Disclaimer: All X-men characters are created and owned by Marvel. I am gaining no profit for this.

Author's Note: I finally got rid of the horrible writer's block that attacked me. This is the end folks. Enjoy!

Ch. 26: Claw & Fire

Red demon eyes stared directly into burning fire eyes. Instantly, a connection had been made between the two. Remy had just been on a very odd journey, one that he would never speak of. But he could also sense that the woman who stood before him, Hellfyre, had had a change of heart. He could see it in her eyes. No explanation was needed for him. He had been in almost the same situation as she had been with Sinister. But just like Remy, she had to face devastation before she realized her wrongs.

What de hell just happen? Oh I feel like shit. Least ole' Remy feelin'. The X-man felt something very familiar flowing through his body. He took a moment to recognize it.

Logan. Somehow he had Logan's healing factor, but he didn't know how. And although he couldn't remember the experience, Remy knew that he had died. No matter how strong Logan's healing factor was, he knew that it couldn't bring anyone back from the dead. He would have to ask his angel how she had done that little trick.

Hellfyre suddenly felt uncomfortable. She had been staring at Gambit for quite a time, and he had been staring right back at her. Why am I still being so foolish? I need to get these people out of here quickly! No doubt Sinister had seen her miracle and was headed down right now to slaughter them all. She wouldn't have that. She put her hand on the security device that controlled Remy's restraints. She smiled when it popped open and freed the man.

Remy sat up and rubbed his sore wrists. His chest felt a little sore too, but he had just come back from the dead, so he wasn't about to complain. Gambit pointed at the collar he wore. "Thank you kindly petite, but what about 'dis?"

Hellfyre looked at the offending device around his neck and shrugged. "I don't have the key for that. And anyway the affects of it will last for at least another six hours once removed."

Remy slunched just ever so slightly. He just wanted the damn thing off! Sandra smiled. "Well I guess I could just…"

She reached forward and got a firm grip on the collar. Using Rogue's super strength she pulled it apart and it snapped off of Remy's neck.

He flashed her his trademark lopsided grin and jumped off the table. Henry, Logan, Scott and Warren were still confined. Hellfyre followed him without saying a word. With precise accuracy she pulled apart the locks on the cells and the restraints around Warren. Then one by one she tore off the collars. Sandra lightly nudged Scott on the shoulder and awoke him. He was obviously sore, but he looked like he would be able to make it out on his own.

Logan let out a ferocious growl. "Let's get the girls and get the hell outta here!"

He then unleashed his claws. Hellfyre flinched when she saw the man's blood slowly drip down from the cuts in his knuckles. Since he didn't have his healing factor, Wolverine wouldn't be able to heal as quickly as he usually could. He didn't mind extending his claws though. Yeah he had a healing factor but he always felt the pain when they came out anyway.

Beast went over and checked on Warren. There didn't seem to be any apparent signs of injury. He was just unconscious at the moment. Being the strongest one out of the group, Beast picked up Warren and gently placed him over his shoulders. He turned and faced the small group of people.

Hellfyre nodded. "Ok follow me. We don't have much time!" With that said she raced out the door and everyone followed closely behind.

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Hellfyre sprinted down the hallway. Her steps light as feathers and quick as a cat. She barely glanced behind her to make sure that her new companions were keeping up. None of them were up to par, except for Logan but he was helping Remy to keep his balance. Yes, Gambit had his healing power, but he had also just come back from the dead. It would take awhile for that kind of injury to fully recover. Scott was also looking a little green, but he was still keeping up. Bringing up the back was Hank carrying Warren. Hopefully the doctor wouldn't get too far behind.

Hellfyre looked ahead once again. Just one more turn down the next hallway and they would be in the lab where Rogue and Jean were being kept. Again she looked behind to make sure that everyone saw that she was going to turn left. Her eyes locked on Wolverine just as she rounded the corner. He had seen her and he knew which way she was going. Hellfyre hadn't even checked to see where she was going, but she should have.

Right at the end of her turn she hit something. Hard. She had run into something as cold as stone and at a full running speed. It was pure luck that she still had Logan and Rogue's powers in her possession. If not, she would undoubtedly have gotten a concussion.

