So, I ran away. I boarded a bus to New York City. There is a certain tree in Central Park I liked to sleep in. It had a huge limb jutting out of it that held up my child-sized body perfectly. It was summer time, and the weather was usually nice. During the day, I'd roam around the city. City people were too busy, too caught up inside their own worlds, to notice the tiny little 11-year old wandering around the streets.

Eventually, I started sleeping around in different city shelters, instead of trees. I'd usually just point to some random person, whenever anyone asked me where my parents were. It wasn't too hard to fool people. Most folks are usually too scared to look too closely into someone's life. They may have to get involved that way.

I wasn't sure how things would turn out for me. I couldn't go to school, and I wasn't sure how long I could last on my own in a big city. Then, one day, when I was down in the subway station, every thing changed.

It was day time, rush hour. The usual masses of people were making their way to their personal destinations. Now, all the rush and the noise of the city bothered me. I was a country girl. I was used to fresh air, and the peaceful and relaxing sounds of the river and the woods. So, I wandered off into an abandoned tunnel. After a while, the noises from the station faded. I leaned against the wall of the tunnel, and slid to the floor. For the first time since coming to the city, I felt like I was really at peace. But that peace only lasted for about two seconds.

Bam!

The sound of someone, or something going flying into a wall grabbed my attention. I jumped up and hid behind a big piece of concrete that had apparently cracked and fallen from the ceiling awhile ago. From my hidden view, I saw two people emerge out from a corner. One was a blond woman, wearing clothes that even to my young, inexperienced eyes looked very fashionable and expensive. The other, who had not just been thrown into a wall, but through it, was a dark-haired woman in a business suit.

The dark-haired woman jumped up, dusted herself off, and kept on fighting. The two woman fought each other with so much skill, so much ferocity , it looked more like a battle in an action movie than anything that could happen in real life. I could barely believe my own eyes.

I had no idea what was going on. Was one trying to kill each other? Were they members of different mobs? Were they from warring families, like in Romeo and Juliet? Should I do something? I couldn't seem to make myself move.

Finally, the blond-haired woman in the nice clothes (which didn't look so nice, now, after the fight) got the better of the dark-haired woman.

"Tell Magneto he may fight his fool's war for himself. He'll get no help from me, and if tries to come peddling his ridiculous ideas on the foot steps of my school, no powers of any mutant alive will be able to save him."

And with that, the blond haired woman turned around and walked, no, strutted off, into the main station. As soon as she was out of sight, I ran out from my hiding place to help the dark- haired woman.

"Ma'am, are you alright? Do you want me to get help?"

The dark-haired woman looked over at me in shock.

" A child? Did you see all of that?"

" Yes , Ma'am, I did. What was that all about?"

"Emma and I … don't get along very well. I was sent here to present to her a… proposition, and she was needlessly rude in her rejecting of it. And our little tiff escalated. Not that this is any of your business. Shouldn't you be in school right now, child?"

Her eyes fell on my backpack, and the blanket tied to the bottom of it.

"Ah, I understand," She said, in a much more sympathetic tone than before, "You're a runaway. I should have guessed by that accent of yours. Let me guess, a bad situation at home?"

"My mama disappeared a year ago, Ma'am, and my Daddy does drugs. He used to hit me a lot. Mama did too, before she disappeared."

"Did what? Hit you, or did drugs?

"Both, Ma'am. So I left. I knew something bad was goin' to happen if I stayed."

"I see… Parents aren't always the shining, safeguards they are supposed to be, child. I learned that at an early age, as you yourself have. So, what is your name, exactly?"

"Anna Marie Raven. Lots of times, people just called me Marie, though.

"Her eyes flashed "Raven…"

She went silent, like she was deciding something. Later on, I learned that the woman's real name was Raven Darkholme, and the fact that I shared , in some part, her name, made me remind her a whole lot of herself when she was my age. And that remembrance is what drove her to do what she did next.

"Okay… Marie. I'm going to show you something, and I want to know how you really feel about it"

Then, her clothes, her hair, her everything seemed to sink into her, as she morphed into a different person entirely. This new person had blue skin, and vivid red hair, and was, also, well, naked. (I blushed, and looked away.)

"Well, Marie, what do you think? This is what I really look like. Do I look scary, or freakish to you?"

"No, you're not scary. You're pretty."

And she was pretty, in a unique, exotic sort of way. Her blue skin was flawless, and her red hair, odd though it was, complimented it somehow.

"Really, I'm not weird to you? You don't think I belong on a circus side-show?"

"Ma'am, I grew up on a hippie commune. I've seen things a lot weirder than this."

And I had, too.

"So I see.. Well, then, in that case, you had better come with me. I'll look after you, better than you're real parents did. Besides, someone as young as you won't last very long on your own."

"Seriously ?"

