(Jubilee’s Dream)
An atom bomb chases a firecracker through the woods around Xavier’s mansion. Not really an atom bomb or a firecracker but Sabretooth, chasing Jubilee. Jubilee ponders to herself, as she runs, about how a firecracker could never hope to defeat an atom bomb. Jubilee is the last X-Man alive after the monster’s killing spree and she knows in her heart that she will die as well, very soon. Running up on Wolverine’s dead body Jubilee stops to worry where Sabretooth is. As if answering her unspoken question, a drop of blood splashes on her head. Jubilee fires a pyrotechnic explosion behind her but to no avail; Sabretooth was in the trees. He pounces towards her with his claws nearing her neck….
(Awake in the X-Mansion)
Jubilee wakes up, startled by her own scream. Seconds later, Jean Grey peaks around the corner, asking Jubilee if everything is all right. Jubilee tells Jean that he had killed her, Scott, Wolverine and everyone else!? Sitting on Jubilee’s bed, Jean comforts Jubilee and tells her that she will be fine, because it was only a nightmare. As Jean comforts Jubilee, she telepathically calls out to her lover and soon-to-be husband, Scott Summers.
In the Blackbird’s hangar area, Scott is busy working on the plane when he receives her worried call. Scott asks her what is wrong because, thanks to their psychic rapport, he can feel her emotions. She tells him that she has already contacted Ororo and Hank and they are going to meet them at Harry’s Hideaway, so the four of them can talk privately.
Harry’s Hideaway has been the second home to every generation of X-Men. Even now, it is a safe place where the four of them can talk about certain problems that have come to the mansion. Jean tells Hank that she is telepathically masking his bestial appearance so they can talk without prying eyes. Jean apologizes for getting them up at such an ungodly hour but she has to talk to them about Sabretooth’s recent admission to the school. Ororo tells Jean that she has no reason to apologize, because they all understand how she feels. Ororo tells Jean that she does not feel bad about Sabretooth’s admission, because she trusts Xavier’s decision. She also explains that if it weren’t for Xavier’s willingness to help the once thought to be helpless, Wolverine and Rogue would not be at the school either.
Hank delivers his two cents by explaining to Ororo that, although he agrees with helping mutants, Sabretooth is a grown man who already has complete control over his mutant powers. Hank worries aloud that they are treating Creed’s psychotic problems and how far should the school go to help someone with those problems? With that said, Scott tells Hank that he understands where he is coming from. Though, by what both Xavier and Hank have found out, Creed’s mind has been fractured by too many mind implants and traumatic experiences. Even Creed cannot tell for sure how many killings he has been a part of in his life. Hank tells Scott that, even though he knows Creed does not know for sure about all his killings, he does believe that Creed relishes in the lust of the kill.
Scott tries to finish the conversation by telling them that he trusts the professor’s decision no matter how odd it may seem. Jean asks Scott if he is only trusting Xavier because that is what he has been taught to do? She explains that, after Xavier removed Magneto’s mind and, a couple of weeks ago, had Storm steal official government documents, she believes that even Xavier is breaking under the pressure of recent events. She expresses her worry to them that Xavier’s judgment might not be as clear these days as times in the past.
Back at the mansion, Xavier runs tests on Revanche to figure out how to best treat her disease. Xavier tells Revanche that the disease has spread over most her body and the only thing he may be able to offer her is a soothing balm to keep her sores from causing her to much pain. Revanche stands to her feet and places a robe over her naked body. She tells Xavier that she has felt worst in her past and wants nothing to help her with the pain. Xavier asks Revanche what her plans for her future are? Revanche replies that she has no planes for the future, because she knows she is dying. Xavier counters that she misunderstood the question; he just wants to know if she plans on staying at the mansion while her disease progresses? Revanche, walking away, tells Xavier that she does not want to live her last days being studied. She plans on spending them as she lived, with the wind at her back and blood on her hands. Before Xavier can give a reply to her comment, Revanche leaves the room.
It is just as well, though, because Moira Mactaggert rings across the lab’s video unit, alerting Xavier to a problem with their “patient.” Frustrated, Xavier leans over his hoverchair, trying to hold his head up. Xavier strains both for the frustrations of their recent admission to the school, plus the lack of sleep he has had of late.
Xavier’s hoverchair hums silently down the corridor as he reaches the annex that houses the mansion’s communication array. Banshee and Moira are awaiting Xavier as he reaches them. Banshee tells Charles that Sabretooth was getting out of hand, like a drug addict needing a fix, so they sent Psylocke in to give Creed his glow. Xavier asks Moira how the injection went and. in answer. Moira pulls up on the video screen the replay of the events that had transpired around 11:14 that evening.
