She observed the door with a critical eye. The door was just like all the others, except that a sign hung off the doorknob. In a shaky black crayon hand was written GO AWAY. Raven drew a deep breath and opening the door, peered into the room.
The little girl knelt alone on the floor of her room building a tower out of building blocks. She wore dark purple overalls with a lighter purple t-shirt and white socks, and had long auburn hair with white streaks in the front.
She was very thin and very pale, with dark circles under her eyes as if she didn't get a lot of sleep. It was hard to believe this child would have the potential for limitless power because she was just that- a little child. She was small and she was helpless.
Well. Small, certainly, but not helpless. From what Eloise had said, from what Irene had predicted, the girl was all too capable of standing up for herself. In her earliest days at the group home the girl had been silent, sleeping almost all day and resurfacing at what were probably her normal mealtimes. Then she had started to lash out, sometimes physically but mostly with words. There had been a flicker of fear in Eloise's eyes as she had described the things the girl had come out with, both to her and to the other children. She had reduced other children to tears with only words.
It had made Raven all the more eager to meet her.
She waited for the child to screech at her to go away, like Eloise had said. Like the sign said. However, the girl went to the other extreme and paid her absolutely no attention. She simply played with her blocks and didn't even blink as Raven shut the door and knelt down beside her.
"Did you write that sign yourself?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"I'm impressed. Have you been writing long?"
"Ah don't know how to write." A pause. "Ah'm only four."
"You told me you wrote the door sign yourself."
The girl sighed, testing a block and growling in irritation when it fell off the shaky tower. "Ah just did that picture like all mah others. Then when Eloise saw, she said there were words in it. Ah hung it on mah door."
"That's very interesting."
"Ah don't know how Ah did it," said the girl in a soft, Southern-accented voice. "Ah just did."
"Fair enough." Raven looked around, trying to see something to make small talk with. There was nothing suitable. The room was a depressing mess with cookie plates stacked and milky mugs clustered at the door, and the bed converted into a fort. There were so many crayon drawings blu-tacked up on the white walls that they looked like wallpaper, but they were black and red scribbles with words discernable among the savage scrawls... 'go away' was written over and over again, as well as other words to that effect.
"You have beautiful hair," she said finally. She could tell it hadn't been brushed that day, but it was easy to see it was very pretty hair.
"Ah hate it," the little girl said flatly. "It's ugly."
"Right." Raven looked away. Enough, she heard Magneto's voice say inside her head. You're not here to be the girl's psychiatrist, Mystique. You're here to recruit her. Don't tell me you can't even recruit a four-year-old child!
Raven shook her head and said in a businesslike tone, "You can call me Raven or ma'am. What should I call you?"
"Eloise already told ya what mah name is. That's why you're here."
Eloise, the girl's social worker. From the tone of her voice it sounded like the girl didn't much care for her. Raven didn't care for her either. She'd been most obtuse when Raven had been grilling her about the girl's circumstances. "I don't care about her. I want to hear you say it."
A long pause as the little girl tried to balance a block on one that was too small for it. Neither one flinched as it tumbled off the tower of blocks. "Anna."
"Tell me properly."
Anna rolled her eyes. "Mah name is Anna."
"Do you have a nickname that you prefer, Anna?"
"No, Ah don't."
"Then we shall have to think one up for you, my rogue angel," Raven said with a maternal smile. Anna giggled. "What's so funny?"
"Ah'm not an angel."
"True. But who wants to be an angel? Sometimes you have to do things other people might think are bad... to achieve your ends."
Anna nodded even though she didn't understand. "You're not like other grown-ups."
"And you're not like other children. Just to watch you is to see that, Anna."
There was a long silence in which Raven turned a building block over and over in her hands. "You don't like it here, do you, Anna?"
Anna hesitated, then shook her head slowly.
"You want to go back to your parents, don't you?"
"Yes." Anna turned her head away, and Raven knew that the little girl was going to cry. No-one ever dared talk to the angry, repressed child about her parents for fear of setting her off. Eloise had blustered about the girl refusing therapy, and for some reason Raven had felt... indignant. They could reach Anna if they wanted to. They'd just given up on her.
How sad it was, that they'd given up on Anna at the age of four. Raven would not give up on her. Anna would not give her reason to. She knew that already.
"Do you miss them?"
"Yes..."
"Anna, I can't get your parents back for you, but I can do what I like to think is the next best thing. I- I want you to come and live with me. I want to take care of you. I will teach you and I will look out for you and I will make sure you have everything you'll ever need. You won't have to see any other children, Anna. I can tell you don't like other children. I want you to be my child; be a Darkholme..." Raven trailed off and then said something that had not been a part of the plan. "But I can't do any of that if you don't want me to, Anna. It's your choice."
