Battle

Battle

A/N: The third and likely final part in the Changes series. Rogue gets a warning, a big battle between the X-men, and the Brotherhood Acolyte team, and a discovery

She knew they all thought she was crazy, knew they suspected something, but she didn’t care- right now she was on top of the world. Rogue sighed, rock music on full blast in her headphones as she sketched some more. And when she was done, she leaned back with a pleased smile. On one side there was a heavily penciled Gambit standing at a cliff’s edge, wind blowing back his hair and trench coat as he stared out at the water pensively. On the other side, there was a lighter sketch of Remy’s face, staring back at her with love- an almost invisible barrier separating the two. It was an improved copy of the drawing Remy took over a week ago around their moment in the bathroom. Rogue grinned, tucking the drawing securely into her portfolio. She’d gone crazy before she remembered the next day the smirk he shot at her before leaving. Sliding back on her bed, she played wit the card she’d found on her pillow that morning. The Joker. ‘Always mischievous and always unpredictable,’ the Cajun had once told her. So when Kitty, literally, burst through her door with big news, she wasn’t too surprised. Even after not seeing her for days in a row again, she knew Remy still watched over her. Her guardian demon. He’d warned her in his own way. “There’s big trouble downtown again,” her friend panted, obviously out of breath. “The Acolytes...” Rogue laughed. “I know,” she said, flashing the card then slipping it into her pocket. “You know?” Kitty repeated, confused. The older girl shook her head. “Don’t worry it over, Kit. Let’s go get into uniform.” Kitty just nodded, not getting it, and left, having delivered the message. Rogue pulled her normal clothes over her head and slipped into her green and black uniform. “Time for battle,” she murmured to herself, tying her long, striped hair over one shoulder. “Better make it look good.” Mask in one place, she hurried to join the others.
They got their usual assignments on the plane, along with the information that the Brotherhood boys would be joining the fight, probably looking for and ‘in’ to the Acolytes. So it went Evan to Quicksilver, Jean to Blob, Kurt and Toad, Scott to Lance, Kitty and Amara to Colossus, Bobby to Pyro, and Rogue to Gambit as always. The full range of the trained X-men against both groups of their usual opponents. An odd war, to be sure, but before Rogue could puzzle out why this was taking place, the Blackbird landed at their destination. They all quickly exited and most found their targets right away. But Rogue wandered farther from the group, looking for Gambit, as he probably intended. “Bonjour cherie,” a husky Cajun voice whispered in her ear, coming from behind her. Her first reaction was to freeze. It always started with such simple words; mocking on his part and angry on hers. But the meanings, the feelings, were the same. “Swamp Rat,” she responded, turning to face him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Her first action was to freeze, her second was to move to him. And there was no mockery or anger this time as his eyes burned into hers. He brushed her cheek softly with his gloved hand, always knowing, and a split second that felt like an hour passed before his eyes left her to focus on the fighting group behind them. His expression turned playful. “Guess we should get this started, non?” he smirked. And that was her warning. Quick as a snake’s strike, Gambit threw a punch and she moved to block it, always primed. “Guess we should,” she agreed, responding with one of her own. He blocked it and after that the blows sped up, as did they, eyes never leaving the others.’ Each contact, punching and grabbing and twisting, set off a series of explosions all throughout their bodies. Rogue let out a roundhouse kick, which he dodged, and then a leg sweep, landing him on his back. Emerald eyes glowing, she straddled him, removing her glove and bringing it within a half-inch of his face before he had time to raise his kinetic shield. After what must’ve been only a half-hour of kicking, blocking, and raining down blows, she had gotten him to the ground and took off her glove, prepared to knock him out.
But before she could get too confident he brought her closer, the feel of his corded body against hers clouding her mind. And then he hooked his feet around hers and flipped her over so he was on top- once again the alpha. Out of pure instinct her hand shot up to get his face, to disarm him so she could regain the offensive, and again he caught it before it could touch him. Long fingers curling around her wrist, he held her captive. “Enough o’ dat, chérie,” he breathed, taking her lips in a fierce kiss as he crushed her to him. It wasn’t long, though, before she felt his life force flow into her and she jerked away, too scared to continue. “Give me a chance, chére. Give us both a chance to make this work,” he said, half-demanding half-pleading. “Gambit—“she began. “A chance, Rogue!” he whispered, lips just a breath from hers, need in his voice. She