"Some proof," Logan quipped.

"The computer's not even on," Alex replied, a small chuckle in his voice. Logan was getting impatient. The so-called proof that Alex claimed to have had yet to reveal itself, and he was getting tired of waiting. Frustrated, he started to pace the room while Alex and Storm get the computer online. Looking around at the steely walls and floor Logan got the sense that Blondie was about as crazy as Scott had been before his unexpected slaughter at Jean's hands. He pulled a cigar from his shirt pocket and lit up, taking a long drag as the smoke started to fill the room. Logan knew that smoking inside the mansion was against the rules, but they technically weren't in the mansion anymore. Logan had become fond of referring to the X-Men's command center underneath the mansion as "the basement".

"Logan, put that out."

He turned to see Storm glaring at him obviously annoyed. He could tell just as much from her voice.

"You and Blondie done messin with that thing?" he replied.

"Yes, Alex is uploading the information from the disk now," she said, "and you know the rules about smoking."

The disk that Ororo was referring to was a small CD-like disk Alex had kept hidden in that small black box. It was only after they had come down to the basement did Alex produce the item.

"Your brother is on that? Must be a tight fit," he remembered saying.

"Very funny," Alex responded.

Logan took one more drag before begrudgingly putting out his cigar, once again using the palm of his hand. Looking down, he wondered, how bad it would look if he didn't have his coveted healing factor. Probably like the surface of the moon, he thought. He looked back up and produced the unlit stogie to Storm, as if to say, "Yes mother, it's out" and then placed it back in his shirt.

"It's ready," Alex called to them. Logan realized that his wandering had taken him, and subsequently Storm, to the other side of the large room.

"So where is it?" Logan asked as he pulled up a chair behind Alex.

"Just hold on a second. I'm pulling up the files," Alex said. Logan didn't know what he was doing, but he sure was taking his sweet time. "Here it is."

On the screen before them, they could see a large stretch of land. Mostly forest with a large body of water in the middle. On the very edge they could see a highway, twisting and turning all the way up and down. At one end of the water, the three could see a large dam. It didn't take long for Logan to figure out what he was looking at. Alkali Lake.

"This is some satellite footage from one of our surveillance satellites," Alex began. "After your run-in with Striker and his men, the Pentagon wanted to keep a close eye on the area afterwards. And so they assigned me and my cell to keep tabs on the area."

"Your cell?" Storm asked.

"X-Factor," he replied coldly. "A government sponsored cell whose main goal is the observance and recording of mutant activity. However, I wouldn't go asking about us on Capitol Hill unless you want to get laughed off the block."

"And why is that?" Logan asked.

"Because we technically don't exist," Alex continued. "The government decided that to stay on top of mutant activity, they would have to have a team dedicated to the surveillance of mutants itself. We use satellites and the occasional field-work to get the kind of reconnaissance we do. Dr. McCoy himself headed up the project as a governmental aside, and was also pivotal in me getting the job as field leader."

"Furball?"

"Yup. He believed that information was the key to mutant relations and anything we could do to provide ourselves with as much of it as possible would be beneficial. We keep our confrontations to a limited in X-Factor, and are merely investigative. But I would be remiss if I didn't say that we haven't had the occasional skirmish. Here we go."

Logan redirected his vision to the computer screen. He could see Alex navigating the viewpoint to look directly at a large section of rock next to the lake. There was one large rock surrounded by hundreds of other smaller rocks. It was a place he remembered well, as it was where they had found Jeannie. Although this was different. He could see a figure walking up towards the largest rock. He had brown hair, a brown leather jacket with two vertical stripes on it, and jeans. He didn't need to see the man's face to know it was Scott.

"Scott?" Storm asked.

"Yes ma'am," Alex replied.

"Can you get any closer?"

"You bet. This satellite is so good that if I wanted to, I could look down your shirt Ororo," Alex joked. Storm let out a forced chuckle. The computer screen froze, and Alex seemed to crop the picture they were looking at and then zoom in. Everyone could see more clearly now that the person they were looking at was indeed one Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops. The view they had was still pretty much top-down, but they could see the glasses on his face more clearly. They could even make out the rest of the features on his face, albeit barely.

