Chapter 4 Villengard

"Oof," Rogue landed hard in a pair of strong arms, earning a grunt from their owner. Her vision swirled and she tried to focus on the person currently holding her in a bridal position. The chiseled clean shaven jaw, the high cheek bones, and the soft lips-forming words she couldn't yet hear over the buzzing ringing in her ears. Her gaze settled on his sparkling brown eyes as she fought the creeping darkness in the edges of her vision. Her head was spinning and when her chin dropped into her chest, her vision turned black and silence followed.

Forge's face slammed hard against a grated floor and he moaned painfully, the landing having jolted him conscious.

"Rogue?" He groaned through gritted teeth, the throbbing in his shoulder reminding him of the bullet wound he was currently sporting around. He managed to lift himself into a sitting position and examined his gadget, shaking it a few times before giving up. The machines around Forge were interfering with his readings. Looking around, he deduced he was in another spaceship, if the equipment and star filled windows were any indication, but there was no sign of his teammate.

He unsteadily rose to his feet, feeling extremely woozy from all of the blood loss aboard the "Serenity". Holding one hand hard against the bullet hold, Forge used the other to support himself against the wall as he started making his way down the hall. Finding Rogue was his top priority, and getting out of there was a very close second.

Rogue stirred awake, hand slipping out from under the pillow as she rolled over. Her emerald eyes blinked into focus to find a set of chocolate brown ones staring at her seductively. He squeezed her jean clad hip and Rogue looked from his face to his hand back to his face. In a sick way he reminded the Goth girl of Remy and she stared at him for a couple of moments before she moved into action.

She grabbed his hand at the pressure point with lightening speed and headbutted the man as hard as she could. Rogue then pulled his arm back and flipped his body over onto his stomach. She drove his face into the bed, settling herself straddling his hips. Jerking his caught limb high and hard, she growled. His body quaked under her and it took the mutant by surprise to realize the man pinned under her was actually laughing.

"Oh, yeah, I definitely had you pegged for a top girl," he chuckled out. Rogue yanked his hair, pulling his head back at a painful angle. "Ooo darling, I like it rough."

"Where am I?" She hissed at him.

"Well, presently, you're on top of me, though if you allow me to roll over, I assure you, I can make this much more fun. Unless you're packing extra equipment in those pants of yours, in which case, I'm in the perfect position. Poke and prod away." Rogue tightened her grip and he actually moaned! She couldn't believe it, and she had thought Remy to be a walking hard-on.

"Okay, how about an easier one to start with. Who are you?" Rogue was counting silently in her head while weighing the pros against the cons of draining the guy right then and there.

"Captain Jack Harkness."

A screen blipped on and skinny man in a pinstripe suit pointed a stern finger at the Captain and commanded in a British accent, "Stop it." Immediately the man was gone and screen turned off.

"And who was that?"

"The Doctor, or a recording of him at least. He rigged it to trigger every so often as a joke. Funny man, the Doctor. Always with the same sense of humor, even if his face keeps changing."

At the mention of a doctor, Rogue instantly remembered Forge. "The guy I arrived with, he needs medical help. He's been shot. Where is he?" She yank his head back, worry filling her to the core. The man's eyes rolled back and he drew a sharp intake of air.

"You keep doing that Miss, and I'm not gonna be able to think, if you know what I mean." Rogue resigned and loosened her hold but still kept a strong grip. He actually sounded disappointed when he spoke next, "He's in the hall, just fine too, I'd wager. The nanogenes should have figured out he's injured by now. He'll be as good as new next time you see him." Rogue clearly didn't believe him, and the look she shot the back of his head clearly said as much.

"And you know this, how?"

"Magic."

"Magic?" She snorted at his answer.

"Yes, magic. Would you like to one of my tricks?" Before Rogue could answer, he moved faster than she could follow and she found herself on her back, looking up at the man as he towered over her. His knees on either side of her thighs kept her legs shut tight and his hands held her own smaller ones over her head. She growled and the grin on his face grew bigger.

"Hope that isn't the only one in your arsenal, Jack. Otherwise I'll be disappointed." Rogue shifted her body, testing his pin job. He had a firm handle on her, but not painful.

