XXXXXX

The following day, after Professor Xavier finished up teaching mutant ethics, Rogue waited for the rest of the class to leave before walking back to the professor's desk.

"Is there something I can help you with Rogue?" He asked.

"Yes, professor. It's about John."

Rogue took a deep breath.

"John, he's...he's, uh," Rogue stammered. She wanted to tell Xavier about what she saw John doing the other day, but remembered his warning.

"What is it Rogue?" Xavier asked.

"I…I wanted to know, how, how did he end up here?"

Xavier looked surprised by her question.

"Jean found him. One day on the news my attention was drawn by of an enormous fire up a house. Jean went there and found John in the middle of the blaze, unharmed. She knew that if she left him, the others in the neighborhood would have murdered him. So she brought him back."

"Willingly?" Rogue asked.

"No, but he had no choice."

Rogue was silent, and then asked quietly, "How old was he?"

"He had just turned fourteen and his mutation had just immerged." Xavier said.

Rogue shook her head.

"Thank you professor."

Thankfully, Xavier didn't ask her why she wanted to know this and left the room, making her way to Logan's class. Rogue changed in the locker room and walked through the gym doors. She saw Logan was busy with the other students and looked around and finally saw John on the other side of the gym, away from everyone else, punching a bag. Slowly she walked up to him.

"John."

"Leave me alone." He said.

"John I'm not just going to pretend what I saw you doing the other day didn't happen. I'm your friend, and friends are there for each other. Weither you want them to be or not."

John ignored her and continued hitting the bag.

"I was going to tell the professor, but I decided not to." Still, John didn't say anything and circled to the other side of the punching bag. Rogue followed him.

"I know you didn't go see a doctor to get those pills. You know you could be come addicted to whatever you're using. You really could end up hurting yourself."

John looked angry after that and punched the bag harder.

"You can talk to me." Rogue then pleaded. "You can tell me anything. What's going on with you?"

After a short moment he shrugs and shakes his head at the same time. John removed the tape from his hands and began walking back to the locker room. Rogue narrowed her eyes at him.

"Fine, let's fight."

John stopped and looked back at her in surprise.

"Excuse me?"

She smirks in victory when she see the look his eyes at her, clearly thinking over the idea.

"And don't hold back on me, I can take it." Rogue said and put her fists up.

"Rogue."

"I'm serious, okay? Unless you're afraid of a real sparring partner." She smiles sweetly when she says it, which prompts John to just shake his head at her behavior and eventually give in.

John circled around Rogue a couple times, then rushes at her suddenly, punching away. She blocks them all, but he drops down suddenly and sweeps her legs out from under her by swinging his leg into them. Rogue falls flat on her back and lies there for a moment, staring up at him smirking down at her, satisfied. She sits up on her hands and nods at him wordlessly, then gets back up and raises her fists again.

He raises his, also, and starts circling again, then charges with a jab with a kick aimed at her ribs. Rogue blocks the jab and the kick and comes back with a standing sidekick of her own, aimed at John's head, but he leans back to avoid the kick and drops down again to do another sweep. She scouts it out beforehand and simply hops over his leg and waits until he's standing again to kick him in his chest, making him stagger back from the force.

He glares at her through narrowed eyes and bared teeth, watching her taunting smile. "I was born in Australia." John finally said.

Rogue nodded.

"I know that."

John raised his fists again, holding his place and stance. She raises hers as well and pauses, then charges at him with a fast series of jabs and low kicks. He blocks them all and counters in-between her attacks with some offense of his own, using jabs and kicks wherever he can.

They trade blocks and parries like this for a few seconds, flesh and gloves meeting each other over and over. At one point John ducked down and tries to sweep her feet again, but Rogue jumped and upon landing tried to do the same to him. He hops too, and swings a high roundhouse at her that goes over her head as she ducks. While Rogue ducks she puts some spin in her legs and leaps in the air, spinning in a half-circle until she's facing up at him in mid-air with her feet stretched out at his chest. When John stops spinning and looks down again, he sees her two feet collide with his chest and shove off.

