Scott Summers stood in a dark abyss. He couldn't see anything. "Hello?!" he called out. "Can anyone hear me?!" Suddenly a light shone over him, turning his once dark surroundings white. His eyes quickly adjusted to the bright light. Standing before him he saw a woman. She wore an elegant silk nightgown. Her back was facing him, so he couldn't see her face. "Jean, is that you?" he asked. The woman turned around, not to reveal Jean, but revealing Rachel instead. "Rachel?" he asked, confusedly. "What's going on?"

She walked towards him, taking three steps, and stopped in front of him. Scott was somehow entranced by her; he couldn't take his eyes off of her. She reached up and removed his ruby quartz sunglasses. He didn't stop her. He just stood there, frozen. It wasn't until after she removed the glasses did he react. He pinched his eyes shut and slapped his hands over his eyes.

"Are you nuts?!" he shouted. "You know I can't open my eyes without my glasses!"

"It's okay," she said, taking hold of his hands. "Open your eyes. I promise, nothing will happen."

Something about her angelic sounding voice convinced him that what she said is true. With great hesitance, he opens his eyes, and nothing happens.

"My optic blasts, they're gone!" he exclaimed.

Rachel takes his face in her hands and tilts his head down so that he's looking at her. She stared into his eyes. "You've got nice eyes," she said. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Rachel groaned as she slammed her hand over her alarm clock to silence it. "Crap," she groaned. "It was only a dream."


Rachel sat in the medical lab with Professor Xavier. They went over Rachel's test together.

"Well, Rachel, I think we've learned all we could about your powers. Now what we have to do is help you learn how to control it," said the professor.

"But how am I supposed to control it? I'm doing it subconsciously," said Rachel.

"Don't worry. We'll figure that out in due time," the professor said reassuringly. "You may go now."

"Thank you again for everything that you're doing for me, Professor. I really appreciate it," Rachel said gratefully.

"You're very welcome," Charles said with a smile.

Rachel left the medical lab and walked down the hallway. Before her she saw Scott walking toward her. She remembered the dream she had earlier, making her blush. The two exchanged hellos as they passed each other. Scott must have noticed her Rachel's blushing face, because he stopped walking and turned around.

"Rachel," he said, getting her attention.

She stopped and turned to face him. "Yes?" she asked.

"You know, I had a dream about you last night," said Scott. "Was that my dream? Or was it actually yours?"

Rachel's face grew even more red. She had projected her dream into Scott's subconscious mind as they slept.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I still don't know how to control it," she said.

"It's okay. I know how it feels to have a mutant ability you can't control."

"Thank you for understanding. I'm really sorry. I, um . . . I have to go," Rachel said, turning on her heel and walking the other way.

"Rachel," Scott called out to her.

She stopped and turned again. "Yeah?" she asked.

"You do know I'm with Jean, right?" he asked.

He just had to bring that up, thought Rachel. Now I'm even more embarrassed.

"Yeah. Yeah, I know that," she said. "I'll see you later."

She continued walking down the hall, but after she turned the corner she started to run. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision. This caused her to bump into someone, knocking them both to the ground.

"Are you okay?" a gruff voice asked. The voice belonged to Logan.

"I'm fine, thank you," she said as Logan helped her up. "Please excuse me. I have to go."

Before she even realized that she dropped one of her books, she took off running down the hall again. She ran into her room, locking the door behind her. She flopped down on the bed and started to cry.

Rachel would have felt less embarrassed if she had shown Scott any other dream besides the one she had last night. Now he knows she likes him. Even though she knows he's with Jean, she just couldn't let go of her feelings for him.

After a few minutes Rachel heard a knock at the door. "Rachel, are you in there?" Logan asked from the other side of the door.

"Yeah," she called to him. "Um, just give me a second, please."

She went into her bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. She took of her fogged up reading glasses and wiped off all of the tears from her faces.

"Hey. What's up?" Rachel said casually after opening the door.

"You dropped this," Logan said holding up her book.

"Oh, thank you," she said, taking her book.

"Is something wrong?" Logan asked.

"Nothing's wrong," Rachel lied.

Logan examined her face. He noticed that her eye were puffy and her eyelashes were spiky.

"Have you been crying?" asked Logan.

Nothing gets past this guy, thought Rachel.

"Just a little," she said sheepishly.

"What's wrong?" Logan asked.

