X-Men: Evolution

Blood Magics

30. Unexpected Links

Rogue was getting sick of the silence.

It had fallen after she and Kitty had nearly started fighting with Cyclops, and Professor Xavier had broken it up before it really got going. Rogue had been ashamed, and still was, that they'd been about to start fighting when they should be working together to get out of there, but now the silence had been grating on Rogue's nerves.

She wasn't sure how long they'd been there- there was no clock or anything in the room and their uniforms didn't include any- but she felt sure that by this point, it had to have been closing in on the end of the day. It might have even been into the night by that point; there weren't any windows, either, so Rogue couldn't tell. She felt like she was starving, but like everyone else, didn't voice it; there was no point.

But she was getting sick of the quiet. Her eyes darted around the room a few times, but she couldn't see anything useful, just like all the other times she'd looked around. Finally, her eyes settled on Tristan, the shadowy mass shifting and swirling, and something occurred to her. She decided to break the silence.

"Tristan?"

"Yes?" He responded.

"You asked us, if we could, to break your tank equipment so you could go back to where you're supposed to be. But… aren't you dead?"

"I am, yes. Sinister dragged me out of hell to bring me here."

"Out of hell? And you want to go back there? What were y'all doin' in hell, anyway? From what I could tell from Kurt's story, y'all were a pretty decent guy." Rogue was more than a little shocked.

"Kurt only knew me for a short time. I deserve to be there for what I did." The shadow said sadly. "Besides, this place is its own kind of hell, too. I'd rather go back to the one I deserved."

"Can't argue that this place is hell, but… you tried so hard to get your friends away from that circus when Kurt was being mistreated, and once it became obvious that Kurt was the only one who was going to make it out alive, you… you did everything you could to buy him time. I have a hard time imagining someone like that could deserve to go to hell." Rogue shook his head. "Did the people you killed that day really earn you a spot there?" She had a hard time thinking that someone who chose to sacrifice their own life to make sure Kurt could live deserved to suffer an eternity.

"No… not them. I have already been forgiven for that day. I did something truly horrible, before I even met Kurt… before I even moved to Germany, in fact. I went there, as far as I could, to escape… but there was no escaping my own guilt."

"What did you do?" Kitty asked.

Rogue, on the other hand, had to wonder a different question. "What do you mean you've already been forgiven for that day?"

The shadowy mass swirled around a little faster, as if agitated, then settled a little.

"It's… a little complicated. But… the best way to put it, is… not everyone who goes to hell, stays there forever. Usually, there are three things that eventually happen, and once all three of those criteria are met, the person is released. But there are exceptions, as well."

Rogue leaned against the bars that were the closest she could get to Tristan. "And what are those?"

"The things that need to happen, or the exceptions?"

"Both."

"Uh… well, it's three levels of forgiveness, really. The first level is from the divine. If whatever God you worshipped forgives you for your crime- or, if you don't worship any God, one is chosen for you- if they forgive your crime, that's one level. Those who have done truly horrifying things, though, never get forgiven by a God, so they never leave. That's your people like, say, Hitler. He would be a prime example. Sinister, if someone managed to kill him, would probably go on that list as well. People whose crimes are so horrific that they don't deserve forgiveness. But there aren't a lot of those. Almost everyone is forgiven eventually, after they have been punished long enough. But there are a few people who never will be. That's one thing that needs to happen.

"The second is that the victims of your crime need to have forgiven you. Until they do, you remain in hell. Generally, everyone forgives someday. The exception to this particular rule is if you're in, say, my position that I was with the circus incident. All of the people I hurt that day, I hurt only in defense of myself and my friends. They are considered to be at fault for their own deaths that day… if you are in a situation like that, then you don't need to wait for your victims to forgive you, because what they should be doing is repenting for themselves for putting you in that position to begin with.

"So there's divine forgiveness, there's victim forgiveness… and there's… self forgiveness. You'd be surprised how many people are in hell because they can't forgive what they have done, themselves. I'm… one of them. The circus incident, that's over. There's no pain from that anymore… I did what I had to do, and I'm not blamed by anyone who matters now. But what I had to do before… before I crossed the sea and went to Germany to get as far from it as possible… I can't forgive myself for it."

"What did you do?" Kitty repeated, louder and more impatient.

"I'm wondering that, myself. I'm just guessing here, but from your tone… you killed someone?" Wolverine snarled from his cage.

Tristan sighed; the shadowy mass that was his "body" seemed to droop, most of it settling further towards the bottom of his tank.

