X-men Fic "Election Day" (1/approx. 8)
Feb. 11th, 2011 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisElection Day
Title: Election Day (1/8)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stormkpr
Rating: PG-13 (or a very mild R)
Genre: Drama, General
Summary: The future of mutantkind – and the planet – is in serious jeopardy. Magneto has been killed, and Cortez is trying to organize mutants for a full-scale war. Rogue meanwhile is struggling with her feelings for Gambit.
Pairings:Most of my usual pairings are at least touched on here: Romy, RoLo, Jott, potential Iceman/Northstar
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters and no copyright infringement is intended here. I certainly don't make any money off of fanfic
Click behind the cut to read the first chapter!
A few more Author’s Notes:
Like all my X-men fanfic, this one is generally based on the characters as they appear in "X-men: The Animated Series". It uses XTAS and its events as canon, although the character of Bobby Drake will resemble more movie-verse than XTAS-verse. No copyright infringement is intended and I can only dream of either owning these characters or making any money off of X-men.
This fic is narrated by Rogue and takes place not long after the events in XTAS.
Thank you to Jo the Phoenix for beta testing.
***
Election Day
I decided one day that I’m gonna write about it. My life as an X-man has had so much happen that I wanna take all the notes I wrote over the years and get them organized. I thought for a while about where to start and decided to begin with when we left the mansion.
I could’ve started anywhere, but a lot of this you know already. You saw a glimpse of my creepy father, you saw me kiss Cory and put the boy in a coma, you saw Mystique corrupt me until Xavier found me, and you saw all the adventures that the X-men had over the years from the first Sentinel attack to Apocalypse’s crazy plan to end time. And you saw everything me and Remy went through.
But I think I’m gonna start with what happened after all that.
The Professor suggested it to me, not long after I joined the X-men. He said that writing about things helps, and he was right like he always is. I always had a whip-smart memory anyhow. When I sat down to write what had happened the day before, I could remember whole conversations without even trying. That shouldn’t surprise you. You already know I could tell you everything that happened the day that Cory I and kissed, and that was practically a lifetime ago.
Years have passed since what I’m gonna write about, but I still have the notes I wrote when I we were all in the eye of the storm. Reading through and organizing them has taken me right back to that crazy time.
***
The first thing I remember is how darn strange it was to not be living in the mansion anymore.
Oh yeah, its proper name was the Institute but none of us called it that. All the years that the core group of us lived and worked together – me, Remy, the Professor, Storm, Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, Beast, Jubilee, and Iceman --- we called it the mansion.
But now there were a whole passel of other X-men living on board Asteroid M, along with most every other mutant on the planet too.
And as incredible as that was, my notes from those days have as much to say about what was going on between me and Remy as they do with what the monumental events that all of mutantkind was experiencing.
I’d better back up and explain things. Too much happened at once, but I gotta slow down and do it all justice. It’s hard to figure exactly where to start but I think that Magneto’s memorial is as good a place as any.
***
We’d gotten the word out that there was going to be a memorial for Magneto at the mansion, but apart from the X-men not too many other folks attended. A handful of Morlocks and X-Factor people, but that was it.
Not that the room wasn’t full enough with just the X-men. For years it had been the nine of us. Bobby was always there too but in the background; the boy wasn’t a fighter. But given what was going on in the world outside us, most everyone who’d been with us at one point had come back and officially joined up with us. Angel had returned first, then Nightcrawler joined, then Colossus, and then Cannonball. Moira and Banshee moved their research facility here after Moira’s son was killed. Dazzler tracked us down and joined up with us, and Angel brought Psylocke in. For so many years it had been just the smaller group, so it took some getting used to with all these others sitting around the table.
There was no mistaking that Magneto was really and truly dead and gone forever because this time there was a body. The Professor was shaken. He hid it but we knew him well. I’m not sure if he was more shaken because Magneto was gone or because of what this meant. FOH was claiming responsibility for killing Magneto, and we knew those bastards were more powerful than ever, but even that was the least of our worries. The Professor had predicted that making Magneto into a martyr might accomplish what Magneto had never been able to do in his lifetime: a war between mutants and normal humans. Magneto wasn’t cold in his grave before various mutants and mutant groups were beating the drum for war. We didn’t have that much time to mourn him, and my stomach churned like I’d eaten bad food when I thought about what this might mean.
But yeah, despite all this weighty stuff going on, most of my thoughts still belonged to what was going on with me and Remy. I didn’t want to admit it, least of all to myself, but he was what I thought of most of the time.
There was a buzz in the air during the memorial – I’m sure because of rumors of war and us wondering what role we’d play and how we’d get it to a peaceful solution. Gambit held my gloved hand during the service, which was doing as much to cause butterflies in my stomach as all the talk of war was. We sat quietly during the service and listened to the Professor talk, though every time I glanced around the room I could tell that my friends – hell, the X-men are my family – were preoccupied. Magneto hadn’t meant to any of us what he’d meant to the Professor. I looked at the front of the room again and remembered seeing lines on the Professor’s face that hadn’t been there before and a look in his eyes that worried me.
When the service was over, the Professor left the room. Moira followed his hoverchair, and I saw Cyclops and Storm filter out of the room next.
Dazzler walked by the seats where me and Remy were sitting and she flashed him a killer smile. He smiled back.
“You wanna go get some coffee, chere?” he asked me.
I gotta say that somehow that Swamp Rat always knew what I needed. Right then, I needed to get away from the crowd of people in the mansion, away from thoughts about what Magneto’s death was gonna mean, and away from Dazzler smiling at the man who I wanted to say was “my man” but really couldn’t.
We drove to the nearest coffee shop in silence and sat down to our drinks. And again that man had talent because he kept me from thinking about what I didn’t want to think about. We talked about a movie we saw on TV the day before, then somehow got to talking about what one of the X-Factor people had been wearing at the memorial. I mentioned I liked our drinks and Remy said it was time to upgrade the coffee grinder at the mansion. He talked about some ideas for making the drinks even better.
We’d both noticed out of the corners of our eyes a few people in the coffee shop taking second and third glances at us. Other than my skunk-stripe I look normal enough, but then there’s Gambit’s eyes. Me, I always found his eyes breathtaking and could lose myself in ‘em for hours, but I had to remind myself that to a lot of non-mutants they looked freakish. He wore sunglasses sometimes when out in public like this, but I remember well how God-awful cloudy and gloomy that day was; can’t blame the man for not wanting to wear sunglasses. So guess we couldn’t be too surprised that some people took notice.
“Look. A pair of muties sitting right over there!”
“Ew, you’re right! Look at that guy’s eyes!”
I remember feeling kinda sorry for them. Gambit could’ve pulverized them in two seconds if he hadn’t been such the gentleman. Instead he handled the situation with what I gotta call style.
“I believe it’s time for us to leave, chere,” he said, setting his mug down and offering me his arm.
Since, as usual, I had clothing covering every inch of flesh, I took his arm and we calmly left the place ignoring the taunts from the sad folks who were making fun of us. When we got back to the mansion, Remy walked me to my room and kissed my hands. I don’t gotta write that I still had my gloves on.
***
I didn’t sleep at all that night. A lot of the X-Factor people had stayed overnight in the mansion, and I still felt something in the air. I wasn’t close to Magneto like the Professor was but I felt the same thing that I knew the Professor felt. An all-out war was going to be on us if we didn’t act fast. Me, I don’t back down from a battle when I gotta fight, but a full-scale war would mean the death of a lot of innocent folks and we X-men never can abide that notion.
