A/N: Hi again, everyone. I'm hoping that you're all having a decent summer (or had, if your summer is now over), and that the story has kept you interested enough to return. Without further ado (bar a reply or two), let's get on to the last chapter!

CaptainLycan: Great to know you're still enjoying the series. I try my hardest, but again, credit goes to the writers of the show. This is probably some of the best animated TV I've read for a while (not going to compare it to other shows, since that's just going to cause a miniature flame war). Logan going a little cuckoo is partly my idea, but since the writers seemingly had their own ideas I'm trying to go somewhere in between. Whether or not that works remains to be seen…

Fukuoka, Japan, Present Day

The sound of whirling propeller blades echoed over the streets as a helicopter, bearing the insignia of the Mutant Response Division and Human High Council, flew towards the central part of the city, going straight over the industrial district and the man who was cowering inside a warehouse. Opposite the makeshift hiding place, another truck paced its way along the road, its loudspeakers playing a loud message in Japanese. It wasn't easy to understand the words being said, but given the angry ranting and the fact that the truck belonged to the MRD, the intent behind them was obvious.

It was at this point that Erik Lensherr noticed the blur speeding past, effortlessly escaping the notice of an MRD officer that was scanning a few pedestrians on bicycles. Within milliseconds, he had then passed another man carrying a second bio-scanner, as well as the three civilians he had pulled over.

A scrambler climbed across an office building, stopping as its underbelly passed a large window and began to take in information about the people inside. An alarm started to go off, and three troops entered through the main door, weapons trained. He forced himself to duck and turn away, pulling up the collar on his new longcoat and nervously holding his breath as the vehicle turned in his direction and began scanning the building.

There was another alarm, and he heard the door open a few floors below, before three troops began shouting at somebody else in Japanese. There was the brief sound of a scuffle which eventually died down, and within moments an unconscious man was being dragged out into the street and thrown into the back of a large truck, which drove away. Gradually, the scrambler began to move towards its next destination, followed by numerous foot soldiers.

He found himself angrily biting his lip and suppressing a shout of protest, since leaving a mutant to be abandoned went against what he had once stood for, but he knew that he didn't have the energy to engage the MRD. At the peak of his power, he would likely have been able to easily defeat a considerably larger force, but that was then and this was now. His body was now considerably thinner, having not enjoyed a good meal for several weeks, and it was now a struggle to walk properly, let alone fight.

The blur that he had seen before took this moment to finally zip up a wall outside, climb through a window and join him. It stopped to casually lean against a wall, and as it slowed down the features of Pietro Maximoff were plain to see, white hair sticking out against the darker walls of the warehouse, with a pair of icy blue eyes staring back at the person opposite. Like his father, he was obviously worse for wear, although unlike his father he seemingly had some spirit left in him. Also unlike his father, he was carrying a bowl in one hand, while the other clutched some chopsticks that were in turn holding onigiri, which was best described as rice wrapped in seaweed.

Since Pietro, and by extension the Brotherhood of Mutants, had cast Erik Lensherr out, the group had decided to lay low until the Human High Council had decided to operate on a policy of "guilt by association", at which point Pietro had realised that in staying with the Brotherhood, he was merely putting the others in danger.

With nowhere else to go and in a desperate effort to evade the law, Pietro had been forced to leave the Brotherhood and come crawling back to a father that, at least in his opinion, did not deserve that title. Their previous interactions had made things tense, to say the least, but as the journey went on Pietro's optimism had diminished little by little, until finally he was convinced that he would have been better off elsewhere. Not once had son or parent admitted to, or apologised for, any of their numerous mistakes, although Erik felt that if anyone needed to say sorry it was him and not his son.

"I am so craving pizza," Pietro declared, sniffing at the bowl and wrinkling his nose. "Why don't we stop in Italy for a while? Or maybe, just maybe…"

He put the food down on a table, clearly not hungry enough to put his disgust to one side.

"We could stop hiding, stop running, and maybe, just maybe, start regrowing some backbone? Thoughts?"

