Hey! Thanks for the reviews, you guys. By the way, this is going to be the last chapter. An even twenty. I don't think I mentioned it in the last chapter but oh well.

Now here's some bad self-promotion: If you liked this story, please go read my other X-Men stories: Nothing Is Set In Stone, which is completed, and its sequel, Devil's Bargain. You don't have to read its predecessor to understand Devil's Bargain, so go on! Read it!

Also, I realize that Ling is or is very similar to a Mary Sue, being paired with Pyro and everything. My only defense is that this was my first story and I didn't know what a Mary Sue was. And since this is the last chapter, she will stay the way she is. So there! Anyway, enough of my ranting.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except Ling and the plot.

Special thanks to: Obiwanfan and Sethoz. Thanks for sticking with this story and reviewing! It means a lot, since I don't have that many reviews for this story. But that's okay. I had fun writing this story, so that's all that matters.

Thanks to (sorry if I forget anybody): crazy4horses, x2lover, highlitergrl, Pyrotic, laura mulwray, Starkeeper, mickEMousina, Khetala, zcjm72, madnuninblue, Kellie, ginger, chibi minamoto, Kayleigh-talitha, and ???Guesswho??? .

Anyway, on with the finale!

"Dad?" John questioned, glancing at Ling. She did not answer him. She didn't notice her boyfriend was talking. A shocked expression seemed to be permanently etched across her face.

But her father did not say anything. Instead, another man in a lab coat stepped in front of him. He had huge, thick glasses and was unshaven. There were heavy bags under his eyes. His eyes seemed oversized because of the glasses, and they were staring unblinkingly at Ling.

Ling stared right back at the man, and as she stared into his cold, malicious eyes, she felt a shudder pulse through her body. Something about that man was so familiar . . . and it repulsed her and filled her with a sense of dread.

But she felt a warm and sweaty palm connect with hers. Ling broke eye contact with the man and looked at John, managing a small smile.

Suddenly, as the man began to speak, his voice triggered a drowned memory . . . a memory buried when she became drunk with Stryker's serum . . . a memory she had wanted to forget. But yet it was the key to her past.

Screams could be heard downstairs. Alarmed, Ling rushed downstairs in time to see a bullet fly from the doorway to connect with her mother's forehead. She fell to the ground, blood seeping through the back of her head, a blank, dead look in her eyes. Ling put a hand on her mouth to stop from screaming, but it couldn't muffle it. Horror filled her eyes as she saw the men turn her way.

Water flew from the faucet to hit the men on the chest, but her powers hadn't advanced far enough to do much difference. The weak blast just made him wet. Panic and shock paralyzed her for a moment before her body was mobile again. She ran as fast as she could to her room and locked the door, shoving anything she could in the doorway.

But then she realized that she was stuck. She was on the second story with nowhere to run. Her mother was dead . . . who knew what had happened to her father?

Suddenly, she saw the doorknob rattle and turn. There was a frustrated kick to the door. Ling stayed at the very edge of her room,absolutely terrified. Suddenly, she realized that she should just climb out the window. There was a drain pipe near her room; she could escape that way.

But as she began to open the window, Ling cried out as a bullet narrowly missed her hands. Ling ducked and dove to the side of her bed. She held her hands on her hands, wising desperately to drown out the sound of the bullets pushing through her door-the last barrier from her mother's murderers.

Suddenly, she heard the door being kicked open. It was over. Soon she would just be another dead body on the floor, her own blood surrounding her, her eyes staring at her ceiling until someone came to put her in a body bag.

Ling closed her eyes shut, wishing and praying with all her might that this was all a dream.

But it wasn't.

The men came. Ling expected death to come, but instead she was being dragged into a large van, kicking and screaming. Except nobody could hear her cries. Her mouth was painfully gagged with a handkerchief, and she had been stuffed into a small wooden box. Ling could breathe at all. They had created one single air hole, but it wasn't enough. The box was too small.

Ling's claustrophobia had kicked in and she desperately tried to kick the box open. But desperation did not give her more power; it just drained whatever strength she still possessed.

