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Adaptation, Chapter Nine
Title: Adaptation
Pairing: eventually Magneto/Rogue
Summary: When all she knows is destroyed, Rogue must learn to adapt or die trying.
Rating: T
Thanks as always to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sionnain for Beta-ing and omaetoy for her being around to bother with insane questions.
The doors opened and Rogue cringed as all the children took a step back, gasping in a mixture of fear and surprise. She followed their gazes to the new mutant sitting at the table beside Avalanche. A man with large yellow eyes and chalk white skin looked back at them before bowing his head at their stares. She could feel irritation in her mind at the children’s behavior, and blamed it on Magneto.
“Find a seat,” Rogue quickly told the children, pointing to the side of the table across from the new mutant. They filed past, casting anxious glances at her and each other. “Down further,” she said, trying to keep them as far from Magneto’s reach as possible. Not that it matters, she reminded herself as she looked at all the metal present.
Rusty got out of the seat near the head of the table and scooted down, looking warily at the new mutant across from him. Pryo walked to the other side of the table and sat down next to the man, nodding in greeting. Bobby took the seat by Rusty, giving the boy a sympathetic smile. Rogue looked at the seating arrangement and bit her lip. There were no seats left next to the children.
“Find a seat, Rogue,” Magneto stated, sitting down at the head of the table.
She moved to sit on the floor but glowered as her body was pulled to the empty seat across from Bobby. Now she was in between Pyro and Magneto. She looked at Bobby, his eyes traveling between the three of them, darkening every second. He shook his head and looked away and Rogue felt her stomach become more and more unsettled.
Avalanche, Blob, and another new mutant entered the room, sitting in the remaining seats. The woman looked at the children who peered curiously at the scars and eye patch on her face. Not good, not good, Rogue mumbled to herself, watching as Magneto’s hand clenched at his side.
“Callisto and Caliban,” Magneto began, addressing the two new mutants. “We have some fellow mutants staying with us, though for how much longer I can not say.” He looked gravely at Bobby before continuing. “They are from Xavier’s school, so please forgive their disrespectful behavior towards your appearances. They will learn to control themselves.”
Rogue opened her mouth to defend them. “And others,” Magneto said, directing a cold gaze towards her, “will learn to hold their tongue.”
She glared at him and then turned her anger towards Pyro when he began to snicker beside her. It quickly dissipated when she remembered him lying unconscious on the floor because of her. The television screens turned on, news footage playing across them. Rogue looked at the children instead of the screens, watching their eyes widen in fear. Angry crowds holding signs with crudely drawn depictions of dead mutants and chanting rhymes of death intermingled with reports of mutants being beaten and killed by gangs of people. Images of one of the new camps were shown and they watched as children were placed by their parents onto buses destined for the camps, agony present in the parent’s and children’s expressions.
Tears fell down the children’s faces and they clung to one another’s hands. Paige leaped out of her seat and ran to Rogue, burying her face in Rogue’s side. “Why are they hurting them?” Rusty asked as images of a boy around his age with purple skin was shackled and forcibly placed onto a bus, looking over at Rogue and Bobby. “What did he do?”
“He didn’t do anything,” Rogue said, brushing Paige’s hair in an attempt to comfort her.
“Then why are they hurting him?” Sam asked, watching as the mutant was struck with a nightstick.
“He is a mutant,” Magneto informed him. “That is the only reason they need.”
“That’s stupid,” Rusty replied, shaking his head. “They can’t hurt you because you’re a mutant, Ms. Monroe told us. It’s called…discrimi…what’s that word?”
“Discrimination,” Sam said, helping his friend. “There are laws.”
“They should go to jail,” one of the girls said. “Aren’t they supposed to go to jail?”
“Yep,” the other girl replied. “Professor Xavier told us people who hurt mutants go to jail.”
The children all nodded in response, looking at Rogue and Bobby for confirmation. Callisto laughed and they looked at her. “He is wrong,” she told them, placing a hand to her face, tracing over one of the jagged scars. “This is what the police now do to mutants.”
“My dad is a police man,” Rusty replied. “He wouldn’t do that to me or any mutant. He loves me.”
“Yeah,” Sam said, nodding. “He took us to see the Yankees play the Red Socks. He wouldn’t hurt mutants.”
“I got a funny hand from the game,” Paige said, looking back at her brother. “The really big one.”
“Uh huh,” he replied. “Mr. Collins was nice to us. Maybe the police man that you met was …not a good one.” Sam looked back at the screen and then at Paige. “Our mom and dad love us too. They wouldn’t send us to a camp.”
