"Scott Summers, do you take Jean Grey to be your lawful wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better and for worse; for richer or for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish; till death do you part, according to God's holy ordinance?"

"I do."

"And do you, Jean Grey, take Scott Summers to be your lawful wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better and for worse; for richer or for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish; till death do you part, according to God's holy ordinance?"

"I do."

"Then, by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss the bride."

Scott and Jean embraced each other and kissed as cheers emanated out from the crowd gathered near the edge of the Mansion grounds overlooking the bay (along with a few suggestive "whoops" from Bobby, Ray, and Roberto thrown in). At least a hundred flashes went off from the various attendees' cameras, as it truly was a picture-perfect moment—the setting sun was directly behind the kissing couple, framed—if you looked at them from down the main aisle—by an decorative arc on the raised wooden stage up front. The pastor had, for most of the ceremony, stood directly in front of the arc, but he quickly stepped aside so that he wouldn't get in the way of said pictures.

Of course, the picturesque sunset directly behind the kissing couple wasn't an accident—Ororo, in particular, paid close attention the daily weather (for obvious reasons), and they had planned the ceremony's location so that the arc would frame the sunset at that exact time. To add to the effect, Storm had rolled in just the right amount of clouds on the horizon to diffuse the rays of sun in a breathtaking display. The entire courtyard was already orange-tinted because of the sunset, but the trees positively glowed with orange color themselves, as the fall season was fully upon Bayville.

After a few moments, Scott and Jean drew apart slightly and turned towards the crowd, both of them glowing (both literally and figuratively).

"Ladies and gentlemen," the pastor said, "May I present to you… Mr. and Mrs. Scott Summers!"

The crowd now positively erupted in applause and cheers as Scott and Jean slowly made their way down the aisle while rice was thrown at them from all sides.

But, even in his euphoric state, Scott couldn't help but notice the one seat among the crowd gathered that was empty. Granted, they had been expecting this, and had had set the seat up more as a symbolic gesture than anything else—but still, it was sad what had happened to her.

Scott quickly shook such thoughts out of his head and held his new wife closer for a moment as they continued down the aisle way.

"That rice… it won't be just staying there on the ground, will it?" Amara asked in between bits of her dinner. "Because I heard that birds can eat that and—"

"Naw, Ororo's sweeping it all away with her powers after the whole afterhours party is over," Bobby said absentmindedly, chowing down on his own dinner from his position directly across the circular table. "We could've just used birdseed, but you know Scott. He likes to keep things like this rather traditional, and Jean's not one to object to something like that."

It was now early evening, the sky a dark blue. Lights were lit up all over the Institute grounds, where a large hired waiting staff was serving all of the guests their food, all of them seated around large, round tables with white frilly tablecloth spread across them. A couple of ice sculptures dotted the area, having been created by Bobby slightly before the dinner had begun.

Nearly everyone who had ever been affiliated with the X-Men in any friendly manner was there, along with the usual relatives on Jean's side. Ray, Paige's large family, Kitty's mother; even Spyke and a few of the Morlocks were there. Some of the press had requested to be let inside the Mansion grounds to cover the "first celebrity Mutant wedding", but they had been politely rebuffed. That didn't stop a news chopper from making a relatively high-up flyby over the party every ten minutes or so, hoping to get some good footage with their zoom lenses.

"So when are the fireworks?" Cessily asked from her position at the table. She wasn't eating like the others, of course; she was simply there because everybody else was.

Bobby was about to answer when Jubilee sat down next to him, her plate full of more food she had just picked out from the buffet.

"About an hour," Jubilee shrugged before she began to dig in. "Gotta wait for the sky to get completely dark first—and I'm not doing it while I'm this hungry, anyways."

"Why didn't you just eat lunch?" Ray asked.

"There was no way I was gonna fill myself with dainty little fu-fu sandwiches when they were having all this GOOD stuff later. Oh, yum… this pulled pork is great, Bobby. You should try some, seriously."

"Eh, 's too hot right now," Bobby said, waving it away. "Maybe when it's nice and cold I'll try it. Besides, knowing you tomorrow you'll be saying the pork sucked, amirite?"

"I'm never going to live this down, am I?" Jubilee said, a half-smirk on her face, though her tone indicated that she was a little annoyed at Bobby's joke.

"Live down what?" Ray asked, confused.

"Jubilee said she was going to leave, or threatened to leave, a few times—most recently during the whole Ge-Genosha thing—but every time she decided to stay," Cessily explained. "Bobby, you really need to leave that alone. It's been two months now."

"Has it?" Bobby asked, beginning to count on his fingers. "Let's see, three weeks since the beginning of the month as of yesterday, so… yeah, October 22rd, almost two months exactly. Can't believe I forgot about that."

"I've already explained myself, anyways," Jubilee said, addressing both Bobby and Ray. "After hearing Kitty's story, well… she just convinced me that staying here was for the best, warts and all. Besides, you can't deny it's been a pretty good two months, particularly for us. I mean, Magneto's dead, Mystique's dead, the Acolytes are in jail, the Brotherhood's apparently working for S.H.I.E.L.D. or something now, and even public opinion towards us has taken a dramatic turn for the better ever since the President credited us—solely- with stopping the Acolytes."

