a/n-;)  this chapter just kept getting longer and longer (relative to my usual length) so I cut it short, working on the next chappy

and I finally got to the Pyro-Deja interaction…they don't' seem very lovey_dovery right now ^_-

            "What's wrong with her?" Ororo asked the Professor as he stared at the young girl on the medical table.

            "I'm not sure…"  He stared around, almost instinctively looking for Jean as she was the doctor.  But in the back of his heart, he had stopped grieving, for he felt some kind of assurance he couldn't explain.  (a/n-like how he looked at the end of the movie *smile 'yes I think everything's going to be alright')  "Would you excuse us?" he said softly, wheeling over to nearby Deja's head.

            "Alright," Storm answered gently in her South African accent, letting her hand rest on the Professor's for a few seconds, feeling his melancholy.  The Professor smiled as she left, the warmth of her comfort still lingering.  (ok last a/n-Where did her accent go? HMM!?)

            The Professor braced himself inwardly before he placed his hand on either side of Deja's head, lightly touching her temples.  He shut his eyes and worked his power from within, like conjuring up an unconscious skill.

            Don't kill me.  Fire?  Please!  You're a mutant?  You're grandmother has gone missing.  America.  Stay here.  Shhh.  I don't want to.  Get off me!  Back, girlie.  These are your American relatives.  I don't want to die.

            The Professor jerked his head back, ending the connection.  He shuddered a bit until he was finally free of the fear in the girl's head.  He sighed, letting the adrenaline out, and began to reflect on what he saw.  He heard screams and shrieking.  He saw John.  He saw the underground base.  Magneto.  He saw the distant family welcoming her home.  Mystique.  The scar on her neck.

            Everything seemed to be out of order.  But the memory of when he awoke with his neural inhibitor came flooding up.  He remembered spotting the mutant Stryker controlled.  The scar on her neck.  The two memories were a match, and he looked back at the girl.  Why would she be remembering Yuriko Oyama?

            "Hey," Storm called softly.  Wolverine stopped and turned around to stare at her with a placid smile.  "You ok?"

            "Yeah.  You?"

            "It was only a tranquilizer, I'm fine.  You seemed the worse on the way home."

            "You were blacked out."

            She grinned at his skepticism.  "Not the whole time.  And I'm kinda glad I was.  Sedated, I mean."  Logan cocked an eyebrow, inquiring why.  "I saw Scott on the way back."  She smiled, but this time he saw her heart ache a little.  "He didn't look so…forlorn, for once."

            "Well, he was concentrating."

            "And that's a good thing, once and a while."  Logan joined Ororo is sad smiling.  "But I wanted to talk about you."

            "Why?"

            "You looked a little shaken."

            He stared at Ororo's strong, brown eyes.  He sighed a little, trying to think of words.  "I-"  Storm waited patiently, not pressuring him in any way, but only reassuring him with her subtle encouragement.  "I haven't thought that much…about that mutant I killed in the base."  Storm nodded.  "But, for the first time, I-"  He couldn't speak, and Ororo noticed the block in his throat.

            "It's ok.  You don't have to tell me now," she soothed, and she felt him admonish himself.

            Jubilee walked by the front door, humming the tune of a Beatles song which was stuck in her head.  As she put her foot on the first step to go to her dormitory, she froze, hearing someone knocking on the door.  She lazily went to open it.

            A mutant her age, with pale skin and strawberry blond hair entered.  "Hello," she cooed.

            "Anne?" Jubilee asked.

            "Who else?"

            "Send Mystique," Pyro muttered as he made his way threw the dense forest which surrounded the mansion.  "Sure, send her.  She can morph, which means she'll fit in perfectly at-"  He stopped, perking his head up.  He had heard a panicked scream.  It was from a girl.  He stared around the woods, now feeling a little scared himself.  But he felt more cautious than afraid; after all it was only a girl.

