She shouldn't be here. That was all Marie could think as she ran her fingers along the bars of her miniscule cell. She moved them back and forth.
One…two…three…four….
They were ten bars. Ten forward, ten backward. Twenty when she counted. Then she would start to count again…so she wouldn't hear the piercing screams at the end of the hall….or the guards dragging a limp body back to a cell.
Marie should have been at home. Pulling on her plaid skirt and sneaking some of her mother's lipstick before going to school. That was what she had been doing before her whole life changed.
Three bullies and one kiss later had her two parents giving her to the Colonel to cure her of her affliction. She hadn't gone willingly, wondering why her parents were sending her with men with guns.
The Colonel sent a tall, beautiful woman to retrieve Marie while she was outside on the front lawn yelling at her parents, asking them what was going on.
Marie never saw the woman who snuck up behind her and latched her hands around Marie's upper arms. The pull on her skin was instantaneous. Marie's yells turned to bloodcurdling screams as the woman seeped into her mind.
Neither could let go.
Minutes later, the woman lay on the ground twitching to her death and Carol Danvers had taken over her mind. As Carol started to adjust to her new body, a nearby doctor accompanying the Colonel realized what was happening and snapped a mutant suppression collar around her neck.
She was taken to an underground facility and housed on the floor with restricted access. She was a high maintenance mutant. She was left alone for the first week.
During this time, Marie learned that Carol Danvers had been drugged to do the Colonel's bidding. Through Carol's adult mind, ten-year-old Marie had realized what her parents had done.
At first, Carol was angry at the life she lost. The result: the Colonel had a ten-year old girl placed in solitary confinement and strapped to a bed.
Then, Carol slowly started to become sympathetic and offered her powers of flight and super-strength to Marie. She offered to plot an escape, but nothing could come to fruition unless the collar was removed. And the collar was made of a powerful metal that couldn't easily be broken unless there was a key. Furthermore, Marie was heavily sedated anytime the collar was to be removed.
Marie slowly lost control of time, and started to turn to counting and hating her parents while Carol protected her from everything else that was going on…specifically the experiments that the Colonel was advancing.
___________________
Carol slowly started to leave Marie's mind about a year later when another mutant was brought to her floor. By then, Marie had already matured far more than she should have had to and called herself Rogue to protect what little innocence she had left.
The new mutant was a middle-aged man with cool demeanor and a handsome face. He called himself Magnus or Magneto. He was known for controlling metal.
The facility began implementing a twenty minute recess for all the mutants to make sure they had energy to use their mutations when was necessary. Marie was the only one who knew how to play chess on the travel size set that was available, and Magnus soon accepted her challenges.
It wasn't long before the Colonel had her absorb Magnus to power his new experiment.
The only problem was that she wasn't ready with handling his memories.
Through his memories, Marie saw that his real name was Erik. She had nightmares about being in concentration camps. She saw him with two small children—twins—whom he left to avenge the death of his parents.
Each night, she looked through his memories because he had some kind of life while she was stuck in a cell with no hope for ever having a life of her own. She didn't even have Carol's company anymore.
She saw that he was friends with another man named Charles. They were close but they started to drift apart after Erik killed the man who had his parents killed. Charles saved his life and helped him control his powers, while Erik began to grow close to with Charles's sister, Raven.
Marie let slip her memory searching to Magnus one day during a chess game. He said it was personal and they never played again.
And afterwards, every time the Colonel had her absorb Magnus, he remained in the dark corners of her mind where she couldn't see anything.
However, Marie could still go through things that Magnus hadn't previously covered.
She saw Raven have a baby, but the delivery had thrown off her mutation. Raven was having problems with her mutation and was slowly growing sad and depressed.
The next thing she saw, Magnus and Raven were leaving to go somewhere. They were together, but constantly fighting. Raven disappeared. Magnus started to gain power and popularity among certain mutants while he continued to look for something.
Raven appeared sometime later crying about a baby. Magnus took some mutants with her and brought a small blue child with a tail back to Raven.
