"The UN summit is tonight," Ororo explained, "on Liberty Island. Erik's blueprints outline the production of a replacement torch for the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island."

"The only difference between the original torch and the one Magneto's building," Kitty jumped in, waving a stack of printed pages under Jean's nose, "is that this one hollow inside, but still structurally sound. There's four more square feet of space, both across and high, in Magneto's version, and there's a depression in the floor, giving it more depth."

Both Kitty and Ororo looked at Jean pointedly, watching as realization dawned in her eyes. Her hands flew up to her mouth.

"The machine I saw!" Her hands flew to her mouth in disbelief. "He's going to put it in the torch and use the Rogue to power it. He's going to mutate the leaders of every major nation in the free world!"

"This is bad," Kitty interjected. Both Ororo and Jean turned to glare at her. She squirmed uncomfortably." "Right, I'm going, I'm going." She shoved the papers into Jean's hands. "If anyone need's me I'll be using the CIA's computer to mess with Scott's credit…I mean I'll be keeping an eye on Jamie." She ran from the war room rather quickly. Ororo made a mental not to remove her name from the school's network before they ended up with a lawsuit on their hands. Later though, she could only deal with one crisis at a time. When they were alone, she began pacing back and forth, and ran her hands through her hair.

Jean just watched. She was one of the few who ever got to see Ororo this way: outwardly nervous, unsure, troubled. With Scott out of commission, leadership of the team fell to Storm. The leadership she could handle…once she got over making the call that might decided the fates of the leaders of the free world and one of her students.

"Look Jean," she said softly after a moment of contemplation, never ceasing her pacing. "Maybe…maybe we shouldn't intervene." This was the last thing Jean was expecting to hear.

"WHAT?" the doctor exclaimed, throwing up her hands. "How can you say that 'Ro? He's going to mutate the heads of the most powerful countries in the world, including, need I mention, our own? And you just want to let this happen?" The thought came a such a shock that Jean could barely process it.

"Look, I know Erik's methods aren't the most humane, but maybe he has a point here. What if the President was a mutant? Can you imagine how quickly they'd drop this registration act nonsense?" Jean's jaw dropped. She never thought the day would come when one of their own would side with the biggest mutant threat to the free world.

"It doesn't matter," Jean shouted in reply. "The President didn't ask to be made into a mutant,"

"Neither did we!" Storm responded, raising her voice to match her friends. "I'm just wondering if maybe Magneto's right is all!"

"And what about Rogue, huh?" Jean demanded, angrily brushing her hair out of her face. "Are you just going to leave her with Magnus? He kidnapped her 'Ro!" Storm stopped pacing and leaned back against the wall, slamming one fist into it.

"No, we just wait until after to-"

"You can't wait until after, Ororo! You didn't see what I saw," Jean shouted, throwing her hands out. "He's going to kill her!" Ororo opened up her mouth to protest when a series of pounding footsteps outside attracted both their attentions. Suddenly the footsteps stopped, giving way to a tremendous pounding against the door. The bolts actually jumped a few times before Kitty's head appeared through the door. Without a word, she reached over and fingered the lock toggle from inside. The doors slid open and Piotr charged through Kitty and into the room.

"What?" 'Ro demanded as Piotr doubled over, hands on his knees, panting in exhaustion. "What's wrong?" But Jean pulled the answer from his mind before he could catch his breath.

"Kelly's dead?" she demanded.

"Nyet," Piotr panted. "Not just dead. He…" and he shrugged, looking at Kitty. "What's is da word."

"He liquified," she pseudo-explained. "All over Pete's hands, and the floor, and…and…" The girl stuttered, looking like she was fighting the urge to be sick.

"Da, it was all over." Piotr confirmed. With an 'I told you so' glare, Jean stared at Ororo.

"Right," she said. "Right…I'll go get Logan. You suit up." She strode out of the room, taking Piotr and Kitty with her. "We'll assemble at the Blackbird in 10 minutes."

Exactly fifteen minutes later, Jubilee came charging down the hall in a similar fashion, dragging one Jamie of several behind her. She pounded on the war room door, shouting at the top of her lungs.

"Jean! Jean, open up!" she cried. The doors parted underneath her hand, but it wasn't Jean who opened them, but Kitty. Jubilee paused mid-yell. "Kitty? How'd you get in there?" she asked, dumbfounded. Kitty cocked an eyebrow at her friend.

"Um, walked through the wall."

"Where's Jean?"

"Mission."

"Well, get her on a comm, we have a problem," she muttered, jerking Jamie around to stand in front of her, forcing out a duplicate. Both Jamies stood with their heads bowed, looking thoroughly chastised (and slight scared of the fuming Jubilee).

