X-Men Fan Fiction ❯ Memories ❯ Returning ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two: Returning

 

She felt cold. It was midsummer, but she felt so damned cold. Maybe it was because of her heartbreaking discovery that the cure had failed her and her powers had returned or it could have been Bobby's powers surfacing for a bit. Hell, it could have been because she had just shut off and let every part of her body go numb. She didn't really care at that point. She just wanted to give up and let everything just slip away so she didn't have to deal with it anymore. Still, if she had learned everything in her life, it was that giving up had never been an option. Ah hate m'ah life.

 

Somehow, though, she had managed to muster the strength to go back into the house, where she fell into her bed and pulled the covers over her and cried again. She cried because she was alone. She cried because she just didn't know what to do. What could she do? Her touch, again, was deadly, and for all she knew, she was the only mutant in town. So where did that leave her? Nowhere. Ah have nowhere and no one to turn to. Ah can't go back to the school. People there are afraid of me, students and teachers. They had been since the day they…the day…ah can't exactly remember, but ah stole another mutant's power. Ah nearly killed him! Their fear eats at me. How can ah turn to them when they don't even trust me? Thoughts rushed in her mind and left her confused, so she stopped thinking and just stared into the bleak of the night out the window. Logan. He came to mind again, like he often did. Ah wish ah hadn't tried so hard to forget him. Ah don't even know why ah did. He just seemed too important to forget like that, an' it seems that he could be the only one ah might have been able to turn to in this situation. Ah wish ah knew what happened. Ah wish ah knew where in the world he was so ah could go to him for help!

 

Marie felt the tears coming on again, streaking slow across her cheeks and soaking the pillow that she clutched protectively. It had never bothered her to be alone before, but now, the silence was deafening and the loneliness that she felt overwhelmed her like she never knew it could. She needed someone to come to her and comfort her. She needed to feel protected. But with powers like hers, who could do that anymore? And there seemed to be something different this time around. She could feel the individual powers and memories of the people she'd touched deep within her. When she had taken the cure, they had all gone away, but now they were back, and more powerful than ever. She could feel Bobby, Magneto, her boyfriend whom she put into a coma, and she could even feel Logan in her. That last fact made her smile even though she felt as if she could die. It was his fighting spirit that had been driving her thus far to get up and keep moving. She knew what she had to do. She had to find him. He was the one, the only one, that she could think of turning to.

 

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---Elsewhere: A Year Ago ---

 

It had been almost a year since the death of the Professor, Scott, and Jean and nearly eight months since Logan and Rogue had disappeared into the night. Storm still couldn't sleep most nights and chose to restlessly sit in the library and read, as she often did, or stay up in her office correct her student's schoolwork. Tonight was different though, it felt as if something in the air had changed. She had the ability to control the weather, but she also had a sixth sense. She could feel when the energy of the earth changed or shifted. And it had done so that night. She couldn't quite figure out what it was that had changed. She knew many things were changing in the world, what with the tensions that continued to rise between the mutants and the humans, but this was different. It almost felt as if she could recognize this change. It was familiar, but hard to place.

 

That night, she couldn't even concentrate on a book and kept herself occupied by wandering the halls of the school aimlessly. And that flow of energy continued to twist around her and kept her awake. She had gone and lay down in her bed more than once, but sleep escaped her. She was wide awake and there was nothing she could do to change that. So she just walked, looking in on the children and smiling at them in their sleep. She was glad there was at least some part of the Professors legacy left within those wall. The children would ultimately help in deciding the fate of this world they lived in. She could only hope that they took Professor Xavier's teachings to heart and it helped to steer them along the right path someday.

 

And as she made her rounds, she found that she kept passing by Logan's room and Rogue's as well. It made her wonder how they were and if they were safe. There was no longer the convenience of Cerebro to let them know how someone fared. There wasn't a telepath strong enough to harness its power without killing them. The Professor and Jean had been the only ones able to. So all she had to go by was blind faith and an inward feeling that they were both okay. She just wished that she could be absolutely sure. And as she though on this, the morning broke through the night and she realized that she had been thinking so much that she hadn't felt that flow of energy dissipate away. And then “it” caught her eye as she passed by a window that gave a view of the courtyard.

 

She had been taken aback by it, and had quickly rushed down the stairs and out the door. Taking center stage in the courtyard was a magnificent statue of the Professor sitting in his chair with a proud look on his face as he stared up at the school. On the base of the statue was a single word etched into it: “HOPE.” Storm approached it cautiously, because though it was a thing of extraordinary craftsmanship, it was not a statue made of stone, but of metal. When she got close enough, she ran her hands over the base of the statue, which spanned high above her head, feeling the smoothness of the surface and examining it in total awe. She couldn't fathom how such a thing could have gotten in here unnoticed. She knew that none of her students were capable of working metal in such a way: powers or not, nor were they capable of raising the kinds of funds it would take to create such a thing.

