A.N: Thank you very much for the reviews. *hugs*

Warnings: Violence (mild) some language and thats all.

...

"For...give h...er." Rocky said it as though he were trying out the words for the first time; his gaze became blank.

"I know it's asking a lot but, please hear me out about this?" Her ice blue eyes are sincere with pleading and want; he seemed to be listening, so she went on. "Honestly, most people have very serious traumas in their lives, due to the fact that they never get to really understand what's happened to them or why- who did it... and because of that there's no closure." She gestures to him with her hand. "But for you, you know everything that's happened to you, and possibly why it'd happened, and definitely who the one was doing it, but... you only know my mother from what she's done. You said it yourself she tormented you with my face."

Cutting her off with a shake of his head, Rocky snips. "Its not just that. I had D.I.D. for years, years without ever really knowing, until he came out of my head; my brain actually manifested him because he wanted to help me get out of my prison." He lowered his eyes in shame. "But, no, not me I didn't want any help with anything because as far as I knew I was incharge of my life not this figmant of my imagination claiming to be me." He points a finger to himself; water in his eyes that he'd sniffed back; his voice shakes with threat of verbal crying. "And then to find out that half of the time it wasn't me suffering, that I've been hiding things even from myself because I was too weak to handle it..."

That was all he needed Rocky starts to cry, head lowered, eyes shut as tiny sobs come from him.

Bravely, Corin crosses the distance between them, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's good that you cry, it's good that you show emotions about it. No one ever got better from penting themselves up."

"No you're wrong!" He shouted in a low voice so that no one in the home would hear him. "I... can't... What is wrong with you people? Can't you see that it's dangerous to feel things!?"

"It can't be-..."

Smacking her touch away; he sits back on the floor, scooting away from her. "It is!"

"Why!?" She hollars back.

"Because you're not her, you're NOT Maria, and you never will be... There is no revenge, no redemption... there's just nothing."

"But you can pretend can't you? Can't you?!" Holding back her own tears, she refuses to break eye contact with the male. "You... I should hate you! You stole my mother from me! All I..." She sniffles. "All I ever wanted was for her to love me, only me- her daughter, her plain and ordinary daughter." Shaking her head in dismay she weeps. "But she never did. All I ever heard from her was about you; Rocky, he's so great; he's so wonderful- I couldn't take it! And whenever she wasn't around me she was in and out of pychewards trying to escape the insanity that her gift was giving her."

The girl is visibly shaking. Rocky can only sit and watch, confused.

"...You'll never be five years old having to watch your mother while she dyes her white hair back to its normal color, while she gives you cold glares and talks down to you about someone you've never met. It wasn't just you, it was Ivan as well! She would always talk about him and how, even though he isn't the same as you two are, he's still a wonderful boy- that he just needs nurturing."

Rocky listens to her, trying to imagine what it would be like if his mother looked at him coldly and talked down on him. It hurt. It was like someone suddenly stabbed him in the chest with a long sword, and didn't stop pushing until the handle touched his chest. Lowering his head, he blinks a sprinkling of tears to his lap.

"I'm... sorry, Corin."

The girl nods seeing that he's getting it. That he's finally understanding. "So why can't you do this? Why can't you pretend that I'm my mother? Tell her off! Make her hate what she's done to you! But when you're done.. once the last words have left your mouth... you forgive her and never look back. For you... not her..."

"...Corin..."

"Maria." The girl corrects.

It's weird that her mother even made up a name for this new persona with her face. Rocky's gift split him in two because he could not cope with it; who was to say that the same couldn't be said about her mother? She's been around a lot longer than Rocky has, it seemed the guy only just started using his gift; from the close range she'd had to him, when touching his shoulder, she could see the bits of white hair starting from where he must have used his gift for a large amount of time.

Rocky thought this was completely stupid. It won't make him feel better. It won't solve anything, but... if it will make Corin leave him alone, it was worth a shot. Inwardly sighing; he looks up into her eyes. Eyes that held his own so many times in that prison; keeping him paralyzed with fear of what was to come his way. He can feel himself begin to shake; but calming his nerves, he speaks in a broken soft voice.

"I know now what you wanted in life, Maria... it's what everyone different, lonely, or filled with friends wants. To be noticed, to be alive... Empty is the worst feeling in the world. It holds onto you, it keeps you. And I know it held you, but you'd embraced it instead of shoving it away. I know what it's like to do that... not letting something go." He swallows around a lump in his throat.

