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Disclaimer:Hey look!...

I still don't own X-men!

hee hee, made ya look.

RECAP:

A world-wearied professor raised his automatic bed to a sitting position. He sighed deeply as he reached for the light at his bedside table, so that he could find the phone which was ringing very insistently. It was if the person on the other end very urgently needed to talk to him, and just wasn't going to take no for an answer. Of course, that was usually the case for Charles Xavier. As an important man in matters of state/mutant affairs, he got many calls. But, not usually this early in the morning.

"Hello", he said groggily into the receiver, trying to suppress a very insistent yawn.

"Charles?" he immediately woke up and took notice when he heard the voice on the other end. A voice he had not heard in a very long time.

"We have a problem"

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"Kai?" Charles spoke into the receiver. He hadn't heard from his old student and friend for almost a year and a half, and that last call was only to console Scott in his loss of Jean. He didn't blame her, of course, the mansion, and he himself, held too many painful memories for her.

"Yeah, Charlie, it's me". He could hear the pain in her voice, even without reaching out telepathically. It seemed that in the few years that she had been gone, her pain hadn't lessened, just dulled. It must have been very urgent, for her to be calling him.

The older man mentally 'paged' Ororo, to come and meet him while asking the woman on the line,

"My dear, what has happened?"

He listened quietly as she quickly detailed all that she had seen, precognitive. His face quickly drained of all color. He quickly went through the very short list of possibilities of how this could have happened.

"Charles...there's only one way that this could have happened..." Kai said slowly, seemingly mimicking the professors own thoughts.

Charles nodded slowly, also knowing that this was the only way that Jean could have survived Alkalai Lake. He put his free hand up to his eyes, seemingly to cover them from the horrors, he could predict were to come.

"Yes, Kai, the Phoenix has broken free.

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Storm always knew that Logan was one to bend and/or break the rules, but this was really over the line. To come into her class and just disregard the entire point of the exercise...and to make it worse, he wasn't even the appointed teacher for Danger Room sessions...he wasn't a teacher at all! She shook her head as she stormed out of the Danger room.

As she took her uniform gloves off, she looked at Logan out of the corner of her eye and asked,

"What the hell was that"?

As he caught up with her, he feigned innocence, saying, "Danger room session".

"You know what I mean", she scoffed back.

"Oh, lighten up Storm-"

"Look, you can't just change the rules when you feel like it", she butted in. "I'm trying to teach them something!"

Logan shrugged his arms, defensively, "Well, I taught them something".

She wasn't amused.

"They're mainly adolescents, Logan. Teenagers? Ring a bell maybe, what that was like? At this age, especially when they have powers, they're hardwired to act like fool. I don't need you encouraging them."

Backed into a rhetorical corner, he said nothing

"If you'd read the syllabus, you'd know this was a defensive exercise. Evasive maneuvers."

"Yeah, best defense is a good offense..." he counter, but then countered it, "Or is it the other way around?"

Storm abruptly turned around and faced him, "This isn't a game, Logan".

Logan rolled his eyes as the rest of the students passed their teachers by, "Well, you sure fooled me"...He sighed, "Hey, I'm just the sub, you got a problem", he shrugged, "talk to Scott".

He walked off, irritated, 'Only seven in the morning, and I already need a beer.'

Storm watched him walk off with a little sigh herself, as she thought of her deeply depressed teammate and friend. Shaking her head, she moved down the hi-tech hallways towards the ladies locker room to get ready for her first class of the day.

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At that very same time, the teammate that they were talking about huddled in his room, desolate and bereft of all light. He sat on his bed, dejected, almost mad with grief.

'I can't even cry for her,' He thought mournfully. Because of his ability, the energy that originated from his eyes instantly burned up any tears he made. He couldn't even show his grief in ways that others so easily could.

SCOTT! Jean's voice yelled to him. His head jerked up, as if pulled by a wire.

"Jean". He whispered painfully. It had been as clear as day, like she was standing right beside him, yelling into his ear. How could that be? She died over half a year ago.

She had died in a torrent of icy water that was meant for all of the team and the children kidnapped by Striker. She had died to save them, and now was back to torment him about it. He should've been able to save her, he could have done something. But, in the end he couldn't. He just watched, as the love of his life sacrificed herself for her family.

'I must be finally losing it', He thought, dejectedly, to himself.

But, then he heard it again... and again...and again, until her voice, calling out his name, was echoing off every point of the room.

Quickly breathing in and out, with his head buried in his hands, he waited for this latest round of torment to pass. When it did, he didn't stop to think, unzipping his carryall, he stuffed in whatever clothes came immediately to hand. The only thing he knew for certain was that he had to go.

And with that thought, he was gone.

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The debilitating news dealt a crushing blow to Charles Xavier.

