'It must be hard on him,' Ororo muttered to Logan as the two of them leaned over a tangle of red and yellow wires.

'Hard on who?' Logan seemed to be even denser than usual- probably the cold. Storm hadn't noticed it, as she was immune to temperatures like this.

'Scott, having missed his own kid's birth? He's been looking forward to it since he heard the news.'

'Yeah, well, it's nothing special.'

'I'd like to hear you say that after the delivery of your own child.'

'Not having kids- too much trouble.'

At this, Ororo could only shake her head and sigh.

**************************************************************************** *******

The few hours passed slowly, with all but Storm shivering in the open shell of the once comfortable jet. Then, finally, the sounds of an approaching chopper filled the icy air.

'Well, it's about time!' Logan muttered, and there was no mistaking the relief in his voice.

A small crack sounded and, with a bit of curly blue smoke, a familiar face appeared before them.

'Kurt!' Storm smiled. 'My, are we glad to see you.'

But Kurt, who was also known as Nightcrawler, was looking over to where Jean and Scott were huddled together, Vaughn tucked happily between them. 'I mized quite a lot,' he remarked, more to himself than to anybody.

'Yeah, listen, it's below zero in here and I, for one, am freezing to death, if we could do something about that?' Logan urged.

'Of course, who iz first?'

Four heads turned to Jean, who nodded and had Scott help her to her feet. Vaughn shifted slightly in her arms but didn't wake up, for which Logan was glad. The last thing he wanted to hear was a crying fit. Moments later, she, Vaughn and Nightcrawler had vanished into a small cloud of blue smoke, only to reappear in the open door of the hovering chopper. Scott went next (much to Logan's silent annoyance) and lastly, Storm.

It was a tight squeeze in the helicopter, but they were happy with the knowledge that they were all soon going to be home. As they flew off, Ororo called up a small snow storm to bury the abandoned jet until their return.

`

Rogue sat, with Bobby Drake next to her, on the floor in front of the T.V. Some random cartoon neither of them was paying attention to flashed across the screen. Both of their thoughts seemed to be centred around the x-men and their missing comrade. Rogue, who had a natural tendency to blame herself for those sort of things, was silently beating herself up over the whole thing.

She had been so close to the event, and yet had done nothing to stop it. She could still see it playing out in her mind, over, and over again.

Jean had been standing by the main entrance, calling over to Rogue and Bobby, asking if they'd seen Scott. Rogue had wondered why she didn't just use her powers to find him, but the answer was plain- she'd not been able to since she'd gotten pregnant, the baby seemed to be draining them. Professor Xavier had predicted that it would be a very powerful child; it had something to do with the unique combination of Jean and Scott's DNA.

The large window that Jean stood in front of had suddenly shattered. Rogue remembered screaming and trying to run towards the woman, but Bobby had held her back. There was nothing either of them could have done. Nothing but get themselves killed.

Through the open window, came a being with dark green and orange skin, striped like a tiger's. He had been bald, but the orange stripes met like a crown on the top of his head. He had grinned over at the two helpless youths, showing a set of pumpkin-coloured teeth, then he picked Jean up from where she'd stumbled to the floor, gave a single wave and... vanished.

Only an hour later, Ceribro had been found, the control helmet smashed into the ground and its inner wires a mess of fused ends and sticky acid.

Rogue shook the images from her mind, not daring to wonder what had happened to the telekinetic woman after her abduction.

More than anything, she hoped the baby was alright. She'd always wanted a younger sibling, and it seemed like the Summers kid was the closest she was going to get.

A helicopter could be seen landing over in the basketball court. Rogue and Bobby shared a glance then leapt up to see what was going on, not even bothering to turn off the t.v.