As the Blackbird flew through the cloudless azure skies towards Genosha, the entire team sat in absolute silence. No one had said a word since they had taken off and the atmosphere was so tense that you could cut through it with a knife. Logan sat gazing out of the window, thinking deeply about the bomb Jean and the Professor had dropped on them earlier that afternoon.

Jubilee? In Genosha? Is that where she¡¦s been for the last five years?

Logan went over and over it in his head, trying to understand what this meant to him, but he became even more confused and upset by it. Jubilee had been gone for five years and throughout that time she had never even contacted them to tell them if she was okay. The question was why would she wait until now to contact them? That was the question that Logan had been trying to answer himself for the duration of the journey. She must be in some kind of trouble, he thought, if she calls us after all this time. Then it hit him- what if this wasn¡¦t Jubilee? What if this whole thing was a trap and they were using someone or something to copy her voice to make them come to Genosha. But then again, that wouldn¡¦t make sense either. Who would be after them from Genosha? The Sentinels had been destroyed long ago, and there were certainly no more mutant slave camps on the island any more- they¡¦d all been closed down after the Republic of Genosha collapsed four years ago. Genosha had been relatively forgotten until now.

Logan sighed and continued to look out of the window. He just wasn¡¦t going to learn any of the answers to these questions until they got to where they were going. The sooner the better, he thought to himself, I need to see her again.

It was early evening by the time the X-Men arrived at Genosha. And as they flew over the co-ordinates given to them by the message, there was nothing to be seen but a large empty valley.

"Well, we¡¦re here, but I can¡¦t see anything." said Cyclops, scanning the terrain below them.

"I don¡¦t get it. If there¡¦s nothing here, then how can someone transmit a message? It seems very strange to me." Beast said, clearly as confused as the others. Cyclops circled the area, trying to see if there was anything at all out there.

"Nothing," he said eventually, "Absolutely nothing out there at all."

"Land ¡¦er, Cyc. Then maybe we can have a look round on foot." suggested Wolverine. Obeying his request, Cyclops brought the Blackbird into land on a flat area near the cliff of the valley. When the Blackbird was secure, he sent Storm and Rogue out to scout the area.

"We wait here until Storm and Rogue get back. Then we¡¦ll decide what to do." Cyclops explained to the remaining members of the team.

"Jean, are you sure that this is the place." asked Beast. Jean nodded;

"Pretty sure. Cerebro gave me rough co-ordinates and it is never wrong. Trust me, we¡¦re here." she said.

The silence that had gripped them before took over as they waited for Storm and Rogue to return. All were equally anticipant to find out what the message could mean about Jubilee, and if it were her who sent the message, they would be reunited with her once again.

Outside Rogue and Storm searched the nearby area. The two women could not see anything, just a bunch of cliffs leading down to an empty, barren valley. Rogue landed on the ground and began to walk in a straight line towards the Blackbird. She looked around as she did so, trying to see if there was something she had missed before. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw something. Something flashing. She turned to look closer and a little way behind her was a large black doorway that just seemed to have appeared out of thin air. It was positioned a few metres from the cliff. She ran up to it, and on further investigation, discovered that it was some kind of tunnel. It must obviously lead somewhere. She pressed a button on her communication device to summon the others to her discovery.

The X-Men gathered around the tunnel, examining it curiously. Beast moved in for a closer look as Cyclops used a remote control to put the Blackbird into camouflage mode;

"Fascinating!" he kept saying over and over again.

"Let¡¦s try walking through it?" Cyclops suggested. It seemed a solid enough to him and surely if something bad were about to happen, Wolverine would have sensed it by now.

"Well, what else can we do?" said Storm, "There is no point just standing here."

The team agreed with her. That message had to have come from somewhere, and this tunnel seemed to be the only sign of unusual activity in the area. Led by Cyclops, one-by-one they walked into the black hole that was the tunnel.

The tunnel was dimly lit with tiny lights on the ceiling. Looking around, it reminded them of a space basement- the walls, ceiling and floor were metal, and along the ceiling was a series of tubes and wires. There was a light humming sound in the distance, like that of a power generator. The whole atmosphere was making Cyclops feel nervous. They didn¡¦t know what this place was, and he didn¡¦t like the idea to leading his team into the unknown. Wolverine walked next to him. He felt equally uncomfortable but very alert. Whatever this place was, he didn¡¦t care. All he cared about was finding Jubilee. The walked on for another few moments until at last, they reached the end of the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel was a large doorway or gateway of some sort. This was clear by the markings on it. High above the gateway was a sign:

THE DREAM REALISED¡¦

That¡¦s what it read. It made absolutely no sense to any of them. This tunnel, a dream realised? There had to be more to this place than just a dark tunnel. Whatever this ¡¦dream¡¦ was, it was blocked by the gateway directly in front of them. Beast looked around the small area, trying to find some way of opening the door. He felt along the smooth metallic walls, trying to find a switch or lever that could open the gateway which now hindered their progress. As he searched, the remainder of the team talked amongst themselves.

"The dream realised¡¦what do you think it means?" asked Jean, repeating the slogan out loud. Rogue shrugged and then folded her arms neatly across her chest.

"Could mean anythin¡¦. One things for sure, I don¡¦ think it were talkin¡¦ ¡¦bout this place." she said, matter-of-factly. Gambit looked around, and smirked.