She decided not to lie to him. "Oh, I'm so embarrassed! I still don't know how to control my powers, so other people have been seeing my dreams."

"Like who?" asked Logan.

"Well, Scott's the only one that I know of."

Logan kept himself from grumbling at the sound of Scott's name.

"Don't worry about it. He should know more than anyone what it's like to have a power you can't control," said Logan.

"Yeah, but it's still embarrassing."

If he only knew what the dream was about, thought Rachel. Then he'd understand why I'm so embarrassed.

"Like I said, don't worry about it. And if anyone gives you any problems about it, I'll rough 'em up for ya."

Rachel laughed. "Thanks, Logan. You know, you're a nice guy."

"Thanks, darlin'," said Logan. "I don't hear that too often."


Much later that night, when everyone is in bed, Kitty got up to go to the bathroom. She was on her way back to her room when she saw Rachel stepping out of hers.

"Hey!" Kitty said just above a whisper. "What are you doing up?"

Rachel didn't answer her, nor did she even look at her.

"Rachel? Are you okay?"

She still didn't answer.

Kitty examined Rachel's face. Her face was void of any emotion. Her eyes looked empty, almost lifeless.

"I think she's sleepwalking," Kitty said to herself.

As if on cue, Rachel started to walk down the hall. Kitty followed her.

"Should I wake her up? No, I heard somewhere that you shouldn't wake a sleepwalker. I think the best thing for me to do is just follow her and make sure she doesn't get hurt," said Kitty.

Rachel was a distance ahead of Kitty. Rachel made a right turn, and when Kitty turned down the same hallway Rachel was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, not good. Where did she go?!" Kitty whispered.

Rachel actually wasn't too far away from Kitty. She was in the bedroom of Jean Grey. She quietly stood over Jean's sleeping form. She bent over so that her face was hovering over Jean's.

"If I can't have him, then neither can you," Rachel said malevolently.

Some kind of smog floated out of Jean's mouth; Rachel inhaled the smog through her own.

"Pleasant dreams," Rachel said venomously.

Kitty spotted Rachel as she stepped out of the room.

"There you are!" Kitty whispered as she jogged up to Rachel. "Come on. I'm taking you back to your room."

Kitty led Rachel back to her bedroom and lay her down in her bed, where she stayed for the rest of the night.

That morning Rachel woke up feeling fantastic. Jean, however, didn't wake up. She didn't show up to the class she was supposed to teach. Scott shook her as hard as he could and even screamed in her ear, but she still didn't wake up. Figuring that something was wrong, he rushed her to the medical lab, then called on the professor.

Rachel was in the kitchen eating breakfast and reading a book when Professor Xavier called on her telepathically. He asked her to meet him in the medical lab. When she entered the lab Scott slammed her into the wall. He held her by the collar of her blouse.

"What did you do to her?!" he screamed. "What did you do to Jean?!"

"What are you talking about?! I didn't do anything to her!" Rachel shrieked. She grabbed at his wrists in an attempted to try to pry him off of her.

"Don't play dumb! Kitty saw you coming out of her room last night!"

"Scott, stop!" Kitty shouted as she pulled on Scott's left arm. "She was sleepwalking! She didn't know what she was doing!"

"Hey! You've got till the count of one to let go of her, bub," said Logan.

"Stay out of it, Logan!" Scott yelled.

"One!" Logan yelled furiously.

Logan grabbed Scott by the neck, ripping him away from Rachel. Logan punched Scott across his face, making his glasses come flying off. Scott immediately pinched his eyes shut. He threw some blind punches, but Logan dodged them all. Logan took advantage of his blindness and punched Scott in the stomach. When Scott hunched over to clutch his sore stomach, Logan grabbed the back of Scott's head, making it collide with Logan's knee. Scott fell to the ground, groaning in pain. Logan lifted him up by the collar of his shirt, getting ready to punch him again in the face. Rachel watched in horror as she thought Logan was going to use his claws on Scott.

"That's enough!" said Professor Xavier. He'd hit Logan with a mental bolt before he could punch Scott again.

"Could someone please tell me what's going on? What happened to Jean?" Rachel asked. She noticed Jean lying motionlessly on a steel table in the middle of the room.

"She's in a coma," the professor said solemnly.

"Why? What happened?" Rachel asked worriedly.

"We don't know," said Hank.

