"Has anyone realised that this could be our last mission as a team?" Paige asked softly from her seat in the back of the plane. Jubilee and Jono shrugged awkwardly and Everett reached out and squeezed her hand.

"We probably all did, Paige. But it's not like we're going out on our own, or we're gonna be split up." He countered brightly. "We're just joining the main team is all."

Jubilee let a wry grin cross her face for a split second before nodding. "Joining the big-leagues. Or at least, rejoining for me. 'Bout time too."

Beside her, Angelo rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Lee, if what you're going to say next starts with 'when I was with the X-Men' I will pound you into the ground when we land." He grumbled, and there was a quiet snort of amusement from the cockpit where Sean and Charles sat.

"Sean or Xavier?" Jubilee whispered with a dark look.

"Xavier." Angelo replied, seeing the bald man raise his hand to conceal his smile. "I guess he's heard some of your stories too."

"No, Angelo." Xavier announced from the front of the jet. "I have been there for her 'when I was with the X-Men moments'. And I can assure you, they were more than likely accurate."

Jubilee turned in her seat and flashed them all a triumphant smile. "Hah! And none of you believed me!"

"No, we are just sick of hearing 'when I was with the blah-de-blah'." Monet countered icily, making a 'mouthing off' gesture with her hand. "If I hear that one more time I think I will lose my lunch."

"Nah lass, that's just Emma's cooking." Sean countered, steering the jet in a downward spiral. "Now get ready, we're on final approach."

Jubilee nodded and looked out her window, tightening her harness. Memories of the crash, even though it was months before, rang in her mind, and Sean's landings were not known for being smooth. "So what's down here other than a big-assed temple nobody's probably seen in centuries?" She asked, seeing the green canopy of the rainforest approaching at an almost alarming rate. They were hundreds of miles away from the temple she and Logan had stumbled across, but she was beginning to have serious feelings of déjà vu.

"Trees." Sean replied blithely. "And whatever else we might find is the reason we are here. Emma got an anonymous tip-off that there's something odd down there that we need to look at. That's why we're here."

He landed the small jet with a light thump and followed them out onto the short grass. He had been so wrapped up with landing the jet that he hadn't had time to look around properly.

"Wow." He blurted out, looking around him. The jet sat in the middle of a huge field, the grass cropped short as if it were used for grazing and here and there, bare patches of earth showed through. But around them was the impressive stuff. Huge cliffs three or four stories high reached upwards and he suddenly felt like he was an insignificant speck. Within the circle of cliffs sat four large, ancient, crumbling buildings, covered with vines. One even had a gigantic tree growing from between the cracks in the blocks that were used to build it. Only three of them were still whole, the fourth a crumbled heap of rocks. But sat in between the four buildings, two on either side, was the inky black mouth of a cave.

"Looks Aztec." Xavier murmured, guiding his chair down the ramp. Sean nodded, looking from building to building.

Beside him, Jubilee was looking at their surroundings with a frown wrinkling her forehead, while Angelo quietly began singing the first few lines to 'Welcome to the Jungle'.

"Jubilation?" Charles looked up to find her eyes darting nervously. "What do you see?"

Reluctantly, she dragged her eyes away from the trees and vines and looked down at him, her eyes showing the deadly seriousness that she rarely showed. "Absolutely nothing. Not a bird, not a beast…listen…Angelo, shut up."

Charles nodded, giving her an almost condescending smile that raised the hackles on the back of her neck. "Sometimes creatures tend to abhor man-made structures. I would assume that even though this place has been deserted for centuries, it is more than likely that the warning has been passed down through generations of birds and mammals to stay away."

He moved his chair forwards, still looking at the surroundings, and missed Jubilee's small growl of frustration. "He needs to listen to me." She whispered to herself, rubbing her arms as she eyed their surroundings. She felt that the high rock walls were looming over them and a shiver went down her spine. Angelo thumping her on the arm brought her back down to earth with a jump, and she broke her stare, tuning in just in time to hear Sean speak.

"We'd best split up. This place is too large for us to explore as a group. Charles are ye readin' any life signs?"

Charles closed his eyes and reached out telepathically. "No. I can feel no human mind in the vicinity. It should be safe. Remember, everyone, we are looking for the temple"

Sean nodded and began directing the team, splitting them up. "Jubilee and Everett, you take the cave over there. Charles and Jono take the first building on the right. Paige and Angelo, the one beside it. Monet, you will go with me, we'll take the one over there. Everyone happy?"

