Those Who Wander [for Rogue]

[godsmistake]

After it was all over, after the dust had settled, the dead were mourned and the school was back in motion, Logan had taken off. He couldn't stand to be there anymore, seeing ghosts in every hallway and classroom. Jean, the Professor... hell, he even missed that insufferable dick Scott.

It seemed like perverse justice that he steal Scott's motorcycle one last time to make his get-away - he wasn't gonna be using it anymore, and was it really stealing if it no longer belonged to anyone? He figured maybe Scott would understand; he'd liked the bike, and would want it to be ridden and cared for. Logan could do that. It was about the only thing he could care for, these days.

So the miles stretched on, as did the days, until it turned into weeks, then months, then years. He never stayed in one place for long - usually because he couldn't keep the asshole comments in his head from coming out of his mouth, and wound up in fights, which inevitably lead to people realizing he was a mutant. It was a useful mutation, but by itself not even that inherently dangerous. The adamantium claws and his military training, however... that was dangerous. And without the Cure available any longer, there were rumblings about "other methods" being used to help "tame" the mutant population. "Just the dangerous ones." Yeah, sure. It'd be just his luck for some nutjob to report him to the authorities and he'd wind up on some Top Ten Most Wanted list in a post office. He didn't want that, not least of which because he didn't photograph well.

So he kept moving. Minded his own business, but other people kept making their problems his business, which was a pain in the ass. He had enough problems of his own, he didn't need yours, thanks anyway.

Riding through the desert one evening, he came across an oasis - literally. He rolled into a city and realized as he stared up at the large neon sign with undulating lights around the word "Oasis" that he'd somehow hit Las Vegas without even realizing it. He wasn't even sure he realized he was in Nevada before this, which was probably a sign that he should stop driving, at least for the night. (Truthfully, if it hadn't been for the heat, he wouldn't even be sure he was in the U.S., which even his stubborn brain realized was not a good sign.)

He parked his bike a ways off, not wanting the valet boys to get a load of the customizations on it and decide for a joy-ride (probably wrap it around a tree and break their damn fool necks, and you know he'd somehow get blamed for it), then wandered into the casino. He desperately needed a drink, and then maybe he'd find a game to buy into. He was running a little low on cash, and he was good at picking up other people's tells with his enhanced senses.

The bar was nicely dim, but clean and well-kept. He patted his jeans to get some of the dust off, before making a face. Screw it. I just got in, I'm tired - oh, and also I don't give a fuck. He moved over and selected a table that afforded him visuals on the bar and the entrance, then raised a hand to signal for a waitress.

When was the last time he'd even had a drink? No wonder he felt like shit, he was completely sober, even more than his healing ability usually made him while actively drinking.

The Drums of War [For Logan]

[theycalledmeacurse]

The Mutant Registration Act had finally passed. Rogue stared at the television from the back of the room, as far away from her fellow teachers and X-Men as she could get while she watched the White House press conference. There were rapid-fire questions being asked and answered, the law having taken so long to pass that it was now a very solid and terrifying piece of legislation. When would it go into effect? What was the government going to do with the information? Would measures be taken against mutations with 'dangerous' abilities?

Like her.

She felt sick, like the bottom had just dropped out of her stomach and her entire world. Erik's voice was there at the back of her mind, reminding her that this was how it started last time, with a list of names and putting people into categories. Except they weren't people anymore, were they? They were things.

Turning, she slipped out of the room, dodging a few of the students who were clearly oblivious to this new development. What were they going to tell them? How were they going to keep them safe now? They were children and they deserved to grow up in safety, surrounded by people who cared about them, not watching over their shoulder at every turn because the government had decided they were monsters.

Her feet took her down to the garage, following an instinctive need to run and be anywhere else in that moment. And maybe somewhere in there was the realization that she really needed a drink and she sure as hell wasn't going to find the good stuff on school grounds.

Searching for Home [For Logan]

[theycalledmeacurse]

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. They'd reset the timeline so the would could be better, so they could have happier lives in a world that didn't hate and fear them. That was what she'd been told when Erik and Charles had taken her from the mansion to that temple in China - they'd given her hope, the only thing she had left to keep her going.

Three years she'd spent in that lab, being tortured in the name of science meant to destroy mutantkind. Three years she'd hoped and prayed that someone would come to get her out, or that she would finally just be allowed to die. But then she'd been given the chance to start over, to forget all of that pain and try again. It had been hard to accept the idea of losing the good memories along with all the rest, accept the possibility of never being born or never meeting the people she'd loved, but when it was the choice of saving the world or leaving it to truly destroy itself, there really wasn't a choice. She had to take the risk and simply hope.

Hope. How the universe laughed at her for it.

She'd closed her eyes in those final moments in the temple, holding on with Kitty's power for every second she could to give Logan just that much more time in the past-- And then she'd opened them again to find herself somewhere else entirely. A small city in a world where mutants were no longer being born, and most had died out or gone into hiding. And those years of terrible memories, accompanied by the psyches of hundreds of people she'd used her power on in that time? All still there, haunting her with guilt and grief.

The first thing she'd done was try to track down her family, the friends who had taken her in all those years ago. It had been devastating to learn of the state of the world, and of the incident in Westchester. Every lead she tried to follow was met with sorrow or came to a dead end, so finally she just... gave up. Resigned herself to the weary loneliness that had become her constant companion and decided to try to find somewhere where she could possibly find some peace, if nothing else. New York wouldn't give her that, Mississippi hadn't been home in over a decade, and New Orleans...

Canada. It appealed to the side of her that was influenced by Logan's presence in her mind, and it had been where she'd started her life over before. Where she'd first met Logan, where the X-Men had found them. Perhaps she could find a cabin somewhere and try to remember what it was like to be a person again.

It wasn't difficult to get a car, not when she'd learned from one of the best gamblers and thieves in the country, and so she'd set off, taking back roads and just seeing where the wind took her as she made her way north. Enjoying the scenery of a world that hadn't been burned to ash.