Adaptation, Chapter Six

[willowaus]

Title: Adaptation
Pairing: Bobby/Rogue, eventually Magneto/Rogue
Summary: When all she knows is destroyed, Rogue must learn to adapt or die trying.
Rating: T

Huge thanks to sionnain for betaing and to omaetoy for listening to my insanity.




Memories bombarded Rogue throughout the night. Happy scenes of times with her friends twisted into their deaths. She tossed and turned on the bed, desperate for some kind of release, something to make the images go away. Other memories surfaced in her mind. Echoes of gunfire, the smell of burnt flesh, and people crying in languages she didn’t know engulfed her.

In the distance she could hear her name being called and she grabbed onto that sound, forcing herself to wake up. Blinking, she turned onto her side, jumping back as she came face to face with Paige.

“Paige?” she asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

The girl looked at her, hugging a pillow closely to her chest, as she knelt by the bed. “Can I sleep on the floor?”

“Sure,” Rogue replied and watched as the girl created a makeshift bed with a sheet and blanket. “Can’t sleep?”

Paige shook her head. “I miss Theresa,” she told her as she lay down. “She was my roommate.”

“Theresa?” Rogue asked, trying to remember who Paige’s roommates had been.

“She could scream,” the girl said, closing her eyes. “Really, really loudly.”

Images of Siryn’s death replayed in Rogue’s mind and she closed her eyes in an attempt to banish them. “Do you think she’s okay?” Paige asked, interrupting the older mutant’s thoughts.

Rogue opened her eyes and looked back at her. Paige’s eyes were so hopeful and she almost lied to the girl. “No, Paige,” Rogue said, her voice full of sadness. “No one else made it.”

“I…I know,” Paige said, her hands playing with the edge of her blanket. “I wish they had.”

“Close your eyes, Paige,” Rogue said gently. “Remember all the good times you had with Theresa, dream of that.”

She watched as Paige’s eyes closed and hoped that nightmares wouldn’t invade the girl’s dreams. I’ll have enough of them for both of us. Rogue sighed and closed her eyes, letting the images begin again.

***

She couldn’t sleep anymore, the nightmares were too much. Pulling her knees up to her chest, Rogue laid her head on them, hugging herself tightly. She disregarded the urge to get up and wander the hallways. It had been a common occurrence of hers in the mansion, but she didn’t want to see what the consequence would be if Magneto caught her ambling about. Besides, she told herself, I don’t want Paige to wake up alone.

Time moved slowly and Rogue wished for something to do to keep her mind straying back to the images and his memories. The book on the bedside table would do nothing to alleviate her fears, only add onto the images already coursing through her brain. She tried to do some of the mental exercises the Professor had taught her to block out all the voices, but she didn’t have the energy to do them properly.

She looked around the room, wishing there had been a window. Leaning her head against the headboard, she sighed, an old memory coming to the surface. She heard her father’s baritone voice as he sung to her and she hummed along with the song, her eyes glistening with tears. She had felt love once, felt special, adored by her parents. Hugs had been a daily part of her life until her teenage years when she had told them that she was too old for them. Now I’d give anything to hug someone and not feel fear.

Her bedroom door opened with Magneto standing on the other side of it. Anyone but you. “What?” she asked as she scowled at him.

“Perhaps we need to deal with your impertinent behavior,” Magneto answered, his voice cold.

“I’m a teenager,” she reminded him. “I’m supposed to behave like that.”

“You are becoming a young lady and should act that way,” he commented, depositing some clothes on her bed. “Breakfast is in an hour, Rogue. I suggest you awaken your charges and be there on time.”

“Where’s Bobby?” she asked as he turned towards the door.

“You will see Iceman after breakfast,” Magneto replied, the door sliding open for him.

“You kept him on the ceiling all night?” she asked incredulously.

“I do not take insubordination and attacks directed at me lightly,” Magneto said, the door shutting with a loud click.

Rogue glared at it for a few moments before forcing herself to get up. She looked down at the clothes on the edge of the bed. They’re new, she thought as she picked them up and checked the sizes. Placing the garments down, she walked towards Paige and slowly woke the girl up. “Hey,” Rogue greeted with a smile.

