At six in the morning, the sun had already risen. Weak sunlight broke through the tree line, glittering with a cool light that would warm in another hour. Some of that silvered early morning sun had already infiltrated the academy, and spots of light danced through window panes and came to rest on walls and furniture.

Jubilee sat cross legged in her bed, watching the play of shadows and sun against the skin of her arms and wrinkled covers. She had been awake for the past hour, just sitting still and thinking.

Thinking that it was time for her to leave.

Despite the early hour, she considered calling Wolverine to ask him for his advice. Then again, she already knew what he would tell her. She could hear his voice in her head as if he was sitting right in front of her.

"Darlin’, ya know I’ll stand by ya no matter what yer decision. Just make sure that ya think this through."

I have, Wolvie.

"I know that ya don’t feel safe anymore, darlin’. None o’ us really do. Bastian came into our lives and stole somethin’ precious from us. Don’t know quite yet what it was he took, but I feel an ache in my heart every time I look at us, so I know it was somethin’ dear."

Ya got that right, Wolvie.

"He twisted the souls o’ people—good people—an’ made them into his machines."

Yes.

"He took friends and neighbors an’ turned them into hunters."

Yes.

"An’ he hurt you."

Yes.

Jubilee shifted beneath her covers and stretched out her legs. Oh, she had already told Wolverine that she was over what Bastion had done to her, and that was mostly the truth. She had lost track of the times she had laughed off an enemy’s threats or ignored the pain they caused her. But Bastion was different from all of the others in one respect.

He had forced her to betray her friends.

And she could not forgive herself for that.

Jubilee sighed, and slipped out of bed. The sun had risen a little higher in the sky, and the light that slowly flooded her room had turned golden and warm. Feeling restless, she pulled on a pair of jeans. She left on the tank top she had worn to bed, and absently raked her fingers through her hair as she looked for her sneakers.

Five minutes later, she found herself outside. The grass glittered with dew, and her shoes were soon soaked as she left the designated paths and headed into the woods. Once inside of the tree line, Jubilee wandered aimlessly. Birds trilled over her head, and the scent of rich earth and other woodsy elements filled her senses. They could not, however, distract her from her unsettled feelings.

"Come on, Lee," she muttered darkly, kicking a rock in her path. "Snap outta it! Sure, he messed with your head and kicked you around, but you gotta get passed that."

The words she spoke to herself were the same that had played through her mind from the moment she had set foot back on school grounds. Instead of motivating her though, Jubilee only found herself sinking further into a slump. She had betrayed the X-Men—it didn’t matter that Bastion had taken a machine to her head and stolen her thoughts away. Her mind should have been tougher—stronger. Wolvie wouldn’t have cracked…

To compound her frustration, she was almost continuously met with an indifferent silence every time she tried to talk about OZT. Her friends had not even asked her where she had been or what she had gone through after her kidnapping from the school. Oh sure, the first thing Paige had done when Jubilee returned was to hug her, and say that she had been worried. Everyone else basically seconded that. Yet their eyes remained blank, their smiles thin. It was as though her friends could not even summon up the energy to be curious—or to really care.

Having these thoughts made her feel so…selfish. After all, they had been through hell too. Trapped on an island without food or water, thrown to LA, chased by Prime Sentinels. And Monet…

Jubilee grimaced and shook her head. Now, that was weird.

A tiny knot of resentment burrowed into her gut. Despite what the others had gone through, it still rankled her that they didn’t want to talk about what had happened. Everyone remained tightlipped and avoided the subject whenever she brought it up. Ev was the worst. He would walk away from her without a word, without even looking her in the eyes. That hurt more than Jubilee was willing to admit.

Of course, Jean would tell her to "approach them with your fears and concerns", but Jubilee didn’t think she could bring herself to do that. It would seem too much like she was asking for their pity, and there was no way she was going to let that happen.

But these feelings were driving her crazy. She just…wanted to get away for awhile. Try to get past her own guilt and growing resentment towards her friends. She had thought about going back to X-Men, but she was afraid that being there would just make her feelings worse.

