A/N: Don't hate me I know this is like my fifth open story and I should really finish my other ones. But I just couldn't let this one slip by me. It was needed. I couldn't help myself.
Prologue:
In the Beginning Human is All We Are
The cure racked my body sending it into waves of over drive. My body going into spasms as the painful venom rocked me to my very core. My arms stretched against the restraints as nurses continued to pump the vile toxin into my blood stream. I could do nothing but scream as my world was changed from the inside out. And all I could do was sit there and take it as I let the knowledge of what I've done fuel me to tears.
"It's alright," the nurse cooed at me, a sickly sweet smile adorning her face, "it's all over now. You're human again."
I blinked rapidly at her as the words sunk in all around me. Human. A title I had wanted for nearly three years now. Human. It was the ideal of something better than me. Human. I hated the word as the nurse unclasped my arms and legs. I stumbled forward as a new sense of loss washed over me. Human. The nurse had said. Human. It was something I knew I would never be again.
--
"This isn't what I wanted," Bobby said to me as he looked down on me. My ungloved hands glistening white in the mid afternoon light. I closed my eyes tight and looked away from him. It wasn't what I had wanted either. Not really, not at the end.
"I know," I say trying to make the words sound real and true. "I did it for me."
It was a lie.
He looked at me with deep regret and sorrow in his icy blue eyes. I made to stand; this was the life I had chosen. A life I had foolishly accepted. It was a life I was going to have to with.
--
"I am sorry Rogue, but this is a school for mutants and you're not a mutant anymore," Storm said to me as I stood stoic in her office. It was the office that once belonged to Professor Charles Xavier. I dug my ungloved nails into the palm of my hands. I could feel the small wounds of crescent moons beneath them.
"I'll get my things," I whispered as I turned and walked out the door. I never did turn back and look.
--
I sat on a park bench in Central Park. People passed by me never giving me a second look or even a first one. My green cloak was wrapped tightly around me; my matching green duffle lay at my feet. I felt all the sixteen years old ago again as I sat huddled in the park. But I knew this time Logan wouldn't be there to save me. Heck Logan didn't even know I was gone.
I sighed as I looked hard at my booted feet. New York winters could be brutal. I knew that from personal experience. I dressed only for the cold even if it was late spring in New York. No one came to say goodbye as I left Xavier's. None of them probably even knew that I had left. I wondered what Bobby would think when he found out. I wondered if it would be when people were cleaning out what was left of my room. I had made quick work after Storm had dismissed me. I didn't really linger.
I sighed again trying to think of what I was going to be doing next. Where would the road take me this time? I had hoped somewhere warmer. Maybe back down South closer to my roots. Who knew?
"It's strange," a voice as familiar to me as my own said to my left. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I hadn't even registered someone sitting down next to me. "It's strange that out of the two mutants on this planet we should be sitting in the same park."
I looked up, horror evident on my features as I looked up at him. His impenetrable eyes bore down on me. I had a momentary flash back. Those same eyes were the last thing I remember seeing before my life had almost ended. Those were the eyes that haunted my dreams. They still do even now as I lay to sleep as a human.
"What do you want?" I asked my voice hesitant and full of fear. I pushed myself as far away from his a humanly possible, pressing my body up against the hard bench behind me.
"Nothing you can give me," he said in an eerily cool voice. I looked at him in bewilderment. I didn't believe him.
"Are you going to try and kill me again?" I blurted out as fear soaked its way into my words. He raised a refined eyebrow up at me.
"Why would I want to kill you now?" He asked me with a deep sincerity that was unknown to him.
"Because you're the leader of the Brotherhood and I am a traitor to my people," I said in a low voice. I made sure that people around us didn't hear. He looked at me then as slow realization over took him. He lowered his raised eyebrow.
"You took the cure?" He asked me looking away from me and to the people in the crowd. They all walked with a purpose, all with a destination in mind.
"Yes," I answered unsure if I should have done so. Maybe I should have let him believe I was still a dangerous and uncontrollable force. Maybe I should have let him believe I could still him with only a single touch.
"What are you doing out here?" He pressed me jumping over my last statement as if it wasn't of any importance. But even I knew my being a traitor to mutant kind was a big no-no on his list.
"I am trying to decide on where to go," I surprisingly answered honestly. He looked back at me then. The look was one of slight disbelief. I don't think he was expecting me to answer honestly either. That or he didn't believe me.
"Not sure if you want to return to the X-Men now that you're human?" He questioned and I looked down at the ground. I could feel the shame was over me. The build up of the last few days began to crash down on me like a wave, drowning me in its despair.
"I've already returned to them," I sadly replied still not looking up at him from the extremely interesting cement walkway. This of course heightened his interests to no end.
"Oh?"
I turned to look at him hurt and shame clear on my features. I am a human now. I shouldn't have to be afraid of the horrendous Magneto anymore. I wasn't on the top of his kill list anymore. I had in less than a week moved to the very bottom, right underneath anti-mutant activists. I was worthless to him now.
"Yes, they kicked me out! Is that what you wanted to know? Does that make you happy? Huh?" I hollered at him with all of the pent up emotions I had. Again he said nothing, just raised his eyebrow up a half inch as tears rolled down my face. "I am just as worthless as I was when I was a mutant."
My words seemed to actually cause the fearless Magneto to shift uncomfortably. I took a small comfort in that.
Then he asked me the one question I've been asking my self all day. "What are you going to do?"
I sobered up rather quickly after that. I looked back down at my boots, stubbing them up against the cemented sidewalk.
"I have no idea," I replied forlornly. Magneto shifted in his seat next to mine. I could hear the shifting of his pants as he made him self more comfortable. It really threw me for a loop.
"Do you want to be a mutant again Rogue?" He asked me and I could only nod my head as I tried to control my tears. My nod held the answer he was looking for. Yes, I wanted to be a mutant again. Yes, I wanted to be me again. "Then you'll need a place to stay."
My head snapped up and I looked at him. My dark chocolate brown eyes connected with his aging blue ones. The idea of what he might be promising me was almost too good to be true. I shuddered at the thought.
"Wh…what?" I asked beyond baffled at what the great and powerful Magneto was suggesting.
"In the end Rogue you are still a mutant. I am sorry that your new headmistress at Xavier's hasn't seen that yet. But until we can find a way to reverse the affects of the cure you're going to need a place to stay," he reiterated to me and I looked at him wearingly.
"What the catch?" I inquired as I continued to lean away from him. He stood up then and held his hand out to me in a rather respectful manner.
"Do you want to be a mutant again Rogue?" He asked again and I nodded my head again. "Do you have an aptitude to learn and to better one self?" Again I nodded my head. "Then that's all I need in return for my services. You are by no means required to join with me and fight the good fight like Xavier might have you do. I have plenty of soldier's waiting for me at my beck n' call, I don't need another one."
I looked at his offered hand and in that moment, in that single instant, I changed the course of my life. For the better or for the worst it had yet to be decided.