Chapter 2: String Cheese Theory

"Get the lead out!" Creed shouted from in front of her.

"I'm running! As fast! As I can!" Marie huffed in between strides. Months, or more probably, years, of being strapped to a damned table was hell for one's cardio. In less than two minutes, she already had a stitch in her side. She used to be able to run for-

"That thing's fucking red! Are the supposed to be fucking red?!"

Rogue wasn't about to turn around to get a better look. Whatever the creature was, it had honed in on the pair of them the moment she instinctively scrambled away.

Creed was now paces ahead of her, and the gap widened by the second. The creature- not a tyrannosaurus rex! In absolutely no way a tyrannosaurus rex!- was only slightly hindered by the dense growth of the jungle, and as it stood, she wouldn't be able to keep up her current pace much longer.

If she'd been capable, Marie would have punched the man running in front of her. Instead, her general ire took the form of pitching forward over a protruding root and twisting her ankle. She went down hard.

God dammit.

Marie thought she heard a growled curse over the creature's rapid, thunderous approach. Sabretooth flashed in front of her, as she ineffectually tried to rise. He grabbed her off the ground and flipped her over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. The gaping, snapping maw narrowly missed the pair of them as Creed dashed away.

"You just had to run didn't you? Yes, let's run from the fucking red t-Rex. Let's get scratched up in the process so it thinks we're prey and chases after us."

She didn't even get the chance to retort that this was all his fault before he veered off to the left, and the ground disappeared.

"Shit. Hold on, frail!"

Gravity asserted itself, and air rushed up around them. Marie frantically grabbed at Creed's shirt and hair, gaining a tenuous grasp on both. They were falling, and dammit, she didn't want to die in this stupid dream.

The roaring screech stopped abruptly behind them. She thought she caught a glimpse of a void with shimmering edges, but it glimmered so quickly, she couldn't be sure.

Before she could decide one way or the other what she had seen, the pair plunged into a deep pool of water. Rogue's vision blared white as her injured ankle jarred upon impact. Water rushed up her nose and down her throat; she sucked more than a healthy amount down as she tried to surface. A massive hand reached for her, hauling her up by the shoulder and holding her head above water.

She sputtered trying to get a decent breath, pushing away the feral man's supporting hand.

"You good?"

Rogue nodded stubbornly, though every kick to hold herself above the surface was agony.

"Just so you know, I hate you. A lot." Rogue decreed.

He threw back his head and laughed. Maybe she wasn't the only one that was cracked.

"Y'know, we might just get on all right. You ain't really sunshine and daisies yourself, girlie. "

Marie didn't know what to say to that - this man was so utterly aberrant from what she expected of Sabretooth that she didn't know how to take him.

So, she kept quiet and took the opportunity to examine the newest development in her surroundings.

The cliff they'd taken a dive off of was higher than Marie expected. So, it was no wonder her foot was killing her. She reluctantly noted that Creed must have taken the brunt of the impact, but she didn't wish dwell on the implications of that.

The greenery up above was so ubiquitous that Marie doubted she would be able to find the way back. Not that it mattered, she supposed. Even if she could find the way, there was nowhere to go back to.

Like the atmosphere in this place, the water was uncomfortably tepid, and even now, insects were swarming not far away. The newly tattered jumpsuit she wore was never meant for this particular kind of abuse. And she didn't even want to contemplate pulling out all the brush and bramble she'd accumulated in her hair during their run.

The Thing- Marie wasn't quite ready to call it a T-Rex as she limited herself to one inexplicable oddity at a time- really had disappeared, though. Surely she would have heard it lumbering away, and probably screeching, if it had managed to stop and turned around. By all rights, the Thing should have crashed down on top of them.

"Where'd it go?" Rogue asked.

"Portal. Most things don't stay long." Creed didn't dwell on the subject. "You need to get out so I can see that ankle."

Like hell. He might or might not be what he said he was, but she wasn't keen on finding out his brand of medical attention. Marie swam toward the edge of the pool.

Or tried to, rather.

Creed cleared his throat, offering his arm.

"No," Rogue refused.

"Whatever. I ain't coddling ya."

And with a kick that splashed water all over her, he swam quickly to land.

Asshole.

Being careful of her injured ankle, her progress was far slower than her companion's. It felt like an hour later that Rogue finally hoisted herself onto the shore.

Sabretooth was nowhere to be seen, and the lengthening shadows heralded the day drawing to a close.

Fantastic.

Her jumpsuit clung to her skin uncomfortably. With the humidity being so high, it wasn't likely to dry soon, despite the heat.

She peeled the offending garment away, and was sitting in a sports bra and panties when Creed returned. She hadn't been willing to pull the jumpsuit over her now swollen appendage and had given up trying to tear the fabric several minutes before. There wasn't much she could do for the superficial scratches she'd acquired, either. She couldn't even muster anyone's mutation.

