R&R, RR

Disclaimer: Not my characters (mostly), this is just for entertainment!

Chapter 76

The coffins started to slowly descend one by one into the graves. The shuddered start of the first coffin stirred a fresh out-pouring of grief from the students. Calisto and Spyke stood tall at the front of the crowd, some could mistake their posture for a form of salute but Xavier could see through it. He felt what they were feeling, though he was trying not to.

These were not soldiers that had fallen in battle; these were civilians from all walks of life, race, class and creed that had been dealt a hard blow. Once their powers manifested they had been ostracised from the lives they once led, to be hated and feared because they were born different from the norm. They had found each other, helped each other, and took the very little that they could get to make their own family only for these men, women and children to have been slaughtered mercilessly. Not only were they murdered, but the event barely registered on the media. They were forgotten souls.

And Spyke and Calisto were not their commanders, not in their minds. They were their guardians, the strong ones that felt it was their duty to protect the most vulnerable. They were their protectors and they felt the failure and loss acutely. The waves of guilt from both of them were stomach-turning.

As the last casket had been lowered, there was no single officiator to tell them that it was over, they service they had was best described as humanist on Calisto's request. He saw a blue furry hand give Spyke's shoulder a squeeze from behind the boy to say that that was it; his mentor had stayed close during the proceedings.

Boy…

Xavier questioned the word he chose. In fact, as he looked around the young faces gathered around him he couldn't call any of them children anymore. Not after what they had all seen. He wanted to keep them safe, to train them to control and use their powers away from the public. He always knew the way the real world outside the institute could go once mutants were revealed but he always hoped for the good in people to shine through but, he knew, it takes an extraordinary self-awareness on an individual basis to overcome the tribal instincts of one's own society that fears the new and the different to overcome the fear of being ostracised themselves, but he was never training soldiers either. He was teaching the next generation of mutants to be role models, to be active in the community they live, the be useful members of society and never to be inactive by-standers when they witnessed wrong doings, to lead the way for others when they eventually became public knowledge; to help the meek, even those that would hate and fear them. He wanted them to be the generation that changed minds and helped people embrace their differences and be accepted. It was always going to be hard for them but the goal at the end was worth it.

The funeral mourners started to move towards the house and snapped him out of his deep pit of philosophical thought that he seemed to be tripping into more and more lately. Rahne detached herself from Roberto with a hug as her boyfriend stayed behind with Piotr, in metal form, to cover over the graves. Rahne joined Amara and Kitty as they walked alongside Xavier. They walked slowly in silence, each experiencing their version of profound thoughts that were to be expected at a time like this, until Rahne squinted at something in the distance running towards them.

"Sam?" The wolf asked just as the sound of Colossus dropping his shovel registered. Xavier looked around and saw him transforming back to human, knowing why. Xavier could feel it too.

"Somethings wrong…" The Professor stated, drawing the girls' attention. He placed his fingers on his temple to reach out to the basement where Sam was supposed to be and feel for Rogue or anyone else that wasn't Scott. The girls watched as his eyes widened in shock, he was witnessing something the others couldn't see. "The basement…" He whispered. "Go… Now!" He said more forcefully.

His sudden change in demeanour prompted the girls into action. Rahne transformed to Wolfsbane immediately and quickly overtook Kitty and Amara. She transformed back to her human self rapidly to grab Sam when she met him in the middle.

"Wha' happened?!" She changed his direction one-eighty by grabbing his elbow and got him to start running back to the house. Kitty and Amara were within earshot by the time he matched her human speed.

"Ah was watchin' over Scott 'til Rogue came in 'n' threw me out! Ah came to tell the Professor." They were nearly at the elevator. "But somethin' was happenin' to me down there, like Scott was doin' this Jedi mind trick or somethin'. Rogue came in just in time to stop me doin' somethin' follish." Ray finished as Rahne hit the button for the basement level. Amara slipped in just as the doors closed. Kitty took the more direct route by diving through the floors.

