Nova Roma
During his tenure with the Hellions, de la Rocha met and fell in love with Amara Aquilla, the New Mutant known as Magma. Aquilla eventually left her team and became a member of the Hellions, so that she could be close to de la Rocha, and de la Rocha even accompanied her back to her home in Nova Roma. The romance ended, however, when Aquilla began to suspect that de la Rocha was using his abilities to control her emotions, which he in fact was. When the colony of Nova Roma was discovered to be a ruse by the witch Selene, Empath used his abilities for a time to convince Magma that this was a hoax. This set a bond of mistrust between the two that would never be broken.