DARKNESS WITHIN

Part One

*** Authors Note: this is the follow up to "Magnetic Attraction". Expect there to be themes of suicide, sex, depression, etc. I'm not sure how frequently the story will be updated as got a lot of personal stuff going on and another story ("I Assassin") running simultaneously, but I thought I'd try to run two at once and see how I go. Hopefully everyone likes this.

The girl known only as Rogue stared across an ocean of black and saw the floating bodies of her friends, of the people she'd once held as close as family. Their limp bodies bobbed in the water, some disappearing to drop into the murky depths below. Some stayed afloat, pale lifeless faces pointed upwards to meet a grey sun.

Each of them she touched, each of them she'd absorbed, each of them were part of her now, and all that was left of them were the shells floating in a sea of her own creation.

It went on for miles, endless. Bodies of people she didn't even recognise, yet understood their deaths had been her fault. On a beach of wet red sand a body washed ashore, and the beating of the waves turned him over so that he flopped onto his back, pale yet beautiful almost angelic face staring up lifelessly at her with eyes that no longer saw her.

Those eyes were black and red.

Rogue's breath caught in her throat as she sat up straight in bed, clutching her covers tightly to her chest. Her lungs seemed incapable of working. Gasping for air, heart seeming to skip beat upon beat. She tried to catch her breath and couldn't, her throat tightened, her hands shook, fingers numb as she tried to clutch at the bed covers.

Kitty Pryde, who had been fast asleep in the bed across the room shot up, hair hanging every which way as she bolted across the room bleary eyed, grabbing the paper bag from where it had blown off Rogue's night stand during the night. She forced it to Rogue's mouth, "Breathe!"

Rogue tried to fight her off, the girl's skin was so bare, in that tiny pyjama tanktop, her arms so nude, her neck so exposed, there were so many things that could go wrong. Rogue tried to push her away delicately, her inhuman strength so much of a risk to anyone who tried to come near her now. The girl forced herself to hold fast, the paper bag still near Rogue's face.

"Breathe!" Kitty reiterated.

After a moment of realising where she was and what was going on, Rogue started breathing into the paper bag, in and out, in and out, the gasping loud, her face tingling like tiny explosions were being set off all over her cheeks.

"That's it..." soothed Kitty, her voice quiet, calm. "In and out..."

It took minutes before the hyperventilation begun to slow enough for Rogue to feel as if she could catch her breath again. And finally, she lowered the bag, her body weak with the exertion. She flopped backwards into her pillows, wiping her sweating forehead with the cotton gloves she'd worn to bed; they were duct taped securely to the long sleeves of her pyjama top. There would be no accidents when she slept. There could never be any accidents. She just couldn't permit it.

Kitty sat on the edge of the bed, "that's the third time this week," she admitted softly as she leaned over to switch on the bedside lamp.

Rogue closed her eyes, breathing slowing considerably, she sighed in relief as she finally felt her body relaxing again. She couldn't respond to the revelation of this, she only knew it to be truth. It was the third time this week she'd awakened to a panic attack, the third time in four nights. The eighth panic attack she'd had this week if she counted the ones she hadn't had after waking up from a nightmare.

"You need me to get the Professor?" asked Kitty.

Shaking her head, Rogue murmured, "No. Ah'm all right now..." a lie, of course. Rogue wasn't all right. She would never be all right again. She didn't want the Professor being awakened, and having drag himself into his wheelchair to get all the way up here in that small hidden elevator just to tell her that things would be fine and this was normal. She'd gone through too much of this in the past three months already. She rubbed her head, there was a throbbing behind her eyes, just as there always was when there was a threat of tears.

"You need anything?" asked Kitty, her expression anxious. Rogue had noticed in the past few months the girl seemed to have developed a rather permanent worried expression that seemed to grow ever worse whenever these 'episodes' occurred.

"Ah'm fine...really," Rogue rolled over onto her side to face the window, her head swimming with anxiety and memories of the nightmare. It always ended the same way, Remy's dead eyes were always what awakened her from these dreadful dreams.

Kitty gently placed her hand on Rogue's side, "you sure?"

"Don't," Rogue pleaded. Even with the two pyjama tops she'd taken to wearing since the night of her evolution three months ago, even with the sleeves and ankles duct-taped to gloves and socks, even with the blankets covering her, Rogue still felt unsafe around anyone, she felt them unsafe around her. Whenever anyone went to touch her, she stiffened, and felt the same dread she had the night Remy had almost died after kissing her.

