Author's Notes: Sorry for my absence. I had writes block. Thanks to all who reveiwed.

Notes to MistressAudra: I'm sorry about my other fics. I stopped them because I kept on running out of ideas to put in them. Please forgive me. I will try my best to get back on track with them.

Notes to sheisbeautiful-sheisnotme: I'm glad you like my character. And I will try to keep updating as quickly as I can.

Notes to Finger905: You like Clowny huh? I know, he's just so crazy and cool.

Every one enjoy this chapter.

With all his will power, Nightmare tried to keep his emotions at bay as the X-Men stood around him in complete disbelief.

The Professor had known that Nightmare was a vigilante, but he did not know this boy had murdered innocent people.

The X-Men sat far away from him. The young madman would not allow them to take his weapons away from him again, so they kept their distance.

However Rogue was sat next to Nightmare. She did not know why, but she was not afraid of him now. To tell the truth, this new found information explained a lot about Nightmare.

She watched as Scott paced back and forth in front of Nightmare.

"I don't get it, how long," he said before stopping in front of Nightmare. "How long were you planning on keeping this from us?"

Nightmare remained quiet. He placed his hidden has into his hands.

"You're a murderer," Scott said, "how could you stay in this house without telling us that? You have betrayed us all beyond belief."

Nightmare stood to his feet.

"What would you have done," he asked, "if I had told you, what I was?"

Scott could not answer that question. He didn't have to. Nightmare already knew the answer.

"Scott," he said, "don't tell me there is nothing in your life that you regret."

The team leader looked at Nightmare questioningly.

"There's nothing," was his only answer.

"Oh come now," Nightmare said. "Tell the truth, and shame the devil."

The cloaked madman took a few steps closer to Scott.

"There is something isn't there," Nightmare said. "What was it. Did you hurt someone a long time ago? Or perhaps it was a horrible accident caused by that red death trap behind your eyes? We all have regrets Scott, and joining The Crimson Hands is mine. So until you can come to terms with the wrongs that you have committed, don't judge me."

Nightmare walked away from Scott and to a nearby window.

"Joining The Crimson Hands," he said, "was the biggest mistake of my life."

"Then why did you join them," Jean asked in a cruel voice.

Nightmare did not wish to look at her.

"I had my reasons," he said.

"That is like, the worst answer you could give us," Kitty insisted. "How are we suppose to trust you now?"

Nightmare looked at her. His voice was full of anger when he spoke. "Did you even trust me when I arrived here? No. You all saw me as the simple madman that I have tried to change."

He began to leave the room saying, "none of you will understand my torment."

Before he could leave Bobby and Ray stood in front of the door. The X-Men wanted answers, and Nightmare was going to give them whether he wanted to, or not.

But Nightmare thought differently.

He pulled his ax out from its holster and held it, ready to use it.

"Move," he said.

Bobby and Ray did as he instructed.

And so Nightmare left the room.

All the X-Men were left in shock. They had let a murderer into their home.

"Can you believe that," Jean said. "He threatened to kill Bobby and Ray, just because they were standing in his path."

The Prof. shook his head. He had tried to probe Nightmare's mind during this meeting, but it was nearly impossible.

Nightmare had a strong mental block guarding his mind.

Xavier was unable to break through, but he did manage to sense one thing.

"He was bluffing."

All the X-Men turned to him.

"What," Jean asked.

"He was bluffing," Charles said again. "I could sense that he did not want to hurt Ray or Bobby. Nor does he wish to harm any of us."

"Well," Scott said, "even if he was bluffing, he still is a murderer."

Xavier said as if correcting Scott, "was a murderer. We don't know if he still is a killer."

They all sat in silence for a few moments. None of them knew what to say. This is the first time they had actually had to deal with a murderer. They were not sure how to act.

Xavier rubbed his forehead.

"We should discuss this matter as calmly as we can," he said. "We need to be clear minded about the situation at hand. Lets just try our best to come up with a solution."

Scott spoke up again.

"I don't think we should let Nightmare wander around on his own. At least not until we know the whole story."

"Very well," Xavier agreed. "If it will put all your minds at ease, I will send someone to keep watch over Nightmare for now."

Before he could choose anyone to watch over the young madman, Rogue stood to her feet.