Watching the screen, the trio was greeted with the sight of Scott shaking his head furiously and then screaming into the air. Moments later he whipped off his glasses and fired a wide beam of energy into the lake, tearing a watery scar about 200 feet long. Wow, Logan thought to himself. He had never seen Scott fire off something that impressive before. The lake started to change after that, as a large whirlpool formed where Scott's beam had ended. It became larger and larger until a flash of light and a wave of energy burst from it, tossing Scott on his back. The screen became enveloped in light only momentarily, and when it cleared the three of them could see Jean standing there on the rocks over a laid out Cyclops.

"Jeannie," Logan whispered.

Scott picked himself up and moved towards Jean, almost hesitantly. After a few moments they embraced. Jean then removed Scott's glasses and they stared at each other.

"Jean could do that?" Storm asked.

"Apparently," Alex replied coldly. Logan could sense the tension in his voice, probably because of what was about to happen. On screen Scott and Jean kissed. Logan could feel a knot form in his stomach. She chose him, he thought as his eyes drifted towards the floor. It was painful to watch them kiss. Storm suddenly let out a gasp and Logan looked up. Scott had pushed himself away from Jean all of a sudden and started clutching at his head. Looking up to the sky the three of them could see Scott's face once more screaming in agony as his eyes began to glow red once more, firing a large beam into the sky. Redirecting his vision at Jean he fired a large wide beam of energy right at her, something that she barely contained with a telekinetic field.

"My god..." Logan started. Eyes fixated on the scene unfolding before him, he could see the rocks start to float all around the two lovers. Scott was pummeling Jeannie's field with his optic blast, stepping closer to amplify the intensity. To Logan, it appeared as though Scott was gaining the upper hand. However, that was not to be the case as it appeared that the blast from Scott's eyes was fading in color.

"Is he weakening?" Storm asked.

"Don't know really," Alex replied, "but it seems as though she's doing something.

Yeah something is right, Logan thought. He watched as Scott's beam almost vanished entirely. Jean finally had her chance as she thrust her field out towards Scott sending him flying backwards. What amazed him was that Scott kept going and going.

"He hits the trees?" Logan asks.

Without getting an answer he watches as Scott slams into the trees disappearing instantly. The leaves of trees start to shake in what looks like a fairly straight line for what seems like forever. How far did she throw him, Logan asks himself. The camera follows the brushing of the trees for a few more moments until it comes to a stop.

"Oh Scott..." Storm mutters.

"That's not all," Alex says. The viewpoint on the screen shifts back to the lake where the three can see Jean becoming woozy and stumbling around. Putting her hand to her forehead she bumps into one of the rocks that had begun floating. A few more moments pass until she finally collapses near the edge of the water. With a few button presses, Alex speeds the video up as fog starts to drift over the lake, clouding the screen.

"Here's where you two come in," Alex announces.

The events that unfolded before them was nothing new. Logan found Scott's glasses--as they had started to float like the rocks--and then Storm found Jean. Logan would run over to the two women and then pile back into the Blackbird. But what Logan hadn't realized was how little time he had spent reflecting on Scott's glasses, and the significance of it. From what they saw of the video, Logan paused for no more than a few seconds before rushing to Jeannie's side. Logan could sense something wasn't right. Alex could have just passed this up. It didn't prove that Scott was alive. It almost seemed to show that Scott's end was probably a little more painful than they had previously thought. The impacts of the trees would have surely killed him, and if not, being left for dead with broken bones sure as hell wasn't anyone's ideal way to leave this world. No, Logan could sense Alex had an ulterior motive in replaying this scene before the two. It felt more like a cold accusation than an explanation of the situation.

"What are you trying to do here Alex?" Logan asked. "What are you really here for?"

Alex stood up from the computer. "You left him," he said as he turned to face Logan. "You obviously didn't give him another thought once Storm found Jean." He started walking towards Logan now, as well as unbuttoning the cuff on his right wrist.

"What are you getting at? We had his glasses," said Storm. "And when I found Jean she looked like she was in critical condition. We needed to get her to safety."

"You knew Scott had been there, yet didn't question where he could be going without his sunglasses." Alex countered, now pushing his sleeve up past his elbow.

"Hold it right there bub," Logan commanded. "I suggest you get to this proof of yours and get the hell out of here before you start slinging accusations around."

"Fitting you'd be the most defensive Logan," Alex replied, "considering your feelings towards my brother and Jean."

