A/N: Okay guys... here's the latest chapter of Failing to Remember. I don't really know what direction I'm heading in and whether I'll end this soon or... not so soon. Lol!

These characters belong to Marvel, blah di blah di blah. Jean and Wolverine's little speeches come from Uncanny X-men 303 and the X-men annual 14! (Great reads..!)

Thanks to B Oots, Ellie, and Bluesqueak! Your reviews mean the world to me and thank you so much for your ongoing support... what would I do without you?
And thanks to Meg for being one of the best reviewers there are! And dude, when you're asked for research... you come right on through. Thankies!

Now on with the story!

The worst thing in the world for me is over thinking. I mean, I over think about everything. And I mean everything. I over think putting out friggen trashcans that are half full, for God's sake!

So it was no surprise to me, that throughout the long hours of just sitting in the dark, my stomach growling with hunger, I thought. I thought about Wolverine, and Jimmy, and the past few weeks of my life. I thought about the movie premiere and what would have happened if I had just stayed, I thought about the decision not to leave after living five minutes in the X-mansion, I thought about anything and everything starting from the premiere to only today. Or well, yesterday. I couldn't exactly tell how long I had been in this… place for.

Apparently, the screaming had not helped and I was left alone. That tiger asshole wasn't even man enough to come and just say something to me. I wouldn't have cared if he had taunted me, or teased me… or even threatened me! But he never did come… at least for that little while anyway.

My hands were raw. I mean, after a while, my butt went completely numb and I couldn't feel it or the hard cement beneath me, which was a relief and a pain in the ass at the same time. (Okay, okay… pun intended.)

I tried to occupy myself though. Sure, you could call it over thinking, but it made me from going completely insane. Like I said before, when I was in Australia I got glimpses. More and more came along as time went by, but besides me remembering Remy and involuntarily saying 'Bobster', the glimpses had stopped upon my arrival to the X-mansion.

It wasn't like the glimpses were huge views into my past. I would see a face, or a certain color that reminded me of a different time. But the pieces were never put together to form a whole. If anything, my mind almost never gave the same glimpse. And my mind never seemed to focus on the whole picture, but just some part.

Being left in the dark though led the old ones back. It was like a pen had been uncapped and my conscious was busy writing away. Like sometimes out of the blue, while I sat on my numb butt, sudden and unannounced, I would whisper something to myself and realize it was something from my past. And they started off as the same old tiny glimpses, but as time went by, the glimpses evolved into huge chunks of memory. The big ones only occurred when I was sleeping though.

At least for a little while anyway.

I can see myself, a younger version. My hair is cut close to my head, short from what I can see. I mean, there is this huge… thing on top of my head and I can't exactly see a lot of the hair. I'm wearing something weird too. It looks like the outfit has cones poking out of it, but rounded cones… almost. It seems to go well with the hat though. Or whatever that huge mess on top of my head is.

It is very dark, but just light enough to see myself, huddled together. I'm tiny and the machine-hat only makes me look smaller. There is a red visor in front of me, cracked, battered, broken. And I am crying.

I know I started to think about a guy named Cyclops. Because the visor belonged to him. But I can't hear myself speak. I can only imagine I don't sound weak because my face looks as hard as a rock. It surprises me when my younger self doesn't wipe away the tears now trailing down her cheeks. When I cry, usually, the first thing I do is angrily wipe the tears away. But I kneel there, with my hands tucked under my arms. I know there's a man there, I know he's just beyond my view… just beyond what I can see. And I know… I just knowthat they can see my memories.

But I can't.

I watch my younger self freeze though. It doesn't even look like I'm breathing. It's a painful memory… it's something about death. And I sit there, hugging myself, trying to… to bring something back. But it's not coming.

And no matter what my younger self says, that man's taunts are somewhat getting through to her. As much as she denies what he is saying, I don't know for a fact that the man called Cyclops isn't dead. But as long as I can keep on saying it, over and over if I have to, there is still some hope left.

I wanna reach out and hug her. I wanna tell her that everything will be okay. But suddenly the memory twirls and twists…

I gasped when I awoke, almost choking on the sudden rush of air. I frightfully looked around, but I still couldn't see a thing. I tried to bring my hands forward, but I realized that I couldn't. Suddenly, I realized that the younger me hadn't been crossing her arms against her chest at all, and I realized that she couldn't have had wiped away the tears. Because I had been in a straight jacket, nearly trapped the same way as I was now. And I was just a tiny girl… just a little girl that had done nothing wrong. Just a little girl that wanted someone to hold her and tell her everything would be okay.

God, and I remembered the man with the white hair and the long, sinister face. I remember my escape from my school, a different school from the X-mansion and I remember this man… that man… Bastion rescuing me from a crazy creature. I thought he had been my savoir, but he had put me through more hell than I had ever experienced before. He made me believe the X-men were dead. And… somehow, I remembered loving them as much as a family member could. They were my family and Bastion had almost taken that away.