"Ah'll watch him," she said.

Charles was about to object. He would have preferred an instructor to look after the boy. However he did not have time to do so. Rogue left the room immediately after she volunteered.

Once she was outside the door she went looking for Nightmare.

The Institute was very quiet that night. If the X-Men weren't all in the meeting room, Rogue would have thought it was abandoned.

She moved her way through the Institute, looking for any sign of Nightmare.

The Goth managed to find him, much easier than she thought.

The young madman was in the den. He was facing the fireplace where a fire had been lit earlier that evening.

His ax was in his hands and he was stroking it with two fingers.

Rogue walked into the room slowly.

"Ivan," she said gently.

Nightmare cocked his head upward.

"What are you doing here," he asked.

"The Professor wanted someone to keep an eye on you," Rogue answered.

Nightmare turned to her. "So you came because the Professor want to make sure I wouldn't hurt anyone."

"No," Rogue said. "Ah came because I wanted to."

Nightmare nodded and turned back to the fireplace.

Rogue walked over to him and stood by his side.

"Nightmare, why didn't you tell us that you were a part of that gang of killers," Rogue asked.

Nightmare's head sank.

"I was hoping it would all go away," he said. "I left The Crimson Hands a short time ago. I thought I could just escape, but I guess I was wrong."

There was so much pain and sorrow in his voice.

Rogue could tell that it was not a killer she was talking to, but a person who had suffered much.

Still she had to know one more thing.

"Why did you join them anyway," Rogue asked. "There had to have been something. No one just joins up with a killing club."

Nightmare put his axe back in the holster.

"Suffering," he said. "A long trial of suffering. That is why I joined them."

Rogue could tell he wasn't telling her the whole truth.

"What kind of suffering," Rogue asked.

Nightmare walked away from Rogue and over to a window. He looked out into the darkness.

"It's a long story," he said. "And you are not the only person who needs to hear it. All of your friends need to hear this as well if they are to truly understand me."

Rogue moved over to Nightmare and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Then lets go back to the meeting room, and you can tell them everything," she said.

Nightmare shook his head.

"I don't think they will believe me now," he said. "Not after they found out what I really am. If they had learned about my suffering before they knew I was a killer, then maybe they would. But now I don't think they will believe me. Not with the truth passing through my own lips."

Rogue paused and thought. A solution popped into her head, one that she did not want to do. But it was the only option.

"Ivan," she said, "what if the truth passed through mah lips?"

Nightmare looked at her curiously.

Rogue slipped off one of her gloves and said, "you know mah powers absorb memories as well as life force, and mutant abilities."

"Let me absorb your memories. That way Ah can tell the X-Men everything, and they'll have to believe me."

Nightmare took in all this information. And he did not like it.

"No," he said. "I can't let you do that."

"Why not," Rogue asked, somewhat surprised that he declined the idea.

"Because you won't like what you see," Nightmare said.

Rogue crossed her arms over her chest. "We don't have to many options, now do we?"

It took a while. But Nightmare finally sighed in defeat.

"Alright," he said.

He slipped off his own glove and held out his wrist.

"But," he said, "I will only allow you a ten second hold. I want to be conscious when you tell the X-Men."

Rogue nodded in agreement.

She held her bare hand over Nightmare's wrist.

She did not make contact at first.

She took a few deep breaths and then grabbed onto Nightmare's wrist.

Her mind was hit instantly. She saw so much. Perhaps too much.

There were so many terrifying images in the young madman's mind.

Many of them were the murders that he had committed with The Crimson Hands.

There was so much blood. People screaming. Blades, knives, and weapons throughout the images.

Each vision was as horrible as the first.

Rogue began to scream in terror as the images came into her full force.

And because of her fear she could not let go.

She held on for much longer then ten seconds.

Nightmare began to yell, "let go! RELEASE YOUR GRIP BEFORE YOU ABSORB TOO MUCH!"

So much horror. So much pain was absorbed into Rogue's mind.

At last she released her grip.

Nightmare fell to the ground unconscious.

Rogue merely knelt to the ground. Fear sprawled all over her face.

She breathed in long shaky gasps. Her body was frozen with terror.

She began to shiver from what she had seen.

And then came the pain. A sharp stabbing pain in her eyes.

