Chapter 1: A Prayer

Disclaimer: Marvel owns all characters, including Rogue, Gambit, Colossus, Mystique, Magneto, and the X-Men. I have no rights to them, and if I did I would have not had Rogue be so helpless in the X-Men movies.

Author's Note: This is a final draft of my first ever work of fan fiction. The story is complete, and there is a sequel planned. All chapter titles are songs from the band De/Vision, which would be a good accompaniment to the chapter.

'What now?' thought Anna Marie as she looked down at her gloved hands.

She had no home, no place to go, no family or friends to take her in. At thirteen she was alone in the world with nothing but what she held in her hands: a duffle bag filled with old clothing, $15.65 that she had gotten from panhandling, and heavy heart.

She sat intently staring and her gloves, focusing on how her life had gone awry. Mere months ago she was a normal, happy girl. Her parents were kind to her, if a bit preoccupied with their own lives. She did well in school, she had some good friends, including . . . Cody . . .

Stifling a sob, she thought of Cody and the day that changed both of their lives forever. It was supposed to have been magical, a first kiss between two friends whose feelings for each other had subtlety grown into something new over the last year. She remembered how her heart pounded as he leaned in to kiss her, how she closed her eyes when their lips finally met. It was wonderful, for a moment. And then all hell broke loose. A rush of feelings and memories flooded into her as Cody gave out a pained yelp. Anna's eyes flew open to see Cody 's body falling backwards, while his mind had invaded her own.

She had somehow run home and frantically told her parents about Cody before she had locked herself in her room. Thoughts, feelings, and memories that did not belong to her swam through her head. Her parents had pounded on the door, begging her to open up, but she was too confused and terrified to move out of the fetal position on the floor. Eventually, they had to break down the door. When she saw them standing over her, she raised her arms to them, a silent, desperate plea for help. They looked down at her, terrified, unwilling or unable to comfort their daughter. Over the next four days they had brought food to her room and placed it on the floor several feet away from her, but they refused to touch or speak to her, a look of abject horror in their eyes.

Four days after the incident, Cody's mind quieted and Anna could think again. She left her room and quietly walked to the living room, from whence she heard the sound of her parents' voices. When she came into view, her parents' conversation ceased and they looked at her in terror.

"What's wrong with me?" Anna asked.

They did not respond. They both looked at her as if she were the devil. Her chin quivered and tears ran down her face, but they still could not bring themselves to speak to her or approach her. And so she ran.

She had packed away her favorite clothes, all the money she had saved, and the cash from her mother's wallet into her father's old duffle bag and ran from the house. From her small hometown in Mississippi, she wandered from big city to big city, begging on the sidewalks of upper-middle class shopping districts. She got a lot of pity, and thus a fair amount of money, but she was sure to move on every couple of days before the police were sent round to pick her up.

She started to use a false identity, Rogue. It had been her nickname back home, since she was the adventurous, stubborn type. In her new life on the run it seemed more appropriate than ever. It certainly was better than her other old nickname, Skunk, so-called because of the white stripe in her otherwise dark auburn hair. Despite her new persona, in her head she was still Anna Marie. The occasional surfacing of Cody's consciousness called her that too, and whispered to her that none of this was her fault. If she had to have another mind in her own, she was grateful it was the person who was the kindest, most gentle person she ever had known.

She had decided to go North after a particularly close call in Montgomery. A concerned citizen had called the cops to report the young girl who had slept on the sidewalk for two consecutive nights. They had taken her by surprise and she had been unable to outrun them. They took her down to the station and called social services. Two policemen, an over-the-hill black man with graying temples and a heavy-set, middle-aged redneck walked her into a small room. They gave her a slice of microwave lasagna and a generic cola, all the while incessantly asking her questions in a condescending tone: "What's your name sweetie?" "Do you know your parents' number?" "Why where you out there all alone?" She refused to give anything more than monosyllabic responses: "Rogue." "No." "'cause."

After an hour of the world's least fruitful interrogation, the two cops who were questioning her were understandably frustrated. For several minutes they just quietly stared at her, hoping she's crack. She stared right back at them with defiance in her eyes. Eventually a tall blond woman, who Rogue assumed to be another cop or someone working with social services walked into the small room. "There is no file of anyone matching her description that has been reported missing in the last six months." Anna sat in shock. 'They never even told anyone Ah had run away?' she thought, fighting back the tears. 'How could they? Ah'm their only child, their only daughter. Just because Ah'm different, they turn their back on me completely?' She refused to let the anger and disappointment she was feeling show on her face, but she had to bite her lip to not sob out loud.

