Author's Note: This is it, the last chapter!!! Thank you so much for your reviews for last chapter Karakin and DaemonRogue 13, and thank you for all your support during this fic. You really have been incredibly loyal to my fic and you truly have been my inspiration. I hope that you have enjoyed reading 'Tomorrow Never Dies' as much as I have enjoyed writing it, despite my terrible attempts at keeping deadlines! All that remains is to say, for the last time, I hope you enjoy this chapter...
Kitty and Pietro finally broke apart, gazing into each other's eyes for a long moment before Kitty pulled Pietro into the apartment. They were both speechless for a long time, Kitty too overwhelmed with emotion to speak, her only outward sign of emotion were the tears welling in her eyes; Pietro had an expression of wonder bordering on shock.
Pietro opened his mouth to say something but before he could Kitty rushed across the room and kissed him passionately. Pietro was slightly taken aback by this but he soon settled into the kiss and when they broke apart he smiled at Kitty. "What… how, how are you back?"
"It's a long story," Pietro said, grinning as he sat down at the table. "Most of it is really hazy - I can't remember much of what went on over the past couple of months. The most recent memory I've got is being found in the Hydra complex in Russia by Lance. I came here to you as soon as I got back to England."
"I can't believe you are still alive. When I heard that you were dead, I didn't think that I could go on living. It's been so hard without you, but now that you're back I know we can start our lives together again."
"Believe me Kitty, there is nothing I'd rather do than start my life again." There was something about the way Pietro said this that made Kitty pause, but she dismissed it in her happiness over Pietro's safe return. She gave Pietro another quick hug before going into the bedroom to unpack the cases with Pietro's clothes in.
Sam and Forge pulled up outside the Excalibur headquarters and got out of the car. Forge nodded to Sam, "that was a pretty good mission - we didn't have to kill anyone or even look very far for Pietro."
"I guess so," Sam said doubtfully. "It's just that something didn't feel right about the whole thing. Pietro seemed to be very acting strangely, and don't you think it was a little too convenient that there was no trace of this 'identical double' that Pietro said he was fighting?"
Forge shrugged. "Maybe, but I couldn't see anything weird about Pietro. You sure know how to ruin a good mood don't you?" Forge grinned as they walked through the doors into the lobby. "You have to focus on the negative side of things don't you."
"Xavier needs to see you two," Scott said as they passed him.
"How come?" Forge asked as they headed for the stairs.
"No idea, but I think Lance is with him." Forge grumbled under his breath as they walked up the stairs to the briefing room. When they pushed the door open they saw Xavier and Lance waiting for them, grim expressions on their faces.
"Sam, Forge, we know where Pietro is," Xavier said as they sat down.
Forge raised an eyebrow and looked at Sam with an expression of bewildered amusement. "So do we, he's at Kitty Pryde's apartment."
Now it was Lance and Xavier's turn to look bemused. "No he's not. He's been sighted about two miles away from that place by a member of the police."
Forge shook his head. "We took Pietro to Kitty's apartment just after we met him at the docks."
"You told us to do that," Sam reminded Lance.
"I know I did, but when I got back here, we got a report of a sighting, so we wanted to know what exactly had happened? How did Pietro get away?" Lance asked.
"He didn't," Forge said, getting exasperated by Lance and Xavier's refusal to accept the truth. "We took him to Kitty's apartment, dropped him off and came straight back here."
Lance and Xavier looked at each other, and Lance stood up. "I think we should go and check this out, sir."
"I agree," Xavier said, nodding. "Something doesn't seem to be right."
"Pietro did mention that he had been fighting a person he described as his 'identical double'," Sam pointed out, and Xavier and Lance turned to look at him.
"An identical double, that could explain everything," Xavier muttered to Lance.
"I know, but which one is on the streets and which one is at Kitty's apartment?"
"I don't know, you're going to have to go and find out."
"Right, let's go." Lance led Sam and Forge out of the headquarters and to his car, which was parked at the front of the building. "Be alert, we don't know what we might find at Kitty's apartment. We might stumble across something very weird, but whatever happens keep your head and follow my lead, got it?" Sam and Forge both nodded before Lance unlocked his car and the got in, and set off for Kitty's apartment.
Kitty had just finished unpacking one of the suitcases, so she went back into the kitchen where Pietro was scrutinising a row of photographs closely. They were pictures of Remy Le Beau's wedding that they had attended all those months ago. It felt like a couple of years had passed since then, but Kitty would have been surprised if a single year had passed.
As she entered the kitchen, Pietro turned to look at her, his face clouded with a mixture of anger and puzzlement. "What are these pictures?" he demanded angrily.
Kitty was taken aback somewhat by the question and failed to answer for several seconds. "They're pictures of Remy and Marie's wedding, remember?" she spoke slowly and deliberately, as if she was speaking to an unusually stupid person. Pietro turned and stared at the pictures with almost a wild look in his eye, before picking one of them up. It was a picture of Pietro, Kitty, Remy and Marie at the reception, that Kitty had always been particularly fond of, and had had framed in silver.