“There’s a new law that says they have to, Sam,” Pyro told him and Sam shook his head.
“They wouldn’t,” the boy said with conviction. “They’d hide us. Like in that movie…about Anne.”
“She hid with her family,” Rusty replied and then his face sank. “But they were caught, remember? They had to go to camps. I think she died.”
“Oh yeah,” Sam said, sinking into the chair.
“I don’t want to go to a camp,” Paige cried, burying her head into Rogue’s shirt.
“That’s why we’re here, honey,” Rogue said, trying to comfort her.
“That’s why we should get the Professor back,” Bobby replied and she looked up at him, watching as he glared at Magneto.
“They have the Professor?” Sam and Rusty asked simultaneously, eyes wide in shock. “And Mr. Summers?”
Bobby nodded. “We’re so doomed,” Rusty said, shaking his head.
“Did they get Mr. Logan?” Sam asked.
“We don’t know,” Bobby replied.
“We aren’t doomed then Rusty,” Sam told his friend. “Mr. Logan could kick all of their ass—err butts.”
“Good choice of words,” Rogue told him, giving him a look reminiscent to Ms. Monroe’s disapproving one.
“Sorry, Rogue,” he replied.
“Are we finished?” Magneto asked looking at the children.
“Yes, sir,” the children replied and Rogue rolled her eyes in response.
“Are we going to help the mutants in the camps?” Paige asked looking back at the screen, watching as children were put on another bus.
“Yes,” Magneto replied, smiling at the girl. “We all are.”
“Um, excuse me?” Rogue asked, looking at him in surprise. “All?” She looked at the children and then at back at him. “No.”
“I do not believe you have any say in the matter,” Magneto replied, directing a steely gaze at her.
“We could leave,” she told him defiantly, standing. She cried out in pain as her body was slammed back into the chair.
“I suggest that you be quiet and listen,” Magneto informed her. “Or I will remove you from these proceedings and you will not see the others for a month.”
Paige clung tightly to her and whimpered, causing Rogue to bite back a response. Magneto waited a few seconds before continuing, “Blob has informed me that Mystique will be returning in the next week with information on a target for us. In order to be prepared for that we will need to pick up our training and the younger ones will need to begin training. I will be looking to the older mutants to help in that instruction, as well as, all of you,” he looked at the children, “to take this seriously and for any disruptions to cease.”
The children nodded. “Pyro,” Magneto said, looking at the young man. “Take the children and give them a tour of the plane, go through all of the procedures they will need to know. I’ll inform you of the rest of the information later.”
“Yes, sir,” Pyro replied and rose, motioning for the kids to follow. He stopped at Rogue and placed a hand on Paige. “Come on, kid.”
Reluctantly, Paige released her grip and followed the others. “You can accompany them,” Magneto said and Rogue looked up, frowning when she realized he was talking to Bobby.
“I’d rather stay,” Bobby replied.
“That was not a suggestion,” Magneto stated and flicked his wrist. A sliver of metal was ripped from the wall and clasped over Bobby’s hands before he was unceremoniously thrown from the room.
Rogue sank into the chair as the door closed, an uneasy feeling moving through her as she looked back at Magneto. Not good at all.
***
“Blob,” Magneto began, causing Rogue to look towards the other mutant. “Give us a detailed account of the information you relayed to me this morning.”
The mutant nodded, smiling with uncontained pride. Rogue listened in increasing dread as he explained what Mystique had learned using her Kelly persona. The camps were only to be the beginning if Jameson and his allies had their way. “They want to know why some children develop into mutants and others do not at puberty,” Blob explained. “Why we all have different powers and what determines what power we get.”
“Experiments?” Rogue asked, looking down at the table, forcing herself not to look at Magneto’s arm.
“Yeah,” Blob confirmed. “They’re setting up a lab. It’s all hush-hush. The front they’re showing to the public is that mutants are being contained so as not to harm anyone. Really, they just want to know what makes…err…us tick and how they can use us.”
Images of needles and the masked faces of doctors stirred in her mind followed by military personnel celebrating over champagne. She flexed her hands, briefly feeling the itch Logan had to release the claws. “They’re going to use mutants that no one cares about at first,” Blob continued. “Runaways, prisoners, ones that the humans would deem too dangerous. That way if anything goes wrong they can easily disappear.”
“That’s why they attacked Xavier’s,” Blob informed them. “Most of the students at the school were runaways.”
