Disclaimer: You guys all know the drill...none of its mine, but boy if it were...*sigh*
A/N: Thanks to angel_w for beta reading this. Any mistakes found are mine and mine alone. This last chapter folks...enjoy and please review!!
Chapter 7
"Dios." Angelo swore softly. Tossing the magazine he was trying to read in the trash, he listened for a moment to the noise coming from downstairs. Jubilee had been gone almost a week, and Sean had decided to have a barbecue to 'stir the lads and lasses spirits up'. The only reason Jubilee had been left alone for so long was for the sole reason that Sean was afraid that if her forced her back, she would leave at the first chance and not come back. However, due to the fights that were becoming more and more frequent between Emma, Sean and Logan, Angelo was willing to bet that it wouldn't be too much longer before Jubilee would be escorted home. Most likely by a full contingent of adults insistent on getting their say. Picking up a photo from his nightstand, he looked at the image with a wry grin. It had been about a week after the accident and she was sitting on the couch in her pajama bottoms, an old Limp Bizkit t-shirt of his that she had stole, eating cereal. Her hair had been tied up in a messy ponytail, with tendrils of blue curling around her neck and it was the only picture of Jubilee that was current; which was probably why it was one of his favorites.
"Crap." Setting the frame back down on his bedside table, he grabbed his dog-eared issue of Superman and walked downstairs to where Logan was watching rugby. "Hey, Logan."
The older man grunted, never taking his eyes off the screen as men piled on top of each other in a mess of blood and bruises.
"It's about Jubes, I think it's time someone gave her a lift home."
Logan glanced at him dismissively. "And what makes you think you know where she is?"
Angelo tossed the comic on his lap, indicating one page. "You know how Superman has a fortress of solitude?"
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Two hours later over Antarctica
"So where is she?"
Angelo glared at the man beside him. "Listen I just said she's probably somewhere high up with snow, you took it as Antarctica. Far as I know she can't even fly this far."
Wolverine resisted the urge to spear the cocky kid next to him. "So what's your great idea?"
Angelo shrugged. " Can't we just track her on the scanner? Aren't all the biosignatures programmed in..." he trailed off at the look on the older man's face. Heaving a labored sigh, Wolverine flipped on the computer and within seconds had a fix on Jubilee.
Deep in the riddled mountains of the Himalayas, the blackbird set down in a valley. It took a few minutes for Angelo and Logan to suit up in the proper gear that was always kept in the back of the plane. Pulling on his shades, Angelo stepped out into a vast white expanse, the intensity only multiplied by the bitter cold. The two stepped out in silence, the scanner had narrowed Jubilee down to a 3 mile area, so they had to go the rest of the way on foot.
Wincing as his foot sank into the foot deep snow, Angelo sighed loudly. "I swear when this is over a certain blue haired chick is going to owe me so big."
"Shut u.." the rest of Wolverine's exclamation was drowned out in a deep rumble surrounding them. Before either of them had time to react, they were swept up in a tide of snow.
The cold hit with the force of a mountain behind it, and it took Angelo's breath away as he became engulfed in white. After the rumbles died down, he found himself trapped, suspended in a surreal world of light, snow, and the sound of his blood pounding in his ears. He couldn't move his limbs, but was able to extend a tendril of skin towards the surface for a hole to breath through. As the tiny hole suddenly became filled with air, he sucked it in greedily. Great, just great thought Angelo. Some Tibetan monk is going to find my body twenty years from now and I'll be displayed as some freak of nature in a museum somewhere. Will someone please remind me why this was good idea?
Suddenly he felt a sharp tug on his parka as he was hauled up out of the snow and deposited on an outcropping of rock that was jutting out of the snow. Wiping the snow out of his eyes, he found Logan sitting next to him, shaking the snow off.
"Let me guess, the big, bad, boys came to save little ole me?" The men grinned ruefully as Jubilee hovered in front of the them, her hands on her hips. "Why are you guys here?"
"Checking up on ya Darlin." Wolverine crouched down on the rock, scanning the area. "Like it or not, you actually have people that care about you. We wanted to make sure you were okay."
Jubilee looked at him skeptically as she landed on the rock beside them. The week seemed to have done her good, her eyes were no longer haunted and tension seemed to have eased in her stance. Angelo touched her shoulder lightly, looking her in the eyes. "So are you okay?"
"Yeah," she said thoughtfully. "I think so."
"'Quita." Angelo admonished lightly.
"Look, I killed a man, nothing more, nothing less. As for the emotion crap that comes with it," she shrugged. "that is gonna take more time. But I'm not beating myself over it either, and if anyone problem with it then tough."
"Glad to hear it." Wolverine hugged her, the pride evident in his voice. Letting her go, he returned to his survey of the landscape. "So does anyone know where the Blackbird is?"
Jubilee chuckled waving to area around them. "Anywhere under about five or six feet of snow I bet." Flexing her arms she nodded to Logan. "You hunt and I'll melt."
Several minutes later the trio were inside the newly thawed Blackbird, getting strapped in as the engines began to warm up. Snapping the buckle in place Jubilee turned to Angelo. "So how did you guys know where I was anyway? Even with the bioscanner it should have taken days at least."
Angelo tossed the comic at her. "Call it a hunch."
Blushing Jubilee threw it back at him. "It seemed like a cool idea at the time. Sides it was either that or the Mall of America and I only had fifty bucks on me."
"Mallrat." Angelo said affectionately, reaching over and tussling her hair.