Kitty gave a deep sigh, she removed her hand, "Rogue...you need to get over this..."

Don't tell me what Ah need, Rogue thought miserably as the tears spilled onto her pillow out of sight of her room-mate.

After switching off the light, Kitty moved back to her own bed, and Rogue heard the frustrated sounds of the girl trying to get comfortable, guilt ate at Rogue knowing Kitty had two hours to sleep before the Danger Room training session, and then a hard day at school, several tests to take. Woken up at three thirty in the morning was not what this girl needed right now. Rogue remembered trying to tackle life with barely any sleep and how hard it had been.

And then Ah dropped out, she thought miserably as she pulled the pillow over her head trying to shut out the world. Her dropping out of Bayville Community College had seemed like the only option to take when her world had fallen apart after the evolution had both failed and succeeded simultaneously turning her into a human wrecking ball with the powers of flight. She'd expected both Logan and Professor Xavier to fight her on the subject, but even in the end they both had seen that there were too many new dangers if Rogue should continue her education there. There were too many students at risk, and Rogue couldn't afford any others being hurt.

For twelve weeks straight she'd confined herself to her bedroom, only leaving to go to the bathroom or to shower. She hadn't left the mansion since the night she'd gotten home following her evolution. She hadn't been downstairs since either.

Inside, she seemed to physically ache with the emotional pain of the actions that had led to the current state of her life. Inside her heart bled for the current state of Remy LeBeau's life, or lack of it. He had lain comatose for three months with little to no change to his condition.

Every day she would tell herself that it was her fault, every day she would tell herself that her guilt was deserved, and every day she would tell herself she deserved to die.

However...it seemed that dying was not something she was remotely capable of thanks to her new found mutant powers. A new fantastic and inconvenient invulnerability made her near practically immortal. Nothing seemed capable of killing her, as far as she could fathom. The first night upon her return home, she had tried to slit her wrists only to find her skin impenetrable. The second night, in an act of desperation she had taken a hair-dryer into a shower with her, and this had not ended well, only sending the mansion into a complete state of darkness when the power blew and leaving what was left of her chopped hair frizzy for weeks; it had certainly hurt but hadn't worked the way she'd hoped. Hanging herself with Kitty's ethernet cable hadn't worked either, as the thing had only snapped when she'd started flailing. She'd even tried choking herself with a belt attached to the coat hanger on the top of her door, but the the door had only come from the hinges.

Unfortunately for Rogue, her desperation to off herself those first few times meant she was now on high alert with the other inhabitants of the mansion. No sharp objects allowed in the room any more, no laces, no belts, no Ethernet cables (as if they had a chance), and definitely no pills. Every headache had to be endured without aspirin and every menstrual cramp had to be endured without painkillers unless the appropriate medication was administered and taken in front of one of her instructors.

Constant supervision.

She only had herself to blame.

The Professor had tried to counsel her, as had Hank, and when both had failed, the Professor had brought in two trained psychiatrists, who had little luck in getting her to open up about her feelings or how guilty she felt about what had happened to her and Remy. Both psychiatrists wanted to medicate her, and she didn't want to be medicated. She felt she didn't deserve to be medicated and that this condition was not something that could be medicated. Now she understood why Wanda had suffered all these years.

Constant supervision was a curse now, perhaps a fitting punishment; people coming into her room uninvited constantly even without knocking, the door always being left open during the day now as was the rules. When she went for her showers, she had to have a 'shower buddy' to supervise and make sure she didn't try to harm herself. Bathrooms were no longer allowed locks (much to everyone's distress). Even when she ate, she had to have someone in the room with her, whether it an instructor or another student, to ensure that she wasn't trying to choke herself with her food, wasn't trying to cut herself with plastic knives and forks.

She thought the reactions a bit extreme. Being on constant suicide watch was a drag and in her opinion, completely unnecessary. She'd given up all hope of being able to off herself in the first few weeks after realising nothing worked or was likely to. She was now far more powerful than she could have imagined. No one could hurt her...not even herself.

It was only her heart and soul that were capable of feeling the real pain now. And those bled and ached and felt more bruised than a ripe peach that had rolled down a flight of stairs. And that feeling was all she had now, as she lay there.

