Disclaimer: I suppose now would be a REALLY good time to say that so far I only own about four characters (Or is it six?) and none of them are the x- men (pity) they are owned by their respective owners and ultimately god.I mean Stan Lee.

A/N: Chaos Mode: Thanks for the frank review, I've tried doing what you said so tell me what you think. Jack4: sad how? Kaulona Pololei: Same as N:CM Son of Sephiroth: Talk about heavy hints! I would appreciate it if you would try to keep quiet, granted you haven't given away any story plots but there's something to be said for surprises! Other than that thanks for the review (about time you read it)

Thanks to all of you it's nice to have support.

Chapter 3
Borderline Of The Shadow And The Light

I pulled my head out of the shadow door. So I'm a cold blooded killer who didn't deserve a second chance according to the prick with the red sunglasses, the vehemence in his voice gave me the idea that this footage they had seen wasn't exactly of the PG rating. I resolved to prove myself to him and those two girls who backed him up. The professor's doom filled prophecy sat heavily in my stomach he was the head of the institute and if he had doubts about me, they were going to spread, I had to prove to them I wasn't dangerous. I stood up and put on the green fatigue shirt that I usually put on under my combat jacket, I then tied up my boots and checked myself in the dull reflective metal of the wall, the combat trousers I wore were thick and heavy, guaranteed to stop the light getting to my skin. I saw the door beside the wall size mirror open up and three teenagers walk through

"Uh, hi. I'm Kitty, this is Kurt and Evan." I turned and stared at them waiting for them to add something, I saw Evan and Kurt flinch Figures I thought to myself A blue furred mutant thinks I'm scary looking, I pushed the thought aside and offered my hand to them as a show of friendship. To my relief they shook my hand in turn, Evan and Kurt also apologised for their surprise moments earlier.

"It's just that we've seen a photo of how you used to look and we didn't expect the pitch black pupils you have now." I was suddenly curious

"What colour were my eye's?" Kitty answered

"Ice blue, a really bright ice blue." She seemed to blush but added "We're supposed to show you to the professor's study, shall we go?" I smiled but realised instantly she wouldn't see it

"By all means, lead the way" I said goodbye to Hank and followed them.

The study was expansive yet homely, perfectly designed to be relaxing and inviting to any of the occupants of the room, when kitty showed me in Xavier asked me to take a seat, I took the only one left of two. In the other was the Summers kid, I guess he had been calmed down successfully.

"I have some information for you" Xavier handed me a piece of paper; I took it and read it. On it was a copy of a firearms licence from the U.K. Strangely enough my job status had been erased.

"What did I do? Job-wise I mean." Summers mumbled something I couldn't hear but Xavier gave him a stern look.

"I believe that giving too much information could be hazardous to your mental health, but I've also asked you hear to ask you a few questions" I nodded

"Any way I can help."

"How did you get inside the grounds?" Scott asked quickly

"I walked into a wall."

"Come again?"

"You heard me, I walked into a shadow on the outside of the wall. When I step in it's like a door that opens into a long corridor, I just walked in, chose a door and emerged from the fountain outside." I didn't talk about the second time I had used it, when the corridor had become more elaborate. Before another question could be asked I turned to Scott. "Do I get to know your name? You know a hell of a lot about me and I know jack about you." Which I did but wasn't technically supposed to at this point. "Scott Summers, Cyclops." I couldn't figure out the reason for the nickname but didn't enquire about it either. "Well I'm Joseph Greerson, pleasure to meet you." I didn't put much feeling into the statement. Xavier leant back and checked a file draw on his left and produced a watch and placed it on the desk, he closed the draw.

"So where do you think you will go from here Joseph?" The door behind me opened and closed again and Xavier looked up momentarily.

"Honestly I have no idea." I answered truthfully "I was thinking of searching for information about my self, go back to the motel I woke up in and work from there."

"Well I would like to ask you to stay here, at least for a while anyway." I said nothing

"Would you like to stay?" I sat there thinking they've helped me enough; I don't want to intrude any further. A deeper, more vulnerable part of me longed for protection, which I gave into unthinkingly.

"I would love to, as long as no one objects to it." Some one stepped up behind me

"The results were in your favour kid." Xavier tossed the watch to person behind me.

"Take that to Hank and have it calibrated for Joseph please Logan." I heard him leave the room quietly.

"We don't want to keep you cooped up inside the institute for ever so I'll be enrolling you into the local high school, Bayville." A sudden fear gripped me, if mutants feared me then surely the 'Normal' people would go completely catatonic when they saw me.