“But, I saw the news footage,” Rogue countered. “Everyone was dead.”
“They don’t need all of their test subjects alive,” Callisto replied.
Rogue closed her eyes, the image of the mad doctor flickering in front of her, his sickeningly sweet smile as he picked a pair of young twins from the masses going to the gas chamber. She flinched as she heard the children’s screams of agony as the doctor injected dye into their eyes. Her own eyes opened as she felt someone gently stroking her forearm.
Her eyes locked onto Magneto’s who gave her a sympathetic look before looking back at Blob, his fingers continuing their delicate dance along the material of her sleeve. She forced herself to look at Blob, instead of his fingers on her.
“Right now, the government has two plans,” Blob said. “One is to create the lab facility away from the public eye. It is nearly complete. The mutants that are to be test subjects are to be shipped there. The other is to set up camps the public can see, ones that the Red Cross will be allowed into.”
“Model camps,” Rogue replied, “like Terezin was during World War II.”
“Uh….Terezin?” Avalanche asked.
“The Nazi party allowed the Red Cross to visit Terezin,” Rogue answered. “It was a concentration camp and when the Red Cross came to it they deemed it an acceptable place to live. After they left, the people in the camp were shipped off to other concentration camps where they were killed.”
“Oh,” Avalanche replied, looking guiltily at Magneto.
“What about the camps that have been on the news?” Callisto asked. “What do we know about them?”
“From what Mystique has learned they’re okay,” Blob replied. “Schools have been set up and there haven’t been any reports of abuse, but she has her doubts about that.”
“It’s hard to report abuse when the only people who can help you see you as nothing but an animal,” Caliban stated.
“But why aren’t the mutants who have been captured doing anything?” Rogue asked curiously. “Why not riot? They have powers they can use.”
“Where would they go?” Callisto asked. “They know if they were to escape that they will be hunted and much worse could happen.”
“Most of those who have been rounded up are young and they have no real control over their power,” Avalanche said and Rogue nodded, remembering the attack on the mansion and that everyone’s first response was to run. None of them had even thought of fighting back. “And they are under the false belief that their parents will get them out.”
“Then what can we do?” Rogue asked, looking back at Magneto.
“We can show them that they can fight back,” Magneto replied, stilling his movements. “We need to show the United States government that we are not so easily contained and take our rightful place as the next step in evolution.”
“By what?” she asked. “Killing them?”
“No less than they have in mind for us,” Avalanche replied.
“Just because that’s what they have in mind doesn’t make it right,” Rogue countered.
“She’s one of Xavier’s isn’t she?” Callisto asked, shaking her head. “She has that naïve, misguided belief that mankind is actually good at heart.”
“Or maybe you’re too cynical to see the good,” Rogue argued.
Callisto smiled. “Spoken like a true student of Xavier’s.”
“Proud to be one,” Rogue answered defiantly.
“Enough!” Magneto said, causing everyone to look at him. Rogue cowered under his ferocity, wincing as the metal links tightened around her wrists. She bit her lip at the pain.
“What do you have in mind, Magneto?” Callisto asked and Rogue watched as his gaze drifted to the other woman.
“For now, we pick up on training,” he replied. “When Mystique returns we will know more.”
“Why are the children training?” Rogue asked. “Do you honestly think it’d be a good idea to have them help in any mission?” She steeled herself for his response, wondering how long it would take for her to be dragged from the room and shackled once again to the chair.
“They will not be accompanying us on the mission. However, none of us will be remaining behind and they will need to be able to defend themselves in our absence,” Magneto replied. “Wouldn’t you rather they be prepared?”
“We did what we were taught,” Rogue countered. “We were told to make our way to the escape passages.”
“What you were taught was not enough,” Magneto said. “They need to know how to use their powers in a battle situation, in order to protect them. This is a war. The government will not see them as children but as the enemy and they do not care if mutants live or die.”
“Callisto, Pyro’s tour should be finished,” he said as he stood. “Show them the escape passageway.”
“Mock drills?” she asked.
Magneto nodded in response. “Caliban, Pyro is in need of some refresher courses,” he said. “Avalanche and Blob would do well to join you as well.”
Rogue watched as the mutants nodded and left the room. She looked at Magneto, recoiling under his intense scrutiny. She was pulled up into a standing position. “What am I going to do?” she asked, fearing that she was heading towards the chair.
“Train,” Magneto stated.
Rogue decided she really didn’t like the gleam in his eyes when he said that word. Not one bit.