But again, that was only half of what was bothering me. I didn’t want to end last evening with Remy kissing my gloves outside of my room. I wanted to end it with me curled up next to him, our clothes on the floor. And hey, while I was dreaming - how about adding in the notion of one my gloved fingers having an engagement ring on it? Didn’t matter that I’d had years to accept this; I still couldn’t go on with Remy like this anymore. The idea of a war about to break should’ve bothered me more but it didn’t.
So I threw on a bathrobe, dug around for my slippers, and went downstairs to the kitchen. I’d had a late lunch before the memorial and had skipped dinner since the decaf latte I drank with Remy had filled me up, but now I was hungry again. When I reached the kitchen, Storm was there.
I said hello to her and started to rummage through the refrigerator. Storm sat quietly drinking something. I’d thought it was maybe tea but out of the corner of my eye I saw a glass, not a mug, and thought maybe it was cognac. She looked as worried as Xavier had.
“Bobby sure keeps this fridge organized,” I said. “I can tell exactly where everything is.”
“That he does,” Storm agreed.
I helped myself to leftover salad and then sat down next to Storm. We didn’t talk for a while, which was one thing I really liked about Storm. You didn’t need to make conversation with her if you didn’t want to, and it never felt awkward. I was so comfortable with the rest of the team that I felt that way about most of them, at least the ones who I’d lived and worked with for so long.
But I was curious about something and so I asked Storm. “You spoken to Jean lately?”
Storm got a slight smile on her face. “You can talk to Jean yourself, you know.”
“Yeah, I know. But you’re a mite closer to her than I am.” I stabbed my fork into the salad. “Plus I’d hate to ask her and there be no news.”
Storm nodded. “I did ask her how she is doing recently. I believe she likes it when others show concern for her and her situation.”
I looked at my bowl while I chewed. The good part of me knew that Storm was right. The bad part of me had trouble mustering up much concern for Jean’s situation when I compared it to my own. Not being able to have a baby ain’t quite as bad as not being able to even touch the man you’re in love with.
The good part of me won out. “You’re right,” I said. “I’ll talk to her.”
“There has been nothing new on that front, as she told me,” Storm went on. “She is still not conceiving. She is considering going to see a specialist.”
Jean and Cyke had been trying to get pregnant for a while. I wasn’t sure how long it’d been but at least a year and probably longer. I’ll never forget the day when Jean happily told me that she “was late” and thought that this might be it. A few days later I saw the horrible disappointment all over her face and knew that it had been a false alarm.
Cyclops had been more on edge and more grumpy with each disappointing month. Honestly the man looked as bad as Xavier had at Magneto’s service, but in his case I knew it was because of the baby situation.
“She might wanna go soon,” I said. “Who knows what’s gonna happen now that Magneto’s been killed.”
“Yes,” Storm said, suddenly sounding very far away and sad. I wished I hadn’t brought that that up.
“So how are things with you? You and Wolverine ever gonna get together?”
Guess I was doing whatever it took to change the subject and Storm looked none too pleased for it. In fact, I couldn’t tell if she was about to roll her eyes or tell me to keep my trap shut, so I went on.
“I mean, I dunno. I think he’s getting over Jean. If he’d just open his eyes and see what’s right in front of him. And you, girl, I wish you’d open your eyes too. Seein’ you two coaching Jubilee in the Danger Room the other day – it was like watching some old married couple and their teenager.”
“That is hardly an inspiring thought, Rogue,” Storm said drolly and I knew she wasn’t too mad at me.
I also knew that it was gonna take more than some prompting from me for her to get over her pride and the fact that she wasn’t Wolverine’s first choice. Two people stubborn as mules. Well, playing matchmaker wasn’t my job anyway, I’d figured. I had enough to worry about when it came to my own love life.
“Hey, Storm,” I said, my voice getting more soft and serious. “Sorry for all the joking around. I just want you to be happy and…and since we’re getting all serious like, there’s something I gotta tell you.”
“What is it?” she asked, leaning in and setting her glass down.
“I think I gotta have a very difficult talk with Remy,” I admitted. I was looking down at my bowl. “Like I gotta tell him that he oughtta get out there and…and you know, date and see other women. Cause things between me and him have gone as far as they can go and I think he’s holding himself back.”
I don’t even feel like writing the whole story out. We couldn’t touch. We’d had no luck getting our hands on a Genoshan collar, and I’d had a few sessions with the Professor but wasn’t any closer to getting control of my powers. Gambit had hinted several times at some “things we could do” without touching, but I didn’t know how I felt about it all and what was the blasted point if I couldn’t even kiss him? Seemed like kissing was what needed to come first and we couldn’t do that. I knew full well he loved me and much as I wished otherwise, I loved him like crazy. But now I felt like we were stuck in a rut.
Storm knew the whole story. She and I were real close, and she was even closer to Remy.
“You might feel that way,” Storm said calmly, “but Gambit might not”.
“I know. So I think I gotta be real firm. Like, half the women on the planet would give their right arm to be his woman. And with Dazzler here we even got a woman here now who’s single and I bet she’s on the make. So I gotta cut him loose.”
“Is that what you really want?”
For a second, I’d wanted to smile because I knew Storm preferred playing the counselor, much more than she liked me asking her about her and Wolverine. We’d all been through counseling with Professor Xavier at one point or another and it wouldn’t have surprised me if Storm had taken notes on his technique.
“What I want is for us to be able to touch, sugar, but that ain’t gonna happen. It’s time to face facts. It don’t matter that I love him, and I’m keeping Gambit from something better out there - and stringing my own hopes along too.”
“I just hope that you think it over thoroughly before you decide to have this discussion with Gambit.” Her voice was steady and she took another sip of her drink.
“Sugar, I’ve been thinking about this for way too long! I’ll be glad when we had the talk and it’s over.”
That was enough on that topic, I thought. I asked Storm if she wanted to go to the mall tomorrow, and she said that “depending on what happens tomorrow” she would like to. But I think both of us knew that too much was going to happen the next day.
***
The next day, we had just gathered in the War Room when we got the news. I always thought that “the War Room” was a downright funny name for it because we worked so hard for so many years to prevent a war, and we now had one knocking on our back door. But we literally had just sat down to – as Cyclops put it – “assess the situation and strategize” when a news report came in.
Cortez had just finished rebuilding Asteroid M. In honor of “our martyr Magneto” he was going to continue to call it Asteroid M and he was inviting every mutant on the planet to “take refuge on Asteroid M and join me in a conversation about how to move forward after Magneto was so brutally taken from us by the anti-mutant humans”.
“’Join him in a conversation’” Wolverine echoed, and I had to agree that this didn’t sound much like Cortez.
“The only conversation he’s going to hold is one leading to war,” Cyclops said.
“I agree,” the Professor added.
We discussed the situation some more. The various members of X-Factor who had stayed over for Magneto’s memorial were sitting around the table with us, so the room was crowded and hot with the excitement or fear over the thought of what was coming next.
Seems that Cortez had really revamped his image since we saw him last. Gambit and Beast had been doing some investigations of him lately, and we’d had an inkling that he’d wanted to rebuild the asteroid but he’d done so in such quick time that even we were surprised. From all the research that Gambit and Beast had done -- heck, from our own gut instincts – we could see no other purpose for Cortez gathering mutants on Asteroid M than to prepare for war.