"What about 'em?"

"Everyone knew how you felt about them. How you were in love with her and despised my brother. And yet you seem to forget all about him when Jean turned up, miraculously alive after so long. Apparently you never considered the possibility that he might still be alive."

"Look Blondie, I asked Jean about your bro, and she said he was dead. She then fried his glasses and told me to kill her, although I didn't get a chance before she tossed me around the room. Now if you want to make something of it, then come see what'll happen if you do."

Logan pushed his long adamantium claws through the knuckles of his hands. The pain accompanied with it always seemed to give him a rush, and in this particular instant he felt the need to vent some frustration. Alex had stormed in here waving some "proof" that his brother was alive in some thinly veiled attempt to exact some manner of revenge against him and Storm for whatever reason, and all it was doing was making Logan mad.

"Gladly," Alex said while raising his right arm. In that instant a large pillar of pale yellow energy shot from his outstretched arm right into Logan's face, burning him with an intensity he hadn't felt in months. So much, in fact, that he stumbled back a few feet as he cried out in agony. He could hear Storm yell at Alex for what had happened as Logan could feel the flesh on his face slowly sliding off. Apparently Alex had melted the right side of it down to the metal.

Logan let out a battle cry as he sped toward Alex only to be met with another blast of energy, this time to the chest. White hot pain filled Logan as he could see Alex pouring out a stream of it right on top of him, melting away layers of flesh finally stopping after a few moments. His breathing became labored as he looked down at the damage. Logan could see his metallic ribs and mostly melted lung and organs searing underneath. It didn't look pretty, but he could also see the skin slowly start to repair itself.

"You left him. You were glad he was gone. And even after you confronted Jean about it, you did nothing," Alex said, almost defiantly. He shot another blast, this time to Logan's face once more, melting the skin that had already begun to heal up.

"Alex, please... stop this..." Storm cried weakly. "You're hurting him."

"Oh yeah? You want to know hurt?" Alex replied. "Try being told your brother was dead, even though no one found his body or even tried to, and that he was killed by the woman who loved him. Dumped by the only friends he had. Betrayed by the man he looked up to. By the vagrant that was only after his girl. The only people who ever accepted him and then wrote him off in a heartbeat. You wanna talk crap? You wanna talk hurt? THAT'S HURT!"

Alex shot another blast of energy at Logan, again hitting his chest. Logan screamed in pain once more, and collapsed on the ground. His claws retracted as he fought off the pain. You win Blondie, he thought. Maybe I deserved this one. Alex let up thankfully and Logan caught his breath. His lungs had been melted and partially reformed along with his face and his chest. It was a small wonder that Logan wasn't dead. Wouldn't be the first time he had thought that.

"You want my proof? You want to know how I know my brother is still alive." Alex asked as he rolled his sleeve down. "Then watch this."

Logan saw Alex sit down at the computer again and Storm, still visibly shaken by what had just happened, walking up beside him. Picking himself up, Logan walked over to the computer to see what was going on.

"The reason I came here is that I just recently came back from a small reconnaissance mission in Egypt," Alex started, "Basic land surveillance sweeps and whatnot. We had some Intel on some mutant activity. In any case, my associate Lorna gave me the inside scoop that something has been going on back up in Canada and that I needed to check it out when I got back. So I come home and check it out. This was two days ago. The footage you're about to see is from last week, well after the incident with my brother and Jean at the lake."

The screen now showed a large forest from quite a distance away, as if the camera was up in a plane. Towards the bottom of the screen Logan could make out a small town. In the middle of the forest was a tiny clearing that looked like a house. Alex positioned the cursor on the small clearing and zoomed in. It was here Logan could tell that it was definitely a cabin of some sort, but the clearing was too small to see much of anything else. They could tell though, that a man seemed to stumble out of one end of the house and then disappear beneath the trees. Stumbled was putting it lightly though, as the man looked like he couldn't see where he was going.

"Who?" Storm asked.

"Just watch," Alex replied.

It was here that Alex's evidence showed itself, and Logan couldn't believe his eyes. He heard himself say the word "impossible" after what he had seen. He could see Alex rewind the video and freeze the frame to clearly show what his proof had been all along. For what they were now staring at was a large red beam that tore through the trees, racing up to the sky.