"I'll think about it, and it won't make sense to me. So, think about it more, and I hold onto that thought until it turns into a feeling" His word rang through him so strongly the word 'feeling' almost didn't come out. "and that's when a simple thought turns on me and hurts me, when it's a feeling or an emotion." Chewing thoughtfully on his lower lip, where his adult-self can't chew his shirt like he would when he was a frightened kid, he goes on. "I... 'I can't break down', is what I tell myself, but in the end, I'm always silently crying and wiping invisible tears, while I smile at everyone smiling at me."

Corin felt horrible for doing this now. How can she not? Someone who wants so much control over himself, is just letting it out to a stranger.

"Honestly, Maria, I think that I would have rather of known the isolation you did, instead of having so many people look to me like I'm some hero or perfect-being, because I'm not. I can be cruel, almost vengeful but... I stop those feelings because it's easier to just be happy than to let things get out of hand, so," he released a dry laugh at himself. "I guess I just contradicted myself, huh, better to be happy than have the world isolate me for who I might truly be."

Confused, Corin listens on quietly.

"That day you met me at the park; I could have stopped you from taking me, but... when you looked at me I saw myself in your eyes, and because of that I wanted to go with you; I wanted to know why you looked that way." Curling in on himself he swallows audibly. "So, we went to your house and you held me like my mom would."

Again he cast out a dry laugh. "You sang to me, this song I've never heard before; it was sad but not sad. ...You tried singing with your normal voice but it was thick and weird; I wasn't used to that; not when you sounded normal one minute, and like a monster the next. I freaked out and ran, but instead of you leaving me alone you... you came after me again giving me gifts; you'd kept saying we were alike, but after meeting you, I didn't think so anymore."

"Why?" Corin asks.

Startled, Rocky looks at the girl as if he'd just noticed she was in the room with him. "Don't you know?"

Corin shakes her head.

"I held so much distance in my heart to keep people out; but in your heart was the distance people put there to keep you in. You wanted to inhale me, so that I fit in there... I was just a little boy, how could I be all that for you- a grown woman! You couldn't resist could you, you couldn't just hold me so we could end each other's loneliness." He starts to cry again. "You raped me, you took my innocents, and held it with power that you won over someone who lived the mirror of your life as a gifted mind. I didn't..." He paused to school his feelings. "I didn't deserve that, and I didn't deserve to be touched by all those other kids nor they by me; what was wrong with you?"

He seemed so serious about the question Corin had to answer. "I don't know... I was... hurt," She tried to think of what her mother might say, how she might have felt. "I hurt myself by hurting someone like myself in the sense that were are both different."

"Bullshit! What did that have to do with video taping me!?"

"I had so much going on in my life that I wanted to remember the good parts."

"You wanted to... raping an innocent child, and having others do the same; you call that a good part?!" Gaze hot and sharp, he focuses on Corin.

Corin's eyes widen with fright when her mouth drops open. Her jaw drops painfully low threatening to snap apart, if the invisible grip didn't release her.

"You didn't have any right to do that to me." Rocky cried.

Corin began to whimper at the sound of her bones creaked in her ears.

Startled back to reality, Rocky released his hold on the girl. "I'm sorry, Corin. I... I can't do this anymore."

"No!" She's holding her jaw closed, and speaks through her teeth; fear still in her eyes. "No, please go on."

"But I almost hurt you, doesn't that bother you?"

"No, please go on."

Rocky lowered his eyes, better to take it out of the carpet should his gift flare up again. "Why did you have to rape me?"

"I don't know."

"You have to!" His anger was quick to return. Sincere and very real. "...Because I can't accept that it was for no reason, it will kill me."

And he meant that too. He had to accept that everything in life had a purpose- even pain. But to say something was for nothing; something that hurt and changed him so much... He can't take it. H just can't take it. "Please Maria... please tell me... why?"

Corin is silent, listening to Rocky beg her to tell him with something she wasn't sure she knew. Closing her eyes, she reaches into herself and thinks of her mother. Marissa Balsam, posing as her but by a different name.

"When I took you, anytime I was with you... I saw that you were cared about, and I..."

She bit back her words because, to her, it was not true. She loves her mother very much, regardless what she'd done to her, which is why she'll endure any pain for the woman: a broken jaw, bones, heart attack, whatever! Just to show the woman that she was not unloved, nor alone.