***
Rogue looked at the gym floor and then at Magneto. “I’m fighting you?” she asked as he stepped onto the floor. “I wouldn’t be fighting you.”
She felt the links loosen and quickly removed the gloves, dropping them to the floor and placing herself into a defensive position. She watched him carefully, trying to determine what he was going to do and having no idea. Everything she knew about him told her that he would use his power. And if he does, there isn’t much I can do, she reasoned.
He moved to kick her and she flipped out of the way, placing as much distance between them as she could. “Either go on the offensive, Rogue,” Magneto told her, his eyes narrowing dangerously, “or I will use my power.”
She dropped her hands to her sides. “But I don’t fight on the…err, I only fight if I have to,” she reasoned. “We were taught defensive strategies at school.”
A yelp escaped her as a sliver of metal was torn from the wall and attached to her wrist, allowing him to drag her towards him. “Fight,” he demanded.
“But, I told you,” she replied, gasping in pain as he threw her back into the wall.
“I do not want to hear how you were taught at Charles’s,” Magneto snapped, his eyes flashing when he said the man’s name. “Obey me!”
“No,” she told him, shaking her head as pain throbbed through her back. “I only fight if I have to.”
A few moments later, she was flying through the air towards him and braced herself for what he would do. Stopping a few inches from him, she refused to avert her gaze, eyes shining with conviction. “Fine,” he stated and walked from the room, pulling her after him.
They went through the hallway and she steeled herself for the chair and the footage he would surely show her. Her eyes widened in fear as they abruptly stopped and she saw Callisto and the others in the hallway. They all turned to look at the two of them and Rogue looked at Magneto, hoping he wasn’t going to involve any of the children.
She watched in horror as Bobby was yanked through the air towards them. “Carry on,” Magneto stated before retracing his steps to the gym.
“I’m so sorry, Bobby,” Rogue told him.
“Sorry?” he asked.
“I told him I don’t fight unless I have to,” she replied.
“Nice to see you still have some morals left,” Bobby stated and she looked away from him, her cheeks reddening in a mixture of embarrassment and anger.
They entered the gym and she screamed as Bobby was thrown against the wall. “You can stop this, Rogue,” Magneto told her as he brought Bobby towards him preparing to throw him again.
“Don’t do anything, Rogue,” Bobby yelled.
“You’re insane,” she told Magneto, screaming again as Bobby’s hit the side before being pulled towards the ceiling.
“I doubt he can survive a fall from that height, Rogue,” Magneto informed her.
Rogue lunged at him, intent on knocking him off of his feet like she had Pyro. She never got the opportunity as he kicked her in the stomach, sending her sprawling to the floor. She gasped for air, watching as Bobby was thrown from the room, the door shutting behind him. Looking back at Magneto, she glared as she pulled herself up.
“It makes no sense for me to fight offensively,” she said, holding up her hands. “Especially against a fellow mutant.”
“Sometimes, Rogue,” Magneto replied, “one must attack first and place the opponent out of commission Waiting to fight back gives your opponent the chance to harm you.”
Rogue cocked her head in thought about that. “I…” she pursed her lips. What he said made sense and that was unsettling. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to be sneaky? So that they don’t see me coming? Wouldn’t it be better for everyone to do that?”
“Surprise is not always an option,” he informed her.
“But, they’ll have guns,” she told him. “It wouldn’t make sense for me to rush a guy with a gun.”
“Rogue,” Magneto began, “what about your appearance shows that you are a mutant? You are not like Caliban.”
She touched the streaks in her hair. “I do believe that is a fashion statement amongst the younger crowd,” Magneto replied before she could say a word.
“Yeah, well, I liked my hair brown, thank you,” she said, crossing her arms at her chest.
“They suit you,” he stated absently before shaking his head. “Humans will not expect you to attack them, therefore when you do they will be surprised.”
“But why do I have to attack them?” she asked. “Couldn’t you just yank all the guns away or something?”
He smiled in response. “Not every threat is a gun,” he told her. “You need to be prepared to attack.”
She dropped her hands to her sides and looked at her feet. Slowly she brought her gaze back to him and nodded. “I don’t know how to,” she told him truthfully.
“That is why we are here,” Magneto stated.
Rogue sighed and readied herself for whatever instruction he offered. She had a feeling learning to fight from Magneto was going to give her more bruises than training with Logan ever did. Unlike Logan, she had a feeling Magneto would not hold back his punches, no matter how inexperienced she was. This will help you become a better X-Man, she reasoned with herself. So that Paige and Rusty and the others won’t end up like Jubilee and Kitty.
