AN: Okay I know it's been years since I posted the first chapter, but I just couldn't let this story go. I'm always thinking of X-MEN, even in my sleep. This chapter took forever to write but it was a lot of fun. I wish I released it sooner, but life happened so I had to delay it. Be warned, some of the nightmare imagery is graphic and not for the faint of heart, but hey, they're nightmares.

Key:

Text - Reality

Text - Astral Plane

'Text' - Telepathy

Text - Shadow King

Mutie x Scum

Vol. 1 Sweet Dreams

Chapter 2: A Nightmare On Greymilken Lane

4:59 am

An attack on Ororo had been made through her dreams and talking to just the Professor would not be enough. Jean had psychically awoken the other X-Men; including Jubilee, for an emergency meeting downstairs in the war room. Everyone dragged themselves down there so no one would be left out.

"Everyone is here?" the Professor asked wheeling over to Ororo who was rubbing her eyes to be more awake. Hank looked around seeing Scott by Jean, Kurt holding his tail, Jubilee in her fluffy pink slippers sitting down by Kurt, Peter was laying his head down on the table trying not to fall asleep.

"Yeah, we're all here."

"Good, Ororo, would you care to start?"

Her eyes peered up before falling back to the floor, "What I am about to tell you may sound impossible, unreal even, but I swear I am telling the truth when I say that we are all in danger."

Ororo told them about her nightmare attack. How real it all felt, the threat of death, and about Amahl with how he forced her to steal back in Cairo, how he would abuse all the children he took in if they did not do as he said, "He would hit you?" Charles asked.

"He didn't have to," Ororo explained, "He had a way of getting in our heads...he would scare us. He never told us he was a mutant, but I feel that he was. Amahl could just look at you and you would be quivering in fear."

"A mutant that can send signals to the amygdala and triggers our autonomic nervous system," Hank said more for himself, but Jubilee went, "Huh?"

"Sorry, he controls these chemicals in our brains that make us scared. I have never seen or heard of that ability. That is interesting."

"Was," Ororo corrected Hank.

"Was?"

"He died. Several days ago."

"Problem solved," Scott said.

"No, Amahl has found a way to terrorize me with his spirit. That is what I do not understand. He waits for me to fall asleep, to be alone and vulnerable. I fear he will keep me awake until I die of exhaustion," Ororo took a deep breath already thinking of this horrible fate. It startled the others.

"No, he won't," Charles told the white-haired girl, "Ororo, you are not alone in this. You're one of us and if I have learned anything we are stronger together. No one is going to give up on you. Now, do you mind if I?" he tapped his temple with his two fingers. Ororo nodded then prepared herself, "Be careful."

With his other hand, Charles touched Storm's forehead seeing into her mind.

He was standing at the center of the garden she dreamed of earlier, "Mr. Farouk? Amahl Farouk? I would like to have a few words with you regarding the safety of one of my students."

Nothing.

Charles walked around the area to see a small set of stairs that lead to his back porch. At a table there was Amahl sitting down at in his human form, sipping some lemonade in a glass, "You must be Charles Xavier. Ororo is quite fond of you."

Charles approached the man sitting down, "Yes, and I have grown fond of her."

"I must say your home is very...privileged. More so than the one Ororo grew up in. It's no wonder I'm having difficulties bringing her home."

The bright father figure gave a sarcastic smirk, "Back to the life of stealing and abusive environment? Yes, that is shocking."

"You can't control her."

"I'm not looking to."

"You should. She can be too wild if you give her the chance. Why when her powers activated she knocked over an entire building by controlling the wind. It was a miracle no one lost a life," Amahl reminisced.

"Here, she is learning to use her mutant ability in a more positive way. She learned nothing from you, Mr. Farouk. Nothing good that is."

Amahl slammed his glass onto the table, "How dare you speak to me in such a manner," he pointed, what would have been a finger, instead it was a long talon, "Let's cut to the chase, Xavier. I do not intend to give up my property to a spoiled brat such as yourself. I will claim her, and you will deliver if you do not want your other children to suffer. I will take great pleasure in causing them pain while you watch helplessly because you have no power here. I am the King of this Shadow World. My Astral Plane."

The evil man stood up while pushing the table to the side. As he towered over Charles he turned into the ugly entity he really is. The professor could feel the power radiate off him, the rage and fear. It was as if binds came out of the chair to hold the Professor down by his wrists. Amahl touched the top of Charles' head gaining the information he seeked, "And now thanks to you I know all your children's weaknesses. Sweet dreams, Charles and pleasant nightmares to your X-Men," he raised his hand preparing to give Charles a blow to the face.

The psychic ripped out of Ororo's mind, "Gah!" his eyes opened, and Storm flinched back, "What happened?"

The students crowded around the two as Charles took a moment to catch his breath, "No one should sleep tonight," he looked around at them.

"What? What do you mean no sleep?" Hank asked.

"Yeah," Jubilee chipped in, "I need beauty rest."

"I'm sorry, my dear, but as I was in Ororo's mind he was able to take a glimpse into mine."

"So?" Scott questioned.

"Amahl will haunt your sleep. He knows everything that I know about all of you. I underestimated just how in control he was in there," Charles dropped his eyes to the floor feeling shameful of not being more careful, "Your fears and weaknesses."

Scott stood up straight from leaning on a desk, "Why are we even worried? This guy is dead, Ororo said so herself. If anything, this can all be something going on in her head and we won't be affected."

Storm winced her eyes, "All in my head? So, I'm crazy? Is that what you're saying?"

"You're the one with the nightmares. So yeah, maybe you are."

"Scott!" Jean said trying to stop him.

Ororo pushed herself up to stand so she could get in his face. How dare he call her crazy, "Just because this is not affecting you does not mean it is not real."

"Let's settle down now. None of this is helping solve the problem at hand," the Professor tried calming everyone down. He wished he could say this was the first time his X-Men butted heads, but Scott and Ororo always seem to be at one another's throats in the Danger Room, "This man plans to terrorize you all in your sleep where you're vulnerable. Now, I still say no one should sleep tonight, at least until we can solve this. We must figure out a way to extract Amhal. Hank?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"Is there a way that you can create a medicine for us not to dream?"

"There have been ways with anesthesia, but I can see what I can do to make it safer and guaranteed."

"Good, good. I also suggest no one in this room mentions any of this to the other students," Hank nods with an "Of course," then started go downstairs so he can get to work.

Ororo watched him go off before bringing up, "So we just not dream for the rest of our lives? How is that going to solve anything?"

"No, no we must treat this as if it is a parasite. All of us have already been infected with him the moment I entered your mind and he touched mine. Step one is containing this parasite by not mentioning him to the other students. Step two is where we suppress his activity when we sleep. If all goes right that should weaken him being that Amahl can't feed off our fears," Charles rubbed his chin pondering the cause of this infection, "Something tells me his death was not an accident, in fact this all feels like it was a trap to get me into your head, Ororo."

"I am sorry," she whispered for causing this mess.

"This isn't your fault. Like I said, you are not alone," Charles started to roll his chair back, "Now, is anyone interested joining me in the kitchen for coffee or tea?"

"Oh, me!" Kurt raised his three-fingered hand up getting ready to follow, "Excellent. I can show you how to make both beverages," the professor was almost out of the war room when Peter shot up from his seat and falling to the floor with a yelp, "No!"

"Peter?" Jubilee gasped from being startled by his sudden movement. He looked up at her with wide eyes before they moved to a worried Charles, "I just said no sleeping. What did you see?"

Peter took a gulp, "I had a dream Rush broke up. No more sweets before bed."

Everyone groaned as they started to file out. Kurt escorted Charles back up for promised tea. Peter stumbled behind everyone for he was trying to keep his eyes open. Jean received eye contact from Jubilee for a moment and smiled to her. The normally cheery girl didn't give one back. Instead she crossed her arms then darted to one of the emergency elevators back up to ground level.

Jean was practically chasing after her, "Jubes, look I just wanted to say-"

"Good night Jean," Jubilee stepped into the elevator alone right as it shut. Jean made an irritated sigh. It was becoming worrisome to the red head just how long Jubilee will be mad at her.

"She's gonna be mad at me forever, isn't she?" Scott was walking up behind Jean just when asking that, "Probably, but if it makes you feel better, I'm sure Ororo dislikes me more now," the white-haired girl gave him a sleep-deprived yet frustrated scorn, "Like being called crazy would sit well with you, Scott Summers."

Peter rubbed his eyes from drowsiness, "You guys are loud and angry. Stop it!"

"I'm just saying, maybe we aren't in as much danger as the Professor thinks. It is just you that seems to be having these nightmares after all."

Ororo leaned close to Scott when saying this, "By all means, go to sleep without Beast's medicine. Dare to dream and be vulnerable, because trust me there is no worse fate than being trapped in Amahl's nightmare."

Scott said nothing, he kept a straight face wanting to hide the true feeling. Threatened. From the ominous presence that is Amahl, lingering in all their minds.

It is easier to stay up until five o'clock in the morning than it is to get up at five o'clock in the morning, but what can be a struggle is just getting no sleep at all, period. Since Jubilee was already up at five o'clock in the morning she prioritized that time to plan out her outfits for the week. That took all but thirty minutes. Class didn't begin until nine, so Jubilee took a rather relaxing bubble bath.