"I was never cared for. I was watched; poked and probed; laughed at by others when they knew I was a mute, but you... you had it all. The gift, and a life. I wanted to break your spirit until you felt that I was all that you had left."

"Then you're a fool, because I never would have cared for someone hurting me like that- I just can't have."

Corin gets up, crossing the room for her box of tissues taking one for herself and extending the box out to Rocky.

"Thank you."

This was actually really weird for him. He couldn't keep that from his thoughts as he blew his nose. Speaking to a Maria look-alike, and having her being nice to him. It's heady; and making him very tired. But its nice that he can keep a clear head without feeling Maria's gift pulsing over his brainwaves while she spoke to him. It felt safe, like there would be no tricks.

"Maria... you caused me so much pain and suffering that frankly I didn't care what happened to you after a while; but when you died I... I died a little too. I felt your pain, so much it hurt to acknowledge. But now that I can, I can actually say that I'm sorry about everything you've been through. I would change the part of your life that had me in it; and all the dumb mistakes you've made... so that this wouldn't have been the outcome, so that you wouldn't have pain."

Corin looked surprised. Is he just saying it to be nice. Schooling his emotions again?

"Nobody should have to feel alone. With just one person in your life, it can make so much of a difference. And they aren't always going to be the ones to pick you, so you pick them and hope it works out, but if it doesn't, try again and again and again until you get that person that looks at you and holds you and says... 'no matter what'." A smile crosses his face and he actually gave a sincere, happy laugh. "You know it's funny but, I... hated you so much that I've done to you what you did to me; and that was taking away your humanity so that I could hate you, and not look back at what I said or did to you afterwards, but... it's not ok to think that way or feel that way. For that, I'm sorry ...And... I didn't think it were possible to but... I forgive you." He laughs to himself. "I really think that I do- feel that I do..." He corrects himself.

Corin nods as if to say "Go on!"

"You made a mistake but out of it came Arc; and he's such a great kid, a bit mean-spirited, mind you, but great. And you have an amazing daughter; I only wish you got to know that. And I hope my forgiveness can give her some comfort that maybe you will." He looks at Corin. "But, to tell you the truth, if it weren't for you... I never would have found Robbie; and he and I never would have ended up together. He makes me so happy that... I wish I could have him forever."

Corin is stunned again by the things Rocky is saying. He and Ivan? Does he mean? No he couldn't mean that, its crazy- not being gay but... how can he date him?

A knock on the door called their attention, and the knocker pushed the door open, not waiting for the issued invite. "Hey," Robbie says to Corin; looking past her he sees Rocky, and smiles. "Hey." He greets him as well then turns his attention back to his cousin. "Mom wants to know if you wanna go shopping with them while Rocky and I take Arc to the park?"

"Sure, let me get my coat." Standing, she walks over to Rocky and stoops over to hug him. "Thank you."

"Thank you." He says in return for the light feeling in his body. It really does feel good to finally breathe again.

Letting go of him; the girl grabs her boots from under the bed then dashes out of her bedroom, passing Robbie who's walking in. Rocky stands slowly from the floor, as though he legs hurt from sitting on them for so long.

"Did I miss something?" He points over his shoulder with his thumb.

Cocking a brow Rocky says with a sly smile. "You were there the whole time."

"No, I wasn't."

Nodding, he wraps his arms around the male's torso. "Yes, you were; I felt your energy." He smiles adding. "It's a ninja thing; that way no one can ever sneak up on you."

"I'll have to remember that." He kisses Rocky's forehead. "And now that you're all light weight, feel up to the park?"

Taking in a deep breath, eyes closed, smile never leaving his face Rocky says softly. "I'd prefer to sleep, but okay."

"I washed and dried one of my coats for you, incase it gets colder."

"Sweet. My first official piece of boyfriend gear." Detaching himself from the male; he winks at him before exiting the room.

Cocking his head he smirks. 'Damn bratty cousin, giving my lover his smile back- I wanted to. But, it can't be helped. I'll just have to reap the happy rewards.' Heading out the door, he pulls it closed behind him.

...

"Hello?"

Darren Whittle: 21 years old; sports scholarship in baseball; living in a dorm on the campus of the California College; is currently sitting in his dorm room with a finger in his ear like he's checking for treasure, upon finding none, the blond male scratched a hand over his blemished cheek waiting for whomever is on the other end to get on with it already.