Her head banged on the hard wood as she felt the box drop. Then, there was rough movement from beneath her as she felt the vibrations of a moving car. Ling felt her head hit the floor as the crate of the box was opened. She winced as she was roughly pulled from the box by her long ebony hair.

A man with huge muscles and an expression of repulsion on his face let go of her hair. He coldly and emotionlessly pulled a long, sharp needle from a small black bag. Ling's eyes widened with fear at the sight of the needle. She began to squirm and tried to crawl away, only to be pulled back. The man roughly pulled out her arm and stuck the needle into her. She winced as she felt the connection of needle to flesh. And it all went black.

When Ling woke up, she found herself surrounded in a cold, metallic, and unfriendly room. Someone was holding onto her arms, twisting it painfully behind her back. A man with huge glasses in a white lab coat stood slightly behind a large older man. He wore spectacles, and a small tight smile could be distinguished through his white beard.

"Give me the embedder and the serum, Trapt," The older man ordered coldly.

The other man fumbled a bit in his white lab coat and pulled out a metal cylinder of some sort. It looked like lipstick could be inside. The older man looked at him questionably.

"Where's the serum?"

"I think I know." He indicated to a guard, and he swiftly left.

All the while, Ling was watching all this with horror and fear. She couldn't help but stare at the metal cylinder in the hands of this emotionless man. Ling turned her head to the sound of the door sliding open.

Ling gasped in surprise as she recognized the man quietly following the guard. The guard had a tube of greenish liquid in his hand. The man's black hair was untidy, and his face was unshaven. Premature wrinkles hid his usually loving and youthful energy. Her dad stood next to the guard and stared into space with empty eyes.

"Daddy!" She cried out, "Help me!"

He did not answer. But at the familiarity of her voice, his eyes blinked rapidly, and he managed to ask, "Ling?" in a confused voice before his head was pushed over and a drop of the green liquid landed on the back of his neck. Then he stood back up and resumed the cold, stiff position he had before.

Ling was confused. What was happening? Trapt, the man in the white lab coat, handed the tube to the other man.

"Here, Mr. Stryker."

"Thank you," Stryker turned his attention to Ling. He advanced towards her. Ling could feel her body shuddering at the thought of what was about to happen.

"Please! Let me go!" She pleaded, "I haven't done anything wrong! I don't even know you! Please!"

Stryker stopped cold at her desperate words. He started to laugh, a bitter, cold laugh full of pain and bitterness. "You've done nothing? Just by being born, you have infected our world. Plagued us. A mutant is what you are. Nothing but an error in your genes. You're killing us, you killed my wife!" He raged.

"You're wife? But I don't know you . . ." Ling whispered weakly. Tears began to spring in her eyes.

He roughly pushed her head over. Tears flowed down her cheeks and hit the floor.

"I'm too young to die . . ." She pleaded again, but Stryker was deaf to the young girl's words. He opened the metal cylinder, and soft steam hissed from it. He pressed it onto the back of Ling's neck, causing her to cry out as she felt a painful burning sensation. Then she felt a soft, cool liquid touch her burnt skin. She felt it being absorbed.

Ling stood up. She struggled to move, struggled to speak. Then she began to walk, though she had not wanted to move. Ling willed herself to stop, willed herself to do anything voluntarily. But her body was no longer hers to command.

That's when she realized: Ling wasn't dead. But she seems to have landed in a hell on Earth.

Ling stared at the man she knew of now as Trapt with such hatred blazing in her eyes. She felt her hands being tightly clenched in anger. Then she realized that she was crushing John's hand. She let go of some of the pressure. (A/N: Yes I realize that "Trapt" is the name of a rock band, but I hate making up names so I borrowed theirs. Plus I think it kind of works, so . . . yeah.)

"It's unfortunate that you've been freed. At least under William Stryker, you were doing humanity some good," Trapt said, his voice sounding as if it hadn't been used in a while. "We'd almost washed you of your tainted existence and made it useful but now . . . how dare you join with these other mutants to work against us?"

