like a lifeline. This was something new to her -- touch as comfort, but she had learned from Logan how powerful it could be, and it seemed to stop Forge’s self-flagellation. He drew in a gasping breath, his hand clenched tight around her fingers.
“Number 39! Hands in the cell!”
She wrenched her hand free just in time, scraping her fingers as she pulled it back through the crack, breaking the skin-to-skin contact before the shock could jump to Forge as well. This one was much stronger, and by the time it passed her ears were ringing, her muscles starting to cramp as lightheadedness washed over her.
“Jesus, Rogue, get away from me before they kill you with the next one,” Forge whispered urgently.
She dragged herself to her mattress, taking in shallow breaths until the nausea passed.
________________
She must have drifted to sleep, the next thing she knew her eyes were open to darkness. Every muscle in her body ached as she crawled back to the crack in the wall.
“Forge,” she whispered. “Are you still awake?”
“Christ Rogue, are you suicidal?”
She had to smother the semi-hysterical giggle. “A little bit. But that’s not why I’m here.” She took in a deep breath. “I wanna tell you something.”
“Whatever it is, it’s not important enough to get fried for...”
“It is. Just shut up and listen, okay? There’s something I wasn’t sure if I should tell you, but I think you need to know.”
A moment of silence from him, and then, “I’m listening.”
“There’s a man coming for you. For you and me both. He’s a mutant. He’s rich and powerful beyond anything you and I have ever known. And he’s going to move heaven and earth to find us both. He won’t stop until he does, and when he does he’s going to rip this place to shreds, do you hear me? So hang in there. You do what you have to do to keep Clara safe, and he’s gonna get us out of here. I promise.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Rogue? Nobody wants me that bad.”
“You’re wrong, Forge. His name is Erik Lehnsherr, and I’ve seen inside his head. He wants you to finish a machine for him, and now that he knows what I can do he wants me to power it. And he will stop at nothing until he has us, do you understand me? Nothing.”
A long silence, and then just as she was starting to drag herself back to her mattress he whispered again.
“Are you fucking with me, Rogue?”
“No way, Forge. I wouldn’t do that,” she said. I wish I was, she thought.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Insomnia hit me hard tonight, so after cleaning the living room and washing all the dishes I gave myself permission to write this chapter down. Unedited and I may think it sucks in the morning, but oh well. Gotta run before Bancainte yells at me again! ;-) Three weeks until my big deadline, and then I swear the updates will go back to their usual frequency.
Chapter End Notes:
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