"Xaiver's School for Gifted Children, Scott Summers speaking."

"I know who you are, Cyclops."

"You must have the wrong number."

"Don't hang up on me, because if you do this girl-child is going to pay."

"What do you want?"

"I want Gambit, Jubilee, Everett, and Knife to come to Snake Plateau, Arizona by 2 a.m.. If they're not, she dies."

"How do I know you have anyone?"

"Please help me! Don't leave me here! Help me! No.....don't" Scott flinches as the sound of flesh hitting flesh comes over the line and the girl is reduced to heartbreaking sobs.

"Is that enough for you or do you need to hear more? Oh, and I know you'll try to trace this call. Don't be too disappointed."

"Scott? Are you alright?" Jean Grey asks her husband, troubled by the look of defeat on his face.

"Jean, call an all member meeting in the missions room for me, please?" Scott asks his wife walking out of the room.

Scott sighed as he looked at the trace recording of the call, whoever it was, had been right about tracing the call. Taking the tape out of the recorder, he walks out of the room.

Pressing the intercom button Jean manages to keep the worry out of her voice as she calls the meeting in the mission room.

Everett held Jubilee closer as the girls frightened sobs cut off. She had snuggled up to him for comfort, before the tape had even started. I guess her empathic abilities are at their highest point, with her being six months pregnant, because she said something about Scott just before he walked into the room.Everett mused, loosening his grip when Jubilee started sitting up.

"Your not going to let them go, are you?" Emma Frost-Cassidy asked, worried for her two students.

"That is up to them. I can only supply back up." Scott said, looking at the four in question.

"We'll go" Gambit and Knife say at the same time.

Looking at them you can tell how much they adore each other, I wonder if Everett and I look the same. Jubilee wondered, behind her formidable mental shields.

"I'll go" Jubilee says automaticly, paying no attention to the poking Everett was giving her lower back.

"I'll go, as well. If only to keep an eye on you love." Everett's tone suggests more than keeping an eye in her, Jubilee tries hard not to blush, but feels the heat crawling up her cheeks.

"Ah want to go as back up. No Joseph it's mah decision," she said to her husband, before he could protest. "Ah can fly behind the Black Bird and help them out at the first sign of trouble." Rouge finished, smiling sweetly at Joseph.

"Then I'll go as well" Joseph said surprising Rouge, and enjoying it immensely.

"Okay, I think that's enough people going to deal with these villains." Scott says before the entire team volunteered.

"Do you think they'll come?" Knife asked Jubilee, after they had been standing watch since 2 a.m. and the kidnappers were 3 hours late.

"They'll come. I rather think this is trap, they're trying to get at our nerves by being late." Jubilee answered, grateful for the knowledge that Rouge and Joseph were out there in the Arizona Desert, waiting for her to call out telepathicly.

"Speak of the devil, here they are." Knife said turning as a plane landed on the farthest end of the plateau. "What do we do now?" she asked quietly.

"We hope these people are sane enough to negotiate with and/or don't have other reasons for asking that we four were the only ones to come, if their not or do, we hope for the best." Jubilee answered, grimly watching two women drag a child up to Gambit, blindfolded and hand-cuffed.

"Well, well, well. I didn't think it would be this easy to lure the infamous X-men out of their lair. Now, I wonder where the others are? You don't expect me to believe you came alone, do you Gambit?" One of the women said walking until she was close enough to kiss him. She would have been quite pretty, if she had kept her mouth shut, for the voice dripped of malice, and stayed away from children.

"Oh, I forgot, you married that weakling, Knife, isn't it? That's to bad, I offered you a much better match." She declared, when Gambit stepped back from her close proximity.

"What do you want, Fuse? Certainly not a little girl, you never liked kids." He asked her, recognizing the voice, though when he had known it, it had been as pretty as the owner.

"I don't think I'm going to tell you what I want, but you'll find out soon enough. Though your right, I don't want this girl, she has to many limitations with her powers to be of any use to me. You," she said pointing at Gambit "can have her!" with that Fuse hurled the girl in Gambit's direction, she was so light it was easy to do.

And while Gambit's busy dealing with the ball of tears, that child should be reduced to, I can get what I came for! Fuse waved her hand, signaling Zippo to apprehend Jubilation Lee. She smiled, anticipating torturing the brat by raising her child, and letting her live long enough to see how evil that child is going to be.

Zippo watched the hand signal, it meant for her to go on with the plan. Walking like a cat stalking her prey, she smiled viciously. This is going to be easy. Grabbing the girl's arms, to keep her from using her powers.

"Cry out and die!" Zippo whispered fiercely in her ear.