That was all Magnus allowed her to see.
_____________________
A year later, an animal was brought in. He seethed with silent rage. His hair was untrimmed and nails were ridiculously long. He called himself Sabertooth.
He barely glanced at Marie. It wasn't long before Stryker had her touching him to gain his healing powers. Sabertooth was heavily drugged as well...like Carol.
By then a new thing began, the doctors in the facility began taking blood samples from her. Trying to analyze her mutation to make sure it would stand through whatever the Colonel was planning.
She now started looking into his memories. He was Victor Creed. He loved his brother, Jimmy, but didn't always show it. However, Marie soon found herself trying to block him in her mind.
Victor had a penchant for taking part in the most heinous and bloody acts. Marie often found herself randomly vomiting whenever a stray memory made its way into her.
There was one thing that Victor always said that echoed in her mind. "Make Jimmy forget."
Marie once had the audacity to ask the real live counterpart. The result was that although he was furious, he too began to block out things of subsequent touching.
They did manage to bond. Despite witnessing his crimes, Marie knew that if there was ever any hope of getting out, Victor Creed would know what to do. She followed him around like a twelve-year-old sick puppy during their twenty minute breaks. Victor shook her off at first, still distrustful of her because she knew what he was thinking. But soon enough, she grew to by the pesky fly on his shoulder that he just never swatted away.
And furthermore, Magnus and Victor both started to sit with her during their twenty minute breaks. Magnus because of on overwhelming sense of protecting her from something and Victor because Magnus some how made him. It must have been through words, because Magnus had an uncanny way with words when he tried.
The three of them never talked, but an underlying connection was borne between them to survive and not relinquish control to the Colonel.
_________________________
"I'm so sorry," she whispered.
Magnus was silent. She didn't know what else to say. She had practically sapped out the man's youth and aged him at least fifteen years.
"Come on Rogue," one of the doctors said. "If you take any longer, not only will I inject this stuff into the mighty Magneto, but I'll also kill you."
Marie shook her head.
The Colonel entered then to view the progress. "What's taking so long?"
"I think we might have to strap them together," the doctor said.
The Colonel smiled to himself. "Are father and daughter having some problems?"
Both Marie and Magnus whipped their heads to look at the Colonel.
"What are you talking about?" Marie cried. "He's not my father."
"Are you referring to the weak bastard who gave you to me? What was his name again?" the Colonel asked mockingly.
"D'Ancanto," Marie muttered shell-shocked. "He was my father." But the words tasted vile in her mouth.
Magnus whipped his head around this time to look at her.
"Of course," The Colonel practically hummed to himself. "But Magneto or Erik Lensherr is your biological father. Something we discovered from those numerous blood samples you gave." The ones they forcefully took from her.
Marie's world was spinning.
"How does the mighty Magneto feel now?" The Colonel laughed.
By then, most of the doctors had strapped Marie into the machine and Magneto to a harness.
"You're going to touch her and she's going to power my machine."
Marie was locked into a contraption that was painfully weighed down on her. The Colonel brought out a drugged Victor, who was there to carry out the Colonel's instructions like Carol was years ago.
One of the doctors came up to her and began to sedate her. Another did the same for Magnus. Marie was staring at him disbelievingly.
Victor was forced to encase Magnus so that he would have no choice but to touch her….and not have time to bend any metal.
"I'm sorry," Magnus whispered this time. There was a subtle sense of shock and Marie saw the instantaneous lines that appeared on his face from the words coming out of the Colonel's mouth.
Tears were streaming down her face. "I don't want to do this." The practice and set up for the machine was hard enough. She had hoped for it to fail and now she had to go through the pain all over again and she knew it would be worse.
Once the Colonel gave his signal, Sabertooth locked Magnus's hands on her face while two men undid the collars on her and Magnus.
