The first one she grabbed was a tattooed character. She felt her skin prickle as it took a deep pull. She felt him stiffen in shock as she took from him, his eyes going vacant. When she snatched her hand away from his arm, he fell to his knees.
She felt feral drive climb up her spine and she couldn't help the snarl she bit out. The world turned to black and grays. Colors disappeared. She was disoriented for a moment, worried she'd suddenly lost a chunk of sight that would render her weaker, not stronger.
Then the grays sharpened and instead of it hindering her sight, it grew ten times sharper. She could make out all the dirt clumps in the ground without effort.
“Cool,” she whispered.
She used it to duck under punches and kicks. She spun around more gracefully than she would have thought herself able.
She kicked at a short frog-looking man. He grabbed her boot and used it to lever her off the ground and fifteen feet in the air. Normally, she would have hit the ground hard. She might have attempted to hit flat and roll like Logan had taught her. Instead she found gravity and pivoted around to land on her feet, bending her knees to absorb the impact and using one hand to steady herself. She stood gracefully.
“So fuckin' cool!” It came out a bit too loud.
“Rogue!” Logan barked from where he was gutting a man. “What the hell are you doing?”
He turned and punched his claws through some iron looking giant, growling as he pulled down hard, snarling the whole way. He turned back.
“Are you smilin'?”
She gave out a little laugh and shrugged. “Girl's gotta have a little fun.”
She turned when she heard spikes fly through the air and watched as they whizzed by, embedding into a wall. She turned to face her attacker and saw two more spikes crawl out of his arms.
She gave a wicked smile and her fingertips itched madly. She advanced on him, planning to grab ahold of his arm while he was busy growing two new spikes. Bobby got there first, freezing them into place and placing a few icicles into his chest.
The man dropped. She glowered at Bobby before she realized what she was doing. He nodded at her and moved on to the next attacker.
She moved on with a petulant frown, grabbing on to two more mutants before she met up with Storm. One had the ability to send electrical currents with contact and the other had a startling ability to turn into glass. The latter ability seemed a bit useless in battle, so she refrained from using it lest she get shattered at a simple punch.
By the time Magneto and Pyro had them running for cover with their fire car bombs, she'd grabbed onto a shape shifter -- though not as talented as Mystique -- a woman who could heat objects, and a man who blew air with a strength that was uncanny.
She breathed hard as she crawled behind the car pilings with Logan, Storm, Beast, and Iceman. She gripped her arm where blood pooled and ran down. The bloody teleporter had slashed at her with a busted pipe before she could back off. It was healing quickly, but Logan's jump-start touch was starting to wear off. Storm worriedly pressed her hand to the wound.
“Ah'm fine.” She noticed her accent and cringed.
Looking up at Logan, she knew he'd noticed too. He growled.
“You're pushin' it, darlin'. I told you not to.”
She felt the flush tinge her cheeks. He'd spent enough hours pulverizing her in the danger room in one-on-one combat to know her accent came back when she was in pain.
“How many?”
She avoided his intent gaze, but Logan’s patience had run out. “How many, Rogue?”
She gritted her teeth. “Five. And you.”
He glared at her. “No fuckin' more.”
She snapped back. “I've got this under control, Wolverine! I don't need a babysitter.”
“Rogue...” Hank interrupted. “Keep in mind you've only done this in practice. Your mind...”
“Is fine!” She barked. She heard a rush of whispers at the edge of her consciousness. Liar.
“I said it's enough.”
Logan grabbed at her arm, the one that was still healing. He pulled her around towards him, his face inches away from hers.
“You fuckin' touch one more and I'll knock your ass out, you hear me?”
She didn't have much choice but to nod.
XXX
She climbed behind rock after rock, using the last of her first pull to gracefully and silently move along the back fringes of the gate. She finally pulled up on the back end and crawled to the edge of the bridge.
She stood quietly and had to shake her head as her vision turned back to normal. Magneto stood facing the disaster -- no one left but him and Phoenix, who stood by motionless, watching with impartial calmness.
Rogue reached to her back pocket and snatched out the cartridge she'd grabbed from the floor at Logan's direction. She jerked out the four syringes and broke the stopper off of each before clicking them back in the cartridge. She held it carefully in her right hand and positioned herself to look again.