 

As she circled the statue, her hands brushed against something protruding from the top of the base. At first she thought it was an imperfection in the metal, but everything else about it was so perfect, right down to the Professors features. She lifted her hand and looked at what was there. Two letters “E.L.” and something else, in the shape of a helmet were imprinted in the metal and everything came together in her mind. Magneto is back. And instantly, her heart jumped into her throat. He had been injected with the cure and had lost all of his powers, so it was hard to even believe that he had come back, though what other truth could there be. Who else could work metal into shape to become something like this statue before her?

 

And the security cameras had confirmed what she believed to be true. He hadn't even tried to scramble the signal of the cameras. He had wanted to be seen doing it. And when he was finished, he turned directly to the camera and spoke to it. Even though the cameras had no sound, she knew exactly what he said because it was the exact message left on the statue. HOPE.

 

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Marie had found a way to leave the house that night, but not before throwing on jeans and a long sleeved shirt, and drove into town. She knew she had to know more about her past before she could ever move forward and find a way to cope with her returning powers. So, while she knew that she had come to this small town a year ago, how she had actually come to be there was fuzzy. She just had been. There was a gap in her memory, pushed from her mind for reasons unknown, gaps of what she was sure were memories of Logan. The little moments were the ones missing. She didn't know how she had met Logan. There were sketchy places in her memories, like how she had gotten to Xavier's School or why she left. And about eight months of time was missing between the time she left and the time she had shown up in the mountain town as just Marie D'Ancato, with only her few things and that beat up old pickup truck. She knew that finding him was the key to finding out how to feel alive again. Finally, she rounded the corner and parked along the street. There were only a few people she was even relatively close with in that town, the cashier from earlier that day being one of them. Her name was Carla and she was probably the first person that Marie had met in town.

 

Marie knew that she would be at the festival by now, enjoying the rides and the excitement. So she began looking, walking through the mass of people, shrinking away whenever somebody got to close, and just trying to find Carla's familiar face. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack, but she had to try. Something told her that Carla knew something about Logan. Still, as it got busier and busier, Marie was finding it hard to breath. The crowd overwhelmed her, like she knew it would. Her head began to spin and she was starting to feel nauseous. She groaned and cautiously pushed her way out of the mainstream crowd, bending over by a vendors stand and holding her head in pain. She had never experienced this before with her powers, perhaps a bit of it was from stress, but it was still more difficult that she could ever imagine. She had to fight just so she wouldn't throw up this time. In her mind, she saw horrible things: men with needles, prodding and poking her, terrible pain as they cut her open. She could see herself sitting as a child on a boat deck, forming metal into shapes without touching it. At one point she couldn't tell what was a memory and what was real around her or which memories were hers and which were not.

 

“Marie? Marie, my God, honey! You look like you're dying. What's wrong sweetie?” Carla's voice called to her from the horrors in her mind and drew her out and suddenly it all melted away like it had done before. She looked up to smile weakly at Carla and pulled away when the woman tried to take her hand.

 

“No, Carla. Don't touch me. Ah'm dangerous.” Marie tucked her hands up in her sleeves and wrapped her arms around herself, shaking as she got to her feet.

 

“Dangerous? Girl, you are about as dangerous as a newborn kitten.” Carla always had a way of putting the worst things into a sweet perspective, and try as she might, Marie couldn't help but smile. Marie was twenty years old, and Carla had almost fifteen years on her, but the two were close. Carla smiled back and pushed her long black ponytail over her shoulder as she watched her friend.

 

“No. Ah'm dangerous. Believe me, ah am.” Marie looked away, then back to her friend. “Carla? Can we go somewhere that's a little less crowded where ah can sit an' talk with you? Ah got some real important questions for you.”

 

“Sure darlin' if it make you feel better.” The woman always understood and always took things with compassion. The two walked off a bit away from the fairgrounds where the crowds thinned out substantially until they were all by themselves along a bare city street. “Now that we are away from the people, what is it you need to talk about?”

 

“How do you feel about mutants?” It was silent a moment as the two found a bench to sit on. Carla had to think about it a moment.

 

“If you mean, do I hate them, then no. If you mean do I fear them, then I do a little, but I only fear the ones that try to hurt people.” Every word was from the heart, and Marie appreciated that.

 

“What if ah told you that ah was a mutant? Would you fear me?” Carla was obviously taken aback by this and her shocked expression gave her away before she had time to cover it.

 

“A mutant? So, you're a mutant. Is that what's been bothering you?” Carla watched her as Marie nodded lightly.