In a few seconds, the contraption was no longer heavy, but light as a feather. And before Magnus could turn the place into metal mush, they both had succumbed to the sedation and the tell-tale signs of her mutation were on. Veins appeared all over Magnus…her father's face. He was aging in front of her to a man who was beginning to look like her grandfather.
An eerie glow started to emit from the machine and Marie shifted her gaze elsewhere.
She always wanted to see the Statue of Liberty…now here she was right smack on top of it.
She was going to kill her own father. She wanted to cry but she couldn't. Her skin was doing nothing but sapping everything from him.
The eerie glow continued. Someone snapped off Victor's collar but he was too drugged to pay attention. Soon enough, he bent forward in pain while he dropped Magnus…her father.
The Colonel was laughing happily.
Marie heard a faraway explosion. She didn't know what to pay attention to.
Her father was unconscious, and in her mind, he was no longer controlling which of his memories she was seeing.
Victor was howling and another explosion faintly made her ears.
She was in a concentration camp again.
The eerie glow was disappearing.
She was holding a beautiful baby girl.
There was a silvery blur and the blue mutant…Raven were rapidly taking down the doctors and other guards.
She was pushing a bullet through a man's head….Sebastian Shaw's head.
The Colonel was trying to escape. Victor ripped a man a part. Blood was everywhere.
Marie saw her hair whip forward. It was white.
She tried to shake her head but it was becoming too much.
She was rescued from an underwater missile by her friend.
Her vision was tinged with darkness. Someone was removing her from the machine.
Marie blinked her eyes. A very young blonde woman in her late teens and dressed in white was peering into her face.
"You're going to be ok," a clear voice said. Marie tried to focus on her lips.
"Are you an angel?" Marie asked before giving in to the darkness and reveling in Magnus's last thoughts.
_______________________________
"Erik, be reasonable."
"Charles! I trusted you!" Erik gripped him by the throat.
Erik threw Charles across the room. Charles staggered before getting up.
"I did what I thought was best. She wasn't going to be a mutant."
"But she's still my daughter. It was my decision to make. Not yours!" Erik delivered a swift uppercut that split Charles' lip. "How could you have done that? For all your talk, you're just a bunch of bull shit!" Erik kicked Charles. "Where the hell is she?"
"Far away from here. Where she can grow up safe and normal." Charles barely managed to grapple onto the metallic helmet that Erik had come to prize.
"Haven't you figured out by now that there is no such thing as normal?" Erik turned away to finger a paper weight on Charles' desk. "She would have had other uses whether she was a mutant or not."
"Like what? You can't expect your young daughter to pass as a normal human as your secret spy?" Charles asked as he dabbed at the blood on the corner of his lip.
"No. I'd rather she knew of her heritage. You've taken a legacy away from her."
Erik angrily moved his hands causing all the metallic objects in the room to vibrate and fall over.
"How do you think Raven's going to feel when she realizes her own brother did this to her?"
Charles looked away.
"She was dealing with some of her own problems, but she would never have agreed to what you just did."
"Please don't tell her," Charles pleaded quietly.
"Not tell her? She deserves to know what happened to her child!" Erik fumed as he wrecked Charles' office.
"It was for the best. Your daughter would never have a place in our world," Charles tried to justify.
Erik turned swiftly around and kicked Charles across the room.
"Oh face it, Erik! You and Raven are far too zealous—"
"Charles?"
Both Erik and Charles turned to see Raven enter the room. Her shapeshifting was still off and her skin had a deathly blue glow.
"How could you?" Raven slowly walked forward but stumbled.
Erik reached out and steadied her.
"How could I what?" Charles asked trying to deflect.
"Don't do that. Don't avoid the question. I could hear both of you as soon as I turned onto this floor."
"Raven…" Charles crumbled. "I'm…so…sorry."
"Sorry?" Erik asked disbelievingly.
Once Erik was sure Raven was steady, he made his way to Charles. "Tell me where she is!"
Charles looked away. "I won't let you near her. She's just a baby. Raven, I did what was best. She'll grow up far away from here….I know it's going to get worse out there for us. But your daughter will never have to know it…Why can't you understand I did the right thing?"