There was no reply.

"Have you scouted the airports, Pietro?"

"Yeah, I found a private one," he muttered wearily, sighing before he continued. "Three jets and no Mardies or High Council forces. Where do we go next? We've tried almost every island in this blasted country and I can't think of anywhere else to go that wouldn't hand us over quicker than I can run."

"We'll try the Phillipines," Erik replied, mentally much less confident than he sounded. "They've yet to align with the Human High Council."

"Oh, but they will. They all do. Plus," Pietro continued, still pretending to miss the bigger picture, "I'm not a fan of their food. At the very least, let's try going back to Genosha. They'd never wish to turn us over to the Mardies, and I'm sure Wanda misses us by now."

Before there was time to retort, he found himself staring out the window at five pedestrians, one of them a twelve-year-old Japanese boy, being held up by more officers. He again frowned, hating himself for being unable to do anything at this time.

"We'll wait until nightfall before heading to the airport. That will be our best hope."

"I take it that's a no-vote on Genosha," came the voice from behind him. Pietro was always fond of moving behind people before they realised he was doing it. Even in a more serious situation, he can't help himself.

"Wanda and Lorna may hate the Mutant Response Division as much as we do. That does not change the fact that as a leader, she now has certain responsibilities that go against her beliefs and personal desires. Were she to take us in, and that's a very weak possibility in the first place, the international community would only mount pressure on her to turn me in, maybe you as well depending on the backlash. There would be sanctions placed on Genosha that would make life there unbearable, and gradually the people would turn on her as they already have me, and eventually she would have no choice but to hand us, or me, over. No. Genosha is not an option."

"We wouldn't have to hide in plain sight. We could always live incognito and have it so nobody else knew we were living there. We'd be the best kept secret on the island."

Several seconds passed with neither person saying a word.

"You know," Pietro muttered. "I don't think I can do this anymore."

Erik knew exactly where this was going. He turned round.

"I've had enough of your theatrics, Pietro," he said.

"And I'm in no mood to run away from the Mardies with our tails between our legs. What happened to you? You used to be fearless, the saviour of mutantkind. And now look at you. Hiding in forgotten parts of busy warehouses."

"Our home is gone, Pietro. Our people turned against us… including my own daughters," he shot back, frowning at the thought. "I cannot very well lead the mutants if they refuse to follow me."

"Genosha is yours, father. You built it and you can take it back."

"NO," thundered Erik, causing Pietro to stop talking for a second and wait silently for the next words to be spoken. "I've already caused them enough pain. Can you not see that?"

"I cannot believe this! You are not the same man that I spent my whole life trying to live up to and impress!"

Now Pietro watched as his father, inflamed, took a couple of steps towards him.

"Do you want to know the reason that you failed to ever "impress" me, Pietro? It's because unlike Wanda and Lorna, you lack ambition. You have no dream. You stand for nothing, yet you still expect a pat on the back from me?"

Pietro started to raise his voice in turn.

"You don't know anything about me. Your own son! You never did!"

"I know that if a man fights for others, he is a hero. However, if he fights for his own selfish needs, then he is no better than a coward."

Pietro just stood there for several seconds, the anger draining from his face. A new emotion took its place, one of sadness, and he simply stared at his father.

"Then what does that make you, father? Because I know you fight for neither."

Now, his son backed away. For once, he was neither angry nor hateful, just resigned. The two had only been travelling together for a week or two at most, and already they were parting ways again.

"Goodbye, father."

With those words, he dashed past in a blur, opened a door and disappeared out of sight. Erik said nothing, for he knew that deep down, despite all his beliefs, Pietro had been right in what he had said, and words would not make things better at this stage. It had taken his being turned away by both his daughters and his only son to even realise that he had descended into madness during the attack on New York, yet it had taken just another argument for him to alienate one of his children again.

Turning away, he began walking through the rest of the warehouse, gathering what few supplies he had left before stepping out into an alleyway and back into the city.