“Last time a mutant-only asteroid was launched,” Storm began, “we sent a small contingent up there, hoping to reason with Magneto. But this is completely different.”
“That is very true,” the Professor said. “This time, it’s not Magneto we need to reason with. It is the masses of mutants who will go to Asteroid M. We need to convince them that war is not the answer, and that they need to listen to us – not Cortez.”
“As Cortez has been trying to present himself as a reasonable and thoughtful leader,” Hank added, “this could work to our advantage. Our research indicates that he likely won’t begin with an attack on us. His strategy will be to use Magneto’s death to inspire as many mutants as he can to wage war on non-mutants. I believe he will either attempt to ignore or discredit us, painting us as a group that kowtows to regular humans and doesn’t speak for most mutants.”
“He recently called us a group of ‘Uncle Toms’,” Remy said.
We talked about it some more but I knew right away where this was going. We had to get up there to Asteroid M and get mutants to see us for what we really are – and see Cortez for what he is. Staying here sure wasn’t going to prevent any war.
For the rest of the day we moved faster than you could blink. The Professor got a hold of Cortez and we were told that “of course” X-men were “more than welcome on Asteroid M, as all mutants are welcome”. We contacted some of the other mutant groups to find out who was going. The Morlocks were going up. We learned that Alpha Flight was going up. X-Factor was going up too of course.
Unfortunately, some folks we didn’t want to run into were also going up, as Gambit and others doing some stealth work learned. The Inner Circle was packing their bags. That was one group that I sure didn’t want to see again. Another anti-human group that Cyclops had run into – Children of the Shadow – was already up there. With folks like that up there, I had a sinking feeling that chaos would be in the works.
There was a lot going on with non-mutants as well. FOH was up to its usual garbage, holding demonstrations. They burned Magneto in effigy. They held signs that said stuff that makes my blood boil just thinking about it.
But what’s worse was hearing the opinions of non-FOH people. There were tons of interviews and opinion polls on TV and all over the internet. Seemed that most folks wanted us to go, and plenty of folks wanted the governments of the world to launch an all-out attack on Asteroid M just as soon as most mutants boarded it. I expected this hog slop from FOH but not from the rest of the world.
We also contacted our own government. With Kelly no longer the president, we didn’t have the influence on our government that we’d had in the past. But we did send the message that we’d do everything we could to de-escalate the situation and prevent a catastrophe.
Then there was so much to do around the mansion. We had to close up a lot of our equipment and weapons. We had tons and tons of files and other computer equipment to back up and move. We had to pack our own belongings. Cyclops and Storm organized everything and barked out orders, and I think the rest of us just followed best as we could.
***
We had one last dinner back at the mansion. Xavier insisted, which I thought was real sweet and real smart.
Sitting next to Remy at the table, I sat there blinking, having a hard time believing that it could be a while before I’d see this place again. Spent all my best years here, met and lived with everyone who mattered to me while here. I wanted to think about what it all meant but there was no time.
The talk around the table started out being about nothing else than our preparations to go, and trying to figure out what we’d experience when we got up there.
Jubilee asked a good question. “So what do you think it’s gonna be like up there – like, there’s gonna be thousands of mutants on Asteroid M. How are they gonna handle things like bedrooms and bathrooms, and you know – food?”
Remy, the Professor, and Beast answered her question by telling her what it was like when they were up there before, and from what they’d learned about Cortez recently. The short answer was that there’d likely be a bit of chaos from so many people arriving at once, but that Cortez did have a team he worked with and they weren’t too shabby in the area of organizing things. Remy had located a draft map of the place. The individual rooms looked decent – small but they had their own bathrooms. There was a big dining room but that likely people would need to eat in shifts. They had a green house and kitchen on Asteroid M but likely were going to have to rely on food replicators to make enough for everyone. They had a convenience store but we weren’t sure if Cortez had quite worked out what sort of currency Asteroid M would use.
A few people including the Professor left after they were done eating to get back to packing and other work. But most of us lingered at the table; it had been a really busy day and I was tired as a field hand. I sure wasn’t the only one from the looks of things.
“Did you see the latest FOH propaganda piece?” Psylocke asked the group. She went on to describe the latest crap that FOH had on their website, their commercials, and in their leaflets. To me it was kinda like picking at a scab till it bled and I didn’t want to hear all about it, but I thought Psylocke almost liked this stuff.
Things got a mite awkward at one point though. FOH loves to say the worst kinda stuff about us, and of course that means they just make shit up about us. Some of their propaganda that they’ve been pushing lately claims that mutants have a high number of homosexuals in their ranks. One of the X-Factor guys latched onto that when Psylocke brought it up, and he went on and on about it. He was furious at FOH saying that we had a lot of queers in our number.
I don’t think he noticed that there were a few awkward glances around the table at that point. I felt weird about it when I noticed that Bobby was still here. ‘Course I always had a soft spot for him, so I was glad when Hank changed the subject.
***
So this is the point where I should say that something about Bobby ended up being important to what happened on Asteroid M. So I better tell you the background.
First remember that things were different back then. A lot of years have gone by since these events I’m describing for you. Back then there were things you didn’t ever talk about, and I grew up calling people like Bobby “queers”.
Way back when I joined the X-men, I liked Bobby -- me and Remy became friends with him pretty quickly. He was easy going and we liked his practical jokes. I remember Remy once saying to me that it was odd that Bobby didn’t seem interested in dating girls - especially since there was one not that much younger than him right there, one who seemed to like him. (Jubilee). He told me he thought Bobby might be queer but back then I thought that was a really bad thing to be and I’d told Remy to shut up.
But we learned the truth of it all one night when we’d gone out with Bobby and we’d all had a few drinks. The boy does not hold his alcohol and he told us his whole story after Remy had asked why things hadn’t worked out with Lorna. Bobby had hemmed and hawed, and then I nearly fell out of my seat when Remy had asked him if he was a homosexual. I’d wanted to slap Remy but Bobby seemed okay with the question.
Bobby said he hoped we’d still want to hang out with him and all, but that yes he was. He said he’d seen the Professor about it and had asked if he could be cured since he wanted to be “a normal guy”. He said that he and the Professor met several times and the Professor had concluded that there simply was no cure, and that Bobby had to learn to be happy with this condition. He told us that he and the Professor had told Hank, and that Hank had said it made no difference to him. I remember exactly what Bobby had said next. “That was that, and me and Hank haven’t ever talked about it since”. I’d almost wondered if he was starved to talk about it and that’s why Remy and me were getting the full scoop.
The guy’s got guts, I’d thought. Either that or he was stone drunk, but that had to be hard to admit. I’ll say it again, where I grew up you did not talk about this unless you were a preacher at the pulpit telling folks they’d go to hell if they were like this. And things hadn’t much changed since I left the South.
But Remy and I said we were cool with it, and maybe I wasn’t totally cool with it but I still liked Bobby. We didn’t really talk about it much after that and I gotta say that was fine with me.