Pairing: eventually Magneto/Rogue
Summary: When all she knows is destroyed, Rogue must learn to adapt or die trying.
Rating: T
Thanks as always to
sionnain for Beta-ing and omaetoy for her being around to bother with insane questions. The doors opened and Rogue cringed as all the children took a step back, gasping in a mixture of fear and surprise. She followed their gazes to the new mutant sitting at the table beside Avalanche. A man with large yellow eyes and chalk white skin looked back at them before bowing his head at their stares. She could feel irritation in her mind at the children’s behavior, and blamed it on Magneto.
“Find a seat,” Rogue quickly told the children, pointing to the side of the table across from the new mutant. They filed past, casting anxious glances at her and each other. “Down further,” she said, trying to keep them as far from Magneto’s reach as possible. Not that it matters, she reminded herself as she looked at all the metal present.
Rusty got out of the seat near the head of the table and scooted down, looking warily at the new mutant across from him. Pryo walked to the other side of the table and sat down next to the man, nodding in greeting. Bobby took the seat by Rusty, giving the boy a sympathetic smile. Rogue looked at the seating arrangement and bit her lip. There were no seats left next to the children.
“Find a seat, Rogue,” Magneto stated, sitting down at the head of the table.
She moved to sit on the floor but glowered as her body was pulled to the empty seat across from Bobby. Now she was in between Pyro and Magneto. She looked at Bobby, his eyes traveling between the three of them, darkening every second. He shook his head and looked away and Rogue felt her stomach become more and more unsettled.
Avalanche, Blob, and another new mutant entered the room, sitting in the remaining seats. The woman looked at the children who peered curiously at the scars and eye patch on her face. Not good, not good, Rogue mumbled to herself, watching as Magneto’s hand clenched at his side.
“Callisto and Caliban,” Magneto began, addressing the two new mutants. “We have some fellow mutants staying with us, though for how much longer I can not say.” He looked gravely at Bobby before continuing. “They are from Xavier’s school, so please forgive their disrespectful behavior towards your appearances. They will learn to control themselves.”
Rogue opened her mouth to defend them. “And others,” Magneto said, directing a cold gaze towards her, “will learn to hold their tongue.”
She glared at him and then turned her anger towards Pyro when he began to snicker beside her. It quickly dissipated when she remembered him lying unconscious on the floor because of her. The television screens turned on, news footage playing across them. Rogue looked at the children instead of the screens, watching their eyes widen in fear. Angry crowds holding signs with crudely drawn depictions of dead mutants and chanting rhymes of death intermingled with reports of mutants being beaten and killed by gangs of people. Images of one of the new camps were shown and they watched as children were placed by their parents onto buses destined for the camps, agony present in the parent’s and children’s expressions.
Tears fell down the children’s faces and they clung to one another’s hands. Paige leaped out of her seat and ran to Rogue, burying her face in Rogue’s side. “Why are they hurting them?” Rusty asked as images of a boy around his age with purple skin was shackled and forcibly placed onto a bus, looking over at Rogue and Bobby. “What did he do?”
“He didn’t do anything,” Rogue said, brushing Paige’s hair in an attempt to comfort her.
“Then why are they hurting him?” Sam asked, watching as the mutant was struck with a nightstick.
“He is a mutant,” Magneto informed him. “That is the only reason they need.”
“That’s stupid,” Rusty replied, shaking his head. “They can’t hurt you because you’re a mutant, Ms. Monroe told us. It’s called…discrimi…what’s that word?”
“Discrimination,” Sam said, helping his friend. “There are laws.”
“They should go to jail,” one of the girls said. “Aren’t they supposed to go to jail?”
“Yep,” the other girl replied. “Professor Xavier told us people who hurt mutants go to jail.”
The children all nodded in response, looking at Rogue and Bobby for confirmation. Callisto laughed and they looked at her. “He is wrong,” she told them, placing a hand to her face, tracing over one of the jagged scars. “This is what the police now do to mutants.”
“My dad is a police man,” Rusty replied. “He wouldn’t do that to me or any mutant. He loves me.”
“Yeah,” Sam said, nodding. “He took us to see the Yankees play the Red Socks. He wouldn’t hurt mutants.”
“I got a funny hand from the game,” Paige said, looking back at her brother. “The really big one.”
“Uh huh,” he replied. “Mr. Collins was nice to us. Maybe the police man that you met was …not a good one.” Sam looked back at the screen and then at Paige. “Our mom and dad love us too. They wouldn’t send us to a camp.”