"I have never been there," he said quietly. "I don't know these people." Kitty wondered if Pietro had sustained some kind of mental damage while he had been away, because that statement made utterly no sense.
"Of course you know them, that's Remy and Marie." Kitty said evenly. Pietro weighed the picture in his hand and then threw it onto the floor, before brutally trampling it beneath his feet. Kitty watched the senseless violence in shock, before Pietro turned to her again, a look of horror on his face. He sagged down into a nearby seat, his hands shaking, before looking up at Kitty again.
"I'm so sorry about that Kitty, I, I don't know what came over me. Like I said, my memory is hazy, sometimes I can't even remember what went on before my captivity."
Kitty hurried over to him and took his hands in hers. "It's okay Pietro, it's okay. You've been through terrible things, but it's okay. I'm here for you, and I'll always be here for you."
At that exact moment the door burst open and Kitty whirled around to see who had come barging in. When she saw who it was, her heart leapt into her mouth. Pietro stood in the door, covered in blood and bruises, and looking pale and haggard. She turned and looked at the Pietro that was sitting next to her, then turned and looked at the one who had burst in. They both looked identical - it was the weirdest thing she had ever seen.
"Kitty," the Pietro at the door gasped, breathing heavily. "That, that's an imposter… Hydra agent."
"No, you're the Hydra agent," the Pietro next to her said, leaping up. "Don't listen to him Kitty, I'm Pietro."
Kitty backed away, her eyes flicking from one to the other as she headed towards the pistol that was hidden in a drawer. Excalibur had provided in case of emergency after she had been kidnapped by Erik Lensherr, and Kitty thought that this was pretty much an emergency. She pulled it out of the drawer faster than she had ever done before and pointed it at both Pietros.
"Don't move," she said with a lot less confidence than she had hoped. The Pietro in the door looked taken aback, whilst the Pietro sitting down stood up, and stepped away from the table.
"Kitty, don't shoot me - it's me, Pietro," the one who had just stood up said. Kitty shook her head, refusing to believe either of them, when the one in the doorway took a step forward.
"Stay where you are!" she ordered, and the Pietro in the doorway froze on the spot.
"It's me Kitty," he said. "I've finally come back." Kitty moved her gaze from one Pietro to another, shaking her head all the time until suddenly she spotted the ring she had given Pietro on their engagement on the finger of the Pietro by the table. She instantly moved her pistol to cover the Pietro by the door, her finger hovering just above the trigger. "Don't shoot me, Kitty," he said, and took another step forwards. Her finger tightened around the trigger, and before she knew what she had happened, the Pietro in the doorway had collapsed, blood streaming from his chest.
Kitty stared in horror at the Pietro bleeding to death in the doorway, then turned to look at the other Pietro. A hideous smile twisted his face, and he laughed at Kitty's expression of horror. "Finally, my imperfect fake has been destroyed. And by the woman he loved, how tragic."
"What are you talking about?" Kitty asked in shock, as the Pietro advanced on her.
"He was the Pietro you knew and loved. The Pietro that was an inferior copy of me. And now he has been destroyed." Kitty raised her gun to fire again, but before she could the Pietro was beside her and knocked the gun from her hand with a flick of his wrist. It skidded along the floor to rest next to the other Pietro's body.
"What are you?"
"I am perfect," the Pietro whispered, before grabbing her throat with his right hand and tightening his grip. Kitty desperately gasped for breath and he smiled sadistically at her struggles. "I have despised my imperfect copy for a long time, and you have no idea what joy I get from seeing him destroyed. The fact that you did it only adds to the enjoyment."
Kitty could feel darkness setting in, and knew that soon she would be dead, when suddenly the Pietro's head seemed to explode, like a rotten fruit. His grip slackened, and he slumped to the ground. Kitty fell to her knees, coughing and gasping for air, and looked up to see the other Pietro holding her gun in his hand. She crawled over to him and cradled his head in her hands.
"Pietro…" she started, but found a lump in her throat stopped her from speaking further.
Pietro seemed to realise what she was trying to communicate to her, and nodded. "It's alright Kitty. Just hold my hand," she nodded, tears streaming down her face. "Kitty," Pietro's voice was growing weaker by the second, so Kitty had to lean close to his face to hear him. "I always…" Pietro gasped and fell silent, his hand going limp in Kitty's. Kitty buried her head in her hands and cried for what seemed like an eternity, before she looked up and saw her gun on the floor, gleaming in the kitchen lights. She crawled over to it, and cradled it in her hands, looking at it thoughtfully.
Lance was nearly at Kitty's apartment when he heard a single gunshot. Upon hearing it he sprinted up the remaining stairs, closely followed by Sam and Forge, and charged into the apartment. What he saw in there felt like a physical blow to his heart. A few metres away from the door, Pietro was slumped on the floor with a fatal bullet wound in his chest; Kitty lay next to him with a hole in the back of her head and a pistol nearby. Some metres away, lay another dead body whose head had been torn apart by a bullet. As Forge and Sam joined him, he felt tears running down his face, but he made no effort to hide them. Forge went over and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, while Sam bowed his head in respect of the dead. For a long time theroom was silent, save for the distant sound of a bustling London street, floating in through the open window.