As Storm led them off the jet, she noticed a third person coming out from behind the trees. Her breath caught in her throat when she realized who it was.

XXWI

Logan heard Storm gasp, and when he turned, he saw Sabretooth walking toward Magneto. He noticed Storm stiffen slightly and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She gasped and whirled on him, only to relax when she saw who it was. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Storm mumbled, averting her eyes. He could tell that she was not fine, but didn't press the issue. Storm was a strong, proud woman, and she would not show anyone weakness in the slightest.

XXWI

" His name is Colonel William Stryker," Magneto was saying, "and he invaded your mansion for one purpose he wanted Cerebro. Or enough of it to make one of his own." Magneto was sitting on the other side of the fire with Mystique and Sabretooth on either side of him.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Jean said. "Stryker would need the Professor to operate it."

"Which I think is the only reason my old friend is still alive."

"Oh my gosh," Storm said. She looked at Jean and saw that she was thinking the same thing. Logan didn't have a clue though.

"Hey, now," He said looking from Jean to Storm, "What are you all so afraid of?"

"While Cerebro is working," Magneto said Charles's mind is connected to every living person on the planet. If he were forced to concentrate hard enough on a particular group, let's say mutants for example... he could kill us all."

There was an awkward pause. "Wait a minute," Storm said. "How would Stryker even know where to find Cerebro in the first place?"

"Because I... told him," Magneto said with a sigh.

Of course you did, Storm thought.

"I helped Charles build it, remember? Mr. Stryker has powerful methods of persuasion. Even against a mutant as strong as Charles.

"So who is Stryker anyway?" Jean asked.

"He's a military scientist. He spent his whole life trying to solve the mutants problem. If you want a more intimate perspective, why don't you ask Wolverine." Logan looked up. Jean and Storm looked at him stunned. "You don't remember do you? William Stryker the only other man I know who could manipulate adamantium. The metal on your bones, it carries his signature."

"But the Professor-" Logan began.

"The Professor trusted that you were smart enough to discover this on your own," Magneto snorted. "He gives you more credit than I do."

"Why do you need us?" Storm asked.

"Mystique," Magneto said, looking at her. "Has discovered plans of a base, that Stryker's been operating out of for decades. We know that's where he is building the second Cerebro; but, we don't know where this base is. And I believe one of you might."

"The Professor already tried." Logan said.

"Once again you think it's all about you," Magneto said, looking up. They saw Kurt hanging in the tree.

"Oh, hello," he said.

After he came down, Jean did a small reading on his mind. Even though it was only a few seconds, she felt Sabretooth's eyes upon her. She shook it off, but not without Logan noticing. He gave her a concerned look, but she returned it with a hard stare that told him to drop it. Kurt cried out.

"I'm sorry," Jean said. "Stryker's at Alkali lake."

"That's where the Professor sent me, there's nothing left."

"There's nothing left on the surface, Logan, the base is underground."

XXWI

After the meeting, Storm decided to take a walk before going to sleep. It was real unsettling to have Sabretooth so close; especially after what happened at the train station and Liberty Island. She reached the campsite and headed to her tent, which was across from Logan's. Suddenly, an arm grabbed her as she was about to lay down. It forced her onto the ground and she stared up into the eyes of Sabretooth. His hand was clamped over her mouth to keep her from crying out. He quietly shushed her and stroked his claw down her cheek the way he had on Liberty Island. "You owe me a scream," he whispered.

She had little options. She couldn't bring down a lightning bolt on him, and charging the air to create one would take too long. There was no way, from the position she was in, that she could fight him off of her- he wasn't Toad. If she screamed, she would just be appeasing him, and crying out would be no use. She had one other option. Clenching her fist, she created a roll of thunder that shook the clearing, followed by a series of lighter rolls. Hoping someone would check in on her.

