((I don't own X-men! I wish I did though. . Um. Phoebe, Luka and Lorcan are mine. Tara belongs to my evil twin and Adrian to another friend. ENJOY.))

We all left. All of generation 3 and 4, gone. There was nothing here left for us and then one by one we started to pursue our own lives. We had no intention of coming back, but then we got the call.

Tara Dawson pulled her jeep into the long, oval driveway of the house she once used to call her home. She sat their for a few moments, trying to get up the nerves to go inside. Her silence was disturbed by a knock on the passenger side window, and she glanced over to see Professor Xavier and Logan, looking the same as they always had been. She grinned and shook her head, pushing the sigh that wanted to escape to the back of her head. You couldn't do anything private when the headmaster of your school was a telepath.

"Tara. It's so good to see you again! Thank you for coming." The professor said, holding out a hand for her to shake. She accepted it, and gave a nod to Logan, knowing that the Canadian was never one for the mushy and gushy.

"Who else is here?"

"Adrian just arrived last night, and Lorcan, Lyra and a few others have been here for a week or so."

"Am I the last one?"

"No, you're not. The last person should arrive in the morning. She phoned me to let me know that she got hung up with something and that she'd be late."

"Who is it?"

The professor just smiled in response, and led her inside. All right. If he didn't want her to know, then that was fine by her. She didn't particularly want to be here anyway.

Phoebe was the first to leave. One day, she was just gone. Professor Xavier said that she went home, to Bucharest, Romania to live with her family and finish her schooling but I know Phoebe, and that's something she wouldn't do. She hates her family, the other students at the Institute were more of a family to her. I could never think of some reasonable answer as to where she'd gone, but I did know that she never bothered trying to get in touch with me. As much as it hurt, if she didn't want to talk to me, then I wouldn't talk to her.

Professor Xavier led the way inside and Tara soon found herself in one place she thought she'd never step foot in again- The grand hall. After entering it for the first time in four years, she felt like it was her first time here. The double staircase seemed to go on forever and the massive front hall could rival that of the White House. She was in awe just as much as she had been the first time she was here. It never ceased to amaze her.

"I hope you don't mind, Tara, but we've put you in your old room for the duration of your stay."

The hydrokinetic was pulled from her thoughts as his gentle voiced played across her ears. "Yes, that's fine." She responded with a nod. She honestly didn't care where she stayed as long as she could have a room by herself. There was not a one of these people that she could tolerate to sleep in the same room as during her stay. Tara may have gotten older but her crankiness was still one of her more prominent personality traits.

Before the Professor could even offer, Tara had started towards her old bedroom. It may have been a few years but Tara still knew the way. She'd have to confront the annoying poltergeists of her past by herself, meaning without the added pressure of the old man breathing down her neck. When she reached her room, she had to pause for a moment in the door. This was it. A good portion of her teenage years lay behind that door.

The hydro took a deep breath and jammed the key in the lock, jiggling the door knob like she had done so many times before. With a swift kick, the door swung open and a small smile crept across Tara's face. She still had it, even after all these years.

She shielded her eyes for a moment as the bright lights flickered on. The girl glanced around the room that she used to call her sanctuary. The first thing she noticed was that everything was in boxes and the room itself was impeccably clean. Never in the years that she had lived here had the room ever been this clean, no matter how hard Phoebe had tried to get her to pick up.

Phoebe. The hydro thought with a snort. She wondered in the heinous child would return as well. She hoped not, Phoebe was as good as lost in the desert with a camel to her…except she wasn't. A part of her still loved the younger girl and wanted to see her and hug her and most of all, forgive her. It was the part of her mind that she was trying to beat back with a blunt and heavy object. What Phoebe had done was far beyond wrong, Tara didn't want to forgive her.

The two-tone pushed those unpleasant thoughts to the back of her head and plopped down on her bed. She was exhausted from her long trip and all she wanted right now was sleep…