It’s funny how your life can change in the blink of an eye. One moment it can be everything you wanted it to be and then it can be a nightmare from hell. When that happens, you expect the ones that are suppose to love you the most to be there for you. It doesn’t always work like that. I’ve learned the hard way, in more ways than one, that love can not conquer all. Some things you just can’t get past no matter how much you love a person. This is my story.

She was seventeen when the change occurred. She remember it as though it was yesterday, sitting in her room mapping out her future plans to her first boyfriend. His name was Cody and she was smitten the first moment she met him. Marie remembered the feel of his soft lips upon her and the way he slowly closed his eyes. Then, she felt the surge ignite her body. At first she thought it was normal, like that was how it was suppose to be. Deepening the kiss, she hoped like hell she was doing it right. The surge continued to grow until it was a painful throb running throughout her. Marie opened her eyes wide and tried to break the kiss. Horrified, she watched the veins, of her boyfriend, protruding out in an unnatural way. With all the strength that she had, she pushed away from Cody and watched him collapse back on the bed. Images of summer days, playing on a swing and in the mud assaulted Marie’s mind, yet they were not her memories. Confused, she slammed back against the wall of her room and screamed.

Her parents ran into the room and were horrified to find Cody convulsing on the bed and her uncontrollable by the door. They tried to console her but she snapped at them. Marie felt as though she was going crazy. There was a voice in her head, sounding an awful lot like Cody, screaming at her in anger. She sobbed at the voice that it wasn’t her fault but he didn’t care. That would be the last time she would ever saw her first boyfriend.

Days later, Marie sat at her kitchen table with her parents. They had figured out what had happened and it tore her word a part. Mutant…..that was a bad word in this house. She had heard her parents talk of such people but it was never good. She really didn’t have an opinion on mutants. To Marie, they were people just like everyone else. She was starting to realize that people were scared of what they didn’t understand, her parents being in that group of course. These two loving people, who gave everything they could to her, was now scared of what she had become. Imagine a seventeen year old girl watching her father turn towards her with hate in his eyes and a mother who carried her, loved her, and held her when she cried, look at her in disgust. That is a pain that no one, not even the evilest of people should ever experience.

As if the hurt of her parent’s looks couldn’t cut any deeper, the words that came from their mouths tortured her dreams long after that awful day. Marie guessed they forgot about all of the lullaby’s, kisses, hugs and laughs because at that moment she ceased to be their daughter. She ceased to be their Marie. She was a thing, a mutant and no longer welcomed in their home.

Marie watched as her father threw a small duffle bag at her feet and pointed to the door. Her mother turned away as her tears fell on the clean surface of the kitchen table. She stood without a word and proceeded to the door. Marie heard her mother’s wrecked sobs but it meant nothing to her anymore. Her mother would no sooner stop this than her father would and that deadened a piece of Marie’s heart.

She had nothing, just the clothing on her back and in her duffel bag. She only had two hundred dollars in cash and not a clue where to go. Looking back at her home, Marie let the tears fall unashamed. Her safe haven, her sacred place no longer existed because of her poisonous skin. She was so angry but not sure who she was angry at. Was she angry at herself for allowing this to happen, or was she angry at her parents for not letting love be enough? The voice in her head, that was Cody, told her it didn’t matter…..she got what she deserved.

So, for the next eighteen months Marie went from state to state, living on anything that she could. Sleeping in an alley or in a train station, it didn’t matter as long as she could sleep. Her eighteenth birthday was spent hitchhiking into Canada.

Marie remembered the day that she met him as plain as anything. She had arrived in a small town called Laughlin City, intending this to be one of her stops back when her life made sense. It’s funny that she still managed to make it to one of her destinations. She wished that she could have said she was impressed but really it was nothing but a whole in the ground. All Marie could see was a few stoplights, a grocery store and a rundown bar. Taking a deep breath, she decided that she would stop and rest in the bar for a few and then be on her way.

Marie took two steps towards the bar, when she heard someone walking up behind her. Eighteen months on the road had taught her a lot and she turned to defend herself. There, standing in front of her, was an elderly looking man. His age was not what caught her off guard, but the fact that she felt an air of supremacy radiating from him that almost knocked her to her knees. Two feeling went through Marie at once…..fear and awe. He stood there smiling at her while she gawked at him.

“I have been waiting on you my dear,” he said.

Marie was silent for a while thinking about what he just said. ‘Waiting on me? Why‘?

“W…who are you,” she whispered.

Marie watched as two people came and stood beside him. She took them in and noticed right away that they were mutants. One was a woman, with raven hair and blue skin, as blue as the ocean. She stood possessively beside the elderly man. Marie wondered if they were a couple. The other man stood to be about seven feet tall. He had long blond hair and eyes as black as coal. He scared the hell out of her.

“My name is Eric Lehnsherr and I, my dear, am just like you. I have come to offer you a safe haven from this world.”

