It all looked different from the top. As one of the highest buildings the empty Freedom Plaza towered above the city. He could see people down on the streets in a rush. Many people young and old, men and women did their last minute Christmas shopping. Him ? He was different. He really had no family. No family that trusted him. Who would trust someone who tried to kill one of their own ? His head was like a glass of water filled with millions of little particles that were all different. His memory was like a jigsaw puzzle with more bits missing than present. His soul was like a piece of paper ripped in a half. It was harder and harder to keep living. Everyday he had doubts about what exactly was in his head. Could he really stop becoming the man he feared so much ? What would happen if his memory would return back fully ? Would he be the same mindless cold villain he was before ? Or could he win the internal war and become what he hoped to be ? Those were the questions that were frustrating Joseph. But they were long to be answered.

"Well what do you think Rogue ?" asked Jean. "Rogue ?" #Rogue#

"Ah...wath....sorry Jean, ya were sayin' ?"

"Rogue if you want to talk about what's troubling you..."

"Nothin' is trobulin' mah Jean really, now what were we doin' 'gain ?"

"We were picking a sweater for Scott."

"Oh yeah."

"So what do you think of this one ?"

"Ah dunno I don' think green suits Scott"

Elsewhere

"C'mon guys we don't have much time." shouted Bobby. He turned around looking at his companions. Warren and Betsy were holding hands walking slowly behind him. Sam holding bags full of shopping followed behind. Bishop Logan and Scott were talking about something. Gambit followed behind them not really paying attention to anything that was happening. ^This Christmas is going to be great^ thought Bobby.

"Hey what about this one ?" he suddenly asked as he saw a 6 feet tall Christmas tree in front of him.

"I still don't see why we need to have two trees." pointed out Bishop.

"Because my huge friend, we want to. Besides it looks nice." answered Bobby sarcasizm clearly in his tone.

"Ah like it." said Sam while putting the bags down.

"It's great."

"How are we going to take it ?"

"Uh we do have Bishop with us."

"Oh yeah."

Sam smiled at Bishop who looked at him with annoyance. "So are we taking it ?"

"Of course we are."

"So Jean do ya think that this years Christmas is going to be better than last year ?" asked Rogue.

"I hope. Except the Onslaught accident nothing bad really happened."

"Yeah o'course...." Rogue's voice trailed of on a painful memory of Remy. Jean said nothing. They just walked in the crowd. The shopping mall was huge. Ribbons hanged from the ceiling, Christmas trees were present almost everywhere. In the center there was a big throne and a big cue to Santa. Rogue couldn't stop a smile when she remembered how she used to believe in him. All over the place people were singing carols, there were people buying last minute presents there were people meeting with their friends for a cup of coffee. With all these people it was awfully easy to get lost...

"Mommy, I want my mommy !" Jean and Rogue looked where the noise was coming from. In the crowd was standing a little girl no more than five with curly blonde hair and blue eyes full of tears. Everyone was so busy they didn't notice her. Slowly Jean and Rogue approached the child.

"Hello what's your name ?" asked Jean

"Melissa" she said while whipping "Can you help me find my mommy ?"

"Of course we can. Do you know her name ?"

"I can't remember..." she said and then began crying.

"That's okay, don't cry. We will find her." Quickly Jean entered the mind of the child and found the name of her mother.

"Okay, now take my hand Melissa and we are going to look for your mommy."

"Ok..ok..okay."

Jean looked at Rogue and said. "We can go the customer service desk and call in her mother by the intercom."

"Yeah you're right. Let's go." said Rogue and stared walking beside Melissa. The girl was looking around with fear but every time she looked at Rogue she smiled.

"Melissa !" they heard a woman shouting in front of them.

"Mommy !" shouted the girl as she lost her hold of Jean's hand and ran towards her mother. She hugged her close while Jean and Rogue walked towards them. The mother looked at them with joy in her eyes.

How can I ever thank you ?" she said while Melissa was still hugging her.

"Ah don' worry 'bout 't Ms."

"Yes we just saw Melissa alone and we took her so we could find you." added Jean.

"Thank you so much again."