“There’s a new law that says they have to, Sam,” Pyro told him and Sam shook his head.
“They wouldn’t,” the boy said with conviction. “They’d hide us. Like in that movie…about Anne.”
“She hid with her family,” Rusty replied and then his face sank. “But they were caught, remember? They had to go to camps. I think she died.”
“Oh yeah,” Sam said, sinking into the chair.
“I don’t want to go to a camp,” Paige cried, burying her head into Rogue’s shirt.
“That’s why we’re here, honey,” Rogue said, trying to comfort her.
“That’s why we should get the Professor back,” Bobby replied and she looked up at him, watching as he glared at Magneto.
“They have the Professor?” Sam and Rusty asked simultaneously, eyes wide in shock. “And Mr. Summers?”
Bobby nodded. “We’re so doomed,” Rusty said, shaking his head.
“Did they get Mr. Logan?” Sam asked.
“We don’t know,” Bobby replied.
“We aren’t doomed then Rusty,” Sam told his friend. “Mr. Logan could kick all of their ass—err butts.”
“Good choice of words,” Rogue told him, giving him a look reminiscent to Ms. Monroe’s disapproving one.
“Sorry, Rogue,” he replied.
“Are we finished?” Magneto asked looking at the children.
“Yes, sir,” the children replied and Rogue rolled her eyes in response.
“Are we going to help the mutants in the camps?” Paige asked looking back at the screen, watching as children were put on another bus.
“Yes,” Magneto replied, smiling at the girl. “We all are.”
“Um, excuse me?” Rogue asked, looking at him in surprise. “All?” She looked at the children and then at back at him. “No.”
“I do not believe you have any say in the matter,” Magneto replied, directing a steely gaze at her.
“We could leave,” she told him defiantly, standing. She cried out in pain as her body was slammed back into the chair.
“I suggest that you be quiet and listen,” Magneto informed her. “Or I will remove you from these proceedings and you will not see the others for a month.”
Paige clung tightly to her and whimpered, causing Rogue to bite back a response. Magneto waited a few seconds before continuing, “Blob has informed me that Mystique will be returning in the next week with information on a target for us. In order to be prepared for that we will need to pick up our training and the younger ones will need to begin training. I will be looking to the older mutants to help in that instruction, as well as, all of you,” he looked at the children, “to take this seriously and for any disruptions to cease.”
The children nodded. “Pyro,” Magneto said, looking at the young man. “Take the children and give them a tour of the plane, go through all of the procedures they will need to know. I’ll inform you of the rest of the information later.”
“Yes, sir,” Pyro replied and rose, motioning for the kids to follow. He stopped at Rogue and placed a hand on Paige. “Come on, kid.”
Reluctantly, Paige released her grip and followed the others. “You can accompany them,” Magneto said and Rogue looked up, frowning when she realized he was talking to Bobby.
“I’d rather stay,” Bobby replied.
“That was not a suggestion,” Magneto stated and flicked his wrist. A sliver of metal was ripped from the wall and clasped over Bobby’s hands before he was unceremoniously thrown from the room.
Rogue sank into the chair as the door closed, an uneasy feeling moving through her as she looked back at Magneto. Not good at all.
***
“Blob,” Magneto began, causing Rogue to look towards the other mutant. “Give us a detailed account of the information you relayed to me this morning.”
The mutant nodded, smiling with uncontained pride. Rogue listened in increasing dread as he explained what Mystique had learned using her Kelly persona. The camps were only to be the beginning if Jameson and his allies had their way. “They want to know why some children develop into mutants and others do not at puberty,” Blob explained. “Why we all have different powers and what determines what power we get.”
“Experiments?” Rogue asked, looking down at the table, forcing herself not to look at Magneto’s arm.
“Yeah,” Blob confirmed. “They’re setting up a lab. It’s all hush-hush. The front they’re showing to the public is that mutants are being contained so as not to harm anyone. Really, they just want to know what makes…err…us tick and how they can use us.”
Images of needles and the masked faces of doctors stirred in her mind followed by military personnel celebrating over champagne. She flexed her hands, briefly feeling the itch Logan had to release the claws. “They’re going to use mutants that no one cares about at first,” Blob continued. “Runaways, prisoners, ones that the humans would deem too dangerous. That way if anything goes wrong they can easily disappear.”
“That’s why they attacked Xavier’s,” Blob informed them. “Most of the students at the school were runaways.”
“But, I saw the news footage,” Rogue countered. “Everyone was dead.”
