A/N: Thank you for the reviews. I find feedback awesome and helpful.

In this chapter . . . the truth will be revealed . . .


He must have fallen asleep, because Rose is suddenly shaking him awake.

"I'm back," she whispers. "Just wanted to let you know."

He sits up, muscles faintly sore from laying on the carpet rather than some sort of cushioning. Vaguely, he wonders how she managed to enter his house without any inside help, but a more pressing concern takes hold as he notices what she's wearing.

"Ms. Marvel's uniform? Are you a cosplayer or something?" It's only as the words leave his mouth that he realizes how stupid he sounds.

Rose shakes her head, a weary expression on her face. "Let me explain. God, I should told you this months ago.

"The reason the first Ms. Marvel disappeared was because of me. My mutation isn't super strength or flight- it's draining a person of their thoughts, talents, memories, and sometimes, superhuman abilities by skin to skin contact. Back then, I couldn't control my mutation. There was a misunderstanding when I encountered Ms. Marvel, which, of course, escalated to violence."

"What else would a superhero do but fight strangers with superpowers, only to discover later that it's just a misunderstanding?" Joseph says sarcastically, trying to cover his astonishment as Rose revealed the truth to him.

"I held onto her for too long. I absorbed her very psyche, and it blended with mine, leaving her an empty shell. It was only a powerful telepath who was able to restore my own mind."

Joseph tries to absorb this shocking development. "How old were you?"

"Fourteen," Rose responds flatly.

Fourteen. Jesus God.

"Her abilities were latent in my mind for the next two years," Rose continued. "I learned to control my own abilities when I came to terms with hers. I might have been able to control my own mutation sooner, but the incident with Ms. Marvel scarred me and prevented my mutation from developing. But now, here I am, with the Avengers."

"So, you're the current Ms. Marvel." Dumbfounded, Joseph shakes his head. "Damn. That's unexpected."

"You should know that my name isn't Rose Malentire," his suddenly nameless girlfriend says. "It's Anna Marie D'Ancanto. Or Rogue. Rose was an alias I used for high school."

Joseph spreads his hands helplessly. "I don't follow."

"Originally, I was part of a mutant terrorist group," Rose says casually, as though she's commenting on the house's interior decoration. "My aunt Carrie- the woman I thought to be my aunt and who later personally identified as my adoptive mother, Mystique, was one of the founders. She raised me to be one of the agents. That's when I encountered Carol Danvers. Ms. Marvel. Whichever."

The air leaves Joseph's lungs as though he's been sucker-punched. "'Carol Danvers'?" He echoes weakly. "That woman . . . that was the first Ms. Marvel?"

"Yes," comes the even reply. "My uncontrollable abilities led me to absorb my aunt's personality and battle Ms. Marvel. However, afterward, one of my aunt's fellow terrorists eliminated Carol's mind but tampered with my memories of the event. When I discovered the extent of my supposed mother's lies, I joined with a group of mutants known as the X-Men, who were preparing to fight for peace between humans and mutants when we were inevitably discovered."

"'Fight for peace,'" Joseph repeats, smiling wanly at the irony of the phrase. A memory floats into his mind. "These X-Men you mentioned, they're the people you wanted me to meet, aren't they?"

Rose- or rather Anna, confirms this with a tired nod. "I understand if you never want to see my face again, Joe. I never should have allowed the truth to go unspoken for this long." She hesitates. "But I didn't want to lose you. I thought that if you knew what I'd done, then you would hate me." She delivers this statement with little emotion, almost matter-of-fact.

More than slightly stunned, Joseph considers what she's said.

In a simpler world, where morality was only black and white, evil and good, he would hate her, or at least want her away from him.

But Anna has visited the hospital frequently. She hasn't been gloating, but genuinely mournful; obviously, she regrets what she has done.

Really, he isn't sure how he would've reacted, with the person who raised him convincing him to be a terrorist to fight for his liberty, and then his personality diluted, influenced by another's thoughts and emotions.

More than likely, she was just trying protect her aunt/mother at the time and defend herself. Anna has survived, though, and she seems no worse for it.

And now, here she is, trying to make amends by donning Ms. Marvel's costume and playing the role of a superhero.

So much new, astounding information. Too much for him to process, almost.

His girlfriend is a superhero, because she unintentionally disabled the hero whom she's replacing. And she's a mutant, a member of the next stage of evolution. She's like him, she understands him.

It's not Joseph's place to forgive Anna, but he certainly doesn't have to hold a grudge.

As for lying to him for several years . . . that's a shock, but she has revealed the truth now.

All along, he's known that she's not innocent or pure. Anna is no ingénue, no swooning damsel for him to sweep up on the back of his white horse and gallop off together into the sunset.

And this is definitive confirmation- she's admitting that she's not only physically stronger than him, but also easily capable of deceiving him and manipulating his emotions.

God help him, this may very well be the first in a long string of unhealthy relationships, in addition to an indication that he doesn't care about virtue or honesty in his significant others; but when Anna affirms that she's been lying to him- mostly by omission, though- he loves her in spite of any it. He can't forget his devotion to her; he doesn't want to deny her.

It's kind of sick, but the pressure of impending college and after that, med school, could be getting to him.

He looks at Anna directly. "I don't hate you. I've never been in that kind of situation. I'm not sure what I would have done."

She lets out a long exhale. "Thank you."

"But why did you join the Avengers as 'Ms. Marvel'?" Josephs asks, intrigued. "Why couldn't you just be yourself, Rogue, the mutant?"

"Because I needed to compensate Carol Danvers for my actions," Anna responds flatly. "With her gone, there was no one else to take up her legacy, and I had to do my duty as the recipient of her Kree abilities. I wanted to honor her, to show that I respect her, even though I was the one to bring her down in the first place."

There's a brief silence between them, interrupted when the girl in the bed stirs from unconsciousness but doesn't wake.

"Who is she?" Joseph asks Anna, indicating the bed.

Anna gazes at the prone figure. "Her name is Kitty Pryde. She's a friend of mine from my boarding school. We roomed together for years before I moved here to New York."

"She's Jewish," Joseph notes, spotting the Star of David charm the girl wore on her necklace. "How did she get hurt?"

"We fought crime together," Anna says frankly. "We started off when we were stupid kids in freshman year, but we still continued after I joined up with the Avengers. Not supervillain stuff, but normal crimes. Muggings, robberies, thievery- that kind of stuff. Kitty and I have costumes and everything- normally, I don't go as Ms. Marvel, because that would attract too much attention."

She considers him with her eyes. "A costumed identity is something you may want to consider, if you ever have to fight anyone out in the street or escape government agents. I don't imagine that 'mutant' would be something you'd want to add to your college applications."

"Do you think that it's going to come down to being hunted by our own government?" Joseph asks in trepidation. The though of his father and brother- his family –in danger due to his own genetics is enough to churn his stomach.

"I'm not sure, Joe," Anna replies. She glances at the clock; it's nearing two o'clock in the morning. "But enough of my paranoia. Go to sleep."

Snagging a few pillows and blankets from the linen closet, Joseph clears away his notes and spreads the bedding on the floor before lying down. Anna spends a few minutes sitting with Kitty before joining him. She kisses his jaw lightly, then lays against him, and just as Joseph adjusts to the presence of her warm body, wiry but solid with muscles, he drifts off.

By the time the alarm clock jolts him awake the next morning, both the girls have already departed, with a note written on his bedroom mirror in lipstick that simply reads, "Thanks."

And once Joseph wipes the lipstick away, all evidence of Anna's presence are gone, as if she were just a part of a hazy dream or simply a ghost passing through the night.