"Why would that scare the Professor?" Amara asked, Ray shrugged, feeling he had missed something. Rahne shook her head.

"There must be more to it than that." Rahne replied. The elevator stopped and the doors opened quickly. They ran as a group to the end of the hall and stopped when they saw Kitty at the doorway, looking pale.

The first thing they saw was the, usually locked, door torn to shreds as if Wolverine had been there. Then they saw the pool of red in the centre of the room, the metallic smell hit Rahne the hardest.

"Rogue's..." Kitty and Amara turned to her in shock. They had noted the blast marks and empty cage.

"What about Scott?" Kitty asked. Rahne shrugged shaking her head not taking her eyes off the blood.

"They were just here." She sniffed the air again. "And Laura was with them."

oOo

He knew what had happened. As soon as he felt the trouble stirring he used his powers to see through Laura's mind for himself. He saw Rogue getting stabbed viciously and mercilessly. Given the amount of blood she lost in the basement, he was certain that she lost consciousness quickly, possibly even too fast to use Logan's healing factor. But everything went white and he was shut out of Laura's mind by the powers of the Phoenix. He only hoped that Rogue had been in charge of the destination, not Jean. He put down the head gear from Cerebro with a worried sigh.

"Anything?" Hank asked from behind him. Xavier shook his head.

"Nothing." He knew he wasn't going to find Rogue through Cerebro but there were other minds he could use. "I wouldn't be to find Rogue, but I was hoping that I could at least find Laura." His answer told Hank that that hadn't work either.

"What about Scott?" The Beast enquired, grasping at straws.

"Jean has turned his mind into a minefield; I don't think I can try again. I only survived the last attempt by Rogue's intervention." Xavier came to the most likely conclusion. "Jean must have them and is shielding them from me." Xavier turned his chair to face his friend.

"But why would Jean need Rogue?" Hank asked, perplexed. Xavier shook his head and looked at him in response and then it sunk in. She doesn't…

With Laura missing and Rogue gravely injured and missing and such low odds of finding her alive, he thought of someone who would very much want to know what was happening but he had been missing in action all day.

"We need to let Logan know what's going on." Xavier nodded.

oOo

Logan stepped out into the freezing night air. He sucked in the end of his stogie and tossed it into the sparsely populated parking lot as he held the smoke in his mouth, savouring the last of it before releasing the exhaust. He could feel the effects of the bourbon leaving his system almost immediately; he couldn't drink fast enough for ol' Jack to get him anywhere near as drunk as he wanted to be at that moment.

Despite the obvious tensions in the country and his purposeful motives in coming to this particular joint, everyone he had met had been annoyingly polite; maybe they were enlightened spirits, or maybe people finally knew him on sight and were smart enough not to start anything. The night was still young though and his healing factor had him back to full strength; there may be a few move dives he could hit to find a good fight, or do some vigilante work or something else to take his mind off things.

He took out the keys out of his pocket as the ground started to feel firmer beneath his feet. Not a very good role model, but he'd be sober enough to drive in minutes. If any of the kids at the Institute tried this, he'd kick their ass.

He moved towards his motorbike, well, his borrowed motorbike...

Damn… He had just stopped thinking about her...

Logan had ridden at least two states over during daylight to get away from her but she was still right there. She's supposed to be one with voices in her head, not him.

He started to think about all that they had gone through in Alberta, all the opportunities that she had had to tell him what she knew. The secrets that she kept, still kept, what was she trying to pull? Why didn't she say anything? She could have told him more.

But she did tell him more. She told him more than she had told anybody; ever since that night with Mystique and Rogue losing control of her powers… The fact she was at breaking point after Apocalypse… Alberta, and the both of them figuring out how her powers worked… That night on the lake he found her training and every training session after... They were a team of two…

So what, what did any of that have to do with her not telling him about his past? It was his past! What right had she?! She was obviously protecting herself…

No, she didn't do that. The number of situations that she had put herself in that placed her in harm's way, ever since he had met her, directly contradicted that. That was probably the only thing that made him angrier than all the secrets; that fact that she thought of herself as expendable...

