Cold Hearts

By Lady Trunks

Prologue

The figure pulled their coat tighter around them, desperately trying to block out the chill. It was a useless endeavor from the start, and the falling sleet made the cold even more bitter. The person stumbled in the dark and hissed in pain as the motion jarred their injuries. They made their way slowly down the street, incapable of moving faster even if they had somewhere to be going. It was not the kind of night that anyone would like to be out in, but this particular person didn't have much choice. There was no where to go, no home to return to, no family waiting anxiously by the door for them to arrive.

Shadows seemed to loom out of the darkness, and the terrified figure fought the urge to scream. Memories of what had occurred earlier echoed through their mind, causing the shadows to appear even more menacing. Something warm trickled down into their eyes, and they impatiently reached up to wipe it away. The motion caused the pain in their side to amplify, and they had to hold back a scream of pain. With a whimper at the pain the figure cautiously reached up once again, taking more care and wiped away the wetness. The glare from the streetlight showed the hand to be tinted crimson from blood.

With an obvious effort they continued down the street, trying to fight back the urge to just lay down somewhere and give up. But that would let them win and the person was not going to let that happen. One thing drove the person on, the need for vengeance. It became an all consuming thought, driving back the pain and exhaustion.

The figure vaguely noticed a light flicker on in a house down the street. They tried to think of somewhere safe where they could sleep and recover, but came up empty. Very few people, if any, would willingly take a stranger in at this point in time. There had been to many mutant scares since the public 'outing' and people were hesitant to trust anyone. No, there wasn't going to be any help offered in that direction.

The person stopped as a wave of dizziness overtook it. When they were finally able to focus again they headed continued down the street. Each movement caused pain to radiate throughout their body, and it took all their willpower to keep moving. They were so involved with what they were doing that they didn't see the boy in front of them until they ran into them.

"Watch where you're going!" The boy said lightly shoving the other person away.

At his actions the person couldn't quite contain a groan of pain, which caused the boy to look at the other in confusion. "What's you prob…" His voice trailed off as he recognized the other person.

"Hey, Lance." The voice came out choked.

"ROGUE! What happened?" But there was no answer as the girl collapsed at his feet.

* * * * * *

I'm sorry about all the 'the figure' and 'their' and all that but I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise when you learned who the person was and that was the only way I knew how to let it be either a guy or a girl. This is going to be either a Rietro or Rola, which is still up for grabs so let me know which you prefer. I'd also be interested to know who you think did that to her. A little hint, this fic is definitely going to be anti-Xavier, and probably some of the other X-Men as well. Care to guess, a lollipop to the winner.

I'm currently working on two other fics right now so when I update is pretty shaky. I'll write depending on my mood (this is my depressed fic, another is my humor, and the other is my romance) I've been pretty depressed lately (My Todd, which for the uniformed is my muse, has disappeared) so this might get done sooner than I had figured. Of course I'll take all comments into consideration so let me know what you think.

~LT