"Who are you?"

"Maverick."

"Who were you before you were Maverick?"

"There is no before."

"Yes, there is." I call up his memories, the picnic, school, I have seen them so often by now that when I close my eyes I see them, not darkness.

"What is that?"

"It is you, the you before Maverick."

He is silent, the best sign I have had from him yet. Thus far he has always immediately denied that he was anything but Maverick, but this time he seems uncertain.

"You can separate yourself from Maverick, you are not him. What is your name?"

"I have no other name."

"Yes, you do. What name did your parents give you?"

"My parents?" He seems uncertain again, and I think I have found a very promising lead.

"Remember your parents. Your mother," I bring up vague images of her picking him up from school, "tall, brown hair, warm smile. Remember your father," I bring up an image of him barbecuing, "You can see them. Remember them." It has been too long, I must go, but I have given him something to think about.

I open my eyes, to find Scott staring at me. "Sabretooth. He tried to escape. He managed to kill a guard before they locked down. They gassed him and got him back in his cell, but I don't now how long he'll stay in there."

I have been avoiding him recently, and spending all of my extra time with Maverick, but now I must decide what to do with Sabretooth. "I must have a talk with Erik."

"What?"

"Erik is considering breaking him out, I know him. I must convince him that Sabretooth is too far out of control."

After lunch I return to Maverick's mind. I have become obsessed, I fear, but at this point it is probably wiser to finish. He ignores me as usual.

"Do you want to kill me?"

"I will complete my assignment."

"Do you want to kill me? If your assignment gave you a choice between killing me and not killing me, would you kill me?"

"My assignments are always explicit."

"Answer the question."

"No, I would not."

"Can you experience happiness?"

"Feelings are unnecessary and get in the way of completing assignments."

"You can not feel happiness?"

"No."

"I can allow you to experience happiness."

"It gets in the way."

I show him all of the good memories I can conjure up, which total in excess of a dozen now. "You are not Maverick. Release your body and use only your mind." I feel him trying to comply, and I repeat myself. Finally, after what was probably half an hour of real time, I can feel him separate himself from the programming.

"What's going on?" He is very confused.

"You are not Maverick. Do you remember who you are?"

"No, I...I can't remember anything. Just the name Kelly, but that can't be me."

"Why not?"

"It's a girl's name."

"What makes you think that?"

"I...I just remember from somewhere that Kelly is a girl's name."

"So you can remember things. Remember your parents."

"I can see them. I was born in Tennessee, I remember that. Her name is Julie Something, Julie North."

"David North." The name called back a snippet of new memory: his mother running over to him, calling him David, inspecting him and wondering how he could have been okay.

"That was just after your manifestation, correct? You had an accident, you fell perhaps, but absorbed the kinetic energy and weren't injured."

"Yes, you're right. I fell off of something high; I remember that my mother wouldn't let me go. She thought it was a miracle."

"David, can you see that it is not you controlling you, but your programming?"

"Dave!"

"Focus, please. Can you see that the programming is controlling you?"

"Yes, I...can. I had no idea." He has a surge of guilt and sickness as he sorts through the memories what he has done since he was brought to Weapon X. I am able to see them as well, but after seeing an image of him ruthlessly delivering a kinetic blast to a man in the chin and breaking his neck I turn away. I do not want to see this and I do not want David to dwell on it either; he must be strong to get past the programming.

"You can stop this, if you want to. You must focus and defeat the programming. Do you remember Rogue?"

"Of course."

"She is already free of the programming, and living within this school."

"I'm in a school?"

"Yes, and if you break free you can remain here, like Rogue."

"But how can I break free when I had to move back into my own mind just to realize who I am?"

"It is easier than you might think. Consider how they programmed you in the first place. They tortured you until you were defenseless and then bombarded you with what they wanted you to do constantly for weeks in a row without any breaks, even to sleep. It is a simple matter of reversing that. Begin by increasing your defenses mentally, then mentally bombard the programming with what you want to do until it breaks down, the program in reverse."

"But how do I do that?"

"You are already doing it, just by willing it done. Often all it takes is to want something badly enough, and to keep trying to get it, and you will eventually succeed."

"Uh, sir, I think I feel something..."

I pull out into the part of the mind controlled by the programming, and discover that Maverick has become active. He began to thrash around so wildly that Dr. McCoy, the only one present at the time, began to hold him down. He thrashed against the doctor's heavy body enough to build up some kinetic energy and released it, severing the straps on his arms. He then undid the straps on his legs while Hank was pushed back in surprise. He is now attempting to stand up.

I find the good doctor's strong mental signal. 'Hank, do not touch him if you can help it. You will merely be a source of kinetic energy for him, and he will become stronger.'

'I know, Professor.'

Now for some help from those who have more than merely kinetic energy to offer. 'Storm, Cyclops, get to the medlab immediately. Maverick has escaped.'

'On our way, Professor.'

Fight it, David. I hope you can stop yourself from causing any more damage.