“They don’t need all of their test subjects alive,” Callisto replied.
Rogue closed her eyes, the image of the mad doctor flickering in front of her, his sickeningly sweet smile as he picked a pair of young twins from the masses going to the gas chamber. She flinched as she heard the children’s screams of agony as the doctor injected dye into their eyes. Her own eyes opened as she felt someone gently stroking her forearm.
Her eyes locked onto Magneto’s who gave her a sympathetic look before looking back at Blob, his fingers continuing their delicate dance along the material of her sleeve. She forced herself to look at Blob, instead of his fingers on her.
“Right now, the government has two plans,” Blob said. “One is to create the lab facility away from the public eye. It is nearly complete. The mutants that are to be test subjects are to be shipped there. The other is to set up camps the public can see, ones that the Red Cross will be allowed into.”
“Model camps,” Rogue replied, “like Terezin was during World War II.”
“Uh….Terezin?” Avalanche asked.
“The Nazi party allowed the Red Cross to visit Terezin,” Rogue answered. “It was a concentration camp and when the Red Cross came to it they deemed it an acceptable place to live. After they left, the people in the camp were shipped off to other concentration camps where they were killed.”
“Oh,” Avalanche replied, looking guiltily at Magneto.
“What about the camps that have been on the news?” Callisto asked. “What do we know about them?”
“From what Mystique has learned they’re okay,” Blob replied. “Schools have been set up and there haven’t been any reports of abuse, but she has her doubts about that.”
“It’s hard to report abuse when the only people who can help you see you as nothing but an animal,” Caliban stated.
“But why aren’t the mutants who have been captured doing anything?” Rogue asked curiously. “Why not riot? They have powers they can use.”
“Where would they go?” Callisto asked. “They know if they were to escape that they will be hunted and much worse could happen.”
“Most of those who have been rounded up are young and they have no real control over their power,” Avalanche said and Rogue nodded, remembering the attack on the mansion and that everyone’s first response was to run. None of them had even thought of fighting back. “And they are under the false belief that their parents will get them out.”
“Then what can we do?” Rogue asked, looking back at Magneto.
“We can show them that they can fight back,” Magneto replied, stilling his movements. “We need to show the United States government that we are not so easily contained and take our rightful place as the next step in evolution.”
“By what?” she asked. “Killing them?”
“No less than they have in mind for us,” Avalanche replied.
“Just because that’s what they have in mind doesn’t make it right,” Rogue countered.
“She’s one of Xavier’s isn’t she?” Callisto asked, shaking her head. “She has that naïve, misguided belief that mankind is actually good at heart.”
“Or maybe you’re too cynical to see the good,” Rogue argued.
Callisto smiled. “Spoken like a true student of Xavier’s.”
“Proud to be one,” Rogue answered defiantly.
“Enough!” Magneto said, causing everyone to look at him. Rogue cowered under his ferocity, wincing as the metal links tightened around her wrists. She bit her lip at the pain.
“What do you have in mind, Magneto?” Callisto asked and Rogue watched as his gaze drifted to the other woman.
“For now, we pick up on training,” he replied. “When Mystique returns we will know more.”
“Why are the children training?” Rogue asked. “Do you honestly think it’d be a good idea to have them help in any mission?” She steeled herself for his response, wondering how long it would take for her to be dragged from the room and shackled once again to the chair.
“They will not be accompanying us on the mission. However, none of us will be remaining behind and they will need to be able to defend themselves in our absence,” Magneto replied. “Wouldn’t you rather they be prepared?”
“We did what we were taught,” Rogue countered. “We were told to make our way to the escape passages.”
“What you were taught was not enough,” Magneto said. “They need to know how to use their powers in a battle situation, in order to protect them. This is a war. The government will not see them as children but as the enemy and they do not care if mutants live or die.”
“Callisto, Pyro’s tour should be finished,” he said as he stood. “Show them the escape passageway.”
“Mock drills?” she asked.
Magneto nodded in response. “Caliban, Pyro is in need of some refresher courses,” he said. “Avalanche and Blob would do well to join you as well.”
Rogue watched as the mutants nodded and left the room. She looked at Magneto, recoiling under his intense scrutiny. She was pulled up into a standing position. “What am I going to do?” she asked, fearing that she was heading towards the chair.
“Train,” Magneto stated.
Rogue decided she really didn’t like the gleam in his eyes when he said that word. Not one bit.
***
Rogue looked at the gym floor and then at Magneto. “I’m fighting you?” she asked as he stepped onto the floor. “I wouldn’t be fighting you.”
