Pain. Hatred. Jubilee's body absorbed her emotions as she fell to her side. She opened her eyes and was momentarily surprised by the brightness of the room. Penance turned at her almost silent gasp and was mystified by the glowing darkness in her young friends' eyes. Only she and Wolverine saw the struggle to overcome the evil coursing through her body.

"Jubilee? Are you alright?" Xavier attempted to move forward but stopped as the glow intensified.

"Don't! I . . . know . . . if I can . . . control it!" Jubilee looked at them with the eyes of a killer stalking her prey. She saw the disgust, the pity, and the mistrust. She saw and it angered her. But then Wolverine walked past Penance slowly and grabbed her. At first she fought but the peace and love he gave her was overpowering. Slowly the glow faded.

"Thanks Wolvie."

"What happened darling?"

"Hard to explain, so I'll save it for later." She stepped back and looked to Penance. "Thanks. I owe you." Penny just smiled. Jubilee sat down heavily and waited for the questions and accusations. Her wait was short.

"Why is this happening?" Cyclops asked first. "You just killed a man in cold blood."

"He was not a man."

"We all saw you snap his neck after throwing them around like dolls." Scott stepped forward.

"Where is his body, Cyclops? Look around you. This place ain't the most clean place in the world but where's the blood? Huh? What's wrong oh mighty one, no answer. He was an illusion. They both were. He wanted me to kill them in front of you. He needed someone I had something against. But I know for a fact that those guys were not who they appeared to be." Jubilee looked at Wolverine.

"How do you know that? They smelled like the punks to me."

"Because I killed them a long time ago."

"What?" Jubilee looked at the ceiling.

"That night when you helped me find them and I chose not to do it wasn't because I feared what I would become. I just didn't want you to see me for what I already was. When you fell asleep at the hotel, I left. I found them in the back of a strip club. They didn't know that the girls they were with were friends of mine. To make a long story short, what they were doing involved handcuffs. They never had a chance. No mercy for the weak. That's what he taught me."

"So all this time you've kept this side of yourself hidden from us. Why?" Xavier's question was almost a whisper.

"We all have dreams, Prof. Mine was to forget what he made me and find peace. What I could not have in death and tried to find in life. Absolution." A tear fell from her eye, but only one.

"If you really are as old as you say, why act the way you do. I mean, wisdom does come with age." Sam, an immortal himself, always wondered at her childish behavior.

"If you had been alive for four hundred years, never growing older than seventeen, being tortured beyond your wildest nightmares and stayed sane, you would learn that the greatest lesson in life is knowing when to not act your age. The things I have seen, have experienced would have driven me mad. I act the way I do because I don't want to find out what will happen if life becomes too serious. Immortality sucks."

"Well, I find the whole can't-die-thing amazing." Sam defended himself.

"What's so amazing about watching your friends grow old and die while you never age? What's amazing about walking away from a battle covered in their blood, their screams echoing in your ears? Trust me Sam, after a few centuries of that, you'll wish for death." Jubilee stepped to Everett and smiled. "I release you from your promise." He quickly pulled her into his arms and held her tightly.

"I love you. Don't ever make me do that again!" She pulled back and framed his face with her hands.

"Love ya too. And I won't have too."

"What's going on? Jubilee?" Scott grabbed her arm. "What's happened?"

"I made him promise not to touch me or acknowledge our relationship here. If he had before this 'episode' he would have been killed. Dante doesn't approve of me dating."

"What's changed?" Jubilee laughed.

"I have. In this place a promise is gospel. Even Dante is bound by the power of a promise." She backed away from them all. "He promised that only I can torture or kill you. For now you're safe." She sat down gingerly.

"You say that like it might change in the future." Xavier was assessing the situation quickly.

"I can't stop him. I made a promise to never hurt him and now he's trying to change me. Make me like him. Each time its harder to come back. I don't know what'll happen if I let go and I'm not excited about finding out." She stopped as the force field sprang up again. She stood as the door flew open. Dante strolled in, a hooded woman on his arm.

"I have a gift for you, daughter. One that I hope will help you reconsider my offer." The woman stepped into the light and removed her hood.

"NO!" Jubilee moved toward her. "Bastard, you can't tempt me with your illusions!"