Shiro Yoshida found himself staring at the device which was being pointed at his chest, emitting a loud series of beeps as it rapidly scanned its body. The officer holding the scanner stared at its screen, reading the words "unidentified mutant" as they scrolled across.

"Where are your parents?"

The officer lowered the scanner, but the question was not asked in a polite fashion. Shiro tried to speak, but he found himself unable to say anything, his heart pounding in terror as he wondered what the man was going to do to him.

He noticed that the officer was turning to speak into his comm-link, at which point he mentally debated whether it would be better or worse to stand his ground or flee. If he stayed where he was, he had nobody to help him out if things took a turn for the worse, which they were likely to do given the current series of events. If he fled, he was almost certainly going to make things worse anyway.

The internal debate lasted for a second before he took the moment to frantically run across the street, reasoning to himself that there was no ideal solution and that he might as well try to escape.

"Officer Omura requesting transport for an unidentified mutant child… HEY!"

He ignored the man's shouting, continuing to run and entering a narrow alleyway. Not daring to look backwards, he kept going until he felt himself collide with someone and nearly topple over. He heard the man's surprise as they both bumped into each other, at which point he instinctively glanced at his face and gasped.

The man had clearly seen better days, with his unkempt and dirty hair, tired face and clearly underweight body, but there was little mistaking the man in spite of his more ragged appearance and change of attire.

Right now, Shiro reasoned to himself, in spite of everything that the man in front of him had done, beggars could not be choosers.

"Help me!"

The words did not come easily and in the heat of the moment he was speaking Japanese instead of English, although his panicked tone of voice made things very clear. The man looked back at him for a second and then raised his head, noticing the officer that had been detaining him earlier.

"Don't move," he shouted, weapon raised and helmet cam focusing clearly on both the subjects. His initial facial expression of anger was replaced by surprise as he realised who was staring back at him. Within seconds, somebody at his headquarters must have confirmed it, at which point his face broke out into a smug smile.

Erik Lensherr had been standing there in surprise for a few seconds, eventually realising what this development meant for him and his odds of escaping to somewhere safe. As everything became clear, the words began echoing in his head.

"I know that if a man fights for others, he is a hero. However, if he fights for his own selfish needs, then he is no better than a coward."

Pietro had, once again, been right. With neither ideals nor his personal desires to motivate him any further, his life had almost run full circle. Yet it was now, weakened by his time on the run and his lack of resolve, that he chose to stop fleeing.

Magneto casually raised an arm, causing the large bin behind him to suddenly levitate, at which point he hurled it directly into the armed officer at the end of the alleyway. There was a loud slamming noise as metal and flesh collided, and he heard a loud cry of pain.

He turned to face the boy, who was now staring at him in surprise and amazement.

"I suggest you leave before more of them show up."

Okay. I think that this is probably enough for now.

Writing this chapter was one of the more frustrating parts of the story, even taking Danger Ratings into account, since the very opening of the A Deal Near the Red Dawn has Quicksilver flip and throw his father out of a safehouse. That was around three years ago, and then the scripts came out a year ago, making things a little more complicated. Narrative demanded that Pietro do this for part of the later story to make sense, so, lacking any better idea, I folded and gave a reason for his "reunion" with Magneto, as short as it may have been.

Similarly, Erik got seriously called out in both the script and the opening chapter of the fanfic, so I ended up with him forgetting that he'd been called out. While I detest seeing this in a show, when a character learns a lesson and forgets it the very next week, Erik has been called out many times before without consequence, so habitually he's going to continue being a jerk and the lesson has to be hammered in repeatedly; this is sadly true of many people in real life. Will it stick this time? I certainly hope so.

As for Shiro, I am aware that he basically just "appears" and then gets involved in the plot, but more gets revealed about him as the story goes on.

Next chapter revolves around Magneto and Shiro as they attempt to flee the MRD, and two enemies unite against a common foe. Tune in next time to find out who! I'll try to get the next chapter out before the end of September, since I'm starting university in a month!