"What?" Kitty demanded, looking from the boys to her friend. "Someone had better spill. Right now." One of the Jamie's (the original, Kitty thought) wrung his hands together and cleared his throat.

"Well…the boys and me…we sort of untied that kid Jean had tied to a bed in a med lab…andnowwecan'tfindhim," the last part came out as a jumbled mess. Jubilee stared poignantly at Kitty. They were completely silent for a moment, before Kitty said,

"We are so screwed."

"Yup."

"I'll get Jean on the phone."

For the moment, Rogue was trying to forget the fact that she was naked as the day she was born. The fact that she was shackled to the deck of a speedboat under the control of a man with a fourteen-foot tongue and captained by a guy hell-bent on the destruction of humanity helped in distracting her. However, shortly into their voyage Magneto dismissed Toad from the wheel and sent him on some meaningless errand. As he approached Rogue, she could only assume that he was using his power to keep the boat on a safe course. Either that or they were so far out there was no risk they'd hit anything.

As he bore down on her, Rogue was almost positive he was going to strike her. She fought back the urge to duck her head as he raised a hand from beneath his cloak. But instead of hitting her, her dropped a bundle of black cloth into her lap.

"Put those on," he ordered her. With the limited mobility that her shackles offered, Rogue unfolded a ratty tee shirt and a pair of stretchy, workout pants. Quickly, she struggled into the clothing, feeding her chains though the arm and leg holes in the garments. That was going to make for difficulty getting off the boat, but that was the least of the girl's concern.

"Why…?" she started to demand as Magnus paced back to the front of the open air deck, but he cut her off with his answer of,

"Cause if you sit their naked any longer, I can't ensure that Creed won't jump you right this moment." After a brief pause, he added, "I'm going to need him alive later."

"What, exactly, are you doing wandering around with a ladies outfit in your cloak?" she demanded, in an ungrateful tone. She saw Mystique pause by the cabin doorframe, eavesdropping for his answer. Magneto was hardly flustered.

"They belonged to you friend, Carol," he hissed dangerously, staring out over the glassy ocean. Rogue felt a surge of anger rising within her at the mention of her companion's name.

"I don't know what you've got planned, but you won't get away with it," she said maliciously. "The evil bastard with visions of world domination never wins. Anything!"

"It's not world domination that I want. It's the safety of every mutant on the planet. It's a shame you won't be around to see what you will accomplish." This was news to Rogue. With a higher degree of calmness than she felt, she asked,

"Are you going to kill me?"

"Yes." There was no emotion in his voice, no resentment, no sadness. He didn't feel any, cause he was positive this was the last choice, the right choice. Erik truly believed himself to be the mutant messiah. But instead of killing himself, Rogue was going to die for him, for his sins. To save mutants across the world, Magneto was going to kill Rogue. And as he walked to the bulkhead of the ship, leaving the girl to ponder her fate, the chains around her seemed to strain as she cursed him with all the power in her lungs.

"Jean?" The comm aboard the hull of the Blackbird crackled to life. "Jean, do you copy?" Jean and 'Ro shot each other looks out the corners of their eyes before Jean responded.

"I read you Kitty? What's the problem?"

"Apparently that kid you tied to a bed in the back annals of the medlab escaped, with a little help from about 15 Jamies and…"

"Since when do we tie children up in the med lab, anyway?" Ororo cut in, glaring furiously at her doctor/friend. "Isn't there something against that in the Hippocratic oath you took?" Burying her head in her hands with a frustrated groan, Jean cast out a telepathic net, encasing the entire Blackbird.

"Kitty, tell Jamie we're going to have a long talk when we get home, and clear this channel," she spoke into the comm. Then, taking her finger off the button, she turned to look at Logan over the back of her co-pilot's chair. He was distracted, tugging at his uniform collar and looking thoroughly uncomfortable, though Jean was positive he hadn't missed a word of the conversation. "Logan, would you be kind enough to get up, and remove the floor panel three back and one to your left."

Without a word, the man rose and heaved up the heavy panel like it was made of Styrofoam. Peering out from the darkness of the electrical access hold below, a pair of red eyes blinked in the light.

"We dere' yet…oh crap, not you 'gain," Remy cussed as he was unceremoniously hauled out of his hiding place by the front of his shirt. "Listen, ah know you gonna be all pissed and try n' kick my ass in 'bout tree seconds, but 'fore you do," however, as it turned out, Remy's biggest threat wasn't the hairy Canadian holding him a foot above the floor, the but the overstressed redhead flying the plane. Without warning or explanation, Remy found himself flying through the air and landed on his back at the rear of the ship.

"Tell me, Remy," Jean asked in a cool tone, not once looking away from her controls, "exactly what part of 'stay put' don't you understand? Is it the 'stay' or the 'put'?"

