I'm not afraid to be on my own.

Greetings oh crazy readers, I have returned to the insanity of writing for you. Its been... 4 years? since I posted my last story and I am so amazed and thankful to the people that find and read my stories. Mostly it is my HP fic "This Ain't No Fairy Tale" and I am proud to report that after all these years people are still reading it. :O So crazy.

Allow me to lay out the ground rules for the new one. This is going to contain gore, this is going to be unpleasant, this is not going to be nice.

If you squick easily, or are under the age of 18 I expect you to stop reading now

As you can tell from the section this will be an X-men Evo Fic based on Rogue and Remy. Now, I don't own Rogue, or Remy and I still don't own a cat (Land Lords are Evil) All characters that are recognisable are the property of marvel comics, all other characters are the creation of my own little mind.

That said. If you have passed the over 18 and like (or can at least handle) gore then please, read on, and enjoy the ride

P.s. I am Australian, We spell some words different to the USA ie: Recognisable instead of Recognizable. Don't let it annoy you! Apologies also for my accents. I am out of practice as far as these go. Please imagine that they are correct in your head when you read. :D

~A~

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She hit the ground running, the sudden jolt of hitting the ground jarring her knees in unpleasant ways but despite the pain she kept on running. It had taken her too long to get out of the facility and there was no way in hell that she was going back. It was only a matter of time before they discovered that she had broken out and once they started to hunt her it wouldn't take them long to bring her back.

They had tranquiliser darts, net launchers, tazers, all non-lethal and non damaging, but quite capable of bringing her down if they caught up to her. Breath burning in her throat she continued through the forest, the twigs and rocks on the uneven ground tearing into the soft soles of her bare feet. Four weeks of her life lost, four weeks of being prodded and poked and tested on. Four weeks of not knowing if her friends were still alive, or if they had been taken as well.

The thought caught her by surprise. What if her friends had been captured when they had taken her. What if she was running away from the facility where her friends were being held? She shook her head to clear the thoughts, nearly running head long into a tree in the process. Her friends were not there. Paranoia was making her think her friends were back there and that was a withdrawal from the drugs they had given her. Logic won, this time and she started running again.

A lot of things happened at once. Alarms started ringing in the distance, behind her, they'd discovered that she had escaped. Of course the escape had been quite cliche. Taking out a couple of bars on the window, tearing her bed sheet into strips and making a rope to climb down the wall. But it had worked and that was the important thing. Not everyone in the world could teleport from one point to another, or walk through walls, so she had to make do with what she could.

The second thing that happened when the alarms started ringing was she hear the sound of traffic. coming from in front of her, a road maybe. hopefully a highway or a freeway. A dirt road would have been fine. The decision to flag down the first car she saw by jumping in front of it was discarded as illogical, she needed to make sure she would not be run over. A secondary, less dramatic decision made itself known to her mind. Get to the road, Stand on the side of the road, Flag down a car, get a lift to somewhere with a phone and ring the professor.

Tears prickled behind her eyes as she thought of the professor, of the safety that the institute offered. He had been quite correct in telling them that the world was not ready to deal with mutants as a whole. Too correct, as if he had know the reaction of the world long before they knew mutants existed. She wondered if the institute was still standing, if they would remember, or even want her back. Angrily brushing tears away she threw herself into running for the road. They WOULD want her back. As she reached the road and began to flag down cars Rogue thought of the reunion between herself and the Xmen. They would have so many questions. Questions that she did not know if she could answer. They would hug her and cry with her, Professor McCoy would insist that she spend time in the infirmary and heal. Kurt would be ecstatic to see her, and she him and Rogue knew that she would never ask the one question that had been burning in her mind since she was taken. "why" why hadn't they found her and rescued her. Why was she left to her own devices, left to find her own way home?

Lights on the horison flicked to low beam and she waved her hand frantically at the car that had begun to slow. It stopped next to her and the passenger side window rolled down an inch, the female driver seemed very cautious.

"Are ya ok? D' ya need a lift somewhere honey?" A woman's voice spoke from the drivers seat. She had a distinctly Southern accent. Soft, sweet and melodic, almost the same as the way Remy talked when he wanted something from her. Rogue tried to remember how to answer such a concerned voice.

"Please, could you give me a ride to the nearest town? Ah went hiking and got lost in the forest. Ah gotta call my folks." The story was thought of as she spoke, she must have looked like hell to the lady in the car. The lady who was nodding and reaching over to let her into the car.

"Sure Sug' hop in, I'll run ya into Ne'Orleans. Ya Just lucky that today ah was..." she paused as Rogue got into the car and looked her up and down "Sug' what happened to ya shoes? ya feets all cut up." Rogue shrugged apologetically, not knowing what to say, the Lady nodded again "I think maybe ya should come back to the Bayou with me. Ne'Orleans may not be the safest place for ya at the moment. Ya can make ya calls from there." Rogue sighed, trapped again, this time by the strangers kindness. The lady flicked on the car indicator and pulled away from the side of the road as bright search lights began to sweep the forest.

"So, what do I call ya Sug?" The lady asked with a smile. Rogue shifted uncomfortably in the car seat, but tried to make it look like she was just reaching for the seat belt to put on.

"oh.. Ah'm Rogue." Trying to cover for her strange name "Ah had strange parents." The lady didn't pry she drummed her fingers on the steering wheel "what do ah call you?"

Without hesitation the lady answers "Tante Mattie, That's what everyone else calls me." Rogue looked thoughtful.

"Tante, thats Cajun for aunty isn't it?" Tante laughed

"It is Rogue. Ya have a problem with that?" Rogue didn't answer, she just shook her head. "Ya look tired Rogue, ya can sleep, its a bit of a drive back." If Rogue had felt suspicious of the lady before, now she should have had every single alarm bell in her head ringing, instead she took Tantes advice, crossed her arms over her chest and snuggled back into the seat, drifting into the black oblivion of sleep without a lick of trouble.

Only after she was sure that the child was asleep did Tante allow worry to crease over her face. Could it be even slightly possible that this young lady was the missing mutant that nearly everyone had been spending precious time looking for. Could this girl possibly be the one that Remy, bless him, was so infatuated he had vowed not to sleep until she was found? Could this really be Rogue.

Tante put her foot down and sped along the road back towards the Bayou and the guild house that stood there.

Truly, there was only one way to find out.

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~A~