My muse is being nice for the time being (he has a stoogie and a cheap beer) so you may proceed in peace!)
We soon got back into the old routine, except with new people. Tristan as I had guessed turned out to be a valuable asset to the team both in battle and in recreation, Bounce gained more control over her powers and soon became one of the first people you asked on a night out with you, and Richard was well, Richard he spent a lot of time with Hank researching but when he did come out with us he was generally good company even if he wasn't the life and soul of the party.
We continued like this for 2 years and Evelyn was fatally wounded in battle, I can honestly say that was one of the darkest times we've had as a team, it was a sad time she had known she was going to die and had done her best to make us feel better, the founding members were with her as she died holding onto Jubilees right hand and Mel's left hand. Evelyn's death will be a moment etched into the recess's of my mind for all eternity, it haunts me in my darkest moments and can mar any other memory of the time we had before her death. It seemed such a shame to me to lose someone with so much drive and compassion of all of us she was the one who knew where she was heading the most clearly, she was so close to achieving her goals she was going to be heading to college later that year and she was going to train to be a teacher and teach here at the institute. As a mark of respect to her we always have fresh roses in Retribution X's wing of the institute and her bedroom shall never be occupied by anyone else, not yet a while anyway it hurts so much to go into her neat room, where her textbooks lay untouched awaiting the return of their attentive reader, and know that her light, her essence was snuffed out so suddenly and so violently, it was not the death that one such as Evelyn deserved. Of all of us Jubilee was the most effected by the death of her companion, her best friend, it got to the point where she found it difficult to even walk into the kitchen where Evelyn had cooked for us so often with out bursting into tears, and she never took the elevator where her and Evelyn had once gone on their infamous drunken rampage. As a way to help her grieve and get over Ev's death Wolverine took Jubilee on one of his trips away, we didn't see her for 6 months and when she came back she did seem different, happier then when she left but we all know that a year on she still weeps herself to sleep.
Other changes occurred in the team after the death of Evelyn, Wolverine reclaimed his bedroom with the X-men and so his place in the team (which he had never fully left) although he did still accompany us on the more tricky of our missions, and occasionally when asked by Jubilee he would stay the night in his bedroom here which we left untouched.
Other changes were more to sleeping arrangements within our part of the mansion, Melody, who previous to Evelyn's death had slept each night I Kurt's bedroom now moved with him back into her old one, mostly because I think she drew some kind of comfort from being near to us her family, especially the 4 remaining founder members.
Bobby is also now increasingly becoming a perminant fixture with us, where he will spend the odd night with Kat (in the guest room , no one was brave enough to spend a minute let alone a night in Kats bedroom).
Other than that things tick along pretty much the same with us we still get drunk (but legally now), we still argue, we still pull pranks on the Brady Bunch (otherwise known as the good family Summer's), Wolverine is still known in these part's under the alias Elvis, in a similar way that Sabretooth is Scuzzlebutt and Hank the dictionary. Have we matured at all? Not on your life! Mordekai has remained in my mind all this time and he will remain there until the day that I die, then maybe then his soul can truly find peace for the first time since he departed from the world of living (before he entered the vortex).
I stop typing momentarily to stare out of my bedroom window to look at the view and think back to the times when we were the all girl team of 5 (oh and Wolvie) and yearn to go back to them but I know we never can, like we can never repair Scott's brakes (Kat tried to fix them) and we can never bring back Evelyn. I sigh hands hovering over the keys of my laptop and wish I could type that immortal phrase and we all lived happily ever after, because how often in reality does that come true? So I shall merely leave this an open ending and maybe one day I will again take to my trusty computer and maybe, just maybe you won't have heard the last of us. So until we meet again, I bid you farewell and goodbye.
The End?
The hell it is!!
Did you like it? Don't worry it isn't the last of Retribution X. Retribution X number 12 (Christmas Capers!) is in the pipeline and shall be finished at the earliest opportunity as will the new Chapter Of X Big Brotherhood!
Did you find Evelyn's death a bit of a anti climax, I know Oracles Maiden did, but there is method to my madness (well kinda). Here are my reasons for killing her 1) Evelyn was getting boring to write. 2)Because I could! 3)I felt the team needed revamping a bit (the X-men's always having people snuff out and getting new members)
I killed her the way I did cause I thought she should die unobtrusively in the fashion she lived her life!
Ok that was all for the benefit of those who actually gave a damn that she died, but if you have any favourite Evelyn moments (mines in Possessions, Ballet and fancy dress when she runs in asking if anyone's seen a naked Tibetan man in a Stetson carrying a hundred dollar bill).