X-Men Fan Fiction ❯ HANDS OF A STRANGER ❯ NIGHMERES AND REALITIES: PART TWO ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

NIGHTMARES AND REALITIES PART TWO

First, I would like to say sorry for this post taking so long. I had the worst case of writer's block. It lasted a good month. Now I'm back for the next installment of this story. I wrote this part five different ways. This one turned out the best. And as I promised Logan makes an entrance. Hope everyone enjoys this next part.

This has been one wild ride, and it's not over yet. One last part to go, but until then...enjoy.

Remy drove like a mad man. He wanted to get Rogue to someplace safe. Where they were there was just too many people around, and Rogue was in no condition to deal with spectators. She was still mumbling incoherently, only muttering a few names of people she must have known. He didn't know what to do for her at this point. He couldn't take her to a hospital. He knew all too well how the world treated mutants. He looked down at her cellphone and saw that she was calling out for someone called Logan.

There was a rest stop ahead, so he pulled over taking another long look at her phone. He punched up her contacts. There was only one number listed as X I. He wondered what that meant. He dialed it. He looked hopeful when it started ringing. Soon there was an answer.

“Hey, Rogue, is that you?” a girl answered. “It's Jubilee.”

“Non. I be lookin' for Logan,” Remy said in a trembling voice.

“Who is this, and why do you have Rogue's phone?” she asked.

“Name's Remy, and she be in real trouble. Gotta talk t' Logan.”

Rogue stirred a little. She opened her eyes to see Remy on her phone. “Remy, what yah doin'?” She snatched the phone out of his hand and threw it.

“Rogue, why you do dat?”

“Who were yah callin'?” she asked, getting out of the car. She ran down the highway, until she reached the place where she had thrown her phone. She tested it. It still worked. She shoved it in her jacket pocket and turned around to see Remy behind her. She backed away from him.

“Rogue, what wrong?” Remy asked.

She felt Carol still in her head, yelling at her, mocking her.

Poor little Roguey. Who will be your next victim? Him?

“Stop it!” She shouted. “Leave me alone.” She fell the ground and wept. Remy knelt down beside her and put his hands on her shoulders. She jerked away from him. “Don't touch me!” she screamed.

He backed off a little, feeling how much pain she was in. “It be okay, Chere.”

“No,” she cried. “No, it won't. Don't yah see how dangerous ah am?”

“Non. You jus' confused cuz your powers came back. An' dat girl be runnin' 'round in yah head. T'ings gonna be okay. Remy's gonna help.”

She looked into his eyes, wanting to believe him. In a way she already did. He held out his hand to her. This time he waited for her to take it. She did, although reluctantly. He helped her to her feet and back to the car. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep almost instantly.

The cell phone that had been stuffed into her jacket pocket fell out onto the floor and started to ring. Remy picked it up and looked at the caller ID. The call came up restricted. He answered it anyway. He didn't want the ringing to wake her.

“Hello,” he said, while exiting the car.

“Who is this?” said the man on the other end.

“Remy Labeau. Who be wantin' t' know?”

“This is Logan. Now what did ya do with Rogue?”

“So, you be Logan. I ain't done not'ing to her, but she be in a bad way. She needin' help. She callin' your name in her sleep.”

“If you hurt her...” Remy could hear the man growling on the other end.

“Remy don' wanna hurt...just wanna help her. Dat's all.”

“Then why ya call the school and hang up.”

“Rogue do dat, not Remy. Her powers done come back, since den...”

“What?” Logan demanded, cutting Reny off.

“She got some ot'er girl in her head,” Remy said. “Was an accident. She don' mean t'do it. Jus' happened.”

“Then let me talk to her,” he said in a calmer voice.

“Non. She asleep, an' I ain't gonna wake her. She been havin' a rough few days.”

“Where are ya?”

“We be somewhere in Connecticut,” Remy said, checking the signs on the highway.

“You stay where you are. I'm comin' after her. Just tell me exactly where.”

“Someplace called Middletown. You know where dat is?”

“Don't worry, I'll find it. Just hang tight, but if I find out that you did something…?”

“I know, I know,” Remy said, rolling his eyes. “Ya gonna bash my brains in, right.”

“Yeah, something like that,” he said. Then the line went dead.

Remy peaked into the car to check on Rogue. “Still sleepin',” he said. “Dat good, chere. Ya need ya rest.”

