Fraudulentus Persona Risty
By Princess Alexandria
"Risty." The Professor spoke and Risty hated how he said her name now. He made it sound like he was humoring her in calling her that. It was too gentle, too obvious. She barely turned from her staring out his office window at the kids playing in the yard. "Henry is working on finding a way to counteract the drugs they gave you. He'd like for you to drop by later so he could take some new blood samples."
She barely acknowledged that as she watched Rogue walk outside and move to sit far from the others. Rogue was always a bit of a loner. Risty watched the girl without blinking. It had been over a day now and Rogue made no effort to talk.
"I was thinking that you might want to talk." He spoke in his soft do gooder voice and Risty grimaced. No, she didn't really feel like talking. Not to him anyway. She pulled her arms tighter around her and just stared out into the summer day. "We could work on trying to regain your memory."
"Don't bother." She finally glanced over her shoulder at the old man. "Not interested."
He looked a little surprised at that and Risty felt a small wave of triumph. He was clearly lost, maybe he'd give up. She turned to stare out the window again. Rogue was reading a book. Couldn't tell from this far away what it was. "You lost your life. Don't you want it back?"
Risty just shook her head. "Scott filled me in. I'm a killer and a bitch. What else do I need to know?" She sighed as she glanced at the boy with the red sunglasses. He hadn't stopped watching her since they all heard how she was supposed to be their enemy. He didn't bother hiding why he felt the need to betray her, leave her there. His hatred scared her. But the Professor wouldn't let him do anything, kick her out, give her back to the monsters that tortured her. He told her she was safe here. She believed he'd honor his word.
"There has to be more to your life than that Mystique." Risty glared at him when he said that name. As far as she was concerned that woman died in that hell hole, and she could stay there. She'd stolen Risty's entire life from her, and left her with a bad reputation and no lover. Rogue moved out of their room yesterday and back in with Kitty. Risty turned away from the window and leaned against the wall.
"We done here luv? I really wanted to catch Oprah."
His voice became quieter. He looked disappointed in her. Too bad. "Risty, hiding from it won't make it go away."
"It's worth a shot." She barely slowed down as she grabbed her jacket and left his office. Old man should have left well enough alone. Risty would have been happier that way.
Rogue couldn't concentrate enough to read her new book. Her eyes just stared at the pages and nothing really made any sense.
Mystique. Rogue sighed heavily and turned a page, more to make it look like she was making progress than anything else. She'd spent two months falling in love with that woman. The thought made her cringe. She remembered Mystique from Rogue's brief time at the Brotherhood, and the woman was a tyrant. Nothing at all like Risty.
And there was the problem. After the Professor talked with her about her relationship with Risty, where Rogue volunteered next to nothing, he'd told her that apparently Risty was always Mystique. The girl didn't really exist.
"Hey Rogue." Kitty's voice was softer than normal. Her roommate was actually being pretty nice about this. The rant about Rogue dating Mystique only lasted five minutes before Kitty stopped it after she heard about it. Now they all seemed to pity her. That wasn't really better. "I was thinking of going to the mall tomorrow. Wanna come?"
"Yeah sure." Rogue spoke softly. She didn't really feel up to it, but since Risty wasn't allowed to leave campus it was the only way to make sure she didn't bump into her. Rogue dropped her head to pretend to read some more, so Kitty sat down and started to talk. The girl gave Rogue her opinions on the Frisbee game taking over the front lawn. Rogue didn't bother pretending to listen.
Ororo was woken up by a loud scream. Her heart started to pound and her robe was in her hand as she made her way to the door before she even had time to think about her actions. A few doors opened into the hall and curious eyes glanced out. "Go back to bed children." She barely gave them a glance as she moved toward the room it was coming from.
Mystique would have hated for everyone to know how scared she could sound. Ororo had been stunned to find out who the new student really was, but it was times like this that made it clear how very lost Mystique was. It was the third night the woman had to room alone, and this was the longest nightmare she'd had.
Ororo opened the door and could see the teenage form thrashing and trying to get away from something in her sleep.
"Risty." Ororo spoke loudly from the doorway, trying to wake her up before getting too close. She still had a sore jaw from where Risty had hit her last night in her panic to get to safety. It took a few more tries before Risty woke up and scrambled away from her, staring at Ororo with wide frightened eyes. Oh Goddess, Ororo thought, and not for the first time, what did they do to you? "It's just me." She spoke softly.
"Storm?" Risty seemed to sit up straighter. "Sorry about that."
"Do you wish to talk about it?" Ororo found herself offering. While she was among the first to agree Rogue should move out, she was starting to doubt that now. Seeing how vulnerable Risty was did that. Ororo wasn't even aware Risty still had the nightmares. Rogue must have been taking care of her.
"No, no…" Risty still sounded shaken. "I'm alright luv." It was such a blatant lie for the child to tell her. Ororo just stared at her for a moment, thinking about that. It was hard to think of Risty as anything but the girl she saw when she looked at her.
"Well, alright then." Ororo nodded her head briefly and turned to leave. "But you do know where I am." She added it even though she knew Risty would never take her up on that offer.
When she closed the door to leave she noticed a familiar head looking down the hall in some concern. Rogue's expression turned to shame as she noticed Ororo saw her and she slipped back into her room. Ororo sighed and stared at that closed door.
"I can't believe it." Kitty's angry muttering came from under a pile of blankets. "You lived with that? She screams like a banshee."
Rogue's eyes narrowed and her voice was cold. "Well, I'd say being dissected alive AND awake might traumatize a person, but if you think she's being a baby, why don't you tell her that?" She felt like tossing Kitty out of her room for that insensitive comment. Of course Risty is having a hard time adjusting. She'd been tortured for months.
Kitty's blankets moved and the girl squinted up at her, obviously unhappy with the lights being on. "I didn't mean… I'm, like, sure it was horrible and everything. I'm just, like, missing being able to sleep a whole night without the screaming."
Rogue moved to her bed and didn't look at Kitty as she crawled in and turned off the light. She did too. Risty sounded worse than she used to. The video must have made it worse. "Night." She muttered and rolled away from Kitty's side of the room.
"Do you, like, still love her?" The question was a whisper, and Rogue pretended not to hear it.