I wish Wolvie were here…

The sound of a branch snapping stopped her in her tracks. Jubilee strained her ears, listening. She was rewarded with the sound of dead leaves crunching in the distance to her left. Silently, remembering the lessons that Wolverine had taught her, Jubilee sneaked through the woods. A flash of red finally caught her eye and as she approached, she realized that it was Everett. He was sitting with his back to her, his face buried in his hands.

There was something familiar about his posture, which simply reeked of misery. His hunched shoulders and the tense muscles of his neck reminded Jubilee of her own guilt ridden heart, and she felt her stomach tighten with sympathy for her friend. She pushed aside the low laying branches in front of her, and they made a gentle swishing sound that caused Everett to jerk in surprise.

His eyes barely met her own before they danced nervously away. "What are you doing here?" Everett asked, his voice a hoarse whisper. He studiously examined the ground, refusing to look at her.

"Walking," she said simply. Jubilee took a few more steps towards Everett and plopped herself unceremoniously on the ground next to him. "What about you?" She craned her neck, trying to see his into eyes.

"I was just…thinking," he said, with a grimace that made him look like he had bitten into something distasteful.

"Yeah," she told him softly with a frown. "I was doing that too." The hurt that had been brewing in her stomach began to churn again, and once more, she tried to study Everett’s face. There was real pain there, and for some reason, the way he looked reminded her of the way she felt.

"You wanna talk about it, Ev?" Jubilee asked him.

He shook his head, still refusing to look her in the eye. Jubilee sighed, clenching the ground in her fists. If Ev, her closest friend at the school, still wouldn’t talk to her, then there didn’t seem to be much of a chance that any of the others were going to come around.

Jubilee slowly climbed to her feet, her heart aching. She hadn’t realized how much she had come to like this place, and the people in it. Maybe she was giving up too easy—Scott and Storm would tell her to stick it out. Of course, Wolverine had always taught her to follow her heart, and her heart was telling her now that it would be less painful to leave, than to stick around in a place where no one cared anymore—about herself or anyone else. Something vital in them had been snuffed out. Maybe in her, too. There was time when she would have worked to cheer them—to bring them out of their funk no matter how obnoxious she had to become. Not anymore. She just didn’t feel like it.

"’Kay. Well bye, Ev. Guess I’ve got to go pack."

Everett’s head snapped up. "What did you just say?"

"I said I’m going to pack. If no one’s going to talk to me anymore, then I don’t see much of a reason to stick around. No problem, though. The X-Men’ll take me in." Yeah, like I feel like being around them right about now.

"You…want to leave?" For the first time since returning to the school, Everett actually made eye contact with her.

Jubilee shrugged, her lips pressed tightly together. "Not really," she lied. "But…we don’t really act like a team anymore, Ev. We don’t even act like friends. For the past week, everyone’s been lying around like zombies or something. It’s driving me crazy."

"We went through a lot, Jubes," he protested heatedly.

"Yeah, well so did I," Jubilee spat, suddenly riled by his indifference towards her. "Bastion wasn’t exactly nice to his prisoners."

Everett winced, and lowered his eyes. "I…I’m sorry, J," he said after a long moment. "I forgot—"

"That I was kidnapped? Yeah, you and everyone else."

"You weren’t the only one that suffered." Everett retorted, becoming defensive.

"Maybe not," Jubilee whispered. "But it would’ve been nice if someone had cared ‘nuff to ask if I had."

Everett clenched his jaw, and his eyes hinted at real regret. "You want to talk about it now?" he asked hesitantly.

Jubilee smiled tightly and folded her arms across her chest. "After you, dude," she replied.

Everett blinked with surprise, and a trace of fear flashed across his face. "You want me to tell you…I—I’m not sure I can."

Jubilee almost ran back into the forest when he said that, her body turning of its own volition. Something in his voice made her stop though, and she looked at him sideways. "I’m your friend, Ev. If can’t tell me what’s eatin’ ya, chances are you won’t be able to tell anyone."

He stared at her, and Jubilee met his eyes with a steady gaze. Licking his lips nervously, Everett finally nodded.