"Yeah, who would've thought it?" Amara said. "We save a bunch of people all these years, and get hated for our trouble. But when we actually fail to do what we set out to do, and are only saved by S.H.I.E.L.D.—we all get Presidental medals."

"I'm using mine as a bookmark," Bobby piped up.

"You read books?" Jubilee laughed. "Since when?"

"Hey, I read! There's that one gaming magazine every month…"

"But you know why we got them," Amara continued. "They want to continue to keep S.H.I.E.L.D. a secret, so the simplest logical explanation in light of that was to simply declare that we did all the work ourselves. Me, I'm just pretending I got it for all the OTHER stuff we did over the years. It's hanging front-and-center on the bulletin board in my room."

"Figures you all would get medals after I left," Ray laughed.

"Wh-why do you say that?" Cessily said, a look of hope making its way onto her face. "I thought you didn't w-want to stay."

"I don't," Ray said, shrugging his shoulders when he saw Cessily's disappointment. "Sorry, but the whole 'superhero' thing's not for me, and I don't have any close family that can be used as convenient targets like Kitty or Jubilee. Don't get me wrong—I'm grateful I went to this place so I could learn to control my powers—but I kinda want to get a normal career. Besides, the second time the government tried it, Registration Day went pretty well. I think the worst is over when it comes to public attitude towards us."

"Well, almost half the population thinks we're heroes now," Bobby said, a look of smug satisfaction on his face. "Seeing as how the public story is we basically single-handedly saved the country from a Mutant war. 'Bout time, honestly."

"I hate to be pessimistic, but you know how public opinion on things waxes and wanes," Cessily interjected. "Just w-wait until there's some other big 'event', and then it'll go the other way again…"

"I dunno, I think Ray might be right," Jubilee responded. "I mean, did you see all the media press wanting to get in here? Scott and Jean are practically celebrities at this point—first known Mutant couple and all that. They hate all the attention, of course, but they are. Since when has the press been interested in covering anything other than the damage that we've caused?"

"I just th-think it's a bit early to be celebrating something like that," Cessily said defensively. "I hope you're right, but… we'll see."

"Hey," Bobby said, cutting in, "Changing the subject… I heard Jubilee's ditching the vampire costume I gave her for Halloween this year."

"Ew, yes," Jubilee shuddered, her face twisting into an expression of disgust. "I can't believe you made me a vampire costume, Bobby. I mean, it was sweet of you, but… ick. Vampires are gross. Me, a vampire… could you imagine?"

"…I still don't understand."

"It's symbolic, Laura," Kitty explained, exasperated.

"I understand that," X-23 said, her brows narrowing, as she herself was starting to become exasperated. "But what I don't get is why I have to get married next. I do not want to get married."

It was at this point that Kurt and Evan couldn't hold it in anymore—they burst out laughing from their positions at the table roughly opposite Laura. Most of the others at this particular table also had grins struggling to make themselves known, though Kitty simply pinched her sinuses and sighed.

"It's simply… a tradition," Kitty's mother explained from her position next to her daughter, though she herself was visibly stifling her laughter. "It's just for fun, Laura. It doesn't—you don't have to get married."

"Then I don't understand the point," Laura said, looking at the bouquet she held in her hands as if it was full of parasites. "I didn't want it anyways—I thought when Jean threw it, that the wind had knocked it from her arms. It was thrown too high, I could see that no one else gathered behind her could catch it—so I intercepted them and caught it instead."

"Yes, Laura, we saw," Ororo said, a bemused expression on her face. "Jean threw it with her powers, that's why it 'looked' like the wind took it. Though you did it much to the consternation of Jubilee, which is… telling, I suppose."

"Someone needs to tell me about these things beforehand," Laura replied adamantly, laying the bouquet on the table in front of her and crossing her arms as she leaned back in her chair. "I did exactly what Kitty had told me to do—when someone else drops something, to help them pick it up. And then everyone just laughs at me."

"Well, I didn't—that was a very specific—" Kitty protested before covering her face with her hands and continuing softly, "We'll go over it in detail in our morning session one of these days…"

"Don't worry, honey, I'm sure Maverick and X-23 appreciate what you're doing," Kitty's mother said, putting a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "There's bound to be mix-ups... and as mix-ups go, this one's pretty funny."

"No, I think it's great, I really do," Maverick said, raising his voice once a repetitive metallic whine began elsewhere on the Mansion grounds, getting louder as he continued to speak. "Your sessions together every morning have certainly helped take the pressure off me from a social perspective, Kitty. I mean, I know more about societal norms than Laura did growing up, to be certain… but I've still been in a top-secret organization for most of my life. I'm not entirely up-to-date. I'm certainly glad you and Laura have ironed out your differences in such a mutually beneficial manner."

"Well, she was right," Kitty shrugged. "I just didn't want to hear—FORGE, will you, like, STOP WALKING? I can barely hear myself think over the sound of those knees of yours!"