Anna sighed. "Ah don't know..."
Raven smiled grimly. "I can get you out of here, Anna. That's what you really want. To get out of this place and be Anna Jackson again. I'll admit I'm not the easiest person to live with-"
"Neither am Ah," confessed Anna.
"Why, in a year or two you might not even be Anna Jackson any more due to me."
Anna looked at her. Tears had been coursing down the pale, soft skin of her cheek, but they seemed to have stopped. "Who would Ah be?"
She didn't sound alarmed or amused, as most children would be. It was a serious question. Raven had never met a four-year-old who asked serious questions before.
"You'll be what you'll be, Anna. What you were meant to be. What I'm going to help you be."
Anna didn't understand. She was precocious, all right, but she was only four. "All right," she said softly. She frowned. "Why is it me ya want?"
"Because of what you'll be able to do someday. You'll be a great help to the cause I work for. Why, I haven't finished my first conversation with you and already my boss is anxious to meet you."
"When would Ah meet with your boss?"
"Not for awhile."
"Do you wanna help me?" asked Anna casually.
"Absolutely."
"Then hurry an'- an' get me outta this godforsaken hole!"
Raven tried not to look surprised at these words slipping out of the mouth of such a small child. She hadn't sounded like other children when they curse, like she was doing it just to get a reaction or look clever. More like her anger drove her to it.
Little Anna shivered as the words hung in the air. She couldn't have known that those were the words her mother had said to her father five years beforehand, when they had been seniors in high school. Anna hadn't even been alive then.
She moved the spare building blocks around until they formed a sturdy base for her tower and smiled as she looked upon her creation. She couldn't have known that her father had been a worker on a building site. Three-year-old children don't take in things like that.
She didn't know the reason she had a Southern accent even though the year before she'd talked like every other little child in San Francisco. She didn't know the reason her hair was partly white even though the year before it had been wholly auburn. She didn't know why she could write real words and not know what they were, or what they meant.
Raven knew. And it was her job, on Magneto's orders, to adopt Anna and slowly turn her into a terrorist.
Well. Those had not been his words. "You will gain the girl's trust, foster and finally adopt her. Then, I want you to legally change her name and disappear off the radar. At this point, report back to me. When the two of you have been resituated, you can begin her combat training."
The whole curriculum for the next twelve or so years had been worked out already. Combat training would begin when Anna was five- martial arts, kickboxing and gymnastics. The rest of her serious training, in weaponry and espionage, would start as soon as her powers emerged. Unfortunately, Irene hadn't been able to pinpoint exactly when this would happen, but Raven liked to think it would be when Anna was thirteen. That was when Raven herself had started to change, after all.
Raven knew a lot of things already, but as time would go on it would become evident she'd known almost nothing. She didn't know how it would feel when she had to shapeshift into the form of a doctor making a house call, examine the child and tell Anna a blatant lie- that her skin was highly toxic and she would never be allowed to touch another living person, ever again. Anna would thank her effusively, never let Raven see her even half-dressed if she could help it... and yet the child would cry herself to sleep almost a year later, when it finally sunk in what never feeling human contact really meant. Anna would be five when this happened. She didn't know how secretly guilty she would feel at the fact that she had made the child an outcast.
What Raven didn't know was how it would feel when Anna first managed to get one over on her when they sparred in training. How Anna would land a bone-cracking kick right on her collarbone, and how her face would tremble with fear as she waited for Raven to scream blue murder at her. Raven would have to tell the child it was OK, that the move she'd just executed was what Raven had been trying to teach her for three years. Anna would be eight when this happened. She didn't know how it would feel when it dawned on her that one day little Anna would surpass even her.
She didn't know how it would feel when she first found herself laughing at one of Anna's sarcastic little quips, or how it would feel when she watched Anna sleep one night and realised with a cold, sinking feeling of guilt and confusion that she loved the child a great deal... and how happy and how shocked she would feel when Anna told Raven she loved her one night, in the midst of a lecture.
Her mission was to raise Anna, their secret weapon. At that time, all she knew was the mission. At that time, the mission was the only thing Raven Darkholme cared about.
Anna was going to change that.
- - -
DISCLAIMER: X-Men: Evolution belongs to the WB, Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, whoever you like. Just not me.
NOTES: In case it's not blisteringly obvious, Anna is Rogue, aged four. Isn't she cuuuuute?
