X-men Evolution Fan Fiction ❯ Starting Today ❯ Chapter 30

 

Rogue rolled over in her bed and opened her eyes to the morning sunlight streaming through the window. She wanted nothing more than to just lay in bed for the rest of the day, but she couldn't. There was too much to do today. It's just like the saying goes, today's the first day of the rest of your life What direction was it going in though? At the end of the day, would she come out alone, or would she have Remy by her side? Last night had been sweet, so sweet. She had wanted to stay in his arms forever. All good things come to an end though, and they'd had to part. Seeing him today wouldn't be quite so pleasant. He was supposed to join with them once the groups confronted each other in the tunnels, leaving Magneto with one less ally. It sounded so simple, so straightforward. She couldn't help but worry though. There was a sense of foreboding in her heart, and for the life of her it just wouldn't leave.

Kitty phased through the door, the towel wrapped around her head making it obvious that she had just taken a shower. She opened the door to the closet and started looking for something to wear, all the while chattering about her date with Kurt the night before.

"We went to the park last night Rogue and it was like SO romantic..........."

"I really don't need to hear about your date with my brother........."

".........and then he was kissing me and his tail went right up my........"

"TMI Kitty!!!" Rogue shouted, and threw a pillow towards her roommate's head.

Kitty blushed and ducked back into the closet. "Like, sorry Rogue."

Rogue rolled her eyes. It wasn't like she hadn't done worse things with Remy, but this was her brother Kitty was talking about. Sheesh. She was deep in contemplation of the ceiling tiles when Kitty spoke again.

"You probably want to get dressed. Jean mentioned that the Professor wants everyone to meet him downstairs in twenty minutes."

"Okay, thanks."Here we go

Kitty dropped through the floor after she finished dressing and Rogue crawled out of bed. Getting dressed didn't take her very long and she only put on minimal makeup today since she knew they were going down into the tunnels. Going down the stairs she wondered how Storm was going to take this. She'd probably flip. Evan's departure for the Morlocks had hurt her badly and now the possibility of him getting hurt might be more than she could take. God help anyone who tried to hurt that woman's family; she was not someone you wanted to mess with.

When she got down to the Rec room she discovered that everyone else was already there waiting for her. She perched on the arm of the couch and looked over at where the Professor was sitting on the other side of the room. He nodded to her.

"Thank you for joining us Rogue. Now that everyone is here I'll explain what's going on. It's been brought to my attention that Magneto has come up with a plot to capture mutants in order to experiment on them. He would then erase their memories and use them as soldiers. He's engaged the services of a mutant scientist and set up a lab for this purpose."

There were various cries of outrage throughout the room.

"Buckethead's got a lot of nerve!"

"How dare he?"

"Who's he going to take?"

"Wait till I get my hands on him........"

Professor Xavier raised his hands. "Everyone calm down, please. To answer your question, Magneto plans to take the Morlocks." There was silence and Storm whispered from the corner. "Evan.........."

Xavier looked over to her. "It will alright Storm, nothing will happen to him. We're going to go down to the tunnels and join with the Morlocks. Magneto will not be expecting us there."

Scott raised his hand. "Professor, how did you find all this out?"

Xavier looked slightly uncomfortable for a moment and looked over towards Rogue. She shrugged. Well, it has to come out sometime.

"It was through the joint efforts of Rogue and Gambit."

There was perfect silence for a moment. The rest of the X-Men looked like you could have knocked them over with a feather. Rogue thought it was the first time she had ever seen them all truly speechless. The conversation, or rather ranting, that followed though could have been read off a script. Scott was raving about how could she trust an Acolyte and they were most likely being led into a trap. Logan had his claws out, going on about filthy Cajuns and how he better not have gotten anywhere near Rogue and how he should have paid better attention to what Rogue was doing. Kurt was questioning her sanity for trusting the enemy. The others just remained looking stunned and whispered among themselves. Jean was the only one who had already known what was going on, but she did a good job of acting surprised, since Xavier didn't know that she knew.

Ever the doubtful one, Scott shook his head. "I just can't accept this. How can you trust him, Rogue? How do you know he isn't just playing you?"

Rogue sighed. She hadn't wanted it to go this far, but she should have known better than to think that they would just accept her word that Remy would be on their side. She'd have to tell them.

"Scott, he's opened his mind to me completely. I trust him. He isn't hiding anything."