John falls onto his back and rolls backwards and up on his knees, while Rogue pushes off of him and lands on her back, then kicks her legs and pushes off the floor, standing upright again in one motion. They both pant heavily and glare at each other, but John breaks the silence by wiping his mouth off and standing up again.

"I really don't remember much about Australia. I moved to New York when I was 7, and started going to school."

"What was your favorite subject?"

John thought for a second.

"English," he answered and charged at her again.

Rogue leaped high in the air with jumping kick. John knocked her bare foot aside and blocks the jab aimed at his throat, then counters with a hard body blow that she blocks, but still stumbles back from his power.

He charges forward quickly to capitalize, and they trade more jabs and low kicks until she manages to kick him in his chest, pushing him back again. Rogue then jumps at him in the air with a high kick, but John grabs her leg suddenly and twists, throwing her into an uncontrolled roll that ends with her landing on her back.

Finally she rolls over and gets back on her feet, raising her fists again. Rogue starts hopping on her toes again, although weakly, and moves in a semi-circle off to his side.

"What about your parents?" She asked.

"What about them?"

"Tell me about them. What were they like?"

John starts to raise his own fists and follow her, completing a half-circle, and then lashes out with a few quick jabs. Rogue blocks them and returns with a few jabs of her own, and they then graduate to trading several kicks and punches, and hopping over leg sweeps and ducking under spinning kicks. Rogue kicks high and he ducks, John returns with a punch that she blocks, she tries to kick him in his ribs but he knocks that aside and then counters with a kick that she also blocks. They block a few punches from each other again and then try to kick each other at the same time, which only ends up with both of them blocking the other's kick and pushing off, shoving them away.

"Well?" Rogue asked.

"No."

"No what?"

John jumps on her again and wraps an arm through one of hers. Rogue scrambles around and tries to reverse their positions, but he keeps an iron grip on her arm and tries to wrap his other arm over her throat. She fights hard and finally manages to flip herself over, worming out of his arm lock and placing one of her own on his wrist.

He tries to fight out of it, but she wraps her legs around his waist and starts rolling to her side, flipping over on top of John and pushes against his arm, pinning it against his chest. Rogue presses her forearm down on John's chest and tries to pin him, but he fights against it and manages to keep at least one shoulder from touching the mat.

John shifted out of the pin and tries to roll her over again, and they end up getting into another tumbling battle of holds, locks, and pin attempts. Rogue grunts at him during one of these attempts, "So, you gonna tell me?"

"Tell you what?" He grunts back.

"Your parents!"

"I told you, no."

Rogue tried to wrap his head, but John evades and goes after her exposed arm. She grunts at him again, "I'll keep asking until ya do."

"Okay, you wanna know?"

"Yes."

"Fine."

John growls and manages to grab Rogue around her torso, then rolls over and tries to pin her, going nowhere as she fights him on it hard. "They died, okay? They died."

He feels her head duck down and start rubbing into his chest hard, causing his skin to burn, then feels his grip on her loosen and finally slip as she breaks out. Rogue gets him a surprise hold and flips him onto the mat, landing on top of John and forcing his shoulders down, putting all her weight on him.

"How'd they die?"

John stared up at her for a minute before powering out from under her and knocking her on her back again. They tussle for another moment, eventually ending up with her getting some sort of wristlock on him from the side while kneeling.

He starts standing up and mutters, "They were killed."

"Killed?" She asks, then is pulled from her feet as he breaks the lock, grabs her legs, and lifts them off the ground, literally pulling her feet our from underneath her. "Whoa-OOF!"

John jumped on top of Rogue and pinned her to the mat. She just lies there and stares up at him, who pants and stares down at her.

"I killed them."

He watches her somewhat stunned and silent gaze, returning it with a stony one. "So you see? I'm a murderer."

With that said, he gets off her and heads back to the locker room. Rogue sits there through that long moment and just stares off after him... hardly thinking about anything at all, actually, besides those three words, I killed them.