XXXXXXXX

The X-Men continued their battle with the Brotherhood and Morlocks outside of Worthington Industries. Since he had no long range power of his own, Caliban carried a gun on him and was currently firing at the X-Men. Iceman formed a shield to protect himself and Rogue as Storm prepared to fire a lightning bolt to take him out. But before she could, Angel came flying down from behind Caliban and lifted him up under the arms and began soaring back up into the air. Caliban yelled out when his feet left the ground and turned his head to see what grabbed him.

"Hey! Put me down!" Caliban yelled.

"As you wish!" Archangel called back.

Angel then dropped him mid-flight and Caliban came crashing down onto the roof of a Honda. The windows of the car exploded upon his impact. Suddenly, Angel was then hit by a shockwave from Arclight. She then focused her attention on Storm, nailing her with a shockwave as well which knocked her to the ground below where Spyke was waiting. He formed a long, sharp bone from his wrist and slashed Storm's arm.

Arclight then continued, sending shockwaves at Rogue and Iceman, who continued to stay crouched down behind the shield. More and more shockwaves were being sent at them and the ice-shield was slowly but surely breaking.

"I need to get close to her!" Rogue shouted over the sound of the shockwaves.

Iceman nodded as Rogue removed her gloves. She carefully touched his cheek, absorbing his powers before forming a large sheet of ice on the ground that went all the way to where Arclight was standing. Taking a running start, she then slid towards the other female mutant. Arclight tried to move but the ice covered her feet and held them to the ground. Before Arclight could do anything, Rogue grabbed her face and began draining her powers. After a few seconds, she let go and hit Arclight with a shockwave of her own.

Storm and Spyke were continuing their fight as Spyke was able to slash her once again. He then grabbed a hold of her and tried to cut her throat. Storm struggled in his grip as she grabbed his wrist, stopping him before using her powers to spin like a tornado and Spyke was flung off her, crashing against a building on the opposite side of the street. Storm then struck Spyke with a lightning bolt, knocking him out.

Still obtaining Arclight's powers, Rogue turned around towards Magneto who was standing about thirty feet away from her. Giving him a look of reckoning, she came forward and clapped her hands together, sending a shockwave in his direction. Magneto attempted to raise a car up to protect himself but the shockwave came at him too quick and it nailed him, knocking him off his feet. Upon seeing what Rogue did, Iceman quickly 'surfed' on a stream of ice towards Magneto.

As he whizzed around him, Iceman iced Magneto to the ground to the point where only his head could be seen. Magneto swore as he immediately felt the effects of the freezing cold, so much so that he couldn't concentrate on anything metal that was near him. But back inside the building, Mystique continued to drag Worthington along, up the stairwell which would take them both to the roof.

"Please don't kill me!" Worthington pleaded.

"You mean the way you've killed mutants?" Mystique responded, no emotion at all in her voice.

"No one's died because of this cure! I never meant for it to come to this! The cure was meant to be for those mutants who wanted it!"

"Yes…they're called the weak ones."

They continued to climb the stairs until they reached a door that took them to the roof. Mystique kicked it open and walked Worthington over to the edge. He gasped when he looked down and saw just how long a way down it was. Mystique then smirked when she saw his terrified face.

"Either you'll fall to your death, or you'll grow wings."

She then shoved him off and Worthington fell. His scream echoed through the air, but suddenly at the last second, Archangel swooped in and scooped him up, saving him from death. Worthington yelled out again, this time in surprise as he looked at his son in shock.

"Warren!"

"It's okay, dad! I've got you!"

Archangel continued flying until he was a safe distance away from the building and set his father down on the street.

"Warren, I'm sorry. I…I was wrong."

"It's alright," Archangel assured as he spread his wings. "I have to go back."

"Okay. Just come back to me, okay?" Worthington said, almost in a pleading voice.

"I will."

Archangel then turned around and took off into the sky as Worthington watched in awe.

XXXXXXXXX

Sabretooth slammed Wolverine to the ground again and prepared to claw his face but Wolverine lunged up and headbutted Sabretooth and stabbed him in the stomach. Roaring in frustration, Sabretooth pulled the claws out of him and hurled Wolverine into a chain-linked fence. He clawed at Wolverine's throat, going for his jugular. Pressing his feet against the fence, Wolverine rocketed himself back at the larger mutant, stabbing each one of his shoulders with his claws as they fell to the ground yet again.

