A big thank you again for the reviews and favourites and follows, I am astounded and grateful at how quickly I've picked up a following. I guess the listing of Wolverine/Storm as the main characters is slightly misleading but I needed to put someone there. I see them more as the head of an ensemble cast than everyone else being supporting characters. They're the still point around whom everyone else circles or the glue that holds them together if you prefer.

I suspect that anyone with a greater knowledge of X-lore than me will quickly guess a lot of the twists in this story but hopefully I'll manage to surprise some people. I guess if this really was an X-Men film being released at the cinemas, everyone would have known who the villain was and what new characters were in it months in advance...

CHAPTER FOUR

"I hope you have news for me, Henry,"Xavier said quietly when he received his guest in the office the next day.

Henry McCoy, sometimes the X-Man known as Beast, paused and looked at his old mentor. Knowing him as well as he did, he quickly detected the bitterness in his tone. "I heard what happened here last night,"he remarked calmly.

"Horrible,"Xavier whispered in reply. "It feels as though we've been insulted in the worst way imaginable. Do you know anything about it?"

"About last night? No. But I have been doing some further reading on our friend James Madrox."

"What can you tell me?"

"You are quite correct. Madrox was taken into custody by troops attempting to track down Magneto's Brotherhood. He was imprisoned and given regular doses of the temporary version of the cure to stop him using his powers. Up until six months ago."

"He was released?"Xavier asked.

Beast considered the question. "Of that I can't be certain. What I can be certain of is that all his records after that date are classified. Classified at a level even I don't have access to."

"Six months." Xavier thought back. "That would have been just after our battle with the Sentinels. Just after the Brotherhood escaped from custody. Could there be some connection with that?"

"Possibly. There is one other curious thing. Madrox's files were classified with the reference XFP52. I've no idea what that means but I did some further reading and found a number of other files that were classified with the same reference. All of them referred to mutants, of a highly diverse background. One was working as a bouncer, one was a college student, one was a road sweeper… Here." He passed a notepad to Xavier.

Xavier scanned the names on the list. "James Madrox, Guido Carosella, Rahne Sinclair…" He stopped at the next name on the list and looked at Beast in shock.

"Yes,"Beast agreed. "That was my reaction."

Rogue stood on the upper landing, looking up a flight of stairs. She wasn't quite sure why she was there. She was just waiting to hear news. Her hopes were raised slightly as she saw someone coming down, only to sink again when she saw Storm was on her own. "How is he?"

Storm shook her head. "Just standing there. I tried to get him to come down but he wasn't having any of it. Do you want to try?"

Rogue was surprised at the request. "Me? Why me?"

"Because you're the person here he's most likely to pay attention to. Even more than me."

Rogue felt embarrassed by the declaration. But she also knew it was right. "I'll have a go." She took a deep breath, stepped round Storm and slowly climbed up the stairs. She opened the door at the top and found herself up on the roof, taking a moment to brace herself as her legs seemed to turn to jelly at the thought of being so high up. She looked across the roof and saw Logan standing by the edge, staring off into space.

These last few months, since he'd been with Storm, Logan had been the happiest and most relaxed that Rogue had ever seen him. Yet she knew the truth of Storm's words. She loved Bobby with her whole heart in the same way that she knew Logan loved Storm. But she'd still say things to Logan that she'd never say to Bobby. Bobby was her soulmate but Logan was her family. And she was his.

"Not too keen on being up here!"she called over to him.

He didn't look round. "No-one told you to come here, Marie."

She couldn't help smiling at that, the name no-one else used. She cautiously walked over to him, one small step at a time, until she was standing next to him. "You can't stay here,"she told him, almost reproachfully. "People need you. Ororo. Me."

He looked across at her. "Killing Jean was the hardest thing I've ever had to do,"he said slowly.

Rogue nodded. "I know."

"I didn't just do it to save the world or whatever high motives Xavier would have done it for. I did it for her. I knew in that last moment, when I looked her in the eyes, that she didn't want to be a monster. That she wanted to die a human. Somehow I took comfort in the fact I'd given her that little bit of dignity." He bared his teeth in fury. "And now someone's taken that dignity away from her."

Rogue took his hand. "Come on, Logan. Let's go back down."

Logan let her lead him towards the stairs. "When I find out who did this,"he remarked,"I think I'm going to hurt them. A lot."

There were no windows in the room. All the light was focused in the centre where a large glass cabinet slowly filled with gas and chemicals. Around the edges of the room stood five people. Four of them had been at the X-Mansion the previous night. Another man was with them now, shorter than the tallest of them but broad. "I hope you got what you went for,"he noted.

"We did,"the tall man snapped.

"You mean, I did,"the shorter one replied petutantly.

"Be silent,"their pale-faced leader instructed them. Although his voice was quiet, they all became silent instantly. They knew he would tolerate no argument.

"Is it working?"the woman asked.

The pale-faced man made no answer. Instead he continued looking at the glass cabinet. Through the gas, they could see that something was beginning to take shape. Human shape. A new person was being created before their eyes.

"I think,"the pale-faced man replied,"that this could be the most powerful mutant ever to have existed."