Here's your chapter. Enjoy.

I own nothing you recognize, so quit bugging me about it!

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Previously...

Sam grabbed the railing to keep herself from falling to the floor as soon as they arrived on the other side. She slowly straightened and her mouth hung open in horror. Blood coated the walls of the Gate Room and a severed hand still clutched the metal bar of the railing.

"I'm gonna be sick," Cassie said, her voice shaky.

"I'm right there with ya kid," Wolverine said. The team of mutants slowly made their way down the ramp and began checking the carnage for any survivors.

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Jack looked up as an older man in a wheelchair came into the Briefing Room. His face was grim and Jack could relate. Twenty men and women under his command had died at the hand of one man.

"General O'Neill I presume," Xavier said. "Professor Charles Xavier. I am so sorry for what happened here."

"You should be," Jack growled. "One of your oh-so-precious students killed a score of men and women!"

"Had I known this would have happened, Sage would have never been allowed to go on this mission," Xavier returned.

"Yeah right," Jack snorted.

"If anyone is to blame for this it's me," Jean suddenly said, staring at them all.

"What makes you say that?" Cyclops asked.

"When…when Sage was ten, something happened to him. He not only developed his mutant ability but he became…violent. Our parents tried everything to help him. They even had someone attempt an exorcism, but it didn't work. We had to keep him locked up so he wouldn't hurt anyone," Jean began.

"What changed?" Teal'c asked.

"A monk came to our door one day and said he could help us. He walked down to Sage and placed that wolf necklace on him. He became sedated. The monk explained to us that the pendant would only work for so long. We asked what we could do to make Sage's dark side vanish and we were told that if sacred symbols were inscribed onto his skin, the effects would last.

"We decided to go through with it and arrived at a monastery in Colorado. They tattooed him and Sage's normal self appeared. He stayed there for several years to learn how to control his darker side. Before he left, we were warned that the evil inside of his heart would always remain there, however small it appeared," Jean explained.

"And then when he went into the cave, it awoke his malevolent side," Daniel finished. Jean nodded, a tear escaping from her eyes.

"How do we stop him?" Cameron inquired.

"We can't," Jean said. "He's too powerful, even if I became the Phoenix."

"We have to try though," Cassie said.

"Where would he go Jean?" Xavier asked.

"The monastery, but only he knows where it is," she replied.

"That's not entirely true," Cassie slowly said. "He took me there a while ago, before General Carter died. I know where it is."

Xavier turned to Jack. "I apologize again for the deaths of your people. I will make arrangements to have money wired to this base so that you may give it to the families. A paltry apology though. Lives have no price tags."

Jack nodded. "It's the thought that counts." The X-Men rose to their feet and walked out of the Briefing Room, heading for the surface.

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Sorry again for the shortness of the chapter, but I think the next chapter is a little bit longer. Now review or you won't get any pudding. It's finally ready and it's really yummy (according to my muse anyways)...you're not reviewing. How can you have any pudding if you don't review?