The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Logan gave a short, amused laugh. What the fuck was he complaining about? He’d fallen into bed without knowing the full story. He’d also spent very little effort trying to find out what was going on.
Fate was what you made it. Or at least he’d always thought so. This gave him pause. Maybe the two of them were destined to happen.
Sitting back down, he took her hands. “Darlin’, I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re talkin’ about.”
She didn’t know what to say. Her confession had taken some of the wind out of his sails. She got the feeling there was something more to this, but he wasn’t lying. “Magneto didn’t send you?”
He was cornered, Magneto might have sent him. Exactly how much about time travel could he tell her without making himself sound crazy. For now, it was probably best to stick to the parts she needed to know and a sudden case of amnesia. “My memory isn’t what it should be,” he said.
Rogue tried to go through what little she knew of Logan’s history. However, there wasn’t much past the decade before they met. Nothing but pain and more pain. She’d always guessed that was his time in Weapon X and thought it best not to examine any of it too closely.
How far back did this new memory problem go? “You remember how we met?” she finally asked. It felt like a foolish question to ask but it was a good reference point.
A quiet smile crept onto his lips. “A fight bar, a snowy road, the aforementioned stabbing, and Lady Liberty,” he stated matter of factly.
“How about the part that Magneto sent you to keep an eye on me until I powered his machine?” With that, the smile fell from his face and was replaced with a blank stare. She continued, “Or that you were to keep the X-Men busy so they wouldn’t stop him?”
There had been no doubt in her mind, no doubt with the little bit of him left in her mind that Magneto was planning something and didn’t want her ruining it. Didn’t want her placing another call to Xavier to alert him like before. Pyro had been a wealth of information on Magneto’s plans and she would admit she received a certain amount of satisfaction handing over all she could to the X-Men.
Studying him for a moment, she could see that this was all new and weighing heavily on him. Why was his memory faulty? How come he could remember them meeting but have all the reasons wrong?
“I work for Magneto?” he asked, clearly unhappy with this development.
“More like he hires you for certain projects.” She shrugged, that wasn’t very helpful. “You’re a mercenary, it pays better and you don’t have to be a fanatic for any cause.”
Grunting, he nodded. It fit with his particular skill set, and he’d done some of it in the old timeline. But that had been for differing reasons on each job. Here she made it sound like it was a way of life for him. Marie had given him the vague idea yesterday that this was their first time together. Obviously, they’d parted ways after the Statue of Liberty fight.
There would be no simple way to explain his path in getting here without sounding insane. It would take more than a little patience to work through this, and he didn’t know if they had the time. Or if she would be willing to accept his story.
When the silence had stretched out too long, she spoke. “What else do you remember?”
“Staying at Xavier’s and being part of the X-Men,” he started, but could see from her amused smile that wasn’t a possibility here. Logan looked her straight in the eye, “Falling in love with you.”
She only blinked when he said it, giving no indication one way or the other about her feelings at the idea. Yet her heart gave a little skip and there was a slight intake of breath. Not quite as emotionless as she wanted to appear. The rest; the sentinels, the camps, the war, could all wait for later. “We put in a lot of hard work to prevent a bad future.”
Rogue could see he was skipping over some details, and maybe that one crazy dream of his from the seventies wasn’t a dream after all. She’d always thought it was more like he was tripping on some acid, but she knew he didn’t do drugs. The best she could manage was that it was something half remembered from Weapon X. Maybe it wasn’t and it made more sense now.
Either way, he was convinced he hadn’t been this man she was describing. He’d been disappointed that he wasn’t a better man, but she knew from their little time together here that he did love her. She wanted to believe him, and she was almost on board with it because of the way he’d been treating her the last two days. Not to mention he seemed clueless about being sent to kill her.
“What now?” she asked. They both needed an alternative plan, because what she thought was going to happen wasn’t and his plan seemed to only involve being with her. She knew from past experience he liked to have a strategy in place.
“I’ll get my stuff from the truck, see if we can’t get something figured out from there.” Logan stood up then on impulse leaned over and kissed her. This was one of the most uncertain times in his life he could remember. Even during the war, he’d known exactly what to do. Then again, maybe this wasn’t so different. He would still be fighting for what was important to him.
Rogue stared at the messages on Logan’s phone while he glowered at it from where he stood. Glancing up at him, she had to hide a smile at how dinky he made the living room feel with his mere presence. “It’s nice to know you weren’t going to be the one to kill me,” she commented.
He grunted in response, not appeased by that. This reminded her of when they first met, before she knew the truth about what he was to do and how it tainted her perception of him. Except for that one sticking point she hadn’t forgotten about. “Probably because you couldn’t last time,” she added, hopefully.
Taking a deep breath, he exhaled slowly. “What?”
This time she smiled despite herself. He sure hated the idea that he would be capable of killing her much less contemplating it. “You were supposed to let me die at the statue in his contraption,” she informed him.
Logan was done with this and what he was supposed to have done for Magneto, of all people in this timeline. It was beyond him why she was so trusting of him at the moment. She had no reason to, and he hadn’t given her much more since showing up. “How many times?”
She grabbed at his hand and pulled him down to sit on the love seat beside her. Patting his thigh, she explained, “You… that’s it. He’s sent others over the years, mostly lackeys. A few tough ones, only Pyro presented a real challenge.”
