Disclaimer: I do not own any characters mention except for Jack and Ellie, and now Lily. They all belong to someone else. Any fault in characterization is my fault. I am not making any money off of this chapter and any chapter that follows.

Notes: Just to explain this now. Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Professor X are all alive. I haven't explained how yet, but they are. Just believe it's like the comic books. I tried to stay as close to the movies as possible, though I'm closer to the novelization of The Last Stand than the actual movie. There are only two original characters at the moment, the rest are comic book characters. Constructive criticism always welcome. I'd like to thank my one reviewer and the some 89 odd people who read (or at least the site said read) the first chapter. I can only hope more of you review. Thanks.

Jack looked at his sister and opened his mouth, only to close it when no sound came out. He opened it, but once again nothing came out. He finally settled on a strangled "What?" His sister was looking about the hall as if someone was just waiting to eavesdrop. If she kept that behavior up, someone would think they were up to something.

"I think you need to call Excalibur together." Her voice was hushed. "Now."

He managed another "What?" before continuing with, "You know that was just an imaginary thing we had going for us when we were kids, right?" It had evolved from a game when there had just been the two of them and the Summers kids, pretending to be their parents, to a secret club just after the Sentinels. Now, in his last year as a student at Xavier's school, the idea of Excalibur sounded stupid.

"Look, it's something important, alright. Something the X-men might not be able to handle."

A look of annoyance crossed over his face. "Well, if the X-men can't handle it, how the hell can we?" He pushed past her. "If it's really that important, we'll talk after dinner, okay?" Taking a sharp left, Jack felt the wall for the correct panel. Finally the elevator door opened and he descended to the lower three levels of the school.

Jack punched in his PIN into the computer, allowing him to look through at his Danger Room profile. So far he was ahead on his wins compared to his loses. Scanning the list of available situations, he chose one of the lowest ones. He pulled on his bright indigo and yellow training uniform before stretching. He then entered the training room.

The objective was to rescue kidnapped children while avoiding the booby traps. It was simple enough that Jack would not be using any items from his collection of weapons; instead he would be using only his natural mutations, which included enhanced sight, smell, and hearing as well as an accelerated healing factor. He felt the air around him thicken and begin to swirl with dust. The simulation had begun. He heard the rumble of the giant rock ball beginning its descent. Obviously someone had been watching Indiana Jones before designing the simulation. He out ran the boulder like he had when he was fifteen and began to press on once more. He did the jumping and running and sniffing to find his objective. All he had to do was smell the stink of teenage bodies that had yet to realize that they smelled and that soap was their friend. There were four of them, a group small so not to be overrun with charges to look after, but enough to be unwieldy in tight spaces.

"Listen up!" He told the simulated children, trying to make his voice gruff, like his father's. "I'm going to get you guys out of here. No powers, that's needless attention. Got it? Stay silent and follow me." He led them out of cell he had broken into and the small group was on their way through the booby-trapped hall. Jack had already dismantled most of the traps, so he moved quickly and confidently. They were almost near the large glowing exit sign that ended this particular training exercise when his legs were kicked out from under him. "Run!" he called to the kids. The simulation would still be considered a success if the objective, rescuing the kids, was met.

He tried to fall correctly, like he was taught, but his breath was still knocked out him. His brain went haywire for a moment. There was not supposed to be any mutant-mutant interactions besides the rescuing. Where had this person come from? He struggled to stand, to face his attacker, but was knocked down again.

"No, don't get up, bub." The end of a cigar fell to Jack's left. A cold metal blade pressed into the base of Jack's skull hard enough to hurt. "Not too smart to go off on your own on rescue missions. You could get hurt."

"You could get hurt if mom knew you were smoking around me," he was tempted to say, but Jack held his tongue. It was not time to tease. Jack knew he could not beat his father in a physical fight; age and skill would prevail. If he could just knock the cigar out of his father's mouth, it would make his day.