"Darren, it's Colt." The caller was practically seething through the line.

Grinning from ear to ear, the male sits up more straight in his chair of the school's library. "Well, well, I guess Baha gave you the news then?"

"Oh what, you mean your new childish game that you're trying to play with me and my brother?" Colt retorts.

He is not happy, even a little bit; he was sure that if he were anywhere near the prick he would surely send him to the hospital with one well placed punch to the face.

"I've heard the rules; get us workd up so we're scrambling around trying to dispel your rumor, while you walk around laughing it up, no thanks. But I will tell you this, back off my brother or you and me are gonna have some problems."

"Oooh, I'm shaking in my seat. You know Colt, that ninja stuff may have worked when we were kids but it's not gonna get you too far now. I know a few good moves myself, its called right and left hook. Me and Sid have been hitting the boxing mat at the gym."

"Did the bag tell your fist it's sowwy for hurting you?" Colt laughed.

"Watch your mouth; or this, so-called, rumor won't just be funny amongst my friends and Charlotte; it'll be around the entire campus."

Again Colt laughs. "You know what, Darren, I don't even know why I gave you the satisfaction of a phone call. No one will believe you, because it's not true; and should there be an idiot that thinks so, they only need to watch my brother to realize what team he bats for."

"Too bad for them it's a guys." This time it's Darren who's laughing. "Wh- what was it that Char' told me?" He can barely get his words out over his laughter. "Your brother actually wanted him to go faster; he'd begged for more while calling out his name; and that kid did the same."

Bitter enough, Colt felt a flash flicker past his eyes, but he shook it violently away; hair sweeping about his head. "Good bye." He hangs up.

Flipping his phone back open, he speed dials his little brother. Tum tum has been acting weird lately, asking all these questions about Rocky. If he knows something, there are ways of making his little brother talk.

"Tum tum, I need to talk to you."

"Alright, where are you, I'll drive over."

"Ahaha, and then Dad will shoot you. Take your bike, you know you don't have a permit yet."

"I have a learners, and I say that warrents me any practice that I can get in."

Colt thought that over. He said the exact same thing to him when he was getting his license. "Hey, it's your head not mine, take the car."

"Sweet. Where are you?"

Colt can already hear the male shuffling around wherever he may be in the house. "Philly Cheese."

"What are you doing there?"

"Starving, what do you think? Get down here."

"Okay... where is that again?"

Sighing restlessly, Colt shakes his head. "Forget it, I'll get something and come home. Don't leave." Flipping his phone off, he climbs into his car to grab his wallet from the arm rest between the seats. 12 bucks is worth it for the information, though, he can't believe that he can still bribe his brother with food. Older, but definitely not wiser, that Tum Tum.

...

"Mmmm. Man this is good, I haven't had one of these in so long. Thanks Colt." He takes another huge bite.

"Uh huh. Hey Tum? ...You know how before, when you asked me about Rocky going off with Robbie, what were you getting at?"

"I told you, nothing."

"Right. But really, between us, what were you getting at?" He leans over the table, hungry gleam in his hazel eyes.

Mimicking the look, Tum Tum leans over to do the same. "I told you 'nothing', it was just something Rocky had asked me about earlier this year, that's all."

Sitting back Colt waves his hand out. "There, see, now we're getting somewhere." He's quiet a moment, until he realizes his brother isn't going to talk. "Well, what was it?"

"He told me not to tell."

"So what! Do you always do everything Rocky tells you?"

"I don't see why not; Rocky's not as bossy as we think he is, and even when he is... he's usually right."

"Let me be perfectly blunt. ...Tum Tum... is Rocky gay?"

"No."

Letting out a huge breath of relief, Colt pats his brother on the shoulder. "That's all I ask." Getting up, he grabs his coat. "I'm going back out. Tell Mom, I'll be home for dinner."

"Fine, but wait,"

"What?"

"Why are you suddenly so interested in something like that?"

"It's just stupid Darren and his dumb friends are at it again; he said his girlfriend heard Rocky and that idiot Robbie one night." Shrugging, Colt adds. "I didn't believe it but, y'know, just good to make sure sometimes."

"Oh."

"Bye."

Tum only raised his hand to say 'got it'. 'See Rocky, I didn't break my promise. He asked if you're gay and you're not. I didn't hear anything about if you fell for Robbie and might want to date him. Mission accomplished.'