"It was… about four years ago, I think. Or… maybe five? Maybe five. I used to be part of a gang, and… I wanted out. They sort of picked me up off the street when I was small, I… I don't remember much about my parents. I'm not sure if I even had them. But I grew up in a gang, and… once I was old enough that they wanted me to start joining in on the attacks on other people, I hated it. They were always going after people who were by themselves… even if those people gave them what they asked for without hesitating, they would still beat them. I hated it. And eventually, I tried to defy the leader's orders outright.

"He… didn't like that, as you might have guessed. So he gave me a choice; I couldn't be in his gang any more, so either he and the others could kill me then and there, or I could go after one person of their choosing- one more person and that was it- I'd do what they said, and they would give me twenty- four hours to get out of the city and get far away. After that, if they saw me, they would kill me. And… I look back, and I wish I'd taken the first option. I'd have caused so much less trouble. But I didn't want to die, and I thought, hey, it was just one more person to beat up, right? Then I'd never do it again, maybe I'd see if I could try to make things right somehow… so I agreed. But it was worse than I thought."

The shadow sank even lower in its tank.

"We went looking around a bunch of back alleys… dark street corners… until we found one alley where a young woman was walking with a small child. A little girl, by the look of it. And the gang leader put a knife in my hand and told me that if I wanted out with my life, I'd stab the woman with it while he and his buddy took her purse. I… I almost got brave and told him no. But… he and his second in command both put hands on knives of their own… so I said I would do it instead. We ran down… they took the woman's purse, and I stabbed the woman just once. I really hoped that it wasn't in an important place, and that she would be okay. But I… after I put some distance between me and that city, I tried to look it up. Tried searching for articles about attacks done in that particular street alley… and I found an article talking about a body that had been found there the morning after. Its description matched the woman. She'd died of a single stab wound… my stab wound. I'd killed a little girl's mother."

Tristan was whispering by the end. "I can't forgive myself for that. How could I ever? I don't even know what happened to the little girl. The article didn't mention her at all."

His tank almost looked half- empty, with how low he had sunk in it. Rogue crossed her arms. "It didn't really sound like you had much choice, to me." Rogue told him gently.

"I did have a choice! I should have died taking her spot! Then I would've caused fewer problems." The shadowy mass said mournfully.

"Would you?" Rogue heard Professor Xavier ask mildly. "If you had not joined the circus, then what would have happened the night that you all tried to escape? It seems to me that Kurt would have been among the bodies, if you had not been there to buy him time."

"Huh?" Tristan rose a little.

"And, because you saved Kurt that night, I can think of a number of times that Kurt has been able to save other people." The professor continued.

"Other people who would not have been saved otherwise." Storm murmured. "It is a terrible tragedy that the woman died, but because she died, you lived, at least for a little longer. Because you lived a little longer, Kurt now lives. And Kurt has saved lives."

"And he'll keep doing so, after we all get out of here and get him the antidote for… that." Cyclops gestured at Kurt, who still stood silently, his normally blue fur a patchy blue- and- green. His head turned to take in Cyclops' gesture, but after determining that it was nothing to worry about, his head moved back to a position where he could see all of them in his periphery, eyes glowing an abnormal green.

"I… you… you could be right." For the first time since the conversation had moved to this topic, Tristan's voice lightened a little. "But I… I still took away a little girl's mother. And for all I know, that poor little girl took my place in the gang I left! That's… that's my greatest fear. That I subjected someone else to the exact same thing I went through."

"Perhaps we could look into her for you, once we have left." Beast offered. "Once things quiet down a little, I would not mind spending some time seeing if I could track her down to make sure she is doing well, if you'd like. I will need some details on that night, though. Where it happened, what they looked like… that sort of thing."

"I… would you really? You'd check on her?" Tristan's voice was hopeful.

"I will consider it doing a favour for a friend." Beast smiled.

"Right… it... it was dark, though." Tristan deflated a little again, after he'd been rising in his tank a moment ago. "I remembered what the woman looked like, but the little girl… I stopped and looked back at her once, but just for a moment. I felt horrible, but… my clock was already ticking, and…" Tristan sighed. Then the shadowy mass suddenly lifted a little. "But there was one thing, now that I think of it! I thought it was totally wild! The girl, when I looked back at her, I could swear that she had huge eyes, like, twice the size of normal. Maybe even larger. And the lighting was mostly bad, but I swear, they were purple. So much purple that I couldn't even see the whites of them. I'm sure of it, at the time a passing car shone headlights in just the right spot, I'm sure her eyes were a purple colour. And it really freaked me out for a moment when we were all fighting in the woods. That moment when I was choking the little dragon mutant, right before she cut the bond that had been connecting me with Sinister at that time… we locked eyes, and I swear that her eyes looked the same. The eyes of that little dragon looked just like the eyes of that little girl."