There was a little gasp from Kitty. "You......you're in love with him, aren't you?"

If Rogue thought the room had been chaotic before, she hadn't seen anything yet. The same people who had been merely protesting before were now threatening bodily harm to her boyfriend in some rather nasty ways, several of which made her cringe. She was surprised to hear a couple of the more inventive ones come from her own brother. She'd always thought him to be such a gentle soul. Obviously not.

Professor Xavier raised his voice to be heard above the racket. "Everyone please! I understand that this comes as a surprise to you all, but now is not the time to be upset. We need to get down to the tunnels and join the Morlocks before Magneto and the Acolytes find their way there. Gambit is going to join us once we arrive. I want everyone's word that no one will attack him once we get down there."

There were some grumblings from various people but everyone agreed. Once again Scott spoke up.

"Professor why weren't we told about this?"

"I'm sorry that we had to keep everyone in the dark but Dr. Essex is a telepath. I couldn't take the risk of him scanning the minds of any of you. Rogue and Gambit were safe because of their mental shields."

Scott nodded but he still didn't look too happy about it.

"Now I want everyone ready to leave in fifteen minutes. You're dismissed."

O-o-o-o-O

The tunnels that the Morlocks lived in were just as dank, wet and musty as Rogue remembered them being the last time she was down here, when they were looking for Evan. Every drop of water, every footstep on the concrete echoed throughout the corridors, announcing their presence as surely as if they had wrung a doorbell. They weren't too far from the last place they had seen Storm's nephew when a voice came out of the darkness.

"That's far enough."

The lean figure they recognized as Callisto came into the light, Evan a few steps behind her. He didn't look happy to see them.

"Auntie O, what are you guys doing here?"

"Evan, you and the other Morlocks, you're all in danger. Magneto and his Acolytes are on their way down here to capture you for some kind of experimentation. You have to get out of here."

Callisto spoke up at this. "No surface dweller, the Morlocks do not run. We will defend our home against any who come against us." From the shadows the forms of the other Morlocks could be seen. The expressions on their faces showed the seriousness of their determination to stand and fight.

Storm nodded in acceptance. "Alright, then we will fight with you. Evan is still part of our family, and we won't let anything happen to him."

Anything else she might have said was broken off when a growl came from Wolverine.

"We've got company coming."

Scott instantly became alert. "Jean, what can you sense?"

She closed her eyes for a minute. "Ten mutants. Three of the Acolytes; Pyro, Colossus and Sabertooth, and seven mutants I don't recognize..........they're hired help from Essex!"

Logan took a sniff. "I smell Magneto. He must have that bucket on. So that makes eleven."

Rogue was in a panic. Three of the Acolytes....only three.......where's Remy........where the hell is Remy? Holy shit something must have gone wrong..........

Jean sensed her distress and tried to calm her down. It's okay Rogue, I'm sure Remy is fine

Don't you dare tell me everything's fucking fine when Remy's not here! Just shut the hell up Grey!

Jean gave up and turned her attention back to the others.

Scott was asking her how close they were.

"Just about......" Her voice died as a familiar growl was heard around the corner. ".......here."

O-o-o-o-O

They came around the corner looking like they owned the place: Magneto with his ridiculous looking bucket on his head, still managing to look menacing regardless; Sabertooth who always looked menacing; Pyro who just looked insane; Colossus looking stoic and wall-like, and the seven strangers, most of whom looked like something out of a nightmare, all of whom had an evil gleam in their eyes. They didn't seem surprised to see the X-Men standing along with the Morlocks; in fact Magneto had a little smirk on his face as if he had been expecting it. Rogue felt the sudden urge to throw up. She knew without a doubt now that something was very, very wrong.

Magneto spoke up. "Look my friends, we have a welcoming party. Well, all the more to join us, I say. Vertigo, Blockbuster, if you'll do the honors please?"

One of the mutants stepped forward and threw a round object deep into the middle of the gathered Morlocks. When it exploded, it sent a gas pouring out into the tunnel and people started to collapse. Storm quickly sent a wind to blow the gas and bomb away, but not before five Morlocks were knocked out cold.