He drove off the highway, looking for a hotel where they could stay. Rogue needed rest and a nice soft bed. That would be better then an uncomfortable seat in a car. He drove about two miles when he spotted a cheap motel. He left her in the car while he went in and check them in. The place was nearly deserted. Rogue was still out cold when he came back out to check on her. He picked her up and carried her into the room. He laid her gently on the bed, while he went out to get their things out of the car.

In all this time he was so worried about Rogue, he didn't realize how exhausted he was. There was only one bed, so he thought he would be a gentleman and sleep on the floor. He fell into sleep rather quickly.

In a few hours time Rogue awoke not knowing where she was. She rose out of bed, still a little unsteady on her feet. She made her way to the bathroom to freshen up. She looked into the mirror of the medicine cabinet, and to her horror she didn't recognize the face looking back at her in the mirror.

“Oh my god,” she said. “This is not my body.” The girl staring back at her in the mirror had green eyes and brown hair with a white streak coming down on either side. Her skin was tanned and flawless. She touched her hands to the mirror. “Who are you?” she asked, obviously not having her southern drool. Wasn't she born in Mississippi? “No, oh god, I wasn't dreaming. I'm not her. I'm Carol.” She told herself that, but the name Rogue kept popping up in her thoughts.

It was real alright, but she still was clinging to the idea of this whole thing being a nightmare. “My name is Carol,” she told herself while looking in the mirror, but the name Rogue was repeated over and over in her mind. “I have to get out of here.”

She flew out of the bathroom and into the motel room. She saw a young man sleeping on the floor. He must have brought her here, not her exactly but the girl known as Rogue. The name of the girl her mind told her that she was.

“I'm not her,” she kept telling herself.

She quietly left the motel room, trying to figure out where she was. She made it to the highway and realized she was in Middletown. She realized she wasn't too far from her parents home, and she so desperately wanted to go home. Would they recognize her? She didn't even know herself, but she had to at least try.

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Remy woke up a few hours later, more exhausted than he was before. He looked up at the bed to see Rogue was gone. He checked the bathroom, but she wasn't there either. Then there was a banging at the door.

“Open up,” he heard a man shouting from outside the door. “I know you're in there, Rogue. I can smell ya.”

Remy staggered to the door. He opened it to see an angry looking man wearing an old tattered pair of jeans, a red flannel shirt and heavy gray boots. Almost immediately the man grabbed him and threw him up against the wall.

“Where is she?” he shouted, holding him with one hand and unsheathing three metal claws with the other.

Remy was terrified, but he didn't show it. There was a playing card in his hand just waiting to be charged, though the burly hot-tempered man didn't know it. “Never know if ya kill me.” With that the man let him loose. “You must to be Logan. Rogue talk about you. So, tell Remy, how you find us so fast?”

“I got my ways. Now, one last time. Where is she?” he demanded, unsheathing his other set of claws.

“Don' know, Mon ami,” he said. “Remy wake up, and she gone. Dat mean she mus' be da ot'er one.”

“What other one?” Logan shouted, attempting to attack Remy again, but he quickly charged the playing card and threw it at him. A small explosion took place in the motel room. The blast grazed Logan arm, but the wound quickly healed.

“You done,” Remy said, “or would you like a ot'er?” Logan came at him again, and Remy quickly charged another card and hit Logan in the chest. Logan cried out, but again quickly recovered. He prepared to come at him again, but Remy was growing tired of this game. “We could be going dis all day, Logan, but it won' help us find Rogue.”

Logan unsheathed his craws and grabbed hold of Remy. “Where would she go?”

Remy shoved Logan off of him. “Like I said, don' know. She gotta be dat ot'er girl. If dat true, she be in Middletown somewhere. Dat what de news say her parents are from.”

“Well, let's go, Gumbo,” Logan said, grabbing Remy by the collar and heading out the door.

“De name's Remy,” he said, shaking Logan off of him. He then led the way to the car.

“Yea, whatever.”

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“Rogue” approached an old Victorian style home. It was her home. She knew it, but a voice inside her mind told her that it wasn't. Her head was spinning, but still she approached. She made it to the porch, but she had no key to get in. She remembered something, her mother's old flowerpot. She had always left the spare key deep down inside it. She looked to check, and there it still was, like it had always been. She picked up the key and unlocked the door. She entered the house, and realized how familiar everything was. That proved it. She had to be Carol.