"I'm just trying something new out," Forge protested as he came up behind where Kurt was sitting, putting a clawed metallic hand on the back of his friend's chair, steam hissing out from around his knee joints.

"You still haven't decided on a configuration yet?" Kurt smirked, standing up and turning around to look over Forge's three robotic appendages. "What is this, Forge 25.0?"

"Well, if you want to count internal changes, Forge 37.0," Forge shrugged. "I've got the hand configuration figured out pretty well—a nice medium between skinny and overly bulky, four nifty claws that are sharp enough to cut if I really need to, but blunt enough where I never—well, almost never—cut anything accidentally."

"Okay, forgive me for asking a stupid question," Evan piped up, "But why not just go with… y'know…a normal robotic hand?"

"Because they don't look nearly as cool," Forge said matter-of-factly. "C'mon, Evan, I know that all those spikes of yours can be annoying at times, but you can't deny they look awesome. So if I just have spikes on the ends of the fingers… I think that's a nice compromise."

"You've got to change the legs though, dude," Kurt said. "Kitty's right, they're way too loud."

Forge grimaced. "Man, I guess you're right. That's a major bummer. I finally get a good balance going with the proportions, but I figured—y'know, the steampunk look is pretty nifty. I guess I'll just go with normal hinges."

With a visual whir and the sound of metal scraping on metal, Forge's legs reformed themselves slightly so that there were now hinge joints around the knees and ankles, as opposed to steam pistons.

"Okay, catch me up to speed," Kitty's mother asked her daughter quietly. "Why does he keep, erm… changing… his limbs? When I saw him with a robotic arm and legs, I figured they were some kind of advanced prosthetics."

"It's pretty weird, even for a Mutant power," Kitty admitted. "Basically, Forge was right at ground zero at the local Registration Center—the first time, when all the bombs went off. He was mostly crushed—Scott found him buried under the rubble, both of his legs and one of his arms essentially crushed to a pulp."

"Oh, that's terrible…" Kitty's mother gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. "How did he survive that? Losing that much blood…"

"Well, you're looking at it," Kitty said, motioning to Forge, who was talking specifics about his leg design with Kurt, who seemed at best only partially interested. Mostly the blue furry Mutant was just nodding and trying to hurry up the conversation while still being friendly. "Forge lost consciousness from the blood loss, but fortunately, the paramedics were able to get to him and stop the loss before he, like, outright died. Still, they didn't think they could save him, given that they had to amputate three of his limbs. He came close to death several times, from what Scott told me.

"A few hours after his life signs had finally stabilized, he woke up. Now, you have to understand, this was over a day after the whole Registration Day incident, so all of us were fighting over in Genosha. It was only after-the-fact we learned about this from the doctors, and although Forge likes his new limbs, he doesn't like to talk about this next part…

"…But anyways, once he woke up and saw he only had, like, one arm, he starting panicking, his life signs going crazy, so a bunch of nurses came in to give him some painkillers. Apparently once they had calmed him down enough where he was sedated—but still conscious—the weirdest thing happened. You've heard of that whole 'phantom appendage' thing, Mom, right?"

"Yes, where an amputee feels like their leg or arm is still there, even when it's not," her mom nodded. "They can even have pain that feels like it came from those lost limbs."

"Right," Kitty said, "So apparently, since he was now conscious and wanted those missing appendages, Forge's powers kicked in, and, well… his robotic legs and arm just sort of quickly 'grew' out of his stubs, forming rough appendages with him barely even realizing what was happening until it was over. See, he could already convert an arm into basically any electro-mechanical device because of his powers, so I suppose without any, like, organic tissue there, his mind just sort of 'willed' his appendages into existence because of the feeling that they should still 'be there', and….there they were."

"…That's amazing."

"Yeah… pretty much every other Mutant would've been killed or at least permanently crippled if they were in that position," Kitty said, lowering her voice. "But Forge is… how I can I put this diplomatically, in case he overhears me… well, he's… different. Not because of all the Mutant power stuff, or even the super genius intellect he has. I think it had a lot to do with him being stuck in a pocket dimension for over twenty years, but… he gets 'over' things pretty easily that would leave most people messed up emotionally for a long, long time. I mean, he seemed normal—beyond using seventies lingo—after we busted him out of that pocket dimension, and I mean like RIGHT after. It was like spending twenty years isolated from everyone meant nothing to him."

"That's… not right," Kitty's mother grimaced. "Being alone, for that long…"

"I know," Kitty replied, her voice growing softer to make absolutely sure Forge didn't hear their conversation. "But I guess that's his mental 'scar'— he just doesn't react to things normally. He pretty much acted as if nothing bad had happened the first time he had seen us after we all had returned from Genosha, instead busying himself with fine-tuning the design of his appendages—applying himself to anything he considers 'awesome' instead of confronting his personal issues. If that makes sense."

