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Author's Chapter Notes:
Many heartfelt thanks to September, the most awesome and patient beta ever. Thanks to her the story got way better and all the grammar mistakes occure where I added stuff after she checked.
And it is only because of her that I found the courage to post this here. I hope this is okay.
Tell me what you think. I would like to know. ^^
Oh, and more chapters will follow, so stay tuned ^_~
She had actually made a deal with Dr. Grey. How pathetic was that?

But then again she had a feeling it would be worth it in the end.

A one hour talk with one of the few prisoners the X-Men had made. No video monitoring the conversation. No security guards. Just her and that new kid. And as a trade-off Rogue would leave first thing in the morning. Without telling anyone. Without staying in touch.

All things considered it was a fair deal. Now, with the other kid around, things would only get... trickier? Yeah, maybe that was the right word.

So she had taken off her gloves and marched into the little, sterile cell, built for rare occasions like these. Occasions in which mutants had turned loose on humans but were too dangerous or too precious to give to the authorities without a second thought.

Rogue knew she wasn’t the first to talk to the young guy, nor was she about to be the last, but this conversation would be something different entirely.



Rogue sat down on the chair, eyeing the walls. This room was... bright. Nothing but white walls. You didn’t even see the camera if you didn’t know where to look. The new kid had probably found it by now. He kept eyeing the relevant corner as he sat there, depreciative.

And then there was silence.

Marie’s eyes turned to the kid, and neither said anything for at least five minutes. Five precious minutes of the only opportunity Marie might ever get to do this.

It was in this silence that Marie realized she had adopted Logan’s trademark “kid”. A rather unfitting description for the one in front of her. He was young. Maybe 16. Probably a bit older. No first hints of a beard, just smooth skin, blue eyes and the evil grin he had worn since the first time he had admitted his crime.

With anyone else it would have been partly horrible, partly pathetic, and to most people it probably was. But to Marie there was an underlying fascination. Something she needed to figure out before she left for good.

Still, for this to get anywhere, he needed to make the first move. She needed a hint, just a small sign, that he knew answers to the question most important to her. So she waited. There was more silence until finally the boy… Robert… was done eyeing her, unnerved by the seemingly endless procession of people going in and out, asking the same questions over and over again.

They might not have broken him yet, but he got weaker.

After eight minutes he finally blurred: “Yes, I killed him. I killed my own father. So which part of the story did you come to hear?”

There was an unfriendly stare in his eyes, a tiredness that everyone gets after 34 hours of no sleep at all. Marie could have brought along some coffee but she came to know from experience that at this point it only helped to make matters worse. So instead she would polish up all her southern beauty, polish her accent, try to look charming and hope to get what she wanted soon.

“I have a number of questions. The most pushing probably would be the ‘why?’, wouldn’t it?” Marie tucked the white streak of hair behind her ear and smiled as warmly as she could.

“I felt like it.”

“Just like that? You expect me to believe you?”

“Look, just because you have always been dad’s little angel...”

It was at this point Marie gave one of her rather unfeminine snorts. It only dawned on her that she had actually made the sound when he started to stare. Yeah, well... not like she planned, but that was the door she had been hoping for. She just had to give it a shot.

“First of all, I don’t have a father. I have a genitor. Not more and not less. That thing stopped being my father when he said that he’d rather impale me on a hook and watch me slowly bleed to death as well as feed the remains to our dogs, than feed a ‘thing’ like me and tolerate it’s existence under his roof. As far as I know even with this story I am better of then most kids here. Especially now. He died two weeks ago and wasn’t worth a tear. Now who is bad ass?”

She didn’t blink. She didn’t have to. She meant it. He was dead and it was nothing to her. Not after everything else that had happened. There was only one person in her eyes who was still family. And she hadn’t seen him for years.

“So you’re telling me you know what the world is like?” The sarcasm was thick in his words.

“Well, you tell me you do?”

There was the silence again. This time Marie broke it.

“People round here are going to tell you I almost died three times. Truth is it was almost six, but who is counting? Official versions round here are that I got stabbed in the chest three times at once, got chained to a death machine on top of lady liberty and I fell out of a flying jet. The other three times I’d rather keep to myself. So, can you keep up?”

“So you’ve been hurt and survived and I should bow my head before you? That fucker molested me for at least three years. Ever since my mother died. This mutation was the biggest blessing I could stumble upon. No one is ever going to hurt me again.”

“Yeah, and no one is ever going to touch you again. No hug’s. No friendly handshake. No more skin on skin contact of any kind at all. People are going to keep their distance just as if you have some kind of leprosy.”

It was the way of her voice, the grim look, the bitterness behind it that made Robert look at her with new found curiosity.

“You aren’t about to tell me that you too....?”

He left the question hanging in the air. But really, what was there to answer?

“Seems like we didn’t get an as unique mutation as we thought we did.”

There was a moment of conspirative smiles, being hidden again right away, both trying to check the waters.

“Why would they send someone with my abilities to do a grilling on me?” A questioning look that would have made Logan proud.

“I am not really here to question you about you dad.” The southern accent and a woman’s charm.

“But you know everything else. The power that flows into you...” Him daring her to continue.