Creed's mutation could heal her, but she'd almost rather let her wounds fester before letting the likes of him in her head.

So, Marie turned her frustrations toward her hair- attempting to work the snarls and debris she'd picked up since landing in this god forsaken jungle.

It was not going well, and she could feel Sabretooth's eyes on her. She was vaguely grateful he had missed the undignified crawling.

"Take a picture, Creed. It'll last longer."

He dropped the bundle of wood he carried and plopped down in front of her. She could feel his continued scrutiny, but Rogue elected to ignore it.

"Not that I'm opposed to the show, but what the hell are you trying to accomplish?"

Marie glared through unflattering, scraggly strands of hair and continued trying to pull the twigs and prickly burrs free. She wasn't in the mood to deal with him, nor the increasing likely that this wasn't just some messed up dream.

"I'm just sayin' that ain't helping and you're going to make it worse, if you keep jerking it like that."

The man reached forward and with a few deft movements, pulled the bit of twig she'd been fighting free, sans the clump of hair she might have pulled with it. "…You gotta be patient and work it out."

Rogue wasn't sure if he was really talking about her hair, or their unfortunately shared predicament. Then again, she'd never pinned Victor Creed as the philosophical type, so, the parallel universe idea was gaining credence by the minute.

He was already working a leaf out of her hair before she thought to protest. The tangled mass was his fault in some measure, she rationalized, so in the end, Rogue kept her big trap shut and let him.

Creed worked thoroughly and efficiently, climbing behind her when he's finished with the front. He surprised her again, with small talk of all things.

"Gotten a few dinosaurs here before, some kinda raptors and the plant eating kinds, but that's the first time I've seen a goddamned tyrannosaurus rex."

"And where is here, exactly?"

"You got some kinda memory thing going on? I told you. It's earth, but not ours. This is where you end up when you fuck something up real bad and the universe doesn't know what to do with you."

Which didn't answer her question at all. She told him as much.

"And? How'd you work that out? You get dumped in the jungle so this must be a different universe?"

At some point he'd finished tugging debris free and had moved on to finger combing the snarls out of her hair. Despite her throbbing ankle, her state of semi-undress, and the fact it was Creed, Marie relaxed for the first time in recent memory.

"You got live dinosaurs back home?"

"No, but-"

"I know because I got eyes in my damned head. The air tastes different. And there's goddamn portals every five feet."

He'd mentioned the portals before.

"Portals," Rogue repeated, dubiously.

"That's what I've been callin' 'em. But it's more like that string theory shit. Quantum resolution."

Once he started talking, he didn't seem inclined to stop- going on about quantum states and Schroedinger's cat like her very own, very bizarre, PBS special.

Absently, she noticed he had a nice voice.

She had nearly dozed off when her pillow shifted behind her. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he hadn't even brushed up against her bare skin once.

"They don't really resolve. The cat's alive and dead- just in different branches of the multiverse."

Creed moved away to build a fire out of the scavenged wood.

She couldn't resist reaching up to feel her hair- he'd braided it and seemed to actually know how. She couldn't see her reflection from here, but it wasn't like it could be any worse than the rat's nest it had been before.

Marie contemplated scooting over to the pool's edge to examine his handiwork when she drew up short.

Victor Creed braiding hair and waxing poetic about physics?

She must be completely off her rocker.

"Pinch me."

He huffed. "When will you give this up? I ain't a dream."

"Sorry," she replied in a tone that implied she was anything but. "It doesn't add up."

"I just explained it. Did you listen to a damn thing I just said?"

"Yeah, but it's just so sci-fi, and it's either true, I'm dreaming, or I've finally gone crazy. Dreaming or me being batshit crazy makes more sense. Besides, I never expected any version of Sabretooth to be a nerd."

"A man has to have his hobbies," he returned, defensively.

"I thought all of your hobbies involved kidnapping, raping, and murdering," the words were out of her mouth before she even really contemplated them.

His jaw clenched, and if she hadn't been watching him so closely, she would have missed the glimmer of surprise that flashed across his face before it shuttered away.

Marie almost felt bad for her accusation, but even if he was telling the truth about being from a different universe, a tiger didn't just change his stripes. Sabretooth was Sabretooth, after all.

"Yeah, well, I thought you, of all people, would buck up and manage to keep your shit together. Yet here you are, frail and scared to death. Looks like we were both wrong."

With that, Creed disappeared into the night. Marie sincerely doubted he would return a second time.

A/N: Yes, that was a tiny, sort-of Devil Dinosaur cameo because reasons.

Next Time: Heigh-ho! Heigh ho! To Victor's house we go! …But maybe not Marie?