She found the staircase and walked up the steps to her room, Carol's room. She walked in. She saw her white-canopied bed. She remembered the day she went shopping with her mother and picked it out. She saw her ivory dresser with her jewelry box sitting atop it, and the oval shaped mirror that hung above. She saw the pictures of her family and friends in picture frames cluttering her dresser and hanging up on her walls.

She looked to her bookshelves, remembering where she had purchased each and every book. That had to prove it, who else would have those memories but her. She was Carol, that's what she kept telling herself. She sat on her bed, still looking at herself in the oval mirror. She may have had a different face, but she was still Carol. She had to be.

She laid on her bed, exhaustion overtaking her, she quickly fell asleep.

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Remy drove, but at a leisurely pace. “So, you're Logan,” he said. “Never picture someone like you t' be a friend a Rogue's, but I guess it make sense after what she told me 'bout you.”

“And what was that, Gumbo?”

“Not much, jus' dat you taught 'er how t' fight. Can dat girl fight.”

“How would you know?” Logan said, there was a hint of a threat in his voice. Remy just smiled at him, refusing to answer. Logan could guess what he was thinking. This joker had a dirty mind. He could tell, but if he had done anything to Rogue he couldn't tell. He didn't think so. “So, how do you know Rogue?”

“Met 'er in 'Nawlins. Prettiest fille Remy ever meet. Jus' sorry dis whole t'ing happen. If she not be wit Remy, Belle never woulda got to 'er.”

“Ya sayin 'this is your fault?”

“Non, it Belle's fault. She wait till Remy leave, den she ambush Rogue, use dat girl Carol t'do it. Rogue been havin' bad dreams for days 'bout her powers comin' back. Never t'ink dey would.”

“Oh god,”Logan said, looking out the window. He wasn't really paying attention to where he was. His thoughts pushed towards Rogue, the girl he vowed to always protect. He realized he sucked at that job. He always seemed to be letting her down. Even now, instead of helping Rogue he was stuck with this Cajun, who may have been responsible for Rogue's current state. “So this girl Carol. Where does she live? If Rogue thinks she's her than she may be goin' home.”

“Carol's home? Don't know, Mon ami, but Remy know her last name's Danvers. Hopefully she be listed in da phone book.” Remy turned the corner to a small diner.

“Why are we stoppin', Gumbo?”

“Simple, hungry, and for de last time da name's Remy.”

Remy came through doors and walked up to the front counter and placed his order. When Logan walked in he noticed a kid staring at him. The boy's mother shook her head disapprovingly when Logan whipped out a cigar and lit the end and began to smoke it. He realized he was standing out like a sore thumb, but he did see the phone booth in the corner near the bathrooms.

He walked over and saw an old phone book and fumbled through the pages until he found the D's. Oh, there it was, and the strange thing was is there one only one listing for Danvers. 601 Chestapeak Lane. There was a phone number. Logan quickly dialed it.

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“Rogue” was still sleeping when she heard the phone ring. She picked up the old princess-style phone and answered in a shaky voice. “Hello?”

“Rogue, darlin', is that you?”

“Who are you? How do you know about Rogue?”

“It's Logan,” he said in a soft voice. It was strange, because it was Rogue's voice, but without her southern accent. “Are ya alright?”

“I don't know what you talking about,” she said through cracked speech.” My name is Carol,” she added, her voice becoming more panicked. “My name is Carol.” She dropped the phone receiver. She sat on the bed rocking back and forth, repeating over and over again that she was Carol and not Rogue.

Logan tore the page that held the Danvers' address out of the book and stuffed in his pocket. He could still hear Rogue's chanting through the phone, even though it was faint. A look of fright came to Logan face as Remy came up to him carrying a takeout bag. Logan grabbed him. “Come on, Gumbo. I found her, but we gotta to get there fast.”

“For the last time...”

“I know, I know, but we got more important things to do.”

This time Logan insisted on driving. “Ya sure ya know where t'go, Mon ami?” Remy said taking a bite of his sandwich. The two whipped around the corner and out of site. Logan never did answer the question.

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“Rogue” was in a state of panic. Nothing made sense anymore. Who was that guy on the phone. She recognized his voice. Logan? She knew that name somehow, but she couldn't remember from where. The last thing she did remember clearing was picking up that hitchhiker. She was on her way home. Here. Her parents home, the place she grew up, but she couldn't remember how she got here, only that her was here. Then she remember the hitchhiker, a pretty blond woman with a Cajun accent. What happened to her?

