1. The waves hit the inlet beach, as a tall figure waited. He had been waiting for days and until then, nothing had happened. He wondered a bit whether he was at the right spot, so he decided to walk back to the road where his motorcycle was parked and double check the location.

The waves hit once more, but this time they brought something with them: the body of a young woman. Her condition was deplorable. What once was a body suit, now was nothing more than rags, still, the material held tight against her hips, arms and legs, as well as her chest and back. The tide was rising and a storm pointed in the horizon; it had been a rather rainy week. The waves, now a lot stronger than before, hit her limp body as if it were an old rag doll. As she would when awakening from a deep slumber, she opened her eyes and looked at the sky, her lips parted and she got a mouthful of water thrown in her face.

She pushed herself up, gagging and gasping, her muscles ached from God knows what, as the waves hit her face again, she tried to gather some sort of rational thought. Finding out she couldn't was even more panicking than the immense waves that kept on wanting to drown her; all she did find was pain.

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2. Somewhere far away from there, three men were in a room. One of them, the shorter one, paced around, grunting and muttering every now and then. The other two, one sitting in a wheelchair and with a helmet on his head, were standing in front of a large machine.

"How much longer is this gonna take?" asked Logan.
"I don't know, Logan. If she doesn't user her powers, we may never find her," Xavier said.
"Don't say that. I'm enhancing Cerebro's field range," said Tom. "Maybe we'll find her now."
"Tom, you know you're in no condition to be abusing your powers," Xavier warned.
"I'm good," Tom answered, widening Cerebro's search.
Always so damn cocky, Logan thought.

Logan looked at him. He was dressed funny. The tall, lanky man was wearing khaki cargo pants that dropped at his feet and a faded, blue shirt that looked much too big for him. They were all borrowed from Scott, who was about the same height as him. His light blue hair showed that he had just woken up.

Tom had been in surgery for the past two and a half weeks. Professor Xavier, with the help of one of his colleagues, who took over after his disappearance, as well as Hank McCoy and Jean Grey, practically reconstructed Tom's internal system. When he got electrocuted, something inside him snapped, and his body started rejecting the very chemicals and machines that had been keeping him alive for years. As Tom recovered from the various surgeries, Logan, Xavier and the rest of the household continued searching for Faye. Logan and Irvine tried following the river that she fell on, but it kept on branching out many times, meeting out with other rivers, dying out, and finally, it fell into the sea. About two days before, Tom had woken up, but his muscles were atrophied, so Hank and Forge built him a small machine that would allow him to walk around until he had enough strength to do it on his own.

Jeff entered the room, feeling the way with his walking stick. Suddenly, he bumped into Logan.

"Oh, sorry, Logan," Jeff said, smiling. "I didn't see you there."
"Same old bloody joke," said Tom. "Don't you ever get tired of it?"
"Oh, no. I always have my fill of fun with it."

Tom laughed heartily as he continued to widen Cerebro's power. Through his hands, he focused his energy into the machine. He kept it going, ignoring the blinding headache and the dizziness he was feeling. Unfortunately, Xavier could feel it.

"I'm stopping it for now," said Xavier, taking the helmet off.
"WHAT?!?" Tom and Logan asked at the same time.
"You're quitting?" Tom continued.
"You're tired, Tom," said Xavier, wheeling his chair away from Cerebro. "You should rest."
"Well, I'm gonna look for her," said Logan. "I ain't gonna do nothin' while she's alone out there."
"You're a bloody show-off, you know that?" said Tom. "We're here busting our arse trying to find her too."
"I never said ya weren't."
"Whatever, mate. I am not going to sit here and get chewed off by the likes of you. Anyway, she's not a bloody child. She can take care of herself, ya know."
"She's alone, Tom. Can't ya get that on yer thick head? Whenever she's alone shit happens, and ya know that. Now, she don't have you, or anyone to take care o'er. All she has is Daniel."
"Thank God for that. At least it's not you."
"Ya wanna say that again, bub?" Logan said, his eyes darkening and a slow *SNIKT* was heard.
"At least it's not you," Tom confronted, sounding out each word.

Logan grunted but Jeff pushed them aside.

"All right! Knock it off!! We have to keep our cool," he said, eyeing Logan as he walked toward the exit. "Besides, we have to see the others off. They're about to leave, and they care about Faye too. Now, come on, and keep it together so we won't worry them."

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3. She looked around. Where was she??? She tried getting up and walking but her leg hurt too much. Was it broken? Probably considering the state her clothes were in, she must have been through a lot. As she pulled herself along the beach like an invalid, the waves hit her once more and her brain was finally lucid enough to register the immense amount of pain that the salt water inflicted on the open wounds sprinkled around every part of her body. Warm blood started gushing from a particularly big one on her shoulder. As she crawled her way out of the water and further into the inlet, ignoring the thick sand that got into her wounds, stuck on her skin, and blinded her, she started gathering thoughts of herself and of her current situation.

Where am I? she thought. What am I doing here? How did I get here? Why am I here? What happened to me?????

