Rogue found her way down to Hank's lab after holding her latest class.

"How're y'all doin' today?" she asked, noting that Hank was punching away at his keyboard while Bobby sat on a stool next to him, looking out of place with a pile of twinkie wrappers in front of him.

"Quite well, thank you for asking."

"Mff," Bobby said by way of greeting while he chewed away at what Rogue knew to be a mouth full of treat. He swallowed after some effort. "Didjya see Wolvie's new girl?"

"Did I ever! Totally lost my train of thought while I was lecturin' on power control. Talk about gettin' thrown for a loop."

"I know, right?" Bobby asked, tossing her the last twinkie.

"You will be replacing my consumed property, Robert."

Bobby nodded at Beast distractedly.

"Yeah, yeah. So was she assassin creepy or Jubilee creepy?" he asked, refocusing on Rogue.

"Little of both, actually. Which made it even weirder."

"I like her." Bobby said with enthusiasm.

"I do too," Rogue affirmed. "As much as I can like any brainwashed assassin I only met for half an hour."

"If we didn't like brainwashed assassins we'd have a lot less friends," Bobby joked.

"I hope Emma'll be able to sort her out," Rogue continued. "I think she's good for Logan. I actually saw him smile while he was with her. These days, that's as rare as Scott taking a personal day."

Rogue claimed a stool for herself, wheeling it over to the well stocked mini-fridge and helping herself to a beer.

"Do make yourself at home," Hank commented while continuing to analyze the data on the screen before him.

Rogue granted him a dazzling smile.

"Thank ya, sugah, I will." Rogue saluted him with her freshly opened beer then turned back to Bobby. "I wonder though...does she remind us of Jubilee cause she's like Jubilee or because she looks similar and hangs around with Logan?"

"Both," Bobby said with certainty.

"I don't know..." Hank started distractedly, before losing his focus and allowing the sentence to hang.

"Hank?" Bobby asked. He and Rogue traded an exasperated look. "Hank?"

"Yes? Oh! Right, well, I think the resemblance is undeniable. But I worry about what that could mean..." he trailed of for a second time.

"Worry how?" Rogue asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Well, now, that is odd." Hank said, his attention thoroughly absorbed by the computer screen.

"What's odd?" Rogue and Bobby asked simultaneously.

****

"So, tell me Jai. What do you think of our little island?"

Jai blanched as she turned to face the White Queen.

Emma Frost glittered in the red-orange afternoon sunlight, her diamond skin hard, unforgiving, and making it difficult for Jai to fully focus on her.

"Oh, come now. I'm not that terrifying am I?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jai nearly choked on the words, finding it hard to get them passed her closing throat.

Logan should have told her about this.

"You're projecting, darling. At least I assume you are because it is very clearly written all over your lovely face."

"I thought-I thought you were a telepath." Jai said, taking in the diamond skin.

So much like stone.

So much like her walking nightmares.

"I am a telepath."

"Then what the fuck is wrong with your skin?"

"Please don't tell me a hardened assassin like yourself is prejudiced against mutants who don't appear to be human?"

"I'm not talking about that--I'm talking about your skin! Why do you--how do you--?"

"It's my secondary mutation."

"Secondary mutation...?" she asked in a small voice fighting the keen urge to dive over the balcony edge in an effort to get away from this unknown woman and what her instincts told her the diamond skin represented.

Danger. Death. A stone prison that could not be breached.

Emma took another step closer to Jai allowing her skin to morph back to normal flesh, and proceeded to explain like she would to a frightened and unsure student.

"My primary mutation is, and always has been, telepathy, darling. See? I am every bit as human as...well, the next mutant, I suppose. My secondary mutation is the ability to morph into diamond, one of the hardest substance to the known world. Very handy in say...a nuclear explosion. The ability has saved my life on several occasions and is well worth the temporary loss of my telepathy."

Emma had turned to watch the sun sink towards the Pacific, lighting their island up with a fiery, angry red. She turned back to Jai who was still visibly uneasy, but had there been any mental or emotional projection, Emma had missed it while in her diamond state. The girl was utterly locked down, which was not how she wanted to start this particular meeting considering she was about to take a very personal stroll through the girl's brain.

"Can I ask why it...bothers you?"

Asking an assassin what frightened her was also not the way Emma hoped to start.

"The...Gorgon. He turns people into--"

"Stone. Of course. I'm so sorry, Jai, you have my apologies."

Her voice was calm and even, with very little emotional inflection, Jai noted. She could see what Logan meant about her being so cold. Jai suddenly wished she was back in Dr. McCoy's lab being thoroughly examined while munching on twinkies than on this balcony with this incomprehensible woman.

Nevertheless, she nodded, accepting the White Queen's proffered apology.