"You know…you know how Monet became the twins?"

Jubilee nodded, settling herself on the ground before him.

"Well, right before she ‘split’, we were attacked by Prime Sentinels. A lot of them. I’ve never so scared in all of my life, J. I didn’t think we were going to escape, and I started to…well, babble. You know, I talked about all those things I would never get to do."

"Talking about dying in the middle of an attack. Real positive ‘tude you have there, Ev."

"Can I finish?" He asked, his voice strained. Jubilee blinked, and nodded gently.

"Well, one of those things I said that I wished I had done was kiss a girl." He watched her face for a response, but her features remained carefully neutral. "Monet was there and when she heard that, she turned around and…and…"

"Kissed you." Jubilee finished for him, her voice flat.

"Yes. But what if that’s why she changed? I can’t help but think that I might be partly responsible for the state she’s in now. The way I synch with powers…"

"You think Monet divided into two little girls, just because ya smooched?" Jubilee raised her eyebrows. "Dude, I think you’re putting a little more into that kiss than what was there."

Everett shook his head and covered his face with his hands. "I knew I shouldn’t have talked about it. It sounds so stupid, I know."

Jubilee frowned. "No, Ev. It doesn’t sound dumb at all."

"But—"

"Yeah, I know what I just said. And I still think you’re weighing that kiss a little too heavily. The thing is though, I can see why you might, like, blame yourself for her situation. I feel the same way, except it’s the X-Men that got hurt because of me, and not Monet."

"How can you blame yourself for problems the X-Men are having?" Everett looked at her incredulously.

"You weren’t there, Ev," Jubilee’s eyes grew distant with memory, her voice sounding softly ragged. "Bastian—he hooked me up to this machine that could see my thoughts. He…he did things to me to get me to betray the X-Men. I tried to fight him…to be strong. I shoulda been tougher."

"Jubilee, you did your best." Everett protested.

"Did I? He still pulled things from my mind, Ev. And he used what he got to hurt the people who are like family to me. And I couldn’t stop him. I was completely helpless."

Everett sat quietly for a long moment, staring at his friend in shock. He had never before seen the lost look that now haunted Jubilee’s eyes. Her ordeal made his own problems seem trivial in comparison.

"I’m sorry, Jubes," he whispered, knowing that statement was completely inadequate.

Jubilee shrugged, an empty gesture that did nothing to hide the pain still in her eyes. "Don’t get your panties in a knot over it, Ev, It’s over." She made a slicing motion with her right hand to emphasize her point.

Everett felt his jaw drop. "That’s all you have to say? After what he did to you?"

"It’s over, dude. He hurt me lots, but he also hurt a bunch of people even more. Yeah, so I still feel a little twisted up on the inside. So what?" Despite the fact that he didn't believe her, there was a note of finality to Jubilee’s voice and Everett took the hint to back off.

"So, you still want to leave?" he asked her.

"Don’t know," she answered, truthfully. This talk with Everett had blurred the lines inside of her mind even more. She still wasn’t sure that she should stay, but if Everett would just start acting like his old self again…

Everett examined his friend. Her face was a mask of emotions, but he could see her pain and a trace of the guilty conscience that mirrored his own. He realized that, better than anyone else, she could understand a little of what he was going through. Suddenly, he did not feel so alone.

He reached down and took her hand in his, twining his fingers gently around her own smaller ones. Jubilee looked up at him with surprise. Everett smiled, though he knew that his expression was undoubtedly sad.

"Please don’t leave, J," he pleaded softly. "Stick around for a little while longer."

"You think I should?" she whispered, the faint light of hope filling her eyes.

"Yeah." Everett suddenly smiled. "Who else can knock some sense in me?"

Jubilee snickered involuntarily, surprising herself. "What do ya think it would take to snap the others outta their funk?" she asked him, a smile tugging at her lips. Her heart felt a little lighter already, and several outrageous ideas suddenly burbled their way into her mind.

Everett grinned, straightening his back. He gently squeezed her hand. "I’m sure we can think of something."