It was very relaxing, the water was warm, comforting, like a bed. The young girl found herself drifting off to dreamland. Merging out of the water space between Jubilee's legs, razor-edge, dark purple talons rose out inching their way towards the teen. However, the dangerous hand retracted itself back in the bathwater. Before completely passing out, she took in a sharp breath to remind herself, 'The Professor said no sleep until Hank came up with something.'

After drying off, combing her hair, using all this time she had to spare by putting on make-up, Jubilee readied herself for the day even managing to get a good breakfast in. When the bell rung, Jubilee felt prepared for her day.

Taking her seat in geography, Jubilee turned her textbook to the page that was written on the black board. Her teacher Ms. Collins was not a mutant but did carry the mutant gene, she was always so chipper, "Welcome class! I hope everyone's Halloween was splendid and that you got plenty of rest last night. Today we are starting a brand-new unit on the countries of Africa, starting with Egypt! Isn't that exciting?"

No one gave as much enthusiasm as Ms. Collins did except maybe a few kids in the back, like Jean. She tried to look over to see if her friend was tired like her. Jubilee leaned on her elbow while trying to stay awake for this not so exciting class hour. She stared down at her map thinking of when her friends, the X-Men, with the Professor had to go to Cairo to save the world. That's when they met Ororo and brought her back here, Ororo one of her close friends that was having a difficult time right now.

The girl in the yellow jacket really wanted this period to end so she could check on Storm, but it was only five minutes into class. Her eyes started to get heavy while listening to Ms. Collins animated voice. Each passing second was becoming harder to focus all the while Jubilee's breaths became steady. How she wished to be somewhere else than in geography.

Small balls of fur ran around, jumping on one another as they played. In one hand, Jubilee had two scoops of strawberry ice cream in a cone when she adoringly gazed at the kittens and puppies playing together in the window. She was at the mall, standing outside of the pet shop. Normally whenever Jubilee does go to the mall, she stops by here to play with the little animals. A big smile was on her face when she could hear the puppies' soft barks through the glass.

"Aww," she licked a taste of her ice cream when a kitten stood up on its hind legs and arms stretched out for a moment, "So cute! I could just cuddle you little fur babies!" her voice squealed out.

Just when she said that, Jubilee noticed one of the kittens go off to the side, hacking as if they were coughing up a hair ball, only it was much more violent. She knocked on the glass trying to get attention, "Excuse me? Pet seller? One of your kittens is sick!"

The kitten continued doing the gag motions making Jubilee more worried, "Someone help the kitten!"

After a few agonizing moments of choking sounds the kitten coughed out a large, black, slimy ball. It would have been okay, except the kitten's body appeared to deflate as if it was a balloon. This frightened Jubilee enough that she covered her mouth. The slim ball started to get bigger, growing to be the size of a bull dog. The other small pets started to gag up like the kitten that caused this horrid sight.

Jubilee backed up when the first slimy ball uncurled itself to be revealed as a demonic looking creature with sharp fangs and glowing red eyes. It was so close to the glass that when it huffed out Jubilee could see the hot breath fog up.

"Oh..." Her watery eyes blinked when she felt something wiggling on her hand. Instead of cold ice cream there were worms in the cone causing her to shriek out, drop the cone, and wipe her hand off. The sudden movement caused the first creature to crash through the glass, running on all fours, straight after the girl. Jubilee sprinted away from the monsters that chased her.

There was only so much running that a girl could do before being caught at a dead end. She was stuck on a balcony that showed the lower levels of the mall with more of those monsters on their way. Having to think on her feet with those things drawing closer, Jubilee hopped over the rail to grab on to a banner that was hanging there. While it slowed down her fall it did rip right away from the weight of the girl, sending her body to hit the floor. Jubilee did quickly get up to see if the monsters were still after her, but all she could hear was growling.

She staggered off to get as much distance between her and whatever those shadowy creatures were. Limping out the exit, Jubilee noticed something very familiar about the setting outside. She could see lamp posts slowly lighting up to lead the way. Following the eerie path, she had approached a house, one that she never thought of seeing again.

The pale-yellow paint on the outside walls still had dirt marks from the basketball that would be thrown against it. The drive way had hop scotch marks drawn in colorful chalk. The door was kicked in by the lock making it slightly open, a harsh yellow light seeped through the cracks. It was her old home, the one she lived in before Professor Xavier adopted her, the one her parents brought her home to since birth, the one they died in.

"No," Jubilee whimpered when realizing this was no dream. Suddenly it began to rain, forcing her to retreat inside, "Not this night. Anything but this one," Jubilee shut her eyes wanting to wake up.

"I should have known creepy little monsters wouldn't scare you for too long. You're a child yes, but you are not that immature," An ominous voice filled the air causing Jubilee to flinch back to step on small shards of glass.

"Those were not little, compared to my size they were pretty big," she said back flicking the light switch on and off knowing full well it wouldn't work due to a broken bulb. "Cliché."

Jubilee could have sworn she heard a low chuckle, "Your deep memories, they are woeful," she walked across the living room to the kitchen where it was lit, the smell of burnt coffee coming from a machine that was left on. She switched it off, "This isn't an exact memory you know," Jubilee told Amahl walking back over to the living room to see their record player. Her parents always loved having coffee while sitting down listening to music. Looking at who was labeled on the vinyl a faint smirk pulled at her lips.

"I didn't get a good look at everything before I went upstairs. I only noticed these small details after, but this..." she pointed to the album cover on the coffee table, "Ziggy Stardust, was the one detail I always forget. I never got to switch the broken light repeatedly, or turn the coffee pot off. I didn't stall going upstairs like this. I was dumb and ran straight up there."

Jubilee took this second to wipe her teary eye for a moment sitting on the bottom of the stairs, "I won't go up there. I've had enough nightmares about what's up there," she sighed out, "So fuck you and your shadow monsters."

She waited to hear him reply. Nothing.

That is until Jubilee felt a large hand wrap its talons around her whole-body frame, a tight squeeze followed causing her to shriek out for air.

Jubilee screamed herself awake, knocking over her books. Her hand clutched over her racing heart trying to calm down. Her teacher was staring at her seeing how that scream startled everyone, "Why on earth was that necessary?"

"I-I'm sorry. I-I-may I be excused please? It's urgent," Not even giving Ms. Collins the chance to respond, Jubilee hurriedly collected her things from the floor to leave, "Ms. Lee! I didn't-."

"I have to talk to the Professor! I'm so sorry!" with that she exited the classroom.

Jean scooted out of her seat to stand, "Ms. Grey, please sit!"

"But I want to see if she's okay?"

Ms. Collins waved her hands down, "Sit, please. I'm sure the Professor can take care of this problem."

Charles rubbed his temples, "This problem is getting out of hand, Hank. He radiated power during the confrontation and clearly is more experienced on that plane."

"It's going to be okay, Professor. I think I almost have it now," Hank said using a dropper to add a small amount of blue fluid into a formula. Hank was in his laboratory in the subbasement with Charles who has been overseeing the creation of a serum that would suppress dreams.

"Excellent, Hank. The sooner we have that ready, the sooner we can devise a plan to get rid of this Amahl from our minds," The Professor knew if he was going to extract this entity psychologically then that would require lots of preparation to place barriers in each of his X-Men's minds. If push came to shove, Charles would have to erase the very thought of Amahl from all their minds. It was a process he never took pleasure in and knew it wouldn't affect some of the X-Men, but what about Ororo? Most of her life she spent with Amahl, so erasing him from her mind would be more damaging. There had to be another way.

The door to the lab was open when Peter zipped right in sending papers flying, "WATCH OUT!" Hank yelled hovering over his experiment protecting it from any possible damages.

"Oh sorry, man. I actually came here to talk to," he looked over to Charles and pointed at him, "You."

"What's this about Peter?" he rose a brow.

"So, you remember yesterday when you asked me if I knew anything about Raven? And I said I didn't?" Peter twiddled his thumbs when Charles nodded, "Well, I lied...Raven made me swear not to say anything, but I can't help this feeling eating away at me. Like if it was my sister that ran off and no one told me, I would be mad. I mean she has done that to me but-"

Charles interrupted him, "Peter! My sister, you were going to tell me what you knew?" Apart from some clothes being gone along with her car, Charles had only gathered she left on her own willingly.

"Right! My bad! Anyway, a couple days ago there was this woman named Destiny that called here looking for her."

The name was not familiar to Charles, "Did you hear what they talked about?"

"Something happened, and that Raven had to go back. I think they were talking about someone that caused an 'incident', but not much was discussed after that since I got caught eavesdropping."

This opened a bunch of questions for Charles. What incident happened and who was this third person causing said incident? Whatever it was, it was a matter that Raven alone could resolve and if she didn't trust her brother to not even tell him where she disappeared to, then it must be a big secret.

"Thank you, for your honesty Peter. Although I am worried for her safety it is nice to know that she is doing something she finds important."

"Yeah...look you're not going to tell her I told you right? She said she would make me wish I was never born."