"Now, Logan tells me you're currently suffering from amnesia due to the Gorgan's brainwashing, correct?"

Jai gritted her teeth despite herself. This is where she asked Logan to be, this is what she needed.

"Yeah. I can't see anything passed the mind blocks. Not a damn thing. I want to know who I am."

Emma nodded; getting Jai to say it out loud was important. She needed to be willing to open up if this was going to have any hope of working.

Emma stepped away form the balcony's ledge, walking slowly towards Jai, needing the assassin to no longer perceive her as a threat. As she approached, Jai's features became clearer, the setting sun's glare softening as it dove further below the horizon as if sinking into the ocean's depths.

"Oh my..." she gasped softly. "A resemblance indeed."

"Excuse me?" Jai asked harshly.

"It's nothing. I simply see what the others mean."

"What who means?" Jai asked, thinking if one more cryptic remark was made in her presence, someone was going to get personally introduced to her katana.

"No one told you?" Emma asked, clearly interested. "Especially not Logan?"

Jai scowled.

"No. Especially not Logan." Although I'll have plenty of things to tell him. "What are you talking about?"

Emma hesitated, suddenly unsure if she should proceed. Surely, Logan had to be aware of what everyone else so easily realized when it came to this enigmatic young woman.

"You look like a...former X-man. Someone we lost a while ago. Someone Logan was very close to."

Jai's eyes lit up with the revelation.

He murdered her...I failed her...on every count...

You never say her name...

"Wait--I look like Logan's dead friend?! The one the Gorgon murdered a year ago?"

Emma analyzed Jai's reaction to this particular statement intently, letting her mind brush up against the girl's mental barriers, finding them cracking under the strain.

"So he did tell you of her?"

"Not that I looked like her! I mean, how close is this anyway? Is it, like, just a passing similarity or what?"

****

"I have Jai's DNA running through the computer with various tests and I just received a hit," Beast told Rogue and Bobby by way of explanation.

"Hank, we're aware of that," Rogue intoned, "but what exactly is odd?"

"There seems to be carriers on her DNA that shouldn't be there..."

"Hank, you've got another light beeping at you there." Bobby pointed at the corner of the computer screen.

"That's odd--" Hank started again.

"Two odd things in a row?!" Bobby interjected, the intrigue surrounding this curious girl getting the better of him.

Rogue slapped him upside the head.

"Shush, now."

"The carriers are a genetic tools sanctioned by SHIELD..." Hank continued as if no one had uttered a word.

He pulled up the file, scanning intently.

"Oh my stars and garters! It seems that these genetic carriers are signs that the DNA has been tampered with. For..." He clicked his mouse, pulling up a new window.

"Undercover!" Rogue exclaimed. "They change how people look right down to their DNA to hide them?"

"Essentially, yes." Hank responded.

"So--wait," Bobby said. "So then Jai's not really Jai? She could be someone completely different?"

Hank's response was silence as the three X-men absorbed this particular piece of information.

****

"I'd certainly say it's more than just a passing similarity. Change just a few features and you would be her."

Jai looked away from the telepath, suddenly very, very uncomfortable in her own skin.

Logan wasn't blind--he had to know. He just didn't want to acknowledge it. Which jacked up her worry meter beyond all normal levels.

"He feels guilty over her death, huh?" Jai asked, going over every detail in her head that Logan had told her about his dead friend.

"That, Jai, would be the understatement of the year."

"Do you think that's the only reason he's helping me?" she whispered. Jai understood he was making peace with the past. What she didn't know, was just how expendable she'd become once Wolverine achieved said peace. And how much did it have to do with who she was under the face she didn't recognize compared to the ghost that was constantly haunting Logan?

"Would it matter?" the older woman countered.

I guess it would matter if that's why he was sleeping with me or if that's why he was familiar to me. The thought was formed before Jai had realized it and she glanced quickly at Emma to see if the telepath had picked up on it.

The look on the White Queen's otherwise emotionless face said all that Jai dreaded.

Son of a freakin' bitch. That thought came and went before she could stop it too.

Emma wisely chose to ignore the reference to Jai's recent sexual encounter and focused on the particularly interesting tidbit of Jai recognizing Wolverine.

"He's familiar to you?"

Jai looked away.

"This could be important. This could be vital," Emma pressed.

"I was there when he was murdered and turned to stone by the Gorgon. At least I think I was. Anyway, he doesn't recognize my scent so what could it matter?"

Emma renewed her telepathic efforts.

Let's find out, shall we?

Jai's eyes widened with the realization the voice was coming from in her head, as opposed to the traditional auditory methods.

Now, Jai, try to focus on what exactly about Logan is familiar to you. Can you do that for me?