Something grabbed the back of his training uniform, lifting him up. He heard the adimantium claw rip through the material. He winced, yet another uniform destroyed. By his estimates, Jack would have only one chance to land a punch. It would hurt like hell, thanks to an adimantium infused skeleton, but it would be worth it.

Jack was right. The Wolverine's head did not snap back, even with his son's full force punch, but it was enough to make the older man's jaw drop a little in surprise, just enough for the cigar to drop out, that his son had hit him. The image was ruined as Jack stood there, shaking out is hand and cursing, trying to figure out if anything was broken.

"Simulation over," the Danger Room's prerecorded voiced intoned. Everything dissolved around them. Yet another success to go on Jack's record.

"Not the brightest thing to do, training by yourself." His father was not a man of many words, but Logan James Howlett was blunt and sincere.

Jack had stopped cursing, though he was gritting his teeth in pain he would want to ice his hand later, lest it swell. "Needed to work off some steam. I was almost finished when you showed up."

"Teaches you to expect the unexpected." Taking out another cigar, his father lit it and walked out of the Danger room.

Feeling a bit foolish, Jack went to go shower and change.

He returned to his room refreshed. The school was just beginning to buzz with the return of friends and the forging of new friendships. His roommate's stuff had appeared in their shared room while Jack was out, but Mark was nowhere to be found. That suited him just fine. It allowed him to settle down a bit and unwind. Students were not allowed televisions in their rooms, at least ones with a cable box, but said nothing about watching DVD's or videogames. So taking full advantage of the loophole, he popped in Animal House, in the mood for some lighthearted comedy. He would have preferred to watch the movie on the large screen television downstairs, but then he would have to deal with people bothering him and the annoying rule that banned R-rated movies where young eyes could catch sight of a boob or whatever.

He heard the door open, but paid no attention to it. Mark probably needed something before having to rush out again.

"Jack."

It was his sister. Jumping at her unexpected voice, he looked up. "When did you get here?"

She rolled her eyes. "I knocked and knocked. Nobody answered. I let myself it. You then ignored me." She glared at him for a moment before noticing the movie. "Ooh, is that Animal House?"

He paused the DVD. "What did you want?"

"You didn't show up for dinner, so I was worried." He gave her a disbelieving look. "Okay, okay, fine. It was because I wanted to talk to you about what we talked about before."

"What did we talk about?"

"You know, what I heard this afternoon?" She plopped down on his bed.

"You eavesdropped, and you're terrible at that, I might add. You probably didn't hear everything." He dismissed her claims. "If there is some type of threat, we'll be told what to do. All you need to do is keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard."

She scowled at him. "That's all we ever do. We have some vague plan to evacuate the building, but how the hell is that going to help? I'm not going to run away and hide from the big bad monster. We already did that."

"Do you think you were the only one with nightmares?" he spat. "Nate was only ten, and he wasn't even the youngest." Jack tried to soften his voice. "Look, I understand you want to do something. Sitting around is never any fun and can be frustrating. Why don't you ask someone if you can do something." He tried to compromise with her.

She shot him another dark look. "They would just smile at me patronizingly, pat me on the head, and tell me not to work. We have to do something, even if it has to be done in secret."

He resisted the urge to laugh in her face. That would just make her more upset, and that was the last thing he needed. "Ellen, this isn't some fantasy book thing, it's real life. You aren't Hermione Granger and I'm certainly not Harry Potter. There is no reason for a secret club. If you want to hone your powers, schedule some Danger Room sessions or something. And Dad certainly won't pat you on the head."

His twin stood up angrily. "That's all you think about, more practice, practice, practice." She spat the word practice. "But guess what, strength doesn't always win, dumbass." Huffing, she marched out of the room, leaving him alone with John Belushi dressed in a bed sheet. Even the Delta's toga party couldn't distract him.