She looked at the three people in front of her and thought about her life so far. There was nothing and no where for her to go. This man, this mutant, was offering a place for her to go. Could she trust him? She didn’t know, but what was her alternative? Marie had absolutely no money left and she hadn’t eaten in three days.

“What’s the catch,” she asked suspiciously.

“There is no catch my dear. I have a place for mutants where I train them and take care of them. We call ourselves the brotherhood and you would be a great addition to our cause.”

“What cause?”

His smile widened and she felt uneasy. There was something off about these three, yet she couldn‘t place it. ‘Could I take a chance on these people who were like me’, she asked herself?

“The cause for mutant kind of course,” he said matter-of-factly.

Taking a deep breath, she looked back at the run down bar. Marie could hear cheering from inside and see people going in and out.

“Why not, there is nothing for me here,” she whispered.

Turning back towards the three people, Marie walked towards them.

“I warn you now, my skin is deadly so no touching,” she said to them. The look that was shared between the blue woman and Eric wasn’t lost on her.

And so, she started her new life in the brotherhood. That’s what they called themselves. She ended up back in the States, in Westchester, New York. The place that was Eric Lehnsherr’s was more like a cave than anything.

Marie learned that his mutant power was that he could control metal, thus the cave house, as she affectionately started calling it, was made out of metal. There were other’s living their as well. All of them went by code names like Toad and Quicksilver. None of them really liked her though. She stayed to herself as she watched the everyday workings of the brotherhood.

Training started early in the morning and usually ran until late at night. Marie only stopped to eat and sleep. She was taught to fight and use her curse of skin to her benefit and for once it felt good to take her anger out on other things. It was the first time she got to deal with her screwed up life. She spent most of her free time in her room reading. Everyone treated Marie as though she didn‘t exist.

Over the next couple of months that would change and not for the better. They started to go on missions. The first couple of missions were small things, recover a disk here, and steal a government paper there. Steadily it grew more dangerous over time and she started to wonder what in the hell she had gotten herself into. The only good thing she felt during these missions was that her teammates actually acknowledged her. Everyone had their code names and so Marie became the Rogue. It was appropriate she thought. None of them knew her real name, which was fine by her.

The first time Marie ever watched someone being killed was on a mission to ‘save mutant kind’, as Eric had described it. She watched in horror as Sabretooth gutted a poor security guard to death. He looked as though he was enjoying it a little too much. She was frozen where she stood, as she watched the blood pool around the man’s body. There were screams all around her, yet she could not break the fear that wrapped itself around her heart. This was not what Marie signed up for, to kill humans. She just wanted a place to feel like home and people that understood exactly what she was going through.

Mystique scream profanities over the noise of the dying humans and Marie looked up to see what she was talking about. Standing about twenty yards away from them was a group of seven people. They were all wearing identical black leather suits. She noticed that each one of them had an X on their suits. Mystique said the word X-men and the brotherhood took to a fighting stance. Marie followed suit, not really ready for an actual fight.

The seven people started towards them slowly. Their movements were trained and in sync. Marie was impressed by the way they communicated with one another without so much as a word. She watched as a white haired woman raised herself in the air and stretched her hands out to the heavens. All at once the skies opened up and the wind came crashing down on them. The brotherhood fought against the weight that threatened to topple them and started using their own powers to defend themselves. All Marie could do was watch since it took a close up fight to use her powers. The six remaining X-men started running towards them.

Each one of her teammates were in a struggle with the group of X-Men as she stood their helpless. Reaching towards her gloves, Marie yanked them off to help the person closest to her. Reaching out her hand, Marie tried to touch an Asian looking girl when she was stopped in mid air. She could not move a muscle. Looking around in horror, Marie saw the reason for her situation. A woman with flaming red hair had her hand extended out in her direction, freezing Marie in her tracks.

At the same time, she watched as a man, wearing what looked to be ruby lens glasses, reach his hand up to touch the sides of them. The next moment, Marie felt a sharp pain in her chest as it knocked her a few feet back. Hitting the ground hard, the world came in and out of focus. Every part of her body ached as she tried to sit up.

Groaning, she turned on her side and watched helplessly as Mystique screamed for everyone to get to the jet. They were leaving her behind without so much as a thought. Marie tried to scream but all that came out was a cough. Her chest felt as though it was on fire while her breathing came out in short ragged breaths. As Mystique got to the jet, she turned to look in Marie’s direction. Reaching out her hand, Marie cried out for Mystique to help her. The blue shape shifter turned her back on Marie and ran into the jet. Stunned, she felt herself slowly slipping into unconsciousness. Footsteps were coming closer towards Marie and she tried with everything she had to get to her feet. She was on her own and had to defend herself from these people. ‘Would I become a lab rat?’, she asked herself. Marie had heard Eric and the others talk about mutants being taken for scientific research and my God she would become one of them now.

The last thing that she remembered, before she succumb to the darkness taking over her, was the sound of her teammates flying away and the feel of hands lifting her body off of the cold wet ground.