Betsy walked outside. She needed a present for Warren. She had no clue what she could get him. As she walked past a small church a scene caught her attention. Inside she could see few nuns making some food. Around them there was about ten little children in ripped clothes. She could see the children were cold, tired and hungry. Outside a nun was standing beside a sign saying

"HELP THE HOMELESS CHILDREN IN CHRISTMAS"

Not really knowing why Betsy walked into the church. She looked at the poor kids sitting on the floor looking at the served meal with eyes of little joy but still sad. A tear appeared in her eye. One of the nuns turned around and saw her.

"Good morning child would you like some as well ?"

Betsy snapped from her daydream and looked up at the woman. "Me ? Oh no thank you. I would like to make a donation."

The older woman smiled at her. "Thank you very much every cent counts. Our children are very poor."

With shaking hands Betsy took out her chequebook and started writing. When she was finished she handed to cheque to the nun. "There and promise me you'll buy some toys for these children."

"Of course if there is en...." her voice trailed of as she glanced down at the amount on the cheque. $ 1000

"May God bless you !" she almost shouted.

Betsy smiled. "That's the least I can do. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas child thank you so much again."

"That's okay." Betsy said while she walked out of the church. She actually felt better now.

Gambit loved Christmas. The warmest memory of his childhood was spending Christmas with his adopted family. There was always a big tree and lots of presents. It was only at that time that the whole big family felt somehow together. So why didn't he feel happy now ? It was the events of the last year. The woman he loved didn't trust him. She knew his biggest secret. Everything seemed to be going just fine and then it all broke apart. How much he hated when life did that. He left the rest of his companions behind. He couldn't look Betsy in the eyes. He knew that she found what his secret was. And he didn't feel like Warren trusted him either. He understood that. I was all his fault after all.

As he walked past the street he looked at a homeless man sitting on a door step. He stopped and gave him a $100 note. The man looked up at him thankful.

"Thank you son."

"Now go an' get 'ome place to sleep, it gonna b' cold tonite'" Remy said.

As the man got up Remy kept waking. Why couldn't life be easier ?

Next Day

Sam hated waiting. It was the Christmas Day evening, Paige and the rest of Gen. X were coming over for a Christmas dinner. All of the women were in the kitchen getting the food ready to be set up. Scott, Hank and Logan were talking about something again. Remy was as usually nowhere to be seen. Warren was getting dressed. Bobby was putting the dishes on to the table. The rest was sitting in front of the TV. Suddenly the doorbell rang.

"Ah'll get it !" shouted Sam. Quickly he got up and raced towards the door. He opened it and looked down at his sister Paige. He hugged her close.

"Haven't seen you for a long time big brother" she said.

"Same 'ere."

"Hey leave the family reunion for later Guthrie it's freezing out here !" shouted a voice from behind. Sam smiled as he let go of his sister.

"Hello Jubilee." As Sam looked back at the next visitor. Excepting to see another member of Generation X his breath stopped. In front of him was standing a girl as tall as him with long curly blonde hair. Her face was what Sam considered beautiful and she had those deep green eyes.

"Um, ee er hi.... Ms..."

"Elizabeth." she said smiling pleased at the effect her appearance had on Sam.

"Hi Elizabeth, I'm Sam."

"Hi Sam."

From behind him he heard Jubilee shout. "Hey Sam this is our new student, Elizabeth. Be nice."

Not taking much notice of what Jubilee said Sam gestured Elizabeth to come in and welcomed the other guests.

As everyone settled down to the table Scott looked around and coughed for attention. Everyone stopped talking.

"We are gathered here tonight to celebrate the Christmas Day. But also to be together. That what it was all about. The X-Men, the dream. About being together. In the past year we had our problems our loses our catastrophes. Some of us had gone some returned. Some changed. And I must admit that this year hasn't been the best one. But as I look at you all here today I see hope. We have some new followers to the dream and so far nothing tragic had happened to ruin out lives. So as I stand here now I hope for better time. I hope we will finally step out of the bad luck times and that it will all seem like to good old days."

As Scott sat down everyone clapped. Then they started eating. Jubilee turned to Gambit who was sitting next to her.