Before Charles could say a witty comment, "Professor!" a frightened Jubilee came in, "He tried to kill me...the nightmare man tried to kill me."

"You fell asleep?" Charles went to her with a concerned tone in his voice. Jubilee nodded, "I'm sorry. I was just really tired and I didn't mean to during class-I should have tried harder to stay awake," the girl apologized frantically. Charles reached for her hand to comfort her, "Shh shh... It's okay. Hank will soon be done with his suppressant and you can get some rest without worrying of this man."

"It's Ororo I'm worried about!"

"Yes, my dear, I'm working on helping her too," his hand reached out to give her own a small squeeze, "I just need you to stay awake for a little longer. You will never have to face this bad man again."

Jubilee's breath practically shook out when taking notice on how fortunate she is for waking up at all during this encounter, "I was so defenseless...like a baby," she whispered out hoping that wouldn't reach Peter's ears. It may have.

"You are not. Anyone is vulnerable in their sleep."

"I wish I wasn't and it's not even about that. I can't fight period. I should learn to protect myself or to fight well enough to knock a jerk on his ass," Jubilee stated making Charles' eyes become large in that moment, "Protecting yourself I am fine with, but fighting? Absolutely not."

The young lady gave him such a quizzical look, "No fighting? Why not? You let Jean and Storm fight in the Danger Room all the time. What's the big deal if I want to learn how to fight too."

"Jubilee, they are X-Men. Protectors for Mutant Kind. They don't fight, they protect and prepare for any obstacle that will be encountered in the world."

She was silent for a moment taking in that meaning, "I just want to know how to hold my own in case I get into any trouble."

The Professor sighed out softly. Jubilee was asking for preparation for a scenario that would be impossible to happen, so long as the girl was in his care. Charles has sworn to protect her since the day he adopted her, nothing would harm or threaten her.

"I can make arrangements for you to-"

A loud thud was made causing everyone to be startled. It was Hank slamming his fist on the table, "I miscalculated," he admitted shamefully while pouring himself coffee into his 'World's Greatest Teacher' mug, "I'll have to back track. I'm sorry, Professor. This sleep suppressant is a little trickier to balance out and will need more time."

A concerned expression was on Charles' face as he stared off for a moment. He needed Hank's medicine before tonight, his students shouldn't have to stay awake when they needed the rest. Jubilee has already fallen asleep and from the way she was demanding to learn how to fight, she must have been terrified. She needed to be distracted. Charles could still see the fastest mutant still here in the corner of his eye.

"Peter, would you mind taking Jubilee out?"

"What?" the younger mutant simultaneously said with the speedster.

"I just feel that you should get out of the house for a bit. Some fresh air could do some good for you," In all honesty, Charles did not want Jubilee to sit around here. That's just asking for another opportunity for her to fall asleep, "Maybe you two could go to the mall?"

"Huh," Jubilee breathed out. She loved the mall, really, but right now it seemed that going there was just in bad taste. Peter stepped forward eyeing the Professor before giving the girl a small smile, "We can do the arcade. You did say you wanted to hang out today."

"Yeah, and I did want to stop by a music store."

Charles nodded going to take out his wallet to pull out some money, "You two go have some fun," he was about to hand off the cash to Jubilee when it was quickly taken by Peter, "Thanks, Prof. Meet you outside," Peter zipped out leaving Charles with an annoyed glare. Jubilee couldn't help but giggle.

"Please be careful and don't worry about a thing, my dear."

"Okay, professor. Hank, good luck. You got this," she made her fingers into tiny guns that pointed to Beast. He just gave a wave before she went out to join Peter.

Jean was still in the classroom waiting for the ticking clock to mark the end of the period, so she could go find Jubilee. Only she peered out the window next to her seeing Jubilee and Peter in the courtyard talking, smiles on their faces. Jubilee certainly didn't look as terrified like she had earlier. Peter picked up Jubilee then ran off in a blur.

When the bell rung, Jean collected her things letting out an irritated sigh. She found Scott in the west hall listening to Kurt make another corny joke, "So the dog says-"

"Scott."

"No, Jean. That's not vhat the dog said. He said-"

"I'm sorry Kurt, I have to talk to Scott-"

"But vhat about my joke?"

Jean looked at Kurt as if he was being serious, "Okay Kurt, what's the joke?"

Kurt remained silent for a moment, "I don't vant to tell it now. Moment's gone." Scott looked like he wanted to laugh before Jean got his attention again, "I'm going to go talk to the Professor and see if he needs my help for all of these dream problems. You should talk to Ororo."

"Right cause I'm the person she wants to talk to after last night. Good one, Jean."

"You were the one being skeptical. Look, we're a team, she's a part of it. And right now, she needs to know that her leader has her back. Please."

Scott huffed out, "Fine, I'll go find her. She's in her usual place, right?"

Jean nodded and Scott walked off to go find the wind rider. Kurt turned to the red head, "Vant me to take you to za Professor?" With approval, they held hands so Kurt could teleport to Hank's lab.

Scott walked up to Ororo's room, which was technically the attic, and knocked on her door. All day Ororo stayed in her room nursing the potted plants she kept there. It was one way to take her mind off these troubles. She cracked the door open to see Scott, there was a frown on her face, "Come to call me a lunatic again, Summers?"

"I called you crazy, but no," Ororo shut the door on him. Scott stood there before saying to the painted red wood that was in the way, "I came by so we can clear the air," it was silent on Ororo's side, "I'm sorry I said those things. I was a... dick. I just want you to know that I have your back for this because we are a team after all."

The door fully opened, "First step is admitting it," was all the weather witch said before stepping back so Scott could enter. He stepped in looking up to see the sky through her roof window, "Wow...I never actually knew this was here."

"It might have been added when the mansion was rebuilt," she crossed her arms. The feeling of showing someone your room that you aren't necessarily close with was always unsettling. Storm went over to water one of her plants, one that looked like a cluster of small flowers.

"That one is interesting," the teen commented, "Calea Zachatechi. It is a gift from Hank. He told me a few summers ago that he took some of the students to Mexico for sight-seeing Aztec temples. He brought it back with him."

"Wow." Dead silence.

"We should be better friends instead of challenging one another on everything," Scott broke the ice, "I know I can be...well I guess controlling is the word for it, but I just don't want anyone to get hurt or killed under my command. I wouldn't forgive myself if that happened."

Ororo felt touched by his confession, "You mean well, but you have to trust your teammates to make decisions for themselves when it comes to being out there. We're not dumb- well maybe Peter."

They both chuckle before she continued, "Even then, you got to trust and believe in us, Scott."

Scott put his hands in his pockets thinking over what Ororo had to say. She was right, in many ways she always was, "Storm, will you be my co-leader?"

"Excuse me?" that took her by surprise.

"My co-leader, second in command. You have a great relationship with everyone on the team and you're just what I need to ground us."

"I don't know what-."

"Just say yes."

Ororo pointed at him, "You're doing that controlling thing again."

With a smirk Scott said, "Last time...I swear." The two shook hands.

Jubilee sipped on her cola icee while flipping through the five-dollar records, "Ohh Dazzler, the Sounds of Light and Fury."

"You listen to Dazzler?" Peter asked amused while sipping on his cherry icee. Jubilee smiled setting it back, "You're talking to the disco dance champion of '77. Of course, I listen to Dazzler."

Peter laughed out at that fun fact, "I am not even surprised," he took out a T-Rex album, "Bet you can't name a song from this band," he showed her the cover.

"Twentieth Century Boy, I love that song," she picked up a Blondie cover. Peter let out a single laugh, "Heart of Glass."

"Good!"

He picked up a Kiss album while Jubilee pointed at it, "Strutter!"

"Wow! Did not take you for a Kiss fan if you like disco."

"Hey what's good is good," he set it down while she held up a Prince record. Peter gave her a cocky smirk, "Little Red Corvette."

"Yay!" Jubilee gave him a round of applause. Peter was looking through cassette tapes now when he took out a particular one that interested him, "Do you like them?" the younger girl glanced over to the cover, "Queen? No, I don't like Queen." Peter was about to fight her, "I LOVE QUEEN!" she broke out taking him by surprise, "Yeah?"

"Yes! Look at that epic mustache and yellow jacket. I obviously have to love them. 'She's a Killer Queen! Gunpowder, gelatin! Dynamite with a laser beam. Guaranteed to blow your mind! Anytime!'" she started to sing out. He was going to buy this, "I'm getting this. Wanna share it with me? You can listen to it whenever you want in your room."

Jubilee smiled at the offer, "Thanks, but I don't have tape player. Just a record player."

Peter looked down at his Walkman for a moment, "You can listen to it on mine. If you want."

"Really," Jubilee inched closer to him when he took off his headphones to place them on her. He put the tape in, playing it. The younger mutant grinned when she heard the familiar piano introduction. Her reaction was causing his face to light up from being able to make her happy. When Jubilee started to do the air guitar with her hands his heart almost melted.

"Hey!" the cashier interrupted their moment, "You gotta buy that before you go listening to it. Bunch a mutie scum," he mumbled under his breath

"We'll take it," Peter tried to shut the guy up. He was glad Jubilee still had the headphones in, so she could miss the man's rude remark. Jubilee took off the Walkman to give it back, "I can't wait to listen to more of it later."

