"Charlie? Can I ask you something?" Roxy got silence in response and looked up. Charlie was staring at her, eyes wide, his spoon of cereal halfway to his mouth and dripping milk on the counter. Roxy checked for his parents and lowered her voice. "What happened at my grandparents?" He recovered enough to eat his spoonful, wiping milk from his chin on his sleeve. "You panicked, Charlie." She whispered. "Something about fire." He winced. Roxy reached across the island, placing her hand over his. He sat still for a moment, robotically finishing his mouthful. Then he got up and closed the kitchen door. "Charlie?"

"It was bad."

"What was?"

"The fire." He croaked, bending his spoon as easily as she bending a pipe cleaner. "I was eleven. Twins were eight or nine. Just started school. Mutants start later than humans. Power control and all that." Roxy nodded slowly, watching him worriedly. He wasn't looking at her, eyes fixed on the cutlery piece he was twisting out of shape and back again. He let himself have a while to calm his breathing as best he could. "They attacked the school."

"Who did?"

"The five."

"The bad mutants?" He nodded. "What did they do?"

"Set fire to the school." Roxy's brow furrowed in disbelief. Charlie shook his head, straightening the spoon and setting it down. "Not normal fire either. Dark fire. Bad magic, really bad magic. Only the one who started it can put it out." He paused. "Or someone with a higher rank of Darkness." Roxy was now confused. "Two sides to all life." Charlie started. "Light and Darkness. Spirits. Very poweful spirits. They have hosts. The hosts are... are the hosts for as long as they live. Mum's Light. Dad's Darkness."

"What?"

"Yeah."

"How?" He shrugged. Roxy decided to ask Alfie and Jo later; for now, she needed to know what happened. "So, your dad could put out the fire?" He nodded slowly, pained. "Something happened though, didn't it? What?"

"Leon. He thought Lucy was still in there. It was Danny."

"Who?"

"One of the five."

"Oh."

"He tricked Leon. Made him think Lucy was trapped. Lucy wasn't. She was helping the teachers. Leon went back in and... and..."

"You went in after him?" Roxy guessed. Charlie nodded.

"The whole building was alit. Falling down. I managed to get Leon out, but... I got... the roof caved in, blocked the door. Supports started coming down. I got... I was trapped." Roxy hissed. A trapped mutant was a dead one. That was all mutants' biggest fear. She knew this one, Violet had told her. Ever since the beginning of mutants, humans had tried to control them for their own gain. In the early days, trapped mutants was a rare thing, but as the humans learnt more about their powerful adversaries, they built bigger and stronger traps. The more mutants were trapped, the more they were killed. It soon became common knowledge that a trapped mutant was a dead mutant. "I couldn't move, there was this beam on my shoulders. Pinning me down. The fire kept going, kept growing. I was only eleven. Not at full strength. There was no way I could have moved that beam."

"How long were you stuck there?"

"About forty minutes."

"You survived that long?"

"I was unconscious when they found me."

"You nearly died." Charlie and Roxy both startled. Alfie stood in the doorway, grim. "How you survived that forty minutes, I don't know. I don't think I'll ever know." Charlie looked down. "Is this about your scars?" Charlie flinched.

"What scars?" Roxy asked. Alfie's expression slackened, a rabbit in the headlights.

"Oh..." He said quietly. "Um... sorry, I thought... Charlie..."

"It's fine, Dad." Charlie forced a smile. "She'd have found out anyway."

"I'm sorry."

"Dad. Honest. It's OK." Alfie still didn't look convinced, but he left, closing the door again.

"Charlie?" He looked at her then. Roxy was suddenly reminded of their holiday. They went to the beach to swim in the sea rather than swim in the site's swimming pool. The screaming children and general loud noise of the pool was murder on his hearing. While they splashed about in the ocean, he kept his T-shirt on. He said it was because he burned easily in the sun or that he was happy enough with his tan. Now, she suspected it was something else. "Charlie?" She said again.

He turned his back to her, pulling his jumper and T-shirt over his head as he did so. Roxy caught a gasp in her hands.