The Sentinel incident when he was twelve was when his childhood truly ended. There had been times when he and the others had been sent down to the Safe Room, located in the lowest level of the mansion, to wait out whatever the current threat. When he was twelve that was not the way it happened. The attack had occurred in the middle of the night, much like General Stryker had done years before. The X-Men had been over extended and had not been able to organize all the young students into safety. There had been no time to think.

Five of them ran outside together: himself, Ellie, Rachel, Nate, and Talia. Older children, those who had not grown at Xavier's school, had run in other directions. They had run into the woods, trusting no one. They had grown up on the stories of Mystique and Magneto.

He remembered the cold the most. Frost had still covered the ground. Rocks and fallen sticks had cut his feet, but he had not cried out. He was the oldest of the five of them, even Ellie (by ten minutes), and he had to be strong—for them. He had led them into a hallow he had played in three years before, when he was much younger. In the small cave there had been clothes that he had stashed there from when he had tried to run away a couple months before. Although not warm by any standard, the clothes were a marked improvement from the flimsy nightclothes, especially for the girls.

They had waited in the cave, barely breathing, too afraid of what was out there, remembering what had happened less than an hour before. It had happened so fast. People were screaming and things could be heard breaking. The earth had shook and there was no time to think. Then, as they sat there in the dark, huddled together trying to keep warm, they had begun to question themselves. Were they the only survivors? What if everyone else thought they were dead? Talia had begun to cry silently, wanting for her Papa; she wasn't even ten years old.

Then the earth began to shake again. The huddle of children had pressed their backs further into the wall of the cave they had taken shelter in. The two enormous floodlights had peered into the cave feeling like two suns pounding down on them. The light had blinded the children at first.

Jack had scrambled forward, intent on protecting the others, but instead found that he was being drawn towards it. He tried to get away, but he couldn't. He just kept being pulled forward. His sister had screamed at him to come back. He hadn't wanted to scare the other ones. So he continued moving forward, not telling the other four that he couldn't stop moving toward the machine and away from safety. He could smell the hot air and felt the bright lights being down on his skin. As he faced the mechanical beast, he had recognized it as a Sentinel. Images of them had been floating around on the internet. Jack had been reminded of the New York Subway System, the thing smelled like it at least.

As the floodlight eyes bared down on him, the twelve-year-old Jack felt suddenly clearheaded. Ellie's screams had faded away, leaving only the Sentinel and him. He had closed his eyes by then, the lights were blinding him. He felt the escape of air as the giant machine opened its jaws. Jack remembered being afraid that it was going to eat him.

When he expected pain, there was something else. He could feel someone coming. Although Jack had not been able to see, he could smell and hear the person. Not only that, he had felt the wind move; however Jack had felt something sing within him for the first time. It scared him and comforted him all in the same moment.

One primal growl later and Jack found that he could move of his own free will once more. He had stayed in place however. It might have been fear, but when Jack thought back on it, he told himself he had not moved because he had not wanted to lose that feeling of singing. So he had stayed frozen in place though the two floodlight eyes had no longer been trained on him. Then the light was gone, replaced by a shower of sparks and bits of metal that had hit and stung Jack's body, breaking whatever the connection he had to the strange new feeling. He had cried out then, finally feeling the pain, that had previously been masked by whatever he had been feeling.

"Hey, buddy, you okay?" His father's voice had been the last thing Jack heard before losing conciousness.

The nightmares started the night after.

Ellie had begun to burst into flames in the middle of the night, following the incident. Afterwards she had begun refusing to sleep. That had lasted months; their parents finally had resort to giving her tranquilizers. Late she was diagnosed with insomnia, which still affected her today. It was normal for her only to sleep one or two hours a night.

Talia had taken to climbing anything and everything. She thought the higher she was, the harder it would be hurt her. Nightcrawler's ability to climb walls had been proved useful more than once. Even today Talia would retreat to great heights whenever she felt threatened. She had also become quite a deadly force from above, using her heightened agility.