It sorta became an open secret in the X-men. Everyone knew about Bobby; after all, he didn’t go into combat and he didn’t play sports with the other guys and he didn’t date. Most of the guys kinda avoided him but they at least tolerated him. They weren’t rude, they didn’t kick him out if he sat down to play cards with them, ain’t like we tossed him out on his ear, but most of the group sure didn’t seek out his company. Bobby never seemed to mind it much, leastwise he never talked about leaving. I don’t think he had anywhere else to go and he seemed happy enough here.
Maybe I shouldda felt sorry for him, over the fact that a lot of the others avoided him. But I didn’t – in fact, sometimes I felt I was doing him a favor by being one of his friends. He didn’t have many.
So anyway that was years before Asteroid M but I wanted to write all this out because, like I said, it ended up coming into play on Asteroid M and I remembered that comment at the dinner table the night before we left.
***
After dinner, Remy invited me up to his room for a “nightcap”. Against my better judgment, I went. We drank our drinks slowly and we talked about what we were gonna pack. I knew the rooms on Asteroid M were gonna be small but I knew I’d pack every note and trinket Remy had given me over the years. I kept them in a lacquered box I’d bought for them. I didn’t tell Remy that I was bringing them though, just told him I’d be sure to pack the bracelet he’d given me. It had emeralds in it, to match my eyes.
Remy then asked me how I felt about leaving the mansion. I said I was sad, but what he didn’t know is that I was more sad about the fact that I had to soon tell him that I was gonna cut him loose.
But my resolve went right smack down the drain that evening.
When we finished our drinks, we sat together. I was somehow in his lap but careful to keep my face away from his face. Remy murmured something about that it didn’t matter what happened in the future as long as we were together. I loved the way his voice sounded, like I could listen to it forever. It was low and sexy. I even just liked the sound of his breathing. Usually all this made me mad but that night the anger just kinda drained out of me and I liked all the feelings he was causing in me. Somehow one of my hands was touching his arm, feeling the muscles through his shirt. They felt amazing. I took one of my fingers and just slowly traced his chin and cheek, wishing with all my might that I could take the stupid glove off.
Remy’s hands started roaming too. By then I was really feeling a mess of feelings. Like I was outta control, drowning in what I felt but that night I was kinda okay with the drowning because I didn’t want his warm hands off my body. His hands touched my back.
But I had to stop it. One of his hands had slowly made its way to my breasts and it cupped one of them. Still had all my clothes on of course but let’s just say my nethers were on fire so I had to do something. I took his hand and moved it back away.
“You liked that, chere, didn’t you?” he murmured.
“You some kinda masochist??” I shot back. “You know we can’t do anything.”
“I told you chere. Remy’s got plenty of ideas for what we can do.”
“That’s all fine and dandy, Swamp Rat but I told you. Ain’t worth it if we can’t even kiss!” I added, “Good night, Cajun.”
With that, I stood up and went back to my own room. Why couldn’t I be stronger? Heck, at least I figured that when we’re on Asteroid M there’d be tons of good-looking mutant women and hopefully he’d meet one and realize he could get a much better deal than what he had. (The little voice in the back of my head told me he sure had to already know that, but I pretty much ignored that voice back in those days).
Once I got to my room let’s just say that I did something that I knew for sure had to be a sin, and it was something that thoughts of Remy had driven me to do more times than I could count.
At least it allowed me to sleep pretty well that night though.
***
The next morning we left for Asteroid M. Beast and Wolverine had been outfitting the Blackbird like we had before, to get us into space. We were lucky that we had this and didn’t have to wait for one of Cortez’s transports. We did one last check of the Blackbird, loaded up everything, and we were off.
I’d been in space before but nothing ever really prepares you for actually being in it. The blackness all around you, while the starts are so bright. The temperature in the Blackbird might’ve been the same but I felt cold as soon as we left Earth’s atmosphere. And small. You ever wanna feel small and insignificant, just go into space. I looked at Remy and from a glance knew that he was thinking much the same as I was thinking. But he always worried less, just took everything in stride.
I looked around at the rest of the group. I really felt that I could almost see tension just emanating out from the Professor and Scott. Moira was clutching Banshee’s hand. Bobby sat in the back and I could tell he was scared. I think he was happiest when Hank was around but I knew Hank had been so busy that he couldn’t have had much time for Bobby lately. Good old Storm looked solid as she always did.
Jubilee looked excited and I gotta admit that I felt excited too. Who knew which way things would go? If Cortez had his way you could bet there’d be a war, but we also stood a great chance at beating Cortez and making things better for all mutants. If we could just get enough mutants to see things our way.
We had told Cortez’s people that we’d be arriving that day, and we contacted them again from space. There was no trouble docking the Blackbird. We landed inside the huge shuttle bay and started unpacking our gear. Tons of people were buzzing around that shuttle bay. Other mutant groups, and people who wore the uniforms that told us they worked for Cortez. People were unpacking, moving things, and milling about.
We hadn’t gotten very far with the unloading of our stuff when Cortez himself greeted us. Two of his people were right behind him.
I ain’t gonna waste the time typing out what he said. Lemme just say that he was smooth as hog fat, he welcomed us to Asteroid M, and the words “thrilled to have the esteemed X-men here” actually came outta his mouth. He said that he wished he could give us the tour himself but since he had so much going on, he’d delegate it to one of his top people, a solid looking woman who he introduced as Tess.
Cortez had just finished telling Cyclops where we could store some of our larger equipment when he stopped in mid-sentence. He looked at us and then said, “We’re doing a census to keep track of who all is residing on Asteroid M. You…you are all mutants, right? Do you have any non-mutant humans with you?” I can’t quite describe his tone of voice except to say that we knew his question meant trouble.
Several of us X-men glanced at Moira. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that many of the other folks in the shuttle bay – not X-men – stopped what they were doing to listen.
I guess Xavier figured that there was no point in lying, since a simple scan could call out the truth.
“Dr Moira MacTaggert is not a mutant,” Xavier said. “However you must be aware of her pioneering work. She has fought for our rights more tirelessly than most mutants I know.”
To someone who didn’t know the Professor, he’d sounded firm enough. But there were little things giving it away, how he really felt. His eyes looked right worried and I thought I saw a bead of sweat on his face. Can’t blame him for being unsettled. I mean, heck he loved Magneto has a brother and the man still wasn’t cold in his grave.
It surprised me how fast the bustling shuttle bay had gone quiet as a humid summer night. Now it seemed that everyone was listening to us.
“My husband Banshee is a mutant,” Moira spoke up. “So was my son Proteus, but he was killed by mutant-hating mobs.”
Banshee didn’t look worried, just mad as all get out. He crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Moira’s one of us, Cortez. I hope this isn’t going to cause a problem.”
“Not at all,” Cortez said. “Asteroid M is for mutants only, but for someone who has fought for our rights as Dr MacTaggert has – and as you said, who has chosen to live among mutants – we will most happily make an exception. This time.”
Cortez left us alone after that and we went back to what we were doing. I don’t know why but I felt kinda bad for Moira. It had to be hard to be singled out like that. But I told myself that the Professor and the others were right there behind her, so I was sure she’d be fine.
***
TO BE CONTINUED
Please leave feedback.
Continue to chapter two.
Title: Election Day (1/8)
Author:
stormkprRating: PG-13 (or a very mild R)
Genre: Drama, General
Summary: The future of mutantkind – and the planet – is in serious jeopardy. Magneto has been killed, and Cortez is trying to organize mutants for a full-scale war. Rogue meanwhile is struggling with her feelings for Gambit.