Not being able to get back to sleep after her panic attack, she reached over to pick up her book from the nightstand and she opened it up at where she'd left it. She'd read the book twice now but she didn't even like the damn story; it was all she had in the way of literature for the moment. Kitty Pryde had been making library trips for her every week, and the girl had very poor taste in reading material. Romance novels were not what Rogue wanted to read, they only reminded her of the relationships she'd now never have, of the love she'd never have again, of the man she'd put into a coma who lay two floors below.

Rogue wondered if Remy still looked the same, or if after three months he'd begun to lose weight and look frail like the people in those documentaries on television that she'd seen who'd remained in coma for years. Those people always withered away to shadows of themselves and it made her ache to think of Remy in that same state.

Every now and then she reminded herself she could leave her room at any time and go to see him. She had free reign to do so, but in the end she refused even herself.

The less danger she put him in, the better. She'd already ruined his life enough. Staying far away from him was the only thing she could do to guarantee he was harmed no further.

For a few hours she read, until just as she was almost close to dozing off she felt the familiar dull ache of onset cramps and had to rush to the bathroom just in time to find herself spotting. Her period was the last thing she needed right now, especially with the heavy bleeding she'd begun experiencing since Remy had partially ruptured her hymen months ago. Now, her periods came in torrents, much worse than they ever had before; if it was a coincidence or not, she was unable to say. She'd never had enough confidence to ask anyone if it was a possibility, far too afraid to leave the house to go to a doctor, and she'd been too afraid to look it up online, as every time she touched electrical equipment she seemed to break it with her brutish strength. It was a struggle enough to attempt to read hardback books without tearing them up.

Period, great. Another week of having to rely on Jean and Kitty to buy my tampons.

It was humiliating having to rely on others to get the things she needed. Deodorant was one thing, but when it came to intimate products like tampons, or panty-liners, she absolutely loathed having to beg Jean or Kitty, or even Ororo Munro if they would possibly get her these things if they went out.

If you could stop breakin' stuff all the time, you could order the stuff online, she told herself irritably as she carefully got back into bed. The bed, so far, had been the one thing in her room she'd managed to avoid breaking. Lamps, televisions, her iPod, her phone, even a laptop that had belonged to Kitty Pryde. It had been an easy error, it was hard to gauge her strength, and even the most delicate of touches were sometimes enough to snap her toothbrush, or bend the spine of a hardback book effortlessly.

These new powers were making life near impossible, and that was why she had to shut herself off from everyone else. She'd accidentally hurt Logan once, left him bruised for two days afterwards, and if solid wood dressers and thick floorboards could be snapped easily without effort, how easy would it be to snap a neck? A spine?

Ah'm a danger to anyone who comes near me, she had told herself again and again. The best she could do was try to contain it. The best place right now for her was the institute. Becoming a recluse was the only way to guarantee everyone was safe. No chances could be taken.

When five thirty am arrived, Rogue still hadn't slept, and instead was curled up feeling the dull throbbing of her cramps. She watched as Kitty crossed the room to retrieve her uniform from the closet. Early morning training session, the girl looked as if she had barely slept, and Rogue was aware of how much she had to blame herself for that. Three nights this week, she'd awakened the girl with her anxiety attacks.

Ah could always ask for my own room, but they'd never let me be on my own now after the things Ah've done. Too many unsuccessful attempts at snuffin' myself...they know better. They're determined to make sure Ah'm never alone.

"You didn't get back to sleep?" asked Kitty as she turned her back to undress.

Rogue sighed, "Ah nearly did. But then the curse started, and that was that..." she pulled her knees to her stomach.

"It's another bad one?" Kitty looked over her bare shoulder curiously.

"It's gearin' up to be. Things have never been quite right down there since...since..." she faltered. She hadn't told Kitty about the incident in the car. She'd never told anyone, and only Wanda had ever been remotely perceptive of it.

"Since...you and Remy started fooling around?" Kitty asked carefully.

Rogue supposed it was only natural Kitty was bound to ask eventually. She'd alluded to the fact only the night before her evolution happened. She was surprised that it had taken this long for Kitty to ask. It should have been easy to speak to another girl about it, but instead, Rogue couldn't get the words out, and so her eyes fell to the floor, her lips clamped shut.

"Have...you maybe thought about going to a doctor about it?" Kitty asked quietly.