Jubilee looked ready to protest, but she shrugged and trudged after Everett as he hurried towards the temple.

"What's wrong with her?" Sean asked peevishly.

Monet gave a soft smile. "She and Everett are not on the best of terms right now. Everett made an impolite comment about Wolverine and Jubilee reacted badly."

Sean and Charles frowned. "How badly, Lass?"

"She punched him." Angelo announced happily, walking backwards towards the building he and Paige had to examine. "Chica mightn't be talkin' to Logan right now, but she sure still likes him."

XXXxxxXXX

"This place looks old." Jubilee turned in a slow circle as she walked into the middle of the vine covered cavern, looking at the circle of light that shone through the break in the roof. "Like nobody's been here in a long, long time."

"Duh, that's why it's called a 'lost' temple Jubes." Everett muttered, keeping his eyes on the foliage covered walls and the tall slabs of rock that were dotted around the floor. "Its weird."

"That's for sure. No skulls though, that's a plus!" she replied with a false brightness. "This place gives me the heebie-jeebies Ev. I don't like it." Everett scowled as she moved some dirt aside and bent down to examine the floor beneath it. "This is man-made. The whole structure is man-made."

Everett nodded in agreement. "Looks that way." He bent down beside her and began to help her brush away the sand, and within a few minutes they had uncovered a large piece of rock, carved with the symbol of a sun. "I think I'll go and get the others, you…stay put. Don't touch anything."

Jubilee caught sight of his grin and raised her fist with finger extended. "Stuff it, Synch." She bit out, sticking out her tongue at the jibe.

"Just…don't. OK?" He muttered pointedly, lifting a hand in warning as he walked backwards towards the mouth of the cave. "For once."

When Everett left, Jubilee shivered as the temperature in the room seemed to drop another few degrees. Biting at her lower lip, she turned to face the huge vine-covered rock face.

"I wonder what's behind here?" She murmured, reaching out to touch a leaf.

XXXxxxXXX

"So what exactly is it?"

Sean looked up at the roof of the cavern, echoing Jubilee's movements as he turned around in a slow circle.

"Old lost temple." Everett sighed, rubbing his hand over his bald head. "Jubilee?" closing his eyes, he bit back a curse. She wasn't in the room. "JUBILEE! GET OUT HERE!"

Beside him, Sean gritted his teeth. "Has she gone wanderin' again?"

"No!" Jubilee called out, and emerged from behind a curtain of vines. "Just looking at some of the carvings behind here. Definitely man-made. Kinda cool."

"What's 'kinda cool'? Wow…" Angelo called out, following Charles and Jono inside. Paige stood behind him and craned her neck back to look at the ceiling. "Big." She murmured, trying to judge the distance between the non-existent ceiling and the floor. "Must have been even more impressive before the rainforest took over."

Jubilee rubbed at her arms, feeling the chill in the air deepen and nodded. "Can you imagine that about a thousand years ago, someone was standing right were we are now…god only knows what they were doing…"

"Praying probably." Everett pointed to the huge sun emblazoned in stone on the floor of the cavern. "To some sun god."

"Or human sacrifices." She countered quickly, giving the cavern another eyeballing. Something was wrong. The whole place felt wrong to her and she couldn't believe no one else could feel it.

"Get real, Jubilee." Everett snapped back and Jubilee's eyes narrowed as she considered taking a warning step towards him.

"Were you here a thousand years ago Ev? No? Well then shut your mouth, 'cos you don't know." She lifted her head and looked at Sean, her eyes clouded with worry. "I really think we should leave, Sean. This place isn't right."

Beside her, Paige began to nod slowly. "I agree. I don't like this place. It's…not right."

Rolling his eyes, Sean folded his arms across his chest. "Can either of ye give me a more valid reason than 'it's not right?'" he asked patiently.

"It gives me the heebie jeebies?" Jubilee offered hopefully. Paige just shook her head, eyeing the vegetation with apprehension.

"Well then, that's settled. Everett, you and Angelo start looking behind the vines. The rest of ye might as well start looking at the standing stones."

Monet ignored them all and lifted the camcorder, recording everything she could see.

"Jono, help me with this." Charles murmured, pointing to the slab of symbol covered rock nearest to him. Jono obediently trotted over and walked beside the older man in his hover-chair as they approached the slab. "This is ancient…the carvings…I couldn't even begin to guess at what they mean." Xavier murmured, peering at the symbols chipped out of the rock face. The faceless mutant nodded and put his hand on the slab, his fingers brushing against a small symbol of the sun at the edge of the smooth rock face. Suddenly and without warning, the slab of smooth stone they were standing on pivoted and tipped them forwards into the darkness, slamming back into place with a thump.

