By PhantomChajo
Epilogue - Forgiving and Letting go.
I don't remember anything after I passed out. I never heard the screams of terror as the Hunters became the Prey. Never saw the roof top turn scarlet with their blood.
Never felt the strong and gentle, yet so cold arms lift me up from where I lay, only to cradle me against a chest that was just as cold, yet somehow so familiar.
I awoke the next morning in my bed. Painfully sore, wings stiff and bandaged. A bottle of pain killers setting on the night stand next to the bed.
For the next several hours I drifted in and out of a troubled sleep.
Then Jake called me. He told me of Cindy's death. I told him to arrange to claim her body if no relatives came forward. Then hung up the phone.
My room turned blurry as tears of grief came. It wasn't long after that my friends and lovers were with me, sharing my grief. Those eight men and women that survived what I went though, who understood without needing words or explanations.
It was several days later, days that I don't remember, that Jake called again. We could claim Cindy's body the next day. He asked what type of funeral arrangements I wanted. I told him simple ones. Just me, my friends and the people from the club.
A week after Cindy's betrayal and death, we were laying her to rest. Tempest presided as the priest for the services. The day was guaranteed to be a perfect winter day. I was still on medication so everything was hazy still.
After the service, there was little to be said. I was last to leave. Dropping a handful of seeds into the grave. Come spring they would bloom into beautiful rose bushes. With blooms of glorious blue, silver, red, purple, gold, green, white and many other colors.
Turning I walked towards the waiting cars.
Tempest and Rook, Firebird and Taz, Psion and Shiva, and last but not least, Kitty and Gypsy. They all stood waiting for me. I looked at each and knew that I would heal in time.
No one seemed to notice the two groups of people that stood off to the side in the distance to either side.
One that consisted of an older man in a wheelchair, a younger man with ruby glasses, a pretty red-head next to him, a slightly hunched figure behind the wheelchair wearing glasses. On the other side of the older man was a pair of blonde men, one taller and proud with an Asian woman in his arms, the other with his hands in his pocket. Next to them was a Regal looking woman, with white hair. Behind her was a tall black man that had a look of a warrior. Crouched down in front was a rough man, chewing on a cigar. And last was a young couple, standing together, yet apart. The man was tall and slender, smoking a cigirette. He had long red-brown hair and sunglasses one. The Woman had auburn hair with a white streak though it.
Professor Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, Jean Grey-Summers, Henry McCoy, Warren Worthington, Betsy Braddock, Bobby Drake, Ororo Monroe, Bishop, Logan, Remy LeBeau and Rogue. The X-men.
The Other group was only a pair of men. One tall, wearing metallic looking armor, and a shredded looking cape, his skin death white, with eyes of blood red. A blood Red diamond on his forehead. Nathan Essex, Mr. Sinister. And the other, a scruff, feral looking blond man. Victor Creed, Sabertooth.
~Fini~