Disclaimer: okay. Kinda getting bored of saying this over and over, so just read the chapters previous for kicks.

Authors notes: Man, The reviews I've been getting have been so great! Thanks to:

Julie

Rina Yuuki

Hope and love

GoodbyeMyAlmostLover

Nelle07

Your reviews are what keep me going! Of course considering I had tons of hits on my last chapter alone, so far, and only 4 reviews….I'm looking for more in the coming chappies! Anywho, I've got some new pictures up on my profile of my characters, and if you guys want to be a character in my fanfic, put your profile in a review and a pic of them (or just a name - actor, actress, singer, whatever) and I'll post pics of the ones I'm going to put in. They will either be students or part of the end battle at Alcatraz. If you want to pick, specify in the review

P.S. I've got 2 polls on my profile, go take them!

P.P.S. Oh and I spent the whole evening writing out, what any good author should write before they start writing their story (oops), the timeline for this story. And I've surmised that Gathering Storm should be about 19 chapters long. Now, I may be wrong in my estimations of the lengths of the final battle chapters, so it may be up to 22 chapters, I'm not sure. So, You guys had better put in if you want a character in my fanfic, cause soon, I'll be past the point of the X-men/student deadline, and all you'll be fit for is the Brotherhood/Omega team (the bad guys).

xXx

"Power corrupts," Charles Xavier told his ethics class, "and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a lesson every one of us must learn and live. Why? Because we are mutants.

"Will it be for the greater good," he continued, "or personal, destructive, and tyrannical? This is a question we all must ask ourselves. Why? Because we are mutants."

Kitty answered him with a sigh and briefly considered relaxing her hold on her power, just for a heartbeat, her phased form remaining at rest while the Earth continued merrily spinning on its axis. Just that little burst would put her outside the building. If she held her breath for a couple of minutes, she could be miles away.

It was tempting, but it would be wrong. Like it or not, responsibility had become her second nature. She had Xavier to thank for that.

"Riiight," she agreed. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Xavier shook his head. He didn't like it when she was intellectually lazy.

Kitty, that's not an argument, it's a cliché and a generalization. And like all generalizations, it's only partly true. Unfortunately, students" – he explained the colloquy to embrace the entire class – "There are no absolutes when it comes to questions of ethics. For psychics, such as myself. . ." As he said this, Kitty felt his thoughts jump into her mid: and as well for those who can walk through walls. She got the message, sitting straight up while her cheeks flushed tomato scarlet, pursing her lips in embarrassment at being busted. Xavier continued, ". . . this presents a particular problem. When is it acceptable to use our powers and when do we cross that invisible line that turns us into tyrants over our fellow men?"

"Professor," Kitty countered, seizing the opening with a question that was actually pertinent, yet also just that faintest bit of naughty, "if the line is invisible, how do we know when we've crossed it?"

Some of the others grinned, and even Xavier permitted himself an itsy-bitsy quirk of the lips that might be interpreted as a smile. His game of choice had always been chess, but Kitty's was tennis, and she served to win.

Behind the professor, a flat-screen display revealed a hospital room, together with a legend that identified the source as the Muir Isle Research Facility, Scotland. It was an isolation cubicle, marked with the international biohazard trefoil and an M stamped in the middle to indicate mutant biohazard. A man lay on the single bed, clearly not in the best of health. Beside him stood a woman, Dr. Moira MacTaggart, old friend of Xavier's, a former lover, and partner in many of his current researches.

"This case was forwarded to me by a colleague, Dr. MacTaggart."

Everyone took notes. Kitty couldn't help sneaking an envious peek over at Jules, who was merely running a pair of fingertips along each line of her notebook page. In their wake, every word Xavier spoke what transcribed automatically from her ear to the page, although it seemed to be going to be going smoothly now, it wasn't always as easy as that; when she got distracted, Jules' transcription power tapped into her thoughts and her notes became a stream-of-consciousness exercise that put Joyce's Finnegan's Wake to sham. Then, of course, it was all hands to the rescue among her best friends at school, Kitty included, to try to separate out what was supposed to be there. This morning, though, she looked totally on track.

Dr. MacTaggart was speaking, the screen obligingly providing subtitles for those who found her Highland accent a bit hard to fathom.

"The man you see here," she said, indicating her patient, "was born with no higher-level brain functions. His organs and nervous system function normally, but he has no consciousness to speak of. That has been confirmed both by the most comprehensive medical scans available to us, and telepathic examination as well."

Xavier paused the transmission.

"What if," he asked the class, "we could transfer the consciousness of one person, say a father of four with terminal cancer, into the body of this man?"

Kitty couldn't help muttering, "Sounds like someone wants to play God."

Jules giggled.

Xavier ignored them both.

"How are we going to . . .?"

He paused, looking off to the side for just a moment, then tried to move on.

"How are we to decide what is within the range of ethical behavior and what is . . ." His voice trailed off again as he put his hand to his brow, closing his eyes.

"Professor . . .?" Kitty started.

"We'll continue Tomorrow," Xavier announced suddenly, to the surprise of very few. You didn't have to be a student at Xavier's very long to figure out what moments like this were all about. "Class dismissed".