"Ah can't," Rogue sat up slowly, she swept her hair from her face frustratedly, feeling the tangled side of it that she hadn't chopped off in anger months ago. Kitty had done her best to try to make the mess into a style, by feathering in the hair as finely as the could to one side. She hadn't seen it since the morning after her evolution, when in fury she'd smashed the mirror with her bare fists and tried to cut herself with the glass. Now, there were no mirrors in the room, and she hadn't wanted any. She didn't want to look at herself ever again. She couldn't stand the thought of ever seeing the girl in the mirror who had ruined her life, and ruined the life of another.

"Rogue, if something is wrong with your periods then you need to go to a doctor...something could be seriously wrong. Your powers might have not been the only thing affected by that thing-"

"Ah can't go to a doctor right now, you know that...besides, what does it matter?" she asked, she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them, "Ah'm fucked."

Kitty gave a frustrated sigh as she pulled on her uniform quickly and zipped it up. She sat on the floor to haul on her boots. She was eager to avoid the argument at this time of the morning, Rogue could tell. She couldn't blame the girl. These days she could tell Kitty was reluctant to spend time in the room and at the same time stuck with that guilt of knowing she had to sacrifice time in the name of friendship and what the instructors asked of her contribution to the 'suicide watch'. "You need me to bring anything home?" she asked after a moment of silence between them.

"Tampons," Rogue replied quietly, staring down at her bed covers.

Giving a nod, Kitty hastily left the room, making sure the door was open wide before exiting. Rogue lay back down and attempted to fall asleep. For hours she lay there, under the covers, her mind alert. She heard every sound in the mansion as students awoke, rushing to get ready for training; bathroom arguments ensued, the running up and down stairs, trying to locate missing boots and trying to wake others up in time.

Just after the noise seem to have died down enough for Rogue to start to feel sleepy, it seemed to begin again. The training sessions had clearly ended, and the chaos ensued again as the bathroom arguments restarted, who was getting the first showers to get ready for school, lost homework sought after, someone yelling at Bobby Drake for leaving a melting trail of ice in the hall.

Rogue covered her head with the pillow, and drowned out the sounds as much as she could, aware of the brief moments when Kitty came into change, and then left again for school. Just as Rogue was sure she was almost about to fall asleep, she heard the heavy footsteps of Logan, his adamantium skeleton weighed him down and made each footstep a definite thump that seemed to shake the heard him walk through the door – which was still open. The rule of being in a room alone with a closed door was never going to change now.

"Wake up," said Logan gruffly, she felt him sit on the edge of her bed, and when he always did so the mattress buckled, making her roll slightly to one side.

"Go away," she pleaded in a muffled tone, head under pillow.

"You gotta eat."

"Ah'm not hungry," she responded.

"Too bad," came Logan's reaction, and he yanked the pillow from her head and tossed it aside, "come on."

Rogue felt the sun burn her eyes, Kitty had left the drapes open, and a hard beam of light cut across the room as if with intent to blind her. She shielded her eyes as she sat up weakly, turning to look at Logan who was sitting at the edge of her bed with a tray. Toast on a plastic plate, cereal in a plastic bowl, a plastic cup of orange juice, even the spoon to eat her cereal with was plastic.

Ah'm sick of eatin' with picnic-wear, she thought miserably as Logan placed the tray upon her lap. He sat there, waiting. It was another one of the rules. He had to sit and wait for her to eat.

With her flimsy plastic spoon, she pushed around the now soggy cornflakes in the ridiculous lime-green plastic bowl, and she despaired. She wasn't hungry.

"Eat," said Logan warningly.

Rogue gave a deep sigh and picked a slice of toast up and bit off the tiniest corner, chewing carefully, her eyes never meeting with Logan's.

"You look tired," said Logan.

"You woke me up," she lied. She supposed she couldn't be technically awakened until she'd been to sleep.

"You know the rules, 9am, you eat breakfast regardless if you sleep or not," he reached over to her nightstand curiously to pick up the book she was reading, and he flicked through it. He stopped a page, his eyes roving over the paragraphs, his brow knitting into a frown. "She put her hand on his throbbing sword and said 'sheath yourself within me, sir'," he read from the book,he coughed. "What...the...? Is this porn or something?"

