Template:Featured Articles/3-2015

Marie D'Ancato Caught in the middle of an unexplained powerswap, Rogue finds herself counseling Dryad, who has acquired Rogue’s life-stealing powers. “Can I ask you something,” the younger mutant looked up and caught Marie’s gaze, “I mean it’s kinda personal so you don’t have to…” “Sure, anything.” “How do you deal with all this?” Marie kept Callie’s gaze in silence for a moment before closing her eyes. “Ah don’t know,” she said, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible. “One day at a time, Ah guess.” Swallowing hard, she reopened her eyes. “Not the answer you were looking for, Ah know.” “I’m just afraid,” Callie’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Afraid that I’ll hurt someone else I care about.” “Afraid that if you let your guard down, even for a moment, something totally out of your control will drain the people you love. It’s why Ah’m so obsessive about covering my self. And that’s what you need to do now,” Marie said, glancing down at her gloved hands. Gloved as they always were, except now with no need. Pulling off the light cotton gloves, she handed them to Callie. “Just until we get this sorted out. This…this will get reversed, don’t worry.” Ah won’t let you stay this way. It’s my burden to carry. Not yours. Callie stared wordlessly at the gloves for a minute. Slowly, she pulled them on covering her bare pink arms up to her elbow. She held her hand out to examine them; they were long in the fingers but they would have to work. “Thanks.” The material was itchy, but that may have just been the fact that she wasn’t used to wearing them. “And what if we don’t? I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with this, like you did.” “We’ve got one of the best minds in mutant medicine investigating. And there’s always Muir…if they got swapped, they can get unswapped.” Shrug. “Sometimes even the best can’t figure things out.” For the second time, Marie was at a loss for words. “You asked before how Ah deal with this. You have to have hope. However small a glimmer, you can’t let it go.” “My glimmer went out a long time ago,” Callie rose and sighed heavily. “Hope doesn’t help. It only makes it harder when things play out, and not the way you ever want.” “Maybe if you’re hoping for something specific…but Ah’m just saying to hope that things will get better. Whatever better means.”