A thousand more questions followed those and their answers seemed to get farther and farther away, and her ordeal to get to safety seemed to never end. Rain started pouring, the sea got angry and the wind howled to show everyone that he was unbeatable. She pulled herself in a concave rock wall and tried to think of a solution. Nothing came...

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4. Meanwhile, the tall figure was getting impatient. He looked at the sky and growled. He shifted his eyes to the map and saw that there was a rest area a few miles from there. He could find shelter there, or contact Irene and check the right place. Either way it was better than what he was doing now. He started walking farther down the road.

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5. "Are you sure we can't make you stay with us?" asked Xavier.
"Thanks, but no thanks, mate. This ain't our territory," said Irvine.
"Yeah, we really wanted to lend a hand with the reconstruction of your home, but it's starting to get a bit too confining. Although I wouldn't mind having cutie here go around with me," said Cathy, stroking Beast's fur, which made him blush.

As Hans and Sara were walking out, they stopped to bid Jeff farewell.

"I hope you find her soon," said Sara, hugging Jeff.
"We will. Are you kids going to be alright by yourselves?" he asked.
"Yeah, don't worry. We always managed all right, we can do it again," said Hans.
"Oh, I'll stick around here, so if you guys ever need anything you know where to find me."
"We'll remember that," Hans said.

They walked out, hand in hand, knowing everything would be okay; they had each other and that's all that mattered right now.

"Jeffrey. We'll be leaving you as well, mate," said Cathy.
"O'Malley. Take care of this one. Keep him out of trouble," he said, pointing to Irvine.
"Oh, that'll be the day," she said, smiling.

Irvine didn't hear them talking, since all the girls in the Institute were talking and flirting with him. Cathy looked at them and shook her head.

"He'll never change," she said, as Jeff laughed. "Thomas. It's been a pleasure."
"Likewise," he said.
"Come on, don Juan. Time to go," Cathy called.

Irvine kissed each of the girls' hands, pushed his cowboy hat in and waved goodbye. All the girls aw-ed at the same time. He turned and blew a kiss at them and winked. The girls sighed once more, and smiled. The boys weren't very happy with that, and the adults simply shrugged and laughed.

They were gone, time to see another one off. Sally sat in a corner by herself. Jeff approached her, slowly.

"I don't wanna do this, you know," she said without looking at him.
"I know," he answered, sitting on the grass next to her.
"Then why do I have to?"
"It's your destiny," said Tom, approaching them.
"Exactly," said Jeff.
"Bull," she said, and got up.

She started walking toward the Institute, stopped and said, "Well, if we're doing this, we better go fast. I'm getting bored already."

Jeff smiled, got up and the three of them walked toward the Institute's front door.

"Open a portal, Tom," asked Jeff.
"Where to?"
"Aavadaar."
"Oh, God. Not again?"
"Don't worry. A friend of mine will be waiting for her there. Zhar's agent's won't get a hold of the new Oracle."

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6. Sometime passed as the wind continued to howl playing around through the trees and the water. She felt against her body a belt with a large purse and many other pockets. With trembling fingers, she emptied their contents on the sand. She found many strange things but also many useful things. In the large purse she found a large handkerchief, which made her quickly think of her bleeding shoulder; a pocketknife, very sharp; a small black box, that looked like a radio, however, she didn't know how to use it so she tossed it; a large earpiece with a little glass visor, she looked at them strangely and found it had no good use, so she tossed it; a beautifully woven headband with a large white gem in the middle, she was going to toss this item as well, but something made her put it back on the purse. She took the handkerchief and the pocketknife and put together a quick bandage for her shoulder. She got up and unbuckled the torn cloth that went around her neck and exposed her wounded shoulder; with the knife, she tore the rags around it and tied the handkerchief tightly to stop the bleeding. Once that was done, she went back to the contents of the smaller pockets. In one of them, she found a small earpiece, like the ones used in spy movies, she placed one end on her ear and the other she held up to her mouth.

"Hello?" she tried. "Can somebody help me? I don't know where I am. To tell the truth, I don't know who I am either."

The small earpiece made a static noise. She groaned and threw it away. She looked inside the rest of the pockets and purses, and found a couple of blades. She wondered why she needed so many weapons, and decided that it might have been safer not to keep them after all. She was about to tightly wrap the belt around her shoulder to secure the bandage, when she found a hidden pouch on the back of the belt. She opened and reached inside; she pulled out a silver chain with a beautiful locket, with golden markings, at the end. In the back, there was an inscription.

"To keep you from ever losing the way home.
Love always, Logan."

Logan?!?! she thought. That name sounds so familiar, but I can't remember where I heard it before.

She held the locket tightly against her chest and searched the darkness of her mind.

The wind howled loudly (the sea must have made fun of him), blowing things around. A particularly large branch came flying towards the rock and struck her wounded leg. She cried in pain as a thunder crashed.

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7. On the other side of the thicket, the tall figure, who was back from his journey, sat up attentively. He'd heard something, though he wasn't sure what. He listened up again, but the sound was gone. He growled, impatiently, and walked over to check.

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8. The woman sat up rubbing her aching leg. She pulled her right leg close to her body and rested her forehead on her knee; she kept her hands on the leg that hurt and wished the pain gone. She visualized that the pain vanished as her leg started glowing green...