She had absorbed it from Nightmare. A pain that he had felt ever since that fateful day he had begun his journey of change from the innocent boy that was Ivan, into Nightmare.

Just then Logan and Scott entered the room.

They saw Nightmare on the floor and Rogue kneeled next to him.

Rogue began to rub her eyes as a reaction from the agony in her eyes. But the pain only grew worse. The more she rubbed the more the pain grew.

"Ow," she said in a timid voice. Something very unlike her. "Arrgh ow."

She continued her timid noise as she rubbed her eyes.

Scott walked over to her.

"Rogue, what's wrong," he asked. "What did he do to you?"

Rogue took her hands away from her eyes and looked to Scott.

"He showed me his suffering."

Rogue sat in the meeting room and continued to rub her eyes. The pain had stopped increasing, but it was not getting better.

Her eyes were starting to turn red from all the rubbing.

Nightmare was put into the infirmary where Hank was now watching over him.

Rogue had told the X-Men that Nightmare did not attack her. That they had arranged for her to touch him so she could tell them all what she had seen. And she saw everything.

The Professor had given her a quick lecture about what she had done. But he still showed her sympathy.

"Now Rogue," he said. "I know you want to tell us what you saw in Nightmare's mind. But may be you would prefer doing this somewhere more private."

"No," Rogue said. "Every one should hear this. It explains everything we want to know about Nightmare."

The X-Men all became quiet as they listened.

Rogue stopped rubbing her eyes and tried to ignore the pain as she told Nightmare's life story.

"Nightmare wasn't his original name," she began. "He used to be called Ivan."

"He used to live in a quiet and beautiful town in Vermont. It was a lot like those town you see in the movies where every one knows every one. You couldn't even walk down to the local store without seeing at least ten familiar faces, and getting into conversations with friends."

"Ivan lived with his father and mother. He was an only child, but he was not spoiled. From what Ah saw in his mind he was actually a very sweet boy. He was always polite, got along with every one. He wouldn't even hurt a fly."

"His parents were good people. His mom worked at the local schools as a first grade teacher. He even had her for his teacher. And his dad was a member of the local police force."

"They were a wonderful family. As perfect as a family could be."

Jean interrupted Rogue. "Then why did he become a killer? From what you're telling us he had no reason to turn into a murderer."

"Ah'm trying to explain that Jean," Rogue said angrily. "So just sit down and shut your God Damn mouth!"

Jean sat down, but not before shooting daggers at Rogue.

"Anyway," Rogue continued. "Nightmare's sanity began to slip away when he was only eight years old."

Rogue's voice began saddened and she looked like she was trying to hold back tears.

"One night, two men broke into Nightmare's house. One had a shotgun, the other had a butterfly knife. The man with the shot gun kept Nightmare and his mother at gun point, while the other began to take their valuables."

"Nightmare was traumatized. He had never seen acts of cruelty before, and this was a heavy one to bare. But the robbers didn't stop there."

"Nightmare's father had entered the house. He had been at work while all this was happening. When he entered the house the man with the shotgun did even hesitate."

"He shot Nightmare's father in the stomach."

"It took the poor man twenty minutes to finally die."

"Nightmare's mother was devastated. She laid herself on her husband. Tears were running down her cheeks and she screamed in despair."

The X-Men listened to Rogue's words. Some of them were in total shock.

Rogue continued.

"The two men didn't show any merci. The only thing Nightmare's mother wanted was for her son not to see her death."

"But the men didn't allow it. They blew her brains out right in front of him."

Rogue could not hold back her tears any more. She let them fall.

The Goth stood to her feet and turned away from the X-Men. She did not want them to see her cry.

In a few seconds she felt a pair of hands rest on her shoulders. She knew they were Ororo's.

The Weather Witch tried to calm Rogue down.

The Goth turned back to the X-Men, but Ororo did not sit down.

She stayed with Rogue, and kept rubbing the girl's shoulders in a consoling way.

"That is something no child should see," Rogue said. "Nightmare blames himself for his parents' death. He felt that he should have done something. But there was nothing he could have done. He was only eight years old at the time."

Kurt then spoke up.

"So he became a murderer because his parents were killed?"

"No," Rogue said. "It didn't end there."