inhaled on a ragged little sound, her eyes meeting his at last. She tried to speak, moistening her lips with the tip of her tongue, seeking words, unable to find them. Perhaps he understood her dilemma, perhaps he knew exactly when to push her and when to come to her rescue. He released her hands, his arms slipping around her. He rose, bringing her to her feet along with him. Gambit’s mouth descended ardently down upon hers, seizing hr lips in a fierce, hungry kiss. But one that gave so much more. One that teased, one that coerced, one that was hot and fervent, one that elicited fires to burn deep in places she had so recently discovered within herself. And those fires seemed so quickly fanned. But her powers no longer seemed to be a problem with him; as he nearly glowed with kinetic energy so that Rogue could almost feel it humming against her skin- warming her inside and out. In the fierce sweetness of his kiss she swiftly understood the exquisite torture of each loving touch on a body that had been so long denied. And she didn’t even stop to examine her own thoughts, much less the ones she so recently gained from him. Because if she did she’d be shocked to the core, frozen.
Her arms slid around his neck and her lips parted more willingly to the pressure of his kiss, and tentatively at first, but more bolder with each pressing second, Rogue teased and taunted and elicited in turn. She pressed kisses to his face and shoulders as he divested them of their clothing, both completely unaware of moving further and further back. Her fingers stroked the hair at his nape, caressed his cheek, curled into the muscles of his arms and shoulders. And she lovingly found and traced the burning card tattoo, the King of Hearts, on the back of his left shoulder- the one hers was a perfect match to. The natural force of her desire brought her closer against him, sweeping them both into a maelstrom that exploded into an ecstasy beyond all that she ever imagined as they unknowingly stumbled through the open skylight of an abandoned underground warehouse. But all she felt was the rampant beating of Gambit’s, no, Remy’s, heart; a hardness, a quickening within him. It was sweet, volatile, and violent, and bringing her crashing back to him, above him, as the fell to the warehouse floor; a telekinetic bubble/shield, likely an unconscious evolution of her powers, surrounding them and bringing them safely there. The world seemed to burst into brilliant sunlight, fall to darkness, and burst into a beautiful array of stars once again as he joined them at last. She slipped to his side, still amazed, and his arm came around her, holding her tight against him. She lay still, grateful for the warmth that encircled them, and Rogue savored the feel of his skin against hers before she realized that his kinetic safeguard was dropped and moved away. She rose to her feet, hair spilling around her shoulders, and put on her underwear, reaching for her uniform (which had been dragged down with them as they stumbled in) when Remy caught her wrist again. “Rogue...” he started, having already dressed- minus his shirt and trench coat, which had been the first things to be removed and were missing. “Rogue!” she heard Kitty call from high above them. “Are you, like, down there?” Remy let go of her wrist with a sigh and she looked at him with a mixture of sadness, amusement, and longing. “Yes!’ she called back to Kitty, pulling on her semi-torn uniform as best and as fast as she could. “I fell into this old warehouse,” Rogue finished to her friend, lips quirking. ‘And that’s not all,’ she thought wryly. “Jean’s gonna, like, levitate you up, okay?” Kitty yelled. “Okay!” As soon as that word left her lips, she felt herself being lifted- higher and higher until she reached the top, watching Remy in the shadows, eyes shining out as they followed her.
Once she stood in the open, in the daylight, she fidgeted- tugging at the torn parts of her uniform and combed her hair out, however unable to mask the obvious marks of Remy’s rough yet loving kisses. She struggled to hide a grin under Jean’s gaze and looked over to see that the others were quickly joining them, the fight finished and, by the looks of it, most of them victors. As her teammates gaped, she felt Jean scan her mind curiously, eyes wide. Then she noticed, in addition to everything, that Remy’s abandoned shirt and trench coat were just lying there and discretely tried to kick them down to the Cajun. “Rogue...” Jean started, shocked that she’d been with the enemy but even more so that she could somehow touch him. Rogue broke out in a grin just then and, to her surprise, Jean ginned back after a moment of being stunned. “Rogue!” Kitty gasped in realization as the southerner faced her. Everyone looked at the Valley girl. “You got a tattoo!” Not being able too hold it back, she burst into laughter at her friends’ obliviousness. “Yes, Kitty, I got a tattoo.” Shaking her head, she put her arm around the younger girls shoulders and as they walked back to the Blackbird, talking about the fight (well, mostly Kitty), Rogue shared another look with Jean. ‘And that’s all they have to know for now.’