Let me say thanks to those who have reviewed every chapter.

THANK YOU: Crystal Cheyenne, Catlimere, Miz, and charmedfanatic3000. If I missed anyone I apologize.

Let me give a shout out to my biggest fan BlackCat200. Glad to see you're reading this.

Thanks to all those who reviewed. I am truly grateful for all of them. To answer your questions just keep reading.

On with the story! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

"All right, this is a topographic map of the dam." Storm was briefing once they had landed the plane at the dam. "This is the spillway. You see these density changes in the terrain? They're tire tracks."

"That's the entrance." Logan stated.

"Mm-hmm. And this shows the depth of the ice that's covering the ground. Now, this is recent water activity. If we go in there, Stryker could flood the spillway. Can you teleport inside?"

Storm looked toward Kurt.

"No. I have to be able to see where I'm going…otherwise I could wind up inside a wall."

"I'll go," said Logan. "I have a hunch he'll want me alive."

"NO! You can't. Not without me. Someone needs to be there to watch your back. I can't lose you." Buffy hugged her father tightly.

"You both know that whoever goes into the dam…needs to be able to operate the spillway mechanism. What do you intend to do?" Magneto asked. "Scratch it with your claws?"

"Do you always have to be such a prick or were you just born that way?"

Buffy asked Magneto with such a glare. Magneto actually laughed at that but then his face returned to being serious as he looked at Wolverine.

"I'll take my chances."

"But I won't." Magneto said looking toward Mystique.

Two bodies made their way toward the spillway. Buffy was very adamant about going. She told them she would go alone if they didn't let her come. Besides she had a score to settle in this too. She and her mother, who was in the form of Wolverine, moved together down the spillway.

"Stryker!" Mystique's voiced echoed through the spillway.

"Show yourself you bastard?" The two looked around and saw a camera above the door.

"Stryker!"

After several seconds two side doors opened from the wall and at least ten men stepped out. They both raised their hands slowly.

"Either one of you move and you're dead."

Two guards approached them with metal restraints. They placed it on them effectively pinning their arms to their chest. Once they were sure their prisoners were secured they led them through the big door. They stood on a platform while Stryker and some more men came in through another door. Buffy could hear Stryker talking.

"The one thing I know better than anyone is my own work. Seal the room. Bring me the girl. Shoot the other."

"Step away!" One of the soldiers yelled.

That was when the two sprang into action. Mystique reverted back to her original form, while Buffy just made herself smaller. They began attacking the guards with a variety of karate moves and using the guards to deflect the bullets which were mostly being aimed at Mystique. Together the two slid into the control room just as the doors shut. Mystique went to one of the computers and Buffy stood behind her.

"Pretty good moves you have there." Her mother told her.

"Well, I was trained to be able to take on dad, but he couldn't control me." Her mother nodded. She spoke into her communicator.

"We're in." Buffy heard her dad speak through her communicator.

"That's my girl."

Buffy smiled slightly and then looked at the screen off to her left. The missing children from the school were on it. Buffy could tell that Stryker was trying to get the door open. There was an explosion that vibrated the door. Mystique turned to look at the door.

"Keep working. I'll handle them should they get through."

Several minutes later the door began to creak open. Buffy ready her claws. Part of the door fell away and she quickly withdrew her claws. The rest of the group was there minus John, Remy, Bobby, and Rogue.

"Have you found it?" Magneto asked.

"A large portion of energy from the dam has been diverted to this chamber." Mystique showed them on the screen.

"Cerebro," muttered Storm.

"There it is," said Magneto.

"Can you shut it down from here?" Storm asked her.

"No."

Mystique said in a way that Buffy didn't quite believe her. It was something in the way her mother spoke and her body language.

"Come. There's little time." Magneto said as he headed for the door.

"Not without us," said Jean.

Magneto and Mystique shared a look and Buffy knew that something was up between the two.

"Oh my. The children," said Storm upon seeing the monitor. "Kurt, will you come with me?"

"Yes."

"Where are they?"

Logan began looking over the monitors and saw Stryker and a dark haired woman on one of them. He checked another screen and saw them continue down the hall.

"They're being held in a cell one level down." Mystique told them.

Buffy heard her father whisper Stryker's name. He looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to him and made eye contact with Buffy. He whispered to Buffy.

"Stay with your mother. I love you."

"I love you too. Be careful."

"You too." He said to her before taking off his communicator and slipping out.

"Okay, Buffy and I will try to find Scott and the professor." Jean told Storm.

"Will you two be alright without us?"

"Yeah we'll be fine," said Jean.

"Where's Logan?" Storm asked.

"He went after Stryker." Buffy said quietly as everyone turned to look at her.

"You let him go?" Jean asked.

"It's something he needs to do by himself. The answer to the past might be within these walls. Come on, we got work to do."

Jean and Buffy followed behind Mystique and Magneto. Buffy noticed the looks the two kept sharing. She also noticed that Jean didn't look right. About the same time Jean saw him Buffy had smelt him. Jean reached out and pushed Magneto and Mystique to the ground.

"Go! We'll take care of him!" Buffy told them.