One of the cops had left with the blond woman, leaving only the Good Ol' Boy to watch over her. She had to hide her face with her hair to preserve any dignity she had left, but the man clearly knew she was distraught. "Let me git you som' tissues, gurl." He said was a thick Alabama drawl. He waddled out, and Anna stood up as soon as he vacated the room. She peaked out the door and through her tears she realized there was only the redneck cop, busily looking for tissues, between her and the door. Grabbing her bag, she crouched down as she legged it for the door.

"Where do ya think you're goin?" She heard the cop saying, swiping at her arm to restrain her. Unfortunately for him, he missed her arm and his clammy hand grabbed on to her uncovered wrist. Their eyes met momentarily and she registered the shock and pain in his eyes before she was able to tear her arm away. The man's thoughts swam through her head as she tore out of the police station. She didn't stop running for several minutes, till she found an alleyway with a large dumpster for her to hide behind. After a couple of hours of quiet sobbing the cop's personality and angry accusations retreated from her consciousness, joining Cody in the back of her mind.

After that incident she realized she had to get out of the South and away from anyone who would even think of trying to help her. She figured New York was the place to go. She hopped buses, mostly ones only going a town or two away so that she looked like a local, not a runaway child. Getting off the bus at Penn station, she was glad that she was finally in a place cold enough to justify wearing gloves and long sleeves during the fall. She felt so much safer being completely covered up, although she knew it was everyone else who was being protected.

Anna wandered around the city for a few days, utterly amazed at how big and crowded it was. 'Good,' she thought, 'a perfect place ta be anonymous.' But people didn't leave her alone like she thought they would. It might not have been the South with its' famous hospitality, but people still seemed concerned by the homeless preteen. She spent most of her time in the parks, where she stood out less, although she was terrified about the idea of sleeping in the park at night. No one had tried anything yet, and she knew that she could drop someone with a touch of her hand, but she still wasn't able to get more than an hour of sleep at a time without waking up in a panic.

Cody's voice remerged when she was scared, telling her that he was always with her. It soothed her a little, but the good it did was undone by the cop's consciousness telling her how dangerous the situation was, dropping hints about the horrible things he'd seen in his 17-year career on the Montgomery police force. The cop's voice in her head wasn't angry, as it had been at first, but he was frustrated and resentful. He grudgingly gave her advice that protected her out of his sense of duty, and she was thankful for that. When she was fully awake she could push both voices to the back of her head, but when she was exhausted or upset they would come back.

Looking down at her gloved hands, thinking about how alone she was, the voices were threatening to come back. She needed to know something in her life was not a mess, that something about her could be redeemed. Anna grabbed her duffle bag and walked through the yellow, orange, and brown leaves on the park path and headed to the convenience store across the street. The store had a pay phone outside. 'The last working pay phone in the industrialized world,' she assumed. Punching in Cody's home number and putting in the numerous coins, she waited with bated breath as the phone rang. 'Hope this is worth it, Ah've spent ma breakfast money on this.'

"Hello?" Anna recognized Cody's mother's voice.

"Hello Mrs. Robbins." Anna dropped her voice to slightly lower register, figuring that Cody's mom would hang up if she knew who she was talking to. She managed to do a passable impression of an old classmate and friend of both Cody and Anna's that had moved away a couple of months before the accident. "This is Charlotte. Ah just wanted ta see how Cody was."

"Oh, Charlotte. Yes, Ah remember you. Ah'm guessing what you heard what that rogue did ta Cody?"

Anna's stomach tightened with guilt. "Yes, Ah heard. How is he?" She barely squeaked out, the tears swelling in her eyes.

"He's still in a coma. The doctor says there is a good chance he'll recover, but . . ." Anna could hear Cody's mother chocking back her own tears while Anna was now allowing her own to fall from her face.

"Ah'm sorry," cried Anna, "Ah'm so sorry." She couldn't take any more and hung up. She didn't let go of the receiver, she held onto it for dear life. Holding onto the phone booth she started to sob. 'Ah'm so sorry, Cody. Oh God, Ah'm so, so sorry.'

'Ah know you are,' replied Cody.

I know that was mostly back story, but some drama will come along in the next chapter, along with everyone's favorite Swamp Rat.