Rogue felt her heart drop out of her chest.

"What?" came a whisper from Storm.

"The resemblance was so similar it actually froze me for a moment… like it brought me back to my senses for a single second, with shock. And in that second, the dragon ripped the connection with Sinister, and I got pulled back here… although, at the time, I thought I was getting sent back to hell, where I'm supposed to be. No such luck." Tristan sighed again.

"Where… where exactly did this take place? What town, what country?" Professor Xavier demanded, urgency in his voice. "Are you certain it was about five years ago?"

"I… it was about that, yeah."

The timeline was, once again, very unexpectedly matching up. If she mutated when she was four, then lived roughly six months with her mother, and was now nine and a half…

"It was, uh, Canada. I used to live in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. That's where… where it happened."

"We traveled as far up north as we could and came to a stop in the Yukon Territory… we went to the capital."

That was what Dragon's father had said, too.

"Oh my God, it's her." Rogue breathed.

"What?" Kitty looked at her.

"In that case… we already know what happened to that little girl." Storm's voice shook.

"Indeed…" Xavier's face had gone pale.

"What? You do?" The shadowy mass began to move faster again.

"Yeah. That little dragon you fought a month ago was the little girl whose mother you killed." Wolverine grunted.

"What? No… how could that… be?" Tristan's own voice went as weak as Storms.

"That timeline matches up. Dragon's mother was stabbed in an alley about five years ago… and at the time, they lived in Whitehorse, Canada. The capital of the Yukon."

"You've gotta be kidding… no way!" the shadowy mass swirled faster than ever. "What… what are the odds of that?!"

No one answered Tristan's question; the tension amongst the X- Men was thick enough that it felt like it could choke Rogue, but Tristan didn't seem to notice it at all.

"So she's… she's okay then, right? Her dad raised her okay and then she came to you? Or did you get her right away after that?" Tristan asked excitedly.

Rogue swallowed; she knew that she was not about to answer that question. Her eyes darted between the adults, and it was the professor who answered.

"We… did not get her right away, no. In fact, we only… picked her up shortly before we ended up fighting you. But she is doing well now."

"Yeah?" The shadowy mass slowed down, then spread out to fill more of the tank. "Oh, man! Is that ever a relief to hear! Thank you, Lord!" His voice suggested that if Tristan had eyes, he would be crying.

Next to Rogue, Kitty shifted. "Umm…"

Rogue stepped on her foot. Kitty winced, looking at her with some irritation and curiousity, and Rogue shook her head slightly.

"Don't." She hissed.

There was no point, now, in telling Tristan that Dragon had lived on the street for half a year, been tortured for a few months, and then lived completely feral for the rest of the time up until she made her way to them. Tristan had been torturing himself over her fate ever since it had happened; telling him that what she'd gone through after the death of her mother was even worse than what he'd been imagining all this time wasn't necessary.

And besides, Professor Xavier hadn't lied to him. Dragon was doing well, now.

At least as well as she could be, at this point. Rogue could still feel her in her head, in fact, and wished that their connection was strong enough for her to send a message through her. It would have made things easier. As it was, she could only tell that Dragon, on the other end of that connection, was sleeping, which made Rogue think that it was, in fact, sometime in the night by this point.

"Heads up! He's comin'!" Wolverine snarled.

Rogue's head snapped up with a sharp intake of breath; the others, too, snapped to attention; after a few more moments, Rogue was also able to hear Sinister's footsteps echo in the silence, before the man himself finally made an appearance.

"Set up at last." The man announced. "I'm sorry for the wait, but this will be my most important study yet. I wanted to make sure everything was ready to go immediately. Now, then."

Reaching the cages, Sinister stopped in front of the one that held herself and Kitty. He gave his ugly smile again. "I'll be able to make this part quite quick."

An invisible force squeezed Rogue; suddenly, she couldn't move. A grunt from Kitty told her the same thing had happened to her cellmate.

Sinister raised his hands; with one, he made a beckoning gesture, and the cage lock clicked open; the door swung wide. With the other, he made a sweeping gesture; Kitty gave a cry as she was moved to the side. With the first hand again, Sinister made a motion like he was grabbing and pulling; Rogue felt her body move towards him.

Once Rogue was outside the cage, he made the sweeping motion with his other hand again, and the door of the cage swung shut, the lock clicking. Kitty gave a cry of surprise and a thump came from behind Rogue; Rogue couldn't turn her head to see, but her best guess was that Kitty had been let go of, and had fallen to the floor.

