Woo, last chapter! Finally finished this story :)

Hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I'd love for you to leave me a review saying what you liked, what you didn't like, what could be improved so when I do the sequel it can be better!

Two girls stood on two beaches, watching two entirely different sunsets. A light breeze was blowing round both of them, tugging at their hair and clothes.

One brushed her hair back, tucking the white streak behind her ears, the only outward sign of her terrible power. Her gift, her curse. The other stood very still as her hair blew about her face. She had never cared much if it got messy. Both were thinking about the other, and everything they had left behind.

Storm stood with Hank, watching the sunset.

"I'm still not doing any better," she said, "We've faced mutants, humans and now aliens, but for every battle I win, I lose one. For every student or teacher I gain, I lose another."

She looked round at her students and teachers, wondering who would be next in line. It was a dismal thought, but one she couldn't help thinking.

"You haven't lost her," Hank said, "She's just moved on, on to the next adventure. Kids do that, they've all got to leave home sometime."

"Maybe…" Storm said, turning her gaze to the sky.

The X-men had gathered on the beach to celebrate her life. A belated send off, to wish her well. She'd only known them for a short time, but that time was precious to them all. Kitty cried, Peter wrapping his strong arms round her shoulders, comforting her.

"We shouldn't cry," Jimmy said, "She would have wanted us to be happy, that's why she made the choice she did."

"That's easy for you to say," Kitty said bitterly, "You're just a kid, you don't understand. You haven't lost someone you loved!"

"Hey, I loved her too!" Jimmy said, and it was true – she had always held a special place in his heart. They both had.

"Why did she have to go?" Kitty said to the stars.

"Are you saying you would rather it had been the other way round?" Jimmy challenged, angry that Kitty had effectively called him young and stupid.

"I never said that!" Kitty said angrily.

"It was going to be sad choice either way, but I think the kid is right," Logan said, stepping in before things could get out of hand, "She would have wanted you to be happy, and perhaps this way is for the best. Either way, there's no point arguing over it – she certainly wouldn't have wanted that."

"Bobby?"

Bobby felt a hand slip into his. He turned round to face her.

"I know I'm probably the last person you want to talk to right now," Jack said to him, taking his other hand, "But you should know, in the short time Rogue and I knew each other, we got to know each other pretty well, through various transference of powers, energy and blood. She made her choice because she wanted you to be happy, happy in a way you never could have been with her."

"I don't feel happy at all," Bobby said.

"Not now, no, but you will, one day," Jack said, "She set you free."

"This isn't what I wanted," Bobby said, holding back tears.

…

"I know. It's what I want."

…

"Niagara Falls... up the Canadian Rockies, and then... it's only a few hundred miles to Anchorage."

"Won't it be kinda cold?"

"Well, that's the point, stupid, otherwise it wouldn't be an adventure!"

She had got adventure alright. A whole new planet to explore – a place where her power could do some good. Her terrible power, the bane of her life, and now it let her make such a difference to these people. These people who needed a good, kind leader to bring them out of the poverty and hardship that had been destroying them for so long. And no one would ever question her authority, because she had one over everyone else on this planet. No matter how many powers a potential rival might absorb to try and take her throne, she could bring them down with a single touch.

Rogue, the guardian angel of the planet. Like a mother hen she would watch over her subjects, and like a ferocious lioness she would defend them.

She thought she would have been more lonely, but though she did miss them, all of them, especially Bobby, she had a very special way of keeping them in her mind.

"The first boy I ever kissed ended up in a coma for three weeks. I can still feel him inside my head. It's the same with you."
It had always been such a bad thing, to have all those thoughts that didn't belong to her running around her head. Now she welcomed the memories, the feel of their spirits, always with her. That way she never really left them behind. She just took with her all she had ever been able to have.
Jack had been surprised by her decision, not to mention how adamant she was about it. She also didn't trust her reasons.

"Are you sure you're doing this for you, Rogue?" she asked sceptically.

Rogue knew what she was getting at. She had touched Warren, taken his power and with it a piece of his soul. Jack was clever enough to realise this meant she had a head full of his thoughts as well, thoughts about Jack and how much he would hate to lose her.

"I'm not doing this for me," Rogue said. Jack raised an eyebrow, "I'm doing it for Bobby."

Bobby Drake sat in his room, waiting for Rogue to come and tell him her decision. He had been told, along with all the other X-men, of the choice Jack and Rogue had to make. It was sad, but subconsciously he was waiting for Rogue to come and say it was ok, she was staying and Jack would be taking her rightful place back on the home she had left behind. He didn't imagine it would turn out any other way.

"Bobby," Rogue said from the doorway.

He stood up and turned to face her. She stepped inside and clicked the door shut, sliding the lock across. The next thing Bobby knew she was in his arms, kissing him, and it didn't hurt.

"Jack's doing me one last favour," Rogue said, "Taking my power off me for a while."

She started unbuttoning Bobby's shirt.

"One last favour?" he asked, trying to calm his racing heart.

"Yeah," Rogue said.

"Before she goes?" Bobby already knew what the answer was. He didn't want to hear it, but in his heart he knew.

"No, before I go."

"You've got an hour and a half, maybe two," Jack said, "That's about as long as I can hold it for."

If she only had one use of her power left in her, she was going to make the most of it, doing something for her best friend.

"That's long enough," Rogue said, hugging her best friend, being careful not to touch her skin.

Long enough to say goodbye…

Late in the evening, when the sun had finally dipped below the horizon, casting a glorious purple light across the beach, Warren wandered over to Jack. She was staring out into space at the rapidly darkening sky where the night's first stars were just starting to appear.

He hadn't really spoken to her since before her fight with King, and as he found the nerve to walk over to her, he lost the words he had been hoping to say. In the end he said the only thing he could think of.

"Do you know the names of any stars?"

Jack turned round to him, smiling.

"Just one," she said, walking over to him and finding her way into his arms. He held her close, breathing the scent of her hair, enjoying the cool touch of her skin against his.

"And which one is that?"

"It's called Heaven," she said.

"I don't know that one," Warren said, "You'll have to point it out to me."

"It's right here," Jack said, tapping his chest with one of her slender fingers before closing her eyes and burying her head into him, her arms round his waist.

Warren stroked her hair and kissed her forehead, silently thanking Rogue for the wonderful gift she had given him.

"What are we going to do now?" Logan asked as he walked with Storm and Hank, "Back to normal, back to school?"

"We still have a public to protect, should the need arise," Storm said, "Though I should imagine Magneto will be lying low for a while."

"How boring," Logan said, "I almost miss it when he's not attacking us every spare minute."

"Well," Storm said with a laugh, "I certainly don't! One of these days we'll all learn to get along."

"In the mean time," Hank said, "I've heard rumours of a class four mutant in England whose power is the ability to manipulate shadows. Perhaps we could take a look, as I can imagine it will only be so long before Magneto catches wind of it and makes a move himself. It would annoy him so if we beat him to it."

Storm laughed again, taking both their hands in hers as she walked back towards the jet with them.

"Perhaps we could," she said.

The End

When it comes to fighting, the problem isn't Good and Evil. Good and Evil are clear cut and predictable. It's the ones in between that cause problems, because you can never be too sure of what they are going to do…

Nightshade, coming soon...