It was too fast. Logan had already launched himself somehow toward Magneto. He skidded to a stop just in front of him as Magneto sneered. She took the opportunity and leaped out from behind the rock.
She heard Logan say something through gritted teeth but couldn’t make it out, her hearing fading away to her normal high range. She kept going, vaulting over the last rock and up to Magneto's back.
She swung her arm around and landed the four needles into his chest, feeling them pierce his clothes and then skin. She hardly noticed the screaming snarl she'd let out as she'd reached him. Her hair had swung around and blocked some of her view, but she could see him look at her in stunned realization.
Justice! Her thoughts screamed. For raping my mind!
A sick satisfaction pooled in her chest. It surprised her how much bitterness she held against him for forcing so much of himself into her over a year ago. She lowered her hand with some hesitancy, feeling the syringes scrape free of the cartridge as she tried to finally let go of that anger.
Magneto slowly melted to his knees, turning to face Logan again. “I'm...”
He couldn't even finish, so Logan did it for him.
“One of them?”
He fell to the ground, his hands shaking and breath quivering. Rogue took two steps down to stand next to Logan and they both watched as the serum worked itself through him.
Logan reached for her bare hand. She looked down as he gently released the cartridge from her fingertips, letting it fall to the ground. She looked up at him and let out a breath.
Could it be so easy? she thought. It certainly hadn't been for her.
Logan looked up and she followed his eye line. Phoenix stood, motionless. Watching.
“It's over, Jean,” he called. He breathed heavily and repeated it as if to convince himself. “It's over.”
Rogue looked up at her and wondered if Jean could really still be in there, but she didn't have time to find out. Behind her, more soldiers with 'cure' guns came over the edge and positioned themselves.
Rogue felt herself take a step back in alarm as she realized what they would do. Although the soldiers were aiming at Phoenix, the darts would also come raining down on them.
“NO! Don't shoot!” Logan roared.
He turned and grabbed her, pulling her to the floor as he turned his back to the hundreds of shots fired in their direction. She felt him hover over her with his body and she clenched her eyes shut. One 'cure' hadn't been enough for her mutation. She had a sick curiosity about how effective forty would be.
She peeked out from under her eyelashes when nothing happened. She looked up to see Logan open his eyes as well. An instant of looking at each other in confusion and they both faced where the shots should have come from.
Phoenix had stopped them all in mid-air, her eyes growing dark and eerie. Logan grabbed Rogue’s arm and hauled her to her feet. They watched as Phoenix rose from the ground, turned and began to tear the world apart around her.
“Noooo!” Logan yelled. Rogue gripped his arm in alarm as soldiers disintegrated into thin air.
“Everybody get out of here!” Hank yelled from across the way.
Everyone, humans and mutants alike, started running back towards the bridge as Phoenix grew more angry.
Logan looked down at Rogue and she couldn't help the sinking feeling in her stomach.
“I'm the only one that can stop her.”
“No!” She gripped his arm. “No, Logan. You can't!” She was desperate. He could no more kill Jean Gray than Rogue could kill him.
“You can't, Logan.” She was grasping at straws. “I'll do it. I'll touch her. I can...I can take her power away...”
“And then what?” he asked, his voice surprisingly gentle among the roaring wind. “She'll recover if you let go too soon and we're right back here. And if you hold on...” He reached out and stroked her head. “You'll die too.”
She opened her mouth to argue that she was strong enough. But the truth was she wasn't. Phoenix would overtake her one way or another. Even if she managed to hold on long enough, Phoenix would take hold of her mind and Marie D’Ancanto would no longer be.
“I can do it,” she tried desperately.
He smiled at her and pushed back the hair that flew wildly into her face. “Get everyone to safety.”
She grabbed his forearm. “Logan...please.”
“Go.”
He turned her and pushed her forward. She felt tears come down her face as she obeyed.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I really want to hear from the reader. Please review and let me know if you like it!
Chapter End Notes:
See! Now THAT is how X-3 should have ended! BAM! So much better! LOL! What do you all think? Review Please.