An unstoppable rush of images flooded Jai's mind, all of Logan, and all were from memories that Jai didn't consider proper for telepathic consumption.

Wait--no! Stop it! Jai used every trick she knew to force all of her considerable willpower into the solitary image of reinforced steel doors slamming shut, locking out any possible invaders.

Emma rocked back in her telepathic heels, first stunned by the flood of Wolverine through the viewpoint of his lover, and then by the strength behind Jai's mental shielding. She felt along the steel door for cracks and weak points. With just a slight burst of telepathic strength, she could force her way through easily, as Jai was a simple layman, but Emma was still impressed with the girl's ability to shield. If someone wasn't actively looking to get into the girl's brain, Emma suspected Jai would simply slip by telepathic awareness.

Jai opened her eyes to the real world, only to find night fast approaching and Emma's cold features difficult to see clearly.

"Okay..." Emma began. "Let's try a different track perhaps."

"Must we?" Jai asked with pure venom. Her hand casually dropped to her side, fingers twitching with the need to liberate her hidden knife and bury it in the telepath's throat.

Emma ignored the mental image of her dying at the assassin's hand and took on the practiced tone of a teacher dealing with a recalcitrant student.

"Do you want to retrieve your lost memories?"

Jai couldn't help but adopt a petulant sneer. Something about this pretentious woman rubbed her the wrong way.

Emma accepted her silence as acquiescence.

****

"So...just how different are we talking here, Hank?" Rogue asked intently. "I mean, if you change a person at that level..."

"It could be quite drastic." Hank responded, taking in Rogue and Bobby's shocked expressions. "She could be black or white rather than Asian. She could be blonde, she could be anything."

"How the hell is she going to remember who she is, if she doesn't even look like herself in the mirror?" Bobby asked.

"She's not," Rogue answered. "That could be the point."

"It's the single most effective hiding method in the world," Hank said emphatically. "If anyone had been trying to find her for any reason..."

"Can't find a needle in the haystack if the needle suddenly turns into hay." Rogue finished.

"Do you know if Emma's with her now?" Hank asked.

Rogue checked her watch.

"S'far as I know, she should be back by now."

****

Emma, there's something you need to know.

The White Queen picked up on the broadcasting aimed for her before starting again with Jai.

Yes, Henry?

Jai's DNA has been altered to change her physical appearance. If she's expecting to recognize her own face anytime soon, she'll be sorely disappointed.

That is most intriguing. Can you figure out what her original DNA is?

Working on it now. It will take time.

Let me know when you're finished.

"Helloooo?" Jai asked contemptuously. "Is that the best you've got?"

Emma refocused on her subject, narrowing her sky-blue eyes in irritation.

"Of course not. As I was saying, let's try something different. This time, I don't want you to focus on anything specific--"

"That's a relief."

"--Just clear your mind, as if in meditation. I trust your capable of that?"

Jai eyed her suspiciously and then let out an exasperated sigh.

"Fine. Gimme a sec."

Jai turned away from Emma and walked over to the balcony's edge. She determinedly shut her eyes, and sucked in the salty air with a conscious effort. After several practiced breaths, her training took over, allowing her body to relax and her mind to clear.

After several minutes passed, Jai frowned, wondering when Emma was going to begin.

She opened her eyes only to find the balcony and the sea gone entirely.

She stood alone in a dark space with no reference point.

"Emma?" she asked quietly.

"Still behind you."

Jai hesitated to turn around and face the telepath as she took in the woman's voice. It felt like she was hearing with her ears, rather than inside her head.

"Where are we?"

"Your mind," she replied simply.

Jai scoffed.

"Are you tryin' to make a point about a blank slate or somethin'?" Jai asked, turning to face the White Queen.

The stark white of her uniform was startling in the dark space.

Emma dropped her jaw in shock as Jai spun to face her.

"What? What is it?"

"Is this--is this the mental image you have of yourself?!" The normally composed telepath stammered.

Did I somehow do this? Emma thought privately to herself. Am I subconsciously affecting the process?

"What are you talking about?"

"This isn't...the same as your physical appearance, Jai..." Emma started carefully.

"It's not?" Jai asked, looking down at her hands as if they were hiding the secret to who she was.

Emma conjured a long oval mirror in front of the girl, holding her breath in anticipation, her heart thundering in her chest so insistently, she was completely aware of her physical response despite telepathically being in someone else's mind.

Jai's narrow blue eyes widened in revelation.

"The girl," she whispered, raising one slender hand to her reflection. Her mirrored self copied her perfectly--with the exception of multi-colored sparks dancing excitedly at the mirrored fingertips.

Emma suppressed the urge to grab Jub--Jai by the narrow shoulder and shake the memories out of her.