Getting right back up, Wolverine screamed and began to go at Sabretooth in a full berserker rage. Sabretooth tried blocking but Wolverine stabbed his arms, chest, and abdomen over and over again. He tackled him to the ground and stabbed Sabretooth in the lungs.

As Sabretooth sputtered up blood, Wolverine slowly raised his claws up into the air, then dropped them down at Sabretooth's neck in order to behead him.

SLAM!

Slowly turning to look at the claws that hit the ground, mere inches from his head, Sabretooth then looked back at Wolverine in confusion. Breathing heavily, Wolverine got up and backed away as he glared down at his nemesis.

"That's not who I am anymore."

The two continued to stare at each other.

BAMF!

Nightcrawler then teleported next to Wolverine.

"Logan, come. We need to get to Pitor."

Wolverine allowed himself to be teleported away as Sabretooth's wounds healed and he got back up to his feet. The fight was over. Nightcrawler teleported each member of the team, one by one back up to the roof of the building the X-Jet was sitting on. By this time both Pyro and Mystique had ran out of the building and looked around to see the X-Men gone and Magneto frozen to the ground. Pyro carefully melted the ice as they helped Magneto up.

"The doctor is dead," Mystique informed him.

"So is the boy," Pyro lied.

Magneto's teeth chattered as he looked from Mystique to Pyro. The younger mutant had a hard time holding his stare, knowing he was lying.

"Very well," Magneto managed. "Let's go, our mission is complete. Pyro, start a fire."

Pyro then turned and launched a wave of fire at an apartment complex across the street. It gave them a distraction to get away as a SWAT team was currently making their way to the building in order to deal with the situation.

Just as they arrived, the X-Jet took off into the air.

XXXXXXXXX

Back at Xavier's institute, the Professor was waiting as the X-Jet slowly landed in the hangar. The ramp opened up and the team slowly began to exit out. Xavier looked over them all, hoping that one of them were seriously injured, and that they had accomplished their mission.

"Are you all okay?" Xavier asked.

"We'll live," Ororo said, clearly exhausted.

"How did things go?"

Leech then came running down and Xavier smiled upon seeing the young child. He then came over and hugged him.

"Professor!"

"Welcome back, Jimmy. We missed you."

"Thanks for rescuing me."

"Oh course. I always protect my students, you know that."

They all filed into the infirmary as Hank checked them all out. Save for Wolverine, they all had cuts, bumps, and bruises but thankfully nothing that was life-threatening. Afterwards, the rest of the team had changed and went to rest their exhausted bodies but Wolverine was still in uniform as he just sat and stared ahead at the wall. Everything that Sabretooth had told him was still fresh in his mind.

Wolverine unearthed the claws of his right hand and stared down at the blades as he moved his other hand over them.

"Logan?"

He looked up to see Ororo standing by the door, a look of concern of her face.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Logan assured.

"So how did it feel? Officially being part of the team this time? It wasn't Wolverine and the X-Men. It was just the X-Men."

He grinned.

"It felt pretty damn good."

"Thanks for sticking around this time."

Logan nodded as Ororo turned away. He was glad he gave this place a chance. Maybe Hank was right. Maybe he really did belong here. As Logan just continued to sit and think quietly to himself, Bobby and Rogue walked side by side down the hall, Bobby's arm around Rogue's shoulders.

"You did great out there," Bobby complimented.

"So did you," Rogue smiled.

"You want to stay with me tonight?"

Rogue nodded.

Bobby and Rogue walked in to his bedroom. While he went to his bed, she went to go sit on the bed right next to his, the one that once belonged to John when they were roommates. Rogue then remembered something and pulled the shark zippo lighter out from her pocket, holding it out to Bobby.

"He asked me to give this back to you."

Bobby took the lighter and stared at it. A look of hurt was now clear on his face.

"I gave this to him," he muttered.

Rogue looked surprised.

"I didn't know that."

Bobby nodded.

"It still hurts, you know?"

Rogue however knew that. She could feel the hurt that John's betrayal caused her boyfriend. Bobby let out a long breath as he placed the lighter down on the stand that was in-between the beds.