"Juliana, it's me." The woman was exquisite. Her hair hung dark and lustrously down her back. Her eyes shone with unshed tears as she looked upon the bruised girl. "My heart, I have returned."

"Don't call me that! Only she can call me that!" Jubilee stepped closer. "I don't know who you are but you're not her. I saw her die!"

"I brought her back . . . for you. Now we can all be together again." Dante lips curled into a cruel smile. "A happy family."

"Fuck that!"

"Juliana! Look at me! Look at my eyes." Jubilee looked and saw the way they changed and looked like an unfolding rose and she knew. Only one person could do that and it was something Dante didn't know about.

"Mama?" Her mother held out her arms and enfolded Jubilee. The X-men watched silently as the drama went on. "I watched you . . . I saw."

"I know darling. I saw you too. My only regret was that I couldn't take you with me." Arielle looked back at her 'husband'. "Thank you. Whether I burn in Hell for striking a bargain with you or not, it was worth it to see my baby again. To bad I have no intention of keeping my word." From the folds of her cape she pulled a small dagger and threw it at Dante. At the last second he move and what was meant for his chest caught him in his shoulder. He screamed in rage and Arielle threw Jubilee behind her.

"Deceitful Bitch! Traitorous harlot!" He pulled the dagger out and looked at his wife. "I could have given you any world you wanted. I gave you life and you betray me! Since she watched you burn before, it is only fitting she watch it again!" Arielle felt a burning pain course through her as she fell to the ground. Her insides were on fire and the sickening stench of burnt flesh reached her nose. Jubilee held her in her arms. She forced herself not to scream.

"My. . . heart. Listen to me. What was promised has been broken. He wanted me to lure you to his side. He fears you above all else. I promised I would if he gave me life. Forgive me . . . but I had . . . to see you again." She reached her charred fingers to Jubilee's face and wiped the tears away. "I have always loved you. Remember that. My heart was always yours." She looked up as Dante stepped behind Jubilee's hunched back. Quickly she whispered something to Jubilee and then spoke to him. "I'll see you in hell my beloved!" With that she took her last breath and Jubilee laid her head on her mothers chest as she struggle too understand everything. A promise was broken in this place. Her mother was given to here and taken away by the man who once bounced her on his knee. Something in Jubilee died in the moment before Dante grabbed her head and snapped her neck violently.

"NO!" Bodies bounced off the force field as both teams attempted to run to their friend even as they watched her lifeless body fall on the disintegrating shell that was her mother only moments before.

"A family of traitors. Her promise is broken and all others are null and void. There is nothing keeping me from killing you know." Dante walked closer to the field. "You'd like to kill me. I can see it in your eyes." He began to laugh.

"What's so funny Pa-Pa?" Intent on getting to Dante, no one had noticed the slight figure of Jubilee rising from the dead. This time there was no missing the glow in her eyes. Or the sneer on her lips. "Surprised to see me so soon Pa-Pa? I have an answer to you offer. You have Ma-Ma to thank for my change of heart."

"Really now? Well, your answer?"

"She looked down at what was her mother once and smiled cruelly. "I will gladly join you," Protest were heard from her friends as she walked to embrace her father. She leaned up and whispered into his ear. "I'll join you in Hell!" Concentrating she turned her powers on and caused thousands of energy beams to shoot from her body into his. When he fell to his knees she laughed and kicked him. "Did you really ever expect us to join you?" He voice sounded amplified almost as if two distinct voices were speaking at the same time. "After everything you have put us through? Everything you have taken from us?" The door opened and guards rushed in. With a flick of her wrist, they went flying into the wall and were held by the tentacles. "They will obey you no longer. Prepare to die Father." Dante stood and his entire body began to glow and his clothes changed into loose fitting garments. Jubilee mirrored his actions as her clothes burned away to loose pants and halter-top.

They rushed each other and came together in a brilliant clash of colors. Their feet left the ground as the fight went on. It seemed more a fight of wills until Jubilee threw him away from her. Suspended in air they faced off. She floated slowly to him. "The time has come. Before this ends, we have to tell you, the man who was our father was loved." Dante never noticed his guards' swords flying through the air until they struck. Everett, Emma and Wolverine screamed as they say that two swords had pierced both Jubilee and Dante. Without warning Jubilee flew at Dante and impaled herself on the blade sticking through his stomach. As she connected them more swords flew and impaled them.