"Yeah, me too," they walked up to the counter to pay for the one cassette tape. Before they left the store, Peter did swipe a few more tapes of his choice using his super speed.

BAMF!

Jean and Kurt arrived outside of Hank's lab, "Professor?" she called out.

"In here, Jean. What can I do for you?" he wheeled to the door, "Actually Professor, I was going to ask you that. Is there anything I can help out with?"

"Well, yes but I don't want to put you at risk. You were the one to get Ororo out of that nightmare. Seeing as how psychics have the capability to jump in and out of the Astral Plane, you are in just as much control as Amhal. I'm sure he did not like that. This makes you a threat for him."

"Professor, I don't care about the risks. Just show me what to do so we can get this asshole away from us," Jean was determined as ever. Charles nodded softly, "Let's begin then." Jean sat across from Charles to get a handle on this training in the mind, "We need to focus on psychic barriers. That will help you in the long run."

Kurt sat backwards in a chair while he watched his friend and the Professor practice. He leaned on his elbow staring until his eyes became heavy, yawning out, "I vish I could help in some vay."

"You sure about that, Mr. Wagner?" Hank said not looking away from his test tube that was being measured. Kurt lifted his head to turn around, "Ja. Absolutely. I vould do anyzing for za X-Men. Zay are like mein family back home."

Hank took off his glasses to clean them for a moment, "That's good to know, Kurt because I need your help more than ever right now."

Kurt was strapped down to a slab wondering why he agreed to do this, "And zis is necessary because vhy?" Hank tightened the bottom strap, "In case Amhal gets violent with you and your body reacts in a frantic way, you won't fall off the slab injuring yourself, Mr. Vagner."

Kurt found that tone odd. Hank never usually jokes around like this, "Oh-okay zen."

Hank smiled at him before sticking thin wires to the teleporter's temples, "Okay, Kurt. Just relax and don't fight anything."

"Mr. McCoy, zis vill not hurt, ja?" his eyes became fearful praying for a good answer. Hank ruffled his black hair, "You silly circus boy. Of course not!"

Kurt let out a sigh in relief, "Zank God! You had me vorried zere for a moment," his eyes shut. Hank practically scoffed flipping a few switches, "Now let's look into your memory bank. Oh yeah and Kurt?"

"Ja, Mr. McCoy?"

"I lied," his eyes glowed solid yellow while pressing a button to shock Kurt.

His body violently shook until he fell out of the chair, Kurt had fallen asleep in.

"Kurt!" Jean yelled out while running over with Hank and Charles going to help the sleeping Nightcrawler.

Peter pressed all the buttons on the arcade machine, "Dude, go left! Left!" Jubilee peeked over his shoulders as video game ghosts chased Ms. Pac-Man, "I want to eat the cherries! Extra points."

"But you're gonna get cornered!" she was practically bouncing, "Left!" Ms. Pac-Man ate the cherries, but not soon after the ghosts ate her. Peter pouted when Jubilee said, "See what did I say?"

"Bah!" he childishly smashed his fist on the buttons. They stopped at a video rental store when Peter got distracted. Jubilee pulled Peter away so they could get back on track to finding a movie, "Should we watch a horror movie or a sci-fi movie tonight?" she asked reading the back cover to 'The Thing'

"I'm not sure anyone would be in the mood for something scary with this whole 'nightmare can kill us thing'," he picked up a video called 'Buster and Billie' to examine it, "I mean getting killed in our dreams. How crazy is that?"

"Pretty insane...but it's not the weirdest thing ever. You run fast and I shoot fireworks out of my hands," Jubilee set down the tape when her eyes fixated on a particular video cover in the distance. She made a bee line over to it as Peter followed, "What caught your attention?"

"Lucid Dreaming with Oliver Bird," she read out loud picking it up, "You be in control of your dreams. Hey, now that's helpful." Peter took the tape from her, "Jeez how old is this though? The guy on the cover looks like he's from the 60's, ya know back when everyone was into mind trippy drugs."

Jubilee took it back still finding some hope, "You don't know that. This guy can be the real deal. It wouldn't hurt to watch a video that can help us be in control of our dreams instead of that one jerk. Self-defense."

Peter rolled his eyes, "You're not gonna waste the Professor's money on some crock pot when I can teach you self-defense."

Jubilee rose an eyebrow, "You? Teach me?"

"Yeah. I punched Apocalypse in the face a couple times. I think that qualifies for something," he smirked at her. Jubilee slightly bit her bottom lip then nodded, "Okay, Mr. Maximoff, I'll be your student."

"Sweet."

"But first," Jubilee held up the lucid dreaming tape up because she really wanted to check it out. Peter sighed, "Fine...but we're renting this too," he grabbed a copy of Rodan.

Hank placed Kurt on the slab carefully to open his eyelids while flashing a light in his eyes, "Rapid eye movement!"

"He's dreaming!" Charles panicked while Hank was doing everything he could to naturally wake up including light smacks to the cheeks, "Come on, wake up!"

Kurt's head was in utter pain from the lobotomy shock. He looked around to see that he was in a forest with tall trees scraping the night sky. In the distance he could see something running. A white cloak?

"Go after her, Nightcrawler. We know you always do."

Kurt starting to run on all fours to hurry over, "You! Come back! Help me!"

"This isn't the first time you've chased her, right? You always are chasing this woman in the forest."

"Please!" Kurt turned his head when he saw something burning in the corner of his eye. Torches, they were shining light on the angry faces of the mob that chased after the white cloak. Crying came from the cloak, high pitched crying like a baby. Kurt's eyes widened as he started to sprint over to help her.

"They're gaining on her. She won't get far with that noisy bag of flesh and poop."

"Shut up!" Kurt saw the woman make a hard right passing right in front of her, "Vait!" his hand reached out almost touching the cloak. After more running she finally stopped looking over a cliff with a waterfall. Kurt stayed directly behind her holding out his hands, "Ma'am please, I beg of you. Let me help you."

She took a step closer to the cliff.

"Please! Just come towards me!" the baby started to cry again.

"Here comes my favorite part."

The cloaked woman extended her arms out to throw the baby over, "Nigh!" Kurt shut his eyes to teleport except this time he just stayed where he was, "NIGH!"

As the baby fell he could see it had blue skin and a pointed tail. Before even reaching the bottom a cloud of dark blue smoke engulfed the baby. Kurt could no longer see where the baby went, only that this was not a nightmare.

"It still haunts you, this dream," a demented voice spoke from the cloaked woman. Kurt angrily grabbed her, "Vho are you!?" when he pulled down her hood, the Monstrous Amahl was there growling, "Surprise!"

He struck his claws at Kurt, giving him a long scratch along his torso. Nightcrawler yelled out pushing away.

Hank was trying to hold down Kurt stopping the shaking when suddenly, a long scratch appeared on his torso. His, Jean's and Charles' eyes all locked fearing for Kurt. Jean touched Kurt's temples, "I'm going in there."

"Jean wait! You haven't fully been trained to defeat Amahl."

"Professor, I have to bring Kurt out now!"

Nightcrawler was tossed against a tree, falling to the ground, "Give it up, Vagner. You can't teleport yourself away from me. I think infant you has a better chance at defeating me than you do."

"You forgot about me so quickly?" Jean floated up from the water fall, "Let me remind you not to mess with my friends," she shot out a fire bolt from her hands right at the monster. The towering purple man falls back to the ground as Jean lands on her feet. She starts to push Amahl towards the edge of the cliff.

"Get out of here! I never want to see your face again!"

With one last blast to the chest the monster toppled over the end letting out a roar.

Jean ran over to see him falling before turning back to help Kurt up, "You're not too hurt, are you?"

"Only all over, but I am zankful zat you came vhen you did. I am beink look after by God's best angel," Kurt hugged Jean feeling so safe with her now. She smiled at her friend accepting the hug, "Let's go home then."

As they shut their eyes, Jean pulled them from the nightmare by the cliff. Opening their eyes Kurt was still strapped to the slab with Jean standing by.

"When did you get strapped down?" Jean asked going to unbuckle one. Kurt tried to remember when, only to have a pale expression upon realizing they are still asleep, "Zis is still a dream!"

Jean became confused when undoing another strap, "Wha-?" Hank hissed out as he popped up from behind the slab, "How wonderful that you remember!" his voice was demonic sounding when grabbing Jean by the collar of her shirt, "A dream within a dream? How Uncanny! Came up with it this morning!" She was then tossed across the room. "Jean!" Kurt cried out.

"You think just because you have neat mind powers that you can beat me? Ha!" Hank's eyes glowed that scary yellow color that only Amahl shines, "I'm the Shadow King and you are but infants," his monstrous form was revealed when walking over to the half free Nightcrawler.

Kurt squirmed and was jerking his body forward to loosen the straps, eyes fixated on his fallen friend, "Jean come on! Get up!" The Shadow King gripped the ends of the slab pulling it closer to him to hover over, "That's a nasty scratch there," a talon pressed into Kurt's wound.

Jean came out of her haze to Kurt's yells. "No..." Her fists clenched up as a light came from them. The light began to radiate from Jean's eyes to all over her body. The Shadow King still had his talon dug into Kurt's flesh before ripping it away, "Yessss..." he smirked.

