CHAPTER THREE

The room was in darkness but Rogue could pick out Angel sitting on his bed from the light further along the hallway. Cautiously she entered the room. "Warren, are you all right?"

Warren looked at her suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"

"Jubilation said you were acting strange earlier."

Warren sighed. "She picks up more than we give her credit for sometimes."

"Is there something wrong?"

Angel hesitated. "When we were outside, during the training session…I thought I saw someone for a moment, on the other side of the field." He paused for a long moment before adding,"Kitty."

Rogue came and sat on the bed next to him. "Warren, you know that's not possible."

"Yeah, I know. Kitty's dead. We both saw it happen."

"Then, what?"

"I don't know, maybe I imagined it. It just felt so real for a moment. Maybe I'm just going crazy."

"It's not that,"Rogue assured him. "We've all lost people since we joined the X-Men. And some crazy stuff has happened."

Warren gave a slight laugh. "Well, at least you're keeping an open mind."

"I kind of have to."

Rogue went back to her room where Bobby was waiting. "How is he?"Bobby asked.

"Confused,"Rogue admitted.

"I really thought he'd got over what happened to Kitty."

Rogue raised an eyebrow slightly. "Got over it?"

"You know what I mean." Bobby struggled for the right phrase. "Come to terms with it. Like Jubilee has with Gambit."

"Maybe,"Rogue conceded. "I guess we'll all just have to keep an eye on him."

"Can't do it tonight though."

"No." Rogue glanced towards a room further down the landing. "Not sure if we can do much about Harmony tonight either."

In his dreams, Professor Xavier was once again walking through the wrecked estate. He saw Magneto approaching him. His old friend favoured him with a piercing gaze. "Charles."

Xavier looked at him cautiously. "Where are we?" His manner became even more suspicious. "And who are you?"

"Don't you recognise me?"Magneto asked challengingly.

"I know who you appear to be. But appearances can be deceptive."

Magneto made an expansive gesture covering everything about them. "And this! Do you not recognise this?" He looked at Xavier almost accusingly. "No reason you should, of course. You abandoned me, abandoned all of us. You weren't there at the end. You were hiding away, cheating death."

"At the end?" Xavier tried to puzzle out Magneto's meaning. Then it came to him. "You mean your end. Your final battle with Apocalypse. When you died stopping him."

"I died here,"Magneto confirmed. "And here is where I remain. Never resting. Waiting."

"Waiting for what?"Xavier asked, although he suspected he already knew the answer.

"Waiting for you."

All over the mansion, people slept. Then they were disturbed by a rumbling. There was a slight tremor throughout the building. Wolverine sat up in bed, instinctively extending his claws. "What's that?"

Next to him, Storm had also woken, although her response was slightly more restrained. "Is that an X-Jet?"

Wolverine went to the window. She was right. He could see an X-Jet lifting off from a hangar and heading skyward. "Who the hell is that?"

Professor Xavier carefully worked the controls to bring the X-Jet into land. He wasn't sure what he was doing or why he was doing it but somehow he felt he had to. He pressed the controls to lower the ramp and pushed his wheelchair down it. The journey was more difficult than it had been in his dream but the area was familiar. Somehow, despite never having been there before, he'd imagined it exactly right.

Then another detail that he really hadn't been expecting turned out to be right as well. Magneto was standing in full view. "Hello, Charles."

Xavier wheeled closer to him. "Erik? Is it really you?"

As he got nearer, Magneto opened his arms wide…and then a white light enveloped both of them.

When the light faded, there was a single figure standing there. It was not Magneto, nor was it Xavier. It was a metal man, made of twisted red metal and oozing malevolence. It threw backs its head and laughed a laugh of triumph…