What's going on? Why me? What do they want with me? Jubilee bit her lip to keep from crying out, the pain of having her arms tied behind her made her gasp, and that was just enough to attract the attention of Knife, who had exceptional hearing. Turning, Knife saw why they had chosen these four members.

"Get this off of me!!!" the child yelled as Gambit caught her, knowing she was going to be to late.

Glad I have a back up plan, though I don't see how that girl isn't a ball of tears now, she sure was five minutes ago. Fuse motioned the third woman over to her.

"Can you flame them?" she asked quietly.

"I won't kill them." the woman said stoutly.

"I'm not asking you too!" Fuse said hotly. "Don't move or Jubilee dies!" she yelled in Gambit's direction, for she could no longer see, because of the sun rise.

"Don't believe her she wants her alive!" the girl yelled, but Gambit wasn't listening to her.

:Rouge! Joseph! Help! Hel... Jubilee managed to broadcast before blacking out. Everett saw Jubilee collapse from the blow to the back of her head. He fell to his knees slowly, tears running down his cheeks, as he watched his beloved and unborn child disappear into the plane.

Rouge looked up in surprise as she caught the edges of Jubilee's message, looking over at her husband, she saw he had caught it as well. They flew up into the morning together. Well, now, I know that no plans are supposed to take off from Snake Plateau today, so that must mean this is an unscheduled flight, and it needs to be aborted. She thought as a plane took off from the plateau. Looking over at Joseph, she saw that he was getting ready to abort the flight. Reaching out with his magnetic power, he grabbed the plane and started pulling essential parts out of the engine. Rouge smiled as he gently landed the plane, all the while pulling it apart. Her smile faded as she saw a figure hurtle out of the still high aircraft, even with her amazing speed in the air, she just barely maneuvered herself in time to catch the prone figure. "It's Jubilee!" she yelled to Joseph, so he would put the plane back together and land it. As they descended onto the plateau they noticed that their other team members were encircled by a wall of flames.

"What happened?" Rouge asked Gambit, as she settled Jubilee into a comfortable position in the infirmary bed on the Black Bird. They had not been abe to apprehend Fuse and her co-horts, because they had taken off the second Joseph let go of their plane. She did a preliminary check of the child, there were no external wounds, that she could see."I can't see anything that just cannot wait until Beast can look her over." she said, visibly relaxing.

"Everett, I'm sure Jubilee will be fine, in a couple of hours." Gambit said, trying to comfort the boy, who refused to leave her side.

"The child fainted almost directly after I caught her, yelling something about taking her blindfold off." He explained to Rouge as they walked into the passenger area of the plane, Joseph was already there.

"Storm insists on flying the plane back manually, don't see how she enjoys the task but she seems too." He said when they finished.

"Well other than a bump on the head and a few bruises there's nothing wrong with her, I can't explain why she won't wake up. She might have gone into a trance, the kind where she can't feel anything that's happening to her. There are only two people that can bring her out of it, other than herself, and out of those two, one is inaccessible and the other might not be willing to dig in Ms. Lee's head." Hank 'Beast' McCoy told Scott Summers and Everett Thomas when he had finished checking Jubilee over.

"Now you must understand that her body could survive like this for years, but the child...well I keep feeding her, if she's dosen't wake in a week, I'll demand Ms. Frost awaken her, for the sake of the baby." He continued, worried about how Everett was going to take this news.

"May I stay here with her?" The young man asked softly, wishing to be alone with his tears.

"Yes, of course. Now, Scott about the kidnap victim...." He proceeded to lead Scott out of the room.

Everett sat there quietly, holding Jubilee's hand, saying how much he loved her over and over. After a few hours he fell into a restless sleep, laying in the bed with her.

My love, is that you? She tried to speak but found she could not break the barriers she had put around her mind. Help me! Some one help me! She was starting to panic, what if she never got out of there.

"Mommy! Mommy, where are you?" a small child's voice came to Jubilee's astro body's ears.

"Who's there?" she called looking about the astroplane she stood on.

"It's me, Mommy, Bethany, I came to tell you it will be alright. Aramina can get you out of here, then I can be born!" a child, about four, walked up and hugged Jubilee. She had dark hair and skin with bright blue eyes.

"Bethany? Is that what I name you?" she asked hugging her daughter tightly.

"Yep! I have to go now, but don't worry Aramina says she'll wake you real soon. Bye!" Bethany said fading away.

"Wait! Who's Aramina?!" She asked, but her daughter's form had already faded from sight.

"...she's been suffering from high blood sugar, exhaustion, and hunger, I also suspect she's diabetic. Once she wakes will find out for sure." Beast told Scott as he looked the girl over.

"How long till she wakes?" Scott asked, worried.

"A few hours at most, probably less." the doctor responded.

