You Know Me

Thanks again to all of you who have been leaving me feedback and saying such wonderful things. Ashnan, you're awesome and so encouraging! Thank you very much! I'm trying to get this story knocked out, but ... I'm beginning to wonder where it's going. I don't always have a plan when I sit down to write. More often than not, I just go with whatever flows out of my head and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Just keep your fingers crossed that I don't hit a bump in this road! Anyway..... back to it!


“Careful, Darlin’!“ He growled as he fought to hold the woman still for even a moment. He felt his feet lifting off the ground as she prepared to take off with him and started to panic a little. He didn’t want Marie coming to harm if she fell when they hit the air.

The turning of the tables was almost instantaneous as Carol Danvers froze and Marie, not knowing how to control the powers that she was absorbing, shot off into the sky with her prey in tow leaving Logan to fall back on the grass unharmed.

Marie gasped as power surged through her the likes of which she’d never felt in her life. Strength and flight were but beginning of this woman’s powers. She felt a tingling of energy not entirely human in nature surging through her, along with the certain knowledge that the blonde was definitely under mind control. She saw the memory of Mystique dripping something into her mouth. The liquid tasted acrid and chemically unnatural before her vision swam. Marie screamed in horror as she careened madly toward the ground, completely unable to control their rapid descent into the darkness of the grounds.

In the darkness she felt the blows to her body as negligible taps as tree limbs scraped against the two of them and finally a thud as they impacted with the ground before blackness took over.

She wasn’t out long, she knew, because she could hear Logan calling her name as he ran through the trees. The woman had landed on top of her and Marie’s hands were still gripped tightly around the woman’s neck. She shoved her away in disgust, hoping that she hadn’t held on too long and killed the woman and gasped as she heard the sickening crunch of the woman‘s body impacting with a nearby tree.

The world went off kilter as she rose to her feet and her stomach heaved. She spat bile and swiped her hands across her mouth before spitting again to rid herself of the acrid taste.

“Logan!” She coughed and stumbled as she lurched toward him. “We need to get her to Hank. I think I may have killed her. I think I held on to her too long.”

“Are you ok, darlin’?” He ran his hands over her arms and back, as if checking for injury.

“I’m fine, Sugah. Check on her, will ya? I accidentally threw her into that tree when I woke up. I didn’t mean to, it’s just… it’s her powers…she’s so strong.”

Logan disappeared into the darkness and returned a moment later with the unconscious woman in his arms. “Let’s get her back to the house. Mystique ran off when you shot off flying with her.”

They met Jean and Scott coming out of the side doors. Gone was Jean’s earlier bitchiness, replaced instead by the analytical doctor who immediately began to examine Ms. Marvel.

“Oh, God, it’s Carol!” Jean gasped. “She was one of the original X-Men, years ago, when I was still a student, when the school first opened! What happened to her?”

“It was a mind control drug.” Marie explained. “Mystique brought her here to kill Logan.”

“She likely would have done me in if Marie hadn’t jumped on her and stopped her, but she took of flying and they hit the ground when they came down and Marie was knocked out. We think she may have held on too long. “ Logan explained as he led them inside, heading for the elevator that would take them down into the lair where the med lab was.

Marie followed quietly, feeling rather guilty and hoping that this woman’s regenerative powers rivaled Logan’s. She was scared to death that she had killed this woman who had merely been a victim in this petty little revenge drama of Mystique’s. If she had once been one of the X-Men then she likely wasn’t a willing participant of the Brotherhood and therefore wasn’t an enemy that she would have willingly killed.

If it turned out that she had killed her, the first person that Marie was going to go after would be Mystique. She didn’t like the taste of thinking herself a killer, no matter how accidental.

~Professor, I need you. I think I killed someone.~ She thought as she left the med lab and headed for his office.

~I’m in my office, Rogue.~

When she reached the wood paneled room she asked Professor Xavier to read her mind and see what had happened for himself. She wasn’t sure that she could describe it to him without becoming even more upset than she already was.

“Rogue, I’m so terribly sorry this has happened.” His voice was soothing as he laid his hand over hers. “I know exactly what you are feeling and it’s perfectly understandable. Naturally you had no way of knowing what Carol’s powers were having never met her and, because of that, you had no way of knowing what would happen. This was an accident, I assure you. Naturally you had to save Logan, just as you would have any of your team mates. I do know that Carol’s regenerative powers coupled with her imperviousness to injury would have afforded her some degree of protection even from your powers, but I don’t know how much. Have you any idea how long you held on to her?”

“No.” Marie shook her head. “I know we took of into the air for a few seconds, shot up pretty high from the number of tree branches that hit us on the way back down. I imagine that part felt a lot longer than it actually was, but I blacked out when we hit the ground and my hands were still around her neck. I don’t know how long I was out, Professor. I don’t know what to do.”

“Jean assures me that she’s still alive, so you certainly haven’t killed her, Rogue. Just try to relax a bit. Anyone else would have been killed after so long, but she wasn’t. That bodes well. We will simply have to wait and see what happens.”

Marie breathed a small sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear she’s not dead, Professor, but I am afraid that I’ve done permanent damage to her. I so wish that I could have let go sooner and not held on so long.”

“Rogue… Marie… don’t berate yourself for doing what any one of us would have done in your shoes, especially if it was someone that we loved that was in jeopardy. You only did what you had to do, as you do whenever you’re forced into a battle situation. I know that Carol being who she is clouds things a bit, but she was still acting on Mystique’s direction and therefore constituted a demonstrable threat not only to you and Logan but to the team as well as to the innocent children that live at this school. Please try and think of it from that perspective, rather than that you may have injured someone who was innocent.”

Marie took a deep breath and nodded. “I think I need to get a little rest, Professor. I’m hoping that these powers of hers fade soon. I almost ripped your door off the hinges when I came in. My room would likely be the safest place for me to be until they do.”

He nodded and directed his wheelchair. “Shall I let Logan know that you’re going to bed? I’m going to be going down to the lab to see how things are going.”

“That would be very much appreciated, sir.” She smiled somewhat lamely, still feeling as if she were an exposed nerve. “Hopefully I can just sleep all of this off and will wake up and she’ll be fine and so will I.”

“We will certainly hope that that is what is going to happen. I will advise Logan and will let you know how things are going in the morning.”

“Thank you.” Marie rose to leave and had to consciously concentrate on being gentle as she grasped the door knob.

At the bottom of the stairs she sank down to sit on the bottom step and lay her head on her hands. How could things have gone incredibly off course so quickly? She and Logan were so happy one minute and in just the blink of an eye she was miserably unhappy, dreading what the coming day might bring.

She felt like hell and so desperately wanted to sit down at her computer and write in her journal to purge these feelings, but she was afraid that this stupid super human strength that she had absorbed from Carol Danvers would destroy her laptop keys. She didn’t dare touch the expensive piece of equipment until she was over it.

She rose from the step and started upstairs, but when she pushed her weight up to take the next step her feet left the ground and she flew up toward the second floor underside of the third floor stairs. She threw her hands up instinctively to protect her head as she crashed into the wood.