“The scar’s from him?” he asked. That would make sense if it was the only challenging fight.
She nodded. “Wouldn’t have gotten them if I’d been able to finish my training with Master Izo.”
He raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. Izo didn’t take on students. “How d’you find him?”
Tapping the side of her head, she said, “Your memories and he only helped because of you. But it got too hot in San Francisco for the both of us.”
This helped some. In the old timeline, he’d known the extent of Marie’s abilities. If she’d received even a couple of months of training from Master Izo, they’d have a chance at what he wanted to do. Running was out of the question. Logan knew she was done with it, and hiding was only delaying the inevitable. “I’m taking you to Magneto,” he told her.
Sighing, she nodded. “Take the fight to him.”
He stood back up wanting to pace in the small room, but couldn't. “It’s our best bet. He shouldn’t be expecting it.”
Turning back toward her, he was about to say they had some work to do when she threw up a hand and he was forced to take a step back. He could feel the metal on his bones as if Magneto were near. “Now that’s interesting,” he said.
Rogue smiled brightly at him. “It’s useful, but nothing compared to what he can do.” She could practically see him recalculating his idea.
“What other hidden talents ya’ got?” he asked.
Winking, she said, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
He chuckled at her obvious innuendo, but on the serious side, Magneto and his henchmen would be formidable and they couldn’t depend on their skills alone for this fight. “I need to make a phone call,” he told her. Mostly he hoped that one of the two people he needed to talk to would be willing to listen.
Logan watched her spin the quarter around on the picnic table. Raising an eyebrow, he set down the bag of food. He’d left her to practice while he walked across the street to the restaurant, and it looked like she was doing well.
“Big things are easier, can feel the metal,” she told him. “Small objects help refine the control.” However, the frustration was obvious as she floated the quarter up and then let it drop. "It's faded over the years."
“Can you do this?” he asked.
Nodding, she added, “Fire will be easier with the supplies we got.”
In Logan’s old timeline, Pyro had made some modifications so he didn’t have to depend on a lighter he might lose in a fight. Marie had described something similar, and with a stop at an industrial supply store, she’d acquired what was needed. They could use an edge to keep Magneto off kelter.
Leaving the quarter where it lay on the table, she stared at the drink and tater tots he set in front of her. “I don’t think so.” The thought of putting food in her mouth didn’t appeal right now.
“Strawberry,” he said before taking a large bite from one of his two cheeseburgers. She sighed, and he quickly swallowed his mouthful. “Know you don’t like to eat before a fight, but you’re going to need strength and probably won’t get a chance to eat later.”
Rogue took a sip and munched thoughtfully on a couple of tater tots. Another little tidbit of information to show he’d known her, been close to her at some point. Only Master Izo knew she didn’t like to eat before a fight, and she doubted they’d had the chance to talk since her training.
His plan was a good one, if it all came together properly. There was a confidence he had that she hadn’t felt since his presence in her mind faded. She could use an extra boost right now as most of Magneto’s people had been straightforward fights. Pyro had been a challenge, but his boldness blinded him to his own weaknesses and gave her the upper hand.
Magneto himself would be a different story. He knew his abilities well, knew how to best use his skills and his surroundings to his advantage. At least a little remnant of Magneto in her mind assured her, among other things, that they were playing a game they couldn’t win.
Finishing off another tater tot, she set the quarter to spinning again. “The power won’t be the problem.” The coin spun in loops around her milkshake. “It’s the voices that come with it.”
In the other timeline, Marie had learned to separate things out and didn’t absorb much of another person’s personality after a while. Yet he knew until that point, it had been a lot for her to deal with. “How bad?”
“Can feel them whispering, getting louder the more I tap into the power.” She slapped the quarter flat on the table and sighed. “Better not give me that look in front of Magneto or we’re dead.”
Placing his hand over hers, he softened his expression even more. “Wasn’t planning on it, Darlin’.” There was room for some unexpected challenges in the plan, but getting her killed wasn’t part of it. “We’ll get through it together.”
Rogue couldn’t help but smile at his grim determination. There hadn’t been a lot of that in her life the last few years. It helped increase her confidence in him and put to rest the lingering doubts of what they were doing.
He believed they would come out the other side of this no worse for the wear. His attitude was starting to infect her, so much so that the only thing she wanted to think about was how they would sort their relationship out after the dust settled. For the first time since meeting him all those years ago, she had a feeling in her soul that her life was about to change. That feeling was better by a mile than where she’d been a couple days ago.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to dispel the voices in her head. When she wasn’t actively using the powers, the voices created subtle doubts about Logan and his intentions. She knew for a fact it was partially her own insecurities inviting the criticisms they offered. Her only problem was that there was only one way to find out, and that was to follow through with this plan. That and the fact that the Wolverine wasn’t a game player like this. He didn’t beat around the bush and lead women on like this.
“Would a little healing help?” It sounds dumb even to his ears. She might need that ability later; not mention his other mutations, but also an added voice on her side of the equation couldn’t hurt. Or at least he liked to think that he would be a voice that would help her out.
She gave him a genuine smile. Half standing to lean over the table, she placed a kiss on his lips and he felt the tingle of a draw on his mutation.