She's not there yet, the logical side of her brain said, while her emotional side was positively screaming with a tumult of shock, joy, and disbelief.

"What girl?" Emma asked through clenched teeth, barely holding back on the name.

"From my nightmares," Jai said quietly. "The one he brainwashed. The one he made murder an innocent girl on that ship..."

She trailed off as if chasing down a stray thought. Emma stared as a door swirled into existence behind Jai.

"Do you know who she was?" Emma asked, leading.

Panicking sapphire eyes met diamond-blue.

"Me. She's me. He stole my face!" Jai screamed while collapsing to the ground, only to have the whole world tilt, and the darkness shift, and Emma's eyes widened as she realized why the darkness was suddenly moving.

Black shrouded bodies holding glinting steel.

"Jai! It's the mindblocks! You have to fight them!"

Emma sprinted towards her brainwashed former student, knowing she was going to have to do more than just fight, she was going to have to find a way through the newly formed door to herself.

"Jai! Jai!" Emma grabbed the girl's shoulders as the mass of ninjas bore down on them. She threw up a mental shield at the last second, realizing Jai was cowering under an onslaught of an empathic attack as well.

Fear swelled in Jai, a keen despair taking her over.

"Jai, you are not alone!" Emma shouted while sending out a more personal telepathic connection to the younger girl, forcing Jai to feel her own tumultuous and confusing emotions.

Jai gasped, like she was breathing for the first time after a prolonged torture and climbed unsteadily to her feet. It was difficult to feel abandoned when she could feel all the complex emotions of the other person occupying her head.

"What the hell are you so shocked and happy about?" the assassin asked.

It was taking all of Emma's considerable concentration and willpower to clamp down on the actual logical thoughts and information behind her crazed emotions.

"All in due time. Now, you have to fight this." Emma insisted.

"How? With what? I don't have my katana with me exactly."

The swarm of Hand ninjas beat away at Emma's mental shielding relentlessly.

"It's your mind, darling. Whatever you picture having, you can have, although I'd suggest something more than simple sword." Emma poured her telepathic strength through their shared connection, wanting Jai to have the power behind any mental conjuring she thought up.

Jai's sapphire eyes lit up with a startling freedom at the same time her hands started to glow.

Emma had just enough time to gasp before powerfully bright fireworks exploded out form the young woman, shattering Emma's shield and sweeping through the veiled warriors like they were ghosts from a dream. They disappeared back into the darkness as the flash from Jai's paff faded away into nothingness.

The girl turned to face a stunned White Queen, an almost casual expression on her familiar features.

"Now what?"

Emma stood up slowly, feeling as if the ground was still spinning underneath her telepathic feet. She delicately cleared her throat.

"The door. You need to go through the door."

Emma pointed.

Jai strode towards the door purposefully as Emma watched after her intently.

It was a strong, beautiful mahogany wood, the design classic and utterly familiar.

Every door in the mansion had looked like this one, Emma realized.

Jai gripped the doorknob like it was a weapon, struggling to make it turn one way or another and ineffectually banging on it with a glowing fist when it didn't relent.

"Damnit!" She paffed the door to no avail.

"Take a breath," Emma advised. "Think it through. You're very, very close."

"Can't you just break it down?"

"This needs to be done properly. If I blast through the door, I could inadvertently take out a few memories with it."

Sapphire eyes narrowed. She turned to study the door, feeling along the wood.

"It...it needs something. Something simple. Something personal..."

Jai pinned Emma with a glare.

"My name--I need to know my name."

Emma stood still as stone and could feel the door whisper to Jai suggestively. She clamped down on her emotions, restraining from the urge to shift to diamond.

"You know it," Jai accused.

"Do I?" Emma asked.

"Yes. I can see it on your face. I can feel it." Jai sent her eagerness back along the psychic link as if to prove how she knew Emma held the key to unlocking the door.

Emma glanced at the door. If saying her name now really would be the key to opening it, would it matter which one of them said it aloud?

She walked up to the door, her gloved hand landing on the doorknob. Whispered bits of conversation and memories zinged through Emma as she gripped the knob.

"Emma, please."

Jai placed her hand over the White Queen's; the student asking the teacher for one last answer.

Emma looked into the haunting bright blue eyes, seeing far into the past, remembering the sparks and the smiles.

"Jubilation," she whispered.

The door gently opened.

FINALLY!!! FINALLY!!! Do you have any idea how many times I accidentally started to type out Jubilee instead of Jai?! Any idea? Phew! Well, I hope you all enjoyed this part--I know it's been a loooong time coming! There's still much to do--Jubilee needs to tell Logan, face the Gorgon, and get her face back. This isn't as close to the end as you might think!!