 

“That's part of it. The thing is, ah used to be a mutant. One touch to m'ah bare skin and ah could put a regular human in the hospital, if ah touched another mutant ah could absorb their abilities for a while, but if ah held on too long ah could kill somebody. That's why when they released the cure to it, ah took it, and all m'ah powers just…just disappeared. But remember how ah was feeling out of funk today? Well, they came back. M'ah powers came back an' ah don't know how or why.” Her lip quivered a bit and she turned away in shame. Carla placed a hand on her back and rubbed it a bit, which surprised Marie since no one had ever wanted to touch her because they feared her.

 

“So, you're a mutant again. There's nothing to be ashamed of by that. However, there's more to this conversation than you coming out about this to me, isn't there?” Carla could be so perceptive, and Marie was glad that she was so understanding and could see exactly what she wanted to say before she said it.

 

“Yes. There's a bit more. Ah want to know what you remember from when ah first came here. You see, ah can't really remember, or ah don't want to remember. Ah don't know which it is really. An' well, did ah come here with someone? A man a bit older than ah was, rough around the edges. He might have said that his name was Logan. Ah need to find him. He can help me.” Carla listened calmly and paused to think back. It had been a while since her friend had come to town, and for the most part had been secretive about her past. She hadn't even been to her home until very recently. Still, her first meeting with the girl was normal enough, even though she did seem a little bit sad, shaken up, and most certainly distant from people.

 

“This Logan, is he the one with you in that photo you've got at home? Looked like he could use a good shave?” She nodded. “Well, I always thought he looked familiar after you showed me that. Now that I think of it, I think he was around the same time you showed up. He stopped into the store for some groceries and wasn't the most talkative of folks. No, he wouldn't be. Logan was never fond of strangers. Marie remembered that much about him. “He only mentioned that he was staying at a motel just outside of town, farther down the mountain a ways. That was about all I got from him. He took his purchases and left, I never did see what kind of vehicle he drove or anything. Does that help?”

 

“Yea, it does Carla. Thank you. Now that I know he was here, I just need to find where he went.” Marie grimaced. He would be even harder than Carla had been earlier. He hop-scotched around the country. Hell, he could even have gone back to Canada an' Laughlin City. It was silent between them now, save for the trill of the crickets in the distance and the hum of the streetlamp that hung overhead. And it came again, a bit slower than before. Her head started to throb a bit, but not too severely. However, it escalated into something worse and worse. It was like a car wreck was happening in her mind. All she could feel was the pain. She screamed and fell off the bench, curling up into herself on the cement. All the while, Carla was calling to her, trying to help her in any way she could, eventually screaming for someone to come help. And all Marie could do was writhe on the ground, trying to control the memories.

 

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“Come on and get to bed. I'm tired and we still have a long way to go if we want to get over the mountains before the summer storms roll in and flood the roads. The weatherman said that they expected at least four inches of rain to come pouring down by tomorrow night.” Marie watched Logan, in only a pair of long pajama bottoms, as he snatched a pillow and an extra blanket off the bed, dropping it to the floor in front of her. She was on the bed, wearing tan and orange striped women's boxers and a short sleeved pajama top that matched. He always slept on the floor, letting her have the bed. It was a sweet gesture, but she knew that with the drive they expected to do the next day that he would need plenty of sleep, and the floor wasn't the most comfortable place for sleeping.

 

“Logan, why don't you sleep in the bed tonight an' ah'll crash on the floor. That way you sleep better before the drive.” He had just laid down, but sat up and looked at her, draping his arms over his knees and raising an eyebrow at her.

 

“I'm fine where I'm at. Now go to sleep.” He lay back down and closed his eyes, but kept feeling her eyes on him and couldn't sleep. He sat up again and stared back at her. “Will you quite boring your eyes into my back?”

 

“All ah'm doing is trying to be nice, an' you're biting m'ah head off.” She tossed the other pillow at him, aiming for his head and miss, and harrumphed, turning so she didn't look at him, glancing back to see how he was reacting.

 

“I'm not going to let you sleep on the damned floor.” He fumed and tossed the pillow back, right on target. It smacked her in the back of the head and sent her hair flying wildly in her face. He saw her jaw drop as she snatched the pillow back and tucked it under her arms.

 

“Fine then, let's share the bed. You take one side an' ah'll take the other.” She could tell by his expression that her proposal was definitely unexpected. And as wrong as it might have seemed before, at the moment it felt so right. She could feel something in her heart pull when she saw him laugh at the idea a few moments later. And the thought of sleeping only a few inches away from him sent an exiting shiver through her.

 

“If I say yes, will you get your butt in bed and go to sleep?” He pulled himself up off the floor, taking his pillow with him as she smiled and hid a blush that rose to her cheeks as he tossed the pillow back onto the bed and shoved back the covers. She crawled over to the empty side of the bed and slid under the covers, snuggling up with her pillow, their backs to one another, as Logan turned off the light beside the bed. And in the dark she smiled.