"W, won't I look a bit conspicuous? I uh, I mean I don't exactly look normal now do I?" Xavier nodded in agreement

"That is true but the device I gave Logan will sort that problem out." I didn't believe him.

"A watch will stop people seeing what I am?" I shook my head.

"If that's the best you have for me then I'm gone." I started to stand up when a hand forced me back into my seat, another gave me the watch.

"It's not a watch kid, it's a personal holographic projector." Xavier wheeled around the desk and stopped next to me.

"Kurt uses one when he goes out into the world." The word 'Holograph' bounced around in my head. It struck a chord.

"Holograph? As in images created out of light?! Excuse me." I once again got up to leave but was again forced back into my seat by Logan.

"Relax kid, it's been tweaked to accommodate your.abilities."

"What Logan means is that these images have no U.V. rays in the matrix, and they will stop any other light source from making contact with your skin so you wont have to wear so much clothing anymore, your perfectly safe." I put on the projector and stared at it.

"Try it kid." Logan pointed to a small button on the rim, I pressed it. The first thing I noticed was.nothing, nada, zip. Crap all had happened. My skin looked the same.

"Look in the mirror Joseph, it has worked." Xavier must have sensed my rising anger, I stood up and looked in the mirror on my right. I gasped in surprise as pink skin slowly shimmered into existence, what stared back was the picture on the licence, only.real. The face.my face seemed a little fresh, short black hair, ice blue eyes just like kitty said. It just seemed to be missing something or a few things, I couldn't tell. A sudden Impulse gripped me and I bolted out the door shouting behind me as I went

"I'll be right back." I sped past Kitty who immediately recognized me.

"Joseph wait, where are you going?" I didn't reply but ran into the lobby and stopped just short of the glass doors where the sun light borderline , it had been a few hours since I had entered these doors. I found myself a little apprehensive, gingerly I skirted the borderline and placed my hand in to the sun light and waited, there was no pain. I stepped out onto the steps and kept walking. I stopped near a bunch of trees and faced the midday sun, I closed my eyes. I could feel the warmth on my face, it was now inviting when earlier it was dangerous, it was a great feeling.

I heard footsteps behind me.

"Beautiful ain't it?" I didn't react as the pale faced girl moved to stand next to me

"Ahm Rogue."

"Joseph, though I think you already know that and yes it is beautiful, first one I've seen since I can remember which isn't exactly long as it is. I answered as I looked over the carefully kept grounds, we were both silent for a moment.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked turning to her, suddenly struck by her beauty. She looked.wow, the white streak in her hair seemed to enhance her looks but I didn't think she needed any enhancing.

"There's a bench a little up the ways where I like to sit and think." She pointed behind her, I could just about make out a small courtyard opposite a basket ball court.

"Wanna join me?" She asked me.

"Yeah sure." I answered without hesitation, all the while having to remind myself that she's most likely here to gauge my reactions, probably to confirm whether I'm the psycho she thinks I am. We started talking while on the way over to the bench, she told me how she came to be at the institute, when she had finished we were sat at the bench. She turned to me.

"So what about you, how did you come to be here?" The logical side of me told me to be quiet, but I was currently ignoring it.

"I woke up this morning and couldn't remember anything except that I was running, from what and to where I don't know. All I had was a gun and an address, this address. When I finally made it here I decided to go in quietly, when I went in through the glass doors, Logan was there, then you and everyone else was. From there you know the rest, now I come to think of it how did you know I had gotten in?" It had just occurred that my capture was too quick for them to have heard the fighting and come running, they had been alerted and I wanted to know how.

"Scanners." She said simply, I decided to ignore the evasion.

"So tell me, what's this place like?"

"It's safe, there's no prejudice from the 'normies' and I can just live my life." She was being evasive again, I was getting good at this.
We talked for hours, general chat but I enjoyed the time together and after while she seemed to relax around me, I took it as a good sign that she had accepted me for who I was not Who I might have been. The sun began to set , Rogue looked at her watch and stood up.

"C'mon ah'll show you to yer room." I nooded silently and followed.

My room was on the top most floor, whether this was to protect the other students or not I couldn't tell. I opened the door and stepped in. Rogue stepped in behind me.

"Dinner'll be ready in an hour." I switched off the projector, thankful that she didn't find my appearance scary.

"I'm not hungry, I think I'll just get my head down for a bit."

"Ok, see ya in the morning Joe." She turned and left, I closed the door and surveyed the large room without the light on. It looked vaguely oriental, there was a mattress surrounded by a raised Dias a foot high with a lamp close by, the cupboards and chest of drawers were basic. Other than that there was nothing, I liked it. I took off my boots and socks and rolled onto the mattress and closed my eyes.

