Psion had suggested leaving the dining room when the droids started taking an interest in them before Frankie had divulged his mutation. They had retired to Psion's room and he had set up a telekinetic barrier against listening devices once they were all settled. He re-asked the question once he was seated at the corner desk.

"I'm a shape shifter," Frankie said with a bright smile. Psion watched, as Frankie became an exact copy of Chloe. Disappointment flooded through him as Frankie became himself again. He could do that too, the part of him that was that little girl itched to transform but he put the feeling down.

"That could be very useful."

"Well, no, see…I can only hold shape for five minutes. Hassan's inhibitors let me change long enough so I can at least practice, but nothing beyond five minutes. Ten sometimes if it's a minor change." Frankie shrugged and Psion filed it away. That was a useful piece of information, it meant he couldn't take on Hassan's form and march down stairs and demand his blade. Droid guards left fire and ice, and fire would be more dangerous for the people in the house. It left ice, and he cursed internally. Limited options, he hated limited options and he hated this house. He slammed his fist down hard on the desktop.

"What's the matter?" Chloe asked.

"Come on, tell us your power!" Frankie exclaimed at the same time. Psion sighed and looked at them both, "You've heard of the X-Men."

There was a chorus of "yes."

"You know who Rogue is?"

Chloe recoiled from him, her breath sucking sharply across lips and teeth, and looked at him as if he were a viper about to strike. Frankie only looked at him quizzically, which made sense if the kid was only thirteen and had been living on the street for five years. His mental jaunt through the kid's memories told him a lot of things, but mostly that when his mutation had first manifested, he had immediately begun to use it to his advantage as a thief. His question was laced with innocence, "Who is she? What does she do? And what's the matter Chloe?"

"He's a soul stealer!" Chloe was looking at him with disgust now and he growled.

Frankie looked to him for an explanation and Psion felt his temper cool by the kid's reaction, looking to the source instead of prejudice. "It means whoever I touch," he wiggled his tightly gloved fingers in the air between them, "I absorb a part of them into myself through our physical skin-to-skin contact; a part of their life force, and in the case of mutants, their powers. When I was your age I couldn't control it, eventually though I learned how to recall the people who I touch and can use their powers."

Frankie stared and breathed a low "wow."

"It's not cool, Frankie, he steals peoples souls. If he holds on long enough, he can kill you."

"Thank you for that astute and obtuse estimation, Chloe." Psion said softly and slowly, "Don't judge what you don't understand. Do you think it's easy? Do you think I enjoy being incapable of human contact for the rest of my life? I'll never be able to fall in love, have a family, because I would kill them. Human nature doesn't change between 'humans' and mutants; even within my own kind I'm an outcast. Rogue is the only other one like me that I've discovered and she was lucky."

"She fell in with the right people at the right time," Chloe said. The fire of disgust that had been blazing in her eyes had been quenched. "I – I'm sorry John."

"That's not my name."

"What's your real name?" Frankie asked.

Unconsciously he touched fingertips to the tag under his shirt as he answer, "It's Psion."

"But you're a so – you're a – you're not a psionic." Chloe said, her voice told him she was struggling not with his mutation but with understanding. He'd already told more to these two about himself than he had ever divulged to anyone before in his twenty years, so he figured he might as well not break the trend tonight.

"I am, now, among a lot of other things."

"Like what?" Frankie said, finally sitting back down on the edge of the bed beside Chloe.

"I'm telepathic and telekinetic that brings with it a whole host of psionic abilities that are too numerous to list. I have uncharted regenerative abilities, heightened senses of smell, hearing, and eyesight. I can teleport, phase through a wall, create and control fire and ice. Create and direct blasts of pure energy. I can shift shape, multiply or split myself into exact copies that carry the same abilities as I do. I can even fly, but I prefer the ground."

Chloe let out a low whistle as Frankie's eyes finally stopped growing wider. Chloe finally asked the how and why and reluctantly he told them.

"When it first manifested itself, my parents had no idea what the problem was. They weren't anti-mutant, in fact they thought it would be neat to have a special ability, but they didn't understand mine. It was more fear of my well being than anything else that sent me to a quote unquote hospital for study. I was shipped around like so much meat until the Canadian government got a hold of me with their reinstituted weapon X program, which I'll never understand since I'm American, but who cares. When they figured out what I was, the military scientists were in heaven. They started having mutant's captured, the first ones being psionics. They were afraid that given the nature of my…ability, there would be problems with my mental stability. They wanted me to be able to cope so I would be useful to them. Once I had mastered those basics and they were sure I would be able to control the inherited powers while keeping the people separate and silent, they sent soldiers out to round up mutants with powers they thought would be useful. They would bring them in one at a time and force them to stand still while another soldier forced me to touch them long enough to gain their abilities." Psion fell silent for long moments as the memory of those hated days flashed through his mind and the souls threatened at the edge of his mental barrier.

"The head of the project dubbed me Psion since the psionic abilities were the first beneficial powers I ever mastered. Eventually, their zeal was their undoing. They unwittingly made me too powerful to contain and I escaped." He reached inside his shirt and pulled out the tag on its chain. "I wear this to remind me of all the people I hurt becoming what I am and to remind me of all the people who were involved in that process. The memories are vivid on their own without the talisman but its all I have left of the life before…this."

"I'm sorry," Chloe finally said hoarsely.

"For what?"

"For passing such a quick judgment. The horror stories painted you and even Rogue as mutants who were to be feared and mistrusted. If you turned your back you'd be dead. I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Nobody does."

"If you told though, maybe…"

"No, Chloe, it wouldn't and I won't. It's not worth it. I've lived with it this long."

"But the Wolverine is…"

"A very old man but barely looks thirty. The regenerative abilities even take on the effects of aging. I know I will live a long time like this. Believe me, when I inadvertently inherited it saving a boy barely older than Frankie, I actually enjoyed the idea of eventually dying of old age, but now even that has been denied of me." Psion shrugged, "Its getting late you two, and I'm tired."

Chloe nodded and stood, nudging Frankie when he didn't move, so enraptured with Psion was he. Psion walked them to the door and bid them goodnight, fixing in place the telekinetic barrier before striping down to his boxers and crawling into bed. He fell asleep wishing his hand were curled around the familiar weight of his sword.