Chapter Ten

In the Astral Plane's most well-armoured - and probably only - broom closet, Jean Grey and Professor Xavier were busy debating their options.

"If I can just take control from it, I'm pretty sure I can keep it down as long as I don't use my powers. The problem is timing... if I take control too soon, I'm still dead and rotting. Too late, and it kills someone..." She shook her head in frustration. "And if I do it wrong and Logan thinks I'm the Phoenix, he stabs me again. I need to wait until it comes back properly, but take control immediately after... somehow," she added in a much less confident tone.

Xavier nodded. "I'll be there to guide you," he reminded her comfortingly. "You'll be taking the Phoenix on directly, but I can support whatever you do."

"If I can work out what to do..." She looked at Scott's glasses, realising she never had put them down. "Professor, I'm going to try talking to Ororo again. It should be easier with the Phoenix gathering its energy for... whatever it's up to, and you should be able to keep the door shut here without my help."

Confessing the return of her powers to her students had proven easier than Ororo had feared; they had managed to avoid jumping to conclusions long enough for her to explain the situation properly. Now, barely awake after staying up watching the unwanted fire for most of the night, Ororo found herself doing last-minute paperwork on the morning of the new semester's first day. Whatever the Phoenix was up to, the institute was still a school, and the students were looking to her to ensure their education. She would, however, let herself have at least a small nap before their first session, she decided wearily.

Ororo?

She almost jumped at the voice in her head again. "I thought you'd given up," she murmured aloud, in the privacy of her office. "Aren't you busy setting fire to her grave?"

Is that what it's doing? The voice sounded tired and weak, as if barely strong enough to communicate with her. Ororo, it's me, Jean. It's leaving me alone for now, I think it's trying to break out of here...

"What happens to you?" Ororo did not question the identity of the voice - the Phoenix had not claimed to be Jean since the latter had contacted her, and it had never spoken in this shaky whisper.

Phoenixes are reborn from the ashes... She could barely hear Jean's whisper, and it seemed to be getting fainter and more distant with every word. I have to take control somehow.

"You know we can't let the Phoenix roam free, even to save you."

I know. Just... give me a minute with it... I have the... Whatever else Jean was about to say was lost as the faint voice faded completely.

Ororo was confident Jean could no longer hear her, but she spoke aloud anyway. "All right, one minute. It seems to have developed something of a taste for melodrama anyway, we can give you that long."

Silence was her only reply.

It had been far too long since Ororo had last put on her uniform; she had barely touched it since losing her powers, much less worn it. Now, though, as she walked through the mansion's basement towards the Danger Room, her cape flowing behind her, she felt right again. They had decided to kick the semester off with a bang, even if things were for the most part still horrifically disorganised, and Logan had taken the older students for a training session - much to their horror, no doubt - while she and Scott took the five newcomers for their first Danger Room session. Her job would be mainly to keep the students in line on the first easy mission, Scott accompanying them in the hope that a training session would jog some more of his memories. Kitty would be running the session from the control room, monitoring and ensuring everyone's safety - no doubt she was relieved to miss Logan's notoriously harsh training regimen.

She rounded the corner to see Scott already waiting with the five new students: Kurt stood at the front of the group, looking distinctly jet lagged from his flight last night; Rahne was sitting at his feet, already in her wolf form; Wanda was hanging back and looking like she wanted to be anywhere else; her brother was standing beside her, actually still for once; and Amara fidgeted nervously next to Scott.

The group looked up as a soft breeze ruffled their hair - or fur, in the case of Rahne and Kurt - and saw their headmistress walking toward them with a smile, looking more confident than any of them remembered. "Welcome to your first Danger Room session," she said, smiling at the subconscious wind she had accidentally conjured. "We'll be starting with something relatively simple, just remember you're in no real danger in there." She waited while Scott led the others into the room. "A word please, Wanda."

The group's most reluctant student stopped as the door closed in front of her, unable to shake the feeling that she was about to be in serious trouble. "Look... if this is about what happened in the library, I told you people I can't control it..."

Ororo shook her head, trying to be comforting. "It's not about that. I am aware your powers sometimes lead to... certain unfortunate occurrences. I just wanted to make sure this won't stop you using your powers in the training session."

A speaker in the wall crackled to life, and Kitty spoke through it. "Remember, I'm in the control room. If things go wrong, I can shut off the simulation, and I promise I won't let any backfires hurt anyone."

Wanda hesitated. "I've never really tried to use my powers... I've spent so long trying to stop them... I don't know what to do."

Ororo had to resist the urge to pull the girl into a hug and never let go. "I know what that feels like, believe me. One day, look up the tornados in Cairo from about twenty years ago, you'll see I understand why you're afraid of your powers. We can help you learn to control them, and use them properly." She squeezed the girl's shoulder gently. "Just do your best for now."

"I... I'll try."

Ororo smiled. "That's all I ask," she said gently, steering Wanda through the door and into the Danger Room. As she crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut behind her, leaving them in what looked like some sort of scientific laboratory. A large pair of doors stood at one end of the room, and they could hear what sounded like metallic footsteps behind it. She thought for a minute, looking between her wide-eyed students, before speaking, switching with practiced ease into code-names. "Quicksilver, take a look outside without being seen." She felt no need to add any instruction to hurry, and indeed before she had even finished the last word there was a blur, and the doors seemed to flicker slightly.

In considerably less time than it took to blink, Pietro was standing back in front of her, holding out a keycard. "I got bored, so I swiped this. Looks like some kind of robot guard."

"I see we'll have to work on following orders," she said, taking the keycard with an amused smile. "Nevertheless, this will be useful. Now, this is theoretically a stealth mission, but stay prepared for a fight." She failed to comment on her usual approach to stealth missions in the Danger Room - it used to consist of five minutes of very effective sneaking followed by the biggest lighting bolt she could summon into the middle of the biggest group of enemies she could find and some of the most fun fighting she ever had. Sometimes she wondered why anyone still considered her the responsible one.

Scott smiled, almost remembering something very important. "I get the feeling I'll remember too late why it's 'theoretically' a stealth mission, won't I?"

Ororo smirked at her old friend. "Of course you will, Cyclops," she replied lightly, before returning her attention to the mission. "We need to find a better position than this, without being detected by the guards."

Pietro cleared his throat slightly. "Security camera's outside. No way you leave this room without being seen."

The urge to solve their stealth problem directly was rising already. There was a reason she had never been put in charge of teaching stealth tactics to the students. Carefully keeping her calm façade, she looked at each of the students in turn before speaking. "All right, then. Quicksilver, you'll use your speed to get past the camera and find us a better place to hide close by." She turned to Wanda with a smile that was more confident than she felt. "Scarlet Witch, when he returns you're going to make that camera malfunction. I assume someone will come to check it out eventually, but we'll be long gone."

"Might wanna get to that, I came back ages ago." Pietro gave an exaggerated yawn from his position slouched in one of the computer chairs.

Wanda swallowed nervously, but stepped forwards at her headmistress's encouraging nod. "Okay, break the camera," she muttered to herself. "Easy, right?" She pointed at the camera, finding that remote possibility of a random malfunction and changing the probability with ease. The camera died a moment later, but before anyone could congratulate her, a loud alarm blared. "Oops..."

Too late, Scott remembered why he had always, always led the stealth missions as Ororo's eyes lit up. "I get the feeling this was going to happen either way," he assured her quickly, one hand going to his visor ready for the pounding footsteps approaching outside.