Chapter Twenty-six

Rogue, Gambit, Todd, and Pietro slowly woke up. It was about ten, but it was still dark. Rogue got the ball off the ground and they started to walk in silence. They didn't want to say anything as some light came into the sky. When they reached the top they began to run. They ran in silence until they came to the clearing with the path that led to a small prymaid.

"There is no way we can all go," Rogue said.

"She is right," Todd said," So who is going?"

"I'll go," Pietro said, taking theinscription from Gambit.

Pietroquickly ran down the path and didn't stop even though things were coming athim from all directions.He looked up to see the shadow above him. He ran up to the prymaid and put the thing back. The shadow thing gave a loud scream as it was sucked into the small prymaid. Pietro ran back to the others and theyran as fast as they could from the prymaid.They started to walk down the mountain.

"Now what?" Rogue asked.

"I really didn't expected it to be that easy," Pietro said," But we did it."

"You did it," Todd said," That was some fast running without your power."

"You just barely got dere in time," Gambit said," De t'ing was just about to get you."

They were quiet for about ten minutes.

"I wonder what happened to the others," Rogue said," They either died and are gone or the shadow thing had to let them go."

"I wouldn't get my hopes up," Todd said," You heard what Jean said it takes their souls. There is no way they could of survived."

"I'm just wondering what we should tell de Professor," Gambit said," He'll probably cry and stuff."

"Hey look," Pietro said," The trail is clear, no ditch or anything."

"It must of been that lady or the mountain is happy we brought the thing back, yo," Todd said.

"Do you think that their spirits will come back?" Rogue asked and everyone looked at her.

"Maybe," Gambit whispered.

"Listen," Pietro said," I've been thinking-"

"For the first time in your life," Rogue said.

"Anyway," Pietro said, ignoring Rogue," I think me, Todd, and Steve, if he wants, can go and live with the rest of the x-men. I mean there is no reason for the brotherhood is there is only three or two people. At least when Lance and Fred were here we could call ourselves a team."

"When did you decide this?" Rogue asked.

"Ever since Lance left," Pietro said," I've been giving this alot of thought."

"I'll join too," Todd said," Kathy asked me to join once, but I said I was happy where I was, but now I think I'll join just because she wanted me too."

Just then they heard a jet. They looked up to see the X-jet. It landed in front of them. They quickly ran inside it to see Storm and Mystique. They sat down, while the girls looked out the door for the others.

"No one else is coming," Gambit said," We are all dat is left."

Storm gasped as a tear ran down her face. Mystique just shook her head and sat back down. Storm shut the door and took off. Everyone was silent for about two hours.

"What happened to them?" Mystique asked.

"Kathy and Kurt comitted suicide," Rogue said," Fred and Logan were killed by a weird lady."

"A shadow thing got the others," Pietro added," We just barely escaped."

Everyone was silent until they got to the mansion. When they got out of the jet, Charles was waitting for them.

"Professor," Rogue said, tears running down her face." Everyone is dead. We're so sorry. We tried to help but we couldn't."

To their shock, Charles didn't do anything. He gave them a small smile, which they thought was very odd of him.

"Follow me," Charles said.

Charles led them upstairs to the living room. Rogue, Gambit, Todd, and Pietro were shocked to see Kitty, Jean, Scott, Kurt, Kathy, Fred, Logan, and Lance watching tv.

"As you can see," Charles said," No one is dead."

Rogue had tears running down her face. She ran and gave Kurt a hug.

"I thought you were dead," Rogue said, letting him go.

"It's okay," Kurt said," Just go back over to the others."

Rogue went back over to the other three. They all looked at Charles, with the same look on their faces.

"It was just a test," Charles said.

"WHAT?" Gambit, Todd, Rogue, and Pietro shouted.

"But," Rogue said," What about our powers?"

"Something Forge came up with," Charles said.

"What about the spirits?" Todd asked.

"Forge again," Charles said.

"What about the book that Jean read?" Rogue asked.

"A book that I found," Logan said," Brought it to Charles, said it would be a good practice, so he gave the book to Jean, who decided to skip some chapters."

"If I would of known," Jean said," I would of read the whole book."

"Why did you do this?" Pietro asked.

"To see if you could work together," Charles said," Kathy figured it out first, so we told her to jump off th cliff. We knew it would start something and it did."

"But," Todd said," What about the lady and the ball?"

"The lady was Mystique," Charles said," And the ball just knocked her out. Something Forge came up with. Now we know you can work together."

"Now," Mystique said," Good bye Charles. Come on boys."

Lance, Pietro, Todd, and Fred followed Mystique out of the mansion. The x-men sat on the couches talking about the island and everything.

Thoughts

Pietro: Now I can take a bath and go out with a girl.

Lance: That was so stupid, but I'm glad it wasn't real.

Todd: I can't believe I told them that Kathy asked me to join. How stupid can I be?

Fred: I'm hungry, they really didn't have any food.

Kitty: Now that was like, fun. I would never want to go to like a real island like that.

Kurt: That vas a trip. To jump off the cliff into the jet. I'm lucky I figured it out too.

Kathy: I'm glad that that is over. I can be with Kurt now. I wonder if Jean knows that I was listening to her when she said Kurt wanted to marry me.

Scott: I was so close. I can't believe I died. So close to the end of it and I died.

Jean: I can't believe it was fake. I knew he made me read that book for a reason.

Rogue: We survived. We lasted the longest. I'm just glad it's over. I could touch Gambit.

Gambit: I want to do somet'ing like dat again, but not the dangerous part. I could touch Rogue. I wonder if Forge will let Rogue borrow de t'ing so I can touch her, again.

End of thoughts

Soon after everything was back to normal or at least as normal as it ever gets around the x-mansion and the brotherhood house.

The End

A/N: It's over, yay. I hope you enjoyed reading it, because I enjoyed writting it.

I added more to this part, because I thought it ended too soon and too fast. Hope it's better.

Please review.