Ten

"Why the obsession with this one girl?" Callis wondered. "We have other templates with other, better powers. Why not just declare this one as beyond salvage?"

"It's not just her mutant power," Emma Frost explained. "It's her mind. When I was within her mind, I could comprehend theorems and principles, all those mysteries. That's the mind I want for all of our templates. We've managed to extract personalities and memories absorbed by the Rogue and imprint them onto other bodies. Why not intelligence as well?"

"Well, I'm all for radical scientific experimentation, but, speaking from experience, Katherine Pryde has always been a difficult subject."

"We'll make it work," she said. "Even if I have to telepathically rip her mind to shreds, we'll make it work."

"Such vehemence. Could it have something to do with the fact that she and that fire-manipulating boyfriend of hers once got the better of you?" Callis asked slyly.

She was about to make a retort when her secretary buzzed to inform her that Captain Park had arrived. "Send him in," she instructed.

"I was told to report to you, Ma'am," he said once he was in her office.

"Yes," she nodded. "I want to know the status of your mission."

"We may have a lead, Ma'am."

"You may have a lead? You're not sure just what it is?"

He flushed, but he went on. "About seven miles from where she was last spotted, there's a campsite. One of our scouts spoke with a ranger, and the ranger said that on the day we lost track of the subject, a school had reserved one of the campsites but they never stayed long enough to set up camp. Instead, they left almost as soon as they arrived. A Dr. Grey told him that some kind of emergency had occurred, but she didn't give any details and he never thought to ask. The circumstances are suspicious, so we're looking further into it."

"Grey," she repeated. "Dr. Jean Grey?"

"Yes, Ma'am." He wondered how she knew the name.

Callis suddenly began to laugh. "Looks like the little kitty found her way home."

Emma Frost had never looked more dangerous as she did then.

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John stared at her in shock. They had become solid again a few feet before they hit the floor and they had landed hard in a heap of tangled limbs. He quickly extricated himself from her.

"How – how did you do that?" he demanded.

"It's -," she shook her head as if to clear it of disturbing memories, "something I can do. I – I died. I died!"

"Shut up!" he said harshly. "You're not making any sense!"

"I died," she repeated. Her eyes filled with tears. She looked at him as if she was seeing him for the first time. "John?" She took a step toward him.

"Don't come near me!" he shouted. "Who are you? Did she send you? Did that bitch who killed Kitty send you?"

She suddenly screamed. "Get out of me! Get out!" She grabbed her head in pain. "I'm not here! This isn't -!"

Hesitantly, he approached her. A thought was growing in his mind. He knew it was insane, but he couldn't stop himself from hoping anyway. "Kitty?"

The name clearly startled her. "No," she sobbed. She curled up into a ball. "No. I died. What's happening to me? Help me!"

He knelt before her. "Kitty," he whispered, "is it really you? Tell me. Is it you?"

"John?" She seemed to have trouble focusing on him. "John. I fell. I couldn't fight her."

"Oh, God." He took her into his arms and hugged her tightly. "Kitty!" He held her until Miss Grey and Mr. Summers appeared. He didn't let go as the two teachers led them to the lift and took them to the infirmary. They weren't injured by the fall, but Miss Grey insisted that they still be checked out, just to be certain that they were both all right.

"It's Kitty!" John told them. "She's Kitty. She's alive!"

"John," Miss Grey said gently, "that's not possible. I know that she has the same power as Kitty -"

"But she remembers!" he said. "She knows how she died. I'm telling you it's Kitty."

"John!" she called his name. She looked anxious and confused as she gripped his hand. "She'll come for me. She's done things -!"

"Who?" he asked. "What happened to you? How – Where have you been all this time?"

"The woman. The telepath. She'll try to get me back."

"The telepath?" Miss Grey looked stunned. "The one who attacked the school three years ago?"

"Three – years?" Kitty started crying again. "I've been gone three years?"

"But you're back. You're home now," John said to her. He was smiling so happily that he wasn't aware he was crying, too.

"How can that be?" Mr. Summers' tone was incredulous. "Kitty Pryde died. For God's sake, we were all at her funeral!"

"She did something. There are others, like me. She said she needed soldiers. And she was there, making me do things, and I couldn't move or breathe - !" She was becoming hysterical again.

Suddenly, John's happiness faded. He remembered what the telepath had said to him before it had made Kitty jump off the walkway in Cerebro. It had told him that Kitty had never loved him, that she had only been with him because it had taken over her body and controlled all her actions. The two of them had thwarted its initial attack on the school, and the telepath had been vindictive enough to devise a little plan of revenge against them when it returned. Now all the uncertainties and insecurities those revelations had caused were coming back to consume him.

"I can't use my telepathy on you," Miss Grey said, "so you have to tell me exactly what you remember."

While she talked, John slipped out of the room. She never even seemed to notice when he left her side, and, somehow, that was worse than any pain he felt when he thought she was gone forever.