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Bobby backed off of Scott and sat dumbfounded back in his adopted chair. He rubbed his shoulder. Scott, meanwhile, took his hand, which was uncomfortably close to ripping off his sunglasses, and tucked in his shirttails instead.

Kurt and Hank finally came out of their hysterics and looked around.

Logan took a deep breath.

"Are we out of the loony bin now?" Bobby asked no one in particular.

"You tell me!" Jean exclaimed, sitting down on a medical bed, exhausted.

"What happened to us?" Scott asked, crossing his arms, his mouth hanging in an expression of shock. "I seriously wanted to hurt Bobby."

"Yes. What did happen?" Hank asked.

"Logan happened. Or at least what that mutant did to him." Jean answered.

Logan looked over at Jean, still taking slow deep breaths. Everyone else looked puzzled.

"She steals emotion!" Jean tried to explain. "Well, she actually usually borrows it. But this time she stole, from Logan, something that she didn't think she could ever do again, probably because it killed whoever she had previously tried it on... But our durable little Logan."

"Survived." Hank stated, trying to understand.

"Obviously." Logan snapped, closing his eyes.

"Right, so what happened to us?" Scott tried again.

"Well," Bobby began sarcastically. "It's obvious, isn't it Cyclops! I mean something undoubtedly weird happened to us, as things always tend to do in our overly twisted and complicated lives."

"Was that a joke?"

"It was supposed to be. Give me a break, I'm still trying to get happy thoughts out of my head." Bobby complained.

"Well, actually, they're more or less, loving thoughts..." Jean explained.

Bobby just stared at her.

Scott sighed. "Ok... I'm gonna try again... what happened to us?"

"Ok, I think I can explain this..." Jean began. "When Logan woke up, because of what that mutant did to him, he started... shedding emotions. Each of you received one until there were no more left inside of him."

"Which explains momentary robot boy." Bobby commented thinking of when Hank had been talking to Logan earlier.

"Next time Logan, don't share." Bobby continued, holding his head.

Logan just glared at him.

"So we all felt Logan's emotions? I didn't think you had that much sorrow inside of you." Hank said, more to himself then to anyone else.

Logan didn't answer.

Jean continued, hoping she was making sense. "In a way... it was more like you absorbed a certain emotion and then were only able to feel that single one. Not in any way that Logan would react, but more of how you would react to getting that emotion naturally."

"The sad part is, I'm sure that I'm the only person who's not getting what you're saying..." Bobby commented.

"Well, let me put it another way. You received, well I guess, love, Hank absorbed grief and sadness, Kurt I think was fear, and Scott, um obviously, anger, and little Leila absorbed Logan's happiness, his contentment, which was just what she needed about now." Jean looked over to the sleeping girl. "And I didn't get pulled into any unwanted emotion, so thank you psychic powers. I was able to reabsorb all the stray emotions and pull them back inside of Logan, right where they belong. And while I'm sure our little bout with sleep deprivation tonight isn't helping, you might all feel a little bit of residual emotion, at least until Logan gains back ALL of his feelings."

"There are some still missing?" Hank exclaimed.

"Just one..." Jean lowered her head.

"The one I don't want." Logan said bluntly.

They all looked at him.

"It's the one she has, the one she stole." He continued.

"Which one is that?" Scott ventured to ask.

Logan gave a small sad smile.

"My merciless, uncontrollable, bloodthirsty, berserker rage."

"Oh, well that's healthy." Bobby quipped.

"It's not funny Bobby." Kurt spoke up for the first time. "She's dangerous."

Scott moved to the center of the room. "You're right. She is, and she needs to be stopped, now." He had made up his mind.

"So go stop her." Logan grumbled, turning to leave.

Scott looked at Logan in disbelief.

"Wait, Logan... You have to help." Scott went after him, got ahead of him and forced him to stop.

"Kurt's right... and you know better then anyone what your rage can do." Scott said getting into Logan's face.

"Scott, calm down, you're still not acting like yourself." Jean stated trying to diffuse the situation.

Scott realized his posture and backed off a bit, but his voice was almost threatening when he talked again. "You should help us find her, you're the only one who's seen her clearly."