"Wow . . . it really sounds like you're the one that's been brainwashed instead of me!" Ling burst out angrily, her teeth gritted. "You've put me, Yuriko, my father, and whoever else through hell! Do you want to know what it's like to be trapped in your own body, unable to do anything? I'll kill you!" Ling moved forward, her eyes menacing, slapping John and Bobby's restraining arms away.

Suddenly, she felt a familiar painful sensation in the back of her neck again, and her knees fell to the ground, one hand supporting herself, and the other clutching her head. Her head felt like it had been split in half.

Thinking quickly, Bobby noticed that behind the guy making the annoying "I hate mutants" speech, Ling's dad was pressing some kind of device. He ran to the side so he could get a good shot, and aimed an icicle at her father's hand. It struck true into his hand, causing him to drop the device, but he did not cry out in pain. His face still showed no emotion.

Trapt smiled. "You see, all that time of isolation has caused me to discover one thing . . . the trigger for the serum, even if you didn't get a daily dosage. Pain is the trigger. By using that device that your friend just destroyed, I can activate it . . . and you can finish your job. So these . . . mutations of yours . . . they're all thanks to me. Unfortunally, you were always in the company of those X-Men . . . so you couldn't fulfill your job without them interfering."

Ling got up, swaying slightly.

"You okay?" Rogue asked, her eyes darting around in alarm.

"What is it?" John asked.

Rogue pointed to the corners of the room. Many bright yellow "eyes" stared out at them. Slowly, mechanical creaking could be heard as huge humanoid robots emerged from the shadows.

"Crap." John commented.

Suddenly, she sensed something behind her. Ling turned around in time to see the same robots swing a hard metallic arm at her head, knocking her unconscious.

Rogue woke up with a splitting headache. Her hands were sore. She tried to move, but was pulled back with the sound of clicking chains. That's when she realized that she was handcuffed and chained to the wall. Then she saw that Ling was already awake, and glaring at Trapt, who was attending to one of his robots.

"Where are Bobby and John?" Rogue hissed to Ling.

Ling sighed. "I don't know. I didn't wake up soon enough. I'm getting lazy . . . I should have sensed the robots behind us."

"Well, none of us did," Rogue said.

"Well I'm supposed to be the trained assassin." Ling muttered.

Rogue stared at her. "Being a bit dramatic, aren't you?"

"It's this place," Ling explained.

"Right. So what do we do?"

Ling sighed. "We wait."

Trapt didn't talk to them. He merely worked on his robots, occasionally muttering to himself. Ling's father stood stiffly in the same spot, the blood from Bobby's icicle wound running freely down his hand, drops of red splattering the floor.

"Won't you at least bandage his hand?" Ling spoke up finally.

Trapt did not look up from his robot. "No."

"But it's going to get infected!" She protested.

"I could always make him a new hand," Trapt replied distractedly.

Rogue grimaced. This was gross. She was really beginning to worry about Bobby . . . at least she knew where she was. What if . . . what if he's dead? Did they maybe escape, and that's why this man isn't saying anything about them?

"Ling . . . who is this guy anyway?" Rogue whispered.

"His name's Trapt. He was one of the leading scientists on Stryker's team. He helped make the serum that Stryker used. I guess he wasn't at Alkali Lake when everyone else was killed."

Rogue was about to answer when Trapt's creaky voice filled the air.

"Go get them."

Ling's dad walked away into the darkness, his hand still bleeding freely. A few moments later, he emerged with a very quiet and stiff Bobby and John.

"Bobby!" Rogue cried out.

But Ling sensed something was wrong. "What are they doing?"

As they emerged from the darkness, Rogue and Ling let out gasps of alarm when they caught sight of their eyes. John's had turned from brown to blue, and Bobby's soft eyes had become hard and cold.

"Damn," Rogue cursed under her breath. There goes her dream of escape. She looked over her shoulder at the sound of water.