(video replay)
Moira narrates to Xavier how Psylocke shuts down the defense grid surrounding the detention cell #3 that houses Sabretooth. She also explains that even though Psylocke as a trained assassin can move through the corridor with no sound, she was still not quiet enough to sneak up on Creed. As Psylocke kneels on the ground outside of Creed’s cell, she is surprised to see Creed waiting on her just around the door in the shadows. With his claws and teeth bared he greets Psylocke as she approaches him. Seconds later, Creed lunges towards her, telling her that her dessert offering will not satisfy his hunger. Psylocke nimbly dodges Creed’s apparent attack, as she tells him not to underestimate her abilities and that at least she is giving him the chance to feel his glow. Psylocke nears Creed and prepares to strike her psi-knife through his skull, when Creed reacts, grabbing her hand and twisting it behind her back. He tells her that he does not need her slicing through his skull to know that she isn’t good enough to give him his glow. Sabretooth finishes their fight by kissing Psylocke and placing her outside of the containment field. He tells her that she cannot help him as long as her mind is also as torn as his. However, she can get him the “red-head”, because she can give him the glow he wants.
(at the mansion’s communication annex)
Moira tells Charles that those events happened over an hour ago and Sean finishes by saying that Creed’s anger has only gotten worse. Xavier asks the two of them if Sabretooth has eaten any meals. Sean tells Xavier that Creed has eaten over twenty meals in just twenty-four hours. Moira tells Charles that raw meat may help Creed’s anger to diminish. Xavier tells Moira that her humor is unwanted at such a time as this but Moira explains that she wasn’t trying for humor. Moira tells Charles that, when wild animals have been given raw meat, their anger is sedated because they believe their hunt is over. Moira believes that Creed fits the bill of being a wild animal, she tells Charles, and she is trying her experiment right now. With that said, Moira pulls the image of Gambit and Rogue, standing outside of the detention fields doorway, as Xavier asks her why Rogue is involved in Creed’s case. Banshee tells Xavier that she volunteered but, when she did, Gambit hit the roof and demanded that he went with her.
Outside of the detention cell’s doorway, Gambit tells Rogue she is insane for wanting to help a madman like Creed. Rogue asks Gambit why Creed gets under his skin so much but he shrugs her comment off by telling her that she is mistaken, because nothing bothers him. Gambit presses the release button that opens the doors to the detention room. A forcefield guards the door, which allows any X-Man into the room but does not allow Creed the access to leave. On the ground, broken furniture lay everywhere and Gambit tries to taunt Creed, who is somewhere in the shadows hiding. Rogue asks Gambit to not tease Creed so much, as she places the plate of food she has brought for him full of raw steaks on the ground. Sabretooth reaches out to grab the food on the plate and he tells Gambit that he will get his revenge on him soon enough. Gambit, standing in front of the field as Rogue kneels at his side clutching his arm, tells Creed that he appreciates the offer but the last time Creed told Gambit thank you, it ended up costing himself thirty-seven stitches. Rogue pleads to Creed to understand that they all, including Gambit, want to help him so he can stop his need for killing.
Creed tells Rogue, while he sits in the shadows behind a fallen chair, that the only thing Gambit cares about is breaking people’s hearts and that maybe one day he will tell her about Paris. Creed throws the last piece of bone on the plate that Rogue had left for him as she asks Creed to tell her about Paris now. Creed pounces from his hiding space and he tells her that he will not tell her, because he wants to see her suffer as she falls in love with Gambit and he takes everything from her when he breaks her heart. Gambit, tired of Creed’s ranting about his past, pulls three aces from his pocket and, as he kinetically charges them up, he tells Creed that he has talked enough. When Creed lands on the ground, he takes his attention away from Remy as he asks Rogue to find Mystique and ask her about her brother! With that said, Creed pushes the close button to the door. Leaving Rogue to ponder all of Creed’s words till another day.
Three A.M. in Professor Xavier’s study, Jean blasts accusations, questioning Xavier’s recent decisions. Xavier, very exhausted, tells Jean that he has been extremely upset over his recent loss of both Peter and Logan but those losses are not clouding his judgment. Facing his two accusers, Xavier asks both Jean and Scott if either one of them thinks he has lost sight of his goal? Jean apologizes for her outburst she tells him that no one doubts his goals, they just doubt his new methods. Scott interjects, telling Xavier that they wonder if he is looking for some kind of compensation to deal with the stress of Illyana’s death. Xavier ponders for a moment then tells the two of them that for a guilty conscious that would seem relevant, but in retrospect that is not the reason he is trying to help Creed. Jean explains that she understands what went into the decision but she still doesn’t have to agree with it. Xavier tells Jean that, of course, she is right that she doesn’t have to agree with his thinking all the time. He tells her that they have a chance with Creed to do what they have always wanted, to help the impossible become possible. Jean tells Xavier that he wasn’t down in the Morlock Tunnels when Creed slaughtered all those innocent mutants. She tells him that he did not hear the screams that accompanied their deaths’. Xavier begins to leave the study and he thanks Jean for having enough courage every once in a while to “tell the old man off.”