Paige rubbed her eyes and yawned before smiling. “We need to get ready for breakfast,” Rogue informed her.

Slowly, the girl stood and bent down to gather her blanket and pillow. “Leave it,” Rogue told her. “Let’s go wake up the others.”

Paige nodded and took hold of Rogue’s hand which caused her to smile. Entering the hallway, the two of them stopped as they saw Magneto helping a haggard looking Bobby back to his room. “Bobby,” Rogue gasped and stepped towards her boyfriend.

The look Magneto directed at her made her stop. “I believe you have a job to do, Rogue,” he reminded her.

She opened her mouth to offer some kind of retort but when Magneto’s eyes traveled to Paige she quickly shut it. Casting Bobby an apologetic look, Rogue squeezed Paige’s hand and started towards the other children’s room, mentally cursing Magneto.

***

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Pyro asked as he sat down across from Rogue. “Sleeping in?”

She looked up at him and glared. “Shut up, John,” she told him.

"My name is Pyro,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

“Whatever,” she grumbled and began eating her cereal as Magneto sat at the head of the table. “Can you pass the fruit bowl, John?”

Rogue ducked as Pyro hurled the bowl towards her. “Rogue,” Magneto said and she looked towards him, glaring at the bowl suspended above the table. “Please refrain from provoking Pyro.”

The bowl glided through the air to rest beside him and he directed his attention to Pyro. Magneto’s eyes narrowed dangerously and the younger mutant stiffened in response. “Need I remind you the consequences of disturbing the peace at this table?” Magneto asked

“No, sir,” Pyro answered.

“Control,” Magneto reminded him before turning his attention to his own breakfast.

A pair of new gloves dropped down beside her cereal bowl and Rogue looked at them and then up at Magneto. “The ones I have on are fine,” she informed him.

“The ones you have on are damaged,” Magneto replied, waiting for her to take them off.

Rogue stripped the gloves off and used all of her control to abstain from throwing them at him. She put on the new gloves and glowered at her bowl of cereal, stabbing at it with her spoon. The spoon was wrenched from her hand and she turned her glower towards Magneto. He looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Young lady,” he reminded her and let the spoon land near her hand.

She gripped it with more force than necessary. Teenager, she replied silently, not wanting to attract his ire. Looking back towards Pyro, she watched as he stabbed his cantaloupe with more force than was needed. “Pyro, do you need to go to the children’s table?” Magneto asked, not bothering to look towards him.

“No, sir,” Pyro mumbled, glaring at Rogue.

“Can I go to the children’s table?” she asked hopefully.

Magneto didn’t answer her and she sighed, scowling back at Pyro. Avalanche snickered at the two of them, enjoying the performance. “Since you appear to be finished eating, Rogue,” Magneto said, causing her to look at him. “We can begin your next lesson early.”

“Don’t need lessons from you,” Rogue muttered.

Magneto rose from the table, fixing her with disapproving gaze. “Apparently, we need another lesson on respecting those in authority,” he replied.

Rogue yelped as her body was lifted from the seat and pulled towards the door. Stupid gloves. She looked down at them, reaching to pry them off her fingers, when she felt the metallic loops shrink, successfully fastening the gloves to her hands. Images of Bobby suspended from the ceiling flashed in her mind. “Is it my turn for the ceiling now?” she asked saucily.

Magneto didn’t reply as he pulled her down the hallway and back up the stairs. “How long do I get to stay up there for my insubordination?” she asked. “Does it qualify for more or less time than Bobby was up there for?”

As they passed the door to his study, her eyes widened in fear, and she tried to forcefully pull the gloves off. The door at the end of the hallway opened and her body was guided to the chair, her wrists once again handcuffed to its arms. The television turned on and Magneto looked at her one last time before leaving her alone in the room, the image of Kitty’s death replaying over and over on the screen.

***

Her eyes were closed in a feeble attempt to eradicate the images. It didn’t matter, she still saw them replaying over and over in her mind. Kitty’s shock was displayed on her face as the bullets pierced her skin and Rogue could picture the life slowly seeping out of her friend’s eyes. She cupped her hands over her ears, desperately trying to make the noise of gunfire disappear. There were no tears left in her to cry and her voice had grown hoarse from her screams.

