Story Notes – X-3 movie based, without the professor's death. Jean & Scott, however, I am leaving dead.

Disclaimer – Of course I don't own any of these characters or the rights to the X-men (or any other fantastic franchise at all for that matter). I'm pretty sure that if I did I'd have cooler hobbies or be blowing my profits at a karaoke bar right now.

Laying Waste to the Status Quo

Chapter 1 – Who the Cat Dragged In

Rogue had escaped the mansion un-noticed earlier for a night of mischief. She had gone to see a concert and was just heading out of the particularly seedy and dark music club she had been frequenting as of late when she heard the sound of an explosion nearby. The mass of foot traffic on the street ran away from the sound's origin, but Rogue ran straight for it.

She sprinted a few blocks and then rounded the corner, coming to an abrupt stop. In front of her Sabertooth was shaking the dust off of his shoulders and throwing rubble to and fro looking for something. He was cussing and growling, which could only mean trouble, so she quickly reached down and turned on her communicator, setting it to a silent alarm that went to Logan.

To her amazement a man scrambled out of the rubble a few feet from Sabertooth, looking heavily injured yet desperate. He tried to sneak away from the hulking man, but Victor's superior senses picked up his movement almost instantly and he bounded over to the dusty figure quickly. Rogue began to approach the scene cautiously. Sabertooth had now grabbed the young man and was beating him repeatedly against the side of the nearest standing building.

In his vicious glee, the ferocious beast failed to notice the approach of Rogue. She calmly reached down, removing one black glove, and gently grabbed on to Sabertooth's face. In his surprise, the giant dropped his victim in a pile on the ground and tried to pull away from her. Like almost everyone else, he found it impossible to break her hold over him, and weakly flailed his arms as he went down onto his back. Thick black veins pulled at his skin as he grew weaker.

"Sorry kitty. Can't let you kill anyone." She said softly to him as she let go. His eyes were closed and he was very much unconscious with a pale bluish pallor. She paused only a moment to straighten her tangled thoughts and memories out. Then, Rogue reached down and used her newly borrowed increase in strength to hoist the slender battered man in the dust up over her shoulder. "He'll only be out a minute - sorry about this. We gotta hurry." She said to her barely awake cargo. The blackbird touched down 100 feet away, and Rogue ran up the ramp into the back without delay.

Logan was sitting in the cockpit, staring at her as she ran onto the jet. She gently dropped her burden on a stretcher in the back of the plane and growled out "Step on it!" to him. Then, she began to gently work on the man she had rescued. "Sorry about the attitude." She said to Logan. "Absorbed Sabertooth."

"What are you doing out again kid?" He asked her.

"Concert. You know Ah can't stand the mansion on a Friday night." Logan looked in the mirror at her sternly. Friday night was typically a big deal for the mansion's younger population. They'd have group movie nights, pool parties, dances, or play games. Rogue was not exactly a fan of the large gatherings, and it seemed that the mansion occupants were not exactly fans of her attending them. It wasn't a spoken issue, but the tension of her presence always managed to make itself known.

"Friday, or Tuesday, or Sunday either, huh kid?" He chuckled. "Don't care if you go out, but you do seem to find trouble. How am I gonna explain this punching bag to the others?"

"Don't worry – Ah will tell them. Ah got a sort of arrangement with Storm and McCoy. We came to an agreement after the last time..." She said. Logan's eyes went wide with surprise for just a second, and then returned to normal. He grunted and mumbled to himself for awhile, wondering what had gotten Rogue the kind of freedom denied to every single other mansion occupant. It seemed that she had a way of making her demands undeniable at times.

Then again, rules never really applied to Rogue, did they? Her name said it all – she didn't really fall inside the norm and you couldn't fit a triangular peg in the round hole. The remainder of the trip was silent, except the muttering of the injured man in the back.

Rogue was taking care of him expertly, having done a good deal of patch up work on herself in order to avoid 'accidents' with her skin. No one was sure exactly why she was so adverse to doctors wearing gloves getting too close to her. The bloody man on the table was fading in and out of conscience, muttering "Not de lab!" and "Not de chat." Over and over as he tossed his head and twitched.

"Ah ain't gonna hurt you sugah. I'm not taking you to a lab or gonna let Sabertooth get yah." She whispered to him softly. Looking down on him, he was actually quite well built and capable looking. She had no doubt that under better conditions he would have given Sabertooth a run for his money. His face was perhaps too lean, as was the rest of him, and he had the look of someone that had no one to go home to and no place to stop and rest. She felt a pang of kinship to him, but quickly smashed the unfamiliar feeling down deep, setting her face neutral.

They returned to the mansion in a matter of minutes and Rogue and Logan had the man wheeled into the med bay before Hank even had a chance to pull his coat on. The blue giant looked rumpled, and had undoubtedly been pulled from sleep to help them.

"Oh my!" He exclaimed. "What might have happened to cause such calamity?"

"Ah heard an explosion while out and when I got to the scene, Ah found this guy getting tenderized by Sabertooth." Rogue answered calmly. "All I got off of the kitty was that this poor guy refused to work for his boss, and he had orders to bring him in. Well, that, and a strong desire to attack everyone and everything then go out and eat raw meat." She laughed.

Logan and Hank both turned to look at her, with disturbed expressions on their faces. "Yeah. That's Sabertooth alright." Logan growled. "You're going to have some really interesting dreams tonight kid."