Jean stood up feeling the power surge through her essence as the golden wings shaped, "This little birdie seems angry." Just as she was building up the energy to obliterate the Shadow King, he waved his hand. A purple, intangible wall slide up from the floor to block him. All that energy Jean used impacted that wall, yet backfired like a bouncing ball, knocking her unconscious.

The wall then unfolded to make a box just so it could cage the telekinetic in, "And your bird can sing her little song to me forever," he turned to Kurt, "Tell your master that he can keep Ororo." With a snap of his fingers Kurt woke up.

He was on the slab with Hank over him, "You woke up!" Kurt flinched causing him to unexpectedly teleport on a desk, knocking over a few things. He then saw an unconscious Jean with her head being cradled by Charles who was on the floor out of his chair, "What happened..."

Peter halted in his steps when he and Jubilee made it back to the mansion, "Okay, but I'm just saying Leia would have handled being on Tatooine better than Luke did. He got beat up by one Sand person," Jubilee quipped holding onto the bag of stuff she acquired throughout the day. Peter smirked, "He would make a better Prince too. He's got the fluffy hair for it."

After giggling into the house, the younger mutant fished around in the bag for the documentary she rented, "And now it's time to learn."

"I agree," he zipped over to her side to take the bag from her then showing off the Queen cassette, "Forget the snooze fest. Let's go listen to this!"

As much as she did want to listen to Queen, "Peter look, I really want to chill, but we shouldn't risk falling asleep. We have to keep moving." The speedster perched his lips into a pout as Jubilee then said, "Hey, you did wanna teach me how to defend myself, right? Let's do that."

Peter thought it over before snapping his fingers, "Okay. But how about this?" he started to suggest.

Down in the Danger Room, Quicksilver placed a boom box by the microphone letting the music play during the session. He wore his X-Men uniform while Jubilee put on the only uniform that she's ever trained in, her cheer outfit. It was long-sleeved, for the most part white with yellow trims around the ends of the sleeves, neck hole, skirt and the letter 'X' on her chest. She wore yellow knee high socks and white tennis shoes with her hair in a high ponytail. The cheerleader stretched out her arms followed by a high kick with each leg, preparing herself. Peter shook his head when pressing play, "This should be good."

Another One Bites the Dust

Peter zipped in front of her holding his hands out, "Punch them," she jabbed out a fist to hit his palm, "Harder," he said. Jubilee repeated this action as he instructed her, "Get some hook action in there. Don't keep jabbing. Mix it up, Jubes."

She hit Peter's hands with combinations going to a rhythm, "That's it. It's like dancing, but more violent. Jab jab swing. Jab jab swing." They repeated this until she got use to this move.

"Okay. Now let's get into kicking. Put all that cheerleader practice to use," his hands dropped slightly lower. He wasn't surprised when kicking was a strong suite for her. Jubilee stopped after a while, "Come on, Petey. Show me something cool."

With a head tilt, "I can do that," Peter dashed behind her to wrap his arms around her so she couldn't move her arms, "Let's get dirty then. If someone grabs you like this how are you getting out?"

Jubilee unexpectedly stomped her foot on Peter's, "Ow! Shit! I like where your mind is at. Let's make it a combination though so you will for sure get out. Throw your head back to butt the dude in the mouth."

Cautiously, "Won't that hurt me too?"

"Yeah but they're hurting more so you can get away," He turned her around, "Do you know what to do if someone tries to choke you?" his arms were out so she could demonstrate. Jubilee grabbed his wrists hoping that would stop him. Peter leaned in to touch her neck, "No. You do this. Arms out."

He showed her the proper defense by having her arms go under his to push them apart by his upper arm, "Ahh!" Jubilee expressed, "That's cool."

"See. And if all else fails and your enemy's neck is exposed, Karate chop. Saw that in a kung fu movie once."

She giggled, "Thank you for the helpful tip."

"And don't be afraid to bite. Shit does hurt."

"Right!"

The Danger Room doors opened up to show Scott and Ororo enter, "What the hell is going on in here? And Jubes, why are you in your cheerleader outfit?" Cyclops asked.

Jubilee stood up tall, or as tall as a five foot and two-inch girl could, "I'm training Dweeb-clops and this is my best outfit to practice in."

"It's ridiculous," he looked to Quicksilver, "What are you even showing her?"

"I was showing her some karate moves and lots of kicking," Ororo crossed her arms, "She shoots fireworks out of her hands. Jubilee won't have to kick."

"What about if I come to a scenario where I don't have my powers? Then what? Sit down and give up?" Jubilee snarked as Peter pointed to her, "Very true!"

"Why would you?" Scott got frustrated causing Jubilee to snap, "Because I'm dreaming!"

Everyone gave her mixed looks. Peter already knew this, he supported the decision of her wanting to know how to fight. Ororo felt guilty since the only reason she needed to learn how to fight was because of what Ororo brought into the house. Scott was over this dream non-sense. He stepped closer, "Look, if you wanna know how to fight. Okay, I'll help you, but we do this my way. Deal? And can you get into an actual training outfit?" Jubilee gave him a soft nod, "Good. Now did you even learn how to block some attacks?"

With a shake of her head Scott smirked, "Alright, let's get to work then."

Charles had his hands on the sides of Jean's head trying to read her brainwaves, "She's still alive, conscious as if nothing is wrong with her."

"Then what's the problem?" Hank was tending to Kurt's wounds from earlier while skimming the pages of a book on herbs.

"She's quiet. I can't get a single thought out of her. As if she's trapped in her body."

Kurt hissed out, "Zis is my fault. I should have tried more to stay avake. I failed her!"

"There was nothing you could have done. All of this is too much of a burden for any of you," he stared at Jean's closed eyes, mentally calling out, "Jean... defend yourself. Jean..."

"Professor, I think I might have figured something out on our control issue," he turned the book around revealing the picture of a plant. It had a cluster of small white flowers, "Researcher's called this the Dream Herb. It increases reaction time as well as encourage vivid, lucid dreams."

"Where can we find some?"

"In Ororo's room."

Deep within her mind Jean was curled up in a ball, eyes forcing themselves shut, doing her best to listen to the Professor's words while in the cage Amahl put her in.

"Come on, Jean...you can't sleep in your dreams or pretend to that is," the monster said from in front of the bars, "Sooner or later the darkness inside of you that you fear so much will break free. It's only a matter of time Jean."

Jubilee, now in a basic all black training outfit, blocked Scott's punch with her forearm, "Better. Again," he threw a swing with his other arm. She blocked it, "Good. I think you're actually getting the hang of this."

"I still like the way I taught her," Peter interjected, "Of course," Storm dragged before walking out the doors.

"Oh, you mean how to fight dirty? Great lesson," Scott snarked. Jubilee put her arms down, "What if my opponent doesn't fight fair? Then can I fight dirty?"

"Yes," Peter answered quickly, "I didn't teach you to be no fool."

Scott rolled his eyes at the speedster, "Hey where's Storm?" Jubilee asked searching the area.

"Upstairs," he pointed above them, "How about we do a simulation just to really see what you're made of Jubilee?"

Up in the control room, Storm already set the protocol to send out a Sentinel, "Gulp!" Jubilee looked up at the eighteen-foot shadow of a robot that was stepping out of its compartment. Scott stayed back to lean up against wall, "Try and take it down," Jubilee held her fists up in the air in a fighting stance while Peter went to go follow suit, "Alone... Jubilee has to fight the Sentinel alone, Peter," he pulled the speedster by his jacket outside of the Danger Room. The doors shut.

"Are you insane?" he glared to Scott, "No, but-" Peter zipped to where Storm was so he could see Jubilee. He observed, worrying about the girl that dashed away to a safe distance to come up with plan to take it down.

Scott showed up after a moment, "Do you remember our first day of actual training, Peter?"

"Yeah, we were a bunch of bad asses that had experience in fighting."

"Barely, we fought a bunch of these things together," Jubilee's hands started to glow with light as the Sentinel stepped towards her, "We didn't really know what to do, but we figured it out for ourselves. She will do the same." The girl stuck her hands out to shoot out a loud, explosive blast knocking back the robot.

Peter seemed relieved that she was able to defend herself right off the bat. Jubilee kept shooting small bursts getting closer with each one. The Sentinel then stomped once she was a short distance away, startling her to stop. With that it stood up straight to stick his hand out to fire off its gun. The girl back flipped away to get a start then started to sprint to safety.

The speedster was becoming nervous again when she was running a circle around the robot making herself open, but Scott placed his hand on his shoulder to keep the man in place, "Dude she's got this."

"She doesn't!"

"Give her a chance."

It ran out of bullets, making it Jubilee's opportunity to dart between the giant legs, "It's gonna stomp her!" if he was sitting, Peter would be at the edge of his seat. Jubilee started to shoot the back of the head at full blast causing the robot to fall forward on its knee. She took this as the right moment to start climbing the Sentinel.

