A/N: Special thanks to MoonlightPhoenix3, SperryDee, & Lucas'sgirl for your reviews of the last chapter.

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As the doorknob to a small off-campus apartment near the University of California at Berkley slowly turned and opened, three individuals entered the residence, each one as unique and different as could be.

The first person just looked like your average college student, but looks can be deceiving. Behind the medium-length blonde hair and ruggedly handsome features that he inherited from his father, the young man was a walking and breathing energy cell, capable of destroying small mountains if he had the desire to. Fortunately, he was far more content with the rather low-key lifestyle that he currently led.

The second entrant to the apartment was a little harder not to notice. If the toned and well-defined physique that she possessed did not manage to catch a passerby's attention, then the haunting green eyes and lime-colored hair that ran halfway down her back most likely would. Luckily for her, being in college meant that such an attribute easily blended in with the other young adults there, many of whom were experimenting with new and alternative fashions in one form or another. But, her appearance only told part of the reason that she was different. It could also be illustrated by a compass that she had in her possession, one which no longer worked. While on a recent archaeological dig in the Egyptian desert that was sponsored by their university, that particular piece of equipment became, unintentionally, magnetized.

The third and final person entered the apartment carrying a hiking backpack that he sat down next to the other backpacks laying against a wall by the front door. He was a man in his late twenties, wasn't a college student himself, and there didn't really seem to be anything about him that stood out. He had dark brown hair, a slender build, and wore a very stylish pair of ruby-red sunglasses. The sunglasses were not worn for fashion's sake; he donned them to keep the optic blasts that constantly radiated from his eyes from destroying everything in sight.

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"I'm going to the fridge to get a cold beer, you two want anything?" Alex Summers, also known by the more descriptive name of Havok that he had been given years before, asked the other two individuals as they sat down in the living room.

"I'll take one." Scott Summers, brother to Alex and also called Cyclops, answered.

"How about you Lorna?" Alex asked her.

"I'll take a bottled water, 'Lex." Lorna Dane, who had been given the name of Polaris because of her ability to manipulate electromagnetic and gravitational fields replied, "I'm going to check the voice messages, and see who called while we've been gone."

Alex returned to the sofa, sitting the water bottle on a small table in front of him and handed his older brother, seated in an adjacent seat, one of the two beers that he had been carrying.

"I have to admit, I didn't think I was going to like spending nearly two months out in the desert at an excavation site, but it turned out better than I thought it would." Scott said as he held the bottle.

"It is pretty amazing to see first hand how other cultures lived centuries ago. I guess that's why Lorna and me decided to major in archaeology and ancient civilizations." Alex said, as he sat down in front of the TV and picked up the remote, "Speaking of ancient history, I'm going to see what's been going on in the world while we were in the middle of nowhere. We have one of those digital TV recorder boxes, so that I can keep up with the news while we're out doing field research and so that Lorna doesn't miss one of her crime-drama shows. There must be about a dozen of them coming on now, and it seems like she watches every single one."

"It's not my fault the storylines suck you in." Lorna said, as she sat down on the sofa next to Alex, continuing to scroll through the numerous voice-mail messages on the phone, "You'd know for yourself if you gave them a chance, instead of falling asleep ten minutes into it."

"Maybe that tells you something about my opinion on them right there." Alex laughed.

Scott didn't say anything but simply smiled, as he listened to his brother and his brother's fiancée having a discussion about quality television programming.

"I guess I might as well be speaking Greek to you, with all of this TV talk. I forgot your idea of fun is running a Level-12 Danger Room session on a Friday night." Alex said as he teased Scott.

"I can't help it if my definition of an entertaining evening is slightly different from the rest of the world's." Scott continued smiling as he responded.

"I can understand where you're coming from." Lorna said to Scott, "You know, I didn't think that I'd ever find myself missing the Danger Room. But it was nice to be able to go down there sometimes, and just pound out your aggressions on some life-sized robotic dummies." Lorna told them.

"In that case, you'd love the upgrades that we've made to it since you two were students. It's state of the art now, and makes you feel like you're actually in whatever environment is cued up in the simulator." Scott informed them.

"I wish we could have seen it when we were there last year, but we had to hurry back here for finals." Alex said, as he referred to the brief time that he and Lorna were away from school, to attend Jean Grey's memorial service.

"Speaking of upstate New York, I have a message here for you Scott." Lorna said, as she handed the phone to him, "I'll replay it from the beginning, it's a message from Professor Xavier."