"Don't ask me, Kitty picked that," Rogue picked a piece of the crust away from her toast, no intention of eating it. "You should check out chapter nineteen, that's the chapter where three burly pirates use their cannons to conquer her valley."

"Trash," said Logan, rolling his eyes at the novel, he shut it and dropped it back onto the nightstand, making a face. "Kitty said you had another panic attack last night."

Why does she always have to rat me out?! Rogue wondered. Forcing herself to maintain a rather nonchalant expression, Rogue gave a shrug, she took another tiny bite of toast just so that he wouldn't complain.

"Another bad dream?"

"Ah don't remember," she lied. Actually she remembered far too well. She always remembered. That was the problem.

"How about a walk today?"

He asked this every day and every day her answer was the same. She decided to not respond this time.

Logan persisted. "Nice crisp morning, sun is out, sky is blue. Be a good day to be out."

"No," refused Rogue. She couldn't. She hadn't been out there since the day her evolution had been completed. She never intended to go out there again.

"You won't be able to hurt anyone out there, kid. Just us...if you like I'll walk far away...so you feel safe..."

While you keep an eye on me at all times so you can be sure Ah'm not gonna be able to run away or hurl myself off the cliffs, Rogue thought bitterly. "No...Ah don't feel like it."

Logan gave a deep sigh, "Rogue...don't you think it's time you stopped this now?"

She'd known it was coming. It came every so often, every other week. The same lines. You're wasting your life, you have so much still to live for, you're an incredible person who has the whole world in front of you.

But it didn't feel like it. And no matter how many times Logan told her these things, she had a better more definite answer to each.

What life is there to waste? What do Ah have to live for?! What world is out there for me that doesn't include me killin' people accidentally at the slightest touch.

She kept her eyes averted from the man, she always found it so hard to look into those steely determined eyes of his.

"We get that you've...needed time," he tried, "and we've given you plenty. Three months is plenty. You've had time to mourn over what happened, had time to adjust. But hiding in your room forever...that's not a life, that's a waste of it."

"Ah...don't...care," she said quietly.

"We do," Logan responded, "look at me."

Rogue kept her eyes away from him, frowning at the floor now.

"Look at me!" he snapped. As he was still in uniform, he'd worn his gloves, and he quickly grabbed her jaw, not being too gentle about it neither, aware of just how much punishment she could take since the evolution. He swung her head around so she would face him, but her eyes stayed as far away from his. "Look...at...me..." he commanded, slowly and gruffly.

Finally growing tired of this, she raised her eyes to meet with his. She'd been avoiding staring into those eyes for months, but now, she couldn't.

"You have got to snap out of this...you're capable of controlling this."

"No, Ah'm not," Rogue pushed the tray back towards him and got out of the bed, she moved to the window to shut the drapes. She didn't want to see how blue the sky was, or how green the grass outside. She didn't want to see the sun, the clouds, the trees. All she wanted was to be left alone with the darkness.

"We could train again, just like before. This time, get your strength under control. Maybe we could work on the flight thing too, figure out how to control that-"

Rogue spun around, "Ah don't want to control it. Ah tried controllin' my absorption powers, look what happened! Ah don't want to live like this anymore! Ah just want it over."

Logan's eyes softened, she'd never seen him look so suddenly sad, seen his eyes seem so glassy. Stoic, angry, gruff, the tough exterior that no one could ever penetrate, but he seemed so readily on edge and close to some kind of emotion. She'd prefer it if he'd go into a berserker rage, at least that way she could throw herself onto his claws. She'd suspected for the past three months that they may be able to do the job that normal blades couldn't.

"Just help me..." Rogue pleaded with him, "help me put an end to it all."

He swallowed hard, cracked his neck a little, then said in his angriest coldest voice, "if you're askin' me to assist your suicide," he slammed his hand hard against the nearby wall, "then you're out of your goddamn mind."

"That's just it!" she shrieked, "Ah am! And Ah want to be put out of my goddamn misery."

"You're gonna get over this, Rogue. One way, or the other. And if I have to drag your ass out of this room-"

"Try it!" she dared him, "you know what Ah can do! You've seen the things Ah'm capable of! Ah could rip you apart, and you know it."

"But you won't," said Logan sternly, "you have more control than that..." he moved towards her, and reached for her arm.

Perhaps it was the dare, perhaps it was his assumption he knew her inside and out, through and through. Whatever it was, something snapped within her like an elastic band, and she sprung, her fist collided with his jaw.

