James Ellison sat on the plane fuming. It had been less than 4 hours since he'd felt Blair call out to him along the Sentinel/Guide Bond. Jim had felt nothing since.

He was angry. He sensed through Blair that the attack was deliberate. The attack was intended to put his Guide out of action for some unknown purpose. Jim was filled with rage at the thought of his Guide being so assaulted. Jim felt the attack on Blair's mind from his desk in the major Crimes bullpen of the Cascade Police Department where he worked. Clear across the country.

Jim had left work immediately. He'd gone home and packed a bag and made a plane reservation. Now he was on his way to New York and the closer he got to his destination, the angrier he became. In less than hour he'd be there. Then he would drive to the school Daryl attended up in one of the counties. Then, he would make those who had hurt his Guide pay dearly.

Jim looked up as the fasten seat belts sign came on. He was almost there. An hour or two more and he would be at his Guide's side. Jim felt the plane land, but he ignored it. His hyper active senses were focused on one thing and only one thing: Getting to his Guide.

He disembarked from the plane and went to the car rental counter. He rented a truck and drove out to the freeway that would take him to where his Guide was.

He had gotten a vague image the man who had assaulted his Guide. Before his own Spirit Guide had removed the man from Blair's mind. The black jaguar that was Jim's Spirit Guide had been with Blair so Jim could make sure he was safe. The jag had screamed with a rage that matched his own when Blair was struck down.

Jim drove along the highway thinking of what he would do to the people who hurt the Guide. He knew he was going more towards the primal part of his brain because the word MAIM kept coming into his thoughts.

He got a rein on it but not much of one. Jim prayed that Blair would be safe until he got to him. He'd been on his feet for several hours now. It was dark here now although it was only evening in Cascade. In a silent fury he drove towards his destination...

At Xavier's School for The Gifted, Logan sat by Blair's bedside in the infirmary. He was standing guard over the young man like he'd been told to but he really didn't like what they'd done. The professor had attacked this young man for his secrets. Secrets that Logan suspected would cause the X-Men a lot of trouble. His thoughts on Mr. Sandburg's secret was that it should have been left alone. Of course, the professor's worry about the man Mr. Sandburg had called out for had them all concerned. The question on their minds was what had the professor sensed from him? He had told them anger but Logan suspected it was something more. The professor did not usually worry about anger. No, Wolverine was certain that Professor X had sensed something more than just anger from the mysterious Jim. Whatever that something it had scared him.

"Logan?" Jean Grey said softly as she came into the room. "Has he showed any sign of waking yet?"

Logan looked up her coolly. "No Jean, he hasn't shown any sign o' wakin' up yet." Logan told her, "What did Chuck do? No one has ever been out this long from a telepathic bolt before."

"I don't know Logan," she confided. "I've never known the effects of a telepathic bolt to last this long before either. Whatever he did, it's shaken him badly."

"He should never have done it, Jean," Logan said to her. "He should have left this kid alone."

Jean sat down and studied Logan from her chair. That he was very upset about this was obvious, but why? He didn't know this young man from Adam and yet he was protecting him from all further harm. Jean Grey was a telepath and a telekinetic. Those were her mutant powers, but something about this young man who was not a mutant had forced the professor out of his mind and called for help from some unknown friend who was even now on his way. Even she, who was not as powerful as Professor X had a strong sense of foreboding whenever her thoughts turned to the mysterious Jim.

Another odd thing was the black jaguar that had been standing by the bed since Blair had been placed in it. It would let no one with the intent of reading Blair Sandburg's thoughts get within three feet of the bed. No one could read his thoughts from a distance either. It was if the jaguar was a shield of some kind.

Why that animal and something else, Jean wondered. Why not an animal indigenous to North America? Just then, the jaguar looked up at her and bared his teeth. Jean realised that she had drifted closer to the bed than the animal would allow.

"He don't like you, Jean," Logan told her. "He perceives you to be a threat to his charge."

Jean gave Logan an odd look and stepped back. The jaguar, after staring at her for a minute or so dismissed her and lay back down. This time he lay on the bed at Mr. Sandburg's feet. Jean picked up one thought from Blair before she was blocked from his mind by the jaguar or whatever kept them from touching Blair's thoughts. The thought was one word: <Jim>

Jean got to her feet hurriedly and looked at Logan. "His mind is awake," she told her team mate. "He is deliberately staying unconscious to keep us out."

"Maybe that's the way it should be Jean," Logan told her. "If he wanted our help or anything, I'm sure he woulda told us by now."

Jean watched as Logan went back to watching the jaguar that it suddenly hit Jean he could see. "That thing isn't in the physical world Logan," she said. "How can you see it?"

Logan just looked at her. "I been seein' it since he was hit by Chuck's mind bolt. It ain't left his side once since he fell on the lawn."

Jean watched as the jaguar looked directly at her and yawned showing off all it's teeth.
 She looked at Logan again. "Anyway, the reason I came down is because dinner is ready. Warren is going to watch over him while you eat."

Logan looked up at her again and this time there was a gleam in his eyes. "You make sure he knows where the boundary is. I think that kitty cat could and would do something if any of us cross it." Logan told her warningly. Only because the jaguar nodded at him did he leave.

That struck Jean as odd. The big cat acknowledged Logan but unless they went to close to the bed or the young man lying on it, it ignored everyone else. Jean followed Logan upstairs to the dining room passing Warren on the way. He went into the room and sat down by Blair's bed and watched. He respected the invisible boundary that the professor had told him about and sat five feet away from the bed.

There, Jim thought as he listened for his Guide's heartbeat from just outside the school. The Guide is in there. Being kept prisoner. All that was human in James Ellison felt a rage at the way his Guide was restrained in the bed they had put him in. He used piggybacking of sight and hearing to locate his lost Guide in the sprawling mansion. He heard all but one person at dinner and listened a little harder.