"The essence of life from sire and sired will weather the crystals storm. I know your secret." Blood bubbled from her mouth as she reached under the shirt for the diamond necklace. She tore it from her neck and covered it with her blood. Then she thrust it into his wound and shoved it past his ribs to rest in the spot where his heart should have been. "I summon the scared Hellfire. Come and claim that which you lost." The ground began to cave in as flames rushed up to envelope the two of them. Something dark was dragged out of Dante and as his eyes focused for the last time he screamed out her name and threw her from him. As quickly as it appeared it left taking his lifeless body with it. Jubilee stood and looked around. Luckily for them, the force field was still up because without warning Jubilee began to scream. She filled it with four hundred years of sorrow, pain, hatred, and longing. She let it all out and the walls began to crumble.

Xavier turned as the wall behind them opened up. "Leave! Please go." Jubilee's eyes pleaded with him to go. As his powers returned he propelled the teams out of the hole and followed. "We have to go back for her!" Emma fought against her hold. "Charles! Let me go!"

"Miss Frost, it's to late." Paige grabbed her arm and pointed. The entire structure caved in on itself.

"No! Jubilee!" Wolverine fell to his knees. Suddenly another explosion rocked the ground. From the rubble a glowing orb rose and hovered in the air.

Do not cry for us! After four hundred years of imprisonment,
We are finally free! Thank you for your love, my friends.

Xavier looked hard into the globe and smiled. Inside he could see Jubilee turning like a ballerina and he spoke. "Jubilee."

They watched as it neared the ground and she spun slower and slower until she stood before them unharmed. Although they wanted to run to her, they kept their distance because of the glow in her eyes.

"It's alright guys. We are fine. As long as my promise to him could not be broken that side of me couldn't come out. To give in would have ripped my mind and soul to shreds. When our mother turned against him she released us. And now we know peace." Jubilee looked up as a glowing presence detached itself from her body. Beside her a small boy stood smiling.

"My family thanks you. Juliana and I indebted to you." He turned to her. "Big sister, it is time for me to go. When next we meet, it will be in the heavenly gardens of home. You have my permission to take as long as you need to get there." They embraced and he slowly faded from existence. "Go in peace little brother." She turned to her friends. "It's time to go home." Emma and Wolverine walked over to Jubilee. Another vortex opened up behind the X-Men and sucked them through with Generation X. "It's a shame."

"What is?" Emma asked. 'You'll' see was her only reply.

Jubilee slid down the banister, gum popping, and screamed for her friends to hurry up before they missed the previews. She stopped at the hall mirror and ran a slim hand through her now shoulder length hair. She almost felt naked without her yellow trench but lately she had been going without it. Maybe Monet's sense of style was finally rubbing off on her, she thought. She smoothed her simple white shirt down and made sure it was tucked into her black jeans. Quickly she made sure that her black suede boots were scuff free. As Everett and Angelo came down the stairs, Emma Frost entered the hallway.

"Well, Miss Lee, you seem to be very popular today. Here you go." The White Queen handed her a bundle of mail and a small package. "A secret admirer, perhaps?" Her perfectly shaped lips formed a smile at Everett's' scowl. Before she could open it, the package disappeared. "Jubilee, what happened? Suddenly I remember . . ." Emma stopped at the look on Jubilee's face changed. Where before there was the carefree yet guarded teenager, now she seemed matured, seasoned almost? She held her finger to her young lips and motioned for silence. As she ushered the guys out of the house she sent a mental message to the confused Emma.

Only you, Wolvie, and I remember. For the others it never happened. I trust you with my secret. I trust the others but what they can not comprehend is better left forgotten.

Emma smiled at her first students wise words and swore before the night was over she would know the whole story. For now she would go warm up some food and make some tea. By her guess Wolverine should be there in less than two hours. Sighing, she thought about the things that had happened over the last couple of days that she would now have to repeat.

Eight days later, Jubilee celebrated being seventeen and a day for the first time in over four centuries.