Where am I? Aramina asks herself, trying to remember what had happened. I remember, they rescued me from Fuse, then I fainted. Bethany contacted me and I promised to wake her mother, when I woke up. Well I guess I'd better keep my promise. She climbed out of the bed, disconnecting herself, and locating with her mind, the one she knew as Bethany. Walking into the room Aramina didn't see a little girl, like she had expected, just a man and a woman laying in the bed.

:Aramina, is that you? Bethany's mindvoice asked hesitantly.

:Yes, I'm here. Where are you? She asked confused.

:I haven't been born yet! I thought you knew that. The voice answered.

:I didn't know that. Do you want me to help your mother now? Aramina asked, hoping she could.

:Yes, please, do. Bethany said happily breaking contact with Aramina.

Aramina went over to the bed, standing by the woman's side, she could sense the panic escaping from her mental barriers.

:Ma'am? This is Aramina, are you ready to let me help you? She sent softly, not knowing how strong Jubilee's barriers were.

:Aramina? Your here? Yes, help me, please! Jubilee responded quickly, though the message she got was only a whisper.

:We're going to have to take your barriers apart piece by piece. Can picture the first one as a brick wall? Aramina coached the Bethany's mother until she had taken down all the barriers, she was so engrossed in her work she did not notice Dr. McCoy, Scott, and Everett staring at her. Just as Jubilee opened her eyes, Aramina collapsed for the second time that day.

"Jubilee! Your awake!" Everett rushed to her side, letting Scott and Hank take care of the child.

"Everett. Where's Aramina?" Jubilee asked wondering why she had lost contact with the girl's mind.

"She collapsed directly after rousing you" Everett said, wondering how Jubilee knew the girl's name.

"Scott bring her over here. I'll let her stay in bed with me." Jubilee said taking the petite fifteen year old into her lap.

"Beast, she said she has to take one shot of insulin a day. Her real name is Sabrina Wells and she's an orphan." After giving out this information, Jubilee promptly fell asleep, arms wrapped protectively around Aramina.

"Mina, how are you feeling?" Jubilee asked walking into the Nursery where Aramina had been assigned to work because the kids loved her.

"Fine, Aunt J. How's Bethany?" Aramina asked looking up and smiling.

"Oh she's fine, according to Dr. McCoy. She hasn't spoken sense she convinced you to help me, two weeks ago." Jubilee answered.

"Stand up, I think your actually starting to fill out and get a little meat on those bones." she continued looking the child over, she didn't look unhealthy any more, her dark red hair had some life in it, and her bright green eyes sparkled with her happiness.

"Yeah, I was right, you look much better now that your eating properly." Jubilee said, tweaking Aramina's nose playfully.

"Did you ever notice how crowded this wing is? There's not enough room for the new children to move in when their old enough. Jean and I were talking about it during class, because I'm supposed to get a room ready for Charles, but there's just no more room.

Especially with Gen-X staying here too..." Aramina continued to related the entire conversation that she had, had with Jean.

"Your right. Though I had never noticed. I don't like that we all send our kids to live here, when they turn nine. I don't want to be separated from Bethany that way," Jubilee replied, pausing for a moment.

"You know, now that I think about it, we're all very crowded. What we couples and people with children need are houses of our own, on the estate, of course and the singles can live here in the mansion. Then our kids could come here only for day-care, like the younger ones do now. I really think they should start building the school in Massachusetts back, then we wouldn't be as crowded here." she finished, sighing, wanting to go home, but not so much now as earlier.

"If you went back to Massachusetts, I could go too, right?" Aramina asked hopefully.

"It wouldn't be up to me, but I hope do." Jubilee said hugging the insecure teenager awkwardly around her bulging lower half.

"I hope so too. Oh! Look what time it is," she gasped, seeing the clock over Jubilee's shoulder.

"I was supposed to wake the children ten minutes ago!" she finished, rushing to the nap room.

"Scott, I was talking with Mina, and she told me something Jubilee had told her. Jubilee thinks it's time for Gen-X to go back to Massachusetts, I agree with her." Jean held up her hand, stalling her husband's protests until she finished.

"I know Gen-X needs more training then they can get living that far away, but I'm sure with all the Shi'ar technology, someone can come up with a way to get them here quickly.We need more room and more privacy. Do you think I like having my oldest son live in the mansion away from his family? Do you think Storm, Knife, Betsy, and Rouge like or are going to like it?" she finished loudly, not yelling at Scott, but coming very close to it.

"No I don't think you like it or that they're going to like it. I think your very right about Gen-X going back to they're school and about how crowded we are here. Since I now know that you feel this way, let's think of how to fix it." He said, much to Jean's surprise.

"Okay, well I was thinking, we have to get everyone away, except for the men, so they can build...."