She felt the links loosen and quickly removed the gloves, dropping them to the floor and placing herself into a defensive position. She watched him carefully, trying to determine what he was going to do and having no idea. Everything she knew about him told her that he would use his power. And if he does, there isn’t much I can do, she reasoned.
He moved to kick her and she flipped out of the way, placing as much distance between them as she could. “Either go on the offensive, Rogue,” Magneto told her, his eyes narrowing dangerously, “or I will use my power.”
She dropped her hands to her sides. “But I don’t fight on the…err, I only fight if I have to,” she reasoned. “We were taught defensive strategies at school.”
A yelp escaped her as a sliver of metal was torn from the wall and attached to her wrist, allowing him to drag her towards him. “Fight,” he demanded.
“But, I told you,” she replied, gasping in pain as he threw her back into the wall.
“I do not want to hear how you were taught at Charles’s,” Magneto snapped, his eyes flashing when he said the man’s name. “Obey me!”
“No,” she told him, shaking her head as pain throbbed through her back. “I only fight if I have to.”
A few moments later, she was flying through the air towards him and braced herself for what he would do. Stopping a few inches from him, she refused to avert her gaze, eyes shining with conviction. “Fine,” he stated and walked from the room, pulling her after him.
They went through the hallway and she steeled herself for the chair and the footage he would surely show her. Her eyes widened in fear as they abruptly stopped and she saw Callisto and the others in the hallway. They all turned to look at the two of them and Rogue looked at Magneto, hoping he wasn’t going to involve any of the children.
She watched in horror as Bobby was yanked through the air towards them. “Carry on,” Magneto stated before retracing his steps to the gym.
“I’m so sorry, Bobby,” Rogue told him.
“Sorry?” he asked.
“I told him I don’t fight unless I have to,” she replied.
“Nice to see you still have some morals left,” Bobby stated and she looked away from him, her cheeks reddening in a mixture of embarrassment and anger.
They entered the gym and she screamed as Bobby was thrown against the wall. “You can stop this, Rogue,” Magneto told her as he brought Bobby towards him preparing to throw him again.
“Don’t do anything, Rogue,” Bobby yelled.
“You’re insane,” she told Magneto, screaming again as Bobby’s hit the side before being pulled towards the ceiling.
“I doubt he can survive a fall from that height, Rogue,” Magneto informed her.
Rogue lunged at him, intent on knocking him off of his feet like she had Pyro. She never got the opportunity as he kicked her in the stomach, sending her sprawling to the floor. She gasped for air, watching as Bobby was thrown from the room, the door shutting behind him. Looking back at Magneto, she glared as she pulled herself up.
“It makes no sense for me to fight offensively,” she said, holding up her hands. “Especially against a fellow mutant.”
“Sometimes, Rogue,” Magneto replied, “one must attack first and place the opponent out of commission Waiting to fight back gives your opponent the chance to harm you.”
Rogue cocked her head in thought about that. “I…” she pursed her lips. What he said made sense and that was unsettling. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to be sneaky? So that they don’t see me coming? Wouldn’t it be better for everyone to do that?”
“Surprise is not always an option,” he informed her.
“But, they’ll have guns,” she told him. “It wouldn’t make sense for me to rush a guy with a gun.”
“Rogue,” Magneto began, “what about your appearance shows that you are a mutant? You are not like Caliban.”
She touched the streaks in her hair. “I do believe that is a fashion statement amongst the younger crowd,” Magneto replied before she could say a word.
“Yeah, well, I liked my hair brown, thank you,” she said, crossing her arms at her chest.
“They suit you,” he stated absently before shaking his head. “Humans will not expect you to attack them, therefore when you do they will be surprised.”
“But why do I have to attack them?” she asked. “Couldn’t you just yank all the guns away or something?”
He smiled in response. “Not every threat is a gun,” he told her. “You need to be prepared to attack.”
She dropped her hands to her sides and looked at her feet. Slowly she brought her gaze back to him and nodded. “I don’t know how to,” she told him truthfully.
“That is why we are here,” Magneto stated.
Rogue sighed and readied herself for whatever instruction he offered. She had a feeling learning to fight from Magneto was going to give her more bruises than training with Logan ever did. Unlike Logan, she had a feeling Magneto would not hold back his punches, no matter how inexperienced she was. This will help you become a better X-Man, she reasoned with herself. So that Paige and Rusty and the others won’t end up like Jubilee and Kitty.
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