"You know what happened, Rachel," Scott said bitterly.

"No, I don't! What are you talking about?!" Rachel shouted at him confusedly.

"Don't jump to conclusions, Scott," Kitty said as she handed him his glasses. "I only I saw her coming out of Jean's room last night. That doesn't mean she did anything."

"I wasn't in Jean's room last night," said Rachel.

"But you were. You just don't remember because you were sleepwalking," said Kitty.

"I still don't understand what's going on," said Rachel.

"Rachel, if you would, please take a seat," said Professor X, motioning towards the chair in front of him.

She sat in the chair.

"I'm going to perform a mind scan. Is that okay with you?" asked the professor.

"Sure, I guess," Rachel said reluctantly.

Professor Xavier raised his hands towards her, placing his fingertips on her temples. He closed his eyes and concentrated, scanning through her mind until he found what he was looking for.

"It's as I thought," said the professor.

"What is it?" asked Rachel.

"I found a piece of Jean's mind."

"Wait a minute. You found a piece of Jean's mind while scanning my mind? How is that even possible?"

"You must have absorbed part of her mind somehow."

"Okay, but why is Jean in a coma?"

"I read her thoughts earlier. It seemed that she was having a nightmare. My theory is that you control the nightmares through that pieces of Jean's mind that you possess. And the more frightening the dream, the deeper Jean goes into the coma," explained the professor.

Rachel was speechless. She wasn't sure what to say. The room was silent for a moment.

"So if I give back the piece of her mind will she wake up?" asked Rachel.

"Perhaps," said the professor.

"Then why don't you try that?"

"I'm afraid I don't know how. You took the fragment of her mind, so only you can return it."

"How am I supposed to do that?! I don't even know how to control my own powers!"

Scott walked out, slamming the door behind him. Rachel winced at the sudden noise.

"It's okay," the professor said as he took Rachel's hand in his. "I'll help teach you how to control your powers. Then we'll see what we can do about Jean." Rachel was amazed at how calmly the professor was taking the situation.

"May I be excused?" asked Rachel. "I need some fresh air."

"Of course," said Professor Xavier.

Rachel rushed out of the room, feeling like she was going to have a panic attack. She ran down the halls, out the door, and into the garden. She took a seat on a stone bench, trying to catch her breath.

She sat there for several minutes thinking about what had happened. She tried to let it all sink in, but she had trouble grasping the reality that she had put Jean into a coma. How could she hurt someone so badly without even being aware of it?

She heard footsteps coming towards her. She looked up to discover Logan standing before her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I don't know," she replied.

"You wanna be alone?"

"No."

Logan sat beside her.

"Thanks for helping me out back there," said Rachel.

"Didn't I tell you I'd rough him up if he gave you any problems?" said Logan.

Suddenly, Rachel wished she had fallen in love with Logan instead of Scott.


The next few days were hard for Rachel. Whenever she encountered Scott he would act coldly around her. This upset her. She began to wonder what happened to the kind man she once idolized.

Late one afternoon, she bumped into Scott in the kitchen. He looked very worried an disheveled.

"Sorry. I didn't know anyone was in here," she muttered.

Scott only grunted at her.

"You know, I really am sorry about what happened to Jean," Rachel said as she took a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Yeah, you should be," Scott said bitterly.

"Why are you like this?!" Rachel shouted. "Why won't you accept my apology?!"

"You put my fiancee into a coma. Sorry just isn't good enough for what you did!" he yelled back.

"Well, it's not like I did it on purpose!"

Rachel stormed out of the room with tears in her eyes.

Later that night when everyone was sleeping, Rachel rose from her bed. Her eyes held that same empty stare they had the night she visited Jean in her room. She once again walked down the halls, this time visiting Scott in his bedroom. She bent over him as she did with Jean, and inhaled the smog that is a fragment of Scott's mind.

In Scott's dream he stood in the familiar white surroundings. Standing before him he saw Rachel.

"What do you want?" Scott asked resentfully. Even in his dreams he hasn't forgotten what she did to Jean.

"What do I want?" asked Rachel. "I want to hear you scream."

Rachel held up her hand, jutting her thumb downwards. A trapdoor opened up beneath Scott's feet. He screamed as he fell through the trapdoor and into a dark bottomless pit.

Rachel laughed quietly to herself. "Now, may you sink into an eternal abyss," she cackled.