Logan looked into Scott's eyes. "I'm tired." He said slowly. Then, walking past Cyclops, who barely restrained himself from pushing Logan back, he walked out of the med lab, down the hallways of the school, and out the front door. He heard Jean's voice behind him, telling Cyclops to let him go.

Scott may have let him go but...


Logan walked across the front of the X-Mansion, heading towards the garage. He noticed the wind and the cold of the pre-dawn hours, but ignored them. He felt the cold wet dew on the blades of grass soaking the bottoms of his pant legs, and ignored that too. Then he sensed something else.

He stopped.

"I remember my name." He started slowly. "It's James. I know that mutants, psychics and telepaths, people who are just trying to mess with my mind, they've told me it before. But... now... I remember it. I remember someone calling out to me, and that was the name they used, because that was the name that was really mine." He sighed.

"I don't want to lose that."

"You're scared." Kurt answered, coming back from out of the shadows that hid him so well.

Logan snorted a laugh in response.

"It's not an insult, or a threat Logan. And it's nothing to be ashamed of. You're scared. And I felt it." Kurt walked up to stand by his friend. "I felt it all so you can't hide it from me. I know you're scared. Afraid to lose the clarity you are just discovering, afraid to get your rage back. You hate the taste it leaves in the back of your throat. The way you act when it's upon you... it shames you... its what you most fear... es tu ich leid." Kurt had tears in his eyes, for the first time he really understood what it was like for his friend.

Logan took a deep breath and started walking towards the garage again.

Kurt shook his head. "But you're the only one who can handle it Logan!" He cried out, trying to get his friend to understand.

Logan stopped again.

"I know you fear it..." Kurt began again, choosing his words slowly and carefully. "But imagine, imagine that power in the hands of a dangerous immoral mutant and you know what the result will be!"

"Sabretooth." Logan whispered.

"Yes! Sabretooth... do you want to be responsible for letting another Sabretooth loose in this world? You and I both know how that would end. I know you want this woman stopped."

Logan shook his head. He said nothing.

Kurt tried a different approach.

"You are not an animal Logan. You get your rage back, you may not be James, but you will still be Logan. And Logan is a noble and an honorable man."

No answer.

"Just think of it, really, for the most part... when does this rage take a hold of you? When your moral barometer is off kilter. When you see innocent girls like Leila in mortal danger, or when you see the horrible atrocities that humans and mutants alike are capable of. I know it shames you Logan. You don't like not being in control. It's what those "people," and I use the term loosely, did to you. What they made you do."

"Shut up Elf."

"No... but you should see, that the rage that should be inside of you, let's you know, is a part, it's what makes you most human, whether you understand that or not..." Kurt sighed. He wasn't saying this right. "You remember Logan, at the bar, the mutant one, after that girl... Lucy... after Lucy died, I told you then, someone with your kind of power, and no control, no right and wrong, they would have to be stopped; Even if that person turns out to be you one day..."

"Kurt."

"Well this girl has no right or wrong Logan, and innocent people could die, people like Leila, or like Lucy, or... She has to be stopped." Kurt lowered his head. He hated to think that a soul could not be saved, but his memories of the woman with glowing green eyes and a gun to Leila's head made his heart cry.

"Yeah... well where do you think I was headed blue boy?" Logan turned around, a smirk on his face.

Kurt's posture changed, he relaxed.

"I had assumed to a bar." He smiled.

"Well, yeah, about five minutes ago... but since you had the guts to go all Rikki Lake on me... it was to the Montique's. I'll see if I can pick up her scent."

Kurt's smile grew. "I will tell Scott." He paused. "You know Logan, your emotions made him very... ornery."

Logan laughed.

Kurt went to BAMF.

"Wait Kurt..."

"Yes Logan?" Kurt asked, expecting a joke.

"Never mind... we're not going."

"What?" Kurt asked, already feeling that residual fear Jean had been talking about.

"Her scent..."

"Ja?"

"It's all over... she's already been out here."

"Wha... what do you mean?" Kurt's body tensed.

Snikt!

"She's in the mansion."


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Translation: I'm so sorry.