You Know Me

It was as if gravity no longer affected her and it completely sucked!



She tried to concentrate on slowing, but had no clue how to implement such a thing. This power had seemed so cool to all of her fellow students when she was in school. To be able to fly seemed like it would be just incredible! But now that she found herself able to do it she didn’t find it quite as cool as she thought she would.



Marie took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she hovered in the stair well, reverting back to the beginning of learning to control her powers with the Professor. She breathed deeply and slowly and mentally closed the door on her energy flow. So if she could do that, surely she could manage to bring herself to the ground. She continued her slow breathing and opened her eyes and concentrated on the ground and on her feet touching the ground. She willed herself to move, but nothing happened.



Fortunately at that moment a couple of students came bounding up the stairs and stopped cold at the sight of her floating above their heads.



“Wow! Miss D'Ancanto, we didn’t know you could fly!” Bart Spinetti , also known as Stretch hooted excitedly. “That is SO cool!”



Marie’s jaw worked in frustration as she fought back the sarcastic rejoinder that sprang to her lips. This kid hadn’t done anything wrong and he could certainly get her down from there. “Bart, I’m so glad to see you. Can you get me down from here? Just grab my shoe and guide me down to the floor.”



“Sure!” The boy reached out and stretched his arm until it was well over 10 feet long and grasped her ankle, pulling her until her feet were on the stairs.



“Thank you, Bart, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help!” She smiled with a sigh of relief as she immediately grasped the banister to keep herself grounded. “I’d really appreciate it if you two wouldn’t share this with anyone else.”



Both boys nodded and chimed, “Yes, ma’am.”, under her pointed glance.



“Thank you both. Now, go on to what you were doing and I’ll be fine.” She urged them to continue on their way so she could make her way gingerly up the stairs without an audience.





* * * * *





Charles Xavier sat in his office staring out at the darkness lost in thought. He was far more concerned for Rogue than he’d allowed her to believe. From what little intelligence he’d managed to gather in regard to the incident that had occurred when she and Logan met Mystique and Carol Danvers he gathered that Rogue had been in contact with Carol’s skin for more than just a few seconds and that was cause for a great deal of concern.



He recalled the night that Logan had stabbed her through the chest, she had only touched him for a few seconds, fifteen to be precise. Logan had taken some time to recover from that, even with his healing abilities. Then at the Statue of Liberty the touch had lasted a little more than twice as long. Granted, Logan had suffered numerous injuries from his encounter with Victor Creed and that had certainly slowed his recovery time added to Rogue‘s own near death experience, but it had still taken him several days to recover in that instance.



He frowned and turned away from the window. Rogue’s mutation had never really been tested due to the deadly results to anyone that she used her powers on. It wasn’t something that ever could have possibly have been allowed simply because it was just too dangerous a power to experiment with. The only times that she had ever had reason to use her power other than with Logan had been in battle, or when forced to and those instances had been very brief in duration.



~Logan, could you come to my office please and bring word on Carol’s condition?~ Charles sent out the thought to Logan, feeling the desperate need to speak with him about Rogue.



The thing that he feared most was that Carol would never recover her powers after such extended contact with Rogue’s draining abilities. The boy that she had kissed when her mutation manifested had remained in a coma for three weeks, but had recovered and he‘d been human. As homo superior Carol Danvers stood a much better chance for survival, but at what cost?



He smashed a frustrated fist against his desk top and gritted his teeth. This was all such unknown territory!



The logical result of prolonged contact with Rogue’s power would be total absorption. If that was the case, then there was every likelihood that Rogue had just permanently gained powers that she had no clue how to use, which could prove very dangerous to everyone involved.







Logan found himself frowning as he stalked through the hallway en route to Chuck’s office. He had a feeling that there was something seriously wrong here and that he wasn’t going to like hearing about it one bit. Chuck had a way of getting right to the point when there was something going on and making sure that things were dealt with whether the parties involved preferred to stick their heads in the sand or not.



He was hoping that Marie was waiting for him when he got to Chuck’s, but met with disappointment when he neared the door, knowing from scent that Marie had been there, but had left not long ago. The look on the older man’s face when he walked into his office stopped Logan in his tracks. Charles Xavier wasn’t prone to showing much of what he was feeling and the concern that he was feeling was plain to see.



“What’s wrong, Chuck?” He asked as he sank into a chair, not at all certain that he wanted to hear what the other man had to say.



“What’s the prognosis?”



Ok, if that’s how it was going to be played, he’d go along. “Hank says she’s in a coma. He said that there is no way to know what the long term effects will to be until she wakes up from it, if she ever does. He also said that her having had the powers that she did would protect her to a certain degree, that she would tolerate the longer contact with Marie better than most would, certainly better than a human, but that until she wakes up, there‘s no way to know just how much damage was done.”



“I see. Anything else?”



“No. We’re just going to have to wait and see what happens.”



“Logan, I suspect that you know perfectly well that the reason that I asked you to come see me is Rogue.” Charles began with a regretful sigh. “I’m very concerned about her. When she touched you after the stabbing incident ten years ago, it was only for fifteen seconds. At Liberty Island, when she was unconscious and you were carrying so many injuries from your confrontation with Victor Creed, it was perhaps twice that long and it took you several days to recover from the incident. From what I’ve been able to determine, she was in contact with Carol for far longer than she’s ever been in contact with anyone else, for more than a minute, perhaps even more than two. I’ve always assumed that if she were to drain someone for such a long period of time that she would kill them. Obviously that has not been the case in this instance, but I believe that the end results of this will be something that is going to be very difficult for Rogue to cope with.”



“What do you mean?” Logan frowned, not at all liking the direction this primarily one sided conversation was going.



“I’m afraid that Rogue may have achieved total absorption when she touched Carol and that the powers that she drained from her may now have been transferred to her permanently.” Charles explained matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry to be blunt, but this is what I’m worried about and, your relationship with her being what it is, I thought you should be made aware of it. If I’m correct, she’s going to have a very hard time dealing with the guilt that she’s already piling on herself. It will only get worse if my suspicions are proven correct.”



“Guilt?” Logan lurched from his chair. “She’s kicking herself over this?”



“Yes, Logan. Marie is a very sensitive young lady, which I know you are perfectly well aware of. That sensitivity is magnifying her guilt ten fold.”



“I’ll take care of her, don’t worry. We’ll let you know what happens come morning.” Logan stalked out of the door and charged up the stairs to her room, taking them two at a time in his haste to reach her.