Tabula Rasa Risty

by Princess Alexandria

A wave of nausea hit her making her want to just kneel down on the ground and throw up whatever chemical concoction those scientists forced down her throat.  She would have if she weren't gliding through the air pretending to be part of a flock of birds.

When a familiar road appeared underneath their flight she turned away from the flock and ignored the squawks of confusion that caused as the others encouraged her to stay.  Home was this way.  After months of...  The raven stumbled in the air as her stomach convulsed and her form started to grow.  Oh God, not again.  Not now.

The fire in her veins hit her and she fell, shifting form, losing wings and gaining arms that did no good in the air.  The power wires snapped at the unexpected weight and her body arched in pain as the power hit her, before she landed on the ground, knocking her out.

"Ah'm telling you I saw something."  The voice was familiar.  The woman rolled her head to the side and tried to ignore the shooting pain that caused.  The voice was getting closer.  "Fell from the sky."

"I'm sure you just wanted a chance to drag me..."  The other female's voice stopped.

"RISTY!"  The sound of panic and moving branches.  It was a struggle to open her eyes and stare up at the concerned look

"Rogue?"  Her own voice was weak and cracked.

"Oh Risty, what happened?"  Rogue stared at her and pieces of Risty's past came back to her.  Rogue was her friend.  They went to school together.

"I don't feel so good."  Risty struggled to roll onto her side before throwing up.

"Jean, get the jeep."  Rogue's voice snapped out the order before Risty felt arms slip underneath her body.  The pain of being lifted, and broken bones grinding against each other gave Risty some relief in the form of unconsciousness.

********

Rogue paced outside of the medlab while Beast looked after her friend.  It didn't make sense that Risty would go missing for months only to turn up looking like she'd been beaten within an inch of her life.  Rogue made a sharp turn to pace back in the other direction.  Risty had disappeared right after they'd been outed as mutants.  Rogue had assumed that her friend, her only real friend couldn't handle that.  She'd just tried to push Risty's absence out of her mind even though it hurt.  She should have been looking for her.  She should have realized that Risty wouldn't have been like that.

God, what happened to Risty?  The cuts, bruises, needle marks, all pointed to something really bad.  Rogue had noticed them all while Jean drove them home.

"Rogue can you tell me what happened?"  The Professor's voice stopped Rogue's pacing.  She crossed her arms tightly in front of her and turned to face him. 

"Jean and I were coming back from the mall and I noticed someone falling from the sky.  We went to investigate and found Risty."  That didn't escape her notice that Risty had been in the sky and probably had been flying.  Why she crashed wasn't a mystery.  Risty looked really sick.

"Did you know your friend was a mutant?"  The Professor asked gently and Rogue turned to stare at the closed door keeping her from seeing if Risty was okay.

"No.  Never came up."  Wasn't that a trip, Rogue thought sarcastically.  All this time she was trying to keep Risty from figuring out Rogue was a mutant and she never even realized she could have been honest with her.

"Okay then."  Rogue moved to sit on the chair outside in the hall, while feeling utterly useless.  Waiting wasn't her favorite thing to do under the best circumstances.  "Hank is doing everything he can for her.  I'm sure she'll be alright.  She's in very good hands."

"Thanks Professor."  Rogue said it absently, not really paying any attention anymore.

It was another tense hour before a somber looking Hank came out of the medlab to see Rogue and the Professor quietly waiting for him.  "Well, I did a blood work on her.  I can only identify some of the drugs in her system."  His voice was deeper and more serious than it normally was.  "She has some scarring that indicates some surgeries rather recently.  Exploratory most likely, since the scans Forge's latest x-ray machine took still show everything is where is should be."  Rogue felt her face pale and her stomach drop.  She might be sick.  Still she stood still, deathly still to hear the rest.  "I removed a tracking device that was implanted under her skin.  It had an explosive attached to it to discourage such action.  Luckily or not so luckily her electric shock from hitting the power lines shorted it out.  The fact that she survived all of this makes me think she might have some healing factor.  I'm hoping that is the case, because it will speed up her physical recovery."

Rogue swallowed hard, her voice still came out strained.  "Can I see her now?"

Hank gave her a weak smile.  "Sure, but she is still sleeping.  She should come too soon."  He then moved closer to the Professor, probably to say things that Rogue didn't want to hear.  Not that she'd wanted to hear any of the other things that Hank said.