"Get over here!" Sean roared, running his fingers over the now stable floor slab. Jubilee scrabbled in the sand, scooping it away from the edges to see if there was anything she could get purchase on, but to no avail. Gritting her teeth, she stood and began running her hands against the rock on the wall, seeing if she could find the trigger that had dumped the two X-men into the unknown. As she worked, Paige husked into a metal form and began trying to lever up the stone but it wouldn't budge an inch.

Monet sat back on her haunches and tried to contact both telepaths, but to no avail. "They aren't answering." There was a hint of worry in her voice, mixed with frustration. "Nothing…it's like they've disappeared off the grid."

Jubilee and Sean shared a worried look and Sean stepped back to see if he could see anything that might help them. Jubilee chewed at her lip and slapped her hand against the rock in frustration. Suddenly the world seemed to tilt and she found herself descending into the darkness with a loud yelp of surprise. What little light there was disappeared when the rock closed back over and she descended down into the unknown, her uniform barely protecting her body from friction burns as she slid over the bare rock.

She landed on her feet with a thud and promptly lost her balance, falling onto all fours. Her breath caught in the back of her throat as the oppressive darkness closed in around her, and she mentally shook herself, cursing at her lack of thought. Rolling her eyes, a handful of paffs lit up the darkness and she realised she had to be standing in another large cavern as her light didn't touch another surface other than the floor…even the ceiling was too far above her to see.

"Professor? Jono? Yo! Starsmore, you in here?" She called out, turning 360 degrees, lighting up all around her. There was no answer, and she moved her light closer to the ground to see where the tracks led. But there were no tracks in the bone white sand. The coldness that had made her shiver in the roofless cavern now made her shake as goosebumps covered her arms and she swallowed convulsively, holding her hand up higher and increasing the power of her paff. "Anybody here? Nobody here? Anything here?" She asked again, trying to banish the quaver from her voice. "Come on guys, you couldn't have gone far…the three of us went down the same chute…guys? If this is a prank, I swear, it's not funny…guys…?" her voice decreased in volume as she spoke and she looked upwards, hoping to see where she had exited. Only there was nothing there but infinite darkness. "I'm so screwed…"

XXXxxxXXX

"Everett, go around and see if there are any tunnels hidden beneath those vines." Sean snapped angrily. "Angelo, go back to the jet and see if you can find a pry bar or something."

As the others ran off to do their tasks, Monet reached around the rock, making sure not to stand on the slab and touched against the same symbol Jubilee had touched.

"Why doesn't it work?" She asked peevishly. She increased the force with which she touched it and grazed her lower lip with her teeth.

"I don't know lass, but go help Everett." Sean ordered shortly.

"Got one!" Everett shouted out, ripping away some of the greenery to reveal a dark tunnel. "Monet, tell Angelo to grab some torches while he's at the jet. We're going to need them."

Paige frowned and husked into the hardest form she could, going down on one knee. Her eyes narrowed and she began to pound her fist into the slab, stopping after a few blows. She was dismayed to see that her efforts didn't so much as chip it. "This isn't happening." She murmured, slamming her fist down once more. "Not now."

XXXxxxXXX

Jubilee was close to panicking. She couldn't keep up paffing the darkness. It was sapping her strength and she still hadn't found the edge of the cavern she was in, let alone that the power and amount she was producing was growing weaker and smaller each time. Growling, she drew an arrow in the sand, pointing in the direction she was travelling and sat down on the floor drawing her legs up against her chest, resting her chin on her knees. Closing her eyes, she thought hard about what she was going to do next.

"Face it, Lee. There's nothing else you can do but keep walking." She grumbled. A small voice at the back of her head murmured that maybe it might have been better if she'd stayed where she'd landed. But there was nothing for it. She'd never find her way back there anyhow. Even her footprints disappeared as the sand slid back into place behind her.

The walk seemed endless. She didn't know how long she'd been in there, or how far she had walked. The odd paff from time to time lit up the darkness, showing nothing but a perfectly level sandy floor and infinite blackness beyond.