The other mutant that Magneto spoke to grinned and closed her eyes for a second. The next thing Rogue knew she was on her knees trying to fight the massive wave of nausea that was passing through her. It was like everything she had eaten for the past week had committed mutiny and was trying to abandon ship as quickly as possible. From the groans around her she could tell that the others were experiencing the same thing. This seemed to be the cue to attack, for the rest of Buckethead's new crew was now coming at them. Damnit, how is a person supposed to fight when they're trying to not toss their cookies? Rogue gritted her teeth and raised her head as best she could. The bitch with the sickening touch was standing off to the side, laughter in her eyes.

Oh yeah, this is so fucking funny, I wonder if you'll find this funny?

She called up Scott's power and aimed right at the woman's head, knocking her to the ground. Immediately the nausea passed and Rogue was able to get up. She shook her head, trying to get her bearings. "Damn, she packs a punch." What to do now though? She needed to find Remy. Was he okay? What had happened? Piotr. Remy had always said that if they got in a fight that she should take on Piotr if she couldn't fight him. She knew that the two had something of a friendship; if anyone would be able to tell her what had happened, he would.

She looked around and saw the large Russian a few yards away, getting ready to face off against Kitty. Rogue ran over and got between them, turning her head to look at Kitty. "Why don't you get out of here, Kitty? Me and the big boy here have something to discuss." Her roommate gave her a funny look but went to help the others. Rogue turned back to her adversary.

"Where is he, Piotr? Where's Remy?"

Piotr looked confused. "I don't understand. Why are you looking for him?"

Rogue sighed. "Maybe this will help you out." Using Mystique's powers, she briefly changed her form to that of the blonde bimbo she had used to get out of the Acolyte's base the night she and Remy had broken into Magneto's office. The larger man's eyes widened in recognition and she shifted back to her own form.

"Now do you understand? Remy was supposed to be here today. Obviously he's not. That tells me something is wrong. Now WHERE the HELL is he?"

Piotr looked around then lowered his voice. "Somehow Dr. Essex found out that Remy was planning to betray Magneto. One of his new friends over there knocked Remy out and Essex is taking him to the same lab we're supposed to take the Morlocks to."

"Oh my god......" Rogue whispered. It was her worst nightmare. She wanted to scream, just take a minute and break down and cry like a little girl, but she couldn't. The person who was the best thing to ever happen to her was in trouble; he who had been there so many times for her, now she needed to do the same for him. She clutched the ring underneath her glove; had it just been a week ago that he had stolen it and given it back to her?

She grabbed Piotr's hand. "You have to help us."

"What? I can't. You don't understand........"

"Do you like what you're doing? Do you want to see these innocent people, these kids, tortured for no good reason? And now he's going to do the same thing to Remy. I thought he was your friend?!"

"Remy is my friend. Magneto.......my sister..........."

"Piotr, whatever hold Magneto has on you, we can help you. Professor Xavier won't let anything happen to your sister. I don't know your sister, but do you think she would be happy knowing that you hurt people in order to protect her?"

Piotr looked extremely unhappy. "No, she would not. I am deeply ashamed of what she would think of me."

"Then help us. Help Remy."

He nodded. "Alright. I will help you."

Rogue smiled. "That's great." She used Jean's power to send a message to her and Scott. I don't have time to explain guys, but Colossus is fighting on our side now, so don't attack him, okay?

She could sense the confusion from both of them but they both quickly agreed not to get in the now ex-Acolyte's way. Negotiations done, they turned to the ongoing battle.

"What about Magneto?" Piotr seemed uneasy about facing his former employer, and with good reason. The Master of Magnetism could easily kill the metal giant.

"You go help the others Piotr, let me worry about Buckethead."

Magneto had grabbed a couple of the unconscious Morlocks and was getting ready to take them to the surface. Rogue fired an optic blast at his back that sent him to his knees, making him drop the two bodies he had been carrying.

"If you think you're going anywhere with those people, you're gonna have to go through me first."

He got back up on his feet, a little shakily and turned to face her. "Rogue", he sneered, "do you really think you can take me?"

"Well I guess there's only one way to find out, now isn't there?"