Ling had manipulated the water from a glass cup and tried to put it into her hands. But it never made it that far. It stopped as it hit some sort of an invisible shield and fell to the ground uselessly. Then she tried to turn herself into liquid. The rest of her body turned, but her arms didn't, and something from the chain shocked her. She was forced to become solid again.

Trapt shook his head. "You forget I know all your abilities. In fact, that wasn't an original ability of yours. I gave it to you. So I know how to block it." He sat down in his beaten swivel chair. "I haven't seen a mutant fight another mutant in a while. So these two are going to provide me with some entertainment. I deserve it."

"Very sure of himself, isn't he?" Rogue muttered to Ling, who nodded.

"That's what made him so sadistic," Ling answered.

Rogue looked worried. "How are we going to get out of here?" She whispered.

Ling looked into Rogue's eyes very seriously. "You are going to get us out of here."

Rogue gulped and looked at Ling. "Me? My powers are blocked! How can I help?"

But Ling shook her head. "My powers are blocked. Trust me, he doesn't have the technology. Trapt's bluffing. Remember, he thinks we're inferior and really stupid. He doesn't know anything about you. If you can get close enough to John to touch him, then you can melt the chains."

"Oh." Rogue glanced at Trapt to make sure he wasn't paying attention to them before answering, "How do we get him close to me?"

"Easy. When they fight, John's fire will melt Bobby's ice, which will turn into water. I can still manipulate it. I'll use it to push John towards you, and all you have to do is touch him. Let him go back into the fight. Once he uses whatever fire source he needs, use it to melt your chains, and then mine."

"What about them?" Rogue indicated the boys with her head, "How do we get them out?"

Ling hesitated. "I don't know. I haven't thought that far."

Rouge grimaced. "I guess we'll have to make it up as we go along."

Their planning was interrupted when Rouge screamed and ducked quickly, a sharp icicle colliding into the wall where her head had just been.

Fire and ice shot everywhere, often narrowly missing the two girls by inches. There was a broken robot sitting in the corner, smoke and sparks flying out randomly. John had used the tiniest flame to attack Bobby. Trapt sat in his beaten swivel chair, watching the display. The light of the fire and the frost from the ice reflected on his glasses, giving him an even more haunted look.

The way that John and Bobby fought wasn't how Ling had remembered fighting. Their movements were slow, almost sluggish. The mechanical way they threw their powers at each other showed lack of interest or lack of the blood drive that she remembered feeling.

Obviously Trapt has gotten lazy over the years.

Rogue waited impatiently, stamping her feet on the floor while she watched helplessly as they fought. Actually, watching them was extremely boring. There was no intensity whatsoever.

Finally, a puddle of water began to form on the floor. Rogue was the one to notice it and she nudged Ling's foot. Once she got her attention, she nodded her head towards the puddle.

Using her powers, Ling pushed John towards Rogue. His shoulder was going to hit Rogue's hand, except a bubble around the shackle merely shocked him.

"Little snag in the plan, isn't there?" Rogue commented dryly.

Ling shrugged her shoulders. "Can't help it."

Suddenly, Rogue had an idea.

"Hold John down," Rogue told Ling. She nodded and kept him down with the water. Even while on the ground, John was still mechanically throwing fireballs at Bobby. Ling threw a glance at Trapt. He was still sitting in his chair, staring at the fight. But he didn't seem to notice Ling using her powers. His eyes were glazed, and it seemed like he was deep in thought.

Using her other foot, she was able to take off one of her shoes. With a little more difficulty, she succeeded doing that with her socks too. Then, using her feet, she touched John's face.

"Sorry," She apologized to John, knowing how pissed he would be if he was conscious of what was happening.

Rogue gasped as she felt that amazing sense of power as she stole John's life force and his powers. She began to see the deep veins on John's face and on her foot. In the distance, she thought she could hear a girl's voice calling to her . . . but the absorbing feeling was too intoxicating.

Suddenly, she felt moisture all over her face. Rogue awoke with a start and immediately took her foot away from John. He lay there, still as a stone. But that didn't stop Bobby from coming at him again. On instinct, Rogue outstretched her hands as if her bare fingers would stop the blow.

