Fan Fiction ❯ X-Men Evolution: The Protector ❯ Two Souls ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: none of this mine except for Chibistorm and the Guardians. I'm not making any money from it, so don't sue me!!! ;)

Chapter 1: Two Souls

The gates to Professor Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters swung open in the pale moonlight. The girl glanced behind her and quickly ran across the threshold. The gates swung shut once more. For a moment she stood there looking back at the place which had been her home for the past ten months. then her jaw tightened and she began to walk quickly down the road, not once looking back.

For a while now, the girl known only as Rogue had been set upon by an incessant urge to find out who she really was. Granted, she was a mutant but she had no ideas about her real family. A blind lady named Irene had brought her up. But at the onset of her powers Rogue had been transferred to the town of Bayville by Mystique. She had soon found out that Mystique was a fraud and a charlatan and had gladly joined the Xavier school.

And the X-men.

Now, she followed the feeling deep within her, the one that told her to find her family. She thought that it was perhaps a side effect of what her friend Kurt Wagner had gone through earlier in the year and had tried to shrug it off. But the feeling persisted and she had came awake in the night and without really knowing what she was doing, begun to dress and sneaked out of the Institute.

Rogue checked her small wallet. She had just over a hundred dollars, which she had been saving since the feeling had started. She guessed she had been saving because she had secretly known it would come to this. She could've told the Professor but she had never been able to do it. But the Prof was the world's best telepath and so she figured he probably had known of her intention.

*********************************

Gotta be dyed. Gotta be. The ticket collector thought as she took the teenage girl's money. The girl with the striking white bangs set against the rest of her hair, which was auburn, looked nervously about.

"Here you go!" she said brightly. "One ticket to Caldecott County!"

The girl smiled and took the ticket. "Thanks. When does the bus leave?"

"In about ten minutes, over at terminal three. You have a nice night now!"

Rogue took her ticket and went to the terminal. Sitting on a bench she tried to figure out her plan. If she demanded that Irene tell her who her parents were, it wouldn't work. Irene had never given in to her demands before. She had to lead up to it slowly.

The bus arrived and Rogue took her seat, staring out of the window.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, fasten yoah seatbelts, this is the one-way trip to Station Who-You-Rilly-Are." she said softly.

********************************

The bus had got into Caldecott at 6:50am and it had taken Rogue an hour to walk to her old neighbourhood. She walked slowly up the familiar streets, watching as her old home came into view. She gasped when she saw Irene standing upon the steps, seemingly waiting for her with her old mug in her hands.

"Hello Rogue. I always could recognize your step." Irene said warmly. "Come on in. It's quite a long trip from Bayville."

"How have you been?" Rogue asked. The blind woman smiled.

"I was always a survivor, dear. You know that." she said. "Raven told me you'd gone to Xavier. I haven't heard from her since though."

Rogue frowned. "Well a lot of stuff has happened and no-one's seen her for quite a while now." she said, thinking of the battle on Asteroid M.

"I hope she's okay." Irene said. "We were quite...close at one time."

Rogue bit her lip to stop herself from telling Irene what exactly Mystique had been up to.

Irene's face turned serious. "I know why you're here child."

Rogue's head shot up. "Y-you do?"

"Yes. And I do have part of the answer, but I'm afraid you're not going to like it. I know who your mother is, if not you're father."

Rogue leaned forward. "Please...tell me. Ah need t'know!"

Irene nodded. "Very well."

***************************

God. Dear God.

Of all the mothers in the universe she could've had it had to have been Mystique. Or if you preferred, Raven Darkholme.

Rogue leaned her head back. Irene had given her the information she sought and when the girl had gone into hysterics, refusing to believe such a thing, she had produced a birth certificate from a locked cabinet. According to the certificate she was Rebecca Sabine Marie Darkholme. Quite a mouthful. No wonder she'd always stuck with Rogue. So much simpler. The certificate had a man named Alexander French (Deceased) down as her father but Mystique had told Irene that father's information was false.

Rogue had ran out of Irene's house, still in hysterics and went straight to the nearest bus station. She had told a shocked ticket collector that she wished for the next bus to leave to anywhere.

Now she sat on the New Orleans Park bench, trying to sort out the information in her head. If Mystique was her mother, that meant that Kurt was her brother. He had to know. But somehow, Rogue couldn't bear the thought of returning to the Xavier Mansion.

She looked at the large pond in front of her.

Maybe be better for them, for everyone if Ah never return.

********************************

"Rogue's done what??" Jean Grey's voice rose by several octaves.

"It appears she went to find her family. The woman who cared for her has just phoned me." Professor Charles Xavier said.

"Is she on her way back then?" Katherine "Kitty" Pryde asked. The Professor sighed.

