Author's note: Here you go, a new chapter for you to digest and enjoy. Oh and also to review!
She opened her eyes to find that she was still lying on the floor, everything looked the same, except for Mora. The little girl was standing before her, looking down at her like she was some sort of exhibition. Her vision focused after a few seconds, her headache and the dizziness she had been experience were both gone.
"I'm so sorry Mora, I don't know what came over me. I should have never done that, even if you do bother me, a lot." She tried to touch the girl's arm, but the child jerked it away like she was scared of the older girl. Rogue felt bad for what happened, she felt like a monster inside. However, she was grateful that she had escaped from the medical wing, she could not even imagine what could have happened if she had become more angry at Sky.
It was as if something dark and evil had come and took over her body. She may have been trained to be heartless in battle, but not outside of it. Her mind had been constantly telling her to forget emotions, that she was no longer a human, but a weapon of mass destruction. Her heart, on the other side, told her to try and bring human emotions to light. It also told her that she was not destined to become whatever Grumm had promised her she would be.
She tried to touch the girl's arm again. Mora jerked away, again. Mora was not scared of her but of the darkness inside of her. A darkness that was patiently anticipating the right moment for it to become fully unleashed and take over her body, for good.
"Don't touch me. Last time I checked, you left me paralyzed when you touched me. I don't know who you are anymore, you are a monster." She spat with venom in her voice. "Come back when you don't have anymore intentions to kill me."
"All right, I get your point. I'm truly sorry about what happened, I just need a break; from Grumm, from fighting and from just about everything. I will even bake you a batch of chocolate chip cookies as part of the apology if that's what you want. But in the meant time, you will have to stick with the verbal part of the apology because we are out of sugar." Rogue took out an empty jar of sugar.
"Do the cookies come before or after you take your break? I'm starving and your cookies are the best I have ever had." Rogue smirked at her comment and went to her room to get her clothes. Mora stood outside her room, waiting for an answer. Rogue came out looking as she always had. Leather corset tightened, leather pants and high heel boots. She grabbed one of her favorite from the wall, her black crossbow, and walked to the bridge with Mora following behind her.
"You will have to wait until I'm back, I need to do something that's really important first. I promise I will bake your cookies when I'm back." Mora nodded and held on to her promise. She blinked here brown eyes and when she opened them, Rogue was gone.
Earth
Rogue had landed on downtown Newtech City, the part where every lowlife lived. SPD would not detect her signal there and it would give her enough time to change into her Cindy costume. She walked through the streets silently, a cloak concealing her identity. Everyone watched her as she strolled down the dirty alleys, they knew who she was but everyone was too scared to ask anything. Grumm was feared by the aliens living in that part of town. They had to be either really stupid or really brave, like Piggy, to join his army.
She finally reached Piggy's home, or dumpster, she put a pair of gloves on and knocked violently on the alien's door. She continued to knock until Piggy opened up. Piggy put his hat on and smelled the girl, not trying to be polite at all. She grabbed his neck and glared at him.
"You better not do that the next time I come and visit you. I'm in a giving mood today, you don't want to make me get mad." She swung a bag of rotten food and a stack of bills in front of his face temptingly. Piggy tried to snatch the bag away from her since he was starving for a slice of molding bread. Rogue grinned and put the bag behind her arm.
"Not yet." The blond girl told him. "I will give you this bag and the stack of bills when you tell me what I need to know."
"Sounds like a fair deal, my princess. Tell Piggy what you need to know and Piggy will answer." She watched as Piggy put an orange turban on his head. She glared at the alien and rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to create a mood, princess, a peaceful mood. I'm not trying to annoy you."
"Are you in love with me or something? A dirty dumpster is not exactly my idea for a first date, you know? I expected something a little bit more romantic and someone much more..." Rogue scanned Piggy with her eyes and watched him closely. "Handsome, no offense. But dirty alien is not my thing, sorry."
"You are pretty but clean, spoiled princesses aren't my thing either." The girl let a sigh of relief and smiled. "Moving on, what does the princess of evil need to know?"
"I found this in my food yesterday. I have no idea what it is. I thought I would bring it you since you have knowledge about stuff like this." She held a clear plastic bag containing a black powder inside. Piggy examined the strange content for a few minutes. Piggy crouched inside his dumpster and then stood up straight again. He placed a black folder on the ledge and began flipping through its content.
"Make yourself comfortable, princess. This may take a while." The alien jumped out of his home and took out a small stool for her. He even cleaned it for her, something he never did for anyone else, not even for him. Rogue sat on the stool and smiled at Piggy's manners.
"You are pretty decent when you want to be. I will put in a good word for you. Thank you." She sighed and hummed while Piggy kept flipping through his book, trying to find some answers for her. "You don't have to call me princess, just call me Rogue."