No matter, it still hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes. The incident had happened so fast that barely a second had gone by before Hellfyre looked up into the eyes of what had knocked her down to the ground.

Sinister. Scientist. Father. Murderer. Madman.

Out of nowhere, Sandra became overwhelmed by so many emotions. Fear hit her first and caused her to lose the ability to move. Anger came right in succession and forced her to tremble uncontrollably. And finally, most importantly, pure hatred for the thing that stood before her. He mocked her with his presence. He had loved her and raised her all as a joke because ultimately he had taken from her that which had mattered most. Mathen.

He wasn't there anymore because of the one man that stood behind Sinister. And that man had been ordered by Sinister, her father, to kill him. Both would pay.

Her eyes blazed with fury. She would have burned them both with just her will if she knew how. Ignoring the pain in her head she rose and glared at them. Sinister sneered. Hellfyre had finally grown to her full potential. At least he hoped she had. Either way, it would be of no consequence because he would probably have to kill her.

Sinister raised a hand toward Hellfyre. She knew he was planning a blast and dodged just in time. But it was already too late. She realized that that blast wasn't meant for her. It was meant for the X-Men who were following right behind her. She screamed as she saw Logan's face get smashed back by a chunk of collapsing roof. Sinister's shot had been dead accurate. He had sent a red blast toward the wall just at the end of the corner. It had sent debris straight toward the X-Men and collapsed the ceiling on them, which would also cut them off from Hellfyre.

Sandra buried her face in her hands. She had just been through so much in the past day that this last shock was too much for her to take. It was like Mathen being killed all over again. Only this time, she felt like she had been the one to throw the deathly blast at her new companions. She couldn't decide what felt worse. Seeing Mathen dead and knowing that she could have saved him, or watching the X-Men die because of her one stupidity. She crumpled to the floor and wept.

Sinister stood where he was and stared at Sandra. He was disgusted. This was the woman that he had raised. This was supposed to be his daughter. Fearless, intelligent, strong. Those were the qualities that he expected her to have. And yet she had easily allowed her emotions to take control and crack her. She was now a pathetic, weak, sniveling fool whimpering at his feet. And he refused to have offspring such as that. Sinister turned his head back towards Sabretooth and nodded. He would rectify this problem.

With a slight growl, Sabretooth stepped forward and plucked Sandra off of the floor by her neck. Sandra did what she could to struggle but there was no hope. Her feet were at the least 6 inches from the ground and every second that she couldn't breathe was another wasted. She was going to die. That much she knew for sure.

"I'm going to enjoy every second of this girlie." Sabertooth ran a claw down her face with just enough pressure that a small line of red trailed down her cheek. He clenched his hand into a tight fist and pulled it back as far as he could.

This is the end. Mathen's gone.

He screamed a feral scream and shot his arm right into Hellfyre's face. At the same time he let her go and she dropped onto the floor like a rag doll.

The X-Men are all dead too. My Father never existed.

Sabertooth was in pure ecstasy. His punch had met right with Hellfyre's nose. He had felt it break under the impact and there was blood on his hand to prove that he had truly broken it. He couldn't help himself so he flashed his tongue out and tasted it.

Her head was pounding. Soon she would be as dead as every other person that she had touched in her life. Fighting now would only make the torture last a little longer. And she had finally lost her will to fight back.

Sabertooth took a few steps and was standing over her. The woman was sobbing and choking on her own blood. In that moment, he felt something he had never felt before. He didn't know what to call it, but for some strange reason he thought that he felt a pang of sorrow. He wasn't in love with her or anything like that. But she had caused him to feel something whenever she had been near him. She had never really just him as just some big old brute. And maybe, maybe he had wanted her to love him. It didn't matter anymore though. He still had a job to do. Sinister had ordered him to kill her and he would. He just wasn't going to drag it out like he usually did. One quick, hard blow to her chest would break her ribcage into her lungs and eventually she wouldn't stop breathing altogether. He bent his knee and lifted his leg as high as could. No one else would have heard him, but he whispered, "I'm sorry."