"Well...I guess we've really lost him."

"We never really had him, Bobby," Rogue sadly responded.

They looked at each other with blank expressions for a moment before finally turning in after a long, long night. But elsewhere, Pyro drove at a steady pace in the car he had just stole. He knew he couldn't stay with The Brotherhood anymore. Who knows what Magneto would do if he ever found out that he let Leech live than lied to him about it.

He didn't know where he would go or where he would end up. But he wasn't afraid. He had been on his own before.

XXXXXXXXX

The following morning at the institute, Worthington and son were walking along the grounds of the mansion, Warren had just finished giving his father a tour. Worthington marveled at the size of it as well as all the mutants that were here.

"Seems like quite a place," he spoke.

"Yeah, it is," Warren agreed.

"Are you sure you want to stay here?"

Warren nodded.

"Okay. It's fine with me."

"You mean it?"

"Of course." Worthington took a deep breath. "You were right, I have been hiding you away all your life. When Kavita came to me about a cure for mutation, I wasn't just thinking about you, you know? I was thinking about all mutants. I thought it would be a start to ending all the bigotry out there. I couldn't imagine why anyone would still want to be a mutant if there was a cure out there for it. But now I do."

"Thanks, dad."

Warren was smiling as he reached out and gave his father a tight hug.

Back on the veranda, Rogue was standing out on it, looking up at the sky. Hank walked out to join her and slowly came up next to her. She turned her head to look at him once she realized she was no longer alone.

"Hi," he greeted.

"Hey."

"I'm on my way out. It felt good putting on that X-Men jacket, one more time. By my place is in Washington now, taking up a different kind of fight."

Rogue nodded.

"So that's it isn't it? All the samples were destroyed when the laboratory was burned down. The doctor who invented it was killed, and Jimmy's here now. There's no more cure for mutants. Magneto got what he wanted in the end."

"Yes," Hank answered.

Rogue sighed heavily as she lowered her eyes. She had lost her opportunity.

"Rogue, I wanted to talk with you before I left."

"About what?"

"I didn't always look like this, you know. I had big hands and feet because of my mutation and I hated my appearance. So much so that I worked non-stop on a cure, or what I thought was going to be a cure...and it turned me into this. And there is not a day that goes by that I don't wish I could go back and stop myself from taking it."

Rogue listened carefully, unsure of where the conversation was going.

"I understand what it's like, Rogue. Being unable to touch someone without frightening them. But I came to learn something over time. Something I wished I realized from the start."

Rogue and Hank stared at each other for a few moments.

"You decide the outcome of your life," Hank reassured her. "Just because you are different doesn't mean you need to change or that there is something wrong with you."

Hank then held out an envelope for her. Rogue looked confused as she took it from him.

"In the end, you'll know what the right decision is for yourself."

He then turned and walked away, leaving her to herself. Rogue opened up the envelope and took out what was inside of it. A test tube that was filled with a glowing purple liquid. The sample of the cure he stole when he infiltrated Rao Laboratories.

It was the very last sample of the mutant cure...the hope serum.

XXXXXXXX

Professor Xavier was sitting in his office going over today's lesson for his class when a knock on the door got his attention.

"Yes, come in."

The door opened and Kurt walked in.

"Professor."

"Yes, Kurt. What can I do for you?"

"Well...uh..."

He didn't quite know how to say it. Xavier however only smiled at him as he already knew.

"You're leaving."

Kurt nodded.

"I am not suited for this kind of life, Professor. I am a simple man."

"I understand. I thank you for all that you've done for us. Our doors are always open to you if you ever feel like returning."

"Yes, thank you. We have a term in German, 'Weltschmerz', it means despair over the world. I see it too much around here. You should know that you all are doing wonderful things."

Xavier sighed.

"It is hard to be positive knowing how much we've all sacrificed in this fight for equality. I can only wonder of how much more we're going to have to go through before it is all over."

Kurt nodded as he and the Professor stared at each other. While Kurt made his way around the mansion, saying his goodbyes to the rest of them, speeding down the highway in his viper, Scott Summers had arrived in the Canadian Rockies. Past the expansive woods lie Alkali Lake, still flooded from the X-Men's previous outing there...

The End.