Raven shook her head. "Charles, you will never understand me...but to do that to my own daughter...your niece. You're such a hypocrite. Iit was a choice that didn't belong to you."
"And now she'll never know us. She's going to grow up hating us." Erik finished.
Charles was silent.
"I'm leaving. You can keep your bull shit philosophy and your money. You can keep your act and try to preach friendship while forcing mutants to hide their true selves, but I won't tolerate it any longer." Erik turned to leave. "Raven?"
"What?" Charles managed while staring at his adoptive sister.
"You heard me. I'm leaving. Raven?"
Raven and Charles were still staring at each other.
"Erik, wait."
"What Charles? You can't have expected me to stay after you kidnapped my daughter."
"What's going on here?" Moira MacTaggert entered, surveying the damage.
"Ask him," Erik venomously declared.
Moira looked to Charles but he was still staring at Raven.
Raven gripped onto Erik. "You promised you would stay out of my head."
"I had to know," Charles whispered.
"You can't expect me to stay either. I wish I could say thanks for all you've done, but this….I can't accept."
"What's happening?" Moira asked again clueless. "Where are you going?" The tension in the room suddenly sunk down on her and she remained silent.
"You still haven't told me where she is," Erik said as he and Raven inched forward to Charles.
Raven stopped, but Erik continued. "Where is my daughter?"
Charles looked over at Moira before back at Erik.
Erik grabbed Charles by the collar and shook him. "Where is she?"
Erik punched him again as Moira emitted an outcry.
Charles choked on the blood in his mouth. "…Dan..to…family. Met them…with ba..by…at sta…tion….in…Jer..sey."
Erik dropped him. "Good-bye Charles. For the sake of our earlier friendship and because you did save my life once…I'm leaving you like this. I would rip your throat out with my bare hands at what you've done…but…you'll pay someday…you will pay."
Erik turned to Raven and started to lead her out as Moira went to Charles side.
"Erik?"
Erik barely turned. "Don't worry Charles. The only people leaving today are us two. I would never touch your precious Jean Grey."
"She's like a daughter to me." Charles knew it was the wrong thing the second it left his mouth.
Erik turned and suddenly Charles found the letter opener that was on his desk at his throat. Charles tried to remove it, but it pressed tighter into his skin.
Moira turned to Erik. "Stop it! What are you doing?"
Raven remained silent despite Moira's pleas.
Erik walked slowly towards Charles. One hand was miming a tightening motion as Charles continued to struggle with the letter opener that was beginning to draw blood.
Once Erik was standing in front of Charles, Charles was shocked to see a cold, calculating vengeance seep into his eyes…the same look he had when they were going to stop Sebastian Shaw.
"Stop!" Moira screamed.
Charles barely glanced to the side to see Moira.
Erik and Raven were both silent until the unmistakable click of a revolver was heard.
Erik barely turned his head to see Moira armed.
Raven moved to stop her.
"Don't touch me or I'll shoot him!"
"Raven, wait." Erik said.
Raven protested.
Erik watched a trickle of blood stain Charles clean white shirt.
Moira made a decision. She was getting ready to take a shot…at least to scare Erik.
But at the exact second Moira fired, Erik lowered his hand and stepped away just as Charles slumped forward in relief as the letter opener fell.
The bullet, however, lodged itself into Charles' spine.
___________________________
Marie woke up gasping. It took her several seconds to reassemble her thoughts and sort through the onslaught of her father's memories.
She turned over until she realized that she was in mid-air. She toppled back onto her bed trying to catch her breath again. But the onslaught of her dream and memories and her father's was too much. Marie ran to her bathroom and vomited everything and then some.
Pushing her hair out of her sweaty face, Marie gulped at the fifteen years that had passed since then. She may have been rescued and her father saved, but the promise she made to herself when she was thirteen, still stood.
One day both Colonel William Stryker and Charles Xavier would pay for what they did to her.