"Annnybooody theeeeerrrreeee?" She called out and suddenly stopped in her tracks. "Oh crap. What if I'm dead and this is like, purgatory or something?" She gulped worriedly and turned in a quick circle, "God, I'm, like, sorry if I pissed you off in the past…if you're there…if this is purgatory…I'm too young to die?" she finished hopefully, waiting to be struck down for blaspheming. "Not dead? Dead? An answer would be nice…helpful…"

She waited what felt like an eternity for an answer but got nothing. "I'm getting really sick of this!" She screamed out, the absence of noise beginning to get to fray her already frazzled nerves. "I don't like the dark! I want some light goddamnit!" A bubble of panic worked it's way through her and she lifted her hands and blasted the darkness with everything she had, letting out a roar of anger and frustration. The sparks died away leaving her in darkness once again and she fell to her knees, letting out a sob.

As she wiped her eyes and tried to get a hold of herself, she missed the light that crept towards her in the distance. A single solitary bubble that bobbed and weaved through the darkness.

//you//

Jubilee's head jerked up when the small orb bobbed in front of her face and she fell back, floundering as she shuffled away from it, kicking up the sand. She felt the voice in her bones the same as she had when she and Logan had stumbled across the ruin months before.

//are you worthy?//

"I don't understand?" The tears glistened on her cheeks and she hurriedly wiped at them, trying to remove all proof of their existence.

//do you believe you are worthy?//

"Of what?" A snap of defiance crept into her voice and the bubble of light darted towards her, making her shuffle back even further, her breath catching in her throat as it hovered just in front of her eyes, making her cross them to keep it in focus.

//you are uncomfortable//

Jubilee couldn't work out if the voice was male or female. It was asexual and sounded almost curious. "I don't like being in situations I don't understand and I don't like the dark." She stated flatly.

//do you believe you are worthy?…//

Jubilee shook her head violently and snorted. "I. Don't. Understand. The. Question."

//You have spoken to Our brethren before. Why did you return when you were warned to stay away?//

Jubilee frowned, immediately knowing what it was talking about. "What? Back at the other temple? It's miles away…I didn't know…"

//Do you think you are worthy of life?//

Jubilee froze at the matter of fact tone, and her heart started hammering inside her chest again. "I do."

//Why?//

The voice sounded curious and she felt the level of fear inside her spike. No normal person would ask that question. And neither would any human with half a brain cell. Therefore what she was dealing with was probably not human…or mutant. "Why? Because… because all living things deserve life…because I'm a good person…at least I think I'm a good person…I don't know…I annoy people some people…why the hell am I justifying myself to you?!" she babbled.

//do you want to live?//

"Yes." The answer was given quickly and with definite belief and the bubble of light drew back slightly.

//and your companions. The other trespassers; the mute and the cripple. Those that search for you. Do they deserve life?//

"Yes!" Jubilee exclaimed. "They do! They all do! The professor gave me a place to stay, he took me in…he took us all in. Gave us a home…a chance to help other people. Jono's my friend. They are kind good people! Please don't hurt them! If you are going to hurt any of us for trespassing or whatever has pissed you off, then take me. Leave them alone!"

//you would give your life for them?// the voice was curious and the ball of light moved even closer. This one was easy though. She didn't even have to think.

"In a heartbeat."

//the darkness scares you// it wasn't a question, more a statement of fact and Jubilee found herself nodding.

"Yes." She whispered, suddenly finding it hard to speak. "It scares me."

//why?//

Jubilee blinked. She had never had to explain her fear of the dark to anyone before. Not even to Logan. He'd just taken her terror as fact and dealt with it as such. He'd been the one to purchase a nightlight for her when they'd first come to the mansion.

"It hides things. Bad things. Nothing good ever comes from the shadows. Nightmares come from the shadows."

//how apt. For the nightmare comes// the voice murmured and suddenly the bubble began to expand. //You have trespassed. Will you accept the punishment to spare your friends?//

Jubilee swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. "Willingly. I'm not afraid of you."

//You are a good soul// the expanding light pulsed suddenly and flashed outwards, enveloping her in a beam of intense white light. //you will do//

XXXxxxXXX

Angelo kept walking, holding his torch up high to see where he was stepping.

"Keep going Angelo. We're right behind you." Sean assured him, glancing around to make sure he wasn't lying. Paige gave him a tight smile and a nod, urging him forwards. She had lost count of the tunnels they had gone down and they were all exhausted, but refused to give up the search.

"Sean…this one's a dead end too." Angelo sighed, his shoulders sagging. And with so much extra skin, it emphasised the gesture. He slapped his hand against the solid rock wall and shook his head. "Back we go."