"Now wait a sec," he began to protest indignantly, but when the Cajun attempted to get to his feet, he found himself unable to do so, as if a giant hand was pinning him to the floor.

"'Cause you seem like a smart boy, yet you're just totally unable to follow basic instructions…" she continued, each word dripping with disdain.

"Lady, Ah been called a lot o' tings in mah life, but stupid ain't ever been one of 'em!"

"I didn't called you stupid," Jean retorted, in a manner so foreign that Ororo was could do little but stare at her friend in disbelief. "I just implied it. At least you were smart enough to pick up on that…"

"Alright, tat does it!" Remy exclaimed, swinging wildly back and forth, trying to break free. However, Jean had a firm mental grip of the thief, and he wasn't go anywhere. Still, he continued to flop around, looking like a fish out of water. "Ah'm gonna show you just how stupid Ah am when Ah take that pretty, little head o' yours and," but a close up shot of the three claws poised directly over his eyes shut Remy up fast.

"That ain't no way to talk to a lady, bub," Logan mocked, squatting beside the young man's prone body, thoroughly enjoying his discomfiture.

Meanwhile, Storm was puzzled by the rather cruel change in her co-pilot. It wasn't like Jean to taunt and harass, especially not to the young man who was still considered a patient of hers.

"What the hell are you doing?" she hissed at her friend, but Jean held up her hand, silencing the weather witch. Her brow creased in concentration, she turned around and glared at the two boys behind her. The struggling Remy suddenly went limp against his telekinetic bonds that strapped him to the floor. There was utter silence on the ship for a few seconds as Logan and Ororo stared at one another, equally perplexed. Then as suddenly as the silence had begun, it was broken as Remy began thrashing again, finishing the curse that had been frozen on his lips. Jean shook her head slightly, her face expressionless, but her mental voice sounded as if it concealed a smug smile.

"Kid's got a mental shield that's seamless as glass. Doesn't even know he's got it. Any idea what a quick way is to get rid of an involuntary telepathic shield?" Storm groaned inwardly at Jean's telepathic query.

"No, but I'm going to take a guess and suggest that pissing him off usually does the trick?" she whispered back. Before receiving an answer she ventured on, "why?"

"Did I need to get inside in the first place?" Jean asked, finishing the question for her. Storm nodded, correcting their cruising altitude as they entered a jet stream of cold air. "Because we don't have time to drop him off back home, and if he's coming with us, than I had to know what we're dealing with."

"And what did you discover, you snoop?" 'Ro chided. However, Jean didn't respond directly. Instead she correctly their telemetry a bit, and freed Remy from his kinetic bondage.

"Logan," she called over her should, speaking aloud this time, "why don't you put those claws away and let the poor boy up? In fact," she added, a mischievous glint in her eyes, "why don't you grab him a spare uniform out of the cabinet behind you?" The effect of her words was instantaneous.

"Yer kidding?" Logan demanded, "We ain't bringin' him with us!"

"Ah ain't wearin' dat ting!" Remy exclaimed, pointing at Logan's uniform. "Ah didn't sign up fo' dis party!" Both men's complaints got lost and tangled up with one another's, coming out as a giant string of noisy gibberish that echoed around the deck of the Blackbird. Jean chose to ignore what Remy had to say, probably because she had a feeling he was going to be the one responsible for the mess in her med-lab when they returned home.

"No, I'm not kidding at all Logan," she replied tartly, "he's going to help us get Rogue back, so stop trying to decapitate him and hand him a uniform," she ordered. Grumbling the entire time, the Canadian reached behind him and chucked a balled up uniform at Remy. Hard.

Despite his quick reflexes, the Cajun caught the leather mass in the gut, and doubled over with a soft,"Ugh!"

"Logan…" Ororo called out in a warning tone. Logan sauntered back to his seat, looking rather smug, and muttering something that sounded remotely like, "swamprat…." Unfolding the suit, Remy stared at it with a almost pained expression on his face.

"Ah'm really supposed ta wear dis?" he asked, plaintively.

"Either that or I hurl you out the rear hatch," Storm responded, her mood growing steadily worse as they got closer to the New York harbor. "Your choice."

Remy was out of his coat and unbuttoning his shirt so fast that spectators would have though it was on fire. A grim look on her face, Storm turned back to her console.

"Jean?" She whispered, inclining her head as if she was looking over at Jean's radar screen. "Tell me you found something good in that boy's head?" she pleaded. Jean suppressed a small smile, feeling slightly hopeful, more so than she had all day.

"'Ro," she said aloud, "you have no idea."

A/N: Feel free to shoot me this time. I deserve it. Just review before you do, thanks ;)