"Holy shit! Go Jubilee! You can do it!" Peter cheered for her. Scott and Ororo smirked to one another. Jubilee was hanging from the Sentinel when it stood up trying to shake her off. She stuck a hand in between two plastic coverings to grab some wires, "You're toast!" her powers started to cause an explosion from within the machine. It stopped in place, but Jubilee's weight made it off balance causing the robot to fall forward. She jumped off to land safely on the ground, "Yeah! I did it!"

"She did it!" Peter punched Scott's shoulder before zipping down to congratulate the girl.

Scott glanced at Ororo, "Did you set the difficulty on very easy?"

"Of course not! I have more faith in Jubilee than that," she paused, "It was on easy. That's a whole notch up." Scott laughed then sat in a chair by the console letting out a yawn. Ororo said, "I feel the same."

"Gotta hang in there," he shook himself to stay awake, "So you do believe me now?" Ororo rose a brow.

"No way, but I remember this one time when I was a kid I thought a monster lived in my closet and my parents didn't believe me. They told me to grow up and go to bed, but it never helped. The only person that did listen to me was my brother Alex. He would stop by to visit us, but there was always tension between him and my folks. So, I guess to spite them, he believed me," Scott looked down into the Danger Room to see Jubilee jump on Peter, feeling proud of herself, "But he would hang out in my room with me until I fell asleep, so the monster wouldn't get me. He threatened to kick it's ass," Scott half laughed at the memory.

Ororo smiled, "So because your brother stayed up for you, you'll stay up for me?"

"Something like that," Scott slumped in his seat, even mentioning Alex was too painful for him, "Can I ask you something that's been troubling me?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Where did you go during Alex's funeral? We were all there that day, waiting for you to say a few things, a good-bye, but... you never came out."

Scott sighed out, "I-I left. I needed to go get some air," Ororo raised an eyebrow wanting more of that story. After a moment Scott put this head down, "I couldn't go... it was just too hard having to stand up in front of everyone trying to act like I have it together when on the inside I'm just...not," his focus was then on the silver haired speedster downstairs, "A part of me wants to resent- hate Peter for not saving my brother in time, but how could I? He did more than he had to during the explosion... and Alex wouldn't want me to hold that grudge. It was out of everyone's control, I know this now, but during the funeral?" he shook his head.

"It's okay to be lost like that, Scott. You weren't ready to accept his loss, not with all the chaos that was going around. It is good to hear that you learned pointing the finger does nothing," Ororo paused for a moment, "From what I've heard about your brother, he sounds like he was very much loved by all that knew him."

Scott's lips pulled up to a gently smirk, "Did Jean, Hank, Raven and the Professor tell you?"

"Yes, but Jubilee had more words to say about him."

Scott's face became puzzled, "She did?" he peeked down to see the girl listening to whatever Peter was talking about. When Jubilee caught him looking, she gave a thumbs up with a raised eyebrow as if asking if she did well.

Scott gave a thumbs up in return.

'Storm...' Ororo heard a voice in her head, 'Storm I need you to come to the infirmary with your Calea Zachatechi plant.'

It was the Professor, 'Do not make it so the others will worry.' The wind rider tried to keep a calm face, "Excuse me for a moment," she stepped out of the control room to do as she was told.

The doors slide shut after Ororo arrived holding the potted plant, "What happened?" her eyes shifted from an injured teleporter, "Kurt," to an unconscious psychic, "Jean..." to Charles, "Professor was this Amhal?"

"He's getting into all of our heads and has now trapped Jean."

"Let me go into her mind, Professor!"

"No! That is a terribly dangerous idea. I will go in there, but I need to drink that plant."

"What?"

"That herb, if I drink it, I will have better control over my dream state, giving me the advantage to go against Amhal."

Ororo frowned at the plant. She did like this one, but it was needed, "I'll make you the tea," she went to go prepare it.

"No..." The monster growled from within Jean's head, "They think a little tea will solve everything? Your friends are fools to think they can take on me in my own realm," The red head still remained curled up in a ball not responding to Amhal. This angered him, "Raaaar!" he grabbed a hold of her cage and threw it.

Jean's body flew off the slab to fall on the floor scaring everyone in the infirmary, "Jean!" Charles called out as Hank ran over to go grab her. What they were not aware of was Amhal tossing the cage some more sending the girl's unconscious body all over the room.

"Professor make it stop!" Ororo cried out trying to hold Jean down with Hank while Kurt put his hands together, praying.

"I can't! Whatever he is doing is coming from the inside. It's like nothing I've seen before," just then, Jean's body was ripped away with a final throw towards where Storm was making the tea causing a loud crash. Broken ceramic from the cups and glass from test tubes scratched Jean's skin.

"Jean!" Ororo ran over to aid her in strapping the telepath down.

Another Sentinel fell down, smoke radiating off its chest, showing a victorious Jubilee standing there with Quicksilver, "Yes! You're killing it!" he clapped so proud of her. Scott was sitting in a chair from the control room holding a cup of coffee, "Alright, are you two done with training yet?"

"No!" Jubilee shouted, "I have catching up to do for my eX-am," she giggled at her joke. Scott leaned into the mic, "I'm rolling my eyes, just so you know."

"Give me a challenge already!" the girl felt ready for it. Scott smirked, "You asked for it," he turned the dial up one notch to medium, "Go crazy," his finger pressed play on the stereo so some Prince could play while they fought.

Let's Go Crazy

Scott set his cup down on the control dash. He watched over Jubilee and Quicksilver. How they could be so energetic was beyond him. Scott leaned on his elbows, resting his head on his hands, feeling drowsy.

Scott was standing over a ledge that viewed the X-Mansion in rubble and ashes much like how it was the day it blew up. His lip quivered from reliving this moment, the moment he knew his brother, Alex, was dead. "Stop it..." he murmured.

A giant red blast shot out the from the very bottom exploding through the surface. Scott fell back staring up at a shadow rising from the smoky hole. When the light hit his face, Scott saw that this was his brother but not like how he remembered. Alex's hair was completely burnt off, his skin was covered in red burn marks, "Hey, little brother."

While Scott was asleep, his body fell forward on the dash board that controlled difficulty, he laid on some buttons and knobs changing the settings to eXperienced while knocking over his coffee, shorting out the circuit to turn it off. More Sentinels came out of the walls surrounding Quicksilver and Jubilee.

"Um...okay! This is a bit overkill, but I can do this!" Jubilee exclaimed, trying to be optimistic. Peter stared up at all of them, "Yeah, I'm stepping in. You suck, Scott!" They began to fight them off.

"Remember me?" Alex started, "I wasn't sure if you did. You skipped my funeral. What was that about?"

Scott's mouth hung open from utter shock that he was talking to his brother, "I mean. I only changed your diapers as a baby. Fed you. Took you around town to go watch movies, showed you how to play baseball, taught you how to ride a bike. The least you could do is show up to bury me, but even you couldn't do that."

"Alex, please it's not like that."

"Then how is it? Because to me you look like an ungrateful spoiled brat that got everything while I got shit."

This wasn't his brother. This wasn't, Scott knows that, but it was so hard when he was yelling at him, "Mom and Dad threw me out when I got my powers. They thought I was a freak of nature that was going to burn down their middle class, suburban house in good ol' Columbus, Ohio." Alex shoved Scott to the rubble with a burning touch, "For the record, I got it. I wouldn't have taken it so personal if they didn't replace me for you. Scott 'the normal one'. Ha! Looks like they hate you just as much now. You're such a disappointment." He reached down to grab Scott by his throat to pick him up. Scott pushed his arms forward to get away from Alex, but when his hands roughly met Alex's burnt flesh, it would peel back like cheese on a pizza. The horrid sight was too much for Scott.

Quicksilver and Jubilee were becoming overwhelmed by the number of Sentinels being dispensed out to take on the duo. Jubilee took one down, watching to fall to its knees in defeat. Peter cracked his knuckles right before speeding around the room to use his momentum to crush the bots to a million pieces. The girl ducked down as parts flew above her head. When she stood back up Jubilee saw Peter standing in the middle taking heavy breaths from all the work he just did, "Hate this no rest crap... it's wearing me out."

Guns popped out of the walls and ceiling aiming themselves at the two, "Uhhh!" Jubilee looked up as one prepared to fire. Peter speed over to grab the girl in time as the gun went off to shoot a trail of laser blasts.

Jean was safely strapped to the slab, "There, she shouldn't be flying around the room anymore," Hank said fastening the strap. "It's time to bring the others into this. Ororo, where are Scott and Peter?"

"They are in the Danger Room training Jubilee."

"What?" Professor almost shouted.

Scott was still in his dream being beaten down by the nightmare version of his brother, "Do you think Ororo is still crazy?" Alex punches him. Scott grunted when his burning fist connected to his face. "You've always been so judgmental! Until you cower in a ball. You're not fit to lead the X-Men!"

Scott tried getting up, "You think I'm scared? That you can shake me with fear?" he glazed at the disfigured Alex, "The worst fear I could ever had came true. You have nothing on me Loser, because I'm alive and you're dead." Scott touched the side of his visor to shoot the optic blast at him, only nothing came out.

The burnt man stood there glaring back as the rest of his skin melted away, "There's still so much more for you to lose, young Summers," Amahl taking his monstrous form now stood in front of him, "Like your friends. They'll all soon be dead with Alex." He snapped his fingers.