"We have to stop Scott", an alto voice said, breaking into his thoughts. Unfortunately, the professor, rummaging in his thoughts, didn't hear her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, what did you say?" He asked, realizing that he had missed a part of the conversation.

On the other end of the line, Kai Creo couldn't believe that she was actually taking this conversation past the usual warning and the hanging up of the phone. She hadn't had what you could call a real conversation with this man in over three years. Why was this time any different?

Oh yes, it involved the rising of an old friend from the dead and the killing of another friend by that same said friend.

Confusing as that may be, it strangely made sense in her mind. She had always been able to ascertain patterns and auras, ever since she was little. Xavier had always said that it was her latent powers, the ones that her Native American heritage brought out. By the time she was ten, she could solve any puzzle put in front of her. But, after she turned eleven, she stopped doing puzzles. That was when the traumatic event that the professor always alluded to, had actually happened.

After so much death had happened in her life, Kai just couldn't stand by and watch another good friend die.

"We have to stop Scott from going back up to that lake...Is he still there?" Her golden eyes, systematically scanned the darkened room that she was in, force of habit more that an actual cause.

Charles mentally checked the mansion for Scott, but came up with something very strange.

"Kai?" He asked into the mouthpiece of the phone, "It is very strange...I can sense Scott, but...it is like there is a fog around his mind, creating a barrier so that I can't get in."

Oh, no Kai thought. That was a trick Jean used to do to sneak us out at night

"Charles", she replied, urgently, "Contact 'Ro, contact anyone. You have to stop him! She's gotten into his mind!

Charles didn't have to ask to know who 'she' was. Only one telepath would want to get into Scott's mind. Quickly, he contacted Ororo to be on the lookout for him.

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Logan walked down the hallway to his room in the left wing. He was really pissed at Scott right now. Because of him slacking off of his teaching duties, Logan had to get out of bed, way too early for it to be called morning. He knew that Scott was in mourning, and all. But, so was the rest of the school, the least Scott could do would be to put on a brave face and try to get on with life,

'If I can do it, he certainly can.'

It was at that opportune moment that Scott chose to brush by and walk down the hall. Logan turned to face his direction.

"Hey, Scott, we were looking for you downstairs", he commented, very irritated, "you didn't show".

Scott barely turned around, saying off-handedly, "What do you care?" and kept walking.

Logan started to lose his temper, but reined it in cause he knew what ol' scooter was going through,

"Well, for starters, I had to cover your ass!"

Scott now stopped and turned around as he replied, " I didn't ask you to"

"No, you didn't. The Professor did," Logan said, walking up closer to him, letting a few seconds pass to let the fact that he used Xavier's title sink in. "I was just passing through".

Scott didn't bat an eye. "So? Pass through, Logan. It's what you do best."

Another beat, only a moment in real time, but it seemed to stretch to an almost unendurable length.

"Look, Scott, I know how you feel -

This time Scott cut him off:

"Don't". He interrupted, looking down. He couldn't look into the face of his rival.

But, Logan would not be swayed, "When Jean died-"

"I said don't!" Scott whispered fiercely and pulled his arm away from Logan's grasp.

Logan looked at his one-time rival with the sad and honest truth in his eyes,

"Maybe it's time for us to move on".

Scott finally looked him in the eye and with a sad smirk on his face, he replied,

"Not everybody heals as fast as you, Logan", and walked swiftly away, towards the stairs.

Logan watched as the great front doors of the Mansion closed behind Scott, listened to the sound of a bike engine being pushed to its limits and going quickly down the long driveway, taking as much time as he needed to compose himself.

Logan looked after him, clenching his teeth into a small grimace, as he thought of all the different things that had happened over the past two years. He stayed there for who knows how long, until a familiar, but pesky psycic butted into his mind saying,

'Logan, have you seen Scott anywhere?'

He was always surprised when Chuck would just, nonchalantly, waltz through his mind like that. But, this time he didn't argue with the Professor over it, on account of Chuck's anxiety.

'Yeah, he just blazed outta here on his bike...why?' he replied, hurriedly. He didn't really want to find out what would happen if whatever was bothering chuck would start bothering him.

'There's no time, I need you to go after him immediately! You have to stop him!'

Without a second thought, the feral took off, running down the front steps and down the driveway. He knew that whatever had Xavier worried was really bad for everyone else, and he personally didn't want to find out what that problem was.

But, Scott was already gone. He was too late.

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Now, all of the sudden, very weary of the world, Charles Xavier cradled his head in his hand as he spoke somberly into the phone,

"We are too late".

xXx

Alright, guys, there's the 2nd chapter of the fic. Sorry, it took so long to post, but I'm just a lowly highschooler with 4 college courses and a main part in South Pacific to memorize and 3 Show choir competitions to practice for...

oh woe is me.

anywho, it's pretty late, and i'm bloody tired, so, i'm gonna hit the sack.

and remember, the more reviews, the more incentive I have to write!

-R