"Nerd." she countered.
"Kids." sighed Wolverine.
Jubilee smiled. "Let's go home." With that the Blackbird hovered in the air for a moment and then sped off into the distance, taking with it two tired teenagers who quickly fell asleep to the gentle hum of the engines.
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Epilogue
Two weeks later
BOOM!
The building shuddered as a fleet of Sentinels crashed through the wall of the store. Quickly assessing the situation, Jubilee quickly called out orders. "M take the one on the left, Ange and Penny flank her. Jono take the one on the far right before he gets to the others. Quick and fast people, the middle one is mine." Trusting the others to follow her orders, Jubilee flew towards the Sentinel carefully staying out of reach, and darted forward with a volley of plasma balls that hit the man in rapid succession. Temporarily blinded by the light, he paused just long enough for Jubilee to duck in and touch the small power pack in the back. The metal began to glow and Jubilee had just enough time to shove him in a protected area before it exploded. Beside her, the rest of her teammates were taking care of what was left of their opponents and she grinned in approval. "Great job guys."
The scene shimmered and faded, and Sean walked into the room with a smile. "Aye, good job all of ye. Now go take a shower and clean up. Jubilee stay behind a moment?" Sean waited until all of the teenagers had gone before turning to her and handing her a towel. "Seems like team leader suits you. It was clean and precise, and they're working together much better now that you're back."
"Thanks, Sean." Wiping her face off, she retied her ponytail. "Everyone seems to be in synch with each other lately."
"Aye. I also wanted to make sure that you're okay with Wolverine leaving and all." Sean looked at her concerned, and she laughed lightly.
"Please! He stayed with me for over two months because I needed him. I'm not upset that he left yesterday, besides I know he'll be there for me when it counts." She started to walk off when Sean's voice stopped her.
"And what about everything else? How are you holding up?"
Jubilee turned to look at him with a sad smile. "I'm surviving, I'm living, I'm enjoying life, and my dreams are no longer nightmares. I'd say that's pretty damn good. Everything else will take time." she said matter-of-factly.
Sean peered at her intently, for once let his curiosity take over. "What did happen that week in the mountains?"
Her eyes glittered for a moment. "An old enemy became something of a friend." Throwing the towel over her shoulder, she walked off to the locker room pushing through the heavy gym doors, to where Paige and M were arguing over the best kind of shampoo.
Later in the locker room, Jubilee sat on one of the benches until Paige and Monet had left, the room filled with steam and the scent of wildflowers. Wiping the fog off of a mirror she stared at her reflection, the glowing eyes, the shimmering blue hair around her shoulders and put on her glasses, regarding the image for a moment. Paige had offered to help color her hair back to its original black, Jubilee squinted imagining it. Looking down at her hand, she could already see the bruises start to fade and she unconsciously rubbed her tattoo. Glancing back up at the mirror, she jumped slightly at the figure standing behind her in the reflection.
"You."
"Yeah, it seems as if you don't listen to well."
"I'm not depressed anymore, well…much and everything else is okay."
A large hand picked up a strand of hair, rubbing it between his fingers. "Yer still angry about what happened." He gestured to the glasses.
Jubilee turned angrily, only to find no one there, and looked back at the mirror to see Sabertooth looking at her. "I have every right to be angry. I used to be able to go anywhere, do anything and no one would know that I was a mutant. Excuse me for being a little pissed off about that."
"You've lived a hundred lifetimes and you're still a child."
"How profound." She stalked to the shower, purposely pulling the curtain shut and turning the water on.
"Frail, did you actually think that you'd get rid of me that easily?" Sabertooth's voice trailed through the sounds of water and Jubilee humming loudly. "I'm not going away so you might as well face me."
Sighing tiredly, Jubilee shut off the water and flung open the curtain. "Are you going haunt me the rest of my life? Is that it? Great I'm cursed by a dead, hairy hamster."
"You're cursed?" Sabertooth muttered under his breath. Facing her he sighed. "Yer feeling all sorry fer yerself because you don't look like a normal. Well so what? Half of your precious X-men don't look like humans you've never seemed like the type to care, so why now?"
Jubilee wrapped a towel around herself and sat dejectedly on the bench. "It's not that, its just that I still feel like I cheated. That you died and because of that I got all these great powers; it doesn't seem fair." She blushed slightly regretting the childish sound of her complaint.
"Let's just say we both got what was deserved frail. As fer the hair an' the eyes think of them as reminder, of me, of death whatever."
The steam thickened and when Jubilee looked up she found Emma looking at her with an expression of bemusement on her face. "Jubilee? I thought I felt..." She trailed off at the obviously empty room. Gathering herself together she peered at the girl. "Are you alright Jubilation?" Emma asked, perspiration starting to bead on her forehead from the steam.
Jubilee turned around. "Yeah, I actually think I am."
"I heard Paige offer to color your hair." The worry was evident in the woman's voice.
"Yeah," the word floated uncertainly in the air for a moment before she continued. "I don't think so though."
"May I ask why?"
The blue strands weaved between her fingers, and Jubilee took off her glasses staring at herself straight in the mirror, meeting her reflection's eyes for the first time since the accident. "Battle scars." she said softly and with a smile walked out of the locker room, leaving a satisfied Emma behind. The older woman smiled to herself, the girl would be just fine.
-fin-
Yeah!! I'm done! Thanks to everyone for all the great support, great reviews and guilt trips that helped me finish this.