This is the prequel to my upcoming X-Men: Evolution fanfic, Untouchable. Watch this space!
The little girl knelt alone on the floor of her room building a tower out of building blocks. She wore dark purple overalls with a lighter purple t-shirt and white socks, and had long auburn hair with white streaks in the front.
She was very thin and very pale, with dark circles under her eyes as if she didn't get a lot of sleep. It was hard to believe this child would have the potential for limitless power because she was just that- a little child. She was small and she was helpless.
Well. Small, certainly, but not helpless. From what Eloise had said, from what Irene had predicted, the girl was all too capable of standing up for herself. In her earliest days at the group home the girl had been silent, sleeping almost all day and resurfacing at what were probably her normal mealtimes. Then she had started to lash out, sometimes physically but mostly with words. There had been a flicker of fear in Eloise's eyes as she had described the things the girl had come out with, both to her and to the other children. She had reduced other children to tears with only words.
It had made Raven all the more eager to meet her.
She waited for the child to screech at her to go away, like Eloise had said. Like the sign said. However, the girl went to the other extreme and paid her absolutely no attention. She simply played with her blocks and didn't even blink as Raven shut the door and knelt down beside her.
"Did you write that sign yourself?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"I'm impressed. Have you been writing long?"
"Ah don't know how to write." A pause. "Ah'm only four."
"You told me you wrote the door sign yourself."
The girl sighed, testing a block and growling in irritation when it fell off the shaky tower. "Ah just did that picture like all mah others. Then when Eloise saw, she said there were words in it. Ah hung it on mah door."
"That's very interesting."
"Ah don't know how Ah did it," said the girl in a soft, Southern-accented voice. "Ah just did."
"Fair enough." Raven looked around, trying to see something to make small talk with. There was nothing suitable. The room was a depressing mess with cookie plates stacked and milky mugs clustered at the door, and the bed converted into a fort. There were so many crayon drawings blu-tacked up on the white walls that they looked like wallpaper, but they were black and red scribbles with words discernable among the savage scrawls... 'go away' was written over and over again, as well as other words to that effect.
"You have beautiful hair," she said finally. She could tell it hadn't been brushed that day, but it was easy to see it was very pretty hair.
"Ah hate it," the little girl said flatly. "It's ugly."
"Right." Raven looked away. Enough, she heard Magneto's voice say inside her head. You're not here to be the girl's psychiatrist, Mystique. You're here to recruit her. Don't tell me you can't even recruit a four-year-old child!
Raven shook her head and said in a businesslike tone, "You can call me Raven or ma'am. What should I call you?"
"Eloise already told ya what mah name is. That's why you're here."
Eloise, the girl's social worker. From the tone of her voice it sounded like the girl didn't much care for her. Raven didn't care for her either. She'd been most obtuse when Raven had been grilling her about the girl's circumstances. "I don't care about her. I want to hear you say it."
A long pause as the little girl tried to balance a block on one that was too small for it. Neither one flinched as it tumbled off the tower of blocks. "Anna."
"Tell me properly."
Anna rolled her eyes. "Mah name is Anna."
"Do you have a nickname that you prefer, Anna?"
"No, Ah don't."
"Then we shall have to think one up for you, my rogue angel," Raven said with a maternal smile. Anna giggled. "What's so funny?"
"Ah'm not an angel."
"True. But who wants to be an angel? Sometimes you have to do things other people might think are bad... to achieve your ends."
Anna nodded even though she didn't understand. "You're not like other grown-ups."
"And you're not like other children. Just to watch you is to see that, Anna."
There was a long silence in which Raven turned a building block over and over in her hands. "You don't like it here, do you, Anna?"
Anna hesitated, then shook her head slowly.
"You want to go back to your parents, don't you?"
"Yes." Anna turned her head away, and Raven knew that the little girl was going to cry. No-one ever dared talk to the angry, repressed child about her parents for fear of setting her off. Eloise had blustered about the girl refusing therapy, and for some reason Raven had felt... indignant. They could reach Anna if they wanted to. They'd just given up on her.
How sad it was, that they'd given up on Anna at the age of four. Raven would not give up on her. Anna would not give her reason to. She knew that already.
"Do you miss them?"
"Yes..."
"Anna, I can't get your parents back for you, but I can do what I like to think is the next best thing. I- I want you to come and live with me. I want to take care of you. I will teach you and I will look out for you and I will make sure you have everything you'll ever need. You won't have to see any other children, Anna. I can tell you don't like other children. I want you to be my child; be a Darkholme..." Raven trailed off and then said something that had not been a part of the plan. "But I can't do any of that if you don't want me to, Anna. It's your choice."