Nate had become even more aggressive than what was normal for a ten-year-old boy. He got into fights frequently: with his peers, sister, and parents. He also began to tinker around with anything mechanical. Often he would take whatever he could get his hands on apart and putting it back together again. Most often his tinkering had led to negative results. Many locks had to be changed once it was found that he had picked a vast number of them.

Rachel on the other hand neither did nor said anything. In fact, she had been almost catatonic, sitting in her room, looking out the window. She would not eat nor sleep. Finally, as a last resort, her mother, Doctor Jean Grey-Summers, had put her under a healing coma.

Jack shook his head. Today just was not his day. First an overactive Ellie woke him up, then he broke up a fight between Rachel and Nate, afterwards he probably sprained his hand, and finally almost got pulled into some elaborate fantasy cooked up by his sister, twice. He was really batting a thousand.

The movie was still playing. He had hit play button again. He hadn't paid attention though, thinking about the Sentinel attack, and lost the plot. He had no interest in the DVD now. Once more he began to feel restless and thought about going outside. He would not ride for a second time, though. There was no reason to bother Blackjack because of his own problems. Shrugging, he decided to leave his stuffy room.

As Jack made his way out onto the grounds, a few people stopped him, including his mother. She had also noticed his absence from dinner and pressed him to get a bite to eat. He slapped together a bologna sandwich and took it out on the terrace. With his sandwich in one hand, Jack used the other to pull a lounge chair into the corner, away from the windows and doors.

Biting into his sandwich, he remembered when his mother used to make these for him. Bologna sandwiches had always been his favorite. They also had always tasted better when she made them; he wondered what her secret was. Closing his eyes, he relished the silence that dusk provided. It would be his last year as an official student at the mansion—he would complete the college prep program after the spring semester.

College prep, now that was a scary phrase. Honestly, he hadn't thought much past his last semester of high school or after. He had always thought he would become a member of the X-Men eventually. Now he was toying with the idea that he would go away for school. He had never really been away from home before. Sure, he had gone to summer camp, but that hardly counted. The more he thought of it, the better it sounded to go somewhere far away where nobody knew his parents. To be unknown, invisible to everyone.

"You know, being invisible isn't as cracked up as it sounds." Jack opened his eyes to find Lily standing at his feet. He moved over so she could sit down. "Don't worry, I wasn't reading your mind. You just had the same expression my mother gets when everyone is asking her a bunch of stupid questions and she can't take it anymore. Like she wants to just disappear." The younger teenager gave Jack a small, sad smile. "Sometimes it's hard to be a Ghost Girl."

"Why do you go by that if you hate it so much?"

"I don't really. It just came from the codename the Secret Service gave me. My mom is Eagle. My dad has to go by Penguin." They both shared a smile. "My older brother, Rob, is Specs. My younger one, Morgan, is Tonka."

"You know, you don't have to go by the name given to you. Tabitha went through almost half a dozen codenames before settling on Meltdown." Even after he said this, she still looked unsure. "Look, I'm guessing your powers are a lot like my mom's. That's a lot like me. My powers are like my father's, and I'm always living in his shadow. I know I can't out run him or win a hand-to-hand fight, but there are other things I can do. I can ride a horse. I can shoot a bow and arrow. I can do some fancy fencing. We're at a school not just to learn how to control our powers, but to push our boundaries. You have tons of teachers here to learn from. You just have to try."

"I can do one thing," Lily stood up. "Do you want to see?" At his nod, she grabbed his hand and led him down to the fountain. Stepping into the water, she seemed to shimmer for a second before disappearing for a second before appearing on the other side, completely dry. "I learned that from my dad."

Jack smiled. "See? You now have a wealth of knowledge at your disposal. Just think of what you can do. But you're more than ghost, you're a sprite."

The thirteen-year-old girl smiled back at him. "Thank you, Jack. You've been a bigger help than you think. I'll be sad when you go away at the end of the year." Leaving him to mull over the thought, she took off running, shimmering from sight.

The wind suddenly felt cold on his bare arms. Shivering slightly, Jack made his way back inside the mansion.