When Xavier leaves, Scott asks Jean why she is acting so bull-headed about the Creed situation? He tells her that she had first criticized him for acting out of anger, with Magneto. Now, she criticizes him for acting out of compassion with Creed. Jean tells Scott that she worries since they are getting married that it will not turn out the way they want it to. Scott, grasping Jean’s shoulders, tells her that he knows her fears are not from their marriage but over Logan. Jean stands silent. Hearing her husband’s accusations shadowed by the night, she looks ashamed. Scott leans against a nearby table and tells Jean that he understands how she feels for Logan because of the fire in his eyes and the excitement he could bring to her life. Scott reaches up to play with Jean’s hair and tells her that they need to talk about her feelings for Logan before they commit to their wedding. She reminds Scott of her first meeting with Logan in the garden of the estate. She tells him that it wasn’t what she saw in him but what he made her see in herself. Jean says that she liked what she saw and she worries that it makes her a bad person for having those feelings. Scott tells her that she is human, like the rest of them, and everyone is entitled to their own feelings.
Interrupting their conversation, Moira flashes across the monitor, asking them where Xavier is. When Jean informs her that Xavier has just left, Moira tells them that Creed rejected Psylocke’s attempt at helping him earlier and now he is starting to kick up a fuss. Scott tells Moira that he will go check if Xavier is asleep but Jean interjects that she will give Creed the glow so that Xavier can rest. Scott questions Jean and she tells him that if she does not confront him she will never get over the fear of having him here.
In the Danger Room Control Annex, Scott, Shawn, and Moira watch as Jean gets nearer to Creed’s cell. In the Danger Room itself, Jean stands in front of the invisible force field that separates her from Creed. She feels scared but not about what Creed can do. She feels scared for what she is capable of doing to Creed. In the shadows, Creed tells her that he knew she would come eventually. Jean asks Creed why he thinks he knows her so well? He tells her that it is because of Logan she is here. He says that she knows that Logan and himself are very similar and she worries that he will make her blood churn just like Logan did. Suddenly, he jumps at Jean, telling her that everyone knows she had something for Logan. Just as he gets close to her, however, Sabretooth is knocked back by the forcefield between them. Jean asks Creed if he believes he is tough, as she disengages the force field protecting her from him.
In the Annex of the Danger Room, Sean asks if Jean knows what she is doing by shutting off the defense shields? Scott answers that, in order for her to defeat her fears, she must face the devil, face-to-face.
Jean walks into the room, surrounded in her own telekinetic forcefield. She asks him if he thinks that his viciousness really scares her? Not giving him the chance to answer, she tells him that he is wrong if that is what he believes. She tells him that he is a firecracker and she is an atom bomb. She takes control over his hands and she tells him that she will make him feel what it is like to be attacked by his own claws. As she throws him into the nearest wall, Creed tells Jean that he can see what Logan saw in her. Shutting him up, Jean tells him that he has no right to talk about Logan. Levitating him in mid-air, she tells Sabretooth that she and Logan had a true friendship and he would not understand, because his spirit is not like Logan’s. Crashing him into a nearby control panel, she tells him that he is sad for having to live moment to moment from one fix to the next.
Leaving him lying on the ground, she tells Sabretooth that coming to the institute did not help him. It just contained him and, if he thinks the X-Men are weak, he is sadly mistaken. Shutting off her force field, Jean asks Creed if she has made her point yet? Creed tells her that she pushed him and he can feel the need for his glow coming on. Jean, telling him to ask for it, denies him the glow after he does. Leaving the room, Jean tells him that Birdy gave him the glow because he threatened her. She tells him to deal with the pain of his past like the rest of the world and, maybe one day, he will become just like the rest of them. Leaving him with one last thought she asks him if he has the guts to deal with life on his own? Looking defeated, Creed bows his head, finally realizing what he must do.
In the morning, Jean asks Jubilee if she had any more nightmares last night? She tells her that nightmares are for babies; she gets “traumatic evening episodes.” As the two of them are preparing Creed’s breakfast and Jean asks Jubilee if she really wants to do this. Jubilee tells her that she wants to take the food to Creed so that she can face her fears.
In the basement, Jubilee takes Creed his food and, quietly setting it down, she is startled when Creed calls out, “kid?” When she asks him what he wants, he tells her to tell “Red” that she is the one with the real guts and Logan done real good by her. Walking from Sabretooth’s cell, Jubilee wonders to herself if she will always fear him. Looking into Jean’s eyes as she passes her, Jubilee knows the answer is yes!