A flash of memory came into her head. “Oh, my god, I...I killed her.” She closed her eyes tight, hoping that when she opened them her own reflection would be looking back at her. She got up off the bed. And felt around until she reached the dresser. She opened them and that face, the face that wasn't hers looked back at her, mocking her.

She screamed out in horror. “Noooo!” She picked up her jewelry box and threw it at the mirror, shattering it to pieces. She fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. “Who are you?”

A memory came to her. A hotel room, there she remembered a girl, the one this face belonged to. A girl called Rogue. That Cajun woman attacked her. Carol was only trying to help her, but something happened when their skin touched. She couldn't remember what.

“Oh, God, I'm her,” she cried, “and she's me.”

Suddenly she heard voices. She got up and ran towards the door. She quietly opened it and walked into the hallway. She heard a woman speak first. “I don't believe what those doctors say. Our baby isn't gone.”

“Don't do this to yourself, honey,” a man's voice came. “We have to face facts. She's not going to get any better.”

She knew those voices. “It's mom and dad,” she whispered, walking slowly to the staircase. “They're home. They'll know what to do.”

She raced down the staircase and caught up with them in the living room. She was standing in the doorway when the middle-aged couple looked up. Mrs. Danvers gasped at the sight of her.

“Rogue” ran to her and put her arms around her. “Mom,” she cried. “I missed you so much.”

Mrs. Danvers pushed her away. “Who are you, and what are you doing in our home?”

“Mom?” she said, shocked. “It's me. Carol. I know I don't look like me, but it is me. There was a accident and...”

“Shut up,” Mrs. Danvers screamed. “My daughter is lying in a hospital bed, because...” Mrs. Danvers slumped down on the couch sobbing.

“Young woman,” Mr. Danvers demanded. “Leave our home this instant and I won't call the authorities.”

“But Daddy it is me, it really is. There was a accident and this girl, she touched me and, and... Please, you have to believe me! I'm Carol! Don't you remember, when I was four years old you taught me how to ride a bike. I fell off twice and skinned both of my knees. Remember? And Mom, remember when I six and had the chicken pox. You stayed up at night reading to me. Remember. Please, tell me you remember.” She was sobbing now, while Mr. And Mrs. Danvers were frozen where they stood.

“How do you...?” Mrs. Danvers whispered, not able to finish the sentence.

Suddenly a knock came at the door. “Rogue,” she heard a man call out to her. The door was ajar and two men entered the house. The man called Logan could sniff her out anywhere. He stood in the living room. “Hey, darlin', everything's alright now.”

“Who are you?” Mister Danvers asked, picking up the phone. “I'm calling the police.”

“Look, we don't mean to break in like this. We just came for Rogue.”

“Rogue” shook her head. “No, I'm not her.” She tried to run out of the room, but Logan caught her. “Let go of me.”

He had both hands on either side of her face, forcing her to look at him. He wore his heavy leather gloves after learning from Remy that her powers had come back. “Rogue, look at me. You're not Carol. You're Rogue. Don't ya remember. It's Logan.”

“Rogue” was shaking, as tears rolled down her face. “Logan, help me.” She collapsed in his arms and fell unconscious. He scooped her up in his arms. To the Danvers he said, “Sorry, about the trouble. We're leavin', so there no need to call anybody.”

“Why does she claim to be Carol?” Mrs. Danvers said, walking over to the two men.

“It's complicated,” Remy said. “How she doin', Logan?”

“Don't know,” Logan said, looking down at the unconscious Rogue.

“I almost believed her,” Mrs. Danvers said with tears in her eyes. Her husband came over to her and put an arm around her. He still had the phone in his hand.

“Sorry, 'bout dis,” Remy said, Looking at Rogue tenderly and stroking her loose hair. “We goin' now.”

They made it to the car in a matter of minutes and laid Rogue in the back seat. Remy sat with her, talking softly to her. Logan entered the driver's side and took off as fast as he could. He wasn't for sure if that Mr. Danvers really did call the cops and he didn't want to be around to find out.

Remy looked down at the unconscious Rogue. How helpless she looked. She had come back. Logan had done it, somehow, but he wasn't for sure what would happen when she woke up. Would she become Carol again or would she be Rogue, the girl he loved?

Author's note: Hey, everybody. The next post would take quite as long. I'm already working on it. There is one more part to go. What will be Rogue's fate.

I'm also introducing a new character, one of my own. Will she be able to help Rogue, and what will happen when Bobby confronts Remy?

Next up: The Choice