"He's suppressing his feelings, in other words," her mother replied sadly. "I worry what that will lead to if it's allowed to continue…"

"I do worry about him… and Kurt, to an extent, since they're such good friends," Kitty mumbled softly. "I mean, since we've gotten to know him, beyond the 'Middleverse' thing he's also led to an outbreak of extra-dimensional monsters at Bayville High. Thankfully they were all sent back to their home dimension and no students were seriously harmed, but still… And then, he took Kurt back in time to try to 'fix' the big Mutant revelation, but that backfired and almost got both of them killed in the past. Though on the other hand, he DID save Kurt's life when 'Crawler kept teleporting into parallel dimensions, so I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on him…. He just plays 'God' without thinking twice, not really minding the consequences, y'know?"

"Well, you should keep a close eye on him. If he starts acting a bit unstable, or upping the stakes in what he gets involved in… it might be time for some sort of... I don't know, Mutant intervention."

"Yeah," Kitty nodded, "I think Professor Xavier feels the same way. Although Forge is certainly welcome here, he's been forbidden to have Kurt over his place anymore if they're all by themselves."

Sensing that their conversation was over, Ororo piped in, "So, Theresa, how is your new life going?"
"It's… it's certainly taking some getting used to. I mean, I was mostly a stay-at-home mother, though I did take the occasional part-time programming job when I felt our finances needed a bit more wiggle room… But to have a secret life, I… well, I guess I know what my daughter felt like when she first enrolled here."

"There's no Mutant powers on display everywhere at S.H.I.E.L.D., at least," Kitty said.

"No, and I'm just stationed at one of their smaller outposts," Kitty's mother said. "I don't see Captain America or the former Brotherhood members or any S.H.I.E.L.D. 'big names' like that. Repairing downed computers, upgrading the base's firewalls… that sort of thing."

"So you're where Kitty got her computer smarts from," Ororo smiled.

"Oh, I wish I had a quarter of the talent my daughter has," Mrs. Pryde said, causing Kitty to blush slightly, "But I've always been fascinated by computers, so… yes, I can do a fair amount with them. And with the S.H.I.E.L.D. training I've received, I'm quickly getting better at it."

"Woah, Mrs. Pryde works at S.H.I.E.L.D?" Evan interjected, having heard snippets of the conversation from his position at the table next to his aunt. "Last I heard, you were just going to take on an alt identity and move somewhere else."

"That was the initial plan, but we decided it would be too difficult for me to visit her if she did that," Kitty explained. "I mean, too many people, like, know my face these days, and if they saw me with my mom... well, they'd put two and two together pretty quickly, no matter what the names would be on my mom's personal documents. So we decided it would be best if she just kept her real name and identity, but joined a top-secret organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. to both give her protection and allow me to visit her on a regular basis without it being a huge deal."

"It is a bit too… formal for my tastes," Kitty's mother said, "But I can't deny it's probably the best place for me right now, with things being the way they are."

Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden shriek coming from Jean.

"Having a good evening so far, bro?" Alex said, a rather smug look on his face as he fiddled with an envelope in his hands, obviously trying to draw attention to it.

"Of course!" Scott said, leaning over and hugging his wife at the table they—and only they—were seated at. "On top of the world… hard to believe this is all happening. I mean, I'll be honest, with everything that's gone on here in the past few years, there were times I didn't think this day would ever come… particularly after Jean and the others went down on Genosha, but… here we are! So, how's my best man doing, eh?"

"Pret-ty good," Alex smirked as Scott gave him a playful soft punch in the shoulder. Alex shrugged it off and slid the envelope he was holding in front of his brother. "Anyway, I just wanted you both to have this. Y'know, a wedding gift."

"Alex, that's really sweet," Jean said, "But we're not opening the wedding gifts until we get back from our honeymoon, remember? Don't worry, we'll only be gone a few days."

"Right, your honeymoon to… where is it again?" Alex said, a smirk still on his face.

"We booked the weekend at a great bed-and-breakfast at Cape Cod," Jean said, her eyebrows furrowing a little in confusion. "Alex, I remember we've talked specifically about this a couple of times now… where did you think we were going?"

"And, uh, Cape Cod…" Alex continued, that same expression still on his face, "I mean, that's in Massachusetts, right? Not a very far trip."

"Well, no," Scott admitted, "But c'mon, it's not like we all have full-time jobs given all the responsibilities we have here at the Mansion. I mean, as instructors we both get an okay salary from Professor Xavier, but… well, I splurged on Jean's ring, I'll admit it."

"And it's still really a wonderful place," Jean said. "We visited the place where we'll be staying briefly, shortly after we began planning the wedding…. Alex, what are you up to?"

"Open the envelope," Alex said. "And yes, you MUST open it right now. No ifs, ands, or buts."

"Ooookay," Scott said, tearing open the envelope and reading the card inside.

After a few moments—after he had opened up the card and finished glancing over it—his expression froze, first to one of complete surprise, which quickly turned to one of joyful anxiety as he looked his brother in the face.

"Holy—Alex? How… how did you afford this?"

"What? What is it?!" Jean said, anxiously yanking the card away from Scott and beginning to read it.

