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Blinking, Jean looked down at herself feeling stunned and disoriented. When her vision finally cleared she looked around, quickly recognizing her surroundings. She was at Alkali Lake…she slowly turned around on the rock she was standing on to look back at the lake, but what she saw shocked her.

There was no water in the lake…it was completely dried up. What she saw before her was a massive amount of soil, cracked and scorched.

Jean squeezed her eyes shut. She had to be seeing things. There had to be water here…she held it back long enough to get the jet up to safety. But when she opened her eyes, again what she saw was a completely dried up Alkali Lake.

She tried to say something, but her throat was so dry no words came out.

'Charles…help me…' she said telepathically.

Jean then squeezed her eyes shut again as pain came to her head, pain like no headache she had ever had before. She fell to her knees, her mouth opened in a grimace of pain. Her limbs began to glow and her eyes turned bright orange before she collapsed into a fetal position.

Back at the mansion, after the memorial was long over Xavier had wished the Grey parents well before the left, Hank McCoy, an old friend of his had decided to stay. He finally felt some closure over what had happened at Alkali Lake, ready to put it behind him and move forward but something…something kept whispered across his mind.

Something familiar.

Something he thought he would never feel again.

Something…impossible?

Xavier heard it again. It was so faint he thought he must be imagining things.

'Charles…help me.'

There it was again, for a fourth time. Still weak, but undeniable this time. Xavier gazed out the window, looking at the trees blowing in the wind.

"Jean?" He said, quietly to himself.

However, there was no response.

Now more than ever, he wished he could go to Cerebro but knew it was not working. Damn Striker for this, he thought to himself.

Xavier closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He began concentrating as hard as he could…projecting his telepathy to search the area of Alkali Lake for any signs of life.

Concentrate…concentrate.

Finally, he is there…looking over the area, looking for her but locating nothing.

Even though discourage, he continued, hoping that no one who come in and break up his communication.

Searching…

Searching…

There!

Xavier's telepathy came across something, mutant life…but it was not Jean.

Frowning in disappointment, Xavier's hands tightened his grip on the arms of his wheelchair as he refocused his search…he then sensed something of pure energy…something powerful.

'My god.'

"She's alive," he said out loud to himself, needing to hear the words to make them real. "She's alive."

'Logan…Ororo, please come to my office immediately.' Xavier said to both of them telepathically.

After a few moments, Ororo walked though the door of the office and Logan soon followed.

"Now is not a good time Charles," Logan said.

Ororo gave Logan a look.

"What is it Professor?"

Xavier looked to both of them. There was no time for long speeches or explanations. They needed to get to Alkali Lake and bring Jean home.

Now.

"I have news about Jean…she's alive."

Meanwhile upstairs, Scott was inside of the room he had been putting almost all his time since they came back from Alkali Lake. Now, he had help from an old friend of the Professor's named 'Forge' who could design anything…because that was his mutant power.

Scott had finished hooking up the gas line while Forge was putting the finishing touches on the floor. After a few minutes, they were both finished, and now the idea Scott came up with a few weeks ago had become a reality.

"Thanks a lot for your help, Forge." Scott said as he put his tools away.

"Don't mention it kid, to be honest if I didn't get out of that office I was gonna go crazy."

Every since Forge had left the school, he had some kind of government job. Scott had called and asked him to come up a few days earlier before Jean's memorial.

After Scott walked out of the room, he decided to call a team meeting. To let them know about their future training. He arrived at Bobby Drake's room and knocked before opening the door, unsurprised to see Rogue in the room with him.

"Yes, Mr. Summers?" Bobby asked.

"I need to see you two."

After that he found Kurt Wagner walking through the hall.

"Kurt, where's Logan and Ororo?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I think since you three are new, you should see this first. Follow me."

Bobby and Rogue looked at each other in confusion as they continued to walk with Kurt behind Scott to the second floor before Scott stopped at the old gym room, except it wasn't a gym room anymore.

The room was completely empty, no more weights or machines in it. The walls had been made of nickel-titanium alloy. Bobby looked back at the leader of the team in confusion.

"We're training in here? What are we suppose to do?"

Scott smirked a little.

"Follow me."

He lead them all to the control panel where someone could be to monitor and control its operations. Scott pressed a button and a gas fire came shooting out of the wall inside the room. The other three looked at each other in shock.

Scott pulled on a lever and a huge metal vice came out from either side and smashed into itself. Whoever was between that would get crushed. Finally, Scott pushed another button and a door opened up and out stomped out a six foot tall metal robot.

"How on earth did you come up with this?" Rogue asked.

"With Forge's help." Scott answered as he turned back to the three of them. "Soon, we all are going to be training in here. One hour a day, three days per week."

"Are you serious?" Bobby asked.

"Dead serious."

Kurt looked at the teens and they all looked nervous.

"Scott...isn't this a little dangerous?"

He nodded as he turned back to them.

"Yes it is. But its even more dangerous out there, in what you may face. If you don't think you can handle this, tell me now, and you won't have to participate. But just so you know, if you don't...you will not be a member of the X-Men. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is."

He looked over the three of them, they all looked like they had doubts. Especially Rogue.

"Let me know soon," Scott said and turned to leave them all to themselves.