XXWI

Logan had just kicked Mystique out of his tent, when he heard and felt the thunder. Usually, he would figure that a storm was on it's way, but the smell of ozone told him different. It was coming from Storm's tent. He also picked up someone... Sabretooth! Sabretooth was in Storm's tent! Jean caught up to him a moment later. "What's going on?" she demanded.

"Sabretooth's with Storm."

"Oh, Lord," Jean muttered.

Logan opened Storm's tent, to reveal Sabretooth on top of her, his claws extended. "Get away from her," Logan growled, unsheathing his own claws

Sabretooth was suddenly flipped over, and Storm scrambled away from him. Logan turned to Jean, who just shrugged. He wasn't fooled though. Jean gently took Storm by the arm and led her out of the tent.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Storm nodded hesitantly. "Fine."

Jean gave Logan a worried look, then turned back to Storm. "Did he get you with his claws?"

"No. Not this time."

That's good, Logan thought, wondering why he was even thinking those thoughts.

"Maybe it'd be best to sleep on the jet tonight," Jean suggested.

Storm nodded, and slowly started to walk back. Logan turned to Jean. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She'll be fine, Logan. She's just in shock, and she's upset that she couldn't fight him off without help. Storm hates showing her weaknesses."

She gave him a small smile, then went up to the jet.

The closer they got, the trickier Ororo's piloting became. She skimmed treetops when she had to and dropped beneath branches when she could. Helicopter pilots would have thought twice about some of her maneuvers. Jean seemed to be feeling around ahead of them with her telepathy, because every now and then she'd warn Ororo of an upcoming lookout to avoid or a patch of trees that was too dense to fly through.

Logan felt pretty useless, aside from his one piece of advice, but when they finally landed, he personally made sure that the stealth netting was perfect and that the internal systems were kept to a minimum. Perhaps no one else thought much of it, but if the children were going to stay with the jet, they needed as much help as they could get to avoid detection.

When he was done, he joined the rest of the group in the back of the jet. They'd used Stryker's stolen data from Mystique to construct a three-dimensional map of the base and had projected it as a hologram. After a few seconds of staring at it, Logan recognized an oval of land that had been stripped bare of trees. He'd been there only two days ago, thinking that the base was gone, along with any trace of his memories. Looking back, two days seemed like such a long time ago…

"Surface scans are cold," Ororo said with an air of authority that couldn't be ignored. Even Magneto and Sabretooth seemed to be giving her his undivided attention. "No electronic emissions, no power, no heat signatures, nothing. Obviously, we know different." She tapped the control keypad in front of her and the scene changed, showing a different perspective of the base. "That first image was a topographic representation of the area. This one" – she pointed to various points on the display – "is the spillway. See all the density changes in the terrain? They're tire tracks." Bobby, Rogue, Kurt and John were sitting in the passenger area.

Magneto stood on the other side of where they were, and Mystique was a little farther back and left.

"That's the entrance," Logan said.

Storm nodded. "Mm-hm." She hit a few more buttons and focused more on the spillway. Below the dam, it showed various shades of blue, whereas the surrounding landscape was white. "And this shows the depth of ice that's covering the ground." She hit another button. "Now, this is recent water activity."

"If we go in there, Stryker could flood the spillway," Jean translated from the co-pilot's seat in the cockpit.

Storm turned to Kurt. "Can you teleport inside?"

He shook his head in disappointment. "No. I have to be able to see vhere I'm going; othervise I could vind up inside a vall."

"I'll go," Logan said declared. Everyone turned to look at him. "I have a hunch that he'll want me alive."

"Wolverine," Magneto said, stepping forward toward him. "whoever goes into that dam needs to be able to operate the spillway mechanism. What do you intend to do? Scratch it with your claws?"

Logan advanced narrowed eyes. "I'll take my chances."

The look of humor on Magneto's face disappeared as quickly as it had come. "But I won't."

He turned to Mystique, and Storm also turned to her, catching on.

XX

On the jet, everyone else was monitoring their progress. "I'm in, Mystique said."

Storm turned to look at Logan who was standing behind her.