A digested all of this for a minute. I mean, of course I would remember more when I was in deep doo doo. Of course, I couldn't have remembered all of this when I was actually with the people I called family. Jeez louise!

"Jubilee."

I hurriedly looked around, but… as you might have guessed it, I still couldn't see anything. It sounded like… like Wolverine. His rough and yet comforting voice fills my head and my heart. And then, like we were in a play or something… a spotlight shone on him.

"Like I said, there are friends—and friends. People you pal with—and the ones you die for. Each carries its own set of obligations an' each person has to decide what they are and how best to carry 'em out. Us, kiddo. What makes us so special. 'Cause you're part of it now, Jubilation Lee--! We're mutants. That sets us apart right from the get-go, because we're born with abilities an' powers that mark us as different from the rest of the human race."

"Wolverine? Come un-tie me! Where are we? God, I have so much to say to you and everythin' and I hope that—" It took me a moment to realize that he wasn't listening. It took me another moment to realize that he wasn't really there. I don't know if it was my overly hungered mind, but I was hallucinating. He wasn't there.

"Like I said, there are friends…" and he went on and on and on. He kept on repeating and repeating and repeating! God, I wanted him to shut up… I wanted it all to go away. But it didn't and neither did he.

As he kept on talking, another spotlight appeared. This time it was Jean. Her hair looked the same, but her boobs were smaller and she looked a little younger. And before I could laugh about how tight her outfit was, she began to talk. Of course it didn't stop Wolverine. They went on and talked together.

"Jubilee, we come into this world alone and we leave it the same way… The time we spend in between… time spent alive, sharing, learning… together… is all that makes life worth living."

And then another… another man came from the shadows and into another spotlight. It was the Professor. God, it was the Professor. He didn't say anything and he didn't have to, but he held a bag… a bag that I recognized. It was mine… the one I had left the X-mansion with.

And I don't know… but maybe the voices got to me. Maybe it was the hunger. Or maybe it was because I wasn't able to see for hours upon hours. Maybe it was all the thinking and all the over analyzing junk I had done. Heck, maybe it was all of those factors combined, but before my mind even registered what I was doing, I popped.

The bright lights came fast and loudly. I clenched my eyes shut and even still, the bright lights were imprinted on my eyelids. I saw the lights even when I closed my eyes. And there were a lot of them.

Popping, popping, popping. The loud pops filled my ears and I could smell burning… just burning. And before I knew what was happening, my hands were free and I was on my feet. I guess they really tell you the truth about all that smoke rising, because when I stood up… God, smoke filled my lungs quicker than water fills a sinking ship. And all the fire was lighting up the room real quick… so I could finally see. I don't know what the tiger dude… Saber… Sabertooth! His name was Sabertooth! But anyway, I don't know what he had put in the room to make it fill up with fire so fast, but something must have reacted to my Paf's in a totally, chaotic bad way.

And I couldn't get them to turn off.

The 'people' had disappeared and were gone, but my body must have still been freaked. My pafs were circling my body and dropping in various places of the room. They started off bright, strong, dangerous fire starters; but as time went on, they were slowly but surely beginning to fade and become less harmful. But even so, the less harmful they got, the weaker I felt. It was like they were eating my energy and I didn't know how to stop them.

I spotted the door right away. The only problem was actually getting around the fire and out. But I figured that if I could concentrate enough, I could use my paf's on another part of the wall and blast my way out of there. The only problem was the weakness and the exhaustion.

I squeezed my eyes shut again, pushing my sudden urge to cough in the back of my mind and concentrated as hard as I could. The heat made it harder to concentrate, but when my mind seemed the most focused I would be able to get it, I pushed my hands forward and urged something big and powerful to come from my hands.

Cautiously opening my eyes, I slowly looked toward where I had sent the big paf. And it had worked! The only problem… the only problem was of course my exhaustion. Could I get out of this fire-infested room before my body decided to give up?

Already, my vision was weakening and my legs were near collapse. I coughed, a wracking cough that shook my entire body and left my head aching. I started forward quickly, but tripped over the rope that I had left on the floor near my feet. So I began to crawl and crawl, my arms feeling like they weighed a ton and a half. But I was too slow and by the time I got almost near enough to the hole to slither out, a beam fell down in front of me; blocking my path. I barely had any energy to cry out before I closed my eyes and gave into the thousand commands of my body.

But before I could give myself completely away to the darkness, a giant hand or so it seemed grabbed me by my shirt. Fur… burnt fur. I passed out before I could decipher which furry hand it was; Sabertooth's or Wolverine's or maybe neither. All I knew was sleep... sleep... sleep.