"And thus I conclude our memorial ceremony with a moment of silence." Bobby Drake said from the podium, slightly bowing his head. As he did so though, his eyes drifted upwards to watch the crowd before him. The crowd numbered in the hundreds, possibly even several thousand. It was mid-July, and in Arizona, you don't want to attend an outdoor ceremony for very long. And especially not one as controversial as this.

Bobby dropped his eyes back down to the podium for a moment, remembering the last two months. He had been taken from his cell one day around the first of June, nearly a month and a half ago now. The camp officials had briefly told him he had been awarded a position of sorts and would be overseeing things from now on. Then, it was out of the camp's gates and into the throngs of the eager press. Through scattered snippets and short conversations, Bobby quickly learned that the current President, whom was now the former President after his Suicide had left him the chairman of some new mutant committee. This came as quite a shock, as prior to that day he hadn't even heard of the man.

But, everything had been made clear in the following days. Once he checked into a hotel – with money given to him by this McIntosh guy; Bobby soon received a letter from an old friend. It had been several pages long, the first just describing the immediate situation, and the rest were bundled together retelling the time he had spent since they had last seen each other. It had all been hand written on stationary emblazed with the presidential seal, and even personalized for McIntosh. Then a few days later, another letter arrived, this one legally explaining his new position in the government, should he choose to accept. Of course he did, and quickly he moved to hasten the release of the remaining prisoners of Base One.

Within the first two weeks, over seventy percent of the prisoners had been released, and he had returned to the mansion. The mansion had been left deserted in the three years the residents had been in captivity. The lawns and gardens overgrown, casting a jungle atmosphere which became more of a haunted mansion atmosphere as night fell. Windows were blown out, the rooms long ago looted. But the rooms underground remained untouched, as did the secret catacomb-like tunnels. He had also found a cache of the Professor's personal documents, including old letters between him and Eric and his will. At the time though, he had still assumed the Professor was coming back, so he had left the files alone.

Slowly, with funds Xavier had left in case of such an occurrence as had just happened, Bobby began to restore the school and locate students as they were released. He also kept the mansion open to all the dislocated and traumatized detainees as they were released in small groups. One day he got a phone call from Logan, and they arranged to meet in a small town several hours away from the mansion. Over drinks Bobby listened as Logan told of the days he spent planning and plotting with Mystique and John. Of the terrorists they had hired, who had mysteriously disappeared within hours of release. And finally, what it was like to go through the cells. Finding the bodies of Scott and Xavier, along with the numerous bodies of unknown mutants. Then, Logan had just gotten up and left, leaving Bobby alone in the bar. That was the last he had seen of Logan until today. He had spotted him coming in to the service.

Bobby lifted his head and saw people starting to stand and leave. He turned around and his vision was filled with the black marble wall that stood behind him. Standing at six feet tall around fourteen feet long was the memorial, engraved with the names of the victims of Base One to date. He reached out and ran his fingers across one name that stood out from the neat columns. 'Marie "Rogue" D'Ancanto'. A sigh escaped his lips as he turned and walked off the stage.

As Bobby moved to withdraw his dark sunglasses from his jacket pocket, he came face to face with a long forgotten friend. John Allerdyce. Bobby paused, staring at his former friend. It had been over six years since he had seen John. God, how he had changed. Yet at the same time he was the same person as the teen that used to be his roommate. Then their eye's connection was broken by a flurry of passing people. Bobby let himself get swept away. He kept his eyes from looking back to where he knew John remained. He didn't have the time to rekindle broken friendships. No time to argue about years long past, or to listen to John complain about his problems. Bobby kept walking out towards where his car and driver were waiting. He passed by press people, and inquisitive citizens posing to make a comment or offer questions. He couldn't stay any longer, haunted by the ghosts of the past.

But, when he reached his car, a foreign luxury car that sported a spotless black paint, Bobby hesitated. He turned around and cast another gaze backwards. He had to face the past sometime. His eyes caught John's still staring gaze and noticed him turn to look at another group of people. In the distance, Logan stood alone- wearing his worn leather jacket, head still bowed. Not too far away was Ororo and Nightcrawler, the only remaining X-men. Then, walking up behind John was Mystique. She stood there calmly in her natural, bare blue-skinned glory, her hand gently reaching up to touch John's shoulder. She leaned over to whisper something in his ear and upon hearing this, he bowed his head.

Perhaps it was curiosity that caused Bobby to walk over there. Perhaps the need to bring closure to everything after all this time. Maybe it was because of their history he couldn't just into that car and drive away. Maybe it was all of these things – or maybe none. Either way, Bobby Drake walked over with confident strides and stood expectantly in front of his friend. He told him they needed to take a ride together before leading him over to the waiting car.

Once inside, John looked up at him. He asked where they were going.

"Home," Bobby replied, turning to look forward. "Home." He repeated softly.

__________________________

A/N: And thus, we conclude 'Night'. Eighty-eight days later, twenty-eight Chapters and over forty-five thousand words later, we are finally done! Hope y'all enjoyed it, I never imagined it would go this far (or have such great reviewers!)

Speaking of reviewers, I want to thank each one of you, but I especially want to thank Pendragon4, Kasey22, Guin, TornadoAlly, Musiqboy, and more recently, Du Soleil Oriental, for all their great and continuing reviews. You guys are the best!

Well, here we go- the end. Hope I see some of you again on my next piece!

~ Remnants-2011