"What are you doing with them?" Wolverine roared. The bars of his cage rattled as he struck them again. Rogue found herself wishing that he or Beast or Colossus had enough raw strength to break the bars, but they had already established that they did not quite some time ago. Wolverine might have adamantium bones, but the metal did nothing for his muscles. Colossus, too, was only as strong as a regular human with the same size and physique, unable to summon his steel form.

And at least half of Wolverine's question could be answered pretty easily; he wasn't doing anything with Kitty. The other girl had simply been in the way.

Rogue squirmed as hard as she could, trying to break free, but even though her muscles tensed, her body didn't move; it was gripped tight in a telekinetic hold. Sinister moved her across the room, until her back was against the wall; chains sprang up, shackles locked around her ankles, wrists, just below her elbows, and just above her knees. Only then did the telekinesis let go. Rogue kept struggling, but she was no more able to get the chains and shackles to release her than she had the telekinesis.

"Stripes!" Wolverine yelled.

"Let her go!" Storm commanded.

"What are you planning, Sinister?" Was the coldly asked question from Professor Xavier.

Sinister completely ignored them all. As soon as Rogue was secured to the wall, he hurried over to the computer opposite the chains that Tristan had pointed out earlier. Punching in a few things, two green lines of light appear on the wall, one running horizontally above Rogue's head, and one running vertically on Rogue's right. The two lines of light intersected with each other just above and to the right of Rogue's head; after a moment, the two lines began moving, the x that they formed slowly moving diagonally across Rogue's body. The noise the machine was making was actually pretty much the same as a standard printer's scanner and it didn't hurt nor do anything else as both lights moved across rogue until the one that had started above her was below her, and the one that had started on her right was on her left.

Still, she had no idea what he was doing.

"Scan complete… then the sample." Sinister muttered. Gesturing with one hand, drawer opened and a few things flew out of it. Once he caught them and approached, Rogue could see what they were; a syringe with a needle, and two tubes that looked like the blood collection tubes Beast used when needed back at the mansion. One of the tubes had a purple top; the other, yellow.

Realizing what he was about to do, Rogue renewed her struggling, but it was still no use; once he reached her, Sinister grabbed her arm just above where the shackle rested; after a moment, just the wrist shackle popped open, and she pulled as hard as she could on her arm, but couldn't move it at all; she suspected he was using both his telekinesis and brute strength to hold it still as he shifted his grip, prodded her arm for a moment, then plunged the needle in. Rogue felt the sharp sting of the metal going in and gave him as many curses as she could think of. Sinister ignored her; Wolverine gave a snarl, and she rather suspected that if the situation weren't so serious, he might even have been proud of her foul vocabulary.

Once the needle was filled with blood, Sinister wasted no time in removing it and putting her blood into the two tubes instead; once he had them filled, he took them and moved quickly over to the black machine near Beast; Rogue couldn't see what he was doing from this angle, and instead tried to see if, with her wrist now free, she could manage to pull at any of the other shackles. Unfortunately, the shackle that had been just below her elbow prevented her arm from being able to move far enough to do anything.

Sinister set the blood down by the machine, putting the tubes into some sort of holder, then headed back towards her. Wolverine snarled out a couple more demands; Kitty called out, as well, but they went ignored just as before.

When he stopped back in front of Rogue, his eyes were bright with an excitement that made Rogue's skin crawl. He reached into a pocket, this time, and pulled out another syringe. This one was already full, with a bright, acid- green liquid that made Rogue feel sick.

She recognized that colour.

She'd lost control of her own body once, when her psyches had taken over. It had been the most terrifying time of her life. She'd lost control of her body and mind when Mesmero had decided to mess around; it had been less terrifying, since she couldn't even register what was happening that the time and the entire thing was a giant blank in her memory, but it was more than a little disturbing. But now, those moment seemed pale in comparison to what Rogue was looking at now. She was about to lose control of her body, again, to a complete madman.

Rogue struggled harder than she ever had in her life; she thrashed, not even hearing what the others were yelling. They were yelling, she could hear that much, but the words were lost to her as Sinister seized her arm in an iron grip and, for the second time, Rogue felt the sharp sting of the steel needle.

Fear so strong that she was amazed her heart didn't just stop then and there gripped her in an even stronger hold than Sinister.

And, within her mind, Rogue felt Dragon, an unknown number of miles away, startle awake, eyes snapping open suddenly.

A/N: So Tristan is the one that killed Dragon's mother... small world. And he hasn't been able to forgive himself for it since...

Sinister injects his control serum into someone else; poor Rogue just can't get a break from people wanting to use and control her.