Anna sighed. "Ah don't know..."
Raven smiled grimly. "I can get you out of here, Anna. That's what you really want. To get out of this place and be Anna Jackson again. I'll admit I'm not the easiest person to live with-"
"Neither am Ah," confessed Anna.
"Why, in a year or two you might not even be Anna Jackson any more due to me."
Anna looked at her. Tears had been coursing down the pale, soft skin of her cheek, but they seemed to have stopped. "Who would Ah be?"
She didn't sound alarmed or amused, as most children would be. It was a serious question. Raven had never met a four-year-old who asked serious questions before.
"You'll be what you'll be, Anna. What you were meant to be. What I'm going to help you be."
Anna didn't understand. She was precocious, all right, but she was only four. "All right," she said softly. She frowned. "Why is it me ya want?"
"Because of what you'll be able to do someday. You'll be a great help to the cause I work for. Why, I haven't finished my first conversation with you and already my boss is anxious to meet you."
"When would Ah meet with your boss?"
"Not for awhile."
"Do you wanna help me?" asked Anna casually.
"Absolutely."
"Then hurry an'- an' get me outta this godforsaken hole!"
Raven tried not to look surprised at these words slipping out of the mouth of such a small child. She hadn't sounded like other children when they curse, like she was doing it just to get a reaction or look clever. More like her anger drove her to it.
Little Anna shivered as the words hung in the air. She couldn't have known that those were the words her mother had said to her father five years beforehand, when they had been seniors in high school. Anna hadn't even been alive then.
She moved the spare building blocks around until they formed a sturdy base for her tower and smiled as she looked upon her creation. She couldn't have known that her father had been a worker on a building site. Three-year-old children don't take in things like that.
She didn't know the reason she had a Southern accent even though the year before she'd talked like every other little child in San Francisco. She didn't know the reason her hair was partly white even though the year before it had been wholly auburn. She didn't know why she could write real words and not know what they were, or what they meant.
Raven knew. And it was her job, on Magneto's orders, to adopt Anna and slowly turn her into a terrorist.
Well. Those had not been his words. "You will gain the girl's trust, foster and finally adopt her. Then, I want you to legally change her name and disappear off the radar. At this point, report back to me. When the two of you have been resituated, you can begin her combat training."
The whole curriculum for the next twelve or so years had been worked out already. Combat training would begin when Anna was five- martial arts, kickboxing and gymnastics. The rest of her serious training, in weaponry and espionage, would start as soon as her powers emerged. Unfortunately, Irene hadn't been able to pinpoint exactly when this would happen, but Raven liked to think it would be when Anna was thirteen. That was when Raven herself had started to change, after all.
Raven knew a lot of things already, but as time would go on it would become evident she'd known almost nothing. She didn't know how it would feel when she had to shapeshift into the form of a doctor making a house call, examine the child and tell Anna a blatant lie- that her skin was highly toxic and she would never be allowed to touch another living person, ever again. Anna would thank her effusively, never let Raven see her even half-dressed if she could help it... and yet the child would cry herself to sleep almost a year later, when it finally sunk in what never feeling human contact really meant. Anna would be five when this happened. She didn't know how secretly guilty she would feel at the fact that she had made the child an outcast.
What Raven didn't know was how it would feel when Anna first managed to get one over on her when they sparred in training. How Anna would land a bone-cracking kick right on her collarbone, and how her face would tremble with fear as she waited for Raven to scream blue murder at her. Raven would have to tell the child it was OK, that the move she'd just executed was what Raven had been trying to teach her for three years. Anna would be eight when this happened. She didn't know how it would feel when it dawned on her that one day little Anna would surpass even her.
She didn't know how it would feel when she first found herself laughing at one of Anna's sarcastic little quips, or how it would feel when she watched Anna sleep one night and realised with a cold, sinking feeling of guilt and confusion that she loved the child a great deal... and how happy and how shocked she would feel when Anna told Raven she loved her one night, in the midst of a lecture.
Her mission was to raise Anna, their secret weapon. At that time, all she knew was the mission. At that time, the mission was the only thing Raven Darkholme cared about.
Anna was going to change that.
- - -
DISCLAIMER: X-Men: Evolution belongs to the WB, Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, whoever you like. Just not me.
NOTES: In case it's not blisteringly obvious, Anna is Rogue, aged four. Isn't she cuuuuute?
This is the prequel to my upcoming X-Men: Evolution fanfic, Untouchable. Watch this space!