Author's Note

I want to give a massive thank you to everyone who followed, favourited, reviewed, read, enjoyed and supported this story, even when updates started getting rocky towards the end. The amount of support and attention this story got honestly surprised me, since the show only has a small fandom.

At the moment, this is where I am leaving this story. Once Season Two has finished (and I've caught up on it), I might one day write for that Season (I do have a few plot bunny ideas…), but I make no promises, simply because I don't want to be one of those people who promises a grand epic of the stars and then lets people down.

Again, thank you to all my readers, and I hope the ending isn't a disappointment!

Lauren and Andy were…

different now.

Everyone could see it.

The other mutants, their allies, and especially their parents.

They had said nothing about it, not a word, but something had changed. Like a shift inside them, as if something had clicked into place. It was there in the way they looked at things, looked at people, looked at each other.

"Lauren, Andy," Caitlin pleaded on the second night after That Battle. "What happened in that building? What's going on inside your heads?"

Lauren smiled. "It's okay mom. We're fine."

"More than fine," Andy said as Lauren leant into him. They had kept the contact almost constantly since That Battle, as though they couldn't bear not to be touching, couldn't bear to be apart. Caitlin wondered whether it was a safety thing, they felt comforted knowing they could always just activate that terrible, destructive power and destroy everything if they needed to, but something deep in her heart told her this was something else.

There was something deeply wrong with her babies.

With the headquarters gone they regrouped and discussed what was to be done. Lauren sat so close to Andy she was partly on his chair, her head lolling against his shoulder. Andy had an arm around her waist.

It looked… disturbingly non-sibling to Reed's eyes, but they had been like that since they walked down that slope with ashes trailing behind them.

"You wouldn't understand," Andy had said when he tried to ask what happened, whether they were okay, what was going on with them. "Only we understand."

Maybe that was why they kept so close together.

Reed told himself that was why they kept so close together.

Polaris returned as they argued about matters, with Esme (or one of her sisters) at her shoulder. "The mutant underground is dying," she announced. "That world where we don't have to hide, that we've always talked about, I want to build that."

And then people started leaving to join them, Fade and Sage amongst them. Andy and Lauren stood.

"No," Reed said, reaching for them. "No way."

"Reed," said his father warily.

"Stay out of this!" he snapped.

"Stay where you are." Caitlin grabbed at Lauren's arm. She shied away into Andy, a bubble shield flaring up to buffer Caitlin away.

"Let them go," his father said, pushing himself to his feet.

"No!" Caitlin shouted, turning on Polaris. "You are not taking our children!"

"They're not taking us," Lauren said softly.

"It's our decision," Andy finished.

"I can't let you do this," Reed said. They were children, his children, they had no place in a war!

"Reed, let them go!" his father insisted.

"I said stay out of this!"

"Reed it's not them! It's not them talking!"

Andy shifted his arm around Lauren's shoulders and turned to meet Polaris and those with her. Reed reached for him. "No."

A force slammed into his chest, knocking him back. The building shook around them. Lauren nudged Andy gently and whispered something. The shaking stopped. Andy took a step back. "Don't try to stop us."

They moved to join Polaris and her group, turning as they left. Caitlin cried out and went to follow. Eclipse grabbed her arm. "Don't."

His father reached towards Reed. "Are you hurt?"

"No. But I can't just let them walk away like this, I can't just-"

"It's not them Reed. Let them go."

"What do you mean it's not them? You keep saying that, what do you mean?"

"It's not Lauren and Andy anymore Reed; it's not them talking. And they will hurt you if you try to stop them. Let them go."

The door closed behind the figures wearing his children's faces.