She looked up into Sabertooth's eyes and saw his intent. This last hit was going to kill her. There was nothing she could do to stop him. She didn't feel like she even needed to anymore. As she closed her eyes tight she thought how she would soon be reunited with Mathen.

"No you won't Sandra. I won't love you for this."

Mathen's voice! She knew right then in her heart that he had just spoken with her. He was there with her, and he was right. Who would love her for just giving up?

Her eyes shot open just as Sabertooth was delivering the final blow. Hellfyre reached out and grabbed his boot. In an instant there was a punch of pressure released into the air and Hellfyre had learned Sabertooth's mutation. She was still having trouble breathing and she was in a lot of pain, but she now had enough strength to pull his foot out from underneath him and knock him flat onto his back. In turn, she got onto her feet as quickly as she could.

She turned and scanned the hallway. Sinister was still in the area, she knew he wouldn't have just left before the job had been finished. Unfortunately he was nowhere to be seen.

Worry about it later Sandra. You still have Sabertooth to deal with she thought to herself.

That couldn't have been truer. By the time she turned back to the fallen monster he was already back up and lunging right at her. She didn't have enough time to think and he managed to run into her and grab her around the waist. He was so furious that he just kept running and slammed her into the wall. Hellfyre nearly passed out but she managed to get her arms untangled from his menacing grip and started to attack his face. She scratched whatever she could find with one hand while she pulled as hard as she could on his hair. This wasn't going to work for long. He wasn't feeling any of her attacks and at the same time he had brought his hands up to strangle her. It was obvious who was going to win this fight.

Sandra began to black out and the last sound that she knew she would ever hear would a mad feral scream. As least I didn't give up this time she thought as she felt three points of could hard metal prick into her abdomen. The viselike grip that Sabertooth had on her throat suddenly vanished and Hellfyre's head cleared enough to see Wolverine standing right behind him. His claws were out and one was protruding from Sabertooth's neck while the other was lodged into his middle, and as it turned out, hers too.

Logan's icy blue eyes burned into hers questioningly. "You ok kid?"

"You got me, but I'll live."

"Good. You take Gambit and Cyclops to the girls and I'll clean up the rest of this mess." Sabertooth was already beginning to recover from Logan's attack so he released his claws and then threw him into another corner. This fight wasn't quite over, but they had to get moving and fast.

Sandra nodded as Wolverine focused his attention back on Sabertooth. She looked over to where the ceiling had collapsed on the X-Men and saw the rest of the group slowly emerging from the rubble. She ran over to them and assisted in getting the unconscious Angel free from the debris. Then she took matters into her own hands.

"Cyclops, Gambit. Are you too capable enough to carry Rogue and Jean out of here?" They nodded. "Ok follow me. Last time I checked they were both unconscious. Dr. McCoy if you continue down this hallway and take a right at the end you'll reach the Hanger where the Blackbird is being stored. I suggest you take Angel and get a head start on all of us."

Without another word, Hellfyre turned and began running toward the medical room in which Rogue and Jean were. There were no disagreements between her and the other X-Men and everyone began to do as she had asked.

In no time at all, she made it into the room with both of the two X-Men on her heels. As she had expected, neither woman were going to be able to walk out of there. Quickly, Sandra began to unhook Jean and Rogue from all of the equipment and she took care to wipe off all of the drool that had gotten over Jean. She couldn't bring herself to look into Scott's eyes as he gently picked up his wife and walked out of the room.

Gambit came around to Rogue's table and picked her up, but he waited a slight second so that Hellfyre could step ahead and lead them to the hangar. As they slowly made their journey down the hallway, she heard the footsteps of someone running toward them. She turned and was relieved to see Logan catching up. Sabertooth was nowhere to be seen.

They were all making their way into the hangar just as a powerful blast hit Cyclops in the back and knocked him and Jean to the floor. Hellfyre and Wolverine turned to see that Sinister now stood in the doorway that they had just walked through. Wolverine started to charge at him but Hellfyre grabbed him by the arm and shouted "No! I'll deal with this. You get the rest of your team on that jet NOW!" The engine of the Blackbird roared as it powered up and made it almost impossible to hear anything else, but Logan understood and turned back and pushed Remy toward the Blackbird while he dragged both Scott and Jean away.

