Part 5, another three years passes:

" Scott, one of these days….I swear I'll hit your brother on the head so hard he won't know what hit him," Betsy complained as she went from the kitchen in Scott's chambers to the livingroom with two glasses and a bottle of wine. Scott studied the bottle.

"  Fine year. From Angel?"

" Where else?"

Betsy seated herself across from Scott.

" So, what have my dear brother done now to upset you so?"

"Besides the usual rubbish about him wanting to kill you and wishing you were dead?"

Scott smiled kind of sadly.

"Besides that."

Betsy leaned over and covered Scott's hand with hers.

" Your brother is your greatest enemy. I know you won't believe it of him but I have a feeling…that he'll be your undoing. I wish you'll just let me kill him."

Scott shook his head.

" I…can't. I promised my father I'll protect Alex."

" Scott, besides his jealousy it was the business with your father four years ago which made him hate you so much. To save your father the pain of the brood growing inside him, you had to kill your own father. It can't have been an easy decision and I wish I had been there to support you," Betsy whispered in a surprisingly gentle tone. Scott smiled at her.

" You were with me. In my thoughts, in my mind…..in my heart," he whispered so lowly she wasn't sure if she had really heard him. " Besides, you had more important things to do. Freeing the rebel mutant called Marrow was important. She wouldn't have been able to resist the torture much longer."

" I know," Betsy admitted and remembered the strong but very young woman she had helped escape from the pens. It was rumoured that she was the X-man Gambit's adopted daughter, all the more reason for her to get out.

" I did what I had to do as did you," Scott said but Betsy sensed doubt in his thoughts even though his words were strong.

" You had no other choice. It was your father's will. He had given up the fight. He wanted to die. Your brother just didn't see that. He was blinded by his own grief and pain."

Scott nodded. They sat in silence for a while until Betsy said;
" We have been ordered to attack the horseman, Pestilence, tomorrow for his treason. It seems that all Apocalypse's horsemen gets delusions of grandeur sooner or later."

Scott nodded grimly.

" Will it ever end, Betsy? Any of it? The fighting, the killing….the blood running warm over our hands? Will it ever stop?" Scott asked quietly and looked her in the eyes.

" I don't know, Scott, but I do know that somewhere….somehow, there exists a better world. I'm sure of it," she smiled at him and walked around the table to kneel before him, taking his hands in hers. " And somehow, we'll find that world. Together."

Scott smiled at her and pulled her into an embrace.

" Together," he whispered and liked the sound of that. Together….never alone.

TBC