Watched him through the glass windows as he got on Mr. Summers' bike. Watched as he inserted the key and turned the engine on. Watched him bring the bike to life and rip out of the driveway.

Watched him never look back.

What are you thinking Logan? Leaving me all alone here?

She remained there - silent, still - for a long time. Some time after, a tear dripped down her cheek and landed softly on the sill - the sound proclaiming that it was the end.

It was the end.

He left.

Without a single look back.

She choked back a sob. It hurt, it hurt so much.

He hadn't even looked back! Not once! Not even any indication if he had even tried!

Or that he ever planned to.

'I'll be back'? She snorted, what a stupid notion. Oh, he would be back alright, but not for her. He'd be for Ms. Grey, for Charles, for Ororo, or even for Mr. Summers, but not her.

Oh no. Not her. She was expected to blend in here and be a nice little girl - pine for him, yearn for him, wonder where he was and desperately wish he would walk in through the doors every single day.

Like any other girl would do. Like anybody else in her situation would do.

But she wasn't 'any other girl'; she wasn't 'anybody else'.

She meant it when they had asked for her name.

She was Rogue.

People forgot she had spent 8 months on the streets; people forgot that she wasn't new to these things; people forgot that she wasn't anybody else.

The streets change people, change them a lot and she had long since been Rogue without even having the name. The streets were a tough place for anybody, especially for a teenager and even more if you were a girl. Like her. She had lost Marie more and more everyday in the 8 months she had been living on the streets. She had clung desperately onto Marie, but as time went pass, more and more she found herself changing and she had let 'Marie' out for the last time when she met Logan, but as he left, the last part of her - of 'Marie' - was starting to disappear. Starting to change.

She wasn't a child that needed to be taken care of; she wasn't a little girl that desperately needed protection from the world - she had already seen all of it.

She was Rogue.

Well, not until tomorrow.

Tonight, she would cling onto the fleeting Marie in her and cry like the lost teenager that she was. She would cry for her pain, Cody's pain, Erik's pain, and Logan's pain. Cry for the little girl that she no longer was - had not been for a long time, but had thought she could be again - cry for the child that she had never really been and for the woman she would become.

Tears ran down her face; sobs racked her body and she curled herself together for warmth that was not to be found.

He had left without looking back. It was just the kind of man he was.

But still...

He had left without looking back.

And she understood.

In this world you couldn't afford to look back.

But she wished he had proven her wrong.

She took a trembling breath and exhaled it slowly, trying to calm herself down.

He had left without looking back.

She understood.

He had left without looking back.

He had done it.

He had left without looking back.

So could she.

You couldn't afford to look back, not in this world, not in the streets. It was the number one rule. Never look back, because looking back would make you crumble.

She had lived for 8 months on the streets.

She had lived 8 months out in the world unprotected and she was damned if she was going to run and hide now.

Don't look back. Okay.

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and sniffed looking out the window again. Down on street, the driveway was empty and the gates were locked.

From destruction...

" Goodbye Marie."

...comes rebirth.

" Greetings Rogue."