"This is one quarrel we cannot get involved in, my dear." Mystique hesitated looking at her daughter.

"Go on! I'll meet you at the chamber as soon as I can."

Buffy told her as Jean used her powers to push Scott back against the wall. Buffy watched her mother leave. She ran to catch up with Jean.

"Scott!" She heard Jean call his name.

Buffy was following his scent when she saw the flash of Scott's beam. She saw Jean holding it back with her powers. Before Buffy could do anything there was bright flash as Jean pushed the beam back sending them both flying. Buffy quickly checked on Jean who was out. Moving toward where she saw Scott land she heard a thump behind her. Turning there was Scott looking slightly haggard. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead.

"Scotty? You in there? It's your cousin Buffy."

Scott face had a small look of recognition before firing at Buffy. She dodged the beams but they were coming really close. She noticed he wasn't using his full force like with Jean. A beam hit Buffy in the stomach and she flew against the wall. She was lying there as he approached trying to catch her breath. Scott was about to fire at her again when an exploding card that sent him to the ground hit him.

"Remy!"

"You alright mon amour?"

"I'm okay. Thanks. Give me a hand."

Remy took the power out of the card and put it away. He helped Buffy up. He took a look at the red welt across her stomach.

"It's alright. Stay here with Scott. I'm going to check on Jean."

Buffy gave Remy a quick kiss on his cheek before going to check on Jean. By the time Buffy reached her Jean was starting to come around. The sound of running footsteps told her that Scott was all right. Scott knelt down beside Jean not taking any notice of Buffy.

"Jean, no, no, no. It's okay. It's okay. It's me."

"Scott." Jean spoke barely above a whisper sounding incredible tired.

"I'm so sorry." The two embraced and Buffy had to smile.

"I thought I lost you," said Jean. He kissed her.

"I'm so sorry. I could see you, but I couldn't stop myself. I tried. I'm sorry."

"I love you so much."

"I love you."

"Not that I want to interrupt this, but how about a hello for your favorite cousin."

Scott turned to look at who spoke and as if noticing her for the first time. He immediately embraced Buffy.

"Buffy! Where have you've been? Everyone has been so worried about you?"

"It's a long story better left for the trip home. We need to catch up with Mystique and Magneto."

"Something's wrong." Jean announced to everyone. "We need to hurry."

Jean tried to stand up, but would have fallen if not for Scott and Remy.

"Come on Remy. We'll go ahead of you. You can catch up when you can."

Buffy and Remy took off in a run. They hadn't gotten far when they both clutched their heads and cried out in pain. They fell to their knees. Buffy was rapidly changing shape and form. She felt a pair of strong arms embrace her tightly. Buffy hands held on to his arms tightly as the pain in her head continued. As suddenly as it had began it stopped.

"You alright?" Buffy asked softly.

"Remy's fine cher. You okay?"

"Besides having the world's worst migraine right now, I'm cool. Come on; let's find the chamber. Something tell me Magneto and mother have something planned."

Remy nodded as he got up and turned to once again help Buffy up. She enjoyed the feeling of his touch.

Meanwhile Logan, after fighting with Stryker's lackey, began following Stryker's scent. He caught up with him outside unhooking the chains to his plane. Logan slugs Stryker across the face, and jacks him against the nose of the plane before hitting him hard in the forbidden zone. Stryker lets out an excruciating scream of pain.

"How does it feel bub?"

"Why did you come back?" Stryker asked between gasp.

"You cut me open. You took my life!"

"You make it sound as if I stole something from you. As I recall, it was you who volunteered for the procedure."

"What about my daughter? She didn't volunteer for anything. You took away three years of her life. Putting her through hell with your experiments and test."

"Your daughter was a continuation of your own volunteering."

"You bastard! Who am I?"

"You…are just a failed experiment." Stryker cries out in pain as Wolverine digs his claws into him. "If you really knew about your past…what kind of person you were…the work we did together-People don't change, Wolverine. You were an animal then. You're an animal now. I just gave you claws."

"What about my daughter? Is she a failed experiment?"

"Actually, she's a work in progress, an on-going experiment that has been going on for eighteen years. Before she was even born we were working on ways to make her the ultimate weapon. A little more time and some more treatments she would have succumb to my control. She's my best work yet, and she hasn't even reached her full potential."

Stryker was practically bragging and Wolverine wanted more than anything to shove his claws through the man's cold heart. A distant blaring noise caught his attention and he turned his head toward it.

"What the hell is that? What is that?"

"The dam's ruptured. It's gonna flood water onto the spillway. It's trying to relieve the pressure. It's too late. In a few minutes we'll all be underwater. Come with me, and I tell you everything you want to know. You can't help your friends. They're as good as dead. You're a survivor, just like your daughter, always have been. We'll pick her up once the place floods. Wolverine."

"Oh, I thought I was just an animal…with claws." Wolverine edged his claws slowly toward Stryker's face. "If we die, you die."

Wolverine told him as he quickly pulls the claws out before chaining him to the wheel of the plane. Then he runs quickly back toward the dam.

"There are no exits that way Wolverine!" Stryker says to Wolverine's fleeing back.

PLEASE REVIEW