Disclaimer: must we go through this every time? No it's not mine. Only will be in my dreams...and I might even get sued there. Just the plot from the wonderful mind of Phoenix Lily!

AN: it's so rare that I get so hyped up over a chapter...so you know that if I tell you that I'm doing good...I feel as though I really got something. This is my favorite thing that I have written so far. Out of everything. I love this chapter...

Chapter 1: Sleepless Nights
Xavier's School for Gifted Children-Scott Summer's room
May 21, 2005
1:16 am

Scott...Scott!

Scott Summers was yanked out of an already fitful sleep. That pain filled cry hadn't come to him in years. Since she had died. Could it be...?

"No Scott. It's over. She's gone. Nothing can change that. Nothing. She made her decision." He lay back down, his eyes closed. Then he sighed. Sleep would elude him, as it always had, and he accepted the painful fact. He reached blindly for his glasses, and was careful to make sure hey were on before he allowed his eyes to open and turned on his light. The first thing he saw, like every other day he woke up, was the picture. The happiest he had ever seen his beloved. Only a moth before she had been so ruthlessly taken from him. Before she had given herself to save them. Her green eyes sparkling, filled with joy and love and looking past the camera, into Scott's ruby covered eyes. He could feel her silky hair in his hands, in between his fingers. On his face as she leaned in to kiss him. Her body pressed tightly against him so assuredly, so perfectly. Her lips pressed against his, pulling him deeper and deeper into...

Nothing.

His grip on the picture slackened has he felt, then tasted the tears rolling down his face. He had felt so sure, so confident, that she was there. He could still taste her lips. Her kiss, the fire she only allowed to exist when she was with him. Sobs racked his body as he curled into a fetal position on his bed, the picture of his love clenched once again in his hands.

Never again. That fire, never again.

elsewhere

SHINK!

"Time to let go, Logan." He told himself as the soldiers approached him cautiously. The snow fell gently around him, leaving nothing except the cobbled stones bare as an arena of sorts. The first soldier to break ranks came barreling towards him, ignoring the claws that were held out, ready and waiting. The man reached his objective, but never connected, his soundless agony filled the silent air.

"Who's next?" Wolverine called, smiling slightly as he shook a little excess blood from his claws. They all seemed to come at once, upset over their colleague's death. They came at him, left, right, up, down. Behind him. In front of him. They kept coming, and he kept slashing. Blood ran from his claws down his arms, the acrid smell clogging his overly sensitive sense of smell.

In seconds they all joined their friend in the peace induced by death, and the familiar mechanized voice came over the speaker, "Objective complete." The hologram died and was replaced by the stark cleanliness of the Danger Room. However, none of this was noticed by the lone survivor. He collapsed in the middle of the room, his tears silent.

He had been willing to give up everything for her. His quest for his past. His search for answers. Even his anger at those who had done everything to him. But she had a way of reminding him; he was a killer, a wolf in more ways then one. Yet with one look, one moment alone with her, he had felt different. Changed. In the end, it didn't matter. She was still gone.

The lone wolf shook himself out of it, stood up, and pressing a few buttons on the wall restarted the sequence.

"As if you even had a chance, Wolverine." he told himself, relieving his sorrows in the murder of holograms, as an alcoholic would drown his in the bottom of a glass.

The mansion grounds

Ororo Munroe had given up on sleep long ago. She managed to live by catching short catnaps in between classes, and an occasional night's sleep when there was a storm. The only time she felt safe. She now spent her nights roaming around the mansion, and occasionally the grounds. Tonight was a grounds night. She had woken up from her nap this evening wanting nothing more that to feel the cleansing rain on her skin.

She danced, reluctant to use her powers, and wanting to feel closer to all of those who had gone before her. Her beautiful African princess mother, her sweet if slightly strange father, and –

She danced more, ignoring the emotions, and remembering one of the few memories of her mother, who danced to make the rain come...

"Ororo! Dance with me!" Her mother's giddy laughter rang out over the fields as her daughter ran behind, four year old legs straining hard to catch her mother. Glad to be a part of what she saw as her mother's most sacred of ceremonies. They danced together, all that night, ignoring her father's cries for them to come in, and not noticing the affectionate shaking of his head as he turned back into the house, already resigning himself to the fact that he would not be seeing his girls that night. He knew that his wife and daughter had a connection to the sky that he would never understand. And looking into his daughter's eyes, wasn't sure if he ever wanted to.

Surely enough, as Ororo's mother had promised, the rain came. Hours after the beginning of the frenzied dance. She picked up her daughter and held her close to her heart as the rain cleansed them both.

"You are important, child. Never forget that. And you are loved. And not matter what, Ororo, I will always be with you. Whenever you see the rain. Whenever you make it come. I will be their. Just as I am tonight. Never take it for granted. The rain. It brings life. It will bring you peace, my child. Always. See those that you love in the beauty of the rain, Ororo. They will be there." She clutched her daughter tightly as they fell to the ground. Their tired hearts beating in sync. They slept in the rain that night. And formed a bond that Ororo was sure nothing would break.

A week later her parents were taken from her. Her youthful innocence stolen as well.

Years and miles away that same little girl continued to dance the dance of her people, even as the rain started to fall. The only thing she had inherited. As the rain was released from the sky, her tears were released as well. Only the agony remained. She sank to the ground, the two years of sleepless nights taking their toll on her exhausted body. Her mother was only half right; the rain brought her peace, yes. But not life. Her best friend, the only person she had trusted beyond reason, was still dead. Her motherly-like love at the bottom of a damned lake. Her sisterly-like playfulness gone forever; the same water that gave Ororo a reason to live, killed half of her will to live in an instant.

Jean had always loved the rain.

oooo...man I love that chapter. Just remember the prologue though...action is coming. Although I'm definitely more of a touchy-feeling emotional roller-coaster writer. Please please review. Pwetty pwease?