Magneto smirked. "True, but aren't you missing someone this morning? Ah yes, the little traitor. My friend Essex has him for company now, and he's making a new man out of that piece of swamp trash." He made a motion with his hand and a piece of metal flew up from the flotsam on the ground and aimed towards Rogue's head. She ducked and jumped back out of the way. Magneto used his power to rip a section of water pipe from the ceiling of the tunnel and proceeded to try to bash Rogue's head in. She managed to fend him off, dodging and jumping, but she knew she had to put an end to this. She slipped off a glove then used Jean's telekinesis to try to wrench the pipe out of Magneto's hand. They struggled against each other for a minute, but eventually she succeeded and the pipe flew away to clank against the wall and drop to the floor. With a cry she jumped at him, her bare hand aiming for his face. He tried to get out of the way but she was to fast for him, and her hand clamped down on his face, earning a choked sound from him as his powers and life force were sucked out of him. After a minute or so she let him drop, and he lay on the ground like a ragdoll; he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Rogue smirked as she glanced at the Master of Magnetism lying helpless at her feet, enjoying the borrowed energy that flowed through her.

I guess that will teach him not to underestimate me.

O-o-o-o-O

Behind Rogue, the battle raged on.

The New Mutants had been left at the mansion, so it was just Rogue, Kurt , Kitty, Scott, Jean, Storm and Logan.

While Rogue was facing off against Magneto, Scrambler had used his disruptive energy to knock out Kurt and two more Morlocks. Not being able to get to their friend in time to help him, Jean trapped Scrambler with her telekinesis while Scott fired an optic blast at him to knock him out. Feral, one of the Morlocks, went into a rage when she saw her sister Thornn knocked out by the invader and would have ripped him to shreds as he lay unconscious but Jean stopped the animalistic mutant with her mind.

"No. Killing him will not help your sister. Please, leave him alone and help the others."

Feral snarled at the girl but went off to join the fighting.

Wolverine and Sabertooth were paired off as usual but their fighting was a little more intense than normal. Logan had a score to settle with the other man for Mystique's death. He had never liked the woman but she was still Rogue and Kurt's mother, and her death had hurt them deeply. Besides, any additional excuse to carve a piece out of Sabby's ass was good enough for him.

The close quarters of the tunnels didn't leave much room to run or jump but that was just fine with him, just all the more reason to sink his claws into his favorite punching bag. Sweat hung in the dank air as they fought, the only noise being occasional snarls as they ripped and tore at each other, wounds healing quickly. Neither had to say anything, but they both knew: it was ending here. Only one of them would walk away from this fight.

The battle gradually got faster, more intense. Their wounds weren't closing quite as quickly as before and both were starting to show signs of fatigue. Logan knew he had to end this soon. Taking a chance the shorter mutant jumped on Sabertooth's back and, grabbing his hair, whispered in his ear. "Well it's been fun asshole. See you in hell." Then with every bit of strength he had he used his claws to cut the man's head off. The two fell to the floor and Logan quickly got up, looked down at the body of his long- time enemy and spat on it. He noticed he was still holding the head by the hair and dropped it. He stretched, cracking the bones in his neck, then cracked his knuckles.

"Damn, that felt good." Hearing a roar behind him, he turned around to see one of the Morlocks change into a dragon in order to face Pyro's flaming creations.

"Damn firebug." He cursed under his breath as he made his way to sneak around behind the Acolyte, hoping the young Morlock would distract him. Luckily the pyromaniac was too entranced with his own work to pay any attention to what was going on around him. Scaleface in her dragon form gave a squeal of pain as she was singed by the winged fire dragon that Pyro was wielding. Pyro just laughed, this was just too much fun. He thought his dragon was much prettier than the real thing. She couldn't even fly! His party ended when he heard a snarl behind him.

"Time to put you out, kid." The cables on his flamethrowers went SNAP! and bye bye went his beautiful dragon. He turned around slowly, afraid of what he'd see. When he did he was sorry he'd turned, for there was the evilly grinning face of the Wolverine, as big as life and twice as ugly.

"Ummm.....hullo there mate, beautiful day, ain't it?" He laughed nervously.

If anything, Wolverine's grin just got bigger. "Yeah, but not for you it isn't." With a snarl, he cuffed Pyro across the head and the poor Australian was down for the count. Scaleface shifted back to human form and walked over to them.

"Hey, thanks mister."

"No problem, kid. If he starts waking up, you change back and just knock him upside the head again, okay?"

The girl grinned. "Okay."

Logan gave her a little smile and walked off.

Piotr was holding his own against Riptide, the latter's bone shuriken bouncing off the Russian's metal skin. He had a hard time getting a punch in though, as Riptide would spin so fast. Finally the Morlock Masque came up to them and grabbed Riptide and, using his ability to psionically sculpt flesh, caused the man's nose to drip down his face. Riptide was in such shock and pain from this that it gave Piotr the time he needed to knock him out. He turned to the Morlock.

