Reprint of and retroactive backup story to The X-Men #98 - The Sentinels Are Back! (April, 1976)

Jean Grey carries her groceries home through a snowy street. As she enters her apartment building, she begins to levitate her bags up the stairs telekinetically. Inside her place we see the groceries float from their bags to be put away and a clock chimes 6 o'clock.

Jean gets in a bath and stays there until the clock chimes 6:30. As she dries her hair she sees a note left by her roommate, Misty, telling her that she has the apartment to herself, that Scott called, saying he'd be by at 7:30, and encouraging her to have fun.

She checks a day-planner on a desk and on a page for Dec.21st, reads "Scott (encircled by a heart) dinner ??" She looks at a portrait of Cyclops on her desk, then telekineticly puts a record on. She levitate some clothes and a pair of sunglasses to playfully mimic Cyclops dancing with her.

As the clock strikes 7, she goes to her bedroom. Over her bed we see a poster for an adaptation of Nesbit's 1904 children's book The Phoenix and the Carpet. She moves to her bed where she takes out a picture of her with her parents from a bedside table; she looks thoughtfully at the picture and then stares up at the ceiling for a while before levitating some dresses from a closet and beginning to get ready.

As the clock strikes 7:30, Jean smiles and the doorbell rings. She opens the door to greet Cyclops, and the two exchange a kiss and an embrace before heading out into the snowy, winter night. As they walk off into the distance, Jean seems to make them glow, using her telekinesis to protect them from the snow.

From inside Jean's now darkened bedroom we're witness to an explosion from outside that breaks her window. Through the broken window we see an illuminated figure ascend skywards, and on the bed we see the picture of Jean and her parents shattered as the poster above her bed remains unchanged.

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