Sinister stood with his eyes locked on his daughter.

"Amazing. Against all the odds you still managed to save the day my dear."

"Yeah. No thanks to you."

"What can I say?" He shrugged in a manner only to mock her.

"You Bastard!" Tears began to freely flow down her cheeks as she took as step toward him. "You took the one thing that I loved more than anything else in this life. You lied to me! About everything! How could you?"

Sinister felt no remorse. Instead he just raised his hand and let loose another blast right at Sandra. But she knew her Father well and had been waiting for him to do just that. Hellfyre shifted her weight and dodged to the right, narrowly missing the blast. She got close to the ground and rolled headfirst into a front flip that propelled her right into her father's arms. She had done it so quickly that he had barely enough time to blink. She placed her hand on each side of his head and said in the most loving, sweet, gentle voice.

"I'll never forgive you." Then she kissed him right on the lips.

"Come on we don't have anymore time to wait. Who knows what they're doing out there. Let's go!" Scott was awake and being bandaged up by Beast as Logan sat at the controls to the Blackbird. Remy was in the co-pilot's chair watching the unexplainable as Hellfyre kissed her Father.

"Maybe Scott be right. Dey both be lookin' pretty friendly down dere if you ask dis ole' Cajun." He hated saying it but they did have to go.

Wolverine shut his eyes and sighed. "You didn't see what she did back there for us. Gambit can you take the wheel here?"

"What for homme?"

"I want you to lift us up, but take a pass around those two before you take us outta here. I'm gonna try and get her."

Remy had no problem with that idea. He did owe the woman his life. "I can make one pass, but dat's it I'm afraid."

Wolverine got up from his chair and headed toward to side of the jet. "That'll do just fine."

Time had stopped for Hellfyre. Something strange was happening, but she couldn't be sure of what exactly. All she knew for sure was that Sinister was in her grip and she had more than enough time to do what she had been planning. Her hair began to whip into her face and she had to close her eyes to keep the dust from getting into them. She could tell that the Blackbird was finally air born. The X-Men were safe. Only one thing left to do. A quick bit of pressure went into the air and she had learned Sinister's mutation. Unfortunately, that had been just enough pressure to know him out of his odd trance and bring him into a rage.

Hellfyre shot her arms toward him and fired the red energy straight into his chest. And the exact same moment he lifted his arms above him and blasted right into the ceiling. Both were devastating attacks and Hellfyre knew she wouldn't have time to escape. Just then a large chunk of cement came crashing down and make contact with her left shoulder. The pain was so intense it brought her to the floor. She also felt a huge gust and looked up to see the blackbird directly above her. Logan was standing by a side door reaching out to her. She couldn't hear him but she knew that he was yelling for her to take his hand.

She didn't hesitate. Hellfyre jumped to her feet and ran as fast as she could. The jet was beginning to move away. With as much strength as she had she lunged up and toward Logan. For a split second, she didn't think she would make it, but the aircraft dipped and Logan got a hold of her. As the Blackbird turned and went to full engines Hellfyre got a chance to see Sinister lying motionless on the ground just as the ceiling caved in on him. Then her world went black.

There was a slow and steady beeping about every five seconds. That was normal. There was also a slight smell of antiseptic in the air that that was quite usual as well. She knew that she was in a medical facility, but the thing that she was unsure of was if it was Sinister's or not. Maybe she had dreamt all of it. Everything had seemed so real though that Sandra was sure her heart would break if all of it had never happened. She took a deep breath to prepare herself and knew that the only way to find out would be to just open her eyes.

The room was mostly white and she was on a medical table. It wasn't Sinister's. She knew that right away because the second she turned her head, her eyes focused on none other than Professor X.

"Hello Miss Hellfyre. And welcome to our home."

Author's Note: Ok this is the final chapter ladies and gentleman. I really hope you enjoyed reading my stuff. It's been quite awhile since I looked at this story so I'm planning to go through the whole thing and tweak it a bit before we continue with the next installment of the Hellfyre series. Once I've got it all fixed up, I'll put it back up here so please feel free to read it over again and take a look back at the ending because there will also be a little epilogue that will give you a hint of what's next!