"Hi Gumbo hows life ?"

"'pends." he answered with a big grin. "Who be you'r petie chere companion dere ?"

"Sessh Gumbo don't get all excited. Her name is Elizabeth and she's my friend. So be nice." At that time Elizabeth looked at them.

"Elizabeth this is Remy, Remy Elizabeth."

"Hi chere." he said with a big grin.

"Hi." She answered blushing.

"So Jubes how be things goin' wit' Generation X ? Sean givin' ya lots of trainin' ?"

"Yeah you cant imagine how much. Now when I was with the X-Men there wasn't that much training's."

"Qui."

"What's the problem Sam ?" asked Paige.

"Ah asked for a seat next to ya, and 'stead I got this." he said pointing at Jono who was separating him from his sister.

#Paige why doesn't he like me ?" Jono asked her.

"Well my big brother is just overprotective. As usual."

Ah'm not..."

"Besides Sam I asked for Jono to sit next to you. I want you two to get to know each other."

"Great."

#Bloody briliant#

"Aww guys relax it's Christmas." she said leaving the two to talk with each other.

"So Jono, how is the controlling of your powers going ?" asked Sam trying to be as sarcastic as he could.

Joseph sitting next to Emma, Jean and Scott was taking part in a conversation that was revolving around him and his amnesia.

"Well I knew Magneto when he was still Magneto." said Emma.

"What you need to understand Ms. Frost is that I am not the man I used to be. And I don't intend to be, even if I get all of my memory back." answered Joseph.

"Meanwhile Joseph is a good addition to the team. When he decides what to do with himself then he will decide if he will want to stay." said Scott clearly not mentioning the accident with Gambit and Rogue.

Rogue having Bobby and Hank on one side and Remy on the other she started talking to Bobby. "So Bobby why aren't your parents 'ere ?"

"Dad didn't feel good. He was a bit dizzy and didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of you guys so he didn't come."

"Oh."

"You don't look good Rogue, are you all right ?"

"Yeah Ah'm fine." she said smiling weakly

Later

The stars were beautiful. He didn't remember seeing them in such a way before. Maybe it was the wine maybe they really were different. As he slowly smoked a cigarette he listened to the sounds of the night. Somewhere a owl called. ^A warning from enemy^ Remy thought. In the old days maybe. He scanned the area with his night vision. Tire marks were hardly seen in the snow. Cassidy and the rest left few hours ago and already the marks were almost covered with snow. As Remy finished the cigarette small flakes of snow fell from the sky. He heard the door open. "Hi Rogue." he said without turning around.

"Hi." she answered shortly. Dead silence fell after that, both of them looking at the flakes of snow now falling from the sky in larger numbers.

"So what do ya think of the dinner." Rogue was first to talk.

"It be 'kay. Haven't seen Jubes long time. It made me think how I miss home."

"Yeah me too." Rogue said as she sat down on the stairs beside him. "Also it made mah think how much Ah miss ya." she took his hand in her gloved one and forced him to look at her. His expression was unreadable.

"Remy why do we haveta argue s' much. Ah love you, you love mah, an' we just cant get it across t' each other."

"I 'now chere I 'now."

"Remy promise mah we won' argue again. You're the only person Ah loved ever since Cody. I don' wan' t' lose you 'cause of some stupid argument. And when Ah think that we hate each other, then...." her voice trailed off.

"I love you Rogue. You just gotta trust me."

"It ain't that easy."

"Rogue I always love you, it may not look like it sometimes but I d'. I don' wan' t' lose ya."

They both looked up to the sky staring at the stars. They were unique that night for sure. Maybe they shone more light, maybe there was more of them maybe they actually made up a pattern. But as Remy and Rogue looked up they didn't see it. They were both thinking deep about their past, present and future. And they didn't see the pattern. The pattern that showed the future. The pattern that shoed destruction and menace. The pattern that indicated nothing more than hard times. But on top of everything the pattern that showed two lovers drifting apartmore and more

And somewhere a owl called....

The End

Merry Christmas everyone !

NOTE: Continued in "Gen. X" #1

NEXT ISSUE:

"First Encounters"

The hunt for X-Men begins.