BOOOMM!!

"We're shut in Shade, they've covered the main entrance."

"Cool it Psylocke, we'll find another way out of this."

"How?"

"Head down the stairs, take one of the dinghy's and high tail it down the river. He won't sink you if we have the spine with you, it's too valuable to him."

"Ok, how we going to hold them off?"

"Not we, me. Here's the spine, get that back to England, It's imperative that it makes it."

"But they'll tear you apart!!"

"I will not go down without taking Joseph with me, I have business with him that needs to be addressed. No guts no glory, right?"

"No guts no glory, Shade. It's been an honour working with you,"

"You too Psylocke, now go!!"

"SHADE!!"

"He's almost here, GO!!" BANG!

My eye's snapped open and I sat up and gripped my chest, my heart felt like it was trying to claw it's way out. I got up and paced the floor, the house was quiet. My stomach growled in protest and I creped down to the kitchen, the place I had collapsed. I didn't bother to turn he light on, instead I quickly made myself a sandwich. I sat at the table and ate in quite reflection. The dream had been pitch black, all I could hear was the voices. The door in front of me opened and the light snapped on, I winced as Logan stepped in with an empty mug.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked, I shook my head.

"Not that I didn't want to." A grin spread across his face, like he knew exactly what I was feeling and knew the answer.

"Too wired?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I lied. He placed the mug on the side and headed to the door.

"Follow me kid, we'll go burn some energy." I wolfed down the rest of the sandwich and followed him till he stopped halfway through a corridor, he pushed in a wooden panel and a section of wall slid back to reveal a lift, we stepped in and it began to descend.

The lights flared to life and I had to wince because I was almost blinded, I soon got used to the light and I stared in awe, we were standing in a large vertical cylinder of a room. Logan passed me a metal stave and moved into a white circle in the middle of the floor roughly twelve foot in diameter, there were two one foot long red lines parallel each other and Logan moved to one of these.

"C'mon kid, take your place." I walked to the other line and toe'd it.

"So how are we playing this?" He smiled and saluted with the stave. I followed suit.

"Five hits to the Torso to win, Ya ready?" I shifted into a combat position, the stave was set so the left end was by my head and the right was by my foot. I still found the flood lights a little harsh, I squinted my eyes and hunkered down.

"Bring it on." His response was immediate, he attacked high right where I was unprotected. I twisted to glance the blow on my arm, I didn't quite make it and was sent crashing to the floor.

"C'mon kid, you can do better than this. I figured you were good at this." Logan goaded and set himself to bring a hammer blow to my side, I brought my staff up to lean on it from my low position

"I am." Logan swung the stave straight down, I pulled on my stave, lifting myself from the ground so the stave was the only thing holding me up, I smiled at my opponent from my completely inverted position.

"Alright you show off." Logan grinned and swung at the pole, I used the momentum of the hit to flip back onto my feet and spun my stave, knocking Logan to the ground.

"Hey old man, is that the best you can do? I thought you had more." I allowed him to get up and retrieve his stave. "lets raise the difficulty a bit here shall we?" I took a step back and returned to my combat position.

"Fine with me." He fished out a remote and pressed a few buttons, two robotic arms came away from the wall armed with staves and arrayed themselves behind Logan.

"Three against one seems fair, don't you think kid?" I smiled.

"I'm game, I'm just gonna need something a bit faster." I tossed him my stave.

"Cut that in half please." He tossed me back the two halves, I twirled the kali sticks experimentally, they felt fin and well balanced.

"Ready when you are sir." Logan advanced with the two arms in tow. The arms themselves were easy, they only attacked me horizontally at random heights. The problem was that I had to defend against them, my unpredictable and experienced opponent and look for attack vectors. I was just able to cope thanks to some kind of muscle memory, I knew what to do and when to do it. We parried for ages, my natural agility saving me on several occasions. After an hour the score was four-two to Logan, we were both severely fatigued, we were hunched over, breathing heavily but I wasn't going to quit.

"How about. we make this. round winner takes. all?" I asked between breaths.

"How about we go get some sleep kid?" I shook my head and blinked the sweat from my eyes.

"No, I'm not even tired." Logan shifted around and laid back onto his elbow.

"Bull kid, your about ready to collapse." He got up slowly and walked to the doors.

"C'mon kid, lets get something to eat and you can tell me about it." I got up and followed him, a heavy thwack from one of the arms had forced me to limp after him. Logan didn't seem like the kind of person who you could approach, so why he was being this attentive towards me was baffling. Still he was the only one up and I was damned if I was going back to sleep tonight.