He chuckled at her joke before dropping his face to hover centimeters above her, "I made you swoon earlier and you don't seem like the type to go about doing that for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Am I right?"

"Must have been a head wound," Rogue replied, stiffening as he drew closer to her exposed skin. As much as it would serve him right if she did drain him, she really -really- didn't want his sex-addled psychee bouncing around in her head. She watched as he lowered his lips closer to hers. "You'll regret doing that."

Captain Jack smirked, his breath hot against her face, "I've done millions of things over hundreds of lifetimes and you want to know the one consistency? No matter what I did, I've never been burdened with regret."

/I find that hard to believe./ Before Rogue could voice her opinion, his lips connected to hers and the mutant's mind was filled with his memories. Flashes of the Doctor, Torchwood, the time he had been on intergalactic television, Mickey, aliens, sex with aliens, lots of sex with aliens, and of course, his one regret.

"Rose." Rogue whispered against his lips and Captain Jack lifted himself off of her slowly, shaking his head to clear it of the confusion. He reached over and pressed a button on the wall best he could after the energy drain and he was immediately covered in small balls of bright light. The lights swirled around him then shifted their attention to Rogue after the Captain looked refreshed and full of life.

Rogue was too busy dealing with the new voice in her head to put up much of a fight with the balls of lights covering her and she weakly tried to cross her arms over her. Captain Jack kept her limbs away from her face, however, and forced her to look at him. He gave her a reassuring smile as he spoke, "they're nanogenes. They're healing you. Don't be scared." As the lights faded away, Rogue sat up, amazed and befuddled at the same time. Jack stood up, grabbing her bare hand and pulling her flush against him. Rogue had her eyes locked on their joined hands, the skin to skin contact sending her reeling.

"What did you do?" She whispered the question as tears welled up and rapidly, blinked them away. "What did you do to me?!" Rogue demanded, jerking her hand out of his grasp.

Jack wrapped his arms around her, pinning her struggling form against his body, "I kissed you. Haven't you been kissed before? And despite that little life-sucking reaction of yours, I most certainly intend on doing it again, more thoroughly." Rogue knew exactly how thorough Jack intended to be and though she shook her head furiously and her mind was screaming for her to get away, her knees went weak and she grabbed the front of his shirt for support.

Chuckling, Jack did not fail to notice her action, "two swoons in one day. That'll be a record, even for me." His hand lowered down her back as he dipped her slowly, lips creeping closer to hers. Rogue seemed frozen, unable to move out of his grasp, and part of her, she reluctantly admitted, didn't want to leave his arms, especially if it meant he would kiss her again and again.

Jack smiled, pleased when she stopped struggling. Closer his lips drew to hers and he watched mesmerized as she slowly closed her bright green eyes expectantly. From a hair's breath away from capturing her lusciously plump lips, he felt her whisper "please".

His lips brushed hers, soft like a feather, before the door crashed open. Rogue blinked her eyes a few times, as if awakening from a spell and turned her head to the noise. She easily broke out of Jack's hold when she saw it was Forge creeping in, the captain still being slightly dazed from her simple touch.

"Forge! Oh god!" Rogue helped her friend to a sitting position against the wall. She turned vengeful eyes towards Jack, "You said he'd be fine! This is NOT fine. Help him or I'll drain you completely dry and do it myself." The Captain broke from his stupor, surprised to see a bleeding man on his floor, but he recovered quickly.

"Do what I did earlier, and push that blue button on the wall. The nanogenes will do the rest." Rogue looked hard at him then to Forge, torn between believing the man who had taken her breath away or possibly losing her friend. She took a deep breath before reaching high above Forge's head and giving the blinking blue button a hard push.

The little bulbs of light coasted over her fingers before jumping to Forge and engulfing his body. Rogue waited with baited breath as the nanogenes worked and Captain Jack watched her, making the firm decision he was going to find her again. The life sucking kiss had been both terrifying and exhilarating and he was determined to repeat the event as often as possible.

The nanogenes vanished, their work completed, and Rogue stared awestruck at her teammate, brushing her fingertip over the skin where the bullet hole had been. Forge's coloring had returned and he looked at her in surprise.

"Rogue, am I dead?" He asked, worry filling his features. Rogue laughed in relief and shook her head, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing him tightly, so glad to see he was fine.