The leader was speaking to his students about what they were going to have to do if Blair didn't let them in willingly. Jim growled low in his throat as his piggybacked senses identified the man who had struck his Guide down. You will NOT hurt the Guide again, Jim thought with primal ferocity. I WON'T allow it.

Some part of Jim that was more savage big cat than man began to make it's way to the front of his mind and Jim allowed it to happen. Jim was aware of the fact that if they forced their way into Blair's mind that it would be very painful for him and that Jim would not allow.  Purposefully, Jim walked up to the door and banged hard. He completely ignored the doorbell. Jim was aware through his hearing that he had startled them.

Good, he thought. Let them worry about who is knocking on their door. Jim laughed at the nursery rhyme that ran through his head. He looked up as the door was opened.

Charles Xavier had expected many things in the Jim man. What he did not expect was the man who stood before him now.

Jim was a big man. Much bigger than Xavier was expecting and not at all the sort of man he'd pictured being a friend of Mr. Sandburg.

The man stared down at the professor with a look in his eyes that was as cold as Logan's home in Canada. The man's voice was as arctic as the look in his eyes when he spoke.  "Where is Blair Sandburg?" Jim asked with a hint of a threat when he spoke.

Xavier decided to try for deception and see what happened. "I'm sorry," he said to the big man, "I don't know who you are speaking of. There is no one here by that name."

The look the man gave him was enough to kill.

"Don't lie to me mister," Jim growled. "I know he's here so either take me to him or I'll report you for kidnapping and false imprisonment."

Xavier could tell the man was serious so he decided to try telepathic control once he had him in the house. "Please come in and let me see if I missed his name as being down as a visitor."  Very slowly, Professor Xavier slipped into Jim's mind. He began to try to control the rational part of the mind while never noticing the other, more animalistic part that was waiting to pounce on him the moment he turned his back on it.

"What are you doing?" Jim asked when he became aware of the intrusion in his mind.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Ellison," He said. "But I can't let you have Mr. Sandburg until we have learned what makes him different."

With that, Xavier shut off Jim's rational mind. The result of his actions was something he never expected to see outside of Wolverine.

Professor Xavier watched in awed terror as the once rational Jim Ellison turned into a snarling berserker who matched Wolverine. The man roared in rage and pushed past the professor in a blind fury. His only vocalisations were snarls and growls. One word eventually came from the primitive sounds "GUIDE!" He roared in anger.

Xavier backed away from Jim in startled amazement and fear. //X-Men! // He called. //Subdue this man. Do not harm him until all avenues of approach have been tried. //

 The X-Men came in and tried to restrain the raging Sentinel. All but Wolverine and Storm joined the fray. Wolverine because he knew that he could not defeat the man and Storm because she began to have a feeling she knew What if not Who the man was.

He continued to flatten all of the X-Men as his screams of primal fury became louder and more feral then when he started. "I. Want. My. Guide. NOW!!!" He roared as he sent Bobby Drake flying across the room into the couch.

Scott Summers, known as Cyclops was knocked into a wall. Jean Grey was slapped aside and Hank McCoy was given knocked unconscious by a blow to the head.

After they were all out of his way, Jim roared in rage and fury as he headed purposefully towards the steps that led down to where he could hear Blair's heartbeat. The only thing the primal Sentinel was aware of was that his Guide was here and that his Guide had been hurt.

"Guardian?" Storm called out. The feral Sentinel whirled around and found himself staring at a woman with long, white hair, blue eyes and brown skin. Jim stared at her in shock. She had called him by his title and the Sentinel could not ignore her. "Is it your companion you seek?" She asked him.

The Sentinel/Jim nodded feeling some of his primitive fury fade. "Guide," he growled out longingly.

"Come this way," she said to him. I will take you to him."

The enraged Sentinel followed the woman because both his instinct and his hyperactive senses told him she was being truthful. She would take him to his Guide if he followed her.

The woman led him down to the infirmary where Blair still lay in a self-induced coma.

Jim walked over to the bed slowly and sat down. "Guide," he said again. He sat by the bed and lay his head down next to Blair on the mattress. "Guide," he purred in
contentment.  Storm watched as Jim petted Mr. Sandburg's hair and took his hand. "My Guide. My friend. Blair," Jim said as he began to come back to himself. Jim felt exhausted and closed his eyes after making sure there was no immediate threat to either of them.

Storm watched for a few minutes and then turned and went back upstairs. The others were just getting to their feet.

"How did you do that Storm?" Cyclops asked as she settled gracefully in a chair and picked up her discarded tea.

"It was merely a matter of understanding what they are." Storm told them all gently. "That man is what my ancestors would have referred to as a Guardian. I suspect Mr. Sandburg is his Companion or a better word is Guide. He perceived us to be a threat to the Companion and he reacted accordingly. When the professor turned off his rational mind, he reverted to his most primitive nature. The one where only the Companion matters."
 Professor Xavier was stunned into silence by Storm's words. He knew now why Jim Ellison had turned into a berserker. He had turned off the man's rational mind making all the bumps and bruises his students had suffered his own fault. "What did I almost do?" He asked himself aloud.

"You nearly got yerself an' all o' us killed is what ya did Chuck," Logan said. "I knew we shoulda left well enough alone with that kid." Logan turned around and walked down to the infirmary to watch over the two sleeping men.

Jim Ellison had pulled himself up onto the bed and now had Mr. Sandburg where he was protected by the bulk of Jim's body. The Guardian was still protecting his Companion.  Wolverine sat down in the corner and watched. He would protect them both that night while they slept. Tomorrow they would all talk this out like reasonable human beings.