"Well, honestly, although I came up with the idea and booked your flights and hotel, I didn't put up a whole lotta cash towards it," Alex said sheepishly. "I mean, I did all I could—knew a few folks who could get us some discounts, but… well, obviously I'm not making much now, having given up the surfing circuit to enroll here. Nah, in terms of money it was mostly Professor Xavier, with most of the other instructors and students chipping in where they could."

"…We're… we're going to honeymoon in Hawaii?" Jean said softly, a stunned look on her face as she let the card fall back out of her hands and onto the table. "For a week?"

Alex nodded. "And you leave early tomorrow morning."

Jean was hardly one to shriek in excitement. In fact, Scott couldn't remember the last time she had.

But that's exactly what she did.

Gambit sighed and stroked Rogue's long hair gently, being careful not to touch her skin as he did so.

"C'mon, cherie," Gambit said softly, carefully scrutinizing her face, her body, the readouts from the various instruments that were all hooked up to her—looking for even a tiny sign that Rogue was emerging from her comatose state. "I've known you for long enough to know something like what happened… it ain't something to keep you down. Not for this long, anyways."

Gambit was in the medical research room located a few floors below the Mansion. He had been at Rogue's bedside for a good half-hour now—the X-Man had yet to awaken from the coma that she had been found in when she had been pulled out from under the rocks in Genosha two months ago. Now Rogue's hair was a little past shoulder-length, though the rest of her had been kept clean and washed by some of the more scientifically-minded instructors like Beast or Maverick who checked down here at least twice a day. Nearly all of her vital signs were normal—well, normal for a person in a coma—but there still hadn't been even a slight sign that Rogue was starting to come out of it. MRIs had shown that the nerve cluster near her frontal lobe had some unusual activity—firing in patterns and ways that not even Forge could understand—but that was about it as far as the phenomena went.

Gambit didn't blame Jean and Scott for holding the wedding with Rogue still down here. After all, they had waited quite a while, and after a time… well, the X-Men simply didn't want to be reminded that they had a teammate unconscious for sixty days now. Almost everything else had been going great ever since the Genoshan incident had been solved. Gambit suspected that a good portion of the X-Men were losing hope that Rogue would ever awaken from her comatose state. It was something that nagged at the back of their minds, but Gambit could tell that they didn't talk about it much. Particularly since Rogue's thing for Scott was hardly a secret at this point, even if it had cooled within the past several months—the last thing Rogue needed to be around for was seeing the X-Man she had a (barely) secret romantic attachment to getting married to a person that—whom she had come to respect over the years—was not at all like.

Gambit was convinced that Rogue would've asked Scott out on a date many times over, if not for her powers. Gambit himself almost asked Rogue out several times in spite of them.

Heck, maybe that WAS my "date". Askin' her to be bait for a double-date with Domino and Deadpool. Nice move, Remy.

It was a pipe dream, of course- not only would they never even be able to touch each other, but the rest of the X-Men would hate it too, and that would just push Rogue away from the family that she needed.

Far more than she had needed Gambit, anyways. A thief's life was no life for her, that was for sure.

Still, he was glad Xavier at least seemed to tolerate his attachment to Rogue. He had snuck into the Mansion while the wedding was going on, true—but given Xavier's mental range, Gambit was sure the good professor had detected his mental presence shortly after he had entered the X-Mansion grounds. If Xavier had wanted to remove Gambit from the premises, he would have done so by now.

Gambit stared at Rogue for a while, blinking back tears. She didn't deserve to be like this. If anything, he did—a sort of penance for all the times he had tried to swindle her or the X-Men.

Hrrrm, Gambit thought to himself, his eyes darting back and forth from Rogue's forehead to one of his hands. I wonder if…

Gambit hesitated for a moment, then slowly but surely moved his fingers towards Rogue's temple, preparing for the inevitable draining feeling as—

Gambit almost jumped back as the door to the medical room suddenly hissed open—revealing a surprised Hisako on the other side.

Almost immediately a large, pink psychic "exosuit" engulfed Hisako, the size of it lifting up the short girl to Gambit's eye level.

"Whoa, hey now—" Gambit said, immediately getting up and backing away from Rogue.

"What are you… doing here?!" Hisako interrupted, her voice giving off a warbling sound effect as it passed through the humanoid-shaped force field enveloping her.

"I was just—just checkin' on Rogue," Gambit said, holding his hands up in front of him. "Y'know, seeing how was she was doing. I wasn't—I didn't mean any harm."

"Then why did you not… tell… Xavier that you… was… in this room?" With nearly every word, it seemed like she had to force it out, obviously struggling with conversing in English at a normal pace.

"I didn't want to cause a fuss at the wedding," Gambit said. Seeing Hisako eyeing his pockets, he continued, "I'm not here to steal anything, I swear. You can even check 'em if you want. I just wanted to see how Rogue was doing without any… y'know, unexpected visitors."

"You should… leave," Hisako replied. Her voice was already sounding relieved, even though her psychic avatar still surrounded her. "I came in here… early… the reception is moving inside. Insects are beginning to bite others… mosquitoes, I think they are called."

"Got it," Gambit said, picking up his staff and nodding his thanks as Hisako allowed him to pass by her, her avatar dissipating as she did so.