As the students filed out of his room one by one, Xavier wheeled himself over to his Bay windows, looking out over the grounds, his eyes finding their way unbidden to a willow tree on the bank of a pond.

"Kai . . . be careful"

~X~

After finally managing to get Jean and Scott into the Blackbird, Logan and Kai strapped in as Ororo prepped the bird for flight. Ororo had seen what had happened with Jean from her seat in the jet and after kai knocked Jean unconscious, Ro ran out, demanding to know what had happened, to which Kai had politely, but firmly replied, "Not now, Ro, on the plane!".

Ororo sputtered, dumbfounded, "Kai…how…what?"

Kai looked up from her task of dragging Scott to the bird since Logan and automatically taken Jean, "Ro. . . I don't know how long my blasts will keep her unconscious, so unless you want a schizophrenic omega mutant on your hands, save it for later and help!"

They go the two unconscious X-men into the jet much faster after that, for Ro uses her winds to bolster them up and take some of the burden from each.

After settling all those unconscious into the mini medi-lab in the back, Logan let himself fall into one of the seats nearer to the front, across from the mystery woman.

'Where did she come from? How had she known about Jean, and how to stop her? How did she know Ororo?'

"You gonna keep staring at me? Or are you going to actually ask a question?" Her light Creole accent startled him out of his reverie. She was staring over at him for he didn't know how long. He continued to look at her before asking his questions aloud for her to answer.

The girl in question looked over at him then, her golden eyes, smiling. They weren't like Mystiques eyes, brassy and cold, they were subtler, more of a hazel gold, almost copper, but he could tell that they couldn't be natural that they were a part of her mutation.

"Well, my name is Kai, but mostly I'm known as Marrok. I didn't know for sure that I could knock Jean out, I only hoped, and I know 'Ro because I went to school wither her . . . at the Institute." Her voice grew a little bitter at that last statement.

Logan wondered what the bad blood might be with her and the institute. Logan looked forward for a while, processing the information before letting his sarcasm get the best of him and smirked saying, "What kinda name is Marrok?"

Kai took a slow breath, willing herself not to kick this guy's ass . . . or at least to wait till they got on solid ground. She looked over to him, careful to show no emotion on her face as she simply stated,

"Mine", and quirked her eyebrow, daring him to say anything else about it. Then, unstrapping her belts, she walked up to sit next to Storm.

Logan watched her get up and leave, puzzling the mystery that was that woman. What was the deal with her and the school? What exactly was her power? How'd she stop Jean?

At the thought of Jean, he looked over his shoulder to the back where she and Scott lay prone. Sighing, he unstrapped himself and walked back to Jean, he reached down to caress her face and-

"Don't touch her!"

Kai had heard him get up and followed him, knowing that he'd have question that she had to answer sooner rather than later. As she looked back she saw him reaching for the telepath and had yelled out. She ran to the back pulling his hand away from the unconscious mutant, "I don't know what will happen if you touch her, but I do know that if some part of her brain is active, the sudden influx of your thoughts would wake her. And I for one do not want her waking up at 50,000ft, do you?"

Logan stared back at her, slightly surprised, before nodding in agreement. They stared at each other for another moment before Logan looked down at their hands which were still clasped. Seeing this as well, Kai quickly dropped his hand and headed toward the front of the jet without another word. Logan looked her way then back down to his hand, where it tingled a bit, and headed that way as well.

Logan analyzed the rugged mutant across from him. After they had gotten Jean and Scott into the plane, she had gone into the woods a bit and rolled out a black motorcycle, so he at least knew she had good taste. It looked as if it had been modified and improved so many times that it could hardly be called a motorcycle. If he didn't know it, he would have called it a mini jet! At first glance her clothes looked like regular biker armor, but upon closer inspection he saw that it had the same tell-tale designs as their X-suits, just modified. She wore a black leather sleeveless jacket and worn leather pants with black combat boots. The clothes were obviously made for protection, but they had been modified for easier maneuvering. Her long dark auburn hair was wild and windblown, and with no sign of a helmet, he could assume that she hadn't worn one on the ride to Alkali, so either she was reckless or she can't be hurt, like him. There were only two knives that he could see, but they were well worn, so she knew how to use them, and when there were two, there were bound to be more. She twisted a little bit, looking out of her window, down to the cityscape below. He saw a glint of silver metal on her back, so there was at least one other weapon on her back, maybe two. She was definitely prepared . . . for a war at least. Logan shook his head and turned to look out his own window.

~X~

A/N: Okay! Author's note here, I got this great idea from a fellow author, FragrantPrincess, she has some awesome fics, X-men included, Logan/oc if you want to read it. Anywho, she doesn't update unless she gets at least 5 reviews for the previous chapter…I think I'm gonna do that from now on, cause you guys are just being ridiculous, cause you know that review make me write faster, but you don't review, so I don't write. So, unless I get 5 review for this chap, I'm not gonna post a new one. I don't care if it's: awesome, I like it, or even "it sucks" although I would rather like the 1st two. Anywho, until I get 5, you guys are just going to have to wait.

And don't forget the pics and the polls on my profile!

-R