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Rogue waited in the Blackbird's storage compartment until all sounds of the team's departure had ceased and the door was firmly shut on silence. She had felt relatively safe stowing away in the bin that held the life vests, correctly assuming that Cyclops would not set down on the lake where he could be easily seen from any of the three buildings.
Now she climbed out into the cockpit and peeked through the craft's window at the little forest clearing in which he had chosen to land. It was near dawn and a mist rising from the lake sifted through the trees, rendering everything vague and dreamlike. If she didn't hurry she would miss them in the fog. Once she found the team she knew it would be impossible for Cyclops to send her back, which is why she'd waited until they had gone. If she'd revealed herself earlier she felt sure Mr. High 'n Mighty would have tried to lock her in the plane!
A moment later she was outside and swallowed up by the forest. She stopped in her tracks, listening for some sound of the team's passage, but the quiet was unbroken save for the occasional creak of branch and a faint drip-drip as moisture condensed and fell off pine needles. She couldn't have lost them already! Her heart began to beat faster as she looked around wildly.
Think, you little baby, think! she told herself fiercely as the ghostly trees closed in on her, beautiful and threatening. Awright, they gotta be goin' towards the lake and water goes downhill, so . . .
There was a slight slope to the land and she followed its gradual descent eagerly. Even if she didn't meet up with the team in the woods, she'd be sure to spot them on the lake shore. Or so she told herself as the slope became steeper and she must thrash her way through crystal-jeweled brambles and clamber over wet-slicked, uprooted trees.
She paused to catch her breath and a faint rattle of branches made her jerk around. At first she didn't see anything in the gloom, then a vagrant breeze shredded the mist an instant and she found two enormous eyes staring at her from behind a leafless bush. Her hand flew to her mouth to muffle a shriek.
"Are you lost?" asked a soft voice, a girl's voice.
Rogue gave an embarrassed laugh. "Ah'm just fine. Thank you. It's my friends that are lost!"
"Two women and a man? I saw them go that way."
The girl came out from behind the bush and pointed to the left. Draped over one shoulder was a squirrel, on the other perched a large, black bird.
Raven or crow, Rogue didn't know which. "Are those your pets?"
The girl smiled, stroked the squirrel's tail. "Friends."
Peering closer at the stranger, Rogue thought that the two of them were about the same age, but it was hard to tell in the mist. The other's skin and hair were so light that all Rogue could really make out in the dimness were the large dark eyes. The girl was taller, though, and much more sensibly dressed for tramping through the forest than Rogue in her long, green coat, which had already picked up a bulky collection of leaves, twigs, bark bits, and mud. The other girl, however, looked at home in the woods in her sturdy boots, jeans, sweater, big leather jacket--
"That's his jacket! You're wearin' Logan's jacket!"
The girl glanced from the jacket to Rogue, puzzled. "Who's Logan? I got this from Dr. Lehnsherr down at the base. He said Wolverine didn't need it anymore."
The stranger slowly shook her head. "Wolverine doesn't have any claws. He's called that because he thinks he is a wolverine."
Rogue flipped a hand in dismissal. "Whatever. The important thing is my friends and Ah are here to get him and take him home. He's hurt, isn't he? Ah felt him hurtin' inside my head. But . . . "
She frowned at the toe of her shoe without seeing it. "He's not hurtin' so much any more," she said slowly. "Now, he just feels sorta . . . hollow."
The girl stepped closer. "You're here to help Wolverine? I'll show you where he is. Oh, by the way, I'm . . . Fauna."
"Rogue."
The two girls sized each other up, liked what they saw, smiled.
"Let's find your friends before they attract attention." Fauna stared at the bird and it suddenly launched itself into the air, but the girl made no move to leave.
"Aren't we goin' to go look for the others?"
"In a moment." She turned to Rogue, her brow creased. "I thought he was crazy. Wolverine. He told me Dr. Lehnsherr was experimenting on him. Cutting him. Burning him. But I didn't believe it because he didn't have any scars."
"Oh, Logan heals up super fast. He was cut real bad once savin' my life. But a couple three days later he was good as new and nothin' showed."
"I know that now. When Dr. Lehnsherr took him to the lab that last night, I followed and hid. He and Toad did terrible things to Wolverine. And he screamed so and they wouldn't stop and . . . and I ran away. Again." Fauna blinked rapidly and when she looked at Rogue her smile was tenuous and her cheeks were red with embarrassment.
"Ah ran away from home too," Rogue offered shyly. "That's how Ah met Logan. But shouldn't we be findin' my friends?"
"In a minute-- Finally, here you are, slowpoke!" The bird landed on her outstretched hand and the two looked at each other. "Come on! They're just inside the tree line going around the lake. If we hurry we can head them off."
She zipped up the jacket with the squirrel inside and set off going straight downhill at breakneck speed. The bird flew overhead.
"You talked . . . to that . . . bird!" Rogue panted, chasing along behind.
Fauna flashed a grin and leaped over a fallen tree. "And he talked to me!"
Wolverine grabbed Mystique's wrist as she came down the hall, jerked her into his cell with such force that she struck his chest. He imprisoned her in the steel circle of his arms.
"My turn, darlin'."
Her eyes glittered with anger and her tongue tip flicked out like a snake's. She struggled in his grip--but not too hard, he saw. He had taken her measure.
Still holding her pressed against him, pinning her arms to her sides, his hands caressed the silky smoothness of the scales on her firm, round bottom, her narrow waist and supple back, while his tongue and lips explored the contours of her delicate blue ear, her throat, her cheek, the salt/sweet of her mouth until with a convulsive gasp she went limp, slipping out of his rough embrace to sink onto the stained mattress, lifting her arms to him in invitation. Smiling, he lowered himself on her.
"Now we'll be even," he promised
Rogue managed to skitter down onto the lake trail just before the three came around the turn. "Hi, y'all! Nice day for a rescue, huh?"
Cyclops jerked to a stop, his hand at his visor. "Rogue? How did you get here?" The hand dropped along with his jaw.
"She was hiding in the Blackbird, Scott," Jean said matter-of-factly.
He turned on her. "You knew? And you didn't tell me?"
"Rogue deserves to be here. This is her fight too."
The girl looked at the woman with new eyes. Why, sure! Jean must have psyched me out, hidin' there in the bin. And she never said nothin' to nobody. That's one awright lady, Rogue decided.
"Like she says, it's my fight too. And Ah got us some help! This is Fauna." Rogue looked around and didn't see anybody behind her. She studied the foliage suspiciously. "Now stop that and come on out! These are friends."
Slowly the girl emerged from behind a tree, looking as timid as a forest animal. She nervously twisted the squirrel's tail around a finger, her cheeks pink. To put her at her ease Rogue made the introductions.
"This is Cyclops. He can blast things with his eyes, so he wears that little blinder thingy so he doesn't fry anybody that doesn't need it. Storm over there does wild things with the weather, and Jean can move stuff with her mind as easy as look at you. She can read your mind too, so watch what you're thinkin'. And me . . . " Rogue's face fell. "If people touch my skin they get hurt real bad," she said, subdued.
"H-hello . . . "
Rogue heard the girl's hesitation and pulled herself together. "Like Ah said, this is Fauna and she talks to animals and they talk to her and she's goin' to take us to Logan and she knows just 'bout everythin' there is to know about this here base."
"I'm surrounded by women!" Cyclops groaned.
"So?" Storm's eyes started to simmer.
He looked at the four, who between them controlled weather, objects, animals--even his own power, should Rogue touch him. "Uh . . . I like it!"
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