After taking a few long strides down the hallway, Gambit's curiosity got the better of him and he turned back to the former Brotherhood member, asking, "Say, what are you doing here? Last I heard you were back in Japan."

"Yes, for my… trial," Hisako said, her gaze drifting to the floor. "It took a few weeks, but I was… cleared of my crimes. They learned of my… involvement with Genosha. I still feel… guilty, though. I stayed for a while to help… rebuild the castle I destroyed part of. I flew back here just about a week ago, to make sure I came in time for wedding. This is where I… belong, at least for now."

"No offense intended, but if you belong here, then why are you down here, by yourself, when everyone else is just comin' in from outside?" Gambit asked. "Jus' seems a little contradictory, is all."

"I…. English is hard," Hisako said, frustration evident in her tone. "I am learning English at a quick pace- Beast is helping me very much—but there are too many people talking out in the… courtyard? It is… tiring after a while. Also, I am not a… social person. Too many people."

"I understand," Gambit said, the usual good-natured smirk appearing back on his face. "You'll fit in here, eventually. An' even if you don't, there's always… other options."

"Yes…" Hisako replied, her eyes darting back and forth, her mind obviously elsewhere temporarily. "…Anyways, you should leave. Quickly."

"I- yeah," Gambit said, running back down the hallway. "Take care, kid."

Hisako sighed and turned back towards Rogue as the door slid shut behind her, then began to run the semi-daily check on the equipment, just as Hank had taught her.

"No, you are holding it wrong."

"Here?"

"No, a little lower… below the wrist…. Yes, there. Now apply pressure with your middle two fingers and yank me over your head."

"Okay…. here goes."

Kitty winced slightly as she heard a snapping sound inside Laura's wrist under the odd pressure hold she had X-23's arm in, and then yanked the Wolverine clone off of the Danger Room floor and over her shoulder, throwing X-23 a couple of yards. Pivoting in mid-air, Laura landed in her feet, her good arm steadying herself as she finally stood up, holding her broken wrist straight with her other hand as she waiting for her accelerated healing factor to kick in.

"Are you okay?" Kitty asked, concerned.

Laura had a confused look on her face.

"You are asking that because you are worried that you have hurt me, even though you know I will heal in less than a minute," Laura said, clearly working through a strand of reasoning that was alien to her. "So this means… that you are showing regret that you have hurt me, right? Your question is less a direct question than a showing that you… care… about me."

"That's… basically correct," Kitty said hesitantly. "Though awfully straightforward. But we're making progress."

"These social interactions seem very illogical to me," Laura replied. "If that was your intent, why didn't you just say so? It seems a very roundabout way to get your feelings known."

"Not if you've been… well, acclimatized to the way people socialize," Kitty said. "I'm… I'm sorry you never got to experience growing up normally."

"So am I," Laura admitted, a tinge of bitterness in her voice.

"But hey, looking on the bright side," Kitty replied, walking up and laying a hand on Laura's shoulder, "It has provided you with a pretty… unique perspective of how the world works. I mean, sometimes we do need to get some sense beat into us. Me, Professor Xavier, Hank, most of the rest of the X-Men… sometimes we can be too nice, y'know? So even though you come across pretty… abrasive at times, I just want you to know that it's… well, I've learned to appreciate it."

"But yet you want me to change my… my habits," Laura said, flexing her wrist to see if it was healed yet. From the range of motion her hand was showing, it looked like it was. "If you appreciate them, then… why?"

"Well, like I said," Kitty replied, "You're abrasive. Really abrasive. You can turn a lot of people off to what you have to say, even if what you have to say is right, and really matters. God knows it turned me away when I should've listened. So that's why I think this whole 'morning session' workout in the Danger Room is good for both of us. You teach me some new combat moves to defend myself, and in return I teach you how to socialize with people properly."

"So… what I did to you, before you left… you're saying you approved of that? That what I said was right?"

"What you said WAS right, but that doesn't mean I approved of it," Kitty said. "They're too different things. Look… Laura… destroying a picture of my grandmother, dislocating my jaw, destroying a third of the kitchen in the process… that's not the right way to get your point across. You can do it via less… violent methods."

"But my whole point was that sometimes we DO need to get violent," Laura replied. "And you were unaccepting of that."

"I get it, I do," Kitty said. "But you've been free of H.Y.D.R.A. command for long enough—Maverick's given you a good head start, but he's been a pretty solitary guy himself, so he's taken you about as far as he can. It's time to give you that, like, extra 'push', to get you to become less… less X-23 and more Laura. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"I-" Laura sighed for a second before responding resignedly, "…Yes. Since I have given you your 'lesson' for the day, do we need to proceed with your part of the session?"

"Not today," Kitty said, shaking her head. "Scott and Jean are going to be leaving in, like, fifteen minutes. We need to get up there and say good-bye to them before they're gone."

"But we just saw them yesterday night," Laura protested, although she followed behind Kitty as they headed for the women's uniform changing room down the corridor from the Danger Room. "Why do we need to see them again?"

"It's not that we need to catch up or anything," Kitty replied. "It's just… y'know, a sort of way to give them our well wishes. Show that we care about them."

