This story is written by Cannonball. The X-Men, and a bunch or other
X-People which are trademarks of Marvel Comics. This is unauthorized work
and no profit is being made from this work. The story and plot are copyright
of me (Jerod W. Fish). If you see any resemblance between any person living
or dead you need to see a psychiatrist.             
    If you would like to e-mail me and tell me what you thought my E-mail
address is “fish@tir.com” and I promise I will write back to you, if I can! :)
		   

        The Forgotten Trails

	Paige Guthrie, now fifty two years old, brushed her now grayish blonde hair
with a big black plastic brush. She looked at her reflection in the mirror.
‘I’m so old now.’ she thought looking at her wrinkled face. ‘My young life
passed by so quickly!’ she thought angrily.
	“Ready to go siniorita?” her still gray skinned friend Skin asked.
	“Just a second let me pack up a few more things.” she said dropping the
brush. She began to take pictures off of her mirror, she glanced at the
first one, it was Sam, her brother at his wedding with Lila Chenney. ‘She
screwed up yoah life Sam!’ she exclaimed in her mind. They were both
convicted as intergalactic felons and given the death penalty. Paige blamed
it all on Lila, it was her fault.  
	Lila made him leave the X-Men after he proposed to her and then all that
Paige got from him was letters. She didn’t see him again until Tabitha’s
(a.k.a. Meltdown, Boomer and Boom Boom) funeral. She shot herself.
	Paige didn’t understand why exactly Tabitha shot herself. She was happily
together with Rictor. Maybe it was her dad, he died from a liver failure,
because he drank so much. Later after Tabitha was buried, Julio moved in
with Benjamin Russell (a.k.a. Shatterstar) who had just retired from
X-Force. Soon after that Shatterstar died from the legacy virus, so Rictor
joined Excalibur with Rahne and they got together. A soon as Moira, after
nearly curing herself from the Legacy Virus, died Excalibur was disband.
They all tried to stay together but they couldn’t find a new headquarters. 
	 Daytripper, Shadowcat, Pete Wisdom, Colossus, and Nightcrawler joined the
X-Men, Rahne and Julio joined X-Factor, and Meggan and Britannic finally got
married and started a family. But Meggan had three miscarriages and Hank
McCoy decided that it was impossible for one of her race and a human being
to have children.
	In X-Factor Rahne and Julio stayed in love. The team gave up on Sabertooth
but Mystique they began to trust, until she went into a rage and shot Havok
and Forge. When she was stopped Lorna lost it and tore Mystique apart by the
iron in her blood. For killing Raven, Lorna got the gas chamber, the new
death penalty for mutants because the other ways sometimes failed. Then
X-Factor fell apart. Wildchild and the then more human like hologram Shard
left to go fight evil by themselves until one day Shard just vanished into
thin air and Wildchild was never seen again. Everyone thought that Rahne and
Julio would try to then live happily ever after but Rahne got the legacy
virus and died. Long before Julio could get over it he was shot by some
F.O.H members. 
	All of them were buried in the graveyard behind the X-Mansion. The mansion
was still open and had more young mutants in it than were there when Xavier
was alive. It was all thanks to Shadowcat, Colossus and Nightcrawler, they
had kept the place going. Shadowcat and Colossus had gotten married after
Wisdom was shot by gangsters who wanted his wallet. He was with Kitty at the
time. They had just gotten out of the movie theater and they were jumped.
When Wisdom refused to give up his wallet they shot he and Kitty. Shadowcat
phased in time to save herself but Pete died in her arms. Daytripper died
before that of the legacy virus. Kurt was shattered and all he had left was
the dream, so he helped Kitty and Piotr reopen the school. Less than weeks
later Jean, Scott, Bobby, Warren, Betsy, Logan, Bishop, Remy, Rogue, Hank,
Siryn, Storm, Caliban, Emma, Sean, Warpath, Jubilee, Quicksilver, Joseph
(a.k.a. Magneto), Sunspot, Domino, Cable, Risqué (a.k.a. Mirage), Magma,
Karma, Paige, Jono, Everett, Monet, and Angelo resurfaced and all wished to
become X-Men and fight for the dream. Paige remembered how happy it made her
seeing all that believed in Xaveirs dream. It didn’t last. Domino and Cable
wanted to reinforce X-Force so they gathered up Caliban, Sunspot, Warpath
and Risqué. They were making a lot of difference in society until they went
on a mission against the M.L.F and never returned. Jean only got horrible
psychic visions that Risqué had sent her.
	Just when Siryn and Sean Cassidy finally came to terms with each other,
Teresa was diagnosed with the Legacy Virus and died shortly. Then the Legacy
Virus was in at least 1 out of 5 mutant and killing them off quickly.
	Emma and Quicksilver found an odd attraction to each other and got married
and had two children, Wanda and Xaveir. Then right after Xavier was born
Pietro had a heart attack and died. Before Wanda Maximoff II was 13 she also
died of the legacy virus. She like her father had the power to run at an
inhuman speed. Xaveir, like Charles Xavier and Emma was a telapath.
	Jean and Scott had but one child and they named her Rachel. Scott died of
the legacy virus and Jean died of old age many year later.