Pairings:Most of my usual pairings are at least touched on here: Romy, RoLo, Jott, potential Iceman/Northstar
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters and no copyright infringement is intended here. I certainly don't make any money off of fanfic
Click behind the cut to read the first chapter!
A few more Author’s Notes:
Like all my X-men fanfic, this one is generally based on the characters as they appear in "X-men: The Animated Series". It uses XTAS and its events as canon, although the character of Bobby Drake will resemble more movie-verse than XTAS-verse. No copyright infringement is intended and I can only dream of either owning these characters or making any money off of X-men.
This fic is narrated by Rogue and takes place not long after the events in XTAS.
Thank you to Jo the Phoenix for beta testing.
***
Election Day
I decided one day that I’m gonna write about it. My life as an X-man has had so much happen that I wanna take all the notes I wrote over the years and get them organized. I thought for a while about where to start and decided to begin with when we left the mansion.
I could’ve started anywhere, but a lot of this you know already. You saw a glimpse of my creepy father, you saw me kiss Cory and put the boy in a coma, you saw Mystique corrupt me until Xavier found me, and you saw all the adventures that the X-men had over the years from the first Sentinel attack to Apocalypse’s crazy plan to end time. And you saw everything me and Remy went through.
But I think I’m gonna start with what happened after all that.
The Professor suggested it to me, not long after I joined the X-men. He said that writing about things helps, and he was right like he always is. I always had a whip-smart memory anyhow. When I sat down to write what had happened the day before, I could remember whole conversations without even trying. That shouldn’t surprise you. You already know I could tell you everything that happened the day that Cory I and kissed, and that was practically a lifetime ago.
Years have passed since what I’m gonna write about, but I still have the notes I wrote when I we were all in the eye of the storm. Reading through and organizing them has taken me right back to that crazy time.
***
The first thing I remember is how darn strange it was to not be living in the mansion anymore.
Oh yeah, its proper name was the Institute but none of us called it that. All the years that the core group of us lived and worked together – me, Remy, the Professor, Storm, Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, Beast, Jubilee, and Iceman --- we called it the mansion.
But now there were a whole passel of other X-men living on board Asteroid M, along with most every other mutant on the planet too.
And as incredible as that was, my notes from those days have as much to say about what was going on between me and Remy as they do with what the monumental events that all of mutantkind was experiencing.
I’d better back up and explain things. Too much happened at once, but I gotta slow down and do it all justice. It’s hard to figure exactly where to start but I think that Magneto’s memorial is as good a place as any.
***
We’d gotten the word out that there was going to be a memorial for Magneto at the mansion, but apart from the X-men not too many other folks attended. A handful of Morlocks and X-Factor people, but that was it.
Not that the room wasn’t full enough with just the X-men. For years it had been the nine of us. Bobby was always there too but in the background; the boy wasn’t a fighter. But given what was going on in the world outside us, most everyone who’d been with us at one point had come back and officially joined up with us. Angel had returned first, then Nightcrawler joined, then Colossus, and then Cannonball. Moira and Banshee moved their research facility here after Moira’s son was killed. Dazzler tracked us down and joined up with us, and Angel brought Psylocke in. For so many years it had been just the smaller group, so it took some getting used to with all these others sitting around the table.
There was no mistaking that Magneto was really and truly dead and gone forever because this time there was a body. The Professor was shaken. He hid it but we knew him well. I’m not sure if he was more shaken because Magneto was gone or because of what this meant. FOH was claiming responsibility for killing Magneto, and we knew those bastards were more powerful than ever, but even that was the least of our worries. The Professor had predicted that making Magneto into a martyr might accomplish what Magneto had never been able to do in his lifetime: a war between mutants and normal humans. Magneto wasn’t cold in his grave before various mutants and mutant groups were beating the drum for war. We didn’t have that much time to mourn him, and my stomach churned like I’d eaten bad food when I thought about what this might mean.
But yeah, despite all this weighty stuff going on, most of my thoughts still belonged to what was going on with me and Remy. I didn’t want to admit it, least of all to myself, but he was what I thought of most of the time.
There was a buzz in the air during the memorial – I’m sure because of rumors of war and us wondering what role we’d play and how we’d get it to a peaceful solution. Gambit held my gloved hand during the service, which was doing as much to cause butterflies in my stomach as all the talk of war was. We sat quietly during the service and listened to the Professor talk, though every time I glanced around the room I could tell that my friends – hell, the X-men are my family – were preoccupied. Magneto hadn’t meant to any of us what he’d meant to the Professor. I looked at the front of the room again and remembered seeing lines on the Professor’s face that hadn’t been there before and a look in his eyes that worried me.
When the service was over, the Professor left the room. Moira followed his hoverchair, and I saw Cyclops and Storm filter out of the room next.
Dazzler walked by the seats where me and Remy were sitting and she flashed him a killer smile. He smiled back.
“You wanna go get some coffee, chere?” he asked me.
I gotta say that somehow that Swamp Rat always knew what I needed. Right then, I needed to get away from the crowd of people in the mansion, away from thoughts about what Magneto’s death was gonna mean, and away from Dazzler smiling at the man who I wanted to say was “my man” but really couldn’t.
We drove to the nearest coffee shop in silence and sat down to our drinks. And again that man had talent because he kept me from thinking about what I didn’t want to think about. We talked about a movie we saw on TV the day before, then somehow got to talking about what one of the X-Factor people had been wearing at the memorial. I mentioned I liked our drinks and Remy said it was time to upgrade the coffee grinder at the mansion. He talked about some ideas for making the drinks even better.
We’d both noticed out of the corners of our eyes a few people in the coffee shop taking second and third glances at us. Other than my skunk-stripe I look normal enough, but then there’s Gambit’s eyes. Me, I always found his eyes breathtaking and could lose myself in ‘em for hours, but I had to remind myself that to a lot of non-mutants they looked freakish. He wore sunglasses sometimes when out in public like this, but I remember well how God-awful cloudy and gloomy that day was; can’t blame the man for not wanting to wear sunglasses. So guess we couldn’t be too surprised that some people took notice.
“Look. A pair of muties sitting right over there!”
“Ew, you’re right! Look at that guy’s eyes!”
I remember feeling kinda sorry for them. Gambit could’ve pulverized them in two seconds if he hadn’t been such the gentleman. Instead he handled the situation with what I gotta call style.
“I believe it’s time for us to leave, chere,” he said, setting his mug down and offering me his arm.
Since, as usual, I had clothing covering every inch of flesh, I took his arm and we calmly left the place ignoring the taunts from the sad folks who were making fun of us. When we got back to the mansion, Remy walked me to my room and kissed my hands. I don’t gotta write that I still had my gloves on.
***
I didn’t sleep at all that night. A lot of the X-Factor people had stayed overnight in the mansion, and I still felt something in the air. I wasn’t close to Magneto like the Professor was but I felt the same thing that I knew the Professor felt. An all-out war was going to be on us if we didn’t act fast. Me, I don’t back down from a battle when I gotta fight, but a full-scale war would mean the death of a lot of innocent folks and we X-men never can abide that notion.
But again, that was only half of what was bothering me. I didn’t want to end last evening with Remy kissing my gloves outside of my room. I wanted to end it with me curled up next to him, our clothes on the floor. And hey, while I was dreaming - how about adding in the notion of one my gloved fingers having an engagement ring on it? Didn’t matter that I’d had years to accept this; I still couldn’t go on with Remy like this anymore. The idea of a war about to break should’ve bothered me more but it didn’t.