As Scott listened intently to the message left by the Professor, Lorna picked up the remote from the coffee table in front of them and turned on one of her favorite shows that had come on a few weeks before. As Alex and Lorna watched the program, they noticed that Scott's smile turned into a more serious expression.

"Scott, everything all right?" Alex asked him.

"Yes, at least I hope. I had been thinking of heading back to the school within the next week, but now I think I might try to catch the next available flight home." Scott replied, "The Professor said that one of the student's had a death in his family, a young man named Peter Rasputin. His family lives in a remote region of Russia, so the Professor was taking him and a couple of other students there for the service."

"Poor kid." Lorna responded, "But that doesn't seem like a reason for you to get uptight, I'm sure the Professor can handle things over there."

"That's not what has me concerned, it's what the Professor said afterwards." Scott continued, "He told me not worry too, that he had left the school in very good hands."

"So, what's the big deal about that?" Alex inquired.

"I'm just worried that those 'good' hands have adamantium claws sticking straight out of them." Scott revealed.

"You mean that new guy, Logan, that you were telling us about?" Alex asked, "I thought you said you two had gotten past whatever differences you had before?"

"More or less. We had at least gotten to the point where we were able to tolerate each other, before I left to head down to the Cayman Islands." Scott answered.

"You never did tell us how your trip was, before you headed here." Lorna stated, "How did you manage to keep yourself occupied down there?"

"To be honest, I spent the first couple of weeks locked in my hotel room, only opening the door for room service." Scott confessed, "It was where Jean and me had went a few times, when we actually got some personal time to ourselves. But it just didn't feel right to try and have fun there now, without her. If I was able to cry, I probably would have drowned myself with tears in my room."

"If this is upsetting you, we can talk about something else." Lorna said empathetically to Scott.

"No, I'm fine. As a matter of fact, after those first couple of weeks down there, I came to a realization. I knew that Jean would have had a fit if she saw me sitting around, having a one-man pity party in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. So, I decided to start learning how to live again and try to at least have a little fun, even if it was only one step at a time."

"And what kind of fun did you have exactly?" Alex asked very curiously.

"Well, I did some wind-sailing and scuba diving off of the island's coastal reef. I also went and checked out some of the local hotspots, and even learned how to…karaoke." Scott said, as he recited that third activity while in the Cayman Islands in a softer, more hushed tone.

Lorna and Alex just looked at Scott, and then each other, in total disbelief of what they had just heard.

"It's not that we don't believe you, big brother, I'm just trying to picture you hitting a high note with a microphone in your hand." Alex said to him.

"You haven't heard anything, until you've heard my rendition of Every Breath You Take." Scott said with a slight grin, as even he realized how strange it was for others to imagine him doing something like that.

"Uh…yeah..." Lorna said slowly.

"Anyways, I guess it'll have to remain one of my 'hidden' talents." Scott responded.

"You just better hope that none of your telepathic students happens to catch that stray thought floating around." Alex said to him.

"So, how do you still like being a teacher, especially with as many students as you say are there now?" Lorna asked.

"It's good, but you're not kidding about the number of students we have now. Back when you were going there, the teaching staff consisted of just the Professor and me. And the student body was made up of you two, plus John Proudstar. Now, the school is already past it's one-fourth capacity mark." Scott informed them, "Within the last ten years, it seems like the number of young mutants appearing has exploded, and not even the Professor seems to know why."

"Used to be, you could wander that huge mansion of his for hours without running into another living soul." Alex added, as he started to reminisce a little, "It seems like it was only yesterday that me and Lorna were tagging along with you when you went to pick Jean up on Friday nights, when she and Ororo were both going to NYU. As usual, Thunderbird would go off by himself somewhere on the grounds of the estate, and the Professor would go and lock himself in his private Ready Room below the mansion."

"Jean could've really flipped out at you for dragging your kid brother and some freaky looking girl with green hair along on your dates, but she was so nice to us. She complimented me on how pretty she thought I was, back at a time when I couldn't even stand to look at myself in a mirror." Lorna added, "She even managed to get me out of that defensive shell that I had put up around myself."

"That was Jean all right." Scott said, as he saw how the woman that he loved with all of his being, had left her mark on others as well.

"Hey, why don't we go out and give you a nice farewell dinner, before you head back to Westchester?" Lorna suggested.

"All right," Scott grinned, "As long as my little brother is buying."

"Thanks, Cyke." Alex smirked, as the trio got up to get ready for one last night out on the town together.

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Next Chapter: The X-Men search for Allison, and they run into some unexpected trouble…