"So this is another action to show we care about them… without just telling them so," Laura shook her head. "Sometimes I am almost glad I wasn't raised in a normal household. All of this seems far too indirect and time-consuming."

"That's part of the point," Kitty said as the entered the dressing room. "Sometimes giving someone your time is the most valuable gift of all, Laura… though, yes, I know that's kinda corny, the way I said that. I'm probably remembering it from some book full of inspirational quotes or something."

"'Corny'… I don't understand. How does a saying taste of corn?" Laura asked.

"It's… nevermind," Kitty said as she sat down and began taking off her boots. "It's not important now."

They both were almost entirely changed into their "civvies" when Laura finally piped up with another question.

"Shadowc—Kitty," she began, awkwardly adjusting her black halter top. Maverick had finally convinced X-23 not to wear her uniform all the time, but it was painfully obvious to everyone that she was extremely uncomfortable in normal clothes. Too "loose", she had explained, and thus too "distracting". "You've said that we should only resort to violence when absolutely necessary… but I read up a few days ago on your records, which had been updated after you came back. When those terrorists killed your father… you incapacitated two of them, which would seem to fall in line with your reasoning. But then… why did you kill the leader? I would have done that, but that does not seem like something you would have done."

Kitty had froze as soon as Laura had mentioned her father. Sighing, Kitty was silent for a moment before responding.

"It isn't," Kitty said sadly, shrugging her shoulders. "I mean, don't get me wrong—she totally deserved it—but I, well, I… lost control for moment, there. Between my father just being killed, and wanting to be left alone, and in the heat of the moment, I just… put too much force behind my kick and snapped her neck."

"So you… regret it?" Laura asked.

"Yes… No. I mean, I'm not… sure," Kitty said, her eyes getting moist. "There haven't been many people I've wanted to kill as badly as I did her—she who gunned down my father in cold blood—but… my mind and my heart, they're just… telling me different things. It's a… tough line to walk, Laura. I guess, if anything, that experience… well, it make me understand what you're going through almost every time we're in combat. Did I cross the line, or was I justified, if a bit overzealous? I dunno, I… I get different answers from different X-Men."

"But it is done," Laura said. It was obvious from her facial expression she didn't understand, but it was also obvious that she wanted to. "Why do you continue to… debate yourself over it?"

"Because, Laura," Kitty replied, "We just need to be extra careful—now that we X-Men are bonafied soldiers instead of just students learning to control our powers—that we don't cross that line into becoming our enemies."

"But we are fighting for what's right. They are not. That is why we are better than them."

"…But is that enough? Anyways, what's right, that's… well, that's what I'm hoping to teach you. I just need to straighten out some of the specifics for myself first. …Maybe we can learn what's right together, huh?"

Xavier sighed as he looked at the small graveyard on the side of the Mansion facing the bay. In addition to the tombs for Logan and Sam, now there was an additional two—for his son, David, and another for Kitty's father Carmen. The morning sunlight shone off the tombstones brightly, as well as the several flowers placed around each gravestone.

"Charles?"

"Yes, Hank. You wanted some answers, and you'll get some. No one followed you?."

"Not that I can tell," Hank replied. "You seemed awfully distracted out front when we were all saying goodbye to Scott and Jean," Hank asked. "I mean, next to possibly Alex, they were the most grateful to you for their surprise honeymoon destination. You DID front most of the bill for it, after all."

"Yes, and I am genuinely happy that Scott and Jean are at long last married," Xavier smiled. "I think all of us have been seeing this coming for some time, but after everything that's happened in the past year or so… well, it was nice to see it finally happen."

"Then what's the issue?" Hank asked, sitting down on the grass. "You seemed distracted a bit last night, as well, even with all the festivities. I understand it was awfully hard losing your son, but… it seemed something else was bothering you, as well."

"I've been mentally going over those visions… you know, the ones I've talked about you a few times—the ones I received during my link with Apocalypse."

"Well, you've only mentioned them in the vaguest of terms," Hank said. Before Xavier could explain, Hank put up his hands and continued, "I know, I know. You don't want anyone else but you to know the content of these visions, in case our actions in response to them somehow change the course of the future in a negative manner."

"Yes, that's precisely it," Xavier nodded. "And you remember our discussion some time ago, about whether the future was fixed or whether it was mutable?"

"Of course."

"Well, I… after thinking about it for some time, I believe I have the answer."

"Really?" Hank said, leaning forward. He clearly wanted to believe Xavier, but was also skeptical.

"Yes…. The future isn't fixed, Hank. What I saw in Apocalypse's mind… it was only one of the nearly infinite ways that things can play out."

"And how did you figure this out?"

"Because, according to my visions, Magneto should not have died," Xavier said. "At least, not yet."

"Then, if you don't mind me asking, how do you know? You already said your sole vision of the future with Magneto in it was very fuzzy."