"And you don't have to hum while I'm working." Piggy said politely. The alien suddenly stood up and put the book in Rogue's lap. He pointed his dirty finger at a picture and a description was besides it. "There, that's what you're looking for."
"Black Crystal. Have you ever heard of it before, Piggy?" She questioned. She sounded serene and peaceful, and Piggy could also feel the melancholy that emerged from her body. Piggy nodded and put the book away.
"Black Crystal, BC for short, is a terribly powerful substance. I had never actually seen it. BC is not sold anywhere on Earth because of its effects on the person who consumes it. Besides, its illegal here and on every other planet." Piggy watched as the human before him tried to reach for the book, probably to know about the effects of the powerful substance.
"Piggy, give me the book." She commanded. "I need to know the effects of this drug, its my life and body that we are talking about, please!" He sighed again and took her hands as he sat down next to her.
"I knew someone once who was being given the drug. She was a girl just like you, innocent and sweet, you could find no evil in her whatsoever. Everything ended when she lost everything to Black Crystal. She lost her childhood and every bit of good that she had in her body." Rogue nodded, closing her eyes. A tear rolled down her cheek.
"There are short-term side effects, which are not permanent. Memory loss, mood swings, nausea, nightmares and the list goes on. But I'm afraid that the long-term effects are much more worse." He paused and looked her in the eye, he sighed and joined hands with her again. The look in her eyes was just urging him to go on.
"Long-term effects include neurological and psychological effects. Permanent memory loss of the life you had before you started taking BC is just one of them. The person becomes violent and it can come to a point where the person can't feel empathy or any other human emotions whatsoever. When the person is that point, there is no way to go back. You can end up in a catatonic state when you've had too much of it. Be careful, Grumm is doing this so he can control you, don't let him succeed."
Rogue shook her head several times, tears rolling down her cheeks. She let of of the alien's hands and buried her head between them. Piggy hesitated for a few second. He built up the courage and started to rub her back. She sighed and sat up straight again. She wiped the tears from her eyes.
"I have a plan but I need to know that you will stay quiet. If Grumm finds out, he will kill me and then he will come after you for helping me. I will give you money if that's what you want. My life is at stake here."
"Your secrets are safe with me, princess."
"I need a place to change, I have something to do and I can't go looking like this." She said as got up on her feet and gave Piggy the bag of rotten food and the stack of bills. Piggy pointed to a public bathroom nearby.
After a few minutes, she came out looking like a normal girl. No signs of leather anywhere, she had put on less makeup than before. A knee length, black dress hugged her body perfectly, along with a pair of stockings that wrapped her legs in black nylon. Her heels clicked on the ground as she walked back to Piggy.
"Thank you for your help Piggy, I need to go now." She said softly, the alien smiled to himself, that was the first time that he actually felt good about something that he had done. He watched as she walked away to the SPD Academy. She looked back and waved at the friendly alien. She gave him a small smile and then turned her head away again.
She walked for ten minutes and then she found the place that everyone, including Grumm, was talking about. She observed the place carefully, taking in the sights. Sh had to admit that the building itself was impressive, she could not wait to see what was awaiting her on the inside. But before, she could do anything, she had to look for Dru, she had to get him out of there.
She started to walk to the front door. A flier caught her eyes as she paced the front grounds. She read the flier, if Dru did something to Commander Cruger, he would certainly be imprisoned before he could start running. A press conference about the recent attacks would be taking place at 1 o'clock. And Cruger would be taking the stand to talk, this event could certainly help Dru accomplish his plan, but at what cost?
Rogue could not let Dru get arrested, Grumm considered him a valuable asset to his army. She knew that the Emperor would not be happy if he found out that Dru was in the SPD Academy, and all because of her fault.
The blond girl steadied herself and pushed open the doors of the building. A cool breeze hit her as soon as she entered. She scanned the inside of the building, looking for a familiar face. She suddenly saw the female doctor who had attended her the night she was in the medical wing, she seemed nice enough so she decided to ask her where her friend was. She started climbing up the stairs, her hand holding on to the metal banister for support. Suddenly, her hand started to feel more heavy and hard. She turned her head to the side and saw that her hand had turned into steel.
"It's good that I brought gloves." She stopped and pulled out her leather gloves. She put them and started walking again. She spotted Kat and walked to her.
"Hello Dr. Manx? Do you happen to know where Dru is? I really need to find him." She asked. Kat smiled and greeted her warmly. She shook the hand that was not turned into metal and smiled.
"I think that he is with Sky, probably training in the simulation room or something." Rogue nodded and smiled, hoping that she would not ask anymore questions. "Oh, by the way, may I check your hand? It did not look well when you left."