"What those to men did to Nightmare next was far worse than just murdering his family."

"They cut out his eyes. They figured since he saw such a terrible thing they should make it so he never had to see again."

"They cut out his eyes and left him in the middle of the woods to die."

"I don't even want to think about the pain he went through."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Kitty interjected. "How can he still see without his eyes."

"Because that's his power," Rogue said. "he learned about it that night in the woods. He could see without his eyes."

"After that day he fell into despair. He began looking for someone to take him in. But no one would. They all ran away at the sight of him."

"The only person who would take him in was Shamen."

"The leader of those killers," Scott said.

"Yeah," Rogue answered. "Once he took Nightmare in he began to manipulate his mind. That was what he did with every member of The Crimson Hands. He twisted their mind, making them believe that human kind was a cruel species that had to be extinguished."

"He trained them to be perfect killers, just to satisfy his own sick pleasures."

"They killed many people, moving from town to town, city to city, killing people left and right. They called it the Hunt whenever they went out to kill."

Once again Jean interrupted.

"But that doesn't explain if Nightmare is still a killer or not."

"Ah'm getting to that," Rogue said angrily.

She continued.

"It wasn't until he was eighteen that Nightmare began to see the error of his ways."

"During a night of killing the Police caught up with The Crimson Hands. They had to split up to avoid the cops."

"During this time Nightmare was injured. He got hit by a car that was owned by a girl named Kristen. She and her friends were afraid to take him to the hospital because of criminal charges that would be placed on them. So they took him to Kristen's house."

"There she showed him the kindness that he had never been shown after his parents were killed. That is what made him see that what he was doing was wrong, and that not all human's were heartless."

"He wanted to give up his ways and try to be a normal person again. But as you can guess The Crimson Hands weren't gonna let him go so easily."

"They tried to kill Kristen and her friends."

"Nightmare tried to protect them as best he could. Many of them were killed. However Nightmare did manage to protect Kristen. And after he was sure she was safe he escaped the city where they had been hunting for that time."

"How did he escape," Kurt asked.

Rogue sighed and said, "Ah don't know. Ah didn't see that. But all of this should explain why he was a killer."

All the X-Men tried to absorb this information. This was a terrible story. Nightmare had lost so much when he was just a boy.

"Poor Nightmare," Kitty said.

However Jean was still not convinced.

"So how do we know he still isn't a killer," she asked. "Rogue, you said that he wanted to live his life as a normal person. Well he sure doesn't seem normal to me."

Rogue said very angrily, "because he knows that he can never be normal again. He knows that he has been changed far too much to ever be the same person he was as a child. That's why he still is a killer.

"Ah-Ha," Jean said, "so he still is a killer. We still can't trust him."

"But he doesn't kill innocent people," Rogue said. "He became a vigilante. He kills murderers and rapists, and he punishes thieves and people who commit crimes that are not as extreme."

Still Jean did not want to believe they could trust Nightmare.

"Then how do you explain what happened back in that ally," Jean said. "He could have killed that guy with the skull mask. Why didn't he?"

Rogue was becoming full of fury.

Ororo tried to keep her calm.

The Goth pulled herself away from the Weather Witch and walked over until she was right in Jean's face.

Then Rogue spoke as calmly as she could. "Think about it Jean. After Nightmare's parents were killed he had nothing. He lost his home, his eyes, and most importantly his family. When Shamen took him in, those killers were the only family he had left. It was even difficult for him to fight them when he was protecting Kristen. They were like brothers to him, and Shamen was like a father. That's something he can't easily forget."

Rogue then walked away from Jean and sat in a chair. There was nothing more that she had to explain.

Jean began again. "But what about"

As a shock to everyone she was stopped by the Professor.

"Alright Jean that's enough," he said. "It is obvious that Nightmare is an individual that has suffered a lot in his life. I think we should take that into consideration. What Rogue has told us is very vital information. And I am glad that she was able to clear all of this up."

Jean was silent. Normally the Professor would side with her, but this was the first time that he did not.

The red head sat down with anger in her eyes.

Rogue stood back up and said to the Professor, "if you don't mind Ah want to check on Nightmare now."

The Professor nodded and looked around the room at the other students. All of them seemed to have a look of concern as well.

"I'm sure we would all like to see his status."