"Never know, chere. Dis could be someone¡¦s idea o¡¦ heaven!" he muttered, trying to make light of the situation. No one found the joke funny, least of Wolverine who found Gambit¡¦s humour annoying.

Beast kept searching. There had to be a way to open this gate. He ran his large blue fingers along the wall. If there were a switch of some kind, he¡¦d find it. Suddenly, he felt a bump in the wall. His eyes flashed back to where he had felt the bump. There was a small button on the wall. Beast examined it. Could this open the door? Throwing caution to the wind, he pushed it.

Suddenly there was a loud clicking sound, followed by the sound of metal rubbing against metal. The X-Men were taken by surprise and readied themselves for any possible assault. The tunnel rumbled as the gate creaked and slowly but surely began to open. A bright light shone through the tiny opening at the bottom of the gateway, but as it slid further upwards, the bright became more even, illuminating the dark tunnel. The bright light was blinding that they had to turn away briefly until their eyes adjusted to the light. Suddenly, the creaking and rumbling stopped and a steady light was pouring through the now open gateway. Wolverine, still squinting in the light, turned back to the gateway and was amazed at the sight that lay before him¡¦

A city!

Wolverine stepped towards the gateway to get a closer look. Behind the gateway was a small room with a glass window. Upon entering it, the small room reminded him of an elevator. From this position, they could overlook the entire city. The others who were equally amazed at what they now saw soon followed him. This was a city that was completely invisible to the naked eye and to radar. The city must have been built in the valley first then camouflaged to keep it secret from the outside world. Indeed, it must be a technological paradise.

Beyond the gate was a vast and glorious urban paradise of tall buildings, highways and streets. The sight of greenery decorating the sidewalks and the balconies of apartment buildings complimented these. Every here and there were screens the size of billboards on the side of buildings. Wolverine wasn¡¦t too sure what purpose these served but they reminded him of TV screens. The grandest sight of all was the tallest building in the city- a great structure, beautifully designed and complimented by a beautiful park which lay before it. The city seemed to burst with life as people went about their everyday business. A sense of music and peace was in the air also.

As they stood, overlooking the city from the gateway, they heard a computerised voice above them say:

"Welcome to Eden!"

"Eden? This is Eden?" asked Cyclops to the others. Gambit and Rogue looked at each, clearly as confused as their leader. Beast stood in silence, as did Storm. Jean shrugged.

"How could we have missed this on the Blackbird¡¦s radar. I mean, this place is huge?!" asked Jean.

"They must have some way of cloaking the city." suggested Cyclops. Wolverine frowned.

"A city this size? It¡¦d take a hell o¡¦lotta power and technology to do that." he said, "What I wanna know is why would they do that? Have they got somethin¡¦ ta hide?"

"Who knows?" replied Cyclops. He paused briefly before going on, "We needn¡¦t concern ourselves with that now. We¡¦re here to find the source of that communication and investigate it. That¡¦s our prime directive¡¦"

"An¡¦ to find petite." interrupted Gambit. Gambit, too, wished to find Jubilee as much as Wolverine did. It was he after all who befriended the girl in the first place and brought her to the X-Men. He felt responsible to her too.

Cyclops nodded, "Yes, if it WAS Jubilee who sent us the message. We can¡¦t be too sure about that."

You jerk, he thought. It was Jubilee! All the evidence pointed that way. The voice on the message matched with her vocal patterns in Cerebro¡¦s database, and who else would call them for help.

"Please step into the elevator." The computer voice spoke again. Obeying the voice¡¦s instructions, the X-Men gathered into the small room, that was in fact an elevator, and waiting patiently as the gateway closed behind them. The elevator began it¡¦s descent down the cliff face to the city below.

The elevator stopped at the bottom with a light thud, and the glass window parted before them to let them depart. Upon stepping out, the X-Men looked around them. They now stood on a street that was full of life. People shopping, working, eating and playing. People greeted each other with a hug or a handshake, and business was conducted with the outmost of peace. Jean noticed a group of kids coming towards them. They were laughing softly and joking around like kids do. But the thing she noticed most was the fact that they were a mixed group of humans and mutants.

"Look at that." She said, pointing the kids out to Cyclops. Cyclops raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Kids," he said, "always playing about." Jean shook her head.

"That¡¦s not what I meant."

Cyclops looked again, closer this time and he saw it too. His mouth opened in surprise.

"I never would have believed it¡¦" he said, his voice distant with surprise. Rogue was curious so she looked too.

"What¡¦s so amazin¡¦ ¡¦bout a couple o¡¦ kids?" she asked.

"Mutants and humans, Rogue. They¡¦re a mixture¡¦and they¡¦re at peace with one another. If you look around, it¡¦s the same with everybody here." Jean said, softly. She couldn¡¦t quite believe it herself. Rogue found herself looking around the street- she saw it too. Wolverine, Storm, Beast and Gambit saw it also.

"I don¡¦t believe it. Dis can¡¦t be happenin¡¦!" said Gambit.

"That¡¦s what the sign above the gateway meant. ¡¦The dream realised.¡¦ This city is a place were mutants and humans can live together in peace." Jean explained.

The X-Men continued to look around them, marvelling at this true paradise.

Wolverine sank back into his thoughts. This truly is a Garden of Eden. But where does Jubilee fit into all this?

TO BE CONTINUED¡¦