            He almost called out, 'Hello,' but knew that would just be the stupidest thing he'd ever done.  There were frantic footsteps coming towards him, crashing through the branches and swiping at the leaves.  He heard the girl making small struggled sounds at no one, as if she was running from something.

            He heard her pass him and quietly and quickly pursued.

            When the noises stopped he halted, trying to hear what was going on.  He waited…A twig snapped much father ahead.  Pyro suddenly realized that the person was escaping silently.  Forgetting discretion, he rushed ahead, pushing the brush out of his way.  Now he heard the girl speeding away and he growled, quickening his steps.

            Mystique, in the form of Anne McKenzie Thompson also known as Snowbird, calmly walked towards the kitchens.  She peeked inside and saw no one was there.  She slipped in and shut the doors carefully.

            Mystique worked quickly as to avoid being seen.  She opened the cupboard and pulled out six, two-liter sodas.  She placed what she had been holding on the counter.  She opened each carton and carefully poured eight pixie-sticks, aka sugar, into each of them.  When she was done she placed all the coke carefully back where it came from and snuck out with a wicked smirk on her pale face.

            "Anne?"  Mystique gasped, looking up.  A boy with silver hair was staring at her.  "What were you doing in the kitchens?  How'd you get here so fast?  You can't move that fast, only I can move that fast."  He spoke rapidly and kept changing positions, obviously restless.  "Seriously, there's no way you coulda got here so fast."

            Mystique threw her hair back as she walked past him.  "You have no idea."

            Pyro stopped, catching his breath.  'Where is she?'  He had a sudden thought.  'What if she's not the girl?  What if I've been wasting all my time, getting so far away from the mansion, on some regular mutant?  What if they know me?'

            His thoughts were interrupted by a thin branch suddenly slapping him in the face.  He staggered back and looked up.  There she was, holding a sufficiently think enough branch, out of breath as well and glaring at him.  "Stop chasing me!"

            She took off again.  "Hey!"  Pyro ran after her, putting all his effort into catching up.  Unfortunately, she was putting all her effort into making sure he didn't.

            Deja was running in big leaps, which would normally be difficult in such a thick forest, but she dodged everything that came her way.  When she landed, her arm picked up anything it could so quickly that it didn't slow her down one bit.  She threw them behind her, letting them smack into John.  This only maddened him.  She saw in another blue flash fire spreading on the tree in front of her.  'He would set the wood on fire?'  The thought puzzled her so much she paused, temporarily not thinking of escaping, and she felt Pyro crash into her.

            They thundered forward, his lighter falling in front of her face.  She snatched it and scrambled up before he could get a hold on her.

            They stared at each other like animals that circle each other before fighting.  Both of them equally furious at each other.  She threw his lighter on the ground, preparing to smash it with her foot.

            "No!"  He jumped at her, making them fall over again.  She roared, being brought down.  He ignored her under him and retrieved his lighter, but when he turned back to deal with Deja she swung her stick, exerting great skill for someone who was in a difficult position.  The blow sent him off of her, falling onto the nearby dirt.  She had a bo once again.

            He, facing the ground, turned around.  He yelled and rolled over, barely missing being walloped as Deja, with all her might, swung her bo down as hard as she could at where he was.  She tried again and he rolled to where he previously was, using the time she was preparing to swing to kick her leg, sending her back to the ground.  He tried to get up but she stuck out her leg so his foot tripped on it.

            Now they both got up, angrier if that was possible.  Pyro, a little more in control of himself now, remembered the reason why he brought tranquilizers with him.  He grinned, reaching into his coat pocket.  Deja was distracted by seeing herself grab her neck in her blue reality.  Back in the present, she figured out what was going to happen when he pulled out some sort of gun.  She fell straight down, spotting the darts go by where her neck was, but kicking her legs up as she plummeted to knock his gun and make it go flying behind her.

            "Why you little-"  Deja leapt back up and tackled him.