What did it boil down to? Maybe she really couldn't tell him. Was his past really so bad that she thought he shouldn't know? Was he a monster? He could believe that. She has seen his entire life first hand; there were parts of what he could remember that he'd rather she didn't. Rage and tensions had been brewing for a while now, maybe he had just over reacted.

He started to think about Rogue waking up this morning and finding he had left. She was still unsettled and at a fragile point in her training and he just left her. He was the only one that she seemed to trust, what damage had he done to that trust by blowing up and leaving? Tensions were high lately; maybe all that was going on in the Institute had something to do with it. And it was unlike him to just up and disappear without at least giving Chuck a head's up, and with the funeral and all…

Logan was starting to feel like a bit of a jerk for bailing. He sat on Rogue's motorbike and started the ignition. Bar brawls would have to wait. He was about to set off when felt his cell phone vibrate.

oOo

…Same time every day, the slot opens and food comes through. Slot opens, food. Slot opens, food. Never a hand, not anymore, not since the last time…

…She watched the doctor move around her silently from her bound position. This woman actually tried to talk to her, especially before causing her pain, like needles or incisions or something. She was strange. She could use her…

…Freezing… Heat stroke… Drowning… Drought… Suffocation… Starvation… Testing her abilities and endurance every way they could think of by swapping her artificial environment when she had reached the brink of death every time like they were waiting for something to happen…

"…Harder!" He shouted, she repeated the leaping round house kick again to no avail, the board he held high refused to shatter. "Harder! You're not even trying you little piece of filth!" The child growled and leaped and swung harder again, this time the board and something else snapped on impact to her shin and her leg continued into his neck, breaking it. She landed back down on her good leg and repositioned her broken shin as her healing factor took control.

"You broke your own leg to kill him." The major behind the window said over the intercom. Black hair fell over her blocking most of her face from him but she could see his; he was proud of her and she wanted to rip his throat out…

She didn't socialise well apparently, more lessons were to be had, the ones with endless videos and shock punishment for screwing up. The videos were the key, 'this is how normal people behave'… That was the first time they told her she wasn't normal. That was the first time she saw what a normal life was like. Those people were smiling for some stupid reason. No fighting, no blood. That was the only thing that could make her smile, what were these idiots smiling about? The more she watched, the more she started to make sense of it.

No pain, no fear… Those children weren't afraid, they didn't get punched or kicked or shocked when they ignored orders. It was explained to her as 'kindness'. She started to apply that word to the doctor…

The first ordered kill, far from her first kill, was easy. She was locked in a room with an advanced soldier not much older than her. That was only ever going to have one ending.

Snikt! Snikt!

She smiled…

She was submerged in the tank wearing a breathing mask. The needles advanced on her arms and legs. This was supposed to make her stronger, more indestructible. She like the sound of that but not the method. The needles punctured her skin and muscle and hit bone. Then she felt the burning. She screamed…

All the faces flashed by quickly, like flicking though a folder of ghost profiles. Her missions were only ever coded two ways, stealth or assassin. This was her own mission and she chose stealth. She had to find him. He was the reason she was this way, why they tortured her her entire life. Why she wasn't human…

She was on fire, everything hurt and she couldn't heal. The kind girl was dead. She punched through thin wall with her claws and found the dirt. She rolled and crawled her way on her melted flesh to the woods. Something had been in that powder…

The red-headed girl made sense to her. Kill the men that were responsible for the deaths in Rochester and for that powder that stopped her healing factor. She was fighting cops and tasers and red-eyed X-men but her healing factor still wasn't working properly. All of a sudden the scenes kept changing with brimstone and a hundred punches. Then she smelled strawberries…

She played with him, like a cat with a mouse. She drew it out, threatening first as part of routine but she wanted to see it, the fear. It wasn't the death he deserved if he wasn't afraid. She scanned the report speed reading. She had Guy in the corner now, right where she wanted him. She started to pour the poison down his nose and watched his eyes. There… that was what she wanted… She poured more, he coughed and choked. She smiled as she waited and watched the life leave his eyes…

They left her for dead, some heroes they were. She was inclined to think that Jean was the only sane one of them….