"Seriously. Grab your little backpack, and follow me. I was just leaving for home, you can come with me."

"Where do you live?"

"I live in Westchester County. That in New York state, about an hour from the city."

(A/N- I have no idea where Westchester County really is, but for the sake of the story, it's an hour away from NYC)

So, I grabbed my bag, and she morphed back into the dark- haired woman from before, and we started off. It was a crazy thing to do, just go off with a total stranger, but I didn't have many other choices. She was right, someone as young as I was wouldn't have lasted very long on my own. I probably wouldn't have survived the following winter on the streets of New York. Plus, I figured if she was willing to trust me with as big of a secret of her morphing powers, I could probably trust her well enough. So, I went with her.

We boarded a subway, which took us to a parking garage, where she led me to her car. It was a really nice car. It was one of those classic models, from the fifties or sixties. It was painted a sleek blue color, and the inside had seats of red-brown leather. If I had to guess, it was probably in homage to her real appearance. Judging by how nice the car was, I guessed that whatever job she worked at, she made a lot of money.

As we were driving to her home, and my new home, I realized I had no idea what her real name is.

"Hey, um, what is your name?"

"My name in this form, what you should call me if I'm in public like this, or if you ever have to call me at work, if Raven Darkholme. However, my preferred name, that I want you to call me everywhere else, is Mistique."

"Mistique." I tried out the name. I liked it. It seemed to fit my interesting new caretaker.

"Okay. I understand. Hey, where do you work, anyway?"

"The CIA."

"You're a secret agent?!"

She smiled at my enthusiasm. "No, it's more on the administrative side."

"Oh." I Still thought that it was cool, though.

Soon, we were pulling up in the driveway of Mistique's house. It was about five minutes outside of the local town, which was called Salem. While it certainly wasn't the Xavier mansion, Ms. Grey, it sure was big. It had, and still does have, about nine or ten rooms on each floor. It was a large white house, with a big front porch. It had a really large back yard, with a pool.

According to Mistique, she had bought because she and Magneto, who I hadn't met at that point, had wanted to start their own mutant school. It would be a sort of anti-Xavier institute. Now, don't go having a heart attack just yet, Ms. Grey. The plan fell through. Magneto was too busy running around, fighting for "the cause", to headmaster a school. As for Mistique, she didn't have the exact temperament to run a school by herself. She did decide to keep the house, though.

She let me pick a room, and pretty soon, I got settled in the house, which I soon began to call home. Mistique, while not exactly what I'd call the maternal type, did take pretty good care of me. I never had to worry about whether I would be able to eat that day, or worry about someone hurting me.

One day, she came home from the city laden with shopping bags full of clothes for me, to replace the worn-down, torn up, second-hand clothes I had brought with me from Caldecott County. Yes, life was way better than it ever had been, and as I found out, was about to go through some even more radical changes.

"So, why are we doing this?"

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Mistique had called me in from playing outside, to tell me that she wanted to give me a haircut.

"Well, first off, It's time you were give a decent hair-cut. One of the downsides of the hippie lifestyle is lack of concern for proper grooming. Secondly, I'm going to send this DNA to a lab. They are going to see if you have the x-gene."

"And that means I 'm a mutant, right? And I'll have powers, like you?"

"Yes." She replied, and began snipping away at my very long, dark hair.

"Mistique, if it turns out I'm not a mutant, will you still let me stay here?"

She stopped cutting.

"…Yes. I care about you, Marie, powers or no powers."

Assured, I let her cut my hair from waist length to a few inches past my shoulders. After a few weeks, the results came back form the lab. Yes, I did have the x-gene. Unfortunately, they couldn't tell us what my powers would be.

"Usually, when someone gets their powers, they get a new mutant name based off what their power is." Mistique informed me. "But, that could be a few years down the road, and I don't want to wait that long. Anna Marie is a very pretty name, but I don't like human names to much, do you understand?"

I did understand. She had problems with humans, and human identities. I didn't know why, but I guess it had something to do with her past, and her real family.

"How about we call you Rogue, then? Since you were a runaway when I found you?"

Rogue. I liked it. It was mysterious and sounded daring. I imagined being called that by people from now on, and the idea excited me.

"Okay, Rogue sounds good to me."

So much had happened to me, in such a short space of time. I had a new home, and an exciting future. Pretty soon, I would be a mutant. I though that maybe, in time, Mistique could teach me how to fight like her, so I could have adventures like her when I grew up.

I figured I would have a pretty exciting life when I was, oh, in my twenties or thirties. You know, when I was a full-grown adult.

Yeah. It didn't take that long.

Hey, everyone! Man, I am excited about his story. These first few chapters are setting things up., but there's more to come. Mandamina, Tenchi13, thank you so much for favoriting and alerting my story. I feel so honored! Please review, everyone, I'd love to know what you think. Stick around folks; I've got some grand plans for this one.