"Thank you."

Masque merely nodded and walked away.

Evan and Marrow were holding their own against Harpoon and his charged spears. Marrow had a similar mutation to Evan's, and while she wasn't exactly the friendly sort, they had a mutual respect for each other and fought well together. So caught up in the battle were they, that they didn't hear Blockbuster sneak up on them from behind. It was a complete surprise to them both when he used his super strength to club Marrow in the head and take her out. Evan turned his head to see what was happening and didn't have a chance to dodge the spear that was aiming straight for his chest. It drove right through him, turning his heart into mincemeat and pulling him backwards into the ground with the force of the blow. He choked on his own blood for a minute or so before his eyes closed for the last time.

Storm was nearby fighting Prism when she saw her nephew go down. When that spear went through his chest it was like her own heart had stopped. Everything in her body felt as cold as ice. All she could feel was pure rage. Then his eyes closed.

"EVAN!!!!!!!!!" she screamed. And it was like the heavens screamed with her. Her eyes glowed a colder white than anyone had ever seen them before. Hurricane force winds swept through the tunnels, knocking people left and right, putting a stop to the fighting and rocking the very foundations of the walls. Storm turned to face Harpoon, the mutant who had killed her nephew, and there was pure hatred in her eyes. "YOU" she spat out, and it was like the wrath of God had spoken. A huge ball of lightning collected in her hands and she threw it at him. He got lucky and managed to duck out of the way and the lightning exploded against the wall, taking out an enormous section of the tunnel. People cried out in fear as the walls shook.

"Storm! No!" someone cried out.

She was beyond hearing though. An even bigger ball was created and this time she hit paydirt; where once there was a mutant was now a scorched ball of flesh. This one also took out a section of wall though and this time the shaking didn't stop.

"The ceiling! It's going to collapse!"

Scott took charge. "Come on everyone, let's head back to the entrance."

Jean shook her head. "No Scott, we don't have time for that. This whole place is going to cave in. You blast a hole in the ceiling, and I'll hold it together while everyone gets out."

"I don't like this Jean."

"It's the only way. Now hurry, we don't have a lot of time."

He nodded. "Everyone stand back." He shot up and blasted a hole in the ceiling big enough for people to get through. Jean immediately used her telekinesis to hold the ceiling together so it would collapse. The Morlocks and X-Men started lifting the unconscious and injured up through the hole. Scott looked around. Scott looked around.

"Where are the last three of Essex's crew?"

Rogue searched with Jean's powers. "Looks like they ran out on us after their friend got fried." She looked around. "And they grabbed Magneto on their way out."

Scott sighed. "Well, we can't worry about that now. Let's just get out of here."

Rogue grabbed his hand and used telekinesis to levitate them both out of the tunnels. Sabertooth's decapitated body was being left behind by an unspoken agreement, but Storm picked up Evan's corpse tenderly and brought him aboveground. She couldn't leave him down there. He needed to rest near his family and friends. His mother would never forgive her if she didn't let him have that.

Magneto may have been taken, but Pyro, Scrambler, Vertigo and Riptide had been left behind, and their unconscious bodies were brought safely up with everyone else's; Piotr carrying his friend carefully. He wasn't sure if he could convince John into leaving Magneto; the young man was truly too crazy to really care about one side or another, but he was going to try.

Everyone had been brought to the surface and Jean was preparing to leave herself when a voice came into her head.

Let it fall

What?!

Let it fall. Let the ceiling fall.

No! Are you crazy?

This is what you've been waiting for. What we've been waiting for. All the dreams you've had, they've been leading up to this. Your transformation awaits, Jean. A baptism of blood and you will come out the other side a goddess. Fire and stars will burn in your soul and you will never be cold again. Taste it, Jean. Can you taste it?

Jean smiled.

I can taste it

Scott was standing above the hole in the tunnel, waiting for Jean to come up and join them when he heard a rumble.

"Jean? What's going on down there?"

Jean stood at the bottom, smiling up at him. "Back off Scott. I don't want you to get hurt when this comes down."

"When this comes down? What the hell are you talking about? Get up here!"

"No Scott. I'm about to fulfill my destiny. Take care of everyone for me. I loved you." And she let the ceiling and walls collapse upon her.

"NO! JEAN!!"