	Jubilee and Everett tried to stay together but they were too different from
each other. Jubilee was pregnant with his baby when they got a divorce. They
both tried to stay with the X-Men but when Everett went blind he felt he was
no use to the team but Jubilee stayed.
	Hank still obsessed with curing the legacy virus died in the act. He
himself ironically died of it. Warren used nearly half his fortune in trying
to follow up his studies but gave up when Psylocke became a paraplegic.
	Kitty and Colossus had a child named Charles and he became an activist for
mutants to rule the earth. He was assassinated by the F.O.H at the age of
thirty. 
	Karma after giving up on the dream as the schools population decreased went
back to Asia and wasn’t heard from again.
	Magma in battle lost control of her power and killed herself and many
innocent bystanders.
	Storm, Iceman and Logan went on a quest to assassinate Graydon Creed and
did. At the loss of Iceman who was shot in the act. Ororo and Logan both
were convicted as murderers and given the gas chamber.
	Joseph and Bishop went on a mutants rights team up and died of old age
fighting for a new dream.
	Gambit and Rogue had moved down to Louisiana and came only to visit the
mansion one time. They had gotten married and had six children with French
names none of them ever surfaced to the X-Men. It was rumored that one of
the Le Beau children told someone Remy and Rogue died of the legacy virus
but nobody knew that for sure.
	Monet went back to Monaco where mutants were accepted and became the worlds
first mutant president.
	After running the school for a long time Colossus dies suddenly of the
legacy virus. No one ever knew he had it.
	A couple years later Rachel Summers and about a dozen other scientists
discovered the cure to the legacy virus and Nightcrawler, who was recently
diagnosed with it, was cured.
	Many years later Kitty and Nightcrawler bought a cabin in Maine where they
both retired and died of old age in peace.
	Angelo and Paige stayed best friends and Paige and Jono got married. Paige
and Jono moved to a house not far from Westchester. When Paige wrote to
Angelo that Jono had been beating her he immediately flew from where he
lived in LA. to pick her up and leave.
	Now in the present day Paige dropped the picture into her duffel bag. She
pulled the other pictures down and put them the bag also. She picked up her
text book from her school back when she was in Generation X and put it in
her bag. On her desk she noticed a picture of Jono on their wedding day. She
starred at the picture and the became angry and shredded the picture and
through the pieces on the floor. She had packed nearly everything she wanted.
	“You done yet chica?” Angelo asked impatiently.
	“Yes I think.” Paige said standing up.
	They loaded three of her over stuffed bags into the trunk of the green car
and they both slide in. A tear rolled down Paige’s cheek. She quickly wiped
it away so Angelo wouldn’t notice. Angelo looked at her and tried to smile
she just looked at him blankly. He drove for about thirteen minutes when
Paige stopped him.
	“Wait.” Paige said.
	“What?” 
	“Can we stop at the mansion before we cross the border?”
	“Sure, whateva you want chica.”
	He pulled into the schools crowded parking lot and they both got out and
interred the school. The walked through the schools endless twisting halls
and Paige stopped in Sam’s old room. She looked at his walls now covered by
somebody else’s posters. She thought about all that they discussed in that
room all that the argued, all the fun they had together. Then she walked out
and went into the headmasters office. ‘Dr. Jubilation Lee’ was printed on
the door they both entered. The vice principal Xavier Maximoff was standing
over a desk reading a paper.
	“Where's Dr. Lee?” Paige asked.
	“She’s out in the graveyard, it’s the anniversary of the death of her
friends Logan and Ororo.”
	“Oh, thanks.”
	Paige and Jono backed out of the room and went to the main floor and exited
out the back door. They both were surprised at what they saw. There was a
dozen roses and a X flag on every gravestone.
	“Hello guys.” came a scratchy old voice from behind them.
	“Jubilee!” Paige exclaimed running over to the short woman.
	“Husk, Skin!” she cried happily.
	“It’s been a long time since I got called that!” Angelo said smiling.
	“Boy oh boy, Angelo you look pretty old!” Jubilee said. Angelo could tell
she had not changed over the many years.
	“Thanks.” Angelo said sarcastically.
	Paige looked down, she was standing over Sam’s grave. She picked up one of
the roses on his grave. It pricked her finger.
	“Looks like you’ve been busy!” Angelo said to Jubilee cheerily.
	“Guess so.” she answered. They then both looked at Paige who was staring at
her bleeding finger.
	Then without a thought Paige starting with the cut pulled off her first
layer of skin and used her husking power to reveal a teenager form of herself.
	“Wish I could do that!” Jubilee joked.
	“Haven’t done that in a long time!” Paige said sighing.
	She then laid the skin over her brother’s grave.
	“Paige, remember what I always used to say?” Jubilee asked playfully.
	“What.” she asked quietly.
	“When I was with the X-Men, we never used to leave our skins just lyin’
around!” 
	Angelo and Jubilee laughed. Paige just cracked a smile.
	A harsh voice interrupted their moment, “Paige Starsmore?”
	“Yes that’s me.” Paige said shakily.
	Jubilee was full of fear when she saw the man was a police officer.
	“You are wanted for the shooting murder of Jonothan Starsmore.”
	Paige raised her head slowly, “I know.”