She hadn't even swung that hard at him, but he literally flew through the air as if he weighed practically nothing, he sailed right over the bed and into the wall behind, leaving cracks in the plaster and landing on the floor with a hard thump. She cradled her fist instinctively, although it didn't remotely hurt. She was quite aware she'd felt the bones in her knuckles meet with the adamantium laced bone of his jaw only the collision had left no pain at all, not even the slightest tingling or numbness.

Logan tried to get up, staggered, and fell back a little into the wall; he put his hand to his mouth and there was blood, he gave the vaguest almost amused laugh and muttered, "made me bleed..."

Rogue stared down at her open hand, her lip trembling. She hadn't meant it to be like that, she hadn't meant it to be quite as hard as that. And that was why she could never leave this room.

"Didn't think you'd actually do it," Logan snorted, still sounding amused as he went about wiping his mouth on the back his glove.

Rogue stared down at the floor again, pursing her lips together, a new fresh threat of tears right on time. Ah'm sick of cryin'. Ah'm sick of feelin' this way.

"You hurt me, Rogue...but I didn't die," he pointed out. "I'm still here, fighting fit. Barely felt it."

Rogue doubted he'd barely felt it...she'd heard the clunking sound of her fist hitting his jaw, and she already saw the swelling of his flesh. It was her who hadn't felt it. At last not physically. Mentally, however, she felt it sting.

"Go on," he moved over, "do it again."

"No..." she shook her head, tears about to spill.

"Do it!" he yelled at her.

"No!" she yelled back, her face turned away from him.

"I said do it!" he snarled in her face, she felt his spittle upon her cheek, his voice was loud, seemed to rattle right in her ear.

It felt more defensive than anything else this time. She swung again, this time at his stomach, and he doubled over, staggered backwards, gripping his gut and mocking her with a laugh.

"Again..." he managed, winded.

"No..."

He came towards her, he practically lunged, and she swung both hands out to stop him, pushing him aside as if he were a rag doll, sending him sprawling into the wall by Kitty's bed, his skull colliding with the blank space between a poster of Ryan Kwanton posing almost nude, and a class schedule print out. As he slid down the wall, knocking over Kitty's nightstand, Rogue saw the plaster fall away from the wall, showing the extensive damage behind.

"That all you got?" Logan asked loudly in a mocking tone, he thrust himself towards her again, grabbed her by the shoulders and swung her at the wall; she felt the wall crumble and crack at her back, but physically there was no pain, and it was only a force of habit that she gasped as if it had hurt her. Logan swung her sideways, and as she tried to resist, she felt herself being forced right against the windowsill, her back hit the wood, she felt the splinters scraping her backside as it broke but none penetrated her skin. "Come on! Fight me!" Logan dared her, shaking her by the shoulders.

Rogue spun around to wrestle him away, and what happened she had not predicted was that he would spin her and crash them both towards the windows. The glass panes shattered, the frame splintering and they went tumbling from the third floor window. She tried to catch herself in the air, but it would not work, and she landed hard on the polished sandstone patio, leaving huge cracks across it. She heard the dull clunking sound of Logan as his metal skeleton took the force of the fall.

Gasping for breath, panicked and angry, she pushed herself up from the broken stones, and turned to look at Logan, covered in scratches, uniform torn, blood seeping from wounds that were already healing, he was staring up at the sky, breathing heavily. He looked slightly dazed. Rogue thought that the impact of his skull upon the stones should have knocked him out.

Rogue could find not a scratch upon herself, and other than her clothes being a little torn from where they'd caught against the glass and frame on the way out, she was absolutely unharmed although she tasted blood in her mouth where she'd accidentally bitten her cheek.

Brushing the glass out of her hair, she stared at Logan, who leaned up weakly, apparently suffering painfully from the impact quite a bit. He stumbled a little, apparently he was dazed but for some reason, what startled her was that he was laughing.

"What..." she began, feeling confused, and picked on.

Logan gestured all around them, to the grass, the sky, the trees, the bushes and statues.

And she understood then that he had done what he'd set out to do, that he'd tricked her, and accomplished his goal.

For the first time since the night of her evolution...he'd gotten her outside.

End of Part 1

So there it is, part one is up and posted. Hopefully people are still around to read, lol.