YES! Chapter 4 is finally up :D! Huge thanks to everyone who reviewed and PM'ed me about this story :D! I hope you enjoy this fourth and "final" chapter ;)!

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"Goodbye my lover.

Goodbye my friend.

You have been the one.

You have been the one for me."

Goodbye my Lover, James Blunt

Chapter 04: Somewhere only we know

Raven continued to stare at the tracking device in her hand. She still couldn't believe 'they' had done this to her.

"They couldn't trust me..." She looked broken and confused. Her voice shook with disappointment and sorrow The last time she felt this way was when Erik left her cold and naked when she became human. And now, her 'humans' had turned on her. "I trusted them. I sided with them."

Erik smirked, and stood up off the bed to face her. "You know why they did this, don't you? You know why they planted that device in your coat."

"They knew I would eventually lead them to you." She replied. Deep inside, she was panicking. The longer they stayed there, the sooner they would come for him.

"They want my head on a platter. They want me captured and contained. And I'm not surprised that they weren't able to do that on their own for the past two weeks. Humans are incompetent. Such irony, that they had to count on you, their former enemy, to do their dirty work for them."

She suddenly grabbed his upper arm, and looked firmly into his eyes. "You have to go, Erik. You have to go now!" She said commandingly. "Run as far away from here as you can where they can't find you! I don't want them to have you!"

Despite the sense of urgency in Raven's voice, Magneto remained calm. "I sense fear in you."

"I fear 'for' you!" She shouted. "I'm begging you, Erik! They know where I am now. They know where you are now! For all I know they've been tracking me ever since I started living as one of them." She paused, and took a deep breath. It was wrong for her to have sided with the humans in the first place. "I shouldn't have come here. This is all my fault. My love for you has betrayed you."

Erik smiled. There was no hint of fear in his blue eyes. He reached out, and gently wiped the tear from her cheek. "Love betrays. Hate betrays. Don't blame yourself for their sins, Raven."

"You have to go before it's too late." She whispered. "I know you want to fight them. But there's no sense in facing them now, Erik. You can't fight them like you used to! If you wait for them to come, they will capture you, and destroy you. They will slowly break your spirit until there's nothing left! Humans are unforgiving creatures! You've killed many of them and they want revenge! You know that! You're not Magneto anymore! The only choice you have now - is to run. Run!"

Deep inside, Erik knew he had no choice. Raven was right. He wouldn't be able to fight them in his current state. He was more or less a physically helpless old man to them now...An old man who had to pay for his crimes, and pay for them dearly.

He pressed his lips into a tight line and looked at her. Perhaps it was about time he accepted things as they were. He turned around without saying a word, and walked to where his sweater was on the floor. He picked it up, and put it on. He ran his fingers through his graying her, and cast a look at her.

"Run, and I will run with you." Mystique said eagerly. The determination in her eyes burned. She wasn't going to let fate take him away from her again. "I don't know if I'll ever bear losing you again. I want to run away with you, Erik! Then we can go somewhere where they can't find us, a place where they can't reach us...Somewhere where we can just be together, you and I. Then we'll start anew and ---"

"No. You can't. You can't come with me, Raven." He said firmly.

There was suddenly a brief moment of silence between them. She stared at him, her eyes filled with confusion as she tried to take in what he just said.

"You are a part of their 'system' now. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, you know they will find you, and when they do, that will damn us both to hell." He could see the sadness swelling in her eyes, but he had to go on. "That is why we have to part, Raven. That is why we can never see each other again. It all ends here. I – hope you understand. I'm doing this all for you."

"Erik, no!" She shouted, tears streaming down her cheeks. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Then she cupped his cheeks with her hands and looked deep into his eyes. She never held back the tears that streamed down her face. "Please take me with you. I need you! I love you! Doesn't any of that matter? Doesn't the fact that 'I love you', matter?"

The uncaring expression on Erik's face never faltered. He showed no sign of sadness or regret or sympathy. The only thing he could do was watch her cry right in front of his very eyes. He wished he could hold her, kiss her, dry her tears, and comfort her with his touch. He wished he could let himself love her. But he had to be strong. He had to be insensitive and firm for the both of them. It was the only way he could save her. He couldn't let himself fall...

"Love is not what I need right now. I'm truly sorry." He whispered. Then he glanced away from her. Seeing her like that only made him ache inside. "Someday, you will understand."

Mystique's lips twisted into a frown. "Understand? I don't need to understand anything, Erik! Please, look at me." With her hands on his cheeks, she gently guided his face so that he was facing her. She needed him to look her into the eyes while she says what she was about to say. "I don't need to understand why I can't be with you! Why? Why does it have to end like this between us? Why can't we be together? How come - that the only way for me to love you - is to let you go?"

They looked into each other's eyes. His eyes against hers, locked in silence as they memorized each others' faces. Raven delicately ran a finger down to his lips, and traced the sensual contour of it. Perhaps, if she kissed him, if she made him feel how much she loved him, how much she needed him both emotionally and physically, he would let her run with him.

But Erik thought otherwise. "There are times when letting go is the only way. Let me go, Raven. It's time to let me go. You finally have a life to call your own. You don't have to live mine anymore. And even if you tried, it would never work. We are different now. What we had is done."

Erik pulled away from her, and felt her fingers slowly slip away from his skin. Then he took one step back, and looked at her for the last time. He was about to leave her again, cause her pain a second time around, abandon her like he did the first. But this time, 'this' time, he was doing it 'all' for her. This was all for her. It was his bittersweet way of thanking her for everything.

"Erik..." She said.

"Yes, Raven?"

"My love for you doesn't have to end just because I'll never see you again."

Erik stood silent. Her words swirled in his head like a taste he would never forget. They would forever echo in his mind and haunt him for as long as he lived, like a scar that would never heal. They would eternally remind him of the love he could have had, the love he had to let go, and the woman he would never forget. Raven would never know, of course. He didn't want her to know how he truly felt.

And so he smiled, a sad and subtle smile that said goodbye. "Someday, perhaps, in a different place, in a different time, when you're not you and I'm not who I am, we will meet again, and I will love you."

With those words, he turned around, and left.

Raven could do nothing but watch Erik walk away until he eventually disappeared from her sight. Her heart screamed his name, but her lips kept still. Her feet wanted to run to him, but her mind asked her to stay. Yes...She knew he loved her. That was why he didn't want her to go. And she loved Erik...That was why she didn't follow him.

After a few minutes, the soldiers finally arrived. They kicked down the door to the apartment and headed upstairs, only to find Raven Darkholm lying on the bed, looking at the window, her face calm and emotionless, as if her very soul had left with the man she loved.

When the head of the squad questioned her, she told him he had already gone, and that she didn't know where he went. They searched the house and found nothing. No ID's, no documents, nothing that would tell them anything about the man who lived there. The house was practically empty of anything that would signify its former inhabitant. Erik was never a materialistic man.

The soldiers escorted Raven downstairs and sat her down on the couch while they continued their investigation. She sat there and watched as they relentlessly searched every nook and cranny of the small apartment in hopes of finding something that would lead them to the fugitive.

/ "You will never find him." / She thought to herself.

And deep inside, she smiled.

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EPILOGUE coming up next...