So I threw on a bathrobe, dug around for my slippers, and went downstairs to the kitchen. I’d had a late lunch before the memorial and had skipped dinner since the decaf latte I drank with Remy had filled me up, but now I was hungry again. When I reached the kitchen, Storm was there.
I said hello to her and started to rummage through the refrigerator. Storm sat quietly drinking something. I’d thought it was maybe tea but out of the corner of my eye I saw a glass, not a mug, and thought maybe it was cognac. She looked as worried as Xavier had.
“Bobby sure keeps this fridge organized,” I said. “I can tell exactly where everything is.”
“That he does,” Storm agreed.
I helped myself to leftover salad and then sat down next to Storm. We didn’t talk for a while, which was one thing I really liked about Storm. You didn’t need to make conversation with her if you didn’t want to, and it never felt awkward. I was so comfortable with the rest of the team that I felt that way about most of them, at least the ones who I’d lived and worked with for so long.
But I was curious about something and so I asked Storm. “You spoken to Jean lately?”
Storm got a slight smile on her face. “You can talk to Jean yourself, you know.”
“Yeah, I know. But you’re a mite closer to her than I am.” I stabbed my fork into the salad. “Plus I’d hate to ask her and there be no news.”
Storm nodded. “I did ask her how she is doing recently. I believe she likes it when others show concern for her and her situation.”
I looked at my bowl while I chewed. The good part of me knew that Storm was right. The bad part of me had trouble mustering up much concern for Jean’s situation when I compared it to my own. Not being able to have a baby ain’t quite as bad as not being able to even touch the man you’re in love with.
The good part of me won out. “You’re right,” I said. “I’ll talk to her.”
“There has been nothing new on that front, as she told me,” Storm went on. “She is still not conceiving. She is considering going to see a specialist.”
Jean and Cyke had been trying to get pregnant for a while. I wasn’t sure how long it’d been but at least a year and probably longer. I’ll never forget the day when Jean happily told me that she “was late” and thought that this might be it. A few days later I saw the horrible disappointment all over her face and knew that it had been a false alarm.
Cyclops had been more on edge and more grumpy with each disappointing month. Honestly the man looked as bad as Xavier had at Magneto’s service, but in his case I knew it was because of the baby situation.
“She might wanna go soon,” I said. “Who knows what’s gonna happen now that Magneto’s been killed.”
“Yes,” Storm said, suddenly sounding very far away and sad. I wished I hadn’t brought that that up.
“So how are things with you? You and Wolverine ever gonna get together?”
Guess I was doing whatever it took to change the subject and Storm looked none too pleased for it. In fact, I couldn’t tell if she was about to roll her eyes or tell me to keep my trap shut, so I went on.
“I mean, I dunno. I think he’s getting over Jean. If he’d just open his eyes and see what’s right in front of him. And you, girl, I wish you’d open your eyes too. Seein’ you two coaching Jubilee in the Danger Room the other day – it was like watching some old married couple and their teenager.”
“That is hardly an inspiring thought, Rogue,” Storm said drolly and I knew she wasn’t too mad at me.
I also knew that it was gonna take more than some prompting from me for her to get over her pride and the fact that she wasn’t Wolverine’s first choice. Two people stubborn as mules. Well, playing matchmaker wasn’t my job anyway, I’d figured. I had enough to worry about when it came to my own love life.
“Hey, Storm,” I said, my voice getting more soft and serious. “Sorry for all the joking around. I just want you to be happy and…and since we’re getting all serious like, there’s something I gotta tell you.”
“What is it?” she asked, leaning in and setting her glass down.
“I think I gotta have a very difficult talk with Remy,” I admitted. I was looking down at my bowl. “Like I gotta tell him that he oughtta get out there and…and you know, date and see other women. Cause things between me and him have gone as far as they can go and I think he’s holding himself back.”
I don’t even feel like writing the whole story out. We couldn’t touch. We’d had no luck getting our hands on a Genoshan collar, and I’d had a few sessions with the Professor but wasn’t any closer to getting control of my powers. Gambit had hinted several times at some “things we could do” without touching, but I didn’t know how I felt about it all and what was the blasted point if I couldn’t even kiss him? Seemed like kissing was what needed to come first and we couldn’t do that. I knew full well he loved me and much as I wished otherwise, I loved him like crazy. But now I felt like we were stuck in a rut.
Storm knew the whole story. She and I were real close, and she was even closer to Remy.
“You might feel that way,” Storm said calmly, “but Gambit might not”.
“I know. So I think I gotta be real firm. Like, half the women on the planet would give their right arm to be his woman. And with Dazzler here we even got a woman here now who’s single and I bet she’s on the make. So I gotta cut him loose.”
“Is that what you really want?”
For a second, I’d wanted to smile because I knew Storm preferred playing the counselor, much more than she liked me asking her about her and Wolverine. We’d all been through counseling with Professor Xavier at one point or another and it wouldn’t have surprised me if Storm had taken notes on his technique.
“What I want is for us to be able to touch, sugar, but that ain’t gonna happen. It’s time to face facts. It don’t matter that I love him, and I’m keeping Gambit from something better out there - and stringing my own hopes along too.”
“I just hope that you think it over thoroughly before you decide to have this discussion with Gambit.” Her voice was steady and she took another sip of her drink.
“Sugar, I’ve been thinking about this for way too long! I’ll be glad when we had the talk and it’s over.”
That was enough on that topic, I thought. I asked Storm if she wanted to go to the mall tomorrow, and she said that “depending on what happens tomorrow” she would like to. But I think both of us knew that too much was going to happen the next day.
***
The next day, we had just gathered in the War Room when we got the news. I always thought that “the War Room” was a downright funny name for it because we worked so hard for so many years to prevent a war, and we now had one knocking on our back door. But we literally had just sat down to – as Cyclops put it – “assess the situation and strategize” when a news report came in.
Cortez had just finished rebuilding Asteroid M. In honor of “our martyr Magneto” he was going to continue to call it Asteroid M and he was inviting every mutant on the planet to “take refuge on Asteroid M and join me in a conversation about how to move forward after Magneto was so brutally taken from us by the anti-mutant humans”.
“’Join him in a conversation’” Wolverine echoed, and I had to agree that this didn’t sound much like Cortez.
“The only conversation he’s going to hold is one leading to war,” Cyclops said.
“I agree,” the Professor added.
We discussed the situation some more. The various members of X-Factor who had stayed over for Magneto’s memorial were sitting around the table with us, so the room was crowded and hot with the excitement or fear over the thought of what was coming next.
Seems that Cortez had really revamped his image since we saw him last. Gambit and Beast had been doing some investigations of him lately, and we’d had an inkling that he’d wanted to rebuild the asteroid but he’d done so in such quick time that even we were surprised. From all the research that Gambit and Beast had done -- heck, from our own gut instincts – we could see no other purpose for Cortez gathering mutants on Asteroid M than to prepare for war.
“Last time a mutant-only asteroid was launched,” Storm began, “we sent a small contingent up there, hoping to reason with Magneto. But this is completely different.”