Instead, fire shot from the same smoking robot circuit and melted the ice. Keeping an eye on Trapt and Bobby, Rogue began working on her shackles. After a few minutes, the shackles fell to the floor. Rogue was amazed that she was able to protect John and work on freeing herself without Trapt realizing what they were doing.

After taking turns of melting Ling's bonds and melting Bobby's icicles, both were free. Ling knelt down on the floor next to the unconscious John. He was out cold. Rogue wondered what Ling was going to try to do.

Ling slapped John's face with a loud smack! He stirred, but he didn't wake up. Ling stared at him, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Then she sighed, resigning to her next attempt. She slapped him with all her might.

John woke up instantly, crying out in pain, his cheek throbbing. He threw Ling a furious glare. "Did you have to do that?"

But she merely shrugged and outstretched her hand to help him up. Reluctantly, he accepted her hand, one hand still clutching his stinging cheek.

The firestarter noticed Bobby's blank eyes and tried to wake him up with fire. This should be interesting. He thought. John's eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he didn't see a trace of fire. Then he stared at his previous source and realized that there weren't any more sparks flying from the robot.

"We're screwed." John commented grimly.

Bobby threw another icicle, which they easily ducked.

"He made us fight like this?" John complained, "This is no fun." But his casual comment was only a mask of what he really felt. In fact, John would rather forget the whole thing, that feeling of suffocation and helplessness. Pyro has never been one to ask for help, and he liked to be in control. But then, he didn't even get to decide where his body moved.

He looked up in time to see Rogue moving towards her boyfriend. As another icicle slowly formed in his hand, she grabbed his body towards her and kissed him passionately.

Immediately veins started appearing on both of them. But this time Rogue was ready and ignored the rush. She let go of Bobby earlier than she had let go of John, and he crumpled to the floor. Rogue poked Bobby's side with her foot gingerly, and saw him stir.

Well, at least we won't have to wait for him to wake up, She thought.

Rogue winced when she saw pain reflecting in Bobby's eyes.

"Uh . . ." Bobby pointed at Trapt, whose eyes were still vacant, "Does he usually sleep with his eyes open?"

John stared at Bobby in disbelief. "Who cares? Let's just go!"

But out of the corner of his eye, Bobby saw Trapt's finger reaching for a button on the control panel. He quickly send a piece of ice Trapt's way, but he wasn't fast enough. Trapt's finger connected with the button, and the robots began forming in a line.

On the large computer screen behind them read "Self Destruct System Activated".

"Are you kidding me?" Bobby gasped in horror.

Ling wheeled to face Trapt. "Are you crazy?"

The man smiled. "No. I've been down here to long. There's no point to remain here with no real purpose. So now I'm going to take care of you . . . and any other mutants on the surface."

"But . . . but there are people up there! Non-mutants!" Rogue exclaimed.

"All martyrs for a greater cause."

John groaned. "Damn. We can't just leave now can we?"

Trapt then started laughing. Angrily, Bobby began to advance towards the computer controls, only to have the robots send him flying.

"Smart, Bobby." John smirked.

Bobby glared.

John looked around. "I need some firepower." Then, a mischievous smile settled across his face. "Bobby, I need you to go blow up some robots!"

Damn it, John, we don't have time for games! Bobby thought. But he knew that if he tried to freeze over the computer with his ice, the robots would just do something to mess his attack up, like before. Iceman sighed and sent some icicles rapidly at the center of each robot. The machines tried to block them, but the multiple attacks got them in the end. It blew up in fire and smoke.

Grinning, John took the fire and sent it at Trapt with an almost maniacal glee in his eyes.

Trapt screamed as the fires licked at his skin. His huge glasses fell to the floor, only to have its delicate glass to be crushed under Trapt's frantic feet. The man was screaming in agony. As Ling watched Trapt roll on the floor in an attempt to dim the flames, the conscience that she had recently regained had disappeared. She smiled in satisfaction as she watched the man suffer a slow death.

But it wasn't enough. Creating a strong water blast to separate the two stupid machines blocking her way, she passed her non responsive father to stand in front of Trapt. Then, using her powers, she doused the flames.

