Storm drove as quickly as she dared, Kitty slouching in the seat beside her, and fortunately they arrived at the Xavier Institute without incident. Charles met them at the door. "We may have a serious problem," he said by way of greeting.

Storm quirked an eyebrow at him. "You mean, beyond the fact that Logan has been captured by people who obviously mean him harm – again?" She replied. Charles didn't even grant her a ghost of a smile, and she immediately sobered up. "What's happened?"

"Do you remember the incident at Bobby Drake's home in Boston?"

"Of course. Pyro blew up four police cars. How could I forget?"

"Well, unfortunately, there were other consequences aside from the loss of vehicles that day. When the police questioned Bobby's parents, they said that he'd identified Logan as a teacher at this school. Somehow some reporter got wind of this, and after what happened in the mall today, he put two and two together..." Charles' voice trailed away at the implication.

Storm's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my god. What's going to happen to the school?"

Charles looked at her somberly. "I've just received a phone call from the Ministry of Education. They will be conducting a thorough investigation. Storm – if they find out what kind of school this really is... they could do a lot worse than shut us down."

Kitty had been observing the conversation quietly, but at the last statement she finally spoke up. "What? How could they? There's no law against having a school for mutants!" Her face flushed with indignation.

"No," Storm replied gently. "But there is a law against harboring criminals. And in the eyes of the officials, that's exactly what Logan is."

Kitty swallowed against the heavy realization. "And me," she replied, her eyes wide.

Storm's eyes filled with compassion, but she wouldn't deny the truth. "And you," she affirmed.

"I think that we've lost them. You can probably slow down now," Jubilee commented after quite some time had passed. Wherever they had been, they were now back on the highway, rushing back toward Westchester at breakneck speed.

"We have to get back to the professor," Rogue replied distractedly, her eyes on the road. "Logan is in serious trouble."

"He seems to have a knack for it," Jubilee replied. Rogue looked at her sharply.

"He saved my life!" she exclaimed. "And he was there for everyone after Dr. Grey died, and he helped rebuild the school. He's only gotten into trouble once where he needed help. He's even doing better than you."

Jubilee flushed, both angry and guilty. Although it had been nearly a year, she still clearly remembered the helplessness and fear that had overwhelmed her when Stryker's men had kidnapped her and five other children, taking them to Alkali Lake and imprisoning them deep beneath the dam. "I'm sorry," she replied after a moment.

"Me too." Rogue spared her a quick smile before returning her eyes to the highway. A glint of metal caught her eye, speeding past them in the other direction. "Hey," she said, sitting up a little straighter, and even risking a quick glance behind her. "Wasn't that Scott's car?"

Scott, Hank and Kurt headed down the highway, operating on the best information they had. Charles had managed to get a lock on Rogue and Jubilee, and pinpointed their location. They had driven east for nearly 100 miles and then stopped briefly, before turning directly around and driving back west. They had no idea what was going on, but they figured that whatever the soldier had planned, they had to have stopped for something. The three men were therefore heading toward the location where the girls had turned around.

Scott glanced over at his fellow X-Men. Kurt had fallen asleep in the back seat, as he always did. Car travel seemed to do that to him. Hank was awake, but he had been sitting very quietly for the duration of the ride. "What's on your mind?" he asked.

Hank started, as though he'd forgotten he wasn't alone. "Oh!" he exclaimed, placing one hand to his heart. "I was lost in thought."

"I see that. What were you thinking about?"

"Scientific experiments." Hank's voice was very soft, and tinged with remorse. Scott took a longer look at his friend.

"Hank?" he queried. The big man sighed.

"Before I came to the school, I was a scientist," he said. "Primarily, I was engaged in the study of human genes. I wanted to understand how mutations worked – why is it that there are so many mutants, but such little repetition of mutant abilities? Nature works by repetition, generally. Every cell contains all of our DNA. Our genetic make up is thus repeated over and over again, thousands of cells, exactly the same. But how many other big furry blue beasts do you know? Or men who shoot death rays out of their eyes?"

"It's a puzzling question," Scott agreed, not entirely sure where the conversation was going.

"But that's precisely the point – I approach it as a puzzle, something to figure out. How am I any different from the men who experimented on Logan?"

Scott was shocked. "How could you even compare yourself to them?" he exclaimed. "They – they were butchers. They cut him up and tried to turn him into a machine. That's not science, Hank. It's sadism."

"But I would have done the same, if Kurt had not pointed out to me that Logan was uncomfortable with the idea. Before I came to the Institute, I never even thought twice about the consequences of my research."

"The Institute has that effect on people," Kurt offered from the back seat. He sat up, yawning, having woken up from his doze when he heard his name.

Hank twisted to look back at the blue man. "What do you mean?"

Kurt shrugged. "Before I came to the Institute, it never occurred to me that I shouldn't spend my whole life hiding away from all people. Now I couldn't imagine living without my friends, but only a few short years ago I believed I needed no one." He gazed out the window, lost in thought. "It is a place that changes you, my friend – huh?"

"What is it?" Scott had been nodding along with Kurt's commentary, but kept his eyes on the road.

"I must be more tired than I realized," Kurt replied. "I could have sworn I just saw young Rogue drive by us in an army jeep."

