Jubilation awoke in the darkness that surrounded the area just out side the New York prema-glow, her eyes and head hurting, just like every other part of her fragile and tender young body. Her hands were bound tightly in front of her, the bindings then tied down against the ground, the chord wrapped around something that was staked into the soft earth that was warm under her body.

The darkness was too thick for her to see much of anything, in fact the only thing she could see was the thin light that filtered in the mouth of the cave, but even that was a very dim light, more than twenty feet away. Though she could not see, she had learned long ago to rely on her other senses as well, to listen, to feel, and to a lesser extent smell, where things and people were around her. She knew that to her left there was something, it was breathing heavy and had a thick smell, she assumed this to be her attacker by the way he was positioned. She could feel his breath on her bare leg, hot and steamy on the slightly chilled skin and as he stirred, she winced, wondering what would be the next thing to happen to her.

He was awake, and moving closer, Jubilee could hear the scratching sounds as he moved closer to her, dragging his feet along the stone floor of the cave. Jubilee froze with fear, the thump of her heart beat the only sound she could hear other than the heavy breathing of the man as he crept closer to her small, fragile and shaking form. She recoiled back as far as she could, wondering if it would be at all appropriate to blast him; after all, this wasn't really an animal…

Her mind ran over the moral and mortal effects of her using her powers to blast the man out of the cave and then make a run for it, finally deciding on not chancing it. She did her best to stay still, to try and calm her quivering body, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't do it.

She could feel him moving closer, he was almost to her now. "Oh God," she thought to herself as she closed her soft, ice blue eyes to lock out the horror that darkness had already blinded her to. "He's gonna kill me, he's really gonna do it!" she screamed in her mind. The part of her brain that was responsible for keeping her alive in these kinds of situations struggled against the part that wouldn't hurt her friend, even to save her own life.

"Logan…" she mutters softly, not wanting to anger him any further but unwilling not to try; she had to try to make contact with his human side, that was the only chance she'd get out of this, and that she would get her friend back. She looked at the hair man, his profile coming into view as the light from the other end of the cave caught the edge of his rugged face.

Slowly, Jubilee pushed a small amount of energy into her hands, concentrating harder to keep the explosions small than she had ever when she tried to make them large. She looked up at Logan, his face illuminated by the pink glow that surrounded her hands.

"Hey Fuzzy ball, it's me, Jubes…" she said, her voice even the entire time, controlled and in perfect tune the voice that she had heard many mothers use on their whining children in the malls.

She looked up at the man as he recoiled, his arm rising to block his eyes from the bright glow that was emanating from her hands. "Sh…" she whispered to him as the man grunted and growled, backing away from the woman as she sat there. "I won't hurt ya," she said, blinking her soft eyes and looking up at the man who had done so much to her, wondering finally why he had decided to kidnap her instead of just killing her.

Had it been any one else, he would have, with out a doubt, but he had let her live, and now he wasn't trying to harm her either… Did he want her help? Is that why he stayed and refused to retreat from her even when the bright glow that came from her hands was blinding him. She could feel something else happening as the small pyrotechnic bursts continued to fire from her hands; the restraints were weakening. She could almost pull away from them, just a little longer.

She felt the snap and her hands moved up slightly, not considerably, just enough to break the restraints and free her hands. The moment she was free the glow died and the two were plunged into darkness, a growl coming from somewhere in the new found darkness.

Both Logan and Jubilee looked towards the mouth of the cave, something was blocking the meager light that was slipping through; a large, hulking shape, the shape of a bear. It stood up on its hind legs, more than eight feet tall easily. Jubilee's eyes widened as she saw the show of exhibitionism before she had realized what had happened. This was the bear's home, Logan and her were invaders in the Bear's home and now it was mad, but it wasn't the only one.

Through the silence followed by the massive animal's roar, Jubilee could hear the sound of skin tearing and metal grinding against metal. Logan's claws had broken free of their sheaths in his forearm.

The young Asian woman tried to reach out for him, tried to stop the man from lunging towards the wild animal, but it was already too late; he was gone. "Logan, no!" she shouted after him, springing to her feet, unaware of the low ceiling. Jubilee cracked her head on the hard rock, sinking right back to her feet in a woozy, fainting fashion; laying in a crumpled pile on the floor as Logan prepared to do battle with the territorial bear.

TO BE CONTINUED…(again)