Syd held up her left instead of her injured right one, Kat chuckled and shook her head. "Its the other one, scars don't disappear in a day." Syd removed her glove behind her back, lightly touching it to see if it was still metal. And it still was cold, heavy and hard. She had no idea of what was wrong with her, they never lasted that long. She sighed and held her right hand up to where to the doctor.
Kat's eyes widened, she gasped and observed it closely. Then, she looked at Rogue. She locked eyes with the young girl and knew who she was immediately. She took a radio out of her pocket and called the Commander. Syd shook her hand to make the metal disappear but the metal did not seem to go anywhere.
"What's happening to my hand? It usually doesn't last this long." Rogue said softly, Kat put her the girl's hand down and slipped the glove on again. Rogue's eyes begged the nice doctor to let her go, but Kat knew she couldn't do that. Rogue was desperate, she needed to get out.
As she started to make her way to the staircase, two squads of cadets stopped her. She wanted to get them out of the way, but something deep inside her was telling to stay where she was. She started walking to the other side, another group of cadets stopped her again. She was trapped, she could not get out now.
Sky came into view as she turned her head in another direction. Remorse was killing her and the past had just came back o bite her in the ass. Dru came running behind the rest of the B-Squad cadets. He looked at Rogue.
"So, is it Cyndi or Rogue?" Sky questioned harshly. Her emotional pain was so big that she did not want to hurt him anymore. Suddenly, Cyndi snapped her fingers and she was back to being Rogue in few seconds.
"I don't know who I really am, Sky. I'm sorry for lying, I never intended to use you or your friends. You have to believe me, I was with you because I wanted to be, not because Grumm told me to." She paused for a few seconds as she crossed her arms. "I'm not sure of who I really am or what Grumm wants of me. Hell, I'm not even sure of anything right now. I'm not telling you to let me go but please don't arrest me, I just want to talk so you can understand what I'm saying."
"She's lying, Sky. She has done it before, why won't she do it now? She's just trying to escape." Dru retorted harshly. The comment was like another blow to the girl's heart, she did not know how much more she could take before she breaking apart.
Sky stared at Rogue's watery eyes, she seemed genuine. Bridge took his glove off to see if she was telling the truth. Bridge could see pink, purple, blue and a few stains of black here and there. "She's telling the truth, Sky."
All heads turned to Rogue, Dru had finally gotten his chance. While everyone was busy dealing with the blond girl, he took a powerful blaster gun, he aimed at his target. She pulled the trigger and a powerful blast of energy headed towards the Commander but the balst never hit him. Instead, Rogue had taken it for him.
Rogue lay on the floor, she was not moving. However, she was breathing, her chest went up and down at slow intervals. Kat got on her knees to check her pulse, the girl was still breathing. Sky stood before her, he was frozen. Jack motioned to Bridge and Z to follow him so they could capture Dru.
"It's going to be OK, Rogue. Dr. Felix and I are going to help you." Rogue groaned as she moved her legs, she was full of cuts and bruises that would take some time to heal. Dr. Felix arrived with a stretcher. Sky picked her up and put her body on the stretcher. He was worried about her. "Sky, do me a favor and take this blood sample so Boom can analyze it. We need to know what type of blood she is."
Sky nodded and took the sample over to Boom. While he waited for Boom to give him the results, he sat down in his bed, reflecting over what had happened. He looked at a picture of him and Sydney, they looked so happy back when they were little. He wanted to see her again, to find his long lost friend after eleven years of useless searching.
He stood up and went to the Command Center, there was no one in sight, which was perfect for him. He sat down in a chair and typed the words Sydney and Drew in the computer. A long list of newspaper articles and pictures of the little girl came appeared on the screen. He scrolled down the list, suddenly a headline caught his eye.
'Could missing little girl Sydney Drew be the villain that goes by the name of Rogue?' He knew the article was a fake, but he figured he wouldn't lose anything by reading it. A picture of Rogue appeared on the left side and a picture of Syd as a young girl appeared on the right. He typed a few passwords so he could age Sydney a few years to see if ti matched the picture of the villain.
After a few minutes, the altered image was complete. His eyes widened, he could not believe what he was seeing. Rogue was indeed Sydney, he ran through the halls to get to the medical wing, Kat would probably be done with surgery now.
Sky was correct in his theory, Kat was sitting besides the girl's bed. She was asleep, she looked peaceful, like nothing hurt. By the look on Kat's face, she had already gotten the blood test back and it had unexpected results that no one would have imagined.
He handed her the altered picture and Kat handed him the results. He opened the file and he was correct, it was Syd. He could not believe it, he had finally found her. His long lost friend, Sky smiled and so did Kat. Kat pulled up another chair and let him sit down at the other side.