A/N - So this is pretty much a quick lowdown of the three movies. Next chapter I'll talk a bit about Rogue, then the real story will start. Though this is credited as Ryro, it also goes a bit Rogan at the beginning.

Big, huge thanks to PsYcHoThErApY17 for the awesome review.

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Stolen Flames

Chapter Two: Pyro's Tale

Present Day

He had nowhere to go. His only father-figure had disappeared on him, he'd left the only place he'd ever felt safe, and he had no family. His mother had been a single mother who was the only daughter of a single mother. Both him mother and his grandmother had died when he'd been a child — his mother of smoke inhalation, his grandmother of shock and grief at the news.

He'd been sent to a foster home, but he was never able to get settled in. There were always reporters, scientists, and psychologists, coming to visit the miracle boy who had survived being set on fire with no injuries of any kind. He was constantly being pestered by the press, up until the point that he needed an armed escort just to make it to school. Everyone wanted to know how he'd done it — how he'd managed to get through the flames undamaged while his mother died before he'd even woken up.

It didn't take anyone very long to realize the truth — that no normal human could have lived through what he'd lived through. After that discovery was made, his six-year-old face was all over the news and papers, his name on the radio, and his foster parents thought it best to send him away from his Missouri hometown, to a place in northern New York where he'd be safe from persecution... and where other people would be safe from him.

The place was a school. The school was called Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. When John first arrived there he'd been scared out of his wits. But then a very kind lady name Jean had taken him under her wing and explained to him the workings of the school.

Every student and teacher had some sort of special ability, the way John was unharmed by and could control fire. Jean herself could read people's thoughts, and move things just by thinking about it. John soon met a girl named Kitty, who could walk through walls, and a boy named Peter, who could change his body from flesh to metal in an instant.

When he was fourteen, a new boy came to the school, now dubbed 'Mutant High.' This boy was Bobby, and he could create ice through his fingertips. Polar opposites, Bobby and John quickly became close friends, and along with Peter, they created a group of friends that were dedicated to perfecting their powers. They even gave themselves nicknames, the way the teachers did — Ms. Monroe, who could control the weather, was called Storm, and Mr. Summers, who shot laser beams out of his eyes, went by the name Cyclops. Peter became Colossus, Bobby became Iceman, and John became Pyro.

The three of them became what was known as the 'mini X-Men' around school. They wanted to become like the teachers, who not only taught, but got dressed in shiny black leather suits and fought for mutant and human rights alike.

It was when John first heard of Magneto, when he was 15, that he felt himself changing. He wanted to get out and do something, something more than what the X-Men were doing. They fought when they had to, and most of the time they were saving humans from rogue mutants. John wanted to stop the oppression and persecution that all mutants had to face at the hands of the humans. He wanted to do something drastic. He wanted to take a stand.

Magneto, the mutant persona of Eric Lensherr, was taking a stand. He was fighting underground, trying to show the humans that mutants were equal to or even superior to themselves. John felt a powerful tug toward the darker side of mutant nature. His mother had always said he was meant for great things.

But then there was Marie.

He'd been sixteen when he first saw her. She'd come to the school along with a man named Logan, one stormy winter night. Logan's powers had been evident as soon as he'd been carried in. The claws protruding from his knuckles and his skin healing itself was ample evidence that he was one of them. Marie's power, however, didn't expose itself until one night when she'd gone to check up on Logan (also called Wolverine), and he'd stabbed her through the chest.

John had heard the man screaming for help and ran, along with Bobby and Peter, to see what was wrong. He'd arrived in time to see Wolverine's claws retracting out of her back and into his hand. John had known she was dead then. Those claws were made from adamantium, the strongest, sharpest metal known to exist.

But Marie hadn't died. She'd reached out with her bare hand and touched Wolverine's forehead. As the students and teachers gathered at the door watched in astonishment, her wounds had healed themselves, the way Logan's usually did. He had collapsed, and she had run from the room, calling out how much she was sorry.

John hadn't thought that she'd needed to apologize. Wolverine had effectively killed her. She'd needed to heal herself. And her powers had allowed her to do it.

After that incident, however, no one had wanted to touch her. She stole the power of other mutants. She'd nearly killed Logan. Rumours and fearful mutters ran rampant about her. Only John, Bobby, and Peter had defended her. But by the next day, she had run away.

And then Magneto had kidnaped her, and used her to set off a machine that would have, in theory, turned every human being into a mutant. The machine took so much energy that some of her life force was drained away. Two sections of her hair had turned white. And then she'd died.

It was only Logan's obsession with keeping her safe that had saved her. John knew it. Everyone knew it. Logan had grabbed her face with both hands, touched her skin, and waited for the life to drain out of him and into her.

Unlike most mutants, Marie's power could not be controlled. John could hold onto fire, but he couldn't create it himself. Wolverine could take his claws out when he needed them but then put them away. Bobby could create ice whenever he wanted, but it wasn't constant. Marie's draining ability was constant. She couldn't decide when she wanted to use it: it was always working. If she touched anyone with her bare skin, their energy and powers would be sucked into her. Her powers ran rampant, without following any sort of rules or directions. She became known as Rogue. She had no way of preventing it other than avoiding contact altogether.

This posed a problem when she and Bobby started dating. A problem which was soon to be remedied.

The FDA had come up with a drug that could suppress the mutant gene permanently. They were offering this 'cure' to any mutant who wanted it. By this time, John had joined up with Magneto's crew, despite everything. They had created an army — an army of dangerous and pissed-off mutants who wanted nothing to do with the government's attempt to exterminate them.

John knew that Rogue would want the cure. She'd gone so long without real human contact that he expected nothing less of her. And though he'd called her weak and insulted her, he'd really felt no anger towards her. To be able to touch when you've never really touched before would have been a blessing to her.

But then, Magneto had been cured. Everyone else in the army had either been cured or slaughtered.

And he had nowhere to go.

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A/N - I'm hoping that made sense. It wasn't the greatest chapter in the world.