“That is very true,” the Professor said. “This time, it’s not Magneto we need to reason with. It is the masses of mutants who will go to Asteroid M. We need to convince them that war is not the answer, and that they need to listen to us – not Cortez.”
“As Cortez has been trying to present himself as a reasonable and thoughtful leader,” Hank added, “this could work to our advantage. Our research indicates that he likely won’t begin with an attack on us. His strategy will be to use Magneto’s death to inspire as many mutants as he can to wage war on non-mutants. I believe he will either attempt to ignore or discredit us, painting us as a group that kowtows to regular humans and doesn’t speak for most mutants.”
“He recently called us a group of ‘Uncle Toms’,” Remy said.
We talked about it some more but I knew right away where this was going. We had to get up there to Asteroid M and get mutants to see us for what we really are – and see Cortez for what he is. Staying here sure wasn’t going to prevent any war.
For the rest of the day we moved faster than you could blink. The Professor got a hold of Cortez and we were told that “of course” X-men were “more than welcome on Asteroid M, as all mutants are welcome”. We contacted some of the other mutant groups to find out who was going. The Morlocks were going up. We learned that Alpha Flight was going up. X-Factor was going up too of course.
Unfortunately, some folks we didn’t want to run into were also going up, as Gambit and others doing some stealth work learned. The Inner Circle was packing their bags. That was one group that I sure didn’t want to see again. Another anti-human group that Cyclops had run into – Children of the Shadow – was already up there. With folks like that up there, I had a sinking feeling that chaos would be in the works.
There was a lot going on with non-mutants as well. FOH was up to its usual garbage, holding demonstrations. They burned Magneto in effigy. They held signs that said stuff that makes my blood boil just thinking about it.
But what’s worse was hearing the opinions of non-FOH people. There were tons of interviews and opinion polls on TV and all over the internet. Seemed that most folks wanted us to go, and plenty of folks wanted the governments of the world to launch an all-out attack on Asteroid M just as soon as most mutants boarded it. I expected this hog slop from FOH but not from the rest of the world.
We also contacted our own government. With Kelly no longer the president, we didn’t have the influence on our government that we’d had in the past. But we did send the message that we’d do everything we could to de-escalate the situation and prevent a catastrophe.
Then there was so much to do around the mansion. We had to close up a lot of our equipment and weapons. We had tons and tons of files and other computer equipment to back up and move. We had to pack our own belongings. Cyclops and Storm organized everything and barked out orders, and I think the rest of us just followed best as we could.
***
We had one last dinner back at the mansion. Xavier insisted, which I thought was real sweet and real smart.
Sitting next to Remy at the table, I sat there blinking, having a hard time believing that it could be a while before I’d see this place again. Spent all my best years here, met and lived with everyone who mattered to me while here. I wanted to think about what it all meant but there was no time.
The talk around the table started out being about nothing else than our preparations to go, and trying to figure out what we’d experience when we got up there.
Jubilee asked a good question. “So what do you think it’s gonna be like up there – like, there’s gonna be thousands of mutants on Asteroid M. How are they gonna handle things like bedrooms and bathrooms, and you know – food?”
Remy, the Professor, and Beast answered her question by telling her what it was like when they were up there before, and from what they’d learned about Cortez recently. The short answer was that there’d likely be a bit of chaos from so many people arriving at once, but that Cortez did have a team he worked with and they weren’t too shabby in the area of organizing things. Remy had located a draft map of the place. The individual rooms looked decent – small but they had their own bathrooms. There was a big dining room but that likely people would need to eat in shifts. They had a green house and kitchen on Asteroid M but likely were going to have to rely on food replicators to make enough for everyone. They had a convenience store but we weren’t sure if Cortez had quite worked out what sort of currency Asteroid M would use.
A few people including the Professor left after they were done eating to get back to packing and other work. But most of us lingered at the table; it had been a really busy day and I was tired as a field hand. I sure wasn’t the only one from the looks of things.
“Did you see the latest FOH propaganda piece?” Psylocke asked the group. She went on to describe the latest crap that FOH had on their website, their commercials, and in their leaflets. To me it was kinda like picking at a scab till it bled and I didn’t want to hear all about it, but I thought Psylocke almost liked this stuff.
Things got a mite awkward at one point though. FOH loves to say the worst kinda stuff about us, and of course that means they just make shit up about us. Some of their propaganda that they’ve been pushing lately claims that mutants have a high number of homosexuals in their ranks. One of the X-Factor guys latched onto that when Psylocke brought it up, and he went on and on about it. He was furious at FOH saying that we had a lot of queers in our number.
I don’t think he noticed that there were a few awkward glances around the table at that point. I felt weird about it when I noticed that Bobby was still here. ‘Course I always had a soft spot for him, so I was glad when Hank changed the subject.
***
So this is the point where I should say that something about Bobby ended up being important to what happened on Asteroid M. So I better tell you the background.
First remember that things were different back then. A lot of years have gone by since these events I’m describing for you. Back then there were things you didn’t ever talk about, and I grew up calling people like Bobby “queers”.
Way back when I joined the X-men, I liked Bobby -- me and Remy became friends with him pretty quickly. He was easy going and we liked his practical jokes. I remember Remy once saying to me that it was odd that Bobby didn’t seem interested in dating girls - especially since there was one not that much younger than him right there, one who seemed to like him. (Jubilee). He told me he thought Bobby might be queer but back then I thought that was a really bad thing to be and I’d told Remy to shut up.
But we learned the truth of it all one night when we’d gone out with Bobby and we’d all had a few drinks. The boy does not hold his alcohol and he told us his whole story after Remy had asked why things hadn’t worked out with Lorna. Bobby had hemmed and hawed, and then I nearly fell out of my seat when Remy had asked him if he was a homosexual. I’d wanted to slap Remy but Bobby seemed okay with the question.
Bobby said he hoped we’d still want to hang out with him and all, but that yes he was. He said he’d seen the Professor about it and had asked if he could be cured since he wanted to be “a normal guy”. He said that he and the Professor met several times and the Professor had concluded that there simply was no cure, and that Bobby had to learn to be happy with this condition. He told us that he and the Professor had told Hank, and that Hank had said it made no difference to him. I remember exactly what Bobby had said next. “That was that, and me and Hank haven’t ever talked about it since”. I’d almost wondered if he was starved to talk about it and that’s why Remy and me were getting the full scoop.
The guy’s got guts, I’d thought. Either that or he was stone drunk, but that had to be hard to admit. I’ll say it again, where I grew up you did not talk about this unless you were a preacher at the pulpit telling folks they’d go to hell if they were like this. And things hadn’t much changed since I left the South.
But Remy and I said we were cool with it, and maybe I wasn’t totally cool with it but I still liked Bobby. We didn’t really talk about it much after that and I gotta say that was fine with me.
It sorta became an open secret in the X-men. Everyone knew about Bobby; after all, he didn’t go into combat and he didn’t play sports with the other guys and he didn’t date. Most of the guys kinda avoided him but they at least tolerated him. They weren’t rude, they didn’t kick him out if he sat down to play cards with them, ain’t like we tossed him out on his ear, but most of the group sure didn’t seek out his company. Bobby never seemed to mind it much, leastwise he never talked about leaving. I don’t think he had anywhere else to go and he seemed happy enough here.
Maybe I shouldda felt sorry for him, over the fact that a lot of the others avoided him. But I didn’t – in fact, sometimes I felt I was doing him a favor by being one of his friends. He didn’t have many.