"I do not know. Irene said that when she found out who her mother was she ran away."

"She found out who her Mom is? How can that be so bad?" Kitty asked.

"Because her mother is also my mother." Kurt said teleporting beside Kitty. "the Professor told me whilst you were stuffing your faces in breakfast this morning."

Kitty understandably looked shocked. So did Jean and Scott Summers.

"Mystique is her mother? Then Rogue is your sister?" Scott said. Kurt shot him a "Duh!" look. Sometimes the leader of the team known as the X-Men could be so dense, as Kitty would say.

"Why isn't she blue then?" Kitty asked suddenly. Everyone looked at her.

"What?" Kurt asked.

"Well you and Mystique are like, blue. Rogue isn't."

"Just because Rogue is Mystique's daughter, she doesn't have to be blue." Xavier said. "She may very well take after her father."

Kurt stood up. "We shouldn't be sitting round here discussing skin colour! right now, Rogue may be out there, hurt or lost. We have to find her!"

Xavier smiled at the boy's selflessness. Well said Kurt, he congratulated him. Kurt smiled in his direction.

Well Prof, if all this IS true, Rogue is my LITTLE sister. I have to look out for her.

*********************************

16 year old Remy LeBeau walked slowly around the edge of the pond near his apartment complex. He liked the pond at night. It was a dark and secret place where you could sit and think. He raised his eyebrows at the girl sitting a few hundred feet away from him. He'd never seen her round here before. Then he noticed the two carrier bags at her feet. Ah, a runaway.

She didn't seem to notice him so he decided to just leave well alone. He had his own life to worry about.

He drew a cigarette out of the packet in his coat pocket and lit up. Inhaling deeply, he watched the smoke climb lazily towards the sky. As he smoked, he noticed the girl get to her feet stiffly, as if she'd been sitting on the bench for a few hours. It was only when she dived into the pond that he dropped the cigarette and stared in shock as the girl disappear beneath the water.

What de hell?

He watched the water for a couple of minutes. The girl didn't come up.

Oh no. He thought. The girl was trying to drown herself, if she hadn't succeeded already.

Then what are you standin' there for? SAVE HER! a voice in his head screamed. Remy ran toward the pond, ripping off his coat, shirt and boots and dived in himself.

Forcing his eyes open against the water, he still couldn't see. It was pitch black. Instead he concentrated on using his other senses. He swam around for a bit, until his hands brushed against something solid. He got closer and yes, it was a body. Not wasting time, Remy, grabbed it under the arms and hauled it out of the inky blackness of the pond.

When he got to the shore, he laid the figure in his arms down upon the grass. Her face was pale, her sodden hair clinging to her scalp like a helmet. She wasn't breathing.

I'm too late. But still, it never hurts t' try.

And with that thought in his mind he lent down, and proceeded with mouth-to-mouth.

C'mon chere, breathe. You're too pretty to waste your life now!

*******************************

Rogue opened her eyes. Blinding sunlight appeared the minute she did so she quickly shut them again. After a few minutes she opened them, more slowly this time. She was lying on a sofa, in the living room of somebody's apartment.

Why ain't Ah dead yet?

"Ah, chere, you're awake." said a relived sounding voice in the corner. Rogue sat up and turned to look at her rescuer. He smiled at her.

"Who are you?" Rogue asked. The handsome young man held out a hand.

"Name's Remy LeBeau, and you are?"

"Mah name's Rebecca but mah friends call me Rogue." Rogue replied. They shook hands and it was only after that she realised something.

She wasn't wearing her gloves.

She looked at her hands oddly. Somehow, Remy was able to touch her without getting knocked out. But how?

Remy walked into the adjoining kitchen and handed her a steaming mug of coffee. Rogue thanked him and sipped at the dark liquid. Remy sat beside her, his own mug of tea in his hands.

"Now, question. Why would a belle like you wanna go endin' her life in a dark, sludgy, N'Orleans pond?"

"Ah don't have the greatest of lives."

"Neither do I."

"Ah guess.. Ah guess it jes' all got on top of me." She looked up at him. "Nice contacts by the way."

"Chere. Dey not contacts."

Rogue looked at his red on black eyes. "You're a mutant."

"Yes. Wait, you know about mutants?"

"Yeah, Ah should do. Ah'm one too."

**********************************

"Fate."

"Destiny."

"You, Goddess, rule such things."

"Yes."

"Will the child survive?"

"Natural immunity."

"Just like her father. Clever my Lady. Very."

"Why thank you Brush."

"Was it your job to bring these two souls together?"

"It was my job to ensure the Protector of Earth shall be born. From that time it will be up to her family and of course, her own power."

"Of course."