"Then how are you -touching- me?" Forge asked hesitantly. He had never seen this side of the reclusive Goth and was not quite sure what to think of it. He stood warily to his feet, seeing the other man in the room for the first time. "And who is that?"

"Captain Jack Harkness," the man in question stated, stepping up and extending a hand in greeting.

A screen clicked on and a different man from before appeared, this time sporting a bow-tie and fez. He pointed his finger again at the Captain and commanded in a slightly different accent from the the first man, "Stop it," before he too vanished and the screen turned off once again.

Forge paled and he pulled Rogue close to him. "We have to get out of here, now," he hissed at her. "That man on the screen is a mad man, a mad man with a box in fact, and that guy over there is just as dangerous. Thousands of people have died simply because they had met those two. They're cursed."

Jack looked a bit taken back, offended even, "hey, I got that curse lifted over two centuries ago. Besides you know the saying, 'Valar Morghulis*', and all that."

Forge turned dangerous eyes to him, "doesn't seem to apply to you, though, does it Captain?!" His gadget beeped its rebooting signal and the Jack smiled.

"And what about you two, eh? Tell me, does your Earth time-line recognize mutants as people yet, or are you still being hunted and beaten like dogs? They don't consider you much of a man there, I wager. What's that Earth line? Oh yeah, those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

Rogue stood beside her friend and teammate, "What are you two going on about? Forge, this guy healed your bullet wound. You see all that blood on the floor, that's you, every bit of it. You could at least thank him before you two get into a pissing contest."

"The nanogenes fixed me, not him. Big difference."

"Oh, yeah, they're programmed to heal, I just tell them when and where, no big deal." Jack countered, not really caring much for the man he had just -by proxy- saved.

"Will you both shut it!" Rogue was tired and rubbed her temples gingerly, wishing she had some aspirin. Between the Captain Jack in her head hitting on -everyone- and challenging half of them to duels, and the others arguing over him being in there to begin with, Rogue could easily feel a migraine coming on and the quarreling guys outside of her head were not helping matters in the least. Jack gave her an odd look while Forge huffed and crossed his arms with a frown. She was soooo tempted to roll her eyes at her teammate's display of the pouts. Instead she settled for whacking him soundly on the arm. "Good, now Forge, how much longer before we can jump out of here?"

Her teammate uncrossed his arms and pushed a few buttons on the gadget he had strapped to his arm, "well, it's ready to go now, but I'm getting heavy interference that wouldn't allow it to activate. So, unless we can get clear of whatever is causing the feedback, we're stuck here."

Rogue shook her head and gave Jack a look as she spoke, "no we're not. He has half of an anti-teleportation field around his room. Allows people to drop in, but harder to drop out at a moment's notice. Of course, most stick around longer than they mean to because they assume the field is wrapped around the ship. But that's not that case, is it Captain Harkness?" The man raised an eyebrow, challenging her with only a look. He really liked this girl.

"What are you talking about Rogue?"

"All we have to do to step out of the room. The anti-teleportation field doesn't extend past the doorway." Forge looked like someone had just slapped him and he gave him forehead a sound 'smack'.

"Of course, a little runner ship like this, wouldn't be able to generate enough energy to maintain an entire field around the ship for long periods of times. He'd run out of fuel long before he reached the next docking station. Of course...wait, how did you know that, Rogue?"

Rogue rolled her eyes, and made to push Forge out the doorway, "not really important now, is it? Time to be going." Jack followed after the teens and waited for his moment, neither mutant realizing he was trailing them.

Forge pushed a couple of buttons with Rogue's grip still on his shoulders, "jumping in five, four, three..."

Jack grabbed Rogue's face with both of his hands and turned her towards him when Forge started counting down. Capturing her surprised lips easily, he kissed her long and deeply, only partly noticing when the teleportation activated around them. As the brightness faded away, Jack could feel Rogue pulling away, though very reluctant to do so, and he looked at her with a big grin. Before Forge could butt in regarding the unexpected passenger, Jack flashed his own wrist teleportation device at the mutant. Giving Rogue one final peck on the lips, he saluted and pressed his wrist band, disappearing in a flash.

*see Game of Thrones ep "Valar Morghulis"*