 

“Goodnight Logan.” she said in a hushed voice a few moments later. The only response from him was a grunt in his sleep as he took even breaths. And as he slept, she carefully shifted around and snuggled up close to him, laying her head on his back and placing a hand on his muscular shoulder, the other hand tucked under the pillow beneath her head.

 

“Marie?” His voice startled her as he moved next to her, rolling over to look at her in the darkness. She instantly backed away, afraid of how he might react, and turned her gaze from him in embarrassment. “What are you doing?”

 

“Ah…ah just…wanted to get close to you.” She covered her face with her hands and scooted back farther on the bed. He frowned.

 

“You don't want to get close to someone like me. I'm nothing but trouble.” She buried her face in the blankets now, her cheeks burning. If the lights had been on, he'd have seen how tomato red she was. She watched through her fingers as he grimaced, but then his features softened as he reached over and pulled her hands away. “Never hide that pretty face of yours.”

 

She smiled. He had called her pretty and it made her stomach flutter. “Ah don't care if you are trouble. You mean the world to me an' that's all that matters. You're the only one ah could ever get close to because you are the only one who's ever tried.”

 

He smiled again. It had been so rare to see him smile before, but now that they were together, he seemed to do it more and more. Wordlessly, he leaned over and gave her a kiss. She was surprised by it, but was more than eager to return it, and then she hugged him. She really hugged him, and he held her in his strong arms for the longest time, breathing in the smell of her hair and clothes. She was beautiful, stunningly so, and their time on the road had made him see how little of a kid she was and how much of a woman she had become. They kissed again, longer this time and more fervently, until Logan pulled away suddenly.

 

“We've got to go to bed.” He chuckled and she gave him a coy smile, not letting on how his sudden bashfulness had hurt her a little. Logan was never bashful and she feared for a moment that he still saw her as that “kid” he'd picked up in Laughlin City those few years ago. “It's not the time or the place.”

 

“Okay Logan.” His words were warm and comforting, but still left emptiness in her. Silently the crawled back beneath the sheets, but this time he held her in his arms, resting his head by hers and gently running his fingers over the bare skin on her arm. It was romantic, and wonderful, that feeling. His touch was gentle, more gentle that she would have expected a gruff man like Logan to be. Then again, she knew that even he had a soft side that he didn't always show to people.

 

---Later That Night---

 

Something startled her in her sleep and she woke too soon, groggy and discombobulated. As her head cleared from sleep, she realized that Logan was no longer so close to her. She rolled over on her other side and reached a hand out, trying to find him in the far corner of the bed, but all she felt were cold, empty sheets. She shot up in the bed and looked around. He wasn't anywhere that she saw, and she thought for a moment that he had gotten up to go to the bathroom. She climbed out of the bed and around to the bathroom. The door was wide open, but the light was off and the room empty. Logan was gone. He had disappeared in the middle of the night.

 

In a flurry, she rushed to the lamp and switched on the light. His things were gone, everything. Panicking, she rushed to the door and threw it open, the hot summer air hitting her instantly as she stepped out of the air conditioned room. Looking through the parking lot, she saw that the truck was still there and sighed lightly, knowing that he wouldn't have left without it, he had no other way of getting around. That was when she remembered his motorcycle. Stepping out the door some she looked through to the bed of the truck, where they kept the bike secured down. The tarp that covered it was thrown off and the bike was gone. That was the first time she remembered crying for him. It was her fault that he left. He did still see her as that kid, and she had scared him off. And slowly, she went back to the room and shut the door, curling up on the bed and crying for her broken heart.

 

“He left me an' he's not coming back. Ah ruined it all. Why did ah have to be so damned stupid?” She whispered to no one but the empty room and to the empty place that he had left in her heart. “Logan.”

 

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“Now child, you shouldn't be laying around on the ground like that. You'll get all dirty.” That voice was so familiar. Marie cracked an eye open and looked up. At first all she could see was a starry sky above her and thought that her mind was playing tricks on her. Until it spoke again. “Well, let's get you up.”

 

She felt someone pulling her to her feet and she finally got a look at the face that matched the voice. Magneto. “What are you doing here? Where's Carla, what've you done with her?”

 

“Heh. Nothing. She'll be fine when she wakes up.” Another voice. She turned her head towards it. Coming out of the shadows of the night, was Pyro. “How are you doing, Rouge?”

 

She looked around, getting her bearings straight. On the bench behind her, Carla lay asleep and in front of her were two people she didn't trust in the least. “What do you want? How, why is this all happening?”

 

“Don't fear. You have nothing to fear from your own kind, after all.” Magneto smiled at her. “Now, I have a proposition for you. Come with me, and I can help you achieve that thing you desire most.”

 

“What.” Her legs felt like putty, and she wobbled a bit, stumbling forward a bit. Pyro caught her and held her up as Magneto answered.

 

“Control.”