Author's notes: Obviously, since much of this takes place in Mexico, they should be speaking Spanish. However, since A) I don't speak Spanish well enough to translate the whole thing and B) You probably don't speak Spanish well enough to read it if I did, we'll just pretend that any bits in Mexico and the epilogue are in Spanish.

Also, I would just like to point out that all of this Right stuff? That was Marvel's. Marvel is eviller than me. They just pretend otherwise.

As for timing, for the sake of ease, I'm saying that Ric (Rictor) was 14 when his power manifested, 15 (and half-starved) when X-Factor found him, 17 when he leaves the New Mutants because of Cable, and almost 18 when he returns. (The comic indicates he's probably younger, but I can't find an actual age and since he's drawn as 30 in X-Force, I've just got to make him older than mid-teens.) Note this bumps everyone else's ages up, too, as Ric was the youngest New Mutant. Apparently even younger than Rahne. Yeesh.

End notes:

This came out of me trying to meld a lot of things. In X-Factor, shortly after being rescued, Rictor talks about all sorts of things. Torture by the Right (involving needles, even), destroying a city, how mutants are inherently evil. Yep, he actually says that. *thinks* Well, not in those exact words.

I put in the phone call stuff because, while he never was shown calling home in the comics, I couldn't really see X-Factor just randomly keeping him... and, since he didn't turn his family in for gunrunning but tried to solve the problem himself (later, in X-Force) I'm doubting he hates his family. Yet why a loving family would leave him there... well, this is my solution. There are probably a lot of others.

Also, him having a healthy family means that he can be kidnapped and not be totally traumatized for life. Well, not as traumatized as if he hadn't had a good youth to base a healthy psyche on in the first place. Since he's only marginally screwed up now, I'm guessing that's the case. Of course, I am missing the X-Force issues where he *does* go home and sees his family... maybe I'm wrong. ;)

Oh, and the prayer in chapter three is the first part of the Hail Mary. Pulled it off a website!

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