Risty looked so fragile.  Her deep purple hair covered the dark bruise on one cheek.  The IV and monitors made Rogue nervous.  Apparently her friend was in need of a heart monitor.  Not a good sign in Rogue's book.  "Hey."  She whispered to the sleeping girl as she moved to take the seat next to the bed.  She really didn't know what to say.  Rogue sighed and leaned forward just enough to rest one glove covered hand on Risty's arm. 

********

A month later

"This is ridiculous."  Risty came into the room and slammed the door behind her.  Rogue glanced up at her new roommate and noticed the irritation; the hint of fear was also there.  It was always there even though Risty did her best to cover it up.  "It's like I don't bloody exist!"  The purple haired teen flopped onto her own bed and covered her eyes with her arm.  The voice was more strained.  "We can't find an apartment, parents... I had parents.  I know I did.  It's like it all disappeared."

Rogue put her book down and moved to sit up.  She debated about moving to sit on Risty's bed with her, but the girl was a bit unpredictable lately.  She would only accept compassion when she wanted it, and if Rogue tried to give it at other times there was yelling and pushing away.  The Professor told her to expect unpredictable, sometimes irrational behavior after what Risty had been through.  Thankfully Risty seemed to forget most of the details of her imprisonment; they only came out in nightmares that made Rogue's skin crawl when she overheard her friend mumbling and crying in her sleep.

The scarring had healed well.  The drugs took a while to work out of her system, but physically Risty seemed fine.  A little weaker than she'd been before, but it was the mental scars that lingered.  Not being able to find her parents or home really didn't help.

Rogue got off her bed slowly and moved cautiously to sit on Risty's bed.  She took the Risty's hand and pulled it up so she could uncover the other girl's eyes.  "We'll figure it out."  Rogue gave her friend a small smile.  Without knowing what else to say she just continued to stare.  "Oh... Umm, did you want to go out for ice cream or something?  Just get out of the mansion for a while?"

Risty gave her a weak smile and Rogue returned it automatically.  Risty always did that to her when she smiled.  "I don't know what I'd do without you Rogue."  The feel of someone touching her arm, holding it still startled Rogue.  She could feel the warmth of her friend even through her long gloves.  Not so surprisingly few people ever touched Rogue, but even after finding out about her powers Risty never backed away.  Risty was truly unafraid.

When they got to the ice cream place it was rather empty.  Weeknights must not bring in the best business.  They took a seat near the window that overlooked the dark parking lot.

"I just don't understand it."  Risty muttered before taking a bit of whip cream.  Rogue just watched as the girl she was with went quiet for a while leaving the conversation tense with the unfinished thought.  "Why didn't anyone miss me?  I mean... I've got a hole in my memory two months long.  I've been..."  Risty's jaw tensed and Rogue felt a wave of guilt that she was one of the people that didn't realize.  "I just don't get it.  Certainly any parent would wonder if they hadn't heard from me.  I can't even find them.  It's like they never existed."  Risty started to stir her sundae, mixing the whip cream in with the hot fudge.  "It's like the only thing that was real was you."

Rogue didn't know what to say.  "I'm sorry."  She apologized for her own mistake.  It was all she could do.

"What?"  Risty seemed startled out of her thoughts as she looked up.  "You've nothing to be sorry about luv."  Risty's eyes seemed to stare into Rogue's so intensely that Rogue wondered if Risty was developing telepathy.  "Oh Rogue...  I understand why you didn't know."

"But I should have at least checked."

"No.  No.  The humans were being their typical bigoted selves.  How would you know I was different?  It wasn't like I told you."  Risty moved to rest her hand on top of Rogue's.  "Luv, I don't blame you.  If it weren't for you I would have died."  The squeezing of Rogue's hand came with a watery smile.  "You're my personal hero."

Once they finished their ice cream they just aimlessly walked around the small shops looking in windows.  Risty's sarcastic comments seemed less frequent and a bit more forced than normal, but Rogue just smiled at them and agreed anyhow. 

When they walked past the bar loud male laughing drifted out to them.  Risty tensed up instantly and Rogue turned to see her friend paling and her eyes darting around nervously.  "Come on."  Rogue moved back to put her arm around Risty's should carefully and gently encouraged the girl to keep walking.  She could feel tense muscles under her own arm and the nervous shaking. 

"Right brave of me, don't you think?"  Risty gave a weak nervous laugh as they made it to the car. 

"Don't worry about it."  Rogue spoke gently, but her mind couldn't stop circling around the fact that men laughing like that terrified her friend.  God, how bad were those two months?  It wasn't like Risty could tell her.  The girl didn't remember or didn't want to remember.

********