It made sense, Rogue was dangerous. And this was what she was made to do. She stuck her claws in deep and twisted them and she looked back at those wide pale green eyes…

"Ahhhhrghhhh!" She jolted awake and saw her lifeless body pressed against her skin. Her body was lifted back by an unseen force and dropped to the floor like a discarded rag doll. She didn't understand, that was her on the floor; that was her body. She lunged forward but found her limbs bound to the wall behind her.

"Where am I?!" She demanded of her unseen captor before she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the metal wall across from her. "What did you do to me!" She lurched and wrenched her limbs against the restraints.

Snikt! Snikt! Snikt! Snikt!

Claws erupted, two from each bound fist one from each bound foot along with a screaming growl. The Wolverine stepped out of the shadows and watched patiently.

"Logan!" She locked eyes with him. "What the hell is going on?!" He looked at her up and down.

"You tell me, kid?" He stood in front of her going eye to eye. "Why did you stab Rogue?" He said gruffly.

"Oh come on!" Laura replied. "She had it coming! She's dangerous! You just can't see it because she has you under some kind of spell…" She trailed off. She sniffed the air and her mood changed abruptly. "You're not Logan…" She growled.

"True…" The form shifted in front of her quickly the Wolverine to the striped haired Southerner.

"YOU!" She lunged and growled but couldn't move. "LET ME GO!"

"Why'd you try to kill me?" She asked calmly. Laura stayed quiet and refused to answer her for at least five minutes before Rogue threw her hands into the air in frustration.

"Fine! You win!" Rogue declared and changed form again to a tall slender blue woman. She had never seen her before in her life but a barrage of memories hit her when she saw the stranger. No, not a stranger, Mystique…. She growled and panted and stared at her wrists at her claws of bone, not Adamantium, as something seemed to register like a past life amidst her sudden panic. She looked at her reflection again as it all made sense.

Un-snikt-kt-kt-kt!

"Rogue?" Mystique stepped closer. Rogue looked up at her and back down to Laura's still body on the floor.

"What did you do?!" She shouted, knowing full well what had been done.

"We saved your life." Another voice in the shadows answered. Rogue looked over and saw the yellow glowing eyes. Rogue felt his powers causing the Magneto inside of her to activate on instinct, her own eyes changing to match his.

Her restraints flew off her against the far wall, denting the metal panel. She fell to the floor like a cat and advanced on Eric. He sent various metal components her way, but her eyes changed back to normal as the pieces passed through her ineffectively.

She lunged for him and grabbed him by the front of his costume and threw him against the nearest wall. She heard Mystique's approach from behind and turned to grab her and throw her on top of him as flames started to appear around her form with the power of the Phoenix.

"You appeared to us, Rogue!" Mystique shouted halting Rogue's next attack. "What were we supposed to do?!"

"Ah appeared to him," She pointed to Magneto, "Ah didn't know you'd still be skulkin' around after that stunt you pulled!" She shouted at her adoptive mother but she returned to her key point to the both of them as they stood to face her. "You could have brought me to a hospital!"

"You were dead, Rogue." Raven stepped forward, causing Rogue to step back from her. Rogue kept stepping back until she reached Laura's body. She felt for a pulse and shook her head.

"You killed her…" Rogue told them.

"She killed you first." Mystique replied coldly.

End of Chapter 76

A.N. How many of you had to do some re-reading to pick this up again? My sincerest apologies for the year between Chapter 75 and 76 to you if you have been waiting, maybe you're new? And I left you on a cliff hanger… evil of me… Rogue and Logan were never far from my mind last year and neither were you! We still have a way to go but we'll have fun on the way!

Tóg go bog é, mo chairde!

R&R, RR