Her hands moved down from her face, pulling against the handcuffs, seeking to get out of them, to get away from the screen. She clawed at her wrists, trying to remove the metal inside the gloves that locked them to her hands.

“Stop that!”

Rogue turned at Magneto’s voice, opening her eyes to watch him walk towards her, a disapproving look on his face. She tried to glare at him, to muster some form of anger, but was too tired to do so. The handcuffs were released from her wrists and she stared blankly down her arms. “Are we ready to begin acting appropriately?” Magneto asked.

She nodded, wincing as she heard the sound of gunfire once again from the television. “Why can’t I receive physical punishments like the others?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Would they affect you as much as these images?” he inquired, helping her rise.

Kitty’s screams echoed through the room and Rogue shuddered. “No,” she replied, closing her eyes.

“Then why would I use them to deter your inappropriate behavior?” he questioned, and led her from the room.

Rogue looked down at her feet as they walked; trying to determine an answer but nothing seemed suitable. “What’s my first lesson?” she asked, wishing to distract her mind from the images that still lingered.

The door to his study opened and she hoped that she wasn’t going to be left to read again. The last thing she needed right now was an idle mind. The bomb floated down onto the table and she took the seat opposite from him, thankful when he began describing the function of the wires and how to disarm it. The information was new but glimpses of Magneto’s memories allowed her to understand it faster than she should have, to know where his line of thinking was headed.

When she answered a question before he completed asking it, he raised an eyebrow, looking quizzically at her. She began nervously twisting her hands under his gaze. No one liked when she did that. She knew it was disconcerting for them. No one realizes how disturbing it is to me.

Rogue began to apologize, stopping when he raised a hand. “Never be sorry for using your gift, Rogue,” Magneto stated and turned back to the lesson.

“That’s easy for you to say,” she mumbled.

“Would you care to explain that?” he asked, leaning back in his chair.

Rogue took a deep breath, trying to make her answer be as polite as possible. She had no intentions of going back to the room anytime soon. “You manipulate metal,” she told him and he nodded slowly, looking at her like she was a toddler.

She glared at him for that before remembering her delicate position. “You can…it’s not scary,” she said and shook her head. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh?” he asked amusement evident in his voice.

“It’s scary, believe me, I know,” Rogue reminded him, touching a lock of her white hair. “But you could pass as a non-mutant.”

Magneto raised an eyebrow. “Why would I do that?”

She sighed exasperatedly at herself. “You don’t understand!” she exclaimed, frustrated at her inability to explain how she felt. “Your power doesn’t harm you. It is a gift.” She looked down at her hands, at the gloves encasing them. “Mine’s a curse,” she whispered.

“As long as you continue to view it as one it will be,” Magneto told her and she looked up at him.

“You don’t understand,” she reiterated and looked away from him again.

“Or perhaps, it is you who does not understand,” Magneto replied as he stood. “I believe Iceman should be ready now.”

Rogue looked back at him. “Ready?”

Magneto nodded and beckoned for her to follow him. Stopping at the door, he turned and looked at her. “Rogue, that which does not kill us makes us stronger,” he told her.

“Then why do I feel so weak?” she asked, looking at him for answers.

“You do not embrace what you are,” Magneto said, his gaze intense and making her step back. “None of you do. That will change.”

Rogue watched him turn, frightened by the conviction in his voice as she followed him out of the room.

***

Rogue looked up at the silver aircraft, a sad smile tugging at her lips as she remembered the last time she had been inside it. She played with the edges of her gloves, waiting for Magneto to explain why they were there. She looked at Magneto, her eyes wide with worry, trying to discern any information from his body language. It was no use, his face was unreadable.

Pyro entered the room, followed by an exhausted Bobby. The former walked past her, no acknowledgement to her presence, while the latter moved to stand beside her. She took his hand, gently squeezing it, a feeble attempt at reassurance. “Now that we are all accounted for,” Magneto began, fixing an irritated glance at Bobby and then Pyro, “we can begin. Rogue, Iceman, what experience have either of you had with flying? Besides the X-Men’s remarkable ability to crash their planes.”

Pyro and Avalanche snickered and she felt Bobby tense beside her. “I flew the Blackbird,” she stated, glaring at the two of them, before looking down at her hands. “Sort of,” she added.