“...every secret they ever had being laid out for you to use as you please....” Her remembering.

“...locking them in yourself, showing them how weak they really are...” His memory of power.

“...breaking even the strongest man in seconds.” Her admission of the great sin.

They looked at each other. There were no more words needed. The temptation of the kill. They both knew it. She had made it into the freak show by hiding her nature; he was on the way to prison or worse, because to him it was the only way out of a fate much worse.

There were only looks this time. And another long silence, before Marie finally mustered up the courage to ask the one question that had driven her to come down here.

“How old are you?”

Another long pause before he said as casually as possible “People take me for 16.”

“Me too.”

More silence. No more words. All the parts she had bared of herself, it had been all for nothing. She should have known it. After all he was still bragging about his father.

When it became clear that there were no more words to be said, Marie moved to stand up. And if it had not been for the super sensitive hearing she inherited from Logan that still popped up every now and then, she would have totally missed the “24” being mumbled behind her back.

“32!” And with a happy grin she sat down and almost couldn’t stop the outburst of words, flowing from her. “How did you get along looking under-aged? Fake ID? Fake school certification? Job applications? Orphanage? Family and friends? Thieving?”

There was that cocksure grin on his face again. “There is a much easier way out of this. You tell me you didn’t know?”

“And that be what? Living from the air you breathe?” She grinned, all too eager on that conversation.

“Oh come on, you know.” He turned a challenging look at her hands.

And she did. It was something she never dared to do. Especially not on Xavier’s grounds, but she knew that there was a way. Going bare handed through the crowded streets. A swift touch here, a small touch there. Minutes, maybe hours, stolen from people who did not feel more then a short electric rush and that was that. You could live from things like that, but you could also get the worst of the worst and catch something you really did not want. It required a good eye, some instincts, hunting your prey. Turning into a vampire in the middle of the night. The contacts too swift to take in anything personal, just energy.

“There has to be something more secure.” Rogue looked at him, challenging, hoping that he might really come up with something better.

“Nothing is as good as the pie you found here, but honestly, living on the streets isn’t as bad as it sounds.”

“What if you want to settle?”

“What’s hindering you?”

“Not being officially legal? No paper, no certificate, nothing to prove I am who I am.”

“These things can be made. It takes a little cash of course, but that shouldn’t be a problem.” And by the look in his eyes she just knew that he would offer her every paper she could ever need should she ask for it. But there was a problem with that. The good stuff cost money she did not have and the bad could blow your cover any moment.

Robert eyed her with even more interest, wondering aloud “What did you do to get through?”

Marie grinned slightly at the memory. “Playing the new neighbor, recently moved in, fresh from school, with the certificate to prove it, trying to get a job, moving again and again and again, till the papers became to outdated enough to seem to fit me for real... No matter how many 12 year olds are trying to look like 20 and manage to do so none the less, they always eye you skeptical.”

“New papers, it is as easy as that.” And Marie could have sworn that he was getting the checkbook ready.

“That’s only one part of the deal. Nothing comes without a price, and I am not really willing to pay for a normal life anymore....”

There was a knowing nod before Robert gave her a once-over. “So you hoped I tell you the art of surviving just like that? You get to run and get a happily-ever-after, and what about me?”

“I did enough for you already. This conversation isn’t monitored. You can tell them what ever you like about it. You can make something up or tell them the truth. Just sell my head to the highest bidder. But by the time you get to do that I will be long gone. And by the time they figured out whether to believe you or not I will be nothing but a shadow.”

“So you run because I could blow your cover? Because my existence is enough to let them see through your charade?”

Marie snorted again. “This” and she made a gesture to everything and nothing in particular, “isn’t real. It is a dream I allowed myself because I couldn’t enjoy it the first time around. But I am growing out of it by the minute. Your appearance just made it easier to draw a line. If you want to take my advice: stay here for a little, lick your wounds, make friends, enjoy all the silly nonsense kids do these days. And when they think they finally have your wrapped around their finger, just disappear. It’s what Xavier fears the most. His soldiers getting lost to the other side of the army.”

“There’s another side?”

Marie grinned. “There always is. You are currently getting to know team we-protect-non-mutants-because-we-are-holier-than-thou. If they aren’t up your liking just join team mankind-needs-to-be-erased-in-order-for-us-to-be-free. The pay is worse and the lodging rather shabby, but they actually make all the cool plans about world domination and destruction. And if you think that both are nuts, eat as much as you can and get your ass out of the line of fire while you still can.”

Someone was knocking on the door and Marie got up, masterfully hiding her grin and her disappointment about the interruption under layers of indifference.

“It was nice getting to know you Robert.”

She even held out her hand, but he did not take it. Of course he could not seeing that his hands were chained to the chair, but be it that way.

He looked at her with an unreadable expression and when she walked to the door with that gentle sway in her steps he started whispering frantically.

“Forsake the light and go under ground. There are the ones that can really help your problem. Forsake the light and go underground. There are the ones...”

The mumbling stopped the second Marie opened the door. Of all people she had to run into Logan. But it actually was a good thing. If he was down here with the kid she could get lost just like that. She knew what she needed to. She wasn’t a freak. Deep down inside she knew that. She just needed to find a way to get back on the tracks.
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