Rogue turned to Hank, ignoring the observation. "Hank, he kept muttering while on the jet. Ah think he's afraid of hospitals and labs. Maybe we could move him to a guest room or something after you treat him?" She asked, suddenly all syrup and honey.

As usual, her sudden swap in tone and personality blindsided the confused physician. He blinked, almost speechless. "Ah yes my dear, we can most certainly try to place him in another location more hospitable to him if the tests I conduct suggest that he may be moved without potential for harm." The eager blue mutant spit out quickly. He then turned and began whistling while poking and prodding the unconscious man.

An hour and a half later, Rogue found herself talking to Storm quietly in the hallway outside of the guest room. The two women were discussing the incident in town, while carefully skirting around the fact that Rogue had been out again past curfew without informing anyone. Finally, when Storm figured she could get no more information from the young lady she decided to exact the best punishment that she was able. She smiled somewhat evilly before she left, turning to Rogue one last time.

"Oh Rogue, you will be watching him, won't you?" To her surprise, there was no look of annoyance on her victim's face.

"Ah don't see why not… Besides, maybe he'll recognize me from the rescue and not panic. He seemed terribly worried that we were taking him to some lab with Sabertooth."

"Well child, let me know how he fares."

"Sure thing."

Storm walked back to her room to try and get a few hours more of sleep. As she reached her door, she realized that the young lady she had just spoken with hadn't said as much to anyone in a month as she had tonight. Maybe this mysterious attack victim would help to mend the rift between Rogue and the rest of the mansion… Perhaps he could give her an excuse to be more present, it they could get him to stay awhile.

Inside the guest room, the southern belle tucked another blanket around her charge. She then picked up one for herself and curled up in a chair with a thick book. She turned the light down low and settled in to watch over him. It wasn't long before the sassy striped sentry drifted off in her seat, despite her attempts to stay awake and avoid whatever dreams Sabertooth would supply her with.

Remy woke up slowly, his mind kicking in before the rest of him. His last memory was of a pale faced woman with green eyes leaning over him whispering to him. The problem with this memory was that he hadn't met any green eyed goddesses tonight, and the last thing he remembered before that was the cat-man trying to kill him. Odds were pretty good that someone had taken him captive…

Remy kept his eyes closed, feeling the pain of his recent 'activities' wash over him as his body started to wake up. He could sense that his system was bogged down by pain killers and that he had bandages wrapped around several injuries. This fact brightened his outlook. It was unlikely that Mystique or Sabertooth would bother to try and reduce his suffering. In fact, it seemed likely that they were only trying to capture him to force him to do their dirty job or to take him to their boss for torturing. He definitely didn't feel any restraints on his arms or legs, which was also a good sign.

Feeling that the question of whether or not they had him was resolved, he then set to figuring out where he was. The distant sound of wind could be heard in the trees. There were typical creaks and groans from an old building. If he listened hard enough, he could hear a clock ticking in the room with him. Next, the man let his empathy kick in, trying to get an idea of how many people might be in the area.

There were a lot of different emotions floating around in this place… In fact, there seemed to be far more than could be expected at either the Brotherhood's lair or Weapon X's medical facility. Besides that, either group would be smart enough to put a power inhibitor on him, or he'd just explode himself an escape route. So who had him now? He continued to try and find some clue from the emotions around him about his current situation, but suddenly, a wave of feeling hit him from his right side.

This emotional jumble felt like static on his senses. He couldn't pin down a single source or sort out any neat emotions. Utter chaos. What could be creating this? It seemed to come from a highly localized source, but that seemed impossible. He resisted for awhile, until finally giving into curiosity and slitting his eyes open just enough to look around his room.

'Non?' he whispered. He was in somebody's guest room. Well, not just 'some' bodies… If he had to wager he'd guess that the sleeping woman in the chair not far from his bedside had put him in this guest room.

His still hazy mind decided that he must be hallucinating. No one just rescued him and put him up in a nice cozy guest room unexpectedly. Sure, they might catch him and perform horrible medical experiments on him, or even try to beat him, stab him, or otherwise speed up his death. Heck some people would help him only to blackmail him later, but the list of good fortunes that landed him here was something he really would have a hard time believing. There were even soft blankets tucked around him.

Remy decided he needed a better look at this strange, strange situation. He struggled to pull himself upright. The simple act of trying to sit up, however, was not that easy in his current state. As he struggled to move, his pain amplified tenfold, and he couldn't help but groan in agony.

This caused the slumbering figure to suddenly sit up quickly in her chair, eyes frantic, and almost fall to the floor from her awkward position. The woman clutched her heart for a second, letting her eyes sweep the room frantically. Finally, the emerald orbs settled on her silent companion.

"Yoah awake." She said, sounding relieved. She walked toward him slowly and gracefully, and he continued to try and struggle out of bed. She approached him, gently pushing his shoulders back down onto the bed. "Relax, yoah hurting yoahself worse." Her soft voice chided.

He couldn't help but notice the feel of soft smooth fabric on his skin where she touched him. No latex, so she was definitely not of the military lab or a typical nurse. He could barely function with all of the pain killers clouding his system anyway, and for some reason he would wager that this woman didn't harbor any ill intentions toward him. Hell, she'd obviously tangled with Sabertooth and came to his aid, so she had to be alright…

He let himself drift back toward sleep, but not without first noticing that the strange static seemed to be pooling around her.