Finally his hands had been released, but Logan only had a brief respite in which to restore his circulation before the soldiers were securing them against the wall by his sides and he was trussed up just like Sabretooth. The other mutant snarled at him from a few feet away. "Should have figured they'd catch you, runt. You're too short to get away."

"Yeah, well, obviously your height advantage was counterbalanced by your stupidity, Bub," Logan shot back.

Sabretooth pulled his lips back in a snarl, revealing his fang-like teeth. "They caught me by surprise," he defended, eyes narrowed.

Logan just shook his head. There was just something about Sabretooth that made his blood boil, but he couldn't put his finger on it, and he couldn't afford to lose his temper. Right now, Sabretooth was the closest thing to an ally that he had, and he had to get out of wherever they were so he could make sure the girls were safe. Logan took a deep breath to calm himself, and then asked, "How long have you been here?"

Sabretooth regarded him suspiciously. "Why do you want to know?"

Logan bit his tongue to keep from lashing out. "I'm only trying to find out what you know about this place, so we can start figurin' a way outta here."

The other man let out a short, mirthless laugh. "Ha! Don't you think that if there was a way out of here, I'd have found it already?"

Logan sighed. "I'm just saying that maybe between the two of us, we'll be able to figure it out." Sabretooth offered no reply. "Look, Bub," Logan finally snapped, "I will be leaving, and you can either help – and come – or stay chained to this wall until they decide how they want to kill you."

There was silence from the other end of the room, and then Sabretooth replied, very quietly, "That's not what they're planning to do, Logan."

Logan felt a sudden chill wash over him. "What do you mean?"

"You really don't remember." It was a statement, not a question.

The words hit Logan like sledgehammers. "What are you talking about?" Logan twisted in his bonds, trying to get a better look at Sabretooth's face, desperate for information. "What do you know about me?"

Sabretooth let out a dark little laugh. "More than you could imagine."

Storm sank into a chair in the staff room, feeling wrung out. Kitty had gone up to her room to rest and Charles had suggested a cup of tea, but Storm's mug sat unattended in front of her. "Charles." She picked up her tea, stared at it mindlessly and put it back down again. "What are we going to do? You know as well as I do what will happen if they send someone out here to investigate. Mutant schools might not be against the law, but they're hardly going to tolerate it. Once they know what we're doing here, they'll use any excuse to shut us down!"

Charles had regained some of his usual calm, but his eyes were fiercely determined. "Then we will have to ensure that we give them absolutely no reason to find our establishment suspect," he replied.

"But what about Logan?" She exclaimed. "Just his presence makes us suspect."

"I'm aware of that, Ororo."

The use of her given name gave Storm pause. She looked up at Charles with shocked eyes as the implication of his statement sunk in. "You're suggesting we kick Logan out of the mansion? He has nowhere to go. We'd be condemning him to the life of a fugitive."

"I'm merely saying that it is important that it appear that Logan never taught here – indeed, that he only stayed here for a very short while, when Rogue first joined us. I believe that the incident at Bobby's house can be smoothed over, especially if he is willing to say that he lied to his parents about Logan's status at the school."

"And what about the girls?" Storm pressed. She didn't like the direction this was going at all.

Charles sighed. "Rogue and Jubilee are out of our hands now. If by some grace they are returned to us, then hopefully they have not revealed their powers, and we can convince the authorities that they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kitty, however..." he trailed off.

"They saw her walk through walls," Storm finished grimly. "We can't just send her on her way, Charles. Logan can take care of himself; he's done it for years. But Kitty's just a girl!"

"We won't be sending anyone on their way, Storm. I promise you that. But we do need to consider how we are going to handle this inspection visit. We have to be very careful. And Kitty is going to have to go somewhere else – somewhere safe – until we are no longer under suspicion."

"But where?"

"I think I know a place. First things first, though – you and I are currently the only teachers here, and we need to have a school meeting." Charles rolled toward the door. Storm squared her shoulders and followed.

Rogue and Jubilee managed to get about eight miles further along before Rogue suddenly pulled over to the side of the road, slamming on the brakes. "Uh, everything okay?" Jubilee asked, eyeing the other girl as though she'd grown a new head.

Rogue threw her hands up in frustration. "No!" she exclaimed. "No, everything is not okay! Logan is there, with those soldiers, going through God-knows-what because he thinks that we're in danger – and we're not! And I swear that was Scott speeding past us... heading right to where we just got out of!"

Jubilee nodded. "Uh-huh. And?"

"And?!" Rogue's voice jumped a notch and Jubilee winced. "They're headed that way because they're looking for us! Professor Xavier must have been able to locate us using Cerebro. But we're not there anymore!"

"Um... but the Professor would know that, Rogue. You said we had to get back to the mansion."

Jubilee's logic only stopped Rogue for a moment. "Well, it doesn't matter. The point is that Logan's in trouble, and he needs our help. We're going back there." She wrenched the jeep around furiously, laying rubber as she sped across the lanes over to the other side of the highway. Jubilee clutched at the armrest and tried not to fly into the dashboard.

"Umm... do I get a say in this?" she asked. Rogue whipped around her in her seat to glare at the other girl with a ferocity Jubilee had never seen in her friend. At the same time, the jeep weaved dangerously in the lane. "Never mind," she finished in a small voice. "Just please – watch the road."