"Ouch!"
"Eek! Like, I didn't know you were awake!"
"I am now." I sat up. The area was green, not barren at all. There was no cavern, just the blue sky with a slight amount of fluffy white clouds. There was grass everywhere. And right in front of me, there was an oak. "We're home." I said in wonderment.
"Yeah! Isn't it great! I have to talk to mom and dad, they're probably freaking, and I need to start on my computer again, I'm out of practice, and oh my gosh! How much studies have we missed?" Kitty started rambling in something I recognized as hysterical relief.
We were back! We were alive! We were home…
I felt a pang of sadness for a moment. I wish I could have said goodbye in person to everyone instead of sending it through Crepuscule.
I wish you the best, Crepuscule, you and everyone else back there.
I got up and looked around. Most of the others were lying on the ground, rolling like children on the grass and reveling in the feeling of home.
"Does anyone know where we are?"
"Jean called the Professor already." Rahne said from her perch on a fallen log. "He and Mr. Logan should be here soon. You arrived later than us, you know. We were worried."
"I'm fine." I said with a smile. "I just got started later, that's all."
"Want to talk about it?"
"No. I can't. I promised."
She nodded. "Promises are meant to be kept. I understand."
"Thanks."
The roar of the jet drowned out any conversation beyond that. A ragged cheer came out of all of us, even myself, when the Blackbird landed.
We held our breaths as the doors opened…
Letting out a lean, much taller than I last remembered him, floppy eared young mutant.
"MOMMY!"
I didn't have to lean down to catch him up in my arms. He was up to my shoulder easily. Taller even. He was bending down slightly.
I hugged him tight. Tighter than I'd hugged my brothers or sisters or even my parents. My eyes began to burn with tears.
He looked up into my face.
"What took you so long?"
I smiled. "I had some things to deal with, but I'm home now."
The rain pattered softly against the windowsill. There had almost been an international incident when we had been found not far from where I later learned Julian had been camping. The parents were furious, and almost yanked a few of us out, but succumbed to reason and just issued dire warnings to the Professor.
I watched a lone drop slowly slide down the window. Its path seemed to go straight then turn off at the last second.
The main door outside was covered in water. It was a day for everyone to stay inside and get reacquainted with the world.
Apparently several occurrences happened while we were out. All of them caused some mental distress to another mutant whose name I had already forgotten. Warren, was it?
I heard Arcane even showed up. I remember smiling at the name. I hope I see him again. I already miss him.
I stretched my arms. My normal clothing of t-shirts and jeans had replace the garments I had worn through my adventure. In fact, everything about our adventures had been carefully stowed away from our sight, to give us peace of mind from something that had shaken us. Scott got his glasses and resumed his position as head of the team. Everything was back to order. Doggy and the brothers spent their time lying on couches they weren't supposed too.
It was as if nothing had happened.
I turned on my heel and stalked back to my room. Julian and Jamie were running through the halls trying to escape unscathed from their latest mischievousness. They passed me with a wave.
I got to my room after passing an angry Rogue charging after them. Before I opened the door, I examined the palm of my left hand. It was concrete evidence that every time I had relied on the power was never coming back. I had tried to summon it back. The Professor offered to help. I turned him down every time. I like the man. I don't trust him not to look where he is not wanted. Now I was back to being as weak as I was when I first started-just mentally tougher.
I opened the door, banishing the thoughts to some dark corner of my mind. There were hardly any animals in the room. Herman was in a snit and stayed in his cave with the other bats, mumbling something about disrespect. I didn't delve. We all need space. The other animals had left, not feeling welcome in my room. There was a snake in my closet and a small family of dormice sleeping in my bed frame in a hole the mother had chewed.
It had taken me awhile to clean it, but the room was spotless, or mostly, now. The bed was made, with nothing cluttering it.
Which did not explain the pouch on the pillow.
I picked up the leather pouch and felt it a moment. The snake had seen nothing. The dormice slept. I opened it carefully and pulled out a sharp, nasty looking spike with a red tip.
I frowned as I examined it. It was definitely one I'd seen before.
Further exploration produced a note folded small.
'Remember, it's the green tips that are dangerous.'
My hand jerked in shock and I looked around my room suspiciously while I unfolded the note and read the message.
'Congratulations on finding your way home. You handled the Encroth situation quite nicely. I won a bet. I don't usually pick the losing team, but you're full of surprises!'
I gaped at the signature.
Much love
Dex
P.S. I probably will pop in from time to time. One must maintain ties.
I stared at the postscript in disbelief. Then I put my finger to my temple to fend away a headache.
How did he do this? How could he do this?
But if he could…does that mean he could take me back sometime too?
The possibilities were astounding. And maybe he wasn't that bad…
Maybe…It wouldn't be so bad to talk with him again.
Maybe.
THE END (OR IS IT?)
Anongirl88:Heh, thankyou for your enthusiasm, but I'm afraid you'll have to read my note. But I'm glad you liked the story. You and Fishy are great! Thanks!
Raliena: Herman says thanks and sends along a chocolate ant (sans any bugs, it's just styled that way) and thank you so much for keeping with the story! I'm glad you liked it!
For anone whose review I missed, I just want to say thank you to you as well.
Herman will take your reviews after this brief (right….) message from the author. Rambling is apologized for beforehand.
A/N
I left it at the end this time to say this-This story is the longest one I've written not counting the Two cents. It took me a good long time too. And I rather like it, though there were many things I would have done different. But now that it's over, I hope you all liked it too. I'm sorry I was horrible with updates for the last third of it. Senior year hit with a vengeance and I was not able to do the writing I wanted too. I hope I get better. And, for those of you who stuck with me, thank you so much. You guys are great, I would have kept writing it anyway, but to know people still thought it was interesting was very heartening for me. I believe after this I'm going to start with a clean slate on updating, because I'm afraid that the other stories have gotten where, since I have no updated in so long, I would never be able to make them the stories they were meant to be. This story almost got lost too, but I liked it too much to let it go. Those stories will not be updated, but will stay in my account, as I like some of them rather well. I can't update because my train of thought for them hit the 'railway closed' portion of my head and regrettably, did not stop. There isn't much salvage to collect to make a new track. Anyway, enough with the metaphors. The current storyline won't be messed with even though the stories won't be updated, that is to say, Danny and Dex and everyone else and Doggy will still be around. I'm going to start an AU next, which should be rather entertaining if I can pull it together. Till then, I hope you enjoyed the story! Have a great rest of your Spring break!