Scott shot his body up, finally awake. He instantly noticed all the cold coffee on his uniform, but what was worse it had covered the control panel completely. He looked through the window to see Quicksilver and Jubilee still fighting in the Danger Room. Large saws were popping out of the walls and floor, swinging at the two. Orbs of energy were shooting out of canons. It was turning into a war zone.

"No!" he started to press every button to try and turn it off or delay the attacks but not one worked. Scott became frantic as time was drawing shorter for him to do anything to save them.

"FUCK THIS!" Scott took off his visor to blast the entire controls, shutting down the Danger Room completely. Looking up from the battle floor, all you see is a flood of red energy become the temporary ceiling. Peter and Jubilee breathed heavily, trying to calm down from the experience, "Do you think I made the team after that?" Jubilee asked trying not to pant.

"Oh yeah, I'd pass you," he gave her an exhausted thumbs up.

The doors to the control room opened to show Hank horrified at the sight, "What have you done to my Danger Room?" It was like every time he perfected the system it somehow got destroyed causing him to rebuild again.

"Mr. McCoy! I'm s- I can explain!" Scott stammered.

The doors to the Danger Room itself opened to show Professor Xavier roll in, "What happened?" his voice concerned, but he was angered.

Silence filled both rooms since the window didn't exist anymore between the two. Peter started, "I was-"

"It's my fault," Jubilee cut him off.

"What?" Charles felt like he was struck, "I wanted Peter and Scott to train me and I forced them to," she explained. Peter gave her what seemed like a disgusted look, "You didn't force me," he nodded to Charles, "I offered. There's a difference."

"You are really not giving me a reason why I shouldn't ban you off the team, Mr. Maximoff," he then put his attention on Jubilee, his student and joy, "You know you have no authorization to be in here. You are not trained properly to handle the Danger Room, Jubilation."

"That's why I made two people that are supervise me."

"Great job!" Professor's arms extended out to show the damaged surroundings, "I expected more from you," as soon as he said that Charles reminisced on when he said that to Raven long ago.

"I told you I didn't want to feel defenseless!" Jubilee countered, "I'm tired of being put to the sidelines waiting for something or someone to 'get me'! I have the power to defend myself and you know what? I will!"

"So, throwing yourself into danger and being reckless will be your weapons? Jubilee as your guardian, I cannot allow that to happen."

"Okay, first off! Scott was supposed to oversee the controls, but I don't know what happened there!"

"Yeah, way to go Scott!" Peter yelled from the floor. Scott became angry at himself for falling asleep. Charles looked up there as Beast started to go through the wreckage upstairs, "Scott, why didn't you stop this?"

"Because I thought Jubilee was a great candidate to join," he said observing her, "I'm sorry... but I was right. She's a fast learner and was able to hold her own before I fell asleep."

"Scott, I know this is hard and everyone is tired, but training was not a good call. Not today."

"My God, this thing was on eXPERIENCED!" Hank yelled out. Charles was drowning now, "You could have died!"

"But I didn't!" she interjected.

"Jubilation Lee, you are banned from the subbasement, your rank of head cheerleader is revoked, you are in-house suspended for the next three months, and over all... you are grounded."

"What!" Jubilee's heart shattered. She was being punished for wanting the simple need of self-defense, "Professor, wait- I can-"

"You need to know the consequences of your recklessness. We don't need another student hurt."

Scott rose an eyebrow at that, "What do you mean another student." Charles looked up at him.

Charles, Hank, Ororo and Kurt caught the others up to speed on the situation with Jean. Kurt, now done having his wounds treated was off to the side with Jubilee, "I cannot believe zee Danger Room is ruined. Now vhere vill ve train?"

"I'm sure Hank has upgrades ready to go," Jubilee said somberly. What she did was the least of her worries, she softly gazed at the strapped down Jean on the slab with Scott by her side. Regret swelled her stomach over how she was treating Jean the past couple days. This isn't how things should end with them.

"When I was dreaming I couldn't attack Amahl with my powers," Scott said to the team, "I could not use mein either," Kurt added. Hank rubbed his chin, "Seems like only psychics have the capability to do anything."

"Not unless we ingest the Dream Herb," Professor came in, "We'll be in much better control than we usually are when he comes around. We have much to prepare for," Charles began to move to the other side of the room as Jubilee got up, "Professor-"

He turned his head to her, "Professor, get her back. We need Jean," his somber mood was felt by the girl, "I will do all that I can. Just...please...don't fall asleep and be safe," he nodded to the door, so she could exit. As soon as she was out Jubilee hurried over to the living room where some of the students were watching Rodan. She went to search over by the case to find the tape, 'Lucid Dreaming with Oliver Bird', once finding it she took the tape to go to Hank's former recording room. The young mutant put the tape in and the screen flickered, showing trippy 60's graphics with bold white words showing her the title card. A man sitting down in a white leather coat, white pants and an ascot, "Totally 60's," Jubilee expressed as he introduced himself.

"Today, we learn about Lucid Dreaming. It is the ability to be aware of your dreams and control them. This let's you sleep better, experience the impossible, and practice real life skills."

Scott wrapped his hand around Jean's giving it a squeeze, knowing he won't get her to acknowledge it, "I don't know what you're doing in there, but I can't help imagine you're surrounded by darkness. Wondering how the hell you're going to get out of there," he unstrapped her hand, so he could bring it closer to his face, kissing the back of it, "I'm coming to get you. Somehow, it's happening. I'm not afraid," he kissed her lips.

Jean cured up in a ball on the floor of her cage could feel echoes of his soft touches. She longed to be back, awake with Scott. Amahl not too far outside her prison, "Your little boyfriend will be here to die soon enough."

"You'll never win, you monster," it was the first words she said to him, "Ohh? Just because you're a team you can do it? It's because of that they will fail."

"We'll see," Jean said with a bit of bite in her tone, "When will I see more of that?" Amahl asked.

"More of what?"

"That fire inside you, that burns. If you let me, I can show you how to embrace that power, use it to make anything a reality for you. There's a universe inside of you Jean, a goddess waiting to break out. But you keep caging her."

"You don't want to see that side of me...it's just bad news for you," Jean gave him a scornful glare.

"What a waste of beautiful perfection."

"This concludes this session of Lucid Dreaming," the tape played it's exit theme with the credits rolling through. Jubilee rubbed her eyes feeling drained from the day, but she knew she had to hang in there. Just as she stood up to put the tape back in its case a cloud of blue smoke appeared along with Kurt, "Zere you are, Liebchen!"

"Kurt!" Jubilee's heart jumped up, "What are you doing here?"

"I vanted to make sure you vere still avake. I have come up vith an idea zat ve all take shifts-" he then noticed the cover, "Lucid Dreamink?"

"I-uhh"

"Jubilee, vere you planink to do somethink zangerous?"

She held out a hand to reassure him, "It's not as farfetched as it sounds-"

"Jubilee!"

"Okay, can everyone just let me finish what I have to say so I can explain my 'crazy kooky' plan?" Kurt gestured his three blue fingers in a motion that read for her to go ahead, "Professor thinks that dream herb will help him? Fine, but I want to help too. Lucid dreaming is a real thing and has been proven to be true. If I just fall asleep I can help save Jean while being in control and if worse comes to worse, you can just shake me awake if I look like I'm struggling."

"No, zis is too much of a risk," the blue elf lifted up the side of his shirt showing his bandaged wounds from Amahl, "You see zis? If he hurts you in your dreams, he hurts you out here!"

Jubilee placed her hands on the sides of his arms, "You're just going to have to trust me with this! I can do it!" she stared her brown eyes into his reddish-yellow ones, "Have a little faith in me." Kurt sighed out in defeat, "Fine, but if it gets too zangerous, I'm callink za Professor in zere."

"Deal, let's go do this in my room."

Kurt locked the door as the words of Oliver Bird replayed in her ears. "Step 1: Focus on what you want to do. We want to Lucid Dream." Jubilee took in a breath setting her mind up for the act. "Step 2: Do lots of reality checks. Try pinching yourself or pushing your finger through your palms to make sure you're dreaming." Jubilee placed her pink fingernail to the center of her palm, she wasn't transparent.

"Step 3: Make sure it's completely dark." Kurt and Jubilee drew her curtains and turned off her lights making it the perfect setting for this meditation. "This next one is going to be the hardest thing to perform. Step 4: Wake up with Your Eyes Closed."

Jubilee laid down on her bed with her yellow jacket over the trainee outfit, while staring at the ceiling. The blue mutant went over to kneel by her bedside with his palms pressed together, praying, "Now I lay me zown to sleep, I pray zee Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I vake, I pray zee Lord my soul to take."

Her eyes became heavy as Kurt prayed for her, she would finally get some sleep even if what awaited in Jubilee's dream would potentially kill her. She fell asleep fast, her soft breaths falling to a steady rhythm.