So anyway that was years before Asteroid M but I wanted to write all this out because, like I said, it ended up coming into play on Asteroid M and I remembered that comment at the dinner table the night before we left.
***
After dinner, Remy invited me up to his room for a “nightcap”. Against my better judgment, I went. We drank our drinks slowly and we talked about what we were gonna pack. I knew the rooms on Asteroid M were gonna be small but I knew I’d pack every note and trinket Remy had given me over the years. I kept them in a lacquered box I’d bought for them. I didn’t tell Remy that I was bringing them though, just told him I’d be sure to pack the bracelet he’d given me. It had emeralds in it, to match my eyes.
Remy then asked me how I felt about leaving the mansion. I said I was sad, but what he didn’t know is that I was more sad about the fact that I had to soon tell him that I was gonna cut him loose.
But my resolve went right smack down the drain that evening.
When we finished our drinks, we sat together. I was somehow in his lap but careful to keep my face away from his face. Remy murmured something about that it didn’t matter what happened in the future as long as we were together. I loved the way his voice sounded, like I could listen to it forever. It was low and sexy. I even just liked the sound of his breathing. Usually all this made me mad but that night the anger just kinda drained out of me and I liked all the feelings he was causing in me. Somehow one of my hands was touching his arm, feeling the muscles through his shirt. They felt amazing. I took one of my fingers and just slowly traced his chin and cheek, wishing with all my might that I could take the stupid glove off.
Remy’s hands started roaming too. By then I was really feeling a mess of feelings. Like I was outta control, drowning in what I felt but that night I was kinda okay with the drowning because I didn’t want his warm hands off my body. His hands touched my back.
But I had to stop it. One of his hands had slowly made its way to my breasts and it cupped one of them. Still had all my clothes on of course but let’s just say my nethers were on fire so I had to do something. I took his hand and moved it back away.
“You liked that, chere, didn’t you?” he murmured.
“You some kinda masochist??” I shot back. “You know we can’t do anything.”
“I told you chere. Remy’s got plenty of ideas for what we can do.”
“That’s all fine and dandy, Swamp Rat but I told you. Ain’t worth it if we can’t even kiss!” I added, “Good night, Cajun.”
With that, I stood up and went back to my own room. Why couldn’t I be stronger? Heck, at least I figured that when we’re on Asteroid M there’d be tons of good-looking mutant women and hopefully he’d meet one and realize he could get a much better deal than what he had. (The little voice in the back of my head told me he sure had to already know that, but I pretty much ignored that voice back in those days).
Once I got to my room let’s just say that I did something that I knew for sure had to be a sin, and it was something that thoughts of Remy had driven me to do more times than I could count.
At least it allowed me to sleep pretty well that night though.
***
The next morning we left for Asteroid M. Beast and Wolverine had been outfitting the Blackbird like we had before, to get us into space. We were lucky that we had this and didn’t have to wait for one of Cortez’s transports. We did one last check of the Blackbird, loaded up everything, and we were off.
I’d been in space before but nothing ever really prepares you for actually being in it. The blackness all around you, while the starts are so bright. The temperature in the Blackbird might’ve been the same but I felt cold as soon as we left Earth’s atmosphere. And small. You ever wanna feel small and insignificant, just go into space. I looked at Remy and from a glance knew that he was thinking much the same as I was thinking. But he always worried less, just took everything in stride.
I looked around at the rest of the group. I really felt that I could almost see tension just emanating out from the Professor and Scott. Moira was clutching Banshee’s hand. Bobby sat in the back and I could tell he was scared. I think he was happiest when Hank was around but I knew Hank had been so busy that he couldn’t have had much time for Bobby lately. Good old Storm looked solid as she always did.
Jubilee looked excited and I gotta admit that I felt excited too. Who knew which way things would go? If Cortez had his way you could bet there’d be a war, but we also stood a great chance at beating Cortez and making things better for all mutants. If we could just get enough mutants to see things our way.
We had told Cortez’s people that we’d be arriving that day, and we contacted them again from space. There was no trouble docking the Blackbird. We landed inside the huge shuttle bay and started unpacking our gear. Tons of people were buzzing around that shuttle bay. Other mutant groups, and people who wore the uniforms that told us they worked for Cortez. People were unpacking, moving things, and milling about.
We hadn’t gotten very far with the unloading of our stuff when Cortez himself greeted us. Two of his people were right behind him.
I ain’t gonna waste the time typing out what he said. Lemme just say that he was smooth as hog fat, he welcomed us to Asteroid M, and the words “thrilled to have the esteemed X-men here” actually came outta his mouth. He said that he wished he could give us the tour himself but since he had so much going on, he’d delegate it to one of his top people, a solid looking woman who he introduced as Tess.
Cortez had just finished telling Cyclops where we could store some of our larger equipment when he stopped in mid-sentence. He looked at us and then said, “We’re doing a census to keep track of who all is residing on Asteroid M. You…you are all mutants, right? Do you have any non-mutant humans with you?” I can’t quite describe his tone of voice except to say that we knew his question meant trouble.
Several of us X-men glanced at Moira. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that many of the other folks in the shuttle bay – not X-men – stopped what they were doing to listen.
I guess Xavier figured that there was no point in lying, since a simple scan could call out the truth.
“Dr Moira MacTaggert is not a mutant,” Xavier said. “However you must be aware of her pioneering work. She has fought for our rights more tirelessly than most mutants I know.”
To someone who didn’t know the Professor, he’d sounded firm enough. But there were little things giving it away, how he really felt. His eyes looked right worried and I thought I saw a bead of sweat on his face. Can’t blame him for being unsettled. I mean, heck he loved Magneto has a brother and the man still wasn’t cold in his grave.
It surprised me how fast the bustling shuttle bay had gone quiet as a humid summer night. Now it seemed that everyone was listening to us.
“My husband Banshee is a mutant,” Moira spoke up. “So was my son Proteus, but he was killed by mutant-hating mobs.”
Banshee didn’t look worried, just mad as all get out. He crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Moira’s one of us, Cortez. I hope this isn’t going to cause a problem.”
“Not at all,” Cortez said. “Asteroid M is for mutants only, but for someone who has fought for our rights as Dr MacTaggert has – and as you said, who has chosen to live among mutants – we will most happily make an exception. This time.”
Cortez left us alone after that and we went back to what we were doing. I don’t know why but I felt kinda bad for Moira. It had to be hard to be singled out like that. But I told myself that the Professor and the others were right there behind her, so I was sure she’d be fine.
***
TO BE CONTINUED
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Continue to chapter two.
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 01:26 am (UTC)Seriously, everything you write is amazing.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 04:42 pm (UTC)i remember thinking about the whole going to space in the blackbird thing when watching XTAS (as an adult anyway, as younger person i was probably like well DUH they can just go into space). who needs a multimillion dollar space program? just outfit your existing airplanes and head up to space! ;)
as usual, great writing and can't wait to read more :D
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 11:27 pm (UTC)And LOL on the ease of going into space. Except wait! In XTAS they say that the reason they're able to outfit the Blackbird for space is due to Shi'ar technology.
Just sayin'.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-22 06:04 pm (UTC)Great beginning! Can't wait to see what you have in store for my favorite mutants! =D
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Date: 2011-06-21 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-22 12:31 am (UTC)