"What are you doing?" Rogue demanded, "Come help us!" She and John were both setting everything they could on fire while Bobby took care of the robots. But they didn't know how to shut the computer down.

Ling was deaf to their frustration. All there was in front of her was the prey. One more job to take care of. She relished the satisfaction of seeing Trapt's horrified and fearful eyes staring upon her merciless expression.

She put her hand over his mouth and let the water fill up his mouth and throat. He began to shudder, gagging and struggling. Ling pressed her hand harder onto his mouth. He began to flail, his eyes bulging and turning upwards. Trapt's entire body was shuddering as if he was having a seizure.

But Ling's concentration was shattered when a burst of fire flashed in front of her face. Surprised, she stepped backwards, releasing her grip. Trapt vomited the water in his mouth, and then fell the ground, clutching his throat.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Rogue raged. "We don't have time for this!"

Ashamed at her loss of control, Ling looked down at her feet.

"Damn it!" John cursed. "It's still going."

"Then protect the upper area."

Bobby turned around. "What?"

"You can activate the steel barriers so that when this place is blown up, it willprotect those above ground." It was Ling's father.

Ling gaped, filled with emotions she couldn't quite place. Amazement, shock, joy, uncertainty . . .

"Do you know how to do that?" John demanded.

"Yes."

"Then do it!"

Ling's father strode over to the sparking controls. His hands hovered over them for a moment, then began working. Despite the loud crackling of fire in the room, they could hear loud metal sounds above them.

"It's done."

Rogue frantically looked around. "Is there a way out though?"

The newly freed man nodded. "Yes. There's an emergency exit. Follow me."

He ran off towards the side of the room. Bobby and Rogue looked at each other for a moment, and then nodded. They can trust him. The X-Kids followed him into the darkness.

They could hear a loud explosion from behind them, causing them to run faster. Finally, they made it to . . . a dead end.

But then Ling's dad punched in a five digit code into a panel, revealing some sort of elevator.

"Get in!" He yelled urgently,his first sign of emotion.

They all scrambled in. The elevator shot upwards.

"Oh my god," Rogue whispered as a bright light emerged from underneath them. The fire shot up quickly, chasing after its prey. But then the fire was closed off by a steel barrier. They all breathed a sigh of relief. Rogue embraced Bobby and didn't let go until the elevator came to a stop.

When they stepped outside, they found a sunny, warm day. The science building was bustling with curious little kids, new inventions, and people oblivious to an explosion right beneath their feet.

"We'd better find the Professor. Whatever Magneto was after . . . it's long gone now." Bobby said.

After searching the entire building, they were able to find the adults. Needless to say, they weren't very happy to learn that the teens had gone off on their own.

"You could have been killed!" Scott scolded.

But the Professor noticed the new, silent man that stood next to Ling. "Who's this?"

Ling looked up at him. She hesitated before answering, "My dad."

"Why don't you meet us back at the jet?" Xavier suggested.

"O-okay." Ling stuttered. They all walked past them. John gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before giving her his trademark smirk.

There was an awkward silence.

"I'm glad you escaped." Her father said.

"Me too." She answered quietly. Then, letting her human emotions take over, she gave him a big hug. He seemed surprised at first, unsure what to do. Then, he put his arms around her and hugged her back.

"You do realize we just escaped another life-or-death situation?" Rogue commented.

"Yep." Bobby replied.

They were in the Blackbird. Once the teens got in, they immediately collapsed in the seats. Rouge squeezed Bobby's hand lovingly.

After explaining what happened down there, they were joined by Ling and her father. John smiled. He hadn't seen her so happy in a long time. At least she got some fragment of her family back. Unlike him. But it doesn't matter now. The X-Men were his family.

"It looks like Erik's plan has been foiled again." Xavier said with a smile.

"He'll probably try something again soon," Storm added.

"But by then, we'll be ready to take on anything he throws at us."

With that, the Blackbird took off and disappeared into the vast and beautiful sky.