"She's good," he conceded.

"You have no idea,"Magneto said with a smirk.

As they headed for the ramp, Storm stopped Logan. "Hey," she said. Logan stopped and turned to look at her. "I never got the chance to thank you... about last night."

"It's okay, 'Ro," Logan said, being a gentlemen and letting her go forward.

"Let us help," John said. Though Marie and Bobby had been pretending that he didn't exist since the day before, they stood on either side of him now, nodding emphatically.

"You're not helping with anything! Not out in there. We need you here. If anything happens to us, activate the escape-and-evade flight sequence that's programmed into the autopilot. You know how. Don't touch any of the controls, on the ground or in the air. The autopilot will fly you home just fine."

"So you want us to abandon you?" he accused. "Then what?"

"You've all got superpowers," he said shortly. "Figure it out."

XX

It took a couple of minutes to reach the spillway doors. Storm's eyes clouded over with white as wind and lightning surrounded her. She shot a warning glare at Sabretooth, as lightning started to come out of her hair. She was a few inches off the ground when the doors finally opened and Logan could smell fear and hear the pulses of all of the troops spike. Logan smirked. Showtime!

XX

Magneto, strangely, knew exactly where they were going, and led the way down the various halls that were every bit as confusing as the ones in the basement of the X-Men mansion. They rounded a corner that seemed like so many others, but this time the hall wasn't empty. Guards snapped into action and immediately began firing. Magneto and Jean stood their ground, each throwing up an arm. Sabretooth launched himself forward, but Jean used her teke to hold him back. Now would not be a good time for a blood bath.

When the first few gunshots sounded, Logan and Storm, came out of the line of fire, with a few gusts of wind from Storm to keep the bullets away from them. Kurt just teleported.

Magneto waved a finger effortlessly and the metal door popped from its frame like a cork from a bottle. Inside, Mystique spun around in her chair, smiling widely at Magneto and giving him a heartfelt round of applause.

Magneto, Storm, and Logan stood in the doorway. Storm was standing just behind Magneto; Logan was on her right, slightly behind her shoulder, and Jean was standing next to Logan as she pushed the two soldiers she had to the wall. Sabretooth was also standing behind Magneto. much to Storm's dislike. The closeness between them made her feel claustrophobic. Storm and Magneto stepped in first.

"Have you found it?" he demanded, stepping first onto the platform where Mystique was. Kurt followed with Storm behind him, followed by Jean.

The blue mutant spun back around and hit a few buttons on the keyboard and pointed to one of the various monitors in front of them. "A large portion of energy has been diverted to this chamber." She tapped on one of the many screens to indicate a sector that had no video capability.

"Cerebro," Storm said.

"There it is," Magneto said.

"Can you shut it down from here?" Storm asked.

Mystique rolled her eyes. "No."

"Come," Magneto said to Mystique. "There's little time."

"Not without us," Jean said firmly.

Mystique hit a key, then she, Sabretooth and Magneto looked at each other.

"Oh my gosh," Storm said, stepping forward. "The children!" She turned to Kurt."Kurt, will you come with me?"

"Yes," Kurt replied.

"Where are they?" Storm asked Mystique.

"They're being held in a containment cell one level down."

"Alright, we'll get the children and meet you three at Cerebro."

"Okay," Jean replied. "I'll try to find Scott and the professor."

"Will you be alright without us?"

"Yeah," she replied, looking directly at Magneto. "I'll be fine."

Storm looked around, realizing someone was missing. "Where's Logan?"

"He's gone," Jean said quietly.

Magneto looked at Sabretooth, and Sabretooth nodded almost imperceptibly. But Storm didn't miss it; just got a dreaded feeling in the pit of her stomach.

XX

Magneto took Sabretooth aside. "Delay her as long as you can until we get Cerebro out of order."

Sabretooth smiled. Magneto saw this and frowned. "But don't kill her. Enough mutant blood has been spilled. And I don't feel like cleaning up your mess."