“Sort of?” Pyro quipped, aggravating her further. “How do you sort of fly a plane?”

“Easily,” Rogue replied. “The same way I can sort of have your power. Want to see how that works?”

Pyro glowered, mumbling incoherently under his breath. “If we are finished with our adolescent displays of power, I would like to proceed,” Magneto stated, causing those in the room to turn their attention to him.

“Sorry,” Rogue and Pyro said simultaneously.

“When did you fly the Blackbird, Rogue?” Magneto asked, fixing an irritated glare at Avalanche who had been silently imitating a bird.

“At Alkali Lake,” she informed him. “Bobby and I were the only ones onboard--”

“--Because someone decided to go for a walk in the snow,” Bobby interrupted, looking at Pyro. “Interesting place you ended up.”

“I don’t see you in a hurry to leave,” Pyro commented, repeatedly flicking his lighter open.

“Show us the way out,” Bobby dared. “And we’ll happily leave.”

“Where do you intend to go, Iceman?” Magneto asked. “Do you honestly believe anyone will help you once they learn you are a mutant?”

Bobby glared at the older mutant. “Who has to know I am one?”

“Of course,” Magneto replied his voice low and eyes narrowed in agitation. “You will hide amongst them, pretending to be something you are not.”

Magneto waved his hand and the hanger door across the room opened, revealing a rocky shoreline. “You are free to leave,” he informed them.

Bobby started towards the door, stopping when Rogue’s hand slipped through his. She watched him turn back towards her, his eyes questioning. “Rogue?”

“What about the others?” she asked.

“Go and collect the children,” Magneto stated and she turned to look at him, taking a step back at the animosity displayed on his face.

“Bobby,” Rogue said, looking back at her boyfriend. “We can’t do this to them.”

“Do what, Rogue?” Bobby asked. “Take them out of this madman’s grasp?”

“We won’t find a stable place again. We’ll have to uproot them over and over,” she pleaded with him to understand. “They’ve already dealt with so much turmoil; I don’t want them to deal with a life on the run. It’s not easy. Believe me, I know.”

She thought back to the nine months she had been on the road before running into Logan. It was not an experience she wanted the others to deal with. “You think that staying here won’t have any effect on them?” Bobby asked.

“At least they’re safe,” she replied.

“Are they?” Bobby asked, holding up his battered wrists. “What are you going to do when one of them receives this kind of punishment?”

“Kill him,” Rogue informed him.

Magneto raised an eyebrow at that remark while Bobby snorted. “How?” her boyfriend asked. “He can touch you.”

“I don’t need my powers to kill a man,” she said.

Bobby shook his head, dropping his hands in defeat. Rogue reached a hand out to comfort him, quickly abandoning the attempt when he moved away from her. She looked away from him, biting into her lip in order to fight back the tears glistening in her eyes.

“Are we finished with our misguided exertion of power?” Magneto asked and she cast a worried glance towards Bobby.

“I’m only staying here to learn what I can about the Professor and to help the kids,” Bobby said, his fists clenched at his sides. “I’ll help out with the chores because it’s the right thing to do, but I don’t care what training or lessons you want instilled in me.”

His jaw tightened, his entire stance reminding Rogue of Mr. Summer’s bearing when lecturing about grammar. “I’m an X-Man,” Bobby continued. “You can hang me from the ceiling for days if you want but I won’t fall prey to this…whatever this is.”

He looked at Rogue. “You shouldn’t either,” he told her, his steadfast gaze piercing her soul. She looked away from him, guilt filling her every pore. “I’ll be in my room.”

She looked up and watched him walk away, half tempted to follow him from the room and confirm her allegiance to the X-Men. “Rogue,” Magneto said and she turned towards him.

As Magneto continued his lecture about the Brotherhood’s plane, Rogue tried to ignore the unsettling feeling building up in her stomach. She looked back at the doorway several times, trying to muster up the strength to leave and join Bobby in his room. She was never successful.

When she saw Bobby later that evening, his entire attitude towards her had changed. She watched as he sat a few seats down from her, pointedly ignoring her and all the others present. A wave of melancholy enveloped her and she ate in silence, trying to determine a way to make things right between them again.