"Injuries caused by Dark magic don't heal." He mumbled. Roxy rose slowly, walking over in a daze. His back was covered in vicious, warped scars, the skin puckered, smooth and rough, taut over the muscles of his back. They reminded Roxy of acid burns, branded over his shoulders and all down his spine, splintering out like cracks in a window pane. She lifted her hand, hesitant at first, and then letting her fingers brush against his skin. The second she made contact, images exploded in her mind. Sickeningly bright blue ghostly flames snapped in every figment of her vision. Thick, rancid smoke battled the air, strangled the life in it. Overhead the roof groaned and creaked, chunks of masonry and wooden supports crashing down with ear-splitting thunderous collisions.

A shadow emerged within the flames, stepping over debris as though out for a stroll. A man stepped out, dressed in black from head to toe, skin eerily pale in the dancing haunts of the fire. He walked right past her, crouching before a fallen beam.

"Charlie. What a surprise finding you here." Roxy drifted forward. Before the man, imprisoned beneath the burning wreckage, was eleven year old Charlie. Boyish, smothered in ash and terror, his hair usually so vividly scarlet coated white with dust and plaster. "Very disappointing of my son to leave you here." The man continued calmly, as though discussing the weather. "Let me help you." This man had a very distorted sense of 'help', tossing extra blue flames onto the beam. "No, that's not enough. Ah, I know." He pushed his fingertips against Charlie's forehead. Young Charlie cried out, overwhelming fear violently combining with whatever wicked spells this man was implanting in his mind.

"Stop it!" Roxy cried. She lurched backwards and she was back in the kitchen. Charlie had her by the hands. "Charlie!"

"Are you OK? What happened?"

"The man. Who was he?"

"You saw?"

"You were stuck, this man was there... he... there was more fire, he made more fire. Charlie, who was he? And... he said something about his son too, said... said he was disappointed that he left you there." Roxy met his eyes, the blue-brown gems holding all the terror of a dying eleven year old. "Charlie. Charlie, talk to me, please just say something."

"Roxy... that man... he made... he made me see things... I... I can't..."

"No, don't. Whatever he showed you, tell me in your own time. These scars, Charlie, this is huge." She laced their fingers. "But I understand. It all makes sense now." Roxy put her forehead to his. "My god, Charlie... you've kept all that quiet for all this time?"

"I had to."

"No. No you didn't." She took his face in her hands, brushing back his hair. "I'm here for you, Charlie. You don't have to worry about me judging you or hating you or thinking you're a freak or anything. I will worry, yes, but I worry anyway. Of course I worry, I love you."

"I love you too." Roxy slid her arms around his neck and held him tightly. He was warmer than usual, trembling. Roxy shushed him gently, passing her hand through his hair. "That man..." He said in a voice barely above a whisper. "He... he's my granddad."

"What?" Roxy didn't pull away. His arms locked around her waist. She could sense he was worried she would bail, she would reject them all because his grandfather was one of the top five most dangerous mutants that had unleashed immeasurable amounts of terror and destruction for years on humans and mutants alike. "His son... Alfie is his son?" She felt Charlie nod. "But... but you're all so good, how can... how can he be like that?" Roxy drew away, looked him in the eye. "That doesn't make any sense."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"No. Sssh, don't apologise. You don't need to."

"Roxy-"

"No. You are a good person, good mutant, whatever. So is Alfie, Jo, the rest of your siblings. Just because you've got one black sheep- really bad black sheep- doesn't meant I'm going to automatically hate you and your family for eternity." She played with his hair on the back of his head and planted a gentle kiss on his lips. "I love you for you. And your family for them in case they ask." He smiled weakly. Roxy felt a small stirring of victory and smiled back, teasingly. "You're half naked." He looked down at himself, suddenly remembering his T-shirt and jumper in hand.

"Bet you're loving it." She looked him up and down.

"Well... we could do without this bit..." She gestured at his face. "Other than that, however... hot damn."

"Rude."