"Yes, and I believe that was the result of this timeline being diverted off-course from the one Apocalypse had foreseen, likely a result of Kurt and Forge's previous attempt to meddle with the time stream, as we've already discussed," Xavier responded. "The vision I had with Magneto in it, I can't recall anything but the vaguest details from it—even after taking the time to mentally remind myself of it every day, as a part of my routine. At this point, I'm certain that if I had not done so, its existence would have escaped my mind completely by now.

"But as for the vision itself," Xavier continued, "As I've said before, all I remember was that it involved Magneto, and it was somehow positive. And—most importantly—that it should have taken place by now."

"How are you certain?" Beast asked.

"Kitty," Xavier said. "When she came back to us, the uniform she was wearing… it was exactly like the uniform she was wearing in another of my visions, one that still has yet to take place."

"So, wait… you knew all this time that Kitty would come back?"

"Well, I wasn't absolutely certain of it… as we've seen, not everything I saw has come true. And I was surprised she showed up at Genosha, of all places. But no, I wasn't as surprised as the rest of you were, to be sure."

"Then I guess my question is, why the concern?" Hank asked. "Although we've still certainly got things to worry about—plenty of anti-Mutant groups are still out there, and a few of Magneto's main Acolytes were missing from Genosha, so who knows what they're up to—generally things have really started to look up these past few months. Particularly in comparison to what we'd been dealing with the year before that."

"Well, I don't know if you recall my exact words, but you remember the speech I made to everyone gathered together at the Mansion, shortly after we had defeated Apocalypse? I had said that despite the bad things I had seen in the future—some of which have, obviously, already come to pass—I was reassured because I had always seen the X-Men were at the world's beck and call, no matter what happened."

Hank's eyes widened in realization. "So, because this 'good' vision you had with Magneto—now that that's gone, you're worried that—"

"—That the X-Men may not always be there in the future when the world needs them," Xavier said. "Yes, that's exactly my concern. Particularly given some of my… other… visions that are still crystal clear."

"Well," Hank grumbled, "That's not exactly reassuring. But there's little sense worrying about it when—"

Whatever Hank was about to say, he stopped as soon as he saw Xavier's face clench—the exact same expression Beast had always come to recognize as the Professor picking up a powerful thought directed at him.

"What? What is it?" Hank said, getting up, alarmed.

"It's Irene… Destiny," Xavier said, wheeling towards the front of the Mansion. "She pulled up to the Mansion gates mere seconds ago. Instead of going through the X-Men, she sent a thought directly my way—she says she needs to see Rogue. Now."

"What? Why now?" Hank said, baffled. "That woman has barely even seen Rogue since her 'daughter' joined the X-Men—not even when Rogue entered into her coma. Why would she suddenly be so concerned about her 'child' now?"

"She told me to look into her mind, see the increasingly likely outcome occurring any minute now," Xavier said alarmingly. "And it's not good. I'm sending out a telepathic message to everyone here warning them of the danger, but we need to get down to the room where Rogue is. Quickly."

Hisako was doing her semi-daily check of the machines hooked up to Rogue. By now she had done it so many times it had become routine—she barely had to think about what she was doing.

That was why she initially ignored the sudden quickening of the heartbeat monitor at first—it took her a few seconds to realize that something was indeed off. If she hadn't had her back turned to the relative screen, she also would have seen Rogue's brain activity spiking wildly.

"Huh?" Hisako said, doing a double-take at the monitors and then looking to Rogue, who still seemed to be in her coma.

Moving over to the comatose X-Man, Hisako checked the various instruments hooked up to Rogue. "Must be malfunction…"

Before Hisako could react, Rogue's eyes snapped open and she spun up out of the bed she had been lying in, ripping the various instruments from her skin with ease. "What the?! Where… where am I?"

Looking down at a stunned Hisako, Rogue asked, "And… and who are YOU?!"

Hisako blinked for a moment in stunned disbelief. "You… you are back at X-Mansion, Rogue. You have been in a—ACK!"

Hisako didn't even have time to engage her psychic armor, as Rogue practically—literally?—flew at her, catching the considerably smaller Japanese girl by the neck and pinning her to the wall with such force that the air was knocked out of Hisako's lungs, and she felt like she might have broken one of her collar bones. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see small cracks forming in the wall around her. She had had no idea Rogue was so strong… and where was her southern accent?

It was just then that Hisako heard Xavier's voice in her head.

Everyone in the X-Mansion—get down to the medical research room, quickly. We may have a serious situation developing…

"SPEAK, X-Man!" Rogue growled. "Or I'll crush you to a pulp, here and now."

"I-I—" Hisako began hurriedly, before managing to calm herself enough to take a deep—if painful—breath to get some air back into her lungs. "I am Hisako Ichiki—we have not really talked to each other m-much, but we were at the Battle of Genosha together... do you remember, Rogue? If it helps you to remember, I can generate pink—"

It was just then Hisako realized that Rogue was holding her by the neck with her bare hands. And yet she didn't feel like she was being drained of anything…

"Rogue?!" Rogue interrupted, in a voice Hisako had now positively identified was not the X-Man's own. "Who are you talking about!? My NAME is Monet Saint Croix, and I DEMAND to know what is going on here, before I smash your head RIGHT IN!"

The End
 

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