Jubilee's eyes opened to be in the foyer of the mansion, everything was dark with only pools of blue light bleeding through the windows. She went down the eerie version of the hallway passing by demented pictures of Xavier's ancestors. Jubilee could hear children in one of the classes laughing as they ran around another child that was tied up, "Creepy." she muttered ignoring the sight. Farouk was just trying to startle her at this point. There wasn't time for this, Jubilee kept walking down the hallway until she got to the stairs, "Jubilee…" the young mutant heard a whisper, "Jean?" she began to climb the stairs in a hurry. While running up it felt like the stairs became longer, steeper with each step. Jubilee let out a struggled grunt trying to climb, it was becoming cruel to reach the top.

Just when she was out of breath, Jubilee made it, falling to her hands and knees to take in the air, "Stairmaster…can kiss…my…ass…" once she regained her cardio, Jubilee could hear her name being called again. Standing up Jubilee said, "I'm coming, Jean… I'm getting you out of here," she started to go down the hall to find the room they shared.

While running down the hallway, the walls began to tilt to the side causing Jubilee to stumble to the right, knocking off a picture. The hallway continued to rotate, the young girl falling, losing her balance each time she tried to get up. Jubilee grunted out each time she slid down the wall, finally she would crawl, grabbing door frames to pull herself closer to Jean, "This is not real…it's only a dream!"

When she got to their door, the hallway aligned itself back to normal making the girl fall to the floor. She turned the door knob entering the room. There Jubilee could see Jean curled up in a ball in her cage, "Jean…"

The psychic's head slowly peeked out, recognizing that voice, "You're a trick…"

Jubilee went up to the cage, "No, I'm not I swear." Jean tucked her head back in, "Just leave me alone!"

Jubilee grabbed the bars looking in, "It's really me! I'm not going to hurt you." Jean didn't move. The younger girl let out a deep breath, "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry about how I acted. I was stupid and jealous. I was just so scared of losing my best friend and being forgotten." Jean listened as she continued.

"Growing up you were the quiet girl, you didn't talk to a lot of the students and me…I was. Well, how many times did I have to hear 'Jubilee, be quiet'?" Jean made a small smile to that, "I was your first friend when you got here. You needed me just as much as I needed you. I still do."

The cage door unlocked as Jean uncurled to see that it really was Jubilee here with her, "Jubilee…you have to get out of here, it's not safe." Jubilee opened the cage door to get in, "I'm not leaving without you. It's not safe for you either!" They embraced one another in a sisterly hug. When they released Jubilee asked, "We need to get out of here. Any ideas?"

Just as Jean was about to reply, "There is no escape!" They both turned to look at the Shadow King in his full form. He unfolded the cage walls so they could be in open while chains formed around their legs, imprisoning them, "It was very stupid of you to come for Jean, little one. Adorable and brave, but dumb non the less."

"Let Jubilee go, and I'll give you what you want!" Jean said. Jubilee shook her head, "No, let Jean go and I'll be your prisoner."

Shadow King moved his finger to each one saying, "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo. I wonder which of Xavier's girls I'll let go. Oh, that's right, the useless one. Jubilee, wake-."

Jubilee clutched onto Jean, "No! No! Jean's stubborn and will never let up. She will always fight you. I won't."

"Jubilee stop it-!"

"Silence!" He waved his hand as a purple door way formed just three feet in front of them, the hinges creaked while it opened showing a white light, "Go back to the real-world Jubilee, go back knowing your rescue was not only a failure, but that it was pathetic. I'm pleased with Jean as my prisoner," he made an evil smile as Jubilee's chains unbounded her.

Jean placed her hand on Jubilee, "Just go, I'll survive."

The younger mutant looked at the door then at her hands. She went to poke her finger to the palm of her hand, only it went right though it. This was her dream…she has control.

"Well, girl? Get out of here!" Shadow King demanded. Jubilee turned her head to Jean, "Fly away," her hands started to glow a bright light. She shot one blast at the Shadow King, earning a loud hiss as he stumbled back. The other blast went right to the chains at Jean's feet freeing her. Jubilee then grabbed Jean by the arm and pushed her through the door way sending her back.

"NO!" Amahl growled raising his hand out to shut the door before Jubilee could make her escape. He towered over her, "Lucid dreaming…for an amateur?" he snarled. Jubilee backed up with her fists lit up, "What can I say? I'm a fast learner," she snarked at him. With a tilt of her head, "Looks like you're stuck with me."

"You'll learn to regret it," he took an aggressive step towards the young mutant.

Jean gasped awake, her eyes so big they almost popped out. Professor, Scott, Storm, and Hank were around her, "Jean!" Scott started to unstrap her, "Oh thank God you're awake!"

"Jubilee!" she cried out raising alarm to everyone, the Professor started, "She's in the mansion—"

"No! She's stuck there! Jubilee is with the Shadow King!" Jean panicked making Charles fear the worst, "She fell asleep!"

'Professor!' Kurt called out mentally to him.

Kurt was shaking Jubilee's body, "Vake up! Vake up! You can't do zis! Jubilee!" her body was lifeless, not answering back. The once energized girl, full of life was in a coma state. The image was haunting Kurt, "Help!"

Peter zipped into the room, "What the hell happened!" he moved Kurt out of the way and picked up Jubilee bridal style, "Jubes! Come on, wake up!" he shook her trying to get her up. He picked up a glass of water that was on a nearby table and splashed it on her, but she was not responsive, "No!" he pressed his head to her chest, still hearing her heart beating, "She's still alive."

The Professor rolled in, "Jubilee!" he saw his daughter being held by the speedster. Kurt had his hands on his head, watery eyed, "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have let her do it! She begged me to!" Professor tried to search her mind, but it was like Jean's, quiet, "I don't hear anything."

The rest of the X-Men came into her room to see the sight. Jean covered her mouth and turned to lean into Scott, "What do we do?" he asked, "Professor?"

Two Days Later

A bus pulled to the stop on Greymilken Lane. Only one person got off carrying her circular red suit case. She set it down next to herself while reading the back of a postcard from this zip code. The woman wore red sling back sandals, the skirt of her red boho style dress went to her knees; it was long-sleeved. She wore a long-beaded necklace that had a black gem hanging from it. On top of her deep brown hair was a thick-brimmed black hat.

The woman picked up her suitcase, walking down the street to Xavier's School Gifted Youngsters. When she arrived on the steps, the woman knocked on the door. It took several minutes, but the door was eventually opened by a very exhausted Kurt, "Ja? Can I help you?"

The woman smiled at the blue boy, "Hi, I'm looking for Peter Maximoff. Is he in?"

"Ja, but now is not zee best time."

The woman decided to say, "Ich bin hier um zu helfen. Was ist falsch?"

Kurt, surprised that she spoke German and that she was here to help, opened the door, "Unser Freund ist in Gefahr. Diesen Weg" *Our friend is in danger. This way."

Kurt lead the woman to the elevator, while walking in the halls the woman in red noticed a few students crowding around a table writing on a card.

"I want to sign it!"

"Just wait your turn, Bobby! John is writing a paragraph in the card," a girl with a brunette ponytail said. The boy writing glared at her, "Shut up! It's more original than saying 'Get Well Soon'." The girl huffed.

The woman rose an eyebrow but kept walking, "What exactly happened here?" The elevator doors opened and they got in, "Za Professor can explain it better zan mein." When they arrived at the subbasement, they took a turn to the right, the infirmary.

Entering the woman saw a young girl hooked up to different machines. There were ones reading her pulse, checking her vitals, feeding her, hydrating her, and even an optune head device to read her brain waves. The surrounding tables held nothing but flowers and get-well cards from many of the students that heard of her 'sudden coma'. The once lively girl, Jubilee looked like she was on her death bed. She wasn't the only person in this room apart from Kurt and the new visitor. Jean and Scott were sitting in chairs that were pulled up next where Jubilee rested. Ororo and Peter, who was dosing off, were leaning on the wall. Charles, sitting on the other side of the girl, noticed the woman and turned to see her after Kurt cleared his throat. "I'm Charles Xavier, I'm sorry but we are currently having a situation and cannot help you—"

"Actually, I'm here to help you," she said to him.

"Wendy?" Peter woke up and sped over to her, "You came!"

"Of course, I did. It's good to see you," the woman went to hug the speedster. Scott then stood to ask, "Peter, who is this?"

After the embrace Quicksilver let go to then say, "This is my sister, Wendy Maximoff."

The woman smiled at them and waved, "Hey everyone."

"How exactly are you going to help us?" Charles asked.

Wendy took a step forward to say, "I'm gonna teach you guys how to fight in the Astral Plane against this parasite. We're gonna get to the bottom of this Shadow King Situation."

AN: Okay! So this was a long chapter but my God I wanted to make up for lost time. I hope you enjoyed it, I loved making the nightmares for everyone and a lot of the bonding time between Quicksilver and Jubilee ( yas Queen ! She is the heart of the X-Men in this and I plan on giving her more time to shine ). Yes, I changed Wanda to Wendy because I too wanted to make an unnecessary name change for the Scarlet Witch, who has such a large role to play in this story. I'm so excited to get started on the next chapter! Can you guess who the cameos at the end were? If you're a long time FOX-MEN fan you'll know since I gave two of the names away (the girl might be a little harder). Any way, let me know what you thought of this chapter! I'd love to hear feedback. Also what did you guys think of Dark Phoenix, personally I loved it! Okay! Bye Guys!